Author: Catherine

So many DT contributions today… and the CHNC one is to use a bear on my Christmas card… so of course I had to use this polar bear from the Creative Stamping magazine set. I do love this bear.

I chose a Winter Frost paper background and then used my promarkers to colour the bear. I hope you get a sense of dimension with the shading I used.

I also added a strip of white with the sentiment and a strip of Tranquil Tide to mount it and give the bear something to sit on.

I added sequins and then some glossy accents to the bears nose and eyes for dimension and shine.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I am very late with this one… it should have been finished two days ago and shared yesterday… ooops… better late than never though!

The theme for this fortnight at Back to Basics and Beyond challenge blog is Triple stamping and I hadn’t done this for a while.

I used a background stamp and my stamp positioner (platform) for mine.

First I cut the papers and the mats for each layer. Then I stamped just the paper.

I chose to use a few shades of the teal ink for my card.

Then I layered them up.

I decided to finish with the Petal Palette flower image, a band of pink cardstock and a pink card blank I made.

I also added the light turquoise sequins.

Love how the bold background is softened by the image.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Following on from the inchies I made and shared a couple of days ago I also made a sunflower ATC using the rest of the embellishments from the stash…

I added them to a distress oxide background that I had added some gorgeous grunge stamping. I also added a printed sentiment and some sequins.

The second flower based ATC I made was very different in style. This one I stamped and watercoloured using watercolour pencils and then embossed the sentiment on top.

A very simple but pretty ATC.

Love how different they both are.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Hello! Have another set of coins to share today where I used the time theme.

This time some distress ink backgrounds which I then added some glass bead gel through a stencil. I then added the stamped image and then added a stamped word.

Love these.

Some fun dimension for these.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

This evening I am going to celebrate the marriage of Jayne (one of my raggy doll sisters) and Simon along with a few of my other raggy doll sisters. I can’t wait!

So as by this time I will be partying this is a scheduled post to show you the card I made.

I chose to use Spellbinders dies for the background and then Stampin Up Petal Palette stamps and dies for the floral elements and the Mr and Mrs stamp again from Stampin Up. I kept to a soft pink colour palette using two tones of pink cardstock and watercolouring the flowers which I had embossed in the champagne embossing powder.

I gave the elements some dimension with foam tabs and added some dots of liquid pearls around the focal images.

Love how this all looked. The inside of the card is similar but a lot more simple…

Leaving me plenty of room for my message of love to the happy couple!

So happy for Jayne and Simon. May they enjoy a lifetime of happiness together.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I am a little late with my blog post today for the CHNC challenge. Sorry! But better late than never the challenge is to use silver and I decided to use both some silver embossing powder and some silver sequins to decorate my green card!

I used some patterned paper and green cardstock mats and gave the paper and the cardstock a little bit of edging with ink and then embossed the sentiment from a magazine set straight into the paper and the tree onto some cardstock and raised it up on foam tape to give it some dimension.

Then I added the sequins as a scatter across the whole card. Now off I jog to see what the rest of the team made over at the blog.

Cute!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Another swap to share… this time some inchies using the following colour palette…

The colour palette reminded me of a sunflower against blue skies.

Here is what I made…

I used blue ink to smoosh the watercolor the inchies in and then stamped using the dark brown archival ink and the Hardwood stamp.

I then added the spotty washi to three of the inchies and strips of the yellow washi to two of the inchies. Into the strips I added the words sun flower.

Then I inked the edge of each inchie and added an embellishment sunflower from the stash. I then arranged them onto the yellow cardstock.

Love this bright and beautiful selection of inchies.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

It’s been a while since I’ve joined in with the Postcard Art swap just because I’ve had so much going on… but this month I’m back in the gang and the theme was Cats or Dogs.I went for cats for my postcard though and used my Cats meow Mama Elephant stamps. I just adore these clustered group big stamps (I’ve got the dog and snowman one too!)I stamped it and masked it and added a few more kitties to the back of the crowd including one with a sign saying hi! Then I watercoloured them using a mix of distress inks.The distress inks I used I had pressed onto my glass mat and then sprayed water onto it and smoothed another piece of water colour card onto it to create the background…. a great way of keeping the colours the same!I then added the meow words on the background and edged the panel. The top panel I trimmed down a bit so it would be smaller than the base to show the inky background and edged that too.Once I had adhered it I then added glossy accents to some elements like the sign, the heart, the monacle. This gives them a raised and glossy finish.Love how this came out and how cute these kitties are!Happy crafting!Catherine

The theme of the swap was eyes so I decided to use the Jane Davenport face stamp where you can choose the features. I’ve not used this stamp much but loved creating these three ATCs using the stamps.

I started with some mountboard cut using the Bigz die and gave it a coat of gesso. Then I dry brushed on some neutral colours of Paperartsy fresco finish paints (buff and taupe). I also added some of the smoked paprika so break up the background and because I knew I wanted to incorporate that into the hair colour too.

I then stamped using sepia ink the face and then the features using different eye stamps for each girls but keeping the lips and nose the same.

Then I added in hair for each using a mixture of browns and oranges. I also added colour to the lips and then the eyes I chose a teal/blue colour that really stood out.

I then used Inktense pencils and a waterbrush to add more definition to the eyes and some shading.

I also added a bit of subtle stamping to the background using yellow archival and a Gorgeous grunge stamp and then added the sentiment from a magazine set in the sepia ink.

I finished by edging them with archival ink to frame the panels.

Love how these came out. So different from everything else I have made recently.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today on CHNC the challenge Hazel has come up with is to use a house/building on out Christmas card. I decided to use the stamps that came with a magazine last year that had a coordinating circle die.I chose this woodland lodge image with the deer and added some colour using my watercolour pencils and a waterbrush to blend. Then cut them out.

Next I chose two very different sets of patterned paper from the stack I had put together a few months ago to make my Christmas card making easier.

The first one, a distressed earthy coloured set with brown cardstock mats and a kraft card blank.I added the strip of craft and stamped and embossed the sentiment. Then a bow of twine.The second I used the Winter Frost paper one and added embossing for the sentiment and round the edge of the circle and the paper panels. I added this one to a white card blank I had made from linen cardstock.Love how both of these came out. Both different and yet the same focal image.

Happy crafting!

Catherine