The start of a new Visible Image year of crafting

Good morning it's time to get back to a "normal" Monday after all the excitement and celebrations of Christmas and the new year. The Visible Image team have all been on a break. Today I delighted to be kicking off with the first Design team inspiration post of 2019.
I do love the new year....I never make resolutions but I do think it's a good time to take stock of our views and hopes in life. I love the inspiring words that Helen writes which Mark turns into amazing stamps which I can incorporate into my crafting. 

I decided to use the words from
Voices in your head to create an inspirational wall hanging for the year.

I made some backgrounds with my small Gelli plate (lucky me got an 8" by 10" one from Santa so watch out for more larger projects using this).

I used some DecoArt media acryllics and stamps from

 Visometry

and 

Universal

and also the 2 tone stencil to pull some prints.

I made a whole batch of prints

and selected 3 to make into ATcs.

I gold embossed the words and added some more patterns with gold ink using universal. Sorry the photos are a little dark, there is so little daylight this time of the year when I am crafting inside. 

For the wall hanging I used some corrugated card on mount board. I exposed some of the core and added paints and crackle paint. Once dry I rubbed on some Treasure gold. I attached some string using my mini stapler.

I also stamped the year using the numbers from alphabetical onto scraps of gelli prints and mounted them on card.

So here is my finished wall hanging

I would like to enter my wall hanging into the following challenges.

A vintage journey put your stamp on it
Love to create anything mixed media
Penny Black and more 1/3 new beginnings
Mix it up 1/5 anything goes
Crafter's Castle 1/3 anything goes
Mixed media place inspirational mood board
Rhedd's creative spirit December
Not just cards 1/3 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 can add work to the new challenge album where one randomly chosen winner each month wins a £40 coupon to spend on the website. For December and January the theme is "Christmas/Winter".

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

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

Our Christmas/winter challenge on Facebook runs  until the end of January so you still have a whole month to make something and be in with a chance of winning the £40 voucher to spend on the web site. The winner is selected by random so everyone has an equal winning chance.

Thanks so much for stopping by and for the kind comments you take the time to leave. There are lots of exciting Visible Image newbies in the pipeline and I am so looking forward to designing with them. An exciting year is ahead and I am going to try to remember these inspiring words during 2019

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

A little colour in January

I am still being delighted by a little colour from the plucky little violas in my ports in the garden.

I deadhead them regularly and they just keep blooming and blooming. 

 I also spied that my bulbs, planted in the autumn, are pushing up. 

We are promised a bit of a cold blast of weather for the next week but I am sure that my bulbs will keep snug.

I also have a little ray of sunshine in the house...my darling Daisy has come to stay for a few days.

We have been crafting, especially die cutting which she finds really fascinating.  I have lots of new crafting bits to show her too. Santa was kind to Nanna, so perhaps I must have been good after all 😃

I have been also making some stock for Dotty's and today's card challenge entry is a very cheery and colourful one.

This is a simply print digi image from Lili of the Valley. The stamped sentiment tag is also LOTV. I have used my Tim Holtz swirling stars die on the background...I think this is my favourite ever die!

It is for sale at Dotty's Tea House, Carshalton High Street, Surrey, SM5 2AE

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

Mix it up 1/5 anything goes

Love to craft 1/5 anything goes

Dies R us 1/3 anything goes with dies in the store mine is the Memory Box stitched rectangle I used to die cut the image.

A bit more time to craft 1/3 anything goes

Crafty Hazelnut's patterned paper January

Must dash, my little ray of sunshine is calling.

Thanks for stopping by,

Back tomorrow with my first STAMPlorations inspiration for 2019

Bye for now,

Jane x

Happy new year and welcome to 2019

Happy new year dear friends...welcome to 2019. I hope you all enjoyed seeing in the new year last night and are planning a quiet peaceful day today especially if you hit the bubbles whilst celebrating. Here is a lovely restful photo of a gorgeous rose I was sent by a dear friend for Christmas. How pretty is that red and the glitter sparkle is perfect for this time of the year.

As it is the 1st of the month it is of course time for our first challenge over at Country View. Our theme chosen by Christine is landscapes or cityscapes. I will confess I spent quite a lot of time umming and arhhring about what to make. I don't have any cityscape stamps or dies at all so I decided to go with the landscape part and also try to incorporate at Happy New Year card into it!

This is what I got up to;

I added a couple of oxide inks and some drips of water to black card just to give a hint of colour to my landscape.

 I then used my Visible Image, "Into the Woods" stamp set and stamped the background tree line stamp in white

 and the foreground stamp in gold ink.

This created my landscape. 

I then die cut some trees and stamped a very old Tim Holtz inspirational time sentiment and the Visible Image Happy new year and white embossed them.

Here is my new year, wintry landscape card. It went up for sale at Dotty's and sold the day it went in!

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

Sweet Stampin 1/3 New
Alphabet challenge 1/3 T for trees
As you like it 2/3 anything goes
Creative moments 2/3 anything goes
We love to create 1/3 anything mixed media

 You can enter our January challenge as many times as you like and combine with other challenges. There is also a £20 crafting voucher up for grabs to the lucky randomly selected winner to spend over on the Country View Crafts on line store. Remember that UK postage and packing is absolutely FREE! All the details for the challenge can be found here.

My 2nd DT post for Country View will be on 11 January.

I am going to enjoy a very lazy day, I might even sit down to watch a film but I have a feeling a little crafting might feature too. 

Wishing you all a year of happiness and good health and thanks for continuing to follow my creative journey here at Jane's Journal. It's always so good to see you here. Thanks so much for stopping by and for the kind comments you take the time to leave me. 

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Smile. sparkle and shine into 2018

Happy new year everyone!

I do love the start of a brand new year. I am never one to make resolutions, I just look forward to what the year might have in store for me. Both challenges and pleasures will be there, life is certainly a journey along many different roads.
I am missing my garden...it always looks so lifeless at this time of the year and all I can do is look out to it from the kitchen window.

 Down at the ponds the trees are very bare

 and the ducks find the sunbeams to warm up in when the sun comes out.

As it also the first of the month it is time for the very first challenge for Country View for 2018. 

We have lots of fun themes in store but Susan thought we could ease everyone in with a nice and easy "anything goes" theme for January.

You can enter our challenge as many times as you like and combine with any other challenges. Your make can be anything creative! You may even be the lucky random winner of the £20 CVC voucher.

All the details can be found here.

I decided to make a new year card using a great quote to kick off the year. It is one of the brilliant Visible Image stamps and Susan has it in stock on the Country View website here and as always she posts for free within the UK.

I made 2 very different cards, the first one I am sharing today has a very inky background.  I chose to make this one look like the fireworks which went off last night to herald in the new year.
This is what I got up to.
I made an inky background using some very bright distress oxides

 and then added some stencilling using Tim Holtz stars.

I then stamped and embossed the quote and added my "fireworks" which are also Visible Image stamps. To add some extra sparkle I added sequins to their centres.

Here is my new year card

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

Sweet stampin 1/3 anything new mine is my New Year card
Fashionable stamping 2/3 celebrate
That's Crafty 3/3 anything goes
Simon Says stamp Monday party
The Artistic stamper 1/3 anything goes
Happy little stampers water colour challenge anything goes/optional glitter


I will be back on 21 Jan to share my 2nd DT piece for Country View  where I have gone for the complete opposite to this mixed media card.....a CAS (clean and simple) one using the same sentiment.

I hope you enjoy a very restful New Year's day and that you are getting back into the swing of normality after all the Christmas festivities and that you will be able to smile, sparkle and shine in 2018. Have a great year ahead.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x