VERY late to the AYLI Christmas party

 Oh my days I am so very late with my DT piece for the new challenge at

I can't even claim to have forgotten to schedule it...oh no I hadn't even written it!!  Anyway, I am here now, with my head hanging in shame, to share this...

...which features one of my favourite Christmas sentiments. I generally go for Happy Christmas or Merry Christmas which I have in various forms, rubber and acrylic stamps and also digis in many different fonts. On this occasion I used a simply print from LOTV and also their Dymo style Christmas messages too. The image was matted on silver and layered on top of some patterned papers, from The Works, I think. Regulars will probably have already seen the Challenge blog but if you haven't then please do pop over and have a look at the lovely cards my teamies have made, sharing their favourite christmas sentiment, and why. 

While I am here I just want to thank each and every one of you for your visits and comments this year. It's not been the best year for me personally, so seeing that you have visited has meant a lot, and even if I haven't had time to leave a comment please be assured that I have visited when I could.

If I don't appear ahead of the BIG DAY, I wish you all a peaceful Christmas, hopefully with your loved ones (yet to be confirmed here in the UK!!)

See you woon xx

'twas the Challenge before Christmas

 Told you I would be back in a while didn't I!!? With the Cutie Pies still in mind we have brought forward our

 December challenge and the theme is a really good one. We would love you to revisit our challenges from this year and make a card to fit your favourite.

I went with the July Challenge CAS and made this little cutie...

I managed to get the lovely little peek-a-boo snowman stamp and die set and the die cut window arches last year and thought it was about time I actually used them!! The card came together remarkably quickly and all I did was added some snowy backing paper inside and some sparkly snowflakes on the front. 

That's it from me for today. See you later in the week xx

Cute and Cuddly Christmas

 Good Morning friends. I'm not sure I am liking the pace at which December is galloping along, too much to do and not enough time. Sound familiar!? Still, I did get the marzipan on my christmas cake at the weekend, managed to wrap some presents and the sloe gin has been strained and bottled so not all bad!! I hope that your preparation is going well, although who knows what Christmas is going to look like with the new Omicron variant taking hold. Anyway less of that!!

I have a card to share today to encourage you to join in at

where we are having a Cute and Cuddly Christmas. I am a huge fan of the images from our sponsor Hetty Clare and used Little Donkey 

I coloured him with Promarkers and put him in a snowglobe as I had the perfect backing paper to hand!! As usual, the silver mirror board did not photograph at all well, but you all know what it looks like!! 

Thank you for stopping by and I hope that you will find some time somewhere to join us.

See you in a little while!! xx

Jingle Bells and Snowflakes

 Jingle Bells and Snowflakes sounds like the title of a Christmas film but in this case it's my chosen Christmas Embellishments as per the Challenge that goes live today at

We would love for you to share your projects showing off your favourite Christmas Embellishments.

Those of you that have been long suffering followers will remember that I make small Christmas gifts for my work colleagues each year. This is the 2021 offering!! I have covered MDF baubles with pretty Maja Design papers. Each one has a different sentiment and they all have bells and snowflakes.

Jingly bells take me back to my childhood when the local Fire Brigade used to transport Father Christmas to the local villages. Somehow the front of the Fire Engines were made to look like his sleigh and had reindeer and everything. I have to confess that my Sister and I were terrified!! And the snowflakes...well no self respecting card or home decor would be seen without a snowflake or two. 

There are also more in festive colours too, so you might get to see them another time.

Thank you for calling and I look forward to seeing your projects. See you soon xx

Christmas Sparkle...Snowflake

 I have a really pretty card to share today. Unusual Christmas colours but a delight to put together,

She is featuring on the DT inspiration post at

where the theme is always Anything Goes as long as your card is hand coloured.

The lovely image is available here from our Sponsor Ching-Chou Kuik.

Here is a better shot of the sparkle!!

She was coloured with Promarkers to match the pretty papers. First Edition, I think. I dug out my glitter collection and used several different colours to sparkle her up. I die cut the Joy to balance the lay out!!

