Sapphires for my Mum

Today is my dear Mum's birthday and I can now share my latest silversmithing project as well as the card I made her as she will have opened them this morning.

We have been "flush setting" stones in our class. Most people made rings but I decided to make a pendant for my Mum. In my stash I had some very small sapphires and I thought they would work really well for this project. 

It was very fiddly indeed as the stones only measure 1.75mm in diameter.

First I made the pendant from silver square wire and added a handmade bail to the top. I had to drill holes through ready to receive the sapphires. Then I soldered on the bail.

Sorry the photo below is so blurred but it was taken on my bench peg!

I have no photos of the setting process but it was very tricky!
Eventually my 3 stones were set and I polished it up and put it on a chain for my Mum. As always silver jewellery is so difficult to photograph but here are a couple of snaps.

It's much prettier IRL!

So I am also able to share my card...my Mum loves vintage images so I used one from the Graphic fairy to make her card.

The stamped sentiment is an old Lili of the Valley one.
The backing paper is by Craft Consortium....this is a gorgeous pad which I keep for those special cards. I added lots of die cuts and embellies. As I didn't have to post my card I was able to use some of my paper flowers from my stash, which my Mum loves, and add lots of layers.

all finished off with a ribbon.

 I would like to enter my card (and my pendant if it is appropriate) into the following challenges;

Pixie's snippets playground #340
Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes
Simon says stamp Monday gift it
A vintage journey paper stash
Let's craft and create anything goes
Frilly and funkie tis the season for gift giving
Little patch of crafty friends 1/3 anything goes

Happy Birthday to my dear Mum...85 years young today..and so very precious to me.

Thanks so much for stopping by today and have a wonderful weekend.
I am back again in the morning...yes it's 1st December and our last Country View Challenge for 2018!

Bye for now,

Jane x

Shopping for Christmas

I finally have some time to go Christmas shopping. Today I will be going with my Hb and tomorrow with my best friend Karen. Hopefully I will be able to get most of my pressies which I need to "browse" for. Although I love the convenience of on line shopping, when I need some inspiration I still need to go to some physical shops. Do you?

Yesterday was my silversmithing class and I noticed that the shopping centre has all its Christmas decorations and lights up. Actually I quite liked these ones.

Nothing like a touch of sparkling snow is there?

My card today is a snowflake Christmas card. My latest for sale at Dotty's in the High Street.

Here is the snowflake in close up, one layer of the snowflake I triple gold embossed which gives a lovely texture. The background has been embossed with a snowflake folder. The largest snowflake is Memory Box and the others are Tim Holtz. The stamped sentiment is an ancient one from my stash. 

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

Simon says Wednesday baby it's cold outside

As you like it 2/3 do you prefer digi or rubber stamps? me most definitely rubber. Sentiment stamps like the one I used in this card are so useful.
Crimbo Crackers 2/3 anything goes
Sweet stampin' 2/3 whatever the weather

Crafty Halzelnut's Christmas 2/3 #413
Allsorts 3/3 inspired by a song mine is "Let it snow" by Dean Marin, another of my all time Christmas faves.
Addicted to stamps 2/3 anything goes
Cute Card Thursday 1/3 festive colours
CRAFT challenge 1/2 make your own embellishments
Try it on Tuesday 1/3 winter wonderland

I hope you are able to start your shopping soon...or are you already done 😆

Thanks for stopping by today,

Back soon,

Bye for  now,

Jane x

Into the woods at Christmas

Good morning, brrr we had some very chilly weather last week, the beast from the East was visiting but luckily no snow, just a very chilly easterly wind.

I noticed lots of lovely holly berries when I was walking down to Dotty's.

a sure sign that Winter and Christmas is coming. Most of the leaves have now fallen too.

For my Monday Visible Image design team project today I decided to use my Into the woods stamp set. 

When I first set eyes on this brilliant new set earlier this year I thought what fab Christmas cards you could make with it.  So today I am taking you Into the woods at Christmas......

I used oxide inks on black card to create the background and then stamped the background tree line. Next I stamped the single tree in white ink. Once the background was thoroughly dry I stamped and embossed the sweet owls in the set. Sorry this photo is so dark but it was taken mid process in my studio.

Lastly I gold embossed the "near" tree line. I also added the star from the Angels stamp set 

and a sentiment is from the Go to Christmas words set.

Here is my finished card

with a few close ups.

and one final shot.

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

Simon says Wednesday baby it's cold outside

Frilly and Funkie 1/3 'tis the season for gift giving
As you like it 2/3 do you prefer digi or rubber stamps? me most definately rubber, how could I have achieved any of these effects using a digi stamp?
Crimbo Crackers 1/3 anything goes
Sweet stampin' whatever the weather

Crafty Halzelnut's Christmas #413
Allsorts 2/3 inspired by a song mine is "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" by Bing Crosby, one of my all time Christmas faves.
Addicted to stamps 1/3 anything goes

The stamp sets I have used today are still HALF PRICE until 11.59pm tonight in the amazing Visible Image Black Friday sale...don't miss out.. check out all the offers here. Some of the stencils have sold out but there are still lots of bargains to grab.

