Retro Rubber Challenge #144 Anything Goes...

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

I am counting down to VACAY!! I have my birthday week off next week, there is gonna be a whole lot of eating and crafting!

But before then, we have everyone's fave Anything Goes..

By now you should not be surprised to see a Monster pop up on most of my cards, I LOVE Monster stamps and I am so lucky that my friends are constantly gifting them to me. To date I have not had a duplicate, which is amazing.

I chose this Hero Arts 'Eat Cake All Day' set (I've had it since 2017) deliberately because it was given to me by my friend Cheiron, who I was introduced to by Jenn Shurkus who was the previous owner of the MFT Birthday Speech Bubbles set (Jenn bought it in 2016).

I love these ladies and I thought it would be fun to make a card that combines things from them :)

As you know I am a big fan of Altenew inks and I used x3 of them to stamp the bubbles here - Starlight, Tide Blue and Sea Breeze.

It felt like the Monster needed something and so I hunted through my dies and came up with a bow-tie for him from the Elizabeth Craft Designs 'Party Accessories' set. Perfect!

Your turn to dig out something neglected and show us what you can do with it. Also, pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends October 2nd.

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

4from1: Neat and Tangled.. Later Alligator..

Hey,

A few weeks ago I gave the craft room a much needed clean and went through the newer items and rediscovered this awesome set by Neat & Tangled that I had bought second-hand from Cheiron. It is now retired.

I was inspired to make a few cards and this wonderful card by Kay Miller inspired me to get CASing!

I stamped, coloured and die-cut all the elements from the set that I wanted to use. Then I created the x3 backgrounds by smooshing distress inks.

They all came out so well and my colours are actually as vivid as Kay's but they got a bit muted with late night photography! My fave is totally the main card - with his little bow-tie! Meaning that snappy has a double meaning - he's a 'gator and he's also snappily dressed ;)

It's always fun to play with a stamp set for the first time and I always try and make a few cards, so that it gets a full use!

Cx

Kitty Cat Thanks..

Hey,

As tomorrow is the 1st anniversary of us owning Clint I wanted to share a card I made for our amazing Vet.

They are amazing, they were wonderful when we had to put our beloved Boscat to sleep. When we got Clint, they gave us great advice to help us understand what having an FIV positive cat would mean.

Late last year Clint got an infection and it was our first time dealing with illness in him and the first time after the loss of Boscat, so to say we were a teeny bit antsy is an understatement.

Fortunately they understood and guided us through it all and Clint is fine now (he did get another infection earlier this year, but we are learning how to deal with this now).

So I made them a card to say thanks and to apologise for our slightly manic behaviour!

I used the awesome Picket Fence Stamps 'I love your face' set - which I had discovered when Cheiron made us a 'Congrats' card for the arrival of Clint, using the same set. How cute is the cat in his bandana?!

The sentiment is by Hero Arts and I created the fun stenciled background using a Tim Holtz gradient diamond stencil (mini version).

I love how the card came out and they loved it too.

If you are looking for a vet and you are in the East Village area of Manhattan, I would highly recommend Urban Vets Animal Hospital - they are kind, caring and super friendly.

Cx

Alcohol Ink Birthday..

Hey,

Last day of January already! This month has flown by.

I have enjoyed blogging this month, I have stuck to my 'no pressure' attitude of 2019 and it's made me relax and post a bit more!

Today's card is a fun one.

I LOVE alcohol inks and we did a fun class with Cheiron last year.

Lisette bought me a bunch of new colours for my birthday and so I had a play and created the fun background you can see.

I stamped over it using archival ink and added a happy birthday die-cut.

It felt a teeny bit flat against the black card blank, so I added some glitter paper and that made a huge difference.

I have loved the discovery of metallic alcohol ink mixatives, they add such nice touches and shimmers to these alcohol ink pieces.

Cx

4 cards, 1 stamp set: Neat & Tangled..Fresh Blooms

Hey,

I have been going through some of the things I made and photographed last year and I realised that there is a lot of blog gold in there!

So I am going to try and post as much of it as I can, mixed in with some new makes.

Today's cards continue my 4from1 series.

If I pull out a stamp set to have a play, I like to make multiples!

I got the Neat & Tangled 'Fresh Blooms' set, secondhand from Cheiron and I had this idea, that I could create fun floral cards using the flower stamp from the set and watercoloured splotches.

Here is one of the cards in progress..

My fave new tool of 2019 is the Wendy Vecchi Make Art Stay-tion. If you don't have one, get one, they are no more than $20 and worth every penny.

