Texture and blue butterflies.

Hi everyone, it's time for a new challenge at Seize the Birthday.

The optional toppings theme is texture. 

This has so many possibilities, but as always, you can play along with the anything goes option so long as it's a birthday.

For this card I dry embossed the white panel with a Darice folder, it's called crackle and I love the look ( and feel) of it.

Here's a closer look.

I had 2 coloured butterflies in my stash. These had been stamped with versafine ink, clear embossed, fussy cut and coloured with Inktense pencils.

I diecut the birthday sentiment twice from black card. One I inked in versamark then sprinkled on aged black frantage embossing enamel and heat set it. I glued it onto the second one to add dimension.

The design team and birthday guest have some wonderful inspiration for you so I hope you can play along.

I'm linking up to these challenges:

Retro Rubber where it's anything goes and you must use a stamp older than one year.

These Darkroom Door butterfly stamps are from the Wings set dated 2012.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday, where it's anything goes.

Allsorts where it's blossoms, bugs or butterflies.

Watercooler Wednesday, where it's all about ocasions.

Supplies:

Darice crackle embossing folder; Simon Says Stamp Happy Birthday die; Stampendous aged black frantage enamel; Darkroom Door butterfly stamp; versafine ink & clear ep; Inktense pencils; happy sentiment sticker.

Thanks for visiting,

 Cathy x

Excited party chicken!

Hi everyone! I'm making the most of the Easter break while hubby and one of my sons is at Bluesfest. It's amazing how few dishes and laundry there is when there's only 2 of us at home! (My other son and I are minding the animals.)

I haven't used this stamp for years but thought it would fit the bill at CASology,

where the theme is leap.

 

The sentiments and chicken are stamped with versafine ink and heat embossed with clear ep. I coloured the chicken with prisma colour pencils and tombow pens.

The theme at Die Cuttin Divas is animal cruelty awareness.

The die I used was Crafts 4 U stitched rectangles.

At Addicted to CAS the theme is humour.

At Addicted to Stamps & More, it's make your mark.

At The Male Room, it's anything goes with the option of one layer.

This card was as "scary" as one layer as all of the stamping and colouring is on the one panel lol!

Supplies:

Stamps: Penny Black totally excited chicken; Art Impressions sentiment (still on loan from my sister lol!); Paper Smooches birthday sentiment from sentiment sampler set.

Other: Crafts 4 U Stitched rectangle die; Prismacolour pencils; tombows; onyx black versafine ink & clear embossing powder.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

Metallic stripes and gears.

Hi everyone, I hope you are enjoying Easter in your part of the world.

I''m enjoying a quiet spell in the craft room after baking, visiting my parents, and getting some much needed housework done!

I wanted to play along with the challenge at CASe This Sketch.

I really struggle with sketch challenges, but this one is similar to a design I use a lot.

I spread some grit paste onto watercolour paper through a stripes stencil.

When it was dry I sprinkled on some rusty car infusion powder and spritzed with water.

Next I added some Brushos SprinkleIt in copper (it's a powder that works well with brushos so thought it would be ok with infusions too), and spritzed with water again.

The diecut sentiment and gears were inked with versamark, sprinkled with Lindys midnight copper, midnight bronze and cafe au lait embossing powders.

I've layered the happy and some of the gears up 3 times for extra dimension.

Here's a closer look at the shimmer!

I'm also linking up to the fun & games challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz.

Lots of guys love tinkering, so I figure gears would be fun on a card for them!

At Watercooler Wednesday it's an anything goes masculine theme.

It's an anything goes theme at Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes With Dies.

This card used a stencil, dies and a sticker, no stamps at all!

I'm also linking up to the CAS Stencil Card Challenge where the theme is to use texture or embossing paste, so much fun!

Supplies:

Tim Holtz stripes stencil; Ranger distress grit paste; Paper Artsy Rusty Car Infusions; Brushos SprinkleIt in copper; Memory Box Antique ger set & Mini Gears dies; Poppystamps jumbled birthday die; versamark ink; Lindys midnight copper, midnight bronze and cafe au lait embossing powder; sentiment sticker; glossy accents to glue everything to the grit paste!

Thankyou for visiting,

Cathy x

Stencilled mandala with pearl embossing paste and powder.

Hi everyone, have you had a chance to play along with the embossing paste challenge at CAS Stencil yet?

Well, if not, there's still plenty of time and there's lots of new inspiration from the team.

There are also some video tutorials on the challenge blog to help

 with this technique.

I recently purchasd the heart mandala stencil from Simon Says Stamp and was inspired by

Yana Smakula's video on using this stencil with embossing paste and pearl embossing powder.

