Retro Rubber Challenge #264 - Sketch time!

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

We have a sketch for you this time.

You know how much I love a sketch!

I needed a hello card for a friend, and I thought this awesome set by Avery Elle 'Stuck on You' would be perfect. I used a scalloped circle die to add a bit of interest and the sentiment is also by Avery Elle 'Speech Bubbles'. I love the little faces you can add to the cacti! I coloured them using Altenew Markers.

Supplies: Avery Elle 'Stuck on You' and 'Speech Bubbles' - I have had both since 2020. Scalloped die is by The Works.

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

Challenge ends February 6th.

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 Challenge #253 - Tic Tac Toe

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

This time we have a tic-tac-toe board for you.

These are always so fun, as even if you chose the same row as someone else, your cards are totally different!

I went with the 1st vertical row - green/ribbon/thank you.

I love this stamp set by Taylored Expressions 'Cherry On Top' it was a gift from my friend Lisette in 2022, she knows I have a thing for cherry stamps, but dislike real cherries!

I added a small strip of green cardstock to my mini slim card blank. I wanted it to act as an anchor for the postage strip. I love using these blank postage strips, they are so impactful.

I created a little cluster at the bottom for my cherry stamp, sentiment and the cute little ribbon bow I found in my stash! I literally have not been in the drawer where the ribbon bows live in about a year!

Cute card, I can't wait to send it!

Which row will you choose? Don't forget to pop over to Retro Rubber, and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends May 2nd.

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

Digital Scrapbooking: Flower Queen...

Hey,

Happy Monday!

A bit of a longer absence for me than planned, but I was very, very unwell last week. I am on the mend now!

I wanted to share this beauty that I made for the Sweet Shoppe Designs monthly passport - April prompt was 'Inspired by Flowers'.

So my friend Lisette and I took a road trip in early March this year and on our way to Foxwoods (the resort we were staying at), we stopped at a craft store that had this amazing flower section. I convinced Lisette to pose up a storm for me and ended up with this amazing photo of her.

I really really stepped out of my comfort zone here, with the blending and the giant cluster. There was a lot of anxiety, but I am so pleased at how it came out and it got a GSO, so - yay!

I used -

BLOOMIN LOVELY V.1 | PAGE DRAFTS by The Nifty Pixel (heavily modified)

River Rose - Golden Glow Bundle

That Friyay Feeling Bundle by JoCee Designs and The Nifty Pixel

REMEMBER THEM | BUNDLE by The Nifty Pixel

Digital Scrapbooking: Designed by Soco March...

Hey,

Happy Monday to you!

I thought I would show you a couple of my fave layouts that I made as part of my Designed by Soco creative team commitments in March.

I actually made about 10 layouts, but didn't want this post to be crazy, so chose 2 for you :)

The main photo made me laugh, the minute I saw the 'Weekend Vibes' words and cards, I knew I had to use this crazy photo of Lisette and I that we sent to Hubby to let him know that we had arrived at Foxwoods safely. I used - 

Hello Weekend Words
Hello Weekend Pocket Cards
Cards & Words No.7 template

The next layout makes me smile everytime I see it, as I did an impromptu photoshoot with Hubby and Clint Catwood to get the hilarious photo shown here!

I used a new release - 

Happy Here Mini Kit (add on - Memory Pockets Monthly) 

And I used it with a fave Designed by Soco template that I rotated.
Cards & Words No.7

Fun layouts, I am really enjoying my guest slot with Soco and her team, I'll be sad to leave when June comes around.

Cx

Happy 10th Anniversary JT...

 

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2021.

My girl JT and her Hubby had a difficult 2020 for various reasons, but I saw that they decided to end the year on a high. They recreated their Wedding meal and I thought that was such a lovely thing to do.

I had been planning on sharing the card I made them for the 10th Anniversary last September, but never got round to it. So it seemed fitting today to share it.

JT and her Hubby share my love of all things bacon, so my first use of the AALL & Create 'Bacon' set had to be for them.

