Author: Catherine

The idea of having a regular feature on the blog is that I can get ahead a little and maybe make it at least a few days ahead … sounds like a great idea… but I find myself on the 1st of the month but no patterned paper projects made!

Fortunately today I had a day off work and had no plans so could give myself a good few hours in the craft room… and taking one piece of very special patterned paper I made two cards.

First up is this shaker card with the gorgeous large flower stamped image.

I started by die cutting lots of layers of scrap cardstock with the circle to create the backing and backed it with the Petal Pink and then did the same to the top layer of patterned paper. This paper is from a DCWV pack I have had for years and years. Each sheet has encapsulated glitter and a different letter – ideal for scrapbooking – but as I rarely do this now it’s just sat there waiting for use.

This piece had a circle with the letter D in it otherwise was dots and circles with a few striped bits.

I cut it into two panels (one for this card and one for the second) and on the front I die cut the circle in the same place as the backing bits.

Next I added the die cut circle frame for the edge and added the flower poking out before adding the acetate layer.

I added sequins to the background and then sandwiched them together. It is quite a shallow shaker but it’s enough for the sequins to move around a little and the whole panel is sturdy as it’s made of layers of card rather than foam tape bits.

I kept the rest simple with a stamped sentiment and a little strip of cardstock inside to finish off.

And that flower on the front I actually stamped and coloured and have had waiting to use for a number of years … perfect for the front of this black white and silver card with the pops of the peachy pink!

The second card I will blog in a few days time so you only get the sneak peek now… and the rest of the piece of patterned paper is still sitting on the desk awaiting use so will no doubt get used soon as I like to try and use what is on the desk rather than grab new products!

Entering this in the sparkle and shine challenge at Dara and Diane and the patterned paper challenge at Make my Monday

Happy crafting!

Catherine

In December I had a whole session of die cutting scraps and then sewing and popped some flowers into a pouch waiting to make stuff! Well I grabbed a few pieces of the flowers to make this card.

I decided to use two of the mid flower size to frame the sentiment and added two leaves to each of them… I love that I kept the colours simple with the mix of the Kraft, white and cream and then the bright stitching!

I decided to add a textured background and then the gold gems for the embellishment!

I love how special the sewing makes the flowers and how you can use just parts of the die set and create different looks. Really am in love with the spellbinders stitching die kits!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Had a random moment a couple of days ago and decided to join in with the ATC swap over at UK stampers forum.

I had been making some cards (that will appear on the blog over the next few weeks) and had some papers and bits and bobs left on the desk and they called to me to make some ATCs!

The theme for the January swap was 2024 and as my word of the year for this year is JOY I decided to play with things that make me joyful and add “Find Joy” as the title of the ATC.

So papers were in strips across the ATC bases I had cut from packaging and then edged them with black. I also added a little stamping using Gorgeous Grunge to the edges too.

Next I added some cotton fabric scraps to add a different texture. Then I stamped and embossed in black the leafy image from Natures Print. I die cut them out and added them to the front of the ATCs.

I then stamped and embossed Joy using the Colorado crafts company stamps and die cut them out. Again I used the patterned paper for this to keep to a similar theme.

After adding them, I used Claritystamps alpha stamps to create the word find and cut that out and edged it to frame it.

My final thing was to add embellishment with the enamel dots in black.

I love how each is different but clearly they are a set and work together. The bright colours certainly bring me joy, along with the bit of grunge to contrast with the inked edges and stamping.

Looking forward to seeing what I get as my swaps back when they arrive.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I put together another card from bits and bobs off the desk … think I’ve nearly gone through the last elements of Christmas card making stash from the desk.

I used the piece of dsp and the brown cardstock for the card blank and then grabbed some white cardstock to stamp the pine sprig on. I then added the colour using some ink watercoloured. I then gold embossed the edge and added some splatter using the Gorgeous Grunge stamp and embossed that too.

I also embossed the sentiment in gold to make this quite an elegant but also a bit grungy card.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Hello!

Well I have a card I made a while ago using the first play with the Waffle Flower Balloon background stencil and die. This is my design team creation for Addicted to Stamps and More … because we are back after a little break and with a new leader.

I love how this came out with the soft colours on the balloons and the bold black and white sentiment!

I actually fussy cut a few balloons from the background to layer them up to give more dimension as well as stacking the background die so it was raised off the card blank.

The sentiment is my old faithful the Biggest Wish which I heat embossed with white onto black and then cut out the strips. The numbers are die cut several times from black and stacked and then I used wink of Stella and some glossy accents to make then shiny and sparkly.

To be honest this is such a quick and easy background to put together I can see me using it lots with different colours. This one I wanted pastel and mixed colours … might try it with other more coordinated and bright colours next time.

(NB well aware at this point you might have seen this stencil and die used on the blog already but I made and blogged this a while ago in readiness for this challenge and whose birthday this card is for … so you will no doubt have seen the background in use already! – letting you into the ‘secret’ that I don’t always blog the card I make in the order I make them!)

Anyway … hope you like this fun card!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

This card I went rather OTT but sometimes it’s fun to go BIG!

The card itself is a 5×7 card but I put together some of the flowers and petals from the stitched shapes to make one BIG flower with a centre from a different stitched die set as the centre. And underneath the big flower I created a background with stamped leaves embossed in gold and white and lots of splatters… both embossed in white and shimmer watercolour for the purple.

The die cuts were cut from Kraft apart from the centre of the flower which was on white. I kept bringing the white in so that it worked with the white card blank but the gold embossing was to work with the Kraft flower.

