My photo
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.

Tuesday 31 May 2016

DOWNLOAD WINNERS

Hi Everyone

Happy Tuesday!!  (But of course it feels like Monday .. . these bank holidays throw me right out).

I hope everyone had a lovely long weekend. Ours was perhaps a bit "too chilled" and I am having to wind myself up a bit today LOL!!

Anyway, I will now hand this blog post over to the lovely Jo from Tinker N Co Digital:

- - - oo0oo - - -

Hi,  It's Jo from Tinker N Co.

Thank you so much for taking the time to enter the draw.  

Your stories made me smile, laugh and cry.  I am so sorry for everyone's loss.
I hope that these little trips down memory lane have also put a smile upon your faces.

It was hard to pick someone, I wish I could give you all prizes for sharing,
 but the winners are:

The first prize of 4 downloads is going to:

LINDA

I absolutely loved the story about the allotment and riding the sack barrel back
on the potatoes eating peas.  So, so sweet!


The four runner up prizes are going to:

KATHLEEN
BRAWNY
KAREN KNOTT
SARAH

these are stories that resonated with me the most.


I want to thank the lovely Jules for letting me be part of her blog this weekend,
and to all of you, if you visited, purchased, liked!  
I appreciate you all

Thank you

Happy Crafting
Jo Tinker - Chief Creative Mess Maker!

- - - oo0oo - - -


Ahhh... ... thank you Jo.  There will be some happy folk in blogland later!  Thank you for making my pals happy!

Many congratulations from me if you were one of the lucky winners.  I know you will love your prize .. .. once you can decide what to go for out of all the lovely designs.

Could the winners please drop me an email with their email address and I will reply to let you know how to obtain your prize.  If you don't have my address already you will find it on my profile page.

Have a good day everyone!

Love Jules xx

Monday 30 May 2016

MONDAY'S MALE

Hi Everyone

Happy Bank Holiday Monday!!

We have had a very lazy start to the day here in the House of Hearts  .. .. not like my usual Monday mornings at all.  

But I did escape into my little craft pod for a while to create my male card for this week:




This used:

Image:  Penny Black "2349K" Best of luck!
Sentiment:  Clearly Besotted "Laugh Out Loud" and Digistamp Boutique Sentiment Bundle "Everyday"
Backing Papers:  Docrafts "Best of British"
ProMarkers
Josy Rose:  Nail Heads
My Trusty Sewing Machine
Nestabilities:  Mega Rectangles
Twine from my crafty stash box

and that is it!

Thank you to everyone who has been taking part in the digital paper giveaway on my post here. I have been really enjoying reading everyone's special childhood memories.  Everyone's seem based around family as a whole or special family members we have been particularly close to, mixed with Christmas or summer holidays and each and every one has touched me in different ways.  I think we would all love to be able to whizz back to share one of those days again.

There is still time to add your special memory to the post.  Comments will count right up until 12.00 midnight BST.

I will let you know tomorrow who is the lucky winner of 4 downloads, and the 4 blog pals who will receive 1 download courtesy of the lovely Jo from TinkerNCo Digital

Enjoy the rest of your bank holiday .. .. ahead of another week where we won't know what day of the week it is LOL!!

Love Jules xx

Sunday 29 May 2016

SUNDAY SNIPPETS

Hi Everyone

Happy Sunday .. .. I hope you have been having a lovely weekend.

I very foolishly volunteered two hours of my precious time to help the lovely Mr Heart clear some of the garden this morning.

So what happens?  Two hours turns into more like four and a half hours!!  But never mind we can see where we have been.  I think if we spent two weeks solid working in there together we might feel we have actually go somewhere!!  LOL!!

That means lack of time has called for a very quick snippet card .. .. and everything on my card today was already cut and sitting inside a paper stack.  Even the sentiment and the tiny flower was sitting on the desk.  In fact all I have had to do is punch my little bird out.

So here we go:




As always on a Sunday I am super lazy and don't list my ingredients but if there is anything you would like to know then please just ask .. .. and in the meantime I am going to wander over to share my creation in Pixies's Snippets Playground  .. .. .. with my fingers crossed that they have still got the paddling pool blown up and there is still some water left in it!

If you didn't catch yesterday's post and you are a fan of digi papers make sure you catch up with it here.  There are five prizes available from the lovely Jo at Tinker N Co Digital.  

Enjoy the rest of your bank holiday weekend everyone.

