More love in February

It's the Big Day on Friday and for me that means celebrating 34 years since my Hb and I got engaged. Yes we are quite soppy old romantics and still send cards and often a little box of choccies appears..well no one needs much of an excuse for that do they?

I am the Guest Designer today for the lovely Nikky of Bunny Zoe's card challenge. A new theme starts for the next month and yes you guessed it...it's Love. This does not have to be a Valentine's card but obviously your creation needs to show plenty of love in it. For my card I was able to choose a stamp from her online shop Bunny Zoe's. Nikky has an amazing range and after lots of oohing and aahhing I chose a Bildmalarna stamp called Alva Believe which is available here. I love her and I decided to colour her up for the first time with blonde hair with my Promarkers as this is a card for my neice's birthday. She loves fairies and  lots of bling (and she is 30!)

I made a stepper card, here it is;

and here is that amazing stamp in close up

I used my new Cheery Lynn heart doily die to create a frame around her and yes I did fussy cut her out. I also made another Cheery Lynn exotic butterfly with my distress ink and card. The paper is a download. The birthday sentiment is from Lili of the Valley, one of their so useful round sentiments and I added some mulberry roses and a few more embellies for some extra bling.

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

Cheery Lynn Frame it
A creative romance show us some love
Pan Pastel UK anything goes
Make it Monday linky party
Stamping Sensations wings fantasy or fiction
Lili of the Valley name that tune... my tune today is The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy by Tchaikovsky...that glockenspiel is amazing...really tinkly just as a fairy should sound.
Rhedd and Rosie anything goes
Pan Pastels anything goes
Natalie and Amy love is all around you
Feeling Crafty use dies/punches
Penny Black and More make it sparkle
Loves Rubberstamps anything goes
Brenda 5th bloggerversary candy  one of my favourite things I  love to use is my Big Shot die cutter. My Hb bought it for me for Christmas 2013 and I really don't know how I managed without it. My die cuts add so much to my cards. There are plenty on today's card.
Crafting for all seasons Show us some Romance
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge have a heart
Crafty Little Fairies love
Crafty Ribbons anything goes with ribbon
Die cut Divas girls night out

Papertake weekly anything goes
The Crafting Muskateers Butterflies
Crafty Catz love is in the air
Totally Papercrafts Hey cutie
Cupcake Inspiration Inspirational cupcake I was inspired by the cut out heart for my card

Allsorts colours beginning with B mine is obviously B for blue
Cute card Thursday lots of love

This is a scheduled post as I am still enjoying some girlie time with my 2 girls but I will be back very soon with a new post. I hope everyone is keeping well and enjoyed your weekends?

Thanks for visiting,

Bye for now,

Jane x

My February Tim's tag creation

We are already onto tag number 2 over at Tim Holtz's inspiration blog. Here is his February creation;



 I guessed it would be something love themed but as I have already made my Hb's card that I would try a really different interpretation of is tag using the same techniques but very different colours. I also wanted to make a birthday card but still packed with love ;0)

I made my backing card using 2 distress ink pads;
 Pumice stone and antique linen.

 I put them onto my craft sheet added a spritz of water and then swooshed my paper through

 Once this was dry it was time to try Tim's embossing technique using a stencil. Now I had already bought his stencil last month and I decided that my crafting budget could not afford another one this month so I decided to be very Heath Robinson and make my own. I have a heart punch which I used to punch a small group of heart onto some acetate.

I had a practice run on some spare card and dabbed 2 different colour DIs through my hand made stencil in a random pattern. Once I was happy and used the stencil on my iked card

 I did small areas at a time as I added clear embossing powder to the wet ink which I melted with my heat gun. I really like the end result, there is a lovely gloss to the 2 tone coloured hearts.

The sentiment is another from my Lili of the Valley quotables which I stamped onto black card with Versamark. The next bit was tricky just making the added clear embossing powder and heating it just until matt. Repeated this using a LOYV grunge happy birthday stamp. The fun bit was adding the chalk and again this gives a great effect.

I die cut a heart which I covered with a really thick layer of glitter. I also added 2 little LOTV tag sentiments which I attached with a fun screw brad.










I distressed the edges of the card, matted up with silver and put my card together.

Here is my finished creation. I really enjoyed using this stencil/embossing technique and I will use it again.

I would also like to enter my card into the following challenges.

