Retro Rubber Blog Challenge - #192 - Tic Tac Toe...

Hey,

Welcome to another awesome Retro Rubber challenge.

We have a fun tic-tac-toe board for you this time -

I went with the first vertical row - nautical-embossing-stars.

I love this set by Stampabilities 'Sail Away' all the stamps are SO cute. I have had it since Jan 2021 and it hasn't been used as much as I would have liked. I stamped and fussy cut it and coloured it using Copics.

I recently got this amazing dimensional stars embossing folder from Simon Says Stamp, so it was perfect for using here!

The sentiment is one of my faves, by Jillibean Soup from their 'Whale Done' set that I have had since 2018.

The whole card came together really easily and it's so cute!

Which row will you choose? I always find it fun when you use the same row as me, but the cards/makes are so unique to each of us and our supplies.  Be sure to pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends October 7th

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

p.s If you are in Florida and under the hurricane alert like me, please be safe and follow all the guidance being issued.

Retro Rubber Challenge #187 - Tic Tac Toe..

Hey,

Welcome to another awesome Retro Rubber challenge.

We have a tic-tac-toe board for you.

I went with the central vertical row - Birds-Green-Embossing.

I love this set by Vicki Boutin 'All the Good Things 2' it was a gift from my friend in 2018 because she saw it and knew I was looking for it :).

I stamped, cut, and coloured the bird using a minty green Copic and a green Sakura starburst glitter gel pen. I used MFT 'Bold Greenery' dies for the foliage and a spotty green paper. The background I stenciled with a stencil from The Range in the UK and Mowed Lawn distress oxides.

For my embossing, I used a very old Cuttlebug star embossing folder - hands up who has a Cuttlebug still? I die cut it using a stitched circle die from The Works in the UK.

The final touch is the sentiment strip from Taylored Expressions.

Such a sweet card, I am so happy with the outcome.

Which row will you choose? Pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT has made.

Challenge ends July 29th.

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 - Wheel Wreath..

Hey,

Welcome to another fantastic Fusion Card Challenge.

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

Which will you try?

I went with the inspiration image this time.

I was inspired by the wheels and the wreaths. I love this Star Wreath die by Avery Elle, I find it can be used for any occassion! The bike is by Clearly Besotted from their 'Happy Days' set. I wanted to use the typewriter sticker for my sentiment, but it didn't pop off of my card blank, so I added a teeny tiny piece of glitter washi tape. Final touch, add a few bling bits!

Sadly you can't see how sparkly my wreath is, but you can see all the glitter that fell off it onto my card :(

Anyway, I love it and it's off to my friend who is a keen cyclist.

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 21st.

Cx

Blended Star Birthday...

 

Hey,

Happy Friday!

I am pretty excited today - a) I only did a 3 day week - whoop! Love me a short week and b) tonight I am doing a zoom craft session with the craftgang! YASSS.

I love MFT stencils and my cards today use a star stencil by them, it also comes with the star if you want a white space where my blended star is.

I used x3 colours of distress oxide ink to blend each star and I stamped over them using the amazing Inkadinkado 'Marquee Birthday' stamps. They look amazing over the star and it all just pops.

So pleased with these.

Have a great weekend.

Cx

Blended Alien Stars...

Hey,

Happy Monday!

In our house we are all about recycling and as minimal waste as we can manage.

So when I was making cards for charity, I had the offcut stars from when I used this die. They sparked an idea, because I also had some spare Aliens from a earlier batch of cards.

I blended them with 2 shades of distress oxide and spritzed them with water to get a bit more of a space feel and voila! fancy blended stars.

Because the stars were so fun, I kept the card super simple and just added an Alien and a sentiment - both of which are by Lawn Fawn from the 'Beam me up' set, which has certainly earned its keep this year!

Gotta love an easy bulk make, especially one that uses offcuts.

Cx

 

Retro Rubber Challenge #149 Merry Christmas...

Hey,

Welcome to the final Retro Rubber challenge of 2020.

And what a year it has been. I don't think any of us could have predicted a global pandemic that pretty much brought the world to its knees.

I hope that the weirdness of this year has made us all appreciate the little things in life - love, happiness, and family. The rest of it has felt like a nice to have, and I am very lucky to have a job that I have been able to keep doing from home.

