PENNY BLACK SATURDAY CHALLENGE - GUEST DESIGNER

Hi Everyone

A super exciting post for me today as I have the pleasure of being Guest Designer for August with the Penny Black Saturday Challenge.  Woo hoo!!!

The theme this month is "Embossing" - or as always there is the "anything goes" option  .. .. ..  but whichever you choose your entry needs to use a prominent Penny Black product. 

Here is my creation which features heat embossing and embossing with a scoring tool:

This used:

Image:  "Social Butterfly" clear stamp set - Penny Black "30-116" (stamped onto card and heavy weight vellum and embossed then layered once the vellum layer had been fussy cut)
Sentiment:  "Gratitude" clear stamp set - Penny Black "30-105"
Background Paper:  MFT Bundles of Blossoms Pastels (very old)
Fish tail die set:  M&C Boutique from The Works (again quite old)
VersaMark Embossing Pad
Gold Embossing Powder
Heavy weight vellum
Memento Dew Drop Ink Pad - Sweet Plum
Craftelier Scoring Board (for embossing lines onto a strip of lilac card prior to rubbing over with the embossing pad, adding gold embossing powder and heat setting)
X-Cut Flower Punch
Pearls
My Trusty Sewing Machine

I have always had a "soft spot" for this challenge as it was the very first challenge I entered way back in March 2009 and it was my second ever blog post. A whole sixteen years and the stamp I used then is still being put to good use today.

I love looking back at previous posts .. .. .. even though I cringe at a lot of the things I posted .. .. .. but it does reassure me that I have hopefully improved, and also makes me realise just how old a lot of my stash is.  LOL!!!

Hope you get chance to dig out your Penny Black goodies and play along with the challenge.

In the meantime my day is going to be extra super exciting as The London Kids are coming to stay for a few days.  So very excited as we haven't been able to meet in person for ages .. .. .. only through Facetime.  So it is their first proper look at our new home.

I will catch you again soon .. .. .. if I don't burst with excitement in the meantime.

QUICK AND EASY

Morning Everyone

Just a quick and easy card today that is perfect for when you need a birthday card in a rush (especially good for when it is needed for one of those men folk we struggle with making for sometimes).

Change the papers to pretty and floral and it even works for the ladies too.

This used:

Nitwit Digital Image which is part of the Farmhouse FQB Collection (one of my favourites collections from them) 
Sentiment:  Computer Generated
Corner Rounding Punch
Backing Paper from Snippet Mountain
My Trusty Sewing Machine

Happy crafting if you are lucky enough to have some playtime on your hands.

PENNY BLACK SATURDAY CHALLENGE

Hi Everyone

I hope your week has been a good one and you have managed to find some crafty time.

My days seem to be settling into a nice routine which is giving me chance to do "a bit" more creating than I have been used to in quite a while .. .. although creations often get done one day but can't be photographed until the following day (when hopefully the sun is shining).

It is also good that all of my crafty goodies are now finally available to me .. .. .. I just need to remember where I have chosen to store everything!!!  I know exactly where everything would have been if I was still in my old house, but the same isn't yet true in our new abode.

The most exciting thing is that all of my Penny Black stamps and dies are now unpacked and ready for playing with again .. .. .. they are my favourite stamps and I have missed not having them to hand.  So as they are now patiently sitting waiting to be played with again, I am off to the current Penny Black Saturday Challenge where the theme is "On or In the water" .. .. .. .. or there is the option of "anything goes" provided it features a prominent Penny Black product.

So here is my offering:

This used:

Image:  Bubbles 'n Squeak - Penny Black "1684K"
Sentiment:  Part of Critter Party Clear Stamp Set - Penny Black "30-013"
Backing Papers:  Pink Petticoat (sadly no longer trading)
ProMarkers
Corner Rounding Punch
Ribbon
Hot Fix Nail Heads
Diamond Stickles (for the bubbles)
and of course .. .. My Trusty Sewing Machine

Enjoy your weekend when it arrives - they certainly seem to be coming round very quickly these days!!!

MID WEEK SNIPPETS

Hi Everyone

I hope you are all doing well. 

