Cutie Christmas

 Happy new week everyone. I hope your weekend was good and filled with your favourite things and that the week ahead is kind to you.

My christmas card pile is growing nicely and I have another make to share with you today in support of the new challenge at

As you probably know by now, we are always Anything Goes but add a little option if you like to follow a prompt. This time it's to share a (cute) pre-colored image.

I got a little bit carried away and made three cards using a pre-coloured page from Making Cards magazine and the complimentary paper from the same edition. I also found a pack of DL cards so used those up and made another in kraft.

The sentiment stamps were from a Clearly Besotted set and I finished them off with skinny ribbons and a knot.

I hope I have inspired you to join in and add to your own Christmas card pile.

Thank you again for your visits here and continuing to inspire me xx

Rain at Allsorts

Happy Weekend everyone!! I am here with my weekly inspiration for

Allsorts challenge where the optional theme is Rain. 

This theme made me very happy and I knew exactly what I was going to showcase. 

It's been far too long since I spent an evening fussy cutting so this charming, rainy, House Mouse design was just perfect. It's layered up with Pinflair glue gel and really didn't need much else. Rather than just make a tent card I went with an easel for a change so that the dimension is fully on display.

Mats in pink and black framed it rather nicely too.

Well, our little Grandaughter Mollie was incredible throughout her acrobatic dance performance. Bless her litte heart, she did five shows over four days and at six years old I think that's pretty incredible!! The whole production was fantastic with ages from fifteen months upwards. Looking forward to the next show!! 

Thank you for your lovely company today and I hope you have time to join us at Allsorts xx

 

AYLI - People or animals

 Hello friends. I hope that you are having a good week. The weather here in Dorset has been damp and warm which has been perfect for putting fertiliser on the paddocks. Not so perfect are the wet muddy dogs that take ages drying after our walks!! 

Today is the start of the fortnightly challenge at

which is People or Animals

I am never very happy with my efforts colouring hair and skin to generally go for animals as fur is much more forgiving if I make a boo boo!!

I used an old image (Squirrel with bee) from our sponsor Lee Holland Art and coloured with Promarkers. I also tried my hand at stencilling again. In real life the ink is much brighter in shades of green and peach which went quite well.

Thank you for your visit. See you Saturday xx

Perfect Pastels

 Hello everyone. I am really enjoying sharing my Saturdays with you. 

The optional theme at Allsorts challenge #720 is Perfect Pastels.

Here's what I made

As cute is my "thing" I had a rummage through my LOTV rubber and found this cute springtime  stamp (Delightful Daisies). I had an equally fun rummage through my paper and found a couple of pastel MFT pads. Decisions, decisions!! The sweet image was coloured with Promarkers, as usual.

We would love it if you would join in and be in with a chance of winning one of these fabulous prizes from our generous sponsors.

I hope you are all looking forward to a nice weekend. I am beyond excited to be taking my Mum to the theatre this afternoon to see Mollie on the stage. She has been dancing for a couple of years now (ballet and acrobatic dance) and is performing in a Dance spectacular...can't wait!!

Thank you for stopping by, it's always much appreciated.
See you soon xx

I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with B

 Hello friends. I hope you had a good weekend and that a happy week lies ahead.

starts today and the optional theme is " Beginning with B", as always though your entry must be as CUTE as can be!!

I think my inspiration ticks all the boxes and has Bunny, Birthday, Binding, Bow, Butterflies and Blue.

I used my good old go Kreate die set for the base and mat. I dug out a favourite stamp set from The Cats Pajamas that has been used many, many times before and always makes me smile. You can get her (and many others) here in digi form. I still had Maja Designs Coffee in the Arbour on my desk so pulled some blue papers from that for the layers. Bunny was coloured with Promarkers and I added some Stardust Stickles to the icing which, as usual, does not photograph well!!

That's me for today. I hope that you will join along and I hope to see you soon xx

Three of Something at Allsorts

 Don't these weekends roll around quickly? I hope you have something nice planned. I suspect there will be mowing the lawn and weeding involved here. Our garden is bursting into life, particularly our little memorial garden where Mog, Suzy, Surprise and Mo the cat are sleeping. We plant bulbs every autumn so it's a joy to see them popping up through the grass. We can never remember what has gone where so it's rather exciting!!

Anyway, I am here to share my inspiration for the new Allsorts Challenge. We are looking forward to seeing three of something on your makes. 

Here's mine...three hedgehogs.

