Feeling festive

Last week I went to a Christmas craft fair at Coolings Garden Center with my Mum and Dad. It was a lovely event and so good to see everything was handmade. I don't know about you but to me a Craft fair should me just that..not bought in from China!

I took a general photo as I then got distracted browsing all the lovely goodies.

 I bought a handmade cranberry scented candle, a sweet seahorse pendant and a very sweet Mr and Mrs Christmas cutlery holder. Sorry no photos as every time I think of photographing them it's pitch black. I really dislike the lack of light at this time of the year.

There were also some fun displays in the garden centre, these penguins were very cute.

I have been knee deep in making Christmas cards this week but I found time to make my artist trading cards and coins for the swap group I belong to.

Daisy and I started them last weekend and decided to use my ancient but very sweet Snowman and Snowdog stamps.

I make 5 of each. 3 for the swap, 1 for Daisy and 1 for me to keep. I coloured them with Promarkers adding some pencil highlights. The sentiments are ancient from my stash and the background stamps are all from the Visible Image Christmas Eve stamp set. The greenery, starts and snowflakes are die cuts. 

These are the cards.

 This is a close ups of the one I am giving to Daisy.

and these are the coins;

with a close up of a couple of them. 

 If you think you recognise the words to the music they are resting on, yes it's my old sheet piano music from the Snowman. 

I would like to enter my artist trading cards into the following challenges;

Passion for Promarkers Christmas critters

Try it on Tuesdays Inspired by a song or carol mine is of course The Snowman.

Simon says stamp Monday let's sparkle

The Artistic stamper 2/3 Christmas is coming

Love to craft 2/3 anything goes

Sparkles 2/3 winter wonderland

Stamping sensations 2/3 anything goes

Happy little stampers watercolour anything goes

and my coins into these challenges
I love promarkers circles
Creative inspirations 1/3 festive fun
ABC Christmas Y  for yuletide
Simon says stamp Wednesday traditional Christmas
Winter wonderland 1/3 anything goes

It's the weekend again, how quickly this week has raced by.  Our trees have been delivered and I'm hoping to get at least one decorated tomorrow. We are also going to see Santa with the grandbabies and if you want to guess who is more excited...yes it's me!

Have a great weekend and I hope that you too are getting into the festive spirit?

Thanks for stopping by,

Back on Monday,

Bye for now,

Jane x

More time for tea

It is time for my second card to hopefully inspire you to enter our current challenge over at STAMPlorations.
The theme for March is stamps and tea/coffee. This is a fun one for me as I really am a tea addict.

 Below is the lovely sketch which you can also use if you would like to.

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! 

This is the link to the challenge with all the info you need.

As always I used the theme and sketch and this is what I got up to.

I used the always tea time stamp set

and the clustered hearts stencil

Remember that if you use my unique code STAMPGIRLJANE at the checkout you can save an additional 20% to any other offers currently running if you buy anything from the website. 

To make the white background I used texture paste through the stencil

and used red distress ink through the stencil on some inky mop up card for the border piece.

I stamped and paper pieced the cups and stamped one of the lovely sentiments.

Here is my finished card.

We really hope to see lots of you joining us over at the March challenge. Once again this is the link to the challenge with all the info you need.

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

Through the craft room door 2/2 anything goes
Happy Little stampers watercolour anything goes
Mix it up 2/5 anything goes
Simon says stamp Monday Feminine/girlie

Thanks so much for stopping by.....I'm off to put the kettle on.....

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Spring 2017 at Dotty's Teahouse

Last Thursday I took my parents down to Dotty's where we enjoyed a lovely lunch. They loved the tearooms and its wonderful vintage feel.
The window was dressed all ready for Easter.

Inside was busy and there is always such a great atmosphere. Rebecca and her staff were busting around serving everyone with a smile.

After my sandwiches I just had to try a piece of delicious moist carrot cake...

well it would be rude not to wouldn't it 😉

I could see from our table that my cards I sell there were neat and tidy. There has been a rush on my wedding and new baby boy cards recently so I stocked those up with a couple of new designs.

 If you are ever near Carshalton in Surrey do pop in. Dotty's is at 108 High Street, SM5 3AE and is open most days.

So my card for challenges today is a new baby one. Our own new grandbaby is due very soon now. We do not know the sex and today's card is for a new baby boy from the shelves of Dotty's Tea House.

I have used a digi from Lili of the Valley. The backing paper is First Edition. Dies are by Memory Box , The Works and Cheery Lynn.

