'What you do speaks so loudly, I can't hear what you say.'
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tuesday 30 April 2019

Good morning, all you lovely people😊
Today, we have a new challenge from Try it on Tuesday!

The challenge for the next two weeks will be

Things with Wings

We'd like to see all your birds, butterflies, other insects, fairies, angels, 
any strange creatures with wings...
As usual, you may interpret this in any way you like, using any medium,
in your own, unique, way
Don't forget to check out the super inspirational artwork the TIOT team have created

This card began as a gelli print, which I played around with for a little while, adding bits of text and dripping lots of Neocolors onto it here and there, until I got the colours I was looking for. I then stamped the main images over it in Versafine Onyx Black, embossing with clear powder.
The butterflies were stamped again on plain paper, fussy cut, coloured with Prisma pencils and Posca pens, then attached to the card. A bit of white gel pen highlighting and the word 'Fly' were added to complete it. Mounting it onto white card highlighted the bits of white ink.


Here's a closeup of some of the detail on one of the flutterbies…



I can't wait to see what you make and am looking forward to visiting your blogs 😉
Have fun creating!

I'm linking this to the current Make My Monday challenge, Wings

Mix it up Challenge, Anything (optional Mixed Media) Goes
and to 

SSS Wednesdays, Anything Goes

Thank you for calling in

I'll be back soon

Cath
xxx

Monday 29 April 2019

Good Morning, everyone! Hope you're all feeling bright and breezy at the beginning of a new week!

Just hopping in to catch the SSS Monday Going Round in Circles challenge, which ends at 1pm (GMT) today.

I made a quick card using circles as lollipop flowers, embossing with white powder, then adding colour with Prisma pencils and Promarkers. This wasn't my intention - I had intended smooshing or spraying lots of colour over these, but it just sort of happened. I'll still try it that way but here's what emerged from yesterday's playtime.


I also made a very quick card for the Alphabet Challenge's CAS theme...
I've been playing with Neocolors a lot, lately, and that's how I made this. I coloured the flower stamps with Neocolours, spritzed with water, then stamped onto watercolour card, managing to catch a little of the colour with clear embossing powder, to add a little more definition. It's very delicate, so hard to get a good image but I love the way it turned out.


Thank you so much for calling in today

I'll be back tomorrow, with a new challenge for Try it on Tuesday

Cath
xxx

Friday 26 April 2019

Good morning, peeps 😊 I hope you are well? 
I've been doing a lot of 'messing' in my craft room lately, with no finished items to show for it - maybe because I'm 'dabbling' in things I don't usually do, so it doesn't really seem to be coming together well. Or maybe I'm just in an ultra self critical mood at the moment - more likely, I think. I have a few things waiting to complete, though.

Anyway, I knew there was a 'Going Round in Circles' challenge at SSS Mondays, so I was playing with circles - which I love...this background is sponged with Cracked Pistachio, then stencilled with Pine Needles Oxides, over which are stamped coffee rings, with a bit of dotty stencilling in Gathered Twigs. I stamped the words and added the fussy cut and coloured image. I definitely need a good caffeine shot to get me going in a morning...I drink decaff for the rest of the day, but I savour those first few cups - every last drop -  of caffeine and am very grateful for  my Nespresso! I'm not sure the colours I used work as well as I'd hoped when put together. I'm lacking some of my favourite card colours because I use those colours so often. I really need to hunt for some good colours again!


I coloured these flower stamps with Neocolors, spritzing before stamping repeatedly over very lightly smooshed green inks, finishing off with a couple of the smaller flowers stamped in Versafine and an old words stamp. I love the way it turned out. I finished it off with a bit more sponging, using the ink that was left on the sponges, in Mowed Lawn and Salty Ocean. I love the texture of the Neocolours when used like this - the images are slightly raised where there was more undiluted wax on the stamp.

SSS Wednesdays have an Anything Goes challenge, so I'll link to that.


April's Everybody Art Challenge has a Numbers theme, and there are lots of floral challenges around... so I'll link the following to 

Allsorts Blossoms, Butterflies and Bugs challenge
Daring Cardmakers' Blooming Flowers
Moo Mania and More, Spring Fever
Ellibelle's Craft Wednesday Challenge, Wings, Tails and Blossoms

I stamped the image twice, cutting out the flowers, colouring and attaching them later, then added some stencilling, a little more stamping and the Dylusions words, doodling bits of white gel pen.


Thank you so much for visiting...

I'll be back soon

Cath
xxx

Monday 22 April 2019

I found this in my photo file, made a while ago, but never posted because at the time, I decided I just didn't like it... looking again, I think I like it a little more now  😉 Using Watercolour paper and some Distress Oxides, I applied lines of lots of blue inks and brushed them out with water, leaving me with this semi stripey background. I just stamped the dandelions in deeper blue, for a shadow effect, then stamped and embossed the white  dandelions over it - quite simple.

