A most eventful weekend

Hello everyone and it's Monday which means that it is time for some more inspiration from me for Visible Image. Did you see the show on Create and Craft TV on Saturday? It was awesome and again most of the sets sold out! It was such fun seeing my cards there amongst our talented team's work. If you missed the show it is available on the website for 7 days via this link However today really is the most marvellous Monday as I can finally share some even more exciting news with you....

 Can you guess....I have been busy knitting for the past few months.....

Yes our darling Grandbaby arrived on Friday...

Meet Jack William

The sweetest darling baby brother for Daisy Jane. How blessed we are. He was a couple of weeks early and is tiny...just 5lb 13oz but just perfect and we all adore him!

What a weekend of excitement!

My card today is one that was made as a sample for Saturday's Show and I waved to it on TV.
I used 2 sets; the Scripted Streets set available here

I love this set...the script stamp makes is an amazing background script, you can use it for everything.
The map is also such fun.

 I also used some words and the awesome paper planes from the Destination unknown set

This is what I got up to.
 I repeat stamped the map onto thin card.

I used some Decoart media paints on another sheet of card to give a medieval feel to the background and repeat stamped the script.

I then die cut the background using a mixed media die to make a leaded glass effect.

I tore up some of maps and scrunched them up to make creases. I

I then opened them up again, added some inks to age them,  and stuck 3 maps to some black card.

When we were on holiday in Italy last summer I bought this sealing wax set in an art shop in Sienna and I knew now was the perfect time to use it .

I also stamped and embossed some words and paper planes from the Destination unknown set, put on my creative hat and came up with my card.
You can see that I used my black card as a base for my "window"and stuck the maps on top. I then added my trellis mixed media window sheet so that the maps are sandwiched between the layers.

Here are some side close ups to try to show the 3D effect.

I love my wax seal...it even has my initial on it and I will certainly be using it again very soon.

and one final shot

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

A vintage journey the magic of 3 I have used 3 word bands
Artistic Inspirations 2/3 anything goes
Crafting from the heart 2/3 anything goes
Simon says stamp Monday  splash it on I have used the wrinkle free technique or "swooshing"which a lot of peep seem to be calling it, for creating my cat fur!
As you like it 1/3 favourite colour and why I love shades of brown, they give such a vintage feel to this type of card.
Sweet Stampin 1/3 I wish I could fly

Thanks so much for stopping by on this truly Marvellous Monday.

Visible Image will be back on Create and Craft in June and we have plenty more inspiration for you in the meantime over on Facebook;

Our friendly Group can be

found here where every day our DT bring you a new inspiring project. 

The main Visible Image page is here; there are weekly stamp giveaways...open world wide!

And the main Visible Image web site is here; where all these gorgeous stamps can be found. So if you missed out on buying your favourites on Saturday's Create and Craft TV show, you can still buy them today!

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

More knitting Nanna

I love to keep my blog as a visual Jane's Journal for all my crafts and I realised when I looked through my photo archives that there is a knitting project that I had not shared here. When Daisy was born in 2013 I got out my very "rusty" knitting needles and and made her first new born hat....this photo seems so long ago now. It was the first photo my SIL sent to me hours after she was born. I was so proud to see her wearing Nanna's first knit.

I made a couple of other hats to keep her warm, now we have trouble keeping anything on her head!

I also made a little white matinee jacket which got so much use, this fitted her for ages.

I then found some wonderful multicoloured bright wool and  made a big girls version of this. This wool was amazing as it knitted up in blocks of stripes all by itself.

 I am delighted that she wears this a lot too. This photo was taken a few months ago and it still fits her really well.

Daisy and her knitting Nanna.

I think the only thing we are likely to keep in her hair this year is a hair slide ;0)

She also says Nanna so beautifully, here she is on the phone to me.

She has just got her big girl's car seat this week...and yes she is wearing Nanna's knit whilst showing off her shoooooos ;0)

I do enjoy knitting but there are other crafts which grab my attention more so I am not sure that I will be doing any more for the present. Perhaps if Daisy needs some doll's clothes at some stage they will be nice and quick to knit. Meanwhile the one craft which has been on my bucket list for ages to try is crochet. I have bought some hooks and some wool and I plan to try to have a go this year. My plans went out of the window last summer when life got a little hectic. I am hoping for a more mellow summer this year and I dream of sitting in the garden with Billy having a try at some crochet. We'll see and I'll let you know how I get on. Some of my blogging friends produce some wonderful work and some have even taken it up fairly recently and made some beautiful pieces. 

