Author: Catherine

Well I’m starting this one with an apology as I messed up the dates and should have posted this a couple of days ago… it’s my design team contribution for Creative Knockouts.

The challenge is to finish the inside of the card and we were kindly sponsored by SheepSki designs who gifted me this Clematis Trellis image to play with…

Given I was late creating the card I kept it pretty simple… rainbow colouring and black and white with a simple twine bow … there is a little dimension to the card as the layers have either foam or using pinflair to give dimension.

Inside the card I kept to the rainbow theme and stamped the Birthday using the stampin write markers so I could add different colours to the stamp. You can also see the dimension on the front of the card on this pic.

I finished off the card with some tiny pearls scattered all over the card … pretty but small so not in your face amounts of bling.

Hope you like this… if in doubt rainbow colours always seem to work well against a plain black and white background in my opinion!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Todays Christmas in July is also a video … and a very inky messy play! I made four backgrounds but am just sharing two today. I’ll share one other tomorrow but not sure when I will share the last one as still not made anything with it!

As you can see two very bright cards with funky non traditional colours for Christmas cards but I love them.

I started by heat embossing the Snow Crystal stamp four times onto the mixed media cardstock and then added colour in different ways.

Let’s start with my favourite and the most simple one…

I used three colours of distress stain added using a paint brush and then when dry a splatter of Tranquil Tide ink and stamped the sentiment in the same colour ink.

Kept it simple with no further embellishment and a flat card onto the square card blank. Simple and beautiful.

Next the funky hot colours using distress oxides…

There are also some tiny blue speckles of the delusions ink that I sprayed for another background that get EVERYWHERE … but it looks quite nice still. The distress oxide I just added a spray of water afterwards to make it nice and chalky as a finish. Then I added the ribbon, die cut and the fussy cut embossed sentiment.

I did mount the panel onto white and then onto the black card blank to keep it modern and funky. Of course I also added an insert of the white so there was something to write on.

Hope you like these inky emboss resist cards… there is one more coming tomorrow and another sometime in the future!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Todays Christmas in July project was using a few old Craft Stamper magazine stamps as part of my sort out project I’ve been doing for a while now which I stamped, cut and added as a background mat layer.

I stamped the main image two times using Starry Night ink that I blotted a little first so it was a bit paler.

Then I cut the panels into different sizes for the different cards.

One I added the Joy stamp which I stamped and fussy cut, and the little sparkly stars.

The next I cut smaller and added onto the silver glimmer mat.

I then added gems to bring some more sparkle but decided against adding the Joy stamped word.

Fairly clean and simple cards for me this time. What do you think? I must admit as much as I like that Joy word I can’t see me using it much. The other one though I can imagine using albeit not that often as I tend to make OTT cards for Christmas rather than these simple ones… maybe that stays but the Joy stamp gets added to the go pile!

Have plenty more of these craft stamper magazine stamps to sort through and assess … but that’s two more sifted! and two more cards made.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Hello. Today was a delve into the backgrounds already made pouch and I found some bits of the painty and embossed background I made in May for an Addicted to stamps and more challenge.

I decided to use two pieces and like last time teamed them with a JoFY star image which I inked in similar colours to the background.

I added the white cardstock mat to both pieces to frame them and also the white doodled lines. I then added some flat purple sequins for embellishment.

As there is lots of writing on both the star and the background I decided against adding a further sentiment. Quite unusual for me as I usually always add a sentiment.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today I have another card made using papers I cut for the failed sheet load of cards project from a whole back.

I decided for this one to create a slightly smaller card base though rather than the traditional A6 size as the topper looked a little small otherwise.

I added the topper on top of a cut out paper ribbon and then added the deer onto the top which was fussy cut from the magazine kit.

I stamped and embossed the sentiment from the Tidings and trimmings set which as it has a small font works well on this smaller card size.

I then added card Candi as embellishments.

