A thank you blog hop for Di

Good morning, what a wild week is has been so far weather wise. We have had sleet, sun, rain, wind and more here. I have not been able to test my new camera out very much but I did take these photos the other day on my twice weekly walk to Dotty's Tea House, with my latest cards, via the ponds.

I've had a couple of questions regarding my camera...it is just a newer version of the cameras I have used for the last 10 years or so. It's a Panasonic DMC-TZ80 Lumix with a fab Leica lens. I have not edited any of the above photos. The only photos are edit here on my blog are my cards etc. I just don't have the time. So to answer another question I regularly get asked; No I do not use Photoshop etc for these shots, they are literally downloaded and added here. I just use Ipiccy to crop and watermark my card and artwork photos.

So back to the main theme of my post today. The lovely Di from Pixie's crafty workshop has run a fab challenge called Pixie's snippets Playground for the last 7 years. The current one is here and Darnell, a fellow playground playmate, has organized a thank you blog hop to help celebrate such a momentous occasion. I first "met" Di about 3 years ago and I have loved getting to know her through our blogging. Her challenge is to use up snippets of anything on our projects. She devotes so much time to the challenges and offers prizes paid for out of her own pocket. Thanks Di for your blogging friendship, kindness and generosity. Do pop on over and say hello to Di, she would love for you to join in the fun and games. This is the link to her blog.  Just say that Jane's Journal sent you 😃, she will welcome you with open arms.

Darnell suggested that we all post a snippets card on our blogs as part of a blog hop to celebrate this lovely occasion and to thank Di for all her hard work over the last 7 years. That is such an achievement, well done and thank you lovely lady. 

  

This is my card I am linking up made with all the snippets from a card I made here for STAMPlorations using their lovely stamps. So it is most definitely a snippets card! I used some book pages and a Noor die cut. The background is spray inks.

You can see the cards everyone else has made for Di over here on Darnell's blog here.. 

I would also like to link up my card with the following challenges.

Crafty Catz 2/3 anything goes
Allsorts 2/3 friends

Cute card Thursday 1/3 critters
Crafty friends 1/3 animals/birds

Thanks so much for stopping by today and for the kind comments you take to leave me, especially when life is so busy!

I am back on Friday when unbelievable I have no less than 3 posts to publish. Yes a bit of a clash but plenty of Design Team work to share for Country View Challenges, STAMPlorations and a Blog hop for the Turner Syndrome awareness group..Stay tuned!

Bye for now,

Jane x

The Wonderful Visible Image world of Oz

Today we are off to see the Wizard of Oz...yes Visible Image have reintroduced their fabulous characters with new accent stamps in the sets. Plus there is more news...there are dies available for cutting out the stamps! Wow!

The dies were not quite ready to post when I received my Design Team stamps so all my pieces have been fussy cut but boy the dies will save me a lot of work.

I found it hard to choose a favourite from the 6 characters but I plumped in the end for the dear Tin Man and he is my first Design Team share today.

Here is the set  and this is the link him on the web site

and this is what I got up to.

I decided that I would try stamping him onto silver card and tried several different types. Eventually I settled on this foiled one.

 I fussy cut him out but remember you can now use the coordinating dies are available here

 How cute is he!

Because I had lots of other variations of him stamped on silver card I had a light bulb moment idea to use one of the others to decoupage him. So I cut out some of his parts and did just that.

Now don't laugh but at one point I lost his nose and one of his hands...I had to crawl about on the floor and luckily I found them...phew! You can see that I also decoupaged the axe and tie using watercolour card.

As it is near to Valentine's day and this set comes with fab steam punk hearts stamps and a loving sentiment I decided that I would go with a red, black and silver colour scheme.

I stamped and embossed the background using pewter and red embossing powders on black card.

I then had the idea that I could add metal elements to the hearts too. So I also stamped the hearts onto silver foiled card and cut parts out of the heart and the winder on the larger heart. I added a Cheery Lynn heart die cut too.

So here is my finished Valentine's card with the dear Tin Man....I wonder who he is losing his heart to?

 with a couple of close ups.

