Forever Flourishing, Masks/Stencils, Pierced Blooms, Stampin Blends alcohol pens, True Love

Stampin Up Sunday… true love, pierced blooms and a stencil

Catherine

Hi there blog readers.

Today’s Stampin up Sunday blog post is the card I made for my cousins 50th birthday. I had to go pink, although I chose a peachy pink rather than a bold pink, as she is definitely a fan of the pinks. I wanted to use the True Love dsp flowers and also combine with die cut greens and a bit of mixed media.

I started with the stencil which is an Aall and Create one and used a blending tool to add the ink through. I then used gloss gel through the stencil so it would be raised and glossy.

Then I fussy cut two floral elements from the paper and coloured them using Stampin Blends. I decided to then add leaves which I had die cut already … both Pierced Blooms dies and Forever Greenery … to create a really fun and very dimensional element on two diagonal corners of the circle stencilled element.

Next I chose a sentiment. This was from a retired stamp set and used the same colour ink as the stencilled background. I edged the panel and then cut a vellum mat for it.

I adhered this so it nestled into the other elements and then finished off with the Pastel Pearls.

Super happy with the finished card, and hope my big cus liked it too.

Entering the flowers challenge at Challenge up your life

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Darcy, Ladybird book journal, Lawn Fawn, Oh So Ombre, Ribbons, Washi tape

Ladybird book journal

Catherine

I’ve really got a thing for journalling at the moment… especially junk type journals. Well this was following s class that Lollipop Box Club’s Lisa is doing Patreon and I decided not only to follow the class but to make a similar themed journal as her sample/demo… a journal of things that make me smile.

I had loads of fun with an old Ladybird book, taking it apart (carefully) and then decorating it and putting it back together to make a journal.

I started with this second hand book which I bought off Etsy. I’d love to go to a second hand book shop in real life, but it’s just not possible in lockdown so etsy it had to be!

I carefully removed the pages from the book, it handily came out in three signatures and then added some gesso to the cover.

I chose some patterned papers to add to the signatures and then realised I needed to widen the spine so I cut the spine and added patterned paper to create the wider spine. I strengthened it to make sure it was going to hold and then went to town decorating the front.

I used a lot of scraps I had to hand some bits and bobs I had lying around. I included some things that are favourites of mine… bright colours, the Darcy heart, sari silk ribbon, tags, bookprint and glossy accents on the die-cut smile.

Then I bound the signatures in using the brightly coloured twine.

Really looking forward to working in this journal adding in the things and stories that make me smile. Not sure if I have mentioned on the blog already or not but my word of the year is smile so this seems like a good project to help me achieve my goals of bringing a smile to every day.

On this particular day (I made it a couple of weeks ago) what made me smile a lot was sharing the table to create with my daughter who was working on her textiles gcse work. I got so much pleasure out of watching her create.

These little pics may well need printing for inclusion on the first page of the journal in fact!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Color therapy, Confetti Celebration, Washi tape

First scrapbook layout in several years

Catherine

I can’t remember the last time I did a 12 x 12 scrapbook layout but I got the urge to scrap a few Sundays ago and even videoed the process!

Here is the final page…

A random pic of me and my Mum out for a meal for my Dad’s birthday and some random papers from the stash. Really no idea why I felt the urge to scrapbook but glad I did. It was a chilled out start to the day and really enjoyed myself.

Super happy with the final result too!

Guess all the journalling obsession must have sparked the urge to scrapbook? Wonder if I make anymore pages or if it will be another few years before I do anymore?

Going to enter this for the Color Throwdown challenge Link

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Fancy Phrases, Gummiapan, Pierced Blooms, Ribbons

Tag Thursday… pierced blooms and grunge

Catherine

Today for Tag Thursday I actually have a video showing how I made this tag which is for UK stampers forum.

I contrasted the Pierced blooms dies with the grungy background. Love how it turned out!

Such fun to make and those dies are fabulous! Love them!

And that gummiapan is one of my favourite background stamps ever!

Entering this into the challenge of flowers at Challenge up your life

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Artist Trading Coins, fresco finish paints, Paperartsy, Gelli Plate, Indigo Blu, Masks/Stencils, Tim Holtz

Artist trading coin UK swap … March … cheers!

Catherine

Hi… today I have my swap coins for this month and the theme for this month is ‘cheers’.

I chose to play with blue coloured paints and created a background that I adhered to some coins cut from recycled packaging.

I used lots of stamps and paints and ink and created some fun backgrounds. Then I added the focal images but that covered up most of the backgrounds!

I then added some glossy accents to the glasses to give them dimension and shine.

I finished the coins off with some gold paint pen dots round the outside.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Fancy Phrases, Itty Bitty Greetings, Ribbons, Stampin Blends alcohol pens, True Love

Happy birthday Auntie Margaret

Catherine

Today I have a card I made using leftovers from the online craftalong I did with friends a few weeks ago, using a tutorial from another craftalong I did with a different group of friends!