Sadly, you can't see in my slightly blurry photo the teeny tiny little handwritten gold 10's in the hearts. 

Wishing them and all my family and friends a very Happy New Year and I hope that if 2020 was a hard one for you, I sincerely hope that 2021 will be better for you.

Love

Claire x

A little bit of vanity...

 

Hey,

Happy Friday!

As this goes live, there are only 4 more days of work in 2020 for me - WHOOOOP!! I love my job, but I am TIRED.

My very talented friend Lianne made me the amazing card in the frame for my birthday. She used a photo from my Instragram account and I was just blown away by how good it is.

RIGHT!!!

I had to frame it, because it is just so awesome.

The best bit about it for me is that she made a leopard print background too! If you know me, you know I am ALL about leopard print.. I mean I wore it in the evening on my Wedding Day LOL!

Have a great weekend, NFL all weekend for me, some desk time, the odd zoon and just chillaxing.

Cx

Fusion Card Challenge - Purple Night...

Hey,

I'm back with another awesome challenge for the Fusion Challenge.

This time we have a Purple Night theme for you - alongside the sketch.

Which will you try?

I loved both the sketch and the inspiration image, so I fused them!

I just loved the purple, so I used purple papers to build half of my card. The dark/blackness at the bottom of the inspiration image works so well with the purple that I used a piece of black card stock for the other side of the sketch.

I heat embossed the sentiment from one of my all-time fave stamp sets by Mama Elephant 'Friend Indeed', it also comes with the large friend die and I die-cut that out of purple sparkly vinyl! I have all this great sparkly vinyl that a friend gave me and it works really well on cards!

To finish it off I added some bling here and there.

I love how it came out, I thought that sketch might be trixsy, but it was super easy.

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. 

The challenge ends on October 27th.

Cx

My Favourite Earthling..

Hey,

Happy Saturday!

Today's card I made for a colleague that is a good friend and he recently left the company I work for - today also happens to be his birthday!

He is pretty much the definition of G.O.A.T (Greatest, Of, All, Time) and he is very missed.

We have this space thing going on, so I wanted to make him a silly card with the Lawn Fawn 'Beam Me Up' set.

I obviously wanted the spaceship to be beaming up a Goat - LOL, obvs. BUT I suddenly realised that the beam that comes with the set is too small for my large goat (Paper Smooches - Green Acres), so I had to draw the beam myself.. I am pretty pleased with myself!

I made the background using a cover plate by Hero Arts 'Star Confetti' and neon paper. I added a little hill using Lawn Fawn 'Stitched Hillside borders' and stamped the sentiment.

I'm pretty pleased with how well the idea in my head came out!

Have a great weekend, gym and brunch with a friend for me.

Cx

 

Hippo Queen...

 

Hey,

I love Clearly Besotted stamps.

I saw this great 'Love London' set of theirs on sale and had to have it.

I wanted to make a fun card for a friend who is based in London and this set made me laugh, with all the possibilities.

I stamped the bus and the taxi first, then masked that off and blended the blue bottom panel, using Chipped Sapphire distress oxide.

I stamped and fussy cut the Hippo wearing a crown. When I was getting ready to pop her up ontop of the bus, it felt like something was missing, so I added the little heart scatter from another Clearly Besotted set 'Happy Days'.

Fun, and a little bit crazy. Like my friend.

Cx

Dino-mite Dies..

Hey,

Happy Monday!

Today I thought I would share these fun cards I made.

I love Monsters and Dinosaurs and most people know that. 

JT sent me this great set of Dino dies by Sizzix. Then I found the great Dino papers by Echo Park on sale, so I bought us both a pad to go with the dies.

I love how these crazy little cards came out. I used Tim Holtz stacked deckle dies to cut the layers and used a little arrow die I have to create a fun little banner for part of my sentiment. The sentiments are by Avery Elle.

Also isn't everything just better with googly eyes?!

