Sunday, July 31, 2016

Queen of the entire freakin' universe..

Hey,

Happy Sunday.

I wanted to show you a card I made as part of The Daily Marker 30 days of colouring.

It did double duty and got entered into the UnityStampCo 'Show&Tell' Challenge on Facebook, this week we had to use a stamp from their itty bitty collection..

I love this stamp, I bought it because the sentiment makes me laugh and the actual image reminds me of a work colleague, so the card is actually with me in London, because I am giving it to her tomorrow;)

I stamped the lady onto a piece of white mixed media card and then created a mask for her, so I could stencil over the top, I wanted the stenciling to show through the gaps between her arms and body.

I used Distress Inks and mini daubers - Mustard Seed is the darker colour and Squeezed Lemonade is is the lighter colour.

The lady I coloured with Promarkers and I am super pleased with her shirt, I opted for highlights and not fully coloured in.

I die-cut the whole image using a MFT stitched rounded rectangle die (love these).

So simple, I really need to highlight a single image with a sunburst more often!

Cx



Saturday, July 30, 2016

30 Days of Colouring...a little glimpse


Hey,

So I am now in London for the next week, which will be nice as it's Momma's birthday on Sunday, so I get to celebrate with her this weekend.

I thought as I am travelling I would give you another peek at what I have been colouring / making for the latest The Daily Marker 30 day colouring challenge..they are not in any particular order :)

The main photo today is Day 16, I love the digi stamp by Dearie Dolls..how cute is the bunny and her Carrot dress (I totally need a Carrot dress), it was so much fun to colour this image and turn it into a card.

The next card is Day 21..I was very tired post yoga and so opted for the bare minimum colouring..I love these new Avery Elle fish, they are so ugly and fun.


The sentiment stamps are by Snarky Stamps and they have some stamps in there very suitable for my potty mouth. I made the background for the card using a Tim Holtz mini stencil and texture paste. When it dried I laid the stencil back down and blended distress ink over the paste, to kind of get a sea effect for my ugly fish :)

Finally Day 10, I love these great watercolour panels by Suzy Plantamura for Simon Says Stamp.


I got a whole bunch of them in a cardkit and they are so easy to colour using distress inks and an aquabrush, they make super easy and impactful cards.

I will put all of the cards up onto Flickr when the 30 days are up.

Have a great weekend, my posts will be mainly scheduled this week, so I'll see you live a week on Monday :)

Cx

Friday, July 29, 2016

CASE A Card..Grid Scraps...


Hey,

Happy Friday.

I am leaving for London later on today, so my posts will pretty much be scheduled for the next 10 days..

As you know I have been recently having a Pinterest CASE frenzy! Today is the latest one.

I saw this card -

Image courtesy of Snippets by Design
I really liked the grid idea and the idea that it could be made from scraps. Wasn't keen on the twine though, so left that off of my card.

As you can see from my card, this isn't a straight CASE. I used all spotty papers by Lawn Fawn, die-cut and heat embossed sentiments and added little pearls to my heart and star.

Not the easiest card, as I had to work out the grid, so I could cut the scraps to size, but it was a great way to use scraps and is so bright and spotty I love it.

I need to think about how to make it easier, so I can make tons of them :)

Have a great weekend, see you in London tomorrow.

Cx

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Clearly Besotted In the Frame...

Hey,

I have had this Clearly Besotted In the Frame stamp and die set for a while.



I have played with it, but the results have been a bit meh..

So over the weekend I thought I'd try again and now with my shiny new MISTI the stamping is much better. It all felt over inked before, like I had pressed too hard on the stamp block.

The main card was such a fun easy make. I stamped the frame in purple ink, then die-cut it, then I stamped the sentiment.

I LOVE tags, I can't get enough of them, I have x2 sets of tag dies, but yet I am always buying them, I have a photo box FULL to the brim of them.. The glittery, spotty, vellum beauty used here was bought at AC Moore when I was in Philly for the family reunion, 6 for $1 and the plain card under was a bonus, I didn't realise they had that AND they came with that sparkly twine..swoon central.

I mounted the tag onto a card blank made using my fave purple Simon Says Stamp cardstock. I added the frame piece to that and voila! finished card..

