Category: Art and crafting styles

Yesterday I shared the first card I made using two focal points I had created inspired by these cards I watched Amy create on YouTube.

Now it’s the turn of the second card. This time I went to town with colourful stamping on some cardstock to create my own background paper. I used the same colour distress inks but sometimes stamped them off so lots of different shades. I also added in the Hickory Smoke too for a subtle grey.

I mat this panel on to block cardstock. I then used some of the same black and created a panel I ran through the big shot with the Old paper embossing folder. I then used the shimmer paint and brayered it over the texture so just pick up a bit of the shimmer on the raised elements. I placed this onto the panel to be a contrast for the focal element to sit on.

I then created the sentiment using the Waffleflower stamps and dies and die cut it a few times to stack up. I love the white sentiment on black.

I finished off with the blue gems in different colours and sizes to add that bit of bling!

Pleased with how both cards ended up – and it was fun to try a different technique for creating a rainbow with a difference … still want to have a go at a floral image like Amy did but for now this was fun to do and good to make me move away from Altenew florals if only for a short while!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

The cards I will share today and tomorrow I made because I was inspired by these cards that Amy R made using an interesting way of getting the rainbow effect. I didn’t however choose to go floral as I had been maybe overdoing it with flower cards recently and so went stash shopping in my older stash and found a Paperartsy stamp I thought would work well for giving it a go!

I heat embossed the tiled image using white embossing onto mixed media cardstock. I did it twice because why not!

Then I ink blended using Fossilised amber, picked raspberry, mermaid lagoon and then used a water brush and the inks smooshed on the glass mat to colour them in. The technique of blending first makes the blending more organic and less structured to create the rainbow colours … although on one of my panels I did blend in stripes rather than patches just to make them different.

Once embossed and coloured I then trimmed them down and edged them with the Hickory smoke to create a subtle border.

Then I had to decide what to do with them.

Amy had gone for a grey stencilled background for her flowers so I decided to go grey for the first one but used a stencil to create the squares. I then stamped some of the other stamps in the same set to create a grungy background. I added some splattered Hickory Smoke and Black Soot too… and then grabbed some sparkly black paint and splattered that too! After all it isn’t an Amy card without some splatter!

I decided to add a birthday sentiment on this and stamped and die cut the Waffleflower one from my newer stash and added a scrap of black ribbon behind it to add a bit of texture.

I then hunted through the gems to find three different coloured ones (my gem stash is rather depleted and needs replenishing soon so had little choice) and added those!

That was card 1.

Will share how I finished card 2 tomorrow for you.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

PS thank you Amy for the inspiration!

My lovely and talented friend Helen is celebrating surpassing her 500 subscriber milestone over at YouTube so I joined her with making a page with a few instructions.

• Use tags
• White background
• Stitching
• 2 or more pictures
• Mixed media / doodling

So here is what I made …

I videoed the process and have that up on my YouTube channel.

I used the kit I got from Hey Little Magpie at the crop last weekend and had lots of fun playing putting this together!

Some distress oxide playing on the background and lots of sewing around the edges.

Love the little tags and those cute flower die cuts too!

Hope you like what I did and also go support Helen with her celebration!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today’s card is a use up the scraps on the desk card … just because that’s what needed to happen and it’s pretty much all I had time for to create this! Plus I have a thing about adding strips of patterned paper to cards at the moment!

The strips were cut ages ago for a different festive Friday project and just sat there … so I put them together to show stripes of each side of the paper and then cut a panel that would work on a card front… with an angled finish. To be honest if I had thought it through I would have adhered them the other side up so the angle was the other way as that works better in my eyes but sometimes that’s not how it goes!

I then created a little focal topper from a stamped image and then added the little snowflakes and unfortunately when I created the mat from the red I got a spot of red on the topper so decided to go for a blended ink finish.

It’s not perfect but it’s still cute!

I added some die cuts from the stash underneath to create a cluster look to the focal point and then an embossed sentiment to finish off.

I say finish off but I then decided to add glossy accents to the centre of the snowflakes … not sure it adds much but some days you just end up doing these things.

So my project is done. I feel good for making use of the scraps but I won’t lie it’s not my favourite card I’ve ever made. Sometimes it just goes that way and I’ve learnt the point of me crafting is sometimes just the doing not the final product! And I still think it’s ok… just not one of my favourites!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

So I had a very lovely few hours making lots of backgrounds whilst watching Tim Holtz on YouTube – I just played with distress inks and distress oxides and made lots of backgrounds as works in progress for me to grab as and when I fancy to make cards from.

Well I grabbed this one and started transforming it just by playing and grabbing stuff … no plan to start with and certainly wouldn’t have guessed where it ended up!

So I can see blues and greens and stencilling in there and I’m guessing a mix of oxide and ink but who knows? I think I used most of the colours in my collections during the play just grabbing them randomly!

So I started by grabbing a stampin write marker and adding definition to the leaf stencilling.

But then I was less keen on it … so needed a way to cover it up! out came the zero waste leaf die from Altenew and white cardstock.

