Make a wish upon a Starfish...

Hey,

Last week it was my friend Kimberly's birthday and she LOVES Mermaids..

So I thought it was a perfect excuse to finally play with the Simon Says Stamp cardkit that has been languishing on my desk..

I stamped one of the Mermaid stamps in Versamark and added white embossing powder, so that I could blend over it to create a cool resist.

I used a new MFT waves stencil that I bought on sale to create the fun wavy shapes that you can see and I used four different colours of Distress Oxide to blend with.

Before I stamped the sentiment I spritzed the background with gold shimmer spray and IRL it was SUPER shimmery.

The sentiment came with the stamp set.

Love, love, love how this came out and I hope Kimberly did too.

Cx

Retro Rubber #92..Summer Theme...

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge, as this posts, I will have landed in London!

This time we have a great theme for you - Summer..

Make a summer themed card and you can use the photo as inspiration too.

I opted for an old fave of mine, 'Little Umbrella' by Stamping Bella (I've had her since 2016). I love this sassy lady, having a drink and chilling at the beach - it's so very me!

I was super happy to discover the awesome and appropriate sentiment in a set by Sweet Stamp Shop that I bought last year. The sentiment is quite large and I tried A LOT of dies before settling for the star. I'm glad I did, it works so well here.

I kept the card simple and used a card blank and some paper from a Simon Says Stamp cardkit from last year.

Fun card and I have a recipient in mind.

Show us your Summer and pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends August 10th.

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

Pink Fresh Studio: April Challenge...

Hey,

I love Pink Fresh Studio, I discovered them last year and I can't stay away from their stamps.

I thought it would be fun to play along with their Monthly challenge for April -

You can follow just the sketch or just the colours OR combine them.

I opted to use just the sketch, but sadly until I started cropping my photo I didn't realise that I had got a bit of flare on the gold sentiment sticker and the card has already left my desk.

I decided to get creative and I KNEW that a couple of my Simon Says Stamp kits have a few PFS items.

I finally found the papers I was looking for, the black and white patterned piece, isn't it gorgeous! I added a duplicate size die-cut rectangle in black.

For the border I used a piece of pink embossed cardstock and added the great gold dot banner by Recollections.

I added a Squirrel die-cut because why not and I think he is by PFS..but I can't be sure. I added a fun stamped branch, this is a new to me stamp from 'Itty Bitty Elements' by PFS - which is going to be totally over used this weekend!!

To finish my card and turn it into the thank you I wanted I added a gold sentiment sticker from Hema.

I really love the card, it's not my usual style..but next month I'll be using more PFS items.

Cx

HLS and a Red Lady...

Hey,

I can't believe it is May already!! So much has happened this year and I guess being out of action for 6-8 weeks explains why this year is whipping by!

I made a card at the weekend, that totally fits this month's Happy Little Stampers watercolour challenge -

The April Hero Arts Card Kit arrived whilst I was in London, so last weekend was my first chance to break it out and have a play.

I really wanted to stamp one of the ladies over a watercoloured background..so I mixed up some distress inks, applied water and smooshed my background and added a few extra streaks and splodges with a brush.

I was careful to only add colour to part of the card, as I didn't want her head to be in the background and I die-cut my panel (MFT Stitched Wonky die) before I started applying the colour - makes it easier to understand the space I am working with.

I stamped the skirt, legs, body and head before I stamped and die-cut the skirt in RED!! How lucky was that ;)

As the body was stamped over the watercolour background, I used Zigs and a white gel pen to colour in the top, so that the background wasn't peeking through.

I left her legs alone, as I like the idea of the colour swirling around her legs and feet?!

Super simple card and I had a lot of fun playing with the various elements from the card kit.

The card is actually for a work colleague that is leaving, I am so sad to see her go and she is most certainly one of a kind!

Cx

Coffee Time..

Hey,

Happy Easter..

Hubby and I have been in MM for the last couple of days and today we are heading to Lemon's to go raving tonight..it finishes at 6am tomorrow...ouch..

Anyway, whilst I was on sick leave I realised that I seem to have a lot of coffee focused stamps..

So I decided to break them all out and have a play.

I made four cards in the end, but I could have made so many more!

