January came and went

Goodness me where on earth did January go....one blink after Christmas and here we are at the last day of the month. It's been a busy but fun month for me especially celebrating my Hb's recent milestone birthday.  As a family we now have birthdays right through til June...one a month and the one in May is our 2nd grand baby's actual birth day (due 6th May) so my darling girl is nearly 6 months pregnant already.

There are already signs of the wildlife on the ponds getting ready to make nests and deliver the next generation. I spotted this handsome mallard duck preening himself and obviously getting ready to make an impression on the ladies 😉

He flipped and turned in the water

and had a good shake

a bit more preening

 Then it was time to meet up with the ladies

My waterfall shot today shows all the goings on down there...it's like Piccadilly Circus. Lots of meeting and greeting going on between the fowl.

Today's card is a revisit for me of one of my Tim Tag cards I made last year. I wanted to make something which features lots of wildlife.  This is my original post here and you can see how I made it. I made 4 bases at the time and I had one left which I have never made into a card. If you weren't aware, Tim decided to stop his monthly tags. I know he had been doing it for 10 years but I really miss it. So I decided to revisit my own cards I made over the 3 years that I had been a part of the fun and made something new. I hope to do this on a regular basis.

I had this base made...lots of lovely pinks and oranges again, I must admit I quite like this combo. I added just a bit of green to make it a little more wildlife friendly.

 I die cut some flowers using off cuts of pink and orange based inky scraps and a butterfly and here is my finished card.

My card was made for the following challenges;

                                                           Paperartsy pink and orange

Crafting from the heart anything goes

                                                         Paper Creator anything goes

                                                 Let's craft and create things with wings

Creative moments anything goes

Crafty Catz 1/3 anything goes with a twist of a ladies' card

Addicted to stamps and more anything goes

Simon says Wednesday anything goes
We love to create 1/2 anything mixed media
As you like it favourite flower and why..mine is the good old daisy I made amongst my little bunch on my card...as this is my darling granddaughter's name.

I will be back bright and early in the morning with my DT card for Country View as we greet the arrival of another new month.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bye for now,

Jane x

4 seasons in one day

Yesterday was the most freaky weather here...this was the view from my back door first thing...yes pleasant sunshine and quite mild.

We took Bear out for a walk and enjoyed seeing the sunshine on the ponds. We did notice some clouds coming over.....

and within 10 minutes of getting home this happened....

Yes an incredible hail storm...the noise on our kitchen Velux window sounded like stones hitting them. Much bigger and I think they would have dented our car.

These are some of them melting on the patio...magical aren't they!

It then cooled down and rained for a few hours...true British weather...4 seasons in one day.

My card today is a fairy one...a little bit of magic to cheer us in darkest winter. I had a commission to make some fairy cards for a lady in the USA via my Etsy shop..and this is one of them. The stamps are Lavinia and I made the inky background with my distress ink.

This little fairy says that the clouds are lined with silver...I think ours were lined with hail yesterday!

If you are interested in my fairy cards there are a couple of new ones up for sale in my Etsy shop here and here. As well as making new stock for Dotty's Tea House I am trying to get my little Etsy shop restocked too...the shelves there recently have been very bare.

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

Craft heaven winter blues

Paper Creator anything goes

Penny Black and More 2/3 anything goes

Let's craft and create things with wings

Pile it on quoteable I was inspired by the little stamped quote I used on my card.

 Uniko anything goes

                                                        

Simon says stamp Monday spread your wings

Creative moments anything goes

Crafty Catz 1/3 anything goes with a twist of a ladies' card

Addicted to stamps and more anything goes

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday...whatever the weather 😄. Thanks for popping by and for your kind comments. Stay snug and Carry on Crafting.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Colour me bright

I went over to see my parents yesterday and we went to our favourite garden centre for lunch. It was so good to see so many colourful plants for sale. I love yellows and blues at this time of the year but I was also drawn to the bright pinks and oranges.

 Over at Paperartsy this fortnight that is the theme ...I looked for other pinks and oranges and found these

and mmm...yes...chocolate...these sentiments made me smile.

Darnell for her NBUS #9 challenge has an optional theme of hidden words using raised die cuts. So when I got home this is where I went with my challenge card.

I chose some pink and orange based Infusions to create an inky base

I added water until I was happy.

Once dried I took my orange and pink distress inks and my heart stencil to add hearts to the card...such bright bold colours.

I then used my inky card to die cut a Cheery Lynn heart.

I decided just to infill my sentiment with pink card as I don't have any foam to raise it with.

