I did actually make a few other kinds of Easter cards, but foolishly forgot to photograph them (eye roll).

The main thing is that they are arriving and making people smile. That's what happy mail is about..

Cx

Hey,

Happy Saturday!

Continuing with the challenge theme I've got going for this week.

I tell you after all this wfh / isolation is done, my apartment is going to be knee-deep in cards!

Anyway!

I am playing along with the Freshly Made Sketches Sketch today.

I already had the Bear coloured and ready to go, as he was coloured as part of the #dailymarker30day colouring challenge. He is from one of my all-time fave sets by MFT 'Beary Special Birthday'.

I started by die-cutting the background pink spotty panel and then I dit-cut coordinating circles in plain and floral and layered them up, I hung them slightly off the edge of the spotty panel and trimmed off the excess.

The sentiment banner is by Taylored Expressions and is one of their genius simple strips stamps / die combo - if you don't have this, you need to check it out.

I popped the sentiment and bear up using foam tape.

I love the cute card I ended up with, making a nice addition to my birthday card stash.

Today I am going to attempt to clean my closet (UGH) and then as a reward I can play with Alcohol inks!

Cx

Hey,

Happy Monday!

I hope you had a nice weekend, I had a great first one back in NYC for like 3 weeks!

I got to spend QT with Hubby and at my desk.

I saw the current Inkspirations challenge -

I thought my special Easter card that I made for a friend fit this challenge really well.

There are lot of elements popped up on my card :)

I started by die-cutting the spotty panel as a background for my card. I then added a kraft tag - which I popped up with foam tape. I added the amazing Bear / Bunny by Neat & Tangled (All the Bunnies).

Then I die-cut the flower/grass using a die I got from The Works whilst in London and I coloured it using promarkers and popped that up, over the Bear. I added two smaller bunnies from the Neat & Tangled set and I popped them up too!!

I stamped the sentiment onto plain and spotty paper and cut it up and placed it randomly around my Bear.

I am so very happy with how this card came out. It's so Springy and happy.

Cx

Hey,

At the end of January our friends had their first baby, after a really difficult set of stillbirths. I think it's ok for me to reference that, as they are advocates for talking about it and support several charities, that bring this subject to forefront of people's minds.

To celebrate the arrival of Baby Rowan, I went baby stuff crazy and sent them a flat rate box of goodies and I am working on another project for them.

I also made today's card to go with the box of goodies.

As Rowan was born during the Winter, I thought it would be fun to make a Winter focused baby card.

I started by smooshing some distress ink onto watercolour paper. Then cue much fussing and fiddling trying out all of the background elements!

The Polar Bear stamp is by MFT and is one of my all time fave sets (Polar Bear Pals).

I love how it came together and is a really nice twist on regular new baby cards.

Cx

Hey,

Welcome to November.

I can't tell you about my Anniversary dinner yet, as this is a scheduled post..but I will do over the weekend.

I only made x4 Halloween cards and you've seen 3 of them already as they were for challenges LOL. So here is the fourth card, made for a swap.

I love this Waffle Flower Bear and Bird 'Boo' set. This is the first time I have used more of the elements. I heat embossed most of the smaller stamps from the set and I really like how it came out as a mini scene.

The sentiment stamp is by Amuse and I meant to use the set it came from to make a ton of cards this year, but just didn't feel like it, as there was so much travel and work earlier this month.

I also have a trapped nerve, so my making is going to be severely limited, good job I have been busy and have plenty of things to blog about.

Cx

Hey,

Happy Monday to you!

And Congratulations to The Paper Players team for hitting the 400 challenge mark! Impressive!

I am a big fan of The Paper Players challenge and really wanted to join in the celebration fun..

I used one of my new Sizzix Embossing Diffuser plates to create that yummy centrally embossed circle. I love that I can stretch my embossing plates with these new plates. I opted for a star folder, it is a celebration after all!

I stamped, die-cut and coloured one of the bears and balloons from the MFT Beary Special Birthday set.

The sentiment is by Concord & 9th and from their Celebrations set. I decided to add the cheerful yellow banner to break up the sentiment a bit and to Anchor my bear.

Now I wonder what he's brought as a gift..

Cx

Hey,

Whilst I was off I managed to get my hands on a Silhouette Mint - on super bargain sale - obvs!

With the Mint, you can make your own stamps. It's fun, simple and means I can now have some items that suit my potty mouth!

I decided not to start with something rude and went with a phrase that I have seen around a lot - 'Be A Pineapple. Stand Tall, Wear a Crown and Be Sweet on the Inside'.

Once you ink up the stamps you get quite a lot of impressions, so I stamped a bunch of these and then had a play.

For the main card and the one below I used the bear from the Simon Says Stamp 'Warm Weather Animals' set. I coloured the bears using Promarkers and Spectrum Noir sparkle pens.

I dug through my stash and found a crown (yes!) in the Newton's Nook 'Newton Loves London' set.

I added a pineapple background (by MFT) to the second card..not sure, maybe it's a bit busy now?


The card below was actually the first card I made, it is super busy, but I love it. Not least because I got to use Faye Monkey by Waffle Flower. Funnily enough there is also a Claire Monkey and opposite number in the London office is called Fay....I feel a logo coming on...

I used the great Concord & 9th 'Pop Art Pineapple' set - I LOVE this set, I totally overuse it. The background paper is by Studio Calico.


I am loving the Mint and I have made a few stamps that I will show you soon.

Cx

Hey,

So today's card came about because I looked at my desk a couple of weeks ago and realised that it was covered in random crap stuff.

I decided to have a tidy and if anything was useable, I would make a card from it.

I ended up with the die-cut oval watercolour panel, the Bear and the heat-embossed sentiment.

I smooshed the panel in some distress oxide inks and a little water, I wanted the background to tone with the gift and the balloon.

