Hello!

Good morning all

I've been missing from around here for sooo long, first my Florida holiday (complete with hurricaine!)  Then when we got back home things have just been so busy, house things and family and such a lot to do and catch up on that I haven't felt much like blogging at all to be honest.  But I'm hoping I've now got my enthusiasm back and I'll get my blog back in business!!

So many things seemed to have happened in these last few weeks I could write a book not a blog - but I definitely haven't got time to write a book!! - though it's always something I thought I might do - they recon there's a novel inside of each of us, ha ha watch this space .....

Anyway down to blogging  business......

 I have a Christmas card to share today

its for the challenge over at

Fab'n'Funky Challenges

where the theme this week is 

Paper Piecing

The stamp is from Imagination Crafts decoupage stamp range.  I bought a whole set of them a while ago because I loved the traditional styles and thought they were a little bit different to other Christmas styles around- and this was exactly the style of card I had in mind.  Not to difficult to make but with the lovely poinsettia image lending itself to a bit if paper piecing and decoupage.  I think I might make up a few while I'm on a roll. 

We have a fabulous sponsor this week

Crafty Ribbons

offering a great prize for our challenge winner

This is what I did....

 I stamped the image onto white card, then parts of the stamp onto the patterned paper and pieced it back into the stamped image, I then stamped the poinsettia again and decoupaged another layer.- it was really quite easy to do

Image - from imagination crafts decoupage stamp range

papers - First edition - Vintage noel

Dies - Creative expressions Sue Wilson pierced square 

           Tag dies from MFT

Ribbon from my stash

Card = neenah white card from Crafter's Companion

Neuvo drops from tonic (in centre of poinsettia)

Card background coloured with CC Spectrum Noir pens TN1 and 2

We'd love to see your paper piecing at Fab'n'Funky - hope to see you there.  I'll be round to catch up with your blogs very soon.

hugs

Judith x

Love is all around - at Crafty purple frog!

Good morning all

I was really excited when the lovely Amy asked me to join her new DT over at 

Crafty Purple Frog Challenge Blog

This is my first challenge with the team and our theme for the month is

Love is all around

It can be a wedding, special friendship something for your loved one

- anything to spread the love

The Prize as always is a £10 gift voucher to spend at the 

Crafty Purple Frog Shop

I decided that love means hearts! and made this card for a special friend

it's her birthday on Sunday - then her husband's on Monday

 - I'll share the fun card I made for him next week

Here's what I did....

Papers - Story Teller from first Edition - just gorgeous, glittery, pearly, so colourful!

Sequins - Dovecraft Bohemian sequins 

Cute peg and Friends sentiment also from Dovecraft 

if you click on the links above you can see all the goodies at the Crafty purple Frog Shop
The large heart is from the Entwined collection by Leonie Pujol
The smaller heart die is from the Sara Davies Love and Romance collection 

Hope you'll join in with our challenge this month - there's lots of love to share 💕💕💕💕

Hugs

Judith xx

Everyone's favourite - male birthday card!!

Good morning all

It's challenge day again at 

Fab'n'Funky Challenges

and our lovely Alison is hosting this week

She has chosen the theme 

Male Birthdays

now I know a lot of people dont like making male cards

- but it suits me fine - I love making male cards

especially when it's with the fabulous images from 

Dr Digi's house of Stamps - this one is called a Dunderton Abroad 

and is available HERE

I just love these stamps

 - they are fabulous to colour -

 and there are some great male images

Our sponsor this week is 

and there is a prize of 2 digis for this weeks winner

This is what I did....

Image - A Dunderton Abroad

Coloured with Spectrum Noir pens and pencils

Sentiment and suitcase stamp and die - Heartfelt Creations

Papers - Neroli by First Edition

Distressinks - Tea die and Walnut stain

Black card - Crafters Companion

Hope you'll join in with our challenge this week

Challenges I'm entering with this card

Tuesday Throwdown - layer it up
Through the craftroom door - anything goes
Little miss muffet challenge - Anything goes

hugs 

Judith xx

Ready-Teddy -Picture inspiration

Good Morning all

Its an extra special day today because....today is my first post for 

Ready-Teddy-Go Challenge
This really is the perfect challenge for me as I just love teddys!!

