Fusion Card Challenge - Decor

Hey,

Welcome to another fantastic Fusion Card Challenge.

This time we have 'Decor' as a theme for you. As always both the sketch and the inspiration image are awesome, I mean how awesome is that desk/office space?!

 

Which will you try?

You know me right!! I had to fuse them..

I loved the desk space and I thought that the sketch would work well with Paper Smooches 'Abode' - sadly PS closed last year, I love Kim's stamps so much, I really miss them.

I do not have the dies, so I stamped and coloured the x3 images and fussy cut (ugh) them out. I arranged them over my 'wallpaper' strip into a little cluster to match the sketch.

No sentiment, as I didn't think it needed it.

I'm pretty pleased with this little scene card.

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 8.

Cx

My Favourite Earthling..

Hey,

Happy Saturday!

Today's card I made for a colleague that is a good friend and he recently left the company I work for - today also happens to be his birthday!

He is pretty much the definition of G.O.A.T (Greatest, Of, All, Time) and he is very missed.

We have this space thing going on, so I wanted to make him a silly card with the Lawn Fawn 'Beam Me Up' set.

I obviously wanted the spaceship to be beaming up a Goat - LOL, obvs. BUT I suddenly realised that the beam that comes with the set is too small for my large goat (Paper Smooches - Green Acres), so I had to draw the beam myself.. I am pretty pleased with myself!

I made the background using a cover plate by Hero Arts 'Star Confetti' and neon paper. I added a little hill using Lawn Fawn 'Stitched Hillside borders' and stamped the sentiment.

I'm pretty pleased with how well the idea in my head came out!

Have a great weekend, gym and brunch with a friend for me.

Cx

 

Final Paper Smooches Challenge...

 

Hey,

So I am playing along with the final Paper Smooches challenge - 

One of my colleagues recently moved house and I made this card for her using the Paper Smooches Abode set.

I love the chair, it has so many possibilities and it is the reason I bought the set, during the closing sale.

I masked off the chair and stamped the shelf, so it is sitting behind the chair - love masking!

The whole card is super simple, I coloured it with Copics and added some Sakura Gelly Roll Starburst glitter pen touches here and there, most noticeably to the chair cushion.

So sad that it took me until PS were closing to find the challenge, how did I miss that all these years?!

Cx

Paper Smooches: Birthday Fishes...

Hey,

Its official Paper Smooches are no longer, sad times, but happy times for Kim the owner as she goes on to the next phase of her life.

The challenge (which I have foolishly only recently discovered) is still alive and well!

The current challenge is a birthday challenge 

I love the 'Birthday Buddies' set by PS. Once again I opted to use the fish to create a background. I can't tell you how many times I have done this with this set!

This time though I colored them using just x2 colours and I added googly eyes!

The sentiment I heat embossed onto a coordinating piece of card stock.

Such a simple, but effective card. I love using this idea to make cards, stamping my own backgrounds, and colouring them is like creating my own colouring book pages!

Cx

Paper Smooches: Challenge Anything Goes

Hey,

OMG work is kicking my butt, I have a HUGE project on the go right now and it's taking all my time.

BUT I have been carving out little spaces after work to make one pretty thing!

Last night I realised that despite my love of Paper Smooches stamps, I have never actually played along with their challenge, which is so odd as we all know how much I love a challenge!

As I mentioned in a previous post they are closing the store at the end of July. I bought a few things in the retirement sale. One of these things was the 'Falling for You' set - perfect for me, as it has a bat and a Monster, x2 of my fave things.

I wanted to play with the bat for this challenge.

I stamped, coloured and fussy cut the bat, then I blended some tumbled glass distress ink to the top of my white panel and then stenciled in hearts using picked raspberry.

I drew a little line so my bat could 'hang' off of something. I finished the card with a sentiment from the sent and some Tim Holtz stickers.

I don't really want to give him to anyone, he's so cute, I just want to keep it on my desk!

Cx

4 from 1: Paper Smooches Space Cadet..

Hey,

During my period without the Big Shot, I decided to play with a smaller format.

I think the US size is 4bar - it's one I use mainly for my Christmas cards - smaller surface area is handy when you are making a ton of cards.

I created my own mask (see my Saturday 9th May post about this) and blended distress oxides through the aperture. I used Twisted Citron, Picked Raspberry, Carved Pumpkin and Peacock Feathers.

