MAWTT challenge day - anything but a card

Good Morning all

Hope you're all well this fine morning.

I'm still away on holiday but the end is nigh!!  To all of you suffering with the effects of the wonderful British weather (most people from what I can gather) it might make you feel better that it hasn't been so good here in Florida either.  We've been coming to Florida for 17 years now and this is definately the worst weather we've ever had.  Don't get me wrong we've had some gorgeous weather while we've been here and in Florida its normal to get rain almost every day - but its usually a huge downpour all over in half an hour and dry again in 10 minutes.  These last few days its been mostly  grey and miserable with lots of rain - still hot but wet at the same time!

Its also a bit like a hospital here in our house, my hubby Dean's got this cold and cough that he can't get rid of - in fact it's getting worse (to be honest I 'm sick of hearing him cough) and I had to go to the walk in medical centre yesterday becaused I've got an ear infection (they're calling it swimmers ear!).  No good old national health here it cost about £70 for the consultation and another £80 for antibiotic ear drops, on the bright side the by mouth antibiotics I got were free.  But my insurance excess is £150 so thats that!

I think I caught it in time - my ear's more sore and uncomfortable than painful but no swimming or washing of hair for me, oh well worse things have happened.

I managed to get this tag/giftcard holder made for this weeks MAWTT challenge before I left
The challenge is hosted by our talented Lisa Jane who has chosen the theme

Anything but a card

I have to admit the photograph's not the best - it has a little loop on the top so you could hang it up and for some reason I didn't photograph the back of the tag either!  There's a little pocket in the back to put a gift card - hey-ho! thats what happens when you rush to get something done -sorry.

This weeks challenge is being sponsored by

Stitchy Bear digital stamps

 
 who are offering a fab prize of $10 to spend in store for this weeks challenge winner

This is what I did...

Tag cut from lemon and layered with pink card

Image - inky impressions roller skating Lili

Coloured with - Promarkers and prismacolor pencils

Fun Stickers and rub ons - K and Co

Ribbon - Carnmeal Cottage

Hope you'll all join us over at MAWTT this week - look forward to seeing anything but a card!

Challenges I'm entering with this card

Delightful challenges - summer fun
I love promarkers - for a little girl
Rubys Rainbow - tags
Cupcake craft - tag you're it
ooh la la creations - make it girly
Tammys scrappin corner - for the girls

hugs

Judith x

Cool Britannia at Moving Along with the Times

Hi again

Its another challenge over at MAWTT this week hosted by out gorgeous Laurie and the theme is

Cool Britannia

With everything that's going on around our little Island it is indeed a cool place to be - So why am I not there?!!  - Cos at the minute I'm prefering Hot Florida!!

We are sponsored this week by

Digi my World

who gave us DT girls some fab England digis to play with
and here's the card that I came up with to fit this challenge!
I did do a bit better with remembering what I did with this card because I wrote down what I did when I uploaded the card to my blog - why did I not do that with the rest of them!!

What I did ...

Image - from digi my world England set
Coloured with - Promarkers,Copics and prismacolor pencils
Papers - Portobello road
Bunting - Flags downloaded from internet and stamped with bunting stamp from Anna Griffin
Bakers twine and gems- from my stash

Challenges I'm entering with this card

Divas by design - Anything goes
My mums craftshop -Red white and blue
Digital Delights - Red white and blue
Craft your days away - Red white and blue
One stitch at a time - Red white and blue
Simon says - Anything goes
Digi doodle shop- get out the bunting

That's all from me for today

hugs Judith x

Cute baby card

Hi Blog friends
Heres my 3 in a row for this week.  I'm so thriled to have been nominated for my very first blog award this week - not once but three times!! Thank you Pat P, Pat K and Nikki for thinking of me - I am honoured to accept the Leibster Award.

The origins of the Liebster Blog Award are somewhat unclear but the general consensus is that it originated in Germany, Liebster meaning favourite or dearest, to showcase bloggers with fewer than 200 followers. Upon accepting the award the recipient must then pass it on to five more blogs of note

Here's what to do on receiving your Award
1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.
2. Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you.
3. Copy and paste their blog award on your blog.
4. Present the Liebster Blog award to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve recogniti
5. Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment at their blog.

