Jack Frost

Brr it was bitterly cold yesterday. I was lucky enough to have a day at home making some designs with the brand new Visible Image Wizard of Oz stamps which are available for pre order tomorrow. 

When I got up first thing the garden had obviously been visited by Jack frost.

I love the way the frost wraps itself around everything. I have been playing with my new camera and took these shots.

My hellebore is just about to bloom but for yesterday it was held rigid by the frost. 

Even my perky violas had taken a nose dive

but they will recover, they are such hardy plants.

I also loved the icy pattern on the leaves of my digitalis.

I am off down to Dotty's this morming and it is due to be a little warmer as is the weekend.

So today I think to warm us up cake and a smiling cat should feature on my card. It's a new Wonderland birthday one using my Visible Image Cheshire cat stamp set. I coloured him with Zig markers.The papers are ancient, the tea cup is Marianne and the music and butterfly dies are by The Works. I have stamped and embossed the fish bone from the Cheshire cat stamp set onto the cup.

I would like to enter it into the following challenges.

Sweet stampin 2/3 bright and cheerful

Artistic Inspirations 1/3 anything goes

Pile it on land or water animals

Crafty Hazelnut's patterned paper challenge January

Cute card Thursdays 1/3 critters
The house that stamps built 1/3 anything goes

It will be up for sale at Dotty's Tea House Carshalton High Street, SM5 2AE by lunchtime. 

Enjoy your weekend, it is supposed to warm up a little. I hope so as we plan to take friends who are visiting for a long local walk at some point. We might even end up in Dotty's for tea and cake at the end of it. 

I am back bright and breezy on Monday with my very first Wizard of Oz sample, stay tuned.

Thanks so much for stopping by today and for your kind comments.

Bye for now,

Jane x

Deep and crisp and even

There are just 5 more sleeps until the man in the red suit pops down our chimneys. The weather has been very wintry and so dark and tomorrow is officially the first day of winter. 

We have to make the most of these crisp frosty days as it's all change again and the forecast for Christmas day is quite mild.

There was ice on the ponds as I walked down to Dotty's with some new cards  yesterday.

The leaves were frozen within.

 Mr Heron was keeping out of the freezing water and watched me from a tree.

Back at home my violas were still smiling at me despite their frozen petals.

My card today is a very unusual Christmas card I was commissioned to make. It was for a window cleaner who is an avid fisherman!

Now at first I didn't know where to start  but I then remembered that I had a fab Designs by Ryn fish stamp which I won a few months back.

 I stamped my fish and then

 used some frosty distress ink colours to create the icy water. I also used the bubbles and pond weed from my Visible Image stamps to create a winter wonderland under water scene.

Here is my card.

I coloured the fish with silver pen and added a LOTV sentiment and some Tim Holtz die cut snowflakes.

Here's a close up. It was great fun in the end making it as I really had to think "outside the box" for such an unusual Christmas card request. 

I heard that the young man this was made for was delighted with it.

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

Designs by Ryn December customer challenge

Allsorts 1/3 cold and frosty colours

A vintage journey winter wonderland (mine is an underwater winter wonderland!)

Winter wonderland anything goes

Happy little stampers anything goes with dies

I am taking a day off from my Christmas preps today to have lunch with my Hb in a lovely local tea rooms in nearby Woodcote. I hope you are nearly ready for the big day but are still able to take some time out to enjoy the excitement and festive spirit of my favourite time of the year. I have 2 last posts to share before Christmas day. Billy has busy typing up his post and will be here on Friday.

Thanks as always for stopping by and leaving your kind comments particularly at such a busy time.

Bye for now,

Jane x

Yuletide

We had some very crisp cold days last week and I loved the frost that formed over the windows of my sleeping studio.

Billy went out and back indoors very quickly

Such pretty patterns, they looked just like snowflakes and inspired my work today.

Now that Dotty's Market is over I had a tiny bit of time just to craft for myself. There are still some fun challenges running and I decided to combine a few with a Yuletide post. The letter over at the Craft Barn dictionary challenge is Y and that seemed a perfect word to use.

 I could also have some fun with other Christmas related challenges. I decided to make a new art journal page.

Inspired by the snowflake like icicles I stamped and white embossed some snowflakes over a sheet of plain red scrapbook paper.

I used this lovely Christmas poem; I am unsure of the author;

There’s so much more to Christmas

than candlelight and cheer.

It’s the spirit of sweet friendship 

that brightens all year.

It’s the thoughtfulness and kindness,

it’s hope reborn again.

For peace, for understanding

and goodwill to men!

I then used a lovely Paperartsy set of stamps to add some Christmas words and music.

Whilst looking for my Christmas paper I found a sheet of really old scraps which I must have had in my stash for over 20 years. I thought they were perfect to add to my page.

Here is what I made;

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

The Craft Barn dictionary challenge Y for Yuletide. The definition is in the bottom right corner.

The Funkie Junkie week #11

For week #11 of Linda's challenge I was inspired by her red paper, the snowflakes, the joyful words and the gingham ribbon. If you would like to play along with this fun Christmas challenge please check out Linda's post here which gives all the details of the challenge requirements. The challenge is sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique and you could even win one of the prize vouchers if you complete all 12 weeks.
A vintage journey winter magic

Emerald Creek Dares 2/3  winter wishes

Simon Says stamp Monday Ice inspiration

                                                Sparkles Christmas Christmas is coming

Simon Says Work it Wednesday 2/3 use dies

The Artistic Stamper 3/3 Christmas

Winter Wonderland 2/3 frame it or night scene my poem is framed by the holly and robins

Crafty Boots unltd Christmas

Let's craft and create 2/3 Christmas

My Hb and I had a day out Christmas shopping today and had a very successful shop. I hope you are getting that list ticked too. Thanks so much for stopping by and for the kind comments you leave at such a busy time of the year for everyone. Take care.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x