Mexico 2017...

Hey,

Short and simple post today.

Just saying Hola! Following our return from Mexico and showing you photos of us, generally enjoying ourselves and Freddie Flamingo makes an appearance too.

We had a FANTASTIC time and it was just awesome to spend QT with Hubby.

Sad to be home, but it's always nice to know we have next year to look forward to.

Cx

Choose Happiness..

Hey,

This is my first live post, since I got back from Mexico.

I wanted to share the card I made for a client who has become a friend. She is going through some hard stuff right now and I wanted her to have something 'empowering'.

Whilst in Mexico I realised that I have to remind myself - rough days are fine. It's ok not to love every day :) And the sentiment here by Unity Stamp Co. triggered that thought before I left as it was the last thing I made.

I love the stencil I used on this card, it's new and by Balzer Bits from TCW - I love these mini stencils from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, they are awesome to play with.

I used 3 distress inks with finger daubers on this card and just kept blending until I got the bluey green I wanted!

I die-cut it using a Simon Says Stamp stitched square and popped it up with foam pads on a kraft square blank (again JT giving me swoony card blanks).

Such a simple card to make and now I want to play with the stencil more..

Cx

Make a Wish...

Hey,

Happy Monday...

Back to work for me, so not overly happy LOL. I like being on holibobs.. but who doesn't!

Do you think my cards are heavily cake and birthday focused this month because it's my birthday month?

I had just finished making these cards when I made today's card - I got all white heat embossing crazy..

I love the simplicity of the white heat embossing, you can do so much with it afterwards..

The candle and wish sentiment stamps are by Concord & 9th and the 'it's your birthday' is by Simon Says Stamp.

I have to say, the MISTI is really working out well. I am getting such clean impressions now, with these heavier stamps, why did I wait so long to buy it?!

Cx

Distress Star...

Hey,

So sadly today is the last day of our Holibobs in Mexico - boo!

Back to reality and furbabies later on tonight.

I saw this great card by Laura Bassen on the August Simon Says Stamp cardkit sheet.

I loved the star and wanted to have a go..

I blended 3 colours onto a piece of card and then using the star die from the kit, die-cut the star, you have to cut around the edges to get the border. It came out so well!! So pleased.

Because I already had the yellow WOW! embossing powder out (see yesterday's post) I decided to stamp a Concord & 9th sentiment and heat emboss it.

A fab card for one of the ungrateful Male recipients in my life (I send them stuff, even though I know they don't care..)

Cx

I love stripes...

Hey,

Happy Friday...

Hubby and I are off on our holibobs to Mexico tomorrow - YAY!!

So continuing on from Thursday's post I am showing you more of the cards I made using the Stampin' Up brushstrokes stamp, distress inks and a spritz of water.

I made tons of these backgrounds last week, I found it very therapeutic after a busy day at work!

I also have a big thing for stripes and this stamp was NOT cheap, but I had to have it...

I love the main photo today, so simple, but really impactful - I added a strip of red paper to my cardstock and then added the stripey background slightly over that.

I have a safety pin that has scraps of ribbon attached to it, hanging from my pinboard and I found the red ribbon there.

I stamped the sentiment after adding the ribbon, as I couldn't decide what it should say...

The 'It's your day' stamp jumped out at me and works really well here, it's from Birthday Bisque by Jillibean Soup.

Obviously I made another card using these fun backgrounds..

This one was super simple and the brushstrokes background was smaller - no trimming, I trim all the watercolour paper to size before I go crazy with the ink and the spritzing! So they look really natural.

I love these textured card blanks and I can ONLY buy them when they are on sale..

I die-cut the Ellen Hutson 'Treat Yo Self' in a contrasting blue and popped it out with foam tape.

Whenever I use this die, I stamp '..it's your birthday' inside..

I love making backgrounds, so much fun and super handy for when your mojo escapes you.

My posts will be scheduled for the next 10 days whilst I recharge my batteries with my boy, cocktails, good food and sunshine.

Cx

Flower Monkey Slider...

Hey,

Happy long weekend..whoop whoop.

