CASology: Girl

Hey,

I hope you have had a fun weekend so far?

I have had a really nice time, hanging with Hubby, shopping and playing at my desk.

I wanted to play along with a challenge this weekend, so I had a look at a couple of my faves and picked out a few to play with.

First up is the CASology challenge - here is this week`s cue card -

I liked the idea of making a `Girl` focused card, I have a lot of girls in my life.

My card actually combines three stamp sets. The main girl stamp is by Unity Stamp Co `Today I am Happy`, I stamped it onto my watercolour cardstock and used distress inks to watercolour her, I added some sparkle with Spectrum Noir sparkle pens.

I built the sentiment using two stamp sets - I masked off part of the `Girl Boss` stamp, from the Sweet Stamp Shop `Girl Boss` set. The second part of the sentiment is from the Jillibean Soup `Friends` set.

I always default to blues or purples...

This little card will be winging it`s way to a good friend shortly.

Have a great Sunday, I am heading to the gym and then planting myself on the sofa for NFL Sunday!

Cx

Anniversary Week...

Hey,

Happy Sunday to you.

Hope you have had a good weekend so far. I had a seriously hard session in the gym yesterday, it was my first trip up to the secret weight floor and it was hard, but rewarding.

Today I have made Sausage and Cheese & Onion rolls and Hubby and I are drinking mimosas and watching NFL Sunday.

It's our wedding anniversary on Wednesday and Tuesday is the anniversary of our first date :) This year we are celebrating 14 years together and 9 years married..pretty big, I don't know where 14 years have gone.

I have had lots of anniversaries recently, so this week feels like my blog is going to be full of anniversary cards!

Starting with this little Monster cutie I made for friends using a new set from Unity Stamp Co. 'Nicest Place to Be'.

I kept this card super simple and just coloured the stamps and added some hearts. I mounted the panel onto a Lawn Fawn card blank to make it pop.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, I am going to eat more rolls..

Cx

Floral Anniversary...

Hey,

I am still in London and SUPER excited today.

I am off to watch the NFL at Wembley with my Dad and it's going to be great, we always used to try and get to the London games when I lived in London.

It will make up for not being able to watch a ton of games from my usual NFL Sunday sofa position.

I thought my card today was topical, as I made it specifically for my Parents wedding anniversary on 8th October. Top fact, my folks have only been married for 14 years..but together for approx 47 years!!

It was a great excuse to play with a piece of NBUS. The stamp is 'Heart Bouquet' by Laurel Burch for Stampendous.

I stamped it onto watercolour paper and used liquid watercolours to colour it and added a ton of Nuvo drops in a few colours. I added a simple sentiment, as the stamp is very fussy.

I'm pretty pleased with how it came out and my parents liked it too.

I am heading home to NYC tomorrow - Yay! It's been a fun week of parties, work, catch-ups and even a crafty playdate with JT, but I will be happy to get home to Hubby, Boscat and my desk.

Cx

I doubt Vodka is the answer..

Hey,

Today Hubby and I will be heading home from Philly (in time for the first NFL game of the day) after a brief visit to celebrate our friend's 40th birthday.

Geck and Hubby went to school together and he and his wife moved to just outside of Philly shortly after we arrived in NYC. It is nice to have familiar faces not too far away.

I wanted to make him a cheeky card and went searching for inspiration. I stumbled across the Vodka quote and thought it was perfect.

I re-created the quote and printed it out. As it's about booze, I thought that some of the glasses from the Waffle Flower 'Currently Drinking' set would make a great backdrop for the big sparkly 40.

The 40 was die-cut from glitter vinyl, I bought a pack of 20 6x6 sheets on Prime Day earlier in the year and I am now wishing I bought more..

I love how the card turned out, a bit cheeky and fun and I really like the monochrome feel, which was a happy accident.

Cx

CASology: Heart Confetti..

Hey,

Happy Christmas Eve.

I am feeling slightly jaded today after a fun night out with a work colleague and her boyfriend, they are in NYC for Christmas and it was nice to hang out with them.

I decided yesterday to play along with the last CASology of the year -

CASology has been great for me this year, it's been really integral to pushing my mojo when it has been a bit on the wane. I've also been lucky enough to get several Honorable Mentions and a win!! I have only really been playing with CAS for a couple of years, so this is all wonderful and makes me feel like I am actually learning!!

Anyway.. today's card uses a fave stamp from the Hero Arts 'Acts of Kindness' set. I decided that it would be fun to stencil hearts onto my card to give a confetti feel to match the sentiment.

The stencil is an overused fave by Dutchdoobado - I love their stencils. I used Picked Raspberry distress ink with a dabber.

I am really pleased at how crisp the sentiment is over the confetti hearts and to add some shimmer I went over the hearts using a Nuvo aqua flow glitter gloss marker.

Now it is time for Christmas Eve NFL and hotdogs, later we are going to a fave restaurant to have the Feast of the Seven Fishes..YUMS.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Cx

More than Coffee..

Hey,

Happy Friday..coming to the end of my 2 day work week - gotta love a short week.

I think that my anniversary card for Hubby was possibly a bit of a stretch, even he didn't believe that I love him more than coffee LOL.

But I liked the idea...

The stamp set is by Gerda Steiner - Coffeesaurus - I love the cute Dino and he reminded me of Hubby (I'm sure that he will love that..)

Have a great weekend, I'll be hanging with my friends, Hubby and watching NFL, I mean did you see the Seahawks game last week?!

Cx

Trick or Treat: Smell My Feet...

Hey,

So we are in Tampa right now and today we are off to watch the Panthers v Buccs - can't wait!!

