Mother's Day

This weekend sees everyone in the UK celebrating Mother's Day, or to give it the correct title Mothering Sunday. It is a special day to remember our Mum's whether they are with us or not. As a Mum myself I am seeing my daughter on Sunday and we also hope to catch up with our son who arrived safely home this week from his trip to the States. It really has nothing to do with gifts or cards but just to take the time to remember our nearest and dearest. It is also the time of the year here in the UK when we really appreciate the lengthening daylight hours. Indeed we are only a matter of weeks away from the Spring Equinox when we have equal daylight and night time darkness. Bliss, sheer bliss. It is also the time when most of our spring flowers are in bloom.

Gorgeous crocuses in my garden

and my dearest daffodowndillies.

I have noticed ducks at the local ponds have been finding their mates and will soon be nest building.

and Billy is enjoying pottering in and out of the garden when the sun shines. Today has been quite wet but much milder that recently.

My card for this post I made my for my own dear Mum for Mother's Day, she has strict instructions not to read my blog until Sunday so it will not be spoilt  I really felt that a card to celebrate this magical time of this year had to include butterflies. My Mum loves cats, especially our Billy so I knew just the stamp to use.

I also wanted to make a card to use for Brenda a blogging friend of mine who is hosting a fun little competition of her own. Her blog Floral Fantasies has nearly 4,000 followers and she is celebrating her 4th bloggerversary. Many of her cards feature gorgeous flower stamps. She is a very talented, kind and generous crafter and wants us to come up with a card that reminds us of visits to her blog. She has a  fab butterfly on the banner of her blog page and she lives out in the countryside. She really enjoys nature and is a huge animal lover. She has had some recent health issues on top of her MS but she is always such a positive and cheerful person. I have never heard her moan or complain.

I decided to combine all these ideas for inspiration. as well as knowing how much my own Mum loves Mother Nature and came I up with this;

It is very much a "me" card featuring my newest Lili of the Valley stamp called kitten cuddles (another I bought with my LOTV winnings ;0) I just love this image.

I used my Promarkers to colour her and made the cat have a pink nose just like our Billy. The DPs are from my stash. I used my spellbinders floral oval to frame the stamp. My butterflies and the leaves are Martha Stewart punches. I added pearls and gems as accents. I have used some mulberry roses and flowers which I gave some sparkle to with Stickles. There is also a pretty pink statin egded organza ribbon tucked in there.
The round and tag sentiments are also LOTV

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

Brenda's Floral Fastasy special celebration
Lili's little fairies  a card for Mum
Bearly Mine Mother's Day #76
Creative Inspirations Happy Mother's day
My Mum's card shop challenge Spring #3
Visible Image spring
Heck of a Challenge Spring/butterflies/pearls
Crafting for all seasons spring into spring #47
Passion for Promarkers One for the ladies #188
Crafty Ribbons anthing goes with ribbon

I am on a course for work in London all day tomorrow but I am looking forward to seeing my children on Sunday.  I shall also be speaking to my own dear Mum and I will see her next week.

Wishing everyone a happy Mother's day whether your own dear Mum is with you in this world or not. Send a smile to the sky and thank Mother Nature too for making this a beautiful world.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

On the Wandle Trail

many thanks to everyone who visited my Guest design post on Sunday. I really enjoyed seeing so many people and Billy was pleased too. Thank you also for all the lovely comments you left. I really enjoyed reading them.  I am glad the card went down well as it was really outside my usual comfort zone. At the weekend the weather had improved so much that my Hb and I ventured out for another good long walk. We are lucky enough to live on the Wandle Trail, a 12 mile walking cycling/walking route along the River Wandle from Croydon up to Wandsworth in London. The River Wandle in the past was a very busy "working" river with my mills and other industry along it's length. Indeed where I live was renowned for watercress and lavender growing. There are still many old buildings standing showing how the river was used in the past.
Recently there has been a major investment made and the pathways have been tidied up and even a map produced showing the trail.

The first part we decided to investigate was Wilderness Island, a local nature reserve. We put on our walking boots and set off on Sunday in the Sunshine.

The island is only small but perfect for sweeping away the cobwebs and getting used to walking again after such a dire winter. No one else was there so we had the place to ourselves and the wildlife. Cycles are not allowed inside this part of the Wandle trail either.

Several little bridges have been built since we last visited many years ago. There were lots of ducks and birds on the water. We even spied bat boxes in the tree, although we did not see any bats as they are usually nocturnal.

The island is a real little haven and yet so close to suburbia.

It was a great visit. We then rejoined the trail and walked a few more miles further down the river towards Morden. I will share some more of our adventures as we walk them and at some point this year we hope to get as far as Wandsworth.

