Retro Rubber Challenge #172 - Get your sketch on...

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

We have a sketch for you this time, created by me!

You know how much I love a sketch!

I wanted to use the My Favorite Things 'Stitched Strip' dies, I got these earlier this year when I bought a fellow scrapbookers card stash. I stamped the Hero Arts 'Tiny Hearts background' stamp onto watercolour paper and spritzed it with water, so there is a teeny bit of movement. This is one of my fave stamps that I have had since 2017. I then used the MFT die to die-cut the strips.

I die-cut a heart in gold glittery paper and used a Love die-cut that my bestie sent me - she die-cut a bunch for me in all different colours. It's always nice to share kit. I stamped the sentiment using the same Kitsch Flamingo Distress Oxide that I had used for the hearts. The sentiment is a freebie that I have had since 2017, this set means a lot to me, as my bestie gave it to me when she came to visit me in NYC after the big operation complication..

Anyway, I love this card, I love making anniversary cards, celebrating love is always a nice thing to do.

Show us your interpretation of the sketch and pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends December 3.

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.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, Hubby and I are heading to Sarasota to spend it with friends.

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #150 Winter Wonderland

Hey,

Welcome to 2021 and the first fun Retro Rubber challenge of the year AND our 150th challenge!! 

The majority of the team have been here since the beginning and I am super grateful for their talents and friendship. Big love to our leader Jane too for all of her hard work!

We love to start the new year with a Wintery challenge for you - it's pretty Wintery here in NYC (ugh!).

I really loved the quote from the Simon Says Stamp 'Winter Sayings' set that I have had since 2018 and barely used. It inspired my card and I paired it with 'Cute Snowflakes' also by SSS and it's one of my older sets, I've had it since 2016.

I stamped the background using 3 different colours of ink. I heat embossed the quote onto vellum - my fave thing to do if I want to show as much of the background as possible. The frame is actually from a tag set by MFT. I dug out an ancient freebie snowflake die, because I thought it looked a bit bare and then at the last minute I added some serious bling!

Here is a close-up for you.

I am super happy with how this came out. I love creating my own backgrounds.

How will you make a Wintery card? Be sure to pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends January 29.

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

Punny Dogs...

 

Hey,

Happy Friday!

I hope you all had a good week. Mine was a bit crazy at work, but I had such a wonderful Thanksgiving with Hubby and Clint Catwood that I didn't mind too much.

During my recent vacation in November I made 100 cards for charity. I really love doing this, it's nice to do something for others and I have fun whilst I am doing it.

This time I was determined to trawl through some older neglected stamps and use them with some of the newer things in my stash.

I came across these awesome freebie dog stamps (they came with a craft magazine in the UK) and I thought that they would work really well with the newer Taylored Expressions 'Woof' simple strip sentiments. I love a pun, so these worked really well, as did the ones that came with the stamp set (main photo).

My amazing friend Lisette has the banner dies that coordinate with the strips and she cut me TONS of them, so kind.

I had previously made a card using these stamps and I coloured some of the dogs in random colours and others I left blank. I really like this as a technique and I believe if you just colour one, it is considered 'spotlight' stamping.

Here are a few more of the cards - 

Fun right?!

Have a great weekend, I am having a playdate with JT and watching endless sport on Sunday - WHOOP!

Cx

Embossed Butterflies...

Hi,

I recently found a whole batch of ready to go backgrounds, so I thought it would be fun to make a few quick cards using some of them.

I have never used this freebie butterfly stamp from Die-Cutting Essentials magazine and I thought it would look awesome heat embossed.

Isn't it stunning?! The main photo was the first one I made. The background is a text stamp that I heat embossed in white to create a resist and then it has a watercolour wash over it.

The next two are so bright and fun - the yellow/blue one, uses a background that I stamped at my friend Jamey's craft space and the pink one uses a cut to size piece of patterned paper by Studio Calico (I think).

Using different colours of embossing powder and background papers created such a variety of looks. I love it when this happens. 

I added Taylored Expressions simple sentiment strips to all 3 cards.

Cx

Wake Up Hug Dog...

