Favourite Season at As You Like It

 Hello everyone

We have a new challenge at

As You Like It, where the theme is

Favourite Season

It's winter for me, or specifically Christmas, the build up, preparation and anticipation. Not to forget the card making that I do all year round.

I used the film strip reindeer from Lili of the Valley that I coloured with Promarkers. The paper is an unknown scrap and the holly die is from Cheery Lynn. I found another Craftwork Cards sentiment too. Looks like I had more of those left than I realised!!

Hope you will join us with projects featuring your favourite season.

See you soon xx

Colour at AYLI

 Hello everyone it's the start of the new challenge at 

As You like It

where Brenda is hosting and the theme is 

Colour (and why)

Blue is not my favourite colour but it is my Sister's favourite so I challenged myself and made a blue card for her Birthday.

I used a grey LOTV stamp and coloured it with Promarkers. My Sis has three Cavaliers so I coloured the pup to look like one of them. My paper pad is an old Joy Crafts one that had heaps of different blue patterns so I layered those. The die cut Sister is from Crafters Companion.

Thank you for calling in and I hope you will be inspired to join in.

See you soon xx

AYLI Sketch

 Happy Thursday everyone the weekend is just in reaching distance!! Before that though it's time for a new challenge at 

As You Like It Challenge

The theme is Favourite Sketch.

My long time followers will know that I LOVE Jules' sketches and I always visit her Sketch library when inspiration is lacking. She has tons of wonderful designs and there is sure to be one that takes my fancy. On this occasion I chose Square #56 

It was the perfect design to show off the lovely Doodlebug Designs Frosty Friends paper pad which perfectly compliments the adorable penguin (Crafters Companion Snow what fun). The sweet little penguin was coloured with Promarkers and I added lots of sparkly glitter too.

My team mates have some lovely inspiration for you so please go and take a look.

See you next time xx

CAS or Fussy at AYLI

 I am hosting (except I am probably going to be fired because I forgot!!) at

where the theme is

CAS or Fussy

I have gone bonkers with the fussy layers this time. It was the perfect chance to use more papers and a very much under used die set that was probably one of the first I ever bought. It's a MFT Blueprints set...remember those?

The eye popping papers are from MFT and Bo Bunny paper pads. The white heat embossed sentiment is from a Clearly Besotted stamp set. There's a fair bit of dimension as I put foam pads between all the layers.

Thank you for your company today. I know I have been a little bit economical with my visits lately but there has been lots going on chez Wills so aplologies for that. I hope life is being kind to you.

See you soon xx 

Floral or Cute at AYLI

Hello friends, thank you for dropping in today to see what I have been making.

It's new challenge day at 

and we would love to see your projects featuring Floral or Cute

It will come as no surprise when I share some cuties with you, it's not that I don't like florals, I just like cute more!! These are from a Your Next Stamp set that I have had for a long time but only inked up once so I thought they should see the light of day again.

 The adorable little Easter "rabbits" were coloured with Promarkers and attached to some spotty card scraps. The sentiments were from the same set too.

These will be going to my work colleagues with a little bit of chocolate when the time comes. 

Thank you for sharing your day with me. See you soon xx

AYLI - Mono or Colour

 Well March came around quickly didn't it!? Lets hope that it brings some much needed warmth to the UK and some colour into the garden.

Anyway, I am here with some tags wto share in the hope that they will encourage you to join us at 

where Lynne has chosen the theme

Colour or Mono (with your reason too)

I have gone with colour. I have Promarkers in all the colours of the rainbow, and some, and really enjoy colouring my projects with them. In this case I have made a batch of eight gift tags using a gift from a lovely crafty buddy. It's A Studio Light set called Falalalala and is so cute. All the stamped elements are from this set and they were a pleasure to colour.

So that's a start on christmas 2025. what's the betting that I will put them away and forget where they are, come December!!

