I wish it could be Christmas every day....

Hi everyone,

I've just had the most wonderful Christmas and (like every year) I don't want it to end :( 

I love having the kids at home from school and the Christmas decorations make the house look so pretty. So, as a new year approaches I thought I would show you two Christmas cards that I made and never had the time to blog until now. I must confess to not being around much at all in blogland the last few months - Christmas preparations kind of took over for a while there, so on second thoughts it's a good job it isn't Christmas every day lol!

The other day on the radio I heard them asking what has been your highlight of 2013 and although I didn't ring in I thought I would share mine here with you....I've had a few highlights this year but joint first are my holiday to France when we took the kids to Disneyland, and my fortieth birthday when hubby surprised me by taking me to Boras, Sweden and I had the best treat ever visiting Magnolia.

In November I made the decision to resign from my job as Preschool Assistant and concentrate on arts and crafts working from home. Lots of people had been telling me to sell my cards but I still don't know how successful that will be.... I'm going to have a Facebook page to display the things I make and will still carry on blogging here too, but you may see some changes in what I make as my creativity evolves, including a greater variety of projects and hopefully more productivity! So with a bit of luck I should be posting more regularly :)

Wishing you all a Wonderful New Year with Peace, Love and Prosperity......

I'll be back very soon with some new creations xxx

GDT Giftbag for LOTV

Morning everyone, and what a lovely sunny Sunday it is where I am at the moment - it's hard to believe that later today and into tomorrow they've forecast terrible storms!

I'm back with my third project as one of LOTV's honoured guest designers this month and as soon as I looked at 'Swirly Fir Tree' I thought 'giftbag'! Maybe it's the sweet Christmas presents at the base of the tree that gave me the inspiration :)

The base layers were a Go Kreate die, all layers were distressed with walnut stain DI, the papers are Magnolia. I also used the following Magnolia Doohickey's - tag, poinsettia, spruce, antique lace border and vintage leaf.

The Swirly Fir Tree image from LOTV's latest release of beautiful stamps was coloured using DI's and the postage stamp detail at each side is a kaisercraft stamp.

I stitched the spruce trees down the centre, to the layer beneath. The 'pinecones' were made using a marianne creatable rolled flower die. 

The tag with matching image was a happy accident, I wasn't totally happy with the image the first time I coloured it and went with the second attempt, but rather than waste the first image I cut it out using the doohickey tag. I added another plain card tag behind, and used an LOTV Christmas grunge message as a third tag (I decoupaged the Christmas trees on this using a bit of the base layer paper). 

I thought the heart charm echoed the hearts on the fir tree perfectly - not a traditional Christmas charm but more of an expression of a gift sent with love :)

To finish off I added white acrylic paint here and there, diamond stickles and plenty of shabby blue frantage!

Thank you for visiting me today and I hope you like my creation. Sorry the post is a little later than intended - I had a lie in lol! It was a bonus that the clocks went back last night ;)

Hope you have a lovely crafty week ahead.....

Hugs,

Lili of the valley GDT #2

Morning everyone,

I'm thrilled to be here today showing you my next GDT card for Lili of the Valley. I had great fun with this easel Christmas card, the image 'Snow Buddies' from the latest LOTV launch, was a delight to colour and I have to admit to going a little Frantage crazy lol!

The shape of the base card was made using a Go Kreate die, I used DI's to colour this super cute pair of friends and added quite a lot of shabby white Frantage both around the image and the TH trees that I tucked behind at both sides.

The tag is a Magnolia doohickey and the LOTV  grungy Christmas sentiment sits perfectly on this tag. I love this rich burgundy wired ribbon that adds glamour to the card and the finishing touches are a snowflake charm and a bell.

Space to write a message was created using trusty spellbinders nesties, made festive with that gorgeous Frantage and a double layered Magnolia doohickey snowflake.

Thanks so much for visiting today and taking a look at my latest creation, can't wait to show you what I make next......

Hugs,

Magnolia workshop creations

Hi everybody again,

I'm back as promised to show you the things I made while over at Magnolias open day in Boras, Sweden.

