Author: Catherine

Yesterday I shared cards made for a swap … well I made 8 in total but these ones I kept to a more traditional look.

I decided to use patterned paper, to add some ink blending and splatters and then stamping and fussy cutting to create the focal images.

I’ve been using the Christmas Season set a lot for foliage recently so decided to change it up for these and used the foliage from the retired Peace and Joy which has been a favourite set for quite a while but mainly for the words. So decided to give the other stamps a little more attention!

I stamped each leaf 4 times and chose a different ink for each leaf type (the Holly stamp is a pair of leaves so I ended up with 8 in total!).

I blended ink on the white panels in a slightly different way for each and then splattered with a darker ink. Then I made my little clusters of leaves.

I decided to raise each topper panel up on foam and then add strips of paper underneath the sentiment (from the In the Pines) set. I then added pearls to the images along with a little more stamping using the accent type stamp from the Peace and Joy set.

The patterned paper is from the stash and I love how these coordinating packs work well together. I then chose to use Cherry Cobbler as the base for the card blank.

I also added some twine to these two to add a different texture.

Hopefully the recipient in the swap likes the two different styles I chose to make up the 8 cards.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I’ve joined in with a swap to make Christmas cards using 2 techniques on the cards and here are what I made…

Now the backgrounds themselves are those Dylusions backgrounds I made years ago with Dyan Reaveley using Sprays and paints and stencils … so I guess technique number one is using stencils!

Then I heat embossed the amazing Snow Crystal background stamp in silver on to each of them. This is a stunning image nd embosses beautifully.

I then embossed the sentiment onto black four times and cut it out using the Christmas Greetings dies. On two I just kept it simple, but on the other two I added a little bit of the gingham ribbon to step them up a little.

On all of them I added the little iridescent snowflake embellishments to add some more sparkle.

I added them onto black card bases and inside I added a white panel onto which I stamped Merry Christmas in black to keep it simple.

Super happy with how these came out. Love the shine of that snowflake against the super bright and fun backgrounds.

Entering these into the Christmas in July Challenge at Dream Valley Challenges

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Was beginning to wonder if I would get round to making a tag or not for this months UK stampers forum tag swap … but then inspiration struck whilst playing with this months Creative Stamping magazine which I treated myself to this past weekend.

I stamped the floral image which was the reason I bought the magazine in the first place and decided to colour them in using soft yellows and greens and then fussy cut the image.

The magazine came with a stencil and so decided to ink through the stencil with versamark and then I was going to get a pearl embossing powder but spotted the Seth Apter Baked Texture rust powder and grabbed that instead … and wo was I happy with the result. I forgot how cool these powders were to play with.

I then grabbed some of the die cuts I spent an hour cutting from scraps the other day and layered those under the floral image.

I decided to grab the baked texture embossing powder and a scrap to make a little strip … but this time multiple layers of versamark and the powder to get the different effect and this went across the tag and under the sentiment.

Finished off with ribbon, twine and some pearls.

Love how easily this came together once the stencilling was done … it was like all the pieces were there and waiting! Nice to get a new stamp set to play with too … been a while since I bought a magazine and must admit I have a real thing about floral images at the moment.

Entering this into the Summer Flowers challenge at Sir Stampalot

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Yesterday I shared with you the 10 tags I made for the challenge of use scraps to make tags … well as the challenge is to make 20 tags I chose to also make 10 Christmas themed ones.

This time I started with scrap cardstock as the base and then grabbed the Christmas box and used papers I had already cut into and the images I had already either die cut or stamped and coloured on other projects and never got around to using.

I did have to stamp a few extra sentiments and the two stars for the Tidings and Trimmings set were new inags, but otherwise all of this was using bits leftover from other projects or things sitting on my desk

Hopefully the swap recipient likes what I made, I’m looking forward to seeing what I get in return.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I’ve joined in with a swap over at Twinchies, Inchies and More over on Facebook and the challenge is to use scraps to make 20 tags… so today’s blog is the 10 I made which are birthday themed… well not exactly all birthday, but non-Christmas ones! Tomorrow will be the turn of the Christmas ones!

So this is my scraps type piles and folders … so I popped them all onto the desk and started creating … using the fabulous Scalloped Tag punch to create 2″ wide bases into tags.

Apart from the sentiments and the ribbons (although some of these were also scraps) the ingredients for these tags were all on the desk or in the scraps folders … and the sentiments were also stamped on scraps!

I am amazed I could make so many lovely tags just from bits and pieces.

I used some of the Dylusions backgrounds I refound a while ago and have been slowly using up for the bases for some tags, I also used Memories and More cards for a few too, along with cutting them up as embellishments.

I also used flower images from the scraps of the True Love dsp that I keep in a pouch for when I want a simple floral element or off the edge flowers… some of these I coloured in, and others I just left black and white.

Love how colourful and bright these tags are.

