Hip hooray for birthday week!

Good morning all

Well I finally got myself organised again - it's taken a week to get back on track

One of my best friends had a special birthday last weekend so I had to get my act together to make her a special card - which also fit perfectly for this weeks challenge at 

Fab'n'Funky Challenges 

our theme is 

Birthdays

I just loved the new Delightful Daffodil collection from Heartfelt creations and decided to treat myself because for one I just love spring flowers and  I also knew it would be perfect for thespecial  birthdays I had coming up plus Mothers Day and Easter cards - and much more besides.  ! know I will use this collection a lot

This is what i did 

I went for the easy option with this card and simply die cut the preprinted pages from the delighful daffodil collection

Arches - Heartfelt creations elegant gateway die

Number dies - John nextdoor advent calendar collection

Hope you can join in with our challenge this week

after all everyone loves a birthday

Hugs Judith xx

That is definitely the week that was - and I never want to see it again!!

Hi all

Well that was the week that was! - or wasn't in our case : (((

Our house was visited by the dreaded and awful Covid 19 last week.  

Goodness knows how or where my husband got got infected - but he did

We don't go out except to walk the dogs, have our shopping delivered and are extraordinarily careful - yet still my husband tested positive almost 2 weeks ago now.  Thankfully he wasn't too ill- but it was bad enough.   Thankfully neither myself nor my son got it - again goodness knows how, not so much after the test came back but don't know how we avoided it in the days before he knew

We all self isolated, my hubby in the bedroom with ensuite where I provided a meals service - I will be billing him the £1750 which seems to be the rate set by the government at a later date : )))

I made camp in the spare room and used the family bathroom and spent my days in the kitche n and conservatory with our two puppies.  My son who is disabled and has support workers daily holed up in his room which has it's own bathroom and kitchen. We did exactly as we were told to do and we all came out intact.  I don't ever want a week and a half like that again, I was exhausted at the end of every day.  It was lovely to have the puppies for company but no joke having a 6 month old cocker spaniel who needs lots of daily exercise and a 10 week old Cavalier King Charles not yet house trained and all it did was rain! - they and I  spent the week covered in mud and I spent more ours than I can count freezing in the back garden - that and cooking, cleaning and running around after everone else - with my mask on -in my own home !!

But I'm thankful we are all fit and well, the stress and worry of the situation was enough let alone the horrible illness.  So I join with those who say

Stay safe, stay home

Believe me it's an awful experience

I didn't get time to post my card for Fab'n'Funky challenges last week and the challenge ends today

The theme is an easy one

Anything goes

chosen by our lovely N-Eva

I  had made this card for my husband's birthday just the weekend before all of this happened.

I had treat myself to the lovely Young at Heart collection from Heartfelt Creations when it was on offer around Christmas.  A collection I always wished I had bought first time round - even better as a bargain second time around!

This is what I did

8x8 inch card

Papers all from the young at heart paperpad

Die cut sentiment words - Crafters Companion

Black card

It was a quick, easy masculine card that looked great on our mantlepiece!  

Hurry along to Fab'n'Funky to enter this week - it closes tonight

and here are the puppies

Bruno and Hamilton

believe me they are far far more trouble than they look lol

Hugs Judith xx

June blooms at Fab'n'Funky Challenges

Good morning all

There's a new challenge starting today over at 

Fab'n'Funky Challenges

the theme is 

June Blooms

as it happens my Mother asked me to make a card for a friend who was 80 just last week and although I haven't done much crafting lately I set to and used the lovely Lush Lilac collection from Heartfelt Creations to make this card.  I really love that these sets allow you to make a really professional looking card with all the elements matching

I made my favourite easel style with a box to match - I think it went down very well with the lady concerned 

The only elements that weren't from the Heartfelt Creations Lush Lilac collection were the circle dies for the easel stopper and the 80 which were cut from a Tim Holtz alphabet strip die

Hope you'll join in with our challenge this week at Fab'n'Funky

hugs

Judith xx

Fantasy figures challenge

Hi all

Well guess what! - Christmas is still going on around here lol

We have a new challenge starting at 

Fab'n'Funky Challenges

and our theme is 

Fantasy Figures

so what better than a Christmas Fairy!

Still on my 'use up my stash' thing

I had a look through my old Lili of the Valley stamps and found this lovely little Christmas fairy and the sentiment stamp - so I was in business! 

I have to confess I did treat myself to the new Lisa Horton stitched flower dies - oops!!

This is what  I did.....

