Favourite Season

 Oh my life, I am extremely late to the start of the new challenge at

no excuse except ageing grey matter!! Anyway the theme is

Your Favourite Season (and why)

I am a winter baby (born in February) and love colder snuggly weather. Within that season there is, of course, Christmas. 

I took advantage of a discount at LOTV and bought the photo strip reindeer

I coloured them with Promarkers, matted them on silver mirri and die cut some snowflakes too.

I might have over exposed the pic a bit, it's not really as dazzling as that in real life.

Lovely to see you xx

Sentiment or Not?

 Some more Christmas card from me today. It is becoming a routine to make these as my DT inspiration for

where the theme this time is

Sentiment or Not?

I have chosen to make the sentiment the feature on these cards.

I seem to have a crafty affliction with symptoms of accidental purchases and that is exactly what happened where the JOY die was concerned. I totally blame Crafty Kiwi Mamma for this occurrence and for the Christmas Eve paper pack that fell into my basket at the same time (to be used at a later date)!! The papers that I used here were from a pack from either The Range or The Works.

In my defence I did use a very old LOTV rubber stamp set for the little O's and coloured them with Promarkers and gave a little bit of Stickles Star Dust on the snow. I used some pretty gems as a finishing touch.

See you soon xx

AYLI Embossing

 Hello, hello. I hope you are all doing OK. 

I am here today with my DT inspiration for

The prompt this time is your Favourite Embossing method.

I am an enormous fan of heat embossing and still watch in awe as the powder melts.

For this little collection of Christmas cards I used the plaid paper as my starting point. I think it it was quite possibly from Dovecrafts Little Red Robin paper pack.

I stuck the papers on the card blanks and had a rummage through my christmas stamps. This set is from Crafters Companion Sara Signature Scandinavian Christmas Collection (probably still available somewhere!!)

I die cut some postage stamp edged rectangles (a shameful unbranded purchase on ebay) and stamped away. I used red, white and green embossing powders that are probably twenty years old and they still worked brilliantly. More Christmas cards to go on the pile.

See you soon xx

AYLI Sketch

 Happy Thursday everyone the weekend is just in reaching distance!! Before that though it's time for a new challenge at 

As You Like It Challenge

The theme is Favourite Sketch.

My long time followers will know that I LOVE Jules' sketches and I always visit her Sketch library when inspiration is lacking. She has tons of wonderful designs and there is sure to be one that takes my fancy. On this occasion I chose Square #56 

It was the perfect design to show off the lovely Doodlebug Designs Frosty Friends paper pad which perfectly compliments the adorable penguin (Crafters Companion Snow what fun). The sweet little penguin was coloured with Promarkers and I added lots of sparkly glitter too.

My team mates have some lovely inspiration for you so please go and take a look.

See you next time xx

Soft or bold at AYLI

Well, where did April go then? Another lovely new month and to go with that  a lovely new challenge at

where the theme is Soft or Bold colours (with your reason to be eligible for a prize)

I love bold colours. Something that is perhaps a little bit different and eyecatching. For my inspiration I have made some Christmas cards using Hobbycraft  paper pads as my starting point. The blue one is very much bolder in colour than the photo would have you believe.

 I was gifted a lovely bundle of Christmas themed goodies for Christmas and was itching to use the little deer die (Simple Creative) so die cut circles of white centura pearl card then cut him out of the middles then layered up as frames with coordinating coloured card. I'm not sure where the Noel die came from but the Christmas Wishes is a favourite from Creative Expressions. I had to give him a red nose so used some pearl card candi from long ago!!

I hope I have inspired you to play along and look forward to seeing your makes.

I am making headway with visiting you and if I haven't got to your place yet, I promise that I will do!!

Take Care xx

AYLI - Mono or Colour

 Well March came around quickly didn't it!? Lets hope that it brings some much needed warmth to the UK and some colour into the garden.

Anyway, I am here with some tags wto share in the hope that they will encourage you to join us at 

where Lynne has chosen the theme

Colour or Mono (with your reason too)

I have gone with colour. I have Promarkers in all the colours of the rainbow, and some, and really enjoy colouring my projects with them. In this case I have made a batch of eight gift tags using a gift from a lovely crafty buddy. It's A Studio Light set called Falalalala and is so cute. All the stamped elements are from this set and they were a pleasure to colour.

So that's a start on christmas 2025. what's the betting that I will put them away and forget where they are, come December!!

That's all for now. enjoy your weekend when you get there xx

Use your Dies

Hello one and all. It's my pleasure to be hosting this challenge at Allsorts and I've chosen DIES as the optional theme, Anything Goes is also most welcome. Going forward we are now  a fortnightly challenge and we have welcomed some new team mates too.

