April showers ..... bring MAY FLOWERS!

Good morning all

Firstly I must apologise for my absences over the last week I've been completely put off course because my Grandson had chicken pox which meant I had him all day every day instead of the normal afternoons after nursery school, luckily he wasn't very poorly with it and was fine towards the end of the week - so needed to be entertained!  Fortunately we had a supply  of card and paper and ribbon to make all kinds of crafty things - he really enjoyed it and spent the days saying - Grandma what can we make now!!

Not only were my days filled but my evenings have been spent scribing for my son Tom for his masters degree work.  Not only that but the whole of the bank holiday weekend was spent locked away in his room - working away, I switched off my phone and he had a really productive week  - only one essay left to finish now - but still lots to do - I forgot how tiring study is - I slept well each night after those marathons - unfortunately poor Tom is having a hard time switching off and not sleeping well at all - the joys of being a student

I was really pleased that I had been organised and had worked ahead, I had nearly the whole weeks posts scheduled and all but one card made.  but I'm totally back to nothing in hand but a couple of odd cards and I'm going on holiday in two weeks eeek!! 

Never mind - I'll do my best and see where I get with it all!!

but for now its on to this weeks challenge at

Fab'n'Funky Challenges

it's my turn to host and the theme is

May Flowers

we were very lucky not to have too many April showers - 

but I'm sure our May flowers will still arrive lol

We are lucky enough to be sponsored by the fabulous 

Lacy Sunshine Stamps

who are offering a prize of 3 digi stamps to the lucky winner

I chose to use this cute digi called Pablo 

available here

when I saw this cute image I thought it would be fun to make a really colourful card

I wasn't sure about it at first - but i did some extra shading on the image with my spectrum noir pencils and it really brought him to life

This is what I did...

Image - Pablo from Lacy Sunshine stamps

Coloured with copics and spectrum noir pencils

Papers by The sweetest thing tangerine from MME

Card - Bazzill basics

Dies from Dienamics 19 from MFT

Sentiment tags LOTV

Ribbon - Michaels

I hope I can get myself back on track to do some catch up visiting this next few days - see you soon!

Challenges I'm entering with this card

Stamping sensations - Flower power
Allsorts challenge - April showers bring May flowers
Creative fingers - anything goes (8/5)
Fussy and fancy - lots of flowers

hugs

Judith xx

Welcome to The Paper Shelter Special Birthday Blog Hop

Good Morning all

Greetings from me -still in sunny Florida and welcome to The Paper Shelter Blog Hop 

This is our celebration of The Paper Shelters 3rd Birthday on December 8th.  As well as the blog hop It is also a two week Challenge and both Design Teams are taking part.

The Hop is our celebration of three years of fabulous digis from Veronica and Pedro the most generous owners of The Paper Shelter and also our way of saying thank you to our loyal followers for supporting our challenge each week.  

The theme is a  "Special Birthday" which I know is an easy one - I don't know anyone who doesn't have a birthday card to make .... So make it special!!!

If you have landed here from Anna's blog then you're heading in the right direction - if not then you'll need to head on back to The Paper Shelter Challenge Blog to check on the order - as you'll not want to miss out on this one!  The next stop after this one is Lydia's blog.

Our Wonderful Design Team have worked so hard and are showcasing the gorgeous images available from The Paper Shelter Shop.  Not only is there a fab prize for the main blog hop winner but each blog on the hop is also offering one lucky commenter a digi of their choice -  how fab is that!  Full details are on The Paper Shelter Challenge Blogspot.

Here is my card using one of the gorgeous new digis we've had lately

She's called Autumn Attitude and is available here
She really is so beautiful
- it wasn't until I started to colour her that I realised what a beautiful face she has

This is what I did....

Image - Autumn Attitudefrom The Paper Shelter

Coloured with copics and prisma colour pencils

Papers -MME 

Sentiment tags - LOTV

Corner - reflections from Michaels

Ricardo ribbon - crafty ribbons

Butterfly - from my stash

Die cut oval - spellbinders
Distress inks - Tim Holtz  tea die and winter spruce

From here remember you will need to hop on over to Lydia -http://scrappenbylydia.blogspot.co.uk/- Don't forget to leave your comment here on my blob for your chance to win your choice of one of the fab digis available in store.

