Inkyfingeredcat

Hello – nearly there – gosh it has been a busy month but I do think I still love Christmas crafting so hopefully I will not be put off doing more festive makes for the rest of the year – but maybe not all will be videos and definitely not everyday! 🤣

So today’s Christmas in July theme is Christmas Post and I knew immediately that I wanted to use the stamp stamp from Carrabelle stamps (sadly a company that no longer exists) and to create my own little festive postage stamps!

I stamped five out, plus one onto post it notes so I could cut out the centre and mask off the edge of the stamp before stamping the images.

I then chose to use some very old magazine kit stamps to create the images and then my promarkers to colour them. I also added the cancellation stamp from the set to make them look more like stamps.

I chose to add a layer of embossed card on the card base, raised with foam. And then added the dark green panel as a base for the stamps.

I did the easy option of just cutting the stamps into straight lines – if you really wanted to go the extra mile you could fussy cut the bobbly edge but I don’t think it is necessary for this kind of design.

I added the sentiment from the Waffle flower set and then added some sparkly silver gems.

Really love using the little stamp to create little scenes and you could absolutely do this card over and over again but using different images to create the scenes … to be honest if I had the time (or needed to make more cards) I would absolutely stamp more stamps and create more of this kind of card but with different themes – I’m thinking using the cute people stamps or snowmen or the MfT stamps with the moose or the polar bears you’ve seen on other makes this month – but I don’t have time at the moment – so will just think about it and maybe revisit those ideas as part of my Festive Friday blog posts which of course will continue after July!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Fun folds are not my normal go to thing to do but someone had asked for me to do a fun fold when I asked for ideas for Christmas in July – so I did it!

I made a swing fold card which my lovely friend Valerie taught me to make! Apologies that my video tutorial isn’t excellent – but hopefully gives you a bit of an idea on how to make it!

I decided to decorate it with patterned papers and then the Woodware silhouette stamp of the deer.

I also added some of the puffy stickers from the spellbinders set.

Loved how this looked!

I will admit this was the third attempt at this card in this session … I made a practice card off camera that worked great … that will be on my blog sometime soon but as it isn’t Christmas themed not this month!

I then attempted this on camera and it went wrong so from the failed attempt I then made this card as a bonus!

I used the same papers and some leftover bits and then the puffy stickers to finish off!

Thanks for persevering with my fun fold experience!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Hello! Nearly there with this years Christmas in July and today’s project is based on this sketch. I hadn’t done many DL cards this time so I concentrated on this shape and also as I hadn’t got around to doing a tag for this month for the UK Stampers Forum this was in tribute to that.

I then chose to interpret the sketch two ways …

I started with inking and then stamping for this one … I added the red using alcohol makers and then over stamped the image again which I then embossed with the gold. I edged the tag with the gold embossing too.

I added a panel of the foiled scrap too and then the sentiment from the same Altenew set as the floral image.

I raised the tag on foam to give some dimension which I think just makes the card more special.

The second one I chose to use patterned paper to create the corner elements and then I used leftover bits of the paper to fussy cut some foliage elements for under the sentiment banner, I then added some doodled elements.

I used some waxed thread for the bow to finish off the tags – and then decided these were done!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Started week eight with a scene inspired by the Art by Marlene beach hut I stamped … plus it reminded me of the holiday and I needed that!

Went for total pattern for day 51 – the circles were stamped but then went doodle all the way! Really love this! Again I am back to fabric designing! What a fun skirt this would make!

Went back to my collection of Darcy stamps for day 52 – isn’t this a cutie? then kept the doodling simple as really wanted the image to pop – so plenty of white space – unusual!

Next up I used this splodgy circle stamp to stamp randomly to the card and then did a simple background design.

On Thursday I went very simple with the stamped trees and then a doodled border. Just didn’t think it needed much!

Friday I took this postage stamp stamp and made some fun doodles sitting in the frame and then shaded around the stamps and gave it a grey background … I love this one ❤️

Saturday I was busy making the final Christmas in July projects and completely forgot until late to do my card … but got to it just before I headed to bed…

Stamped feathers and a lined background with some subtle green shaded colouring.

Heading into the final few days now … just five more cards to do to complete the 2025 series – very happy with what I made this year and the fact I kept it simple and a total contrast to last years collages with the postage stamps and circles as the themes. This year has been a real change of pace – and simple is exactly what I needed alongside the Christmas in July challenge!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today I went very inky and had lots of fun with distress oxides to create these four cards for the theme of sparkling snowflakes.

The card designs are actually quite simple because I put all the effort into the background panels.

I started with smooshing the distress oxides and then added stamping, stencilling, splattering and then finally I embossed them.

I then stamped and embossed the sentiment four times. I also created a coordinating colour base for the mat for the sentiment using the oxides.

I raised the sentiment up before I stuck it down – this gave it a little dimension above the textured background.

I then die cut the snowflakes from glitter cardstock and added them.

I did vary the composition for each one – and of course the card bases I made out of two different colours of cardstock.

