Author: Catherine

Well I have to say I am absolutely blown away by how cool it was to see my projects on tv last night! It really was a pinch me moment. When I turned over to Hobbymaker.tv just as the programme had started and immediately spotted my pages right at the front I squealed!

And then grinned throughout the whole show. Martin was so nice in mentioning when I had made the projects – love his title for me as the “Queen of Christmas”. His demos were so cute (expect me to make something similar sometime soon because it inspired me to use the kit a different way!) – so please do go and watch on catch up if you can!

So today I have the second page featuring the gorgeous Simba (next doors cat) and the Pet Kit from Kingston Crafts.

Chose four different photos of him asleep on four different days and decided to go with the red due to the red blanket in one of the pictures.

So the red and the brown layers are the solid coloured papers from the stash and then I chose the cute paw print pattern for the main square background. Everything got distressed with my tool to bring in more of the white and to add texture – plus I chose to roll up the corner.

I added the vertical panel to ground the main photo area which I added a couple of mats to – the cat paper and the blue for a base.

I added in lots of the embellishments from the kit including the I ❤️ NAPS title piece and enjoyed putting them together in the three clusters. I also added the twine bow for some different texture.

I added my little bit of journalling on white cardstock strips and then added the little enamel dots as final embellishments… then I spotted the wax seal that I had made and never got around to using from the Spring wax seal collection and thought it worked well on the page with the colour and the glittery heart!

As pet papers and embellishments are not my go to I hadn’t ever done scrapbook pages for Simba before I got this kit and so this kit has been great for helping me get the story of next doors cat documented. I have pictures of other people’s pets (people were kind in sending me their pics) so I might get a few dog pages done too as gifts for Christmas! Watch this space!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today I have another card for Martin’s Christmas card challenge and the prompt is a sketch …

… I decided to actually grab some bits from the half made stash when I saw the sketch and made this a week or so ago!

I used the panel I made months ago and those bits and bobs I had made at the time. I added a peach oval to rise up above the background and then added the peach bow.

I added some glitter to the bow and then inked the sentiment strips.

I ended up with a flower leftover so added it and the copper shimmer ink to the inside!

Loved putting this together – I did try to video it but it got corrupted so sorry no video today!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

One of the products that Kingston Crafts sent me to work with was the Pet Kit which is just a gorgeous selection of papers, stickers, die cut elements and even some embellishment bits like twine and enamel dots.

It has launched in the UK today over at Hobbymaker.tv and so if you go and watch Martin’s show right now (8-9pm Sat 9th Nov) you might get to see this kit in action – and glimpse this page too!

My first thought was of course to scrap some pictures of Simba. He is our neighbours cat who chooses to come and visit us if we leave a door open and then usually just sleeps all day in our house!

Now normally he is so beautiful and elegant looking but these pics captured him pulling funny faces and it makes me giggle a lot so I decided they were good for this page.

I started with one of the solid coloured papers in the pack as the base and then added the cat silhouette paper, the paw print strip and the banner strip. I did rough up the edges a little of the paw strip and the top of the cart paper to give it some dimension before adding it to the page as a horizontal strip.

Next I die cut the grey ball themed paper with a circle die and chopped it in two so I could cluster at the top and the bottom of the page.

I then went through the stickers and added another circle I cut in half and the banner. I then selected from the die cut elements the two sleeping cats, some of the paw print elements, one heart and then the big Meow for the title.

I had printed the three pictures off as tall thin images onto one print and then added a layer of the blue to break up the background.

I added the title and then the paw print die cuts on foam adhesive to raise them up and then added in some twine as a bow to add some softer texture.

I decided to add the journalling on strips of the blue for a change and then added some heart stickers to finish off.

Love how easily this came together using the kit – everything was there and easy to put things together that coordinated!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today’s challenge I wasn’t going to join but then got a little inspired along with a little energy and made a card! Even managed to video it and do my voiceover and get that done!

The prompt is a colour challenge of Cinnamon, Charcoal and Birch white.

And this is how I used those colours and my new stamps (heavily influenced by the Facebook group where I saw someone else using Tracey Hey stamps and I realised I didn’t have any of her Christmas ones and needed them!)