The flowers and the petals were stitched with two different purple coloured threads.

I adhered the flower with the pinflair glue gel so there is some dimension to the card but with the stitching this already provides some dimension.

I kept the sentiment simple as the flower is the big statement piece and then added a few sequins in a purple colour to add even more shine!

Really love how this came out! Sometimes it works to go BIG!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

This is a slight cheat for this weeks festive Friday as I actually made it on Christmas Day whilst watching Amy (Prarie Paper and Inks) and her ‘unpaid intern’ craft together (it’s fun and worth a watch – as are all her videos!) and so it inspired me to grab similar supplies and have fun!

I used some mixed media cardstock and embossed it with the snowflake embossing folder. I then did ink blending with distress oxides in pinks and purples. I then did lots and lots of splatter using my shimmer watercolours in silver, purple and pink.

I did a slightly larger panel than ended up on the front but cut a piece off at this point to make it work with the shape of this card and I stuck that on the inside of the card.

I then chose a shimmer vellum and die cut the circle for grounding the sentiment. I already had this sentiment embossed on my desk so I trimmed it down and added some strips of card stock behind to slightly raise it and added the two snowflakes to the back before adhering it to the circle. This helped me choose where to add glue to the back of the circle as I didn’t want it to show through the vellum so only added glue where the snowflakes and sentiment were on the other side.

I had die cut lots of little snowflakes out of white and a few out of thinner cardstock I had inked in the same colours so that I had both white and inked snowflakes and made a ‘drift’ of snowflakes both down the card blank and the inked and embossed panel.

I glued the panel down and then added snowflakes inside too.

(Sorry the inside lights made this very yellow!)

On the front I also added some purple enamel accents … I originally looked for the stickles in purple but seems I must have run out so enamel accents used instead.

All in all a fun card to make and even more fun watching Amy and Chris crafting whilst I made it. Thanks for the inspiration Amy.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

OMG how obsessed am I with these stitching dies from Spellbinders?

I took the December dies and did lots of die cutting and sewing whilst watching Christmas tv … in fact I did some of this sat in bed watching films … so relaxing although admittedly little purple dots of cardstock everywhere (should have got rid of those at the desk first!).

I decided to put this one together using the guide in the packet as a starting point in the lovely purple, pink and white colour scheme.

So lots of the die cut shapes to create a frame around the sentiment but chose to use a different sentiment rather than the love that was in the set.

Given all the die cuts and the sewing I kept the finish very simple with a frame of white onto the card blank … nothing shiny or sparkly for a change (although the sentiment does have sink of Stella on it so there is a subtle shimmer).

I’ve got so many flowers left though so plenty more of these stitched cards to come!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today’s card mixes up a few dies sets to make a fun card.

I started with a piece of cardstock I had mopped up ink with and added some shimmery ink spray to. This created a sparkly green coloured card which was perfect for die cutting this spellbinders wreath from and a few additional sprigs.

I decided it was the perfect base to add some flowers to and grabbed the December stitched dies monthly kit and I had already die cut and stitched a few bits from it … so these flowers are the perfect addition to the wreath.

I decided to make the background to the card a little different with a bit of the iridescent texture paste through a brick style stencil so that it looked interesting and had some texture.

I did this onto the mixed media cardstock so that it didn’t warp the card (this card stock is good for adding pastes etc to)z

I left it to dry and then I adhered the wreath to it with hi tack glue.

Next I decided on the sentiment and went for the Waffleflower set. I embossed the sweet using a dark red that is similar to cherry cobbler and then did the strip in white onto the cherry cobbler card stock to be in keeping with the stitched flowers .

To be honest I forgot I had a die for that big sweet and so I fussy cut it out (found the die after I had finished the card!

I decided the card needed something else at this point so I grabbed my sparkly pen and doodled an outline for the panel and then I found some ribbon that went well with it and added a little bow to the wreath.

Inside the card I inked through the brick stencil and then stamped the sentiment and added two more flowers to finish off!

Think this really is quite a cute card. The wreath is so delicate it works well with those smaller flowers. And of course the sewn elements are just so cute!

Need to die cut and sew more of these!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I am back in the ‘evaluate old stash’ mode … also trying not to make every card a stitched one which is hard as I really am enjoying that at the moment! I grabbed the swallowtail stamp off the shelf in one of these … do I really need this in my stash? … moments … and had a little play!

It was only a little play but it was one of my favourite ways of using this stamp … to take a background, emboss it and then add ink to the actual butterfly to make it look a little different from the background.

The panel I used for this was one I had mopped up some ink off the desk using some watercolour cardstock. This meant it was a bumpy surface so not the easiest to stamp on … definitely recommend a stamp positioner to do it so you can stamp multiple times to get good coverage.

I used a dark purple/red to emboss and then added some pink ink with a water brush to the actual butterfly to darken it.

I then edged the panel with the same colour ink to give it a frame.

Next I did the sentiment which I embossed in a similar colour and then edged again and then added it to the card with the vellum shimmer die cut ring (I’ve had this on the desk for sometime so good to get it used!

I then found a panel of merry Merlot which I thought worked well with the colours. I used some oxide inks to stamp sending love randomly all over and used blackberry bliss to ink the edges. This all gives it quite a subtle effect but gives some additional interest.

Stuck the front panel to a 5×7 card blank and called it done.

I do still love this large stamp so not sure I can part with it just yet … so back on the shelf it will go!

Entering this into the Always Anything Goes challenge at Creative Fingers

Happy crafting!

Catherine