The main card uses a sentiment stamp by Whipper Snapper, a Bo Bunny ring stamp and the coffee cup and the hearts on the sleeve of the cup are by Simon Says Stamp and came with the Feb cardkit. It is my fave card of the bunch.

Here are the rest of the cards -

Simon Says Stamp sentiment, Concord & 9th cup stamp, coloured with Distress Inks

Whipper Snapper Coffee Monster, Simon Says Stamp sentiment, coloured with Distress Inks

Background stamp by Penny Black, Cup by Simon Says Stamp, Sentiment by Lawn Fawn, Coloured with Distress Inks

I used eight different stamp sets to create these cards - crazy right, especially as six of them are all about the coffee!!

I love mixing and matching my stamps its so much fun, I really need to set a theme for myself more often..

Cx

Sketch Saturday: #456...A twofer..

Hey,

So time for another great Sketch Saturday...

Our sponsor this week is Just Me Digital stamps and they are offering a prize of two digital stamps.

Here is the sketch.

I loved the images and the sketch so much I got carried away and made two cards ;)

The main photo uses Raining Hearts by Just Me and the sentiment came with it and I coloured it with Promarkers and Spectrum Noir sparkle pens.
I used papers from my Simon Says Stamp Sept 2016 card kit to complement the stamp. The big oval was die-cut with an MFT stitched oval dies..I love stitched dies.
Recently when sorting out punches to donate to charity, I came across the photo corner punch that I used for the little yellow corners..funny what you find when decluttering!

Here is the second card.

I used the pig stamp from the Everyday Animals stamps by Just Me.
Again I decided to dig out some SSS cardkit papers and these are from October 2014!!
The sentiment is also by SSS because I made this card just in time for Valentine's Day and the sentiment was perfect for my Hubby!!

Fun to make two cards using one sketch and they do look quite different.

Your turn now, but first go over to Sketch Saturday and check out what the rest of the DT have done with the sketch.

Challenge ends 31 March 7pm GMT / 2pm EST

Cx

Hero Arts Feb Cardkit playtime..

Hey,

Happy Friday to you.

I signed up to the Hero Arts cardkit recently, I thought it would be a good way to minimise my spendy, spendy...

This kit was unreal!! SO much stuff in it -

I got all the dies you can see, the stamp set, some silver thread, an ink cube, a sponge for daubing, vellum and washi tape!! BUMPER!!

So far I have made 2 cards, which I am really happy with.

The main card was so much fun to make. I found a 'living room' scene online and printed it out, so it fit behind my window frame. I only coloured in a few elements, as I wanted the focus to be the cat and the flowers.

The flowers are from a Concord&9th set and I stamped them repeatedly, coloured them and fussy cut them out to make a kind of flower window box for my card.

The sentiment came from a Jillibean Soup set.

I've already posted this card to my Ma, as it reminded me of her cat.

I love the sentiment on the next card, I love to get caught in heavy rain (weirdo..)..dancing in it will happen at some point I am sure.

All the elements, bar the background die (Lil Inkers) came in the set and it was fun to put it all together, I like that the girl looks like she is standing on the sentiment.

Hubby and I are having a fun date night tonight, we are off to dinner at Ocean Prime and then staying at the W in Times Square, courtesy of our airmiles. Time to celebrate, life and a bonus ;)

Cx

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!!

Welcome to 2017...

This is the first New Year since we have lived in NYC that Lemon has not joined us.

Due to my operation in 3 weeks time, we opted for a more low key Christmas and New Year and we will be going on holiday with Lemon in April.

So I thought it would be nice to make her a special card.

I got these great stamps by Tim Holtz in a BF sale -

Awesome right?!

I figured that they would make an awesome NYE scene.. I chose the London one, as both Lemon and I are from London.

I blended the background first, using distress inks and created a darker grey panel for the bottom of the card to anchor the stamp a bit.

I used a bit of artistic license and went with a 'day' sky, not a 'night' sky which would have been more appropriate for fireworks, but it was what I wanted..

I stamped the London Cityscape..it worked out so well, I was super dooper pleased.

The fireworks were a bit of luck, I remembered that one of my Simon Says Stamp cardkits came with a firework stencil that I had never used, so cue approx 45 mins of hunting to find the teeny tiny little beast and voila! fireworks!! I used distress inks first through the stencil, then I used Spectrum Noir sparkle markers to add some shimmer.

