Retro Rubber Challenge #163 - Tic Tac Toe...

Hey,

Hello from London and welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge. I was in quarantine for 10 days and that was nice to get so much time with my parents and now I am visiting other family and friends.

This time we have a great tic-tac-toe board created by our very own Jan.

I love tic-tac-toe boards, they are always a lot of fun and everyone interprets the prompts so differently!

I went with the top row - Masculine, Square, Something Mechanical.

I love the cog stamp by Papermania and I have had it since 2015, I have toyed with getting rid of it many times, but it's actually super handy! 

For this card I stamped it in grey ink and die-cut it using a square die, the wonderful blimp and sentiment are from a Stampin' Up set called 'Moving Forward' and I actually bought it second-hand last year.

I think I have ended up with a really nice monochrome masculine card.

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 July 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

Sketch Saturday.. #544...The Paper Shelter...

Hey,

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

Our sponsor this week is The Paper Shelter and they are offering 3 digis from their store.

Here's the sketch the last one by me this year!!

I loved the Naughty or Nice image and for the first time ever I used the coloured digi - it is so beautiful coloured that I really didn't think I would do it justice if I coloured it!

I printed the digi and fussy cut it out. I created my background using a piece of red card and strips of glittery washi tape. I stamped the sentiment which I have had for years and I chose it because of the name of the stamp.

I used the same glittery washi tape to create the banner over the image, but I reinforced it by putting it onto a strip of white card.

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.

This is the last Sketch Saturday for 2018 it's been a fun year, hope to see you in 2019, we'll be back on 5th January.

This challenge ends on Friday 21st 7pm GMT / 2pm EST

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

Sketch Saturday #466..Dino Girl...

Hey,

Welcome to the first fun June sketch for the Sketch Saturday challenge.

Our sponsor this week is Sasayaki Glitter and they are offering a prize of 1 digi from their store.

Here is the sketch.

You know I love Dinosaurs, so when I saw Dino Girl...I had to use her, she is coloured with Promarkers and Spectrum Noir sparkle pens.

I decided to pair her with digital papers by Pink Petticoat (sadly these ones are no longer available), the papers come in approx 30 colours, so super easy to co-ordinate. To bring it all together I die cut all the papers with stitched dies.

The sentiment is by Papermania and is one of the first stamp sets I ever bought!

I love Dino's, I can't wait to send her to someone.

Your turn to show us what you make with the sketch, but first check out what the rest of the DT have made over at Sketch Saturday.

Challenge ends 9 June 7pm GMT / 2pm EST

Cx

Sketch Saturday #464..Vicky Gets Blue Hair..

Hey,

Welcome to another super Sketch Saturday.

Our sponsor this week is Crafty Sentiments Designs and they are offering a prize of 3 digis from their store.

Here is the sketch.

I decided to use Vicky and Violet, for some reason I really wanted her hair to be bright blue - I combined 3 shades of blue Promarkers to get the tone I had imagined!! I am very pleased with it, even it is a bit out there!!

I decided to use the colours from Vicky to choose the colour scheme for my card, I went with another piece of the great textured Dovecraft paper and die-cut coordinating blue strips, using Sizzix border dies. I stamped my sentiment (by Papermania) onto one of the strips and mounted them behind Vicky.

It was such a simple card to make..another accidentally bright card :)

Your turn to show us what you make with the sketch, but first check out what the rest of the DT have made over at Sketch Saturday.

Challenge ends 26 May 7pm GMT / 2pm EST

Cx

4 cards from one stamp set: CAS-ual Fridays....

Hey,

I recently signed up to start working with a personal trainer twice a week for 3 months. This morning is my first session - ugh...I will tell you how it goes tomorrow.

I have been watching lots of videos by Vicky Papaioannou - she is amazing. She does this really great series where she shows you how to make 10 cards out of the monthly Simon Says Stamp cardkit.

It has been triggering ideas for taking one stamp set and making a few cards.

I recently bought a great stamp set by CAS-ual Fridays called Whole Shebang. I love the giant HB2U and the fun accompanying sentiments.

I made 4 cards and they all use the sentiments from the set.

I varied the way I made them:
Cake - Papermania layering cake stamps (these are ANCIENT), Concord & 9th candles and star stamps, coloured with distress inks and stickles.

Spotty Background - this one was super simple, I just used a background that I had stamped from Jamey's stash. I added a couple of sequins here and there.

Pink Stencil - I wanted to play with a new Tim Holtz mini stencil - I like the slightly out of focus feel of the background. Here I used clear droplets (I know..obsessed).

Teal/Orange - I heat embossed the HB2U with my new sparkly WOW powder, it is stunning in real life. The orange ink is a new mini Archival ink. I liked the bright colour combo here and I decided to add little stars to this one.