Lili of the Valley name that tune... my tune is Louis Armstrong's "It's a wonderful world"..now I challenge you not to keep humming that ;0)
Jelly Park lots of love
Rhedd and Rosie anything goes
Pan Pastels anything goes
Natalie and Amy love is all around you
Make it Monday linky party #177
Feeling Crafty use dies/punches
AllSorts Love is in the air
A gem of a challenge all you need is love
The Ribbon Girl hearts
The Artistic Stamper use distress
2 Sisters embossing
A little bit Crafty man up
Penny Black and More make it sparkle
Loves Rubberstamps anything goes
Brenda 5th bloggerversary candy  one of my favourite things I  love to use is my Vintage photo Distress ink. I rarely made a card without given the edges a little daub of this wonderful ink. It gives so much extra depth. I love it particularly when I have distressed the edges of a card as I have done in this one.
Crafting for all seasons Show us some Romance
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challengehave a heart
Ladybug crafts Ink For the one I love

Also my buddy and fellow grandma Kerry, over at Ladybug Crafts HQ, is launching a new release very soon...do pop on over and take a peep
                                      

Roll on the March tag..I am so enjoying this creative journey and learning so many new creative techniques from Tim.

My girlies are up staying with us for a few days later on today.  The sentiment on my card today is so apt, life really is a celebration and I do indeed enjoy it. And to put a smile on your faces here is my darling Daisy Jane, now 12 weeks old. Do you remember the little matinee jacket I knitted? If not I showed it in this post. Well it now fits and Daisy is wearing it in this photo my daughter sent me earlier this week.

I'm a proud knitting Nana ;0) And just look at those bunny slippers...I want a pair.

I have another Guest Designer post coming up on Monday,  for the lovely Nikki over at Bunny Zoe's and this time I have got the bling out, big time....do come back and take a peep. Meanwhile I have some crafty time today so I am going to crack on and get inky fingers. I have some company for this as just for a change it's raining which means my fair weathered friend Billy does not want to get his paws wet ;0)

It's a hard life being a cat......my pink nosed boy knows home is the best place to be on a day like this. Take care in this extreme weather everyone...more gale force winds and torrential rain is heading our way and my heart goes out to the poor souls in the West Country who are still flooded out.  My other blogging buddies are freezing under inches of snow. I think my brother has the best idea, he is lecturing for 3 months in New Zealand..me jealous...never...LOL ;0)

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

The Love Month

It's February already and yes that means that our thoughts turn to LOVE. I am an incurable romantic and still love Valentine's day. It is also the birth month of my "baby" boy who will turn 25 on the 24th. I am really enjoying the increasing daylight as well as the progress of the bulbs in my garden. There are lots of shoots around and I know that by the 24th I will have some of my favourite flowers, daffodils, in bloom..

Meanwhile I am making the most of some blooms in my house. My little pot of miniature daffs are coming along really well.

And my water grown hyacinth is in bloom. The scent from it is delicious and so unique. A real promise of spring.

 My card today is a Guest Designer card I have made for Lexi's card challenge. There is a new challenge up today for February and the theme is Valentine's/Love. Do pop along and join in. The sponsor is Fairy Dust Crafts and the winner each month could win voucher for spending in her on line shop.

 I made an anniversary card with lots of love on it.  I chose this sweet bear digi image called lovesick bear and also the sentiment which are for sale there.

I used my Go Create die to cut the shapes. I coloured the bear with Promarkers and highlighted with Prismacolor pencils.I paper pieced the heart and also added the same paper to my Memory Box precious hearts die cuts. The anniversary sentiment is from LOTV and there is a close of of the sentiment below. I used my MB marshmallow clouds die to cut this.I added a red and a white mulberry rose.
The heart button is a Cath Kidston button sent to me by a dear friend which I threaded with string...perhaps I could say this has tugged my heart strings ;0)

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

Jelly Park lots of love
A Creative Romance show us some love
Rhedd and Rosie anything goes
Pan Pastels anything goes
Simon says stamp anything goes with twine or string there is string in my heart button.
Squirrel and Fox use embellishments
I love Promarkers love is in the air
Passion for Promarkers anything goes
The cupboard Trilogy Love
Natalie and Amy love is all around you
Make it Monday linky party #177
Cute card Thursday something new my new is the digi image and sentiment
Emerald Faeries Let's see a banner
Feeling Crafty use dies/punches
Sweet Stampin  Love/Valentine's
All Sorts Love is in the air
A gem of a challenge all you need is love
The Ribbon Girl hearts
Pile it on ribbon
Crafty Catz anything goes

Thanks for visiting me here today and don't forget to join in with Lexi over at her challenge blog. Good luck to anyone who enters.

The weekend actually turned out much kinder than the forecast and we even managed to get out for a walk in the sunshine. It felt so good to feel the sun on our faces. Mind you this seems a brief respite as yet again we have more heavy rain making its way here. Please take care everyone in the UK. For my friends abroad I hope it's not too cold.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x