We have a lovely picture inspiration challenge going on this month
All shown below - lots of ideas there I think!

I chose to use this cute bear from 

The Paper Shelter 
- called -

Teddy bear with Flower

(don't know why this card looks so wavy along the bottom here 

- because I promise you it is straight!!)

Here's what I did..

Image - Teddy bear with flower - from The Paper Shelter available here

Coloured with copics

Sentiment - from LOTV set available here

Circles cut with woodware punch and spellbinders scalloped circle die

Papers - Isabelle from first edition

Rick rack ribbon - From a set from American Crafts - held with staples

Buttons - Papermania

Butterfly punches - Martha Stewart (large) and Woodware (small)

Other embellies from my stash

distress Ink - Tea die from Tim Holtz

Challenges I'm entering with this card

Cutie Pie challenge - Cute and cuddly challenge
Make it Monday - anything goes

Challenges for everybody - anything goes

Whoopsi daisy challenge- use markers

Hope we'll see you at  Ready-Teddy-Go this week.

Hugs 

Judith xx

Going round in circles - that's me!

Good morning all

Well! - if ever a challenge was all about me its this one!

Over at Delightful Challenges we have a new challenge and the theme is 

Round up

(must include circles)

If ever anyone spends their time going round in circles its me! - sometimes I'm sure I met myself coming back!  Life's really busy at the moment - some of you may know that I scribe/type for my son who is severely disabled and doing a degree course.  It's his final year this year - that means dissertation 10,000 -words of it- due in early May! - he's almost there but there's lots of redrafting and moving of text going on so its pretty full on, then there's two essays and a presentation by the end of May -on top of that that there's just normal life to get on with - roll on June, then it's off to California for me yippee!! - but for now its back to the grind lol.

Ballerina Bobbi available here

and Spring sentiments available here

I just got this one done by the skin of my teeth (sorry Larelyn!) - I try to work ahead with my DT projects - sometimes one goes a bit astray - well a few of late if the truth be known - but I do get there in the end!

My main problem with this one was I forgot what I was doing!  I had intended to make a circular easel card - one of my favourites - but forgot that bit and after I'd coloured it - promptly cut it into a square!  and had half the card made before I remembered about the circle bit.  So I had to do a bit of a rescue job to make it back into a circle again and this was the result!

We have a fab Sponsor this week



and the prize is a $15 store gift card

www.scrapyland.com 

This is what I did...

Image - Ballerina Bobbi by Digital Delights

Coloured with copics and prismacolor pencils

Sentiment - from the spring sentiments set

Papers - first edition birdsong

card - bazzill basics

Circle die  - Spellbinders

Heart banner - lala land die (cut in half (just love this - my newest toy!!)

Pink feathers - from Joanna Sheen (had them for years!)

resin rose and pearl heart - my crafty heart

Other embellies from my stash

I think this ones an easy challenge - look how easily i turned a square into a circle!! - my teamies at Delightful challenges have made some fab cards - call on in and bring your circle card with you 

see you there

Challenges I'm entering with this card

CCEE stampers - recipe -2 papers 1 circle 1 square
Little Miss Muffet - Anything goes
Digistamps4joy - anything goes
The stamping chef - girly
Tip top Tuesday -boys and girls come out to play

hugs

Judith xx

How many shades of grey do you really, really need!!?

Hello there blog friends - Happy Tuesday

Today I've got with a quick tutorial  that I've done for Inky impressions about two things really 

1. You don't need a Christmas image to make a Christmas card
2. You only need one shade of grey - or one colour infact - no matter what that book says!!

