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A very warm welcome to my teeny, tiny part of the huge world of blogging. This is where I share my passion for making hand made greeting cards. So - why "Always with a Heart"? Well this is for two reasons. Firstly, it is because every card I produce carries a heart on it somewhere. This can be big and bold or small and almost hidden - the fun sometimes is just trying to find it! Secondly it is because I put my heart into everything I produce. I hope that any visitors enjoy seeing what I post. If you drop by then please leave me a comment so that I know you called. It would be nice to know that you have found my heart in what I do.

Friday, 18 July 2025

THAT CONEFLOWER AGAIN

Hi Everyone

Friday is suddenly here again .. .. .. where are these weeks disappearing to?

I am here today with a little creation I made this morning before heading to Mum.  Not for any challenges, just simply to go in my stock box .. .. .. which is still far too empty!!!


This used

Coneflower Die unbranded from Ebay  (these flower heads are something else I sit and put together on a lap tray and have a collection of .. .. sitting ready and waiting to be used)
Happy Birthday Die unbranded from Amazon  
Heart Punch
My Trusty Sewing Machine
All card and paper has come from snippet mountain

and that is me for today.

Enjoy your weekend when it arrives.

Tuesday, 15 July 2025

AS YOU LIKE IT CHALLENGE

Hi Everyone

I hope everyone is OK .. .. and that your week is moving along nicely.  

The challenge this fortnight with the ladies over at the As You Like It Challenge is to showcase your favourite kind of "Non- Card Crafting Project" .. .. and say why.

Quite an easy one for me as another thing I love to make .. .. other than actual cards .. .. are small envelopes for my teeny tiny cards.  For anyone new to my blog my teeny tiny cards measure just 9cms square and I love making the envelopes for them as much as the actual cards themselves.  Sad I know!!! LOL!!!

I find both the cards and the envelopes a great way of using up odd bits of either plain paper or design papers and love that I can sit and make them on a lap tray on my knee.  

I particularly love using up design papers that are plain on one side and patterned on the other.  As there are quite often papers in design pads that are just too busy or garish for my taste but at least I get to use them up if I have the pattern inside a little envelope and the plain on the outside.   

The envelopes I have created here are for putting to one side ready for my teeny tiny Christmas makes and I stole the idea from the lovely Hilary Jane (of Fiddling About) after seeing she had done some wonderful embossing on a beautiful card she had made, and on the flap of the envelope too.  I really loved the look of what she had made and did mention in the comment I left that I would like to steal that idea for my Christmas makes this year.  But now I have embossed on my Christmas envelopes, I have a feeling it might migrate to other cards as well  -  perhaps with stamping on the envelope front too LOL!!  Oh dear Hilary, what have you started!! LOL!!

So, round to today's little collection.  


All have the same Pink Petticoat design on the inside with "dashing through the snow" wording.

I embossed just one of the flaps on the first four envelopes but on the last one embossed all the flaps before sticking it all together - I quite like both versions, but the OCD streak in me is struggling with the fact that the snowflakes don't match up with all the flaps embossed .. .. .. as if that really matters.  The envelope will only be ripped open anyway.

These were made using:

Pink Petticoat Digital Design Paper - Sadly no longer trading
WeRMemory Keepers Envelope Punch Board
Dovecraft Snowflake Embossing Folder
Red Line Adhesive Tape

That now just leaves me with the cards to make to put inside.  But as I have offcuts of the envelope paper they will do nicely for my teeny tiny card makes.

After all the sunshine, we have now been declared as being in a drought area, but thankfully for the gardens, today it is raining.  But no doubt it needs to rain for quite a few days to make a difference.

As for my email problems.  It turns out it is a problem with Microsoft and they are working on a fix! But in the meantime Mr Heart has come to my rescue (once again) and has downloaded a free email programme for me to use in the meantime.  A lot of the communication involved with caring for Mum, and the various things I have to deal with on her behalf, involve endless emails, and I certainly couldn't manage without them!!  Super scary that we rely almost totally on technology for communicating nowadays.

Hopefully catch you again soon.

Take care everyone.

Friday, 11 July 2025

CHRISTMAS KICKSTART CHALLENGE - 100

Hi Everyone

Well July is now well upon us .. .. .. the weather is super warm .. .. .. so the time has come when I try to start pulling Christmas makes into the equation .. .. .. and with the help of the Christmas Kickstart Challenge there is no excuse for lacking inspiration!

The challenge this time is a super special one as Jo has reached the giddy heights of challenge number 100 - well done Jo!!

The theme this time is "Merry Go Round".  At first I thought that meant a Christmas fairground ride .. .. .. but no .. .. .. it is much easier than that .. .. they want to see spots, dots and circles on our creations.  
I am sure we can all manage that!