The weather has certainly changed over the last few days here, but at least we have gained some much needed water and the air is fresher. 

I am happy to report that I have managed a little crafty time with my snippets and came up with this creation for taking over to the Snippets Playground Challenge. 

This used:

Flower Floral Loveheart Die via Etsy   (I have waited for ages to get my hands on this beauty)
Sentiment:  Computer Generated
My Trusty Sewing Machine
Snippets from snippet mountain

these are the snippets I created my card from:

July, August and September are always super busy for me on the Wedding Anniversary front .. .. they must be the three most popular months for "tying the knot".  No doubt planned in the hope of enjoying good weather on "the special day".

Enjoy the rest of your week and I hope you manage to find some crafty time to enjoy too.

THAT CONEFLOWER AGAIN

Hi Everyone

Friday is suddenly here again .. .. .. where are these weeks disappearing to?

I am here today with a little creation I made this morning before heading to Mum.  Not for any challenges, just simply to go in my stock box .. .. .. which is still far too empty!!!

This used

Coneflower Die unbranded from Ebay  (these flower heads are something else I sit and put together on a lap tray and have a collection of .. .. sitting ready and waiting to be used)

Happy Birthday Die unbranded from Amazon  

Heart Punch

My Trusty Sewing Machine

All card and paper has come from snippet mountain

and that is me for today.

Enjoy your weekend when it arrives.

AS YOU LIKE IT CHALLENGE

Hi Everyone

I hope everyone is OK .. .. and that your week is moving along nicely.  

The challenge this fortnight with the ladies over at the As You Like It Challenge is to showcase your favourite kind of "Non- Card Crafting Project" .. .. and say why.

Quite an easy one for me as another thing I love to make .. .. other than actual cards .. .. are small envelopes for my teeny tiny cards.  For anyone new to my blog my teeny tiny cards measure just 9cms square and I love making the envelopes for them as much as the actual cards themselves.  Sad I know!!! LOL!!!

I find both the cards and the envelopes a great way of using up odd bits of either plain paper or design papers and love that I can sit and make them on a lap tray on my knee.  

I particularly love using up design papers that are plain on one side and patterned on the other.  As there are quite often papers in design pads that are just too busy or garish for my taste but at least I get to use them up if I have the pattern inside a little envelope and the plain on the outside.   

The envelopes I have created here are for putting to one side ready for my teeny tiny Christmas makes and I stole the idea from the lovely Hilary Jane (of Fiddling About) after seeing she had done some wonderful embossing on a beautiful card she had made, and on the flap of the envelope too.  I really loved the look of what she had made and did mention in the comment I left that I would like to steal that idea for my Christmas makes this year.  But now I have embossed on my Christmas envelopes, I have a feeling it might migrate to other cards as well  -  perhaps with stamping on the envelope front too LOL!!  Oh dear Hilary, what have you started!! LOL!!

So, round to today's little collection.  

All have the same Pink Petticoat design on the inside with "dashing through the snow" wording.

I embossed just one of the flaps on the first four envelopes but on the last one embossed all the flaps before sticking it all together - I quite like both versions, but the OCD streak in me is struggling with the fact that the snowflakes don't match up with all the flaps embossed .. .. .. as if that really matters.  The envelope will only be ripped open anyway.

These were made using:

Pink Petticoat Digital Design Paper - Sadly no longer trading
WeRMemory Keepers Envelope Punch Board
Dovecraft Snowflake Embossing Folder
Red Line Adhesive Tape

That now just leaves me with the cards to make to put inside.  But as I have offcuts of the envelope paper they will do nicely for my teeny tiny card makes.

After all the sunshine, we have now been declared as being in a drought area, but thankfully for the gardens, today it is raining.  But no doubt it needs to rain for quite a few days to make a difference.

As for my email problems.  It turns out it is a problem with Microsoft and they are working on a fix! But in the meantime Mr Heart has come to my rescue (once again) and has downloaded a free email programme for me to use in the meantime.  A lot of the communication involved with caring for Mum, and the various things I have to deal with on her behalf, involve endless emails, and I certainly couldn't manage without them!!  Super scary that we rely almost totally on technology for communicating nowadays.

