Happy 70th Birthday....

 

Hey, 

Well, it has only taken me nearly 2 months to finally post this card!!

My Dad turned 70 at the start of December. It was pretty sad for me, as I am an only child and I had planned on popping home to surprise him, but Covid put an end to that.

Instead, I made him this super fun interactive card, sent him cake and a ton of gifts. I stayed up late to call him at 9am GMT, which was a big surprise and made him super happy.

Here is the inside of my card - 

This die is the Gatefold Reveal die by Taylored Expressions and it is one of my all-time faves. Super easy to use.

For this card, I used a piece of birthday paper that I cut to size and I used a stencil for the inside. I love Thickers stickers and these ones feel very male. The sentiment outside is by Studio Calico and the one inside is by Scrapbook.com

I am so pleased that it arrived on time and that my Dad loved it. It's always worth the effort when you hear that the card was well received.

Cx

Together is the best place to be...

 

Hey!

I am starting to wonder if I am ever going to be able to show 2021 makes here, as I made SO much in 2020 LOL.

This cute card was for my Goddaughter Amy's first wedding anniversary. She is a big fan of Dogs and I thought she would like this.

Also, her plans for her future had to shuffle a considerable amount in 2020 because of Covid and I wanted the card to be a reminder to them, so early in their married life, that together is all that matters, the what and where is irrelevant.

I used my fave MFT cloud edger stencil to create the background, the dog and bird are Gus and Gertie by Taylored Expressions, the together sentiment is by Unity Stamp Co.

I love creating these cloud background it is addictive!

Cx

Blended Star Birthday...

 

Hey,

Happy Friday!

I am pretty excited today - a) I only did a 3 day week - whoop! Love me a short week and b) tonight I am doing a zoom craft session with the craftgang! YASSS.

I love MFT stencils and my cards today use a star stencil by them, it also comes with the star if you want a white space where my blended star is.

I used x3 colours of distress oxide ink to blend each star and I stamped over them using the amazing Inkadinkado 'Marquee Birthday' stamps. They look amazing over the star and it all just pops.

So pleased with these.

Have a great weekend.

Cx

Fusion Card Challenge - Flowers

 Hey,

Welcome to another fantastic Fusion Card Challenge.

This time we have 'flowers' for you! As always both the sketch and the inspiration image are awesome.

Which will you try? I have SO many flower stamps, that I knew I had to fuse them. 

The fancy vase kind of reminded me of a cup, so was a perfect fit for my Waffle Flower x Helen Dardik 'Enveloper Coffee' stamp (I literally worship Helen Dardik).

I stamped it onto watercolour paper and watercoloured it, adding some sakura gelly roll stardust pens for shimmer (IRL, SO SHIMMERY!!).

I added papers and a banner to match the sketch. The sentiment was just perfect, it seemed like the kind of thing that the cheeky girl in the cup might say if she saw you looking at her! It is by Rabbit Hole Designs from their 'Perfectly Blended' set and if you are a coffee/tea fan, you need these in your life.

I always love cards I make with this stamp and I am always reluctant to send them to anyone LOL.

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 February 2nd.

Cx

Faux Watercolouring...

Hey,

Sorry I have been a stranger.

I went back to work and things got hectic.

But in happy news I have had a few days off with Hubby this week and it was nice, I know it was right after the Christmas break, but it felt great.

Last year I came across this faux watercolouring technique and it is AMAZING.

Ink up your stamp with a water reactive ink (I used distress inks) and then spritz with water before laying down your paper. You get a kind of watercolour feel to the stamping and you can use a brush to make the effect stand-out more. Let it dry and stamp over it in a darker ink - I used Navy ink for all 3 cards.

Looks great right?!

I chose to use one of my fave Ellen Hutson flower stamps 'Mondo Sakura', by my all-time fave crafter Julie Ebersole. 

I have used this technique a lot, it's fun and easy.

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #150 Winter Wonderland

Hey,

Welcome to 2021 and the first fun Retro Rubber challenge of the year AND our 150th challenge!! 

The majority of the team have been here since the beginning and I am super grateful for their talents and friendship. Big love to our leader Jane too for all of her hard work!

