Christmas Day in October?

Hi All,

I know it's been so long since I last blogged anything, sorry............to much on my plate, (being computer illiterate makes blogging a long long task). I still can't get the new catalogue to appear on the screen or this months offer of free ink and card stock in the 'new' in colours if you sign up as a demonstrator in October. Never mind, I'm at a team meeting on Thursday, so will try and get help then!

Anyway, even though you haven't heard from me in a while..........I've still been crafting!

Here's the project I made on Saturday, when my up-liner Val and I ran a Christmas themed day.

A box (based on one by Jenny Moors) using the Serene Snowflakes stamp set in Cherry Cobbler and vanilla
It contained 4 cards, ranging from plain and simple...........

...............to a little more involved.

The tree (from Lovely as a Tree) is inked all over in Old Olive first, then finishing off with a Chocolate Chip marker for the trunk before stamping the image. Of course, the addition of Dazzling Diamonds for Christmas is a must............usually, I've more glitter on me than the projects!!

In this card I've used a wheel for the background, the stamp sets are Welcome Christmas and Curly Cute

To finish, the more complicated card out of the 4.

I got the ladies to use the 'Big Shot' for embossing and die cutting.

I love how you can simply change the look of a card, just by altering the way you place the card stock in the machine........don't you?

A great day, thank you to all that came.........I did take my camera, but forgot to take any pictures of the day!!

Enjoy your crafting, thanks for poppin' on by

Jane x

My Swap

Hi All,

I spent the weekend with 'crafty' friends; we attended a SU training session in Leeds on Saturday afternoon.

This is the swap I made.............it's a gift tag and card topper

I know it's not Christmas, but like a good 'Girl Guide' I want to be prepared!!

Happy Crafting

Jane x

"Merry Christmas"

Hi...........and a Merry Christmas to you all.

I apologise..........I've let you down........I've not been an active blogger recently, but hopefully I'm over the worse; I'm the final person in this house, to go down with a bug. Today is the first day I've even had the energy, or felt awake enough to even think of crafting.........(it was that bad!!)

The decorations are up...........and yes Santa did call...............I'm so glad he's into crafting, because I got some lovely new 'toys' to play with!!

Earlier in the month, I had a Christmas Appreciation Day for my 'Monday Mob', we of course did crafting, played games and ate lots of naughty goodies!! I made each of them a little gift (glittered bauble) and wrapped it up in an ornamental box

Thank you ladies for joining me, I had a fab day; the cards are gorgeous and my plant is doing well.

This is one design of the Christmas cards I made this year...........it's a tent card using the Contempo Christmas set in Old Olive and Real Red.

A bit late to show now, but hey ho, never mind.

I did make my own crackers for the table, they're very simple with a 'character' from All in the Family depicting the person it was meant for............everyone picked the right one......so at least there were no unfortunate surprises in the crackers!!

This was Grandad.......LOL!!

My sons commencing the mayhem........you can tell that, cause there's

a clean carpet!!
Just, in case you're wondering..................

........my eldest was wearing his turkey hat.......it comes out every year.........and now I've embarrassed him again........LOL!!

Hope you've all had a great, relaxing, fun family day.

I will try to be good and blog later in the week, but I'm beginning to flag a little

Jane x

Christmas is Coming!

Hi All,

I received an order for Christmas cards from the Craft Fayre last week end, you may recognise them from last year; if you've been following my blog, for that long, that is.

It's using the Sparkly & Bright set. Each design was hand inked using the marker pens before being covered in Versa Mark, heat & stick powder and dazzling diamonds and then reset using the heat gun........it's such a useful way to stop the glitter from coming off with the slightest touch. I of course had to make a box to house them in.

I'd enjoyed playing and decided to continue with extra images, making them into little gift tags.

Thanks for dropping by

Happy Crafting

Jane x

Great Weekend!...........How was yours?

Hi All,

What a great weekend I've had........my sister came to stay and we got time to play!! Lots of chatter and visitors by the dozen!!

This is something I plan to show my 'Buddies' how to make tomorrow. They were fascinated with the rosettes on my Christmas Banner and wanted to know how to make them; so I thought I'd create a box for it to sit on. It's effective but simple to create; (I always say that and they don't always agree...LOL!!)

I know it's using some of the old papers, but I'll need to use up my stock to create space for some more!

They'd also seen a bag created by my up liner Val, and fell in love with it.........and set me the challenge of recreating it; (I'm not allowed the pattern, because of copyright - she'd bought it from someone else)

Well, I'm not showing my first version......it was more of a bucket bag......very bright and a little on the large side, you could say......I decided it was more of a day bag.......... as you could have fitted in the kitchen sink...LOL!!

This is what I ended up with....

I experimented by embossing basic black card stock and tried to get a more elegant look (such as the Groom DSP which is no longer available).
I'm pleased with the result.......and glad you didn't see the first creation, I may just make the handles slightly shorter next time.

What do you think?

Jane x

Wow - I've cracked It!!

Well would you believe it........I surpassed myself and sorted out the problem all on my own! You can now click on the picture of the new catalogue and browse to your hearts content.

In celebration of my achievements, I thought I'd do a quick post with a fab tree stamp from the 'Contempo Christmas' set

They're very simple and plain, stamped in 'versa mark' and then gold embossing powder

Hope you've enjoyed,

Jane x

Christmas Stamp Day

Hi All,

Yes......I know it's only September........but Christmas preparations need to start early, if you wish to create your own little personal gifts for friends and family.
A short while ago, Val and I put on a stamp day with a 'Christmas theme' (sorry it's taken it's time to make it to 'Blog Land', but I've been busy, busy, busy!!)

