CAS Colors & Sketches: Mmmm chocolate..

Hey,

More challenge loveliness for you today,

This time I am playing along with CAS Colors & Sketches.

I love sketches..

I know I always say this, but when I saw this sketch I knew exactly what I was going to do with it.

I love Monster stamps and this sketch felt perfect for one of my fave Monster stamps by Your Next Stamp from their 'Silly Monsters Chillout' set. I think YNS make some of the best Monster stamps and I have nearly all of them now :)

I used the Monster and the mug stamp from the set, stamped, coloured and cut him and I stamped and cut out the matching sentiment too. I cut a piece of white card stock and popped up my Monster and the sentiment using foam tape.

This card was obviously very simple to make and it makes me SUPER happy just looking at the Monster eyeing up the Hot Chocolate.

I know, I know, I am a giant kid!

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #154 Anything Goes...

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

This time it is everyone's fave - Anything Goes!

By now you are fully aware of my love of Monster stamps. I am a very lucky girl, because all my crafty friends know this and I am always being sent Monster stamps by them. As yet I do not have a single duplicate - just how many Monster stamps are there?! So generally for a anything goes challenge, I dig out a neglected Monster stamp!

You also know I am a fan of creating my own background and I love this Mama Elephant 'Monster Jam' set and the little Monster with the tambourine is my fave, so I created a background using just him! I coloured them all using Copics and Sakura Gelly Roll Starburst glitter pens.

The sentiment is from the set and it's pretty small, so it didn't cover too much of my fun background.

What will you dig out of the archives? Pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends March 26th.

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

MONSTERS!!!!

Hey,

So the Labor Day sales gave me the opportunity to buy some Monster stamps I have been longing for.

First up is the awesome Ink Blot Shop 'Party Monster' - HOW amazing is he?! I love his teeny tiny little hands, they crack me up every time I see them.  The stamp is pretty big, so I didn't have to do a lot here, stamp and colour the Monster and add the sentiment!

The card below features a Taylored Expressions Monster from their 'Party Monster's' set.

Again another card that was super simple, this time I combined two sentiments, as I thought this little Monster looked like he was ready to party ;)

Cx

Monsters: Repeat Stamping..

Hey,

Welcome to March!

You must all know by now that I LOVE Monster stamps!

A few weeks ago, I decided to pull out a couple of Monster stamp sets that haven't been used in a while and I chose Flonzcraft Monsters and Microbes and Jane's Doodles Monster Squad.

I thought a bit of repeat stamping would be fun.

The main photo uses the stamps by Flonzcraft, these are too much fun and were a gift from Lisette. I decided to just use x3 colours and x3 of the stamps - you get approx 20 stamps in this set!

I love how fun and bright it came out and it really pops against the orange mat, my sentiment pops more IRL.

Next up is my fave Jane's Doodles monster - I think I love him because you can use a large googly eye! The background for this card was created using an arrow stamp that came with the Monster set and I stamped it using Altenew inks - I have the Shades of Purple set - I LOVE their inks.

Super easy and fun monster cards.

Cx

The Paper Players: Hello Monster Friend...

Hey,

Happy Monday.

It is a very Happy Monday for me, as my work permit FINALLY arrived on Saturday, so back to work I go on Thursday.

To celebrate I am playing along with the current Paper Players challenge -

I love sketches and this one is super versatile.

As always I reached for my ridiculously large Monster stamp stash..I love this set (Monster Squad) by Jane's Doodles.

This is where a stamp platform comes in super handy. I die-cut my white panel and then lined up all my stamps using my Tim Holtz stamping platform. Super easy and quick.

I coloured my Monster using Promarkers and Spectrum Noir sparkle pens.

I pulled out a lovely piece of patterned paper by Studio Calico, I love their papers. I added a strip of ancient glittery DCWV paper.

I used foam tape to pop up the main panel and I added a matching enamel dot and a googly eye to the Monster.

Fun card and I know exactly who to send it to.

Cx

Mini Monster Thanks...

