Anything Christmas at Moving along with the Times

Good morning all

I'm hoping that this scheduled post has posted!

I'm away on holiday at the moment and this week is our Christmas present to ourselves - a real treat that I'm so excited about.  We are doing a 4 day 'Very Merry Christmas' cruise on the 'Disney Dream' to the Bahamas - just the best thing ever!!  We won't have any wifi as it's sooo expensive and it's actually lovely to have a break from all social media - a real holiday when we can focus on just having fun together : )

But for now I have a card to share for our challenge at 

Moving Along with the Times

and our theme is 

Anything Christmas

This is another fairly easy card to batch make

simpy cut the shapes and arrange on a circle to create a wreath shape

 - add a few pearls as berries - voila!!

This is what I did.....

Dies - Diesire Christmas accent dies

Sentiment - Diesire - Peace, Goodwill & Joy

Pearls and ribbon from my stash

Hope you'll join in with our challenge

Hugs

Judith xx

A simple star - that means that little bit more to me than just Merry Christmas

Good morning all

Yes I know I'm late today! - and it's probably not morning where you are but here in sunny Florida it's morning -infact with the jetlag thing I've been up for hours, I've had a lot of morning today and i haven't had breakfast yet!!

There's a new challenge over at 

Fab'n'Funky Challenges

Just for fun and very simply

Christmas

I have another of my recyled from last years Christmas cards 'creations' today.  This one just begged to be used again but when I picked it out and looked inside it made me so sad to see that it was from an old friend who passed away just a few weeks ago.  A relatively young man in these days - only in his early 60's but he had been ill with an industrial disease for a lot of years.

So this shining star is for Terry a lovely man

 who I'm sure will be twinkling away somewhere right now xx

Thia is what I did.......

Star with sentiment mounted on silver glitter card was the recycled part of the card

Two tiny gems added 

New mount for card created with silver glitter card 

and a Christmas embossing folder - both from Crafter's Companion

Hope to see your Christmas creations over at Fab'n'Funky this week 

hugs

Judith xx

Christmas cards - with Hunkydorycrafts 4th Little book of Christmas

Hi again

As promised i'm back again today with my second review of the products I received from Hukydory Crafts.  

This time  I've made Christmas cards with
 the 4th Little Book of Christmas
and
the Christmas Perfect Backgrounds Stamping Pad

I also used a variety of dies, ribbons, glitter and gems to embellish.  These pads are very easy to use for either a quick simple card where you could almost just mat and layer the picture  and add a sentiment - or add lots of embellishments and details for a special card

8 x 8 inch square card

6 x 6 inch square card

5 x 7 inch  card

8 x 8 inch square card

 The 4th Little Book of Christmas' 

The first thing I'd like to say about the 'little book' - is its not as small as I had expected - more a 'not so little book'!!   I had expected to be making 6 x6 inch cards with these  - and although you can cut them to various sizes I actually think they are better for bigger cards - as you can see I used them to  make a variety of sizes and styles

I liked that there was 6 of each image, great for bulk making - often a neccesity for Christmas cards, or for anyone who makes to sell.  But also really useful to have multiple sheets to decoupage  the image.

I also liked the variety of images in the pad -  cute, traditional, contemporary and some that had lots of small images that you could cut up to use in smaller projects or as embellishments

The Christmas Perfect Backgrounds Stamping Pad

This is a really good buy not just for the Christmas papers but also for matting and layering.  Each of the 48 sheets is double sided with a pattern on one side and a coordinating plain on the back.  I used these to mat and layer all of the cards above.  Really useful because everything coordinates perfectly.  Again a good selection of designs in a range of colours, typical of many Christmas pads with stars, Christmas trees, snowflakes etc - for me the bonus on this one is that the reverse side matches perfectly for your mats and to make die cut embellishments and with 4 of each design you have plenty to play with!

Adorable Scorable cardstock is definitely Hunky Dory in my book (or box in this case) !

Good morning all

I was asked by the lovely Hunkydory Crafts if I would consider doing a review on some of their products (of my choice) - and of course I said yes.

It's always good to try out new things and in all honesty I haven't used any Hunkydory product before - for no other reason than you simply can't have everything!!  

