We have a 'Kraft-y' challenge at Fab'n'Funky this week!

Good morning all

Hope everyone is fit and well and getting trhrough these strange times

 - I'm doing ok, but do I need to say more than a  a bit fed up!!

But there's no point in moaning on - so on with the show !!!

We have a new challenge at 

Fab'n'Funky Challenges

set this week by our lovely Chris

our theme is 

Use Kraft

a friend asked me to make a card for her mother - there are so few nice cards in the supermarkets to choose from, I was happy to help out!  It was a bit last minute so it's a fairly quick and easy make based on a card I made before - I like to look through photo's I've kept of previous cards, if inspiration is lacking  ( as it seems to be often these days!)  its a good kick start

This is what I did

Papers and dies from Crafters companion Shabby Chic collection

Happy birthday and Mam dies - Crafters companion sentiment dies

Kraft Card from my stash - I think its from a Tim Hotz pad - a really soft Kraft colour and sadly I'm almost out of the pieces I had : (((

hope to see you joining in with our challenge this week

hugs 

Judith x

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

So are you looking forward to Christmas

Good morning all

Lets all roll forward to the end of 2021 - it must  be better than the begining of it!

We're doing our usual once a month motivational challenge

at 

Fab'n'Funky Challenges

in a bid to get us all prepared well in advance for the big day 

our theme is 

Christmas

I still have some old art pads from LOTV so decided to make some quick and easy cards - and this is number one!

This is what I did

image -LOTV art pad

Burgundy card from Papermania Christmas pad

papers - very old - lost the cover

Leef dies - Johnnext door

Poinsettia die - Heartfelt creations

twine, jingle bells and embellishments all very old stash

Hope you'll join in with our challenge this week

Hugs Judith xx

Lets all be kind and think of each other - goodness knows we need each other more than ever

Good morning all

Well we've all made it to 2021 - goodbye and good riddance to 2020!

We have our first challenge of the year over at 

Fab'n'Funky Challenges

our lovely Chris has chosen the very appropriate theme 

Thinking of you

it's so relevant to these times we are living through with so much going on,

 where ever you might be in the world.

Living in our third lockdown here in the UK we have so much time to think nd reflect, some good, some very challenging - i'm sure we've all had our moment.

So when Chris suggested a thinking of you challenge i decided to make the effort and treat it in the spirit it was intended.  It helped me because I got my pencils our to colour this pretty image and it gave me a few moments of peace and quiet and I thought about who I would send it to.  This card will go to my mother in law Joan who suffers from dementia, she is 92 and lives in a carehome and also very recently recovered from dementia.  That alone gives us a lot to think about.  She has had no visits in person over this whole time and only very sporadic visits 'in the pod'  from her 3 sons. but we get regular facetime and mostly she is doing well. My DH likes to write little updates for her when he can because she can't remember any of her visits but a written update can be read again and again.....

this is what I did 

8 x 8 card

image- Tigerlily from Pink Ink designs

Coloured with prismacolour pencils 

spaarkle added with Spectrum Noir clear sparkle pen

Papers Bohemia from Dovecraft 

Orange card from Crafters Companion orange cardstock

I'd love to think that Chris's challenge will inspire people to send their thinking of you cards to someone who needs just a a thought right now

Hugs

Judith xx

Thank You or Thanksgiving Challenge at Fab'n'Funky Challenges

Hi All

We have a new challenge this week over at 

Fab'n'Funky Challenges

the theme is

Thank You or Thanksgiving

(so either something for the holiday season or just a little 'ole thank you- either works!)

I made this simple 'any occassion' Thank you card very simply using die cuts and coloured card

Always a handy one to have in your card stash!

Hope you'll join in with our challenge this week 

Hugs

Judith x

Old MacDonald had afarm e -i -e -i -o!!

Good morning all

We have a new challenge over at 

Fab'n'Funky Challenges

the theme is

Old MacDonald

(so anything farm related - animals, crops. farmers, scarecrows - or anything you  can relate to a farm)

This is an 8x8 inch card made with a lovely big stamp from Pink Ink

I love big size stamps

This is what I did...

Image - Goatally Gorgeous from Pink Ink

Coloured with Prismacolour pencils

Papers from MME

large round and scalloped dies - spelbinders

Flower die - crafters companion

I hope you'll play along with us this week

Hugs

Judith x

Blog hop to celebrate our 500th Challenge at Fab'n'Funky Challenges

Good morning all

We have a fabulous celebration this week over at 

Fab'n'Funky Challenges

this week we are celebrating our 500th challenge - and we decided to do it with a blog hop

If you start the hop over at the first post at Fab'n'Funky Challenges you can see all the fabulous prizes up for grabs and visit the blogs in the correct order so that you can collect words along the way and enter our challenge this week.

