Chilli tomato lipstick anyone?

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend? We had a quiet one for a change and despite some biblical rain overnight on Saturday the weather was pretty kind and I managed to cut the lawn and deadhead and crop some of my home growns...

my chillies....

 Such an amazing deep red. 

Another red appearing in my garden are my ripening tomatoes. I grow Gardener's Delight. IMO that are the sweetest of all the tomatoes I have ever tried growing and I now just grow this variety on my sunny patio. 

So these rich red colours feature in my card today, in none other than lipstick for my weekly Monday Design Team inspiration for Visible Image. I am using some of the fun stamps from the Dare to be Different set.

The lips from the Face it! set

and I made the words "Kiss me" with the  Alphabetical stamps

I selected lots of red Distress inks, both oxides and originals, masked off the nose and using the lips from Face it stamped a border.

 I made up my words and stamped these too

 I stamped and embossed the verse from Dare to be different and also the lipstick "slash" and a couple more lips and embossed them on a die cut rectangle.

 I stamped, embossed the lipstick case in black (masking out the lipstick) and then did the reverse, stamping and embossing just the lipstick in red. I wonder if I could name this colour Chilli Tomato 😂 It would certainly look red hot!

 I added silver Wink of Stella to the upper part of the case and Glossy Accents to the red lipstick. IRL this really shines!

I then put my design together to make my card.

It's so hard to show the shine but here are a couple of close ups

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

The Cutie Pies 1/3 here come the girls
Simon says Stamp Wednesday anything goes
Noor use die cuts
Lil patch of crafting friends anything goes
Crafting with friends anything goes

All the Visible Image links can be found here;

Visible Image group page on Facebook. Our friendly Group can be found here ...it would be lovely to see you there. You can add work to the "Show and Tell" album where one randomly chosen winner each month wins a £25 coupon to spend on the website. Our monthly themed challenge is on summer break and will return in September. 

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 as always for stopping by and for the kind comments you take the time to leave me.

Remember that my 7th Bloggerversary giveaway is running until 9 Aug..you could use the £10 Country View Crafts voucher to stock up on more Visible Image stamps!

You will find all the details on my side bar on via the link here

I will be back tomorrow as unbelievably another month has raced by and it will be 1st August.

Thanks as always for stopping by,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Concorde lives on

Thanks so much for your kind anniversary and bloggerversary wishes you left me on my last 2 posts. We had a wonderful sunny day in London and I took lots of photos. Once have gone through them I will of course be sharing a post of our day out. 

Today I wanted to share a recent day out we enjoyed with my best friend and her hubby. We visited Brooklands Museum in Weybridge, Surrey. If you are ever nearby it should really be on your bucket list. I had never heard of it before and was so pleasantly surprised by what we found. Brooklands was home to the first motor car race track in the world, built in 1907. When those days drew to a close they were involved in aviation engineering during the war and in recent years built parts of my beloved Concorde. I was so excited to discover that they have a Concorde, the third of the 20 ever built, on site and have a "Concorde Experience" where you can still go aboard this iconic plane.

There are lots of vehicles in the museum and everywhere you look fantastic advertising artwork from the 1930s is hung from the walls.

Can you imagine the noise these old cars made?

This is part of the old track it was so steeply banked that I didn't manage to climb to the top. It was a 1 in 4 gradient and made of concrete. Just imagine those old cars hurling around the bends!

There was a Raleigh bikes part of the museum showing the Chopper bike which I never owned but longed to as a child.

I spotted my old scooter...that was about as much as my family could afford and mine was passed down to me from my brother too!

There was a London Transport Museum with all the old buses right from the horse drawn ones

We had such fun jumping on and off the route master buses. Little did I realise that I would actually replicate this is real life in London 2 weeks later. More of that in another post.

But the highlight of my day had to be our "Concorde experience."

We were able to take part in a mock "flight" and I fulfilled my dream of stepping aboard a real Concorde. She used to fly over our house every day at 5.25pm and every day I stopped what I was going, went out and looked up as she thundered past.

