Retro Rubber Challenge #186 - Sketch Challenge...

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge. I hope you all had a fun 4th of July weekend if you are in the Americas, Hubby and I had a great weekend.

We have a sketch for you this time, you know how much I love a sketch!

I rotated the sketch and decided to use this gorgeous butterfly that was on my desk, it's by Clearly Besotted 'Elegant Butterflies' and I have had it since 2016.

I loved the colour I had stamped it in, so I chose papers that worked well with it and suited the sketch.

Here is a close-up, as the sentiment strip is foiled and is hard to photograph!

The floral paper is by Stampin' Up and everything else is a scrap, the sentiment strip is by Taylored Expressions. I love how pretty and delicate this card feels.

Show us your interpretation of the sketch. And don't forget to pop on over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends July 15th.

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 - Crayons...

Hey,

Welcome to another fantastic Fusion Card Challenge.

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

You know I love to fuse the sketch and the inspiration image. So that is what I did here.

This card was made in the weirdest circumstances.. I am in the middle of packing for the big move to Tampa (from NYC) and my craft room is pretty much packed, so I had to improvise LOL.

The solid colour strips were actually coloured using Copics (including the sentiment banner) and the awesome crayon clutching Bunny is from Mama Elephant's 'Little Bunny Agenda' set, but I packed it (doh!) and so my friend kindly stamped and cut him out for me!! The patterned strip of paper was a scrap that I kept to one side and ended up fitting my colour scheme here.

The Happy Birthday stamp honestly, no word of a lie was on my craftroom floor LOL! Handy, but it also means I am not sure who it is by!

Hope you like this cute little 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 August 31st.

Cx

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

Christmas Comes Early...

 

Hey,

Most people that know me, know I start making my Christmas cards on 1st of August (my Momma's bday) and they have to be mailed by 5th December (my Poppa's birthday). 

I LOVE sending Christmas cards, but I really hate making them... So I devised this system several years ago and it really works for me.

Because I start so early I miss all the fabulous Christmas / Holiday releases. BUT it does mean that I can get things in post-Christmas / New Year sales.

This year I ended up with a HUGE pile of Christmas sale goodies. So in January, I made at least one card with each of them.

The main card uses a set by Avery Elle 'Santa Jaws' - this was a must-have for me, I love Sharks and all things nautical. And the punny sentiment - just too much!

This set is by MFT 'Happy Llama Days' and I bought it second-hand because I loved it so much! How fun are these festive Llamas.

My friend and amazing teacher Jenn Shurkus, sent me a Christmas card using this set 'The Man, The Myth, The Legend' by Simon Says Stamp and I was like WTAF?! I have to have that. Isn't it amazing?!

The last two photos are of the cards I made using the Dino-Mite Christmas set by Ellen Hutson. I LOVE Dinos and they played so nicely with a bunch of scraps I had!

I actually made multiples of all of these cards and a few more, that I will show you at some point ;) and ended up with 40 cards - LOL. Yes, I am insane.

Cx

Fusion Card Challenge - Green

Hey,

Welcome to another fantastic Fusion Card Challenge.

This time we have 'Green' theme for you! As always both the sketch and the inspiration image are awesome.

Which will you try? As always, I loved both, so I fused them!

I was inspired by the green circles and so I created a background in multiple greens. I love using glitter paper and I had some scraps from Christmas that fit perfectly here. I actually wanted to use an oval for my sentiment, but it was too big! 

It felt a bit bland, so I added the gold twine (my all-time fave $1 Target purchase) and some bling to liven it up!

I used -

Concord & 9th - Dotty Turnabout stamp

Craft Smart - Shake Chic sentiments

The Works - Dotted, Scalloped, Stitched rectangle dies

Altenew Inks - Parrot, Hunter Green, Just Green, Minty Mint, Sweet Leaf

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 January 1st.

Cx

4 cards, 1 stamp set: Making Cards Mag Freebie

Hey,

So having a little challenge gap day today :)

I wanted to show you x4 cards that I made using a freebie stamp set I got in the UK.

I love the stamps, they are a great addition to my stash.

I stamped x4 of the girls onto watercolour paper and used distress inks to colour them.

I decided that I would cut the main stamped images as tags and go from there.

I had a LOT of fun, I used so many scraps from my stash - including all the ribbon. Basically I never ever buy ribbon, I just save it from gifts I get given and recycle it in my crafting!

