A Sympathy Card…

…always such a difficult thing to attempt.  This is for dear friends of ours whose friend died suddenly and unexpectedly at a young age. The words were given to me a while ago by a crafting friend and I thought that they were very appropriate for what I wanted to convey.

I used Coral Stardream Card for the base and matting card, and chose the beautiful seashell image from Joanna Sheen’s Jayne Netley Mayhew Collection, which I printed onto satin decoupage paper.  The matching shells backing paper was printed onto 160 gsm matt paper, and mounted onto the base card using DST. I printed the sea backing paper from the same CD set onto vellum, and then printed the words onto this, mounting it onto Coral card by folding the trimmed piece over the piece of card. This was then matted onto  more Coral card and applied to the base card using DST. Both sets of shells were then decoupaged with 3 layers using Pinflair Glue Gel, and a plain white insert added to finish.

I wanted an understated, simple card, which I hope I have achieved here.

Thank you for dropping by and I will make an effort to post more often from now on.

Jo XX

 

Suzanne’s Blog Candy and oops!

First of all I just wanted to say that, in honour of reaching an incredibly impressive 100,000 hits on her blog, Suzanne is very generously offering a giveaway, which you can see here - many, many congratulations Suzanne, your blog is wall to wall inspiration and talent, and your success very well deserved, I’m so pleased for you.

Secondly, I  just want to apologise for being away from here for a while, but you all know what it’s like when life gets in the way. I had a couple of weeks not able to find any opportunity to craft at all, but have been working on a few bits over the weekend, which I hope to share here when they are finished.

Until then, love and hugs, and keep crafting,

Jo XX

 

A flowery envelope card…

…for my mum’s good friend who is having a really rough time of it at the moment. This is a style of card that I have seen Joanna demonstrate with many times, but which I haven’t made until now.

This has the base card constructed from a Craft Creations tri-fold, white, linen finish card, whereby the third panel was shortened and then cut to a point to make an envelope type flap. 

I printed out 2 topper sheets from Joanna Sheen’s Victorian Flowers, a collection which I simply love to bits, along with 2 of the 3 corresponding backing  papers, and then cut 3 pieces to size, lace corner punched them, and added them to the front, envelope flap side, and the two inner panels. An eyelet was added to the point of the flap, and a tassel attached through this, before decoupaging the flap rim with 3 large and 2 smaller images. The front panel  was further embellished with some pink Self Adhesive Pearls.

 

I added a complete image to the inside middle panel, which was decoupaged up with an additional layer. On the bottom inside panel I added an inner panel of white linen card, which had a sentiment box from the interactive section of Joanna Sheen’s Cottage Garden added, along with some decoupaged individual flowers taken from a further image off the printed sheets. The back was decorated with a small uncut image, and a velcro fastening added to keep  the card shut firmly .

 

The tassel looks tatty on the photo, but I promise that it was a new one, although suffering from static lol.

Thank you for swinging by my blog and I hope that everyone has a good day.

Jo XX

 

A Basket of Roses…

This is a card that I made for my mother in law’s birthday. She loves roses and has always favoured red, so I felt that the image, taken from Joanna Sheen’s Victorian Companion CD set, would be the perfect.

The square base card was made using 2 miscellaneous pieces of A4 double sided card, which matched the image well being as one side was red and the other pale pink. The seam on the reverse of the card was covered with a strip of the same card, turned with the pink side facing.

I then trimmed a piece of textured white card and applied this to the card base, on top of which I placed a trimmed down piece from a preprinted roses 12×12 paper, which I accented with a lace corner punch. Next I punched out a square piece of vellum using  an allDeco Multi-Shaper punch, and layered this on top.

To this I added a square doiley, turned through 90 degrees, upon which I attached the decoupaged flower basket, for which the layers had been printed out onto pearl finish photo paper. A blue bow was added to the handle to compliment the same coloured bow on the image. An insert was constructed using 2 pieces of thin white A4 card, cut down to size, and lace punched to the corners.

I wrapped my mother in law’s birthday present using the same roses backing paper as on her card, and made a gift tag from some of the cut-off card and a spare image which was left over from printing; this was finished by using some more of the thin blue fabric ribbon.

I hope that you like this project, and I must apologise for not having kept my blog up to date, but Christmas and life in general have been keeping me very occupied lol. Thank you for continuing to visit my blog though, it is very appreciated, and can I wish everyone a very happy and healthy 2009.

Jo XX

 

Suzanne’s Card Crafts Blog CD Giveaway…

…my friend Suzanne is celebrating a whopping 50,000 hits (deservedly so as she posts the most amazing array of projects and workshops) by giving away a Joanna Sheen crafting CD. She has listed a selection for the winner to chose from which is very generous. Go along to Suzanne’s Celebration CD Giveaway if you would like a chance to win, and many congratulations Suzanne, your success is thoroughly deserved.

Jo XX

 

Delightful Decoupage and Beautiful Papers…

Today I wanted to share with you a couple of cards that I made using sheets from Joanna Sheen’s Village Life Decoupage Pack, a really gorgeous set of vintage scenes, together with some of Joanna’s beautiful backing papers.

 

 

The first card was made using an A4 piece of bronze pearlescent card stock folded to create an A5 base card, and pieces of the same card to mat the decoupaged picture and sentiment onto. The backing paper was taken from Joanna’s Paisley Backing Paper Pad, trimmed down and corner punched before being attached to the base. Then the decoupaged topper was added using foam tape, and the sentiment attached to finish.

