Author: Catherine

I am an on-the-side and increasingly up front papercrafter who loves nothing more than getting inky and creating pretty things with paper and stamps! I am also a wife to lovely hubby and mummy to a wonderful 14yr old princess.
Altenew, Masks/Stencils, Playful Alphabet, Ribbons

Happy 18th Diya

Catherine

March was a very busy with all the 18th birthdays as there were three including my daughter… this is the last one for Diya. Her birthday was over a month ago but the girls celebrated it late to allow for Diya to complete her Ramadan fasting, for exams and uni visits etc to happen before they came together today to finally celebrate her birthday!

I went with the Splendid bouquet and blues for this one … not sure why but that was what I was feeling!

I stencilled and die cut the image three times in total but two I placed off the edge of the square panel and placed them flat onto the background.

The third one I stacked on two other die cuts and then sandwiched some white ribbon behind to give texture and dimension (Diya is a fashion student so thought she would appreciate the fabric elements too!).

I then heat embossed the sentiment along with a piece of scrap cardstock I could die cut and die cut the 18 using the playful alphabets so that the blue coordinated.

I sandwiched some silver thread between the sentiment and the flower too (Diya has been studying fashion and textiles so think the addition of some fabric and thread is appropriate!).

I then decided to add some of the platinum pearl accents to the stamen on the flowers.

I love this splendid bouquet set from altenew … all the layers on the stencils are fun to use and add so much detail. This is the first time I used all the stencil layers and really does make for an excellent level of detail – even without the line art of the stamping!

I finished off with a layer of cardstock underneath that I inked in the same colours of blues (faded jeans and salty ocean distress inks in case you were wondering – and the leaves colour were evergreen bough and pine needles).

So happy belated birthday to Diya and hope she liked the card I made.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Dies, Designer Series Paper, Masks/Stencils, Artful Days Goodie Box, YouTube video, Lollipop Box Kit

Scrapbook layout – You & Me – #30dscbl14 – day 11

Catherine

Up early today as need to get some work done before I visit my talented hairdresser and then am out for the rest of the day to go see Take That in concert. I’m very excited about that! But before I venture downstairs I’m updating my blog and today I have another scrapbook page and once again there is a process video you can watch which I’ve just uploaded!

For this one I used up the final scraps left from the previous two pages and also followed the sketch created by Tara that was day 11 of 30 days of sketches at Christy’s Beautiful Life.

I changed it up to include the circles rather than stars but otherwise kept to the sketch in terms of the layers and the positioning.

I had a good old delve through the stash I’ve got of old Lollipop Box club kits and also the wood elements were old Artful Days bits and pieces so it was good to get them used too!

I added the stencilling with distress ink and the Aall & Create stencil which I think helps blend the papers into the background.

I’m still undecided about those pink gems but I think they are ok as my final bits of embellishment.

Pleased I got to make another page from the bright papers and I have very little left now to go into my scraps pile … talking of which …

I’ve been reluctant to do this until now but decided to actually collect some scraps by colour in the little pouches as Sarah Davies has been sharing some great uses for scraps including pulling colours to group in rainbow type order so I thought I might try that.

But I can’t have too much being hoarded so will see if this becomes a hoarding exercise or if it helps for other projects!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Altenew, Gemini

Festive Friday

Catherine

This card came about when I found a pouch with some leftover magazine papers in it and I just sat and made it all up really quickly! All except that deer.

I struggled to work out what to use as a focal image. I tried a few different ideas out but they just didn’t work well. Then I found this Gemini die and decided to cut it from white and it worked perfectly!

I finished off with the sentiment and the bow that has been hanging around on my desk for about six months!

Inside the card I took some of the remaining paper and added that with some white. I’m trying to make more of an effort to do insides of cards and not just the fronts… not always easy for me to remember to do it though!

So there we go … another Christmas card made for the stash and some more leftover papers used up!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Heffy Doodle, Inktense, Derwent, Ribbons, Simon Says Stamp, YouTube video

MFT – Fanciful Roses Background stamp #2

Catherine

Finally got my second project video edited from my first play with the My Favourite Things Fanciful Roses background stamp.

The first video shows me stamping and painting it but this video is how I ended up turning it into a card.

So for this one I coloured it using Inktense pencils and water to blend the pigments. The stamp was heat embossed with gold detail powder so although not very raised it did provide some boundaries for the water colouring.

I decided to die cut the circle where the flower was and teamed it with orange cardstock which I die cut too.

I ended up with a scrap of cherry cobbled ribbon, a stamped sentiment and a die cut sentiment … oh and some card Candi to finish off.

Inside the card I added the die cut frame and an orange circle and another stamped sentiment.

I think I preferred the previous version but still I like this more vibrant version and it’s nice to have a big image to have as a background stamp so I can colour it as I like rather than keeping to patterned paper! Plus it’s another lovely floral and I love florals as regular visitors to my blog would know!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Altenew, Paper Blooms, Waffle flower, Waffleflower

Paper blooms dsp

Catherine

I made these two cards using leftover paper blooms dsp which I had in a pouch from over a year ago. It was good to empty the pouch and get it used. I teamed the flowers with some patterned paper from the stash.

