The STAMPlorations 4th birthday blog hop

Hello and welcome to Jane's Journal if you are a first time visitor. I am delighted to be taking part in the amazing STAMPlorations 4th birthday blog hop!

This is the 5th and final day and all the details, in case you need them are here . If you register your wish list you could end up winning it! (up to $50 value)

And what's a blog hop without prizes for those of you who hop along? Here are the deets:

Prizes for commenting on the STAMPlorations blog and STAMPlorations designers blogs:

• THREE (3) winners randomly drawn from all comments left on the STAMPlorations blog and participating designers blog will each receive a $25 certificate to the STAMPlorations store

Prizes for linking up to the STAMPlorations Wishlist Linky Party:

• TWO (2) randomly drawn winners will each receive products in their wishlist (up to $50 MSRP)

Prize for liking, commenting, and sharing our post on the STAMPlorations Facebook page post:

• ONE (1) randomly drawn winner will receive a grab bag consisting of new products (valued at $30 MSRP)

Prize for commenting and re-posting our Wishlist Linky Party post on the STAMPlorations Instagram page:

• ONE (1) randomly drawn winner will receive a grab bag consisting of new products (valued at $30 MSRP)

Such incredible prizes! 

For today's birthday celebrations I worked with 4  gorgeous new STAMPlorations products;

Charming bold sentiments stamps

 Cupcake builder dies #2
 shaker balloons #3 dies

and the sweet word die.

I made 2 celebrations cards.

For my first card I used a sheet of cupcake backing paper from my stash and then die cut the balloons from some card I had coloured with Distress Oxides. I used a piece of acetate to contain my little seed beads. I stamped my sentiment and then added my "sweet" die cut from an oxide offcut. This is the first shaker card I have ever made!

For my second card I used another piece from my sheet of backing paper. I used PaperArtsy Infusions to colour some card which I die cut my cake tops from. I cut the cases from matt gold and kraft card stock and added the cherry on top using red card. These dies cut and layer up so well. I finished off with a sprinkling of sequins (less calories than sugar 😉)

The stamps and dies are all such a dream to work with.

As well as the chance to win your registered wish list  you can also make incredible savings now. Everything in Shery's shop until 7 July is 15% off and if you add my personal discount by typing STAMPGIRLJANE at the checkout you can also save an additional 20%...now that really is an amazing 35% discount.
Just hop over to the website here and enjoy stocking up!

Remember to leave a comment here before you leave and also to create your wishlist at STAMPlorations before the closing date of 3 July. . You might come out of the hat as a lucky winner of your wish list.

If you want to get back to the blog hop post for a reminder of all the details you can find it here

Good luck!

I am back tomorrow as it is July 1st...you know what that means don't you?

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Bye for now,

Jane x

Photos from Portugal

Hello, I am back after a wonderful week's holiday in Portugal.

We stayed in a beautiful hotel in Cascais, a sweet seaside resort. This was our view from our balcony as the sun set at night.

The main town square was about a 10 minute walk from our hotel.

It is still a working fishing port and we saw the men working on their nets every day

Part of the ancient city wall is still visible too.

The old and the new also intermix via the Marina built in 2002

The local railway provided a scenic route around the coast to Lisbon, an amazing city. I have lots of lovely photos which I will share between my DT posts over the coming weeks.

My card today has a very sunny theme..and very appropriately features ice cream, which of course we had to sample whilst away 😎

This is a sizzix stamp and die set I bought last year. I triple embossed the ice lollies with red embossing powder. I used kraft card and a piece of patterned paper under the ribbon.

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

Shopping our stash 1/3 lazy summer days
Wow embossing powder summer
Crafty Hazelnut's patterned paper challenge June
Addicted to stamps and More 1/3 Holiday
Simon says stamp Wednesday 1/5 Anything goes
Creative Inspirations 1/3 dots or stripes

Thanks so much for stopping by, the weather has turned so wet that it is hard to remember that just 48 hours ago we were in temperatures in the 30s! Let's hope summer returns very soon.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Sibling love

Good morning, I am here with my Monday morning Visible Image inspiration and for today's project I decided to make another of my Moments for my physical Jane's Journal. Our darling grandson Jack was born 8 weeks ago and I have not yet had time to use one of his photos. When I took these photos of Daisy playing peek a boo with him  I knew I had the perfect one to use..

