Playdate: Nom Nom Kitties..

Hey,

A couple of weeks ago JT and I had an EPIC playdate, it was the weekend that we should have been together in Atlantic City for our 5th Annual craft adventure weekend!

Obvs due to the pandemic we had to make do with Skype instead and it was totally fine, there was much laughter, gossip, booze and some card making LOL.

We started out with a recipe - fave animal, black & white, yellow, alphas - both of us struggled with the alpha part, so we cheated and left that out. My card is the top left one.

I had a clean of the craft room the night before the playdate and found the Nom Nom Kitties by Mama Elephant that I had forgotten about and never inked!! So I decided they would be my stamp set of choice during the playdate.

For our second card, we used an old card of JT's as a layout/sketch example and my card is top right.

Finally, the third card was just a free for all and as I had picked up the leftover yellow ink with a tag, I used that and the remaining Kitty and Sushi tray - this one went to JT along with an envelope of stuff I have had stashed for her.

All 3 cards came out so well and who knew I could find so many uses for Kitties eating ramen and sushi!

Better yet, it was a fabulously long, silly playdate. It wasn't AC, but lets be frank, our livers and our wallets are eternally grateful for virtual v face to face!

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

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

Playdate output..

Hey,

Happy Friday!

I just realised that I didn't show the cards I made on my 2 day playdate with JT.

We had a lot of fun, eating, drinking, shopping, gossiping and crafting.

It is always fun to hang with her and it's also a lot of fun to play with her stash.

The giant chevron stamp that you can see in several of my cards belongs to JT and I totally adopted it for 2 days - I fell in love. It was so versatile.

I think I have a similar stamp somewhere...I need to go on a hunt.

The big win was the bottom left interactive card,  made it, stamped it with that awesome Chicken Wire stamp and then was all 'hmmm it needs a critter..' and lo, JT pulled out one of the Hema Chicken stickers - WIN!!

We've had more epic playdates, but this one was one of the most enjoyable for me. I got to hang with my girl in her new home and just chill for a couple of days, we so rarely get to do that anymore it was nice.

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

Real life playdate..

Hey,

Happy Friday!

Finally I am getting round to showing a couple of cards I made on the playdate I had with JT during my recent trip to London.

We basically found this very cool idea -

And then we CASEd it, over and over again!!

I've kept on using it..I'm totally obsessed. I have added stencils to the blending and different borders, it is totally the idea that keeps on giving.

One of the best things about playdates is getting to use someone else's stash and I loved being able to play with the Avery Elle 'Yappy Birthday' set that I bought JT as part of our annual Black Friday $20 swap. WHY did I not buy it for myself?! Adding the little white spots to the doggie's scarf made me very happy, as did the sparkly gold border.

Here is another version I made that is truer to the original idea and again uses JTs stash - the stamps and dies are by Sizzix -

I really want this cute set too -

How cute are the Elephant and the Giraffe?!

I love real life playdates with JT, especially at her house, as her Hubby is a great cook and just randomly makes yummy foods (this time a Spanish Tortilla..).

Have a great weekend, I will mostly be resting, thanks to Mr Trapped Nerve and watching NFL games.

Cx

CAS Colours and Sketches: A playdate..

Hey,

Happy Monday!

I didn't feel that great on Friday night by the time I got home and when I woke up on Saturday I felt like I had a cold.

I rested, but sadly had to cancel my plans.

I felt well enough yesterday to make the playdate I had planned with JT. We only did an hour, but we had fun and made quite a few things!

Our main focus was the great sketch over at CAS colours and sketches this week.

It's so versatile, we could not stop playing with it.

The main card today is my entry and I used a MFT Happy Birthday circle die-cut, smooshed in Faded Jeans distress oxide ink.

I stamped, cut and coloured the Lawn Fawn Dino and popped him up inside the circle.

I kept the rest of the card simple, just two blue panels from my stash.

A super CAS card.

I made two more cards using this great sketch -

I love the card above, the Pig makes me so happy!! I only bought this set (Go hog wild) by AMuse Studio because of the Pig (and the Cow). I die-cut the circle using an MFT peek-a-boo die. The balloon and the sentiment came with the set. The paper is SUPER old by Papermania and I am really happy to be using it.

My final card had JT and I in hysterics as the paper is a freebie from a magazine at least 6-7 years ago!! I can't believe I kept it. It was perfect for the first use of my Stamping Bella 'Rosie and Bernie in London' stamp. The sentiment is by Newton's Nook.

