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

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

Happy In Between Christmas and New Year!
Thank you for calling in
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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
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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!
The new Try it on Tuesday challenge is 
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!)

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 😊
I'm linking to Inspirational Challenge, Naughty
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
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:-
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