ATC Swap Fun...

 

Hey,

And welcome to June FINALLY.

It was a super busy May for me, work wise and personally. 

I have loved getting back out into NYC, as things open and my friends become accessible again!

My little Craftgang and I started doing a ATC swap this year.

The first theme was Beach.

And as I am heading to the beach this week and the ATC's have all arrived, I thought I would share the ones that I made.

I had such a fun time making them. 

I smooched a large piece of watercolour paper to create the background for the ATC and then cut them to size. I then blended in a bit of yellow for the 'sand'.

The stamps were perfect and are by Hero Arts 'Beach Please' I added a teeny tiny Lil Inker Sun die.

They came out so well.

Here they all are together. 

Clockwise top left, Lisette, Me, Cheiron, Tiffany

Love it when we get to make fun things for no reason.

Have a great weekend. Hubby is in the UK - WHOOP, finally we can go home, I am here with Clint Catwood, having a fun solo week off.

Cx

Blended Star Birthday...

 

Hey,

Happy Friday!

I am pretty excited today - a) I only did a 3 day week - whoop! Love me a short week and b) tonight I am doing a zoom craft session with the craftgang! YASSS.

I love MFT stencils and my cards today use a star stencil by them, it also comes with the star if you want a white space where my blended star is.

I used x3 colours of distress oxide ink to blend each star and I stamped over them using the amazing Inkadinkado 'Marquee Birthday' stamps. They look amazing over the star and it all just pops.

So pleased with these.

Have a great weekend.

Cx

Connecticut Road Trip..

Hey,

Happy Monday!

Hope you are all staying safe and well. Hubby and I are now WFH for the next few weeks.

At the end of Feb, Lisette and I went on a little road trip to Connecticut to do Jenn Shurkus classes at the Papercraft Clubhouse.

I love Tracie's store and it's always a great space to do classes.

We did both classes on the Saturday, so we ended up with x10 cards. I always love Jenn's classes, she is a great teacher and I also get to play with all the Lawn Fawn. I loved playing with the flipbook style die and the magic iris die. I am considering buying the flipbook die..but we'll see.

Obviously, Lisette and I did a fair amount of shopping at the store after x2 months of no-craft supplies diet.

We had an absolute hoot on the Saturday night, as we hit our fave local Michael's - it has the most amazing sale section, we were in there for quite a long time!

Our plan on the way home on Sunday was to hit the Outlets at Foxwoods - we ended up getting there so early that we hit the casino at 9.15am!! Which was cool, as we both won some money, aiding the outlet shopping!

I included a photo of my $57 haul from the Cosmetics Store outlet - to put it into perspective, the Tom Ford palette is $88 regular price..

Fun road trip, love a craft road trip.

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

Hipster Kitty...

Hey,

Happy Monday!

I am showing you a card today that I made quite a while ago!

I love the Tim Holtz 'Hipster Animals' set, it gets quite a lot of use. For my birthday my friend Lisette bought me the dies for them!

So now they are getting even more use.

For today's card, I used a kraft card blank and added my fave spotty stamp Penny Black 'Dots in Space' to the card blank in a toning colour for a bit of interest.

The new dies for the Hipster Cat came with a die for his cool glasses, sadly you can't see in this photo, but I cut them out of sparkly black card, so IRL they are super sparkly.

The sentiment is by A-Muse Studio.

Fun, easy card for a male friend.

Cx

Christmas Cards 2019: Whimsical Winter...

Hey,

I wanted to show you another set of fun Christmas cards I made two weeks ago.

This time slightly more elaborate..

Two weeks ago the girls (aka Craftgang) and I went to the Mama Elephant birthday bash at the Westbeth Center - major fangirling moment for me, as I got to meet Kathy Rac, my colouring heroine and the creator of the Daily Marker 30 day colouring challenge.

I bought the fab Whimsical Winter set that I used for these cards at the event, it was on super bargain sale WITH THE DIES!!!

I was making Christmas cards over Labor Day and used texture paste through the Clearly Besotted 'Snow Day' stencil for a snow effect and as I had the paste and the stencil out, I made a few extra - smart.

So the backgrounds I used for these x3 cards were the extra ones. I really must remember to do this more often.

As I have mentioned before, I do the prep first and the fun stuff later - meh. To prep these cards, I stamped and die-cut the trees, the Deers, Squirrels and Robins first. Then I affixed my backgrounds to the card blanks.

I coloured all the stamped elements and started arranging them on the x3 cards, so I would know where to stamp the sentiment, before I affixed everything down.

