Inspiration for the TV

I hope you had a lovely weekend? We certainly did, thanks for all your kind birthday wishes for my boy. He had a great time and after the havoc of  Storm Doris the sun shone on his special day. Well here we are at the penultimate day of February...another month scuttling away before we know it.

 I have been very busy with some secret crafting for the last couple of weeks, which I can finally share with you. You may remember that I did some Guest Design work for my favourite stamp company, Visible Image, last year from September to December?

They had a new stamp release in February which has taken the crafting world by storm as they are so fabulous. Helen, of Visible Image contacted me a few weeks ago and asked if I would be interested in making some samples for their latest TV appearance on Create and Craft, using 2 of the new sets. Of course I said yes and once my stamps arrived I shut myself away for a few days and made them 5 cards.

My regular blogging buddies know that Billy our cat features big time in our life.

He loves climbing wall and fences and can often be spotted sitting on them.

He is also my blog avatar. 

So one of the sets I chose to work with just had to be their awesome cat set. It's called Curious cats . You can buy the set  here  Isn't it brilliant?

 You can also see all the new releases over at the Visible Image Website here

So I thought I would share my first cat sample here today. It may very well be visible in the background on Create and Craft this Saturday, 4th March. I shall keep an eye out and wave if I spot it 😉. The show is on at 10am (GMT) on Sky 674 or Freeview 23 or you can watch it via the Create and craft Website here. I have set up my recorder in case I'm not around at 10am.

Here is my card....inspired by my sweet Billy......I have called it Billy's Fence. He also has a friend called Blackie who visits him and looks just like the cats walking along the fence here...

I made the fence with lots of DecoArt paints on card. I also used some crackle paint to give lots of worn texture. I then distressed it...literally by removing some panels and added the large cat face.

The small walking cats were embossed and fussy cut out

I created a sunny scene using Distress inks and used the cat's whiskers stamp from the set for my grass.

To finish off my card I added glossy accents to the eyes and nose.

I even decorated the inside...and used the sweet paw print and the sentiment which also comes with the set.

Here is my card once more

I would like to enter Billy's fence card into the following challenges.

Cupcake inspiration 1/3 cats
Simon Says Stamp Work it Wednesday 1/3 green
Ribbon girl 2/3 any image
Rubber dance layers
Frilly and Funkie out of the cold
More mixed media anything goes
Simon Says stamp Wednesday anything goes
Craft Catz anything goes
Lil patch of crafting friends anything goes
Stamping sensations animal magic

I had to share this photo too...whilst photographing my other samples Billy got in on the act in my light tent.

He is certainly true to the sentiment eh.....😼😻😺

Now there is one final piece of very exciting news I can share before I end my post. After receiving my samples, Helen of Visible Image contacted me and asked if I would like to join the team as a full Design Team Member........so now I am really looking forward to sharing their onward creative journey as part of their Team.

I am back on Wednesday, as it's the first of the month, with my DT post for Country View.

Thanks so much for stopping by today and for all the very kind comments you leave me. I really appreciate them and for all the support you give to my crafting. Take care 💓

Bye for now,

Jane x

Donkey birthday celebrations

Happy Friday and today is a very special one for me as it is my darling son's birthday. My baby is now 28 years young. We met up in Southampton with his darling GF, our DD, SIL and Daisy last weekend as this weekend he is out partying 😁

We enjoyed a wonderful roast lunch first and then went out for a walk along the River Hamble to walk off the huge roast we enjoyed.

Daisy loves to feed the drove of donkeys who live there (no I'm not smart I had to look up what a group of donkeys is called).

They come walking towards you especially when they see the bag of carrots you have brought. 

 Our son helped Daisy up for a closer view

 they are such sweet gentle creatures...

 there were some very young ones at the fence too

so woolly

and then it was time to walk back to the car

and drive back to our DDs and celebrate with some wicked cake made by our son's GF and cupcakes made by sweet Daisy. Yes they were as good as they looked.

such a perfect family day.

Now that he will have seen it I am sharing his birthday card for my card challenges today.

The stamp is Lili of the Valley which I gold embossed. I used some fab BFG papers I found in a sale, my son adored Roal Dahl's books as a child and the amazing Quentin Blake illustrations. I even made him a golden ticket using a Tim Holtz stamp and die. I used a very grungy textured sheet made with distress sprays to cut out the Noor star die and the golden candle is Marianne. The sentiment is Clearly Besotted.

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

Rubber Dance  2/3 layers
Allsorts anything goes

Happy Little stampers anything goes with a die
Words 2 Craft by celebrations
Crafty Hazelnut's patterned paper challenge February
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday anything goes

Wishing my darling son the best that life sends his way; may he always hold a golden ticket to the future....Happy Birthday!
Thanks for visiting today on this, the very last Friday in February. Enjoy the weekend ahead and I hope you get some time to Carry on Crafting.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Using your scraps to save time

Hello again it's time for my 2nd piece for Country View Challenges where our theme is a time challenge of 30 minutes or less. You can share any handmade craft, it doesn't have to be cards or tags it could even be a knitted item.  There are no limitations to the number of other challenges or the number times you can enter. You can win a £20 voucher too so it's win win in my books! All the details can be seen here. 

My first piece was a shabby chic card which can be seen here where I used lots of "left overs" as my cheats for saving time.

My second piece is another card which again uses a few left over die cuts but this time I have made use of some printed design paper. For speed  I have again used a digi image, which always saves time, as there is no colouring or stamping involved. This lovely image is a Nicecrane  image (whom I was a permanent guest designer for) . Sadly Ignacio is no longer trading.

To save matting the image I just die cut it with my floral frame.

Time taken; 4 minutes.

