16/11 - Happy Anniversary..

Hey,

If you have been visiting my blog for a while you know a) my wedding anniversary is Halloween and b) I always celebrate the anniversary of our first date - 30th October.

This year it's 16 years together and 11 years married!! 

The photo is from our anniversary early morning boat ride through the water park/conservation area last year in Cancun.

Being a cardmaker, I use these x2 anniversaries as an excuse to make Hubby elaborate cards. 

First up the 16 year card.

I love the 'Bacon' set by AALL & Create - a brand that I discovered earlier this year, whilst I was at home in London and they have been such a great find. I blended Worn Lipstick and Picked Raspberry distress oxides to create my background and then stamped the awesome bacon stamp from 'Bacon Break' by Sweet Stamp Shop. I added a few hearts for fun.

I mean how can he not love a card with a bacon background?! AND not a pun in sight (he very much dislikes a pun card, and I give them to him to wind him up - hee hee).

And here is the 11th Wedding Anniversary card! It's not strictly a pun, but it is kind of because it's Halloween...

I love all the amazing cloud blending I am seeing and I need MUCH more practice at it. But I am SO happy with how this came out and now I need a black blender brush..

I used an MFT Cloud stencil, Crate Paper 'After Dark' stamps and Papertrey Ink 'Keep It Simple: Anniversary' stamps. The inks are distress oxides in Black Soot, Carved Pumpkin and Wilted Violet.

We would normally be in Mexico right now celebrating, but you know global pandemic.. So we are going to our fave restaurant in NYC instead (hoping we don't freeze to death outside). 

I would just like to say that even though the last 7 months have been very strange, there isn't anyone else I could have been trapped in a small apartment with. Hubby and I have had so much fun at home, watching random crap, eating our body weight in cake, perfecting our fave recipes, and hanging with Clint Catwood. 

If you choose your life partner carefully, all storms can be weathered with humor.

I love you Mr G, you are my man, love, thing for life and beyond.

Cx

Fusion Card Challenge - Autumn...

Hey,

Welcome to another fab Fusion Card Challenge.

This time we have an 'Autumn' themed challenge. As always both the sketch and the inspiration image are fantastic.

Which will you try or will you fuse them?

Again, I loved both, so I fused them!

I was inspired by the wood floor and the mug. I created a little wood effect panel, using a Prima 'Salvaged Wood' background stamp and Altenew Mocha ink. 

I wanted to add a mug, so had a dig through my stamps and I actually found x2 fun ones. BUT as I am a HUGE fan of Monster stamps, it naturally had to be the Your Next Stamp 'Silly Monsters Chillout' one (YNS Monsters are my faves). I kept the mug white but added little grey dots at the top to emulate the one from the inspiration photo.

The little sparkly oval helped anchor my little mug Monster and matched the sketch.

This card is going to be going in a box of goodies for a friend, I think its a perfect use for it!

Make sure you check out all the rest of the inspiration by the DT over at the Fusion challenge blog, and play along with your own creation! 

When playing along you may use the sketch OR the photo to inspire your makes. OR, if you are feeling adventurous, you can fuse them together (see what I did there!).

Can't wait to see your makes. 

Challenge ends on November 10th.

Cx

Be Happy...

Hey!

One of the downsides to being on design teams is that when you go to comment on cards, you discover all the goodies you didn't know you needed!

Or is that just me?!

During my first Fusion Card Challenge I saw a card with the amazing Zebra planter and I was like - gotta have it!

The stamps are Be Happy by Penny Black, such an awesome set. 

I stamped and coloured x4 of the images from the set and used a mix of sentiments from the set and others from my stash. I kept the cards pretty simple, as the images are so gorgeous when coloured, they really need nothing else adding.

I don't need an excuse to be enabled when it comes to stamps...

Cx

 

Fancy Cocktail Cards...

 

Hey, 

Happy Monday.

Hope you had a great weekend?

