Retro Rubber Challenge #245 - Tic Tac Toe...

Hey,

Welcome to the final Retro Rubber challenge of 2024! How quickly did this year go?

So much has happened to me this year personally and professionally, but it is ending on a high. I have a new job, that so far is more than I had hoped for. Hubby and I will be heading on our FIRST cruise together (this is my 5th cruise) in 2 weeks. 

I would like to say a big thanks to Jane who runs our Retro Rubber team for just being an amazing human and keeping us together and on point.

For our last challenge we have a Tic-Tac-Toe board for you - 

I wanted to play with all of the rows on this board! But I went with centre vertical - Texture, Greenery, Tag.

I love this tag die by MFT 'Trendy Tag' it is quite large, but it makes such pretty tags and it also comes with a scalloped piece that you can add to the front. I stamped Santa and the sentiment before I die cut the tag - the stamps are by Ellen Hutson 'tis the season' set that I have had since 2021.

I decided that I wanted to just colour Santa's hat, as it adds a nice pop of colour. I cut the second tag from an embossed piece of red card for the texture part of my tic-tac-toe choices. I have a big box of embossed pieces ready to go. Basically if my mojo is blah, I emboss cardstock :)

I was a bit stumped about the greenery part and then I realised that I have these beautiful scrapbook.com papers that I got as part of SCT this year so I used one of those for the background. My final touch was a little bit of ribbon that I tied into a surprisingly neat bow - my bows are always a bit of a hot mess.

Such a fun card, I think I might have to remember this idea for 2025 Christmas cards!

Show us your interpretation of the sketch, pop over to Retro Rubber, and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends December 13th.

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.

Happy Holidays to you and yours, we will be back on 14th January for our 11th year!!!

Cx

Fusion Card Challenge - Mother's Day

Hey,

Welcome to another fantastic Fusion Card Challenge.

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

Which will you try?

As I am English, Mother's Day was back in March for me - why are they different dates?! So I went with the sketch and a more generic sentiment.

The stamp I used is new to me and I love it, I think I am slowly trying to own the entire MFT library! I am a sucker for little stacks of animals!

I chose the paper for my tag, before I started colouring so I could coordinate with it. I added two little banners (that were already cut in the correct colours - WHOOP!!) and used a sentiment from the same stamp set.

I popped the whole thing up using foam tape and added it to a white card blank, it pops off of white so nicely.

I used -

MFT - Birth-Yay!

MFT - Banner dies

Lil Inker - Dotted Tag dies

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 11th May.

Cx

Random Desk Pile: Whale Hey Cutie!...

Hey,

Happy Monday to you!

I am back home in NYC, it was great to be in London for so long, but always lovely to be home with Hubby and Boscat. My weekend has been all about rest and reuniting with Hubby and my desk.

I hit my desk early on Sunday morning and realised it was a bit of a mess and noticed a big random pile of stuff..

Looking through it, I realised I could probably make a bunch of cards without too much effort, which is perfect when I'm a bit tired and have been away from my desk for a while.

Here is a photo of the 12 cards I made -

Amazing right?!

I added ribbon, sentiments and gems to what was already on my desk.

I'll be showing you all the cards individually over the next week, as I want to ease back into blogging before my vacay at the end of the month.

Today's main card is a fun one.

I found the tag and the stamped, die-cut Whale in the pile and I added the sentiment and made it into this fun card.

I love the sentiment, I was going for 'Whale Hello There!' but the 'Hey Cutie' stamp by Mama Elephant was perfect. The Whale is by MFT, from their 'Ocean Pals' set

A great way to return to my desk.

Cx

Retro Rubber #12...Embellishment Challenge..Brads..

Hey,

Welcome to part two of another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

This time it's a venture back into the embellishment zone - 

Like eyelets, my love affair with brads waned and I cast them aside..recently I have been toying with using them again. This challenge gave me the perfect excuse.

I wanted to use 2 things that were on my desk already - the gelato stamped tag and the happy beads. I am loving stamping with Gelatos right now and I bought the letter beads when I was at home in London in January.

I embossed a piece of white cardstock using a gingham embossing folder. I put a tiny piece of washi tape just off to the left, just under the embossing. 

Once I had fixed the tag to the card, I added the happy beads and secured them with teeny tiny little red brads. I used an earring wire for the beads and cut it down to size and created an additional loop, making it easy to affix to the card with brads.

I stamped birthday in red, to coordinate with the tape and the tag.

Fun techniques and a fun result.