The first product I really wanted to try was the Adorable Scorable card, I have always thought that it looked extrely good quality when I've seen it being demonstrated, so was interested to see if it lived up to it's promise in real life - I have to say I was not disappointed.  I chose a pack called the Pets and Forest selection available HERE , it has a good range of colours for all occasions.  I used the colours Evergreen and Golden shimmer for the box lid and base and a lovely bright red called Red Robin for the holly berries

 I regularly make boxes for my cards and also enjoy making 3d projects with card.  My pet hate is when the card cracks on the scoreline or sometimes breaks and tears through altogether after bending a few times - when I've spent a lot of time on a compicated construction it's so disappointing, spoils the look of a project and is very annoying!

I decided to make a simple 5 x 5 inch square box

- decorated with die cut holly and a label.

It scored absolutely beautifully, with lovely clean scorelines - no creasing, splitting or tearing

Here are the actual scores of the box base and lid before it was constructed but after I had creased all the lines.  It is a really lovely weight and quality - you can see the sheen on both colours in the photographs - a really nice effect without being overley metallic

It was also very easy to use for die cuts - including the fine cut 'Noel' word on the label

My opinions here are entirely honest - I think the photographs illustrate what I have found.  I definitley would buy this card in the future to use for my boxes and construction work.  There is such a wide range of both solid colours and patterns available.  Check out this fabulous card on the Hunkydory crafts website HERE for details of the full range.

I will be back tomorrow with another review of the Hunkydory 4th Little book of Christmas  and Christmas perfect backgrounds Stamping Pad,

A bit of upcycling with Winter animals

Good morning all

I've been looking for some different (and quick) ways to make some extra Christmas cards this year and remembered that I had saved some of last year's cards that I received to 'do something with' - like you do - then don't - if you know what I mean lol

So I spent a day or two making new cards out of some of the lovely cards I received last year.  I realise now that I should have taken before and fter photos but I can't do much about that now!

Here is one that I made with the challenge at

Moving along with the Times 

 in mind

The theme is 

Winter Animals

The original card was actually just the black and white background with the trees and 'Winter Wishes' sentiment - quite pretty and sparkly but it could have been so much more.....  see below for what I did.....

The challenge at MAWTT still has a week to run so you have plenty of time to enter your Winter Animals cards.  Sorry to Wendy, our lovely host Jackie and my teamies that I'm a week late!  I had a horrible ear infection last week and got totally mixed up about the challenge week - and I got no crafting or blogging done at all - thankfully after antibiotic, hydracortisone and seroid ear drops (7 times a day - there just wasn't enough hours in the day!!)  I'm on the mend

Here's what I did....

I made a frame with black card using Sue Wilson pierced square dies

Mounted that onto champagne coloured satin card

I then cut a new moon and Stag with a Crafters Companion die using a thin gold craft metal that I got from a Create and Craft sale day a few weeks back - I love this it has a fabulous finish

and that - as they say - is that.  It looks so much nicer than the original card and I was quite pleasd with the result -  making a card like this was definitely a bit of a novelty! - I've made a few more now - series to be continued .......

Hope you'll join in with our challenge at MAWTT

hugs

Judith x

When is a Fa La Llama not a Llama?! .......

.......When it's an Alpaca!

He he - good morning all

Did you see what I did there lol

I saw this fab little alpaca image was available from our sponsor this week and just had to have it!

But I really wanted her to be a Llama so I could do my own take on the lovely Llama cards that are around (in fact all over the place!) this Christmas

So forgive me Alice the Alpaca (available HERE)
you have been redisignated as a Llama lol

Sorry about the lighting on this photograph - it's so difficult these dark days to get decent colour and I ran out of time so just had to go with it- it is brighter IRL and she has pink ears and nose and blue eyes - poor Alice - she's really suffering for my art 😉

This card is for our challenge at 

Fab'n'Funky Challenges 

our theme is 

Add an Animal

(so either an animal as the main focus or as part of the general scene - Birthdays, all sorts of ocassions and lots of scope for Christmas here - rudolph, nativity - so bring out all those lovely animal stamps

Our lovely sponsor this week is 

Dr Digis House of Stamps

There are sooo many cute animal digis in the Dr Digi store - pop over and take a look and check out the Fab'n'Funky girls creations on the Fab'n'Funky Challenge blog.  I just love what everyone has done this week with these cute images

This is what I did....

Image - Alice the Alpaca from Dr Digi's house of stamps

Coloured with copics

Papers - an old papermania Christmas collection (sorry lost the cover sheet!)

Die cut hat and scarf from Sara's Cute Christmas (santa suit) at Crafters Companion

Bunting Dies - Whimsey stamps
Letter dies -Dies'ire essentials from Crafter's companion

I hope I've inspired you to join in with our challenge this week - we'd love you to help us fill our Ark!!

