Author: Catherine

Hi

Decided to join in with the decorated tag swap over at UK stampers forum again. Although this is a December swap because we don’t actually swap until Jan I went floral rather than festive with my design.

I started with a tag cut from waste packaging and covered it with patterned paper that was sitting on the desk waiting for use – turns out its use was this tag!

When I was covered I inked the edge with Tranquil Tide ink as I felt that went with the colour of the paper. Then I stamped some leaf stamps all around the edge in versamark and embossed with the dark green powder.

I know it ended up pretty much covered up but up close you can see the texture if nothing else.

Then I took some bookprint and stamped lots of the flowers which were in a magazine kit. I then coloured them using my paint brush, water and ink. I chose a few colours of pink to make them look more interesting and try and keep similar to the colour of the background paper.

I fussy cut them out (they were easy shapes to cut) and then glued them down. I added the die cut leaves which were pre diecut from scraps and with the two colours of green I used this kept them similar but also fun. I also liked them going both under and over the flowers.

I finished off with the sentiment, three pearls and the ribbon.

One decorated tag ready to swap!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

It’s the first of the month and so it is a patterned paper day today! I took some panels of the magazine kit paper I had already cut into and made two cards from the bits and bobs and some added die cut trees.

I went first of all for a tall slimline card and for this one I just added a ripped element which was a bit different from all the cut blocks.

I remembered to ink the edge of the panel I added the die cut trees to as I wanted to make sure the layer stood out – I used a light grey so it wasn’t too extreme though!

For the second one I did pretty much the same sort of thing!

I decided once I had put them together that I also wanted to make the trees sparkly so out came the clear glitter glue.

Love this pair of cards and it was nice to use up most of those papers that were already cut into … there is still some yellow left so maybe I need to get the last of that panel used soon!

In past years I have done a fair amount of Christmas card making in December but I think having done a fair amount of the 30 day challenge last month I don’t think I need to this December – I have more than enough cards already ready to send. In fact I may end up with a fair surplus this year which makes me wonder about Christmas crafting for next year – but for now the festive Fridays will continue through December but don’t expect a mad amount of Christmas projects from me this month!

Also I think there may be less blogging this month as it was a blog heavy few months and I’ve had to have a crafting pause as I’ve been ill with a horrible cold/flu virus the past 10 days and not had enough energy to get out of bed, let alone craft much! I did do a bit of colouring and fussy cutting on one day, and another day I sorted out cardstock – but otherwise nothing made! So expect a few gaps this month in my blogging.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Another glitter glue project to share today, this time for my Festive Friday challenge and I went for some more gift tags because I know that’s probably something I am more in need of now than the actual cards.

I decided to go for some simple tags this time although because of all the glitter glue they did take some time to make to be precise with the glitter glue and then to let them dry somewhere safely out of the way! I do have a tendency to prod at them whilst drying which invariably means I mess them up – so I’m getting in the habit of moving them out of sight and reach now whilst drying!

So I die cut letters from the black everyday cardstock and then coated them in glitter glue – I also created a panel of the glitter glue and left that to dry too…

The letters dried first so I started assembling tags but a couple of letters I thought would benefit from an extra coast so I ended up going over all of them – so more drying time required. I also die cut lots of snowflakes from the white cardstock (I used the red solid and patterned paper from the summer collection papers).

Once all the letters were dry I adhered some snowflakes together and added them to the tags along with ribbon scraps for the top of the tags (this is a great project for using up ribbon scraps!). Then I decided to add glitter (clear) to the snowflakes too so they needed setting aside to dry again!

I didn’t end up using the solid piece that I glittered yet – but I know I will – just need to find the time to finish it off!

But love those die cut letters that are so so sparkly. Think that starting with the black base makes them that bit different too as you get to see a slight outline to each – think they would look good on white too but I really like them on the black.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I was so so tempted to go and buy one if those fabulous sets of postage dies and stencils I’ve been seeing but couldn’t justify it … and then remembered I had this stamp from Carabelle stamps which was a larger postage outline.

I stamped it and then masked off the edge to ink blend a bit of blue then stamped the holly. I removed the masking and then coloured in the holly and berries. Then I stamped the postage cancellation image.