Hey,

When I was back in London in February, I managed to get my hand on my fave cardmaking mag.

Making Cards Magazine. I always love their freebies and they do a great set of free digital stamps all year.

I actually managed to get both February and March magazines. You have already seen the March cards.

The Feb set was awesome, all dogs and great sentiments -

When this whole virus thing started, it kind of became apparent quite quickly that this wasn't coming to an end soon. So I wanted to make some cards for my people.

I made a whole batch of the one that you see today. I love that Poodle stamp and colouring it in randomly and in non-dog colours really worked well. And who could resist that sentiment 'Wake Up, Hug Dog, have a Good Day' I NEED A DOG.

I like to heat emboss sentiments onto vellum, when I have a big interesting background - I mean why cover it up if you don't have to!

Cx

4 cards, 1 stamp set: Making Cards Mag Freebie

Hey,

So having a little challenge gap day today :)

I wanted to show you x4 cards that I made using a freebie stamp set I got in the UK.

I love the stamps, they are a great addition to my stash.

I stamped x4 of the girls onto watercolour paper and used distress inks to colour them.

I decided that I would cut the main stamped images as tags and go from there.

I had a LOT of fun, I used so many scraps from my stash - including all the ribbon. Basically I never ever buy ribbon, I just save it from gifts I get given and recycle it in my crafting!

Fun cards that came out even better than expected.

Cx

Happy Easter..

Hey,

Happy Monday to you.

In my land (England) today is a holiday.

So I thought I would share the Easter cards I made for some of my friends and family.

I had to have the 'All The Bunnies' stamp and die set by Neat & Tangled, the bear as a bunny was just too cute to resist.

The background papers are all from the awesome Lil Inker Easter bundle that I bought. And I used the easter egg stamp and die from that set to create the cards below. I combined the egg with a freebie basket that I had (I embossed the basketweave on).

I don't normally send Easter cards, but these were fun to make and I only sent 12.

If you are in Europe and have had a long weekend,  I hope it was fun and you ate lots of Easter treats.

Cx

Hello Sunshine...

Hey,

Well it certainly is sunny in London, which has been a pleasant surprise.

Today's cards I made a couple of weeks ago.

I really wanted to play with a new to me MFT Pure Innocence set 'Beach Cutie'. I stamped, coloured and die-cut the stamp - I only used x4 colours to colour with and I love how they came out.

I wanted to use the 'Hello, Sunshine' sentiment that came with the set, so I hunted around for a die that would compliment it and pulled out a great freebie die that came from my old die-cutting magazine subscription.

I used cardblanks that coordinated with the stamp colouring and got really OCD by choosing my top panel and embossing powders to also coordinate!

I love the end result - they are both so pretty and were super simple to make.

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

Sketch Saturday #530.. Big Wet Kisses...

Hey,

Happy Saturday to you - Hubby and I will be having one last lunch with The Wife in Tampa and then heading home to NYC (boo), vacay has been a lot of fun.

 Welcome to the latest sketch for the Sketch Saturday challenge.

Our sponsor this week is Sparkle and Sprinkle and they are offering $15 gift certificate to their store.

Here's the sketch...

I loved the Big Wet Kisses stamp, perfect for me right now, as Sept and Oct is anniversary heavy!

I printed the stamp twice and cut one out to use as a mask. Then I masked off the top of the card to match the sketch and stamped over both masks using one of my fave Stampin' Up stamps - Brushstrokes (no longer available). I used a mix of distress inks and some water on the stamp to get the patchy watery feel.

Then I die-cut the entire panel and added some sparkly blue tape and stamped the sentiment (a freebie from JT).

It turned out pretty well and is a nice addition to my anniversary pile.

I can't wait to see what you do with the sketch, but first check out what the rest of the DT have made over at Sketch Saturday.

Challenge ends Sept 14th 7pm GMT / 2pm EST

Cx

4 cards from one stamp set: Cattitude..

Hey,

Happy Monday to you!

I had a great weekend, starting off with an awesome night out with Hubby on Friday - check us out..

We went to a Jungle themed night..hence our banana / parrot attire. We spent Saturday recovering - aka slumped on the sofas watching the World Cup and eating.

