2016 reviewed

We are nearing the end of the year and I always enjoy looking back at some of my photos I have used for inspiration for my 2016 art work and card making. Life means constant change and with it comes good and yes, sadly, some bad times. I really try to make a point of focusing on the good and being grateful for the life I have.

I like to look back at the year in seasons as each season brings me its own joy and so much inspiration for my creativity. It's really hard to just choose just 4 per season but here they are. Most feature my garden, Mother Nature and my sweet Billy. I have also featured my favourite card/project I made during that season.

Spring

My first DT project for Country View seen here. It was for spring and happened to also be my birthday too. A great celebration.

Summer

My Moment I made after a visit to Claremont with my DD and Daisy seen here

Autumn

A very autumnal fairy card, I have not posted this one on my blog, it was made for a Facebook challenge.

Winter

My wonderful new Christmas piece made at my dear friend Brenda's workshop seen here and described by my dear cat Billy in his very own post 😘

And so we come to my very last card challenges make for this year. Today I am sharing a new baby card made for selling in Dotty's Tea House.  I think looking forward to a new life is a wonderful way to greet a brand new year. We have our 2nd grand-baby arriving in May (and before anyone asks, no one knows the sex, this just happens to be a baby boy card).

I used one of my fave Penny Black stamps. I coloured it with Promarkers and added some Glossy Accents to the daisies and butterfly. The sentiment is Clearly Besotted. 

Time out with each sunrise we are given the chance of a new beginning

I would like to enter it into these challenges;

Time Out with each sun rise we are given the chance for a new beginning what lovely word and there is nothing like a new baby to look forward to.
That's crafty 2/3anything goes

Ribbon Girl 3/3 any image
Fashionable Stamping 3/3 anything goes

That's crafty 3/3 anything goes

Pile It on 2/3 any holiday/celebration

I love Promarkers anything goes

Passion for Promarkers use your dies or punches
Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes
Cute card Thursday 2/3 anything goes
CRAFT anything goes
Creative Inspirations 2/3 anything goes with optional sketch #265

                                               Happy Little stampers anything goes with dies

This is my very last post for 2016. It's been a fab year and I thank you all for your blogging friendship, which I treasure. Thanks also for all the kind comments you take the time to leave. I appreciate every single one.  Enjoy the last few days of the year and I will be back on 1st January.

There is a great quote I found on the Internet from Abraham Lincoln.

In the end it's not the years in your life that count.
But the life in your years.

Cheers everyone and I will raise my glass to you tomorrow as we say goodbye to 2016 and welcome in 2017.

Take care,

Bye for now,

Jane x

It's a wrap

I hope you had a fabulous Christmas day and are still enjoying all the festivities. Ours was awesome and so special having Daisy here and sharing the excitement of her finding that Santa "had been!!" on Christmas morning. We have the team staying until tomorrow and my Hb is off until after the new year so we are still in celebration mode here.

Today I am entering my final piece into a the dictionary challenge which has been running over at the Craft Barn for the whole of this year. Yes I have made 26 art journal pages from A-Z! It has been a huge amount of work and sometimes (when I was on holiday) it was really hard to get my piece made but I never missed one and I now have some lovely pages to look back on in my journal.

My very first piece in January was B for beginning........

For the first few entries I made double pages until I realised I would not have space in my art journal if they were all double spread, so I then created single pages.
I decided though for the grand finale I would create one more double page. The letter is P and I decided to use P for photograph. Photos are a huge part of my blog and my life so it seemed most appropriate.
As you well know I am firmly attached to my camera and it travels everywhere with me. Recently I was looking at some old photos on the Internet and came across little calling card photos called CDV (Carte de Visite) which were taken in the Victorian times. I bought a couple as I thought I could add them to my own family antique photos I own in some of my mixed media pieces.
Just look at this Victorian cutie.

 I cut out the page from my vintage dictionary

I decided to do use some photos of my darling granddaughter from this year but I was inspired by my recent purchases to make them look Victorian by printing them out in sepia.
You can see another CDV I bought in the top right hand corner of the photo below.

I made my final choices of  photos down to CDV size (4" by 2 1/2 ") and made card mounts just like the Victorian calling cards.

I rounded the edges and added the "initials" D and J for  Daisy and Jane (which also happens be Daisy's second name).  I also added wrote where they were taken

To create my "Victorian photo album pages" in my art journal I started to add lots of Gothic touches. I added texture paste through my flourish stencil and used old paper colours of distress inks and stamps. I also added touches such as ink splats and water marks to make the pages look antique.

As this was a double spread I also made a special gilded frame for one of the photos. I added crackle and inks to a card cut using the ornate frame by Tim Holtz.



I also die cut an inner frame and some flourishes, applying Treasure gold to the edges to make them look gilded.

So then it was time to put my pages together...here is my P for photograph page.

and some close ups

The photo below was taken in the summer in my studio, Daisy was crafting with me and wearing the necklace I had just made her....how much joy is there on this sweet face.

and one last shot

I have also put a collage together showing all the 26 letters I made this year.

Gosh when I see it together it brings back some fantastic memories of 2016. Many of them are the joyful times I spent with my darling Daisy....how I love that little sweetheart.

So it's a wrap.....all 26 letters made and I have an art journal full of fun times...and still some spare pages for some 2017 creativity.

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

The Craft Barn dictionary challenge P mine is for photograph
Deep Oceon absolute No 1 card or project 2016 This really is fitting for the challenge...I have loved making all 26 letters. 

