Chili harvest

I have been gathering my garden harvests as summer is nearly at a close. We have enjoyed lots of runner beans and tomatoes. I also love growing chilies, they are such pretty plants and my Hb and I like using chilies in some of our dinners.The fruits dry brilliantly and my harvest last year lasted right up until this May.

I buy them by mail order as plugs and grow them on indoors until June when I put them out onto my sunny west facing patio. This was them being potted on in early summer.

One of our favourite meals is choritzo with butter beans, mushrooms and tomatoes, a recipe my daughter came up with when she was at medical school. We had a few lovely warm days last week to enjoy some late sunshine and with this dinner I decided to try the last new Pimm's I saw in the supermarket. This time it is not the usual base, which lemonade is added to, but a cider base. It really is a lovely mix.

So this is a photo of probably one of our last evening meals in the garden this year. We are able to eat lunch outside from March til October but by 7pm now it's too dark and chilly.

 There is nothing like freshly picked chillies added to this meal.

My challenge piece today is a tag and was inspired by the colours of that late summer dinner and golden leaves of my little pot acer in the sunshine.

I made an inky and stencilled background

and created this

Lots of autumnal colours on my leaves and a mist of gold ink. I added little gems to represent dew drops and the spider was a fun charm I recently added to my charms stash. I edged the whole of the tag with gold embossing powder.

I would like to enter my tag into the following challenges

Frilly and Funkie stamps be gone
Our creative corner shades of autumn
Crafty Catz autumn colours
Creative Inspirations Vintage
Natalie and Amy Charming
Pixie's snippets playground 194 I have used snippets of card to make my leaves with from my snippets box. They were left over from my Spell book as was the spider'sweb die cut.
The craft barn stencils and masks I have used Tim's shatter and gothic stencils
We love to create anything goes mixed media 19
Mixed media world anything goes with autumn colours
Crafting from the heart anything goes
Artistic Inpsirations anything goes/twist of magic


I have take a day's annual leave today so after finishing my usual bits indoors I plan some time in my studio. What a great start to the week, no Monday morning blues here!  Enjoy yours and thanks for visiting today.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Strawberry Pimm's O'Clock

Although as I typed  this post yesterday afternoon the rain was coming down in sheets, we have enjoyed some good sunny days in August. It's just easy to forget them when there is enough rain out there to build an arc!

I decided to write a sunshine filled post to remind us that we still have another month of summer left. I wanted to share with you a new variety of my favourite summer tipple which I noticed on the shelves of the supermarket recently. Pimm's bring out some new editions from time to time but I did not want to buy a whole bottle. I then noticed some in cans, ready made with lemonade. There was no excuse now not to try it.  Obviously this found its way into my bag.

 Mmm Pimm's with strawberry and a hint of mint ( and no I am not sponsored by them at all....I wish I was!)

 There is nothing quite like a cold Pimm's on a hot day. I added ice, cucumber, a slice of lemon and a strawberry. We sat at our new garden table looking out into our tiny garden of delight and listened to the bees buzzing around as we relaxed and savoured the warmth of the sunshine. My Hb is not really a Pimm's fan.....he toasted the sunshine with a G&T.

My opinion on this variety.....it's very pleasant but to me nothing beats the original. However being able to buy this special edition in cans means that you don't have to buy a whole bottle just to have an occasional change. That's a win win in my books.

My card challenge today is also red/summer based and is a card I made for a 40th birthday.

I used one of my Nicecrane digi images. This one is from the Henderson's flowers selection I love this selection.
These are the others available


Here are a couple of close ups of my card

I made the background with distress inks and then embossed my Visible Image rose stamps using glitter embossing powder. 

I altered a bronze flower charm with paints.

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

Artistic stamper anything goes

Anything but cute making magic again I was inspired by all the gorgeous shimmering textures in the photos. I also think my flower with the heart brad looks like something from a fairy tale like Snow White...or is that just in my mad head?

Mixed  media world gorgeous textures

Country View Crafts summertime

Allsorts Roses

Crafty cardmakers No patterned paper

Papertake weekly take your pick I have chosen vintage/distressed

Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes

Pixie's Snippet Playground week 191 here I used a snippet of ribbon on my card, I didn't have enough for a bow but still thought it added some shimmer to my card.

