Cast a clout the May be out!

Yes the May is in full bloom on the Hawthorn trees and if the old English saying, "Ne'er cast a clout till May be out" is correct it's time to get rid of those outer coats and clothes (clout) and look forward to warm days and nights. Hopefully we will have seen the last of any frosts here in Southern England until the autumn.

I love the Hawthorn, it has such spectacular flowers which although usually white, can have tinges of pink right through to being pure pink.
I snapped lots of hawthorn flowers whilst out and about this week.

here is the lovely pink version.

Fairy folklore was associated with the Hawthorn too. It was known as the "Faerie Tree"and May Queens were decorated with Hawthorn. It's also known as the bread and cheese tree as the blooms, leaves and berries can all be used to make wines and jellies.

I also noticed that the cherry trees are losing their blossom now and it is flying about like fairy confetti in the air.

These cherry trees looked so pretty standing in a pool of pink fluffy blossom.

So yes trees, fairies. blossom and blue skies were the inspiration for my card I am sharing here today. I won some fabulous stamps from Lavinia in April and got them out to play with. I made a card. I have entered it over on their Facebook challenge here. If you remember in April I asked my lovely Blogging friends to go over and "Like" me there. Getting into the top 20 is necessary to get through to the final DT judging. Can I ask you to follow this link here and like me over there. If you want to share my card, please do....but I only get votes if peeps come back and like me on the original  Lavinia page. Thanks so much in advance x

The background was created with distress inks. I embossed all the images. The die cuts are Tim Holtz wild flowers (my favourite flower die of the moment) as is the sentiment.

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

Simon says stamp Wednesday flowers
Anything but Cute celebrate your style yes I have several styles, all of which I love to play with...this is another of mine...and I do love fairies (and mermaids, and Christmas and...LOLOL)
The Ribbon Girl 1/3 any image

Crafty friends 2/3 in the garden

Paper Creator 2/3 anything goes

Fussy and Fancy 2/3 birthdays

Noor spring flowers
Bastel-traum Fantasy
Seven Hills Crafts Embossing I used Hero Arts clear embossing powder for all my stamp embossing.
WOW  embossing powders May challenge

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. Ours was lovely, sunny and warm in our sheltered garden. I have been really busy making cards in my studio. I also bought some lovely bedding plants from our local nursery and will be potting them up once I have hardened them up outside for a few days.

I am back again tomorrow with a GD post for the lovely ladies over at Try it on Tuesday. It would be lovely if you can stop by again and see what I made...here's a clue.....birdsong was my inspiration ;0)

Bye for now,

Jane x

Cast a clout.....the May is out!

The spring bulbs are all but finished now but there is still plenty of spring blossom to see. At the weekend I noticed that the may blossom from the Hawthorne is out, so it's time to embrace the last of the cold weather (hopefully). This is according to the old English proverb "Ne'er cast a clout til May be out" and probably refers to the blossom of the Hawthorn (which was also known as the May tree) rather than the month of May. In other words have the jumpers at the ready until you see May blooming on the Hawthorn tree.

I spied May on our country walk on Sunday with Daisy and her Mummy and Daddy. The hedgerows are full of it.

Considering how lethal the thorns are on hawthorn it is such a pretty flower

We saw other gorgeous blossoms too

My darling granddaughter Daisy had such fun on a slide......so much joy in this photo

I must start to clear out my spring bulb pots in my garden as they are all finished now. It's time for some summer bedding.....how exciting. I might get the chance at the weekend to get up to the nurseries to choose some.

My card today is inspired by the ancient English proverb and by the countryside. I can never seen a wood or hedgerow without thinking about fairies too.  There are so many glorious colours around at the moment and unusually for me I used the pink cheery blossom as the backing colour for my vintage garden inspired card. I don't grow tea roses in my garden as I don't have the space but I just love them. I still have a passion for fairies (I will never grow up) and Lavinia's stamps are always my go to as they are classic and non cute and work really well with mixed media techniques. They remind me of Margaret Tarrant and Cicily Mary Barker's (flower fairies) wonderful vintage illustrators work.

The background is created with different colours of  Bister misted with water. If  this is a new product to you have a look here to see what fun it is. The stamp is Lavinia which I have embossed in black. I have inked up some bought mulberry roses and added some Cheery Lynn leaves die cuts. I embossed the pink card for extra texture. I distressed everything with Vintage photo DI.

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

Lavinia use pink or blue or both
Cheery Lynn Roses I have used my leaf die cuts
Anything but cute vintage garden This is a new challenge run by blogging friend Pamellia, do pop on over and support her in her new venture. She is such a talented and kind blogger and has a great DT over there.
Simon says stamp Wednesday colour swatch

Stamp and Create May flowers

Our Creative Corner April showers bring May flowers

Country view simply scenic

Noor! May flowers

Fussy and fancy lots of flowers

The ribbon girl Anything goes with an image

Sweet stampin spring flowers

Allsorts die cuts- more than 2 I have used 5 leaf die cuts

Crafty boots lace or ribbon
Papertake Weekly in the garden
Craft stamper take it make it take a stamp
Stamping sensations flower power

Although we have had some (very welcome for my garden) rain here this morning it certainly is much warmer so I shall embrace the ancient saying and cast a clout 'cos may is out! Time to dig out the summer sandals and get my toenail painted up ready for the great summer ahead.

Thanks as always for taking the time to visit me. I really appreciated all you wonderful comments on my Bluebell wood post.....I am currently working on something else inspired by that walk and hope to post it here soon....work in progress indeed.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x