PDCC79

Keeping myself occupied with a little card making. Thank you all so much for your encouraging feedback and prayers, it all helps with the healing process. I appreciate you all so much. I still feel quite weak and lay in bed resting alot.

As I had just received new stamps from the March layering challenge at Hero Arts, I thought I would try some easy designs for the PDCC challenge this week with the colors of red, lime and grey.

These are not easy colors and definitely not my go-to colors but I love a little challenge.

 

I love this Simple Frame stamp from Hero Arts, I have lots of ideas with this one. Another Hero arts stamp on this one is the Silhouette Spray and the humming bird from the clear set called Antique Engravings.

Personal share

Dearest blogging friends - I haven't shared my journey with you which started on the 7th of April this year but I feel the time has come to do so. I  will be needing prayer; but also to laugh and share with you all!
I went for a routine Mammography on the 7th of April and although I knew I had lumps in my right breast, they were always found to be benign, showing no danger, although in 2005, they said I was at 'risk'. This time around an echoscopy followed and a direct journey to the Hospital for a Biopsy. I had to wait eight days for the results. They found a cancerous tumor of 2 cm, unaggressive, which reacted positively to treatment. Then followed an MRI Scan which concluded another two smaller nodes were found, but unidentified.
Yesterday I underwent surgery and had a chunk of my right breast removed as well as 15 lymph nodes as one of them was suspect. Why so many - French protocol.
The good news is - I am alive and I still have two breasts! Protocol subscribes Chemotherapy for four months, after which I will have to have radio therapy. These are preventive measures, as I have been cured!
Good news is I am full of peace and joy - because Jesus has been with me all the way!! I was even laughing before going into the operation room, telling them how I wanted to lay comfortably before the anesthesia kicked in.
Numerous people have been praying for me around the world - I believe in the power of prayer and it has helped me enormously. Of course, I have been praying and proclaiming non stop for a healing miracle, I want God to glorify Himself through my life. He can still do it - I do not limit Him in any way!!
I am in bed now, resting, but thinking of you all. How lovely to get my prize box of Hero Arts goodies delivered just this morning!! What a lovely surprise!
I may be absent in the coming months, I hope not for long because crafting is such a fantastic therapy for me.
Please know that I am not looking for sympathy - I am a very lucky woman - I have had a fantastic life, I have been blessed beyond measures!! Hair can grow back on - wounds do heal - all I really need is your company, your friendship. Thank you so much and God bless!!
Jacqueline

Make-It + Mail-It Challenge # 1

I am joining in this challenge of Lisa's. I have been able to donate most of my cards for good causes, keeping some I can't part with, mailing others to my dear friends from the blog and flickr and also family and friends who surround me. I usually have a basket with cards and tags which are on hand.  I, too, don't see the point of keeping them, although I have a HUGE box of cards and tags, ATC's etc. I have received. Love looking through those.

So, these two tags will be going to somebody who I haven't even chosen yet - but will reveal soon!
Edit: Tuesday 26/04 - these have been mailed today to Jean.

Good idea Lisa!

Less is more - Off centre

I hope you are all having a lovely Easter break, with nice weather. Our sun is shining but we have a cold wind.



Now and again I love to do a CAS card because it has to be just right, or it can look awful ( well mine do!).  So that is the challenge for me. Everything is off centre on this card. The sentiment is Hero Arts. It is not the kind of card I would make on a continual basis, but it is something different. I used Pink Paislee stamps.
I made this to join in with the Less is more challenge, which can be found here. Thanks to those who took the trouble to organize it.

Two little Spring tags

Love making tags... haven't been making them lately, sometimes it just happens.

I have edited this post since yesterday to add another tag which came together quickly last night.
I am going to offer some of these to my friends at Church with a Bible verse on the back to put into their Bibles, especially for Easter.
I have used two pieces of clipart from The Graphic's Fairy of a lavender branch and printed the frame in a lavender tint.
The Butterfly is from the Butterfly Garden Pink Paislee stamp set.
I love the Spring Memories definition and am using it alot these days (thanks Lin).

Hope your Easter weekend is blessed!

HA Hostess Challenge using Antique Engravings Butterfly

There is a little challenge going on the Flickr gallery from Hero Arts to use some stamps of the Antique Engravings set on your card.

I chose to use the butterfly.
Thank you ladies for your visits, I am so happy to know you!

French Vintage Spring and a giveaway

A friend of mine found this image in a little shop in our village. I don't see why I should not share it so that you can have fun with it too on your cards.
The lovely LIN sent me this Spring definition stamp from Hero Arts. I am so happy with it! It has been on my wishlist for more than two years but I could never find it on Ebay and its just too darn expensive to order in the U.K; as it consists of four stamps of all seasons. But I am very happy to have one now which I can use on my cards. These sort of stamps are so versatile. First up is this card, which is meant to be a bit romantic.. It is so French too, as it really looks like this where I live. I used a Pink Paislee stamp to decorate the edges. (She is reading a love-letter :))

Here is the freebie - I do not know about quality or size, I only hope that if you download it, it is usable to you. I am not a star in technical issues.

If you do succeed in making a card with this image, link ik here in a comment and I will send one person some Pink Paislee papers to create with.

Something different... and joining in the PDCC 77 challenge

Hallo dear blogging friends! Hope the sun is shining like it is here today.
I don't have to tell you my love for grids, it's also part of my character - using what you have and making something useful with it!
And now a little twist... never knew I would think of yet another way of incorporating inchies onto my cards, but quite by accident, I did. As I was moving things around, a diecut fell on a little pile of inchies and thus my idea was born as you can see.

