My review of 2018

We are into the last few days of 2018 and as in previous years I find this a really good time to reflect on the year that has past. I am so inspired by Mother Nature and always love to catch her at different time of the year in my photographs.

I think this is best shown as collages of the seasons I have lived this year...

Winter

...and yes we did have snow in February this year when the Beast from the East hit hard. Luckily it did not last too long. 

Spring

We had a cold start to spring but once April arrived things started warming up to produce some gorgeous spring flowers.

 Summer

I will never forget our long hot summer, the best since 1976. It surpassed the temperatures and hours of sunlight for that year too. We spent so many relaxing hours outside. My pots of flowers this year were magnificent thanks to the weather.

Autumn

 The long hot summer morphed into an Indian summer and we saw such spectacular colours during our delightfully warm, and sunny autumn.

Mother Nature really was at her best for 2018, it was a year to remember.

For my crafting I also put together a collage of some of my paper crafting projects...even I am a little startled at my stats because this is less than everything crafting I made. I also made quite a bit of jewellery at my silversmithing class.

I made;

348 one of a kind cards for Dotty's Teahouse where I sell my cards in Carshalton.
51 Christmas cards.
86 Design Team inspirational projects for my 3 Design Teams; Country View challenges, Visible Image and STAMPlorations.
2 birthday cakes: a tool box cake for Jack and a Unicorn cake for Daisy.
I was published 7 times during 2018 in 3 different crafting magazines, I made a least one project (for one I made 3 ) for each.
1 holiday album after our magical family holiday in Majorca.
At least 25 projects for TV, blog hops, Facebook lives, Creativation in the USA,  etc etc for Visible Image and STAMPlorations.
1 set of handmade Christmas crackers.

Gosh!

Here is a small collage just showing a tiny sample of my 400+ paper crafting projects during the year.

So my last project to share for 2018 has to be a card, as that is where my main crafting love lies. It is also a nod to Billy, my sweet cat who is my avatar and shares my blog and home.

I used the brilliant Curious cat Visible Image stamp set. I made a distress ink background and then coloured the eyes green and the nose pink, just like my Billy's.

Here's a close up

I would like to enter it into the following challenges;

Allsorts Thanks a bunch
Cute card Thursday 2/3 anything goes
Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes
The house that stamps built 1/3 anything goes
As you like it 1/3 anything goes
Creative moments 1/3 anything goes

My card is also dedicated to you, my readers, as a thank you for all your support, visits and kind comments you have taken to leave me here during 2018. Some of you do this for every post I write 💕
My card is for sale at Dotty's Teahouse, Carshalton High Street, SM5 2AE. Dotty's is open every day other than New Year's Day.

I will be back on New Year's day as being the 1st of the month it's also time for my first design team post  for 2019 for Country View Challenges.

I will close with a very thoughtful quote from Edith Lovejoy Pierce;

We will open the book. 
Its pages are blank.
We are going to put
 words on them ourselves.

The book is called Opportunity
 and its first chapter is New Year's day.

See you on "the other side" and enjoy seeing in the new year in whatever way you enjoy. For those of you who have found 2018 challenging I hope that 2019 works out kinder for you. Life is definitely a journey and not a destination.

Take care.

Bye for now,

Jane x

My WI papercrafting journey

Last month I was delight to be invited back to my Mum's Womens' Institute (WI) group as their guest speaker at their AGM. I spoke there 2 years ago about my handmade jewellery and if you missed that post you can see it here. This time I was asked to speak about my papercrafting and I called my talk "My papercrafting journey"

When I was preparing for my talk I was intrigued to see how my papercrafting journey has evolved over the years especially since I retired from physiotherapy. How could I have possible known over 25 years ago when I bought my first stamp that I would be on 3 design teams having  my work on TV and published in several magazines?

Here are a couple of photos from this lovely afternoon.

I asked the ladies to give me a wave before I started

and they were kind enough to clap me at the end

and of course the afternoon had to feature handmade cake, tea

and lots of friendly chat.

I took along lots of projects, from cards to my scrap books and of course Jane's Journal! I gave Dotty's Teahouse a mention as Pett's Wood is not too far away for a visit. 

They even had a write up of my talk in their monthly newsletter which was so kind.

My card today is a new wedding card sale at Dotty's Teahouse as wedding season is in full swing.

I used a Lili of the Valley simply print digi and added lots of white and shimmer white summery die cuts. The stamp is Lili of the Valley and the butterfly is a Visible Image stamp which I have embossed and watercoloured. 

Crafty Catz 3/3 anything goes
Pixie's snippets playground #329

As you like it 3/3 favourite type of embossing and why for this card is it embossing using an embossing folder as it gives the perfect white on white background for my die cuts.

Time out 2/3 warm

Simon says stamp Wednesday bright and cheerful

Lil patch of crafty friends 2/3 anything goes
Die cutting Divas 1/3 add a buterfly

Thanks for stopping by and for your kind comments. This glorious weather continues, it feels like I'm in the Med! I'm off out to meet my dearest friend Karen for lunch and a catch up soon...let's hope the cafe has air con! 

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Sibling love

Good morning, I am here with my Monday morning Visible Image inspiration and for today's project I decided to make another of my Moments for my physical Jane's Journal. Our darling grandson Jack was born 8 weeks ago and I have not yet had time to use one of his photos. When I took these photos of Daisy playing peek a boo with him  I knew I had the perfect one to use..

Peep-bo Jack... 

Just look at the bond already between these 2...so wonderful . Daisy could not love her little brother more.

I decided to use this last photo. I also wanted to add the June lines from the Garden Year poem by Sara Coleridge. I have been making art journal pages for each month since the beginning of this year.

