INKY FINGERS

That was originally Happy Sunday! Oops! I hope you're all well and enjoying the last little bits of Summer. It's been a lovely week here and I hope it has where you are.

I have a couple of cards for you to see. I actually added the Happy Birthday to this so I could enter it into the Birthday challenge, then didn't manage it, and that's probably over 2 weeks ago! It will come in handy. As you can see, the little masked minx on the left has been dying her bunny to match today's outfit - poor little bunny. I quite like this stencil. I think it's a Uniko stencil and I like it because it's irregular. I used Oxides for the ink sponging.

Challenge Up Your Life, Circles

Creatalicious, Anything Goes

Try it on Tuesday, Summer Blooms

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge, Anything Goes

Thank you for calling in today

Back soon

Cath

xxx

 I set a tag challenge for my FB group yesterday, so in order to open the album, I made a couple of quick tags, using what was on my (very, VERY messy) desk and in my stash 😊

I'd already die cut this one and used it to mop up some colour, so I smooshed a little more, stamped the Paperartsy text, added some filler stamps and doodling, then the stamped and die cut flowers from my stash - which is where the Janet Klein words came from. Edged in Delicata Gold Shimmer.  

I stamped, coloured and cut out this lovely lady yesterday, so I found another tall piece of card I'd stamped her on, smooshed some colour, added some stamping, some Inktense pencil shading and some doodling, then stuck my image over the top, colouring the stars with Oxides. I then went a bit mad with    

 Today's offerings are very mixed... this one I made a couple of weeks ago. I love this little 'booth' - even if it's a direct copy of a Snoopy one I even have on a stamp! I know I could easily have drawn it, but I wanted to stamp because of the aged bits and so that I could cut it out. I do like my images embossed 😊 It's a simple Oxide background, with a bit of Colour lift stencilling and some stamping. I also changed the last word...the original says 'The heart that gives garthers', but I prefer to say is blessed... Hope you like my little cat, who's going nuts because of the chick, chick, chick, chick chickens.

 
This is a playabout journal page from when I finished the circular book. I loved the colours - my favourites - so didn't want to hide them too much, although I did remove some with a bit of lift off stencilling. The drips were already there, so I just added some splatters from the paint palette. I love these scribble stamps. They're so much fun.

 'Dafternoon! Hope you're all well and enjoying the weekend 😊

I thought I'd better get some more stamping uploaded or I'll have even more piling up in my folder, so I'll begin with my recent Mingle for KCUK. My theme was Bright and Beautiful. 

These three colours were on a Challenge Blog I had intended to take part in - can't find it now, but if it's still around, I will. I loved the samples in these colours, so used them on what began as a concertina book, then exploded into something bigger. That isn't the one I'm posting now, but this is what I made immediately after the first one, mainly because I enjoyed it so much AND the inkpads were out on my desk, so I made the pages while listening to podcasts.

The pages are each 4" (10cm) square, so I cut a piece of card 4" x 16" from my A3 card, which is a little thick for folding, as you'll see...😖 I just inked it with sponges, then added some background stamping and stencilling in the same colours, or water spraying with the flowers, and in black and white (Brilliance) inks.

I thought I'd taken a photo of both sides, but I clearly didn't. Sorry. I don't even know if this is the front or the back, lol. 

Then I stamped some of Janet Klein's 'borg stamps' - as I call them - coloured, fussy cut and stuck them in front of whichever stamp I used to ground them, adding little bits of stamps from the sets and a bit of doodling as I went along. I don't think I used washi tape on this one, but I certainly did on the book. 

Here's the front cover, followed by the pages. As you can probably see, I made two covers in black card, attaching each to each end of the accordion, and taping a length of ribbon across the back one so that it would meet and tie at the front. Another 4x4 for the cover and it was done. I almost redid this one, to be honest, because I added way too much background stamping for my liking, but I thought I'd get away with it once the images were on. The wall wasn't a good idea!

But where did April and May go??? Doesn't it seem strange?

I'd been trying to use up my Ecoline inks to make backgrounds and was really enjoying the vivid colours - unfortunately, they're not lightfast, so they will fade in time. They are so full of pigment and make beautiful rainbow effects. I've had them for years, but only used up one - the yellow - which I really miss.

This is one of the Ecoline backgrounds, although the photo just doesn't do the colours justice. They almost glow, they're so vivid! 

I hope you’re all much more organised than I am and ready – or almost – for a wonderful Christmas…

Just thought I’d post a few more Christmas cards I made, some using images from my stash.

I found a few of this gorgeous image, clear embossed and, as it was black and white, decided to follow that theme two different ways.

Black on white…

…and White on Black.

I must point out that the above background was stamped beautifully and the white embossing powder was perfect…until I dropped it on my knee and wiped half of it off   I hastily added more, which led to flecks and an incomplete background, but I decided I quite like the imperfection so I left it as it is.

Another image I found was this one, so I smooshed Oxides over it and stamped the border in Versafine grey, using PSX (how long have I had that then???) detail embossing powder.

There’s a ‘Joyful’ challenge at Time Out and an angel challenge at Moo Mania and More, so I’ll link to those.

I needed cards for special friends, so I rooted out my Celtic Christmas stamps for this. I made another one with the candles, but I’m not happy with it…

I have no idea where that white streak is from – hopefully it’s on the scanner bed!

One more simple offering, which actually looks much better in real life because the background is sponged with irridescent inks…

I’ll link to the following challenges:-

Addicted to Stamps and More, Make Your Mark

SSS Wednesdays, Christmas

Colour Crazy, Anything Goes (colouring)

Allsorts, Christmas Trees

Thank you for popping in to visit…

See you soon

Cath

xxx

Just sharing a few cards I made this week…

I love Christmas and I love Christmas cards, but I make very few these days. This year I decided to make a few to send to family and special friends, so I dusted off my ‘C’ stamps, glitter and dies and made these.

