From spring to winter to spring

What extraordinary weather we have had over the last week. Last Friday I walked down to Dotty's and I revelled in the warmth of the sunshine. I thought that spring had arrived. 

Blossom was out everywhere

and in my garden pots I spotted my first tulips nearly in flower,

However Mother Nature had other ideas and this started  the very next day.

Dumping another lot of snow.

 and just look at my tulips 24 hours later!

Brrrr.

Today's make to share is another of my Easter projects. This time it's an Easter tag.

I created the background with distress inks and some Tim Holtz stamps. The dies are all by Tim including the butterfly frenzy.  The chit chat words work so well for so many occasions too.

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

Rubber dance Colour or theme March challenge I've gone for circles and die cuts.
A vintage journey Treasure my treasure in my tag is my weathered clock die cut. This die is no longer made and it is the favourite die I own and I really do treasure it.
Sparkles spring is in the air
Butterfly challenge L I have gone with layers, lemon and letters
Pixie's snippets playground #322
Try it on Tuesday 1/3 Spring moodboard I have gone with the birds and the greens and yellows in 2 of the photos.

Moving along with the times 2/3 Easter
The cutie pie challenge 3/3 spring cuties

Simon says stamp Wednesday Easter inspired

Noor spring

Simon says work it Wednesday 1/3 inky techniques mine was using distress inks

Yesterday it warmed up enough to melt all the snow but there is still a very chilly Northeasterly wind. Here in the south though I think we have finally seen the last of the snow.
 The first day of spring was yesterday but and I want to hear those birds singing in warm sunshine soon. Thanks so much for stopping by and for your kind comments and especially the birthday wishes you left for my DD on my last post. They were most appreciated.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

The snow from the East, beauty or the beast?

Well the Beast from the East certainly came roaring across the UK. On Wednesday it was not too bad and I was able to get down to Dotty's and took some photos as I walked. I must confess everything did look very pretty at that time. 

Even the pillar box looked very ornate with a hat of snow.

However Thursday and yesterday were a different case entirely. The wind was savage and the sky very threatening. Temperatures plummeted

My pots were heavy with snow.
and yes it's as cold as it looks, -4c during the day but with the wind chill more like -8c. One night it got down to -10...eek.  

Yesterday, on top of the snow ,we had freezing rain so our roads and pavement were like ice....and last night...more snow...My poor Hb's train broke down as the rails froze and he spent hours on buses finishing his journey. My son also had his ski trip postponed due to flight cancellations but fortunately got away today.

All my plans went out of the window. So I have stayed in the warm and taken advantage of the need to make some more male cards for Dotty's.
Here's one...I think the snow had an influence.  The sentiment is one of my fave old Lili of the Valley stamps I won years back. I stamped and fussy cut some Visible Image paper planes (which at least can't be cancelled dye to the weather) 😁

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

Alphabet challenge 1/3 Y for your choice
Crafty Catz 1/3 anything goes
Crafting with an attitude 1/3 anything goes
Card mania 1/3  embossing, the sentiment and paper planes are all heat embossed
Crafty sentiments 2/3 anything goes
Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes
Cute card Thursday 1/3 anything goes

Much as I usually love the snow and would say it is a "Beauty", on this occasion it really has been the Beast from the East and I can't wait to see the back of it.

For those of you in the UK who are still affected by the Beast, stay safe and stay warm. It's at times like this that I really do appreciate that despite all the annoyances, cancellation etc that my family have experienced I have a warm roof over my head. It chills me to the core to think of anyone who is out on the streets or has got stranded in the middle of nowhere.

Enjoy your weekend, whatever your weather. It was actually slightly warmer this morning and some of the snow has started to ice but I think we have not quite seen the last of the snow yet.

I'm spending mine with the Beast, who I hope will have gone by Monday 😁

Bye for now,

Jane x

A lamb or lion of a month?

