Retro Rubber Challenge #135 Tic Tac Toe...

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

We have another wonderful Tic Tac Toe board for you -

I love tic-tac-toe boards, so much possibility.

I chose the top row - Watercolour/Circles/Die-cut or Punch.

I stamped my little succulent first (by AALL & Create and only 6months old) and watercoloured it. then added dots around it from the awesome Bokeh Dots set by Julie Ebersole for Ellen Hutson (I've had this since 2018). I die-cut this panel using a stitched circle and found a nice big scrap of spotty paper so I could add another circle.

The scripty thanks die by Lawn Fawn is probably the most overused thing in my craft room, I've had it since 2014 and it gets used at least once a week! I love making thank you cards.

I thought it would be fun to mix my circles with a scalloped square card blank and I like how it turned out.

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

Challenge ends May 29th.

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: Scandinavian Prints..

Hey,

Happy Monday!

I am not working this week - Hubby and I are doing an epic de-clutter.

For today's card I used the great Neat & Tangled 'Scandinavian Prints' set.

I used pretty much every stamp from the set to create these x4 fun backgrounds.

I used all different stamps and techniques for the sentiments. I love how the heat embossed pineapple came out - I love WOW! embossing powders.

Sometimes it's great to pull out a set like this and just make a bunch of backgrounds and if you don't add a sentiment they will be ready for when you need to make a quick card.

Cx

The Paper Players: New Piggies...

Hey,

Happy Monday!

I love the sketch over at The Paper Players this week -

I decided to break out one of the new sets that arrived this weekend 'Lovely Piggies' by Mama Elephant.

I stamped my Piggy onto watercolour paper and coloured her using Distress Ink. Then I die-cut her out using a scalloped circle die from The Works.

My background paper is actually from a pack of 'wedding invite insert' paper that I got on sale last December from Paper Source..It's sooo shimmery IRL.

The grey chevron paper is new from MFT and the flowery piece is an ancient scrap from a pad by Amy Tangerine.

To finish off my card I added a die-cut thanks and stamped the rest of the sentiment all from a Hero Arts set that Cheiron gave me.

I love the end result.. I think these Piggies are a great addition to my stash, good job I stamped and coloured them all at the same time ;)

Cx

CASology: Jumpy..

Hey,

Happy Friday to you.

I am looking forward to the weekend, but think it will feel weird without Momma for the first time in nearly 3 weeks!

I decided to drown my sorrows last night by making a card for this week's CASology cue card -

The minute I saw it, I knew it was time to pull out the Clearly Besotted 'Cheering For You' set - it's now retired, so here is a photo -

I love this set!

I die-cut the white panel first and used my Simon Says Stamp Firework stencil with distress oxide ink and then stamped the sentiment. I stamped, coloured and cut my jumping cheerleader Panda and mounted her, just above the sentiment with foam tape.

Super simple card that makes me super happy.

Have a great weekend, I will be at the gym and watching the World Cup.

Cx

The Paper Players: Toucan of Friendship...

Hey,

Sad day today, as my Momma leaves after being here for 2 weeks. It has been SO much fun hanging out with her and I'm super sad to see her go.

Momma and I in Philadelphia

So I love bird stamps, so when I saw the challenge over at The Paper Players this week, I knew I had to enter!

I wanted to use the great 'Toucan of Friendship' set by Reverse Confetti. I stamped and coloured one of the Toucan's from the set using Zigs.

I was a bit indecisive about the background and then came across some tags that I had forgotten about (from Paper Source) and I thought it would make a great backdrop for the Toucan. So I cut off the 'tag' part as it is a super long tag!

I stamped my sentiment also from the set in the top right corner and added the Toucan using foam tape..

I love him, he's so cheerful and is going to accompany a gift for a friend.

Cx

Llama tell you...

Hey,

I made today's cards a couple of weekend's ago when Hubby was away.

When Hubby is away I get to stay up late and craft - which is my fave time to craft. I can't do this when he is here, as my craft room is half of our bedroom...yeah who thought that was a good plan! That is sadly what happens when you live in a tiny 1 bed New York apartment.

I found a pack of x6 frames in Michaels for 50 cents and I thought I'd make a couple of random cards with them.

I used my Gerda Steiner 'Llama tell you' set for both cards and the same scalloped die for the background.

