House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge - Add Something Blue

 Good Morning

I'm trying to get ahead with my birthday cards, so decided to make another for the House Mouse & Friends Challenge.  This time I remembered to 'Add Something Blue' which was an optional part of the challenge.  This card is for my niece who is a big animal lover:

I printed the decoupage, backing paper and sentiment from the cd-rom that came with the House Mouse Project Book by Joanna Sheen.  I love cutting out decoupage and it's good exercise for my dodgy hands!

I remembered I had a very neglected embossing folder with cupcakes on that I thought would work perfectly with the image.  The blue card is from Hunkydory.

To finish, I die cut the bunting from the backing paper, and used a Spellbinders die to cut the pretty banner for the sentiment to sit on,

Challenges Entered

House Mouse & Friends - Anything Goes with option to add something blue

Simon Says - Cute Critter

I'm having such fun re-visiting old cd-roms and using old/almost forgotten crafting items that have been hidden away in my craft room.

Have a lovely Sunday.

Jo x

Tuesday Morning Sketches #739

 Hello again

While I was in my craft room, I also created a card to send to my cousin who has just had a new grandson.  I followed the sketch over at Tuesday Morning Sketches to create my card:

The invertage was printed from Crafters' Companion Souffle cd-rom, the card used was Adorable Scoreable by Hunkydory.

Challenges Entered:

Tuesday Morning Sketches

Simon Says - Cute Critters

Thanks for looking.

Jo x

House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge

 Hello and a very warm welcome to my blog.

Today I was in need of some distraction therapy, and I had some cards I needed to make, so I took myself off to my Craft Room.  In need of some inspiration for 'where to start', I decided to do something I haven't done in ages, and look up some of my old favourite challenges.  So here I am entering the House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge with this card:

I re-visited a cd-rom from Joanna Sheen and went straight to the decoupage section and chose this delightful image.  The card is for a special friends birthday.  The card blank is a reverse easel and has been in my stash for yonks, so can't remember where it came from!  The ribbons and pearls I've also had for ages.  I'm determined this year to use up some of my stash so thought I'd start as I mean to go on!!

Challenges Entered -

House Mouse & Friends - Anything Goes

Simon Says - Cute Critters

Thanks for visiting!

Jo x

CD Sunday Plus Challenge # 125 - Hosted by Carol

 Hello and welcome to my blog.

It's time for a new challenge over at CD Sunday Plus and our last one for this year!  I've loved visiting all your blogs again this year and seeing all your wonderful creations.

I'd like to take this opportunity to send huge thanks to all my fellow DT.  I've had a very difficult year and was missing from the challenge for a long time.  The support of my teamies through this period has meant so much to me.  I also had some lovely messages from fellow crafters via the challenge.... I send heartfelt thanks to you all.

For this challenge, I've created a card using Sports Women dies and vignettes from Carnation Crafts.  The vignette options for this set is amazing and I chose to use the same skin tone and hair colour for each one to represent the same sportswoman participating in the different sports.

I added lots of layers to the card, starting with the black layer to tie in with the dartboard, boots etc, then alternating white and blue using 3mm foam pads.

We are having a slightly longer Christmas break this year so our next challenge will start on

 4th February 2024. 

Can I take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy and Peaceful Christmas and send you every good wish for the New Year.

Jo xx

CD Sunday Plus Challenge # 124 - Hosted by Jocelyn

 Good morning

A very warm welcome to my blog today. I hope you are keeping well.

I loved seeing all the entries over on CD Sunday Plus again this challenge and my Top 3 for the previous challenge are on the challenge blog today.  Also today, we start a new challenge.  Please head on over to see all the wonderful creations from my Teamies.

Here is my creation for this challenge.

 

I used decoupage and papers from my Rachelle Anne Miller cd-rom.  There are quite a lot of layers to the Noah's Ark image, but it's difficult to get them to show up in a photograph.

The card used is Hunkydory's Adorable scoreable and die's from Carnation Crafts to die cut the name.

Thanks for visiting today, I hope you get the chance to enter our challenge.