Water colour flowers using the peony petal doohickeys:

A frantaged hanger with doohickey slender firs and Magnolia Old Swedish church stamp:

Decorated matchbox using doohickeys poinsettia, mistletoe, slender firs, doily, sprawling ferns:

Christmas card with doohickeys - christmas tag, snowy forest, cloudy tag, poinsettia

The new Christmas image was coloured in black soot distress ink, and I'm quite happy with it even though only had an hour to finish it - I usually take a lot longer than that lol!

Thanks for visiting me today, hope I didn't make you too jealous if you read yesterdays post! (btw, even though the trip to Sweden last weekend was for my birthday it was two weeks early as my birthday isn't until the 19th Oct, but Neil couldn't persuade Magnolia to change their open day to then lol!)

Back soon xx

Hugs, 

Surprise trip to Sweden!

Hi everyone,

No card tonight to show you, but......... I just had to tell you that a couple of weeks ago my darling husband surprised me by telling me what he had planned for my fortieth birthday - a long weekend in Sweden, Boras to be exact, and specifically to Magnolia's shop on their open day! Let's just say I was so happy I cried lol! I kept saying I'd love to go there but never thought it would be possible, so when Neil told me we were going it was like a dream come true :)

He had started planning all this last year - I can't believe he'd kept it a secret all that time - and he'd stuck emails and flight details into a scrapbook for me to add to as a momento! I have lots of people to thank for helping hubby in his mission - he contacted Kim Piggott, Debbie Dolphin and Christine Dark to find out how to contact Magnolia and how to get there, he emailed lots of people in Boras to arrange somewhere wonderful to stay and eat out, and Asa at Magnolia was so helpful ensuring I felt like a VIP at their open day!

Words can not describe how great it felt to actually find myself at Magnolias door last weekend. Debbie was right when she said I looked overwhelmed - I was! Everyone was so lovely and it was a pleasure to meet such wonderful ladies :)

There were so many gorgeous things to look at in the shop, no wonder I was overwhelmed! But I was also in my element, and spoilt for choice with the rows and rows of stamps -such a dream come true!

What did Neil do while I was busy at Magnolia all day I hear you ask? Well, he walked his legs off around Boras taking photos of the gorgeous scenery and beautiful sculptures that were dotted around close to our hotel. 

The next morning I was lucky enough to spend breakfast talking to Debbie and Lillemor who had stayed in the same hotel as hubby and I the night before. It was fantastic to actually be able to sit down and talk to crafters whose blogs I've followed for ages, to finally meet them was fab - they were truly lovely ladies!

Now that I'm home again, it feels like I dreamt it all and I have to remind myself that it did really happen lol! I really am very lucky and have Neil to thank for making my fortieth birthday so special and not something I'm going to forget in a hurry :)

I will be back tomorrow to show you what I made on Debbie and Lillemor's workshops.

Hugs, 

GDT Project #1 for LOTV

Hi everyone! You would not believe how happy I am to be posting this today. Yeah I know it's been far too long between my posts of late and for that I'm truly sorry.....but I've saved it all up and got loads to tell you about now, sooooo I'll begin with the reason for this post. I was thrilled and gob smacked when I found out a little while ago that I was picked over at the fab 

Lili of the Valley Ideas to Inspire challenge blog

 winning a Guest design spot for October! Well, you can guess how excited I was, this kind of thing usually only happens to other very talented crafters, not little old me - I had to double and triple check that they actually meant me lol!

Enough of the waffle....here's my first creation: a simple side step card featuring Red Squirrels Pine Tree from the latest LOTV launch.

I cut the side step design out of a Go Kreate die shaped card, paper used was Magnolia Turning Leaves - Vintage Mushrooms. I randomly painted some corrugated card and the 'pinecones' with white acrylic paint, stapled some vintage lace to this layer too and added a gold frantaged leaf charm with linen thread. 

I used distress inks to colour this gorgeous image, and machine stitched around to finish it off.