Hey,

So I think I have mentioned before my love of Monster stamps and dies...

I am fortunate enough to have amazing friends that randomly send me Monster stamps and dies in the post. Honestly..without asking, I get home and there are these amazing things waiting for me. So lucky.

When I got home this weekend, there was a little package from Cheiron, it had this amazing card in it..

And pineapple socks, a crafty keyring, a Tim Holtz Splatter tool and these awesome Monster dies..

Silly Monsters by Tim Holtz and Sizzix

How awesome is that!

So I had to make her a card using one of the dies to say thanks. I decided to go for bright colours, as Cheiron tends to work with these kinds of colours. I die-cut the sentiment (by Tim Holtz) and affixed it to my Monster, then for a bit of a laugh I added some googly eyes!

I love it, can't wait to play with the rest of the dies.

Cx

I just want to say Hello!...

Hey,

I decided I wanted this card to have it's own post and not be part of the April craftgang bulk post.

I love it SO much. I found this great stamp set in Jamey's stash last month -

Eek! A Monster by My Cute Stamp

Isn't it cute!

I love monster stamps.

I stamped the monster with the flame coming out of his mouth.

When I got him home I coloured it with Zigs and die-cut it out using an ancient recently rediscovered scalloped rectangle die (bought in Amsterdam in 2012).

I thought it would be fun to stamp a cityscape around the monster, only problem was that I couldn't mask him off as I don't have the stamp.. cue the amazing lightbox, I traced around the image and cut it out to create a mask. BOOM. Gotta love that lightbox.

I used New York Tim Holtz cityscape stamp -

I love these stamps and I got them in a super bargain Black Friday sale..

The final touch was the sentiment from Your Next Stamp Silly Monsters set.

After I stamped the sentiment, I realised that perhaps the monster didn't mean to rampage across the city, he was just trying to say Hello! Yes. I am slightly bonkers.

Cx

Monster Hugs from Me to You..

Hey,

So I am back in NYC now. I had a fun time in London, lots of work, but lots of hangs with some of my fave peeps and my family.

I didn't blog much whilst I was away and I'm learning to be ok with not posting every single day..it's an internal struggle, but I am getting there!

I made today's card before I left for London. I saw something on Instagram that sparked this idea and I am pretty pleased with the end result.

I love Monster stamps and having a stamp and die of the word Monster is just amazing!

I used the Neat & Tangled 'Little Monster' set for the large word, large Monster and the sentiment. The other Monsters and stars are by Clearly Besotted and Mama Elephant.

I felt pretty brave with the overhanging word!

As JT said when I showed it to her over the weekend, the stars really make the card and I only added them because I wasn't a 100% happy with it!

Goes to show a small stamp can add a lot.

Cx

Bullet Journal: January 2018..

Hey,

So as I love notes, journals, pens and all things stationery related, I have been considering trying out bullet journaling for a while.

I finally bit the bullet (sorry..) and spent some of the Christmas break doing extensive research about how my journal would work and what I wanted it to look like.

I started using a Traveller's Notebook last year and I love the format. I also got this new Webster's Pages TN in the Black Friday Studio Calico sale ($9) So I bought a mixed media TN insert and utilised this for my new bullet journal.

I do not have the tidiest handwriting so this was part of my concern about bullet journaling, but so far it doesn't look too bad.

One of the things I learnt during my research phase is that every Month doesn't have to look the same. I like this, variety is the spice of life.

I started by drawing a rough sketch and figuring out what I really wanted, I decided that sections for a monthly calendar, goals of the month (self-shaming..) and highlights of the month, were a must have.

I also thought it would be fun to add Monster of the Month. Partly because I love Monsters and have a huge Monster/Alien stamp collection and also because I am a crafter, there had to be a stamp and colour element for me. Underneath my January Monster is 'Monster Facts' LOL. For January its a little blurb about the stamp, he's an Alien and he is from my first ever Alien/Monster stamp set from 2012.

As you can see I have x3 'spare' boxes - I am using one for 'To Do List' and the other two I have no plans for right now..