IRL she is much longer that I imagined, there is only one plane which will ever look this beautiful to me.

She is also a  long way off the ground, on very tall legs, as she had to tilt almost vertically to take off. The guide is standing underneath here and her belly was a long way up.

These were our "boarding passes"

and up the stairs we went.

 I was just a little excited 😂

 We learnt about the history of Concorde and saw all the different eras of furnishings and then had a short simulated flight. It was such great fun.  It was then time to disembark, here's my BF taking a photo of me

 with the crew

To celebrate my visit I made a tag to put into my journal together with my ephemera from our lovely day out.

I used paints in the colours of Concorde and added the picture from the brochure. All the stamps are Tim Holtz.

The crackle paint stencilled hearts are symbolic of how it broke my heart when they took Concorde out of service and the red white and blue to show Britain owning 10 of the 20 Concordes and for bringing, together with the French, this unique plane to life. 

 but the stamped verse is one which sums up how I have tried to approach life.

I really did cherish this day; for a few hours at Brooklands  I could relive my childhood, my teenage years and adulthood...all spent and shared with my darling Hb, best friend and her Hb.....What a day and I can now truthfully say that I have been on Concorde ...you won't fill in the detail will you ?

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

Simon says Stamp Wednesday anything goes
That's Crafty 2/3 all things grunge
Penny Black and More 1/3 For the Boys 

Emerald Creek Dares 3/3 sparkle/celebrations mine is of course sitting on Concorde!

Artistic Inspirations 2/3 anything goes
We love to create 2/2 Anything creative/mixed media goes
Creative Artiste 3/3 anything mixed media
Really reasonable ribbon 1/3 anything goes
Happy Little stampers mixed media texture

Enjoy your weekend and remember my giveaway is running until 9 August.The details are in my sidebar or you can follow the link here. We have a quiet weekend planned and as it looks like rain then I think it will be a crafting rather than a gardening one. Thanks for stopping by and for the kind comments you take the time to leave me.

Back on Monday, with my weekly Visible Image inspiration.

Bye for now,

Jane x

My 7th bloggerversary and a giveaway

Yes it is hard to believe but Jane's Journal is 7 years old today!

7 years....844 (gulp) posts

7 years of wonderful blogging friendship.

261 loyal followers (and many more who have signed up and get my posts by email)

Goodness know how many photos....

This post is written to thank every single one of you who stops by here and reads my ramblings. I know that a lot of you are "silent" readers and I am waving to you today. Many of you also take the time to leave comments and there are a few (yes you know who) who leave comments on every, (barring holidays), post since I started blogging! 

Wow! What else can I say other than I honestly still love being a part the blogging community. I love blogging and it gives me a great deal of pleasure. I find it a positive, supportive and friendly place to be. I know that everyone has difficulties in their lives at some point but my ethos for writing my blog is to keep a record of my creative journey and hopefully, at the same time, put a smile on peoples' faces when they visit me here. I am a glass half full kind of girl and I believe that positive thoughts and words are contagious. My life has its fair share of ups and downs, the last few months have indeed had more than their fair share of testing times, but through it all I know that I am blessed and so thankful of the life I have been given.

Thank you for being a part of it. 

I am offering a small giveaway as a little thank you, with a choice of prize to the winner. This is open to everyone world wide...no gimmicks, no restrictions...just leave a comment that you would like to be included and your name will be put into the hat. As an extra thank you to my loyal followers I would like to offer you a second entry, just mention that you follow my blog (don't be shy if you want to join me today) or leave an extra comment. And if anyone would like to promote my little blog giveaway on their own blog or on social media, using the photo below, you are welcome to have a 3rd entry.
Below is the photo to use, if would like an extra entry. Just pop it into your side bar or share it in a post or on social media and let me know.
My giveaway is running from today and closes on 9th August at 4pm GMT.