Love it.
Banners made using a Stampin' Up banner punch

I made another one, which is winging its way to a friend -

Two different cards using the same set..loving stretching my stamps right and now and so happy I had another play with this stamp set and it worked out for me.

Cx

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Christmas in July...

What!!!

I know, I know.. it's too early to be thinking about Christmas right?

Paperless Post is doing a Christmas in July challenge and I was so excited to be invited to participate!

There are some really great party invites over at Paperless Post and it sparked an idea for creating my own one..wouldn't it be fun to throw a  Christmas party in July - what would it be like?

I like the idea of a beachy, bright Christmas celebration - like it would be if I lived in Hawaii..

So that is the theme for my imaginary party - Hawaii...

Here's my invite -

Invite template by Paperless Post (image not included)
Ha ha ha - see you are wishing that this party was on now aren't you!

As we are in 'Hawaii' I'd be hosting my party at the beach, we'd be barbecuing the Turkey and the sides and I'd ask everyone to bring a Christmas / Holiday dessert -

Like these fun Meringue Trees -

Image courtesy of Two Sisters Crafting
 Or these Christmas Tree cakes..yums!!

Image courtesy of Cuded Art and Design
How do you decorate a beach Christmas..

Wouldn't it be fun to add twinkly lights to these homemade Christmas Mason jars..

Image courtesy of Put it in a Jar
...then as it gets late, everyone gets a jar and it would feel all festive and intimate..

Of course everyone loves to get a present and I wouldn't let you leave my party empty handed.

Continuing the Hawaii theme, I stamped some paper with Pineapples, Christmas trees and festive wording and made it into mini Christmas boxes, complete with a Snowflake flower LOL -


Who knows what would be in your Christmas in July present, but whatever it is, I am sure you'll love it!

It is still a bit early for some people to be planning Christmas, but personally I think that it's always good to start thinking about these things...If you are not a crazy cardmaker like me, check out the great Christmas Cards on offer over at Paperless Post.

Cx


Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Retro Rubber #43..Anything Goes with a summer theme.. still time to play...



Hey,

Still time for you to join in the latest awesome challenge over at Retro Rubber

This theme is always a fave, Anything Goes, but this time with a Summer theme - 

Show us your Summertime anything goes makes and go over to Retro Rubber and view the great makes by my teammates.

Challenge ends on July 29th. 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.

Cx

Monday, July 25, 2016

CASE a Card....Cardkit...


Hey,

Hope you all had a nice weekend? Mine was very peaceful, after the excesses of Hubby's birthday :)

Recently I have been re-visiting my Card Ideas Pinterest board, partly because I want to use more of my enormous stash and also because I want to actually use my Pinterest boards.

I saw this card - 
Image courtesy of My Impressions Blog

It was made using the Feb 2016 Simon Says Stamp cardkit - which as you can see from the main photo I totally have!!

I decided to use a different stripey paper and dug out some ancient blue glittery washi tape. It changes the look just a bit and I added a blue enamel dot to the top of the heart - which I punched using a scalloped heart punch.

As the card uses such a straightforward formula and an entire Cardkit at my disposal, I decided to make a variant - 

I love both cards, they were super easy to make and I did actually make several variants:)

I did some more fun CASEing over the weekend, so I'll be posting those next week, whilst I am in the UK.

Cx

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Happy Birthday Hubby...


Hey,

It was actually Hubby's birthday on Thursday, but I wanted to include pics from his birthday celebrations in my post..hence why it is being posted today :)

It was the most epic birthday, starting with seeing Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden on Weds - he was AWESOME.

I took Hubby to the Grand Central Oyster Bar for his birthday lunch (I had 1/2 a day off) and then we met up with friends at a local floating bar (the Crows Nest) at the Water Club on the East River.


From left, view from the bar of the East River up to the UN (white building), Hubby at GCOB, blue drink (named after me 'Mrs G'), Epic group selfie and Hubby with his sparkly birthday cake!

Friday was very, very hard, but it was worth it, because he had such a great time.

His card was made using the Lawn Fawn Year Five set - Cheiron gave it to me as a gift, because I call Hubby Otterboy :)

I love birthday's, a most excellent excuse for laughing, eating and drinking with the people you love.