Image and sentiment stamps - LOTV

Coloured with Copics, and Prismacolour pencils

Crafters companion sparkle pen and sticklesto add sparkle

paper- Heartfelt Creations Oh holy night paper pad

Christmas tree die - from Mariannes

Snowflake die - Frost borrder from Memory box

Flower and leaf die - stitched flowers by Lisa Horton from Creative Expressions

Hope you'll join in with ou challenge this week - Christmas card anyone!

Hugs

Judith xx

I think we could all do with some spring flowers.......

Good morning all

I hope you've all survived the 'beast from the east'!

last week was certainly a weird one but I'm glad to report that our snow had disappeared.

we've had a lot of rain to wash it away and now we have a lot of water instead! 

Roll on those spring days and spring flowers and sunshine

I don't think I hate anything as much as the cold winter days

I'm sharing a card I've made for Mother's Day

using the lovely new Lush Lilac collection from Heartfelt Creations

The new challenge is starting today at

Fab'n'Funky Challenges 

and our theme is 

Mother's Day

I'm sure there's a lot of Mother's Day cards around this week - so i expect to see you all there!!

I'll be visiting later today - I'm off to the gym this morning

See you soon
xx

How's this for a bit of colour!

Hi all

I hope everyone is safe and warm in this (horrible) weather we've been having!

i'll be glad to get back to normal next week with some rain 😄

I have a quick share with the lovely Singing in the Rain collection from Heartfelt Creations.

This is for the new challenge at

Moving Along wth the Times

the theme is 

Rainbows

I decided to make a colourful Mother's Day card - working ahead of time for a change!  To be honest I'm still not sure that I like it! -I don't use such bright colours that often, I'm hoping it'll grow on me - maybe I need to embrace the change lol. 

This is what I did....

Papers, stamps and dies - Singing in the Rain collection from Heartfelt Creations
'Happy Mothers Day' die -by Sue Wilson for Creative Expressions
Stamps coloured with Distress Oxides, Spectrum noir sparkle pens and SN pencils
Ribbon from my stash

hope you'll play along with us

Hugs

Judith xx

Christmas is on the way so Poinsettias are the flower of the day!!

Good morning all

Ok - who's getting ready for Christmas lol!

In the craft world it probably starts inabout July - but if you want to make your own Christmas cards with lots of time to spare for this Christmas - you should start .... last month

At Winter Wonderland Challenge we encourage you to make cards all year round and we have a lovely new challenge starting today.  It's a special rememberence of our lovely Eileen who was our previous DT leader. She sadly passed away very unexpectedly this time last year.  So this challenge is just a little tribute from the team to a lovely lady. 

our theme is 

Anything Christmas Goes

our fabulous sponsors provided the team with some lovely images

and I just had to choose this lovely image

called Poinsettia available HERE

I printed it out 4 times and coloured it up with my Spectrum Noir pens trying to add a bit of realism with touches of red and green.  Then I fussy cut and embossed 3 of them  them using the basic flower shaping mold from Heartfelt Creations to give it dimension.  I really like how it turned out - I particularly like that the image isn't symetrical because it makes it look more realistic, that isn't the norm for me because generally I'm a pretty symetrical girl!

I wasn't 100% sure whether i liked this card totally white - so i cut two frames for it - this is the other version - what do you think? - black or white?
(yes the first one's a better photo lol)

Our sponsor for this challenge is

who are offering a  $10 coupon to spend in their store

This is what I did 

Image - Poinsettia from Imagine That

Printed onto copy paper

Coloured with  - Spectrum Noir pens from Crafter's Companion

Card - Sheena Stamping card and black card from Crafter's Companion

Embossing folder - poinsettia folder by Sue Wilson for Creative Expressions

Die cut (part of) Holly Latice frame also by Sue Wilson for Creative Expresions

Sparkler embellishment from Creative Expressions

Hope you'll join in with us this week at Winter Wonderland

hugs 

Judith x

Happy New Year and a New Flowers challenge at MAWTT

Good morning all

A belated Happy New Year from me!

it hasn't got off to a good start so far - I've had an ear infection since New Years Eve

 - so I'm feeling a bit of a misery at the moment!

But it's not all bad- New Year - New Start and all that and I'm feeling positive : )

It's time for our first challenge of the year over at

Moving along with the Times

and our theme for this challenge is

Flowers

Always one of my favourite themes - a card for every occasion- and I have loads of flower dies!!

I made this card for my Mother in law's birthday - she was 89 years young on Boxing Day so definitely a special card was called for!

I used the Poppy Collection from Heartfelt Creations to make this card - so pretty and as with all the Heartfelt collections everything goes together so easily to make a card.

