Retro Rubber #254 - Spring Flowers..

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

This time we have a spring flowers theme challenge, created by me.

As I am now a gardener I am all about spring flowers :)

I decided to use this awesome stamp by Spellbinders 'Fabulous Friend' I've had it since 2023 and it's one of my faves. I coloured the flowers to match the inspiration image because it feels like the colours I get in my garden.

A pretty simple card with a lot of very relaxing colouring.

I can't wait to see your interpretation of the theme, pop over to Retro Rubber, and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends May 16th.

Don't forget to tell us the age of your stamp, that is part of the fun of our challenge, and please only enter 5 challenges including Retro Rubber.

Cx

Retro Rubber Blog Challenge #226 - Theme

Hey,

Welcome to another awesome Retro Rubber challenge.

Ths time we have a spring theme for you.

I love flowers and now I am slowly becoming a gardener spring brings much excitement!

I have these pretty orangey-red flowers in my front garden (no idea what they are, the landscaper for the builder added them) and they inspired my colour palette.

I used 'Mondo Sakura' by Ellen Hutson that I have had since 2019. I heat embossed the stamp onto watercolour paper and then watercoloured it using Altenew Watercolour brush markers. The sentiment is also from the set and despite having used this set a lot, I have never ever used this sentiment combo!

Which spring flowers do you have in your stash that will inspire you? Pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends March 22nd.

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

Retro Rubber Blog Challenge #204 - It's Spring!

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

This time, we are all about Spring.

It was Mother's Day in Europe a few weeks ago - in fact my Momma was here in the US with me, so that was nice. I made my Momma and MIL these springy cards to celebrate them.

I love the flower stamp by The Stamp Market 'Floral Diamond' I have had it since 2020 and I love cutting it out with my Brother Scan n Cut.

This time I stamped it onto watercolour paper and heat embossed the outline so that I could watercolour it, for a softer look. The sentiment is by Lawn Fawn and I have had it for years, I don't even think they sell it anymore! It felt flat on plain white paper, so I embossed the white panel using one of my fave embossing folders by Creative Expressions - I think this came from the UK with me 10 years ago. It added some much-needed drama to the card and I love it.

Here is a close-up for you -

Can't wait to see your spring makes and don't forget to pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends April 21st.

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

Fusion Card Challenge - Colour Palette - Flowers..

Hey,

Welcome to another fantastic Fusion Card Challenge.

This time we have 'Colour Palette - Flowers' for you. As always both the sketch and the inspiration image are awesome.

Which will you try?

I loved both, so I fused them!

I loved the colours and it was fun to colour my leaves using blue instead of green.

I used a fave stamp by Ellen Hutson 'Mondo Wildflowers' and I watercoloured it and then die-cut it.

I decided to heat emboss the sentiment, which is from the Avery Elle 'Orchid' set. 

Such an easy and fun card to make :)

Make sure you check out all the rest of the inspiration by the DT over at the Fusion challenge blog, and play along with your own creation! When playing along you may use the sketch OR the photo to inspire your makes. OR, if you are feeling adventurous, you can fuse them together (see what I did there!).

Excited to see what you make

Challenge ends on July 5th.

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #183 - Anything Goes..

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

Hubby and I are heading to NYC this weekend!! So excited to go dancing in our fave spots.

It's time for Anything Goes! WHOOP!!! I love Anything Goes.

I decided to do something that I rarely do and went with a mix of brand new and old. I tend to stick with my older stamps (as there are 2hundred million of them), but this was so pretty I just had to use it here.

The floral stencil is new-ish (released this year) by Taylored Expressions and is one of their 'create in quads' (or thirds for mini slim like this one) range. I LOVE them. SO easy to make a quick batch of cards.

I wanted a really big sentiment, but I wanted it to be delicate, enter a set that I had TOTALLY forgotten about by Simon Says Stamp 'It's No Secret' I have had it since 2016 and it has not had the kind of use it deserves - doesn't it look great?

I made x3 of these cards all at once using the same sentiment stamp, because it's just fabulous.

I can't wait to see what parts of your stash you choose to use. And pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends June 3rd

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

Retro Rubber Challenge #182 - Flower Power....

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

We have a 'flower power' theme for you this time.

I love flower stamps and I am sure that I have way too many of them!

I dug out one of my all-time fave stamp sets by MFT - Large Desert Bouquet that I have had since 2016, it is my default set when I want impactful flowers. Weirdly there are no leaf dies, so I used a freebie die. The flowers were stamped with Altenew Inks.

The background was one from my stash, I like to make backgrounds and keep them for using when I need inspiration and don't know where to start. It is a Clearly Besotted stencil with Distress Stain used through it.

I love these little sentiments by Mama Elephant (Simple Sentiments), they come with their own dies and I cut this one in half so it worked better on my card.