The last two cards aren't very CAS, but that's ok with me. I am SO using this sketch again.

Cx

Monster Birthday...

Hey,

Today I am showing you a card I made on my last playdate with JT.

This great stamp set, 'Monsters, Microbes and Aliens' was a surprise gift from Lisette.

The first time I used it I did pretty much the same thing and created a background panel.

This is a birthday card for a friend's son and I didn't want to lose the background, so mounted one of the fun stickers from Hema (that JT gave me) onto vellum.

I love this stamp set, it makes such fun cards!

Cx

Happy 30th Birthday..

Hey,

Happy Monday.

I wanted to make a fun card for JT's sister to celebrate her turning 30.

I made the card when JT and I were having our playdate a week ago.

The cover plate I used is new-ish and is by Avery Elle. I stamped a piece of white card using a Hero Arts tiny heart background stamp before I die-cut it.

I am loving the new Papertry Ink number dies that I got from Cheiron, they are proving to be most handy.

I also needed a gift card holder, so I pulled out my Silhouette to see what I had in my library and I came across this fun Pineapple gift card template.

Isn't it fun? It was super easy to put together and adds a touch of fun to a boring old gift card.

Hubby is back tonight..FINALLY and I am very excited to see him - sad that it's only for 3 days, as I leave for London on Thursday.

Cx

Playdate Challenge..

Hey,

Happy Monday!

Today is the last day of my staycation. I have had an awesome time - especially today as I went to the spa (thank you JT and Natasha) and had lunch with friends.

Yesterday morning I had a fun Skype playdate with JT. We normally try and do a challenge together during our dates, this time we are playing along with The Paper Players current tic-tac-toe challenge - these are my fave types of challenge!

I opted for the middle row - Banner, Enamel Dots and Animal.

I used my brand new Studio Calico Galileo stamp set - this set was released in 2012 and I have spent 2 years since I discovered it trying to get my hands on it. eBay came good last week LOL!

The celebrate banner I created using Little B dies that I bought from Cheiron in her big destash sale, I decided that affixing it with staples would work best, doesn't flap around then.

I added some enamel dots here and there and a sentiment sticker by Tim Holtz to finish it off.

I love the end result, I think it will make a fun birthday card for someone.

More playdate makes later on this week. Don't forget to check out JT's entry too.

Cx

CASology: House..

Hey,

So I got another Honorable Mention over at CASology for my Father's Day card. I'm super pleased to be on a roll with my HMs

This week's cue card is very appropriate -

Hubby and I are spending the weekend with friends who have just moved and I was about to make them a new home card and saw the cue for this week!

I got very lucky at a recent Craftgang playdate, Ava gifted me a great New Home set - complete with dies!

I used it here for the house and the tree - I thought a mini scene would be fun. The sentiment is by Clearly Besotted and I added a bit of stenciling behind the scene to make it stand out a bit more.

Super simple make, I really like the cleanliness of it, kind of how you want your New Home to be right?

Cx

Wordless Sloth...

Hey,

Last Sunday I had a little Skype playdate with JT.

I mainly finished off things whilst gossiping, but I did manage to FINALLY break out the Lawn Fawn Sloth set (Hanging In There) and make a card.

I used a piece of Tim Holtz woodgrain watercolour stock and blended a load of blue distress inks to create the rich blue colour.

I did the same again with green so I could cut the grass.

Looks cool right?

I was a bit unsure what the sentiment should be, but I think I've figured out what it should be.

Cx

Craftgang May...

Hey,

Happy Monday to you.

Surprise! I am already posting last week's Craftgang playdate makes.

Funny I had felt it was a slow day for me, as I was helping out Jocelyn and her Mom Joanne, who are relative newbies.

It was a fun day, so much food! Lisette made the infamous Lemon Bars...they are like crack!

I made the top row of cards during the day and the two cat ones I finished off at home.

The new home card was made using a Sizzix stamp and die set that Ava gifted to me!! How awesome and it just so happened I needed to make a new home card.

The next two cards are using stamps I came across in Jamey's stash whilst I was nosying around for backgrounds.

The cat stamps are from Cheiron's stash and they are by Mama Elephant and called Nom Nom Kitties.

The background from the first cat card is from Gina's stash and the sentiments on both cards are mine.

Fun cards and a few of them have left my desk already.

