Stylish thank you...

Hi,

As most of you know, I LOVE making thank you cards - no idea why.

I always make a set of cards when I need to say thank you to a large amount of people. So Christmas, Birthday's, etc

For my birthday this year I decided to use the SSS October card kit  -

It's gorgeous, so bright and colourful. I did something I don't normally do with the card kits and used nearly all of the card stock straightaway...good job I got SSS vouchers for my bday, I can buy more - yippee!

I only used one strip of patterned paper from each of the 4 sheets. I die cut the coffee cup from scraps that matched the patterned papers. It wasn't really working for me when I laid it out, so added the punched scalloped heart in a cream textured stock (Recollections). The sequins are from the kit too.

The sentiment which is from the kit I stamped in contrasting inks - I used various ones, SSS for the orange, Studio G for the pink, Hero Arts for the purple and Versamark for the gingery/red colour.

All the colours

I love how bright these cards are and how the plain white backing paper calms them down a bit.

The main card is my fave - purely because of that lovely foxy paper - I need more of it.

And as I love my card so much :) I thought I'd link up with Sister Act  and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - as they both have an "Anything Goes" challenge.

Cx

Fun times..

Hey,

Super quick non-craft related post here.

I had a great birthday, I felt throughly spoilt. The photos today are of Hubby and at a rooftop bar over looking Times Square. We went for a few drinks before dinner and it was lovely.

My blue drink is a Planet Claire - how apt.

Cx

Happy Birthday to Me!!

Hey!

Well today is my birthday, I have had a fab weekend so far and a great morning of skyping and present opening.

I opened presents with JT yesterday and she mentioned that I might like Freshly Made Sketches this week -

She was right of course and you can go to her blog to see her take on it.

My shiny new Tim Holz tag die turned up yesterday, so I used that with some grey cardstock and embossed it using my new notepaper embossing folder - a birthday gift from JT.

I wanted to stamp my sentiment as the border on the left. To keep every thing even I scored a line, so I could ensure my stamping wasn't all over the place. The scored line also added a bit of dimension to the background.

The butterfly is by Grace Taylor and is left over from a very old project.

Final touch was the pale blue thank you ribbon - finishes it off very nicely.

I'm glad JT pointed me in the direction of the sketch, it was a really simple make and I like the stamped sentiment border - more of that methinks!

Well, I am off to Red Lobster for my bday lunch - yes I know I live in NYC and I could go anywhere to eat..but I'm English and we just don't have anything even remotely similar to Red Lobster back home, so I'm making the most of it!

Cx

Stamptember is nearly over..

Hey,

A short post from me today..due to me feeling delicate after my birthday celebrations last night!

My day started well though, as I had a birthday skype session with JT, where we gossiped and opened presents - fun times!

Stamptember is nearly over and I wanted to enter one more SSS challenge this month - I've had fun in Stamptember and I have also acquired some of the Stamptember exclusives from SSS which I am looking forward to using when they arrive.

The Monday challenge this week is Stencils & Stamps.

I have recently bought a new Heidi Swapp chevron stencil and thought that this would be fun to use on my card. I used scraps of patterned papers and stamped the sentiment onto a punched circle - also a scrap. The flat heart button is by American Crafts.

I made four of these cards, as they were so easy to make and I thought they would be nice as a set. They are going to a friend as a little gift.

Cx

Challenge with a twist...

Hi,

Happy Friday everyone.

I am most wiggly and excitable today, as it is my birthday on Sunday and tonight I am heading to my fave bar (Vamos!) to drink margaritas with Hubby and friends.

I came across the 613 Avenue Create blog earlier this week and loved their challenge this week -

It's basically anything goes, but with the added benefit of 'creating your own challenge' by adding an item from each column of the chart above.

I went with - patterned paper (tag), sentiment (thank you sentiment stamped), embossing (black circle embossed), flowers (black epoxy flower), ribbon (pink swirly ribbon at top of tag).

I love this card - super easy, looks really classy and used fun parts of my stash. I am really happy with the unusual (for me) stamping of the sentiment. I am going to make a few more, so they are a pretty set to give to someone.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Cx

UPDATED: I GOT AN HONORABLE MENTION FOR THIS CARD - YAY!

