The thing that stopped me blogging

Hi to all you lovely crafting friends out there, hope you all had a great Christmas and have a super new year. Our has been a quiet one spent with family , just the thing after the building work we have had done.
Our move to Chester fell through so we decided to spend some money on the house where in . We have had walls and ceilings down  , new kitchen , doors through to the garage , new carpets , furniture etc. We are really pleased , but living with all the mess and strange men in your home week in week out , is rather stressful and keeping the dust down impossible . Any way instead of wittering on I'll show you some pics of before and after.

I hope Santa brought some nice craft goodies , I got a silhoutte portrait . It is so fab , I love it, only regret I didn't get it years ago , no need for die cuts and die cutting machines , any size or shape you want . I will show you some of the things I've made using it in other posts. 

All the best for 2014. janex

12 Days Of Christmas , Graphic 45 , Boxes

As I said in my earlier post I have been crafting , if not blogging , and these are some boxes I've covered with the beautiful "Twelve Days Of  Christmas " 12x12 papers from Graphic 45. I also made some lovely 8x8 cards with these papers , but they sold before I'd had time to photograph them.
The boxes I bought from my local craft center , the oblong box is a good size with a hinged lid , and at £1.99  I thought very good value. I'm going to fill them with chocolates and give them as Christmas presents , the boxes of course can be brought out as decorations every Christmas.

The oblong box : features the Christmas rose paper , glitter ribbon from do craft , flowers, fancy button, holly berries and cones from hobby craft, fixed on with pinflair gel glue. I then sprayed with crafters companion stick and shine  and sprinkled with a little fine gold glitter.

The hexagon box: features various papers from  "Twelve Days Of  Christmas " 12x12 papers from Graphic 45. Glued on with do craft tacky glue and the edges inked with a red chalk ink. The large flowers are made using Tim Holtz tattered floral die , I followed this wonderful video tutorial here, by a fabulous crafter I happened to stumble across on the web. They are so easy to make from this tutorial and they look so lovely made from Bazil paper/card.My leaves are a woodware punch , the lovely veining is achieved with a long thin tweezers , twisted like shown for the flower petals in the tutorial. I think this makes all the difference and use this Technique all the time now. My where a 3 pack from do craft. The burgundy flower is a dynamics rolled die and the dark green vine a Marianne die cut. The gold lace trim was found in my stash , think it was from hobby craft? The best way to attach this is with glue dots. I sprayed and glittered as with the other box.

Challenges entered : The hexagon box : crafting when we can : make your own flowers

                                                                           Winter wonderland : use checks (checked paper on box      and green flower)

                                                                Sparkles Christmas Challenge : anything but a card

                                            Totally papercraft : no squares allowed

    rose oblong box : 613 avenue : anything goes 

Well rather a big post , especial after all this time , but I thought you would like to see my Christmas boxes and if you have that TimHoltz die, as lots of us have , please try the flowers with the great tutorial video. 

Happy rafting , and try not to blow away in the windy UK.

janex

Long time no blogging

Hi crafting friends , sorry I've been missing from blogland for awhile . I have been crafting though. I've recently been into decorating boxes and making flowers, these I will blog in other posts.
Any way in my last post I said we where moving house, Chester, well best laid plans and all that ! well it all fell through at the last minute. We where packed , I'd sold my 2 leather sofas to a friend and then a bomb shell ! the woman buying the bungalow of the couple buying our house pulled out. We were gutted, and went off the idea of moving at all. So we are staying put and making improvements to our house . new kitchen, walls down and maybe a downstairs loo.
Hope your all fine and having a lovely crafting time. The clocks have gone back , dark so early then yuk, and a storm is brewing over the UK, so best just get cosy in your raft dens.
janex

Graphic 45 cards and pictures of Chester

Hi Crafting friends , I've been neglecting my blog , various things , too hot , busy with the house etc. Yesterday my hubby was at work all day so I had a play in my craftroom using the wonderful 12x12 papers by Graphic 45. I've always loved their stuff, this years Secret Garden has really inspired me and so has place in time and Ladies Diary.
The elegant lady in the first pic has already been sent to a lovely lady and a family member on my hubbies side. She loves my cards and will be thrilled to receive this I'm sure.
I hope your all doing fine and enjoying the fine weather (in the UK) , makes a change doesn't it ! although sleeping is hard in stuff bedrooms built to keep the heat in. Well it's dull now following heavy rain last night.
I'm going to my local craft shop this afternoon, think some more Graphic 45 papers will be falling into my basket.


