Author: Catherine

Today is the final card to share from this batch I made at the weekend …

I went back to the water colouring the image loosely and then embossing technique…

I didn’t use watercolour cardstock so the colours didn’t blend as well but I still think the effect I got was lovely.

I used the concord and 9th inks again and this time the very vibrant pink ended up being a little more overwhelming but I think when I added in the darker colour on the leaves that helped to balance it.

I chose an old stencil for the background and used a mix of the greens and also inked up the edge of the card base to frame it.

I stacked the floral image with three pieces of the cardstock in total to give it strength as the water colouring had warped the paper quite a bit. Stacking it made it stronger and helped give it more dimension.

I added some gold gems for finishing touches to surround the sentiment.

So that’s all four cards I made using this fabulous bundle of products from Altenew. I’ve got loads more ideas for using them – just need to find the time to do it! Also I didn’t mention it but these were slightly smaller than my usual size of card because I had bought some card blanks in a sale and so had to work with slightly different dimensions than normal … made me want to also make some slimline cards using these products too so I could mix up the usual way I make things!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Hello! Another day, another design team contribution. Over at Addicted to stamps and more our challenge is Any Occasion… but I went with birthday again for my card.

I chose to grab those gorgeous hanging houseplants stencils and make a collection of pot plants as my main focal element for this green and brown card.

After stencilling the plants and their pots I created a cluster of patterned paper scraps from the stash (these are very old bits of magazine kits – thought they worked well with the colours of the plants and pots) and some scraps of Kraft and created my card topper.

I added this to a panel of wood grain embossed white as again I thought the natural element of texture worked well with the images and the papers.

I then created a sentiment panel using the Treat Yourself stencil and stamp set from Altenew and the Biggest wish stamp.

I decided to embellish with three brads in different brown and greens … all three are different sizes and thought it looked quite cool.

Finally a mount of Mossy Meadow and a little bit of hand drawn lines on the Kraft to finish off. Perfect! Well that’s that I think anyway! How about you?

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Third card in my little batch made at the weekend …

This time something very different as it was just the embossing folder I used…

I embossed the white cardstock and then lightly added ink using the brushes and ink left on them.

I then splattered with the two light coloured inks too.

I decided to heat emboss the sentiment in gold and trapped some thread between the sentiment and the card front. I thought the tiny pearls also added a delicate touch.

To frame the panel I added heat embossing to the panel edges behind so it coordinated with the sentiment and decided that was all that was needed.

Simple and elegant!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Here is the second of the thank you cards made in the batch I started sharing yesterday…

This is a more vibrant version of the one shared yesterday in terms of inking but also includes the line art stamping and to really add some ooomph I embossed it too using the coordinating embossing folder.

It’s difficult to show on the photos the texture and dimension that the embossing folder adds but it really is a nice texture and adds to the finish.

I think that the inking probably should have been done after the embossing folder but I didn’t think I was going to do that at the time and decided last minute. I also missed out the final stencil layer for the additional detail.

I used an old stencil from the stash for the background using up ink on the brushes for a subtle effect.

I stacked up the sentiment for some dimension and added the bright pink card Candi for the final touch and some fun embellishment.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I always think that thank you cards are important after you’ve received gifts or treats so made some for my daughter to send to the family members who sent her gifts for her special birthday. I also had got this Altenew bundle of stash in a recent splurge and decided to use this to make four different cards!

All use the same floral image but in different ways … and all four use the same Concord and 9th inks but again in different ways!

Given there are four cards I will split this over four blog posts but obviously you can see all four in the picture above!

Let’s start with this one.

This one I did a background using an old stencil from the stash that had some leaves on it and kept it quite simple with just the inks that I had used for the leaves on the focal image.

I stencilled the full image with no outline stamping and then die cut it, but when I placed it on the background decided to place it to the side and trim off the overlap at the bottom and the right hand side.

I decided to kept the card quite flat but did stack the image up with one extra layer to strengthen it a little as the cardstock I had used isn’t very thick.

I used the sentiment from the set for all four cards and die cut it three times so that is quite thick and sandwiched some silver thread underneath the sentiment.

