Fabriano; paper of the Italian Masters

One last post I would like to share with you from my recent holiday in Sicily is how we found a wonderful art shop in the back streets of Taormina. It sold  Fabriano paper which is made in Italy. I had never heard of Fabriano but it has been making paper since 1264......yes seriously and it made all the papers which Michelangelo and the other great Italian masters used. Many bank notes are printed on it too. It celebrated its 750th anniversary last year.

The main street in Taormina is so pretty and has a plaza half way along

with some very interesting lamp posts.

We walked into town most days and went off down the side streets one day where we found the shop

I found a gorgeous wallet of paper (a special limited edition for the 750th anniversary last year) and my Hb bought a stunning leather pencil case. There is now only 1 last pack left in the shop ! I was so lucky to have found it.

 The papers are just exquisite and some are water marked.I love stroking it...fellow paper lovers will know just what I mean.

What was an amazing coincidence is that I bought a small water colour to add to my travel journal from a local artist and it was painted on Fabriano paper!

and this is the same view as captured by the street artist.

I decided when I got home that I would make 2" Moments" for my journal using a piece of my very precious Fabriano paper. I cut the page in half and added some bister powders in 2 different colourways; I inked the backs too as that is where I would be attaching my holiday ephemera.

I added some texture paste through a couple of TH stencils and a little abandoned coral and vintage photo DI and some simple stamping using my Visible Image stamps. I also flicked some brown fountain pen ink on them.

Here is the pink version

and the blue one, to which I simply added some Vintage photo DI

Here is the pink version in my travel journal

I used the backs of my Moments to attach my ephemera, including that from the Fabriano shop.

I will be revealing my finished travel journal next Monday...I have actually got 2 GD posts going up on the same day! One will be my journal for Country View.

I would like to enter my pink Moment (or both if I am allowed to) into the following great challenges;

PaperArtsy stencils
Stamp and Create patterns
Penny black and more add a sentiment
Stamps and stencils happy holidays
Noor!UK something old/something new my old are my VI stamps, my new is my wonderful Fabriano paper.
Country View on your travels
Love 2 create anything mixed media
That craft place anything goes mixed media
Frilly and Funkie something to say
A vintage journey destinations

Also just another little hint that my bloggerversary is now only 18 days away and I am having a giveaway of my hand made jewellery. If you missed my shout out post you can find it here

Thanks for visiting me and for taking the time to leave a comment. I really enjoy reading every single one of them. A warm welcome to my newest followers, it's great to see you joining me here at Jane's Journal.

 Wimbledon is really hotting up and I am enjoying seeing the recent matches on TV. I am looking forward to the finals at the weekend.....can Andy do it again or will Federer or Djokovic be crowned champion? It's certainly exciting viewing.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Happy mail and a holiday Moment

I had a great day on Thursday catching up with lots of projects both in the garden and for my crafting. The weather was perfect, warm and sunny and I spent all day out there with Billy.

The door bell rang at 9am and my Postie handed me the most amazing envelope hand decorated from Norway... ..

How cool is this! I really chuckled as I read "Only dull people send dull envelopes"

even the back was hand stamped.

I recently won a prize in Rubber Dance's birthday giveaway . This is my wonderful prize which Bibi sent me, including a couple of extras.

The main plate is the amazing retro beach sheet...I will have such fun using this.

Bibi also sent me these fab extras...a sun, some shells and some circles.

I am still working on my Sicily holiday journal so they were just perfect and they arrived at the perfect time. I decided to use them on a page of my journal which I was about to start work on.

This time I was making a page for the lovely park which my Hb and I used to visit each day to sit and eat or lunch and relax. This was such a haven from the heat and the view was stunning.

 Each bench was cut in the bougainvillea hedge. Such a pretty setting.

On one of the days I sat and made a little sketch of the bougainvillea in pencil and when we got back to our hotel balcony I sat and coloured it with Inktense pencils. I then stored it safely until I got home. I am not an artist, my freehand drawing is pretty basic but I still had great fun trying.

 I wanted to incorporate this little sketch in my holiday journal as a Moment so yesterday I made myself an inky page using distress inks and stencils.Lot of spraying and inking .

I used 2 of Tim's fab new distress ink, fossilised amber and abandoned coral and added picked raspberry.

I loved the blend these colours make...they just shout summer to me.

