A Daisy weekend

We had a lovely Saturday afternoon looking after our darling Daisy while her Mummy and Daddy went to see the show "Wicked" in London followed by a meal.

I can't believe how quickly she is growing, she is no longer a "baby" and is now 14 months old and a real little girl. She walks everywhere holding your hands and although she has has really stable standing balance she has not quite worked out that she could actually take a few steps herself. I am sure it will not be long now before we are chasing her around. She loves to play and  I have a little basket of pretend food which entertains her (and me) for ages.

 Such a happy little soul

Daisy loves books and loves to be read to. My Hb and I decided to take a walk down to our local library and went to the children's section where Daisy was in her element. Despite all the books she could have chosen from she chose one she has herself...The Big hungry caterpillar and we sat and read it several times.

Hmm it must be here somewhere

and yes....we have sweet little pre walking shoes...

What a lovely day we had.

We are lucky that everyone is coming up again next weekend too to celebrate my Hb's birthday, what a treat for us all.

My card today has to be a cute one....I have made it and put it in my Etsy shop here as a Valentine's card but it would actually suit lots of occasions including birthdays, anniversaries etc.

I  used one of my sweet House Mouse stamps... this one is so cute. I  coloured it with my Promarkers and highlighted with Prismacolor pencils.
I  hand inked the backing paper with distress inks and added white embossing using the free heart stamp from current Craft Stampers magazine. The sentiment is a Clearly Besotted one.
Here are some close ups;

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


                                                                     Noor!UK With love

Craft stamper Take it make it Take a stamp

Fashionable stamping something new my something new is my pink gingham ribbon

Country View use something new to you this is my pink gingham ribbon

Papertake weekly It's all new

Addicted to stamps and more make a mark 

Creative Inspirations anything goes 

Crafty boots out with the old in with the new  it's  my old house mouse stamp, new gingham ribbon

Inspiration Emporium  fresh start this is my first Valentine card for this year

That Craft Place Love/Valentine

Ribbon girl pink

Meljen's designs  shabby chic

We have been lucky here in the south to have avoided all the extreme weather including snow that many others have endured. Wishing you all a snug week ahead. Thanks for visiting me here and I would like to warmly welcome my newest followers, it's great to see you here. To all my other loyal visitors thanks as always for your wonderful support and comments. 

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

New beginnings

When I was driving home last night I noticed how much lighter it is getting already. Also this morning I saw the same thing....the daylight is returning...bliss. Although it has been quite chilly today here in Surrey we have really escaped any wintry weather so far. The north has seen quite a lot of snow but none here so far.

As I walked home this afternoon I actually did a double take as I saw 2 daffodils, yes daffodils in full flower. I grabbed my camera and walked back and took this shot,

 How astonishing is that! They were quite a way up someone's drive so I couldn't really go any closer I just zoomed my camera.

I decided to check how my own bulbs are going and this is what I found

daffodils springing up here in my front garden, the flower head nearly ready to burst open

 and plenty of shoots in my pots in my back garden.

Wow amazing new beginnings.

At the weekend I also decided to try something new with my card making. As I am sure you have all worked out by now I am a crafter who constantly love to try new ideas. I don't have a fixed style with my crafting and I love to use lots of different ones. The one style of card I have never made is what is know as CAS or clean and simple. I know some very clever CAS card makers who make this style of crafting look easy but it certainly isn't . The key is a very clear design and lots of white space. Less is most definitely more. Whilst having some crafty play the other day I decided to try my hand at my first CAS style card.

I came across a left over butterfly from my 2015 wall hanging, which if you have not seen is here. These are the butterflies which I stamped and embossed onto distress inked card and then cut out. The stamp is by Visible Image and is one of my favourite stamps



I decided that I would use my left over butterfly as part of the focal of my CAS card. So then it was time to think of a very simple but eye catching design for my card. Now this really does take some time and patience.
I was looking through my Craft Stamper magazines and I saw on the front of one of them the free stamp from last year still attached. I thought it would be perfect, just a simple flower. The sentiment is a Clearly Besotted stamp.
So this is what I came up with.




I was pleased with this, my first attempt at CAS
here is a close up

I also thought that this would work well in other colourways too.

So today, inspired by the wonderful daffodils I spied on my walk home,I decided to make a yellow version. I stamped and embossed some more butterflies onto some other card which I had made using various Distress inks

 ....what do you think?

