Eat Cake....

Hey,

Just popping in today with a quick little card that I made for a friend's birthday.

I bought the cute little cake stand stamp from Unity Stamp Co a while back, this is it's first outing and I love it.

I used Gina Marie dies for the fancy stitched scallops and the pale pink embossed piece was a gift from JT, she has this amazing Houndstooth folder and embosses a bunch of them in various colours for me, so I don't steal her folder...

I decided that I was going to stamp a sentiment onto a Simon Says Stamp scribbly banner, so I went into the envelope to get the die and the sentiment banner you see fell out!!

If I die-cut and stamp things but don't use them, I put them back in the die envelope..it was meant to be here, love it when that happens.

I added some sequins and bling as a final touch.

Another simple quick card to make, I hope my friend likes it.

Cx

WOYWW #369...Getting ready for a holiday weekend...

Hey,

Happy WOYWW to you.

We are still hanging out with the lovely Lunch Lady Jan, at her blog, whilst Julia takes the time she needs to recover.

WOYWW is that awesome time of the week, where we nosy at desks from around the globe..

My desk photo was taken before I started working on my art journal page.. So it's quite tidy, you can see my hand wiping towel, some oval stitched dies, a halloween stamp (for a DT make), my Lawn Fawn stamp shammy (get one they are awesome), my mouse and a scrap of fabric..it's a piece of an old shirt of Hubby's, when they get discarded, I wash them, cut them up and use them for craft cleaning..best thing ever.

I've been absent for a couple of weeks..I was in London and then the last week and a half back at home has been crazy! Looking forward to the long weekend (4th of July) that we are about to have :)

Whilst I was away the lovely Lynne sent me this -

Isn't it gorgeous!! She also sent me some items to use in my art journal. I plan to make a spread around this lovely piece from Lynne, so watch this space.

And final pic for today is off my art journal in progress last night, complete with a view of my toes..not sure why I still had my sandals on...

Have a great day, see you all for a desk nosy later.

Cx

Retro Rubber #41.. Red, White and Blue..Still time to play..

Hey,

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

Remember last week I told you I had made a card and then thought ugh..

Well I thought I'd share it with you..

It isn't that bad..I guess I just don't love it!

Anyway, why don't you show us your interpretation of the colours, go on over to Retro Rubber and view the great makes by my teammates.

Challenge ends on July 1st. Don't forget to use a stamp a year or older and tell us about it that's part of the fun. Also, please limit your entries to 10 challenges including ours.

Thanks

Cx

Make 5..Umichka Challenge..Card Five..the final one.

Hey,

Happy Monday

Sadly, this is the final card for the 'Make 5 CASometry Challenge' over at Anna / Umichka's blog.

You have to use the same stamp set for each of your cards and keep the cards CAS. You can see my previous cards here, here, here and here - phew!

The rules for the final card are slightly different..

You still have to use your chosen stamp set, but you have to CASE a card on this Pinterest board - very cool idea.

I chose this card by Lindsay at Occasional Crafting as my case -

I really love the simplicity of it and thought my set would work well here..

To refresh your memories, this is the stamp set I am working with -

It's from the October 2015 SSS stamp kit.

I used the big heart, the thanks sentiment and the little hearts for my card.

The polaroid frame die is by Kaisercraft and I used it with a piece of scrap American Crafts paper. I affixed the frame to my card blank and placed the large heart into position, so I could stamp the little hearts in the right places.

The sequins are by Lucy Abrams..love her sequins..

I loved making this card, so sweet and always fun to use sequins.

I have kept all of the cards and will be giving them to someone as a little gift at the end of the challenge.

This was such a fun thing to do, helping me to stretch a stamp set and reminding myself that I don't need millions of things (even though I want them) to make pretty things..

It's also a perfect fit for this week's CAS(E) this sketch..perfect..as it's already a CASE..lol..

Cx

Dressing up...

Hey,

Happy Sunday.

