Margate Craftathon 2017: Part Five..the end..

Hey,

Happy Friday.

So this is the FINAL part of the Margate series.

It was actually a lot of fun to write the posts and look at the cards in more detail.

Today's post is slightly different as these cards aren't really a 'family' - just random fun makes.

The main card used a Simon Says Stamp cardkit - I took a few along with me, for JT and I to play with and this one has fun scratch off stickers, so we totes had to play with that. I drew my own balloon string and I'm feeling pretty pleased about that.

Love this next card - in part because it is a total mix of our stashes. The background stamp (which I adore) is by Hero Arts and belongs to JT - she actually bought it second-hand from Jenn Shurkus. And as you can see there is that Thank You die again! The flowers and leaves are from my stash and are by MFT.

 Final card today uses a new stamp I bought whilst in London. It is called Party Pigs and is by Woodware, it actually has 6 pigs in a line, but I didn't have a big enough card blank! I love the stitched die that I used (belongs to JT, gift from me..)..why do I not have these?

I love the pigs, they are kind of kooky and I like that. And I like Pigs..so...

It was such a fun thing to do and sharing the cards with you has made me smile a lot, thinking about the laughs and JT, who is totes a friend for life, no way I am letting her go man.

Have a great weekend, sadly my time in Mexico will be up tomorrow (sob).

Cx

Margate Craftathon 2017: Part Four...

Hey,

Happy Saturday - I am probably in Mexico as you are reading this.

Nearly there with the Margate series of posts..just a couple more to go..I mean this is what happens when you make 24 cards!

Today's post is all about stencils.

I took a load as did JT and we mixed and matched and played with different techniques.

Main photo was to show JT what her new pot of Glitter paste would look like - sparkly is what! I love Glitter paste, its amazing.  The thank you die is JT's and I had to buy the set when I got home, because I used it SO much over that weekend (she's lucky I didn't pinch it!).

Below I used a different stencil - Dina Wakely - and just a mustard seed oxide ink. Simple, but so wonderful.

The final card didn't photograph as well as I had hoped. I used texture paste through a Tim Holtz leaf stencil and then blended over it once it was dry. The sentiment die is from that set that JT brought with her..

Fun to play with stencils, I am still slightly embarrassed by how long it took me to get the hang of them and now they are used all the time!

Cx

Margate Craftathon 2017: Part Three..

Hey,

Back with Part Three of the Margate makes..

I took all of my Distress Inks with me, so that JT could have a play and I wanted to get some more practice time with them.

To make all of these cards I created the backgrounds first, I smooched the paper into some Cracked Pistachio and Broken China Oxide ink and added some some water to get a fun background. 

Then I used the Picked Raspberry Oxide through a couple of different Tim Holtz stencils.

I really loved the effect I got on the main card, so I used a few offcuts to make the Hipster cards below.

The stamping over the backgrounds comes out really crisp. I am starting to love the Oxides a bit more.

The sentiments are Tim Holtz stickers, JT brought her's with her, so I used some appropriate ones for the imagery.

Cx

Margate Craftathon 2017: Part Two...

Hey,

Part Two of the Margate makes..

I loved the Waffle Flower 'The Season' set from the minute I saw it.

MERSANTA!! Are you kidding me!!

So JT and I had a little play..

The background stamp belongs to JT and I used it with Broken China Distress Oxide Inks.

I kept it all simple and added a couple of fishes behind MerSanta and stamped the sentiment.

I am looking forward to making more Christmas cards with this set.

Cx

Margate Craftathon 2017: Part One...

Hey,

Happy Sunday to you!

I am having a fun weekend hanging with Hubby watching NFL pre-season games and of course the boxing..

I figure it is going to take me several posts to show you the Margate makes..which is cool as I am heading to Mexico on Sautrday and so will need to schedule some posts.

Today's post is a mix, because I used some new things in Margate that came in the post 2 days before I left from my friend Jen. So the main photo is the thank you card I quickly whipped up using Lil Inkers Cat Treats set and a Concord & 9th sentiment stamp.

I LOVE Monster stamps, I think most people know that and to be honest I do come home to little surprise parcels with Monster stamps a lot more than I should...I am a very lucky girl.

