Retro Rubber Challenge #228 - Sketch Time..

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

This time, we have a sketch to inspire your creativity.

Personally, I'm a big fan of sketches, and I had already planned out the central portion of my card based on this particular one. 

However, I hadn't given much thought to the rest of the card, so I decided to create an embossed panel for the background, and added a sparkly paper stripe for some extra fun. For my flower spray, I used the 'Simplest Gestures' stamp set by Pink Fresh Studio, which I've had since attending Crop and Create in 2021. This stamp set is particularly enjoyable to use, as you have to stencil in the coloured parts of the flowers.

Show us your interpretation of the sketch and pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends April 19th.

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 Blog Challenge #227 - Colour Challenge..

 

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

This time we have a fun colour challenge for you.

I loved working with these colours.

I saw an idea by Susie Moore using the set by Pink Fresh Studio 'Birds & Bows' that I have had since 2018. So I thought I would CASE it. Mine is a bit different as I stuck to the colour palette for the challenge and I used less bows!

I added a cake from Ellen Hutson's 'Wish Big' set - another one from 2018. The sentiment is by Mama Elephant from 'Mixed Birthday Sentiments'.

I love how it came out and it was fun to CASE a card.

Show us your interpretation of the sketch and pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends April 5th.

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 #223 - Colour Challenge - Winter Blue Ombre..

Hey,

Welcome to another fab Retro Rubber challenge.

This time we have a colour challenge for you.

I like creating ombre backgrounds. This time I did something a bit different. I stamped the rainbow (Rainbow background by Momenta 2023) onto watercolour paper and heat embossed it in white to create a resist. Then I used 3 different blue Distress Oxide inks with water to add colour to the panel, fading out to white at the bottom.

The unicorn is one of my all-time fave stamps by Pink Fresh Studio 'Unicorn Dreams' that I have had since 2018. I stamped it in blue ink here onto watercolour paper. The sentiment is from the same set.

I love how it turned out, the blues are so pretty.

I'm excited to see what you will create. Don't forget to pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends February 9th

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 #209 - It's Summer...

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

Later today I am going on an adventure! I am riding the train from Tampa to NYC - I hate to fly and I really wanted to give this a go. Wish me luck, I know I am nuts, but I am super excited anyway!

Time for you to pull out those fun summer stamps for our current theme.

Recently while I have been working on my Retro Rubber cards, I remembered about all the awesome stamp sets I got in March 2022 from the SCT crop & create classes I did.

This awesome set I used for the background is by LDRS 'Just a Note'. I stamped all the fruit using Distress Oxides. I die-cut a red circle to hold my sentiment, which is by Pink Fresh Studio from their 'So Sweet' set that I have had since 2017. 

It came together so well and every time I see it I smile.

What summery delights will you dig up from your archive? Don't forget to pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT has made.

Challenge ends June 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

Retro Rubber Blog Challenge #205 - Get your sketch on...

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

This time we have a fun sketch for you.

I love sketches! I have seen a lot of cards recently with this folded-over corner, it showcases double-sided papers which I think is really clever.

I have been cutting all my 12x12 papers to 4x5 perfect for cards and it means they are all ready to go and I am using more and more patterned papers.

I chose a piece of paper by Recollections, I creased the top corner and folded it over, and I put a bit of foam tape under the fold, so it held its shape. I thought that a brown card blank would make all the bright colours pop.

The sentiments are by Pink Fresh Studio from their 'Simplest Gestures' set and I got it as part of my kit during the SCT Crop and Create in March 2022. I have recently been bringing out the sets from the crop and playing with them - it's like finding new treasures!

It was such a fun make, that I made another one!

Show us your interpretation of the sketch and pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends May 5th.

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 - Bauble Triangle...

Hey,

Welcome to the penultimate Fusion Card Challenge of 2021! 

How quickly has this year whipped by?!

This time we have a fun 'Bauble Triangle' theme for you. As always both the sketch and the inspiration image are awesome.