I added colour to my page with Zigs and a paintbrush, I like how it came out, feels like a frosty January and it sure is that here in NYC right now!!

I might add something to the top right hand corner, but we'll see...

Cx

30 Days of ATStamps...

Hey,

Happy Monday!

Hope you had a good weekend?

I have been having a lovely time in January with my blog, I have posted quite a lot and a lot of it has been end of 2019 makes, which is nice. I have entered a few challenges, so new stuff has been made, but it's been nice sharing some of the things I made towards the end of last year. I got a bit of Christmas fatigue and really just couldn't muster up the enthusiasm for my blog!

Today I am showing you a really cool project / challenge that I did last November.

Carabelle Studios hosted a 30 days of ATStamps. I saw this post on The Kathryn Wheel blog and was totally hooked and had to join in.

Here are the prompts for the 30 days -

The prompts were great and the rules were reasonably loose - each ATStamp had to be 6x4cm, and had to resemble a postage stamp. Using Carabelle Studio stamps was optional and as I only had x5 of their stamps at the time, I mixed it up a LOT.  Mid-way through the challenge, I managed to acquire x3 more sets on sale. Also you could make more than 1 ATStamp per prompt and I did do this for some of them, as I had so many cool ideas in my head!

Here is a little glimpse of my ATStamp's -

From top left clockwise 1) close-up of the ATStamps, 2) a cent for scale as most people on insta thought they were much bigger! 3) the permanent home in my art journal for the ATStamps, they were too much work and too gorgeous to give away.. 5) my fave monster ATStamp 6) all of my ATStamps - I ended up with 38

Kathryn of The Kathryn Wheel, gave me a good idea for how to get started. I dug out all the scraps and stamped backgrounds, gelli plate backgrounds, smooshed backgrounds. I cut approx 40 6x4cm pieces from these backgrounds and they formed the 'base' for all my ATStamps. Some of them I didn't overly embellish and others I did a lot to.
I didn't have the Carabelle postage stamp base, so I used a Simon Says Stamp one from the 'Ho Ho Postage' set that I also have the dies for, I stamped and cut all of these and affixed the decorated piece to this.

The main photo today is of my fave ATStamp - Day 13 'Drink' I LOVE Monsters and I love Coffee too and this Monster stamp by Whippersnapper always reminds me of me in the morning.

This was one of the ATStamps that needed a bit of work.. I chose a green and orange background piece and stamped over it with a Carabelle text stamp. Then I prepped my Monster -

Sadly, I had to lose his bunny slipper! After I had trimmed down the Monster to fit the background panel, I added a sparkly M to his mug, as I suspect like me Mr Morning Monster might like a monogram ;)

Finally one fun fact for you, I didn't discover the challenge until 8 days in!! So I spent an entire Saturday afternoon prepping and making the first 9 ATStamps! Here is a photo of the first 9 -

I loved this little challenge, it was SO out of my comfort zone and I was really pleased that I decided to take the leap and join in. It was also fun breaking out my acrylic paint markers and using dots and lines to embellish these super small 'canvases'.

More projects like this in 2020 please.

Cx

CAS(E) This Sketch 285: Have a Monster Birthday...

Hey,

Happy Sunday.

Because of my epic night out on Friday yesterday was a bit of a nothing day!

Today I am back at my desk, but still a teeny bit slow.

I needed inspiration and went looking for a challenge and I liked the sketch over at CAS(E) this sketch this week -

Nice and straightforward for my slow brain today.

I decided to break out a set of stitched rounded rectangle dies for the shapes - I don't use these as much as I used to, as I lost the most useful size of the die between my desk and the expedit and trust me that is WAY too much work to recover that..

I stamped the Monster from the Neat & Tangled 'Little Monster' set onto white card and die-cut it out. I decided I didn't want to hide him completely and so used vellum for the central panel.

I heat embossed half of the sentiment onto the vellum panel (by Snarky Stamps).

I love the giant 'monster' word stamp and die from the set - I totally overuse it..