There are 3 choices of prize for the winner, pulled out of the hat on 9th August. You may choose one of these;

• £10 gift voucher for Country View Crafts (Susan posts worldwide) to choose something crafty or put it toward something you have had you eye on.  Postage on your spend is free to any UK winner but if the winner is from overseas you will need to be be responsible for your own postage or other charges. I will send the £10 voucher by email worldwide. This prize has not been sponsored by CVC but I buy most of my crafting goodies from Susan as her prices and free postage are brilliant.

•  I know some of my dear blogging friends are not paper crafters so should you not have any use for a CVC voucher you may choose a £10 Amazon Voucher, sent by email.

or

• Some of you like my handmade bag charms, so my 3rd choice of  prize is the little cat bag charm, inspired by Billy and hand made by me using artisan glass lampwork one of a kind beads. I will post the bag charm worldwide. 

You don't need to make up your minds  re your prize choice yet, I will check with the winner after 9th August to see which prize they would like.

I can't send flowers so I am sharing these recent photos of my tiny sunny garden and my beloved studio, which give me so much inspiration

 and also a photo of my darling cat Billy who shares my outside space in the summer months.

 How easy it is to be inspired by Mother Nature.

Billy was caught napping on the garden table cover but instantly forgiven, he is just the best cat, my little shadow. He recently celebrated his 9th birthday 😺

My challenge project today is a thank you one...of course..
It's a thank you bottle tag I made for a good friend of mine who has stepped in to look after Billy at short notice several times this year. There was a bottle attached!

I used Distress Oxides for the background, a Tim Stencil and die cut sentiment and the long discontinued Bronte verse stamp by Visible Image which remains my all time favourite script stamp. I really wish Mark would bring it back...hint hint!!

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

That's Crafty 1/3 all things grunge

Fussy and Fancy 1/3 anything goes

Crafty Catz 1/3 anything goes

Emerald Creek Dares 2/3 sparkle/celebrations mine is of course my 7 year bloggerversary

Noor use die cuts

Happy Little Stampers (watercolour) 3/3 July
Artistic Inspirations 1/3 anything goes

Thank you again for stopping by and for making blogging such fun. Remember to leave a comment on this post if you would like to be included in my giveaway. Good luck to you all!

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

A lifetime of love

Tomorrow is a rather special occasion...my 36th Wedding Anniversary! Goodness knows where those years have gone but they have been the best of years.  I am lucky to have met and married my soul mate and been blessed with a lifetime of love.

We have a special treat planned..lunch at the Sky Garden in London and yes of course I will be taking my trusty camera away with me.

Today is my weekly inspiration post for Visible Image. I think that the sentiment I used for my card sums up how many people feel about the love of their lives...... however I was just one of those lucky ones who found mine when I was just eighteen 😍

Love you longer

I also used the time swirl, falling man and lady, the past stamp and the birds from the amazing Ahead of our time set.

Ahead of our time

I made an Infusions background

and used some very glittery WOW gold embossing powder to emboss the time swirl...

I then stamped the birds emerging from the end of the swirl. 

I embossed and fussy cut the man and lady and had them falling from the past stamp. I die cut some clock hands and turned my time swirl into a clock where the man has grabbed onto the the hands to "turn back time" and find his love sooner. 

Here are some close ups.

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

Emerald Creek Dares 1/3 sparkle/celebrations mine is of course our anniversary tomorrow.

Noor use die cuts
We love to create 1/2 Anything creative/mixed media goes
Pixie's Snippets Playground #291/2 I used snippets for my sentiment and my little clock hands
Creative Artiste 2/3 anything mixed media
Fussy and fancy 2/3 anything goes

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 chosen winner each month wins a £25 coupon to spend on the website. Our 3rd themed challenge, "a splash of colour", is  also up and running until 28 July. 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 for stopping by today and for taking the time to leave your kind comments.

I have a very special blogging celebration coming up on Wednesday....I will be celebrating my 7th...yes 7th! blogging birthday...and I have a giveaway ...do pop back to join in with the fun....here's a preview

Bye for now,

Jane x