Dragonfly days

Welcome to summer! We have had some glorious sunny weather recently and on my daily local walks I have even seen some dragonflies. They are sooo hard to capture on my camera...so here is a photo I took a while back when we were on holiday in Italy. They really are magical creatures and the way they shimmer in the sunshine is very magical. The detail on their wings is quite incredible.

Today it is time for my fortnightly blogged design team make for Visible Image. Inspired by the beginning of summer and my dragonfly sightings I have used one of the 3 delightful dragonfly sets they sell; Dragonfly reflection If you click on any of my links they will take you to the website.

This is a beautiful large A5 set of stamps and has a "choice" of wings too for extra versatility, some gorgeous background stamps and 3 cool words. I decided to make a tag used the inky numbers version of the wings just to be a bit more magical and very VI!

This is what I got up to; 

I made a Brushos background using these 2 colours 

and cut a tag from it. I like to frame some of my tags so I also cut a tag in black card slightly bigger. 

Using the torn mesh stamp in the set I stamped a border using Green oasis Versafine Claire ink.

I added some more detailing using the inky circle and grunge circle stamps. I used Paradise and Charming pink Clair ink.

I then stitched around the edges using my sewing machine and yellow cotton for contrast.

To make the wings I used alcohol inks on heat resistant acetate. I have demoed this technique at several shows and it is always a crowd pleaser. I just drip the inks onto the acetate. The pearl alcohol inks work best as they are more opaque but any AI does work. 

I just drip until I have a mix I like (this is so hard to show in a photo!)

 I always stamp on the non inked side and use Archival ink. I add clear embossing powder and gently heat emboss. It is fiddly but the results are really worth it. I then cut the wings out. I tend to make several pairs at a time to use for future projects. 

I stamped the dragonfly onto the tag.

And then adhered 1 pair of wings in place with 3D glue

I also added drops of the glue in random places for a watery effect.

Here is my finished tag.

with a couple of close ups;

and one final shot.

All the Visible Image links are listed below;

The Visible Image Group page is over on Facebook. Our friendly Group is here ...it would be lovely to see you. You will see lots of gorgeous makes by the DT and customers to inspire your own creativity. 

 I organize a monthly artist trading card swap there.  We are celebrated a whole year of swapping in May. Whether you are a new stamper or a seasoned one you are most welcome to join us. Nearly 100 members, worldwide, have taken part since it started. It's been such fun and it's so lovely to receive a unique piece of art from your partner in the post. The details for each swap are  put up in the group on 23rd of the month. There is no "monthly" commitment, just join in when you have the time! 

The main Visible Image Facebook business page is here

Visible Image also has its own You Tube channel here where you can see videos and Lives to give you lots of inspiration and ideas. 

Their Instagram page can be found here 

Pinterest here

and their website is here. 

 You will also find me on Instagram here; @jane.tyrrell where I share many more samples than I have the time to blog.

A little heads up before I go that the brand new Christmas 2022 stamp release is on pre order NOW over on the website. 

 and it is gorgeous...here are a few of my first DT samples. This set is called Let it snow

Below are 3 tags made  using Vintage Santa

and last but definitely not least as I ADORE this set;  Christmas robin.

You can find all the details of my cards over on my Instagram account @jane.tyrrell  and I will be sharing more in the coming days and weeks. 

The new stamps are on the VI website here;

I am also doing an extra Visible Image blog post with a "Christmas in July" make on 2nd July. The annual host of that blog post is...my sweet cat Billy (yes seriously). Don't miss him, he writes a good post and is very pleasing on the eye!  Just don't tell him that 😉 He has always been the avatar to for my blog. Here he is sitting on the roof of my garden studio. 

Bye for now. 

 Jane x

More stars for Country View challenges

  Hello I am here today with my 2nd design team inspiration make for our June challenge over at County View Challenges. The theme for the month is "Seeing stars". You can make anything you like using any products. You can enter a maximum of  5 times and into a maximum of 10 challenges including ours. 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 have added clickable links within this post to the CVC website. If anything is out of stock just add your name in the email notification and Susan will email you when she has them back in stock. 

