CASology: Plant..

Hey,

Well I think the team at CASology have a camera on my desk :)

I went to check the prompt for the current challenge and it just happened to be -

Both sets I used on my card were already on my desk! WEIRD!

I decided to add a bit of interest to my CAS card, by die-cutting the largest of the Lawn Fawn scalloped, stitched, rectangle window dies. I love these dies, they always add a bit of interest/drama to a card.

Before I added the frame to my card, I added a small amount of Twisted Citron distress ink to the x4 edges of my card. Then I stamped the awesome plant by Flora & Fauna from their 'mini plant lady' set and added the sentiment from the Waffle Flower 'Pretty Foliage' set.

Add the frame, a teeny bit of Sakura glitter gel pen and voila! easy peasy completed card.

I love the little glow you get from the addition of the distress ink, for me it really makes the card.

Cx

Welcome to 2020..

Hey,

Happy New Year from London!

Welcome to a brand new decade!

Hope you had a great NYE - I spent mine with my Parents and it was a fun day / night.

Today I am showing you the cards I made on Boxing Day - I had a bumper 10hr session at my desk and it was wonderful to just play and not have Christmas things to make.

I had an offcut of a smooshed piece of paper on my desk and it sparked an idea. I used the 'Flamingo Sunshine' stamp by Flora & Fauna - they have been my fave new to me stamp company of 2019..

I stamped the Flamingo onto the smooshed background and coloured the details in the few glitter gel pens I had - this was a new to me thing and I LOVE how much sparkle you get - cue me the next day in Blick with Cheiron buying more of them (Sakura Gelly Roll Stardust gel pens). I liked it so much, that smooshed x2 additional pieces of watercolour paper and cut x5 more squares from them so I could create x6 cards.

I die-cut the frame from patterned grey papers - the frame is by MFT stamps. I thought they looked a bit flat on the white cards, so I added a black piece of paper to make them pop.

I decided the sentiment's should be black and I used dies by Lawn Fawn, Taylored Expressions and Heffy Doodle. I was planning on them all being thank yous, but I needed a couple of birthday cards so switched it up a bit.

Love how they came out, I hope the recipients will too.

Cx

Spring has sprung...

Hey,

Happy Wednesday!

Today I thought I would show you some NBUS!

I loved this Impression Obsession Sunflower die - one of my Retro Rubber colleagues used it a while back and I fell in love and bought it.

It has languished in my NBUS bin for a few months now and I finally broke it out..

It die-cuts like a dream and used a wonderful piece of ancient gold / yellow DCWV shimmer cardstock. I blended a bit of green distress ink directly onto the card blank and then I affixed the Sunflower die-cut over it.

Because I wanted to frame it, I pulled out a MFT stitched scalloped rectangle frame die and die-cut that in yellow and affixed it over the Sunflower.

The happy birthday banner I bought in a pack on super bargain sale. I know I can stamp these things, but sometimes I like pre-made banners.

I love this springy card, it made me super happy.

Cx

The Paper Players: Happy Spring!...

Hey,

I thought it would be fun to try and enter a few challenges before I head to London on 22nd of March, as I won't have a full kit there, so it won't be possible.

Today I am entering the latest The Paper Players challenge -

Last year when my Momma came for a visit, she brought all the freebies from a couple of craft magazines that I had subscribed to. It was basically x2 years of goodies from x2 magazines = 24 freebie packs - YAY.

I was going to use a new stamp for this challenge, but then I remembered the big batch of goodies from Momma had a fun Spring scene in it.

I had great fun, playing with this little set. I die-cut the 'scene' die in white and then coloured the flowers and leaves. I die-cut it again in brown, so I could cut out the tree trunks, as I didn't really want to colour those in.

I die-cut the Fox, Rabbit and Butterflies and I added some details to the fox, as his face didn't really show up that well.

I used the scalloped circle mat die that came with the set, but added a smaller circle die of my own to create a frame.

To put my card together, I die-cut a piece of blue paper using a circle die and affixed that to my card blank, then I added the Fox, Rabbit and Butterflies to that.

I popped up the panel with the scene on it, so that I got some dimension. Foolishly I didn't add the sentiment before popping it up - ugh.

It's so out of my comfort zone, but I loved making it - really fun to make almost an entire card without any stamping and I have a recipient in mind.

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

Friend for Life...

