Author: Catherine

Todays challenge I went with adding a creature… and of course my creature had to be a moose! I love moose at Christmas time … and love the Merry Moose stamps and coordinating punch.

I started with some more of the Tis the Season papers and decided to do another fun fold card that Sue Boothby taught me how to do.

It is sort of a card in a card type of thing with a cute side ribbon closure.

I constructed the card base first with white cardstock and then added all the patterned paper… remembering to sandwich the ribbon on the top panel and behind the back panel.

Next I stamped and punched the moose and sentiments etc. and added them to the cards.

I then used up the leftovers to make this card… I did a faux patchwork effect with layered panels and some faux hand stitched lines.

I added the final bit as a tag and the punched moose as the top embellishment.

Love using up strips as banners inside the card too.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Sat down and did a bit of journalling in my 2021 journal. Did a page about Lucky Chuck (rest in peace little hog). Used a mix of supplies from Lollipop Box Club kits.

It was an unplanned and pulled from many collections type of page … love it!

Considering doing a bit of a purge of the boxes that are almost finished and putting them into one organisation system… stickers in one place, die cuts in others… what do you think? At the moment I have no grasp on what is left in some kits and could do without a big pile of boxes on my desk.

Oh and if you are interested I did film this page being put together… here is the link!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Four travel themed postcards was the challenge… oh and an added element make sure they include one inchie!

Here was my attempt…

2 portrait, 2 landscape… all with parts of an atlas as a background!

I actually will confess that I originally forgot the inchie challenge and made some very flat and not as interesting postcards originally and that when I remembered the Inchies part and started chopping them up I was much happier with what I made! Lol!

I chose a few stamp sets from old Creative Stamping magazine sets to create the main images of different types of transport and created fun pieces that I chopped into panels and then added the inchie elements on top. I either added glossy accents of embossing to make those elements stand out and really had fun just creating.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I used more of the Tis the Season dsp again for today’s Christmas in July challenge where I decided the challenge would be fancy fold!

My current favourite fancy fold is the swing fold style that my lovely friend Valerie taught me. I decided to experiment with a few different shapes but had fun creating four cards with 2 different themes.

I decided to use the red sides of the papers mainly and then used some leftover bits and pieces from the Paper Pumpkin Joy to the world kit and some cute penguins from an old card making magazine.

I used bits and pieces of leftover paper to decorate the envelopes and the inside of the cards.

I also used some gems to finish off the cards too.

Swing fold cards, once you get the hang of them are pretty easy to make and lots of fun to choose how to decorate them. Plus they use up more papers… so it is good when you have a lovely collection of papers like the dsp stacks to work with.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Todays challenge is trees … after all one of my favourite things at Christmas is Christmas Trees.

Last year the In the Pines bundle included this fab die that cuts the inside sections of the tree and didn’t really use it much. I decided to cut the card blank with the die and put the dsp behind onto the inside of the card.

I decorated each with some banners and some random sentiments. I also added the glitter gems.

The papers from the Tis the Season work so well together and I love the traditional colours.

The joy of this kind of card also means the inside of the card looks lovely… and is begging for decoration too!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I’m a little late in blogging about this postcard that was sent several weeks ago.

The theme was weird and wonderful and I chose to make a funky postcard for Becky using a Dylusions die cut image as the focal point.

I used some Expressions in Ink dsp as the background and added some stamping to it with some random stamps in my stash. Then I stencilled with texture paste. I also added the die cut which I coloured in and some embossing and some stamped sentiments and a sticker.. basically just played and thre things at the postcard until I was happy with the result!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I joined in with the silhouettes swap at Artful Atcs Facebook group this month.

The theme chosen was silhouettes and I used For the Love of Stamps for both… one under the sea and one jazz themed.

Both ATCs were cut from packaging and then gessoed and Distress Oxide for the background. I stencilled onto the background and then did heavy black stamping for the silhouettes using the stamp platform so I could ensure coverage.

Love how they both came out.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I got around to making this months Artist Trading coins last weekend. Phew it was warm making these in the craft room, but I am pretty pleased with them!

The theme for the month was EMBOSS and I chose to get straight in there with embossing on the background as well as the die cut leaves and the stamped leaves… three different powders used and love how they turned out… albeit a little autumnal feeling!

Mixed together the Very Versailles and the Forever fern stamps for the coins, also different textures with the shimmer vellum and the bakers twine.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Todays challenge was tags… or was it punches… either way I got it covered!

No really the challenge was to create cards featuring tags… but of course my favourite tag is the Scalloped tag topper punch which creates a tag out of any sized 2″ strip… so I made 8 cards and 4 tags from some patterned paper and some other bits and pieces… including a tree punch I’ve had in the stash for a while!

Oh and don’t forget the banner punch that also got to play lots.

OK first of all 2 pieces of 12×12 from the Heartwarming Hugs had 2 2″ strips cut and then cut at 3″, 4″ and 5″

Then punched with the tag topper punch.

The middle 4 I put aside as tags for on gifts … and then the larger and the smaller I decided to make into cards.

I then raided the cardstock scraps folder and found all these pieces of card that made 6x 3.25 cards so decided to make these up into the card blanks as slightly skinny versions of a6 cards.

I also added other elements such as panels of the dsp or the stitched shape die cuts and some embossing.

All the sentiments were from Banner Year and then the focal images the Festival of Trees which is an oldie but a goodie in terms of fun modern trees. And of course it works with the punch.

I added some gems and then these are done as a slightly different size card that still fits in the usual envelopes. Fun!

I added some more strips and bits of patterned paper to the inside of the cards too.

The tags I added a square die cut behind to be able to write on and added trees, seam binding and the little sentiment cut into strips.

Really love how fun and modern these all look and because I was keeping the design similar it was each to batch make … all the stamping and cutting and punching and die cutting in one go and then they all just got stuck together. Simple! Plus punches are the answer to quick and simple cutting out!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today I’ve gone a bit mixed media in my approach but the challenge I gave myself was to do ATC based cards.

A few years ago I set myself an ATC challenge and made 365 + in the year, some of which I used on Christmas cards. So decided to grab some ATCs cut from packaging and made up some ATCs and then worked out how to use them in cards.

These were the ATCs I made…

Gesso background, then texture paste through a stencil, onto which I sprinked some pearl embossing powder onto some parts whilst it was wet.

Once dry I heat embossed the powder to create some resist shiny elements and then added distress oxides in Speckled Egg, blueprint sketch, worn lipstick and picked raspberry.

I let them dry thoughly and then wiped off the excess where the resist was.

Next to decide how to use them. We’ll I love this deer image so stamped it 6 times in different dark blue and purple colours and then fussy cut them out.

I added one to each ATC.

Next I grabbed some white cardstock and cut 3.5×5.5 inch panels and embossed them.

I then grabbed three different coordinating colour cardstocks and made my card blanks.

I added the panels and the ATCs.

Then I added sentiments and sequins to finish off!

Some modern, dimensional and pretty cards to add to the stash!

Not sure how many challenges I cam get through this month and whether I will get to the 12 I originally aimed for but will keep going as best I can.

Happy crafting!

Catherine