It's been a bit brrrrrrrr here this week but actually very enjoyable riding and walking. We are expecting high winds again at the weekend so that's sure to blow the last of the leaves down.

Thank you for coming to visit. Have a good weekend xx

A "Special" Cutie Christmas card

 Hello everyone. Another christmas card today but before that I want to thank you for continuing to visit me despite my absence of late. The time thief has been pretty active and the days are just whooshing taking my good intentions with them. I promise to try harder!!

As Christmas is only a month away the Cutie Pies thought it was time for those "special" cards to be shared in our Meet me under the Mistletoe Challenge. 

The lovely Crafty Sunflower, Liz, shares some lovely card shapes so I followed  her footsteps to Nifty Noodles where there is inspiration galore and made this.

Front or back

Back or front!!

It looks impressive but was ever so easy to make and it also goes flat for posting so win, win!! The adorable images are a new Nitwits FQB Gnome For Christmas Collection that I sized to fit the squares. I'm not sure which "Special" person is going to be opening this so I've left a couple of blank squares to add a name.

Thak you for stopping by. I think I am back later in the week so see you then xx

Stencils or Dies?

 Hello friends. How are you all? Well I hope. A sore throat here at the moment but my regular testing for work shows negative for Covid so that's okay with me!!

This time we are asking you to share your favourite between stencils and dies at

As You Like It Challenge

It's dies, all the way, for me and while rifling through my stash was surprised how many I have accumulated over the years. I remember the excitement of managing to get hold of my first MFT Fish tail banner die set and using them with my little pink limited edition cuttlebug!! 

So this is what I did, using a favourite set and a freebie...

probably my favourite die set for Christmas as it makes such a beautiful shaped card too and the snowflake detail is glorious. A magazine freebie fit perfectly in the centre. I used two shades of blue card for this, one pearl and one mirri. The sky looked a little flat so I added some stardust stickles.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with and I am fairly confident it could be neck and neck this time as as stencils and inks seem to be more popular currently.

See you soon xx 

A Loaded Pocket

 Hello everyone. I am super excited to share my make with you today which is is my DT piece for

It's an Anything Goes Challenge this time with the option of Anything But a Card. 

I have been doing a bit of junk journal making and have been intrigued by

 "Loaded Pockets" so I did this...

I used the cute pre-coloured Holly Hedgehog from our sponsor, Polkadoodles, and a tutorial from Septeria 18 here  (honestly I can lose hours watching her making fabulous paper creations). The pocket itself uses only one piece of 6x6 paper (of which I have loads and settled on a very old My Minds Eye pad) then using papers from the same collection made a little note book, adorned with a tassel, a windmill and some tags. I fancied up some tiny pegs, and in doing so managed to pop the springs off of both so that caused a bit of swearing I can tell you!! There is also a heavy acetate tag around which I wrapped several lengths of co-ordinating washi tape. Oh and I finished the edge with some red pom pom trim that I found. LOVED making this and hope you will be inspired enough to take part over at 

The Cutie Pies challenge blog.

That's all for now, I hope that you are all keeping well.

Toodle pip for now xx

AYLI - Circle embellishments

 
Hello my crafty friends. Hope this Thursday finds you well wherever you are in the world. 

I have a sweet Christmas card to share with you today to encourage you to join in with the new challenge at

where we are thinking about embellishments, round ones in particular, and why you choose to adorn your cards with them.

As I have said lots of times I am always mindful of flatness for posting so my "go to" round/circle embellishments are clear gems. They add a little bit of sparkle but do not add bulk to a card. They are also incredibly easy to colour with alcohol markers to match any papers. On this occasion I just left them clear.

The adorable LOTV digi image was coloured with Promarkers and I used silver mirri card and a pale blue satin mirri card for layers. A squeeze of stardust stickles was added for the snow and fur!!

Thank you for dropping in and we look forward to seeing your favourite circle embellishments.

See you soon xx

Merry Christmouse

 Hello All!! Hetty Clare is the sponsor at the new challenge at

where it is always anything goes just as long as you colour the image yourself.