Moving Along With The Times..321 Recipe..

Hi,

It's time for Team B over at Moving Along With The Times.

This week our hostess is my amazing Craft Buddy Jessie (aka JT) she has chosen the theme of

321 Recipe - 1 image, 2 papers, 3 colours

I love a card recipe and had fun making my card for this challenge.

I used an image from A Day For Daisies and printed her with a butterfly background by MaybeMej, the 2 papers are a green/white scrap by American Crafts and some yellow scraps by Canford, the sentiment was punched from a sheet I made. The 3 colours I chose are Yellow, Green and White.

I really love the stamp, so elegant. I think the muted tones work really well here.

Join in the fun and check out the different takes on the recipe by Team B over at MAWTT.

Cx

WOYWW #277...In progress...

Hey!

Happy WOYWW.

Short post this week, but first for you novice WOYWWers an explanation - it is that time of the week for joining our wonderful leader Julia over at her blog Stamping Ground for the weekly desk nose.

I was chilling out at home after a nonsense day yesterday and I had this genius idea (we'll see..) so leapt up, rushed to my desk and so what you see sprung from that moment!!

The pretty Pink Petticoat pumpkin paper is out because I made a wedding card (31st Oct) with it. The paper is covering a WIP DT make. My correct glasses are on my desk, a random bottle of nail polish and some gorgeous Papermania pinwheels.

Here's the wedding card. I have the stamp, because Oct 31st happens to be my wedding anniversary :)

Pink Pumpkin Wedding Card for a Colleague..

I'm a little in love with this card - the Stamping Bella stamp is a firm fave. The pumpkin paper looks so yummy!!

I will be having a nose later on.

Cx

NBUS Part 2....

Hey,

Hubby and I had a great night last night, a very good friend was in town. We had a really fun dinner with him and he will be at my birthday celebrations on Friday night - YAY!

So what am I sharing today? Well that wonderfully talented rockstar crafter and blogland queen Darnell hit 600 followers and promptly issued a NBUS (never before used schtuff) challenge.

I loved the first one and this one is just as fun. Pop on over and join in and grab a badge - I know you've got NBUS somewhere and if you haven't - meh call yourself a crafter?!

Anyway..alongside your NBUS there is also the option to add a few extra things in to the mix -

Christmas.
Make two cards using the same stamp.
Both of the above.
None of the above.

I liked all of it very much. So I did it all.

For Christmas I used a new freebie Christmas stamp from the UK 3) new freebie Merry Christmas embossing folder from the UK. The stamp was coloured with Promarkers and as an added bonus I embossed the sentiment (both times) onto a scrap of paper.

The NBUS is plentiful on this card - 1) new origami paper from JT 2) the free Christmas stamp 3) the new Christmas embossing folder. AMAZING hardly any US items..my purchasing needs to have a rest..

Here is the second card - using the same stamp -

NBUS no.2 in red

I used red paper instead of blue and changed the colour of the ribbons.

I really don't think I would have used these stamps - inspired by the challenge.

Cx

Keeping it simples...

Hi,

Hope you all had a good weekend.

I had a great one - the spa was AMAZING on Saturday and I have spent the rest of the weekend in a post-spa blissful glow!

I recently discovered the Just Add Ink challenge blog - last week was my first entry. This week's challenge made me think of my lovely SSS Delicate Dahlia Dies -

I decided that as the finished flowers are quite fussy a more CAS approach would be good.

As I made 4 flowers it seems sensible to make a couple of cards. The main photo is my entry, the card below is the 'spare'

CAS flower card

I have just purchased Scriptalious Sentiments by Pink Petticoat and thought they would aid my CAS cards. I printed the sentiments as they come (next time I will try printing them in a co-ordinating colour) and used my Martha Stewart scoring board to add borders to both cards.

The Dahlias are coloured with a mixture of gelatos, distress inks and wink of stella brush pens. Thank you to Amber at Damask Love for the tips and encouraging me to buy the dies :)

Love the simplicity of both of my cards - finished off with a bit of bling...of course!

Cx

Friday Challenge...

Hey!

All in all it has been a challenging week (sigh).