I've made a quick and easy Christmas card with the Inky Impressions stamp

Hazel baking cookies

you can find her  here

I coloured her with copics - not particularly carefully (whoops!) - but that doesn't really matter when you use a prismacolour pencil to go back in to add shade and depth to the image. And to shade the whole image all you need is 

One shade of grey!!

Infact prismacolor 70% warm grey.  You could use any grey or even black (and if I want an even deeper vintage look I do use black- it does great things when used with red - but thats for another day)  but for this particular card I wanted a warm look and thats what the 70% grey gives to this image.

Here is the image coloured with copics - it looks ok - but lacks any depth and as you can see I havent done a great deal of blending with the colours and it all looks a bit too bright in places

Next I added lines of grey where I wanted to add the shade with the pencil you'll notice I have not added any to the centre of the face

I then started to blend the pencil with Sansodor solvent

You can now see that there is a lot more depth to the image also I added shade to the centre of the face just by using whatever colour I had already picked up on my blending stump and blending it into the centre of  the face.

I then cleaned off my blending stump (with an emery board) and used just Sansodor to further blend and thin out the grey in places

All of the colours are now muted - which was the effect I was looking for- and there is shade and light to the little bears fur and the clothes and bowl.

I then trimmed the card and shaded with distress ink before I mounted the image onto green card and added  papers, ribbon  and embellies  to make this cute Christmas card - and there she is

Hazel baking her Christmas Cookies

This is what I used to make this card

Image - Hazel baking cookies from Inky impressions

Coloured with copics - fur E40,41,43  ribbon and apron trim R37,35,32  apron G28,07,00  bowl E53,51,       cookie mix E11,21, eyes B93 Inside ears YR 20,21

And ....Prismacolor pencil - one shade of grey 70% warm grey

Papers - first edition - festive treats (cookies were also cut from these papers)

Distress ink - Tea dye by Tim Holtz 

Sentiment - LOTV

Shaped card - craftwork cards

Heart charm - Inky impressions

Gems and ribbon - from my stash

Challenges i'm entering with this card

Loves rubber stamps -anything goes

Now go and have a look at your stamps! There's lots of stamps you could use that aren't Christmas stamps that will make a beautiful Christmas card.  Hope I gave you some inspiration

hugs

Judith xx

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

A birthday card for a new Daddy x

Hi again

At last I have a card to post today - can't believe how I managed to mess up my blog when I decided to have a little play with the layout on Friday.  it took me ages and when I finished I hated it!  So I had to start all over again and its taken me all weekend to get it something like the way I wanted it again!  I've decided palm trees and parrots flying around my posts are not really my style after all lol.

Anyway, I've got soooo many cards to make over the next few weeks I'd better get going.  on 27th March it the most megga card day of the year for our family.  My daughter Alison and her husband both have their birthday on that day, on top of that its their 2nd wedding anniversary.  So todays card is the first of these, its Stevens bithday card - a mans card always the most awkward, for a young man I think its even worse!

This is a cute Lili of the Valley stamp of a daddy and baby bear Bear - really appropriate for my son in law because he's a new Daddy of a baby boy - now 11 weeks old and just as cute

What I did.....

Stamp - Lili of the valley - Armchair bear
Coloured with - copics and prismacolor pencils
Paper - First edition spring feast
kraft card
Distress ink on paper and card - Tim Holtz tea dye
Stamps on tag and border - Dawn Bibby
Ribbon - Carnmeal cottage
Border punch - Martha Stewart
Die cut corners - Spellbinders - parisian
Scalloped circle - spellbinders
Buttons from my stash

For the following challenges

Birthday Sundaes Challenge- birthday catd with sentiment (35)
Papercrafting Journey - anything goes (227)
ABC challenge - K for Kraft (33)
One stop craft challenge - button it! (34)
Creative Inspirations - #152 - anything goes  (196)
Inspirational card challenges - Sketch (10)

Thats all from me for today - have a great week and thanks for visiting xx