Keep it Simple Card

Evening everyone

Today I decided that I would try to use up some offcuts of Centura Pearl card and make some very clean and simple cards.  I didn't get much time to craft so have only managed one so far.  Here it is.

Aplogies about the colour of this - is does look very pink!  It is actually made from snow white Centura Pearl but the photograph was taken in artificial light.  The card is 190mmx105mm and has been embossed with a snowflake embossing folder.  The gold border is a peel-off sticker, bought from Create and Craft last year.  The sentiment has been printed onto Centura Pearl and then cut out using a Spellbinders die.  I used Sheena Douglass' poinsetta stamp onto red and green Stardream paper and then cut out the images and put them together to make the poinsetta.  A few drops of Stickles glitter glue in the centre completed it.

I am quite pleased with the way this card turned out - and hubby thinks it's lovely (a rare compliment, believe me!)

I have decided to enter this card into the "Keep it Simple" challenge at Crafty Bloggers Network.

Thank you for dropping by.

Celtic style card

Today I decided to have a play with my star stamp from Barbara Gray's Clarity Stamp.  To be honest I had forgotten all about it until I saw a card made using it - so thankyou Carol of CM Design for jogging my memory!

I had no idea what I was going to do with it so initially stamped it and embossed it in gold detail and then started messing around with distress inks, but all I managed to do was make a lovely mess!  I then picked up a scrap of pearlised card which just happened to be lying on my table, stamped it with destress ink and wondered what it would look like coloured with flex/ProMarkers.  And the card just sort of evolved from there.

The base card is 7x7 Centura Pearl and I have used plain blue and green card for matting and layering.  The frame is made using a border brass stencil four times, and has been inked using distress ink.  The sentiment stamp is also from Clarity Stamp and cut out using a Spellbinders Nestablility. 

I am really not too sure about this card, although I do quite like the colours on the star - I do like blue and green together, despite my mother always quoting that "blue and green should never be seen without a colour inbetween"!  After all, there is a lot of blue and green in a peacock!

Thank you for calling in.

Catherine x

Quick Christmas Cards

Evening everyone

I haven't had a lot of time to craft in the last couple of days but decidd I needed to step up my Christmas card production and so decided to make some very quick and easy cards using the cd "A Christmas Wish" from Cupcake Crafting.  I printed off some toppers and backing papers, and also some card fronts and used pre-scored card bases.

The first two cards were made using the card fronts (5x7)

Both have been decoupaged.

The next three cards were made using the toppers and backing papers from the cd

The first two of these cards are 6x6 scalloped base cards and the third one is 5x7.  As usual I will add sentiments and inserts later.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Catherine x

Hubby's birthday card

Evening everyone

Today is my husband's birthday and as usual I struggle to come up with ideas for his birthday card.  He isn't into sport or cars, motorbikes or anything usually associated with male cards.  But he does like a glass of red wine with his evening meal when he is at home ("it's good for the heart").  So with that in mind I finally decided to do him a humorous card for a change.  It is a pretty simple, straightforward card with no fol-de-rols or twiddly bits (he's not into that either!)

For his card I used my "Wine Buffs" cd from Flowersoft.  I have had this for a while but have never actually made a card with it until now.  So here is the card

I have never made a card this shape before so it was a case of a bit of logic and a lot of guesswork, but thankfully I got there (despite sticking the toppers on sideways at first!)  The toppers from the cd are mounted onto black pearlised card from my stash and the backing paper and round sentiment are from the cd.  The sentiment is mounted onto more black pearlised card cut with a Spellbinders die.  The scalloped card base started life as a square 8x8 card, but a bit of cutting and pasting later it ended up as approx 8x5.

I usually end up making him a card which has something to do with gardening or nature on it but I seem to have only one photograph of his past birthday cards so I thought I would share it this evening too.  I think I made this for his birthday in 2009.

The image is from one of my Joanna Sheen cds which I printed out onto her gentle gloss photo paper and then cut into three sections.  I mounted each section onto copper coloured embossed mirri board, leaving a very narrow margin.  I mounted this onto more card, which I edged with copper coloured fine line border peel-offs and finished the card with some brown ribbon, a tag, and a leaf which I bought at a craft fair.