All three of the cuties are from a Penny black T for Transparent set. Coloured with Promarkers and finished off with a Clearly Besotted sentiment. The sky and grass were from a Doodlebug Designs paper pad and the black cardstock mat really makes it pop I think.

See you soon xx

Favourite Easter Critter

 I hope the week has been good to you so far. We had snow yesterday!! I know, at my age, I really shouldn't be excited by snow but I can't help it!! Sadly though the rain came just as quickly and washed it away so I suspect that's it for the year.

Any way, I'm not really here with a weather report!! The new challenge at As You Like It starts today and we would love to see your favourite Easter critters.

I have gone with a rabbit, although I don't usually send Easter cards so improvised and made a Birthday card instead. My Sister and I always had rabbits when we were small and the boys had rabbits when they were younger too. 

The whole card was made using stamps from a set that was a Christmas gift, so absolutely perfect for a first inking. Both bunny and carrots were coloured with Promarkers.

You can just about see here that the carrots have a lovely glaze, by way of glossy accents. 

Thank you for dropping by today. Your company is always much appreciated.

See you on Saturday xx

 

Four legged friends

 Hello, it's me on a Saturday and I am sooooo excited to share that, together with the lovely Liz from Crafty Sunflower I am one of the new girls over at 

Allsorts Challenge

I am truly honoured to have been asked by the lovely Brenda to join them. It's a challenge that I have entered many, many times and have taken inspiration from the DT and now I am one of them, so thank you Brenda and Team for making us so welcome.

Here I go then, my debut card for this week's challenge - Four legged Friends. A great one for me to start with as lots of you will know that, apart from my human family, I am never happier than when I am with my hairy kids, so it had to be a cute card from me featuring an adorable pup.

The background, main image and sentiment are from the MFT set New Best Friend. Coloured with Promarkers and stamped in black and pink it was a really quick and easy card to put together.

I hope you will pop over and take a look at the wonderful inspiration my new crafty friends have made for you and I look forward to seeing your entries.

See you soon xx

Something - with a sentiment

 Happy new week everyone!! another christmas make from me today. This time my DT inspiration for

where the theme is always Anything Goes with an optional twist. This time a sentiment.

Craft Stash do some really good promotional offers and during one such event I bought myself a set of dies to make A6 envelopes. The reason behind this was to make sure I used smaller sections of cardstock for card blanks. Here is the first one!!

The adorable image is from another Amanda Jayne Designs collection, Christmas Cuties. They are really sweet and very easy to colour, which I did with Promarkers. The sentiment was from a LOTV Circular Sentiments. Both image and sentiment were attached to die cut tags from a Lawn Fawn Set and stuck on the card base. 

I hope you will take inspiration and start on your 2023 Christmas cards.

See you soon xx

Holly and Berries Stencil - AYLI

 Happy Thursday everyone. I hope that you have had a good week and have something nice planned for the weekend. I am really enjoying my papercrafting again and feel so much more inspired as the daylight is stretching out bit by bit.

That said, the new challenge at

inspired me to try a technique that, although I am well eqipped for, never actually do and that is stencilling. I am probably not alone when I say this, I do have stencils in my crafty arsenal but just don't ever get the inspiration to use them so this theme was a kick up the butt!! On closer inspection I have rather more than I thought but played safe with an Echo Park Holly and Berries 6x6 festive stencil. Once I got going it was actually a lot of fun and I was really pleased with the result!!

I already had the LOTV stamped image coloured up with Promarkers and the little holly and berries prompted me to choose the stencil that I did. I remembered that I had a chalk set that came with a long handled crocodile clip and dinky cotton balls that were perfect for keeping "in the lines". I don't have an extensive collection of Distress inks but two reds and two greens were just right for the soft look I was after. I used a bit of white pen as highlights on some of the berries and squirted some with glossy accents too. The Mama Elephant sentiment finished it off nicely.

I do hope that I have given you some inspiration to do a bit of stencilling, if not, the alternative is a Freestyle background which would be equally welcome.

Sorry, not sorry, for sharing a Christmas card!! There will be another coming along soon too!!

See you soon xx

Hearts or Flowers

 Hello everyone, I hope this week has lots of joy in store for you. I am still testing positive for the dreaded Covid but hope to return to work on Thursday. Please keep your fingers crossed for me!!

