Cards for my stash

I've been catching up on some card making recently. Whenever I add cards to my stash, it seems they're not the cards that I then need to send - if I make some birthday cards, suddenly I need thank you cards, and if I make thank you cards, I don't seem to use them for ages.

So I've decided that unless I'm making a card for a particular upcoming occasion, it's better to stick to plain card fronts. I can then add a sentiment later, when I'm ready to send it.

Go - Madrid

I'm making good progress with my 90's layouts. I've got such a lot of use from Studio Calico's world stamps - here's the Europe stamp in action, paired with a card from Ali Edwards' Go Story kit. The alpha stamp is SC's Wes stamp, which I'm using for most of my titles.

Cardstock challenge

I use a lot of white cardstock for my scrapbook layouts. Patterned paper also gets a look-in, but I rarely use coloured cardstock these days. So I thought I'd challenge myself to use something other than white for a background for these pics from Toledo, Spain. I quite like the effect, but don't think grey will be displacing white just yet!

Make it Monday #246 - faux brush lettering

I'm trying to take part in more of the Papertrey Ink Make it Monday challenges. This week's challenge from Amy is to use faux brush lettering in a project - and I found it to definitely be a challenge! Great idea though, as I don't really like my handwriting ;)

I used PTI's Graceful greetings sentiment stamps with inks on watercolour paper - and here's what I came up with:

And a close-up of the lettering:

Way back when - 90s album

One of my big projects for this year is going through several photo albums of the time I spent in the UK and Europe in the early 90s and scrapping the best photos and scanning remainder so I have a digital record of everything.

it's fun to relive a lot of experiences from those times - I'm so grateful for all the opportunities I had to travel and meet new people, see all sorts of amazing places. Here's one of my recent layouts - a spread from a holiday in Portugal.

Story Kit layouts

Loving my sub to Ali Edwards' Story Kit. Lots of interesting themes and the educational content and inspiration is great.

Here's a recent layout using the 'Heart' kit - recalling some special times in Austria:

Happy birthday

Had so much fun with the latest Make it Monday challenge from Papertry Ink that I decided to make a couple more cards using the 'colour isolation' technique - using a neutral background and just using colour for a focal point.

Needed some more birthday cards for my stash, so this is what I came up with:

Green eggs and ham

This is one of those occasions where the camera (well, phone) just had to come out. And no, it wasn't St Patrick's Day - just a new take on Eggs Benedict with a herb-based sauce.  I'm sure it's healthy, but I think I prefer the taste of the original!