Monday 30 September 2019

The last day of September

Well here we are at the last day of September, racing towards the final months of 2019. It is time for my fortnightly Monday make today for Visible Image and I decided that I should make a start on my Halloween tags I make for my big and little babies as there are only 31 days to go and life tends to get rather busy at this time of the year.

Now this is not supposed to be at all morbid but I really enjoy walking through our parish church graveyard. I appreciate that it is where souls are buried but I think it is also a celebration of their lives rather than a focus on their death.  On a walk a few weeks back I spotted some awesome guardian angels on some of the gravestones. 
The graveyard is a haven for Mother Nature and wildlife and is a such a peaceful spot to reflect in.
This is another beautiful stone.
and this one is stunning, a memory of a dearly loved daughter.
The light which shines in through the trees is so very peaceful and uplifting. 
For my project own "Guardian angel" project I decided that I would use my Guardian angel stamp
together with some stamps in the 
This is what I got up to.
 I stamped the angel onto a piece of black card altered with distress oxide and cut it out.
 I stamped and embossed some of the moths on acetate, cut them out and added gold Glamour dust to the underside of the wings.
I sprayed a mix of pewter distress spray and yellow brushos and pixie powders onto watercolour card and die cut a tag. 
I stamped some bulbs, colouring one of the filaments in red and also stamped and cut out half of the sentiment.
I added a mixed media gothic die cut to the tag, rubbing on some metallic gilding wax for some detailing.
I also added a spider's web for effect and distressed the edges.
Then it was time to put mu design together and add a black card border just to focus the detail. I also used one of the small skulls from 
Mr Bone Jangles  which I stamped onto a book page and cut out.
Here is my finished tag.
with some close ups of the details.

and one last shot
I would like to enter my tag into the following challenges

Crafting by design 2/3 anything goes
Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes
Crafty sentiments 2/3 anything goes
The house the stamps built 2/3 anything goes
Sweet stampers 2/3 use a sentiment
Sweet stampin 1/3 Distressed
Allsorts 1/3 from boys to men
Crafty catz 1/3 anything goes

All the Visible Image links can be found here;

Visible Image group page on FacebookOur 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.
Thanks so much for stopping by today and taking a walk with me through  my local very positive, inspiring graveyard. In all situations, as the sentiment states, "there is always a glimmer of light".

Back soon, 

Bye for now

Jane x

Thursday 26 September 2019

Rhodes photos part 2

I am back with my promised 2nd installment of photos from our recent holiday in Rhodes. Today I thought I would share our day out in Rhodes Old Town, the oldest inhabited walled city in Europe and it has World Heritage protection. It is such fun wandering up and down the ancient cobbled street in the footsteps of those millennia who have walked there in the past. 
We last visited the Old Town a couple of years ago and it has been many years since we went inside the Palace of the grand Master so we decided to remedy that.
There is so much history to this place which changed and developed  after many, different cultural invasions.


How grand the inside was and so vast (and beautifully cool)
We also visited the nearly museum, which was new to us, with fabulous mosaics outside. 


We enjoyed a wander around town too 
before returning to our resort for a cooling late afternoon swim in the sea
and then dinner as the sun set.
Just bliss, such wonderful memories.

I will share one final installment of my Rhodes photos; our butterfly valley visit, very soon.

 My card today is inspired by the sunsets in Rhodes and the rainbows I have seen this week with all the rain and sunshine. It features the awesome Visible Image Cheshire cat. I love this sentiment and it makes me smile, there will be a lot of laughter over our lunch today as we are  celebrating my Dad's 87th birthday.
The background is alcohol inks and I coloured Mr Cat with Promarkers adding Glossy accents to his eyes
I would like to enter my card into the following challenges. 