The first card was cracking me up as I made it, because of the expressions on the Llama's faces. It totally reminded me of Lemon and I when we take photos, one of us always has the 'what are you doing' expression.

Here's the second card, same format, but I found a random die-cut frame and thought it would be fun to use it here.

I love it when I can have a play at my desk and just make random cards for no reason. AND look how much patterned paper I used..not that my stash seems to be going down at all!

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

Happy 16th Birthday...

Hey,

Ever have one of those days, where the events of the day make you realise how OLD you are!

LOL.

Today my Godson Ben is turning 16, I can totally remember the day he was born, I can't believe he is already 16 and that his Mother and I have been friends for 30 years - EEEK!!!

Ben is totally into fashion and so I wanted his card to reflect that.

I smooshed a piece of watercolour paper in some distress ink and dried it off, I repeated this several times until I was happy with the background. I then stamped some stars randomly, to add a bit more interest to the background.

To tie in with the fashion aspect, I added a Dina Wakely Scribbly Man.

I didn't want to cover the beautiful image / background, so I heat embossed part of the sentiment (freebie from AMuse) onto Vellum and added a die-cut for the rest of it.

Super happy with this, I think it's perfect for a fashion forward 16 year old.

His gift is the same thing that I give all my godchildren at this age - a weekend away with me - Ben I think has drawn the lucky straw, as now that we live in NYC, this gift means he is coming here.

Cx

Little Cat Birthday...

Hey,

I had a very successful flea market yesterday - $38 not bad considering I was selling for 25cents or 50cents.

It was fun to have Lisette hanging with me and being the mistress of stall display! Where was she back in the day when I used to do craft fairs?!

Today I am playing along with The Paper Players, they have a Tic-Tac-Toe challenge one of my faves..

I opted for the diagonal left to right line - Circle, Die-cut and Flower.

First I stamped and coloured (with Zigs) one of the Cats from my new Mama Elephant, Little Cat Agenda stamp set. I love these teeny tiny little kitties.

I die-cut it using a stitched circle die by Simon Says Stamp.

I am hoping my flower 'interpretation' will count! I used a Spellbinders scalloped circle die and a SSS stitched circle die to create the petals of my flower - the Cat circle is the centre of the flower.

The sentiment is made up of a Technique Tuesday stamp and a Tim Holtz die-cut.

I think it will make a great birthday card for my Niece Florence.

Cx

Moving Along With The Times..Numbers or Letters...

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Moving Along With The Times Challenge..

This time our Hostess is Judith and she wants us to use die-cut letters or numbers.

I made my card in October when I was at JT's house having a playdate. So none of the items you see on my card are mine - love playing with someone else's stash.

I used a great woodgrain background stamp that JT has and I inked it up with 3 different distress ink blues and spritzed it with water before laying my paper on top.

I love doing this, you always get a great effect and its a total surprise!

I decided that a word banner would work well and rooted through JT's stash and came up with this awesome Die-versions Cheers banner. I die-cut it in a coordinating colour and secured it to the card using mini staples.

It felt a bit bare, so I added some punched stars and some blue bling.

It has already left my desk and is winging its way to a friend.

Show us your creations, but first hop on over to MAWTT and see what the rest of the DT have been making.

Challenge ends on November 23rd at 1pm GMT. You can enter 3 times.

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

Valentine's Day Card Series - Day Four...

Hey,

Hope you are having a good weekend so far.

Hubby and I are running errands, as we leave for our holiday / wedding / work trip next Friday.

Today I have two more cards for you in my five day Valentine's Day card series.

The main card uses a stamp that I have had forever! I They are by Stampendous and I have hardly used them. The set is all about geeks!

I thought the card should be simple and less red and pink..it is for a boy after all.

The next card uses another one of the on sale stamps I got at Michaels.

I had originally planned to stamp in the heart space..but I decided that the Tim Holtz stickers worked better.

Again, keeping it simple by just mounting the piece onto a card blank.

I'm sad that Valentine's Day is here tomorrow, now I have to stop making all these cards..it's been fun playing in my stash and stretching things a bit.

Tomorrow I'll be sharing the odious cards I made for JT.

We challenged each other to make the most over the top, hideous cards we could. I failed a bit, so made a second one. That worked card number two is horrid.

Seems a bit wrong right? Using our 'good' skills to make something bad..but sometimes that is fun and harder!

