Friday 21 December 2012

Bathing Robins

Evening everyone

Well not a lot of time this week to update my blog or to enter challenges either but I think I can just manage a few minutes to share hubby's Christmas card with you.  Now it's very difficult to make a card secretly when the recipient keeps hanging over your shoulder to see what you are working on so this was done very quickly in CraftArtist and printed when his back was turned, and then put together equally quickly when he went out to deliver some Christmas cards.  I gave it to him today so am now safe to show it!

The image is from my "Best of LaPashe" cd which I resized in CraftArtist, and the red border around is is a background from my "Just Inklined" cd also by LaPashe.  I used the background paper to make a frame for the image, and also to frame a second background paper from "Just Inklined" for the base of the easel card. 






I decoupaged the top of the bird bath and robins, and then added Flowersoft and a touch of glitter.  I made the sentiment "stopper" in CraftArtist and finished off with some die cut snowflakes.

Although this card was made in a very hurried way, I was pleased with the finished result.

Thank you for dropping in.

Catherine x

Sunday 16 December 2012

Is it a card or is it a box?

Morning everyone

Well I haven't had very much time to post to my blog or to do much crafting this last week - but on the plus side I did manage to get my Christmas tree up!  So now I can relax - just a little bit because I still have plenty to do in preparation for Christmas - and thought I would start by sharing a couple of Christmas cards I made.

These cards are a little bit different from a standard card because they are based on a box with a drawer.  The card bit is an easel card attached to the top of the box.

Here's the first one:

I made both cards with Centura Pearl card from Crafters Companion and for this first card I used an image and papers from my "The Snowman" cd, also from Crafters Companion.  A couple of die cut snowflakes added the finishing touches.

Here is the second card

For this card I used images from my "The Greatest Story Ever Told" cd from Katy Sue, and papers from my Jane Nestorenko cd "Adorables" from Crafters Companion.

And of course the drawers on the cards had to be filled with something nice

Turkish Delight in one and those chocolates that the Ambassador has at his dinner parties in the other!

Thank you for dropping by.

Catherine x



Thursday 13 December 2012

"Never Again" by LaPashe

Evening everyone

Well 34 years ago this evening I was sitting up in my hospital bed writing out my Christmas cards.  I had saved them specially so that I could add the name of the newest addition to our family onto them.  Today my son is 34 year old and I thought I would share his birthday card with you all.

All the elements I used for this card are from my Best of LaPash 2012 cd, although from two separate sections, and I took them into CraftArtist to resize them.  I made a mathing insert in CraftArtist too.

Here is the front of the card:






And with the Bar doors open:


I flipped the bar doors in CraftArtist so that when they opened they looked like the back of the doors, and added the beer keg as a separate embellishment, also in CraftArtist.  I then attached this panel to the front of a card blank and made a matching insert:





I know my son liked his card - he said the image reminded him of someone!

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Catherine x

Thursday 6 December 2012

Shaped Christmas Card

Afternoon everyone

Well it has been nine days since I posted anything in here - I have been busy trying to get my own Christmas cards organised so no time for blogging or entering challenges while that was going on.  And I am pleased to report I now only have three cards left to do.

I decided I wanted to make a shaped card for someone and after a bit of trawling through my craft cds my hubbie spotted this one from my Joann Sheen Christmas triple cd set.



I took the image into CraftArtist to resize it and then decided to add a sticker effect to it.  After a bit of manipulating and technical stuff like that I was able to print off my card base and then cut out the shape across the top.  Some shaped card templates only have the shape on the front of the card but I wanted mine to be shaped front and back so cut through two layers of my folded card base.   Then I printed off the actual topper itself, cut it out and stuck it onto the shaped card base using foam tape. I added some polar white flower soft to Santa's hat and cuff, a tiny bit of glitter to his beard and 'tache, some yellow stickles to the candles on the tree and a few drops of Christmas red stickles to the holly berries at the base of the card.  And to finish it off I made the sentiment in CraftArtis and stuck it to the card using foam tape.

As Santa is carrying a Christmas tree and the challenge this week at The CD Sunday Challenge Blog  is Oh!  Christmas Tree, I think I will enter this card.

Thank you for calling in to my blog.