I also used the new basic floral shaping mold  from heartfelt (the ones that came out just before Christmas)  - this is a fab tool - you could use it with most die cut flowers to give some depth and dimension to your flowers without the time and effort that most flower shaping tools take - i love it!

and the inside also matches

This is what I did......

Papers, dies and stamps from the Heartfelt Poppy collection

Flowers shaped with the new Heartfelt floral basics shaping mold

Poppy and leaves coloured with distress inks

MAM- cut with Tim Holtz alphabet dies from Sizzix 

8x8 inch card 

Sentiment stamp inside from Anna Griffin

Hope you can play along with us this time
over at the Moving along with the Times Challenge blog

see you soon

Judith xx

Fantasy at Fab'n'Funky Challenges

Good morning all

We have a lovely new challenge for you at 

Fab'n'Funky Challenges

The theme this week is

Fantasy 

(fairies, magical creatures etc)

I chose to colour one of my favourite fairies

She is from the flights of Fantasy CD from Morgan Fittzsimmons

I coloured her with my Spectrum Noir colourblend pencils

to coordinate with the lovely Heartfelt creations papers

Heres what I did 

Image - Digi from MorganFitzsimmons flights of fantasy cd from Crafters Companion

Coloured with Spectrum noir colourblend pencils

Papers and flower/ butterfly dies - Heartfelt creations Butterfly medley

With love and daughter sentiment - Diesire essentials words die from Crafters companion

No designer papers at Moving along with the times

Good morning all

It's time for another challenge at 

Moving along with the times challenge blog

it's not my week but I had a card to blog so gatecrashed with the other team! (Hi girls!!)

The theme this week is 

No designer papers

Hosted by our lovely Janice 

I made this card a while ago so decided it needed an outing before I forgot about it altogether

This is what I did

Image and sentiment - Balloon and Bicycle stamp from Heartfelt creations

Flowers - Sheila Douglass a new laef stamp - from a little bit sketchy range

Coloured with Spectrum noir sparkle pens from the vintage hues set
colours - sage, fig, peacock sanddune poenyand hearthside

Card - Cored'nations from Crafters Companion

Hope we see you playing along this week 

Hugs

Judith x

Everyone's favourite - male birthday card!!

Good morning all

It's challenge day again at 

Fab'n'Funky Challenges

and our lovely Alison is hosting this week

She has chosen the theme 

Male Birthdays

now I know a lot of people dont like making male cards

- but it suits me fine - I love making male cards

especially when it's with the fabulous images from 

Dr Digi's house of Stamps - this one is called a Dunderton Abroad 

and is available HERE

I just love these stamps

 - they are fabulous to colour -

 and there are some great male images

Our sponsor this week is 

and there is a prize of 2 digis for this weeks winner

This is what I did....

Image - A Dunderton Abroad

Coloured with Spectrum Noir pens and pencils

Sentiment and suitcase stamp and die - Heartfelt Creations

Papers - Neroli by First Edition

Distressinks - Tea die and Walnut stain

Black card - Crafters Companion

Hope you'll join in with our challenge this week

Challenges I'm entering with this card

Tuesday Throwdown - layer it up
Through the craftroom door - anything goes
Little miss muffet challenge - Anything goes

hugs 

Judith xx

Something news going on at Winter Wonderland!

Good morning all

Sorry I'm a bit late with my post today 

- shall I just say we've been having utility problems and leave it at that : / - electricity and water are not easily done without lol.

It's time for a new challenge over at

Winter Wonderland

and the theme for this week is

Something New

I decided to make a new baby card as a friend of mine just had a new baby girl 

I used a cute image from our sponsor this week

called A Gift from the Stars its available HERE

I used my fab Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens together with Spectrum Noir markers to colour this cute image.  I tried my very best to show the sparkle in the photo - and think I succeeded!  It looks totally glittery - but it is much more subtle in real life.  I just sort of directed my craft lamp onto it and that pink certainly shines - the sparkle was also used on the leaves and stars as but think the light just really hit that pink lol.

Our sponsors this week at winter wonderland are

A day for daisies

who are offering a $12 gift card

and

Crafts you love

who are offering a £10 gift voucher

So this is what I did ....

