Sunday 16 March 2014

Painshill, an English Country Garden

I am back with my photos from Thursday as promised. If you are just visiting to see my challenge card just scroll on down to the bottom of this post. I met my darling daughter and Daisy at Painshill in Surrey. As the weather forecast was good we try to visit places when we catch up, which are buggy friendly and have a good tea shop. Both essential requirements to us. Although I have lived in Surrey for 31 years I have never visited Painshill....what a mistake that has been. It is the perfect place to picnic and walk and we will definitely be returning there.

We met at 10.30am and as always had a warm drink and a catch up before heading out into the milky sunshine. The paths are very dry and well made,  perfect for Daisy's buggy. Our first "wow" was at all the hundreds of daffodils and snowdrops, there were huge drifts of these beautiful bulbs.

There are several well signposted paths

 and we decided to head towards the lake.


We also headed down towards the bank to show Daisy some of the wonderful wildlife

Some parts of the garden have follies and viewing points and we rested our feet for a moment to take in the glorious views

There is even a working water wheel
We enjoyed a delicious lunch which we were able to eat outside

Followed by one last walk before afternoon tea.

and whilst my daughter and I sipped our afternoon tea my darling Daisy dozed away. It really was a magical day.
I came home so inspired by all that rich lush green grass and spring foliage and decided that I would have some messy play and try a new technique to create some spring inspired backing papers. This is mono printing using an acrylic block and is the Take it Make it Craft Stamper Magazine challenge this month. I have had my eye on buying some acyclic paints and found this great set in The Works for only £2.99
I also wanted to enter the challenge this fortnight for Pan Pastel UK which is to create something with 3 textures, as well as some other great current card challenges.

 I selected 3 very spring like colours....sap green sounded just perfect.
 and squirted some onto my acrylic block
 I pressed this down on some watercolour paper
 and when I peeled it away I was delighted to see not only the pattern it had made but this lovely stippled texture.
 There was enough paint left behind to stamp again and this is the other piece I made.
 The piece above made me think about the trees and the sunshine so I decided to make a simple spring scene as I wanted to show off as much of this gorgeous background as possible. I applied some translucent embossing paste through a branch stencil (I taped off the snowflakes) which when dry I coloured with a Distress Ink pen

And here is my creation all put together

You will also see that I used my new TH air spritzer to add some speckling  to my TH die cut bird and some MS butterflies and punched flowers give a third layer of texture. Here are a couple of close ups.


I really love this technique and I will definitely be using it again.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Craft Stamper Take it Make it Monoprinting with an acrylic block
PanPastel UK Use 3 textures
Country View Crafts Paper Chase
A Vintage Journey anything goes Tim  I think my post explains my Tim inspiration; the bird is TH and I have used his new technique of air spritzing as well as colouring the bird with blends of Distress Inks.I have also used book pages to make the paper for cutting out my butterflies, very much a Tim inspiration!
Sparkles Monthly Easter Parade
Whimsy Stamps Easter
Stamp and Create  ready for spring
Divas that cut paper embossing my branch has been embossed with translucent embossing paste through a stencil
and then coloured with DIs
Frilly and Funkie neglected dies...I'm not sure I have ever shown a card using this TH die!
Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge D is for Distress I have used Distress ink for colouring the bird, the butterflies, air spritzing his speckles and for edging the water colour card.
Stamping for the weekend anything goes
The Squirrel and Fox autumn or spring
The Ribbon Girls Green
My Mum's Craft shop Spring/Easter

Thanks for visiting me and enjoy the rest of the weekend, it has been just glorious again and yesterday I was busy re potting my container grown  hostas in the garden. Billy has been by my side too. Today I hope to get back out to the garden as it is even warmer out but first we are heading up to my son's flat to take tiles and plaster off his bathroom wall....smashing ;0)

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x


32 comments:

  1. What an amazing place to visit Jane, so good for Daisy to be out in the fresh air too! I love the bridge!! I had a lovely walk in my park this week to, so good to be out in the sunshine.
    Love the colours in your card, so springlike! Isn't The Works a brilliant shop.
    Happy Sunday (and tile stripping),
    V xxx

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  3. wonderful photos jane. it really reminded me of fountains abbey and gardens in north yorkshire. looks like you had a wonderful day. i loved the monoprinting technique too and will be showing my result tomorrow. big hugs rachel x

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  4. Ohio is still in winter and I'm SOOO wanting daffodils! I like your term "milky sunshine". I get that a lot around here. Nice technique and colors on your card, and quite a pretty little girl!

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  5. What a beautiful place you visited! Thanks for sharing the photos with us. Love the flowers and waterways.. and especially that Daisy was along!
    ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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  6. As always I enjoyed your photos! So jealous of all the green!
    Your monoprinting textures came out great. That's such a fun and unpredictable medium. They really work well for unique backgrounds!