Then I moved onto the card base.

I stencilled the snowflakes and then used a piece of cardstock I embossed to place at an angle. I inked the edge of that a little just to define the edge a bit.

I decided to add the Joy die cut as the sentiment and then some sequins to finish off!

I definitely think I need to use that postage stamp more often – I’d love to make this with different colour schemes as I don’t think this one worked so well.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Todays blog post is another one using the fab Everyday Cardstock for a scrapbook page and I thought I would avoid patterned paper by embossing some pieces of the cardstock instead to bring in pattern and texture for my page!

I started by grabbing the three different green colours from the cardstock and I die cut three circles from each colour. I then did one of each colour with the dotty embossing folder and one of each colour with the alphabet folder. I then sanded them to reveal the white core which I think is a great feature of the cardstock.

Next I cut a white panel for the circles to sit on and adhered them in place ready for the next layer which was the photo and some embellishments… but I also wanted to introduce some black so I splattered some black gesso across this panel.

I decided that the white panel could sit on the base of the dark green and that I would add in some bumpy borders I die cut from the greens too to sit behind the photo. At this point I wanted to introduce the grey to pick up on the grey in the photo. So I also die cut the bumpy borders from grey too to add those behind the picture. I then die cut three smaller circles from grey too to be the base of my clusters of embellishments.

I mat the photo (that is actually three in action shots on one print) with the black and then those bumpy borders and adhered that in place ready- then tucked the other bits underneath.

I decided to use the Everyday Stories cards and cut them apart to create the title and the circle die cut lined panel for the journalling.

I also used the puffy stickers from the Everyday Stories kit for the other embellishments.

By placing the white panel on an angle it meant it didn’t matter as much if the elements weren’t 100% straight – it’s always a good way to get away from precision!

Loved how this came together and no patterned paper in sight! Just this versatile colourful cardstock!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

For today’s prompt Martin gave us a colour scheme which I’ve interpreted as red, green and gold! And I decided to combine it with my DT contribution for Addicted to Stamps and More where the challenge is Christmas!

I decided to do a lot of embossing for the background panel on the red using some magazine leaf stamps and then added some depth to the images with red ink.

I then went mad with lots of splatter with the gold paint.

I took the same paint and coated the oval frame I had die cut – I kept it quite rough with the painting to add texture.

I had already got some die cut holly leaves and the little floral image on the desk so added them to the frame and then added the waffle flower sentiment.

I added a mat of the Kraft before adding it to a green card blank.

Loved how this came together and really enjoyed doing a traditional coloured card with all the gold!

And I did a video of this one so please do check out my YouTube .

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Another of the projects I made using Kingston Crafts products – I decided to make a smaller scrapbook page (size 8×8) and use some of the cute spring wax seals for embellishment.

I decided to go for a block layout adding some squares of the patterned paper across the page and then added the picture of hubby and the princess walking along the promenade in Cuitadella, Menorca on our way to see Castell de Sant Nicolau.

I added both the sun wax seals (I used a mix of gold and yellow wax beads to make them) and added some yellow glitter glue to the sun element on the seals.

The papers I used were from the summer collection – I used the side with the smaller print as I was just adding the small 1.5” squares. Before I stuck them down I added some distress inks in broken china applied using the packaging technique and plenty of water.

Then after trying to get the blocks straight and evenly spaced I decided to sew across the top part and the bottom part of each row using white thread just to add some interest.

The photo I mat with the blue sea themed paper and then raised it up on foam.

I tucked one wax seal to the left and then the other two placed at different heights on the right.

I decided to stamp the title using old Claritystamps letter stamps – I love the boxes stamps they come with to make it easy! I fussy cut that out and again raised it to be even with the photo.

Next I took the text paper I had used and cut the words out that made sense for the page and added them to the little squares that were not already text print.

I decided it needed a border rather than white to the edge so I trimmed it down a little and then added it to the yellow everyday cardstock – the same colour as the title!

I added my journalling and decided that it was a finished page!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

As soon as I saw the prompt Forest Friends I knew it was time to revisit the magazine kit from years ago that I hadn’t used in such a long time!

