Singing the Blues with my GD card for Country View Challenges

Today I am sharing with you the GD piece I have made for Country View Challenges. (CVC) Their theme for this month is Monochromatic and you still have until the end of this month to enter so do pop on over and join the fun. Their prize is a very generous craft voucher...I am still keeping my fingers crossed that I will come out of the hat one day. The challenge is sponsored by Country View crafts, a great on line shop which offers free postage on everything. I buy a lot of my craft products from them and receive amazing next day delivery.
                                    
I was thrilled just before Christmas to find that I had been chosen in the Top 3 for their recent  "Letters challenge" with my Daisy accordion card. CVC have a rather nice idea of offering their Top 3 the chance to appear in a later challenge as a Guest Designer (GD)...I think this is great as I cannot commit to regular DT work as my job has to fit into my life in some way. I really enjoy making GD cards. For CVC I decided that as my winning card was an accordion card and I really like making these, that I would make one for my GD spot. I have made monochrome cards in black/greys and sepias but I decided to do something really different and use my favourite colour...blue. Now that posed a slight problem as I wanted to use one of my oldest favourite stamps, Dandelion Clock by Lili of theValley but I have never before coloured a whole image in blue. This was also going to be a really special card as it is for my daughter's birthday in March.

I thought I would share my creative process as many of you really like my accordion cards and are probably intrigued to see how they are made.

I started off by choosing a deep blue for my my base card and cut out my 4 panels. I then made my backing papers by getting inking with my Distress inks (DI) I bought a new blue, Chipped Sapphire which is a really deep colour.

 I only had a couple of pale blues DIs so I bought a new colour ink pad, Chipped Sapphire  (from Countryview Crafts as they always have free postage and are really reasonable. I also originally bought my accordion die there which is how I found their challenge blog) . This is a really gorgeous deep blue and my fingers looked spectacular that day even after washing. My Hb asked me how I had bruised my fingers ;0)
I made 2 sheets of backing papers and after they had dried overnight I cut out the inner panels. I then got inky with some really old PSX floral stamps and some itsy bitsy tiny floral stamps from about 10 years ago. I very nearly recycled these stamps a few years ago, in fact they failed to sell on Ebay...moral of the story...hang on to ALL crafty stash as you never know when you will need it.

I also cut some of my favourite Cheery Lynn butterflies out from the same card and distressed the edges of everything with Chipped Sapphire DI

I recently won the Cheery Lynn challenge and for part of my prize I chose these amazing flowers to add to my leaf border die I already own. You can see I am rather a fan of their dies.







The next big challenge was how to colour up my sweet fairy  Dandelion Clock. I usually colour with Promarkers but I struggled with the blues so I looked at my Prismacolor pencils and found I had 3 blues and a white to use.

 Undeterred, after a few attempts I was delighted how my little fairy came out. I blended the blues with Sansodor and used the white to highlight

It was then the daunting task of fussy cutting her out as she did not fit on my panel unless I did so.
You will also see my finished butterflies in these photos.

Here goes.................the light was awful when I took this photo, she is much prettier in real life. I have never coloured hair blue...I really like it. I also added some Glamour Dust to sparkle her wings, flowers and dandelion





So with all the elements made it was time to get creative and put my design together.
Here are a few peeps...

 After lots of moving things around and changing the order here is my finished card...............

and here are close ups of the panels.  The lovely birthday sentiment is from the LOTV quotables stamps from the Pretty Vintage stamps I won last June. I use all these stamps so much.

I hope you enjoyed my little tut...this really is a sweetheart of a card for my sweetheart of a daughter.


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

Lili of the Valley anything goes
Natalie and Amy one for the girlies
Artistic Stamper love is in the air
Emerald Faeries things with wings
Feeling Crafty butterflies
Whimsy stamp challenge something new my new is the chipped sapphire Distress Ink and the Cheery Lynn flower die
Sparkles show us your new stash my new stash is the chipped sapphire Distress Ink pad and my Cheery Lynn blossom die
Deep Ocean birthdays
Pan Pastel UK anything goes
Crafting for all season's For the Girls
Craft Room Challenge Age of Aquarius I have used water based inky techniques to make my papers
The Cutie Pies Blue
Crafting from the heart anything goes/fancy folds
Divas by design anything goes
Winter Wonderland Butterflies
Crafty catz monchrome
Die cut Divas Make it glitter

Thanks for visiting me here and thank you to CVC for having me as your GD today. Have a lovely weekend.

