Sewing the seeds

I have been busy in my garden in my precious moments of spare time and planted up some very pretty primroses which my Mum bought me.

Such glorious colours . I also have bought a few packets of seeds. One of them is this patio variety of red peppers which seemed like fun to try growing.

It was time to get the propagator out of the garage and give it a wash up.

I dotted the seeds onto the surface of some fresh potting compost

and then gave them a light dusting to cover them as well as a good water.

I put the lid on and this is now sitting on my sunny kitchen window sill.

Here are 2 of my pretty primroses in their new pots on the wall on my patio. This will continue to give some colour into late spring even if the weather does turn colder again.

I didn't have much time at the weekend for any crafting but inspired by these pink flowers I decided to made a tag as I wanted to enter the Lavinia challenge this month where the theme is add something pink. There are also lots of other great challenges asking for pink.  Now pink is not really my colour, as you well know, but I decided to pull the stops out and make a lovely deep pink/peach  background with my Fired Brick and Dusky Rose distress inks. I blended them and then added a few flicks of water for some depth. I  made some flowers and leaves with my Cheery Lynn blossom dies using some paper which I embossed first and then edged with distress inks. I also distressed the edges of my tag. My stamp is Lavinia's Moon Fairy.

I added a heart brad to the flower centres and used gorgeous pink glitter card some of the flowers. Here is a close up.

 I think she is wishing that this gorgeous pre spring weather continues.

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

Lavinia Stamps add something pink

Cheery Lynn Think Spring

Emerald Faeries Pretty in pink

Penny Black and More So sweet

Bunny Zoe Monochrome

Little Claire's Make a tag

Stamping Sensations Pretty in pink

Die cut Divas emboss it, the leaves and some of the flowers have been cut from card which I have embossed and then added a little colour too with my DIs

Papertake Weekly For mum/Girlie

Aurora wings  anything goes

Simon Says stamp Wednesday challenge Glitter it

Crafty Ribbons anything goes with ribbon

I have scheduled this post as today I am at the Country Life Crafts Spring Fair. I won tickets from my dear friend Vivienne and I am taking my Mum up to Islington. It looks like a great day out. Thanks Vxx. Today is also very special as it's my darling daughter's birthday. Happy Birthday darling M. She is being treated to a surprise by her Hb and we are going down on Saturday to enjoy a post birthday meal with them. 

Enjoy your Thursday everyone and thanks for your kind visits and comments. 

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Painshill, an English Country Garden

I am back with my photos from Thursday as promised. If you are just visiting to see my challenge card just scroll on down to the bottom of this post. I met my darling daughter and Daisy at Painshill in Surrey. As the weather forecast was good we try to visit places when we catch up, which are buggy friendly and have a good tea shop. Both essential requirements to us. Although I have lived in Surrey for 31 years I have never visited Painshill....what a mistake that has been. It is the perfect place to picnic and walk and we will definitely be returning there.

We met at 10.30am and as always had a warm drink and a catch up before heading out into the milky sunshine. The paths are very dry and well made,  perfect for Daisy's buggy. Our first "wow" was at all the hundreds of daffodils and snowdrops, there were huge drifts of these beautiful bulbs.

There are several well signposted paths

 and we decided to head towards the lake.

We also headed down towards the bank to show Daisy some of the wonderful wildlife

Some parts of the garden have follies and viewing points and we rested our feet for a moment to take in the glorious views

There is even a working water wheel

We enjoyed a delicious lunch which we were able to eat outside

Followed by one last walk before afternoon tea.

and whilst my daughter and I sipped our afternoon tea my darling Daisy dozed away. It really was a magical day.

I came home so inspired by all that rich lush green grass and spring foliage and decided that I would have some messy play and try a new technique to create some spring inspired backing papers. This is mono printing using an acrylic block and is the Take it Make it Craft Stamper Magazine challenge this month. I have had my eye on buying some acyclic paints and found this great set in The Works for only £2.99
I also wanted to enter the challenge this fortnight for Pan Pastel UK which is to create something with 3 textures, as well as some other great current card challenges.

 I selected 3 very spring like colours....sap green sounded just perfect.

 and squirted some onto my acrylic block

 I pressed this down on some watercolour paper

 and when I peeled it away I was delighted to see not only the pattern it had made but this lovely stippled texture.

