Retro Rubber #92..Summer Theme...

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge, as this posts, I will have landed in London!

This time we have a great theme for you - Summer..

Make a summer themed card and you can use the photo as inspiration too.

I opted for an old fave of mine, 'Little Umbrella' by Stamping Bella (I've had her since 2016). I love this sassy lady, having a drink and chilling at the beach - it's so very me!

I was super happy to discover the awesome and appropriate sentiment in a set by Sweet Stamp Shop that I bought last year. The sentiment is quite large and I tried A LOT of dies before settling for the star. I'm glad I did, it works so well here.

I kept the card simple and used a card blank and some paper from a Simon Says Stamp cardkit from last year.

Fun card and I have a recipient in mind.

Show us your Summer and pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends August 10th.

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

New Home...

Hey,

Happy Monday to you!

I have had a fun 4 days squiring my Godson Ben around NYC. We fly back to London tonight.

Today's card, I made for a friend that recently bought a house, I had some stuff to send her too, so I thought a new home card would be fun.

It's a Silhouette cut file and super easy to use, all I had to do was resize it and add the spotty paper behind the cut-out house.

I always forget all the fun things I can do with my Silhouette, I actually long for more space, so it can be out and plugged in at all times.

My next post (Weds) will be live from London..

Cx

Catch The Bug GDT: Photo Challenge

Hey,

Happy Saturday to you!

I actually thought this was going to be my last post for the Catch The Bug team, but they have asked me to join their team full-time - yay!! 

Details tbc, as I am traveling from Monday for 2 weeks, but YAY!!

Today I am still with the Catch The Bug team for their Saturday challenge. 

This week we have a photo inspiration -

But as the CTB team have been doing Christmas in July this week, I decided to use the Santa from yesterday's challenge and stick with the Christmas theme, along side the photo..

The image is Tropical Santa Buried - isn't he awesome?

I went all out here and used a background paper that I had created using an embossing folder and a diffuser plate - see the plain circle in the middle - that's one of the handy things you can do with a diffuser plate.

I die-cut the palm trees using my Silhouette Portrait and added the fun sentiment by Newton's Nook.

I LOVE this card, I might actually cut a bunch of palm trees and make a few of these for my actual Christmas cards.

Hope you will be playing along too. Can't wait to see which image you choose to use.

Upload your makes at the Catch The Bug blog and check out the rest of the DT makes.

Cx

Sketch Saturday #524.. Crafty Sentiments..

Hey,

Happy Saturday to you and welcome to the latest sketch for the Sketch Saturday challenge.

Our sponsor this week is Crafty Sentiments and they are offering a prize of 3 digis from their store.

Here's the sketch...

I like the Fifi stamps by Crafty Sentiments, so I chose Fifi Bubbles for my card this time.

My card is a large 6x6 card - JT gave me these card blanks and I love them, they are great for cards like this with lots of background elements.

All my papers are ancient and from my 'purple paper drawer' no new papers harmed here. I coloured Fifi and cut out the white panel and the smaller purple squares using Simon Says Stamp stitched square rectangle dies.

I couldn't believe my luck when I searched my online stamp library (GEEEEEK alert) and found that I had this great relax sentiment stamp by Jillibean Soup..

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 Aug 3rd 7pm GMT / 2pm EST

Cx

Ahoy Matey!..

Hey,

Happy Friday.

So I am not sure what Ben and I will be doing today (weather dependant) but yesterday was a lot of fun. We shopped until we dropped, but before that I have a friend who works at the Empire State Building and she got us passes, so we got to go to the observation deck - skip all the lines, it was awesome!

My card today was made last Sunday when I broke out the Silhouette Portrait to have a play. I wanted to make a fun birthday card for a friend's Son.

Recently Hubby blew away my craftroom computer and so I had to reinstall the Silhouette Design Studio, which meant I got to go through all the files I have bought over the last 5 years and I found this awesome 'Ahoy Matey!' card.

All I had to do was get the size right and add that shimmery blue panel (that I thought looked like sea).

I forget sometimes how much fun I can have with the Silhouette, I really have to remember to break it out more!

Have a great weekend, Ben, Hubby and I will be hanging out before Ben and I fly to London on Monday.

Cx

The Paper Players: Negative Space...

Hey,

So today is the first full day of my Godson's trip to NYC.

I have a fun day planned for us..sadly it's a bit rainy here in NYC, but still humid as hell!

I was lucky enough to make 'The cut above' over at The Paper Players last week and as I will be in the UK for 2 weeks and unable to play along with challenges, I wanted to do this one, as my last one for a while.

I love using negative space on my cards, it's a great way to get two-for-one from your die-cuts.

One of my favourite sets to do this with is Concord & 9th's 'Give Thanks'.

