My lovely followers

Friday 29 July 2016

Gold, silver and embossing at Winter Wonderland


Good morning all

I'm a bit late this morning - got up a bit late , had to take my dog for his hydro session drop my grandson off (he'd been staying over last night) and its taken me until now to catch up!!

We have a fab new challenge starting over at 

Winter Wonderland

We have a choice of themes

either 

Use an embossed background
or
Show us your gold and silver

being a do it all girl I had to do both!!

I have used dry embossing to create my backgrounds 
and used gold gilding wax for that finishing touch

The fab image on the tag is from one of our sponsors
called Christmas Bulbs from A Day for Daisies available HERE
I just love this image - so versatile - I have more plans for him!!


We have some fab sponsors this week so lots of prizes

offering a prize of an £8 voucher to spend in store


offering a $12 voucher to spend in store


offering a £10 voucher to spend in store

What are you waiting for - come and join in

This is what I did

Image - Christmas bulbs from a day fro daisies
Coloured with Crafters Companion spectrum noir pens
Bulbs are coated in for exrra shine
Sleigh die - mariannes
Stockings dies and stamps and stamps on tag and  button die  - MFT
Embossing folders - textures snow and vintage Christmas text from Crafter's Companion
TH distress inks - black, gathered twigs and festive berries
Snowflake die - not a clue!!
Pearl brad coloured red with a spectrum noir pen 
Black card and neenah desert storm card - Crafter's Companion

I actually loved making this card - unfortunately my mojo has left me since I made it last week - so I'm off to my craft room to hunt for it and make some more christmas cards!!

have a great weekend

hugs
Judith x




Wednesday 27 July 2016

Summer break is here - so anything goes!!

Good morning all

Its challenge time again at 

The Paper Shelter

It's our summer break for the next two weeks and the challenge will be running for two weeks instead of one - with the theme

Anything Goes

I decided to do something a bit different to my usual card - using two png images and merging to make this card, then fussy cutting the image of the girl and mounting again with 3D gel
 the images used are


as usual there's a great prize up for grabs

This is what I did....

Images - pre coloured images png files Mad about Shoes and Vintage Closet
Background paper is the paper for Vintage closet
Kraft card - Crafters companion
Pierced noble square dies - Sue Wilson for creative Expressions
Happy Birthday die - Tattered Lace
birdcage and manequin di - Kimono from crafters companion
Butterfly dies - flutterby from Sara Davies Butterfly Lullaby collection
Flower and vine dies - from Leonie Pujol's entwined funky heart die
Butterflies and vines/flowers coloured with spectrum noir pens
Distress inking - TH rusty hinge and tattered rose
Gilding wax on dies - pebeo copper 

Hope we see you playing along for our Anything Goes challenge - what are you waiting for! - I'll see you there!

Hugs
Judith x


Friday 22 July 2016

Another sneaky little Christmas card!


Good morning all

It's challenge day for me again at 

Winter Wonderland
(another chance to make another card for the Christmas pile!)

our theme this week is 

Punches and Dies
or 
add a charm
- always an easy one

using Well wrapped up from The Paper Shelter
available here


We are being sponsored this week by 


a real favourite of mine 
(I've been on the DT for years!!)

The thing I like best about the images you get at TPS is that there are always line drawings, coloured versions and matching papers for each image and that gives you great choice when it comes to making projects.
For my card I decided to take the quick and easy option and use the precoloured image and matching paper to layer up, I fussy cut around the image and went around the image and the paper edges with gathered twigs DI then I mounted her with 3d glue gel, added some die cuts to embellish and a liberal slathering (don't you just love that word!!) of glitter jewels over the dies - and voila a quick and easy card!!  There are a certain number of images from TPS that really work well for this method and the image just stands out so well on the card, I really like the effect.

This is what I did....

Image and papers - well wrapped up from TPS
Dies snowflake border - memory box
        tree - mariannes
        winter words - by tim holtz for sizzix 
Glitter jewels  from creative expressions
Distress ink - gathered twigs from Tim Holtz

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

Hugs
Judith


Thursday 21 July 2016

Boo! - there's a monster watching!!


We have a really fun challenge starting at

Moving along with the times

- we want to see

Monsters and /or Aliens

for me this was just the perfect excuse to make a cute kids card with one of the lovely birthday monster Stamps over at the Digistamp Boutique (available here)

Cute birthday cards are always in demand by my grandson Jacob who at 4  is at that age when every other week there's a birthday party!!

I always add the name of the birthday boy or girl and my cards go down a treat!


So the space at the bottom right will have a name on when it gets given
(to a child with a short name in the case of this card!!)

This is what I did ....

Image and sentiment- birthday monsters from the digistamp boutique
Coloured with Crafters companion spectrum noir markers
Paper is from an unnamed pad in my stash!
Button die - MFT blueprints 16
Bunting - whiff of joy banner dies
Letters - spellbinders sapphire alphabet strip
Card - American crafts and asortment of bright scraps

Wednesday 20 July 2016

We're playing tic tac toe over at Fab'n'Funky this week

Hi all

It's an easy peasy theme this week
 at 

Fab'n'Funky Challenges 

We have a theme to follow 

- our lovely Pat put together a grid and did a great job!!

