Shrinking Alice in Wonderland and my 1,000th blog post

Good morning today there is a real celebration going here....this is my 1.000th blog post ..wow! That is an awful lot of creating and writing since I started my blog 8 years ago.
 It's also time for Monday Design team inspiration for Visible Image and I am here with my 2nd Wonderland sample. This new release is going down a storm and today I am going to share my first make with the lovely Alice. 

After making my shrink plastic seahorse and jelly fish for my seagoddess wall hanging which I shared here I had a light bulb moment that Alice in Wonderland also shrunk when she drinks from the bottle to get small enough to get through the door to the garden. Out came my shrink plastic but this time I decided that I wanted to colour the image so I did this using pencil before heating it.

 Here she is cut out

 and then after shrinking

 I made a couple of shrunk Alice's and this shows her full size and with her shrunken self!

 They are such fun accents to make. 

I also made a background using the brilliant distorted chess stencil as this works so well with the Wonderland stamps.

I went with a black and white version using black soot distress oxide ink.

I coloured my Alice and a slice of cake with Promarkers. I stamped and fussy cut out the key and the potion bottle and added some glitter. I also stamped out her words.

Here is my finished card

with a couple of close ups trying to show some of the glittery finishing touches I added. You can see this more clearly, and all my Wonderland samples in the recent Visible Image video over on their Facebook page here.

 I mounted everything onto foam tape which gives this card a lot of depth.

The wonderful Wonderland release, including 2 fab new stencils, is available to pre order now from the web site here. Shipping is from 1st August.

There is also brilliant money saving offer running at the moment if you buy all 7 stamp sets...check it out 

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

I love Promarkers anything goes
Simon says Wednesday anything goes
Creative fingers 1/3 anything goes
Cute card Thursday 1/3 too cute
Little Miss Muffet 1/3 anything goes
Crafty catz 1/3 anything goes

All the Visible Image links can be found here;

Visible Image group page on Facebook. Our friendly Group can be found here ...it would be lovely to see you. You can add work to the "Show and Tell" album where one randomly chosen winner each month wins a £25 coupon to spend on the website.

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 these gorgeous stamps and stencils can be purchased. 

You can also follow via:

 Pinterest

Twitter

and

 Instagram

Thanks so much for stopping by and for your very kind comments..thanks to your support I have achieved my 1,000 post milestone. There are a couple of my loyal followers who have even commented on most of those 1,000 posts I have written. Bless you. Thanks everyone, I am truly grateful for your blogging friendship and loyalty.

 We had some very welcome rain this weekend, the first since mid June. My lawn might even start to green up again. However our summer heatwave is set to return this week and I shall continue to  enjoy my garden studio creating. Enjoy the new week ahead.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

The Wonderful world of Wonderland

Hello it is time for my Monday Design Team make for Visible Image. They have a brilliant new stamp release...a revisit to their awesome and much loved Alice In Wonderland stamps which were discontinued a few years back.

 So many people have asked for them to return and there is a magical twist. ALL the original 6 characters now have new extra stamps and words and all the words work across every stamp set. Plus there is one brand new character....the Caterpillar who I absolutely love. Do check them all out on the website here  

I have been beavering away in my studio over the last week making some samples, which you may have seen on Mark and Helen's Facebook live video. You can check that out and see the samples we made here

Today I am delighted to be sharing my first sample I made using the amazing Mr Caterpillar. I know we shouldn't have favourites as they as all amazing, but I have such a soft spot for this cutie.

I love colouring images and decided for my first samples that I would get out my much loved and well used Promarkers.
I stamped Mr Caterpillar and his amazing toadstool onto smooth card stock and coloured them. We laughed during the live Visible Image Facebook video as to whether this should be called a mushroom or a toadstool. I have always called anything bright red and poisonous looking a toadstool, My colouring takes me back to my Enid Blyton, The folk of the Faraway Tree, childhood reading. So I decided to look this up and Google states that the term mushroom and toadstool are pretty interchangeable, they are both used to describe types of fungi. However the term toadstool tends to be used when the fungus is one that is poisonous and therefore inedible. I think my toadstool looks pretty inedible to me!

I then highlighted my images with Prismacolor pencils to add some shading (you can see this further down in my finished card).
I fussy cut them and then made a background using Hickory smoke and Candied apple distress ink sprays to create a smokey background for him to feel really relaxed in 😃

I stamped and cut out the words  and added glossy accents to make his glasses shine as well as his spots.
Here he is

with some close ups

Hmmmmm...I think any more relaxed and he would be falling off his toadstool!

And one last shot

I really love this new stamp set and I think he is going to go down a storm in the crafting world.
Pre release orders for all the Wonderland stamps and also 2 brand new stencils can be make now via the website here and for a short period of time there is a very generous multi bundle saving if you buy all 7 stamp sets.
 Release date is 1st August.

