Shopping for Christmas

I finally have some time to go Christmas shopping. Today I will be going with my Hb and tomorrow with my best friend Karen. Hopefully I will be able to get most of my pressies which I need to "browse" for. Although I love the convenience of on line shopping, when I need some inspiration I still need to go to some physical shops. Do you?

Yesterday was my silversmithing class and I noticed that the shopping centre has all its Christmas decorations and lights up. Actually I quite liked these ones.

Nothing like a touch of sparkling snow is there?

My card today is a snowflake Christmas card. My latest for sale at Dotty's in the High Street.

Here is the snowflake in close up, one layer of the snowflake I triple gold embossed which gives a lovely texture. The background has been embossed with a snowflake folder. The largest snowflake is Memory Box and the others are Tim Holtz. The stamped sentiment is an ancient one from my stash. 

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

Simon says Wednesday baby it's cold outside

As you like it 2/3 do you prefer digi or rubber stamps? me most definitely rubber. Sentiment stamps like the one I used in this card are so useful.
Crimbo Crackers 2/3 anything goes
Sweet stampin' 2/3 whatever the weather

Crafty Halzelnut's Christmas 2/3 #413
Allsorts 3/3 inspired by a song mine is "Let it snow" by Dean Marin, another of my all time Christmas faves.
Addicted to stamps 2/3 anything goes
Cute Card Thursday 1/3 festive colours
CRAFT challenge 1/2 make your own embellishments
Try it on Tuesday 1/3 winter wonderland

I hope you are able to start your shopping soon...or are you already done 😆

Thanks for stopping by today,

Back soon,

Bye for  now,

Jane x

Christmas is on its way

On Friday I met my dear Mum in London for our annual Christmas trip to Harrods. We have been going every year for over 20 years. Over the years the Christmas department has changed and indeed shrunk but we still love to go. The windows always look spectacular

I'll share some more photos soon, and which ornament I added to my collection this year.

I'm sharing for my Monday DT make for Visible Image and as we are fast approaching the time to finish getting our Christmas cards made today's make is one using 3 sets from their fab Christmas collection. We have an "add some sparkle" challenge over on the Facebook page so I thought I would go to town with the sparkle today.

I used the smaller angel and the star from the angels  stamp set

together with the snowflakes from

Snow is falling

and the peace sentiment and star from the peace, hope and love set 

I went for a relatively simple design on plain black card stock as I think these gorgeous images just speak for themselves. I used silver ink first to stamp the snowflakes. When dry I white embossed the stars. Afterwards I used some ultra sparkly WOW gold glitter embossing powder to really make the angel stand out.

I also white embossed the peace sentiment.

Here is my finished card

I would like to enter it into the following challenges;

CRAFT 1/3 Christmas
Cute card Thursday 1/3 stars
Simon says stamp Monday all that glitters is gold
Stamping sensations 1/3 Getting ready for Christmas
Christmas at sweet stampin 1/3 anything goes
Crafty Hazlenut's Christmas challenge 1/3 #412 anything goes
Sweet stampin 1/3 anything that shines
Fussy and fancy 1/3 anything goes
Crafty catz 1/3 anything goes
Artistic inspirations 1/3 anything goes
Winter wonderland what do you like to do at Christmas?....me, reflect on the year and hope that hope that the snow falls!

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. 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.

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. 

Remember to add your "sparkle projects" to the FB album here The challenge

ends on 30  November. It will be great to see them all and you might even be the randomly selected winner of a £40 voucher to spend on the website...now that would be like Christmas coming early wouldn't it!

I hope that all your Christmas preparations are going to plan...there are only 36 days to go...are you ready 😂🎅😄?
Thanks for stopping by today and for the kind comments you take the time to leave me, especially at this very busy time of year.

Back soon

Bye for now,

Jane x

A snowflake's journey

Wow, we have arrived at the first day of November! The weather certainly knew which month it is...a real drop in temperature. We have yet to have our first frost but it must be very near. I planted up the last of my winter flowering viola in the garden at the weekend so that I can enjoy a little colour until the bulbs peep through next spring.

They are such delicate flowers but even in the harshest winters keep on flowering their little hearts out. I decided to use just a little touch of colour to create my card today.

It is time for our November challenge over at Country View Challenges and our theme this month is "Stencils". A really great theme as I use them in most of my crafting.
Remember that 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 will find all the details here

I am sharing the first of my 2 inspiration cards. Today's uses temporary Christmas colours of blues and silvers. I used my Visible Image snowflake stamps and 2 of their stencils; the brilliant time tunnel and cosmic skies. The time tunnel stencil gave me the feel of  swirling snowflakes on their journey, hence the title of my post. I also added a glint of silvery snow using the cosmic skies stencil.

This is what I got up to in my studio, the photos are a bit dark as I don't a lot of natural light down there now that the nights are drawing in.
 I used Tumbled glass and a few dabs of Pumice stone Distress inks and lots of water.

 I added more Tumbled glass ink through the time tunnel stencil to create my snow storm.

I then added some metallic inks through the Cosmic skies stencil

and got this lovely effect

I then stamped and embossed my snowflakes in silver and added the stamped sentiment from the set using black ink.

