Mr & Mr...

Hey, 

So around the middle of August my work colleague, Emma asked me to make her a Mr & Mr card.

I immediately knew what I wanted to do as I had just bought the awesome 'Furry Friends' set by Concord & 9th and had seen this idea -

So with a few modifications I CASE'd it - LOVE how mine came out, it was so fun to make and the stamp set is so versatile.

I was so happy with it all that I made JT and her Hubby their anniversary card using the same premise.

The background papers that I used for both of the cards are by Pink Petticoat (no longer open) and are digital, so I just had to print off a sheet of each colourway - it comes in 48 colours - amazing!

Cx

CASology: Dress..

Hey,

So it's been a while since I have had the time to play along with any challenges and one of my faves is CASology.

So I was delighted when I saw this week's cue card -

I just finished the card for my amazing cleaner Paula - she is fantastic and she has been with us since 2013 and I literally don't know what we would do without her AND Boscat adores her. She got married on Saturday, so I made this card for her and her new husband.

I thought it would work perfectly for the challenge as the stamp (an all time fave by Stamping Bella) is really all about the dress.

I kept it all pretty simple and CAS, I die-cut the panel using a stitched rectangle die and added the great sentiment arrow die by MFT - LOVE these dies (no longer available). I used a scrap of sparkly pink paper, as Paula is a pink girl.

I made exactly the same card in yellows and gold for my work colleague Nicole who is getting married on the 29th Sept.

Love both of these, this stamp always makes such lovely wedding cards. Sadly you cannot see how shimmery the dresses are IRL from my photos.

Cx

Eat, Drink and Be Married...

Hey,

Today has been a slow day, following the super fun day Hubby and I spent with Cheiron and her husband.

I acquired several new goodies from Cheiron's sale pile :)

I made today's card for a work colleague and his soon to be wife.

I  love this stamp and die set by Simon Says Stamp, I use it a lot! The heart stencil is by Dutchdoobado, I used Bo Bunny glitter paste - it is so shimmery!

I'm happy that the idea I had in mind worked.

Cx

Retro Rubber #66 Wedding Bells...

Hey,

Happy 4th of July!

As this post is scheduled I can't tell you about the boat party last night, lets do that tomorrow..

Right now it is time for another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

This time we have a Wedding theme for you.

I like making wedding cards.

This time I chose an old favourite stamp set by Simon Says Stamp called 'Married' - I've had it since 2014.

I kept it very CAS. I went with a die-cut pink panel, to lift the cake. I stamped the sentiment onto the panel and stamped flowers from the set onto the die-cut cake.

I love the simplicity of it and resisted the urge to bling it up!!

Your turn to how us what your wedding makes, first pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things that the rest of the DT have made.

Challenge ends July 14th. 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

Holibobs and Weddings...

Hey,

Happy Friday!

So Hubby and I are off to London at the end of next month for the wedding of a good friend.

We are going to take some time off and have a little holibob on the way..Amsterdam here we come..

I wanted to make the happy couple a special card and their invitation served as inspiration.

Their invite is navy and a bronzed colour..I have the navy, so started there..

I used a Sizzix doily die that I got a couple of years ago in a Black Friday sale. I love it, but it's so fiddly that I don't use it very often..

I used the doily as my base and die-cut a stitched circle in kraft card that would fit in the centre.

I decided to use stamps from Simon Says Stamp Congratulations stamp set.

After testing various embossing powders and inks, I settled on the navy inks with the heat embossed ranger metallic powder for the contrast.

I heat embossed the navy sentiment onto vellum and fussy cut it out..hugely disappointed by the white foam squares, so if anyone can give me a tip here I'd be very grateful.

I love the card, it feels really vintage and was exactly what was in my mind.

Have a great weekend. I am looking forward to the Superbowl on Sunday.

Cx

RSVP..

Hey,

Today I have another card that features a stamp by Unity Stamp Co.

This one was a freebie!! Isn't he gorgeous.

I thought it would make a really sweet and unusual R.S.V.P card for a wedding Hubby and I have been invited to.

I stamped the Penguin (?) onto Ranger watercolour paper and used distress inks to colour the hearts and his beak. I then used my brush to add teeny tiny little red dots all over.

To finish it off, I added a glittery paper strip and red bling..bling always completes a card in my humble opinion.

I'm super pleased with the end result and I love my new stamp, even better that he is a freebie.

Cx

Never too late for love...

Hey,

So my Hubby's Great Uncle got remarried whilst we were in Mexico.

His wife passed away a few years ago and he met a lovely lady and they surprised everyone by just getting married quietly.

Isn't that lovely!

I wanted to send them a card and at first I thought it should be 'less' wedding, but then decided age shouldn't dictate what kind of card you get - its a joyous time.