Cx

4 from 1: Flora & Fauna Critter Valentine..

Hey,

So I have been a bit blog absent the past few weeks. BUT I am not going to get upset about it like I used to. I vowed in 2019 and beyond that my blog would go back to being a thing that made me happy and not a chore!

Now I post when I want and not based on the silly objectives I created for myself (sometimes it is hard being a project manager IRL).

Anyway today I am back with a fun set of x4 cards using the Flora & Fauna 'Critter Valentine' set.

I really wanted this set for a while and it was on sale, including the dies for a super bargain price at F&F, so I had to have it.

I have been planning on using it to create wedding and/or anniversary cards.

I think the first x4 came out really well.

The main photo shows the anniversary cards I made - LOVE the little critters in the VW-esque van.

I masked off a circle (I create my own masks using the card backing that comes with stamp sets and I cut them to A6 and then die-cut shapes out, so I can lay them over the paper I am using and I don't get ink where it shouldn't be) and then I stenciled hearts in the circle, using my fave Dutchdoobadoo heart stencil.

The rest of the card was pretty easy, stamp, colour and die-cut the van and x2 critters for each van.

The next x2 cards used backgrounds that I already had in my stash and when I made these I only had a die-cutter big enough to cut this mini size (my big shot died after x8 years). They are both made using different texture medium. The one on the left uses Nuvo Mousse in Indian Gold and the one on the right uses blue glitter paste (not sure where from, can't find it now).

I decided to make these ones 'Hello Friend' and I really like how backgrounds can just change the feel of a card.

Have a great weekend.

Cx

Connecticut Road Trip..

Hey,

Happy Monday!

Hope you are all staying safe and well. Hubby and I are now WFH for the next few weeks.

At the end of Feb, Lisette and I went on a little road trip to Connecticut to do Jenn Shurkus classes at the Papercraft Clubhouse.

I love Tracie's store and it's always a great space to do classes.

We did both classes on the Saturday, so we ended up with x10 cards. I always love Jenn's classes, she is a great teacher and I also get to play with all the Lawn Fawn. I loved playing with the flipbook style die and the magic iris die. I am considering buying the flipbook die..but we'll see.

Obviously, Lisette and I did a fair amount of shopping at the store after x2 months of no-craft supplies diet.

We had an absolute hoot on the Saturday night, as we hit our fave local Michael's - it has the most amazing sale section, we were in there for quite a long time!

Our plan on the way home on Sunday was to hit the Outlets at Foxwoods - we ended up getting there so early that we hit the casino at 9.15am!! Which was cool, as we both won some money, aiding the outlet shopping!

I included a photo of my $57 haul from the Cosmetics Store outlet - to put it into perspective, the Tom Ford palette is $88 regular price..

Fun road trip, love a craft road trip.

Cx

Underwear and a Crown..

Hey,

Happy Friday!

CV-19 = crazy times. Both my UK and the US offices are now WFH for the next few weeks. I hope everyone will be safe and continue to observe the rules around handwashing etc, but lets remember not to panic buy and ensure everyone can get what they need.

Now onto nicer things.

Don't you love it when you find a 'new to you' craft company?

When I was back in London in Feb, I bought a craft magazine and they had a feature that included a stamp by AALL & Create (stocked in the US by various online stores, check their website).

I loved them immediately, the style is very similar to PaperArtsy and Carabelle.

I had to buy myself a few of their stamps including 'Pineapple Queen' that I used today.

It was a great opportunity to use the Taylored Expressions 'Shiplap background', which I stamped in soft grey, so it is barely visible. I stamped the girl and the Pineapples directly onto the background and then coloured them using Copics and Sakura glitter gel pens. I decided to stamp the crown onto a piece of patterned paper and fussy cut it out.

I wanted the sentiment to stand out, so I used the same gingham paper as the crown and die-cut it using a fancy scalloped circle die.

It came out so well, I am super pleased with the new set.

