Artistic, Banner Year, Biggest Wish, Christmas Greetings, Design Team, Playful Alphabet, Ribbons, Venetian Romance

DT: Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies challenge

Good morning! Time for another design team contribution… this time the Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies challenge.

I decided to make a thank you card for my parents and went for bright and cheery and the gorgeous Artistically Inked dies.

When I bought these I thought I would be using the floral bouquet all the time, but have only used it occasionally so far… so it seemed a good idea to grab it and get it used!

I teamed it with some lovely bright dsp I’ve had in the stash a long time (I used it a few months ago for a birthday card for my friend so I figured I would use some more again now!

And kept it light and easy with white die cutting etc.

I added some twine and gems to embellishments but made the card a little more fun by decorating the front, and the inside with a fold back.

I die cut the YOU from playful Alphabets three times and stacked them to give dimension.

Then added a panel back in of white so I had somewhere to write my message.

I used an strip of the paper leftover to decorate the envelope and one of the remaining leaves for the decoration!

Love how this turned out… I especially like anchoring the die cut in the panel of white… I think that works well.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

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Artist Trading Coins, Banner Year, Biggest Wish

UK stampers forum coin swaps

I decided to use some more of the patterned paper from Making Cards magazine that I had made the cards at the beginning of the month and made these three coins as swaps for UK Stampers forum.

I covered the bases and then heat embossed the Happy from Biggest Wish stamp set.

Next I added the pink strip of card and stamped mail using some alpha stamps.

Then I stamped and cut out the little envelope from Banner Year. I added some wink of Stella and then when dry did some additional doodling to highlight the heart.

Finally I added black to the edge.

Simple but cute coins for this months swap.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Banner Year, Biggest Wish, Design Team, Fancy Phrases, Happy Celebrations, Peace & Joy, Ribbons, Tidings and Trimmings

DT: Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies challenge

Hello! Another month flew by and time for another DT contribution for Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies challenge blog.

This month I went to town stamping on a large tag in the stash and embellished with loads of different sized stars which I die cut from the Trimmings and Tidings bundle.

I added some stamped stars too and then made a title for the tag using a stamp set to make the start and the end of the title embossed onto black and then the Biggest Wish stamp to create the focal word.

Just love how this turned out. Fun to make the patterned paper with all those Happy stamps from the stash.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Banner Year, Inchies and Twinchies

Autumn inchies

Decided to make some inchies when clearing up the desk and I had some scraps of dsp and cardstock.

I grabbed the Banner Year stamps and onto the little 3/4 inch squares I stamped three leaf elements and then stamped the acorns on separate card and fussy cut them.

I decided to use tiny scraps of the Bedazzled speciality paper from Saleabration and also experimented with the edging of the panels and the way I laid them out!

Pretty chuffed with these little pieces of artwork. Sending them over to Sid for the UK stampers forum swap for this month!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Banner Pick a Punch, Banner Year, Festival of Trees, Heartwarming Hugs, Scalloped tag topper, Tree punch

Christmas in July challenge 8

Todays challenge was tags… or was it punches… either way I got it covered!

No really the challenge was to create cards featuring tags… but of course my favourite tag is the Scalloped tag topper punch which creates a tag out of any sized 2″ strip… so I made 8 cards and 4 tags from some patterned paper and some other bits and pieces… including a tree punch I’ve had in the stash for a while!

Oh and don’t forget the banner punch that also got to play lots.

OK first of all 2 pieces of 12×12 from the Heartwarming Hugs had 2 2″ strips cut and then cut at 3″, 4″ and 5″

Then punched with the tag topper punch.

The middle 4 I put aside as tags for on gifts … and then the larger and the smaller I decided to make into cards.

I then raided the cardstock scraps folder and found all these pieces of card that made 6x 3.25 cards so decided to make these up into the card blanks as slightly skinny versions of a6 cards.

I also added other elements such as panels of the dsp or the stitched shape die cuts and some embossing.

All the sentiments were from Banner Year and then the focal images the Festival of Trees which is an oldie but a goodie in terms of fun modern trees. And of course it works with the punch.

I added some gems and then these are done as a slightly different size card that still fits in the usual envelopes. Fun!

I added some more strips and bits of patterned paper to the inside of the cards too.

The tags I added a square die cut behind to be able to write on and added trees, seam binding and the little sentiment cut into strips.

Really love how fun and modern these all look and because I was keeping the design similar it was each to batch make … all the stamping and cutting and punching and die cutting in one go and then they all just got stuck together. Simple! Plus punches are the answer to quick and simple cutting out!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Banner Year, Biggest Wish, Peace & Joy, Ribbons, Stampin Blends alcohol pens, Tim Holtz, Tis the Season

Christmas in July challenge 4

Back again with some more Christmas cards. After all I am currently waiting for the end of the Euros final so I can go and pick the no doubt stress ridden and maybe drunken husband up from his friends where he is watching the game with his friends. So now seems as good a time as any to update my blog.

