Framed fern & infusions.

Hi everyone, I've been playing with infusions and have had messy fun making a few backgrounds!

They can look quite muddy and unappealing until you diecut them lol!

This was a mixture of black knight, sage and royal blood blue. I spritzed on some gold glimmer mist too for some shimmer.
I've diecut one from the infusions background and inlaid into one diecut from white linen card.

I'm linking up to these challenges:

Penny Black Saturday Challenge and I'm playing along with the option of nature.

Dies R Us, anything goes,

Double D Challenge, stitches.

I've gone with a simple stitched rectangle frame.

Watercooler Wednesday

Not sure if giving thanks fits as an occasion, but I've had the need for quite a few lately.

Supplies:

Penny Black framed fern and Crafts 4 U stitched rectangle dies; Paper Artsy infusions; Simon Says Stam thanks stamp; versafine clair ink & clear ep.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

Christmas Nativity.

Hi everyone, it's time for a new challenge at CAS Christmas Challenge, and Marcia has chosen Nativity as the theme.

This could be the wise men, the nativity scene, or even the farm animals.

The design team and our guest designer  Jane  have some wonderful cards to inspire you, so I hope you can play along.

This is a new to me stamp of the three kings. It's a Lavinia stamp, so has lots of fine detail.

I stamped it in versafine clair nocturne, clear embossed it, then blended on some oxide inks as a sunset background.

The sentiment is by Annabelle Stamps, sadly, long retired.

I'm linking up to these challenges:
The House that Stamps Built where it's Christmas in July.

Word Art Wednesday where it's anything goes.

Supplies:

Stamps: Lavinia- Three Kings ; Annabelle Stamps - Gifted Swirls;

Other: Versafine Clair ink, clear ep; distress oxide ink; Crafts 4 U stitched rectangle die.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

Red, white and blue.

Hi everyone, it's time for a new challenge at Seize the Birthday,  and JoAnn has chosen a colour theme, red white and blue.

You can always play along with the anything goes option too, so long as it's a birthday theme.

The design team and our party guest Jen have some wonderful cards to inspire you, so I hope you can play along.

I chose an older Penny Black stamp from 2008 and white embossed it, then blended on some distress inks. It's ages since I've used them as oxides are my go to inks!

I wanted the white flowers to pop a bit more so added some opal white liquid pearls to them.

I think the black border has made the card too dark, but I needed something between the red and blue layers. Maybe I should've stamped the flowers in black...hmmm.

I'm linking up to theses challenges:

Watercooler Wednesday,

Retro Rubber

Supplies:

Penny Black constellations stamp; Hero Arts unicorn ink; Wow bright white embossing powder; distress inks; Liquid pearls; Crafts 4 U stitched rectangle die; sentiment sticker.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

Watercoloured Lucienne Tile.

Hi everyone, it's time for a new challenge at Seize the Birthday and Nancy has chosen watercolouring as the theme.

Of course, you can always play along with our anything goes option, as long as it's for a birthday.



The design tean and our party guest have some wonderful cards to inspire you, so I hope you can play along.

Watercolouring is not my strong point lol!
 I tried the faux glazed glass glass technique with my Kuretake paints to create a background in blues, with a touch of Finetec silver paint.

Here's a closer look at the colours.

It's a bit hard to see the colour variation behind the diecut in the picture, the real thing looks better.

The butterfly was stamped, clear embossed, fussycut and coloured with Inktense pencils and an aqua brush.

I'm linking up to these challenges:

Addicted to Stamps & More,

Outside the Box,

Happy Little Stampers Watercolour Challenge and I'm using layers.

Supplies:

Memory Box Lucienne tile die; Hero Arts Antique Engravings butterfly stamp; Kuretake Gansai and Finetec watercolour paints; Inktense pencils; versafine clair ink & clear ep; sentiment sticker.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

Birthday dolphins.

Hi everyone, I was asked to make a card for an ocean lover who also like dolphins and whales.

I have no whale images, but hope they like these dolphins.

The background was inked with distress oxides and spritzed with a little water.

The dolphins are diecut from silver paper and the sentiment embossed with metallic silver powder.

Here's a closer look at the shine.

I'm linking up to these challenges:

Dies R Us where it's a summertime fun theme.

The splashing puddles and diving dolphin dies I used are from Memory Box.

Simon Says Stamp Monday, it's a man thing!

Watercooler Wednesday,

Outside the Box,

and Happy Little Stampers Anything goes with dies.

