More signs of spring for Country View challenges

 Good morning it's time for my 2nd inspiration post for our current "first signs of spring" over at Country View challenges. If you missed my first post you can find it here.

There are more lovely signs of spring around here and I am loving the lighter evenings.

Primroses are in flower

Camellia in bud

and my sweet dinos are getting very vocal!

As always there is a fab £20 voucher up for grabs for one lucky randomly selected winner to spend on the website.  You can find all the details of the challenge and more examples made by my talented teamies here.

I decided to make another "first signs of spring" tag, this time focusing on the eggs which will soon be laid in all the birds' nests.

 This is what I got up to;

I used the same paint resist technique as for my first tag. All my products are by Tim Holtz. Susan has a really extensive selection of all his products on her website here.  This time I stamped faded text in cracked pistachio paint. I stamped the bird from urban tapestry in brown archival, adding first mustard seed distress ink.

and then old paper.

I die cut my nest and added some eggs cut from inky mop up card using an oval die.

I finished off with some die cut "tiny tattered floral" flowers cut from left over  inky Yupo and then put everything together.

Here is the finished tag.

with a couple of close ups

and one final shot.

I hope I may have inspired you to join in with our February "first signs of spring" challenge. You can use any stamps/products, the choice is yours. 

You can enter our 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 from CVC is free on all orders over £7.50! Once again all the details for the February challenge can be found here.

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

Back soon,

Bye for now

Jane x

Jazz it up

 Good morning it's time for my fortnightly design team post for Visible Image. Today I can finally share the card I made for my Hb's birthday in January. He has weekly piano lessons and is really becoming a very accomplished player. We also recently watched the Disney film "Soul" and I knew the perfect stamps to use to make his card.

They were  Jazz it up 

Sing

and of course the brilliant Happy birthday sentiment

This is what I got up to;

I added some Violet storms Infusions to mixed media card

I cut it to  down to 4 1/2 by 6 1/2" and stamped the keys from Jazz it up  around the edge in black Versafine.

I then added the music swoosh from the Sing set 

Next up were the jazz players themselves which I stamped in red and blue Versafine Claire.

I added some white details and finally I stamped and matted up the sentiment onto black card.

It was then time to put everything together.

Here is my finished card;

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

Allsorts Masculine

Stamping sensations 2/3 colour my world

 All the Visible Image links are listed below

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. Do check out the Facebook LIVES and videos where you will be able to see lots more samples and ideas. 

Their Instagram page can be found here 

Pinterest here

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

  

They make some awesome music and dance themed stamps, do check them all out here or at your local stockist.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Dinosaur love

My nearly 4 year old grandson is absolutely dinosaur mad. He loves everything about them. He has books that he loves hearing read to him over and over again and models which are hard and pointy but he insists on taking to bed. I have missed him so much during Lockdown but really enjoy our WhatsApp bedtime stories. Thank goodness for modern technology as we have not seen our grandkids now for over 3 months.

I zoom craft with Daisy (my 7 year old granddaughter) every Wednesday and we have made lots of fun things. She has become quite the expert stamper. What I love is that I can give her an idea and off she goes to put her own spin on it. I send her lots of crafting makes.  I send Jack occasional artist trading cards but I was conscious that I wanted to make something especially for him. Boys are quite tough to make for! Recently I found some fab dinosaur stamps for sale online at Stampers Grove which I thought would be perfect to make his April birthday card with. I bought the mini set and a couple of the larger ones and when they arrived I had a little light bulb idea that I could also make a dinosaurs' pairs game with them for Jack. I made some distress inky backgrounds, which I shared on Instagram and Facebook, and I had lots of private messages asking me to share what I planned to make. So I decided to write this blog post to share my process. If you have not found me on Instagram  just click here. I share much more now over there as it is so much quicker that writing blog posts. I also wanted to write this blog post as  a reminder post for myself.

This is what I did.

I needed a swampy background so out came my distress oxide and stain sprays. I sprayed and layered the inks and made 2 A4 sheets. I cut them into 20 pieces. Eventually I cut these down to 2 1/4 X 3 1/4" cards.

I love using oxides and stains together, they give such a cool mix.

Here are the 2 sheets all cut up and ready to stamp.

I stamped each image twice and clear embossed them. 

I added a little extra colouring with my zig pens and some white pencil for finishing touches.

I used candied apple distress ink on their edges. 

I made a simple box with a lid, using my scoring board. I stamped the Stegosaurus  (one of Jack's favourite dinosaurs) on the lid and coloured him.

My Hb helped me to print some card backs. I stuck them on to make the cards nice and rigid and finished the edges with candied apple ink. 

Below is the finished box with the cards inside.

These are a couple of my favourite pairs.

and this is what they will look like when playing the game.

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

Stamping sensations 1/3 Colour my world

Creative moments anything goes

I put them in the post to Jack, with all my love. He received them yesterday and my daughter told me he was so thrilled and has already played some games with Daisy. I am so glad he likes playing with them as much as I enjoyed making them.

I hope you are all keeping well? We have had some glorious sunshine in the week. I went up to visit my sweet dinos at the park.

But in true British style today it is trying to snow!

Take care and stay safe.

Bye for now,

Jane x

February Visible Image Love

This is my 2nd post for today and my 1st of February design team post for Visible Image. February is of course the love month and Valentine's day is just around the corner. For my make today I decided to make a "Love" card. This design would work well not just for a Valentine card but for a card to send to someone you love.

I worked with these products.

Always and forever stencil

One of the gorgeous sentiments from the Have I told you set

and the book from 

Free your imagination

This is what I got up to;

I sprayed a piece of A4 mixed media card  with cracked pistachio, fossilized amber, mowed lawn and candied apple distress stain sprays. When dry I cut it down to a 5 1/4" square.

I put the Always and forever stencil in place and blended spiced marmalade distress ink through it give a golden glowing image.

I then added a little more ink to the background.

I stamped the book from Free your imagination once onto inky mop up card and again on plain white card. I cut out just the top of the book on the white book.

I stamped some of the hearts from the Have I told you set 

and then one of its lovely sentiments. For a finishing touch I added a little glitter overlay pen and Glossy accents to some of the hearts.

Here is my finished card.

and one last shot. 

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

Gem of a challenge 2/3 anything goes

Sweet stampin 1/3 Love

Cute card Thursdays 1/3 Valentines

As you like it 1/3 True love or fabulous friends mine is true love as I love making cards for my Hb as he is my true love.

Time out 1/3 inspired by words I was inspired by the mention of a book, as in my card.

 All the Visible Image links are listed below

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. Do check out the Facebook LIVES and videos where you will be able to see lots more samples and ideas. 

Their Instagram page can be found here 

Pinterest here

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

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x