Catherine x


Tuesday 27 November 2012

A giggle, a curl, a sweet little girl

Afternoon everyone

Today's card is the result of yesterday's digital colouring practise in Craft Artist.  I have again used a beautiful digi-stamp from the Crafters Companion new SWALK cd.

I have coloured this stamp entirely in Craft Artist, and unlike my previous posts, there is no digital paper piecing on this one at all.  The sentiment is also a digi-stamp from the cd and I have designed the oval shaped topper and background in Craft Artist to match the finished stamped image.  It was all printed onto Neenah card and the oval topper was added using foam pads.  Three tiny gems finished the completed card.

I hope you like it as much as I do.

And at the last minute I have decided to enter this into the monthly challenge at Crafters Companion Monthly Challenge Blog where this month's challenge is your favourite colour comination, and I do really like lilac and grren, with just a touch of white, together.

Thank you for dropping in to visit my blog.

Catherine x

Monday 26 November 2012

Let it Snow. Another SWALK card

Hello everyone

This card is made with another of the SWALK digi stamps from the new cd by Crafters Companion.  Again I took it into Craft Artist and used a combination of paper piecing and digital colouring to colour the stamp.  The papers I used for this one were mainly from the SWALK Winter collection which I have had since last year.

Here is the card

I have embossed the base card blank with a Darice embossing folder and added a strip of white ribon to one side.  The SWALK topper and the coloured square underneath it were printed out onto Neenah card and then mounted onto the card base using foam pads.  I have added the teeniest, tiniest bit of glitter to the snowflakes and snow though I'm not sure you can see this from the photograph.  To finish I have added a die cut snow flake.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Catherine x

Sunday 25 November 2012

SWALK Treasured Baby Boy

Afternoon everyone

I love the SWALK stamps from Crafters Companion and so I was delighted when I found out that they have now brought out a cd of SWALK digi-stamps, which of course I just had to have.

I have been playing with some of them over the last couple of days so thought I would share two cards I made using them.

I took the stamps into Craft Artist and used a combination of paper piecing and digital colouring (though I am quite a novice at the digital colouring so it's all good practise for me).

The papers I used for both of them were from my Humphrey's Corner cds, also from Crafters Companion.

Here is the first one

I designed the whole card in Craft Artist and printed it out in two separate pieces onto Neenah card - the coloured stamp and the background, which are layered onto a white card blank.  Then I added some ribbon and three pearls to finish it.

Here's the second one (and this stamp is one of my particular favourites - I've used the rubber version a number of times before!).

And again this was printed onto Neenah card in two separate pieces - the square background and the actual stamped and coloured image.  Although you can't tell from the photographs the stamped images on both cards have been added using Collal gel.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Catherine x

Thursday 22 November 2012

Layered Rose Card

Morning everyone

Today's card is one I made at the weekend and as luck would have it this card actually fits in very well with this week's challenge over at the CD Sunday Challenge Blog which is layers.

The image is from my Joanna Sheen Jane Shasky CD and I have decoupaged this is five layers.  I took the original image into Craft Artist to resize it to fit the card I wanted to make. I really like white  on white cards and so the rest of the card front is made from white pearlescent paper which I have cut using my die cutting machine and then embossed.  The swirl and the butterfly are made from Cheery Lynn Dies.

Here is the card






And of course no card is complete without a matching insert, also done in Craft Artist, using a backing paper I made myself.


I am very pleased with the finished card and hope you will like it too.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Catherine x

Thursday 15 November 2012

Grandma and Grandpa

Afternoon everyone

Today I am going to share a card that I finished last week specially for my sister in law and brother in law who became new grandparents at the end of October.  They received it in the post this morning so I know I am now safe to post it without spoiling the surprise!

And here it is:


This image is a particular favourite of mine and I have used it before for different occasions.  It can be found on the Vintage Graphics cd from Crafty Computer paper.  I took the image into Craft Artist and made the background papers and sentiment to match.  The topper and the sentiment have been added using foam pads and the card base is made of white linen card, which I have layered underneath the topper. 

I hope you like this little card - I know my sister in law does, and that's what really counts!

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Catherine x.