I  added some stencilling too

And yes my new Rubber dance sun looked just perfect on my page. I stamped it with red archival ink












I made holes for my ring binders so that I could place my elements correctly without making holes in them.

 Here is what I made.

Here are some close ups

you can see my great sun stamp here. (Thanks Bibi x) I have used some Joanna Sheen, Cheery Lynn, Sizzix and Tim Holtz die cuts. I rubbed a little gilding paste on the ivy for some golden sheen

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


PaperArtsy stencils I love using stencils and have used 2 different ones here.

Frilly and Funkie It's summer

Simon says stamp Mondays stamp and mist

A Vintage Journey celebrations I am celebrating my recent holiday by creating a Moment for my Travel Journal.

The Artistic Stamper summer is on its way

Noor! UK here comes summer

Creative Inspirations your favourite crafting item here is it my Distress ink pads....I think I use them on every crafting project

Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes

Stamp and create summer fun

Stamping sensations dies and punches


My holiday journal is still very much a WIP at the moment. I  am really enjoying making it but it will still take a couple more weeks to finish. Thanks for visiting me today and I hope you enjoy your weekend. The weather is forecast to be really hotting up here.....a heatwave is apparently on its way and we are being warned of  temperatures hitting 32-34c in the South Of England next week....phew! I am glad my garden is all tidy now, I think we might need to get the fans out for indoors and my studio.We are out and about but tomorrow is day at home....perhaps it will be Pimms O'Clock in the garden ;0)

Take care,

Back soon,

Jane x

Isola Bella, a Sicilian jewel

Hello....I am back from my Sicilian adventures. What a brilliant holiday we had and I had such fun posting whilst I was away. Thanks for all your kind comments on my last post, I had such fun making my Moment whilst crafting in the shadow of Mount Etna. It really did stretch me to make something with such limited crafting supplies. I have lots of photos to sort through and I have lots of crafting inspiration from Sicily so I will probably share them in stages over the coming weeks rather than just use them all in the next couple of posts.

For today I thought I would just share some photos of the beautiful Isola Bella, this tiny island sits like a jewel in the glimmering sea at Taormina mare. We took the cable car down to the mare area and to this delightful spot and spent a couple of hours just pottering around and admiring the views.
You walk onto the island via this narrow strip of sand. Well we had to paddle across as the tide was slightly higher!

Isola Bella has an old folly on it which has been turned into a tiny museum. The island was in private hands until 1990 but has now been turned into a nature reserve and is managed by the world wide fund for nature.
It was a steaming hot day and we found some shade too.
These were some of the gorgeous view from Isola Bella

 I made a little sketch of some of the plant life which I will share soon but for my card challenges today I decided to make a tag to remember our wonderful day. This is the first thing I have made since I got home so I wanted to get inky.....I have had withdrawal symptoms whilst I have been away! Amongst the countless loads of washing I have done I nipped in and out of my studio to create it. I made this for my husband to remind him of our trip to the Isola Bella. I wanted to try to recreate the blue/green colour of the sea on that glorious day,

I got out my waves texture fade and embossed a tag

 I chose lots of sea coloured distress inks and started blending away

and then added some seaweed via a stencil

 I die cut some sea creatures and shells using Kraft card and put my tag together.

Here it is; the seahorses are Cheery Lynn. The words are my own printed on Kraft card on the computer. The happy word die is Britannia.

 I added some Marine blue frantage for some sparkle, just like the shimmer of the sea.

 and you can see I used my favourite Designs by Ryn bubble stamp.

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

Cheery Lynn Keep it Krafty, use Kraft card
Anything but cute make it masculine
Crafty cardmakers and more for a man or boy
The artistic stamper summer is on its way
Noor! Here comes summer
Craft my life anything goes but no cards
Stamp and create summer fun
Mixed media world masculine/father's day
Sparkles vintage or shabby chic..my tag is vintage
We love to create anything goes/mixed media
That craft place anything goes
A Vintage Journey celebrations my celebration is of a happy holiday! My Hb is going to keep this as a book mark to remember sitting on the beautiful Isola Bella

It's always good to be home especially when a relaxing holiday has so recharged your batteries. It makes you count your blessings and appreciate the good things in life. Thanks so much for your blogging friendship and sharing my creativity here at Jane's Journal.

It's back to work for me tomorrow and the weather is looking good. I have lots to look forward to over the coming weeks.  I hope you are also looking forward to a good summer.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x