This week has been a fun week of challenge entries and so what better way to end the week than with another challenge entry :)

I really liked the theme over at Shopping Our Stash this week - It's always a bridesmaid - use a dress or dressform.

I have these amazing Spellbinders dress dies, that I overused and have sadly been neglected for a while, so it was a perfect excuse to bring them out of hiding.

I also have lots of scraps from a Lawn Fawn 'Let's Polka in the Meadow' paper pack that I thought would work well with the dress.

I layered the papers and the dress together and felt it was missing something, so I used a notepaper die from Clearly Besotted on a piece of grid scrap paper that was on my desk, suddenly it all worked together.

I secured everything with staples - big and small ones.

The sentiment is a SSS stamp and a die-cut birthday that was on my noticeboard (it's been there for MONTHS), so another great use of old stash elements..

I added a bit of bling to finish it off and now I am happy :)

A great card to add to my personal birthday card stash..

Cx

Hello Summer!!

Hey,

Hope you are having a nice weekend so far..I am sad..the Brexit was not a good result in my opinion and makes me worry for the future of my land...

But moving onto brighter things it means that my Hubby is not working at all this weekend for the first time in 12 weeks, so we get to hang out - yay!

Gerda Steiner gave a freebie stamp this week, so we could all play along on Instagram using #surfingducky

Such a great idea.

I broke out my Silhouette Portrait for the first time in A LONG time... I used it to print and cut the ducky stamp and to cut the palm trees.

I decided to mount the trees and the ducky directly onto the card blank, as the colour fit my idea.

The sentiment stamps are by Papermania and Simon Says Stamp.

A super easy card to put together and it has already left in the post winging its way to a friend..

Cx

Let it snow...

Hey,

Happy Friday.

So despite the title of my post, I don't really want it to snow, I am loving being back in NYC in the sunshine.

A blog buddy of mine Cara has been playing along with 52 Christmas Card Throwdown.

I think its a great way for someone like me who doesn't love making Christmas cards to a) get enthused and b) explore my stash.

This week the theme is landscapes -

I had a lot of fun making my card.

I broke out a fun die by Gina Marie Designs - it's falling dots and looks like snow to me, I added a bit of Tumbled Glass distress ink to look like sky here and there. I combined it with a stitched hill die by Lawn Fawn.

I recently acquired a great set by Newton's Nook 'Snow Day' and I stamped and fussy cut the Winston Snowman / snowbear?!

I hunted through my stash for an appropriate sentiment and came up with 'Let it snow' by Unity Stamp Co.

This was so much fun to do and I am so happy with my card, it's kind of made me love Christmas Cards all over again.. I will be playing again!

Cx

Moving Along With The Times...New Baby

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Moving Along With The Times Challenge..

This time our hostess is Beckie and her theme is New Baby...

Now you know I LOVE New Baby cards...

Friends of mine recently had a baby girl, they are a bit hipster cool (unlike me) so I wanted to make a card that was a bit out there and not very traditionally New Baby.

I made a bunch of distress ink backgrounds and thought this purpley / pinky one would be perfect for a New Baby card.

I have to confess I cut, coloured and stamped at least 20 critters until I got the sentiment looking how I wanted it too..LOL OCD time..

The critter stamps are by Mama Elephant and I love them, they are totally overused and they come a with a wide range of sentiments - except new baby!

The sentiment stamps are a mix of Studio Calico and Simon Says Stamp.

I added a few sequins and a bit of wink of stella here and there to finish off my card.

Your turn to show us your New Baby creations,  but first go over to MAWTT and see what fabulous things my teammates have made.

Challenge ends on July 6th.

Cx

CAS(E) This Sketch #177...

Hey,

So just like JT, I was intrigued by this week's CAS(E) This Sketch -

I really love JT's version of it, so fun and bright.