This was the table settings, everyone received a reindeer tissue box and of course some chocolate.......as you know,all crafter's need chocolate!!

There was a small display of Christmas ideas, and an area for the participants to show off their own crafting projects, with a stamp set as the prize..........Pam won the 'People's choice' (sorry I don't have a picture to show you, but it was a small handbag size wallet containing a notebook, diary and pencil.

This is a close up of the Christmas banner I made........it was a bit difficult to photograph as it's so long, (you can get 3 pendants out of a piece of A4 cardstock).

These were Val's projects using the 'Silent Night ' stamp set

These are my projects..............3 vanilla 'T' lights in a gift box, Ooh they smelled so lovely........

a 'Dasher' gift card holder.............

and another 'Dasher' this time a little wallet holding a pack of sweets

It was a super day, a 'BIG THANK YOU' to all of you that came and took part, helped with the catering, preparations in setting up and clearing away.

Some of the participants had little crafting experience, but the finished projects looked stunning. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did, I hope they found the demonstrations on brayering, embossing and mounting stamp sets useful and informative.

Happy Crafting

Jane x

Christmas Gift Ideas

Hi All,

Christmas is on it's way and approaching fast !!....... A few friends called around today; we decorated candles made boxes boxes to suit them.

A great time was had by all.

What I really love about crafting - is that, although an idea is put forward, everyone has their own ideas and ends up with an unique project. Today each person chose their own design for the candle, but the final result was fantastic!!


This is a close up for the lid of the box.
(It is an adapted template from Jenny, in which a box can be created from 1 piece of A4 cardstock)

We then made a cracker. Which can either be used as a table decoration or as a wrapping for a special gift. The idea came from Dawn Griffith's twist Box (Nov 26th) - I added on 2" to each end to make up the ends of the cracker. I found it helpful to add a piece of kitchen roll tube to the centre of the cracker, this helps to stabilize it when you try to twist the ends.

The added flower was made out of the new 'Bridesmaid' papers. The smaller layer being coloured with Night of Navy to mach the cardstock. It takes on colour so well don't you think? A large half pearl was added from the 'pretties kit'.

Hope you've enjoyed,

Happy crafting,

Jane x

More Red & Green

ARRGH..... it's December already, and I really do have to get down and sort out some gifts for Christmas!!

It didn't help when last week, I spent the entire time with my husband going around car showrooms; looking and test driving various models, makes etc. (cars don't really interest either of us) - as far as I'm concerned, as long as they get you from A to B safely and have enough room to get the camping gear in - what more do you need?! Unfortunately, although it got through it's MOT last month, it's on it's last wheels so to speak. Never mind, enough about cars....... my 14yr old son is heavily into 'Top Gear' and I'm sick of thinking and talking about them!!

Back to 'CRAFTING'!!
I'd like to say "hello" to Lizzie and Maddie who rescued me on Monday evening. We made various Christmas projects, here are a couple to show you.

A little slider box incorporating a card and of course some chocolates!!
Also a cute little bag.

We had such fun, they worked so hard and managed extremely well; especially as they hadn't done anything like this before.

Anyway must go - got to make a start on my Christmas cards!! I don't think I'd better sleep between now and the 25th!!

Happy crafting

Jane x

Sparkly & Bright

Christmas is all about glitter and sparkling - right? Well, I've been covering myself and the whole house with glitter recently!!

I just love the new 'sparkling' roller and the corresponding stamp set that SU have brought out. I created a pizza box with simple square cards that could be reproduced fairly easily.


The envelope flaps were straight forward, I just rollered them using Red Red ink; infact I was enjoying myself so much that the base of the cards and pizza box had the same treatment aswell!! Although it's difficult to tell from the photo, I applied heat and stick then dazzling diamonds to each of the images before mounting them on two scallop circles.


Happy crafting

Jane x

Christmas is Starting!

Well, I thought I'd better start on Christmas preparations - a bit late I know; but I'm always running round like a headless chicken, I seem to work better under pressure!!


This stocking gift card idea came from Andrea Walford's 12 weeks of Christmas. I think the red one, in the retired Christmas papers is my favourite. It has such a clever hinge design - which hides the gift card and is so easy to make when you know how!

I was experimenting, and although it's not very clear in the photo , the one one the left has been embossed with a snowflake design and the other I have used the sanded background stamp in Night of Navy.

Happy crafting

Jane x

Christmas Class

Due to my darling husband, arranging to meet a client, I couldn't attend my usual Tuesday morning craft class; with the very talented Jenny Moor. I did however arrange delivery, so that I could complete it at home. Visit (Stamping Moments) to view the original.

It comprises of a bag, slider and z fold card

It does however, lack the large snowflakes (as I don't have this set - so I substituted them with two smaller, odd stamps that I have - these are from 'Snow Flurries' and 'Occasionally')


For the next 2 cards, I got the idea from Dawn Griffiths.


This one uses the plastic bag technique. When you pull on the tab a slider comes out top and bottom at the same time.
I have used the'Lovely as a Tree' set.

The second card (was immensely difficult to photograph) not only was the image covered in 'dazzling diamonds', but it is mounted on acetate. I have added a piece of Not Quite Navy so that the images would show up.

I stamped the snow flakes in White Stazon, and coloured the windows etc to make it look like light was escaping from within, before stamping Versa Mark over the whole thing, then adding heat and stick powder and finally finishing off with dazzling diamonds.

Happy crafting

Jane x