Peep-bo Jack... 

Just look at the bond already between these 2...so wonderful . Daisy could not love her little brother more.

I decided to use this last photo. I also wanted to add the June lines from the Garden Year poem by Sara Coleridge. I have been making art journal pages for each month since the beginning of this year.

The lines read;

"June bring tulips, lilies, roses

fills the children's hands with posies"

In previous months I have tended to print out the words on my computer but now that Visible Image have a brilliant alphabet stamp set I decided to stamp the lines out myself.

Alphabetical

I also wanted to make a "generic" posy of flowers and I knew just which set would be perfect...

the flowers from imperfection is beauty

 Unlike me I accidently managed to overwrite my prep photos for this project so just for today I will share a write up only of my techniques. 

This is what I got up to;

I used distress inks to make a background, using the wrinkle free distress technique. I die cut my photo and a backing frame to put underneath.

 I stamped several of the flowers onto inky mop up card and fussy cut them out. I made stems for the flowers from die cuts and found some ribbon to match Jack's little toy mouse.

I then hand stamped out the lines from the poem. There are lots of useful doubles in Alphabetical so I was even able to stamp some words 2 at a time. I found it easier to place the letter on my glass crafting plate and then "pick them up" onto my stamping block. It was also easier this way to get the spacing correct.

So here is my finished Moment

with a couple of close ups;

and one last shot

This new alphabet will be so useful in mixed media work....you can of course also stamp out each letter or whole words on pieces of card and build up the words that way too. I must admit I think I was pretty brave stamping straight onto my AJ page...I only got 1 chance to get it right and luckily I didn't mess up!

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

The Craft Barn June calendar page
The ribbon girl 2/3 any image

Happy  Little stampers June watercolour challenge
Try it on Tuesday 2/3 Letters numbers or both
Allsorts 1/3 Flower power
We love to create 1/2 Anything creative mixed media

These are all the Visible Image links;

Visible Image group page on Facebook. Our friendly Group can be found here ...it would be lovely for you to join us.  You can add work to the "Show and Tell" album where one randomly chosen winner each month win a £25 coupon to spend on the website. Our 2nd themed challenge, "dimension", ends on Wednesday. You still have a couple of days left to enter. There is another £40 voucher up for grabs for the winner of this. 

The main Visible Image Facebook page is here; there are weekly stamp giveaways...open world wide!

And the shop web site is here; where all these gorgeous stamps can be purchased. 

Thanks so much for visiting me today and for all the kind comments you take the time to leave me. You may have noticed I was a little bit absent from blog land last week...because I have been away on holiday and I am travelling back this morning! I have lots of lovely photos and so much inspiration to work with. I will share some very soon. I would also like to warmly welcome my newest follower, thanks for joining me on my creative journey. 

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

New life on the ponds

I really love my walks down to Dotty's. I take my new card creations to sell and it involves no transport costs and no air miles! Every season is so different at the ponds and over the last few weeks I have been watching all the nest sitting by the ducks and moorhens. Mr and Mrs Swan are nowhere to be seen but no doubt will be back at some point, with or without their brood.

I said good morning to Mr Heron...who was basking in the sunshine...

Last week I noticed that one of the coot nests was empty.

I then heard that family cheeping of a Mother coot keeping her brood close to her .....and I spotted these sweeties.

How cute they are with their little red heads. 

I also walked over to the other pond and found some slightly older chicks with their Mum swimming in the sunshine.

As I took some photos I spotted something in the rushes....Oh wow a Mummy Moorhen with her babies. They are much more shy that coots.

As I walked home I witnessed the newest family feeding their babies...

The weather has been just amazing and I find my walks make me appreciate life and enable me to recharge my batteries and find great peace with Mother Nature. I am blessed and Mother Nature has a good way of reminding me.