I haven't pulled out my Paper Smooches 'Space Cadet' set in a while, but it is one of my all-time faves and I have had it a very long time.

I used the little Alien from the set and I added sentiments from Unity Stamp Co, Hero Arts, Concord & 9th and Ellen Hutson. The little dots are by Simon Says Stamp and are a flower centre - way to stretch my stamps!

So simple and a lot of fun!

Cx

Global Design Project: CASE the Designer..

Hey,

Happy Sunday to you.

I loved the idea of the current Global Design Project challenge -

You have to CASE the card shown above, in any way you chose.

What a fun idea!

I decided to use the flowers, gingham, blue and loosely the card layout.

My flower vase is by Paper Smooches (Best Buds) I stamped and coloured it using Copics and then die-cut it to size with a stitched rectangle die.

I layered gingham and blue papers to roughly fit the card layout and I added the die-cut flower panel with foam tape to pop it up a bit.

The sentiment is by Hot Off the Press.

My card ended up with quite a springy feel and I like it.

Cx

Katya - INKED..

Hey,

Happy Friday.

I've had a pretty awesome social week this week, work has been tiresome, but that happens right.

The fun continues tonight with the Craftgang at class with Cheiron.

I made today's card about a week ago, using my April INKED subscription stamp (Katya) - you get a stamp every month and I prefer this to Cardkits, as I really have no need for all the paper, ink etc. Great idea by my new fave company The Ink Road.

I love this stamp, the girl looks so chilled out.

The whole card was a pretty simple make, watercolour Katya, stencil some dots, stamp a large sentiment by Paper Smooches and add some clear droplets for fun... boom done!

Hubby leaves for London later, he will be going straight to MY parents..so I am a teeny bit jealous, but I have fun Memorial Day weekend plans, so I'll be too busy to be jealous LOL.

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #86.. May Flowers..

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

This time we have another fave of mine -

I have SO many flower stamps, every year when we do this theme I suffer the same indecision about which one(s) to use.

This year I chose my all time fave flower stamp by Concord &9th (Hello Lovely), I think it was the first stamp I bought of theirs. I had used it in a class and fell in love. I have had it since 2016.

As this stamp is so beautiful, I really didn't need to do much. I stamped it onto watercolour paper and used distress inks and a paintbrush to colour it. I added Nuvo Crystal drops here and there and stamped 'Hello' from the same set, added a sticker for friend and 'beautiful' is by Paper Smooches and from 2015.

Even though this is my all time fave flower stamp, it hasn't been out in a while, so it was good to get it all inky and make something.

Show us your flowery makes and pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends May 18th.

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

Retro Rubber Challenge #78 White on White..

Hey,

Welcome to the first Retro Rubber challenge of 2018, I'm excited to be back with the team.

We have a fun theme for you this week -

This is a tricky challenge for me as I love colour!

I am pretty pleased with my card, as it's a touch out of my comfort zone.

I die-cut the polka dot cover plate by MFT and that really formed my base for the card. I decided that black would be my neutral. So I stamped and die-cut the beautiful flower by Paper Smooches. It is from the Best Buds set and I have had it since 2016 and I overuse it. The sentiment is a fave of mine and is by Concord & 9th "You're My Person" set.

Very easy card to make and it totally eased my fears about white on white.

Show us what you are inspired to make and pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends January 26th. 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

Hippo in my pocket..

Hey,

Big thanks and love to Julia and the WOYWW posse, yesterday they welcomed me back (home) with open arms, I do love blogland, it has given me many great friends and reasons to feel happy.

In my post yesterday I talked about today's cards.

There have been a LOT of new babies arriving in my world recently, so I finally sat down on Tuesday night and started making the baby girl cards.

I love this card that I made last year. I keep recreating it and I've used it for babies and birthdays.

As I have most of the MFT flower stamp sets I decided to mix those in with the usual Zoo Crew and Denim & Daises sets by Paper Smooches. I used Bold Blooms and Pretty Posies by MFT.

These two cards were super easy, using the MISTI (well the small stamp perfect, I swamped my Mini MISTI for the big one and I also have the Tim Holtz version..), I stamped the two cards in tandem.

I added some bling here and there to finish of the cards.