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

I love Promarkers anything goes
Craft Stamper take it make it July
Fashionable stamping 3/3 use those inks any way you want
Passion for Promarkers vibrant colours
A bit more time to craft 3/3 anything goes
Studio 75 3/3 summertime
Crafteezee summer
Simon says stamp Monday add a little sparkle I used my glossy accents
Try it on Tuesday 1/3 add a quote
The artistic stamper 2/3  distress it

All the Visible Image links can be found here;

Visible Image group page on Facebook. Our friendly Group can be found here ...it would be lovely to see you. You can add work to the "Show and Tell" album where one randomly chosen winner each month wins a £25 coupon to spend on the website.

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 these gorgeous stamps and stencils can be purchased. 

You can also follow via:

 Pinterest

Twitter

and

 Instagram

Thanks so much for stopping by and for your very kind comments. Our summer sunshine continues as does my garden studio creating.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Going round in circles for my July Country View Challenge DT inspiration

Hello and welcome to July which must mean that it's time for my next DT post for Country View Challenges.  June was far from flaming but the rain and sunshine we had means that my garden is full of flowers and looking lush.

This month we have been asked to "have fun with circles" by the lovely Hazel who is hosting the challenge.
As you well know there is a "cute" girl inside my mixed media shell so I decided for this month's DT posts I would let my cute side out to play for a change. I decided to make new baby cards using as many circles as I could. I will share the boy's one today and the girl's one for my mid month inspiration post which is on 7th July.

After years of hankering after one I finally found myself the Penny Black baby hammock  stamp.

I stamped it and coloured it using my Promarkers. I  love colouring images but they do take some time. These are never cards in a hurry.  I highlighted it with my Prismacolour pencils and cut it out using a circular die.

I wanted to use as many circles as I could when creating my card so here goes and if you see any more let me know ;0)

1. I used a circle die to cut out my image
2. I used a circle scallop for the border.

3. I used circular jump rings to attach a dummy charm which had a circular loop!

4. I chose 2 papers from my stash both of which feature lots of circles.... and even circles within circles.

5. I used circular pearls and gems as embellies.

Phew.....I really had fun with circles...and here is my finished card.

I would like to enter it into the following challenges;

Simon says stamp Work it Wednesdays wafer thin dies my circle dies are both wafer thin Spellbinders.
Deep Ocean colours of summer

Moving along with the times new baby

Everybody Art male

Crafting from the heart anything goes
Simon Says stamp Wednesday anything goes
As you like it favourite markers and why mine are Promarkers. they are where I started with colouring over 5 years ago and I still love the way they blend. I have lots!
Crafty Hazelnut's patterned paper challenge anything goes July

I hope you will try to join us over at Country view for our new "have fun with circles " challenge. It runs until 31st July and you can enter using any craft and any style. There is no limit to the number of entries nor the number of other challenges you also enter. Simples.....my kind of challenge ;0) You can find the link to it here

Thanks for visiting and for the kind comments you take the time to leave.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

And the winner is.........

I'm back with the names of the winner and runner up in my recent bloggerversary giveaway.....all the names went into the hat...

and first out was

 Becky of GrandmaBecky followed by runner up

Robin of Mynestofyarnsandbuttons. Well done ladies..both these ladies are blogging friends from the USA.....please could you email me your addresses.

Becky you have the choice of the silver shell or the coral and pearl necklace.

Thanks for all the sweet blog love you all left me for my recent 5th bloggerversary, I loved reading every comment. You are all such a lovely bunch and I treasure our blogging friendship. Here's to the next 5 years.

I would love to give everyone a little thank you so I have taken 15% off everything (excluding postage charges)  in my little Etsy shop.

It's a celebration of Alice in Wonderland this year so my Alice bag charm

and all my other bag charms are £1 off (was £6.75 now £5.75 and some of my cards start at just £1.70.
This one is knitting themed

or even for a gardener

and these summer artisan lampwork glass earrings are also included...at just £13.60 (was £15.99)

Use the code THANKYOUAUGUST15 at the check out and the discount will be applied.

My challenge card today is a "just because" card to thank you all for stopping by each post and taking the time to comment.

I have used my frilly style as I still adore making this type of card. The image is one of my favourite Lili of the Valley stamps and I think of it as me and my sweet Billy. There is some bling  too with glittered card and gems. I coloured the image with Promarkers and shaded with Prismacolor pencils.

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

The Craft Barn colouring I used Promakers and Prismacolor pencils

Country View Crafts summertime

Stamping sensations anything goes with a stamp and a die

Allsorts inspired by summer

Sweet stampin anything but a birthday

Ribbon Girl any image

I love Promarkers in the garden

Simon Says stamp Monday  homegrown summer

Emerald Faeries Fav colours mine is blue

Live and love crafts blue

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x