Happy Anniween / Halloversary?

Hey,

Happy Monday.

And Happy Halloween.

And Happy Anniversary to my lovely Hubby, today we celebrate 7 years of marriage and 12 years together.

Hence my silly titles, you know I love a 'Bennifer' style name mash-up.

So as it's a twofer post, let's do Halloween first shall we -

I made a ton of Halloween cards this year, I used x4 stamps - Simon Says Stamp Trick or Treat (Cat and Dog) and x2 stamps by Craftsmart - Cat and Halloween Couple.

I loved making them, it was a lot of fun, especially the one for JT (no bats or spiders for her..)

I created a few fun heat embossed and smooshed backgrounds and it was a throughly entertaining way to spend an evening last weekend.

Now for the smooshy Anniversary part -

I can always say lots of lovely things about my Hubby, because he is lovely.
I know I am a lucky lady having him in my life, but its when he does selfless things like persuade my Dad to come and visit that make him truly amazing.
I have had to make some tough decisions this year and he has been there every step, advising and standing aside when needed.

I love you Mr Grantham and I might even trade potatoes for you :)

Cx

Happy Times...

Hey,

So Hubby and I are currently in DTown with JT's folks and today just happens to be her Dad's (Mike) birthday.

No doubt we will be doing an epic lunch celebration before heading home.

The main card I made for Mike, using the awesome birthday booty that JT bought me from Simon Says Stamp.

Mike is a wine fan - as am I and I thought this set was perfect for his card :)

I heat embossed the corkscrews in white and then smooshed the sheet in a variety of blue spritzed distress inks and dried it.

The sentiment is two parts - the 'happy birthday' part is from a different SSS set, but obviously the wine aerobics part came with this set, I stamped them using Staz-on black ink, onto vellum. I find that Staz-on is great for this, doesn't smudge, but you need to clean your stamps throughly because it ruins them!

I affixed this panel to the card using staples and then I added the two stamped and die-cut corkscrews using foam pads.

Love this set and the fun card I created here.

Happy Birthday Mike.

Cx

Totally Tropical...

Hey,

Hope you are having a good weekend. 

Hubby and I are in DTown with the Nixons, aka JT's folks.

No doubt we are eating, drinking, gambling, shopping and getting up to mischief.

I thought I would show you a set of cards that I made for a friend..unfortunately it would seem that I did not take a photo of the 4th card in the set, which is very odd, but these things happen!

I decided I wanted to make my friend a set of 'tropical' themed cards, because she recently moved to the beach and has a whole Flamingo theme in her office.

So I broke out my Lawn Fawn 'Flamingo Together' set and a Freebie Pineapple set that I got with a magazine.

I chose colours that felt tropical, so the main card uses a hot pink card blank and a random fabric hello sticker that I chose because of the bright colours. I added a beautiful gold word sticker to this, totally completed the card for me. I used the texture paste background as it felt like the pattern on a Pineapple.

The cards below continue the bright colour theme, the one on the left uses a watercolour striped background that I made ages ago when I was having a play with a Stampin' Up stamp. I added a gold strip and some Tim Holtz word stickers and star bling. The gold thread behind the Flamingo took WAY longer than it needed to.

The card on the right, uses another one of those 'Pineapple' paste backgrounds. I added some washi tape and then mounted the stamped and die-cut pineapple over the top of it.

Lots of fun to make and I used lots of pre made items, which is nice to do, sometimes I don't want to have to wait for things to dry (impatient? me?)

 I hope that my friend likes them, along with the other 'tropical' things that are in the box I sent her.

Cx

I Heart Seattle..

Hey,

Happy Friday.

So Seattle will always be a special place for me for a million reasons.

One of those reasons is my amazing friend Michelley. Her and her family have been a part of my life for 25 years and it's hard to imagine a time without them.

She now lives in Hawaii, but I get my Seattle fix from her big brother.

This card is actually for him, because he said he wanted some of the Unicorn Christmas Cards, so I wanted to send him a batch.

