Spring has sprung

Well spring is finally here and I am loving these lighter mornings and evenings. There is the sound of bird song everywhere...and I should think lots of little eggs dropping into nests soon too.

The daffodils are exploding with colour everwyere

I visited Standen House last week and the grounds were so pretty.

 with daffodils and primroses everywhere. 

We saw a lovely exhibition in the house too but I will save that for another post. 

My card today sums up how we should all hopefully start feeling in the mornings!

The background is a silver and blue acrylic paint gelli print I made using the Visible Image

Wings of change stamps. I then added some more stamping and a card butterfly together with the rather awesome sentiment!

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

Through the craft room door 2/2 anything goes
Pile it on Favourite colour, mine of course is blue!
The butterfly challenge The letter C I have gone for cadet blue in my gelliplate background.
Cute card Thursday 1/3 spring fever
Allsorts fave stamp mine is this awesome new Visible Image butterfly

My card is for sale at Dotty's Tea House, Carshalton, Surrey, SM5  2AE

Today I have also written a post for the Country View Shop where I am showcasing all the new Visible Image mixed media stamps and stencils. You can see it by clicking here. I would love if you would pop on over and say hello. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today,

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Knowle

It was windy yesterday but the promised storms luckily seem to have passed us by here in the south and I am pleased to still be able to craft outside. The temperatures has dropped a little but no frost as yet. I have not had a chance to share a full post of my recent lovely visit to Knowle with my parents so I thought I would share some photos today. This gorgeous house is now owned by the National Trust but part of it is still lived in by the owners the Sackville-West family.

It is nestled away in Sevenoaks, Kent and is approached through the deer park where Henry V111 once hunted. We didn't spot any on our visit but they were out there somewhere. 

We did spot a few on the walls though 😁

 No photography is allowed in the house but I climbed to the top of the gate house 

via this very narrow circular staircase

 I emerged from the top 

and was rewarded with these stunning views.

If you are ever in that part of Kent this gorgeous house should be on your bucket list. It is well worth a visit and the lunches there are really good too.

I had some playtime in the week and I am pleased to report that my 4th card for the Funkie Junkie 12 tags of Christmas challenge is now under my belt.

If you would like to play along you can see all the rules here. There are some great prizes for the winners too. The challenge is generously sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique Linda shares a tag each week and you just have to take something from it and make something Christmas themed. I have always chosen to make cards and it's a great way to make 12 very unique cards for Christmas.

You can also combine it with any other challenges...so that is just what I did.

Linda's inspiration tag for week 4 is here. I liked her black silhouettes and the holly in the background. She also used the vintage carol sheet which I have used on my Christmas cards for years. I took these elements for the inspiration for my own make.

I  made a neutral inky background

 and then stencilled on holly leaves with my Tim stencil.

 I used black die cuts for my silhouettes. My Knowle visit also inspired me to use some deer die cuts again and I included Tim's holly leaves.

Here is my finished card

and a close up

I would like to enter it into the following challenges;

The Funkie Junkie 12 tags of Christmas #4
Creative Moments 3/3 anything goes
ABC Christmas 2/3 U for unlimited ie anything goes
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas challenge 1/3 anything goes #257
Christmas at sweet stampin 1/3 anything goes

The sun is out here so we plan some outside jobs here. Thanks for stopping by. I am back in the morning with my weekly dose of Visible Image inspiration.

Bye for now,

Jane x

A vintage day

Hello and a very warm welcome to my blog. If you are a first time visitor via the Visible Image Facebook page you will discover that my photos of my surroundings and Mother Nature give me all my inspiration for my crafting. If you would just like to see my vintage wedding card just scroll to the bottom of this post. If though you would like to see how I was inspired.....read on........

I looked through my photos on file and realised that I had not yet shared my day out at the lovely National Trust property, Uppark in West Sussex in July. We enjoyed a wonderful day out there in with dear friends. Much of the interior decoration of Uppark were destroyed by fire in 1989  but it was restored to its former glory by the most incredible craftsmen. Luckily when the fire broke out most of the contents were rescued from the ground floor and saved.

