London Playdate...

Hey,

I wanted to show you the rest of the cards I made when I was with JT.

The main photo today, shows the card I made with the centres of JT's loops! I used some washi tape for some detail and obviously as I was with JT I used a Candi..The best bit about this card is that all the items are 100% from JT's stash..

The next card is so fun! 

Especially as the bear is from a Simon Says Stamp set that I got on sale..yay! It arrived just before I left, so once again I popped it in my bag...

The cheers die is JTs and from her Stampin' Up order.

Always fun to play with someone else's stash and to gossip and drink wine with my girl.

Cx

Explore Nature...

Hey,

I am back in NYC!

I have had such a great time seeing my family and friends and getting to know my new work colleagues - they are really sweet.

It really has been an action packed few weeks and  now its time to settle into my NYC work life.

I managed to squeeze in a couple of cheeky craft sessions with my girl JT whilst I was home.

I packed a great little travel craft kit - including the new Simon Says Stamp Explore Nature stamps and dies. They arrived the day I was leaving, so I popped them in my bag!

I used the stamps and dies in 2 different ways.

The main photo uses the trees as trees :) I love the contrast of them against the turquoise background - that came from JT's stash.

I used one of the tree stamps to create the background you can see on the card below. I love the end result. I die-cut one of the trees and cut it's trunk off to create the little matching sentiment banner.

Fun times!

The first one was made with JT and the second one was made in her craft room whilst she was away..hee hee.

Cx

Retro Rubber #19..There's still time to play..

Hey,

There is still time for you to join the latest awesome challenge from the Retro Rubber team.

It's a colour inspiration challenge this time.

I love the colours in the photo and all the cards I've seen so far are really great.

Head on over to Retro Rubber and view the awesome creations by my talented teammates..

As always don't forget to use a stamp that is over a year and the challenge ends on the 31st of July, so you have plenty of time to join in the fun.

Cx

Retro Rubber #19..Colour Inspiration Time...

Hey,

It's time for another awesome challenge from the Retro Rubber team.

But before I tell you all about the challenge, I wanted to wish my Hubby a very Happy Birthday (as I am still in London) - I was a good wife though and left him gifts ;)

I love the colours in the photo and colour inspiration is always a fave theme for me.

I was inspired by the photo to use a fave digital stamp set I have by Pink Petticoat - I love Liz's work, it always feels so fresh and the stamps are always fun to colour. I've had this set since it was realised in 2013..

I used Promarkers to colour the stamps and added a Wink of Stella here and there. The sentiments, came with the stamps. The papers behind the main image are scraps that were kicking around on my desk..

I thought these would work best as 3x3 mini cards and so made an entire set!

Now it's your turn to get inspired and show us your makes..but first pop over to Retro Rubber and view the awesome creations by my talented teammates..

As always don't forget to use a stamp that is over a year and the challenge ends on the 31st of July, so you have plenty of time to join in the fun.

Cx

Busy exciting times..

Hey,

Well I am sure you have all gathered by now that I have been in London for 2 weeks (still here), starting my new job and getting ready for the adventure ahead of us all.

I have been staying near JT and I am now house sitting for her and using her craft room, more posts about the things we made together and the things I have been making whilst in her room to come.

It's been so wonderful to see my family and friends for an extended period. It has also been super wicked to have face to face playtime with JT - I miss her.

Today I wanted to show you some a couple of cards I made before I left for London.

One of the things I have learnt this year is how to use some of the random little stamps that you get with bigger sets.

I realised that I had a couple of stamp sets that had tiny flowers and thought it would be fun to experiment with those..

The main photo is the first card I tried..I stamped all the stems first in 2 different greens and then I used one flower head and stamped it in 5 different colours above the stems. Slight error on this one, as I didn't leave enough room for the sentiment!

Here's another one -

For this one, I used 3 different flower heads, I used the same idea of stamping the stems first, but this time I stamped my sentiment first.

I think I prefer the first one..

All the stamps are by Simon Says Stamp, Mama Elephant and Stampin' Up. Inks are memento dewdrops and I used MFT stitched dies.

Cx

Retro Rubber #18...There is still time for you to Get Your Sketch On!!

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 17th

Cx

Technique playtime...

Hey,

Recently I was asked to make some blank cards - no sentiment on the front - for a friend.

I thought it would be fun to play with stencils and stamps for these cards.

The main photo today is one of many that I made using the spotty stencil (Stampin' Up) and the bicycle stamp (Hero Arts). I made these in tons of different colours and I used Ranger Distress Inks and a dauber to apply them and then spritzed them with water, to get a little splodge effect.

I made a few more variants using different stencils, but with the last few that I made I couldn't resist adding a sentiment (Simon Says Stamp) -

I really like this idea of spritzing things and then drying them with a heat tool, it creates some really interesting effects and is super easy to do.

Have a fun Saturday, I am off to see my Grandma and Lemon.

Cx

CASEing Jenn Shurkus....

Hey,

Well I am here in Sunny London with my parents, it is Friday evening here and I am waiting for my Poppa to arrive home with Fish and Chips - YUMS..

