The butterfly valley revisited 2018

Every year when we holiday in Rhodes we hire a car. One of the reasons is to visit a couple of restaurants we love which are a little out of the way. The other is to make an annual visit to the butterfly valley. 

We were a little earlier visiting this year and there were more butterflies than we see later in the month. It is also such a pleasant walk up through the valley and a shield from the hot sunshine. 

They are on every surface in the valley, trees,leaves, rocks and anywhere in between. 

We also love spotting the lizards and freshwater crabs which live there.

It really is a place to sit and be mindful in...bliss.

My card also features butterflies.

I created an oxide background using Tim Holz inks and one of his floral stencils.

I then added some more stamping using his Lady Rose stamp set and one of his sticker quotes and finished off with my favourite Visible Image butterflies.

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

Stamping sensations 3/3 something beginning with B mine is butterfly and beautiful (in the quote)

Fashionable stamping 3/3 quote away

The butterfly challenge 2/3  the letter A I have gone with apricot and layers

Happy little stampers watercolour 2/3 anything goes/butterflies
Stamps and stencils it's been a while/ anything goes
Cute card Thursday 1/3 monochrome

Penny Black and More 1/3 make it feminine

Whenever life gets hectic I just close my eyes and can transport myself back to that day in the butterfly valley, they were indeed beautiful moments.

Thanks for stopping by and have a super weekend. We will be collecting more beautiful moments with our kids and grandkids as we are off on a conker hunt on Sunday. I hope you can find some beautiful moments (and conkers!!) too. 

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

The beauty of the sky, day and night

As promised I am back with some photos from our recent holiday in Rhodes. The sunshine there is glorious and Rhodes is one of Europe's sunniest islands and has 300 days of sunshine a year!

I love the watching the changes in the blue sky during the day....

This is during a morning when we visited Lindos.

At the heat of midday on a visit to ancient Kamerios.

During the afternoon back at our apartment.

And then late afternoon when the sun's rays begin to dance on the sea.

At dusk the shadows lengthen,

 the sun goes down

 

until the moon is revealed hanging low in the sky

It is so inspiring to witness and gave me my idea for my Monday Design team  make for Visible Image. I am delighted to be sharing the first sample using one of their brand new October stamp releases...You are not alone.

It is available to pre order from today here and is being released on October 5th. 

Inspired by the changing blue sky of Rhodes I made 2 cards which I called Night and Day. Today I am sharing "Night", I will share "Day" another time.

I made an blue oxide background on black card. I thought the hands are like those of the legends of the Greek gods making mischief from the heavens to the ancient Greeks below them on earth....perhaps even on Rhodes thousands of year ago. I studied classical civilizations at both O and A level at school and loved the stories of the Odyssey and Iliad. 

Here are some close ups.

The hands are so detailed 

and the circles and sentiments are fun to play with.

I used gold ink to stamp the circles, to me they represent the sunshine and in this vast universe I am pretty certain that we are not alone. 

One more shot, I edged the card with gold ink which you can just see in this photo. 

You are not alone is just the first of the amazing  6 new stamp sets, and 3 new stencils. There really is something for everyone in this new release.

 You can see them over on the website here and remember that they can be pre-ordered  for guaranteed delivery from 5 October. 

All the Visible Image links can be found here;

Visible Image group page on Facebook. Our friendly Group is 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 their gorgeous stamps and stencils can be purchased. 

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

Fashionable stamping 2/3 quote away
Dragonfly dreams 3/3 anything goes
Not just cards 2/3 anything goes

Allsorts 1/3 create a scene
Craft stamper take it make it 1/3 anything goes
Happy little stampers watercolour 1/3 anything goes
Pile it on 1/3 think big or 1 layer mine is a 1 layer card

Thanks for stopping by and for your kind comments. I am off to see some autumnal splendor in Surrey today as I am meeting my crafting buddy Brenda Brown for a day out at Wisley RHS Gardens. The sun is forecast to make an appearance, I have my camera packed and will share some photos soon. 

Bye for now,

Jane x

A last blast of summer

I am back from our wonderful holiday on the sunshine island of Rhodes. We had temperatures in the high 30s every day and one day it topped 43c. I do love the heat and with air con in our room to allow  comfortable sleep I find it fully recharges our batteries ready for the coming autumn and winter.