I didn't initially love the stamp set in the latest SSS cardkit, but when I saw this sketch I had an aha moment :)

I used two of the stamps from the set for the leafy border and coloured the leaves using Shabby Shutters distress ink and an aquabrush. I stamped and die-cut a new flower set I found in my fave cheap art/bookstore in London and coloured that using Fossilized Amber and Squeezed Lemonade distress inks and an aquabrush.

I heat embossed the sentiment to make it stand out more and used random stamps and bling to add a bit of interest around the leaves.

Again a great sketch that I had a lot of fun with and also made me like something I was a bit meh about.

Cx

Retro Rubber #41...Red, White and Blue Colour Challenge..

Hey,

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

As it is close to 4th of July, we are getting a bit patriotic with our theme - 

I thought I had made the perfect card for this challenge and then the next morning I came back and thought - ugh..what a mess. LOL.

So back to the drawing board, pretty pleased with the final card, even if I do say so myself!

I used a great Hampton Arts Hexagon stamp that JT gave me as part of the Thanksgiving $20 challenge in 2014 - I love this stamp and I use it a lot for mixed media makes.

I inked up the stamp (it's pretty big) in red distress ink, spritzed it with water and then laid my paper on top of the stamp. I got a pretty clean and centered impression, so decided to stick with the white border.

I punched some hexagons in Navy blue scrap paper and stapled them together to create a kind of border. I used foam tape to pop the border up a bit.

The celebrate die is so gorgeous, I wish I used it more, but celebrate is a tricky sentiment in my opinion.

It looks great here in white, it really pops against the blue hexagon border.

Your turn to show us your interpretation of the colours, but first go over to Retro Rubber and view the great makes by my teammates.

Challenge ends on July 1st. Don't forget to use a stamp a year or older and tell us about it that's part of the fun. Also, please limit your entries to 10 challenges including ours.

Thanks

Cx

Double Challenge Fun..

Hi,

Hope you all had a fun weekend.

I am happy to back in NYC..Last week was fun in London, but rather hectic!

I thought I'd enter two challenges with one card today...

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge (Animal Magic) and the Shopping Our Stash Challenge (#256 Create a Polaroid Scene).

I thought they worked really well together.

I decided to use my dug SSS Cuddly Critter stamps, I stamped them first and then die-cut them out using a Kaisercraft Polaroid die. I coloured them using Promarkers.

I cut another Polaroid shape out of corrugated card to frame the Critters.

Finally I stamped and die-cut the sentiment - both are by SSS.

I love it, so simple and I already have a recipient in mind.

Have a great day.

Cx

Happy Father's Day...

Hey,

So today is Father's Day and I just got back from London, so I was lucky enough to be able to celebrate Father's Day early with my Daddy last weekend.

Before I talk about the man himself, let me tell you about my card..The stamp set is by Lawn Fawn and was a freebie over at Scrapbook.com - I had to have it because my Dad is the king of puns. The I love you dad stamp is by Hero Arts. The crazy toadstool paper is from Studio Calico.

Normally I write a nice long post about my Daddy and how awesome he is, this time I am keeping it short..

My Dad is totally not into travel or holidays, so I was resigned to the fact that he would never come to NYC...So you can imagine my surprise when 3 weeks ago (on Memorial Day) he calls and announces that he is coming to visit ON HIS OWN in Sept.

To be fair he has always been a bit prone to spontaneity!

I AM SO EXCITED..Yay!!!

I literally cannot wait and I am counting the sleeps until I can show my Daddy my adopted city.

Happy Father's Day you crazy spontaneous man you!

Cx

Happy 21st Birthday Josh..

Hey,

So I have no doubt that I am nursing a hangover today after attending the HAC Summer ball with Lemons...

I am also leaving for home today. It has been a most excellent week in London and its only 3 weeks until my Ma arrives for her first visit of the year.

Today is also my Goddaughter's boyfriends 21st birthday. I actually don't know him that well (due to living in NYC), so I couldn't make the card too personalised.

I love the paper you can see on the card, I stole it from JT, when I was staying at her house last Summer - ha ha ha - only a teeny bit you understand..it has been greatly rationed.

