Exploring and the Butterfly Valley Rhodes

I know it has been a few weeks but I have finally got round to write a  post sharing some of my September holiday photos from Rhodes.

We witnessed glorious sunsets each night

By day the sun sparkled on the sea.

We enjoyed candle lit dinners

and witnessed a red full moon in all its glory.

And this amazing cloud formation on our last night...can you see a face here? I can.

We took a return trip to the Butterfly valley

and as well as the amazing butterflies...

We spotted the fresh water crabs too.

I decided to make a Moment for my art journal to remember our 2016 Rhodes holiday.  I wanted to celebrate the sunshine, heat and our trip to the Butterfly Valley. To do this I used my butterfly stamp from the brilliant "Own kind of Beautiful  Visible Image set. I also used  the words from my live in the moment  dragonfly set.

I wanted to join in with the next letter in the alphabet challenge over at the Craft Barn as well as some other fun challenges running in blog land at the moment.
I chose E for "explore" and this is how my Moment came together.

First I embossed my VI butterflies and then coloured them with distress markers in the same colours as those from the Butterfly Valley.

I wanted to represent the autumnal sun so I added gold embossing paste through my TH sun stencil.

I chose some warm sunny distress ink colours to blend my background in my art journal.

Once I was happy with my background I stencilled some leaves.

I made my focal by stamping and embossing my words into the centre of a TH clock die cut, which I had coloured with distress inks.

Here is my E dictionary  choice and definition...how very appropriate...E for explore

I also coloured some snippets of card to die cut leaves and branches to represent the beautiful trees in the Butterfly Valley

and then it was time to put on my creative hat.
Here is my finished Moment, my dictionary definition of E for explore is on a leaf.

When I look at this page in my art journal it takes me straight back to the sunshine and the memories we made during our wonderful September autumn holiday exploring Rhodes and the Butterfly Valley. Every moment was indeed very special.

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

The Craft Barn dictionary challenge E  Mine is E for Explore, the dictionary definition is shown above and on my leaf. We certainly did love exploring Rhodes and especially the butterful valley.
Paperartsy die cuts
Stamping Sensations 1/3 autumn
Penny Black and More 1/3 autumn
Anything but Cute an autumn day
Noor UK CAS or fully loaded Mine is of course fully loaded ;0)
Dies R Us the leaves are on the tree
We love to create 2/2 anything mixed media #21
Fashionable stamping 2/3 trees
Mod Squad anything but a card
Stamps and Stencils elements of nature

Thanks so much for visiting me today and for the kind comments you leave. I have another new follower who joined me this week..welcome and it's lovely to see you joining me on my creative journey here at Jane's Journal.

The weather has again been glorious for most of this week but it's turning chillier by the day...I actually got out and wore my winter jacket for the first time on Monday. Autumn is very much here now.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Halloween gift tags

Hello everyone it's time for my 2nd DT inspiration piece for our All things Spooky challenge over at Country View. You can find all the details here. Remember that you can enter anything crafty and there are no restrictions on the number of entries you make or the number of other challenges you enter. The best kind of challenge in my books.

 If you missed my first spooky tag you can see that post here. As I explained I give a little Halloween goodie bag to my children despite them all being grown up. I attach a hand made tag to each bag.
Today's tag is not dripping blood but has a more "Cute" theme as this one is for Daisy who is nearly 3. I also don't give a sweets bag as she (seriously!) does not like sweets of chocolate. Long may it last, is what I am sure a dentist would say.  Instead I have bought her a book, and a very appropriate one for Halloween.

Her own Mummy and Uncle loved this book when they were young in the early 1990s.

Here are the goodie bags in progress, showing the first tag here getting ready for Halloween...when things go bump in the night ;0) If you come back nearer to Halloween I will share the contents with you. For now they are under wraps! I also have a couple more tags to share.

So back to my inspiration for today. Here is the process for Daisy's tag. I chose some Halloween DI colours and blended them on my tag.

I added a little TH pumpkin stencilling

I stamped out an owl and coloured his eyes and feet yellow. I die cut a web and branch and also added glossy accents to the owl's eyes. I added some acrylic paint to the branch.

I then put everything together and came up with the tag for Daisy. I also embossed a spider under the branch as she love spiders.

You can see the GA on the owl's eyes in close up below. 

I stamped some paper with my TH stamps making a repeat pattern.

 and Daisy's present was then complete and ready for 31 October.

Thanks for stopping by today and for the kind comments you leave me.

I would like to enter my tag (and paper if it's appropriate) into the following challenges;

A vintage journey make it spooky
The Artistic Stamper 2/3 patterns I made a pattern on my paper
Paperartsy Die cuts
Cute card 3/3 Thursdays anything goes
Frilly and Funkie 3/3 author author It's pretty obvious where my inspiration is from...it's the book I wrapped up for my darling Daisy.....Funny Bones by Janet and Allan Ahlberg!
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Halloween Inspiration
We love to create 1/2 anything mixed media #21

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

New life in my garden

Again it has been a wonderful mostly sunny autumnal week, no hint of anything wintry. I took advantage of the weather to empty out a few pots of spent summer bedding and bought these beauties to plant.

Out came the bucket

 and my pots got a good clean up

 I popped in my bulbs to sleep and topped the pots with some winter flowering violas and primula for some colour during the coming months.

I have been back to Christmas card creating this week and I have managed to keep up with Linda's great 12 tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie style challenge and I now have card number 2 in the bag.

If you would like to play along please check out her 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 enter every week and complete all 12 tasks.

So on to my #2 Christmas card; this is what I got up to.

 Linda's tag 2 can be seen here.
I took for my inspiration for my card the neutral background colours she used. the pine trees, the red stencilled border. the red and white baker's twine and the deer...however rather than using the deer as  a little accent I used mine as a part of my focal.

I used these 2 DIs for my neutral background

 I used my holiday knit stencil to add a patterned border

and repeated the pattern across the top and bottom of my card.

I then gathered my stamped elements together. The stamped deer and trees are all by Tim Holtz. The trees are a Framelits set but I fussy cut the deer.

and here is my finished card.

It has been added to my Dotty's Christmas event stash for selling on 2 December. 

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

12 tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie style week 2
Pixie's Snippets playground #250 I used snippets of card for my tree, deer, sentiments and a snippet of Baker's twine too.
The Ribbon Girl 2/3 October any card
The Artistic Stamper 1/3 patterns
Cute card 2/3 Thursdays anything goes
ABC Christmas T for Two my 2 is 2 patterned borders (top and bottom of my card)
Frilly and Funkie author author The book and author I had in mind for my card was The Snow child by Eowyn Ivy...if you have never heard of this book it should be on your must read Christmas book list....it is set in the forests of Alaska and is simply magical. I can imagine my card being set there.
Fashionable stamping trees

Thanks for visiting today and for the kind comments you take the time to leave. I would also like to extend a warm welcome to my newest follower. It's great to see you joining my creative journey here at Jane's Journal.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x