Here is the little haul I got from Jen - 

Awesome right?!

So it made sense to shove them into my case and take them with me.

The first card I made on Friday was based on a card JT and I were using as inspiration to get us started. I used the Hero Arts 'Eat Cake All Day' set from Jen -

Super simple card to get me started. I love the monster he looks so happy..The sentiments in the set are fun too, I really like 'I could eat you up' ha ha ha.

I have actually wanted these Paperartsy Monster stamps for a while, but never got round to buying them..

I thought it would be fun to make a set of cards, using four of the stamps from the set. They were all coloured using Distress inks and the sentiment is by Clearly Besotted.

Margate: Craftathon 2017...

Hey,

Happy Friday..

So I guess the title of my post makes it seem like I actually went to an 'organised' craft thing.

Nope.. last weekend JT and I hired an Airbnb in Margate and humped all manor of craft goodies in two suitcases (one with a big shot and one all the way from NYC) and got our private craft on. We decided that it would be more fun to create our own craft retreat. That we way, we made the rules..of which there were none..

As well as crafting we had lots of fun in Margate - mainly involving food and pushing 2p's in the arcade (hard to explain to my American friends).

Here is a little collage of us and the weekend..

You can see from the main photo that we managed to make a ton of cards - 46 to be precise!!! It was oodles of fun to play with JT again face to face, I miss my buddy A LOT. Not just because of the crafting side of things, but because she's my family.

I can't wait to show you close up photos of my makes, hopefully I will get to do that this weekend.

But for now, here is a selfie of JT and I that we took on Margate Beach on Saturday afternoon, shortly after we had finished snarfing Cockles and Whelks..

Looking forward to Craftathon 2018..

Have a great weekend, I will be mainly smooching Hubby and hanging with him, because we have been apart for so long, I missed him something silly!

Cx

Christmas Card 2017: Avery Elle Presents..

Hey,

So today's Christmas cards were made using an Avery Elle stamp.

I bought it late last year, it was sold out when I was in the midst of my 2016 Christmas card making..

Another super simple card, made even easier thanks to the MISTI. I stamped the sentiment and the image at the same time.

I die-cut one of the white panels first so I knew what space I had to work with, then I lined up the sentiment and image stamps and stamped all 4 cards - love the MISTI for repeat makes.

I coloured the image using Distress Inks and a paintbrush - I bought some new detail paint brushes, I actually prefer to use paintbrushes and water than an aquabrush, I can control the water flow better. A bit of stickles here and there adds a little bit of shimmer.

The card blanks are by PaperSource and as they are a discontinued colour, they were super cheap. They are actually pretty big, so I cut them down to make two mini cards - excellent vfm!

I'm a bit over excited today, as JT and I are off on our Margatecraftathon tomorrow - whoo hoo!!

Cx

Happy 40th Birthday Girl...

Hey,

So my friend Mel turned 40 a couple of weeks ago.

As I am in London I am seeing her tonight to celebrate.

As she is a designer I wanted to make her a bit of a chic / edgy card.

I decided to use Bo Bunny glitter paste through a fave Dutch DoobaDoo Stencil (which is in my bag for the Margate adventure this weekend).

It came out WAY better than I expected and I decided to just go with simple giant numbers and no words.

Loving these giant number dies, they are so useful.

Cx

Repeat Resist..

Hey,

So today I am showing you the final card from my playdate with JT 2 weeks ago.

JT had seen this idea of a repeat resist with a watercolour overlay, you can see her awesome take on this technique here - I love the Seahorse that she used for her repeat.

I used an ancient Papermania Happy Birthday stamp for my resist - it is quite long, so I only had to stamp each row and heat emboss them in white.

I watercoloured over the top of the heat embossed text and wiped off the excess with a paper towel.

The cake stamp/die is by Concord & 9th and is one of my faves.

I love resists, you get such awesome results.

I am leaving for London tonight, so for the next 14 days my posts will be scheduled. I have a few days off whilst I am in London and JT and I are having a Margatecraftathon LOL. We have hired a teeny tiny place and are taking a ton of crafting supplies and spending 3 days having a real playdate.

Cx