Time to hang those advent calendars

Hello and happy Monday. I am not at work today as we have  enjoyed a long weekend away at none other than the Winter Wonderland at Centre Parcs in Longleat. We went to celebrate our SIL's birthday and for us to spend some precious family time together. There were 7 in our party and even Bear my son's dog joined us. We had a really brilliant time, it was so good to spend 4 days with our children, their partners, our darling Daisy and Bear. I need to sort through my photos and I will be back to share some very soon together with a couple of posts.
Daisy had an appointment with the Man in the red suit, which I think Nanna was the most excited about, on Saturday afternoon......LOL....she was not impressed with Santa and hung onto me for dear life!

It's time today to get our advent calendars hung up. Tomorrow is none other than December 1st and my Christmas countdown will begin in earnest. As I have done every year I have bought my daughter and son their's and also one for little Daisy.
I like the traditional German ones but these are the ones I have bought for my babies.

Below is Daisy's, she watches the snowman all year round and this is sure to be a hit.  Incidentally I add glitter to all their calendars before I give them...Christmas memories of mine again. These photos are all pre glittered.

My daughter's

My son's

and mine...I had ones like this for my 1960s  childhood....I'm so glad that they are reproducing these vintage advent calanders.

I just adore these cute images.......I can be transported straight back to 1966....awwwwhh

I shall be searching for window Number 1 today.

My card today is a cute but vintage inspired one. I coloured up the angel blonde just like my darling Daisy Jane using one of my new Lili of the Valley Christmas stamps......I adore their Christmas images. I used Promarkers, highlighting with some Prismacolor pencil.

I added some Tim Holtz stamped snowflakes, which I gold embossed. I used a Joanne sheen bell die cut and Whimsy snowflake and sentiment. The stitched frame is by Memory Box, I love this die. I added some angel ribbon from my stash.

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

Simon Says stamp Wednesday anything goes
Simon says stamp work it Wednesday 2/3 holiday/Christmas 
Papertake Weekly take your pick I chose the technique theme, glitter it up.
Sweet stamping sparkle and shine
Pixie's snippets playground #205 I have used snippets of card for the snowflakes
Noor UK anything goes
Crafting for all seasons brr it's cold outside
Passion for Promarkers Christmas is coming
Creative card crew cold outside
Cute card Thursday fairies and angels
Winter wonderland sparkle and bling
Crafty Ribbons frosty Christmas
Crafty hazelnut use die cuts or punches
Christmas card challenges anything goes #52

I'll let you know what I found behind window number 1...will I ever grow up?...no I don't think so, not when it comes to the magic of Christmas.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Late autumn walking

On Sunday I took Bear out for a few walks as we were minding him for the weekend. Luckily for him I love walking so I took my camera and set off for the park, where a couple of months ago we went collecting conkers with Daisy Jane. If you missed that post you can read it here

The trees look so different now that they have dropped all but the last stragglers of their leaves. They are still so beautiful. Silent giants.

 The dropped leaves provide lots of good nutrients to the soil, Mother Nature has a few million years on us re recycling!

I also noticed that very near to my house on the local green they have put up a few little Christmas lights.....I am delighted. Occasionally we have them down at the ponds but never so near...they must know that I am Mrs. Christmas

and speaking of my beloved ponds we spied a lone swan. I loved the shadows of the branches in the water. 

We had some lovely walks.

So my card today is a Christmas card based on a walk to Church but a more vintage walk....I found this great digi on the Graphic Fairy's web site and made it into a festive card with lots of branches, all laden with snow...............

 I've added lots of "greenery" with various leaf die cuts and some snowtex and Glamour dust for extra sparkle. The deer is Memory box,

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

Memory Box glitter
Pixies' snippets playground 3/3  #204 I used lots of snippets of card for my die cute and a tiny snippet of twine too,
 The Craft Barn snowflakes there are snowflakes on my glitter die cut sentiment.
Noor UK anything goes
Rudolph day's anything Christmas
Simon Says stamp Wednesday anything goes
Simon says stamps work it Wednesday 1/3 holiday/Christmas 
Papertake Weekly take your pick I chose the technique theme, glitter it up
Country View the colour blue I have used the colour blue for my backing paper


Now this card also gives a clue as to where I am heading for the weekend...it involves deer and woods and Christmas and who knows there could even be snow..even if it's the pretend stuff. Daisy also has an appointment with the man in the red suit too.........I will be back on next week to share it with you ;0)

Have a wonderful weekend and remember to write those lists.....Christmas is only 4 weeks away today....I can smell that turkey cooking now.............mmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Bye for now,

Jane x

A taste of winter

We certainly had a taste of winter here in the south at the weekend. I woke up to sleet and this sight greeted me and Billy as I opened the back door.

