Exciting News!

Hello ladies, I have some very exciting news to tell you all. I have been invited by the lovely Sammi, to be part of her Design Team at Mad For Markers for the next 3 months. Woo Hoo!! You could have blown me over with a feather. I will be part of a team with these extremely talented and lovely ladies. Pop over to their blogs and check out their amazing creations.

Sammi

Tracey

Emma

Debra

Kristy

Mandy

Kylie

Sue

We will be holding fun challenges, show fab tutorials and have guest designers show their amazing talent.

Sammi has also just opened up her Mad for markers online store. This store has all of your copic needs (and wants).. It's fantastic.

So a huge "CONGRATULATIONS" to you Sammi and thank you so much for asking me to come along for the ride.

Take care xo Jackie

Magnolia Down Under Challenge

This week MDUC have a fab sketch challenge. I love having a sketch to follow, it takes alot of the guess work out. I will also enter this into the Little Red Wagon Challenge.


Here is the card I made for it. Another gorgeous Tilda image. I coloured her with my copic markers. The dp is from Bec and the rest is from my own stash.

I have to head off now and get the kids ready for school. Have a wonderful day my lovely friends.

Take care xo Jackie

Happy Birthday Little Sister

Hello all my lovely blogging friends. Here is a card I whipped up yesterday afternoon for one of my sisters' birthday. Deb's Birthday isn't until next month, but now I wont be rushing at the last moment. This gorgeous Tilda image was so kindly sent to me from the gorgeous Kylie. Thank you my dear friend.

I've found a couple of challenges that I thought I'd enter it into.

* Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge (spring)
* Little Red Wagon (copics)
* The Wild Flower Patch (spring cleaning)
* Flutterby Wednesday Challenge (green)
* The Secret Crafters Saturday Challenge (spring)

Wish me luck!

On the home front, Matthew and Lauren still have the sniffles but no spots. Fingers crossed. Erin is feeling a lot better but is still unable to go to UNI or work. Thank you for all of your kind words. I showed Erin each and everyone of them which put a smile on her face.

Well I'm off to catch up on the lovely chore which is housework. No rest for the wicked they say! Thank you for taking the time to visit.

Take care xo Jackie

Catch The Bug Challenge

Here are two more of the gorgeous skelekinz from Bugaboo. I've had these images coloured for a little while but hadn't made them into cards. The sketch they are using this week over at Catch the bug challenge, was perfect to finish these little cuties off. They're so much fun to colour as are all the images Jodie has created. I'm entering both of these cards into the challenge, wish me luck.


Thank you for all your well wishes for my daughter Erin. She is slowly on the mend but very spotty. My other daughter Lauren had the day off school today as she's not feeling too well. mmm....I wonder??? I wouldn't be suprised if she becomes spotty over the weekend.

Have a wonderful weekend my lovely blogging friends.

Take care xo Jackie

Another Tilda

Here is my other new Tilda I received in the mail last Friday. Isn't she just the cutest?

I coloured her with copic markers and used flower soft on the flowers in her arms. I also used the Martha Stewart punch for the butterflies and border.

I've just come back from taking my daughter Erin to the doctors and the poor darlin' has chicken pox. She's 18 and is quite unwell with it. My two other children haven't had them yet, so we could be in for a houseful of sick kids.

Thank you for all of your kind messages that you leave, they really make my day.

Take care xo Jackie

Sweet Tilda

This is one of the newest additions to my Magnolia family.. I received her last Friday from Bec. I just couldn't wait to have a play with her. The cardstock and some of the flowers are from Bec and the rest is from my own stash. I'm entering her into the Fun with Shapes and More challenge , Cute card Thursday, and Flutter By Wednesday Challenge.

Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend. I'll be back tomorrow with another card I made last night.

Take care xo Jackie

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge

Just a real quick on today. Here is the card I just finished for the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge. This weeks challenge was to only use shades of grey and black and white. We were permitted to use skin tones and colour for hair. I added some bling, even a dark girl like her needs some bling.

Take care xo Jackie

Magnolia Down Under Challenge

This is my first time at entering the Magnolia Down Under Challenge. Wish me luck. This weeks challenge is to use 3 papers, 3 flowers, 2 buttons and 1 bow.