Hop! Hop! Hop!

Good luck and hope you're enjoying the hop so far.

Challenges I'm entering with this card

Crafting for all seasons - Birthday

digistamps 4 joy - distressing

Papertake Weekly - anything goes

tip top tuesday - use kraft

Hugs

Judith xx

Too cute to spook!!

Good morning all

There are some very spooky goings on at Moving along with the Times Challenge blog this week and if you pop on over there to have a look you see....

Our new challenge this week is 

Spooktastic Times 

- or Halloween to me and you lol

I used this reeeally cute digis from Crissy Armstrong at Whimsy Stamps available here

Shees called Halloween witchy girls and 

I think she is my favourite little witch for this year - I 've just been dying to use her.

She's just soo pretty and so cute!!

I'm afraid I just couldn't get a good photograph of this one at all - I just finished it off last night and it just was soo wrong in artificial light -in real life the glitter I used is matching the ribbon but in this picture it just looks like the ribbon is the wrong shade with the colouring - oh well :(

This is what I did...

Image - Halloween Witchy girl from Crissy Armstrong at Whimsy Stamps

Coloured with Copics and Prismacoor pencils

Paper and aper embellies - MME - Wicked merchant mavaldo

Gems - jollies

Ribbon - recollections from Michaels

distress ink - TH iced spruce.

There are so many fabulous Halloween goodies around now - i hope you feel inspired to join us over at MAWTT this week.

Challenges I'm entering with this card

Hanna and friends- halloween

papercrafting journey - use halloween colours

Sarah Hurley challenge- Halloween

Craft challenge - halloween/fall/autumn

Hugs 

Judith xx

Its all Rock'n'Roll to me!

Good morning all

How can it have got to be Wednesday already!  - and yet another challenge day over at Fab'n'Funky Challenges - not only that - but its my turn to host so I get to chose the theme!!

  I always enjoy the music challenges over on other challenge blogs
so decided to host my own -with a twist!

The challenge name is 

Its all Rock'n'Roll to me 

That means you can do one (or both if you like) of two things 

either
 make a card showing some sort of Musical theme 

or 

a card which is the name of a song 

and for that option you must tell us the name of the song that your card represents 

My card show this fab image called 

Groove Dude - a fabulous image from  Kenny K downloads available here

I love this image - I've used him before for a "boy" card, I think lots of boys (and men) would love this cool dude!

We are lucky enough to be sponsored by Kenny K Downloads this week

 and the DT girls got some fabulous music themed digis to play with - call in at Fab'n'Funky challenges and you can see what we all did with them!

Heres what I did....

Image - groove Dude by Kenny K downloads

Coloured with copics

Papers MME wicked merchant malvado

gems - jollies

distress inks - TH tea dye and winter spruce

Challenges I'm entering with this card

Stampavie and more - Pearls and swirls

Nutcrafters - colouring

Addicted to stamps - Anything goes

hugs 

Judith xx

Fairies and fantasy challenge at Moving Along With The Times

Good morning all

Its time for another challenge at MAWTT and this week our gorgeous Kelly has chosen the theme

Faeries and Fantasy

We are sponsored this week by the fabulous 

Rick St Dennis 

and the DT girls got some gorgeous Digis to play with 

I just loved this one as soon as I saw him

Fabulous for a male card

he's called LiL wiZarD available here

Here's what I did .....
Image - Rick St Dennis
Coloured with copics and Prismacolor pencils
Papers- Sunshine from MME
Sentiment - produced in word
Star die - Nellie Snellen
Swirl die - Memory box Elegant scrollwork
Label die - dienamics labels
Circle dies - Spellbinders
Glitter - diamond stickles
Distress ink - Tea die by Tim Holtz

There are some fabulous creations over on the MAWTT challenge blog with lots of Rick St Dennis inspired digis - come and join in the fun with us this week to put some fantasy into your life - maybe the odd fairy too

Challenges I'm entering with this card

Aud sentiments - for a guy
Inky impressions - punches and dies
Paper pretties - happy birthday
Pennys paper crafty - Use a sentiment
Die cuttin Divas - use a star
Songbird challenges- use a star


Hugs

Judith x

Hope you're blooming this morning!

