Add a tag at Crafty Little Fairies Challenge this week

Good morning all

Well if all goes well blogger has posted this post and I'm getting ready to catch the train to London.  We're just having a sneaky couple of days away and hopefully take in a show - nothing booked just doing it on the hoof - I'm just that kinda girl lol
(so fingers crossed Mr Blogger has played nicely!)

It's Pink Fairies week over at Crafty Little Fairies this week
and the theme is

Add a Tag

I used one of the cute LOTV boys to make a birthday card
Its my son Matthews birthday in a couple of weeks so I took the opportunity to make his card
This cutie is called Sailing Boat and is available HERE

Our fab sponsor this week is 

Crafty Ribbons
who are offering a prize of a £10 voucher

This what I did....

Image - Sail boat from LOTV

Coloured with spectrum noirs and copics

Papers - Ahoy there! from Papermania

Tags - LOTV

Kraft card - Crafters Companion

Chevron die and Nautical Dies - MFT

Distress Ink - TH tea dye

Twine - MFT

Brads - from my stash

See you over at Crafty Little fairies challenge this week!

Challenges I'm entering with this card

4 crafty girls - anything goes

Hugs 

Judith xx

Spring has sprung at The Paper Shelter - goodbye DWP and Las Vegas (and Florida) here I come!!!

Good morning all

I'm here again with post number two of the day.  This time for 

The Paper Shelter

we have a lovely theme for you this week 

Spring Delights

  (click here for my post for Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge)

I used this cute little image called the Florist available HERE
the set comes with background papers, jpeg and png images
and the pre coloured image that I used here. 

As always we have a fab prize for the winner at The Paper Shelter

And an update from my night out at Newcastle Boulevard drag queen show out on Saturday

The stars of the show...

Betty "legs" Diamond

This photo of Boulevard Show Bar is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Miss Rory - the compare with the acid tongue!

This photo of Boulevard Show Bar is courtesy of TripAdvisor

It's not the first time I've been - but its such a good night out - we ached with laughing!

It was my daughter Alison's 30th birthday - and she was dressed to kill as well in her sparkly dress and Jimmy Choos - she gave the drag queens a run for their money - Miss Rory was very impressed lol!!

 Alison in celebration - I've arrived! - mode

Me and Alison

Anyway back to my card!!

Here's what I did....

Image - the florist - from The Paper Shelter (precoloured image)

Die cut flowers and leaves - fabulous phlox from Memory Box

Papers - spring drop from First Edition

Vintage seambinding ribbon - Crafty ribbons

Metal butterfly - trimcraft Lilli bet

Pearls (coloured green with copic pen - from my stash

Distress ink - TH dusky rose

Hope to see you playing along at TPS this week

I'll be back tomorrow with my DT card for crafty Little Fairies - then I'm off to London for a couple of days, back at the weekend and then in to work on monday for my last day - as I'm taking early retirement from the Department of work and Pensions after 38 years!! - after that off on my jollies on Wednesday night - Las Vegas and Florida here I come - life's not dull at the moment!!

Challenges I'm entering with this card

My Besties challenge - for Mum
Stampavie and more - girly
Hobby book designer challenge -spring

Hugs

Judith x

Use your favourite colour combo at Pennys Papercrafty Challenge

Good morning all

(I'll be back later this morning with my DT card for the Paper Shelter)

Its time for another challenge at

 Penny's Paper Crafty Challenges

This week we have an easy peasy challenge for you 

Use your favourite Colour combo

I used a Pink/Kraft combo

The image is called Butterfly and Bluebonnet from Eureka Stamps available here
I just love this pretty image - I thought it was Lupins but Eureka call it Blue Bonnet.  Maybe its just the same thing different continent! - I'm sure some botanical person will be able to put me right.
The picture looks brighter than it actually is - I photographed it with a flash photo and I think its picked up the white areas and brightened them!

I'm feeling a need to get a bit distressed and inky lately so really enjoyed making this card- this was my direction when I very first started making cards and I've meandered into allsorts of other places on the way  - I've just sent for some lovely vintagey (is that a word!) stamps - so watch this space for the return of vintage!!
I sent this card to a lovely blogging buddy of mine for her birthday and I know she has it now so its safe to show!

