Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone...we have reached 31 October and there will be lots of knocks on my door tonight with the local children trick or treating. I didn't really get into Halloween until Daisy was born. My children are too old for it to have been part of their childhood. However I do make them up a little treat bag tied with one of my Halloween tags. Daisy and Jack have Halloween books as neither eat chocolate (yet).

I bought Jack Meg and Mog

 and Daisy the new Julia Donaldson book.

These are the chocolate treats for my big kids....spooky chocolate!

Popped into bags and tied with one of my handmade tags.

I am sharing my last Halloween 2017 tag today.

It's the tag below which is for Jack. We call him our little Pumpkin King so it's right that his featured pumpkins.

The image is one of my sadly no longer available Nicecrane digis. I stamped lots of spiders on the backing card and layered up with a mixed media die but plus some other spooky ones. I stamped my Tim Holtz skull onto book pages and added one of my mixed media leaves. 

I would like to enter Jack's Halloween tag into the following challenges;

A vintage journey crazy for autumn colour
Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes

Emerald Creek Dares Freaky fun

Frilly and Funkie 2/3 trick or treat my treat is that there is a real treat (Jack's book) that it is attached to and I also made some matching gift wrap.
Noor UK fall colours
Cupcake Inspirations orange, green, brown

This is my matching stamped wrapping paper...here is Jack's pressie all ready to open.

and here are Jack and Daisy's gifts together.

So that's me done for Halloween 2017, no more Halloween crafting until next year.

I have my head down now for my most favourite time of the year..yes Christmas is only 54 days away.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I'm back in the morning as it's 1 November and time for our new challenge over at Country View.

Nearly time for the witching hour....have fun 👻

Bye for now,

Jane x

Billy's box

Hello it's Billy here, Jane's cat.

Jane hasn't spotted me asleep on the table cover in the garden............

 I know how much everyone enjoys my occasional posts so as Jane had some samples on Visible Image Stamps' Create and Craft TV shows at the weekend she has allowed me to post today as some of her projects were cat themed.

Come on down to her garden studio.

She made a mixed media wall hanging using the awesome  Curious cat stamp set ,

 Create to escape quote

 , strobes stencil 

and mesh-ellaneous background stamps.

This mixed media wall hanging started life as a very brown, very ordinary tomatoes packaging box. .....little did I know what she had planned...it involved a lot of paint and ink and I nearly changed my white feet to multi coloured.

It was a bit too small for me...I prefer much bigger boxes....like this one

 This is my sleeping place, when I'm not on Jane's bed...I even have a blanket that she crocheted just for me.

So back to the tomato box.....

this is what Jane got up to. She blended some autumn inspired distress inks and added gold metallic ink through the strobes stencil.

Blended acryllic paints around the edges of the box

and  added some patterns using stamps from the Mesh-allaneus set.

She also stamped little paw prints around the edge.

She altered some coffee stirrers with acrylic paints to make fence posts

and made a really textured backing using corrugated card, inks, gesso, gold paint and crackle paint. 

Of course the nose was coloured pink...just like mine 😻 Do you think this look suits me?

So then it was time to put everything together and make her "Billy's Box".
Here it is complete with ribbon to hang....and me to swing from...

a side view

and some close ups...there's my friend Blackie who comes to visit me and walks along the trellis in the garden.

and one more view

Jane would like to enter this into the following challenges...goodness me my paws are getting tired from all this typing..

Simon Says stamp Wednesday anything goes

Rhedd's Creative spirit October

Pixie's Snippets playground week 305/6

Rubber Dance animals

A vintage journey crazy for autumn colour
Creative inspirations autumn/halloween

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.

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 and stencils can be purchased. 

You can also follow via:

 Pinterest

Twitter

 Instagram

That's me done then, I will no doubt be back soon as it's very nearly the time of the year when Jane starts bringing trees inside the house..something to do with the Man in the red suit I think. If you would like to see what happened last year take a look at this post from last December.  I'd better keep a look out. Mind you I think it's Halloween tomorrow night so I think some broomstick riding is more likely for me. 😺

Well actually, if I'm being honest I'm more likely to be snoozing here 

 Bye for now,

Billy (I'm the one with the pink nose) 

and Jane x

Keeping up with my 12 cards of Christmas

Good morning and for those of you in the UK, I hope you enjoyed your extra hour in bed? 