It's all about LOVE at

With St Valentines' Day tomorrow and Mothers Day next month we would love to see your cutest creations featuring hearts or flowers, or both for that matter. so either a Valentine Card or Mothers Day card.

I have gone down the Mothers Day route and made this....

I have a rather unhealthy ( but calorie free) addiction for the gorgeously CUTE images by Amanda Jayne Designs (SHE CURRENTLY HAS A 70% DISCOUNT TOO!!) This particular cutie is from Bunny Friendship Bundle together with the Crochet Hearts backing paper too. I coloured her with Promarkers and used kraft for the mats (retired Tattered Lace Essentials Pearl Squares). 

So that's me for today. I hope that you will join us.

See you soon xx

 

Some Challenges

Allsorts #715 - AG +/- All about hearts

Love or Friendship

We are feeling all warm and fuzzy over at As You Like It.

Our new challenge is Love or Friendship

 so we would love to see a card that falls into one of those categories.

I have gone for a friendship card because what is nicer than receiving a "Thinking of You" card or as in this case a invite for a Coffee Date. It was made using a very old Maja Designs paper pack (Coffee in the Arbour) and an equally old rubber stamp from LOTV Coffee Break (still available as a digi).

The little cuties were coloured with Promarkers and while the pretty die was still in place I inked the aperture with Spun Sugar DI. The little tag was also from the paper pack.

While I am here feeling sorry for myself I will have a little chat!!

Despite my best efforts Coronavirus has finally got me. It started with a tickly throat last Friday and I tested positive yesterday morning so am not allowed back to work until next Monday and that's only if I have two negative tests beforehand. I consider myself very lucky to only have an irritating cough. 

More annoying than that is the fact that I cannot go and cuddle our new Grandson who put in an early appearance last Saturday. Mollie Rose is now a Big Sister to Jackson Martin who arrived two weeks early. She is taking the role very seriously at the grand old age of six!! Can't wait to have a ciddle with them both. 

I hope that you are all keeping well and happy and hope you will join us with our latest challenge.

See you soon xx

A well used colour at AYLI

 Hello friends. Wherever you are in the world I hope that you are keeping well. We are currently heading towards the end of an icy and cold spell in Dorset UK which was preceded by flooding which made the sub zero temperatures all the more interesting!! Picture, if you will, me sliding across the stable yard hanging on to the wheelbarrow full of manure!! I survived!!

My share today is wrapped up ready for such temperatures!!

It's my DT piece for the new challenge over at

where we are asking you to share your creations showcasing your most used (favourite) single colour. I revisited my blog and found that peachy pink teamed with aqua seems to be a favourite of mine. The adorable PB Bundled Bunny is a new addition to my stamp family and was coloured with Promarkers to match the pretty Simply Creative papers that came from either The Range or Hobbycraft, I think.

It would be lovely to see you join us, it's always worth a go as we have some lovely sponsors!!

See you soon friends xx

Thank you Fairy Friend

I took a little break away from craft leading up to Christmas but golly I missed it and it's good to be back!

So for the second time this week I am here to share another DT card.

 Over at 

 we want to see your favourite reason for making a card.

Those of you old enough will remember that Post Office sets were popular Christmas presents in the 70's and Mum and Dad always made sure we used the paper to write our Thank You letters. Not much has changed for me here in my 50's and I still send Thank You cards at this time of year.

This one is with thanks for the stamp set that I used to make it! I have everything crossed that it will have been received by the time this post goes live!! 

Thank you for dropping by today, your company is always appreciated xx

January Blues

 Happy New Year everyone and I hope you have survived the first week of 2023!! With Christmas now behind us and the New Year under way it's lovely to be back here with a card to share.

The Cutie Pies Challenge is now a Just for Fun Challenge and we are kicking off with

JANUARY BLUES

I had an accidental Sale purchase back in December and added a lovely collection from Amanda Jayne Designs to my stash. I decided to colour up one of her wonderful images and use one of the pretty papers for my inspiration.

Sorry (not sorry) if you are fed up with Christmas cards!! This little cutie was coloured with Promarkers and I used a Clearly Besotted sentiment from Rockin'Robin set.

I am looking forward to catching up with you all after taking a bit of a blogging break for the festivities.

Thank you for taking the time to visit and don't forget to add us to your Challenge list!!

See you later in the week xx

Some Challenges

Allsorts challenge # 710 - Somethng New (Digi Kit)

Crafty Calendar January - Add a Sentiment

Sweet Stampin' - New (Digi Kit)