Finding Pink Pig

No I haven't missed an "a" in my blog title, I have just found a brilliant on line company who make gorgeous sketch books, called Pink Pig.

I was searching the Internet (as you do) looking for some quality sketch books which can take ink, paint and water. I had looked at the usual ones available in the shops and I was just searching for a cheaper price when I stumbled upon Pink Pig. Now as you well know I am a huge pig fan and anything with pig in the name gets my attention. I was delighted to find that they sell an enormous range, all made in England in Yorkshire and their fly leaves feature pink pigs!! I have never heard of the brand but when I read more I found out that they have been making quality sketch books since 1991 and are also a best seller on Amazon.

I eventually narrowed my choice down to an A5 size sketch book containing fab thickness watercolour paper. I chose a cover and was delighted to find that postage was free! However once I pushed the button I suddenly thought that I had ordered the textured rather than the smooth finish. Eeek! There was a contact number which got me through to a lovely guy called James who checked my order and assured me that I had indeed ordered the smooth watercolour paper. We got chatting (as you do) and I mentioned I was a blogger and papercrafter and that I was impressed to see that they also sell scrapbooks. To cut a long story short James kindly put a free scrapbook in with my order for me to review on my blog. If you want to see the whole Pink Pig range this is the link. You can even create you own personalised covers.

So Mr Postie arrived with my parcel

 I love the sticker and I have peeled it off and added it to the inside of my scrapbook. What an address...Swine House!

Inside was my sketchbook and scrapbook.
I choose a mulberry paper cover for my A5 sketchbook..there are lots of colours...mine is Sienna...you will find out another time the significance of this ;0)

It contains 25 pages of 270gsm watercolour paper/
Their paper is acid free and again made in the UK.
It will be able to take all the ink and water that I can throw at it.
I chose the matte paper option...the paper is sooo stroke-able. Such a fabulous feel.

So onto the scrapbook I promised to review....
I chose (there are lots of other variations available) an landscape A4 size with recycled  pages. There are 20 leaves (40pages) of 150gsm cartridge paper pages. Amazingly they are party made of recycled coffee cups and are archival quality.

The strong wire binding allows for expansion. My cover is plain black and very strong and I shall at some point add some of my own decoration.
I love that the fly leaf is covered in pink pigs...squeal..!

You could stick your photos and ephemera neatly inside but of course what I love doing is making "Moments"....I  use mixed media paper and lots of mixed media techniques to make precious "Moments"of family events and keep them in a real life Jane's Journal (or 2).

I decided to make my first Moment for my scrapbook using a most appropriate occasion...it just had to include pigs didn't it. I using a recent photo of Daisy and my daughter at Peppa Pig World where we squealed with laughter a few weeks ago. If you missed that post this is the link.

I chose this lovely photo from our day out.  I wanted to reproduce the bright sunny greens from this happy photo in my Moment.

I trimmed a tiny piece off my piece of mixed media card and scribbled on some bright yellow and green Gelatos and started adding water to create some drippage, just like Daisy's ice cream that day!

I also added some yellow bister and more water

plus some stenciling and script stamping for the background. I still wanted to leave some white space too.

I then put on my creative hat and put together this layout....
Here it is

The stamps are all by Visible Image

and here is my first Moment stuck into my new Pink Pig scrapbook.

 I like to use a double spread as I write about the day and include tickets and ephemera from the day.

I then had a light bulb moment and decided that rather than the next Jane's Journal that this will be Daisy's Diary!

These scrapbooks are a new range for Pink Pig...they are testing out the market here and abroad.  As these are so reasonably priced I think I will be buying another one for me very soon. Their range of art books in incredible.

One day I will give this to Daisy...she will be able to re live some of the special Moments she shared with her Nanna when she was young.

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

Frilly and Funkie All in the family
Little Claire's 3/3 create a scene
Happy Little stampers mixed media  texture
Noor summer
Creative Inspirations 3/3 bingo  I have gone along the bottom  horizontal; white, distress, dots (my stencilled dots).
Butterfly challenge yellow
Crafty Boots summer time
Crafty Card Makers 1/3 shabby chic
Simon says stamp Work it Wednesdays wafer thin dies my heart is a wafer thin Memory Box stitched heart.
Deep Ocean colours of summer


I hope you enjoyed seeing my first page of Daisy's Diary ;0) Incredibly tomorrow is the last day of our not so flaming June. I will be back on Friday as it will be the first of the month and time for my Design Team  inspiration post for our newest challenge over at Country View. I love this time of the hear and I'm enjoying watching Wimbledon on TV and just to tease you......