All really simple cards, I think I'll be doing a few more of these, its a great way to maximise a stamp set.

Cx

CAS Challenge..Christmas

Hey,

Hope you are having a good weekend so far.

I really wanted to play along with the Simon Says Stamp Weds Challenge this week..the theme is Clean and Simple.

I decided to break out more Christmas stamps...its a good way to increase the Christmas card pile :)

I love the Penny Black 12 Days of Christmas stamp set, but it can be super hard to use!

I thought the '3 French Hens' stamp went perfectly with the 'Eat, Drink and Be Merry' sentiment stamp by Papermania. 'Eat, drink and be merry' is my fave Christmas sentiment and I have several different versions of it. But I think this one is my fave, because the font is so nice.

I coloured the hen using Promarkers and added a little SSS snowflake stamp for some extra Christmas flavour!

Super CAS I think and a great use of my stamps.

Cx

Christmas Wreath..

Hey,

So I am not making Christmas cards yet..

I do not do that until after my Birthday (late Sept).

But I have acquired a couple of new Christmas stamps and could not resist inking them up :)

Today's one is by Papermania, I think it was released last Christmas, but I got it on sale recently and it's so simple, but really elegant.

I stamped it onto a white die-cut watercolour panel and coloured it with distress inks and an aquabrush. I added some gold wink of stella to the green parts to give it a bit of twinkly depth.

I can see me stamping and colouring tons of these :)

Cx

Hello Summer!!

Hey,

Hope you are having a nice weekend so far..I am sad..the Brexit was not a good result in my opinion and makes me worry for the future of my land...

But moving onto brighter things it means that my Hubby is not working at all this weekend for the first time in 12 weeks, so we get to hang out - yay!

Gerda Steiner gave a freebie stamp this week, so we could all play along on Instagram using #surfingducky

Such a great idea.

I broke out my Silhouette Portrait for the first time in A LONG time... I used it to print and cut the ducky stamp and to cut the palm trees.

I decided to mount the trees and the ducky directly onto the card blank, as the colour fit my idea.

The sentiment stamps are by Papermania and Simon Says Stamp.

A super easy card to put together and it has already left in the post winging its way to a friend..

Cx

Reminding myself I'm a crafter...

Hey,

So this is a scheduled post as I am now in London.

Yes, sometimes I do forget I'm a crafter, especially when I see shiny, pretty paper goods and stationery on display in shops..

I like to have a calendar hanging on my pinboard above my craft / work desk and last year I had a cute one from Michaels that was a dollar.

It came with the handy clipboard that you can see in my main photo.

I've seen lots of really lovely small hanging calendars and have been tempted to buy one..then when I was taking down my 2015 one, I thought - hold on, why don't I make one for myself..idiot!

So I trawled around for a calendar style I liked (very fussy about this) and came across a fellow WOYWWer Scrappy Sticky Inky Mess - she has a whole host of fabulous free printables on her blog and I found one that had a blank space for you to decorate.

I printed it out and cut it down to fit the clipboard (recycling points) and then I added a swipe of distress stain to the top of each month, found appropriate stamps and voila 15 mins later I had a calendar...

Nice to be reminded of the fact that I have an entire craft room at my disposal..

Here are photos of all of the months..

I used all different stamps for my interpretation of the months..Sept is cake because it's my birth month :) I did notice that I need one more distress stain colour :) because I had to reuse a colour...excuses for spendy spendy...

Cx


Stamps are by - Lawn Fawn, Simon Says Stamp, Quick Cards, Paper Mania, Avery Elle, Avocado Arts.

3 stamp cards..

Hi,

Hopefully as you read this I will be in London.

Hubby and I are in town to join my firm for our work Christmas party in Lisbon - alright!! I'm staying a week, Hubby is going home next Monday.

I spent a part of last weekend playing with my stamps.

I set myself the mini challenge of making cards with 3 stamps and as little ink / colour as possible.

Fun times ahead..

I stuck with a flower stamp by Unity Stamp Co and changed the background and sentiment stamps.

The main card uses a background stamp by Stampin' Up and the sentiment is by Clearly Besotted.

Card 2 uses Simon Says Stamp falling hearts and a Hero Arts sentiment.

Card 3 uses Simon Says Stamp chevron and a Papermania sentiment.

I used 2 distress inks on all of the cards and spritzed them with water and dried them with my heat tool. I really like the way the colour spreads and merges the 2 colours.

Super easy makes...again...my time at my desk has been limited so I've been maximising it with simple makes.

Cx

More Christmas and a challenge...

Hey,

Hope you all had a great weekend and if you were celebrating Thanksgiving, I hope you had a wonderful time with your family and friends..I most certainly did.

