Crafting Cafe Blog Hop.....and Surprise Candy...

Hello my lovelies,

 Welcome to the first ever crafting cafe blog hop - the Crafting Cafe is a friendly group of crafters over on Facebook who share their crafting journey together.... come on over and join us if you want to.

We are a very friendly bunch, who like to share hint's and tips and crafty inspiration as well as friendship too!

If you have started from the beginning of the hop you will have got to me from Janna's Blog.... If you found this hop by accident - welcome! To go to the beginning of the hop, pop on over to Nikki's Blog  and then you will get to see the beautiful creations from everyone!

I also have a lovely prize for one lucky winner of
Surprise Blog Hop Candy...
to be in with a chance of winning my candy you will have to start from the very beginning at Nikki's Blog, click on the link above. Leave everyone who is taking part in the Blog Hop a comment including mine. You will have 24 hours to do this. I will then add everyone's name that has commented on all our blogs into a pot and my lovely hubby will draw one name out who will be the winner!
When the winner has been chosen I will make an announcement here on my blog and notify the winner by email too. Good luck everyone, and enjoy the hop, I know there are some lovely prizes to win along the way!

The theme for our blog hop is 'Friendship', this is the card that I have made.

I chose to make an easel card as I love doing these. I printed some papers from the DoCraft's Digital Designer Papermania Capsule Collection. I attached them to the card so the front of the easel and the bottom matched with two co-ordinating papers, making sure they line up. I added vintage cotton embroidered with flowers ribbon and vintage lace. I used blue and yellow flowers along the edges and made little scrolls from the wires off the flowers and glued these to the row as shown. I cut a piece of spotty paper to size and used a Martha Stewart Punch Around The Page Hearts punch. I printed and cut out the gem flower and added a dot of stickles on each petal and embellished with two vintage  buttons. I stamped the 'Friendship' greeting onto card and cut out with wavy scissors.

I love the colours on this card, I have chosen them for a reason. Pale blues for peace and tranquility and friendship and the yellow flowers for smiles, laughter and happiness!

I must also tell you about the pearl necklace in the photo that I have used. I have used this as the theme is 'Friendship' I knew straight away that this would be a perfect prop. This pearl necklace was given to me exactly two years ago when I went away to stay in America for a month. My in-laws have American friends out there. When I went to visit a lovely lady called Betty, we talked a lot about my Dad as he had just passed away a few weeks before. We got around to talking a lot about 'Friendships' and the meanings of it, she said she held me as a dear friend and our family and then she brought out this necklace from her jewellery box. Now Betty must be in her seventies and this very necklace belonged to her dear Mother.... I said I couldnt possibly take it, but she wanted me to have it. So, I thought I would share this with you, someone once told me too that if you find a pearl it represents an angel, I dont know if this is true, but when I got home, I found a lone pearl in a totally different shade to the necklace, this was hidden in the very bottom of the box! Anyhoo, I just wanted to share with you this little story and how important friendships are. Maybe I'm waffling now lol...I will never wear this necklace, but it sits in my jewellery box and will always stay with me as a sign of Friendship from my dear friend at a time when I needed Friendship and it came from where I least expected it!

 Thank you for hopping over to see me, now it's time to hop on over to the next blog... which is our lovely Emma Goddard

Happy hopping!

Have fun and thank you for joining us all at the Crafting Cafe in our very first blog hop!

Lots of love

NJ XXX