I love this new slight variation on my theme, adding in different flower stamps creates a totally new look.

Cx

A rude farewell...

Hey,

Happy Monday!

I am in London this week, as we head out to our Christmas party in Ghent on Friday.

One of my colleagues is leaving in January and I won't see him again before he leaves so I wanted to make him a card to deliver in person. He has been an amazing colleague and I am super sad to see him go, but it can't all be about me ;)

I have been trying to get my hands on the Heffy Doodle Snappy Crocs set since I saw it several months ago..I finally managed to snag it over Black Friday and it arrived last week..

I am 'famed' for my potty mouth, especially when working and so I thought a slightly rude card would be very appropriate.  The sentiments are a mix by Snarky Stamps and Paper Smooches.

I coloured the Crocodile using Zigs and a paintbrush.

I feel that this stamp set is about to become a fave..I love how versatile the set it, it comes with all these cool mini stamps. I went with the glass and bottle here as this is a 'good luck' card after all!

Cx

Christmas Card 2017: Paper Smooches Kissmoose...

Hey,

It's pretty cold here in NYC already and I am over it already!

Anyway.. here are some more of my Christmas Card makes..

I love this Paper Smooches set called Chubby Chum Pals. I had seen it on someone's blog last year and had to have it.

Last year I made identical Christmas cards with the Moose, the only difference being that the falling flakes background was yellow.

This year I heat embossed the falling flakes and falling circle backgrounds by Neat and Tangled, using WOW! holographic powder..such amazing shimmer.

I love this Moose and his punny sentiment, so easy to colour and create cards with, I totally overuse him.

Cx

Birthday Monster Thank You...

Hey,

I always like the thank you cards I send for my birthday to be a themed set - this year I decided I would use as many of my Monster sets as I could.

I stamped the monsters (from Jane's Doodles, Paper Smooches, Sweet Stamp Shop) onto tags and coloured them as part of the 30 day colouring challenge.

I cut the cardblanks using A7 cardstock from Paper Source and used a strip embossing folder on the front panel, then added a strip of paper and washi tape.

The sentiment is by MFT and is a second-hand purchase from Cheiron.

Majority of this batch went out just before I left NYC and I was so lucky and got so many gifts that I think I will need to make some more when I get home!

Excited today, as we are seeing the wife, she is coming and getting us from my parents and driving us to our 2 week home in Notting Hill.

Fun times ahead for the next two weeks, alongside a crap load of work!!

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #68..Colour Me..

Hey,

This time with a card!!!

Yes, it is time for another fun Retro Rubber challenge - today is also my Ma's birthday - Happy Birthday Momma!

This time we have a colour / photo inspiration challenge for you -

I love Paper Smooches Best Buds set, I use it a lot, I have had it since January 2016.

I kept my whole card super simple, two stitched oval die-cut panels, one in red gingham to match the photo inspiration. I stamped and die-cut the banner from the Best Buds set, the sentiment is also from the set.

I coloured the banner using Promarkers and a clear Wink of Stella pen.

I am really happy with it's understated elegance, perfect for a thank you card.

Show us what the photo inspires you to make, but first pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things that the rest of the DT have made.

Challenge ends August 11th. Don't forget to use a stamp over a year old and tell us the age of it, that is part of the fun of our challenge and please only enter 10 challenges including Retro Rubber.

Cx

4 cards 1 stamp set: Wplus9 Happy Birds..

Hey,

So today is fun, as I am linking up with my friend Jen to show you the cards we made using the Wplus9 Happy Birds set.

Before we get into the cards, let me talk a bit about Jen.

She has been one of my online craft crushes for a long time. Then last year she reached out to me via my blog and BOOM huge friendship - she is awesome and her messages / emails make me howl with laughter. She is totally my kind of people. Thank god for the internet. We get to meet face to face in 4 weeks - OMG so excited I am wiggling as I type this.

You might remember her being mentioned here before as she sent me the Monster stamps I so desperately wanted! Anyway, check out her blog, she is wickedly talented, has the most excellent sense of humour and is an all round sweetie pie.

I used this stamp set recently and mentioned that I wanted to do 4from1 with it and she said wanted to do it too - hence our linked posts.

I did something a bit different for me and stamped, coloured and cut all the birdies first. It meant that I had to think about what I was going to do with them and so they were all coloured to suit their cards. I used distress inks and an aquabrush to colour them.

