Zini Holiday..

Hey,

This is probably my last post of 2019 and in fact the decade!

I started my blog in 2010 at the start of this decade and it has been a source of great pleasure for me.

When I moved to New York, I decided that I would make more of an effort with my blog and posted more and was invited to a few design teams.

But last year I realised that I was 'competing' with myself to post almost every day and to outdo my total posts per year!

I decided last December that I would take my foot off of the gas and only post what I really wanted to and not because I felt I should - basically putting the fun and pleasure back into my blog posts.

It has worked, this year I have posted 173 times v 305 last year! And it has been a much more pleasurable and not stressful thing.

My card today was made for a good friend, using a gifted Zini from another good friend. I love how shiny and fun it is. The gold dots were created using Indian Gold Nuvo Mousse through a Clearly Besotted stencil.

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your family and that 2020 brings you much happiness and laughter.

Hubby and I are heading to London tomorrow to spend some serious QT with our family and friends.

See you in 2020.

Cx

Christmas Cards 2019: Translucent Paste Dots...

Hey,

Well it is almost Christmas, my cards left a long time ago and have been slowly landing with their new owners!

Today's cards are accidentally gorgeous!!

I had stamped and masked off the frame with the banner and added the stenciled dots. Then I coloured and fussy cut the cat and dog to sit in each frame.

I decided that it all looked a bit bland and flat...

Cue the translucent paste. I put the frame/banner mask back down and the stencil and applied the paste through the stencil. I was worried that I was going to smudge the dots, but it was fine and once the paste dried, the dots ended up with this amazing shine. Yay!

Now I feel like a genius, even though it was a random idea and I was crapping myself a bit as I did it, worried I might ruin my perfectly fine card because I was a brat!

Oh and the wonderful set is 'Seasons Greetings' by Lil Inker Designs and the stencil is by Clearly Besotted.

Cx

Good Luck...

Hey,

Hope you are all well?

I had a fun weekend in Florida with my girlfriends, a few makes from that trip will be posted soon.

Today's card I made for a work colleague that was leaving.

He is a copywriter, so it made sense to use the awesome pen stamp that I have - it's from a Technique Tuesday set 'Man Day' and the pen has never actually been used before this card!

I kept it super simple and used glittery Thickers for my sentiment.

Love it when a card in my mind comes to life so well.

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #125 - Still Time to Play.. Colour Challenge..

Hey,

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

The theme this time is a great colour theme, alongside your Christmas makes.

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

Challenge ends December 13th and it's our last one for 2019, so be sure to join in.

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

NND Inky Paws: Snow Day..

Hey,

Today I am playing along with the current Newton's Nook Inky Paws challenge..

It felt like it was meant to be as one of my fave Newton's Nook sets is 'Snow Day' (which I don't think it's available anymore) AND on Monday when I made my card it was snowing..

I started by stamping and colouring the cute bunny from the set. I then die-cut some slopes using Lawn Fawn stitched border dies. I die-cut a stitched rectangle from blue paper and then heat embossed snowflakes from the set onto the panel.

I LOVE how the heat embossing came out.

I assembled the whole thing and then stamped the sentiment also from the set and added that to my card. For a finishing touch I added some stickles to the slopes.

Fun card to make me feel a bit better about the odious weather..oh and the fact that I am off to Florida tomorrow ;)

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #125 Christmas Colours...

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

As this is the last challenge from us for 2019, we have a Christmas colour challenge for you.

I thought it would be fun to use the colours with a stencil and finally settled on an old fave Heidi Swapp stripes stencil.

I blended red and green distress inks through the stripes and the parts that were not blended were left white.

I used the Hero Arts 'Merry' stamp and die set that I have had since January 2018 (post holiday bargain that hasn't ever been used..) I die-cut the Merry in white and stamped the rest of the sentiment in red. To complete my card I added red and green gems.

Love this colourful card and it was a handy addition to my Christmas card pile.

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

Challenge ends December 13th and then the RR team will be back in January for what I believe will be our 6th year!! WHOOP!!

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

Cx

Birthday Calories..

Hey,

Welcome to December!

I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving. Hubby and I had a very chilled one, it was lovely. I am sure I did far too much BF sale shopping, but hey that's what I work for right!?

As I have now completed x2 different 30 day challenges in tandem, I can resume normal blog duties.. It's been quite a busy month, more about that in another post.

Today I wanted to use one of the (never seen before) cards from the 30 day colouring challenge as my entry to the current Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers challenge -

My card uses the awesome sentiment from the CAS-ual Fridays 'Whole Shebang' set. I combined it with the various ice-creams and lollies that I had coloured - they are from the Waffle Flower 'Sweet Ice Cream' set.

I had originally planned to colour the Waffle Flower set for the whole 30 days, but to be frank 15 days in I got bored! So I have actually made 15 cards from this set - to be shown in another post.

This one I kept super simple with just a subtle background ink blending to make the ice-creams pop. But I really wanted the sentiment to shine.

I'm off now to watch NFL ALL DAY LONG - whoop!

Cx