I added the strip for the sentiment at the last minute, I was planning on stamping in the grey distress section, but I tried it and didn't like it, so needed a fix..happier now..

Of course there had to be bling..I mean what kind of New Year card would it be without bling?!

Happy with the final card (I kinda wanted to keep it lol)

Back to work in 2 days..that went quickly, but it's been nice, now let's hope it's not cray cray straightaway..

Cx

Sketch Saturday #438

Hey,

So I am super pleased to be posting my first card as a part of the DT for Sketch Saturday!!

Whoop Whoop!!

I am so pleased to be joining this very talented group of ladies.

This week's sponsor is Simon Says Stamp who are offering a $25 voucher to their store.

Here is this weeks sketch -

I LOVE Simon Says Stamp and so I thought it would be fun to break out two of their cardkits for this challenge.

The November kit has all these amazing papers and so I used one of those and used it to choose my colours. The blue triangle and the tan panel are scraps from my scrap boxes.

I stamped two sentiments from the October and November kits and for a finishing flourish I stamped and fussy cut a squirrel from the October kit.

I love the wood dots by Teresa Collins and the use of them is seriously rationed!!

Your turn to join in the fun - go over to Sketch Saturday and be inspired by the rest of the DT makes.

Challenge ends 18th November 7pm GMT / 5pm EST.

Cx

Retro Rubber #51...Colour Challenge..Be Thankful

Hey,

It's time for another superb challenge over at Retro Rubber. 

We have another colour challenge for you - use the photo as inspiration..

I thought it would be nice to make a CAS card for this challenge, as the colours are so rich.

I used a great stamp set by Simon Says Stamp, that I got with the November 2015 cardkit.

I started by die-cutting a stitched white panel and I stamped the sentiment onto this using an Autumn Leaves Kaleidacolor ink pad.

Then I masked off the sentiment and stamped the leaves around two edges of the sentiment, I used 3 different green distress inks for this.

Super simple, but effective card, that I will be adding to my Thanksgiving stash.

Your turn to show us your interpretation of the photo, but first go over to Retro Rubber and view the great makes by my teammates.

Challenge ends on November 18th. Don't forget to use a stamp a year or older and tell us about it that's part of the fun. Also, please limit your entries to 10 challenges including ours.

This week I'm also entering my card into the current The Paper Players challenge -

Cx

Nutty Over You...

Hey,

I had a great birthday yesterday and it's not over yet :) Daddy and I are heading out to watch Baseball tonight...Yankees v Red Sox

But first, I wanted to enter the latest Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge, this time it's Powder Power, use embossing or pigment powders.

My October SSS cardkit arrived this week and the minute I saw it, I knew it would be perfect for Hubby's Anniversary card.

I pulled out a fave Hero Arts Lines background stamp and heat embossed it using Liquid Platinum embossing powder by Ranger - this is literally my fave powder ever!

I stamped the squirrel and sentiment from the cardkit stamp set and die-cut it out, I stamped hearts from the set too in a really pale pink and added one of the superb Acorn embellishments from the cardkit.

It felt a bit blah, so I added a bit of orange bakers twine to jazz it up - now I'm very happy and the orange fits the Halloween date of our Anniversary. LOL.

Cx

Distress Star...

Hey,

So sadly today is the last day of our Holibobs in Mexico - boo!

Back to reality and furbabies later on tonight.

I saw this great card by Laura Bassen on the August Simon Says Stamp cardkit sheet.

I loved the star and wanted to have a go..

I blended 3 colours onto a piece of card and then using the star die from the kit, die-cut the star, you have to cut around the edges to get the border. It came out so well!! So pleased.

Because I already had the yellow WOW! embossing powder out (see yesterday's post) I decided to stamp a Concord & 9th sentiment and heat emboss it.

A fab card for one of the ungrateful Male recipients in my life (I send them stuff, even though I know they don't care..)

Cx

Constellations....

Hey,

Happy Friday.

I thought I would show you some fun things I made last weekend.

I had a fun time CASEing the wonderful cards that Debby Hughes made using the August Simon Says Stamp cardkit -

I ADORE Debby's work, she is so talented and I have learnt a lot watching her tutorials and reading her blog.