Jo xx

CD Sunday Plus Challenge # 123 - Hosted by Margaret

 Hello and welcome

Today see's the start of Challenge 123 over at CD Sunday Plus and, as always, our theme is anything goes.  Please visit our challenge blog for full details of how to enter.

For this challenge I have made a Christmas card using some of Bree Merryn's fabulous artwork.

The image, which is done as a twisted pyrimage, is from Bree Merryn's Christmas Friends cd-rom by Creative Crafting World.  The backing paper is from the same CD and is actually part of an insert.  The gorgeous die is by Paper Boutique, cut into some mirror card from Crafters' Companion.  To finish, I stamped a Lily of the Valley sentiment onto some white card.

I was host for the last challenge so get the privilege of choosing the Top 3.  I've loved visiting all your blogs and seeing your wonderful creations.

I have just taken delivery of a new mobile phone, which is said to have a fabulous camera, so hopefully my photos will improve - I've just got to work out how to use the phone!!

I hope you'll be able to join in our challenge and look forward to seeing you there.

Jo xx

CD Sunday Plus Challenge # 122 - Hosted by Me

 Good Morning

Where did that fortnight go?  The weeks are certainly rolling quickly by, and today it's time for a new challenge over at CD Sunday Plus Challenge and I've loved being back seeing all your wonderful creations again.

A dear friend of our celebrated her 80th birthday just recently and I wanted to make her a special card.  I had a 'rummage' through my many craft supplies and decided on this beautiful Carnation Crafts design.

I printed the decoupage, which is a free download from Carnation Crafts, cut it with the accompanying die, and then layered it using 3d.  Normally, I would have used 3d glue for an intricate design, but I'm finding the fumes from any glue are affecting my breathing quite a lot, so I'm sticking with foam pads for now (it's a bit too chilly to have the window open!).  Sorry, I digressed!  I cut out mats and layers from co-ordinating card using more of the dies in the set.  The base card was embossed with my favourite embossing folder and I die cut Viv's name using an alphabet set, also from carnation.  A few ombre pearls were added to complete the design.

I've had a few little hiccups with my health this last couple of weeks, but am pleased to say that our lovely Bailey has been close by my side 'looking after' me!  As you can see from the following photo, I'm keeping occupied, even when not up to sitting in my craft room!

Thanks for visiting my blog today.  I hope to see your creations over on the challenge blog.

Jo x

CD Sunday Plus Challenge #121

 Good Morning

A very warm welcome to my blog today.  It's lovely to be back joining in again.

Thank you to everyone who has sent me Get Well messages over the last few months.  It was a close call and really quite frightening, but thanks to the excellent care from the doctors and nurses at my local hospital, the love, care and support of my amazing family and friends, I'm (hopefully) on the right side now.  I'm still battling one chest infection after another, and they've told me my recovery will take up to 12 months, but I'll get there!

I want to thank my fabulous teamies at Cd Sunday Plus for supporting me and being so patient with me, it's a wonderful team to be a part of.

The card I am sharing with you today is a very special one.  My eldest daughter has just turned 30 (which I find hard to believe), and this is the card I made for her:

I used the Paper Pantry Volume V1, It's A Dog's Life collection, from Creative Crafting World.  This is one of my favourite and most used collections.  All the card used was also from Creative Crafting World and I used a selection of dies from CCW, Crafters' Companion and Carnation Crafts.

Thanks for joining me today..  Please leave me a comment so that I know you've been!

Crafty hugs

Jo xx

CD Sunday Plus Challenge #110

 Good morning

We have been enjoying a few unexpected sunny days here in Manchester so I have been enjoying sitting out in the garden enjoying some sunshine.  Bailey loves to sunbathe so has been spending a lot of time outside too.  The garden is starting to spring into life now and I am growing a number of different varieties of sunflower to add some colour.  I love sunflowers, such cheery flowers and a good source of food for the birds and many squirrels we get visiting our garden.

We've also got a regular night time visitor of a hedgehog!  I haven't seen a single slug in the garden so she's doing a very good job!

