Punny Dogs...

 

Hey,

Happy Friday!

I hope you all had a good week. Mine was a bit crazy at work, but I had such a wonderful Thanksgiving with Hubby and Clint Catwood that I didn't mind too much.

During my recent vacation in November I made 100 cards for charity. I really love doing this, it's nice to do something for others and I have fun whilst I am doing it.

This time I was determined to trawl through some older neglected stamps and use them with some of the newer things in my stash.

I came across these awesome freebie dog stamps (they came with a craft magazine in the UK) and I thought that they would work really well with the newer Taylored Expressions 'Woof' simple strip sentiments. I love a pun, so these worked really well, as did the ones that came with the stamp set (main photo).

My amazing friend Lisette has the banner dies that coordinate with the strips and she cut me TONS of them, so kind.

I had previously made a card using these stamps and I coloured some of the dogs in random colours and others I left blank. I really like this as a technique and I believe if you just colour one, it is considered 'spotlight' stamping.

Here are a few more of the cards - 

Fun right?!

Have a great weekend, I am having a playdate with JT and watching endless sport on Sunday - WHOOP!

Cx

CASology: Just Be Claws..

Hey,

Happy Monday.

Hope you are all staying home, safe and well.

I loved my friend Jen's take on the current CASology challenge and it inspired me to play along.

I actually have a lot of friends and family (including Hubby) that are Cancerians AND because I love Crabs it felt like a natural fit to go down that road.

ALSO my beloved Big Shot gave up last Monday and so I am still waiting for a large format die-cutter, so everything I make that needs die-cutting has to be able to go through my smaller We R Memory keepers mini die-cutter.

The crab is from the Mama Elephant 'Cosmic Stars' set and I added the fun sentiment from the Pink & Main 'Oh Crab!' set.

I think the bright pink card blank helps make Mr Crab stand out and I couldn't resist adding teeny tiny googly eyes, because we all love googly eye right?

Cx

Pun Cards: Let's Sea-abrate...

Hey,

Happy Monday to you!!

Let's start the week with a great pun!

I had been waiting quite a while for this great set by Avery Elle - Seal-abrate, essentially if I don't really 'need' it (it's relative) I try and wait until it goes on sale..but boy I really had to wait for this one!

The card is actually super simple, as I wanted my Seal's to be the standout part of the card. I have used this set a bunch since I made this card. This card was part of my pun-card project.

Thanks

Cx

Pun Cards: Let's Taco about...

Hey,

Happy Monday!

Hope you had a good weekend?

I am in London this week working and I am going to be doing some fun stuff with my family and friends too.

In January when I was last in London, I finally delivered the huge pun card project that I was working on for most of last year. Polly (my Husband's bestie) was delighted and was so happy it made me really happy too.

There were so many of them, that I still have a few to share and I'm going to do that, as they are so fun.

Today's card was made using Lawn Fawn's 'Year Nine' set. I love this set, it makes me laugh so hard!

I kept it super simple (as you do when you are making 55 cards), I stamped, coloured and die-cut the Taco, the candle and the little party hat. I stamped the sentiment from the set onto red paper and cut them out.

Could we just pause for a moment and talk about how good my Taco colouring is?! I am pretty happy with it.

The background paper is by Avery Elle and came in the grabbag I bought from them last year.

I love the fact that the Taco has a face - Lawn Fawn are great at including little faces, thus bringing random objects to life.

Cx

Pun Card Project..

Hey,

Back to normal now with Christmas and my trip to London done, I go back to work tomorrow..

I had a fun trip, it was great to spend so much QT with my folks and I got to hand over my pun card project to our friend Polly.

Polly is a big fan of my cards, which is lovely. Last year she made a comment about one of the cards I sent to her and it sparked an idea.

What if I made a pun card from every single pun set I have?! 

Well, 5 months (Aug to Dec) and 48 stamp sets later, I ended up with 55 pun cards and to be honest there are probably about 10-15 more sets I could have used, but I just ran out of time.

I used all the techniques for these cards - stencils, heat embossing, dry embossing, smooshing, watercolouring, gelli plate backgrounds, die-cutting, masking and marker colouring.

It was so much fun to do though and here are the majority of the cards!

Fun right?!

I might consider a similar project later this year - like all birds or something?

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #122.. Get Sketchy..

Hey,

Welcome to another awesome Retro Rubber challenge.

Last sketch of the year for you, created by me!

I love sketches, they always make me use my imagination!