Back soon,

Bye for now.

Jane x

Giveaway winners, my Lili of the Valley winnings and my Mini Moo cards and stickers

Thank you to everyone who put their name in the hat for my 2nd Bloggerversary giveaway. Thank you also for your kind comments. I really do enjoy writing Jane's Journal and it gives me great pleasure to see you also enjoy reading it. Without further delay there were 17 ladies who asked to be counted in and so they were put into my ever trusty straw hat and drawn out by the adjudicator of my draw (dear Hb). He picked out....drum roll....

1st prize Teje
2nd prize Susan 

Well done ladies. I shall be in touch. Teje wins my special Olympic Badge and I decided to make a bag charm too for her ;0) She chose blue with sewing charms.
These are a couple I sold in the past so I can make something similar for her.

Susan was happy with any colours/theme but I am sure she will probably like something knitting related!
I am sorry there can only be 2 lucky winners but you know me there is always a future giveaway to look forward to.

I woke up to some winning news myself that I have won none less than a £25 gift voucher from the Lili of the Valley Idea to Inspire blog.....I was doing a happy dance when I saw  my name there. As you know they were my first love when I started stamping and they still are. Their sweet images just rock. I recently bought just a few things from the new release and now I can really splash out. Terrific, thanks girls.

I also wanted to share in this post my recent delivery of Mini Moo cards. I am not sure if they are a UK only company? This is most certainly not a commissioned advert from me as sadly I can't share in the discount code, but with my recent delivery they are offering a 15% off by entering this code at the checkout.

                                2RB2CK

to any 1st time customer. I was delighted with my newest order as I decided to try using photos of some of my cards as well as my jewellery, which is what I have done in the past. This is what arrived recently in the post.

 My card photos look great and I have started to put them in with my Etsy Shop Orders.

These are some of my jewellery photos
I used.

I also decided for the 1st time to try one of their Sticker Books and I was so glad I did as they really are sweet and look fab stuck on the outside of my envelopes.

I think I am hooked...my next order will definitely include more of these sweet little stickers.

I can hardly believe that today is the first of September; how did that happen? I noticed yesterday morning when I got up for work that there is a definite autumnal feel in the air and the mornings (and evenings) are getting much darker. I therefore decided that I can start to safely use  Christmas cards for some of my card challenges. As every card maker knows the time between now and Christmas gets so busy that it makes great sense to try to get some made now. I have actually sold several already in my Etsy shop so it is obviously not just me who likes to get organised ;0) Here is today's card. Of course after my winnings today from Lili of the Valley it just had to be one of their images.She is called Moonlight Wishes.

This was one of my favourite stamps from their release last year. I have used a sheet of paper from the gorgeous new paper pads they have released (I can now buy another ;0)

I coloured her with my Promarkers and highlighted her with my Prismacolor pencils. I had fun using my new Viva pearl pen and added lots of snow. I also added lots of snowy die cuts and punched snow flakes. The final touches of course how to be plenty of glitter!

I really want to thank LOTV for their generosity!

I would like to enter my cards into the following challenges;
Weekly Christmas card challenges Challenge 39
 I love Promarkers Anything Goes #132
Divas by Design Celebrate #50
Paper Shelter Layers on Layers #79
Sparkles Christmas Challenge Sparkle and Bling #20
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge #88 Christmas Bells
ABC card challenge  W for Wishes
Simon Says stamp Anything Goes
Make It Monday linky party # 105






Have a wonderful weekend everyone, mine just got off to the very best start!

Bye for now,

Jane x

Bright and sparkly

It's another card challenge for me...this week the theme is "Bright and Sparkly" over on the Lili of the Valley challenge blog.
Here is my entry..

I used the super cute stamp called Rosie Posy. I coloured her with some bright promarkers. She is such a happy soul and I have made her dress bright and sparkly by adding some red stickles glitter.
I also added some sparkle to the flowers in her bouquet

and also a lovely bright cherry charm to add some "bling!"

