Inkyfingeredcat

So for today’s Christmas in July theme I knew I wanted to use Arrange a Wreath but to go a little OTT adding to my wreath with other bits and pieces. I also half way through making the cards decided to make one of them a stepped up version of the card which is always fun!

Both are lovely elegant cards the the one to the left with the gold script in the background – yes that’s clearly stepped up!

After stamping all the leaves in lots of colours of green I added ink smooshing it to some scrap cardstock and this is what I die cut the wreaths from, along with two from the foiled cardstock.

I added ribbon to finish off the cluster of leaves at the top of the wreath and added a stamped sentiment which was stamped in one green and edged in another.

The wreaths were both placed on the green card bases I bought for ease during the Christmas in July season – they are a lovely rich dark green.

For the script in the background I used part of an old stamp and stamped it twice before embossing with gold powder.

I finished off both with the red glitter glue berries for a tiny pop of colour amongst the green.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today’s card was really quick and easy for my Christmas in July series over on YouTube – at the time I was tired and also full of hayfever so I kept it simple!

A colour scheme is the theme I chose for today – red, black, gold.

I pulled papers out of the stash along with Spellbinders stickers I had bought in the sale and then the gold laser cut panels from an old Stampin Up kit.

There really isn’t much to say about the card as it really is as simple as cutting the papers, some black card elements and sticking everything down! So it’s a simple process video today!

I used a premade card blank for the base and added in a panel of white and some scraps of the patterned paper on the inside!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Todays theme for Christmas in July was very much out of my comfort zone and I challenged myself even more by using a paper I wasn’t exactly keen on!

But I love the final result. Some inking, some foiling and then those fun Tim Holtz paper dolls.

The foiling is a spellbinders glimmer plate and I thought it worked with the theme!

I am really pleased with the fact I remembered to grab some ribbon before I stuck layers down too as it added a nice bit of texture.

I also added in the glitter gems for the final embellishment. Inside the card I grabbed some of the leftover paper and some ink to finish off. The sentiments are stickers from Tim Holtz and they work perfectly with the vintage theme!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Interrupting the Christmas in July series to bring you a Scrappin Saturday post which is also a Design team post sharing my samples for Kingston Crafts.

Back to my city break album and this time it is York that features. This time I went for a section divider and a double sided page.

I used the 8×4 Flip Its like last time, removing the adhesive and punching holes to add it into the album.

Although we go to York regularly I didn’t have many photos ready printed to add into the album at this stage – so instead I went for two collage photos and then the pics of York Minster for my pages. The good thing about the album though is that I can always add in more pages as and when I get photos printed (or we visit again! 🤣)

I used the stickers and cards from the kit to make the pages fun.

The section header was using the Spring Slimline cardstock which also coordinates perfectly!

Ok will save the next city page for another blog – probably next Saturday!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

One of the ideas I was given for Christmas in July when I asked my YouTube subscribers to put forward their suggestions was tags – so that’s what I made for day four and obviously it’s also my Festive Friday project!

My theme for today was Let It Snow and I immediately thought of the die cut Let It Snow which I had cut quite a few from when I did a die cutting the scraps session. Perfect sized sentiments for the 2” wide tags.

I had a thoroughly lovely 85 mins making these tags! I started with making the masterboard using my distress oxides and then a good amount of the shimmer spritz from Kingston Crafts.

Then I did a lot of stamping and colouring and die cutting using the My Favourite Things Polar bear stamp set. It was lovely just colouring in whilst listening to an audio book. Very relaxing.

The next stage I cut the masterboard into the tags – 2” wide and around 3.75” or 4” long.

I realised then I also needed a white backer for them as the back of the masterboard wasn’t clean so did the same with a separate sheet of white. This also helped to flatten the card which had been a little warped with the water and spritz added.

I then assembled the tags and punched the tops out – a couple didn’t quite cut right but I don’t think it matters they will look fine when added to a gift!

I then used glitter glue to add sparkle and texture to the images – mainly the beard and fluff on santas outfit and the scarf.

I did make the two tree based tags slightly differently adding teal glitter – not as keen on the dotty one but the glittered trees are so cute!

The sentiments work so well and love the different colours which added to the fun of the tags.

I still have some off cuts of the masterboard and the little MFT images left so have popped them to one side to make into something else sometime soon – although probably not until after Christmas in July is finished!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

This was actually the first of the Christmas in July projects I started because I knew I had my design team project to make for the Christmas in July theme for Creative Knockouts. I chose to use the Cocoa Christmas digital stamp image from Polkadoodles and printed it out four times.

I know people like ideas of how to mass produce cards and colouring more than one image at once by doing the same elements for each image at at time is so much easier than colouring each image from start to finish. I think it reduces the thinking as you literally choose the colour and the way of colouring it once and then at the end you have multiple images ready to use. This is my first tip for mass producing – do things in stages.

The next tip I have for mass producing is to keep the background simple – in this case I took two pieces of 6×12 patterned papers – cut them into 5.5” square panels and then used the offcuts to add as little design elements.

As we know I don’t like doing the same over and over again so by using double sided patterned papers that coordinate I got four different looks but still could easily mass produce. So that’s my tip number three – use coordinating products to keep things as simple as possible!

