INKY FINGERS

The new theme over on the Try it on Tuesday Challenge Blog is one of my favourites -Thankful.

Our American and Canadian friends have the privilege of celebrating Thanksgiving – what a great idea!

I’ve made a simple card for this week – using a Unity Stamps image and some Impression Obsession words. Blowing Dandelion clocks is definitely ‘up there’ on my list of small things to be thankful for and is one of the first things I taught my granddaughter to do.

I stamped – and overstamped – the words in the background because they are all emotions this simple little act evoke in me. For me, it’s all about childhood and memories (good ones) and that amazing feeling of being a teeny weeny part of nature and the whole of creation.

Thanks for looking

See you soon

Cath

xxx

is the theme of this week’s Make My Monday challenge, so I made this… using Rusty Hinge, Dried Marigold, Victorian Velvet and Aged Mahogany Distress Oxides. I used several stamps from different companies, but mainly Art Journey stamps and Paperartsy.

I’m gonna shock you today and just post ONE card, and entering ONE challenge, lol.

Thanks for dropping by

See you soon

Cath

xxx 

Hello lovelies… I’m just nipping in quickly to join in a couple of challenges before they disappear… I’ve already missed one I’d made something for, so rather than wait until I finish a couple of others, I thought I’d better get these posted. I also NEED to close some of the tabs I have open, draining my laptop resources

I made this for the Daring Cardmakers Apple Day challenge… it’s a long time since I’ve used this Chapel Road stamp. I used Oxides, and stamped the main image three times.. but wasn’t very happy that there is no real focus point, so I added the lettering – which is, in fact, a stamp from Time to Stamp, cut up. I love the fruits at this time of year, so it’s a good reason to celebrate them.

I’d also like to enter it into the Artistic Stamper’s Inktober challenge.

We’re now well and truly into Autumn and feeling the change in the weather in the North West, so it’s easy to think of Autumn, especially with yesterday’s sudden shedding of leaves – they were everywhere!

So, still focusing on Autumn. this one is for

Addicted to CAS challenge – Foliage

Addicted to Stamps and More’s CAS challenge.

Addicted to Stamps’ Autumn Colours challenge

Dare 2B Artzy’s Fall Challenge

Double Trouble’s Halloween or Fall Challenge

Penny Black and More Autumn Splendour (3rd entry) 

and

Dragonfly Dreams’ Autumnal Colours Challenge.

For My Time to Craft – a cat! This is another Katzelcraft image.

I haven’t done any stamping the last couple of days… I’ve been trying to unjam my Big Shot…. I managed to run misaligned plates through it and they’ve jammed it I’ve taken it apart, following instructions on the web, but I still can’t get the plates out, so I’m rather miffed! Hopefully, I’ll learn from it, though I may get my son to ‘bash it’ a bit, to see if he can release them!

Thank you for looking

Back soon

Cath

xxx

There’s a Fairies or Mystical Creations challenge at Crafty Cardmakers, so I thought I’d share my Oddball fairy…

For the first one I used Seedless Preserve and Toasted Marmalade Oxides, so I coloured her accordingly. I used the words that came with the stamp.

The second is pretty, bright and sparkly – very simple but with a fair bit of bling

Sparkle and Sprinkle challenge is to use sparkle, glitter or flocking and I think this qualifies…

Here’s a close up of the bling… I used Nuvo sparkle and some gems, adding Ice Stickles to the hair. It took me ages to find the hearts because I so rarely use them.

I’ve fallen in love with these stamps from Katzelcraft and had so much fun playing with them.  There’s an Animal Antics challenge on SSS Wednesday challenge.

So here’s my first one… a super colourful Oxide background, but very hard to get the colours accurate either with a scan or a photo!

…and my second…

I’ll make sure the animaux are standing on a line next time – the poor sheepy looks as if he’s floating, lol. It wasn’t deliberate but it does add a little fun to the scene.

Back to Basics and Beyond are looking for Stencils or Masks – I used a stencil for the floor and for the stone wall, though it may not be super clear.

My third…

I’ll be back with more Animaux, but that’s all for now.

Thanks for looking

See you soon

Cath

xxx 

I’ve been wondering if colour can be considered a creature comfort?  What do you think?  Nothing cheers the soul more than a colour explosion – it brightens an otherwise dull day and just makes me smile! It certainly did this week, after a few days of limiting myself to black and white.

So, I decided it IS in fact, a creature comfort because it’s so comforting, lol but we CAN do without it

So here’s my spread for Art Journal Journey, whose theme for October is…. Creature Comforts.

Here’s each page in turn, so you can see more clearly.

 CAS Mixup have a Metallic challenge at the moment, so I thought I’d give it a go, using one of my die cuts and some gold leaf. I can’t find my multicoloured leaf OR my copper leaf (I bet I’ve thrown it out in one of my recent clearouts ) so I improvised with some Pearlex copper ink, which I dabbed over bits of the gold and spattered over the card, with some Delicata gold. It doesn’t look very CAS but ‘white space’ doesn’t have to be white – right?

This next card started life as CAS, but soon developed into a more colourful specimen… I noticed Neet had been using Promarkers and decided I’d get mine out – I just forget I have them and enjoy playing with Prisma pencils or watercolour, so I coloured the leaves with those – and yes, they bled out a little, despite the clear embossing! I quite like the result, though.

I also made another simple leafy card, using embossing resist – I noticed that there were still some Autumn challenges around, so I thought I’d enter those.

Stamping Sensations – Colours of Autumn

Penny Black and More – Autumn Splendour

Moo Mania and More – Autumn

The theme on Shopping our Stash is Pink is the New Orange, so here’s a simple offering for that, made with Oxides and Paperartsy stamps.

