Inkyfingeredcat

It’s the beginning of the month so it’s patterned paper play … and as the weather is telling us it is very much autumn I grabbed the Scenic Pumpkin Patch stamps again to make these cards using old Making Cards magazine papers for some cute autumnal themed cards.

I did stick the camera on to record so if you fancy watching them get made please check out my YouTube channel.

This one is so bright and cheerful but clearly still autumn themed with the pumpkins and the leaves on the paper. I was struggling with this one a little until I brought in the yellow and then I was happier with the combo.

I did some sewing on both cards – just fancied adding a little hand sewn element on each.

I also added card Candi to both with the dotty Candi which I thought was cute.

I used stitched framelits for both cards – particularly liked choosing the ovals for this – not a shape I use often – so it makes a nice change.

On this one I inked the edge of the base cardstock for both the background and the die cut topper element in green which was a nice contrast to the orange elements on the papers and pumpkin images.

I also chose to create a scene for the focal point.

For both cards I used a sentiment from the Beautiful Flowers SSS set which I just love as it’s simple but classy!

Love my cute little autumnal cards – they were good fun to make and nice to get some more of that old paper used up!

Also confession time – I made these a few weeks ago and thankful I did because it has been crazy busy recently and not managing to get to finish projects recently!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Hello! Today I’ve got a video showing the process for making these notecards up on my YouTube channel …

I made three notecards using the Altenew Be Strong stamp and die set focusing on those cute little cactus and the light strings and using up scraps of card and patterned paper.

Whilst this first one is slightly more traditional with the stamping on white and colouring with the stampin blends to create both the focal images and then the plain panel I created in the background of the string lights…

… I also stamped and coloured the images on the coloured cardstock too which I used for cards two and three.

The base colour changes the colouring of the alcohol blends but still looks fabulous and you can still get variation in the colouring to give the impression of depth/shape.

I added different pieces of scrap patterned paper to each card along with other pieces of leftover cardstock from other projects.

Love how cute they all are.

Really love in particular though the first one with that sentiment cluster and the bigger panel of the stamped background.

Wish the stamping on the sentiment was a little cleaner but sometimes these things happen!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Well that has been a week of crazy busy and I really didn’t manage to get much finished in my crafting (plenty of bits in progress but nothing finished to share) but fortunately before the week had started I had managed to get the Festive Friday ready!

I went back to the Waffleflower pointsettia background but used it totally differently this time and combined it with those fab overlapping Christmas words stencils and dies.

This project was definitely a bit messy with both the texture paste and the ink all over my fingers – it meant I spent a fair amount of time cleaning up!

I did make a video of the process (but cut out most of the cleaning!) so check that out!

I used two pieces of purple cardstock to make the panels and inked both with Rich Razzleberry – one of them I went heavy with the ink, the other lighter just using the ink on the stencil and the brush.

For both I added the second stencil layer using iridescent texture paste – on the first I kept it as is, on the second I tinted it pink with some shimmer ink to keep the colour sparkly!

I then used pinks and purples for the words (this took two attempts as I messed up the first with a shifting stencil and inky fingers!)

I added some sparkly ribbon across the panel and then added the words and the stars to the fronts – one landscape and one portrait.

Added these toppers to the front of 5×7 card blanks and kept it simple as they really are so patterned and textured already with that background and the bold words!

Love how they came together (even if they did take a lot of cleaning up to make them!)

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Sometimes you just want to add ink through a stencil and make an easy card … this was what this was!

Yesterday evening, after a trip to Manchester to see my daughter I wanted to craft but wasn’t sure what to make … well I started by using some new to me slimline rectangle dies and cut out a panel of white and a frame of black. But then wasn’t sure what to do with it until I remembered this fabulous large 12×12 stencil and decided it was perfect for this shape of card to just do a section of the stencil.

I inked through the stencil with distress inks (fossilized amber, spiced marmalade and fired brick and love the gradient of colour across the image.

I kept the card itself really simple addigg no the black frame which I stacked three times for dimension.

I felt like the sentiment needed grounding so I also cut another two strips using the smallest of the slimline dies, stacked them and added them in the left hand side to the top. I felt this helped in giving the sentiment a home.

I then added the black card candi to embellish as I thought that helped tie in all the black frame and strips too.

So a simple but effective card that satisfied my urge to be creative.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I made some simple cards using up painty backgrounds and the fabulous Eclectic Bouquet set from Altenew.

I kept the layers down but made it a little different with the partial die cut edge.

I kept the backgrounds the same with the petal pink cardstock as the card base.

I heat embossed onto the painty background and then die cut. I also did a run of the embossing folder too to add to the texture.

I added the petal pink thread for the ribbons and to add a different texture and then added the sentiments and gems to finish off.

