Sunny Days and Laughter...

Hey,

How I long for the Sunny Days I reference in the title of my post today..

I am really not a Winter person!

A while back a colleague and a friend in the London office left and I wanted to send her a little gift and it gave me the perfect opportunity to play with this gorgeous stamp set by Pink Fresh Studio (Let's Flamingle).

I CASEd one of the ideas I'd seen for using the stamp and heat embossed it onto watercolour paper, using gold embossing powder and then watercoloured it using distress inks.

It looked so lovely when it was finished, I was in two minds about giving it away LOL.

I added one of the sentiments from the set, as I thought it was perfect for the recipient.

Such a simple way to use a complex stamp.

Cx

Retro Rubber #101...Photo Inspired Happy Holidays!

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

Well wasn't that a fun 100th celebration?!

A big thanks from me and the whole team to all of the people that joined in the fun and left comments on our blogs.

The winner of my giveaway is Angel North (http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com/). Congrats - Angel, use the contact me form on the right hand side of my blog to send me your address details - I'll be back on 10th of December and will post your package then.

This is our last challenge of the year and in spirit of the season we are wishing you Happy Holidays with this theme -

I went a bit off piste, so to clarify, I used the snow, hat and scarf to inspire my card LOL.

I decided to go all non-traditional colours, as I was using a Flamingo stamp! The stamp is by Inkadinkadoo and I've had it since 2016, the whole set is a lot of fun and not really traditional, which might be why I love it so much. It is no longer for sale, so here's a photo for you.

I dug out a sparkly tag from my enormous tag stash - if you don't know me that well, here's a bit of insight I am literally addicted to tags, I make my own using dies AND I buy them at any opportunity..if my Husband ever finds my stash, I swear he will divorce me!

I printed a piece of pink snowflake paper by Pink Petticoat that I have had for about 9 years..I love the subtle snowflakes peeking through. I cut it a bit shorter, so I could add a sparkly gold border to coordinate with the tag. Final touch was to add the sentiment from the same stamp set.

I love this overly girly Holiday card it makes me very happy.

Show us what the photo has inspired you to make and pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends December 14th.

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

Christmas Card 2017: Inkadinkado Flamingos..

Hey,

So whilst I was in London I managed an evening of stamping and colouring.

I stamped a lot of Christmas card stuff and this week I have been turning them into cards.

I bought this fun set by Inkadinkado last year in the post-Christmas sale at Michaels and I mainly bought it for the flip-flops, chair and the Flamingo.

I stamped the Flamingo onto watercolour paper and coloured them using Zigs and a paintbrush.

I die-cut them out using a MFT stitched rectangle die and added a sentiment to the bottom of the panel. I decided to get fancy and heat emboss the Simon Says Stamp Flamingo background stamp directly onto the card blank!! Don't worry I only make in fours..this would be a lot of effort for 100+ cards!

I like the end result, totally random, but a lot of fun.

I also made a slightly different more Christmassy version -

Cx

Mexico 2017...

Hey,

Short and simple post today.

Just saying Hola! Following our return from Mexico and showing you photos of us, generally enjoying ourselves and Freddie Flamingo makes an appearance too.

We had a FANTASTIC time and it was just awesome to spend QT with Hubby.

Sad to be home, but it's always nice to know we have next year to look forward to.

Cx

Sketch Saturday #480..Flamingo Float!

Hey,

Welcome to the latest sketch for the Sketch Saturday challenge.

Our sponsor this week is Just Me Digital Stamps and they are offering a prize of 2 digi stamps from their store.

Here's the sketch - 

I chose Flamingo Floating which handily came with the sentiment that I used in my banner.

I love this stamp, so much fun, I want a giant pink Flamingo float!

I kept the card super simple and printed the stamp out and die-cut it to size using an MFT stitched wonky rectangle die. I coloured the image with Promarkers and Spectrum Noir sparkle markers.

I also printed out the sentiment and cut the banner by hand..really need a die for this right?! I affixed it to my card using a mini staple.

Your turn to show us what you make with the sketch, but first check out what the rest of the DT have

made over at Sketch Saturday.

Challenge ends 15th September at 7pm GMT / 2pm EST

Cx

Flamingo Thanks...

Hey,

So I am back in NYC, back at work.

I had a great time, back to reality now...for 9 days before Mexico!!!

Recently a friend sent me an awesome Flamingo shirt -

She said she hated it and wanted it to go to a good home..me me me...

I love it and I thought it was only fitting that I send her a Flamingo thank you card.

The Flamingo stamp is by Unity Stamp co and the sentiment is by Simon Says Stamp, as is the Flamingo background stamp.

Super easy, super quick make, but a fun way to stay thanks for a wonderful gift.

Cx

Playdate challenge Flamingo's....