Now its your turn. But first hop on over to Retro Rubber and check out the fab creations from the rest of the team. 

Remember to use a stamp older than a year on your project and the challenge ends on April 29th.

Cx

Tim Holtz Tags of 2015 - My March Tag..

Hey,

Hope you had a great weekend, I had a very relaxing one.

I spent lots of fun time at my desk, including making my tag for this month's Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2015

Here's Tim's tag -

I had a lot of fun making my March Tag

I followed all of the steps. Some of the items came from my stash - washi tape - by Michaels, stamp - by Stampendous and came with a mask! Stencil - letter jumble by Dyan Reaverey and the embellishments are all by Michael's.

I didn't have a metal word plate..so I used chit chat stickers that I recoloured.

Here are 2 close-ups -

This tag was really fun to make, I loved the texture paste / embossing powder technique.

Cx

Retro Rubber #9 - Tag You're It..there is still time..

Hey,

There is still time for you to join in the fun over at Retro Rubber.

Our current challenge is for you to make a tag or use a tag somewhere in your work, don't forget to also use stamps over a year old on your project.

Team B are up today showing you their gorgeous makes. Check them out and join in the fun over at Retro Rubber.

Cx

Retro Rubber #9..Tag You're It...

Hey,

Time for another great Retro Rubber challenge.

This week, we have a fun theme -

Right now, I am a bit obsessed with tags..so this is perfect for me :)

I used nesting xCut tag dies and I cut the 3 largest ones in contrasting papers by American Crafts (bargain 60 paper stack from Michael's for $5).

I embossed a piece of red cardstock using a Sizzix spotty embossing folder and adhered that to a kraft card blank. I fanned the tags out and secured them together with a mini staple, I added foam tape and placed them in the centre of my card.

I used an ancient Fiskar's set (approx 4 years old) for the sentiment and the heart. 

For the final touch I added the giant piece of bling, I have a strip of these, that I bought on sale for 50cents last year!

Tags are such fun, either as a card or as actual tags. 

It's your turn now, don't forget to use a stamp over a year old on your project.

Hop over to Retro Rubber and check out all the fab tags from my teammates.

Cx

Playdate Fun...

Hey,

So last Saturday JT and I indulged in an epic 3hr playdate....

We played with lots of fun stuff and chatted and caught up - it was fun.

We based some of the cards on a Bo Bunny stamp set I had bought for each of us (you might remember them from my Jan Tim Holtz tag..)-

We also used our gelatos. I gave them to JT because I knew she would love them, as she loves Crayons and Gelatos are seriously the next step up from crayons :)
We stamped with them, it's a totally super crazy messy fun technique.

I also threw in some random stuff that was on my desk - tags (shop bought) and ready made pinwheels.. I used a ton of scraps too.

Here are the cards -

The main card today uses gelatos stamped onto watercolour paper. You spritz the stamp and colour the gelato directly on to it. It's a touch random, but I really like it. I die cut a piece from my larger piece using a SSS stitched die. I added a tag (shop bought) from my desk and a scrap piece of ribbon.

1 - Bo Bunny stamps, ready made pinwheel, heat embossed sentiment

2 - Bo Bunny stamps, tag (ready made from TJMaxx) from my desk, orange gem

3 - Bo Bunny stamps, scrap papers and a SSS stamp, Versamark Brick ink and SSS white ink

Such fun to make and I know - only 4 cards in 3hrs?! But we also consulted on our DT makes, showed each other what else we have been making, gossiped, you know like when you are in the same room :)

It's always fun, but it's bittersweet as it makes me miss my girl JT even more..

Cx

Tim Holtz Tags of 2015...February...

Hey,

So I finally got round to starting AND finishing my February tag last weekend. And yes the photo is HUGE, but he's sooo gorgeous, I wanted to share him in full detail :)

So modge podge gave me some issues, thus it is time to invest in glue n seal!

I used all the technique's Tim used, but I substituted some of the items. My papers came from my scraps, the sentiment I stamped and then distressed.

I assembled the entire tag, following all the steps. I did not want to sew on my heart and looked at the other tags for inspiration - big thanks to Belinda Basson, her use of staples inspired me to do the same.

The die cutting felt was a new thing for me - believe it or not. Silly right!

I added some gold stars around the frame on my tag, I felt I needed sparkle! For the final touch I used a Navy mist to add splatter. I smudged some of it in, as it was a bit OTT..mists, still mystify me..

I broke my one new item rule - there are 3 here..sorry I just couldn't resist the President's Day sales.. So the arrow, heart and frames are new..sorry but I love a sale!