When I shared my first make on 1st June I mentioned that I had quite a lot of die cut stars left over. I decided to use them for my 2nd design team make today.

I

This is what I got up to ;

I stamped the Congrats sentiment from Visible Image's

Lost for words sentiment set

onto a piece of white card using Black ink and clear heat embossed it.

I had a play with placement of my die cut stars and then glued them in place.

I added a few sequins too for extra detail. I then matted it onto navy blue card and onto a 5X7" card blank.  A nice quick and very clean and simple (for me!) make.

Here is my finished card;

with a close up;

and one final shot;

I hope I may have inspired you to join in with our June challenge. You can use any stamps/products, the choice is yours. 

 Once again all the details for the challenge are  Remember that when you buy from the Country View Crafts website UK postage is FREE on orders over £20.00

Once again here you can find all the details for our June challenge  here.

I would love to see you over on Instagram where I share new creative makes nearly every day. This is my link/profile @jane.tyrrell

Sadly these days I just don't have the time to blog everything! 

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Platinum Jubilations

I know that these days I rarely share a "personal" blog post. I am honestly so busy ( in a very good way) that I no longer have the time to write lots of blog extra posts to my design team ones. If you are a blogger you will be well aware just how long a post takes to write, edit photos etc. However I started writing my blog nearly 12 years ago as Jane's Journal to be a record of important things and occasions in my life.  The recent Platinum Jubilee celebrations spurred me on to take the time to sit down and document a few of my special memories from the recent 4 day holiday. I also thought it very apt, as one of the last non card design team posts I wrote was my series of Mindful Moments posts which I wrote during the first Covid lockdown in 2020. If you missed them, this was the first one here  and number 10 I shared  here. Now that life seems to be getting back to some kind of normality I thought it was also a good time to share this very positive post.

I have shared photos of my 2 grandbabies Daisy and Jack in the past but some of you may not know that I have a new grandson, Wilfred, born on 28th January this year. He is my son's boy and his arrival has been a delight. Daisy and Jack also love their new cousin. He is their only boy cousin too (they have 5 girl cousins on the other side of their family!) 

We all got together at my son's and here are all my babies together. 

My 2 dear grandsons together;

Wilfred found it all quite exhausting 🤣💙😘

Daisy is now 8 and Jack 5,  they are growing up so fast. They stayed with us on the Thursday and Friday as their Mummy and Daddy went to a party on the Thursday night. Of course crafting featured. They both love to craft. They made flags for my porch . Jack's was his "own" country!!

Daisy made a book which we stitched together 

and Jack a dinosaur.

On the Saturday my Hb and I enjoyed an afternoon tea at home from Dotty's. I bought some union flag plates and serviettes and we even had a glass of bubby!

 And yes I am still selling my cards there....it's 6 years now since I started and I am delighted by how popular they are. Here is a recent picture of my shelves. If you are ever in the Carshalton area Dotty's Teahouse in the High Street is a lovely spot to take tea!

I have shared lots of my Jubilee makes over on Instagram here; @jane.tyrrell  so I won't bore you with them here but I did want to share one make, unusually made just for me, to remember such a special family time we enjoyed. All the stamps are from a set called Afternoon tea by Visible Image. I stamped and fussy cut all the images and layered up the bottle with gold card. The cake slice has Stickles icing (of course!) I inked the background using distress inks and their Union Jack stencil. I used blue glitter gel pen for the buttercream and plus white pen for some extra detailing. 

Here it is on my window sill;

I haven't entered any card challenges for yonks so I thought I would enter my Jubilee card into these lovely challenges;

Pixie's Snippets playground #429

Allsorts any stamped image

Colour Crazy Anything goes

Creative artiste anything goes

Happy little stamper stencil challenge anything goes

Love to craft anything goes

Simon says stamp Monday Bright and cheerful

Simon says stamp Wednesday Bright and cheerful

What a joyful positive Jubilee celebration it was and I have so many wonderful family memories from it too. On Sunday we went over to see my dear Mum and Dad and have a cuppa while we watched the Jubilee pageant on television.  It was the perfect end to the long weekend. 