That's all for now. enjoy your weekend when you get there xx

Masculine or Feminine at AYLI

 Hello and welcome. I am a little bit older than when I saw you last as I've had a Birthday this week, I am also a little bit heavier as I have eaten lots, that said, I am also on annual leave so have ridden the pony and walked the dogs more so that probably cancelled out the cake...what do you think!!?

Anyway, I am here with a card to hopefully inspire you to join in at

where the theme this time is

MALE or FEMALE

Well, I have mountains of pretty papers, oodles of ribbons, many,many cute and girly rubber stamps so it won't come as a huge surprise when I share a feminine make. Aside from the fact that as much as I try I just can't ever make a "man" card that I am truly happy with.

I have been doing a little bit of junk journalling and while getting ideas from You Tube found a fabulous lady called Amanda Charlesworth ( Creating with Scrimping Mommy) who is totally inspirational and a lovely person with it. She has a super Facebook Group and gives weekly freebies if you are a member. She is sharing Mixed Media inspiration this year so I have used one of her free kits to make a really pretty feminine card. There are a couple of tickets from elsewhere and some scrumpled cheesecloth too. Everything is inked with Vintage Photo and I finished with a splatter of white paint which turned pink once it hit the printed papes, it still looks nice though and I won't make that mistake again having now bought some matt medium!!

I hope that you will join us with your Male or Female makes and I will see you soon xx

Festive Critters

 Hello, hello. Hope you are all well.

At As You Like It this time we would like you to share your favourite festive critters with us, together with a little explantion why.

For me, Christmas just isn't the same unless I have stamped a "James" rubber stamp. 

I mean....just look at him!! I've kept it clean and simple by using a snowy paper background, some torn paper snow and a statement sentiment. He was, of course, coloured with Promarkers. Stickles added a little bit of icy frosting.

Thank you for stopping by xx

Modern or Traditional colours?

 I am hosting the new challenge over at

so it would be lovely to see your Christmas cards featuring traditional or modern colourways and a little explanation too.

You will know by now that I mostly tend to favour cute and whimsical images which lend themselves very well to the more modern Christmas colours.

My two DT cards feature adorable images from our Sponsor Amanda Jayne Designs' Christmas Crackers Bundle. Both were coloured with Promarkers to compliment the patterned papers. The first was an old Echo Park pad and the second an equally old Bo Bunny pad.

If you've not discovered our Sponsors shop please do go and take a look, her images are delightful and so easy to colour.

Looking forward to seeing your makes.

See you on Saturday xx

Gingham or Floral at AYLI

 Now here's a conundrum for you

Floral or Gingham Papers? Is the new theme at

My long suffering lovely blogging buddies will probably guess that I have copious amounts of both so believe me when I say it was a decision and a half!! In the end I went with Floral for two reasons...

1) I happened to buy a new floral paper pad in The works last week  

and

2) I love a good floral background paper so that I can colour a stamped image to match.

On this occasion though the paper pad had pages of sentiments and smaller "swatches" so I made the decision to utilise the contents instead of colouring.

I had a couple of die cut flowers, left over from this card, that were a perfect colour match so I added them too.

I hope that you will share your favourite gingham or floral paper with us to be in with a chance of choosing digi images or simply prints from Lili of the Valley who are our sponsors this time.

Take Care until next time xx

AYLI Beach holiday or not?

 We have a lovely theme for you at

Beach holiday or not?

When my Sister and I were children we were fortunate enough to spend most weekends and all of the Summer holidays at West Bay where Mum and Dad had a static caravan. We got to know the local beaches very well and have some very happy memories too. Once I became a farmers Wife things like milking, silage making and combining meant the seaside visits were put on hold for a year or two!! We are making up for it now though and enjoy the Dorset coastline whenever we can.

My card today was made using an old Little Claire stamp set. The sea is a little piece of paper from the Doodlebug Design, Sunkissed, pad that I still had on my desk from a previous make. I used my Promarkers to colour the image and the sky.

I hope you will find some time to join in.

See you soon xx

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

Holly and Berries Stencil - AYLI

 Happy Thursday everyone. I hope that you have had a good week and have something nice planned for the weekend. I am really enjoying my papercrafting again and feel so much more inspired as the daylight is stretching out bit by bit.

