2024 Hops: Fall Friends Part Two...

 

Hey,

Here is the 7th and final post in my blog hop series and part two of the fall friends hop.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing a year of makes. It has been a lot of fun hopping with Kelly and the gang, I am looking forward to joining them again in 2025.

Kelly Santi organises all of the hops. This year I have done 6 hops with Kelly and the gang -

• Ring in the New Year
• Spring Hop
• Sunshine Awareness mini hop
• Shark Week 2024 mini hop
• Summer Soiree
• Fall Friends

In this post I am showing the final 5 cards I made for the Fall Friends hop. We did 12 weeks with this one! I missed two weeks.

Themes for these cards are fall sports, sweater weather, baked goods, gratitude/fall flowers, fall feels (a moldboard). My cards are shown in order, the main one being fall sports.

I enjoyed showcasing the 2024 hops, I had fun digging around in my stash.

This will probably be the last time I see you in 2024. Have a wonderful Christmas and wishing you a very Happy start to 2025.

Cx

2024 Hops: Fall Friends Part One...

Hey,

Happy Friday to you! 

Here is the 6th post in my blog hop series and part one of the fall friends hop.

Kelly Santi organises all of the hops. This year I have done 6 hops with Kelly and the gang -

• Ring in the New Year
• Spring Hop
• Sunshine Awareness mini hop
• Shark Week 2024 mini hop
• Summer Soiree
• Fall Friends

In this post I am showing the first 6 cards I made for the Fall Friends hop. We did 12 weeks with this one! I missed two weeks.

Themes for these cards are A Latte fall fun, mushrooms/leaves, fall hayrides, fall gnomes/wreaths and non-trad fall leaves. My cards are in the correct order, A latte fall fun is the main photo.

I was thrilled to finally use the fiddly coffee dies. I bought them because I saw this awesome card -

But honestly I hadn't realised how small they were! Cue 3hrs, tweezers and lots of small pieces of foam tape and I got the most beautiful card ever! Non-trad fall is a fave, as I got to use some new dies by Concord & 9th, so pretty - but again, super fiddly.

Hubby and I are heading off on our cruise this weekend, I am super excited and hope that he enjoys his first cruise experience!

Cx

2024 Hops: Summer Soiree Part Two...

Hey,

Here is the 5th post in my blog hop series and part two of Summer Soiree.

Kelly Santi organises all of the hops. This year I have done 6 hops with Kelly and the gang -

• Ring in the New Year
• Spring Hop
• Sunshine Awareness mini hop
• Shark Week 2024 mini hop
• Summer Soiree
• Fall Friends

In this post I am showing the final 5 cards I made for the Summer Soiree hop. We did 12 weeks with this one! I missed one week.

Themes for these cards are Winter in July, don't bug me, hello sunshine, Summer roadtrips, Summer food & drink and Rainbows. My cards are in the correct order, Winter in July is the main photo.

I actually CASE'd my own card for Christmas in July, as I loved it so much. Rainbows were my theme choice and I finally got to use this gorgeous die by Sizzix & Jen Long.

Cx

2024 Hops: Summer Soiree Part One..

Hey,

Here is the 4th post in my blog hop series.

Kelly Santi organises all of the hops. This year I have done 6 hops with Kelly and the gang -

• Ring in the New Year
• Spring Hop
• Sunshine Awareness mini hop
• Shark Week 2024 mini hop
• Summer Soiree
• Fall Friends

In this post I am showing half the cards from the Summer Soiree hop. We did 12 weeks with this one! I missed one week.

Themes for the first 6 cards - Polka Dots, Great Outdoors, BBQ/4th July, Summer Beach Reads and Gardening (I made x2 cards for this one. My cards are shown in order, the main photo is Polka Dots.

These are so summery and I got to use some very old stamps from my stash for Great Outdoors, BBQ/4th July, Summer Beach Reads, and Gardening (Hello).

Cx

2024 Hops: Mini Hops

Hey,

This is the 3rd post in my 2024 hop series.

Kelly Santi organises all of the hops. This year I have done 6 hops with Kelly and the gang - 

• Ring in the New Year
• Spring Hop
• Sunshine Awareness mini hop
• Shark Week 2024 mini hop
• Summer Soiree
• Fall Friends

In this post I am showing the cards from the 2 mini hops we did. 

My main card is from the Sunshine Awareness hop in May - basically highlighting the risks of being in the sun without protection. Skin cancer from sun damage is sadly on the rise. I used an all-time fave stamp by Unity Stamp Co and wrote my own sentiment.

The next card, probably doesn't need explaining, but it was for the Shark Week hop, as a fan of Sharks, I love Shark Week in the cardmaking world, as I get to use all my fave Shark stamps! This one is 'Seaprise' by Avery Elle.

Both fun cards and it's always nice to do a hop that raises awareness about something.

Cx

2024 Hops - Spring...

Hey,

Here is the second post in my blog hop series.

Kelly Santi organises all of the hops. This year I have done 6 hops with Kelly and the gang -

• Ring in the New Year
• Spring Hop
• Sunshine Awareness mini hop
• Shark Week 2024 mini hop
• Summer Soiree
• Fall Friends

In this post I am showing the cards from the Spring hop. These were the themes.

I added a wobbler for the 'spring into action'

The background is recycled from packaging

My cards are in order, with the main photo, being the first in the hop. I love that I get to dig through my stash and mix new and old (some seriously old) together.

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #245 - Tic Tac Toe...

Hey,

Welcome to the final Retro Rubber challenge of 2024! How quickly did this year go?

