Magical Majorca

As promised I am back to share some photos of our recent trip to Majorca. I thought for my first post I would show you where we stayed. We were in a 3 bed apartment with a gorgeous rooftop terrace just off the Pine Walk in Puerto Pollensa. A most splendid place to stay. We had a large pool on site which the children loved. 

Our roof terrace had a 360o view and we felt that we were in the tree tops with the birds. 

There was welcome shade for our al fresco dining. 

Down at the pool there were also frog, fish and terrapin ponds, it was such fun seeing these lovely creatures. Daisy was fascinated. 

At dusk the view was so beautiful...red sky at night shepherd's delight.

We could see right through to the marina and the bay.

The ponds inspired to make the card below using distress inks and 2 of my lovley STAMPlorations stamps. I heat embossed the lovely butterfly stamps and coloured them with glitter green ink. I think this is such a lovely quote and yes I certainly enjoyed so many lovely moments on holiday with Daisy and Co. Special family times. 

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

 The alphabet challenge 1/3 Great outdoors
The butterfly challenge V I have gone for vertical pattern and vintage style
Crafty Catz 1/3 anything goes
As you like it 1/3 favourite type of embossing and why mine is always heat embossing as it gives a brilliant resist to all my inking.
CRAFT 1/2 summer
Time out 1/3 warm
Simon says stamp Wednesday bright and cheerful

It looks as though we are at the start of a 10 day heat wave here. The weather has been glorious and the temperatures are due to hit the 30s next week. Summer has definitely arrived.

I'm back on Monday with my weekly Visible Image inspiration. In the meantime have a fabulous weekend. Thanks for stopping by and for your kind comments. I have been knee deep working (in a very nice way) on some magazine designs this week, so I have been rather absent in blog land. I will also share some more of our Majorcan holiday photos very soon.

Bye for now,

Jane x

Into the bluebell woods

A couple of weekends ago my Hb and I went for a walk in our local woods. I shared a post here where you can see some photos of the gorgeous trees newly leaved in their lime green colours. I promised I would be back to share the bluebells that we saw too. This annual spectacle is something I wait for and never miss. It is just magical. 

Whilst we were there we took a moment to sit on a log and gazed up into the tree canopy above us through to the blue sky and sunshine. 

When I got home I decided that I needed to make a "Moment" for Jane's Journal to remember that time. 

I knew that the fabulous Into the woods stamps set from the brand new Visible Image release

would be perfect so I decided to make my weekly DT piece for today using it together with the beautiful new butterfly ink stencil

I started with a piece of watercolour card the same size as my journal and added some drips of Salty Ocean, antique linen and cracked pistachio distress oxides to start off my background. I then used a corner of the stop meshing around stencil 

 as the sun using yellow Distress inks

 I added some more "sunlight" using the take my hand stencil...the hand of Mother Nature perhaps? 

As you can see English bluebells are not blue at all but more a shade of mauve.

so I added this colour through my butterfly ink stencil

I added 5 butterflies around the page using Wilted violet distress oxide and then added some more depth using the circle stamp from the Hummingbird set

Once I was happy with my tree canopy it was time to stamp the woods....first the under canopy in purple, to represent the drift of bluebells.

 Then the top line in green, to show those brand newly unfurled leaves. I took the stamping around the sides of the page as I wanted to give the impression that we were sitting down and gazing up from the floor of the bluebell wood.

So here we are.......let me set the scene again......"It is a glorious blue sky morning. The sun shone out like a ball of lemon fire. 

 It was the kind of day that makes you glad to be outside, hand in hand with Mother Nature.

 Into the woods we went 

to be greeted by the splendor and scent of bluebells, their drifts were everywhere, like a carpet of purple.
We sat down for a moment to pause and looked up through the canopy of the newly leaved trees to the clear blue sky above...a Moment in time to remember. "

Below is my Moment in it's entirety. I think the words I chose to use from the set summed up how we feel about our life. It was a blissful Moment there, among the bluebells.

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

Craft stamper Take it make it anything goes
Stamping sensations close to nature
Simon says stamp Monday stencil it
Simon says stamp Wednesday stencil it
Creative moments 2/3 anything goes
Cute card Thursday 1/3 the great outdoors

All the Visible Image links are here;

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! There is an 11,000 followers celebration running at the moment, you could win a £100 coupon to spend on their website! 

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

There are 6 new stamp sets and 8 new stencils...all totally amazing and uniquely Visible Image.

