Dare to be different

Good morning, it's time for my 2nd card to hopefully inspire you to enter our February challenge over at Country View Crafts. You can see the first card, my ballet dancer, I made for the challenge here. Thanks for all the lovely comments you left me, she was a fun one to make.

For this month the lovely Sue has chosen the theme of Black and white or black/white and ONE (please don't add a hint of 2 or 3 😉 extra colours, just the one ).

You can enter our challenges 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 for this card I decided to be a little bit more off the beat and added green into the mix of black and white. 

Perhaps I am being influenced  by all the lovely green shoots popping up in my garden?

All my daffs outside are getting ready to pop open. 

To made my card I used another fun Visible Image stamp set called Dare to be different. I stamped and embossed the lips, lipstick stain and tip of the lipstick using very sparkly green embossing powder.

I decided for this card I would go for a clean and simple one and put this one together.

and one last shot.

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

Craft stamper take it make it 3/3 February

The crafty addicts 3/3 anything goes

Addicted to stamps 3/3  anything but a square

Crafty friends 2/3 anything goes

Allsorts 2/3 winter sparkle
Through the craft room door 1/3 anything goes

You still have over 2 weeks left to enter our black and white or black/white + 1 colour challenge over at Country View. It would be lovely to see you join us...all the details again can be found here.

Thanks for stopping by and for your very kind and supportive comments you take the time to leave me.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Preparations for trimming the tree

We chose our tree yesterday and it will be delivered today ready for us to decorate during the week. As regular readers of my blog know Billy my cat likes to write that post and that will be coming up soon. I have lots of treasured ornaments and I decided that I would like to make something handmade for my darling granddaughter Daisy to hang on her tree. She really loves the Visible Image Wonderland characters so I decided that for my Monday design team inspiration I would make an ornament using the fab Cheshire cat stamp.

 I started with a plain wooden snowflake from my stash.

 I gave it a coat of gesso and then added a little sparkle to the edges.
I die cut 2 holly branches

 and added red Stickles to the berries.

 I coloured Mr Cat
from the Cheshire cat set

in festive colours using Zig watercolours. I fussy cut him out and added glossy accents to his eyes and some Glamour dust for sparkle

I wanted to date Daisy's ornament so out came the ever useful alphabetical set . I stamped and embossed 2018 in red.

So then it was just a case of putting everything together. Here he is;

ready with his stocking hung for the man in the red suit to fill to the brim!

I gave him to Daisy on Saturday and her little face lit up. We were lucky enough to see them get their tree and decorate it.

She was so thrilled, bless her and couldn't wait to hang him from the tree.

I would like to enter my tree ornament into the following challenges;

Crafty cardmakers 1/3 anything but a card
 Crafty catz 1/3 anything goes
Fussy and fancy 1/3 Winter/Christmas
Stamping sensations 1/3 winter sparkle
Penny Black and More 1/3 traditional Christmas colours
Love to Create 1/3 anything mixed media
Crafty Calendar 1/3 It's Christmas time
Ribbon girl 1/3 anything goes
Crafteezee a gift
Allsorts 1/3 fairies, fantasy, magical I think my red and green cat is rather magical 😸
Cupcake Inspirations The holidays
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas anything goes

All the Visible Image links can be found here;

Visible Image group page on Facebook. Our friendly Group is here ...it would be lovely to see you there. You can add work to the new challenge album where one randomly chosen winner each month wins a £40 coupon to spend on the website. For December and January the theme is "Christmas/Winter".

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 their gorgeous stamps and stencils can be purchased. 

 The challenge ends on 31st January 2019 so you have plenty of time to join us.

I hope you might feel inspired to make your own Christmas ornaments, you don't even need any Christmas stamps to do this. There are only 22 days until the Big Day....are you ready?

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Into the woods at Christmas

Good morning, brrr we had some very chilly weather last week, the beast from the East was visiting but luckily no snow, just a very chilly easterly wind.

I noticed lots of lovely holly berries when I was walking down to Dotty's.

a sure sign that Winter and Christmas is coming. Most of the leaves have now fallen too.

For my Monday Visible Image design team project today I decided to use my Into the woods stamp set. 

When I first set eyes on this brilliant new set earlier this year I thought what fab Christmas cards you could make with it.  So today I am taking you Into the woods at Christmas......

I used oxide inks on black card to create the background and then stamped the background tree line. Next I stamped the single tree in white ink. Once the background was thoroughly dry I stamped and embossed the sweet owls in the set. Sorry this photo is so dark but it was taken mid process in my studio.

Lastly I gold embossed the "near" tree line. I also added the star from the Angels stamp set 

and a sentiment is from the Go to Christmas words set.

Here is my finished card

with a few close ups.

and one final shot.

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

Simon says Wednesday baby it's cold outside

Frilly and Funkie 1/3 'tis the season for gift giving
As you like it 2/3 do you prefer digi or rubber stamps? me most definately rubber, how could I have achieved any of these effects using a digi stamp?
Crimbo Crackers 1/3 anything goes
Sweet stampin' whatever the weather

Crafty Halzelnut's Christmas #413
Allsorts 2/3 inspired by a song mine is "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" by Bing Crosby, one of my all time Christmas faves.
Addicted to stamps 1/3 anything goes

The stamp sets I have used today are still HALF PRICE until 11.59pm tonight in the amazing Visible Image Black Friday sale...don't miss out.. check out all the offers here. Some of the stencils have sold out but there are still lots of bargains to grab.

