Hey,

Welcome to another fun Fusion Card Challenge.

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

Which will you try?

I loved both, but it's not a true fuse if you ask me! I was inspired to use some of the floral elements from the photo and the pretty wreath style at the bottom of the table runner.

The sketch was made for me I think, I LOVE circles.

I die-cut x3 circles out of white cardstock and I stamped the large one, using a Waffle Flower set and then the smaller ones are both using a Christine Adolph flower stamp. I coloured them all in tones of lilac and purple. I added gold glitter gel pen for the centres and a bit of gold bling here and there.

It makes me smile every time I see it, it's so simple and why haven't I mixed flower stamps before?!

I used -

Waffle Flower w/Big Bear and Bird - Bear and Bird

Christine Adolph - Cheerful Bloom

Neat & Tangled - Gold glitter enamel dots

Sakura GellyRoll - Starburst Glitter gel pen

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 November 23rd

Cx

 

2017 Monster Tag Birthday Thanks

I love making sets and I usually get carried away, so end up with a few for my stash and/or charity.

Cx

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge - OCTOBER already!! 

Hey,

Welcome to another fun Retro Rubber challenge.

We have another wonderful Tic Tac Toe board for you -

Which row will you choose? Pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends May 29th.

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

Hey,

As tomorrow is the 1st anniversary of us owning Clint I wanted to share a card I made for our amazing Vet.

They are amazing, they were wonderful when we had to put our beloved Boscat to sleep. When we got Clint, they gave us great advice to help us understand what having an FIV positive cat would mean.

Late last year Clint got an infection and it was our first time dealing with illness in him and the first time after the loss of Boscat, so to say we were a teeny bit antsy is an understatement.

Fortunately they understood and guided us through it all and Clint is fine now (he did get another infection earlier this year, but we are learning how to deal with this now).

So I made them a card to say thanks and to apologise for our slightly manic behaviour!

I used the awesome Picket Fence Stamps 'I love your face' set - which I had discovered when Cheiron made us a 'Congrats' card for the arrival of Clint, using the same set. How cute is the cat in his bandana?!

The sentiment is by Hero Arts and I created the fun stenciled background using a Tim Holtz gradient diamond stencil (mini version).

I love how the card came out and they loved it too.

If you are looking for a vet and you are in the East Village area of Manhattan, I would highly recommend Urban Vets Animal Hospital - they are kind, caring and super friendly.

Cx

Hey,

As you know July was spent celebrating Hubby's 40th birthday.

He had x2 parties, a birthday vacay and x2 family lunches - phew.

I really wanted HIM to say 'thanks' to a small group of people that had helped make his birthday fun and who had given him gifts (gifting is always optional with us).

Knowing Hubby as I do, I knew that if I left it too long to make the cards the moment for him to write them out would pass...

So I looked around my desk for inspiration and came across an alcohol ink thank you card that was already made. I dug out x4 more alcohol ink panels (top x2 use the alcohol ink lift technique) and whipped up x4 more cards!

I am super pleased with these, they look great and used things that I had already made.

Don't you love it when you find desk loot? Almost as good as loop furniture (I live in a complex that has 'loops' and you can put out your old furniture on the loops) - see below for Hubby's new desk that we found 2 weeks ago in our loop.


Cx

Hey,

Happy Friday!

What a week!!!

Don't you love it when you see a stamp set and an idea, buy said stamp set and it's even better than you thought it would be?!

I saw these x2 great new releases from Avery Elle - Peek-a-Boo Car and Peek-a-Boo Scary Pals.

I had to have them because I loved that the paws for the animals are separate so you can position them on the steering wheel - it's the small things with me.

For my first use of the two sets I made a thank you card for a friend and I LOVE how it came out. It worked really well with the MFT peek-a-boo dots cover-up background die.

I added a Lil Inker banner - which I got in a grab bag and is fast becoming my default die. The sentiment is by Stampin' Up.

Hope you have fun weekend plans.

Tonight I am going to see a friend who is a physical therapist to see if she can help me with the foot / ankle.

Cx

Hey,

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

Our sponsor this week is Sparkle and Sprinkle and they are offering a prize of a $15 gift certificate to their store

Here's the sketch...


I thought the Aster Garden stamp was gorgeous and would work really well with the sketch.

Sadly, due to the light in my house at the time of taking the photo, you can't see the true colour of the beautiful rose gold shimmery paper that I used for the main strip!

