For this design team contribution I actually put the camera on and recorded the process … I wanted to use some stamps and dies that I bought months ago but never got around to using it till now! It’s a very different style from normal for me!
I don’t have many vintage style Christmas products and this stamp set needed to be bought when I saw it on Hobbymaker and Martin was demonstrating it!
I teamed the stamps with the embossed and distressed background, a scrap of fabric and then some champagne splatter.
Not 100% sure that I love the way I placed the holly right at the end but otherwise I love this card!
I decided to join in with Kendra’s Card Challenge back in April as I was starting to feel better – I figured it was an easy thing to do in stages as I felt I had enough energy and could just pick it up as and when. I decided I wanted to use up as much of the Kingston Crafts pet collection bits and pieces as I could so chose six papers and cut them into the different panels and popped each of the pieces into envelopes with the sketch so I could do a card at a time with most bits there ready.
These two are the first two I finished – they were more generic in designs of the papers so I turned them into cat themed birthday cards.
For the first one I added in the little banner element to the bottom and rather than the top little element be a banner it became a square I added a mat to.
The card sketches are designed around American card sizes so I did them as toppers for 5×7 cards instead of the usual card size but think they work nicely with the frame of the white card blank.
I hadn’t really got sentiments in the kit left that worked as birthday type cards and I think they are the more useful types of cards to make when you don’t have a specific purpose to making them so I grabbed the My Favourite Thing stamp set that is based around cats and embossed the Happy Purr-thday sentiment into the navy cardstock.
I added the little gems from the kit to each of the cards and to this one I also added the bow using the coordinating twine.
I added texture to both cards with a wood grain embossing folder.
I have plenty more cards to make from this use of Kendra’s Card Challenge (some of which I have not yet finished!) – so they will be blogged in stages over the next few weeks!
I didn’t do a great job of joining in the swaps last month with being out of action for so much of the month – so I’m starting off quickly this month with my tag for that swap and hopefully will get to do a few other of the swaps soon.
I went with some of the leftover patterned paper from the project at the beginning of the month and covered a large tag I had cut from grey board from old packaging.
I did some outlining of the sections with pen and inked the edge with archival. Then I went for a full rainbow with distress crayons.
I then added the stencilling using white gesso and an Alpaca Pals stencil – plus some splatters of course!. Once dry I added some doodles to the stencilled shapes.
I next added some strips of the spring slimline papers from Kingston Crafts and a scrap of green I die cut using my favourite Hey Little Magpie die.
Next I stamped and embossed the cute MFT images and coloured them with my promarkers. I die cut them out and then die cut them again from scraps to stack them so they are a little more dimensional.
I added them to the tag and then used the Dina Wakely press plates to foil the sentiment and die cut it out with the coordinated die. I just love the foiling – it’s a joy everytime to peel back the foil and see the effect!
To finish off I added the pale yellow gems and the blue and white bakers twine in a double bow.
Such a fun tag and love the rainbow background with the fun patterned paper I transformed with the distress crayons.
I went back to play with the Kingston Crafts Pet collection kit because it is so cute and easy to play with and this time made two cards using some of the packaging as bases for the cards.
These were so quick and easy to put together – I think I spent most of the time cutting the packaging up not making the actual cards because the die cuts work so well and so putting them together equal a quick card!
I added layers of the solid along with the spotty paper from the kit.
I also added sentiments from some pet themed My favourite Things stamp sets as they needed something to finish off!
Inside the cards I added some more bits and bobs to just finish them off!
Cute and simple! I did stick the video on to record the process so please do visit my YouTube channel to see them come together.
Apparently today is also (inter)National scrapbooking day and there will be challenges all over the weekend on lots of the groups I am in – my only issue is I am super busy most of the weekend so probably won’t have much time to join in – but maybe if I can find an hour I might get to play along a little bit. Until then I have a page I prepared ahead of time!
I decided to keep going with those papers off the desk I was scrapping with and made another page.
This time I used a ledger based paper for the background and added some ink using both Worn Lipstick and Walnut Stain distress inks.
I then created a top left cluster and then a larger panel bottom right. This second one became the main part for the photos.
I added in lots of the embellishments from the Feb Hey Little Magpie embellishment kit and then also some perspectives from Bramble Fox kits. I then added some random other embellishments from the stash to create this cute page of my daughter and her best friends.
I think that title says it all about these girls who really are there for each other even when they aren’t physically located near each other.
I loved adding in the scraps of the trim leftover from the kit as little tabs on the page. I also added lots of lovely sequins scattered across the page too.
Really happy with how this page turned out and I love how it worked with the pictures.
Well it is already Friday which means back to my festive Friday projects … and this time I went back to the magazine kit and made some cards using scraps.
