Playdate Challenge..

Hey,

Happy Monday!

Today is the last day of my staycation. I have had an awesome time - especially today as I went to the spa (thank you JT and Natasha) and had lunch with friends.

Yesterday morning I had a fun Skype playdate with JT. We normally try and do a challenge together during our dates, this time we are playing along with The Paper Players current tic-tac-toe challenge - these are my fave types of challenge!

I opted for the middle row - Banner, Enamel Dots and Animal.

I used my brand new Studio Calico Galileo stamp set - this set was released in 2012 and I have spent 2 years since I discovered it trying to get my hands on it. eBay came good last week LOL!

The celebrate banner I created using Little B dies that I bought from Cheiron in her big destash sale, I decided that affixing it with staples would work best, doesn't flap around then.

I added some enamel dots here and there and a sentiment sticker by Tim Holtz to finish it off.

I love the end result, I think it will make a fun birthday card for someone.

More playdate makes later on this week. Don't forget to check out JT's entry too.

Cx

Sketch Saturday #474..Freestyle..

Hey,

Welcome to the latest sketch for the Sketch Saturday challenge.

Our sponsor this week is Paper Nest Dolls and they are offering a prize of 3 digi stamps from their store.

This week we get to pick a sketch - you can use any of the ones from 215 to 473. I went with #339, I liked the layers.

I chose to use Love Struck Ellie. I coloured her with Promarkers and Spectrum Noir sparkle pens. I was a bit stuck for a sentiment and went for 'Yay!' in the end.

The papers are from my stash, the chevron piece is ancient and from Recollections and the heart paper is from JT at least a couple of years ago. I liked the green and pink colour combo that came about by accident.

Love this choosing your own sketch, so much fun!

Can't wait to see which one you choose, but first check out what the rest of the DT have made over at Sketch Saturday.

Challenge ends 10 August 7pm GMT / 2pm EST

Cx

Happy Birthday Lucy...

Hey,

Happy Friday.

Thus far I have spent my day off by getting up at 6am to go to the gym... and later I am heading to the Casino!

Today is my Sister-in-Law Lucy's 40th birthday..before she was my SIL she was my very good friend (still is) and that is how I met my Hubby!

Hubby has gone home to celebrate 40 with her and so I thought I'd share her card and some photos of us, taken over the years!

I made her card using a Stampin' Up card kit I bought on a craft forum for cheaps! I really wanted the kraft pockets and the bows!

I stamped a Tim Holtz background stamp on the white panel and spritzed it with water. The 40 dies are one of the things I bought from Cheiron recently. I LOVE them, who knew how handy giant number dies would be, I have already used them a ton!

Super simple card to make that looks like it took an age!

Here are some fun photos of Lucy and I :)

Lucy and I in Brighton 2005

Mascot Race at Huntingdon with my parents and Hubby and Lucy - 2005

Lucy and I on a night out - I think in 2004

And of course Lucy is the mother of my wonderful Niece and Nephew - here is one of my fave shots of Otis and Lucy, from Christmas 2011.

Happy Birthday Lucifer, I hope you have an awesome 40th.

Cx

Leopard Heart..

Hey,

Hubby left for London yesterday and I took an extra day of today (no work until Tues for me..).

So after the gym last night, I tried to get back to my desk.

It actually felt really good to immerse myself in pretty things, just like working has focused my mind.

I needed to make a couple of Anniversary cards.

I made the one in the main photo for a particular couple who are a bit funky, I thought stamping a leopard print heart would be fun and a bit different.

It's a bit different, maybe a bit too pink? But not too smushy - right?!

Cx

Farewell My Beloved Boy...

Hey,

I wasn't sure if I wanted to do this, but I felt Archie deserved his very own post..

Last week Archie was very sick, rather suddenly. We did a whole host of tests, but on Saturday night we had to take him to ER and then subsequently made the decision to put him to sleep.