I have had a self imposed embargo on crafty purchases this year and have actually managed to restrain myself (apart from perhaps one or two accidental purchases!!). I feel that I have accomplished that mission and have used lots and lots of crafty goodies that have never been used/opened. One of them being the Sue Wilson die that is centre stage on my projects below.

The background papers (The Range) were leftovers from gift boxes that I made last year so I made the card bases to fit the sizes I had. Glittery green board was perfect for the sentiment trees and I stuck them on more scraps of the same pad die cut with a favourite Spellbinders Fancy Ovals set.

Both cards were finished off with die cut poinsettias and some gems.

3 prizes of Oakwood dies and coordinating stamps.

Before I go I would just like to thank you for your continued visits, comments and support and to wish you a very Happy and Peaceful Christmas xx

 

Anything Christmassy

 It's Christmas all round for my DT pieces this week.

is Anything Christmassy so break open the glitter and festive stamps and come along!!

I have a really inviting front door to share, the embossing folder, dies and stamps came with a papercrafting magazine a few years ago when I subscribed. 

It fit perfectly on my die cut stepper card. Some of the stamps were heat embossed for impact and I cut out the door and surround from the embossed detail. 

It's been lovely to have you visit today xx

Cute Christmas

Hello again. So as not to bombard you at once on this particularly chilly Monday I thought I would post my second  bit of inspiration a little later in the day.

is running alongside our sister challenge (Christmas with the Cuties) this month so you have chance to share double the cuteness if you choose to.

Many of you will know that I have branched out a bit and had a go at other forms of papercrafting this year and among my travels found Amanda Charlesworth - Create with Scrimping Mommy She is an extremely generous and inspirational crafter and my card has been made using some of her own design freebies that can be found in her FB group.

All the fussy cuts and paper were included and I still have lots left over too. All that I added was stickles.

Whether you are off to make a cute card, or a mug of hot chocolate for that matter, it's been lovely of you to visit me. See you later in the week xx

Cute & Christmassy

 It's the final Christmas Party for 2024 at

and we would love you to join us and bring with you a Cute and Christmassy card.

Here's mine...

I heat embossed the lovely Uniko Framed -  Snowflakes stamp for the background. Stamped up a super cute doggo from PB Wintertime Cheer, coloured him and his tractor with Promarkers and fussy cut. I found some super sparkly holographic sticky paper in my stash so backed the card with that and die cut a lovely little Tonic sentiment to finish it off. Oh and used some stickles for the snow too!! I think that Jackson will be getting this one as he LOVES tractors.

Thank you for taking the time to pay a visit today. See you later in the week xx

Christmas at Allsorts

 We are feeling festive at Allsorts Challenge today where the optional theme, chosen by Lynn, is

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!

Having had a little spend at LAvinia I then went to Aall & Create and bought a lovely die set that I just had to use. What better to team it with than Santas Elves from MFT that come out every Christmas.

The paper is a real pad from LOTV that is still available but in digi form here. I coloured the little elf with Promarkers and filled all the other mats with other stamps from the set. 

I hope that I have tempted you into entering as there are

2 prizes of AALL and Create A 6 stamps

That's all from me today. I hope that you have a lovely weekend outside of the UK. For those of you here, I Hope you all stay safe from harm in the path of storm Darragh xx

Winter Flowers & Fauna

   

 Hello friends. We have a wintry optional theme at Allsorts this week

Winter Flowers & Fauna chosen by Brenda and the prize is this

2 prizes AALL and Create A5 stamp sets

I love being on this Design Team they are such an inspirational bunch and I have tried to extend my  repertoire!! It's working and these days I don't always go for "cute".

I have had the Cheery Lynn poinesttia die for many years and normally use it as an embellishment on the aforementioned "cute" cards. This time I wanted it to be the star so cut it in some lovely satin board that came from Joanna Sheen a long time ago and stuck them on a heat embossed hessian Wow stamp (also very old). The die cut sentiment is one of Sue Wilsons. To finish off I splattered gold watercolour paint. The card is actually a lovely clotted cream colour but the glare from the gold has lightened them somewhat.

As we kiss goodbye to November I thought I would share some pics of the last couple of weeks where we seem to have had ALL the weather thrown at us!!

Sunny days

Frosty Days (and kisses)

                            

Snowy Days

Rainy Days

Thank you for paying me a visit today. I hope you have a good weekend xx

Ribbon and/or twine at Allsorts

 Happy Weekend everyone. 

I've a Christmas card to share with you today it's adorned with lovely ribbon and some glittery twine to inspire you to join our optional theme at Allsorts challenge this week. Anything Goes is also most welcome.

I used an old Do Crafts vintage paper pack for the base of my card then stamped my lovely Stampendous stamp and heat embossed it with a lovely pepper coloured WOW embossing powder. All the edges were torn using my lovely Indigo Blu tearing tool and then inked. I had a perfect festive green organza ribbon that I wrapped around one of the panels and added a twine threaded button too.