I started with the torn piece of vellum and some stencils to create the brickwork background for my Cinnamon using Baked Texture embossing powder.

I just love the texture this creates.

Then the bear was stamped using the distress inks in black soot and added water and some hickory smoke to create the watercolour. I did the same with the holly leaves and just a touch of vintage photo for the berries.

I used the sewing machine (badly! 🤣) for the sewing the vellum onto the very dark grey / almost black cardstock panel and then stamped and embossed the sentiment onto the same cardstock.

I die cut the label a few times to stack it up then used a dark grey waxed thread for the string to attach the label.

Both the bear and the top holly leaf element are on foam adhesive for some dimension but the panel it then flat onto the card blank which was made from white cardstock.

Love how this came out especially given I hadn’t been able to create for a few days thanks to being pretty poorly. At least I am on the mend enough for an hours crafting and video editing and blog writing! But now I need a rest!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Hello! I decided to do something a little different with glitter glue for this project. Usually I just use glitter glue to added spots of sparkle to my projects – but this time I decided to use it to create the background for my cute card.

I chose a small stencil with the hearts and used the glitter glue like a texture paste to spread it through the stencil.

I then left it to dry overnight and it came out really well. I am not a big fan of loose glitter so this glitter encapsulated in the transparent glue it perfect for me.

I admit I kept the rest of the card quite simple. I used the everyday cardstock to die cut the sentiment, create the card base and mat the glittery heart panel.

I did add ink to the mat pink panel to give some contrast.

I added some hearts that I had found in the spring shrink plastic kit. Perfect embellishments. I had coloured them with my prismacolours in ombre style.

I added a little interest inside the card with another panel of the white and then I punched a heart from the same colour pink cardstock and added the glitter to that so it all tied in!

Martin is due on hobbymaker tv tonight at 8pm GMT please do pop over there and support him – I can’t wait to see what he demos and of course spot my samples along the way!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Back with another Kingston Crafts DT project using spring shrink plastic project where I made – a Christmas card!

Yes that’s right I used a spring themed kit to make a Christmas card!

I always like to find something different to make from a specific themed product and as we all know I love my Christmas themed projects!

When I saw the word Joy in the shrink designs I knew I would be able to do something with that and then I realised with a bit of additional line art in the colouring the flower images might become poinsettia type flowers.

Plus those leaf sprigs could be used for all different seasons so they would work!

I chose to use a piece of the summer collection paper for the card base. It’s a very thick paper and I just added layers to make it even more sturdy as a base.

Then a piece of the everyday cardstock which I embossed. I sanded the embossing to bring out the white core – I love this technique for adding texture.

To base my floral element on I then die cut the wreath from Spellbinders which worked well for the size of the 6×6 card (yes another wreath card!).

I raised the second flower up onto foam to help it overlap the first flower and the leaves.

I added the gingham bow to finish the wreath and the stamped sentiment to overlap the words and join them to the floral arrangement.

Oh and I added some red glitter glue drops to add a little sparkle too!

Inside the card I added panels of the cardstock and a stamped sentiment just to finish off!

So there you go spring and summer themed products used to do Christmas! My kind of fun!

Don’t forget that Martin will be demoing and showcasing on Hobbymaker.tv tomorrow the Kingston Crafts products and you might get to see some of my makes on display!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

So I have some news I’ve been keeping from you all – I’ve happily joined the Kingston Crafts Design team!

On Saturday the lovely Martin will be showcasing their products on Hobbymaker.tv and so you might get to see my projects on display! I will certainly watching and hopefully shouting at the tv ‘oh look I made that’ to everyone in the house! Plus watching Martin’s fab demos of course!

Here is the first project I made and believe me there are many more to come – I have been being a busy bee behind the scenes that’s for sure – so please be prepared to see lots of projects I’ve been working on for the last few months and then holding on to before I could officially start blogging them!

So for this first make I had a play with the Spring Shrink Plastic kit which had soooooooooooooooooooo many images to play with! I started with the rainbow and the clouds though!

