2024 Hops: Summer Soiree Part Two...

Hey,

Here is the 5th post in my blog hop series and part two of Summer Soiree.

Kelly Santi organises all of the hops. This year I have done 6 hops with Kelly and the gang -

• Ring in the New Year
• Spring Hop
• Sunshine Awareness mini hop
• Shark Week 2024 mini hop
• Summer Soiree
• Fall Friends

In this post I am showing the final 5 cards I made for the Summer Soiree hop. We did 12 weeks with this one! I missed one week.

Themes for these cards are Winter in July, don't bug me, hello sunshine, Summer roadtrips, Summer food & drink and Rainbows. My cards are in the correct order, Winter in July is the main photo.

I actually CASE'd my own card for Christmas in July, as I loved it so much. Rainbows were my theme choice and I finally got to use this gorgeous die by Sizzix & Jen Long.

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #181 - Tic Tac Toe....

Hey,

Welcome to another awesome Retro Rubber challenge.

This time we have a fun tic-tac-toe board for you.

I love tic-tac-toe challenges, as even if we all choose the same row, our makes are so different.

I went with the left diagonal row - watercolour-dry embossing-twine or ribbon.

I watercoloured the sweet Hummingbird stamp - I love this stamp set 'Hummingbird Thanks' by Pretty Pink Posh and I have had it since 2018. I decided to add an unexpected pop of colour and used the Sizzix 'Basketweave' embossing folder with a scrap of neon pink paper! I wrapped some twine around my embossed circle and popped on a foiled sentiment - I am loving foiling right now, especially as I finally understand how to use my mini minc!

Which row will you choose? Don't forget to pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends May 6.

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 - Eggs

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Fusion Card Challenge.

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

Which will you try?

I was aiming for a fuse, but I am not 100% convinced by my sketch interpretation... 

But I loved all the brightly coloured eggs, so I am on point with the photo!

I am a big fan of Panda's they are perfect for all genders, ages and occasions. I love this little cutie, by Wplus9 from 'Friends for all Seasons'. Isn't he adorable holding his little basket of eggs! 

The background paper is from an Easter kit I bought a couple of years ago by Lil Inker, who sadly are no longer around. I love their stuff. 

My rounded dies are by Sizzix and I think I have had them for over 10 years, they are actually way more useful than I thought they ever would be!

The sentiment is from the same set as the Panda and made me smile so I used it here.

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 March 30th.

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #148 Birthday...

Hey,

Welcome to another awesome Retro Rubber challenge - can you believe it is nearly Thanksgiving?!

This time we have a birthday challenge for you - 

I think we all love making birthday cards, they can be so very personal. And if you know me, you know I love Monster stamps and they generally find their way onto my birthday cards!

This one is a fave of mine (his teeny tiny hands are just amazing) and is by Ink Blot Shop 'Party Monster' he was released in August 2019 and I have had him since the minute he came out, I have a built-in Monster stamp radar!!

First I stamped the sentiment, as I wanted my Monster to look like he was sitting on top of it. After stamping him, he was coloured with Copics and a teeny bit of Sakura gelly roll starburst glitter pen. 

The sentiment is by Unity Stamp Co, from their 'Frankly Said' set that I have had since 2018 and it comes with the most amazing choice of sentiments. I bought another one of it and I gift the individual sentiments to my crafty friends.

The white panel was die-cut with my fave Tim Holtz + Sizzix deckle edge rectangle dies.

Have you got a fave style of birthday card? Can't wait to see what you make. Be sure to pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends November 27th

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

Dino-mite Dies..

Hey,

Happy Monday!

Today I thought I would share these fun cards I made.

I love Monsters and Dinosaurs and most people know that. 

JT sent me this great set of Dino dies by Sizzix. Then I found the great Dino papers by Echo Park on sale, so I bought us both a pad to go with the dies.

I love how these crazy little cards came out. I used Tim Holtz stacked deckle dies to cut the layers and used a little arrow die I have to create a fun little banner for part of my sentiment. The sentiments are by Avery Elle.

Also isn't everything just better with googly eyes?!

Cx

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: H is for Headache..

Hey,

Happy Friday!

