Turtle Treasures

I am finally back with the first of my holiday photos. I have been so busy that I have not had time to sort them out until today. We had such a wonderful holiday on Kephalonia, it is the most beautiful Greek island and the weather, as always, was just perfect. We stay in Skala, at the south of the island which has gorgeous sandy beaches and is also a good spot to explore from.

 I have decided that rather than just write up 2 or 3 posts in a row about my adventures, that I would come back to my holiday snaps from time to time with different posts over the coming weeks. They provided me with so much inspiration and there are some wonderful visits which I would like to share with you. The coastline of this island is just jaw dropping and we managed to tour the whole island by car.

On our second day we drove to Argostoli, where the huge natural harbour is a known spot to see the rare sea turtles. The fishermen bring their catch in from sea in the mornings and they gut the fish from their boats which attracts the sea turtles as this is easy delicious food for them.

Argostoli Harbour 

Locals arrive to see what the catch of the day is

I'm not sure you could buy anything fresher than this...air miles....zero.
Sure enough we soon spotted signs that the turtles had arrived to look for their rich pickings.

a head popped up to take a breath and then the majestic turtle swam into full view

They really seem to fly through the water. There were 4 turtles and we managed to see 3 of them clearly. One came so close to the harbour wall that you could have stroked his gorgeous head.

We stood and watched these majestic beasts for about an hour. Once the fishermen had sold their catches the sea turtles returned back to the open sea and we watched them go. It really was an eye pricking experience and I am so honoured that we were able to witness it again.

After this amazing spectacle we took our packed lunch and caught the ferry over to the peninsula of Lixouri, just a 20 minute ride away.

Not a bad view eh from our picnic bench ;0)

 My card today is most definitely sea inspired. It is actually a card I made a little while ago for a commission from my Etsy shop and is based on a design I made last year. The lady wanted it to be personalised for her little daughter, which I was delighted to do.

I used the super sweet Sylvia Zet mermaid stamp called Goldie. She is one of my favorite mermaid stamps and I use her lots.

I coloured Goldie with my Promarkers and highlighted her with Prismacolor pencils.
I made her bubble more 3D by adding some Dimensional magic.
The backing papers are Nitwits and the tag sentiments are Lili
of the Valley.
I used my Marianne shells to add some more sea embellies and a little seahorse charm.




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

Jelly Park Summer
Simon Says Stamp anything goes
Crafting for all seasons Girlie #55
Card Crafter's Circle Birthdays
Creative Inspirations anything goes
Passion for Promarkers name that tune my tune is Under the Sea from the Little Mermaid


I will be back on Tuesday with my first guest designer card for the Loves Rubberstamping Challenge. The weather this weekend has been glorious and I have been gardening with Billy. We even had lunch and dinner outside which has been long overdue this year. My Hb and I have got Monday off work and I will give you a teeny sneaky clue as to where we are going....The title of my post is going to be , "Pimms and strawberries"......;0)

See you then,

Bye for now,

Jane x

My final GD post for I love Promarkers

How quickly June flew by as here we are at my final week as the Guest Designer for the I love Promarkers Challenge Blog. I have really enjoyed my 4 week stint and I hope you have enjoyed seeing my 4 creations. Today's theme over at the challenge is to use a Blue and Pink combo. I love this colour combination and use it a lot. I am not a pink girl so I rarely make a pink on pink card but with other colours it looks great.
 I am still in holiday inspired mode so I have featured shells and sea themed embellies.

Here it is

The stamp is called Little Mermaid 2. Isn't she a cutie and I love the little seahorse too ;0)  You will notice that I am using another sentment from my crafty Lili of the Valley win. These are the grungy wishes.
I coloured her up with my Promarkers. I found the "netting" in my stash, it is actually used to tie up wedding favours...I have no idea where I got it from. It was not from my daughters wedding last year. It's amazing what you find sometimes ;0)
I have used pink and blue Baker's twine.
You will also spot another of my Craftwork Cards candi hand made flowers here too amongst the shells.
The dies are Spellbinders for the image and the others are all Cheery Lynn.