Cx

Happy Birthday Man....

Hey,

Today is JT's birthday.

She is one of my bestie's and I love her to pieces :)

She is an absolutely amazing friend, kind and supportive. She is responsible for a ton of the happy things that have happened to me in the past few years. She's got an outrageous sense of humor and I love the fact that she takes virtually anything in her stride.

She's fierce. I like fierce ladies. All my ladies are fierce.

Anyway, her present is still winging its way across the Atlantic, as I was a bit late sending it.

Hopefully her card will have arrived and this post isn't going to ruin it for her.

I wanted to make her a special card, so I got my hands on this fab Callista loves to Craft stamp by Stamping Bella..It comes with a lovely sentiment..too smushy for her :) It's inside the card.

I coloured the stamp with Promarkers and then die-cut it using scalloped circle dies by Spellbinders. I covered the front of one of my giant square cards that JT gave me with a fun patterned paper, I used the same paper inside too.

I added a bit of wink of stella here and there and used a Mama Elephant sentiment.

I like making special cards for special people.

Sadly as I am in NYC right now I won't get to celebrate with JT this time, but at least we can do it in March.

Happy Birthday Man..

Cx

Jenn Shurkus' Coolest Card Series..

Hey,

A late post from me today.

As I am waiting to watch the Pro-bowl, I thought I'd play along with Jenn's Coolest Card series..

There were three weeks, all had to be snow themed + something else that was announced each week..

Week 1 - Stencils and Paper Smooches.This week you had to make a card that was snow themed AND used stencils.

I used Lawn Fawn Winter Fox stamps and dies. The snow was made using Lawn Fawn stitched hillside borders, I added a bit of stickles to the curve to make it more snow like.

I had a freebie snowflake stencil that I have never used..which turned out to be perfect for here.

I added a Simon Says Stamp sentiment as the finishing touch.

Week 2 - Watercolours and My Favorite Things. This week make a card that is snow themed AND used watercolours.

I decided to go with a resist here, I stamped my Sizzix snowflakes using clear versamark ink and white embossing powder. I heat embossed it and then watercoloured over the top. I love the splodges you get. I used a MFT stitched die to die cut my watercolour piece out and then stamped a Simon Says Stamp sentiment onto a darker blue panel. I added a blue doily for a bit of texture.

I love this card, it feels like being out in the snow!

Week 3 - Valentine Colours and Lawn Fawn. This week make a card that is snow themed AND uses Valentine colours.

This is the main photo today.

I used one of my fave Lawn Fawn sets here - Yeti, Set, Go. I thought a pink Yeti made sense..after all there must be a Ms / Mrs Yeti right? Once again I utilised my Lawn Fawn stitched hillside border die and keeping with the colour scheme I stamped pink snowflakes..

Finished off with a sentiment sticker by Crate Paper.

What a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

I'm also pretty excited that Kathy Rac over at The Daily Marker is starting her latest 30 Day Colouring Challenge tomorrow - whoop whoop!

Cx

Playing with a cardlkit..

Hey, 

Hope you are all well and had a great weekend.

I had such a fun weekend, having Denise here was a hoot and I got to see my good friend from home Nkem, because she was here in NYC with her Mother.

Fun times with great people.

Denise also took to crafting like a duck to water and had a great time at class on Friday. We had a mini craft session in the house on Sunday and I will show you what I produced later in the week.

Today I wanted to show a couple of cards, I made a while ago using the Simon Says Stamp Oct. cardkit.

The main card I actually gave to Jenn to thank her for hosting the loftartretreats that make me so happy.

I love the 'you're pretty fantastic' stamp, it has got a lot of potential.

I kept the card very simple - all the stamps are from the kit and I added some pretty washi tapes.

The card below uses stamps from the kit - I was unsure what I was going to add to the left hand side of the card, but I knew I had to have something there.

Then I saw this little monster die cut lying on my desk..so I added a googly eye and added him to my card :)

I really like the Oct cardkit and I am currently playing with other items from the kit..so look out for a few more cards.

Cx

Retro Rubber #18 Get Your Sketch On!!

Hey,

It is time for another fantastic Retro Rubber challenge..

Who doesn't love a sketch challenge?!

Don't forget to use a stamp older than a year and tell us how long you have had it..it's a big part of the fun..

