One of a kind Mums

Good morning I hope that you survived the weekend with the Beast? Goodness me that was a few days that I hope I don't have to repeat this year. Our snow melted away yesterday and that cruel, cold East wind has vanished.

Mother's day is this Sunday (11th March) in the UK and I have tried to made lots of different styles of my handmade cards for selling at Dotty's Tea house in Carshalton.  I have made clean and simple (CAS) ones, vintage, cute and some of my Visible Image "Face It" cards.

 Today is my Monday dose of Visible Image design team inspiration and I am am sharing 2 versions of the Face it cards I designed.
Last week I shared 2 colour ways of a Mother's day card where I used the top line of the Mother definition stamp to make these 2 butterfly cards shown below. You can find this post here if you missed it. These 2 butterfly cards below are the ones I showed last week.

This week I decided to use my fab Face it stamp

with the stencil/mask

 I also decided that rather than just using the top line ,as I did last week, that I would use the whole Mother definition.

I also chose some words from the Aries, Cancer and Pisces Zodiac sets from the Written in the stars collection

I white embossed them on to black card and cut them out.

I made 2 versions of my Mother Face It cards, one with the eyes shut and one with the eyes open.

First up is the eyes open card. I used picked raspberry, wilted violet and fossilized amber distress oxides for both backgrounds. I used Distress Glaze to protect her eyes. I blended the inks and then added a little spritz of water before drying.

I masked off all but the "Mother" part of the definition and stamped in red ink first. I then stamped the rest of the definition in black. I added some definition to her face using the stencil and chose the words "caring" and "gentle". You could make other versions: different word choices make the card really personal to the recipient.

I coloured the lips and added glossy accents to the lips for some glamour.

and these words.

For the eyes shut version I used exactly the same background process but the thing I love about using inks is that no background, even using the same colours, ever comes out the same. Every single one is unique and one of a kind, just like our own Mums.

Here is a close up of her,

 her words

and here they are side by side.

I would like to enter my Mother cards into the following challenges;

Alphabet challenge 2/3 Y for your choice
Crafty Catz 2/3 anything goes
Crafting with an attitude 2/3 anything goes
Card mania 2/3  embossing, all my stamping has been heat embossed.
Crafty sentiments 3/3 anything goes
Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes
Cute card Thursday 2/3 anything goes
Allsorts 1/3 ladies only

You can check out Visible Image via these links;

Visible Image group page on Facebook. Our friendly Group can be found here ...it would be lovely to see you. You can add work to the "Show and Tell" album where one randomly chosen winner each month wins a £25 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 these gorgeous stamps and stencils can be purchased. 

You can also follow via:

 Pinterest

Twitter

and

 Instagram

I hope the weather is more kind this week to everyone. Thanks so much for stopping by today and for the kind comments you take the time to leave. I would also like to warmly welcome my newest followers, it's so lovely to see you joining me here at Jane's Journal on my creative blogging journey.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Dancing daffodils

We are enjoying a mellow weekend with the added bonus today that the sun has been shining and it was warm enough to enjoy a cuppa outside...bliss.

 There are dancing daffodils everywhere I look at the moment

It really is my spring favourite

 Drifts of them when I go out and about...

I have been so busy with DT work recently that I have had no crafty ME time. So today I decided to rectify this and looked at some challenges I have wanted to join in with. Lots are to do with spring. I have missed working in my art journal so I opened up the next page. I stamped, coloured and fussy cut out a daffodil. One of my fave challenges, A Vintage Journey is also celebrating it's 3rd birthday and inviting everyone "All aboard!"

PaperArtsy asked us to experiment with adding Infusions to different products. So  I tried Sleight Blue in modelling paste (I don't own any grunge paste) first..

 I wanted to create some swirling March wind...

Then I tore some packaging, added some PaperArtsy Snowflake Fresco paint and sprinkled it on. I added a little spritz of water! Yum!

