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