As we are moving into the Christmas season, we have a photo inspiration for you this time.

I decided to focus on the colours and stars from the image.

I love stars, I have far too many star dies, stamp sets and stencils! The set I used here are by Clearly Besotted 'Super Star', which I have had since 2016. I added little stars from the Jillibean Soup 'Super Star' set that I have had since 2018. I stamped the stars using Concord & 9th Poppy ink - it is my new fave red ink!

I thought the Neat & Tangled 'Fa La Llama' set would work really well with my star scatter. I love this set, the Llama is so cute, I've had it since 2018.

I stamped, coloured, and die-cut my Llama before stamping my sentiment, as I wanted to see where he would sit first and work around him.

As this goes live, I have made and sent all of my Christmas cards, so this card will be added into my box for next year.

How will you be inspired by the photo? Can't wait to see what you come up with. Make sure that you pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends December 11th.

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.

We'll see you in 2021 for challenge 150!! All of the team will still be around in blogland, if you want to swing by and say hi or see what we are up to!

Cx

Shifter Stencil..

Hey,

Potty mouth alert!

I don't ever apologise for using swear words on my cards, I have a potty mouth, my friends know this and it's my blog.

I have a great collection of the Unity Stamp Co 'after dark' stamps. The one on today's cards is one of my faves.

I wanted to have a proper play with some of my shifter stencils - by Tim Holtz. These stencils are pretty clever, you get the normal open part of a stencil, but you also get a closed shape too, so you can shift your stencil over and use a different colour or medium without the risk of getting it onto your first colour. Watch this video for a better explanation!

I decided that I would stencil over the great sentiment, first I used distress oxides and then instead of another colour I used x2 different mediums. For the purple card, I used Indian Gold Nuvo Mousse and for the green card I used Gina K Glitter Gel.

They both came out really well and I am head over heels in love with the shifter stencils.

Cx

Happy Snail 40th...

Hey,

Happy Friday!

This week was pretty awful as a working week, but as a personal week it was a nice one.

About to get even nicer, as it is Memorial Day weekend here in the US, so no work on Monday WHOOP!!

And Hubby and I are going to an all day dance party tomorrow - double WHOOP.

Today I thought I'd share a card I made for a friend's 40th. A lot of my friends are turning 40 this year, so I am mixing up my ideas for what can be used as a 40th birthday card!!

I make this card over and over again in various forms. It started here as a CASE of a card by Marion Vagg - one of my all time craft crushes and now I blend a circle and add the cute little snail and the appropriate sentiment.

This time I used 'boy' colours as the card is for a male friend.

Super simple and a great use of the Avery Elle stamp that I just fell in love with years ago and had no plans for!

Have a great weekend.

Cx

Simon Says Stamp: Monday Challenge Tag It!!

Hey,

Welcome to May!

It has been AGES since I played along with a Simon Says Stamp challenge.

But my good friend Cheiron is on the design team for the Monday challenge and I LOVED her tag and it reminded me how much I love making tags.

In case you haven't figured it out, this week's challenge is Tag it.

As you can see from the main photo I got totally carried away and made x3 tags!

But my entry for the challenge is the middle one -

Bizarrely the actual tag I used here was a gift from Cheiron! I created the background by blending over the entire tag using Spiced Marmalade distress oxide ink and then I used a couple of the Tim Holtz layering stencils over the top. Clockwork in Chipped Sapphire and Schoolhouse in Black Soot.

I then stamped, coloured and fussy cut the weird Flamingo head and legs by Dylusions (Waddle Waddle) - I really love these weird stamps by Dyan Reaveley. I die-cut the body using a stitched arch die and a scrap. The sentiment is a fave and is also by Dylusions. 

It felt a bit flat, so I added a bit of washi-tape that I coloured with Dina Wakely scribble sticks and I added some stars using texture paste and a Tim Holtz stencil (Shifter Stars). When the stars were dry I coloured over them with Spectrum Noir sparkle pens.

I am SO pleased with the final tag.

The other two tags turned out great too and I am going to make a few more, now I am on a tag roll!

Cx

Slay Today...

Hey,

Happy Friday!

It's been a great week, but I am looking forward to the weekend and only 1 more week before I go to London.

Today's card I made for a friend, who I know will love the 'Slay' badge.