Fun cards that came out even better than expected.

Cx

30 Days of ATStamps...

Hey,

Happy Monday!

Hope you had a good weekend?

I have been having a lovely time in January with my blog, I have posted quite a lot and a lot of it has been end of 2019 makes, which is nice. I have entered a few challenges, so new stuff has been made, but it's been nice sharing some of the things I made towards the end of last year. I got a bit of Christmas fatigue and really just couldn't muster up the enthusiasm for my blog!

Today I am showing you a really cool project / challenge that I did last November.

Carabelle Studios hosted a 30 days of ATStamps. I saw this post on The Kathryn Wheel blog and was totally hooked and had to join in.

Here are the prompts for the 30 days -

The prompts were great and the rules were reasonably loose - each ATStamp had to be 6x4cm, and had to resemble a postage stamp. Using Carabelle Studio stamps was optional and as I only had x5 of their stamps at the time, I mixed it up a LOT.  Mid-way through the challenge, I managed to acquire x3 more sets on sale. Also you could make more than 1 ATStamp per prompt and I did do this for some of them, as I had so many cool ideas in my head!

Here is a little glimpse of my ATStamp's -

From top left clockwise 1) close-up of the ATStamps, 2) a cent for scale as most people on insta thought they were much bigger! 3) the permanent home in my art journal for the ATStamps, they were too much work and too gorgeous to give away.. 5) my fave monster ATStamp 6) all of my ATStamps - I ended up with 38

Kathryn of The Kathryn Wheel, gave me a good idea for how to get started. I dug out all the scraps and stamped backgrounds, gelli plate backgrounds, smooshed backgrounds. I cut approx 40 6x4cm pieces from these backgrounds and they formed the 'base' for all my ATStamps. Some of them I didn't overly embellish and others I did a lot to.
I didn't have the Carabelle postage stamp base, so I used a Simon Says Stamp one from the 'Ho Ho Postage' set that I also have the dies for, I stamped and cut all of these and affixed the decorated piece to this.

The main photo today is of my fave ATStamp - Day 13 'Drink' I LOVE Monsters and I love Coffee too and this Monster stamp by Whippersnapper always reminds me of me in the morning.

This was one of the ATStamps that needed a bit of work.. I chose a green and orange background piece and stamped over it with a Carabelle text stamp. Then I prepped my Monster -

Sadly, I had to lose his bunny slipper! After I had trimmed down the Monster to fit the background panel, I added a sparkly M to his mug, as I suspect like me Mr Morning Monster might like a monogram ;)

Finally one fun fact for you, I didn't discover the challenge until 8 days in!! So I spent an entire Saturday afternoon prepping and making the first 9 ATStamps! Here is a photo of the first 9 -

I loved this little challenge, it was SO out of my comfort zone and I was really pleased that I decided to take the leap and join in. It was also fun breaking out my acrylic paint markers and using dots and lines to embellish these super small 'canvases'.

More projects like this in 2020 please.

Cx

Floral Hi..

Hey,

Happy Monday!

So last year I really really tried to exercise restraint over Black Friday - but it was SOOO hard.

As I couldn't help myself, I am in a NO BUY zone for January, to extend into Feb (possibly).

This means I have to play with all the beautiful new shiny things I have..

Today I am showing you a card I made using the amazing Spellbinder 'Floral Hi' dies. I fell head over heels in love with it when I saw it on their site.

It's pretty simple as a set of dies, but whooo it's a lot of work to put together! But so worth it. I made x2 cards at the same time and die-cut all of the pieces first, mainly out of scraps, before I assembled both cards.

I added bling for the flower centers and added some dots of gold stickles around for a bit of interest.

I wish they made this die as a Thanks.

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #123 Anything Goes..

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

This time it's everyone's fave, Anything Goes.

If you know me really well, you know that I absolutely do not like to eat Carrots (raw, ok, maybe) and that I LOVE pickles. So when I was looking through my stash for a under-used stamp for this challenge and saw this one I LOL.

The sentiment stamp is from the 'Big Dill' set by Sweet Stamp Shop and I have had it since 2017. I knew I had to use this sentiment, but what would I do about the background. I realised I don't have a Carrot stamp (obvs), so I googled carrot background paper..really, I mean?!

I saw a lot of ideas, but the best one was the sketchy, watercoloured one I saw. So I decided to have a go and make my own background. It's basically splodges of orange and green watercolour and I used a fineliner to draw in the Carrot details. I LOVE it.. more Carrot cards in my future.