Mine was exercise/sport fuelled - my new spin bike arrived last week, so I could use it all weekend and I did and it was great. Also, standard NFL Sunday in my house (10hrs of solid football) and it was a Grand Prix weekend, so Clint Catwood and I were up early to watch Lewis Hamilton make history.

I love Tim Holtz blueprint stamps and quite a while ago, we used the great Cocktail blueprints in a class with Cheiron. I am notoriously mean when it comes to buying things brand new and full price.. So I have never owned these, until a few weeks ago when I found them on super-bargain sale - whoop!

The fact is, I have SO many crafty goodies that I made a pact with myself to curb my spending there can only be sale goodies coming in UNLESS the thing is a limited edition (like the Tim Holtz SSS Stamptember cats!).

Anyway, I decided to put the new stamps to good use and make a set of cards for a friend as a gift. I thought they would look amazing heat embossed over fun backgrounds. And as I always have backgrounds on hand, I pulled out x4 that I thought suited the stamps. 

From top left and clockwise here are the techniques used for the backgrounds - distress oxide smooshing, stencil lift (I used the stencil with distress ink for another background, when done, spray the side of the stencil that is facing you, with water and then lay down on a piece of paper), gloss spray through a stencil, distress oxide smooshing.

Fun right! My friend loved them and I have made another set since. I can see a default, easy gift coming on here.

Cx 

Halloween exhibits..

 

Hey,

So I made a bunch of Halloween cards this year, but foolishly I did not take photos of them before they went out in the mail (ugh).

BUT fortunately, I had to make an additional one and I remembered to take a photo of that one!

I had made most of my cards by the time I got this fun stamp set from Michaels, I think it is Tim Holtz for Michaels. I love all the funny little 'exhibits' and had this idea that they would make a fun 'horror wall' style card.

The background is Taylored Expressions 'Shiplap Background' stamp and I stamped all the little exhibit stamps over it and coloured them in.

I stamped the sentiment in orange ink for a bit of standout and to add a bit more spook.

I am very happy with the outcome and I think my friend will like it too.

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #146 Colour me scary....

Hey,

Welcome to another awesome Retro Rubber challenge.

It's almost that time, so we have a little scary colour theme for you...

I love working with a limited colour palette, so this was definitely the challenge for me!

I hand painted the background using Brea Reese orange glitter ink - here is a close-up because IRL it is SO sparkly..

Then I heat embossed the crazy bats and the sentiment in white onto a black panel. The stamps are 'Little Batty' by Unity Stamp Co AND shame on me, I have had them since 2018 and they are NBUS. So I was very happy to use them here.

I popped that panel up onto my background and added black enamel dots here and there to finish my card.

It was the first one of MANY Halloween cards that I made this year!

What will you use the colours to make? Don't forget to pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends October 30th.

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

Christmas Cards 2020: Wooden Tag Cards...

Hey,

Happy Monday!

I finished my Christmas cards weeks ago, so I really need to be sharing them here!

After Christmas 2019, Hubby and I went to London to spend 10 days with our families. One of the things I got to do, was to go post-Christmas sale shopping with my Momma.

Sainsbury's is a supermarket in the UK and near my parents, there is a giant Target/Walmart style version of it (sells, clothes, books, etc as well as food).

I bought x2 boxes of 20 wooden tags for 25p (approx 50cents!), I thought they would make great Christmas cards and they really did, it turned out to be a HUGE win for me :)

I also bought a bunch of amazingly cheap papers from a local store near my parents. I used these, glitter papers, stitched circle dies and a deckle edge die to create my cards.

1st card from the tags, the Christmas papers, and the Christmas tree tags

The main photo shows the cards using the first box of tags, which were all Christmas trees. The card below shows the cards made with the second box, which had trees, baubles, snowflakes and Reindeer/Moose. 

It was the easiest Christmas card batch make I have ever done. 40 cards made SO quickly, the hardest part was adding the super-strong red tape to the back of the tags and then peeling that off 40 times. 

But the rest of it was all very easy, I cut all the backgrounds and glitter circles at once. Then I stamped everything and then I affixed everything to the card blank, adding the wooden tags last.

