Christmas Card 2019: Merry Wishes..

Hey,

Happy Monday!

I have had a really fun weekend.

My Sister-in-Law brought our Niece and Nephew on their first ever trip to NYC!

We did SO much stuff - Grand Central Station, Intrepid Museum, Carousel in Brooklyn, East River Ferry, Statue of Liberty, Highline, Hudson Yards... phew!

Here is a little collage of photos.

As there hasn't been much time for desk action or photo retouching, I thought I would share a super simple Christmas card that I made a while ago.

Simple to do.

Mask off a circle and use watercolour paint to create the circle.

Let it dry, stamp some leaves and add your Robin and sentiment!

My leaves and the Robin are from the Pink Fresh Studio 'December Days' stamp set and the sentiment is by Lawn Fawn.

Super simple and I made a bunch of these.

Cx

Pinata Birthday..

Hey,

Happy Friday and welcome to March!

As I am heading to the Papercraft Clubhouse this weekend with Lisette to make Lawn Fawn cards (taught by Jenn Shurkus).

I thought it would be fitting to post a little Lawn Fawn card I made for my Nephew's birthday.

I love the Lawn Fawn Year Seven stamp set and thought I could make a fun card for Otis using it.

I die-cut an oval out of the centre of my white panel and then stamped all the fun pinata bits over the white panel and coloured them in. I used a mix of Promarkers and Spectrum Noir glitter pens.

I then stamped, coloured and cut the pinata and suspended it from my white panel using clear wire thread.

I mounted the whole panel onto a teal card blank and when you wiggle the card, the pinata moves, in my mind giving the illusion of the pinata bits falling out - no? Ok.

Anyway, have a great weekend, I know I am going to.

Cx

Christmas Card 2018: Reveal Wheel Fun..

Hey,

So earlier this year, we did a great class with Cheiron at The Inkpad using the Lawn Fawn reveal wheel and I loved it so much, I bought the stamps and the dies..

But shamefully, I just never used it.

Then Lisette bought me the Christmas reveal wheel sentiments and I realised that I should break out the set and make some cards.

I made both Cheiron and Lisette's birthday cards with it and it was SO easy that I decided to make cards for my Niece and Nephew.

The main photo today is of the card for Florence and the one below is for Otis.

For both cards I used the same idea for the front of the card, I stamped a Christmas related image and then masked it off and stenciled over it.

I added sentiments to the wheel and the front of the card from the Lawn Fawn sets - using a mix of both the regular and Christmas sets.

So easy to make and lots of interactive fun for the kids.

I'll be using this set more that is for sure!

Cx

Supplies -

Neat & Tangled - Beary Merry

Jane's Doodles - Mr & Mrs Claus

Tim Holtz - Tree Stencil

The Inkpad - Star Stencil

Distress Oxide Inks

Promarkers

Nuvo Drops 

Hippo Birthday To You...

Hey,

Happy Monday to you from London..

I had a great weekend, I caught up with my Hubby's side of the family and got to see my Niece and Nephew.

I FINALLY handed over the giant NYC colouring poster that I transported from NYC to London and have carried across London several times.

We obviously had to start colouring it straightaway! It's going to keep them busy for MONTHS!!

My card today is a quick make I made before leaving for London. I weirdly didn't think any of my ready to go birthday cards worked for this particular friend!

So I used a new set by Ellen Hutson / Julie Ebersole 'Wish Big' - I have so many ideas for this set, I am itching to get home and use it more.

But for this card I kept it simple and just used the Hippo, Birthday sentiment string and a balloon from the set. I decided to colour my Hippo bright pink, for no reason other than the fact that I can!

I die-cut the balloon out of yellow gingham paper and stamped the outline for a bit of extra colour.

Super simple and easy make.

Cx

Super Kids...

Hey,

When we were in the UK recently, we got to hang out with our Niece and Nephew (Florence and Otis) and their parents.

I wanted to send them a card to say how lovely it was to see them all.

I had already coloured and cut the little super heroes from the Lil Inkers Super Kids set and thought these would make a fun card.

I stamped a striped background by Prima Marketing onto a piece of kraft card and die-cut it twice, once with the rounded stitched rectangle die and the peek a boo window die - both by MFT.

I then added a shaker pouch I already had and mounted it onto the stripey card blank using foam tape.

The super kids were then strategically placed, as the shaker pouch was slightly too small for the window :) I added initials to the super kids for a bit of fun.

Final step was the just happened to match stickers for the sentiment - these are quite old, a couple of years ago I bought a bumper mixed pack of stickers from AC Moore that I divided between JT and I, there was so much in there, I am still discovering random things!

Fun card to say thanks for a fun visit with the little ones, who are not so little anymore and a total hoot!

Cx

WOYWW #350...Birthdays and Holibobs..

Hey,

Happy WOYWW.

For those of you that don't know what WOYWW is..it is that magical time of the week where we join Julia over at her blog Stamping Ground and share our desk space.