TIC, TAC, TOE


Pearls
Tag
Ribbon
Die-Cut
Digi Image
Flowers
Lace
3 Designer Papers
Charm

Any line across, down or diagonal
(please say which line you use)
We have a fabulous sponsor for you this week with a great prize for the winner:
 

I used a cute image provided by doodle pantry

this is Noah's Ark - available here
I thought it would make a lovely card for a baby
and I used the line - peals tag ribbon



This is what I did....

Image -Noah's ark from Doodle Pantry
Coloured with spectrum aqua peens and spectrum Sparkle pens
Papers - Bear necessities from LOTV
Die cut borders - Spellbinders
Tag - Crafters companion
Circle dies - Tattered lace
Pearls - colored to match with spectrum noir pens
hessian ribbon - Michaels 
Distress ink - TH gathered twigs
Christening day die - Die'sire essentials words dies

hope you'll play along with us this week

Hugs
Judith xx 


Friday 15 July 2016

The Grad!

Good morning all

Here's a quick fun share from me today - might even be useful inspiration for those of you with kids finishing off school for the year who need to make a teachers card.

My grandson Jacob (age 4!) has graduated!!!
No he' not a mini genius - it's just what they do at nursery school now (apparently)

Here he is in all his regalia - I think he looks like a miget Harry Potter lol


They had a mini graduation ceremony and by all accounts he thoroughly enjoyed it - don't think he know's quite what's in store at school though, because he told me after his visit last week that he was a bit disappointed that they had was nothing to make robots with!! - his current obsession

Anyway he loves to craft with Grandma - he says
 "I call Grandma's craft room - Jacob and Grandma's craftroom"!!
and his favourite thing to do is help with die cutting with my little Diamond Press die cutting machine from Crafter's Companion.  He loves to turn the handle then wait for the reveal when the card pops out of the die.  So for his thank you card for his nursery nurse he wanted to make a flower card.
So with a little help from Grandma this is what we made!


Jacob wanted a flower card with stars and chose the papers himself,  cut the shapes out with the diamond press with a little help, then he wrote out his little tag all by himself - a real budding craft genius I'd say.  We used the little hexagon shape and a stamp that came free with the last Crafter's Companion inspiration magazine, made a flower shape and stuck it all together -he was as happy as can be. Obviously at 4 he couldn't do it by himself (even though he's a genius lol) - but an older child could have a good go at making this card with die cut hexagons I'd say

Here he is in action a few weeks ago making a gift box for Mammy with punched flowers!



This is what Jacob and Grandma did....

Papers - my minds eye 
Kraft card - Crafter's Companion
Hexigon shape and thank you stamp from crafters inspiration magazine
Leaf shape die - MFT blueprints 14
tag shape dies - MFT
Star shape = Crafter's Companion essentials die

Wishing all you mums and Dads with kid's breaking up from school the very best of luck for the next six weeks - fingers crossed for good weather and well behaved kids lol

Hugs 

Judith x


Wednesday 13 July 2016

Summer holidays are here - The Paper Shelter says so!!

Good morning all

It's time for another challenge at 

The Paper Shelter

and we have a topical theme this week

Holiday Time!

hands up - who's seen the sun this week!!
(well it's sort of behind the clouds!!)

My card perhaps reflects the sort of summer we've been having off and on
a bit grungy at times with the hope of something better to come

this cute image is called 
Where're we goin' available here


This is probably my favourite style of card to make - though I don't do it very often, it doesn't suit every image and I need to have some inspiration to do it.  This week my inspiration came very firmly from Sheena Douglass when she was demonstrating her new Christmas stamps on TV.  I made the background paper and then the topper with the image on from stamps and TH distress ink and I really loved doing it!  this card isn't so much mixed media as mixed medium.  I used distress inks, Spectrum noir pens and blendable pencils, watercolour pencils and sparkle pens (for the flowers) - I had pens and pencils and inks all over the place by the time I was finished lol

Here's what i did

Image - where're we goin from TPS
Coloured with Spectrum noir pens and belendable pencils
Flowers - Sheena Douglass -A little bit sketchy -a new leaf  stamps
- coloured with Spectum aqua pencils and sparkle pen
Background created with TH DI  - faded jeans, spun sugar, abandoned coral and tea dye
Stamps - Be Bunny icons  and LOTV corner stamps
Dies used - Creative expressions noble pierced square dies, Sara's signature swirl die from the country garden collection at Crafters companion,  and Memory box Eiffel tower die
LOTV - tag stamps
Kraft card from Crafter's Companion
Film strip from TH idea- ology 
other embellies from my stash

Hope you'll play along with us this week
As always we have a fab prize on offer


See you there!

hugs Judith x




Friday 8 July 2016

.... And it's Christmas again on my blog!!