    Jane T : )

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  7. This is such a beautiful creation. Love the fabulous colors, embellishments and the distressed effect on the bird. Thank you so much for sharing with us at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. :)

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  8. It looks like you had a lovely day enjoying the sunshine! Your card was a perfect reflection of that. Thanks so much for joining us at the Craft Stamper Challenge.

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  9. Ooo Jane I visit places with a friend, we meet up at various venues as she is in Essex and me in Hereford, we might have to go there, we haven't been yet and its beautiful. I am loving your cards and paper craft, you have a real natural talent. Lx

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  10. I love painshill park, did you get to go in the crystal grotto? They have just reciently finnished rebuilding it and at christmas they have a santas grotto in there, it is just so magical, my little girl loves it!

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  11. Such a lovely place to visit, Jane! We love outings like this too, and babies and little ones seem to enjoy them a lot, just as Daisy Jane did! Thank you for sharing these lovely photos :)
    Wishing you a happy sunny week.
    Helen xxx

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  12. Hi Jane! Spring looks fantastic in your photos! I really love your card! The background is Super and all the details wo beautiful! Have a lovely week! x Teje

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  13. Beautiful photos and project! Fabulous textures on this piece and the colours are wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing with us at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog!

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  14. I always love popping in and reading your posts Jane, beautiful pictures and great monoprinting full of texture!
    Thank you so much for joining us over at the take it make it challenge and over at Premium craft brand challenge:-)
    Hugs
    Tracy xxx

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  15. Beautiful photos with some lovely keepsakes in them. Love your experimentation with the mono printing and the card you made from it.
    Hugs Brenda xxx

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  16. Gorgeous!!! Thank you so much for sharing this with us at Stamp and Create! Good luck,
    Rene :D

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  17. wow Jane loving the pictures and super technique on the background and a gorgeous card
    Hugs Kate xx

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  18. Gorgeous background I love the texture that you have created. Thanks for sharing with us at the Take It Make It challenge. Elizabeth x

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  19. Oh my! How I envy your weather and countryside!!
    I miss not having spring so much but thanks to you, Jane, I can escape...Thank You!
    Your card is delightful, love that bird and the glorious colors!

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  20. What terrific pictures of a beautiful place! And how good that it's buggy-friendly, that makes such a difference!

    As for your card - wow! What gorgeous, gorgeous colours and textures! Thanks for joining in at The Squirrel and the Fox!

    love Mags B x

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  21. Beautiful baby, beautiful scenery and beautiful card(s), Jane, all just wonderful! I can't get my eyes off all that green around there, it was snowing here today... Thank you for sharing!

    Happy day!

    Yours,
    Mia

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  22. What a glorious card - amazing colours and textures and I love the speckly bird and texty butterflies! Altogether a lovely post. Thank you for joining us on A Vintage Journey.
    Alison x

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  23. You were lucky, just seen I left you two comments lol. Also wanted to say thanks for travelling on A Vintage Journey and sharing your gorgeous project with us.
    hugs {brenda} x0x

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  24. What a marvelous multi-media card, so much texture and loved that background you created.

    So glad you joined us at Die Cut Divas.

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  25. Hello Jane, Please know, I have looked at this post several times but am slow to write.
    What a lovely landscape and a tonic for me, while we still have meters of snow on the ground!!
    My nephew will be studying in the UK this autumn. Will definitely share this post with him.

    Fun to see your girls, again. This is my kind of place---water, forests, lawns and flowers!!!
    Anne and all xxx
    PlumCreek Studio

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  26. Love the photographs, what a fabulous place.
    Great monoprinting too ..... thanks for joining in with the Take It Make It Challenge.
    Linda xx
    Craft Stamper Challenge DT

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  27. A fabulous Mixed Media piece of art Jane. So happy you were able to join us at Die Cut Divas this month. Nice to see some embossing paste used with the die cuts.

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  28. Beautiful bright colours, a great background and I love the bird and butterflies. Thank you for joining us this month in the Craft Stamper Take it, Make it Challenge, good luck.
    Nikki K. x

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  29. Jane, I adore this card and the way you've put the technique to great use. Unfortunately having just checked through the list of challenges entered I've seen you've entered more than 10. This is such a shame as we do make it clear at Frilly and Funkie that a maximum of 10 challenges can be entered in combination with our challenge. I do hope you'll join us again in future bearing this in mind. Jenny x

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  30. Love that textured background! Thanks for joining us at Take It Make It Challenge!

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  31. Great texture, love those greens! Thank you for playing along with the Craft Stamper blog challenge this month!

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  32. Gorjuss x
    Thanx for joining in the Craft Stampers Make it Take it challenge!
    Ger
    Craft Stamper DT

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Jane x