I used old and new stamps. The balloon is from an old Teresa Collins stamp set that I have had since 2013. The sentiment is from a new SSS stamp set - Square Sayings.

I have a little void on one of the balloons, but that's handmade for you :)

I like the teeny tiny little blue scalloped edge poking out..it's a bit shorter than I wanted, but I still like it.

Pop over to Retro Rubber to see the superb creations by my teammates and link up to show us what you come up with.

Challenge ends on July 17th

Cx

Mixed Media Play Time..

Hey,

Happy Friday!!

Before Ma was here, I had an epic play at my desk.

One of the things I made is today's main photo.

I created my own watercoloured background and then stamped over it with pale blue and pink inks with 2 difference size ball stamps by CAS-ual Fridays.

I used a fun stencil by Crafters Workshop with texture paste and embossing powder. Once it was dry I heated it to get the shine.

I die cut hello in white and inked it up in the same blue and pink inks and mounted it onto the card on top of a piece of washi tape.

Here's a close-up so you can see the inked die-cut -

This card ended up being perfect for a friend, so it has already left my desk..

Hope you have a great weekend, I am going to be continuing on with my OCC Maskerade class.

Cx

Moving Along With The Times...Into The Wild...

Hey,

Forgive my blog appearance I am making some updates and I kind of lost my header..

Anyway, onto fun things!

It's time for another great Moving Along With The Times challenge.

Our hostess this week is Hazel and her theme is Into The Wild....you can use animals, people, the jungle, the forest. Whatever Into The Wild means for you.

I really wanted to use the beautiful Valentine's Fox stamp by Tam Hess from CMA.

I love Foxes and where I am from in London, they roam around, they are pretty harmless and I have spent many wonderful hours watching them play in my garden.

I decided to add a digital paper (Woodgrain in willow by Pink Petticoat) before printing the stamp. I coloured my little Fox using Promarkers and I added Glamour Dust to the tail to give him a bit of shimmer.

I die-cut the paper to fit my card blank using a SSS stitched rectangle die, then I tied a contrasting piece of ribbon around the paper before mounting him to the card blank.

I wasn't sure what to do about the sentiment..so I tried lots of things and ended up using a SSS Stitched circle die and heat embossed the sentiment onto the circle.

Such a sweet card...I'm very pleased :)

Now it's your turn - but first go over to MAWTT to check out the Wild creations by my teammates.

Cx

Moving Along With The Times...Three.. in a Row...

Hey,

It's time for the Moving Along With The Times challenge..Team B are up this week and our hostess is Sue B and she has chosen a great theme of Three in a Row

Very simple rules - choose a row top to bottom, left to right - example Ribbon or Lace, Image, Punch

I went with Die, Image, Gems or Pearls.

I used a Magnolia image, which was such fun to colour. I had the hello in my image drawer forever and now that I have circle dies (by Sizzix), I could finally cut it out at the right size!

I thought it worked well here with the greens in the image and the paper.

All the papers are by Bo Bunny.

I added self-adhesive gems and pearls around the image.

I love Three in a Row, it's such fun and made me use some things that have been hidden away for quite some time.

This card is already on it's way to my Grandma.

Now it's your turn to join in the fun, but first check out the inspiring makes by my teammates over at MAWTT.

Cx

Tim Holtz Tags of 2015...February...

Hey,

So I finally got round to starting AND finishing my February tag last weekend. And yes the photo is HUGE, but he's sooo gorgeous, I wanted to share him in full detail :)

So modge podge gave me some issues, thus it is time to invest in glue n seal!

I used all the technique's Tim used, but I substituted some of the items. My papers came from my scraps, the sentiment I stamped and then distressed.

I assembled the entire tag, following all the steps. I did not want to sew on my heart and looked at the other tags for inspiration - big thanks to Belinda Basson, her use of staples inspired me to do the same.

The die cutting felt was a new thing for me - believe it or not. Silly right!

I added some gold stars around the frame on my tag, I felt I needed sparkle! For the final touch I used a Navy mist to add splatter. I smudged some of it in, as it was a bit OTT..mists, still mystify me..

I broke my one new item rule - there are 3 here..sorry I just couldn't resist the President's Day sales.. So the arrow, heart and frames are new..sorry but I love a sale!

Here's a close-up -

I love how my tag looks, it feels feminine yet grungy - love it!

Cx

p.s Yes..'Tags' are male...