Yes I am still going round in circles.........

Hello today I am back with my 2nd DT peice for our current "have fun with circles" challenge over at Country View. If you missed my first one you will find it here. As promised I am back today to share the new baby girl version I made.
You can use 1 circle or as many as you like...I had fun again using as many as possible. I will count them out as I go along..and yes as spotted there are circles in the daisy heads and the whole image is circular. The teddy also has circles for eyes.
My image was coloured with Promarkers and highlighted with Prismacolor pencils.

1. I cut it out using a circular die.

2. I used a circular scallop for the frame and a baby paper with lots of circles.

 I opened up my new baby tin and found some other baby girl bits and pieces.

3.  I used spotty (circles) ribbon ( I changed my mind with the sentiment as my TH one worked better)

and here is my finished card complete with
4. Circular gems.
5. Circles in the "e"s of celebrate and the "a" of my die cut sentiment.

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

Crafting from the heart anything goes
As you like it favourite markers and why mine are Promarkers. They are what I used when I started colouring over 5 years ago and I still love the way they blend. I have lots!
Crafty Hazelnut's patterned paper challenge anything goes July
Penny Black and More 2/3 anything goes with a stamp
The ribbon girls 2/3 any card
Addicted to stamps and more 2/3 anything goes
Cupcake inspirations 2/3 flowers
Mod Squad lazy days of summer I cannot think of anything more lazy than lying in a hammock like this little hedgehog!
Creative Moments anything goes with option of ribbon
Fashionable stamping beautiful blooms
Crafty ribbons things with wings my butterfly on my stamp and my little duck die cuts.
Crafting Musketeers babies

Our "have fun with circles" challenge runs until 31st July and you can enter using any craft and any style. There is no limit to the number of entries nor the number of other challenges you also enter. Simples.....my kind of challenge ;0) You can find the link to it here.  It's great fun but I think I need to stop going round in circles now..I am starting to feel a little dizzy...LOL.

Thanks for visiting and for the kind comments you take the time to leave.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

When 2 crafts collide

My silversmithing class returned after the Christmas break and I realised I have not show you what I made during the autumn term. The brief set by our tutor was to make something with a hinge. I have made hinged boxes in the past so she suggested that I made a hinged "card" pendant, as she knows my papercraft addiction.

That set me off with lots of ideas. I had a copper metal clay heart which I made some time ago and thought I could use it as a "focal" just as I do on my cards. I wanted to have some writing on my "card".The only way I could do this without engraving, which we don't have the tools for, was to use alphabet punches. I designed the front of the card to show "love" and the inside would reveal the rest of the words.....

 I cut 2 matching pieces of silver sheet and filed the edges. I wrote the words on paper and stuck them to the silver sheet. Using the punches and a hammer I struck the words...it took a lot of patience to get the letters spaced and in a line.

 I also soldered the heart to the front of my "card"

 The hinge was made with thin silver tubing,  measured into thirds and partially sawn through. The middle third blanked out with rouge so that it did not solder and remained "free".

 Once in place I carefully sawed out that middle section

and this piece was them soldered to the front. This was a complex procedure.
It all got so fiddly and there are no more photo but a piece of silver wire was threaded through and then riveted off to make the hinge. Then I had lots of filing and adjustments to made the "card" close.
I added a loop and a jump ring to make it into a pendant. Then there was a week or 2 or filing and polishing.

So do you want to how it turned out.......here we go....if you  think photographing cards is tricky sterling silver is just ridiculous!

Hinge side view

The front

Opening the hinge to reveal the inside words 

Another front view

and to give an idea of scale here is my card pendant on an 18" chain.

It's much prettier and shiny in the flesh and I really love wearing it...it combines my silversmithing with my card making, infact I am wearing it as I type this.

So having combined silversmithing with card making my busy creative brain thought...why not combine card making with silversmithing! I seriously had been playing with foil techniques before Tim brought out his January tag challenge. I made a faux riveted card using snippets of foil and lots of tools including staples.

I added some black acrylic paint and then gave it a good rub with sandpaper to give a real grungy rusted feel.

 I added a lovely red embossed heart

 and a Dymo sentiment for a retro look. I put this card in my Etsy shop and it sold in 2 days! I plan to made another version soon.