Sunday 11 November 2012

Rememberance2012

Morning everyone

Well today is Rememberance Sunday so this year I decided to make a photo page that is slightly different from those I have done in years past.  This year's page is a very personal one for me.

Here it is


The background is made from my photograph of the stained glass window in Pangbourne College Chapel.  The poppy is a digi stamp from Caroline Rawcliffe which I coloured digitally, and the Royal Marine is my brother.


Thank you for visiting my blog

Catherine x

Tuesday 6 November 2012

Christmas in Pink

Morning everyone

The challenge this week over at The CD Sunday Challenge Blog is Christmas in Pink so thought I would have a go.  But I must say I was well out of my comfort zone here because I am fairly traditional when it come to Christmas and tend to stick to mainly Christmas colours - and pink to me definitely isn't a Christmas colour.  But hey-ho, nothing ventured and all that!  I wasn't at all happy with my first attempt - just didn't sit right for me somehow so I abandoned that one and started again with a completely different image.

And here it is

The topper is from my Giordano Christmas Creations cd from Joanna Sheen and the snowflake background paper is from Artylicious Season's Greetings by Glenda Waterworth.   The ribbon and bow are from Karen J Gover's digikit Christmas Charm and the little  parcel started life as a royalty free black stamp from Serif.  And as always I designed it all in Craft Artist, including pyramaging the original topper.

I am fairly happy with this card, given that it is pink!

Thank you for dropping by.

Catherine x

Saturday 3 November 2012

Christmas Window Card

Morning everyone

I have been playing (or doing my homework as we now call it) in Craft Artist again.  A few weeks ago I designed a church style window and saved it in a number of different finishes so yesterday I decided to see what else I could do with it.  And of course I couldn't stop there, I had to make a card with the finished result.

Here's the card

I have used an image from my La Pashe cd, from the Trinitage section to create the scene through the window and the sentiment also comes from the cd.  I played around to make my own background papers and all other elements using the colours from the image itself, though the holly and snowflakes started life as Serif black digital stamps!

Challenge 77 at Crafty Ann's Challenge Blog is "Christmas in October" so I am going to enter this card.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Catherine x

Monday 29 October 2012

Beautiful Blue

Morning everyone

While I was looking through my crafty cds for something the other day I spotted an image and fell in love with it instantly so of course I had to use it to make a card!  It comes from my Joanna Sheen cd, The Jane Netley Mayhew Collection Part 2

Here is the finished card

I have used the backing paper that came with the image on the cd and also some "foil" backing paper and little embellishments from Crafty Ann's digikit Tradtemporary Christmas.  Because the artwork is so beautiful I didn't want to overembellish this card and detract from it.

I hope you like my little card as much as I do.

The challenge this week at the CD Sunday Challenge Blog is Beautiful Blue so I am going to enter this card.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Catherine x

Sunday 28 October 2012

Merlin Card and Calendar Pages

Morning everyone

I hope that those of you in the UK or in GMT remembered to put your clocks back an hour last night and benefitted from some extra time snuggled up in bed!

Today I am going to share a card and some calendar pages I made featuring one of the Cramlington SOS dogs.  As those of you who follow my blog will already know I make and sell cards to help raise funds for our local community group, and using members' dog photos has become very popular.  The very first card I did back in May featured an "out of the frame" image and of course everyone wanted their dog done in the same way so it became quite a feat of ingenuity to make each one the "same but different".

And here is Merlin

Merlin is a Chinese Crested (hairless) dog hence my choice of frame and background for this card.

And the matching insert:


But Merlin's moment of glory doesn't end with a card as he also features as Mr February in the A4 calendar, also for Cramlington SOS

And he becomes Mr June in the slimline version

And the original photograph that gave rise to all this celebrity for Merlin (courtesy of Pat Heard)


In all I have done a dozen or more dog cards/calendar pages featuring the different dogs in this way.

The challenge this week at Digitally Sweet Challenge Blog is pets so I am going to enter Merlin as I think he definitely fits the bill!

Thankyou for calling in to visit my blog.

