Pots of flowers

My magnolia in my garden is bursting with pink blooms. It is the only tree I have room for..I love it despite the fact that the blooms are short lived.

Billy and I were able to enjoy lunch in the garden on Monday.

He loves rolling around on the patio..and getting very gritty!

My hard work planting up my pots in the garden with spring bulbs last autumn has paid off and the daffs are gorgeous. 

The winter violas are still hanging on too

and look what I spied...

Yes.....my tulips are pushing up and should be in bloom very soon. 

I love this time of the year, the birds are singing, the bees start buzzing and you can almost hear the flowers growing.

I have been taking down some last Mother's day cards to Dotty's as it is Mother's day here in the UK on Sunday. My card today is one of them.

The image is my old Nicecrane digi, the stamped sentiment is Clearly Besotted. The dies are Cheery Lynn, Marianne and Memory Box.

It is for sale at Dotty's Teahouse, Carshalton, SM5 2AE

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

 Creative fingers 2/3 anything goes

Creative moments 2/3 anything goes

Crafty catz 2/3 make it square

Crafty friends 2/3 spring colours

Addicted to stamps 2/3 spring

Lil patch of crafting friends 2/3 anything goes

Die cut divas 1/3 fave colour combination mine is blues/greens

Crafty sentiments 1/3 anything goes

Happy little stampers anything goes with dies

Thanks for stopping by and for the kind comments you take the time to leave me. I hope you are able to start enjoying your own gardens too.  I would also like to extend a very warm welcome to my newest followers. Thanks for joining me on my creative journey. 

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Mother's Day 2019

Mother's day this year in the UK falls on 31st March so I have been busy making lots of cards for Dotty's Teahouse where I sell my cards in Carshalton High Street, Surrey.

Recently I have been spotting some lovely flowers in bloom and took these photos on my walk down to Dotty's

and my hellebore at home continues to show off it's glorious blooms

I always think that flowers are a good subject for Mother's day cards so here is one of my first.

The background was make using a paint resist technique and Tim Holz stamps. I then added distress inks over the top. The die cuts are a mix of Tim Holtz  Spellbinders and Memory box. The sentiment is by Clearly Besotted.

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

The butterfly challenge A is for mine is anything goes
Through the craft room door anything goes
The artistic stamper 3/3 heart it
Frilly and Funkie 2/3 let me count the ways I have used 3 die cut hearts on my card
Crafty sentiments 1/3 spring is springing
We love to create 2/3 anything goes mixed media

Thanks for stopping by and for your very kind and supportive comments you take the time to leave me. Enjoy this gorgeous weather and if you need some sunshine I am blowing it your way. 

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Mother's day at Dotty's Teahouse

Dotty's is getting ready to celebrate Mother's day over the weekend with a special afternoon tea. The event has already sold out, which is not surprising as there is nothing quite like tea and cake with your Mum is there?

I took these photos when I nipped in to do my stock check, last week, before the customers arrived.

This will be a real hive of activity

and my Mother's day cards have been set up on their own special shelf (below right, top shelf)  next to the shelves that I normally sell from. 

Here are some of my cards, there are more in the window. (Edit; Since I took this photo some  cards from this photo have been sold)

Rebecca, Dotty's owner really has made this the most delightful place to spend a few hours. If you are ever near Carshalton High Street in Surrey do pop in.

My card today is another of my Mother's day makes using the Visible Image Mother definition stamps and words from written in the stars zodiac collection.

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

Creative Moments 1/3  anything goes
Time Out 1/3 Bold
Addicted to stamps and more 1/3 make your mark my background was created with distress inks.
Alphabet challenge 3/3 Y for your choice
Crafty Catz 3/3 anything goes
Crafting with an attitude 3/3 anything goes
Card mania 3/3  embossing, all my stamping has been heat embossed.
Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes
Cute card Thursday 3/3 anything goes
Allsorts 2/3 ladies only

Thanks so much for stopping by today and enjoy the rest of the week. Compared to last week it has been positively spring like. I will be back on Friday and if you like The Moomins...you will enjoy my post!

Bye for now,

Jane x

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

Mothers' day card ideas

It's another marvelous Monday morning and time for my weekly dose of Visible Image inspiration. The next "event" in my card making is Mother's day, which falls here in the UK on Sunday 11 March.  I needed to make some cards for selling at Dotty's tea house and decided to use the top line of the brilliant "Mother" definition stamp in my designs.

(Next week I will be sharing another card where I have used the whole of this stamp...watch this space)

I also wanted to use some specific words from the written in the stars collection. I used words from the Aries, Cancer and Pisces set but you could easily chose any...I think it is lovely to be able to be so personal.

I stamped and embossed them in white on black card and then fussy cut them out. 

The warmer weather made me also reach for my more summery stamps and 2 sets which I have not used for a while. The original butterfly was a very early Visible Image stamp I bought many years ago and is now part of this fab set. 

Own kind of beautiful

 and Live life now

I also used my fibres stencil

I made my design in 2 colourways and it is interesting to see how different they look.

I used red and blue distress inks for this colour way with some stenciling using purple. 

and for a "hot version" I used yellows and oranges. This was my background mid way..

I then added some red distress through the fibres stencil to really spice it up.

Here is my "sunny" version which I also added a few sequins to.

They look so different don't they?

Here are a few close ups

You can mix and match the extra words....

and a last shot of them side by side

It will be interesting to see which colourway sells first in Dotty's.....

I would like to enter my pink/purple Mother 's day card into the following challenges;

Fashionable Stamping 3/3 one for the girls
Simon says stamp Wednesday make your own background
Sweet stampin 1/3 spring has sprung
Allsorts 1/3 eye spy...something beginning with B..mine is of course butterfly
The butterfly challenge 1/3 #95 spin the wheel with the letter P I have gone for the pink and purple sections of the wheel.  I really like the new format of Mrs A fab challenge and I hope to be able to join in more.
A Inkymess 1/3 anything goes

You can also 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

Next week I will share some more Mothers' day card ideas using a different set of Visible Image stamps.

Thanks so much for stopping by today and for the kind comments you take the time to leave me. Despite my sunny cards it looks as though the weather is returning to winter this week...brrr it has been so cold and  there may even some snow in the south of England. Keep snug wherever you are.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x