Jenn Shurkus' Coolest Card Series..

Hey,

A late post from me today.

As I am waiting to watch the Pro-bowl, I thought I'd play along with Jenn's Coolest Card series..

There were three weeks, all had to be snow themed + something else that was announced each week..

Week 1 - Stencils and Paper Smooches.This week you had to make a card that was snow themed AND used stencils.

I used Lawn Fawn Winter Fox stamps and dies. The snow was made using Lawn Fawn stitched hillside borders, I added a bit of stickles to the curve to make it more snow like.

I had a freebie snowflake stencil that I have never used..which turned out to be perfect for here.

I added a Simon Says Stamp sentiment as the finishing touch.

Week 2 - Watercolours and My Favorite Things. This week make a card that is snow themed AND used watercolours.

I decided to go with a resist here, I stamped my Sizzix snowflakes using clear versamark ink and white embossing powder. I heat embossed it and then watercoloured over the top. I love the splodges you get. I used a MFT stitched die to die cut my watercolour piece out and then stamped a Simon Says Stamp sentiment onto a darker blue panel. I added a blue doily for a bit of texture.

I love this card, it feels like being out in the snow!

Week 3 - Valentine Colours and Lawn Fawn. This week make a card that is snow themed AND uses Valentine colours.

This is the main photo today.

I used one of my fave Lawn Fawn sets here - Yeti, Set, Go. I thought a pink Yeti made sense..after all there must be a Ms / Mrs Yeti right? Once again I utilised my Lawn Fawn stitched hillside border die and keeping with the colour scheme I stamped pink snowflakes..

Finished off with a sentiment sticker by Crate Paper.

What a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

I'm also pretty excited that Kathy Rac over at The Daily Marker is starting her latest 30 Day Colouring Challenge tomorrow - whoop whoop!

Cx

Texture birthday..

Hey,

Today I am showing you a card for a work colleague.

He just happens to share the same birthday as JT and is also my work buddy and has been super helpful.

I wanted to make him a fun card.

He cycles so I thought the chevron Ferro metallic paste offcut would be a perfect starting point.

To help keep it manly..I used a Wplus9 happy die and a Tim Holtz word die in black card.

I like the mix of fonts and angles and the patchy texture paste feels like a real bike did it..

This is why I love scraps.

Cx

Word!

Ha ha ha

Happy Friday!

As it's Friday I think it's totally the right time for some silliness..

During my Sunday playdate with JT I found a pre-printed shark from a batch I'd made a while back.

I die cut him using a MFT stitched rectangle die, added googly eyes and then consulted JT on the sentiment.

We agreed it should be something from a fun set that I got us both in the Michael's Black Friday sale, from the Creative Chaos Recollections range.so cheap..

We settled on Word..

Because of course that's what a Shark would say...

Ha ha ha..

I love Sharks, here is a photo I took at the Lisbon Aquarium on my PHONE!! - no filters..

Have a great weekend everyone.

I'm hoping not to get snowed in again..

Cx

Wplus9 Throwback Thursday...

Hey,

One of my craft resolutions this year was to join in different challenges.

I love Wplus9 products and I have several of the stamp sets and dies.

I thought it would be fun to join their current Throwback Thursday challenge...

This time we are being asked to dig out our older Wplus9 stamps and make Valentine's cards...

I decided to turn mine into a little set for a friend that asked me for some I quote 'smushy' cards..

I based my cards around this fabulous set that I have had for a while -

They were pretty simple to make. 

I die-cut a stitched rectangle from watercolour card and then placed the sentiment stamp on the card where I wanted to stamp it.

Then I stamped the hearts (main card) in 2 different colours of Distress ink and then spritzed it with water and dried it. 

Finally I stamped the sentiment onto the card..affix to the card blank, add a little bling and it was finished.

I did the same with the other three stamps to make this cute set for my friend.

All of the hearts, stars, stardust and circles are by Simon Says Stamp and are from various stamp sets.

Here's a photo of the other cards..

I will totally be doing this again with this stamp set..

Fun times inspired by a fun challenge.

Cx

Paper piecing glamorous girls..

Hey,

So as you know this weekend saw us beaten indoors by Superstorm Jonas!!

It did mean that I got to play at my desk...

I dug out a set I got free in December with a magazine when I was in London - JT has the same one.

It is a glamour theme, with a bit of a cinema twist - Oscar, film reels, etc.

I decided I would paper piece my ladies to make two birthday cards for friends.

The main photo uses a fun American Crafts paper scrap. I added a martini glass border because it made me laugh.