There is an amazing Japanese bookshop / stationers here in NYC and by the checkout they have a whole box of these awesome kitty badges. I normally resist buying them, but when I saw this one, I knew it would make an awesome card.

I wanted the papers to tone with the badge, so I used a piece of paper from a 6x6 stack by American Crafts. I die-cut a star out of coordinating spotty paper, affixed the badge and affixed that to the card.

The 'today' sticker is from a set by American Crafts and IRL it's gold and shimmery.

A fun card for a super fun friend.

Have a great weekend, I'll be doing some eating, gyming, crafting and packing.

Cx

Catch the Bug: Oldie But Goodie.. Clyde...

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..

I love all the Clyde stamps, but Clyde Birthday is the one I have had the longest!

I decided to use the version without the birthday sentiment, as my Aunt loves Dragons and I owe her a piece of Happy Mail, so thought this would be a great opportunity to make her a card.

I printed, coloured and fussy cut Clyde out. I then embossed a coordinating piece of cardstock, using a fave Craft Concepts Star embossing folder. I left the bottom panel hanging out of the folder, so I could heat emboss the sentiment on it.

Such a simple make, which reminded me about my Clyde stamps.

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

Cx

Hello Winter Baby..

Hey,

At the end of January our friends had their first baby, after a really difficult set of stillbirths. I think it's ok for me to reference that, as they are advocates for talking about it and support several charities, that bring this subject to forefront of people's minds.

To celebrate the arrival of Baby Rowan, I went baby stuff crazy and sent them a flat rate box of goodies and I am working on another project for them.

I also made today's card to go with the box of goodies.

As Rowan was born during the Winter, I thought it would be fun to make a Winter focused baby card.

I started by smooshing some distress ink onto watercolour paper. Then cue much fussing and fiddling trying out all of the background elements!

The Polar Bear stamp is by MFT and is one of my all time fave sets (Polar Bear Pals).

I love how it came together and is a really nice twist on regular new baby cards.

Cx

Sketch Saturday #552 Mmedel Illustrations...

Hey,

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

Our sponsor this week is Mmedel Illustrations and they are offering a bumper prize of x2 digis from their store and a discount coupon - WHOOP!!

Here's the sketch by me!

A few of the DT decided to use the Unique Unicorn image..I'm a fan of Unicorns and I am overjoyed that they are so popular right now.

I decided to mix some spotty papers to match the sketch, I thought they coordinated well with the Unicorn. I used the sentiment that came with the image.

I added a fun foam star to finish it off.

A really easy fun make, that has already left my desk/

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 1st March 7pm GMT / 2pm EST

Cx

Twofer Challenge time...

Hey,

Happy Friday..

This week has been crazy!!! Being very unwell last week left me with a backlog of work and personal things.. AND JT was here for a few days, so I really wanted to spend a decent amount of time with her.

I did manage to make a twofer card this week :)

I really wanted to play along with both of the current Less is More and Addicted to CAS challenges and I felt that they combined really well.

I love bird stamps and the most recent set I purchased Mod Birds by MFT is fast becoming a fave. I stamped all of the birds from the set in navy and yellow ink, fitting the LIM theme. I wasn't sure which of the birds I wanted to use and tried them all until I settled on the one you see.

I like masking off shapes so I can ink blend into them and so now I have a ton of ready to go masks - fun tip, I use the card inserts that come in stamp sets to create masks out of :).

I used Fossilised Amber Distress Oxide ink for my circle and added some stars by Studio Calico in navy around the edge of my circle.

The sentiment stamp is a magazine freebie and fit the overall theme perfectly I thought.

I'm pretty pleased with the ONE card I have managed to make this week.

I'm looking forward to some serious desk time this weekend.

Cx

Catch The Bug: Awkward Holiday Chaos...BINGO!!

Hey,

Happy Friday to you (from London)..

It's the final day of the Catch The Bug awkward holiday chaos challenge -

And we are going out with a bang with a freebie friday bingo!

We have this great Stella stamp as a Freebie today, go and grab her and play along.

I had so much fun playing with this image and I chose the 3rd vertical row - Sentiment / Non Trad Colours / Star.

I printed the image and the sentiment and coloured Stella using Promarkers and made her hat hot pink, not the traditional red. I then stenciled stars all over the panel using hot pink, lime green and electric blue - a fave combo of mine, but not at all traditional Christmas colours.

