Good evening and welcome, today after downloading some recent photos taken will we were away for a few nights in our camper van I found myself looking at this particular picture of a beautiful sunset.

The silhouette of the tree on the right made me think of a Crafty Individuals stamp set 367 ----- so off to the work bench I went.

The background was made using shaving foam and alcohol inks.

I printed off several pieces of card and tags for future use.

The image was then stamped in black Versa fine ink, cream lace attached underneath the image and some raspberry pink ribbon.

The wonderful sentiment from CI 410 was stamped in Brilliance Pearlescent Crimson onto a spare piece of white card then cut out using a die from Spellbinders ribbon banners LG. the edges were then lightly brushed with Seedless Preserves DI.

I was very pleased with the background and feel the colours gave the effect I was hoping to achieve.

I would like to enter this card for ;

The Craft Barn Challenge Around the House.

and

Crafty Individuals Challenge Clean and Simple.

Thank you for stopping by tonight, hope you have a good week and take care  Jane x

Stamping onto Linen

Hi, today I had a spare hour or so and thought I should really make a couple of cards ready for general birthday/greetings because the nearer it gets to shhh - 'Christmas' -- eek the harder it is to get anywhere near my work bench!
So here's my 2 cards which I would also like to enter for the Crafty Individuals bi-monthly challenge titled 'Clean and Simple'.

I started by lightly colouring a small off cut of white linen with distress inks and a brush and then stamped the image in the centre.

I did the same with another piece of linen but using different colours and a different image.

Next I trimmed the material and frayed the edges.

The edges of my card blanks were lightly coloured using the same distress inks that I had used on the linen.

I then cut some kraft card slightly larger than the pieces of material and distressed the edges before using as a mount for my stamped images.

I added a blue bead and some stitching, stamped the sentiment in Archival Cornflower and then added the lines with a very fine black pen.

The body of the butterfly had 8 or 9 very small beads threaded on some black cotton and then added 4 running stitches on each antenna.

The sentiment and 4 corners were stamped using Brilliance pearlescent olive ink. All the stamps were  by Crafty Individuals.

I was surprised at how quick these cards were to make as so often I think something will just take 30mins and it ends up taking a couple of hours or more!

I am pleased with the clean appearance of the finished cards and hope this fills the brief of Crafty Individuals Challenge.

Thank you as always for popping by today, all your comments are very much appreciated, take care and have a good week, Jane. X

My Attempt at making the Leandra Bead!!

Hi and welcome, this fortnight over on the PaperArtsy Blog the challenge is 'Beads, Charms and Dangles'. There are lots of wonderful examples to whet your appetite, but it was the video of the Leandra bead that really inspired me to get out the Melt Pot --- ( which when the temperature outside has been in the 30's for the past few days is not normally the first craft I'd jump too!)

To make the beads I followed the video as best I could with what head pins, Utee etc that I had in the craft room stash.

The head pins were only 45mm and having had a go I would now buy some slightly larger ones.

To start with the pan only had clear Utee added but gradually as I popped the growing beads into various shades of blue EP lovely streaks appeared  adding extra pattern and design to the beads.

Then as the contents of the pot got a little muddy I added some Primary Apple Red, Ancient Copper Metallic and the tiniest spot of black. 

Oohh thats yummy! 

These 2 beads were shaped by pressing the round bead onto the sides of the melt pot.

As the Utee level was going down and making the covering of the beads more difficult I decided to pour the remaining contents onto the craft mat and inked up a rubber stamp with Archival Black ink and pressed it into the very hot, molten Utee.

Once cool the stamp was removed and I rubbed in some Treasure Gold in Ruby and Renaissance but ------- was not completely happy with the result so decided to cut my losses and got the heat gun out and melted the piece on the craft mat---(" Is she mad " I can hear you saying!) Well I was very pleased with the end result as the wax melted just on the top and gave a lovely marbled effect. I then very lightly added a little Pewter wax to hi-light the edges of the letters.

When I started to make these lovely Leandra beads I had no idea what I was going to use then for but was itching to make something ----

So I now have a pair of unique ear-rings

and

some lovely beads for future projects.

A big thank you to PaperArtsy for the very inspiring video and I'm now off to order some larger headpins and another pot of clear utee !

Hope you all have a great weekend and if you live in the UK enjoy the Bank Holiday if you're lucky enough not to be working. Bye for now and take care Jane x

'Dream' Tag

Hi, it's been a while since I last did a blog entry but with having a fab week in Cornwall, a few odd days out in the Campervan, lots of gardening and a wonderful few days in Ireland visiting our gorgeous Grandchildren there hasn't been an awful lot of spare time. Ooh and I forgot to mention -  the odd bit of crochet--------

Anyway back to the job in hand! Over on the Creative Carte Blanche Blog their theme for August is Sun, Moon and /or Stars so here is my entry for this month.

I started with a large manilla tag which was coloured with various Pan Pastels, this was then lightly sprayed with Jackson's Pastel Fixative.

Next I stamped the shimmering moon by Clarity Stamps in VersaMark ink and rubbed the stamped image with Pewter Pan Pastels. 

Dream was then stamped underneath in Versafine Onyx Black and then clear heat embossed.

The stars were added using Grunge Paste through a That's Crafty Dinky Stencil, once dry lightly sanded and then the clean stencil was replaced and the stars coloured in the centres using Treasure Pewter wax.

The ivy was stamped using peeled Paint Distress Ink and a Lavinia Stamp. 