Here is what I did with the lovely Merry Christmouse image 

As usual, Promarkers and Flexmarkers were used to colour the sweet image to match the delicate papers from, I think, Dovecraft. 

Here they are close up!!

They look like they have been on the Sherry!!

The weather forecast is atrocious for today so apart from the weekly shop I think we will be confined to barracks!! Wishing you a lovely day whatever you are up to!!

See you soon xx

In the Pink!!

 Hello all, now I don't want to scare you, it being Halloween week and all, but it's only two months until Christmas Day!! What better way to add to your card pile than join us at

where we are "In the PINK". 

Here's what I did...

I made my own box card this time to accomodate some previously die cut trees and houses that were in my scraps box, crying out to be used. The pretty pink snowflake paper is from an MFT pad and little Phoebe and sentiment are from the same Your Next Stamp Hot Cocoa Phoebe Set. She was coloured with Promarkers and so were the trees, to break up the white layers. I added lots of stickles that have melted into the photograph as usual.

I hope that you had a good weekend and that you have a happy and healthy week ahead.

See you on Friday, I think xx

Boo!!

Happy sunday everyone. It's pretty horrid here in Dorset, grey, rainy and quite blowy so I thought I would make use of indoors time and make Mollie a Halloween card. It's not something we ever did when our Sons were small but Mollie enjoys dressing up and visiting their neighbours.

That cute image (re-discovered on a memory stick!!) is Puddle Jumpers Ghost Girl from Lori Designs. Coloured with Promarkers and glittered up a bit. I coloured the mats with the same Promarkers as the image for complete coordination. So there we are, ready to put in the post tomorrow, as first class post in these parts has been taking a week to arrive at it's destination recently.

Enjoy the rest of you weekend everyone and see you tomorrow xx

Some Challenges

I Love Promarkers #446 - Anything Goes +/- die or punch

Sweet Stampin' - All Hallow's Eve

Crafty Calendar October Challenge - Halloween

Animals or people?

An odd title I know but we like to keep you on your toes when you join in at

This time we would love to know if you prefer people or animals on your cards/projects.

For me it's animals, particularly the cute and fluffy variety, they are so much easier to colour than hair on a person. The card I am sharing is using one of my favourite critters actually, and the sentiment always makes me smile.

I used a Do Crafts (I think) pad, for this pretty pink joy fold card, so that the papers were a perfect match for my pink loving friend. The bunny was coloured with Promarkers to match.

Well it's been a rainy old week so far in Dorset, much needed but a shock to the system nonetheless!! It wasn't ideal for our first Over 65's Flu Clinic yesterday. Keeping Covid safe we had all the windows and doors open so it was a tad draughty!! 

Thank you for your company friends. See you soon xx

Down on the Farm

 Well hello, hope you are all keeping well and had an enjoyable weekend. I love live theatre so couldn't pass up the opportunity to watch Connor's girlfriend, Amelia, as Elizabeth-Jane in Thomas Hardy's  Mayor of Casterbridge. My word, it was a brilliant production and a lovely trip down memory lane to revisit O'level English Literature!! 

Anyway, I am not here for that, it's all about the new challenge at

where the theme is one close to my heart...Down on the Farm.

I always get such fabulous Birthday cards from my blogging buddies and one in particular sent me a card a few years ago that I have used as my inspiration for my card. Sorry, not sorry!!

I used a Lawn Fawn die set for the card base and some really lovely Marianne Designs papers for the panels. The Whole Herd MFT stamp set was used for the cute animals that I coloured with Promarkers.

I don't have the accompanying die set so the little farm animals were fussy cut and stuck on with foam pads for a little bit of dimension. 

 I am wishing you all a good week ahead. Keep well xx

Time for AYLI

 Hello friends. Hope you are all doing okay.

I have a clock to share with you today. At As You Like It this time we would love to see your non card projects. My crafty journey started with cross stitch and since then I have tried lots of different crafts. This clock started life as a kit that was a Birthday gift. I thoroughly enjoyed the process and it's now proudly hanging on the living room wall.