That said, the new challenge at

inspired me to try a technique that, although I am well eqipped for, never actually do and that is stencilling. I am probably not alone when I say this, I do have stencils in my crafty arsenal but just don't ever get the inspiration to use them so this theme was a kick up the butt!! On closer inspection I have rather more than I thought but played safe with an Echo Park Holly and Berries 6x6 festive stencil. Once I got going it was actually a lot of fun and I was really pleased with the result!!

I already had the LOTV stamped image coloured up with Promarkers and the little holly and berries prompted me to choose the stencil that I did. I remembered that I had a chalk set that came with a long handled crocodile clip and dinky cotton balls that were perfect for keeping "in the lines". I don't have an extensive collection of Distress inks but two reds and two greens were just right for the soft look I was after. I used a bit of white pen as highlights on some of the berries and squirted some with glossy accents too. The Mama Elephant sentiment finished it off nicely.

I do hope that I have given you some inspiration to do a bit of stencilling, if not, the alternative is a Freestyle background which would be equally welcome.

Sorry, not sorry, for sharing a Christmas card!! There will be another coming along soon too!!

See you soon xx

A well used colour at AYLI

 Hello friends. Wherever you are in the world I hope that you are keeping well. We are currently heading towards the end of an icy and cold spell in Dorset UK which was preceded by flooding which made the sub zero temperatures all the more interesting!! Picture, if you will, me sliding across the stable yard hanging on to the wheelbarrow full of manure!! I survived!!

My share today is wrapped up ready for such temperatures!!

It's my DT piece for the new challenge over at

where we are asking you to share your creations showcasing your most used (favourite) single colour. I revisited my blog and found that peachy pink teamed with aqua seems to be a favourite of mine. The adorable PB Bundled Bunny is a new addition to my stamp family and was coloured with Promarkers to match the pretty Simply Creative papers that came from either The Range or Hobbycraft, I think.

It would be lovely to see you join us, it's always worth a go as we have some lovely sponsors!!

See you soon friends xx

Snow

 Hello friends and visitors, thank you for stopping by.

Another Christmas card to add to my festive pile. This one is to encourage you to join us at 

The prompt this time is How do you add snow to a Festive project?

My absolute "go to" is Star Dust Stickles, I wouldn't like to guess how many bottles of this sparkle I have bought over the years!! 

Amazingly it actually shows up on the piccie!! I used a rubber LOTV stamp that I coloured with Promarkers then fussy cut and sat in front of torn paper. The background is, I think, a Craft Creations paper. And to finish off a generous squirt of Stickles for the all important snowy sparkle. A stamped "Merry" and die cut "Christmas" sentiment.

Well, September came and went in a flash and I am sure October will do just the same. Flu Clinics will be featuring largely for me, as we have four planned in the coming weeks. 

Take Care everyone and see you soon xx

AYLI Floral or Cute

Morning All!! 

Over at As You Like It Challenge it's Cute or Floral? 

My longsuffering standing friends and followers will know the answer from me is CUTE!! I do have floral stamps that I use for grown up cards, from time to time, but mostly I will reach for a cute stamp or image. The reason...cute justs fit with my love of patterned papers, that are mostly contemporary in design, and the non fussy style that I favour. 

Here is my cute inspiration for you, made using a rubber stamp set from our sponsor LOTV . Coloured with Promarkers and mounted behind some pretty Marianne Designs paper into which I had die cut port holes framed with coordinating paper.

I faffed about with sentiments, die cut ones, stamped ones and just wasn't happy so ended up with a very old, sweet little oval from Craftwork Cards. Just right, I think.

It looks like the weather is going to be good for the Easter Weekend. My word, didin't we have some rain earlier in the week, much needed in the garden actually and it meant Martin didn't need to water our six new £1.79 clematis that we picked up in Aldi last week...yes £1.79!! 

I wish you all a peaceful and Happy Easter xx