Hmmm … still not happy .., but then I spotted a pouch of cut apart dsp that I refound whilst tidying the other day and put it on the desk to get it used… and hey presto a card came together!

Most of the background is covered but it is still visible in some spots and the colours went well with the greens of the leaves and the contrast of the red.

And I used up lots of the dsp left including all the cut apart pieces so I was very happy to put it to good use in a way that surprised me!

Added two gems from the stash and also a sentiment I had die cut and stacked (Waffleflower).

Creative fun!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I say this is the final set because this is where I got to … but doesn’t mean I won’t make more as making these quick and easy little projects using up stash and scraps is so much fun!

These ones I grabbed pre coloured digital images and fussy cut them out as the focal images. I also added these black chalkboard type stickers I found in the stash!

What has made these projects so easy too is the sentiments … I just stamped lots of the sentiments in one session and embossed them and die cut them and stacked them … all from my scraps and have them sitting there ready to use. In this case silver embossed the Waffleflower ones!

And then one more with scraps of the scraps all made into a little collage …

Then the stamped image and the sentiment … in this case I also added some staples to add to the collage effect!

Normal cardmaking projects to resume tomorrow – but I did enjoy playing with scraps and much loved old dsp to make these little notecards!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Following on from yesterdays I got in the zone and made more little notecards from old dsp …

Some I added die cut flowers which I cut from scraps of cardstock and then added the sentiment…

Others I added the little stamped image I coloured with ink and water…

I also added a little stamping to the panel of grid dsp on these.

I kept going just using up the dsp I couldn’t bear to throw out but knew I needed to not hoard any longer!

This final one for today was simple.

Throughout these projects I’ve been refusing to use anything but scraps and managed to almost clear out the little pouch of small scraps to make them. impressed with myself!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I’ve been trying to have a big clear out in my craft room and came across a box that had offcuts of dsp in that I love so didn’t want to just throw away but I knew I need to start being ruthless with them. As I am currently selling some of my stamps and dies I decided to make some cute little thank you cards from them to enclose when I sell something … this way I’m putting them to use but not hoarding them for projects yet to be determined which may never happen!

These six I used My Favorite Things stamps of the cats and dogs to give them a similar theme!

I added strips of other dsp or bits of cardstock that were in the scraps pouch.

They were simple to put together and inside each I added the white cardstock as a panel to write on.

I also made these two just from bits and pieces I had to hand already coloured…

A simple but satisfying few pieces used up … now really need to get back to being ruthless and tidy up!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Yesterday I had a lovely crafty day with my friends at a crop in Warrington. It has been ages since I’ve crafted with friends and years since it was in person outside of my house! So I packed lots and lots of projects and things to play with. Some of the things I made I will share as and when I get a chance to blog but had to share this one today.

After doing some other projects I had these tiny scraps of patterned paper and part of a flower left but was struggling to throw them away … so Helen challenged me to make a card from them. She also helped choose the background panel from the stash of recently made ones I had packed for the crop.

I added some stamping to the background with an old Craft Stamper magazine stamp and distress oxide and then edged the panel.

I also used a grey pen to edge the pieces of patterned paper. I also found some white die cut leaves in the stash I had taken to finish off the flower.

I then added the sentiment to the cluster. I added a panel of white to back the patterned paper.

When I got home I finished the card adding it to the card blank and then added some gems to finish off.

All in all I made quite a few card panels ready for mounting onto cards and finishing off with gems etc. I also made a few backgrounds and quite a lot of mini notelets … oh and I chatted lots, met new friends, ate yummy brownies and had a thoroughly lovely day!

Today we are celebrating Easter Sunday as we had to write off last week due to illness – so off to my parents for a yummy lunch and some fun! May get a chance to craft later but depends on the energy levels as still not up to 100% yet so will see how I get on!

Good times!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

On Tuesday I discovered some paints had dried up so in a bid to make sure my paints were ok and get rid of those that weren’t I had some fun gelli printing! After all part of the fun of decluttering and tidying is playing with what you find along the way!

Well I may have got rather distracted with the playing…

Well once I had cleared away the paints and trimmed the papers I had made I grabbed the top one … the one with the leaves at the sides and decided to get something made with it!

I first added some more green to the edge using Mowed lawn distress oxide and then splattered with the same.

Then I grabbed old dsp that that I had cut up and layered all the flowers around the panel and adhered them down.

This totally changed up the panel and made it more vintage rather than grungy I think.

I wrapped some green ribbon round the panel with a little bow to one side and then picked out some scraps of text paper and a little bit of leftover dsp (this is reverse of the floral side) and inked up the edge and layered them up over the ribbon.

Then I added the sentiment that was embossed and die cut.

I mounted the panel on cream and then Merry Merlot. I also added some gems that coordinated.

Love how this came together and really pleased with all the gelli prints I’ve got to play with! Plus one whole box cleared out with paints that had gone off which is frustrating and satisfying in equal measure!

Happy crafting!

Catherine