I add a sheet of white paper to mine, so I can stamp off the edge and not ruin the Stay-tion. I love that I can hold a piece of paper or stencil firmly down whilst I work - genius!

Anyway, back to my cards.. I created x4 different backgrounds, die-cut them to size using a stitched rectangle die and added big bold sentiments, stamped on coordinating scraps of paper. The sentiments are by Market Street Stamps - they are sadly no longer in business.

Really easy to make cards and I love using different mediums to make cards a bit more interesting.

Cx

Flora & Fauna: Mini Toucan...

Hey,

Happy Friday to you.

Today is a big day for Hubby and I, we are going to our Green Card interview - EEK!! So nervous and excited...

A while ago we did a class at The Inkpad with Cheiron and she used a bunch of Flora & Fauna products.

I loved the 'Mini Toucan' set and bought it, but I hadn't had a chance to use it.

Then when we did the not quite Florida playdate Cheiron made a card using it and I loved it, so I CASE'd it and added some Reverse Confetti sentiments.

Super simple, but very elegant, I love how pretty and bright the Toucan is and I wouldn't have thought to add white gel pen for feathers!

Always learning new stuff from Cheiron.

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #111...Tic Tac Toe...

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

We have another great Tic Tac Toe board created for you by Jan.

Tic Tac Toe is so much fun, I love seeing what other people create with the same row as me!

I chose Cake-Flowers-One layer Card.

I pulled on my big girl pants and stamped STRAIGHT onto my card blank, so this would be a one-layer card - I NEVER do that. But it worked and I could stop sweating for a moment.

I coloured the cake - which is by Concord & 9th and one of my fave of all time stamp sets 'Happy Day', I used to borrow it from my friends all the time until I think Cheiron had, had enough of me pilfering it and sold it to me last year!

I am so pleased at how pretty the flowers came out - coloured with Promarkers and Spectrum Noir sparkle pens.

I added a sentiment and my card was complete.

I really need to be braver and make more one layer cards!

Which row will you chose? Pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things all the DT have made.

Challenge ends May 31st.

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

CASology: Mother..

Hey,

Happy Saturday to you!

I had a packed day off yesterday, doing all the fun things - gym, lunch, casino, GOT marathon and crafting.

I wanted to play along with the current CASology cue card -

It is Mother's Day here in the US tomorrow, but we have already had Mother's Day in Europe, so I thought that I would make a more generic card for my Momma.

I bought this amazingly glittery cardstock by DCWV when I was in London last month. I have never seen anything so glittery in my life! I die-cut a green (my Momma loves this colour) piece of it using a new to me die by Waffle Flower (Doily Square) - it came as part of a grab box that I bought from Cheiron.

I have a large stash of already die-cut letters from all of my letter dies - basically, when I was off sick in 2017 for 2 months I die-cut all of my letter dies LOL! So I fished out matching black ones by Tim Holtz that spell out 'Momma' and painstakingly added foam tape to them, so they would pop up.

Final touch was the sentiment banner by Mama Elephant (Occasional Labels).

I am really pleased with this card and I think my Momma will love it too.

Cx

Simon Says Stamp: Monday Challenge Tag It!!

Hey,

Welcome to May!

It has been AGES since I played along with a Simon Says Stamp challenge.

But my good friend Cheiron is on the design team for the Monday challenge and I LOVED her tag and it reminded me how much I love making tags.

In case you haven't figured it out, this week's challenge is Tag it.

As you can see from the main photo I got totally carried away and made x3 tags!

But my entry for the challenge is the middle one -

Bizarrely the actual tag I used here was a gift from Cheiron! I created the background by blending over the entire tag using Spiced Marmalade distress oxide ink and then I used a couple of the Tim Holtz layering stencils over the top. Clockwork in Chipped Sapphire and Schoolhouse in Black Soot.

I then stamped, coloured and fussy cut the weird Flamingo head and legs by Dylusions (Waddle Waddle) - I really love these weird stamps by Dyan Reaveley. I die-cut the body using a stitched arch die and a scrap. The sentiment is a fave and is also by Dylusions. 

It felt a bit flat, so I added a bit of washi-tape that I coloured with Dina Wakely scribble sticks and I added some stars using texture paste and a Tim Holtz stencil (Shifter Stars). When the stars were dry I coloured over them with Spectrum Noir sparkle pens.

I am SO pleased with the final tag.

The other two tags turned out great too and I am going to make a few more, now I am on a tag roll!

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 

Weird Piggies...

