Lighting the way to Christmas

Good morning its time for my last 2021 make for Country View Challenges. Our last challenge of the year is "Anything Christmas" and so feel free to share all your Christmas makes. Please remember that you can enter a maximum of 5 times and combine you make with 10 challenges (including ours) in total. As always there is a fab £20 voucher up for grabs for one lucky randomly selected winner to spend on the website.  You can find all the details of the challenge and more examples made by my talented teamies here. 

I love Christmas so much and on 5th December I went to Lapland UK with my family. It is so gorgeously vintage that it inspired my make today. This is my 2 grandchildren being told by Father  Christmas that they are on is "good" list...of course!!

Check this out for snow

and just look at that vintage lantern bottom left....

So for this make I knew that I wanted to use my very favourite die that Tim Holtz released this year. Although it was a Halloween release I knew it would also be perfect for Christmas. Sadly it appears to be sold out everywhere, if I had a pound for every message I have had asking me where I got mine from I would have a lovely Christmas bonus. Susan did have it in and I have added a link here so that you add can add your email in case she gets more in. 

I made up several lanterns and candles.

and chose this one for my card. 

I made a background using festive berries and hickory smoke distress inks which I blended onto a slimline card sized piece of smooth cardstock.  I knew which set of snowflake stamps would work perfectly with my diecut lantern....

I white heat embossed the gorgeous snowflakes from my favourite Visible Imge Simply snowflakes set (which is in stock and is a mere £5.99)

I added a black soot distress border

and the fab Christmas sentiment die cut from the Christmas 2021 Vault series by Tim, which again is in stock on the CVC website.

I added lots of "snow" to the lantern using my favourite mix of Snow tex and silver Glamour dust glitter. I also added some stickles and a hint of glitter pen to the candle which you can see in the final close up photos. 

Then I matted my slimline panel onto a black slimline card blank. 

Here is my finished card.

with some close ups

and one final shot.

I hope I may have inspired you to join in with our December "Christmas" challenge. You can use any stamps/products, the choice is yours. 

 Once again all the details for the December challenge are here. Remember that when you buy from the Country View Crafts website postage FREE on orders over £ 7.50. The amazing annual Advent sale is still running, so do check it out 

Thanks so much for stopping by today. 

I would love to see you over on Instagram where I share new creative makes nearly every day. This is my link/profile @jane.tyrrell

Sadly these days I just don't have the time to blog everything! 

Enjoy this very special time of the year, have a very merry Christmas and I will be back on 1st January, bright and breezy, with my first make for our first Country View challenge for 2022. Thanks for all you support and kind comments you left me here and on my Instagram account during 2021. I so appreciate it.

Jane x

Stamps and candles for STAMPlorations

Hello and welcome to my 2nd design team post today. This one is for STAMPlorations and our new theme and photo prompt December challenge. This month our theme is

Stamps and candles and full details are here.

I have affiliate links in my STAMP posts which simply means that if you click on any of the links here and buy something from the STAMP store I will receive a small commission at no cost whatsoever to you 😊I also offer a very special extra treat if you use my code, details at the end of this post.

You can enter up to a maximum of 3 entries using any stamps.  There are 3 awesome prizes up for grabs; 

$20 prize code to winner ($25 if a STAMPlorations product was used as the main/focal point of the card)

$10 prize code to 2 randomly picked entries ($15 if a STAMPlorations product was used as the main/focal point of the card)

Please remember to add our challenge logo of you are entering via a blog post if you would like to be in with a chance of winning. You don't have to do this if you are linking via IG or other social media platforms, but it would be  great if you do!  Full details can be found here.

You can work with the theme, the photo prompt or both. 

I used the following awesome products and have added live links to them in my post. Remember if you also use my unique code STAMPGIRLJANE at the check out you can get an additional 20% off on top of any existing discounts! Shery ships internationally at very low cost too.

Party time

and the stars from Christmas baubles

The smallest crazy running stitched die 

and the O my stars stencil

This is what I got up to;

I made a galaxy background using distress oxide sprays on black card.

Using the stars from  Christmas baubles I gold heat embossed them across the background.

I have shared my hand made candles in my blog several times over the years. I make these in batches as they sell well in Dotty's. They are made from paper straws. I used 1 from my blue stash.

I die cut a rectangle from inky mop up card using the  smallest crazy running stitched die and adding star stenciling using the O my stars stencil and gold shimmer paste. I then edged the rectangle with black soot distress ink. 

I made a plaque using one the sentiments from Party time, again gold heat embossed and glued it underneath.

I then matted up my card. 

Here is my finished make

with a couple of close ups

and one final shot

 I hope I may have inspired you to join in with this month's challenge, which is open internationally. Once again all the details are  here.

Remember that if you order more than $15 of product from the website (after discounts and before shipping) and quote my unique code STAMPGIRLJANE at checkout not only can you get 20% off your order you can also choose a product for FREE up to the value of $7! Here is a link to the website.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

I would love to see you also over on Instagram where I share new creative makes nearly every day. This is my link/profile @jane.tyrrell

Sadly these days I just don't have the time to blog everything! 

Bye for now,

Jane x 

It's Christmas my very favourite time of the year

Happy 1st December everyone, I am so excited that here we are ready to count down to Christmas day, my very favourite time of the year. Are you ready? 

Don't worry if you're not.  Every year we think there is not enough time and every year it all come together. It's obviously time today for a new challenge over at Country View, our last of 2021. The theme is as always "Christmas" so you can share anything Christmas related but please remember that you can enter a maximum of  5 times and into a maximum of 10 challenges including ours. 

