Home from sunny Rhodes

I have had a couple of scheduled posts on my blog over the last week as I have been in Rhodes with my Hb. We have been staying at the same apartments for over 10 years now and it is like going home. We seem to have brought the sunshine home as there are blue skies here this morning but rather a temperature drop from 32c yesterday to 20c today!

I will sort out my photos and write a couple of posts over the coming weeks but here are a couple of sunny ones just for now to make you smile. I never get bored looking out from our balcony. 

and the beach is a 1 minute walk away..just bliss.

My card for today is another of the Clean and Simple new stock I have taken down to sell at Dotty's. This one is going up for sale today...using one of my bright happy Visible Image stamps with their fab sentiment too. 

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

Fashionable stamping 1/3 quote away
Dragonfly dreams 2/3 anything goes
Not just cards 1/3 anything goes
Simon says stamp Wednesday pop it up my smilie is on a pop up dot

I will be back very soon,
I am off to Dotty's and then to collect Billy, who has been on his holidays over at my Mum and Dad's.

Thanks for stopping by.

 Keep smiling.

Bye for now,

Jane x

Choose happiness

It's the last Monday in May...how on earth did that happen? The wonderful realisation though is that summer is very nearly here. I recently potted up my pots in the garden with summer bedding and looking out at them really does make me smile.

 Raspberry ripple ice cream comes to mind and thoughts of long summer days ahead...bliss

It's also time for my weekly inspiration for Visible Image. Today's piece is very apt as I used the new Choose happiness sentiments set. This is one of the 3 fab new release sentiment sets. There are so many great sentiments in this set and also a really fun smiley face both as positive and negative stamp.  It takes me back to the late 1960s, I can remember them as badges in bubble gum machines. My brother and I got so excited when occasionally out came a badge as well as your gum! 

I decided to make ATCs using the sentiments and display them on a wall hanging, using the smileys to decorate it.

This is what I got up to;

I blended some "happy" distress oxide colours onto a sheet of smooth card stock...squeezed lemonade, picked raspberry, fossilized amber and dried marigold . I then stamped using the shapes from the shape it up set to make a masterboard. This set is brilliant for all sorts of backgrounds.

 I stamped using oxides.

Once my masterboard was finished I cut a strip 

and from that strip I cut 3 ATC sized pieces. (An ATC size is 2 1/2 by 3 1/2") 

I then white embossed the 3 sentiments from the set and added some extra colouring using an orange gel pen.

I took a sheet of watercolour paper and altered it using the awesome new collision stencil

I sprayed squeezed lemonade distress spray first onto the blank paper and then added carved pumpkin distress ink through the stencil.

 I moved the stencil down as I worked. 

 I rounded off the corners of my ATCs

I then stuck the background onto a piece of grey board and added some eyelets so that it could be hung as a "Choose happiness" wall hanging.

I also had fun stamping out lots of smileys. I stamped the negatives in the same oxide colours and then added the positive in black. Here are my yellow ones.

This is my completed wall hanging.

I would like to enter my happy wall hanging into the following challenges;

Simon says stamp Wednesday use more than 1 stamp I used 5!
Simon says stamp  Monday inspired by a song my song just has to be "Happy together" by The Turtles, yes I am showing my age, such a fun 60s song when
 these fun smileys were everywhere!
Pixie's snippets playground #327 I made my smileys from snippets of card

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 main Visible Image Facebook page is here; there are weekly stamp giveaways...open world wide! There is an 11,000 followers celebration running at the moment, you could win a £100 coupon to spend on their website! 

And the shop web site is here; where all these gorgeous stamps and stencils can be purchased. 

You can also follow via:

 Pinterest

Twitter

and

 Instagram

There are 6 new stamp sets and 8 new stencils...all totally amazing and uniquely Visible Image.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope my wall hanging made you smile....choose happiness is a pretty good mantra to have, in my humble opinion.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x