Don't know what I will come up with next year!

Thank you for dropping in.

Catherine x

Humphrey Birthday Card

Evening everyone

Well today is my friend's birthday so I thought I would share the birthday card I made for her.  She loves Humphrey so I just had to make her a Humphrey card.

I made this card a couple of weeks ago and at that time I didn't have a working printer, and didn't know when I would get printing again.  So I found some backing paper which I had printed from my Popcorn Florals cd by Crafters Companion and then stamped and coloured Humphrey to match!  The result is a very colourful card.

I decided to make a twisted easel card because I really like them.  I cut Humphrey using a Spellbinders die and mounted him onto a topper made from Coredinations card and cut with another Spellbinders die.  The border is a piece of digital ribbon I had left from another card. The sentiment is stamped onto a matching piece of Coredinations card cut with a matching Spellbinders die and then I added some little daisies to finish the card.

When I came to write out the card I realised that I needed the equivalent of an insert.  So I used my Craft Artist Platinum to make a triangular "insert" and stuck it to the back of the card.

I know my friend likes her card and I hope you do too.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Catherine x

Flippin Cards

Good evening everyone.,

Didn't manage any posts over the weekend but as I was awarded "Blog of the Week" by Crafty Bloggers Network this morning I thought I had better post something today.  Unfortunately I can't post the cards I was working on today as yet so I have decided to show you some cards I made a while ago.

On Saturday my friend and I went to the Purely Papercrafts fair at Gateshead Inernational Stadium, -  and spent a fortune I might add!  Anyway, one of the things I bought was the new cd from La Pashe "The Big One - the Greatest Hits of La Pashe".  This cd contains all their well-known products - the Flippin series, Framin series, Trinitage, Remember When etc.  Over time I have made quite a few cards using these La Pashe products but unfortunately I don't have many photographs of them (I regularly forget to take photographs of my cards.)  So having rummaged around my laptop I found some Flippin cards I had made and thought I would share them with you this evening, in celebration of their new cd, so to speak!

The backing papers I used for both the front and the inside of this card were from one of my crafting cds - I am pretty sure this one was from Joanna Sheen's "Messy Rabbit" cd.  The decoupage at that time didn't come with backing papers.

I can't remember where I got these backing papers from, but probably a Joanna Sheen cd!

The backing papers for this one came from Joanna Sheen's "Cardmaker's Year".  This was the very first Flippin card I made.

Again, I can't remember where I got this backing paper from, but I added the golf ball and the tees myself as embellishments.  I don't seem to have a photo of the inside of this one.

Hope you have enjoyed looking at the Flippin cards!

Thank you for dropping in.

Catherine x

S.W.A.L.K. engagement card.

Morning everyone

I haven't had a chance to post to my blog for the last few days so thought I would post early today - so this card is yesterday's post late.  I don't like taking photographs in artificial light if I can avoid it so saved it until this morning.

This is the first time I have tried out one of the new S.W.A.L.K Christmas stamps from Crafters Companion but decided it would make a lovely winter or Christmas engagement card.  So here it is

This card is 190mm square and I have used Stardream paper in blue and Centura Pearl paper in white to matt and layer.  I have embossed the top right and bottom left corners of the Centura Pearl paper using a Cuttlebug embossing folder roses and a Darice embossing folder hearts respectively.  I coloured the image using Flex Markers and ProMarkers and cut it using a Spellbinders die.  I matted it onto two doily shapes, cut using a Spellbinders die.  I printed the sentiment and then mounted it onto another matching doily Spellbinders die.  The card was finished with a ribbon border, some punched flowers and card candi from my stash.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Catherine x

Really cute Tatty Teddy card

Evenng everyone

Tonight I am posting Tatty Teddy card no 3.  I just thought this image was really cute so couldn't resist it.