I thought it would make a fun boy type card.

I settled on pale blue as my accompanying colour and die-cut a panel for the sentiment (By Simon Says Stamp) and die-cut a small stitched circle for the sparkly Thickers numbers.

Super simple and perfect for a 21st birthday.

See you in NYC tomorrow.

Cx

Make 5...Umichka Challenge...Part Four...

Hey,

Happy Friday!

So I am gently hungover today following my work Summer BBQ.. and tonight I am off to the HAC Summer Ball with Lemons. Cue another hangover tomorrow.

I am currently playing along with a 5 part challenge over at Anna / Umichka's blog.

You have to use the same stamp set for each of your cards and keep the cards CAS. You can see my first card here, card two here and card three here.

Card three is totally my fave so far :)

To refresh your memories, this is the stamp set I am working with -

It's from the October 2015 SSS stamp kit.

I decided to use the big heart for card four. I was inspired by the embossed spotty panel that was sitting on my desk..

I die-cut a white panel and blended some Picked Raspberry distress ink onto the panel, before stamping the heart in Versamark and adding sparkly embossing powder.

I am pleased at how well the heat embossing looks against the pink ink.

As it's a heart I decided it should be an anniversary card..

I'm so pleased at how these cards are coming out, using one set over and over again is a  I am keeping them all together to give-away when the challenge is done.

Have a great weekend everyone, heading back to NYC tomorrow, so I am excited to be seeing Hubs, furbabies and my desk..

Cx

1,000th Post...the ramblings of a crazy crafty 40something..

Hey,

So today is a big freakin' deal for me...

It is my 1,000th post.

I actually can't believe it..

I started this blog in 2010 having no idea what I was doing or what I wanted to achieve with it and here we are six years later.

My Husband is a constant source of wisdom and he said a while ago that he thought it was cool that I had a blog that was an outlet for me, my makes and my chitty chat..

This blog has given me so much, that I actually don't know where to begin or how to explain what it means to me, but let's give it a go shall we?

I have met so many wonderful people via my blog, people that I wouldn't have met under 'normal' circumstances, they have become friends and in some cases daily companions (Sue and Cara, I love you guys..).

These are the people that helped and guided me through some tough times - when I was out of work, when we moved to NYC, when my Ma had Cancer.

They also celebrated the joyful times - becoming DT for Moving Along with The Times and Retro Rubber, when I turned 40, when I got a new job, when I won challenges.

There are also the wonderful people that have taught me and subsequently became my friends - Jenn Shurkus and Cheiron Brandon what the hell would I have done without you over the last 2 years!?!

Let's not forget the gift that is WOYWW (What's on your workstation Wednesday) - hosted by Julia on her blog Stamping Ground.  There are no words to express what a wondrous thing a WOYWWer is, you should join us on a Weds sometime and find out for yourself.

I also have to give a big shout out to my Retro Rubber family. What an amazing bunch of ladies they are - I love being teammates with them and our FB exchanges are comedy.

This blog has also given me the chance to constantly express my gratitude for JT.
I mean how on earth can I express how amazing she is?! Seriously though, she's as crazy as a bag of cats and she is my exact mirror image - so I guess that makes me crazy as a bag of cats too!  What I like, she likes, what she loves, I love, what I dislike, she dislikes, it's so weird, she is like an actual real life sister, born 12 years after me LOL.

So much joy has come from this personal piece of blogland and I never knew burping my life onto a blog could be so rewarding.

Anyway, as I wipe away my tears of joy, I want to give you something to say thanks. Send me a message via my contact form in the sidebar and I will send you a card and a little 1,000th post care package - who knows what it will contain, but isn't that part of the fun?

Cx

Mixing Aliens...

Hey,

Before I left for London, I needed to made a few cards for boy / male birthdays.

I wanted to make them very quickly, so decided to use a handful of simple elements..

