HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIS!

Hi Everyone

Happy Friday.  I hope you have all been having a good week whilst I have been beavering away at trying to reduce my do list.  I love it each time I am able to cross something off it .. .. but also love it when I add new missions too!  Am I normal?  Probably not!! LOL!!

One of the "must" makes of this week that I am able to share is a birthday card for my super lovely baby Sis using some of her favourite colours .. .. .. .. I think she must be an Autumn girl!

This used:

X-Cut Mini Heart Die Set
Sentiment:  Lili of the Valley Sentiment Tags
First Edition Backing Papers "New Leaf"
My Trusty Sewing Machine
Button
Ribbon, Metallic Cord and Eyelet

Have you managed to spot the heart today?  LOL!!

I met up with one of my brides yesterday as we are starting work on all of her venue stationery ready for her October wedding .. .. then tomorrow it is a sparkly new bride who is hopefully just about to start her journey with me.  We have already shared lots of emails and photographs and I feel like I know her already.

I get to meet so many lovely people .. .. I am so fortunate .. .. every day is different and every day is enjoyable .. .. I just wish they would last longer!

Have a good Friday and a great weekend when it arrives.

Love Jules xx

SORRY FOLKS

Hi Everyone

Happy Sunday!

I hope you have all been having a lovely weekend .. .. today has been glorious weather wise here.  I wonder if it is a last glimpse of summer?  I hope not.  I am not ready for Autumn yet!

Sorry for the quietness from this end .. .. but to say my crafty life is busy at the moment would be an understatement. 

I re-arranged my list and decided there is only one thing for it and that is to not worry about my blog for a while and just keep my head down and clear the list as much as I can.

Plus there are the Autumn weddings to add to the mix too!

I haven't even packed away all the supplies from the wedding fayre last Sunday.  My feet just haven't touched the ground.

It didn't help when we nipped into The Range this afternoon to pick up some much needed essentials and they were filling all the shelves with Christmas goodies.  Now normally when that happens I get all excited .. .. but today my heart actually skipped a beat in panic!!  I really can't believe Christmas is nearly upon us again.  It doesn't seem two minutes since I was melting the London Kids electric kettle on the gas hob last Christmas!! (We haven't been invited back this Christmas.. .. I wonder why?!?!?). LOL!!!

I do have some general cards to cross off my list so you never know .. .. there might be the odd appearance here and there if I can get to actually posting them to my blog.

Catch you when I do everyone.

Love and hugs

Jules xx

NO WHITE CARD WEDNESDAY THIS WEEK :-(

Hi Everyone

Happy Wednesday!

Another beautiful day!  Hopefully it will continue into the evening too without changing into another rain, thunder and lightening storm like it did yesterday.

No time for creating anything for White Card Wednesday this week .. .. but I can share a few of my favourite makes which made it into Issue 157 of Quick Cards Made Easy, which should have hit the shops now.

The first commission was entitled "Confetti Cards" .... which were basically shaker cards but with more unusual fillings. This one was my favourite from this collection  ..  ..  I just loved the vellum fronted tag .. .. and I even "hand stitched" it .. .. my trusty sewing machine was given a rest!  LOL!!

Next up was a "Metallic Embossing" commission which used some amazing stamps and dies from Kaisercraft.  This one was my favourite and I was super chuffed that it made its way to the front cover of the magazine too

Then lastly I worked on a theme that is fairly new to the magazine called "Shape Up!". The magazine asked readers on Facebook what new features they would most like to see in the magazine and back came the response of having "full sized" templates for shaped cards. There have been some fabulous shaped creations for this section of the magazine over the last few months and I was super pleased to be asked to work on a Gingerbread Man shaped card.

I loved both of my finished cards .. .. but a girl has to choose so I have gone for this one.  The full sized gingerbread template is in the magazine and you just dress and decorate him as you see fit.

So there we go.  There might not be a white card to show .. .. but at least there are a few hearts to find.

Enjoy the rest of today.  I hope the sun is still shining for you.

Love Jules xx

TEENY, TINY TUESDAY

Hi Everyone

Happy Tuesday!

Has it been super warm with you as promised?

It was definitely very warm if you ventured outdoors here .. .. but inside the house we are fortunate in that it stays pretty cool.  So the best of both worlds.

Anyway, round to my teeny tiny 3.5" make for this week.