I made this card for my friend Jen, who is recovering from surgery and can't craft right now, so I wanted to make her smile and send her a stamp set for use when she is better.

The card arrived and Jen's message to me about it make me laugh she said 'imagine my husband's face if he came home to find me in just my underwear and a crown. LOL'

And that for me is the beauty of cardmaking, send some happy mail to someone, in return you get a message that makes you happy too.

Cx

Retro Rubber #129.. Anything Goes..

Hey,

Welcome to another awesome Retro Rubber challenge.

This time we have everyone's fave - Anything Goes..

I decided to use this challenge to make a card for JT's birthday and it was a little CASE of an amazing card I had seen on Pinterest. I realised that I had the awesome Haute Books set by The Ton and it has barely been used since I bought it in 2017.. such a crime.

First I created the background, using distress oxide inks and water.

Then came the hard part! The stamping of the books, they are all individual and it takes AGES to stamp these bad boys. I stamped the vase onto the top of the book and the flowers I stamped on a separate sheet. I fussy cut the books and the flowers - yeesh.

The books and the flowers got added to the background using foam tape and then I drew in the stems and added the sentiment and the bling.

It came out so well and I know that JT loved it, so all the work was totally worth it.

I'm excited to see what stamp set you have dug out for your anything goes make, pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends March 6th.

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

Happy Birthday Man...

Hey,

As I land in London it is JT's birthday!

I am super excited that I am going to get to do hangs with her next week and we'll see if I can make her bday party tonight (possible jetlag tbc).

JT and I have been friends for 8 years. But to me it feels like she has been a part of my life forever and quite frankly I am not sure what I would do without her.

She is a force of nature, hilarious, kind, crazy and if you are her friend, she will love and take care of you for always.

Keeping this short and sweet, as I gush about her every year and it might just be getting a teeny bit embarrassing! Her card will be posted in a few weeks as a Retro Rubber make :)

Read more gushing about her in my 2019 and 2018 posts.

Happy Birthday Man - you are one of the best chosen sisters any girl could ever ask for.

Cx

Lawn Fawn Reveal Wheel: Magical Unicorn Birthday..

Hey,

During my recent trip to London, we visited Hubby's bestie so we could a) catch-up b) see her daughters and c) hand over the pun card project.

We had a fun afternoon with Polly and her Daughters.

One of them Maggie is 3 (soon to be 4) and took a shine to me - I do love kids, despite not ever wanting to have any I like to hang out with kids.

I thought to honor our little bonding moment I would make Maggie a special 4th Birthday card and I am also entering it into the current Seize the Birthday challenge - this a no toppings entry, I am going to play along later in the week with a toppings entry!

Obviously, I immediately reached for my reveal wheel kit. I have so many of the add-ons now, it is super fun to make cards with and EASY for an interactive card.

I decided to pair it with x2 Ellen Hutson sets 'Unicorns 'N Rainbows' and 'Over It' - I chose a wide arched aperture for the wheel and stamped the rainbow from Over it, over the top of the arch and then coloured that using glitter gel pens to get some serious sparkle.

I stamped, coloured and die-cut 3 of the images from the Unicorns set and after assembling the reveal wheel and mounting it onto the card blank, I affixed them to the front. I added some hearts from the sets all over the card and went over a few of them with a glitter gel pen to add some sparkle.

Because I chose the large aperture, you only get to reveal two sentiments and I went with magical and awesome.

Perfect for a 4 year old girl!

Cx

Coffee gets me Kracken..

Hey,

Even though I am in a crafty no spend zone, that doesn't mean I don't have new shiny things to play with!!

This is WHY I am in a no spend zone LOL.

JT and I did our annual Black Friday $20 challenge, which over the years has crept up to be way more than $20, but whatever we are besties, so it's all cool.

This year among other things, I got these 3 really cool dies / die sets from JT.

I knew that I had to pair that splash / splotch die with an awesome Rabbit Hole Designs set that my friend Jen sent me for my birthday, that I hadn't got round to using yet.