I die-cut the corn?! out of a piece of textured tan cardstock and heat embossed half of the sentiment (by Hero Arts) onto the panel.

I mounted this onto my card using foam tape.

I added a die-cut thanks by Lawn Fawn.

I love the simple elegance of this card and as I have decided to sofa surf when I am in London, it will be the perfect way to say thank you to one of my hosts.

Cx

CAS(E) This Sketch: Kinda Gross..

Hey,

So BIG day in my house / family today. My Godson Ben arrives for a 5 day visit - he is 16 and this was our 16th birthday gift to him. It's a big deal, first long haul flight (ALONE) and first time in the US..I am taking a half day today to get him from the airport and then we have 2 days off together and then we fly back to London on Monday.

The CAS(E) this Sketch, sketch is super fun this week. So easy, you could make a bejillion versions of it.

I decided it was time to break out the hilarious 'Kinda Gross' stamp by Impression Obsession..

I added heart stamps by Clearly Besotted and coloured them using spectrum noir sparkle pens.

See! Simple..

I love this card, I was totally cracking myself up as I was making it, which will amuse JT no doubt..as I am always laughing at my own jokes!

Cx

Retro Rubber #91 Sketch...there is 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 sketch 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 27.

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

Always My Rockstar...

Hey,

Happy Monday.

I had a fun weekend helping Hubby celebrate his 39th birthday..I feel like he is never ever going to reach 40!!

We had a blast with our friends on Friday night and so Saturday was a rather slow start.. But we managed to make it out and go for a birthday lunch - nothing fancy as originally planned, just a nice low-key lunch at one of our fave spots.

I had a specific idea in mind when making Hubby's birthday card, but sadly I couldn't find the right stamps to execute it..

So I went with plan b..

We both like Bulldogs / Pitt Bulls, etc and one day we hope to own one, so my Brutus Monroe 'Rockstar Pets' stamps were a perfect fit, especially as Hubby likes to mix music. Bulldog wearing headphones = perfection.

Hubby liked it - his exact words were 'that is an awesome stamp'.

Cx

Even more Christmas in July....

Hey,

So following on from yesterday's Christmas in July post, I wanted to share my Christmas make ;)

I bought these awesome Christmas Portraits stamps from Le Petite Market and couldn't wait a month to play with them (I start Christmas card making in August).

As with the Animal Astronaut cards, I retouched the images, so that they would be white against any background papers I added.

I coloured the images and added glitter glue, nuvo drops (coloured and glittery), spectrum noir sparkle pens and sequins / stars for interest.

Once I had stamped the sentiments, they looked a bit boring, so I added a glittery strip to the card blank, way more festive.

Feels pretty good to have the first batch of Christmas done.

Cx

Catch The Bug GDT: Christmas in July - baby it's cold outside..

Hey,

Happy Saturday to you!

This is my penultimate post with the Catch The Bug team for their Saturday challenge. 4 months of GDT has flown by and it has been SO much fun, I am very sad that last week will be my last one.

This week we are kicking off the CTB team's - Christmas in July - a week of fun Christmas related challenges.

Today we are starting with -

Make a Christmas / Holiday card and use the theme 'Baby It's cold Outside'.

I love the Winter Birds and have all of them (oops) and so I chose Winter Bird Skate for my card - the cool bird wrapped in his scarf sums up 'Baby It's Cold Outside' for me! 

I coloured the image, using Promarkers. I dug out a fave snowflake embossing folder and embossed a piece of shimmery sparkly silver paper, to use as my background. To anchor my image, I added two little strips of paper, one is super glittery and sheds everywhere!

Hope you will be playing along all week!

Upload your makes at the Catch The Bug blog and check out the rest of the DT makes and the rules for this special week.

Cx

p.s Today is also Hubby's birthday..more on that tomorrow or Monday!

ICAD 2018...A little update..

Hey,

Happy Friday!

If you are following me on Instagram, then you know for the second year I am playing along with ICAD (Index Card A Day).

Thanks to Tammy at Daisy Yellow for organising, you can learn more here and play along too.. it's never too late.

My friend Lauren introducing me and her cards are always so stunning and creative, as is all of her work (she's one of my multiple craft crushes, stalk them enough and they become friends LOL)

I loved it SO much last year and I finally got around to making the cards into an album and sending to my Aunt. She loved it BTW.

I learnt a few lessons last year that I have applied to this year's cards - I have not backed them onto each other, so each of the 61 days will be individual cards. I have tried to keep the bulkiness to a minimum..no mean feat.

I also bought a cute 4x6 album to store them in, more about that in a different post.

Today I wanted to show you a few of the cards I have made so far as we are now on Day 50!

They are all so different and as I am predominantly a cardmaker, I think you can see this is my cards.