The second card was constructed using an A4 piece of gold pearlescent card to create an A5 base. This time I took a sheet from Joanna’s Warm Italian Marbled Backing Paper Pad, trimmed this down and attached to the base. Then I took some more backing paper, this time from Joanna’s Victorian Calligraphy Backing Paper Pad, and added this with foam tape, after mounting it onto some bronze pearlescent card. The decoupaged topper was compiled, backed onto some more bronze pearlescent card stock, and attached to the card with DST. Finally the sentiment, backed onto the same bronze card, was added using foam tape.

I hope that you like these two fairly straightforward cards, ideal to give to a male friend or relative.

Thank you for visiting here today. I hope that you are all well and enjoying your crafting. I have a load going round in my head at the moment but happily find that crafting helps to settle my brain and sooth my soul… what a fabulous hobby!

Take care and be safe,

Jo XX

 

In My Garden…

…was the title for this ATC which unfortunately went missing in the post on its way to the lady who was organising the swap. I was so pleased with it at the time because it was the first time that I felt I had managed a decent Stampbord piece… typical lol. Nevermind, these things happen, but I thought that I would share it here. 

I took a piece from a Stampbord ATC blank pack and used a sponge applicator to colour it up using Creamy Brown, Dark Brown, and Chestnut Roan from my Chocolates and Blueberries Cat’s Eye Fluid Chalk Queue inkpads set. I stamped my chosen image from Joanna Sheen’s Wildlife Mushrooms stamp sheet with black Stazon and then coloured the mushroom top with a red Sakura Stardust pen, and watered coloured the leaves and base of the mushroom with a dark green Sakura Startdust pen, after which I used a scratch knife to whiten the mushroom spots and add detail to the cup underside and stalk. To finish I added some pressed leaves from some of my packs of Joanna Sheen’s Ready Pressed Flowers, concluding with some Self Adhesive Pearls and a butterfly from an Artwork Butterflies pack.

I hope that you enjoy this piece and thank you for popping by today.

Jo XX

 

Another difficult card…

…she says smirking. This was for another of OH’s friends who has recently purchased a (very posh and expensive) car, so I thought that this would be just the ticket. It is inspired by this card from Joanna Sheen’s website’s project gallery, which is a wonderful resource full to the brim with fantastic ideas.

The image was taken from Joanna Sheen’s American Frontier CD, printed onto gentle gloss photo paper. The base card was an A4 piece of white hammer card, printed with a background taken from the CD, then folded to create an A5 card. The largest image was trimmed, mounted onto black pearlescent card stock, and then applied to the card base with foam tape. I created the sentiment simply in Word, printed it onto cream card, and then mounted this onto more black pearlescent card. Again this was added to the base card using foam tape. To finish, the card was embellished with peel off photo corners to the image and little squares to the sentiment. As I often do, I mounted a smaller print of the image onto the centre back of the card also.

Thank you for visiting my space today.

Take care and be safe,

Jo XX

 

Edna’s Blog Candy…

…is being offered in celebration of Edna’s blog becoming one this month. Many congratulations Edna, your work is truly inspirational, and thank you for offering such a generous gift to mark the occasion.

Here is Edna’s Anniversary Blog Candy.

Jo XX

 

One of ‘those’ cards…

…now anyone with a naughty mind, please pick your thoughts up off the floor immediately lol… I am talking about a card for a man. With great apologies to any men reading, a great many of you cause us women crafters alot of worry as it is often quite difficult to work out just what sort of card to make.

This card was made for an old friend of my husbands, and being as he is into his wine, I chose this beautiful image from Joanna Sheen’s Victorian Companion CD set. Although I have most of Joanna’s CDs, and love each one, Victorian Companion is the first ever crafting CD I bought, and therefore has a special place for me. I have used it extensively and would highly recommend it as a ’staple’ for any craft room. 

The A5 base card was made from an A4 piece of linen card, printed with one of the matching backing papers from the CD. The second backing paper was also printed onto linen card, and the column of grapes cut from it and mounted onto the front midline of the base card. A piece of plain vellum was cut down to create a partial wrap and punched to make decorative edges before being applied to the card with gold brads at the front seam and tape at the back seam. The image, also printed onto linen card, was mounted onto a square of edge punched vellum before being foam taped onto the front of the card. A miscellaneous sentiment (from an old QVC TSV) was stamped onto an oddment of the second backing paper patterned linen card, then gold fabric ribbon ties were added before it was also mounted onto the card with foam tape.

The reverse of the card was finished with a smaller image and a strip of the second backing paper patterned linen card to hide the DST securing the vellum wrap. An insert was made from a sheet of plain vellum, punched with a decorative lace corner punch, and adhered with the minimum of tape.

An envelope was made using a beautifully rich embossed blue paper from one of Crafter’s Companion’s luxury Enveloper sets, and a tag, for the bottle of wine which we gave as a present, was made simply by backing a small image onto some more linen card and then adding a gold fabric ribbon tie. I’m very pleased to say that both card and wine were gratefully received.

Thank you for visiting my blog today, and for sticking with me even though I post at such irregular intervals at the moment, I do so appreciate your support.

Jo XX