CAS(e) This Sketch: Cheers...

Hey,

So I was really happy to have made the favourite's list over at CAS(e) This Sketch last week.

I was going to play along with this week's sketch anyway, but then the sketch featured a hexagon (swoon).

For some reason I LOVE hexagon's, I have no idea why, I just do.

So I broke out my fave Spellbinders nesting hexagon die set and went to work :)

I had an idea, as the 'Cheers' die by Winnie & Walter, was sitting on my desk. So I die-cut two hexagons in black and purple cardstock and die-cut the cheers out of a scrap of Lawn Fawn plaid paper.

I bought the Waffle Flower 'Currently Drinking' set on a whim 2 years ago, as I thought it would be handy and honestly it is one of the most used things in my craftroom.

I used x3 of the stamps from the set to create a little background on my purple hexagon.

I affixed the black one to the card blank and popped up the purple one and the cheers.

To finish it off I added some adhesive green pearls.

Fun card, suitable I think for both men and women.

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge.. #118.. Sketch Time...

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

It has been a while, but this time have a sketch for you, created by me!

You know how much I love a sketch!

I had a lot of fun creating this card. I knew I wanted to use the large Cheers die by Winnie & Walter, that I have had for ages. I dug through my paper stash to find a fun background paper, once I settled on the My Minds Eye bubble paper you see on my card, I decided my colour scheme would be blue and yellow.

I die-cut two panels using stitched square dies from The Works in London and stamped the variety of glasses from the Waffle Flower 'Currently Drinking' set that I have had since 2017. I am a big fan of using mini stamps to create backgrounds.

After affixing all x3 panels to my card, I added the Cheers die-cut popped up with foam tape and a fun enamel dot.

This card is going to a male friend, as I thought he would like it.

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

Challenge ends September 6th.

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

Addicted to CAS: Cheers!

Hey,

I really liked the theme over at Addicted to CAS this time -

It seemed like the perfect excuse to break out my Winnie and Walter 'Cheers' die.

I smooshed various blue distress inks onto a scrap of watercolour paper before cutting out the cheers.

I love the Unity Stamp Co. 'Hello Summer' stamp, I use it a lot and I thought it would be great here.

I decided to try something different and not colour the image and place the cheers die-cut over it. I am really pleased with the end result and a little bit of bling to add a bit of interest really works for me.

Cx

Circle Gelli Plate..

Hey,

So about a bejillion weeks ago I bought a circle Gelli plate.

I liked the idea of having a circle one and since I bought it, I have made quite a few fun things with it.

Today's cards were my first attempt with it and I decided to go with a black base and layer colour on top.

I think it worked out really well.

The blue card was made using a stamp by MFT and white ink, I die-cut the circle out using the largest circle die I have and then I added the die-cut sentiment using staples. The sentiment dies are both by Tim Holtz.

The purple card I made using a Craft Scraps stencil and 3 different colours of paint, green, blue and purple. I was actually surprised at how much it stands out against the black. Result! The sentiment was made using a Winnie and Walter birthday die and a Tim Holtz die.

I love playing with Gelli plates now I have mastered a technique that works for me - you can read more about that here.

Cx

Happy Little Stampers - Watercolour with a twist..

Hey,

I am back in NYC now. It was great to go home after a 6 month absence and see my family, my friends and my work colleagues. Hubby also managed to come home for the last leg of the trip, so we spent part of Easter weekend with his family including our Niece and Nephew.

I have been dying to play along with at least one of the Happy Little Stamper challenges, but haven't been able to for a variety of reasons.

So I was excited when I saw the April Watercolour challenge, because I do love a rainbow -

It also seemed like a perfect excuse to break out a couple of fun dies and also enter the HLS April die challenge -

JT gave me a great set of dies by Simon Says Stamp as part of our $20 challenge. The set comprises of a circle die and the circle hexagon overlay. I die-cut the circle first and then using distress inks and an aquabrush I watercoloured the stripes onto the circle. I added the hexagon overlay using my Quickie glue pen..don't know how I would live without this glue pen!

It took me about 30 minutes to decide what colour the card blank should be.. I like the pop of colour on the flat neutral grey. I die-cut the celebrate die by Winnie & Walter in a slightly shiny grey/silver card.