Catherine x

Saturday 27 October 2012

Clock card

Morning everyone

Yesterday was hubby's birthday (he's my toyboy actually - 3 weeks younger than me), and as always I struggled to come up with a birthday card idea for him.  He's not into the stereo-typical male things like sport, cars, bikes, computers etc so I have the same problem every year.  What he does like though is old clocks (amongst other things) so finally decided to make him a clock themed birthday card.

Here it is

Tom would love to have a grandfather clock, but in the absence of enought space in the house he has had to content himself with a couple of old wall clocks, so I started by taking photographs of both of them.

I took the photographs into Craft Artist, cut out the clocks themselves and then changed them into drawing and added different effects until they looked the way I wanted them to.  Next I used one of the clocks with a couple of items from Daisytrail Steampunk digikits to make a background paper.  I used the second clock for the main image and added a couple of embellishments, also from the Steampunk digikits.  When I made up the card I added  both the clock and the sentiment as separate raised toppers.

So Tom got a very personal birthday card.

Here are the original photographs:


 Thankyou for calling in.

Catheirne x

Friday 26 October 2012

Strawberry Girl

Morning everyone

Yesterday was my friend's birthday and as she loves Humphrey I just had to make her a card using my Humphrey's Corner cd.

I took the main image into Craft Artist and although there are beautiful backing papers on the cd I decided to make one of my own to match.  Once I had designed the card in Craft Artist I had to decide how to make it up. 

Here is the finished card.

I layered the main topper and the mat underneath it and raised the sentiment on foam pads.  I added some red ribbon and a swirl and butterfly made using Cheery Lyn dies.

This is how the original design looked in Craft Artist

This also shows the colours much better than the photograph does!  When I made up the card the swirl got a bit cosy with one of the foam pads on the back of the sentiment so the sentiment ended up in a slightly different place too.  But despite that I was very pleased with the finished card.

Thank you for calling in.

Catherine x

Thursday 25 October 2012

Woodpecker

Afternoon everyone

This morning I spotted a very unusaal sight in my garden - a woodpecker at the bird feeder.  Now I have lived here for twenty years and never ever seen a woodpecker in the garden before so I ran and got my camera to try and get the evidence!  I took three shots through the (pretty murky) patio window and then tried to carefully open the door - but of course off he flew as soon as I did.  So the three shots I did get weren't the best - he was about 40 feet away at the other end of the garden.  But the sighting inspired me to make a card with a woodpecker on it and luckily I had a royalty free image of one on my laptop.

So here it is

It would have been lovely to make one using my own photograph so I will just have to keep an eye out and hopefully my little visitor will return again.  I must say though that he wasn't quite as colourful as this one is.

Here's one of my photographs from this morning, well cropped!


Thank you for visiting my blog.

Catherine x

Tuesday 23 October 2012

The Greatest Story Ever Told

Morning everone

When I was at that craft fair on Saturday I bought a lovely cd from Katy Sue Designs called The Greatest Story Ever Told.  Some of the images are shaped to fit with a couple of the Glitter Girls' embossing boards.  I really like the shapes but don't have both of the boards so decided to see what I could do with the church window shaped images without having a board to match.

And this is what I came up with

I didn't want to alter the beautiful images in any way so simply added a frame to them and gave them a small amount of dimension, then added some "foliage" across the top.  Red berries on miseltoe?  Well, I guess that is what is known as artistic license!

I am really pleased with the way this has turned out and will probably use it as a topper for a very simple Christmas card - the artwork speaks for itself and I wouldn't want to detract from it.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Catherine x

Monday 22 October 2012

Daisy Time

Morning everyone

This morning I am going to share a card I have made for this week's CD Sunday Challenge which is "Poetry Corner".  To be honest, when I saw what the theme was I thought I might give it a miss this week, but as I was busy practising digital colouring using a  lovely digi-stamp from Christine Gray I decided to see if I could find a poem to match the stamp.  And I did, so here is the finished card.

The background is from my Sharon Duncan Embossibilities cd Texture Prints and I have added a small amount of gradient colour to it to match the coloured stamp.  The poem is called "Daisy Time" and is by Marjorie Pickthall.

I wouldn't say that my digital colouring is exactly perfected but I am trying (very trying some might say!)

