Seaside at Allsorts

Val has chosen a perfect optional theme at Allsorts Challenge 

it's Seaside and here is what I made to tempt you.

 I have used a mix of paper pads, a Craftwork Cards 8x8 pad and the beautiful sketched shell is from a 12 x 12 scrapbook paper collection. It's a flippy kind of design that I made for my Uncle's recent Birthday. I am on a mission to be more creative with my card shapes...we'll see how that goes!!

The prize for the winner is...

                                    Collection of stamps for one winner from Stamp Addicts

That's all for now. See you soon xx

Summertime at We Love Stamping

It's reminder time at 

WE LOVE STAMPING 

There is still heaps of time to join in our Summertime theme, Anything Goes also welcome.

Now, for me, summertime means strawberries. I bought some plants earlier in the season that, sadly, did not do well. Jackson did manage to "borrow" a couple though!! Anyway, strawberries were very much in my mind when I made this...

I went a bit "shabby" and used  a Maja Designs paper pad, one of those that I bought to look at rather than use. For a change I inked with shabby shutters to compliment the leaves and roughed up the edges with my scissors. The stamp is, again, an old one that is from another Crafters companion set that I bought from shopping telly back in the day. I coloured him with pencils and resisted the temptation to use blending oil but was still happy with the result.

We are still baking here in the UK. Our fields are parched, we have more tomatoes than we know what to do with and the dogs are walked and the pony ridden before the local world is awake!!

I hope that you have a good weekend wherever you are. See you in a bit!!

Favourite Pet at AYLI

 Hello all. It's a new challenge day at

As You Like It and the theme is favourite pet.

This time I have chosen a dog (with his support cat!!). My long suffering  longstanding blogging buddies will know that we are owned by two sprollie dogs, Bowie and Bumble. They rule the roost in our house (aided and abetted by the pony of course) and never get on the sofas or loiter at the fridge just in case they get a slice of ham from Martin...as if!!

I made this card for Martins Birthday using a Crafters Companion stamp, from the aptly named, Barkley series. The gingham paper is from Marianne Designs and the colouring was done with Promarkers. I always like blue and kraft so made the base with leftover card from Connor and Amelia's wedding invitations. 

I hope that my UK friends are surviving the ongoing heatwave. I am thankful that for one day a week I am in an air conditioned office!!

Thank you for your visit. It's most welcome. See you soon xx

Summertime at We Love Stamping

 Sorry folks it's me again, this time to tempt you to join in at 

We Love Stamping 

where the theme for July, chosen by Lynn, is

SUMMERTIME

I made this

Once again I raided my stash and found a real life LOTV 8x8 paper pad scraps, so pretty. The sweet stamp is a VERY old red rubber one and from CC Designs. She was coloured with Promarkers to compliment the papers. Just recently I have refrained from adding Happy Birthday as a default sentiment so that I can add one later.

I hope that you are inspired and will join us again to be in with a chance to win

🠟🠟🠟🠟

2 prizes of Lavinia stamps and watercolours (photos not to scale). Please note, we (Lavinia) cannot provide exchanges/replacements/refunds for any products received through this third-party giveaway.

See you soon xx

Stencils at Allsorts

At Allsorts Challenge this time Donna has chosen Stencils as the optional theme,

anything goes also welcome.

I forget how useful stencils can be and although I don't have that many in my stash, I usually ink them for a background. On this occasion I got out a water colour pad and decided to pain the stencil for change. This one was free with a magazine.

 

Once I had dry brushed the colour in I splattered with gold water colour paint and added a stamped message, also a magazine freebie. I intend to do more painting in my book. Watch this space!!

                        Two winners will each receive three random stencils/sets from those above.

Many thanks for visiting today xx

Non Card project at As You Like It

 Hello and welcome, friends and visitors. How on earth is it July!? I really must get a wriggle on with my Christmas makes but for now...

We have a new challenge starting today at

where we would love to see your NON CARD projects.

In a bid to use my old paper pads I have been making little folios for Mollie and Jackson. If the designs aren't suitable I add to my stash for tucking into journals.

This one used a summery Doodlebug Designs paper pad that included little tags and messages on the double sided papers. 

Thank you for calling in today, it's much appreciated.

See you soon xx

Birds, Bees & Blooms at Allsorts

Hello everyone.

Ellie is hosting at Allsorts Challenge this time and her optional theme is

Birds, Bees and/or Blooms

I am still on a mission to use my stash and found a lovely Stampendous set that's never seen ink and made this

I have managed to incorporate the blooms and bees. I coloured with Promarkers added, glossy accents, glitter and wink of stella to jazz up the flowers. The sentiment, bees and border at the top are all within the set so I can't for the life of me remember why I haven't used it before!!

