Cards for Colleagues..

Hey,

Happy Friday!

Tomorrow Hubby and I leave for Mexico - WHOOOP!! So excited, can't wait to feel the sun on my body again. Summer seems to have gone by so quickly.

I thought I'd show you a batch of cards I made a while ago for a few of my colleagues in the London office.

The first one was a leaving card and the colleague in question loves a Llama. I forgot all about the great wooden Llamas that I had bought in London earlier this year and it seemed like the perfect time to use one. I kept the card simple. The sentiment is by A-Muse Studio.

The next card is for a colleague who got promoted, she has a French Bulldog, so I thought she would appreciate the headphone wearing dog. Again, kept super simple with a negative die-cut out by Tim Holtz.

The final card was also for a colleague that was leaving - yes you guessed it, she likes Cats! The stamp is from the same set as the dog above and I added the great self-adhesive sunnies! The sentiment is by Simon Says Stamp.

3 really simple, but impactful cards.

Have a great weekend. I know I'm gonna!

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

Playdate output..

Hey,

Happy Friday!

I just realised that I didn't show the cards I made on my 2 day playdate with JT.

We had a lot of fun, eating, drinking, shopping, gossiping and crafting.

It is always fun to hang with her and it's also a lot of fun to play with her stash.

The giant chevron stamp that you can see in several of my cards belongs to JT and I totally adopted it for 2 days - I fell in love. It was so versatile.

I think I have a similar stamp somewhere...I need to go on a hunt.

The big win was the bottom left interactive card,  made it, stamped it with that awesome Chicken Wire stamp and then was all 'hmmm it needs a critter..' and lo, JT pulled out one of the Hema Chicken stickers - WIN!!

We've had more epic playdates, but this one was one of the most enjoyable for me. I got to hang with my girl in her new home and just chill for a couple of days, we so rarely get to do that anymore it was nice.

Cx

Happy Valentine's Day...

Hey,

I normally do a Valentine's Day card series, but this year because I have been sick and super busy at work, I just didn't find the time to get the posts ready.

Hubby and I are not into celebrating Valentine's Day, but I do love making the cards, so I send them to my girlfriends.

Every year I make Hubby a pun-tastic card, because he is not a fan of the punny cards, I always get an eye roll from him when I make them.

I bought the awesome Newton's Nook 'Pina Koala' stamp because I knew that Hubby would be all 'why?' hahahaha.

I printed out part of the sentiment, leaving a gap for the Pina Koala stamp. I stamped the cute Koala and then die-cut the whole panel using a Lil Inkers die. 

I mounted the white panel onto a Lawn Fawn cardblank.

Fun right?

Hubby and I are en-route to Tampa as this posts, 5 glorious days of sunshine and RR.

Cx

p.s I did make 10 VDay cards for my girls, but didn't photograph them..

Sketch Saturday #540...A Day for Daisies..

Hey,

Happy Saturday to you, Hubby and I arrived in Las Vegas last night and I have no doubt that as you read this, we are sleeping off whatever mischief we got into last night ;)

Welcome to the latest sketch for the Sketch Saturday challenge.

Our sponsor this week is A Day for Daisies and they are offering a $12 gift certificate to their store.

Here's the sketch by me!

I love ADFD stamps, they are one of my absolute fave digi stamp companies. I fell in love with the Aloha Petals image and had to use her for this challenge.

I had this idea in mind about how to use an oval die (stitched ovals by MFT), but have the lady's hand poking out.. much research later and I FINALLY got it right (3 attempts).. I coloured the image using promarkers and added some detail to her swimsuit.

I used all paper scraps for this card. The heart papers are by Lawn Fawn and the sparkly blue paper is an offcut from a bigger sheet. The birthday banner is a random embellishment that I had on my desk and it had a longer sentiment, but I didn't want that, so I cut it down.

It's so bright and cheery, it made me long for Summer..sigh.

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 November 23rd 7pm GMT / 2pm EST

Cx

CAS(E) this Sketch - Colour Pop Birthday..

Hey,

Happy Friday!!

Hubby and I are leaving for Vegas tonight - WHOOP!! And then we are off all of next week, partly in Vegas and partly at home celebrating Thanksgiving.

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

So before the NFL last night I had a quick play with it,

The minute I saw the sketch I knew I wanted to use the Avery Elle 'Brushed' set to create the two 'stripes'. I stamped all three brushstrokes from the set in navy blue ink.

I embossed the non-stamped part using a new Becky Higgins folder and then I die-cut the whole panel using a stitched rectangle die.

I found a random square of navy polka dot paper, so die-cut a circle from it and because I wanted the sentiment to pop, I die-cut it in red.  The rest of the sentiment is by MFT from their 'Label Maker Love' set.

A super quick and easy card, love, love, love this sketch and how my card came out.

Have a great weekend, bar a couple of scheduled posts, you probably won't hear from me until after Thanksgiving!

Cx

Catch The Bug: Saturday Challenge 'Make Us Smile'...

Hey,

Happy Saturday to you!

Today is the last day of my vacation, pretty sad to be leaving Tampa...

It's time for the Catch The Bug team Saturday challenge. 

