Retro Rubber Challenge #241 - Tic-Tac-Toe..

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

I am in the midst of Hurricane Milton prep, we are about 30mins east of Tampa Bay, fortunately not in a flood or evac zone, but still needing to prep. We have our hurricane shutters up and we have all the supplies we need. I am thinking of you if you are in an area that is affected. 

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

I went with Pumpkin - Your Choice - Patterned Paper.

My choice was solid paper. I love the stamp by Taylored Expressions 'Bubble Greetings: Halloween' I have had it since 2019 and it is a firm fave, such a great stamp for quick and easy Halloween cards.

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 October 18th.

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

Halloween becomes Valentine's...

 

Hey,

I am not a big 'Valentine's Day' fan - I can tell Hubby that I love him every day!

BUT I do love all the pretty VDay cards that I receive and can make. It's actually one of my fave occasions because it's just all so pretty.

I made quite a lot of cards this year (33 for work + personal ones) but the ones in this post were all made using non-Valentine or Love supplies!

The first two cards use a great Halloween stamp set by Hero Arts called 'Pure Magic' I got it on sale because I thought it would make great backgrounds, but it also made super cute VDay cards.

The background is an MFT stamp, that is new to me from a BIG second-hand haul I got recently, more about that soon.

Sadly the next card is a bit blurry! But I wanted to share it anyway, as the fun Dino is actually another Halloween stamp! This time by Ellen Hutson 'Dino-mite Halloween'. The cute Dino's paws/claws/hands? actually have little slits to hold the smaller stamps that come with the set, but I added a heart instead.

The background is one of my all-time fave stencils by MFT.

I love it when I get to stretch my stamps and it's always good to remind myself that things don't have to be used for their intended purpose.

Cx

16/11 - Happy Anniversary..

Hey,

If you have been visiting my blog for a while you know a) my wedding anniversary is Halloween and b) I always celebrate the anniversary of our first date - 30th October.

This year it's 16 years together and 11 years married!! 

The photo is from our anniversary early morning boat ride through the water park/conservation area last year in Cancun.

Being a cardmaker, I use these x2 anniversaries as an excuse to make Hubby elaborate cards. 

First up the 16 year card.

I love the 'Bacon' set by AALL & Create - a brand that I discovered earlier this year, whilst I was at home in London and they have been such a great find. I blended Worn Lipstick and Picked Raspberry distress oxides to create my background and then stamped the awesome bacon stamp from 'Bacon Break' by Sweet Stamp Shop. I added a few hearts for fun.

I mean how can he not love a card with a bacon background?! AND not a pun in sight (he very much dislikes a pun card, and I give them to him to wind him up - hee hee).

And here is the 11th Wedding Anniversary card! It's not strictly a pun, but it is kind of because it's Halloween...

I love all the amazing cloud blending I am seeing and I need MUCH more practice at it. But I am SO happy with how this came out and now I need a black blender brush..

I used an MFT Cloud stencil, Crate Paper 'After Dark' stamps and Papertrey Ink 'Keep It Simple: Anniversary' stamps. The inks are distress oxides in Black Soot, Carved Pumpkin and Wilted Violet.

We would normally be in Mexico right now celebrating, but you know global pandemic.. So we are going to our fave restaurant in NYC instead (hoping we don't freeze to death outside). 

I would just like to say that even though the last 7 months have been very strange, there isn't anyone else I could have been trapped in a small apartment with. Hubby and I have had so much fun at home, watching random crap, eating our body weight in cake, perfecting our fave recipes, and hanging with Clint Catwood. 

If you choose your life partner carefully, all storms can be weathered with humor.

I love you Mr G, you are my man, love, thing for life and beyond.

Cx

Halloween exhibits..

 

Hey,

So I made a bunch of Halloween cards this year, but foolishly I did not take photos of them before they went out in the mail (ugh).

BUT fortunately, I had to make an additional one and I remembered to take a photo of that one!

I had made most of my cards by the time I got this fun stamp set from Michaels, I think it is Tim Holtz for Michaels. I love all the funny little 'exhibits' and had this idea that they would make a fun 'horror wall' style card.

The background is Taylored Expressions 'Shiplap Background' stamp and I stamped all the little exhibit stamps over it and coloured them in.

I stamped the sentiment in orange ink for a bit of standout and to add a bit more spook.

I am very happy with the outcome and I think my friend will like it too.

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #146 Colour me scary....

Hey,

Welcome to another awesome Retro Rubber challenge.

It's almost that time, so we have a little scary colour theme for you...

I love working with a limited colour palette, so this was definitely the challenge for me!

I hand painted the background using Brea Reese orange glitter ink - here is a close-up because IRL it is SO sparkly..

