Tuesday Trigger - Magical Magnolias - celebrating Spring!

When I saw the beautiful inspiration trigger this week on the Moxie Fab World blog I immediately thought of these tulips - so I had a go. Here is the challenge link.
 

I even tried to get some unsharp tulip image with my distress markers; don't know whether that was very succesful. I just love to do these challenges and have fun too.

So, using distress markers and water I stamped and restamped with the same ink which gives a lighter imager and then I painted suger spun distress color into the tulips after stamping.
With the beautiful weather we are having and going to have next week, I'm celebrating Spring!!

Jacqueline
p.s. - I changed my blog name back to the original again - I just couldn't get used to it.

More Christmas tags

CI was going to make some red tags but got a different idea which I carried out here. Sue had sent me some of these shaped die-cuts which I used as a template and cut out my shapes from scraps.

The Design block I used from Hero Arts called Ponsiettas and Birds is a Christmas favorite of mine. The fact that it is so lightweight too gives it my preference.

The tags are 9.5 x 9.5 cm.

and finally a purple one:

And these are mini-mini tags made from the smallest scraps:

These can be used as gift-tags on presents.

PDCC39

The colors of the new PDCC challenge appealed to me this week. I decided to stay in the summer theme which Hero Arts are hosting this month and found a picture of a little Sailor girl who I framed with sea shells.


For those interested in the sailor girl picture, she was part of a free download collage sheet which can be found here. Many thanks to Blanca from Moonlight Studios.

Here is the inspiration picture.

I got a huge creative boost yesterday when I saw that this card was one of the winners over at the Hero Arts blog. It has increased my inspiration levels :)



Have a happy weekend!

Sharing

A masculine card for our 23rd Wedding Anniversary which is today. I used the batik technique but I probably didn't let it dry enough because it came out like this, but on the other hand it gives a different looking effect.


Taken this evening just before we shared a lovely meal, just the two of us.



This is a card I sent to my friend Sue (arrived so I can post it here) who is always so kind to send me her 'scraps' - well really I should call them her 'beautiful leftovers'. I so appreciate all the diecuts and pp's she sends me and much more!
The bird image is from Artistic Outpost, it is part of a stamp plate called Bluebird, found here.


Today is a beautiful day, the sun is shining and I'm still loving the man God brought into my life 23 years ago.

Blessings
Jacqueline

January's challenge theme is Friendship & Valentine's at Hero Arts!

The whole challenge system has changed on Hero Arts but I think it is better, more relaxed. If you want to check it out, here is the link.





I made some friendship tags, one of which will accompany my give-away which I will draw a name for tomorrow.

Thanks to the all the ladies who have joined in.

I will be back tomorrow with a winner.

Wallpaper flowers stamp from Hero Arts

Just recently I won a gorgeous stamp on Tomoh's Attic blog. Tomo is Japanese and makes delightful art!



For my tag I stamped the stamp in versamark on PP, silver embossed and cut out the flowers to decorate my tag, using pearls for dimension. It's just a simple tag and it will take the place of a Christmas card to accompany a Christmas gift. I will just attach the tag to the parcel, no card needed!

Here are a couple more cards I made for the Hero Arts Christmas accessory challenge this week.
The first one is using this stamp again, stamped in black and painted the flowers and leaves with diluted distress inks, fired brick and peeled paint.



This second card uses the stamps I photographed it with, pretty simple and quick. I love the texture this stamp gives.



The temps have dropped here and yesterday I was shivering from the cold and had to light a log fire... in October already!! But, today the sun is shining which does help. My son who attends Bible school in Holland is arriving this evening for a week's holiday, looking forward to that!

Have a great weekend!

Hero Arts weekly challenge - Fall colors

I made this card for the weekly challenge on the Hero Arts blog. There were four color combinations to choose from. All I used were some CS scraps which I punched into squares and stamped with the clear Mix N Match set from Hero Arts.



I wonder whether this will be the last grid card I'll make for the time being!

Just had to say hello!!

It has been such a long time and I am missing everybody! I have my sister and her DH round for a week and I just returned from Spain which doesn't leave me much room to really concentrate and with temps in the 100F - it is hard to create let me tell you!



