Magical bluebells

The bluebells in our local woods have been stunning over the last few weeks. We went up again on Sunday to take another peep... it is just magical. The bluebells create a misty carpet and the spicy scent rises from them; it really is a scene to behold.

I will share some of my favourite photos I have taken of this years's amazing annual feat of Mother Nature.

When we walked in it felt like a fairy entrance..................

welcoming us into The Enchanted Wood (did you also read The Magic Faraway tree as a child 😊)

We became more and more spellbound at every twist and turn in the path.........

English bluebells at their very best..in the most beautiful woodland setting.

So my card today was totally inspired by those magical walks. I used my newest Lavinia stamp which I bought at Ally Pally last month. I wanted to capture that new lush green of the leaves as well as the blue and purple tones of the bluebells. I used regular distress inks, which I blended.  I stamped the background leaves using archival ink and there is one or 2 of Tim's floral stencils in there too. The fairy is black embossed and there is a wink of stella on her wings for some fairy dust.

The die cut sentiment is Tim Holtz and I cut it in glitter card for even more sparkle.

 My card was made for the following challenges;

Frilly and Funkie 3/3 put on your inking cap
Emerald Creek Dares 1/3 dream a little dream
Happy little stampers May 2/3 watercolouring anything goes
Card Mania 2/3 life is colourful
A bit more time to Craft 2/3 anything goes
Allsorts 2/3 embossing my fairy is embossed
Simon Says Stamp Monday the great outdoors
The Artistic Stamper 1/3 floral fantasy

Thanks so much for stopping by, before you go I just want to share some more exciting news....the June edition of Craft Stamper is now out in the shops...

.and I have a project inside 😄 It's part of a Visible Image Design Team 3D challenge we made for the magazine...here's a sneak peek of my piece...I can't share more until next month...but I  bet you can guess who I used as my inspiration again......meow 😻

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

A chance to express yourself

Hello, I am back with a second post today. If you missed my earlier post you can find it via this link 

It's the first of May and it also happens to fall on a Monday. This means that it is also time for me to share my newest Design Team inspiration for Visible Image over on their Facebook friends page.

I am also excited to share some news today.  There is a brand new themed monthly Visible Image challenge starting over on Facebook.  You don't even need to blog to be able to enter it. You just upload you photo into the photo album set up for May. Simples! You can also win a £40 coupon (wow) to spend on their website if you are the randomly chosen winner at the end of the month.

You know me, I love entering challenges and I also find them great for kick starting my inspiration so I am delighted that Helen has introduced this. For our first challenge the theme is " Express yourself". We need to see you using your Visible Image words or quote stamps as the focal on your project. You can make anything at all; cards, tags, 3D objects etc, just make sure that the only stamps that you use are Visible Image ones. You can enter as many times as you like, the only rule is that any stamps you use must be VI.  If you have not joined the friends' group page just click here to join. It would be lovely to see you there. This challenge is open to everyone, world wide.

Here is my "Express yourself" card. 

I used the brilliant  Wake up and feel awesome stamp available here.

The background stamps are from the Visometry set.
I white embossed some of the brilliant Visometry stamps  I love these stamps, they remind me of my childhood days I spent playing and creating with my Spirograph set.

I white embossed my Visometry stamps and then black embossed the words

I wanted a really bright zingy effect so I chose these Distress ink colours to work with. 

and added colour to the background using the wrinkle free technique. You really need your sun glasses on for this one 😎. I waved to it on the recent Create and Craft TV show. There is more exciting news coming soon about that too..........😉

Here is a close up of the quote;

and I also decorated the inside with more Visometry stamps.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges

A Vintage Journey the magic of 3 I have used 3 Visometry images on the front and back of my card.

Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes

Frilly and Funkie 2/3 put on your inking cap

That's Crafty 2/3 bright
We love to create 2/2 anything mixed media
Happy little stampers May 1/3 watercolouring anything goes
Card Mania 1/3 life is colourful
A bit more time to Craft 1/3 anything goes
Allsorts 1/3 embossing

Here are all the Visible Image links again;

 Visible Image group page on Facebook. Our friendly Group can be found here and it is where you will find our first themed "Express yourself" challenge...it would be lovely to see you over there. You can also add work to the "Show and Tell" folder where one randomly chose winner each month win a £25 coupon to spend on the website.

The main Visible Image business page is here; there are weekly stamp giveaways...open world wide!

And the shop web site is here; where all these gorgeous stamps can be found.

Thanks for stopping by, have an amazing bank holiday weekend and I really hope you get some time to get inky. As it's raining here my garden studio is calling me....😉

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Flower power

Happy May Day everyone..goodness me how did we get here so quickly?

 As it is the first of the month it is time for my Design Team card for the monthly Country View Challenge. For May the theme is "Flower power" which is just perfect for me. I love flower stamps so this was an easy theme for me. You can enter as many times as you like and link to any challenges.  All the details are here

The bluebells in the local woods are in full bloom and they are looking wonderful.

We visited them recently and Bear came too...

I decided to make 2 spring tags, using the same floral stamps but using distress inks for one and the new distress oxides  for the other.

Today I will share the distress ink one, I will share the oxides one on 25th May when it's my turn for my second piece over at Country View.

This is what I got up to in my studio.

These were my colour choices for my tag

I used the wrinkle free distress techique

I added some gloss texture paste through a stencil and got the shiney effect below.

I used Tim Holtz's Lady Rose stamps, I love these floral stamps.

 I stamped an edge using archival ink

I then stamped his Garden flowers onto some mop up card

The lovely script stamp I used is Visible Image

I then  fussy cut them out, put on my creative hat and here is my finished flower power tag.

with a couple of close ups...
I added some chit chat words

and some remnant rubs

and also some glitter pen to the stamens.

I would like to enter my tag up with the following challenges;

A Vintage Journey the magic of 3 I have made 3 flowers
Frilly and Funkie 1/3 put on your inking cap

Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes

Simon says stamp  work it Wednesday 2/3 April showers bring May flowers
That's Crafty 1/3 bright
We love to create 1/2 anything mixed media
Simon says stamp Monday use a number I have a remant rub number on my tag.
Pixie's snippet's Playground #279/80 I have used snippets of card for my flowers.

I have a rare Monday today as I will be back later this morning with my 2nd post, it is also the day for my Visible Image Inspiration over on Facebook.

Back later,

Bye for now,

Jane x