Cx

CASology: Warm..

Hey,

Happy Friday!!

This week has been a busy work and gym one, looking forward to a gym day of rest on Sunday!

I haven't played along with CASology in a while, I really liked this week's cue card.

Because I have been considering spending Christmas in a warm place this year, the Newton's Nook Sun Soaked Christmas set came to mind.

I chose the palm trees and gifts image from the set, I coloured it with distress inks and added some stickles here and there. The sentiment is an old one by Avery Elle.

I am really happy with how my card came out, pretty CAS and makes me even more keen on a beachy Christmas.

Also the weather in NYC has been amazing this week, we have hit record temps, so lovely to be in sandals.

Have a great weekend, I am having a lo-key one. My only plan so far is a Skype playdate with JT on Sunday.

April Craftgang Playdate...

Hey,

Happy Friday.

Tonight will be my second Personal Training session - I have been going to the gym without my trainer too, so I am pretty tired this week! But it seems to be working, I feel stronger and can see results already.

As Sunday is the May Craftgang playdate, I thought I would FINALLY show you my April playdate makes!

All the image stamps (except the Waffle Flower Bear) came from Jamey's stash. The main card and the WF Bear card, I actually finished on the day at Jamey's - along with something I can't show you yet.

The rest of the cards I finished last weekend - I spent last Saturday finishing all the half done projects on my desk!!

I love the variety of the cards. The main card is obvs my fave, because I LOVE background stamps and Jamey's collection makes me so happy. The stamp I used is by Simon Says Stamp and I roughly coloured the 'flowers' with Zigs and then used an aquabrush to get the smudgy watercolour feel.

The card below makes me smile - I finally got my hands on the Waffle Flower Bird and Bear stamp set..I should have bought it when it came out, I procrastinated and had to wait 2 months!

I used one of Jamey's background stamps and I like that the bear looks like he is passing a wall on his travels.

The next 3 cards are the ones I finished last weekend.

Loved the dog and heart stamp. I used Lil Inkers wonky dies and Hero Arts sentiment, coloured with Distress Inks and an aquabrush  

I love Pigs!! My Hubby is from the home of Pigs LOL. I kept this one simple and close-up you can see the glittery bubbles.

Same dog set as above, but I used the sentiments from something else. Die I bought in London. Kraft blank from JT. Added clear Pretty Pink Posh droplets (of course)

Fun makes, I love the Craftgang playdates, they make me so happy.

The gym does not. But that is where I will be tonight and tomorrow morning - I swear I better look like Naomi freaking Campbell in my bikini this year!

Cx

Craftgang March Playdate..

Hey,

I am a bit late posting these cards, especially as the Craftgang monthly meet-up is this Sunday!!

Jamey has a great craft studio space in Hoboken and once a month the Craftgang (there are several of us!) meet up to eat, gossip and make stuff.

It's also a great opportunity to play with everyone else's stash, especially Jamey's.

As I have mentioned before Jamey has the most awesome collection of background stamps and I always like to play with those when I am there.

I generally take NBUS with me, because then I get inspired by the gang and they can play with the new stuff that they might not have.

The main card today uses the Lawn Fawn Year Seven stamp and die-set. The background stamp is one of Jamey's and I stamped it and spritzed it to get a bit of movement. The small stitched rounded square die is also one of Jamey's - DO WANT.  I knew I wanted this card to go on one of my fave mini square craft blanks and so waited until I got home to assemble it.

The next card uses a great stamp set by Unity Stamp Co, it comes with several awesome sentiments. I think the bird is a lot of fun too and would probably make a great mixed media piece in my art journal. The background I stole from a stack of Oxide Distress Ink backgrounds that Jamey had previously made, it works perfectly here.

I am a bit obsessed with Reverse Confetti right now.. My friend Jen used the Later Alligator set recently and I had to have it!

I didn't buy the dies, so I fussy cut the Gator and the cake, both are coloured with Ava's Zigs, as I left mine at home! I used dies I found in Jamey's stash and some fun papers also from her stash. I added a few of the clear droplets by Pretty Pink Posh (the Craftgang liked these..) to finish the card off. I like the crazy mix of patterns and colours.

Final card today sparked much laughter, as I decided to use the teeny tiniest letters that I could find in Jamey's stash..it was an exercise in patience applying them!

This was the first time I had used the snail by Avery Elle and it was before the die arrived. The background piece consists of a die and a stamp again from Jamey's stash.