I matched a sheet of printed design paper and some orange card for matting and cut them to size.
Time taken; 4 minutes

I dug out my stash of "left over" die cuts and dug out some suitable greenery and flowers and an old mdf flower which I had previously painted and added a gold edge to.   This came from a project I made some years ago which I never really liked..so I took it to pieces and saved the elements. 

I also have a pot of left over die cut sentiments 

and I chose this one to link in with the gold edged wooden flower

Time taken; 2 minutes

I wanted a pop of orange  to bring everything together so I just die cut a couple of Cheery Lynn flowers using a scap of card left over from matting.

Time taken; 4 minutes

It was then a case of putting my card together. 

Time taken; 10 minutes.

Here is my finished card;

Below is a close up of the floral spray and my recycled wooden flower. I also added a couple of sequins.

Total time = 22 minutes.

I really hope you can join in with the fun, it just shows how much time you can save by using your scraps. This gives you total justification for never throwing anything away too!

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

Dies R us think spring

Frilly and Funkie 2/3 out of the cold 
Allsorts 2/3 anything goes
Ribbon Girl 1/3 Feb any image

You still have 1 week to enter our challenge, so get your skates on and whip something up in 30 minutes or under.
Meanwhile I am still loving my daffs on my window sill......ahhhhh

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

The first warmth of the year

Oh what bliss yesterday was, the sun came out and warmed us up for the first time this year. We went out for a walk and saw that the crocuses had burst into life....

a whole carpet of these little beauties.

There are even sticky buds on the Horse Chestnut

 which means the leaves will soon be following.....squeal 😊
When we got home we found that it was 16c in our little sheltered garden.
The pots I planted up in the autumn are looking splendid.

The hellebore I bought last year has come back into flower and wow what a beauty it is.

 There are so many flowers to come.

As it was so warm, out came our canvas chairs and we enjoyed our first cuppa outside this year...

Bliss.

My card today was inspired by the gorgeous crocuses and the thought of spring being on its way.

The bird stamp is Designed by Ryn, such a cool stamp. I stamped it onto card and added some distress inks and a flash of metallic. I then I fussy cut it out. The flower spray, which I white embossed, is an old Noor stamp, sadly long discontinued. These are 2 of my favourite stamps.
I made a distress ink background, lots of layers and drying in between.

My card was made for the following challenges;

Designs by Ryn February customer creation
Creative Moments anything goes
Penny Black and More 3/3 favourite stamp they are both my favourites but if I really had to say 1 then it's the humming bird.
Frilly and Funkie 1/3 out of the cold      
Pixie's Snippets Playground #269/70 I used a snippet of left over watercolour card to stamp my humming bird on.
Rubber Dance 1/3 layers I used my inks to build up layers of colour and also added layers with my fussy cut bird and ribbon.
Sweet Stampin 1/3flowers
Allsorts 1/3 anything goes
Simon says stamp Wednesday fantastic florals
Stamping Sensations animal magic

I really hope some sunshine reaches you at some point over the weekend. I know we are not out of winter yet as despite this lovely mild weather, which is set to last into next week, there is talk of snow the week after! How fickle is our weather here in the UK?

Thanks so much for visiting, enjoy your Sunday.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Snowdrops and daffodils....

Yes I have seen my first snowdrops in flower as I walked to Dotty's Teahouse earlier this week. The ones in my front garden are still not quite in flower so I squealed inside when I spied these.

There are lots of clumps under the trees in park .

Someone else was watching me looking at them too.

They were a little rain damaged and muddy but they always such beautiful sweet delicate flowers.

On the home front I have a constant blooming of my favourite daffodils

and the pot I only bought last week is almost sending up its flower stalks.

So with all these snowdrops and daffodils the only thing we are still  waiting for is of course..................................butterflies and bees. Now to understand that you would need to be a least my age and remember the song Dana sang for the 1970 euro-vision song contest....😉
And if you are not that old...check out the link below

1970...just check out the fashions!! and yes I used to have a hair slide just like hers. The song is only 3 minutes long and I guarantee it will make you smile all day.

and if you want to see how Dana fares 40 years on check out this version.

2010 version I think she has aged really well.

In its time this was just a sweet innocent song and I adored it. I can never see snowdrops and daffodils without that little tune playing in my head.

Today's card is not floral as I just wanted to share the Valentine's card I made for my Hb....he doesn't often read my blog but just in case he did I had to keep it a secret until today.

 The ticket stamps are Tim Holtz which I embossed with black.  The die cuts are all MB and the Valentine sentiment stamp, which I embossed in red, is ancient from my stash. 

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

                                                                      Noor have a heart
                                                               

Ribbon Girl  2/3 any card

                                   Uniko anything goes I have also gone for the optional love twist.


                                                             
   

Paper creator love is in the air  

A Vintage journey words that are special I think that the definition of Valentine on my heart is perfect for this occasion....a person chosen as one's sweetheart on Valentine's day; one who is loved. My Hb certainly is.

Creative Moments anything goes

Craft stamper take it make it anything stamped goes

Emerald Creek Dares rock the red

Deep Ocean hearts

Happy Little stampers anything goes with a die

Allsorts 1/3 hearts and/or flowers

Pile it On 1/3 Hearts on fire

Let's Craft and Create 2/3 love is in the air

Penny Black and More favourite stamp the sentiment stamp I used in the centre of my card is my absolute favourite Valentine stamp. I've had it for years, I have no idea of the maker and I use it every Valentine's  day.

I hope I brought a smile to your Thursday or brought back fond and very innocent memories of the 1970s to you with Dana's song. Enjoy the end of the week and the snowdrops..... and daffodils.

Thanks so much for stopping by,

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x