Retro Rubber #11..Sketch Time

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber Challenge, this time we want you to use our sketch...

Don't forget to add a stamp that is over a year old to your project..I love digging out old favourites.

I decided to flip the sketch and used a MFT stamp that I have had for about 2 years. I used a very loud scrap for the background, so I kept everything else simple.

I used an ancient Martha Stewart scalloped doily border punch for the decorative edge.

Final touches were the bling and the sentiment.

I love a sketch challenge.

Time for you to join in the fun, but first hop on over to Retro Rubber and check out the fab creations from my teammates.

Cx

I heart NYC...

Hey,

Hope you all had a great weekend, I had a fab one at the loft art retreat, more about that later in the week.

My friend Lianne sent me these fab wooden items - 2 sets -

London

NYC

So this week it is Anything Goes over at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.

Made sense to get out the embellishments and have a play.

I also wanted to use a new stencil and die by SSS and scrap papers. I settled on the NYC ones.

I used my craft sheet to colour the wooden pieces using distress paints and acrylic paints - as I don't have distress paints in every colour.

The painted pieces look great.

I used the stencil to create a skyline..something tells me this stencil is about to become a hot fave!

I die cut a black piece of card using the SSS hole die and mounted it just below the skyline. I then mounted this onto a piece of yellow cardstock and then added the whole thing to the card blank.

I used a strong glue to adhere the taxi and the I heart NYC to my card.

For a finishing touch I sprayed the entire card with Glamour Mist.

Such a bright and fun card - makes me smile every time I look at it.

Fun way to end a fun weekend.

Cx

On my way to Providence..

Hey,

Happy Friday everyone!

It's been a busy week - so my craft time has been limited, but that is all about to change :)

I have the day off today and I am heading to a great art retreat hosted by the fabulous Jenn Shurkus.

The whole trip is making me giddy and super excited, I've not been on a train since we moved and I love trains, so that will be fun. I've also never been to Providence, so I am looking forward to arriving at a reasonable time today so I can have an explore.

It also means 2 nights in a hotel - this is my HUGE treat to myself..Hubby and I are looking forward to some alone time - we spend nearly all of our time together now that we live in NYC and its nice to have a bit of a break :)

And of course a whole day of making with other crafters..like an epic playdate.

The main photo today of the cute little boxy pouch thingies, that I made for all my fellow retreat-mates.

Super easy to make..CASEd and modified from Pinterest.

Supplies used : old super long card blanks, scrap papers cut to size, crop-a-dile, twine, cellophane bags, brads, choccies!

Hope I made enough..

Have a great weekend..I am super happy mine has started..

Cx

Moving Along With The Times...Into The Wild...

Hey,

Forgive my blog appearance I am making some updates and I kind of lost my header..

Anyway, onto fun things!

It's time for another great Moving Along With The Times challenge.

Our hostess this week is Hazel and her theme is Into The Wild....you can use animals, people, the jungle, the forest. Whatever Into The Wild means for you.

I really wanted to use the beautiful Valentine's Fox stamp by Tam Hess from CMA.

I love Foxes and where I am from in London, they roam around, they are pretty harmless and I have spent many wonderful hours watching them play in my garden.

I decided to add a digital paper (Woodgrain in willow by Pink Petticoat) before printing the stamp. I coloured my little Fox using Promarkers and I added Glamour Dust to the tail to give him a bit of shimmer.

I die-cut the paper to fit my card blank using a SSS stitched rectangle die, then I tied a contrasting piece of ribbon around the paper before mounting him to the card blank.

I wasn't sure what to do about the sentiment..so I tried lots of things and ended up using a SSS Stitched circle die and heat embossed the sentiment onto the circle.

Such a sweet card...I'm very pleased :)

Now it's your turn - but first go over to MAWTT to check out the Wild creations by my teammates.

Cx

WOYWW #303..Leaving it until the last minute...

Hey,

Yes! It is that time of the week, when we join Julia and the gang over at her blog Stamping Ground for WOYWW.

Don't know what WOYWW is? Check it out, you'll make friends and have fun.

I am super excitable this week, as I am off to Jenn Shurkus' loft art retreat in Providence..awesome, I am literally counting the sleeps...