I took a large scrap of cardstock and used the little pieces of paper I had leftover to create a little panel which looked like mosaic – on this first one I kept the gap between each piece to make it look like a grout. I then added this to a larger panel of the word based paper and mounted it onto the card blank.
I then kept it simple with a tag from the kit adding some thread for the top of the tag to add texture. The tag I added using foam adhesive for some dimension.
Next try I just totally covered the panel I chose with the rest of the leftovers without the ‘grouting’.
I think I prefer this particular effect (and it was easier to do). Along the edge I then added the two flowers and the sentiment circle element. I wish I had added dimension behind the panel and the flowers but in this case I stuck it down onto the two mats of lilac and purple before adding to the card blank.
I did add in some die cut circles for the flower centres – that added a different texture – but otherwise a very flat card – far from my favourite card but I really liked playing with the scraps to create that background.
I’ve never tried to do anything like this so higgledy piggledy but it was fun to move away from my usual linear style.
I was running behind schedule and wasn’t sure if I would get this made in time – my design team contribution for Creative Knockouts – but managed to finish it last night after work and had to wait until this morning for decent photos as the sun had gone by the time I finished!
Our theme is For the Kids and chose to use the cute little girls tutu image from Patties Creations who are sponsoring the challenge.
I printed it off and watercoloured it using the Concord and 9th ink and then added the clear glitter glue from Kingston Crafts to make it extra sparkly!
I then left it to dry overnight. I then glued another piece of thin card to the back of the image before cutting it out to strengthen it as it was quite flimsy what I had printed on!
Then I took some pink cardstock and decided to create a fun background using the Altenew layered stencil.
I used ink for two of the layers for the flowers and then silver acrylic paint for the leaf elements. I then left the fourth layer off as it was already a busy enough pattern I felt.
Once the paint was dry I added the dress with glue to the front and then added some flat sequins as embellishments where I felt the background had some gaps.
I then took a sentiment that was already stamped and die cut and added that to the front with some adhesive foam.
I then raised the whole panel up on foam too to give even more dimension.
Love this! and considering it was a rushed job at the end of a busy few days at work it was still nice to take a little time to be creative!
Wow May came round so fast – I think because I missed so much of April with being ill – so I went for an easy one this month for my patterned paper project!
I went with the black and white papers of which I only had a few left, and teamed it with a scrap of orange flowers leftover from some scrapbooking and that cute little digital stamp of the girl which was already coloured and cut out ready to go. Then I pulled in scraps of oranges and pinks to stamp on and that striped piece that is one of the panels I made a while ago when playing with scraps of cardstock.
And from these bits and pieces I made …
Just so cute and so easy.
Papers added to the red base panel that is slightly smaller than the card blank in the same colour.
Then the striped panel across and the girl image raised up on foam adhesive for some dimension.
The flowers were MFT stamps which I stamped with versamark and clear embossed and then the flower centres stamped on top with versamark and then added the gold embossing powder.
The flowers are then die cut out and arranged behind the girl top left and bottom right.
I added two tiny flower die cuts that were sat on the desk to the left of the girl and added glittery gold enamel dots to the centres of those and then used one of the Dina Wakely press plate sentiments and dies which I foiled using the glimmer – I am loving the glimmer foiling – at the moment mainly for sentiments but plenty of experimenting now going on for some of the other things I have to play with too! Yesterday I got some goodies delivered I bought on the Spellbinders sale – so expect more foiling adventures at some point soon (craft haul on YouTube if you want to see my splurge!)
Inside I added the final scrap of the orange flower paper and a strip of the black and white to a panel of white.
Love how this card finished up – really not bad for a bunch of scraps! and there is some of my Making Cards magazine paper used up. I have enough of the black and white left to do something with it – and that something is currently in the process of being finished – so you will see it soon! How are you doing with your patterned paper? Is it something you still have a mountain of like me?
Well I managed to meet my challenge for this month – albeit I left it until quite late as only made these on Sunday late afternoon! But I got there!
I challenged myself at the beginning of the year to make at least one card suitable for a male recipient each month and to film the process for my YouTube channel. So check out the process over there!
I gave myself the theme of landscape and because I follow the fabulous Deb Wheeler and her amazing makes with Claritystamps it gave me the idea to dig out the masks and create a landscape and then add some silhouette images to finish off.
I had also found these die cut window shapes in my stash when tidying a few days earlier and thought – oooh I could turn a landscape into the view from the window – so that’s what happened.
I made one landscape on a sheet of cardstock and then two different sky scenes for the two different cards.
This one I added a small amount of foliage to on the left and a flying bird. It was more of a summer daytime scene and the other was more of a sunset with a birdhouse in the scene.