I used Weathered Wood over a tree stencil on this one and used an old Stampington cube to stamp some subtle background snowflakes, using Delicata Shimmer White, which you can’t see at all on the scan so I took a photo to show some of it. The swirls are home made mica spray, to add sparkle and the star is glittered. Of course there are some white acrylic spatters, too.

Once I’d made a few Christmas cards, I needed to kick back and do something for fun, so I grabbed a square of card from my ready cut basket and smooshed some Oxides in greys and pinks. I had no idea there was a Faux Batik image on that piece of card, so I was pleasantly surprised when my favourite fuchsia stamp appeared...and just added more stamping to complete it.

CAS Watercolour have a Thank you challenge at the moment, so I made this…using embossing resist, to qualify for the CAS Mixup challenge. Not sure it’s very CAS, though… I used Inktense pencils for the wash.

Words 2 Craft By have a Blessings Challenge, so thinking of that, I made the following two cards using backgrounds and images from my stash. I was too late for the challenge, drat

There’s a ‘B for…’ Challenge at SSS Mondays and I’m also linking to the following challenges…

Addicted to Stamps and More, Anything Goes

Fussy and Fancy, Winter Christmas

Ellibelle’s Crafty Wednesday, Snowflakes, Snowmen or Winter

Moo Mania and More, Trees

Dare 2B Artsy, Winter

Fashionable Stamping, Winter

Back soon

Thank you so much for popping by…

Cath

xxx

Today I’m thankful for birds and for a song to sing!

So often, we admire someone else’s work – not just their art, but other things they do – or the way they look and we think of ourselves as second rate – just not good enough!

But each of us has a song to sing and the best way to sing that song is to simply be grateful for who you are and be true to yourself. Pale imitations are just that – pale and wishy washy and anything but authentic. But sometimes, it takes courage to just be ourselves.

I love birds… in my last house I was blessed by such a great variety of them and many of them were regular visitors, so they became ‘friends’, some of them even coming into the house to look for food – I kid you not! I miss that, but there’s always something new to celebrate. So today, I journalled my thoughts on singing my song…

I’m linking this to AEDM – Art Every Day Month

Thanks for stopping by

Back soon…

Cath

xxx

(Edited…)

(Please accept my apologies if you think I’m not commenting on your posts – I am!  Sadly, my comments seem to be disappearing into the ether, even if I click on Preview, which is my usual ‘fix’. So sorry. I’ll keep trying )

I woke up this morning to beautiful Autumn sunshine – again!  I really AM thankful for the mild Autumn we’ve had until now in NW UK. Seeing a bright, sunny day makes it so much easier to be thankful.

I made a quick, very simple journal page to celebrate it... the birds are die cuts and I really like them

I love trees and I know I’m not on my own… my sons have, in turn, called me tree hugger, tree woman and bird woman.  I think they think they’re insulting me but nah, I think it’s great! I’m a nature lover and proud of it and I DO hug trees – or at least touch them. There’s something very powerful about a tree and especially the older ones. They’ve seen a lot of history and withstood a lot, with storms, wind, rain, lightning, drought, snow… yet they stand tall and solid. You can almost hear them breathing if you listen closely enough…

This tree doesn’t look very old. It’s one of Lynne Moncrief’s stamp designs from That’s Crafty and there are some fab words on the plate, too. 

There are a couple of Winter Foliage challenges around – a little early for over here, but I thought I’d give it a go. I hunted through my ‘C’ (eeek! the ‘C’ word!) stamps and found this stamp. It came with a spider attached and a little verse about the legend of the Christmas spider. I didn’t want that, so I cut it off.

SSS Wednesday have an All that Glitters is Gold challenge at the moment, so I stamped the verse in Versamark and embossed, but the small font was lost in the dark background, so I stamped again on white and made a narrow tag from it. The small decoration (or spider’s webs…) are gold glittered.

This is a simpler version, with no background colour. I coloured the pine cones and the strings in gold ink. I decided to use a die cut word, so I inked it with Versamark ink, then embossed it with Gold Glitter EP. I haven’t used that for about 10 years! The gems were added as an afterthought, just to add more sparkle. The edges were dragged (roughly, as you can see) through a Gold Delicata inkpad.

The Winter Foliage challenges are at

Make My Monday and

Daring Cardmakers

Shopping Our Stash have a Tic Tac Toe challenge:-

Good Morning, peeps!

Today, there’s a new challenge from Try it on Tuesday and the theme is Friends and Family.

I am so very thankful for my friends and for my family. We tend to take family for granted when they’re around all the time, don’t we?

During the last twenty years, both of my brothers and my parents emigrated to New Zealand, so I was the only one left in the UK. One brother came back, terribly homesick, but now lives in Shrewsbury.

I’m so blessed because my two boys are here and live not too far away. but my closest friends have become my family and are so, so precious. It’s no surprise, then that I chose to celebrate friends for this challenge. I’m very thankful for lovely friends.

I made this just after Set 5 of the Oxides arrived, so I used Victorian Violet and Dried Marigold inks. I’ve no idea who makes this stamp – it was a Blog Candy prize I won about ten years ago and this is the first time I’ve used it, but I love the simplicity of it.

The small ‘Friends’ stamp, used repeatedly in the background, is an old Hero Arts stamp I use loads and loads – as I do the others in the set.

I do hope you’ll join us for this challenge. It’s a great opportunity to be thankful for precious family and friends.

Look forward to seeing your art!

I’ll link this to Art Every Day Month in November

Artistic Inspirations, Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Monday, Thanks/Thanksgiving

Dragonfly Dreams, Anything Goes

Thank you so much for popping by – always good to see you

See you soon

Cath

xxx