I punched out inchies from the top cover which is the introduction page to the rest of the Pink Paislee papers, can you follow me? I distressed the diecut and stamped over the top with the Envelope Pattern stamp from Hero Arts, added a flower and button and the card is ready to send! I am entering this in the PDCC challenge this week which has the following inspiration picture:

I have another little testimony to share today. I don't know about you but I can be very nonchalant with my Bank Pass and sometimes loose it for a considerable period of time and don't even go looking for it! So it was again, I had lost it for two weeks already and had to tell DH because I could have lost it outside somewhere or in a shop. We searched the house high and low! Nothing. Then DH, with his wisdom, said, did you pray about it yet? Hmmmm, no, I hadn't. So I prayed while we were searching and received instantly the thought: It's in René's wallet...... and YES, there it was!! Isn't God big in the small things of life??? How big is God then in the difficult things of life - maybe you have a situation today that is causing you problems or sorrow - PRAY to the Father in Heaven - He is there to help all those who call upon Him - in Jesus Name!

Less is more challenge

As I understood, this challenge is a one layer CAS card with the sentiment taking center stage, I hope I achieved that objective. What I did achieve is the time limit... just. The challenge can be found here.

I used an Artistic Outpost stamp (see their stamp blog here) which I think is Spring-like, even if it is a Robin and the sentiment is from Quietfire Designs... thank you Evelyn. Thanks to Sue for the diecut.

I am getting nice and brown in gorgeous Spring weather at the moment. It is a treat for me just to sit outside in the breeze, listen to the birds and feel the warmth on my skin.
AND I saw the first swallow on April 13th!

Apricot pink, beige and shades of vintage brown

I'm sharing another card today. It has some of my favorite colors and the squares were all carefully selected from three of my paper drawers. Sometimes I make a grid and go really quick, but I paid a lot of attention to color and patterns this time!

Tuesday Trigger - Porch Play

Here is the lovely inspiration photo for this week over on the Moxie Fab blog here.

And here is my card, be it very simple. I stamped the Hero Arts Lace frame on Vellum with white ink and turned it over to fasten it loosely to the card before adding some squares.

Thanks for popping round!

Sunday - Revisiting... February 2010

Hallo ladies - hope you are all well! We are enjoying some beautiful weather, actually it's more like summer than Spring, and I would rather have the Spring first!
Still waiting to see the first swallow! I have heard and seen the HOP already, which is a very elegant bird, just walking about in the garden.

This is the inspiration I got from a card made last year. I have been wanting to try this design again and I thought it went well with the Pink Paislee papers. One side is stamped, the other is PP. I have used a swallow image from the Graphic's Fairy.

This is the original which inspired me today.

I am sorry that I have not gotten round to many blogs - I have been so tired and so busy. Also had so many problems with the blog - still don't know whether people can comment etc...
Thanks for your understanding.

A couple of Challenges - A Burst of Blooms!

Thought I would give some challenges a go. It's this week's Tuesday Trigger on the Moxie Fab blog, which can be found here.

This is the inspiration photo, and underneath is my card. I used the design block Flower Silhouette from Hero Arts to create a Burst of Blooms and the sentiment is also from HA.  So pleased that they do French sentiments too!

This one could be for the challenge 'A touch of red' but it isn't really CAS, so it will go for the challenge of stamp layering over on the Hero Arts blog.

I placed nine of the mix and match stamps of Hero Arts on the acrylic block and stamped in one go. Then I layered some of the stamps with patterned paper that were in the 'grid' basket.
We are having beautiful weather, temperatures are high, like a summers day!
Have a nice weekend!
Jacqueline

Tag Tuesday - Use a postcard cutout

The theme this week over on the tag challenge blog is to use a cutout of a postcard  in your possession on your tag. I punched out three faces from the one I found. I chose the paper according to the colors of the postcard, not my normal colors.

I used the Pink Paislee stamps with white ink to decorate the tag and added a few vellum flowers from the design block Lace stamp from Hero Arts and a  added a vellum butterfly.

Revisiting on Monday - June 2009

Hello! Yesterday I clicked on the wrong link and got a virus which took DH the whole evening to get rid of! But he did it!

Today I'm going back to the first card (see below) I made using alcohol inks and embossing. Due to the fact that the project went wrong, I put my punch into it and loved the result it gave! Ever since, I love experimenting with this technique when I get a new stamp. The above card uses three stamps of Hero Arts, mixed together after punching out the squares.

This is the stamp I used for the above card, which was stamped twice on an alcohol ink background, once with white EP and once with brass EP, and then just mixed together with the 3/4" square punch.
 I also punched out a couple of circles and a butterfly.

So happy...!

Somehow I feel 'connected' again and happy that it seems like people can comment again!
A big thanks to Tina who helped me out.
Although I'm not too keen on comment moderation, it seems to have done the trick, and I am more than happy to accept that. Another thing I had to delete, for the time being, are those who wanted to follow my blog... Now it is invisible again for the time being.
Thanks to all who tried to help me!

Have a great day!
Jacqueline

Stamp Layering technique

According to a video for the Hero Arts challenge this week - Stamp layering technique - which can be found here.  I love the tips Shari gives when card making!

Here is my version. I should not have used a solid stamp but because I stamped on the wrong side of the paper, I got my pattern anyway, and luckily this stamp is the same on the right and the left! Note to Stella from the Netherlands - I used the papers you sent me for this - do you recognize them?

Here is a little close-up.

Problem with commenting?

Hello dear friends,
I have had a couple of e-mails and heard from different sources that people can't comment on my blog.
I honestly don't know what to do about it.
Can anyone help me?
I also never get Google alerts although I have done all the right things.
Also, all of a sudden I have to sign in everytime I visit the flickr gallery - never had to do that!
Is there somebody out there who can help me.... if you can leave a comment ???

Thanks so much!