ATC's Joy to the world
1 hour ago
Tuesday, 31 December 2019
Just popping in to join Time Out's Current challenge
C S Lewis is one of my favourite authors anyway, but I love this and think it's a good one to focus on for the new year!
2020 sounds so futuristic, lol, but it's almost here 😵😉
So I made this...
I had so much fun using my favourite colours (Oxides), white embossed text and stitched circle with lots of water. Then I mounted it onto a deep teal card - but it looked so wrong (see below). It just didn't bring out the gorgeous colour, so I demounted it and used this lovely lilac shade instead. Just goes to show how important a background is!
I'm much happier with it now 😁
I'm also linking to
Allsorts, Anything Goes Challenge (almost forgot again!)
I intended making a special New Year card, but life intervened...so all that remains is to wish you all a
VERY
Happy, Healthy and Blessed New Year!
See you again in
2020
😁
Thanks for calling in
Back soon
Cath
xxx
Sunday, 29 December 2019
The time between Christmas and New Year always seems a little strange.
I see it as a time to relax and to think about both the year that's coming to an end and the year that's about to begin - there are always new adventures to be had - especially if the old ones were too much!
One of our KCUK members has a birthday in this time, so I made her this card.
I used Oxides for the background with a couple of collage stamps featuring stars and this lovely Startrish Design image as my focal image. I added a few of the stars I die cut from my TH Christmas Tree decorations.
Of course, it's going to be late... oops! I honestly didn't forget the date, I just lost track of which day was which - a consequence of total relaxation - so only realised last night that it was Saturday 😁
I don't think she'll even notice because she's very Scottish and will be seriously celebrating Hogmanay!
I don't think I shared the one I made for Christmas, although I did share some of the tags I made with the smaller images... it features another of Trish's designs and a background in similar colours, but with Christmas texts stamped behind her, embossed in black and white.
They both seem to have lost the very rosy cheeks I gave them...sometimes alcohol markers blend a little TOO well - or maybe I blend them too much! These girls are larger than I expected, just over 5"/13cm tall, so I'm pleased I decided to get two smaller images, too.
The Country View Challenges Stars challenge is still live, so I'll link to them and to
Make My Monday, Female Birthday
Make My Monday, Female Birthday
Happy In Between Christmas and New Year!
Thank you for calling in
Back soon
Cath
xxx
Tuesday, 24 December 2019
Just wanted to nip in and wish all of you a very Happy Christmas!
I hope you're all ready, chilling and ready to just enjoy Christmas day.
I also hope you're all spending it with people you love 😉
but even if not, I hope it's a very special day, celebrating Emmanuel.
I'm just sharing a few of my gift tags and gift card holders I made - very quickly and very last minute - and spent WAY too much time on...
and a couple of cards...
It will be good to be able to tidy my craft room and to get back to 'normal' stamping 😊
A very Happy Christmas to you all!
Thank you for calling in
Back soon
Cath
xxx
Sunday, 15 December 2019
Just popping in to show you my little die scenes...I wanted to send a few of these and was determined to make them 3D, so I cut all the dies, prepared the base cards, splattering white stars with paint and Frantage EP, and played.
Once I'd spent over an hour messing with the bottom bit on the second, I realised I was making this WAY more complicated than it needed to be, so I ditched the foam tape and simply stuck them down on the card. They need a tunnel card, really - I'll come back to that.
There are three very similar cards, so here's the one on which I used foam tape, with a snapshot of the others beneath.
I'm linking to these Stars challenges;
and to
Allsorts, Inspired by a Song, Joy to the World
Hope you're all much further on with your Christmas prep than I am!
On a personal note, I had a spinal nerve root block on Monday, that I've had a reaction to, so I'm not able to do all I'd hoped.
So I'm enjoying focusing on Christmas 😊
It's our Carols by Candlelight service tonight - yay - always very special, though I'm not singing this year.
