A little Oriental

Hello Peeps,
Hope your weekend has been good for you despite the dull wet weather.   I'm very late with my blog tonight, so better get cracking straight away, no chit chat, I'll just get  on with it, as I want to be in bed before midnight for a change lol!!

OK tonight's card was made for Sue and Harvey of Imagination Crafts in April 2010.   It certainly does not feel like four years ago lol !!!   I used Imagination Craft's  Silkies and Inkadinks.   I made this card using black ridged card which re-acted with the Craft Printz ink pad and heat gun in that, it seemed to soak up most of the ink, leaving only a small amount of the embossing powder adhereing to the ink and it seemed to have bleached the colour from the black card   As it happens, I quite like the end result.

 
Make a base card from white card stock and matt some black card and some orange paper on top of the white card, leaving small borders showing each time.   Cut a piece of holographic card  and fix to the centre of the orange paper.

Using  a Versamark pad and black embossing powder, stamp the  pond flowers stamp (Imagination Crafts but not sure if still available, you could use any flower stamp instead)   stamp the flowers onto a piece of acetate.   Fix this to the holographic card.   Next take the black ridged card and lay the stencil on top and dab the white ink through the design on the stencil using a piece of  cut n' dry.   Remove stencil and heat emboss with white embossing powder.

Trim around the edge of the pattern and draw a three and three quarter inch circle and cut out all pieces except the black rings.

 
Fix this to the base card using sticky foam pads.   Stamp out the lady using onyx black ink, onto white card, three times.   Paint with the silkies and inkadinks.   Cut out and 3D add to the right-hand side of the circle.   Colour a small white silk flower with the 'firecracker' silky and add a rhinestone to the centre.   Fix to the back of her head.   This Japanese lady stamp is a Creative Expressions wooden stamp no. RN271 which I have had in my stamp stash for many years but I think I have seen it fairly recently as a see through stamp.  It is such a lovely stamp.     Well I haven't beaten midnight as I had  hoped to lol !

That's it folks, hope you like it.   Take good care of yourselves until my next blog in a few days.

                                                                Love and rainbows,

                                                               Big Hugs   Jennifer xx 

Waste Not Want Not, Something From Nothing.

Hello Fellow Bloggers,

How are you all, good I hope, if not here is a ((Hug or two )).     I would like to say ' welcome'  to my newest follower, Elizabeth ,   hope you enjoy your visits.  I managed to fit in a little crafting time today.    The project I have for you tonight was made from the left-overs after decorating an Imagination Craft's  butterfly and flower MDF Charm Kit.   I felt it was so wasteful  to just throw away the left-overs after popping out the charms, so I decided to try and do something with it.   Here  is what I made, hope you like it .   

            This is a photo of the two left-over pieces from two MDF Charm Kits, which I began with.

     

                              Below is the front of the left-over MDF board after decorating it.

    
                                Below is the back of the left-over  MDF board after decorating it. 

I began by painting the frames.   The front  painted with  Sandstone MDF paint and the back with Jet  MDF paint from Imagination Crafts.   Using the Rollagraph flourishes stamp and black ink, roll the roller over the cream side of the MDF board.

Next,  again using the roller stamp and the sandstone MDF paint, roll the roller over the black side of the board.   Rub black ink around the edges of the cream side and rub gold sparkle medium around the edges of the black side.   Add a little red gilding wax on the edges.   Run the Rollagraph over a piece of acetate   ( cut out the same size as the board) using the crackle stamp on the roller  and black ink.   When dry, cover the reverse of the acetate with the sparkle mediums.   When sparkle medium is dry, glue some  black coloured mesh to the left hand edge and  some die-cuts from black card, to the right-hand side.

   
Glue the red gems in position.   Glue two pieces of lace to the back of the board.   Glue a ribbon loop at the top inside of the black side.   Glue the acetate between the two boards and at the same time, glue little loops of the satin ribbon to the sides before glueing the boards together.

Die-cut the flowers, one black and the other one orange plus the stamen from black card and glue to the front of the board.   Add gems to the centres.   Die-cut the corner flourishes, one in black and one from gold and glue to the bottom right corner.

Die-cut four corners from black card and glue one in each corner of the board front.   Glue two pieces of cream lace across the top right and bottom left corners of the board front.      Colour around the edges with a gold pen.