Yesterday I had a fun skype playdate with JT - she sent me a magazine that had a great set of Cat Stamps as the free gift. So I made x4 cards using the set yesterday whilst gossiping.

They are all a bit different, as the Cats are super versatile. I love them all, but I think the butt to butt anniversary card is my fave.

Cx

CAS on Friday...Thank You...

Hey,

I recently found the CAS on Friday challenge and my first entry made top 3 :)

The current challenge is a Tic-Tac-Toe and you know I love these...

I chose the first vertical row - Thank you / Circle / Pink.

I used a new fancy circle die - my Momma basically brought all the freebies from my craft magazine subscription with her and this was one of those.

I die-cut it in a plain pink cardstock. I die-cut the Thank You (by Spellbinders) using a scrap that came from the first ever 12x12 pad that JT owned, her sister bought it for her and she gave me a piece of this beautiful pink paper and this was the last piece of it (sob).

I added 2 tiny gems for a bit more interest.

I'm super happy with my super CAS card. Also there is not a single bit of stamping!! 

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #88.. Anything Goes...

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

It's time for everyone's fave  -

Watercolor Wings by Stampin' Up is a fave set of mine and when I first got it in 2015, it got totally overused..sadly it's been a bit neglected over the last 6 months or so.

I stamped the pink and black parts of the butterfly using ink and the white parts were heat embossed. Once I had finished heat embossing, I spritzed it with water, to get the pink 'bleed'.

I have this random dot stamp on my desk (I can't find the set its from...6months..) and I thought it would look fun here to add it here and there.

The sentiment is a freebie from a UK magazine that JT gave me last year. I am hoping for more 'free gifts' this week, as my Momma arrives on Thursday for a 2 week visit.

This is the best bit about Retro Rubber for me, giving an older, slightly neglected set a new lease of life.

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

Challenge ends June 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

Mini birthday cards..

Hey,

So I was making something for a friend and I stumbled across two great patterned papers I had forgotten about.

I thought it would be nice to make something using them, so they didn't get neglected again!

The main card today uses the constellation paper I found in my 'black' paper drawer. I think it is by Stampin' Up.

I thought orange would work well with it and so cut an orange mat and die-cut the sentiment by Lil Innkers out of orange card.

The next card is a teeny bit busy, but I still love it.

Don't you just love that busy leaf paper (by Recollections), feels like it would make great wallpaper and what you can't see here is that IRL the little dots are sparkly!

Again I went with orange as the accent colour and I think it really pops against the busy paper. The HB die is a freebie that I got with an English craft magazine - yeah you get FREEBIES..I miss English craft magazines..

Oh and the card blanks are my fave and JT gifts them to me all the time.

Two super simple makes, that have made another small dent in my patterned paper stash.

Cx

CASology: Jungle

Hey,

Happy Monday to you!

I had a fun weekend, hanging out with Hubby in Atlantic City and at home, sadly we did not win in AC, but that doesn't matter.

I like the CASology cue word this week and managed to fit in some desk time to make my card.

I have this cute Safari Friends set that I got free last year with an English papercrafting magazine.

I stamped the Monkey from the set quite high up on my panel, to give the illusion that he is hanging from a tree. I the sentiment also from the set and a few bananas for good measure!

I thought this made a great entry into Seize the Birthday as well -

And usually for me I decided that I would also enter a 3rd challenge - Papercraft Challenge - their theme is CAS this time.

Super simple CAS card, that fits all 3 challenges and using the top third of the card is unusual for me, nice to step out of my comfort zone now and then!

Cx

MFT Creative Olympics 2018: Event 1..stamping slalom..

Hey,

I saw on Instagram that MFT are celebrating the Winter Olympics with their own version -

I thought it would be fun to play along.

The first 'event' is called Stamping Slalom, this is 100% a creativity test, use x3 MFT sets on your card.

I misread that part initially, but I got there in the end!

First I created my background by smooshing my paper into distress inks that had been spritzed with water. I added some Glitter Snow paste through a stencil for the snowy effect. I repeated both of these steps with the bottom sentiment panel.

