Author: Catherine

My twinchies for the coin swap group for last month’s ‘words to live by’ swap were made in a couple of batches… first lot were made using leftover gelli printed and brayered off book print. I knew I wanted to use the word grow again so I stamped the flowers from Serene silhouettes and there was enough for eight inchies.

I punched out the main part of the image (2 weren’t quite wide enough to be the full circle but I didn’t think that mattered in the end). I then glued them down onto the coloured cardstock twinchies I had made from scraps. I thought these two colours worked well with the colours on the backgrounds.

Next I added doodling on each and the stamped part of a Clare Lloyd stamp to get the word grow.

Again I doodled round the titles to make them work with the focal image.

Really happy with batch one… especially as it meant I used up some scraps… but of course 8 would not be enough for all the swap participants so I had to make some more… but that happened on another day.

A few days later I used some distress oxide on watercolour cardstock and then stamped and embossed the flowers with white powder.

I then added some additional colour onto the image using the oxides and a waterbrush. Next I added the sentiment.

And finally I made eight more to make sure there were enough for everyone…

These I used the Awesomely Artistic floral stamp for the focal images and coloured them with two colours of pink SU inks and a green for the leaves.

Love how this looked on the pink cardstock… And the splatter stamp worked well too. Stamped my word onto separate card and then cut it and adhered it onto the twinchies.

And then three more swaps turned up… so three more quick twinchies made…

All done!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

So it’s time for a paper piecing project for the Back to Basics and Beyond challenge and I really wanted to use the Gorjuss Girl stamps to do this… so I went a little overboard and made a few cards.

First off I stamped them all onto white cardstock for colouring the skin and hair with promarkers…

And then again onto the patterned paper… although wasn’t as worried about the whole image stamping as I only needed the clothing to be stamped.

Then set to on colouring and paper piecing.

Then I added some more shading to the images to make sure that they don’t look too one dimensional.

And then I made up the cards.

This is the one I’ve linked on the blog ..

I love the cluster of bits and pieces I added and the rounded corners.

I kept this clean and simple and just added a few gold edged layers under the image.

This one had a piece of inky paper behind that was an experiment for a class I was teaching at the beginning of the month… Love how it pulls out the green on her dress and socks.

This one I ended up going shabby chic and inking everything. Again more of the green paper and a cute tag I found in the box.

Finally a simple one with layers and scribbles to frame and a cute butterfly to embellish.

I am super happy with all these paper pieced dolls. They were a little fiddly to cut out as they are so small but totally worth the effort!

Would love to see your paper pieced art … Please come and share with us at the blog.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Tonight I had a few friends come and get inky with me. We played with the gelli plates and inks and brushos and generally had fun making a mess and lots of pretty bright and colourful papers. We didn’t quite get to the point of making a card … I must plan sessions better to make sure we have finished projects! But after they left I sat and cut out images and made up six cards from the stuff I had created… even if they aren’t completely finished cards… they are at least nearly done!

I also still have the pile of images and a few bits of background I can use left too for other projects… I reckon a postcard or two might be featuring some of those bits sometime soon!

Anyway here are the cards.

I think with a little shading, a sentiment and a small amount of embellishing these cards are good to go… and from the stack of paper we gelli printed a good amount of projects can be made!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I made another three coins with the Pebeo fantasy paints although this time I added a layer of sparks paint and some texture paste first as I wanted to see how that interacted with the fantasy paints.

Once dry I started adding the paint…

First the red in the centre and then the apricot on the spokes going out…

I then left them to dry … again this stuff takes ages to dry so it was good to leave it for a couple of days to make sure it was completely set.

Added some gold pen doodles and accents to the texture and pattern. Then added a layer of clear embossing to add even more shine!

Next I added the focal image…

Sun images stamped and embossed. Then I diecut them and added them to a punched circle of glimmer paper. And then stamped and added the sentiment with some glossy accents on the top to add even more shine!

Love how these came out!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

The theme over at my Artist Trading Coins swap group (over on Facebook for UK swappers only because of the postage) is “Let it shine”.

I decided to have a play with the Pebeo fantasy paints and create a fab set of backgrounds… I forgot how fab these paints were to play with!

So first layer went down and I left them to do their thing…

And then I added some more colour …

And this time left them overnight … well actually for two nights as that’s when I got back to playing with them.

Love how the elements I added later have some dimension to them and have a more defined shape than their background… So how to finish them off?

Well started with a star stamp… And embossed it on each in a different colour… Then went to town with posca pens and dots!

And used Art by Marlene stickers for the sentiments.

Love love love the finish of these Prisme Pebeo fantasy paints. And enjoyed making these shiny coins so much!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I had to use one of the Art by Marlene chubby chicks for the diet themed postcard I made for a swap.

First I added distress ink and some splatters as a background along with the distress resist spray to protect some of it before adding more splashes, this time adding some shimmery watercolour paints and art alchemy sparks paints.

Then I added some of the Art by Marlene collage paper and one of the die cuts over the top.

Then I added some of the stickers onto card and added a frame around each using the shimmer watercolour paint.

Love how this came out… And strictly speaking not against my current WW plan … which is not a starvation diet and encourages living a full life.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Last in our current round of bunting for UK stampers forum and there is an Anything Goes theme this month.

I started with a watercolour background and a bit of random stamping and then added some papers and edged them with Inktense pencil. Next I added some texture through a stencil.

This made me go for an underwater theme…

I chose to stamp the mermaid from Magical Days onto some glossy cardstock I had added distress oxides to. Then I die cut it out.

Next I found a die cut in the stash as a gift with a swap that worked perfectly… I heat embossed it and then added some bubble stamping on the background.

Next I adhered everything and then stamped and embossed a sentiment from another stamp set.

I then added some silver posca pen dots to frame the bunting.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today I have two ATCs I made for the positive quotes/Affirmations themed swap for this month over at Artful ATCs Facebook group.

I went for two very different styles.

The one on the left I used a patterned paper that really appealed to me with all the envelopes and travel themes and did some ripping and inking . I then chose a sticker from the Art by Marlene pack to add to it.

The other I used the Beautiful You stamps adding light colour with distress inks and embossing the sentiment on to the top.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I made a postcard at the weekend using Art by Marlene collage papers and a Gorjuss stamp which I’m sharing here today…

Just love the bright and cheery papers and decided after making the background that they would work perfectly for paper piecing the Gorjuss Girl.

I coloured her and the bunny in with promarkers and then added the dress and tights using the papers.

I added more pattern to the green panel with some more stamping and then added some doodling with my white posca pen and black spectrum noir sparkle pen.

Then I used the Art by Marlene sticker and added it to cardstock adding a shimmery watercolour border before cutting it out and adhering it all.

Super happy with this and the sparkly features.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today I have a swap I made where the theme was Frosty for the nine inchies.

I started with a piece of 3×3 watercolour and added distress oxides and then added the stamping using white embossing.

Next I stamped a snowman three times onto shrink plastic, cut them out and shrank them. They make such cute embellishments. I also die cut two snowflakes and shrank them too.

I found a cute tree button and threaded it through with some twine. I then stamped trees onto two of the inchies and the sentiment/title onto the other one.

I then used another panel and added the same distress oxides onto that and temporarily adhered the inchies onto this, along with the label.

Hopefully the recipient likes my frosty inchies.

Happy crafting!

Catherine