Love Jules xx




Saturday 28 May 2016

CELEBRATION SATURDAY

Hi Everyone


Edited to say:  This is a sticky post which will stay at the top of my blog until the prize draw below ends at midnight on 
Monday 30th May.
See below this post for more recent posts.  Thank you xx


Happy Saturday .. .. ahead of hopefully a happy Bank Holiday weekend!

As some of you will know Saturday is the day I share a celebration card .. .. but today I am sharing far more than that.

The lovely Jo from




is very kindly offering my lovely blog pals the chance to win some of her 
beautiful digital design work.

One lucky person will win 
The Grand Prize 
of 4 free downloads from her gorgeous store

and then .. .. 

a further 4 people will win 1 free download.

So five lucky winners in total!

How cool is that?  It doesn't include the bundles and journals .. .. just the paper downloads .. .. but believe me you will have trouble in choosing between them all because they are all so beautiful..

Family and childhood memories are very important to Jo and they are the foundation of her business and to be in with a chance of winning one of the five prizes all you have to do is leave a comment on this post saying what your favourite childhood memory is.  

You have until 12.00 midnight (BST) on Bank Holiday Monday to decide what you might like to write.

Jo will be reading all of the comments and will choose a winner on Tuesday morning - so the winner is nothing to do with me . .. . or the lovely Mr Heart this time. 

But in the meantime my share for today is a card which uses one of the beautiful paper sets from Jo's store called All Natural Collection.  I love the soft tones to this collection and the fact that it can be used for both male and female creations and thought it would be perfect to use for my Celebration Saturday card where I am celebrating love!

This creation will end up as an anniversary card once the insert is inside:




This used:

Backing papers: TinkerNCo Digital:  All Natural Collection
Sentiment:  Sizzix Die 656772 "I love you"
My Trusty Sewing Machine
X-Cut Punch:  Flower
Josy Rose:  Nail Heads
and some sparkly glitter card left over from a lovely winter wedding

If I was to be able to enter then my favourite childhood memory would have to be from when I was around six years of age.  I was left at home with my Dad .. .. which was a very rare thing. I can hardly remember Mum ever not being there, so she must have been on a "special mission" somewhere.  I remember that it was a Saturday afternoon (because the man came on the TV reading the football results out) and clearly Dad wanted a snooze so he said "let's have five minutes".  We snuggled down on the settee and he wrapped his arms around me and interlocked his fingers in front of me really tight so I couldn't escape whilst he had his nap.

The open fire was roaring behind the fire guard and I was warm and cozy.  Little did he know that he didn't need to lock his hands in front of me .. .. I would never have moved .. .. I just loved lying there with him so much and I can feel the warmth and contentment even now.

Sometimes when I can't sleep (because of this stupid busy head I have) I take myself back to that special day when I felt so happy to have my Dad all to myself and to feel his arms keeping me safe. 

Happy days!

Anyway .. ..  I am looking forward to reading those special childhood memories as I will feel I will know my lovely blog buddies even more .. .. .. and I know Jo is looking forward to them too.

Catch you soon everyone - and if you can't spot the heart today .. .. .. well what can I say?!!!

Have a lovely day.

Love Jules xx

Friday 27 May 2016

FEMININE FRIDAY

Hi Everyone

Happy Friday!!

Running very, very late today.

Clearly as the week goes on I struggle more to get my posts sorted .. .. Thursday and Friday always seem to go a bit pear shaped!  

Of course I realise that if I could set time aside to make and schedule a couple of weeks of posts all would be good .. .. but I know that will never, ever happen.  

So here is my card for today.  Whenever I see the dandelions start to make an appearance I automatically think of this fun stamp .. .. and I know that very soon the bumble bee stamps will be coming out too LOL!




This used:

Image:  Penny Black "2070K" Frequent Flyer
Sentiment:  Digistamp Boutique "Sentiment Bundle - Everyday"
Backing Papers: DCWV "Citrus Stack"
Nestabilities:  Large Deckled Edge Rectangles
Martha Stewart Edge Punch:  Daisy
Josy Rose:  Nail Heads
ProMarkers
Glamour Dust
Ribbon from my crafty stash box

and that is me  for today.

I hope you can pop back again tomorrow as I have a special blog post to share!

Love Jules xx

Thursday 26 May 2016

THURSDAY'S CHILD

Hi Everyone

Happy Thursday!

I hope your day has been a good one.

Really late posting today .. .. trying to cram too much into a day as usual!!  LOL!!

