Author: 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

Grabbed some more of those Memories and More cards I have kept on the desk to try and get some use out of them and made up this cute birthday card.

I added in a panel of the Pale Papaya which I had run through the alphabet embossing folder.

I then added the gorgeous image from the Splendid Thoughts set which I blended the green and blue inks over. I then added the little die cut in the Pale Papaya vellum as a sparkly accent.

I stamped the sentiment onto a strip cut off another one of the cards and cut a little bird out of the middle of the card I had put at the back as the accent embellishment.

Then I decided to grab the little flowers from the stash and add those too.

Really cute card. And I do love these Memories and More packs for providing everything you need to make colourful card toppers … I know they are meant to be for memory keeping really, but as I’ve fallen out of the habit of that at the moment, this is a really good use for them.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

So this project was inspired by my coming across the Forever Greenery foil laser cut pack that I hadn’t really used much of and the Expressions in Ink dsp piece that happened to catch my eye when I was putting some stash away … Next thing I knew I was making 9 Christmas cards!

I mean that Green foiled dsp is so pretty and then with those die cuts on top it doesn’t need much so I just stamped and die cut lots of foliage from the Christmas Season set and then a heap of sentiments (some of which I heat embossed) and started clustering them together.

I used a mix of distress inks to stamp using the stamp platform so they were more varied in colours.

I interrupted my crafting to go see Top Gun with the hubby and then came home and finished them off! I also added some twine and ribbon from the stash to add some different textures in.

On this first one I also added small panel of the soft sea foam which I had run through the Fern 3d embossing folder… love the texture on this.

So happy with this set of cards and what a fun little project. It really wasn’t difficult to put them together as the paper and the foil laser cuts do most of the work. I don’t have any of the larger pieces from this set left now … but still have lots of the rectangle panels and some small leaves … but the leaves I am going to keep on my desk for now in a bid to remember to use them up!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

So the lovely Martin’s Mayhem shared this card on his blog and on his socials and I fell in love with it… then he also did a YouTube video showing how he made it. I absolutely wanted a go and realised that the dies in the In the Pines set might work in creating some landscapes.

So I went for Basic White and cut out lots of circles and then cut some of those circles with the landscape/ snowscape dies and started layering them up along with some of the tree die cuts.

I did ink the edges of my snowscapes but only lightly using a fairly dry Night of Navy. I inked the trees using Old Olive and Night of Navy to give them a shadowy muted look.

Once I was happy with my circle landscape I decided that the Snow Crystal background stamp might make a nice background for the moons first I blended the Night of Navy for the sky and then stamped the Snow Crystal using the Pale blue ink (Soft Sky). When I then added the circle die cut for the moon (which I had also inked a little) it looks like the moon beams are snowflake shards!

I then added the circle element to the card front panel with some foam for dimension and then decided it needed another tree so again the pine trees set came out and I did a few die cuts and inked and stacked them to make this a sturdy and chunky tree with the more delicate one on top.

I was a little stuck on sentiments as the ones I kept trying were all too big and covered too much of the circle landscape… then remembered these little stamps in the Peace and Joy set and I think they work perfectly.

So this was absolutely inspired by the incredibly talented Martin, but I am pleased with how my version finished up.

Entering into the Anything Goes Christmas challenge at CHNC.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Well I attempted another Sheet load of cards using the template by Call me Crafty Al but I messed up the cutting … still i managed four cards, and have plenty of leftovers for other projects, but absolutely not really following the template and not as many cards as it should have been… but you know what I am happy with the results so don’t care that it took a different turn!

I decided to use three sheets of the Expressions in Ink dsp but didn’t quite follow the template on one and also my cutting into triangles went squiffy so ended up giving up on the real template and just winging it. To be honest that’s more my thing anyway otherwise I would have ended up with cards that were all too similar and that’s not really me.

Once I had done the cutting I then set to on all the stamping I thought I might use for embellishment….

As the papers were a mix of Pale Papaya and Polished Pink and I don’t own those inks I did a mix of Calpyso Coral, Melon Mambo, Crisp Canteloupe and More Mustard to get some colours that would compliment the Pale Papaya in the dsp.

Most of the leaves were Old Olive but I did do a few in Pear Pizazz to give some variation.

Then I did all the die cutting and fussy cutting needed (fussy cutting the sentiments mainly). And then started to put together the cards. I did end up die cutting some of the standalone elements from the set too and that added some different finishes to some of the cards. I did assemble most as card toppers and then added them to card bases rather than straight onto card bases as I went along.

I also varied on one card and used Splendid Thoughts and Splendid Stems to embellish … just like to mix things up occasionally!

I didn’t however get round to doing much more than putting four cards together properly … these ones where black became the base!

As you can see most of the stanping I did wasn’t used on these… but I’ve die cut everything and put it in a pouch for coming back to … you never know I might get to it soon but I lost inspiration a little after these ones.

I love the drama of the black and the gold … and that Polished Pink alcohol ink effect is everything!

Entering these into the Anything Goes challenge at Crafty Katz

Next time will definitely make an effort to do more with the Pale Papaya … which is gorgeous but I just don’t have the inspiration right now!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Another design team contribution to share with you today. Once again this is for Happy Little Stampers. This is a card I’ve had all the bits and pieces hanging around for ages but only just managed to put it together into a card… and made it a special one too!

So it started with the cover die panel which I die cut for a project back in March which left me with some bits left over I didn’t want to waste so I made up this panel. Now it is really difficult to tell on the picture but the little individual pieces are all different heights as I added extra layers to some of them as I stuck them in. This adds extra texture but doesn’t show at all in the picture!

I still had a large piece of the paper that was perfect for using as a background on this 7×7 card. I then added the flourish die cuts and a butterfly to become the focal point. I also added the die cut sentiment and some linen thread to add texture.

I added wink of Stella and glossy accents to the Butterfly too.

Inside the card I added a couple of strips of the patterned paper and a stamped sentiment with little added stamped details. This then became a card for my auntie’s birthday.

Super happy that I finally used these pieces and love what I created.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Well I feel honoured to be part of yet another Design Team, this time with Creative Knockouts. So you’ll get to see me playing along with new challenges and using a few different things that I’ve not played with in a while… like digital stamps. I have quite a large selection but I just got out of the habit of using them when I had printer or laptop issues… now those are sorted it will be good to get back to experimenting.

This weeks challenge is to use die cuts and punches and is sponsored by Dr Digi’s House of Stamps.

I chose to use the One Small Step image and teamed it with the fab star background die from Creative Expressions.

I started with the image printing onto Basic White cardstock and then I coloured it using my Stampin Write markers in soft sea foam and smoky slate colours so it is a very soft green with the grey. I did pull in a promarker for the cool grey moon base colour too.

Then I stuck the printed image to another piece of basic white before fussy cutting out. This gave it some sturdiness as I knew I wanted to raise it up with some foam. I also cut out the flag twice from the same image again to give it some dimension.

Onto the flag I stamped the love you from the Funky Fossil stamps. I intend to give this card to my hubby next week (good job he doesn’t read my blogs!) so a simple love you does the job!

Then I grabbed the Big shot and my star cover plate die and ran it through using both black and the glimmer paper from last years SU catalogue.

I cut down the black background into a 4″ square and mounted it onto white cardstock and then pieced back in a few of the glittery stars.

Then mounted the spaceman on the moon onto some foam and added him to the front of the card. I decided then that a glossy accents finish would work best on his visor so added that too.

Really this is a simple card as the die cut does all the work … but so cute to include that fab little space explorer to create the focal image.

Happy crafting!

Catherine