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Catherine x

Sunday 21 October 2012

Raspberry Rose

Morning everyone

Yesterday I headed off with my friend to a Craft Fair and came home with three new cds.  So last night I couldn't wait to have a play with them.  This is the first card I made, and is Raspberry Rose from the cd "Fruit and Nut Fairies" volume 1 by Hinny Bop Designs.

Working in Craft Artist I decoupaged the background topper and added Raspberry Rose, both from the cd.  I then made the two backing papers to match.  I made a brush from a toadstool image on the cd and added the toadstool border.  I finished off the card with a flourish, which I coloured to match the rest of the card.

Thankyou for dropping in.

Catherine x

Friday 19 October 2012

2013 Calendars

Afternoon everyone

Well today I have finally finished the calendars I have been working on for Cramlington SOS.  This is the first time I have attempted to make full sized calendars and I started a while back by making and testing some templates to use in Craft Artist.  And that was the really long-winded bit, but once they were done it has made doing the actual calendars so much easier.

I finally settled on three styles of calendar with a choice of two subjects - the dogs, and the land.

Cramlington SOS recently held a photo competition and some of the photos I have used in the calendar called The Land are taken from the entries for this (with full permission of the photographers).

For those of you who follow my blog, you will know that I have made a series of dog cards this year featuring dogs owned by members of Cramlington SOS and I have used twelve of these on the two calendars called The Dogs.

Some sample pages:

And those members who have asked me to make personal Christmas cards featuring their dogs also have the option to have their Christmas card topper added to the December page instead of the standard page I will be using for all other calendars.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Catherine x

Wednesday 17 October 2012

Fuschia Card

Hello everyone

Today I have been making some more backgrounds in Craft Artist and started with one of my own photographs of a fuschia.  I cut the fuschia out of the photograph and used the cutout to make various backgrounds and also two brushes.

Then of course I needed to put them to good use so had to make a card.  And here it is

The central fuschia is the one originally cut from my photograph and I have used three different backing papers on this, all made from that one image.  I am quite pleased with the result and I hope you will like it too.

Thankyou for calling in.

Catherine x

Tuesday 16 October 2012

Another autumn card

Morning everyone

Well on Sunday I had great fun making backing papers in autumn colours using Craft Artist.  For some of these I took the colour palette from a photograph which is this week's colour inspiration over at the Digitally Sweet Challenge Blog and decided to make a second autumn themed card using this beautiful palette.

I have used one of my own backgrounds for this card and added some toppers from my Jane Shasky cd from Joanna Sheen.  The mats and ribbon I have also made from by own backing papers.

And I just had to add a quote to finish off the card.  I felt a bit sad that I was covering up this backing paper as I think it is my favourite of all those that I made.  But as always I add a matching insert so used it again inside the card.

I am very pleased with the way my card has turned out and hope you will like it too.  I will be entering it into this weeks challenge at Digitally Sweet as I used their colour inspiration when making this card.

Thank you for dropping in to visit.

Catherine x

Monday 15 October 2012

Paddy the Puppy

Morning everyone

Well having never made a card with Paddy on until last week I decided to make a second one last night.  Over in my group Serif Craft Artist Users Group on Facebook we are having a bit of fun this month with our October Challenge.  This entails using only items from one folder and nothing else to make a project and I have been amazed at some of the lovely projects that have resulted from so little.  There is no prize and there will be no winner and everyone who is taking part is having fun playing with the software and learning new ways of using it.

Anyway, back to my card.  Last night I set about making this for the challenge as this photo of Paddy is in the folder for members of the group to use.  So the only external item I have used is the photograph of Paddy himself - everything else on the card has been made by me using only the software.

As I was making this card I realised that it would fit in with the current fortnightly challenge over at Crafty Ann's Challenge Blog which is black and white plus one other colour, or black and white plus a coloured topper.  I chose the first option - Paddy is black and white and his collar is red to it was decided for me really.

I hope you like my card and thankyou for dropping in to visit my blog.

Catherine x

Sunday 14 October 2012

Autumn

Afternoon everyone

Today I have been playing in Craft Artist making some lovely autumn coloured background papers so of course had to use at least one of them to make a card.

The decoupaged topper is by Janes Shasky from my Joanna Sheen cd and I have added a quote to complete the card.

