An Easter Extravaganza and Birthday Giveaway

Thank you everyone for leaving such kind comments on my last post re my latest GD card I made for the Ladybugs. I had such fun making that card. Unbelievably tomorrow is Easter day...it feels more like Christmas Day weather wise as we still have snow flurries and bitter temperatures across the UK. We have escaped the snow here in sunny Surrey but we have not escaped the freezing temperatures. My dear daffodils are bravely enduing the weather and everything out there is coming up so much later this year. Last year by this time my Magnolia was in flower and my tulips nearly out. We were loving temperatures in the 20s and wearing tea shirts! Never mind I am sure Spring is just around the corner.

I have decided that as Monday is my special day (yes another birthday has come around)  that it is time to beat this awful weather and host a summery giveaway for you all. I really do appreciate my blogging friends so much and I would like to send my good wishes to you all. I decided to make something which will make us all think of sunshine filled holiday on the beach...now that is a good thought ;0)

I also wanted to add a "bonus" to my faithful friends who come by and comment every post. I have seen other people do this including my great friend Vivienne of Green Rabbit designs (she also has a fab bunny giveaway running on her blog at the moment but it finishes tonight so hop on over there very quickly if you would like to enter)

This is how you can enter my giveaway and maximize your chances of winning.
Everyone, (I never like excluding anyone at all), who leaves a comment that they would like to be included in my giveaway will get 1 entry. You do not even need a blog to enter.

A second entry will be given to all my loyal followers and a warm welcome to my new ones.

And you can get a third entry if you either mention this giveaway in your next blog post with a link the photo below or you put my giveaway photo into the side bar of your blog (or both if you would like to) If you are not sure how to do this just right click the photo and copy the URL address and hey presto!


So what is the prize then....OK........drum roll......................

I hope you like the prize. The winner will be able to choose either the blue necklace or the pink one. I will then put up the other necklace in my Etsy shop for sale.

I decided that to put us in the mood for a sunshine filled summer that I would make 2 necklaces. I know that some of my blogging friends are blue girls and others prefer pink so I decided to offer both colours.

For the blue necklace I looked through my beady stash and decided on the blue lava beads and the beige shell. There are also some jade hearts in there too.

And for the more pinker shades I found these...

I chose the pink shell, heart mother of pearl beads and the pink rock crystal chunks. I also found some coral chunks too.






Here are a couple more close ups.

The pink necklace has been so difficult to photograph..the shell is a very pretty candy pink, much better than the pictures show. Even using my light tent could not change the fact that there was no decent light around to take these photos.

The blue necklace is 18" in length, the pink is 20". Both necklaces have a quality sterling silver trigger clasp.

I will post worldwide.

If neither appeal they do make fab gifts as they come in a pretty organza gift bag so you could give it to a friend or relative for a birthday or special occasion.

I will also have one runner up prize of one of my bag charms. This also has a summery theme and features a cute glass lampwork bee handmade by my buddy Laney.

There is a pretty swirled handmade glass lampwork bead with the sweet bee.He even has little glass wings. I can't wait to hear the buzz of bees again in my garden.

There are butterfly and dragon fly Tibetan charms with this bag charm. If you would like to see any of my other bag charms they are listed here in my Etsy shop I also love making commissioned pieces.










So my card challenge today just has to be something sunny and cheerful and just right for Easter. I think this one fits the bill.

It is another of my fab House Mouse stamps, this one is called Tails of True Love....isn't it sweet. I coloured them with my Promarkers and highlighted with Prismacolor pencils.

I used my fab Memory box egg dies and you will spot another new die (another early birthday pressie) the lovely
lattice mount is a Joy Lacey rectangle. The springtime backing papers are ancient and I used my La La Land heart border again. The hearts above the mice are the cut outs from the die...there in no waste at all!

You will also spot that I have used an embossing folder too...the first time for me. I used it on the green card, it is a Spellbinders. I also used another stamp from my Whimsy stamps Vintage seeds set.

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

Brenda's  blog celebration over on  Floral fantasies I thought the floral backing papers would be perfect and I am sure that Brenda has lots of little field mice where she lives in the country side ;0) She is off to Paris so the French vintage seed packet stamp in the background was perfect. There are also butterflies in my embossing folder, have a peep at the green card.
Simon Says stamp anything goes
House Mouse & Friends Challenge #141 Easter
Party Time Tuesday anything goes #113
Crafty Ribbons anything goes #42

My giveaway will run for the next 2 weeks, the closing date will be Sunday 14th April at 4pm (GMT). Remember that you can get up to 3 entries, you can either mention how many ways your are entering in a single comment on this post or  you can come back and leave 3 separate comments...I am an old fashioned names out of the hat girl, I won't be using Mr Random ;0)

 I will announce the winner on my next blog post after 14 April so do pop back and see who was the lucky winner and runner up. Good luck everyone and thanks as always for your kind visits and comments here.It is always so good to see you.

Wishing you all some Spring sunshine and a peaceful but chocolate filled Easter ;0)

(Please remember that to enter my giveaway you do need to mention it in your comment)

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Easter Preparations

Thank you for all the sweet birthday wishes you left for my daughter on my last post. She did indeed have a wonderful birthday and we had a lovely post birthday day with her yesterday. The next event on our family calendar is Easter which is only a week away now. As you know I am Mrs Christmas but I must admit I really enjoy Easter and although my babies are all adults I still like to put together some goodies in an Easter bag for them and their other halves. We will be catching up with all our family on Easter Monday.

