Wisley in the sunshine

In May I enjoyed a spring day out with my dear blogging friend Brenda at Wisley, the Royal Horticultural Garden in Surrey. We had such a lovely time that we immediately booked in our diaries our next meeting, which was last week.
The weather could not have been kinder. We had clear blue skies, sunshine and heat. I thought I would share some more photos to show how much a garden can grown in just a few weeks. There was such an explosion of colour.
If you would like to see my post from our spring visit you can see it here

The lovely Brenda.

It was so hot that we escaped into the greenhouses (seriously) 

and found that a new fuchsia exhibition had started. There were the most gorgeous varieties on show.

This unusual  variety was one of my favourites. 

 Many of the greenhouse exotic plants were also flowering. 

and how about this very snakey looking specimen!

We even had a visitor to our table as we sat outside and enjoyed our lunch.

After lunch we had a wander around the lakes

followed by a cuppa and a shop in the garden centre.
We had  a fabulous day out, Brenda is a such lovely company and as a fellow gardening fan we have so much to chat about. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we have put our next Wisely date into our diaries for September. Wisley will then be showing off her autumnal colours,

My card today was inspired by our sunny visit and is up for sale at Dotty's Teahouse.

 I made a sunny flower embossed background for my Lili of the Valley simply print digi image. The stamped sentiment is also Lili of the Valley. I die cut some foliage and a flower from snippets of inky mop up card . A bottle of champers seemed the right embellishment to add. Cheers!

I added some gold glitter the the centre of the flowers.

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

Pixie's snippets playground #330
Crafty calendar 1/3 totally girlie
Crafty Catz 1/3 anything goes/summer fun
As you like it 1/3 favourite occasion  for this card it is birthdays..what is more exciting than celebrating on your own special day and being spoilt.
Card Mania 4/5 anything goes
Simon says stamp Wednesday fun in the sun
Not just cards 1/3 anything goes
Addicted to stamps and more 1/3 birthday

Thanks so much for stopping by and for your kind comments you take the time to leave me. I really do appreciate them. We are still enjoying the summer sunshine but it thankfully has cooled down just a little. I am off to catch up with my Mum and Dad today. Enjoy your Thursday.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Billy's box

Hello it's Billy here, Jane's cat.

Jane hasn't spotted me asleep on the table cover in the garden............

 I know how much everyone enjoys my occasional posts so as Jane had some samples on Visible Image Stamps' Create and Craft TV shows at the weekend she has allowed me to post today as some of her projects were cat themed.

Come on down to her garden studio.

She made a mixed media wall hanging using the awesome  Curious cat stamp set ,

 Create to escape quote

 , strobes stencil 

and mesh-ellaneous background stamps.

This mixed media wall hanging started life as a very brown, very ordinary tomatoes packaging box. .....little did I know what she had planned...it involved a lot of paint and ink and I nearly changed my white feet to multi coloured.

It was a bit too small for me...I prefer much bigger boxes....like this one

 This is my sleeping place, when I'm not on Jane's bed...I even have a blanket that she crocheted just for me.

So back to the tomato box.....

this is what Jane got up to. She blended some autumn inspired distress inks and added gold metallic ink through the strobes stencil.

Blended acryllic paints around the edges of the box

and  added some patterns using stamps from the Mesh-allaneus set.

She also stamped little paw prints around the edge.

She altered some coffee stirrers with acrylic paints to make fence posts

and made a really textured backing using corrugated card, inks, gesso, gold paint and crackle paint. 

Of course the nose was coloured pink...just like mine 😻 Do you think this look suits me?

So then it was time to put everything together and make her "Billy's Box".
Here it is complete with ribbon to hang....and me to swing from...

a side view

and some close ups...there's my friend Blackie who comes to visit me and walks along the trellis in the garden.

and one more view

Jane would like to enter this into the following challenges...goodness me my paws are getting tired from all this typing..

Simon Says stamp Wednesday anything goes

Rhedd's Creative spirit October

Pixie's Snippets playground week 305/6

Rubber Dance animals

A vintage journey crazy for autumn colour
Creative inspirations autumn/halloween

All the Visible Image links can be found here;

Visible Image group page on Facebook. Our friendly Group can be found here ...it would be lovely to see you there. 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 these gorgeous stamps and stencils can be purchased. 

You can also follow via:

 Pinterest

Twitter

 Instagram

That's me done then, I will no doubt be back soon as it's very nearly the time of the year when Jane starts bringing trees inside the house..something to do with the Man in the red suit I think. If you would like to see what happened last year take a look at this post from last December.  I'd better keep a look out. Mind you I think it's Halloween tomorrow night so I think some broomstick riding is more likely for me. 😺

Well actually, if I'm being honest I'm more likely to be snoozing here 

 Bye for now,

Billy (I'm the one with the pink nose) 

and Jane x

My second spring project, what's inside the box?

Hello again and I am back today to share my 2nd spring DT piece with you for Country View Challenges. You can take a peek here. The theme this month is Spring and you can enter anything crafty. If you would like to join in with the fun you have until 30th April to enter and there is a amazing prize this month...all the colours of the new PaperArty infusions...I really wish I could enter!

Thank you  for all the kind comments you left for my first piece, my Spring accordion card. If you missed this post you can see it here

For this project I decided to alter a box as I needed a gift box for my daughter's recent spring birthday. I had just opened a new pot of face cream and it was the perfect size for my needs.

I covered it with Tim Holtz tissue wrap and added some blue paints.

I wanted a distressed/vintage feel so I left lots of jagged edges and corners.

 I wanted to add some golden hearts so I used my TH heart stencil and Wendy Vecchi gold embossing paste

I also added some floral stamping using Crafty Individuals stamps and also added some butterflies from my stash. I also gave all the egdes a wipe of Treasure gold.

So what was inside the box.....

Yes I finished my heart die necklace. If you missed the post where I shared how I made the pendant you can read it here
I sawed out the brass heart and soldered it onto the textured copper heart to made a 3D pendant for my girlie. It attached it to a bronze chain. I love all the different colour metals.

and here is my finished box with the necklace.

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

Rubber Dance 2/5 stamp into spring 

A Vintage Journey spring is in the air

That's Crafty all things bright and beautiful

The artistic stamper 3/3  all things distress

Rhedd's creative spirit; April

Mixed media world vintage

Crafting Musketeers spring is in the air 

Anything but cute earth day I was inspired by the gorgeous blues and the daisy type flowers which I have stamped on the background and stuck on as embellies. 

So I have now shown you my 2 April design team pieces for Country View Challenges. It would be lovely if you can join in with the fun and you can find all the details and the link for it here. I really hope you have enjoyed my debut projects. I will be back with my May DT project for them on 1st May. In the meantime there will be plenty more inspirational pieces from my fellow teamies over on the bog during the rest of April.

Thanks so much everyone for stopping by and for all the comments you take the time to leave me. I would like to warmly welcome my newest followers. It's so good to see you joining me on my creative journey here at Jane's Journal.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x