I pulled out patterned card blanks, die-cut stitched square white panels, a stitched speech bubble die and two stamp sets - Alien Invasion by Gerda Steiner and Space Cadet by Paper Smooches.

I stamped and coloured one of the Alien's from the Paper Smooches set and then die-cut a speech bubble and stamped the sentiment from the Gerda Steiner set in white.

Super easy..very effective, 10 cards made. Boom!

I am most excited, as today is my 999th post..so you know what that means right :) Yes tomorrow is my 1,000th post - how did that happen!!

Have a great day and come join me tomorrow for 1,000th post fun and over emotional rambling.

Cx

Retro Rubber #40 Get Your Sketch on..there is still time to play...

Hey,

There is still time for you to play along with the latest challenge from the Retro Rubber team.

This time it's a sketch.

Show us your interpretations of the sketch and hop on over to Retro Rubber and see what the sketch inspired my teammates to make.

Challenge ends on June 17th, remember to use a stamp a year or older and tell us about it, also please limit your challenge entries to 10 including ours.

Thanks

Cx

Cheers!

Hey,

Happy Monday..

As I predicted the weather here in London is blah..raining as always..I am English, I should be used to this by now..

Anyway, today I thought I'd share a card I made as a commission for a friend. The brief was - make a card involving booze.

Pretty straightforward and as I hadn't used the new Winnie & Walter 'Cheers' die yet, it felt like the perfect time to break it out.

I love the 'Hello Summer' stamp by Unity Stamp Co. -

I thought the fun cocktails would work well with the Cheers die.

I opted for Summery distress ink colours for the cocktails, applied with an aqua brush and maintained the summery feel with the die-cut and card blank.

The 'It's your birthday' sentiment is by Simon Says Stamp and is probably the most overused stamp in my stash..it is so handy. I might have to buy the set it comes from again, as I am terrified it will wear out / get lost..

Once I had assembled the card, it felt like it was missing something so I stamped tiny little stars in gold ink all over the card - this is a fave trick and works every time in my opinion.

Have a great week, I have a busy one ahead of me here in London, but there are also lots of fun things happening this week too :)

Cx

CASE this Sketch...Cheeky Monkey...

Hey,

I am in London, hanging with my family.

I saw this weeks great sketch over at CASE this Sketch #176....

Seriously I couldn't resist.

It also seemed like the perfect time to break out the Monkey stamp named after me...

Ha ha, I don't think the designers at Waffle Flower know me, so this is all a co-incidence, but there is never anything named after me and spelt correctly, so I am pleased.

I coloured my namesake using Promarkers and fussy cut her out. The spotty paper, pink paper and white paper for the sentiment are all scraps.

The friend die is by Mama Elephant and I thought it worked perfectly here.

A really simple make, that I really like, again another keeper sketch from the CTS team.

Cx

Distress Techniques....

Hey,

Happy Saturday to you all!

I am probably landing as you are reading this...

Right after the loft art retreat I used the left over tags from our project to practice some of the techniques that Jenn had taught us.

It's taken me until this week to get round to making cards with them!!

Here are the 3 tags I started with, I have labelled them with the technique I used, just enlarge the photo to read the details.

The main photo is the first card I made and I love the Studio Calico wooden word bubbles. They are a lot of fun. This year I have used a lot more wooden items, I used to be daunted by them.

I die-cut the friend using a Mama Elephant die and I die cut it out of Kraft card twice and layered them, to make it studier. I added a couple of orange enamel dots to finish it off.

I really like it, its fun and really shouts fabulous to me.

The next card uses Lawn Fawn wooden words and stars and to make it a bit different I coloured a Tim Holtz Gum Drop using Orange Alcohol ink and covered the tag hole with it.

Fun cards and the orange card blanks really make the elements pop. I made the card blanks myself using the cardstock from my latest Simon Says Stamp cardkit.

Have a great weekend, I'll be hanging with my family and the animals...

Cx

Simon Says..Summer Garden..

Hey,

Happy Friday to you..