I used this as a thank you card, it felt like a lovely way to say thanks!

Which of your many flower stamps will you use?  Also, pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends May 20th.

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

Fusion Card Challenge - Turquoise Flower Bouquet...

Hey,

Welcome to another awesome Fusion Card Challenge.

This time we have 'Turquoise Flower Bouquet' for you! As always both the sketch and the inspiration image are awesome.

Which will you try?

No surprise here, as usual, I loved both, so I fused them!

I rotated the sketch and added a piece of coordinating paper to the bottom to match the sketch. As my stamp was so large it worked perfectly as the central piece of the sketch.

The stamp is a fave of mine by Concord & 9th 'Wonderful Florals'. Every time I used it, I have to watercolour it, as it is such a great canvas to do that with. I used Distress Inks to watercolour and iuile watercolours for the gold lettering, as IRL it gives the most amazing shimmer.

Another simple but impactful card.

Make sure you check out all the rest of the inspiration by the DT over at the Fusion challenge blog, and play along with your own creation! When playing along you may use the sketch OR the photo to inspire your makes. OR, if you are feeling adventurous, you can fuse them together (see what I did there!).

Can't wait to see your makes. 

Challenge ends on March 15th.

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #165 Crusin'...

Hey,

Welcome to another awesome Retro Rubber challenge.

This time we have a fun theme for you, asking you to show modes of transportation on your card.

I love VW Bugs and Campers, they remind me of my teenage years, when everyone started to drive and had them. I had a friend who had a bright orange VW Bug and we went everywhere in it, even though it was wholly unreliable!

I have had this set 'Hattastic Car' by Flora & Fauna since 2019 and I have only used it once! I thought it would make a cute little scene.

I stamped the 'grass' first, which is actually a set by Avery Elle 'Brushed' and it has all these great brushstrokes in it, that I am always using for 'land'. I stamped the Campervan, masked it off, so I could stamp the flowers, which are also masked because they are only a 3 stem stamp. I stamped, coloured, and fussy-cut the hat because I wanted to add dimension.

Show us your fun transportation makes. Don't forget to pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT has made.

Challenge ends on August 27.

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

Retro Rubber Challenge #158 Tic Tac Toe...

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

This time we have another Tic Tac Toe board by our very own Jan.

I chose the middle horizontal line - Cake-Heat Embossing-Flowers.

I love this set by Flora & Fauna 'Birthday Day' I have had it since 2019 and it was perfect for this challenge. 

I heat embossed it onto watercolour paper and watercoloured the cake and the flowers, the flowers are actually watercoloured with metallic paints, so IRL have a great shimmer to them.

I felt that the background paper was 'floral' in a loose way, and added a die-cut piece of vellum to lift the image off of the paper.

This card feels vaguely bridal..

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

Challenge ends May 21st.

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

Fusion Card Challenge - Flowers

 Hey,

Welcome to another fantastic Fusion Card Challenge.

This time we have 'flowers' for you! As always both the sketch and the inspiration image are awesome.

Which will you try? I have SO many flower stamps, that I knew I had to fuse them. 

The fancy vase kind of reminded me of a cup, so was a perfect fit for my Waffle Flower x Helen Dardik 'Enveloper Coffee' stamp (I literally worship Helen Dardik).

I stamped it onto watercolour paper and watercoloured it, adding some sakura gelly roll stardust pens for shimmer (IRL, SO SHIMMERY!!).

I added papers and a banner to match the sketch. The sentiment was just perfect, it seemed like the kind of thing that the cheeky girl in the cup might say if she saw you looking at her! It is by Rabbit Hole Designs from their 'Perfectly Blended' set and if you are a coffee/tea fan, you need these in your life.

I always love cards I make with this stamp and I am always reluctant to send them to anyone LOL.

Make sure you check out all the rest of the inspiration by the DT over at the Fusion challenge blog, and play along with your own creation! When playing along you may use the sketch OR the photo to inspire your makes. OR, if you are feeling adventurous, you can fuse them together (see what I did there!).

Can't wait to see your makes. 

Challenge ends on February 2nd.

Cx

Faux Watercolouring...

Hey,

Sorry I have been a stranger.

I went back to work and things got hectic.

But in happy news I have had a few days off with Hubby this week and it was nice, I know it was right after the Christmas break, but it felt great.

Last year I came across this faux watercolouring technique and it is AMAZING.

Ink up your stamp with a water reactive ink (I used distress inks) and then spritz with water before laying down your paper. You get a kind of watercolour feel to the stamping and you can use a brush to make the effect stand-out more. Let it dry and stamp over it in a darker ink - I used Navy ink for all 3 cards.

Looks great right?!

I chose to use one of my fave Ellen Hutson flower stamps 'Mondo Sakura', by my all-time fave crafter Julie Ebersole. 

