Happy New Year!

Just a very brief post tonight to wish all my wonderful and

talented bloggy friends a very safe, healthy, and

I hope 2015 fulfills all your hopes and dreams, and that fate is

kind to you all.

Thank you each and every one of you for your visits to my blog,

and for all your lovely encouraging comments.

I'm off now to watch Sydney's fireworks display on TV... the 

supposedly best New Year's Eve show in the world!!!!

Hugs,

Jennifer. x

Favourite 5 Christmas Cards

Lovely Debby is once again hosting her annual 'My Favourite Christmas Cards' 

challenge, so I thought I might join in.

It really is difficult to choose my favourite 5 cards, as all my cards have elements

that I love, but also elements that I would change in a flash, given the chance.

Here they are, in no particular order. If you want details of each card,
click on their titles.

James and His Snowman

Christmas Wishes

White and Gold Poinsettia

Vintage Christmas

Christmas Cardinal

Farewell Fairies

Oops, I just realised that I have put up 6 cards, not 5! Hope that is okay, as

I don't know which one of the 6 I would eliminate. I also see that 3 of

the 6 cards feature my much-loved, embossed poinsettias.

Must go and attend to my 'patient'. John is feeling much better today, and is able

eat without any adverse effects. Thank you so much to those of you who left

'well-wishes'. He of course is very restricted with his activities because of 

the plaster cast, so naturally he is getting frustrated with it...what will

he be like after 6 weeks of wearing it!!!!

Challenge

Debby 4000 - 'My Favourite Five Christmas Cards of 2014'

Thank you for visiting,

Hugs, 

Jennifer. x

What A Day!

Today is my birthday, and what a day of ups and downs!

John and I had planned our usual 'Jennifer's birthday' excursion to the 

lovely Central Coast, about 1 1/2 hours drive from here.

HOWEVER, when I came home from the Fort yesterday evening, John

said he had started to get back into cleaning out our large fish pond. He

started the task about 3 weeks ago, but had a fall in the pond, cutting and 

badly bruising his foot. The cut became infected, and has only just started to

to heal in the past few days, so 'muggins' decided to get back into the

pond, and try again. Grrrrrrrrr!!

Yes, you guessed it...he slipped and fell again! He showed me his hand...it

was black, and the size of a bear's paw, with his wedding ring buried deep in
the swelling. After 10 minutes of an "it's nothing, just bruised, I don't need a
Dr" argument, followed by a 45 minute drive into town, and a long wait in
the E.D., x-rays revealed a spiralled break the full length of the longest
bone in the back of his hand...just what a professional pianist needs!!! 2
doctors saw him, and decided to hold off until Wednesday, after more
x-rays, as to whether they will operate and put a pin in his hand. John
is wearing a plaster from the tips of his fingers, almost to his elbow.

We got home very late last night, and both slept fitfully, then shortly after

we got up, poor John doubled over with cramps, and so began a day of...

shall we just say...a serious tummy upset. I had to help him shower 4 times.

There were several people sitting near us in the waiting room with 'tummy

upsets', so I think that is where John picked up the bug.

Several lovely friends rang me, and I received some beautiful cards in the

mail, so my birthday did have some high points.

I would like to say "hello and thank you" to Larelle, who is a close 

friend of my dearest and longest friend, Diane. Apparently Larelle 

looks up my blog almost every day.

My 'patient' has just had a piece of dry toast and some lemonade with no

'reaction', so I will go and tuck him in for the night.

Until next time,

Hugs, 

Jennifer. x

6 Card Order

I PROMISE, THERE WILL BE NO MORE POINSETTIA CARDS...

(for this year, anyway!).

About 3 weeks ago, I gave out one of my Christmas cards to each of the 

various departments at the Fort (each card very different from the rest).

The card I gave to the President, Committee, and Admin. staff is here.

