Eye contact

Good morning, unbelievably we find ourselves past the longest day and in the last week of June. Summer has finally arrived and I intend to make the most of every single second. The weather is just perfect.  I adore being able to be outside in my garden and also to be able to craft in my garden studio. From my studio I can hear the birds sings, the bees humming and Billy can sit in the shade and watch me. My summer pots are just bursting with glorious colour.

It's also time for my Monday DT make for Visible Image and I decided that I would have a play with the awesome Eye contact stencil.

plus some words from the fab Voices in your head sentiment set.

I have always loved all the Face and Eye stamps that Mark has designed and I was thrilled to see that in the new release he brought out an eye stencil too. 

I hadn't played with my Bister and Infusions for a while so I make a background first using watercolour card. I started with a little....

 and just added different colours until I was happy with my background.

I used black sparkle medium through the stencil, below is when it is wet...

 but once dry it  has an awesome sparkle below). I painted the white part of the eye in using white acrylic paint. 

I also added glossy accents to the iris (which you can see in the final photos).

I stamped 2 sentiments from the Voices in your head stamp set and then matted up my plaque.

Here are some close ups

 and one last shot

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

Crafty Catz 2/3 anything goes
Creative Artiste 3/3 anything mixed media
As you like it 1/3 favourite type of embossing and why mine is always heat embossing as it gives a brilliant resist to all my inking.
CRAFT 2/2 summer
Time out 2/3 warm
Simon says stamp Wednesday bright and cheerful

Lil patch of crafty friends 2/3 anything goes
Addicted to stamps and More 1/3 make your mark

All the Visible Image links can be found here;

Visible Image group page on Facebook. Our friendly Group can be found here ...it would be lovely to see you. You can add work to the "Show and Tell" album where one randomly chosen winner each month wins a £25 coupon to spend on the website.

The main Visible Image Facebook page is here; there are weekly stamp giveaways...open world wide.

And the shop web site is here; where all these gorgeous stamps and stencils can be purchased. 

You can also follow via:

 Pinterest

Twitter

and

 Instagram

There are 6 new stamp sets and 8 new stencils...all totally amazing and uniquely Visible Image.

 Thanks for stopping by and for your kind comments. This glorious weather seems set for a while and I am just loving it. I'm getting back to my gardening and crafting in my garden studio...bliss!

Bye for now,

Jane x

Yippee for Yupo

Apologies to anyone who caught a quick glimpse of my GD post yesterday. I had to put it back to draft as the challenge owner had given me the wrong date! It will be shown next week instead ;0)

Earlier this year I was watching Tim Holtz on You Tube demoing some of the new Ranger Products when he showed Yupo paper. Now interestingly I had bought some of this a long time ago and it had sat in my stash. A few weeks ago I was looking at playing with some new techniques and I watched some more You Tube Videos on alcohol inks and saw Yupo paper again. I completely forgot that I had a pad in my own stash and ordered a Ranger pad. Whilst waiting for it to arrive I then found my own pad!  Never mind at least I was able to have a play.

I first tried dripping the inks on....and I loved this effect.

Next I dripped on the inks and then added blending solution ...a different effect which again I really liked.

I really this one too...................

I can see a sea card waiting to be created with it :0

The third method I tried was putting inks onto felt and dabbing this on the paper.....this was probably my least favourite but the backing paper I made was still very interesting.

So I ended up with 4 really cool backgrounds. The only inks which don't "float" are the metallics but as you can see in the bottom right piece they still add an interesting effect when dabbed on,

I also had a play with trying out some stamping and techniques on a sheet. This sheet was a reject as I bodged the stamping of the eye but I carried on playing and I actually ended up quite liking it!

My challenge card today is one I have made using the bright zingy background for my lovely blogging friend Di (it's in the post ;0) I made a thank you card as I won a lovely stamp and sentiment on Sunday from her Playground challenge (thanks again Di x). I stamped one of my Rubber dance beach scenes onto a piece of card which I had added bister to and created a retro glam grunge card with a very 60s feel to it. I hope she likes it.

I love playing with bister too

I would like to enter my card into these challenges;

Pixie's Snippets Playground #229 I used a snippet of orange card for the die cut thanks and photo corners.
Anything but Cute celebrate your style yes I have several styles, all of which I love to play with...this is another of mine...here is my more retro style ;0)
The Ribbon Girl 2/3 any image
Artistic Inspirations 2/3 Anything goes/use a die cut 
Penny Black and More 3/3 anything goes with stamping
Stamping sensations 2/3anything goes
Mixed media world glam grunge
Fashionable stamping blots and splotches
Happy little stampers shine it's hard to capture the shine with my photo but it really does shine out like sunshine!
Sweet stampin thank you

I now have some really fun backgrounds to play with....it's a brilliant technique and really quite addictive ;0) The Yupo card as a 5"x7" pad is quite expensive but I have sourced some A4 at a much cheaper price which I am waiting to be delivered. Also there is absolutely no difference between the Ranger and other brands, it's all Yupo. So a real yippee for Yupo!

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

So here we are at the day of the Grand Opening of the Tea Rooms where I will be selling my cards.
It takes place tonight and I cannot share any photos of the interior as it is all hush hush, but believe me if you like 50/60s vintage you will love it!

Just to give you a very small sneak peek. I took this photo yesterday as I went down to set up my little card area.