I decided to make a Christmas card this week in the traditional colours of Christmas that I always love - if I'm going to hit that Christmas card target this year I really need to get going!

(Snowman dies and word dies both by Tim Holtz Alterations at Sizzix)

TWO 

The next stop on the journey is Neva's blog - click on the word above to link to her blog, then follow the links to each blog and along the way - 

• Note down the key word on each blog
• Leave a comment on each blog
• Make a project that fits with the challenge request that will be revealed in the words you collect when you have visited all of the blogs
• Make sure to link our challenge blog in your post
•  And link your entry below. (Please ensure your link is to your post for this challenge not just your blog, Thank you)
• No more than 2 entries per person

We're really so excited to bring this hop to you this week, 

I hope you'll play along - good luck on winning one of our fabulous prize bundles 

 don't forget to leave me a comment before you leave to be in with the chance of a prize

happy hopping!

Hugs Judith xx

It's a bunny day today!

Good morning all

I can't beleive it's almost two months since I posted here. 

But I thought I'd better make the effort to appear 

as it's my turn to host at 

Fab'n'Funky Challenges

I chose the theme

Anything but a card

So here's my ode to lockdown 

- meet Covid the Easter Bunny

He was made for my Grandchildren to go in a basket with Easter eggs and some little bags of caramel shortbread and brownies I made for their Mum and Dad

(I'm sure Jacob and Eva got some too!)

Covid the Easter Bunny and a basket of Easter treats

I've been doing lots of crafting and hobbying! - not so much papercraft (though I started an album yet to be continued) but knitting and sewing, lots of baking and cooking and growing my own little plants from seed and garden tidying and to stay fit a half hour work out in the morning and an hours walk in the afternoon - week sorted! .  I've never been bored and I'm certainly not veging out in front of the TV - though we've started a routine each night before bed we watch an episode or two of 'Parks and Recs' - its so funny - a great end to the day.

I feel like I've been living in a big bubble since our lockdown in March.  I'm actually doing OK with it and not all the changes in life have been bad ones.  I'm not missing the shops that much as I'm much more of an online shopper anyway and we've been doing click and collect for a big weekly shop then stocking up with fresh food in a small store locally once a week and I've enjoyed that too, planning ahead for the weeks meals is something I sort of got out of the habit of when I stopped working.  But I do miss my daily gym routine -  my spin classes in particular, the gym is right next to Tesco so I'd just call in to pick up whatever we wanted for dinner and now that I've had time to think about that I think the weekly shop is so much better use of my time.  So when gym days return I'll definitely keep up with the big weekly shop routine and go straight home to do something much more fun than shopping! 

There's so much time to think about things that have changed these past few weeks I'm sure so many of us will have found some things that have been forced onto us will stay when we get back to whatever normal is!!

I'm not huge on social media anyway but very early on when all the 'rubbish' started to be shared around I really felt a need to stay away and that sort of extended to my blogs as well.  My mobile phone and computer have been gathering a lot of dust, used mainly for recipes and online orders - it's funny the things we do to get through the days - but it works for me, just cutting out too much media has been my saving grace.

So back to the bunny and the sweets!

....This is what I did

Bunny

Knitting pattern is free from Deramores Here

Knit in double knitting wool it was a quick and easy knit 

I had all the wool in my stash anyway - so a total freebee

The recipes for the sweeties 

both from BBC Good Food which is my go to for recipes

I cut each into little 1 inch squares - perfect with a cuppa

- but not too bad for the waistline : )

Chocolate Brownies

Recipe HERE

Easy Millionaires Shortbread

Recipe HERE

Thank you so much for visiting me today - I'll pop round for a visit to you all - its been a nice change to be here today : )))

The card we love to hate!!

Good morning all

Well whatever you're doing today I can bet it's not much different from yesterday - or tomorrow or even this time next week!!  This stay at home business ( this being the official day 3 but in reality has been going on for a week or two) isn't so bad if you stick to a routine. 

 I'm taking the attitude that it's nice to not have to hurry doing anything, as we can't do anything else I may as well just make the best of it - of course there are sooo many negatives in all of this but what's the point of focusing on that side, I am forever the optimist and I'm hoping this will carry us through : ) - this too will pass.

So lots of time for crafts - for me that I'm spending time clearing out and tidying my craft room- just a little bit at a time paper crafting - and Knitting.

Its our lovely Buffy's turn to host this weeks challenge at 

Fab'n'Funky Challenges

 and she has chosen the theme

Masculine

Myself I Dont mind a masculine make (!)