I am super pleased at how my card came out and I LOL when I showed it to my Hubby he said 'obviously the first thing you make is a Monster card..'

My love of Monsters is renowned..

Cx

Monster time..

Hey,

Hope you had a good weekend, Hubby and I had a nice relaxed one.

The Lawn Fawn Monster Mash set I ordered FINALLY turned up, so I had a play and made a couple of cards for friends..

I popped a monster out on each card for a bit of fun and added googly eyes!

I love them both - they make me smile.

What did I use?
Lawn Fawn Monster Mash Stamps, Promarkers, Recollections Papers, googly eyes from my stash, MFT stitched rectangles, SSS Stitched rectangles, MFT Hybrid ink, SSS & Hero Arts Happy Birthday stamp.

Cx

Paper Players: Monster Thank You..

Hey,

You know I love a sketch! The current one over at The Paper Players, just called out for a MOnster card...

I used one of my fave Monster sets by MFT 'More Monsters'. I love this set as you get separate stamps for the eyes and teeth, so you can mix and match them.

I chose a funky piece of background paper from Pink Fresh Studio and cut a circle from some scrap paper in a toning colour.

The sentiment is also from the same set and I love the punch that I stamped it on to - by Stampin' Up called 'Washi Tape', it gets a lot of use.

I mounted the Monster and the sentiment using foam tape and added some enamel dots and googly eyes for a bit of fun.

I love him, he's so bright and cheery!

Cx

Sketch Saturday #528...Little Miss Muffet Stamps..

Hey,

Happy Saturday to you and welcome to the latest sketch for the Sketch Saturday challenge.

Our sponsor this week is Little Miss Muffet Stamps and they are offering a prize of a $6 gift certificate to their store.

Here's the sketch..which just happens to be by me :)

If you know me, you know I LOVE Monster stamps, I have tons of them and I am lucky enough to have great friends who just randomly send me Monster stamps in the post..

So I was delighted when I found 'Monster Urm', he is a perfect fit for the sketch and I love him!

As always I tried to keep it simple and let my Monster be the main attraction! I coloured him and die-cut the white panel using a SSS stitched circle die.

Both of the papers I used are scraps and the sentiment is by Your Next Stamp.

I added some Nuvo crystal drops for some shimmer.

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 August 31 7pm GMT / 2pm EST

Cx

Try it on Tuesday: Stencils and Dies and Monsters...

Hey,

Happy Friday!

I found a new to me challenge this weekend.. Try it on Tuesday.. I liked the current theme, Stencils / dies or both and so I decided to play along.

I went with both stencils and dies - I made a ton of gelli plate backgrounds a while ago using a fave Neat and Tangled circle stencil and distress paints.

I dug one out and die-cut it using a mini triangle cover plate - which I bought second-hand on a Facebook group, I think it is by MFT.

I love the end result, the big circles with the random triangles works so well.

No card is complete without a Monster..and for this card I decided to break out one of my faves by My Cute Stamp (a gift from Jen). I love this Monster so much, that I stamped him, scanned him in and die-cut a bunch on my Silhouette, as he has no dies.

For the final touch I added a sentiment by Hero Arts - which came in this set and was also a gift (from Cheiron)..my friends gift me Monster stamps all the time, they are WAAAY too kind.

I have just noticed that my Monster matches the pink background LOL..honestly that was an accident.

Cx

Margate Craftathon 2017: Part One...

Hey,

Happy Sunday to you!

I am having a fun weekend hanging with Hubby watching NFL pre-season games and of course the boxing..

I figure it is going to take me several posts to show you the Margate makes..which is cool as I am heading to Mexico on Sautrday and so will need to schedule some posts.

Today's post is a mix, because I used some new things in Margate that came in the post 2 days before I left from my friend Jen. So the main photo is the thank you card I quickly whipped up using Lil Inkers Cat Treats set and a Concord & 9th sentiment stamp.

I LOVE Monster stamps, I think most people know that and to be honest I do come home to little surprise parcels with Monster stamps a lot more than I should...I am a very lucky girl.

