Retro Rubber #17..4th of July - There is still time to play...

Hey,

There is still time for you to play along with the current Retro Rubber challenge..

Don't forget to use a stamp older than a year and tell us how long you have had it..it's a big part of the fun..

Pop over to Retro Rubber to see the fantastic creations by my teammates and link up to show us what you come up with.

Challenge ends on July 3rd. 

Cx

Card kit fun...

Hey,

Hope you had a nice weekend. I had a very quiet one - mainly spent at my desk, resting my foot.

Yesterday I got a lovely surprise as my Simon Says Stamp July Card Kit was delivered - yes on a Sunday!!

So after dinner I sat down and had a play..

I loved the card Debby Hughes made that was used on the inspiration sheet -

It made me, super happy - it is gorgeous!

So whilst this isn't a true CASE, I felt I should show what inspired my card.

I used the stamp set from the kit and added a punched star with a Stickles dot. The blue piece of paper at the bottom of the card is a scrap and like the main rectangle it was die cut to size using a MFT stitched rectangle die.

I wanted a more scripty thanks, so used one by Paper Smooches, from their Simply Said set.

I love this little card, so cute, great way to start the week.

Cx

Watercolour Wings

Hey,

Happy Friday everyone!!

I have had an eventful week..more about that soon..

I thought I'd share another fun little card I made using part of my Stampin' Up Demonstrator starter kit.

The butterfly is from the Watercolor Wings set -

I loved the idea of constructing the butterfly.

I stamped the various parts of the butterfly using Distress Inks onto Tim Holtz watercolour paper. Then I spritzed the butterfly with water and dabbed up any big drips and dried it with a heat tool.

It created a really cool smudged effect.

The sentiment stamps are by Paper Smooches.

I added the hearts and some splatter for my finishing touches.

Fun, can't wait to try different colour variants.

Have a great weekend..I will be resting my foot in hope of being healed enough to come out of the bootie on Tuesday.

Remember if you want to buy this stamp set you can find a link to my store in the sidebar.

Cx

Repeat with a twist...

Hey,

So I needed to make a Anniversary card for JT's Sister and I decided I would re-work a card I made earlier this year...

You can see the new version is very similar to the earlier one - same stamps, same stencil, almost the same colours!

But with one new twist..I added little 1s to the raining hearts, as it is the couple's first wedding anniversary :)

Yay!

I am very happy with this one, I think the hearts are spaced out much better, partly because I die cut the card stock to shape first.

I know I'll be making it again, it is such an easy, fun and quick card to make.

Cx

Retro Rubber #17...4th of July...

Hey,

It is time for another awesome Retro Rubber challenge..

This time we have a great theme for you -

Yes, 4th of July is just around the corner, so let's get in the mood for the holiday and make something fab. I am super excited about the holiday, as Hubby and I will be dancing the night away on a boat party with one of our fave dj's - foot permitting...

Don't forget to use a stamp older than a year and tell us how long you have had it..it's a big part of the fun..

I went with an old digital stamp from Bugaboo - I've had it at least 3 years..

I coloured the stamp using Promarkers and Wink of Stella brush pens, then I fussy cut her out. 

So that there was a bit of a halo around the girl, I drew a pencil line around her and only stenciled the parts outside of the line. The stencil is a grid by SSS.

The sentiment is a mix of stamps and glittery stickers.

Makes me smile and has already left in the post on its way to a friend..

Pop over to Retro Rubber to see the fantastic creations by my teammates and link up to show us what you come up with.

Challenge ends on July 3rd. 

Cx

P.s whilst writing this I realised my card matches the challenge image, how funny is that!

Simon Says Stamp CASE...

Hey,

Hope you had a nice weekend. I had a very relaxing one.

I really wanted to make cards for my July card swap. I usually turn to my Simon Says Stamp cardkit when making the cards for card swap.

I think I choose the kits because when I can make anything I want my stash can be a bit daunting!! So I look for inspiration with the kits and get to pull in other items..

This time, I saw this great idea on the inspiration sheet -

It's by Debby Hughes - I love her work..

My stitched circle dies arrived recently, so I was totally able to do something similar.

