Allsorts - For the Love of Animals

Saturday again and I am here with my inspiration for

We are Anything Goes but the optional theme is 

For the Love of Animals, one that is right up my street!!

The Sponsors for this months' winners are

Aldridge Crafts, Aall & Create, Oakwood Direct, Ruth Hamilton Designs and Stamp Addicts

I love all animals with, perhaps, the exception of spiders so making a decision about what to feature on my card was tricky!! In the end  I went for a red rubber Cuddly Buddly pony stamp and coloured it with Promarkers. The papers are from a very, very old DoCrafts Forever Friends, Kraft Notes pad. I created a rosette effect with Dies from Tonic Studios.

This was the first horse stamp that I bought, way back when, at the start of my crafting journey  and I have always coloured it like my Darling Surprise who crossed the rainbow bridge last year. 

 Here we are...about fifteen years ago, my favourite picture of us and how I remember her.

This cheeky boy makes me smile every day though and is doing a grand job of filling the void

and I musn't forget  Bowie (right) and Bumble (left) our lovely Sprollie twins!!

If you are still with me Thank you for your visit today and I very much hope you will take inspiration and join us at Allsorts with your animal creations.

Have a lovely weekend and see you soon  xx

Happy New Year and Anything Goes!!

Hello crafty friends!! Hope you are well this New Year's Eve and getting your party frocks dusted down!!? No? Me neither, I'd rather watch White Christmas (again!!) while crocheting or colouring!!

To end the year I am here to share my (very last) DT card for Buddly Crafts which is also perfect as my DT piece  for the new challenge at

As You Like It and it's everyone's favourite

Anything Goes 

With "new" in mind I decided to make a New Home card to add to my stock and Cosy Cottage fitted the bill perfectly. I started with the base and coloured the image with Promarkers and used Glossy Accents for the window panes. The sentiment was done on my PC.

Some challenges

Allsorts 342/343 - Anything but Christmas
Crafty Friends #21 - Anything goes
Polkadoodles #51 - Anything goes
Crafty Gals Corner #52 - Anything Goes

Before I go I just want to take this opportunity to thank you for your kind words of encouragement during the past year and for fuelling my crafty mojo when it has been lacking!!

Wishing you good health and happiness in 2016 xx 

Male or female?

Hello all and I hope Thursday finds you chomping at the bit ready for the weekend!! 

Before that though I am here to show off a DT card for the new

As You Like It Challenge

Male or Female

and in doing so share another fabulous Buddly Crafts image .

There is NO question in my mind...it has to be female.

 I love cute images and although my cards aren't usually heavily embellished, I always look on in pride when I have finished a card for a girl friend, or family member or for a customer and think yep...I made that!! Male cards are so difficult, unless they have a hobby or passion in life that can feature on a card. Making a male card is almost as difficult as choosing a gift for a chap!!

Anyway we would love to know your preference and don't forget to tell us why and as usual, there is a super duper prize up for grabs too!!

Have a good day and see you soon xx

A card for me

Hello lovely people. Huge apologies for being such a bad blogger of late, I have so much stuff going on at the moment I don't know whether I am coming or going!! Anyway less of my moaning!! I have another Buddly Crafts DT piece to share with you today. As well as lots and lots of "real" stuff, their digital shop is also rather fabulous and this time I have some decoupage to share with you. This little guy, Fudge, was so easy to cut out.

I created the frame by embossing into some centura pearl card with a tonic die then added  different Marianne Designs snowflake dies  adorned with complimentary jewels for a relatively CAS and flat card.

Some challenges

Christmas Card Challenges #51 - Anything Goes
Crafting When We Can #108 - Don't forget the animals
My time to craft #309 - Let it Snow
Ooh La La challenge #194 - Let it Snow
Papertake Weekly - Take Your Pick
Colour theme - red and/or green

I won't leave it so long next time!! Until then xx

I'll grow into it!!

Hello everyone and Happy Weekend to those of you not working.

Today I am sharing a make to showcase another Buddly Crafts image and paper set (Silent Night) which happens to be a favourite of mine as they can be used at any time of year.

She was coloured with Promarkers then I added some glamour dust to her oversized jumper and Wink of Stella to her wings. My Cheery Lynn poinsettia strip got an airing as did a Whimsy stamp and companion die that I had forgotten about...as you do!!

Some challenges

Creative Inspirations #334 - Sparkle
Creative Corner - Christmas - No red or green
Winter Wonderland - Angels
In the Pink #81 - Magical
A snowflakes promise #9 - Anything Christmas/Winter
Love to Scrap #65 - Bling it girlfriend

We are heading into town today in the hope of finding some black winter boots for me and getting some Christmas shopping done. Martin has just passed the "don't forget to buy your new 2016 diary" page in this year's diary, so that's on the list too...he's nothing if not organised is my Hubby!!
Whatever you are doing I hope it's a good day for you.