I really wanted to join in Jenn Shurkus' 10th Blogiversary celebrations, as she really has been inspirational to me and I have had the privilege and pleasure of attending one of her loft art retreats.

Jenn has asked us to CASE one of her original cards.

I really liked a set of CAS sentiment cards that Jenn made back in 2013 - here is Jenn's card -

I love this card and all the variations, that Jenn made, she used Lawn Fawn stamps. I used a mix of Lawn Fawn, Simon Says Stamp and Mama Elephant..all brands that I became familiar with because of Jenn.

Here is my card -

Very simple to create, so I made a whole set.

If you are not familiar with Jenn's work, you really should go and check her site out. She is super talented and she helped me get brave enough to try out mixed media..which I am now in love with.

Have a great weekend..

Cx

Remaking for friends..

Hey,

I have a little group of girlfriends back in the UK and we all used to work together.

Life many years later has delivered us all down different paths, but when we are in the same City, we like to do Ladies Wot Dine :)

I'll be hooking up with them next week and a few of them asked me to bring them some cards, one of the things that they liked was my Watercolour Wings card that I made recently.

I only made 2 originally, so I made a few more..

I used the same techniques as per my original post. Fun cards to make and easy too.

Cx

Exciting times ahead...

Hey,

Update: Now with photos :)

Do you remember a few weeks ago, I mentioned I had some big news?

Well, I have a new job and I am heading home to London tonight, to spend 4 days with my parents before spending 2 weeks in the London office.

Yay! Exciting, challenging times ahead.

Fun part of my shiny new job is initially I get to go home once a month..It also means that I will be working with JT again, which is amazing!

There is one downside to all of this and that is packing for 2.5 weeks for a trip that is a mix of business and pleasure..

I'm not a bad packer, but I really needed some help this time..so I consulted Pinterest and I decided that packing cubes might be the way forward.

As I will be staying in 4 different places, I didn't want to rummage through my suitcase repeatedly looking for what I needed.

Packing cubes mean that I can pack by item type - meaning I only pull out the cubes I need.

Once I packed my cubes, I realised that I needed to indicate what was where...time to get crafty :)

I made little word labels on my computer and cut these and some decorative (American Crafts) papers to the right size and inserted these pairs into label laminator pouches. I ran all of them through my lamintor, punched a hole and added some suede cord.

Easy to make and very useful - I love it when I get to use crafty skills for practical items.

Here is a shot of them on the cubes (before they went into my suitcase.

Cx

Retro Rubber #18 Get Your Sketch On!!

Hey,

It is time for another fantastic Retro Rubber challenge..

Who doesn't love a sketch 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..

I used old and new stamps. The balloon is from an old Teresa Collins stamp set that I have had since 2013. The sentiment is from a new SSS stamp set - Square Sayings.

I have a little void on one of the balloons, but that's handmade for you :)

I like the teeny tiny little blue scalloped edge poking out..it's a bit shorter than I wanted, but I still like it.

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

Challenge ends on July 17th

Cx

Happy 4th of July!

Hey,

Hope you are all good.

If you are celebrating Independence Day, I hope you are having a great day.

Hubby and I are chilling, after a fun boat party last night..it was also my first session out of the boot and all is well - yay!

My card was made using a Hero Arts stamp, American Crafts papers, MFT stitched rectangle dies, SSS starburst stamp and Memento dewdrop inks.

Cx

Moving Along With the Times..Baby Baby...

Hey,

It's time for another great Moving Along With The Times challenge with Team B. This week the lovely Wendy is our hostess and her theme is Baby..

I needed to make a new baby boy card for some good friends at home, so decided to combine that with the challenge.

As I am slightly obsessed with the new freezer paper technique I recently learnt I decided to use it for this card. I bought a new Baby word die by Lil' Inker Designs especially for this card..naughty, naughty..

I die cut the word and ironed it onto some watercolour stock. I used a clean brush and clean water to add water all around the word before applying my paints. If you do this, you get the nice bleed of colour. I used a paper towel to dab any excess water off before drying it with my heat tool.

I stamped a Paper Smooches T-Rex in Dew Drop Midnight blue ink. The hello boy wording I created using my new-ish click alpha set..very cool piece of kit.

For the final touch I splattered some dark blue paint around the card.

I am super pleased with the result and hope my friends are too.

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

Cx

More card kit fun...

Hey,

I am loving the latest Simon Says Stamp card kit!

I had another mini play with it (one card at a time) and came up with today's main photo.

I have an idea brewing..but more about that later.

Once again I used a die-cut stitched rectangle (MFT) as my base. I cut small stripes off of some of the patterned papers in the kit and loosely taped them to the rectangle, cutting off any excess randomly!

I am very happy with my weird twine (also from the kit) knot thingy.. I keep seeing these everywhere and it has made no sense,,,until the other night! I secured it with a mini staple; Here is a close-up -

Super pleased with that little detail.

I used the stripy stamp from the kit and stamped it in 2 places and then  I stamped, coloured and fussy cut the boat and placed it onto the rectangle..yes I did this before securing it to the card base - ugh...

Final touches were using another SSS card kit happy birthday stamp and a SSS little twinkle star thingy stamp..

I love it!!

I can't wait to make another one.

Cx