All the Visible Image links can be found here;

Visible Image group page on Facebook. Our friendly Group is here ...it would be lovely to see you. You can add work to the new challenge album where one randomly chosen winner each month wins a £40 coupon to spend on the website. For this month the theme is "Add some sparkle".

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 their gorgeous stamps and stencils can be purchased. 

 The challenge ends this Friday, 30 November. If you join us you might even be the randomly selected winner of a £40 voucher to spend on the website...now that would be like Christmas coming early wouldn't it!

I hope you might feel inspired to make your own "Into the woods" Christmas cards. There are only 29 days until the Big Day....are you ready?

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Theatricals and pantomimes at Christmas

At this time of the year lots of people treat themselves to a trip to the theatre or the pantomime. When I was up in London last week as I walked into Victoria station to catch the train I spotted a couple of shows running now.

Personally I am not a huge pantomime fan but I do love a show, opera or the ballet. In the past I have seen several ballets at the Coliseum and I even saw Darcy Bussell dance at the Royal Opera house many years ago. 

Today I am sharing an "extra" post for Visible Image showcasing their stamp set Maskerade

which is of course based on the comedy and tragedy masks. 

I decided to make a card based around a stage, complete with lush curtains. For the background I used  elemental

 stamping it in white on an oxide background on black card stock. I put this behind a die cut shape.

I also die cut some black card to give some extra layers and texture.

I wanted to make rich, velvet looking curtains so I put on my thinking cap and came up with the idea to red emboss black card with the rectangular stamp from

organics

I cut out the shape of a curtain and added a ribbon for a tie back. I also created a "valance" which you can see in the finished photos. 

I stamped the masks onto gold card

and then layered everything up.

Here is my finished card

with a couple of close ups...

I even added some drama to the inside....because as the sentiment says "Behind every mask lies a story"....

Mine is obviously a happy one!

Here is one last shot.

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

Craft stamper take it make it 3/3 November
Allsorts 1/3 inspired by a song..mine is The music of the night from The phantom of the opera.

Crafty catz 1/3 anything goes

Artistic inspirations 3/3 anything goes
As you like it Do you prefer digi or rubber mine is rubber..there is so much more you can do with "real stamps"

All the stamps I have used are half price!!!! in their amazing Black Friday sale which last until Monday, or as long as stock lasts.
Just click on this link and "fill you boots".....don't miss out!

All the Visible Image links can be found here;

Visible Image group page on Facebook. Our friendly Group is here ...it would be lovely to see you. You can add work to the new challenge album where one randomly chosen winner each month wins a £40 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 their gorgeous stamps and stencils can be purchased. 

Remember to add your "sparkle projects" to the FB album here The challenge

ends on 30  November. It will be great to see them all and you might even be the randomly selected winner of a £40 voucher to spend on the website...now that would be like Christmas coming early wouldn't it!

Do you have any theater or pantomime plans this year?...Oh yes you do (on no you don't 😂😁😂) I know I just couldn't resist that!

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely weekend.

I am back on Monday with another Visible Image DT make and it could not be any more different to my card today. Stay tuned.....

Bye for now,

Jane x

Christmas at Harrods 2018

I'm back to share some more photos from my annual festive trip to Harrods that I enjoy with my dear Mum. 

I shared some of the windows in my last post, if you missed that you can see it here. This very large Santa greeted us at the entrance of the Christmas department.

There were lots of different displays in styles to appeal to all.

 My eyes spotted this display...

I love Raymond Brigg's The Snowman and found out that it is the 40th anniversary of the book.

Harrods have produced some gorgeous memorabilia, and my dear Mum treated me to this new cutie for my Christmas tree. Isn't he a cutie and he has a lovely 40 years of the snowman/Harrods tag on him too. 

So my card today just had to feature a snowman didn't it? I used my very ancient Penny Black snowman wooden stamp and made a very CAS card. I simply stamped him on craft and coloured him with gel pens. I put him onto a glittery die cut and added a very simple stamped Merry Christmas and a few stars.

He has made his way down to Dotty's teahouse.

Penny Black and More Make someone smile
Craft stamper take it make it 2/3 November

Allsorts Clean and simple Christmas
CRAFT 2/3 Christmas
Cute card Thursday 2/3 stars
Stamping sensations 2/3 Getting ready for Christmas
Christmas at sweet stampin 2/3 anything goes
Crafty Hazlenut's Christmas challenge 2/3 #412 anything goes
Sweet stampin 2/3 anything that shines
Fussy and fancy 2/3 anything goes
Crafty catz 2/3 anything goes
Artistic inspirations 2/3 anything goes
Winter wonderland what do you like to do at Christmas?....me, build a snowman!!

Thanks so much for stopping by. I am on my way home from helping looking after Jack and doing the school run for Daisy since Monday. Such fun times.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x