Retro Rubber Challenge #85.. Vintage..

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

Over the Christmas break, we had a bit of a theme overhaul and Debbie suggested this lovely one -

The minute I saw this cue-card I knew that I had the perfect stamp for it. It's called 'The Gorgeous Bride' and is by All Dressed Up. She feels so very Vintage with her nod to 1920's style.

I actually combined a digital stamp with a physical stamp here - it's allowed as long as they are both older than a year and there is some physical stamping too!

This card has a random story attached to it. I actually made the card and was a bit up in the air about which sentiment to use. Then a friend (male) who is getting married (secretly) asked if I could make him a card to give to his wife to be on their wedding day. He said 'give me something smooshy, with feeling' LOL..sure ok!

And then it came to me...I have this beautiful sentiment by Unity Stamp Co. that I got in 2016 and I thought it would work here and fit the brief of my friend and weirdly enough the lady on the card actually looks a teeny bit like the Bride.

I coloured the stamp using Promarkers and Spectrum Noir sparkle pens and the background paper is ancient and is really pale pink, with subtle bits of text on it.

My friend loved the finished card and I was super pleased that my card went to a great home and could be a little gift for my friend.

Show us your interpretation of the sketch (and maybe even share a random story) and pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends May 4th.

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

Distress Techniques....

Hey,

Happy Saturday to you all!

I am probably landing as you are reading this...

Right after the loft art retreat I used the left over tags from our project to practice some of the techniques that Jenn had taught us.

It's taken me until this week to get round to making cards with them!!

Here are the 3 tags I started with, I have labelled them with the technique I used, just enlarge the photo to read the details.

The main photo is the first card I made and I love the Studio Calico wooden word bubbles. They are a lot of fun. This year I have used a lot more wooden items, I used to be daunted by them.

I die-cut the friend using a Mama Elephant die and I die cut it out of Kraft card twice and layered them, to make it studier. I added a couple of orange enamel dots to finish it off.

I really like it, its fun and really shouts fabulous to me.

The next card uses Lawn Fawn wooden words and stars and to make it a bit different I coloured a Tim Holtz Gum Drop using Orange Alcohol ink and covered the tag hole with it.

Fun cards and the orange card blanks really make the elements pop. I made the card blanks myself using the cardstock from my latest Simon Says Stamp cardkit.

Have a great weekend, I'll be hanging with my family and the animals...

Cx

Happy 1st Birthday...

Hey,

So the Son of good friends will be turning One this week and I wanted to make a fun card for him.

I decided to look through my stash of 'special' makes and see if there was anything there.

I came across this -

From my first ever Loft Art Retreat in 2015..

I thought he would be great to modify and turn into a 1st birthday card.

As you can see from the main photo today it totally worked with two simple changes - 1) add a new sentiment, over the existing one. 2) add a Thickers number sticker to a balloon.

I love it when I can slightly tweak something I've already made to use for a slightly different purpose, it feels very 'clever' LOL.

Cx

Distress Ink Recipes...

Hey,

So after extensive playtime, with Distress Inks last weekend at the Loft Art Retreat I really wanted to learn a bit more about which colours would blend well together.

I had a look around and came across this - a genius post by Shari Carroll on the SSS blog, she basically created Distress ink recipes, here are a couple for you to see -

They are awesome and totally inspired me.

I made 3 cards, using the recipes and CASEd Shari's card as the layout / design for each card.

The main card uses recipe 2 and a Hero Arts background stamp - I love how it turned out..super simple to make too..

Here are the other two cards -

Hero Arts background stamp, Tim Holtz dies, Recipe #6

Gina Marie background stamp, Tim Holtz dies, Recipe #10

I love working with a mix of colours, but I've always found it a bit tricky to match them up..so it is really nice to have 'recipes'

Cx

Mixed Media Loft Art Retreat..

Hey,

So I had a super fun weekend, as JT was here for the weekend and we went to Providence to Jenn's last loft art retreat - she is moving, so I believe there will be Art Retreats, but no more Loft.

