When things go bump in the night

It's Halloween tomorrow and I sure that there will be some doorbell ringing from the local children. I have given my little Halloween gifts to our children.
These were fun gingerbread men  skeletons from  the bakers

It's been another mild weekend  and I cut the grass yesterday, probably for the last time this year.

And as  promised I am revealing the contents for this year's goodie bags for my Big and baby Children and their partners.

Boo

Cadbury's ghooost eggs....

Smartie pumpkins

Daisy has her Funnybones book to unwrap.

So here is my final Halloween creation to share for 2016. It is a card, a variation of the witch one I made for Dotty's.
I used an old Nicecrane digi image...I still love these vintage images.

The background was made with several Distress inks and and I added stencilling and remnant rubs. The sentiment is Tim Holtz and the the dies are a mixture of MB, Sizzix and Spellbinders.

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

A Vintage Journey make it spooky
Pixie's Snippets playground #253 I used so many snippets for my die cuts, it's a total snippets card!
Dutch card lovers 1/3 photo/words inspiration I was obviously inspired by the words Pumpkin Pie and also all the warm colours...you could make several pies with all the pumpkins on my card!
Paper Creator anything spooky
Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes
Deep Ocean Halloween

That's Crafty Halloween

I hope you have a fun spooky day tomorrow and that hopefully not too much does go bump in the night.
We're all set up here ready for Halloween in our porch...I hope they don't frighten the locals ;0)

Take care and thanks as always for your kind visits and comments.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Nearly the witching hour

Yes it is nearly that time of the year when ghost and spirits are supposed to walk the earth. It's only the last couple of years that I have made any kind of Halloween crafts and I must admit that I really enjoy it.
The clocks go back tomorrow night  so our very dark mornings will be lighter, for a while, but we will pay the price and the darkness will start drawing in early in the afternoon. I love the autumn and winter but I really dislike the lack of daylight.
We have not yet had a frost but there is heavy dew in the mornings which make my acers look so pretty.

Today I am sharing another of the 5 Halloween tags I made for my "babies"...age range from nearly 3 to 30+! For this one I used Tim Holtz stamps. I added sencilling to the background and also some seasonal die cuts which I had coloured with inks and added texture paste to.

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

A Vintage Journey make it spooky
Anything but cute an autumn day my witch is certainly enjoying her autumn day flying over those pumpkins growing in the pumkin patch!
CraftY Calandar Halloween
Paper Creator anything spooky
Stamps and stencils elements of nature
Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes
The Ribbon Girl any image
Deep Ocean Halloween

I am off to get inky with my great blogging friend Brenda of Bumblebees and Butterflies...we're making frames...I can't wait.
Have a lovely weekend and I hope you get some time for relaxation  as well as getting creative.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Last days of October

Yes we are very nearly at Halloween and the clocks go back on Saturday night but the sun is still shining around here. These gulls perched on the chain down at the ponds made me smile

There are still lots of leaves on the trees and some are still very green.

 and there is a lone swan keeping the ducks and geese company on the ponds.

Despite it being nearly Halloween I have another Christmas card to share before my final spooky creations for this year. I have got my 4th Funkie Junkie Christmas card under my belt.

If you would like to play along with this fun Christmas challenge please check out Linda's post here which gives all the details of the challenge requirements. The challenge is sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique and you could even win one of the prize vouchers if you complete all 12 weeks.

For week 4 I was inspired by the poinsettia and the tartan strip on Linda's tag. I decided to make a master board which I can use it for a few of my Christmas card stash for Dotty's. I found some tartan DP in my stash and used my Tim Hotlz poinsettia stencil

I chose some neutral DIs for my background colours

and spritzed some with water and dipped my card.

 I chose Candied Apple DI for the stencilling.

Here is my finished master board. After I took this photo I added some gold spray to it too. I was then able to cut it up into several pieces

I then had a play with some designs and below is the one I am sharing today.