I have asked my Momma to keep an eye out for the sale bargains again this year for me.

Cx

Books, Coffee and a Birthday Headband...

 

Hey,

Happy Friday!

It's been a bit less brutal at work this week, which is great and means the weekend will be way more fun.

The card I made today uses one of my fave Waffle Flower sets 'Books and Coffee', I fell in love with the Bear and the Birdie holding a teacup the first time I saw it!

This time I did a fun thing and added the 'headband' from the Flora & Fauna 'Love Bug Dress Up' set (another fave and retired). It's the kind of silly thing I would wear on my birthday (yes, I am 47 going on 4..)

I kept the whole card very simple, as I wanted to add a Lawn Fawn, scalloped, and stitched frame, so I didn't want the actual imagery to be too fussy.

I popped the frame up using foam tape and mounted the whole thing onto a 4bar kraft card base - yes he is pretty small only 3.5x4inches.

Have a great weekend, hope you are doing fun things.

Cx

Fusion Card Challenge - Purple Night...

Hey,

I'm back with another awesome challenge for the Fusion Challenge.

This time we have a Purple Night theme for you - alongside the sketch.

Which will you try?

I loved both the sketch and the inspiration image, so I fused them!

I just loved the purple, so I used purple papers to build half of my card. The dark/blackness at the bottom of the inspiration image works so well with the purple that I used a piece of black card stock for the other side of the sketch.

I heat embossed the sentiment from one of my all-time fave stamp sets by Mama Elephant 'Friend Indeed', it also comes with the large friend die and I die-cut that out of purple sparkly vinyl! I have all this great sparkly vinyl that a friend gave me and it works really well on cards!

To finish it off I added some bling here and there.

I love how it came out, I thought that sketch might be trixsy, but it was super easy.

Make sure you check out all the rest of the inspiration by the DT over at the Fusion challenge blog, and play along with your own creation! When playing along you may use the sketch OR the photo to inspire your makes. OR, if you are feeling adventurous, you can fuse them together (see what I did there!).

Can't wait to see your makes. 

The challenge ends on October 27th.

Cx

Playing with Picket Fence..

 

Hey,

Happy Monday!

Hope you all had a great weekend? I got some quality desk time in, so I am pretty happy about that.

Today I am showing you a couple of cards I made a while ago. I really like the Picket Fence Studios 'beautiful girl' set of stamps. I was lucky enough to get a bunch of them on sale - with their dies - whoop!

The main card uses the 'Dany Girl' stamp and I chose this one because my Aunt really likes Dragon's and I thought she would love this! The background is one of my many 'ready to go' ones and was created with Dina Wakley gloss sprays through one of her stencils. Finished off with a Taylored Expression simple sentiment strip.

I bought 'Kendyll Girl' (below) because during a craftgang playdate last year Lisette's card for us used her and I have wanted her ever since. I thought she worked with the amazing cover plate die - I have no idea who it is by, I bought a second-hand grab bag and it was in there! Again finished off with a TE sentiment strip and I added some bling to the cover plate.

Both pretty simple, but fun cards.

Cx

My Favourite Earthling..

Hey,

Happy Saturday!

Today's card I made for a colleague that is a good friend and he recently left the company I work for - today also happens to be his birthday!

He is pretty much the definition of G.O.A.T (Greatest, Of, All, Time) and he is very missed.

We have this space thing going on, so I wanted to make him a silly card with the Lawn Fawn 'Beam Me Up' set.

I obviously wanted the spaceship to be beaming up a Goat - LOL, obvs. BUT I suddenly realised that the beam that comes with the set is too small for my large goat (Paper Smooches - Green Acres), so I had to draw the beam myself.. I am pretty pleased with myself!

I made the background using a cover plate by Hero Arts 'Star Confetti' and neon paper. I added a little hill using Lawn Fawn 'Stitched Hillside borders' and stamped the sentiment.

I'm pretty pleased with how well the idea in my head came out!

Have a great weekend, gym and brunch with a friend for me.