I couldn’t decide which little forest friend to use so decided to stamp the sheet as a whole by taping it as a sheet to the platform and then inking it all.

Not all of them stamped perfectly but that helped decide which ones I used. I grabbed my promarkers and decided to do some pastel colouring!

Then fussy cut out all the coloured images – and then couldn’t decide what to do with them all!

I decided to make my own patterned paper using lots of distress oxides and a few stamps from random sets that were to hand.

It was half an A4 size piece of card so decided to cut it into two panels for cards and make two cards up for the challenge.

So the panels I cut as a full and then on an angle. I mounted it on white and then decided to choose a purple card base and a navy card base as these were to hand.

For the both I added a little stencilling with white pigment ink through the snowflake stencil to add interest to the other half of the card where the angled panel wasn’t sitting. Then I added the panels.

For the purple card I die cut a panel from a scrap of lilac for the focal images to sit on. Then added some die cut trees, the deer and the gift images.

For the navy one I added other die cut trees image and then the wolf as the focal elements.

For both cards I embossed Noel onto the pink scrap and die cut it. The sentiment is from a new Pretty Pink Posh set I bought a few weeks ago so I had some new stamp and coordinating die sentiments to choose from. This is my first use of them so will have to go and do some mass stamping and die cutting from scraps to get myself a ready made stash ready to go!

I then added some sequins to finish off on both cards.

I have still got a panel of the distress oxide paper left and lots of animals but popped them into a pouch to use another time as ran out of time to make them into something now!

Was great to use these stamps again after all this time!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Hi – this is one of the first projects I made for Kingston Crafts using the Spring collection slimline pack.

I also added one of the spring shrink plastic embellishments to finish off the card but the main feature is that beautiful paper.

I used the cover panel die from Creative expressions and die cut three different papers. I’ve the frame leftover for other projects (one of which I used the other day for a Christmas project!) but instead of using the frame element I decided to create and interesting background with loads of dimension straight onto a card blank.

I die cut the frame from white a few times and so I stacked the little elements a couple of times in most cases – although sometimes I varied it and only did one layer – and using one frame for the template I then glued them into place before removing the frame once they were all glued down.

As I used all three different patterns in the same colour way this created a great background – and I’ve also got pieces leftover to do this again with a different variation!

I added a strip of a different colour from the paper set and this became the base for my focal feature – the beautiful shrink plastic butterfly. I love the look of this when it is on the Matt side of the plastic – it gives it a classy feel I think!

I then took a strip of the plain shrink plastic and stamped a sentiment on it before heating it. This shrunk the sentiment (obviously!) and also meant it tied in with the butterfly. I did mount it into white so you could read the sentiment.

I then added sequins to finish off the card.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I loved working with the Spring Slimline Papers from Kingston Crafts – they are heavy weight so more card stock than paper in my opinion and I think are more than perfect for diecutting and scrapbooking – so I made an 8×8 page documenting the fab flamingos we saw on our trip to the zoo!

I chose three of the slimline papers that were a muted coral colour that went well with the photo and die cut a range of circle shapes. I made sure I die cut from both sides of the paper as the pattern on the reverse is the same but reduced in size so you get some variation. I then added them in the clusters across the page to go underneath the small picture I had printed out (think it’s around 3.5×2.5 inches in size).

After adhering the circles down in place I pierced some lines across the circles and decided to hand sew with black thread.

I love the contrast this gave with the sweet papers.

Another great thing about this pack of slimline papers is that you get some sheets that are solid colours so used the coordinating coral to mat the picture. I also added a few punched hearts from the same coral colour.

I raised the picture on foam adhesive and then added it to the page. I trimmed the page down slightly and then added it to the black 8×8 panel as the base which helps to secure the sewing too.

I decided to die cut letters from black everyday cardstock as it was easier than trying to find enough letter stickers for the title.

I decided that as a group of flamingos was a flamboyance this made for a fun title – especially as this flamingo was being rather flamboyant!

I added my journalling and then some stickers from Tim Holtz and some more punched hearts from black to keep that contrast going.

Love how this ended up – and a lovely page to document our trip to the zoo.

Really enjoyed this size too and it was good to start populating my new 8×8 scrapbook album.

Happy crafting!

Catherine