Christmas Thank You...

Hey,

Happy New Year's Eve to you.

I've been a bit absent since Christmas Eve, deliberately so, as I felt the need for a little recharge, so no plans (bar seeing JT), no schedules, just breathe.

Because I have been off work since the 22nd December, I have had lots of time at my craft desk.

I've used the time to tidy, file, play with new stuff and get craft-organised for 2018.

I love to make sets of Thank You cards, but for our Christmas gift thank you's this year, I thought it would be fun to make different ones that follow an idea.

I love the MFT peek-a-boo circle dies, you get two in the set. One is a simple stitched circle and the other one has a scalloped edge inside the circle.

I opted to use these dies as my base for all my cards.

As you can see from my photo, they do look like a set, but are different.

I really got to flex my stamps here, I used TONS of sets (see below). Apart from the Bookish Bear cards, I used one paper set (by Recollections) for all of the cards and I made 10 cards in total, some are duplicates.

I am really pleased with this little set of cards, they are super cute and a fun way to say thanks for all the thoughtful things that Hubby and I received for Christmas.

Hope you have a wonderful time ringing in 2018..see you in the New Year.

Cx

Stamp sets used:
Mama Elephant (Limited edition Yeti in the City)
Simon Says Stamp - Summertime Animals (Pineapple/Flamingo), Hand Lettered Winter Wishes (Thanks)
Technique Tuesday - Favorite Human (Robot, Stars, Beep)
The Cat's Pajamas - This Could Be Vodka (Cat, Fish)
Avery Elle - Band Camp (Crocodile, Musical Notes)
Lil' Inkers - Cat Treats (Cat with Balloon)
Waffle Flower - Books and Coffee (Bear)
Stampin' Up - Another Thanks (Thanks)

CASology: Heart Confetti..

Hey,

Happy Christmas Eve.

I am feeling slightly jaded today after a fun night out with a work colleague and her boyfriend, they are in NYC for Christmas and it was nice to hang out with them.

I decided yesterday to play along with the last CASology of the year -

CASology has been great for me this year, it's been really integral to pushing my mojo when it has been a bit on the wane. I've also been lucky enough to get several Honorable Mentions and a win!! I have only really been playing with CAS for a couple of years, so this is all wonderful and makes me feel like I am actually learning!!

Anyway.. today's card uses a fave stamp from the Hero Arts 'Acts of Kindness' set. I decided that it would be fun to stencil hearts onto my card to give a confetti feel to match the sentiment.

The stencil is an overused fave by Dutchdoobado - I love their stencils. I used Picked Raspberry distress ink with a dabber.

I am really pleased at how crisp the sentiment is over the confetti hearts and to add some shimmer I went over the hearts using a Nuvo aqua flow glitter gloss marker.

Now it is time for Christmas Eve NFL and hotdogs, later we are going to a fave restaurant to have the Feast of the Seven Fishes..YUMS.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Cx

Winter has arrived...

Hey,

So it's officially Christmas break - whoop whoop!

As you know there has been an influx of babies in my life recently!

First some background, I have a friend Michelle - well really she is a Sister after 25 years of friendship. She is from Seattle and we met at University in Plymouth. Cue many years of backwards and forwards between Seattle and London. Her family are my family and vice versa.

Michelle moved to Hawaii a few years ago and she is an amazing artist and Hawaii has brought out the best in her work (in my opinion).

Michelle's family are still in Seattle and Wesley her brother is a firm friend of mine and this week his girlfriend had their baby boy - Winter Kanade.

Winter was a bit early (5 weeks..) so my plans had to be accelerated a bit, so I am still working on some items for him. But I did manage to create the card you see today for them.

Both Wesley and his girlfriend are into superheroes / star wars etc and they have the cutest dog, so naturally there had to be a superhero and a dog on the card.

As we all knew Winter was going to be a boy, I wanted to say 'hello' on the card and not 'it's a boy'.

This card is essentially a CASE of a card I previously made, so I am pleased that the design is versatile enough to be a baby card too! The Hero and Dog stamps are by Lil Inkers.

Cx

SIP - Say NO to Christmas!

Hey,

Happy Friday!!

My last working day until 2018 - whoop whoop!!