Do you remember the Snazzymoose I created a few weeks ago?

Well here are 2 cards I made with some of the remaining moose...

I used Papermania wooden frames and mounted them onto Lawn Fawn card blanks, then added my Snazzymoose. Simple.

I couldn't stamp onto the blue card, so used a peel-off. 

Here is a red version - 

I love the simplicity of these and I thought they would make a great entry into the PDE Linky Party challenge -

Happy Monday to you all.

Cx

Eat, Drink and Be Merry...

Hi,

I'll be heading to D-Town later on today to Celebrate Thanksgiving with JT's amazing parents and her godparents..

Today I am showing some more of my Christmas card makes.

I have been a bit obsessed with 'Eat, Drink and be Merry' as a greeting..

So I bought a couple of stamp sets that had good Christmas sentiments and included 'Eat, Drink and be Merry'

For the headline card, I stamped the sentiment by Papermania and used a spotty stamp by Crate Paper for the cupcake background. The cupcake is by Crate Paper and I stamped it, fussy cut it and then added liquid applique for the icing - yums...

Icing close-up

 Liquid applique is the BOMB..if you haven't used it try it out.

The second version of the card uses the same sentiment, but by Crafter's Companion. I love this version, its so modern. I added some wine / martini glasses by Studio G and a snowflake.

Both versions are on stitched die-cuts (Simon Says Stamp and MFT) and are mounted onto American Craft patterned card blanks.

Again super simple, but effective Christmas makes.

Cx

Playdate Pinterest CASE...

Hey,

Happy Monday!

Hope you had a good weekend, I had a very relaxing one, mainly spent at my desk..

I also managed to have a playdate with JT yesterday..we had a fun date and cracked out some impressive cards.

One of the things we used as inspiration was this card from my Pinterest board -

It was actually made using a border die, but I thought I could make it work with the myriad of border stamps I have!!

The first card today uses a Simon Says Stamp border triangle stamp and the sentiment is by Technique Tuesday.

I used the same sentiment stamps for this next version, but dug out an ancient Papermania border stamp, that has not been shown a lot of love ever..

Simple cards, that I think can have any sentiment added to them, I might make a whole blank batch...

Cx

Postage stamp thanks..

Hey,

Happy Sunday to you.

Hubby and I are still in DC - more about that tomorrow.

Whilst Hubby was in the UK, I took 3 days off, so had a super long weekend. Which meant I got some serious time at my desk :)

JT bought me these great Spellbinders dies last year - as part of our usual $20 challenge.

I haven't used them a great deal and as I was off, I decided to have a play with them and a set of Papermania stamps I bought last year, that co-ordinate beautifully with the dies.

First I inked up the stamp with Black Soot and Festive Berries distress inks, spritzed it with water and stamped onto mixed media paper. I then dried it with my heat tool.

I like the effect that you get, you can kind of make out the detail of the stamp, but its also a bit grungy.

I used one of the smaller dies from the set to die-cut the stamped image and then the next size up for the red background piece.

The thanks die is by Lawn Fawn.

I made 2 of these cards, you can see that the spritzing and drying means you get a slightly different look each time..

Super simple cards, that use a fun technique and some of my stash that has been a bit neglected.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Cx

Friends with techniques...

 Hey,

So I loved class at the Inkpad a few weeks ago, I really wanted to try out some of the techniques Cheiron taught us and I also felt that the Gelli plate needed an outing.

I also wanted to use my new Mama Elephant stamps and die (bought at the Inkpad), to make a few cards for some of my friends.

Here are the four cards that I made -

They were a lot of fun to make.

Card 1 - Technique used - ink onto a stencil (Stampin' Up), spritz with water, flip over onto your paper - EEK!! 

Card 2 - I used a gelli plate here - first time - love the result. Stencil is by 

Card 3 - Technique used - apply stain through a stencil (Hero Arts) and then spritz with water and dry.

Card 4 - Technique used - apply white distress paint through a stencil (Simon says stamp), using a dabber. When dry blend ink over the paint for a resist.

I used a lot of  things, as you can probably tell... Ranger distress inks, stains and paints. Bling by Simon says stamp and papermania. Card blanks by American Crafts. MFT stitched oval and rectangle dies.

So much fun to make and a really great first outing for my new Mama Elephant stamps and die.

Cx

Retro Rubber #20...By the numbers...

Hey,

It's time for another awesome challenge from the Retro Rubber team.

I love this theme..

Use numbers on your project..any way you like...as long as you use a stamp that is over a year old.

I decided to make a 40th birthday card for a friend.

The oldest stamp is the main sentiment, by Woodware and I have had it about 4 years.. I use it so much. I heat embossed it in purple metallic powder onto vellum. I affixed it to the background I created using mini staples.

