More blues and greens for Country View

Hello I am back with my 2nd project as inspiration for the current blues and greens challenge over at Country View. You can see all the details via this link here.

I always love making backgrounds so I got out my box of Paperartsy Infusions which Susan sells over at the Country View Website here. I have lots of the colours and I love the walnut in them which give little brown overtures too. 

After my very elaborate mermaid card which you can see here I decided to go quite clean and simple for my 2nd card. I made my background using Slime (don't you just love those names) for the green part of the challenge

and A bit jaded for the blue

A sprinkled  them onto some watercolour card, added a little sprint of water and they did their magic to make my background.

Once dry I stamped a Visible Image sentiment and also a bird stamp and die by STAMPlorations to finish it off. 

Here it is 

with a close up of the Infusions background.

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

Happy little stampers anything goes
Simon says stamp Wednesday make your own background
Crafty Catz 2/3 anything goes
A inky mess 3/3 anything goes

You can enter our July "Blue and green " challenge as many times as you like and combine with other challenges. There is also a £20 crafting voucher up for grabs to the lucky randomly selected winner to spend over on the Country View Crafts on line store. Remember that UK postage and packing is absolutely FREE! All the details for the July challenge can be found here.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Winter landscape

It has been very cold for the last few days.

Everywhere is looking quite bare but at least the sun has returned.

 This was the ponds last week

when Daisy stayed. She certainly had warm ears 😂

 You might also have noticed that a swan has returned. I have seen 3 down there, they are always a delight, as is my Daisy.

It's time for my 2nd DT inspiration post for our January landscapes/cityscapes challenge over at County View. I decided to make another landscape, this one a rather fanciful one. 

 I got out my distress inks and masked off a sun.

I then blended on the inks to form my landscape, with a river at the bottom. 

 I have a great old PaperArsty Lynne Perella stamp set which rarely sees the light of day but this woman has an amazing landscape within her. I added some stamping to the side too.

 My Visible Image sentiment was perfect to use and I white embossed it and also added some branches using the Organics stamp set.

This is my finished card.

With couple of close ups of that cool stamp

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

Craft stamper take it make it 2/3 January

A vintage journey put your stamp on it

Mix it up 3/5 anything goes

Crafter's Castle 3/3 anything goes

Stamping sensations 2/3 fabulously feminine

You can enter our January challenge as many times as you like and combine with other challenges. There is also a £20 crafting voucher up for grabs to the lucky randomly selected winner to spend over on the Country View Crafts on line store. Remember that UK postage and packing is absolutely FREE! All the details for the challenge can be found here.

My card has gone down for sale at Dotty's Tea House, Carshalton High Street, SM5 2AE

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

Keep warm.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

See through crafting

There are several fun challenges going on at the moment asking us to be inspired by glass. bottles, transparency etc etc.
I had a quiet Sunday and was able to run some of those ideas through my head. The weekend weather was dismal, rain rain and more rain so it was good to escape into the world of crafting.
I also needed to make a birthday card for my Hb's upcoming birthday in a few weeks so it was time to use all this inspiration to make him a card.

Billy did not want to join me and preferred to sleep in his box...Oh to be a cat ;0)

I treated myself to a packet of acetate and I had also bought a fun pack for male themed card blanks in a sale.
I decided that my theme would be a bottle of bubbly to celebrate my Hb's birthday. I am very excited as we have a meal booked at The Shard so I am sure some bubbly will feature there too.

I was able to partially cut the acetate with some of my dies...I then finished the job with my scissors.

I also used my Tim Holtz bubbles embossing folder to give me a "bubbles" background.

I used Sharpie pens to colour the hearts and bottle and a gold Krylon gold marker to add some finishing touches. 

I cut an aperture out of my card blank

 and stuck the embossed bubbles behind

I also used some alcohol inks on a focal and swirled them around.

I also stuck a large coloured acetate heart over my stamped and embossed sentiment for the inside of the card. This is the same shape as the front aperture using gold card.

So then the creative hat was put on......and I came up with this. It is so hard to get a good photo as the acetate reflects a lot of light.  This is looking at the front of the card with it open.

and this is the inside.