So I cut them out of the sheets roughly to start with, then chose my colouring in medium (I chose prismacolor pencils) and then coloured them in.

Next I trimmed them with a border and heated them up and hey presto the cutest little shrink plastic embellishments!

For the card I used a few bits of the solid colours papers from the Kingston Crafts Spring Slimline papers to create a pastel rainbow across the white panel and then some layers underneath the white.

I added the clouds and then die cut out some circles and stacked them for dimension. I also added foam squares behind the circle so that it sat above the clouds and added my rainbow.

I decided to add a little gingham bow to the top of the circle.

I felt like the white panel needed a frame so hand drew the stitched line around.

Next I added the Be Positive sentiment which is an old Altenew one. It has a matching die so die cut it a few times to stack it so it matched some of the dimension on the other side of the card.

I hadn’t played with shrink plastic for years so it was fun to try something a bit different – but don’t worry it won’t be my last project with this kit – there are so many things I have made and still so much left to play with!

So for the next month or so expect to have a multitude of blog posts on the samples I made – it’s going to be busy over here and there are likely to be more than one post in the day with this and Martin’s Christmas challenge and other things I’ve got going on to share!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Back again with another card made for the 30 day Christmas card challenge. The prompt was Deck the Wreath and as regular visitors to my blog will know I love a wreath! So this was actually the first card I made for Martins challenge (not day 1!).

I started with a piece of green cardstock and used glitter glue through a stencil to leave a lovely glittery snowflake design.

Then I worked on the wreath… two layers of the die cut wreath from Arrange a Wreath and then three of the flowers. To the centre of the flowers I added a bit of ink too… then the circle behind the flower is a peach colour with some clear glitter on it.

I added a bow in the same colour as the centre of the flower.

There is so much sparkle from the background and also some glitter in the centre of the flowers too.

Because the wreath is raised up on foam adhesive it gives it so much dimension.

Finally added the waffle flower sentiment!

Added a mat of white to frame the sparkly layer and then added to a card blank made from the same green!

I videoed making this which has been uploaded for you to see over on my YouTube channel!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Hi

Today’s card I used a few different bits and pieces but mainly the Patties Creations – Lighthouse 2020 image who are kindly sponsoring the challenge at Creative Knockouts. Our challenge is to make a ‘thankful’ card and I chose this image as I knew it would make a good all rounder for many occasions!

I decided to use patterned paper for the background to the image (more about this paper coming up on future blogs!). I cut all the panels to fit and then inked the edges of them to add a little definition to the layers.

I printed the image out and added colour with inks and water. As it wasn’t watercolour paper I printed on it did look a little odd with some spots where the ink soaked in more but I don’t mind it! It adds texture!

I die cut the image and then started assembling with the bright patterned papers and a shrink plastic embellishment that are from Kingston Crafts (this is a sneak peek of things yet to be disclosed – but coming up tomorrow!).

I created this very fun summery card (a great escape from the gloomy autumnal weather!) and then added my Thank you sentiment which I stamped in navy to match and then die cut and stacked so it was a similar height to the shrink plastic piece.

I finished off with card candi in pale blue to match the image.

Inside the card I added a panel of the shell paper and then a white panel. I painted another lighthouse and cut out just the lighthouse image and added that too. I think it helps to finish the card nicely!

Hope you like what I made.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I missed yesterday’s prompt which was a sketch as I just ran out of time and didn’t get a chance to get anything made!

Today’s I managed to get done but no video unfortunately- just not enough time to get it edited and so just a blog tonight!

Today’s prompt made me immediately grab the Trimmings and Tidings set for the lovely stocking images and I stamped them out several times with different blue colours.

I then grabbed scraps of blues and teals from the pouch of scraps and decided to make something from that!

I inked and splattered a pale blue panel for the background and then the other pieces I added as strips to the card base.

I added two stockings straight onto the inky panel and then the top three I added using the foam adhesive to give dimension.

Then I die cut from white some foliage to add and the stamped and die cut sentiment I grabbed from the ready made sentiment pouch!

Finally I added some blue gems from the stash for bling!

Happy crafting!

Catherine