I spread mother of pearl modellier creme through part of the stencil, then sprinkled on some satin pearl powder onto the wet design. (Remember to put your stencil and tools into water so that the paste doesn't get a chance to dry on them.)

You're supposed to wait for the paste to dry before heat embossing, but I'm afraid I wasn't that patient lol! It bubbled a bit but I think it's still ok.

I diecut the heart from vellum and layered the sentiment diecut up for dimension.

I'm linking up to these challenges:

Happy Little Stampers anything goes with dies.

Mix it up card Challenge, I've gone with the anything goes option.

Stamplorations CAS Challenge, also anything goes.

and anything goes at Word Art Wednesday.

Supplies:

Simon Says Stamp heart mandala stencil and sentiment stamp from the happy set; Viva mother of pearl modellier creme; satin pearl embossing powder; Impress heart die: Couture Creations Love die; kraft card stock.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

Just keep swimming!

 

Hi everyone, life has been pretty hectic lately. 

Both of my parents have moved into aged care in a local facility, so there's lots of family and house stuff that needs doing. They are both pretty happy and well cared for so that's the main thing.

I'll just keep swimming lol!

I wanted to play along with a few challenges before I miss the deadlines, and used this

  new to me goldfish stamp. I was having real trouble lining up the layers but

luckily I have a stamping tool and that helped me to get it right!

I used distress oxides for the fish and background and the face is stamped using a rust colour from Hero Arts.

At CAS Mix Up card Challenge, the theme is layered stamping and heat embossing.

I didn't have any suitable coloured embossing powders, so stamped over the coloured fish with versamark ink and heat set it with clear embossing powder. I fussy cut the fish then popped it up on foam dots for dimension.

My elements are layered stamping & heat embossing, sponging ink, fussy cutting and die cutting.

Here's a closer look at the shine

It's all about occasions at Watercooler Wednesday.I do seem to make quite a few encouragement cards, so I hope that's an ok occasion.

At Just Us Girls the theme is off the edge. 

At Simon Says Stamp Wednesday, it's no designer paper.

Supplies:

Hero Arts layering goldfish & sentiment stamp: stitched circle die; distress oxide inks; versamark ink and clear embossing powder.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

Birthday Feathers.

Hi everyone, it's time for a new challenge at Seize the Birthday, and it's a fun anything goes theme this time! I hope you can play along with any birthday themed cards.

The Design Team have some wonderful ideas to inspire you.

This was a quick and easy card to make.

 I had an old calendar in my stash from my days working as a librarian. The pages were these gorgeous shades of bronze, pink and purple and the paper is lovely and thick. (I just checked the date and it's from 1999! I left my last library in 2001 so it pays to never throw things out lol!)

I diecut the feathers, glued them in place and added a bronze sequin.

The sentiment was stamped and heat embossed.

 Since this took about 10 minutes to do, I'm linking up to the challenge at AAA Cards where it's a made in minutes theme.

Happy Little Stampers Anything goes with Dies.

Stamplorations CAS Challenge.

The theme at Die Cuttin Divas is national library day! 

Not sure if my work connection and the calendar is suitable!

Supplies:

Hero Arts paper layering feather die; Annabelle Stamps retired sentiment stamp; versamark ink & clear ep.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

Spring butterfly, stencilling and brushos.

Hi everyone, it's time for a new challenge at CAS Stencil where the theme is to use a stencil with embossing pastes, gels, creams etc. Lots of fun!

 There are lots of how to videos on the blog and some fabulous cards from the DT to inspire you.

Hope you can play along!

I taped a stencil down onto some watercolour paper and applied some grit texture paste with a spatula.

When it was dry, I sprinkled on some green brushos, spritzed with water and moved the panel around so that the colour flowed around the stencil details.

 I decided to dab a paper towel on top and that removed a lot of the colour from the texture paste but it had saturated the rest of the watercolour paper.

The butterfly was stamped with versafine ink, clear embossed, fussy cut and coloured with Inktense pencils.

The sentiment is from a retired set by Annabelle Stamps, also clear heat embossed.

I'm linking up to these challenges:

Allsorts where the challenge is to use yellow.

Happy Little Stampers Watercolour Challenge where it's anything goes watercolour with the option of bright. My elements are brushos and Inktense pencils.

Mix it Up Challenge, I've gone with the anything goes option.

Watercooler Wednesday Feminine anything goes challenge.

Supplies: 

Tim Holtz feather layering stencil; Ranger grit texture paste; brushos; Darkroom door butterfly stamp; Annabelle Stamps sentiment stamp; versafine ink & clear ep.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x