I'd also like to give a quick heads up too. Myself and 2 of my VI Design Team colleagues have a stamping feature in this month's (June edition) of Making Cards Magazine. We all used the Seahorse and Dare to swim Visible Image stamp sets to make 3 very different red, white and blue cards

and here is a teeny weenie sneak peek of my underwater card......do check it out!

Thanks so much for taking a walk in the bluebell woods with me. I have so many ideas for using this amazing new stamp set....
I hope you all had a fab weekend, wasn't the royal wedding a total delight and Windsor looked stunning in the sunshine too.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Last March days, attempting to going out like a lamb

What a month of extreme weather we experienced here in the UK and it has been many years since I have seen snow on the ground that late. I think (and hope) that it is all behind us now and that we can look forward to the early warmth and light of April. It has seemed like a long dark winter and I cannot wait for the days when we can enjoy eating outside again. Between the rain showers this week we had some warmth too.

It is also a time for new beginnings in the world around us. Mother Nature is in the starring role as always and if you ever need a moment to lift your spirits just take a walk outside, find some green space and just look around.

My regular walks to Dotty's never cease to lift my spirits every time. I can just be in the moment, despite anything else going on in the world; there is total beauty and joy if we just look. 

These were some recent photos which inspired me.

I am sharing something a little magical today. It's the card I have made Daisy for Easter featuring a beautiful Lavinia fairy. The sentiment is Lili of the Valley.

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

Simon says stamp Wednesday floral frenzy
Studio 75 Easter
Die cuttin Divas Easter my sentiment surround die is Noor

Thanks so much for stopping by, I always appreciate your kind visits and comments. Remember to try to take a moment in your day to be mindful and grateful for the things that are good in our lives.  I treasure those in mine. I know that life can be very tough for some people but time passes and Mother Nature will make sure that even if March came in like a beast and goes out the same way sunshine is just around the corner.

I hope to pop back on Friday!

Bye for now,

Jane x

Tove Jansson and the Moomins

In January I went to see a really super exhibition with my Mum and Dad at Dulwich Picture Gallery in South East London. I have waited until now to share this post as I made something from it for a very dear blogging friend'a birthday and I wanted her to have received it first. It was a very wet miserable January day when we visited but the poster advert really cheered everything up.

 Until I was 18 I lived in nearby Peckham and some of my good friends lived in Dulwich so I have visited the gallery many times in years gone by. In recent years it has undergone extensive renovation and it really is a little gem tucked away in South East London. If you are ever nearby it really is worth a visit.

and yes it even has an old London telephone box in its grounds.

 Who out there remembers Press button A and then Button B?

Gosh it took me back to my childhood. 

Photos are allowed inside but not for the visiting exhibitions. There are some gorgeous artworks housed there permanently.

I loved these Moomins stickers that were also part of the advertising

We had such a lovely morning and even spotted these lovely flowers in the Village Florist when we walked to lunch.

Now I have a dear Finnish blogging friend Mia who I met on line about 9 years ago through our mutual delight in all things Moomins. Mia makes delightful handmade things and over the years I have owned lots of her gorgeous work. Although Mia does not blog as she did years ago, she is more an Instagram girl, we still have a very close friendship and are in regular contact. Her birthday in March I knew just what I would do with the sweet Moomin Programme.

Yes....I would use it to make her birthday card. What was perfect is that she is such a "pink" girl that I had the colourway already there.

I got out my matching distress inks

and made a watercolour background adding some star stencilling in grey. 

I wanted to use the window idea from the programme so I die cut my own in black and white card to layer them up.

I decided my Moomin would be looking out from the window to a moon lit starry night so I die cut a man in the moon and some stars using my Tim Holz bigz die.

and then it was time to put on my creative hat and put my ideas together. 

Here is Mia's finished birthday card.

The sentiment is by Visible Image. 

Here are a few close ups

and one last shot

I really had fun making this and I am so delighted that Mia loved it when she opened it on Sunday morning. 

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

Pixie's snippets playground #321 I really went to town with my snippets with this card......cutting up the programme and all the rest of my die cuts were snippets too!

Allsorts 3/3 ladies only
Simon says stamp girl power Tove Jansson was the epitome of girl power in the 1930s and 40s..very ahead of her time!
Creative Inspirations 1/3 any occasion mine is birthday

let's craft and create 1/3 anything goes
Get Creative 1/3 fantasy
As you like it 1/3 single or multiple layers Mine is multiple as I love the  more realistic 3d effect you can achieve

Another week has whizzed by and we are looking forward to catching up with our babies tomorrow. Enjoy your weekend and I will be back bright and breezy on Monday morning.

Bye for now,

Jane x