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

The ribbon girl 1/3 use any image
Simon Says stamp Wednesday 3/5 spring colour inspiration
Crafty calendar April showers/ spring
Crafty friends animals or birds
The Cutie Pies challenge bunnies or chicks
Artistic Inspirations 1/3 anything goes
Crafting from the heart 1/3 anything goes
Lil patch of crafty friends 1/3 anything goes
Sparkles Monthly 1/3 fave colour combo I use blues and green so much!
Noor flowers

Thanks for stopping by today and for the kind comments you take the time to leave me. They are much appreciated.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Dies for hearts

No my post title is not meant to make you think you need to leave this world for hearts! Far from it, but it involves 2 different  types of dies.
As you know I use a lot of dies in my paper crafting but did you know that you can also create your own dies to press form shapes in silversmithing?

Die forming has been the new project since my silversmithing class returned in January after the Christmas break. The first thing I had to decide on was what shape to design. I decided that a really useful shape is the good old heart. I wanted to work in copper and brass as sheet silver is so expensive and just for experimenting these cheaper metals are good to experiment with.

I sketched a heart onto paper and cut it out in 5mm copper and perspex.

My photos are not the best as they are taken with my phone but you can get the idea.
I stuck the 2 pieces together and had to carefully file the "die" until I had very smooth surfaces.
This took a few weeks.......
Fast forward.
Once the die was made I was able to have a play with my metals and textures. A "sandwich" of acrylic, metal and the die is put into a press.
This is the press....it is huge!

 The press is wound down by hand and the  force created presses the sheet metal through the die.

Above are 2 shapes I created in brass and copper with the die. I textured the copper using textile in the rolling mill.

I love this textured copper.

I was able to invert or evert the heart depending on the effect I wanted.
I had great fun playing and below are a few more pieces.

I have some plans to turn these into pendants. I also plan to try soldering 2 hearts together to create a 3D pendant too. Our class is on half term for 2 weeks so I will keep you posted with what I make when we go back,

So my card today has to involves die cut hearts doesn't it. It's another case of when 2 crafts collide I think.

This is a Valentine's day card I made for my Etsy shop which is for sale here.

It's very CAS for me but I liked this simple design with the striking colours. Red, black and white is such a great colour combination.

Die cuts can be so effective. After coming up with my design I just stamped and embossed a simple Clearly Besotted sentiment in red and added a ribbon.

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

Pixie's snippets playground  3/3 #214  I used a snippet of black card for my die cut and a snippet of ribbon.
Whimsy stamps with love
Crafting from the heart  2/3 anything goes
Try it on Tuesday  2/5 a fine romance
Artistic Inspirations 2/3 anything goes/twist of Valentine
Noor UK  love
The Ribbon Girl  3/3 with love
Papercreator must be love
The Artistic stamper love my sentiment is stamped
The Craft Barn  triplets I have used 3 colours, red, white and black
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday  have a heart
Creative Inspirations  hugs and kisses
Creative Corner  1/3 Valentine's/love
That's Crafty  1/3 love

Thanks for visiting today and I hope you have your Valentine's cards bought or made....only one more weekend to sort things out. I can't show the one I have made my Hb yet as it's a Guest design post for one of my favourite card challenges...you'll have to wait until 19 Feb to see it.

Enjoy the upcoming weekend, we are off to Southampton to catch up with Daisy and Co...I can't wait.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

In print

I received a wonderful letter last month telling me I was the winner of Cardmaking and Papercraft's on line competition.

My letter came with a fabulous bundle of stamps and a CD.

My prize was for their layered cards competition and I entered the one below, which I made for my dear Finnish friend Mia's birthday earlier this year

I was also thrilled to read that my card would appear in issue 149 of the magazine.....


This came out on 1st October. My Mum got me a copy which she gave me yesterday....

 and on page 73.......

 Here I am!

It's the first time I've ever had a card in print and I was so thrilled to see it there.

For my challenge card today I decided to make a card using papers I printed from my prize CD and stamps from the wonderful words set I was sent. I used the ship image and a tag version of it. There are so many great images on the CD.

Rather than cut the stamp sheet I decided to ink it up in its entirety. 

 I then added some distress inks to make the base.