Using foam tape I mounted the watercolour panel and the Bear to the card blank (also on my desk) and then added the sentiment banner.

Really simple, easy and pretty card, thanks to the random things on my desk.

Cx

Hey,

Happy Friday to you!

Following on from my post yesterday I am here playing along with Event 2 of the MFT creative olympics.

The theme is -


Any card you like, as long as it has a Winter theme.

I chose to use Polar Bear Pals again, I love the bears, I am still waiting for the dies, so I cut them out using my Silhouette. I die-cut the MFT stitched scalloped rectangle frame die using a piece of smooshed distress ink paper..I have a lot of these ready to go.

To add even more of a wintery feel, I stamped tiny trees from a set by In A Creative Mind. I love their collaborations with Studio Calico.

I used foam tape to pop up the central panel and the bear. Here is a closeup -


As I wanted to use the 'I come bearing gifts' sentiment from the Polar Bear set, I decided to add a little stack of presents from the 'Beary Special Birthday' set.

I love it, it makes a really nice winter birthday card.

Have a great weekend, I will be mainly at my desk and hanging with Hubby.

Cx

Hey,

I saw on Instagram that MFT are celebrating the Winter Olympics with their own version -

I thought it would be fun to play along.

The first 'event' is called Stamping Slalom, this is 100% a creativity test, use x3 MFT sets on your card.

I misread that part initially, but I got there in the end!

First I created my background by smooshing my paper into distress inks that had been spritzed with water. I added some Glitter Snow paste through a stencil for the snowy effect. I repeated both of these steps with the bottom sentiment panel.

I cut the 'snowy hills' using a Lawn Fawn stitched hillside die. I added a white panel too, as the polar bear was getting a bit lost.

I am pretty pleased with my creativity here, I used Beast Friends (Yeti), Polar Bear Pals (Polar Bear) and Happy Hippos (Balloons). To me it feels like the Yeti is watching his Polar Bear buddy skate...but that's just my opinion..
I coloured all of these elements using Promarkers and Spectrum Noir glitter pens.

The sentiment is a mix of Simon Says Stamp and a freebie hand lettering alpha set I got. I didn't have a scripty 'fun' in my stash, so I created the one you can see on my card using the letters from the alpha set. It is so easy..I am now slightly reconsidering my desire to learn to hand letter..if I can cheat this well...

I'm super happy with my card. I'll be back with my Event 2 card tomorrow.

Cx

Hey,

I am heading to Philly today to hang out with my friends.

Yes, I am still waiting for the pesky work permit, so I am going to hang with my friends in an attempt to stem the stir crazy..

Today's card was a fun experiment and I can't wait to make more of them.

The balloon background is by Bugaboo and when I saw it, I thought it would work perfectly with a myriad of physical stamps.

To test my theory, I used one the coloured and cut MFT Bears that I had on my desk from the colouring challenge.

I love the final card, the background adds so much and I really love the sentiment that came with the MFT bear set, I just had to add the 'Happy Birthday'

Cx

Hey,

So I have been destashing a bit and selling on the monthly Hero Arts kits, as they haven't really been my style, sad as they are great VFM.

I met a lady on the group I use on FB and she recently had a baby girl - Sunny Rae - such a gorgeous name and the baby is gorgeous too!! As I was sending her a batch of stuff she had bought off of me, I thought I'd make her a card too.

Any excuse for me to make a baby card...

I thought the main focus of the card should be some sort of sunray / sunburst, given the baby's name.

I used an old faithful Crafters Workshop stencil with Fossilized Amber Distress Ink.

I really wanted a cute critter on the card and remembered that I had some of the MFT birthday bears die-cut and ready to go, so I coloured the x2 bears and the balloon using Zigs - yes that is a pink bear..creative license..

I love the giant welcome stamp by Lil' Inker Designs, sadly I don't get to use it as often as I would like.

Finally I added stamped Sunny Rae's name on the card - using Studio G alpha stamps from 2011 that I have hardly used, but I keep hold of them for moments like this!

I am so pleased that my card looks like the vision I had in my head, so rare that the final card looks how it was 'supposed' to.

Cx

Hey,

Happy Sunday!!

I know the title of my post might seem like wishful thinking, but seriously the weather in NYC the last few days has been Spring / Summer gloriousness...

I am playing along with Freshly Made Sketches this week -


I instantly thought the Simon Says Stamp Flamingo background stamp would be perfect here. It needs to be broken up, it is a bit busy.

I think the weather inspired me to pull out the SSS Warm Weather Animals stamp set. I wanted this set for SO long, but it was a bit cost prohibitive and then Black Friday happened and I bought it for both JT and I..

I love the bear, I coloured him with Promarkers and Spectrum Noir sparkle pens.

The sentiment is stamped on a coordinating piece of card and I used a Stampin Up banner punch to finish it off.

This card makes me long for warmer weather..

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, Hubby and I have been out and about in NYC this weekend, so fun to be out and about. Today I will be mainly playdating with JT.

Cx

Hey,

I am a teeny bit obsessed with MFT stamps at the moment.

I managed to get a good haul of them over Black Friday last year at a variety of places.

I had the Birthday Bear stamps already and got the dies in the BF sales.

A few weeks ago, I die-cut and stamped the entire set and I am slowly making cards with them.

This card was made for a friend's Daughter and I cut a little slot, so the bear could hold the present. I coloured the bear, balloon and present with Zigs.

The sentiment is by Simon Says Stamp and so is the stitched square die.

I have had the background paper for ages, infact I believe it was the first thing I purchased when we moved to NYC in 2013!

The square kraft blanks are from JT, I love the big and small ones and I can't get them here and she buys them for me.

I like the simplicity of this card and it's matchy matchness (totally words..)

Cx