Author: Catherine

Sun is out for the day and I am off to get my hair done (last weeks appointment got postponed) so updating my blog for the day whilst drinking my coffee! Today I am sharing challenge two for our Hey Little Magpie group over (inter)national scrapbooking day from a couple of weeks ago where the tile was was to use dies to create embellishment clusters.

I chose pictures from my daughter’s 17th birthday in 2023 and used the really bright and bold papers for the background with lots of die cuts adding to the page.

I fussy cut elements of the paper out too and used dies from a variety of sets to create the clusters of embellishments.

I loved gathering lots of different alphas for the title too (necessity because I couldn’t use any set to spell the complete word!) and loved how easily this came together.

Although it is barely visible I also added sewing on the layout – can you spot it?

Fun to put together and also even though that flowery paper is quite ridiculous in its boldness I love it!

Don’t forget to pop to my YouTube if you want to see how this came together!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today’s festive Friday project had lots of layers of media and pattern and I love it!

It started as a gelli print background and I wish I had a picture to show you the before and after but I don’t! So first off some painty patches and a bit of stencilling onto the gelli print. Then I ran it through a snowflake embossing folder upside down to create the debossed snowflakes. Then I inked over that with a dark teal ink. This left the snowflakes lighter and still white in the places where there wasn’t any paint.

Next the text embossing folder and once that was the texture I added ink over the top of that in dark grey to enhance the writing. Next splatters of white gesso!

Just love all the texture and pattern this created.

So then to choose a focal point. Well I started with the die cut holly leaves. These have been cut from scraps of paper at some point and I have a little pouch of them so decided it was time to use them! Which made me decide a wreath would be a good idea.

I chose the spellbinders one and stacked it a couple of layers to give it some strength. Then I rummaged in the Christmas stamps box and decided these flower stamps would work which are on an old magazine set.

I stamped them and then decided to choose my Stampin Write markers and a blender pen to colour for a change of medium.

I cut them out and then made up my wreath. I used foam squares to give it some dimension and then added the sentiment from Arrange a Wreath.

I mat the layer onto white before adding to a green card base.

Inside I kept it simple with some more holly leaves and one more flower.

Really pleased with this card – truly love it when mixed media works well and also no idea what prompted me to do the two embossing folder trick but it worked so well!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

A few weeks ago it was (inter) national scrapbooking day and for the weekend Hey Little Magpie ran some challenges … so I joined in and on day one I made three pages … which I videoed for each of them and will spread out over the next few days of blog posts and YouTube uploads!

The first challenge was set by Sheena to use a large photo (larger than 6×4) so I found this 5×7 photo of me from 1996 to scrap.

I shows me having just got off the phone on A Level results day confirming that I had secured my place at Royal Holloway University of London to study Drama and Theatre Studies and the title Phew! Says it all!

I followed a sketch from #30dscbl14 day 17 designed by Lisa Marie.

Papers from the stash (I think Maggie Holmes for some) and lots of Lollipop Box Club kit stickers too.

I had scraped gesso onto the background to give some frame to the orange piece and add texture.

Love the pop of the blue against the oranges and yellows … and it was great to get such an old picture scrapped.

Check out my video on YouTube for how this came together.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Hello!

Another of the 30 days of sketches with Christy’s Beautiful life series 14 and this time day 16 designed by Ashley Thescrappingnerd.

I knew when I was digging through the stash for some papers I wanted to use that there were some sketches with a circle theme so when I came across this circular piece (that was how it came) I decided to have that as my starting point and then chose the other papers accordingly – the yellow as the base and then that very colourful squares one for the section on the left.

Whilst the sketch called for strips down the left I figured this patterned paper worked fine and also added some additional strips to ground the pictures too.

I chose the pics from just over a year ago of us on a family walk around Dunham Massey which is one of our favourite national trust places locally for a wander.

I did grab a few other scrap pieces from the stash (I have started collecting scraps into colour groups in pouches so that I don’t waste but also don’t have to hunt for bits when I just need a pop of a certain colour).

Then I went through word and quote stickers, lollipop box club kit stickers and my letter stickers to create the embellishments and the title for the page.

Finished off with some gems and some journalling. Trimmed the edge just a little to have the frame of white peeping around the edge!

Loved this as it was so easy with that circle paper doing all the hard work on this page. Once again I videoed the process so please check out my YouTube.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today’s card is my contribution for the design team for Addicted to Stamps and More and the theme for this one is Birthdays! Not so difficult for me as I make lots of birthday cards!

This one I used a few of the papers where I had brayered off during the gelli printing session I did a few weeks, actually may even be months ago now – time flies! Anyway when gelli printing or using paints I always keep papers to the side of me for mopping up or cleaning off the brayer and they also make great backgrounds.

This one was only painty for part of the panel but it worked well to ground the large floral image I used to stamp and emboss. This is Beautiful Flowers stamp from Simon Says Stamp that I have been wanting for a long time because I keep seeing it on Amy’s videos.

After stamping and embossing the panel I did trim it down a little and then added those lines round two edges of the panel as a sort of frame. I then mat it only the black.

I added some foam and then added this on top of the other piece of brayered off painty paper. Although not an exact match it was close enough to work as a backing piece.