The shells I collected from Kaminia beach on Kephalonia from our recent holiday....I  can show you where...

Yes it was bliss ;0)









I would like to enter my little mermaid card into the following challenges; ( I will link these up later as I am at work when this challenge/ post goes live)

Lili of the Valley add a sentiment
Pan Pastels Lots of layers
Country View Crafts die cuts
Bunny Zoe Things with wings
A little bit crafty something sweet
Deep Ocean welcome summer
Natalie and Amy Fantasy
Stamping for the weekend anything goes
Party Time Tuesdays anything goes
Creative Inspirations Anything goes

 I would also like to mention that the Ribbon Girls are hosting another of their generous giveaways here.  Do pop on over and join the fun.



I thought I would also show a little montage of the 4 cards I made as Guest Designer for I Love Promarkers.....

Do you have a favourite?

I have amazed to have been been offered yet another Guest Design spot for July.  I am very touched that people think my cards are worthy of this. This time I am flying across the pond to join the girls of the Loves Rubberstamps Challenge Blog. I will be posting my cards for them on Tuesdays throughout July. And don't worry I will be back with my Turtles post from holiday at the weekend ;0) Life has just been so hectic since I got back from my holiday.

So my card is a thank you card, firstly to Karen of  I Love Promarkers, secondly to LOTV for my amazing prize and last but not least to everyone who visits me here and takes the time to comment.

Thank you -  it means a lot.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Happiness is....winning the Lili of the Valley blog hop.

As I am sure most of you are aware I found out last week that I had won the Lili of the Valley blog hop and my prize was the whole....yes the whole of the new Pretty Vintage stamps release. That is no less than £325 worth of stamps. I still keep pinching myself that I actually won them but on Thursday a big parcel plopped through my letter box. I was stunned by this new release, it really is amazing and the sentiment below just had to be the first I inked up...how apt is this...this is also a sneak peek of my creation that I will show you today.

I opened up my parcel and attempted to lay out the stamps on the floor, it was so hard to get them all into one camera shot. There are verses, sentiments, backgrounds, postcards, labels and so much more.

Of course my Billy had to come to help......

Didn't he do a good job ;0)

Here they all are in all their glory.

 I also recently managed to snap up one of the hardest to get dies of the moment; the Sizzix accordion die, from the nice people at Country View Crafts. I had been waiting for something really special to use it for. I knew immediately that I would use it to make an motivational card for me to look at in my garden studio and to remember how very lucky I was to have scooped this awesome prize.

My first task was to make some pretty backing papers to show off my Pretty Vintage stamps. Out came my distress ink pads and it was time to get inky fingers. I used some very summery colours.

When they were dry it was time to die cut my card components.

I also bought the Sizzix  frame and label bracket die as this makes it easier to decorate the accordion pieces.

Next it was time to add some gold embossing to the outside of the frames.

I used the dragonfly and the rose stamps from the Old Romance set of background bits.

I used some Versamark ink and Stampendous detail gold embossing powder.

Next it was time to choose my 4 inspirational verses. I  chose these ones which I embossed in black to make them stand out. I really love embossing, it is magic watching the power melt and the letters shine out.

These are from the Quotables sets; 63 Go for it and set 61 celebrate.
I also cut some Cheery Lynn exotic butterflies and leaves and also made some more hand made flowers with my Marianne set I showed you in my last post. You will see that I used the the scraps of my hand made papers for this.

So then it was time to put everything together. Are you ready for my Ta dah moment..................................................................................................

Well here it is................

I was quite pleased how it turned out....here are some close ups.

 In the corner is one of my hand made flowers. You can also see the gold embossing detail above.

So in the words of the Hollywood star John Barrymore (his granddaughter is Drew Barrymore)

Happiness often sneaks in 

Through a door you didn't know you'd left open.

It certainly sneaked in for me, thank you Lili of the Valley for making one small crafter a very very happy girl.

