February, the love month

******Hello, this is my third (!) post today. If you are looking for my 1st of the month DT project for Country View you will find it here. The Turner syndrome awareness blog hop post for mid morning is here *********************

Because today is not only
the first of the month but also the first Friday in the month it is also time for my Theme and Sketch Design Team inspiration post for STAMPlorations. February is the month of love and the theme is very apt.

 The lovely sketch you can also work with is below.

The rules in brief are that you need to use stamping on your projects. You don't have to use STAMPlorations stamps to enter but of course we love it if you do! You can link up 6 times with new blog posts and you need to add our logo to your post. You can go with the theme, the sketch or both, the choice is yours. There are some fab prizes to be won too! The details are here

I chose to work with the theme and sketch and this is what I got up to;

I used this really gorgeous stamp set called Romantic expressions 1 Until 14 Feb there is an automatic 15% discount on this set and if you add my unique code STAMPGIRLJANE at the checkout you can get another 20% off! 

I got out my Oxides to make a blended pink background.

I added some water for interest and dried everything off. I added some faux stitching to the edge with a silver pen and stamped one of the sentiments (there are 3 lovely ones in this set) and some of the fun accent stamps. I also distressed the card edge.

I stamped some onto some white heart die cuts and coloured them in with gel pens.

I also added a glitter die cut heart for some extra texture. Here is my finished card

and a close up

I would like to link my card up with the following challenges;

Simon says stamp Monday love is in the air
Moving along with the times 3/3 have a heart

Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes
Addicted to stamps and more 2/3  anything goes
Crafting from the heart 2/3 anything goes
Die cuttin Divas 2/3 anything goes
Crafty sentiments 2/3 anything goes
Cute card Thursdays 1/3 Valentines
Time out 1/3 photo inspiration I was inspired by all those fab hearts!
Craft Stamper take it make it 1/3 February

It would be lovely to see you joining us this month. Here is the link again. Remember the extra 20% savings, on top of any other discount being offered, on any order over at the STAMPlorations web site here just by using my code; STAMPGIRLJANE at the checkout. Shery ships internationally at very reasonable rates. 

Enjoy your February. At last the days will start to get lighter...hooray!

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Falling in love in February

We have arrived at February, the love month for us old romantics. My Hb and I got engaged on Valentine's day...cough...in 1980...and we still celebrate every year. This year we are having a cosy meal out.
What is also lovely to see is that there are signs that spring is just around the corner too. Bulbs are popping up and snowdrops are in full flower. I spotted lots of lovely clumps on one of my walks to Dotty's Tea House.

As it is the first of the month it is also time for the second challenge for Country View for 2018. 

For February we would like to see your "anything but cute" projects.

You can enter our challenge as many times as you like and combine with any other challenges. Your make can be anything creative! You may even be the lucky random winner of the £20 CVC voucher.

You can find all the details for the challenge here

I decide that as I needed some Valentine's cards for Dotty's that I would make a non "cute" one using some of my long, non inked Tim Holtz stamps.
I made an inky background using some Bister and pewter distress spray

 and then stamped using my Tim Valentine's set

I then stamped out the love letter stamp and writing hand from another of his sets on red card

and re stamped the hand in black on white card (I know it looks yellow but these photos were taken on my breakfast bar late after sunset in artificial light). I fussy cut it out.

I then put my design together and made this card.

with a couple of close ups

which has gone down to Dotty's in time for Valentine's day. Such a lovely sentiment and so true.

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

The house that stamps built 3/3 anything goes
Allsorts 2/3 use your old favourites mine in this card is my much loved Tim stamp set.
Shopping our stash 1/3 Valentine's
Simon says Wednesday anything goes
Frilly and Funkie 1/3 all you need is love
Happy little stampers watercolour challenge 1/3 anything goes/heart
The artistic stamper1/3 roses are red
Cute card Thursdays 1/3 anything goes

February is also the time we will be celebrating our son's birthday. I also have something very exciting happening tomorrow. Craft Stamper Magazine hits the shops and I have not 1 but 2 projects in it as part of a Visible Image design team feature using the new stamp release. I can't wait to get my copy. Meanwhile here are a couple of sneak peeks they have allowed me to share here.

I hope your February gets filled with love. Thanks so much for stopping by today and for the kind comments you take the time to leave me.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Snowdrops and daffodils....

Yes I have seen my first snowdrops in flower as I walked to Dotty's Teahouse earlier this week. The ones in my front garden are still not quite in flower so I squealed inside when I spied these.

There are lots of clumps under the trees in park .

Someone else was watching me looking at them too.