This time I decided the theme would be to add flowers … not always something you think of when thinking of Christmas cards but I love these stamped images from an old Creative Stamping magazine so went to town and stamped 2 of each image and chose a slightly different colour scheme for each.

I chose some green papers from last years Tis the Season 6×6 dsp pack. I still have a fair amount of this left so really want to use it up so I can feel justified in buying new dsp from the next catalogue!

I decided to do the same fun fold for each card and cut the bases from Crumb Cake and scored at 10.5cm from one end as well and the centre so they can be sealed at the end and then a square element for the opening.

I cut each paper into a square and and a side strip and a small strip for the inside of each card … again keeping the dimensions all the same.

For the Shaded Spruce papers I kept the colour scheme to Real Red and Just Jade colours, and for the Garden Green to Cherry Cobbler and Mossy Meadow colours.

I did lots of die cutting using both Tim Holtz dies and Artistically Inked dies.

I found some red ribbons in the stash to wrap the end part. And the sentiments I chose were from all sorts of different places.

I also used glossy accents to add some shine and dimension in different places.

So happy with these. Love the design of this simple but fun fold to make the cards a little different!

Now come on England… one more goal in the next 8 mins so we can avoid penalties.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Banner Pick a Punch, Banner Year, Heartwarming Hugs, In the Pines, Pine Woods, Ribbons, Scalloped tag topper

More heartwarming hugs and In the Pines cards

Today I have some more cards made using the Heartwarming Hugs dsp and the In the Pines stamps and dies.

These are the cards I made as a starting point for designing the card making class. Some of these made the final cut… but with some different papers in some cases! And others I decided against … still love them, but decided they weren’t the ones for sharing with the group.

Entering this first card into the Tartan and Plaid challenge at The male room

Adding this next one to the Red and Green challenge at Cuttlebug mania

Entering this into the Christmas trees challenge at CRAFTING HAPPINESS

Entering this next one into the anything goes challenge at CRIMBO CRACKERS

Loved playing with these papers, stamps and dies. Think these trees would also look fab with very different colour schemes… like pink and turquoise or black and white or dare I say it… glitter!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Art and crafting styles, Banner Pick a Punch, Banner Year, Heartwarming Hugs, In the Pines, Merry Moose, Pine Woods, Ribbons, Scalloped tag topper, Sheena Douglass Embossing Folders

Heartwarming hugs zoom craftalong

A few days ago I shared the samples I made for the craft along I did with my friends via zoom.

Well as I really don’t enjoy making the same projects over and over, here is what I made…

One card pretty much stayed as per the sample, but the others I either changed the paper (the joy of double sided papers and everything matching perfectly with Stampin Up means you automatically get a different look just turning over the papers!

Some I changed the placement of the elements and some I did switch the embellishment/focal feature from the trees from the In the Pines to a Merry Moose … because I hadn’t used him an few weeks so I missed seeing him! 😂

But I did keep to the same pieces of paper and cardstock as the kit for all the cards and really enjoyed my different take on the cards.

My friends similarly chose their own way of finishing the cards off and some chose to keep the design the same, but different paper choices and others changed up the design entirely. I love seeing the different versions and people having fun being creative.

Really loved creating with these patterned papers… Good job actually as I ordered a whole extra pack of them… so guessing next year for Christmas cards we will be continuing with the red and green colour scheme!

And those In the Pines tree stamps and the coordinating dies will definitely be coming out to play again… so lovely!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Banner Pick a Punch, Banner Year, Heartwarming Hugs, In the Pines, Pine Woods, Ribbons, Scalloped tag topper, Sheena Douglass Embossing Folders

Heartwarming Hugs & In the Pines

Yesterday I held another card making zoom session with my friends… and here are the samples from the class. I wanted to use the In the Pines dies and stamps and decided to go with the fun Heartwarming Hugs dsp.

I used the coordinating cardstock in Real Red, Pear Pizazz and Mossy Meadow. I also added white seam binding, red braided linen trim and some red organza ribbon.

I decided for the class to mix up the style of cards with some easel, z folds and the usual cards. I also mixed it up using both the Scalloped tag topper punch and the Banners Pick a Punch to create some interest.

I added a few sentiments from the Banner Year stamps set too.

Here are the cards…

Card 1:

Card 2:

Card 3:

Card 4:

Card 5:

Card 6:

Card 7:

Card 8:

Loved having fun designing these. Hope the ladies enjoyed the crafting session last night too. I certainly did!

Happy crafting!

Catherine