Festive scenes for the Winter Solstice

Today is the Winter Solstice, or the shortest day of the year. It will be dark by about 3.30pm this afternoon but the exciting thing is that tomorrow the days will start to lengthen again. It is also the first day of winter. It's really looking Christmassy here at home. The trees are up, the decorations are hung and the opening of the doors of my vintage advent calendar give me so much joy in the mornings.

Down at my local High Street in Carshalton everything looks so festive. I always love the window at Dotty's Teahouse where my cards are sold, how pretty is this!

If you are in this neck of the woods over the Christmas holiday Dotty's is a lovely place to sit and natter over tea and home made cake or even for a more leisurely lunch. You'll find the shop in the High Street, Carshalton, Surrey, SM5 2AE The only days they are closed are Christmas day, Boxing day and New Year's Day. 

There was the return of another of my festive favourites on my door step in the week...

Yes Mo ,my lovely milkman, delivered my milk....with festive foils! Every year I wonder if it will be the last as it must add to cost but I'm delighted to see them here for another year.

One last festive item I bought in the week was for my darling son. He said he was far too busy working to get time to buy and decorate a Christmas tree, he even mentioned the word fake tree. 😲 Well you can imagine my horror at the thought that a) he had no Christmas tree and b) he had contemplated the thought of a non real tree. He works 6 days a week and I know that it really is hard for him to juggle everything at this time of the year. However, like me, he is a huge lover of Christmas.

I could not bear the thought of him having no tree so I hatched a plan and managed to find this when I met up with my daughter and Jack on Tuesday at a nursery near Godalming in Surrey.

yay...a tiny Christmas tree, grown in the UK.

I love the last sentence.

I bought a couple of decs, gave him one off our tree and made a little die cut star for the top

He really loved it and it has pride of place on his breakfast bar. Phew, Mum worry over (we're mad aren't we..my baby boy will be 30 next year!)

Today I wanted to share the card I made for my dearest little grandson Jack who is 20 months old today and loves anything with animals on. It is just right for sharing on the first day of winter...a very wintry scene...with that wonderful thought of "let it snow".

The background is a very treasured sheet of DP which I have had forever and never wanted to cut into but I thought it perfect for Jack. It has sweet little snowmen dancing in a starry sky. He loves The Snowman and I have a very old stamp set of the snowman so I stamped and coloured him up with my Promarkers and fussy cut him out. I also added lots of inks to my robin and holly leaves. The moon was stamped too. It's a large 8X8" card so lots for Jack to see.  Here is it

Here are a couple of close ups. Lots of silver STAMPlorations stars have been stamped onto the deer for some extra interest for Jack.

and of course Santa had to feature. The sentiment is a CUTplorations die from STAMPlorations.

and one last shot

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

I love Promarkers anything goes
Passion for Promarkers hip to be square
Fashionable stamping 3/3 Winter
Double D let it snow
Crimbo crackers anything goes
As you like it 1/3 anything goes
Simon says stamp Wednesday party time I think my snowman is having a great party in the middle to the woods with all his woodland friends!
Time out 1/3 inspired by words I was inspired by the words celebrate, family and life!
Cute card Thursday 1/3 anything goes

My daughter sent me this photo. Jack is a bit blurry, as he is really hard to catch as he is forever on the move, but here they are with their Christmas cards.

I can't wait to spend Christmas with them.

Thanks so much for stopping by and for your lovely comments, I so appreciate them.
I'm back again on Monday with my Christmas Eve post..the last before the Big Day...just 4 more sleeps....are you ready? Have a fab weekend.

Bye for now,

Jane x

Ladybug Crafts Ink Christmas Blog hop

Well this post is a real honour for me to write as I have been invited by my blogging buddy Kerry to be a Guest Designer on her Ladybug Crafts Ink  Christmas Blog hop, which showcases her new range of 6 Christmas digi stamps. This is a first for me! This new collection is called Snowman Delight and what a delight they are. I have known Kerry for nearly a year and we have so much in common including our darling daughters getting married within 2 months of one another. I really do class her as a great friend and I would like to thank her for inviting me to design a card with one of her wonderful new stamps. I was given the sweet "Snowman Chorus Delight" stamp which you can buy right now  here. They are only £1.75 each and can be instantly downloaded.

This hop runs for 2 weeks until Monday 24 September at 12pm (GMT) There are lots of super prizes to be won and if you would like to be "in it to win it" you will need to visit all the team taking part in the hop and leave a comment on each post. The winner will get all six images! There are also a 5 runners up prizes who will each win one of the new images. You need to leave a final comment on the main challenge blog saying which is your favourite image from this release...that is going to be a tough one! Winners will be chosen at random as long as you have commented on all the posts.  There is also a Card Challenge running at the same time, the randomly chosen winner  will win one of the new release. As always there will be a Top 3 to admire. Just use the photo above  as your inspiration and let you imagination run wild! You do not need to use a LCI stamp to enter the card challenge but if you do there is an extra prize ;0) All the details are on the main LCI blog page.

You should have arrived here via the lovely MARY J and the next on the hop after me is MICHELE Remember to leave a comment on every post to be counted in for the prizes!

This is the fun photo inspiration we were given ...

It will be interesting to see what this suggested to the other designers but to me my first thoughts were; butter cream, snow, bright scarves and a more subtle green than what I would call traditional "Christmas Green".


Below is my card.

I hope you like it..it was such fun to put together and the image is a real "delight" to colour.