We did have a high point at the start of the week, as our friends were in town for a couple of days, oh and I discovered Cardio Box (LOVE)..which made it all a bit better.

To make it even better I made this entry for Retro Sketches #132 on Wednesday night -

I am quite pleased with my card - 2 pieces of NBUS!! The brand new digital stamp from Pink Petticoat and the little staples (like a Tim Holtz tiny attacher, only not!). The paper is a scrap by American Crafts. I added a sparkly sticker and embossed part of the card base for a bit of fun! The stamp is coloured using Promarkers and a Wink of Stella clear brush pen.

Great way to end the week..tomorrow I am off to the Spa for half a day, it is a birthday present from last year that one of my besties gave me and I haven't used it yet!

So now I have a big smile on my face and maybe the week wasn't that bad after all?

Cx

OCC: Stenciled..Day 2 Template Techniques...

Hi,

So I spent part of last Sunday on day 2 of my Stenciled class.

I am really happy with all 3 of my cards (I didn't do Stencil Sticker), all of the cards feel like different styles, which is pretty cool.

Main photo - Stamping and Stencils: This was a lot of fun and despite my baby wipe mishap, my card looks really good. I used a random circle stencil, a SSS spotty border stamp and a Heidi Swapp sentiment stamp. The inks are distress inks - Peacock Feathers, Festive Berries and Spiced Marmalade.
The technique was super easy, heat emboss your sentiment in white, put your stencil in place and stamp over it, then colour in the circles with your ink - as randomly (or not) as you like). Wipe ink off of embossing (enter mishap).

Watercolour within a stencil - I used a Heidi Swapp scattered hearts and dots stencil, with pearlescent watercolour paint. I watercoloured the entire 6x6 stencil and then cut it to size, choosing the best bits - as advised in class. The hearts aren't perfect, but I like that. I stamped the Stampin' Up sentiment using Red Magic ink by Versamagic.

Watercolours

My final card uses the Sketching / Tracing within a stencil technique. I am going to need more practice with this, but my card isn't too bad! I used the same circle stencil as the first card and then used distress markers to scribble the circles. All the papers and the sentiment are scraps (yay!).

Sketching

I think the first card is my total fave, but I like all of the techniques and will be trying them again.

Cx

WOYWW #276...Starting Christmas...

Hi everyone,

I was sad not to join in the WOYWW fun last week - but I'm here now! No idea what I am talking about? Pop over to our wonderful hostess Julia's blog Stamping Ground and join in the weekly desk nose.

My desk is all about Christmas this week - not that you can really see what I am up to, as I masked off some of it, so it's a surprise for x3 people who read my blog.

This new need for 'surprise' came about because last week I posted about my Parents Anniversary card - safe methinks..nope Ma announced that she loves her card?! I was all - what?! She said - oh I've been reading your blog at night...NOW you tell me!! Overjoyed that she reads it, sad that I ruined the surprise..

On to my desk...it's a hive of activity. This thing that I am working on, needed a frame to be painted and I wanted a distressed kind of look, so I painted it with glitter paint first and then added white acrylic. I am colouring what goes in the frame - this is what is on my desk. Hence the scattered Promarkers.

Here is a close-up of the frame - it needs another coat of paint.

Painted Frame

I just noticed that you can see my tech area through the frame...

As usual here is a card for you - newish stamp that I played with, alongside a Tim Holtz embossing folder -

Believe card

Catch you later tonight, I am going to do some drinkings with some buddies!

Cx

Just add ink..

Hi,

So this is my first time playing along with the Just Add Ink challenge.

I found the colours for this week very inspiring -

I really wanted to give my SSS Best Fishes stamp set another outing and once again I wanted to utilise some of my scraps.

I used black corrugated card for a bit of texture and I added a yellow chevron scrap. The sentiment is from the set and stamped onto a turquoise scrap. I stamped the fishes from the set and die cut them with the matching die set. The yellow paper used for the fishes is a scrap - yay!

I love this card, so bright and cheery and fun. Feels like a unisex card to me..

Cx

SSS Make your own background...

Hi,

Hope you had a great weekend.