The lines read;

"June bring tulips, lilies, roses

fills the children's hands with posies"

In previous months I have tended to print out the words on my computer but now that Visible Image have a brilliant alphabet stamp set I decided to stamp the lines out myself.

Alphabetical

I also wanted to make a "generic" posy of flowers and I knew just which set would be perfect...

the flowers from imperfection is beauty

 Unlike me I accidently managed to overwrite my prep photos for this project so just for today I will share a write up only of my techniques. 

This is what I got up to;

I used distress inks to make a background, using the wrinkle free distress technique. I die cut my photo and a backing frame to put underneath.

 I stamped several of the flowers onto inky mop up card and fussy cut them out. I made stems for the flowers from die cuts and found some ribbon to match Jack's little toy mouse.

I then hand stamped out the lines from the poem. There are lots of useful doubles in Alphabetical so I was even able to stamp some words 2 at a time. I found it easier to place the letter on my glass crafting plate and then "pick them up" onto my stamping block. It was also easier this way to get the spacing correct.

So here is my finished Moment

with a couple of close ups;

and one last shot

This new alphabet will be so useful in mixed media work....you can of course also stamp out each letter or whole words on pieces of card and build up the words that way too. I must admit I think I was pretty brave stamping straight onto my AJ page...I only got 1 chance to get it right and luckily I didn't mess up!

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

The Craft Barn June calendar page
The ribbon girl 2/3 any image

Happy  Little stampers June watercolour challenge
Try it on Tuesday 2/3 Letters numbers or both
Allsorts 1/3 Flower power
We love to create 1/2 Anything creative mixed media

These are all the Visible Image links;

Visible Image group page on Facebook. Our friendly Group can be found here ...it would be lovely for you to join us.  You can add work to the "Show and Tell" album where one randomly chosen winner each month win a £25 coupon to spend on the website. Our 2nd themed challenge, "dimension", ends on Wednesday. You still have a couple of days left to enter. There is another £40 voucher up for grabs for the winner of this. 

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 can be purchased. 

Thanks so much for visiting me today and for all the kind comments you take the time to leave me. You may have noticed I was a little bit absent from blog land last week...because I have been away on holiday and I am travelling back this morning! I have lots of lovely photos and so much inspiration to work with. I will share some very soon. I would also like to warmly welcome my newest follower, thanks for joining me on my creative journey. 

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

A special Daisy moment

Another Monday is here and it's time for my weekly Visible Image Design Team inspiration post. We are half way through our first themed challenge "Express Yourself" over on Facebook. We need to see you using your Visible Image words or quote stamps as the focal on your project. You can make anything at all; cards, tags, 3D objects etc, just make sure that the only stamps that you use are Visible Image ones. You can enter as many times as you like, the only rule is that any stamps you use must be VI.  If you have not joined the friends' group page just click here to join. It would be lovely to see you there. This challenge is open to everyone, world wide. You could be the randomly selected winner of a £40 voucher to spend on the website. Wow just think of all the amazing stamps you could add to your stash!
For those of you who may be recent readers of my blog I have a real "Jane's Journal" and a "Daisy's Diary" (for my granddaughter) where I put all my special art journal mixed media "Moments" that I have made over the years. They preserve in time my precious family occasions. The week before our darling grandson Jack was born on 21 April I went down to stay as my daughter had some hospital appointments. As it was a lovely sunny day I asked Daisy if she would like to go out to nearby Hellier's Garden for lunch. We went there earlier this year and saw all the snowdrops and daffodils. For this visit it was all about the blossoms...and how pretty they were.

Daisy bent down to admire them.

It was so wonderful to witness the joy of running free as a 3 year old...bless her.

Wherever we go a stick often ends up being befriended 😊

She decided to build a birthday cake using a mole hill, sticks and dandelions ( as you do)

Jack was born 3 days later and I realised that this was our very last Daisy and Nanna outing before his birth. I felt it very important to remember this by making a Moment for her diary. I chose a very apt Visible Image stamp available here

This is what I got up to.

First I added some texture through a vine stencil and stamped and embossed the bottom piece of my Visible Image take the moment stamp.

I worked with these DecoArt mister inks, inspired by the colours of the blossom Daisy and I saw that day.

I sprayed my background, 

and added some flowers through a stencil.

Next I added some script into the background using the amazing Scripted Streets available here

I also stamped some flowers from the Create it set using Distress oxides and fussy cut them out to layer.

I added cracks from the same set to a die cut tree to create bark texture.

I then coloured the tree with distress inks.

Once I had all my elements  ready to put together I made my Moment...here it is.....

with some close ups.......

Such a perfect sentiment

For a perfect Moment I shared with my darling granddaughter. 

I would like to link up my art journal Moment with the following challenges;

The Artistic Stamper 1/3 Floral fantasy

A Vintage Journey use a quote

Crafty Calendar 1/3 flowers

Creative Artiste mixed media

WOW powders Memories my words are embossed.

We love 2 Create 1/2  anything mixed media

Fashionable Stamping 1/3 let's go wild

Pixie's Snippets Playground weeks 281 and 282 I used snippets for my quote, my flowers and my tree.

Mixed media world 1/3 anything goes

These are all the links for Visible Image

Visible Image group page on Facebook. Our friendly Group can be found here and it is where you will find our first themed "Express yourself" challenge...it would be lovely to see you over there. You can also add work to the "Show and Tell" folder where one randomly chose winner each month win a £25 coupon to spend on the website.

The main Visible Image business page is here; there are weekly stamp giveaways...open world wide!

And the shop web site is here; where all these gorgeous stamps can be found.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x