Nature inspiration for Visible Image

Hi everyone and welcome to my latest design team make for Visible Image. The theme for our makes this week is "nature". I recently returned from our annual holiday to Rhodes and during our stay witnessed some amazing sunsets. One night in particular it looked as though the sky was on fire and I decided that when I got home I would use it as inspiration for one of my card makes.

This was the stunning scene I photographed as we enjoyed one of our al fresco evening meals.

and this is the card I made

I used the following products

Bubbles and fizz stencil set for my "sun" as a stencil and mask

and the Stay wild stamp set

This is how I created my fiery sunset;

I pulled the photo up from my phone and chose these distress inks to re create the sky. I used black soot, scorched timber, crackling campfire, carved pumpkin and mustard seed

I placed the circle mask from the stencil (you get this included in the bubbles and fizz set) over the top of a piece of 15cm square smooth white card as shown below

Starting with the lightest colour (mustard seed) I used a round ink blending tool to blend each of the colours around the circle mask. I then removed the mask.

I placed the circle stencil where the mask had been and added a little mustard seed ink. 

By using the combination of the mask and stencil I could achieve a white "glow" around the sun to really make it pop. 

I then cut the background down to a 14cm square and stamped the horse with Nocture Versafine Clair ink and clear heat embossed it.

 

I stamped and white heat embossed the sentiment onto black card and placed it at the bottom right of the card. I also stamped 2 of the little horses and used the "splash" of the horse to stamp as an edge to the sun, which you can see in the finished card. I matted onto black card and then affixed to a white 15.5cm square card blank. 

Here is my finished card again.

I am always inspired by mother nature but I was so pleased that by making this card I was able to bring back a memory of a sunset meal on our recent wonderful sunshine holiday. You could also make something similar to my card in your scrap book or journal to save as a holiday memory.

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. Whether you are a new stamper or a seasoned one you are most welcome to join us. Over 150 members, worldwide, have taken part since it started over 3 years ago. It's been such fun and it's so lovely to receive a unique piece of art from your partner in the post. The details and sign up for each swap are posted in the group on the 23rd of the month. 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 

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Women's Day blog hop

Hello and and extra warm welcome to my blog if you are a first time visitor. Today I am delighted to be part of the  STAMPlorations team who are taking part in the International Women's Day blog hop. It is also running over on Instagram. This is the 3rd annual hop and this year the focus is on empowerment.We all come from different backgrounds and cultures but crafting really does allow us to all join hands and recognize our wonderful diversity.  Too often we see on social media people being unkind......a little kindness and just a small word of support and encouragement really does go an awful long way. We can share kindness and all be our own kind of beautiful.

There are lots of awesome sponsors and lots of fab prizes to be won along the way!

You can find all the details here

This is what I got up to. 

I made a distress stain spray background.

I then placed on the peacock feathers stencil and used lucky clover and twisted citron distress ink.

To make this background.

I love the encouragement words in the succulently stamp set and the fun cacti! I used these to make my focal which I die cut using one of the fab crazy running stitch dies

I then put everything together. 

Here is my "encouragement" card.

with a close up

and one final shot;

Remember you can follow the whole Women's Day hop  here

If you would like to join me on Instagram you can find me here.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Let's celebrate diversity and encourage one another. Enjoy hopping along and remember that you can join in and perhaps even be a lucky winner by adding your own makes via the linky on the main host page. Good luck!

***********And before you go I have something special to add....the lovely Shery who owns STAMPlorations is offering an extra prize to anyone who leaves a comment on any of the 6 STAMP girl designers (me included) who are taking part in this hop. So remember to add a little comment here and your name will go in the hat for an EXTRA STAMPlorations prize being offered over on the STAMP blog. You can check out the other STAMP girl posts for the hop here. *************

Back soon, 

Bye for now,

Jane x

Putting on my CRAFTplorations ballet shoes for STAMPlorations

Hello I am back again with a new post for STAMPlorations

using another design from the awesome new CRAFTplorations shapes. There are some really gorgeous shapes over there. Today I am using the delightful Ballet shoes in 1.5 mm MDF which are 3" high. In this material you get 15 in a pack. I decided to incorporate mine into a special card.