My desk looks like a hot mess this week, because I decided I wanted to make gifts for Jenn and her cat Mister Harley..of course nothing like leaving it until 3 days before you leave...

Sigh. Do we ever learn?

I labelled my photo as it is such a mess. I had to move Winston, as he was at risk.. I've kept my March Tag out because I am super pleased with it and I am enjoying looking at it..vain! Of course I managed to sneak in to the photo :)

Here is a card for you -

I made it for Hubby's Godparents who are coming to visit in September. The stamp is by Deep Red and was part of my Black Friday haul.

See you for a nose later.

Cx

Retro Rubber #10...Embossing Powder..

Hey,

It's time for Team A to join in the latest Retro Rubber challenge. 

This time we are asking you to use embossing powder on your project. Don't forget to use stamps that are over a year old.

I do love heat embossing. I decided it would be fun to stamp and heat emboss onto vellum. If you get it right, then the heat embossed image comes out really crisp on vellum.

I used a really old Kaisercraft dressform stamp, I love it and I have used it tons..to the point where I actually had to put it away :)

I added some lovely grey leopard print washi tape that my friend Lianne sent me in the post, then I affixed the vellum to my card blank using mini staples.

I stamped the sentiment (by SSS) and added some black bling for the finishing touch.

Here's a close-up, so you can see the glossy heat embossed dressform better.

It's your turn to join in the fun, pop over to Retro Rubber to see the fab creations by my teammates.

Cx

Tim Holtz Tags of 2015 - My March Tag..

Hey,

Hope you had a great weekend, I had a very relaxing one.

I spent lots of fun time at my desk, including making my tag for this month's Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2015

Here's Tim's tag -

I had a lot of fun making my March Tag

I followed all of the steps. Some of the items came from my stash - washi tape - by Michaels, stamp - by Stampendous and came with a mask! Stencil - letter jumble by Dyan Reaverey and the embellishments are all by Michael's.

I didn't have a metal word plate..so I used chit chat stickers that I recoloured.

Here are 2 close-ups -

This tag was really fun to make, I loved the texture paste / embossing powder technique.

Cx

Thanks for Winston...

Hey,

Happy weekend to you all!

Remember a couple of weeks ago Winston the Aardvark came to live with us?

Well I wanted to show you the card I made for my friend Hannah to say thanks.

I used my new Hero Arts - Window Pane stencil with texture paste and then before I removed the stencil, I added silver glitter for some shimmer.

It's way better looking in real life :(

I used my Lawn Fawn thanks die.

So simple and pretty easy too. Here's a close-up -

Have a fun weekend, everyone, I am going to be doing Yoga and chilling!

Cx

Congratulations...

Hey,

Happy Friday!

My colleague is getting married tomorrow and he's always been so nice to me since I started my job that I wanted to make him and his new Wife a special card.

I decided to use the Simon Says Stamp Married stamp and stencil set.

I stamped and die-cut the cake and coloured it with Promarkers and added some bling.

I went with a grey card blank and found a grey shimmery scrap of paper to stamp the sentiment on (I love this sentiment..).

I wasn't sure what it needed to make it a complete card and then I saw an embossed scrap on my desk and it made me go with embossing!

The embossing folder is Carved Rose by Card Concepts..I love it, its so modern.

I put the card together and then realised that the grey strip was not staying put..mini stapler to the rescue - sweet!

A pretty card for a pretty couple.

Wishing the new Mr & Mrs Shapiro a very happy Wedding Day and life together.

Cx

Floral CAS...

Hey,

So far my week is going pretty well.

It feels like it was kick started by The Paper Players as I got chosen as a cut above - along with some other fabulous ladies.

So to celebrate good moods all round, I thought I'd join in their awesome challenge again this week -

I went a bit bargain nuts on Black Friday online at the Sizzix store and one of the (dirt cheap) items I got was the Garden Flowers stamp and die set - featuring Hero Arts.

I decided to stamp the flowers close to each other, but with one higher than the other.

The pretty red band of paper came about due to an oops when I dropped the sentiment stamp onto my beautiful card! It all worked out well and I think the colour pop is nice, as my original plan had been to go all black and white.

I stamped the sentiment (without dropping it..) and added a little strip of bling for added shimmer.

