Critter Crowd Birthday...

Hey,

Happy Sunday to you!!

This set is one of my all-time faves - Critter Crowd by Simon Says Stamp for Stamptember 2019.

I love using it, it makes such gorgeous cards. These ones are for charity, Scrapbook.com run Cards for Kindness and I like to send a bumper box of approx 150 cards every 3 months. This time they were requesting kids birthday cards. This set is perfect for that subject.

Pretty easy to make, I stamp and watercolour them (watercolouring bigger batches of cards is much quicker for me than colouring with markers), blend the bottom of the panel, stamp the sentiment and then assemble.

I always make a few extra for myself, but I am running out of little kids....

Cx

 

A surprise gift...

 

Hey, 

Happy Friday!

So over Easter weekend I got a surprise parcel from my Aunt in Texas.. I was literally blown away by it.

I suspect that she doesn't have a lot to spare, so that made it even sweeter. But it was also super thoughtful. I mean I am the vainest person I know, so a stamp of my face = YAASSSS. But not only that, there were gift cards, stamps, planner clips, tape, a little purse and gifts for 'my 2 legged and 4 legged nephews' hahaha.

All 3 of us were very happy with the parcel and it made our weekend.

Obviously I had to break out one of the stamp sets and make some cards. I decided to pay it forward and use the lovely gift to make some cards for charity - I added the 'Buzzing by to say' sentiment by Honey Bee stamps. I believe the stamp set is called 'Nature Icons' and is from Joanns.

Cute right? I love how they came out and that fancy die really finished the card for me.

Have a great weekend, I will be watching the Gran Prix at Imola on Sunday.

Cx

Fusion Card Challenge - Poppies

Hey,

Welcome to another awesome Fusion Card Challenge.

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

Which will you try?

I was inspired by the Poppies in the photo. I love Poppies, Hubby bought me white ones last year in my Anniversary bouquet and they were gorgeous.

This stamp by Unity Stamp Co 'Poppy Girl' is one of the most overused things in my craft room. She is so much fun to watercolour (which I did here) and is just so impactful, I use her all the time.

I added a simple sentiment (Avery Elle) and used a fancy die to add interest.

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 April 27th.

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #156 Colour Challenge - Pastels...

 

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

This time we have a colour challenge for you - use pastels on your card.

I do love a pastel on a card, especially if I am watercolouring. This time though, I decided to use markers.

My stamp is by Studio Katia 'A Cup of Thanks' that I have had since 2019 - I find it to be very versatile and I have used it for birthdays, get well soon and other things, alongside its intended use of 'thanks'.

I used Copics to colour the cup and the flowers and it actually reminds me of one of the vintage cup and saucers that my Momma collects.

I used the Lawn Fawn 'Petite Dandy Day' paper for the background and for the top layer of my 'thanks' die-cut. I love these papers, but full-disclosure, I do not need any more paper, so I refuse to buy anything patterned. And one of my amazing friends decided I had to have it and bought it for me. So sweet.

I cut the 'thanks' die - also by Lawn Fawn and my fave thanks ever, using 1 piece of self-adhesive white foam (by Scrapbook.com) and cut the top out of a scrap of the Dandy Day paper. I rarely do this, because I can't be bothered LOL. BUT I love how it looks, so I invested in some 1/8 inch self-adhesive foam and now I just can't stop doing it!

I can't wait to see how you use pastels on your card. Don't forget to pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends April 23.

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

Digital Layouts - Love Our Designers - The Lilypad

 

Hey,

Happy Monday, hope you had a great weekend?

Today I wanted to share just a couple of my fave layouts from the Love Our Designers feature that The Lilypad did during Feb and March.

I find with digital items, that I am drawn to the same designers over and over again, especially if they run a challenge that I can play along with. But every now and then I buy things from other designers. The two layouts shown here were made from kits that I couldn't resist.

Main photo uses a kit by Valerie Wibbens - I love her whimsical illustrations and I fell in love with this 'Let's Get Lost' kit and had been itching to use it. I used one of Valerie's free templates and it came out just as I had imagined - don't you love it when that happens.

The layout below was for The Paislee Press. Their stuff is so clean and elegant, it always reminds me of CAS cards. I used mainly their 'For Like Ever' kit, perfect for one of my fave Wedding photos and just SO clean.

In the year that I have been digitally scrapping, I have learned so much and realised that there is a lot of my cardmaking me in my layouts. I love CAS cards so very much, but I love critters and pattern mixing too and I find I can always sneak these into my layouts!

Cx