We have two great sponsors this week 

Eureka Stamps 

and

 Stampart Design by Kathryne

(sorry I have't got the sponsor banners for you I'm still having problems uploading and i forgot to add them when I did the upload of the card on my (long suffering!) sons Mac)

This is what I did

Image - Butterfly and bluebonnet from Eureka stamps

Coloured with copics and Prismacolor pencils

Distress inks - TH shaby shutters and dusky pink

Papers - Antebellum from LOTV

Labels and postcard stamp al from LOTV

Kraft card - from MFT

Twine - MFT

Pearls - Kars

Ribbon - Carnmeal cottage

Circle and scalloped circle - spellbinders die

Hope we see you at Pennys Challenge this week

Challenges I'm entering with this card

Scrappers delights - mothers day/special lady
Aurora wings - anything goes



Hugs
Judith x

Boys to men at Fab'n'Funky Challenges this week

Hi again!

So for  my third post of  in the long running saga of blogger that won't blog lol!

I'm using this as a a reminder of our challenge over at

Fab'n'Funky Challenges

it was of lovely Katies forst challenge for us and she chose the theme

Boys to Men

(or Boys II Men if you live in my world!)

I'm a big fan of Boys II Men - I've seen them loads of times - love their music and they have such fabulous voices and are a really great live act

Anyways back to the challenge!

I used a fab image from an artist I found only recently and I love his images

Meet That's Tragic from Dr Digi's House of Stamps

Available here

We Have two fabulous sponsors over at Fab'n'Funky this week

Stampart Design by Kathryne

and 

My Creative Classroom

I think I mentioned in my post yesterday that I bought a few Spectrum Noirs - mainly because I needed to refill several of my grey and neutral copics and they were ones that I didn't have reinkers for - so I decided I would give the SN's a go as it was cheaper them than buying the reinkers - and I got some extra shades into the bargin!!  I found them very easy to blend (VERY easy!) and although I didn't have the brush nibs and I think that would probably make it even easier when it comes the colours like the greys and reds which can be notoriously difficult to work with, I'd definitely say you don't need brush nibs for every colour, its definitely a different technique to copics and with a bit of practice it would only improve.   I'm now wavering on the edge - more SN's or buy the copic refills - I suppose there's nothing wrong with a combo as I have done here, it works!

Here's what I did.....

Image - Thats Tragic - fom Dr Digis house of Stamps

Coloured with Spectrum Noir and Copics

Papers - K & Co Hopscotch boy

Star dies - Joy 

Circle die - Spellbinders

Sentiment - Whiff of Joy

Sentiment "cards" - LOTV tags 

Glitter glue - (used to doodle round edges) Martha Stewart

We're off out to the drag show for my daughters 30th birthday celebrations tonight - always such a fun night out -Miss Rory the compare is the most beautiful "woman" you ever saw. I'll let you know how it goes - when I recover lol.

Have a great weekend everyone

Hugs
Judith xx

Its buttons and bows at Pennys Paper Crafty Challenge

Hi Again

I'm playing catch up now with my missing DT posts - but only because I've hijacked my sons Apple Mac - he's not at all impressed that I've taken up residence at his desk in this bedroom to use his super dooper machine lol - so its not going to be a long term thing, I still need to get things sorted on my laptop - but it's not getting any better - I'm having problems with commenting too now, on some blogs its no problem, on others the comments box is just a white box saying "resolving host" - I haven't got time to craft, blog and fix computers so for the minute I'm just having to struggle with things as they are : (
so please forgive me if I haven't called on you lately - I'll keep trying x

Anyway on the bright side here's my post for

Pennys Paper Crafty Challenge 
(due yesterday)

The theme is 

Buttons and Bows 

and our sponsors this week are 

Bugaboo Stamps

and 

Meljens Designs

There are some lovely designs from the DT girls this week - you should pop over to take a look

I got to use this cute little boy from Bugaboo stamps 

he's called Kidz boy puppy- and is available here

I made this fore my grandson to give to his Mammy (my daughter)
for her birthday next week