I coloured this little cutie with copic markers to match the dp. The stamped sentiment is from SU and the sweet little butterflies are a Martha Stewart punch.

Thank you for taking the time to visit.

Take care xo Jackie

Freaky Flutter

I thought I'd give one of these easel cards a shot. I'm entering it into two challenges.

1. The sweet stop sketch challenge
2. Cute card Thursday challenge (I think I might just make it by the skin of my teeth).

I purchased this gorgeous image yesterday from TGF. There are 3 little sweeties in this range.

The DP and flowers are from a pack I bought from the gorgeous Bec. The butterflies are a Martha Stewart punch. I coloured her with copic markers.

Last Sunday morning, I attended a flower soft class at my local craft shop. I had a great morning creating with some very nice ladies. It was so nice just to sit down, have everything cut to size and have someone tell you what you need to do. My mojo has gone on walkabout and I'm not sure when it will return.

Thank you for taking the time to visit and leaving such encouraging comments.

Take care xo Jackie

Friendly Challenge

My dear friend Kylie, emailed me last weekend and suggested that we take a personal challenge with each other to create something. So after some tooing and froing, we decided on a "Clean out the cupboard Challenge". We had to decorate our wooden bags, which by the way, we purchased well over a year ago. We needed to use ribbon, bling and flowers. No bright colours were allowed. Well, this is what I came up with.



I painted the bag, then applied the DP. I Then put on 2 layers of lace and then had fun (not) sticking the row of pearl beads on. This is on the backside also. I have still to finish the inside. This project when finished, will be a Mothers Day gift for my mum. I think I'll print off some photo's of her and me and make a small scrapbook to place inside.

Head on over to Kylies blog and check out her amazing creation. She is one incredibly talented lady.

Thanks for all the lovely comments you leave me. I appreciate each and everyone of them.

Take care xo Jackie

Blog Awards

I have been meaning to post these awards for the last couple of weeks. Thank you to the very special ladies who thought of me.

The first one I received from the lovely Kylie, lovely Janiel and lovely Heather.

With this award, I need to list a few things about myself. Here goes.

1. I have been married to my wonderful husband for 20 years.

2 I have 3 children, Erin 18, Lauren 13 and Matthew 10 and they are my life.

3. I collect witches. My house it literally full of them.

4. I believe in crystal healing.

5. I have 3 younger sisters.

6. I make friendships for life.

7. Chocolate and coffee are my weekness, especially when served together. mmm.

8. I'm only 5ft 2" and my husband is 6ft 2".

9. I enjoy all forms of crafting.

10. I adore scented candles. I have them everywhere.

It's really quite hard to list things about yourself.

Thank you ladies, you certainly are sweet friends. I would like to forward this award onto all my sweet friends who take the time to visit and leave lovely comments.

This next award is from the beautiful Barbara.

I would like to pass this award onto these incredibly talented ladies.

Kylie

Merry

Janiel

Heather

Cheryl

Michele

Abby

Camilla


This next award, I received this morning from the lovely Merry.


I would like to pass this award onto the following ladies.

Bec

Cheryl

Mumur

Dawn

Norma

Carmen

Andie

Vicki

Kim

Milli

Linda

Bev

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend.

Take care xo Jackie

Sketchy Colors Challenge

Just a quick post today to show you my card I'm entering into the Sketchy Colours Challenge. Their theme for this week is PINK/LIGHT GREEN/DARK GREEN. This is hubby's belated Valentine's Card. I wouldn't normaly put flowers on a card for a man, but I think it's ok. He went out into our back garden on Sunday and picked me a lovely bunch of roses, so these are mine to him. lol.

The image is from Karen's Doodles and I coloured it with my copic markers. All the flowers are from Bec's online store. She's the best around. Believe me..

I'm not feeling too crash hot at the moment, so I'm heading off for a bit of a Nanna nap! Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and for leaving your lovely comments.

Take care xo Jackie

Flutter By Wednesday Challenge

I thought I'd enter this card into the Flutter By Wednesday Challenge. I used my beautiful new Sweet Pea Stamp. I found the tutorial for this card style at StampARTic here.
Excuse my finger in the first image. I hadn't located my velcro dots at that stage and I needed the front of the card to stay closed. I coloured her with my copic markers. The gorgeous paper is from my local craft shop, I just had to have it as soon as I saw it. My fav colours.