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

Lili of the Valley Add a sentiment

Country View Crafts Die cuts

The Hobby House anything goes

Papertake weekly hot, hot, hot

Rhedd and Rosie's Challenge Take flight #9

Whimsy Challenge Shaped card

A Creative Romance Don't be square

Crafty Catz Pick and mix, add some embossing my frames are gold embossed and the sentiments are also embossed in black 

Stamping Sensations Summer Blooms

Bunny Zoe Things with wings 

Thanks for visiting me, I have not forgotten about my holiday posts, they are in the making. I also I have one last GD card to show you next Wednesday for the I love Promarkers girls. It's our Dance School Summer Ball tonight so the Cinderella slippers will be getting another outing ;0)

Enjoy the weekend,

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Returning with a fanfare! My 3rd GD card for I love Promarkers

Hi everyone, I only got back from my holiday yesterday evening so there is no time today for me to do anything more than to quickly post my 3rd card I made for my GD spot with the lovely ladies from I Love Promarkers. I will be back in the next few days with some of my sunshine filled Greek photos and news but one other amazing thing happened whilst I was away. I was the blog hop winner of the new Vintage Lili of the Valley stamps range and I won the whole...yes I do mean the whole of this new release. Yes £325 worth of stamps. I nearly fell over when I saw my name as the lucky winner. It was a good job my hotel had Internet access so that I could contact them. How amazing is that! I am expecting my parcel later today and of course will be back with a post about it soon.

So on to my GD card.....There is an anything goes theme over at the I Love Promarkers challenge starting today as the design team are showcasing some fab stamps from Sherry Baldy. I was new to this range which are called "Besties"and my particular digi stamp is called Belinda Beehive. What a cutie she is. There are no less that 3 winners to be chosen this week and each will win 5 of their own  Bestie digis! What an amazing prize, do join in this week.

I decided to make a stepper card this time with a hot summery feel, it was 35c when I left Kephalonia yesterday.

I coloured her up with my Promarkers.

I added lots of bling and embellies.
Here she is in close up.
The sentiment is an old LOTV (I will have sooo many to choose from now).
The backing papers are Nitwits.
The large butterfly is a Marianne die cut and the smaller ones are MS punched butterflies.
The wooden dragonflies have been in my stash for years.




 I had another win (yes I know I seem to be on a roll at the moment) This time I won the amazing Marianne leaf and flower die and I have made my very own paper roses (shown below) The great thing with them is that you can match your papers. I filled the insides with lots of glitter as well to make them sparkle.

You need to keep this one quiet as it is an anniversary card for my darling daughter and son in law who have their 1st wedding anniversary coming up next month.






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

Natalie and Amy Fantasy #10
The Hobby House anything goes
Country View Crafts die cuts
A and T Emerald Faeries dies/punches
Ali - Craft anything goes
Deep Ocean Challenge welcome summer
Papertake weekly hot,hot,hot
Bearly Mine Flowers galore
A little bit crafty something sweet
Rhedd and Rosie's Challenge Take flight #9
Whimsy stamps challenge Shaped cards
A creative romance anything goes
Besties challenge lace and pearls
Ladybug Crafts Ink Add ribbon and flowers


Thanks so much for visiting.  I will be downloading all my holiday snaps today as well as washing and more washing... I am not back at work until Friday so I hope to have time to craft too. I will be back with a post or two about our adventures, as yes, we managed to see the turtles again....woop woop.

I will also be back at the same time next week with my final GD card for I love Promarkers. Do pop over and  join in with the anything goes theme this week here.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Circles, my 2nd Guest Designer card for I love Promarkers

Hello everyone, I really hope this posts as scheduled as I am actually away on holiday on my sunny Greek Island of Kephalonia. I am the Guest Designer for the I love Promarkers card challenge #172 for June and this is the second of my cards,

The theme for this week is circle cards which is something I have never done before. I had to do a little research and I decided that I would make a rocker card using the scalloped insert of a tunnel card blank I have. I was then able to use my Spellbinder circle and scalloped circle dies.