All this walking inspired me for my challenge card for this post. Walking and shoes came to mind and I knew just what stamp to use. I used one from the Killer Heels  release, this one is called Rose. It is made by my buddy Kerry's company, Ladybug Crafts Ink. They have a blog hop on at the moment showcasing some fab new stamps called "Through the ages". I have a link in my sidebar. Do take a look and join the fun.

 I also wanted to enter the super challenge being run for Cupcakes Inspirations 200th post so I combined the 2.

This is my inspiration cupcake photo I used , it is number 72 from their blog.
I used the pink colour from the flowers and also I liked the black swirls.

So do you want to see what I made..................

 Here is a close up of this fab stamp. I had great fun using my Promarkers to colour it. I added some bling to the details and a silver sparkly ribbon. The tags are Lili of the Valley. I also got my Bigshot out to play and cut an oval for the 21 sentiment and used my great Memory Box bow too. 

Now I don't think I will be wearing these killer heels on our Wandle Trail walks......do you ;0)

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

Ladybug Crafts Ink Through the ages - add a number I added 21 (my age..LOL)

Cupcake Inspirations 200th post and blog hop as I showed in my photo I used cupcake inspiration No 72

Emerald Faeries Bling #41

Natalie and Amy Die cuts #7

Gorjuss Anything goes with pink #173

Crafty Ribbons anything goes with ribbon

Allsorts For a lady #196

Crafts and Me Dies or punches #122

Ribbon Girl add ribbon or twine

Cupcake Craft #232 sparkle

Papertake weekly anything goes

Passion for Promakers One for the ladies #188

Party Time Tuesdays die cuts #110

Today has been just glorious, clear blue skies and the first real warmth in the sunshine. I went to my silversmithing class and came home to have a cup of tea in the garden. This was my view. If it stays like this I will soon be able to open up my garden studio.

When I stood up to take the photo Billy decided it was a very good place to sit....so I had to get out another chair for me. We were even joined by his little shy friend Blackie too

and I found that the very first of my outdoor daffs have come out to greet the sunshine

Dare I whisper the final line of my favourite Daffodowndilly poem by A.A.Milne......"Winter is dead?"

Squeal.......all is well in Jane's World. 

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

March Guest Designer for Penny Black and More

I am absolutely delighted today to have been invited to be a Guest Designer on the Penny Black and More card challenge for March. If any of you visiting me are first time visitors may I give you a very warm welcome to Jane's Journal. I am rather a different card maker in that I am also passionate about silver smithing, jewellery making, cake making and gardening so all these crafts feature on my blog. I also have a delightful cat called Billy who regularly shows up here and oh yes...I do also have to go to work ;0)

The theme for this month's card challenge over at Penny Black and More is "One for the Boys". Now this really takes me out of my cute and girlie comfort zone. I had a look through my Penny Black stamps and there were only 2 which were suitable. I chose this one, called "The three meows". I stamped out the image several times and had a play with colouring them with my trusty Promarkers.

 I planned to make something special, a Gate Fold card. I decided that a would try a grey monocrome colourway for my card. I coloured some of the stamps in single colours but decided in the end to add one colour to it as I found it looked too flat just in shades of grey (no not that one!) I found red worked really well with the greys and just picked out some accents on the images. I love the little coat on that kitty on the right!

I only was only bought my Big Shot die cutter at Christmas so I don't have many dies yet. I chose the Spellbinders labels 17 and a Fancy rectangle and cut them out.

I decided that the labels cutter (first image) suited my planned card best and made up a mat for it in black card.

It was then time to get out my paper stash and have a search for some ideas for the sides of my gate folds. In the end I decided on something quite plain as most others looked very fussy. I matted everything onto black card.

I used my MS star paper punch for the edges and added a lovely ribbon.

So here is my finished card

and here are a couple of more photos showing the inside too. I found a wonderful black silk ribbon with congratulations written on it so it served as a sentiment too.

and of course someone else tried to get in on the act too...............

Hmmmm I wonder if these cats are friendly...I think I ought to say hello to the Three Meows ;0) I wonder if Jane would make me a smart red coat like that...?

Billy is such a funny boy.

Thanks for visiting Billy and me and thank you Penny Black and More for inviting me to be a Guest Designer.
This new challenge "One for the Boys" is running until noon on 2nd April.

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

Penny Black and More (of course) One for the Boys
Simon Says Stamp anything goes
The Paper Shelter #101 animal magic
Divas by Design anything goes
Crafts and Me #122 dies or punches
Deep Ocean Challenge For a boy #46
Party Time Tuesday anything goes #109
Bearly Mine anything goes #75
Jelly Park get into shape
Crafty Ribbons anything goes with ribbon #40 my ribbon reads "congratulations" and I was able to take it inside the card too .
The Ribbon Girl add ribbon or twine I added the black congratulations ribbon.



Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x