Hugs
Judith xx

Boo! - are you too cute to spook - or very grown up Halloween?

Good morning all

Well the day is finally here - well that's what my grandson Jacob thinks anyway.  He's six years old and is totally taken up with the idea of Halloween, dressing up and face painting, trick or treat and everything else that goes with it.  He's had a fun week going to a National Trust Halloween night at the weekend, Apple ducking at Beavers on Monday night and finally..... the big day has arrived lol

My daughter rang me last night because he was so excited to come round to visit tomorrow after school because I told him I might have a special treat (or trick!) for him and his sister.  She was just making sure that I knew about this - to avoid disappointment lol.

Things certainly seem to have gone up a gear in the Halloween celebrations round here,  I passed a full blown graveyard in someones garden when I was walking the dog - really fun and obviously lots of work had gone into it, the painted gravestones with funny verses, bones in a wheelbarrow too!

Anyways ...... our challenge theme this week at

Fab'n'Funky Challenges

and our theme is 

Halloween

and as expected by Jacob I  made a treat bag!

This one is much more 'grown up' than the one I made for his sister Eva - after all she is only 2!!  I used papers to decorate it from a very old pad from from MME - I hope he'll be impressed at how grown up and scary it is! - and filled with treats of course!!  I always put their names on things I make - I think kids love to see their name on a card or box, they like the idea that it's made just for them : )

This is what I did...

Box made from a peice of orange card on my scoreboard

Papers - My Minds Eye - Wicked Merchant Malvado

Label dies - Dienamics

Skeleton 'parts' - Sheena Douglass  day of the dead die

Alphabet dies - Fashion Dies from Crafters Companion

Black twine and sticker spider from my stash

velcro sticky fastener to secure the flap

Hope you'll join in with our challenge this week - can't wait to see what you make!

Challenges I've entered with this card

Disdigis -Creepy or cute 3/11
Digichoosday - anything goes 6/11
Asyoulikeit - favourite autumnal or Halloween colours - orange and black!

Twice in a week - is this the new me!!

Good morning all

Well - can you believe I even made it here twice this week

- things are on the up!!

It's time for a new challenge at 

Winter Wonderland 

where our theme this time is 

Colour it!

( we would like to see coloured images on your card -

no precoloured toppers or just die cut cards)

I used a stamp from Imagination Crafts for this card - part of a set I bought a couple of years back that I don't think are available anymore - which is a shame because I love the simple shabby style of these stamps.  There are six of them each a similar format that are lovely to stamp and decoupage,  Really easy to do and quite effective I think

This is what I did

Stamp - from Imagination crafts - stamped 3 times and coloured and hand cut to decoupage layers

Coloured with Spectrum Noir illustrator pens

Paper from an old Dovecraft Christmas pack

Kraft card and Dark red card to mat and layer

Narrow gold organza ribbon from stash

Tag made with Sizzix scallop Bigz die 

Hope to see you over at Winter Wonderland with your  lovely hand coloured cards

Hugs

Judith x

Who's started their Christmas shopping!

He he

I bet some of you are rolling your eyes and tutting at me right now : )

Yes I've started mine - but only just.  I decided to buy one thing last week that my son had asked for and it sort of snowballed!  I have to confess I've always been an advocate of online and shopping TV shopping.  it's so much easier just to pick up your phone and order something on an app then it gets brought right to the door - no queueing, no parking or trailing round with heavy bags for me.  My hubby says - that looks like a good book - bang its in my trolley at Amazon - no messing!!

That doesn't mean I don't enjoy going to the shops to buy for Christmas - I do but in a lot more relaxed way - because my heavy bags are being dealt with by the postman  I can stroll around the aisles humming along to the Christmas songs

Soo what about the Christmas cards - second qustion - have you started

I know I've lost you altogether by now lol ......

I started with good intentions this year making one a week - that lasted until at least February so I do need to get a wiggle on, I've probably only got about a dozen so that's my next aim.  I don't make all of them - just special ones for family and good friends and any extra's are a bonus. 

I've been struck down by the dreaded lurgy this past few days - a head cold is how I'd best describe it, sore throat, not a lot of voice, light headed, aches and pains a lot of moaning and groaning - and my ears are fizzy!! - if I was a man it would definitely be man flu! When I woke up and opened my eyes on Saturday morning the whole room was spinning, I quickly closed them again and thankfully when I peeked out again it had stopped - definitely can't be doing with that - but I digress...... 

This week our challenge

 at 

Fab'n'Funky Challenges 

is

Christmas

It doesn't have to be a card - anything Christmas will do!