Love how the painty backgrounds gives the cool and funky finish to the cards – certainly adds interest!

I did video the process for these too – so check this out to see more!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I went back to the Spellbinders stamp that I used last Friday and the leftover speciality cardstock to make this card for this weeks Festive Friday.

I decided to just use the edge of the stamped panel to add to the bottom of the card. I edged it with the same stampin blend pen I used to colour the main floral image and a fine black pen to define the edge – this makes it look more like a mat layer.

I love all the little elements in this stamp image and it’s a pretty easy image to colour.

I decided to add the Waffleflower sentiment that was embossed on the dark claret colour cardstock and then some silver gems so they coordinated.

I also coloured the thread to coordinate with the same alcohol marker.

A simple card but that background of the cardstock helps make it something special along with the angled panel.

Really happy with this card.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today’s challenge at Addicted to stamps and more is Christmas so I made another card for my festive stash …

I grabbed a stamp and die set I bought a while ago from Spellbinders to play with it. Unfortunately it doesn’t stamp as well as I would have hoped – it’s like the stamp isn’t flat – but after much fiddling I managed to get an impression that’s good enough to use. And this is the card I made…

I die cut the stamped panel several times and stacked it up with a middle layer using the stencil waste so that there was some dimension behind that panel.

I added the sentiment from waffleflower in the middle of the stencil waste panel and then some gems to the stamped image and a bow.

I added it to a red card blank to make it even more festive as the black and white stamping was quite stark.

Quite a modern card and I like it – just need to fiddle with the stamp for next time I use it to get a better impression and then can change up the colours or even try embossing!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Told you I had more things made with the Big World stamps and dies … here you go!

I grabbed the Big World stamps and dies and some Making Cards magazine papers to make some coordinating notecards to give to my daughters friends as they all embark on new adventures post college.

I popped the camera on to record the process so please pop over to my YouTube channel to see that.

Of course I didn’t really have a plan as such – just to make some notecards using these supplies. I started by stamping six world images but when I went to make two into globes the die cutting went wonky so I only ended up with five focal images so have put the other background panel I had made to one side for another project.

I added black waxed string and the card Candi to each card as embellishment.

I mounted each card topper onto either blue or green card bases.

I did end swapping out the sentiment on one card because I lost the one I stamped and cut out somewhere along the way!

Inside the cards I used the mini atlas stamp and then leftover scraps of the patterned paper.

But the one I like the most is definitely the one where I made up the globe.

Definitely need to be careful die cutting the stamped image so you don’t offset it by accident – but that globe is just so cool!

Love it!

So five cards in total and it took about 90 mins to do which I don’t think is too bad!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary (17 years!) but our focus was on moving our daughter into her university accommodation so not exactly romantic! So we decided to pause and celebrate a little late – in fact we won’t be celebrating until next week! However rather than pause the blog I’m doing it today as he doesn’t read my blog anyway!

Because I’ve been very focussed on the big move I didn’t get round to making the anniversary card until Friday night – hence the bad light for the photos!

Anyway the card I made was fun to do and turned out quite well!

I used the Altenew Big World stamps and dies I’ve been loving using recently (some more projects coming up on the blog in a few days) and I made an interactive card.

I decided the world would be a perfect stamp to make a spinner card. I saw Jennifer Maguire make one recently on a live she did with Kristina Werner (whose new line of stamps, stencils and dies I adore and am longing to buy but can’t quite justify the spend at the moment!) and really wanted to have a go at it!

I added a bit of stencilling for framing the world and also a little extra stamping with the little hearts and the anniversary sentiment.

I added a panel to the inside with the same stencilling too and some more of the stamped hearts.

The world stamp is so great as it has two different views so makes it perfect for this spinner!

I loved making the card and I know that with the world stamp it is perfect for my hubby as he loves globes so even though I didn’t use the globe element to the set I know the interactivity will amuse him!

I did do a few things slightly wrong making it (the string isn’t quite central to the hole in the card for example and you can see one of the black stamped hearts through the hole by accidentally stamping too far to the left) so look forward to trying it again with other elements as a fun different card to make!

So happy anniversary to me and him – especially as we have become empty nesters and start the next phase of our lives together!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today’s Festive Friday was my first make using the Spellbinders stamp set I got in the sale a while ago.

I kept the card so simple with the image stamped twice and coloured with alcohol panes and then the sentiment stamped onto the same panel.

I did add the little stitched type lines with a pen as I felt like it needed something to connect the two stamped images.

I added this to a card blank I made from some speciality cardstock I found which has embossed music paper design on it.

I added a panel for the inside in white and then some gems for embellishment and decided it was done!

Sometimes simple is all that is needed!

Happy crafting!

Catherine