Then I heat embossed the crazy bats and the sentiment in white onto a black panel. The stamps are 'Little Batty' by Unity Stamp Co AND shame on me, I have had them since 2018 and they are NBUS. So I was very happy to use them here.

I popped that panel up onto my background and added black enamel dots here and there to finish my card.

It was the first one of MANY Halloween cards that I made this year!

What will you use the colours to make? Don't forget to pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends October 30th.

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

Watercooler Wednesday: Halloween

Hey,

Happy Friday!

I wanted to play along with a new to me challenge - Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.

I love the theme - I am ALL about Occasions.

My wedding anniversary is actually Halloween! And this year we celebrate 10 years of marriage, so I really wanted to send a bunch of Halloween cards to our friends.

I loved this great set 'Mr Bones' by Tim Holtz that I bought from Michaels (you get stamps, dies, embossing folder) - it's a bit scarier than I would normally go, but I just fell in love.

I made a TON of these.. I used the embossing folder that came with the set with both black and orange papers to mix it up a bit. The awesome 'jagged edge' came from the Tim Holtz speckled edge dies.

I stamped 'Mr Bones' and used clear embossing powder over him to add that shine you can see, it wasn't necessary, but it felt like a nice touch to add.

I kept the sentiment simple, I punched a bunch of the little sentiment banners in orange and black and added an ancient Clearly Besotted 'Happy Halloween' to the banners.

I only realised whilst I was writing this post HOW many techniques I used - go me!

I am super pleased with how they came out. I figure this set will now be a fave.

Hope you have a great weekend, I am off to an all-day class tomorrow - super excited, I will be carving my own stamps - whoop!

Cx

A little late...

Hey,

Welcome to November.

I can't tell you about my Anniversary dinner yet, as this is a scheduled post..but I will do over the weekend.

I only made x4 Halloween cards and you've seen 3 of them already as they were for challenges LOL. So here is the fourth card, made for a swap.

I love this Waffle Flower Bear and Bird 'Boo' set. This is the first time I have used more of the elements. I heat embossed most of the smaller stamps from the set and I really like how it came out as a mini scene.

The sentiment stamp is by Amuse and I meant to use the set it came from to make a ton of cards this year, but just didn't feel like it, as there was so much travel and work earlier this month.

I also have a trapped nerve, so my making is going to be severely limited, good job I have been busy and have plenty of things to blog about.

Cx

Happy 14/9 Hubby...

Hey,

Happy Halloween! AND Happy Anniversary to my Hubby.

Today is our 9th wedding anniversary and yesterday was the 14th anniversary of our first date. This is my fave post that I have written about Hubby and I and it's hard to top.

So I am not going to try, I am just going to say Happy Anniversary Hubby, you are awesome in so many ways and I'm super lucky to have found you ;)

Today's card is actually for Hubby, we are both massively geeky/nerdy and this set by Technique Tuesday (Favorite Human, no longer for sale), made me laugh, especially the little robot with a bow tie. I also LOVE that it came with 'beep' in a speech bubble, for some reason the word 'beep' makes me crazy happy!

Also Hubby always eye rolls me when I show him punny cards, which always makes me laugh, so I am looking forward to an eye roll later on when I give this to him.

I thought I'd share some photos from our wedding day, I was looking through them the other day and these ones made me smile ;)

Top left - Me with my Parents (why is my Dad so grumpy!), Daddy and our Dog Oscar, Bottom right, Me with my bridesmaids laughing, Me + Hubby laughing at my Dad's speech, Me + MIL laughing at the Best Woman's speech

We are heading to a new place for dinner tonight, which is fun (or foolish), we don't normally deviate from our 'spots' on Anniversary night.

Cx

Catch The Bug: Saturday Challenge Colour....

Hey,

Happy Saturday to you!

I am back this week with the Catch The Bug Saturday challenge and we have a colour challenge for you this week.

I worked mainly with the blues and the oranges for this card.

As it is almost Halloween, I thought it would be fun to use the Best Witches image and make a non-traditional Halloween card.

I coloured the image, using Promarkers and die-cut it using a stitched circle die. I used a piece of glitter cardstock for the background, that I thought tied into the colour scheme nicely and added a bit of sparkle.

Hope you will be playing along too. Can't wait to see which image you choose to use and how you use the colours.

Upload your makes at the Catch The Bug blog and check out the rest of the DT makes.

Cx

Sketch Saturday #534.. Kitty Bee Designs

Hey,

Happy Saturday to you and welcome to the latest sketch for the Sketch Saturday challenge.

Our sponsor this week is Kitty Bee Designs and they are offering 1 digi stamp from their store.