Here are the well deserved blogs I have chosen to pass the award to :

Kim

Chaitali

Rachel

Rachel

Judit

 I made this card for a friend who just had a baby girl, it was lovely to  make a little girl card for a change, everyone has had boys for ages now so a lovely pink little baby is a real joy to do!  I got my copics out to do most of the colouring on this one - I so like the tone of the paler pinks and lemons in promarkers but I stuck to my tried and tested copics for the skin tones (E11, E00,E000,E0000,R30)   I used my new memory box swirl die for the first time on this card - I think I'm in love - its absolutely gorgeous - so delicate - think you might be seeing a bit more of this!  I followed the sketch from this weeks lillis little fairies challenge for this card,  I was happy with it on the whole but not sure if the design is a bit "top heavy" but I didn't want to add anthing else to the bottom as I think there's enough going on!

What I did....

Image and new baby sentiment- LOTV (baby with teddy image)
Coloured with - promarkers, copics and prismacolor pencils
Papers - Forever Friends - new arrival
Pink card - Cordinations christmas pastels
Swirl - memory box
Flowers - Wild orchid crafts
Die cut oval and circles - spellbinders
Leaves - docraft punch
Pearls - Kaisercraft
Ribbon - Carnmeal cottage
You are so cute! stamp - Dawn Bibby woodland friends
Distress ink round oval - dusky rose

Challenges I am entering this card into

Crafty sentiments Designs - congratulations
Crafts and me challenges - Spring colours
Paperplay challenges - spring colours
Papercrafting journey - pretty pastels
Lilis little Fairies - Jacques sketch

Spring has sprung - again

Hi blog friends

I'm definately on a pretty card thing at the minute - my daughter wanted a birthday card for her mother in law and this is what she got!  Its another of those Lili of the Valley pretty girlies, they're always so easy to colour (I've asked for some of the new ones for my birthday next week and its a suprise which ones I get so I just can't wait).  I started off making this with the LOTV challenge in mind but didn't get it finished in time! not that it matters, but it did make me think outside the box a bit because it was a peaches and cream challenge. I haven't got those colours in copics so I went back to my promarkers and brought in more colour with my prismacolor pencils, I think it worked in the end.  I decided to go the whole fairy thing and give her a real helping of glitter - dres,s wings, shoes wand - the whole shebang as well as the roses, have to say I'm not usually a glitter girl but I did like what it did for this card, I don't think glitter photographs very well as its making it look sort of dirty - but I promise its not its lovely and glittery.

the inside

I don't always photograph the inside of the cards I make but this is such a sweet message I thought it need an outing!  It was cut very simply from spellbinders labels sixteen to match the front and the sentiment is from a Whiff of Joy text set of nine called Magical Wishes.  The tiny buterflies are a fikars punch I picked up in a local craft shop sale bin for 50p- bargin!

You can see the glitter better in
close up

What I did ......

Stamp - Lili of the Valley - pom pom
papers - first edition - spring feast
Card and MAM stamps - craftwork cards
Dies - spellbinders labels sixteen
Pearls - from my stash
Cream ribbon - carnmeal cottage
Tiny butterfly punch - fiskars
Banner dies- Whiff of joy
Glitter -Martha Stewart - topaz glitter glue
Tag - sizzix
Sentiment and stamping on tag - Dawn Bibby
Sentiment inside card - Whiff of Joy Magical wishes
Flowers - wild orchid and Prima
Coloured with copics, promarkers and prismacolor pencils


I'm entering this card for the following challenges

Allsorts Challenge - Things with wings (152)
The Poodles Parlour - Birthday (74)
Crafters Companion monthly challenge - Spring
Flutterby Wednesday - #193 - Spring Time
CES challenges - Flower frenzy

Well thats me for today

Going to try for another card tomorrow - so might even see you then?

Hugs

Judith x

Trixie the circus girl

Hi there

Had such a busy weekend that I just haven't had a chance to do any crafting - or at least finish any!

