Billy 17.7.09 - 22.05.25

Hi Bloggers, I'm sure you might guess by my post title that I have some sad news. Our darling Billy died last Thursday after an unexpected but thankfully very short illness.  He was nearly 17.

He was born on 17th July 2009 and he came to live with us in the September. Such a sweet boy from the day he arrived and the most gentle cat ever. He had the cutest pink nose and white tip to his tail and was such a purr factory.

He even wrote and starred in blog posts about our Christmas trees! Check out this link.

He became my avatar when I started blogging, all those years ago, in 2010

 

One of my blogging friends Jane even made a lino print of our handsome boy. She sent us a copy and it has pride of place on our bookshelves. 

He matured into the most gorgeous cat and in his older years barely left our side. He loved popping out to garden but once we came in would come in with us.

He even slept with us every single night.

In his honour I have made 2 cards as a fundraiser for a wonderful cat charity I support The Ginger Cat house rescue. 

I have made two bright and cheerful card using distress inks for the background, Visible Image stamps and Tim Holtz' mischievous cats die cuts which I water coloured using Billy for my inspiration.

Card 1

and Card 2

This will be a "raffle" where each "ticket" costs £1. The winner will have the CHOICE of 1 of the 2 cards and I will post that card to the winner, anywhere in the world. I am going to keep the other card in Billy's memory.

If you would like to buy a ticket (or tickets) please follow This link to my Facebook page where everything is explained. I also have a post on Instagram here I will keep a running list of everyone and put all the names in a hat. The raffle will close on Wednesday 4th June at midday (UK time).
The Ginger cat house Rescue know and love that I am hosting this fundraiser but are not directly involved. As a necessary disclaimer I need to say here that FB are not involved either!
Any questions please just ask in my comments or email me (my link is in my side bar) and thanks in advance if you can spare a pound for "A card for Billy" 💙🐱💙Every single pound will go to the rescue. I will post the card to the winner anywhere worldwide.
(Just a note to any of my fellow card makers; if you already have a house full of cards😘 and don't need an extra but would still like to donate. If you win, you can re gift the card back to me and it will go with all my other cards I am making to donate to the annual GCHR Summer fair fundraiser which is coming up on 14th June).

I haven't entered any card challenges for a long time, as all the cards I share these days are design team ones. But I will enter some today in memory of my boy,

 

I would like to enter Card 1 into;

Dream Valley Challenge hand coloured image

Allsorts 16th birthday challenge 

Sweet stampin boys. boys, boys

Simon says stamp Wednesday Bright and cheerful

So sweet dreams to our darling boy. We were so blessed he came into our lives.

with love, 

Jane x

Billy's Christmas in July 2022

Hello everyone it's Billy here, Jane's cat,  as yes it's that mad time of the year when Jane seems to think it is Christmas. I may look a little started here. I appreciate that everyone knows her as Mrs Christmas but surely she has got her dates wrong? 

I had a little dig around in the garden and there are definitely no sacks of presents around or footprints from the man in the red suit. There is no snow...

the sun is warm and the garden positively blooming. Hmmm I can hear Jane humming Christmas songs in her garden studio so I better see what is going on.

 I decided to have a word with Baby Choc the Christmas tree who gets walked into the house in December (yes I know it's madness) and he told me that the reason why Jane thinks it is Christmas in July is because Visible Image have a Christmas stamp release that came out yesterday! So that might explain why I heard her talking to robin images on her craft desk in her studio.

This Jane's garden studio and I now understand that she has been making samples for the new release.

She has been super busy so she asked me to share her most recent make today. She says there are lots over on Instagram too and gave me something called a link to share; @jane.tyrrell 

She used this very cute set called Christmas Robin. I do love Robins and no I have never caught a bird. I recently took Mr Mouse inside to show Jane's husband. I had no idea that was not the best thing to do so I took him back out to the garden...and he trotted back to his family (true story..well the family bit might be a bit of poetic license on my part but Mr Mouse was genuinely pleased to get outside again and did trot off...pretty quickly though and he didn't even stop to say goodbye to me!)

and these gorgeous snowflakes from the new let it snow set

she paired them with a rather lovely sentiment from a set released a couple of years back called; Classic Christmas

and this is what she got up to;

She white heat embossed the snowflakes over a piece of 5X7" card and stamped the sentiment in black which she clear embossed.

She chose these 2 distress inks

and using a blending tool blended the inks all over the card. The embossing powders act as a resist and any link left on the stamped images just wipes off. 

Next she stamped out the robins, berries, branch and leaves onto white card and coloured just the robins with Zig pens. She says there is no problems colouring outside the lines as they all get cut out. She also cut the legs off the smaller 2 robins (that does sound a bit painful) but she restamped them on the card so they do get them back!

The snow is Glamour dust glitter and the berries got their sparkle from red Stickles glitter glue .

She then assembled the card, the smaller robins were stamped first to get their legs back and then the body glued in place. 

Here is Jane's finished card

with some close ups of the robins

and all that frosty sparkle...this makes me feel very festive..

and one final shot

Phew, that took some typing, my claws do tend to slip a bit on the keyboard. Now let's get back to summer and my spot in the shade.

