A trio of anniversaries

There are no less than 3 anniversaries taking place in the next few days. Today is our 32nd wedding anniversary, tomorrow is my 3rd blogging anniversary and Sunday is our daughter and son in law's 1st wedding anniversary. What a wonderful trio of celebrations. I have scheduled this post as M and I are up in our beloved London for the day. We hope to go across the Thames on the cable car and have a wander around Greenwich and then we have a very special meal booked for the evening..dinner at the Ritz ;0)

I decided to have a giveaway to celebrate. I am amazed how quickly 3 years of blogging has gone by. I took my first tentative steps into the world of blogging on 26 July 2010 and as I said here in my very first post I was not sure whether anyone would be interested in reading Jane's Journal. How wrong I was....here I am 269 posts later and with 135 friendly blogger followers and more who follow via email alerts, loving every minute of this kind, creative, friendly blogging world. 

You have peeped into my sunny little garden...

Seen my silversmithing  projects and other jewellery making projects...

Watched my card making evolve and improve, especially this year (I think ;0)

Looked at my holiday snaps and exploits

and last but not least sent virtual pats to my dear cat Billy...who is as always my helper in all things creative and never far away.

So I have made something special for my giveaway......a summery necklace.

It is a very pretty necklace.I have made it using a lovely one of a kind handmade artisan glass lampwork flowery summer bead as the focal. The blue stone is genuine lapis lazuli and there are gorgeous sparkly rock crystal chunks to finish it off. If you do not want to keep it for yourself it will come in an organza bag and would make a great gift for someone. It is a totally unique and one of a kind piece.
All the findings (clasp etc) are sterling silver and there are 2 little Swarovski spacers holding that lovely focal bead in place.

As always with my giveaways this is open to everyone worldwide. Just mention in your comment on this post that you would like to put your name into the hat. However as with my last giveaway I wanted to give an extra 2 chances of winning to my loyal followers who stop by and say hi week in and week out. So, if you are a follower you will get 1 extra name in the hat. Also if you post the above picture of my giveaway necklace in your side bar on your blog or mention it in a post you will get a 3rd entry. Just leave a mention of what you have done in your comment on this post. You can even come back later and tell me if you have added any extra entries. My giveaway will be open until Thursday 8 August so you have plenty of time to enter. Good luck to everyone.

So my card today is a card to celebrate with...it is actually a wedding card which I made recently for my daughter's now sister in law..if that makes sense. The bride is very much a "girlie"girl and loves all things pink and bling so this is what I came up with.

I used Ladybug Craft's Ink Bride Nikki as the stamp..she is a great bride stamp for wedding cards. I coloured her with my Promarkers and fussy cut her out. The bird cage card base is a win from Craftwork Cards..an amazing card shape isn't it. I added Card Candy to the bars and lots of Cheery Lynn die cut butterflies.This set is the exotic butterflies #2 with angel wings, I really love these.  There is also a die cut white olive branch there which is also by Cheery Lynn.The flowers are Mulberry paper roses. I also added lots of stickles glitter for bling. The inside was silver glitter card and the message read "May your day bloom with Happiness"

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

Cheery Lynn Silver and/or gold
Little Claire's Designs Wedding/anniversary
A Creative Romance No designer paper

Make It Monday anything goes
Stampin for the Weekend sparkle and bling
Ali-Craft Butterflies
Papertake Weekly Die-ing for a punch
Divas by Design anything goes
Inky Chicks Summer colours
Crafts and Me anythng goes
The Paper Shelter anything goes
Bearly Mine anything goes
Papercrafting Journey Die cuts/punches
Crafting with Dragonflies Wedding card and a hop

Thank you all again for being such great friends and for bringing such an enormous amount of pleasure into my life. Unless you are part of this blogging community you have no idea just how much fun we all have. I am also stunned by the talents and creativity you all share here.  The Internet really has brought the world together. Good luck with my giveaway and as my card sentiment reads ...... may your day also bloom with happiness.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x