The prize this week is a

Sizzix die set from Craft Stash

Can't wait to see what you make!!

I hope you have a good weekend. It looks like we are in for 48 hours of heavy rain and gales so I am really not looking forward to that. It's been an interesting week weatherwise with snow and sub zero temperatures too, it actually felt quite festive!!

See you on Monday xx

Christmas at Allsorts

 We are feeling festive at

Allsorts Challenge

the alternative theme is Christmas this week and the prize is from Lavinia Stamps

I have been pretty good this year keeping up with the festive makes but I realised that I had way too many cute cards in my pile so made some more grown up models. I am always in awe of inky backgrounds so had another go making these two featuring Card-io stamps. The pretty papers are from Craft Creations.

I added some super sparkly glitter glue that really packs a punch!!

We are looking forward to seeing your Christmassy makes xx

The Magic of the Season

 It's the Magic of the Season (Christmas) at Allsorts this week, as an alternative to anything goes if you fancy!!

I have been a little bit naughty and recently bought some Lavinia goodies that I wanted to try out. One being a ink brush and the other the gorgeous Christmas Joy tree. The lovely fox was already in my stash and he was crying out to be included in the scene.

I inked, glittered and splattered some snow about!! 

I hope that you have a good weekend.  The forecast looks good so we have some field jobs to do. I suspect the leaf blower will be involved!!

See you soon xx

Anything Cute at Allsorts

Another Saturday and another new challenge at Allsorts.

The optional theme this time is CUTE.

That was no problem at all for me with my love of cuteness.

I still had some scraps left over from my Simple Stories pad that I used for my folio for last weeks' challenge so I used a piece as my inspiration. I printed a Digistamp Boutique image (I still miss that lovely range of images!!) that I coloured with Flexmarkers to match the stripey paper.

 I framed the paper with a couple of scraps that, I think, really makes the striped paper "pop". Liquid pearls were perfect for the mistletoe berries and Stardust Stickles, as usual, for the snow.

I am looking forward to seeing your cute makes this week xx

BINGO!!

Saturday again and we have a game of BINGO going on at

so eyes down, look in...here we go!!!

I have made a pair of Christmas cards using  the top row Distress Ink, Dry Embossing and Red, and the middle vertical row, Dry Embossing, Green and Twine.

The cute paper was a Making Cards freebie, I actualy used a Memory Box stencil for the embossed snowfall, a Lawn Fawn bauble die and a free Christmas sentiment stamp..

Prizes from Stampendous 

It's a brilliant board with lots of choice so it's going to be a great week!!

See you soon xx

 

Cold as Ice at Allsorts

 With Christmas just a couple of days away I think it's unlikely that we will have temperatures anything like the optional challenge at Allsorts this next fortnight

Cold as Ice chosen by Lorraine

A fabulous bundle of prizes from AALL and Create and Craft Stash

Here's my inspiration for you

I've been ever so good again and used another buried stamp. I've rediscovered quite a few Woodware stamps, this being one of them. I stamped it on to various icy coloured papers and even a sheet of sparkly sticky stuff, that took days to dry!! However, it all worked out in the end and I paper pieced SNOW together. I also used a very old Marianne Designs snowflake die to cut holographic card to make the pretty snowflakes and finished the icy scene with a gorgeous Chloes Creative Cards glitter. Another card to start the pile for next year!!

Whatever you are up to on Christmas Day I wish you peace and happiness xx

Wreath

 I have a simple wreath to share with you today as the optional challenge theme at Allsorts this week is, 

a lovely one chosen by Mervi....Christmas florals or Wreaths

Here is mine...

I used Inkydoodles Stamp set Warm Winter Wishes and heat embossed the wreath with copper embossing powder. I coloured the hearts with a shimmery red pen and coloured the stamped holly with Promarkers then went crazy with the glamor dust glitter and glossy accents. Once more, I had so much fun that I made three more using different coloured embossing powders and cut out icons from the same set.

Prizes from: Aldridge Crafts, Stampendous and AALL and Create

It would be lovely if you can find the time to join us this week.

Whatever you are up to this weekend, I hope it's a good one xx

Something beginning with B

Hello friends. 

The big day is drawing ever nearer and with that in mind I have made more christmas cards for my DT pieces for the optional theme at Allsorts Challenge this week.

"Something beginning with B" and my B is BAUBLES 

 I have used a Crafters Companion die set and cut plain or mirror pieces, and stuck them together. I used a gold or silver marker for the hanging strings and added a bow

I got rather carried away and actually made ten in all so will be ahead of the game for next year!!

Prizes from: Aldridge Crafts, Stampendous, AALL and Create

I wish you all a lovely weekend. More rain for us, if the forecast is right, and no plans to go anywhere today so I think it might be time to get the Christmas tree trimmed.

See you on Monday xx