Yes we have tickets...Centre Court...and guess when they're for.....??! ;0)

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Summer time Guest designing for Crafty Boots

This is my second post of the morning...a first for me...if you are looking for my Country View DT post just follow the link here.

Hello and welcome to my blog, especially if you are a first time visitor. I am delighted to be guest designing today over at Crafty Boots today where their current challenge theme is Summer fun.

Summer has certainly arrived all around me. My flowers in the garden are flourishing and we are enjoying lots walks.

I recently made 4 summer backgrounds using the same techniques as I used for my May Tim card. For my card today I chose to use the bottom left background card.

Here it is in close up. If you would like to see a step by step of the process this is the link here.

and here is my completed card. I just added a crackled butterfly and a die cut sentiment.

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

Little Claire's 2/3 create a scene
Happy Little stampers mixed media  texture
Noor summer
Stamping Sensations 3/3 feature a creature
Our creative corner a beautiful mess
A Vintage Journey texture or embossing paste I used TH texture paste through my TH alphabet stencil.
Simon says stamp Wednesday 1/5 add shimmer my card has a wonderful gold shimmer from my metallic distress spray
Penny Black and More 2/3 flower power
Dies R us butterflies
Creative Inspirations bingo  I have gone through the middle diagonal....white (tape background), flowers, shabby


Thanks to the ladies over at Crafty Boots for inviting me today and I hope that you have enjoyed seeing my contribution to their summer challenge. It would be lovely if you can join in the fun...here is the link to their blog where you can find out all the details.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Is that real crackle on that card?

Today it's time for my 2nd DT piece for the "Crackle" challenge which is the theme for June over at Country View Challenges. For my first piece which I shared here I made a Father's Day card with a true crackle effect using  DecoArt mixed media products.
This time I am going to show that you don't need all those products, you can easily achieve a "faux" crackle effect too. It's simple, quick and very effective.
My card is similar to the first card I shared, this time,as we have now passed Father's day, it is a Dad's birthday card I made to sell in Dotty's.

I used my vintage childhood photo again.

For the base I used cheap acrylic paints, I buy these from The Works. I used a piece of grey board saved from the back of a paper pad and cut it into 2 and gessoed it - is that a verb??! it can be a Janeism then ;0)

 I dabbed on the colours with a baby wipe until I had a mottled effect I was happy with,

 Then it was time for the cheat bit ;0) ...all that is needed is a crackle stamp! These are Andy's Skinner's but there are lots on the market which can be used...you could even draw your own lines.

 I used black Archival ink

and this is what I achieved.

Instant realistic crackle.

I used one piece for my card, the other I have plans for.

Here is my finished card again. I used snippets of book pages and also tiny snippets of paper to die cut my dotty letters.

I used the Cheery Lynn Film set die for my photo and TH small sizzlits die for the film strip. The papers are vintage book pages.

It would be great if you can join in with our crackle theme over at Country View...you need to get cracking though as the challenge closes in 4 days time. You could even win a £20 voucher from our Sponsors, Country View Crafts, if your name comes up in the random draw. Here is the link.

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

Pixie's snippets Playground #235
As you like it 3/3 favourite die and why mine is my CL film set die..they are brilliant for framing photos.
Crafty Calendar 3/3 For a male
Happy Little stampers mixed media  texture
Creative Inspirations 1/3 bingo I used the bottom horizontal line...white (the book pages are actually white!), distress, dots (on my letters)
Emerald Faeries 3/3 anything goes
Love to create 2/2 #13
Double D challenges all about the boys

I am back again in a few hours with another post as I am also guest designing today too! Busy, busy, busy....

Thanks for visiting...it would be lovely to see you later too!

Bye for now,

Jane x

Too wet for the ducks

Goodness me the rain yesterday was incredible.....it fell like sheets in biblical quantities in the early hours. Over last few weeks we have seen so much rain that I think if it didn't rain now til September we would still have plenty to keep us going.

Despite the rain it's very mild. Yesterday it was in the mid 20s and felt very muggy. I decided to still walk down to Dotty's rather than drive to deliver my latest cards. The rain was just drizzly at this point and I do try to take a very brisk water every single day. The ponds look glorious in any weather.

