Jane's Journal

Hi it has been a busy week but I still got time to commune with and admire Mother Nature in my garden. I was delighted to see that in a gap between my viola in one of my pots there is the tip of one of my bulbs poking through ( bottom of the photo)

 I even found a couple of pots of daffs I never got round to putting in last year, despite being ignored  all year, have decided to sprout

 as has another pot tucked under some bushes.

Isn't it amazing how robust bulbs are. Despite being totally ignored they are "doing their thing!" Such a wonderful sight to see.

My card today is one I have made for Dotty's Teahouse using my Lavinia stamps. The hares are new, I won them in a challenge last November and they are so cute. I made the background using distress inks and the stamping is all in Versafine Clair. I gold embossed the little stars. 

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

Inkspirational 1/3 Fauna

Pixie's snippets playground #369 I used a little snippet of card to stamp the sentiment (it is actually half of the Lavinia fairy birthday sentiment, I masked the other words off)

Dragonfly dreams 1/3 anything goes

Lil patch of crafting friends 1/3 anything goes

Lavinia world anything goes

Crafters Castle 2/3 anything goes

Crafty catz 1/3 anything goes

Artistic stamper 1/3 anything goes

A bit more time to craft 3/3 Anything goes

Creative inspirations 3/3 something old or new my hares are brand new!

Stamping sensations 2/3 Favourite stamps

Simon says stamp Monday something new my hare stamps are new.

Have a good week ahead. Thanks for stopping by and for the kind comments you take the time to leave me.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

My magnolia in my garden is bursting with pink blooms. It is the only tree I have room for..I love it despite the fact that the blooms are short lived.

Billy and I were able to enjoy lunch in the garden on Monday.

My hard work planting up my pots in the garden with spring bulbs last autumn has paid off and the daffs are gorgeous. 

The winter violas are still hanging on too

and look what I spied...

Yes.....my tulips are pushing up and should be in bloom very soon. 

I love this time of the year, the birds are singing, the bees start buzzing and you can almost hear the flowers growing.

I have been taking down some last Mother's day cards to Dotty's as it is Mother's day here in the UK on Sunday. My card today is one of them.

The image is my old Nicecrane digi, the stamped sentiment is Clearly Besotted. The dies are Cheery Lynn, Marianne and Memory Box.

It is for sale at Dotty's Teahouse, Carshalton, SM5 2AE

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

 Creative fingers 2/3 anything goes

Creative moments 2/3 anything goes

Crafty catz 2/3 make it square

Crafty friends 2/3 spring colours

Addicted to stamps 2/3 spring

Lil patch of crafting friends 2/3 anything goes

Die cut divas 1/3 fave colour combination mine is blues/greens

Crafty sentiments 1/3 anything goes

Happy little stampers anything goes with dies

Thanks for stopping by and for the kind comments you take the time to leave me. I hope you are able to start enjoying your own gardens too.  I would also like to extend a very warm welcome to my newest followers. Thanks for joining me on my creative journey. 

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

I have taken advantage of the lovely weather to pot up some spring flowering bulbs.

 As most of my pots are still flowering well I just did one big one for now and a couple of small.

I still have these in flower

 I hope to plant some more bulbs later in the month. I also bought some lovely winter flowering violas to pop on top.

 With enough left over for a hanging basket.

These will give me a little colour in my garden until my bulbs wake up in the spring.

My card today is a autumnal new baby card for Dotty's. The little bunny image is a Lili of the Valley simply print, I love the bunny in the acorn cup...just right for autumn and new babies are like my bulbs getting ready to start their journey to flowers next spring.

The stamped sentiment is Simply Besotted and the dies are a mix of Tim Holz and the Works. The backing paper is ancient from my stash.

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

Pixie's snippets playground #336

Crafty sentiments 1/3 anything goes

Dragonfly dreams 1/3 autumnal colours
Love to craft 1/3 anything goes
Mix it up 1/3 anything goes
The ribbon girl 1/3 anything goes
Crafty Hazelnut's patterned paper 1/3 anything goes
The crafty addicts 1/3  anything goes

Thanks so much for stopping by.

I am back on Friday with my Design team for STAMPlorations theme and sketch team. We are back in action after the long summer break with some lovely autumnal makes to share.

Bye for now,

Jane x

I was able to enjoy a cuppa outside and as I took a few mindful moments I revelled in seeing how far my garden has come along over the last couple of weeks. I could even hear the low buzzing of a bee,  looking for nectar.

I snapped these photos to share my few minutes of mindfulness. At this time of the year I just sit on my back door step.
 My magnolia is bursting into flower..it appears unscathed by the late snow we experienced.

 What is there not to love about a blue sky and blossom?

and yes my tulips have flowered too.

For those few moments I was able to just still my thoughts and be mindful.  I recharged my internal batteries in that sunshine and appreciated how very lucky I am to be able to do what I do. 

I am going to share a tag I made using Tim Holtz products including a Distress oxide background. The dies are all by Tim and I think his chit chat words are brilliant.
Here are a couple of close ups.
The sky is not quite so blue out there today but it is still a wonderful spring morning, one to "stay simple".