Day 5 - Prompt - Queue / Line - Using fun stamps to create a line and adding other elements to tie it all togeher

Day 14 - Prompt - Flamingo - love a Flamingo stamp, I added tons of layers with scraps here, and dedicated it to the Queen of layers Lauren!

Day 21 - Prompt - Treasure - I felt that a sea of scrap papers, with a mermaid, sequins, glittery stars and sparkly dots was the perfect way to show 'Treasure'

Day 23 - Prompt - Castle - I grew up near Elephant & Castle..Get it? I loved layering random elements to create this card, especially happy with the use of fabric on my card!

Day 34 - Prompt - Picnic - I mean for July 4th, it had to be Americana? I aged the photo that I found in a book, added the date too. I also coloured a brown doily blue, using a marker.

Day 36 - Prompt - Pretzel - Literally I love Pretzels more than any other snack, I have a Pretzel charm on my bracelet, that Hubby gave me for my 40th..but only one prezel stamp..hmmm.

The main photo is of Day 46 - I love this one the most I think, partly because I was so thrown by 'tie-dye' as a prompt, then I got a new stencil by Andy Skinner (you get the positive and the negative) and it gave me an idea and I love how it came out.

I love that ICAD gives me a focus for nightly playtime at my desk and I don't have to buy things to play along, I can really dig deep in my stash and that's awesome.

Tomorrow is Hubby's birthday and we are starting tonight with drinks and tomorrow I am taking him to lunch and on a mystery outing..

Cx

The Paper Players: Colour Challenge..

Hey,

One of the reasons I like challenges so much, is that they give me the opportunity to use my stash in ways I wouldn't have considered without a little prompt / inspiration.

The Paper Players challenge is one of my faves and this week does not disappoint -

I had an idea how to use the colours, forming in my mind.. and so that it would work with minimal effort, I tried something I have not done before.

I stamped the MFT + Pure Innocence Girl (now retired) onto two white panels. I coloured one using promarkers and spectrum noir sparkle pens. I applied Cracked Pistachio distress ink through my fave ancient (and most overused item in my craft room) The Crafters Workshop stencil.

I die-cut the coloured girl and popped her up using foam tape, covering over the girl that I had stenciled over. GENIUS..It meant that there was no masking needed and the dots are coming from behind the girl perfectly.

I know that I could have just stenciled the background, but I wanted the girl in a specific place, so that I could fit the sentiment on and not cut off too many of the stenciled dots, when I was die-cutting the panel to size.

I'll be doing this again!

I used a sentiment from the set, as this card is going to a friend to say thank you for an unexpected gift she sent me.

Cx

CAS(E) This Sketch: Girl Boss...

Hey,

So I have had this Girl Boss stamp set sitting on my desk forever..

And I haven't really known what to do with it..until I saw this week's CAS(E) This Sketch -

I thought some of the elements would work really well here and I feel vindicated as I LOVE my final card..

It was one of those super quick makes, I put the shoe, tote, sunnies onto stamp blocks and broke out my fave black ink for using with blocks (Stampin' Up's Basic Black) and stamped away.

I left a little space for the 'Girl Boss', which I decided worked best in purple.

Affix the white panel to the purple card blank and voila! finished card.

So happy with this and the fact that I finally used this stamp set. It also makes the perfect leaving card for my boss!

Cx

Retro Rubber #91..Feeling Sketchy...

Hey,

Welcome to another awesome Retro Rubber challenge.

We have a sketch for you this time, created by me!

I do love sketches, so much freedom.

The sketch and a visit to the aquarium with my Momma when she was here, inspired me to pull out a great (rarely used) set from Sweet Stamp Shop 'Eye See You' from 2016, now retired.

I did approx 5-10 test stamps of Mr Octopus, as he comes in x3 pieces - head and arms. I finally got the position I liked and stamped him for realz!

I pulled out a piece of ancient patterned paper and cut it with a new scalloped die from Your Next Stamp.

The sentiment is by Hero Arts and I added a googly eye for a bit of fun.

He is awesome and already left my desk to go to Momma, as a thank you for all the fun times we had together during her trip.

Show us your interpretation of the sketch and pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends July 27th.

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

FMS: OMG! How Old?...

Hey,

Happy Monday.

I had an early start this morning..6am PT session - UGH.

Over the weekend, I didn't really get to spend that much time at my desk, but I did find the time to make a card for the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge -

Love this sketch, super versatile.

I found a Monster already stamped on my desk, so decided he should be coloured and go on the card.

I started with a black card base and used a coverplate die (Lil Inker) on a piece of white cardstock. I stuck this piece to the card base and then added my red piece of paper.

I wanted the sentiment to kind of look like it was coming out of my Monsters mouth. But I kind of mis-judged it a bit, so it looks like he is swallowing the stickers LOL.

