Category: Art and crafting styles

Ooops… I did say no more Christmas cards before the end of August… but then I accidentally made one! Ha ha ha! 

It started off as a scrap of card and before I knew it … it was a Christmas card! 

Using Sheet Music, Watercolour wash and the Carols of Christmas turned a few pieces of card onto a fun vintage themed card. Ah well so much for my leaving Christmas until after August had finished! 

Happy crafting! 

Catherine 

Another play in my Dylusions journal last weekend led to this spread….

I used a mixture of distress stain spray and distress oxides to create the background using stamps and stencils. As the colour was added over gesso it gave it a lovely pale and creamy texture.

I added the stamping of the circles from #badassartchick stamps across the bottom and then added some of the Tim Holtz tissue wrap in the centre of the two pages. I then added the swirly sizzix die cut and then the cute Trish Latimer fairy. I had coloured her with promarkers and then added the Art Alchemy Sparks paint to her wings and the star. I also splashed some of the sparks over the page to add the sparkle. 

I absolutely love the sketchy nature of this focal image against the washy nature of the background so super happy with this page.

And yes another creation for the Paperartsy challenge over on their blog for using Hybrid inks.
Happy crafting!

Catherine 

This is the 315th ATC of the year… which means I only have another 50 to do to meet my target! Whoop!!!

So without further ado… it is a simple one and very much based on the theme of the last week… Happy Celebrations meets jazz musician! 

Yellow cardstock, fossilized amber distress oxide and black soot distress oxide… three stamps and a label made on my little labelled! Jobs a good’un! 

Love love love this … so vibrant and such fun! 

Happy crafting! 

Catherine 

A few days ago I shared some Inchies that I had made which gave me an idea for a card using the silhouette jazz musicians and the Happy Celebrations stamps.

I started with stamping the colourful ‘splodges’ with bright colours of distress oxides (I love the intensity of the colour you get with them). Then I chose a musician for each colour and stamped him using Black Soot.

I then did the sentiment in Black soot too. 

I decided the inside needed colour too… 

I chose the long brush stroke stamp and stamped it three times in different colours and then overstamped using the Happy in Black soot and then added some little musical elements to keep with the theme on the front. 

And finally… I used the same sets to ‘Jazz’ up the envelope too! 

Really really happy with this … it looked like I wanted … in fact even better than I thought it would! I can see me using the Happy Celebrations set with other silhouette stamps to do this again! 

And as for distress oxides… you all know how much I adore them… they really are the best ink I’ve ever used. Perfect stamping, beautiful blending and fun inky techniques. So yes another one for the Paperartsy challenge.

Happy crafting! 

Catherine 

Hi

I made this card a few weeks ago for part of the parents stash… a golf themed card! 

I used a Bugaboo digital image thay I’ve had for a while and coloured it with promarkers. 

I then distressed a piece of brown cardstock with Distress Oxides and some stencilling and added wax paper and some bakers twine. I then mounted it onto blue card to bring out the colours in the focal image.

Cute! 

The sentiment is a die cut from a pack I added the distress oxide to so it teamed up with the rest of the card. 

So even though this is not at all Paperartsy style… I did use my oxides in two different ways so going to add this to their challenge blog. 

Happy crafting!

Catherine 

Another day… Another swap to share. This time a tag. 

Of course it is Distress Oxides and also probably one of the most vibrant things I have ever made! And then on top of this the challenge over at Paperartsy is using hybrid inks… So of course this is perfect for joining in their challenge. 

Stamping and stencilling and wrinkle free distress method for the background … then washi tape and some die cuts for the next layers. Finished with a stamped and watercoloured flower and a printed quote.

Lush! 

Love how this turned out. 

Happy crafting!

Catherine  

I managed to grab some more crafting time at the weekend and made a postcard for a swap over at UK stampers forum where the theme was buildings. 

I knew I wanted to use the city scene stamps I had so created a lovely sunset with Distress Oxides and then did my stamping. I finished it off with the layering the Love quote stamp.

A lovely dramatic card. 

Happy crafting!

Catherine 

I have three ATCs made for a swap and also six inchies for a swap in the same group to share with you today. 

All three ATCs started as blue cardstock and scraps of paper on from the desk and finished up quite differently! 

I used distress oxides and a range of different stamps to achieve the different effects. 

Then the inchies all had a theme.. distress oxide background with a jazz musician stamped on each one and then heat embossed. 

Love how these came out and looking forward to playing with these stamps again. Doing these inchies had given me an idea for a card! 

Happy crafting!

Catherine 

… so this beautiful girl, my princess, finished primary school today. And boy am I emotional! I actually started the crying at 8am writing the card to the teacher.

This was her before the school prom on Monday… she is definitely the loveliest creation I have ever made (obviously with some help from the hubby!).

Today it was gift giving and card giving time for the teachers and the princess and her friend raided my card making stuff for their cards and I made this special card for the best teacher that we could have asked for!

Distress oxides (of course!) and summer silhouettes stamps are the main ingredients for this card!

Now off to lie down in a darkened room and recover from all the emotion of my baby growing up!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

So of course whilst in Harrogate I had a little spend… And bought some of the new distress oxides and some other goodies too…

I was quite reserved. I only bought 7 of the new colours not all 12 and once again … I love them!!! And at some point may have to buy most of the other 5 I didn’t get!

I had a little play with them on Sunday night with some panels of watercolour paper I had cut into squares (And a scrap of cream card too top right hand side but thats for another project!)

I then grabbed my new Tim Holtz stencil to add more pattern to some and a Gummiapan stamp (my current favourite text stamp!) to add yet more texture.

Once I had got them like this I knew I just wanted something simple to finish off the panels… Tim Holtz wildflowers stamps are the perfect accompaniment.

So these are perfect panels as card toppers. Will finish them off another day with appropriate sentiments etc… but for now the distress oxide obsession continues!

Happy crafting!

Catherine