Make a butterfly by softening some black friendly plastic and press into a butterfly mould.   Remove from the mould when cool and colour with a versamark pad and gold mica powder.   Glue the butterfly to the board front.

Well that's it finished, you will have the original boards and charms to make another hanging, plus the hanging we have just made.   Two for the price of one so to speak. lol !!!     and who doesn't like a bargain !!
Well time to log off now, have a lovely weekend and I will see you all soon.

                                                                Love and rainbows,

                                                                  Hugs  Jennifer xx

Crocus Time.

Hi there peeps,

Happy Easter Monday, hope you have all had a wonderful Easter.   The weather for a change has been glorious.   Lots of gardening done, perfect weather for it.

Well onto today's card.   This time I have used Imagination Craft's beautiful crocus decoupage stamp set and their black shiny card.   This card was made for the latest Create and Craft show but it did not get shown, so I thought I would feature it tonight.      OK off we go then, let's get cracking.

Make a base card from white card stock.   Matt a slightly smaller piece of black  card onto the white, leaving a small border of white showing.   Next take a slightly smaller piece of buff coloured paper and stamp the main image onto it randomly, using a black ink pad.   Glue this onto the base card.

   
Next take a piece of black card and die-cut the square from it, using the Spellbinder's die.   Put this square to one side for the moment and trim the outside edges of the negative (left over after die-cutting the square), slightly smaller then the buff paper.   Wrap a piece of ribbon across the centre, then glue this onto the base card.

Now go back to the die-cut square and stamp the main image onto it, using a Versamark pad and heat emboss using gold embossing powder.   Fix this onto a piece of white card and then onto a piece of black card, each time leaving a tiny border of each showing.

    
Stamp the main image a further five times using the Versamark pad and heat emboss with the gold embossing powder.   Cut out the flowers and leaves.   Colour with the chalks and then 3D onto the original image, using silicone glue.

  
Last of all, add a ribbon bow to the left hand side of the card.   Well there we have it, another finished card.   Using the chalks to colour the flowers gives a very soft delicate look which I think looks quite nice.   Hope you like it too my friends.   

Thank you all so much for taking the time to visit and leave lovely comments, I really love to hear what you think of my creations.  

See you all in a few days time.   Have fun.

                                                                love and rainbows,

                                                                 Hugs   Jennifer xx.  

Bird of Paradise

Good evening Followers, Friends and Visitors,

Wow! what a beautiful day it has been today, wall to wall sunshine,  blue skies and not a cloud to be seen  and really quite warm  I have been in the garden all day, weeding our veggie plot which is quite large, with the help of our lovely little grandson, bless him,  he is such good company, chats all the time lol!

Well I would like to show you something a little different tonight.   Instead of a card as usual, I would like to show you a tag I made for Sue and Harvey of Imagination Crafts in February 2013.   It uses the beautiful Bird of Paradise Stamp Set,  Black Shiny Card,  Mica Powder,  Trellis Stencil and  last but not least, gunmetal Sparkle Medium;

Cut out a large tag shape from white card stock.   Punch a hole in the top of the tag.   Colour with distress inks..   Emboss in  an embossing machine using the trellis stencil.   Colour through the stencil with Versmark and brush on some mica powder.   Stamp the mesh from the stamp set over the four corners of the tag, with black ink.   Glue a piece of black card across the top of the tag.   Punch out a hole from  black card, then punch a larger circle around the small hole, then glue this to the  tag.  Colour some ribbon with the mica powder  then stamp the mesh stamp from the set onto the ribbon using black ink.   Thread the ribbon through the hole.

Cut out and emboss the border strip from the Spellbinder's ironwork die set and cover with the sparkle medium.   When dry, glue across the top of the tag. 

Cut out and emboss a scalloped oval from black card and glue this to the tag.   Cut out the smaller scalloped oval from white card and colour with distress inks, then lay the stencil onto it and rub Versamark through the design and brush with mica powder.   Glue this to the large black  oval.

Cut out a further plain oval from white card, colour with distress inks and stamp the bird of paradise onto it using black ink.   Colour with mica powders.  Glue this to a slightly larger plain black oval.

Cut out and emboss the flower using a Marianne die.   Layer up the flower using silicone glue .   Add a black rhinestone to the centre and some sparkle medium around the rhinestone.   Glue the flower to the left-hand side of the  tag.

That's it finished, not a quick tag to make, but I think worth the extra time.    Hope you've enjoyed your visit to my blog.     I'll  be back soon, so until then have a good Easter weekend and I hope the sun shines on you all.    Happy Easter.