Final touch was the red Stickles on the flower stamens.

It feels so Spring, all that lovely white space..

Cx

WOYWW #302..There are projects everywhere!!!

Hey,

Happy WOYWW to you all.

It made my heart a happy place to rejoin all you WOYWWer's out there and the warm and friendly welcome back you gave me. Such lovely and wonderful peeps you all are!

This week, you get a twofer..but before that, let me remind you what I am babbling on about. It's Wednesday, so it is time for WOYWW, join Julia and the gang over at her blog Stamping Ground for  the weekly global desk nosy.

I decided on a twofer, as I was feeling a bit clever..so the main photo is my desk - little notes added so you can see what is going on. The next photo is of my 'drying rack' on the side of my smaller Expedit.

As you can see I decided to make the rack multi-functional and I am now hanging my multiple pairs of readers from it, as well as drying cards - win!

Here's the card that you can see next to my specs.

I used my lovely new Dienamics stitched rounded rectangle dies - yums!I heat embossed the heart with Judikins sticky stuff and added Judikins iridescent sparkle powder whilst it was still sticky and finished heating it. Fun!

Have a great day everyone.

Cx

Retro Rubber #10....Embossing Powder Join In the Fun....

Hey,

It's time for another fun challenge over at Retro Rubber.

This week it's Team B's turn to show you their projects first.

Head over to Retro Rubber to look at their projects and view the rules.

Remember to use a stamp older than a year on your project.

Be back next week to show you what I came up with...

Cx

Yes Flamingos Can Fly...

Hey,

Hope you had a good weekend.

Hubby and I had a very relaxing weekend.
I also got a happy craft surprise, because I got a Cut Above mention for my entry to last week's challenge over at Paper Players. How cool is that!

I saw the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge this week - Things that Fly..I knew I had to enter, as I have a love affair with things that fly - birds. planes, etc but on the flip side, they scare me a bit :)

I decided to use a Pink Petticoat Flamingo, as I think most people don't realise that they can and do fly, but at night and for up to 300 miles without stopping - awesome right?

So I coloured the Flamingo using Promarkers and fussy cut him out.

I had the background on my desk already - made a few weeks ago using a Clear Scraps spiral stencil and Wendy Vecchi textured embossing paste.

To add a bit of sparkle, I got out the stencil and laid it over the embossing paste, using a super fine brush I added some metallic glitter paint over the embossing paste. It worked out well and my ancient pot of paint is still going strong!

I put the card together, but really couldn't find a sentiment that worked..finally I stumbled across some Birthday peel-offs and a light bulb went off in my head!

I'm pretty pleased with my card..despite the epic hunt for a sentiment :)

Cx

Playing with ink...

Hey,

I am SO happy it is the weekend..I need the rest.

I really wanted to send a friend some fun cards - she's the same one I made this tag for.

I had a little pack of wooden painted frames on my desk, so I decided these would form the basis for my cards.

I remembered a great card that I had seen by one of the Runway Inspired DT - Lindsay

I was inspired to try the same inky background, so I got out inks that contrasted with the frames and got to work..

There was no real idea behind putting the ink on the paper, I just smushed it around and kept going until I achieved the colour I wanted!

I went with landscape cards, suited my frames better. I stamped a sentiment onto the inked up card and then got out the dreaded UHU to attach my frame to the card!

I die cut feathers using a Memory Box feather die - you get one die and 2 different sized feathers. Once again I chose a contrasting colour. I added these to the frame using UHU.

It didn't quite feel right, so I added a mini heart. Perfect!

Here is the pink version  -

Cx

Paper Players...Colour Challenge..

Hey,

Happy Friday.

Today I wanted to join in with The Paper Players..

I love the colour palette and it was a great opportunity to use another one of my Meljen's Designs Divas, this time I used Flirty Diva.

Once again, oodles of fun to colour. You can see I have used some of the palette in her outfit and added more colours using the papers.

I am happy with all the little details..

Hope you have a great weekend.

Supplies used:
Promarkers  Soft Peach, Cool Grey 3, Buttercup and Pastel Yellow. Copic - skin white
Saffron pearl by Papermania
Glitterglue by Martha Stewart
Papers by Pink Petticoat in Saffron and Pistachio
Pear Tart Ink by Versamark
Wink of Stella Brush - Clear

Cx

Moving Along With The Times...Three.. in a Row...