As always there is a fab £20 voucher up for grabs for one lucky randomly selected winner to spend on the website.  You can find all the details of the challenge and more examples made by my talented teamies here.

For my first Christmas make I just had to use my awesome Tim Holtz snarky cats. This card uses the Christmas set. I smile every time I look at these stamps. I like to call this stamp Billy as it tells the adventures of my own sweet cat.

This is what I got up to; I used Tim's reinkers on watercolour card; black soot, frayed burlap, antique linen, stormy sky and salvaged patina for a very dramatic night sky background.

I stamped and coloured "Billy" as I call him from the original snarky cats set using my Zig watercolour pens. I then cut him out. 

I die cut some inky greenery using Tim's Christmas greenery dies and added some clear rock candy glitter and mica flakes

I also used my very favourite and long retired Crescent moon and stars Bigz die . I so wish Sizzix would let Tim bring this back in some form! 

Then it was time to put everything together. 

So Billy managed to climb up into the starry sky and choose his very own Christmas star. Whilst there of course he had to say hello to his old friend The Man in the moon. Here is my finished card.

 a couple of close ups

and one final shot;

I hope I may have inspired you to join in with our December "Christmas"challenge. You can use any stamps/products, the choice is yours. 

 Once again all the details for the December challenge are here. Remember that when you buy from the Country View Crafts website postage FREE on orders over £ 7.50. There is also the start of the amazing Advent sale today, so do check it out 

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Take care and stay safe. I will be sharing my 2nd design team project on the 19th.

I would love to see you over on Instagram where I share new creative makes nearly every day. This is my link/profile @jane.tyrrell

Sadly these days I just don't have the time to blog everything! 

Enjoy this very special time of the year. 

 Billy and I would like to wish a very merry Christmas to you all. 

Bye for now

Jane x

10 more days

It's just 10 days now until the big day...goodness me I still have some things to do but I am feeling very festive...just like this lovely angel I spotted in a shop.

It is time for my last Guest designer post for STAMPlorations. Today is the mid way reminder for the current theme and sketch challenge

We would like to see you use gold on your project and you can also use this fab sketch. You can also ditch the colour and just go with the sketch if you would rather.

I have really enjoyed using the sketches with my cards. This is what I got up to ..I stamped and embossed the sweet reindeer from the Christmas reindeer set and one of the sentiments.

I painted them gold with my watercolours and then stitched between them following the pattern of the sketch and also around the edge of the card.
Here is my card

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

Simon says stamp Wednesday stitch it
Deep Ocean jingle bells
Simon says stamp Monday  2/5 Christmas/winter holidays
Sparkles 1/3 quickie Christmas/new year card
Crafty Catz 1/3 anything goes
Fussy and fancy 1/3 Christmas
A bit more time to craft 1/3 anything goes

You have until 31 December to link up to this fun challenge and perhaps be a lucky winner too! You can find all the details here

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Shery of STAMPlorations for extending my Guest Designing until December. I have really enjoyed working with her awesome stamps and making my designs for the fun Theme and Sketch challenge.
You can also still use my code STAMPGIRLJANE at the checkout to get 20% off any orders. Here is the link to the website

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Getting the list ticked

I am getting more ticked off my list including writing and sending all my Christmas cards and buying my wreath for the front door. I love seeing this when I come home...a festive welcome every time.

 My vintage advent calendar is revealing such sweet scenes each morning

I have been very busy indeed looking after Bear but I did manage 2 days of Christmas shopping. One with my best friend Karen and one with my darling daughter and Jack...just look how he is growing...

My darling little man. 

I manged to make some crafty time as there are some fun challenges I wanted to join in with. 

Inspired by my retro advent calender and Jack's cool jumper I made my December page for my art journal. 

I had lots of spare Christmas die cuts sitting on the side so I stuck them down and added some gesso and also a holly mask to my paper.

I knew this would leave lots of lovely texture so out came my Distress paints and I got very messy!

After spritzing and spraying I was left with a cool background. 

I stamped out one of my favourite Stampendous stamps 3 times

 and water coloured a few as I wanted to decoupage the frame.

I put together a very festive scene but chilly scene. You can see how the holly mask shows up w

Peeping through the window to the cottage in the distance looking warm and cosy in the snow.

I made lots of inky and textured elements and tried to keep to quite a retro feel.

Of course mittens in the snow are essential...do you remember having strings on yours as a child? 

My art journal page was made for the following challenges;

The Funkie Junkie 12 tags of Christmas #11

If you would like to play along with Linda's challenge you can see all the rules here. There are some great prizes for the winners too. The challenge is generously sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique Linda shares a tag each week and you just have to take something from it and make something Christmas themed.

You can also combine it with any other challenges. We are up to the penultimate challenge.

This is Linda's tag for week 11 here. I used the red and white background and the fun mittens for some of my inspiration.

A vintage journey winter wonderland

The craft barn 12 month challenge December  I have really enjoyed playing along with this challenge and I managed to enter every month of the year. 

Simon says stamp Monday icy inspiration

Let's Craft and Create 2/3 anything Christmas

Try it on Tuesday  2/3 Twinkle twinkle, sparkles etc

The artistic stamper 2/3  Christmas

Rubber dance 2/3 glitter/colour option I chose the glitter option

Stamping sensations 2/3 Winter trees and flowers

That's Crafty 1/3 tis the season

We have an exiting weekend ahead as our babies are coming up to visit tomorrow. I have even made mince pies as they are my daughter's favourite. 

Enjoy getting your lists ticked too and have a lovely weekend. I will be back on Monday with the first of 2 Disneyland Paris Moments I have made.

Thanks so much for stopping by and for the kind comments you take the time to leave, especially at such a busy time of the year.

Jane x