Here's a close-up -

I love how my tag looks, it feels feminine yet grungy - love it!

Cx

p.s Yes..'Tags' are male...

Simons Says..Add a little texture..

Hey,

Hope you all had a good weekend.

I had a great one, skype playdate with JT, plenty of time at my desk and Hubby and I watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy!!

I saw the Simon Says Weds challenge this week was Add a little texture and I am totally loving texture this week. The DT also used SSS products.

I decided to make a tag instead of a card, I am sending something to a friend to say thank you and I thought wrapping the gift in a nice tag would be a great idea.

She's creative and so she loves it when I send her things that use different techniques.

I used a Tim Holtz tag die and stencil. I placed the stencil over my tag and used Wendy Vecchi textured embossing paste. I love this stuff, you get such lovely texture.

I wanted to use sparkly Thickers for the sentiment, so I mounted them on a sparkly vellum strip of paper. It's a bit wider than the tag, to give it a bit of dimension.

I die cut the circle, star and heart from a SSS stitched die bundle set that I love. I used all scraps for this. The ribbon is a scrap too, left over from wrapping JT's bday gofts :)

Here is a close-up so you get a closer look at some of the details.

I'm super pleased with my tag, I love all the little details and different textures.

Cx

Over the hill....

Hey,

Happy Weekend everyone!!

I am most excitable today as I will be having a Skype playdate with JT - excellent.

Last weekend Hubby and I went and hung out with JT's folks in DTown, that was a lot of fun as always.

Today I thought I'd show the funny and insulting card I made for our Brother in Law. He is always being cheeky about people's ages, so I thought this was appropriate.

I used an ancient stamp set for all the little sentiments, I stamped them randomly and in 3 colours.

The number stickers are new and I got them in the sale at Joann's last weekend. So they popped on the card, I die cut a tag using an electric blue scrap.

I secured the tag to the card using mini staples.

Finally touch was some Glimmer Mist spray, the photo doesn't do the shimmer justice..it looks awesome in real life I promise!

Cx

Tag Valentine..

Hey,

Hope you had a good weekend. I had a fantastic time back at my desk, after a 4 week absence!

I wanted to enter a few challenges this week and I am starting with Tag You're It -

I decided to turn my tag into a feature for my Valentine's card for my parents.

I used a paper from the latest SSS card kit and die cut an oval from it. I stamped the XOXO along the bottom to create a border, the stamp is from the Paper Hugs stamp set by SSS and is also part of the current card kit.

I have this huge stack of glittery paper strips, so I dug a silver one out and used it as a kind of border between the stamped XOXO and the rest of the tag.

The final touches were adding a punched heart with 'Happy Valentine's Day'stamped on it and a little bit of randomly placed bling.

Super cute and very easy..hope my parents like it :)

Cx

Retro Rubber #9..Tag You're it!

Hey,

Yes it is time for Retro Rubber#9 and Team B are up this week. 

Our challenge this time involves one of my 'new' faves - Tags...

For some reason I decided when I sat down to make this card that I wanted to feature multiple tags..

I used the papers from my SSS Feb Card Kit and die-cut them in different sizes using my Xcut tag dies. I layered them together, so you can see the pretty papers and secured them together with glue and a mini staple.

I then used an ancient (at least 3 years old) Fiskars stamp set for the sentiment and the heart.

To make my card I embossed a piece of red paper across the middle using a spotty embossing folder an adhered this to my card base. I added my tags to the card using foam tape for a bit of dimension.

Finishing touch is the giant blingy stick on brad thingy...

I love that this feels very 'love' but is actually a Thank You card.

Check out the fab makes by my teammates over at Retro Rubber and join in the fun.

Remember to use stamps over a year old and the challenge closes on March 13th.

Cx

Tim Holtz - 12 Tags of 2015 - January..

Hey,

So I made my first tag for Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2015  before I left for Tel Aviv and I LOVE IT!!

If you saw my WOYWW #293 post, you will remember a strange Monster in the corner, he was hiding this beauty :)

I really wanted to join in last year's 12 tags, but to be frank the techniques, etc scared me a bit :)

Now after a year of learning, practicing and exploring I felt ready..

I didn't have all of the items on Tim's product list, but no matter that made it even more fun - hunting for things to use instead.

I started by making my own tissue paper - I made myself a promise - only one new item per tag - new item for January was the ChitChat Stickers.

I used white tissue paper and Bo Bunny stamps (To the point and It is written) and a free text stamp in silver. Here is a photo of the paper before I used it -

This was a new technique for me, super easy, fun to do and has endless possibilities.

