Thursday 29 September 2016

A last summer postcard

Today is my 2nd DT post for Country View for the current Travel challenge which closes tomorrow at midnight.
If you remember for my 1st piece I made a map master board which I  cut into 2. I used the first piece to create a male travel themed card. If you missed that post you can see it here

Summer is hanging on here but the light is fading first and last thing. Yesterday really was a gorgeous day down at my beloved ponds.

Here is my second half of the master board. Again I used a Kraft card blank.
 I wanted to make a feminine card so I used an old Noor stamp which I won a few years back. I have always loved this large postcard stamp and sadly it has long been discontinued
 I stamped directly onto my "map" master board and added clear embossing powder to give a lovely shine.
 I then stamped again on a piece of mop up inky card and fussy cut out the butterfly.

I used a snippet of left over embossed foil...
and with these ingredients I put on my creative hat and came up with this.
I distressed the edges of the card, added a die cut sentiment, some ribbon and gems.
I put a couple of pieces of foam under the wings to lift them slightly.

 This went down to Dotty's and sold instantly :0) or should I say flew out the shop!

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

Simon Says Stamp Monday powder powder
The Paper Girls challenge nature
Simon Says Wednesday anything goes
Deep Ocean anything goes
Artistic Inspirations anything goes
The Ribbon Girls 3/3 any image
Pixie's Snippets Playground #248 I used a snippet of inky card for my butterfly and a snippet of embossed foil.


Thanks so much for visiting today. If you would like to join us in the last days of our travel challenge this is the link here.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Tuesday 27 September 2016

Conker treasure

We had such a wonderful family weekend, Daisy and Co stayed and we celebrated my Dad's 84th birthday with lunch on Sunday where we got most of our family together. Precious family time.
On Saturday my DD and SIL went to an exhibition in London so we had a Daisy day and decided it was the perfect day for a conker hunt.
The weather was beautiful, warm and sunny but with enough wind to blow the conkers down. They were literally raining down from the trees....Daisy was enchanted...and so was Nanna ;0)
My darling Daisy found so many ripe shiny conkers that she soon filled her little basket.


and of course the best ones are those still in their shells...real conker treasure.
How much joy can one little face contain?


After visiting the swings and having lunch we returned home and of course she wanted to go to Nanna's studio. She found some leaf themed stamps of mine and had fun making a card for her Mummy and Daddy.




 This her sweet card.
So my card today is also inspired by our wonderful weekend, Daisy's clean and simple cream top and the gorgeous autumnal scenes unfolding around me. It's a very CAS style made to sell in Dotty's.
 The stamp is by Inkyliscious, the sentiment LOTV and the die cuts a mix of Tim Holtz and Memory box
I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

PaperArty autumn
Card Mania Earth tones
Rubber dance 2nd anniv 3/3 2nd anniversary challenge I have used the colour board from October 2015 for my card
Crafty boots 1/3  autumn is in the air
The ribbon girl 2/3 any image
The Paper Girls challenge 2/3 nature
Simon Says Stamp Monday powder powder It doesn't show up very well in my photo but I used clear embossing powder on my stamped sentiment.

Thanks for visiting today. I can thoroughly recommend a conker hunt, even as an adult I will never ever outgrow the joy of finding a newly shelled conker shining up from the ground, Real conker treasure.

I will be back on Thursday with my final DT piece for the current Country View Travel challenge sharing my female card I made with the 2nd half of my masterboard..watch this space ;0)

Bye for now,

Jane x

Saturday 24 September 2016

Home from the sunshine

Hello!

I am back from our wonderful holiday in Rhodes. I will have a proper sort through my photos as I want to make a holiday moment but for now I just thought I would share a few of my favourites. 







 We witnessed an amazing new red moon,
Can you see the face?


The temperature difference at home is huge but the sun has been shining and the autumn colours are appearing. With that in mind I though I would share an autumn inspired Lavinia fairy stamp card...... with a moon!

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

Fussy and Fancy My favourite things this Lavinia Fairy stamp is one of my favourites.
Card Mania earth tones
The Artistic stamper 3/3 monchromatic
The ribbon girl 1/3 any image
The Paper Girls challenge nature

Thanks for visiting and for the kind comments you take the time to leave. We have an exciting family weekend celebrating my Dad's birthday. Today has been sunny and warm and we have been conker hunting with Daisy and found so much treasure ;0) Enjoy your weekend and I hope the sun makes an appearance for you.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x


Wednesday 21 September 2016

Crafting an X on my balcony

I am still enjoying our wonderful holiday in Rhodes. I am glad you liked my bookmark I made here which I shared with you on Monday, that was fun. I knew that the next letter for the dictionary challenge would come up whilst we were away and I thought that it would be fun to try to join in from here. There is nothing more glorious than crafting with this view from our balcony. In the early afternoon you really need a break from the heat.

