A Spring awakening and new beginnings

Yesterday was the most glorious sunny day. My silversmithing class is off for Easter so I enjoyed a day to myself where I caught up on some of my crafting projects.

It was warm enough to sit outside for lunch. What is there not to love about a blue sky?  It will soon be warm enough to open up my little garden studio.

 My hellebore has so many gorgeous blooms

 My daffodils are now in full bloom.

  and I noticed my tulip blooms are emerging.

 It's so good to see this spring awakening.

I even managed a walk to my beloved ponds where Nature is really waking up for Spring.

Even this fellow was basking in the sun (he's a heron in case you are wondering).

Life feels so good on days like this.

My challenge piece today is an Easter tag. I created this fun background with inks and sprays which I think looks a bit like an bird egg shell.

I added lots of spring embellies including a button. The butterflies are a Nicecrane download. The leaves are by Cheery Lynn. The sentiment is Clearly Besotted

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

Fussy and fancy 3/3 things with wings
Paper creator  1/3 spring colours
Emerald Creek Dares  ring in spring
Try it on Tuesdays  3/3 nature
Little Claire's  2/3 anything goes
Ribbon Girl  2/3 any image
Whimsy 2/3 spring colours or Easter
Deep Ocean 1/3 Fave colour combo I have lots of fave combos but greens/ blues/ yellows is one of them.
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday 1/5 come rain or shine Come rain or shine we will be enjoying a happy Easter time as we are catching up with our dear family and this is the tag on one of their Easter gifts. I also think my little scene is a sunny one.
Sweet Stampin 1/3 Easter
Allsorts 1/3Easter
Crafty Boots  1/3  Easter

So what's the new beginnings part of this post I hear you ask? Well I finished work today. 34 years as a physio is a long time and it did feel quite surreal but as my Mum says...as one door closes...................so tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life and I am so looking forward to following my crafty pathway.
First I am going to first catch up over lunch with my dearest friend Karen tomorrow.....we'll raise our cappuccini and celebrate my retirement from physiotherapy over a panini in Caffe Nero ;0)

A real Spring awakening all round and lots of new beginnings.

Thanks for visiting and I am looking forward to sharing new adventures in the pages of Jane's Journal with you, there will be lots more to come. I hope to have much more time to be creative.

Here's to my ongoing crafting journey. Cheers!

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

A Spring 30th birthday

My darling daughter turned 30 yesterday and her Hb had organised a wonderful weekend of surprises and celebrations. My SIL asked me to be cake provider so several weeks ago I started planning my creation. My daughter adores my Victoria Sandwich mix with raspberry jam and butter cream but she is also a Cadbury chocoholic. I decided that a perfect cake for her special birthday would combine both.

I had also been admiring anti gravity cakes and I noticed last year that Lakeland had started selling a kit so I purchased one and got designing.

I purchased a large bar of Dairy Milk (her favourite)

 I also found a brilliant CDM purple cake board and some purple ribbon from my stash,

 I also bought a fun chocolate mould and using fondant icing made these candle holders

So here is my cake all in place at the party.......

and here is my daughter cutting it...with a ceremonial sword no less!

We had such a wonderful weekend.

I would like to enter my cake into Di's fun challenge, lots of snippets of icing and chocolate went into it's construction.  In fact there were so many snippets that I made myself quite giddy with all the sampling which was necessary as I make it ;0)
Pixie's snippets playground #221
I would also like to enter my cake into Simon Says Monday challenge where the theme food and drink

My card challenge entry today is the birthday card I made for my girlie......I kept the purple theme but added more spring colours as her birthday was on the first day of spring.  I used Noor and Visible Image stamps, which I white embossed, to create my spring birthday scene.

 Adding lots of glitter effects too using my honey comb stencil and some number die cuts.

 The background was made with Distress inks.

Yesterday was her actual birthday...the first day of spring and we enjoyed more celebrations over a Sunday lunch by the sea.

I will share some more photos soon. I also want to make a Moment of our weekend so WIP for a little while,

I would like to link up my spring birthday card into the following challenges;

Anything but cute crazy for colour
Fussy and fancy 2/3 things with wings
Paper creator  2/3 spring colours
Mixed media world vintage
Emerald Creek Dares  ring in spring
As you like it Favourite type of embossing Mine is heat , and I have used it for my flowers and butterfly. It's my fave because I can use it as a resist to my inks.
Penny Black and More 2/3 feature a creature
Stamping sensations 1/3 flower power
Try it on Tuesdays 2/3 nature
We love to Create 2/2 #6 anything goes mixed media
Little Claire's  1/3 anything goes
Ribbon Girl 1/3 any image

Vintage Stamping at least 3 layers I have 4; the inks, the glitter embossing, the stamping and the die cuts.

Craft stamper take it make it anything stamped
Sparkles 1/3 make it girlie
Whimsy 1/3 spring colours or Easter
Wow embossing powders March challenge

I have my final day at work on Wednesday.....the next stage of my life is fast approaching!

Thanks for visiting and for the kind comments you take the time to leave. I will be back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Feature artist for Anything but Cute's crazy for colour challenge.

I am totally delighted today to be the featured artist over at my great blogging friend and uber talented crafter Pamellia's anything but cute challenge. Their theme this month is "Crazy for colour". The hostess is Branka and below is her description for the requirements;

To celebrate the springtime, we would like you to create a mixed media project using vibrant colours! It can be a tag, a card, an art journal page or anything else! Just be sure it's vibrant! It's time to go 'crazy' with colours!

I am a crafter who is totally inspired by Mother Nature and the seasons. Spring is nearly upon us and the temperature is warming up nicely. I spied these ranunculus in the garden centre, such showy flowers...and yet they are a relative of the humble buttercup.

In my own garden I have several varieties of daffodil in bloom

 and my flowering current is out

Easter is nearly upon us so I decided to use the bold colours from my garden to make an Easter Money wallet. I used the wrinkle free distress ink technique to make the background. I then added several different colours through some spring themed Tim Holtz stencils.

I chose some bright yellow ribbon and added some stamping. I also embossed 2 Visible Image butterflies stamps which I coloured with pens. I also added some TH stamping and remnant rubs and CL die cuts too
Here is my finished piece.

And some close ups.

I would also like to link up my money wallet with these fun challenges;

The Artistic Stamper 2/3 spring time
Cheery Lynn  anything goes
Fussy and fancy 2/3 things with wings
Paper creator 1/3 spring colours
Rhedd's Creative spirit  March
Stamps and stencils 1/3 spring is in the air
Mixed media world vintage
Emerald Creek Dares  ring in spring

Thanks for inviting me Pamellia as your featured artist for this fun challenge and I do hope I may have inspired some more people to join in.

Remember to check out all the details here.

I have a rather exciting weekend ahead. I have had to shedule this post...without giving anything away it's my daughter's 30th birthday tomorrow ;0) There may be plans today.....;0)

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x