Cx




Saturday, July 23, 2016

Papercrafter's Corner...Magazine Cover Challenge #153..


Hey,

Happy Weekend to you.

So I am playing along with the Magazine Cover Challenge again - over at Papercrafters Corner.

Last week was my first time playing along and I won!! How awesome is that.

This week's magazine cover made me smile -


The little girl is so cheeky!

I remembered that I had an ancient digital stamp by Birdie Brown that kind of reminded me of the girl and the puppy.

I printed two versions of the stamp, one plain and one with the girl's coat in Blue Check..to match the cover ;)

I fussy cut the coat out and paper pieced it over the blank version and then coloured and stickled the rest of the image.

As you can see I used red accents for the girl and her puppy, just like the Magazine cover.

I used a cream card blank, to replicate the background and I chose a sentiment that was big and bold, just like the Magazine title.

It's a very cute card that is going into my very mini Christmas card stash (I really need to start making Christmas cards..)

Another fun Magazine Cover Challenge..I will probably miss the next two - boo! As I am heading to London late next week..

Cx

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Moving Along With The Times...Monsters or Aliens...


Hey,

Welcome to another great challenge from the Moving Along With The Times team.

Our hostess this time is Tanja..she has chosen a theme of Monsters and/or Aliens.

I love a Monster / Alien stamp, so I had a hard time choosing what to use here, but I settled on the awesome Monster Morning stamp by Whipper Snapper Designs.

How can you not love a slightly grumpy monster in bunny slippers!!!

I stamped him and then masked him off, so I could add the green distress ink blended background..I wanted to give the illusion of a morning fug :)

I used distress inks and an aquabrush to colour him.

The sentiment was created using two different stamps.

I think he's fab and he actually went in the post to a client that I adore who lives in Portland, Oregon and has had to do a LOT of early morning calls. She always says at the end of the call, I need coffee right now LOL.

Your turn to make something fun with Monsters and/or Aliens, but first go and check out the makes from the rest of the team over at MAWTT.

Challenge ends 3rd August.

Cx

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Retro Rubber #43..Anything Goes with a Summer theme..

Hey,

It's time for another awesome challenge over at Retro Rubber

This theme is always a fave, Anything Goes, but this time with a Summer theme - 


So my teammates tell me that I am always making my own background - LOL. I never really noticed, but I do love using stamps to make backgrounds, it gives them so much more mileage.

As you can see I decided to create an ice-cream background for this card..it made me want ice-cream..(mint choc-chip is my fave..) The ice-creams are coloured with Promarkers and I used a quickie glue pen and super fine glitter to add some shimmer.

The stamps are by Simon Says Stamp and were part of a 2014 cardkit. I don't use them that often and it's a shame, as the sentiments - also used here - are a lot of fun.

I heat embossed the sentiments onto vellum - love doing this, the embossing is always so crisp and I love bright embossing powders. As always there is the 'how do I affix vellum' issue, so again I circumnavigated this by using staples - my default solution for anything that is hard to affix.

Super simple card using a couple of fun techniques.

Show us your Summertime anything goes makes and go over to Retro Rubber and view the great makes by my teammates.

Challenge ends on July 29th. 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.

Cx

Monday, July 18, 2016

CASE a Card...Flowers..


Hey,

Happy Monday, I am off today, hanging out with Ma, following our weekend in Philly and Sunday spent with JT's parents.

Following on from yesterday's post, I thought I'd show you another of my Pinterest CASEs.

I chose this card - 

Image Courtesy of Cupcakes, Cards and Kim
I love this idea of scribbly circles as flowers..

I pulled out three stamp sets by Simon Says Stamp - Scribble Flowers, Favorite Flowers and Birthday Flowers to use on my card.

I also decided not to stamp the solid circles but used Distress stains and kind of splodged them onto my paper..

For the main card I used Abandoned Coral, Squeezed Lemonade and Peacock Feathers stains. It is a pretty straightforward CASE, no real modifications, but it was so perfect, I didn't want to change a thing :)

Obviously I made a whole bunch of these as they take about 5 mins to do, once you have got your colour splodges down.

Here is another colour variant, using Picked Raspberry, Mowed Lawn and Peacock Feather stains -


These were super simple to make and I really love working with Distress Stains, you get such rich colours and no mess!