 

and here is that sweet image in close up; Snowman Chorus, you can buy it now just click here . I coloured it using my Promarkers and highlighted with my Prismacolor pencils. I used Glamour Dust to add sparkle to their woolly hats and the snowy floor. I used a lovely gold card as matting, it looks like butter cream cakes to me!!

I added a few festive die cuts and some pearls and gems to add some sparkle. I had some fab lace in my stash as well as an unusual cloth ribbon with the festive greetings of "Merry Christmas". Although this is not my usual colour scheme I really liked the way it turned out and have even used the same scheme for some of my other Christmas cards.










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

Stampin for the Weekend Starting Christmas Early #17
Sparkles Christmas Challenge Sparkle and Bling #20
Ribbon Girl Just add pearls
The Ribbon Girl also has a ribbon giveaway here. They are featuring some new products...my favourite are those lovely silver butterflies...if I won them I would add them to one of my birthday cards. I LOVE butterfly embellies!
Make it Monday #106 Linky party
Dream Valley Something old/something new My old is the lace from my stash, the new is my new LCI digi stamp!
Christmas Card Challenges #41
The Squirrel and the Fox #26 anything goes
Bearly-Mine Challenges anything goes #52
Papertake Weekly Things that make you go...Awwww
Natalie and Amy new challenge blog anything goes


This is my last post for a week or so as tomorrow at 7am I will be jetting off on holiday with my Hb. I can't wait to get some late summer sunshine. Most of my regular blogger friends will recognize where I am off to but just to give you a taster....

Bliss............
Back  in a week or so ;0)

Thanks for hopping by on The Ladybug Crafts Ink  fabulicious blog hop! Remember that next person to visit is the lovely

MICHELE

If you get lost at all just hop back to the main Challenge blog which has all the details. Thanks so much for visiting Jane's Journal and good luck to everyone!


Bye for now,

Jane x

21 days til............................

In recent years there has been some debate about sending Christmas cards. At my work place for the last 3 years some people have decided to give to charity instead of giving cards. That is their personal choice and I do respect that. However I chose to do both because I so enjoy giving and receiving Christmas cards. I hang the cards we are sent on  foil strings from the banisters in my hallway. It is always such a cheerful display to greet  us when we come home.
I enjoy the hearing the sound of cards plopping through my letter box, delivered by my trusty postman. Even the stamps issued by the Royal Mail this year are cheerful.  They are the delightful Wallace and gromit. I am not sure if my overseas readers know of these fun characters? Cards also allow me to hear from friends who now live far away and sadly I rarely see. It gives me a great pleasure reading their messages. I have one friend, who is another Jane, and usually hers is the very first to arrive. However due to all the snow we have had our mail has been seriously disrupted and we have not had a delivery since Tuesday! I am sure Jane will not disappoint me. These have been the scenes around here this week, it's not really that surprising my post has not been delivered! You can click on any of the photos to enlarge them.

It's hard to believe this is Surrey not Lapland! Real picture postcard scenery...I still think it is quite stunning and just so appropriate to this time of the year.

I always enjoy making some of my Christmas cards. As I just don't have the time to make them for everyone I tend to give the handmade ones to my nearest and dearest. This year I tried starting early and I did manage to get some finished in October but as always time has run away and I must now buy a few to complete my list.
I showed a couple my handmade cards on my footsteps in the snow post recently and I just thought I would share a few more.

I bought these brilliant fimo snowmen at a craft fair last year, after I had finished making my cards. So I  put them away to use  this year. I love the snowman image and he is a favourite theme of mine at this time of the year.

I have used other colourways of these sweet snowmen to make some variations. It is always interesting how differently cards turn out even when the same theme is used. Just a change in backing paper or embellishments makes them look completely different.






One really fun card I wanted to share with you is the one I have just made for my dear Hb. You may already be aware that I love pigs. As I could never have the joy of keeping a real one, the nearest I have ever got to this is owning guinea pigs. When I was small, and then also when our children were young, we kept these wonderful feisty little creatures. Wilbur, Fern, Raisins, Roger and Dennis all spent many happy years with us. My husband also fell in love with these very dear creatures, we have such fond memories of keeping them.

When I spotted Zoe on Etsy, who paints the most true to character guinea pigs, I just knew I had to commission her to paint me this little fellow for Christmas to use for my Hb's card.

He very much resembles our Roger who was one of the cheekiest guineas we every owned!
I decided to use him as the centre piece for the card.
I used some green holly embossed card to make a "parcel" cross and added glitter snowflake stick ons. I cut out a matching green tag which I attached with snowy ribbon and here it is......

 Inside I used some fun peel offs and made a holly border with a green strip underneath to highlight the cut outs.





This shows the inside where I will write my Christmas greeting to him ♥

So as you can see I often have very random themes for my cards but I think it makes them even more special and after all ....just how many guinea pig Christmas cards can you find on the shelves of the shops at the moment........................................................??!! ;0)

I suppose I must crack on with finishing writing my Christmas cards now and get them all in the post so that they can be delivered in plenty of time.

As I cannot send all my blogging friends real cards I hope you have enjoyed looking at these and if I was to put a verse inside to send one to you all .....this would be my choice.

There's more, much more, to Christmas Than candlelight and cheer;

It's the spirit of sweet friendship That brightens all year.

It's thoughtfulness and kindness, It's hope reborn again,

 For peace, for understanding, And for goodwill to men!    (Anon)

.......and women of course ;0)

Bye for now,

Jane x