Category: Art and crafting styles

I decided to use up some distress oxide backgrounds for these cards and the lovely floral stamps I’ve had for years that came in a Creative Stamping magazine. I just love using these stamps with embossing and messy watercolour!

I actually made enough for three cards but not made the final one up yet and ran out of time when I made these so the bits have gone into a pouch ready to finish off another time.

For both these I videoed the process and you can check that out on YouTube.

I used sentiments from the Christmas to Remember set and die cut out the labels for them.

I then added the gold gems to embellish.

The background panels were mounted on white and then onto the Mossy Meadow cardstock.

There isn’t much dimension to the cards but I did stack the sentiment label and added a little scrap cardstock under the main floral element on this one.

Love how unique these are with the backgrounds and the watercolouring of the images using the distress oxides.

I did a panel of white inside the card and just stamped the little flower inside to finish off!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I went back to patterned paper again for todays Christmas in July project with these four cards. I also got out the sewing machine to give a little extra whimsy to the backgrounds.

I chose the papers from the stash and ended up pretty much using it all with just a few scraps leftover.

I paper pieced the jumpers for the bears to match them and added a little shading and extra colour with the Stampin Blends.

I used the sentiments from Waffle flower and then the die cut banners and some leaves to create little clusters.

I used card Candi for the embellishment and then inside each card I also added some of the leftover paper cut into strips.

Each card has its own personality and I also love that some differences can come from the same supplies.

Of course don’t forget you can watch the process over on my YouTube channel.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I finished the challenge and here are the final index cards I did for the last few days of the challenge. I know it’s not actually the end of July yet but I got a few days ahead so I thought I would share them here ahead of my instagram!

By this point I was just totally determined to get as many pieces used up as I could from the bits and bobs box and get rid of anything I would never use so these final cards were heavy on bits from the box and just trying to get something cohesive onto the card.

I also found some very old tub ons that I used just to add some pattern as they weren’t really great quality and so old they didn’t transfer brilliantly.

The final card I went overboard with the stamps as that had been the theme of the cards throughout the whole series.

Really pleased I made it through but won’t lie having this and Christmas in July going at the same time, plus trying to video everything was hard work! But overall great fun to do something creative for most days and to also use up bits I’ve been hoarding for years!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Went a little crazy and made five cards for today’s Christmas in July! I grabbed some gelli prints/ inky backgrounds and these stencils my friend designed and made some fun cards with them!

The black gesso makes the colours pop and those stencils are perfect for simple but effective cards!

Obviously the backgrounds all being made in advance and those die cut sentiments being cut and assembled in advance made this an easy job – and all five were put together in just over thirty minutes!

I videoed the process as per usual so check out my YouTube channel for that!

Having both the mask and the stencil element for the shapes meant it was easy to do both styles of card too.

Great fun to do and so easy to batch make some artsy cards!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Went back to a design of card that I made last year inspired by Liane (@lilly7h on instagram) for todays Christmas in July project.

Loved how this came out using a different floral from last years card.

I embossed the back panel using the same stamp as the main floral and also the script stamp and some splats from Gorgeous Grunge. I then inked the edges with the Rich Razzleberry to give it a subtle difference in colour around the edges.

I then stamped and loosely water coloured the image in watercolour paper and then embossed over the top. I sandwiched some copper thread between the image and the background.

The sentiment is from a new set from Waffleflower and I die cut a few so I could stack them.

I finished the card with some gems on the outside and a panel stamped with the same image and then with some ink blending round the corner.

Loved how this came out – please pop over to YouTube to watch the process video.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

This card went a bit wrong so had to change up the design a little at the end. To see how it evolved please check out the video.

Used the clarity stamps stencil to create the background using the distress inks and pen for finishing. This creates a cute look with the bulbs that look like they glow and a hand doodled string.

Then used the Colorado crafts company for the sentiment.

I stacked the die cut word a few times for dinension and then added the little gems for embellishment.

Nearly there with my challenge and must admit each day gets more difficult but it is also pushing me to use supplies I haven’t in a while like this stencil. I really love it but have not used it in ages so it was good to get something made using it!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Hello!

Another quick round up of the cards I’ve put together the past week…

I stepped up the doodling and also enjoyed some different mediums like the Pitt pens for the past week of #indexcardaday

On the final few days now … just one week left!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Well today’s project was a bit of an epic one … and made the hands very inky!

It also confirmed for me a dislike of working with glitter paper and as much as I love the intensity of Dylusions they are very very messy to play with!

Of course I managed to video the whole process so please check it out.

I ended up with four cards in total although originally I was only going to make one but then I had so much ink left on the desk I inked up another piece of watercolour with that – and then because I chose to use the creative expressions cover panel die I ended up with four sets of backgrounds in total!

I then decided to use the star from the Trimmings and Tidings set and glimmer paper to cut four stars which were very fiddly to get all of the bits out of. It took me ages!

I saved a little time using the die cut sentiments that were already made to finish off and kept it simple with just a bit of ribbon on each rather than going overboard with embellishing!

So four cards made and really it only took about 95 mins which isn’t bad for four – but it took ages to clean up both the desk and my hands to get rid of the Dylusions spray mess! I suspect that even though I’ve cleaned it the desk may still have some blue spray on it!

Ah well – some pretty fun cards made and I love how they finished up!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

So this time the design team theme wasn’t in keeping with the Christmas in July theme so I have two blog posts today with a second one to keep me going with the challenge of a daily festive project all month!

But actually it also made a lovely change to do this for the Addicted to stamps and more challenge – mainly because I’ve loved doing the sewing!

It was also super easy as I had die cut and sewn the pieces ages ago and they were just sitting waiting to be assembled!

I chose a monochrome look with the lilac and purple and then behind the panel I added an embossed panel of white.

This added to the texture of the piece but didn’t detract from the main image and the sewing.

I raised the middle flower onto some scraps of cardstock so it was slightly raised from the rest of the background panel.

I then added the die cut stamped waffle flower sentiment and placed the whole panel onto a square card.

Simple but a special card with all that hand sewing!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Second project of the day because I had to make a non Christmas themed card for the design team – so back with another post so I don’t miss a day on my Christmas in July challenge.

This card was made in three stages … firstly the iridescent paste through the stencil – which I then let dry (for a few weeks because I got poorly and then went away for a few days! Thankful I got ahead on my projects!). Secondly the sewing done in a different session on the sofa not as part of the video! Thirdly assembly!

The card itself is quite simple … the paste creates a fun background with dimension and shimmer. Then a topper of a die cut with additional die cuts on top!

Obviously the sewing is what makes it special.

I chose the Merry Merlot cardstock base for this, then some darker thread for the leaves, some tone on tone for the smaller flowers and then light grey for the flowers with the gold centre.

I then chose the smoky slate for the letters and added some wink of Stella to add some more shine. The letters are also stacked three times for dimension.

Now I have a few of these die cuts already sewn ready to make into cards so expect some more at some point as part of my regular Festive Friday – probably won’t get a chance to use them again before the end of the month … although you never know!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

PS don’t forget to check out my YouTube for a quick process video!