My challenge card today has to be something Daisy related so I thought I would show the Easter card I have made. 

The stamp is Lili of the Valley which I have coloured with Promarkers adding some highlights with Prismacolor pencils. The butterflies are a MS punch and the sweet little chick is Cheery Lynn. The sentiment is Clearly Besotted.

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

Cheery Lynn Easter

Country View Crafts anything goes

Papertake weekly Mum's the word/girlie card

The Artistic Stamper spring is coming

Allsorts spring is in the air

Fashionable stamping spring time

Cupcake Inspirations sparkle inspiration, 300th challenge celebrations many congrats to them!

CraftyHazelnut's Patterned papers anything goes

Simon says stamp Monday B is for mine is for blossom, bunny and butterfly

Inspiration Journal Spring blooms

Crafty Cardmakers for a special woman

Natalie and Amy flowers

Bunny Zoe spring colours

Simon Says Wednesday things that fly

Simon Says Work it Wednesday spring

I have Friday off work so today was my last working day of the week. A real bonus to catch up with my girlies for ladies' lunch. If the weather is good tomorrow I also hope to get out to Ightham Mote with my parents, so a very exciting few days to look forward to.

Thanks for visiting me, take care.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane  x

My February Tim's tag creation

We are already onto tag number 2 over at Tim Holtz's inspiration blog. Here is his February creation;



 I guessed it would be something love themed but as I have already made my Hb's card that I would try a really different interpretation of is tag using the same techniques but very different colours. I also wanted to make a birthday card but still packed with love ;0)

I made my backing card using 2 distress ink pads;
 Pumice stone and antique linen.

 I put them onto my craft sheet added a spritz of water and then swooshed my paper through

 Once this was dry it was time to try Tim's embossing technique using a stencil. Now I had already bought his stencil last month and I decided that my crafting budget could not afford another one this month so I decided to be very Heath Robinson and make my own. I have a heart punch which I used to punch a small group of heart onto some acetate.

I had a practice run on some spare card and dabbed 2 different colour DIs through my hand made stencil in a random pattern. Once I was happy and used the stencil on my iked card

 I did small areas at a time as I added clear embossing powder to the wet ink which I melted with my heat gun. I really like the end result, there is a lovely gloss to the 2 tone coloured hearts.

The sentiment is another from my Lili of the Valley quotables which I stamped onto black card with Versamark. The next bit was tricky just making the added clear embossing powder and heating it just until matt. Repeated this using a LOYV grunge happy birthday stamp. The fun bit was adding the chalk and again this gives a great effect.

I die cut a heart which I covered with a really thick layer of glitter. I also added 2 little LOTV tag sentiments which I attached with a fun screw brad.










I distressed the edges of the card, matted up with silver and put my card together.

Here is my finished creation. I really enjoyed using this stencil/embossing technique and I will use it again.

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

Lili of the Valley name that tune... my tune is Louis Armstrong's "It's a wonderful world"..now I challenge you not to keep humming that ;0)
Jelly Park lots of love
Rhedd and Rosie anything goes
Pan Pastels anything goes
Natalie and Amy love is all around you
Make it Monday linky party #177
Feeling Crafty use dies/punches
AllSorts Love is in the air
A gem of a challenge all you need is love
The Ribbon Girl hearts
The Artistic Stamper use distress
2 Sisters embossing
A little bit Crafty man up
Penny Black and More make it sparkle
Loves Rubberstamps anything goes
Brenda 5th bloggerversary candy  one of my favourite things I  love to use is my Vintage photo Distress ink. I rarely made a card without given the edges a little daub of this wonderful ink. It gives so much extra depth. I love it particularly when I have distressed the edges of a card as I have done in this one.
Crafting for all seasons Show us some Romance
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challengehave a heart
Ladybug crafts Ink For the one I love

Also my buddy and fellow grandma Kerry, over at Ladybug Crafts HQ, is launching a new release very soon...do pop on over and take a peep
                                      

Roll on the March tag..I am so enjoying this creative journey and learning so many new creative techniques from Tim.

My girlies are up staying with us for a few days later on today.  The sentiment on my card today is so apt, life really is a celebration and I do indeed enjoy it. And to put a smile on your faces here is my darling Daisy Jane, now 12 weeks old. Do you remember the little matinee jacket I knitted? If not I showed it in this post. Well it now fits and Daisy is wearing it in this photo my daughter sent me earlier this week.

