Author: Catherine

This year has been about trying to work through old stash and making use of it and trying my hardest not to buy new stash… let’s ignore the massive amount of stash I actually bought in the summer!

These two cards were half made about 12 months ago and have been on the pile of things I wanted to get used up so here you go … two festive cards!

Both are made from magazine kit papers and then some ribbons scraps from the stash and the bottom one with an added little reindeer wooden embellishment.

I suppose the other element that makes them go well together is the embossed background. I love this embossing folder as it provides a great bit of texture for any type of card and also means I don’t even have to add a sentiment if I don’t want as it says the sentiment onto it!

The design of the cards were originally from a sheet load of cards template but goodness knows which one now as it is so long since I cut the paper up and started assembling them! but if you check out cards by Kendra I am sure you will find some great templates to use.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I have loved grabbing these reindeer stamps since I bought them back in the summer… considering I originally bought the set for the Santa I have hardly used him but these reindeer have had a lot of love!

Today I have three cards made using one of the reindeer…

This one he is stamped onto white and then coloured with promarkers. I used a piece of Tidings and trimmings dsp and some green cardstock to layer and then scraps for the sentiment and the little red trim.

Kept it pretty simple and just added card Candi to embellish.

This one and the next I actually stamped the little reindeer onto Kraft cardstock so he looks a little different. I still coloured using promarkers to give shading and definition. As you can see I used more of the Tiding’s and Trimmings dsp this time with red and more of the cream cardstock for layers.

I again added card Candi for embellishment and on each of the reindeer I added glossy accents to the nose of Rudolph to make it shine!

This final card is a little bigger as it’s 5×7 in size. This time I originally was thinking of a square card but had run out of the 5×5 card blanks so added more dsp behind the square instead.

This time I added embellishment with the rose gold circles and kept it quite simple with all that patterned paper in the background!

So that’s three more fab reindeer cards done and dusted and also nice to get some more patterned paper used up!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Sometimes a project just needs sparkle! Well that’s what I think anyway.

This started as a card using up bits of patterned paper and then I grabbed speciality scraps and added the handmade paper strip…. Which is lovely but I decided what the project really needed was sparkle…

So I die cut the stars from the Tidings and Trimmings set to add along with the sequins.

The sentiment is a mix of the Tim Holtz die cuts (I had that on the desk so it’s the one that got used) and the Peace and Joy stamps!

Fun and love the mix of the sparkly with the natural!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I had this old digital image coloured in and ready to go. I also had a piece of mixed media background left from a project from a few years ago… so I put them together!

I die cut a wonky circle and stamped on it with some random magazine sentiments to create the pattern and then added that to the blue background.

I then added the stocking with a little bit of twine off the top and gave it a mat of white before adding it to the little grey notecard.

The mixed media has lots of shine and texture so that didn’t need anything… but I added wink of Stella to the stocking toe, heel and top.

Love this little cute image.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

So I decided to make a couple of flat cards … not quite one layer as I did stamp panels but then I adhered them flat to the card blank rather than raising up and adding dimension.

I also added some embossing for the sentiment and some stickles dots for embellishment rather than gems and sequins … so for me this is a very flat set of cards!

But their shape make them interesting!

Plus the multiple stamping and inking and the way the sentiment panel is protected from the inking! Well that’s my thought anyway!

I used two different stamp sets for the images … Forever Fern and Christmas Season.

Clearly the Forever Fern isn’t a Christmas themed stamp set but I think it works fine like this to create a fun background.

I had masked off the sentiment area and then used the gold embossing to add the sentiment.

I lightly inked the background and because the stamping wasn’t 100% dry it did move it a little but I think that’s ok. I inked the edge too to add more definition to the panel edge.

This one has more obvious Christmas themed images with the holly leaves, pine cones and pine sprigs and this one I added brown into the inking too to blend in the cones.

Used champagne stickles for the bling and gold embossing to just add that bit of shine and sparkle!

I also finished slightly different with the Christmas season panel going top to bottom whereas the forever Fern was shorter than the card blank. Like how that looked slightly less than the top to bottom of the other one so will remember that for future projects.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Yesterday I shared the masterboard I made and three cards I made from it. Today I have the final piece and what I ended up doing with it.

I turned it into a very large card which I sent to my auntie and uncle for this year.