I can't post something without adding a card and I thought a Seattle focused one would be fun.

The stamp set is Kelly Purkey for Hero Arts and I also have the NYC version.

Another super simple make, with minimal colour. I stamped the pike place sign first and masked it off, so I could stamp the mountains.

The I Heart stamp is actually from the NYC set and I masked off the NYC part. I fussy cut the coffee cup and the space needle so I could add some dimension to the card.

Very pleased with this fun little make..

Have a great weekend, Hubby and I are off to visit JT's parents, a weekend of gambling, eating, drinking and laughter is just what we all need in our lives.

Cx

Time for a Dog Walk...

Hey,

I was reading some blogs and generally poking around when I came across Passion for ProMarkers, it's a challenge I like a lot and haven't played in a while.

This weeks inspiration image and sponsor made me think of a new image that I just bought from A Day For Daisies (sponsor of the challenge this week).

You have to use at least two of the colours.

I went with the pale and dark grey, the yellow and the red.

The image is called Vintage Dog Walk and it made me smile a lot, so I bought it! I printed it out on to watercolour paper, so that I could use aquamarkers and a aquabrush - I felt like 'watercolouring' I went over part of the dress with a Summer Sun Promarker, because it was a bit pale.

I thought she would totally have red hair!

The sentiment (Nothing you say, can shock me honey!) was a gift from a friend and I am not sure who it is by, as she stamped a bunch of them for me, but I thought it worked with the vintage feel of the lady.

I kept it all simple, no over embellishing to detract from her beauty!!

Cx

Sketch Saturday..A Little Hey..

Hey,

As you know I love a sketch challenge and I thought I'd play along with Sketch Saturday this week.

Cool sketch right?

I decided to pull out a Fox digital stamp by Pink Petticoat - who are sadly no longer in business..

I love Foxes, I used to see them a lot in my neighbourhood in London.

I chose some ancient papers by Recollections (Michaels), as I wanted the papers to tonally fit the Fox and I am trying to use things from the overflowing 'brown' drawer LOL.

It was all very simple to put together.

The sentiment is by Technique Tuesday. Both the scallop and circle dies are by Spellbinders and the banner was punched using the great Stampin' Up banner punch - a must have if you are like me and can't cut a banner correctly to save your life...

I added a couple of mini staples to the banner and a bit of distress ink around the Fox circle to give it a bit more interest and depth.

I'm pretty pleased with my little Fox.

Also I have thrown my hat into the ring to be a part of the Sketch Saturday DT - fingers crossed!!

Cx

Retro Rubber #50..Colour Challenge..

Hey,

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

This time we want you to use the photograph as a colour inspiration..

The colours in the photo made me think of Foxes for some reason.. So I dug out my Lawn Fawn Winter Fox stamp and die set (from 2014) and used that as my base. I coloured the Fox using Promarkers and glitter.

I tried all kinds of backgrounds and finally settled on the Mama Elephant wreath stamp (from June 2015) and messily watercoloured it, using the colours from the photo. I die-cut the panel using a square stitched die by Simon Says Stamp and mounted it onto a small kraft blank (from JT).

I mounted the Fox using foam pads and added a simple sentiment by HOTP that was a freebie with a magazine last year.

Lots of older stamps used here, so a total win in my book and a really simple elegant birthday card at the end of it all.

Show us your interpretation of the photo, but first go over to Retro Rubber and view the great makes by my teammates.

Challenge ends on November 4th. 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.

Cx

I'd rather be in NYC...

Hey,

Happy Monday to you.

I am off today, as I am finally teaching the class that got interrupted in April by Bill Clinton :)

I saw this week's Paper Players challenge and I fell in love with the sketch -

My Goddaughter turns 21 in November and she is heading to NYC with a chunk of our family to celebrate her birthday.
I have been planning to make her a little set of NYC focused cards to take home and the sketch inspired me to make a start.

For this card I used my brand new Newton's Nook, Newton Dreams of New York set. I have the London version of this set too..