 Billy ran down to my studio veranda and then decided to come straight back to the warm.

On Sunday it was crisp and bright and I loved seeing the patterns on the leaves.

 There are lots of berries around for the birds.

It was too cold to work in my studio so I decided to make a less inky card for my next Funkie Junkie card and I also wanted to enter a few other challenges.
I am still a week behind, this is Linda's week 8 tag here

 For those of you who are new to Linda's challenge you can read all the rules of it here. In a nutshell you use her weekly tag for inspiration and you can create anything crafty and as long as all 12 projects are completed by 22 Dec. You also have a chance to win one of her generous prizes. I was lucky enough to win $25 dollars last year  to spend in her wonderful on line boutique which sponsors the challenge. Do have a look here at her shop, her stock is enormous and her prices really keen.

I choose to use the challenge to create 12 special Christmas cards.

I was inspired by the die cut ornaments she used, the gingham paper, the holly leaves and the pennant paper strips . Here is my take on her tag.

I recently won some new LOTV  fun little robin stamps and I thought one would sit well inside the die cut ornaments which I own. I had fun colouring  them with distress inks and then cut 1 out. I can use the other for some more Christmas cards

 I made my backing card using archival ink through a holly stencil and then added some distress inks.

 I have lots of snippets of paper in my Christmas stash and thought the pennants are a great way to use a few up

 I chose these 3 as I like the holly and tree details. You can also see my Marianne bouble die cuts above which I cut in mirror card.

 I

 Here we go.

 I also used some gingham ribbon and made 3 bows

Then it was time to put on my creative hat...I had several goes at the layout and this is my final card.

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

                                           The Funkie Junkie 12 tags of Christmas 2015 #8

Pixies' snippets playground 2/3  #204 I used a snippet of card for my holly and a snippet of ribbon.

We love to create anything mixed media/creative #24

Noor UK anything goes

As you like it favourite season and why 3/3 mine is winter for the single reason that it includes Christmas which is just my favourite celebration.

                                                             Bunny Zoe 3/3 sparkle

                                        That Craft Place 1/3anything goes mixed media

                    The Craft Barn snowflakes there are snowflakes on my glitter die cut sentiment.
                                                Sparkles 2/3 Christmas decorations
                                                 Mixed media world anything goes
                                             Simon Says stamp Wednesday anything goes
                         Simon says stamps work it Wednesday 1/3 holiday/Christmas card
               Papertake Weekly take your pick I chose 3 of the themes; the red/green colour option and used both,the bauble shape and there is also some glitter here!

Thanks so much for visiting me here today and for taking the time to leave your comments. I would also like to extend a very warm welcome to my latest followers, it's great to see you here.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

The Christmas lists are being written

I have now had 2 Christmas shopping trips and have managed to make a small dent in my presents to buy list. Luckily our family is small and I don't have too many people to buy for. I had a fun and successful shop on Thursday with my dear friend Karen.

We met for lunch and I always enjoy seeing the decorations that the shopping centres put up for Christmas.

 We always have  real trees at home but it's fun seeing the artificial ones in lots of bright colours.

I  really liked the lights around the escalators in House of Fraser

and this wintry look in their basement.

I managed to tick off quite a few presents from my list ;0)

My card today is inspired by my trip and the rather non traditional Christmas colours I saw. I used my Visible Image trees stamps. I inked a backing with distress inks. The snowy foreground I embossed and the die cut is Cheery Lynn. I added some Frantage to give a snowy effect and a snowy ribbon.

and a close up.

I'm not a pink girl at all but I rather like this one.

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

Cheery Lynn anything goes

The Craft Barn snowflakes

Pixies' snippets playground 1/3  #204 I used a snippet of card for my holly and a snippet of ribbon. 

We love to create anything mixed media/creative #24

Simon says stamp Wednesday Christmas

Whimsy 3/3 anything goes holiday

Creative Inspirations 3/3 festive fun

Noor UK anything goes

As you like it favourite season and why 2/3 mine is winter for the single reason that it includes Christmas which is just my favourite celebration.

Papertake weekly let it snow

Inspiration Emporium mission embossable wet or dry embossing, mine is both wet and dry with this card

Bunny Zoe 2/3 sparkle

Emerald Faeries 3/3 Oh Christmas tree

Little Claire's 2/3  Christmas in white

Deep Ocean white and one other colour

We certainly got a taste of winter at the weekend, sleet and cold wind on Saturday but bright clear frosty mornings which suit me fine.  Keep warm and thanks for visiting today and leaving your kind comments.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Last of the mild weather, part 2

On Thursday I shared part 1 of these 2 posts. If you missed part 1 you can find it here . Today I wanted to share the walk we took with our son and Bear in the woods a couple of weekends ago. I love that his local woods look different every time we visit. Earlier in the year the bluebells looked spectacular, this time the leaves on the trees were on fire with their autumnal hues.