BUT, I do have something to share be it something very simple. I had been looking for the 'Real Dill' stamp from Hero Arts for at least five weeks and could not even find it on Ebay. I contacted HA directly and they told me that they had found one at an on-line store in France! I followed the link only to find that it was out of stock. A lady named Pia from Denmark who makes incredible cards with HA stamps picked up my SOS and told me that she had found one at a HA store in California and that she would get one for me. Well, today it arrived! At the same time I noticed a plant in my neighbors garden that looked exactly like the stamp only to find out that the dill herb grows everywhere in my surroundings.


The challenge at HA this week was to put down the phone and send a card to somebody, so this is my card for a very kind friend of mine.

Hope you are all well and see you again soon!

Going on holiday..

Just to say goodbye for a couple of weeks - we are leaving for our holiday in the North of Spain on Saturday. I will not have Internet but might find a Cyber cafe some place, or a little booth on a beach!



This is my entry for this week's Hero Arts challenge which is to use a tag on a card, box or whatever. As I don't save anything I couldn't find a thing in the house to decorate, so I had to use a card!


(please click on the photo)
I took this yesterday evening from the side of the pool - this is my back garden where this scene radiates complete rest. I can sit and soak up the silence watching the sun go under. A complete silence fills the air. Now and again I will hear a car but otherwise I only have the company of the swallows that come for water from the pool. At the end of the day I need to soak up the quietness and beauty outside in the warm evening air and let nature refresh me. It's one of God's ways of speaking - without words, but OH what a message!

I wish you all a wonderful summer holiday time!
Jacqueline

Challenge Hero Arts - monochromatic colors

I have been so busy! Yesterday we were at a wedding, the secretary of my DH got married at the age of 47! Never been married before. She looked stunning! It is amazing what make up and a new hair-do can do for somebody!
We saw our youngest son off to Holland where he joins his brother at Bible camp for a week and this week I have to prepare for David, our handicapped son's holiday camp where he will be for three weeks. It will give me a good break although I will be thinking of him every day - it is so hard to let go! I love him so much and he is so dependent on me for everything! I have done it before, so this time I will let go again and let God care for him!



I joined in the challenge for monochromatic cards this week at Hero arts - not too keen on this kind of card making but I like to join in.

Hero Arts weekly challenge - inspired by the website

The challenge this week is to make a card inspired by the Hero arts website. The card I chose is here



I used the scallop circle and the Misty flower Dot N Pattern stamp in distress ink for the centre.

Another two little vintage cards I made this week when playing with some scrap papers.




Have a lovely weekend!
Jacqueline

Challenge Hero Arts - complementary colours

My tags for this weeks challenge over at Hero Arts.





Shari Carroll is hosting this challenge and I must admit out of all the proposed complementary colour combos, 'green/red' seemed to me to be the most attractive. But I went with black/white and lavender/yellow.


This is a grid card I made from two projects that went wrong. The stamp is from Hero arts and was stamped once in white and in bronze on glossy card stock with an alcohol ink basis. I didn't like them as they were so just punched out squares and circles.

This is the stamp I used for the gone wrong projects.

Blog candy in celebration of my Day on the blog with Shari Carroll of Hero Arts!

To celebrate today I am sharing some of the contents of a beautiful box of crafting supplies I received to create with for my day on the Hero Arts blog! I have included some patterned paper from my own supplies and a card.




Please feel free to join in from whichever continent you come from by leaving a comment with some means of contacting you! I will ask my son to choose a number this coming Monday 22nd June and announce the winner Monday afternoon, here and on a discussion thread over on the Hero Arts flickr gallery.

If you want to have access to see the cards Shari and I made, here is the link.

Thank you so much for all your kind support!!
Jacqueline

Hero Arts weekly challenge - Manly

I have been so busy making cards for the blog day in June at Hero Arts with Shari that I was 'done' for the rest of the week.
I can't post cards now either that would hint at the stamps and papers I used for that day, so I have to manoeurve very carefully at the moment.



We are having beautiful weather here at last. I am seeing snakes again in the garden and am enjoying the beautiful lightfall over the mountains in the evenings as I watch the sun go down. So peaceful and peace giving!