Just look at the little oil can too 💗

and one final shot.

I really love this little guy and have lots more ideas for him.

I would like to link him up with the following challenges;

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday have a heart
C.R.A.F.T 1/3 Love/Valentine's
Time Out 1/3 inspiring words I was inspired by the words strong and friends as this is how I see the Tin Man!
Crafty Catz 1/3 anything goes
Allsorts 1/3 friends This dear Tin Man is most certainly my friend!

This fabulous new Oz release is available to order on pre release now, the release date is 7 Feb. This is the link  to all the amazing characters and their co coordinating dies. There is also a bundle offer here where you could save lots. This offer only lasts until 28 February and is only available on the website so don't miss out!

 There are also some totally amazing new mixed media stamps and stencils out too. We are being really spoilt by this new release, there is something there for everyone. Do check them out.

I have been busy making lots of samples and will be sharing them soon. In the meantime you can also see samples on the website and Facebook by my talented teamies too.

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 there. 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 December and January the theme is "Christmas/Winter".

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. 

Our Christmas/winter challenge on Facebook runs until the end of January so you still have a couple of days to make something and be in with a chance of winning the £40 voucher to spend on the web site. The winner is selected by random so everyone has an equal winning chance.

Thanks so much for stopping by today and for the kind comments you take the time to leave me.

Meanwhile I have another date with the Yellow Brick Road 😃

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Jack Frost

Brr it was bitterly cold yesterday. I was lucky enough to have a day at home making some designs with the brand new Visible Image Wizard of Oz stamps which are available for pre order tomorrow. 

When I got up first thing the garden had obviously been visited by Jack frost.

I love the way the frost wraps itself around everything. I have been playing with my new camera and took these shots.

My hellebore is just about to bloom but for yesterday it was held rigid by the frost. 

Even my perky violas had taken a nose dive

but they will recover, they are such hardy plants.

I also loved the icy pattern on the leaves of my digitalis.

I am off down to Dotty's this morming and it is due to be a little warmer as is the weekend.

So today I think to warm us up cake and a smiling cat should feature on my card. It's a new Wonderland birthday one using my Visible Image Cheshire cat stamp set. I coloured him with Zig markers.The papers are ancient, the tea cup is Marianne and the music and butterfly dies are by The Works. I have stamped and embossed the fish bone from the Cheshire cat stamp set onto the cup.

I would like to enter it into the following challenges.

Sweet stampin 2/3 bright and cheerful

Artistic Inspirations 1/3 anything goes

Pile it on land or water animals

Crafty Hazelnut's patterned paper challenge January

Cute card Thursdays 1/3 critters
The house that stamps built 1/3 anything goes

It will be up for sale at Dotty's Tea House Carshalton High Street, SM5 2AE by lunchtime. 

Enjoy your weekend, it is supposed to warm up a little. I hope so as we plan to take friends who are visiting for a long local walk at some point. We might even end up in Dotty's for tea and cake at the end of it. 

I am back bright and breezy on Monday with my very first Wizard of Oz sample, stay tuned.

Thanks so much for stopping by today and for your kind comments.

Bye for now,

Jane x

STAMPlorations love hop and linky party time

Welcome, I am delighted to be a part of the STAMPlorations love hop and linky party today. Shery has some gorgeous free digi stamps for you to download as well as some incredible savings on her love themed stamps on the website. The new digis below are FREE for you to download too. There are several designers taking part in the hop and if you leave a comment as you hop there are also OVER $100 worth of prizes in the form of gift certificates, products and coupon codes to be won! Oh and did I mention prizes too if you join in the linky party? Please check out all the digis and prizes details here  You really don't want to miss out. THIS IS OPEN INTERNATIONALLY.

 There is 15% off over at the website here  in the love/spring sections at the moment and if you add my code STAMPGIRLJANE at the checkout you can also take another 20% off your order. You can always save 20% off any orders at any time using my special DT code. Shery ships internationally too at very reasonable rates.

I used this great stamp set for my card.

Romantic expressions 1

This is what I got up to.
I stamped the background using the envelope using 2 different red inks and embossed them. I then added some silver pen to the hearts which you can see in my final photo.