Hooray it's the first of March today...one of my favourite months of the year with the promise of spring, warm sunshine and lighter days. However March can be fickle with the tail end of winter too. The old saying is "In like a lamb...out like lion, in like a lion out like a lamb"...I wonder if this will be true this year. It certainly seems to be starting like a lion...the "Beast of the East" arrived yesterday and gosh it is so bitterly cold and I woke up to this yesterday.

Billy prefers snow to rain and did venture out for a few moments

his were the only footprints in the garden though.

We have had more snow since and I wonder what I will wake up this morning......

As it is the first of the month it is also time for our next challenge over at Country View.

For March the theme has been chosen by the lovely Sue and she would like to see your "postcard" projects. That mean anything which measures 6" X 4" ( I know I am old school..please don't ask me the metric equivalent!)

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.

You can find all the details for the challenge here.

I have to admit I have never made anything postcard size so this was indeed a challenge for me too! I decided to make a postcard and then me being me mount it on a card base as I wanted something spring like to send to a friend who has been away for a month in Australia, to welcome her home.

This is what I got up to

I blended some spring coloured distress oxides onto my piece of 6" by 4" card and added a some ink through my Tim Holtz wallflower stencil

I stamped a border using the pattern from this PaperArtsy set

I wanted to use the word spring so I dug out the only "spring" stamp set I own and kept the stamping pretty simple.

This is what I made

I added a wink of stella to the butterflies so IRL they are very sparkly.

I then turned added photo corners as a decoration and turned my postcard into the Spring card for my friend. She will open this on her return to the UK this week and I hope it welcomes her home in time for spring.

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

Allsorts 2/3 eye spy...something beginning with B..mine is butterfly and blossom and border.
A Inkymess 2/3 anything goes
Shopping our stash 1/3 stencils
Crafty sentiments 1/3 anything goes
Simon says stamp Monday 1/3 in my garden
Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes
Try it on Tuesday vintage my card is like a vintage 40s postcard, especially the words.

So hopefully by the end of the month, if the saying is true, we will be heading towards some very kind weather and March will go out like a lamb, fingers crossed. I hope so as for the next CVC challenge it will also be my birthday!

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Disney's Winter Wonderland

It's 25th November which means that it's exactly 1 month until Christmas. I have been a little awol this week...with good reason...I've been in Disneyland Paris! My Hb and I took darling Daisy on a 5 day trip. It was am-az-zing and the whole resort was decked out for Christmas. It truly was Winter Wonderland.

I have over 300 photos to sort through and I will share some posts but today here are just a couple..

On Main Street it even snows! My card today just had to feature snow. We were so lucky with the weather, 2 days with crisp blue skies and the rest of the time was dry!
 I  took some Broken China oxide and built u p some layers on some watercolour card which I then embossed using a snowy folder.

I  dry brushed on some gesso which brought out the pretty snowflake pattern

I die cut some Tim Holtz snowflakes and then added more gesso and glitter and stamped his great retro Merry Christmas sentiment.

I then put on my creative hat to make my card

My card was made for the following challenges;

 The Funkie Junkie 12 tags of Christmas #8
If you would like to play along with Linda's challenge you can see all the rules here. There are some great prizes for the winners too. The challenge is generously sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique Linda shares a tag each week and you just have to take something from it and make something Christmas themed. I have always chosen to make cards and it's a great way to make 12 very unique cards for Christmas.
You can also combine it with any other challenges...so that is just what I did.
This is her card for week 8 here. I took the snowflake embossed background, the large die cut snowflake and flag style sentiment to use for some of the inspiration in my design.

Dies R Us 2/3 snow

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas challenge 1/3 #361

Allsorts 1/3 Inspired by winter song/carol Mine is In the bleak mid winter

Sweet stampin  fave Christmas colours I love using blues with kraft

Crimbo Crackers 1/3 #146

Noor winter

Card Mania 5/5 anything goes



Thanks for stopping by and for taking the time to leave your very kind comments.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Just a little of the white stuff

Well we did get the forecast Arctic blast here on Thursday. Just as predicted the snow started falling at 5pm but luckily it was not too cold and very soon things turned slushy.  When I woke up on Friday morning and opened the back door, this view greeted Billy.