Thanks for calling in
Back soon
Cath
xxx
Friday, 13 December 2019
Just popping in to add my challenge to Allsorts' current challenge, Snowmen or Snowflakes.
I love this huge snowflake. I embossed it in delicate Lilac Pearl embossing powder - hard to see unless you're in the right light, but it's beautiful.
Thanks for calling in
Back soon
Cath
xxx
Tuesday, 10 December 2019
'Morning, Bloggers!
Christmas is Coming!
It's a wonderful time of year,
but it's also a busy time of year. So even if you have all your Christmas cards, tags, etc done and dusted, we hope you'll join us in our final challenge of the year 😉
Whichever medium you prefer is fine...just play and have fun.
My card was fun to make and didn't take too long.
The background is Oxides, the TH characters are stamped, coloured, cut out and glued in place over the masked snowy background. Those cheeky Dylusions words complete it and - to me, anyway - go perfectly with the googly eyed figures. TH pines in the background, too. It's finished off with gorgeous Frantage snowy embossing powder, I love the random effect.
I've used Appliqué for the furry bits and the edges of the beard and moustache.
(I almost melted the googly eyes with the heat too! Oops!)
(I almost melted the googly eyes with the heat too! Oops!)
Please don't forget to check out the fabulous inspiration from the rest of the DT.
We look forward to 'seeing' you on your blogs 😊
Addicted to Stamps, Cold and Frosty
Make My Monday, Anything Christmas
A Place to Start, Happy Holidays
Stamping Sensations, Anything Goes
Sweet Stampin, Christmas
Joy of Sets, Snow, trees and reindeer
Friendship Challenge, Christmas/New Year
Thanks for calling in
Back soon
Cath
xxx
Sunday, 8 December 2019
...makes all things divine 😁
I know that's not how the song goes, but it makes me smile!
Just sharing a couple more shimmery cards.
I can't stop singing 'Joy to the World!' so that's showing up in my cards.
AND I used die cuts - oooh! Some stamping, but not as much as usual. I also seem to be in snow mode AND have used GEMS...
This one was for Mum...I hope it gets there in time. NZ post is unreliable to say the least, but I did leave it late and rushed out to catch the last post on the day I made it.
I forgot to take a photo of the inside. I had awful problems keeping this clean, until I realised that the smudges came from ink on my sleeve... it has two fronts, stuck together!
😖😖😖
This one is really glittery. I used a Gold Glittery ep for the holly background.
and more die cuts...
Linking to Simon Says Monday Challenge, Let's Sparkle!
Simon Says Wednesday, Traditional Christmas
and to
Everybody Art Challenge, Anything Goes
Thanks for calling in
Back soon
Cath
xxx
Saturday, 7 December 2019
Hello bloggers!
Just a quick couple of Poinsettia cards to show you.
I'm still gradually unmounting a lot of my older stamps and this Hero Arts poinsettia is one of them - as is the Happy Christmas text behind it.
For some strange reason, I've gone all glittery and shiny this Christmas, for some reason - not my usual style at all, but I'm enjoying it. The multilingual Christmas text on this is embossed with Judikins Egyptian gold, which is slightly sparkly and a gorgeous shade of gold. I'm trying to find some from somewhere - this is running out and my beautiful, no longer with us, friend sent me what I'm now using. I had a bit of a problem with the Oxide inkpad - it exploded when I inked up the stamp! I haven't reinked it, but it was kind of 'leaking' and put way too much ink on the stamp! So this is a second or third generation stamping. It's (roughly) edged in Delicata Gold Shimmer, my favourite gold inkpad.
You can see the EP a bit better here... the glittery bits are Brusho Sprinkle it Pearl.
This one is similar, but I stamped holly down one side of the Kraft card.
If you could see better, you'd see that I managed to stamp the words upside down - duh! I used Delicata to stamp everything but the Poinsettia.
I thought I'd taken a photo but no, I haven't...sorry. It looks much clearer in real life. I don't have time for that now, sorry, because my brother and his 'other half' are coming over today, taking me out and staying the night.