It is Memorial Day weekend here in the US and in the UK it is the Whitsun holiday.

Hubby and I went to Atlantic City on Thurs night, it was a one night of madness thing..

So today I am showing you the famous (well to me and mine) Flower Monkey Slider card that I made for JT, following our weekend in Providence.

We got drunk and somehow came up with this crazy idea, which I then brought to life!

It made me smile so much and it's totally hideous, but fun.

I also learnt that my Stampin' Up label punch can be used to create sliders..clever.

The Monkey is by Waffle Flower, the flowers are by Altenew and stamped with Dew Drops and Distress Inks, the sentiment stamps are by CAS-ual Friday.

Hope you have a great weekend.

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #33...Sketch challenge

Hey,

Welcome to another awesome challenge from the Retro Rubber team..

Can you believe it is march already?!

This time we have a sketch challenge for you..

This is my fave kind of challenge and it gave me the opportunity to break out a loved, but little used set, I've had it about 2 years since it was released.

I used the Happy Trails stamp and die set by Lawn Fawn for the trees, car, trailer and sentiment.

I embossed my stitched border die onto a piece of spotty cardstock to create a 'road' - fun times.

I love this card, it makes me think of happy summer roadtrips with my family and my hubby..

What does this sketch inspire you to create? Check out the inspired creations by my fab teammates over at Retro Rubber.

Remember to use a stamp a year or older on your project, don't forget to tell us how old it is too.

Challenge ends on March 11th.

Cx

Designer inspiration...

Hey,

Happy Friday..

So Hubby and I are now in Melton Mowbray with his family, before we go to a good friend's wedding tomorrow.

We have had a great holiday, it was awesome to go back to Amsterdam.

I wanted to show you another stamp that I made using the Silhouette, like the Thank You stamp I showed you last week.

When I was making my own stamps I decided that two stamps would be good to start with. I decided that a word stamp and a nature stamp would be useful for me.

So I searched for inspiration and I happened to be in London at the time and saw quite a bit of Orla Kiely's work. I've always loved her signature ferm, partly because she does so much with it and because of the colours she uses.

I decided that a fern stamp would be a great one to make with the Silhouette.

The main photo today is of one of the cards that I made with the stamp.

Because I tried several different colour variants, I decided to create a chart that I could file with the stamp, so that I didn't have to re-invent the wheel every time I use it!

I used a random stamp and the Distress Inks to create the chart, I also added numbers, so I remember the order of the colours. The random piece of cardboard is recycled - I recycle as much card / paper as I can and if it's not going on a card, it doesn't really matter.

Here are the rest of the cards I created -

I am really happy with this stamp and I can see it getting a lot of use. I bundled this batch up and gave them to my MIL as a gift.

Have a great weekend. No posts from me - wedding, travel to London = not enough time to blog.

Cx

To be continued..

Hey,

So following on from yesterday.

I thought I'd show you some things I made using the die-cut remnants that I keep.

I started with these - stupidly forgot to take a photo before using and the hello is too damaged to be photographed..

I used Distress stains, inks and paints through the 'stencils' and then either stamped, stenciled or heat embossed over the top.

I am super pleased with the butterfly, as that is the Tim Holtz Lace stencil over the top of the Distress paint and I heat embossed it too...technique cray cray.

So the title of the post is the point of how these cards will be finished. Like the main card today, they will have no sentiment..

I like to do this, so when I need a card and I am low on inspiration I have something that I have already made ready to go and it helps me.

Then I just add a sentiment or an embellishment and they are ready to go. Fun to do when I have the time..

Cx

Scrap Cards...

Hey, 

I am away on holiday this week with Hubby. 

So this is a scheduled post. I am using the time to show you some of the things that I made during the Superstorm when I had an epic weekend at my desk.

I love scraps of paper, but last year I organised them so that I was only keeping sensible scraps that could become something.

I also like to keep sensible die-cut pieces..I'll show more of that tomorrow.

My two cards today are all scraps or items that were kicking around on my desk.