Hopefully catch you again soon.

Take care everyone.

CHRISTMAS KICKSTART CHALLENGE - 100

Hi Everyone

Well July is now well upon us .. .. .. the weather is super warm .. .. .. so the time has come when I try to start pulling Christmas makes into the equation .. .. .. and with the help of the Christmas Kickstart Challenge there is no excuse for lacking inspiration!

The challenge this time is a super special one as Jo has reached the giddy heights of challenge number 100 - well done Jo!!

The theme this time is "Merry Go Round".  At first I thought that meant a Christmas fairground ride .. .. .. but no .. .. .. it is much easier than that .. .. they want to see spots, dots and circles on our creations.  

I am sure we can all manage that!

So here we

This used:

Image Die:  "Merry Christmas Ball" by Craft Discovery via Ebay (free second class delivery)

Backing Papers:  From The Works post Christmas sale
Gold Mirror Card
Snowflake punch

Crystal Glamour Dust
Hot Fix Nail Heads

My Trusty Sewing Machine

For some reason my emails are out of action at the moment - you don't realise just how much you rely on them until they aren't working.  

Enjoy your weekend when it arrives and keep slapping on that sun cream.

PURPLE AND BLACK .. .. .. FOREVER?

Hi Everyone

I hope all is good with you all and the sun is shining for you.

The As You Like it Challenge for this fortnight is to use your favourite two colour combination on your creation. 

I don't know about you but my colour fads change from week to week .. .. .. but if push came to shove and I was told I could only ever use two colours for the rest of my crafty life it would have to be shades of black and purple (assuming that white would always be allowed).  But don't tell Mr Heart or he would expect me to downsize my coloured card collection LOL!!!

So here is my black and purple creation:

This used:

Backing Papers:  First Edition Paper Pad "Wild Flower"  (another very old pad I am using up)

Sentiment:  Clearly Besotted "Mini Calligraphy"

First Edition Nesting Stamp Dies - FEDIE012 (from way back in the day when First Edition Crafts were flooding all the craft stores we were lucky enough to be able to visit)
Dragonfly Metal Cutting Die - Amazon

Woodware Punches
Ribbon 
Gems
Hot Fix Nail Heads

My Trusty Sewing Machine

In fact I liked the layout so much I turned it into my next Rectangular Sketch (you can find the others on the tab at the top of my blog .. .. .. feel free to use them if any take your fancy)..  

So, I wonder what this week is going to hold.  Let's hope for only good things as last week was another challenging one due to Mum sitting on the edge of her bed and slipping off it .. .. .. and at the grand old age of 94 not being able to get back up again.  Thankfully we have cameras set up in strategic places so we can check all is well with her, and I was able to rush to her and get the paramedics to the rescue.  Without the cameras she would have been there for ages and ages because even though she has a call pendant she could easily have pressed .. .. she didn't.  Sigh!

Thankfully she didn't suffer any injuries "other than to her pride" and a few bruises have since appeared, but it did involve another night on the settee for me as the medics didn't want her to be alone for the next 24 hours just in case of a delayed reaction. 

It has now become a bit of a joke with her though and every night as we facetime to say goodnight to each other I say "and stay on that bed"!!!  

Today I need to take her to the GPs for a blood test and then we will have a little wander into town and have a bite to eat if she fancies that.  It feels good to get her out because on a normal day she just wants to stay at home and refuses to go anywhere, no matter how many times I offer.  The only down side of going out being the dementia side of things means she remembers and wants to go to the shops and places that she remembers being around years and years ago - and she doesn't understand where they have all gone and why I can't take her to them.  She then ends up being more confused than ever!  

My Mum certainly knows how to keep me on my toes bless her.

FOR CAROLE EATON

Hi Carole

Many thanks for your lovely comment on my blog.

Sorry to be contacting you via a blog post but I do not have any contact details for you.

The stamp you are looking for is available as a cling stamp through EBay with free postage - or through buddlycrafts.com 

Hope this helps.