I am leaving on a jetplane for London later on today, but first I wanted to join in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Summer Garden.

I liked the theme and thought it would make for a good play in my art journal.

The phrase 'Summer Garden' makes me think of my Ma's garden.

I love my Ma's garden it's a peaceful happy space and is full of flowers, shrubs, birds, animals (Squirrels, Foxes, Hedgehogs, our Cats), butterflies and is basically a reflection of my Ma's happy generous personality.

I miss Ma's garden a lot. My Dad is not a garden person and is baffled by the amount of time we spend out there!

I started my spread with five colours, yellow, peach, orange, lime green and pale blue. I layered them onto my journal and kept layering and blending until I had something I was happy with.

I used my new fave trick of a baby wipe through a stencil to add some interest to the pages.

I recently bought a Hollyhock die by Impression Obsession, because it reminded me of Ma's garden, so seemed appropriate to use here. I collaged them in, along with the big blue birdie (Ma gets lots of birds in her garden - Swifts, Sparrows, Robins, Starlings, Magpies, etc) and stamped a few flowers here and there.

I used a fave Clear Scraps stencil to create a 'sun'. I also used a Tim Holtz tracks stencil in random places on the pages.

Finally I added 'Summer is best in my Momma's Garden' because it is and I'll be in it tomorrow, drinking tea, eating cake and gossiping.

Have a great weekend.

Cx

Happy 30th Birthday...

Hey,

So my wonderful work colleague is turning 30..I adore her, she is awesome.

I wanted to make her something fun, because she is fun and keeps me sane.

I broke out two distress inks - Wilted Violet and Picked Raspberry - and dabbed them onto my craft mat, spritzed with water and smooshed my paper into the inky mess.

I find the first time you do this, you get a pretty standard watercolour effect. I like to go back in and pick up some of the colours in certain areas - you can see where I have done this, because you can see little speckles of colour and some fatter more defined splodges.

I like the colours I ended up with. I stamped the sentiment and used co-ordinating pink Thickers Stickers for the number..

I wanted to keep it kind of edgy, so affixed the whole panel to the cardblank using hot pink staples..love to co-ordinate.

Cx

WOYWW #366..Learning and Laughing...

Hey,

Happy WOYWW to you!!

It is that time of the week when we pop over to join our leader Julia at her blog Stamping Ground for the global desk nosy.

She is still recovering from her op, so Lunch Lady Jan is still hosting us and doing a marvelous job.

My desk is a teeny bit dull after the excitement of the last 2 weeks.. Just my computer, my sippy cup, glasses, die pokey tool and a little pile of paper, cards and dies at the front of my desk. This little pile is something I am working on for a swap with Scrapbook Lynne...a fellow desker..

On Sunday I went to a great class taught by the one and only Dina Wakely (swoon), she is my new crush, she is awesome, hilarious and a great teacher.

Class was fun, as I sat with Cheiron, Jamey and Lisette (an unexpected surprise). I love these ladies, they make me laugh (out loud and a lot!), make me a bit braver in class and are just all round fun..needless to say margaritas and Mexican food followed...

Below is a little collage of my pages from class (and a pic of Moi and Dina)...

Here are a couple of pics of my finished pages, so you can see them in their entirety. We cut windows, so you could see each spread and Dina taught us a whole load of techniques, some of which were new to me..Like rubbing off paint using a baby wipe through a stencil - and my mind was blown!!

Warm spread, using 3 warm paint colours (pinks, oranges, purples)

Cold spread, using 3 cold paint colours (blues, greens, greys)

I'm off to London on Friday for a week, so no WOYWW for me next week - I schedule my posts when I am in London, it's easier that way.

See you all later for a nosy.

Cx

Retro Rubber #40...Get your Sketch on...

Hey,

Time for another fun challenge from the Retro Rubber team.

This time we have a sketch for you - 

Sketch challenges are one of my faves, gives me a good base to start with.