My fourth tip would be to make your life really easy and premake sentiments – but I actually veered off on the make of these because I decided to foil the sentiments and fussy cut them out one at a time – so do as I say and not what I did and batch make the sentiments ready to grab and go.

Finally my tip would be to assemble as a stage in the making. Again I did not quite do this (partly as my desk was a mess and I didn’t have enough room to pile things up without them getting involved in a crafterlanche!).

So in summary – mass producing is best done by batch making each stage and coordinating products like the patterned papers really helps if you want to make it easy to pull together supplies with little decision making! It also helps if you keep your design simple – although there always ways to even step up simple designs … adding layers or extra elements like glitter glue – but in this case I decided these were done as they were – and so cute!

So there we have it four cards made in around and hour and a quarter including the colouring of the images and foiling and fussy cutting the sentiments.

Love them too – and have to say that image is just so cute!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Day two in my Christmas in July 2025 challenge and this is also my design team contribution for the Make your Mark challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More.

I decided for today to do a sketch …

Please feel free to use the sketch and let me know if you share your make so I can come and see it 😀

I went very bold and bright card inspired by my sketch and as I had the poinsettia stamps from waffle flower in mind when I started with the sketch it came together quite easily.

Originally I thought that the panel under the floral element I would be done with ink blending but instead I decided to add some foiling using the Dina Wakely press plate. I love this!

I kept the sentiment easy by using one that was already stamped and die cut and stacked. I added a label underneath. The green didn’t quite go with the green of the stamping – and so I then decided to mount the red panel with the darker green cardstock – when I did this it helped that there were three different greens.

I then added the glittery gems to finish off!

Love this card – so rich and modern with the traditional colours and that pop of gold.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Here we go – strap in everyone – we have got a busy month ahead of us as I attempt 31 days of Christmas projects and a video each day over on my YouTube channel!

As it’s the first of the month it’s patterned paper time and I grabbed a couple of pages from the magazine kit in my stash and made four card fronts.

I also have chosen a theme for today – Oh Christmas Tree – so I went a bit mad with my first day for Christmas in July and chose two different tree dies for the topper.

I love the frames using the waffle flower dies with the texture in it.

Also how cute that paper is!

I teamed the green trees with the wine red dies and then also created the card blanks from the same wine red cardstock.

For the stitching dies I only did the sewing on one of them … I ran out of time and energy.

For the one I didn’t sew I added some dots of white in the holes using a gel pen to add some decoration.

So four cards to kick off the month! Hope you like them.

I can’t believe I made them so difficult with all the different configurations for the first one! Let’s hope I can simplify for some of them or I have definitely bitten off more than I can chew!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Earlier tonight I showed a shaker card I made with the flip its – well I didn’t stop at one and made a second one! This time slightly easier as I didn’t have to worry about the mechanism being seen as I didn’t make it into a ‘see through’ card.

So this really is such a simple thing to do (5 steps!) and no messing around with trying to get foam adhesive to go round corners or anything. And because it is quite flat it doesn’t mean you have a really bulky card that doesn’t fit in the envelope.

Step one – die cut a shape from your top layer – in my case the fabric rainbow patterned paper!

Step two – Add sequins or shaker bits into the flip it.

Step three – Use the adhesive to adhere the flip it to the back of the die cut layer so the shaker elements can be seen through the aperture.

Step four – Grab some redline tape or double side tape and seal the flap on the flip it so the sequins are sealed.

Step five – Adhere the panel to your card blank and then you can decorate.

I learnt my lesson from last time and reduced the amount of sequins in the shaker so it is a little slimmer – but still packs a lot of fun with the movement and the shine.

Like last time I used the die cut and stickers from the Rainbow kit to finish off the front of the card – such a fun kit.

But when shakers are this easy I might have a new obsession for making shaker cards about to start – I’ve got so many sequins and little beads and things I never think to use – I suspect they might get grabbed quite often now to make some more fun shaker cards.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I will be sharing on some of my city break Everyday Stories posts Flip Its in their normal use – to add to memory keeping projects to add in the extra photos – but I did make something very different with the flip its too – a shaker card!

It was so easy to make a flatter shaker card than using adhesive foam and yet I may have gone a little overboard with the sequins to make it extra special!

All I did was die cut the aperture in the front of the card blank and a coordinating one for the inside of the card – not necessary if you done mind seeing the adhesive element or the pattern on the card blank isn’t directional (mine had upside down rainbows and looked weird so I did add the cloud inserts!).

Then I filled the flip I with the sequins and used the adhesive to stick it in place over the aperture on the inside.

I then used red line tape to glue the pocket shut – I think red line tape is probably your best bet for this as it’s so secure.

Next I added the insert to cover the inside mechanism – and then it is done – just needed the decoration on the front.

For this one I did use the Kingston Crafts rainbow kit for both the cardstock making the card and the embellishments I added – like the sentiment and the paper windmills and the bunting across the aperture.

I added two further sequins to the outside to tie in with the shaker sequins.

Super cute! And a fun and easy way to use any extra flip its you have – or to make less chunky than the norm shaker cards.

And this is one of those projects I can say ‘as seen on tv’ because yes Martin showed it on the show last Friday – and he also demoed a different way of creating a shaker card which I can’t wait to try!

Happy crafting!

Catherine