                                                                 Love and rainbows,

                                                                Big Hugs   Jennifer xx

My Mid Month Inspiration Project for Imagination Craft's Challenge Blog.

Hi there Lovelies,

Hope everyone had a good weekend.  Yesterday was  absolutely beautiful, warm and very sunny!  thought the sun had disappeared for ever lol!    Well, we're half way through April, the months are flying by, before we know it, it will be May!

  Time for my mid month inspiration project for the Imagination Craft's Challenge Blog.   and the theme this month is 'Anything Goes.'   The card I have made uses Imagination Craft's  Vine Trellis Background Stencil and Sparkle Medium.       So let's get started shall we?

Take a piece of A4 pink card and fold in half landscape style.   Onto this matt a piece of black card.   Take a piece of the craft card, trimmed to fit the black with a small border of the black showing.

Lay the stencil on the craft card and spread the sparkle mediums over the design,  adding in splodges of colour, so as not to mix the colours together but to blend gently into each other where they meet.   Remove the stencil and leave the image to dry.   Always wash off,  or put your stencil and spatula into some water to prevent the sparkle medium drying on the stencil.

    
Stamp 'Special Birthday Wishes' to the right of the sparkle Medium, using the black ink pad.   Next fix the craft card to the base card.

Cut out and emboss a border from black card using the Spellbinder die and fix down the right-hand side of the Sparkle Medium.

Using the large flower punch, punch out four large flowers.   Colour with pink chalks and glue one flower on top of the other.   Do the same with the other two punched flowers.

  
Glue these two flowers to the base card, one to the top left and the other to the bottom right.  Punch out seven smaller daisies and colour with the pink chalks, then glue to the card front.    Punch out four tiny flowers and glue to the card.   Lastly, punch out small black circles and glue to the flower centres.

Well that's it my lovelies, hope you like it.   I hope my cards provide you with some inspiration and that you'll join us at Imagination Craft's Challenge Blog, for this months Challenge, where you could win a £40 voucher to spend at Imagination Crafts if you use Imagination Craft's products.   Please pop over to the rest of the Design Team's blogs to see their amazing inspirations too.

Until my next blog,  enjoy the sunshine and have a good week.    Take care of yourselves

                                                               Love and Rainbows,

                                                               Big Hugs   Jennifer xx
 

A Splash of Colour.

Good afternoon lovelies, how has your week been ?  not too bad I hope.   The weekend begins here  yeah!  I do hope you all have a lovely weekend, wherever you may be going or whatever you are  doing.   Did you see Sue from Imagination Craftts  on Create and Craft TV. ?   What a fabulous show, lots of demonstrations and new techniques and Sue was brilliant !     Well today I thought I would share with you a card  I made for the show but wasn't shown, as time goes so quickly!   This card was made using an Imagination Craft's summer blossom stencil and the set of Silkies which were shown on the TV.     The Silkies have a beautiful pearly sheen and come in so many beautiful colours.   Ok let's get started.
    
Make a base card using the deep pink card.   Onto this matt a slightly smaller piece of white card, leaving a border of the pink showing.

    
Die-cut a large scalloped oblong from black card using a die-cutting machine and the Spellbinder's scalloped oblong die.   Glue this onto the white card, near to the left hand edge.

Take another piece of white card and lay the summer blossom stencil on top and rub the Silkies through  the design using a piece of cut n' dry foam.   Remove stencil, the Silkies will dry almost immediately.   Next die-cut a slightly smaller scalloped oblong from this card.   Cut out a semi-circle from the bottom right hand corner and glue the white oblong onto the black oblong.

     
Glue a small white die-cut circle to the bottom right and glue on a rhinestone.

Using another piece of white card, lay the stencil on top and colour the flowers only,  using all four colours of the Silkies, a further three times.   Remove stencil and cut out the flowers and 3D them onto the original image using silicone glue, to give some dimension to the card.

    
Die-cut the zig-zag from black card using the Memory Box Die and glue down the right-hand edge of the card.   Lastly, add a ribbon bow.    Well that's it finished, quite a quick card to make and the colours are so bright and cheerful.   I would just like to say a big  hello to my newest follower Sandy Filer, welcome, hope you find some inspiration from my blog.