I love the variety of cards I get when we have a playdate and I also love all the food we eat!

Cx

Marquee Messages...

Hey,

Happy Friday!

I bought the Stampin' Up Marquee messages stamp set a long time ago and I have only really played with it once.

A few weeks ago I thought it would be fun to have another play with it.

I stamped two of the large marquee stamp and then coloured them with Zigs, Spectrum Noir sparkle pens and stickles.

Both parts of the sentiment were stamped after, as there are a few messages and I was undecided. I like the pop of the black birthday, it works really well here.

I had stamped, coloured and fussy cut the Marquee Messages before my playdate with JT and was a bit at a loss as to how to use them.

JT gave me the idea to use a grey background for the yellow one, giving it a bit more of a masculine feel. I decided to use a Lawn Fawn grey spotty card blank and she was 100% right and so I used a pink spotty card blank for the other one.

I love Lawn Fawn mini card blanks, so pretty and they are also super handy.

Here are both cards -

I love these cards, they are so impactful, maybe more work than I would like..

Cx

Playdate backgrounds..

Hey,

I know it's been about 3 weeks since my playdate with JT, but I completely forgot to post these cards!

Whilst we were gossiping and playing, I dug out 3 backgrounds that I had already made and finally turned them into cards.

The main card uses a background I stamped at Jamey's on a craftgang playdate, I loved the stamp so much I bought it! I added a tag and a chipboard heart and stamped the freebie sentiment (gift from JT). I think it makes a nice modern Anniversary card.

The next background was a 'test' of a new stencil, ages ago. I loved what I ended up with, but was at a bit of a loss about how to turn it into a card...

The freebie sentiments from JT have turned out to be most useful and the Happy Birthday is so pretty, I thought it would look nice against the stenciled background. I added a few dots of black enamel accents here and there.

The final card is a teeny bit weird!

This background came about because I was trying to achieve a 'gold' paste..I got more of a shimmery brown LOL! I added the patterned die-cut circle along with the super blingy pineapple (from JT) and the aloha die-cut (Avery Elle). 

I love making backgrounds, background stamps and stencils are my fave tools when doing this, along with distress inks and a water spritzer. I have a little stack of them that I use for inspiration when I am stuck for ideas.

Cx

Playdate challenge Flamingo's....

Hey,

Happy Monday,

So JT and I had a fun Skype playdate yesterday and she said she was intrigued by the sketch over at CAS(E) this sketch -

I loved the sketch, but I was concerned about the matching up..so after closer inspection of the DT cards, I came up with a way to cheat ;)

I also had an idea that struck me as either genius or plain weird..involving Flamingo's.

I stamped the Lawn Fawn Flamingo's onto a white piece of watercolour cardstock, but I had marked where I was planning on die-cutting the rectangle (cheat), so I knew how to stamp the Flamingo's and which ones to colour (distress ink in Picked Raspberry and aquabrush).

I die-cut the main panel and then the centre rectangle, affixed the main panel to the card blank and then using pop-dots added the centre rectangle - super clever cheat, will be using again.

The sentiment makes no sense to anyone else but my friend and her posse who live in California..

Weird, pink and wonderful..I think all playdates should involve Flamingo's.

Cx

Flippin' Fabulous Playdate..

Hey,

Yesterday JT and I had an epic Skype playdate..we made a lot of stuff, which I will show you next week.

We decided that it would be fun to play along with a challenge and we chose Freshly Made Sketches 

The deal was that we had to use something new from our annual Black Friday $20 challenge haul - every year we spend $20 (well..maybe more this year) on buying things for the other person that they wouldn't buy for themselves. We always set a theme, this year it was 'Loft Art Inspired' 'Animals' and 'New to me this year'.

I love everything in my haul, I'll talk about it more next week.

I decided to flip the sketch and I broke out my new Summer Stickers (Crabs, Pineapples and Flip Flops) to use with the YNS Flippin' Fabulous stamp.
I coloured the Crab using Zig brush markers and die-cut him using a stitched square die, I die-cut a piece of scrap paper that felt like Sea and added them both to my card with a tan background that JT and I agreed on, as it looked like sand.

Final touch was to add the flip flop stickers, over the ones the Crab is holding in the stamp - they look like they were meant to be there!!

Love the whole thing, every time I look at it I smile - a lot.

I love playdates.

Cx