*******EDIT: 12.1.16....A new version is available via the link here***********

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

WOW embossing challenge anything goes my heart is heat embossed with red embossing powder,
Anything but cute Ring out the old...bring in the new this is a new style male card for me and my first outing of Wendy Vecchi's gorgeous red geranium embossing powder
Crafty calendar something new   this is a new style male card for me and my first outing of Wendy Vecchi's gorgeous embossing powder
Rubber Dance Black white and one other colour....mine is black white and red.
Simon says stamp Wednesday something new this is a new style male card for me and my first outing of Wendy Vecchi's gorgeous embossing powder.
Love to create anything creative/mixed media #27
Crafty friends something new this is a new concept piece for me combining silversmithing with card making.
Simon says stamp Monday something new this the first time I have combined card making with my silversmithing
Art with heart  Favourite things Combining my crafts is one of them!

I love how all my crafts....silversmithing, card making, art journaling, mixed media Moments, knitting, crochet and cake decorating all share some similar elements. It keeps me endlessly occupied and with so many ideas that if I live until I was 100 I would never exhaust them. I actually keep a notebook of light bulb moments so that I don't forget them.

Thanks for visiting me today. Have a lovely weekend and hopefully you will get some time to get creative. I hope to get some creative time on Sunday....and yes my brain is already ticking away with ideas.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Kicking off Jane's Journal's card versions of Tim's 12 tags of 2016

Yes here we go....I am delighted that Tim is continuing with his 12 tags challenge this year. He has decided to revisit some old techniques and combine 2 on each tag. I was amazed to see that he has been using foil for January...I had already been playing with this stuff myself  over Christmas but you'll have to wait to see what I made...

So back to Tim. Here is his January tag

If you would like to see his techniques in detail please pop over to see them on his blog here

Now as you know I make special cards by using his tags as inspiration and I needed a card for my sister in law so I decided to make a slightly more feminine version.

This is what I got up to in my studio

I had already found some foil tape so I used this instead of the foil sheets and used my sizzix flourish embossing folder which came with my Big Shot 3 years ago. It is such a useful folder. How cool is this....

The chalkboard technique is very tricky as again I don't have Tim's supplies but I did succeed with it in my own way

I made some other elements too, sorry re the very dark photos, I'm still managing some crafting in my studio but the light for photos is poor.

So then it was time to put on my creative hat........

and this what I came up with.

The sentiment is from my Clearly Besotted stamp set. You can see my chalkboard effect flourish stamping on the black card in the center panel 

I must admit I just love that textured background, heavy metal eh ;0)

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

Tim Holtz 12 tags of 2016 January
Anything but cute Ring out the old...bring in the new this is a new metal technique and also the first outing for my new butterfly charm
Allsorts something new  My new metal technique and first 2016 Tim project.
Crafty calendar something new my new metal technique and new butterfly charm.
Crafty friends something new my first card with my new butterfly charm.
Pixie's snippets playground 2/3  #210 I used snippets of foil and black card
Rubber Dance Black white and one other colour....mine is silver.
Crafting Musketeers 1/3 new beginnings my first Tim project of the year
Simon says stamp something new new metal technique and new butterfly charm
Crafting for all seasons 1/3 monochrome

It's turned surprisingly chilly today and the forecast is that winter may finally arrive next week....we'll see. Meanwhile my indoor hyacinth is putting on a pink show on my kitchen window sill.

So much beauty about to unfold.

Thanks for visiting today and a warm welcome to my newest follower, my first new one of 2016.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

A jungle of a birthday

Today is my darling granddaughter, Daisy Jane's 2nd birthday. I cannot believe where those 2 years have gone. Just 2 years ago a tiny perfect baby came into the world and today she is a walking, talking loving little girl. I hope one day Daisy will be able to come back and read my blog and that I have kept many of these special memories safe for her in Jane's Journal.

Thank you for all the birthday wishes you sent and I have promised today to give the grand reveal of this year's birthday cake, the photos are further down. First though I thought I would share a little of my cake making past.

Both of my children have very fond memories of their own childhood birthday parties when I would always made them a cake. We were having a reminisce and my son particularly remembered his Noddy cake when he was 4 (he's now 26).....he had me making a car with Noddy in and all the little skittles too...I have shared this photo before but for my newer readers this is that cake circa 1993. I made everything out of fondant icing other than the bell, the steering wheel, the skittle arms and the windshield.