The candle and poinsettia die cuts are Marianne. I added some ribbon from my stash. The sentiment is ancient from a little "The Snowman" set I bought a few years back but I love it.

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

The Funkie Junkie 12 tags of Christmas #4
Simon says stamp anything goes
Rudolf Days October
Sweet stampin 1/3 favourite colour combo I really love the traditional reds and green on Christmas cards.
ABC Christmas V for vertical
Crimbo Crackers die cuts
Crafty Hazelnut use a sentiment

I will be back very soon with something spooky...until then,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Viewing Essex through the eyes of Constable

Last weekend we visited friends in Essex and they took us to Constable Country aka Flatford Mill where John Constable painted many of his glorious landscapes. It is now owned by the National Trust and if you ever venture to Essex/Suffolk I would highly recommend a visit.

We were blessed with lovely autumnal sunshine and I can see how Constable found the surrounding countryside so pleasing to paint. Constable's father owned Flatford Mill.
Constable painted many views of the river Stour and I appreciated why he loved it so much.

We enjoyed a lovely walk

 marvelling at the autumn colours

and also enjoyed visiting  the Mill and the spot where Constable painted the famous Hay Wain..I have added a link to see the original painting here

The house on the left was lived in by a tenant Willy Lott.

It has remained just as it was in Constable's time but none of the trees are the original

After our walk we ended up back at the tea rooms.

We even found walnuts which the wind had blown off a lovely walnut tree.

We enjoyed a different view of the river as we sat and chatted. It was such a lovely day.

I was so inspired by our visit that I knew my next Art Journal page would feature a photo from our day. I also wanted to enter some of my favourite challenges.  The dictionary letter over at the Craft Barn for this fortnight is V and lots of challenges are asking for autumn themed projects. I decided to use the word "View" from my vintage dictionary. Do read this definition and you will understand why my creative mind came up with the elements my page contains.

When I read the definition I knew that my Visible image "eye" stamp would work perfectly for this. As well as the "reach of the eye" I wanted to include a landscape photo so I chose my favourite of the day. I loved this view visible through these amazing entwined trees.

I also thought "View" could be through the lens of my beloved camera..you will see how I incorporated that later.

So I set to making a background....I wanted to incorporate the amazing clouds we saw that day..
I made a +ve and -ve stencil from a MB cloud die cut

I then used distress inks to create my clouds in the sky...

I added paints and texture with Crackle Paste to a Tim Holtz die cut tree

I used inky snippet mop ups of card for my leaf die cuts. I added Crackle Paste to some of these too. 

To represent my view through my camera I  stamped and fussy cut out my  Visible Image camera.

Then I put on my creative hat to put all my elements together and came up with this page for my journal. The sentiment which comes with the VI camera was so apt. The newest version of this set even has an extra Smile stamp...I will be using that soon.

You will see that I added a Tim Holtz baroque frame to add to the feeling of looking at a view. I loved this photo as I spotted the trees in the distance through these amazing trees...a  view within a view.

A few close ups......

It really was a fabulous autumn day and unlike Constable, who had to stand and paint his views of the Suffolk countryside, I was able to capture them with my trusty camera and use my photo in my Moment for Jane's Journal. I really was able to "Capture the moment and make it last forever" it was such a perfect sentiment stamp.

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

The Craft Barn dictionary challenge V my V is for View
Anything but cute an autumn day
Pixies's snippets playground #252
Stamping sensations autumn
Penny Black and More autumn
Dies r us 1/3  fall
Stamps and stencils elements of nature
Fashionable stamping 2/3 trees
Fussy and Fancy 1/3 shades of autumn

Thanks so much for visiting today and for the kind comments which you take the time to leave. It's been the most glorious sunny weekend again although today the sun has decided to take some time off. Enjoy the week ahead.
EDIT; I remembered after publishing that of course Flatford Mill is in Suffolk (just) not Essex. Rather than change the blog title and breaking lots of links I have left it alone :0) (Thanks Di ;0) xx

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x