Back from the sunshine

Good morning last night we returned from our beloved Rhodes having spend a glorious week away.

We love to alternate beach days with exploring days. This was my view on our last day...

Yes the sea really was that colour..no filters at all...

and this clear.

We had an idyllic week away and I will share a couple of posts soon.

The average temperature daytime in Rhodes was 33c and we have come back to 18c at home.  Brrr a bit of a shock but then autumn is only 8 days away and the sun is shining this morning.

Today's card is something sunny...to remind me of our holiday. All the stamps I used on my distress ink background are by Visible image; the seahorse is from Create you own calm, the sentiment is from Believe in unicorns and the "mermaid" from Tomorrow doesn't exist(yes I know I have used the jumping Katie stamp but I like to use her in this way sometimes!)

with a close up

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges

Sweet stampin anything nautical
Addicted to stamps and more holiday

A bit more time to craft 2/3 anything goes

Simon says stamp Monday stamp it
Through the craft room door 1/3 anything goes
Simon says work it Wednesday 1/3 celebrate

Thanks so much for stopping by and also for the kind comments you leave me here.  I know how busy life gets and I so appreciate them.

Back soon, I'm off to bring Billy home from his holiday with my Mum and Dad.

Bye for now,

Jane x 

Seaside memories

Hello welcome to August, our hot summer continues and it is time for our next challenge over at Country View. The theme for this month is very apt and is called "Sun, Sea and sand" . We would like to see anything summer or holiday related.   As always you can enter our challenge as many times as you like and combine with any other challenges. Your make can be anything creative! You may even be the lucky random winner of the £20 CVC voucher.

All the details can be found here.

I decided that I would make a holiday journal to remember the recent family holiday we enjoyed with our daughter and her family in Majorca. The beach there was delightful and I had such fun making sand castles with Daisy, something I have not done since my own children were tiny. I have already shared a page I made for my journal here

Today I am sharing the covers of my finished holiday photo journal. These photos are some of which are contained within.
The colours at the beach in Puerto Pollesa were so mesmerizing.

Jack (my grandson) had fun sitting in the sea and playing with (and eating) the sand.

Daisy and I both made holiday journals, you will be able to see the page I made to include in her one in my 2nd CVC inspiration post on 15th August.

The colours just took my breath away, the sand was more cream than yellow and this carried into the shallow sea as you can see in the photos above.
I decided to  use the background of this photo as my inspiration for the cover

and to try to recreate the colours using paints and inks.

I stamped these Visible Image words from their Express yourself set onto watercolour card and added some cream Paperartsy fresco paint for the clouds.

Next I added some texture for the sand using Decoart texture sand paste. 

I then dabbed on some blue fresco paint.

I masked off the sand with a torn sheet of paper and started blending some sea coloured distress inks

Out came my Visible Image fibres stencil and I added some more salty ocean distress ink through it

 this added  little more depth to my cover and brought everything together. A spritz of water and a dry finished it off.

For the back cover I made a distress background and stamped the sentiment from the Capture the moment Visible Image set.

I also added some stamps from their dare to swim set

I made an edge using Tim's amazing Mini provincial 3D folder and highlighted with some gilding wax

and here are my finished covers. 

Front

and back.

Here is a page from inside

I used cord to bind my journal and a spotty blue ribbon to tie it shut with.

It contains lots of holiday photos and memories. 

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

A vintage journey get sentimental

Simon says stamp Mondays wild things

Crafty sentiments 1/3 anything goes

Love to create anything goes

Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes

Creative fingers 2/3 anything goes

Little Miss Muffet 2/3 anything goes
Crafty catz 2/3 anything goes

Thanks for stopping by and I hope I might have inspired you to make something for our August sun, sea and sand challenge. All the details can be found here.

Have a fabulous August, we seem to be continuing with our heatwave here in the UK and 2018 looks set to be a record breaking summer.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

*********PS Today I am also over on the Country View Crafts shop blog promoting the brand new Visible Image Wonderland release which is on sale today!  If you would like to see what I got up to with the new dark hearts stencil do check out the post here too.**********
Here's a sneak peek

Jx

Mermaids and gin

No I'm not being sent mad by our scorching heatwave (well not yet). My son recently bought my Hb a bottle of gin (yes we are gin lovers in this family) and I was thrilled to see that it was called Mermaid Gin and was made on the good old Isle of Wight. And no I have affiliate links this this company at all, I wish I did! The gin was great but the bottle was even better...take a look at this

the label has a cut out and the mermaid is viewed through the bottle, which is why my image is a little blurred

It's not only a gorgeous bottle but delicious gin too!