So I won't mess about and will go straight to my card for a child, which is my Thursday theme:




This used:

Image:  Saturated Canary "Party Hardy"
Sentiment:  Lili of the Valley "Sentiment Tags" and  Hero Arts CL171 Clear Tickets
Backing Papers:  TinkerNCo "Bloom and Grow"
X-Cut:  Extra Large Circle Dies
My Trusty Sewing Machine
ProMarkers
Ribbon from my crafty stash box

and that is all for today!

Hopefully I will be a bit earlier tomorrow.

Love Jules xx

Wednesday 25 May 2016

WHITE CARD WEDNESDAY

Hi Everyone

Happy Wednesday!

Not quite so bright and beautiful here today .. .. in fact it is quite chilly and dull .. .. back to jumper weather!!

So Wednesday is the day I use up some of those white card offcuts.  I haven't made much of a dent in them yet .. ..  but every little helps.  

I know that quite a few of you are waiting for a white on white card to appear .. .. but I haven't mastered that yet!  I can't even believe how many shades of white there are in my box!!

But never mind .. . here is today's creation:




This used:

Image:  Docrafts "DCE907113" Meadow
Sentiment: Lili of the Valley - Sentiment Tags
Distress Inks:  Stormy Sky, Broken China and Peeled Paint
Wow! Embossing Powder:  White, Tickled Pink and Pink Sherbert
Nestabilities: Mega Squares
X-Cut:  Tiny Butterfly Punch (very old)
Raffia that had been saved from a flower bouquet

and that is it!

A little more white card used up!  Yay!!!

I will also put a few people out of their misery and show you where the heart was on Saturday


Hiding within the sentiment!!  Tee hee!!!  Pleased they aren't all super easy .. .. that would take away the fun wouldn't it ?!!?!

OK off I go .. .. a big "must do" list today so I had better get cracking.

Have a good day everyone!

Love Jules xx


Tuesday 24 May 2016

TEENY, TINY TUESDAY

Hi Everyone

Happy Tuesday!

Off to a nice bright start again here with beautiful clear blue skies . .. .. . not glorious deep Spanish blue .. .. but still gorgeous!

So today is the day I share a Teeny, Tiny creation.  A whole 3.5 inches square . .. and here it is:




This used:

Backing Papers and Sentiment Tag:  Kaisercaft - #Me
My Trusty Sewing Machine
Papermania Dew Drops
Woodware Flower Punches
Ribbon from my crafty stash box
We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board

and that is it!

I have never really done much with the sentiments that come inside paper packs before but I am finding they are greatly improved of late, and mounted onto a piece of card makes them extra strong. Might be time to re-visit some of those "nearly used up" pads to see what lurks in them!!

Catch you again tomorrow with my White Card Wednesday creation. 

Have a lovely day today.

Love Jules xx

Monday 23 May 2016

MONDAY'S MALE

Hi Everyone

Happy Monday!

I hope you are having a good day and the sun is shining nicely for you.

Beautiful here .. .. which means my washing line is groaning under the weight of all the washing .. .. and I will be groaning later about all the ironing I have produced LOL!!

So Monday is my male card day and I have gone for a card which would be suitable for Father's Day which is looming!  But it would also work for a birthday card.


 

This used:

Image and Sentiment:  Digistamp Boutique "Harry and Beer"
Backing Papers:  Scrapberry's "Edge of Town"
Die-namics Die Set:  Blueprints14
ProMarkers
X-Cut Star Punch
My Trusty Sewing Machine

I am also going to enter this into the Digistamp Boutique Challenge for May.

Many thanks for all your lovely comments on yesterday's post.  The sketch was very popular and the stamp too.  The stamp is a very old one which I bought from a craft shop that was closing down many years ago. It had been used in their stamp classes .. ..  and I purchased it .. .. along with lots of other pre-loved stamps that had just been "thrown" into a bargain bin!  It is by Hero Arts "H2817" Garden Flowers Sketch.

So that is me for today .. .. off now to design some save the date tags for a potential new "happy couple" and also to try and get my Teeny, Tiny Tuesday card made and scheduled to see if that makes any difference in the length of time it is taking my posts to appear on my dashboard!  

Have a lovely evening everyone.

Love Jules xx

Sunday 22 May 2016

SUNDAY SNIPPETS AND A NEW SKETCH

Hi Everyone

Happy Sunday - I hope that you have had a good day and a lovely weekend.

