Author: Catherine

I had another frame in my room I wanted to put something in that I had made and so I decided to use another challenge from the Hey Little Magpie Facebook group to spur me on to do some more scrapping.

I started with a few little pics from the trip to Dunham Massey at Christmas time and then played with mixed media and stitching and some old dsp till I got to this …

I went a bit OTT with the texture paste and it wasn’t the cleanest of stencilling jobs but I think it was perfect for the messy painty background.

I enjoyed the bit of stitching I did for the added circles and then the paper teamed the two parts of the page together with the bits of text paper too for the colours of the photos.

I did some doodled lines round the patterned paper and then stamped those trees to either side of the page. I did mount it onto Kraft but you can’t see that in the frame on the wall so I need not have bothered but I suppose it also gives the page some strength as the white was quite warped by the time it was finished.

Happy to have scrapped again … who knows when the next urge will strike.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Yes even though I only just shared the bee from January I am already onto playing with the new kit from February.

This is a fabulous set of dies to create a full card panel. But actually there are a few dies in the set so you can keep the panel totally flat or can cut out the individual flower. I went for maximum die usage on this first try!

I decided to keep to a soft coral and ochre colour scheme and then added an embossed sentiment at the bottom so you get the full impact of the die cuts and stitching.

Love love love!

I did add some ink to the flower die cut pre sewing so you can see some gradient in the colour on the petals.

Genuinely can’t get enough of these stitching die kits.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

When I saw the Spellbinders stitching die kit for January I couldn’t wait to get the bee and stitch… however it took weeks before I got round to diecutting it and stitching it!

I die cut the yellow from cream card I added yellow ink too which gives it a more gradient finish.

I decided to use the same colour of thread for the whole of the bee 🐝

I then chose to die cut the wings from some shimmery cardstock rather than the usual cardstock. I also chose to use gold metallic thread for the wings. My goodness this metallic thread is so much more tricky to work with than normal silks.

Once I had stitched all the elements I then had to work out what to do with the bee. I decided to keep it really simple with a stitched frame and a black mat layer.

I didn’t add a sentiment and kept it as it was especially as the bee is so spectacular!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today’s festive Friday started with a piece of dsp I cut into four panels and embossed the Snow Crystal on … two white embossing and two clear embossing. Then I took two panels and made two cards. I ran out of time for the other two so they’ve gone back into the box for another time!

I decided to make two cards with the same set of supplies but make one clean and one grungy!

Sorry the colour is a little washed out in them though … the sun was just going down by the time I took pictures!

I started with the grungy one … I inked up the panel with different green inks to give contrast to the embossed snowflake in the background.

I also stamped the snow Crystal again using a dark green ink. It is all quite subtle because the paper is already quite dark but it gives some interest to the back of the card. Then I inked up the strip of the checked paper (this is the reverse of the dotty paper and I had a few 1” strips left from cutting up the panels).

I added that to the background and then used a piece of white cardstock to emboss with the word folder. I then inked it with the different greens.

I added some ink to the bakers twine and made that more in keeping with the background before adding that in a messy twist underneath the Paper Doll image.

I then inked up some strips and added the stickers as sentiments.

Think if I was to do this again I would remember to splatter as I completely forgot until I type this now!

Now the clean version no ink was added to the background papers, only to the embossed piece of white behind the image.

I decided to wrap the bakers twine (without inking it) to keep it cleaner and no ink on the sentiment strip either.

I rarely use the paper dolls but I think they worked well on both these cards as a fun vintage element with the dotty paper and the plaid with the gorgeous snow Crystal image.

I think that the one I prefer out of these two is the inky grungy version … but I do love that white snowflake too! What do you think?

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Managed to get better photos today …

Today’s card is one where I was just playing with a few bits and pieces but ended up with what I think is quite a cool card.

Let’s start with the background.

About a year and a half ago my daughter did a photo shoot for her AS Level photography using my art supplies and made some spray backgrounds and I kept them and have gradually been using them up on cards. Well this is how this started … with yellow and blue dylusion sprays!

I inked over it lightly with Lost Lagoon ink and then decided to emboss the background but added some versamark onto the debossing part of the folder so I could emboss into the impression. Well it didn’t work very well but it did add some blue embossing in some places. So I then decided to ink some of the rest of the panel with versamark and add pearl embossing powder to that. This created this cool textural and shiny panel. It’s difficult to photograph but I think you can see the texture and shine on this angle…

Once I had that I decided some flowers would be good so I grabbed them from the pouch of stitched flowers I already had and two of them I had stitched in the blue and added blue ink to them too! Perfect for the colour scheme of the background!

I kept the leaves flat but added the flowers using pinflair glue gel to raise them slightly.

