Splash into July

It's another marvellous Monday and I am here with my weekly Visible Image inspiration. We have a brand new challenge running for July over on Facebook and the theme is  "A splash of colour". As I have recently returned from my holiday in Portugal I took the theme literally and wanted to make a card with a seaside splash of colour.

There is nothing like the sea and a clear summer sky abroad...how blue is this?

I wanted to try to recreate the feel of a hot summer day by the sea. I chose a couple of summer blue distress inks and added them to my craft sheet. I sprayed a spritz of water and then dipped my card into the pools of inky blue dye until I had a created a sea splash/wave pattern I was happy with.

I knew just the image to use...the sea jumping Katie stamp from Tomorrow doesn't exist stamp set

I also wanted to add summer into the mix so I got out my Alphabetical set

and selected the stamps to spell summer...I couldn't resist using the # again too. I stamped and embossed my images and letters.

 Here is my finished card.

and a couple of close ups. The light reflects off the embossing and the inks give a feeling of the splash of colour in the sea.

  I hope you enjoy a wonderful summer and that you get the chance to smell the sea and feel the warmth of the sunshine on your skin....such a fabulous feeling.

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

Shopping our stash 1/3 lazy summer days
Simon says stamp Wednesday 2/5 Anything goes
Craft Heaven 1/3 summertime
Card Mania 1/3 summer fun
The Ribbon Girl Any card

We hope to see lots of you joining in with this month's "A splash of colour" challenge over on the Visible Image Facebook page.

These are all the Visible Image links;

Visible Image group page on Facebook. Our friendly Group can be found here ...it would be lovely for you to join us.  You can add work to the "Show and Tell" album where one randomly chosen winner each month win a £25 coupon to spend on the website. Our themed challenge, "a Splash of colour" runs until 31st July. There is another £40 voucher up for grabs.

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 these gorgeous stamps can be purchased.

The sun has returned and it looks like we have a week of gorgeous blue skies to look forward to 😎.  I have lots of crafting to catch up with in my garden studio...outside with Billy and Mother Nature...just perfect. Enjoy the week. Thanks so much for stopping by and for all the very kind comments you take the time to leave me.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

2016 reviewed

We are nearing the end of the year and I always enjoy looking back at some of my photos I have used for inspiration for my 2016 art work and card making. Life means constant change and with it comes good and yes, sadly, some bad times. I really try to make a point of focusing on the good and being grateful for the life I have.

I like to look back at the year in seasons as each season brings me its own joy and so much inspiration for my creativity. It's really hard to just choose just 4 per season but here they are. Most feature my garden, Mother Nature and my sweet Billy. I have also featured my favourite card/project I made during that season.

Spring

My first DT project for Country View seen here. It was for spring and happened to also be my birthday too. A great celebration.

Summer

My Moment I made after a visit to Claremont with my DD and Daisy seen here

Autumn

A very autumnal fairy card, I have not posted this one on my blog, it was made for a Facebook challenge.

Winter

My wonderful new Christmas piece made at my dear friend Brenda's workshop seen here and described by my dear cat Billy in his very own post 😘

And so we come to my very last card challenges make for this year. Today I am sharing a new baby card made for selling in Dotty's Tea House.  I think looking forward to a new life is a wonderful way to greet a brand new year. We have our 2nd grand-baby arriving in May (and before anyone asks, no one knows the sex, this just happens to be a baby boy card).

I used one of my fave Penny Black stamps. I coloured it with Promarkers and added some Glossy Accents to the daisies and butterfly. The sentiment is Clearly Besotted. 

Time out with each sunrise we are given the chance of a new beginning

I would like to enter it into these challenges;

Time Out with each sun rise we are given the chance for a new beginning what lovely word and there is nothing like a new baby to look forward to.
That's crafty 2/3anything goes

Ribbon Girl 3/3 any image
Fashionable Stamping 3/3 anything goes

That's crafty 3/3 anything goes

Pile It on 2/3 any holiday/celebration

I love Promarkers anything goes

Passion for Promarkers use your dies or punches
Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes
Cute card Thursday 2/3 anything goes
CRAFT anything goes
Creative Inspirations 2/3 anything goes with optional sketch #265

                                               Happy Little stampers anything goes with dies

This is my very last post for 2016. It's been a fab year and I thank you all for your blogging friendship, which I treasure. Thanks also for all the kind comments you take the time to leave. I appreciate every single one.  Enjoy the last few days of the year and I will be back on 1st January.