Here's the sketch...

I love the cute Kitty Bee Panda's and it was hard to choose an image, but I settled on Pumpkin Panda.

This sketch by our awesome leader Kel is so much fun. I loved working with it. First I printed and coloured the stamp, then I die-cut it using a stitched square die and the black mat was cut with a regular square die.

I went to town on the banners, I have these teeny tiny little banner dies by Avery Elle and I really haven't used them that much, so I got them out and die-cut a bunch of scraps to create my banner fringe :)

I heat embossed the sentiment and added a bit of orange bling to finish off my card.

I think I need more Kitty Bee Stamps..

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 October 12th 7pm GMT / 2pm EST

Cx

Trick or Treat: Smell My Feet...

Hey,

So we are in Tampa right now and today we are off to watch the Panthers v Buccs - can't wait!!

I made a TON of Halloween cards before I felt, but I foolishly did not photograph them all!

I thought I would share a couple that I did remember to take a photo of..

Main card today uses a Unity Stamp Co stamp - love the little girl in the dino costume, I would so wear a Dino costume if I did Halloween dressing up! The sentiment is by AMuse Studio.

The next card uses a stamp Cheiron gave me last year -

I love it, I use the ruder b*tch please version ALL the time.

I created a resist with the stamp, using white heat embossing and then I blended Cracked Pistachio and Wilted Violet Distress Oxide inks over the heat embossing (thank you Jenn Shurkus for this technique).

I AM so happy with the end result. I love these manilla tag, blending is a dream on them and I think this makes the perfect entry to the current MAWTT challenge - Tags or Charms.

Cx

Less is More..Monsters..

Hey,

So whilst I was nosying through some blogs last weekend I came across a new to me challenge - Less is More.

Imagine my delight when I saw their cue card this week -

A MONSTER theme!!! Now we all know how much I love Monster stamps..

I decided to use my newest monsters by Reverse Confetti (Monsterous) and continue my masking theme.

The challenge is all about being CAS, but white space doesn't have to be white - right?

I die-cut a black panel of card and masked off my circle (using white ink). I stamped the sentiment into the masked off circle and coloured / die-cut my Monster and added him just above the sentiment.

This was a bit of an experiment, using black as the clean space and I really like the end result, as the brightly coloured Monster really pops here.

I will totally be playing along with this challenge again!

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #73 Boo! There is still time to play..

Hey,

There is still time for you to play along with the current Retro Rubber challenge.

It's a Halloween theme...Halloween is very popular here in the US 

Check out the DT inspiration over at Retro Rubber and show us your Halloween makes.

Don't forget to use a stamp older than a year on your project and tell us all about it, that is a big part of the Retro Rubber fun. Also please feel free to combine our challenge with others, but keep it to a maximum of 10 challenges including ours.

Challenge ends on October 20th.

Cx

Let's get spooky...

Hey,

Happy Monday to you!

So it is really nice to be home and I managed to get to my desk a fair bit yesterday in amongst all the NFL watching..

I came home to this awesome stamp and die set by Reverse Confetti - they were part of my birthday gift from my parents.. obviously I chose the Monster set!

I don't actually get why Halloween is so big here in the US, but it gives me an excuse to a) own unnecessary Halloween stamps and b) send happy mail to my people.

I made a background using the Pumpkin lantern stamp and coloured it with Promarkers. I watercoloured the Monsters and die-cut them out and added some stickles here and there.

Simple and fun to make, so good to be back at my desk.

The tag die is by Simon Says Stamp and is out on my mini magnetic wall so that I can use it. I have been pulling out dies that don't get used and adding them to this little wall of mine, so that they get more use!

Here's a pic of the 'wall'

Basically just x3 magnetic panels affixed to my expedit, so that my most used dies can be out on display and easy to hand.

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #73.. Boo!

Hey,

Welcome to another fantastic Retro Rubber challenge.

This is a popular theme here in the US - Halloween..

I celebrate my Wedding Anniversary on 31st of October, so Halloween means something completely different, but it does mean that Hubby knows when he sees Pumpkins..time to start thinking about our Anniversary LOL.

I chose to use a fave stamp set by Simon Says Stamp - Trick or Treat.. I've had it for just over a year, I bought it with my birthday money last year, because I wanted to make a card for my Nephew and Niece.

I thought using a red background would suit the Cat-ula stamp and heat embossed the sentiment onto the red background. I decided to use a wobbler sticker for my Cat-ula, but he didn't pop that well, so I added a background behind it. If you look closely you will realise that it's mini bats - by Your Next Stamp (Batty Background Splatter).

I love how the gold edge of the card blank makes the whole thing pop, a great addition to my slowly growing Halloween card pile.

