Your a Star - Inspiration for LOTV Facebook April Card Challenge

Well this time I have made sure I get the LOTV  Facebook April Card Challenge right and have used 3 COLOURS, Lilac, Aqua, Ivory.   I do hope you have time to pop over to  facebook to find out more about the challenge and join in with us this month.

For a change I used H20's to colour todays sweet image, and tried to go a bit vintage, I was a bit heavy handed with the distressing of the fabulous Butterfly Border, and couldn't find my Tim Holtzs distressing tool anywhere, so I used the blade of my scissors to distress the papers it could be better but I will persevere with trying to do vintage as I love the look.  A doily cut from Joy Craft Cutting & Embossing Butterflies Dies has been tucked right behind the Aqua backing papers.  The papers are really old Magnolia 6"x 6" sheets, the Ivory lace is from my stash, I have added a little Stardust Stickles to the edges of the flowers.

Here is the recipe with links:

Ribbon Girl

White Purple Pink Wild Rose 30mm

Lilac White Two Tone Cherry Blossom

White Sweetheart Blossom

White Kort and Godt Crysanth

Iced Lime Seam Binding

Ivory Pearls Trim

Stardust Stickles

Noor Designs UK

Joy Craft Cutting & Embossing Circle Die Butterflies

Joy Craft Embossing & Cutting Butterfly Edge Die

Joy Craft Cutting & Embossing Vintage Swirl Leaf Die

The Craft Barn

Gathered Twigs Distress Inks

Sir Stampalot

Magnolia Doo Hickey Tilda Label Die

Didn't realise how many embellies I used, just got carried away.

Anyway time to get on with some serious stamping thanks for visiting

Hugs

Jacqui xxx

To a Treasured Friend

Morning my lovelies, a change from me today, it is still a Lili of the Valley Stamp and Sentiment, but not a sneak peek, New Hat is one of Returning Friends Release, I am so pleased to see these old favourites back as they have made me dig out my older stamps and use them again, the sentiment is from Vintage Sentiment- Just to Say Sheet.

I have used mostly older stash on this card, the flowers are a mixture from The Ribbon Girl and Wild Orchid Crafts, Seam Binding is also from the Ribbon Girl, The string of pearls I found on E-Bay last year.  Tags are a Doo Hickey Die absolutely ages old, I do have a link for the Vintage Flourishes Leaf Die, they come from a fantastic range by Joy Design sold by Noor Designs UK, I added a touch of Frantage to the image just because I could lol!!!

I  bought a copy of Corel Paintshop Pro last night and hope to download it today,  maybe it will help with the quality of the photos, Of course the image has been coloured with Copics - what else- the colours are below:

Skin E11, E21, E00, DE0000

Hat C3, C1, B32, B41, Y11

Dress B32, B41 & Colourless Blender

Hair Y11.

Thanks peeps for visiting, hope you enjoyed looking, have a brilliant day

Hugs Jacs xxxxx

A New PC and a New Start

Greeting Peeps, yes its me back from the blogging wilderness with a new look, a new PC and a new set of stamps in fact everything I need to start crafting again, all I hope is that after such a long absence I can remember how to blog!!!!!!

After suffering my own (to borrow a saying from the Queen) "Annus Horribilis" I had decided never to craft again, so my Craft room had been turned back into a bedroom again and my very large stash had been relegated to the loft.  Then I went on a 2 week break to California to attend my Nephews Johns wedding and spent lots of time with my Brother and Sister in Law I enjoyed myself so much and came home revitalized and realized how much I missed crafting and all my blogging friends so here I am.  I have bought a New PC and although I lost everything on my old one and am starting from scratch I am gradually finding my way around it and uploading photo editing software as and when I can afford it.  

As you can see I have had the blog revamped, now I don't want you to think that I have also had a brain transplant and have suddenly become a computer wiz, the lovely Sharon and D from Plumrose Lane actually did all the hard work, they were so helpful nothing was too much trouble for them, so if you are thinking about a new look blog please visit their website.

As most of my stamps are still in the loft under piles of  Paper, Dies etc, I just HAD TO pop over to my favorite stamp store which is of course Lili of the Valley and buy some new ones, plus a few paper pads (well I think the total is now 6 so not sure if that can be considered a few).  I was so pleased to see that my favorite bear had made an appearance in the new 2013 Christmas Release, I just love James and as a bonus he is so easy to colour, but somehow all the rest of the release slipped into my basket, see I haven't changed that much.  I have Chosen to use "James-Snowman"  as my image and the backing papers are from Krafty Christmas and Frosty Christmas Pads the image has been coloured with a mixture of Copic Ciaos, Copic Markers and Polychromos pencils (colours used below).

I managed to unearth some of my old Magnolia Dies so I have used Sprawling Fern, Vintage Label and Peony Petals for my embellies.

Before I started making my cards I trawled the blogs to see if there were any new trends I needed to catch up on and one idea I really liked was the use of Fran-tage embossing enamels, so I decided to give it a try, after using Embossing Pad, Glue, Embossing Pen and even paint I was ready to give up, finally I e-mailed Becky from the LOTV Design Team and asked her advice she was really helpful and I think I am on the way to grasping the technique, by the way I noticed this morning that Becky has uploaded a video tutorial to U-Tube on the self same subject so here is the link.

Phew!! forgot how long this blogging lark takes so thats it for me today, I will be back not sure if I will blog everyday, just take it easy for a little while, but I must admit that I have made lots of new cards with my new stamps over the last week so shouldn't be too long before I am back full time.

Before I go here are the Copic Colours for you:

James: E37, E33, E53, E50, E59

Blue Hat and Scarf: B28, B24, B32, B41

Snowman: C3, C1, C0, R20

Snowmans Hat & ScarfE49, E74, E43, E40

Snowmans Nose: YR09, Y17 

Thanks for looking

Hugs