Please don't look too closely at the rub on greeting. It was transfering really well to start off with and then it shifted..eekkk. I had to go in with a black pen to fill in the missing bits. Doesn't that just rot ya socks.. Anyhoo, I hope it's not too noticeable. I made the little flowers with a couple of my punches. (Oh my goodness..I have only just realised, there is a piece of sticky strip backing on the bottom of this piece. OMG..how did I not see that?) lol.. Please disregard that little piece of red, it's definately NOT a part of the card. grrrr.



Let me know what you think.

Take care xo Jackie

More Skelekinz Images

Just a quick post to show you a couple more of the amazing digi's in the skelekinz range from Bugaboo. As I've said previously, I'm mad for these darling little images. I was lucky enough to get second place in Catch the Bug challenge and I received 4 free images from Bugaboo. So now I'm the lucky owner of all of this set.


I hope you like them.

Yesterday I received a stunning gift in the mail from my dearest friend Kylie. Go here to have a look at it. It truly is beautiful. Thank you my lovely friend.

Thank you for all your kind comments. I appreciate each and everyone of them.

Take care xo Jackie

Catch the bug challenge

This weeks challenge over at Catch the Bug , is to create a card for Valentines Day, but the catch is that you can't use traditional colours, ie red and pink. So here is my attempt. I'm head over heals for these images at the moment. They are called Skelekinz and are available from the gorgeous Jodie over at Bugaboo Stamps.

I have coloured her with my copic markers. All cardstock is from Stampin' Up! and the cobwebby ribbon (if that's a word) is from a local craft store. I hope you like it.

Take care and have a wonderful weekend. xo Jackie

Card for Evan

While visiting one of my favourite blog friends, the lovely Barbara Diane (here) today, she had a very special post about a little boy named Evan. This little sweetie has Autism and has been placed in mainstream schooling and has been having a hard time trying to fit in with his class mates. His class is holding a contest to see who can collect the most cards from different states and countries. Apparently, he has been getting bombarded with cards each day and the other children are so excited to see what mail he receives each day at school. What a wonderful way for them to bond. This story touches my heart as my little man has Aspergers (high functioning autism) and has just started a new school. So far so good. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. If you would like to join in on this wonderful idea, head on over to Barbara Dianes blog (here). Or just send it onto this address:

Evan Rupp c/o Mrs. Parvizi First Grade, Frederick Douglas Elementary School, 100 Cedarmeade Ave, Winchester, VA 22601. Mention on the cards that you are a friend of his Grandma Froggy.

Will be back tomorrow with a couple of card's I've been working on. I'm loving Bugaboo images at the moment especially the Skelekin images.

Take care xo Jackie

Roses on Paper and Spoon Full of Sugar Challenges

I though of entering this into the Rose on Paper Challenge here , and A Spoon Full of Sugar freestyle Challenge here .

I have been wanting to make one of these adorable little boxes for quite sometime, but needed to find these cute little Tim Holtz hitch fastners for the drawers. Well I did it and am totally in love with it. I think SCS have a tutorial on it, but I found mine on Kirsten's blog here. The gorgous little Tilda is one of Kylies' new babies. She was so kind as to let me ink her up first. ;)

All of the beautiful flowers are from Bec as is the digi greeting and the paper and ribbon is from my stash.






Wish me luck for both challenges.. I hope you like it. Thank you to all the lovely ladies who take the time to leave their encouraging comment. It really makes my day.

Take care xo Jackie

Weekend Creations

I know it's a little late, but here is the first card I made on the weekend. (Well finished off anyway). I made this one for my nephew Nathaniel. He will be turning 7 next month. This cute little image is from Victoria Case.

I coloured him with my copic markers. The DP is from my stash and the card base is SU pumpkin pie.

The next card took me right out of my comfort zone. I only used 3 colours except for the skin of course. I purchased this little cutie on the weekend from bugaboo. I'll be popping her into the mail today to send off to someone extra special. hmmm...wonder who that will be? Even though this person watched me create this card, it could only go to her. Does that make sense?? clear as mud to me. lol..