I then stamped the sentiment into a die cut heart and added some ribbons and other die cuts,

Here is a close up of the fab sentiment.

Remember you could save a whopping 35% on this set if you use my 20% discount code STAMPGIRLJANE code on top of the current 15% off this set! Wow! Just enter my code at the checkout.  This is the link to the set

I would like to link up my card into the following challenges;

Sweet stampin 2/3 bright and cheerful
Cute card Thursday 3/3 banish the blues
Moving along with the times 1/3 have a heart
Artistic Inspirations 1/3 anything goes

Please remember to leave me a little comment to be in with a chance of winning one of the amazing prizes. Here are the details again and good luck.

Thanks for stopping by at my blog.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane 

A thank you bottle tag from Billy

Good morning. Over Christmas our very good friend who lives in our road kindly came in to look after Billy for us over a couple of days. She has helped us out in this way for some years now and I always like to treat her to a bottle of something.  She is also one of the very few people that Billy will go to. He is very wary of people other than his family and I love that he will come to greet her rather than hide upstairs on our bed. 

For those of you who have not met my Billy before, here he is. My sweetest, pink nosed, handsome boy.

 I thought that a bottle of bubbly was very appropriate to give her for that time of the year.

In the past I used to make a tag to tie on the bottle but I had a light bulb moment that if I die cut out the top I could put the tag over the neck of the bottle and make a specific bottle tag. I also decided that this would be a good Design Team project to share for my weekly Visible Image post.

These are the products I worked with.

The stars and stripes stencil

Curious cat stamp set

 Fibonacci

 and the thank you stamp from go to words

I then used the stars from the stars and stripes stencil.

Then it was time to put my design together. You can see that I added some more distress oxide ink to my tag.  I embossed the paws using sparkling black embossing powder. I also added some highlights using white gel pen and some sparkly sequins.

Here is a close up of the focal. You can really see the sparkle in the black powder. 

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

Sweet stampin 1/3 bright and cheerful
Cute card Thursday 2/3 banish the blues
A bit more time to craft 3/3 anything goes
Through the craft room door 3/3 anything goes
Pixie's snippets playground #344

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 there. 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 December and January the theme is "Christmas/Winter".

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. 

Our Christmas/winter challenge on Facebook runs until the end of January a couple of weeks to make something and be in with a chance of winning the £40 voucher to spend on the web site. The winner is selected by random so everyone has an equal winning chance.

Thanks so much for stopping by and for the kind comments you take the time to leave.

Back soon,

Bye for now.

Jane x

January birds for STAMPlorations

The birds have a hard time at this time of the year, the trees are bare and there is little protection from the rain. I spotted these high up in the bare trees and also their nests.

 Mr Crow was looking for food in the water down at the ponds.

It's time for some more inspiration for our January theme and sketch challenge over at STAMPlorations  The theme is

 and this is the lovely sketch which you could also work with if you would like to.

The rules in brief are that you need to use stamping on your projects. You don't have to use STAMPlorations stamps to enter but of course we love it if you do! You can link up 6 times with new blog posts and you need to add our logo to your post. You can go with the theme, the sketch or both, the choice is yours. There are some fab prizes to be won too! The details are here.

The birds down at the ponds inspired me to get out the lovely Trendy birds 2 stamp set. This is one of my favourites and I use it lots.

I made a distress ink spray background and stamped one of the sentiments from the
Fond expressions 2 set

I also stamped out the birds on book pages and inky card.

Here is my finished card design

with a couple of close ups

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

Cute card Thursday 1/3 banish the blues
A bit more time to craft 2/3 anything goes
Through the craft room door 2/3 anything goes
Crafty Catz 3/3 anything goes
Simon says stamp Monday recycle something mine are my book pages from my Hb's old copy of A tale of two cities by Charles Dickens. I use them lots!

You can see more inspiration over on the main blog here too; It would be lovely to see you join us.

Thanks for stopping by today and for the kind comments you take the time to leave me. The sun is out today but boy is it chilly...brrrr. I have a new camera which I have been testing out...I will share some photo soon.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x