Then it was time to put on my creative hat and I came up with this card. Very "un" me colours but great to cheer up a cold winter's day. I also have some spare inky card to make some other projects with.

My card was made for the following challenges;

Paperartsy pink and orange

Darnell's NBUS challenge 1/3  #9

my never before use stuff is my very bright pink ribbon and the embossing folder which was another of my advent buys in the Country View Crafts sale.

                         Creative artiste anything goes mixed media anything goes mixed media

Uniko anything goes

Simon says work it Wednesday January 1/3 something new my new is my embossing folder.

Thanks for stopping by again today. Keep warm...during the day yesterday we hovered around +1c ....brrr it really was cold. Enjoy the weekend ahead. 

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

A second flourish

I recently shared some photos of my amaryllis I planted and its spectacular blooms. If you missed that post you can read about it here. I cut off the finished flower stalk and was amazed to see a second budding stalk pushing up.

Over the next week or so it grew and the buds started to emerge again

another 4 gorgeous blooms.

 These beauties appeared...wow I've certainly had my money's worth from 1 bulb.

I also had a squeal moment yesterday as I witnessed the blooming of my first daffodil of 2017. I picked up a pot of tete a tete daffodils in the supermarket last Thursday and the little buds just shot up on my sunny kitchen side. 

This sight greeted me on Sunday morning...

oh how this makes my heart sing....

daffodils are my favourite spring flowers and just looking of them reminds me that spring is on its way...despite the freezing temperatures we have had over the last week. 

Thoughts of spring inspired my card today. I made an inky backing using some spring coloured distress inks. I die cut an oval in my card and flowers using my new Tim Holtz Greenery leaves from snippets of inky card. The sentiment was stamped with Versafine and a little gem added to the centre of the daisy. 

This one will be heading down to Dotty's Tea House on Saturday to sell. 

My card was made for the following challenges;

Pixie's snippets playground #265/6

Creative artiste anything goes mixed media anything goes mixed media

Allsorts daisy daisy daisy daisy there is a daisy on my sentiment stamp

Uniko anything goesanything goes

Darnell's NBUS challenge 1/3  #9

My never before used stuff is the leaf die...a new Tim greenery die I bought in the Country View advent sale. You will be seeing this lots...the die cuts from this set are gorgeous. 

Thanks for all your lovely comments you left on my last post and the best wishes you sent to my Hb. We did have the best of times celebrating his special birthday. He was quite rightly very spoilt by the family; precious memories.  Thanks for stopping by again today. Keep warm.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Celebrations

We are enjoying a very special weekend celebrating my darling Hb's 60th birthday. How time flies...I cannot believe how he has reached this milestone...I am sure that we are still in our twenties..aren't we? 😊
We went up to London yesterday to enjoy a celebratory birthday lunch and we are being joined today by our dear family to continue with the celebrations.

London yesterday was so beautiful in the cold winter sunshine.

Just look at that sky...

 and our meal at Gymkhana in Mayfair was delicious.

Pink gin was a new one for us but a firm favourite now!

We're not huge fans of icing so I made a topper for his Victoria sponge birthday cake which I baked this morning.
I had already made this topper last week. I bought a couple of patterned mini rolling pins at a show some years ago but had never used them.

I had a practice and really liked this flourish pattern.

So I used it on my topper icing base. I crimped the edge

I piped and painted the border and made some cut out stars.










Here it is sitting on the table ready for everyone to arrive..

Would you like a virtual slice 😉
So my card today is of course his birthday card.

He loves grungy cards so I made him one for a very "special delivery". The background was made with distress paints. I had already added some remnant rubs as a resist. I played with lots of circles, buttons and embossing folders for some texture for the focal. The book page is from "A tale of two cities" one of his favourite novels. The stamped birthday sentiment is Clearly Besotted.

My card was made for these challenges;

Darnells' NBUS surprise challenge #8

Darnell is having an amazing giveaway celebrating her 5 years blogging. For this challenge I have used Kraft card as a blank and also as part of my focal.  Instead of colouring it with pencils I used it as part of my tied focal, the first time I have tried this. My never before used stuff is the type key embossing folder and the grey button from a set hidden away in my stash.

A vintage journey going round in circles I have circles in my embossing folder piece, my button and the 0 of my die cut 60!

Creative Moments something new my new is the grey button, from a never yet used set!

Paper Creator anything goes

Scrapbook and cardmaking,  Bastel-truam friendship/love this card was made with lots of love for my soul mate x

Right the family are due to arrive in the next half and hour so I must dash. Enjoy the rest of the weekend everyone and thanks as always for your kind comments and also for the lovely birthday wishes you left for my Hb on Thursday.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x