So my return to WOYWW this week introduced me to a new challenge that I came across when nosying at fellow WOYWWers desks.

Stamp Ink Paper have a 'Say No to Christmas' challenge on currently and it made me laugh, as I had to do so much Christmas stuff early this year that I am a bit 'blah' about it all!

I wanted to make a fun card for a friend and I came across the previously stenciled background you see on my card. I love this stencil by Tim Holtz. I played around with a few ideas but nothing was working.

Then I saw the A-Muse Studio 'Fierce' stamp set and inspiration struck.

Love it and it most certainly does not involve Christmas!

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas, I will be eating, drinking, hanging with Hubby and our people, going to the gym, playing at my desk, seeing JT, drinking, sleeping and did I mention the eating?

Cx

Hippo in my pocket..

Hey,

Big thanks and love to Julia and the WOYWW posse, yesterday they welcomed me back (home) with open arms, I do love blogland, it has given me many great friends and reasons to feel happy.

In my post yesterday I talked about today's cards.

There have been a LOT of new babies arriving in my world recently, so I finally sat down on Tuesday night and started making the baby girl cards.

I love this card that I made last year. I keep recreating it and I've used it for babies and birthdays.

As I have most of the MFT flower stamp sets I decided to mix those in with the usual Zoo Crew and Denim & Daises sets by Paper Smooches. I used Bold Blooms and Pretty Posies by MFT.

These two cards were super easy, using the MISTI (well the small stamp perfect, I swamped my Mini MISTI for the big one and I also have the Tim Holtz version..), I stamped the two cards in tandem.

I added some bling here and there to finish of the cards.

I love this new slight variation on my theme, adding in different flower stamps creates a totally new look.

Cx

WOYWW #446.. Pretty tidy for me..

Hey,

Hello WOYWWers!!

The last time I played along was July 2016 (WOYWW #370)...

I can't believe it has been so long.

I recently sent Julia a Christmas card and I was delighted to receive one back from her, but her note made me think about you all and the delight I've always taken in seeing your desks.

I stopped playing along as I was traveling so much with work, I really wasn't able to comment on all your desks and it upset me to not return the compliment of a desk visit.

I have also been a bit poorly, cue major op, large complication, 8 weeks off of work - but let's not worry about that, as I am now 100% fit and well and better than ever.

So here I am back for right now..

My desk today (well last night..) is pretty tidy for me! You can see my stamp perfect in action (faux MISTI) I was making baby cards last night, there has been a ridiculous amount of baby arrivals in the last 2 weeks! I have a fave design I always seem to default to for Girl Babies.

Also you can see my wine, water pot, some misc bits of paper for things I am supposed to be working on and some stamp sets for the baby cards.

Here is the original card that I was recreating last night -

I am looking forward to a desk nosy later on today.

Cx

Love birds..

Hey,

With my birthday money from my Parents, I bought a ton of Zini's and Jofy's by Paper Artsy - Cara enabled me totally not my fault!

I decided to use the Lovebirds stamp to make a fun anniversary card for my friends.

So cute right?

I kept it all really simple by just adding more hearts and I even coloured it very similar to the image on the stamp packet.

I love these mini stamps by Paper Artsy, there is so much you can do with them, I have a few more cards to show you with these later on this week.

Cx

Simple Notecards...

Hey,

Happy Monday!

OMG I had such a fun weekend, playing at my desk, lunching with the Craftgang and watching NFL with Hubby.

And only one more week of work before the Christmas break.

Today's photo is of the notecards I made last weekend. The idea came to me, because I was doodling in my notepad on Friday whilst eating lunch and I created a little pattern that reminded me of the new Lil' Inkers Unstoppable set -

I started by die-cutting all the white panels and then masking off the area I wanted to stamp. I decided I wanted to make 2 sets with 4 cards each and have 4 different designs in each set..complicated much?

I stamped all the patterns by hand, much easier, as I had 4 stamp blocks, so it was super quick to do. Next I added the glittery washi tape - from Target dollar bins. I then set-up the thank you stamp on my MISTI to make it all easy.