I used the Simon Says Stamp Married stamp and die set and the paper is by Bazzil. I heat embossed the flowers for a bit of sparkle on the cake and added a couple of bits of bling.

I love stories like this, it makes me happy.

Cx

Happy Father's Day Daddy..

Hey,

Today is Father's Day and I am quite a long way away from my Daddy, but I always like to write a little post about him and show the card I made for him.

This year I was inspired by the freezer paper technique I learnt in my Mask-erade OCC.

I die cut Daddy using a Memory Box alpha lower case die and I ironed it onto some Tim Holtz watercolour cardstock.

I used Distress Inks for the watercolouring and quite a fat brush..I love the colours I ended up with. Using a heat tool I dried the whole thing and then gently peeled off the freezer paper.

I then stamped the sentiment using a Hero Arts stamp.

Fun card for my Fun Daddy - I miss him lots, but his hilarious emails and twitter abuse make it feel like he is right here!

Here's my fave photo of him, this is on my Wedding Day and he is watching me sing!

Happy Father's Day Daddy..

Cx

Congratulations...

Hey,

Happy Friday!

My colleague is getting married tomorrow and he's always been so nice to me since I started my job that I wanted to make him and his new Wife a special card.

I decided to use the Simon Says Stamp Married stamp and stencil set.

I stamped and die-cut the cake and coloured it with Promarkers and added some bling.

I went with a grey card blank and found a grey shimmery scrap of paper to stamp the sentiment on (I love this sentiment..).

I wasn't sure what it needed to make it a complete card and then I saw an embossed scrap on my desk and it made me go with embossing!

The embossing folder is Carved Rose by Card Concepts..I love it, its so modern.

I put the card together and then realised that the grey strip was not staying put..mini stapler to the rescue - sweet!

A pretty card for a pretty couple.

Wishing the new Mr & Mrs Shapiro a very happy Wedding Day and life together.

Cx

WOYWW #277...In progress...

Hey!

Happy WOYWW.

Short post this week, but first for you novice WOYWWers an explanation - it is that time of the week for joining our wonderful leader Julia over at her blog Stamping Ground for the weekly desk nose.

I was chilling out at home after a nonsense day yesterday and I had this genius idea (we'll see..) so leapt up, rushed to my desk and so what you see sprung from that moment!!

The pretty Pink Petticoat pumpkin paper is out because I made a wedding card (31st Oct) with it. The paper is covering a WIP DT make. My correct glasses are on my desk, a random bottle of nail polish and some gorgeous Papermania pinwheels.

Here's the wedding card. I have the stamp, because Oct 31st happens to be my wedding anniversary :)

Pink Pumpkin Wedding Card for a Colleague..

I'm a little in love with this card - the Stamping Bella stamp is a firm fave. The pumpkin paper looks so yummy!!

I will be having a nose later on.

Cx

WOYWW #273..Back at my desk..

Hi WOYWWers!

Hope everyone is well. I am TIRED..got back to NYC on Monday night and went straight back to work on Tues AM..so I'm a bit blerugh!

Before I continue with today's short post (no card this week) - want to know what WOYWW is? Then visit the lovely Julia's blog Stamping Ground and join us crazy global deskers.

Just check out all the yummy stash I came home with...free magazines galore, a cheeky craft superstore order (incl new Gorjuss stamps), gifts from my Ma and JT and some bumper bonus bits and bobs from The Works and Poundland :)

It was fun to see all our peeps..the wedding on Sunday was amazing..they had Flamingoes in the roof terrace pond - AMAZING!!

Flamingoes..7 floors up!!

Hubby and Me!

Me with the gorgeoys bride Lindsey

That's all folks - I'll be visiting after work.

Cx

Hello from London..

Hi!

Here I am sitting in my Parent's kitchen working (on my lunch break right now).

It's really good to be home, the wedding on Friday was lots of fun and I have spent the weekend hanging out with my parents. Tonight I am off out to meet my London based friends for a drink or two.

Here's a photo of Hubby and I at the wedding :)

Me & Hubby..

Today's main photo is of a card I made a couple of weekends ago. I bought the gorgeous butterfly die a while ago, it is by Poppy Stamps.

The card actually came about, as I was trying out some new misting techniques using stencils and I was lazy and didn't stick the stencil down... I decided to let my accident dry and see what I ended up with and I was quite pleased. It looks really grungy, which I am into right now.

As the background was set - I die cut the butterfly in a contrasting paper and stamped the sentiment in green too.

I did feel that it was a bit dull..so I added some bling to liven it up a bit - here's a close-up -

Butterfly close-up

Quite pleased with my accidental card..

Cx

Using neutral tones...

Hi,

Happy Friday!!

Hubby and I are off to Atlantic City tonight, to start his birthday celebrations.

Last weekend, I decided I would work with only papers from my overflowing 'brown' paper drawer!!

