Shopping Our Stash: Under the Sun, Moon and Stars..

Hey,

So, my Retro Rubber teammate, Maria is DT over at Shopping Our Stash and I saw her card, so I went to check out the challenge.

They have a theme of Sun, Moon, and Stars.

I knew exactly which stamp set I was going to use and I am 100% embarrassed to say that this beautiful set 'Late Nights' by Pink Fresh Studio (retired) has been owned by me since 2017 and had not seen ink until Thursday night..

I really didn't have to do much, the stamps are so beautiful, they just pop off the card and don't need to be over-embellished. I love all of the details in the stamp and the smiling moon is lovely.

I made x2 cards because the set was out and I have ALWAYS wanted to play with it, but just kept neglecting it.

I used Altenew Starlight ink - love Altenew inks.

I die-cut navy cardstock as a mat, so the white stamped panel would pop even more.

Can't lie, I am feeling super pleased with myself at how gorgeous these are. I hope the stamp set will forgive me for the terrible neglect.

Lockdown can be a wonderful thing..

Cx

Welcome to 2019 and a Playdate...

Hey,

Welcome to 2019!

I hope you had a great end to 2018.

Whilst JT and I were on Christmas break, we managed a pretty epic playdate. We pretty much used most of the Black Friday challenge NBUS and any other NBUS we had lying around.

I'm super pleased with my output..

The main photo are some of my Christmas thank you cards. I used new Lil Inker monsters (Monsters Ink) and a new spiral die by Sizzix that JT gave me as part of our annual $20 challenge.

I love these, they look really good and were super simple to make.

Next up some Tim Holtz magic.. this set comes with the man stamp and the harlequin stencil... a super quick way to make some male oriented cards.

Two randoms - the cake is a CASE of my own card because I love it and the fish card I made because I got these Hero Arts stamps on super bargain sale and I wanted to have a play. The background behind the aperture was stamped using Neat and Tangled stamps.

Last up is a card that I hadn't finished yet (it is now finished and posted and I didn't take a photo..) I have wanted this Unicorn Dreams set by Pink Fresh Studio for ages and finally got it in their BF sale. The flower stamp is by Christine Adolf.

A super productive day and it has given me lots of ideas for the new year..

Back to work tomorrow after a 10 day break - ugh.

Cx

Three Cheers!...

Hey,

So I have been spending most of my time off at my desk - tidying, organising, learning new things and finally playing with some of the enormous Black Friday haul.

I got these great Clearly Besotted Panda Cheerleaders then and they are long overdue for a play.

I chose 3 of the panda stamps and drew a line on my white panel, so I could line them up correctly. I do this a lot, it's super helpful.

I added a banner and a larger sentiment from the set.

At the last minute I decided that the dresses should be pink and used a Spectrum Noir sparkle pen to colour them and their little bows.

Very cute card..maybe too cute for me..I'll keep my eye out for other ways to use this set.

Cx

Love / Hate Relationship..

Hey,

Welcome to September..

Today I am playing along with the fun challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays -

Black, white + one other colour.

Bizarrely I had finished making my entry when I saw that JT had also entered..we are way too in sync.

I decided to break out a set that hasn't seen ink yet..naughty naughty, but I love this range of Hero Arts and Kelly Purkey stamp sets. I have the Seattle one too and I want the rest of them..

I have this love / hate relationship with NYC. I love living here (summers, iced coffee, doughnuts, the inkpad, walking everywhere..) and I hate it (lack of manners, subway, smell, tourists everywhere, winters..) all at the same time. This week is a love affair week - summer, rooftop bars, mimosas, brunch..

I kept my card really simple, just stamped the images from the set (and an Apple by Avocado Arts) onto a die-cut white panel. I added the other colour to the heart in my sentiment and I like that teeny tiny pop of colour..

Super simple and I might make a set of them as a little gift for someone.

Counting down now, two more working days and then Mexico here we come...

Cx

Pineapples can wear glasses too...

Hey,

I love Pineapples.

I love eating them and I love to use them in my crafty life too..

There has recently been a spate of fun stamp releases that include Pineapples..I have been trying to resist new stuff, but when Concord and 9th had a sale I couldn't resist this fun set - 

This means that I can play along with the lovely Darnell's current NBUS challenge - Never Before Used Schtuff..oh how much of this I have right now...

So before I went away, I had a little play and made the two cards you can see below.