We had so much fun and it was great to spend QT together that is not work related :) We managed to lose JT's phone on the way to Providence, but all credit to JT, she just waved it off and got on with the weekend. Bill the super helpful Amtrak guy helped to make it all feel a bit better too, so a big shout out to Bill where ever you are, you are the hero of the weekend.

The collage, shows us getting inky, Mister Harley, our tags mid way through and some of the food that we ate - we ate and drank a lot, none of it was good for us and I am having to eat a LOT of vegetables to balance out the badness of the 3 days.

It was great to do the mixed media loft art retreat together because we were both a teeny bit out of our comfort zone and it was good to have my all time fave craft person with me, JT knows me so well, she just laughs when I get all weird...

JT used stencils for the first time ever and I managed not to freak out too much about my fingers being so dirty / inky..it was hard, but my new Ranger craft scrubby is going to help me deal with this moving forward.

It was a lot of fun, our table was a hoot. We learnt so many new techniques, which I'll be showing over the next couple of weeks, as I had a post class play at my desk on Monday - seeing if I had retained all that we learnt.

My fave new technique is the one where you create a blended distress ink panel, spritz a stamp with water and lay the tag onto it. It reacts and kind of bleaches it, like this -

I put my canvas together on Monday, because I didn't want it to get damaged on the train and I love how it looks -

I can't wait to hang it and visit JT and see her's hanging up too.

JT and I were lucky enough to win prizes in the raffle - I am very pleased with mine -

Fun times.

I just want to say to JT - thank you for coming all that way, you made me so very happy, hanging with you is always awesome and playdates are the most fun, especially when they involve Fried Pickles and Flower Monkey Sliders...

Love you man.

Cx

It's playdate time...

Hey,

Happy Friday.

I am super happy.

A) JT arrives today
B) We are off to Providence to do the Mixed Media Loft Art Retreat, hosted and taught by the wonderful Jenn Shurkus.
C) I have 2 days off
D) JT arrives today

I wanted to show you my card for last week's Unity Stamp Co. Show and Tell challenge on Facebook.

I just bought the great lemonade stamp - I am already in love.

This time the challenge was a sketch -

Super simple sketch - the best kind.

I used Lawn Fawn heart paper, from 'Let's Polka in the Meadow', the Unity Stamp and sentiment, 2 dies (MFT and SSS) and distress inks.

The lemonade panel looked a bit bland, so I added some tiny yellow stars - much better.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Cx

It's a Girl....

Hey,

So I LOVE making new Baby cards.. no idea why, I just do!

So JT's bestie and her Husband had a baby Girl last week (congrats) and I have met them, so I wanted to send them a card, welcoming her to their family.

I recently bought a whole batch of the mini Lawn Fawn stamp and die sets, as they were a good price.

One of them was -

I thought it would make a great new Baby card, as the Elephants could represent the parents and the heart would appear between them and be the new Baby.

I dug out a piece of ancient DCWV sparkly Baby Girl paper - I think I've had it since 2011.. I die cut it and a coordinating pink piece using nesting Spellbinders label dies.

The sentiment is by Simon Says Stamp, once I had placed the Elephants I didn't think the stamped heart would work, so I punched a pink heart, popped it up and added a bling to signify one new baby.

I love it, Baby cards make me happy.

Cx

CAS(E) this sketch...

Hey,

Hope you had a nice weekend?

I had a very relaxing one and spent qt at my desk.

I am pretty excited, as JT arrives on Friday, so we can go to the Mixed Media Loft Art Retreat in Providence..yes hosted by Jenn Shurkus!!

Whoop Whoop!!

Today I am entering the CAS(E) this sketch challenge..I really like the sketch -

I was a bit undecided about what to use for my card, but then I remembered that I really wanted to have more of a play with this stamp set by Unity Stamp Co.

I stamped, coloured and fussy cut the teabag stamp. I used a freebie border stamp to create the pale pink background behind the teabag.

I figured out the perfect position for my sentiment and stamped it in a slightly darker shade of pink/red.

Once I had popped up the teabag, I stamped a few teeny tiny hearts around.

I love the soft colours and right now (being busy at work) I like simple CAS nature of the card..