The paper piecing here was pretty simple - phew..

Not the case with card number two...for some reason the dress straps were too long and the dress looked odd, so I had to try and trim them down slowly, so I didn't chop off too much..no pressure.

I think I pulled it off and I stamped little Simon Says Stamp stars in gold all over the card..

I like paper piecing, but it is labour intensive, hence why I don't do it that often..I need to be in the mood and have the time...

Cx

Retro Rubber #30 Get Sketchy..still time to play..

Hey,

There is still time for you to play along with the first Retro Rubber challenge of 2016.

It's a sketch this time and we can't wait to see your fab creations.

Remember to use a stamp over a year and make sure you tell us how old it is. Challenge ends on January 29th..

Go over to Retro Rubber  and get inspired by the DT.

Cx

Petunia sees you..

Hey,

Hope you had a good weekend..we as you are probably aware got driven indoors by Superstorm Jonas..he was a big one - 30 inches of snow in 24hrs - that is the whole season's snowfall in one session..

Wowzers...

It meant I got to stay in and play at my desk..whoop whoop..

I made this card for a friend who recently got glasses and she is loving them, so this image made me think of her..

It is from the Stamping Bella Petunia Pig series of stamps and I really want to buy a couple more..

I coloured the image with Promarkers and Spectrum Noir sparkle pens. The sentiment is by Simon Says Stamp.

I mounted it using pop dots onto a yellow spotty piece of card..I think the yellow makes Petunia stand out a bit more.

I've been rifling through my stamps recently to give a few neglected ones a bit of love...

This means my friends are going to get mail bombed :)

Cx

Colour A Day Calendar..

Hey,

Hope you are having a good weekend so far.

Hubby and I have been mooching, I've had some desk time and lunch with friends, now it is time for NFL playoffs :)

JT's parents bought me a great colour a day calendar for my birthday.

I have been happily colouring in the pages every day or so, its fun and therapeutic and an easy way to get a crafting fix if I am away from home.

Today I am showing you weeks one and two..a lot of my colours for these two weeks are similar as I was away for most of them.

I'm enjoying the variety of things that you get to colour - not all patterns, I loved colouring the fish - infact I coloured him on the plane on the way home last week :)

I'm going to keep posting these, as it is fun to see them all together.

Now the big question is what do I do with them at the end of the year?

Cx

Simon Says..Create with Critters..

Hey,

Happy Weekend to you all.

Today I am off to lunch with some friends..if the weather holds...

I thought the Simon Says Wednesday challenge theme this week - Create with Critters was fun and wanted to play along..

Before I talk about my card the SSS team asked to see a photo of our Critters if we have them..

Well I have Furbabies..Archie and Boscat, recently we sat down and worked out how old they are LOL - Archie is 12 and Boscat is 9 - wow!!

They are pretty well travelled, as they came all the way from London to New York with us when we moved.

I work from home so there are millions of these photos, of this lazy pair reclining on my bed..

Archie (white) and Boscat (tabby)

Anyway, back to my card :)

I used Simon Says Stamp Baby Party Animals stamps and dies and a Newton's Nook wagon stamp, the grass die is by Taylored Expressions.

Thanks again to Online Card Classes and Jenn Shurkus for teaching me how to 'mix and match' my stamps..

Its a pretty simple card, I used pop dots to make 2 of the animals in the wagon standout, I used Promarkers to colour the stamps along with the new Spectrum Noir sparkle markers.

I can't wait to send it to someone!

Cx

Color Throwdown..lucky to have a friend like you...

Hey,

Happy Friday to you..

Today I'm playing along with the Color Throwdown challenge -

I fell in love with the colours and wanted to play with them.

I am really happy with my card, it came out exactly as I had pictured it in my head! That's pretty rare.

I broke out my MFT rounded rectangle dies..I don't use these as often as I should, whenever I use them I'm all 'why don't I use these more?'

I used Tumbled Glass Distress Stain through a new Crafters Workshop stencil, that I got given as a Christmas present.

I then covered a piece of scrap paper with Picked Raspberry Distress Stain and then die cut friend from it - the friend die and sentiments are by Mama Elephant.

I scattered some pink and blue bling around, as what card doesn't need a bit of bling :)

Have a great weekend.

Cx

Not quite a horse..

Hey,

It's been a busy week so far..I am looking forward to the weekend and some QT at my desk..

Our friends have a Horse mad Daughter, so this year I wanted to make her a card that fits her likes, but I discovered I do not have a single Horse stamp - physical or digital.