This is for  Day of the Month Card Club, Dandelion Day.

For my birthday, a very dear friend sent me a wonderful Lavinia card, which I loved. This is a shamelessly 'cased' copy - though it isn't an exact copy. I didn't have all the stamps she used, and I think she used a mixture of Distress and Distress Oxide inks, whereas I used all Distress Oxides. It isn't as dramatic as the one I received, but I'm quite pleased with it 😊

Thank you for calling in today...

I'll be back soon

Cath
xxx

Friday 19 April 2019

What a beautiful day it is in NW UK for this very special day! 
I hope it's sunny, bright and cloudless wherever you are....it's amazing how a bit of warm sunshine changes the whole atmosphere 😉

I have more florals to share, so here's the first one... gorgeous cosmos blooms, with a subtle trellis (or barbed wire fence, depending on your point of view, lol) background. I enjoyed making this clean looking card for a change... layering stamps are fun once you get the hang of them. 


This one was a play around and was cut down from the original large square I started with because I wanted the girl and her hair to be the focus. I really enjoyed making it, with a bit of masking, some Promarker/Copic colouring and a little stencilling. Colouring can be so relaxing at times.


Lastly, another playaround that I'm not really too keen on...the stencilling is just a bit too prominent for what I wanted, but I LOVE these hares 😊 This is where the question mark comes in...I know they're not exactly bunnies, but hares are very similar and much more interesting - to me, anyway, lol. I had been wanting these lovely hares for a long time, after seeing them on a few blogs, but had no idea who made them until they were mentioned by Sue... thank you, so much. I would never have dreamed that they were Christmas stamps...
The 'flowers' are really supposed to be mistletoe, but I decided they looked so similar to the fuchsias I love, I'd use them that way.  


I'm linking to the following challenges...

Simon Says Stamp Mondays, Beautiful Blooms
Daring Cardmakers, Blooming Wonderful
Stamping Sensations, April Showers bring May flowers
Penny Black and More, Spring
Just Add Ink, Choose Two - I chose 'bunnies' and flowers
Moo Mania and More, Spring Fever
Country View Crafts, Easter and/or Spring

Thank you so much for calling in today.

I'll be back soon...

Cath
xxx

Wednesday 17 April 2019

I  love Spring and have been enjoying making Spring cards - they always work so well for  the people we know and love. Isn't it lovely to have sunshine and longer days again? I love the lighter nights and mornings.

I'm linking to these challenges today:-
Make My Monday, Diamonds
Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge, Beautiful Blooms
Moo Mania and More, Spring Fever
Country View Challenges, Easter or Spring
Paper Minutes, Anything Goes
Penny Black Saturday Challenge, Anything Goes + Spring colours

This is one of my favourite PB stamps and I've used it in lots of different colours and designs, but I really like it in these lovely shades of pink. I used Victorian Velvet  Oxide for the shading and the stamping,  with a little Spun Sugar, adding more colour with Prisma Pencils.


I used a Harlequin background stamp and Bundled Sage Distress Oxide for this one, stamping some text in Victorian Velvet over it before stamping the Tim Holtz blooms, again adding colour with Prisma Pencils.


Lastly, a little simple card to celebrate my favourite creatures 😉
A little sponging and stamping for the ground beneath the Prisma Pencil coloured birds, then some stencilling above, with a few Tweets and simple words to complete it.


Thank you for calling in today

I'll be back soon

Cath
xxx

Tuesday 16 April 2019

Morning, all 😄  Time for another challenge at 
and this time the theme is...
Springtime!

Yay!  Spring is finally here 😉 so we're celebrating it for the next two weeks.
We'd love to see your art - of any kind - the challenge is open for a fortnight from today, so there's lots of time to join us.
Of course, you may interpret this any way you like, using whichever medium you prefer. 

I decorated a page in my 8x8 journal for this one...using a napkin over a gessoed page, so very little stamping, for a change. I did add some dotty stencilling, a little sponged ink and stamped some crackles in brown and gold, which show up much better in real life, and of course I stamped and cut up the words, edging with black ink before attaching to my page. You can also see some personal journaling on the image outlines, though it's hard to read because the  napkin absorbed the ink and it's no longer crisp... this is a great way to decorate a page in super fast time, although my fiddling around probably took longer than if I'd stamped it, if I'm honest! 

I'm really enjoying my gorgeous tulips and Grape Hyacinths at the moment, and that's why I chose this particular napkin.