I decided to give the spectrum noire pens a try (mainly because I needed to buy a few ink refills for my copics - so I thought I'd spend the money on pens rather than ink)  I was really impressed, they blend very well and are easy to use, the method is different but with a bit of practice (spot my deliberate mistake!!) they're definitely worth the money (and a lot cheaper than copics).  I only bought a few but might well buy some more as my copics need to be refilled

This is what I did ,,,,

Image - Kidz boy puppy from bugaboo stamps
Coloured with copics and spectrum noires
papers - K and Co hopscotch boy
Easel card made with papermania kraft card and Spellbinders circle/ scallop dies
Cloud die - joy craft
To my Mammy - made especially for me by the lovely Nicky at stampingallday
Flowers - EK success retro flower punch
Swirl - MFT die
Square Sentiment - Anna Griffin chalk board sentiment stamped with chalk ink
Buttons - Papermania capsule collection
Ribbon bow - from my stash

Challenges I'm entering with this card

Brown sugar - anything goes
simply create too - animals


Hope we see you playing along this week

hugs
Judith x

Some pretty photo inspiration for you

Good morning all

Well after yesterdays fiasco I'm here with a post today (with 2 to catch up on for yesterday!!)   Thank you all for the advice - I still haven't solved my blogger upload problems but I eventually managed to get my images uploaded last night by using my sons Apple mac and the only saving grace of that is as I use dropbox at least I can upload my images then just access them anywhere.  My son was delighted when I took over his desk to upload pictures at half past midnight last night while he went to bed - so as you can imagine thats not happening to often!!

Anyway on with todays challenge

We have a really pretty challenge for you over at Moving Long With the Times this week

Our lovely Pami is hostess and she has given us some gorgeous photo inspiration

Isn't this just so pretty!

And here's my card

My teamie Carole  used this image in a challenge a couple of weeks ago and when I saw it I knew it was perfect for my daughterAlison's 30th birthday next week.  The sugared almond colours are perfect for this image and as she is a girly girl I know she'll love this card.  This picture will be her on Friday night when she has her birthday night out with friends and family at a local club with a fabulous drag queen show - I've been before  its such a laugh - I'll update you on the proceeding after the week end.  Alisons birthday is always the event of the year as not only is it her birthday but also her husband Stevens birthday - and their 4th wedding anniversary this year- you can imagine the fuss we have to make of it all!!!

So the details of this card ....I wanted to keep it fresh but also use lots of embellies and I was quite pleased with the outcome, i bought those sunflower dies at the MFT shop on my trip yjere last Christmas -its the first time i've used them but it won't be the last - what a gorgeous easy flower it makes, and there are several elements on the die for plenty of variety - I still haven't added a "happy birthday" -the jury's out on what and where its going!! - the inside is also decorated to match with  another image and sentiment from stamping bella image - Opal the optimist- which says - "may your glass be always half full" - very appropriate!!- but I've got enough problems with photos at the minute so its wasn't photographed or uploaded - if I get the chance I'll add it later - just for completeness

This is what I did......

Image - from Stamping Bella uptown girls - Victoria and Juliette's night out

Coloured with spectrum noirs and copics

papers - perfect pair from LOTV

Dies - leaf - magnolia, sunflower and heart- MFT, heart pins obsession impression, numbers tim holtz vintage market, butterfly - whimsy stamps

ribbon - carnmeal cottage

lace - WOC

Flatback pearls - Inky Impressions

Sparkly bits! - glamour dust

Challenges I'm entering with this card

Charisma cards - birthday girls
Crafty ribbons - anything goes with ribbon
Divas by design - flowers
Rubys rainbow - happy birthday
ladybugs crafts ink - for a special lady



Hugs
Judith x

Can't upload anything to blogger- has anyone solved this problem??!

Good Morning all

Well it seems my posts  today aren't going to make it - so far! I'm having huge problems trying to upload photographs, I can't even cut and paste -  at time of writing its just not happening!  I've tried IE and chrome but no joy in either.  Fortunately I had uploaded my DT cards to the challenges earlier in the week so at least they're there - but I didn't start to do my posts until last night and in the end I just gave up, tried again this morning and still no joy,   I know of at least one other person who's having this problem so its not just me.

Just called in to say

... any advice/solutions anyone?

and

Its challenge day at

Pennys Papercrafty Challenge

 where the theme is

Buttons and bows

and

Fab'n'Funky Challenges

Where its Boys to Men this week

Hopefully my cards and posts will appear here sometime in the near future!!

for now all I can say is grrr.... 