The main card uses a scrap of paper that I used to cut Tim Holtz pattern strip dies from and a scalloped heart that was already punched.  The white square was already die-cut and kicking around on my desk.

I dug out my Simon Says Stamp Happy and Smile stamp set and stamped the sentiment using a co-ordinating red ink.

The card blanks for both cards were cut by me from SSS cardkit cardstock (I keep all the cardstock from the kits and cut cardblanks now and then)

This feels like a fun anniversary card, for a fun couple.

The second card was designed around the colour of the card blank, so I used all the same scrap elements as before, but used a purple heart (love that it is corrugated card) I added a patterned square that is an offcut from a Pretty Pink Posh die.

I made this card a birthday card I used the same SSS set for the Happy, but used a fave stamp by Technique Tuesday for the birthday. I deliberately overlapped the words because it felt like real handwriting.

What do you do with your scraps?

Cx

Birthdays for boys...

Hey,

So today is my Brother-in-Law's birthday.

I made him a fun card a few weeks back..

I am a teeny bit obsessed right now with the Simon Says Stamp I See You stamp set..

I used it here along with SSS Baby Party Animals sentiment stamps.

Simple, because guys like simple cards LOL.

Cx

Make your own stamp...

Hey,

Happy Saturday!

I am now on holibobs!! And this post will be up before I land in the UK..

Several months ago - I'm talking like before Thanksgiving... I saw a blog post on the Silhouette blog about using it to make clear stamps..

What?! What kind of witchcraft is this!!

I promptly bought some of the stamp material and a special stamp cutting mat for the Silhouette and had a play.

Sadly a few of my creations were an epic fail..but I managed to create two beauties.

Yes, the main card today uses a stamp I MADE...

I love it!!

Due to the nature of the stamp material, you get a kind of splotchy effect, so for these cards I decided that I would use different distress inks, spritz the stamp, stamp it onto watercolour paper and then dry it..

They all came out so different.

Fun times..

I wanted to show you a photo of the stamp, but it didn't come out too well.

I don't use my Silhouette as often as I 'should' but I stopped beating myself up about this, because when I do use him, lots of magic happens - yay!

Have a great weekend, I'll be back tomorrow to show you the other stamp.

Cx

Happy Birdie to you...

Hey,

Happy Friday.

I bought the fun Stacked Animals set by Simon Says Stamp..I couldn't resist it.

I love the Birdie and I thought he would work well with a pair of glasses that were already on my desk.

I coloured him using a Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen and a gold Promarker, affix the glasses and stamp a simple sentiment..done in a jiffy!

I love easy cards like this. They almost always seem to end up being CAS.

Have a great weekend,

Hubby and I are leaving for London tonight for our holiday and then my week of work, everything will be scheduled from now until I get back mid-march :)

Cx

Holibobs and Weddings...

Hey,

Happy Friday!

So Hubby and I are off to London at the end of next month for the wedding of a good friend.

We are going to take some time off and have a little holibob on the way..Amsterdam here we come..

I wanted to make the happy couple a special card and their invitation served as inspiration.

Their invite is navy and a bronzed colour..I have the navy, so started there..

I used a Sizzix doily die that I got a couple of years ago in a Black Friday sale. I love it, but it's so fiddly that I don't use it very often..

I used the doily as my base and die-cut a stitched circle in kraft card that would fit in the centre.

I decided to use stamps from Simon Says Stamp Congratulations stamp set.

After testing various embossing powders and inks, I settled on the navy inks with the heat embossed ranger metallic powder for the contrast.

I heat embossed the navy sentiment onto vellum and fussy cut it out..hugely disappointed by the white foam squares, so if anyone can give me a tip here I'd be very grateful.

I love the card, it feels really vintage and was exactly what was in my mind.

Have a great weekend. I am looking forward to the Superbowl on Sunday.

Cx

Lisbon 2015...

Hey,

Happy Monday to you all.

I am in London, starting my first day of work for a week here.

I thought I would share some of the photos from our fab, fun trip to Lisbon in December.

It was a total blast and really cool to meet everyone's partners.