They were a little rain damaged and muddy but they always such beautiful sweet delicate flowers.

On the home front I have a constant blooming of my favourite daffodils

and the pot I only bought last week is almost sending up its flower stalks.

So with all these snowdrops and daffodils the only thing we are still  waiting for is of course..................................butterflies and bees. Now to understand that you would need to be a least my age and remember the song Dana sang for the 1970 euro-vision song contest....😉
And if you are not that old...check out the link below

1970...just check out the fashions!! and yes I used to have a hair slide just like hers. The song is only 3 minutes long and I guarantee it will make you smile all day.

and if you want to see how Dana fares 40 years on check out this version.

2010 version I think she has aged really well.

In its time this was just a sweet innocent song and I adored it. I can never see snowdrops and daffodils without that little tune playing in my head.

Today's card is not floral as I just wanted to share the Valentine's card I made for my Hb....he doesn't often read my blog but just in case he did I had to keep it a secret until today.

 The ticket stamps are Tim Holtz which I embossed with black.  The die cuts are all MB and the Valentine sentiment stamp, which I embossed in red, is ancient from my stash. 

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

                                                                      Noor have a heart
                                                               

Ribbon Girl  2/3 any card

                                   Uniko anything goes I have also gone for the optional love twist.


                                                             
   

Paper creator love is in the air  

A Vintage journey words that are special I think that the definition of Valentine on my heart is perfect for this occasion....a person chosen as one's sweetheart on Valentine's day; one who is loved. My Hb certainly is.

Creative Moments anything goes

Craft stamper take it make it anything stamped goes

Emerald Creek Dares rock the red

Deep Ocean hearts

Happy Little stampers anything goes with a die

Allsorts 1/3 hearts and/or flowers

Pile it On 1/3 Hearts on fire

Let's Craft and Create 2/3 love is in the air

Penny Black and More favourite stamp the sentiment stamp I used in the centre of my card is my absolute favourite Valentine stamp. I've had it for years, I have no idea of the maker and I use it every Valentine's  day.

I hope I brought a smile to your Thursday or brought back fond and very innocent memories of the 1970s to you with Dana's song. Enjoy the end of the week and the snowdrops..... and daffodils.

Thanks so much for stopping by,

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

February, the love month

Hello and welcome to February, the month of love and time for our next challenge over at Country View. I spotted this display up in London recently..such gorgeous heart boxes...ready to fill....

Our theme this time is a timed challenge. The brief is to make a project in 30 minutes or under. For this I decided to make a card. I could never make an art journal page in that sort of time! I think a lot of time is spent on design so I will confess that I already had a plan but in minutes to make it really did take less than 30 minutes. There are no limitations to the number of other challenges or the number times you can enter. You have the chance to win a £20 voucher too so it's win win in my books! All the details can be seen here. 

So this is what I got up to. We all have a bag of inky left over snippets in our stash don't we? Us crafters never throw anything away.

 I dug out the piece below. I had made it for the background for a Christmas card but when I added silver embossing paste I got a pink tinge, from the sparkly spray underneath. At the time I really didn't like it. However for a background to a Valentine card it was perfect. I just quickly distressed the edges. Time taken; 1 minute

 To make it more "Valentiney" is that a word??...I added some red archival ink through my heart stencil, sprinkled on some red geranium embossing powder

 and heat embossed the hearts. I also added a little to the edges. Time taken 5 minutes.

I have a little stash of digi images all cut with my stitched rectangle die and chose this one which is a free Graphics Fairy image.  I always have spare frames cut so I just tucked a rectangular Joy frame behind it.

Next I got out some of my inky mop up scraps and die cut lots of hearts. I added some script stamping to some of them using my Visible Image Bronte border. Time taken 10 minutes

I found these old paper doilies in a drawer I was clearing out after Christmas

so I stamped the same script onto one of these.

Then it was just a case of sticking everything together.

with a couple of close ups

Time taken; 9 minutes 

Total time = 25 minutes.....so 5 minutes to spare!

So using scraps is a really quick way of putting a card together...and remember never throw away those rejected backgrounds. There will always be a day that you can put it to use 😊


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

Darnell's NBUS challenge #10

NBUS stands for never used stuff...of which I have plenty. My never before use for this project was my paper doilies which had been sitting in a drawer for probably 15 years...yes seriously!!

Crafty Catz 1/3 anything goes with a twist of a ladies' card

Allsorts let's celebrate

Crafty Card makers 1/3 love, love, love

Love to create 2/2 anything creative/ mixed media


Thanks for visiting today and for all you kind comments that you take the time to leave me. I so appreciate them.
Happy February everyone....share the love 💓💖💓

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

A loving feeling

Hello today it's my turn to share my 2nd DT inspirational piece for Country View where our challenge this month is "Anything Goes". 