I hope all my blogging friends are keeping well? I know that a lot have given up blogging and moved over to Instagram.  However one of my oldest blogging friends who no longer blogs still leaves me a comment on every post I write. That is quite incredible and V...... I appreciate it so much. Others of you have left sweet comments every now and then so I know you are still out there. Thank you for all your support.

Sending my love to you all. Take care, keep well and remember...Do what you love and brings you pleasure; life is far too short not to....

Bye for now,

Jane x 

(and of course my sweet Billy who is nearly 14 and sends the loudest purr to you all) xxx

Remember to hop on over to Instagram and say hi if you would like to see all my recent posts. You can find me here; @jane.tyrrell 

One final heads up; you may well find Billy is back here soon writing his annual Christmas in July post 😘🎅🐈 I think he is sharpening his pencil as we speak 🥰

Where flowers bloom for Visible Image

  Good morning it's time for my fortnightly blogged design team make for Visible Image. Visible Image added a new product to their line earlier this year, their layering dies. These are so incredibly versatile. The only limit to their use is your imagination. Today I would like to share another way to use the fabulous  Framed fibres die.

 I shared a canvas earlier this year, by cutting up the die cut, with this make here; using it with the creative chaos flower set and the mesh die.

Today I wanted to share a way of using it again for flower stems, but in a different way and using it within its frame. 

I used the gorgeous Where flowers bloom set for this project.

This is what I got up to;

I used both flower stamps and the numbers stamp to create a background; I simply repeat stamped using Versafine Clair green oasis ink over a piece of yellow mop up inky card from my stash,

I positioned the  Framed fibres die 

and ran it through my Sizzix Switch die cutting machine. (I absolutely love this machine. I had a manual Big Shot for years but this bigger (A4 size) and electronic model is the bees knees! )

I also had a piece of silver sparkle alcohol ink card inked with alcohol inks in my stash which I also cut out using the die.

I removed the 1st die cut from the frame.

and using the same numbers stamp, repeat stamped all over using Summertime Versafine Claire ink.

To attach the sparkly inside die cut I decided to use acetate as I really wanted the "stems" to stand out as a feature.

I cut a piece of acetate slightly bigger than the aperture

and adhered the sparkly fibres frame in place using Glossy accents.

Next it was time to make my flowers. These were stamped onto a piece of shaving foam marbled card coloured with distress re inkers. 

I cut them out, coloured the centres with gold glitter pen and added Glossy accents.

I also stamped out the words Love, Laugh and Bloom using Summertime ink and cut them out. Once the flowers were dry I put my design together. 

Here it is finished

with a couple of close ups

and one final shot;

I also took it out into the garden and took a photo.....

You can see where my inspiration often comes from! 

All the Visible Image links are listed below;

The Visible Image Group page is over on Facebook. Our friendly Group is here ...it would be lovely to see you. You will see lots of gorgeous makes by the DT and customers to inspire your own creativity. 

 I organize a monthly artist trading card swap there.  We are celebrated a whole year of swapping in May. Whether you are a new stamper or a seasoned one you are most welcome to join us. Nearly 100 members, worldwide, have taken part since it started. It's been such fun and it's so lovely to receive a unique piece of art from your partner in the post. The details for each swap are  put up in the group on 23rd of the month. There is no "monthly" commitment, just join in when you have the time! 

The main Visible Image Facebook business page is here

Visible Image also has its own You Tube channel here where you can see videos and Lives to give you lots of inspiration and ideas. 

Their Instagram page can be found here 

Pinterest here

and their website is here. 

 You will also find me on Instagram here; @jane.tyrrell where I share many more samples than I have the time to blog.

Back soon,

Bye for now. 

Jane x