The theme for this week's challenge at CD Sunday Challenge Blog is Autumn Splendour so I think I will enter this card.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Catherine x

Friday 12 October 2012

Paddy and the Snowman

Afternoon everyone

It just occurred to me that of all the doggie cards I have made, I have never made one featuring my own little dog Paddy.  So as time is limited I made very quick Christmas card with him on it - this one is definitely not for sale though!

Here it is

To make this I have used an image from The Smowman cd by Crafters Companion.  I have cut out the Snowman's hat and scarf and added them to my cutout image of Paddy, added some shaped text and an overlay of snowflakes.  Et voila my very first card featuring Paddy.

The challenge this week over at the CD Sunday Challenge Blog is Christmas cards so I think I will enter this just because I can!.

Thankyou for visiting my blog.

Catherine x

Thursday 11 October 2012

Tino Card Front

Morning folks

Today I have decided to share another of my doggie cards with you.  Those of you who follow my blog will know that I started making cards using photographs of dogs earlier this year as a way of raising money for my local community group, which is also a registered charity.  More details about this are available on my blog post of 6 July and more of the cards are available to view on my Facebook Page.

Anyway, enough of that and back to today's card.  This gorgeous little fella is called Tino.

I rarely add a sentiment to the front of my cards unless I already know who it will be going to and what the occasion actually is so this card is no exception to that.

The background is one of my own - I had a lovely messy crafty day a while back and made the background using distress inks.  I then scanned the result and have used this background quite often when doing my cards or other projects in Craft Artist.

If you look very carefully you will see that there is a second Tino on this card - a small embossed one in the background of the frame.  The frame and other elements are all from DaisyTrail digikits.

This card printed out beautifully straight onto matte supersmooth 300gsm card so I was very pleased with the result - and so was Tino's mum when she saw it.  The original photograph of Tino was taken by a friend and I used it with her full permission to make this card.

This week's challenge at Digitally Sweet Challenge Blog is Card Fronts so I think I may just enter this one into that challenge.

Thank you for calling in.

Catherine x

Saturday 6 October 2012

Birthday Fly-Past 2008

Afternoon everyone

Yesterday was my birthday so I gave myself a day off and had a lovely chill day.  As part of that I decided to finally do something with a couple of photographs I took exactly four years ago.

The Great North Run took place on 5 October 2008 and as always ended with a wonderful display from the Red Arrows.  I went to Tynemouth and stood on the steps of the Collingwood Monument to watch the display.  I took hundreds of photographs.  Yesterday I used just two of the photographs to make a photo page to remind me of that birthday and here it is





I made this page using my Craft Artist software, not for any other reason than I enjoy playing with photogrraphs in this way and Craft Artist makes it so easy to do.

And of course I always tell everyone that the Red Arrows put on this display specially for me in honour of my birthday.

Thankyou for visiting my blog.

Catherine x

Thursday 4 October 2012

Treasure Island

Hello everyone

Today I would like to share a card with you that came about because I had been trying out a newly discovered technique in my Craft Artist software.

As many of you will already know, sometimes the technique of paper piecing can be used as a means of "colouring" an area of a rubber stamped image, or even the whole rubber stamped image.  So when I was asked whether it was possible to digitally paper piece a digital stamp I couldn't rest until I had found a way to do just that.  Another member of my group Serif Craft Artist Users Group, and the lady who first asked the question, also set about finding a way of doing this too.

I practised on a number of digital stamps, trying out ways to do it, and I found that using Zoe's first method to be the easiest way for me.

So the little pirate on this card has been coloured in totally by digital paper piecing.  The stamp is from Pollycrafts and was one of a number of her stamps on a free cd I got with a papercrafting magazine last year.






There are a number of advantages to using digital paper piecing in Craft Artist, one of them being that once you have done the initial paper piecing, it becomes extremely easy to change the papers to different ones without having to start again from the beginning.  Another advantage is that once you have completed the paper piecing it is also possible to take this a step further and add 3-D effects, which is exactly what I did with the little pirate's boots.  I also gave the buckle on his belt a gold effect, although this doesn't show up particularly well on the photograph.  And even Polly the Parrot was digitally paper pieced to colour her!

All the other elements on this little card came from various digikits.