I kept them super simple as I wanted the Pineapples to be the hero - the Aloha stamp is from the set and the baby stamp is from a Simon Says Stamp set.

Whilst I was away I said I would send a friend something when I got home, we both love a good pair of specs so I modified one of the cards to add a pair of glasses to the Pineapple.

It is cracking me up - simple things make me happy.

Like a Pineapple wearing glasses.

Cx

Fashionista..

Hey,

Bit late to the party today :).

I am back from Mexico - I am still off, as JT and her Hubby are in town hence the late post, we got to hang out with them yesterday and today :)

I made today's card for JT - I thought she would appreciate the sentiment.

As the stamps I have used are NBUS, I thought I would join in the lovely Darnell's 5th NBUS challenge.

The stamps are by Unity Stamp Co - they have this great range of Fashionista stamps..this is my first set, but I predict more in my future.

I coloured the card using distress inks and an aquabrush and Promarkers. It felt a bit flat, so I inked the edges with a distress ink - feels much better now.

The sentiment circle is an Simon Says Stamp die.

See you tomorrow for Retro Rubber #23

Cx

Moving Along With The Times.. Happy Birthday...

Hey,

Welcome to a new Moving Along With The Times Challenge..

Our wonderful leader Hazel is up this week with that all time fave - Happy Birthday as her theme..

I love a fun and slightly unusual birthday card..

I recently bought a new Penny Black Petunia Pig stamp - love Petunia and all the chicks in glasses!

I stamped the image onto a white die cut stitched rectangle and coloured it with Promarkers and stickles.

I chose a super simple piece of green DCWV textured card for the background, which meant I could have fun with my new Taylored Expressions grass die! I trimmed it down a bit, so you can see the chicks!

Final touch was the sentiment, by SSS.

Fun!

Now it's your turn to join in, but first pop over to MAWTT and check out the awesome creations by my teammates.

Cx

Just for you...

Hey,

Happy Friday.

I made this card before we went to Israel and I have finally gotten around to showing it to you!

I have this box of NBUS (never before used schtuff) under my desk and I like to poke around in there when I need inspiration.

I found some Bo Bunny stamps (It Is Written) that I bought in the Joann's Black Friday sale and they sparked an idea.

I stamped the latin text stamp onto a piece of cream cardstock, I added a Just for you sentiment. There isn't a gap in the text, but the way that I placed the spiral gives the illusion of it.

The spiral was inspired by JT..she's been using a new die recently and I remembered that I got one with my Big Shot when I bought it.

I added some randomly placed black gems and inked the edges of the cream card, using a finger dauber with old paper distress ink.

It feels like an anniversary card - what do you think?

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Cx

Colour Throwdown NBUS...

Happy Friday Everyone!

I am a touch sad, as Lemon has left...but we have our Israel trip to look forward to, so its not all bad.

I really wanted to enter a challenge this week and remembered 2 in particular had made me get itchy craft fingers..

The wonderful Darnell's 3rd NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) and Color Throwdown -

So I combined the 2 challenges to get today's main card..

Let's start with the NBUS and Darnell is going to love this, there is oodles of it :) The tag and heart dies, the red gelatos (for the distressed background), Bo Bunny It is written stamp for the text and the black enamel dot.

All of my NBUS is from either Black Friday or Christmas..

I am really eager to make tags this year and I am going to be attempting Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2015. I saw this great tag on Pinterest and I liked the techniques so I did a bit of a CASE.

First I cut and embossed my tag - yep the hearts are embossed - cool right?

I then smeared red and pink gelatos onto my craft mat and then spritzed this with water, I smushed (technical term) the tag into it and dried it with a heat tool. I used the text stamp over the top of the dry tag in a contrasting red ink. I stenciled over this in black and grey and finally to make the embossing pop, I smudged red gelato around the raised hearts.

For the final touches I added ribbon, a punched embossed heart and the sentiment with a black enamel dot.

I love the flash of white to fit the CDT theme.

The whole tag is technique heavy, but I love it, such a wonderfully different Anniversary card.

CASE..using feathers..

Hey,

So today I am showing a card that I made as a CASE of this beauty I saw on Pinterest..

I was inspired by the little pack of feather die-cuts that JT sent me, she recently purchased gorgeous xCut feather dies and kindly die-cut several for me.