Quite a bright set of pretty cards!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Last weekend I went to the Warrington crop hosted by Hey Little Magpie and having bought three page kits designed by Sarah I mainly worked on them and then created a couple of pages using the scraps from the kits with two sheets of 12×12 added plus embellishments I took with me! The lovely Gwen is our official photographer on the crop days and I love this one she captured of me showing off my productivity!

Here are the three page kits I made for today’s Scrappin Saturday post!

I started with this one … I changed the title up a little and also added in sequins and some extra embellishments from my stash (pretty sure they were Hey Little Magpie embellishment kits).

Love the dark navy background and the pretty pastels – such a gorgeous page to put together.

Next up was this super bright page and again I added some sequins and some stickers from the stash along with some extra twine to add to the sticker bulldog clip.

Love the background paper on this – so cool! Makes for a fun modern page.

This third one is a really unusual one for me as rarely include more than one or two photos and instead managed 8! Albeit it is the same scene but all different poses/expressions – there were at least another four photos I could have added because we really did take a lot!

I had to slightly amend the sketch as my panel of photos was so wide but love the bright colours of the panel and those lovely modern floral cluster stickers.

I added more twine to this but otherwise kept to the kit I was given a little better!

Will share the two ‘’made from scraps’ pages sometime soon – but have to say a big thank you to Sarah at Hey Little Magpie for designing such gorgeous pages once again – it makes it so easy to be productive with very little effort when I go to crops!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today’s theme was ‘give the gifts’ and I made a series of tags concentrating on using up scraps and then creating little clusters of presents for the focal element. This actually took a while with all the embossing but loved putting them together!

I created a range of size of tags using scraps to create striped panels and then either embossed or foiled the panels with gold colours (I did use copper for one) to make the striped panels more cohesive.

Then I stamped on scraps of white all the parcels in different colours and then added the decorative elements using gold embossing.

I fussy cut them all out and then added them to the tags.

A fun set of tags and all made using up scraps! Result!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

So today’s Christmas in July I went with traditional colour scheme of red gold green but decided to go for a modern look rather than a traditional look!

I started with the cover plate die from Altenew which isn’t specific for Christmas and cut it from white and then cut it from scraps of the Kingston foiled cardstock to create a mix of green and gold in the background. I didn’t need to cover it all as it turns out as I chose a big panel for the focal element and so could have saved some time and cardstock just doing the outside but I didn’t know it when I was doing that part!

Once that was all done I decided to use the Waffle flower layered stencil that creates the fab words with the coordinating die. After stencilling I die cut it out and then die cut it a few more times to stack them up so they are nice and chunky words.

I decided I needed the base panel of the red to separate it from the background and using the negative die cut I got the spacing correct (although a little wonky on the panel so decided to lay it wonky on purpose on the card to disguise the ooops!)

I added some scrap card behind the red panel to raise it up so that also gave some dimension.

I decided it needed an image so I went with the small poinsettia from spellbinders that I embossed in gold and then used the same colour of inks but water colored them to colour in the image.

I fussy cut the two floral elements and used foam adhesive to stick them in place.

I finished off with tying the twine around the top of the card (I had a moment of channeling Catherine Pooler who used to use twine like this a lot on her cards).

And then with the shiny background, the fun large words and the sweet little flowers I decided it was done!

So a modern take on traditional colours – what do you think? I think it works well!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I went back to the Kendra’s card challenge and made card 8 for today’s Christmas in July card. It was a case of really enjoying and slowing down whilst making this card – which sometimes we need and it is what the crafting is about!

I used the fab Dimond Press stamp and die set I bought a while ago and hadn’t really used much – such a lovely vintage feel!

I coloured the image with alcohol markers and then added the shimmer ink for the details on the sleigh.

I also splattered the shimmer ink at the end.

The sentiment is from the same set of stamps – I embossed it on the red and then fussy cut it out.

I embossed one of the layers (the brown) with Timeworn Type and then added some additional ink to show the detail.

Love how this came out and how cute it is even with the vintage theme!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

For today’s Christmas in July I created another sketch …

… please feel free to use as you wish … but I would love to see what you do with it if you do so please tag me on Instagram or better yet pop over to the Christmas in July Facebook group and share it there so we can all get inspired!

Here are my makes with the sketch …

I used my last pieces of the Painted Christmas suite (I think I have enough cut off these for a couple of tags if I am lucky) for the large background banners and then stamped the foliage and die cut it. I added the sentiment label/ banner from the same green as the mat for the background.

It’s difficult to see on the photo but I did add a layer of vellum under the foliage cluster and the sentiment banner to add some separation – it’s clearer in real life I think and helps.

I added the script delicate die cut words – I thought they worked well against the bold green die cut.

I added some ribbon bows just to add some more texture and then called it done!

I just loved working with this paper over the years – sad this is the last large pieces left – but maybe that means I am allowed to buy new patterned paper soon as the stash is now severely depleted!

Hmmmm …. We will see!

Happy crafting!

Catherine