As with the first two Tatty Teddy cards, the decoupaged image and the backing papers are all from the Tatty Teddy "Me To You" cd from Docrafts.  The card is 190mm square and the base card is made from Centura Pearl snow white card from Crafters Companion.  The image is matted onto an oval of Coredinations card from Crafters Companion which I cut using a Spellbinders die.  It is finished with a flourish cut on my Craft Robo using a scrap of Stardream paper and some flowers from my stash.

Thankyou for dropping in.

Catherine x

Tatty Teddy Christmas Card

Oh my goodness, two posts in one day!  Here as promised is another Tatty Teddy card - a Christmas one this time (well I have to test the cd thoroughly!)

Again this is 190mm square and the base card is Centura Pearl snow white card from Crafters Companion.  The backing papers are from the cd and the image has been decoupaged.  The red scalloped mat was cut using a Spellbinders die from Coredinations card from Crafters Companion.  Some card candi and a mistletoe swirl cut with my Craft Robo complete the card.  Again, the sentiment and insert will be added when I know who the recipient will be.

Thanks for popping in.

Catherine x

Tatty Teddy's Cupcakes

Evening everyone

Now that I have finally got my cd rom drive back again I was able to install my Docrafts Tatty Teddy cd so decided to celebrate by making a Tatty Teddy card, and after yesterday's focus on cupcakes, I chose to make this card:

This is a 190mm square card and the card base is made from Centura Pearl snow white card from Crafters Companion.  The backing papers are from the Tatty Teddy cd.  I have decoupaged the image and cut it out with a Spellbinders die.  The cherries on the cupcakes have been glittered with Stickles Glitter Glue and then the image was mounted onto Coredinations card from Crafters Companion.  I have finished the card with some card candi and a small flourish, cut using my Craft Robo from a scrap of Stardream paper.  As always there is no sentiment or insert until I know who the reciipient is going to be.  Further Tatty Teddy card to follow!

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Catherine

The Art of the Cupcake

Good evening everyone.

Well just as I predicted yesterday, I don't have a new card for you today.  However, I spent the afternoon at Craft North East doing a workshop called The Art of the Cupcake, and, I have to say, I had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon.  So I thought I would post what I did here for you all to see!

The workshop began with Carole, the resident Craft North East artist, showing us how to draw a cupcake.  And then we were given a worksheet and a pencil and told to choose a cupcake to draw.  The cupcakes were provided by Jeannie and were all beautifully decorated (Craft North East do workshops on cupcake decorating too!)  I was going to post a piccie of the cupcake I chose but I brought it home with me and unfortunately the beautifully swirled butter cream topping was rather squished when I took it out of my bag so probably best not to show it after all!  But check out the Craft North East website or their Facebook page to see lovely pictures of cupcakes. 
 
Anyway, here is my first attempt at drawing a cupcake

Carole then chose a second cupcake for me to draw

We also had a worksheet with example on so here are my attempts at an apple and a box from the worksheet

Next we got to try out some watercolouring - don't think this is my strong point somehow!  No drawing allowed, purely watercolour paint direct onto the paper

I think it would be fair to say that I definitely need a lot more practise!

Finally we took our piece of watercolour paper and created our masterpieces - our own cupcake.  This time I did sketch the outline first, but decided to design my own cupcake - a nice simple one!  With a foil case, a cherry on the top and some nice lemon butter cream topping.  So, the moment you have all been waiting for:

Possibly not the most exciting cupcake in the world, but mine, all mine!!!

I really did enjoy the afternoon and am very glad I went to the workshop.  If you like cupcakes and live in the north east then do check out the website or Facebook page.  There are a wide variety of workshops even covering such subjects as a chocolate workshop, making your own skincare products, beading for beginners, knitting, the 12 crafts of Christmas and even one on starting up your own crafting business.

With many thanks to Carole and Jeannie.

Thank you for dropping in.

Catherine x

Fresh as a Daisy!