Here it is;

I used the sweet Penny Black Cat on the moon stamp. I have been looking for this for ages and then found that my buddy Kerry was selling it. Perfect!
I coloured the image with my Promarkers and the moon has been given the Glossy Accents treatment, you can see this better in this photo;

I added some mulberry paper roses and and a Whimsy sentiment. The leaf die is Cheery Lynn. The yummy gingham ribbon is another of my Ally Pally purchases. This is an unusual colourway for me and I rather liked it.
I would like to enter my card into the following challenges; I will attempt to do the links from my holiday but if I can't get any Internet access I will do them on my return.

Stamping Sensations Summer Blooms
Live and Love Crafts Birthstones The birthstone I am using is Amethyst (February)
Crafty Ribbons Circles
Hobbie House anything goes
Heck of a challenge Bingo my line is down the middle; yellow,die cut, green
A and T Emerald Faeries dies/punches
Pan Pastel anything goes

Also I would like to mention that the Ribbon Girls are having a fab giveaway here. It is some lovely wedding ribbons.

Waving to you all ;0)

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Hello spring and goodbye

Finally our long overdue late spring weather has arrived, just in time for early summer to start in a few weeks.

I have spent a wonderful week pottering in the garden after work and everything is growing beautifully. It is amazing how a little bit of warmth creates huge growth spurts in my plants. I had a lovely Studio day on Thursday when I was able to spend the whole day in the garden and my Studio.

This is my 15 step journey to my beloved outdoor work space. Of course someone else was keeping me company too.

Yes my sweet Billy was in his element rolling around in the sunshine and getting very grubby ;0)

and then he found some shade on the seat of my shelter.

My pots are really bursting into flower.

I have already had to start watering them in the evenings.
I am so enjoying the long daylight hours.

I worked on another of my Guest Design cards so that I can get ahead of myself as there is something else coming up very soon.

Yes.....

this time next week I will be here........

It's holiday time and we are off to Kephalonia...woop woop. This was me on our favourite beach last June. There were all of 6 people around and we hope there may be even less this ;0) We will also hire a car and do some sight seeing as the scenery is stunning. Here is a little taster. I will share some more photos when we return. Just look at the colour of the Ionian Sea. 

My card today has a very appropriate "bon voyage" image but it is actually my Dad's Father's Day card as we will be away on 16 June.  I will send him all my love from this sunny Greek Island.

This sweet little house mouse appears to be off on his adventures too ;0)
I made an embossed card "sky" and you can see that one of my Memory Box cloud dies features again. This time as feature rather than as a template...how useful these are. I have coloured my image with my trusty Promarkers and highlighted with my Prismacolor pencils. I have also used my Cheery Lynn lace die as well as the ever versatile Memory box bow die.
The sentiment is Lili of the Valley.Some glitter and pearls added the finishing touches.

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

House Mouse Father's Day #146
Country View Crafts Die cuts
Passion for Promarkers All that glitters #200
Papercrafting Journey Masculine
Simon Says Stamp Masculine
A+T Emerald Faeries Die cuts or punches
A little bit crafty something sweet
My Mum's Craft shop die cuts #6
ABC O is for Open
Natalie and Amy Fantasy #10
Love rubberstamps Anything goes
Ali Craft Anything goes
The Artistic Stamper Makes for men
Hobby House anything goes
A creative Romance anything goes
Totally Papercrafts punches/dies use at least 3

I am home from work and the weekend is here. We are off tomorrow to spend the day  with our daughter and son in law in sunny Southampton. A bar-b-q is planned and a little jaunt to the sea. She is really blooming and is 18 weeks today and has her 20 week scan in a few weeks. We had a lovely day last on Monday looking at baby things for the first time, so exciting.  Have a wonderful weekend everyone. Thank you for all the really positive comments you left on my last post for my latest GD card....it appears that card was a favourite ;0) Welcome also to my new followers. You are all such a great bunch. I shall miss you.

If Blogger behaves my next GD card for I love Promarkers is scheduled and it should post at 8am next Wednesday. Please stop by and see what you think. I shall be waving to you from my Greek Island beach.

So it's goodbye for a few weeks, take care and enjoy the sunshine wherever you are,

Jane x