Fingers crossed that this biblical rain moves on in time for the upcoming bank holiday. We are meeting friends for a trip to a National Trust Property on Sunday and it would be lovely to stroll around the grounds as well as visiting the house.

Thanks for visiting and I would like to extend a very warm welcome to my  newest followers. I really hope you enjoy following my creative journey here at Jane's Journal. I hope that today's post has reminded us that there is lots of sunshine around us.....even if it's not shining from the sky just at this moment.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Summer and strawberries

Nothing epitomises summer more than soft fruits: Amongst my favourites are strawberries and raspberries.My daughter loves fresh strawberries and grows her own. This month I am guest designing for Tracy who owns Noor Designs  UK. Please pop over and leave me some love there. Also take a peep at her website and there is also a great something old/something new challenge going on for the month of July. You could win a £20 Noor voucher. She has some gorgeous stock and lots of mixed media products too...right up my street!  I will be showcasing some of the great products she sells over the next 5 weeks here and on her blog on a Monday.

My first project for Tracey involved strawberries. I knew just where I could get some perfect strawberry photos as my daughter grows some beauties.

We had a lovely sunny day in Southampton on Saturday and when my daughter needed some strawberries to put in our Pimm's and pudding Daisy came out to the garden to help Nanna pick some.

They grown perfectly in a raised container on straw (of course!) and we removed the netting that keeps the birds from helping themselves to this ripe juicy treasures.

I think Daisy ate more than she picked but there were plenty to go round.

My GD post today showcases the brilliant Dutch Doobadoo card art strawberry. I found myself some strawberry paper amongst my digi stash and some green card for the leaf. This sweet gift box is very simple to make. Just trace around the shape, make the score lines and cut out and make the holes.

There is just one piece to stick. I threaded through some twine and job done.

I added a little die cut tag which I embellished with my ancient strawberry stamp and some words.

I would like to enter my strawberry gift box into the following fun challenges.

Penny Black and more  add a sentiment

Natalie and Amy summertime

Addicted to stamps anything goes

Die cut divas summer and patriotism I don't think there is anything more English than summer and strawberries.

The Artistic stamper tags


Thanks for visiting and I hope that you are enjoying some of the delicious soft fruits which are around at the moment. They taste so much better when they are either home grown or grown locally.
We enjoyed ours in Pimm's and for pudding.....mmmm

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

(If you would like your own strawberry just click below and yes Tracy mails internationally too).

Card Art Strawberry Set (2pcs)

InLinkz.com

Purple Pimm's and some exciting news

Regular readers of Jane's Journal know that I am rather partial in the summer to a glass of Pimm's at the weekend in the sunshine. A few posts ago here I showed you that I managed to find a bottle of the Limited Edition Blackberry and Elderberry Pimm's which is delicious (although No 1 cup is still my favourite) When I first made up the drink it was too early in the season for blackberries so I used strawberries.

Now that we are in September the blackberries are ripening and I have some which grow behind my garden fence. Last weekend I walked round there to see if any were ripened and found these beauties.

I only needed a few so I just picked enough for one portion.

and yes I did munch a few walking back...mmm they are so sweet this year, it must be all the lovely sunshine we have had.
My Hb made up the  Blackcurrant and Elderflower Pimm's which is 2 parts lemonade to 1 part Pimm's. I added ice and my blackberries and my delicious drink was ready.

Isn't it a most glorious shade of purple.
It really does taste even better with the blackberries in you....cheers!

Now raising my glass also leads me onto my rather exciting news which I would like to share with you. I recently made a very sweet Kewpie card which went down very well in blogland. The images are from Nicecrane Designs, owned by Ignacio. I used the little girl sitting with a single Kewpie and you can see that card here

He recently made me a very kind offer to join his Design Team. Now I am very flattered to have been offered several Design Team (DT) posts over the last few months but sadly have always declined them, as due to my work I just cannot commit to their requirements. I have enjoyed being a Guest Designer (GD) for several card challenges in the past, as they tend to require at the very most, 4 cards to be make and sometimes just a single card. I love all the Nicecrane designs and would love to have worked with them but I wrote back saying that I just cannot commit to regular/weekly DT work. I added that I am always interested in occasional Guest Design work. Well the fantastic news is that I have joined the DT at Nicecrane as a DT Guest Designer! I am thrilled as that means that when I can make some cards I will but there is no pressure on me on a weekly basis.
Thanks so much Ignacio, this really is the perfect solution for me :0). If you have not see the huge amazing selection of designs that Nicecrane sells do pop over via this link There is also a great blog which has some gorgeous inspiration cards made by the talented DT team. Here is the link for the blog

 

So of course my card today is going to be my first as a GD for Nicecrane and it features another image from the gorgeous Kewpie set...you get all 5 images in the download and they are a dream to colour. I was inspired by the purple of my Pimms to make this birthday card.

