Happiness is....winning the Lili of the Valley blog hop.

As I am sure most of you are aware I found out last week that I had won the Lili of the Valley blog hop and my prize was the whole....yes the whole of the new Pretty Vintage stamps release. That is no less than £325 worth of stamps. I still keep pinching myself that I actually won them but on Thursday a big parcel plopped through my letter box. I was stunned by this new release, it really is amazing and the sentiment below just had to be the first I inked up...how apt is this...this is also a sneak peek of my creation that I will show you today.

I opened up my parcel and attempted to lay out the stamps on the floor, it was so hard to get them all into one camera shot. There are verses, sentiments, backgrounds, postcards, labels and so much more.

Of course my Billy had to come to help......

Didn't he do a good job ;0)

Here they all are in all their glory.

 I also recently managed to snap up one of the hardest to get dies of the moment; the Sizzix accordion die, from the nice people at Country View Crafts. I had been waiting for something really special to use it for. I knew immediately that I would use it to make an motivational card for me to look at in my garden studio and to remember how very lucky I was to have scooped this awesome prize.

My first task was to make some pretty backing papers to show off my Pretty Vintage stamps. Out came my distress ink pads and it was time to get inky fingers. I used some very summery colours.

When they were dry it was time to die cut my card components.

I also bought the Sizzix  frame and label bracket die as this makes it easier to decorate the accordion pieces.

Next it was time to add some gold embossing to the outside of the frames.

I used the dragonfly and the rose stamps from the Old Romance set of background bits.

I used some Versamark ink and Stampendous detail gold embossing powder.

Next it was time to choose my 4 inspirational verses. I  chose these ones which I embossed in black to make them stand out. I really love embossing, it is magic watching the power melt and the letters shine out.

These are from the Quotables sets; 63 Go for it and set 61 celebrate.
I also cut some Cheery Lynn exotic butterflies and leaves and also made some more hand made flowers with my Marianne set I showed you in my last post. You will see that I used the the scraps of my hand made papers for this.

So then it was time to put everything together. Are you ready for my Ta dah moment..................................................................................................

Well here it is................

I was quite pleased how it turned out....here are some close ups.

 In the corner is one of my hand made flowers. You can also see the gold embossing detail above.

So in the words of the Hollywood star John Barrymore (his granddaughter is Drew Barrymore)

Happiness often sneaks in 

Through a door you didn't know you'd left open.

It certainly sneaked in for me, thank you Lili of the Valley for making one small crafter a very very happy girl.

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

Lili of the Valley Add a sentiment

Country View Crafts Die cuts

The Hobby House anything goes

Papertake weekly hot, hot, hot

Rhedd and Rosie's Challenge Take flight #9

Whimsy Challenge Shaped card

A Creative Romance Don't be square

Crafty Catz Pick and mix, add some embossing my frames are gold embossed and the sentiments are also embossed in black 

Stamping Sensations Summer Blooms

Bunny Zoe Things with wings 

Thanks for visiting me, I have not forgotten about my holiday posts, they are in the making. I also I have one last GD card to show you next Wednesday for the I love Promarkers girls. It's our Dance School Summer Ball tonight so the Cinderella slippers will be getting another outing ;0)

Enjoy the weekend,

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

What's inside the box?

A few weeks ago I received an email which on first reading I thought was one of those spam "You've Won a Prize just email us your bank pin number, password, NI number etc etc "..you get the drift! I was just about to consign it to the spam box when I noted that it said that it was in association with a competition from Card Making and Papercrafts. Now this a magazine that I do often enter their competitions but never ever think anything more of it. Well I decided to open the email and to my up most delight I had won a £30, yes £30 gift voucher to spend at an on line shop called Dot Com Gifts. I am not sure if they deliver over seas but if you live in the UK it is an absolute treasure trove of original gifts. I spent ages choosing but eventually I entered my gift card number, pressed the button and waited for my parcel to arrive.

A few days later my neighbour knocked at my door with my parcel which had been delivered whilst I was at work.

My Treasure had been SO well wrapped. Not only was their air filled pillows but lots of bubble wrap, so useful for me to wrap my jewellery and cards which I sell from my Etsy Shop.

After lots of unwrapping My Treasure became visible, it was like Christmas morning all over again ;0)


So you are now all asking...So what is inside the box then.....
OK here is my Ta-dah moment.....

You all know how much I love Christmas and tins so I just had to have these 2. They are SO retro and SO me!!

Here's the other one. I use lots of tins for storing my jewellery and card making stash in and like shoes and handbags I can never have enough. Also on the subject of tin, did you spot the tin beach bucket..

I had one of these as a little girl in the 60s and can so vividly remember digging with my tin spade and making sandcastles using my bucket. My brother and I were always bought a new set each holiday and we also had paper flags to put in the sandcastles (and yes Dotcom even sell the paper flags!)

It even has the same scene that my old buckets used to have. Mind you they seem much better quality than those bought in the 1960s!.

I have decided to store some of my Promarkers in this in my Studio it works really well.

You can see that I also chose an old school Milk Bottle which is sold as a retro vase these days. I actually used to drink my milk out of one everyday at Primary School with a straw. I only liked milk in the winter as it was cold, I so hated it in the summer when the crates had been left in the sun all morning. The thought of the milk then still makes me shudder...ugh!!



I also bought some lovely ribbon to use for my card making. I was absolutely delighted with my stash as was someone else.

Yes even Billy approved ;0)

















Keeping with the title of my blog this is my Card Challenge for today. It is another of the family Easter Cards I made. This is the one I made for my Hb.

This is my lovely Lili of the Valley "Gift Wrapped" stamp which I inked up, stamped and coloured with my trusty Promarkers (yes some are in my tin bucket now!). I highlighted the image with my Prismacolor pencils. I also glittered the butterfly wings with gold Glamour Dust. I also added a vellum butterfly and some buttons tied with Baker's Twine to complete my card.

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

Secret Crafter Easter #180
Stamp, scrap and Doodle Saturday's  Things with wings
Cupcake Inspirations Easter bunny cupcake #155
Cupcake Craftroom Easter bunny cupcake #155
Penny Black Allsorts April Challenge Oh so cute
Crafter's Companion Four legged friends #23
Top Tip Tuesday Spotty dotty #74

I hope you all had a restful Easter break? We had a lovely quiet one, just Hb and me (and Billy of course). Lots of yummy chocolate was consumed! Good Friday was a gorgeous sunny day then we had our very welcome rain on Saturday and Sunday just as the hosepipe ban comes into effect ;0)

Have a great week everyone,

Bye for now,

Jane x