Evening everyone

Well I didn't get to post anything yesterday - I did manage to have a good tidy-up in my craft room though - even washed the windows (well it does help if you can actually see what you are doing!)  And finally the cd that was stuck inside my laptop was surgically removed (it was a crafty cd of course) so I finally got to load my Tatty Teddy cd and then got sidetracked looking through it.  So today I have been in my craft room printing and cutting but haven't actually completed a card - I do have an assortment of toppers waiting to be turned into something beautiful though.

So the card I am going to share with you this evening is a card I made for a second cousin (in law) for her birthday a couple of weeks ago.  Although I haven't actually managed to learn the art of paint fusion yet, I do have some of the rubber stamps.  As I am particularly fond of daisies I decided that I was going to use the daisy stamp in as many different ways as I could think of.  I decided that this card was going to be very simple and clean.  Here it is

Apologies for the crooked photograph - I was in a great hurry to get it off in the post before we went away on holiday and almost forgot to photograph it at all!

So, the base card is 190mmx190mm.  I stamped the daisy onto acetate and then adhered it to double sided sticky paper.  I cut each bit of the daisy away from the backing paper in turn adding gold glitter in the centre and gilding flakes to the petals and the rest of the square in two different colours. I then cut a square aperture in the centre of the card and stuck the daisy into the aperture from the back.  I cut a square of Centura Pearl paper and cut a square aperture in the centre of this so that when I applied it to the front of the card there was a border between it and the square with the daisy.  I embossed the Centura Pearl paper before adding it to the front of the card.  Finally I stamped the Happy Birthday sentiment using a Barbara Gray Clarity Stamp to frame the daisy.  (Lining up rubber stamps perfectly is not my strong point, no matter how often I practise.  I console myself by thinking about Persian carpets - every carpet made has a deliberate mistake/imperfection woven into it because "only God is perfect"!)

I probably won't get to make any cards again tomorrow as I am going to a workshop at Craft North East tomorrow afternoon.  So I may, or may not, post what I have been doing when I get home (depending on how good or bad the result is!)

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Catherine x

Humphrey Thinking of You Card

Well,here I am back again with my second post of the evening.  In my last post I mentioned my friend (well she's actually my second cousin) who is fighting breast cancer and this is a card I have made to send to her.  Usually when I make a card I take the colours from the image.  This time I took the colours from some beautiful backing paper I spotted on my Joanna Sheen cd "Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady".  The colours are autumn colours which are my friend's favourite shades.  So I decided to use this Humphrey image with golden roses which match in with the golden colours in the backing paper.

Here is the card

The base card is a pre-scored 6x6 card from my stash.  I have used Whitewash Coredinations card which I have embossed using Creative Expressions mask (leaves) and then sanded back.  I have used a Spellbinders die to cut out the lovely autumn leaves backing paper and a smaller one the same shape to cut out some satin dusky pink mirror card, which matches the pink in the leaves on the backing paper.  I then embossed the pink shape using a Cuttlebug embossing folder.  Humphrey has been coloured with ProMarkers and I used another Spellbinders die to cut him out.  The dark green leaves are a ribbon and I have threaded this through each side of my cutout Humphrey and attached it at either side of the card.  Finally I added a sentiment and a paper rose.

I am pleased with the result and hope that my friend will like this card when she receives it too.

Since making this card I have decided to enter it into the following challenges

Papertake Weekly Challenge "Get in Shape"
Kaboodle Doodle "Let's See Those Leaves"
Crafty Cardmakers "Anything Goes"

Catherine x

Link Up For Pink

Good evening everyone

Today I have made two cards.  I will post them separately.  The first one is a VERY pink card.  Strangely, pink is not a colour I usually use a lot of and this is my third predominantly pink card this month.  That is because October is  Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  My mother and Godmother died of breast cancer within four months of each other.  A friend and the mothers of two other friends died from breast cancer.  I have two friends who have, thankfully, been clear of breast cancer for over five years and I have a very dear friend who has been battling this dreadful disease for the last ten months.

Here is my card, which I am entering into the Link Up For Pink challenge which runs until Friday 14 October.