Ooh, I almost forgot to share the fun I had making this with Art Journal Journey, whose theme (chosen by Wendy K) is Having fun!

Thank you so much for calling in today.
Don't miss the wonderful artwork created by my TIOT team mates!

I'll be back soon...

Cath
xxx

Monday 15 April 2019

Did you know it was National Dandelion Day on April 5th? Nor did I!  No idea which 'nation' it is, but Day of the Month Card Club - a new challenge, focusing on those weird and wonderful celebration days of the month,  have chosen this as their April challenge. I quite like the idea of celebrating dandelions, don't you? Although they're often seen as the enemy of lots of gardeners, I've never been one of them. I love them, and still enjoy the pleasure of blowing them as far as I can 😊

This piece of acrylic paint background card has been sitting in my background basket for some time...I just love the subtle colours, so decided to use it for this challenge. One of my friends sent me a set of Inkadinkado 'winged creature' stamps, so I used part of the butterfly trail with a couple of simple dandelion stamps. A friend surprised me with these three word stamps on my birthday, so I thought they deserved to be inked, too. 

I'm going to link to the Allsorts Challenge again - Blossoms, butterflies and bugs - not quite blossoms, but definitely butterflies.


I'm also linking to Addicted to Stamps and More's Anything Goes challenge and
SSS Wednesday's No Patterned Paper Challenge.

Thank you so  much for calling in...

I'll be back tomorrow with another challenge from Try it on Tuesday...

Cath
xxx 

Saturday 13 April 2019

Three challenges included in that title... 

Allsorts - Butterflies, Blooms and Bugs

Stamping Sensations - April Showers Bring May Flowers


This card is for Stamping Sensations and PB&M, using my favourite Hero Arts Spring stamp, cut up into individual phrases or words... I've added Nuvo Crystal Drops and Glitter Drops to some of the raindrops, but it isn't easy to see it. The flowers were stamped onto white card, overstamped with text stamps for a bit of interest, then coloured, cut out and pieced over the ones already on the background.


This one is for Allsorts, with flowers, a butterfly and a stencilled Hickory Smoke Distress Oxide  background. 

SSS Wednesday's Challenge is 'No Patterned Paper' so I'll link to that, too 😊


I've decided I'm going to make a conscious effort to try to blog more regularly, instead of blogging 5 or 6 items in one post... I tend to get distracted from blogging the things I make, or can't wait to get back in my craft room! Maybe that will mean I don't actually  miss some of the challenges I'm inspired by 😉

 Thank you for calling in today...

I'll be back soon

Cath
xxx

Friday 12 April 2019

One last entry for Make My Monday's Humorous challenge... a little bit naughty, depending on  your own mind, but I bought this stamp with a certain person in mind and she certainly appreciated it 😉  I laughed out loud when I saw it - it really tickles me. 

I stamped and clear embossed the image, then coloured it with Neocolor crayons, although it doesn't need a lot of colouring to be honest.


Another card I coloured with Neocolors is this one, but most of the colour was added through a Tim Holtz stencil. It turned out a little dark, but I still like it. These are the Darkroom Door stamps I bought with my recent Simon Says Stamp prize. The smaller words are from an old PSX small stamp set that I love. The word 'Fragile' is from a Visible image stamp, which says 'How fragile we are'.

The Fun Friday Challenge is Flowers, so I'll link to that and the

 SSS Wednesday Challenge is 'No Patterned Paper'. Both backgrounds are inked...

Thank you for popping in.... always a pleasure to see you 

I'll be back soon

Cath
xxx

Tuesday 9 April 2019

Because the current Try it on Tuesday challenge is to  'Use a Stencil or Two' I challenged myself to create a couple of cards with no stamps - only stencils. I almost chose this as the current KCUK 'Mingle' because I knew it would  make people laugh. I'm the one who always insists that all swaps and mingles must have some stamping on them somewhere! I opted for something else, but I may yet do that... I wanted to drag myself away from just using a little stencilling to a background to break it up a bit and add interest. 

I haven't made anything with this, but I'll show it anyway - it was just a play with using two stencils together. I don't like it much but I'm sure it would work better with stencil paste. Life got in the way, so I didn't get back to play some more with the idea...but I did add a bit of text stamping afterwards!


This is just very basic stencilling, with die cuts …

...and this one is just stencilling a flower again, but this time adding a bit of deeper coloured ink to the centre of the flower and with a sort of sunburst stencil beneath, to add some interest to the petals..the border is also stencilled, but the words are stamped and embossed.


This one does have a stamped image and stamped words, but it was a page I'd cut for a mini book, then chose not to use. There was quite a lot of stencilling on it, including the semi circle journaling section, but I added some pearlescent embossing paste stencilling to it before adding the image and words, then stuck it in my journal, so I could enter the Art Journal Journey challenge, which is 'Having Fun'.