I decided to heat emboss my splatter using a Memory Box texture splatter stencil and embossing powders by WOW! (Red) and Ranger (Liquid Platinum).

The sentiment is by WPlus9 and I used a VersaMagic ink. For the final touch I added some red bling.

I really like how my CASE came out, Pinterest is giving me lots to CASE at the moment...it's fun after the Christmas card frenzy!

Hope you have a good weekend.

Cx

NBUS Part 2....

Hey,

Hubby and I had a great night last night, a very good friend was in town. We had a really fun dinner with him and he will be at my birthday celebrations on Friday night - YAY!

So what am I sharing today? Well that wonderfully talented rockstar crafter and blogland queen Darnell hit 600 followers and promptly issued a NBUS (never before used schtuff) challenge.

I loved the first one and this one is just as fun. Pop on over and join in and grab a badge - I know you've got NBUS somewhere and if you haven't - meh call yourself a crafter?!

Anyway..alongside your NBUS there is also the option to add a few extra things in to the mix -

Christmas.
Make two cards using the same stamp.
Both of the above.
None of the above.

I liked all of it very much. So I did it all.

For Christmas I used a new freebie Christmas stamp from the UK 3) new freebie Merry Christmas embossing folder from the UK. The stamp was coloured with Promarkers and as an added bonus I embossed the sentiment (both times) onto a scrap of paper.

The NBUS is plentiful on this card - 1) new origami paper from JT 2) the free Christmas stamp 3) the new Christmas embossing folder. AMAZING hardly any US items..my purchasing needs to have a rest..

Here is the second card - using the same stamp -

NBUS no.2 in red

I used red paper instead of blue and changed the colour of the ribbons.

I really don't think I would have used these stamps - inspired by the challenge.

Cx

WOYWW #264...Mega craft around the corner...

Hi,

Well I am back where I belong on a Weds - joining the WOYWW posse. Our wonderful leader Julia has been unwell and had a week off, but is back now and her spirit is strong, which is good for her and us :)

If you don't know what WOYWW is - then where have you been?! It is that fave time of the week for us global crafters where join Julia over at her blog Stamping Ground and we nose at each others desks.

Today my desk is blah! SSS July card kit to the left along with a card for a friend, some ATC's to put away and a new stencil. Partly it is this way because I went out drinking and dinnering with Hubby and partly because I came home to find these beauties on my door step -

12x12 Paper Trays

12x12 Stackable paper trays that fit expedit..gotta love Pinterest. So instead of tidying my desk and playing, I put the trays in place and sorted all my 12x12 papers..love it! Say good bye to ruined paper.

Before I give you a little WOYWW card, I just wanted to say thank you for all the wonderful ATC's..I have been under the weather and working longish hours, so haven't had time to thank everyone yet..I will do that later on today.

Here's the card :)

I recently came across Day for Daisies and their stamps are gorgeous..I am learning to blend, so her hair is a thing of magic to me!! The sentiment was heat embossed and the stamp was a freebie from a magazine..everything is NBUS (Darnell are you proud?)

I am super excited about this weekend and going to Chicago for JT's sisters wedding and about the weekend of July 4th where I will be spending 2 whole uninterrupted days at my desk - BLISS!!

Cx

NBUS Challenge...

Hey!

No WOYWW for me this week, not sure if Julia will be doing it anyways..she has been unwell whilst away..sending her big warm wishes for a speedy recovery.

The wonderful Darnell (who I met via WOYWW) is running this little challenge -

As I have been on a major spending spree...I am going to use some of my shiny new, never before used schtuff, alongside some older NBUS

The theme this time is 'Anything Goes - friendship'

Darnell mentioned that I treat her like a celebrity and just casually mention her in my posts without a link..Darnell the reason for this is simple. Every time I find a new crafter and their blog..Ms Darnell is there already, friends with them, making schtuff with them - it's AMAZING how sociable she is :) I love her for this and for the fact that because of this I have been encouraged to venture further and further into the crafty blog world.

Anyway...back to the challenge!

I made this little card using some serious NBUS...Brand new Pink Petticoat fox digi stamp and sentiment. The bow on the fox was coloured using a shiny new Pine Promarker that my Ma bought me when I was home in March. Papers by Pebbles, that I bought about a year ago....The dies that I used are not new, they are old faithful Xcut nesting dies.

My card is already in the post winging it's way to my foxy friend :)

Cx