A few afternoons later, one of the Admin staff rang me at home, to tell me 

how much they all loved my card. She said the President loved it so 

much, he was wondering if I could make 6 the same, and possibly 

have them ready in 2 1/2 days! "Crikeys", I thought in a panic,

but calmly said "yes, of course". A couple of very late

nights later, all 6 were finished and boxed.

I'm sorry the photo is rather blurred...I took the photos in a 'mad hurry', 

and realised after I had delivered the cards, that I had my camera on

the wrong setting.

Dies - Tim Holtz (Sizzix) Tattered Poinsettia; Impression Obssession Pine Branches; Cheery Lynn Wreath Strip, Merry Christmas set

Punch - Martha Stewart Branch

Embossing - Tim Holtz (Sizzix) Texture Fades Textured Poinsettia Pattern Set

Ink For Sponging - Tim Holtz Distress Ink Antique Linen

Bead Sprays and Cluster made by me from beads in junk stash

We have had several lots of lovely visitors today, and I am exhausted. As I have to be up very early for duty at the Fort all day tomorrow, and have the long drive there and home, I had better have a quick shower and try to get some sleep.

Until next time, 

Hugs, 

Jennifer. x

Oh Christmas Tree

What a pathetic effort...Boxng Day has less than an hour left, and here I am

still showing you Christmas cards!

These two cards are almost the same, but I still made slight differences, so

as to adhere to my personal policy of not creating two cards the same.

One card was for the wonderful volunteers in the workshop at

 the Fort, and the other was for a dear friend in England.

I used one of the techniques I demonstrated at a craft fair in September...

that of applying a peel-off outline sticker to double-sided adhesive 

paper, covering the image and surrounding area with ultra-fine

glitter, then colouring the glitter with alcohol markers. It is a

very quick and effective technique, but the incredible 

sparkle just does not show in the photos.

Inside the cards was identical.

Challenges

I Love Promarkers #250 - 'Anything Goes'

Milk Coffee - 'Make It Sparkle'

Images - Peel-off stickers Elizabeth Craft Christmas Trees

Colouring - Promarkers

Paper - Cre8ive

Dies - Spellbinders Scalloped Rectangles; Sullivans Stars

Peel-off border stickers are from my junk stash

I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas, and didn't overdo the feasting, as John and I did. We had a very quiet day with just the 2 of us at home all day. 

Tomorrow, I will return when I will create my last post with Christmas cards...I promise! I really must get into non-Christmas card-making, as I have lots of birthdays in January, and also a new baby card to make as well.

Thank you for visiting,

Hugs, 

Jennifer. x

Happy Christmas Day!

Well bloggy friends, the big day is finally here.

This is just a very brief post to wish you all a very

HAPPY CHRISTMAS,

and to say "thank you" for all your visits to my blog,

and for leaving your lovely, encouraging comments.

Big Christmas Hugs, 

Jennifer. xx

P.S. I found the gorgeous image above on a freebie Christmas Pinterest site, 

but there was no link to the original owner, so if it is your image, or you

know who painted it, I would love to know so that I can give due credit.

O Come All Ye Faithful

"What a relief", I hear you sigh, "not a poinsettia in sight"!

This card is for a lovely friend who lives in England, and is a very talented

lady, whose watercolouring of stamped images is second to none. In fact

the gorgeous guru himself, Tim Holtz, has given her a mighty "thumbs 

up" for her colouring. Many of you will know her by the name, 

Squirrel, and her favourite style is CAS.

The first time I saw this little cutie, I fell in love, and just had to bring

him home with me. This is the first time he has seen ink. He comes 

with an assortment of Christmas greetings.

Inside the card with a large area on which I wrote my personal message.