It is a white card, my settings must be awry because whatever I do I just can't get a good picture.

It's a super prize, and 

Please remember, to be eligible you must provide name/makes of products used on your entry (our rules explain why), if missing entries will not be included in winner/Top 7 selections.

Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Glorious Bouquet stamp set available from Buddly Crafts 

Thank you for your visit and I hope you have a lovely weekend. It's quiet here. We've had a rather hectic few weeks so a little time for a reset is in order.

See you soon xx

Sport & Hobbies reminder We Love Stamping

Hello all, I am here with your monthly reminder about our current challenge at

We Love Stamping where the optional theme is Sports & Hobbies

 As well as all the other things I do in my spare time I do love to ride my bike, daily if I can. We don't go far but have some lovely  20-25 minute routes that pass through neighbouring villages. This was my thought process for my second DT card. I used an old Bildmalarna grey rubber stamp and coloured her with Promarkers to compliment the My Minds Eye "On the Sunny Side" papers that I used as a background. 

Here is me doing my very best impression of the above stamp...NOT!!

See you soon xx

As You Like It Favourite two colours

 Happy Thursday friends. I hope all is well in your world.

It's new challenge day at

where our theme is Favourite two colours.

Mine are pink and green. Mother Natures best blend regardless of shade or tone, they always look superb together.

I made a wreath on a kraft card base (using up the mahoosive box that I bought to make Connor & Amelia's Wedding Invites). The flowers and leaves were cut into various pink and green papers using a Creative Expressions Finishing Touches die set. I used, buttons, pearls, gems and glitter glue for the middle of the flowers for a little bit of texture and shimmer.

Thank you for stopping by today, I will be back shortly with my second post of the day!!

Sports & Hobbies at We Love Stamping

Anesha is hosting at

We Love Stamping this month and the theme is Sports and Hobbies

Two prizes of Visible Image sports stamps.

I had another lovely morning searching my stamps for something suitable. I suppose I "could" have made a purchase but managed not to and instead inked a clear stamp set for the first time!!

This is what I made. 

 The whole card was made using stamps from a set by Paperbabe Stamps, I've had the set for some time and am delighted to say that it still appears to be available, if you are interested. Anyway I inked the background, rainbow style, using distress inks. Used a different stamp for the sentiment tag. Inked a pom pom to resemble a ball of wool and used cocktail sticks and Hamma beads for knitting needles. Although I am pleased with the card it's planted an idea in my head that I should get my own knitting needles out and, truth be told, I have more than enough "works in progress" so should probably shelve that idea for a bit!! I'll keep you posted!!

Thank you for stopping by x

From the Garden at Allsorts

 Happy weekend friends and visitors.

Over at

we are Anything Goes from the Garden chosen by Brenda

As well as card making I do love to make little folios and journals from printed digitals. The little tri-fold folio I an sharing today was a Friday Freebie designed by the lovely Gi Kerr from Happiness in crafting. If you are a member of her Facebook group these can be downloaded and she shares a You Tube tutorial to accompany the kit. The little bird is actually a hidden paper clip that keeps everything neatly folded.

I would love to say that my garden looks like that but sadly we have a really exposed garden so cottage garden plants do not fare well and we have to stick to low to the ground shrubs. Ooh, actually we do have a similar bird bath!!

The forecast doesn't look brilliant for the weekend which is a shame as we have a family get together on Sunday for the Hubby's Birthday. We were hoping that the hot weather would still be with us as we bought the Grandchildren a water slide for the garden and, I admit, I did have a go...in the name of market research you understand!! Such fun!!

Whatever you are up to I hope it's a good weekend.

See you soon xx

Sentiment at AYLI

Hello everyone. It's time for the next challenge at

and it's Favourite Sentiment (and why)

Here's min...

 I have gone with simple "Hello". I am a big fan of happy mail so use this Crafters Companion die regularly to send a note or letter to friends and family. The pretty paper is from a very old Tilda pad and I picked cardstock to match.

I hope that you will be inspired to join in. 

See you at the weekend xx

Birthday at Allsorts

It's Happy Birthday to us at

Allsorts Challenge 17 whole years of wonderful challenges

I much enjoyed  joining in back in the day but enjoy, even more, being on the design team. I've met some lovely ladies and it is a pleasure to share work here every couple of weeks in the hope it will inspire you to join in.

After all that here is my Birthday card

This Cats Pajamas bunny has been used lots of times, she is so cute and I always our her on a circle card base, it just suits her. This time I used a ditsy Doodlebug Designs paper and added some enamel dots which actually look the wrong colour but, trust me, they are a perfect match in real life!!

There are LOTS of prizes too

Lavinia stamp collection. The Lavinia experience is a magical journey where you can learn a new skill and create enchanting artwork, thereby opening the door to your imagination – a truly captivating experience. Please note, we (Lavinia) cannot provide exchanges/replacements/refunds for any products received through this third-party giveaway.