I cut the 'snowy hills' using a Lawn Fawn stitched hillside die. I added a white panel too, as the polar bear was getting a bit lost.

I am pretty pleased with my creativity here, I used Beast Friends (Yeti), Polar Bear Pals (Polar Bear) and Happy Hippos (Balloons). To me it feels like the Yeti is watching his Polar Bear buddy skate...but that's just my opinion..
I coloured all of these elements using Promarkers and Spectrum Noir glitter pens.

The sentiment is a mix of Simon Says Stamp and a freebie hand lettering alpha set I got. I didn't have a scripty 'fun' in my stash, so I created the one you can see on my card using the letters from the alpha set. It is so easy..I am now slightly reconsidering my desire to learn to hand letter..if I can cheat this well...

I'm super happy with my card. I'll be back with my Event 2 card tomorrow.

Cx

Hello babies..

Hey,

I have this strange love for new Baby Cards...

They make me so happy and I was lucky enough recently to be able to make two of them - one for a boy and one for a girl - yay!

The main card today is for friends of mine that just had a baby girl. As the female half of this particular couple is quite funky, I decided that a card to welcome her Daughter should also be funky!

In the clear out of box of shame I came across a host of ready to go backgrounds, including the one I used for this card, which is actually an oops that I couldn't bear to part with...

So glad that I kept it as it has worked out perfectly for this card. I die-cut a babygrow (onesie) from some precious ancient paper, love the sparkly stripes. I love the giant baby word die, it's by Lil Inker and I had to hunt it down after seeing it somewhere years ago. I stamped the rest of the sentiment, which doesn't show so well here, but it did pop on the card IRL.

The next card is for a client of mine and my colleague and I adore her and wanted to send her a nice personal card from us and the team. She has 3 Daughters already, so that was the theme of my card.

What do you think?

I love it, the cute stamp and die set by Mama Elephant worked out so well here. The sentiment was a gift from JT.

More babies please!

Cx

Christmas Card 2017: Hero Arts Elves...

Hey,

Happy Monday to you.

I had a quiet / busy weekend!!

Quiet because I only left the house to go to the gym and run some errands, busy because I spent a fair amount of time at my desk playing catch-up!

I bought the Elves set late last year, after all my Christmas making was done. They were so sweet (and cheap) I couldn't resist..

There isn't a die with the set, so to minimise the fussy cutting, I stamped x2 of the 3 Elves onto the white panel and just fussy cut the central Elf and popped him up. The little holly stamp is also from the set.  I used a freebie sentiment, as Jingle Bells that comes with the set wasn't working for me!

I used Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pens for the scarves, I am loving these pens right now.

Love how easy these were to make and how cute they are.

Cx

CASology #266 Cake: Guest Designer..

Hey,

Happy Tuesday to you.

This is my second post of the day and I am super excited to be Guest Designer over at CASology today..

I was so pleased to win my first CASology - I have been playing along with them for a while and have been lucky enough to get several Honorable Mentions. I didn't realise my win came with a GDT opportunity, so I am made up!!

This week's cue card is a fave for me -

Cake!! It's like I was meant to be GDT, as I LOVE Cake.

I had a few options for this card, but I decided to go with a something that is reasonably fussy, but minimally coloured, so ends up being quite CAS.

I created the word by stamping Jenny Bowlin outline stamps - top tip when you don't have a '!' use an upside down 'i'.

I added a freebie cakestand stamp that I have had for about 7 years and just added pops of colour to the cakes, so it kept the fussiness to a minimum.

I'm pretty happy with the end result and so pleased I got to be GDT, what a great way to come back after holiday!

Please go over to CASology and check out the awesome things the DT have made.

The challenge ends on Monday 18th at Noon CDT.

Cx

Freebie Birthday...

Hey,

I actually made today's cards ages ago, but have never got around to posting them.

I got the amazing die free with a UK craft magazine.

I added some distress ink to my craft sheet, spritzed it with water and then smooshed the die-cut piece in it, I love the various shades and tones I ended up with.

Made sense to keep these simple and just adhere them to mini kraft card blanks.

I also made it in orange..

Love it when a simple idea looks so good.

Cx