Recently we have had some beautiful sunsets and star lite skies and this gave me the colour tones to work with for this entry. Hope you are all enjoying the summer sunshine that we have been finally blessed with as up until now the summer has been rather dull --- so long may it last.

Enjoy the rest of the week and hopefully you too will find some free time to have a 'Play" and maybe join in the Creative Carte Blanche challenge. Bye for now,  Jane X

"If I Had Wings" !

Over on the Creative Carte Blanche blog this month the team are challenging us with a theme titled "Winged Things"which after much thought about fairies, bees, dragonflies, etc, etc I came up with the following tag.

If you have 10 mins do click on the link here and browse through the DT's samples and the other entrants.

I began by painting a large manilla tag with fresco chalk acrylic in Space Cadet, then a coat of Americana Weathered wood and then once dry a top coat of Vanilla paint.

The edges of the tag were then distressed with vintage photo and peeled paint DI.

Below is a photo of the main items used.

Next I stencilled on the roof tops with walnut stain ink and hi-lighted the edges with a fine black pen.

The boy in flight was stamped in verso fine black onyx and embossed with clear powder. The area around the boy was then lightly touched with Treasure Pewter to give the impression of movement.

A cluster of stars were added to the top using a small stencil with scattered straw ink and then brushed with perfect pearls for a light shimmer.

If I had wings was stamped in Archival cornflower blue ink and then clear embossed.

The journey token was from Tim Holtz idea-ology muse token set.

The light was shinning on the embossed parts which made taking photos a little difficult but I hope you can decipher the different textures etc.

Another great challenge ladies, it's great to be able to rummage through ones stash of crafting goodies without worrying about which company or make each item is from -- thanks.

Hope you all have a good weekend and that the sun may shine on you, as here in Kent it's been Very grey and Very wet for far too long! Take care and many thanks for stopping by today, Jane x

Welcome to the House that Nature's got a grip on!

Hi, today I have completed a wooden house that I've been constructing for the Creative Carte Blanche
May Blog Challenge --- titled 'Wood, Word and somethingWild'. Now from the off I knew I wanted to make a wooden house but as I progressed the design gradually altered, 'the creative journey'!

To begin with I rummaged in the shed for some wood off cuts and set to sawing my pieces for construction.

The body of the house measures 10cm x 11.5cm x 4cm and was sanded well and given a coat of white gesso as was the roof.

The roof was then given a coat of titanium white acrylic paint before stencilling the tiles through a Michelle Ward stencil.

The house was painted with Fresco Chalk acrylic paint in Space Cadet, lightly sanded and then given a coat of Stone paint and sanded again.

The windows and door were painted free hand using the titanium white.

Then on one side I stamped a tree from Jofy 29 stamp set and clear heat embossed. This was then coloured in and the grass stamped at the bottom.

Up until this point the plan was a cottagey type house with bunting above the door with the letters Home on and the back of the cottage was going to have a stamped wild meadow,  hmmmm?

Then I went outside to water the plants in the greenhouse saw some dried dead moss on the brick path and hey presto!!!

The ivy was stamped using various DI's and odd patches were clear heat embossed and touches of Treasure gold in Olive Bronze added.

My work bench got messier and messier!

The birds nest was made from dried ivy roots and the bird stamped from Clarity Garden set. The Welcome sign was die cut and tied using invisible thread.

I cut a wooden bench from a piece of old trellis fence that had started to decay. Twigs , dried old leaves, roots etc were added.

A flower pot stamped, coloured and cut out was added.

A brad for the door handle, smudges of pumice stone, walnut stain and peeled paint DI rubbed into the door and finally some fake moss from Hubby's model railway scenery stash was added to the chimney and roof.

Welcome to my Wooden house that the Wild has begin to reclaim.

Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you enjoyed my creative trip down natures path.

 Take Care, Jane x

Meet 'Mr & Mrs Jolly' !

Hi and welcome, this evening I'd like to share a card I made reversing an image from a rubber stamp.

Over on the Crafty Individuals blog the Challenge this month is titled 'Anything Goes' do pop over and browse the brilliant DTs samples and the other fab entries here.

To begin with I stamped the jolly duck from CI 433 onto some textured yellow card in black ink and then heat embossed the image with clear EP. I stamped the top hat onto some black card with versa-mark and embossed with pewter EP. Both images were cut out and shaped over a pokey tool.

Next I inked up the duck again with black ink ( not permanent ink!) and rolled the brayer over the inked rubber stamp --- then transferred the image onto the yellow card taking care to start at the bottom and roll towards the top. This was then embossed with clear EP as before. The top hat was done in the same way and transferred onto pink card and then embossed. These were then cut out and shaped ready to be stuck onto my card.

The background of the card was lightly brushed all over with Iced Spruce DI and then using a CI mask for the bottom more ink was added. The top stars were inked through the Dinky star stencil with Wild Honey DI and then lightly brushed with Perfect Pearls mica powder.

'You Make Me Smile' from CI 449  was stamped onto white card and then mounted onto some kraft card, twine attached to the back so it would hang like a sign.

The female ducks tummy was lightly rubbed with some Treasure Gold Ruby and a pink bow added for her bow tie.

The reverse image doesn't transfer as boldly as a stamped image but as this is 1 male and 1 female duck I don't think it's a problem, in fact it gives them a little bit of individual character.

Thanks for stopping by and meeting 'Mr & Mrs Jolly', enjoy the rest of your week, hopefully the sun will return!   Take Care,  Jane X