I heat-embossed the fun sentiment onto a piece of black card... I love this sentiment, it is by Create A Smile stamps and was a set I bought with a prize I won.

I'm pretty pleased with the ONE card I managed to make this weekend.

Cx

Animal Astronauts...

Hey,

Yes I am showing you more Le Petite Market makes..

I can't get enough of their awesome stamps right now.

One of the very first sets I bought was Animal Astronauts -

I retouched the stamps so that they would print out white, meaning I could add a background behind them.

I decided to use some ancient star digital papers from Pink Petticoat (now The Lovely Studio), adding to the space / astronaut feel.

I coloured both of them and then made super quick cards.

For the main photo I heat embossed a Clearly Besotted sentiment onto a coordinating red panel.

For the card below, I added the sentiment (by MFT) directly onto my printed background.

These stamps have reignited my love for digital stamps and papers and means I have had plenty of playtime at my desk with a whole bunch of these stamps and various papers from my digital stash.

It's fun to rediscover parts of my stash.

Cx

Catch The Bug GDT: Use Patriotic Colours..

Hey,

Happy Saturday to you!

I'm a teeny bit sad today, as last night was the last Craftgang craft class together for a while, as Ava is moving to Florida..

I'm still with the Catch The Bug team for their Saturday challenge. 

This week we have a fun theme - Use Your Countries Colours.

I am English, so I could do two things - use English colours of red and white or go with United Kingdom colours of red, white and blue. I chose the latter, as the blue gave me a bit more range with my colouring.

I decided to use a favourite stamp of mine - Teacup Flowers 1 - I have totally overused this stamp since I've had it.

I coloured the flowers in red, with blue and white centres, I used blue for the teacup and I went with a bit of creative license and coloured the leaves in a different shade of blue.

I die-cut the whole panel using a stitched square die and added a red and white spotty background paper to make my image pop.

The sentiment is a freebie and I stamped it with blue ink.

Hope you will be playing along too. Can't wait to see which image you choose to use.

Upload your makes at the Catch The Bug blog and check out the rest of the DT makes.

Cx

Sketch Saturday #522 Just Me Digital...Christmas Llama..

Hey,

Happy Saturday to you and welcome to the latest sketch for the Sketch Saturday challenge.

Our sponsor this week is Just Me Digital and they are offering a prize of two digital stamps from their store.

Here's the sketch...

[about my image choice, include link to the digi]

I rotated the sketch, as I thought my Llama would work better that way and I printed the stamp and the sentiment that comes with it.

To create the scalloped border, I used a red spotty scrap paper and I broke out an ancient border PUNCH!! I honestly have forgotten about punches.. I added a strip of glittery paper behind the punched border for a bit more interest. 

I die-cut two white panels using Lawn Fawn Stitched hills dies and layered them just over the Llama. I added Nuvo drops to the hills and teeny tiny gems to each side that are my take on the stars in the sketch.

I love this card SO much, it's such a fun Christmas card.

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 20th July 7pm GMT / 2pm EST

Cx

Pink Fresh Studio: July Watercolours..

Hey,

Happy Friday.

Today is a bittersweet day for me. It's the last class for the Craftgang at the Inkpad for a while, as Ava is moving to Florida. No doubt there will be a few tears (mainly from me, I cry at everything).

I am a big fan of Pink Fresh Studio stamps and I like to play along with their challenge from time to time.

This month it's watercolours -

I like to stretch my stamps and as soon as I saw the colours here I knew that the December Days stamp set by Pink Fresh Studio could work really well as a birthday card.

First I created the orange and yellow watercoloured background. I added splashes of orange, yellow, purple and pink to my background.

I die-cut it to size using a scalloped die, that I recently bought second-hand.

I stamped and die-cut the banner image from the set and watercoloured it. I added a fun sentiment by Unity Stamp Co.

Now that my banner was ready, I could stamp the leaves from the set onto my watercoloured background, I needed the banner, so I could position the leaves where I wanted them. I stamped them in purple ink.

I used foam tape to mount my banner in place and added green and red gems for the other colours and some interest. I also added green stickles to the flower centres.

I'm a little bit in love with this card, it's a bit off the wall, but it's also a great way to use Christmas stash for other things.

Have a great weekend.

Cx

CAS-ual Fridays: Heat Embossing..

Hey,

I wanted to play along with the current challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays, because I have been heat embossing quite a bit lately and I'm feeling it!

I thought that one of the stamps from the awesome CAS-ual Friday's 'Flower Power' set would work really well heat embossed.

I heat embossed 'Rock' from the set in white and used picked raspberry and wilted violet distress oxide inks to watercolour over them - love this resist technique.

I added some splatter of the two colours and then added a Tim Holtz sticker for the rest of the sentiment.

Super simple and pretty CAS too..

Cx