My fave of the whole batch is the one that became and anniversary card for my in-laws (45 years!!). I thought it was romantic enough to work, but not so girly that my FIL would be all eye rolling!

Just going to show you one more, so this post doesn't become war and peace!!

I chose the french fry card - I love the sentiment, I added a bit of texture paste to the white panel, so the bird stood out even more. The 'Happier' stamp is by Neat & Tangled  - awesome set, comes with so many fun sayings.

Confession time, it took me WAY too long to realise that the bird is holding a fry (DUH!!)

I can't wait to see what Jen has made.

Watch this space we'll be back with another 4from1 soon.

Cx

Paper Smooches flower wreath...

Hey,

Happy Monday to you all.

Hope you had a great weekend, I had a very relaxing one.

I finished off a few things that I had started before my vacation.

This card was the result of a little play with the MISTI. I used this fave stamp set by Paper Smooches

I thought it would be fun to make a wreath style pattern, using all the different stamps in this set. This is super easy to do when you use the MISTI, as I just positioned the stamps where I wanted them and repeated it by rotating my paper.

I coloured it using Promarkers and then tried out a technique I have seen around a lot right now and added little dots here and there.

I am pretty pleased with how the stamping / colouring / dots turned out.

I die-cut the panel and added the sentiment (awesome die by Neat and Tangled) this weekend and it has come out even better than I expected.

I thought it would be fun to try out for the Paper Smooches October Guest Designer slot using this card.

Cx

Hey Buddy....

Hey,

Hope you are having a good weekend so far.

Today I am entering the Paper Smooches Monthly Challenge..I loved the challenge image -

Ha ha - excellent.

The challenge is all about friendship.

I am hoping that I am still eligible as I went with 'Hey Buddy'...

I love the fun card I ended up with, I used Distress Stains through a sunburst stencil by Clear Scraps and then spritzed it with water and dried it.

I used two Paper Smooches sets for the sentiment and hearts (Simply Said and Kudos Two) I heat embossed the sentiment and the hearts in black, so they would stand out more.

A really simple card that went to a friend who needed it..

Cx

Say Cheese!!

Hey,

This is my second commissioned card this week and again I have used Paper Smooches stamps.

I was asked to make a card for a friend, the brief was quite specific - "make me a selfie style card for my Sister"..

For this card, I went with the Space Cadet stamps, as I decided an Astronaut / Alien selfie was perfect for the brief :)

I stamped the Astronaut and Aliens so they looked like they were taking a selfie. After colouring them, I die-cut them out using a Kaisercraft polaroid die - which I die-cut twice, so I could have the starry frame.

The sentiment blocks were created by using Tim Holtz alphanumeric dies and I tape them down to create words before cutting, so the spacing is right.

I affixed everything using mini staples.

I love it, it's quite funny. More selfie cards methinks.

I texted a photo to my friend and she said she loves it, but her and her (twin) sister will be fighting over who is the pink Alien and who is the green one!

Sisters!

Cx

Pocketful of New Baby...

Hey,

I was asked by a neighbour to make a fun and unusual 'New Baby Girl' card..

FUN TIMES!! We all know that I love to make New Baby cards..

Because I love Paper Smooches stamps and I wanted to enter their call for a Sept Guest Designer at PaperSmooches..I decided to break out two Paper Smooches stamp sets for this card.

I would be so honoured to be part of their DT for a month..

I used Denim & Daisies and Zoo Crew, along with sentiment stamps from a Studio Calico set.

First I die-cut the white stitched panel, it made it easier to plan out the flower explosion. The flowers, hearts, dots and leaves are all from the Denim & Daisies set and I stamped them in a random configuration and colours.

The Hippo is from Zoo Crew and I coloured her (?!) and fussy cut her out...I didn't realise that I didn't have the dies..need to remedy that!

I die-cut the pocket and stamped the stitched decorative edge and then added the sentiment.

It took me approx 25 mins to get the Hippo and pocket aligned to my satisfaction...way too fussy, but I didn't want to eclipse all the lovely flowers!

I added some blingy stars (from JT) to the flower explosion and now I am 100% happy with my card.

My neighbour loves it and has asked for it to be remade as a birthday card..awesome!

Cx