The last few posts have all been challenge entries - my challenge mojo has returned, which is great as I do love a challenge :)

This week over at Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge we are being asked to create your own background - fun!

I decided to employ one of my fave new techniques 'smooshing' - yep, it's not a word, not even sure it's a thing, but it's the only way I can describe it!

First I put some Ranger distress inks on my craft sheet - Dusty Concord and Festive Berries, then spritzed them with water. I took my cut to size piece of watercolour card and 'smooshed' it through the ink until I was happy with the coverage. Then I dried it with my heat tool.

Next step was stamping over the background using my new Papermania urban collage stamps. I used Hero Arts Neon Purple ink, so it is only slightly visible. Here is a close-up -

Close-up of the stamping.

In the bottom left I added some sparkle embossing powder to the wet ink and dried it. Finally I stamped a large hello by WPlus9 and then added the Papermania pinwheel.

My card really feels like the spirit of Stamptember. I am so super happy with it, it was such fun to make and I love the variation in colour I got with my background..need to smoosh more!

Cx

CDT: Thanks...

Hi,

Hope you are having a good weekend so far.

We had a fun time with our friends yesterday and my return to the gym was successful - the ability to heal is astonishing sometimes.

I decided to enter Color Throwdown #309 this week - as I had seen JT's entry and was inspired.

I really wanted to use some scraps and an already cut item on this card. After some digging through my stash I came up with all the right colour scraps and a die-cut sentiment by BirdCards (wonderful free cut files here, you can donate if you want - I did as I would have paid for them anyway). I stamped a friend to make the card more personal (friend stamp by WPlus9). Final touch was a little bit of bling.

I had 3 tries at making what was in my head, so I am quite pleased that I finally managed to nail it!

Cx

Patchwork Owl....

Hi,

This weekend should be fun. It will be my first one back in the gym since the broken foot (teeny bit nervous). We also have really good friends in town and we are off to brunch with a friend who has recently become a neighbour. Action packed..

I am also hoping to find time at my desk for some craft therapy, this week has been LONG..

I started my therapy last night by making a card for Freshly Made Sketches #153 -

I was inspired by JT's take on the sketch. I had originally planned to do her combo with CDT, but changed my mind.

The stamp is a freebie from a magazine when I was home in August, JT loves Owls and so when I saw the stamp, it seemed perfect for the challenge as she was my inspiration. I coloured him with Promarkers - love the patchwork, so sweet. I added some papers from the DCWV Latte stack, some Papermania sparkly purple ribbons and some bling. Final touch was the simple sentiment by Hero Arts stamped in purple.

Very pleased with the result of my mini therapy session. This one is for you JT. you see craft buddies are amazing..even long distance :)

Cx

FRIDAY YAY!!

This week has been cray cray time!

I have flown to and from Richmond, VA, on x2 of the teeniest planes EVER (I dislike tiny planes and turbulence)..it was so bad on the way there that Annette the life saving Flight Attendant had to sit with me and hold my hand!

My workload is a big fat stupid thing and I have no idea how it will be possible to get through it all before 31st of October...

To lighten my life, I simply had to go to my desk last night and make stuff :) Retro Sketches, came to my brain dead rescue with a great sketch this week -

It totally inspired me and I will be using the sketch again for sure - the main photo is the first one, using papers and a trainer (sneaker for the Americans) stamp from the SSS May card kit. The sentiment was made by me and punched using an EK Success label punch. I love the blue and orange together, a fun male card.

Hope you all have a great weekend. We have good friends from London in town this weekend - most exciting.

Cx

Moving Along With The Times...Add Texture

Hi,

The Moving Along With The Times teams are back in session after a reduced Summer schedule.

Hope that the Summer isn't over for you yet either.

This week it is the turn of Team B and our hostess is Tammy, she has chosen a theme of

Add Texture.

I decided to go with shades of brown with a touch of grey.

All my papers are oddments from my stash, I used a long Darice embossing folder (which has birds and flowers on) for both the pale tan and dark brown pieces. For the main textured piece I used a raindrop stencil and modelling paste, let it dry and then laid the stencil back down and added some ink. The strip that has the sentiment is corrugated card by DCWV and I heat embossed the sentiment on to a dark brown textured paper. Final touch was the twine and cherry charm.