I noticed that the little coot's nest had new life in it....and the baby coots were being led out to swim by their Mummy....

 Baby coots are so cute and woolly.

What amused me though was seeing all the mallard ducks sleeping  out of the water

it was obviously too wet for ducks.

The fellow on the left didn't even want to stand both feet in the wet.

The waterfall was roaring with so much rain...I love that sound

and all the brooks were babbling beautifully.

As I walked home I decided that I had to celebrate the new baby coots and remember the rain by making a Baby Shower card.
I have the brilliant Ryn raindrops stamp so I dug it out. I also used one of my Nicecrane digi images.
And this is what I made.

I just love this stamp.

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

Moving along with the times new baby
Simon says stamp Wednesday 1/5 add shimmer my gold card has a wonderful shimmer to it as does my organza ribbon.
Simon says stamp Mondays 1/5 use patterned paper my backing paper is from an ancient Jack and Jill pad.
Crafting from the heart 2/3 anything goes
As you like it 2/3 favourite die and why mine is my MB stitched rectangle set...they are brilliant for framing images.
Emerald Faeries 2/3 anything goes
Designs by Ryn June customer creations
Crafty Hazelnut's patterned paper challenge june
Crafty Claire's 1/3 create a scene
Ribbon Girls 2/3 any image

Last night heavy rain returned again....perhaps, like the image I used for my baby shower card, I should be building that arc! However this morning I have woken up to warm sunshine just in time for a day out with my girlies...good timing.

Thanks for visiting me today and for your kind comments.
Keep dry if the rain is affecting you and enjoy the upcoming weekend. I am still waiting to cut my ever lengthening lawn!

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

K is for.....................

Thanks so much for you lovely comments from my jewellery post last time. If you missed it this is the link here. If anyone lives in the South East of England, I do hold jewellery parties in the London/Surrey/Kent/Hampshire/Sussex areas. If you are interested in either hosting a jewellery party (you receive 10% of the takings to spend on my jewellery and I organise a free raffle piece of jewellery) or in coming to one of my Open Houses do email me. My address is on my side bar.

 For this fortnight the dictionary challenge over at the craft barn is asking us to use the letter K.

OK ;0).....I thumbed through my vintage dictionary and found that I had used a lot of my K pages in previous mixed media work! I wanted to use kite, that was missing or kiss..that was also just a hole in the page...so then I found KEY!

I cut it out and decided I would try to incorporate all the definitions.
I also decided that I would use the phrase...."key to my heart" and that immediately made me think of love and hearts so that is where I started.

I used some spray inks and stencils to make some card for cutting out some hearts and some musical "keys" too....I have decided the music score is in the key of F major ;0)

I then started to make some background stamping in my art journal. I found another music score stamp from my LOTV grunge stash I won 3 years ago. There is also a great key stamp and a heart. I also wanted to use my new "Dear Ruby" sentiment stamp as it is composed of parts of real love letters.

 I did some random partial stamping using black and sepia archival inks.

 I also added some texture paste through my TH heart die.

I thought I took more process photos but obviously I got carried away with my creating so this is where the photos end.
I used some hot summer colour distress inks to blend a background and then put everything together.

Here is my finished Key AJ page

 lots of textures and layers.

 I hand wrote the phrase with gold pen.

and added a key charm instead of writing the word.

I would like to enter my AJ page into the following challenges;

The craft barn alphabet challenge k,mine is for key
As you like it  1/3 favourite die and why I love heart dies and the Cheery Lynn heart cut out die is one of my faves as it makes a lovely border around other dies...in this case a MB stitched heart.
A Vintage Journey texture or embossing paste I used TH texture paste through my heart stencil.
Crafting from the heart 1/3 anything goes
Cheery Lynn sizzlin summer colours my cut out heart border die is part of a CL heart set.
Our Creative Corner a beautiful mess
Rhedd's creative spirit June
Love to create 1/2 #13

We have still be getting lots of showers amongst the sunshine here but boy is my garden looking lush. I really need to cut the lawn but the rain on Sunday scuppered that. Never mind I am just loving seeing my pots bursting with colour.

Thanks for visiting me today and for your kind comments. May I also extend a very warm welcome to my latest follower. Thanks for joining me on my creative journey.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x