After adhering the flowers and leaves I decided to pull together the sentiment.

I chose the big wishes from the More Wishes sentiment set and then birthday from a waffle flower set. I decided at this point to add in some white as I knew I would be using a white card blank so needed to add white in alongside the cream used for the flowers and the mat of the background.

I stamped wishes onto the lost lagoon cardstock with versamark and white embossed it. I matted the sentiment in white. Then for the birthday I stamped in lost lagoon and matted it with the same colour card stock … this way they coordinated with each other.

I also then added the mat of the lost lagoon to the full panel.

I also added in a bow using the lighter teal coloured thread to go under the sentiment.

Finally I added some white sequins for a little extra sparkle!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Hello! Welcome to my blog!

I’ve actually got three cards I made for this design team contribution for Addicted to stamps and moreas I wanted to play with new inks from Concord and 9th … so I ended up with three monochrome cards of similar designs!

I started with the three inks and a greetery stencil and did three panels of white cardstock, one for each colour.

Next I die cut the frosted frames in white three times with cardstock that I doubled up to make it stronger.

I also got out an old tonic sentiment die with the shadow and die cut that with both white and coordinating cardstock. Admittedly the cardstock isn’t identical in colour as I don’t have the Concord & 9th cardstock but I chose colours that I thought worked well with the inks.

I stacked up the card fronts adding a panel behind each in the coloured cardstock.

Whilst the colours are non-traditional for Christmas I think they still make pretty cards. I added the coloured snowflakes as finishing touches to the frames and love how they turned out! I just added the little clear gems to the centre of these snowflakes to finish off with an embellishment because you know me, I can’t resist!

Simple and modern.

Hope you join us at Addicted to stamps and more for Christmas fun!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Finally used up the patterned paper piece I started playing with on the 1st of the month. This time it was a larger panel but cut it into two pieces and used some stamped images from a magazine kit to create the focal points.

This first one I started with the panel and used a couple of different yellow distress inks to add colour to the background. Then layered it up onto white before grabbing bits off the desk to make it into a cluster for the centre of a 5×7 card blank.

I chose a flower I had coloured yellow and then also added in the die cut leaves from the Altenew Zero waste die set which I coloured with the same colour stampin blends as the leaves on the flower.

I chose the sentiment from Waffleflower stamps and then decided to add a little interest to the centre of the background with the stencilled circles.

This card started off as the palette for my ATCs I shared the other day … although that’s not entirely true … it actually started as a piece of art I had made and popped in a frame many years ago but fallen out of love with. I used it as a palette for the paints and then cut a panel for the card background and carried on creating on it so it ended up matching the ATCs.

I used stencils, paints, Dylusions spray inks, stamps and posca pens to create the background. Then stamped and edged using the stampin up Rich Razzleberry colour.

I also created lots of the flowers using some old watercolour paper and Dylusions inks and brushos to make varied purples and cut it using creative expressions dies.

I cut a vellum panel using tonic curved stitched rectangle die and added the flowers to that and then added the sentiment from biggest wish to it with a mat of the painted paper I had left over.

I added a mat of the white and then added it to a Rich Razzleberry card base.

Final touches were to add the enamel accents as embellishment.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Another card using my new stash and this time I did the die cutting first and then added the stencil which meant it lined up well!

This created a lovely clean background with the die cut elements that add lovely texture.

I decided to add the extra leaves with the diecut texture and just added the colour through the stencil.

I decided to add a panel of a die cut rounded rectangle. I raised it up on some foam to give dimensions.

I then added some stickers for the sentiment and some die cut circles for the embellishment. I also added some little doodles in white gel pen for the finishing touch.

I love the stitched details on those dies plus all the texture created by that background panel.

Love this collection of supplies and love the Concord & 9th inks. They blend so nicely. Looking forward to playing with the other colours.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I got some new stash and had to have a play!

Firstly new inks from Concord & 9th and then the fall leaves collection from Waffle Flower.

I started with a card that didn’t quite go to plan …

I started with the stencil and added the three green/blue inks but then realised I should have die cut first as it’s impossible to line up and didn’t manage to get it straight.

So to make it less obvious I decided to then ink up the background too including some splatter!

Next I stamped the images and then blended over the top of them using the small stencil that does with the individual dies and then cut them out.

I decided to use the Kraft flower from the stash and then added those stamped leaves around the flower. Next I added the sentiment strip with white embossing and some gold thread for the final embellishment.

I added the panel to a green card blank.

Love the dimension across the central panel and the little bits of movement with the background die cut panel.

I then made a second card using similar supplies but this time doing it the right way round … but you will have to wait till tomorrow to see that!

Happy crafting!

Catherine