Cx

Newton takes a nap...

Hey,

Happy Monday to you..

Hope you had a good weekend. I did, I hung out with Hubby and had a LOT of playtime at my desk.

Today's card uses a new Newton's Nook stamp (Newton's Naptime) that I bought at the Loft Art Retreat. I have now bought the dies, because I thought the image would look great popped up.

I kept the card simple and used soft colours - All Promarkers (Spice, Duck Egg, Buttercup, Pastel Yellow and Pink Mittens).

I settled on stitched rounded rectangle dies by MFT, because the image felt like it needed rounded corners.

I embossed the pink panel for a bit of texture.

Simple and very cute and perfect to enter into the I Heart Promarkers challenge this week - pastel colours.

Cx

Friendship has it's perks...

Hey,

So I am heading home today.

I loved the Punchinella stamp by Neat & Tangled so much when we used it at the Loft art retreat, that I had to buy it!!

I didn't full ink it up, as I wanted it to feel a bit faded. It's actually a bit bigger than the panel you see, but I die-cut it down, as I didn't want a border.

I love the Lawn Fawn Winter Fox stamp and thought it would look great against the background.

Because the Fox has a cup of coffee, I dug through my stamps (I need more coffee stamps LOL) and I found the sentiment in a Simon Says Stamp Set. The banner die is also by Simon Says Stamp.

I practiced a new tip from Jenn, to add glitter to things without covering myself in it. Super simple and it works!

Have a great weekend..I am looking forward to going home to Hubby and the kitties.

Cx

Loft Art Retreat...number 3

Hey,

So as you know I attended my third loft art retreat last weekend.

I did show a photo of all the cards from the loft art retreat earlier in the week, but I wanted to show you a couple of them in more detail and tell you a bit more about the weekend.

Cheiron was my road trip buddy, she drove and organised the hotel, we had a lot of fun. We had the day off on Friday and left early, so we could shop and hang out with some of the ladies..
We pulled off the road near New Haven and did a taco crawl - we ate one taco every truck - well six of them..
Friday was busy, we shopped, had drinks, ate dinner with Jenn and another friend.

Saturday was great fun, we started the day with a trip to our fave diner and then off to Jenn's for a serious session..15 cards in one day is no mean feat, especially when they are as detailed as the ones we made. It was great to see some familiar faces and of course Mister Harley and Chris.
The class was excellent, I learnt a couple of new tricks including how to apply glitter to the card / object and not myself LOL. I also meant a few more cool people, that I will definitely be keeping in touch with.

We had a nice relaxed dinner and then after saying goodbye to everyone Cheiron and I popped to Target for a late night shop and then went bowling!! Ha ha ha.

Sunday, we took it easy, went for breakfast at Cracker Barrel because I have never been there and then we headed home..with a few coffee stops.

It was a fun trip and always lovely to spend quality time with Cheiron.

I chose to show you these cards because they stretched me a bit.

The adorable Lumberjack (stamps by Neat & Tangled) card is essentially one layer, all the wood circles are stamped directly onto the card blank - eek!

I never feel comfortable doing that..but this came out really well.

This next card was supposed to have a shaker element in the top right corner, but one of the ladies on my table messed up her shaker, so I gave her my frame, as I have the dies. My intention was to make it when I got home/

Then I thought I really liked it as it was, but was missing something, so I added some sequins.

It felt a bit naughty not finishing the card as Jenn had intended, so that was a stretch for me..I normally do as I am told when taking a class.

I love the Mermaid card..so glad I bought the stamp set by Newton's Nook...Mermaids..another thing I love.

Cx

Simon Says...Let's do the polka...

Hey,

Happy Friday.

I am off to London later on this evening, so the majority of my posts will be scheduled for the next 10 days.

I really wanted to end my week with a challenge.

I saw the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge and decided that was the one for me :)

This week the theme is 'Let's do the polka'..use spots / dots and the DT are using Lawn Fawn products.

I decided to use Lawn Fawn products too, partly because I am still inspired by the loftartretreat makes from last weekend.

The yellow and black paper is a shiny new free pad called Let's Polka in the Meadow, by Lawn Fawn and it was a gift from them to us at the retreat last weekend.