I then put several elements together to put together this birthday card

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

As you like it monochrome or colour I am definitely a colour girl...I find monochrome rather flat. Nature is pretty colourful and I am so inspired by Mother Nature.
Country View  add some texture
Pixie's snippets playground #197
Papertake weekly anything goes
Craft Stamper Take it make it process;ink,stitch, paint,collage, print paper I have used ink, collage and printed paper as well as stamping my background and embossing my birthday sentiment.
Crafty Catz embossing my happy birthday is embossed
That's crafty boys will be boys
Vintage stamping use a die
Artistic stamper clocks

We are really looking forward to the weekend as our daughter, SIL and Daisy are coming up to stay for Saturday night. We hope to be joined by our son for Sunday brunch before everyone has to go home.

Thanks so much for visiting me here and for the kind comments you take the time to leave. Enjoy your weekend. I would also like to extend a very warm welcome to my latest followers and many thanks to Cardmaking and Papercraft for putting a skip in my step today ;0).

I plan to schedule my Tim Oct card on Sunday and boy oh boy did I have to think outside the box for this one!

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Tim Holtz 12 tags of 2014, April, Jane's Journal style

Tim posted his April tag on my birthday and I was delighted to see that he was using his feminine side for this month. Below is his creation to be used for inspiration. The first thing I wanted to use on my card (yes I have been making cards not tags since January) was the wonderful paper roses but I felt that using just 2 did not quite work for me so I decided to make a whole bunch (well 5). I also wanted to use the idea of replacing  the cut outs in a lattice die as he did. When I saw his metal dog tag which reads" Inspire" I was inspired to use a quote which I had found whilst researching for a recent project, " April is a promise which May is sure to keep". These words of wisdom were written by Hal Borland. I also loved Tim's fun spiky leaves cut out from book pages and wanted to incorporate this into my creation. So off I went to arm myself with my supplies.

I only have limited supplies of Ranger products but I am gradually getting some great stash together which was added to on my recent birthday. My Hb bought me some Distress Paints below. I only have a few colours so I was limited to which to use. I chose some Spring/Easter colours..............

 Faded jeans, Victorian velvet and Iced spruce. Tim uses Ranger tissue tape but I do not own anything other than some tissue tape I bought in Wilkinson's after Christmas in their sale. I thought it could represent trellis for my flowers to be displayed on .
I first made some patterns on my card with the tape.

 When I was happy with them I added the 3 colours of Distress paint plus a mist of water to blend them.

When this was dry I covered parts with Vintage photo Distress ink and then added splashes of water to get the cool effect which Tim shows.

It gives a great mottled effect between the paint and ink but does not stick to the tape. It's really hard to show in a photo but I think you can see it below.

Next I cut some more "trellis" with a lattice die and coloured it with my 3 paint colours

 I cut some insert pieces using scraps of paterned paper and distressed their edges

 I also made a sheet of card using my distress inks and a words stamp to make my flowers with.

 Another birthday treat is my new flower die set and I cut several and had a play with putting them together.

 Here is my first one, I love the colours.

So having got my elements together it was time to put on my creative hat and put my ideas together.
Here is my finished card.

As you can see I used a whole bunch of handmade roses and I also used a couple of Cheery Lynn leaf dies to cut my book page leaves.
I also added some lace for even more femininity ;0)
Here are some close ups

I really love these big blousy blooms and the very shabby chic muted colours. The background has an almost chalky effect and feel and  I will certainly be making some more roses.

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

Tim Holtz's 2014 tags April
Rhedd and Rosie anything goes
Papertake Weekly spring has sprung
Simon says stamp Happy Easter
Divas by Design Easter/spring
Pan Pastel UK Pretty shabby chic
Country View Challenges new beginnings my new beginning is springtime.
Stamping Sensations dies and/or punches
Penny Black and More Blossoms and blooms
Stamp and Create Spring flowers
Whimsy stamps anything goes
Cheery Lynn anything goes
Craftyhands anything goes
A Creative Romance eggcellent spring
The ribbon girl spring
Ali Craft spring


So there we are, a third of the way through 2014 already. Thanks for stopping by and also for any comments you take the time to leave. I really love reading them.

 It's a big weekend for my son's girlfriend who is running the London Marathon on Sunday...run Charlotte run and we are all willing you on to the finish of 26 grueling miles. She has spent months in training and it has taken a huge amount of dedication and stamina. Thanks so much to everyone who has sponsored her. She is raising funds  for The Anthony Nolan Cancer Trust and if you would like to swell the pot she has raised so far..over £750 to date, every pound is gratefully received. There is a link to her fundraising page here.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x