So much has happened to me this year personally and professionally, but it is ending on a high. I have a new job, that so far is more than I had hoped for. Hubby and I will be heading on our FIRST cruise together (this is my 5th cruise) in 2 weeks. 

I would like to say a big thanks to Jane who runs our Retro Rubber team for just being an amazing human and keeping us together and on point.

For our last challenge we have a Tic-Tac-Toe board for you - 

I wanted to play with all of the rows on this board! But I went with centre vertical - Texture, Greenery, Tag.

I love this tag die by MFT 'Trendy Tag' it is quite large, but it makes such pretty tags and it also comes with a scalloped piece that you can add to the front. I stamped Santa and the sentiment before I die cut the tag - the stamps are by Ellen Hutson 'tis the season' set that I have had since 2021.

I decided that I wanted to just colour Santa's hat, as it adds a nice pop of colour. I cut the second tag from an embossed piece of red card for the texture part of my tic-tac-toe choices. I have a big box of embossed pieces ready to go. Basically if my mojo is blah, I emboss cardstock :)

I was a bit stumped about the greenery part and then I realised that I have these beautiful scrapbook.com papers that I got as part of SCT this year so I used one of those for the background. My final touch was a little bit of ribbon that I tied into a surprisingly neat bow - my bows are always a bit of a hot mess.

Such a fun card, I think I might have to remember this idea for 2025 Christmas cards!

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

Challenge ends December 13th.

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.

Happy Holidays to you and yours, we will be back on 14th January for our 11th year!!!

Cx

2024 Hops - Ring in the New Year

Hey,

As the year draws to a close, I wanted to share some of the cards I have made for the Instagram hops that I have been a part of.

Thanks to the amazing Kelly Santi who organises all of the hops.

I have met new talented cardmakers and dug deep into my stash, which is so awesome.

This year I have done 6 hops with Kelly and the gang - 

Ring in the New Year

Spring Hop

Sunshine Awareness mini hop

Shark Week 2024 mini hop

Summer Soiree

Fall Friends

In this post I am showing the cards from the Ring in the New Year hop. Our themes were -

What's New, Birthstone, Colour Challenge, Stencil It, My Valentine (which I skipped), and Leap Ahead. My cards are shown in order, the main photo is What's New.

I hope you like the cards, they were so much fun to make. I really loved the sunburst stencil I used for the first card and the cute little Gator on a scooter!

Retro Rubber #244 Challenge - Sketch time...

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

We have a sketch for you this time.

You know how much I love a sketch and I knew the minute I saw it that I had the perfect stamp set for it!

Tiny Terranium by Waffle Flower (I've had it since 2019) is a gorgeous stamp set. I love watercolouring it, which is exactly what I did here. I tend to use Distress Inks to watercolour with, I find them easy to blend and shade with.
The sentiment 'holder' on the stamp is super small, so I punched my own banner and added the sentiment. 

The papers are by Scrapbook.com and I got them as part of Crop and Create this year, they are beautiful. I added some bling to match the sketch.

I love this card, it took forever to colour, but so worth it.

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

Challenge ends November 29th.

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.

If you celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you have a wonderful time with your family and friends. Hubby and I are spending the day with our wonderful friends and their family. We will see you after the Holiday for the last RR challenge of 2024.

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #243.. Colour Challenge

Hey,

Welcome to another awesome Retro Rubber challenge.

Hubby and I had a totally awesome anniversary week in Mexico, and I am thrilled to have returned to a new job!

This time we want you to use all the colours on your project.

I thought these colours would look really good smooshed together to create a background. So that is exactly what I did, I used Distress Oxides and it's so pretty. I added the sentiment by Neat & Tangled from their 'Awesome' set that I have had since 2016.

I can't wait to see how you use the colours, don't forget to pop over to Retro Rubber, and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends November 15th

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

Retro Rubber Challenge #242 - Fall inspired....

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

Hubby and I are getting ready for our anniversary trip to Mexico at the weekend, we have been together for 20 years and married for 15 years, so it is a big one for us and we are celebrating in our fave place.

We have an inspiration image for you this time.

I have generally avoided fall / autumnal stamps and sayings, it's not really my thing. But I do love fall colours and obviously have leaves, etc. I thought it would be fun to make a hello card using fall colours and leaves.

I used x2 sets for my card - Concord & 9th 'Friendly Hello' that I got in 2021 and Lil Inker 'Welcome' that I have had since 2016.

I used Altenew and Hero Arts inks for my leaves, flowers and little dots. 

I recently got a set of Color Cubes - these cards are designed to help you when you are stuck for colour inspiration and I love them. I used card 260 from cube 2 to help me here and I think that the colours have ended up perfect.

What kind of fall inspired card will you make? Don't forget to pop over to Retro Rubber, and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends November 1st.

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

Retro Rubber Challenge #241 - Tic-Tac-Toe..

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

I am in the midst of Hurricane Milton prep, we are about 30mins east of Tampa Bay, fortunately not in a flood or evac zone, but still needing to prep. We have our hurricane shutters up and we have all the supplies we need. I am thinking of you if you are in an area that is affected. 

This time we have a tic-tac-toe board for you.

I went with Pumpkin - Your Choice - Patterned Paper.

My choice was solid paper. I love the stamp by Taylored Expressions 'Bubble Greetings: Halloween' I have had it since 2019 and it is a firm fave, such a great stamp for quick and easy Halloween cards.

Which row will you choose? Don't forget to pop over to Retro Rubber, and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends October 18th.

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