We had Archie 10 years (some careful maths made us recant the previous 12 year guesstimate) and he was so amazing.

He came to us with his Sister as a nervous, but stroke wanting feral cat. He left us as a semi-relaxed, stroke demanding, inquisitive, blanket loving, playful softy cat.

Once he got to NYC he became Archie 2.0 - he discovered a love of sunpatches, chilling on the sofa and the bed, he found out that cat treats are amazing and his favourite thing ever was to snuggle next to his 'Dad' on the sofa. He also had a mini love affair with my Dad aka Granddad last year and that was so awesome to watch.

Daddy / Granddad and Archie

He trusted us and that made it worth 5 years of patience (we always knew he'd come around).

Hubby and I are pretty broken up and we are missing his physical presence so much.

RIP Archibald, we love you.

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #67 Rainbow...still time to play..

Hey,

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

This time we have a Rainbow theme for you.

Show us your rainbow makes, but first pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things that the rest of the DT have made.

Challenge ends July 28th. Don't forget to use a stamp over a year old and tell us the age of it, that is part of the fun of our challenge and please only enter 10 challenges including Retro Rubber.

Cx

Same, same but different...

Hey,

Hubby and I had a lot of fun last night, celebrating his birthday at Ravel. We'll be going back there again.

Good friends of ours have twin Sons.

I thought it would be great to repurpose the Dino card for one of them and make another similar one to compliment it.

Like being twins?!

I created the background panel slightly differently, I used a stencil and a white distress paint resist, instead of a Gelli Plate.

I thought the 'same' element would be the layout and the balloons. I used a Your Next Stamp Monster instead of a Dinosaur for this card.

I love it when I can repurpose an early make and it was fun to semi-recreate the original card.

Cx

Happy Birthday Hubby..

Hey,

Happy Friday and Happy Birthday to my Hubby.

We have had a seriously rough week, we have a very sick Archie Cat... but I am determined that Hubby will have birthday celebrations.

Hubby loves Sloths and recently we have been watching a lot of nature programs - one of which had a big feature on Sloths. So it seemed right that I use the Lawn Fawn 'Hang in There' stamp for his card.

I decided to make it a shaker, as Hubby is also a fan of a shaker!

Super simple to make and that great window die is by Memory Box and I got it on super bargain sale.

Have a great weekend.

Cx

CASology: Diamonds...

Hey,

So here I am entering CASology this week, despite what I said yesterday!

I remembered that I had a digital stamp that would be perfect for this challenge...but what about the sentiment?

I went on a hunt for an appropriate sentiment stamp and then I saw my fave Liz Taylor book and it came to me... Big girls need big diamonds - LOL, this is pretty much what I told my Hubby many years ago and when I showed him my card he said 'ugh, Liz Taylor should keep her thoughts to herself'

I put the whole thing together on my computer, making the ring larger than normal to work with the sentiment, then I coloured the ring using a silver Promarker (that I had forgotten I had!) and added some silver moondust Nuvo Crystal Drops to the diamond.

LOVE IT!! And it made me laugh a lot whilst I was making it, I love it when I find myself funny..so sad.

Also exciting news - Hubby and I got published in the NYTimes..

Cx

Let's Chill..

Hey,

So I got another Honorable Mention over at CASology, but sadly, I don't think I'll be playing along with the current challenge, as I don't have any Diamond stamps!?

Last night I wanted to play with some of the new to me stamp sets that I acquired from Cheiron at the weekend.

This one by Hero Arts is a fave already..

I made two mini cards using the set, I am planning on making a couple more so I can give them to a friend.

I love the funky bird in the set and can't wait to use him more.

I kept my cards simple, just the sentiment and an image, coloured with Promarkers and Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens.

Love it when a little desk action results in fun things.

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #67 Rainbow...

Hey,

Welcome to a new Retro Rubber challenge.

This time we have a Rainbow theme for you.