Simon Says Stamp Mondays have a Let's Sparkle challenge, so I'm linking to them and to
Simon Says Stamp Wednesdays, Traditional Christmas.
Thanks for calling in
Back soon
Cath
xxx
Thursday, 5 December 2019
Morning, Bloggers
I'm busy creating but it isn't leaving much time to blog, so because I don't want to post everything at once, I'll just upload a couple at a time.
A couple of very simple Christmas birdie cards first... I used appliqué on the hats on this one and although I left it to dry naturally, when I was heating something else, they puffed up a bit. It looks much better done that way - not as much like polystyrene!
...which I will link to:
Creatalicious, ATG, optional Winter
Shopping Our Stash, Holidays
A Place to Start, Happy Holidays
I made this for a friend, who's going through a difficult time, using stamps inks, pencils and all kinds - one of those enjoyable little things that makes you smile as you're making it!
Thank you for calling in
Back soon
Cath
xxx
Monday, 2 December 2019
Hello bloggers!
I actually made some Christmas cards - ones that I'll send to close friends and family, that is... 😊 This is early for me! My NZ cards may even get there on time this year 😉 It's good to get time just to play, instead of having to produce something and blog it immediately.
Joan, who's part of the DT at Try it on Tuesday, used this Woodware stamp in her challenge and I fell in love with it. PLUS, it's a one stamp card, which is perfect for last minute (as always) cards and especially for my family.
I made a Brushos background, then stamped and embossed it, adding a little more colour with Inktense and Prismacolour pencils and a white gel pen. The sides were edged with Versamark, gold embossed and that's it. I like it - even thougoh the pic makes it look darker and less colourful than it is - and have even made another a different way. I think it would also look good simply gold embossed, so I may well try that later. Thanks, Joan!
My Swiss friend, in France, sends me lots of cheap clear stamps from her local shop, and when I saw this one, I thought I'd make a quick card with it to give her easy ideas... I hand drew the stems, à la Aall and Create's stamps, embossed, then added some Tumbled Glass ink through my gorgeous stencil and a stamped some parts of an Aall and Create background stamp in Peacock Feather DI, adding a few splashes. Simple, but pretty.
Here are the stamps - I think It would be easy to replicate them, too.
I'm linking to the following challenges:-
Addicted to Stamps, ATG
Penny Black & More, Flowers all over
Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday, Christmas/Holidays
A Place to start, Christmas and other Holidays
That's it for today...
Thank you so much for calling in
Back soon
Cath
xxx
Saturday, 30 November 2019
Yay!
We did it! We created something every day for the whole of November.
So, today I'm thankful for you - the AEDM participants and my other blogging friends.
Thank you for visiting faithfully.
Your lovely comments are SO much appreciated.
To celebrate today, I did what I enjoy most - I made cards 😁 and they are - for me, anyway - unusually CAS!
The first one is for Art Every Day participants...to Congratulate you/us for sticking with it!
(I just noticed the hair isn't coloured and I haven't added finer details, such as flowers - oops! I'll finish that in a mo - I have someone in mind for this card)😉
The second is simply to say a huge
Thank you
to all my blogging friends.
Thank you, very, VERY much!
I'm also linking to Simon Says Stamp Monday's Tape it up Challenge (Washi tape borders)
Simon Says Stamp Wednesdays Anything Goes Challenge
Creatalicious, Anything Goes
Words 2 Craft By, Thankful
and
Addicted to Stamps, Anything Goes Challenge.
Thank you for calling in
Back soon
Cath
xxx
Friday, 29 November 2019
Today I'm thankful for my morning coffee!
I allow myself three mugs of caffeinated coffee a day and oh how I love it!
My page is a mishmash of Oxide inks over an acrylic paint wash, using stencil, stamps, die cut alphabet, Posca pens, splatters, Inktense pencils and washi tape
I'll add the personal journalling later...