Love and hugs

Jules xx💕

JUST FOR YOU - WITH LOVE

Hi Everyone

Firstly a very big thank you for all the comments and kind messages on my previous post, they are very much appreciated .. .. .. so here is a card that is especially for you ......  mwah!!

I am still on a mission to fill my nearly empty stock box and today's offering is also for entering into the Penny Black Saturday Challenge where the theme is either "stitching" or "anything goes" .. .. .. .. provided you use "Penny Black Goodies" somewhere on your creation of course.

I went for "one" of my many favourite Penny Black Stamps where those cute mice are busy stitching .. .. .. and of course it wouldn't be me if I didn't add some stitching of my own too.

This used:

Image:  Penny Black Wooden Stamp "1656K" Stitch in Time
Sentiment:  Penny Black Clear Stamp Set "30-524" Happy Hugs
Backing Papers:  From snippet mountain - Buddly Crafts "Eline's House - Roses are Red" and
                            Pink Petticoat "Swiss Dots" (Sadly no longer trading)
ProMarkers
Corner Rounding Punch
Ribbon
My Trusty Sewing Machine

and that is me for today.  There are still three days left on the challenge if you want to play along.

Take care everyone. 

THE WANDERER RETURNS

Hi Everyone 

Well, it has been quite some time since my last post.

Lots of things have been happening in my world.  Some very sad, but some happy things too.

My lovely Sis took a week off work and very kindly offered to take care of Mum so that Mr Heart and I could go away and re-charge our batteries.. .. .. and it was lovely .. .. but it was tinged with sadness as my fabby brother called me to say his wife had been taken seriously ill with a stroke and sadly after a few days she unfortunately passed away.

We have been going through quite a lot as a family over the last few years ... .. .. but each good (or bad) thing that has happened has made us even stronger and closer as a family unit.  Everyone is always there to give help and support whenever it is needed .. .. .. how lucky we all are to be part of such a wonderful family!!. 

Anyway .. .. .. 

Whilst we were away we ate somewhere that displayed lots a fabulous pictures on the walls and they reminded me of creations I had made in the past using old paperback books.

So once home that was what I wanted my first creation to be .. .. and here it is

This used:

Image:  Be Happy Stamp Set "SKU: JH1031" Julie Hickey
Backing paper:  Lovelytocu - Seamless Script Papers (better to colour on than porous book pages)
Sentiment:  Digistamp Boutique (sadly no longer trading)
Spellbinder Circle and Scalloped Circle Dies
ProMarkers
My Trusty Sewing Machine
and my "unusual snippet" of "a bobbin of yellow cotton with hardly any thread left on it"   (I decided that always using white to stitch with was getting a bit boring and wasn't reducing my cotton spool collection)  But I still used white on the shuttle as I didn't think there would be enough to use yellow top and bottom.

These were my snippets

and as always I cut extra shapes where I can (especially the little tags for the charity shop to use).

So off I go now to share my snippet make with the playmates over in the snippets playground challenge - and have a peep at what other ingenious ways the playmates have found to rid themselves of those snippets we all hoard and have hanging around.  I wonder if the paddling pool will still be out for a cooling down dip?

Hope all has been good with everyone in my absence.

Fingers crossed I will be back again soon because my card stock box is looking VERY depleted and that will never do! 

ANOTHER NEW SKETCH

Hi Everyone

I hope your weekend has been a good one. 

For some of my weekend fun I decided to try and create another new sketch using Affinity Designer .. .. I am still very slow but hopefully the more I do the quicker I will get.  In fact it took longer to draw the sketch than it did to make my card LOL!!!

As my rectangular sketches are trailing way behind the square ones that is what I decided to create:

A super easy sketch with lots of potential and I am already looking forward to using it again. 

To make the corner triangles I simple cut a square and chopped it in half diagonally. 

This used:

Image:  Lavinia "LAV834" Christmas Joy 
Sentiment|:  Hobby Art "CS059D" Winter Wishes
Backing Papers:  First Edition Papers "Vintage Noel"
Christmas Red Stickles
My Trusty Sewing Machine

So that is Christmas card number 2 woo hoo!

Enjoy the sparkly new week when it arrives.  I wonder what this one will hold?