The card blanks are actually large panels from PaperSource that I crease and fold to size. PaperSource had a one day paper bar sale and I think every crafter in North America went frantic spendy spendy crazy.

I love the end result, simple and elegant and a perfect Christmas gift.

You might have noticed that I departed from my usual background when taking my photo. I recently bought a huge Dahle self-healing mat for my craft desk -

Isn't he pretty!!

It has made my desk much cleaner and easier to work on, I was always hanging off the edge of my previous one.

I also think he makes an awesome backdrop for my cards.

Best thing about him? He was on super bargain sale!

Cx

Playing with Dots...

Hey,

Happy Sunday to you. I am off to the Gym this morning - good way to earn the right of sitting on my butt for 12hrs watching NFL!

My Black Friday Haul was amazing, especially from Studio Calico which had the best sale ever and so I was able to acquire a lot of things that I have been lusting after for a while.

This stamp set (Large Sentiments by Hello Forever) caught my eye a while back, as I figured it would be mad fun to colour and stamp all the fun little dots / stripes.

As you can see from my photo, I went with Happy Birthday for my first road test of the set.

I watercoloured the words and then used contrasting inks to stamp the dots. I love it, it is so fun and clever.

I am going to try anniversary cards next and I was thinking about stamping onto a coloured paper and then adding dots..so many possibilities.

Cx

Sketch Saturday #494..Tiny Santas...

Hey,

Happy Saturday to you and welcome to the last Sketch Saturday challenge of 2017..what a year it has been!

Our sponsor this week is Fred She Said Designs and they are offering a $10 gift certificate to their store as a prize.

Here's the sketch...

I loved the Little Fat Santa stamp and had this idea, of how to use it on my card...

So...to get the idea in my head to work, I had to print the Santa's pretty small, cue several Santa's recycled due to incorrect maths by me.. Finally I got them to be the size I wanted..but then I realised how small they were, colouring them was a BEAST. Note to self..tiny is not always best..

I created the fun dotty background using the Dotty Turnabout stamp by Concord & 9th..it's a bit tricky at first, but it's worth it as the results are so pretty. The smaller blue dots I added as I wanted smaller dots too.

Adding the sentiment and some stickles to the santa's were the final touches. I love how this came out, wish I had made a couple more!

I can't wait to see what you do with the sketch, but first check out what the rest of the DT have made over at Sketch Saturday.

Challenge ends 29th December 7pm GMT / 2pm EST

See you in 2018 for more Sketch Saturday fun, have a lovely Christmas / Holiday period..you'll find me mainly stuffing my face, in the gym or at my desk..

Cx

Resting Beach Face...

Hey,

Happy Friday.

So it's been a busy week and I am still a bit unsure about where I am exactly!

NYC>London>Belgium>London>NYC will do that to you!

Anyway one of the great things about this week was coming home to all the awesome Black Friday goodies (so many bargains I went a bit nuts)..

I opted for not putting anything away immediately and instead went straight into playing mode..

This year I have discovered a few new to me Stamp companies, generally smaller independent ones that I like to support. One of these is Sweet Stamp Shop - I love Nicole's sense of humor and her cute images.

I bought Beach Face and the dies in the BF sale

I have been madly in love with the dog Nicole draws and was very happy to finally own him.

I decided to play wth the girl first, because I have a friend who NEEDS this card in her life.

I roughly blended a piece of cardstock using Broken China Distress Oxide ink and spritzed it with water to create the slightly mottled background. I used a new stitched, scalloped frame die by Avery Elle. I need to get better at putting these frames back together..

I stamped the waves from the set, so the girl looks like she is floating in water and added the awesome sentiment.

Love it!

I have a birthday card idea in my head for the Dog, so I'll be giving that a go over the weekend.

Hope you have a nice weekend, I have a lunch with the Craftgang, the gym and a ton of NFL to watch with Hubby AND I want to squeeze in some desk time, so it's going to be a fun and busy one for me.

Cx

Happy Snappy Crocodile Birthday..

Hey,

Before I left for London I showed you a card I made for a colleague using my new Heffy Doodle Snappy Crocs set.

I had also stamped and coloured a couple more of the Crocs, but they were not made into cards.

So today you can see them all finished and ready for new homes.

