Back to village life, Mindful Moments 5

Hi everyone I am back with the next of my Mindful Moments posts and I am already up to number 5

 If you did not see my first post and wonder what these are do check it out here.  Thank you to everyone who has been reading them. I can see from my stats that these are getting at least twice the usual traffic of my other posts, which has really inspired me to keep trying to get them written weekly if I can. I really hope you are finding them a moment to make you smile and stay mindful during these very turbulent times.

The weather has really been extraordinary over the last week, wall to wall sunshine and blue skies.
I have been out for my daily walk and down at the ponds it is so surreal. As there is little or no traffic I can really imagine what my high street looked like in days gone by when Carshalton was still a tiny village. I thought I would share the photos I took with you...here is Honeywood, once a rich man's country house but now a museum. It looks out from one side of the ponds.

There is a ford in front of it. Before the bridge was built it was the only way of crossing the water.

 With no traffic racing by this is a rare photo to capture. This is looking across to the Greyhound pub. Carriages and carts used to be driven across here in days gone by.

So peaceful and quiet, but very surreal.

Beautiful blossom hung from the cherry trees.

This heron was just pottering around in the shallows.

The bridge with no traffic on it at all.

Looking back to the church.

A church has stood here for a thousand years and the original part is listed in the Doomsday book. There have been pandemics of all kinds through the ages, this is sadly just one of many and it will pass. 

I actually wandered out into the main road to take these shots. This is usually a red route

The Woodman, once an old butcher's shop now a bar, but silent for now.

 Looking back down our deserted High Street usually a bustling with plenty of shoppers, just a lone man walking along instead.

I really felt as though I had taken a step back in time. All I could hear was birdsong, not traffic noise and for that time I was able to really feel at peace. It was very much tranquil and mindful moment. For now we have reverted back to being a quiet village, despite being just 10 miles from central London.

My crafting share today was inspired my walk. Daisy, my 6 year old granddaughter and I have set up a "crafting by post" activity. I have given us 15 themes to use to make 2 artists trading cards and coins. One we keep to look back on and one we swap. She has been loving this. We are up to number 4, the theme for this one is "flowers". These are the coins and ATC I made.

Here are the coins in close up. I used my Tim Holtz wild rose stencil, some of his wild flower and garden greens die cuts and tiny small talk stickers.

Below is the one I have sent to Daisy. The words are so true, I miss her so very much but we keep in contact by video and though our joint love of crafting. 

this is mine to keep to remind me that life still goes on, just at a much slower pace

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

Sparkles Monthly 2/3 spring is in the air

A bit more time to craft 2/3 anything goes

Allsorts 1/3 flowers and/or showers

Alphabet challenge 1/3 A is for anything goes

Crafty catz 1/3 anything goes

Creative artiste 1/3 anything goes

C.R.A.F.T 1/3 create your own flower/embellishment

Dragonfly dreams 1/3 add flowers

My little quote for my Mindful Moments post today is one I feel most appropriate for staying creative at the moment;

Start where you are,

Use what you can,

Do what you can do.

Arthur Ashe

Please keep safe, keep mindful, keep washing those hands and looking around at the beauty and inspiration from Mother Nature.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

With love, Jane x

Life can be tough

I had a lovely weekend, with lots of time to craft, which is good as I have a very busy few weeks ahead. We also managed to get out and "smell the roses" or in this case the blossom and daffs and enjoyed the increasing daylight and signs of spring...it's the first day of Spring today...how wonderful that feels.

Today is a day of rather mixed emotions. It's my darling daughter's birthday and she is taking the day off work with her Hb and together with Daisy they are off to celebrate her special day. Happy birthday to my sweetest girl. I look forward to seeing her on Friday.

However today is also the day of one of our friend's funeral. M died very suddenly a couple of weeks ago and to say we were shocked was an understatement. He is only a few years older than us and the news really did stop us in our tracks.

It is also Monday so it is my turn to share some inspiration over on Facebook for Visible Image.
Do remember you are welcome to come over to join our group, we're a very kind and friendly bunch.
          This is the link here

 I am very much a glass half full kind of girl and I wanted to make something appropriate for today, without being too morose. I decided to use one of the new sentiments that Visible Image brought out in their latest release.

It's just perfect isn't it?