I got my very first Princess of Snark in December last year and I was very happy about it.

I really wanted to play along with The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - X Rated Christmas, but I ran out of time.

So I am joining in the current challenge -

I obviously have the same Tim Holtz snarky chit chat stickers as everyone else, but that is cool - great minds think alike.

I found a piece of older smooshed paper in my stash - loved the colours and as they are quite muted I think they soften the punch of the sentiment!

I die-cut the panel as a tag - using a Sizzix + Tim Holtz die, I love this die, as it cuts the larger sized tags that are perfect for mixed media projects.

It was a great opportunity to use my slightly neglected 'Damn Girl' stamp set by Unity Stamp Co. I used the main image of the 1920's woman and the 'Damn Girl' sentiment, which I masked off to work with the rest of my sentiment.

I'm so pleased with this and it is going to a friend who has a rude work colleague, this needs to be on her desk to ward off that person!

It's a long weekend here in the US, whoop! Have a great weekend everyone.

Cx

Sticker Magic...

Hey,

So I lied..here is a bonus post for you whilst I am on vacay..

I really wanted to show these cards, but sadly my photo is a bit washed out.

I bought these great stickers by American Crafts on sale in February.

I love stickers, but sometimes I get a bit stuck with how to use them and I saw a great idea on Pinterest that used a masked and blended circle, sentiment and a sticker.

So I made a ton of these using my sticker pack, the x6 cards here are my fave from the batch.

By just using a coordinating colour, the blended circle brings the sticker to life! I added simple sentiments that I thought worked well with the stickers. I created the mask using a circle die and one of the card backs that come with stamp sets, I keep these for masking, because they cover your whole card and you don't accidentally get ink anywhere and you can create one for each colour and get a few uses out of them.

Fun and super easy peasy to do and a great way to use a random purchase!

The white panel was die-cut using a Tim Holtz and Sizzix deckle edge die, I LOVE these dies and I bought them on sale because I saw them and had to have them, they are going to be super handy for Christmas cards I think.

Cx

The Paper Players: Birthday Wishes...

Hey,

Happy Monday!

Yesterday I was having a little messenger chat with my friend Jen and she sent me a photo of the challenges she was planning on playing along with and I LOVED the sketch for this week's Paper Players.

Don't you love it when your friends inspire you?

I thought it would be fun to play with a piece of NBUS that I bought earlier this year on sale (Feather Wreath by Jen Long and Sizzix).

It seemed like the perfect fit for that circular shape, but in the end it was a bit too big. So I only used the sentiment and the small feather / heart shape.

But the feathers inspired by heat embossed black and white strip. The feathers I used for the strip are by Avery Elle from their Mardi Gras set.

To keep the circular shape of the sketch, I die-cut a small scalloped circle from vellum and used it to anchor the feather / heart shape.

I'm pretty pleased with the end result, it has made me want to heat emboss more feathers, they make such a great background.

Cx

As You See It: All Askew...

Hey,

Happy Sunday.

I hope you are having a good weekend so far.

Hubby and I got to catch-up with a good friend yesterday that we haven't seen in forever, so that was nice.

I have been looking around for 'new to me' challenges and I realised that x3 of my Retro Rubber teamies are on the As You See It challenge. So I thought I'd give it a whirl. And it just so happens that the current challenge is right up my street!

I love a sketch and I really like placing elements on my cards at jaunty angles, so perfect.

I REALLY wanted to use one of the stamps from my new 'Sweet Deer' set by Sizzix and Jen Long and I think it worked out really well here.

The papers are both by American Crafts from 6x6 pads and I die-cut them to size using stitched rectangle dies.

Because the Antler stamp has a little space for a sentiment I decided to tie it into my little banner and stamped 'Yay!' onto it.

I added some Nuvo crystal drops here and there for a little bit of sparkle.

I love the funky mix of patterns and especially the florals.

Fun card for a fun challenge, I will totally be playing along again.

Cx

CASology: Funky...

Hey,

Happy Friday!

I love the cue word over at CASology this week -

I have quite a few stamps that could be considered Funky, but I really wanted to use 'Oh Deer' by Dylusions because I have wanted it for a while and finally got my hands on it this weekend on super bargain sale.