I have put this card up for sale in my Etsy shop here and if it sells well I may well reproduce it in different colours.  I may also put different sentiments on as it would work for many different occasions, get well, engagement, anniversary etc. I will also try different embossed backgrounds too...............hmmm lots of possibilities. 

I really enjoyed my first dabble into CAS.

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

Pan Pastels clean and simple

Craft stamper Take it make it Take a stamp

Fashionable stamping something new my something new is my first attempt at CAS and the flower stamp is new.

Country View use something new to you this is a new style I have attempted...CAS and my flower stamp is new.

Natalie and Amy all things new my style and flower stamp are new

Crafty boots out with the old in with the new  it's old butterfly stamp, new CAS style and flower stamp

Winter wonderland things with wings

Papertake weekly It's all new

Addicted to stamps and more make a mark 

Creative Inspirations anything goes 

So there are lots of new beginnings going on around here...Mother Nature certainly gives me so much inspiration and she has also reminded me that spring is not so far away. 

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Tim Holtz's 12 tags of 2015, a new beginning

I was delighted to see that Tim is continuing this annual tradition. I joined in last year and had the most amazing creative journey learning so many new techniques. Do think about joining, it is such fun and he offers a prize to 12 randomly chosen entries every month so there is a chance that any one can win. I still have my fingers crossed to come out the hat at some point! You do not need to create tags, you can make anything. As I did last year I have decided mostly to make cards for special celebrations instead of tags but the odd tag may still feature. I have had no crafting time for over a week as we have been looking after my son's dog whilst he enjoyed a much deserved skiing holiday. 3 journeys up to do the walking and petting and trying to fit in going to work kept my Hb and I more than busy.

I was so pleased this weekend to finally get some inky time. I find crafting such a wonderful way to relax and really miss it when I get no time to play. Tim's January tag can be seen below.

and his brilliant step by step can be seen via the link here.

As I knew I would not have the time until this weekend to make my card version I decided to treat myself to some tissue wrap which I have been wanting to buy for a long time and I also bought a couple of the Distress stains.

For my card I was inspired to use the same techniques Tim used to make the background. He has made such lovely textures. I was also inspired to used the Tarnished Brass distress glitter and paint and the chit chat words. I also wanted to used the date 2015 but more numerically than Tim did. I made this card for my Hb's birthday card later in the month, as I did last year. I also wanted to add a happy birthday sentiment somewhere.

I know that last year you all enjoyed seeing my process so I will continue this year. 

I stuck some wrap to my card base, wrinkling parts of it to give some extra texture and then adding various distress paints using my fingers.

I then add some squirts of Vintage photo and Tarnished bronze inks.

I then continued to play and eventually dried everything off when I was happy with my backing card.

I don't have any of the alpha parts Tim has so I die cut my numbers in large and small 3 times and stuck them together to made them stand out on the card. I painted them with black acrylic paint and I added Distress glitter to the small ones and tarnished brass DP to the large ones.

I also used some chit chat words as Tim did but mine are related to celebrating my Hb's birthday. I also wanted to incorporate stars into my design but mine are brads which I coloured to match my card using alcohol inks.

I also decided to use my dymo label creator to make the words happy birthday

So armed with my components it was time to put on my artistic hat and play with my design. Here is my finished card.

I love this inky textured background
You will see the altered stars and and also some splashed of gesso I added as well as some remnant rubs.
I need to keep this one under wraps until 20th Jan, shhh don't tell my Hb ;0)

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

Tim Holtz 12 tags of 2015 January
Inspiration Journal fresh start my fresh start is my first version of Tim's great inspiration challenge for 2015
Crafty boots out with the old in with the new my new are my new distress inks, paints and tissue wrap my old is the Dymo label make, I've had it for years!
Cute card ThursdaysWhat's new ...mine is the tissue wrap and new inks
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday something new my new is making my own version of Tim's alpha parts using die cut and paints.
Frilly and Funkie anything goes
Simon says stamp Monday make some new friends but keep the old my new are the inks and tissue wrap, my old are the number dies and my dymo label maker
Country view crafts use something new to you my new is the tissue tape and the new metallic DIs and DPs

So there we are, a new beginning for another year of creativity with Tim. Thanks for the journey Tim!

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x