I first made this card a while ago and it was so quick and easy and a great one to use up scraps of card.  I remade a couple more this week to add to the ordinary Christmas card  pile.  It's very simply a small snowflake die cut in different card and colours and a few stars, gems and a bow - add the sentiment and it makes a pretty sparkly card

What I did....

Snowflake die - free with an old Crafter's Companion inspiration magazine

Seasons greetings die - Crafters Companion

Assorted star dies

Silver mirri card

Pale blue glitter card, white card and scraps of coloured card

Silver ink and a small bow ribbon 

and a selection of gems from my stash

3d glue gel to create a dimational wreath

Hope to see you over at Fab'n'Funky this week

Challenges I'm entering with this card

The holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge - anything Christmas goes 5/11
the merry Christmas challenge - anything Christmas 15/11

hugs

Judith 

Good morning all

We have a new challenge starting today at

Fab'n'Funky Challenges

our theme is 

Ribbon or Lace

My daughter asked me to make a wedding card for a friend in a shabby chic style

- always a favourite of mine - I loved ma.king this

the inside

the box

I made this card almost entirely with papers, dies, stamps and embellishments from the Sara Davies Shabby Chic collection from Crafter's Companion.  With the addition of some die cut buttons, distress inks and word dies it went together very easily - and the bride loved it!!

We have a lovely sponsor this week who will provide a voucher to spend instore at 

so you can stock up o  those ribbons and bows!

Hope you'll join in with our challenge this week -I'm looking forward to seeing lots of pretty lace and ribbons 

hugs Judith xx

Something for the man in your life!

Good morning all

Some love them - some hate them

noooo not the man in your life lol

 Cards for men!  

I have to say I quite like making 'man' cards they're a differnt sort of challenge - you have to get in touch with your masculine side and I always find that making a card that relates to the man in question makes it an altogether easier job!

So with that in mind we have a new challenge over at 

Moving Along with the Times

our theme is

For a Man

Here's the card I made

I made this card for a sixties loving man of a certain age!

someone who loves music, The Beatles, 

a sort of groovy baby card -if you know what I mean!!

This is what I did....

Stencil and flower and record/ record player stamps- Sheena Douglass' swinging 60's range

Assorted word and number dies to create the wording

TH distress inks 

Black card - Crafter's Companion

white card - Sheena Stamping card

I love getting messy with inks to create backgrounds, I've been having some fun with my art journal lately doing just that - not quite finished but I'll be back to share soon!

Hope you'll play along with us at MAWTT this week 

Hugs

Judith xx

Green and Orange and Black......

Good morning all

I'm guessing that one way or another we're all facing the change in the season - whatever that means to you depending on where you are in the world!!

To me at themoment it means a little bit colder, windier, darker.... I don't really mind any of those things what I hate most about this time of year is not knowing what to wear!! - it's definotely not summer but it's not cold enough for winter clothes so I end up changing clothers 2 or 3 times a day!

Anyway I digress....

Today's share is a little bonbon box that I intend to fill with Halloween sweets for my granddaghter Eva. At just over 2 years old I think her most favourite thing in the world is chocolate - so it will go down very well!  If i gave her the bag ofsweets I think he'd be just as pleased - I could have probably saved my time - but I'm a proper Grandma so it has to be done properly : )))    Besides these little boxes are so quick and easy to make with just a square of paper.  

I followed the theme of this weeks challenge at 

Fab'n'Funky Challenges 

Green Orange Black

I decorated each side of the box as shown

(I haven't added the sweets yet because I'd eat them - far better for my diet to wait!!)

This is what I did.....

Papers -  Mariposa pad from DCWV to make thebox

          -  halloween pps from MME ( very old pad)

Orange, black and white card

Stamps are a Halloween set from G45

Coloured with SN markers

Alphabet die - Fashion dies from Crafters companion

Flower dies - memory box

Challenges I'm entering with this project

Sasayaki glitter stamps - Halloween/harvest festival - closes end of month

Show us your pussy cats challenge - furry things goes/meowleen closes 5th nov

unicorn challenge - autumn or halloween - closes end of month

Good morning it's been a while!

I'm so happy to be back posting today, I've had a bit of a hard going summer with a huge health scare that has changed me forever and to be honest I'm more than a little bit relieved to get back to a quiet crafty life!

My lovely Fab'n'Funky challenge is back today with a new challenge

It's the anniversary of the birth of St Francis of Assisi today - patron saint of animals

so our challenge in honour of this is

All Creatures Great and Small

(all living creatures - animals, birds, fish, insects.... no fantasy creatures and please remember teddy bears aren't real living creatures, neither are fairies or dragons - I'm sure you catch my drift!)