Hey,

Last year my friend Ava sent me a link to a new stamp called Monster Selfie by Brutus Monroe.

Obviously I had to have it and I discovered all kinds of goodies on the Brutus Monroe site, including the Rockstar Pets.

I stamped the monster image ages ago and it has just been sitting unloved on my desk. I finally coloured it and made it into a card on Thursday!

I don't use the polaroid frame die much, but when I do I always think "why don't I use you more?".

The friend die is by Mama Elephant, the word stickers are by Tim Holtz and the awesome background paper is by Studio Calico.

This was a pretty quick make, despite all the elements.

Which monster are you? I'm the big jolly green one (I'm tall so I am always at the back!).

Cx

ICAD17: Week 8

Hey,

So here is week 8 of ICAD. This was a hard week for me, with the loss of Archie and the last thing I made before all of that was the Adjective card..

Bizarre summed up my week at that point, little did I know :(

I was torn between the Zombies card and Sepia as my faves..but ended up going with Sepia. 

I love this card, it's so not my style, but I really love it and the 'Sepia' tones you see I created with bronze distress paint and a baby wipe!

I'll show you week 9 over the weekend, but if you want a sneaky peek go here and look at all 61 of my cards.

Cx

ICAD17: Week Five...

Hey,

Happy Monday, hope you had a good weekend, mine was fun, starting with class on Friday, I'll show you pics later in the week.

So we are already mid-way through week 6, meaning we are only about 3.5weeks away from the end of ICAD17, so sad.

But let's not dwell on that..

I chose Day 31 Faux Wallpaper as my fave this week -

I got pretty creative here and added gold 'flocking' to a piece of Quatrefoil patterned paper, using a gold marker I'd forgot I had!! I added framed pictures to make it look like a wall. I love that I got to use the frames. I have had them for about 5-6 years, I think they came with me to the US!!

This is one of the awesome things about ICAD, I am using so many random parts of my stash, it is fun digging around in search of vaguely remembered items.

The photos are in day order, clockwise from the left and here is a link to the gallery with all the cards so far (including some week 6 ones!)

Cx

Make 5..Umichka Challenge..Card Five..the final one.

Hey,

Happy Monday

Sadly, this is the final card for the 'Make 5 CASometry Challenge' over at Anna / Umichka's blog.

You have to use the same stamp set for each of your cards and keep the cards CAS. You can see my previous cards here, here, here and here - phew!

The rules for the final card are slightly different..

You still have to use your chosen stamp set, but you have to CASE a card on this Pinterest board - very cool idea.

I chose this card by Lindsay at Occasional Crafting as my case -

I really love the simplicity of it and thought my set would work well here..

To refresh your memories, this is the stamp set I am working with -

It's from the October 2015 SSS stamp kit.

I used the big heart, the thanks sentiment and the little hearts for my card.

The polaroid frame die is by Kaisercraft and I used it with a piece of scrap American Crafts paper. I affixed the frame to my card blank and placed the large heart into position, so I could stamp the little hearts in the right places.

The sequins are by Lucy Abrams..love her sequins..

I loved making this card, so sweet and always fun to use sequins.

I have kept all of the cards and will be giving them to someone as a little gift at the end of the challenge.

This was such a fun thing to do, helping me to stretch a stamp set and reminding myself that I don't need millions of things (even though I want them) to make pretty things..

It's also a perfect fit for this week's CAS(E) this sketch..perfect..as it's already a CASE..lol..

Cx

Playing with ink...

Hey,

I am SO happy it is the weekend..I need the rest.

I really wanted to send a friend some fun cards - she's the same one I made this tag for.

I had a little pack of wooden painted frames on my desk, so I decided these would form the basis for my cards.

I remembered a great card that I had seen by one of the Runway Inspired DT - Lindsay

I was inspired to try the same inky background, so I got out inks that contrasted with the frames and got to work..

There was no real idea behind putting the ink on the paper, I just smushed it around and kept going until I achieved the colour I wanted!

I went with landscape cards, suited my frames better. I stamped a sentiment onto the inked up card and then got out the dreaded UHU to attach my frame to the card!

I die cut feathers using a Memory Box feather die - you get one die and 2 different sized feathers. Once again I chose a contrasting colour. I added these to the frame using UHU.

It didn't quite feel right, so I added a mini heart. Perfect!

Here is the pink version  -

Cx