The Craft Barn Calendar poem is all about March winds and daffodils but with the addition of Mad Hares so I found a Graphic Fairy image and even managed to reverse the image...now for me, being so computer illiterate that is a real achievement. I fussy cut these out

and made a swirling spring background with inks and Infusions

blending on a little more spring colour to my March winds as I went

I just went with the inky flow....no plan really just a little playtime.
So then it was time to put my page together....

My art journal page was made for these challenges;

PaperArtsy infusions with paint
A Vintage Journey all aboard
The Craft Barn 12 Month challenge March this is my March wind stirring my dancing daffodil and Mad Hares!
Craft Heaven 2/3  Keep calm love spring
Simon Says stamp Monday make your own background
Noor! UK spring
Double D 2/3 think spring
Creative Artiste 1/3 anything goes mixed media
More mixed media anything goes

I hope this lovely sunshine has reached you all too..but don't hold your breath...rain is forecast tomorrow. At least we have enjoyed one lovely day of the weekend. Thanks for stopping by.
I'm off out again to sit in the garden and enjoy some more warm rays while they last....

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Marching into March

Goodness me here were are in March and let's see if the old saying In like a lamb out like  a lamb is true? We seen to have had all the season's in the last few days...storm Doris was pretty awful!  I'm keeping my supply of daffs growing on my window sill in the kitchen. These pretty flowers greet me every morning.

As it's the first of the month it is of course time for my next DT card for Country View and for this month's challenge Christine has chosen the theme "Inspired by Tim Holtz". For me that's an easy choice as I love all things Tim but if that's a tough one for you think, vintage, inks, mixed media etc etc. There is also plenty of inspiration over on the challenge blog from my talented Teamies and all the details can be seen here. You might even be lucky enough to win the £20 voucher which is up for grabs to a random winner.

Today I also want to show that you don't have to go totally over to the brown and grungy side to make something Tim inspired. For my project I have made a girlie celebration card.

I can share my process with some photos I took as I went along.

I stuck strips of aluminium tape onto card and then used various tools to leave marks like rivets and metal joints. I then black acrylic paint and when it was nearly dry I buffed most of it off with a cloth.

I then added and some Remnant Rubs.

I die cut a weathered clock using off cut of the aluminium card. I rubbed it with Decadent Wine gilding wax.

My other elements got textures too....using various embossing folders, stamps and crackle paste

Then it was time to put on my creative hat. Once I had played with my design I came up with this card. 

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

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday anything goes

More mixed media anything goes

         Craft Catz anything goes

       Lil patch of crafting friends anything goes

Words 2 Craft by celebrations
Simon says stamp Monday based on a book mine is The Time Traveller's wife...one of my all time fave reads.

Thanks for stopping by today and for the kind comments you take the time to leave.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Excitement on the last day of March

Unbelievably we have arrived at the end of March. My parents celebrated their 61st Wedding anniversary at the weekend. I recently enjoyed lunch at the garden centre with them and as always we had a wonder around afterwards to see what new flowers are on display.

Just look at these beauties.

 These are called ballerina primroses and they are so pretty with their gorgeous frilled edges.

Plus lots of other bold colours

and other gorgeous blooms too.

 As they have received my anniversary card I can now share it on my blog. We always enjoy tea and cake and I thought I would use my Crafty Individuals time for tea stamp, for their card.  First I made a vintage background. I never tire of the combination of stencilling and texture paste to which I added gold embossing powder. I also stencilled some hearts. 

I stamped my image onto a book page and coloured it with distress inks.

The gold embossing powder gives it such a shimmer.

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

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday 1/5 anything goes
Stamps and Stencils Spring is in the air 
Artistic Inspiration  2/ 3 anything goes
Crafting from the heart 2/3 anything goes
Creative Inspirations 1/3 anything goes

I am getting very excited now as tomorrow is cause for a triple celebration; firstly my debut Design Team post for Country View Challenges goes live....and to find out what else I'm celebrating you'll have to pop by and see ;0) Now there's a tease. My post goes live at 6.30 am. If you're up that early why not have a read over your morning cuppa...if note I really hope you can join me at some point during the day.

Back in the morning.

Bye for now,

Jane x