See you soon xx

Down the local!!

Hello everyone, unusual for me to be here on a Sunday evening but have managed to grab a few minutes to myself for a bit of blogging and thought why not?!! Anyway, I know I am not alone in saying that the male species are often difficult to make cards for. However, I think this one fits the bill for almost any age.

 It's a digi from Buddly Crafts called " Down the local" that I coloured with Promarkers to compliment the digi papers, also from Buddly Crafts. The pint's "head" was glittered, the glass had a touch of glossy accents and I added the button and twine from my stash to finish off. 

Some challenges to play

A Gem Of A Challenge #155 - Spots and/or stripes

That's Crafty - Boys will be boys

Cardz 4 Guys # 91   - Button it

Enjoy the rest of the day xx

Frosted Winter

Hello my lovely crafty friends. First off an apology for being so sparse with my visits of late, I'm afraid that real life (in the shape of family, animals and work) has just got in the way of crafty fun. Hopefully normal service will resume soon.

Luckily this card was in my Buddly Crafts DT folder ready to share with you so at least I am not empty handed!!

I just love this cute penguin wearing his/her bear hat...so cute, and All Warm is the perfect name. The papers and sentiment are also digis from Buddly Crafts and I coloured it with Promarkers to match those used on the image.

Some challenges to join

Winter Wonderland - Anything But Square
Christmas Card Challenge #41 - Anything Goes
The Ribbon Girl - September Any image + ribbon
Papertake Weekly - Animal Magic
Little Claire Digi Challenge #9 - Christmas

Thank you for stopping by, it's much appreciated xx

What's your favourite die

Hello fellow crafters, hope Thursday finds you well and looking forward to the weekend.

As You Like It have a new challenge starting today and an easy peasy one

Share your favourite die

For my "favourite" I went for "most used" and that is, without a doubt, my Spellbinders Large Circle set. I use them for frames, backgrounds, as in this case, have even cut into them to make rolled flowers and cut fabric with them too. 

Jules has been sharing her fabulous sketches and this time I used number one which is perfect for showing off the fabulous Buddly Crafts image and papers. I was asked for a card to welcome a new puppy into a family and this Lilyboo digi was perfect.

I'd like to join in at these challenges

Passion for Promarkers #313 - Use a sentiment
Allsorts #327 - Lots of layers
Cuttlebug mania - Anything goes
Creative Ladybirds #7 - Anything Goes
Penny's paper-crafty Challenge #244 - Anything Goes
Craft Your Passion #278 - Anything Goes

Hope your day is a good one xx

Just a bit of pink

Hello all and I hope the week has started well for you. I have an extremely pink creation to share with you today that I made using more gorgeousness from Buddly Crafts.

Don't say I didn't warn you!

Once I had decided which bit of the kit to choose it was such an easy card to make, just print and cut!! I then coloured little Cupcake Love to match the pinkness and sat her on the number with foam pads. The words had a liberal squidge of stardust to finish off. Shame I don't have any 4th birthday parties to go to!! 

I have found some challenges to play at too

CCC Digi creations #30 -  Pretty in Pink

Lil' patch of crafty friends #15 - Anything Goes

Dream Valley Challenges  #112 - Checks or stripes

You may remember that I mentioned I was planning on braving the public with my cardmaking, well it was  Saturday and here is a snap of the stall all set up and ready to go.

The space was shared with my friend Kim who is an absolute genius with a sewing machine and we didn't really expect to recover the cost of the pitch (all £10 of it), however we broke even and both made quite a big return on our investment, which of course will be ploughed back into papers and stamps and in Kim's case fabric!! We are now eyeing up Christmas fayres in the locality so will definitely be doing it again. Best of all though was getting a surprise visit from Hubster and Suzy - I daresay it would have been different had England not won the third test match!! 

Thank you for visiting, I really appreciate it xx

Best of the bunch

Hello crafters and I hope you have had a good week and have an even better weekend planned.

I am here to share another Buddly Crafts image with you. She is called Best of the bunch and was coloured to compliment the pretty Marianne Deigns papers. 

I have been having a bit of a die cutting frenzy lately and theis layout was a bit of an experiment which worked!! I marked the centre of my square piece of paper put the die in place and embossed all of it first, slid the whole piece along the base plate to the marked centre line (one half of the die and paper were hanging over the edge) popped the cutting plate on top and ran it through and hey presto a whole, unusual shaped mat!! I'm so easily pleased I am!! Anyway, twine, a charm and an oddment of die cut border and the jobs a good 'un!! Hope you like it!!

