More May Cupcakes

We are half way through our May...gosh how quickly this month is going. I am here with my reminder for the current theme and sketch challenge over at STAMPlorations and I am here today with some more inspiration.
This is the theme

and the fab sketch

The rules in brief are that you need to use stamping on your projects. You don't have to use STAMPlorations stamps to enter but of course we love it if you do! You can link up 6 times with new blog posts and you need to add our logo to your post. You can go with the theme, the sketch or both, the choice is yours. There are some fab prizes to be won too! 

This is the link to the challenge with all the info you need.

Again I have used the theme and sketch.

I made a watercolour background using acrylic inks and sprays on kraft card.

I cut out some cupcakes using the brilliant  CUTplorations cupcake builder #2 dies set

And of course I need to glitter up those fab cherries on top too!

I then put my card together using the sketch for placement. 

I also stamped and red embossed  the sentiment from the 

Birthday bash set.

and made this card.

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

A gem of a challenge 2/3 anything goes

crafty catz 1/3 anything goes

Sweet stampin 2/3 anything goes

A bit more time to craft 2/3 anything goes

Crafting from the heart 2/3 anything goes

Crafting with an attitude 1/3 anything goes

Remember if you would like to buy this stamp set or die (or anything else on the website) just enter my code STAMPGIRLJANE at the checkout to get 20% off on top of any current discount being offered. You can see all the wonderful products; stamps, stencils and dies via this link here. Shery ships internationally at very reasonable rates. 

It would be great to see you joining in with the fun and perhaps you might even be the winner of the $15 coupon code? Once again This is the link to the challenge with all the info you need.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Have a lovely weekend.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Cast a clout, the May is out

Yes after all that amazing weather we enjoyed over the bank holiday weekend the Hawthorn is in flower which means the May is out!

The ancient saying "Don't cast a clout til May be out" means the Hawthorn blossom, (May flower) not the month. I hope that we have seen the last of any frosts, especially here in the South of England.

I snapped the May over the weekend. It is such a pretty flower but with a very odd scent indeed!

I had bumper April card sales down at Dotty's Tearooms so I have been busy making some new stock. My card today is one of them. I was inspired by the fresh spring colours around me and created an inky background with my distress inks. Friendship cards sell very well at Dotty's and I used this very old Lili of the Valley sentiment stamp lots.

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

The butterfly challenge spin the wheel and the letter H It is Mrs A's 100th challenge, such an achievement. I am so glad to join her and hope many of you will too. I went for Hunter's green for my plain leaves  and some of my inking and heat embossing, my sentiment was heat embossed.

Crafty catz 2/3 anything goes

Lil patch of crafty friends 2/3 anything goes

Crafty Calender 2/3 Things with wings

Cute card Thursday 2/3 anything goes
Dies R Us 1/3 flowers
Double D May flowers
Sweet stampin 1/3 flowers

Thanks as always for stopping by and for the kind comments you take the time to leave me. I would also like to warmly welcome my newest follower. 

Enjoy the better weather and all the colours of Mother Nature in May (the month!) I even spied some butterflies over the weekend, a sure sign how much warmer it has been.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Flying high with STAMPlorations

Hello I am delighted that all the challenges over at STAMPLorations resume today after Shery's little "Winter" break. I am part of the Theme and Sketch team but just for the first month back there will be no sketch, just the theme, "Things with wings" which is running across all the design team challenges. All you need to do to join is is create something with wings...simples! During May there are also fun blog hops and linky parties.

You can find all the details here
There are certainly lots of things with wings down at the ponds. The ducks are pairing up with mates

and I spotted on the other side a single duckling with it's Mum and Dad!

How woolly is he? 

Everyone was enjoying the sunshine

I decided that despite there being no sketch that I would use an old sketch and used this one from way back in May 2015

My stamps I used are
 Trendy Birds 2 

and "You're forever my friend" from
Fond expressions 2

I used some snippets of card and book pages and added some bird flight stamping.

I decided to use Kraft as my base card. I also stamped and embossed the birds and fussy cut some out. I stamped the sentiment directly onto my card.

Here it is/ I love the trendy bird set, it is in my Top 3 of Shery's amazing stamps. The sentiments from fond expressions work so well too. 

You can find all the details of the challenge here. We would love for you to join in with the fun. You do not need to use STAMPlorations stamps to enter either.


Thanks so much for stopping by today. Enjoy the bank holiday weekend, the weather is looking really super (for a change!)

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

May brings flocks of pretty lambs

I finally bought some bedding plants for my pots at the weekend. My bulbs have been so beautiful this year that I didn't want to tip them out until they really had spent. I bought this box of beauties

 and a box of gazania

I even managed to start to pot them up on Sunday. First though it was the job of emptying and washing the pots. Much as this is a real chore I am a firm believer that this really helps with getting pots of gorgeous summer flowers as it removes bugs et al.

I will share some more photos soon. 

I also wanted to enter some challenges before May is over.

I found this great  digi image over at the Graphic fairy and decided to make an art journal page. I decided to try to use the image as the focal but cut out the tree and replace it with a mixed media one of my own. This is what I got up to

I created a sky using distress inks and a cloud mask

I made the grass with distress inks and added some distress oxide daisy flowers using my Visible Image Create it set.

I tore the digi and drew in a line to continue the horizon on my journal page.

I die cut a tree, added some bark texture with my Create it VI stamps and crackle medium and punched out some flowers out of inky mop up card. I added liquid pearls to the flower centres which you will see in my final photo.