I think that’s enough for now… I have more to share, but will be back tomorrow or the day after with those.

Thanks for looking

Back soon…

Cath

xxx

The theme at Time Out Challenges is Colourful. I love colourful backgrounds and my luvverly postie had just brought me this new set of stamps, so I used an Oxide rainbow I’d already created and stamped over it. I’m not sure about the butterfly, but I just felt it needed a little something to balance it.

There are still some Autumn/Fall challenges around, so I made a couple of leafy cards, but this time sticking with greens and using only an SU set mum bought me. They’re both very similar apart from a change in one of the leafy colours and a bit more stamping on the second.

Dare to be Artsy – Fall

CAS on Friday – Thank you card

Ellibelle’s Crafty Wednesday – Outdoors/Nature

Words to Craft By – Leaves

Shopping Our Stash – Giving Thanks

Then I spotted a pink and grey challenge, which is right up (or down?) my street at the moment because grey is (one of) my latest obsession(s) 

This is pretty Autumnal in theme, too. I used Hickory Smoke Oxide and Prisma Pencils to colour.

Cas-ual Fridays – Pinks and Greys

I think the rain is playing on my mind because I made this yesterday, playing with Hickory Smoke and Dusty Concord Oxides.

This is for  the Creative Moments ATG challenge 

and Tuesday Throwdown’s ATG challenge

That’s all for today

Thanks for looking

Back soon

Cath

xxx

I couldn’t resist this one when I saw the elemental inspiration on the Daring Cardmaker’s Blog…

I love these colours and of course I’ve been leaf obsessed for the last month or so. I did, however, decide to do something different for this one, so using Distress Oxides, I made this.

For the Calling All Sisters Challenge, Black and white, I made this…

…and for My Time to Craft’s Kraft card challenge, I made this, with my favourite all time technique – Versamark resist on glossy card…

… which, because of the quote, also fits Fashionable Stamping’s Quote Away challenge.

The challenge on Sweet Stampin is to use a stencil, so I used my Phyllis Harris stamps by Unity to make this.

The challenge at Allsorts is to use Trees and/or Leaves, so I took a break from what I consider to be Autumn colours and used pink and grey Oxides for this one.

That’s all for today...

I’m off to see the dentist now – unfortunately, I have an abscess, so have been in pain the last few days and my face is ridiculously swollen on one side

Thanks for looking

See you soon

Cath

xxx

It’s good to ring the changes, so I thought I’d try a couple of CAS Autumn themes.

My first is for Crazy for CAS, whose theme is Fall in love…using an old Stampendous stamp.

My second is a design I often come back to because it’s simple but effective.

I’d like to link this to the following challenges:-

Penny Black and More – Autumn Splendour

Stamping Sensations – Shades of Autumn

Addicted to Stamps – Autumn Colours

Allsorts – Trees and/or Leaves

This next one didn’t turn out as intended… I stamped the image in Aged Mahogany DI, intending to go back in with my Prismas, to add some shading, etc, but first I used a damp paintbrush to work the colour – a bit too enthusiastically! It smudged too much. Giving up on it, I continued to smudge the stamping with more water and went off to do something else. When I came back, I decided I actually like the effect, so I added a bit of text stamping, followed by a sentiment, then layered it up. Looking at it now, I’m thinking I may add a little bit of another colour to make it pop… I’ll go back to it later.

I have a couple of circular gelli plate prints in my background pile and this is one of them, in one of my favourite colour combinations.

I’ve missed journalling while my visitors were here and really wanted to take part in Art Journal Journey’s Creature Comforts Challenge, but I don’t have any stamps of the things I find comforting and didn’t really want to draw them…  T

hen I remembered the napkin stash I keep on the top of my shelving… et voilà, I found some my Swiss friend, Cathy, who lives in France, gave me last time I was visiting. None of them are straight, but t was fun to mess around  even if I’m not really a chocolate fan (I prefer crisps and fruit) and I prefer a nice medium white wine to a red!

But I do definitely  love a good, black coffee and especially in the morning…

Art Journal Journey – Creature Comforts

Back soon

Thanks for looking

Have a great week!

Cath

xxx

I’m still playing with the beautiful, rich shades of Autumn and nature stamps… can’t resist. 

The Dragonfly Dreams challenge is Autumnal Colours and

Ellibelle’s Crafty Challenge is Nature/Outdoors, while Country View Challenges have a Plant-tastic theme..

This one’s a simple leafy card, stamped on watercolour paper with Archival inks, then watercoloured with Distress inks and splattered with Delicata gold ink.

Then I played with my other Autumn love -  ‘shrooms - for a little while… my friend and I used to go fungus foraging and often found some amazing specimens!

This one’s fungus and faeries… ‘shrooms courtesy of Lavinia Stamps….bunny from Inkylicious.

Then, playing with green, orange and brown , I made this background, then stamped it with Lavinia flowers? and more ‘shrooms… colouring with Prisma pencils and a Mermaid paint pen (Jane Davenport). Both the flowers and the ‘shrooms are stamped with Versafine Clair Fallen Leaves, which is dark brown, but it looks black.

I was thinking about these colours and suddenly remembered my Chinese Lanterns stamp, so I stamped in Russet Archival, then coloured them, again with Distress Inks, adding a few floating leaves and a bit of Wild Honey stencilling. I love the Impression Obsession words.

There’s a a Make Your Mark challenge on Addicted to Stamps and More 

and a ‘Fall’ Challenge at Sisterhood of Crafters.

The Everybody Art Challenge is asking for Orange and Brown.

Lastly, a very simple leafy card, made with the card left after die cutting and one of my scrapling cards for the CASology Gratitude Challenge.

Thank you so much for looking

Back soon

Cath

xxx