This used:

Lots of snippets of digital design papers by various designers from my ever growing offcut mountain

MFT Die-namics Die Set:  Blueprints 14 

Sizzix Die:  "658232" Leaves and Vine

My Trusty Sewing Machine
Ribbon from My Crafty Stash Box
Clear Embossing Powder
Josy Rose:  Nail Heads

We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board

and that is it.

I don't know about you but I love it when I use up offcuts of paper .. .. but I trim them down to what I need and end up being left with even smaller snippets .. .. which I still can't throw away!!

Short and sweet today because I have a very busy two weeks ahead of me and time is again slipping away .. .. but I will quickly link up to Pixie's Snippets Playground as I love it when I get a chance to skip over there. 

Enjoy the rest of today.

Love Jules xx

MONDAY'S MALE

Hi Everyone

Happy Monday!

The start of a sparkly new week .. .. which I know already is going to last around a nano-second!  So much to cram in this week.

So straight onto my share for today:

This used:

Image:  Penny Black Slapstick "40-061" Fly With Me
Sentiment:  Penny Black "30-350" Sentiment Collection
Backing Papers:  BoBunny "Beautiful Dreamer"
X-Cut Corner Rounder Punch
White Gel Pen
ProMarkers
Josy Rose:  Nail Heads
My Trusty Sewing Machine

So that is me for today.

The wedding fayre went really well yesterday, Mr Heart and I had a really enjoyable day (and he did forsake the football to help me so I was ultra impressed). I met some really lovely couples and hope I get to work with some of them in the future. 

I think Mr Heart must have enjoyed himself too because he came home today to tell me he had seen somewhere that was holding a wedding fayre this Sunday and wondered if I wanted to call them to see if there are any free spaces .. .. he would go with me!  Bless him!!  I really do enjoy the fayres but don't want to be spending all my pennies exhibiting.  I would rather be spending them with the craftsman who is helping me to extend my wedding range.  He was able to deliver my goodies on Friday so I was able to use those yesterday and create lots of interest.  Still plenty on his list though .. .. and no sooner does he finish one than I add more .. .. a bit like my crafty list!  LOL!!

Enjoy your evening everyone.   

Love Jules xx

FEMININE FRIDAY

Hi Everyone

Happy Friday!

Nearly the weekend .. .. and I'm not ready for it yet!!  LOL!!  

Still lots I want to do ahead of the Wedding Fayre on Sunday.  I don't know why I put myself under all this pressure though because by the time I get there and get set up I have more than enough anyway.  But I do like taking new things too .. .. and hopefully the delivery from my local craftsman will be arriving this evening.  I wonder how much of my list he has been able to cross off?

My lovely Sis can't make Sunday .. .. it is her works BBQ .. .. so Mr Heart has kindly volunteered his services for the day.  What a kind soul he is.  I hope he enjoys it!  I will be even more impressed if there is football on the TV and he could have been watching that!!!

Anyway, round to my share for today:

This used:

Image:  Bugaboo Stamps:  "Umbrella Mouse"

Sentiment:  Computer generated using font "Aracne Condensed Regular"

Backing Papers:  Nitwits "Up Up Away" Collection

MFT Die-namics Die Set:  Blueprints 14 

ProMarkers

Glossy Accents (for the raindrops)

White gel pen

Ribbon from my crafty stash box

and that is it.

Off to take some pictures now before the sky gets any darker!  Looks like there could be rain afoot!!

Have a good weekend everyone.

Love Jules xx

NEW LOOK THURSDAY

Hi Everyone

Happy Thursday!!

I can't believe the weekend is nearly in touching distance already!!  Once again time seems to have whizzed by!

So as mentioned earlier in the week, Thursday on my blog is going to be renamed.  It will no longer be "Thursday's Child" but instead be known as TIMMAY day LOL!!

OMG what on earth is that?

Well I couldn't come up with anything better to call it .. .. and really it means:

THOSE I MUST MAKE ALL YEAR

which of course means Christmas cards!!  

I have decided that the only way I am going to keep myself sane in the future is to introduce them into my weekly routine.  So all my Christmas stash has been re-organised to be more accessible and organised and I am taking on the challenge.

It doesn't seem bad come this time of year but of course come the start of 2017 I know it really isn't the type of card that people want to look at .... but it will make my life easier later in the year ....so anyone who doesn't like to see them will just have to steer clear of my blog on Thursday's  LOL!!

