Just Magnolia and Hanglar & Stanglar Challenge

Hello and Happy Saturday to you all. What a gorgeous day it is! I think today is the first day this year I've left the house without a scarf, coat and gloves on! lol.

I think it's a week of 'firsts' as I'm also entering my first card making challenge of the year - The Just Magnolia and Hanglar & Stanglar Challenge. This week there's a great, easy sketch to follow and here is my take on it...

I'm still working on the photography so excuse the dull pictures. My job has been just as dull this last week so I've been doing some reading up on photography and how to take better pics, what lighting and equipment to use. If you're like me and want to improve, there are some tips on how to create your own inexpensive light tent/studio set up. .on this website...http://www.digital-photography-school.com/

Let me know how you get on!

Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend. Thanks for visiting today.

Wedding Magnolias

Hello,

Been a long while since I last posted a card, but I have one, finally to show. I bought this Magnolia stamp at the Hobbycraft Show at the NEC back in November and this is the first chance I've had to use it! My friend is getting married in May so I've used it to on her wedding card. Sorry for such a rubbish picture. I wish I had been born with photography skills. I somehow feel that the card is lacking something but I don't want to ruin it by overdoing the embellies or by sticking a sentiment on the front somewhere. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to comment.

The house is coming on nicely now (bloody should be after a year of renovating!). Finally got carpets down; just need a working bathroom and kitchen and we'll be in! So excited but still so much to do.

Jacque's Candy ending tonight!

http://jacquesmagnolias.blogspot.com/2011/02/sweet-stuff-and-lotv-sneak.html?showComment=1298924122796#c4789379194196045281

BBC One Show Tues 15th 7pm..few seconds of fame!

If anyone fancies a giggle you can see me on the One Show which went out this evening at 7pm but is still available to view on bbc.co.uk/iplayer xx ;o)

Happy 1st of the month to you all!
Thought I'd kick it off by sharing a little Magnolia creation with you.

This little cutie was given to me in an image swap; the papers are all by Magnolia and the flowers made from different sized Prima flowers topped off with crafters floss tied in a bow with a jewel to finish off.

Looking forward to visiting the Magnolia stand and replenishing my stash on Thursday at the NEC! :o)

Thanks for paying my little blog a visit. x

Sweet Angel and some Housey Pics

Hello all. Thanks for your lovely comments on my last creation; I really appreciate them :o)

Been working on the house today. I got quite dusty and dirty but didn't actually acheive much tbh.

Watched X Factor this evening; it does make me laugh - more the judges than the contestants tonight!

Right, onto the card. The card I'd like to share with you all today is one that I worked on last Sunday using an image received in an image swap last month (not sure which stamp range it's from?).  Lots of detail and distressing done. The papers are all Magnolia but I stamped the tag shape with some elzybell word stamps using antique linen distress ink. I made the two pink paper flowers by punching out two different sized flowers onto Magnolia papers which I scrunched and sprayed with Tattered Angels Gold Mist.  

I'm a bit annoyed that the image looks quite pale. If anyone has any photography tips to share (other than using the macro option on the camera) please do! lol. Otherwise quite happy with the card on the whole. I'll probably give this to Adam's mum for her birthday.

Now for some housey pics. The first set of pics are of my bathroom. It's not finished yet but you can at least the transformation...

Now, this is part of my lounge,mainly the fireplace that was covered by some, nasty, saloon type doors but we removed them and rebuilt part of the wall and rendered it once damp proofed.

Hope you like!

*A Brief Encounter*

Thanks for visiting today.Been away from the blogging world for 5 months - not that I've not wanted to be but simply had too much going on in my life to be blogging like I was, prior to buying our shell of a house in February. It is finally starting to take shape now (needs to be after 8 months!). I will share some photos soon if you're curious.

In the meantime, having sought inspiration from some of your amazing blogs (so much talent out there) I'd like to share with you a little creation I managed to find time to put together last week. Mum's b'day isn't til October but seized the chance to make her card when I could, lol.

Quite a lot of recycling going on here in as much as the beads were taken from a gift bag and the card blank was made from Kraft card which is recycled. I thought the brown colour picked out this 'Gorjuss' girl's hair colour well. The flower and papers are Magnolia and have been distressed with scissors and inked up with 'Tattered Rose' ink by Tim Holtz. The charm was from ebay - I simply used a spacer to attach it to the chain of beads.