The mayor is coming and there is a VIP guest list which extends to about 70

people. My Hb and I will be there and yes of course I will take my camera.

I will get back with a grand reveal post on Friday.
I am so excited to be a little part of this new adventure. Wish me luck!

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Daisy in the studio, make and take Number 1

I shared my conker treasure hunt with you in my last post and mentioned that Daisy had been into my studio when she stayed with us at the weekend.  I am back today to share some photos.
She wanted to take a peep into Nanna's little studio and was fascinated by my desk and the things on there. She visited a couple of times and on Sunday she asked for the key and headed down the garden path. I asked her if she wanted to make something and was thrilled when she said yes. She wiggled up into my seat and said she wanted to make a card each for Mummy and Daddy.

Daisy is very decisive (in a lovely way) about what she wants to do and was adamant that she wanted to use just a very simple flower stamp. I showed her how we needed to tap, tap, tap the stamp onto the ink pad and then stamp onto the paper

She chose lots of different colours. She said "tap, tap, tap" as she inked her stamp and watched how Nanna cleaned the stamp between colours.

I am amazed at her dexterity for a 22 month old.

 She could open the distress pads up too.

 After stamping she wanted to draw so I found some old Marvy pens and again she went through lots of  colours. We said "lid off" and "lid on" as she used each pen.

She wanted me to write Mummy and Daddy for her

 I then asked it she wanted to stick anything on or add and glitter and her reply was "all done". I love her decisiveness, it will take her a long way. And here are her "make and takes" from her weekend at Nanna's together with her conker treasure.

Needless to say my daughter and SIL were thrilled with their cards.

Daisy is too young to enter her sweet cards into a challenge so I have entered one of mine instead but who knows, this might be the start of a love of crafting ...and Nanna would be delighted if it is ;0)

I thought I would share another make with my bister backgrounds I made recently. If you would like to see my bister revisted post you can find it here. This is my card today. I chose something magical as a thank you card. Daisy really is such a joy in our lives.

Here are some close ups to try to show the bright sparkle of the stenciled stars. The stamp is Lavinia.

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

Paperartsy pigment powders
Artistic Stamper Things with wings
 195  I used a snippet of mixed media card to make it with.
Crafty card makers Make it sparkle
Ribbon Girl blue
Love to create #19 anything goes mixed media
Fussy and Fancy fantasy
Emerald Faeries thank you
Bunny Zoe teens and tweens

Edit 5pm Tuesday; My lovely blogging friend Di of Pixie's snippets playground asked if I would add Daisy's cards to the challenge...it will make her their youngest ever player. This will really make Daisy's Mummy and Daddy smile. Thanks Di!

So here we go; I would like to enter Daisy into the following challenge;

Pixie's snippets playground 195  Daisy used snippets of paper from my desk.

Thanks for visiting me today and taking the time to leave your kind comments. I love reading them and perhaps in the future Daisy can come back here and read all about her first crafting with Nanna in Jane's Journal. It certainly was a magical weekend we shared.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Bister revisited

At the weekend we looked after Bear for my son, who competed in and finished a Tough Mudder event. I managed a few hours crafting time in my garden studio. Bear even sat down with me to watch for a while

 He kept look out for me ;0)

I wanted to have another play with my Bister powders, these are pigments and I wrote a post here about them earlier this year.  I also decided to make a start on my Christmas cards and enter some great challenges running at the moment.

PaperArtsy's theme is pigment powders, including Bister. I really enjoyed the video over there featuring a French crafter and felt inspired to make a few backgrounds which I can keep and use over the coming weeks for my card bases. I added water on my card first with a brush for this one and then sprinkled on some bister. I then added some texture paste snowflakes through a stencil.

And for the one below I sprinkled bister first and then spritzed with water. Every piece is so unique, it's great fun playing with these powders.

I really liked this bright background so I added some sparkly stencilled starts 

Once I had made a few backgrounds I took one and imagined a Christmas scene I could create.

I added some stenciled snowflakes using Ranger texture paste.
And below is what I came up with. The stamp is Lavinia and the Santa die cut is Cheery Lynn. I made the parcels out of snippets of card.

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

Paperartsy pigment powders
Cheery Lynn things with wings my fairies have wings
Pixie's snippets playground 194 I have used snippets of card to make my little parcels.
The craft barn stencils and masks I have used Tim's snowflake stencil
We love to create anything goes mixed media 19
Crafting from the heart anything goes
Artistic Inspirations anything goes/twist of magic
Penny Black and More Anything goes
Artistic Stamper Things with wings
Whimsy anything goes or Halloween
Rubber Dance Anniversary I used the Dec 2014 colour board.
Simon Says stamp Wednesday die crazy
Simon Says stamp Monday love this technique I love using texture paste through stencils.
ABC Christmas S is for silent

The rain yesterday was biblical and we finished off the day with a power cut. However all is calm this morning....power has been restored and the sun has returned.

 The leaves in my little garden are shining and damp and enjoyed their watering.

 My fuchsias are still hanging on and blooming

 and my studio beckons me.........

All is well in Jane's World.

Thanks for visiting today. We have the most exciting weekend coming up. Daisy Jane is coming to spend the whole weekend with us whilst her Mummy and Daddy go to wedding. Oh my....sooo exciting...and on my list of fun things to do with Daisy is a conker hunt......

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x