Billy's Blankie......Jane learns to crochet

 Hi everyone it's Billy here at Jane's Journal. I'm just enjoying the sunshine outside but

 there have been some strange things going on here over the Easter holiday. Come with me....

......for her birthday Jane received some new stash which included a book on learning to crochet. I knew that this has been on her bucket list for ages and no sooner had her birthday passed then out came some very strange implements.

Just take a looks at these thing....they could do any awful lot of damage. There is a poor bird which has been fashioned into something metallic, that beak looks very sharp. The green and blue shiny thing are obvious called 5.000mm and 4.000mm, I wonder if they are related?

Anyway, off Jane went to the High Street last week to find a few balls of fluffy stuff she called wool. She had already had a practice with some off cuts from Daisy's baby hats and learnt some stitches called chain (nothing metal though, how very odd) double and treble crochet.

She looked at some You Tube videos too but got a bit confused because apparently what we call a treble crochet in the UK the American's call a double. Eventually she got the hang of these basic stitches and decided it was time to have a go at something she has been itching to do.......
 starting her first Nanna square, oh actually it might be called a Granny square. She chained 6 stitches and linked then into a circle and off she went. I heard her talking about shells and runways but anyway this started to appear.

 and after a while her first Nanna  Granny square was made. She had planned to make lots of these and put them together but then changed her mind (I'm reliably told this is a woman's prerogative).  She thought that for a first attempt she would just keep going with these 2 colours and make something bigger than a Nanna Granny square.

I got very interested when she put it on my chair and said.....

 "Jane this is not big enough yet.....

I could have something like this as a blankie for my box where I sleep at night, 

Look I can't get on it....you need to keep going".

She got the hint and went  up to my box on the landing to get an idea of the size. Now you may think, goodness me, that is a rather old battered box (it was from when Daisy's Mum was at Uni and they put her furniture into storage in Leeds one summer when she was between houses). This is my box and I will not sleep in any other box or any other bed as I will not use it. Jane muttered something like, yes we have tried buying you other prettier (how can my box not be called pretty?) beds but this 10 year old + old box still remains. Hmmm I can't see what she is complaining about.What is there not to love about my bed?

The front is even bend down to a perfect angle where I have jumped in and out of it, it's perfect for me. I have a little cloth inside which gets washed each week...here it is

Pretty good huh...but very plain. Now a blue and yellow blankie for me in here would be lovely.

So over the Easter holidays my blankie got bigger...............

 and bigger ..................

and eventually Jane stopped using those instruments of torture and produced this.

yes my very own blankie.

  I have just seen that she has tucked it into my bed.

 Sweet dreams?.........................I'll let you know.............................;0)

Now Jane loves to enter card challenges and she wants to me share one here.


Today's card obviously has to feature a cat of course. She says this is very "Clean and Simple" for her and it was a congratulations card she made for her DD when she passed her exams recently. She used Kraft card as the base.

The focal is a lovely Little Claire's printed panel which she won as part of a prize recently.
She used a stamp from hers stash and stamped the sentiment onto her MB cloud die. The little butterfly is MS.

She would like to enter her card into the following challenges;

Little Claires use kraft card
Country View crafts use Kraft card
Die Cut Divas in the garden
Addicted to stamps and more Clean and simple
Natalie and Amy Frame it
The Ribbon Girl add ribbon and/or lace
Pile it on Fancy frames or beautiful borders
Simon Says stamp Monday A is for April blossom on my image
Crafty card makers wings
Papertake weekly anything goes
Allsorts bingo I have added ribbon, gems and die cut

I had better be off now before Jane realises I have hijacked her blog today.....

Jane will be back soon,

Billy x

Easter playtime.

There are so many things going on here that I just had to nip back and share..........
I have been learning to crochet....

please don't laugh...I know that compared to my talented blogging friends it is very basic but hey I have started my first granny square....

and my Darling hubby has made his first ever cake.......a birthday cake for me.........

 He has never baked a cake before and he even piped the top with buttercream, how brilliant is this? It's lemon, my favourite. We will be eating this after my birthday lunch with the family tomorrow (it was my birthday on Wednesday). M you are so kind to me........

and I even had time to play in my creative journal............I was so inspired by the colours of my crochet and my fab lemon cake that I reached for these acrylics to create this vibrant background. I wanted to enter a couple of challenges too.

Over at PaperArtsy the theme is using Grunge paste. I added some colour to mine and pushed it through my stencils.

I added yellow through a burlap stencil...see later photo

 I also added some Archival inks

I have been itching to play with my new Visible Image stamps so off I went

and these are my finished pages

Here are some close ups....more Grunge paste

I also used the Bronte verse  text stamp

and some more Grunge paste, it gives such great texture. I added some die cut leaves.

and one final shot

I would like to enter my Journal pages into the following fun challenges, thanks!

PaperArtsy Grunge paste #6 I was inspired by Kate's use of colouring the paste and pressing it through a stencil on her textured bloom post. 

Our Creative Corner colour your world, spring

Creative Inspirations anything goes

Not just cards anything goes
Crafting from the heart anything goes
The Artistic stamper flora and fauna
Simon Says Stamp work it Wednesday
That Craft Place easter/spring

I will also be linking up with my friend Brenda on her Visual journey #14 who is enjoying creating pages in her journal....just sitting down and playing like I did here.

This is a blog party to share Visual Journal inspiration with each other.
To take part -
-please leave a link in your blog post to the post on Bumblebees and Butterflies.
- try to leave a comment on other participants blogs where their entry number ends with the same number as yours
-please add the link up code to your blog post so that we each share all particpants entries with everyone.

1. Experiments in Paper: Vintage Embroidery Sampler

2. Avril B

3. Jane's Journal: Easter playtime.

Add your link

Collection closes in 22d 7h 57m.
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Have a bright and cheerful evening everyone and I am back tomorrow with an Easter post. Thanks so much for visiting. We will be watching the final of "The Voice" tonight....

Back very soon,

Jane x