WE CAN STILL BE FRIENDS

Hi Everyone

I hope you have all had a lovely Bank Holiday weekend.

A new challenge has started over at The Snippets Playground so in that never-ending attempt to reduce snippet mountain I enjoyed a little play and came up with this creation .. .. ..

This used:

Image and Sentiment:  From the Heart Digital: Birthday Candle Birdbrain  (More about From the Heart Digital Stamps below)
ProMarkers
Glossy Accents
Julie Hickey:  JHD-CUT-1003 - Layers, Frames & Banners Rectangle Die Set
My Trusty Sewing Machine

and these are the snippets I started off with (proudly displayed on that well worn cutting plate LOL!!) .. .. .. 

Not many snippets used up .. .. but every little counts.  (Still far far too many lurking in the background - you could lock me away in my room for a whole year and I still don't think I would run out of them).

In my quiet moments with Mum I have been re-organising my digital images on my laptop and From the Heart Stamps came to the fore.  This was a site I frequently used to visit due to the fun designs and sentiments - especially those relating to the "Birdbrain" character. But sadly the founder and designer, Faith Skrdla, passed away back in 2017 - such a shame.  But I still love her images and will treasure the talent she had and shared.  Thank goodness I purchased some of her lovely work back in the day. 

Anyway, if any of you have any snippets you could put to good use, be these in paper/card format, fabric, ribbon (or any other kind of snippets that would surprise the challenge) be sure to use them and share them with Di and Sarn over in the playground.  Believe me, there is always lots of fun and mischief to be found there!

My brain is now ticking over as to what could be the most unusual/inventive snippet you could enter the challenge with LOL!!

Enjoy the rest of the week.

WARM AND COSY

Hi Everyone

Flying in quickly today with a card for sharing in the Christmas Kickstart Challenge where the theme is "Winter Warmers".

Nothing says warm and cosy at Christmas than a lovely open fire, so teamed with a comfy sofa and a pretty Christmas tree what more could you want .. .. other than perhaps a little glass of sherry! LOL!!

This used:

Image:  "Watercolour Winter Living Room" by AuroraCraftery
Sentiment:  Computer generated
Backing Papers:  First Edition Paper "Vintage Noel"
Corner Rounding Punch
Sheer Ribbon
My Trusty Sewing Machine
Crystal Glamour Dust on the Christmas tree that you can't see in the photograph.

and that is me for today.

Short and sweet as there is a lot on the "must do list" today before heading to Mum.

USE YOUR FAVOURITE SKETCH

Hi Everyone

I hope your week has got off to a good start.  Today was gorgeous sunshine here which is always lovely to see.

Things have been really busy with Mum these last few weeks but in little fits and starts I have managed to pull in a bit of "crafty time".  Crafting is my escape place where I manage to switch off and calm my rather over-active worrying brain.

This is a card for taking over to the As You Like It Challenge where they would like to see you put your favourite sketch or layout put to good use.  

So with 57 square sketches in my collection and 24 rectangular ones I wasn't short of sketches to choose from, the only problem deciding which was my favourite because I like them all.  

I have always had a soft spot for Sketch #2 though which looks like this  -  mainly I think because some of my favourite cards have been made using this layout and it uses up lots of snippets 

 .. .. and this is what I created with my choice of sketch .. .. 

This used:

Image:  Watercolour Butterflies Digital Bundle - SandyJprintables (sadly currently sold out)
Backing Papers:  DCWV "Nana's Nursery - Baby Boy
Sentiment:  Polkadoodles "PD7995" Super Sentiments 

Tag Die from The Works (very old)

Nail Heads

Ribbon 

Small flower punch

My trusty sewing machine

I know quite a few people don't enjoy working with sketches (we are all different, thankfully) but I must admit I find they save me loads of time as they take away a lot of decision making.  Once I have selected which one to use I know exactly where I am going before I even start creating.  

One of my missions at the moment is to use up some of the design paper pads I have which have only a few pages and snippets left in them, and utilise images I already have ready and waiting to be used and this card did just that.

Anyway, that is me for today and I will hopefully catch you soon.