The background I created using a mixture of Stampin' Up, Simon Says Stamp and Papermania stamps in 3 different colours of ink. Obviously I used one of my fave MFT stitched rectangle dies.

The whole thing got mounted onto a purple card base.

A fun card, for a fun person.

So over to you now, show us your makes..but first pop over to Retro Rubber and view the fantastic creations by my talented teammates..

The challenge ends August the 14th (when I next fly home..) so you have lots of time to join in the fun.

Cx

Retro Rubber #16 - Tie It On....

Hey,

Welcome to another fab challenge over at Retro Rubber..

We have another fun theme for you this time -

Tie something, somehow onto your project :) Don't forget to use a stamp older than a year on your project.

I used an ancient Papermania stamp - I think it is one of the first stamp sets that I ever bought, so it is nearly 8 years old!

I used simple layered rectangles of paper and tied my twine around the white rectangle (not as tightly as I wanted..) and then stamped the sentiment in a contrasting ink onto the white rectangle. I used a MFT stitched rectangle for the white one.

Now its your turn, pop over to Retro Rubber and check out all the fab creations by my teammates.

Challenge ends on June 19th.

Cx

Online Card Class - Stenciled - Day 3 - Working with Pastes..

Hey,

So this weekend I decided to spend part of Saturday doing Day 3 of the Stenciled Online Card Class.

It was really enjoyable and stretched my stencil / paste knowledge.

The only thing that was tedious was that because you are working with pastes they take a while to dry..so some things had to be finished on Sunday!

I'll list all my supplies at the end - so many things used!

The day divided into 3 parts -

The basics - showing you how to achieve different effects with different kinds of pastes...
The main photo today used Ferro Metallic paste in silver, I love this stuff, it's so grainy!

also made this one with white texture paste...but I didn't realise that the mist wasn't dry and so ended up with a blue-ish paste - oh well..

 Translucent paste - showing you how to achieve different effects with translucent paste...

Use as a resist with distress inks - I used Warm Honey and Festive Berries..

Leave it 'nude' for a clear effect on a dark background..

Adding to pastes - showing you how to add various things (inks, glitter, etc) to your paste.
I added alcohol ink to my modelling paste -

I am really pleased with all of the cards, but my least fave is the last one, I think I'll stick to adding glitter to my pastes :)

Hope you like them.

Cx

Supplies used -
Card 1 - Wendy Vecchi texture paste, K&Co chipboard embellishments, Dollar store flower, perfect pearls, Heidi Swapp navy mist, technique tuesday hello die, xcut butterfly die, sizzix swiss dots embossing folder, Midnight Sky Dew Drop Ink. Card blank from my stash.
Card 2 - Ferro Metallic texture paste, vellum, white embossing powder, heat tool, Bo Bunny stamps, Simon Says Stamp Grid Stencil, Hero Arts Stencil, Staz on black ink, grey textured paper.From my stash card blank and sentiment
Card 3 - Wendy Vecchi translucent paste, distress inks, ink tool, Simon Says Stamp Stencil, Simon Says Stamp Congratulations Stamp, Vellum, White embossing powder, heat tool, detail scissors, American Crafts ribbon, DCWV glitter paper. Card blank from my stash
Card 4 - Wendy Vecchi translucent paste, distress inks, ink tool, Neat & Tangled Sentiment block stamps, Recollections kraft paper, Sizzix flower dies, Papermania brad, Sizzix nesting square dies, Tim Holtz stencil. Card blank from my stash
Card 5 - Pebeo Modelling Paste, Alcohol ink, Heidi Swapp Stencil, Paper Smooches Handsome Stamp, Bahamian Blue Dew Drop Ink, Card blank, washi tape and star from my stash

Cheerful Critters..

Hey,

Hope you all had a nice weekend.

I am a cheerful critter today, as I got a cut above mention over at The Paper Players last week - cool and most unexpected :) Great way to start the week.

I thought I'd enter this week's challenge -

I had to make a card for a friend's Son and thought I'd use the sketch. I don't have oval dies (why?!) and so used MFT stitched rounded rectangles instead.

The patterned background paper is by My Minds Eye and I used scraps for the solid green paper and rummaged through my red and green scrap boxes to find things to use as banners!

The main stamp is from my new Cheerful Critters stamp set by SU. I also used Hooray! from the set.

I used distress inks (sage, picked raspberry, evergreen bough and mustard seed) and an aquabrush to colour the Critter's sweater - I love how this contrasts with the patterned background paper.

Final touch was to add the rest of the sentiment, from a very very old Papermania stamp set.

Once again another super simple card inspired by The Paper Players.

Cx