Then I remembered the awesome Unicorn stamp (by Bugaboo) that JT gave me as part of the 2015 $20 challenge..

Almost a Horse right?

I coloured the image with Promarkers and the background paper is ANCIENT..I've had it approx 5 years..

To make the card more Horse related..I made a detachable rosette that she can wear.

Super simple to make, cut 2 felt circles, cut 2 pennants, attach the pennants to the inside of one of the circles, use fabric glue to stick together. Add sentiment circle and a safety pin at the back, affix to the card using foam tape - voila! Pennant.

I hope she likes it..

Cx

Wine and friends...

Hey,

I hope it is warmer wherever you are!

It is very cold here in NYC and we are prepping for a big storm, that is going to bring a lot of snow our way from Friday...brrr

Today I am showing you cards I made as Thank You's for friends. I wanted to inject a bit of their personalities into the cards and then remembered I had this great stamp by Unity Stamp Co.

So instead of standard thank you's, I am sending them these fun cards as my friends are like me and like wine..

I used Kaleidacolor ink pads on the stamp, that's how I got the vignette of colour.

I chose contrasting spotty backgrounds, because they made the stamp pop.

Fun and easy cards to make - here is the other version.

I really love Unity Stamps, they are always a little bit different and fun.

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #30 Sketch time...

Hey,

Welcome to 2016 and the start of a fab year of challenges from the Retro Rubber team.

We also have three new DT members - great to have them with us - Maria, Carole and Donna - make sure you check out their blogs.

Big thanks to everyone that entered to join our fun team

Our awesome leader Jane has been beavering away to come up with awesome challenges for us and you to take part in during 2016.

The first challenge of 2016 is a sketch -

I love a sketch challenge..sadly this one was a bit painful..I literally made my card 3 times, until I settled on one I liked LOL..nothing worse than a fussy crafter!

I used scraps for the papers, patterned one is by American Crafts and the plain piece is by Recollections.

I stamped and die cut feathers by Lawn Fawn and the sentiment is by Hot Off The Press. I have had the feather stamps for approx 2 years and the HOTP sentiment was a new freebie last year.

I really like the white space and I'm pleased that I decided to add bling, right at the end!

Now it is your turn to show us your fab creations, but don't forget to hop over to Retro Rubber and view the fab creations by my awesome team mates.

Remember you have to use a stamp older than a year and the challenge ends on January 29.

Cx

Cityscape..

Hey,

I'm heading home to NYC later on today.

I thought I'd share this fun card I made for a friend, using a new Studio Calico stamp set (bought during the great BF sales..) and Clearly Besotted stamps for the Happy New Year.

I coloured the image with distress inks and an aquabrush.

Another super quick and easy make.

The card blank was made by me, as I bought a big stack of cardstock from Simon Says Stamp in bright colours so I could make fun card blanks.

I'll be back Monday..tomorrow I will be hanging with Hubby and cheering on my Seahawks in the playoffs..

Cx

Happy Mail..

Hey,

Happy Friday to you.

Today is my last day in London, I head home tomorrow, but tonight I will be going to dinner with my folks.

I wanted to show you the two beautiful cards that Cheiron (left) and Jenn (right) sent me before Christmas..they came with gifts too :)

Happy mail from my inspirational teachers, who I am pleased to say are friends too.

Cheiron's card came with lots of yummy Spectrum Noir pens and pencils and Jenn's came with the great Hero Arts stamp I had coveted..

I love both the cards and Cheiron's is actually a card she made in a class that Jenn taught...awesome.

Love these ladies..

Have a great weekend, I am excited to see my Hubby and the Furbabies..

Cx

Cheers to you and yours...

Hey,

I'm still in London, it's fun being with everyone this week and catching up post Christmas / New Year.

As that is on my mind, I thought I would show you the Happy New Year card I made for my Aunt..

She actually sent me a Christmas card, but I couldn't find her address before Christmas, so once I received her card, I made her a Happy New Year card.

I used the Lawn Fawn Let's Bokeh set and kept it simple.

I stamped the circles in different colours that contrasted with my card blank.

Another example of stretching my stamps and not just using this set to create Bokeh cards...

Cx

More Scribble Flowers...

Hey,

One of the things that I have learnt over the last 2 years is that my stamps can be 'stretched'..meaning that they can be used in many different ways and not just for the original intended use.

So for example, this great scribble flowers set by Simon Says Stamp, doesn't always have to look like flowers.

In today's card, I've used the circles as a random jumble.

I like it, but I am disappointed that I misjudged the space for the sentiment...it's still going to get used though.