My daughter has always loved ballet and danced to quite a high level when she was younger. My little granddaughter Daisy also dances and loves her ballet lessons.  Let's hope it's not too long until classes can reopen.
As you well know I am not really a very pink girl but being the Mum and Nanna to 2 ballet dancers I know that ballet shoes just have to be pink (and in real life satin!)

So I got out my Paperartsy fresco paints again and painted a pair of pink ballet shoes with pale pink ribbons.

I wanted to make my shoes stand out on my card so I die cut the smallest rectangle from my
crazy double running stitch die to make a focal for my card.

I used red foil embossing powder and stamped a greeting from the
birthday bash stamp set

 and then attached my ballet shoes with some pink satin ribbon.

I created a very simple Infusions background to finish off my card.
Here it is

with a couple of close ups.

 and one final shot.

Once again Shery has very kindly agreed to host a little giveaway on my blog here.

If you would like to win a pack of 1.5mm MDF ballet shoes for making your own projects, all you have to do is;

1. Leave a comment at the end on this post.
2. Pop on over to the STAMP post on the main blog here and leave a 2nd comment.

It's as simple as that and the prize will be posted worldwide so everyone has a chance to win. Remember that Shery posts at a very reasonable cost worldwide. Also if you use my special code STAMPGIRLJANE you can get 20% off anything on the website on top of any current discounts on offer. Now that is a win win in my books!

This is my second project with these lovely products and if you would like to see my previous one making this non Christmas bauble do check out this post here too.

Thanks so much for stopping by and do remember to leave a comment to be in with a winning chance for a set of your own ballet shoes. The giveaway closes on July 8th and the winner will be announced over on the main STAMPlorations blog here soon after.

Bye for now,

Jane x

Summer fields for Country View Challenges

Hello and welcome to our 6th challenge of the year from Country View. How the months have raced by. For June we would like to see your "Summer field" inspired projects. The details and my teamies projects for more inspiration can be found here;

During Lockdown our verges have not been trimmed although our parks have been kept pristine so I am not complaining. The weather for the last 10 weeks has been just amazing and I have so enjoyed being out in my garden and the local area. The interesting thing with our street's grass verges is that they have become miniature summer fields to me and inspired my make today.

 One of the very pretty plants to see ,and yes I know it's classed as a weed, are the dandelion heads.

 My little granddaughter loves to blow these.

 and of course my sweet granddaughter is called Daisy.

So much beauty in my grass verge summer fields.
 I remembered that I have a couple of Lavinia dandelion stamps in my stash so I chose a couple to make my card with. Susan does not have my exact one but she does have this one plus lots of lovely Lavinia designs on the website here. 

For some extra fairy magic I decided to ink up the fabulous dragonflies from the Live in the moment Visible image set. 

I made my background with distress spray stains which Susan sells here

I stamped my fairy and the dandelions

 and then added the dragonflies. I also stamped some of the dragonflies onto card and added glossy accents to their wings. Once dry I cut them out.

Here is my finished card.

and a couple of close ups

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

Lavinia world Anything goes

Lil patch of crafting friends 3/3 anything goes

C.R.A.F.T 2/3 decoupage/3D I have made my dragonfly 3d

Addicted to stamps and more 2/3 anything goes

Creative moments 2/3 anything goes

Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes

Try it on Tuesday 2/3 cut it out my dragonfly is cut out
We love to create 1/3 Anything goes mixed media

Allsorts 1/3 magical worlds

I hope I may have inspired you to join in with our June "summer fields" challenge. You can use any stamps/products, the choice is yours. 

You can enter our challenge as many times as you like and combine with other challenges. There is also a £20 crafting voucher up for grabs to the lucky randomly selected winner to spend over on the Country View Crafts on line store. Remember that UK postage and packing from CVC is free on all orders over £7.50! Once again all the details for the June challenge can be found here;

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Keep staying safe,

Back soon

Bye for now

Jane x

Being hopeful, Mindful Moments 10

This is my 10th Mindful Moments post and it will be my last as things are beginning to change and improve and we are slowly but surely coming out of Lockdown. By no means is this dreadful Pandemic over but the whole purpose of my Mindful Moments posts was to bring some mindfulness to the very dark place the UK found itself in 10 weeks ago. Back then we had no idea how long we would be there for. Here is my original post if you missed it. It was then the very start of spring and everyone but  key workers had to stay indoors. Now we are rapidly approaching summer. I have been able to see my son outside and will also be visiting my parents sitting 10 feet away in their garden. Although it's not possible to share a hug it's wonderful to catch up "in the flesh". However it seems that it could still be a long time until we see my daughter, her HB and our 2 grandchildren. Jack is only 3 and does not understand social distancing at all and Daisy would find keeping apart (as I would) very emotionally challenging. 