Image - A gift from the stars - from A day for daisies

Coloured with - Spectrum Noir markers and Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens

Colours

       Sparkle pens  - moonlight,soft jade,rose quartz

       Spectrum noir markers -  LG1,LY1,PP1,PP2,BG3,FS5,FS2

Papers - First edition baby girl

Distress ink for sky - TH tumbled glass applied with ink duster from Inkylicious

Sentiment tag - LOTV baby clear stamps set

Embossed heart - cut out from Crafters Companion Love and Romance range In Love 6x6 embossing folder

Tree die - Heartfelt Creations Sugar hollow hangout die

Cut with Centura pearl card and coloured with Spectrum noir sparkle pen soft jade

Square dies - stitched square die Memory Box, Sue Wilson noble square die

Ribbon from my stash

Thank you for visiting today - hope you'll join in with our challenge this week

Challenges I'm entering with this card

A day for daisies - stitch it up (faux stitching around image)

Crafty catz - girls only 

Really reasonable ribbon - pink with ribbon or trim

The stamping boutique - punches and dies

hugs Judith x

Penny Black and more challenge GDT spot - Die cuts

Good morning all

I was really delighted to have my card chosen in the challenge over at 

Penny Black and more

to be GDT in this months challenge

The theme is

Use die cuts

(remember you must use a penny black stamp)

here's what I came up with

using this lovely floral from Penny Black

it's called Botanical Notes (40-276)

I just love the floral stamps at Penny Black - and this one is especially gorgeous!

This is another lovely big 8x8 inch cards - I love working with this size

Here's what I did....

Stamp - Botanical notes from Penny Black

Coloured with copics and Spectrum Noir pencils

Papers - LOTV Bear essentials

Card - MFT

Sentiment stamp - Heartfelt creations

Corner dies - both from memory box and quite old now - Macarena corner and Bow flourish

Labels - MFT - labels and stitched labels dies

Pearls and butterfly from my stash

Gold shimmer gilding wax on and around image

Thank you to the DT at Penny Black and more for choosing me - I really enjoyed making this card

Challenges I'm entering with this card

Penny black Saturday challenge - trees or nature (M)
Addicted to stamps - Flowers
Fashionable stamping - things with wings
Stamping sensations - Flower power(M)
Great impressions - celebrate spring (M)

Hugs

Judith xx

From one brother to another!

Good morning all

I hope you are all enjoying some sunshine where you live - it's been just lovely here this last few days (after the very wet, cold windy fiasco of Good Friday)  We had a lovely walk right over the hills with the dog yesterday then ate lunch outside at a little cafe in the village on the way back - it's just amazing what a little sunshine can do to cheer you up!

I hope our challenge at

 Fab'n'Funky Challenges

 will also cheer you up! 

Here's my card using Summer holiday from Dr Digis house of stamps

A close up of the sentiment tag

"What you do today is important

Because you are exchanging a day of your life for it"

My youngest son Tom asked me to make a card for him to give to his brother Matthew - it's actually his birthday next week but we are celebrating it today as he is going back up to Edinburgh today where he moved last year.  It's been lovely to see him over the Easter holidays  and he's enjoyed having his washing, ironing and cooking done for him while he's been home!!!  He starts a new job next Monday and has to go off on a training course in Nottingham so he's flying down there on Sunday evening- he doesn't half get himself about!! - so this card sort of suits him at the moment - always off somewhere -He just came back from Berlin last week where he went to do the Berlin half marathon and have his annual reunion with his housemates from Uni.  It was his first big run and he really enjoyed it, He raised about £200 in sponsor money for SCOPE (his brother Tom has Cerebral palsy, so it is a charity close to his heart)  -and had a great experience running through the streets of Berlin.

Anyway - back to the challenge!

Our sponsor this week is 

Dr Digi's house of stamps 

 

and here is our bingo grid for this weeks challenge

"Bingo"

Use Kraft	Shaped card	Stitches(real/faux)
Sentiment	Digital Image	Die cuts
Punches	Flowers	Charm

I used the middle row for my card

This is what I did....

Image - summer holiday from dr digis house of stamps 

Happy birthday to you sentiment - dr digis house of stamps birthday sentiment set

Coloured with copics

Papers - K & co
Card Bazzill basics

Dies

3D Suitcase made with with matching stamp, die and labels, from Heartfelt creations luggage and tags stamp and dies sets, stamped onto paper from LOTV Father knows best paper pad and distresse with TH teadye DI

Frame - Anna Griffin

Circles - spellbinders

Stars - from MFT blueprints set

Sentiment on label - Tim Holtz for stampers anonymous

Swirls printed on labels with TH teadye distress ink also from the same set

Number one brother sentiment - LOTV

Twine - MFT

black pearls from my stash

Stenciled clock in the background -  creative expessions stencil with TH tea dye DI

I do hope you'll join in with our fun challenge this week

Challenges i'm entering with this card

Whimsy Stamps - use a die cut
Fantastic Tuesday - use a diecut

Hugs

Judith x