Here is the little haul I got from Jen - 

Awesome right?!

So it made sense to shove them into my case and take them with me.

The first card I made on Friday was based on a card JT and I were using as inspiration to get us started. I used the Hero Arts 'Eat Cake All Day' set from Jen -

Super simple card to get me started. I love the monster he looks so happy..The sentiments in the set are fun too, I really like 'I could eat you up' ha ha ha.

I have actually wanted these Paperartsy Monster stamps for a while, but never got round to buying them..

I thought it would be fun to make a set of cards, using four of the stamps from the set. They were all coloured using Distress inks and the sentiment is by Clearly Besotted.

Retro Rubber Challenge #148 Birthday...

Hey,

Welcome to another awesome Retro Rubber challenge - can you believe it is nearly Thanksgiving?!

This time we have a birthday challenge for you - 

I think we all love making birthday cards, they can be so very personal. And if you know me, you know I love Monster stamps and they generally find their way onto my birthday cards!

This one is a fave of mine (his teeny tiny hands are just amazing) and is by Ink Blot Shop 'Party Monster' he was released in August 2019 and I have had him since the minute he came out, I have a built-in Monster stamp radar!!

First I stamped the sentiment, as I wanted my Monster to look like he was sitting on top of it. After stamping him, he was coloured with Copics and a teeny bit of Sakura gelly roll starburst glitter pen. 

The sentiment is by Unity Stamp Co, from their 'Frankly Said' set that I have had since 2018 and it comes with the most amazing choice of sentiments. I bought another one of it and I gift the individual sentiments to my crafty friends.

The white panel was die-cut with my fave Tim Holtz + Sizzix deckle edge rectangle dies.

Have you got a fave style of birthday card? Can't wait to see what you make. Be sure to pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends November 27th

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

Monster Thanks...

Hey,

So you might remember that I stamped the Monster above when I was at Jamey's on a craftgang playdate a couple of months ago.

I fell in love with the stamp set and really wanted it. Sadly the company don't make it anymore.

So I put out a social media appeal, begging someone to sell it me!

My wonderful friend Jen left me a 'don't buy it' message and then about a week later this arrived -

Yay! How lovely are my friends and how lucky am I that they all indulge my Monster fetish,

Even better is that the card Jen sent with the stamps was made using a stamp set I sent her ;)

So I made her a thank you - not a surprise as I previewed him on Instagram.. I used Simon Says Stamp sentiment and heart stamps to help my Monster show his gratitude. He is so versatile..

Love my little craft world, makes me all warm and fuzzy.

Cx

Embrace the monster hugs...

Hey,

Happy Friday.

Glad that the weekend has rolled around again..ready to do some relaxing..

Again I am playing along with CASology, so happy I found them, I am loving all this CAS playtime..

This week's cue is -

The Monster stamp (Your Next Stamp) might not immediately convey  'Embrace' but when I put it together with the sentiment (Lawn Fawn) it really does..for me.

It reminds me of the hugs that my Hubby gives me when I am sad about stuff.

I kept it super clean, just stamped the sentiment onto a die-cut stitched panel and added my Monster..I love these Monster stamps, they are going to be so over used!

Have a great weekend.

Cx

Color Throwdown: Monster Birthday Hugs..

Hey,

Today my Momma arrives for 2 weeks and I have next week off - whoop!

I saw the colours over at Color Throwdown this week and had to play along..

So many possibilities with this combo.

Of course I had to use a Monster ;)

I cut a black card black and adhered my coverplate die-cut to it (MFT Peek a boo dots).

I embossed part of a pale blue piece of card and added that to my card to anchor my Monster and the sentiment.

The Monster is from the Bo Bunny 'Monsters' set and was a gift from my friend Jen. I coloured him with promarkers and fussy cut him.

I added the sentiment using my label maker and a MFT die..

I love how it came out and the pale blue really pops against the black and white.. I think I'm going to make a whole bunch of stuff with this combo.

Cx