Have a wonderful summer and Christmas...(it's only 176 days to go and yes Jane does have a countdown on her phone). Seriously enjoy the sunshine and don't miss out on these gorgeous new Visible Image Christmas stamp sets. I'm going to have a snooze now.

You can find the new stamps on the Visible Image website here; Christmas 2022 release and the existing Christmas stamps here

There are also gorgeous stencils, dies and other stamps over on the website.

Jane has added this bit for me;

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. 

I hope you have enjoyed my post today. I think I need to rest my paws now. Jane will be back again soon but if you want to keep up with all her makes which she doesn't have time to blog, you will find her over on Instagram here; @jane.tyrrell 

So it's goodbye from me, from the vantage point of Jane's Studio and yes I have been her blogging avatar since she started her blog 12 years ago! 

and it's goodbye from Jane too. She adds a disclaimer that no paws were inked or forced to type in the making of this card or writing of this blog 😸

Billy and the trees 2020

 Well hello everyone it's Billy here because yes you guessed it's that time of the year when trees walk inside the house. The last time I wrote for Jane's Journal was way back in the summer when it was so hot. If you missed that post you can catch it here.

Well all that summer sunshine has gone and it has turned really chilly here. I am spending more time on my green chair where I can watch the world go by. So this is what happened this year.

There was a knock on the door and a man appeared wearing a mask...what is it with all these masks this year? I noticed Jane and her Hb seem to wear them when they go out. Are the humans all trying to look like masked crusaders or something? Anyone would think there is some dreaded illness out there? 

So back to the knock on the door, there was lots of rustling and then

yes it was a new Christmas tree who told me his name was Dave. I was pleased to meet him and asked why he was wearing a hair net, were hairdressers still shut? He smiled and winked at me and at that point he was brought into the dining room. What is it with human....I know they have had such a strange year, but are even trees not allowed outside now and must self isolate?

Well at this point I heard a whistle from the garden and Baby choc was calling me and told me that he too was about to be walked indoors so I quickly got out of the way.

I chatted to Baby choc as he was carried in, he has grown lots since last Christmas. Look at all those new green shoots.

Dave was in first and was quickly relieved of his hair net.

First on were those rows of lights that come out of the loft every year. I am always scared when they open the loft hatch as my dreaded carry basket lives up there and you know what that usually means...yes the V-E-T...but phew it stayed there which must mean I am safe for now. 

Dave and I had a great time chatting and I warned him that on Christmas Eve we would be joined by the Big Man in the red suit and that the reindeer he brings will make a heck of a noise on the roof but not to be worried. 

He started looking really grand and very twinkly, just as all good Dave's should be I guess.

Out came all those shiny baubles from years back and on they went. Dave was standing up very tall and proud as they were all placed carefully on him. A couple of times I saw him twitching a bit as he was a little ticklish, especially under his lower branches. 

I know this is Jane's favourite, it dates from 1968 and her Mum bought her and her brother one that Christmas. She has a real "thing" about moons doesn't she.

It took over2 hours to hang all the baubles and then it was Baby Chocs turn. Jane puts lots of her oldies here, from her parents 1950s ones.

 to ones owned by her grandparents. 

So eventually everything was done and my how handsome Dave and Baby Choc both looked.

I am really enjoying chatting to this pair every night. 

We try to put the world to right and we hope that by this time next year the humans will have managed to sort out their virus problems. 2020 has been very tough for them. Mind you I am not complaining as I have never had so much company from Jane and her Hb. Working from home seems pretty good for me, my food is very prompt and on tap all day, all I do is meow and they provide.

Recently Jane bought a new set of cat stamps by a man called Tim Holtz (I wonder if he knows Dave) and cutting out things, I think she calls them dies. She has even named some of the cats...she calls the one below Billy after me. She has shared these cards on Instagram, if you want to see them you can follow her here

But in case you haven't seen them 

this apparently is me...hmmmm

and another pose, yes I do need a candle if it's dark, just to make sure I can see properly of course. 

and this is her old cat Cilla up to mischief. First she tried catching the robin but burnt her  paws on the lantern

so then she borrowed a set of wings. Whatever next, doesn't she know that cats can't fly? As you can guess the robin just laughed at her antics and flew off just as she landed.

Below is a new card Jane has not shared yet. She has also called this stamp Cilla as she feels it is another "pose" of the  stamp above. Now Cilla really has not got the hang of decorating a Christmas tree has she.

Even I know that mittens go on paws, most definitely NOT on trees or tails. Heavens above whatever next....

Jane says she would like to enter this into a couple of challenges, she doesn't often get a chance to do this these days!

Pixie's snippets playground #392

Simon says stamp Wednesday favourite technique I know that blending and then adding some water to oxide backgrounds is a real favoruite of Jane's techniques. She says it's simple and effective. I wonder if my paws would manage it?

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas challenge #519

ABC Christmas x and y my favourite things are obviously these Tim Holtz cat stamps and dies!

Die cut divas anything goes

Cute card Thursday anything goes

Chocolate Baroque anything goes

Well that's it for another year from me. My paws get very tired with all this typing. No doubt I will be back next summer when Jane has her mad summer day when she makes something for Christmas on one of the hottest days of the year. Thanks for reading to the end and wishing you a very happy Tree Christmas. 

After all this hard work I am going to take things easy now.

Purrs....and zzzzzzzz

Billy xx

(Jane says she will be back soon).