Catherine Pooler - Mug Shots...

Hello!

I cannot resist a mug stamp, because IRL I LOVE mugs and it's a good job I have hubby to rein me in, otherwise we would have a bejillion of them.

This great set by Catherine Pooler 'Mug Shots' has gotten so much use since I got it last year. I love pairing it The Rabbit Hole designs Caffeinated sentiments set.

These cards are pretty similar, just a bit of ink blending to anchor the mugs, because they are so pretty they need to shine!

I think the Corgi mug above is actually my fave!

Hope you enjoyed these simple, elegant beauties.

Cx

 

Fusion Card Challenge - Flowers

 Hey,

Welcome to another fantastic Fusion Card Challenge.

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

Which will you try? I have SO many flower stamps, that I knew I had to fuse them. 

The fancy vase kind of reminded me of a cup, so was a perfect fit for my Waffle Flower x Helen Dardik 'Enveloper Coffee' stamp (I literally worship Helen Dardik).

I stamped it onto watercolour paper and watercoloured it, adding some sakura gelly roll stardust pens for shimmer (IRL, SO SHIMMERY!!).

I added papers and a banner to match the sketch. The sentiment was just perfect, it seemed like the kind of thing that the cheeky girl in the cup might say if she saw you looking at her! It is by Rabbit Hole Designs from their 'Perfectly Blended' set and if you are a coffee/tea fan, you need these in your life.

I always love cards I make with this stamp and I am always reluctant to send them to anyone LOL.

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 2nd.

Cx

Coffee gets me Kracken..

Hey,

Even though I am in a crafty no spend zone, that doesn't mean I don't have new shiny things to play with!!

This is WHY I am in a no spend zone LOL.

JT and I did our annual Black Friday $20 challenge, which over the years has crept up to be way more than $20, but whatever we are besties, so it's all cool.

This year among other things, I got these 3 really cool dies / die sets from JT.

I knew that I had to pair that splash / splotch die with an awesome Rabbit Hole Designs set that my friend Jen sent me for my birthday, that I hadn't got round to using yet.

Don't they work well together! I love that Caffeinated Octopus. And it was really easy to make, just die-cut the splotch, stamp the x2 sentiments where I wanted them to be and then, stamp, colour and die-cut the Octopus. I popped him up using foam tape.

I used the Caffeinated Reindeer to make Lisette's Christmas card last year. They are SO fun.

Love it when I get to combine things to make fun cards.

Cx

Not quite Florida Playdate..

Hey,

As you know I didn't make it to Florida over Labor Day weekend.

But I did manage to host a not quite Florida playdate at my house on the Sunday.

This meant that we could use the kits we had pre-made.

Basically the plan was that each of us (x5 of us, including Ava in Florida) would kit x2 cards (or projects) for the others to make.

The photo above shows the x8 cards/projects we made on Sunday.

I'll walk you through them starting top left with my cards :)

I was the most efficient of the group and I had sent my kits to Florida already..so I had to make a couple of quick cards for the girls to make on Sunday! I decided to put my Pinterest board 'Look What I Made' to use. And it came up good, with x2 straightforward cards for the girls.

I used the Avery Elle 'Sea-Prise' set for my pufferfish card, the girls were horrified when they realised it was one candle that had to be stamped multiple times, so there were a lot of variations on this one.
The Unicorn card is by Pink Fresh Studio and uses all the stamps and dies from their 'Unicorn Dreams' set.

Moving clockwise to top right, these cards were Cheiron's kits. I loved her Toucan card - using Flora & Fauna stamps so much that I CASEd it (coming soon).
The floral card, used Altenew stamps and was fun to watercolour and we got to use Altenew markers, which are amazing and I do want!

Bottom right, kits by Tiff. She challenged us a bit, by getting us to make a fun envelope. Sadly I dropped the Panda stamp after stamping him, so I have a big black line across him, but hey as I always say, it's handmade, you gotta expect a little oopsie here and there. The envelope board was by We R Memory Keepers, stamps and stencils by Simon Says Stamp.
The Fox card used all the techniques and looks AMAZING!! Background stamp is by Simon Says Stamp, Fox and sentiment stamps by Rabbit Hole Designs. I love RHD stamps, the caffeinated range is hilarious.

Finally bottom left, kits by Lisette. The first card with the girl was fun, I have never ever stamped in a lighter ink and then coloured over it, very clever and way out of my comfort zone. The girl is by Picket Fence Studios, not sure who the dots are by. I love this card and the snarky stickers really worked well here. The Mermaid card uses the super cute Mama Elephant Mermaids and I loved adding the chunky glitter 'sea'.

The best bit about making all these things, were all the techniques we used - masking, heat embossing, watercolouring, blending, colour plucking. It was a masterclass in all the things that we have learnt over the years (mainly from our resident teacher Cheiron).

A fun playdate was had by all and we all left with gifts and 7 cards/1 envelope.
It wasn't quite Florida but it certainly made up for it.

Cx