Just sharing a card I made for the weekly challenge at Hero Arts. It is for my DH. I never tire of this butterfly stamp. I made it dimensional with two different patterned papers. As my DH René and I are opposites, I made the butterflies opposities too.

Have a great weekend and I hope to be back with MM on Monday.

Go green - Hero Arts weekly challenge

It felt so good to join in a challenge again on the Hero arts website. I have been very busy preparing, designing and making cards for my Blog Day with Shari Carroll and that did not go without pressure!! The date is 19th of June.

So, these tags are made from the remaining packaging of a paper punch and an embellishment sheet I got hold of at Michaels in the USA. I love the wire holder on the first one at the top, which held a Martha Stewart paper punch. I used parts of a Friends Collage stamp for this one.



I always love using the butterfly stamp too. Stamped it on a background which has been stamped with the HA Shadow screen stamp.


Just want to share what I discovered today. A lady from church had heard that I had problems with the menopause and gave me a bunch of sage to use as a tea. It is delicious! I just put one branch of leaves into the teapot, add hot water (no sugar) and voila the tea is ready - apparently it has some very good medicinal qualities!
Have a great sunday!

May flowers - Challenge Hero Arts

Hi to everybody! It has seemed such a long while since I posted - I have been so tired and felt drained this week - not to mention having no inspiration. I have had a new computer installed lucky for me, which will spare me alot of time and frustration!
We had a blessed weekend in Brittany despite the fact that DH got an infection and really had to trust God just to be able to keep our speaking commitment!



I am sharing a card I made for the HA challenge week - happily I received a spark of inspiration yesterday!
Tomorrow is a public holiday, hope to have more time to visit you all!

Not distressing but stressing...

at the moment....
Just want to share one last card I put in for the challenge at Hero Arts, which is all about distressing.


(Hero Arts CardArt stamp, white embossed)

I will be leaving tomorrow for Brittany with DH until Monday. It is a 7 hour drive (just as long as from Paris to Chicago by plane) but we are used to it and will be taking a picnic with us. BUT - all the preparation beforehand - cleaning the house for the couple who will look after the boys - getting all the washing and shopping done etc. etc. I work in the mornings so I felt really stressed today, BUT it is for a good purpose as we will be sharing Biblical truths about a christian marriage to a group of people who have invited us to share with them. So, we have a goal and hope to be a blessing with all the Lord has taught us.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend - the weather is not good over here!

Beyond paper Hero arts challenge

Hi, I hope you all had a very blessed Easter! It seemed to have passed me by as my DH was away for three days and as I have a handicapped son of 19 years who has a terrible cold, I couldn't really do much than go for a walk with him. The French do not celebrate Easter as we do, so for them it was just a bank holiday Monday today. It has rained non-stop all weekend too! I'm sorry but there will be no Mediation Monday today - I have had horrible computer problems that caused me frustration and I am just too weary to do it.



So I will post my challenge entries for the 'beyond paper' challenge on the Hero Arts blog this week.

What is 'beyond paper' on this card - the shrink plastic charms. The butterfly has been reduced to a quarter of it's size and the leaf which is hanging from the lace to about a third.



My heat-gun started smoking yesterday so I had to stop! What you do is stamp the image on the rough side of the shrink plastic - color it in, if you want to attach it with string then punch a hole in it - then you shrink it holding it lightly in place with a craft knife or pencil. When it has shrunk, flatten it out with an acrylic stamp holder and voila, your instant charm!



The lilacs are what my husband just brought home for me, picked them along the way! The yellow roses were in my craft room last week - just love them but they only lasted three days! Glad I took a picture!

Hero Arts weekly challenge - one layer cards

It is Hero Arts blog birthday - they are one year old. The challenge this week is a one layer card and I am amazed at the creative entries so far! The one layer refers to paper not to embellishments.. I have been amazed to see how dimension is created through colour, machine stitching and shading with pencils!! Some cards look layered and yet they are not, so so clever!

I chose to make a grid card, not the easiest of cards, but I cannot make effective simple cards.I used distress inks and Hero art stamps.

Hero Arts Challenge - window cards

The challenge at Hero Arts this week was to make a window card. I thought that this was a super idea of Lisa's as I've never made one of these before and it's yet another way of stretching one's stamps.
These are the cards I made.


(Sorry Louise, I lost your comment..)