It is available here on their website.
I also used the little flower accent stamps from the Create It set  below available here

I also had a play with the amazing new Oxide inks....they are such fun.
Here are a few process photos;

 I also added Cracked Pistachio into the process.
Once I had a foundation of ink on my card I added some stenciling...

and built up layers of ink, adding water into the process too.









I wanted to keep my sentiment really simple so I added drew a  border around the edge using a Micron Pen. It's been ages since I have had time to draw one of these borders....very much my dear friend Joanne Fink's inspiration.

 I also added some script from the fab Scripted streets set using some archival ink

It added just enough pattern to my card to pull everything together.
You can see one of my stamped flowers peeping out too...I coloured it with gel pens and added some white highlights.







Here is my finished card.

I added some shine to the border with a gel pen.
You can see in the background that I also stamped my flowers using the Oxide inks. Together with the script stamp it gives a very layered textured background.

Here is one more shot

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

A Vintage Journey all aboard
More mixed media anything goes
Sweet Stampin 1/3 special lady/mother's day
Creative Inspirations 3/3 favourite stamp brand and why mine is of course Visible Image. Their designs and words are so unique and they stamp perfectly every single time!
Creative Artiste 3/3 anything goes mixed media
We love to Create 1/2anything mixed media


Thanks so much for stopping by today.  We should all try to live life for the moment. Remember to tell those you hold close how much you love them, every single day.

Life can be tough......but my darling so are you x

RIP MW March '17

Happy first day of spring, we all have so much to look forward to.
Seize the day!

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

I should be so lucky

Well Santa was very kind to me this year and I got some amazing presents including chocolates, flowers, crafting goodies, and favourite cosmetics. My Hb spoilt me and in my lovely haul from him were

yes I know very spoilt and one other thing he squeezed into my stocking was this

...an Instax camera. OMGoodness it is such fun. If you have never heard of them think modern Polaroid with credit card size colour photos. My son was completely in awe and spent most of Christmas posting images on his Instagram account. I was transported back to the 1970 when everyone owned a huge Polaroid camera. Daisy was fascinated that the photos get spat out of the side and develop before your eyes. My Mum had us in stitches as she was looking at the wrong side of one I took for her and told me that it hadn't worked...until I turned it around!

I will need to play with settings so I just put this on party mode for the holiday and obviously I have taken a photo of a photo so they are a little dark.

 They are the size of a credit/store card as I have shown below

I may even put some of these in a Moment at some point.

My card today is really a one which sums up how I feel about life. I don't share a lot of very  personal stuff here as I always believe blogging should be a positive and fun place to be.  I am very lucky and I am so grateful for everything I have but that does not say that life does not have its roller coaster moments. 2016 looks like being one of those for me job wise, I won't bore you with the details. I seriously do believe that everything happens for a reason. A new chapter perhaps in my life? Well it will certainly be change and who knows I may even find myself on a crafty adventure?

Here is my card

The stamps are PaperArtsy and I have coloured the sentiment with a Sukura glaze pen which gives a lovely glossy raised appearance. I have stamped on book pages and the bow is natural raffia. I am going to have a revamp of my Etsy shop in the coming months and this one is for sale here. I think the sentiment is perfect for so many occasion, even for a  just because card................

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

Stamping sensations anything goes with a stamp and a ribbon
Allsorts 1/3 anything but Christmas
Love to Create anything creative/mixed media #26
 Cute card Thursday anything goes
Anything but cute you've got happy mail

I really enjoy the days between Christmas and the New Year. We have had some wonderful family time over Christmas but everyone has now gone home and my Hb and I have some time to relax, walk, read and for me of course....craft. The sun was out yesterday again it's still more like spring than winter here. However today the wind is really gale force and it looks like rain is threatening. I am thinking of those poor souls up North who have been flooded out of their home and more flooding looks set for today. Also over in the States blizzards and tornadoes have been reeking havoc too. Stay safe... be thankful if you are snug today....and remember to bloom where you are planted ;0)

Thanks for visiting,

Back tomorrow with my favourite 5 creations of 2015...my very last post of the year.

Bye for now,

Jane x

Ringing in 2015

Happy New year everyone and welcome to 2015. I hope it's a good one for everyone.