I used papers from the kit, a sentiment stamp and the smile die. The little starburst stamp is from another SSS stamp set - sorry I forget which one, as this handy little stamp permanently lives on my desk :)

These cards are so bright and cheery - thanks to Debby for inspiring my July swaps.

Cx

Happy Father's Day Daddy..

Hey,

Today is Father's Day and I am quite a long way away from my Daddy, but I always like to write a little post about him and show the card I made for him.

This year I was inspired by the freezer paper technique I learnt in my Mask-erade OCC.

I die cut Daddy using a Memory Box alpha lower case die and I ironed it onto some Tim Holtz watercolour cardstock.

I used Distress Inks for the watercolouring and quite a fat brush..I love the colours I ended up with. Using a heat tool I dried the whole thing and then gently peeled off the freezer paper.

I then stamped the sentiment using a Hero Arts stamp.

Fun card for my Fun Daddy - I miss him lots, but his hilarious emails and twitter abuse make it feel like he is right here!

Here's my fave photo of him, this is on my Wedding Day and he is watching me sing!

Happy Father's Day Daddy..

Cx

Stampin' Friday...

Hey,

Happy Friday everyone!

I thought it would be fun to show you some cards made using some of my new Stampin' Up products that I chose as part of my demonstrator kit.

I love Stampin' Up products and I am excited to be a demonstrator, but I am also craft crazy and have an enormous stash of other products too. Everything works together, which is the great thing about crafting.

I used the Brushstrokes background stamp and added distress inks to the stamp using ink daubers. I pressed the paper onto the stamp and rubbed over the entire stamp with my hand, so I could get a good impression.

I stamped 2 different colourways so I could make 2 kinds.

LOVE the watery effect of the stamp and my ink application was random, so I got some bleed which makes it feel more natural..

I also stamped and punched some of the stamps from the Six Sided Sampler set - I love hexagons and I have had this particular Stampin' Up punch for AGES..

Putting the cards together was fun, I just scattered the hexagons around until I liked what I saw and then I secured them to the background.

The main photo today is my fave..I added an Awesome die-cut, coloured in a matching Cracked Pistachio ink and stamped a Woodware giant Happy Birthday. Fun times..

I kept the card below simple and just used the simpler hexagon stamp from the set and a sentiment.

I mounted both cards onto black card blanks, as this really made the colours pop.

Super easy to make and fun to play with the Brushstrokes stamp.

You can shop with me if you want to for any of the Stampin' Up products - using this link.

Have a great weekend, I am going to be playing, playing at my desk.

Cx

Moving Along With The Times..Song Lyric..

Hey,

We are back with another great challenge over at Moving Along With The Times. This week it is time for Team B and the Lovely Lena is our hostess. Her theme is Song Lyric..

Lena wants us to chose a line or a verse from our favourite songs and bring it to life. She is also offering a prize to the lucky winner..

I was a bit stuck for inspiration initially, but then Hubby and I heard a Bobby Vee song in a shop the other day and it reminded me of 'The Night has a Thousand Eyes", so I started singing it and Hubby suggested it would work for my card if I used a ton of googly eyes..

Now Hubby doesn't join in my craft world very often, but when he does, boy is he right!

So you can see my card - tons and tons of googly eyes. It was quite hard to stick the sentiment to the eyes, so it looks a bit wonky, which I think suits the quirky nature of the card..

Here's a little close-up for you -

So now it's your turn..but first pop over to MAWTT and check out all the great creations by my teammates.

Cx

Retro Rubber #16 - Tie It On..Still Time to play..

Hey,

There is still time for you to join in with the current challenge over at Retro Rubber..

Tie something, somehow onto your project :) Don't forget to use a stamp older than a year on your project.

Now its your turn, pop over to Retro Rubber and check out all the fab creations by my teammates.

Challenge ends on June 19th.

Cx

Newton's Wagons...

Hey,

Hope you had a good weekend. I had fun, hanging out with Hubby and friends. I also managed to get to the InkpadNYC's sale on Sunday - I had fun..watch this space for my new bargain basement goodies..

Today I thought I'd share some cards I made with a new Newton's Nook Wagon of Wishes stamp set I have. I bought it before Ma was here and when she was here, I managed to sneak a night to watercolour these beauties.

