A rainbow Cheshire cat for Country View challenges

Good morning today. It's a very important day today....our sweetest Billy cat is 15!

  It is also time for me to share my 2nd design team make for Country View Challenges to hopefully inspire you to join in this possibly last challenge on Blogger. 

We are going to take a break for August and September and our challenges are possibly being transferred to Facebook. Blogging and Blogger have changed so much over the years and audiences seem to be bigger on other social media platforms. I still see that I have lots of traffic on my own blog here but it is sad how things are changing. Blog posts do take a LONG time to write, especially as I always choose to share my step by step process. So I will continue to do this for Visible Image and hopefully for STAMPlorations when Shery is well enough to restart her challenges, but this may well be my last blogged make for Country View Challenges. (I might pop in and out with occasional CVC makes if people really would like to see some process photos). 

Our current July challenge theme is "4 legged friends". As you well know my favourite 4 legged friend is my sweet Billy cat so of course I had to make another cat themed card!

 Your challenge make must have a pet, farm or wild animal with 4 legs....not 2 or 8! 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.

  Remember that when you buy from the Country View Crafts website UK postage is FREE on orders over £20.00 I have added some live links within my post to take you to some of the products I used.

 This time I used the Visible Image Cheshire cat  stamp set

which also has co ordinating dies with the new Birthday wishes sentiment set to make a cat birthday card...of course!

This is what I got up to; I made a rainbow drippy background using distress oxide sprays.

I stamped the sentiments and the background star from the Birthday wishes set.

Then I stamped the cat and fish bones. I used the co ordinating dies for the fish but and coloured and fussy cut the cat. I added glossy accents to the cat's eyes (of course!)

I put my design together, matting onto red card and then a square white card blank. 

Here is my finished card;

with a close up

and 1 final shot;

I hope I may have inspired you to join in with the challenge this month? Once again here you can find all the details for our July challenge here;

Have a brilliant summer. You will still find me creating most days over on Instagram here; @jane.tyrrell . 

**************EDIT 21/9/23 I am very sorry to say that Country View crafts is NOT having a stall at the Bedford show. But plans are in place for me to demo again in 2024 at Ally Pally. Keep an eye on the socials!****************** Before I go; a little early heads up that I will be demoing all things Distress ink and Visible Image again for Country View Crafts at the Stamperama Show in Bedford on Sunday 22nd October. It was a fab show last year...here are a couple of photos of me in action. If you are planning on coming do stop by..I will be hosting a little give away as always. 

Do let me know if you're still out there on Blogger and what your thoughts are about the challenge changes. 

Also I realise that I rarely do any "personal" posts on what is going on with family/holidays, my gardening etc? Is there still an interest for that? My blog is 13 years old on the 26th of July and I do enjoy reading my old posts and just wonder whether to continue to do a few more personal ones i.e not just for my design teams? Do leave a comment here if you would still like to see what is happening in Jane's Journal behind the scenes. Thanks so much for all your support over the years. It's been an incredible journey!

Bye for now,

Jane x

A very wet June

Gosh we have had a very wet few weeks but between the showers the sun has shone and today has been lovely on and off. I took these photos of my flowers this morning as the drops of rain in the sunshine looked so pretty.

 Some of the flower petals are a bit rain battered but I am sure they will be fine.

My little photo bomber.

 Billy enjoyed getting out in the garden today too. 

My tiny lawn has really greened up and needs a cut, but that will need to wait until it's a bit drier.

My card today is one I have made for an Alice in Wonderland challenge on Facebook. It features an old discontinued Visible Image sentiment, which I still love, which I cut up into 3 parts. I teamed up with their fab Cheshire cat. I was inspired by all the fresh colour in the garden and got out my alcohol inks to make a bold background on glossy card stock. I continued the bold colour theme by giving the cat yellow glossy accent eyes too. 

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

Lil patch of crafting friends 2/3 anything goes
Sparkles 2/3 no patterned paper
A bit more time to craft 2/3 anything goes
Happy little stampers anything goes with dies
As you like it 1/3 favourite summer or winter colours I love these purple summer colours because they are so vibrant and really make you smile
CRAFT 1/3 summer
Cute card Thursday 1/3 summer
Addicted to stamps and more 1/3 anything goes

I have been very busy for the last few weeks making samples for Visible Image with the new stamps and also for Stamper's Grove.

To give a little heads up in advance I am delighted to tell  you that I will be demonstrating again for Stampers Grove, this time at the Stamperama show in Newbury, at the race course on SUNDAY 7 JULY.

Please spread the word and if you plan to come I would be thrilled if you stopped by the Stampers Grove stand and said hi! 

I will have some sneak peeks and more info/photos nearer the time.

Have a lovely, hopefully dry Friday tomorrow and weekend and thanks so much for stopping by today.

Back on Monday with another sample from the new Visible Image release..this time it will be my take on the really amazing Guardian Angel set.

Bye for now,

Jane x

May time play time!

Oh I do love May, it's time for the temperatures to rise and I should be able to get back to my studio and spend lots of time in my garden. Both the best forms of play for me!

and lots of days out with my DD and Jack.

It is also time for our newest challenge over at Country View. For May Teresa has chosen the theme of opposites. Now I will be honest I really did struggle with this one and if like me you need some inspiration try Googling the word opposites and you can find lots of examples, which is what I did. Of course you will also find more inspiration from my teamies over at the Country View Challenge blog and every other day we will be sharing some more inspiration for you.