I finished off with the sequins and some floss tied in a bow and an Altenew sentiment stamped and die cut.

Inside I stamped one of the single flowers from the stamp set directly onto the painty paper (again another not completely the same but similar colour tones papers) and cut round it before adding it. Not the most exciting inside but at least it works with the front.

Really love this stamp and how it brought to life the painty background paper.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

This set of notecards is slightly different in that it wasn’t using up the paper I was specifically trying to do … more I wanted to use the three images that have been coloured and in my stash for years!

So they got turned into little thank you notes – with the help of some patterned paper too of course!

Those little angels are just so cute and as I say I printed them and coloured them years ago so all I needed to do was cut them out and add them to the little cards I made with bits of patterned paper layered up with some doodled edges.

I added stamped sentiments I fussy cut and then some black enamel accents to embellish!

Slowly slowly I am working through old stash and getting rid of it either by being brave and throwing it away or by making little cards like this that I enclose with any craft supplies I sell. I have a little stash of the notecards now – but sure at some point they will all come in handy!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

March was a very busy with all the 18th birthdays as there were three including my daughter… this is the last one for Diya. Her birthday was over a month ago but the girls celebrated it late to allow for Diya to complete her Ramadan fasting, for exams and uni visits etc to happen before they came together today to finally celebrate her birthday!

I went with the Splendid bouquet and blues for this one … not sure why but that was what I was feeling!

I stencilled and die cut the image three times in total but two I placed off the edge of the square panel and placed them flat onto the background.

The third one I stacked on two other die cuts and then sandwiched some white ribbon behind to give texture and dimension (Diya is a fashion student so thought she would appreciate the fabric elements too!).

I then heat embossed the sentiment along with a piece of scrap cardstock I could die cut and die cut the 18 using the playful alphabets so that the blue coordinated.

I sandwiched some silver thread between the sentiment and the flower too (Diya has been studying fashion and textiles so think the addition of some fabric and thread is appropriate!).

I then decided to add some of the platinum pearl accents to the stamen on the flowers.

I love this splendid bouquet set from altenew … all the layers on the stencils are fun to use and add so much detail. This is the first time I used all the stencil layers and really does make for an excellent level of detail – even without the line art of the stamping!

I finished off with a layer of cardstock underneath that I inked in the same colours of blues (faded jeans and salty ocean distress inks in case you were wondering – and the leaves colour were evergreen bough and pine needles).

So happy belated birthday to Diya and hope she liked the card I made.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Up early today as need to get some work done before I visit my talented hairdresser and then am out for the rest of the day to go see Take That in concert. I’m very excited about that! But before I venture downstairs I’m updating my blog and today I have another scrapbook page and once again there is a process video you can watch which I’ve just uploaded!

For this one I used up the final scraps left from the previous two pages and also followed the sketch created by Tara that was day 11 of 30 days of sketches at Christy’s Beautiful Life.

I changed it up to include the circles rather than stars but otherwise kept to the sketch in terms of the layers and the positioning.

I had a good old delve through the stash I’ve got of old Lollipop Box club kits and also the wood elements were old Artful Days bits and pieces so it was good to get them used too!

I added the stencilling with distress ink and the Aall & Create stencil which I think helps blend the papers into the background.

I’m still undecided about those pink gems but I think they are ok as my final bits of embellishment.

Pleased I got to make another page from the bright papers and I have very little left now to go into my scraps pile … talking of which …

I’ve been reluctant to do this until now but decided to actually collect some scraps by colour in the little pouches as Sarah Davies has been sharing some great uses for scraps including pulling colours to group in rainbow type order so I thought I might try that.

But I can’t have too much being hoarded so will see if this becomes a hoarding exercise or if it helps for other projects!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

This card came about when I found a pouch with some leftover magazine papers in it and I just sat and made it all up really quickly! All except that deer.

I struggled to work out what to use as a focal image. I tried a few different ideas out but they just didn’t work well. Then I found this Gemini die and decided to cut it from white and it worked perfectly!

I finished off with the sentiment and the bow that has been hanging around on my desk for about six months!

Inside the card I took some of the remaining paper and added that with some white. I’m trying to make more of an effort to do insides of cards and not just the fronts… not always easy for me to remember to do it though!

So there we go … another Christmas card made for the stash and some more leftover papers used up!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Finally got my second project video edited from my first play with the My Favourite Things Fanciful Roses background stamp.

The first video shows me stamping and painting it but this video is how I ended up turning it into a card.

So for this one I coloured it using Inktense pencils and water to blend the pigments. The stamp was heat embossed with gold detail powder so although not very raised it did provide some boundaries for the water colouring.

I decided to die cut the circle where the flower was and teamed it with orange cardstock which I die cut too.

I ended up with a scrap of cherry cobbled ribbon, a stamped sentiment and a die cut sentiment … oh and some card Candi to finish off.

Inside the card I added the die cut frame and an orange circle and another stamped sentiment.

I think I preferred the previous version but still I like this more vibrant version and it’s nice to have a big image to have as a background stamp so I can colour it as I like rather than keeping to patterned paper! Plus it’s another lovely floral and I love florals as regular visitors to my blog would know!

Happy crafting!

Catherine