I also turned up the sparkle to these lovely mulberry paper flowers by adding some glitter to these too.

I finished off my "Bright and Sparkly" entry by adding a "Happy Everything" sentiment.









Thanks for looking at my card.

I had a wonderful weekend visiting Milly in Southampton. We went to The Wedding Venue and Oh My Goodness it was SO lovely. I have some sneak peek photos which I will be back with in a couple of days.
I hope you all enjoyed the weekend too....it is finally cooling down here but the sun continues to shine!

Bye for now,

Jane x

Away in a manger? LOTV challenge 118

I appreciate that most people are enjoying Halloween but I am entering another of my favourite stamp designers, Lili of the Valley's card challenges today. As you will remember from this post I explained that every now and again I will enter these challenges to be in with a chance of coming out of the hat and winning a great prize.
Here is my entry.

Today's challenge is to use a card sketch by the incredibly talented Bev Rochester whose colouring master class I attended earlier this year. To those of my blogging friends who are not card makers a sketch is a basic design format. The one we have been asked to follow for this week's challenge is the one shown below. You are able to decorate in any way but the card must keep to this basic template.


 You can see in the image above that Bev wants us to use a circular central image with a square and rectangular piece behind and one across the middle. It was a really lovely sketch to work with.

I used the LOTV "Angels with crib" stamp, I love this image..so gentle and warm, it always makes me think of "Away in a manger" the Christmas carol. Indeed I kept humming it as I worked, it must have driven Billy mad but he just slept on!

I coloured my image using my trusty promarkers and highlighted it with some prismacolour pencils. You can't see very clearly but I used dimensional magic on the wings to make them appear raised and glossy.

This shows in the photo as looking quite reflective on the wings.It makes them have a bit of a "3 D " look and they are lovely and shiny.

I used a lovely deep grey/silver ribbon across the centre and tied a bow at the side. I cut some silver card snowflakes using one of my punches and attached them with raised sticky fixers to give some depth.

I also used one of my Tibetan charms which I have bought for my bag charms. Don't you just love it when things are able to cross crafts!

I attached it to the back of a foil snowflake from my stash by a piece of silver plated chain. I also added a bit of bling to the centre of the snowflake!












Here it is again stood up on a little easel I bought.

Thanks for looking.

Back soon, I am still getting my stock made up for my annual Open House jewellery party in a few weeks time..photos and a post  to follow.

Bye for now,

Jane x

Let it Snow..... in October? LOTV Challenge 115

Apologies to my dear friend Vivienne but the reason I am writing this post is that I have decided to start entering an occasional card challenge. For those who are not card makers there are many, many card making  blogs out there who set card making challenges with a theme (and sometimes there are even prizes ;0). Everyone who enters goes into a draw. I am a HUGE fan of Lili of the Valley (LOTV) stamps and I use these a lot in my card making.

I just could not resist entering this week's challenge as the theme is "Let It Snow".  I recently bought some of the new release Christmas stamps made by LOTV, including the "Let is Snow" sentiment, so I decided to use it for making my card.I  also used the wonderful" Milly Winter Window" stamp. I thought the name is so apt as it's my daughter's family name (she is really an Emily). As you all know I am a HUGE Christmas fan and this is rubbing off on my girlie too ;0)

I hand coloured my image with Promarkers and accented the shading with Prismacolour pencils.

My backing paper is a Forever Friends Christmas paper. I also added some lovely mulberry flowers. I could not think how I could make them appear more festive so I cut some snowflakes and popped the flowers on top.

I also attached a ribbon on top of another snowflake and added plenty of glitter including some wonderful Glamour Dust around Milly's hat and top...lots of shine there!

I am entering this in this week's LOTV Let it Snow challenge 115 There are some technical problems with linking at the moment so sadly all the entries added so far are only showing as "pending" not as little thumb nails but I hope they can  fix this really soon.

I hope you like my card and thanks for looking. To all my Jane's Journal regular readers thanks for putting up with this early "C" indulgance (I hope you still found it interesting!)