There are lots of sweet chestnut, oak and beech trees and Bear love racing around with his football.
It is such a lovely way to spend a couple of hours.

The cold weather is really on its way now. A lot of leaves have fallen over the last few weeks with the strong winds.The temperature this weekend is forecast to be 10c cooler. We have been so spoilt this month with the incredibly mild weather. Winter is really just around the corner now and we are even being threatened with a few flurries of snow here in Surrey at the weekend....brrr.

For my card today I was inspired by the golden hues of those gorgeous leaves and some of the sweet birds we heard in the trees to make this Christmas card.
My focal is Nicecrane digi and  I have used a Joy craft frame. The gold mirri card has been embossed with snowflakes but it's so hard to photograph but it is there! I stamped the sentiment and edged it with my gold Krylon pen again. I have added snowtex and glamour dust for extra sparkle on the snow.

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

Simon says stamp Wednesday Christmas
Whimsy 2/3 anything goes holiday
Creative Inspirations 2/3 festive fun
Noor UK anything goes
Natalie and Amy 3/3 winter scenes
ABC Christmas wild things
As you like it favourite season and why mine is winter for the single reason that it includes Christmas which is just my favourite celebration.
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas things with wings
Papertake weekly let it snow
Inspiration Emporium mission embossable wet or dry embossing, mine is dry on the mirri card.
Bunny Zoe 1/3 sparkle
Ribbon Girl 3/3 use any image

This morning I woke up to sleet which has now stopped thank goodness but it is very chilly out with a strong northerly wind. The first cold weather of this autumn. Tonight is Strictly from Blackpool..a great night's entertainment for a cozy night in. I think it's time to light the fire too.

Thanks for visiting me here today.

Keep snug and carry on crafting.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Last of the mild weather, part 1

November has been incredibly mild here in Surrey. Every day the temperature has been in the mid teens centigrade and even when it was raining at the weekend my thermometer in my garden registered 18c on a north facing wall.

We have enjoyed some fun Saturdays down in Southampton with our daughter and family and some woodland walks with our son. I wanted to share some super photos I took a few weeks ago. Today I will share the coastal walk we enjoyed with my daughter, son in law and Daisy which culminated in the most glorious sunset. I will share the woods walk another time with part 2 of this post.

We walked a 3 hour circuit from Warsash and it was lovely to spot some sweet donkeys in a local field.

The coast line you can see on the horizon is our beloved Isle of Wight.

 The beach was deserted but we enjoyed walking along and spotting lots of shells. Daisy loves the open air and it was so mild she didn't even want her jacket on. Here is Daisy and her Mummy jogging along.

The shadows started to lengthen as the afternoon wore on.

 By the time we returned to the car the sun was just beginning to set.

We watched it quickly drop towards the sea

We were amazed how the sun looked...like a giant fiery goblet hanging in the clouds. I love these photos and may use one in the future to make a Moment at some point.

What a wonderful family day we enjoyed. It doesn't take much to please us...just Mother Nature sharing her beauty.

My card is a golden Christmas card inspired by the setting sun.

The image is a printed Lili of the Valley image. I stamped the sentiment and die cut it with a Memory box Studios stitched rectangle. I also added Noor stars and Cheery Lynn holly die cuts and gems. I also put a golden border around the card using my Krylon gold pen.

I would like to enter it into the following challenges;

Simon says stamp Wednesday Christmas
Whimsy 1/3 anything goes holiday
Creative Inspirations 1/3 festive fun
Noor UK anything goes
Pixie's snippets playground 3/3 #203  I used snippets of card for my die cuts and the sentiment.
Craft Barn 2/3 Guinness book of records luckily Jane has allowed a loose link for something which "could" be a record...I think my record could be for the bravest card maker who has finished her card and then decides to put a gold rim around the edge.......luckily it went OK but it could have ruined my card and it's difficult to cover up an edge mishap!
Emerald Faeries Oh Christmas tree there is one behind the snowman
Natalie and Amy 2/3winter scenes
Little Claire's Christmas in white
Christmas at sweet stamping stars
Ribbon Girl 2/3 use any image
Deep Ocean white plus one other colour mine is white plus gold.
Papertake weekly let it snow

The weather is supposed to be dipping at the weekend but for now the warm days have been such an added bonus. It's been rainy, blustery but no chill in the air yet.
Thanks for visiting me here today and for taking the time to leave any comments. I'm off to meet my dear Karen for lunch and a Christmas shopping afternoon.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x