We did fun things - like find a bar that served 2 beers for 75cents, race through Lisbon in Tuk Tuks, go to the Aquarium en masse when severely hungover, drink the best 2euro wine ever in a wine shop, wander through Lisbon admiring the architecture, discover that Lisboans are obsessed with Sardines and have a fondness for Pork, shop a lot, dress up for a Michelin starred dinner, dance in awful clubs, drink a lot several times..

It was fun, we did it together and it makes me love my work colleagues a little bit more..

Cx

One die 3 cards...

Hey,

Happy Friday.

Well it is nearly time for Hubby and I to return from our Mexican paradise.

Today I wanted to show you some thank you cards that I made as part of a gift for a friend.

I used a fave thanks die by Lawn Fawn, I thought it would be fun to use this die to make 3 different cards.

The main card used a simple masking technique, I cut the thanks twice and adhered one of them (with removable adhesive) to my card and stamped the doilies all around it. I then carefully peeled it off and replaced it with the red version - cool right?

This card uses a very simple technique using distress inks and water. I inked up the Stampin' Up Watercolour Stripes stamp using 4 different distress inks, then I lay my paper on to the stamp. Once it transferred to the paper, I die cut it and then spritzed it with water before heating it to dry it.

The final card is a shaker - I couldn't resist. Super simple. love my shaker mix here - it uses some great Martha Stewart sequins from a Simon Says Stamp cardkit. The paper is by Stampin' Up.

As I said at the beginning of this rather long post..these cards were part of a gift for a friend. Below is a photo of the rather fetching little parcel I put together.

Cx

Still time to play along...

Hey,

There is still time for you to play along with the latest Moving Along With The Times challenge.

We have changed the format of the challenge - each team will now be doing a 2 week challenge - giving you more time to play along.

That means that this challenge runs until 15th September (closes at 6pm GMT)

The theme this time is Use an Animal and our hostess is Susan.

I'm showing you a couple of cards that feature animals :)

I recently bought myself the Mama Elephant three amigos stamp and die set..I love the ton of fun sayings you can stamp onto the amigos.

I made 2 different cards - flexing more new stash muscle LOL

The main card, I used my new Pretty Pink Posh filmstrip die - love this die, can't wait to use it more.

The card below uses one of my many shaker pouches and a new chipboard embellishment that was on sale at Michaels.

Really I love making these shaker pouches. It was fun making my own mixes to fill them with - Candi's and sequins are great, but it's nice to add extra bits. I used these great Tim Holtz dies to create teeny tiny little die cuts for using as 'shaker mix'

Yay!

Cx

A different new home...

Hey,

Shaker alert!!

One of the shaker pouches I made a couple of weeks ago made an excellent focal point for a new home card I wanted to make.

I added a house die cut - by Sizzix and Tim Holtz.  The congrats die and small scalloped circle are by Simon Says Stamp. The home sweet home stamp is by Fiskars.

The addition of the shaker pouch makes it a bit of an unusual new home card - me likey!

Cx

Meow, baa, squeak..

Hey,

I am off sunning myself in Mexico this week with Hubby.

I hope you had a great weekend.

I recently bought a big batch of stamps from Unity Stamp Co.

I made the little set you see today for a friend.

The set is very cute and called Meow.Purr.Baa - I did not use purr this time, hence the name of my post.

I decided to go with mini cards to showcase the stamps.

I used Promarkers and Lawn Fawn dies.

Cx

Bye bye Momma Bear...

Hey,

So my Ma left to go home a little while ago..sad times, but man did we have fun whilst she was here.

DC was awesome fun - hot as hell, but amazing to see everything and its so clean!!

We loved having her with us, but you know it's always nice to reclaim your tiny 1 bedroom apartment :)

Main photo is Ma outside the White House - waaay smaller than we expected:)

This photo is of Ma the converted slot machine player in Atlantic City...

She is a lot of fun my Ma!

We also had a great lunch date with JT's folks - Mike and Sally - they are amazeballs and I love them to pieces. So glad that Ma got to meet them. Whenever Hubby and I are with Mike and Sally we take a selfie..so here is the one from yesterday..

Cx