Cx

Sunday, July 17, 2016

CASE a Card...Layers..

Hey,

I've recently been going through my Pinterest board of 'craft ideas' I pin tons of things and then never do anything with them..

I decided that I would choose a handful of cards from the board and CASE them.

Here is the first card I chose -
Image courtesy of My Paper Secret.
Cool card right?

As you can see from my main photo my first card, was a reasonably true CASE.

I used a page from an old Thesaurus for the 'dictionary' style paper, a piece of Lawn Fawn Polka Dot paper, two scraps of American Crafts patterned paper (one for the vertical strip and one for the bird), the sentiment is by Simon Says Stamp and I added sequins and bling.

I love it and as it was such a fun formula, I made a couple more...

Different sentiment and a Crab!

Rotating the spotty panel changes the layout just slightly
I love them all and I especially love that you can read a bit of the thesaurus pages, adding a bit of extra interest.

I am also a bit in love the Hero Arts 'I miss that face of yours' sentiment - it is totally something I would say.

Cx

Saturday, July 16, 2016

CDT Red, Green and White...


Hey,

Happy Saturday to you, I am currently in Philly with Ma at a Family reunion.

I didn't have time to play along with the last Color Throwdown Challenge -


But because I loved the colours, I wanted to have a play with them anyway..

This new stamp set from Avery Elle arrived last Saturday morning -


I thought one of the ugly fishes would look great in green..

I stamped the chevron stamp in Barn Door distress ink and spritzed it with water and dabbed the excess around the page.

I added red, white and green bling and the sentiment by Hero Arts..

I love it, it's a bit weird, but perfectly so in my opinion.

Have a great weekend.

Cx

Friday, July 15, 2016

30 Days of Colouring...Day 6 Critters..


Hey,

Happy Friday.

I am off to Philly this afternoon, to join Ma at the family reunion and to see JT's parents :)

I thought it would be fun to show you another batch of cards I made using my colouring from The Daily Marker 30 Days of Colouring challenge.

Day 6 was fun, because I coloured all the critters from the Paper Smooches Chubby Chum Pals set and I made four fun and very different cards -

Crab is my main photo today..because I love Crabs, as does JT, we have a CrabbyMoose thing that is genuinely not funny to anyone but us! I decided that Mr Crab should have a bokeh background, it kind of feels like he is in water. The sentiment came from the same Paper Smooches set.

Moose is pretty simple, I used a Falling Flakes background stamp by Neat & Tangled, the sentiment from the same set as the Moose and added some googly eyes to him.


Chick came together because I saw the sentiment stamp (Stamping Bella) and I thought I'd use some creative licence and put him in a tree.. I liked the fact that the tree branch stamp I found (Freebie) had flowers, it adds a bit of interest to him. He is far up because I made an oopsie and had to turn the white panel around :)


Bear was tricky, I wasn't sure what would work with a Bear. So I stenciled the background (Crafters Workshop) to give me a forest type feel and then I went rooting through my sentiment stamps and saw the awesome 'Go Buck Wild' by Unity Stamp Co. I added the 'It's your birthday' sentiment (SSS) in part because I thought the bear needed to sit on something!


I had a lot of fun on Day 6 colouring and making these cards. It is so odd how the simple act of colouring four critters can spark my creativity..more of that please.

Have a great weekend.

Cx

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Seven Hills Crafts Colour Challenge...


Hey,

I was rummaging through Instagram and I came across a challenge run by an English craft store - Seven Hills Crafts.

I really liked the pretty colours and the fruity theme - although you don't need to use fruit. You do need to use at least one product that Seven Hills sell in their store.



I decided to use the first colour palette (the one with the Strawberry).

I wanted the main focus of my card to be the awesome Pop Art stamp set by Concord and 9th. I stamped and die-cut two of the pineapples.

I die-cut a white panel using MFT stitched rectangle dies, I inked a Stampin' Up brushstroke stamp in pale green ink and spritzed it with water, before laying the die-cut panel on it.

I used a green spotty scrap of paper from Lawn Fawn and affixed it to the stamped panel using hot pink staples - gotta love hot pink staples!