I love the end result, so much fun and a perfect way to end this week of fun!

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

Cx

Happy Birthday Daddy!!

Hey,

Today is my Dad's birthday!

I am lucky enough for the 2nd year in a row to be here to celebrate with him.

We kick started the celebrations by going to a Football match on Sunday, meaning we got to spend some QT together.

I've written SO many posts about my Dad, so I'm keeping it to a minimum here. I love my Dad, he is awesome, funny and kind. Because of him I am a huge NFL fan and this season, we have done weekly pick ems' (including my Husband) and the trash talking has been hilarious!!

My Dad is one of the best at keeping in touch with me and I love him even more for that.

Tonight we are off to his fave curry house with a few surprise guests..

I am very pleased with his card this year, I used my latest fave star stencil and x2 distress oxide inks, I then stamped the sentiment over the top using Navy Blue Versamark ink.

The sentiment was made up of x3 stamp sets, the 'Daddy' was made up from Tim Holtz alpha foam stamps. The 'Happy Birthday' is by Concord & 9th and the 'You're a star' is by Lawn Fawn.

Happy Birthday Daddy, you crazy awesome dude.

Cx

Sketch Saturday #542... Star Stampz...

Hey,

Happy Saturday to you and greetings from London!

Welcome to the latest sketch for the Sketch Saturday challenge.

Our sponsor this week is Star Stampz and they are offering a prize of 3 digis from their store.

Here's the sketch...

I actually had a choice of several digis for this card, but I loved Christmas Tangle when JT used it early this year and so I wanted a play too!

I printed the image onto a white panel and coloured it with Promarkers, then I added a red scrap to create the border. The joy sentiment is a Tim Holtz die that I have never used, so was pretty glad it finally (3+ years later) got an outing. I added a blingy gold star to finish it off.

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 December 7th, 7pm GMT / 2pm EST

Cx

Big Birthday Stars...

Hey,

So I have been a bit blog lax recently, but it is all part of my 2018 promise to myself not to worry so much about a few gaps here and there.

But I realised that my 'to be blogged' folder is overflowing and it's time to share that bounty :)

Today's cards are super simple, quick makes that I did just before Vegas because I wanted to play with my new stencil. It's from The Inkpad and is one their random no label stencils that they sell, I like these a lot, as they are inexpensive and varied.

I love stars especially in stencils.

I used 3 colours of distress oxides for each card and then die-cut them out using a stitched rectangle die.

The Happy Birthday die is a new addition to my stash from a friend and it's by Stampin' Up.

Love the big impact of these simple cards.

Cx

Monster Hugs from Me to You..

Hey,

So I am back in NYC now. I had a fun time in London, lots of work, but lots of hangs with some of my fave peeps and my family.

I didn't blog much whilst I was away and I'm learning to be ok with not posting every single day..it's an internal struggle, but I am getting there!

I made today's card before I left for London. I saw something on Instagram that sparked this idea and I am pretty pleased with the end result.

I love Monster stamps and having a stamp and die of the word Monster is just amazing!

I used the Neat & Tangled 'Little Monster' set for the large word, large Monster and the sentiment. The other Monsters and stars are by Clearly Besotted and Mama Elephant.

I felt pretty brave with the overhanging word!

As JT said when I showed it to her over the weekend, the stars really make the card and I only added them because I wasn't a 100% happy with it!

Goes to show a small stamp can add a lot.

Cx

Christmas Card 2018: Masked Stars...

Hey,

Today I am sharing a simple Christmas Card make.

I made 15+ of these.. SO easy.

The sentiment is by Pink Petticoat (digital stamps and papers) so I printed out a bunch of them and then die-cut the white panel to size.

I keep the 'inserts' from new stamp sets for exactly this purpose, as they are generally quite heavyweight paper. I die-cut a medium sized star out of two of these inserts, threw away the star and used the aperture as my mask - one for the red, one for the blue.

Then I blended ink through the masks and spritzed them with a bit of gold shimmer spray.

The adorable glittery angels were a gift from my Godson's mother to say thank you for his trip. They are self adhesive, but annoyingly they come with one awkward glue dot, so I removed those and affixed them using my fave Aleene's white glue.

Super easy, super cute.

Cx