I stamped the buildings onto my die-cut white panel. I stamped, coloured and fussy cut the Newton holding an apple from the set and mounted him using foam pads slightly over the buildings.

I stamped one of the sentiments onto grey card and then punched it out using a Stampin' Up washi punch.

For the final touches I stamped the little stars from the set and added a bit of bling.

Love the simplicity of this card and I am now inspired to get on with creating the rest of the set for Amy.

Cx

Craftgang Playdate..

Hey,

So last Saturday, the Craftgang (as I like to call us) gathered at Jamey's studio for a little shoebox make session, along with food and gossip.

SO MUCH FOOD.. I totally overate LOL..But it was all so yummy and I didn't have time for breakfast!

The idea behind a shoebox make is that each person brings a thing for everyone to make, complete with all the tools etc.. Then you go home with x things - awesome!

The main photo today is my make..I kept it simple and I am really pleased with it.

I used x3 distress inks on a craft mat, spritzed them and then smooshed my paper in it and dried it and repeated this process until I liked the pattern / splatter / mess I had!

I then used a Stampin' Up hexagon punch to punch x7 hexagons. The longest part of this card was trying to figure out where to place the hexagons to get the best pattern...

The giant Hello is by Simon Says Stamp.

Because my card was so easy kitting it up was simples, card blank, watercolour stock, die-cut Hello - too easy man!

Here are all the things we made...

Lisette's Mermaid Mixed Media Frame

Jocelyn's Fairy

Jamey's Sassy Lady

Ava's Flamingo

Cheiron's WTF girl

Tiffany's Bunny Friends.

They are all so different and Lisette's mixed media project had us all oohing and aahing. Even though we had a card to follow, we all added a few individual changes here and there, so none of the cards are alike.

Sorry about my lack of technique, what did we use, etc, but the post is already long enough, message me if you want more deets or leave a comment.

Such a fun way to spend a Saturday, with the ladies that randomly adopted me and gave me back something I'd been missing.

Love you craftgang.

Can't wait for the next one.

Cx

Give Thanks...

Hey,

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

I am excited that it's Friday, as Hubby is taking me on my long awaited birthday dinner (he was away). We are off to Grand Central Oyster Bar, which is one of my favourite places in the whole wide world.

I feel a bit like I am cheating with my posts this week, as a lot of what I have shown has already had a sneaky preview on Instagram, but I guess that is social media for you right?

So today's cards were made using birthday booty from Lemon - she always gives me a Simon Says Stamp voucher and I buy lots of yummy things with it.

I love this Give Thanks stamp by Concord & 9th, infact right now Concord & 9th cannot put a foot wrong with me :) Loving all their releases, my wallet not so much. I realise now that I need the dies too...

Pretty simple makes, I chose 3 coordinating inks and stamped the wheat stamps in different directions. The main card, I added a leaf stamp and stamped the sentiment onto Vellum.

The card below, I masked off the thanks and stamped over it.

This weekend I am hoping to have more of a play with these superb stamps.

Have a great one.

Cx

Experimenting...

Hey,

Is anyone else glad that the week is nearly over?!

I realised I hadn't shared what I have been up to in my art journal in a while..

This week, I am experimenting with stamping and mixing watercolours and acrylics.

Normally, I paint the background for my spread in acrylic paint before I do anything else..

This week I have been stamping first, essentially creating a scene of sorts and then watercolouring the stamped images.

Once this is dry, I have added acrylic paint around 'the scene'.

I am very pleased with the results.

Here is last night's one -

All the stamps are by - Unity Stamp Co, 7Gypsies, Dear Lizzy, Clearly Besotted and Art Foamies..

Fun times!

I am enjoying this experiment a lot.

Cx

To My Wonderful Friend..

Hey,

So I have a friend who LOVES a beach holiday..literally she is ALWAYS on holiday.. pretty rich coming from me right?!

Anyway I thought the awesome Little Umbrella stamp by Stamping Bella would make an excellent birthday card for her.

I coloured her with Zig Clean Color pens and an aquabrush..love that she looks likes she is getting a tan!