So here we


This used:

Image Die:  "Merry Christmas Ball" by Craft Discovery via Ebay (free second class delivery)
Backing Papers:  From The Works post Christmas sale
Gold Mirror Card
Snowflake punch
Crystal Glamour Dust
Hot Fix Nail Heads
My Trusty Sewing Machine

For some reason my emails are out of action at the moment - you don't realise just how much you rely on them until they aren't working.  

Enjoy your weekend when it arrives and keep slapping on that sun cream.

Tuesday, 8 July 2025

PURPLE AND BLACK .. .. .. FOREVER?

Hi Everyone

I hope all is good with you all and the sun is shining for you.

The As You Like it Challenge for this fortnight is to use your favourite two colour combination on your creation. 

I don't know about you but my colour fads change from week to week .. .. .. but if push came to shove and I was told I could only ever use two colours for the rest of my crafty life it would have to be shades of black and purple (assuming that white would always be allowed).  But don't tell Mr Heart or he would expect me to downsize my coloured card collection LOL!!!

So here is my black and purple creation:


This used:

Backing Papers:  First Edition Paper Pad "Wild Flower"  (another very old pad I am using up)
Sentiment:  Clearly Besotted "Mini Calligraphy"
First Edition Nesting Stamp Dies - FEDIE012 (from way back in the day when First Edition Crafts were flooding all the craft stores we were lucky enough to be able to visit)
Dragonfly Metal Cutting Die - Amazon
Woodware Punches
Ribbon 
Gems
Hot Fix Nail Heads
My Trusty Sewing Machine

In fact I liked the layout so much I turned it into my next Rectangular Sketch (you can find the others on the tab at the top of my blog .. .. .. feel free to use them if any take your fancy)..  

So, I wonder what this week is going to hold.  Let's hope for only good things as last week was another challenging one due to Mum sitting on the edge of her bed and slipping off it .. .. .. and at the grand old age of 94 not being able to get back up again.  Thankfully we have cameras set up in strategic places so we can check all is well with her, and I was able to rush to her and get the paramedics to the rescue.  Without the cameras she would have been there for ages and ages because even though she has a call pendant she could easily have pressed .. .. she didn't.  Sigh!

Thankfully she didn't suffer any injuries "other than to her pride" and a few bruises have since appeared, but it did involve another night on the settee for me as the medics didn't want her to be alone for the next 24 hours just in case of a delayed reaction. 

It has now become a bit of a joke with her though and every night as we facetime to say goodnight to each other I say "and stay on that bed"!!!  

Today I need to take her to the GPs for a blood test and then we will have a little wander into town and have a bite to eat if she fancies that.  It feels good to get her out because on a normal day she just wants to stay at home and refuses to go anywhere, no matter how many times I offer.  The only down side of going out being the dementia side of things means she remembers and wants to go to the shops and places that she remembers being around years and years ago - and she doesn't understand where they have all gone and why I can't take her to them.  She then ends up being more confused than ever!  

My Mum certainly knows how to keep me on my toes bless her.

Tuesday, 1 July 2025

FOR CAROLE EATON

Hi Carole

Many thanks for your lovely comment on my blog.

Sorry to be contacting you via a blog post but I do not have any contact details for you.

The stamp you are looking for is available as a cling stamp through EBay with free postage - or through buddlycrafts.com 

Hope this helps.

Love and hugs

Jules xx💕

JUST FOR YOU - WITH LOVE

Hi Everyone

Firstly a very big thank you for all the comments and kind messages on my previous post, they are very much appreciated .. .. .. so here is a card that is especially for you ......  mwah!!

I am still on a mission to fill my nearly empty stock box and today's offering is also for entering into the Penny Black Saturday Challenge where the theme is either "stitching" or "anything goes" .. .. .. .. provided you use "Penny Black Goodies" somewhere on your creation of course.

I went for "one" of my many favourite Penny Black Stamps where those cute mice are busy stitching .. .. .. and of course it wouldn't be me if I didn't add some stitching of my own too.

This used:

Image:  Penny Black Wooden Stamp "1656K" Stitch in Time
Sentiment:  Penny Black Clear Stamp Set "30-524" Happy Hugs
Backing Papers:  From snippet mountain - Buddly Crafts "Eline's House - Roses are Red" and
                            Pink Petticoat "Swiss Dots" (Sadly no longer trading)
ProMarkers
Corner Rounding Punch
Ribbon
My Trusty Sewing Machine

and that is me for today.  There are still three days left on the challenge if you want to play along.

Take care everyone.