I made a TON of Halloween cards before I felt, but I foolishly did not photograph them all!

I thought I would share a couple that I did remember to take a photo of..

Main card today uses a Unity Stamp Co stamp - love the little girl in the dino costume, I would so wear a Dino costume if I did Halloween dressing up! The sentiment is by AMuse Studio.

The next card uses a stamp Cheiron gave me last year -

I love it, I use the ruder b*tch please version ALL the time.

I created a resist with the stamp, using white heat embossing and then I blended Cracked Pistachio and Wilted Violet Distress Oxide inks over the heat embossing (thank you Jenn Shurkus for this technique).

I AM so happy with the end result. I love these manilla tag, blending is a dream on them and I think this makes the perfect entry to the current MAWTT challenge - Tags or Charms.

Cx

Happy 50th Birthday...

Hey,

Happy Sunday to you.

My good friends Karen and Brant turn 50 this month, I actually hooked them up, they met at my 30th birthday party..14 years ago.

I made them both fun cards, but I am only showing you Karen's as I forgot to take a photo of the one for Brant!

I love the sentiments in my new A-Muse Studio Fierce stamp set. So I hatched a plan...

First I die-cut the numbers using sparkly silver card that is ancient and came from Poundland! I love these number dies, gifted to me by Cheiron in her great 2017 craft room clear out. They are getting some serious use.

I masked off part of the badass sentiment and went looking in my stash for 'and' ugh (I found one by Neat & Tangled).

I chose a purple card base, as the whole thing is very neutral I thought a flash of colour would be nice.

I think I'll be making more of these..especially as I know where to find 'and'...

Today Hubby and I are cooking and baking - him cook. me bake. And then we'll be doing a whole load of sitting whilst watching NFL..I LOVE Football season.

Cx

Let's get spooky...

Hey,

Happy Monday to you!

So it is really nice to be home and I managed to get to my desk a fair bit yesterday in amongst all the NFL watching..

I came home to this awesome stamp and die set by Reverse Confetti - they were part of my birthday gift from my parents.. obviously I chose the Monster set!

I don't actually get why Halloween is so big here in the US, but it gives me an excuse to a) own unnecessary Halloween stamps and b) send happy mail to my people.

I made a background using the Pumpkin lantern stamp and coloured it with Promarkers. I watercoloured the Monsters and die-cut them out and added some stickles here and there.

Simple and fun to make, so good to be back at my desk.

The tag die is by Simon Says Stamp and is out on my mini magnetic wall so that I can use it. I have been pulling out dies that don't get used and adding them to this little wall of mine, so that they get more use!

Here's a pic of the 'wall'

Basically just x3 magnetic panels affixed to my expedit, so that my most used dies can be out on display and easy to hand.

Cx

CAS challenges: Big Dill....

Hey,

Happy Sunday.

Hubby and I have been watching NONSTOP NFL today since about 9.30am EST,hence why this post is so late!!

I had great fun as GDT for CASology and I was looking forward to being able to play along this week. The cue card is perfect this week -

The Big Dill stamp set by Sweet Stamp Shop (retired) has been on my desk since I bought it for JT and I earlier this year, this was the perfect opportunity to get him inky.

This meant I was focusing on the word instead of a 'Big' thing or image and I love a great pun.

I coloured the Pickle's using Promarkers and to make it all pop a bit, but to keep the CAS feel I used my fave Big Dots embossing folder by Sizzix.

Because I love him so much, I am also entering him into the CAS on Sunday Challenge this week - use a die-cut on your card. My 'Dill' and his jar of friends was die-cut using the dies that match the stamp set.

Cx

Newton Loves Cake..

Hey,

Happy Friday!

As you know I am GDT this week over at CASology...

I loved the cue card CAKE so much, I made another card :)

I love this cute set by Newton's Nook 'Newton Loves Cake' - funny that so do I!

I kept the card super simple and added a nice anchor point with the needle point frame (by Memory Box). The sentiment is my fave from the set.

I don't think you can see how sparkly the cake is in my photo, but all the icing was coloured using Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pens..I didn't love these at first, but they have grown on me.

Have a great weekend, I am going to be chilling and watching NFL with Hubby..Yay!!

Cx

Stylish birthdays...

Hey,

So today Daddy and I are going to see an NFL game, super exciting.

My Ma asked me to make a stylish 50th birthday card for a friend of hers and I was so pleased with the result that I made another one :)

I used the watercolour background stamp from my new Concord & 9th Lace Leaf set and a Dina Wakely silhouette woman stamp.

I made the 50th birthday version using Worn Lipstick distress ink and Studio Calico sentiment stamps.

The version above uses Twisted Citron distress ink and a Simon Says Stamp sentiment stamp.

Fun cards that I can see myself making a lot of.

Cx

Anchors away...

Hey there..

A late Saturday evening post from me...partly because I've been out with Hubby watching my Seahawks win their 1st playoff game! Whoo! And secondly because I wanted to post twice before I leave for Atlantic City (again) tomorrow.

Freshly Made Sketches #118 is a great blank canvas this week and I had this idea forming before I went to bed last night..

All the DT cards really inspired me this week and I have been itching to use the anchor I bought in the Silhouette store sale at Christmas.

I printed out an anchor paper from the Pink Petticoat Beach Cottage papers set. The border strip and the scalloped square are also by Pink Petticoat.

The sentiment is by Hero Arts from a set of stamps that I bought at GREAT expense, but get a lot of use out of. I added a Candi to anchor (sorry!) the whole card and voila! my idea came to life.

I might make a few more of these in different colours and give them to a friend as a set..

Hope you all had a good Saturday too.

Cx