I am really pleased with them both. The main card has an added bit of texture with the corrugated card. I like all the layers and different papers. I used pearls and bling for the cake and the corner of the card. The cake stamp and die and the sentiment are by SSS.

The next card has a funny story associated with it..I used my shiny new Memory Box feather die to make the card and then promptly lost the die...I kid you not, I cannot find it anywhere?!

Feather Birthday

Well, at least I got to use it once!! I made a small mistake with the heat embossing, as you can see, I kind of knocked the top off of the word happy! I love the little bunch of feathers, they are so cute..shame that I won't get to do this again until I find/replace the die..

Have a great weekend everyone..

Cx

Wedding Fun...

Hi,

Hope you all had a good weekend.

Hubby and I had a great time in Chicago at Dana and Jim's wedding - Dana is JT's little sister and we were kindly invited to join in the celebrations.

It was great to see JT in the flesh..skype is not the same :(

The main photo is of JT and I - I love it, we look so happy. Here are few more photos from the day.

Dana & Jim's first dance

Olly, JT, Sally and Mike

Hubby & Me

Such a fun weekend, meeting lots of lovely people..need to go back and do Chicago again.

Obviously this post would not be complete without a bit of craft..here are the pics of the card and gift envelope for Dana & Jim and JT's Matron of Honor card, that Dana commissioned. All the items match Dana's theme of Cherry Blossoms.

Dana & Jim's Wedding Card

Matching gift envelope

JT's Matron of Honor card, using the same paper but in pink

Fun times..oh and I managed to squeeze in a Michael's trip...massive haul of sale items for JT and I.

Cx

Inspired by colour..

Hi,

When I saw the Color Throwdown #297 colours and image this week, I instantly thought of a wedding card I need to make..

I love the end result of my card, it's so bright and cheery, very summer wedding.

I used a lot of Simon Says Stamp items here - the cake, flower, sentiment stamps. The cake and rectangle scallop dies are also by them.

I used circle dies for the layers underneath the cake. The blue and yellow card are by Canford, the chevron paper is by Recollections. The pretty yellow heart ribbon is by American Crafts and all the bling is by Papermania. The flowers on the cake were coloured using Promarkers.

I really like the sentiment - not a traditional wedding sentiment. I heat embossed it using Smoke ink by SimonSaysStamp and grey embossing powder by Stampendous.

Really happy that the challenge inspired this pretty wedding card.

Cx

My first Bridal Shower...

Hi,

Happy Saturday to you all.

Today is the Bridal Shower for JT's sister Dana. I am not going to the shower, but as I know Dana reasonably well. I wanted to make her a really nice card and as we don't do Bridal Showers in the UK, this is my first ever card for this occasion.

JT and I attempted this when we had our UK playdate a couple of weeks ago, but I think both of our efforts were slightly off the mark..

So I made the main card that you see today, when I got home last weekend. I didn't blog about it sooner, as I kept forgetting to take a photo in the morning, as it needed actual daylight.

It is a Silhouette file and it cuts the dress with a perf, so you can fold it over, it also cuts the extra panel and the waistband. I decided that I wanted the extra panel to stand out a bit more, so I embossed it with a fancy folder I have. Then I made the waistband wider. I decided that that card was too small and mounted it onto a card embossed using the same folder. The sentiment came with a Stamping Bella stamp.

I am super pleased with the outcome, it's gorgeous!! I only hope it doesn't get ruined in the post :(

Cx

WOYWW #228 Having a good week...

Hello!

Hope you are having a good week so far..I am! Hubby and I went to watch a Basketball game last night and had a great time.

I know I always say this, but where has the week gone?! It's time for us all to join Julia over at Stamping Ground for the weekly desk nosy. Go and take a peek if you don't know what I am talking about.

My desk is interesting this week..a stack of 40 for 40 cards to the far right...ready to be dispatched, some new Fiskars stamps ($1.99 a set from Marshalls), a pile of new sewing patterns - the new machine is a dream..my phone and new notepad, a KennyK image, a pen and a pencil, my glasses and a die cut Mr&Mrs for the card you can see below.

Not too tidy, but not really messy either.

Here's a close up of the stamps..

Yummy new stamps.

I made this card for my opposite number at work as she is getting married on Saturday..she is wearing blue shoes and is having yellow flowers, so I thought I'd personalise it a bit...

MioNa and Alex's Wedding card

This is the first time the Silhouette has really done what I had in my head when I bought it...I love bold matchy match type and it really works here. Yay!

Tomorrow is my 2nd outing as a DT..hope some of you join in the challenge over at MAWTT, it's a good one.

Have a good day everyone, I'll be peeking at your desks throughout the day.

Cx

p.s Julia if you are reading this...I love your blog..thank you for gifting me a fun place to hang on a Weds.

