Category: Art and crafting styles

Some cards come together easily, others I struggle with and this weeks santa I struggled with! I love this image but don’t use it often as I hate colouring it in… I never get the balance right.

I decided to paint him this time and used brushos as my watercolour medium. This worked quite well but not perfectly.

I decided to then add gold paint pen and also some fluff to the trim on his coat and hat.

I then went for simple card design of some dsp using magazine papers and then black mounts and as a card base.

I finished off with three black die cut stars as embellishments as they worked well with the graphic feel to the image.

Think the landscape one worked better than the portrait design but neither of these cards can I claim to love.

I think I may have to invest in another santa stamp at some point as this just never turns out as well as I would like.

What do you think?

And have you got some good santa images to play with? Why not join in with my challenge and let me know if you do on here or on Instagram so I can see what you make.

Last year for this theme I used a magazine stamp I have since got rid of. He was cute but very small … Will add ‘decent santa stamp’ to my wishlist for 2023.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Yesterday I grabbed what was on the desk left over from a few other projects and decided to make a funky card for the stash.

There were two pieces of leftover dsp, some black cardstock and the fab bright Tahitian Tide cardstock. I grabbed my white embossing powder and did some messy stamping and embossing to ‘grunge up’ the black and then used the fabulous Happy Celebrations stamps for the blue banner.

Inside I added a white panel for writing on and kept the embellishments simple with the three card candi.

A simple use of scraps to make a funky card.

Sharing this at Sweet Stampin as they are having a birthday challenge to celebrate their birthday!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I saw the sketch Martin had created for the challenge on day 18 and knew how I wanted it to look … spoiler alert it didn’t end up looking like that! Best laid plans and all that.

I used vellum to create a panel over colourful strips of cardstock ehich i embossed to create the pattern and decided to sew into place. But then I had an argument with the sewing machine.

So I ended up cutting down the vellum to get rid of the ruined part and making a much smaller card.

I did manage to fix the machine but in changing the background and dimensions you kind of lose the coloured strips underneath and one got very wonky. By the point I decided to keep going as vellum is a precious commodity. Added a laser cut snowflake and the embossed sentiment onto the top and of course a few gems.

I do like this card … but you know when you have a plan and it doesn’t quite work … that’s what happened here.

Ah well something pretty came out of the 30 min wrestling session with the sewing machine … Guess that is all that matters!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Day 11 for Martin’s #30daychristmascardmakingchallenge and the challenge is something white.

I fancied playing with vellum so I made a vellum card and then die cut a lot of the large panels to make the central part of the card and disguise glue etc. Some of these were in smoky slate rather than white but I think it all worked together.

On the front of the card I stamped the tress from Merry Moose a few times and then embossed them in white. Then used a blending tool and dark grey ink to blend over the top and then wiped the trees clean.

Next I asked the Joy word with a vellum shadow and white embossing onto the grey word. I decided to sandwich underneath the word and on top of the embossing the black and white ribbon to give some contrast and texture.

Then added the gems to finish off.

You can really see how the vellum is see through when the card is stood up albeit only semi-transparent.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today blog is a card I made using some of the leftover pieces of the fabulous True Love dsp which I love.

I also used a background I made for another project and never got round to using. I love how this came out but I must admit that I got a little lost in the middle of making this. If you fancy watching me fumble around making this card, check it out on YouTube as once again I videoed making this card.

I love how the ribbon provides a nice border element in the background and the bold sentiment panel.

Really going to miss this paper when I’ve finished off the last bits as it’s been fabulous to play with.

Finished off the card with white Splendid Stems die cuts and the black matt gems.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Regular visitors to my blog will know I am obsessed with Jennifer McGuire YouTube videos and her cardmaking style. She shared this technique of making a cool background using an inked background, cutting it into strips and then reversing every other one.

So I had a go… just played at random with some reds and oranges but my blending was awful … turned out when you reverse them, go over with a white stamped background type stamp and then die cut it, it really works well!

I decided to use my panel as the background to a digital stamp I had been gifted on a design team project a while ago. I used Stampin Blends to colour the image (non traditional magnolia colouring!) and then added some bright white die cuts for the sentiment and behind the image.

In true Jennifer style I stacked the die cuts to give them dimension and I raised the back panel too.

I also added some gems which picked up the greens from the leaves on the main image.

Love how bright and cheery this card ended up and loved my take on the technique.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Here is the card I made for the Martin’s Mayhem Christmas challenge for day 8… where the theme is all wrapped up.

I decided to use some very old stamps (Happy Moments) and stamped, coloured and fussy cut the stack of presents.

I then teamed it with papers and cut apart the images from a magazine kit.

I also embossed the white panel to give an extra bit of texture then an added a ribbon too and the printed sentiment label.

Also entering the wreaths challenge at Can you handle the pressure?

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Hello … onto week 5 of my Christmas cardmaking challenge already…. wow those weeks have gone by so quickly. Before we know it we will be at Christmas day! And between this and Martin’s challenge I have been joining in with on and off I will have more than enough cards for this year!

This weeks theme was gifts and so I looked through my stamp sets and found a magazine kit that had two gift stamps that I thought would work well for pattern making.

I decided to make two cards out of the mixed media cardstoxk and stamped directly onto the front of the card. The first one I went for an all over pattern and then for the second just a block in the middle.

I stamped in Versafine and then painted the parcels with shimmery watercolour. Unfortunately doesn’t show up on the photos but they are super shimmery!

To finish off I die cut the sentiment from black and white cardstock stacking them for plenty of dimension on what is otherwise a very flat card.

I love how these cards came out and painting them was so relaxing! Definitely prefer the one where it is in a block but both are so cute.

I’m also amazed I am keeping up with my own challenge whilst still joining in with Martin’s challenge on some of the days too!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Hello… I loved making these cards inspired by day seven of Martin’s Mayhem Christmas challenge… winter sunset. Think they are my faves so far as they were so different for me.

I made one large panel and cut it into two thinner panels to make 2 long thin cards.

I started by stamping the fabulous snowmen from Mama Elephant and then stamped it onto scrap and cut it out and taped it in place before then adding lots and lots of ink. I used lots of different colours and just kept blending and blending until I was happy with it. Then I splattered with white gesso and some shimmer ink to create a snowy sky. Admittedly I might have gone OTT but loved it.

I then coloured in the snowmen accessories and carrot noses using promarkers.

Then I cut it into two panels, one slimmer than the other and then matt and layered them onto white. I then created one cardblank from black and the other from Starry Sky. For the wider one I embossed in white the sentiment from Claritystamps directly onto the sky. The other I added a sentiment to the side of the cardblank.

So I absolutely loved this and absolutely wouldn’t have thought of this colour scheme if it hadn’t been for Martin’s inspiration.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

This is day 6 from Martin’s challenge … and it is Something Green.

I decided to do a mainly green image which was white embossed onto white but used lots of different green colours and added the ink using a waterbrush.

I then added layers under the main image with dsp and cardstock. I then wrapped with a green coloured twine and the sentiment circle is a brown to coordinate.

I then added some green glitter enamel gems.

Love this and think this is different for me especially with the colour scheme.

Happy crafting!

Catherine