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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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