I got some of the new Saturated Canary digi stamps last week and couldn't wait to play - these little girls are all so pretty, they deserve to be totally dressed up and I certainly gave this one the treatment!

a close up of the detail

This is what I used

Stamp - Saturated Canary Trixie, circus girl
Papers -SEI Coture collection 6x6
Coloured with - Copics and prismacolor pencils
Sentiment - Craftwork cards
Flowers - Wildorchid crafts
Ribbon and pearl swirls - bought from Sam Pooles Creative Studios
Pearl brad - Whiff of Joy
Die cut - Spellbinders
Leaves - Papermania midi punch

I tried to give her a "strawberry blonde" look which I think worked well, I used copics E50,E51 and E53 as the basis of the colour but it was the shading with the prismacolour pencil pc1034 colour "goldenrod" and sansodor  that really did the trick I think.  I love experimenting with the prismacolors.  I got a lovely big box at Michaels craft shop when I visited  Florida last year and was there for the Black Friday sales, the whole box of 48 was only about £15!! - why can't we get bargains like that here in England?  But having the lovely selection of colours on top of the ones I already had has made me much more adventurous and its lovely to experiment with all sorts of colours I probably wouldn't have thought of buying.  I used a selection of the copic colours I had used to colour her to do a spotty background around her and I was pleased with that effect too.  I decided to restrain myself and hold of with more pearls and my favourite butterflies  -even I have to admit that there is such a thing as too much!!

Thats me for today - but could be back with more Saturated Canary tomorrow - if the day goes to plan.

I'm entering this card for the following challenges

Fab 'n' funky Challenges - try something new (experimented with new colours and a new digistamp)  Creative Belli Blog - recipe - 1 ribbon/2 designer papers/3 colours and 4pearls
Totallypapercrafts challenge - Ribbons and bows
Card Makin Mamas - Happy birthday
My Mums craft shop challenge - Pearls and swirls
Paper Creations Ink  -Show us your style using your favourite technique  - colouring/blending
Saturday Challenge - Bingo - swirls/flowers/pearls
Sunday sketch and stamp - sketch #94

Hugs

Judith x

For a man - keep it simple!

Hi again

Just a quick post today.

I was asked to make a card for a man - with the instruction -  nothing at all fancy or frilly - definately no bows! -keep it simple (well he is a man!)

This is what I used:

Craftwork card 8 inch and half a six inch covered and mounted in the centre

Papers - Papermania pastels colossal paperpad

Craftwork card candy in a toning blue colour

Stamp -Lili of the valley - Cheers bear 

Coloured with  promarkers and prismacolor pencils

Nose and glass highlighted with glossy accents

Faux stitches around card and numbers with a fine marker pen

Numbers - cut with Cricut Cindy Loo cartridge

Happy birthday(inside card) - cut and layered with Cricut Simply Charmed cartridge

I hope this simple man likes his simple 30th birthday card!!

I'm entering this card for the following challenges

Creative card crew - Masculine
kaboodle doodle challenge - Where the boys are (boys or masculine)
Truly Scrumptious - All creatures great and small (bear )

Paperplay Challenge - critters

Hugs

Judith

A card for a baby boy

Hi again

I was lookig through my stamps today to decide what to do and came up with this cute Lili of the Valley baby stamp,  I've only used it once before and that was at Christmas when I did a completely different colourscheme  to this card and made it into a babys 1st christmas card for my new grandson - he's a really old baby now that he's got to 6 weeks old!!

I wanted to keep this one very "clean" and bright like a traditional baby boy card, and I think it worked. I decided to use my promarkers to colour this one and shaded with prismacolor pencils as usual, the dies are spellbinders ovals and the " baby boy" is Sizzix skoosky font dies, they are a bit fiddly to work with but because they are so thin they are easy to fit on most cards without dominating it.  The spotty ribbon came from Sam Pooles Creative Studios and the pearls from my stash

I'm entering this card for the following challenges

Stampavie - Blue and white
Sundays with Chrissie - beat the winter blues - nothing like a new baby for that!
Sunday sketch & stamp

Hooray for Fridays!!

Hi again

Todays card is a little Magnolia Tilda girlie that I coloured a while ago and did nothing with, so here she is on her own card!

