Author: Catherine

Today is one of the princesses best friends birthday… so we have been partying this afternoon. 

Of course I had to make her a special card. 

I chose to play with distress oxides (again!) because I just can’t get enough of playing with them. I made a background by swiping the colour on the cardstock and then spraying it to blend. This provides a stronger depth of colour. I still did some more inking on top to create more layers though. 

Then once it was dry I inked the Swallowtail stamp with Versamark and then heat embossed it.

I then made a second background using the same colours and did a blended background and splattered on the Wilted Violet ink and some water droplets. 

I mounted both of these onto Basic Grey cardstock and layered them up. 

Today I’ve been in sunny Harrogate taking a class with the lovely Dyan Reaveley. The plan was to make 26 quote cards using the alphabet as inspiration… but making 26 in one day is a little bit of a challenge so I’m just sharing what I managed so far! 

This first step was getting inky…. 

In fact I got very inky! 

Then it was time for paint play… 

Then gluing them together and cutting them all into large cards… 

Then it was time for lunch. I grabbed a lovely smoked salmon bagel with cream cheese, rocket and sweet chilli sauce. Yum! 

Then it was back to the classroom (I might have had a little spend in the shop too of course). 

We then stamped and stencilled borders before grabbing magazines and having fun tearing out images we might want to collage.  I ended up with a big stack of images and then started the mammoth task of cutting out the images…. this was just a small selection of the images I cut out and not sure I used many of these. 

Then I worked my way through the pike selecting images and composing the cards. I did all of this without sticking down and the once I had a stack with some images I then started gluing things in place.  I also got to stamp a few of Dyans images and adding them in the mix too. 

And this is where I had got up to at the end of the class. Not a single finished item but plenty started and only I think 4 without inages yet affixed. 

This type of collage is very outside my comfort zone but I loved it.such a drawing experience to just try something new. 

I’m writing this blog post whilst having a quick coffee break on my way back… May have to go grab a couple of other magazines from the shop to get some more images to play with… I sense a new obsession about to start! 

And the hands? Well the nails look ok… shame about the rest of them! 

Will share how I finish the cards off as soon as I do.

Happy crafting!

Catherine 

Hi there. Hope you are well and thanks for making time in your day to visit my little space in blog land! It’s appreciated. 

Today I have two atcs I created for a swap with the theme of “tempus fugit” which apparently means time flies! 

So here are my time related atcs. 

This first one I actually created on video… so check out the video if you have time and want to see the process. There is basically a distress oxide and then gilding wax theme going on with this.

The second one also features my favourite medium … distress oxides. I also used iridescent medium through a stencil and gave a glossy sheen to the clock with embossing. 

Stamps used are from a mish mash of sets for the second one but the first one is mainly Indigo Blu stamps. 

Happy crafting! 

Catherine 

Today the princess went to the birthday party at a trampoline park for a school friend so a card was required. I decided to play with butterflies, masking and the big Woodware Happy Birthday stamps.

I used distress oxides to watercolour the butterflies and the letters.  Then I stamped the little star using the same colour inks. I then added some stickles to both the butterfly and the stars. 

Hope the birthday girl enjoyed her birthday… I know the princess enjoyed her time trampolining! 

Happy crafting!

Catherine 

Yes my other postcard swap is what I have to share with you tonight. The theme was chicks, lambs, bunnies but I went slightly off piste with a nest of eggs… well they nearly are chicks! 

I decided to do it all on camera… so here is the YouTube video. 

Happy crafting!

Catherine 

Is 173 a happy number? Well this ATC certainly is! 

A simple ARC made using a woodcut from my Artful Days goodie box, some scrap distress ink and painted paint, bookprint and ribbon. All mounted onto the fresh mint ATC blank. 

Cute and simple!

Happy crafting!

Catherine 

I really can’t stop using my distress oxides. They are so lovely to use I just can’t put them away. 

Here is a card I made just when I was playing! 

You can probably tell this actually was an ARC but I wanted to offset the butterfly more than would normally be accepted so turned it into a card instead. 

This was the starting point. A painted piece of paper (probably brayering off during gelli plate play) and a scrap of patterned paper. I love those rich colours of the paints and the texture the layers create.

Next up more layers. Book print and tissue wrap layered over the top. Some of this is translucent and others not. Love the effect this creates. Then added distress oxide on the top. 

Next the panel for the topper to sit on.  A piece of mixed media cardstock which has plenty of oxide smooshed on and layered up. I also added a little stamping using the World Map stamp. 

Next is the butterfly. I added gesso to the chipboard embellishment and then added distress oxide onto it with a little water. I then heat embossed the whole embellishment to ‘set’ the colour and make it glossy. 

I finished the card off by mounting this into a Navy cardblank I made and it is just waiting for a sentiment or a reason to give/send it. 

Lovely! 

Just adore that background… and counting this in my ATC challenge! 

Happy crafting!

Catherine 

Another ATC to share with you today… must admit my rate of production of ATCs has slowed of late but know I am well ahead of schedule so not worried about meeting the challenge. It has been good to vary the projects a little more instead. 

Anyway that aside today’s project is the fairy atc above…. and it’s another YouTube video. 

Happy crafting! 

Catherine 

Another day, another swap! 

Today is a postcard swap where the theme is to “flourish”. I started off with quite a thick chipboard that I cut to 6×4 and covered with gesso.  

Once that was dry I added modelling paste through a Tim Holtz stencil. 

Next I started to add colour. First magenta and purple using the decoarts fluid acrylics and then some distress oxide on top. 

Next I added the wild flower image with white embossing powder and added a rough frame doing the same on the edges.  There were some wet parts  (impatient me) which also had some powder catch which left some other white parts. I liked this though. It gave it a rather loose feel.

I then added the sequin waste layer and some embossed Tim Holtz butterflies and then the Indigo Blu sentiment which I stamped and coloured using the distress oxides.

Really happy with how this finishes up. Hope the recipient also likes it too. 

Happy crafting! 

Catherine 

I’m up early and still feeling poop as I adjust to medication  but thought I could do something positive and write up a blog post. Here are three ATCs made for a swap where the theme is The Blues. I went for a sea theme but started by grabbing three off cuts which had blue themes. 

The first and third were gelli print off cuts and the middle one was a palette with some modelling paste through a stencil. 

I completely transformed them to make my atcs… I can’t believe how differently they ended up from these starting points.

The one on the left was the one on the right hand side. I added some of the rich turquoise ART alchemy paint and then some embossing in a blue using the Indigo Blu stamps. I then heat embossed the seahorses and the sentiment in white powder. 

The middle one got a coat of the decoarts Ultramarine blue over the base and then a few layers of scraps before I added the fish and sentiment. 

The final one was the one on the right. I added the opal magic blue/pink all over it and then added some stamping and embossing randomly with the blue powder. Then I added the layers of scraps and the focal image of the seaweed and sentiment. 

All of them I trimmed or tore them to a slightly smaller size and then added them to a light blue base. 

Really pleased with how they all turned out. 

Happy crafting! 

Catherine