Thank you for calling in and I really hope that you will make a little project and join in.

See you soon xx

Agnes and her balloon

Hello all. I hope that you have had a good week. I had my Covid booster on Tuesday and, once again, managed to escape with minimal side effects, a tender upper arm but nothing more. We have had rain and lots of it which (it pains me to say) has been a blessing. We relocated some paving slabs in the garden and laid some turf so have been let off watering it in!! Not so keen on the gusty wind that's come with the rain though!! The week hasn't quite gone as planned, our broadband disappeared early on, so a planned trip to Bournemouth on Wednesday was replaced by a visit from Open Reach to fix it, necessary for Connor to work from home.

 How can it possibly be October already and heading towards the festive period. Anyway, nothing Christmassy to see here today, just a gorgeous new baby girl card.

It is my DT piece for 

where it's always Anything Goes just as long as you hand colour your card. 

My card was coloured using Spectrum Noir markers and just a snippet of MFT paper. Little Agnes from our sponsor Polkadoodles is just adorable.

Thank you for your continued visits and kind words.

See you soon xx

Rudolph and Friends

 

Hello friends. How are you all on this Monday morning? Well I hope.

We have a corker of a theme for you at

Rudolph and Friends...so we would love a cute reindeer on your cards this time. In my quest to use older stash I found several Humphrey's Corner stamp sets. I had forgotten just how cute this series was and had a lovely time colouring up this image of Humphrey and his Sister Lottie dressed as Santa and Rudolph, how adorable!!

It really didn't need too much in the way of frills so I used a little bit of kraft and some gingham paper to break up the red mats.

That's all for now everyone. I hope you have a good week. I am on Annual Leave ahead of Flu Clinics, in the Village Hall for our patients mixed in with Covid boosters together with our local Surgeries.

See you when I do xx

Autumn or Winter

 Challenge time again at

the fortnights seem to go by in a flash and I can hardly believe that we are charging headlong into October which brings me nicely to the theme...AUTUMN or WINTER

I found this a tricky decision. Autumn gives us fruits and berries for jams and chutney and also glorious colours but being a Winter baby, I love crackling fires, frosty winter walks and rides and of course Christmas and all that goes with it. I have been wanting to make a folio for some time and found a printable kit from here. This is the result...

It was honestly so easy to make, simply print cut and glue!!

This is probably destined for one of my work colleagues...on the other hand I might make her another and keep this one for myself!! It's full of gorgeous tags, and ephemera.

Thank you for your visit. It is much appreciated.

See you soon xx

The Cuties are 10!!

 

            Happy Birthday to us,🎈🎈🎈

Happy Birthday to us,

Happy Birthday Cutie Pie Challenge,

Happy Birthday to us!!

Hello everyone, there is a bit of a party going on at The Cutie Pies this time as it's our

10th Birthday 

It's a pleasure to be on this Design Team, indulging my love of all things cute and I just want to thank Lisa and Sue for doing such an incredible job keeping us cuties in line and making sure that the challenge blog runs like clockwork.

Here is my Birthday card for your inspiration...

...once again using older "stuff". The paper is from a very old pad. Little Hoppy poppy (Stamping Bella) is such a cutie blowing out her candles. She was coloured with Promarkers and I added die cut stars to echo those in the paper.

I really hope that you will join in with our celebrations, we have several sponsors this time to tempt you!!

See you soon xx 

Seeds of Friendship

Hello everyone and I hope that you have had an enjoyable weekend. It's been lovely here, lots of sunshine but not too hot. 

Martin's mowing the lawn so I thought I would make good use of the quiet time and post a card that I made today especially for the latest challenges at Allsorts - A Challenge for Kath and Sweet Stampin' - Colours of Autumn. 