Image - Crafter's Companion Makey Bakey Mice Christmas Carols

Colouring - Promarkers

Sentiment - Crafter's Companion Makey Bakey Mice Christmas Carols

Die - Memory Box Virtuoso Music

Punches - Martha Stewart Aspen Snowflake; Making Memories Corner Rounder

Challenges

Alphabet - 'W For Whiskers'

CAS on Sunday #49 - 'Christmas'

I Love Promarkers #250 - 'Anything Goes'

The Dream Factory #15 - 'A Christmas Carol' (O Come All Ye Faithful)

I made this card several weeks ago, and because of the image and the included sentiment (O Come All Ye Faithful, [which is my favourite Christmas hymn]), I used my music die which I have only used once before. 

I photographed my card, put the photos in my 'draft folder', then mailed the card to England. Imagine my surprise when 2 days later, I was browsing through various challenge blogs, and when I opened 'Animal Friends' there was a lovely card (posted that day) by Dreja (DT), using the same image and die. I'm definitely not a gambler, but in this case I would have liked to have had a large bet on a co-incidence like that occuring......truly amazing....we must have telepathic powers!

John and I are now off to battle the Christmas Eve supermarket crowds. We are also driving down to Newcastle to the Seafood Co-op where the seafood is always super-fresh. I just heard on the local radio that the queue outside the co-op is l.o.n.g!! In Australia, we tend to have seafood at Christmas, because the weather is usually scorching (often in the 40sC).

In case I do not get a chance to do so tonight or tomorrow, I would like to wish you all a very

 Happy Christmas.

Hugs, 

Jennifer. x

A Victorian Christmas

You will be pleased to know that I am getting to the end of my collection of

cards that feature 'that' poinsettia die and matching embossing folder.

I have to admit I was rather chuffed at how this card turned out. The papers

remind me of Victorian style wallpaper that can often be seen in old movies

and books. I really must use that branch die more often...it is so versatile.

Those tiny little 'pinecones' are from a tree we planted in one of our 

front paddocks many years ago.

For a change, I did not adhere a die-cut panel in the inside of the card,

but wrote my personal message directly on the DP.

Dies - Tim Holtz (Sissix) Tattered Poinsettia; Memory Box Woodland Branch 

Embossing - Tim Holtz (Sizzix) Texture Fades Textured Poinsettia Pattern Set

Papers - Kaisercraft Turtle Dove

Sentiment - Kaisercraft Turtle Dove

Ink for Sponging - Distress Inks

Gold cord, beads, and 'pine cones' are from my junk stash

Challenge

A Crafty Mess #2 - 'Anything Goes/Traditional Christmas Colours'

Card Mania #62 - 'Christmas' HONOURABLE MENTION

Dragonfly Dreams #12 - 'Vintage'

Dream Valley #97 - 'Christmas'

Thank you for visiting, and also for your lovely comments,

Hugs, 

Jennifer. x

A Busy Little Mouse

With just a few more days to go before the big fella in the red suit visits,

I still have quite a few cards in my 'drafts' folder, so you may be seeing

Christmas cards into the New Year!

I sent this card to one of my friends and her family.We trained as nurses

in the late 1960s, and she and I, along with another lady, have

remained firm friends all these years.

You will probably recognise this cute little mouse, ever so anxious to deliver

all his parcels. I bought the stamp many years ago, and I love to bring it 

out each year for at least 1 card.

Inside my card.

Image - Penny Black Gifts Sedan

Colouring - Promarkers

Dies - Spellbinders Classic and Scalloped Rectangles, and Circles

Punch - Making Memories Corner Rounder

Paper - Not sure, I think it is from a Cre8tive stack

Star peel-off stickers are from my junk stash

Challenges

ABC - 'Z is For Zany'

A Crafty Mess #2 - 'Anything Goes/Traditional Christmas Colours'

Animal Friends #21 - 'Anything Goes (with an animal)'

I Love Promarkers #250 - 'Anything Goes'

Penny Black and More - 'Special Occasions'

The Dream Factory #15 - 'A Christmas Carol' (Driving Home For Christmas-Chris Rea)

I'm off to hang some washing on the line...it will probably dry in a few minutes, as it is a 'stinker' of a day again. Oh, how I long for winter!!!!