I have used this technique a lot, it's fun and easy.

Cx

Fusion Card Challenge: Thankful...

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Fusion Card Challenge.

This time we have 'Thankful' for you! As always both the sketch and the inspiration image are awesome.

Which will you try?

I loved both, but it's not a true fuse if you ask me! I was inspired to use some of the floral elements from the photo and the pretty wreath style at the bottom of the table runner.

The sketch was made for me I think, I LOVE circles.

I die-cut x3 circles out of white cardstock and I stamped the large one, using a Waffle Flower set and then the smaller ones are both using a Christine Adolph flower stamp. I coloured them all in tones of lilac and purple. I added gold glitter gel pen for the centres and a bit of gold bling here and there.

It makes me smile every time I see it, it's so simple and why haven't I mixed flower stamps before?!

I used -

Waffle Flower w/Big Bear and Bird - Bear and Bird

Christine Adolph - Cheerful Bloom

Neat & Tangled - Gold glitter enamel dots

Sakura GellyRoll - Starburst Glitter gel pen

Make sure you check out all the rest of the inspiration by the DT over at the Fusion challenge blog, and play along with your own creation! 

When playing along you may use the sketch OR the photo to inspire your makes. OR, if you are feeling adventurous, you can fuse them together (see what I did there!).

Can't wait to see your makes. 

Challenge ends on November 23rd

Cx

Floral Die-cut Birthday Thanks...

 

Hey,

Sorry for the lack of posts this week! It was supposed to be a fun week off following my 11th Wedding Anniversary. But sadly thanks to my pesky wisdom teeth it's going to be a bit different.

As an emergency, I had to have the remaining x3 wisdom teeth out on Tuesday. I was SUPER nervous, but my Oral Surgeon was amazing and so I am all good and recovering well.

With all this in mind, I thought it was a perfect time to show you the thank you set I made for my birthday. If you are a long time follower of mine, you will know that I love to make 'sets' to say thank you for the generous and thoughtful birthday and Christmas gifts I receive.

Here are a couple from previous years for you (Do you think I have a Monster stamp thing?!) - 

2017 Monster Tag Birthday Thanks

2018 Monster Rockstar Birthday Thanks

For this year's cards I used the Concord & 9th die from the 'Big Thanks' Bundle and cut it from the pretty Lawn Fawn 'Fall Fling' Papers. I really wanted to use these papers and they worked so well on the brown Paper Source card blanks, that were gifted to me by a friend!

I love making sets and I usually get carried away, so end up with a few for my stash and/or charity.

Cx

4from1: Flora & Fauna

Hey,

It's been a bit crazy in my work world, so my posts have had to take a back seat.

But today I thought I would share 4 great cards that I made using a mix of Flora & Fauna 'Llama Garden' (now retired) and Taylored Expressions 'Whole Llama Love' - which is a sentiment set.

I started by creating the backgrounds for each card. Two of them I created a fun masked, blended circle, One is a full blended panel and the final one was blended around the edges and I stamped flowers and leaves for a bit of interest.

I used the flower/leaf edge technique on one of the circles too.

The backgrounds came out so well, it was then really easy to add the Llamas to them and the fun sentiments. I am really loving adding glittery accents to my cards using Sakura Gelly Roll Starburst pens - they are SO glittery and they work really well on blended areas, meaning you don't need to colour the whole stamp/image.

I often find it easier to start cards by creating a focal point or a background, then I can decide which stamps I want to use.

I also tend to make cards in fours, it means I get a lot of use out of a stamp set in one go. I have forced myself more and more to use all the little stamps in a set, not just the bigger ones that made me buy the set in the first place.

Cx

Retro Rubber #134.. Spring Flowers..

Hey,

Happy Cinco de Mayo (and Happy Birthday to my bestie Lemon).

Welcome to another awesome Retro Rubber challenge.

This time it's all about Spring Flowers..

If you are anything like me, then you have a TON of flower stamps and this was quite hard for me to decide which ones to use LOL.

I decided to use the amazing Waffle Flower x Helen Dardik 'Enveloper Hugs' set. I love Helen Dardik's work and these stamps always make me smile. I have had this one since 2018.

I stamped and coloured the main image and x3 of the other flower images in the set. I used Altenew watercolour pens to colour the stamps. I die0cut all of the coloured stamps and layered them onto my stenciled cloud background (stencil by Dutchdoobadoo).

I created the sentiment by combining two of the Waffle Flower x Helen Dardik sets.

A really fun make that went to a good crafter friend for her birthday, as I knew she would appreciate it!

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

Challenge ends May 15th.

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

Masking Flower Thanks...

Hey,

I am trying to use the lockdown period to post cards that have been sitting in my 'to be blogged' folder for a LONG time.

This card is 18months old!!