I was inspired by the inspiration image and decided to dig out my Lawn Fawn 'Thanks a Bushel' stamp set - I thought it would be fun to colour the apples in different colours.

I really wanted the sentiment to have 'unique' in it, cue 1hr hunt for perfect sentiment stamps.. The ones I used are by Hero Arts and are from the April 2017 card kit.

The white panel was die-cut using a Reverse Confetti lacy scallop die..adds a bit more detail to a very simple card.

So now you are wondering why there is a gumball machine on my card?! I realised too late that my stamp was not over a year old!! So same idea..but different image, that is from the Sweet Smiles Lawn Fawn set from 2015..

Got there in the end :)

Here is the original card -

Your turn to show us your rainbow makes, but first pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things that the rest of the DT have made.

Challenge ends July 28th. Don't forget to use a stamp over a year old (like I did..) and tell us the age of it, that is part of the fun of our challenge and please only enter 10 challenges including Retro Rubber.

Cx

ICAD17: Week Six

Hey,

Whoo last week was a big one!! 

This week is shaping up to be the same as it's Hubby's birthday on Friday.

ICAD week 6 was a lot of fun..my cards are a bit out there, but there are no rules!

I really liked Ampersand, it was fun creating graffiti, but my fave this week was Day 36 Perfume..making my own brand perfume bottles was fun!

Can't believe it's nearly over, only 3 more weeks to go...

Cx

Eat, Drink and Be Married...

Hey,

Today has been a slow day, following the super fun day Hubby and I spent with Cheiron and her husband.

I acquired several new goodies from Cheiron's sale pile :)

I made today's card for a work colleague and his soon to be wife.

I  love this stamp and die set by Simon Says Stamp, I use it a lot! The heart stencil is by Dutchdoobado, I used Bo Bunny glitter paste - it is so shimmery!

I'm happy that the idea I had in mind worked.

Cx

Sketch Saturday #472.. Cloudy Hearts...

Hey,

Welcome to the latest sketch for the Sketch Saturday challenge.

Our sponsor this week is Oddball Art Co. and they are offering a prize of 3 digi stamps from their store.

Here is the sketch.

Another fun sketch, I thought that the cloud and hearts stamp would work perfectly here. I kept everything minimal and used shades of purple.

The embossed panel is an awesome folder that JT bought me, I haven't used it much, but it will be getting some serious use now!

I added some raffia twine, a purple heart gem and the sentiment stickers are by Tim Holtz.

Pretty pleased with this purple beauty.

Your turn to show us what you make with the sketch, but first check out what the rest of the DT have made over at Sketch Saturday.

Challenge ends 21 July 7pm GMT / 2pm EST

Cx

CASology: Wish..

Hey,

I didn't play along with CASology last week, as I don't have any pizza related stamps, the winning card shamed me a bit, as they made their own slice of pizza - clever!

The current cue card immediately sparked an idea for me -

I thought it would be cool to stamp the amazing Unity Stamp Co flower off of the edge of my white panel. I watercoloured the flower using Zigs and an aquabrush.

Obviously I didn't think it through and once the flower was stamped and coloured, the sentiment wouldn't work over the top! So I heat embossed it onto Vellum and overlaid it. Yay!

The sentiment stamp is from a beautiful freebie set came with a magazine JT sent me when I was off sick. All the stamps in the set are gorgeous.

Once it was done it all looked a bit bland, so I added some black paint splatter and I like it much better now.

I like sending cards with this sentiment, covers so many occasions.

Cx

Make Your Own Background..

Hey,

I was looking around for a different challenge on Sunday and came across Come and Get it Challenge.

This time the challenge is 'Make your own background' - fun times for me..I love backgrounds.

I decided as my current fave Monster stamp keeps rampaging through cityscapes (my fault, not his), that it would be fun to use a map as a base for my background.

I have a whole stack of second hand books I used for art journaling and one of them is an NYC guidebook, so the page I used is actually 'Lower Harlem'.