The birthday sentiment/message card is topped with a double layer of 'lace' using Magnolia scalloped stitched doohickey border die and tucked in an 'envelope' based on a criss cross card design, finished off with linen thread and a button.

Thanks for visiting me today, I hope you like my card and I will be back as soon as I can with my next creation

Hugs,

Altered Kilner Jar

Hello bloggers!

I thought I'd pop on today to show you what I've been up to this week.......

I decided to spice up one of my Kilner jars that I keep craft flowers in. Layers include: 

Summer Wedding Tilda coloured in old paper and walnut stain DI's, shabby white frantage added and machine stitched to next layer.

Raspberry road digi paper cut into shape with spellbinders nestie label twenty three and stamped randomly with kaisercraft postage stamp.

Peeled cardboard to expose ridges with added white paint here and there. 

Cheesecloth on top corner tucked in between the digi paper and the cardboard layer with lace and WOC flowers on top.

I stapled a tab of lace to the bottom right hand corner and tied a flower charm to the white ribbon that I used to tie the whole thing to the jar.

This is the front of the jar, the reason why I did it this way round was because there was more room at the back for the image and I didn't want it getting damaged by the clasp. I tied two tags to the neck of the jar with string as an extra texture.

A closer look at the tags: both cut using Magnolia doohickey tag die, bottom one is made from more cardboard, lots of white paint and another stapled lace tab. The top one was made by stamping Tildas heart flowers stamp onto watercolour paper, cut using the doohickey tag and then coloured with the DI's. I used an SU punch to cut out the little flower hole strenghthener and used lace and seam binding to join the tags together.

I would love to join in with the following challenges:

MDUC - Photo inspiration - I was inspired by the containers (hence the altered jar), the bleached wood, the white flowers and the white material of the table runner.

Bunny Zoes - Bingo 

(2 lines across the top and across the bottom: Flowers, stitching, charms/ribbon or lace, die cuts, tag)

Marvelous Magnolias - Lots of lovely layers

Magnolialicious - Lacey lace

Thank you all for visiting my blog it really means a lot x

I will be back as soon as I've made something else to show you :o)

Hugs,

Candy Winner

Hi everyone,

Random org. was used to generate a random number to pick the winner of my candy and the lucky winner this time is......

Minimum - 1

Maximum - 36

Generate

#6 Katelyn

Congratulations Katelyn, please email me with your address at: nicolajacklinis@live.co.uk, if I don't hear from Katelyn then I will redraw the prize in a weeks time.

Thank you so much to everyone who entered, hope you enjoy following me and watch out for future candy!

I hope to be back tomorrow with a little something I've been working on and update you with what we've been up to this school hols.......

Hugs,

Summer Candy

*This is a sticky post and will remain at the top until the candy closes, please scroll down for more recent posts*

Helloooo,

Firstly I must apologise for being AWOL for so long, without the need to create for any design teams any more for the first time in two years I kind of lost momentum for a while there. Anyway, I thought it was high time to get back to the old craft desk and what better way to kick off my blog after a break than to have a bit of blog candy to restart the fun!

Prize includes:

Easy stitch stencil template

Gorjuss girl stamp and post-it notepad

Bow easy

Gold embossing powder

Gift bag and heart frame to decorate

mini tub filled with WOC flowers 

Papermania embellies

It couldn't be easier to be in with a chance of winning, all you have to do is:

• Be or become a follower of my blog
• Spread the word by displaying the above picture on your side bar, linking back to my blog
• Add your name below via Mr Linky

In fairness to genuine followers, no 'candy only' blogs please

 I will draw the winner as soon after the 18th August as possible (I'm not likely to forget the date as it's mine and hubby's anniversary :)
Good luck xXx

Moulin Rouge Tilda Birthday card

Evening everyone,

I've been busy and have another card to share with you tonight, a Magnolia one this time, using a couple of stamps that I haven't had time to ink up before: Moulin Rouge Tilda and Theatre Curtain. I coloured them using DI's, predominantly black soot and enjoyed every minute, these stamps were such fun to colour!