They are fairly simple cards but a sweet way of using up these fab flowers.

On this one I added in the little die cut label to break up the background and the sentiment. Sentiment was an Altenew one I had stamped and die cut in a ‘use up scraps’ session so was ready to use.

The second one I used more of the flowers on…

I created the stripe across the paper and added the flowers across that and then added another band of the patterned paper to ground the sentiment with a few of the smaller flowers on that layer.

This time the sentiment was a Waffleflower one – created at the same time as the other in a ‘use up the scraps’ session!

I added some gems to finish off once I added the panels to the card blanks.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

DCWV, Splendid Stems, Splendid Thoughts

Two more patterned paper cards

Catherine

I managed to get two more of the cards made using the patterned paper I pulled out and chopped up at the beginning of the month.

I grabbed the Splendid thoughts set to create the focal images.

For the first card I created a cluster in a pot. I layered this onto the purple and then added some splatters and some white pen elements.

I edged the pink paper with the black soot distress ink and the same for the black panels to just give them a frame.

I added some die cut circles from the purple too as embellishment.

I love the die cut sprigs too one of which is a shimmer card and the other is silver glitter card.

The next card I pulled out the sanding tool and added sanding to each layer to bring out the white core.

Behind the dark grey strip I tucked the die cuts both the ones I had watercoloured with ink and the ones cut from shimmer cardstock.

I added the two pearls as embellishments beside the sentiment.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Designer Series Paper, Distress oxide ink, Masks/Stencils, Playful Alphabet, Stitched framelits, YouTube video

Scrapbook page – Shoot – #30dscbl14 – day 10

Catherine

Clearly I am on a roll with my pages and this time I am using the leftovers from the page I shared yesterday (with an extra paper pulled in too!)

The sketch I used was the day 10 from 30 days of sketches with Christy’s Beautiful Life and was designed by Sarah Davies.

Whilst I might have slightly lost some elements of the sketch with over embellishing with bits and bobs I think you can still see most of the intent!

Loved adding in the stencilling on the background and the lollipop box club kit bits and pieces too.

Also like the sewn elements and the hanging threads from that.

Kept the journalling small as just really documenting the a level photo shoots that my daughter was doing in the spare room – this fruit themed one was in response to the theme of shadows.

Thanks for the inspiration sketch Sarah.

Also I videoed this process (again) and so check out the video to see this come together.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Gorgeous Grunge, YouTube video

Scrapbook page – Pit Stop – #30dscbl14 – day one

Catherine

Yes another scrapbook page which I made and videoed last weekend and finally writing my blog now I’ve edited and uploaded to video.

I shopped my stash to gather these papers and then used day one sketch from the #30dscbl14 … what the heck is that I hear you ask? Well Christy’s beautiful life hosts a 30 days of sketches challenge and I’ve joined the Facebook group and dipping my toe into the water with this sketch from the March 2024 challenge (14) … I blame Helen Ding for all scrapbooking adventures I might get up to!

Sketch was provided by Ginger Bush

Anyways with the four papers and the sketch to be inspired by … my page came together easily. I also added in little bits of scraps left from the previous three pages I made.

I added the stamping using the Gorgeous Grunge stamp on the left and then splatters of black gesso. the stripy stamping was to represent the arrows that were on the original sketch.

I also took the arrow theme and used that as my main embellishment cut from the patterned paper.

Finally added the enamel gems as embellishment.

Happy with this … next challenge was to make another page with the leftovers … but you will have to wait to see that as not yet edited the video!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Altenew, My Favourite Things, Ribbons, Stitched framelits, Watercolour paints, YouTube video

MFT – Fanciful Roses background stamp

Catherine

I had a play with the MFT fanciful roses background stamp and made two backgrounds and made one into a card… and videoed the process!

On this one I used the shimmer watercolour paints and the effect is so pretty!

I did add plenty of splatter but then in contrast to the pastel pretty background I added the pierced blooms leaf die cuts and a vellum circle with Kraft frame.

Then the label die onto which I added the Altenew sentiment.

Embellishment was the embroidery floss bow and then the little peach die cut hearts.

Love how this came together. Beautiful card.

Will share the other card I made from the second background using Inktense pencils in a few days when I’ve finished editing the video!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Art Alchemy paints, Distress oxide ink, Sizzix, Tim Holtz

Festive Friday

Catherine

Carrying on from last week I used another background I had created in that mammoth session and rub ons to create this Christmas card.

This one was a mix of smooshing the colour and drips and splatters and is a really pretty mix… I also think there were both distress oxides and distress inks in there.

I once again added lots of rub ons on the background although this time they are more subtle against the lighter colours.

I also added spots of the purple shimmer paint around the panel… with hindsight I preferred it without … but hey ho … sometimes it just goes like that!

I then added a die cut sentiment and added the panel to a purple coloured card blank.

Happy crafting!

Catherine