 Just a little of the white stuff.

 Brrrrr

Needless to say Billy didn't stay out long and quickly came back into the warm.

Today's card is one with some chilly colours but a sweet warm theme....a new baby card I made for Dotty's Tea House.

The stamped image is Ladybug Crafts Ink (sadly no longer trading). I die cut a mixed media background from a snippet of inky card I had in my stash. I stamped my image and then coloured on top with Promarkers...I rather like the effect. The sentiment is LOTV. The dies are Memory box and Spellbinders and the DP is an ancient digi paper I have.

My card was made for the following challenges;

Passion for Promarkers add some bling I added a charm and also used some glossy card for my focal backing card.
I love Promarkers use something new my new is the spellbinders lattice frame.
Memory Box Winter blues
Paper Creator anything goes
Creative Corner anything goes
Pixie's snippets Playground #263/4 My whole card is a creation made with snippets of card and paper.
Not just cards new beginnings
Creative Moments something new
Craft Heaven winter blues
Crafty friends new beginnings

I hope that those of you in the UK are all keeping snug? Today is very wet and one of those days it may not ever quite get light! My Finnish and American friends still have it much worse but then we just rarely seen snow in the balmy south of England 😉 Thanks for visiting and for your very kind comments you take the time to leave me. I really enjoy reading every single one of them. I think today is a day to stay in doors, Keep Snug and Carry on Crafting. We might even light the open fire today....there is nothing quite like an real fire to gaze at. 

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Love is in the air

February, the love month,  has certainly been very wintry and we have even had some snow flurries here in Surrey last week. Billy was so funny when I opened the door and revealed the overnight snow last Tuesday.

He took a moment to consider venturing out...

and then he made his way down the path to my studio shaking his legs as he did so.













He sat here for a few minutes on my studio porch

and then had the sense to come back in the warm again ....brrr. He is such a funny cat, we do love him so much.

Sunday could not have been more different and there really was a spring feel to it. I even managed a couple of hours gardening.

How fickle our weather is, these photos were only taken 6 days apart. Today has also been beautiful with some real warmth in the sun.

My card today is not not a snowy card but it is something love related and is the engagement card I made for my niece who recently got engaged and is planning a summer wedding this year. She loves pink so I knew pink had to feature. I also wanted to use a loving sentiment and my LOTV stamp suits the bill perfectly. I went for something CAS so that the sentiment really stands out. Here it is

I think this is a perfect sentiment and it fits so many occasions. I have used my Cheery Lynn stacking heart set to create the hearts. My backing paper is from my stash.

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

Cheery Lynn tickled pink
Pan Pastels Love is in the air
Natalie and Amy all about the love
Creative Inspirations love is in the air
That Craft Place anything goes
Simon Says Stamp Mondays red or pink I like to use both
Papertake weekly anything goes
Stamping sensations anything goes
Jellypark love is in the air
Emerald Faeries all you need is love
The Artistic stamper love
Stamp and Create all you need is love
Party time Tuesdays anything goes
Inspiration Journal at Inspiration Emporium love is in the air
Artistic Inspirations anything goes with an option of a heart
Pile it on use a bow
Sweet stamping add a heart
Cupcake Inspirations photo inspiration I was inspired by the colours of the flowers in the vase to create shades of pink for my central heart.
Allsorts love is all around
Bunny Zoe for the girls


I hope for those of you that do still have snow that it is not too deep where you are and if it is keep snug. Thank you for the amazing comments you left on my last post where I shared my journal pages showing my great grandmother...I was thrilled to read how much you liked my inky play on Friday.
We are off to learn the final part of the cha cha cha tonight ;0)

I will be back later in the week to reveal the Valentine card I have made my Hb...shhh don't tell him.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

How to do baking...with Billy

I have a wonderful old Children's Baking Book which was bought for me as a 7 year old (ahem...yes a few years ago now). I still use it for making some of my small cakes. As the weather was too bad for everyone to get here last weekend I decided that I would bake some small cakes rather than 1 large one for my Hb's birthday.