 If you have not had a good week, I do hope my cheery card helps to bring a little sunshine into your life.   Have a fabulous weekend and I will see you soon.   On my next blog I will be sharing my mid month inspiration card with you which I have made for the Imagination Craft's Challenge Blog 
The theme this month is 'Anything Goes.'   So until then my friends take care.

                                                               Love and rainbows,  
                          
                                                                Hugs   Jennifer xx.

A Sneaky Peek at one of the samples for Imagination Craft's Create and Craft TV Show.

Well good morning  Followers, Friends and Visitors,

Not such a good morning in my neck of the woods, windy and raining !    Today I thought I would give you a 'sneaky peek' at one of the sample cards I have made for Imagination Craft's  shows on Create and Craft television, which are due to be televised  tomorrow night at 9pm and again on Friday morning at 9am.
Hope you like it.    This card is made using their fabulous Silkies - Tropical Set.  These are beautiful paints which have a lovely sheen to them and they come in some really lovely colours.   Ok off we go, let's get started.

Begin by making a base card from gray card, A4 folded in half portrait style.   Matt some teal card onto this leaving a border of gray showing.

       
Take a piece of white card and colour using the silkies.   When dry, stamp a border stamp down each side of the coloured card, using a Versamark pad and heat emboss  with white embossing powder.   Trim this down and fix to the base card.

      
Take the patterned panel card and lay the stencil on it and spread the sparkle mediums over the design,  lavender at the top of the design, then green in the middle section and lastly the lovely antique rose at the bottom.   The colours will merge but don't worry about this as  doing it this way, you do not get any harsh lines between the individual colours.   Carefully remove stencil and you will get that 'wow' effect !  It looks so good without a great deal of effort!   Leave image to dry.

                                   
When the image is dry, fix this panel between the stamped lines of the border stamp.   (This border stamp was from a set by Imagination Craft's, but I'm not sure it is still available but you could use any border stamp you may have in your crafty stash).  

Cut out two zig-zags from white card using the Memory Box die and a die-cutting machine.   Colour with the antique rose sparkle medium.   Glue one to the left and the other to the right-hand side of the card.

    
Last but not least, add a ribbon bow near the bottom of the leaf stem.   Well that's it Friends.   Don't forget to tune into the two shows, sounds as though they are going to be very interesting.   Sue will be showing us some great techniques  and some fabby products.   Thank you all for stopping by,  love you all !

See you all soon.   Until then, look after yourselves.

                                                                Love and rainbows,

                                                              Big Hugs   Jennifer xx

Lola and Simon

Hello lovelies,

Hope your weekend has been all you wished it to be.     Mine has been quite a quiet one, with a little quality crafting time mingled in between all the other jobs.     Weather has been very windy and wet today..   The wind has now subsided and the rain has stopped, thank goodness, maybe we will have some much needed sunshine tomorrow.  

Well onto this evening's card which I made in March of 2009,   (seems like such a long time ago now!)  and uses Imagination Craft's Magi-Boss Chunky embossing powder - shimmering green grass, which gives a beautiful pearly green  finish to the embossing.   Hope you like this one.

Fold an A4 cream card in half portrait style.   Using a Cricut machine and the George and Basic and the Wild Card cartridges, cut out two black ovals four and a half inches high, two black swirls icons and one filigree oval from cream card. three and a half inches high.  

      
Stamp Lola and Simon onto some spare cream card with a Versamark inkpad and heat emboss using black embossing powder.   Cut them out and fix to one of the black ovals with sticky foam pads to give a little dimension to the card.   Fix the oval to the right-hand side of the base card, again with sticky foam pads.   Put a half inch strip of black card across the bottom of the base card and fix in place with Double sided sticky tape.   Glue the ribbon onto the strip of black card.

    
Glue the second black oval to the top left of the base card.   Take the cut out filigree and rub with the Versamark pad, sprinkle on the Magi-Boss Chunky, shake off the excess powder and heat emboss with a heat gun.   Repeat this once again.   Glue this oval to the black oval and glue some green fibres around the edges of the oval.

     
Glue the two black swirls to the black oval, one at the top and one at the bottom of the oval.   Glue  a green ribbon bow to the top right of the filigree oval.

Well that's it folks, all finished.   Quite a quick card to make.    Take care of yourselves my lovelies until my next post.   Hope the sun shines on you all.

                                                                 Love and rainbows,

                                                               Big Hugs,   Jennifer xx

Butterfly Circle.