Mine has been taken up mainly with work for happy couples and liaising with potential "new" happy couples.  Exciting times!!

But this afternoon I escaped briefly to my craft pod to see what I could create with some of my snippets .. .. ready for taking over to Pixie's Snippets Playground where you will find masses of inspiration for ways to use up all those leftover pieces of card, paper and ribbon that we all hoard away!!

So here we go with my creation:




As regular visitors will know, on a Sunday I am super lazy and do not list my ingredients but if there is anything you would like to know then please just ask away.  But I have used a new sketch which I added to my little sketch library today, which you can find on the tab at the top of my blog.

Sketch number 30 - can't believe I am into the 30's already .. .. .. and don't forget each one can be rotated so there are actually 120 sketches!!  Woo hoo!!


Please feel free to use any of the sketches if you like the look of them.

So that is me for today.  Enjoy what is left of today .. .. and I hope the coming week is a good one for you.

Love  Jules xx

Saturday 21 May 2016

A THURSDAY CARD .. .. ON A SATURDAY!

Hi Everyone

Happy Saturday!

Don't ask me where I have been because I'm not sure .. .. .. I think the time thief visited the House of Hearts when I had my head turned and stole nearly half a week LOL!!

In fact I am so late that I haven't even posted my Thursday's Child card .. .. I really must get into this scheduling malarkey in the hope of improving things.

So let's rewind the clock and pretend it is Thursday .. .. which brings a card for a child:




 This used:

Image:  Penny Black "4054K" Gentlest Kiss
Sentiment:  Woodware Clear Magic Singles "Make a Wish"
Backing Papers:  Pink Petticoat (sadly no longer trading)
Josy Rose:  Nail Heads
ProMarkers
Chalk
My Trusty Sewing Machine
Ribbon from my crafty stash box

and now we can whizz back to Saturday .. .. and that is how quickly the end of my week has gone LOL!!

A lot of what stole my time made me feel like I had gone back to secretarial work .. .. .. lots of typing, filing, printing and research. Hopefully next week will be kinder to my little blog.

Enjoy your weekend everyone.

All being well I will be here with my snippets tomorrow.

Love

Jules xx




Wednesday 18 May 2016

WHITE CARD WEDNESDAY

Hi Everyone

Happy Wednesday!

One of the more challenging themes to my week .. . but it is good to work out of your comfort zone and test yourself ..  .. and good to reduce the white card mountain too.

So here is my offering for today where everything started out as a piece of white card (except for the ribbon, lace and nail heads of course LOL!!):




This used:

Image:  Inkylicious Clear Polymer Stamp "Vintage Butterfly"
Background Image:  Stampin' Up "Blooming with Kindness"
Sentiment:  Lili of the Valley "Sentiment Tags"
X-Cut Die Set:  Square Parenthesis
Josy Rose:  Nail Heads
Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads:  Victorian Velvet, Spiced Marmalade and Peacock Feathers
My Trusty Sewing Machine
Black ProMarker Pen
Onyx Black Versafine Ink Pad
Clear Embossing Powder
Lace and Ribbon from my crafty stash box

and that is me for today.

No sunshine outside my window this morning .. .. .. just lots and lots of rain.

Oh well.  At least I don't need to water anything in the garden.

Have a great day .. .. whatever you are doing,

Love Jules xx

Tuesday 17 May 2016

TEENY, TINY TUESDAY

Hi Everyone

Happy Tuesday!

Lovely bright sunshine here at the moment .. .. but a strange looking sky.  Not that it matters, I'm not planning to go out in it.  Well .. .. .. only as far as the bottom of the garden to open up the greenhouse (and scowl at the weeds that are growing faster than anything else that is planted). 

I am not even tempted to fill the washing line .. .. there is already too much ironing to be done! LOL!!

Today is my teeny, tiny card day, and for anyone new to my little corner of blogland, these cards are very small .. .. measuring just 3.5 inches square.

So .. here is my Tuesday offering:




This used:

Penny Black Die:  "51-095" Hearts in Circle
Backing Paper:  Dovecraft Serendipity
Sentiment:  Computer Generated using font "Poor Richard"
Nestabilities:  Circles and Scalloped Circles
X-Cut Butterfly Punch (very old and probably no longer available)
My Trusty Sewing Machine
Tiny Pearl from my crafty stash box
We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board

and that is it!

Catch you again tomorrow with my "white card Wednesday" creation.