I have not had time to download all our photos yet and I will write some posts but for now I shall just share a few of that wonderful sunshine and the blue Aegean Sea.

 We gazed out to it from our balcony

 and on our trips out each day.

There is no blue quite like this in my books.

We watched one last sunset before we came home...

When we landed at Gatwick at 4am yesterday morning we had a temperature drop to 7c!
Ooouch!

I plan to make a Moment of our trip but today I am catching up with my girlie and grand babies.

So today I am sharing an anniversary card I made for Dotty's Teahouse.
As we are saying goodbye to summer I thought one last hot sunny card would be very appropriate.

I made an inky background with summery distress inks, added some butterflies stencilling using my STAMPlorations stencil and then some die cut butterflies. I gave the middle butterfly some texture using Crackle Paste. The stamped sentiment is Lili of the Valley.

I would like to enter it into the following challenges;

Creative Inspirations 1/3 Seasonal my season is summer...time to say goodbye!
Moving along with the times 1/3 sentiment as a focal point
Sparkles 1/3 punches or dies
A bit more time to craft 1/3 anything goes
That's Crafty 1/3 fly away

Have a lovely weekend.
I am going to the Ally Pally Stamping show in London Sunday. It will be great to see Helen and Mark, my Visible Image "bosses" again and catch up.  It is such a great show, one of the best imho. Perhaps I might see some of your there? I will be back on Monday with some photos.

Bye for now,

Jane x

Exploring and the Butterfly Valley Rhodes

I know it has been a few weeks but I have finally got round to write a  post sharing some of my September holiday photos from Rhodes.

We witnessed glorious sunsets each night

By day the sun sparkled on the sea.

We enjoyed candle lit dinners

and witnessed a red full moon in all its glory.

And this amazing cloud formation on our last night...can you see a face here? I can.

We took a return trip to the Butterfly valley

and as well as the amazing butterflies...

We spotted the fresh water crabs too.

I decided to make a Moment for my art journal to remember our 2016 Rhodes holiday.  I wanted to celebrate the sunshine, heat and our trip to the Butterfly Valley. To do this I used my butterfly stamp from the brilliant "Own kind of Beautiful  Visible Image set. I also used  the words from my live in the moment  dragonfly set.

I wanted to join in with the next letter in the alphabet challenge over at the Craft Barn as well as some other fun challenges running in blog land at the moment.
I chose E for "explore" and this is how my Moment came together.

First I embossed my VI butterflies and then coloured them with distress markers in the same colours as those from the Butterfly Valley.

I wanted to represent the autumnal sun so I added gold embossing paste through my TH sun stencil.

I chose some warm sunny distress ink colours to blend my background in my art journal.

Once I was happy with my background I stencilled some leaves.

I made my focal by stamping and embossing my words into the centre of a TH clock die cut, which I had coloured with distress inks.

Here is my E dictionary  choice and definition...how very appropriate...E for explore

I also coloured some snippets of card to die cut leaves and branches to represent the beautiful trees in the Butterfly Valley

and then it was time to put on my creative hat.
Here is my finished Moment, my dictionary definition of E for explore is on a leaf.

When I look at this page in my art journal it takes me straight back to the sunshine and the memories we made during our wonderful September autumn holiday exploring Rhodes and the Butterfly Valley. Every moment was indeed very special.

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

The Craft Barn dictionary challenge E  Mine is E for Explore, the dictionary definition is shown above and on my leaf. We certainly did love exploring Rhodes and especially the butterful valley.
Paperartsy die cuts
Stamping Sensations 1/3 autumn
Penny Black and More 1/3 autumn
Anything but Cute an autumn day
Noor UK CAS or fully loaded Mine is of course fully loaded ;0)
Dies R Us the leaves are on the tree
We love to create 2/2 anything mixed media #21
Fashionable stamping 2/3 trees
Mod Squad anything but a card
Stamps and Stencils elements of nature

Thanks so much for visiting me today and for the kind comments you leave. I have another new follower who joined me this week..welcome and it's lovely to see you joining me on my creative journey here at Jane's Journal.

The weather has again been glorious for most of this week but it's turning chillier by the day...I actually got out and wore my winter jacket for the first time on Monday. Autumn is very much here now.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x