Hopping into their Easter bags will be;

 These are the little mini Lindt gold bunnies and they are perfect as they are just a mouthful ;0)

I also found these fun mini Smartie chicks which will be flying into the bags and these cute bunnies below.

There will have to be Cadbury's Cream Eggs of course (my daughter's favourite) but on the right are my absolute favourite Easter choccies. I have loved Cadbury's mini eggs since I was small. I like to suck them so that the candy shell dissolves and then taste the chocolate centre breaking through...mmmm.........can you tell that I really do like chocolate? In my life I believe in everything in moderation and little occasional treats like these can brighten up your day.

Of course there will be some other surprises in their bags too as well as my hand made Easter cards.

I also always add a tiny chick to their bags, these have sold since I was a tiny child and they still make me smile.

They are really tiny (about 1.5 cm tall) and have fab little plastic orange feet. My Mum always gave them to my brother and I as children and mine would complain if I stopped putting these in their Easter bags.

I have managed to get a bit of tidying done in the garden in the week, despite the below average temperatures and yes we even had a dusting of snow yesterday and this morning. I also received some exciting news last week from my blogging buddie Kerry from Ladybug Crafts Ink. She has asked me to be a Guest Designer again. This is for their latest release being launched in 2 days time. I made a snowman card for her last year...it could not have been that bad if she has asked me again..LOL. This new release is called Billie Bear and believe me she is such a cutie. There is a link in my side bar. I had great fun making my card.
Please pop back again on Tuesday so that you can see the card I have made with my image.

For today's card challenge I am showing one of my Easter cards. This stamp is a first for me as I am using a House Mouse Stamp. They are the sweetest of images.

This stamp is called Hummingbird Express. I have coloured it with my trusty Promarkers and highlighted with Prismacolor pencils. You will spot that I have bought a few new dies....hmmm well they sort of slipped into my online baskets, I didn't have any Easter themed ones so what was a girl to do?

The pale green frame around the image is a Spellbinders lattice rectangle.
The fab eggs are Memory box classic egg and filigree eggs.You can just spot gold card Memory Box bow dies in there as well.
The heart border I just love and is a La La Lands die called heart border (well I never)
I love using Kraft card and I thought that it gave a really earthy appeal to my card and it works really well with the greens and gold.
The sentiment is a very, very old PSX stamp. I also used twine, ribbon and gift twine to make a snazzy bow in the corner.
Shhh don't tell but this is for my dear Hb.

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

Charizma Cards Die cuts #11
Papertake Weekly Easter treats
Cute Card Thursday Easter parade #261
Visible Image Spring
My Mum's craft challenge Spring has sprung
Stamping Sensations The Great outdoors
Totally Papercrafts Easter Eggstravaganza #159
Simon Says stamp Easter/Spring
Sweet Stamping Lots of layers
Joanna Sheen Come rain or shine mine is a sunshine filled card. (I meant to add GDT after my name for consideration. JS girls is it possible for you to edit my entry or put me in the hat!! Thanks )

Have a great Sunday and I hope all your Easter preparations are going well too. Thanks as always for your visits and kind comments and remember to pop back on Tuesday to see what I got up to for my Guest Designer post.
Oh and before I go there is another great giveaway over at those generous ladies at The Ribbon Girl here. Do take a peep.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Spoilt rotten

Last weekend was perfect...sunshine, family, gifts, food, flowers and cake. I cannot think of a better way of spending my birthday and I was spoilt rotten.

This was just a small selection of the gifts I received...did you spot the Samsung Box....

Yes my dear Hb bought me a Samsung Tablet so now I can almost live  in my studio ;0) I have had smart phone for some time and really like it but the tablet takes it all to another level.

and how "me" is the Orla Kiely storage jar.

I had lots of lovely flowers too and lunch was celebrated at the same hotel we went to last year. It was so lovely to be surrounded by my family and we toasted our health with some bubbly too.

The sun shone from dawn to dusk and it was so warm that when we got home we were able to sit out in the garden and enjoy my yummy lemon birthday cake.

What an extra bonus it was to have such beautiful weather. Thank you all for the birthday wishes you sent me, I really loved them all.

Although the weather has changed here from less spring like we have still escaped the cold blast that my Scottish friends have had...they are under a blanket of snow again!
To keep up with some sunny thoughts my card today is another Spring time/ Easter card.

I inked up my sweet Lili of the Valley "gift wrapped" stamp again and this time went for a pink and brown colour scheme.

I coloured my stamped imaged with my trusty Promarkers and highlighted the image with my Prismacolor pencils.

I added some glamour dust glitter to the butterfly wings to give then a lovely sparkle.

and I finished off with some lovely mulberry paper roses, 2 heart brads and a round Easter sentiment.

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

Ladybird Craft Ink #57 spots and stripes
Divas by design #29 anything goes and a 1st birthday BLOG HOP!
Party Time Tuesdays #62 flowers
I love Promarkers #111 springtime
Penny Black Allsorts April Challenge, Oh so Cute
Flutter by Wednesday #197 Open
Paper Take Weekly Anything Goes
Top Tip Tuesday #73 Easter and/or animals
Creative Craft Crew #7 Spring
Paper Sundaes Easter #114

And someone else has been enjoying these lighter Spring evenings too ;0)

Wishing you all a restful Easter break. I have now finished work for a whole week..bliss. I hope the sun manages to show an appearance at some point but enjoy yourselves whether you are spending time at home quietly or getting together with family or friends. Relish these wonderful longer evenings. Thank you always for your visits and your kind comments.

Bye for now,

Jane x