Author: Catherine

I made a couple of thank you cards with bits on the desk, including the flowers I stamped using the new Altenew set …

Clearly they are similar with the scraps of patterned paper and the Kraft against cream cardstock … and then the gorgeous flower from the Altenew ZigZag floral set.

The smaller square one I added the Artistic stamping and the leaves and thanks from the same set. Also added some splatters of brown ink and then inked all the elements with brown to give it a vintage look.

Love how easily this came together.

The next one I used a punch to add something different … not used an edge punch for ages!

I also added the text from the Very Versailles stamp set, and also the sentiment from that set.

I added sequins to both as embellishment and love those labels that were cut from dsp earlier in the year for my patterned paper project … only got a few left so good to get some used for these little cards.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

So I caved and decided to buy some new stash as I was feeling a little stuck and lacking in mojo with my non-Christmas stash after all those Christmas in July projects… so bought lots of Altenew stash which arrived a couple of days ago. Here is the result of my first play!

I mean … really how cool is this?

So this play was quite a long one and I learnt along the way how to use the stamps and decided on the following …

1. Use the stamp platform … it makes layering easier

2. Start with light ink first … it helps differentiate the layers

3. Just have fun and go for it regardless … that’s what I did! Die cut everything once stamped and it looks fab regardless!

I had quite a lot of pieces stamped and die cut and decided to just layer up lots of the images on this DL long slim card.

I also added the stencilling to the background but you can’t really see it and I didn’t really like it so hey ho!

I ended up adding a sentiment from the SU Artistic set across the front as couldn’t see another one I thought went with it … think this worked ok though.

Then I added the sequins and called it done as it really did have quite a lot added to the front.

I had two flowers left from my session so they’ve been put aside for other projects.

Fancy seeing how I put this together and learn along with me the best ways of stamping the images … well you can watch it on my YouTube channel.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today I have another design team challenge for you for the Happy Little Stampers blog.

My card was heavily inspired by the card my daughter made for me for my birthday last month…

She had raided my supplies to create this and I had never really thought of using that floral stamp for a background… so here is what I ended up making …

It’s got the same stamp to make the background with ink blending and then torn edges … from there the similarities probably end … but thank you Maya for my beautiful card and the inspiration!

After the background was created I added some strips of Kraft and white torn cardstock and then the focal image of the same stamp and the jar, some pretty ribbon and the embossed sentiment with the die cut letters to finish off.

Love how this finished up… it’s dimensional and fresh looking and I suspect this won’t be the last time I use this stamp to make a background!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today I have a cute little birthday card that I made for the Creative Knockouts challenge for ‘summer fun’.

This challenge is sponsored by The Paper Shelter who gifted us this cute image for us to use for our creations…

I decided on a watercolour type effect using the inks to colour the image then cut out the image and added foam to give it some dimension. The background I kept simple with some inking through a wavy background stencil so it kept the watery theme.

I then chose a simple birthday sentiment and some sparkles for embellishment.

I also added glossy accents to the glasses to give some more dimension to the card.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I’ve had a little dig through the preprepared backgrounds and grabbed this one that I made using gelatos and Paperartsy stamps ages ago and decided it was time to get it used!

I’ve had a thing about rainbows recently … and on this I love both the rainbow background and the shimmer from a few of the colours which were metallic gelatos.

I decided to keep this one simple grabbing a chipboard heart some die cut leaves and a little stamped sentiment.

I added a little bit of white paint pen doodling too to finish up.

Simple and another of those prepared background used up! 😀

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Hello! Welcome to my blog. Obviously welcome back if you’ve popped by before.

Today is the first of the month, importantly my Mum’s birthday, but the card I have today isn’t my Mum’s birthday card …. I’ll share that another time, instead it is a card I made using elements cut from a sheet of 12×12 dsp. I’ve been doing this every month this year as I got organised last year so I wasn’t having to do too much thinking about what to create when the end of the month comes around and it is time for a patterned paper playtime.

This months dsp of choice was an old favourite … True Love DSP. I must have used this paper for so many projects because I bought a few packs and think it is so versatile with being just black and white and so you can leave it without colour or add colour using whatever medium you fancy.

This time I added colour to the reverse of the paper … and left the flowers plain.

I love adding rainbow colours for a dramatic impact, especially against black. I used the stampin blends to add the colour to the striped side of the dsp and then die cut it using the stitched shapes. Then stacked that up with two more so it was a nice sturdy element. I added some of the black and white gingham ribbon and then two of the flower elements.

I decided that I wanted to add some texture in the background but kept it black. I decided to add versamark to the folder and use clear emboss to add some shine to the texture. This is just like the way that I did it for the recent Christmas card inspired by Jennifer McGuire video.

Inside the card I added white with a strip of the coloured dsp and another floral element.

I finished off the outside with the black gems and a stamped sentiment I raised up on foam.

I do love this way of creating a card by having ready cut out elements ready to go. Plus when you prep it like this you end up with very little waste. But many many elements ready to work with for other projects!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I decided to end this month as I started it with the bits and bobs in the pouch from the patterned paper playtime and created two cards using the leftover pieces.

Kept them both quite simple teaming the lovely spruce and pine cone themed paper with Blackberry Bliss and Rich Razzleberry.

I added an embossed sentiment and some gems for bling but otherwise let the paper do all the work.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my Christmas in July and hope you got some inspiration for your festive projects along the way!

Tomorrow back to a more appropriate for the time of year type of crafting… but you know me Christmas card making happens all year round for me so you never know when snow and Santa may appear on the blog!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Watched a Jennifer Maguire video … got inspired! No surprise there! The woman just makes the best cards in my opinion!

So the video (hopefully this link works) was all about different ways of embossing and she started by using an embossing folder and debossing with versamark so the embossing powder sits in the crevices… hopefully this makes sense … and if not just go watch the video – she explains it so well!

I grabbed some pool party cardstock that was on the desk and a snowflake embossing folder and then silver embossing powder… and very quickly had a very cute background!

So I kept it quite simple to finish off … white swirly die cuts, a grey die cut panel and the lovely die cut sentiment from Tonic which I stacked for dimension. Then sequins for added shine.

So nice to use the embossing folder in a different way. I actually remember learning this a long time ago but then forgot!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today I have quite a simple card to share using some of that leftover sheet load of cards template I have been working my way through with a bit of sewing and some of the fab Tidings and Trimmings stockings.

I really love the more muted navy and crumb cake colour scheme of this card and the bit of hand sewing makes it a bit different.

I’m close to the end of the Christmas in July series now and must admit I still have quite a few of these backgrounds left but going to put them away for now as I feel like I need a break from these papers and this sheet load of cards that I cut over 6 months ago and still haven’t used up. Do you get like that when you’ve had the same thing staring at you that you can’t quite work out how to use them? The good news is that I have a box for my Christmas stash so I can just put them away and pull them out whenever the inspiration strikes rather than them going to waste.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Final piece of the brusho masterboard I made finished into a card for todays Christmas in July post.

This time I chose the starry sky to be the main colour with both the sentiment embossed on it and the card blank too.

I also added the white star die cuts from the Tidings and Trimmings set.

Added some more of the iridescent snowflake embellishments too. Not sure what I will do when I run out of these – they are so pretty!

Hope you’ve liked how I used this masterboard. It was so fun to play with the brusho background and the grunge type stamps to create something really interesting to play with.

Happy crafting!

Catherine