 

This is one of those cards created entirely using freebies, the sunflower stamp, sentiment and the stencil all came with magazines at one time or other. I used various inks with the stencil, including an autumnal Big Juicy pad...remember them. It is quite old and was still juicy!! The stem and pot wer coloured with Promarkers and I found some suitably coloured scraps of paper so that I could paper piece the sunflower. I must apologise for the pretty poor photo, honestly it is as crisp as anything but looks dreadful on here...never mind, you get the gist!!

See you again tomorrow xx

A bit square!!

 Hello, friends and anyone who has found themselves here by accident!! 

Today's card is all about the new challenge at As You Like It. We are showcasing the straight or curved this time. Circles or squares, curves, rounded edges or straight lines, whatever you prefer we would love to see it.

I like order, symmetry and straight lines so this was an easy one for me, although I do have a little circle sentiment so, for that, I hope you will forgive me!!

I made this for our very special Grandaughter, Mollie Rose, who started school on Monday!! Yes friends, you have been following me a loooong time if you can remember when she was born here. She's all grown up and, of course, I had to colour the card to suit her uniform. The adorable little image was coloured with Promarkers and, once again, my stash came up trumps with a school type paper pad( Kaisercraft Class of  '87) and some coordinating elements that finished it off beautifully.

Here is the little lady of the moment in all her glory...

...so proud of her.

 Look at the leaves though, a sure sign that Autumn is truly approaching. Our cherry tree is casting leaves really heavily. We picked sloes from our hedges at the weekend (not as many as last year) so started the Sloe Gin off on Tuesday. Then I picked blackberries for Bramble jelly so am stocking up nicely!! The tomatoes have done really well this year too so I have also made several jars of chutney, not my favourite thing to make as the smell is so awful...anybody have any tips to share to avoid the vinegary smell at all? 

So that's me for today. See you soon xx

A Gnome with a cake...of course!!

 Happy Friday everyone and what better way to celebrate than sharing a gnome with a cake!!

This gorgeous image is from Star Jam Lines who is the sponsor at the new Colour Crazy Challenge.

I used Promarkers to colour this cheeky chappy to match some gorgeous, very old, MME papers.

I love that he is wearing an oven glove on his head...that's a look that has passed me by!!

I hope you are all doing okay, especially those of you that are in lockdown. Life has been fairly quiet chez Wills which is actually how we like it. I have started to do a bit of shopping for the festive season and have started making little gifts too. 

That's all for now friends, see you soon xx

Wild Animal

 Hello friends. Hope you are all doing okay and it's lovely to see you.

Another DT card to share with you. This time for our new challenge at

this time we are looking for your favourite wild animal. 

For me it has to be a giraffe, there is something about their faces that I find really appealing. It's their eyes that make them so beautiful. My dear little giraffe, and the sentiment, is from a Clearly Besotted set that was a gift. 

Coloured with Promarkers with just a snippet of paper and a scalloped edge for a little bit of interest.

That's all for now. For those of you in the UK, I am hoping that the weather will stay fair for the August Bank Holiday and that you can enjoy it. We have been quite lucky for the last week or so, although the mornings are feeling chillier and are certainly darker as I go about my horsey chores!!  

See you soon xx

Oh Christmas Tree

I have been really good this year and have kept my crafty purchases to a minimum and buying only essentials like cardstock and adhesive. I have had so much enjoyment revisiting paper pads and stamps that  were long forgotten. This sweet Christmas card is one of the prducts of these findings and is my DT card for our latest challenge at

The theme this time is Anything Cute and Christmass with the option of 

"Oh Christmas Tree"

 

Here is what I made using a totally adorable grey rubber LOTV stamp "Oh Christmas Tree" available in digi form now though, you will be pleased to hear. They were coloured with a mixture of Promarkers and Spectrum Noir pens. The paper is from a Maja Designs pad that I have vowed to actually use, rather than just look at, from now on!! Oh and you know what I said in the opening paragraph...I actually lied because the gorgeous tag die is new...but it was essential!! Lots of stickles were used to add a bit of sparkle.

Hope that you will join us.

Wishing you a lovely week ahead whatever you are up to. Stay safe xx