Hey,

Happy Black Friday to you!

If you are in America, I hope you had a great Thanksgiving.

I had a great day, hanging with Hubby - basically watching him cook :) He is the best ever. I made a chocolate cake which is fave and there ends my contribution to the full Turkey dinner. We also watched all the NFL on offer and caught up with my parents and gave Boscat a mini Turkey dinner treat - which she LOVED.

Today, I am showing you a few little panels I made a few weeks ago. They did actually become fun cards, but guess what..I forgot to take photos of them before I sent them out! UGH.

Anyway...

The stamp is awesome and by Paper Artsy and was a gift from Cheiron. The minute she gave it to me I knew it would work really well with my current fave thing - Andy Skinner dots stencil.

I stamped the winged piggy and then masked him off and used distress oxides through the stencil over him.

I totally love the bright, fun, slightly weird end result and I'm going to mimic it, in my art journal.

Have fun today if you are shopping. I did most of mine in Vegas (which was so much crazy fun, I can't even begin to explain) and online. Today I will be just hitting a couple of local stores that I like to go to.

It's been a great week of vacay, sad to go back to work on Monday, but it will be nice to catch-up with the ladies.

Cx

Christmas Card 2018: Fa La La La Llama..

Hey,

Llama's are everywhere right now.

I loved the 2017 Fa La La La Llama by Neat and Tangled and Cheiron managed to get hold of it for me.

These cards are a bit fussier than my normal Christmas cards. When you have a list of approx. 120 people..bulk easy make is best.

But these were the first ones I made and so I stamped and coloured the Llama's and the presents, which was a lot of fun.

I die-cut them all out and added them to my stamped and stenciled backgrounds (Falling Flakes by Neat and Tangled and Spiral Dots by Dutchdoobadoo).

I stamped the sentiment in different positions, depending on the background.

Fun cards. Love it when a stamp I really wanted turns out to be awesome.

Cx

Christmas Card 2018: Merry Monster Christmas...

Hey,

Happy Friday.

Last full day of vacay today. We have had a very very relaxing time. It has been great to hang out with the Wife, I'm gonna miss her.

Today's Christmas card was a bit of an experiment. I bought a large 'Noel' banner in the sale from Hema when I was in London in August, I thought I could chop it up and use parts of it on Christmas cards.

The glittery tree thing is part of the banner and I dug out some awesome Tim Holtz Monster dies that Cheiron gave me and die-cut him in a Christmassy green. I added a red panel behind him to highlight his face better.

I used my Dymo labeler to create the sentiment and used a great piece of spotty paper (from JT) as my base.

It came together really well and I think I'll be making a couple more.

Have a great weekend, we'll be partying in Tampa tonight, lunching with the Wife tomorrow before we leave and hitting the sofa's for the first NFL Sunday of the season - WHOOP.

Cx

MAWTT: Adding Red...

Hey,

I really liked JT's choice of theme over at MAWTT this time and so I thought I'd play along.

Also her card is AMAZING!!

Her theme is black, white + another colour.

I went with red for my other colour.

I kept this card pretty simple and used a new to me (second-hand from Cheiron) Waffle Flower 'Circle Flower' set.

I stamped the stems and flowers and messily coloured the flowers, using Zigs and a paintbrush. I added a few red dots here and there for an added bit of colour and the sentiment is from the same set.

Super simple, but the red makes it all pop and works really well with the set.

Cx

Katya - INKED..

Hey,

Happy Friday.

I've had a pretty awesome social week this week, work has been tiresome, but that happens right.

The fun continues tonight with the Craftgang at class with Cheiron.

I made today's card about a week ago, using my April INKED subscription stamp (Katya) - you get a stamp every month and I prefer this to Cardkits, as I really have no need for all the paper, ink etc. Great idea by my new fave company The Ink Road.

I love this stamp, the girl looks so chilled out.

The whole card was a pretty simple make, watercolour Katya, stencil some dots, stamp a large sentiment by Paper Smooches and add some clear droplets for fun... boom done!

Hubby leaves for London later, he will be going straight to MY parents..so I am a teeny bit jealous, but I have fun Memorial Day weekend plans, so I'll be too busy to be jealous LOL.

Cx

Shimmery Heart Congratulations..

Hey,

I am back from my trip, it was SO much fun, despite the travel difficulties.

I'll tell you all about it later in the week, but I was very sad to say goodbye to JT and to the crafty ladies that we spent 2 days with.

Today's card is actually for Cheiron's Sister, she got engaged recently and I wanted her card to be fun and a teeny bit girly.