Good morning all

Today I have a card that was supposed to be a DT card for the challenge at

 My Time to Craft

the Challenge is

Decoupage

but I didn't get it finished in time!

To be fair its not my week to post on MTTC DT but when I saw this image I knew it was perfect for the challenge, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it -so decided I would  go for it.  The image is one of the gorgeous new release digis over at Whimsy Stamps from

Stampart Designs by Kathryne

 and its called

 Pretty Petals2 available here

It took me ages to colour all of the flowers for this card, I printed the image twice and coloured all of the flowers - I'm not a - just because you can't see them girl!  all of the flowers are coloured under the decoupaged ones too!  The sentiment also comes in the set with the image (there are two others that say "love blooms here" that are really nice too)

I cut out the second flowers shaped them and mounted them on different sizes of 3d foam to give a variety of height and left some of the flowers just as the flowers on the original card.  I then cut a couple of the flowers to embellish the sentiment - just to tie it into the design.  i also edged all the white card with a toning pen (copic R02) just to difine the edge.  I was really pleased with this when it was finished, I didn't go overboard on the embellies as the flowers say it all on this card, I felt quite pleased with myself that everything on this card was hand made(except the pearls!)  and I had to use a really big bow to finish it off - well you always get a big bow on a bouquet of flowers don't you lol.

A close up of the decoupage

Here's what I did.....

Image and sentiment -Pretty Petals 2 from Stampart Design by Kathryne
coloured with copics - FlowersR000,R00,R02,R05, LeavesYR00 and G61,G63, flower centreY17 and Y35

Papers - MME

Ribbon - Carnmeal Cottage

Pearls from my stash

Card cut with spellbinders grand nesties

Tag cut with - Dienamics tag

The sentiment and decoupage

Challenges I'm entering with this card

Paper creators blogspot - circular easels
Inspire me Fridays - anything goes
Sweetpea stampers - use a digistamp
Pile it on - shaped cards
Challenges4everybody - Anything goes
Ecclectic Ellapu - anything girly
One stitch at a time - anything goes
crafty ribbons - anything goes
Craftroom challenge - make your own embellishments
The paper shelter - altered or many folds

Have a great weekend

Hugs Judith x

Only for girls over at Moving along with the Times challenge blog this week!!

Good morning all

I'm here with my second post today and this time its For MAWTT and the theme is 

Only girls allowed

We have been sponsored this week by the fabulous Kenny K

 who gave us some fab digis to play with.  They are offering a fab prize of 3 digis for the winner.

  I chose this cute little lady called "Happy hour" available here

- just great for all kinds of cards

This is what I did ....

Image - Happy hour from kenny k
Coloured with Copics
Sentiment from Kanban
Papers - So sophie from MME
Dies - Fancy scroll from memory box
         Flowers heart  and photo corners Dienamics
Gems - say it in crystals
Pearls - kaisercraft
Kraft card distressed with tea die DI
Glass - glossed with glossy accents

Challenges I'm entering with this card

Make it Monday -Anything goes
Incy wincy - love is in the air
Stamp'n'doodle - love/valentines
Simon says stamp challenge  - have a heart
Inky Impressions - love
Kenny ks krafty krew - hearts and flowers
Copic markers Europe -anything goes
digidesignchallengeblog - love or valentines

Whimsy Stamps January blog hop - Happy New Year!

Happy new Year!!