I went back to my normal ways for this card and fused both the sketch and the inspiration image.

I used the colours and the Christmas theme from the image as inspiration for my card. 

I had a different idea in mind, I was actually going to put the circles over the top of the grey and white panels, but I didn't love that! So I got out a fun die by Simon Says Stamp that cuts 3 circles in a row and that created the look I had envisioned!

I am a big fan of the Flora & Fauna sets that feature a VW Camper Van, they are always so quirky! And this one features various things for you to dress up your van with! I went with Antlers (of course). I mixed in the snowflake and the sentiment banner and I opted to keep them all black & white, as I think the red base that is showing through the circles makes them pop.

I used - Flora & Fauna 'Driving to the Holidays', Pink Fresh Studio 'December Days',  A-Muse Studio 'Ugly & Bright', Simon Says Stamp 'Tri-Circle' die and the papers are all from my stash.

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 November 23.

Cx

25 Days of Christmas Tags 2020 - Tree Tags..

Hey,

Happy Friday! I am SO glad this work week is nearly over..

I recently stumbled across Tracey McNeeley's 25 Days of Christmas Tags..

I love tags, so it is surprising to me that I hadn't come across this before!!

I wanted to play along and the tags for Day 7 using Uniko products really are my faves so far!!

I don't have any Uniko products (that is about to change..) so I used what I had to CASE these tags by Lindsey Larsen - 

I used a new Tim Holtz stencil (it was part of the class kit from last weekend's virtual retreat) and blended distress oxides through the stencil (picked raspberry, worn lipstick, spiced marmalade, twisted citron, and mermaid lagoon). 

I made long strips that I then cut into two - because of this, my colour variation on each tag isn't quite like Lindsey's, but I'm happy with it.

I used x2 different stamp sets for the sentiment strips - Pink Fresh Studio 'December Days' and Studio Calico 'Jolly'.

The twine is actually from my friend Lisette and she had used it to wrap my birthday gifts this year - I recycle EVERYTHING!!

Here is a little shot of all x10 tags - I love how they came out and now I am off to buy all the Uniko things..

Have a great weekend.

Cx

WOW!!

Hey Happy Friday,

What a week!

No posts from me, it's been a touch busy!

But today I am pretty happy to be sharing this awesome card that is a CASE of this wonderful card by the amazing Julie Ebersole.

Amazing card right?!

I used spotty Clearscraps stencil with Peacock Feathers Distress Oxide. The WOW was cut from the super large alpha dies I bought with my Christmas money from my in-laws.

Weirdly I do not have an Elephant in my stash, so I pulled out the Pink Fresh Studio 'Party Animal' set and decided that a Giraffe would be perfect here.

Whenever I hand stamp the Mama Elephant sentiment banners, I wish that I had used a misti - never gonna learn right..

Anyway, it still came out really well and I LOVE it. I need to make more of them.

Have a great weekend. Stay Home.

Cx

Shopping Our Stash: Under the Sun, Moon and Stars..

Hey,

So, my Retro Rubber teammate, Maria is DT over at Shopping Our Stash and I saw her card, so I went to check out the challenge.

They have a theme of Sun, Moon, and Stars.

I knew exactly which stamp set I was going to use and I am 100% embarrassed to say that this beautiful set 'Late Nights' by Pink Fresh Studio (retired) has been owned by me since 2017 and had not seen ink until Thursday night..

I really didn't have to do much, the stamps are so beautiful, they just pop off the card and don't need to be over-embellished. I love all of the details in the stamp and the smiling moon is lovely.

I made x2 cards because the set was out and I have ALWAYS wanted to play with it, but just kept neglecting it.

I used Altenew Starlight ink - love Altenew inks.

I die-cut navy cardstock as a mat, so the white stamped panel would pop even more.

Can't lie, I am feeling super pleased with myself at how gorgeous these are. I hope the stamp set will forgive me for the terrible neglect.

Lockdown can be a wonderful thing..

Cx

CASology: Tea-Rex...

