Daisy Grunge

  Hi everyone and welcome to my fortnightly blogged design team post for Visible Image. We are now near the end of April and mother nature is really blooming. It won't be very long until I can plant up my pots in my tiny sunny garden with summer bedding.  My make today uses the delightful "Daisy Grunge" stamp set with a background set and stencil. Daisy Grunge is so versatile and I have used the main bloom from the set with the sweet tiny daisy and one of the sentiments to make this spring inspired card. 

These are the products I used;

Daisy Grunge stamp set

with a stamp from the  Round in circles background stamp set 

and the Leafy stencil

This is what I got up to;

I taped the stencil onto a piece of white card and blended through these distress inks. Did you know that Visible Image now stock a large range of distress inks and other Tim Holtz products on their website? Do check them out. 

I cut my background down to 5 1/4" square and stamped the large circle cluster from the Round in circles background stamp set  using green oasis Versafine claire ink across the middle.

Next I stamped the large daisy from the Daisy Grunge stamp set onto a scrap of white card, using Nocturne ink, clear heat embossed and cut it out.  I added a little colouring using distress watercolour pencils. 

For some extra dimension I added Glossy accents to the centre of the flower.

I randomly repeat stamped the little daisy from the set all over the background, adding some gold pen detailing. I  stamped the Daisy grunge in the centre of the background and decoupaged the cut out daisy onto it, adding a litttle foam tape under some of the petals to lift them up. Finally I stamped the Smile sentiment below.  As a finishing touch I machine stitched around the edges using my trusty sewing machine. 

I matted onto green card and then adhered to a 5 3/4" square white card blank. 

Here is my finished card again

with a couple of close ups

and one final shot.

I hope I may have inspired you to check out the these lovely stamps and stencil and be inspired by all the stunning colours Mother Nature is sharing all around you to make something spring themed. 

All the Visible Image links are listed below;

 Our kind, friendly and supportive customer Facebook Group is here ...it would be lovely to see you join us.  You will be warmly welcomed and see lots of inspiration from the DT and customers to inspire your own creativity. 

 I also organize a monthly artist trading card swap in the group.  A heads up that we are  celebrating 3 years of swapping and the May swap sign up opened yesterday. 

Don't miss this one as there is this amazing giveaway too. One randomly selected participant will win a £30 coupon code to spend on new Visible Image goodies on their website. The sign up will close on Saturday 27th April so hurry on over if you would like to join in. Whether you are a new stamper or a seasoned one you are most welcome. Over 150 members, worldwide, have taken part since it started. It's been such fun and it's so lovely to receive a unique piece of art from your partner in the post. There is no "monthly" commitment, just join in when you have the time and if you live in the UK can you choose to post to the UK only, if that suits you best.

The main Visible Image Facebook business page is here

Visible Image also has its own You Tube channel here where you can see videos and Lives to give you lots of inspiration and ideas. 

Their Instagram page can be found here 

Pinterest here

and their website is here 

 You will also find me on Instagram here; @jane.tyrrell most days, where I share many, many more makes than I have the time to blog. 

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy these light filled spring days.

Bye for now,

Jane x

Late spring Daisy Days

We had such a wonderful long weekend looking after Daisy whilst her Mummy and Daddy attended a wedding in Edinburgh. My Hb and I felt we had been transported back 27 1/2 years when our daughter was 2 1/2. Daisy is such a clone of our girl, it's just the blond hair which gives her away.
We spent hours playing with water in the garden (the weather was very kind to us) and scooting up and down to the swings. It does not take much to entertain this little sweetheart. She loves blowing dandelions

and of course making Daisy chains.

We spent time each day in Nanna's studio. I was making up some distress ink on a block as she asked for some "paint" when she just picked up the whole thing and stamped with it. She has discovered monoprinting all by herself.

she added yellow in the same way and then some water. My newest Penny Black stamp, which had just arrived from my fried Di also got it's first inking.

She wanted some die cuts and glitter....

Daisy also played with some stencils which fascinated her and also added some brushos.

Here is her finished work

 I loved that she wanted to stamp a Daisy and Daisy words on this one. Bless her she loves crafting.