I love the fact that the wagon contents are interchangeable. I used Distress Inks and a aquabrush to watercolour, stitched dies by Simon Says Stamp and MFT. The sentiment is also by SSS.

Simple and cute. I used them for some happy mail that I sent to my Retro Rubber teammates.

Here are a couple more..

Cx

Exciting times...

Hey,

Yippee it is Friday!!

It's been quite a week here in NYC for me - hotter than hell, new Star Wars Style boot for the foot (3 more weeks and then I should be good), playing along with the colour challenge at the Daily Marker and becoming a Stampin' Up demonstrator!!

My lovely Retro Rubber colleague Debbie helped me to take the leap and I am super excited to be a demonstrator.

I am planning my first event..so watch this space, but for now, if you are interested in purchasing there is a link on my sidebar.

My card today is from Day 8 of the colour challenge and uses Stampin' Up Cheerful Critters stamps - I coloured the bear with Promarkers in tones that matched the paper. I love the sentiment..

Happy Weekend everyone, I will be at my desk, shopping at the Inkpadnyc sale and drinking wine with my Hubby.

Cx

Read the fine print...

Hey,

I didn't join in with WOYWW yesterday..my foot is now in a Aircast walking boot and I was feeling a bit blah..

But then Hubby was out and I had all this playtime and I started thinking about all the fun I had playing along with the Pretty Pink Posh watercolour blog hop last weekend.

Whilst I was hopping I came across a great blog - Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - the name and the card styles made me smile. So I thought I would enter this week's challenge - V is for Vellum.

I kept my card minimal - new sentiment stamps by Lil' Inkers - so snarky, but fun. The papers are by Bazzill. I heat embossed the sentiment for a bit of stand out. I taped 2 nesting circle dies together to create the black and vellum rings, I love them and will totally be doing that again.

I love the varying Kraft card textures and colours.

Cx

p.s I am still playing along with the 30 day colouring challenge hosted by Kathy over at The Daily Marker...join in..10 mins of colouring a day keeps me sane..

Retro Rubber #16 - Tie It On....

Hey,

Welcome to another fab challenge over at Retro Rubber..

We have another fun theme for you this time -

Tie something, somehow onto your project :) Don't forget to use a stamp older than a year on your project.

I used an ancient Papermania stamp - I think it is one of the first stamp sets that I ever bought, so it is nearly 8 years old!

I used simple layered rectangles of paper and tied my twine around the white rectangle (not as tightly as I wanted..) and then stamped the sentiment in a contrasting ink onto the white rectangle. I used a MFT stitched rectangle for the white one.

Now its your turn, pop over to Retro Rubber and check out all the fab creations by my teammates.

Challenge ends on June 19th.

Cx

30 Days of Colouring...week 1...

Hey,

Happy Monday to you.

Super quick post from me today..

JT and I have been playing along with the 30 day Colouring Challenge, hosted by Kathy over at The Daily Marker.

We have been having a lot of fun (not sure if our friends and family agree..with the FB and Instagram spam from us) and the collage photo today shows you all the fun we have been up to.

I urge you to join in, not just because it's fun, but because I have discovered that 10 mins of colouring a day is super easy to do and very theraputic :)

You can also see what JT and I are up to each week on our Flickr Group.

Cx

Online Card Class - Mask-erade..wrap up..

Hey,

I have finished my latest Online Card Class - Mask-erade. It was a lot of fun to do an interactive class, I will definitely be doing one again.

All my cards can be seen here, but I thought I'd show you a few from days 3-4 (you can see 1,2 and 5 here)

The main card is from Day 4 and uses Freezer Paper to mask off the word - I love this card, it was easy to make and looks exactly as I imagined it would!

Day 3 - Layering with stamps and stencils over masks - I made a mistake here, but I still love it.

Day 4 - another freezer paper example - love the blocks of colour..

I loved the class, I learnt so much and rubber cement and freezer paper are going to be coming out a lot more!

Cx

Pretty Pink Posh..Watercolour Blog Hop..

Hey,

Happy Friday!

I have been super excited to join in the Pretty Pink Posh watercolour blog hop - despite the foot woes (2 more broken bones found by the MRI)..