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Jane and a ***sewing machine*** (is this a dream?..no it's fairy magic)

Years ago, in the days when it really could be cheaper to make your own I actually did make my own clothes.( I also knitted, but that's a story for another day!) I made skirts, dresses, tops and I even made my own bridesmaids' dresses.

My parents bought me a sewing machine to use when I started needlework lessons at school. In those days machines were so heavy I used to have to work out just to lift the machine onto the table. I made clothes right up until my early 20s and then the machine started gathering dust and was put into the loft at my parents' home.  That was until I had a new mission....

In 1986, when I was pregnant with my daughter I decided I would make the covers, bumpers, bedding etc for her moses basket. So out came the machine, I waved my magic wand (aka sat and stitched at the table) and made a whole set of items with frills etc.  For the first 3 months of her life my sweet girl slumbered away amongst the covers I had lovingly made for her.

The machine then again gathered dust for 3 years until I was pregnant with my son. My daughter had a very special dolly at the time called "Katie". To help introduce the new baby idea to my daughter and ease my son's arrival I decided that I would make a doll's size replica of all the covers I had on the moses basket so that my daughter would be able to have her own matching set of covers for Katie. I was even able to match the fabric. The stitching fairy (or rather me) would stitch away at night so as to keep everything a surprise.

  On the day M was born I presented my daughter with a replica moses basket with all the accessories for her dolly Katie. It went down a treat as she thought she also had her own baby to care for and their bedding even matched. I think we told her that everything came from the same Cabbage patch her baby brother had appeared from ! All was well and she did everything with Katie her dolly that I did with M. It really was so sweet to see. When M was put into his Moses basket to sleep she would copy me and put Katie to bed too. She would even tell us to be quiet as Katie was trying to sleep. Sweet, sweet memories :0)

Over the years the machine again got moth balled and I think eventually ended up being given away.

So what you may ask is this...............................?

Well as you know I do love making cards and recently I had noticed a lot of card makers had taken to stitching the borders of their backing paper with real machine stitching.

I no longer had a machine and could not justify buying a machine just for that so I simply admired the technique from afar.

However my dear Mum recently bought a "mini" sewing machine just to do some tiny bits of sewing to save her hand stitching. It occurred to me that I could "borrow" her machine to stitch some cards with. I recently did so and ***joy*** what fun I had. I had forgotten the noise of a machine whirring along. Such fun!

You can see some of my stitching in a close up below.

 It's been 22 years since I stitched anything so I confess the lines are not perfect but I actually think this adds to the handmade appeal of the card. 

I had such fun stitching background papers, I even did some in preparation (Vivienne look away now) for my Christmas cards.

I thought I would show you  a couple of cards I made which also used my new skill of colouring stamped images..and now my new machine stitched borders.

Remember this...

With a touch of pixie dust she turned into 

and this cutie

became...

and with one last abracadabra

I waved my magic wand and whirred the machine and out came.....

So do you now believe in sewing magic?

And if you would like a fairy of your own there is even one for sale here in my Etsy Shop ( you don't even need to go looking for one at the bottom of your garden ;0) ******EDIT 4.10.11 I have sold this card, if you are  interested in something similar just convo via Esty. Thanks Jx***********

We have had the most incredible record breaking  weather for the first weekend in October, nearly 30oc each day and the sun shone from dawn to dusk. My daughter and I had a brilliant time at the Bridal Fair in London and got lots of great ideas including an "alternative" wedding cake. I will fill you in soon. My Dad and my husband also sweltered in the heat and put the power and lighting in my studio. It still needs some more work but I now have lighting and 3 power points......it is such such a great work space. 

Thank you all for your lovely kind comments on my last post about my new bag charms. They seem to be going down very well and as promised I have made a knitting themed one called  "Knitting Queen". Here is a photo shown below and I have put it in my little Etsy shop here

Also as I have sold my first Sewing Queen, Knitting Queen and Tea for Two bags charms (thank you so much peeps!) I have made new versions of these

New blue Sewing Queen for sale here

and finally my New Tea for Two for sale in my Etsy shop here

Have a great week everyone. Here in the UK I  really think that we really have had our bonus Indian Summer and our friend Autumn is finally on it's way.

Bye for now,

Jane x