Flowers in June

I so love this time of the year, when my pots and hanging baskets  are flowering away and giving me so much pleasure

while looking out of the kitchen window, gazing out from my studio or just being out there enjoying the colours and the hum of the bees and insect they attract.

I took these photos in the week.

 I also have a single sunflower planted in the garden, a giant snail took the other one!

Fingers crossed this one survives and blooms.

My card today is a new baby card, these are always popular sales at Dotty's Teahouse where I sell my cards. If you are in the area do pop by, you can sip tea from vintage tea cups, poured from real tea pots using a tea strainer! All the cakes are homemade and delicious, something for everyone. And yes of course she also sells coffee.You will find Dotty's in the High Street, Carshalton, Surrey, SM5 2EP. 

I am appearing there very soon in a "Meet the Maker" event on Thursday 11 July. More details nearer the time. 

The image is a sweet Lili of the valley digi. The stamped sentiment is Clearly Besotted.

I would like to enter it into the following challenges;

Allsorts 1/3 soft pastels
Addicted to stamps and more 2/3 anything goes
Creative moments 2/3 anything goes
A gem of a challenge 2/2 anything goes
Pixie's snippets playground #355
Crafter's Castle 2/3 anythng goes
Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes
Crafty hazelnuts patterned paper challenge June

Thanks for stopping by today,

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

A guardian angel

Good morning, well the sun seems to have  returned and my pots in my garden and my lawn are loving it. The bees are enjoying themselves immensely when the sun does shine between the showers.

 and my acers look very healthy. 

It's time for my Monday design team make for Visible Image and I am continuing to share my first samples with the brand new stamp release. The release went live on Saturday and you can now buy them on line or at your local stockist. Today it is the turn of the amazing 

Guardian angel set

As you well know I am a crafter who rarely creates anything spooky this side of Halloween so I want to show today that this set can have a very "light" side to it, simply by making the wings lighter and using the 3 gorgeous bird stamp which come in the set

I started with a background using a real "mix of media!"

Once dry I cut it to size, stamped the angel in black, masked his chest and then stamped and white glitter embossed the wings.

I stamped the sentiments and the gorgeous birds and added some colouring to the image.

I also stamped and white glitter embossed some of the bubbles, adding Glossy Accents for some shine and depth.

Here is my guardian angel.

With a couple of close ups;

and 1 final shot.

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

Lil patch of crafting friends 3/3 anything goes
Sparkles 3/3 no patterned paper
A bit more time to craft 3/3 anything goes
Addicted to stamps and more 1/3 anything goes
Creative moments 1/3 anything goes
A gem of a challenge 1/2 anything goes
Crafter's castle 1/3 anything goes

The new stamps are now on general release from the web site or from your local stockist.

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 will see lots of gorgeous makes by the DT and customers to inspire your own creativity.

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

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

So there is my version of the "Guardian angel", nothing "dark" about him at all...just a rich glow of life and protection. 

Thanks so much for stopping by,

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

A very wet June

Gosh we have had a very wet few weeks but between the showers the sun has shone and today has been lovely on and off. I took these photos of my flowers this morning as the drops of rain in the sunshine looked so pretty.

 Some of the flower petals are a bit rain battered but I am sure they will be fine.

My little photo bomber.

 Billy enjoyed getting out in the garden today too. 

My tiny lawn has really greened up and needs a cut, but that will need to wait until it's a bit drier.

My card today is one I have made for an Alice in Wonderland challenge on Facebook. It features an old discontinued Visible Image sentiment, which I still love, which I cut up into 3 parts. I teamed up with their fab Cheshire cat. I was inspired by all the fresh colour in the garden and got out my alcohol inks to make a bold background on glossy card stock. I continued the bold colour theme by giving the cat yellow glossy accent eyes too. 

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

Lil patch of crafting friends 2/3 anything goes
Sparkles 2/3 no patterned paper
A bit more time to craft 2/3 anything goes
Happy little stampers anything goes with dies
As you like it 1/3 favourite summer or winter colours I love these purple summer colours because they are so vibrant and really make you smile
CRAFT 1/3 summer
Cute card Thursday 1/3 summer
Addicted to stamps and more 1/3 anything goes

I have been very busy for the last few weeks making samples for Visible Image with the new stamps and also for Stamper's Grove.

To give a little heads up in advance I am delighted to tell  you that I will be demonstrating again for Stampers Grove, this time at the Stamperama show in Newbury, at the race course on SUNDAY 7 JULY.

Please spread the word and if you plan to come I would be thrilled if you stopped by the Stampers Grove stand and said hi! 

I will have some sneak peeks and more info/photos nearer the time.

Have a lovely, hopefully dry Friday tomorrow and weekend and thanks so much for stopping by today.

Back on Monday with another sample from the new Visible Image release..this time it will be my take on the really amazing Guardian Angel set.