Just before Christmas I was chosen as the winner over at the Frilly and Funkie blog with my Christmas box book I made for my son. This is the link to my project which was a real labour of love. The challenge prize is to be their Guest Designer. Frilly and Funkie have a new challenge which runs for the next 2 weeks and it is an anything goes theme so do join in. This is the link for the challenge. For those of you who are first time visitors to Jane's Journal can I give you a very warm welcome and I hope you enjoy having a browse around my blog.

Now I have one of those brains which likes to take time to consider what to make for GD posts. I like to jot down ideas for a couple of days.  I knew my post would be put up on New Year's day and I eventually  decided that it had to be something inspirational for the year ahead and also to "ring in the new year". As my winning Christmas piece was made for my darling son I decided that I would make another piece for him....a 2015 wall hanging....for no other reason than "just because".

I also appreciate that life during the any year is never a smooth journey, there are often changes of direction and focus but life is there to be lived and enjoyed. I wanted to include some little inspirational phrases on my piece to look at and to remember during the year when life gets a little busy.

I made a fun festive shadow box which I showed in my Christmas Eve post and the one part of the frame we did not use was the mount. This is made of strong board and I decided to use this as my base and I gave it a coat of gesso to seal it. I then added some tissue tapes, vintage dictionary pages and some texture paste through my Dutch Doobadoo stencil (a win last year)

I wanted to "age" my frame so I added some cracks with my Visible image crackled stamp using archival ink.

Next it was time to colour my frame and I used a mixture of distress ink and paints, acrylics and some bronze gilding paste.

 I always love getting inking and my hands were brown by the time I finished it.

I wanted to used Tim's weathered clock die on my piece so I gave this a coat of antiqued bronze distress paint. I also added some crackle paint which you will see later on.

I also wanted the effect of looking through a window into the new year and seeing flowers in the garden and sunshine so I "made" a window using a Tim floral sheet and some vellum which I stuck onto another piece of mount board

As it is the new year I wanted to "ring it in" I used Tim's bells die and had fun aging my die cuts with different distress inks and paints.

I added some metal Ideaology quotes and some string. I didn't have the correct colour string so I dyed some with my inks.

 I also wanted butterflies to feature as they are always to me a symbol of beautiful new life through their metamorphosis so I stamped and embossed some Visible image butterflies and fussy cut them out. I made the card I stamped them onto using distress inks and the wrinkle free technique.

So armed with all my components and a few other ideas, which always occur as I start to put things together, I set to work and put on my creative hat. 

Here is my finished wall hanging

 and some close ups and other thoughts behind my composition.

The bells are ringing in 2015.  I added some charms too to represent time and having the keys to you family's heart forever.
The view through the "window" represents a summer garden and the endless beauty of nature..."smell the flowers while you can" and live life to the full.  The chit chat words are to remind us what we have to be thankful for. I added some "leaded lights" to the window using coffee stirrers which I aged using ink and crackle paste

The sentiment is a Tim Holtz stamp and one of my favourites. The photo below shows up the details of the crackle paste on my weather clock and the pretty butterflies.

an "arty pose"

and one more look

I love entering challenges and I would like to enter my piece into the following ones;

A vintage journey ring out the old ring in the new I think my step by step explains how I was inspired by the poem, I am looking forward to the new year and all the challenges it may bring in life and crafting!

Natalie and Amy all things new my new is the great butterfly stamps and the weathered clock die.

Loves rubberstamps something old/something new my old are the tags/words and the new is my butterfly stamps and weathered clock die

The Mirror cracked recycle/upcycle something I recycled the mount from a picture frame which I used for a shadow box.

Mixed Media something new for the new year my "new" was to alter a frame mount and upcycle it into a wall hanging. I also used several new products; my butterfly stamps, the bells and the weathered clock die.

Cute card Thursdays anything goes

The Artistic stamper new beginnings

Simon says stamp anything goes

Winter Wonderland fussy and fancy

I hope you have enjoyed your visit here and that you can take some of the words I have added to my wall hanging and hold them in your heart during the year ahead. Thanks to the Frilly and Funkie team for having me as your Guest Designer today,

I think these words are an apt conclusion to my post;

“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.” 
― Edith Lovejoy Pierce

Happy New Year, take the time to enjoy it. Remember to open that book and live life to the full, the first chapter is yet to be written.........

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x