I am super pleased with my colouring of the Aster, I opted for peachy pink. I added 3 strips of shimmery silver paper to match the sketch and instead of a bow or an embellishment, I added the die-cut sentiment to the bottom left of the image, that was also die-cut out of shimmery paper. A LOT of shimmer on this card!

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 [April 26th 7pm GMT / 2pm EST

Cx

Hey,

Welcome to another awesome Retro Rubber challenge.

It's that time again for another fantastic anything goes challenge..

I have made no secret of my love obsession with MFT flower stamps..

As I have several sets I thought it would be fun to pull a few of them out for this challenge.

I used a Paper Smooches 'Denim and Daisies' set for the pocket die, the sentiment and the small leaves. I've had this set since 2016 and it gets a ton of use. The pocket was die-cut out of felt, from a set of felt sheets that my work colleagues gave me for my birthday - so much fun to use.

I used x3 of my MFT flower sets 'Large Desert Bouquet (2016)' 'Bold Blooms (2017)' and 'Pretty Posies (2017). Everything was stamped using Tsukineko Dew Drop inks. I love the rich colour these inks give.

I have the matching dies for all the sets, so I stamped everything and then die-cut them all and stamped leaves and dots directly onto the white panel before assembling my bouquet.

I love how bright and happy it is, just what I need in this dreary dull time of year!

Looking forward to see which older stamp(s) you use, don't forget to pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends March 9th.

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.

Hey,

Happy Monday!

OMG I had such a fun weekend, playing at my desk, lunching with the Craftgang and watching NFL with Hubby.

And only one more week of work before the Christmas break.

Today's photo is of the notecards I made last weekend. The idea came to me, because I was doodling in my notepad on Friday whilst eating lunch and I created a little pattern that reminded me of the new Lil' Inkers Unstoppable set -


I started by die-cutting all the white panels and then masking off the area I wanted to stamp. I decided I wanted to make 2 sets with 4 cards each and have 4 different designs in each set..complicated much?

I stamped all the patterns by hand, much easier, as I had 4 stamp blocks, so it was super quick to do. Next I added the glittery washi tape - from Target dollar bins. I then set-up the thank you stamp on my MISTI to make it all easy.

The card blanks are actually large panels from PaperSource that I crease and fold to size. PaperSource had a one day paper bar sale and I think every crafter in North America went frantic spendy spendy crazy.

I love the end result, simple and elegant and a perfect Christmas gift.

You might have noticed that I departed from my usual background when taking my photo. I recently bought a huge Dahle self-healing mat for my craft desk -

Isn't he pretty!!

It has made my desk much cleaner and easier to work on, I was always hanging off the edge of my previous one.

I also think he makes an awesome backdrop for my cards.

Best thing about him? He was on super bargain sale!

Cx

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

Hey,

So I am back in NYC, back at work.

I had a great time, back to reality now...for 9 days before Mexico!!!

Recently a friend sent me an awesome Flamingo shirt -

Hey,

Welcome to another awesome Sketch Saturday.

Our sponsor this time is Bugaboo and they are offering a prize of four digital stamps.

Here is the sketch.
As you can see I rotated the sketch, I felt it worked better with my image. I won a LOAD of images in a Bugaboo challenge at the end of last year and so decided to use one of those.

I chose Bugbdaybird4 I love this cute Bugaboo range of birdies.

I coloured the stamp with Promarkers and fussy cut it out.

My papers are by American crafts and are part of a 6x6 stack, I added a piece of glittery ribbon to separate the papers and instead of an embellishment, I die-cut a stitched oval (MFT) and stamped the sentiment onto it.

Such a cute way to say thanks.

Your turn now, but first go over to Sketch Saturday and check out what the rest of the DT have done with the sketch.

Challenge ends 3 March 7pm GMT / 2pm EST

Cx

Hey,

This week's cue card over at CASology is an interesting one...


I bet Glisten means a lot of different things to everyone!

I have this amazing glittery paperstack by DCWV that I have had for years, I use it very sparingly. It is so glittery that to me it glistens. Whenever I use it, people say that it looks like I went over it with glossy accents.

So for my card today, I dug out a small bronze piece to use. I have been making lots of thank you cards whilst I have been off, to thank people for all the kind things they have done for me following my surgery.

I decided to use a Docrafts stamp at the top of my white panel and I stamped it in gold and heat embossed it with Ranger Gold Sparkle embossing powder, to add a little extra glisten.

Here is a close-up -


Final touch was a couple of pieces of co-ordinating bling.

I really liked using the top 1/3 of my 'space' felt very CAS and was something I don't do that often, I am totally a middle, bottom or bottom right kinda girl - I wonder why that is?