I used my Silhouette to cut 2015 out of chipboard and double sided adhesive. After adding distress paints (Mustard Seed, Broken China, Mowed Lawn) and a blue mist to the tag, I stuck the 2015 on and glittered the numbers.

I decided that I would use the stickers to describe what I want from 2015. Here is a close-up of the tag -

I covered the entire tag in Modge Podge (no glue and seal in my stash) and outlined the stickers using distress markers in the same colours as the paints.

Final touches were the glittery star and the purple ribbon.

I'm really pleased with my first attempt at a Tim Holtz tag.

Come on February..I'm ready for the next one!

Cx

Skype playdate fun....

Hey,

Hope you had a good weekend! I did!

I hung out with Hubby this weekend, we did dinners and brunches and shopping and lounging..fun times.

Yesterday I had a great playdate with JT..we gossiped about craft and life stuff. We opened Christmas present early. It was mucho fun, just like old times..only remotely - little bit sad..

We made 3 cards using some new parts of our kit where we could.

The main photo today is of the first card we made. We used this gorgeous idea from Pinterest as inspiration.

Pinterest inspiration

I decided to use the new tag dies that JT sent me. I punched the white card using a random $1 EK Success punch. I assembled the tags using foam tape, a brad and a sentiment by Hero Arts. To finish the card I added some wooden adhesive dots.

I recently bought both JT a Ellen Hutson die - Treat Yo' Self - it has caused much hilarity between us. So card 2 was all about this crazy die -

Playdate Card 2 - Treat Yo' Self

I had the heat embossed piece on my desk already. A few nights ago I was having a play with my new SSS Dec card kit Ranger embossing powders this one is Enchanted Gold and its super glittery. I used it with a Heidi Swapp mini circles stencil. I die-cut Treat Yo' Self from a scrap of hexagon paper. I added 'it's your birthday' to give the big sentiment some context :)

I love this die, everything I make with it, makes me smile.

For the last card of the epic date, we worked with something we had purchased on Black Friday -

Playdate Card 3 - Something new..

I opted to use new papers that I bought as part of a random scrapbooking mini kit at Burlington of all places - for the grand sum of $3! The kit came with all kinds of stickers, so the gold start at the front is one of the stickers mounted using a foam pad. I die cut the star and the happy from scraps - the yellow paper was embossed, so adds a bit of texture.

I'm going to stamp Birthday inside this one before I use it.

A fun way to spend my Sunday morning. Miss you man.

Cx

Squirrel tag...

Hey,

I skipped a post yesterday..not like me..but I had to work on Sunday and it kind of confused me!

No matter, here I am with a little challenge entry ;)

It's the second time I am joining up with Tag You're It! The inspiration piece is gorgeous -

The main card today is my second attempt at it! I managed to salvage the DCWV Squirrel - its from a Woodland box of chipboard with Bears, Beavers, Owls, trees, frames and other goodies - I love them all and use them sparingly - I got the box on sale :)

The tag, background paper and Leopard print tab are all from the same paper pack by Recollections. I really love the backing paper, I like the way it has a distressed feel to the edges. I die cut the tag using a Sizzix Tim Holtz die.

I smudged some white ink onto the backing paper, so my sentiment would pop out better and I am pleased with the result. The sentiment stamp is by Technique Tuesday. I added a brown pearl, because I love even lo-key bling!

In the end the whole card came together really quickly, which is often the way with a second attempt!

Cx

Punching..

Hey,

I have a subscription to Cards Magazine. It is produced by Northridge Publishing and I love the cards that they publish..some of my fave bloggers get featured, which makes me feel all warm and fuzzy on their behalf!

I recently noticed that they run a  Cards challenge on their blog.

The current challenge is "Cards with Punched Shapes" - given my ENORMOUS collection of punches, I figured that this would be fun for me to enter.

Because of the amount of punches I have, I was a bit unsure where to start..I rummaged through my punch drawers and came up with the idea of using all circles.

I wanted to step out of my comfort zone a bit and so punched the backing paper - I used Woodware circular punches for the big and medium circles, the tiny ones were made using an EK Success single hole punch. It looked nice with the cardstock showing through, but I wanted to co-ordinate more and so added some of the stripey paper behind the circles.

The big blue circle was embossed using a Tim Holz distressed circles folder and then I added some twine and a tag - which I made using a punch (see I told you I had lots of punches).

I'm pleased with the final card and think that it will be great for a guy.

Cx