In the light of the blue moon

On Wednesday we were promised the spectacle of the brightest biggest full moon we would see for 150 years. It was also a blue moon..ie more than one full moon in the month. We did have pretty clear skies but I must admit that I have seen bigger moons in the past. One thing for certain though was the moon was incredibly bright. My little camera could not cope with the huge contrast so my photos don't show the man in the moon who smiled out at me.

Here are a couple of photos I took but as I say they don't show his lovely "face"

 The brightness was very striking.

There is usually so much detail to see on the moon.... I took this photo some time ago  and thought I would show it.

So Mr Moon inspired me to make another of my Lavinia fairy cards to restock Dotty's teahouse.

I thought my fairy could hold the moon in her hands...what a lovely thought.

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

Crafty Catz 1/3 anything goes
Simon says Wednesday anything goes
That's Crafty feeling blue
Sweet stampin 1/3 anything but birthdays

Enjoy a lovely weekend, we have a special visitor...Bear our son's dog...and yes Billy is in his upstairs apartment 😂

Back on Monday with my weekly dose of Visible Image inspiration.

Bye for now,

Jane x

Your eyes are the window to your soul

Good morning. If you are just visiting to see my card this post is very photo heavy so just scroll to the bottom. However if you would like to have a little feast for your eyes read on... 

We saw so many wonderful sights at Disneyland Paris last week. There is just so much detail there and everything is fresh, clean and inspiring. 

Even the entrance just filled us with joy. What is there not to love about this....

 and yes just look at the colour of that sky!

What was wonderful was seeing Disney through the eyes of our darling 4 year old granddaughter Daisy. We took our our children to Disney in the 1990s and early noughties but they were older and I don't think we stepped into Fantasy Land. With our Daisy though, this was where we spent a lot of our time. 

 Most days we walked through the castle to Fantasy land. Upstairs is the most beautiful Sleeping Beauty story told in stained glass windows.

 One day we even went to lunch with 4 Princesses...but those photos are for another day 😊

 Today is my weekly Design Team inspiration for Visible Image. This week I chose to use another of the fab older sentiments which works perfectly for my post today.

Window to your soul

This stamp has such a unique typeface. I have often used the "eye" as a partner for this stamp but I decided I wanted to showcase this great sentiment all by itself.

I had the idea to stamp the sentiment on clear acetate "window" and then create a very textured starry sky.

This is my Distress Oxide starry sky

 To add some sparkly stars I used sparkle medium through the 

cosmic skies  stencil.

 I used a clear based one as the inks soak into the medium and take up a wonderful glow...

I made my "window" and used little star brads in each corner to attach my sentiment.

Here is my finished card. 

In real life it has a very textured sparkle, just like the sky at night twinking.

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

Pile it on 2/3 large sentiments

Craty catz #394 anything goes

Cute card Thursday stars

Everybody art 1/3 anything goes

Retro Rubber #76 anything goes I have had this stamp since the Ally Pally stamp show Sept 2016

Dream Valley 1/3 add texture

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. 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 November challenge is also up and running where the winner can win a £40 coupon! Our theme for the month is "tags". There as just a few more days left to enter.

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

Your eyes really are the windows to your soul and on that trip our souls soured with total joy. Being with Daisy for those 5 days was wonderful. Her eyes saw things in such a unique childlike way which we found magical. I will share some more photos soon.

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

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Arise Pegasus

Good morning another week is here and it is time for my dose of  inspiration for Visible Image.

For today's project I used my Do you believe in Unicorns set

I started to  make a Distress Oxide background for the unicorn. However as made the background I made me think of the age of the universe. I stamped the moon using Faded Jeans  Distress Oxide ink. As I looked at the moon in the sky for some reason Pegasus, the ancient mythical winged horse, came to mind.

Now the unicorn in this set has a horn and no wings but Visible Image also made this wonderful set

called Angels are near

...........which does has a fab set of wings.

So to bring Pegasus alive I masked off the unicorn's horn before I stamped and white embossed it onto my inky background.

I stamped and gold embossed the wings onto black card and fussy cut them out.

I also used the birds from the learn to fly again.

I played with the position of the wings until I was happy with them and then put on my creative hat to put my card together......my unicorn underwent a metamorphosis.....

arise Pegasus 😁

You will see that I also stamped the cloud stamps over the moon and used the sentiment from the Angels are near set. I added some gold glitter to his hooves to speed him on his journey....

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

Penny Black and More 1/3 all creatures great and small 

Not just cards 1/3  anything goes
Fashionable stamping 1/3 use your inks anyway you like
Cute card Thursday 2 /3 embossing Pegasus and the birds, clouds and wings are all heat embossed
The Artistic stamper 3/3 anything goes
Emerald Creek Dares 1/3 anything goes
Stamping sensations 2/3 anything goes 
Craft Stamper take it make it  2/3 August anything goes

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. Our monthly themed challenge is on summer break and will return in September. 

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 can be purchased. 

You can also follow via:

 Pinterest

Twitter

 Instagram

Thanks for stopping by today and for the kind comments you take the time to leave me. Enjoy a creative week ahead. The sun returned this weekend...bliss. We spent Saturday by the seaside with the children and on Sunday I was able to sit and plan some upcoming design work in my garden.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Welcome rain

We have been threatened with a hose pipe ban in the South of England this summer unless we have some more rain. We had the driest April for many years and until last week no real rain fall. However there were a few days last week when we finally had some rain for my parched garden and I really want to share these photos today.

I love the smell in the garden at this time of the year after it has been raining, that gorgeous earthy, green smell...it's as though the ground is alive and breathing. I took these photos

My foxgloves lapped up the rain and are racing away, Old Choc, my Christmas tree was pretty happy too...

I have pink and white foxglove blooms this year, they all self seed and every year I have different shades.  I also spotted a visitor below

Well hello Mr Bumble

How pretty the rain looked on my shrubs

So I was inspired to finally ink up my Lavinia Green Man stamp which I bought at Ally Pally in April and decided to create an enchanted garden scene.

I made an inky background with distress inks. I added some honeycomb stencilling, as inspired by Mr. Bumble.

So I would like you to meet my first Green Man card...

It's a fab stamp and I added lots of his leaves in different shades and types of ink. I also added a border of Lavinia leaves and flowers and gave him a few white pen highlights.

I have put him up for sale in my Etsy shop here

I would like to enter him into the following challenges;

A bit more time to craft 3/3 anything goes
Artistic Inspirations 3/3 anything goes

Creative Inspirations 2/3 anything goes
Fashionable Stamping 3/3 let's go wild
Emerald Creek Dares 2/3 dream a little dream
Crafty Cardmakers 1/3 floral profusion
Fussy and fancy 1/3 flowers

We have enjoyed steaming hot weather this week and yesterday was the hottest day of the year so far. The temperature topped 28c and more sunshine is promised this weekend here in the South, although Monday looks as though we may get some rain. Perfect for my garden, if not for a bank holiday.

Enjoy your weekends and your gardens if you have them. They are such enchanting places at this time of the year and who know, you might even stumble across the Green Man 😉

Thanks so much for stopping by,

Bye for now,

Jane x