When she left on Monday afternoon the house did seem very quiet indeed. Roll on her next visit. 

My card challenge today uses one of my favourite vintage "child" digi images. It's a fairly CAS retro birthday card I made for Dotty's Tearooms. It reminds me of my sweet Daisy. The frame is Noor. The seaside dies are MB and the sentiment TH.

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

Allsorts  2/3 7th birthday challenge Happy birthday to one of my favourite and longest running challenges.
The Craft Barn weekly challenge 2 different papers I have used paper from 1 sheet to make the ship backing and also used another sheet ot die cut my crab and shell.
Simon Says work it Wednesday 1/3  sunshine
Deep Ocean shabby chic/vintage
Simon Says stamp Monday 2/5  make a wish
Crafty friends summer time
Paper Creator 2/3 anything goes
Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes
Mod Squad  1/3 use it or lose it my product was the boat backing paper...I found a whole load of unused 12X12 papers when I spring cleaned my studio in April. This is one of them.
Crafting for all seasons 1/3 anything goes

I am back again tomorrow as it's time for my 2nd DT piece for Country View Crafts. I will be sharing a tag which matches the wedding card I made for my 1st inspiration piece. It would be lovely if you can stop by and take a peep.

And just to make you smile, look at this sweetie scooting to the park..yes in her wellies

Thanks as always for visiting and leaving such kind comments.

Back tomorrow,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Last days in May

Another month is nearly at an end. May is always gorgeous month, the flowers are blooming and the days start to really warm up and the sunshine spreads joy until late in the evenings. We have enjoyed our first meals in the garden and I have sat on my backdoor step sipping a cup of tea on many sunny mornings.

I have been very busy this month both in the garden and in my studio. I have also spent some precious family time too.

I thought I would sum up May with a few more photos from my garden

 and from a day out at the farm with my darling granddaughter Daisy, I will share a post on this soon as we had such fun.

I also was sent the new Nicecrane release from Ignacio,there are some gorgeous new digital images. I decided to work with his In the sweet summer set as they are just perfect. There are 6 images in this set. (Yes I know that this preview shows 5)

Now typically I chose the one which does not appear in the preview photo there but it is in the set.

I wanted to join in with some challenges...Finnabair over on Facebook is challenging us to use a technique shown by one of her talented DT. I chose that of Linda's showing Tim Holtz's blending inks together and adding flicks of water. I also used stencils and flicks of ink to add to the texture of my background.

I opened my art journal and these were my colours I blended.

 I added splashes of water and then more inks through 2 different stencils and I also used one stencil as a mask.

Below is my background with my flicks of ink too

I decided to tear my image and as I looked at it I was reminded of the illustrations of Kate Greenaway. She often added floral "doodles" to her work. I wanted a piece of verse to add so I found a poem of hers on the Internet called Little Girls and Little Lambs,

IN the May-time flowers grow;
Little girls in meadows go;
Little lambs frisk with delight,
And in the green grass sleep at night.
Little birds sing all the day,
Oh, in such a happy way!
All the day the sun is bright,
Little stars shine all the night.
The Cowslip says to the Primrose,
'How soft the little Spring wind blows!'
The Daisy and the Buttercup
Sing every time that they look up.
For beneath the sweet blue sky
They see a pretty Butterfly;
The Butterfly, when he looks down,
Says, 'What a pretty Flower Town!' 

Kate Greenaway

 I loved that it had the mention of Daisy in it so it seemed perfect to use. I also decided that I would try my hand at not only doodling but some lettering too.

(By the way thank you all so much for your supportive comments of my recent additions of doodling to my work...I am still learning but having such a lot of fun). 

I spent all last night finishing off and here are my journal pages.

 and a few close ups

These pages were great fun but I did spend hours adding all the doodles!