Bye for now,

Jane x

A touch of faerie magic

Good morning, Monday has swung round again and I am here with my weekly design team inspiration for Visible Image. Thanks so much for all the lovely comments you left on my mermaid post last week and I am glad you enjoyed my little mermaid tail/tale too! If you missed that post you can see if here. 

Gosh what a wet week it was, let's hope that we see some more sunshine this week. I am loving being outside crafting in my studio and I must admit that listening to the pitter patter of rain on the roof is rather relaxing. 

My foxgloves have been beautiful this year and the bees have loved them too. Just look at this busy boy.

The original name of Foxglove is thought to have been Folksglove referring to fairy folk. And did you know that in Scandinavia there is a legend that fairies taught foxes to ring them to warn of  the approach of humans? This links in perfectly with my first make with the gorgeous brand new

Faerie magic stamp set.

I love this new fairy, she is so different to any other fairy in the stamping world. 

Inspired by the colours of my foxgloves in the garden this is what I got up to;
I blended mermaid lagoon, salty ocean and picked raspberry distress oxides onto card, added water and allowed it to run. When dry I turned it around so that it looked like a magical mist.

I fixed it into my Misti stamp press and stamped the main fairy image first. I then stamped another image roughly onto copy paper, cut around the arms and placed this on top as a mask so that I could stamp the wings.

I gold embossed the wings and then added some white pen and a some colour. I also added some sparkle with my glitter pens. I stamped the sentiment and her "spell" circle

I added some extra sparkle to the wings and bubbles using Wink of stella

and to finish off I added Glossy Accents (my most used embellishment) to the bubbles.
Here she is

a close up;

and one last shot.

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

Craft stamper take it make it 2/3 June

Lil patch of crafting friends 1/3 anything goes
Sparkles 1/3 no patterned paper
A bit more time to craft 1/3 anything goes

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 will see lots of gorgeous makes by the DT and customers to inspire your own creativity.

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

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

All the new release is available to pre order NOW here ahead of their 22 June release date.

And don't miss out as there is an offer of FREE WORLDWIDE postage until the release date. Just put the quote; NEWSTAMPS at checkout.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

More birthday celebrations in June

Hello it's time for some mid month inspiration for our June challenge over at STAMPlorations. The theme for June is a fun one.

 and this is the fun sketch

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 include the challenge graphic in 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! 

This is the link to the challenge with all the info you need.

As always I used the theme and sketch and this is what I got up to. I added some brushos to a piece of card and chose a piece of blue card as my base.

I cut the inky piece into strips as per the sketch and stuck them in place.

I used a sentiment stamp from Birthday bash for the focal and stamped and embossed it in blue sparkle powder.

and I also stamped part of another sentiment onto the middle strip. I matter the focal and back up onto yellow card.
Here it is;

with a close up of the focal

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

Creative artiste 3/3 anything goes

 Creative moments 2/3anything goes

Everybody art 3/3 anything goes

Crafting from the heart 2/3 anything goes
Simon says stamps work it out 2/3 summer vibes

Cut it up 1/3 welcome summer

Remember if you would like to buy these stamps or any products on the website just enter my code STAMPGIRLJANE at the checkout to get 20% off on top of any current discount being offered.This is a direct link to the web site

It would be great to see you joining in with the fun and perhaps you might even be the winner of the $15 coupon code? Once again this is the link to the challenge with all the info you need.

Thanks so much for stopping by today,

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

More bugs for June

Good morning I am back with my second dose of inspiration for the June challenge over at Country View. I am delighted to be the host for this month. I chose the theme, "A bugs life" and I am looking for crafting projects which feature butterflies, bees, dragonflies, beetles, ladybirds, ants and any bug you can think of.   All the details can be found here.

I am loving being out in the garden crafting, sharing space with the mother nature. There have been lots of bees around this year and I watched this lovely one busy collecting nectar on my dahlia which has it's first flower open.

I don't have any bee stamps or dies so I have gone with dragonflies again for my card. This time i have included my Tim Holtz bigz die cut dragonfly. I used aluminium strip on card and the added alcohol inks, allowing the layers to dry. 

Here is the first layer drying

I used alcohol inks on glossy card stock to make a really sunny background

and die cut and an oval aperture.

 I then stamped the medium and small dragonfly from my Visible Image live in the moment set

I also die cut some wildflowers using my Tim Holtz thinlits and then layered up my aperture with some foam tape. Here is my finished card

with a close up 

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

Happy little stampers anything goes with dies
Creative artiste 2/3 anything goes

 Creative moments 1/3anything goes

Everybody art 1/3 anything goes

Crafting from the heart 1/3 anything goes
The house that stamps built 1/3 things with wings
Simon says stamps work it out 1/3 summer vibes

You can enter our June "It's a bugs life" challenge as many times as you like and combine with other challenges. There is also a £20 crafting voucher up for grabs to the lucky randomly selected winner to spend over on the Country View Crafts on line store. Remember that UK postage and packing is absolutely FREE! All the details for the challenge can be found here. Even if I don't get time comment I will be around to see every single entry.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x