This cardkit threw me a bit, so having inspiration was helpful.

The technique to create the circular blue constellation pool looks like it would be complex, but it was infact very easy.

I punched a large circle out of a piece of scrap paper, I figured that this would help me decide where the blue circle should go and would help me stay circular when painting.

I pretty much followed Debby's instructions - heat emboss the stars in white onto my white panel, so they resist the blue watercolour. Like Debby I used Chipped Sapphire distress ink for the blue and I dug out an ancient silver watercolour pan to create the accents.

I kept drying and pooling more ink into the circle until I achieved the look I was happy with. Also because my silver watercolour is shimmery, the whole circle has a shimmer to it close-up - accidental bonus!

I don't have a white gel pen that I like :( so I used a white chalk marker to add little dots and I stamped stars in a Versafine Majestic Blue ink, so they were visible, but not leaping out at you.

I finished 3 of them in a similar way to Debby, by using a kraft background paper, twine and a star.

This one I finished differently -

I thought because of the heart constellation it would make a nice unusual Anniversary card and so I used a sentiment from Unity Stamp Co. and just rounded the corners of the white panel and the card blank - simple.

I love them all, they were so easy to make, yet look like oodles of time and effort went into them..more of these..

Have a great weekend, I will be packing..1 week until MEXICO!!!!

Cx

Retro Rubber #45..Get your sketch on...

Hey,

It's time for another cool challenge over at Retro Rubber. 

I'm pretty pleased and humbled as my teammates selected my sketch for our latest sketch challenge - 

I'm a big fan of a sketch challenge, I like having a 'form' to follow and my imagination goes wild with a teeny bit of structure :)

I decided to use another great Simon Says Stamp cardkit, this time from July 2015. I used the sentiments, waves and boat from the stamp set. 

I stamped the waves using Blue Breeze Kaleidacolor ink - if you haven't used these yet, you have to try them, they are awesome. I fussy cut the waves to create the central border. I used the Kaleidacolor ink again for both sentiments - the stitched circle die is by Simon Says Stamp and the label punch is by Stampin Up.

I stamped, coloured and fussy cut the boat to work as the 'star' part of the sketch.

I am super pleased with how it came out, the waves are a big win, I can't stop looking at them :)

Your turn to show us your interpretation of the sketch, but first go over to Retro Rubber and view the great makes by my teammates.

Challenge ends on August 26th. Don't forget to use a stamp a year or older and tell us about it that's part of the fun. Also, please limit your entries to 10 challenges including ours.

Cx

CASE a Card....Cardkit...

Hey,

Hope you all had a nice weekend? Mine was very peaceful, after the excesses of Hubby's birthday :)

Recently I have been re-visiting my Card Ideas Pinterest board, partly because I want to use more of my enormous stash and also because I want to actually use my Pinterest boards.

I saw this card - 

Image courtesy of My Impressions Blog

It was made using the Feb 2016 Simon Says Stamp cardkit - which as you can see from the main photo I totally have!!

I decided to use a different stripey paper and dug out some ancient blue glittery washi tape. It changes the look just a bit and I added a blue enamel dot to the top of the heart - which I punched using a scalloped heart punch.

As the card uses such a straightforward formula and an entire Cardkit at my disposal, I decided to make a variant - 

I love both cards, they were super easy to make and I did actually make several variants:)

I did some more fun CASEing over the weekend, so I'll be posting those next week, whilst I am in the UK.

Cx

Retro Rubber #43..Anything Goes with a Summer theme..

Hey,

It's time for another awesome challenge over at Retro Rubber. 

This theme is always a fave, Anything Goes, but this time with a Summer theme - 

So my teammates tell me that I am always making my own background - LOL. I never really noticed, but I do love using stamps to make backgrounds, it gives them so much more mileage.

As you can see I decided to create an ice-cream background for this card..it made me want ice-cream..(mint choc-chip is my fave..) The ice-creams are coloured with Promarkers and I used a quickie glue pen and super fine glitter to add some shimmer.

The stamps are by Simon Says Stamp and were part of a 2014 cardkit. I don't use them that often and it's a shame, as the sentiments - also used here - are a lot of fun.