Things are progressing well with the house move , we can't wait , living in the center of Chester will be such a change but one we are all looking forward to . My son Sam will be able to walk to work in 5 mins as opposed to an hour on the bus. The river , great pubs and restaurants, not to mention shops all on the door step. The pics bellow show Chester, our house is very near the city walls , they surround Chester and you can walk all round the looking down on the people bellow . The walls by us have steps down to the Roman gardens, more steps down from here and your at the river (Dee).  The clock pictured is on the walls on the East Gate bridge , it's the most photographed clock after Big Ben.

well hope you enjoyed the picture fest , or maybe I just bored you. Time to jump in the shower now and then have breakfast. Have a great day.
happy crafting. janex

Deserving a rest

 I think a lot of us are a bit hot and bothered at the moment, hopefully not as much as the bloke in my card.
This image is from The best of just inklined cd. I've coloured with pro and flex markers.
The sentiment is pc generated , the paper is papermania "happy days" and the button embellishments , buttons galore.

Not been crafting/blogging as much as things are moving along with the house sale, plus the hot weather.
We have sold our house and we are buying a house in the center of Chester. Big life style change, no garden ...well a tiny back yard  but I'll still have a craft room ...so happy days.

enjoy the sun and happy crafting. janex

Fabulous

Well this image by Mo Manning is fabulous and so is the weather in the UK for a change.
Just had folks look at the house , they seemed to really like it but who knows!

I coloured  my image with pro and flex markers, the papers are do craft tales of the river bank. I've used a sizzix star die cut and a daisy button for an embellishment.

challenges entered :

Mo's digital challenge : F is for , mines f for fabulous
sketch Saturday : followed the sketch above
allsorts : favourite things ( mines colouring in cute and funny images with my pens)
one stop craft challenge : anything goes

Enjoy the weekend and enjoy the great weather if you have it. janex

Marianne Design 50's style

I love retro and 50's style so I just had to have the new range from Marianne Designs . It was my birthday on Friday so my hubby and my son treated me to the stamps , die cuts and papers. I have had fun playing with these lovelies.

Enjoy the rest of Sunday. It's a brief post because my hubby is getting hungry so I'll have to become a kitchen queen myself , instead of a craft queen. 

janex

Alisa With Roses

Hi crafter's been a bit awol lately, a really mixed week. It was Gary's funeral on Tuesday, Sam and I went. The sun shone and his friends and family did him proud.His biker friends all rode together to the church with a police escort. His lovely brave wife Shelly stood in the church and talked of her love for him and the sounds of sobbing filled the little village church. The turn out was amazing and a real tribute to a well liked man. The church was so packed over 40 just stood in the gardens outside. He was only 46 and fought a brave battle against cancer. God Bless Gary.

On to my card,coloured this image with all my bright promarkers. She is so pretty and so beautiful drawn by Mo you can't go wrong. The paper is family ties by first edition , this has a lovely glittery effect.
The chipboard  sentiment is country diary a magazine free gift with a little yellow bow added.

challenges entered :

Mo's digital challenge : bright colours
passion for promarkers : floral fantasy
I love promarkers : anything goes

Well it's my birthday tomorrow , 21 again , alas no 46 , I'm not fussed about birthdays now I'm older but I will be getting some new craft stuff , so that's good.
Weather is miserable here today , still most of the week has been good. I'll try and catch up with you all soon.
Happy crafting. janex

Sailor Crew

Well my hubby is back at work, I am tomorrow, and the weather has changed , it rained this morning but it seems to be brightening up now. Well  I'm still in a summery mood ,crafting wise anyway!
I bought some Mo Manning , hobby house toppers at my local craft shop , aren't they adorable , little sailor suited boys with a mop of flaxen hair.
The papers are 12x12 from the sail away range from docraft, as are the sentiment and stickers. The ribbon and  red net where also from the craft shop. I've added novelty nautical buttons from craftime dress it up and  some large metal brads .

 I've carried the theme on the inside of the cards to give a really special look.

challenges entered :

The cutie pie challenge : one for the kids

creative card crew  :  metal  (large metal brads on the card bellow  )

paper take weekly : hello boys

enjoy your day and happy crafting. janex