If you missed my post on new years day do have a look at it here as I shared master board I made from hand made stencils and inks. You can enter any handmade craft, it doesn't have to be cards or tags it could even be a knitted item.  There are no limitations to the number of other challenges or the number times you can enter. You can win a £20 voucher too so it's win win in my books! All the challenge details can be found here.

We still have our son's dog Bear staying with us until the weekend. He has been so good and we have had such fun on our daily walks. The weather has been very kind and in 9 days we have only had 1 rainy one. We walked to Carew Manor on Tuesday. It was cold but blue skies and glorious sunshine.  I'll share some more photos soon.

Today I will show how I used the second half of the master board.  I need to be ahead with the cards I make for Dotty's Tearooms in Carshalton High Street so I chose to make a Valentine card with the remainder.

This time I made heart stencils with my glue gun

I cleaned them up 

and then placed them on top of the spare piece of master board left over from my New Year card.

I then sprayed another layer of red ink on top

to achieve this finish for my backing card which I matted onto black card.

I heat embossed an ancient (no idea of the maker) Valentine stamp and added a brad and charm.

and here in my finished Valentine card.

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

The ribbon girl 2/3 January card challenge
The Artistic stamper 2/3 anything goes
Frilly and Funkie 1/3 new goals for 2017 mine are to try to get ahead making cards for Dotty's (a local tearoom where I sell my cards) and also to get out and use more of my dies which have hardly seen the light of day. I really hope to use more of my existing stash this year and also ink up some long forgotten stamps.The stamp I used for this card is ancient and I forgot I even owned it!
Penny Black and More 2/3 anything goes

Allsorts 3/3 something new mine are the new heart stencil and the little heart charm which was sent to me by a dear friend.

Dies R us 2/3 anything goes

A bit more time to craft 2/3 anything goes

Simon says stamp Wednesday new something mine is my heart charm

Cute card Thursday 1/3 what's new my new is my hand made heart stencil and my heart charm.

Thanks for stopping by today and for your kind comments. We took down our Christmas decs yesterday and after sorting out the house I am really looking forward to  getting back to lots more crafting, especially my mixed media work. I missed it whilst I made all my Christmas cards. I am planning a new art journal piece...work in progress and all very exciting. 

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

The colour red

With only a few days left until Valentine's day I found it interesting to look around at the way red appears in every day life, as well as its use to represent love and passion.

Pillar boxes painted are red so that we can spot where to post our mail. I do love the old ones like this one I pass on my way to work.

Red is used in road signs for warnings

Even instructions on the back of doors

and for old fashioned phone boxes, nowadays mobiles have taken over so there are few of these around. This one is actually at a garden centre.

In Mother Nature red can signify danger to us in poisonous berries

but also can produce some beautiful blooms.

The sweet robin also has a red breast.

So for my card today I thought of my favourite colour combination with red which is black.
It is a general with love card for sale here in my Etsy shop

It features my great Visible Ink lips stamp and also I used their rose stamp to glitter emboss a border. There is plenty of sparkle and shine here.

I never get bored using embossing powders....they are such great fun. I finished my card off with my fave with love die cut sentiment and a red bow.

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

Noor UK  love
The Artistic stamper  love 
Creative Inspirations  hugs and kisses
Creative Corner  2/3 Valentine's/love
That's Crafty  3/3 love
Pixie's snippets playground  2/3 #215
Deep Ocean  hearts
The Ribbon girl 1/3 anything goes for a card
Papercreator must be love
Card Mania 1/5 add some red
Penny Black and More 1/3 anything goes with a stamp and a die
Stamping Sensations 1/3 anything goes
Crafty Boots 3/3 love is in the air
Simon says stamp Wednesday 1/5 one layer

After surviving the gales on Monday we are now being advised we might get a covering of snow next week....brrrr. I do know that for many of my son's birthday's we have had snow..and that's not until 24 February,so we could still get a very cold snap before spring finally surfaces. It's been the most bizarre winter here in South East England, up until now we really have not had anything that cold other than the odd day. However the same can't be said about the rain,......especially for the poor souls up north, they certainly don't need any more for the moment.

I hope you enjoyed your pancakes last night...I very nearly forgot until I saw something on TV whilst I was cooking. Luckily I had the ingredients, including a lemon. Well in our house we do need to be prepared for the occasional G+T don't we ;0)

Thanks for visiting today, keep snug and carry on crafting.

Bye for now,

Jane x