The challenge at Crafty Ann's Challenge Blog this fortnight is to make a project inspired by a film title.  Well, as I always think of "Treasure Island" whenever I look at this card, I thought I would enter it into this challenge.  Though I do think this cute little pirate is a bit too nice to actually be Long John Silver!

Thankyou for calling in.

Catherine x


Tuesday 2 October 2012

Ribbons

Good evening everyone

This week's challenge over at the Digitally Sweet Challenge Blog is ribbons so I thought I would share a photo page I have made and also enter it into this challenge.

This is a very simple page, though I did have to do a lot of work on the photograph in order to use it. It is the only photograph hubby has of himself as a child with his family, and was not only pretty creased, but he appeared to have a large flower on the left side of his head!  On closer inspection I realised it was the head of a lady in the distant background.  So I took the photograph into my Craft Artist programme and did what I could to remove the creases and also hubby's flower!

And here is the page I ended up with.






Hubby is the very angelic looking young man at the back right - though I think I had better say here that appearances can be deceptive!!

I like the way this photo page has turned out, and I hope you do too.

Thankyou for dropping in.

Catherine x

Sunday 30 September 2012

Mad Hatter's Tea Party

Good afternoon everyone

Today I would like to share a card I made for my niece for her 19th birthday at the end of July.  When I came to make her birthday card I couldn't decide what to do for her - she is mad about hats, just loves her cups of tea and is an Alice in Wonderland fan.  So on with the thinking cap and out at the other end came this card


The image of the Mad Hatter is from the My Craft Studio cd "A Very Important Date" and all the other elements I used are from the Daisytrail digikit Fairytales Tearoom.

I took the image of the Mad Hatter into Craft Artist and manipulated him so that the frame sat over his head and shoulders - it seemed to fit in with the mad theme to do it this way somehow!  Then I simply added other items from the digikit. 

The challenge this week over at the CD Sunday Challenge Blog is Tea Time so I have decided to enter this card.  Why not pop over and have a look for yourself, or even have a go at entering.

Thankyou for visiting my blog

Catherine x

Wednesday 26 September 2012

Thinking of you Card

Good evening everyone

This evening I am going to share a card I made a few weeks ago when I wanted a Thinking of You card.  I wanted something with flowers on it but wanted to keep it simple.

Here is the finished card






The image is from My Craft Studio Wings and Things cd2 which I imported into my Craft Artist programme.  I started by making a matching backing paper from the image and then added the text. Finally I placed the image where I wanted it and printed this out as a topper onto white linen card.  This was then matted and layered onto more white linen card and a card base also made from white linen card.

This was a very easy card to make - simple but pretty.

This weeks challenge over at CD Sunday Challenge blog is "Awash with Flowers" so I have decided to enter this card.  Why not pop on over there and look at all the lovely entries - or even join in the challenge.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Catherine x

Wednesday 19 September 2012

Flower Card

Good evening everyone

Well I haven't exactly got back up to speed with my blog posts yet but I have got a bit better!

Tonight I would like to share a card I have just made in Craft Artist Professional  and I am particularly pleased with myself because everything on this card was made from one of my own photographs.

Here is the photograph






I started out by turning this photograph into a line drawing and making the flower itself more prominent.  Here it is





The next step was to digitally colour the line drawing





Once I had coloured the image I copied it and made embellishments by cropping the flower from the background, and cutting shapes out of it and then distorting and manipulating them.  Next I used some of the embellishments to make a set of backing papers - here are the two I used on the card


And here is the finished card front


And the matching insert


I shared some of the background paper I made, and also the flower itself, with the members in Serif Craft Artist Users Group on Facebook and one of my members, Ann Whitfield, made a beautiful card using the flower.  My friend Heather also used one of my backing papers to make a wedding anniversary card for me and hubby, and I was really pleased to think they liked what I had made enough to use them on cards.  So a big  thankyou  to Ann and Heather.

I hope you like my card.

The second challenge over at Digitally Sweet Challenges is "Anything Goes with Flowers".  Entries must be 100% digital and I think I can safely say that my card is certainly that so will be entering it into the challenge.  Why not pop over and have a look, and even better if you decide to join in the fun.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Catherine x