                                                        The paper girls 2/3 anything goes

Cute card Thursday 2/3 anything goes

Creative Inspirations anything goes with optional sketch #265

That's Crafty 2/3  anything goes

                                               Happy Little stampers anything goes with dies

Enjoy eating, drinking and making merry and thanks for popping by today. I will be back once more before we see the end of the year with a review of Jane's Journal for 2016.

We're off to enjoy a long walk with everyone including Bear.

Bye for now,

Jane x

All is calm

This is my last post before Christmas and all is calm and ready. My darling husband had this festive scene painted for me for my Christmas card. I love it and will frame it afterwards

Such a perfect little festive scene.

I have opened most of the windows of my vintage advent calender

 and I noticed something very unusual....yes there is a number 25 to open on Christmas morning. In my whole life I have only ever seen one other with a number 25...years ago when my dear bro and I shared a bedroom as little ones. I can remember he had a calendar which looked like a clock face and I was so jealous of him having a window to open on Christmas morning .Now I have my own one, 50 years later and my granddaughter can help me open it.

Daisy and Co arriving tomorrow afternoon and on Christmas Day I will be cooking for 8 members of my precious family.
The mince pies are baked..don't worry there are more than 3!

Some of the presents are already under the tree and Santa will be popping down the chimney with the rest.

 Our Christmas cards are hung from the banisters. They contain lots of goodwill messages from dear friends from all over the world. Our family cards are put on the sideboard in the dining room.

There are many retro things I enjoy at Christmas, including Babycham! My Nan first introduced this to me in the 70s.

Meanwhile Billy is just enjoying things the way he loves most...dozing on his green chair

in his usual pose, captured years ago in a print by my dear blogging friend Jane

The weather looks set mild for Christmas...this was the view yesterday in my garden.

 And yesterday evening the lights down at the ponds glowed in the twilight

This morning an overnight visitor is guarding our presents.....

yes dear Bear, my son's dog is here...and Billy has now retreated to his upstairs apartment ie our bed...LOL! 

I obviously can't send all my lovely blogging friends a Christmas card so I decided to give you a virtual one, here on my blog. It was inspired by the dear painting my Hb bought for me and those lovely blue skies. It is the last Christmas card for 2016 from me.

The sentiment says everything.

The scenery stamp is by Inkiliscious. I embossed it then coloured using distress inks. The dies are a mix of Spellbinders and Joanna Sheen. The sentiment stamp is from The Snowman set.

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

A vintage journey winter magic

Emerald  Creek Dares Winter Wishes

Fashionable Stamping 2/3 anything goes

Fussy and fancy 3/3 angels/fairies or winter

The Ribbon Girl 2/3 any image

Happy Little stampers anything goes with dies

Crafty card makers 3/3 Christmas with a twist

Stamping sensations 1/3 floral fancies

The paper girls 1/3 anything goes

Simon Says stamp Wednesday make it sparkle it's hard to see but my gold and white card both have a sparkle IRL. As does my blue gem.

Cute card Thursday 1/3 anything goes

That's Crafty 1/3  anything goes

Whether you have large family gatherings or just a simple Christmas with a couple of loved ones or friends may it be Merry and Bright.

I love Christmas poetry so I'll close of with one of my favourites;

The merry family gatherings –
The old, the very young;
The strangely lovely way they
Harmonize in carols sung.
For Christmas is tradition time
Traditions that recall
The precious memories down the years,
The sameness of them all.

 Helen Lowrie Marshall

Merry Christmas everyone. Thanks so much for all your wonderful support of my many Countdown to Christmas posts this year and for all the kind comments you left. I so appreciate them.
At Christmas all hearts really do come home... even if they are no longer of this earth and are watching you from above 💓 Cheers Nan xxx

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

4 more sleeps

There are just 4 more sleeps until the Man in the red suit comes down the chimney. I just love the final few days of the countdown to Christmas. It is also the first day of Winter.
The house is looking very festive and I have been sent some more photos of elf
misbehaviour in my daughter's household. Daisy, my 3 year old granddaughter is loving this! They must have got out the Cheerios in the night 😉

I am here today to share my 2nd DT piece for Country View Challenges where our theme is Christmas. All the details can be found here.
For my 1 December post I shared this card made using one of my favourite ever Christmas stamps by Stampendous. I love the way it looks like a vintage post card.

Today I am using the same stamp but giving my card a very different feel.

This time I coloured some of the image and then added lots of Vintage Photo distress ink to give a very vintage feel. I tore the edges.
I also tore a page from my trusty Tale of 2 cities paperback.

 I added more ink.

 I die cut some greenery using Tim's winter greens die and a Marianne pine branch die.

Then I put on my creative hat to put together my snowy scene, adding a couple of pops of red.

Here it is.

I love how one stamp can make such different cards. The sentiment is LOTV. The bauble is a stamp and die set by Tim Holtz.

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

A vintage journey winter magic

Emerald  Creek Dare Winter Wishes

Fashionable Stamping 1/3 anything goes

Mixed media world winter wonderland

Fussy and fancy 2/3 angels/fairies or winter

The Ribbon Girl 1/3 any image

Happy Little stampers anything goes with dies

Crafty card makers 2/3 Christmas with a twist

Deep Ocean silent night

We love to create 2/2 #25

Thanks for visiting today and remember that you still have until 31 December to enter your Christmas crafts into our December challenge over at County View challenges here You might even win the £20 voucher. If Father Christmas forgets a few crafting bits you can treat yourself....

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x