Hey,

I'm on a challenge roll this week, lots of time on my hands that I am putting to good use!

I haven't played along with a CASology challenge in a while, the current cue card made me smile and immediately think of the awesome Newton's Nook 'Tea-Rex' stamp set.

I CASEd one of the samples that Newtons Nook posted, by Tatiana, because I loved the layout, but I varied it by not adding a few of the elements, so it was more in keeping with the CAS nature of the challenge.

I stamped, coloured and die-cut the Tea-Rex. Then I stamped a row of the cute mugs from the Pink Fresh Studio 'Itty Bitty Elements' set (no longer for sale on the PFS site).

I added the sentiment, popped up Mr Rex and voila! Finished card. So wonderfully easy and very CAS.

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #128.. Love is in the air!

Hey,

Hello from London and welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

This time we have a colour challenge for you - that fits the Valentine mood..

The minute I saw this challenge I knew that my Pink Fresh Studio 'Heart Bouquet' set (now retired) was going to get an airing. When I bought this set in 2017, it got SO much use..but then I moved on, I'm such a magpie!

I stamped and coloured the lady and the bouquet, I coloured it using Copics and Sakura glitter pens. I was a bit stumped for a background and didn't feel like masking to use a stencil. So I broke out my ruler and drew my own background!

I left it sentiment free, because I thought it could be used for several occasions and that perhaps one of my male friends, might like it for their lady :)

Show us how you romance the colour combo and pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends Feb 21st.

Don't forget to tell us the age of your stamp, which is part of the fun of our challenge and please only enter 10 challenges including Retro Rubber.

Cx

Christmas Card 2019: Merry Wishes..

Hey,

Happy Monday!

I have had a really fun weekend.

My Sister-in-Law brought our Niece and Nephew on their first ever trip to NYC!

We did SO much stuff - Grand Central Station, Intrepid Museum, Carousel in Brooklyn, East River Ferry, Statue of Liberty, Highline, Hudson Yards... phew!

Here is a little collage of photos.

As there hasn't been much time for desk action or photo retouching, I thought I would share a super simple Christmas card that I made a while ago.

Simple to do.

Mask off a circle and use watercolour paint to create the circle.

Let it dry, stamp some leaves and add your Robin and sentiment!

My leaves and the Robin are from the Pink Fresh Studio 'December Days' stamp set and the sentiment is by Lawn Fawn.

Super simple and I made a bunch of these.

Cx

Christmas Cards 2019: A mix..

Hey,

Welcome to October!!

My Christmas card making is actually complete - WHOOOP!! I just have special cards to make now (parents, hubby, etc).

So I'm showing you cards that have been made for over 4 weeks!

The main photo actually shows a batch of cards I made during a playdate with JT.

The top row uses a Pink Fresh Studio set 'December Days' and I found all the stamps you see on the cards ready to go (coloured and die-cut) in the stamp pocket - WIN! So I decided to see if I could get x3 cards out of what I had. Worked out pretty well I think.

The second row uses the great 'Party like Santa's not watching' stamp that I bought for JT and I at Michaels for $1 - YES!! 

The card on the left with the Monster was a challenge from JT to make a Christmas card on the playdate that combined non-Christmas items with a Christmas one to make a card. 

Of course, I defaulted to using a Monster stamp! I love the Your Next Stamp Silly Monsters and this stamp is from the 'Silly Rockstar Monsters' set.

A great batch of cards in a 2hr gossip, drink, gossip session.

The cards below were a CASE of a great idea I saw on the Avery Elle instagram page, so I immediately bought the stamp 'Holiday Skates'.

These cards took a LOT of prep / work, but they are SO worth it.

I was originally going to blend the backgrounds, but then when I realised I needed x4 leaves, x2 candy canes, x2 skates and x2 berries for each card, I was like NOPE. So I die-cut a circle out of blue paper and used glitter snow paste through a stencil to create the background.

Love this little batch of cards and you can see that making in batches means I get them done quicker. This year I started as planned on 1st August and I was done by the 5th September - 110 cards in 5 weeks, pretty impressed with myself.