I decided to use a sun stamp from a Fiskars stamp set 'Flower Garden' I have had it since we moved to NYC in 2013, it was one of my first craft purchases that year.

I love this stamp, it is so versatile and I use it a reasonable amount unlike some of my other older stamps...

The hot air balloon is a newish addition to my stash (by Echo Park) and this is the first time its been used!

The sentiment is by Bo Bunny and from a set of mixed sentiments that I've had since 2014.

The whole card was pretty simple to put together. It turned out a bit brighter than I had planned, but that is never a bad thing :)

Now its your turn to get creative using the sketch, but first hop on over to Retro Rubber and see what the sketch inspired my teammates to make.

Challenge ends on June 17th, remember to use a stamp a year or older and tell us about it, also please limit your challenge entries to 10 including ours.

Thanks

Cx

Hearts around the globe...

Hey,

Hope you had a good weekend...

I had a fun filled action packed one!!

Friends from home were here in the City and then I had class with Cheiron and two of the InkPadNYC class family (Jamie and Ava) - taught by the astounding Dina Wakely..she makes me want to swoon!

More about that later in the week.

Today I have a little card that I made for the Unity Stamp Show'n'Tell group challenge over on Facebook. Its a fun group and it's nice to see what others do with the stamps I have.

This time it was an itty bitty challenge - so use an itty bitty stamp - I chose the fun Hearts around the globe..its pretty new and I am LOVING watercolouring it right now..

I kept it simple and used a Hero Arts sentiment, so it can be sent to a friend with a gift.

Cx

Case This Sketch....You are the sweetest..

Hey,

Super excited today, this afternoon I am off to do a Dina Wakely class..whoop whoop

I saw the Case This Sketch on someone's blog earlier this week and thought it was made for me..

I had the first set of 'Apple of my eye' stamps by Clearly Besotted, but I recently realised that they do a die for the apples and there is version 2 of the set...

So out came my wallet LOL.

I used a mixture of apples from the sets, I die-cut the apple shape first and then stamped, I find this works better for me with smallish things.

I mounted the centre apple with some foam tape and stamped the sentiment from the first set in two places (it is one long sentiment stamp).

Obviously I couldn't resist adding a little bit of bling :)

I loved the sketch so much I made another one -

I used Kaisercraft tape pieces stamps, Happy is by Simon Says Stamp, Birthday is by Crate Paper and the blue enamel dots are by Papermania.

I think this sketch and I are going to be best friends.

Cx

Happy Birthday Human...

Hey,

Hope you are having a fun weekend so far..

I wanted to show you another card using the fun Gerda Steiner stamp set I bought recently - my first card with it is here.

I love the sentiments that come with the set.

I used balloon dies by Papertry Ink that came from the lovely Darnell. I deliberately kept one plain, so I could add the sentiment.

I actually added a sparkly 50 to one of the other balloons before this left my desk for a friend.

Oops moment occurred when I didn't realise that the chalk marker was making spots and kept doing more, so the poor Alien looks a bit like he has measles..

No matter, oops moments maketh a card..or something.

Cx

Make 5...Umichka Challenge...Part Three...

Hey,

Happy Friday!

Why is it that four day weeks feel like forty-four day weeks?

I am currently playing along with a 5 part challenge over at Anna / Umichka's blog.

You have to use the same stamp set for each of your cards and keep the cards CAS. You can see my first card here and card two here.

To refresh your memories, this is the stamp set I am working with -

It's from the October 2015 SSS stamp kit.

Again I felt like making the glasses the focus, but I really wanted to use two other elements from the set, so I went with the chevron and a heart.

I stamped the chevron onto the die-cut panel and was most unexcited by it, so I stamped it across a bright green card blank and suddenly I was excited again!!

I added a border of green hearts above the chevron and used a Hero Arts sentiment.

To co-ordinate with the card blank and the hearts I stamped the glasses in green, before die-cutting them out.

I love it, it all came together pretty easily. I am keeping them all together to give-away when the challenge is done.

Cx