I then added some drops of glossy accents to add a bit of shine and also had added wink of Stella to the stamen on the flowers.

There is another stencil in the set that adds more dimension to the flowers and leaves but decided to keep this quite flat … I also love the colour of these inks from Concord and 9th and how well they blend as they dry.

To me they look so peachy and soft!

So this is card number 1… three more blogs to follow to share the others in more detail!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today’s project was inspired by a video I was watching on YouTube by Tina Zinck and I ended up with just a panel of inky debossed fun as a result…

I inked up the embossing folder with a dark purple and then embossed it. This pushed the ink into the debossed snowflakes. Then I used a pink and lilac ink pad to swipe over the top and a little spritzed water to just blend a little.

This created the background panel.

I mounted that onto Berry Burst. Then I took a scrap of Rich Razzleberry and embossed that with the same folder but placed it embossing side up.

I added the mat of white and a wrap of the ribbon underneath.

Then I die cut the tree from white card and did two layers of the Diamond dazzle embossing powder to make the die cut sparkly.

I then stamped the sentiment and cut it out and added it over the tree and added the card Candi in the three colours to finish off.

Quite simple to make really and good for mass production if die cutting from an already sparkly cardstock rather than embossing as those backgrounds take moments to make but look fabulous.

Thanks for the inspiration Tina!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Well I really don’t think I can believe it but my little princess has turned 18!

Not going to spend time saying how much I love my girl and how proud I am of her. That pretty much goes without saying. So instead will show you the card I made for her.

Stencilled background using the lovely Concord & 9th inks. A floral stamp image with embossing and watercolours. Die cut numbers embossed with gold.

Gold gems and some thread to embellish.

A blended background panel and then an embossed edge to finish off.

The die cut letters for her name I cut from card where I had blended ink too.

Love how it came out!

And here is a little glimpse of the three of us out celebrating last night at the amazing Sexy Fish in Manchester!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I needed another sympathy card. So sad to have my friends going through these difficult times.

This friend is a big fan of bees and had admired my recent stitched bee card so I knew it would be the perfect type of card to make for her.

I made the bee in a similar way to last time, inking the pale yellow card to give it some depth of colour and this time a dark grey thread for the stitching on the bees body and then silver for the wings.

I took a stencil and inked through it the honeycomb in the background and splattered very lightly some black ink too before adding both the sentiment and the little cross stamps.

I didn’t add anything to the inside of the card but instead concentrated on my message to my friend.

I did add an extra little envelope with the card containing all the pieces of the die cut bee so she could stitch her own if she fancied it. And also sent a little ceramic heart ornament too as a reminder of my love.

Hate that I had to make a sympathy card but was pleased with how I made this one special for my friend.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

This was a simple card to put together as the digital image was already printed and to hand, and the paper was already cut to size with the little snowflake hexagons cut out! Mainly a case of colouring, cutting out and assembling!

I coloured the digital stamp image using my stampin blends and then fussy cut the tree. On a second print out of the image I added the greys for the background and then splattered some white ink for a subtle snow effect.

Then using foam tabs I raised up the cut out image so it gave it a decent amount of dimension above the background.

Then put together the two pieces of dsp, the main focal image and the little snowflake hexagons. I decided to add the little printed tags as the ‘sentiment’ and then a scrap of ribbon for final embellishment.

Simple – but effective! Job done for this weeks Festive Friday!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I made this over the weekend when I realised I had so many card stock scraps on the desk that were too small to do much with but would make a fun background for a tag!

After glueing them down I then took a stencil and used texture paste to create the background.

Once that was dry I added ink to the edge to frame it.

I then took some black cardstock and grabbed lots of little stamps and embossed them with white.

This created a fun chalkboard type finish.

Then I stamped and embossed the camera image and coloured in with promarkers. I then die cut the camera out to create the focal image.

I chose some scraps of the glimmer paper and die cut the flourishes out to layer underneath the camera.

I chose one of the coloured scraps to die cut the word smile and stacked it a few times to make sure it was chunky. I glued it in place and then added glossy accents to it to add even more dimension and shiny!

I added some ribbon through the hole in the top.

I also then added the little hearts I had die cut too … these were such a cute little addition!

Happy crafting!

Catherine