The image from the PPP blog, made me giddy with excitement -

I kept my card nice and simple.

I used a piece of Tim Holtz watercolour paper, Distress inks in Cracked Pistachio and Peacock Feathers to create my watercolour background. I use a fave technique, wet my brush in clean water and paint across the paper, then dab ink onto my craft mat and using a very wet brush I apply it to the paper.

The sentiment is by Paper Smooches and you can see some little stars and dots scattered around, those stamps are by Simon Says Stamp.

I then mounted it to a card blank - voila! Finished card.

I love watercolouring, its one of my fave mediums. I find it very therapeutic.

Hope you all have a great weekend, I will be resting my foot, whilst playing at my desk.

Cx

Moving Along With The Times.. Happy Birthday...

Hey,

Welcome to a new Moving Along With The Times Challenge..

Our wonderful leader Hazel is up this week with that all time fave - Happy Birthday as her theme..

I love a fun and slightly unusual birthday card..

I recently bought a new Penny Black Petunia Pig stamp - love Petunia and all the chicks in glasses!

I stamped the image onto a white die cut stitched rectangle and coloured it with Promarkers and stickles.

I chose a super simple piece of green DCWV textured card for the background, which meant I could have fun with my new Taylored Expressions grass die! I trimmed it down a bit, so you can see the chicks!

Final touch was the sentiment, by SSS.

Fun!

Now it's your turn to join in, but first pop over to MAWTT and check out the awesome creations by my teammates.

Cx

WOYWW #313..Craft playtime for months to come...

Hey,

Happy WOYWW.

What fun last week's swap was. I have now posted all of mine and now I am starting to receive yummy snail mail - whoop!

I will show you the delights I received once they are all safely with me.

So for you WOYWW novices, join us and our fabulous hostess Julia over at her blog Stamping Ground for the weekly global desk nosy - make new friends, be enabled to buy new stash, fun times.

I have been super busy craft wise, because I decided I just wanted to have some playtime with my enormous stash and so have allocated the Summer months to play and DT items only - sweet.

Sadly Mr Broken foot is causing me issues (btw the original break has healed..) I am off for a foot MRI today (sigh).

I have nearly finished Day 5 of my OCC and JT and I are now playing along with The Daily Marker - 30 days of colouring challenge. You can see what we are colouring here.

Due to me participating in the colouring challenge, my desk is very tidy, I like to colour in a tidy environment. I have been known to go to the dining table when I have been too lazy to tidy my desk..but Hubby has quite a lot to say about that.

My desk today shows my finished colouring from Day 2 and some ideas about making them into cards, my glasses are there (spotty pair for a change) and my mini distress inks.

I've got some exciting news for you, but that will be coming later on this week...

Here is a little card for you - in the layout stage...

I got the Avery Elle flower die on sale and it makes a very sticky up flower, so I will be using it on a present, but I do like this layout. I used SSS inks.

I followed this video to make my flower..neat idea.

See you later gators.

Cx

Retro Rubber #15 ..Vintage Lace..Still time to play...

Hey,

There is still time for you to play along with the current challenge over at the Retro Rubber challenge blog.

The current theme is Vintage Lace - fun times.

Here is the card I made -

Can't to see what you come up with. Don't forget to check out the fabulous creations over at Retro Rubber made by my teammates.

Remember to use a stamp over a year old and the challenge runs until June 5th.

Cx

Paper Players..Tic Tac Toe + Playdate...

Hey,

Hope you had a great weekend?

JT and I managed a playdate on Sunday and we decided to play along with The Paper Players challenge this week.

We decided to make 2 rows -
Sequins / Flower / Yellow and Blue / Embossing / Patterned Paper.

Both of us had a few struggles with the blue row..so my entry and main photo is of the yellow card, which I am really pleased with.

I used Dew Drop Dandelion and Tuxedo black inks, Simon Says Stamp, Hero Arts and Bo Bunny stamps. I had been a bit apprehensive about using the flower stamps - they came with a SSS card kit. It seemed a bit complex, but it actual was quite easy.

In the interest of full disclosure here are the blue cards.

They feel a bit blah to me, but JT liked them :)

Cx