I love this set, it is super versatile.

I am in love with the fact that I can give the Croc a bow-tie!!

I coloured both Crocs using Zigs and I kept everything pretty simple and just added some of the pretty Lawn Fawn papers to create a nice border.

I suspect that there is going to be a mad amount of over-using of this set..

Cx

Take a deep breath...

Hey,

So you might have noticed that for 5 days there were no posts from me!!

I didn't have enough time in London to do everything I had planned to do, my actual job had to take priority.

I had planned to try and 'beat' my post total for last year. It's a weird competition I have been having with myself and it's been stressing me out to be honest.

Hubby told me to 'take a deep breath and be honest with yourself' and so that is what I have done. I managed 346 posts last year, that is no mean feat and with 7 weeks off sick this year, it is pretty good going that I am going to hit approx 330 posts for 2017.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that this blog is a fun thing and it doesn't matter if I don't post every single day.

So today's photo is not of anything crafty, but from my work trip over the weekend (to Ghent) where Hubby and I were reunited with JT and her hubby.

This photo is a reminder to me of how nice it is to take a breath, hang out with your people and have a laugh (and eat nice food..)

Cx

Retro Rubber #77 - Still time to join in the Colour Challenge...

Hey,

There is still time for you to join in with the last Retro Rubber  challenge of 2017!!

In keeping with the season we are asking you to use the colours from the wonderful Christmas themed inspiration photo.

Show us what you are inspired to make and pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends December 15th. 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.

The Retro Rubber team will be back in January for another year of awesome challenges, but you can keep tabs on us via our personal blogs ;)

Cx

Stencils and Distress Oxides..

Hey,

Over the extended Thanksgiving break, I decided to have a little play with stencils and Distress Oxides.

I am really loving the oxides, they are so buttery and blend so well that they make it look like I have nailed this blending thing, which I totally haven't!

The main card uses a stencil I picked up a while back from The InkpadNYC and is by The Crafters Workshop, I used Wilted Violet, Faded Jeans and Broken China oxides through the stencil.

The Monster stamp is by Bo Bunny and was a surprise gift from my friend Jen Wills, I coloured him using Zigs and then fussy cut him. The fun sentiment is by Waffle Flower.

I love the funky end result and he will be heading to a friend for her birthday (she likes Monsters too).

The next card uses a fave stencil of mine by DutchDoobaDoo, I totally overuse it..

I love how this came out, I think the colours worked out really well and I particularly like the flashes of pink and blue. I added the awesome sentiment from A-Muse Studio.

Both were really easy and fun to make, I love using stencils for backgrounds and making them the focal point of the card.

Cx

Happy Birthday Daddy..

Hey,

Today is my Dad's birthday and I am lucky enough to be in London, so Hubby and I are taking him and Momma to dinner to celebrate.

I have written SEVERAL posts about my Daddy, so I am not going to try and top some of those.

Essentially, he is a pretty cool guy and I think the words on this year's card are totally appropriate for him and I actually bought the stamp set (Man Day by Technique Tuesday) earlier this year to make him a Father's day card and completely forgot about it!

I created a fun distress oxide stenciled background (stencil by Simon Says Stamp) and stamped the sentiment over the top.

Pretty simple and easy to make, but looks like a lot of work!

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #77 Merry Christmas a colour challenge..

Hey,

Time for the last Retro Rubber  challenge of 2017!! Where did the year go?

Also we are pretty sad as we are saying goodbye to Christine, like me she has been with the RR crew from the start and I'm going to miss her funky and fun take on the challenges. So from me, this is not a goodbye, just farewell for now.

In keeping with the season we are asking you to use the colours from this wonderful Christmas themed inspiration photo -

I really wanted to use a larger square card blank to make a Christmas card for my parents.

I shamefully have a piece of NBUS that I won last November at the annual HCME class...it is by Concord & 9th and I also won the die for the 'Joy' stamp.

I stamped Joy in red ink and heat embossed it using sparkly WOW embossing powder. It is SO blingy IRL.

I have all this Christmas themed washi tape and I thought the branch/berry one was a perfect fit here, so made a background for my die-cut panel. Love this hole die, I have no idea a) where it came from or b) who it is by!!