I think they came out really well, there was a fair amount of prep, but the outcome was worth it.

Fun times ahead, it is my birthday on Saturday and my Goddaughter Amy arrives tonight to spend the weekend celebrating with me..it's going to be interesting with the crutches and the boot!

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

Alcohol Ink Techniques..

Hey,

A few weeks ago I did a fun Alcohol inks class taught by Cheiron and it really helped me to understand how to use them a bit better.

I made this little set of backgrounds and I played with the alcohol ink lift technique too.

They came out so well! So bright and varied - but heavy on the pink, as I love how bright that always is with these inks.

I made the four fun cards that you see in the main photo. The one bottom left is what you get after you do the alcohol ink technique and then stamp it off. It finally worked for me!

My supplies clockwise from top left -
30th Card - The Ink Road stamps, MFT Banner die, Misc number dies (gift from Cheiron)
HB Card - Tim Holtz stamps, Stampin' Up die
Thanks Card - Lawn Fawn scripty thanks die
Alpaca Card - Taylored Expressions stamps and dies, Hero Arts swirls background.

Jennifer Mcguire has a few cool videos on these techniques if you are interested.

Cx

Creative Chick Classes..

Hey,

Happy Monday to you!

I had a great weekend. Lisette and I went on a mini roadtrip to Conneticut, to attend x2 Jenn Shurkus classes at the Papercraft Clubhouse.

We had a ton of fun, eating, shopping and creating.

It is always awesome to be taught by Jenn and play with the super cute Lawn Fawn stamps. Jenn always mixes up the sets and that helps me to remember to do the same with my stamp sets. I am getting better at it, but a reminder is always great!

It was my first time at the Papercraft Clubhouse. Tracie and her team are AWESOME and they had an off the hook clearance section, so there was a fair amount of spendy spendy..

Here are a few of the cards close-up.

If you haven't done a class with Jenn before, check out her blog to see if she is coming to your local store, even if Lawn Fawn cards aren't your style, it is SO worth it, for all the great things you will learn from Jenn.

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 

Christmas Card 2018: Monster Shaker..

Hey,

Happy Thursday from London!!

My card is a mini shaker that I made for Lisette for Christmas. I bought the MFT Shaker cups on sale and I haven't played with them yet.

They only fit the MFT circle dies, so I had to dig out a scalloped shaker circle die by MFT.

I die-cut the aperture first, so I could line up the circle with my background and stamp my little tambourine playing Monster (Monster Jam by Mama Elephant).

I added the bauble elements from a Tim Holtz foam stamp set, so the shaker looked like a dangling bauble.

The sentiment is stamped way lower than I had planned, but I forgot to stamp it BEFORE I put the shaker together, so had to stamp it on the foam tape - ugh.

Anyway, Lisette liked it and that's all that matters right?

Cx

Birthday melons...

Hey,

Today's card was made from random bits and bobs on my desk!

I love these Neat & Tangled 'Beach Day' stamps, but I actually don't own them, as I didn't think I would use them enough. Instead I borrow them from Jamey and Cheiron when I fancy a play :)

The cute little Hippo with her slice of melon I stamped forever ago at Jamey's and then I coloured it during the JUNE 30 days of colouring!! It has been on my desk since then.

I found the MFT birthday circle die-cut on my desk in white and coloured it in red to match the melon.

I added a circle scrap and a piece of MFT chevron paper to pull all the bits together into a card!

Love it when scraps and abandoned things become a card!

Cx

ICAD2018 Continued....

Hey,

Happy Friday!!

I have had a bit of a rough week, busy at work and food poisoning earlier this week..

I am feeling more me now!

I loved this year's ICAD and because I bought an album to put all my cards in, it had quite a few extra pages. So I decided to play ICAD2018 Plus Plus - it is my continuation, so I can fill the album.

I have essentially created my own weekly prompts.

The first week was Sea themed.

I had a LOT of fun creating these cards.

Main photo shows you all of them, but here are some shots of my fave ones..

All a bit different.

The mermaid one, a friend commented that she loved it, so I made a card version of it for her!

Have a great weekend, I am going to be hanging with Lisette later on today and then at the gym and watching Pre-season NFL and playing at my desk for the rest of the weekend..this time next week I'll be in Tampa - whoop!

Cx

Elephant Frenzy!...

Hey,

Remember when Tiffany (part of the Craftgang) had a baby shower earlier this year and I got the days wrong? And then her baby Sophia was born the next day?

I made her this card and I posted it on Instagram.. Since then I have made approx 50 of them for people that have reached out and asked me if I will make them one?!