Cx

 

Motivational glaze...

 

Hey,

So I don't really use large stickers that much when I am crafting.

But this set of motivational stickers from Target for $1 were too good to walk away from, but what would I do with them..

As the stickers have gold text I thought it would be good to co-ordinate my backgrounds. Cue a bunch of backgrounds that I had ready-made (see Monday's post). I just cut them to size and added a little black square to made the sticker pop a bit more!

The backgrounds were made using Picket Fence Paper Glaze in Golden Rose, through stencils. SO pretty and I really like working with this glaze, it's very smooth, but not runny.

I made a bunch of cards, but only photographed x2 of them!

Always happy when a crazy idea comes together perfectly...

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #145 Tic Tac Toe...

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge - OCTOBER already!! 

This year is racing by, not sure if that is good or bad, given everything that has happened.

You know we LOVE a Tic Tac Toe board! So here is our final one for 2020!

This was a bit of a no-brainer for me, show me the word metallic and I am SOLD.. LOL.

I went with the top row - yellow/one word/metallics.

Several years ago I bought a Studio Calico paper clearance box and it was a magical thing! All the papers I used here are from that box! Including the glittery paper - which I am counting as my metallic, because it's gold!

I die-cut all the papers with my stitched square dies by Lawn Fawn. The scripty thanks die is also by Lawn Fawn and I die-cut it twice, once in yellow foam and once in the pretty paper you see. The foam piece is underneath, to pop it up - much easier to do this, than cut a bunch of tiny little foam pieces...

I added the cute little Mama Elephant Monkey holding presents, he is from 'Little Monkey Agenda', this was given to me as a gift by a friend early in 2019.

I sent this card to a friend already to say thanks for something and she said she wants more 'Mini Monkey' cards LOL.

Which row are you going to use? Make sure to pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends October 16th.

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

Faces...

 

Hey, 

Happy Monday!

Well semi-happy for me, as it is my first day back at work after a week off!

I am a big fan of Carabelle stamps and last year I discovered Kate Crane!! I love her work and she just happens to make a range of stamps for Carabelle.

I loved these x4 mini face stamps that were released earlier this year, so I splurged and bought them.

Totally worth it as they were a lot of fun to play with.

I made x2 very similar cards. I stamped, watercoloured and fussy cut x2 of the faces from the set. I wanted to use these alcohol ink panels I had in my stash. To make the faces pop off of the background I added glittery gold paper elements behind them. The Taylored Expression sentiment strips worked really well with these cards too.

I love it when I get to use one or two of the HUNDREDS of backgrounds I have. When I am a bit stuck for inspiration or tired, but want to play, I make backgrounds.. I have SO many of them.

Do you have a default 'craft' thing that you do to help you get inspired?

Fusion Card Challenge - Old MacDonald...

 

Hey,

Well, this is pretty exciting!!

My first post as part of the Fusion Challenge team - yay! What a great birthday week!!

This time we have 'Old MacDonald' for you! As always both the sketch and the inspiration image are fantastic.

Which will you try?

As it is my first time as DT AND I loved both, I fused them!

I was inspired by the farmyard animals and the shiplap. 

So I stamped, coloured, and cut the Goat. I then stamped the shiplap background, which got die-cut and matted with a grey paper. The little banners were cut from paper scraps and I stapled them to the top of my card. You can't really tell, but my Hipster Goat is popped up using foam tape.

Really happy with the end result, it is going to be sent to a friend/colleague that recently changed job and I promised to 'spam' him with happy mail!

I used -

Tim Holtz Hipster stamps and dies, Taylored Expressions Shiplap Background, MFT Large Fishtail Banners, and the sentiment is a mix of Waffle Flower and Lil' Inker

Make sure you check out all the rest of the inspiration by the DT over at the Fusion challenge blog, and play along with your own creation! When playing along you may use the sketch OR the photo to inspire your makes. OR, if you are feeling adventurous, you can fuse them together (see what I did there!).

Can't wait to see your makes. 

Cx