Don't they work well together! I love that Caffeinated Octopus. And it was really easy to make, just die-cut the splotch, stamp the x2 sentiments where I wanted them to be and then, stamp, colour and die-cut the Octopus. I popped him up using foam tape.

I used the Caffeinated Reindeer to make Lisette's Christmas card last year. They are SO fun.

Love it when I get to combine things to make fun cards.

Cx

Pun Card Project..

Hey,

Back to normal now with Christmas and my trip to London done, I go back to work tomorrow..

I had a fun trip, it was great to spend so much QT with my folks and I got to hand over my pun card project to our friend Polly.

Polly is a big fan of my cards, which is lovely. Last year she made a comment about one of the cards I sent to her and it sparked an idea.

What if I made a pun card from every single pun set I have?! 

Well, 5 months (Aug to Dec) and 48 stamp sets later, I ended up with 55 pun cards and to be honest there are probably about 10-15 more sets I could have used, but I just ran out of time.

I used all the techniques for these cards - stencils, heat embossing, dry embossing, smooshing, watercolouring, gelli plate backgrounds, die-cutting, masking and marker colouring.

It was so much fun to do though and here are the majority of the cards!

Fun right?!

I might consider a similar project later this year - like all birds or something?

Cx

Hipster Kitty...

Hey,

Happy Monday!

I am showing you a card today that I made quite a while ago!

I love the Tim Holtz 'Hipster Animals' set, it gets quite a lot of use. For my birthday my friend Lisette bought me the dies for them!

So now they are getting even more use.

For today's card, I used a kraft card blank and added my fave spotty stamp Penny Black 'Dots in Space' to the card blank in a toning colour for a bit of interest.

The new dies for the Hipster Cat came with a die for his cool glasses, sadly you can't see in this photo, but I cut them out of sparkly black card, so IRL they are super sparkly.

The sentiment is by A-Muse Studio.

Fun, easy card for a male friend.

Cx

I heart Birthday's.. especially my own..

Hey!

Happy Birthday to Me!!

Yes, I am super vain I like to write blog posts about myself on my own blog on my birthday :) But surely that is the benefit of having your own blog?!

This year has pushed my patience and ability to feel the joy.. We had to say goodbye to our beloved Boscat in January, I have gained a serious amount of weight thanks to an undetected Thyroid issue, I have had a blood pressure issue meaning I can do barely any cardio AND then I broke my foot in May and 4 months later we discovered a deeper fracture that had happened at the same time, so I am back in the boot AND on crutches.

UGH!

These things have been taxing, to say the least, but I have realised that every grey cloud, comes with a sunny one..

We got Clint - he is amazing and we couldn't have dreamed of having such a wonderful, loving, gentle creature. The foot got fixed long enough for me to enjoy the trip to Ibiza for Hubby's 40th (and oh man did we enjoy that trip). The Thyroid issue has been tackled now and the tablets are fixing my blood pressure issue and once I am back on my two feet, I can deal with the journey that is required to shed the excess weight.

The reality of my situation is that I could be in a cast (UGH) and I could actually be waaay heavier, but they found a way to keep me out of my cast AND I found a way to keep going to the gym, despite the fact that I have been gaining weight no matter what I do!
I finally achieved my dream of being a deadlifter and reached my goal weight of 185lbs - YES that is right - me?! I can deadlift 185lbs. Every time I say it and watch the video of me doing it, I smile. I impressed myself.
I mean do you know what it takes to get your body to the point where you can do that? Trust me I did not. It takes a LOT of repetitive exercises that made me want to scream out in frustration and pain!

So remember - negativity doesn't help, maintain your joy at the little things in your life, no matter how hard that might seem sometimes, it's always better than feeling sorry for yourself.

I'm grateful, happy and feeling the joy for the life I have, no matter what the hardships, I still have Hubby, Clint, my family, and my friends and that makes everything A-Ok.

Cx