The sentiment stamps are some of my default go to stamps - they are by CAS-ual Fridays.

Every now and again I go through all my stamps and add a little note to their plastic sleeve with the ways I might be able to use them, so if I am stuck for inspiration, I just check my stamps and voila! ideas..

Cx

Stencils and Stains...

Hey,

One of the things I really wanted to do during the Black Friday sales was to buy more of the layering Tim Holtz stencils..

I had about 6 of them already and wanted to add a further 6, but I could only find 4 of the ones I wanted.

I thought it would be fun to try out the stencils using Distress Stains.

The main photo shows the backgrounds I made using the stencils - From left to right clockwise - Scribbles, Grid, Scribbles, Tracks, Lace and Tracks.

Today I am going to show you two cards that I made using two of the backgrounds, I'll show more when I finish making cards..I haven't had much desk time recently.

The card above is the Thank You card I made for JT to say 'thanks' for all the lovely Christmas presents, for getting me my wonderful job and for generally being a superb person and friend.

The hearts were punched from a Scribbles background that is not in the main photo. I had originally planned to stack the two die-cut Lawn Fawn scripty thanks, but then I thought what if I created a shadow...

Here's a close-up - 

I'm super pleased with how well the shadow worked!

Funnily it arrived in the post last night when I was at JT's house LOL!

The card below uses a tracks background and it was a birthday card for our cat sitter Brad - we only started using Brad in December, he's amazing the cats love him, as do we..he's a bit older than your average cat sitter, but I think that makes him perfect for the job.

I wanted to include a cat on his card, as he loves cats, so I added a Mama Elephant cat - 

I actually think these the tracks backgounds look like mini trees.

I really love working with stencils..I am going to keep practising with the stains, I'll be trying distress paint next, could be interesting.

Cx

Lisbon 2015...

Hey,

Happy Monday to you all.

I am in London, starting my first day of work for a week here.

I thought I would share some of the photos from our fab, fun trip to Lisbon in December.

It was a total blast and really cool to meet everyone's partners.

We did fun things - like find a bar that served 2 beers for 75cents, race through Lisbon in Tuk Tuks, go to the Aquarium en masse when severely hungover, drink the best 2euro wine ever in a wine shop, wander through Lisbon admiring the architecture, discover that Lisboans are obsessed with Sardines and have a fondness for Pork, shop a lot, dress up for a Michelin starred dinner, dance in awful clubs, drink a lot several times..

It was fun, we did it together and it makes me love my work colleagues a little bit more..

Cx

Happy Forty Something...

Hey,

Hope you are having a good weekend so far.

I am chilling with my folks, before heading over to my hotel for the week.

I bought these great stamps during the Studio Calico Black Friday sale...

It's a fun set and I thought it would make fun, age appropriate cards for some of my friends :)

It was really simple to put together and the papers were all scraps. I used co-ordinating ink colours and a teeny tiny Simon Says Stamp star stamp to add some interest.

I am looking forward to making more of these.

Cx

Reminding myself I'm a crafter...

Hey,

So this is a scheduled post as I am now in London.

Yes, sometimes I do forget I'm a crafter, especially when I see shiny, pretty paper goods and stationery on display in shops..

I like to have a calendar hanging on my pinboard above my craft / work desk and last year I had a cute one from Michaels that was a dollar.

It came with the handy clipboard that you can see in my main photo.

I've seen lots of really lovely small hanging calendars and have been tempted to buy one..then when I was taking down my 2015 one, I thought - hold on, why don't I make one for myself..idiot!

So I trawled around for a calendar style I liked (very fussy about this) and came across a fellow WOYWWer Scrappy Sticky Inky Mess - she has a whole host of fabulous free printables on her blog and I found one that had a blank space for you to decorate.

I printed it out and cut it down to fit the clipboard (recycling points) and then I added a swipe of distress stain to the top of each month, found appropriate stamps and voila 15 mins later I had a calendar...

Nice to be reminded of the fact that I have an entire craft room at my disposal..

Here are photos of all of the months..

I used all different stamps for my interpretation of the months..Sept is cake because it's my birth month :) I did notice that I need one more distress stain colour :) because I had to reuse a colour...excuses for spendy spendy...

Cx


Stamps are by - Lawn Fawn, Simon Says Stamp, Quick Cards, Paper Mania, Avery Elle, Avocado Arts.

New Year, New Challenge...

Hey,

Happy Friday..

Before I leave for London tonight, I wanted to play along with the latest Simon Says Monday AND Wednesday Challenges...