Hey,

Happy Monday,

So JT and I had a fun Skype playdate yesterday and she said she was intrigued by the sketch over at CAS(E) this sketch -

I loved the sketch, but I was concerned about the matching up..so after closer inspection of the DT cards, I came up with a way to cheat ;)

I also had an idea that struck me as either genius or plain weird..involving Flamingo's.

I stamped the Lawn Fawn Flamingo's onto a white piece of watercolour cardstock, but I had marked where I was planning on die-cutting the rectangle (cheat), so I knew how to stamp the Flamingo's and which ones to colour (distress ink in Picked Raspberry and aquabrush).

I die-cut the main panel and then the centre rectangle, affixed the main panel to the card blank and then using pop-dots added the centre rectangle - super clever cheat, will be using again.

The sentiment makes no sense to anyone else but my friend and her posse who live in California..

Weird, pink and wonderful..I think all playdates should involve Flamingo's.

Cx

FMS: Hello Summer...

Hey,

Happy Sunday!!

I know the title of my post might seem like wishful thinking, but seriously the weather in NYC the last few days has been Spring / Summer gloriousness...

I am playing along with Freshly Made Sketches this week -

I instantly thought the Simon Says Stamp Flamingo background stamp would be perfect here. It needs to be broken up, it is a bit busy.

I think the weather inspired me to pull out the SSS Warm Weather Animals stamp set. I wanted this set for SO long, but it was a bit cost prohibitive and then Black Friday happened and I bought it for both JT and I..

I love the bear, I coloured him with Promarkers and Spectrum Noir sparkle pens.

The sentiment is stamped on a coordinating piece of card and I used a Stampin Up banner punch to finish it off.

This card makes me long for warmer weather..

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, Hubby and I have been out and about in NYC this weekend, so fun to be out and about. Today I will be mainly playdating with JT.

Cx

Totally Tropical...

Hey,

Hope you are having a good weekend. 

Hubby and I are in DTown with the Nixons, aka JT's folks.

No doubt we are eating, drinking, gambling, shopping and getting up to mischief.

I thought I would show you a set of cards that I made for a friend..unfortunately it would seem that I did not take a photo of the 4th card in the set, which is very odd, but these things happen!

I decided I wanted to make my friend a set of 'tropical' themed cards, because she recently moved to the beach and has a whole Flamingo theme in her office.

So I broke out my Lawn Fawn 'Flamingo Together' set and a Freebie Pineapple set that I got with a magazine.

I chose colours that felt tropical, so the main card uses a hot pink card blank and a random fabric hello sticker that I chose because of the bright colours. I added a beautiful gold word sticker to this, totally completed the card for me. I used the texture paste background as it felt like the pattern on a Pineapple.

The cards below continue the bright colour theme, the one on the left uses a watercolour striped background that I made ages ago when I was having a play with a Stampin' Up stamp. I added a gold strip and some Tim Holtz word stickers and star bling. The gold thread behind the Flamingo took WAY longer than it needed to.

The card on the right, uses another one of those 'Pineapple' paste backgrounds. I added some washi tape and then mounted the stamped and die-cut pineapple over the top of it.

Lots of fun to make and I used lots of pre made items, which is nice to do, sometimes I don't want to have to wait for things to dry (impatient? me?)

 I hope that my friend likes them, along with the other 'tropical' things that are in the box I sent her.

Cx

Feeling Summery...

Happy Friday everyone!

Well the sun is FINALLY shining in London.

So it felt like a good day to share the fun card I made last week for The Daily Marker 30 days of colouring..which is sadly over now - boo!!

The stencil is by Echo Park and is a new purchase from The Inkpad. I used 3 different distress inks to get the ombre effect.

The sentiment is by Winnie & Walter and the Flamingo is the one that I bought from Michaels in Feb, where the die was made incorrectly :)

Love this card, it is so summery and fresh.

Today is the start of the Olympics and we are having an Olympic party at work...

I'm heading back to NYC tomorrow, so I'll be back at my desk for a play on Sunday - yay!

Cx

Playing in my Art Journal..

Hey,

So my Ma arrived last night - yay!!

I suspect that tonight she will want to break out her new art journal and have a play..so I thought I would show you some things that have been going on in mine lately.

The main photo is a spread I created based around a photo of a painting from a book I found in my $1 bin bookstore dive.. The book is called America in Print. I chose to use this painting by William Russell Birch because a) it is the view from Long Island across the East River looking at Manhattan and it's possibly, roughly where I live now on Manhattan and b) William Birch was English..

I used a Dina Wakely elephant paint for my background and used lime paint for my central highlight. I wanted to make the spread be an extension of the painting and I wanted to get the artists name it. I am really pleased with it and it is a fun mix of stamps and stencils.

One of the best things about art journaling is stretching my stamps and stencils and making them work a bit harder for me. 

The next spread was born out of my desire to create a pink spread LOL, seriously..I felt my pink paints have been a bit neglected recently.

Before the paint dried, I quickly used two stencils and removed some of the paint through them using baby wipes..love this technique and you get such awesome results.