This is my last WOYWW for the next three weeks, as I will be on Holibobs and working in London for the next two weeks.

It is going to be hectic, but fun and it's nice to get to travel with Hubby, as so much of the traveling I do now is solo :(

I took my photo whilst I was colouring on Tuesday night for the current The Daily Marker colouring challenge. JT's Mom bought me a colour a day calendar and it's been a lot of fun. You can see my Promarker colour chart, a couple of Promarkers and the sheets I am colouring.

I also wanted to share two very different cards with you this week..

One is the finished 'hunk' from last week - you all seemed to like him :) He is winging his way to a friend already.

Second card is for our Nephew Otis, he was 5 yesterday!! I can't believe how quickly the time has flown.

He loves Football, his Dad like me is a lifelong Spurs fan, so I coloured the image to match their current kit. I believe he is having a football party on Saturday..complete with 29 friends - the horror of 29 kids under 5..I do not envy my SIL.

Fun cards that both use digital stamps.

Have a great day everyone, see you for a nosy later.

Cx

1st Day of School....

Hey,

I am heading home tomorrow, in time for my bday on Monday :) So this weekend I am hanging with my family.

I wanted to show you the 1st day of school card I made for our Nephew Otis..funnily enough, today just happens to be my SIL's wedding anniversary.

I cannot believe Otis is big enough to start school - it seems like only yesterday he was this teeny tiny little thing!

Now he is cheeky, funny and gorgeous!

I kept the card simple and fun. He loves a Dinosaur - but quite frankly who doesn't!

My card ingredients are:
- Pretty Pink Posh frame die
- Recollections spotty paper, stickers and bling
- Paper Smooches 'Zoo Crew' Dino stamp
- Simon Says Stamp Happy and Day stamps (from x2 different sets and Day is actually Birthday that I masked off)
- Promarkers, MFT ink

It is times like these that I am glad I am not a parent, I feel quite overwhelmed by Otis starting school - I can only imagine what that must feel like as a parent!

Happy Weekend.

Cx

Happy 4th Birthday Otis!

Hey,

Today is President's Day here in NYC and it is also my Nephew's 4th birthday.

Sadly I have not seen him in person since last March, but we skype often and he is growing up so fast..

I based his card around the boy in the alien costume digital stamp by Jellypark.

I coloured the stamp using Promarkers and then fussy cut it out, I added googly eyes to the alien for a bit of fun.

The paper is from a Recollections Monsters and Robots stack that I have.

I could fit Happy Birthday in the sparkly Thickers on the card, so I used a giant Woodware stamp instead.

Here is a photo of Otis and I - it's a couple of years old, but it's a fave of mine..

I hope Otis loves his card as much as we love him :)

Cx

Cutting Edge Challenge..

Hi,

Hope you had a good weekend.

We had a pretty quiet one here in NYC. I broke out my sewing machine and altered a few items in my pile and finished a skirt I have been working on.

We also managed to Skype Hubby's Sister and our Niece and Nephew on Sunday AM, which is always fun. My SIL will be here towards the end of the month, so we are quite excited.

I recently found The Cutting Edge Challenge - related to all things die-cut (electronic and manual). This week's inspiration piece made me really want to enter -

I considered using a camera, but decided against it - didn't want to just replicate the inspiration.

I used a newish EK Success brickwork punch for the left hand border and attached it to an orange card base, so the pattern would pop. I die cut a telephone using my Silhouette Portrait and stamped the sentiment by WPlus9.

I love this card, so simple. I'm thinking I could replace the phone with animals, fruit, other objects?

Have a great Monday.

Cx

Bunting Part One

I thought we'd have a mini break from cards - I do make other things, but cards are so easy, as sewing is far from therapeutic - all the pinning, ironing, turning, etc. So unfortunately I don't sew as often as I like and when I do sew, I forget to document it! This post is part one, as I'll be returning to cards for part two to show off some bunting cards - which are made using my new found sewing + card making skills!!

Anyway, my sister in law asked me to make bunting for our Nephew's room. I haven't made bunting for a while, so was quite excited by this little project.

Making bunting is really straightforward, but if you haven't done it before I would suggest using this tutorial, which is amazing!

I used most of the techniques shown in the tutorial - I especially love the continuous sewing of the triangles, makes life very easy.

I did do a few things differently:

• I didn't iron all the triangles once they were turned right side round

• I pinned the un-ironed triangles to the bias tape

• I found it easier to sew the triangle to the tape, whilst pinned on, stopping to remove the pins - this means the bunting takes a bit longer, but I think this is easier than the 'free sewing' technique used in the tutorial
• Finally I only ironed the bunting once I'd have finished sewing

Crisp ironed bunting 

Today's main pic, is the finished bunting, with Otis' name on it (I used iron on transfers for the letters). I love it so much, I don't want to part with it! I am hoping that Lucy will love it too.

Cx