So I am kicking off with this little number:

This used:

Image: Digistamp Boutique "Winter Rosie Set" 

Sentiment:  Computer generated using font "BaaBookHMK"

Backing Papers:  DCWV "Rose Tinted Christmas" 

Snowflake Die:  Penny Black "Crystal Trio"

MFT DieNamics Die Set:  Blueprints 14

My Trusty Sewing Machine

ProMarkers

Glitter card

Glamour Dust

Ribbon, Charm and Pearl from my crafty stash box

I am also going to enter this into the Digistamp Boutique Customer Competition for September as I have used one of Sally-Ann's scrummy images.

So that is me for today.

Life is definitely easier if you have cards made in advance ready to just finish writing the post for! Hope I can keep this up (but of course I am not holding my breath so please don't hold yours!).

Love Jules xx

WHITE CARD WEDNESDAY

Hi Everyone

Happy Wednesday!

I hope all is good with you .. .. and if not that things improve VERY QUICKLY!!

As some of you will know Wednesday is the day I try to post something that uses up some of that white card mountain I possess .. and am not proud of.

So today's card started off as a pile of white card and with the help of the CAS Mix Up Card Challenge the pile turned into this:

This used:

Images:  Mama Elephant:  Bountiful Blessings
Sentiment:  Penny Black:  Sprinkles and Smiles
Distress Re-Inkers:  Fossilized Amber and Shabby Shutters
Distress Spray Stain:  Picked Raspberry
Distress Ink Pads:  Peeled Paint, Shabby Shutters and Picked Raspberry
Creative Expressions Dies by Sue Wilson:  Wellington
Spellbinder Nestabilties:  Classic Square
Shaving Foam
Ribbon from my Crafty Stash Box

Now if you haven't been over to the CAS Mix Up Card Challenge Blog you might be wondering why on earth I have "shaving foam" as one of my card ingredients.  Well this month the challenge is to feature "marbling" on your project .. .. some stamping (a little or a lot) .. .. and then something of your own choice from the list provided.  I went for "die cutting" this time.   

I had never tried the marbling technique before .. .. so at the weekend I had a try and was very pleased with the results .. .. other than wondering how to get rid of the tray of shaving foam I was left with LOL!!

If you haven't tried it either and fancy a go, then pop over to the challenge blog as there are lots of links to different methods you can use.

I don't actually own many re-inkers so to bring some pink into the mix I sprayed the foam with Distress Spray and that mixed in well too, but I suppose rather than spraying I could have just dripped some onto the foam. 

So that is me for today. 

Mum had a lovely birthday yesterday .. .. thank you to those who sent her good wishes .. .. we had a lovely time together.  

Catch you tomorrow with the new Thursday theme.

Love Jules xx

TEENY TINY TUESDAY

Hi Everyone

Happy Tuesday.  

Today is my Mum's birthday (HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM! xxx).. .. and my lovely Sis is on holiday from work .. .. so we are going to have a little celebration lunch together.  It has been a long, long while since we have been able to do this so I am really looking forward to it.

This is the first of a few scheduled posts that I have managed to put together .... just to keep my blog awake whilst I am getting prepared for a wedding fayre at the weekend.

I have been collaborating with a local craftsman recently to bring a bit of extra quirkiness to my wedding range and hopefully some new items will be ready for taking with me on Sunday.  If not, well at least they will be ready for the Fayre in November, but I have everything crossed that they will be with me by Friday.

Anyway, round to my teeny, tiny card for this week ... which is a whole 3.5" square .. .. for anyone new to my little corner of blogland.

This used:

Backing Paper:  Dovecraft "Floral Muse"

Sentiment:  Stampin' Up!  "Lots of Thanks"

Wild Rose Studio Die:  Woodland Posy (well trimmed back)

Three of those paper flowers that never seem to disappear from my stash, folded into four and stuck down and topped with a flatbacked pearl.

Distress Ink:  Bundled Sage

My Trusty Sewing Machine

Ribbon and Twine from my Crafty Stash Box

We R Memory Keepers:  Envelope Punch Board

and there we go.  More little bits and pieces used up .. .. and you certainly don't need many for such a small card!

I hope the day is being kind to you.