Time for another Christmas card!

Good morning all

Hope you're all well today- and looking forward to Christmas lol!  

Its time for another challenge at 

Christmas Fun Challenge blog

And the theme this time is 

Anything goes 

(with optional twist of a green Christmas tree)

I decided to go with the easy anything goes option and used a card I made last Christmas that has never been posted - anything for an easy life lol.  I haven't had a lot of spare time lately and the few moments I had this last week I decided to make the most of the good weather and get outside to enjoy it.  

I'm working a few extra hours to get things caught up - before I leave!!  I only have a couple of weeks left after working as a government employee for the last 38 years - a lifetime I'm sure you'll agree.  I've done all kinds of jobs over the years - from payroll to staff training, projects on an NHS specialist team and currently healthcare in the EEC.  I applied for early retirement at the turn of the year and was accepted - so here I am counting down the days, its an odd feeling after all this time - but I'll be glad to go - thats if I get caught up before I go or they might not let me out the door lol.  

So please forgive my absence around here - which will be followed by my holidays - but after that I should have more spare time than I've ever had in my life  and I intend to enjoy filling it with my hobbies and lots of other lovely things I haven't even thought of yet

Anyway back to my card

This is what I did....

Image - 4 Robins from Justinklined available here

Coloured with copics and prismacolor pencils

Mounted on silver mirricard

Ribbon - vintage seambinding from Crafty Ribbons

Crystal embellie - SIC from Prima

Sentiment produced in word

With anything goes as an option there's no reason not to join us - I won't accept any excuses lol - we all need to make Christmas cards and you know you'll thank me for this nine months from now!!

Challenges I'm entering with this card

C.R.A.F.T. challenge - Christmas
Crafty ribbons - anything goes with ribbon

Hugs

Judith x

Things with wings with the Crafty little Fairies

Hi

Its challenge day for the Crafty Little Fairies again - and I'm late again.

I'm not doing very well this week and I'm blaming it on the sunshine (not the boogie)

I normally have some crafty time on my days off but the weather has been so great and we haven't seen the sun for so long - I just had to go out to say hello 

- and that really is the best excuse I've got!

The challenge today is

Things with wings

one of my favourites - birds, bees, butterflies.....and fairies.

I used a really cute little fairy from Lili of the Valley called

Flower Fairy  she is available here 

We have a fabulous sponsor this week

and this is the prize on offer

Well worth the effort of entering this week I'd say!

This card wasn't what I had intended to make for this challenge at all I have to confess!  I got it into my head that I would use some stamps that I've had for years - probably some of the very first I ever bought and make a tag -  But after turning the whole place upside down - I just can't find them.  They are Christmas Flower Fairy stamps from Crafters Companion -so pretty - I expect lots of you have them too.  The strange thing is I've seen them here in the house recently and also an image that I coloured years ago (that was really bad!) - on the bright side I found dozens of things that haven't seen daylight for a long time including some spellbinders dies that had fallen down the back of a drawer and 3 whole sets of  Elizabeth Bell Whiff of Joy mystery stamps that I signed up for - then never used. I did use a couple out of the 4th set lol- and for any of my MAWTT buddies who are reading - I found my pad of vellum papers - better late than never lol.  There's going to be some serious using of old stash going on around here - watch this space!

Anyway enough of my old stash

Here's what I did....

Image -Flower Fairy from LOTV

Coloured with copics and prismacolor pencils

Sentiment - Whiff of joy

Scalloped card - Craftwork Cards

Ribbon and butterfly - from my stash
Glamour dust - for a bit of sparkle!

Hope you can join us this week  see you there!