Cute!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Todays card for Christmas in July is a quick little notecard using up scraps and a cute little image I stamped a while ago from a magazine.

I mean that little penguin is so cute, right?

I gave him a little weaving of cardstock scraps to sit on, a bit of dsp and then some paper I had done a soft snowflake stencil design on.

I added the sequins and the sentiment and then added it to a 4×4 card blank … perfect and oh so simple!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Hello! Back with another birthday card made as part of my design team contribution for Happy Little Stampers for the Anything Birthday challenge. Quite nice to have a little break from the Christmas in July too!

I had a little hunt in the scraps drawer and found a panel of the Expressions in Ink dsp and decided to go with that as my starting point.

Next I grabbed some of the leftover fussy cut Perfectly Penned flowers left from the April patterned paper playtime session and then just had fun organising them.

I decided I wanted a contrasting colour though so had a look in the 6×6 papers and found this Oh So Ombré paper. Perfect for backing the main panel and creating a panel across the front.

I did add a couple of strips of card stock underneath the central strip to give it some dimension. I punched to notches at the sides too so I could wind the paper string around it and it would sit nicely in one place.

I then decided I needed the black card base so I made a 5×7 one from black card stock and then die cut the letters from the remaining card stock and stacked them up to give them dimension. I then stamped and fussy cut the Biggest Wish birthday sentiment in a contrasting colour and added it to the ribbon.

I used some black card Candi to embellish. I kept the inside of the card simple with just the white insert as I hadn’t got any of the dsp left to add inside and I had also used up the last of those fussy cut flowers too!

So pleased with the card and that’s another pouch of fussy cut elements used up … think I am on a bit of a mission to have used up as much of these as I can before the end of the year! Thinking 2024 I might then get myself some new stash … although looking around my room I have so much I still think I can’t quite justify it!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Quite some time ago I cut up some papers as part of a sheet load of cards template but didn’t end up doing much with them so popped them to one side and so I’ve decided to try and use some up as part of my Christmas in July series … so be prepared some of the cards I feature this month are likely to be based on these papers!

This one is a fairly simple card featuring patterned paper, an embossed panel and a fussy cut element from a magazine. I mean you can’t really get more simple than this. I did add some clear gems to the wreath to add some bling but otherwise kept it super simple.

Love how cute it is … and I still absolutely love this embossing folder. It’s such a great one for adding interest and works with any focal image.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Well that is half of 2023 already passed. How can that be? Time really does seem to disappear so quickly.

I’ve been playing with Patterned paper again as I usually do at the start of the month.

Those who have popped by my blog before will know that I am doing a similar exercise all year (I got organised last year to sort it out and make my life easier!) and using one sheet of 12×12 dsp and cutting it apart to provide the main elements for my cards. So far this is working well and I’ve been pleased with the results.

This time the dsp is actually Christmas paper so I think in fitting with the Christmas in July challenge which I’ve decided to play along with this month. Especially given the change in weather the last few days to rain and wind!

Here is what I made ….

A lovely earthy coloured card using the Crumb Cake base and some die cuts in different colours of green from the Pinecones dies. Of course there are the dsp pine cones elements on the top plus the piece of dsp reversed as the base.

I chose to die cut a panel of white for the sentiment and stamped the sentiment from Merriest Moments.

I then finished off the outside with the gems from the stash.

I also added a strip of the dsp inside with a cut apart element.

I have lots of the cut apart elements left so suspect there will be more cards to come using these bits… think I will just leave the pouch with them in on the desk and see what happens.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Hello! Today I have my “any occasion” card for the Addicted to Stamps and More blog design team.

I made a new baby card using a very old stamp Two by Two which I then coloured with my promarkers.

I kept the whole card simple with the focal image on the top with a mat of the same colour cardstock as the next layer but I also added a layer of vellum that I embossed and then ripped one edge to give interest. I adhered this to the base with the pale green brads.

I then layered it all on the smoky slate grey card blank.

Love how cute this is!

Happy crafting!

Catherine