I know  an awful lot of people hate it

I always take the attitude of basically plain and simple, mainly primary or muted colours and it nearly always fits the bill.  I made this card for a good friend's birthday

the front

the inside

This is what I did....

6 x6 inch card

Papers are an old LOTV paper pad - te cover is missing but it's called birthday something!!

Happy birthday die - Sue Wilson for Creative Expressions

Star die - an old memory box die

the stamps are from a set from MFT

Hope you'll join in with our challenge this week, see you there

and stay safe, take care, stay home, make the most of this quiet time because we'll all be joining in with real life again before we know it.

Hugs

Judith x 

Black and white with a hint of Pink!

Good Morning all

I'm a bit late with my DT card for 

Fab'n'Funky Challenges

I was down to only 100 toilet rolls - so I had to rush out to panic buy!!

I promise I am joking and on a serious note I hope everyone is fit and well and coping with all this media saturation of coronavirus.  It's so difficult to keep a sensible head on when it's all the news if full of.  I really don't know what to worry about first !!

Our challenge this week has been chosen by the lovely Pat

the theme is 

Black and White with a hint of Pink

I decided to get going with making Mother's Day cards as it'll be here before we know it 

This is what I did....

I had an assortment of lovely black and white papers, i know they're mainly first addition and one from the LOTV wedding themed paper pad,

 I just decided to go a bit geometrc and used some rounded sqare dies - I think from MME but not sure

The flower dies are from Crafters Companion Country Garden Collection

Mothers Day die is a sue Wilson from Creative Expressions

It's a 7 x7 inch card matted and layered up with pink and black card and some 3d glue gel for dimention

I wasn't really sure where I was gong when I started this to be honest, I just used the papers for inspiration, but I really liked how it turned out!  

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

Hugs

Judith xx

Love is in the air!

hi all

I'm running so late today- really just make it!!!

I slept in this morning when the plan was to have a lazy breakfast and catch the blog

instead I had to fly out of the house to catch my spin class at the gym 

took my mother to do her grocery shopping then spent the rest of the day chasing my tail

So it's a better late than ever day - just as well I had already made my card

This one is for our challange over at

Fab'n'Funky Challenges

our theme is 

Love Love Love

( well it had to be didn't it!!)

I think this one definitely says love lol - it is a really simple card

the emphasis on the papers and heart dies 

What i did....

Papers from MME love collection
assorted heart dies
X O dies from a Crafter's Companion alphabet set

hope we see you at this weeks challenge - show us a little love!

hugs Judith xx

Christmas challenge at fab'n'Funky

Good morning all

It's that week of tthe month again at 

Fab'n'Funky Challenges

our once a month ' Christmas' challenge

I have to admit that Christmas cards are my very favourite thing to make - after all it's the most wonderful time of the year! and they're always such happy cards

.....and I've got such a lot of Christmas stash that I never really struggle when it comes to ideas

I bought these lovely dies in the pre Christmas sale at Sizzix - I loved them when they were launched the Christmas before - but they were such a bargin having waited a year
 -I think I ejoyed them even more : ))))))
and lets face it it's Christmas no matter which year you buy them

This is what I did....

Dies  -Freshbaked #1 by Sizzix

Papers - a very old set from Papermania

Kraft card

assorted scraps of coloured card and glitter ard

Sentiment - Crafter's Companion ( I think!)

Hope you'll joi i with our challenge this week

hugs 

Judith xx

Happy New year! MerryChristmas!

Good morning all

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year!

We had a break over on the Fab'n'Funky Challenges blog until last week and I had intended to start off the year with our new challenge , unfortunately my blog year didn't get off to a very good start as our internet went down last week with what BT termed -' a major fault', we were down until Friday so  I just decided to write off the week and start back this week with our  new challenge set by our lovely Monika

She has chosen the theme 

Angels

it seemed to me to be a great opportunity to get off to a flying start with this year's Christmas cards - so here we go with Christmas card number one for 2020!!!

I made the task fairly simple by using an image from one of the Hunky Dory little books, there are 4 of each image in the book and I've already used one of these images before, its so pretty and delicate - as well as being very cute - a perfect little angel

This is what I did.....

Image - from Hunky Dory little book

Silver mirri card and blue card from Crafter's Companion

Poinsettia die - Memory box

Merry Christmas die - Crafter's Companion

Paper - an old LOTV paper pad

Gems and ribbon from my stash

I hope you'll come over and join in with our chalenge this week!

Hapy new Year and merry Christmas 

hugs

Judith xx

I've been knitting!!!

Good morning all

It's my turn to host our new challenge starting this week at

Fab'n'Funky Challenges

so I chose the theme

Anything but a card

I'm sure most of us papercrafters who make cards dabble in all kinds of other crafts - so I thought it would be fun to ask you  to show off what else you can do : )

(though of course it can be papercraft - just not a card!)