I stamped the sentiment onto an orange scrap and used stitched rectangle stacking dies to cut both the orange and the green panels. I popped the whole sentiment panel up with foam tape.

Fun card, that left in the post to one of my besties.

What treasure will you find to play with? Also pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends November 15th.

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 #564 Star Stampz..

Hey,

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

Our sponsor this week is Star Stampz and they are offering a prize of 1 digital stamp from their store.

Here's the sketch...

I thought this stamp (Balloons and Ice Cream) was so cute and would work well with the sketch.

I printed and coloured the stamp using Copics. I die-cut it to size using a stitched rectangle die and used scrap papers from my stash to create the background to match the sketch.

I chose the sentiment because with balloons and ice cream how can life NOT be beautiful?

I hunted high and low for my photo corners punch, but couldn't find it, so created fancy corners using bling instead..I think I like that way better :)

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.

Challenge ends May 24th 7pm GMT / 2pm EST

Cx

CAS on Friday: Butterflies..

Hey,

With all the traveling and working! I haven't been playing along with too many challenges.

So this weekend has I had some time, I thought I would play along with one of my fave challenges - CAS on Friday.

The theme is Butterflies.

I think my card feels pretty CAS..but we'll see what the DT think ;)

I smooshed half of my paper in distress oxide's and water and dried it before using a large rectangle stitched die to die-cut it to size.

I used my new Lil Inker stitched butterfly dies and embossed the large butterfly and a trail into my panel. I die-cut a smaller butterfly from the same set using a coordinating scrap of paper and popped that up on my card.

I finished it off with a simple sentiment.

I am really happy with how it came out, I really like the embossed butterfly that overlaps the coloured and plain parts of my background.

Cx

Sketch Saturday #554 Fabrika Fantasy...

Hey,

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

Our sponsor this week is Fabrika Fantasy and they are offering a prize of x3 digis from their store.

Here's the sketch...

I rotated the sketch to work better with the fun image I chose to use 'Happy Doggy'.

I decided to make my card a bit off the wall and coloured the image in non-traditional Dog colours.

I used an ancient piece of lime green star paper for the backing and I added an embossed star teal piece of paper to fit the sketch. The strips across the middle are so old I can't remember how long I have had them, but they came in a pack with plain and glittery ones. I added a sentiment to the balloon.

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.

Challenge ends Friday 15th March 7pm GMT / 2pm EST

Cx

Catch The Bug: Sunday Sketch Challenge..

Hey,

Happy Sunday to you!

Hubby and I are currently sunning ourselves in Tampa!

Today I am with the Catch The Bug team for the Stella Says Sketch challenge

I decided to rotate the sketch and use a fave stamp of mine - Margaret Morning People - I feel her pain..

I coloured the image, using Promarkers and trimmed it out, so it had a border. I used a fun chevron embossing folder, for the bottom half of my background and in my blue scrap box, I found the blue glittery strip and the scalloped piece.

It reminds me of one of my bestie's so it will be winging its way to her soon!

Hope you will be playing along too. Can't wait to see which image you choose to use.

Upload your makes at the Catch The Bug blog and check out the rest of the DT makes.

Cx

Catch The Bug: Thursday Oldie But Goodie...

Hey,

Happy Thursday to you..

I am with the Catch The Bug team today.. Thursdays are when we encourage you to go back through your older Bugaboo Stamps and give a neglected oldie some love..

Bugaboo Stamps were the first digital stamps I ever bought when I started crafting and Jodie's amazing Flower Jar stamps sparked a love of all 'flower jar' style stamps. I have TONS of them in digital and physical formats.

I love that on this one the label on the jar is blank, so I can add whatever sentiment.

I coloured the stamp using Promarkers and die-cut out the panel using a small stitched rectangle die. I used a pink card blank and two scrap pieces of coordinating pink papers for my background layers.

A fun card, that has made me want to break out all the Flower Jar stamps..

Upload your makes at the Catch The Bug blog and check out the rest of the DT makes.

Cx

Catch The Bug: Annual Birthday Bash - Sketch Sunday...

Hey,

I am back again today playing along with the Catch The Bug Annual Birthday Bash.

Today we have a sketch for you.

I decided to use the Birthday Monster Balloon stamp on my card.

I coloured the stamp first and used the colours to inform my colour palette.

