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

STAMPlorations love hop and linky party time

Welcome, I am delighted to be a part of the STAMPlorations love hop and linky party today. Shery has some gorgeous free digi stamps for you to download as well as some incredible savings on her love themed stamps on the website. The new digis below are FREE for you to download too. There are several designers taking part in the hop and if you leave a comment as you hop there are also OVER $100 worth of prizes in the form of gift certificates, products and coupon codes to be won! Oh and did I mention prizes too if you join in the linky party? Please check out all the digis and prizes details here  You really don't want to miss out. THIS IS OPEN INTERNATIONALLY.

 There is 15% off over at the website here  in the love/spring sections at the moment and if you add my code STAMPGIRLJANE at the checkout you can also take another 20% off your order. You can always save 20% off any orders at any time using my special DT code. Shery ships internationally too at very reasonable rates.

I used this great stamp set for my card.

Romantic expressions 1

This is what I got up to.
I stamped the background using the envelope using 2 different red inks and embossed them. I then added some silver pen to the hearts which you can see in my final photo.

I then stamped the sentiment into a die cut heart and added some ribbons and other die cuts,

Here is a close up of the fab sentiment.

Remember you could save a whopping 35% on this set if you use my 20% discount code STAMPGIRLJANE code on top of the current 15% off this set! Wow! Just enter my code at the checkout.  This is the link to the set

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

Sweet stampin 2/3 bright and cheerful
Cute card Thursday 3/3 banish the blues
Moving along with the times 1/3 have a heart
Artistic Inspirations 1/3 anything goes

Please remember to leave me a little comment to be in with a chance of winning one of the amazing prizes. Here are the details again and good luck.

Thanks for stopping by at my blog.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane 

Love is in the air

Good morning I hope you find yourself under a pile of Valentine's this morning and if not I have one to share with you at the end of my post.

We're mid way through the month of February...such a great month having just 28 days. I am continuing to see so many lovely flowers. These gorgeous primula were in the garden centre...how pretty are these delicate colours?

and there was even a brave Camellia showing its beautiful blooms.

These pretty striped tulips also caught my eye.

and a pot of daffs on my own window sill are nearly in bloom.

My card today is the last of my Valentine cards for selling at Dotty's Teahouse for 2018. It will be time to start making cards for Mother's Day soon, but in the meantime I have my son's birthday coming up soon so I will get that under my belt first.

So I would like to send some Valentine love to all my sweet blog readers...this one is for you.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges

Happy Little stampers CAS 1/3 love

Let's craft and create 2/3 anything goes

Deep Ocean love is all around

Try it on Tueday's 2/3 love is in the air

Allsorts 2/3 love is in the air
Simon says stamp Wednesday it must be love
Die cuttin divas Valentine's day
Card mania 1/3 red and hearts

My special Valentine, my darling Hb and I are off out to dinner tonight...celebrating our engagement 38 years ago.....wow..time really does fly.

Thanks so much for stopping by and for the kind comments you take the time to leave me. 

  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