Highlight Stamping...

 

Hey,

Happy Saturday!

Can you believe it will be March on Monday?!

I am sure it has been at least 2 weeks since you saw a Monster card from me LOL.

I love this set by Taylored Expressions - 'Little Monsters' and I saw this idea of repeating the stamp (by masking it) and only colouring one of the images, I believe it is known as a highlight stamping.

It came out so well and I'm super pleased with my masking here! I added a little strip of glitter paper and a sentiment from the set.

Hope you have a great weekend. I am playing at my desk and playdating with JT tomorrow.

Cx

Paw You...

 

Hey,

Just before Christmas 2020 my work colleague's small Daughter got Covid (she is fine now).

But it was rather upsetting for the whole family and I thought a small child would be very confused by what was going on. So not to downplay the situation, I made and sent her this little card, in the hope that a piece of mail just for her would cheer her up.

Apparently, it worked and she carried the card around for a while, how sweet is that?

I LOVE Clearly Besotted stamps and this cute 'Paw You' set was perfect for this card. I have this amazing die by Simon Says Stamp that cuts 3 circles in a row, so I cut it twice to create the 6 aperture's for my card.

I blended over the panel and then stamped the cats and the sentiments into the openings.

For a quick, random make it came out well and I liked the doubling up of the die.

Cx

Halloween becomes Valentine's...

 

Hey,

I am not a big 'Valentine's Day' fan - I can tell Hubby that I love him every day!

BUT I do love all the pretty VDay cards that I receive and can make. It's actually one of my fave occasions because it's just all so pretty.

I made quite a lot of cards this year (33 for work + personal ones) but the ones in this post were all made using non-Valentine or Love supplies!

The first two cards use a great Halloween stamp set by Hero Arts called 'Pure Magic' I got it on sale because I thought it would make great backgrounds, but it also made super cute VDay cards.

The background is an MFT stamp, that is new to me from a BIG second-hand haul I got recently, more about that soon.

Sadly the next card is a bit blurry! But I wanted to share it anyway, as the fun Dino is actually another Halloween stamp! This time by Ellen Hutson 'Dino-mite Halloween'. The cute Dino's paws/claws/hands? actually have little slits to hold the smaller stamps that come with the set, but I added a heart instead.

The background is one of my all-time fave stencils by MFT.

I love it when I get to stretch my stamps and it's always good to remind myself that things don't have to be used for their intended purpose.

Cx

Digital Card!

 

Hey,

Hope you are having a great weekend?

I am having a quiet one at my desk, as I have both physical and digital projects I want to catch-up on.

This month I have been playing along with the Sweet Shoppe Designs 15th Birthday Bash.

The challenge for Friday was to make a digital birthday card! Go on admit, you were not sure that it was digital!

I loved this challenge and the card even looks like something I would make :)

I used all products from SSD 

-

Blagovesta Gosheva - Stay Original (retired)

SSD - It's My Birthday Too (FWP)

Erica Zane - Level Up Pins

Janet Phillips - All Those Pages - Singles Template (I used it as the base for my card)

I wouldn't have considered a digital card - but now I am wondering if there might be a few more of them in my future..

Cx

Fusion Card Challenge - Rainbow Dress

Hey,

Welcome to another great Fusion Card Challenge.

This time we have 'Rainbow Dress' for you! How cute is the image?!

What will you choose to do? I was really inspired by the photo, but you know me, I can't resist a sketch.. So fuse time.

I am a big fan of Angie Blom's Angie Girl stamps from Unity Stamp Co and immediately knew that 'Addison Girl' would be perfect here.

I stamped her onto watercolour paper and created a rainbow dress for her. It came out SO well. I was really pleased and I used real watercolour paints and not my usual distress inks. I fussy cut her out, as she has some sprinkles around her.

My papers are all scraps and the sentiment just matched the cheeriness of the card and is by Scrapbook.com.

I felt it was a teeny bit flat, so I added some soft dots using a Concord & 9th 'Bitty Burst Turnabout' stamp.

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 March 2nd.

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #152 Let's get Sketchy...

Hey,

Welcome to another awesome Retro Rubber challenge.

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

You know how much I love a sketch!

I decided to make a Valentine's card and I just so happened to have a bunch of scraps on my desk that were the right size for the sketch. So it got a bit pink there for a moment, but I fixed that by colouring the cute Dinos blue and blending the die-cut circle in blue!

The Dinos and the top left sentiment are by Recollections @Michaels and I have had them since January 2020 (just squeaking in there..). The Valentine's Day sentiment is from the Simon Says Stamp 'Pawsome Love' set and that is from late 2019.