We love to start the new year with a Wintery challenge for you - it's pretty Wintery here in NYC (ugh!).

I really loved the quote from the Simon Says Stamp 'Winter Sayings' set that I have had since 2018 and barely used. It inspired my card and I paired it with 'Cute Snowflakes' also by SSS and it's one of my older sets, I've had it since 2016.

I stamped the background using 3 different colours of ink. I heat embossed the quote onto vellum - my fave thing to do if I want to show as much of the background as possible. The frame is actually from a tag set by MFT. I dug out an ancient freebie snowflake die, because I thought it looked a bit bare and then at the last minute I added some serious bling!

Here is a close-up for you.

I am super happy with how this came out. I love creating my own backgrounds.

How will you make a Wintery card? Be sure to pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends January 29.

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

Stamping over a background..

 

Hey,

Happy Friday!

Well, I don't know about you, but I am glad that the first week of work is over and passed easily, now I get to enjoy the weekend.

I got this great Spellbinders stamp from Jenn Shurkus' destash last year. But as you can see it is quite big! So I decided I would stamp over some fun backgrounds.

Creating the backgrounds is simple. I used a zigzag background stamp I have, inked it up using distress oxide's and spritzed it with water, I laid my watercolour paper down on the stamp and then dried it and repeated the process until all the ink was gone. You only need to ink the stamp once.

As you can see when you stamp over it, the zigzags show through, but the majority of that is hidden once you colour in the stamp. I kept the colouring simple and used Copics for the bigger areas and Sakura Gellyroll Starburst gel pens for the smaller areas to add a bit of sparkle.

I ended up with a bunch of fun cards.

Have a great weekend, I will be watching NFL wildcard weekend, trying not to be too sad about the end of the NFL season.

Cx

Fusion Card Challenge - Cocoa

Hey,

Welcome to 2021 and the first Fusion Card Challenge, of what we are hoping is going to be a much improved year following a tricky 2020.

We are kicking off the year with Cocoa..

Which will you try? As always I loved both, so I fused them!

I was inspired by cute cocoa mugs in the photo and I always love a sketch!

As I tend to do, I rotated the sketch to suit my stamps better. I decided to mix up the stripes, by using my ancient MFT chevron dies, I love these dies. I die-cut them in plain red and spotty papers. 

Then I added a fun scalloped circle die that is from one of my fave shops in the UK - The Works. The cute Fox is 'Winter Fox' by Lawn Fawn, I added spots to the mug to match the paper used, and I think it might be one of the first things I ever bought from Lawn Fawn. I added a sentiment by Concord & 9th from 'Winter Wear'.

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 January 19th.

My Retro Rubber teamie LeAnne, told me about the current Card Concept challenge and I realised my card is perfect for the challenge, as per Fusion, I am 100% inspired by the mugs of cocoa.

Cx

Carabelle Cat...

 

Hey,

I am a big Birgit Koopsen and Carabelle Studio fan.

So when I saw this amazing Cat by Birgit for Carabelle last year I really wanted it!!

I finally got my hands on it, during the Summer and this card was actually made for a friend's Daughter in September last year.

I heat embossed the cat using white powder and then blended over the top of it. I can be a bit hit and miss when using this technique, but it came out really well here.

Easy peasy make, finished off with one of my fave Taylored Expressions Simple Strips.

Cx

p.s you can find Carabelle products in the US - Simon Says Stamp, Scrapbook.com, Joggles, TopFlight, etc

Happy 10th Anniversary JT...

 

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2021.

My girl JT and her Hubby had a difficult 2020 for various reasons, but I saw that they decided to end the year on a high. They recreated their Wedding meal and I thought that was such a lovely thing to do.

I had been planning on sharing the card I made them for the 10th Anniversary last September, but never got round to it. So it seemed fitting today to share it.

JT and her Hubby share my love of all things bacon, so my first use of the AALL & Create 'Bacon' set had to be for them.

Sadly, you can't see in my slightly blurry photo the teeny tiny little handwritten gold 10's in the hearts. 

Wishing them and all my family and friends a very Happy New Year and I hope that if 2020 was a hard one for you, I sincerely hope that 2021 will be better for you.

Love

Claire x