Join me tomorrow to see the Christmas themed ones.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Is it just me? Whenever I set myself a task of clearing the desk and the piles of “stuff” that have accumulated I end up finding a “treasure” and making something! And the tidying up concept disappears! 😆

So this card is one of those creations!

I found another gelliprint ATCs that I had started and not finished and decided it worked perfectly with those Memories and More cards that I have been whittling my way through!

A scrap of the Pretty Peacock cardstock, a die cut and Forever gold laser cut and a few Artistically Inked flowers to embellish… with a cute little sentiment … and jobs a good’un … on the cardmaking front that is… the desk tidying… not so much!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Hello! Thanks for popping by. I have another design team creation for Creative Knockouts using an image supplied by Pattie’s Creations. The theme for this week is Christmas in July and so I chose to use the Jingle Bells Trio. The joy of digital stamps is you can make them as big or as small as you would like for your creation… and I decided to go quite big!

I wanted some soft colouring for my bells so went with masking and ink blending to make it soft and with a bit of a gradient.

I then used my Stampin Blends markers to add the bows and the central ribbon and then fussy cut them out.

I have been watching a lot of Jennifer McGuire videos recently and so I fancied having an aperture in the card.

I used my stitched shapes framelits to create the aperture and then adhered the bells over the top … I wanted however to add more dimension so I grabbed the Tonic sentiment die and cut it a couple of times to stack for dimension and coloured the word part using the same Stampin Blend markers.

But when I put it in place I felt it needed something more… I must have been in a more is more mood! So I went a little mad with the Pierced Blooms die cut leaves both on the front and inside the card!

Inside I added a couple more die cut framelits onto one I added a stamped sentiment from Christmas to remember and the other I coloured using the stampin blends to keep the colour scheme going.

I finished with the Card Candi in pink to pick up the soft colouring of the bells in the background.

So the digital stamp became more of a background rather than the focal image, but I think that shows the versatility of using digital images in your projects. Plus this is totally different in the end from how I had imagined it in the beginning … funny how that happens when you just have fun creating!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I am really trying to use up dsp I own and keep playing with different challenges. I think this started as a #sheetloadofcards template but to be honest I started it over a month ago so can’t remember now.

Anyway the plan was to make some masculine cards using this golf themed dsp I had in the stash … bit it didn’t exactly go to plan when I realised I had exactly zero golf themed stuff to make it into a proper themed card… so I went a bit off piste!

I hunted through my bits and pieces box and found this printed topper so this did work with the sports theme. I also added the letters from an old Papermania kit which made them slightly more restricted and masculine.

But then I gave up … couldn’t find anything that would work with the golf theme!

Fortunately for three cards I could avoid the direct golf theme as the papers are double sided and I could use alternative sides where necessary … and so instead I gave up on masculine and added butterflies from the lovely Butterfly Brilliance set.

The next two I opted to cover up the golf themed paper instead …

A complete cheat … but all I could think of to do given I had made up the cards originally thinking I must have something in my stash that would work… only to find nothing except that one printed sports element.

Ah well.. a set of fun and pretty cards using golf themed papers done and dusted!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Another card made using that Memories and More kit that is just sitting on my desk needing to be used up. I genuinely love this kit as the cards in it are so cute, perfect colour combos and art work … and because the kit is great value there is loads of it just sitting there still waiting to be used. So I am trying my hardest to work my way through it and create some fun cards from it.

I decided to grab the house card this time. Did some fussy cutting and then chose some other cards to start layering up.

To be honest I figured this was enough and called the card done. But then the next day before I took the photos I decided to also add some gems and I added the remaining part of the house card in the inside as an accent too.

I layered a few pieces and also added some punching to make the sentiment into a banner with the banner punch. I also added some of the stickers from the kit, a piece from the Forever Gold (turned upside down to be white) and a few die cut leaves from the Forever Greenery dies.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today I’m sharing a card made with bits and pieces off the desk. Does anyone else end up accumulating lots of bits from random projects and then feel you have to leave them in sight otherwise they will ‘go to waste’?

So I have a coaster on my desk on which stamped images and die cuts and random embellishments live…

I just can’t bring myself to either file away or throw out these little bits and pieces. And for good reason… sometimes the perfect project comes along that needs these pieces. This card is one such project and absolutely every part of this was sat on my desk waiting to be used!

Firstly … Memories and More cards … they do most of the hard work! Cute birds cut from one card, the Happy is another card cut down as is the floral piece and the dark green background.

The sentiment is one of the prestamped ones from another project. The die cut leaves are either in Pretty Peacock and die cuts from the Splendid Stems set, or the white side of the Forever gold laser cuts.

The gem is from the stash and then the linen thread is the last from the spool that I had on the desk … I’m now in a major panic to get another SU order in as I can’t live without this in my craftroom!

Even the card blank was just sitting on the desk waiting to be used!

This came together in about 10 mins and I am really happy with it!

Happy crafting!

Catherine