My card today is a baby card...for a Christening.. which I was commissioned to make.I sell a lot of baby cards in Dotty's . I used a Lili of the Valley Simply Print image. The lady asked me to just add an initial..something I have never been asked to do before..for the baby, who was called Florence. The papers are ancient from my stash and the sentiment is a hand stamped Lili of the Valley fave.

I would like to enter it into the following challenges.

The ribbon girl 1/3  use any image
Let's Craft and Create 1/3 girls girls girls
Noor summer
Deep Ocean die cuts, chipboards and/or punches
Try it on Tuesday 1/3 letters numbers or both I have the letter F on my card

Simon Says stamp Wednesday use patterned paper
Crafty Hazelnut patterned paper challenge June
Simon says work it Wednesday's 1/3 summer icons I think there is nothing more iconic in the  summer than a hammock, roses and bunting..all on 1 card!
Shopping our stash think pink

Thanks for stopping by today and for the kind comments you take the time to leave me. I was thrilled to see how much love there was for Billy's summer garden I shared in my last post and the monolith I made, thanks so much!  Enjoy the rest of your week.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Billy's summer garden

A while back I shared a sneak peek of the Visible Image Designer 3D challenge make I made for the June Edition of Craft Stamper. Their magazine is always issued a month ahead so now that the July edition is in the shops I can finally share the details of my make here on my own blog. This piece is also very relevant inspiration for the "dimension" challenge running over on our VI Facebook group page. All the details and links for this will be at the end of this post.

As you all know my garden is a constant source for my crafting inspiration. Billy my cat is also a constant shadow out there and he really loves the summer months when we spend many pleasant hours outside. We also eat most of our meals on our sunny terrace. This is such a wonderful time of the year.

I tend to garden in pots as my garden is tiny and it means that I can have constant flowers. These are some of my potted flowers this year.

My sweet Billy adores the summer months..

and when it gets too hot he makes a nest to cool down...often under here.

Billy has a friend called Blackie who visits, so when it came to choosing a set of stamps to work with for my project, I did not hesitate to chose this one...
the amazing Stay Curious set available here

I used a Visible Image monolith and added some die cuts for initial texture

 and gave it some colour using these "garden inspired" PaperArsty fresco paints.

 I also added some texture paste through my dots and floral stencil.

 To give me this base.

I added some shading and the fun paw prints from the set

 I stamped my Cat face and carefully applied it.

I then stamped a small dragonfly from the Live in the moment set

, stamped, embossed and fussy cut out the small cats and die cut some floral elements.

It was then time to put on my creative hat...

and here is my finished Billy's summer garden Monolith.

and a few close ups... I made a picket fence from coffee stirrers and added a texture paste path...

and Glossy Accents to his eyes and his sweet pink nose....😻

and to prove that Billy really has a friend called Blackie who visits I took these snaps last week..

and I snapped him here in one of his many shady hideaways 😸

My sweet pink nosed boy.

All the links to Visible Image are below;

Visible Image group page on Facebook. Our friendly Group can be found here ...it would be lovely to see you. You can add work to the "Show and Tell" album where one randomly chose winner each month win a £25 coupon to spend on the website. Our 2nd themed challenge, "dimension", is  also up and running until 28 June. There is another £40 voucher up for grabs for the winner of this. 

The main Visible Image Facebook page is here; there are weekly stamp giveaways...open world wide!

And the shop web site is here; where all these gorgeous stamps can be purchased. 

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

Rhedd's Creative spirit June
Stamps and stencils words with meaning I think my Billy will always "Stay Curious"
Simon Says stamp Monday touchy feely
Deep Ocean die cuts, chipboards and/or punches
Rubber dance 1/3 summer holidays the garden is where my Billy will spend all of the summer holidays!
Penny Black and More 2/3 anything goes
Mixed Media World anything goes
Happy little stampers 1/3 anything goes with dies
Creative Artiste anything goes

Thanks so much for stopping by today and for the very kind comments that you take the time to leave. Thank you also for all the lovely messages, texts and emails sent to me after seeing the Create and Craft show too. I love finding out that I can inspire people in their own crafting. I am happy to share my knowledge and techniques..sharing is caring in my books and we are all on a fun creative journey.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x