Linking to Art Every Day... Day 29!
Also to Simon Says Stamp Mondays, Tape it up
Thanks for calling in
Back soon
Cath
xxx
Thursday, 28 November 2019
Today, I'm thankful that there is always light, always hope, even - and perhaps especially - in dark and/or difficult circumstances.
Happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating!
Happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating!
Linking to Art Every Day
Love the way the gold crackle shows up on the dark greys and black cracks.
Thank you for calling in
Back soon
Cath
xxx
Wednesday, 27 November 2019
Beware what you say...words have power!
I'm thankful today for the power of words.
One kind word can change someone's entire day - and vice-versa.
It's taken me a long time to learn that a harsh or critical word can badly affect the rest of the day for both the speaker and the hearer 😉
One kind word can change someone's entire day - and vice-versa.
It's taken me a long time to learn that a harsh or critical word can badly affect the rest of the day for both the speaker and the hearer 😉
This was a quick page - or would've been had the white Posca Pen cooperated 😖 Please tell me why of all Posca pens it's only the white ones that inevitably seem to be temperamental, lol? Fortunately, I'm laughing and I don't mind the odd smudge.
The stamps just dropped through my letterbox, Thanks to Visible Image 😊 but I finished it in the dark! That's my excuse, anyway...
Background Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylics.
Background Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylics.
Linking to Art Every Day Month
(Off to touch up those words..the white gel pen needs toning down on the words!)
Thank you for calling in today
Back soon
Cath
xxx
Tuesday, 26 November 2019
Try it on Tuesday - Inspired by a Song or a Carol
19 very kind comments from lovely people at Tuesday, November 26, 2019
Good Morning!
It's
and time for a new challenge
INSPIRED BY A SONG
OR a
CHRISTMAS CAROL
What a great challenge for this time of year.
Christmas is less than 4 weeks away - scary - and I'm sure you're all working hard to get everything done in time.
I hope you'll find the time to join us all over the next two weeks, even if you are super organised and have been doing things gradually. Why not take time to kick back and play for an hour or two in your journal? Or make an extra card just for fun - maybe for someone special, or even ready for next year!
My card is inspired by a Christmas carol - We three Kings!
I'm not quite sure how penguins are associated with Christmas - it can only be the cold weather - but there is something so cute about them, especially the babies. (Would you believe I had to look up photos of different species of penguins to get the colours right, lol - as if it matters!) I love this stylised image, which came complete with words and snow border.
I used Oxides for this background, stamped, embossed and coloured the Penguins with Promarkers and gel pens, then added pearlescent embossing paste through my random snow stencil and highlights of white gel pen. The ground is washi tape. Super cute 😊
Don't forget to visit Try it on Tuesday to see the inspiration provided by the Design Team...they are SO talented!
Also linking to Art Every Day Month
Day 26 of Thankful November is a thank you for Christmas Carols - and for singing 😊
Dragonfly Dreams, Christmas/Winter,
We Love 2 Create, ATG Mixed Media
and to
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge
(the bottom border is washi tape)
Also linking to Art Every Day Month
Day 26 of Thankful November is a thank you for Christmas Carols - and for singing 😊
Dragonfly Dreams, Christmas/Winter,
We Love 2 Create, ATG Mixed Media
and to
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge
(the bottom border is washi tape)
Thanks for calling in today
Hope to see you soon
Cath
xxx
Monday, 25 November 2019
Wow!
November is almost over and Christmas will soon be here...!
Thankful November 25 is my thank you to God for his mercy and grace.
'By grace I have been saved, through faith.
And this is not because of anything I've done to earn it; it is the gift of God.'
Linking to Art Every Day Month
And here's a little Bible journalling on the same theme...
Thanks for calling in
And here's a little Bible journalling on the same theme...
Back soon
Cath
xxx
Sunday, 24 November 2019
Happy Sunday!