I used a Simon Says Stamp Mosaic Heart stencil and mixed glittery texture paste with Picked Raspberry distress ink. IRL it is super shimmery.

I was a bit indecisive about the sentiment, I tried EVERYTHING and finally settled on the Simon Says Stamp 'Congratulations' die, which I cut out of kraft paper to co-ordinate with the card blank.

A pretty simple make and because I had so much of the pink paste mix, I made a ton of the stenciled panels for use another time.

Cx

Alcohol Ink Playtime...

Hey,

Happy Monday!

I hope you had a great weekend. I did! Hubby and I great fun on Friday night and I got to hang out with Lisette on Sunday (obvs we hit Macy's...).

I am a big fan of alcohol inks, you can make amazing backgrounds. I always felt that I hadn't mastered them and then recently they seem to make a bit of a come back and it has been fun to watch various crafters videos with tips and techniques.

I have just found Rubeena Naz - thanks to Cheiron and she is the latest in my very long list of craft crushes. She did a whole series of playing with Alcohol inks and I found her tips to be really useful.

I also FINALLY bought some Yupo - why did I wait so long?

As Yupo is seriously expensive....like SO expensive. Seriously. I used 3 sheets and created x3 backgrounds experimenting with colours. The middle sheet I did something a teeny bit different. Instead of letting it dry naturally, I patted it dry with a cloth, hence the muted more mottled look, which I really like.

Once they were dry I die-cut the same size panel out of each sheet, which still leaves me with x3 more backgrounds for future use.

I really wanted to show as much of the backgrounds as possible, so kept my embellishing to a minimum.

I like the purple card-bases, they show off the backgrounds really well. I cut these myself using Simon Says Stamp cardstock and this colour is Blue Violet and is my default coloured card base stock.

All three cards are a bit different - the first one just has Tim Holtz stickers, the middle one uses a bit of Vellum, so that the sentiment die is legible and the third one uses a Avery Elle heart die and some fun labels - made using this Dymo Labeler (which I ADORE).

Here is a better shot of the anniversary card, which is already on it's way to it's new owner -

I love it when I get to play with older things and learn new tricks.

Cx

Bugaboo Birthday Bash: Day 4..

Hey,

Hope you saw the first Retro Rubber challenge of 2018 yesterday.

I'm back again playing along with Bugaboo Stamps 8th Birthday Bash. The theme is Birds, Butterflies and Birthday's for Day 4 the additional twist is a bingo board -

This bingo board was full of possibilities, but I went with the middle row - Cake/Cupcakes - Bugaboo Image - Bold Colours.

I chose the BugBdayBird2 stamp (a new addition to my collection..), I coloured it using Promarkers and Spectrum Noir sparkle pens.

I die-cut the Avery Elle horizontal stripes cover plate in lime green and added a die-cut hot pink celebrate - I think that's bold enough!!

The 'It's Your Birthday' is by Simon Says Stamp and I wore out the original stamp I had and Cheiron kindly gave me her set.

Love the bright, fun end result.

I'll be back later with Day 5..

Cx

Flower Tag Birthday...

Hey,

Over the Christmas break I was having a dig through my dies, basically I wanted to see if there was anything I hadn't used or had forgotten about!

I came across this awesome garden stems tag die by Simon Says Stamp, that I bought off of Cheiron in her destash sale last year.

JT gave me some really beautiful paper flowers when I saw her and an idea was born - 

I decided that I would put some distress inks onto my craft mat add some water and dip the tag in the greeny mess. This is the only thing that really pleases me about this card.

I actually think that the simplicity of my original idea is now lost that the card is finished..but my craft people say they don't think it's busy, they like it. So I am taking that as a win and not being as much of a brat about it.

I am going to try again and see if I can retain the original simplicity.

Cx

Holiday Card Making Extravaganza

Hey,

Happy Friday.

Hubby and I are off to DTown tonight to visit the Nixon's (aka JT's Parents) - Love, love spending the weekend with them.

Today I thought I would FINALLY share all the makes from last Saturday's Holiday Card Making Extravaganza hosted by The InkPadNYC and taught by Cheiron.

SO much fun was had, always awesome to be with the entire craftgang in one place.

We made 20 cards and a gift card holder!! It was A LOT.

My main card was one of my fave makes - the candy cane background is a stencil that we used with Distress Paint and the stamp is by Tim Holtz.

Here are the rest of the cards -

I love them all, I didn't really need anymore Christmas cards, but if I don't use everything it means I get to make less next year!

Cx