I used scraps of spotty orange papers and a green scrap to fit the sketch. The sentiment is from a great set by Create a Smile.

To finish my card, I added 3 green pearls.

I love this cute little Balloon Monster card.

Pop over to Catch The Bug to see what the rest of the DT have made.

Want play along?
HOW TO PLAY: Enter up to 3 times using the sketch above. If you use a Bugaboo Image, you could WIN 10, 7 or 4 Bugaboo Images of your choice. We LOVE to see what you do with your Bugaboos! If you NEED a Bugaboo Stamp to use, head on over to the store and get the Friday Freebie! If you have a wonderful NON-Bugaboo Image you'd like to use, you’ll be eligible for 7 or 4 Bugaboo Stamps Images of your choice if you’re one of our winners! All entries must be new and follow the sketch.
You have until 6 am Sunday, January 20, 2019 to join the sketchy fun go over to Catch The Bug to link up your project.

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

Retro Rubber #96.. Get Your Sketch On!!

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

We have a sketch for you this time, created by me, which feels even more special this week, as it is my birthday on Friday.

As it's my birthday week, I thought a birthday card would be appropriate. And it felt like the right time to bring out a rather neglected Avery Elle set - 'Pure Magic' that I have had since it's release in 2016.

I rotated the sketch, partly because I needed to fit in the gi-normous sentiment from the Waffle Flower 'Magical' set - I bought a $20 second-hand grab bag and to my delight this set and it's dies were in the grab bag..they are worth $20 alone!


I pulled out a bunch of scrap papers and die-cut all the pieces to fit the sketch. The little piece of gold sparkly paper is from approx 2012 and there is only 1 teeny tiny piece left!

I love how this came out, the mix of patterns and the cute bunny surprisingly worked really well together.

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 October 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

The Paper Players: New Piggies...

Hey,

Happy Monday!

I love the sketch over at The Paper Players this week -

I decided to break out one of the new sets that arrived this weekend 'Lovely Piggies' by Mama Elephant.

I stamped my Piggy onto watercolour paper and coloured her using Distress Ink. Then I die-cut her out using a scalloped circle die from The Works.

My background paper is actually from a pack of 'wedding invite insert' paper that I got on sale last December from Paper Source..It's sooo shimmery IRL.

The grey chevron paper is new from MFT and the flowery piece is an ancient scrap from a pad by Amy Tangerine.

To finish off my card I added a die-cut thanks and stamped the rest of the sentiment all from a Hero Arts set that Cheiron gave me.

I love the end result.. I think these Piggies are a great addition to my stash, good job I stamped and coloured them all at the same time ;)

Cx

Sketch Saturday #518..Scrap N Dipity..Ice-Cream Mountain..

Hey,

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

Our sponsor this week is Scrap N' Dipity and they are offering a prize of 1 digi from their store.

Here's the sketch...

I loved the fun Ice-Cream Mountain stamp, it looked like it was going to be a lot of fun to colour and it really was.

I rotated the sketch and made the background using various scrap pieces of paper from my stash and a rectangle stitched die and a square stitched die. After colouring the stamp, I fussy cut it out (ugh) and mounted it onto my background using foam tape. I added a bit of Nuvo crystal clear dots for some sparkle.

The sentiment sticker is by Tim Holtz and it made me laugh, as I always want a crazy tower of ice-cream and Hubby says NO because I always spill it, drop it, etc..

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.

Challenge ends 22 June 7pm GMT / 2pm EST

Cx

Chalkboard Birthday...

Hey,

Happy Monday to you.

Momma and I are in Philly right now for a few days, tonight we are having dinner with JTs parents, tomorrow Ma is going to visit a friend and I am having lunch with a friend. Fun times.

Whilst Hubby was away in London I got to indulge in some late night craft adventures..which resulted in me finding a box of backgrounds that I had made and die-cut?! I seriously have no recollection of this, but yay!

So I made x2 cards using a couple of the backgrounds I found..I also found the chalkboard tags that you can see on the cards - there were at least 10 of them in the box and they have different patterns on.

I used a scripty stamp (Avery Elle 'Brushed') and white pigment ink to get that chalkboard effect - I'm super pleased with how the sentiment came out.

The two backgrounds I used were both made using Tim Holtz stencils and distress stains.

Here's the other card -

Won't it fun when I have a big enough craft room to keep everything sensibly organised (sigh).

Cx