The sentiments came from my stash and I am pulling a blank re: wonderful friend, but Happy Birthday is by Simon Says Stamp.

Cx

Retro Rubber #49 It's Halloween...still time to play

Hey,

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

The theme is Halloween.

Show us your scary Halloween makes, but first go over to Retro Rubber and view the scary things the DT have made to inspire you..

Challenge ends on October 21st 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.

Cx

Sparkly Christmas Cards...

Hey,

Happy Monday.

Hope you all had a great weekend.

I had an excellent weekend, starting with the USPS finding all of my missing post on Friday. My playdate with the CraftGang was hilarious (photos later in the week) and hanging out with our friends from Philly on Sat and Sunday was the icing on the weekend cake.

I wanted to share the little batch of Christmas cards that I made last weekend.

Super simple. I had a bunch of watercolour paper squares that I got ages ago in a misc bag of paper die-cuts.

I dug out x6 of the squares, heat embossed a freebie sentiment that I like using Ranger Liquid Platinum embossing powder - which is the best metallic powder ever!

I bought a cheap garland from Michaels and chopped it up and mounted the pieces using foam tape on the square.

The mini kraft blanks were a birthday gift from JT.

Super easy to do and a great way to use up random items.

Cx

Papercrafters Corner Magazine Cover Challenge...

Hey,

Hope you are all having a nice weekend.

I am at a playdate today with my little girl gang - yay!!

Due to holidays, visitors and work I haven't had time to play along with one of my fave challenges - Papercrafter's Corner Monday Magazine Cover challenge.

Here's this week's cover -

I chose the blue of the truck as my main colour and stamped my sentiment in blue and coloured my wagon in blue.

I don't have a truck, so wagon it is!! I also though that the orange I can see poking out of the baskets had to be Pumpkins LOL, having Newton the Cat was an added bonus :)

I figured that as the Farmer's Wife was transporting her pumpkins during the Second World War, she would probably be feeling blessed for what she had, hence my sentiment choice.

I'm super happy with my card, it will now make a nice Thanksgiving card.

The stamps are by Simon Says Stamp and Newton's Nook. The awesome rounded stitched die is by MFT and I coloured the whole thing using Zig Clean Color brush pens. The sentiment was stamped with Kaleidacolor ink.

Cx

Playdate Part 2....

Hey,

Happy Friday...

So this is part two of the playdate at JT's house posts.

So now we get into the part where a fair amount of food, booze and gossip had been consumed..so the cards might be odd..

LOL.

Not the headliner though, I really love it, it came out so well.

I used the same stamp that JT has been procrastinating about for ages (see her version here), I covered it with x2 distress inks, spritzed it with water and then dried it. I love the result.

I then die-cut it to shape and added some ribbon from JT's HUGE collection. The die-cut sentiment I added when I got home, as I could picture it working.

The next two cards are hilarious and use a new set called Monochrome by Waffle Flower, I got it on super sale because it was damaged.

I packed it when I was leaving for London, as JT had just used the 'Rad' from the Recollections set that has Voila! and Word! in it as well and seeing her card sparked an idea.

The first card had green hexies added to cover the green ink splodges that were already on the white cardstock, waste not want not..

Of course a Zebra would say Word. I was a bit upset that the Zebra hadn't stamped well and JT said it made him look more like a Zebra, she was right. I added a red scrap (cut off the card above) and a zebra print candi - love it.

Always way more fun to play with friends, hence why I am off to Hoboken tomorrow to have a shoebox make day with all the wonderful ladies I met at the Inkpad - they rock and keep me sane..

Cx

Moving Along With The Times..Leaves and Trees

Hey,

Time for another great challenge from the Moving Along With The Times Team B.

Today our hostess is one of my best friends in the whole wide world JT and she is also my fave craft buddy. Her theme is Leaves and Trees.

I thought this was the perfect time to break out a stamp and die set by Sizzix that I bought way back in 2013 and I think I have only used it once, I've struggled to get it to work for me!