This week we have a fun theme 'Make Us Smile'

When I saw this new release 'Stella and Gus Cards' stamp I laughed out loud!

I printed the image and the sentiment and coloured the stamp using Letraset Brushmarkers. I die-cut the white panel using a scalloped die (bought second hand, no idea who it is by). And I chose to affix the white panel to a fun striped card blank.

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

p.s the image should be in the Bugaboo store, but at the time of writing the post it wasn't released yet ;)

Christmas Card 2018: Merry Monster Christmas...

Hey,

Happy Friday.

Last full day of vacay today. We have had a very very relaxing time. It has been great to hang out with the Wife, I'm gonna miss her.

Today's Christmas card was a bit of an experiment. I bought a large 'Noel' banner in the sale from Hema when I was in London in August, I thought I could chop it up and use parts of it on Christmas cards.

The glittery tree thing is part of the banner and I dug out some awesome Tim Holtz Monster dies that Cheiron gave me and die-cut him in a Christmassy green. I added a red panel behind him to highlight his face better.

I used my Dymo labeler to create the sentiment and used a great piece of spotty paper (from JT) as my base.

It came together really well and I think I'll be making a couple more.

Have a great weekend, we'll be partying in Tampa tonight, lunching with the Wife tomorrow before we leave and hitting the sofa's for the first NFL Sunday of the season - WHOOP.

Cx

Christmas Card 2018: Newton's Nook..Sandy Christmas..

Hey,

And so it begins..

I normally start making Christmas cards around 1st of August, but this year I was in London at that time, so started a bit later AND I have 20 cards left from last year.

I stamped a bunch of Christmas stuff to take on my vacation and I have been busy this week colouring them, as I sit by the pool.

I did make a few things before I left though and today's cards use a fave Christmas set by Newton's Nook 'Sun Soaked Christmas'. There are several of these Christmas in the sun type sets out there and I have a few of them, it makes me happy to think about Christmas not being cold - one day..

Making Christmas cards like these is SUPER easy with a stamp platform, I just set it up and stamp as many cards as I want. Simples.

I coloured these using Letraset BrushMarkers and then die-cut them using a MFT stitched rounded rectangle die.

The card blanks are smaller than usual and are from the Target 'dollar' bins - 20 cards for $3..

A really easy way to ease myself into Christmas card making this year.

Cx

Smile..it looks great on you...

Happy Labor Day!!

Live from Tampa!

We are having a bit of rain this afternoon, whilst we wait for The Wife to arrive..

So I thought I'd share a card with you.

I saw this new Waffle Flower stamp 'Picture Perfect' and I had to have it. I love the fun combo of the Parrot, Snail and Monkey - so weird, so very me.

The sentiment is part of the stamp, but I am planning to make a version where I mask of the sentiment and use something different. For a first use of it, I wanted to use it as it came.

I stamped it onto watercolour paper, so I could colour it with Distress Inks.

Fun cheery card that feels a bit like my vacation...I'm going to have first dibs on saying I am the Monkey and Hubby and The Wife can fight it out for the other 2 creatures ;)

Cx

Catch The Bug: Anything Goes...

Hey,

Happy Saturday to you!

I'm currently in Tampa on my Summer vacation - whoop whoop...

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

This week we have everyone's fave - Anything Goes.

JT bought me the awesome JJ Coffee to Go stamp a while ago and it's one of my faves.

I printed both the image and the sentiment and coloured the image, using Promarkers. I wanted to keep it simple, as it's quite a large in your face sentiment (that I am sure we can all relate to..).

The background paper is super ancient and I think I started with 4 sheets of it like 10 years ago, but it just doesn't seem to run out!!

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

CASE: Shark Birthday...

Happy Friday!!!

Obviously I am SUPER happy today, as it is the first day of my Summer vacation!

Hubby and I arrive in Tampa later on today and our bestie / wife joins us from London on Monday for the rest of the week. We have rented a house with a pool, so cue mucho lounging, pool party action.

What better way to celebrate vacay than with a Shark card?

I love the Avery Elle Sea-Prise set and CASE'd one of the DT cards that they made to signal the new release a few months back -

I die-cut my aperture using a MFT stitched oval die. I coloured and die-cut my shark and recreated the 'sea' by using corrugated card.

I love the 'Hope your birthday is swell' sentiment, but as this card was going to a little boy in the UK, I didn't think he would be familiar with it, so played it safe with Happy Birthday.

The banner die is by Simon Says Stamp and I have had it forever and it's the only banner die I own surprisingly!

Fun CASE, I love it, I'm gonna make a few more I think.

Have a great weekend..if you need me I'll be by my pool!

Cx

Coffee and Books...

Hey,

All my posts this week are scheduled as I am on vacay with my Momma.

I made today's card a few weeks ago to accompany a gift that I was sending to someone.

Love this stamp by Unity Stamp Co..it was a really delight to watercolour. The sentiment is by The Ink Road and was from their April stamp club.

I used a MFT wonky stitched rectangle die to die-cut the panel and mounted it onto a co-ordinating card blank.

I like smaller sized card blanks and I often buy them on sale and they sometimes have text / images on. These ones have thank you on them, I loved the stripes.

Cx