As you can see it has been very well used. I just love this retro cover.

Inside it has very cute 1968 instructions and illustrations. I love the way it tells you to remember to sweep any crumbs from the floor when you tidy away! Very Brownie Guide ;0)

There are lots useful recipes and my most used recipe is for the small iced cakes. I know I probably remember it but I just love getting out my childhood baking book as I have fond memories of cake making many years ago.

So I made up the recipe for the small iced cakes with Billy checking that I had added all the right ingredients.

I spooned the mixture into their cases and then popped them in the oven to cook.

Billy checked that they were cooking by peering through the oven door. There is nothing like having someone checking up on you is there?







I had not been able to get to the shop to buy some fondant icing due to the snow so I decided that instead of making a plaque I would make a little snowy scene. I "made" a tiered cake stand by putting one on my cups upside down and standing a second small plate on top. I made some more of my fab chocolate "buttons" which caused a stir a Christmas. Would you like to see the end result.....

Yes I know the birthday plaque is pink but again it was the only one I had in the house. Needs must. You can see the cup underneath supporting the the top "tier". It was all a bit Heath Robinson but it went down really well.

These little snow people I have had for years when the children were young and the snowy post box I bought this year to put on the chocolate yule log. Now all this time we wondered what Billy would think about the end result...

Well he sat himself up at the dining room table all ready for the food to be served and gave me a purr that he approved. We even used the Christmas candle again and if you looked outside there was a good reason why..

Yes, lots of the white stuff. It really was a winter wonderland. Brrrr....

My challenge card today is this cutie. My vintage baking book inspired me to make a card with a vintage feel to it. I think this feels circa 1960s with all the gingham ribbon and swirls.

Don't you just love this gorgeous stamp? It is one from the Wild Rose Studio called Bella Sleeping. It is one of my new "treats" and I had not inked it up before. I coloured it with my Promarkers.The backing papers are Nitwit plus a download by Sheryl's designs. The die cut is the fab new bow from Memory Box. I have used my Spellbinder floral ovals to frame the image and the sentiment. All the bling extras were winnings from the lovely Tracy of Dies to Die For, including those sweet charms. I used a rather different pink/grey/yellow colour combo and I was pleased the way it came together. Just a little update with my cards; do you remember my recent tea pot card...well is was one of the cards featured in the "Fabulous Friday Selection" on the new Tiddly Ink Stamp Challenge post today ;0) I am wearing a new badge in my sidebar with pride. Thanks Tiddly Inks.

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

Papertake Weekly Tie up your lose ends
Inky Chicks #2 Bingo Ribbon, sentiment, flower
Bearly Mine Tick, tack, tock I am using the line;Lots of embellies, stamped image, ribbon, the colour pink
Penny Black and More Love is in the air
Crafty Ribbons Love/Romance
My Mum's Craft Shop  anything goes
Bunny Zoe's Crafts anything goes
Emma's Cards Animals #12
A+T Emerald Faeries Celebration #39
Paper Shelter anything goes #96
I Love Promarkers  anything goes #152
Divas By Design fairy tales My Fairy tale is Disney's Dumbo
Whimsy Stamps Fancy edges #55
Crafty Catz cute as a button #167
Jelly Park Challenges button up
Winter Wonderland It takes 2 I hope this counts, there are 2 elephants here, Bella and her Mummy!

The snow is finally clearing away today and now we are forecast some rainy weather. Spring certainly seems a long way off at the moment. I so miss being out in my studio in the garden; the blinds are down and there is no one at home. I have a couple of card commissions I plan to work on at the weekend and on Sunday we are seeing our daughter and SIL and my parents as they missed my Hb's party last Sunday. I hope you enjoy your weekend whether you are taking it easy or have some plans made.

Thanks as always for your visits and the kind comments you take the time to leave me. Roll on Spring!

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x