Bees, Butterflies and Blooms

Happy weekend everyone, I hope it's going to be full of good things wherever you are in the world.

Summer is in full swing here in the UK and the optional theme at Allsorts this week is perfect.

Bees, Blooms and Butterflies

Here is my card to tempt you.

 I found a perfect red, rubber, Whimsy Stamp in my collection and coloured it, with Promarkers, to match a ditsy print paper pad that came from The Range. I used an old Impression Obsession butterfly die set to embellish the card. The sentiment was made up from two stamp sets, both magazine freebies, back in the day. A work colleague is retiring next Friday so I made this card for her.

Prizes from Craft Stash, Highlight Crafts and AALL and Create

This was earlier in the week. A long awaited summer morning.

It's lovely to have your company. See you soon xx

Dads and/or lads Cutie style

 Father's Day is next Sunday in the UK so we are all about the Dads and Lads at

I've made a card for Martin from Bowie and Bumble.

I used a Whimsy dog stamp and sentiment and then found a similar font and printed the additional sentiment on the digital backing paper. Layered up with navy cardstock it looks just right. The sweet dog was coloured with Promarkers.

We have been enjoying some reasonable weather here and our lane has dried out suffieicntly for us to actually get out on our pushbikes, which we always enjoy at this time of year. It was nice enough on Friday to stop at the little shop in our neighbouring village and have a pot of tea outside. Typically I am on annual leave this week and it looks like the rain is coming back.

I'll leave you with some blue sky from last week.

I will see you later in the week. Until then, take care xx

Favourite Domestic Animal

 Phew...the heatwave is finally over, here in sunny Dorset, and we've even had some much needed  rain that will hopefully perk up the grass a bit. 

Today's post is to share some inspiration for our new challenge at

where we would like to see your favourite domestic animal.

A tough choice for me but having had dogs in our family since I was on maternity leave awaiting Declan's arrival 33 years ago, so I have chosen dogs. There's nothing quite like their loyalty and they are the best comfort when you are feeling below par. 

I chose a pooch from a Whimsy stamp set and coloured him with my Promarkers. The spotty green mat went really well with the bottle green card base and it also quenched my thirst to see some green as the lawn has been brown for so long!!

I'll leave you with a snap of my lovely boys, Bowie and Bumble.

Looking forward to seeing your makes.

See you soon xx

Blond or Brunette?

 We love making you think out of the box at

and this challenge is no exception. We would LOVE to know whether you favour

 blonde or brunette? 

I have never been overly confident with colouring hair and gave up trying to get any realistic effect a long time ago.

I am brunette through and through, well at least, I used to be!! I had gloriously dark glossy hair until I was about 35 when the grey/white started to appear. I coloured it until I was 50 and have let Mother Nature do her "thing" ever since. I am now blessed with a rather nicely even salt and pepper crown. 

My lovely little (antique c2012!!) Whimsy rubber stamp was coloured with Promarkers and her hair has a touch of pencil too for definition. Such pretty patterned papers called for a simple design and just a few pretties to finish off.

Thank you for your good wishes following my fall. My bottom is s..l..o..w..l..y recovering and thankfully my wonderful Hubby and a friend are keeping Wills ticking over for me. I don't think I am going to be back in the saddle just yet. The whole episode has made me realise that I am getting old!!

Thank you for your visit and I hope you will share your marvellous hair colouring with the Team.

Bye for now xx

Happy Birthday bunny

 Hello everyone. I hope you all had a good weekend and are looking forward to the week ahead. I took a bit of a tumble from Wills on Saturday so am feeling a little bit sore and my right buttock is an interesting colour. Still, could have been worse!! 

I don't know about you but I always fill an A4 sheet with digis, even if I only need one for a DT piece. For that reason I am on a mission to colour up the resulting mountain of digi images that I seem to have accumulated and this is the first.

This gorgeous little Spring image just cried out to be dressed in pink. For a change I gave the Promarkers a rest and used my SN Illustrator pens. Just a simple design as usual but adorned with a simple punched layered flower. 

I used a "Happy" stamp from a Craftwork Cards set and the lovely "Birthday" die is a Whimsy one that was a gift from a lovely crafty pal and used a snippet of white card.

Thank you for stopping by. Your compnay, as always, is most welcome xx

Some Challenges

Snippets Playground #429

Passion for Markers #642 - Spots and/or Stripes

Birthday Wishes

 Hello all. Hope you are well this Friday and looking forward to the weekend. 

 I have a cute squirrel to share with you today. He and his bunch of balloons is available here and his creator is the sponsor of the new challenge at

You know by now that it's always Anything Goes and your image must be hand coloured...easy!!

The original plan was to just showcase the image and balance it with the fabulous "Birthday" but it just didn't look right, boy oh boy did I panic..."what if I can't find the exact colours among my obscene amount of paper pads?" As if!! All is well though as I found just the thing in an old Echo Park A Boy's Life pad and it looked so much better. 

I have looked in awe at you clever colourists who manage to make balloons look see through so was determined to have a jolly good go. Imagine my delight when I realised that I had achieved a reasonable attempt, I really should have more confidence at my age!!