Check out what my awesome teammates have made over at Retro Rubber and show us your interpretation of the sketch.

Don't forget to use a stamp older than a year on your project and tell us all about it, that is a big part of the Retro Rubber fun. Also please feel free to combine our challenge with others, but keep it to a maximum of 10 challenges including ours.

Challenge ends on October 20th.

Cx

Happy Anniween / Halloversary?

Hey,

Happy Monday.

And Happy Halloween.

And Happy Anniversary to my lovely Hubby, today we celebrate 7 years of marriage and 12 years together.

Hence my silly titles, you know I love a 'Bennifer' style name mash-up.

So as it's a twofer post, let's do Halloween first shall we -

I made a ton of Halloween cards this year, I used x4 stamps - Simon Says Stamp Trick or Treat (Cat and Dog) and x2 stamps by Craftsmart - Cat and Halloween Couple.

I loved making them, it was a lot of fun, especially the one for JT (no bats or spiders for her..)

I created a few fun heat embossed and smooshed backgrounds and it was a throughly entertaining way to spend an evening last weekend.

Now for the smooshy Anniversary part -

I can always say lots of lovely things about my Hubby, because he is lovely.
I know I am a lucky lady having him in my life, but its when he does selfless things like persuade my Dad to come and visit that make him truly amazing.
I have had to make some tough decisions this year and he has been there every step, advising and standing aside when needed.

I love you Mr Grantham and I might even trade potatoes for you :)

Cx

Retro Rubber #49 It's Halloween...still time to play

Hey,

There is still time for you to join in with the current challenge over at Retro Rubber. 

The theme is Halloween.

Show us your scary Halloween makes, but first go over to Retro Rubber and view the scary things the DT have made to inspire you..

Challenge ends on October 21st Don't forget to use a stamp a year or older and tell us about it that's part of the fun. Also, please limit your entries to 10 challenges including ours.

Cx

Retro Rubber #49..Boo! It's Halloween..

Hey,

It's time for another superb challenge over at Retro Rubber. 

We are not that far from Halloween, so we thought it was a great time for you to get digging around in your older Halloween stash..

Last year I explained how Halloween is a bit lost on me as I am English and it also just happens to be my Wedding Anniversary..

I recently had my Silhouette Portrait out, so I cut out a spider and web and let that dictate my card LOL.

I decided not to make my card too scary, so went with a grey backdrop. I remembered that I had some great Halloween washi tapes..somewhere..luckily I managed to find them and used them to add colour and text to my card.

I stamped, die-cut and coloured the MFT Mummy (from 2015) and mounted him/her onto my card, just slightly overlapping the spider.

I love it, such a fun card and I think my Niece and Nephew will like it too.

Show us your scary Halloween makes, but first go over to Retro Rubber and view the scary things my teammates have made..

Challenge ends on October 21st Don't forget to use a stamp a year or older and tell us about it that's part of the fun. Also, please limit your entries to 10 challenges including ours.

Cx

Anniversary fun in Washington D,C

Hey,

Hope you all had a great weekend.

No cards today, just a little recap of our trip to D.C.

We had fun and it was really nice to catch-up as Hubby has been away for 10 days..my turn next..

1 - Dupoint Circle Metro Station - very cool station, we both love Architecture.

2 - The Iron Gate - we went here for our anniversary dinner, it's an old carriage house and the photo is of the carriage way, which is where we ate.

3 - Lincoln Memorial - I really wanted Hubby to see this, because we have seen so many films / tv shows with it in and it is ENORMOUS..you can't believe it until you have seen it.

4 - Halloween - Yes, our anniversary is on Halloween, but we don't really pay attention to all of that..until you see this amazing carved Pumpkin when walking through the Dupont neighbourhood.

5 - The White House  - it's so small?! 

6 - Trees - The trees are so beautiful in D.C, this is one of the many Autumnal trees that I photographed.

Have a great day.

Cx

Happy Halloween / Anniversary...

Hey,

Hope you are having a nice weekend.

So this post is a twofer...

Anniversary -

Hubby and I are heading to DC to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary which is today..

The main photo is the card I made for him. The journaling card came in one of my Simon Says Stamp cardkits and just reminded me of all the things Hubby and I enjoy.

I wanted to make it more 'anniversary' so used texture and translucent pastes through a heart stencil. To make it 100% more male, I stapled it to a metallic card blank, using blue staples...

Halloween -

The card above is a quick Halloween card I made for our Nephew and Niece..

I like to send them random stuff, to remind them of our existence :)

The tapes are from Michael's and were on sale, so went into my basket, the mummy stamp / die is by MFT.

Happy Trick or Treating...

Cx