Challenges I'm entering with this card

Cute card Thursday - girls girls girls
Charisma cards - birthday girls

Hugs

Judith x

Anything Goes at Penny's Papercrafty Challenge this week

Hi again crafty friends

I'm back with my second post of the day (albeit rather late - sorry!)  It's been a lovely bright day today and we've just been making the most of it and believe it or not I've only just got the chance to sit down to write up my post.  Wednesdays are my day for looking after my Grandson Jacob and my DH was also around this afternoon so we just decided to go out for a walk to make the most of the sunshine.  So after a playing with playdough/ironing/catchup with the housework morning we went for a walk along the coast with Jacob and Glenn(our dog).   We walk a lot anyway but its so much nicer on a lovely sunny day.  We stopped off for a coffee and sat at a table outside then after a quick trip to the playground and park arrived back home just in time for Jacob to go home, probably a 5 or 6 mile round trip.  After making chilli and potato wedges for dinner I had a LBT class booked at the gym, then nipped into Tesco for some shopping on the way home had a shower and put my jim jams on and here we are 10:30pm!  - there's a lesson in how to lose a day - but in a nice way and I'm feeling nicely tired so I'll be off to bed after this!!

Anyway back to the real reason for my post

Anything Goes

at

Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge

and here's my card - my favourite easel shape card!

Hannah from Lacy Sunshine available here


a close up of the cute image 

our sponsor this week is the fabulous 

The fab sentiment stamps are the new Anna Griffin chalkboard sentiment stamps -I absolutely love these - they could be appearing on a few more cards around here! - I stamped them with a chalk ink in a kraft type colour to tone - I really like the effect.

Here's what I did..

Image - Hannah by Lacy Sunshine

Coloured with Copics

Papers - Antebellum from LOTV

Sentiments - Chalkboard sentiments from Anna Griffin

Ribbon - Vintage seam binding from Crafty ribbons

Buttons - dovecraft

Butterfly punches - Martha Stewart(large) Papermania(small)

Pearls - Kars

I really expect to see you over at Pennys Papercrafty challenge this week - after all anything goes!

Challenges I'm entering wit this card

Digistamps 4 joy - birthday sentiment
Paper pretties - birthday cards
Digi choosday - all about the girl
Papertake weekly - bingo (middle line)

Away with the faries at The Paper Shelter

Good morning all

I hope the sunshine has arrived where you are and has put you in a good old crafty mood.  We have a brand new challenge at

 The Paper Shelter

 and its a really fun theme - with no doubt as to what we want to see

Its 

Away with the Fairies!

so fairies it is then!!

I've used the cute Faery Emma - I love her she's just so pretty

available at TPS shop here

As always there is a great prize on offer at The Paper Shelter

We also have a 

DT Call 

going on until 20th March - we'd love to have you join us!

check it out over at TPS blog for futher details

Here's what I did ....

Image Faery Emma  from TPS

Coloured with copics and prismacolor pencils

Kraft card - MFT

Paper - Antebellum from LOTV (my favourite of the moment!)

Scalloped oval dies - spellbinders

Border punch and leaf punch - Martha Stewart

Flowers - WOC

Ribbon - from my stash

Tab - MFT

Sentiment -WOJ

Challenges I'm entering with this card

The crafters cafe - flowers
Hobbybookdesigner - Girly
Digi chooseday - all about the girls

Catch the bug - Stella says sketch      

We're having a DT call at The Paper Shelter

Good morning all

Just a quick post from me today with some exciting news

Call in at The Paper Shelter Challenge Blog for full details

I think that says it all really lol - TPS is a fab DT you get all the new release images to work with and your pick of the old ones too with a very generous gift voucher when you start 

- its such a lovely team - please come and join us!

hugs 

Judith xxx

We have the moody Blues at Moving along with the times this week

Good morning all

We have a lovely new challenge
at
Moving along with the Times 

this week and our lovely Debs has chosen a mood board for us 

The inspiration is 

Moody Blues

And this is what I came up with

Using the gorgeous balloon basket from LOTV available here

If there were points for using things from this inspiration board I think I'd score pretty high!
(you've got to blow your own trumpet sometimes lol)

As a start its blue and white which is the main theme running through, but looking at the separate elements of the board I also have flowers (including the tulips on the board), stars, lace and ribbon.  But there are so many other elements that you could draw inspiration from on this board - its also very girly, shoes dresses and a manequin are there and even cups and plates.
I loved this Debs - thanks for the great inspiration.

This is what I did...