I'm a proud knitting Nana ;0) And just look at those bunny slippers...I want a pair.

I have another Guest Designer post coming up on Monday,  for the lovely Nikki over at Bunny Zoe's and this time I have got the bling out, big time....do come back and take a peep. Meanwhile I have some crafty time today so I am going to crack on and get inky fingers. I have some company for this as just for a change it's raining which means my fair weathered friend Billy does not want to get his paws wet ;0)

It's a hard life being a cat......my pink nosed boy knows home is the best place to be on a day like this. Take care in this extreme weather everyone...more gale force winds and torrential rain is heading our way and my heart goes out to the poor souls in the West Country who are still flooded out.  My other blogging buddies are freezing under inches of snow. I think my brother has the best idea, he is lecturing for 3 months in New Zealand..me jealous...never...LOL ;0)

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

More knitting and counting

I am glad you all liked the little jacket I have knitted my grandbaby and I wanted to show you a couple of other things too before he/she puts in an appearance. If you remember in my Knitting Nana post here I showed you how I found my old retro patterns from the 1980s when my 2 were babies. One I treasure is this one

It is a very pretty pattern and I knitted the shawl below using the left hand pattern when I was pregnant in 1985/6 with my darling daughter. I also kept it and I was delighted recently to pass it on to her.

It has kept really well and after a freshen up in the washing machine it looked as good as new.  I also promised to show you the little hats I have been making. I have never knitted "in the round" but managed to teach myself and knitted 3 little hats in different yarns and sizes

They should keep the cold away from a newborn head. The 2 white ones have an infinite rolling brim so should fit well. The cream one is a larger one. I must admit I shan't be making any more hats..they are a bit of a pain to make using 4 needles. I felt as though I was juggling with chop sticks. I think I have done all the knitting I want to do for the time being. The only other thing I may do at some stage is to knit another Tooth Pixie as I am sure I have still got the pattern somewhere.

We went down to visit my daughter and SIL on Friday evening and took them out to dinner. The nursery is all ready and I was delighted to see the Moses basket is ready and waiting. We smiled when we saw who is in there.......

This is Katie..her childhood doll who went everywhere we did! The Moses basket was the first bed for my daughter and my son and it is wonderful to see it being used with the next generation. There are new covers and mattress to bring it up to date, how cute is that cover?
Here is Katie in close up... she does not look bad for 26 does she?

 She will have to make way very soon for this sweet bump...

You will see the current DIY is also on the go...yes the lounge has been re plastered, re floored, re wired, re everything and the race is on to get it finished asap as the baby is due this Friday! My most recent buys for my grandbaby are these

Do you think that it shows that I could by any chance be a doting grandmother??!! I am beyond excited now and I just want to meet my little grandson or granddaughter...names are still being decided.....
So we really have reached the final week of my darling girl's pregnancy, her due date is this Friday...8th November but obviously the little one will decided when he or she wants to put in an appearance.

My card today is not a baby card but a vintage style Christmas card with a wonderful nativity image. It is my design team GD card using a wonderful pre-coloured image from Nicecrane Designs It is another image from the Adorable Christmas sheet here. I love these images so much, they really epitomise the Christmas spirit for me.

The backing paper is a digital download which I have embossed with gold embossing powder to give a frosty effect.This is picked up on the gold card too with the embossed holly leaves. The hymn sheet is another download from last year. The holly leaves are Cheery Lynn. I have distressed the edge of the green card to add to the vintage feel and added some Vintage Photo distress ink. Some gold edged red ribbon and red pearl add the finishing touches.

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

Bunny Zoe Ribbon
Whimsy Card Challenges anything goes
Die cut Divas Holidays and Celebrations my celebration is Christmas
Stamping Sensations Christmas
Allsorts Christmas Cheer
A Gem Of a Challenge Christmas is coming
Pan Pastels anything goes
Artistic Inspirations  Anything goes/spots/stripes
Crafty Ribbons anything goes with ribbon
Make it Monday linky party #165

Luckily my grandbaby will be able to sleep snug in a Moses basket.....no need to seek out the assistance of the local inn keeper and borrow the manger.... ;0)
Thank you all for being so supportive and excited for this imminent birth. Your comments are so encouraging and I know you are all thinking of my darling girlie and our SIL as they await the birth of our first grandchild. We are all counting the days.

Enjoy the week, back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x