Retro Rubber Challenge #109 Anything Goes..Still time to play along..

Hey,

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

The theme this time is everyone's fave - Anything Goes.

Can't wait to see what you decide to make, don't forget to pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends May 3rd.

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

The Paper Players: Birthday Wishes...

Hey,

Happy Monday!

Yesterday I was having a little messenger chat with my friend Jen and she sent me a photo of the challenges she was planning on playing along with and I LOVED the sketch for this week's Paper Players.

Don't you love it when your friends inspire you?

I thought it would be fun to play with a piece of NBUS that I bought earlier this year on sale (Feather Wreath by Jen Long and Sizzix).

It seemed like the perfect fit for that circular shape, but in the end it was a bit too big. So I only used the sentiment and the small feather / heart shape.

But the feathers inspired by heat embossed black and white strip. The feathers I used for the strip are by Avery Elle from their Mardi Gras set.

To keep the circular shape of the sketch, I die-cut a small scalloped circle from vellum and used it to anchor the feather / heart shape.

I'm pretty pleased with the end result, it has made me want to heat emboss more feathers, they make such a great background.

Cx

Playdate output..

Hey,

Happy Friday!

I just realised that I didn't show the cards I made on my 2 day playdate with JT.

We had a lot of fun, eating, drinking, shopping, gossiping and crafting.

It is always fun to hang with her and it's also a lot of fun to play with her stash.

The giant chevron stamp that you can see in several of my cards belongs to JT and I totally adopted it for 2 days - I fell in love. It was so versatile.

I think I have a similar stamp somewhere...I need to go on a hunt.

The big win was the bottom left interactive card,  made it, stamped it with that awesome Chicken Wire stamp and then was all 'hmmm it needs a critter..' and lo, JT pulled out one of the Hema Chicken stickers - WIN!!

We've had more epic playdates, but this one was one of the most enjoyable for me. I got to hang with my girl in her new home and just chill for a couple of days, we so rarely get to do that anymore it was nice.

Cx

Dotty Whale CASE...

Hey,

Happy Saturday!

I'm super excited today, as tonight Hubby and I are off to the Opera, which was my Christmas gift from Hubby..I will be finally hearing Placido Domingo sing..

I have become obsessed with Alex Syberia's method of dot colouring..

I have been practicing, but essentially my versions look crap LOL!

Then I saw a post of Alex's where she used a Whale for her dotty colouring and I love Whale stamps and have a few, so I thought I'd give it a go and FINALLY it all clicked.

Mine are by NO means as awesome as Alex's, but it's a start and I am super happy with the end results.

You really have to try it and even if you don't, do check out Alex's work.

I used a ton of supplies..
Whale stamp/die by Recollections
Birthday Fishes sentiment by Waffle Flower
Fintastic Sentiment by Newtons Nook
Mini fish shoal by Kaisercraft
Single fish by MFT
Clear droplets by Pretty Pink Posh
Stencil by Andy Skinner

Cx

In The Flow..Abstracts..

Hey,

So I got lucky enough to win an amazing watercolouring course.

The teachers are Faith Evans-Sills and Mati Rose McDonough - they are super talented and I am learning SO much from them.

It is pushing me out of my comfort zone so much.

One of the recent lessons was about 'embracing the messy' - now if you know me, you can understand what a hard concept this is for me.

But I really did embrace it and made some awesome large abstract messy pages. Below are my first attempts - which I LOVE.

I loved the process so much, that I grabbed a bunch of watercolour postcards and had a play and created the fun mini abstracts that you see in my main photo today.

It's not always easy to step out of my safe space, but with this course, I am really giving it a go.

Cx

CAS on Friday: Butterflies..

Hey,

With all the traveling and working! I haven't been playing along with too many challenges.

So this weekend has I had some time, I thought I would play along with one of my fave challenges - CAS on Friday.

The theme is Butterflies.

I think my card feels pretty CAS..but we'll see what the DT think ;)

I smooshed half of my paper in distress oxide's and water and dried it before using a large rectangle stitched die to die-cut it to size.

I used my new Lil Inker stitched butterfly dies and embossed the large butterfly and a trail into my panel. I die-cut a smaller butterfly from the same set using a coordinating scrap of paper and popped that up on my card.

I finished it off with a simple sentiment.

I am really happy with how it came out, I really like the embossed butterfly that overlaps the coloured and plain parts of my background.

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #109...Anything Goes...

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

We have everyone's fave this time -

I ran my card by my fellow teamies, as I didn't want to offend anyone with my sentiment!

I masked off a circle and blended it to look like a 'rising red sun', then I stamped the sentiment from the 'Fierce' set by Amuse Studio, that I've had since 2017.

Then I printed and coloured the Ninja Chick stamp (by From The Heart Stamps 2014, sadly they are no longer in business), fussy cut her out and added foam tape to pop her up!

Love how she came out, fierce and fabulous!

Can't wait to see what you choose to use for this challenge, pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends May 3rd.

