Time to start a new chapter

Good morning, what a change in the weather for me, last Wednesday I was basking in 33c in Rhodes and although the weather over the weekend was lovely it is a real temperature shock!

 It is time for my now, once a fortnight, Monday Make for Visible Image. We were recently joined by some lovely new designers who had guest designed so well during  the summer that Helen invited them to join the team. It is really lovely to have them and their wonderful talent on board Team Awesome. This means that we have a 2 weekly rota so that everyone can share their projects. I will now bring you my new design team makes every other Monday.

For my make today I decided to use sentiments and the typewriter from the One kind word

and some sentiments from Have I told you sets

together with the iconic 

Face it!

I made a rainbow background using distress inks and masking tape.

I stamped and embossed half the face and the large sentiment from One kind word.

I stamped the letters flourish using worn lipstick distress ink.

I then coloured in the eye and lips with glitter pens.

I stamped, embossed and fussy cut out the typewriter and one set of words which I pushed up to give some dimension on a piece of craft foam.

Here is my finished card.

Some close ups;

and one final shot

I would like to enter it into the following challenges;

A gem of a challenge 1/2 anything goes
Allsorts 1/3 anything goes +/- a twist
Take it make it craft stamper 1/3 anything goes
Addicted to stamps 1/3 for a lady/girl
Simon says stamp Monday stamp it
Through the craft room door 2/3 anything goes

I think this is a most apt card for today; the start of a fabulous new Visible Image chapter. I absolutely love being a part of this awesome team. For me personally I also have some other, secret for now, crafting adventures I am foraying into. I can't share anything yet..but watch this space. I really am living the crafting dream.

Thank you all so much for stopping by, for your lovely comments you take the time to leave and for following and supporting me. It is time to start my new crafting chapter and adventures!

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

A last butterfly for summer?

Good morning there are just 19 days left of summer 2019. I thought that today, for my Visible Image  design team make, it would be good to share the card today I made for the Craft Stamper magazine July edition, when summer was still in full swing. It still feels like summer in my garden and my buddleia is still blooming beautifully. I even spotted this gorgeous butterfly at the weekend, which I quickly snapped with my camera.

I was asked by Visible Image to design a summer card for the magazine and I chose to use the Wings of change stamp set. Such a fab butterfly set. I called my card "fragile summer" in honour of how fragile the life of a butterfly is. 

These are some of the colours I associate with summer and I chose for them for my palette.

I added some drips of water to my background and then added some background stamping using the Organics set to make some branches. 

I stamped using green versamark clair ink.

I stamped some more butterflies and coloured them with the same distress oxide colours. I then added a wink of Stella for sparkle and then Crackle Accents to give some more fragility.

I wanted the butterflies to emerge from my card so I stamped and gold embossed the Crack from "How fragile"

and cut an opening for a butterfly to emerge from

I also used some beading wire to fashion a set of antennae

and stamped, highlighted and distressed the words.

Here is my finished card

and some close ups

and one last shot

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

Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes

A bit more time to craft 1/3 anything goes
We love 2 create 1/3 anything goes mixed media
Happy Little stampers watercolour anything goes

All the Visible Image links can be found here;

Visible Image group page on Facebook. Our friendly Group is here ...it would be lovely to see you there. You will see lots of gorgeous makes by the DT and customers to inspire your own creativity.

The main Visible Image Facebook page is here; there are regular giveaways...open world wide.

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

 Thanks for stopping by,

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Spring morphs into summer

Good morning, what a lovely week of weather we enjoyed in the south; long hot sunny days.
 I promised I would share a few more photos of our Sicily holiday. A place my Hb and I walked to most days was the public park, just below the amphitheater. The shade found there was most welcome and it was a blissful spot to sit, eat lunch and watch the world go by.

 The gardens were built in the 1890s by an rich English aristocrat lady who lived in Taormina.  She had several follies erected where she could paint. Below is one of them.  Sadly you cannot go inside any of them now as they are not safe.

How amazing it must have been to sit at one of those windows, look out to the view and paint. Wow how I would love to sit there and craft but I am not sure the floors would not even hold a paint brush now.