I added a few teeny tiny red gems and stamped the other part of the sentiment.

Love the end result and I think my parents will too.

Show us what you are inspired to make and pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends December 15th. 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.

The Retro Rubber team will be back in January for another year of awesome challenges, but you can keep tabs on us via our personal blogs ;)

Cx

A rude farewell...

Hey,

Happy Monday!

I am in London this week, as we head out to our Christmas party in Ghent on Friday.

One of my colleagues is leaving in January and I won't see him again before he leaves so I wanted to make him a card to deliver in person. He has been an amazing colleague and I am super sad to see him go, but it can't all be about me ;)

I have been trying to get my hands on the Heffy Doodle Snappy Crocs set since I saw it several months ago..I finally managed to snag it over Black Friday and it arrived last week..

I am 'famed' for my potty mouth, especially when working and so I thought a slightly rude card would be very appropriate.  The sentiments are a mix by Snarky Stamps and Paper Smooches.

I coloured the Crocodile using Zigs and a paintbrush.

I feel that this stamp set is about to become a fave..I love how versatile the set it, it comes with all these cool mini stamps. I went with the glass and bottle here as this is a 'good luck' card after all!

Cx

So Naughty..

Hey,

When a friend 'enables' you to buy Christmas stamps that you really don't need what do you do?

Make her a card using said stamps..obvs!!

The set in question is 'Naughty' by Kat Scrappiness.

I am feeling pretty smug about this card, it came out even better than the vision in my head.

Look at how the die-cut holes and glitter paper look like lights.. swoon..

Sorry, let me slow down and start at the beginning!

I coloured and fussy cut the awesome Reindeer lady by Art Impressions, I have had this stamp a few years and it gets dragged out every Christmas. I thought it would work perfectly with all the sentiments in the set my friend encouraged me to buy and I actually made 5 other cards using this combo. However they were not as detailed as this one.

I die-cut the white paper using the awesome snowfall die by GinaMarie Designs and added some glitter paper behind to get the twinkly look.

The fact that my die-cuts looks like lights shining through the sentiment is an accident..I forgot to stamp the 'naughty' first.

I love it and I believe it arrived and my friend loves it too!!

Cx

Sketch Saturday #492 Christmas Flamingos..

Hey,

Happy Saturday to you, Hubby and I are landing in London as this goes live!!

Welcome to the latest sketch for the Sketch Saturday challenge.

Our sponsor this week is Sasayaki Glitter and they are offering a prize of 1 digi from their store.

Here's the sketch...

I love Flamingos, so when I saw the Winter Flamingos image it was an easy choice!!

I rotated the sketch and printed the Flamingo image onto a piece of stripey digital paper. My border is a very, very glittery piece of ribbon and instead of a bow, I used a gold glittery heart. I combined x3 sentiment stamps to create my sentiment, as I really wanted the word 'warm' in there!

To add to the extreme shine of my card, I added gold stickles here and there.

I can't wait to see what you do with the sketch, but first check out what the rest of the DT have made over at Sketch Saturday.

Challenge ends 5 January 2018 at 7pm GMT / 2pm EST

Cx

Funky Fave...

Hey,

Happy Friday..

I love a 3 day week, but not when I semi-forget that I am leaving for London tonight - eek!

Cue mad rush to finish off Christmas gifts, pack, organise cat-sitter, taxi to airport, you know all the things I could have done during my 6 days off!!

Anyway, in amongst all of that madness I found some time on Weds evening to play with a new to me set by My Cute Stamps - I bought it second-hand (it's not for sale anymore), I have done this a lot this year and it boosts my stash but doesn't hurt my purse so much!

I enjoy masking and so thought that it would be a great way to create a fun card using these stamps.

I love the bright pops of colour (Memento Dew Drop inks) and the fact that with these stamps all you need is ink - no colouring.

The sentiment is brand new and both JT and I chose it from the Technique Tuesday progressive sale - TWINS!! We really have to stop this...

I thought it worked really well here, as the card is going to a friend with a rather belated birthday gift that arrived super late.

Anyway, see you in London next week, my posts for the next few days are scheduled, so that I can breathe for 5 mins LOL.

Cx