John is going to build me a bird table, so hopefully we'll then get even more visitors to the garden.

Another 2 weeks have flown by and today we start our new challenge over at CD Sunday Plus.  As always, it's 'Anything Goes' as long as something digital has been used on your creation.  Please do visit the challenge blog for all the rules and to see my team-mates fab creations.

I've made something a bit different (for me) this time:

I'm sure you'll have seen a lot of this style of card around blogland, but this was a first for me.  The dinosaur images are all vignette downloads from Carnation Crafts (prehistoric friends), die-cut with the matching dies.  The sentiment is die-cut using a Paper Boutique die.

I hope we get to see lots of lovely creations this challenge, it's always a pleasure to visit your blogs.

Finally, for those of you who like to see how Bailey is getting on, here is a photo of him sat watching the birds - from the comfort of 'his' chair.

Thanks for visiting today.

Jo xx

CD Sunday Plus Challenge # 109

 Good Morning

Thank you to everyone who visited my last post and left comments - I love to read them!

Can you believe it's the end of April?  The lighter mornings and evening are here and hopefully some warmer weather will follow very soon.

I recently treated myself to a beautiful new collection from Carnation Crafts called 'Dawn of Spring'.  I just couldn't resist this one!  This is the first card made with the collection, which is an Anniversary card for some friends:

I added lots of mats to my card and die-cut the pretty panels using dies from the set.  The artwork for the flowers is a free download from Carnation Crafts website, which I then die-cut and decoupaged.

Please do visit our challenge blog to see all the teams creations, and for full details of how you can join in the fun.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Jo xx

CD Sunday Plus Challenge # 108 - Hosted by Margaret

 Good morning

I'm sorry my post is a little late this morning.  I've just returned home from a few days in Portugal, which was a much needed break after battling a horrid chest infection for a few weeks' which completely wiped me out.  After completing this post, I will catch up with all the lovely entries for our last challenge.

The weeks' are passing by quickly and it's time for a new challenge over at CD Sunday Plus.  This week is the 13th Anniversary of CD Sunday!! I'm the newest member of the design team but have been a follower for many years prior to that and have \always enjoyed the challenges.  I hope you'll be able to join us.

Here is my card:

For my card I used artwork by the fabulous Pollyanna Pickering, from the British Wildlife cd-rom.  I turned the image into decoupage and added a backing paper from the same cd-rom.

Please do pop across to the challenge blog to see all the fabulous creations by my fellow teamies.

Jo xx

CD Sunday Plus Challenge #107 - Hosted by Me

 Good morning

I hope the weather is improving for you and you are keeping well.  Thanks for visiting my blog.

Since my last post I have been fighting off a chest infection.  I'm still not over it yet but it is finally starting to improve!

My eldest daughter, Sarah, thoroughly spoilt me on Mother's Day with the most amazing afternoon tea.  I am very blessed.

Emma is now home for the Easter Break and working flat out towards her final exams next month.  It is lovely to have her home.

Today, Bailey is 2!  I can't believe it, the time has passed so quickly.  We've got him lots of new toys for him to destroy!  He is the gentlest, most loving dog when it comes to people, but when it comes to his toys he is savage!  They should test these 'so called' indestructable toys on Bailey!!

Here he is yesterday, having just woken up, with rather static hair!! (I know that feeling well!!)

Today is the start of our new challenge at CD Sunday Plus and we are all looking forward to seeing your cards.  It's my turn to host this time.  Here is my inspiration for this challenge.

I used dies and downloaded vignettes from Carnation Crafts to create the beautiful 3d flowers.  The insert paper is also a download and I used some of the same paper to die cut my sentiment.  I then die cut the trellis in the corner to complete the card.

I am trying to do some less-fussy cards and it's proving a challenge!!  I have so much 'stuff' in my craft room that I want to use, it's so tempting to throw everything but the kitchen sink at it!

Thanks for visiting my blog today.  I hope you have a lovely Easter.  Please leave a comment so I know you've been.

Jo xx