Oh I feel like I've been away for ages, I packed all my crafty stuff away for the holidays and have paid only the occasional visit to blogland - I've really enjoyed our quiet family Christmas and New Year and I'm slowly getting my pens and papers and all the other paraphernalia out to make a brand new start for 2013, and this is my very first inspiration card this year for the Whimsy Stamps blog hop 

So here we go - Welcome to the January 2013 digital release blog hop!!!!

We have lots of new images to share with you today created by

Marika Collins Collection

Moon Cookie Gallery Crissy's Digi's

Stamp Art Design

Lia Stampz

Dana's Digi's

All Whimsy Stamps digital images are 300dpi for high print quality.You can re-size, flip, or rotate to fit your own project

To find all of today's new releases please visit the Whimsy Stamps Store Don't forget to leave comments along the way as there will be 2 mystery DT Members who will each be choosing a winner from the comments left on their hop posts!

These winners will each win a Whimsy digital image of their choice. The Grand Prize winner of the hop will be chosen from the very last stop, which is Laura’s Blog

This winner will receive 5 digital stamps of their choice from the Whimsy Stamps Store

The hop will run for 1 week and end on Wednesday 9th January at 12 Noon EST, when the lucky winners will be announced.

Below is a complete list of the hop in case you get lost along the way 

Tammy Ortiz 
 Anne Cullen
  Charlene Brown
  Debbie Dunn
  Judith Hall
  Kelly Mannix
  Kim Taylor
  Lisa West
  Sarah McLaughlin
  Laura Palmer 

So after me you need to visit Kelly 

For my Card I have used the gorgeous

 Danii 

by 

Marika Collins

you can get her here

and 

One of  new Smile Sentiments 

by

 Rainbow Echo Designs

available here

a close up of the sentiment

This is what I did....

Image - Danni by Marika Collins  at Whimsy Stamps
Sentiment - new smile sentiments by Rainbow echo designs at Whimsy Stamps
Papers are MME
Frame - cut with spellbinders labels 10
Flowers - cut with Dienamics flower and leaf trio
Leaves - spellbinders foliage die
Glitter - Martha Stewart silver glitter glue
Pearls and buttons from my stash
Heart stamp in background is from a dawn bibby set but I've lost the label with the name!

So get hopping to Kellys blog and see if you can win your first prize for 2013.

Challenges I'm entering with this card

Simply create -anything goes
Lady Annes challenges - must use a stamp
The paper shelter - anything goes
Inky Impressions - anything goes


Hugs Judith xx

Christmas Crackers challenge day at MAWTT

Good morning all

And a Ho Ho Ho to you all this morning!

We've got a new challenge over at Moving Along With The Times and the theme is 

Christmas Crackers!

What we want to see is funny Christmas Cards

Lets make it a real happy Christmas with lots of fun on our blogs - instead of all the moaning I've seen lately (myself included!) about being too busy, being stressed,not getting things done.... you know what I mean.  So heres my attempt to raise a smile in blogland! 

I didn't go for the out and out funny card, just thought to myself - use a snowman and find a silly sentiment - 

so here it is!

This cute little snowman is Snowday from Stampart by Kathrye over at Whimsy stamps.  I love how simple this image is - it made me smile just to look at him - a real childlike appeal and as for cold twigs - warm heart, I don't know about you but my twigs are freezing these days lol.

We are sponsored this week by 

Sir Stampalot

Who have provided this great prize for us to give to this weeks lucky winner

Here's what I did.....

Image - Snowday from Stampart by Kathryne at Whimsy Stamps

Coloured with Copics

glitter glue from Martha Stewart in hematite and silver

Papers - My minds eye - Christmas

Gems - Kanban

Die cuts - Frostyville wreath by memory box, corner die by whimsy stamps and snowflakes and flag dies by   dienamics

Sentiment - produced in word

So go on over to the MAWTT challenge blog and let the girls give you some Christmas cheer with their cute funny cards - hope you all have a smiley day!

Challenges I'm entering with this card

Sweet stampin Challenge - Christmas
Crafts and me - no blue
Stampavie and more - christmas
Crafty sentiments -snowflakes
Incy Wincy challenge - snowflakes

Hugs 

Judith x