Category: Art and crafting styles

My gorgeous girl turned 11 today! Where have all those years gone? 

Of course I made her a card. I went very mixed media and included lots of layers and of course…. distress oxides! 

Layer one (which of course has lots of layers of its own!) is distress oxides! 

Next I chose some of the papers from the Artful Days goodie box. I cut them into panels and then inked the edges and added more Distress oxide to them. I layered them up and then added some iridescent medium through a stencil. 

Next another piece of the patterned paper coloured with the … yes you’ve guessed it… distress oxides! 

I then chose one of my favourite heart stamps from Darcy’s Paperartsy stamps. I heat embossed it and fussy cut it out. 

I then added stickers and the sentiment and added some bakers twine and brads to add some features.   

The last thing to be added was some splatters of the Art Alchemy metallic turquoise paint. 

I mounted the panel up onto some black cardstock and then a large white card blank. 

A funky and fun card for our princess! 

Happy crafting! 

Catherine 

This was the starting point for these ATC’S I made for a swap with UK stampers forum, with the theme of “love”. It was a piece of paper I had been wiping my brayer off on during Gelli plate playing. 

I added some tissue paper and then some stamping to add interest to the background. Then added some clear gesso over the top too. 

Next I got out the sewing machine and some pieces of the ribbon that came in the last Artful Days goodie box  (I’ve started delving into it a bit at a time!). 

Next distress oxide came out to play. I stamped the Darcy heart stamp over the top of the background I made and then fussy cut them. (I made one extra for another project!)

Once fussy cut I then gold heat embossed the little panel just add texture and interest. 

I then reduced the panels a little tearing them and mounted them onto back cardstock. 

Then some more torn black card as a layer under the hearts and the word stickers to finish off.

And here they are individually! 

Happy crafting! 

Catherine 

I’ve been playing with distress oxides again. They are fab inks and so many cool and easy results. 

I started with a piece of cardstock and then created two ATC’S for a swap where the theme was HATS. 

The top photo is a closeup of part of the main piece of cardstock that I started with. Then I cut it into some sections so I could make the atcs. 

The first one I took a Tim Holtz stamp  (Runway) and stamped the image.  I also added some stamped circles using the Kim Dellow paperartsy stamp wh8ch make it look a little retro. I tore one side and then mounted it onto an ATC made from corrugated cardstock than I had painted with black gesso. 

The title was a sticker from the stash and then some doodled edging and I called it done. 

The second one I wanted a completely different look. I added some texture paste through a stencil in the back and then found this image I had received in a swap. The colours worked perfectly so I added it on top using gel medium.  I wanted it to tone into the background though so I added some gesso as a very light coverage. 

I wasn’t convinced I liked it at this point so decided to take my white gel pen and add some dots and doodles.  

OK so it’s a bit strange but I liked it!  

I know the recipient has now received these so hopefully she likes them too… as for me..  I’m still loving distress oxides!  And two more ATC’s done! 

Happy crafting! 

Catherine 

Another couple of ATC’S towards the challenge for the year… 

I started with these Gelli prints on patterned paper. I added some stamping using the Dictionary stamp. Next I added some stamped flowers which I cut out and edged with pink ink, and then added some of the splats from Timeless Treasures.

Both of the flowers were stamped several years ago and have just sat in the stash. Good to get them out and find a use for them. 

I then added some iridescent medium through a stencil over part of the each of the cards.  Once it was dry I added the finishing touches…

… flowers and a little quote which I got off a calendar.

Love how these both came out. 

Happy crafting! 

Catherine 

I made another three ATC’S for a swap that Lindsay Mason organises… and the theme this month (Feb) is Through the Window. 

I actually did mine on video… here is the link.https://youtu.be/RvIuJ4XDE50

However it is a little long as three individual atcs takes time. So here are the pics of the final pieces. 

Three very different ATC’S but all featuring windows as per the brief.

Hope you get a chance to watch the process video I made. Sorry it’s so long. Next time will just have to do the whole thing on fast forward and learn to do voice overs. 

Getting there with my videoing skills though and enjoying doing them even if the editing gets a little tiresome! 