Thank you for calling, it's still a delight to see comments, they are much appreciated.

See you soon xx 

 

Cutie Pie Challenge

Hello. It's a cute one from me today...no change there then!!

is ANYTHING GOES, as long as it's cute.

This cute little lady is Winnie from our sponsor

I used Promarkers to colour her to match the pretty papers which are from one of my many "Julie Loves" sets. As usual the design is quite simple but I found myself with a large white area, top right, so used my companion die and stamp set from Whimsy, which filled the space perfectly. The "everything" was heat embossed in white.

Have a good week xx

Some challenges

A touch of shabby chic

I said I would be back didn't I? This is the card that was under construction!!

I have had more crafting time on my hands since New Year as my daft horse went and injured herself in the field galloping around like a crazy thing. Consequently I have had to make the decision to retire her as the injury is such that she is unlikely to make a full recovery. I am struggling to come to terms with this :0(  Anyway, the point being, while I was being creative with my time, I spotted some challenges that inspired me to make this.

I know, shabby chic and very pink, I was amazed too!!

I was inspired by these challenges

Moving Along With The Times #91 - A Little Shabby Chic
Double D Challenges - Pink and White
Sweet Stampin' - Love your pet
My Time To Craft #391 - Pink and girly

I think I am back again on the other side of the weekend with a little bit of Christmas, so will see you then. Have a good weekend, whatever your plans xx

Here is said "daft horse" on her evening stretch out of the stable pointing her poorly leg!!

Furry Friends for Hubby

Hello again, I lied...it's not the other side of the weekend, it's Friday and it is my Hubby's birthday today so I must share his card that was made with a few challenges in mind.

Of course it had to feature a dog as he loves our two very much indeed!!

I used a favourite paper from Nitwits Collection, called Tail Wags too for this layered fold back card. The sweet dog is from a Whimsy Stamps collection, aptly called Furry Friends. He was, of course, coloured with Promarkers.

Martin is, unfortunately, working today but hopefully he will manage to finish early so that we can spend the day together.

I really will see you on the other side of the weekend this time!!

Some Challenges

Back to basics & beyond #4 - Fold Back Card

Whimsy Stamps Challenge #106 - Anything Goes

I Love promarkers #360 - Anything Goes

Stamping Sensations - June Anything Goes

AYLI Favourite Medium

Hello there friends, I hope the week has been good to you so far.
My card today is my DT piece for

Such an easy theme for you this week a project using your
Favourite Colouring Medium

No prizes for guessing that mine is Promarkers!! I have tried most alcohol markers, had a play with a couple of branded pencils but always, always go back to my Promarkers. They just work for me!!

I used them to colour a fabulous Whimsy Stamp that was a Birthday present, together with the First Edition, Sweet Nothings, paper pad
( you know me so well, lovely lady!!).

It would be lovely if you can join us.

See you there!!

Some challenges

Addicted to stamps and more #287 - Make your mark
Crafty Animals #13 - Anything goes
CCC digi creations #91 - Include an animal
Whimsy Stamps #104 - Anything goes

Amy's Pups

Hello my crafty friends. I am here to share another of the fabulous images from Sasayaki Glitter.

This particular sweetie is Amy's pups.

The papers came with some goodies that recently arrived with my latest purchases from Dies To Die For, too fabulous to put away so I used them straight away. Amy and her pups were coloured with Promarkers to match. The sentiment die happens to be one of the items in the aforementioned package and although there is a companion stamp set I decided to refrain from buying that too as I was certain to have stamps to fit...and I did!! The "Birthday" is from a Clearly Besotted set.

It's been a glorious day here, bright, sunny and just the right side of chilly to hopefully kill off the nasty viruses that are doing the rounds locally.

Well that is me for today, have a good evening xx

Some challenges

Allsorts #449 - Something new
(image, die and papers)
A Gem Of A Challenge #210 - Happy anything
Crafty Catz #98 - Anything Goes with a twist

I'll grow into it!!

Hello everyone and Happy Weekend to those of you not working.

Today I am sharing a make to showcase another Buddly Crafts image and paper set (Silent Night) which happens to be a favourite of mine as they can be used at any time of year.

She was coloured with Promarkers then I added some glamour dust to her oversized jumper and Wink of Stella to her wings. My Cheery Lynn poinsettia strip got an airing as did a Whimsy stamp and companion die that I had forgotten about...as you do!!

Some challenges

Creative Inspirations #334 - Sparkle
Creative Corner - Christmas - No red or green
Winter Wonderland - Angels
In the Pink #81 - Magical
A snowflakes promise #9 - Anything Christmas/Winter
Love to Scrap #65 - Bling it girlfriend

We are heading into town today in the hope of finding some black winter boots for me and getting some Christmas shopping done. Martin has just passed the "don't forget to buy your new 2016 diary" page in this year's diary, so that's on the list too...he's nothing if not organised is my Hubby!!
Whatever you are doing I hope it's a good day for you.

See you soon xx