I was a bit in a quandary about how to display the pineapples on the card and decided to set them up at an angle on the green spotty panel. I punched a a Stampin' Up label in hot pink and stamped the sentiment on it.

Obviously I had to add bling to finish off my card..

I am pretty pleased with it, it's quite a busy mix of colours and patterns, but I like that.

Cx



Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Papercrafters Corner..Magazine Challenge #152...

Hey,

Recently whilst I was bumbling around blogs I stumbled across Papercrafters Corner - a great resource and they have an awesome challenge.

They give you a magazine cover as inspiration, you can pull out any of the elements for your project.

Here is the magazine cover for the current challenge #152 -


I love it and immediately thought it would make an awesome art journal spread.

So many of the elements inspired my spread..some are obvious, vintage lady, car, birds, map. I also used the colours from the background and the car to inspire my colour backdrop.

The grid in the car inspired me to stencil a grid here and there.

The map was the basis for my 16 scalloped rectangles, which if you look closely are the US states ;)

Just below the lady in the inspiration image there is a small piece of text, so I added some random text to my spread, you can also see subtle references to 1921 throughout my spread.

Finally I used the signpost as the main inspiration for my spread, I used the New York reference throughout and interpreted the signpost as arrows - all over.

This was such a fun spread to create, I can't wait for next week's inspiration cover.

Cx

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Retro Rubber #42...Brads or Eyelets..still time to play..



Hey,

There is still time for you to join in with the latest challenge over at Retro Rubber

This theme asks you to dig out old school embellishments and combine them with your older stamps

Show us how you've used brads and/or eyelets.

Challenge ends on July 15th. 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.

Cx

Monday, July 11, 2016

30 Days of Colouring...

Hey,

Happy Monday.

I am off today and hanging out in the sunshine with Ma.

I thought I'd share some of the things I have coloured so far, as part of the awesome The Daily Marker, 30 Days of Colouring.

The main photo today is my Day 2 colouring. I used a KennyK clear stamp that I love, she's so sassy. The sentiment stamps are by Neat & Tangled and are a recent addition to my stash. The journaling card that I used for the background was actually sent to me by Kathy Rac, who is responsible for this awesome colouring challenge and is the sweetest person ever.

Day 3 is a little bit different, as it is a page from a new colouring book..I think it will end up incorporated into my art journal.



It took me two days (4 and 5) to colour the next image from my Day of the Cat colouring book that Lemon recently gave me..


He was quite detailed and because of the paper that the book is printed on, I had to go over it twice!!
I love him though and can't wait to colour more of the book.

I love to colour and this challenge reminds me that I can colour for 10 mins every day, there is space in my life for that.

I'll show you more later in the week.

Cx



Sunday, July 10, 2016

I hope your day is as nice as your butt...

Hey,

Happy Sunday!!

I think Ma and I are going to go off on a post brunch adventure today, but I can't decide where.

I am off tomorrow, so we get to spend more QT before she heads to Philly, I will be joining her at the end of the week.

I loved this stamp by Unity Stamp Co. it absolutely cracked me up. I made today's card for Lemon and she told me that it has already arrived.

I love this newish Wilted Violet Distress Ink, I am totally overusing it..

Here I smooshed (technical term) it into my craft mat and spritzed it with water, dipping my paper in an out to get the fun splatter you see. In between each 'dip' I dry my paper, you get deeper colours that way.

I heat embossed the sentiment stamp, I always think this looks so amazing against a smooshed background.

Cx

Saturday, July 9, 2016

This is to inform you...


Hey,

Happy Saturday!

We are off to brunch today and then probably back home for a bit of art journal playtime, as it is jungle hot here in NYC right now..

I recently bought two fun things - one the great stamp you can see on my cards today from Scraptastic Club and two the grid vellum paper that I stamped it on.

I found a very random stationers / art supply shop in Midtown NYC recently and it was a treasure trove of goodies.

They had these Clearprint Vellum Grid books - 


I fell in love and bought the teeny tiny one. I think I am going to get a lot of use out of it.

The cards were very simple to put together, stamp onto the vellum grid, affix to the card blank, add co-ordinating washi tape and a glittery star!

Here is a different colourway - 


I like the idea of giving these as gifts, so people can tick whichever box is relevant for the person they are giving the card to.

Clever stamp.

Cx