Retro Rubber Challenge #258 - Happy Birthday!

Hey,

Welcome to another awesome Retro Rubber challenge.

It's time for a Birthday theme -

I came across this stamp set while looking for something else, and I thought it would make a unique birthday card. 

The set is 'Stick with Me' by Jillibean Soup and I've had it since 2017. I cannot get over how cute the cactus is with googly eyes! I decided to draw an outline on the card blank and I am loving that as a detail.

I can't wait to see how you play with the theme. Don't forget to pop over to Retro Rubber, and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends July 11th.

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 #211 - Tic Tac Toe!

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

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

I love these boards, so many ideas!

I went with your choice (bling) - die cut or punch - stencil.

I love stencils and I am a big fan of these 'create in quads' ones by Taylored Expressions, you layer the stencils over letter-sized paper and end up with x4 different stenciled panels. Clever.

The one I used here is from the TE Quad monthly club and is called 'Pattern Party'.  I decided it was the perfect background for one of my fave Monsters by 'Your Next Stamp' the set is 'Way Cool Monsters' and I have had it since 2019. I am sad to say goodbye to YNS as they are closing their doors after 14 years, they are the reason for my love of Monster stamps. I added some googly eyes to my Monster.

My die-cuts are obviously my Monster and the yellow panel.

I stacked the sentiments, because I wanted to use the Favorite Human stamp by Technique Tuesday, I find that this sentiment always works well with Monsters! It is from their 'Favorite Human' set and I have had it since 2017.

Because the background is so busy, I didn't want the 'your choice' element to get lost, so I went with large blingy gems, so they would stand out and not get lost.

A fun cheery birthday card.

Can't wait to see which row you decide to use, pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends July 28th.

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

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

Paper Smooches: Birthday Fishes...

Hey,

Its official Paper Smooches are no longer, sad times, but happy times for Kim the owner as she goes on to the next phase of her life.

The challenge (which I have foolishly only recently discovered) is still alive and well!

The current challenge is a birthday challenge 

I love the 'Birthday Buddies' set by PS. Once again I opted to use the fish to create a background. I can't tell you how many times I have done this with this set!

This time though I colored them using just x2 colours and I added googly eyes!

The sentiment I heat embossed onto a coordinating piece of card stock.

Such a simple, but effective card. I love using this idea to make cards, stamping my own backgrounds, and colouring them is like creating my own colouring book pages!

Cx

CASology: Just Be Claws..

Hey,

Happy Monday.

Hope you are all staying home, safe and well.

I loved my friend Jen's take on the current CASology challenge and it inspired me to play along.

I actually have a lot of friends and family (including Hubby) that are Cancerians AND because I love Crabs it felt like a natural fit to go down that road.

ALSO my beloved Big Shot gave up last Monday and so I am still waiting for a large format die-cutter, so everything I make that needs die-cutting has to be able to go through my smaller We R Memory keepers mini die-cutter.

The crab is from the Mama Elephant 'Cosmic Stars' set and I added the fun sentiment from the Pink & Main 'Oh Crab!' set.

I think the bright pink card blank helps make Mr Crab stand out and I couldn't resist adding teeny tiny googly eyes, because we all love googly eye right?

Cx

Monsters: Repeat Stamping..

Hey,

Welcome to March!

You must all know by now that I LOVE Monster stamps!

A few weeks ago, I decided to pull out a couple of Monster stamp sets that haven't been used in a while and I chose Flonzcraft Monsters and Microbes and Jane's Doodles Monster Squad.

I thought a bit of repeat stamping would be fun.

The main photo uses the stamps by Flonzcraft, these are too much fun and were a gift from Lisette. I decided to just use x3 colours and x3 of the stamps - you get approx 20 stamps in this set!

I love how fun and bright it came out and it really pops against the orange mat, my sentiment pops more IRL.

Next up is my fave Jane's Doodles monster - I think I love him because you can use a large googly eye! The background for this card was created using an arrow stamp that came with the Monster set and I stamped it using Altenew inks - I have the Shades of Purple set - I LOVE their inks.

Super easy and fun monster cards.

Cx

CASE it...

Hey,

So I wanted to show you a couple more cards I made using this great masking / blending / stenciling idea that JT and I CASEd recently.

The main card today uses some new birthday booty that I bought from MFT using money given to me by my in-laws.

You are familiar with my love of Monsters and I couldn't resist the new 'Monster Sized' set and the 'Sassy Pants Best Friends' set made me laugh a lot and so I needed to own that. The sentiment used on this card is hilarious and true of many of my friendships.

For both of these cards I used this awesome stencil by Andy Skinner - I am literally overusing it right now, it's so fun.

The next card uses more birthday booty - the amazing Cake stamp is by Sweet Stamp Shop and the sentiment is by Scrapbook.com - they do this awesome range of stamps and I loved 'have cake for breakfast' - I mean YES!!

I really need to use a different technique, I'm so hooked on this one, it makes card backgrounds super easy and fun.

Cx

Retro Rubber #91..Feeling Sketchy...

Hey,

Welcome to another awesome Retro Rubber challenge.

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

I do love sketches, so much freedom.

The sketch and a visit to the aquarium with my Momma when she was here, inspired me to pull out a great (rarely used) set from Sweet Stamp Shop 'Eye See You' from 2016, now retired.

I did approx 5-10 test stamps of Mr Octopus, as he comes in x3 pieces - head and arms. I finally got the position I liked and stamped him for realz!