Crafting by design 1/3 anything goes
I love Promarkers anything goes/cats
Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes
Crafty sentiments 1/3 anything goes
Penny black and more 2/3 animals
The house the stamps built 1/3 anything goes
Sweet stampers 1/3 use a sentiment

I will be back again on Monday as we have our upcoming Daisy and Jack visit. Fingers crossed the weather behaves for our Conker treasure hunt. Have a lovely weekend when we get there.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Bye for now,

Jane x


Monday 23 September 2019

And autumn came

Today is officially the first day of autumn 2019. Last night was the autumnal equinox where the hours of day and night are equal. From now on we will be losing daylight as the months move on. 
I do love autumn, the colours are always so stunning and it is the one time in the year when I use my red/orange/brown colour palette.

The conkers are really starting to fall now.

 and this weekend coming will be our annual Conker Treasure hunt with our darling Daisy and Jack who are coming to stay. (Weather permitting).

I made a tag using my autumnal palette again with my new Lavinia goodies.

with a close up
 I would like to enter it into the following challenges;

Lavinia world 2/3 anything goes
Papercraft challenges 3/3 no designer paper
Happy little stampers anything goes
C.R.A.F.T 2/3 autumn weather
Cut it up 2/3 into the woods
Through the craft room door 3/3 anything goes
Crafty catz 2/3 anything goes/thank you

The weather forecast was spot on and we did get some rain yesterday but it came in fits and starts so it was not the washout I was expecting. I must admit my garden really does need a good dose. 
Enjoy the autumn, it is such a golden time of the year and the colours around us from Mother Nature are truly inspiring. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a lovely week ahead.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x


Saturday 21 September 2019

Watch the birdies

The weather this week has been awesome.  A real Indian summer. I have been going up most day to the ponds in Beddington and feeding my sweet Dino babies (Egyptian geese). Apparently they don't migrate but obviously the males will most likely leave the brood soon. As soon as they see me they come walking up! Such an awesome sight.
Good morning Dinos!
They see my food for them. I buy the recommended RSPB swan/goose/duck food and they love it.

I have enjoyed some "me crafting"and made some makes with some new Lavinia stamps I recently bought. I take part in a monthly artist trading coin swap and decided to use the crow trio for this.
In their honour I made a set of crow (I don't have any Egyptian geese stamps, funny that!) coins.


I would like to enter my crow coins into the following challenges;


Lavinia world 1/3 anything goes
Papercraft challenges 2/3 no designer paper
Happy little stampers anything goes
Simon says Monday monochrome
C.R.A.F.T autumn weather
Cut it up 1/3 into the woods

I also made another set of 5 coins for Daisy, me and to put onto a couple of cards for Dotty's Teahouse, Carshalton, SM5 2AE where my cards are sold.

This time I used the darling Wallace family trio of hedgehogs. Here are 3 of the coins.
The last two I put onto cards. Below is one of the cards for sale.  Such cute hedgepig images.
I would like to enter my hedgehog card into the following challenges;

Penny Black and More 1/3 animals
Through the craft room door 2/3 anything goes
Crafty catz 1/3 anything goes/thank you

The weather forecast is telling us that tomorrow this gorgeous weather will break and autumn will arrive with some rain. I cannot complain, we brought the sunshine home from Rhodes and it has been such a bonus

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely weekend,

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Lindos 2019

I'm back to share my 2nd installment of our holiday photos from Rhodes. We always love visiting nearby Lindos.
It rises like a jewel out of the Aegean Sea and has some pretty bays to look down to.
Bougainvillea hangs everywhere in the cool narrow streets
In the evening the light is very different


Our favourite restaurant looks out to the Acropolis, such an awesome view.
and we even have a Billy like friend who keeps us company.
My memories inspired me to make these artist trading coins.
I made an inky background using brushos and pixie powders.
I then added some white circles through a hand cut stencil
I then built up the inky layers using my Visible Image stamps and also their sentiment from the Create you calm set which I yellow embossed.

Here is one in close up to show the sea effect I added using glossy accents.
I would like to enter my ATCs into the following challenges;

Thank you all so much for stopping by, for your lovely comments you take the time to leave and for following and supporting me.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x