 There was enough paint left behind to stamp again and this is the other piece I made.

 The piece above made me think about the trees and the sunshine so I decided to make a simple spring scene as I wanted to show off as much of this gorgeous background as possible. I applied some translucent embossing paste through a branch stencil (I taped off the snowflakes) which when dry I coloured with a Distress Ink pen

And here is my creation all put together

You will also see that I used my new TH air spritzer to add some speckling  to my TH die cut bird and some MS butterflies and punched flowers give a third layer of texture. Here are a couple of close ups.

I really love this technique and I will definitely be using it again.

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

Craft Stamper Take it Make it Monoprinting with an acrylic block
PanPastel UK Use 3 textures
Country View Crafts Paper Chase
A Vintage Journey anything goes Tim  I think my post explains my Tim inspiration; the bird is TH and I have used his new technique of air spritzing as well as colouring the bird with blends of Distress Inks.I have also used book pages to make the paper for cutting out my butterflies, very much a Tim inspiration!
Sparkles Monthly Easter Parade
Whimsy Stamps Easter
Stamp and Create  ready for spring
Divas that cut paper embossing my branch has been embossed with translucent embossing paste through a stencil
and then coloured with DIs
Frilly and Funkie neglected dies...I'm not sure I have ever shown a card using this TH die!
Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge D is for Distress I have used Distress ink for colouring the bird, the butterflies, air spritzing his speckles and for edging the water colour card.
Stamping for the weekend anything goes
The Squirrel and Fox autumn or spring
The Ribbon Girls Green
My Mum's Craft shop Spring/Easter

Thanks for visiting me and enjoy the rest of the weekend, it has been just glorious again and yesterday I was busy re potting my container grown  hostas in the garden. Billy has been by my side too. Today I hope to get back out to the garden as it is even warmer out but first we are heading up to my son's flat to take tiles and plaster off his bathroom wall....smashing ;0)

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Spring blossom

The weather last weekend was simply glorious. What a difference a blue sky makes.

 The cherry tree outside my house is in full blossom

and the magnolia is also in flower in my garden.

Buds are just bursting out everywhere

This unexpected burst of warm weather meant one thing on Sunday....lunch and tea on the patio

and once someone saw us out in the garden you can guess who wanted to join in can't you

yes our sweet Billy....

who found some shade under my chair and rolled around in glee ;0)
Such a welcome relief to the dreadful wet winter we have endured. Knowing our fickle English weather no doubt by the end of the month it will be snowing but for the weekend we basked in the sunshine and breathed in that warm balmy air.

My card today is a GD piece for Ignacio as his newest spring introductions are wonderful. You all enjoyed my blossoms and birds cards, this one uses his newest release,

Enchanted Spring which is available here
Here is my card creation

 and here is the gorgeous image in close up

I used my favourite floral oval die to cut her out and added lots of floral die cuts and also some sweet butterflies cut with my MS small butterfly punch. The backing paper is ancient, from my stash (which I am trying to use up before I buy any new ones ;0) The little tag sentiment is Lili of the Valley, I use these so much, they tuck in so well. The glittered brads add just a touch of zing.

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

Oldie but a Goodie spring has sprung my button twine is over a year old as are my stamps.
Love to create anything goes
The Squirrel and the Fox autumn or spring
Cupcake inspirations butterflies
Country View Crafts paper chase my butterflies, the centres of the flowers and the backing paper are all all cut from paper.
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Mother's Day/special girl
My Mum's Craft Shop Spring/Easter


Today has also been glorious and as it's my day off I met up with my Darling Daughter and Daisy. We met at Painshill in Surrey. It is renowned as one of England's most elegant 18th Century landscapes gardens. Oh my it lived up to that promise. It is so picturesque. We had such a wonderful time and I will certainly write a post soon but just to whet your appetite here are a couple of snaps of our day out.

and just look at my Darling Daisy Jane....what a wonderful day we shared.

 and by the time it was going home time she had completely exhausted herself. My darling grandbaby was 4 months old on Tuesday, how fast the time has flown by.

This settled dry period is due to continue right into the weekend, I hope everyone in the UK is enjoying it. To my friends on the East of the USA  and my other european buddies I really hope your snow clears soon and in the meantime I am sending you some English sunshine to brighten your day.

Back soon,

Bye for now ,

Jane x