Hey,

It's time for the Moving Along With The Times challenge..Team B are up this week and our hostess is Sue B and she has chosen a great theme of Three in a Row

Very simple rules - choose a row top to bottom, left to right - example Ribbon or Lace, Image, Punch

I went with Die, Image, Gems or Pearls.

I used a Magnolia image, which was such fun to colour. I had the hello in my image drawer forever and now that I have circle dies (by Sizzix), I could finally cut it out at the right size!

I thought it worked well here with the greens in the image and the paper.

All the papers are by Bo Bunny.

I added self-adhesive gems and pearls around the image.

I love Three in a Row, it's such fun and made me use some things that have been hidden away for quite some time.

This card is already on it's way to my Grandma.

Now it's your turn to join in the fun, but first check out the inspiring makes by my teammates over at MAWTT.

Cx

WOYWW #301..Its been too long..

Hey,

So here I am joining in with WOYWW after an extended absence.

I got too busy to really comment on wonderful WOYWW'ers blogs and that made me feel guilty and WOYWW is not about guilt..so I removed myself for a while.

WOYWW is the most special time of the week, when we join Julia at her blog Stamping Ground and nose at desks :) It's a lot of fun and some very special blogland people have been befriended, thanks to WOYWW.

So what's going on, on my desk..there is a new family member - Winston the Aardvark - crocheted by my friend Hannah - amazing!! I love Aardvarks and bombarded her with requests for him. You can see some scraps of paper, my pencil, a glue roller and to the left, some new items - stamps and inkjet acetate..can you see the teeny bit of zebra print under the acetate? Those are my fave craft scissors.

Pretty quiet for my desk, but I crafted up a storm at the weekend and felt he needed a bit of a tidy!

Here's a fun card for you -

I made this for a work colleague that was leaving, she's a good friend and I wanted to make something fun for her.

She is such a superstar that the stamp totally summed her up, so I added stars all over the place to match the sentiment!

The felt stars - I die cut using the Big Shot..sadly I have only just learnt that I can cut felt using the Big Shot..I know, I know.

Best bit for me is the fact that my staples are blue (from Tiger in London) - its the small things..

Happy WOYWW everyone.

Cx

Retro Rubber #9 - Tag You're It..there is still time..

Hey,

There is still time for you to join in the fun over at Retro Rubber.

Our current challenge is for you to make a tag or use a tag somewhere in your work, don't forget to also use stamps over a year old on your project.

Team B are up today showing you their gorgeous makes. Check them out and join in the fun over at Retro Rubber.

Cx

Colourful Diva...

Hey,

Hope you had a great weekend.

I had fun hanging with a friend and Hubby and playing at my desk.

I bought a big batch of digital stamps this weekend from Meljens Designs..which is sadly closing.

I thought that one of the stamps Windswept Diva, would be a perfect fit for this week's Color Throwdown -

Such a fun colour palette.

I loved colouring the image and putting together the card was a lot of fun I used a slightly greener colour..so not sure if that exempts me from the challenge... All of the papers - including the heart border - were on my desk - fortuitous no?

I am very happy with my card and it makes a fabulous start to the week.

Supplies used:
Promarkers  Wild Cranberry, Cool Aqua, Buttercup and Pastel Yellow. Copic - skin white
Bling, papers and sentiment stamp by Papermania
Glitterglue by Martha Stewart
Heart border die by Taylored Expressions.
Ink by Versamark
Wink of Stella Brush - Clear

Cx

Sketch Saturday + a new member of the family...

Hey,

Hope you are having a good weekend so far.

I have spent most of the weekend at my desk, playing with new things and some NBUS that has been under my desk for a while..

I saw the Sketch Saturday sketch this week -

I thought it would work really well with the great stamps that JT sent me recently - they are a freebie with a magazine and they are all 50's inspired.

I chose to use 2 of the stamps - the car and the sentiment.

All the papers are from my stash and are by Recollections. The red pearls are by Papermania.

Super simple make that has turned out to be a nice male b/day card.

