Retro Rubber #254 - Spring Flowers..

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

This time we have a spring flowers theme challenge, created by me.

As I am now a gardener I am all about spring flowers :)

I decided to use this awesome stamp by Spellbinders 'Fabulous Friend' I've had it since 2023 and it's one of my faves. I coloured the flowers to match the inspiration image because it feels like the colours I get in my garden.

A pretty simple card with a lot of very relaxing colouring.

I can't wait to see your interpretation of the theme, pop over to Retro Rubber, and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends May 16th.

Don't forget to tell us the age of your stamp, that is part of the fun of our challenge, and please only enter 5 challenges including Retro Rubber.

Cx

2024 Hops - Spring...

Hey,

Here is the second post in my blog hop series.

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 cards from the Spring hop. These were the themes.

I added a wobbler for the 'spring into action'

The background is recycled from packaging

My cards are in order, with the main photo, being the first in the hop. I love that I get to dig through my stash and mix new and old (some seriously old) together.

Cx

Retro Rubber Blog Challenge #204 - It's Spring!

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

This time, we are all about Spring.

It was Mother's Day in Europe a few weeks ago - in fact my Momma was here in the US with me, so that was nice. I made my Momma and MIL these springy cards to celebrate them.

I love the flower stamp by The Stamp Market 'Floral Diamond' I have had it since 2020 and I love cutting it out with my Brother Scan n Cut.

This time I stamped it onto watercolour paper and heat embossed the outline so that I could watercolour it, for a softer look. The sentiment is by Lawn Fawn and I have had it for years, I don't even think they sell it anymore! It felt flat on plain white paper, so I embossed the white panel using one of my fave embossing folders by Creative Expressions - I think this came from the UK with me 10 years ago. It added some much-needed drama to the card and I love it.

Here is a close-up for you -

Can't wait to see your spring makes and don't forget to pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends April 21st.

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 - Tulips..

Hey,

Welcome to another fantastic Fusion Card Challenge.

This time we have a 'Tulip' themed image for you and as always a fabulous sketch

Which will you try?

No surprise, but I fused (but my tulips are orange as they are my fave!).

The pretty border stamp by Clearly Besotted from their 'Mr & Mrs' set inspired me to create a card with a simple Spring sentiment. I love this stamp, it's so fun and easy to watercolour.

I have been hoarding this very last piece of the patterned paper by Studio Calico.. I love it SO much. But this card is going to someone special, so I figured that they deserved the last piece LOL. The circle die is by Memory Box and it was featured in Jennifer Maguire's fave dies of 2021 and I use it a lot.

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 April 26.

Cx

The Paper Players: Happy Spring!...

Hey,

I thought it would be fun to try and enter a few challenges before I head to London on 22nd of March, as I won't have a full kit there, so it won't be possible.

Today I am entering the latest The Paper Players challenge -

Last year when my Momma came for a visit, she brought all the freebies from a couple of craft magazines that I had subscribed to. It was basically x2 years of goodies from x2 magazines = 24 freebie packs - YAY.

I was going to use a new stamp for this challenge, but then I remembered the big batch of goodies from Momma had a fun Spring scene in it.

I had great fun, playing with this little set. I die-cut the 'scene' die in white and then coloured the flowers and leaves. I die-cut it again in brown, so I could cut out the tree trunks, as I didn't really want to colour those in.

I die-cut the Fox, Rabbit and Butterflies and I added some details to the fox, as his face didn't really show up that well.

I used the scalloped circle mat die that came with the set, but added a smaller circle die of my own to create a frame.

To put my card together, I die-cut a piece of blue paper using a circle die and affixed that to my card blank, then I added the Fox, Rabbit and Butterflies to that.

I popped up the panel with the scene on it, so that I got some dimension. Foolishly I didn't add the sentiment before popping it up - ugh.

It's so out of my comfort zone, but I loved making it - really fun to make almost an entire card without any stamping and I have a recipient in mind.

Cx

Postage stamp thanks..

Hey,

Happy Sunday to you.

Hubby and I are still in DC - more about that tomorrow.

Whilst Hubby was in the UK, I took 3 days off, so had a super long weekend. Which meant I got some serious time at my desk :)

JT bought me these great Spellbinders dies last year - as part of our usual $20 challenge.

I haven't used them a great deal and as I was off, I decided to have a play with them and a set of Papermania stamps I bought last year, that co-ordinate beautifully with the dies.

First I inked up the stamp with Black Soot and Festive Berries distress inks, spritzed it with water and stamped onto mixed media paper. I then dried it with my heat tool.

I like the effect that you get, you can kind of make out the detail of the stamp, but its also a bit grungy.

I used one of the smaller dies from the set to die-cut the stamped image and then the next size up for the red background piece.

The thanks die is by Lawn Fawn.

I made 2 of these cards, you can see that the spritzing and drying means you get a slightly different look each time..

Super simple cards, that use a fun technique and some of my stash that has been a bit neglected.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Cx

WOYWW 196 - Still loafing...

Ha ha yes I am still at home, despite the fact that I need to go back to work for financial and sanity reasons. The market is a bit slow, so I am sitting here waiting for my next job...

All good for me really, means I still get to do 'live action' WOYWW with Julia and the rest of the gang over at Stamping Ground.

This is how I left my desk last night before rushing out to see my friend Lianne who is over from Dubai.

I was midway through a couple of challenge entries, as you can see from the two stacks of yellow - they are separate cards. I have been feeling spring focussed this week, so there are leaf punches and papers to use for leaf punching. There is also my random circle dot punch. And in a little pile at the back of my desk are a few punched hearts, a charm and some twine for a random project I have in my head. No glasses...hmmm wonder where they are?!

I finished one of the cards this morning after I took the photo, so I could show it to you and enter it into the Mojo Monday #283 challenge.

Here is their sketch -

And here is my card - you can see it on my desk - only change being that I embossed the yellow rectangle of  paper for a bit more stand-out and added 2 pearls. I really like this card, feels a bit teenage girl? What do you guys think?

Mojo 283 entry

Mojo283 entry - close-up

So that's my desk for another week, now time for a nose.

Cx