Easter playtime.

There are so many things going on here that I just had to nip back and share..........
I have been learning to crochet....

please don't laugh...I know that compared to my talented blogging friends it is very basic but hey I have started my first granny square....

and my Darling hubby has made his first ever cake.......a birthday cake for me.........

 He has never baked a cake before and he even piped the top with buttercream, how brilliant is this? It's lemon, my favourite. We will be eating this after my birthday lunch with the family tomorrow (it was my birthday on Wednesday). M you are so kind to me........

and I even had time to play in my creative journal............I was so inspired by the colours of my crochet and my fab lemon cake that I reached for these acrylics to create this vibrant background. I wanted to enter a couple of challenges too.

Over at PaperArtsy the theme is using Grunge paste. I added some colour to mine and pushed it through my stencils.

I added yellow through a burlap stencil...see later photo

 I also added some Archival inks

I have been itching to play with my new Visible Image stamps so off I went

and these are my finished pages

Here are some close ups....more Grunge paste

I also used the Bronte verse  text stamp

and some more Grunge paste, it gives such great texture. I added some die cut leaves.

and one final shot

I would like to enter my Journal pages into the following fun challenges, thanks!

PaperArtsy Grunge paste #6 I was inspired by Kate's use of colouring the paste and pressing it through a stencil on her textured bloom post. 

Our Creative Corner colour your world, spring

Creative Inspirations anything goes

Not just cards anything goes
Crafting from the heart anything goes
The Artistic stamper flora and fauna
Simon Says Stamp work it Wednesday
That Craft Place easter/spring

I will also be linking up with my friend Brenda on her Visual journey #14 who is enjoying creating pages in her journal....just sitting down and playing like I did here.

This is a blog party to share Visual Journal inspiration with each other.
To take part -
-please leave a link in your blog post to the post on Bumblebees and Butterflies.
- try to leave a comment on other participants blogs where their entry number ends with the same number as yours
-please add the link up code to your blog post so that we each share all particpants entries with everyone.

1. Experiments in Paper: Vintage Embroidery Sampler

2. Avril B

3. Jane's Journal: Easter playtime.

Add your link

Collection closes in 22d 7h 57m.
Let other people know about it through twitter.

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Have a bright and cheerful evening everyone and I am back tomorrow with an Easter post. Thanks so much for visiting. We will be watching the final of "The Voice" tonight....

Back very soon,

Jane x

Watercolouring for Tim's April 12 tags of 2015, Jane's Journal style

Yes I know, 2 posts in 2 days, unheard of for me but I had such a great day of crafty play yesterday that I thought it would be ideal to get my April card version of Tim's tags under my belt.  This month Tim has really explored his more delicate side and designed 2 gorgeous floral watercoloured tags. Here they are

All the details of the techniques are over on his blog post here.

Now I know that I often struggle with not having all the products he uses but this time I was well and truly stumped with which stamps to improvise with. I don't own any long stemmed single flower stamps at all. I sorted through my stash and the only large floral stamp I have is a tulip but I did and very old floral bouquet Penny Black stamp .

I love colouring using many different mediums; Promarkers, Inktense, Prismacolor and watercolouring. I also have few Distress markers so I was very limited by my colour ways. I chose a yellow/green/red colourway for the tulip stamp and a red/blue/yellow one for the bouquet.
I stamped the images onto mixed media card and then made a wash of colour as Tim did using my ink spritzer.

I used distress pens and ink pads using a detailer pen to colour my images.

I decided to leave the image below for another day as I wanted to concentrate on the tulip card and these things take a long time to come together. I had a very multitasking day..every time I went upstairs to cut or get things I did a bit more cleaning...I go the whole of the upstairs cleaned yesterday!

For the first time I coloured some seam binding with the same inks to make matching ribbons....oh my goodness, what fun this is and I will definitely be doing this more often.

Instead of plain Kraft which Tim used as his backing I decided to give my cards an embossed background. I embossed my Kraft card and using my finger applied some bronze gilding paste to the raised areas.

Tim also cleverly die cut and inserted  his sentiments but as I do not have his shadow dies again I improvised with a birthday sentiment I have.

It was then time to put on my creative hat and bring all my elements together in my card design.

This is my finished card.

You can see that I made some "faux" stitching around the focal as I don't have easy access to a sewing machine.

a couple of close ups, I love this hand dyed ribbon

and for me, instead of a star, a touch of bling in the corners ;0)

and one last arty shot

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

Tim Holtz' 12 tags of 2015 April
Frilly and Funkie put a ribbon on it
The Emerald Faeries spring flowers/Easter
Creative Inspirations anything goes
Natalie and Amy frame it
Noor! anything goes
The Artistic stamper flora and fauna
Country View use Kraft card I used this for my embossed background
Our Creative Corner colour your world, spring
Craft stamp, take a technique colour

Thanks for looking at my April card version of Tim's tag. Thanks Tim for your limitless creativity and for exploring another, more feminine side of it...more please ;0)

Back again very soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

The first day in April

I had a really good start to April as it was my birthday yesterday. My family and friends know me so well and I was spoilt with messages, emails, cards and pressies. Yes you have spotted among some of my gorgeous pressies a new Samsung Galaxy Tab S, thanks M, even more speedy and useful for my blogging.

Among my lovely cards..............

was this very special one

 yes it was from my darling Daisy, her first hand made card for me with lots of lovely glitter

Her nursery teacher wrote inside and she has made a great effort to copy :0)

M and I went up to lunch in London, more of that in another post, but the food and cocktails were scrumptious
The sun shone for most of the day which was a real blessing as it was so windy. It was definitely more March winds than April showers.

As Easter is fast approaching and we will be celebrating my birthday on Sunday with the rest of the family my card for today's challenges is an Easter card.

I recently won some printed panels from Little Claire's in their last challenge (as well as some other lovely goodies). I used this for my focal image as I thought it perfect for Easter. I used a die cut embossed front and I coloured the flowers with distress inks as well as the sweet Cheery Lynn chick die cut. The sentiment is LOTV

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

Papertake weekly take your pick I have chosen pastels
Try it on Tuesdays they who have wings my little chick has wings
The Emerald Faeries spring flowers/Easter
Creative Inspirations anything goes
Natalie and Amy frame it
Noor! anything goes
Die cut Divas in the garden
Live and Love Crafts signs of spring
Simon Says stamp Monday Pastels
Pan Pastels spring colours

I have one of those very rare Thursdays when I have a day at home...I have a long list of things to do but it does include some crafting time....I may even get out my new crochet book....so exciting. I will certainly not be distracted by the garden as it is raining this morning. Thanks as always for visiting me and if you are now off for a break over the Easter long weekend, have fun.

Time for me to go and make the most of a full day ahead............

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x