The bubbles came out really well.

and here is the bottle of bubbly specially created for my Hb...a vintage 2016 year and his very own initialed label ;0)

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges

PaperArtsy Transparent art I was inspired by Keren Baker's post and the way she added colour to her acetate, especially the red behind the word courage but instead of paint I used Sharpie pens.
Country View crafts Be inspired by Bottles
Pixie's Snippets playgound 1/3 #211 I used lots of snippets of acetate
Anything but cute Ring out the old...bring in the new this is the first acetate aperture card I have made.
Crafty calendar something new  as above
Simon says stamp Wednesday something new my acetate sheets.
Love to create 2/2 anything creative/mixed media #27
Crafty friends something new my first aperture acetate card
Noor anything goes
Bunny Zoe 1/3 hearts
Crafty boots something old something new my old is my ribbon my new is the acetate

This relentless rain came to a halt today here in the south. The wind direction is forecast to change this week to cooler weather so hopefully an end to the rain for a while.

I was so shocked to wake up yesterday morning to hear that David Bowie had died. What a rock legend....his music was a huge part of my teenage...RIP one of my music heroes. His music will certainly live on forever. Thanks as always for your kind visits and comments.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Playing with Grunge paste

As I shared in my last post I really enjoyed some crafting time over the Easter break. This year the daffodils everywhere have just been glorious. What is there not to love about this spring flower?

There are lots of lovely spring inspired challenge in blog land at the moment I wanted to join in with. Also the ladies over at A Vintage Journey's theme is Through the looking glass.  Lastly the topic over at Paperartsy until Sunday is to play with Grunge paste (or any other texture paste) so I decided to combine these great challenges and had a think about what I would make.
Inspired the the daffs I decided to make a floral get well card for a young lady we know who was involved in a recent car crash and I thought that something really bright and spring like would made her smile.
I spread some Grunge paste over some card and stamped into it with my favourite script stamp, Bronte script, by Visible Image.

Next I got out some of my chalks paints and started adding some yellow.

I also added some blue and of course I created green.

I wanted to make a floral focal so I used an off cut of an acrylic master board I made a while back and added some Grunge paste through a stencil. You may recognise the offcut from this card here Recently Tim Holtz has been exploring his floral side and made a great long flower stem stamped tag for April. I made his tag recently (as a card) so I decided to try using a stencil rather than a stamp for this project.

First I coloured the Grunge paste green and made the stalks and then I added some yellow for the flower heads.

I found some little beads in my jewellery stash to push into the paste

 I wanted to add some yellow pearls but I don't have any so I just coloured white ones with my alcohol inks, Tim Holtz gave this tip a while back and he also colours brads this way. These were to make the stamens.

I wanted the flowers to look as though they had been preserved under glass, similar to those in those found in Victorian glass domes so I added some Glossy Accents. I distressed the edges of the card.

here is the finished focal...really glassy and shiney.

I also altered a T Holtz metal flower with chalk paint and purposefully held the heat gun close to make the paint blister...I love this effect

Then it was time to assemble my card...here it is

and a few close up.....lots of texture going on here

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

PaperArtsy Grunge paste Topic #6. I was inspired by Kate's post of her textured bloom showing her colouring Grunge paste and also Leandra's introduction post sharing how you  can stamp into the paste and embed things into it.
A Vintage Journey Through the looking glass my flower heads with the added Glossy accents make them look as though they have been preserved forever in glass. It also gives a reflection so it is also a pun on "through the looking glass".
Art with heart spring break
Not just cards anything goes
That Craft Place easter/spring
Crafting from the heart anything goes
Creative Inspirations A trio of something I have a trio of glassy flower heads I also have a trio of colours; yellow, blue and green
Noor! anything goes
The Artistic stamper flora and fauna
Papertake weekly anything goes
Loves rubberstamps anything goes
Party Time Tuesdays anything goes
Simon says stamp Mondays A is for... altered, I have altered the metal flower and grunge paste by colouring it and stamping into it.
Stamp and Create anything goes
Simon says stamp Wednesday April showers and/or Spring flowers

Thanks for stopping by and I would also like to say hello to my latest followers, you are are most welcome here and I am so pleased you have joined my on my creative journey. Thanks to all my "regular" visitors as always for visiting and your kind comments you take the time to leave here. There's more glorious sunshine today and I am off to enjoy it. I have nearly finished spring cleaning my garden studio and plan to get back out there asap.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x