Weddings and Anniversaries..

Happy Friday everyone.

Good news here in NYC, I have had the final part of my work documentation approved, just need to wait for the official notice and then back to work I go. So I'll be enjoying the time I have left!

I thought we'd have a departure from birthday's and the like, also as I received my new Stamping Bella stamp earlier in the week, I have been itching to use it :)

The main photo is a Wedding card for our friends Jenn and Steve - they are getting married in July and unfortunately only Hubby can go - partly finance, but partly because it's too soon to introduce someone new to the Furchildren....a move to a different Country is enough in one year!

I have no idea if they will be theming their Wedding pink, but I felt it suited their blondness :) The heart paper is an old fave by Pink Petticoat and the sentiment is from my new Pebbles banner stamp set.

Here's a detail shot, so you can hopefully see the glitter on the dress.

Dress detail

I am head over heels in love with this stamp (even though the flowers are a *bleep* to colour in) and I am going to make a couple of variations to sell on Etsy.

The next card is an Anniversary card for our friends Lora and Dan - they are such a fun couple and when JT gifted me this stamp I thought of them instantly.

Happy Anniversary

I did a bit of retouching (hoping that Kenny K won't mind) but I wanted to make it less wedding. Here is the original stamp.

I removed the veil behind the groom, the bouquet and the arm that was holding it. I think it works better this way for an Anniversary. Please note how thrifty I have been, as I used a remnant of the heart paper from the Wedding card.

The final big news for this week is related to this post..basically this post means I have equalled the number of posts from 2012 - which is pretty superb as it's only June!! I have been trying really hard to keep the posts regular and I was succeeding until the big move, now I am back on track - lets see if I can hit the 100 mark this year, then I can take my foot off of the gas next year (maybe)

Have a great Friday and a fun weekend...Hubby and I are off to eat BBQ with our new friends this weekend.

Cx

Where did September go?

Ok, so I need to up my game right?

It's been over a month since I last brought you up to speed on all that is going on in HamnMule world and that's just poor!

So, let's recap -

The new kitchen is complete and a thing of total beauty, I'm not going to show you a picture, but I will say that after 3 painful, take-away fuelled weeks, I could have cried when the builders told us they were finished (on time and slightly over-budget).

Amsterdam was fantastic as ever and I managed to buy all kinds of random craft goodies, which I have stashed for post-Christmas crafting!

Christmas crafts are progressing nicely - I'll have a pic of some of the goodies for you tomorrow (I promise), I am now in the final card making push, I have nearly painted all of the the Christmas decorations, the felt ones are all cut out and half are sewn, the rest will be done next week in Tenerife! I am just going to start putting together the advent calendars, but that's a pretty quick job, as I am creating quite basic, but pretty ones. I am slightly concerned that I haven't started the make-up bag, clutch bag sewing yet - but sewing is difficult, I have to be totally in the zone!

One of my friend's mothers is hosting a mini-craft fair for me on November the 6th - it's so lovely of her to do that and I am working hard to make sure that all my products live up to her marketing of me! I have also accepted another craft fair on the 21st of November, but that is more about my scarves and bags, good to have variety and a mini break from Christmas before the big fair in Leicester on the 28th.

I have had Laryngitis, so hubby was overjoyed to have me silent for a week! I recovered sufficiently to celebrate my birthday in style. Today's pic is of the beautiful Thank You cards I have made for all the people that gave me gifts.

I almost forgot to mention that my Ma taught me how to crochet as my birthday gift and I am busy making a scarf in the morning on the way to work, as an L-Plates project!

We have just spent the weekend in Rye at a wedding and the second pic today is of me at the wedding in the cutdown version of my wedding dress - thrifty!

So, I am pretty busy and not sure exactly how I am managing all of this, plus spending time with my friends and family, but I love it, so it makes it all worth while and this year has been a very successful one for Ham'n'Mule, so I can see my hard work paying off!

Cx

Weddings, Fabric and Baby Quilts

Hello!

I am very excited about my first post on my shiny new blog.

I spent the weekend at a lovely country Wedding in Leicestershire, which gave me the opportunity to indulge my love of fabric with a small trip to the fabric stalls at the market.

If you have never been to Leicester market, I really would advise that you try to at some point, the fabric stalls are great and the stall holders are really knowledgeable and helpful, but the fresh produce sold in the market is great too.

Anyway, I had a perfectly valid reason for visiting the market, as I am about to start making a baby quilt for a friend. He has made a special request for a quilt that has the Union Jack on it, but in the Cypriot flag colours (white, olive and orange), to reflect the new arrival's heritage! It's a bit of a departure for me, but I think it should come out quite well and I will post pics when it's complete.

The pic here (which is not great I'm afraid, but I'm working on that!) is of a quilt that I made earlier in the year.

Cx