The card is A5 in size and the base card is made from pale pink Centura Pearl card.  The image is one I have used before and is from my Joanna Sheen Fashion cd, as is the matching backing paper.  I have also used pink Corednations card from Crafters Companion, gold embossed mirror card, pink ribbon, pink pearls, pink gems and a paper flower from my stash.  I printed the image twice and added an extra layer to the main bits of the base image to make it stand out.  The border is made by sticking pink ribbon up the centre of a slightly wider piece of gold mirror card and then crimping it.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Catherine x

Humphrey the Injun!

Evening all

Today I made my first Humphrey card using the cd by Crafters Companion.  So far all my Humphrey cards have been made using rubber stamps.  When I looked through the cd I just couldn't resist this image!  So here is the card

The card base is a pre-scored 6x6 white card from my stash.  I have used a dark cream card, and a red card from my stash to matt the gingham backing papers from the cd onto.  The yellow large check paper on the top right of the card (which doesn't really show up on the piccie) is also from the cd.  The main image is decoupaged, sprayed with Spray and Shine and then matted onto blue Coredinations card, also from Crafters Companion.  This card was crying out for feathers, but as I don't have any, I stuck three buttons on instead!  The image is so colourful that it makes a really bright and cheerful card.

Thankyou for dropping in.

Catherine x

Pink Flower Card

Evening everyone

Yesterday I bit the bullet and bought myself a cheap printer to use whilst waiting to find out whether or not my good Canon printer can be saved!  The man who looks after my computers is ill so I have no idea when I will get a verdict!  In the meantime I was getting very frustrated at not being able to print anything at all.  So yesterday I bought a cheap printer, installed it and then, of course, needed to test it.  And what better test than to print off a lovely floral image and backing paper from my Joanna Sheen cd "Cardmaker's Year", which I made up into a card this afternoon.

This pretty image and matching backing paper can be found in October's folder on the cd.  As October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and this card is predominantly pink, I have decided to enter it into the Link Up To Pink challenge which runs until 14 October and also use it as a second entry into the Flower Power challenge on the Glitter Geeks blog.

This card is 6x6 and the base card is made from Centura Peal snow white card from Crafters Companion.  I have sprayed the backing paper with Spray and Sparkle in iridescent.  Here's a close-up to show the sparkle because it doesn't show in the main photograph

I have matted the backing paper onto pink "satin" finish mirror card from my stash.  The topper is mounter onto some plain green card leaving a narrow border and then more of the pink mirror card.  I used Spellbinders dies to cut the border and two corner elements, also from the pink mirror card, and finished off with three pink pearls.

This was a very simple and straighforward card to make and I am happy with the finished result.  I hope you like it too.  I just love flowers.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Catherine x

Flowers For You

Evening everyone.  Yesterday I spent some time colouring some images from the new stamps I got this week from Crafters Companion so today I have made a couple of cards, but I can only show one on here for the moment!

The stamp is from the Humphrey's Corner collection and I managed to find some backing paper which I had previously prined from a Joanna Sheen cd (still without a working printer!)   I decided to try my hand at another twisted easel card because I decided I liked this style.

Here it is

Andh here is a close up of the image, coloured with ProMarkers

I have decided to enter this card into the challenge over at Glitter Geeks, which this week is Flower Power.

Items used for this card are

Crafters Companion Centura Pearl card, Humphrey's Corner Stamps
Anita's gold paper
Joanna Sheen backing paper from cd and dark red stardream card
Card Candi
Ribbon and flowers from my stash
Spellbinders dies

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Catherine x

Garden Delights

Evening everyone

I didn't manage to make a card today, but I did spend some time practising my colouring again using the new stamps I bought this week from Crafters Companion.  So this evening I thought I would share some cards I made recently from the Garden Delights cd by Cupcake Crafting.  I printed off one sheet of toppers and some backing papers and made quite a few quick cards from them.

I cut the sentiment using my Craft Robo and made the little paper flowers, though I am not very good at these sort of flowers.  The other cards look a little "unfinished" as yet so think they need a little embellishment added.

I  took one of the images into Craft Artist Professional and enlarged it as I wanted to try making a trifold card with a cutout.  This is the card I made

The character image was printed onto the card across the fold line but then the bit to the right of the fold line was cut away back to the fold line before actually folding the card.