I also bought a set by Sizzix and Jen Long 'Sweet Deer' and that sparked an idea for me.

I stamped and coloured the Deer from the Dylusions set and then stamped 'Oh Deer' from the Sizzix set and added the final part 'I forgot your special day' from a Pink and Main set.

Love it when I get to mix stamp sets.

I am super happy with my funky belated birthday card.

Tonight I am doing a class with Cheiron at the InkPad - whoop! It will be the start to a super fun weekend.

Cx

Catch The Bug: Annual Birthday Bash.. Tuesday Bingo...

Hey,

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

Today we have a great bingo challenge for you..

I decided to use the Monster 3 stamp on my card and I chose the top row - Die Cut/Sentiment/Texture.

I have some Sizzix embossing diffusers, essentially it means when you emboss you can mask of parts of your paper and only emboss certain areas. Cool right?

I used a circle diffuser and a Sizzix large dots embossing folder and got that great focused texture you can see on my card.

I die-cut the teal embossed panel with a stitched rectangle panel and I added my fussy cut monster to it.

The sentiment made me smile and I thought it was perfect for a 3 headed monster.

Love the simplicity of this card and the bright colours.

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 a project made with the bingo grid. 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

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

CAS(E) this sketch: Sparkle!..

Hey,

Happy Sunday to you!

Hope you are having a nice weekend.

I am very happy as we got bonus football yesterday.

Having been away from my desk for over 10 days, I thought it would be nice to play along with a challenge or two to ease me back in.

I loved the sketch over at CAS(E) this sketch -

It immediately sparked an idea.

As you know JT and I do a Black Friday $20 challenge.. well many years later we are over the $20 tag and spend whatever we want (within reason) but we still add some 'rules' this year it was stars, stripes, fancy brand and florals.

JT bought me this awesome set by Sizzix and I thought it would be perfect for this sketch.

I started by die-cutting the white panel using a stitched rectangle die and then I added strips of glittery washi tape. I stamped the stars from the set using Dew Drop Galaxy Gold ink (my fave gold ink) and then I added a little stitched border - from an ancient Bo Bunny set.

Sadly, the top left stars haven't photographed that well...but that is always the downside of gold ink!

I stamped the main sentiment from the set onto black card using embossing ink and then dusted gold Pearl Ex over it (my new obsession) and then die-cut it out, using the die that comes with the set.

I LOVE IT!!! It was such a random thought it my head that actually came out perfectly. Yay!

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

Toucan of My Thanks...

Hey,

Happy Friday.

I am pretty glad this week is over, it has been mentally and physically exhausting. 

My very sweet and well raised Godson Ben sent me a gift to say thank you for his 16th birthday trip (to visit Hubby and I in NYC for x5 days).

He obviously paid attention to who we are, as he sent us this amazing fridge magnet to go with the rest of the hideousness on our fridge - 

It fits perfectly!

Then he sent me a few crafty things, very well chosen and so thoughtful. The journal is lovely and he knows I love journals, we looked at a LOT of them when he was here LOL.

It was all accompanied by a thank you note, that made me a teeny bit emotional. It's all so very thoughtful and kind and personal. Love that a 16 year old boy can be so comfortable in his own skin, it bodes well for the future.

I obviously had to make him a thank you card, so I broke out the Toucan die that came in one of the gifts and went to work.

The background paper is from the massive stack we got given at Crop on The Cape. I love the Spellbinders Thank You die, it is one of the most used things in my craft room. It wasn't popping enough, so I added a piece of velum.

The Toucan was fun to put together and as I used my mini die-cutter to die-cut the 3 pieces to make him, I used a spotty embossing folder and if you look at Mr Toucan carefully, you will see the dots. Obvs, I added a googly eye. No creature is safe from my tin of googly eyes.

I hope Ben likes it and recognises 'his' Toucan.

Have a great weekend, Hubby and I are heading to Philly tomorrow for a friends 40th birthday.

Cx

p.s could not resist the punny title - Lauren Bergold would be proud x

Catch The Bug GDT: Photo Challenge

Hey,

Happy Saturday to you!

I actually thought this was going to be my last post for the Catch The Bug team, but they have asked me to join their team full-time - yay!! 