I teamed the panel of the masterboard with a piece of paper I had gone to town on with stamping using the Christmas Season stamps and some random text/script stamps and of course lots of splatters. I had also added some vintage photo ink to it too which meant it felt in keeping with the masterboard panel.

I added these together and onto a piece of cream cardstock. I added some brads to also keep them together.

Then I decided to add one of the spellbinders stitched trees as the main focal point. This time it was a green tree that I inked a lot with darker inks to make it in keeping with the colours already used. Then I used the ivory thread to add the decoration.

I kept the sentiment very simple with the cream panel that I inked with green and brown lightly to just distress it and help it look less bright against the backgrounds.

Love how this came together to create a big card. I also added a strip of the stamped paper on the inside of the card as it was leftover from the original piece.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I really enjoyed the masterboard I made using collaged patterned paper bits and ink and stencilling and stamping … so I made another one!

This was it mid way through. Again used dsp but this time a mix of sets with browns and greens. Added distress ink on top and then stamped a few words. Next I added the stencilled snowflakes and then started with splatter in both the white and then a gold shimmer watercolour and a green shimmer watercolour. Perfect to tie in the different colours in the background.

Next I took three distress oxides and three snowflake stamps and added those before chopping apart the panels into card topper sizes. I then sewed around the edge of the toppers with wonky lines but didn’t do the whole sewing over the top type thing this time.

I decided to separate one of the toppers out as I wanted to do something different with that which I will share on another day. The other three I decided to keep similar as landscape cards.

I added some white die cut snowflakes which I positioned so they would poke out of the edge of the focal image I had planned.

The focal image I white embossed onto Kraft cardstock and then used the shimmer watercolours to add the colour. I should have stamped with a pale colour then painted and then embossed to make this easier but never mind … it still worked just meant I kept having to wipe off the embossed line art.

Once they were dry I then fussy cut them out and glued them flat to the card.

Next I embossed the sentiment onto the Kraft and then added a white mount to each of the strips.

Obviously these are all very similar but clearly unique as the backgrounds are randomly put together and the image slightly differently placed.

Love how they look and it was great fun putting together another masterboard.

I’ve still got that one piece leftover … but that I used differently and so look out for that on the blog tomorrow.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Can’t promise I won’t do another one of these but this is like yesterdays before you get bored of the same technique … a background that I embossed the debossed part using the embossing folder upside down!

This time the background I used a scrap of the sprayed leftover paper from my daughters photography project way back at the start of the year and inked it up with blending brushes. I then also added some stencilling. Next I embossed it upside down with versamark on the raised elements so this pushes the versamark into the indentations so that it where the embossing powder gets caught.

This time I used the white sparkly embossing powder so it is sparkly but because the embossing is quite fine it isn’t over the top! Next I used my scoreboard to add a frame … to be honest it is quite subtle so unlikely you will see it well in the pictures.

I then used a scrap of Kraft, a die cut I was gifted and a Tim Holtz sticker to finish off and the card blank is Pacific Point so a nice bright blue colour.

Rare for me but no gems or extra embellishments … so quite a flat card but that background looks like so much effort went into it but really it took just a couple of mins!

The bad part about this technique is being careful not to tip over the embossing powder pot as it goes everywhere when you do … how do I know that? Well you can probably imagine!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I know I’ve shared Jennifer McGuire’s embossing video a few times now but really this technique really steps up a background!

I used it here on a spray ink background but then blended inks over the top to completely change it up. I used a blue embossing powder and an intricate embossing folder for this one and it turned it into a lovely rich looking background like old fashioned wallpaper.

In this picture you can see some of the shine and texture better.

Decided to use it with this panel of stamped baubles and Kraft for a funky look. I love this tonic sentiment die too for really finishing a project off well.

I also added tiny pearls to the centre of the baubles to make them special.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I grabbed the pouch that had fussy cut elements in it from Julys patterned paper play and decided to use up the little pine cone pieces on a card…

I also grabbed some bits of paper from the stash of Christmas papers to make up a background from a few of them along with white cardstock.

I raised two of the pine cone elements up onto foam and then added the joy die cut across the bottom panel join.

I then added the little clear gems to embellish although they aren’t that obvious in the pictures.

A simple card made from leftovers from other projects but that look fabulous together!

Happy crafting!

Catherine