Buddly Crafts £25 store voucher. Founded in 2003, we've grown from a digital downloads store into the online craft supplies shop we are today sending out orders to our discerning, creative customers across the UK and worldwide. We stock a wide range of exciting products for card making and mixed media art carefully selected from the world’s most creative and time-tested arts and crafts brands.

Art Impressions $30 store voucher. Art Impressions is a rubber stamp manufacturer based in Salem, OR since 1987. The company began as our sole designer, Bonnie Krebs, created and sold educational stamps at craft fairs around the US Northwest, now sold Worldwide.

Highlight Crafts, dies with artwork downloads. Own brand products designed in the UK and an on line store offering a fabulous variety of brands to cover a multitude of crafty techniques.

Plus, Surprise Goody Bags containing, stamps, dies and other crafty items.

Come and celebrate with us!!

See you soon xx

Favourite Season at As You Like It

 Hello everyone

We have a new challenge at

As You Like It, where the theme is

Favourite Season

It's winter for me, or specifically Christmas, the build up, preparation and anticipation. Not to forget the card making that I do all year round.

I used the film strip reindeer from Lili of the Valley that I coloured with Promarkers. The paper is an unknown scrap and the holly die is from Cheery Lynn. I found another Craftwork Cards sentiment too. Looks like I had more of those left than I realised!!

Hope you will join us with projects featuring your favourite season.

See you soon xx

We Love Stamping

 Hello everyone, I am here today with a little inspiration for you, just in case you haven't joined us at

We Love Stamping 

for our current theme

All Creatures Great and Small  (or Anything Goes)

Once more, I have used a stamp set from my stash

a "T for Transparent" Penny Black set

Aren't they cute?!! Coloured with Promarkers, the postage stamp dies that I think are from The Works and the patterned paper is of unknown origin!!

There's still time to share your makes as long as there is a stamped image on your project.

On the subject of creatures, our fur babies Bumble and Bowie were TEN years old on Friday...here they are enjoying porridge for their breakfast

and when they were tiny!!

See you soon xx

Monochrome at Allsorts

 Happy Weekend everyone. I hope that you have some plans and if they include crafting then pop over to 

where the new challenge starts.

Liz has chosen an excellent optional theme

Monochrome (or Anything Goes)

 prizes, A5 stamp set and A6 stamp and stencil 

 

Here's mine

Once again I had a good old rummage through my paper pads and found a lovely one by Simple Stories, Snap colour vibe. I'm not that good though because the plain mats (as luck should have it an exact match) came from a new paper pad that I found in The Range a couple of weeks ago!! The balloon die was a magazine freebie and the Happy Birthday is from a Clearly Besotted stamp set.

While I am here I would like to invite you to the Allsorts Birthday bash, there's prizes galore and you are sure to have a great time!!

See you soon xx

Sketch at AYLI

I am here with my DT piece for

where the theme for the next two weeks is

Favourite Sketch

I don't have a favourite sketch as such but do have a favourite place to visit if mojo is lacking and that is at  Always With A Heart where Jules has a massive array of sketches that she so generously shares. I am making more rectangle cards these days (in a bid to use up linen effect A4 cardstock!!) so I trawled through her Rectangle Sketches and fancied doing this one

The papers are another very old  pad, Bazzill Basics Vintage Lace. The cone flower is an unbranded die and the sentiment from Clearly Besotted. 

Thank you for dropping in today, your company is always appreciated.

See you soon xx

 

All Creatures Great and Small at We Love Stamping

We have a lovely new theme at We Love Stamping this month

All Creatures Great and Small and the prize is

 Three stamps from AALL and Create

                                 

I have no shortage of animal stamps in my stash so I am sharing a gorgeous cow called Custard. She is a very old Sugar Nellie grey rubber stamp. 

The floral paper that I matted on the kraft card easel are from a Polkadoodles paper pack called The Great Outdoors. Custard was coloured with Promarkers and Copics. The die cut leaves are from Tattered Lace and the flowers, I believe, Joy Crafts.

Thank you for sharing your time with me again, it's much appreciated.

See you Soon xx

Anything but Square at Allsorts

 Christine has chosen the optional theme today

Anything but Square (Anything Goes also welcome)

Two prizes from AALL and Create

I used a favourite arched die set cut in black card. I cheated with the inky background and used a Lavinia A5 background that, I believe, I won from this very challenge several years ago!!

The sentiment was left on my desk from another project that suited perfectly. The gate die was  from The Cats Pajamas, another shop sadly gone. 

Thank you for paying me a visit, it's always appreciated. Hope you have a lovely weekend.

See you soon x