I had some inky playtime in the week and I have managed to get my 5th Funkie Junkie Christmas card under my belt, making for a few other fun challenges too.

We had a lovely day yesterday and took Daisy to the New Forest, I will share some photos soon but this is the glorious countryside we enjoyed and we met some of the wonderful New Forest ponies.

We spotted some awesome toadstalls too and Daisy had such fun exploring outside with us.

 So back to my card.

If you would like to play along with Linda's challenge you can see all the rules here. There are some great prizes for the winners too. The challenge is generously sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique Linda shares a tag each week and you just have to take something from it and make something Christmas themed. I have always chosen to make cards and it's a great way to make 12 very unique cards for Christmas.

You can also combine it with any other challenges...so that is just what I did.

This is her card for week 4 here
I decided to use her idea of post mark stamps, vintage Santa red, gingham ribbon and glossy greenery for my inspiration.

This is what I got up to;

I recently acquired some more D'Oxide colours in my DT package from Susan of Country View Crafts and I wanted to play with 2 of my new colours. I also used my Tim Holtz vintage Santa stamp as it has post card written on the side and adds to the "post" theme of my card

 These are my old Lili of the Valley post mark stamps

This is my background I made, the new Oxide colours are amazing! I stamped lots of my post mark stamps on top.

It was time to put on my creative hat and put together my card.

 Here it is.

This will be heading down to Dotty's Tearooms for sale soon.

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

The Funkie Junkie 12 tags of Christmas #5

Christmas at sweet stampin 2/3 anything goes

Happy little stampers anything goes with dies October

Happy little stamps water colour challenge October

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday anything goes

I also wanted to share some exciting news....I have been in print again...

Check out the latest edition (Issue 49) of Creative Stamping...

 On page 47 is my card made for Visible Image stamps..I can only give a sneak peek at the moment but at some point I will be able to give a full reveal. 2 of my teamies Pauline and Veerle also have project for our Face It! Autumnal feature.

It's so exciting to be in print again.

I am back tomorrow with my latest DT post for Visible Image and to give you a heads up a certain pussy cat called Billy might be writing it for me..tee hee 😻

Thanks so much for stopping by and for the kind comments you take the time to leave. Enjoy a mellow Sunday, we have a Strictly date on the sofa later to catch up with last night's Halloween spectacular.

See you in the morning,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Return of our swans

I was delighted on one of my recent walks down to Dotty's to see that our swans have returned to the ponds. There are 2 pairs this time and I manged to get some photos. It is always lovely to see these magnificent birds there.

Welcome home!

The sweet "dino" birds are back too

Everywhere looks very autumnal with the leaves beginning to fall

 so many colours by the waterfall

I am sharing another of my Halloween tags as the big day is nearly here.
I cut a black tag and used Oxides to make a ghostly background..which of course I then covered up..LOL..using my mixed media die cut.

and like the swans washing my witch has been washing her outfit and hanging it out to dry 😼

Yes I used the fun Cheery Lynn die cut again.

I highlighted the clothes with red glitter and also hung a skeleton charm from the line. I also embossed the edge of the tag with blood  red embossing powder.

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

Allsorts 2/3 Halloween
A vintage journey crazy for autumn colour
Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes

Emerald Creek Dares Freaky fun

Frilly and Funkie 1/3 trick or treat my trick is that hidden under my die and panel is that ghostly inky background.....booooo! 

Can I also remind you that my samples are back on the TV tonight at 7pm and tomorrow at 9am with Visible Image stamps. I have booked my seat on my sofa! Tuesday's show was awesome and the next 2 shows are looking fab.

Thanks for all your support.

Enjoy the weekend ahead and thanks so much for stopping by today.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x