Cx

CASology: Dragonfly..

Hey,

Happy Friday to you!

I have the day off today, my Goddaughter Amy is here and we are going to be spending a day doing fun things, ahead of the first of my birthday weekend events!

I wanted to play along with the currently CASology challenge..

I actually thought I had a couple more Dragonfly stamps, but turns out I only have this teeny tiny one, which is by Pink Fresh Studio and is from their 'Itty Bitty Elements' set.

I love Dragonflies and one of the great things about living in NYC is that I get to see them flying around all Summer.

For some reason, I have had a hankering to play with a tag! So I used a Tim Holtz 'Mosaic' stencil with Spiced Marmelade and Fossilized Amber Distress Oxides to create the background on my tag,

I stamped, coloured and die-cut my little Dragonfly and after I figured out where I wanted him to sit, I stamped the sentiment onto the tag.

I then used foam tape to mount the finished tag onto my card blank.

Super happy with this, it came out just like I pictured it..that so rarely happens.

Have a great weekend.

Cx

Not quite Florida Playdate..

Hey,

As you know I didn't make it to Florida over Labor Day weekend.

But I did manage to host a not quite Florida playdate at my house on the Sunday.

This meant that we could use the kits we had pre-made.

Basically the plan was that each of us (x5 of us, including Ava in Florida) would kit x2 cards (or projects) for the others to make.

The photo above shows the x8 cards/projects we made on Sunday.

I'll walk you through them starting top left with my cards :)

I was the most efficient of the group and I had sent my kits to Florida already..so I had to make a couple of quick cards for the girls to make on Sunday! I decided to put my Pinterest board 'Look What I Made' to use. And it came up good, with x2 straightforward cards for the girls.

I used the Avery Elle 'Sea-Prise' set for my pufferfish card, the girls were horrified when they realised it was one candle that had to be stamped multiple times, so there were a lot of variations on this one.
The Unicorn card is by Pink Fresh Studio and uses all the stamps and dies from their 'Unicorn Dreams' set.

Moving clockwise to top right, these cards were Cheiron's kits. I loved her Toucan card - using Flora & Fauna stamps so much that I CASEd it (coming soon).
The floral card, used Altenew stamps and was fun to watercolour and we got to use Altenew markers, which are amazing and I do want!

Bottom right, kits by Tiff. She challenged us a bit, by getting us to make a fun envelope. Sadly I dropped the Panda stamp after stamping him, so I have a big black line across him, but hey as I always say, it's handmade, you gotta expect a little oopsie here and there. The envelope board was by We R Memory Keepers, stamps and stencils by Simon Says Stamp.
The Fox card used all the techniques and looks AMAZING!! Background stamp is by Simon Says Stamp, Fox and sentiment stamps by Rabbit Hole Designs. I love RHD stamps, the caffeinated range is hilarious.

Finally bottom left, kits by Lisette. The first card with the girl was fun, I have never ever stamped in a lighter ink and then coloured over it, very clever and way out of my comfort zone. The girl is by Picket Fence Studios, not sure who the dots are by. I love this card and the snarky stickers really worked well here. The Mermaid card uses the super cute Mama Elephant Mermaids and I loved adding the chunky glitter 'sea'.

The best bit about making all these things, were all the techniques we used - masking, heat embossing, watercolouring, blending, colour plucking. It was a masterclass in all the things that we have learnt over the years (mainly from our resident teacher Cheiron).

A fun playdate was had by all and we all left with gifts and 7 cards/1 envelope.
It wasn't quite Florida but it certainly made up for it.

Cx

Colourful Challenge Combo part two..

Hey,

Happy Friday.

I will be glad to see the back of this week, having been so unwell..

I stumbled across another great challenge this week that involves colours, so I decided to play along and combine it with the current CASology challenge for a second entry.

AAA Cards do CAS challenges with a twist. This week this is what they have -

I love the idea of using just 1/3 of the card front to create a fun card.