We are off to brunch with my friend Hannah today who is in town, she came bearing gifts -

Meet Winston the Aardvark, the newest member of our family - Hannah crocheted him!
I saw that she had started making all different animals and I LOVE Aardvark's, so I bombarded her with Aardvark facts until she agreed to make me one :)


Cx

Lawnscaping challenge...

Hey,

Happy Friday!

I hope you are keeping warm - it is Snowmaggedon here in NYC..

I got to WFH yesterday, so it meant I finished on time and was home to make my card for Lawn Fawn's Lawnscaping Challenge Blog - this week it's Dots and or Stripes -

My Ma has been unwell and I thought it would be nice to make her a fun 'get well soon' card, but then I saw my Lawn Fawn Yeti, Set, Go stamp set and thought the sentiment 'need a hug?' would be much better.

I don't know why, but when I saw the stamp set, it make me think 'layers' - so layers we have!

I die cut a piece of white cardstock using a SSS stitched rectangle die and then I cut a circle aperture in the centre of it.

I traced lightly around the circle die, onto a scrap of card stock, so that I could position it correctly behind the aperture.

Then I used gelatos and an aquabrush to get the soft background, stamped and coloured the trees from the Yeti set onto the scrap paper, within the traced circle. A good quality eraser removes the lines.

To get the snowy hills that were in my mind (Topical?) I punched a circle and cut it in half, inking the edges using Versamark embossing ink and added silver glittery embossing powder before heating it up. It came out so twinkly!

The Yeti was stamped, coloured, fussy cut and hung from a piece of acetate, just over the snowy hills.

I put the front piece and the trees/hills together and mounted it onto a card blank using foam tape

For the final touches, I added some fun stripey washi tape in 2 corners with some bling and stamped the sentiment slightly over the tape.

I love him! Such a fun card and I think it will make my Ma smile.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Hubby and I will be heading to our usual Friday night spot to drink frozen Margaritas (YUMS) and this week, we have a good friend in town from London who will be joining us.

Cx

Raar!!!

Hey,

It's a bit shouty as a get well card, but it was for a 4 year old boy that loves Dinosaurs.

JT told me that the Son of our mutual friend had, had to have his tonsils out - poor thing. JT had sent stickers for him and I thought I do the same, I had something for my friend anyway.

The awesome T-Rex stamp is from JT and was part of the Thanksgiving $20 challenge.. The set is by Stampendous.

This is the first time I have used them and they are great to work with. I stamped them onto Strathmore mixed media paper and coloured them with Promarkers.

As I had already settled on a navy card blank, I chose contrasting papers for the chevrons (MFT dies), the sentiment and bling.

I wish I had added another row of chevrons, because it would have looked a bit like Godzilla rising from the sea...

Anyway the patient is better, loves the stickers and all is well.

Cx

Pinterest CASE...watercolour squares..

Hey,

I saw this great card and tutorial when I was cruising some blogs a few weeks ago -

It's by Julie Ebersole - via the Ellen Hutson classroom blog - which I love!

I am very pleased with my version and I added a name so it could go to one of my work colleagues.

In the tutorial Julie shows you how to dab some of the paint off of the squares, muting the colours slightly. I didn't dab all the squares, as I wanted more variance in the colours.

I love a Pinterest CASE..doing them helps me push my boundaries.

Cx

Retro Rubber #9..Tag You're It...

Hey,

Time for another great Retro Rubber challenge.

This week, we have a fun theme -

Right now, I am a bit obsessed with tags..so this is perfect for me :)

I used nesting xCut tag dies and I cut the 3 largest ones in contrasting papers by American Crafts (bargain 60 paper stack from Michael's for $5).

I embossed a piece of red cardstock using a Sizzix spotty embossing folder and adhered that to a kraft card blank. I fanned the tags out and secured them together with a mini staple, I added foam tape and placed them in the centre of my card.

I used an ancient Fiskar's set (approx 4 years old) for the sentiment and the heart. 

For the final touch I added the giant piece of bling, I have a strip of these, that I bought on sale for 50cents last year!

Tags are such fun, either as a card or as actual tags. 

It's your turn now, don't forget to use a stamp over a year old on your project.

Hop over to Retro Rubber and check out all the fab tags from my teammates.

Cx