I stamped, coloured and die-cut the tree. The colours I used to colour the tree informed the background I created.

I used Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and Picked Raspberry distress inks to create the blended background, then I overlaid a Tim Holtz mini stencil onto it and spritzed it with water. A superb technique that JT and I learnt earlier this year when we went to Jenn Shurkus' Loft Art Retreat.

I added a freebie sentiment by Clearly Besotted that I got from a magazine eons ago and mounted it all onto a kraft card blank.

What will you make? Go to MAWTT and check out all the creations from the rest of Team B.

Challenge ends on October 26th at 6pm GMT. Remember you can enter a maximum of 3 times.

Cx

Playdate part 1..

Hey,

So last Saturday as I was in London in the evening, JT and I had a great opportunity to have a long overdue face to face playdate - YAY.

I had seen this great video by Jennifer Maguire and really wanted to try it out.

The idea is to mask an image and stamp a sentiment over and over again. Genius and obvious!!

My main card uses a Clearly Besotted sentiment, stamped in black and a great yellow ink I found in JT's stash (LOVE playing with someone else's kit!). The bird is a freebie that we both have.

The next one uses the same stamp set that JT used, but a different sentiment and a bee stamp that we also both have (JT bought it for both of us). I finally got to use glossy accents to 'accentuate' something...don't ask!!

Fun times man, there are more cards to come in part 2 - later in the week, as tomorrow is MAWTT and hosted by JT!!!

Cx

Retro Rubber #49..Boo! It's Halloween..

Hey,

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

We are not that far from Halloween, so we thought it was a great time for you to get digging around in your older Halloween stash..

Last year I explained how Halloween is a bit lost on me as I am English and it also just happens to be my Wedding Anniversary..

I recently had my Silhouette Portrait out, so I cut out a spider and web and let that dictate my card LOL.

I decided not to make my card too scary, so went with a grey backdrop. I remembered that I had some great Halloween washi tapes..somewhere..luckily I managed to find them and used them to add colour and text to my card.

I stamped, die-cut and coloured the MFT Mummy (from 2015) and mounted him/her onto my card, just slightly overlapping the spider.

I love it, such a fun card and I think my Niece and Nephew will like it too.

Show us your scary Halloween makes, but first go over to Retro Rubber and view the scary things my teammates have made..

Challenge ends on October 21st 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.

Cx

Anniversary madness...

Hey,

I am back in NYC and had a really nice day yesterday hanging out with Hubby.

The gods were on my side and my flight was smooth, so was going through customs and getting home - yay!

This month it seems everyone I know celebrates their wedding anniversary! Including Hubby and I and my Parents!

So before I left, I sat down and made a ton of Anniversary cards, based on one simple idea..

I used a Dutch Doobadoo hearts stencil and two colours of distress ink (festive berries and picked raspberry). I stenciled on to Tim Holtz distress woodgrain paper for a bit more depth.

I die-cut different kinds of anniversary greetings and affixed them in different ways to the stenciled panel.

Here is another version -

I literally made 10 of these in about 30 mins!

So easy to do and the good thing is, they look a bit edgy and like they took a ton of time :)

Cx

Girl with Wings...

Hey,

I am probably in the air as you are reading this today :) It was a quick trip, but a fun one.

I wanted to show you another of my super easy Christmas makes.

I die-cut 8 white panels using an MFT stitched die, then using the MISTI I stamped the sentiment (Recollections) and the Girl with Wings stamp (by HOTP).

Then I used the Zig Clean Color pens and an aquabrush to colour the girl.

Add some foam dots and mount onto a kraft card blank - simples!!

The main stamp is actually a birthday stamp...but I think she looks way more like a Christmas stamp, another example of stretching my stamps..

See you back in NYC at my desk tomorrow.

Cx

Totally Fabulous...

Hey,

I recently got this awesome stamp by Penny Black called Totally Fabulous..

It made me laugh so much that I had to have it.

I thought it would make excellent Thank You cards for a few of my friends, for the recent birthday goodies they kindly gave me.