It is also time for my weekly Visible Image design team project and today I am sharing 2 tags which I have called my spring and summer tags using the more stamps from the wonderful June release.
I took some inky mop up card and added vintage photo distress oxide through the
Cosmic skies stencil



I used the Tree of life stamp set

I then took some spring feel inky card from my stash and stamped the 2 leaves multiple times and fussy cut them out.

I stamped my images and the sentiment onto the tag and paper pieced the leaves.

I then took some summer feel inky mop up card, die cut a tag and added squeezed lemonade distress ink (such a summery name!) through the
Atomic flower stencil

I stamped my images and the other sentiment in the set onto this tag using Versafine Clair  and paper pieced some more of the leaves again.

I added Glossy Accents to the little bubbles on the leaves for some extra texture.
Here are the finished tags.
Spring

summer

both together

and one last shot

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

Creative fingers 2/3 anything goes
Through the craft room door 2/3 anything goes
Crafty sentiments 2/3 bright colours
Simon says stamp make your own background
Love to craft 2/3 anything goes
A bit more time to craft 2/3 anything goes
Happy little stampers 2/3 anything goes
Craft Stamper take it make it July

All the Visible Image links can be found here;

Visible Image group page on Facebook. Our friendly Group is here ...it would be lovely to see you there. You will see lots of gorgeous makes by the DT and customers to inspire your own creativity.

The main Visible Image Facebook page is here; there are regular giveaways...open world wide.

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

I had a fabulous day yesterday demonstrating for the lovely Jame and Emma of Stampers Grove at the Stamperama Stamping Show at the Newbury Race course. James took some action shots which he will send me but this is a photo he took for me before opening time. The day just raced by.

I so enjoyed showing my samples, demonstrating and sharing tips and techniques with all the lovely crafters who stopped by.  I also met several lovely ladies who I have known for a while via Facebook or blogging and I have now had the pleasure to meet them in person. Such fun! I will be back with a post of the day later this week. 

I have another quick heads up for THIS Thursday, 11 July. If you are in the Carshalton area I am appearing at Dotty's Teahouse where my cards are sold at their first Meet the Maker event. Do stop by I will be sharing lots of tips and there will be live inky demos at 11am and 2pm!

It would be lovely to see you there plus Dotty's homemade cakes are legendary! 

You will find Dotty's at High Street, Carshalton, Surrey, SM5 2AE.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Sunshine and Sicily

As promised I am back with my first installment of photos from our recent wonderful holiday in Taormina, Sicily. This was our 3rd visit there and we stayed at the same hotel. As you can imagine it was hot hot hot and blue skies and sunshine were the order of the day. At the far end of town is the ancient Greek amphitheatre.
It is wonderful that shows are still held here..just look at that view with Mount Etna in the distance. They were just putting up the staging for the film festival when we were there.

 This is the view looking out and back to the coast and Etna.

And below is looking back up to where our hotel is nestled in the hills. Just imagine how many thousands of people over thousands of years have looked at this view and how the buildings have come and gone over time.

The streets of Taormina are narrow and cars are not allowed.

I can imagine in ancient days that horses must have ferried people around.

My card today is a sample made to show at the Stamperama show at the Newbury Racecourse this  Sunday, 7th July.
I will be demonstrating  for Stampers' Grove again who are on stand 16 using Visible Image stamps and stencils.

As the show is at the Racecourse I thought it would be great fun to use the Stay Wild Visible Image stamp set. I created a very sunny background using a combination of distress oxides and brushos, showing the sea and the sky.

With a couple of close ups

I will of course also be demonstrating using all the brand new Visible Image stamp release too. If you are around do pop by. It would be so good to put faces to names.

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

Creative fingers 1/3 anything goes
Inkspirational 1/3 3 or 5 of anything I have 3 horses
Sweet stampin 1/3 you are my sunshine
Through the craft room door 1/3 anything goes
Crafty sentiments 1/3 bright colours
Simon says stamp make your own background
Love to craft 1/3 anything goes
A bit more time to craft 1/3 anything goes
Happy little stampers 1/3 anything goes

Thanks so much for stopping by,

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x