You can enter our May 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 is absolutely FREE! All the details for the challenge can be found here.

So after my Google search I came up with the following pair of words; Visible and Invisible and it didn't take me long to remember I had the perfect stamp set for this. My Alice in Wonderland Cheshire cat set by Visible Image (no pun intended!) He is out of stock at the moment over at Country View but if you put your email address in Susan will email you as soon as she gets new stock..remember that she also offers FREE UK postage too on all orders.
I made a Brushos background and coloured my Cheshire cat with watercolours adding Glossy Accents to his eyes. This is my "Visible" part of my card.

I then stamped the face from the set as the "Invisible" part, adding Glossy accents again to the eyes to make them shine out from the background.

I die cut a teacup and saucer and yellow embossed the fish bone.

I added a Clearly Besotted birthday and put everything together.
Here is my "Visible and Invisible" opposites card;

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

Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes

Lil patch of crafty friends 2/3 anything goes
A gem of a challenge 2/3 anything goes
Die cuttin Divas 1/3 anything goes
Through the craft room door 1/2 anything goes
We love to create 1/2 anything mixed media
Crafting by design 1/3 anything goes
Happy Little stampers watercolour challenge anything goes/happy
Time out 1/3 Playful

I hope to see lots of you joining in the fun..the details again are here.

 I will be back with my 2nd opposites card for Country View Challenges on Sunday. I have had fun with that one too...stay tuned! Thanks for stopping by today and for the kind comments you take the time to leave me.

Bye for now,

Jane x

Jack Frost

Brr it was bitterly cold yesterday. I was lucky enough to have a day at home making some designs with the brand new Visible Image Wizard of Oz stamps which are available for pre order tomorrow. 

When I got up first thing the garden had obviously been visited by Jack frost.

I love the way the frost wraps itself around everything. I have been playing with my new camera and took these shots.

My hellebore is just about to bloom but for yesterday it was held rigid by the frost. 

Even my perky violas had taken a nose dive

but they will recover, they are such hardy plants.

I also loved the icy pattern on the leaves of my digitalis.

I am off down to Dotty's this morming and it is due to be a little warmer as is the weekend.

So today I think to warm us up cake and a smiling cat should feature on my card. It's a new Wonderland birthday one using my Visible Image Cheshire cat stamp set. I coloured him with Zig markers.The papers are ancient, the tea cup is Marianne and the music and butterfly dies are by The Works. I have stamped and embossed the fish bone from the Cheshire cat stamp set onto the cup.

I would like to enter it into the following challenges.

Sweet stampin 2/3 bright and cheerful

Artistic Inspirations 1/3 anything goes

Pile it on land or water animals

Crafty Hazelnut's patterned paper challenge January

Cute card Thursdays 1/3 critters
The house that stamps built 1/3 anything goes

It will be up for sale at Dotty's Tea House Carshalton High Street, SM5 2AE by lunchtime. 

Enjoy your weekend, it is supposed to warm up a little. I hope so as we plan to take friends who are visiting for a long local walk at some point. We might even end up in Dotty's for tea and cake at the end of it. 

I am back bright and breezy on Monday with my very first Wizard of Oz sample, stay tuned.

Thanks so much for stopping by today and for your kind comments.

Bye for now,

Jane x

Grinning like the Cheshire cat

Good Monday morning everyone and it's time for some more Wonderland inspiration for my weekly design team post for Visible Image. This new release is going down a storm in the crafting world and people are falling in love with these quirky characters all over again.

Today I am sharing my sample made with the fabulous Cheshire cat.

 As I adore all things cat, he is one of my favourites even though I genuinely love them all.

I decided to make a rather "out of this world" background for him so I got out my black card and distress oxides.

and made up a purple based galaxy background.

I took the time tunnel stencil

and added gold ink through it. In real life this really shimmers.

I coloured my cat with Promarkers and cut him out. I also stamped and gold embossed the words onto black card.  I then put my design together.

Here it is

I stamped the "invisible" cat face stamp in the gold rays and added the fun claw marks too.

 I added glossy accents to his eyes for extra mad shine!

The little fish stamp is such fun and I think this sentiment sums a lot of us up particularly when crafting!

Inside the card I could not resist stamping this....

and one final photo

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

As you like it 1/3  fur or feathers mine is fur because I adore my Billy cat, he is even the avatar for my blog.

Simon says stamp Wednesday make your own background

Cute card Thursdays anything goes

The Artistic stamper 1/3 anything goes
Stamping sensations 1/3 use your current favourite stamp  I adore my new Cheshire cat stamp!

That's Crafty 1/3 animal magic
Simon says stamp Monday wild things

Visible Image group page on Facebook. Our friendly Group can be found here ...it would be lovely to see you. You can add work to the "Show and Tell" album where one randomly chosen winner each month wins a £25 coupon to spend on the website.

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 and stencils can be purchased. 

There is also a really generous  multi-buy offer here on the website if you buy all 7 stamps sets, but you need to hurry as it only lasts until 31 August.

You can also follow Visible Image via:

 Pinterest

Twitter

and

 Instagram

Thanks so much for stopping by and seeing my latest creation today. I really appreciate the kind comments you leave me too. Our heatwave continues here in the South of England and summer is in full swing. 

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x