My crafting goes far and wide - I have a 'can do' attitude, if I see something I think - I can do that!!

unfortunately there are far less hours in the day than the number of things I think I can make and most of my ideas get lost in .....not enough time. Though one thing I always enjoy is knitting, I learned to knit when I was a child and it's something that Ifind very relaxing.

I always make winter hats and mits for my grandchildren - here is this years pink and grey hat ( to match the coat)  for my granddaughter Eva - now aged 3- she is the master of pulling a face for a photograph so was only too happy to model the creations for me lol.

and with the mittens to match!!

I hope you'lljoin in with out challege at Fab'n Funky this week, its so much fun to see watelse you have all been making other tha Christmas cards! - I'm sure there has been lots of Christmas crafting going on that you haven't shown us

hugs Judith xx

Christmas at Fab'n'Funky challenges

Good morning all

Today we have a new challenge starting at 

Fab'n'Funky Challenges 

our theme is 

Christmas

We all need ideas for quick and easy at Christmas

and if you're anything like me you always run out of gift tags!

these are very quick and easy to make with some basic dies and scraps of card

This is what I did.....

The gift tags are just gold card folded with a hole puched in the corner

topped with cream card embossed with gold motifs, cut with scalloped square dies

Bauble shapes are diecut from card embossed with gold christmas motifs

then coloured with alchohol inks  and threaded with ribbons to match yur gift wrap

Hope you'll join in with our challenge - every little helps with your Christmas crafting and the girls have some fab inspiration for you this week take a look  HERE

hugs Judith xx

One of my favourite litle 'creatures' !!

Good morning all

Hope everyone is doing well this fine morning

I've been doing a little colouring this week - something I haven't done for a while

I really enjoyed making this card for our challenge at 

Fab'n'Funky Challenges

the theme chosen by our lovely Chris is 

Feature a Creature

don't you just love this little guy!

I've used this stamp from PennyBlack so many times, it's just so cute and pretty and suitable for all sorts of people and occasions

This is what I did

image - Dreaming Geraniums from Penny Black

coloured with Crafters Companion illustrator pens and prismacolour pencils

textured embossing folder from Crafters Companion

Frame dies from Creative expressions ( Sue Wilson dies I think)

Ribbon from my stash

Button from Creative Expressions

Hope you'll join in with our challenge this week - see you there!

Hugs

Judith xx

We're back at Fab'n'funky Challenges - just in time for Christmas

hi all

Hope you've all had a lovely summer - I've had quite an eventful few months 

- some good, some bad but I've had a bit of a break and I'm ready to get going close to again!

We just got back from our summer holiday a week or so ago and our chllenge at

Fab'n'Funky Challenges 

is also returning from summer break this week so it seemed a good place to start

As its the last week of the month our regular theme is 

Christmas

It's actually suprisingly close to Christmas

- a bit scary if you count the number of weeks to December

- not long to get those cards made now!!

today is 25th September 

 - so not hard to work out how many cards you can make at one a week lol.

I thought I'd kick off with a die cut card based on one I've made before to break myself in gently

Die cuts are good for bulk making, and although this one is a bit more complicated than a quick make as the dies have to be lined up precisely, it's easier to make several on the same formula than to design different cards, its always the design that takes me the time

This is what I did...

One the edge stocking die from Crafters Companion

On the edge sentiment die - Crafters Companion

Red and white card and gingham ribbon

I love a bit of red gingham!

I've had a really busy card making week this week - my Mam was 90 on Friday then we celebrated our 40th Wedding anniversary on Sunday - two very special cards - nothing like a bit of pressure to get the creativity flowwing again!

I hope you'll join in at Fab'n'Funky,  we have lots of challenges coming up  to fill those long dark nights of crafting : )  - I love this time of year

Have a fun crafty week everyone 

Hugs

Judith xx

Stars and stripes are so this time of year....

Hi all

We have a new challenge this week at

Fab'n'Funky Challenges

a very 'of the season' theme

Our lovely host Pat would like to see 

Stars and / or Stripes

I made a quick and easy 30th birthday card for a male friend

using the Kinetic dies from Crafters Companion

They're so handy to make quick cards - great for male cards like this one where you can use simple embellishments and papers to make a statement

This is what I did....

Card created using the circle kinetic card die and Lets celebrate sentiment from Crafter's Companion

Papers - Just for men from Crafters Companion

Black card 

Star dies - Crafters Companion

Circle and scalloped circle dies - spellbinders

'30' - Tim holtz vintage Market dies from sizzix

hope you'll join in with our challenge this week

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