I think the best thing about this card is that I was able to use a bunch of different dies. The fishtail banners and sentiment banners are by MFT, the hearts are from a heart confetti set by Avery Elle and circle is 'Brilliant Rings' by Poppy Stamps.

Another wonderful VDay make that went into my personal stash.

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 February 26.

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

May The Forest Be With You...

Hey,

I have mentioned that at work we are doing these little organised fun projects.

The theme for this one was 'nature'.

And as we are all a bunch of geeky nerds, I thought the sentiment would resonate with them!

I got the MFT set 'Forest Friends' as part of the bumper haul I bought off a fellow digital scrapper!

I used a seriously old Hero Arts tree background stamp to create the background, I heat embossed it and then watercoloured over it, to create the resist. 

I was planning on colouring the Deer, but when I stamped him in brown ink, he looked so cute, I decided to leave him as he was.

I added some vellum leaves and voila! nature card.

Cx

 

Beep Beep!!

 

Hey,

So my Godson passed his driving test last year!

I wanted to send him a little card.

For some reason the phrase 'beep beep' makes me double over with laughter - I have no idea why!

I kept the card super simple and used the awesome Flora & Fauna 'Driving to the Holidays' set paired with a Mama Elephant 'Occasional Labels' stamp.

I thought it would be fun to stamp the car in red, as it reminded me of one I used to tool around in with my friend (who his mother knows) when I was younger!

Cx

Happy Travels...

 

Hey,

Happy Friday!

At work we are doing weekly fun crafty things, each week we can do a photography challenge and/or a craft challenge.

This week the craft challenge theme was Travel.

I thought it was a great opportunity to use a piece of NBUS from 2020 - Happy Travels by Clearly Besotted.

I stamped all the iconic buildings/statue's in different brightly coloured inks, which was a lot of fun and I used a variety of my inks, Colorbox, Tsukineko, Altenew and Concord & 9th. I tend to use blocks for this kind of stamping, I love using acrylic blocks for certain things, I have a big collection of them and I am very particular about how clean I keep them. I added the little sentiments from the set in black for stand-out.

I had a bit of a smudge with the orange Eiffel Tower, so I die-cut one and popped it up, it actually added a bit of fun interest.

Hope you have a great weekend, I will be at my desk tomorrow and watching my Buccs in the Superbowl on Sunday - GO BUCCS!!!

Cx

Fusion Card Challenge - Valentine Gnome

Hey,

Welcome to another awesome Fusion Card Challenge.

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

Which will you try? I fused them!

As I have previously mentioned I am not a Gnome fan, but I was rummaging around and found this little set that I had totally forgotten about! Perfect for a little scene with all the little elements in the set. 

I stamped the background, it's a teeny bit patchy, but I kind of like that about it!

I used -

Memory Box - Love Grows stamps & dies

Concord & 9 - Gingham background 

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 16th.

Cx

First MOC Completed...

Hey,

So as you know I started digital scrapbooking back in March 2020.

I have honed my skills using challenges, just like I have done for years with my cardmaking. Challenges literally do what they say - challenge you. You have to think about how to interpret the theme, hopefully using what you have (although I do love a bit of spendy spendy!). 

One of the sites I love is The Lilypad, the community there is so warm and encouraging and they are all so talented and have taught me a TON.

Every January they run MOC - Month of Challenges, yep a challenge a day. I was a bit worried, could I fit it in? Did I have the skills? 

It was so much fun and I am so proud of myself for not getting behind and finishing the challenge on time. I learned a lot of new things and I am eager to try them out on my future layouts.

Here are my two fave layouts from all 31 - to be honest I actually love them all.

The theme for this layout was Clean and Simple. What could be easier to scrap than my beautiful boy Clint Catwood napping on his Poppa!

Here we were asked to create a large title, perfect for the silly photo of me eating noodles!! I love noodles!

This is a layout that I was super nervous about, we had to tilt our layout 15degrees. I've never been a fan of tilting my pages and so I was a bit worried, but it's GORGEOUS!!

I realised that sometimes stepping outside of your comfort zone can deliver wonderful things, if you are open enough to open your arms to them.

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #151 Colour Challenge..

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

We have a fun colour challenge for you this time.

I love this colour way, it's a fave of mine.

I dug out the Waffle Flower 'Monochrome' set that I got from Jenn Shurkus in 2016 and FINALLY got dies for it last year LOL. I am very patient.

The hearts are from an underused set 'Heart to Heart' by The Stamp Market - I have had this since 2019, I love it, I just need to use it more!

I added a strip of grey paper to work as 'grass' for my Sheep.

I love this card, it made a great addition to my personal Valentine 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 February 12.

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