Noddy Circa 1993

We always had a theme each year so it was no surprise that my own daughter wanted a theme for Daisy's party. She chose Zoo/jungle animals as Daisy just adores animals. She also adores the DVD and books called 64 Zoo Lane. I even managed to get the author to sign some books to Daisy last year. My daughter found this fun party ware, which is very "64 Zoo Lane" style, and this is what I based my cake design on.

Over the last month I have been working on making the fondant icing animals. I use shop bought fondant icing, some is pre coloured some I colour with pastes. I just make these by hand.
Hello Mr Giraffe..................

Here are the basic shapes. I made several frog heads as I was not quite sure which I preferred! A couple were too alien for my liking.

 Of course these needed eyes...I made lots of these....

I gradually added the details...spots, horns, mane etc

 until these happy souls appeared.

Some of the leaves I hand cut for others I used a new set of leaf cutters. This is a great set as they are double edge, serrated or plain.

and yes my little crocodile came into being as well as palm trees and snakes. I cut into the sides of the leaves with a knife to make them look more "jungley" (I know that not a word but you know what I mean!)

Then on Friday after work I spent 5 hours putting everything together...I only took 1 under construction photo as I could not keep stopping and taking photos plus my  hands were covered in icing.
The base cake is my usual all in one simple Victoria sponge with raspberry conserve and buttercream inside. I use an 8" round tin,

I covered it with a thin layer of shop bought white fondant icing for the base.
Below is the sneek peek I shared on Monday. I decided to put my round cake onto a 12" square board so that I could create a jungle scene. I made a sky at the top and a river and water fall flowing onto the cake board. I stuck fondant "rocks" around the edge and "floated" Mr Croc in the water. In the finished photos you will see how I added movment to the water, this was just the start!

OK so here is the big reveal.

The light on Saturday was poor so my camera struggled. Here is Mr Purple Elly and his frog friend and there's a snake in the leaves sleeping.

Mr Giraffe

You can see below how I added a feeling of movement to the water fall and river just by using my modelling tools. 

Some of the details around the edge of the cake..palm tree and coconuts and some sneaky eyes peeping out from the undergrowth ;0)

A happy snake ;0)

The birthday candle holders, 2 of course. These are also made of fondant icing. The candles are of course real!

And some clouds in the sunny sky. I added a wash of coloured royal icing around the corners of the board to give some extra texture. I took some time deliberating where to add Daisy's name and eventually decided to write Daisy's name on one of the clouds. I think this worked well. I often add sentiments on my card on my cloud dies so this was an idea from my cardmaking.

So here is the cake all in place at the party

and the table with my daughter's brilliant cupcakes

She found these fun rice paper cake toppers which matched the party ware.

A fun time was had by all.

Including me and my darling girlie

and of course the party girl who was fascinated when the candles were lit and we all sang happy birthday to her. 

She was helped to blow out the candles by her Mummy and Daddy

and she even helped Mummy and Daddy cut the cake and make a wish.........

What fun family times, we are so blessed.

Happy Birthday darling Daisy, enjoy your special day and your trip  to the zoo with Mummy and Daddy. 

There are a couple of challenges I can enter my cake into so I would like to enter it into;

Pixie's snippets Playground week #202 I have used a lot of snippets of fondant icing for Daisy's cake!

Country View The colour blue I have used the colour blue in my river, waterfall and sky!

 I also have a challenge card of course today and yes it had to be Daisy's birthday card. One of her favourite creatures in the world is our Billy, the cat. I have a wonderful Lily of the Valley stamp which I thought looks like Daisy with our Billy.  I coloured it up with Promarkers and made a special easel card for her.

 I even managed to sneak in my Tim Holtz bird and branch die....I am sure Tim would be shocked to see it used here but I think it works really well. The backing papers are Wild Rose Studio.

Below is the inside, I used my pretty floral embossing folder.

and a side view

I would like to enter my card (my cake challenges are above) into these fun challenges;

NoorUK anything goes
Ribbon Girl any thing goes card
Pile it on leaves
We love to create # 23 anything creative/mixed media
Simon Says Stamp Monday N is for.....November birthday, Nature and Number (2) on my card
Try it on Tuesday create a scene
Crafting for all seasons embossing
Creative Inspirations anything goes
Inspiration Journal mission embossoble

Thanks for visiting me here today. Now that all birthday cakes and cards are are made I will be full steam ahead getting Christmas prepared...there are cards and of course my crackers to make too.......and just 44 days left til the big day ;0)

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x