I coloured the image with Promarkers and highlighted with my Prismacolor pencils. I have added some tags, vintage tags and a grunge sentiment  which are Lili of the Valley. I have coloured them with Distress Inks.
Just look at these cutie Kewpies in close up. You will notice that I made my pastel sky again with my cloud template and blue pastel chalk.

I have added glitter to their sweet little wings for a little bling.

I would like to enter my card into the following Card Challenges;

Crafts-Too Challenge you Texture, first twist; your style I am a girl who loves to experiment with lots of different styles but I think my card shows all the things I love...lots of layers,textures, die cuts, ribbon, charms etc. I do occasionally make CAS cards but really I am an all singing and dancing card making and I love to add lots to my cards.
Die cuts Divas Celebrate
A and T Emerald Fairies Magical creatures
Designed to color anything goes
Crafty Ribbons anything goes with ribbon
Loves rubberstamps anything goes
Bearly Mine anything goes
Creative Card Crew Things with wings
Crafty Little Fairies  Cute and cuddly critters
Country View Crafts Layers
As you like it favourite flower and why  My favourite flower I have used on my card is the rose. I adore roses and for special cards I like to use lots of mulberry paper roses.
Rhedd and Rosie For a lady
Make it Monday linky party #156

The forecast was correct and yesterday certainly was 10c cooler than Thursday. The rain was very welcome and we seem to have a mixture of sunshine and showers for the weekend. Enjoy your weekend and I hope you can find a little time for some crafting.

Take care,

Back soon, bye for now,

Jane x

A limited edition Pimm's O Clock

Welcome to my final guest designer post for the ladies over at the Loves Rubberstamps challenge. Yes I have made 5 cards for the 5 Tuesdays in July. The challenge this week is to make a long/tall card which fits a business envelope measuring 9X4". Do pop over here  and join in with the fun.

 I decided to use one of my favourite stamps from my stash, Bella Sleeping by Wild Rose Studios. I have used this stamp several times to make new baby cards but this time I had some inspiration from a new  version of my favourite summer tipple, Pimms. More about that later.   Here is my card.

I coloured my stamp with my Promarkers and
highlighted with my Prismacolor pencils. I made another flower with my Craftwork cards card candi. The backing paper are also the delightful Time Flies papers from Craftwork Cards.

The sentiment in Lili of the Valleyand the die cut is part of the new Joy craft butterfly border.

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

Creative Inspirations Bingo I have used the first vertical line, ribbon, stamp and flowers
Ali-Craft Butterflies
Crafty Ribbons anything goes
A+T Emerald Faeries Birthdays
Sentimental Sundays anything with wings
Papercrafting Journey die cuts/punches
Make It Monday Linky Party #151
Rhedd and Rosie anything goes 3rd and final entry

This is my inspiration below, yes a limited edition Pimm's which has been made for this summer. It is created with elder flower and has wonderful hints of blackberry in it. In the late summer I will have ripe blackberries from my garden that I can add. For the time being though I have added strawberries and lemon. Mmmm it is quite a sweet taste but I really enjoyed it. There is nothing to replace my Number 1 cup Pimm's but it is a delicious change.

This was the scene in my garden on Sunday.

and my Hb had the ordinary Pimm's

a perfect drink to enjoy with our evening meal.

I am *blush* delighted to have been approached again to join a couple of card challenge design teams but much as I am very flattered I again have to say that I can only take on guest DT creations at the moment. As a busy physiotherapist working for the NHS I just don't get enough time for my crafting. Please email me if you would like me to join your DT as a guest. Even if I can't fit making them in now my favourite season of Christmas is on the horizon and I really am Mrs Christmas ;0)

Thanks so much for your visits and the comments you take the time to leave me, I love reading every single one of them.

************Remember that my celebration giveway is still running here...do enter, everyone is welcome and you could win my handmade necklace below. Closing date is 8 August*******

Back soon, (yes with photos of our fab day out ;0)

Bye for now,

Jane x