Time to disappear again..though not for long this time me hopes.

Anniversary Challenge & Prizes!

Omg, it's been nearly 2 months since I last posted! So sorry! All my energy has gone into working on getting our house to the stage where it's at least habitable that my crafting has gone by the wayside. This week I have managed to make 2 cards though (woop woop! lol). The first one is for the current sketch challenge set by Elizabeth on the elzybells blog here.

I've used papers from 'Poppy and Friends' double sided patterned paper pack by Helz Cuppleditch and both image and sentiment are from the elzybells web shop. I paper pieced the balloons so the whole card co-ordinates nicely.

For my second card - designed for the Bee Crafty Challenge Blog to celebrate their 1st Anniversay,I've used the cute 'ballooning mouse' digi image, available to download here. I am so into those Helz Cuppleditch designed papers that I've used them on this card too. I'm really miffed at how dull the colours look on this one though. Grr. You wouldn't think it but it's actually a really bright and cheerful card when seen in person.

Why not hop over to the bee-crafty blog and join in the challenge. The only criteria is that a digi image must be used somewhere on your project and your design must have a birthday theme -so simple and yet you can win some great prizes...

Sorry again for being so lacking in the posting dept.. but as you'll see from a couple of piccies below, the house needs my full attention atm!

Thanks for stopping by.. x x

Oh 'H'Elzybells!

I was soo excited about using my new Elzybells goodies and entering into their latest challenge that I didn't fully read the rules :o(  soo very typical of me! I was supposed to only use elzybells stamps but I didn't have one that suited being stamped in the background, and seeing as the theme is 'stamped paper', I had to do this, so I delved into my stash and found a sentiment by another brand. Oh well!

I have, however, used one of the elzybells new valentine images and stamped the individual words of one their sentiment stamps into 3 of the balloons, which I think creates a nice effect. Like with my last card I've stamped the acetate with elzybells hybrid ink (pigment ink will not stay put on smooth surfaces) and used as a background.

.... :)

DT Card and New Romantic Release

I want to share with you my latest DT card for digi image site Bee Crafty. I've used the 'heart garden' design which has only been released for sale today...and soo reasonably priced!

I've stamped a piece of acetate with the word valentine (using elzybells hybrid ink) and made it form one half of the front of the card. It was difficult to get a pic that would show it up, hence the 2nd pic below. I've coloured the image with polychromo pencils, blended with sansador and added a stickles to some of the hearts. The papers are all Magnolia and the kraft (100% recycled) card is from elzybells.

Thanks for visiting today!

x

A new little 'Pink Gem ' cutie to share with you

Can't quite believe it myself yet, but managed to get some of my craft stash out of storage earlier in the week which meant I could play with my new Pink Gem stamps and patterned papers by Helz Cuppleditch when they arrived in the post. Made me one happy girl! :o) I'm entering this little creation into the Friday Sketcher's Challenge here (week 86) which is sponsered this week by MCC (My Creative Classroom) - an online craft learning centre.

My pictures are a bit pants, but can't help that there's so little natural daylight atm so now matter what angle or room or setting I choose on my mums camera (can't find mine - tis in storage...somewhere :o( ) the picture looks dull. The close up one below isn't quite so bad..

I've coloured the image with polychromo pencils and paper pieced her outfit. I've used stickles on the wand, wings and stars (not that this shows in the photo though) and finished off the edges with my trusty sewing machine.
Thanks for taking time to stop by today! xx

Sneak Peek...new 'romantic' images from Bee Crafty

I've not been a good blogger so far this year. Hopefully once I've finally got the keys to my new house and transformed one of the bedrooms into my very own (and long awaited) proper crafting space I'll get get back to creating again - on a bigger and better scale me hopes!

But don't desert me cos I'll still be posting new designs in the coming weeks, but just not so often.

Now for some exciting news...

