Retro Rubber Challenge #237 - Tic Tac Toe

Hey,

Welcome to another awesome Retro Rubber challenge.

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

I went with the diagonal row from top left - Rectangles - Heat/Dry Emboss - Your Choice

My choice was the fun mermaid stamp - 'Bubbly Birthday' by MFT and I have had it since 2022. I do not have the dies, so it was cut using my Brother scan n cut aka Big Sexy. I chose all my papers for a kind of ocean vibe! I die cut them all using rectangle dies and stacked them up.  I used a fave big spot embossing folder for the top rectangle.

It is so cute and I love all the layers.

I realised that I also fit the bottom row, as my base paper has gold flecks throughout it! A rare twofer!

Which row will you choose? Pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends August 23.

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

Fusion Card Challenge - Seashells..

Hey,

Welcome to another fantastic Fusion Card Challenge.

I am currently on a staycation and I should be cleaning my closet.. but my desk calls. 

This time we have a great seashell themed image for you and a wonderful sketch.

Which will you try?

As always I loved both, so I fused them!

The seashells made me instantly think of the amazing all-time fave woodblock stamp I have by Stampendous 'Mermaid'. I bought it on super-bargain clearance about 8 years ago and I love watercolouring her.

I used Distress Inks to watercolour her. I kept the whole card super simple and mounted the mermaid panel onto a navy blue mat and added a heat embossed sentiment in a circle and x2 stars to fit the sketch.

Make sure you check out all the rest of the inspiration by the DT over at the Fusion challenge blog, and play along with your own creation! When playing along you may use the sketch OR the photo to inspire your makes. OR, if you are feeling adventurous, you can fuse them together (see what I did there!).

Can't wait to see your makes. 

Challenge ends on June 22nd.

Cx

NND Inky Paws - Fintastic..

Hey,

Welcome to September!

It was supposed to be a fun start to my birthday month, with a trip to Florida with my craftgang, but sadly due to Hurricane Dorian we had to cancel. I am sad that we had to cancel, but happy we are all safe and our friend in Florida did not get hit by the hurricane. And we did manage a playdate, I'll show you the makes from that later this week.

My thoughts go out to those that have been affected by Dorian.

On to nicer things..

I love Newton's Nook stamps, dies and stencils and weirdly, I have only recently discovered their challenge blog (Inky Paws)!

I love sketches, so the current challenge was a must enter for me -

I had a great idea the minute I saw the sketch, but Sue T on the DT had the same thought LOL. So I had to go back to the drawing board...

I pulled out 'Mermaid Crossing', which is a very overused and fave set by NND.  I used my newest NND purchase 'Sea Borders' dies to create the waves. The clouds were stenciled using a old fave stencil by Dutch Doobadoo.

I love how it came out and the best bit is that I can add it to my Pun card stash - I am making x1 pun card from each of my punny sets for a friend as a surprise.

Cx

Sketch Saturday #570 Paper Nest Dolls...

Hey,

Happy Saturday to you and welcome to the Sketch Saturday challenge.

Our sponsor this week is The Paper Nest Dolls and they are offering 3 digi's from their site.

As it is 5 week month, we get to choose which sketch we would like to use. I loved sketch #294

I thought it would work really well with the Mermaid Ellie w/Seahorse image.

I decided I would create a square card and I used an ancient piece of sparkly DCWV paper for the bottom half of my card and used a plain blue piece of scrap paper for the top. I stenciled in some dots to cover a tear that happened as I affixed it to the card blank. But I think that just improved my card :)

I coloured Ellie using Copics and Nuvo shimmer pens and die-cut her out using a rounded stitched rectangle die.

To match the sketch, I added a middle strip of paper - which is super shimmery and also ancient DCWV and I used two sets of bling instead of semi-circle's and I like how that came out.

The sentiment is by Market Street Stamps (no longer in business) and it was already on my desk as I had used another one from the set.

Love how sparkly and shimmery the card is in real life.

I can't wait to see which sketch you choose, but first check out what the rest of the DT have made over at Sketch Saturday.

Challenge ends July 5th 7pm GMT / 2pm EST

Cx

Sketch Saturday #550 LeAnn's World...

Hey,

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

Our sponsor this week is LeAnn's World and they are offering a prize of 2 digital stamps from their store.

Here's the sketch...

One of the DT chose the Thessa image that I used on my card.

I decided to rotate the sketch. I printed and coloured the image and die-cut it using a stitched oval die, to compliment the sketch. As Thessa is a Mermaid, I decided to use nautical papers - the starfish paper is digital and ancient from the now defunkt Pink Petticoat, the striped paper is a scrap from a beloved MFT 6x6 stack!

The sentiment is by Stampin' Up.

I added a teeny tiny blue pearl to anchor it all.

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 15th Feb 7pm GMT / 2pm EST

Cx

Make a wish upon a Starfish...

Hey,

Last week it was my friend Kimberly's birthday and she LOVES Mermaids..

So I thought it was a perfect excuse to finally play with the Simon Says Stamp cardkit that has been languishing on my desk..