I covered it with Gesso (creates a base so you can paint, stencil, etc over a glossy piece of paper), dried it with my heat tool, then stenciled the green and blue boxes and the numbers.

I fussy cut the monster and added a little speech bubble die for the sentiment.

The shiny bits you can see on my Monster are Nuvo Drops in Caribbean Sea.

I love the end result, more of this style of background making methinks!

Cx

Retro Rubber #66 Wedding Bells...there is still time..

Hey,

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

This time we have a Wedding theme for you.

Show us what you can do with the sketch and pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends July 14th. Don't forget to tell us the age of your stamp, that is part of the fun of our challenge and please only enter 10 challenges including Retro Rubber.

Cx

ICAD17: Week Five...

Hey,

Happy Monday, hope you had a good weekend, mine was fun, starting with class on Friday, I'll show you pics later in the week.

So we are already mid-way through week 6, meaning we are only about 3.5weeks away from the end of ICAD17, so sad.

But let's not dwell on that..

I chose Day 31 Faux Wallpaper as my fave this week -

I got pretty creative here and added gold 'flocking' to a piece of Quatrefoil patterned paper, using a gold marker I'd forgot I had!! I added framed pictures to make it look like a wall. I love that I got to use the frames. I have had them for about 5-6 years, I think they came with me to the US!!

This is one of the awesome things about ICAD, I am using so many random parts of my stash, it is fun digging around in search of vaguely remembered items.

The photos are in day order, clockwise from the left and here is a link to the gallery with all the cards so far (including some week 6 ones!)

Cx

I'll be brief...

Hey,

Happy Saturday.

Today I am sharing a few cards I made last weekend using new Lil' Inker I'll Be Brief stamps.

I love the cute animals in their 'briefs'.

Pretty formulaic, I watercoloured the stamps, added stickles accents, used a Paper Source cardblank and a blue stitched die-cut panel.

I switched it up to make one a Hello card, as I had a specific use in mind.

Very quick to make and fun too..more fun to be had playing with this set this weekend.

Cx

6 from 1: MFT Arrow Greetings..

Hey,

Happy Friday, gotta love a short work week that ends with Craft Class with Cheiron at the Inkpad - yay!

MFT had a sale recently and I had a bit of money from selling parts of my stash (new plan, sell something, replace with a discounted or second hand item).

So I bought a couple of things, including these Arrow Greetings dies, that I have been drooling over for a while.

I set myself a little challenge, to cut all the greetings and make cards from them all!

I love that they all seem so bright and cheery and it was a great way to use random things from my stash - like the camera stamp by Unity Stamp Co - I rarely use that, same for the tree die.

I also managed to break out my Dymo label maker...

A fun way to make 6 quick and easy cards and slightly different to have dies as the main focus.

Have a great weekend.

Cx

Supplies used clockwise from left:
Penny Black Dots in Space stamp
Simon Says Stamp Birch Tree window die
Concord & 9th Tree Ring stamp
Unity Stamp Co. Oh Snap stamp
Butterfly embellishment by Recollections

Get on the Bus...

Hey,

So I had a great time over the super long holiday weekend, I had brunch with friends and Hubby, went on a Macy's rummage with a friend and then Hubby and I hit the boat party. It was a lot of fun and I felt totally relaxed yesterday.

I also managed a couple of long sessions playing at my desk, which was nice after the 6 days away from it! I broke out old and new things to play with.

Today I am showing you two cards I made using my new Avery Elle Birthday Bus stamp and die set.

The main card is a bit of a CASE - I really liked the card Elena made and I have the cover plate die, so thought why not!

I watercoloured the bus and the presents, I made a mistake, so I had to fussy cut out the windows - ugh, but it does look nicer, I wish dies would do that..

I thought a piece of red spotty paper in the aperture would be a great foil for the blue card blank and the red bus. I stamped the sentiment from the set onto a piece of red cardstock and affixed it at a jaunty angle, to give the bus a bit of movement.