Cx

Hey,

Happy Boxing Day to my English / UK based peeps.

Hope everyone had a nice Christmas.

I thought it was a perfect day for me to share a 'Thank You' card.

Before Christmas I had a playdate with some friends and I stamped a bunch of the backgrounds that you can see on my card today, the stamp belongs to Jamey. I LOVE this stamp, it is by Taylored Expressions and I think I need it in my life..

This one I stamped with Picked Raspberry distress ink, spritzed and dried.

I die-cut the panel using my absolute all time fave Simon Says Stamp stitched rectangle die and then stamped the sentiment, also by SSS.

The flower dies are shiny and new and this is their first outing, aren't they pretty! I ran a piece of black card through my Xyron before die-cutting them, making it easier to affix them to my card.

I added a few Neat & Tangled (freebie) sequins to the card to finish it off.

So pretty and simple, you'll see me using more of the backgrounds that I stamped over the next few weeks..

Cx

Hey,

Happy Saturday to you all!

Tonight we are off out to celebrate my Goddaughter's 21st birthday, she is here, along with my Ma to celebrate her 21st in NYC. We are off to my fave Mexican restaurant, so my card is totally topical!

This week's Color Throwdown colours are SO me...


I thought they would be perfect for using my new Studio Calico Fiesta stamp set...that has a Piñata in it!!

I coloured the Piñata using distress inks (wilted violet, twisted citron and peacock feathers). I used the same inks to create the fun background, by inking up my Bo Bunny stamp and spritzing the inks with water.

I die-cut the panel using an MFT stitched rounded rectangle die and added a sentiment from the same set that the Piñata came from.

I added a few bits of black bling to finish it off.

Fun way to say thanks and I think I might make a few of these and use them as Christmas thank you's.

Cx

Hi,

So today is totally a time to give thanks, not just to eat and figure out what to buy on Black Friday.
Although I do confess the eating and the shopping are pretty awesome too..

This year Cheiron has invited Hubby and I to spend Thanksgiving with her and her family - so very kind.

We love being adopted by people over Thanksgiving and we have spent two very awesome Thanksgivings with the Nixon family and friends.

I am so very thankful and grateful for all the awesome people I have in my life, way to many to mention, but today I am going to give special thanks for the recipient of my card (Lawn Fawn and Prima Marketing Stamps).

JT..she is really special, she keeps allowing me to gatecrash her life (The Nixon's are her parents, she helped me get my job, you see where this is going..). I am not sure what I did before her and I know I am never letting her get away!

Some of the funniest, craziest moments of the last 6 years of my life involve her and I wouldn't change a minute of it.

She was also the first person I met that shared my craft love and it continues to be a very special part of our friendship.

So today whilst I am eating Turkey with new friends, I will be raising my glass to her.

Love you man. And super thankful for you.

Cx

Hey,

I thought it would be nice to make a CAS card for this challenge, as the colours are so rich.

I used a great stamp set by Simon Says Stamp, that I got with the November 2015 cardkit.

I started by die-cutting a stitched white panel and I stamped the sentiment onto this using an Autumn Leaves Kaleidacolor ink pad.

Then I masked off the sentiment and stamped the leaves around two edges of the sentiment, I used 3 different green distress inks for this.

Super simple, but effective card, that I will be adding to my Thanksgiving stash.

Your turn to show us your interpretation of the photo, but first go over to Retro Rubber and view the great makes by my teammates.

Challenge ends on November 18th. 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.

This week I'm also entering my card into the current The Paper Players challenge -

Cx

Hey,

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

I am excited that it's Friday, as Hubby is taking me on my long awaited birthday dinner (he was away). We are off to Grand Central Oyster Bar, which is one of my favourite places in the whole wide world.

I feel a bit like I am cheating with my posts this week, as a lot of what I have shown has already had a sneaky preview on Instagram, but I guess that is social media for you right?

So today's cards were made using birthday booty from Lemon - she always gives me a Simon Says Stamp voucher and I buy lots of yummy things with it.

I love this Give Thanks stamp by Concord & 9th, infact right now Concord & 9th cannot put a foot wrong with me :) Loving all their releases, my wallet not so much. I realise now that I need the dies too...

Pretty simple makes, I chose 3 coordinating inks and stamped the wheat stamps in different directions. The main card, I added a leaf stamp and stamped the sentiment onto Vellum.

The card below, I masked off the thanks and stamped over it.


This weekend I am hoping to have more of a play with these superb stamps.

Have a great one.

Cx