2024 Hops: Mini Hops

Hey,

This is the 3rd post in my 2024 hop series.

Kelly Santi organises all of the hops. This year I have done 6 hops with Kelly and the gang - 

• Ring in the New Year
• Spring Hop
• Sunshine Awareness mini hop
• Shark Week 2024 mini hop
• Summer Soiree
• Fall Friends

In this post I am showing the cards from the 2 mini hops we did. 

My main card is from the Sunshine Awareness hop in May - basically highlighting the risks of being in the sun without protection. Skin cancer from sun damage is sadly on the rise. I used an all-time fave stamp by Unity Stamp Co and wrote my own sentiment.

The next card, probably doesn't need explaining, but it was for the Shark Week hop, as a fan of Sharks, I love Shark Week in the cardmaking world, as I get to use all my fave Shark stamps! This one is 'Seaprise' by Avery Elle.

Both fun cards and it's always nice to do a hop that raises awareness about something.

Cx

2024 Hops - Spring...

Hey,

Here is the second post in my blog hop series.

Kelly Santi organises all of the hops. This year I have done 6 hops with Kelly and the gang -

• Ring in the New Year
• Spring Hop
• Sunshine Awareness mini hop
• Shark Week 2024 mini hop
• Summer Soiree
• Fall Friends

In this post I am showing the cards from the Spring hop. These were the themes.

I added a wobbler for the 'spring into action'

The background is recycled from packaging

My cards are in order, with the main photo, being the first in the hop. I love that I get to dig through my stash and mix new and old (some seriously old) together.

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #245 - Tic Tac Toe...

Hey,

Welcome to the final Retro Rubber challenge of 2024! How quickly did this year go?

So much has happened to me this year personally and professionally, but it is ending on a high. I have a new job, that so far is more than I had hoped for. Hubby and I will be heading on our FIRST cruise together (this is my 5th cruise) in 2 weeks. 

I would like to say a big thanks to Jane who runs our Retro Rubber team for just being an amazing human and keeping us together and on point.

For our last challenge we have a Tic-Tac-Toe board for you - 

I wanted to play with all of the rows on this board! But I went with centre vertical - Texture, Greenery, Tag.

I love this tag die by MFT 'Trendy Tag' it is quite large, but it makes such pretty tags and it also comes with a scalloped piece that you can add to the front. I stamped Santa and the sentiment before I die cut the tag - the stamps are by Ellen Hutson 'tis the season' set that I have had since 2021.

I decided that I wanted to just colour Santa's hat, as it adds a nice pop of colour. I cut the second tag from an embossed piece of red card for the texture part of my tic-tac-toe choices. I have a big box of embossed pieces ready to go. Basically if my mojo is blah, I emboss cardstock :)

I was a bit stumped about the greenery part and then I realised that I have these beautiful scrapbook.com papers that I got as part of SCT this year so I used one of those for the background. My final touch was a little bit of ribbon that I tied into a surprisingly neat bow - my bows are always a bit of a hot mess.

Such a fun card, I think I might have to remember this idea for 2025 Christmas cards!

Show us your interpretation of the sketch, pop over to Retro Rubber, and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends December 13th.

Don't forget to tell us the age of your stamp, that is part of the fun of our challenge, and please only enter 10 challenges including Retro Rubber.

Happy Holidays to you and yours, we will be back on 14th January for our 11th year!!!

Cx

2024 Hops - Ring in the New Year

Hey,

As the year draws to a close, I wanted to share some of the cards I have made for the Instagram hops that I have been a part of.

Thanks to the amazing Kelly Santi who organises all of the hops.

I have met new talented cardmakers and dug deep into my stash, which is so awesome.

This year I have done 6 hops with Kelly and the gang - 

Ring in the New Year

Spring Hop

Sunshine Awareness mini hop

Shark Week 2024 mini hop

Summer Soiree

Fall Friends

In this post I am showing the cards from the Ring in the New Year hop. Our themes were -

What's New, Birthstone, Colour Challenge, Stencil It, My Valentine (which I skipped), and Leap Ahead. My cards are shown in order, the main photo is What's New.

I hope you like the cards, they were so much fun to make. I really loved the sunburst stencil I used for the first card and the cute little Gator on a scooter!

Retro Rubber #244 Challenge - Sketch time...

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

We have a sketch for you this time.

You know how much I love a sketch and I knew the minute I saw it that I had the perfect stamp set for it!

Tiny Terranium by Waffle Flower (I've had it since 2019) is a gorgeous stamp set. I love watercolouring it, which is exactly what I did here. I tend to use Distress Inks to watercolour with, I find them easy to blend and shade with.
The sentiment 'holder' on the stamp is super small, so I punched my own banner and added the sentiment. 

The papers are by Scrapbook.com and I got them as part of Crop and Create this year, they are beautiful. I added some bling to match the sketch.

I love this card, it took forever to colour, but so worth it.

Show us your interpretation of the sketch, pop over to Retro Rubber, and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends November 29th.

Don't forget to tell us the age of your stamp, that is part of the fun of our challenge, and please only enter 10 challenges including Retro Rubber.

If you celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you have a wonderful time with your family and friends. Hubby and I are spending the day with our wonderful friends and their family. We will see you after the Holiday for the last RR challenge of 2024.

Cx