Uppark stands in glorious grounds

I love seeing old kitchens, just imagine cooking here...talk about Upstairs/downstairs.

a tray had been set up for afternoon tea....one lump or two Madam ;0)

It must have been amazing to just ring the bell and be served this on a tray! I love the vintage lace cloth.
There was even a dairy where butter and cheese was made for the house.

With such pretty glass windows

This was the view

So looking at these photos gave me an idea for  wedding card I needed to make for Dotty's Teahouse..a very vintage one. By the way Dotty's won Newcomer of the Year at the recent Surrey Life awards. I am very proud to be able to say that I sell my cards at an award winning tearooms ;0)

For my card I used my new set of Visible image stamps..sent to me by Helen to use for my Design work

this set is for sale on their web site here
I used the sentiment to repeat stamp a background . I'm glad I took a photo as I then covered most of it up!

I used the poem, written by Helen as the focal. I stamped and embossed it onto my Craft Consortium papers. I used a  labels die to cut it out. I also made up a frame and a doily die cut in the same papers, mounting them onto card.

I stamped the lovely rose from the set onto book papers using archival inks and fussy cut them out. I finished everything off with a couple of heart pearls and a piece of vintage lace.

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

Penny Black and More 3/3 use a sentiment
Everybody Art anything goes
Simon Says Stamp Monday At the movies My movie is Muriel's Wedding.
Cheery Lynn Vintage You can see my English tea party doily die peeping out at the top and bottom of my card

Thanks for visiting me here today. I have scheduled this post as I am actually somewhere else....

Tee hee yes it's that time ;0)

Back very soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Happiness is a Hill

On Tuesday I met my daughter and Daisy at Claremont in Surrey. This beautiful National Trust garden has a huge central lake with lots of ornamental fowl. It was the most glorious day....wall to wall sunshine and the clearest deepest blue sky I have seen for a long time.

Daisy loved feeding the ducks with her bag of food we bought.

We also spotted lots of dragonflies on and around the lake. I edited this photo in black and white so that you could see the amazing blue colour in the grass.

There is also a super hill...and of course Daisy loved running up and down it

 Stopping and picking daisies for her Mummy

After lunch, exhausted from all her running she very conveniently snoozed in her buggy whilst my DD and I sat on a picnic mat, admired the view, ate ice cream and chatted...for over an hour....just bliss. Happiness really is a hill!

There are some challenges I would like to enter before the end of August including the Craft Barn dictionary challenge where the letter is H.
I wanted to use some of the photos of Daisy running down the hill. So I decided to create a hilly distress inked background with sunshine and blue skies in my art journal.

 I then created hills with my distress inks.

I got out several of my Visible Image stamps to add to the background

Sorry I only took 1 photo when I had added the grass as I got so engrossed in my work.

So here is my finished "Moment" for my art journal..............

On the right is my hill dictionary definition...I put it on a hill ;0)

I tried to give the impression of Daisy running down the hill and getting closer by die cutting 3 photos of her,

 I love the photo of Daisy below bringing a daisy to her darling Mummy....precious moments indeed.

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

The Craft Barn dictionary challenge H I know that Jane says no dragonflies need to be included but my Moment needed one as we saw so many of them! 

Uniko inspired by a song no prizes for mine...of course it was "The hills are alive" from The sound of music! I kept humming this as I created!

Happy Little Stampers anything goes with a die

Crafty Calendar summer fun

The Craft Barn weekly challenge blue

Fussy and Fancy 1/3 let's fly away

Creative Corner soooo sweet

Crafty Boots anything but a card

It's been another glorious day today, wall to wall sunshine and more blue skies. I really hope that it lasts for the bank holiday weekend.

Thanks for visiting me today and for all the kind comments you take the time to leave me. Enjoy the long weekend for those of you in the UK...dare I say..it's the last bank holiday before Christmas ;0)

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x