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

Happy Easter..

Hey,

Happy Monday to you.

In my land (England) today is a holiday.

So I thought I would share the Easter cards I made for some of my friends and family.

I had to have the 'All The Bunnies' stamp and die set by Neat & Tangled, the bear as a bunny was just too cute to resist.

The background papers are all from the awesome Lil Inker Easter bundle that I bought. And I used the easter egg stamp and die from that set to create the cards below. I combined the egg with a freebie basket that I had (I embossed the basketweave on).

I don't normally send Easter cards, but these were fun to make and I only sent 12.

If you are in Europe and have had a long weekend,  I hope it was fun and you ate lots of Easter treats.

Cx

Sketch Saturday #560.. Sparkle and Sprinkle..

Hey,

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

Our sponsor this week is Sparkle and Sprinkle and they are offering a prize of a $15 gift certificate to their store

Here's the sketch...

I thought the Aster Garden stamp was gorgeous and would work really well with the sketch.

Sadly, due to the light in my house at the time of taking the photo, you can't see the true colour of the beautiful rose gold shimmery paper that I used for the main strip!

I am super pleased with my colouring of the Aster, I opted for peachy pink. I added 3 strips of shimmery silver paper to match the sketch and instead of a bow or an embellishment, I added the die-cut sentiment to the bottom left of the image, that was also die-cut out of shimmery paper. A LOT of shimmer on this 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 [April 26th 7pm GMT / 2pm EST

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #108 Colours of the rainbow..still time to play...

Hey,

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

The theme this time is to use the colours of the rainbow..

Can't wait to see your rainbow makes, pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends April 19th.

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

Inkspirational: Pop it Up!!

Hey,

Happy Monday!

I hope you had a nice weekend, I had a great first one back in NYC for like 3 weeks!

I got to spend QT with Hubby and at my desk.

I saw the current Inkspirations challenge -

I thought my special Easter card that I made for a friend fit this challenge really well.

There are lot of elements popped up on my card :)

I started by die-cutting the spotty panel as a background for my card. I then added a kraft tag - which I popped up with foam tape. I added the amazing Bear / Bunny by Neat & Tangled (All the Bunnies).

Then I die-cut the flower/grass using a die I got from The Works whilst in London and I coloured it using promarkers and popped that up, over the Bear. I added two smaller bunnies from the Neat & Tangled set and I popped them up too!!

I stamped the sentiment onto plain and spotty paper and cut it up and placed it randomly around my Bear.

I am so very happy with how this card came out. It's so Springy and happy.

Cx

Sketch Saturday #559 Polkadoodles...

Hey,

Happy Saturday to you and welcome to the latest sketch for the Sketch Saturday challenge - I am not up on the blog today, as I got my weeks confused..maybe because the sketch is by me. I am SO vain that whenever one of my sketches appears, I think it's my week!

But as I made a card, I'd join in anyway.

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

Here's the sketch...

We had a choice of x3 images to play with this time and I loved this cute little girl (image 694)

I stamped and coloured the image and then die-cut the fancy border our of polka dot paper. I added a thin glittery silver strip to match the sketch. I am super happy that I got to use the 'sea you soon' sentiment - works so well here.

Not bad for a card that wasn't meant to be ;)

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 19th April 7pm GMT / 2pm EST

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #108... Colour Challenge..

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

This time we are all about the rainbow colours..

I struggle a bit with using all the colours on my cards LOL. BUT this was SO easy.

I used scraps of Lawn Fawn spotty papers - they release different ones all the time and if you don't have at least one pack you should!

I trimmed all the papers to roughly the same width and adhered them to my card (whilst singing 'red and yellow and pink and green..'). Then I trimmed the whole panel to size using a MFT stitched rectangle die.

I decided to use one of the sweet mice / cats / critters from a 2017 Stamptember set by Simon Says Stamp and Mama Elephant.

No longer available, so here is a photo of it -

True confession, I bought this set in 2017 and have never used it, because it was a little bit too cute for me!

Because my card and the challenge are all about rainbows, I chose to use the sunshine and rainbows sentiment.

It's so cute, I love it and it came out exactly as I had pictured it.

Looking forward to seeing your rainbow creations, don't forget to pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends April 19th.

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

Happy 50th Disco DJ Diva...

Hey,

Welcome to April!!

Today I am heading to Lille with my Momma for a 2 day break, we will arrive just in time for lunch, so we are super excited about that.

I can finally share the card I made for my friend Marie's 50th Birthday. She is a dj and loves disco, so I really wanted her card to capture that and her fabulousness. She is so fabulous that Hubby and I asked her to sing the song (Disco Inferno) for our first dance at our wedding and she was amazing.

So I found a great digital image and retouched it a bit to get the look I wanted. Once I printed it out, I added bling, sequins and sparkly gold Thickers numbers.

It came out even better than the vision I had in my head.

Marie posted a photo of the card saying how much she loved it and that made me really happy and pleased that I nailed it.

Cx