I love Helen Dardik and I was so excited when she released a stamp collection with Waffle Flower. I think I have most of it now..but I am always on the hunt for the missing pieces :)

This card was one of a series I made, using the Helen Dardik stamps and a mix of Simon Says Stamp and MFT flower stamps.

First I created a circle mask and stamped the main girl image (Enveloper Birthday), then I masked off the girl and stamped the sentiment. Cue much more masking so I could stamp all the flowers.

I coloured everything and them die-cut it as a circle.

It looks so pretty on the square card blank.

This is a time consuming but a fun technique that I use a lot to stretch my stamps.

Cx

The Paper Players: Floral Mother's Day Cards...

Hey,

Despite all the virus craziness it is still going to be Mother's Day in the UK on Sunday.

I wanted both my Mother and my MIL to have cards that were bright and cheery and full of flowers, which they both love.

Handily both of my cards fit the current Paper Players challenge -

But I think the one for my MIL (on the right), is way more CAS and so fits the challenge better. This card uses a Studio Katia set 'A Cup of Thanks' and the sentiment is by Hero Arts.

I love the Studio Katia set and it gets a lot of use, here I kept it super simple and stamped onto watercolour card, and using distress inks I watercoloured the image and then added lots of shimmer with Sakura glitter gel pens.

The card for my Momma on the left uses Taylored Expressions 'Shiplap Background' and Concord & 9th 'Wonderful Florals'.
The Concord & 9th set is so stunning, so many possibilities for using it, I am itching to try out more ideas, as this was my first inking of it. I stamped it and coloured it using Copic Markers and Sakura glitter gel pens. I die-cut it out and using foam tape, mounted it to the panel that I had stamped the Shiplap background onto. Final touch was the sentiment.
I love how it came out and the colours are perfect for my Momma.

Two lovely floral cards, very different, for very different ladies.

Cx

CASE: Floral Llama Car Birthday..

Hey,

So last weekend as it was a long weekend I decided to CASE a card I have had on my Pinterest board for a while.

I knew that it wouldn't be a quick make, so needed to save it for a time when I had oodles of desk playtime.

This is the card I CASEd - by Rejoicing Crafts.

I loved the colour combos and just the fun and unusual nature of the card.
Yoosun used all Flora & Fauna stamps to create her card, but I didn't have all of those, so I dug out some Neat & Tangled and MFT stamp sets to supplement the F&F that I did have. Also Yoosun stamped all her flowers and leaves first and then added the watercolour aspect and I did it the other way around.

Here are photos of the first two steps -

As you can see the watercoloured panels don't really look that great, then add flowers and leaves and wow! it really comes to life.

I used a F&F car die and die-cut x2 cards out of white watercolour paper and then watercoloured them in red and blue to coordinate with the backgrounds better. I stamped and die-cut the Llama's from F&F's 'Llama Garden' set and affixed them to the cars before I popped them up on foam tape and added them to my card.

The sentiment is also by F&F and from their 'Birthday' set.

I am so, so happy with these cards, they came out so well and it was fun to CASE a card using a mix of things I already have!

I get so hooked on the beautiful cards that design teams make to help sell products, I always want to rush out and buy the products, but this year I am trying to mimic what I see, using what I have.

It's working out really well and this makes it easier for me to not be tempted to open my wallet!

Cx

p.s Other stamp sets I used were - Neat & Tangled's Scandinavian Prints (no longer available), MFT's Pretty Posies (available here) and My Cute Stamps 'Spunky Nature'(no longer available)

The Paper Players: Grateful..

Hey,

The theme over at The Paper Players this week, meant I could bring out one of my fave stamp sets.

It was my birthday recently and I am super grateful for all the amazing people I have in my life, that took the time to think of me, come hang with me, send me cards, gifts, and lovely wishes. So this card and post are for them.

I used the 'So Very Grateful' set by Unity Stamp Co. I LOVE their flower jar stamp sets and I think I have them all now.

I stamped the flower jar onto watercolour paper and used distress inks to watercolour, I didn't really use fall colours, but I think that's ok. I love watercolouring these jars.

I am loving adding sentiments stamped onto vellum right now! So I did it again here.

Super simple make.

Cx

Botanical Borders..

Hey,

I bought a few new things in the Labor Day sales this year.

One of the things I bought is this awesome Botanical Borders set by Ink Blot Shop.

I love it, it is very versatile and I've made quite a few different things with it..

I liked the idea of leaving a border below the stamps, I had originally planned to put a strip of glittery washi tape along the bottom straight edge of the stamp, but I didn't like it when I tried it!

These cards were SO easy to make, I stamped and watercoloured the images and then I die-cut them using a stitched rectangle die and added the sentiments.

I used a new-ish watercolour block that I have - super cheap from Amazon, the colours are very vibrant.

Cx