Final touch was to add 2 of the Pretty Pink Posh clear droplets.

I am really happy with my card, it was nice to play with a couple of things that haven't seen the light in a while!

Cx

Gelli Plate Backgrounds...

Hey,

A couple of weeks ago, one of my art crushes Kim Dellow showed a great way to use your Gelli Plate on Instagram.

I had to try it out that day and I am so pleased I did.

I have been using the Gelli Plates with varying degrees of success, but I think now with this simple technique I will be getting much better backgrounds.

All you have to do is cover the Gelli Plate in a colour using a brayer, then stamp that onto paper (I chose to use watercolour paper). Then clean the plate and put a stencil over it and then add paint over that using a brayer. Remove the stencil and stamp over your solid colour - voila! amazing backgrounds.

Here are mine -

 Aren't they pretty?

From left to right clockwise, the stencils are by Dutchdoobado, Tim Holtz, Dina Wakely, Dutchdoobado and Recollections.

I have only made cards using 3 of them so far, the main photo is my fave, it makes me laugh.
I thought that background looked a bit Jungle, so it needed a Dinosaur (The Alley Way Stamps, sadly no longer in business) and I added balloons that are a mix of dies and punches. I coloured the balloons using distress stains and the Dino using distress inks. The sentiment is by Simon Says Stamp.

The next two cards use roughly the same idea, giant die-cut sentiment, finished with a stamped sentiment.

Wplus9 happy die, Neat & Tangled birthday stamp

Winnie & Walter birthday die, Neat & Tangled happy stamp

I'm pleased with the colour combos here and JT helped me choose the yellow for the scalloped background as I couldn't decide.

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #57..Colour challenge..

Hey,

Time for another awesome challenge with the Retro Rubber team.

This time we have a colour challenge for you - use the photo for the colour inspiration..

I was inspired by the jars in the image, so I pulled out one of my all time fave stamps by Unity Stamp Co. (Array of Vases from 2015).

I coloured it used distress inks (Squeezed Lemonade, Festive Berries, Mowed Lawn and Mermaid Lagoon) and an aquabrush to match the colours in the photo.

I decided that it would work best in a die-cut circle and thought the stitched scalloped version by MFT worked really well, as the image is so detailed, I didn't want to detract from it too much.

Final touches were to add a sentiment, stamp is by Kaisercraft from 2014 and the die-cut wishes is by Winnie & Walter - I LOVE their word dies.

I am a bit in love with this card, the vases really pop..might need to make a few more.

Your turn to show us your makes and pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things my teammates have made..

Challenge ends March 10th. 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

Freezer Paper Watercolours..

Hey,

Happy Friday!! I am looking forward to a nice quiet weekend at my desk and a birthday dinner of a good friend.

Recently a friend asked me to make her a batch of these cards -

I thought - oh wow I haven't played with this technique in a while..

So I went to town and made TONS of them..these are only a few of them..

Super easy to do.

1) die-cut freezer paper shiny side down
2) Iron on to your watercolour card-stock (I cover with a sheet of printer paper to prevent any marks on the card-stock)
3) add a little bit of water to your paper
4) add colours around the freezer paper words, keep the paper reasonably wet, but not too much.
5) dry with a heat tool and freezer paper will lift and you can peel-off.

Try it, if you don't have freezer paper like this and you are UK based, message me and I'll mail you a piece :)

Cx

Supplies used:
Lawn Fawn - Scripty Love and Thanks Dies
Distress Inks - Multiple colours
Neat & Tangled - Awesome dies and stamps
Winnie & Walter - Birthday die

Feeling Summery...

Happy Friday everyone!

Well the sun is FINALLY shining in London.

So it felt like a good day to share the fun card I made last week for The Daily Marker 30 days of colouring..which is sadly over now - boo!!

The stencil is by Echo Park and is a new purchase from The Inkpad. I used 3 different distress inks to get the ombre effect.

The sentiment is by Winnie & Walter and the Flamingo is the one that I bought from Michaels in Feb, where the die was made incorrectly :)

Love this card, it is so summery and fresh.

