Savoury or sweet......?

It's challenge time again at AYLI and our theme this week is

Savoury or sweet?

At the moment it's all things sweet for me, particularly if it contains salted caramel, so just imagine that the cupcake below is oozing with salty caramel goodness!! Yum!!

A work colleague is celebrating her Birthday on Saturday and as she is Coeliac, I made her a gluten free cupcake (in the form of a card!!) complete with glittery icing!!

The papers are the most recent addition to the family, the utter fabulous Maja Designs Summer Crush. The banner was made using a free stamp set and the darling little cat stamp was coloured with Promarkers.

Some challenges to play

Crafty Cardmakers #148 - Make it sprakle (cupcake frosting)
Love to scrap ~62 - Anything Goes
In the pink #78 - For a Friend
Creative Inspirations #328 - Something Sweet

See you soon xx

A very sparkly Christmas

When I've had the chance I have been rummaging through my old digi stamps and came upon a folder full of Wee Stamps images, I'd forgotten how gorgeous they are. Anyway this is what I did with the delightful  Lullaby.

She was coloured with Promarkers to match the LOTV papers. My fabulous stepper die put in an appearance together with a new snowflake punch ready for the festive makes!! Lashings of stardust (which sadly made the ink run a bit but don't look too closely!!) and there you have it!!

Perfect for these challenges

Allsorts #329 - Sparkle

Winter Wonderland - A Christmas Fairy

Christmas Stamping All Year Long #56 - Lots of Texture or Layers

The Craft Barn - Christmas Snow/Snowflakes

Thanks for stopping by today, your comments are much appreciated xx

A touch of autumn

I've tried to ignore the fact but it seems that autumn is definitely here. I even had to hunt out my torch this week before mucking out and Surprise is beginning to look like a yeti!! Still, the sun is shining at the moment and we have the gorgeous colours to look forward to so it's not all bad.

With that in mind I found a stamp from a while back that came free with Get Stamping magazine so thought I would make a seasonal card in order to join in at some of the current challenges.

It was nice to do something a bit different. The owl was inked with memento chalk ink and I then used Spectrum Noir pencils on top for a bit of feathery definition. The leaves were also pencilled to coordinate with the Doodlebug papers.

I would like to play here

That's Crafty - Lovely leaves

Di's Digis - Fabulous Fall colours

Fantasty stampers - #45 Autumn Leaves

Addicted to stamps #109 - Autumn

Creative Card Crew #96 - Fall

Uniko #25 - Autumn/Fall

Crafting Musketeers #29 - Autumnal Colours

Little Claire #61 - Autumn

Enjoy the rest of the weekend and thanks for sharing a bit of it with me 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

Happy Birthday with a Sketch

It's Cutie Pie Challenge time again and it's

Birthday with a sketch...this one here by our very own lovely Lisa...

...great isn't it? Here is what I made of it

I used an image by one of our sponsors and teamed her with MME A Mother's Love papers (another pad sneakily hiding from me!!) and used my Lawn Fawn Stitched Scalloped border die set for the prettiness. The label was created using a Joy die set.

I am playing here

Crafty Gals Corner #36 - Bingo (bottom left to top right)

Crafting with friends #6 - Anything Goes
Create and Inspire #29 - Anything Goes
Crafts Galore Encore  - Anything Goes

That's me for now. thanks for visiting xx

Hello Friend

A couple of weeks ago Annie set me a challenge to create a bendy card...so I did!!

It was also the perfect opportunity to make something to support a couple of special challenges that are open at the moment.

It was really easy to do (just google bendicards...there are loads!!) so thanks for the shove Annie!! 

This is what it looks like from above.

We all know that as crafters we have to get all the latest stamps, papers and  dies (need I go on!!?) but what I didn't realize was that my Never Before Used Schtuff mountain also included digi stamps and magazine freebies too (shock horror!!) so I had a delve into the digi folder archive and used Surprise from Di's Digis and coloured the sweet little girls with pencils and blender. Purple is not my "go to" colour so that in itself was a challenge. Nevertheless I was really pleased with the result!! The sentiment was a magazine freebie and the centre of the flowers were pearled to echo the pretty flowers.