I die-cut all three squares using Lawn Fawn square stitched dies.

I dug out the Year Four hippo birdie stamp and die set by Lawn Fawn and used the birdie, hippo, balloon and sentiment on my card.

I masked off the sentiment, so I could stamp in on two rows, it is one long stamp. Its a fun way to make your sentiment stamps work harder.

It was a fun, easy make and a reminder to dig out my Lawn Fawn critter stamps more often.

Have a great weekend, see you next week in London.

Cx

WOYWW #358...Fun at the retreat and President Clinton...

Hey,

Happy WOYWW.

Yes, it is that time again..how quickly the week's whip by..

Wednesday's are when we join Julia over at her blog Stamping Ground for a weekly global desk nosy.

My desk this week is blah..because I was away all weekend, so it's just got my work keyboard and mouse on it..creating will be happening tonight - promise!

As some of you know, I spent the last weekend in Providence at Jenn Shurkus' loft art retreat. As usual it was a lot of fun, my companion for the weekend was Cheiron and she is an absolute hoot. If you are in NYC and can get to the Inkpad, she teaches there, you should check her out.

We made 15 cards...

It was a long day, but lots of fun, my table was a riot and as always I learnt some new tips and tricks.

Now about President Clinton. Remember that I was supposed to teach at the local community on Monday? Well..it was cancelled because President Clinton was visiting the centre?! So I waited, saw him, shook his hands and complained to him about the disruption to my plans..for which he apologised..Now that's how to spend your days off :)

See you later for a desk nosy.

Cx

Getting my teach on...

Hey,

Happy Monday.

Hope you had a good weekend, I had a fun, crafty, hilarious weekend, spent with Cheiron at Jenn's Loft Art Retreat. It was nice to get home to Hubby yesterday.

I am still off and I am teaching a cardmaking class at my local community centre..lots of elderly people and my friend's 10 year old Son LOL.

The cards you see here today are the ones I am teaching - with the flower I will let people choose which colourway they want to make. The more boy focused ones I made specially for my friends Son.

Fun times, I'm nervous, but looking forward to it, I hope it goes well and people enjoy it.

I will show you my cards from the retreat later in the week.

Cx

p.s lots of supplies used..

Paper Smooches flower jar stamp, Simon Says Stamp mixed sentiment stamps and banner die, Die Versions robot die, Neat & Tangled Everyday Labels stamps, Stampin' Up mixed sentiment stamps, Promarkers, Gina Marie stitched rectangle die, Hema starburst stamp, Hero Arts star stamps and Papertry Ink balloon dies..

Birdie Birthday....

Hey,

Happy weekend..

I am in Providence and today Cheiron and I will be making 16 cards!!! At Jenn's loft art retreat.

I thought I'd share a kooky card I made using a Tim Holtz bird stamp.

Because the bird is kind of kooky, I thought the card should be too.

I stamped the bird and die-cut out the panel first, then I added the sentiment, running the birthday in a random direction felt like it worked here because of the odd birdy!

I then stenciled in some red polka dots, but I didn't reink my dauber, because I wanted some of the dots to be a bit faded.

I need to play with this stamp more, it's a lot of fun.

I'll tell you all about the retreat at some point next week.

Cx

Road Trip...

Hey,

Happy weekend ;)

Yes it is my weekend.

I am on my way to Jenn Shurkus' loft art retreat in Providence, I am being driven there by Cheiron - I love a road trip with Cheiron and a loft art retreat, so I have been super excited for weeks.

I thought it was only fitting that I play along with the latest Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.

Both Jenn are Cheiron are on the SSS DT, on different challenges. They both inspire me a great deal and to top it of they are awesome, friendly, fun ladies.

The challenge this week is Happy Birthday as SSS celebrates 7 years in business. The DT are using Simon Says Exclusives..which is awesome as I love their stuff.

I just happened to have the latest cardkit on my desk, so I used the spotty stamps and the Happy Birthday sentiment from the set.