I added some die cut snowflakes and gems and layered them up to finished off my card.

Here it is.

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

Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes

Thanks so much for stopping by and we hope to see lots of you joining in with our "Stencils" challenge for November over at Country View. All the details again are  here

Bye for now,

Jane x

Yuletide

We had some very crisp cold days last week and I loved the frost that formed over the windows of my sleeping studio.

Billy went out and back indoors very quickly

Such pretty patterns, they looked just like snowflakes and inspired my work today.

Now that Dotty's Market is over I had a tiny bit of time just to craft for myself. There are still some fun challenges running and I decided to combine a few with a Yuletide post. The letter over at the Craft Barn dictionary challenge is Y and that seemed a perfect word to use.

 I could also have some fun with other Christmas related challenges. I decided to make a new art journal page.

Inspired by the snowflake like icicles I stamped and white embossed some snowflakes over a sheet of plain red scrapbook paper.

I used this lovely Christmas poem; I am unsure of the author;

There’s so much more to Christmas

than candlelight and cheer.

It’s the spirit of sweet friendship 

that brightens all year.

It’s the thoughtfulness and kindness,

it’s hope reborn again.

For peace, for understanding

and goodwill to men!

I then used a lovely Paperartsy set of stamps to add some Christmas words and music.

Whilst looking for my Christmas paper I found a sheet of really old scraps which I must have had in my stash for over 20 years. I thought they were perfect to add to my page.

Here is what I made;

I would like to enter my art journal page into the following challenges;

The Craft Barn dictionary challenge Y for Yuletide. The definition is in the bottom right corner.

The Funkie Junkie week #11

For week #11 of Linda's challenge I was inspired by her red paper, the snowflakes, the joyful words and the gingham ribbon. If you would like to play along with this fun Christmas challenge please check out Linda's post here which gives all the details of the challenge requirements. The challenge is sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique and you could even win one of the prize vouchers if you complete all 12 weeks.
A vintage journey winter magic

Emerald Creek Dares 2/3  winter wishes

Simon Says stamp Monday Ice inspiration

                                                Sparkles Christmas Christmas is coming

Simon Says Work it Wednesday 2/3 use dies

The Artistic Stamper 3/3 Christmas

Winter Wonderland 2/3 frame it or night scene my poem is framed by the holly and robins

Crafty Boots unltd Christmas

Let's craft and create 2/3 Christmas

My Hb and I had a day out Christmas shopping today and had a very successful shop. I hope you are getting that list ticked too. Thanks so much for stopping by and for the kind comments you leave at such a busy time of the year for everyone. Take care.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

When falling leaves inspire falling snowflakes

We finally had our first frost during the week and it was enough to trigger the leaves to start to fall...........

carpets of them appeared almost overnight.

I stood mesmerised in the park watching them float to the ground

 Even some of the acers in their pots in my garden dropped lots of their leaves overnight.

All these falling leaves  make me think of a stamp that was in my yummy Design Team package that I recently received from Visible Image. In it is a lovely poem stamp about falling snowflakes. Here is the you can see it here

 I decided I would have my first play with decorating one of their awesome Monoliths with it. If you have not seen these before they have been designed by Mark and were a totally unique product, new to the crafting market last year. You can see them here. They are fab quality free standing MDF plaques which can be decorated on both sides and make awesome gifts.

 I took a couple of  process photos but I got so carried away with my painting play that there are only a few.

As I was using acrylic paints I just gave my Monolith 1 coat of Gesso. I then crushed up some tissue paper and adhered it to the plaque with matt medium.

I then got busy with adding some Decoart media paints and lots of spritzes of water and dabbing with baby wipes and my fingers. 

I also stamped my poem onto tissue and then added it to the plaque together with some some embossed snowflakes from their enchanting snowflakes set

 I also embossed more snowflakes on the reverse using a winter wonderland embossing powder.

and then it was time to add some festive die cuts and the one thing it just had to have..............

yes....of course..

SNOW 

The Monoliths can be left to flat pack but as I wanted a snowy base I stuck my base together permanently. My snow is a mix of Frantage, Decoart snow and Glamour dust. IRL it sparkles so much.

So here is my first Monolith,;for me it just had to be a Christmas themed one. 

Here is the reverse

and a few close ups...it's so hard to capture the sparkle at this time of the year....I loved the way the paints ran into the crackles.

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

A vintage journey cracking up I achieved my cracks using crumpled tissue.

                                                                         Noor 2/3 Winter
                                                               Anything but Cute  rustic glam

Everybody art vintage

Dies are us 2/3  thankful for nature

ABC Christmas 2/3 V for vertical
Addicted to stamps and more 2/3 holiday

Let's craft and create 1/3  winter

WOW embossing powders Boxes and gifts

Rhedd's Creative spirit altered art
Crafty friends 1/3 for someone special


Thanks for stopping by today and for the kind comments you take the time to leave. Enjoy your fireworks if you are having any. We plan to stay put this year and watch Strictly live rather than catching up as we often do on a Sunday!

Keep snug,

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x