All the Visible Image links can be found here;

Visible Image group page on Facebook. Our friendly Group is here ...it would be lovely to see you. You can add work to the new challenge album where one randomly chosen winner each month wins a £40 coupon to spend on the website. For this month the theme is "Add some sparkle".

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 their gorgeous stamps and stencils can be purchased. 

 The challenge ends this Friday, 30 November. If you join us you might even be the randomly selected winner of a £40 voucher to spend on the website...now that would be like Christmas coming early wouldn't it!

I hope you might feel inspired to make your own "Into the woods" Christmas cards. There are only 29 days until the Big Day....are you ready?

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

More festive ATC coins

Good morning this is a scheduled post for me as it is a very special small person's birthday today...yes my little granddaughter Daisy is 5!

It's also time for my 2nd Design team inspiration project for Country View Challenges.

Our theme for November is ATC coins. These have been taking the crafting world by storm since earlier this year. Just in case they have passed you by they are the same as Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) only coin shaped and should measure 2 1/2 inches diameter. They were designed to be made in small editions by artists to sign on the back and trades them. However I think they are a great way to add circular focals when designing cards (which is what I plan to do with mine).

I shared my first set here and if you remember I made this master board.

For this 2nd set of coins I used the deer from Tim Holtz Styled Woodlands stamper's anonymous set.

I added some Tim Holtz Christmas Remnant Rubs, Works festive words in red and Cheery Lynn snowflakes. These are the 3 ATC coins I made.

I used the last piece of the masterboard (us crafter's never waste a thing do we?) 

added some die cut stars and snow flakes in white and glitter card and made this card;

finished off with a festive red ribbon.

I have plans for my other festive coins...watch this space. I would like to enter my card into the following challenges.

Simon says stamp Monday make your own background

Dragonfly dreams 3/3 anything goes

Happy little stampers Christmas 3/3 anything goes

That's Crafty 2/3 winter wonderland
ABC Christmas challenge 2/3 W + X mine is W for wishes and X for Christmas
Creative Inspirations 2/3 November chill
Addicted to stamps and more 2/3 make your mark
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas challenge 1/3 #411 anything goes

We hope to inspire lots of you to join our November ATC coins challenge over at Country View, all the details can be found here.

So back to Daisy's 5th birthday, now how on earth did that happen? 5 years have gone by in the blink of an eye. I have made her a rainbow unicorn cake and card as this is her party theme....here is a tiny sneak peek of her card..

...I will reveal the rest in my blog post tomorrow morning.

Back in the morning, thanks for stopping by.

Bye for now,

Jane x

A golden October

Good morning, this is the first of 2 posts from me today.

We are really enjoying an Indian summer here with lots of lovely sunshine and warm temperatures. The trees are looking stunning and showing off shades of red, oranges and golden. Such a spectacular show from Mother Nature this autumn.

There are also some very interesting seed heads in my garden 

It is time for my Monday design team make for Visible Image. We are well into our monthly challenge over on our friends Facebook page where the theme is autumn colours. You can join in the fun here.  I am sharing my penultimate Visible Image Halloween tag.  I used the fab skull stencil 

Now those who know me well know that I am not a particularly "skull" devotee in my crafting but at Halloween even I love the fun of this imagery.

I wanted my skull to be peeping out from a spooky tree background and so I used 2 of the stamps from

Organics

and the tiny tree and leaves from 

Create it

I wanted my leaves to turn to birds....a spooky twist so I also used the birds in flight from 

Ahead of our time

For the base of my tag I used mustard seed and carved pumpkin distress inks

I then stencilled on my skull using black soot distress ink

I stamped my elements and added the quote from leave your fears behind 

which I cut up and distressed.

Here is my finished tag

with some close ups

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

Stamps and stencils 2/3 Spooky fun and or autumnal twist
A vintage journey 2/3 autumn splendour
Creative Inspirations 3/3 autumn glow
Stamping sensations 2/3 shades of autumn
Penny black and more 2/3 autumn splendour
Not just cards 3/5 anything goes
Try it on Tuesday 1/3 Trick or treat it's Halloween
Frilly and Funkie haunted halloween
Addicted to stamps 1/3 autumn colours
Craft stamper take it make it 2/3 anything goes

All the Visible Image links can be found here;

Visible Image group page on Facebook. Our friendly Group is here ...it would be lovely to see you. You can add work to the new challenge album where one randomly chosen winner each month wins a £40 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 their gorgeous stamps and stencils can be purchased. 

Remember to add your "autumn colours" Visible Image creations over on our Facebook page  here  , it will be great to see them all. 

Enjoy the October sunshine and the glorious colours that are surrounding us. Thanks for stopping by today and for the kind comments you take the time to leave me.

I am back again at 2pm with a festive post for STAMPlorations.

Bye for now,

Jane x