I then replaced my tree where the tree from the digi was

 I then put everything together to create my May art journal page.

My art journal page was made for the following challenges;

The Craft Barn calendar challenge May

Crafty Calendar flowers

Double D challenge flowers galore
The Ribbon Girls 2/3 use any image

Simon Says stamp little critters
Pile it on 1/3 animal
We love to create 2/2 anything mixed media

I am coming back from Southampton today where I have spent a wonderful few days in the sunshine with Daisy, Jack and Co.  I hope you are enjoying a sunny week too? Thanks for stopping by.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Cast a clout the May be out!

Yes the May is in full bloom on the Hawthorn trees and if the old English saying, "Ne'er cast a clout till May be out" is correct it's time to get rid of those outer coats and clothes (clout) and look forward to warm days and nights. Hopefully we will have seen the last of any frosts here in Southern England until the autumn.

I love the Hawthorn, it has such spectacular flowers which although usually white, can have tinges of pink right through to being pure pink.
I snapped lots of hawthorn flowers whilst out and about this week.

here is the lovely pink version.

Fairy folklore was associated with the Hawthorn too. It was known as the "Faerie Tree"and May Queens were decorated with Hawthorn. It's also known as the bread and cheese tree as the blooms, leaves and berries can all be used to make wines and jellies.

I also noticed that the cherry trees are losing their blossom now and it is flying about like fairy confetti in the air.

These cherry trees looked so pretty standing in a pool of pink fluffy blossom.

So yes trees, fairies. blossom and blue skies were the inspiration for my card I am sharing here today. I won some fabulous stamps from Lavinia in April and got them out to play with. I made a card. I have entered it over on their Facebook challenge here. If you remember in April I asked my lovely Blogging friends to go over and "Like" me there. Getting into the top 20 is necessary to get through to the final DT judging. Can I ask you to follow this link here and like me over there. If you want to share my card, please do....but I only get votes if peeps come back and like me on the original  Lavinia page. Thanks so much in advance x

The background was created with distress inks. I embossed all the images. The die cuts are Tim Holtz wild flowers (my favourite flower die of the moment) as is the sentiment.

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

Simon says stamp Wednesday flowers
Anything but Cute celebrate your style yes I have several styles, all of which I love to play with...this is another of mine...and I do love fairies (and mermaids, and Christmas and...LOLOL)
The Ribbon Girl 1/3 any image

Crafty friends 2/3 in the garden

Paper Creator 2/3 anything goes

Fussy and Fancy 2/3 birthdays

Noor spring flowers
Bastel-traum Fantasy
Seven Hills Crafts Embossing I used Hero Arts clear embossing powder for all my stamp embossing.
WOW  embossing powders May challenge

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. Ours was lovely, sunny and warm in our sheltered garden. I have been really busy making cards in my studio. I also bought some lovely bedding plants from our local nursery and will be potting them up once I have hardened them up outside for a few days.

I am back again tomorrow with a GD post for the lovely ladies over at Try it on Tuesday. It would be lovely if you can stop by again and see what I made...here's a clue.....birdsong was my inspiration ;0)

Bye for now,

Jane x

May Design team piece for Country View Challenge, use a stencil

Hello, welcome to May and it's time for my next Design Team  piece for Country View. The new challenge is to "Use a stencil" Now this is a really special month and here is the amazing announcement from our sponsor, Country View....you could win a BIG SHOT AND DIE BUNDLE!!!!

This month alongside our Challenge, we are also running a Blog Hop with a Sizzix Big Shot Machine & Die Bundle as the prize. To enter, you must be a Follower of our Challenge Blog and Hop along to each of our Design Team Members Blogs and leave a comment. We will still be running our normal monthly challenge and those who link their Use A Stencil projects will also be entered into our £20 Voucher draw. The Winners will be picked at random in early June.

Wow I am so jealous that I can't enter.

This is the order of the hop and the links

 Christine
Gabrielle
 Jennie
Rachel
Sue
Evelyn
 Doreen
 Nikki
Monika
Hazel
Brenda
Corrie
Jane........................you are here ;0) 

If you need to go back to the main Country View Challenge blog and start at the beginning this is the link there.

 As you well know I love using stencils in my crafting, the difficult part for me was deciding which to use!  There are lots of inspiring projects over on the challenge page too. You can enter any craft which fits the theme.


For my first piece of the month I decided to make a card, a special card for my SIL's sister who is getting married this month. I wanted to use some bold May colours.

To make my focal I stamped and white embossed my Lili of the Valley sentiment and die cut it out.  I then dripped it through some TH distress inks

 and dried it off with my heat gun

For the backing card I repeated the process....

I then added some hearts through my stencil using archival ink

and then some diamond sparkle medium through my Gothic stencil.

Then it was time to assemble my card and add a ribbon to finish it off.

and one last shot

My second DT piece for the May challenge is on  Friday 27th...I have made a complementary tag for the "set".

I would like to link up my card with the following challenges.

   Creative Card Crew wet or dry embosssing I have white embossing powder for my sentiment.
                                          Simon Says stamp Wednesday anything goes

Don't forget to leave a comment here if you are on the blog hop....and you need to hop along to all the other blogs too if you would like try to win the Big Shot.  Good luck!

For all my other "regulars" thanks for visiting and for your sweet comments. Welcome to May and enjoy the rest of the bank holiday weekend.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x