I thought I'd better get a move on with my Christmas cards as it's not long now! - but that's a whole other blogpost!! So I have a lovely stag centre stage on my card

This is what I did....

Dies

 Dashing Deer - Crafter's Companion Sara's Scandi collection

 Snowflake corners - Wild Rose studios

 Ovals - Tattered lace

Papers - Crafter's Companion traditional Christmas

Dark red card, pearl and ribbon from stash

Hope you'll join in with us this week

did I say I was so happy to be back 😃

biggst of hugs Judith xxxx

Buttons and Bows at Fab'n'Funky this week

Good morning all

There's a new challenge starting over at 

Fab'n'Funky Challenges

our theme is 

Buttons and Bows

another really simple card from me this week using a pretty stamp from Leonie Pujol

I stamped this image  and coloured with Spectrum noir pencils.  The  background/shading was created with Tim Holtz distress inks

This is what i did....

Stamp - by Leonie Pujol for Crafters companion

Coloured with Spectrum noir colourblend pencils

Paperd - from an (old - sorry dont know whih one!) LOTV paper pad

Black card - crafters companion

Label  cut with MFT label die

And some buttons and bows!

Hope you can join in with our challenge this week

hugs

Quick and easy Christmas cards chllenge at Fab'n'Funky

Good morning all

There's a new challenge starting over at 

Fab'n'Funky Challenges

our theme is 

Quick and Easy Christmas Cards

- something we all need t make sometime!

I used a Diesire create a card die from Crafter's Companion

called Winter Wonderland

I made this card in it's simplest form

 - by cutting the die into white cardstock and then mounting onto silver glitter card

A greeting and a quick bow finished it off 

- easy peasy - but so pretty!

Hope you'll join in with our challenge this week

Hugs

Judith xx

Floral cards - everyone's favourite!

Good morning all

It's time for a new challenge at 

Moving along with the Times

Challenge blog

the theme this time is 

June Blooms

I used the new Gemini Stamp and Dies to make this card

Quite a quck and easy card to make with just a few mats and layers 

and the lovely stamp and die make the image easy to work with too

This is what I did....

Image and die - Gemini poppy stamp and die set

Coloured with - Spectrum noir sparkle pens

Backgrounds also created with SN sparkle pens

Stitched circle die - MFT

Black card and gold luxury cardstock from Crafter's Companion

sequins from my stash

hope you'll play along with us this time!

Hugs

Judith xx

Fantasy challenge at Moving along with the Times

Hi all

Well I'm back!

Where have you been I hear you ask lol

Well I've been on an adventure of 4 whole weeks in Florida, and we really did have a fabulous time, we've been home almost a week now - it's taken me until now to recover after a very tiring journey home because we were delayed 2 days when our flight was cancelled.  But I have to say we were very well looked after by the airline, but very late nights and early mornings take their toll on top of jet lag

All this is really just an excuse for my post being late lol - for some reason it was in draft not scheduled as i hadleft it -and I hadn't checked to see if it posted - sorry

Anyway .... there's a new challenge over at 

MAWTT

and the theme is 

Fantasy

I have a cute card that I made for my granddaughter Eva

 - she was 2 years old last week (how did that happen)

Eva loves Elsa from the Disney film Frozen (she calls her Selsa)

So when these dies were on sale a few weeks ago I thought they would make the perfect card for her

My favourite sort of Fantasy - a Disney film

This is what I did....

Frozen Dies and embossing folder from Create and Craft
Happy birthday die - tattered lace
Letters and number - Fashion dies from Crafters Companion
Card and acetate from my stash

Hope you can join in with our challenge - it's pure fantasy!

hugs
Judith xx

Christmas challenge at Fab'n'Funky Challenges

Good morning all

We have a new just for fun challenge at

Fab'n'Funky Challenges

and its our once a month theme of 

Christmas 

(we're trying hard to encourage good Christmas crafting habits!!)

This is a really quick and easy card - the sort you often need as Christmas sets you into a mad panic of last minute card making!  - but we don't want you to do that lol

This is what I did

Die cut Merry Christmas - Sara's Traditional Christmas rangefrom Crafter's Companion

Paper and snowflake stamp also from Sara's traditional range 

and the music paper  is made with a stamp from Crafty Individuals

Distress ink - TH brushed corduroy

It would be great to see you playing along - anything Christmas will do!

Hugs

Judith