As well as the fab Finnabair first spread your wings challenge on Facebook I would also like to enter my pages into the following challenges;

Anything but cute  vintage garden This is a newbie on the block, do check it out!
A sprinkle of imagination anything goes The products are a black Sakura Micron pen and Tim Holtz honeycomb stencil.
The Artistic Stamper Journaling your heart out
Mixed media monthly May flowers
A vintage journey spring colours
Country view scenic
Noor! UK May flowers
Art with heart mixed media mahem
Frilly and Funkie Happy, Happy , Happy
Simon Says stamp Wednesdays anything goes

Thanks for visiting me today and for the sweet comments you take the time to leave. Enjoy the last few days of May. We are off to see Daisy and Co tomorrow so we may well find ourselves outside skipping in the meadow...or finding a slide which is Daisy's passion at the moment.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

There are always flowers

I really adore flowers, they give me endless inspiration. Even in my tiny back garden I am able to grow lots and I am currently working on getting some summer bedding plants into my pots. I love that my darling granddaughter Daisy Jane is even named after a flower.

On a recent visit to Daisy and Co we went out for a walk and we always try to find a swing park at some point as Daisy adores swings and slides. I shared a joyful photo of her in a recent post coming down the slide and here are some more

whhhhheeeeeeeee.....down she goes.........

 How much joy can a simple slide bring to a small person

 As we left the park I noticed the daisies growing in the grass
 Daisy also has sweet new white daisy shoes (very similar to her first blue ones). Her Mummy and Daddy noticed that she has the exact colours in the cardi below which I knitted her.

Here is Daisy amongst the daisies

I had some more journal play in my studio yesterday after work and I decided to make some pages with daisies including her sweet Daisy shoes. I found this great quote to work with

 I wanted to play with my PA acrylics as they were the perfect colours in Daisy's cardigan

 I decided to create a brayered background adding one colour at a time

 I love the textures here

 For the daisies I used my cheery lynn die cuts and added some DIs for colour to the centres

 I won these fun Little Claire Designs stamps a while ago and decided to use them as a daisy rather than a sunflower

I pressed them into my paint and added some random stamping in pink

 and blue

I then had a think about my design and came up with this to start with...I wanted to add something more but I did not want to detract away from the background too much. I also wanted to try to link the daisies in some way. I had a light bulb moment as I remembered the stitching on her shoes...they are like doodles making a daisy chain.

So yes I had the idea to try my hand at doodling....if you have not seen this talented lady in blog land check her out here...Joanne Fink. She adds so many creative doodles to her work. I have been admiring her work for a while and I decided it was time to jump in feet first.

Now it was a brave idea of mine as I knew that if it went badly I could end up spoiling my lovely background. I also don't have the correct pens, I just used a thin black needle pen and a white cheap gel pen. But goodness me it was such fun......I spent ages doodling around my pages in black and white ink.

and this is my finished work.

I had SUCH fun doodling....I think this could become a new obsession. I have lots to learn but for a first attempt I was pleased. You can see I even had a go at hand doodling a flower on the left hand page

and a couple more close ups.

The other advantage with doodling is that I can add to my designs in the evening when we sit down.....all I need is a pen or two. I am checking out some pens. I think that Sakura look the best but if anyone else has used doodling on their artwork I would love to hear your thoughts. The only trouble now is that my head is buzzing with ideas....creativity is so infectious isn't it...and to think this started with a photo of Daisy amongst the daisies in her new shoes.

I would like to enter my journal pages into the following challenges;

Little Claire's outdoors
Paperartsy Topic 9 words I love using words in my art and as Darcy says in her introductory video there are so many ways adding them. She also showed some doodling and journal embellishments too.
Anything but cute vintage garden This is a new challenge run by blogging friend Pamellia, do pop on over and support her in her new venture.
Country View crafts simply scenic
Art with heart mixed media mahem
Love to create anything goes/mixed media
Our Creative Corner April showers bring May flowers
The Artistic stamper journalling your heart out
Frilly and Funkie happy, happy, happy I think my journal pages show how I am happy whenever I spend time with my darling granddaughter
Simon Says stamp Monday X,y,z this prompt made me think of school days and writing practice, we used have classes at primary school where we used to practice the shapes of letters and also make doodles...hence my pages today.

I am also going to link up with my friend Brenda with her visual journal. This is not a challenge, it's just for fun and inspiration. Please do pop over to see what latest journal pages people are making. The link is here #21

Enjoy your Thursday, the sun is up here and remember there are always flowers for everyone who wants to see them......just look around.... or in my case...they are at Daisy's feet.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x