I stamped and coloured two of the bus and present stamps, so I thought why not make a similar card, using a different cover plate (I don't have as many of these as I'd like..)

I love the Hexstar cover plate by Neat and Tangled, it makes everything look good. The only different with this card really is the lack of fussy cutting, it probably would have looked nicer, but I just couldn't face it!

I love how they both turned out, giving me a couple of fun cards for my stash.

Cx

Belated Happy 4th of July...

Hey,

So back to work for me today. It has been a fun long weekend.

I wanted to share the 4th of July cards that I made. I only made 12.

They were a lot of fun to make and I have been itching to use the Liberty Girl stamp by Unity Stamp Co. since I bought her late last year.

I stamped onto watercolour paper (thank god for the MISTI), then I watercoloured all the stamps - I did all the red, then all the dark blue and then finally all the light blue. This took a very very long time.

To speed it up I used a messy style and to compliment this, I tore all the edges of the stamped / coloured panels, giving them all a bit of a rougher feel.

I don't know who the 4th of July stamp is by, it's a wooden stamp I have had for a while. I thought affixing this with a staple added to the edgy feel.

Hope you had a Happy 4th of July.

Cx

Retro Rubber #66 Wedding Bells...

Hey,

Happy 4th of July!

As this post is scheduled I can't tell you about the boat party last night, lets do that tomorrow..

Right now it is time for another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

This time we have a Wedding theme for you.

I like making wedding cards.

This time I chose an old favourite stamp set by Simon Says Stamp called 'Married' - I've had it since 2014.

I kept it very CAS. I went with a die-cut pink panel, to lift the cake. I stamped the sentiment onto the panel and stamped flowers from the set onto the die-cut cake.

I love the simplicity of it and resisted the urge to bling it up!!

Your turn to how us what your wedding makes, first pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things that the rest of the DT have made.

Challenge ends July 14th. Don't forget to tell us the age of your stamp, that is part of the fun of our challenge and please only enter 10 challenges including Retro Rubber.

Cx

ICAD17: Week Four

Hey,

Happy Monday, I have today off, as we will be off for the 4th of July holiday tomorrow and tonight Hubby and I will be off to the Annual Louie Vega boat party, so I thought why not have an extra day!

I can't believe it is July already and we are mid-way through week 5 of ICAD! Gallery of all my cards to date is here.

Week 4 was fun, I came up with all kinds of crackpot ideas for the prompts, some of my photos are a bit iffy, as I took the cards with me and photographed them in my hotel!

My fave choice this week was again hard, serious competition between Green and Farm, I went with Farm because it is so weird!

For some reason I decided to create a 'Llama farm'. The background paper is ancient and by American Crafts, JT gave me the Bee and Llama stickers, I printed, cut and coloured the Cacti and the other Llamas are Gerda Steiner stamps.

I love it, it's so weird!!

Cx

Sketch Saturday #470 Beautiful Self...

Hey,

Welcome to another fun sketch for the Sketch Saturday challenge.

Our sponsor this week is AMB. Here is the sketch - 

I used the Seahorse from the Mermaid set...I am fascinated by Seahorses!

I love the sketch, it was so much fun to work with. I went with all blues for my background and supporting elements, really helped to make the Seahorse pop!

I die-cut the Seahorse panel using an MFT stitched oval die and the corrugated blue card was cut with a scalloped oval die by Sizzix.

I went for blue sparkly washi tape for my stripes and I am glad I did as it makes the card all twinkly. You can also see how shimmery the Seahorse is as I went over him with a Wink of Stella pen. The sentiment sticker is by Tim Holtz. 

Again a very simple but fun card.

Your turn to show us what you make with the sketch, but first check out what the rest of the DT have made over at Sketch Saturday.

Challenge ends 7 July 7pm GMT / 2pm EST

Cx