Obviously I opted for Flamingoes, they are pink after all. I die-cut them using glossy paper and dripped alcohol ink onto them to create the fun colours on the right ones. The left ones I inked through the negative die-cuts.

I anchored the Flamingoes using tissue paper and washi tape. For a final touch I added some glitter paste through a stencil here and there..

This spread makes me so happy, so soothing..I think it's the pinks..

I love this art journal thing, I like the lack of rules, playing with paint, collaging things in, just the general random nature of it all.

Cx

Today is a good day...

Hey,

So I got a bit distracted before leaving for Tampa and didn't get round to finishing off my posts about the Flamingo cards I made.

Today I am showing you the rest of the cards from my Flamingo playtime.

I moved over to Tim Holtz chit chat and small talk stickers.

I stuck with the theme of bright papers and used a piece of ancient Pink Paislee paper. Again, I dug out a fave shop bought tag. I love these craft tags..

I stamped all over the tag with a stamp from the same set as the Flamingo. I used brown ink instead of black, it fit better with the background.

I really like the bold colours of this card, softened with the brown accents.

The next card makes me smile a lot -

The chalkboard tag is by American Crafts and I got a bunch of them in all shapes and sizes on sale ages ago.

The papers are all scraps.

I had to make a new baby card for some friends and decided to use a Flamingo for this one too, as the new baby is a girl -

I decided to pull out a ready to go shaker pouch (gotta love the Fuse tool) and some foiled paper to make a rather glitzy new baby card.

I'm really happy with how it came out.

Cx

Do The Happy Dance...

Hey,

I am indeed doing the happy dance...

Today is my Friday - I have Easter off and Hubby and I are heading to Tampa tomorrow morning - whoop whoop sunshine here we come.

We have lots of fun things planned, see Manatees, visit the Big Cat rescue park and go to the Aquarium, fun times.

To celebrate this and Easter :) I had a play with a new-ish set from Michaels - the die is not made right and so not only did I get it on sale, but I got a gift card to apologise for the inconvenience - double yay!

 I made quite a few cards, so I'm going to split them over two posts.

For the main photo today, I stenciled the background, but I didn't like the stamping I did, so I covered it with the bright yellow panel.

I bought a pack of random Snap! sentiment stickers in a sale a while back and I thought Happy Dance would work well here.

Inspired by this first card I made 4 more - LOL!

Here is card number two -

I think this is my fave of them all..I found the random sparkly tag in my giant box of misc embellishments, tags, etc. I LOVE tags and buy them on sale all the time, even though I have all the stuff to make my own..

Again I used one of the Snap! stickers, I thought the sentiment went well with the bright colours. 

I really love how the Flamingo pops against the stripes and yellow.

More of these on Sunday.

Cx

Yes Flamingos Can Fly...

Hey,

Hope you had a good weekend.

Hubby and I had a very relaxing weekend.
I also got a happy craft surprise, because I got a Cut Above mention for my entry to last week's challenge over at Paper Players. How cool is that!

I saw the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge this week - Things that Fly..I knew I had to enter, as I have a love affair with things that fly - birds. planes, etc but on the flip side, they scare me a bit :)

I decided to use a Pink Petticoat Flamingo, as I think most people don't realise that they can and do fly, but at night and for up to 300 miles without stopping - awesome right?

So I coloured the Flamingo using Promarkers and fussy cut him out.

I had the background on my desk already - made a few weeks ago using a Clear Scraps spiral stencil and Wendy Vecchi textured embossing paste.

To add a bit of sparkle, I got out the stencil and laid it over the embossing paste, using a super fine brush I added some metallic glitter paint over the embossing paste. It worked out well and my ancient pot of paint is still going strong!

I put the card together, but really couldn't find a sentiment that worked..finally I stumbled across some Birthday peel-offs and a light bulb went off in my head!

I'm pretty pleased with my card..despite the epic hunt for a sentiment :)

Cx

Moving Along With The Times...sketch time...

Hey everyone,

It's almost Christmas, time to relax and hang out with your loved ones. I for one cannot wait!

Before that we have one last challenge from Team B over at Moving Along With The Times.. our wonderful Hostess this week, is our leader Hazel, she has chosen a sketch theme.

At the time that the DT calendar was released I had just bought the gorgeous Pink Petticoat Flamingoes. I was inspired to create a really girly, but not too busy take on the sketch.

I went with a very busy floral backing paper, so all the other elements had to be simple and pared back. The circles were die-cut from a pink houndstooth embossed paper that JT sent me. I added a simple pink border around the image and some pink candi to finish off.

It's way more pink than I normally use, but I love that the sketch took me to a different place, which is great - stepping out of my comfort zone is healthy!

To see more wonderful creations by Team B and to join in the sketchy fun pop on over to MAWTT.

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas and thanks for playing with us at MAWTT throughout 2014.

Cx