LOTS of texture on my card - this will be my Parents Anniversary card. They have been together for 43 years and married 10 years this year. This is why I don't do things the 'traditional' way!

Anyway, hope you are inspired, if not pop on over to MAWTT and check out the fab creations by the rest of the team.

Cx

Watercolours + Embellishments..

Hey!

This is a scheduled post as I am in Richmond, VA for a work meeting. I hope I get to see a little bit of Richmond, it is supposed to be nice.

I made these cards a couple of months ago. I bought the weird flower embellishment things at Michael's in Chicago when we were there for Dana and Jim's wedding.

I chose to watercolour the background in colours that matched the button on flower. On the main photo, I thought a red sentiment would be fun. I love how this card turned out.

The next card uses yellow and orange tones. I especially like the colour of the Happy die cut.

Watercolour + Embellishment

 One of the things I like about these cards is the rough edges of the watercolours and I love the weird embellishments - especially the big stack on the green cards. Top tip - always by the weird stuff on sale...I might even make some of my own out of felt.

Cx

New Home..

Hi!

It seems in my world, quite a few people have moved house lately.

I decided to use my September SSS card kit to make one of the cards (main photo) - I added the phone stamp. I water coloured the background to give the 'wall' more standout. The new home text is super tiny, but I like it.

The next card was inspired by the stamp kit, but I used the Silhouette to cut fun 'home goods' shapes. I wish that I had gone darker with the top shelf objects. The sofa I printed out and then stamped the chevron 'wallpaper'.

New Home - Using the Sihouette

My final card is SO much fun, it actually uses a SSS stamp and die set that I recently bought - 

Best Fishes sets by SSS

I bought this set simply because it made me smile. I used American Crafts paper as the 'watery' background, the sentiment is American Crafts alpha adhesive stickers, the bowl was cut from grey Canford card and I coloured the fishes with Promarkers.

New Home - SSS Set

Such fun makes. I hope that the recipients like them too.

Cx

FMS inspired playdate..

Hi,

Hope you are having a good weekend.

I have had a nice quiet one, after a very hectic week - with more of the same coming this week!

So to counterbalance all this cray cray in my work life, I had a nice Skype chat with Ma and a little playdate with JT.

We chose Freshly Made Sketches as our inspiration -

A simple sketch with lots of possibility. At my behest we decided to make 3 cards - using the sketch and 3 themes.

We chose - Spots / Hipster / It's a tool thing.

The main photo today is my 'It's a tool thing' card. I used x2 square dies and a hello die. I got a bit brave and mixed patterns, which was a bit nerve wracking! However now I really like my card.

Hipster was the first card with both made. I used a cool 'geek' stamp set by Inkadinkadoo - the card makes me smile.

FMS Hipster

Spots is the last card up and this is super simple - love the O Happy Day stamp by Bo Bunny, the blue spotty strip and the corner blob are washi tape that I bought in a weird little set for JT and I.

FMS Spots.

All in all a fun way to spend a morning..now I am retouching photos and watching NFL - bliss!

Cx

Boldly go into Stamptember...

Hey,

Happy Friday - I didn't post yesterday as it was a bit too busy on Weds and I just couldn't find the energy to take the photos - but to make up for it, I added a few sequins to my 'photography studio'.

One of the WOYWWer's had entered the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge this week - Boldly go into Stamptember..

You had to go bold with your stamping.

This was SO much fun, I made x4 cards (all going to OWH)..I decided to stick with roughly the same tools - Mustard Seed Distress Ink, a Heidi Swapp stamp, a Heidi Swapp heart stencil, and a Tim Holtz Honeycomb stencil.

The main photo is my entry and final card. Super pleased with this, love the turquoise against the mustard yellow and the little pieces of bling really work for me!

The next 3 cards are almost identical, they each have a little twist.

Adding Orange

Adding a punched heart (stamp did not work, spot the oops)

Different background stencil

What a fun way to spend an hour at my desk. I am already loving Stamptember and my stencil class - much braver now.

Have a great weekend everyone - I will be chilling and having a playdate with JT.

Cx