There is a great quote I found on the Internet from Abraham Lincoln.

In the end it's not the years in your life that count.
But the life in your years.

Cheers everyone and I will raise my glass to you tomorrow as we say goodbye to 2016 and welcome in 2017.

Take care,

Bye for now,

Jane x

It's a wrap

I hope you had a fabulous Christmas day and are still enjoying all the festivities. Ours was awesome and so special having Daisy here and sharing the excitement of her finding that Santa "had been!!" on Christmas morning. We have the team staying until tomorrow and my Hb is off until after the new year so we are still in celebration mode here.

Today I am entering my final piece into a the dictionary challenge which has been running over at the Craft Barn for the whole of this year. Yes I have made 26 art journal pages from A-Z! It has been a huge amount of work and sometimes (when I was on holiday) it was really hard to get my piece made but I never missed one and I now have some lovely pages to look back on in my journal.

My very first piece in January was B for beginning........

For the first few entries I made double pages until I realised I would not have space in my art journal if they were all double spread, so I then created single pages.
I decided though for the grand finale I would create one more double page. The letter is P and I decided to use P for photograph. Photos are a huge part of my blog and my life so it seemed most appropriate.
As you well know I am firmly attached to my camera and it travels everywhere with me. Recently I was looking at some old photos on the Internet and came across little calling card photos called CDV (Carte de Visite) which were taken in the Victorian times. I bought a couple as I thought I could add them to my own family antique photos I own in some of my mixed media pieces.
Just look at this Victorian cutie.

 I cut out the page from my vintage dictionary

I decided to do use some photos of my darling granddaughter from this year but I was inspired by my recent purchases to make them look Victorian by printing them out in sepia.
You can see another CDV I bought in the top right hand corner of the photo below.

I made my final choices of  photos down to CDV size (4" by 2 1/2 ") and made card mounts just like the Victorian calling cards.

I rounded the edges and added the "initials" D and J for  Daisy and Jane (which also happens be Daisy's second name).  I also added wrote where they were taken

To create my "Victorian photo album pages" in my art journal I started to add lots of Gothic touches. I added texture paste through my flourish stencil and used old paper colours of distress inks and stamps. I also added touches such as ink splats and water marks to make the pages look antique.

As this was a double spread I also made a special gilded frame for one of the photos. I added crackle and inks to a card cut using the ornate frame by Tim Holtz.



I also die cut an inner frame and some flourishes, applying Treasure gold to the edges to make them look gilded.

So then it was time to put my pages together...here is my P for photograph page.

and some close ups

The photo below was taken in the summer in my studio, Daisy was crafting with me and wearing the necklace I had just made her....how much joy is there on this sweet face.

and one last shot

I have also put a collage together showing all the 26 letters I made this year.

Gosh when I see it together it brings back some fantastic memories of 2016. Many of them are the joyful times I spent with my darling Daisy....how I love that little sweetheart.

So it's a wrap.....all 26 letters made and I have an art journal full of fun times...and still some spare pages for some 2017 creativity.

I would like to enter my art journal pages into the following challenges;

The Craft Barn dictionary challenge P mine is for photograph
Deep Oceon absolute No 1 card or project 2016 This really is fitting for the challenge...I have loved making all 26 letters. 

                                                        The paper girls 2/3 anything goes

Cute card Thursday 2/3 anything goes

Creative Inspirations anything goes with optional sketch #265

That's Crafty 2/3  anything goes

                                               Happy Little stampers anything goes with dies

Enjoy eating, drinking and making merry and thanks for popping by today. I will be back once more before we see the end of the year with a review of Jane's Journal for 2016.

We're off to enjoy a long walk with everyone including Bear.

Bye for now,

Jane x