I also printed off some card fronts and made them up

Very quick and easy cards to make.

Tomorrow is another day so hopefully I will get to make a card or two!

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Catherine x

Crafters Companion Monthly Challenge

Hello everyone.  Today I decided to make a card for the Crafters Companion monthly challenge, which this month is to make a card using pink and green to promote Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  This is a subject dear to my heart as I have kmown many women who have had breast cancer - some have recovered but many have not.  My own mother became a victim of breast cancer in 1999.

So I took myself off to my craftroom this morning - and spent an hour looking for an embossing board - I can't find a thing since I had that tidy up the other day!  Anyway, it has taken me most of the day to make this as today I have had constant texts, messages, phone calls and another unexpected visitor.  But I got there in the end.

Here is my card.

This is the first time I have attempted twisted easel card so think I got it right.  The base card is Centura Pearl and I have used some green card I found in my stash and pink Coredinations card from Crafters Companion which I have embossed using Creative Expressions tulip mask and then sanded back.  The image is from my Popcorm cd by Crafters Companion and both the main image and the smaller image were ones I had left over after making another card a few weeks ago.  (Still haven't got a working printer).  The ribbon across the centre is a digital ribbon from Funky Hand, another left-over, which I have crimped.  The sentiment is a Barbara Gray Clarity Stamp.  The "bow" was made by folding two separate pieces of ribbon into the shape of the breast cancer pink ribbon and then overlapping them to look like a bow.  Some little gems from my stash finished this card off.

As it is my birthday today, you could say that this is a birthday card I made for myself!!!

Thank you for dropping in.

Catherine x

Card made with Coredinations Black Magic

Hello everyone.

Yesterday I decided to have an assault on tidying my craft room - even my cupboard was in a state of disarray!  So I set to and got the cupboard sorted and then turned my attention to the rest of the room.  It was starting to look quite reasonable but I just couldn't resist the urge to make a card!  

A while ago I purchased some Black Magic Coredinations card from Crafters Companion and it has been sitting there ever since because I couldn't decide how to use it.  I don't usually make many black cards.  While tidying my craft room yesterday I found some toppers I had previously printed but never got round to using - and they had worked their way to the bottom of a drawer.  As my printer is still poorly-sick I decided it was time to use some of these toppers and found one I thought would go very nicely with the Black Magic Coredinations card.

Here's the card I made

The topper is a pyramage image from one of my Debbi Moore cds which I mounted onto a piece of black glitter paper, and the card base is one from my stash (I think I got some free with something else I bought).  The ribbon, flower and gems are also from my stash.  The red border is also Black Magic Coredinations card which I turned over to the red side and then crimped, and the other piece of red background was something else I found lurking in the bottom of a drawer and I think was originally printed from a Joanna Sheen cd. 

So what does everyone else think - does the Coredinations card fit with this image?

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Catherine

Wedding Card

Good evening everyone. 

Today I was determined I was not going to make another Snowman card, so I made a wedding card instead.  As I used a SWALK stamp from Crafters Companion, I have decided to enter it into their World Cardmaking Day challenge.

Here's a list of what I used to make this card:

Crafters Companion SWALK stamps, lilac centura pearl card, white centura pearl paper, neenah card for stamping onto
Joanna Sheen lace backing paper
Lakeland adhesive lace border
Encore ultimate metallic ink for the sentiment
Tim Holtz distress ink for the paper rose
Flexmarkers to colour the image
Purple card, lilac paper, white flowers, crystal glamour dust,skeleton leaves and lilac gems from my stash

And here is the finished card

This was a bit of a challenge for me because I usually print off backing papers as and when I need them.  My first thought was to use Coredinations card and run it through my embossing machine but then I decided that Coredinations was starting to become my replacement backing paper so set myself the task of making a card without it.  It took me absolutely ages to work out exactly what to use and my craft room looks like it has been ransacked.  However, I am pleased with the finished result.   I hope you like it too.

Thank you for calling by.

Catherine x