I decided that I wanted to use repeat stamping to create a bold mini pattern. I used a coffee mug from the Pink Fresh Studio 'Itty Bitty Elements' set - a fave for creating backgrounds.

I coloured it in bright colours using Copics and added a simple sentiment by Waffle Flower from their 'Books and Coffee' set.

I die-cut the white panel using a stitched rectangle die and mounted it onto my card blank.

I love the simple feel of this, it will be great to accompany a gift card!

Cx

Welcome to 2019 and a Playdate...

Hey,

Welcome to 2019!

I hope you had a great end to 2018.

Whilst JT and I were on Christmas break, we managed a pretty epic playdate. We pretty much used most of the Black Friday challenge NBUS and any other NBUS we had lying around.

I'm super pleased with my output..

The main photo are some of my Christmas thank you cards. I used new Lil Inker monsters (Monsters Ink) and a new spiral die by Sizzix that JT gave me as part of our annual $20 challenge.

I love these, they look really good and were super simple to make.

Next up some Tim Holtz magic.. this set comes with the man stamp and the harlequin stencil... a super quick way to make some male oriented cards.

Two randoms - the cake is a CASE of my own card because I love it and the fish card I made because I got these Hero Arts stamps on super bargain sale and I wanted to have a play. The background behind the aperture was stamped using Neat and Tangled stamps.

Last up is a card that I hadn't finished yet (it is now finished and posted and I didn't take a photo..) I have wanted this Unicorn Dreams set by Pink Fresh Studio for ages and finally got it in their BF sale. The flower stamp is by Christine Adolf.

A super productive day and it has given me lots of ideas for the new year..

Back to work tomorrow after a 10 day break - ugh.

Cx

Sunny Days and Laughter...

Hey,

How I long for the Sunny Days I reference in the title of my post today..

I am really not a Winter person!

A while back a colleague and a friend in the London office left and I wanted to send her a little gift and it gave me the perfect opportunity to play with this gorgeous stamp set by Pink Fresh Studio (Let's Flamingle).

I CASEd one of the ideas I'd seen for using the stamp and heat embossed it onto watercolour paper, using gold embossing powder and then watercoloured it using distress inks.

It looked so lovely when it was finished, I was in two minds about giving it away LOL.

I added one of the sentiments from the set, as I thought it was perfect for the recipient.

Such a simple way to use a complex stamp.

Cx

PFS Background Anniversary...

Hey,

Happy Monday!

As I said yesterday this week my blog will be taken over by Anniversary cards.

Today's card was made quite a while ago.

I created the background waaay back in June as part of the Daily Marker 30 days of colouring (which starts again on Thursday!). The stamps I used are by Pink Fresh Studio from the 'Itty Bitty Elements' set - I am a big fan of Pink Fresh Studio, their stuff is a little bit different.

Despite my multiple stamp platforms, I always use blocks when I am creating backgrounds like this.

It actually took a seriously long time to colour and I was a bit over it towards the end! So with that in mind, when I came to make a card using it I kept it simple.

I die-cut a stitched rectangle panel in a colour that coordinated with the birdie, because I knew I wanted a red sentiment. I used arrow sentiment dies by MFT for the sentiment and cut off the arrow tips, as they were too fussy here.

I love this card, so rich and a bit of a mix of traditional and modern.

Cx

PFS Floral Squares..

Hey,

Happy Friday to you.

I have been very under the weather this week, hence the lack of posts from me :(

As I am feeling a bit better, I thought I would show you a set of pretty cards I made for my Boss before I left for London.

I really really really wanted these amazing Pink Fresh Studio Floral Square dies -

I had this idea that they would look great die-cut out of smooshed scraps.

It worked out so well, they really pop, some colours worked better than others, I think vibrant scraps are best.

I kept the cards simple and just added a simple thanks sentiment by Stampin' Up.

I am thinking that I will try them with kraft paper next.

Have a great weekend, I will be at the gym, getting my oven repaired (finally) and watching NFL Sunday (GO HAWKS!!).

Cx