So of course I had to make something mermaid related and I dug out an old Stampendous stamp which I took to Majorca with Daisy on our recent holiday. These are a couple of the lovely pages she made in her holiday journal..not bad for a 4 1/2 year old!

I decided that for my card today I would make a distress inky background and then paint mermaid with my lovely Stardust paints. I kept it quite CAS as I wanted the mermaid to look translucent, so that the distress inks flowed through her,  just like the one on the Mermaid Gin bottle.
This is the card I made;

It's hard to see the sparkle from paints, this shows it a little better.

She is up for sale now at Dotty's Teahouse, Carshalton, SM5 2AE

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

A bit more time to craft 1/3 anything goes
Studio 75 2/3 summertime
Crafteezee summer
Crafty calendar 2/3 totally girlie
Simon says stamp Wednesday use a die and/or a punch my seashells are dies by Marianne
Simon says stamp Monday add a little sparkle


Today we have some cloud, which is a good respite from the heatwave, but no sign of any rain and next week again is getting even hotter. This is now a repeat of the summer of 1976...I wonder if we will beat any records?

I am back on Monday with such a exciting card..... Visible Image are launching their Alice In Wonderland  collection on pre release and I will be sharing the first of my samples...here is a very sneaky peek

but there is a Facebook Live tonight where you can see him in all his glory. Just click the link here

 Have a lovely weekend, keep cool and carry on enjoying the summer. 

Bye for now,

Jane x

More photos from Portugal

I am back to share some more of our holiday photos from Portugal. These are from one of our 2 visits to Lisbon and below is the Monument to the discoveries built in the 1960. We took a lift up to the viewing platform right at the top

and from the top looked down to this the amazing monastery which we decided to visit next.

The stonework inside the monastery was quite breathtaking. Just imagine how many stonemasons were involved in all these carvings.

Even inside the chapel every single pillar and post had been hand carved.

I have nearly finished making my travel journal and I thought I would share a couple of sneak peek pages. I have made the backgrounds using distress oxides, stencils and Visible Image stamps. I like using the colours I see in my photos. 

I was also inspired by the hot yellows of the stonework in the Monastery to make a page insert. I selected some very sunny yellows and orange distress inks and some stencils which reminded me of some of the shapes I had seen carved.

First I blended the lighter yellows

then added some stencilling using fossilised amber.

I added some crackle paste too and a stamped some script too. 

and to finish the page off  I stamped my eye from the Where dreams take you Visible Image set. I also added some of their sentiments which are just perfect for journalling.

I would like to enter this journal page into the following challenges;

Stamps and Stencils colour, texture, shape

Crafty Calendar 2/3  anything goes

Crafting by designs 2/3 anything goes

We love to Create 2/2 anything goes

Craft stamper Take it make it Anything goes

Creative Artiste 1/3 anything mixed media

The full reveal of my holiday journal will be on Monday 7th August. I will of course be back with several other posts before then..this Friday will be my next.

Thanks so much for stopping by today and for the kind comments you take the time to leave me. I would also like to warmly welcome my newest followers. It's great to see you joining me here on my creative journey.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Photos from Portugal

Hello, I am back after a wonderful week's holiday in Portugal.

We stayed in a beautiful hotel in Cascais, a sweet seaside resort. This was our view from our balcony as the sun set at night.

The main town square was about a 10 minute walk from our hotel.

It is still a working fishing port and we saw the men working on their nets every day

Part of the ancient city wall is still visible too.

The old and the new also intermix via the Marina built in 2002

The local railway provided a scenic route around the coast to Lisbon, an amazing city. I have lots of lovely photos which I will share between my DT posts over the coming weeks.

My card today has a very sunny theme..and very appropriately features ice cream, which of course we had to sample whilst away 😎

This is a sizzix stamp and die set I bought last year. I triple embossed the ice lollies with red embossing powder. I used kraft card and a piece of patterned paper under the ribbon.

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

Shopping our stash 1/3 lazy summer days
Wow embossing powder summer
Crafty Hazelnut's patterned paper challenge June
Addicted to stamps and More 1/3 Holiday
Simon says stamp Wednesday 1/5 Anything goes
Creative Inspirations 1/3 dots or stripes

Thanks so much for stopping by, the weather has turned so wet that it is hard to remember that just 48 hours ago we were in temperatures in the 30s! Let's hope summer returns very soon.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x