Good evening Followers Friends and Visitors,

Can't believe tomorrow is Friday again !   Hope you are all looking forward to the weekend.   I would just like to say welcome to  Debbie Fisher and  CraftyK my newest blog followers.   I do hope you enjoy your visits to my blog  and to all my older followers, thank you for your fabulous comments and regular visits, I get so much enjoyment reading all your comments.    Well,  onto this evening's card which I made for Sue and Harvey of Imagination Crafts in January 2012 and uses the Spring Decoupage Stamp Set - Butterflies and their Lacy Swirls Stencil.   ok then,  let's get started.

      
Make a base card from white card stock landscape style.   Matt a piece of black card onto the white, leaving a small border of white showing.   Using a die-cutting machine and the round die (Nellies multi frames) and the oblong die (also Nellies), cut out one round and two oblongs from the dark pink paper.   Matt some black card onto each oblong and glue to the base card.   Using the black distress ink, lay the stencil onto a piece of white card and blend the black ink into the design on the stencil using a blending tool.   Carefully remove the stencil  and leave the image to dry.

       
When dry, cut into two oblongs and glue on top of the black oblongs.   Cut a black oblong and glue across the centre of the two pink,black/white oblongs.

Stamp the main butterfly image onto white card and cut it into a circle and glue to the dark pink die-cut circle.   Fix this to the centre of the black oblong.   Stamp the main image using a black ink pad a further three times.   Cut out the butterflies and 3D them onto the original image on the circle, using silicone glue.

  
Using the smallest circle die from the set,  cut out the smallest circle from the dark pink paper.   Glue a black circle to this.   Stamp out the small butterfly from the stamp set, twice onto white card and 3D it.   Glue this to the small black circle and glue the circle to the top left of the base card.    

                                                   
Make two pink and one black/white flower and glue to the bottom right of the card.   Glue three white stones to the bottom left and three to the top right of the base card.

Well there we are, another finished card.   Hope you like this one.   Take care of yourselves until my next blog post in a few days.

                                                                Love and rainbows,

                                                             Crafty Hugs   Jennifer xx         

My Inspiration Project for April's Imagination Craft's Challenge Blog.

Good morning Lovelies,

Well here we are again at the beginning of yet another month.   This year is flying by at an enormous rate of knots.  One minute it is January, next it's April !   Spring is finally here,  all we need now is some lovely blue skies and beautiful sunshine.

This morning, I would like to share my inspiration piece for the Imagination Craft's Challenge Blog.   The theme this month is 'Anything Goes.'   If you would like to join us in this challenge and you have some Imagination Craft's products, why not give it a go!  you could be in with a chance of winning a fabulous £40 voucher to spend at Imagination Crafts.   A fantastic prize.   Remember you can check out my teamies inspiration pieces by going to  www.imaginationcrafts.co.uk  and clicking on their blog.   Ok let's get started.

Make a base card from white card stock.   Onto this,  matt a slightly smaller piece of silver mirror card., then a piece of cerise paper.     Take some white card, smaller than the silver and put through an embossing machine along with the stencil and emboss.

    
 Remove the stencil from the embossed card and colour with distress ink.   Lay the stencil back on top of the embossed card and spread small amounts of the sparkle medium through the design.  Fix a strip of cerise paper across the bottom of the card and glue some lace on top of the paper strip, securing the lace on the back of the card. 
       

       
Thread some beads onto some silver cord and  put across the top left of the card, securing on the back of the card.   Matt this card onto the base card.

     
Cut out a heart shape from some firm card and cover with the silver material, adding a small piece of wadding to the front of the heart  before covering with the material.   Secure the raw edges of the material by bending to the reverse of the heart and glue.

        
Glue the heart to the card front.   Cut out a small flag shape and colour with the distress ink.   Stamp 'With Love' onto the flag shape using a Versamark pad and heat emboss with silver embossing powder.   Glue this to the front of the heart.   Add a rose to the left of the heart.

                                     
Add some small flowers to the bottom right of the card, on top of the lace.           


     

         
Well, that's it finished.   Hope you like it and hopefully it may have inspired you to take part in the challenge, so go on, why not give it a go, someone has to win lol!!!

Thank you all so much for your visits to my blog and your lovely comments.   I read every one and reply to each and every one, they mean a great deal to me.   Take care of yourselves until my next post in a few days time.

                                                               Love and Rainbows,

                                                               Big Hugs   Jennifer xx