For both cards I chose navy as the card base and did a layered panel (as always inspired by Martin Mayhem designs!). I embossed both with the Timeworn Type 3d embossing folder but this second one I went a bit further and added the foiling too!
I added dimension with some scrap card layers under the window and then some fun foam as a layer between the base and the topper panel.
Both sentiments were foiled too – the first one is a shiny sentiment but the second one I used the satin foil like I had for the sentiment.
I added Night of Navy inking too which helped differentiate the layers from each other and distressed the edge of the topper panel.
I also added three brads to that second card – isn’t it fun to use things like brads when you’ve not even thought of using them for years! I always think they are a good alternative to gems when doing a masculine make!
This was my first use of that Dina Wakely scribble press plate and I love it – albeit I didn’t place it quite right – I imagine this will be something I will grab quite often for backgrounds both as a press plate image and foiled!
So there we go – two more cards for males done and dusted! I love these and it was fun to use really old stash and techniques I’ve not done for a while – I suspect I might keep those masks out for using more often now I’ve refound them!
On Saturday I was at the crop that is local to me run by Sarah at Hey Little Magpie. I was so pleased to feel well enough to go and spend the day being creative and chatting with crafty friends. I also managed five scrapbook pages in total and as I have quite a few Scrapping Saturday posts already ready for the next few weeks I thought instead I would share them with you all in one go! For all of them the starting point was using page kits from Hey Little Magpie – although as per usual I did vary them a little and also two of the pages were scraps from the kits with just an additional coloured cardstock base from my stash – and embellishments from my box (or from the pop up shop I might have bought some stuff from whilst I was there! 🤣)
I started with this page and although I didn’t exactly follow the instructions – it is similar to how the page was designed. I did have to change up the title and a couple of embellishments to make it work with the photo – but it was very close to the original – to the point where friends were wondering what was wrong with me as I’d not gone off piste! 🤣
I loved the faux stitching and the bright colours of the papers – so lovely to use to scrap the photo of us at Chester Zoo on the boat ride in the South East Asia Islands section.
Straight after this page I took the scraps leftover and made this second page – choosing a card pink base.
When I tore the papers the white edge created a nice contrast for the darker background.
This page is unusual for me with all those photos – but having had the smaller photos printed as a collage – I managed to fit 6 photos on the page – along with the all important Take That logo ❤️
It was fun to add in the additional elements like the little flowers and hearts which I bought from the shop plus that Life puffy sticker was perfect for the This Life title – as that was the name of the tour!
Next I moved onto a different page kit and this one I added in stencilling and moved the main page element to the right rather than in the centre.
This meant I had to move some other elements around – but I think the original is still fairly recognisable. I love the textural elements to the page with the seam binding and the ruffled trim (although I had to borrow someone’s tiny attacher as I couldn’t stick the trim down without it – which has made me NEED a tiny attacher!)
I really love the stencilling I added – I thought the mowed lawn distress oxide worked well with the colour in the photo. And I love that cut file title (also makes me want a scan and cut – but that’s definitely not in the budget anytime soon!)
I then moved onto another kit as I didn’t think I had enough scrap from the one above alone to make a page.
This one was very different and I decided to change it up quite a bit. Firstly I made the panels of the paper smaller to give a frame to the page and also more of a gap between them. I also rotated the page.
I loved the bright panels against the black with the distressing and decided the colours worked well with my collage picture of the aurora borealis I took back in October 2024 in my back garden.
The rest of the kit had lots of cut aparts so I took ones that made sense with the picture and created my cluster around the picture and then went to town with embellishments and stickers around the outside. I kept the tag elements similar to the original – but mainly just had fun adding the bits and pieces I had with me. I think this page still needs a proper title but didn’t have anything with me at the time so will have to die cut the letters Northern Lights for my title instead when I get a moment before I put the pages into protectors and an album.
And finally I put scraps from all of the pages to use on this page, choosing the pale pink card as the base.
Again I added stencilling and this time some splatter too – I used both the pink ink for splatter as well as some shimmer spritz in magnolia which I had taken to the crop with me.
There were a lot of cut apart bits although I wasn’t sure I would use many of them so instead the reverse was that lovely blue pattern so I chose to use that as the main backing paper instead.
I know this is a mish mash of different products and designs but I think it still works well and given the photo was of us in a very eclectic designed pizza parlour in Oxford it sort of works with the colours in the photo too.
So a very productive Saturday and I was left from the three page kits with very little in the way of scraps …
… I have kept them though as Rachel challenged me to use them – so I will see what I can come up with for using these bits and bobs and let you see what happens!
And after that mammoth blog post … happy crafting!
Inkyfingeredcat 