I heat embossed the sentiments onto vellum - love doing this, the embossing is always so crisp and I love bright embossing powders. As always there is the 'how do I affix vellum' issue, so again I circumnavigated this by using staples - my default solution for anything that is hard to affix.

Super simple card using a couple of fun techniques.

Show us your Summertime anything goes makes and go over to Retro Rubber and view the great makes by my teammates.

Challenge ends on July 29th. Don't forget to use a stamp a year or older and tell us about it that's part of the fun. Also, please limit your entries to 10 challenges including ours.

Cx

FMS..cardkit play..

Hey,

Today Hubby and I are off on the Annual Louie Vega 4th of July boat party. Its a lot of fun and we have been going ever since we moved to NYC.

I saw the sketch for Freshly Made Sketches at the same time as my new Simon Says Stamp cardkit arrived and I felt like it was meant to be..

And here is the stamp set from the kit - 

I kept my card super simple..

I stamped one of the leaf stamps onto the white die-cut panel, using the SSS Steel Blue hybrid ink that came in the kit. 

Much to my joy, I discovered that the flower stamp works with my existing SSS Dahlia Outline die - how cool is that! This was also stamped using the Steel Blue ink.

I watercoloured the flower using Distress Inks (Shaded Lilac and Tumbled Glass) and an aquabrush. 

The sentiment is by AlteNew and again stamped in the Steel Blue ink.

I love the soft hues of this card, it made me feel very relaxed just looking at it!

Cx

CAS(E) This Sketch #177...

Hey,

So just like JT, I was intrigued by this week's CAS(E) This Sketch -

I really love JT's version of it, so fun and bright.

I didn't initially love the stamp set in the latest SSS cardkit, but when I saw this sketch I had an aha moment :)

I used two of the stamps from the set for the leafy border and coloured the leaves using Shabby Shutters distress ink and an aquabrush. I stamped and die-cut a new flower set I found in my fave cheap art/bookstore in London and coloured that using Fossilized Amber and Squeezed Lemonade distress inks and an aquabrush.

I heat embossed the sentiment to make it stand out more and used random stamps and bling to add a bit of interest around the leaves.

Again a great sketch that I had a lot of fun with and also made me like something I was a bit meh about.

Cx

Make 5...Umichka Challenge...Part Four...

Hey,

Happy Friday!

So I am gently hungover today following my work Summer BBQ.. and tonight I am off to the HAC Summer Ball with Lemons. Cue another hangover tomorrow.

I am currently playing along with a 5 part challenge over at Anna / Umichka's blog.

You have to use the same stamp set for each of your cards and keep the cards CAS. You can see my first card here, card two here and card three here.

Card three is totally my fave so far :)

To refresh your memories, this is the stamp set I am working with -

It's from the October 2015 SSS stamp kit.

I decided to use the big heart for card four. I was inspired by the embossed spotty panel that was sitting on my desk..

I die-cut a white panel and blended some Picked Raspberry distress ink onto the panel, before stamping the heart in Versamark and adding sparkly embossing powder.

I am pleased at how well the heat embossing looks against the pink ink.

As it's a heart I decided it should be an anniversary card..

I'm so pleased at how these cards are coming out, using one set over and over again is a  I am keeping them all together to give-away when the challenge is done.

Have a great weekend everyone, heading back to NYC tomorrow, so I am excited to be seeing Hubs, furbabies and my desk..

Cx

Make 5...Umichka Challenge...Part two...

Hey,

Happy Friday!

I am currently playing along with a 5 part challenge over at Anna / Umichka's blog.

You have to use the same stamp set for each of your cards and keep the cards CAS. You can see my first card here.

To refresh your memories, this is the stamp set I am working with -

It's from the October 2015 SSS stamp kit.

This time I went for a detailed background to make all the other elements pop.

I used a Hero Arts background stamp for the background, inked it with distress inks, spritzed it with water and lay my watercolour paper onto the stamp..only one muddy area, not too bad :)

I die cut the background panel and a plain white panel using stitched dies - both by Lawn Fawn.

I contemplated adding bling to the card, but I actually like it as it is. Simple and pretty clean.

Have a great weekend. I have a playdate with Cheiron tomorrow :) Yay!

Cx