Some challenges

Cute Card thursday #381 - Ladies only
Creative Inspirations #321 - girlie
Polkadoodles #27 - Add some Embossing
Crafty Friends #9 - Anything Goes
Lil patch of crafty friends #13 - Anything Goes
Creative Moments #72 - Anything Goes
Clear it Out - Anything Goes
Pennys Papercrafty Challenge #235 - Anything Goes

Thank you for sharing your day with me xx

Cherry Pie

Hello my lovely blogging buddies, I have a pie to share with you today of the cherry variety, which is actually my favourite!! The whole digi kit came from Buddly Crafts and includes not only the pie image but plates of pasta, lots of papers and tags too so a really versatile kit.

I printed the pie several times in order to create decoupage, as you can see from this shot. I added clear embossing powder  to the cherries and popped a Marianne die cut behind the pie to suggest a lace doily. The ribbon and tag were in my stash and I think the perfect sentiment was a Clearly besotted freebie that came with a magazine. I thoroughly enjoyed doing a bit of cutting and sticking for a change!!

I would like to join in at these challenges

Crafty Ribbons - Anything Goes
Creative Moments #71 - Anything Goes + Embossing, wet or dry
Penny's papercrafty challenge #233 - Anything Goes
Inspiration Destination #39 - Anything Goes
Simply papercrafts #7 - Anything Goes

Before I go I would like to bore you with  share with you some more visitors to the garden.

I could see this little baby out of the corner of my eye while busy crocheting.

Luckily this chap wasn't in the vicinity at the time...that might have been nasty!!

What a pretty lady. She spent a good few minutes looking in and completely ignored Suzy barking at her!!

Thank you for visiting and have a lovely evening xx

Follyfoot

Hello, hello my lovelies and I hope you are well today.

I am here to invite you to join in at As You Like It where the new theme is

Inspired by a Book and why

It will come as no surprise that among my favourite literary guilty pleasures there happen to be a few that are equine in nature and my inspiration came from the Follyfoot series of books by Monica Dickens that became a popular TV series in the 70's and I sooooo wanted to be like Dora!!

Why did I choose Follyfoot? Well after my wonderful family my animals are so precious to me and give me so much pleasure, added to which they tolerate the nonsense that comes out of my mouth on a regular basis and don't judge me!! Case in point I can hear you yelling "shut up Sarah and show the card!!"......here it is

The rubber stamp is one of the very first that I ever bought and is called Charley with Willow that I coloured with SN pencils to match the pretty Pebbles paper. The sweet flowers were punched out of perfectly matching pink card (although looking at the picture it doesn't seem so!!) and I added a yellow gem to the centres. 

Some challenges to enter
Bunny Zoe's - Furry Friends
Craft Your Passion #266 - Anything Goes
Love to Scrap #56 - Anything Goes
Papertake Weekly - Oh so pretty
Crafting by designs - Summertime Fun
(more riding for me!!)

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope I have inspired you to join us at AYLI.

See you soon xx

Praying Angel

I really am keeping on top of the Christmas cards this year and here comes another, using the gorgeous Buddly Crafts Praying Angel.

She was coloured with Promarkers to compliment the gorgeous Studio Light Scandinavian papers. If you haven't come across these papers yet please check them out, they represent outstanding value for money and are of really good quality, I can highly recommend them!! The good old SB ovals were layered to add a frame and for a bit of contrast and the button and ribbon added for a final flourish.

Some challenges to enter

Holly Jolly - Frame it
Christmas Card Challenges #27

Natalie & Amy #33 - Christmas (2nd entry)
Crafting From the heart #63 - Anything Goes
Craft Your passion #265 - Anything Goes
Lil patch of crafty friends #11 - Anything Goes

Hope you have a good day xx

Cat-ching butterflies

Hello crafters, 'tis me again with a card, that I have forgotten to share, showcasing another Buddly Crafts digi image. 

I decided on a CAS style for this little puss coloured with Promarkers. The Just Because is from a set and was just right for sending some love to a dear friend.

I'm trying my luck at these challenges

Crafting from the heart #61 - Anything Goes
Craft Your Passion #263 - Anything Goes
Dream Valley #107 - Anything Goes
Creative Inspirations #315 - Pastels
Crafty Creations #290 - All creatures great and small

Before I go I just wanted to share a picture of Connor and his pal William who are off to the Royal Bath and West Show today...Masters of all they survey!!

Con is on the right...(needing a shave methinks!!)

Have a lovely day whatever you are doing xx