Image - balloon basket from LOTV

Coloured with copics and prismacolor pencils

Sentiment - LOTV - vintage sentiments - occasions

Papers - LOTV Bear necessities and petal fresh paper pads

Flowers and lace - WOC

Ribbon - Carnmeal cottage

Distress ink - TH tea dye

Wooden Rocking horse  coated with TH distress paint - picket fence colour

Metal corners- Michaels recollections -coated in TH distress paint - picket fence

Shaped card - craftwork cards

Spellbinders dies  circle and scalloped circle

large pearl on ribbon - Michaels recollections

We'd love you to see you join us at MAWTT this week

 be all mean and moody blue or pretty and girly with us this week

You'll be very welcome!

Challenges I'm entering with this card

4 crafty chicks - shaped cards

Crafty ribbons - Anything goes with ribbon

Crafting with dragonflies - shaped card

Paper pretties - lots of layers

The sisterhood of crafters - one for the boys

Hugs 

Judith xx

Anything but square at Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge

Hello again

I seem to be spending my whole day apologizing for being late! - I haven't even got an excuse for this one - it was scheduled with the wrong date on!  - I wondered where it was!!

Anyway scroll down if you want to see my Heatstroke card for Fab'n'Funky challenges

Todays challenge at

Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge

is 

Anything but Square

I very nearly had a disaster with this one as I made a lovely square CAS card - spot the deliberate mistake lol.....  so I had to chop it up a bit and make it not square and this is how it ended up!

The image is Garden Rabbit from QKR Stampede available here

The DT girls all got a sponsor image to work with and I have to say I really loved colouring this little guy -he's not too cute to be masculine and I just love his expression and his cute dungarees!

Our sponsors over at Pennys this week are

QKR Stampede 

who are offering a prize of 5 digi stamps

and

PennyBlossom

who are offering a prize of $15 gift voucher to spend in store

Here's what I did.....

Image - Garden Rabbit from QKR stampede

Coloured with copics and prismacolor pencils

Papers from a box of A4 papers from years ago - I think they're K and co

Shaped card - Craftwork cards

Flower punchs - EK success and centre - woodware

Leaf punch and butterfly punch - Martha Stewart

Die cut frame for sentiment - Made from MFT carnival ticket die

Ribbon - American crafts

Sentiment - Stampart design by Kathryne

Gems - from my stash

Hope we can tempt you away from your square life - see you over at Penny's!

challenges I'm entering with this card

Crafting for all seasons - spring
Crafting with dragonflies - shaped card
lilredwagon  - Punches
fan-tastic Tuesday - anything goes
Papertake weekly - anything goes

Hugs

Judith x

How about some heatstroke?.....

.....well not literally - Good morning all

Hope things are heating up where you are - its been a whole lot better here for the last week or so. Theres definitely signs of spring in the air - and it makes everything so much better - can't wait until we can go outside with no coat and I can finally put my boots away (though I have to confess that in winter I love my boots - I've got about a dozen pairs - something for all occasions - though this year my full length aviator style Ugg boots are the favourite - so toasty!) 

I'm a bit late with my post this morning mainly because I slept in and haven't caught up with myself yet  But I'm also multi tasking as I write this -l one hand typing this while the other hand is building cars and little men with Duplo - but to my grandson Jacob I'm the champion Duplo builder - so I just have to spread my talents around!!

Anyway back to this challenge 

it's Fab'n'Funky Challenges today

and our lovely Shirley -who is shivering and shaking up there in Canada 

decided she could do with seeing something warm on your cards

So this weeks theme is 

Heatstroke

we want to see something warm and sunny or perhaps something to cool you down in the heat!

Here's my warm and sunny card

using Old Italian Street from Doodle Pantry available here

This weeks sponsors are the fabulous Doodle Pantry 

and one lucky winner will receive 3 images of their choice from their store

Here's what I did....

Image - Old Italian Street from Doodle Pantry

Coloured with Copics and Prisma Colour pencils

Papers - MME 

Kraft card and twine - MFT

Sunflowers - WOC

Ribbon- Carnmeal Cottage

Sentiment tags - LOTV

Sunshine Charm- inky Impressions

Hope we can generate a bit of heat this week!

Tip Top Tuesday - use 3,5 0r 7 things (I used 3 flowers)
Shopping our stash - use 3/2/1 of something (3 flowers/2 tags/1 charm)
Melonheadz friends - bright colours

Hugs 

Judith x