Last night was also the last of our weekly "clapping" for the NHS. This has been a joyful and supportive event for our street but I agree that now is the right time to try to get back to a little normality. What I really hope is that people continue to give the doctors and NHS staff the respect and thanks they have always deserved. Pandemic or no pandemic that have always given 100%. When this terrible illness descended and we were all told to stay indoors, they ran straight out, without ever considering their own personal safety. My doctor daughter also had all her bank holidays until the late May one cancelled and she never once complained. What an incredible job they did and are still doing.

I also hope that society also continues to be thankful for all the other key workers that perhaps previously we took for granted until life changed overnight. Teachers, postpeople, delivery drivers, shop workers, refuse collectors, the list goes on and on.  

So today's post is one where I trying to inspire some hope.

Most of my inspiration over the last 10 weeks has come from my tiny garden and from my daily walks. Mother Nature has never slowed down over these 10 weeks and has carried on blooming and growing. 

I noticed that my ornamental poppies in my front garden came into bloom this week.

Their stunning bold red colour inspired me to use red flowers, like the red in the English flag and hope for the future of our country. 

I noticed red roses in the park

and red geranium.

One of my hanging baskets has a deep red begonia which looks stunning with it's dark green foliage.

So back to my ornamental poppies. My dearest best friend gave me the seeds as part of a birthday present some years back and they just self seed each year. They are real show stoppers as they are enormous. I think the variety is called ladybird, and you can see why. 

I thought that it would be very apt to make my last Mindful moments project using them as my inspiration.

I wanted to make a thank you card for someone who recently painted me the most delightful artwork...and then apologized as she didn't think they were good enough as she has only just taken up painting! Believe me they are so gorgeous and I will treasure them. 

I don't have a poppy flower stamp so I decided to turn my Visible Image Creative Choas set into poppies. 

I also knew the perfect Visible Image sentiments to use too, these are from their "The world needs art" sentiment set. Those I have used on my card are so apt and so true! I made a distress stain inky sprayed background in green like the foliage of my plants. 

Here are some close ups.

I added a little glossy accents to a few petals.

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

Creative artiste 2/3 anything goes

Lil patch of crafting friends 2/3 anything goes
A vintage journey Beautiful blooms

Sweet stampin 1/3 anything but square

C.R.A.F.T 1/3decoupage/3D

Addicted to stamps and more 1/3 anything goes

Creative moments 1/3 anything goes

Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes

Try it on Tuesday 1/3 cut it out
Stamping sensations say it with flowers

My lockdown crafting gave me such a focus over these last 10 weeks. I am still Zoom crafting with my little Daisy until we can craft together in person. I will continue as always to craft but I hope over the next 10 weeks that life may actually begin to open up a little more too and allow visits and perhaps even a mini holiday in the UK.  

Yes very, very slowly and by taking baby steps we are trying to move the UK forwards. The last thing we want is another peak of the virus.

So here is my last Mindful Moments quote which is actually a very famous short poem called;

Hope is the Thing with Feathers

“Hope” is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.

I’ve heard it in the chillest land
And on the strangest sea,
Yet never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

By: Emily Dickinson

Let's hope we can come through this pandemic with the least possible loss of life. It is certainly  going to change the world and the way we live forever. Let's hope some of those changes are eventually seen as being for the better. One day we will be able to look back at all this as a historical event and my greatest hope is that we can learn lessons from this dreadful disease and that we never again have to live through such dark days. 

Thanks so much for stopping by over the last 10 weeks and reading my Mindful Moments posts.  I really do hope that they gave you a tiny ray of sunshine.

My "normal Jane's Journal" blogging will resume on Monday.

Stay safe, stay hopeful and stay mindful.

Bye for now,

With love,

Jane x