Love Jules xx

MONDAY'S MALE

Hi Everyone

Happy Monday!  I hope your week has got off to a good start.

Can you believe I had to put a jumper on this morning as it was a tad chilly!!!  What's that all about? Please don't say that summer is on it's way out because I am not at all ready for that yet!! 

So back with my daily themes but I am changing them slightly.  My "Thursday's child" theme has been scrapped as I have decided a boy card works as a Monday's Male Card, and the little girl cards will fit into Feminine Friday .. .. which leaves Thursday's open for a theme I wish I had started ages ago .. .. but  more about that later in the week.

Today Monday's male is sporting a baby boy card .. .. which uses a very old image that came to the top of the pile whilst re-organising my world last week.  Not that re-organising has been a total success.  How long did it take me to find where I decided was the best place to store my hot glue gun?!?!!?

It would appear that there is a baby boy boom going on at the moment and I can't make cards for them quickly enough .. .. so here we go with one I made last week

  

This used

Image:  Docrafts "Forever Friends"

Backing Paper and Sentiment: Pink Petticoat (sadly no longer trading)

Spellbinder Nestabilities:  Classic Circles and Scalloped Circles

Distress Ink Pad  Tumbled Glass

Josy Rose:  Nail Heads

ProMarkers

My Trusty Sewing Machine

Many thanks for the lovely comments and emails on my post of yesterday.  I am so pleased folk enjoyed looking .. .. and yes .. .. Marcie did see it and was also over the moon to see her name on the computer screen.  She said I made her feel like a movie star!   Bless her.  She is such a lovely person.

I will catch you again tomorrow with my Teeny Tiny Tuesday card.

Love Jules xx

A POST ESPECIALLY FOR MARCIE

Hi Everyone

Happy Sunday!

I hope everyone is well and having a good weekend.

A bit of a different post from me today .. .. and one which is very photo heavy and very long!!!

During the week I received a really lovely email from a lady called Marcie who lives in Minnesota, USA.  Alongside the other things that Marcie wrote was the following:

I bought the Penny Black whispers stamp BUT I do not know how you get the paper in the flowers?  Could you explain this to me?

I am so new at this but this is my favorite stamp of yours.

I think you paper piece it?? But I do not know how.

I did drop an email back to Marcie describing in writing how I do my paper piecing and promised her I would take some pictures and post them to my blog .. .. so that is what I am doing today .. .. after all there may be some other people who call by my blog that might like to know too.

So here we go:

I start by stamping the image twice,
once onto what will be my base layer
and again onto a contrasting piece of patterned paper.

I cut the flowers from the contrasting paper using small scissors
and then run a black marker pen all around the edge

In this instance I am also distressing around
the edge of the flowers with Worn Lipstick Distress Ink
and a finger dauber to give a little more definition
to the edge of the flowers

Next it is time to stick the cut flowers to the base.
Instead of adding glue to the back of the flowers I find it easier
to add the glue to the base layer using a glue pen

Leaving you with this to do with as you wish.

--ooOoo--

and this is what I did with mine:

and I am now going to take it over to Pixie's Snippets Playground because I used lots of snippets for this little creation.

I hope this has helped you Marcie xx

Sadly Marcie doesn't have a blog at the moment so we can't "check her out" but hopefully she will now have lots of fun with her Whispers Penny Black stamp.

So this week has been another manic one .. .. hence my quiet blog .. .. lots of general cards needed for here there and everywhere .. .. but at least it means I have some cards I can share as these have been put into scheduled posts which will be very handy because I have a very busy time ahead. Next Sunday is "Wedding Fayre" day and I have lots of prep to do for that, along with wedding work for current couples, magazine work and general orders.  To be honest I am trying not to think too much about how much is actually on my list because I have a feeling it is going to be very busy right up to the end of January now! 

Right .. .. off to check out how Mr Heart is doing.  It is a landmark day in the House of Hearts today. Those of you who have been following my blog for a while will remember that three years ago he started lifting and re-laying the crazy paved patio.  Well today is the day it will all be finished .. .. including the large area under our pergola!!  It has been a real job and a half for him .. .. and by no stretch of the imagination could you call it a labour of love .. .. but he has persevered and the mission will be complete today.  I showed him some pictures of how it look before he started and he couldn't believe how different it looks.

Hopefully I will have some decent pictures to share another time of the "before" and "after".

Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone.

Love Jules xx