Unicorns and Rainbows...

Hey,

Hello from London!

Last weekend, I decided I would have a fun playtime with x3 sets by Ellen Hutson and Julie Ebersole.

I LOVE how Julie draws Unicorn, they have a really feminine feel to them.

I used these x3 sets - Over it, Unicorns 'n Rainbows and Pure Magic.

First I stamped, coloured and cut all the unicorns I wanted to use, then I used them to decide where my sentiments would go. I should mention that right now I am obsessed with Sakura Gelly Roll glitter pens, they are AMAZING..so much shimmer.

For two of the cards I added clouds / rainbow behind the unicorn and I stamped and coloured these, before adding my unicorns, that I mounted with foam tape.

I love how simple these cards are and how much they POP on the hot pink card blanks.

Cx

Happy Birthday Man...

Hey,

As I land in London it is JT's birthday!

I am super excited that I am going to get to do hangs with her next week and we'll see if I can make her bday party tonight (possible jetlag tbc).

JT and I have been friends for 8 years. But to me it feels like she has been a part of my life forever and quite frankly I am not sure what I would do without her.

She is a force of nature, hilarious, kind, crazy and if you are her friend, she will love and take care of you for always.

Keeping this short and sweet, as I gush about her every year and it might just be getting a teeny bit embarrassing! Her card will be posted in a few weeks as a Retro Rubber make :)

Read more gushing about her in my 2019 and 2018 posts.

Happy Birthday Man - you are one of the best chosen sisters any girl could ever ask for.

Cx

Tic Tac Toe Challenge: Llama Garden..

Hey,

Happy Friday!

I am heading to London today for 10 days, for work mainly, but I will get to hang with my family and friends too.

My teammate from Retro Rubber - LeAnne is on the DT for Tic Tac Toe Challenge and I was so happy to discover that there is a dedicated TTT challenge, that I am diving straight in.

Here's the current board -

I chose the top row: Flower-Die Cut-Yellow.

I love the Llama Garden set by Flora & Fauna and I wanted to make a fun card for a work colleague's birthday, so I stamped, coloured and die-cut all the elements from the set.

As the elements are SUPER busy, I thought a simple background would be good, so I die-cut an MFT Stitched Arch die in white and stenciled the tulips on to it. I used a different technique for my stenciling here, as I taped down the stencil and used Copics to colour the tops and bottoms.

I assembled it all onto a yellow card blank and finished it off with a die-cut Happy Birthday (dies by Simon Says Stamp).

I love how it came out, it's so fussy and different for me - which is always nice. It's now waiting on my desk to be handed over to my colleague.

Have a great weekend, see you in London next week.

Cx

The Paper Players: Love you pig time..

Hey,

This weekend I had fun creating Valentine's cards for a few of my girlfriends.

I saw the Paper Players challenge this week and thought my card(s) would be perfect.

I love making Valentine's cards and if I wasn't leaving for London on Friday, I would have made more than 8 of them!

I bought the cute little Pig set last year in the post Valentine's Michael's sale and this is the first time he has been inked (I wanted to write oinked..) up.

I stamped, coloured and cut 6 of the Pigs and the coordinating sentiment, which had it's own die - WIN. I dug out some random small square card blanks and used that as a template for which size heart die I would use.

The heart die is pretty new, I bought it at the end of December when I was in London, I just loved all the details - stitched, scalloped and dotted - swoon.

I wanted these cards to be super quick makes and so I grabbed an ancient 4x4 paper pad and just choose 6 papers I liked!

They came together so easily and I love how silly they are!

I think Valentine's Day is silly, love is a 365 day a year thing and we shouldn't celebrate our love for our partners, friends, family on just one day, we should remember that life is very short and we should celebrate love every day. It sounds silly, but I tell my Hubby every single day that I love him, even when I want to murder him.
All of this said, I still love the card making part of Valentine's Day - silly, overblown declarations of love and that is partly why I love being a card maker, for the silly moments in life.

Cx

Seize The Birthday: Narly..

Hey,

Happy Monday!

Hope you had a great weekend?

I had a great one, loved the Superbowl this year, but it's always bittersweet as it means the season is officially over.

Today I am playing along with the current Seize the Birthday, with topping!

I have TONS of creature stamps.. but I decided to use the super cute 'Winter Narwhal' by Lawn Fawn that a friend gave me late last year.

I just had this idea in my head for him and it came out exactly as I had imagined!

I stamped, coloured and fussy cut my Narwhal. Then I cut waves out of x2 kinds of blue scrap papers using the Newton's Nook 'Sea Borders' dies. The polaroid die is by MFT and I used it to die-cut the cloud paper to fit the window and for the frame, I used a piece of embossed white paper for the frame, to create a bit more interest.

I decided to pair the sentiment from the set with a little birthday die-cut.

I think it looks like my Narhwal is surfing and that makes me happy.

Cx