Have a lovely weekend ahead...I have some very exciting things to look forward including flying...I jest not....and visiting the Stamping show at Ally Pally in London.
Enjoy yours whatever you do and I will try to fit my minutes of mindfulness in too.

I am back on Monday with my weekly Visible Image DT post. I am so looking forward to catching up with Helen and Mark Alexander, aka Mr and Mrs Visible Image at Ally Pally on Sunday. There will be lots of hugs from this delightful pair and a lot of catching up to do. If you happen to be going too I would love to say hello...give me a tap on the shoulder 😃

Bye for now,

Jane x

Good morning I hope you find yourself under a pile of Valentine's this morning and if not I have one to share with you at the end of my post.

We're mid way through the month of February...such a great month having just 28 days. I am continuing to see so many lovely flowers. These gorgeous primula were in the garden centre...how pretty are these delicate colours?

and a pot of daffs on my own window sill are nearly in bloom.

My card today is the last of my Valentine cards for selling at Dotty's Teahouse for 2018. It will be time to start making cards for Mother's Day soon, but in the meantime I have my son's birthday coming up soon so I will get that under my belt first.

So I would like to send some Valentine love to all my sweet blog readers...this one is for you.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges

Happy Little stampers CAS 1/3 love

Let's craft and create 2/3 anything goes

Deep Ocean love is all around

Try it on Tueday's 2/3 love is in the air

Allsorts 2/3 love is in the air
Simon says stamp Wednesday it must be love
Die cuttin divas Valentine's day
Card mania 1/3 red and hearts

My special Valentine, my darling Hb and I are off out to dinner tonight...celebrating our engagement 38 years ago.....wow..time really does fly.

Thanks so much for stopping by and for the kind comments you take the time to leave me. 

  Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Today is a very special day as I am absolutely delighted to be able to share my first Design Team sample made with 2 of the brand new Visible Image stamp sets which are being previewed all this week.

The new stamps are being launched in the USA at Creativation which Helen and Mark,  aka Mr and Mrs Visible Image, are attending for the very first time in 10 days time. They will be flying the flag for their awesome brand which I have the joy of being able to design for. The new stamps will be available to pre order from 12th January.  I will give all the details at the end of this post.

Over the last month I have secretly been beavering away working on some of the new designs and I have made several projects with them. I will be sharing them all over the coming weeks.

Every day this week Helen will be sharing more of the new release over on the Visible Image blog here. They will also be shared on their Facebook page here so don't miss out...why not like their page, click "get notifications" and you will be amongst the first to be able to see all the amazing work my fellow design team members have created for you. You will be blown away by just how unique this new range of stamps are. 

So just to tease you a little more, before I share my first sample, I have a few photos of my sweet hyacinth which started to bloom over the Christmas holiday. Each year I like to grow a bulb in my special bulb holder. I add water and watch first the roots appear..and later the flower starts to bloom...

 and grow.

Now you may wonder what on earth all this has to do with the new Visible Image release.......well it certainly does because the first stamp set that I am showcasing is called..

Bloom and Grow.....an amazing and totally unique stamp baby set

together with the second new set called Organics
...a large A5 set which has so many uses. I can see trees branches, twigs, the sky, the seas, seaweed, frost, ink splats and drips....the list is endless.
These 2 sets work perfectly together and I decided to make my very own bloom and growing flower baby card.

I've been so busy that I have not got many process photos on file so here is my step by step in words.....First I took some Kraft card and added some walnut stain and antique linen distress oxides, using the wrinkle free technique. Once dry I stamped the fingerprint in red Versafine Claire ink and then added the love stamp from bloom and grow to make the stalk. I then used Organics to stamp some more foliage using a mixture of Distress oxides and Versafine inks.

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

Fashionable stamping 3/3 celebrate
Frilly and Funkie 1/3  3 is not a crowd I cut the sentiment from the set into 3 parts before adding them to my card.
Simon Says stamp Monday something new mine are my stamps
The Artistic stamper 2/3 anything goes
Happy Little stampers water colour challenge anything goes
As you like it 2/3 anything goes
Craft Stamper take it make it January anything goes

Remember that we are sharing all the new stamp designs every day this week over on the Visible Image blog here so do pop over to see the amazing creations my fellow design teamies have made.
Prepare to be wowed by this awesome new release. Mark Alexander has, as always, designed the most original, unique stamps, unlike any others you will see in the stamping market. They are a total joy to design with and so versatile. All you need is your imagination!

 I am so proud that my some of my work will be travelling all the way to the USA to be displayed.

You can also check out Visible Image via these links;


and


I will be back on Thursday sharing another card sample I made using another set from the new release.....I can't give you a sneak peek but I will give a very, very cryptic clue to my card......I will digging out a couple of my old paperbacks to photograph too.......tee hee!

The new stamps are available to pre order on the Visible Image web site here from 12 January and will also be available to buy from all you favourite Visible Image retailers, world wide, very soon.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Keep snug, it's turned very chilly here.

Bye for now,

Jane x