Happy crafting!

Catherine 

So last night was playtime at my house with Gelli plates galore. And I actually made stuff too not just demonstrated…. I made a couple of cards… the first one will be a mothers day card when I get round to adding a sentiment. 

The second I will also add a sentiment to and then it can go into the stash for me to give at some point.

Then I also made two small note cards. These were done using the small hexagon Gelli plate and paint.  I love these small 3×3 plates and the cute Geometric shapes. 

I also ended up with lots of bits ready to be cut up and used on other projects… still no got a clue what to do with the big piece I did yet but sure I will get there eventually. 

Happy crafting! 

Catherine 

Tonight I have friends coming round for some crafting time and the theme for tonight was Gelli plate play! 

I must admit I struggled with this … I love Gelli plate play but designing a class is quite difficult as the results can be so unpredictable… so after an hour I had a floor full of painted paper and still not many ideas. 

Then I got the ink out and suddenly got inspired … 

They are just waiting for sentiments to be added. 

And then back to the paint versions… there is this paper I made and it took me a while to work out what to do with it. 

Obviously I could always cut it up for ATC’S… but wasn’t convinced that was what I wanted to do! 

So I have a few ideas but the main this is producing something like this…. you will have to wait till tomorrow to see what I came up with though! 

Happy crafting!

Catherine 

Back to scrapping… and finally finished the pages started at Helen’s class a few weeks ago. The mixed media approach she took really inspired me… along with many Missy Widden YouTube videos I’ve been glued to recently! 

So these were both using the packaging technique to add watery ink to the background cardstock and then using the Cupcakes and Carousels designer series paper to create different layers.  

So the first one I did change up a bit by reducing the size and layering it onto the Crumb Cake cardstock. 

I also added lots of stickers and rub ons and little word embellishments. As it’s a picture of men (my dad, and my two Dutch dad’s – it’s a long story!) I decided against adding too many embellishments. 

I couldn’t resist the little making memories tags with brads though… or the pointing finger stickers…

So that’s my slightly more masculine page… now for my girlie one… 

I adore this pic of my princess and me having some fun time on the floor.  The layout Helen designed worked well with this larger image. 

I added lots of layers underneath the photo and found candi dots that worked with the colour scheme.  I love the rub on words and the fabric title sticker I used too. It’s great diving into the stash of stickers and finding things you have forgotten you owned. Especially helpful as March is meant to be my no stash buying month. I need to save for my hols! 

So happy to have done some scrapping again… thanks Helen for getting me inspired again. So nice also to scale up from ATC size to 12×12 just for a change. 

Happy crafting! 

Catherine 

A few weeks ago I did a scrapbook class with my lovely friend Helen and we did a smooshing ink technique using packaging. I loved it and had such fun smooshing the ink on the backgrounds so created a bit extra and so far have made these three ATC’S… 

I added scraps of the paper from the class and the beautiful stamped flowers too. 

I finished all off with some doodling in Gold pen and some pencil shading.

Love how they ended up. Gorgeous technique and I still have quite a bit of the one I did leftover so hopefully will get a chance to make some more atcs from that too! 

And tomorrow I have the rest of the pages to share that I’ve finally finished!

Happy crafting!

Catherine 

I caught up with a few random ATC’S last weekend…. no themes… just playing with bits and pieces on the desk! 

Texture paste and stencilling and bistre powder and gilding wax… interesting combo! 

Gelli print on book print and a Crazy cat Coloured with Spectrum noir pencils! Fun! 

Painty background, stamping and some opal magic paint highlights.  

Same as above! Just different stamping.

Mish mash of backgrounds and techniques finished with heat embossing. 

A gorgeous butterfly embellishment I received in a swap with a few layers underneath. 

More embossing on painty layers. 

A fun flower on a Gelli print background. 

A piece of master board I created for a circle journal finishes with a rub on doodled flower. 

Paint and tissue and stamping … oh and a butterfly …. what more could you want? Love these Finnabair stamps. 

That’s me for today… another 10 for the tally… all of which listed onto swap sites so who knows where they will end up?!?

Happy crafting! 

Catherine