Plain or Patterned?

Plain or Patterned papers is the new theme at

Come on now, you know the answer to that if you've paid me a visit before!!

I LOVE patterned papers and if I live ten lifetimes would never ever use the paper pads I have appear to have collected over the years!! 

My inspiration for you today shares one of my favourite paper pads Doodlebug Design Frosty Friends that I teamed with a super cute image from one of Amanda Jayne Designs Collections Christmas Cuties

I coloured the adorable bear with Promarkers and added some Star Dust Stickles and purple glitter for a bit of festive twinkle.

I hope that you will have a look through your paper pads, or not, and join us this time.

See you on Saturday xx

Feathers or Fur Cutie Style

 Hello and welcome.

 It makes me smile when I am sat in my craftroom in the sweltering heat making Christmas cards. A small price to pay for a lovely pile of Christmas cards, come December though. Saying that I never have enough and still end up making at the last minute!!

Anyway, less chat and on to business!! There is a new challenge at

where the theme is Something with Feathers or Fur. 

Here is my furry contribution

I first saw the cat and dog  over at Jules' Always with a Heart, I still visit from time to time to borrow her sketches and to see if she has shared anything. If anyone has contact with her please tell her I said hello. Anyway, I managed to find said cat and dog on Ebay actually and, shamefully, have used them very little until now. Ince again, I regret not making multiples of this design...why oh why do I always remember too late!! I used a Crafters companion window die, Santa and his sleigh is a very old Clarity Stamp and the sentiment an LOTV printable.

So that's me for today and I will see you again on Thursday.

Until then take care xx

A bouquet for you

 Happy Weekend Friends!! I am super duper happy as it's the start of a week off. No firm plans but the forecast looks good so it will be riding, walking, cycling and eating I suspect, in no particular order!

As it's Saturday it's my pleasure to share another bit of inspiration for the challenge at

where the prizes for the winners this month come from one of these lovely sponsors...

The optional theme this week is A bouquet of flowers or you can go for the Anything Goes option of course. Here is my card...

Just lately I have been challenging myself with different styles and techniques so decided to revert to cute mode with this card. She is a lovely rubber stamp from Lili of the Valley that I coloured with my Promarkers to match the pretty MFT paper. The jagged edged die is a charity shop find and the border die is actually one of the first I ever bought.

Here's a close up of her sparkly wings and the rolled rose (Marianne designs I think...very old).

                      

Thank you for calling by, your visit is always appreciated.

See you on Monday with a bit of festive fur!! xx

Some Challenges

Passion for Markers #695 - Dies or Punches

Crafty Calendar - Summertime (hopefully the colours and summer blooms fit the bill)

We Love Stamping - Anything Goes

Blooms, Bees & Butterflies

 I hope that the past week has been kind to you and that you have something nice planned for the weekend. Hopefully it will include a little bit of crafting and whatever you are doing please join in at Allsorts where you can share Anything Goes or opt to use our optional theme which, this week, is

Blooms, Bees and Butterflies as chosen by Ellie

I have something different to share with you today. I had a bit of a sort out last weekend and found some little cross stitch pattern books that came free with magazines decades ago. I found they had some really sweet, quick patterns so I dug out my embroidery thread, chose some colours and made this...

In real life, edge to edge including frame, it's about four inches. 

I hope that you will join us for a chance to win a prize from one of our lovely sponsors.

Prizes from Sizzix, AALL and Create, Aldridge Crafts, Lavinia and Ruth Hamilton Design

See you soon xx

AYLI

 My long suffering followers will know that I have a rather unhealthy obsession with patterned paper. While having a little sort out last weekend I made a mountain pile of practically finished pads. One of them was  lovely My Minds Eye, The Sweetest Thing (Lavender). Knowing that a project was required for my DT piece for our Non-Birthday Occasion Challenge at

I made a mini album and cover using up pretty much all the remaining paper. One pad down, many,many to go!!

 The album and it's slip cover

It's tri-fold in design so opens out like this.

then the flaps fold down to reveal pockets and single leaves to paste pictures.

Connor and Amelia have a Miniature Poodle x "Lassie" called Maple so I will paste some snaps of her first six months as a record for them.

This will probably be one of them!!

Thank you for your visit xx

Lads and/or Dads

 Well that weekend whooshed by and, as predicted, my waistbands are definitely a little snugger!! Worth it though because we celebrated Martin's birthday in style!! Back to buiness now with my card to tempt you into joining us at 

where we've gone all masculine with a 

Dads and/or Lads theme...cute of course!!

I thought it was about time I aired my pencils and, once again, had a jolly good rummage in my stash. I loved the Molly Blooms range of stamps and used Mischevious George here (you can get the mini version, and many others, at Sir Stampalot). Once colourd up I sat him in a heat embossed splattered circle and found scraps of paper and card to match, risky for me as I normally choose paper first and colour to compliment!! Phew it worked out okay!!

Thank you for stopping by. Looking forward to seeing what you share with us x

Folk Floral Birthday

Happy weekend folks and thank you for sharing yours with me. I am much enjoying preparing my Saturday posts to share my cards for

Our optional theme this week chosen by Dena is Birthday, of course it's also Anything Goes.

 You have probably noticed by now that if I am lacking mojo, I draw on the inspiration vault of Sam Calcott. This card is another one based on one of her brilliant tutorials here.

On a mission to actually use, at least some of my paper mountain,  I chose a Docrafts paper pack called Folk Floral, so pretty and unusual colours and teamed with teal looked lovely. The diamonds are attached to acetate so they really do look like they are floating. Another fab design from Sam.

Our sponsors this month are  Sizzix, AALL and Create, Aldridge Crafts, Lavinia and Ruth Hamilton Design.

We have had celebrations chez Wills this week. Hubby had a significant Birthday (shhhh 60) so I swapped my working week around so we could celebrate. We had a delicious lunch out on the day and have more eating to do this weekend. Thankfully I have some summer dresses that will accomodate a food baby quite comfortably!! I hope you all have a lovely weekend whatever you are up to.

See you on Monday with something cute. Until then take care xx

Dies at Allsorts

Get me, I am in the driving seat over at Allsorts today and I picked "Dies" as the optional theme.

Here is an 18th Birthday card that I made for a member of the family.  

The large star was cut outbefore I embossed the bunting onto craft card and then put the stars in ever decreasing sizes back into the space. Happy and Birthday were from different sets Whimsy and Your Next Stamp, I think and the 18 was from a numbers die set that came free with a magazine many moons ago. I embossed the "th" with silver powder so that it matched. Another different style for me!!

I hope that you will join us, as always there are some great prizes for this month.

See you soon xx

 

Pastels or Brights at AYLI

 
Pastels or Brights is your quest at

I tend to lean towards brights. I have definitely mentioned it before but back in the 80's I joined a group of colleagues from work in having my "colours done". Winter I was, apparently the only season able to wear black successfully, with a touch of Autumn thrown in for good measure. . Anyway, I digress, my colour palette included bright clear colours and, to this day, I still carry my swatches (on the rare occasion when I am looking for anything other than riding gear!!) when clothes shopping. So in a long winded round about way, that is why I choose brights!!

If you are still with me, here is my card

The gorgeous paper (The Range) was the starting point, I just love those bright yellows and blues. I found a stamp in my stash that was an Allsorts win and, using my Stamp Perfect, inked direct to the stamp to achieve the watercoloured look I was after. 

I hope you will take inspiration and join us.

See you again on Saturday xx