Whilst this challenge is live, I will be in Mexico with my Hubby celebrating 15 years as a couple and 10 years as a married couple. I can't believe we have been together so long - it feels like just yesterday that I saw him across a crowded room and decided he was the one for me (true story).

I love the 'Hot Chick' set by Avery Elle, I have had it since 2017 and it always makes me smile, I use it a lot, as I have friends that like to workout too and it makes a great birthday card for them.

I stamped and coloured the Chick and then die-cut it out using a stitched circle die and used the next size up to die-cut the second backing circle.

I recently realised that I didn't have a good set of banner dies and so bought a set from Avery Elle and they are getting a lot of use.

The background paper is interesting, because it has flecks of white and grey in it, that haven't photographed so well. AND I have had the paper since approx 2011 and it moved to NYC with me from London and this is the penultimate piece.

Fun card, that I can add to my punny card set I am making for a friend.

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 November 1st.

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

Duh-nuh...

Hey,

Happy Monday!

I had a great weekend, hanging with Hubby, as I am semi-housebound due to the crutches and the boot!

I LOVE pun cards and I had this fun idea to make a pun card from every punny set I have for a friend.

I have been cracking myself up with some of these cards.

I am in love with today's card.

It's actually a CASE of Kelly-Marie from Lawn Fawn's card.

I thought it was so clever, the way she made the 'card' in a frame and it gave me an excuse to break out my We R Memory Keepers Frame Punch Board.

I started my version of the card, by creating the sea, using the MFT 'Make Waves' stencil - I am super pleased with my sea, it is perfection and I am so happy to have finally mastered this stencil (big shout out to Jen at Newtons Nook for her tutorial..).

I blended more blue ink to the top part of the sea panel and then heat embossed my clouds in. The clouds stamp is from the Clearly Besotted 'Trouble in a TuTu' set and I had never used the clouds until I made this card!

This version is no longer available

I stamped, coloured and die-cut the Shark, Fish and Fin from the Lawn Fawn 'Duh-nuh' set and using the great Ocean Wave Accents dies, I added them to my frame.

Final touches were to stamp the sentiments, mount onto a card blank and add washi tape and a sequin.

LOVE this card, I'll be making it again.

Cx

Oh for Fox Sakes..

Hey,

Happy Friday to you!

I am looking forward to the weekend, loving having the NFL back.

I am hoping I can workout on Saturday, the foot has flared up again..ugh.

Not my usual style of photography today, but I thought it had come out well and decided not to retake it for my blog.

I remembered that I had this great set by Unity Stamp Co and dug it out to make a card for the pun set that I am making.

I love the simplicity of the Fox and the little details included around him.

I stamped the sentiment that came with the set and die-cut it out using a stitched circle die.

He pops on the kraft card blank - my all time faves that JT gifts me all the time.

Have a great weekend.

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

Happy Valentine's Day...

Hey,

I normally do a Valentine's Day card series, but this year because I have been sick and super busy at work, I just didn't find the time to get the posts ready.

Hubby and I are not into celebrating Valentine's Day, but I do love making the cards, so I send them to my girlfriends.

Every year I make Hubby a pun-tastic card, because he is not a fan of the punny cards, I always get an eye roll from him when I make them.

I bought the awesome Newton's Nook 'Pina Koala' stamp because I knew that Hubby would be all 'why?' hahahaha.

I printed out part of the sentiment, leaving a gap for the Pina Koala stamp. I stamped the cute Koala and then die-cut the whole panel using a Lil Inkers die. 

I mounted the white panel onto a Lawn Fawn cardblank.

Fun right?

Hubby and I are en-route to Tampa as this posts, 5 glorious days of sunshine and RR.

Cx

p.s I did make 10 VDay cards for my girls, but didn't photograph them..

CASology: Pun..

Hey,

Happy Friday.

I had a late start today...feeling a bit blah.

But making a card for this week's CASology cheered me up a lot!

The cue card is a particular fave of mine -

I love a pun and I have tons of pun stamps.

I decided not to default to some of my tried and tested ones, but broke out a piece of NBUS, by Avery Elle 'Swans'.

My card was super simple to make, I coloured and die-cut the Swan stamp and added some distress paint to my panel to create a messy 'water' type background.

I stamped the sentiment and hearts from the set.

It will make a lovely thank you card for my Hubby, who has been amazing throughout this long and tedious wait for my work permit.

Have a great weekend.

Cx