Confused?!?

So my SU group did a team craftalong during which the lovely Sue showed us how to make a card with different layers and folds. It’s difficult to describe but it was a great project to make and I made my mother’s day card using it … but I can’t blog that yet.

Then a few weeks ago I did some online crafting with some friends using the True Love dsp and had some leftovers so decided to make a birthday card for my auntie using the papers and same colours of cardstock using up leftovers on the desk and some fresh card for the base of the card.

I love the true love dsp …. it is such fun to colour in! I chose to colour in three floral clusters and fussy cut them, and use two different floral backgrounds for the background papers.

I used Rococo Rose and Blackberry Bliss as the main colours of cardstock and coloured the images using Blackberry Bliss, petal Pink (with a touch of flirty flamingo) and cherry cobbler … I didn’t have stampin blends in the rococo rose unfortunately bit think the flowers worked well regardless.

I also used the Blackberry Bliss ribbon and the pastel pearls to finish off the card with Fancy Phrases sentiments (& Itty Bitty Greetings for one of them).

Super happy with the card and the little pops of green from the leaves also work well. Definitely going to try and do more fancy fold type cards from now on… they may be intricate to make but the end result is fabulous!

Entering this into the flowers challenge at Challenge up your life

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Beautiful Brocade, Birds and Branches, Birds and More, Chevron, Decorative Dots, Gorgeous Grunge, Honey Bee, Jar, Jar of Flowers, One Sheet Wonder OSW, Petal Palette, Petals and more, Ribbons, Studio Calico, Watercolor wings

DT: Craftyhazelnuts patterned paper challenge

Catherine

Another month has passed so quickly… and it’s time to use up some patterned paper for Craftyhazelnuts challenge. I chose to do another one sheet wonder challenge.

I chose a graphic black and white paper and used the following template I had drawn up…

And I set to with the paper and black card to mat each layer.

Next I added some coloured cardstock as bases.

Then with white cardstock, ribbons from the stash and stamped images I made them up into fun cards.

Card 1:

Card 2:

Card 3:

Card 4:

Card 5:

Card 6:

Card 7:

Card 8:

Card 10:

Card 11:

Card 12:

Card 13:

Card 14:

Stamps used… Watercolor wings, petal palette, Birds and Branches, jar of flowers, Honey Bee and Gorgeous grunge.

Also used coordinating dies for images where I had them and the accompanying dies for Petals and More and Birds and More for the added elements.

Love how these all came out!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Happy Celebrations

Happy birthday James …. belatedly

Catherine

My cousins son turned 12 a couple of weeks ago and I made him a card and posted it late … as per usual! I am terrible at remembering to post things on time!

I went simple and created the background by repeating the stamp Happy from Happy Celebrations set in different blue inks. Then I took some little star stamps from the stash and embossed those in silver.

Then I took a sentiment from a magazine set and added that onto a couple of pieces of cardstock and stuck this down.

Always find cards for boys hard … especially 12 year olds … but think this looks quite cool.

So anyway… Happy birthday James…. very belatedly. Hope to see him, his sister and my cousin and her hubby in the summer … we managed a quick trip in August last year to see them but obviously not seen them since.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

American Crafts, Festival of Prints, Junk Journal 2021, Masks/Stencils, Ribbons, Tis the Season

Junk Journalling- Christmas journal

Catherine

A few weeks ago I made a signature for a junk journal as a Christmas journal. No rules for what I’m putting in it… except Christmas stuff!

So I used American Crafts and Making Cards magazine papers and some watercolour paper for the signature. I videoed making the signature in case you are interested.

Well I’ve now made a page and used a couple of pics of me from New Years Eve 2020 and part of a Christmas card I received.

I added the photos and bits of journalling tucked behind the Christmas card… and some embellishments made using gloss gel through a stencil onto the green paper.

Really happy with the finished page. I did video it again so feel free to go and see how it came together.

Entering this into the “red” challenge at Academy Scrap Art

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Itty Bitty Greetings, Scalloped tag topper

Tag Thursday – forever greenery meets pierced blooms

Catherine

Hello all! I have another tag project for you today using the fab Scalloped Tag Topper punch. It really is my favourite punch of all time.

This time I used the forever greenery as the background patterned paper. I used strips of one paper and then punched circles of another.

Next I added different flowers and leaves from the stash of die cut Pierced Blooms. These flowers are just so cute. I added the Forever Flourishing leaves to a few of the flower clusters where I hadn’t got enough of the ones in the pierced blooms set already cut.

I then added the sentiment from Itty Bitty Greetings set to the base of all the tags.

Then I went through the ribbon stash to find bits that worked with the colours in the tags.

Entering these into the Anything but a card challenge at Simon says stamp challenge blog

Happy crafting!

Catherine