Yup.. a new release of 'romantic' digi stamps from 'bee crafty', available from Saturday 30th January!
 I have to tell you they're my favourite ones yet!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all! A tad late but nevermind. I'm a bit all over the place at the moment as inbetween homes until we complete on the house we are buying. Hopefully only be a few more weeks but til then I'm staying at my parents and Adam at his...which is interesting! Being apart is not fun tho.
I've a card to share that I made just before moving.
This one I've made for my lil sis who'll be 20 tomorrow. I've made it with a new stamp I got for Christmas. It's from one of the Kraftin Kimmi Collection. Isn't she cute!? The papers are all Magnolia. I've distressed them and the white cardstock with antique linen and tattered rose colour distress inks.

Keep warm and stay safe in the snow!

hello hello! Are you all prepared for Christmas? I've bought most of my the pressies I need to but I've yet to make the tags. Eeek! Still, I break up from work on Tuesday so I plan on doing them then.
I wanted to share with you my DT card for this fortnight's circle themed challenge on bee's download blog. All the patterned papers are by Magnolia. I made the lilac paper myself by sponging with milled lavender distress ink. The penguins were coloured with polychromo pencils.

In case I don't post again b4 the big day, I'd like to wish you all a VERY Happy Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!

:0) xxxxxx

Amazing Christmas Giveaway!

Firstly sorry for the lack of posting recently, I've had a real stressful couple of weeks as I'm in the process of buying a house (it'll be worth it to have my own craft room..oh, and a garden!!)
I will hopefully get some time to craft this coming week though.
I do, however, want to share the most amazing giveaway with you over on Kim's Crafty Makes Blog here.
There is the chance to win one of these craft desks from The Original Scrapbox.com.

I've never seen anything quite like this! How fab!

x

Sparkly Challenge DT Card

It[s time for another challenge! This fortnight's challenge on the Bee-Crafty blog has a 'sparkly' theme. Now, what girl doesn't like a bit of sparkle?!

I've used the Penguin Pair image (soo cute!) which is available to download from the blog here and made an easel card. I'm so in love with the Magnolia papers so have used the blue plaid patterned paper again and I've made some more handmade patterned paper using the waste of a punched XCut snowflake. The blue paper that I've matted it onto is, again, just an inked up piece of white paper (see last post for another sample).  Below is a picture of the card when folded flat..

and...ta daa! This is it once opened up. I'm a tad annoyed that the lack of daylight yesterday means the blinking sparkly bits I've added are not fully showing :o( I edged the my card and my punched snowflakes with stickles and sprayed with glimmer mist.

Rundown of Materials used:

XCut Snowflake Punch, Powder Blue Versamagic Chalk Inkpad, Papermania Ribbon, Baby Blue Glass Dew Drops, Stickles by Ranger, Blue Plaid Paper by Magnolia, Alphabet Clear Stamps by Doodlebug Inc, Sewing Machine, Polychromo Pencils blended with Sansador, 3d Sticky foam Pads, Threading Water Border Punch by Fiskars, Silver Candy Dots by Craftwork Cards

Right, I must get back to some cleaning :o( otherwise I'll never get out this afternoon! Oh, and dont forget to enter the challenge!

Thanks for visiting!

x

Panduro Cutie

Yay! It's F.F.F Friday! And as promised I'm posting a picture of one of my most recent makes. I was commissioned to make a card for a friend's little girl..she'll be two next week so needed something really cute and girly - not difficult really! hehe. Of course  stitching had to feature somewhere on it as I couldn't resist using my new toy (my sewing machine). The flower patterned paper you see is one I made myself using distress ink, a piece of cut n dry foam (to apply) and the waste of a punched flower as a stencil and... Hey Presto! To co-ordinate I sponged a piece of paper with the same colour ink and used it to matt the patterned paper on.

Here is a little peek into the inside of the card. Again, lots of stitching and my own patterned paper!

And finally a side view which gives a closer view.

The materials used are:

Silver candy dots - Craftwork Cards, Tattered Rose Tim Holtz Distress Ink, blue butterflies from stash, Sentiment - large alphabet stamps by Doodlebug Inc, XCut retro flower punch, Blue patterned paper -Magnolia, glass dew drops - from diestodiefor.com

Just Magnolia Monthly Challenge - Distressing

In addition to their weekly challenge, the Just Magnolia Team run a monthly challenge. This month its a 'distressing' challenge. Now, I've (very naughtily) bought so much lovely new craft stash - including new Magnolia Papers and stamps from the NEC last Saturday and also a sewing machine!! lol. I've been dying to get one for ages and finally got one this week :o)!! More about that later though - Anyways, entering this challenge gave me a great excuse to use all my new bits! hehe.

