A ray of sunshine before the rain

Hello everyone, I'm back after our little mini break with our daughter, SIL and Darling Daisy. We were just so lucky with the weather, we had 4 totally dry days and returned on Sunday evening. On bank holiday Monday the heavens just opened, biblical rain.  My blogging friend Vivienne correctly guessed our destination...it was indeed the Isle of Wight. We last visited when our children were 10 and 7 and it remains a wonderful holiday destination.
We stayed at the Royal Hotel in Ventnor, nestled on the south coast of the island.

Under the canopy are geraniums that have been grown for years. There were palms galore which thrive in the gardens.

There was a further "Rivera Terrace" across the road where we enjoyed relaxing in the sun and taking afternoon tea.

 Ventnor has its own micro climate and is one of the most sheltered part of the United Kingdom. It supports botanical gardens on its under cliff and the hotel gardens have some very exotic plants for a UK climate.

We were able to put down a blanket up here for Daisy to crawl around on..yes she is now crawling bless her.

It was a perfect base for us, Daisy could sleep in her cot and the baby monitor reached our dinner table where we sat in the evenings. We enjoyed superb on site food and a glass or two of liquid refreshment.
We had a couple of days out too, more of those in another post.

I had a few moments of inky time on bank holiday Monday so I dashed out between the torrential rain as I wanted to make a mini Moment. I wanted to capture the essence of our wonderful hotel and the sunshine which warmed and relaxed us all.

I decided to make a tag using an embossing folder with a vintage fee,l just like the hotel. I used colours representing the lovely sandstone which the hotel was built out of.
The 2  photos below show my background before I added all my elements I used some crackle paint and glitter to add to the vintage feel of our splendid hotel.

Here is my finished Mini Moment with my elements added.

and a few close ups

The heart framing the flowers are for our family love and there is a little paper daisy holding a TH Ideology tag.

The pink flowers are to remember the beautiful flowers in the hotel gardens.

I attached my words to a tag inked with the same inks I used for my background and tied it with some rich velvet cord to represent the furnishings in the hotel which were very luxurious.
I certainly cherish every memory of our time there.

I would like to enter my Mini Moment into the following challenges.

Natalie and Amy die cuts and flowers
Cheery Lynn frame it I have used my heart dies to frame the flowers
Country View word play
Bunny Zoe summer colours
Die cut divas hot August nights
Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes
PanPastel UK pink pink and more pink
Frilly and Funkie a summer garden
Creative Inspirations flower power
We Do Doobadoo add textures

I am sorry if I have been a bit MIA with my commenting over the last few weeks, I do read all your posts even if I don't have time to comment. Life is still super busy this end. Thanks for all your kind visits and comments, they are so lovely to read.

Little Daisy Jane is now mobile....such a delight to see her crawling. She is such a little busy bee with all her chit chat too. I will be back with some more photos from our break but just to put a smile on your faces here she is with her bucket and spade on the beach...

 and laughing in the swing in the hotel gardens...happy days....

After the dreadful weather of Monday and Tuesday the sun has made a return appearance here again today and it feels more like summer than autumn again, thank goodness.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

A carriage ride around Seville

Last month I wrote 2 posts about our recent summer holiday in Seville. This is my  promised 3rd and final installment. I wanted to share some final photos from our amazing holiday and I thought the best finale would be to share the carriage ride we took on our last day. We had watched the horses clip clopping along whilst sitting our hotel balcony and also seen the row of licensed carriages waiting in the square behind the cathedral.

Our last day was scorching hot...the temperature was already 32c by 10am and we decided it was too hot to do a long walk but that a carriage ride was the perfect solution. All the carriages are licensed and the fare is fixed. The horses and carriages are kept in perfect condition and when we sat inside everything was leather finished. We were shaded from the sun by a canopy.
The ride lasted about an hour and took us back to all the sights we had seen earlier in the week. It also went through the Maria Luisa Park which we had wanted to explore more. Here are some photos as we clip clopped around the city.

and eventually we were back at the cathedral and our horse took a well deserved break

We really did have the best of times there and these photos still make me smile. When I got home as well as making a couple of Moments for my Journal I also decided to make a tag book to hold some treasured photos. It has been a labour of love and  I would love to share this with you today.
First I gathered together some of my photos, I made them smaller on the computer and printed some in colour and some in sepia. I used a punch to round off their edges.

The colours of Seville are hot hot hot.... so I used my Dylusions sprays to colour my tag pages.

 I added my favourite script stamp, Bronte Verse by Visible Image to every page, together with some Tim Holtz and floral stamps. I added some chit chat words too.

Once I had made my backgrounds I started to make up my pages covering the week that we spent in Seville using some of my favourite photos. I also added some tickets/flyers and maps of place we visited...and even an old Spanish bank note which I bought there.

Here are some of my pages;

I love this view of our balcony

I made a back cover

and a front cover.