This is my first entry for the CAS Stencil Challenge, which is to use Embossing/moulding paste. I used a Gold embossing paste I've had for eons... sponging a little Russet Archival ink to fade it out a little, then adding the die cut word and the flower.


Finally, my original DT piece for the challenge was a simple stencilled background with die cut flowers and stamped text.


You still have another week to enter the Try it on Tuesday challenge - Use a Stencil or Two...or more! We'd love to see you there and I look forward to visiting your blogs 😉


Thank you for dropping in...



I'll be back soon



Cath
xxx

Monday 8 April 2019

I thought I'd make a quick 'Having Fun' page for Wendy's Art Journal Journey challenge and after I'd added Washi tape to cover up a bit that didn't quite work (!) I decided to put in a strip of polka dot paper, so it would also fit the Moo Mania and More challenge for this fortnight. Sorry if that's not quite what you wanted girls, but there are polka dots on there. Must get some polka dot washi tape...

I started with a Gelli print clean up page in my 8x8 Kraft journal, over which I sponged some Oxides in my favourite colour combinations, then stamped one of my favourite, super quick to colour animal stamps, which always makes me giggle! The embossing powder caught the background, so I knew it would be a nightmare to colour, and so decided to stamp them again on card, colour (with Neocolours) cut out and stick over the stamping...


I'll also link to Make My Monday's 'Something Humorous' challenge.

I'm also linking to he Alphabet Challenge, which is A for Animals, with this card and to
Allsorts, where the theme is 'Sentiment in Focus'. 
Using a large animal sort of takes the emphasis off the words, but I think the words are still the main part and Emily Giraffe is only there to illustrate them! Don't ask me why I've called her Emily - it's just the name that sprang to mind...😉


On another note, I just had to try the new Fadeout inkpad for no line colouring but I have to say I really don't like it. I need to do some more experimenting but my first try was a disaster!

Here's Emily, stamped in the ink...it's like a washed out grey colour. I must admit, I prefer black. I actually like the definition and contrast it gives - or maybe it's because my painting/colouring skills aren't up to it. I will try it with some flowers.


Always Fun Challenges have a Flowers Challenge.
This is a card I made with Oxides and a tulip stamp, with a stencilled background and a bit of text stamping through the same stencil.


Thank you for calling in today...

I'll be back tomorrow.

Cath
xxx

Tuesday 2 April 2019

I had a page in my 8x8 journal which had been painted with acrylics - it probably started life as a Gelli Print clean up page - and left to decorate later,  Then I spotted this image on my (very untidy) desk this image of 4 sheep, dancing, stained with bits of green and yellow. I think I'd used them to mask the same image on a card. They looked grass stained and this sparked off an idea... so this page came into being. If you look closely, I've written on the side, 'You'd be grass stained, too, if you had to sleep in a field!' I added the two sheep on the sides, just to add the music for the party the sheep are having, after roughly stencilling some Dylusions Lime acrylic paint, then stamped and clear embossed some grass and a few small flower heads. This was definitely fun!

Thank you to Wendy for the Art Journal Journey theme of 'Having Fun'.

I'm also linking to Sweet Stampin Challenge for their Funny theme
and Make My Monday's 'Something Humorous' challenge.


Thanks for stopping by...

I'll be back soon

Cath
xxx

Today is the start of a new challenge over at 


Use a Stencil or Two...

We'd love to see your art created with one, two or even more stencils - as many as you like 😉

As usual, you may use any medium in your art and digital is always welcome.

Don't miss the inspiration provided by the talented team over on the blog - there's always some stunning artwork there.

You have two weeks to create your art. 
Look forward to visiting your blog over the next fortnight!


My inspiration piece began as a mop up piece of card, on which I used the remaining ink from the stencils I'd been using. It was quite pretty as it was, with some great colours, but I decided to add a bit more ink through two different stencils, ending with some Moonlight White Brilliance ink through the last one I used. The quirky Paperartsy characters were stamped onto the card, for placement, then stamped onto white card, coloured (Prisma Pencils) and cut out to 'paper piece' over the original images, edged with black ink to make them pop a little more. 

I loved the range of colours, so decided to use a Visible Image stamp for the words, masking the words I didn't want to stamp with sticky tape. Unfortunately, they didn't stand out very clearly, so I opted for stamping them on white card, clear embossing and edging with black ink before attaching to the card. All in all, there are probably four or five stencils used on this, but some of the patterns were inked over, or covered with images.



I'd also like to link this to Moo Mania and More's Colour Challenge and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, ATG. 

Thank you so much for calling in

I'll be back soon

Cath
xxx