I coloured her with promarkers and layered the card up with papers from Creative expressions, the butterfly is from a Martha Stewart punch, the ribbon and pearls and flowers are from ebay. The image is stamped onto card die cut witha a spellbinders die and shaded with a Tim Holtz tea die distress ink.  Shes a pretty little girl, though I have to say I don't have a lot of these stamps because they are expensive compared to a lot of makes.

Thats me for today - hooray for Fridays!!

.

A Cinderella story!

Hi again

You might think I'm extra keen posting twice today but in truth I was so late last night that - just like Cinderella - I missed midnight and my Wednesday post hit Thursday, but I told my self - you shall go to the ball- so here I am again!

Todays post is my favourite Lili of the Valley stamp - how could I not like the shopping one lol

I coloured this with copics and prismacolor pencils - I wanted a bit of drama in the pink, gave her rosy "shopping" cheeks and also used by favourite colour green to contrast.  The card is a pearly green that I got from a local card factory, its some of the leftovers from my daughters wedding invitations and always makes me smile when I use it.  The paper is from Kim and Co.  The pearl swirls are from Sam Poole Creative impressions and the butterflies were cut with a Martha Stewart punch ( also from the wedding invitations).  All of the other die cuts are spellbinders and the lace, ribbon and flowers are from ebay. I haven't taken the best of pictures of it but it was a struggle to get that to be honest.

I'm entering this card for the the following challenges

Lillis little fairies - favourite stamp
Creative Inspirations - pearls and swirls
My Mums craftshop - here come the girls

Thats me for now  - I need an early night tonight!

See you soon

Hugs
Judith x

Life's like a box of chocolates....

Hi again

Another Sarah Kay stamp today - can't believe that I haven't used this one before, I started off with a pretty pink and lemon card in mind and ended with something not quite like that, a bit more vintage looking I think.

I coloured this with promarkers, I like promarkers pinks better than copics so I tend to go between the two depending on what I want it to look like and highlighted with prismacolor pencils.  The papers are all Kim and Co and I used a Martha Stewart butterfly border punch for the butterflies and cut out the ones I wanted to use, the corners are a new Martha Stewart punch I just got- I like the pattern, it makes the card less plain without going OTT- not that theers anything wrong with OTT!  The coloured pearls are Kaisercraft - I like the assorted colours and sizes they do.  The sentiment is from craftwork cards that I coloured with Tim Holtz teadye distress ink - I also used that around some of the papers to  give a bit of definition, the lace and flowers I think were fom ebay and the leaves are a tiny papermania punch - think thats everything. This card is different to what I would normally make - not a ribbon in sight for a start! but I quite like the way it turned out, its good to experiment - a bit like Forrest Gump and the box of chocolates - you never know what you get!.

I am entering this card for the following challenges 

The Dream Valley Challenge
The Everybody Art Challenge
Cupcake craft challenge

Thats it for now

See you soon

Hugs
Judith x

Love, hearts and a first kiss!

Hi  again

 I knew straight away today I had to use my  absolute favourite Stampavie stamp - first kiss, I just love this stamp.

 I went looking for some papers in my stash with a heart theme and found these from Dovecraft called Glamour Prints.  I've had them for ages and haven't used them all that much because some of them are very bright - like these ones!  But I decided to rise to the challenge.  I used purple card to tone in from bazzill and toned it down a bit using a pale pink chalk.  The image was coloured with promarkers and prismacolor pencils and the heart and frame were cut with spellbinders die.  The border is a new Martha Stewart punch and the "Love" and swirl were cut with my cricut expression machine from Tie the knot and Cindy Loo cartridges.  The flowers are from Prima and the crystal embelishments bought from ebay.  The best bit of all - the lovely little embellie in the middle of the large flower - recycled from a christmas card I received - thank you M&S!  I was really pleased with this when it was finished having been very unsure about the colours at the start - it just goes to show that you have to just go with it some times. 

Challenges entered with this card
Stampavie and more: Challenge #159 - Hearts  -love stampavie - great stamps - great challenges
Card Makin Mamas - for my new Martha Stewart Punch
Simon Says challenge - my new Martha Stewart Punch
Passion for Promarkers - inspired by a song - "sealed with a kiss"
Papertake weekly challenge - die cute!
Challenge up your life - Bingo (purple, die cuts, sparkle)

Hope you like it

See you soon
Hugs

Judith x