I bound it with a Tim Holtz ruler binder, added some green ribbons...and gave it with love to my Hb on our recent wedding anniversary ;0)

 It is so difficult to photograph in it's entirety, but he did love it.

I would like to enter my tag book into the following challenges;

Visible Image anything goes

A Vintage Journey time flies my take on the challenge is showing how a week, which flew by, can be captured forever in a memory book

Die cut divas hot August nights

Our creative corner summertime

Country View Word Play

The Artistic stamper anything goes

Bunny Zoe summer colours 

Stamping Sensations anything goes

Simon says stamp Wednesday summer

Simon says stamp Monday anything goes

Papertake weekly to die for I used dies for one of my frames and for the 2014 on the cover

I am in holiday mode as we are having a little jaunt away with my DD, SIL and Darling Daisy over the bank holiday. It's at a destination where we have not been for at least 18 years...it's in England...and here is a clue...it's near this stretch of water.

Any ideas? ...I always love reading your guesses.

Back some time next week. If you are in the UK enjoy the last bank holiday before Christmas...gulp. Enjoy your week and thanks as always for your kind visits to me here.

Bye for now,

Jane x

Tim Holtz tags of 2014, August, Jane's Journal style

For Tim's August tag he decided just to go with his creative flow, warts and all and asked us to do the same with our creation for this month's challenge. He just sat down and started playing with ideas, there was no plan.
Here is his tag below and the link to his post is here 

He used lots of different techniques and even melted part of his photo film when being too energetic with a heat gun.  A few days ago I had some quiet time down in my studio just to sit down like he did and let my creative muse loose.

I wanted to make a card this month, rather than a tag and decided it would be the special 30th birthday card for my SILs birthday in November. I really like to get special cards made when I have some time and not be sitting in my studio the night before with no ideas what to make.

I have only been creating with my Ranger products for about 10 months and I still have an awful lot to learn about techniques but I really love to play with the inks I own. I decided that, like Tim, I would use my distress stains...and because I recently treated myself to a couple of new colours. Yay!  Also as it is a special 30th birthday card I wanted to use my new vintage photo distress glitter which really lends itself to male cards. I, like many crafters, struggle with male cards so this was also a great challenge for me.

So here is my creative process showcasing my unique creative muse.

First of all I selected  my stamps. I chose one of my recent new quotes stamp as centre stage, I think going into your 30s is a really different stage of your life...it was for me. I think by then we have had enough of life's experiences to cope as stronger more rational people. We leave ordinary behind and can start to see the bigger picture. I also wanted to use one of Tim's car stamps and his "enjoy the journey" stamp. I like including numbers on  Big Birthdays cards I make, even if the recipients are trying to avoid it...LOL. I'm not sure my dear Dad  and Mum appreciated  big 80s on their cards a few years back, but hey it's what I do.

I stamped using archival ink. I also added some tissue tape. You will see I got a few dabs of ink on the card but I "embraced" my imperfection and knew that they would be covered.

I wanted to add some textured stars so I applied grunge paste through the stars stencil.










Once this was dry I chose my stains and added these to my card.

Once dry and I was happy with the colours I felt that I wanted even more texture to the stars so I used another stencil and applied some rusty hinge DI through it. I love the spots on the stars.

I also added some "ink splodges" with chipped sapphire and mustard seed DIs.

I really liked this effect but I still wanted to "jazz things up" as this is a birthday card. I knew my Distress glitter would fit the bill.

I added the glitter in random areas around the edge and also die cut a number 30 which I glittered up too.










I chose a couple of relevant ideaology pieces and coloured them with distress paints. I also changed a white star brad to blue with the paint.

So then it was time to put everything together and here is my finished card..............

and a few close ups. The "Genuine" charm is very appropriate for my dear  SIL. The ink nib is a touch of fun as he is never without a trusty pen, I mean seriously never and he writes lots of ideas and things down.

I thought the words very appropriate for a 30 year old...to leave ordinary behind........time flies doesn't it. The "male" touch of glitter will add some bling to the celebrations in November.

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

Tim Holtz 12 tags of 2014 August

Little Claire's  a man's birthday card

Stamping Sensations anything goes

Penny Black and More anything goes

The Artistic Stamper anything goes

Country View word play

A vintage journey time flies

Allsorts stencils or masks I have used 3 different stencils

Divas by Design so charming

Simon Says stamp Monday challenge scratched up..get grungy

PanPastels UK bold and bright

Thanks for visiting and witnessing my creative muse...it took me in a direction I could not have planned when I sat down quietly at my studio desk this week. My only idea when I started was to make a special 30th birthday card. Thanks Tim for encouraging us just to play at times and go with the flow. We can't plan life and sometimes just keeping moving forward is what we need to spark our creativity and joy. Have a wonderful weekend whatever you are doing. 

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x