So, I am off to play at

Squirrel's Random Challenge - Friendship

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #5

Digi Choosday #36 - Shaped cards

Chocolate, coffee and cards #99 - Fancy and feminine

Di's digi designs - Use a sentiment

Thank you for stopping by and have a good weekend 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

Santa's Doggy Welcome

Hello crafters I hope your week is going to be a good one. No work for me today as I am enjoying the May Bank Holiday that I had in hand. I started off with a ride which was a tad chilly to say the least. Surprise has morphed from sleek and shiny to a furry monster in a matter of days, a sure sign that the season is on the change, which brings me nicely to my card...a Christmas one!!

 I have drooled over Lynne's (Ruby-Dooby-Doo Crafts) samples of Eat Cake Graphic Stamps for ages and back along decided that I had to get some.

 This is one of them...

...Santa's Doggy Welcome. I used another of Jules sketches and coloured with SN pencils. The papers are from an older Doodlebug pad. The fur trim on his costume is flower soft and the sentiment from Clearly Besotted.

Some challenges

A bit more time to craft #3 - Anything Goes

Creative Card Crew #95 - Christmas

Pencil Case #1 - Anything Goes

Winter Wonderland - Add a sentiment

Crafty Catz #291 - Anything Goes

Christmas Stamping all year long #55 - Anything Goes

As the sun is shining I am going to make the most of it and burn off some calories before an evening out with the girls to wish a colleague farewell. 

Have a good day whatever you are doing xx

First day

Well, the little darlings have gone back to school here in the UK. My BIG darling is back to Uni in a couple of weeks and his Girlfriend, Laura, had her first day at School yesterday...as an Infant School Teacher!!

This is the card that I made for her

I paid a long overdue visit to Saturated Canary for Tammy Pie whose resemblance to Laura is uncanny. She was coloured with Promarkers and I added the snippet of Farmer's Market paper, that came from my scraps, to add a bit more colour. I typed a sentiment inside which read

" Teachers change the world...one child at a time!".

I am reliably informed that she loved it and that she ended her first day in one piece!!

One or two challenges to play along

Sweet Stampin' - School days

Dream Valley #114 - Back to school

Pixie's Snippet's Playground Week 192
Crafty Sentiments - School

Thank you for sharing your day with me xx

I spy with my little eye...

...something beginning with "R"

Hello friends, I am super excited to tell you that I am "Guesting" at 

ABC Christmas for a little while

(thank you Samantha for inviting me xx)

Here is my contribution...

...featuring Reindeer, Red, Round and Ribbon. The lovely stamp is Christmas Cheer and was coloured with Pro/Flexmarkers. The paper was a scrap from my box and the sentiment is from a fabulous Joy set.

A challenge or two

Bunny Zoe's - shaped cards
Crafty Friends #13 - Use a sentiment
Di's digis - Include a sentiment
Chocolate, coffee and cards #98 - Use a sentiment
The Craft Barn - Animals

I hope you will get your thinking caps on and join in the "R" Challenge.


See you next time xx

Country Christmas

Hello crafty peeps hope the week has started well for you and for those of you in the UK I hope you have dried out after the typically bad Bank Holiday weather!!

Anyway, I appear to have gone all Christmassy again and I couldn't have been happier when Tracey gave us Country Christmas as our September theme at

Christmas Cards All Year Round

although this is a little less English country and more Nordic country!!

The paper is from Studiolight's Scandinavian pad, which is delicious!! The Little Claire stamp suited the paper perfectly and I coloured it with Promarkers and added a little red and green for balance.

 The picture on the right shows glossy accents, stardust gelly roll pen and a touch of crackle glaze on the checked heart too.

I am entering these challenges

Creative Craft Cottage #46 - Anything Goes
Creative Fingers #90 - Anything Goes
A snowflake's promise #4 - Christmas/Winter
Create and Inspire #28 - Anything Goes
Little Claire #60 - Christmas in August

Right, I am off to work it's bound to be manic after the (very wet!!) Bank Holiday.

Thank you so very much for all the lovely comments on my last card, they mean a lot :0)
 See you soon with another festive creation xx