Until next time, thank you for visiting,

Hugs, 

Jennifer. x

Christmas Recycling

A big welcome to my new followers. I hope you enjoy your visits.

Sometimes a friend will give us a Christmas card that is just too lovely to

place in the council recycling bin when all the festivities have finished.

This card is made from one such card from last year. It was a beautiful

soft blue, pearlised card with glitter on some of the snowflakes. Silly

me didn't take a photograph of the original, fairly large square card.

The silver ribbon hides where I have joined the pieces. The bottom piece of

the card is part of a horizontal panel on the original, and I cut down the top

piece (at the bottom of the original) to position the greeting. I then

die-cut a large snowflake from some glittered cardstock (IRL it 

is VERY sparkly!), and added a card candi which is a perfect 

colour match for the greeting and red snowflakes.

Inside my card has 2 pieces of snowflake-embossed card (not from the

original card), with the join covered by the silver ribbon, which

was a freebie in a magazine several years ago.

We gave this card to the lovely lady who gave us the original last year.

She was thrilled by the fact that I could not discard it, and amazed 

at how I had transformed it into something different.

Dies - Spellbinders Classic and Scalloped Ovals; Marianne Snowflake

Embossing - Snowflakes (Unknown brand)

Card Candi - Craftwork Cards Christmas Mix

Ribbon - from my junk stash

Challenges

Get Creative #4 - 'Blue and White or Silver'

Sparkles Christmas #47 - 'It's A Blue, Blue Christmas' 

Yesterday, at the Fort we had our monthly guides meeting, followed by our Christmas luncheon. Tonight we are performing at the Fort for our Christmas party, which is for all members of the Fort Scratchley Historical Society, then tomorrow I am on duty all day, and we will be very busy, as there is a cruise ship calling into Newcastle for the day. On 'cruise ship days' we usually have 600-1,000 people visiting us.

If I manage to recover from these 3 days, I will be back at the weekend with another Christmas card, so until then, thank you for visiting, and "don't get your tinsel in a tangle".

Hugs, 

Jennifer. x

Another One!

Yes, friends, as I have confessed in the title of this post, I have another

card which features a poinsettia. I made this one for a friend, Maree,

who is a volunteer in the shop at the Fort.

Unfortunately the embossing on the layered panel does not show up well in

the photo...it has curved "Merry Christmas" all over it, and I positioned the

folder so as to show a "Merry Christmas" in the bottom right-hand corner

instead of a stamped greeting.

 

A closer look at the poinsettia. To say that I LOVE this die and the matching

embossing folder is a major understatement. The die alone is lovely, but the

embossing adds so much more texture. Before embossing the die-cut, I

sponged all the edges with Distress Ink. Once again, I made the bead

sprays with some of the glass beads I bought in Paris several years ago.

Inside the card. I also LOVE my Aspen Snowflakes corner and border punches, 

and they have certainly 'earned their keep' this Christmas.

Dies - Tim Holtz (Sizzix) Tattered Poinsettia; Impression Obssesson Pine Branches; Memory Box Holly Branch

Embossing - Tim Holtz (Sizzix) Texture Fades Textured Poinsettia Pattern Set; Crafter's Companion Christmas Merriment

Punches - Martha Stewart PATP Aspen Snowflakes

Sponging - Distress Inks Aged Mahogany

Sparklet - Kaisercraft

Gold cord and red glass beads are from my junk stash

Challenges

Brown Sugar #124 - 'Red, White and Green'

Challenge Up Your Life #4 - 'Christmas Without Christmas Stamps'

Crafts 4 Eternity #206 - 'Christmas'

That Craft Place - 'Christmas'

Wags 'n' Whiskers #144 - 'Merry Christmas'

As I am on duty at the Fort all day tomorrow, I have to be up very early in the morning, so I will bid you all goodnight.