Enjoy your day .. .. whatever you are doing!!  A very long and varied list for me today (which doesn't include any of that ironing LOL!!).

Love

Jules xx




Monday 16 May 2016

MONDAY'S MALE AND A NEW SKETCH

Hi Everyone

Happy Monday!!

I love Mondays.  The thought of a whole sparkly new week lying ahead of me to make a difference with!  

Lots on the list for this week already .. .. weddings are definitely hotting up again with work already going into the diary for 2017!

I do love that my days are so varied.

Anyway .. .. round to my Monday Male card for his week:




This used:

Image:  Bugaboo Stamps "Mouse Candle" (probably my favourite image from Bugaboo .. use it lots!)
Sentiment:  Computer generated using font "Zipty Do"
Backing Papers:  Pebbles Inc "Happy Day"
Martha Stewart Punch:  Embossed Zig Zag
ProMarkers
Glossy Accents
Gold Glamour Dust
My Trusty Sewing Machine
Ribbon from my crafty stash box
and sketch number 29 - which I added to my little sketch library today.


If you like the look of any of my sketches please feel free to use them.  You will find them on the sketch tab at the top of my blog.

Enjoy your day everyone.

Love

Jules xx

Sunday 15 May 2016

SUNDAY SNIPPETS

Hi Everyone

Happy weekend!

I'm afraid that Saturday was a non-starter on my blog this weekend.  Sorry :-(

Who knows perhaps one day I will be so organised I can have scheduled posts!!  Now that would be novel wouldn't it?  LOL!!

My lack of an appearance was all due to me allowing Mr Heart to drag me from my desk "kicking and screaming" into the outside world .. .. and I simply ran out of time to make anything to share!! The only creation I managed was an order for taking with us to our friends house in the evening.  

So, out in the day and then a meal with friends in the evening .. .. too much gadding about for my own good yesterday!   

But I have had chance for a little play with some of my snippets today, using what is probably my favourite technique for using up some of those small patterned leftovers.  I love mixing all the different papers from different collections.

So here we go .. .. all ready for taking over to Pixie's Snippets Playground.




So my Sunday rule of being lazy and not listing my ingredients comes into play today .. .. but if there is anything you wish to know then please just ask away and I will do my best to answer.  Not sure I know where "all" of those backing papers have come from though!!

Have a lovely rest of the weekend everyone and I will catch you tomorrow with my Male on Monday make.

Love

Jules xx

p.s.  my dashboard display is still playing up.  I am beginning to think it is a permanent fixture :-(

Friday 13 May 2016

FEMININE FRIDAY

Hi Everyone

Happy Friday!!

Don't these weeks speed by fast?  They lasted much longer than this when I had to endure school lessons all those years ago!!

So Friday's theme has become "feminine Friday" on my blog and this is my offering for this week:




This used:

Image:  Penny Black Slapstick "40-395" So Kind
Sentiment:  Penny Black "4393F" Best Birthday
Backing Papers:  First Edition Papers "Love Story"
MFT Dienamics Die Set:  Blueprints 14 
ProMarkers
Ribbon from my crafty stash box

and that is me for today!  

A lovely bright day here .. .. and .. .. we have good news on the car front.  The garage are bringing Mr Heart's repaired car back late this afternoon.  You may remember  that someone re-shaped it for him a few weeks ago.  Well thankfully it wasn't written off.  Phew!!! 

Enjoy the rest of today and have a good weekend.

Love

Thursday 12 May 2016

THURSDAY'S CHILD

Hi Everyone

Happy Thursday!

I hope you can see some of that lovely sunshine where you are .. .. we are definitely off to a promising start here!  A real improvement on all that rain we had yesterday!

So Thursday here on my little blog means a card for a child .. .. and here is today's offering:




This used:

Image:  All Dressed Up Stamps:  "Fairy Magic"
Sentiment: Lili of the Valley "Sentiment Tags"
Backing Papers:  First Edition Papers:  "Paper Flowers"
Martha Stewart Edge Punch: Daisy
X-Cut Punch:  Flower
My Trusty Sewing Machine
ProMarkers
Glamour Dust
Ribbon, Pearls and Gem from my crafty stash box

and that is me.

I won't hang about as I need to hit the ground running today .. ... there is a lot to be crossed off that list if my head is to stay above water!!

Edit:  Just noticed that I am in time to enter this little creation into the All Dressed Up Challenge.. .. so have just linked it up!

Have a great day everyone.

Love