I pulled out a piece of ancient patterned paper and cut it with a new scalloped die from Your Next Stamp.

The sentiment is by Hero Arts and I added a googly eye for a bit of fun.

He is awesome and already left my desk to go to Momma, as a thank you for all the fun times we had together during her trip.

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 July 27th.

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

CAS on a Friday..On a Monday...

Hey,

Hope you had a good weekend, I had a fun time.

It's an exciting week for me, Hubby returns home and then two days later my Momma arrives. SWEET!!

I saw the latest challenge 'Make a card with embossing' over at CAS on Friday and I wanted to play along.

It was the perfect excuse to use new Monsters from Create a Smile (Monster Party), that I coloured yesterday morning for The Daily Marker 30 day Colouring.

I used a fave Sizzix big spots embossing folder, I have had it years!! I chose a bright yellow piece of paper, I thought my monster would pop against it.

I then die-cut the embossed piece using dies from The Works in the UK, I bought them last year, but I have only used them once!

I added a sentiment from the Monster set and boom! finished card and of course a googly eye!

It was so easy and fun I made another one ;)

Cx

Paper Players: Monster Thank You..

Hey,

You know I love a sketch! The current one over at The Paper Players, just called out for a MOnster card...

I used one of my fave Monster sets by MFT 'More Monsters'. I love this set as you get separate stamps for the eyes and teeth, so you can mix and match them.

I chose a funky piece of background paper from Pink Fresh Studio and cut a circle from some scrap paper in a toning colour.

The sentiment is also from the same set and I love the punch that I stamped it on to - by Stampin' Up called 'Washi Tape', it gets a lot of use.

I mounted the Monster and the sentiment using foam tape and added some enamel dots and googly eyes for a bit of fun.

I love him, he's so bright and cheery!

Cx

The Paper Players: Hello Monster Friend...

Hey,

Happy Monday.

It is a very Happy Monday for me, as my work permit FINALLY arrived on Saturday, so back to work I go on Thursday.

To celebrate I am playing along with the current Paper Players challenge -

I love sketches and this one is super versatile.

As always I reached for my ridiculously large Monster stamp stash..I love this set (Monster Squad) by Jane's Doodles.

This is where a stamp platform comes in super handy. I die-cut my white panel and then lined up all my stamps using my Tim Holtz stamping platform. Super easy and quick.

I coloured my Monster using Promarkers and Spectrum Noir sparkle pens.

I pulled out a lovely piece of patterned paper by Studio Calico, I love their papers. I added a strip of ancient glittery DCWV paper.

I used foam tape to pop up the main panel and I added a matching enamel dot and a googly eye to the Monster.

Fun card and I know exactly who to send it to.

Cx

CASology: Together..

Hey,

So I saw this week's CASology cue word 'Together' and knew it was for me.

As you know I feel that Monsters are appropriate for any occasion and I have a metric ton of Monster stamps.

The ones I used on my card here are rather special, as they came in the post..no note, PO box postmark and were unlabeled so I have a) no idea who they are from! and b) who they are by!

Seeing these Monsters on my desk, along with the word 'Together', sparked an idea...

I die-cut the stitched wonky rectangle die by Lil Inkers and stamped the sentiment by Studio Calico and One Little Bird. The sentiment is from a great set called 'Extrovert' and for me it represents together, as I know anytime I go anywhere with my crazy friends, good times will be had.

The Monsters didn't come with dies, so I coloured them and then fussy cut them - blurgh ugh - I hate fussy cutting.

I popped up the white panel and the Monsters and for extra craziness I added googly eyes. I also added a couple of enamel stars for some extra colour.

I love it and now I feel like I need to make a bunch and send them to my crazy friends!

Cx

Monster Stripes...

Hey,

So last week  I had a play using the Stampin' Up brushstrokes stamp, distress inks and a spritz of water.

I love stripes.

After I made the backgrounds, I was rummaging around in my big box of random craft crap and came across a pack of misc Monsters!!

Where did they come from? No idea, but they made me laugh and I thought they co-ordinated perfectly with the stripey backgrounds and the Unity Stamp Co 'You're weird' stamp.

With this card, you can see that the stripes are not as vibrant. I don't re-ink the stamp, I just keep adding water to use what is left of the ink and it means you get a lot of variation in the backgrounds.

I added googly eyes to this Monster, because we all love a googly eyed monster :)

Cx

Have a Monster Birthday...

Hey,

Happy Monday...

I love this Monster set by Lawn Fawn and recently I got my hands on the dies, they have been out of stock forever it feels like (but they are quite old).

I've been seeing lots of things stacked up on cards lately and I really wanted to try it.

I loved stacking these little monsters and I even die-cut the 'batster' and popped him out -

Cute right?! In the close-up shot you can see the marks where I dropped one of my stamps as I was stamping the sentiment - ugh! But no re-doing..I reserve that for disasters, not oops moments!

I added some googly eyes because everyone loves a googly eye!!

I'm entering this card into the current I Love Promarkers Challenge - Birthday, I used Heatwave, Bright Orange, Emerald, Lime, Baby Pink, Ice Grey 4 and 5, Cyan and Berry Red promarkers.

I am also entering it into the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Let's Go Wild..because a Monster is totally a wild animal right?! LOL.

This is for the Son of my friend, he apparently loves 'Mummy's foreign friends cards' so I always feel like I have to 'up' my game to live up to this reputation I have..this is why I am not a parent..

Cx