As the stamp is quite large I had to break out the super large square card blanks from JT.

I coloured the stamp using my new Zig Clean Color pens and an aquabrush, love how easily they blend.

I love the coordinated pooches and I made a few of these and used different colours for each one.

Cx

More Unicorns...

Hey,

Happy Friday to you all.

This is my last working day in London, I fly home early doors on Saturday and will be back at my NYC desk on Monday.

I have had this Unity Stamp Co. Unicorn sentiment for a while now and I love it and totally overuse it, but it really needed a Unicorn image..so I paired it with the new Lawn Fawn Winter Unicorn stamp that I previewed yesterday.

Together at last!!

Have a great weekend, I have a couple of fun things planned before I head home to be reunited with Hubby after 2 weeks apart - meeting a friend's baby and a playdate with JT.

Cx

And a Unicorn...

Hey,

I have been waiting for the Lawn Fawn Winter Unicorn set to arrive at the Inkpad for a while..

So excited that they arrived in time for my birthday week off :)

Big thanks to Lisette for my Inkpad bday voucher..that helped take the sting out of the things I 'needed'

Don't you just love these cards!!

All candy coloured fun.

The background stamp is falling flakes by Neat & Tangled and I coloured the Unicorns using my new Zig clean color brush markers (swoon and thanks Hubby).

The Winter Unicorn set comes with an additional sentiment ..'and a Unicorn' which I stamped inside these cards.

The beautiful card blanks are from Target..

My Christmas card stack is coming along nicely. I have given myself until the 1st weekend in November to complete them all - nonsense deadline..lets see how that works out shall we!

Cx

Crazy Thankful...

Hey,

I saw the sketch for the current The Challenge over at Always Playing with Paper ..

and I knew it would be perfect for a eclectic thank you I wanted to make.

I had already coloured the crazy circle by Concord & 9th and the only thing left to do, was to colour the word crazy, add a word to the banner and fussy cut the whole thing out.

I chose to use a watercolour stripes (stamp by Stampin' Up) background that I had made a while back and to calm it all down a bit, I used a simple blue spotty paper from my stash.

Instead of banners, I used strips of mulitcolour bling.

I LOVE IT!! It's a bit weird and out there..

Cx

Retro Rubber #48 Lace, Ribbon or Twine...still time..

Hey,

Hello from London, today is my first day back to work following my awesome staycation with my Dad and I have literally just arrived in London!

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

This time we want to see what you can do with Lace, Ribbon or Twine..use one or all..

Challenge ends on October 7th. 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.

Cx

It's over for now...

Hey,

So today is the end of my NYC staycation with my Dad. We head home to London together later on tonight.

It has been a TON of fun!

We did so much stuff (visited the Intrepid, went to the FiDi, visited Statue of Liberty, saw the 911 memorial, went to Central Park, went to Grand Central, went to Times Square, went to a baseball game - Red Sox v Yankees, went to an NFL game - Seahawks at Jets, went to numerous breakfast spots, had breakfast, dinner and lunch dates with my friends...phew).

It was fun to show my Dad my adopted City.

We over ate - obviously and we walked A LOT.

One of the massive highlights of the trip for me was the love affair between my beloved Archie and 'Granddad'. We had Archie before we moved, but he was very timid. He came out on the first day to meet my Dad and has been 'guarding' him ever since.

Sad that it is over, but now that he has been once, I have high hopes he will come again.

See you in London tomorrow.

Cx

Stylish birthdays...

Hey,

So today Daddy and I are going to see an NFL game, super exciting.

My Ma asked me to make a stylish 50th birthday card for a friend of hers and I was so pleased with the result that I made another one :)

I used the watercolour background stamp from my new Concord & 9th Lace Leaf set and a Dina Wakely silhouette woman stamp.

I made the 50th birthday version using Worn Lipstick distress ink and Studio Calico sentiment stamps.

The version above uses Twisted Citron distress ink and a Simon Says Stamp sentiment stamp.

Fun cards that I can see myself making a lot of.

Cx