Head on over to Kylie's blog and check out her stunning card she made while she was here. She would have had 2 made as well, except we had a horrible incident with my white highlighter. She will fill you in on all the details. Needless to say, it was tossed straight into the trash.

Take care xo Jackie

Fantastic Weekend

I had the most wonderful long weekend visit with Kylie and her family. They arrived Saturday afternoon and my kids still had no idea that they were coming. When they arrived, I took Miki (Kylie's eldest daughter, and my daughter's bestest buddy) up to Laurens room. I poked my head around the door and put on my grumpy voice and said, "What is this Lauren?" then proceeded to bring Miki into the room. OMG the look on Lauren's face was priceless. All she could say was OMG and next minute the tears started to fill her eyes. It was beautiful. Needless to say, they were inseparable all weekend long. My son Matt and Kylies son Brodie were pretty much the same. Matt adores Brodie and had the best time with him. Jorjia was a little quiet at first, looking arond everywhere. You could see that she was thinking, this is all of Auntie Jacks stuff, but why is it in a different house. We had lots of squidges (cuddles) together, it was beautiful.
We did a couple of touristy things for the kids. Took them to Cockington Green, which is a minature english village, a walk-in bird avery. The kids loved feeding the birds. Then my hubby took them all to a reptile park. That was Kylie's and my opportunity to check out the local craft store.
Here is a pic my hubby took of Kylie and me at Cockington Green.


We did quite a bit of shopping. I took Kylie to an adorable little country cottage shop. She fell in love with just about everything in it. She bought these adorable little shabby chic rosette hangers. So adorable. But the best find we had all weekend, had to have been these containers for our copic markers. I'm sure they were made for them. As soon as we saw them, we both let out a little squeal. lol... Anyone near us would have thought that we had totally lost the plot. lol.. We had both been looking for something to store and carry our copics in and this was perfect. We picked them up from the Reject Shop for only $15. Amazing.


As you can see, it hold quite a few markers and there is also storage up at the top as well. It has a little carry handle too. Love it!!

Because we were so busy, and time just flew by, we didn't get much of a chance to get alot of crafting done, but we did get a little done. I'll be back soon with that.

I tell you what, when they left, my heart broke all over again. I miss them all terribly. Poor little Jorjia cried so much when they were leaving. She told Kylie that she wanted to stay here at Auntie Jack's. Yep... just ripped my heart out. You only come along friends like this once in a lifetime and I'm so thankful for that.

Take care xo Jackie

I'm Back ! ! !

Oh my god, I can't believe that I'm finally back in the land of blogging again. I have missed you all soooo much. We have had so much trouble transfering our internet service to our new home, it's been ridiculous. I wont even begin trying to explain it all. Anyway, it's up and running now, so that's all that matters. Wheew... I hope you have all been well and creating like crazy. lol. My beautiful friend Kylie, has been keeping me up to date with all that's been going on.

So much has happend in the last 3-4 weeks, my head is still spinning. We have settled into our new home and I'm finding my way around quite well. We are expecting some very special visitors tomorrow. Kylie and her family are making the trip down to see us. I can't wait. I haven't told the kids yet, decided to keep it a suprise. I miss them so much. Kylie is bring her copics with her, so we can lock ourselves in my craft room with a bottle or 6 of our favourite wine and craft all night if we so choose. Can you tell I'm a little excited.

I took my copics with me in the car when we moved. I just didn't quite trust them to go on the long trip by themselves. I did get some colouring done while we were in our motel, just have to make them into cards now.

Here is a card I made for my Nan and Pop for Valentines Day. Just to let them know how much they are loved. The image is from Mo's Digital Pencil. Aren't they adorable.


The next card, I made for Kylies beautiful son Brodie. I can't believe he is going to turn 16 next month. He is such a gorgeous young man, very thoughtful and kind. I just adore him. It's not a typical card for a 16 year old but it just reminds me of him and how he has actually filled those baggy clothes.


Well, I don't think I'll be getting much sleep tonight. I just want to catch up with you all and see what you've been up to. wish me luck.

Sooo glad to be back. Take care xo Jackie