I stamped one of the Mermaid stamps in Versamark and added white embossing powder, so that I could blend over it to create a cool resist.

I used a new MFT waves stencil that I bought on sale to create the fun wavy shapes that you can see and I used four different colours of Distress Oxide to blend with.

Before I stamped the sentiment I spritzed the background with gold shimmer spray and IRL it was SUPER shimmery.

The sentiment came with the stamp set.

Love, love, love how this came out and I hope Kimberly did too.

Cx

ICAD2018 Continued....

Hey,

Happy Friday!!

I have had a bit of a rough week, busy at work and food poisoning earlier this week..

I am feeling more me now!

I loved this year's ICAD and because I bought an album to put all my cards in, it had quite a few extra pages. So I decided to play ICAD2018 Plus Plus - it is my continuation, so I can fill the album.

I have essentially created my own weekly prompts.

The first week was Sea themed.

I had a LOT of fun creating these cards.

Main photo shows you all of them, but here are some shots of my fave ones..

All a bit different.

The mermaid one, a friend commented that she loved it, so I made a card version of it for her!

Have a great weekend, I am going to be hanging with Lisette later on today and then at the gym and watching Pre-season NFL and playing at my desk for the rest of the weekend..this time next week I'll be in Tampa - whoop!

Cx

Message in a Bottle...

Hey,

I recently managed to get my hands on a second-hand Stampin' Up set 'Message in a Bottle'.

I've been doing this more and more, to try and keep my craft expenditure down and it's also nice to 'shop someone else's stash' LOL.

This is my first card using the set and I love it!

I thought it was a perfect fit for the current Shopping Our Stash challenge - Mythical & Magical.

I stamped the bottle first, then added the mermaid and masked off the edges of the bottle, so I could add a little bit of water 'in' the bottle.

The sentiments are also from the set.

I die-cut it using Lil Inkers wonky stitched dies and did the same with the already embossed and coloured anchor panel (which has been staring at me for weeks). No idea where the anchor embossing folder is from, probably Darice or Sizzix, I have a lot of embossing folders by them.

Simple card for one of the many mermaids in my life.

Cx

Inspired by Street Art....

Hey,

Happy Monday!

A couple of weeks ago Hubby and I were on the way to brunch and this happened -

I was so inspired by this gorgeous piece of street art that I decided to create something similar for a friend. She had seen the photo above and said, I bet you could make that for me!

I started by creating the background, using watercolour paper smooshed in distress ink, dried and then punched using a hexagon punch.

I took a piece of heavyweight card and added rows and rows of double sided tape. I find when I am doing these kinds of projects this is a good way to work, as you can add more tape as you need it, so you can pause and not worry about the glue drying out.

I wanted it to be a bit more grungy, so I added some stenciling, some paste, edged some of the hexagons in silver and tiny splatters of gold and silver paint.

Final touch before adding my Mermaid was to stamp the words (Tim Holtz Foam Alpha Stamps), they looked a bit flat, so I added a shadow to them using a gold pen, very happy with the outcome here.

The mermaid is a digital stamp by TiddlyInks. They come in a set and are called 'Cat Shark Mermaids'. The one I used is a 'Leopard Shark'.

I think my project will be a great entry for the Mixed Media challenge over at Happy Little Stampers. It's for a friend and I the sentiment reminds me of all the encouraging things this friend has said to me over the years..

I am wiggling with excitement today, as tomorrow I leave for Boston, where I will be meeting JT (who is flying in from London), we are spending 3 days in Boston (JT's Alma Mata) and then heading to Crop on The Cape - where we hook up with x2 of the craftgang Jamey and Cheiron - EEEEE!!!! SO EXCITED!

Cx

Good or Evil?

Hey,

Happy Friday.

I thought I'd show you a fun little make that I made for a friend.

When the craftgang got together Lisette gave us a load of spare stamped sentiments and the wooden mermaids, so I grabbed one of my fave mini square canvases (super handy for making random stuff) and painted it gold using a Dina Wakely paint that Cheiron gave me for my birthday.

I cut up the sentiment and attached it to the canvas using Glossy Accents, same with the Mermaid.

Super easy and hilarious. I have no doubt the friend who it is going to will love the sassy nature of it.

Have a great weekend, I am off to lunch with Lisette tomorrow and playing at my desk and watching non-stop NFL - YAY!!

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

Share Handmade Kindness...

Hi,

Can you believe it's December already?!

Where has this year gone?

I have been working on a little something for my crafting buddies, to show my appreciation for them and to join in Share Handmade Kindness.

I had fun making my cards and something to give them..

The card is the one with the Rose on the front - it's by Unity Stamp Co. and was part of a grab-bag..I like grab-bags, a nice mix of hit and miss :)

The mermaid stamp is new and by Stampendous and I bought her on sale at Michael's..I love mermaid stamps and have quite a collection of them. I watercoloured her and die cut her out, so my buddies can use her however they like.

Fun to make things for others in amongst all the Christmas card making.

They all left in the post yesterday, so they should start to arrive later on this week.

Cx