Supplies:

Spellbinders Grand Nesties scalloped circle

Spellbinders Nestie lacey circle

Doo Hickeys - tag, feather, antique lace, flags

WOC flowers

Shabby white frantage

SU circle birthday sentiment

cheesecloth and lace from stash

I am entering my card in the following challenges which have inspired me:

Simply Magnolia - Sketch

MDUC - Black and White, Jane's choice

Tildas Town - Special Occasions (Birthday card)

Magnolialicious - Lacey Lace

Midweek Magnolias - Shaped cards

Thanks for visiting me today, please scroll up if you are interested in winning my candy - it ends this Sunday!

Hugs,

LOTV Christmas card

Good morning everyone!
Please scroll up if you are interested in my blog candy - there's still a week left to go! :)

I finally have a renewed enthusiasm for all things craft and boy am I relieved that my mojo has returned. I don't know what I'd do without my creativity, but I can see now that the break was needed, as I've come back refreshed and full of ideas! 

I've got a card to show you that I've done with a couple of challenges in mind:

LOTV Ideas to Inspire challenge - Make it Festive

Lili's little fairies - Christmas in August

CLP - Sketch #61

Deep Ocean challenge - Christmas in July

Supplies:

LOTV image -  Snow Queen

Papers - BG and SU

SU circle sentiment and silver brads

DooHickeys - snowflake, fence, leaf, stitched scalloped border

liquid pearl pen, cheesecloth, frantage, stickles from stash

Spellbinders circle and scalloped circle dies

Go Kreate card die

Thank you so much for visiting me, for the wonderful comments you leave and your continued support and inspiration. Many of you out there in blogland don't even know how much you've helped me to get through my crafters block, just by visiting others blogs gave me the inspiration I needed to get back on my feet again, so big hugs to you all!

Wedding acceptance card

Hi everyone,

It seems sooooo long since I last posted on here and even longer since I made something constructive! Thought I'd share what I've been working on most recently, a Wedding acceptance card, for someone who works with my husband.

I made two bee pop hearts, the wings for them are Magnolia doo hickey angel wings cut out of shrink plastic and covered in shabby white frantage. I didn't have an 'acceptance' stamp so I used a LOTV framed Thank you instead.

The card is shaped using Go Kreate base card die, the inner shape is spellbinders labels sixteen and the papers are from a double sided 6x6 paper pad by Little Yellow Bicycle called Swoon. The white ribbon and cheesecloth are from my stash and I added plenty of frantage to the corners and the key charm to finish it all off.

Thanks for visiting today, don't forget you can still enter my candy here. 

I may have been quiet with my posts but I have tried to visit a few of you to get my inspiration back, so fingers crossed I should have something else to show you very soon - watch this space!

Hugs,

Still singing over at Totally Tilda

Afternoon everyone,

I'm a little late with my Midway Reminder for 

Totally Tilda's

 current challenge of 

Inspired by a Song (Not Happy Birthday), 

but with good reason - hubby and I went to a Fire and Ice summer ball last night to help raise money for Macmillan and a couple of local worthwhile causes and didn't get home until nearly three this morning. It was so worth it though and had a really great time!

Here's the card I made for this week and it was inspired by Bruno Mars - 'Marry You'

Supplies:

Go Kreate shaped card die

Nesties lacey square

DooHickeys - tag, feather and fence

flowers (some WOC), ribbon, bell, pin, paperclip,cheesecloth and pearls from stash

Stamps - Magnolia sentiment, loving bridal couple and vintage swedish background

SU butterfly embossing die

Our generous sponsor for this challenge is Pretty Little Ribbon Shop

with this fabby prize

The Pretty Little Ribbon Shop are having a huge closing down sale!! Everything is reduced to rock bottom prices including all ribbon, twine, mulberry paper flowers, rubber stamps and embellishments.  Hurry stocks are selling out fast - you can browse the sale HERE

Challenge I would love to enter:

Tilda's Town - Special Occasions

Thanks for visiting my blog it means such a lot :)

Hugs,