Good morning all

Well here I am with yet another Christmas card!
but this time i have a good reason - its challenge day again at Winter Wonderland
/this time our theme is either

Add a Christmas tree
or
Make it Cute

I think mine may possibly qualify for both!
 - it is a very cute little Christmas tree!!


I'm doing a little cheat with this one as it was actually made for my Crafter's Companion DT work for this weeks launch of the Christmas events on the Hochanda TV channel.  I had a whole batch of cards to make and it sort of gave me a bit of a kick start back to crafting, as I've really struggled lately.  I was just helping out with the Die'sire team who were a bit short on DT that week - as I'm on the Spectrum noir team.  I enjoyed the challenge with all the lovely dies,but colouring is definitely still my first love.  - thereagain - how can you not love a cute little die like this - fab for batch making at Christmas - I think I'll be rattling a few of these ones off - as well as the super cute snowman (that unfortunately I haven't got - but it's definitely going in my shopping basket!!

Anyway I digress - we have some fab sponsors this week at 

Winter Wonderland

Di's Digi's 
who are offering a prize of 2 digi stamps fro the winner

Di's Digi Downloads
and the Craft Barn
Who are offering a £10 prize to spend instore
The Craft Barn


Here's what I did 

Die cut tree - Crafter's Companion Die'sire Edge'ables Decorated tree die
Star die - Diesire essentials star die
Crafter's Companion centural peal white card and old gold card
Crafter's Companion Black card
Core'dnations red card
Black seambinding ribbon from Crafty Ribbons

Hope you can play along with us this week

Hugs

Judith xx


Thursday 7 July 2016

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

Wednesday 6 July 2016

Use two or more designer papers at Fab'n'Funky Challenges


Good morning all

I've managed to get my crafting and blogging head back on a bit this last week - still haven't quite picked up my my visiting, but it's an improvement - tank you to everyone who has been sticking with me - I really do appreciate it

We have a new challenge kicking off at 

(see how I got that football reference he he)

and our theme this eek chosen by our lovey Alison is

Use two or more designer papers

I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to add to my Christmas card stash - every little helps!!

I used an image from our sponsor called
Peace on Earth - angel kisses collection available HERE




There is so much Christmas crafting going on at the moment - I'm in full Christmas crafting mode and that helps with the motivation I think - because I loooooove Christmas lol

our sponsor this week is the lovely Lacy Sunshine
offering a great prize of 3 images of the winners choice


This is what I did 

Image - Peace on Earth from Lacy Sunshine
Coloured with Spectrum Noir pens and Spectrum Noir clear sparkle pen
colours skin TN1, FS7, 3, PP2,3  hair GB1, TN2.3  clothes/wings BGR1 GB1.6.7 
holly DG2,4 CR8, shade BGR1, 
Papers from Firsy edition - guided Christmas and Vintage noel pads
Kraft card from Crafter's Companion
Poinsettia die  - Sheena Douglass perfect partners
Ivy die - Sheena Douglass perfect partners
Letters cut from die'sire essenials only words dies
distress inks - TH Wild honey, teadye and gathered twigs, shabby shutters
distress glitter - stickles shabby shutters
Hope you can join in with us at Fab'n'Funky this week - we'd love to see all your lovely designer papers

hugs

Judith x



Sunday 3 July 2016

Don't you just love it when a card in your head comes together on the page!

Hi all

 My daughter asked me to make a card to give to her friend's baby girl who has reached the mile stone one year old!!

I bought some dies a few weeks ago from the lovely Appleblossom when they were on hochanda - I got these and a couple of other sets and I'm just so in love with them, these are from a set called 

A day at the zoo 


I was asked to help out with the Die'sire DT this week with some of the samples for the new Christmas launches (watch this space! - they're fab!!) I think the die cutting gave me a bit of inspiration away from my usual colouring - I really enjoyed the experience. Anyone who hasn't tried creating with die cuts- you really need to give it a go - it's really a totally different experience in crafting - and far from the easy option - all that measuring, precision and sticking without getting the glue all over lol - quite a challenge 

and it's decorated inside too





I used several sets of die dies to create this card
This is what I did....

!0inch x 7 inch card
Card for die cutting - American crafts and Crafters companion centura pearl (plain white side)

Outer card
Animal dies - a day at the zoo from the appleblossom die collection at Craftstash
Happy birthday die - Sue wilson dies from creative expressions
Stitched banner dies - Justrite dies A2 stitched banners and rectangles
Cicrle dies - spellbinders
Stitched circle die - Mamma Elephant
Number 1 - Tim Holtz vintage market dies from sizzix
Papers - 12x12 vintage market papers
twine from my stash

Inside 
cross stitched rectangle - Mamma Elephant
Happy birthday die - Tattered lace
Balloon punch - Martha Stewart
Letters - Tim Holtz vintage market from Sizzix

There is also a 'Baby Card'  challenge still going on at Moving Along with the times Challenge blog
Pop over there and show us your baby cards!

Challenges entered

Allsorts - gingham

Hugs 
Judith x