I love these cute Crafty Individuals penguins, but ever since I first saw them, I can't get the idea of them looking back at a disappearing world out of my head. Whimsical though they may be, there seems to be an air of sadness about them - or maybe that's just me anthropomorphising 😉
I'm sure it is, but I almost used 'We have children, too' as my words.
So, today I'm focusing on being thankful for our world and for the fact that the earth has all the conditions necessary for life to exist.
So, today I'm focusing on being thankful for our world and for the fact that the earth has all the conditions necessary for life to exist.
I know we can't change the world overnight, but we can all do 'our little bit' to go towards preventing further destruction of what we have.
I've sized this to fit my smaller journal and I'm linking to
Thanks for calling in today
Back soon
Cath
xxx
Saturday, 23 November 2019
Today's playtime is just that - a playtime - my thank you is for imagination and for art 'just because' - art for fun! The measure of play isn't in the end result, but in the fun along the way...my thought for the day 😎
This little birdie popped into my mind so I decided to play with him and with whatever was hanging around on my desk, with no aim in mind.
I didn't get around to blogging yesterday, but I made a card - for fun - using the 'Oddball fairy' on a Carabelle Studio alphabet background...I wanted some sparkle but didn't want to use glitter, so I used an Opalite gold shimmer reinker to colour her wings, splattering some for the fun of it. It's irridescent, so it surprises you when the light falls on it.
As you can see above, the little black mark isn't actually on the card, so it must be on my scanner - again!
(Note to self: I really ought to wait until things dry before scanning them.)
(Note to self: I really ought to wait until things dry before scanning them.)
Thank you for calling in...
Back soon
Cath
xxx
Thursday, 21 November 2019
Today, I'm thankful for PEACE.
That peacefulness that stays with you in spite of the problems in your life.
Nothing on this page went as I wanted it to but I like the feel of it, so I'm including it in my month of thankfulness.
The background is a mishmash of all kinds... Distress inks, acrylics, Inktense, lots of water and charcoal. My stamp of the words is tiny, so I used my labeller.
I'm linking this to Art Every Day Month
Thanks for calling in
Back soon
Cath
xxx
Wednesday, 20 November 2019
My November thankfulness yesterday was for night skies... the good side of colder, clearer weather is clear skies and it's so good to see stars! We don't see that many in NW UK- too much light pollution. My best memories of stars are from times spent with a very dear friend in late summer in the Loiret. They're far enough out of Paris to be in the agricultural area and the skies there are amazing! I was often there late August/early September, so we'd spend evenings lying in the garden, counting all the shooting stars.
It's amazing how insignificant the vast expanse of sky can make you feel... it has a way of putting things into context. Those of you who live close to wide open areas where you see thousands of them are so blessed. Maybe one day I'll get to see them!
My family in NZ tell me the skies there are amazing 😊
I didn't get to finish it, 'cos having added the texture paste stars the night before, I hadn't realised they'd soak up the inks - blue stars, eek! I should have, but I didn't... yesterday I was MIA, so had to go back to it late. I finished it, it was late.
The Visible Image Man looks the way I feel. The moon image (from my stash - thanks, Sarah) fits the song in my head.
Today, I'm thankful for a new day and the chance to start again 😉
It's a stencilled Oxide background again. I stamped, embossed and coloured the image, then cut it out and added it over the one I'd stamped in my journal. I changed my mind about the way I was doing it as I was about to glue it...and used the width of the paper as the table. So I then cut out the images on the stamped work table. I love both sets of words, so had to use them. The second one is a tiny font, sorry. It says, "The pages of yesterday cannot be revised, but the pages of tomorrow are blank, and you hold the pen. Make it an inspiring story."
I like that. It's a blessing to to let some days go, but tomorrow is always a new day and doesn't have to be the same - thankfully. I added a (rough) nose and mouth to the face...I just can't handle blank faces 😨
Thank you for calling in
Back soon
Cath
xxx
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