I spent an age on this little creation - using a variety of techniques - and I am actually really pleased with the end result! I'd love to hear what you think too though if you've a moment spare to leave a comment. x

Here are the full pics..

This is my first attempt at stamping Tilda out of the Nestie die cut. (Took much time and frustration but after watching a few tutorials I managed it!) I've distressed the edges of almost all the papers using the blade on my scissors, some of the papers I scrunched up and then inked up with Tim Holtz distress ink. The 'Noel' sentiment is by Magnolia. I coloured it with Polychromos, cut each letter out and then distressed them with my scissors too. I got a bit sew happy with my new 'Janome Sew Mini' machine - which was an absoloute bargain at £35! All the papers are Magnolia - from the new Christmas collection. I masked Tilda and then sprayed glimmer mist all around her.

Phew!

Thanks for stopping by this 'sunny' Sunday. I'll see you back here on Friday with my next project..

Trix x

Photo Inspiration Challenge #17

Heello! I must apologise for the lack of posting but I'm in the process of selling one property and buying another and it's been a real nightmare so far - God knows what I'm paying a solicitor for as I seem to be doing half the work myself to speed things up! :o( Anyway, enough of my ranting. Today I went to the ICHF at the Birmingham NEC which -apart from being far to packed  out - was fab! I ended up spending most of my stash cash on Magnolia goodies (watch this space for some xmas creations!). Now, I'd like to share with you my DT creations for this week's Bee Crafty Challenge which is based on this lurrvely photo:

                                                          

Now the great thing about this challenge is that you can choose as many or few elements of it as you like! Me? I took from it the colour scheme, the spots and flowers and this is what I came up with (the photos are not the best quality thanks to the poor amount of daylight today):

I just love this dotty pink card. It was a digi download from cupcake card craft. Here is a peek inside the card...

and here is the mini pizza box turned gift box!

So what have I materials have I used?..

Papers - Cupcake Card Craft

Mini Pizza Box Tutorial - here

Pink Coredinations cardstock

Ribbon from my stash

Flowers - A mixture of Prima and HobbyCraft

Pink Glass Gems - Dewdrops from 'Dies to Die For'

Tools - Scorpal, Nesties, Pink Chalk Inkpad, scissors, Polychromo pencils

Stickles by Ranger

Feeling shattered so gonna sign off now but I hope you all have a fab sunday!

Thanks for visiting!

T xx

Just Magnolia Challenge # 27 Bright and Zingy!

How is everyone? I am counting the days (and counting my pennies lol!) until the Hobby and Craft Fair at the NEC next month. Are you going too? I had a little look online at train prices and jeez was I shocked at how much it'll cost me :o( Am trying to rope my mum and my crafting sis into coming too so that we can drive up and share the petrol money! ;o)
Right, ok onto the good stuff.. this my entry for the Just Magnolia Challenge #27 which has a 'bright and 'zingy' theme. Ok, so my little creation isn't quite 'zingy', but I found it really hard to get the balance right ie. not soo zingy that it would look tacky, but enough to look bright and cheerful. So I played safe and went for a red and yellow colour scheme giving me a excuse to use one of my sheets of Magnolia Paper from the 'A little Yummy for Your Tummy' Collection that Mr Postie kindly delivered (prior to striking) last week!

I kept getting shadows when taking my pics today so apologies. Here is a side view..

Materials
Papers ~ Red Plaid from the Magnolia 'A Little Yummy for your Tummy' Collection, Yellow gingham from stash
Image ~ Tilda with Blueberries by Magnolia / Sentiment ~ Everyday Greetings by Elzybells
Embellies ~ Roses from stash, Yellow flower (top right corner) by Prima, Ribbon from stash, Charm and jump rings from 'beads needs'  - a shop on ebay.
Tools~ White Gel Pen, Whispers Ink Pad, Stickles, Poly Chromo Pencils,

Ooh! I can hear fireworks outside! I love the smell of bonfires..mmm.. roll on Nov. 5th! lol
Right, I better press on with a couple of other projects I've to finish tonight..

Thanks for stopping by!
T x