Details tbc, as I am traveling from Monday for 2 weeks, but YAY!!

Today I am still with the Catch The Bug team for their Saturday challenge. 

This week we have a photo inspiration -

But as the CTB team have been doing Christmas in July this week, I decided to use the Santa from yesterday's challenge and stick with the Christmas theme, along side the photo..

The image is Tropical Santa Buried - isn't he awesome?

I went all out here and used a background paper that I had created using an embossing folder and a diffuser plate - see the plain circle in the middle - that's one of the handy things you can do with a diffuser plate.

I die-cut the palm trees using my Silhouette Portrait and added the fun sentiment by Newton's Nook.

I LOVE this card, I might actually cut a bunch of palm trees and make a few of these for my actual Christmas cards.

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

The Paper Players: Celebrate 400 challenges!

Hey,

Happy Monday to you!

And Congratulations to The Paper Players team for hitting the 400 challenge mark! Impressive!

I am a big fan of The Paper Players challenge and really wanted to join in the celebration fun..

I used one of my new Sizzix Embossing Diffuser plates to create that yummy centrally embossed circle. I love that I can stretch my embossing plates with these new plates. I opted for a star folder, it is a celebration after all!

I stamped, die-cut and coloured one of the bears and balloons from the MFT Beary Special Birthday set.

The sentiment is by Concord & 9th and from their Celebrations set. I decided to add the cheerful yellow banner to break up the sentiment a bit and to Anchor my bear.

Now I wonder what he's brought as a gift..

Cx

Quirky Birthday..

Hey,

Hope you had a great long weekend. I had a fun one, got to see a lot of my fave people.

Today's card I made like a year ago?! I loved it, but it said 'Happy Weekend' and I never really had a use for it.

So earlier this year I modified it, so I can use it as a birthday card.

I embossed a white piece of card using my fave Sizzix big dots folder and I had this great set of stickers by Pink Fresh Studio and I thought they would look cute poking out from something.

That something ended up being a Sizzix speech bubble die cut. Using Tim Holtz alpha dies, I die-cut the 'Happy' and added a piece of pink paper to make them pop and added some white gel pen dots to the speech bubble.

When I modified it for birthday use, I created a birthday label using my handheld Dymo mini labeler.

I love the clean, quirky end result and it is a 100% no stamping card!!

Cx

Catch The Bug GDT: May Bingo Challenge..

Hey,

Happy Saturday to you!

Hope you are all excited for the Royal Wedding today ;)

I'm back with the Catch The Bug team for their Saturday challenge. 

This week we have another fave challenge - Bingo

I chose the Sparkle - 2 images merged - embossing line. I really wanted to have a go at merging two images :)

I think it turned out pretty well. I merged 2 faves of mine coffee time - expresso yourself and coffee time perk up. I have an ancient version of Photoshop, so I was able to layer the 3 cups from expresso yourself behind the perk it up image..looks like 1 stamp right!

I don't think my embossing is showing so well in my photo! But I used a fave Sizzix large spots embossing folder for the blue background and the sparkle part is pretty clear!

The sentiment is from a fun set by Simon Says Stamp.

I love this card, it came out exactly as I had planned, which is always fun when it happens.

Hope you will be playing along too. Can't wait to see what line you go with.

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

Cx

Sketch Saturday #512.. Fred She Said.. You are the sweetest..

Hey,

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

Our sponsor this week is Fred She Said and they are offering a $10 gift certificate to their store.

Here's the sketch...

I chose to use Daisy Cupcake, I always choose the images to fit the sketches.. it makes it a bit easier.

I've been all about the pinks and purples lately, so I decided to go yellow for this card. I printed the cupcake out and coloured it using Promarkers and Spectrum Noir sparkle pens.

As I was making this on Sunday whilst on my playdate with JT, I asked her advise on my choice of background paper and we settled on this pretty one by Stampin' Up. My circle dies are by Simon Says Stamp and Sizzix.

I used a piece of glittery tape for my banner and added the great sentiment by Clearly Besotted.

I love it, sadly you can't see how shimmery the cupcake is IRL.

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 11th 7pm GMT / 2pm EST.

Cx