The conker hunt 2018

On Sunday it was our annual family conker hunt. The weather all day Saturday and Sunday morning was rain, rain and more rain and if we could we probably would have tried to reschedule. But armed with wet weather waterproofs we walked down to our local park and could not believe that as we arrived the clouds started to part and out came the sunshine!

Daisy had her basket and was keen to get going.

She was not disappointed.  just look, the ground was completely covered with conker treasure.

Lots were still in their shells as they had been blown down by the strong winds the day before.  Daisy gleefully pulled them out, doubles like below, are especially treasured.

Bear came too and kept herding us up and keeping an eye on us all, including Jack

who had his own little bucket this year.

He delighted in putting his own conker treasures in it.

helped by his Daddy.

So many beauties to find. 

What a wonderful family time we enjoyed and the sunshine was so unexpected. I think the Conker god was smiling down on us 😏

My card today was inspired by the autumnal colours and is a new birthday card just taken down to Dotty's Teahouse to sell.  I used my Visible Image time tunnel stencil and also their elemental stamp to create an inky sheet which I die cut with my Tim Holtz world die and then mounted on some embossed brown card. The little birthday tag is an old Lili of the Valley stamp. The stars are Tim's and the starburst in an old Noor die.

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

Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes
The house that stamps built 1/3 anything goes
Creative moments 1/3 anything goes
The male room 1/3 the great outdoors
Addicted to stamps and more 1/3 anything goes
Die cutting divas 1/3 fall colours my world and stars die is Tim Holtz and the star cascade is Noor.
Crafty sentiments 1/3 anything goes
Lil patch of crafty friends 1/3 anything goes
Sparkles monthly 1/3 dies or punches

I have just got back from the south coast as I was baby sitting Daisy and Jack yesterday. This glorious weather persists and today is wall to wall blue skies and sunshine...just look at this as we had a walk along the beach this morning. My daughter and I walked Daisy to school and then enjoyed a coffee, chat and walk which little Jack snoozed away in his pushchair.

Oh my it was just glorious.

Sending sunshine your way if you need some.
Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Tove Jansson and the Moomins

In January I went to see a really super exhibition with my Mum and Dad at Dulwich Picture Gallery in South East London. I have waited until now to share this post as I made something from it for a very dear blogging friend'a birthday and I wanted her to have received it first. It was a very wet miserable January day when we visited but the poster advert really cheered everything up.

 Until I was 18 I lived in nearby Peckham and some of my good friends lived in Dulwich so I have visited the gallery many times in years gone by. In recent years it has undergone extensive renovation and it really is a little gem tucked away in South East London. If you are ever nearby it really is worth a visit.

and yes it even has an old London telephone box in its grounds.

 Who out there remembers Press button A and then Button B?

Gosh it took me back to my childhood. 

Photos are allowed inside but not for the visiting exhibitions. There are some gorgeous artworks housed there permanently.

I loved these Moomins stickers that were also part of the advertising

We had such a lovely morning and even spotted these lovely flowers in the Village Florist when we walked to lunch.

Now I have a dear Finnish blogging friend Mia who I met on line about 9 years ago through our mutual delight in all things Moomins. Mia makes delightful handmade things and over the years I have owned lots of her gorgeous work. Although Mia does not blog as she did years ago, she is more an Instagram girl, we still have a very close friendship and are in regular contact. Her birthday in March I knew just what I would do with the sweet Moomin Programme.

Yes....I would use it to make her birthday card. What was perfect is that she is such a "pink" girl that I had the colourway already there.

I got out my matching distress inks

and made a watercolour background adding some star stencilling in grey. 

I wanted to use the window idea from the programme so I die cut my own in black and white card to layer them up.

I decided my Moomin would be looking out from the window to a moon lit starry night so I die cut a man in the moon and some stars using my Tim Holz bigz die.

and then it was time to put on my creative hat and put my ideas together. 

Here is Mia's finished birthday card.

The sentiment is by Visible Image. 

Here are a few close ups

and one last shot

I really had fun making this and I am so delighted that Mia loved it when she opened it on Sunday morning. 

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

Pixie's snippets playground #321 I really went to town with my snippets with this card......cutting up the programme and all the rest of my die cuts were snippets too!

Allsorts 3/3 ladies only
Simon says stamp girl power Tove Jansson was the epitome of girl power in the 1930s and 40s..very ahead of her time!
Creative Inspirations 1/3 any occasion mine is birthday

let's craft and create 1/3 anything goes
Get Creative 1/3 fantasy
As you like it 1/3 single or multiple layers Mine is multiple as I love the  more realistic 3d effect you can achieve

Another week has whizzed by and we are looking forward to catching up with our babies tomorrow. Enjoy your weekend and I will be back bright and breezy on Monday morning.

Bye for now,

Jane x

Donkey birthday celebrations

Happy Friday and today is a very special one for me as it is my darling son's birthday. My baby is now 28 years young. We met up in Southampton with his darling GF, our DD, SIL and Daisy last weekend as this weekend he is out partying 😁

We enjoyed a wonderful roast lunch first and then went out for a walk along the River Hamble to walk off the huge roast we enjoyed.

Daisy loves to feed the drove of donkeys who live there (no I'm not smart I had to look up what a group of donkeys is called).

They come walking towards you especially when they see the bag of carrots you have brought. 

 Our son helped Daisy up for a closer view

 they are such sweet gentle creatures...

 there were some very young ones at the fence too

so woolly

and then it was time to walk back to the car

and drive back to our DDs and celebrate with some wicked cake made by our son's GF and cupcakes made by sweet Daisy. Yes they were as good as they looked.

such a perfect family day.

Now that he will have seen it I am sharing his birthday card for my card challenges today.

The stamp is Lili of the Valley which I gold embossed. I used some fab BFG papers I found in a sale, my son adored Roal Dahl's books as a child and the amazing Quentin Blake illustrations. I even made him a golden ticket using a Tim Holtz stamp and die. I used a very grungy textured sheet made with distress sprays to cut out the Noor star die and the golden candle is Marianne. The sentiment is Clearly Besotted.

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

Rubber Dance  2/3 layers
Allsorts anything goes

Happy Little stampers anything goes with a die
Words 2 Craft by celebrations
Crafty Hazelnut's patterned paper challenge February
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday anything goes

Wishing my darling son the best that life sends his way; may he always hold a golden ticket to the future....Happy Birthday!
Thanks for visiting today on this, the very last Friday in February. Enjoy the weekend ahead and I hope you get some time to Carry on Crafting.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x