They are both 'Something New' and the Monday DT used Tim Holtz products..so I did that too.

I went with two New themes - Happy New Year and new stash :)

I recently bought the Tim Holtz and Sizzix Alphanumeric dies, but haven't had a chance to use them.

I used them for this card to die cut the words Happy New Year out of Tim Holtz watercolour paper, that I coloured using Worn Lipstick distress ink, blended using different strengths of ink to create the colour variation.

I stacked them onto a die cut piece of the watercolour paper and then used a new Tim Holtz grid stencil with Ferro Metallic Paste.

I love the end result, a little bit funky, like the friend it is going to :)

Have a great weekend, see you in London next week...

Cx

Moving Along With The Times..Spots and Dots...

Hey,

It's time for the first 2016 Moving Along With The Times Challenge..

This time around we are hosted by my good friend Jessie - she is asking us to use spots and dots...

Around the time JT posted her theme I got a big batch of new Unity Stamp Co stamps and the 'Sweet Sixteen' stamp was in that batch and I thought would be perfect for this challenge.

I coloured the stamp using Promarkers and used a white chalk marker to add the spots to the girl's dress.

I die cut the whole piece using a Xcut die - I hardly ever use these dies...

The sentiment is by Clearly Besotted and I love that I can mix and match all of the sentiments.

I mounted the image panel onto a spotty American Crafts card blank.

Very simple but fun card to make (I've got a thing about balloons on cards..)

Now it's your turn to join in the fun and show us your creations, but first pop over to MAWTT and see the fab creations by my talented teammates.

Challenge ends Wednesday 20th of January.

Cx

Scribble Flowers...

Hey,

So recently Simon Says Stamp has been having awesome sales :)

I LOVE a sale..

I have been buying random die-sets that I have wanted for a while and buying the stamp set that matches it..it means I've added some things to my stash that I have wanted for a long time.

Scribble flowers - used on today's cards is one of these little clever purchases..

I have wanted this set for AGES..

I used distress inks for the stamping and I spritzed and dried the flowers to get the splatter around the flower.

I love the overlay stamps, it means that you can't see any oopsies!

Cx

Until next time...

Hey,

Today is a sad day, as Lemon goes home after spending 10 days with us.

As usual we have had a lot of fun, including a hilarious New Year's Eve spent in Atlantic City...we stayed up all night and got the 6.30am bus home!!

Here is a photo of us on Saturday at brunch - we went to our fave boozy brunch place and it was a lot of fun.

We miss Lemon ALOT and feel very privileged that she comes and spends a large chunk of her holiday time with us.

I made the card today for her - it went in the post over the weened, so it would be there for her when she got home.

The stamp is by Unity Stamp Co and I used my new Spectrum Noir sparkle markers (similar to wink of stella) for the sparkly parts of the image - not sure if I am loving them, but they were a free gift, so nothing lost by trying them :)

Cx

Heating up background stamps..

Hey,

Happy 2016..

Back to work for me today - sigh..can't really complain as I have been off for what feels like forever.

It has been a lot of fun, but not a lot of desk time and I leave for London on Friday, so I'll be chomping at the bit to finally get some time at my desk in about 2 weeks..

I did manage to squeeze in a couple of sessions and today's cards are from a brief play at my desk on Saturday afternoon.

I love Hero Arts background stamps and I saw Kristina Werner use the one on the card below and really wanted it. I finally managed to get my hands on it a couple of months ago in a sale.

Kristina had created a watercoloured background and heat embossed over the top of it..so I thought I would try that out too.

I also had a great moment when Jenn Shurkus sent me her Hero Arts background stamp that I had admired, seen on the main card today. How sweet was that?!

Both of these cards were really simple to make and I had a couple of heat embossing blips that I managed to cover with the wooden embellishments.

I coloured the wood embellishments using Distress paints - the main card uses Candied Apple and the second card used Picket Fence (it didn't photograph that well). The sentiments are by Tim Holtz.

Close-up the heat embossing is really cool, the watercolour backgrounds really pop.

Have a good day back at work..try not to overdo it :)

Cx

Welcome to 2016...

Happy New Year!!!

Welcome to 2016 everyone!

Hope you had fun times last night.

I am sure that Lemon, Hubby and I did as we always do in AC..

My photo today is from NYE last year when The Wife aka Lemon came to visit.

It was freezing cold last year, so as lovely as we looked we were only out briefly.

See you soon for fun crafting times.

Big kisses and many thanks for all of my supporters, friends and family for making my 2015 a stellar one.

Cx