As I said in my last post I have bought just a few things away and all seemed fine until I saw the letter and yes you guessed...it's X!!! It could not have been more tricky. I had bought my little dictionary away with me and it had precisely 5 entries for X and if you don't believe me here they are!

Eeeeek!!! I thought I had been stumped until I realised that I did have a Xerox.....my Greek night flyer is one. I would make an art journal page around my X for Xerox flyer!
I had bought the bare page for my art journal and I started off with an inky background using the only colour of Paper Artsy infusions I had with me..the colour name was apt...Golden sands.










I added some stencilling and also stamped the edge using my Visible Image Winter Tree. I also stamped the Bronte verse for some interest.I thought the tree resemble the olive trees we see everywhere here.
I stamped the branches around the edge of my flyer too.



I also stamped 2 trees onto the only other piece of printed paper I bought with me and tore the edges.





Then it was time to put my designing hat on...and here is my finished art journal page.
You will see my dictionary definition of Xerox on my Xerox!


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

The Craft Barn dictionary challenge X, mine is for Xerox
Creative Corner no patterned paper
Sweet stampin anything but a card
The Paper Girls challenge nature
Simon Says stamp Monday Inspired by music  mine has to be Lovely Day by Bill Withers.
Rubber Dance 2nd anniversary colour swatch choice I used the October 2015 swatch.

I had such fun making this....I really like a challenge but I thought I was stumped with X...
It's nearly time for our holiday to end. I am sure it is lot cooler at home than 29c.  However it will be so good to see our family and dear Billy again. After such a wonderful rest I am looking forward to autumn and the rich glowing colours....and of course conkers!

Thanks so much for joining me for these 2 posts from Rhodes and for your kind comments.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Monday 19 September 2016

When you need a bookmark on holiday...what do you do?

Yes...as my photo on Saturday showed, I am in Rhodes enjoying our late summer break. Our apartment now has fast Wi-fi so I thought I would take advantage of it and post from here.

We are having a wonderful holiday, it is clear blue skies and endless sunshine. Whilst sitting on the beach on Friday I got out my new book to read and realised that I had no book mark! This is my book, my Mum lent me....she also gave me the sequel. It's on holiday that I finally have the time to read. I thought about using a till receipt, a scrap from a magazine and even the flyer in the room for a Greek night for my book mark...however I have other plans for that flyer! Hmmm...
As the temperature gets really hot here around midday til 2pm we decided to take a break from the beach and return to our apartment and the very welcome air con.

I then had a light bulb moment, why not make Hb and I a matching pair of holiday bookmarks?  I only bought a few crafting bits away with me, including one of my new sets of Visible Image stamps Helen sent me to play with.
I had a single scrap of inky card, used as a mop up scrap piece at home, in my bag. It had some blue inks on and it was big enough for 2 bookmarks. I cut it in two and distressed the edges as my guillotine was obviously not with me. I think I would have had some explaining to do airport security if I had!

I brought 3 stencils with me and used them all with some seaside feel distress ink colours.
I also inked the reverse sides but forgot to photograph it.
I inked up the good times stamp from my Visible image set as this was so apt.It's a single stamp but I carefully inked one side at a time to fit it on my bookmarks.
 I didn't have a heat gun, can you imagine if I had mentioned the word gun at airport security....!....I thought about using my hairdryer but solved this by using the baking hot sun outside to dry my ink.

 Once dry we took our books up to our favourite resting spot to read.

How about that for a view?
and of course we needed a drink too...
Cheers!

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

Pixie's Snippets Playground #247 this was truely a snippet of paper I used for my bookmarks.
Craft Stamper take it make it September anything goes
Creative Corner no patterned paper
Simon Says stamp Monday inspired by music my music is Mamma Mia by Abba as whenever I hear it it reminds me of holidays in the Greek Islands

It just shows what you can do with very limited crafting supplies. I always take a few as you just never know what you might want to make, plus I get crafter withdrawl symptoms...a very deadly syndrome!
And as the sentiment says we really are enjoying good times here on holiday and my Hb was delighted with his new holiday book mark. I am also enjoying my new books. I am already on the Sequel, After You. I read pretty fast!

Back soon,  I hope to get one more thing made.....remember I said something about the Greek night flyer...watch this space....nothing is safe from inking here!

Bye for now,

Jane x