Author: Catherine

Made another masterboard to turn into Christmas cards. Started with the large piece of watercolour cardstock and added some strips of masking tape to it. Then added gelatos and Inktense to it with lots of water.

Then stamping with the Inktense and some of the SU inks… then removed the masking tape before adding more stamping.

A pretty weird and wonderful creation!

Cut it up into 12 3.5 inch squares…

And then set to on creating cards…

The first four I started with embossing the beautiful Dasher stamp onto them. I just love this stamp.

Next I grabbed some stampin write markers and my waterbrush and this magnolia Angel to add to another four.

After colouring the images I fussy cut them and then added them to the panels. I then added stickles to the hat fluff and left them to dry.

The final four I added a magazine stamped image and used my wink of Stella pen to add shimmer and blend the ink on the stag head.

All three sets look very different but still obviously from the set given the same background.

I then finished off all of the cards individually. I added some pearl accents to both the Dasher and the stag cards, sentiment stickers and then mounted them onto the 4×4 card blanks.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

One of my circle journal friends son turned 13 last week so I made him a card … I made it as part of my #31productchallenge and it was fun to get something out of the cupboard I have not used for a long time! Derwent ArtBars.

They are a bit like more solid distress crayons or creamier Neocolor crayons as a watercolour pigment stick.

I created a background using them and my finger and a bit of water to blend.

Then I wet a kaisercraft stamp with a spray and swiped with the artbar which created a nice wet ink to stamp with.

Once it was dry I added it to a card front and then added some embellishments (Sam likes his golfing apparently) and some stamping. I then finished off with some doodling with a white pen.

Fun to play with these sticks… might keep them on my desk for some more background making… I’m contemplating a few masterboard makes to get some of the Christmas cards started soon and thinking these might come in handy to use for a change.

Love that this challenge has made me make a different choice from my usual go to supplies. Wonder what else I will discover in my stash this month!

And of course it’s big happy 13th birthday to Sam x

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I made a spooky postcard for the Postcard art swap group.

I used the Tim Holtz tissue wrap in the background with lots of layers of distress oxide and some stamping.

I then added the diecut house I had received in a swap in perfect time for this. I added lots of embossing too to add texture.

I then drew the little ghost in the window and embossed that with white powder. I quite like the cute happy ghost.

Hope that the recipient also liked my take on this month’s theme.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Hi there.

I’ve joined another design team, this time for a challenge blog called Back to Basics and Beyond where there is a different technique or product type to be tried out every fortnight.

This fortnight we are showcasing stencils and masks and I’ve made this tag card for my contribution.

So how did I make it? Well here are my step by step instructions…

I grabbed some fresco finish paints and painted the tag in chartreuse and then put the stencil over the tag to stencil the outline of the flower in bora bora.

Then I snipped the mask and the debt in apart so I could fill in the flower with the bora bora and jade to provide a blended look. Next I placed the flower mask over the flower and stencilled the dots over the background.

Next I took the coordinating stamp and stamped the flower using prawn paint. I then took a white paint pen and started adding some doodles.

I again added the mask back over it to create the shading of the prawn around the flower. Once again replaced the mask and added some splashes of the prawn paint using my fan brush.

Next I started adding black pen marks too to add contrast. And the love word was a rub on from a Tim Holtz pack.

I also added some pale pink sequins and some island indigo ribbon.

Now to add this as a topper to a card. I decided to repeat the dots stencilling and this time used the prawn to add the dots. Then I raised the tag on foam tape to give it a little dimension.

Jobs a good’un!

Love this arty tag and the stencil and mask combo did all the hardwork for me!

Looking forward to seeing what the rest of the design team made and please do pop along to see them and join in the challenge too.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Happy crafting!

Yes back with another collaboration project… three ATCs made in three stages by three artists.

Here are my backgrounds…

Then off they went on their journey to get finished.

Meanwhile … I received these from Pat…

And added a layer of stamping before sending them on…

Then I got these backgrounds from Louise that Pat had added her layer to …

… and I finished them off…

And finally mine came back again (along with some other nice bits and pieces) …

A lovely fun project that is quick to do and creates something really special as it’s a collaboration between three.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

At the weekend I came across some memories and more project life type cards I had left in my stash from a class that my friend Helen did about a year and a half ago so decided to use them up…

I also combined this with some washi tape as I rarely get round to using my washi stash and it seemed like a good plan in my #31productchallenge.

So I added washi to both cards in different ways and created these two fun cards.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today I have 9 inchies to share that are for a swap I joined. The theme is faces and I decided to make three sets of three.

The first three were a background I made using Fresco finish paints. I then stamped three girls faces onto them and added some colour to the hair for each of them.

The next three I added bookprint and added a layer of gesso over them… again I then added the stamped girls to it.

The final three I went for a distress oxide background in three different colours and then added the stamped girl image on them.

So love these 9 inchies. Hope the recipient likes them too.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Two posts in one day… getting all caught up on projects! For this month’s tag swap at UK stampers forum I went for a distressed look using Paperartsy fresco finish paints and their crackle glaze. (Yes another for my #31 product challenge)

I love how easy the crackle glaze is to use and how quickly it can make a fab background.

I then added the Dream catcher using a Claritystamp stencil and the paints and then posca pen.

Next I added the stamped Andy Skinner sentiment and heat embossed. So not much in the way of stamping but didn’t want to go overboard once I had added the fab Dreamcatcher onto the background.

I finished with the pretty organza gold ribbon.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Once again Royal Mail managed to lose some post… and this time it was Liz whose coins never made it to my house… so as I was partnered in another swap with her I made a couple of face themed coins to send along with the other items I was sending… as a RAK for missing out on the coin swap.

I started with a piece of mountboard i had added some leftover paint to and then built up more and more layers using both a gelli plate and stamps and a brayer. Then I cut out the coins.

I used some Jane Davenport face builder stamps to create the faces and then created hair. The one on the left was paper pieced hair that I then painted over. The one on the right I just painted straight on.

Then I added the midnight paint to the background. I added a little shading with a Pitt big brush pen and then stamped the words onto each.

Super happy with how these came out. Such clever stamps as they do the difficult work for you!

And this was my day 11 for #31productchallenge… fresco finish paints!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today I have some ATCs I made for the Artful ATCs group with the theme of Houses.

I did include these as part of my #31productchallenge…

I did my backgrounds using the Distress Oxides and the gelli plate. I then stamped and embossed the images. Then I grabbed my watercolour pencils to add some colour to the houses.

Then I finished them both off… with a sticker for the blue one and some doodling for the orange one.

Happy crafting!

Catherine