It is lovely, but I am still a bit baffled by it's popularity.

Today's version is for a good friend, whose wife recently had a baby girl. I love making these cards, the mixing of the patterns is so fun and a bit different for me.

Making these cards is also a great way to use my patterned paper stash.

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

Craftgang Baby...

Hey,

So I promised you I would tell you all about my weekend!

One of the Craftgang (Tiff) was having a baby shower over the weekend and I thought it was on Sunday. So I spent Saturday morning frantically finishing off her baby quilt....

After it was finished, I patted myself on the back and got my clothes ready for the shower on Sunday.

I noticed that my phone was going nuts and it was the Craftgang asking me where I was..yep, totes got my dates wrong and the baby shower was on Saturday!!

Cue, me getting washed, dressed, make-up on, gift wrapped and in a taxi in 15 mins flat!

I am so glad I checked my phone and made it in time for at least part of it...

Then we all wake up on Sunday morning to the news that Baby Sophia made her entrance into the world at approx 8am on Sunday morning LOL!!! I am guessing she 'saw' all the beautiful clothing she had to wear and decided to get on with it!

So on Sunday I made the new baby card - which is the main photo today. I decided to do something a bit different and broke out my Silhouette Portrait and used a Lori Whitlock Elephant card template.

It was so much fun to make. You cut the card blank, the x2 elephants and the trunk hearts and ears. Super easy to assemble and I added brads for the eyes. The papers I used are by American Crafts and I have had them for years and only used 1 sheet!! I also used a purple cardstock for the card blank, ears and hearts, because Tiff loves purple.

So that was my Saturday and Sunday was spent at my desk pretty much going 'what happened yesterday?' LOL.

Cx

Inspired by Street Art....

Hey,

Happy Monday!

A couple of weeks ago Hubby and I were on the way to brunch and this happened -

I was so inspired by this gorgeous piece of street art that I decided to create something similar for a friend. She had seen the photo above and said, I bet you could make that for me!

I started by creating the background, using watercolour paper smooshed in distress ink, dried and then punched using a hexagon punch.

I took a piece of heavyweight card and added rows and rows of double sided tape. I find when I am doing these kinds of projects this is a good way to work, as you can add more tape as you need it, so you can pause and not worry about the glue drying out.

I wanted it to be a bit more grungy, so I added some stenciling, some paste, edged some of the hexagons in silver and tiny splatters of gold and silver paint.

Final touch before adding my Mermaid was to stamp the words (Tim Holtz Foam Alpha Stamps), they looked a bit flat, so I added a shadow to them using a gold pen, very happy with the outcome here.

The mermaid is a digital stamp by TiddlyInks. They come in a set and are called 'Cat Shark Mermaids'. The one I used is a 'Leopard Shark'.

I think my project will be a great entry for the Mixed Media challenge over at Happy Little Stampers. It's for a friend and I the sentiment reminds me of all the encouraging things this friend has said to me over the years..

I am wiggling with excitement today, as tomorrow I leave for Boston, where I will be meeting JT (who is flying in from London), we are spending 3 days in Boston (JT's Alma Mata) and then heading to Crop on The Cape - where we hook up with x2 of the craftgang Jamey and Cheiron - EEEEE!!!! SO EXCITED!

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

Boozy Blueprints...

Hey,

Happy Monday.

I had a fun Sunday with the Craftgang, always good when we can all make a playdate.

As usual we brought enough food to feed an army, but that's ok, as leftovers make me very happy.

I made a few things yesterday, I love playing with other people's stash!

Cheiron had nearly all of the new Tim Holtz / Stampers Anonymous sets..so I decided to play with the Blueprints Cocktails set..which is not even out yet!!!

I made a super simple set of cards, that I actually think will make great cards for Men!

I now think I need to own this set..

Cx

Get your happy on...

Hey,

At the moment I am playing along with the 30 day colouring challenge. Hosted by Kathy Rac.

She is SO skillful and seems super sweet too. Every time I do the challenge I am reminded how nice and soothing it is to sit and colour something larger. So with this challenge I have deliberately chosen a few larger stamps to colour.

The one on my card today is by Mama Elephant and actually belongs to Ava and she lent it to me - very sweet of her.

I love these cats, so much fun to colour, you can go crazy. I stamped a bunch of these when I had the stamp for future use.

For this card I loved the sentiment by CAS-ual Friday's, it seemed to suit the group of cats.

I am also loving these 4-bar card blanks right now, not too small, not too big.

Cx