Until next time, thank you for visiting,

Hugs, 

Jennifer. x

Presents For You

Wow, we really are in 'countdown mode' aren't we...so much to do

and so little time...18 days til the 'big day'! Thank goodness I 

finished my cards a while back, and have posted them all.

Because I had to post so many of my cards, I made quite a few of them

DL sized, so as to reduce the cost of postage. This is one of those.

A closer look at the cute little bear pretending that he is Santa,

delivering his presents.

I designed the inside of my card to match the front.

Image - Sharon Armstrong's Free digi Stamps (2011 Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine)

Colouring - Promarkers

Paper - Hobby Fun Co

Dies - Spellbinders Classic and Scalloped Circles and Ovals

Punch - Martha Stewart PATP Aspen Snowflakes

Embossing - Unknown brand folder

Stickles - Star Dust

Challenges

Brown Sugar #123 - 'Winter'

Crafts 4 Eternity #205 - 'Winter'

Craft Your Passion #242 - 'Christmas Presents'

Di's Digi Designs - 'Christmas'

Fan-tastic Tuesday #64 - 'Let's See Some Embossing'

Robyn's Fetish #241 - 'Christmas Cards'

Through The Purple Haze #71 - 'Use A Sentiment'

Thank you for visiting, and until next time..."happy crafting".

Hugs, 

Jennifer. x

Farewell Fairies

You may have guessed by the title of my blog that it is time to say goodbye to

Crafty Little Fairies. Yes, the very sad news is that our challenge blog is closing

after many happy and successful years. Originally we were Lili's Little Fairies. I 

was overjoyed 18 months ago when I was asked to join the super talented,

and lovely friendly fairies on their DT.

For our final challenge our theme is:-

'HOLLY AND/OR IVY'

You can use any image you wish, but please remember that it MUST be a hand

coloured, stamped or digi image, not a pre-coloured topper, or just die-cuts.

We have 4 fabulous sponsors, and they are

My card is for our lovely neighbours who have become dear friends.

(The 'Noel' is not crooked...I mounted it on 3D tape, and that is shadow,

as I photographed the card in early afternoon bright sunlight).

This is the first time I have used this sweet stamp which I bought several 

months ago after seeing it on so many blogs. 

Inside the card matches the front.

A closer look at the flower and foliage arrangement, in which I have

used both holly and ivy.

Image - Lili Of The Valley Christmas Candle

Colouring - Promarkers

Sentiment - Lili Of The Valley

Paper - First Edition Christmas Village

Dies - Spellbinders Classic and Scalloped Ovals, Decorative Labels Eight, Floral Ovals; Marianne Ivy Corners; Cheery Lynn Holly Strip, Wreath Strip

Punches - Making Memories Corner Rounder, Carl Fern

Sponging - Distress Inks Frayed Burlap, Walnut Stain, Pine Branch

Stickles - Star Dust

Flowers and ribbon from my junk stash

Challenges

A Crafty Mess #2 - 'Anything Goes-Traditional Christmas Colours'

Brown Sugar #123 - 'Winter'

Completely Christmas #41 - 'Add Some Holly'

C.R.A.F.T. #288 - 'Christmas'

Crafting For All Seasons #91 - ''Tis The Season'

Delightful - 'Twinkle, Twinkle (Add Something Sparkly) I hope the glitter on her hat, pom poms and flowers is enough sparkle.

Divas By Design - 'Feeling Festive'

DRS Designs - 'Glitter'

Sentimental Sundays #235 - 'Lots Of Layers'

Through The Purple Haze #70 - 'It's All About Christmas'

For a chance to win one of the lovely prizes, why not visit us at Crafty Little Fairies, get some inspiration from my fellow fairies' gorgeous creations, then enter our 'Holly and/or Ivy' challenge.

Before I close I just want to say how happy and proud I have been whilst on the CLF DT, and also thank the other fairies for their inspiration and support.

Until next time,

Hugs, 

Jennifer. x