I stamped the spots in yellow ink first, went over them with embossing ink and then used yellow embossing powder over it. I stamped the embossing ink slightly away from the yellow ink, because I wanted a smudged look.

I splattered calligraphy ink over the panel to finish it off.

I had a plain yellow background originally, but it was a bit blah..so I embossed it with a Sizzix big dots folder and now I'm happy :)

Happy Birthday wishes to the Simon Says Stamp team, you are my favourite enablers and providers..

I know I'm going to be having a fun weekend, I hope you do too.

Cx

Class makes...

Hey,

Hope you had a good weekend.

I had a nice one, chilling with Hubby and attending class at The Inkpad NYC on Friday, taught by my good friend Cheiron.

I love her classes they are fun - there is a regular crowd of ladies and they are great to be around.

I love the cards we made in this class, the main photo was my fave card from the evening. Here are the rest.

So much fun to make, we used pastes, paints, inks, stencils, multi-matt medium, markers, stamps and a few paper based items.

It was great on my table, we were very collaborative and helpful, it was a nice fun way to spend Friday after a crazy week at work.

I also managed to empty my wallet in The Inkpad - but in my defense there were a lot of great things on sale as well as full price items, alongside class discount :)

Cheiron and I will be seeing each other again in two weeks when we do another road trip to Jenn Shurkus' Loft Art Retreat - cannot wait!

Cx

Playing with a cardlkit..

Hey, 

Hope you are all well and had a great weekend.

I had such a fun weekend, having Denise here was a hoot and I got to see my good friend from home Nkem, because she was here in NYC with her Mother.

Fun times with great people.

Denise also took to crafting like a duck to water and had a great time at class on Friday. We had a mini craft session in the house on Sunday and I will show you what I produced later in the week.

Today I wanted to show a couple of cards, I made a while ago using the Simon Says Stamp Oct. cardkit.

The main card I actually gave to Jenn to thank her for hosting the loftartretreats that make me so happy.

I love the 'you're pretty fantastic' stamp, it has got a lot of potential.

I kept the card very simple - all the stamps are from the kit and I added some pretty washi tapes.

The card below uses stamps from the kit - I was unsure what I was going to add to the left hand side of the card, but I knew I had to have something there.

Then I saw this little monster die cut lying on my desk..so I added a googly eye and added him to my card :)

I really like the Oct cardkit and I am currently playing with other items from the kit..so look out for a few more cards.

Cx

Bokeh flower fun....

Hey,

So over the weekend I thought I'd have a play with the new Lets Bokeh stamp set by Lawn Fawn that I bought when I was at the Loftartretreat.

Today I am showing 2 different cards, I also made a couple of Christmas cards - I'll show you those next week..

All the other stamps I used are by Simon Says Stamp.

I thought the circles would make really nice flowers. I used a stamp for the stems that is actually supposed to be a balloon string.

I used 3 different colour inks for each card and then I used my fave mini star burst stamp for 'centres' 

I kept the sentiment simple.

I used the outline stamp from the Bokeh set on the purple card and I don't really like it as much..

I think I'll be playing around with variations of these cards - I love the Bokeh stamp set..it's got legs.

Cx

October Loft Art Retreat...

Hey,

Happy Friday.

So it has been a week since I left for the loftartretreat, hosted by the amazing Jenn Shurkus.

Cheiron gave me a ride and a bed for the night, she is a proper hoot! We had so much fun on the epic 7hr journey to Providence?! We then had way too many cocktails on Friday night.

It was such a fun day, I made some lovely new friends, caught up with some people I had met at the previous loftartretreat, made 13 cards and did a bit of shopping :)

All the products we used were Lawn Fawn and I got to sit next to the wonderful Amy who does all the kitting - amazing!

It was great to make so many fun Christmas cards, I don't really like making Christmas cards so it is fun to take a class where I get to boost my Christmas card stash.

The main photo is my fave card and here are the rest...

Aren't they gorgeous?!

I love the loftartretreats - Jenn is so much fun and a great teacher and it is fun to meet new people. I can't wait to take JT to one next Spring.

I can't wait for my next class at The InkpadNYC with Cheiron.

Have a great weekend.

Cx