Today is the start of the Olympics and we are having an Olympic party at work...

I'm heading back to NYC tomorrow, so I'll be back at my desk for a play on Sunday - yay!

Cx

Retro Rubber #41...Red, White and Blue Colour Challenge..

Hey,

It's time for another superb challenge over at Retro Rubber. 

As it is close to 4th of July, we are getting a bit patriotic with our theme - 

I thought I had made the perfect card for this challenge and then the next morning I came back and thought - ugh..what a mess. LOL.

So back to the drawing board, pretty pleased with the final card, even if I do say so myself!

I used a great Hampton Arts Hexagon stamp that JT gave me as part of the Thanksgiving $20 challenge in 2014 - I love this stamp and I use it a lot for mixed media makes.

I inked up the stamp (it's pretty big) in red distress ink, spritzed it with water and then laid my paper on top of the stamp. I got a pretty clean and centered impression, so decided to stick with the white border.

I punched some hexagons in Navy blue scrap paper and stapled them together to create a kind of border. I used foam tape to pop the border up a bit.

The celebrate die is so gorgeous, I wish I used it more, but celebrate is a tricky sentiment in my opinion.

It looks great here in white, it really pops against the blue hexagon border.

Your turn to show us your interpretation of the colours, but first go over to Retro Rubber and view the great makes by my teammates.

Challenge ends on July 1st. Don't forget to use a stamp a year or older and tell us about it that's part of the fun. Also, please limit your entries to 10 challenges including ours.

Thanks

Cx

Cheers!

Hey,

Happy Monday..

As I predicted the weather here in London is blah..raining as always..I am English, I should be used to this by now..

Anyway, today I thought I'd share a card I made as a commission for a friend. The brief was - make a card involving booze.

Pretty straightforward and as I hadn't used the new Winnie & Walter 'Cheers' die yet, it felt like the perfect time to break it out.

I love the 'Hello Summer' stamp by Unity Stamp Co. -

I thought the fun cocktails would work well with the Cheers die.

I opted for Summery distress ink colours for the cocktails, applied with an aqua brush and maintained the summery feel with the die-cut and card blank.

The 'It's your birthday' sentiment is by Simon Says Stamp and is probably the most overused stamp in my stash..it is so handy. I might have to buy the set it comes from again, as I am terrified it will wear out / get lost..

Once I had assembled the card, it felt like it was missing something so I stamped tiny little stars in gold ink all over the card - this is a fave trick and works every time in my opinion.

Have a great week, I have a busy one ahead of me here in London, but there are also lots of fun things happening this week too :)

Cx

I heart Playdates...

Hey,

Hope you had a good weekend.

I had a fun time playing in Cheiron's craft room (still jealous).

We did a few individual makes before making the thank you cards for all the wonderful companies that gifted us things at the April Loft Art Retreat.

Today's main photo is of all the things we made to say thanks, we divided and conquered. From the top left going clockwise:
Winnie and Walter (me), Simon Says Stamp (me), Newton's Nook (Cheiron), Lawn Fawn (Cheiron) and Neat & Tangled (me).

Fun right? So many great stamps and techniques.

I made three cards, using Cheiron's kit (yay) I also got to play with the new Lawn Fawn releases.

The first two cards used the new Lawn Fawn releases - Mermaid for you and So smooth, both of which I now have to buy!

Woodgrain paper - coloured with distress sprays, stamps coloured with distress inks

Distress ink Peacock Blue background, stamps coloured with Copics

My third card used a great die by Poppy Stamps that I found on Cheiron's desk. I put Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade, Mowed Lawn and Mustard Seed distress inks onto my mat, spritzed it and smooshed my paper in it.

I was quite surprised by the colour I got in the end, the green completely disappeared. I loved it though and when it was die-cut it was even prettier.

I kept it simple by sticking the die-cut pieces to a piece of Tim Holtz Woodgrain paper and adding a simple sentiment.

Here's a bonus 4th card that I made when I got home using the die-cut piece from card three -

No sentiment yet, sometimes I leave cards blank, ready for an occasion

I love playing with other people's kit.

Have a great week, four days for me, as I am off to AC on Thursday :)

Cx