Supplies:

Memory Box splashing puddles and diving dolphins dies; Paper Smooches sentiment sampler stamp; distress oxide inks; verafine clair nocturne ink and Wow metallic silver embossing powder.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

Summer Birthday!

Hi everyone it's time for a new challenge at Seize the Birthday and Colleen has chosen a Summer theme. It's been very cold here as Winter has just started, so some summer warmth would be lovely!

You can always play along with our anything goes birthday theme too. 

 The DT and our party guest have some wonderful cards to inspire you, so I hope you can play along.

I seem to be stuck on a balloon theme lately! I thought this background from my stash looked summery and hot and would show off these shimmery balloons well.

The background was made by adding some oxide inks to a craft mat, spritzing with a little water, then smooshing on some glossy photo paper. When it was dry I wiped off the chalky residue from the oxide ink to reveal the bright summery colours!

The balloons are cut from some scraps of white shimmer paper, I never throw anything away!

I layered the diecuts on some black card to add a bit of shadow to help them pop off the background.

I'm linking up to these challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday, make your own background,

Addicted to Stamps & More,

Double D Challenge, use your scraps!

Supplies:

Glossy photo paper; Paper Smooches balloon and Serendipity Stamps sentiment dies; birthday sticker; white shimmer paper.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

Christmas bells.

Hi everyone, this is my first time making a card for the CAS Christmas Challenge DT.

There are a few changes happening with the other CAS challenges. 

Stencil, Mix up and Watercolour will all be part of one challenge that rotates through each of these styles.

I hope I have time to still play along in these challenges, but I will be focussing on the Christmas one, and looking forward to building up my stash of cards early!

Linda has chosen bells as the theme for June.

My stash consists of one stamp with a bell on it!

It's a retired Stampin Up set called Christmas Classics. I thought it needed something to jazz it up so diecut the large circle burst in white card and layered it onto the base.

Then I diecut 3 more in different coloured glitter papers and inlaid the dots!

It was very therapeutic lol!

Here's a closer look at the sparkle.

I'm linking up to this challenge:

Merry Little Christmas Challenge,  where it's anything goes Christmas all year rond.

Supplies:

Stampin Up Christmas Classics stamp; versafine clair ink & Wow silver embossing powder; Memory Box large circle burst die; glitter paper.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

Celebrate the good times.

Hi everyone, I needed a quick birthday card, and diecut these balloons from my box of leftovers.

I layered them up for dimension, and clear embossed the sentiment die for some shine.

I'm linking up to these challenges:

AAA Cards where they are celebrating their 6th birthday! Congratulations!

Addicted to Stamps & More, 

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday, anything goes,

Watercooler Wednesday.

Supplies:

Clearly Besotted party time dies and stamp; distress oxide inks; versafine ink & clear ep; Waffle Flower celebrate die.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

Smile!

Hi everyone, I'm CASEing a card by my blogging friend  Brenda made a while back,

I just loved her smiling donkey!

A friend loves cows and I thought this would be perfect for her!

I used distress oxide inks for the background, then stamped the cow. I stamped another one, coloured it with Prismacolour pencils, then fussy cut it without the horns, tail and legs. I paper pieced the coloured image onto the stamped one.

I'm linking up to these challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday, anything goes;

Addicted to Stamps & More,

Watercooler Wednesday

The House that Stamps Built, anything goes

Supplies:

Katzelkraft farm animals stamp; So Suzy Crackerbox small grass stamp; Happy Little Stampers birthday sentiment stamp; Clearly Besotted laugh out loud again stamp; versafine clair inks & clear ep; distress oxide inks; Prismacolour pencils.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

Gelli plate daisies.

Hi everyone, here's another card from the gelli plate background I made the other day.

I love the look of the burnt sienna brushos in this one.

The stems are coloured with Inktense pencils.

I'm linking up to these challenges:

Retro Rubber,

 my elements are flowers, embossing, (sentiment is wet embossed), diecut. 

The sentiment stamp by Paper Smooches is an oldie from a few years ago. No date on the package but I bought it in around 2017.

Happy Little Stampers anythng goes with dies.

Mix it Up Challenge, I'm playing along with the anything goes option.

Papercraft Challenges, Spring theme.

Supplies:

Tim Holtz wildflowers and Crafts 4 U stitched rectangle dies; Paper smooches sentiment sampler stamp; versafine clair ink & clear ep; gelli plate; colourbox ink and brushos.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x