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Morning Everyone

Just a quick post this morning as I have my mum coming over to spend the day with me today and I think we are going blackberrying :).

Continuing with the blog 'catch up', this card is the one I made for my lovely friend Tracy's son who turned 17 last week.

It uses my ever-faithful Stampotique monster that must be one of my most-used stamps (I manage to use it for almost every man's card!) and this time with some doodling that I was inspired to have a go at following an article I saw in an old Craft Stamper magazine.  I quite enjoyed doing it although I think my technique needs some perfecting!

Have a great bank holiday whatever you are doing.

Kate xx

New Baby

Hello Everyone,

Well to continue with my blog catch up I have a baby card to show you.  My daughter's boss had a baby girl last week and I created this card for her to give.

It is using my ever-faithful Lili of the Valley stamp and sentiment, coloured with my Promarkers, and the papers are from a magazine give-away - they are My Mind's Eye I think.  The bunting is a Magnolia doo hickey die and the border punch I borrowed from a friend and is Martha Stewart I think.  The circles were cut with my Spellbinders dies.

Back tomorrow with some more :).

Kate xx

Lots of 'Thank Yous'

Hello Everyone

I have been quite busy crafting over the last few weeks but none of them seem to have got as far as being blogged so I will try and have a bit of a 'catch up' over the next few days.

It has been a very busy month with both mine and my son's birthdays and I had some crafting goodies for my birthday from some of my lovely crafting friends and was keen to start 'playing' with them so I decided to create some 'thank you' notelets so I could thank people for all their lovely, generous gifts in style!

Here they all are in an array of colours.  I actually made 13 in total (only 12 are shown as I needed to get one off in the post!), 11 thank you notes and 2 birthday cards whilst I was about it for my stock box. 

Detail of one of the thank you notes.  If you are in the know about these things you will see that the stamps are all from Stampin' Up including the sentiment and the tiny tag punch.  The butterfly punch is a Martha Stewart one and the cord I found in my sewing box! The inks are all Tsukineko Dew Drop Versa Magic Inks in a variety of colours.

And one of the birthday card versions with a different sentiment but still Stampin' Up.  I was able to use up lots of scraps of cardstock which is always very satisfying and it gave me great pleasure being able to write my thank yous on such pretty notelets.

More crafting catch-ups tomorrow!

Have a lovely bank holiday weekend.

Kate xx

21!

Hi Everyone

We have had a week of birthdays with mine last weekend and my son turning 21 during the week.  This is the card I created for his birthday.

It is a concertina card using a Sizzix Die. It was a lot easier to create than I feared and the die cuts just one of the squares and you just cut as many as you want.  As you can see, I went for four photos of my son over the years with an extra one for the greeting at the end.

 This is the front cover and what you see when the card is folded up.

And just from another angle (there are 21 of the little candles I stamped and cut out - I was very bored by the end!).

I was really pleased with how easy the die was to use and can imagine using it quite a bit which is always nice to know when you have spent money on a craft item!

Have a good day.

Kate xx

Tutu Toad

I have a little card to share with you today.  The card was made for my Cousin's daughter whose birthday it was yesterday.

The image is 'Tutu Toad' by Stampendous and I just love it - it makes me smile!  I have coloured the image with Promarkers and raised it with silicone.  The papers are scraps of Jillybean Soup 'Blossom Soup' teamed with a doilie, some Prima flowers, a spotty button and some punched butterflies.

Happy Crafting!

Kate xx

And here's one I made earlier!

I started this layout at a classs at the Scrapstars Retreat in April and then have had a couple more sessions on it before finally finishing last week (it has taken me this long to get round to photographing and blogging it!).

The class and design was by Penny Kafai and I not only loved the papers (Carta Bella) but loved the design which incorporates a mini book within a 12x12 scrapbook page so perfect for a wedding where you have taken lots of photos and I have used my layout to feature photos from my cousin's wedding.

This is the front of the 12x12 layout and you can probably see the mini book which is cleverly worked into the layout and here are pictures with the book open so you can get an idea of what I mean.

The back of the book also incorporates a pocket with a journaling card and somewhere to hold any keepsakes from the day (I have included my placecard).

This side view shows you the thickness of the book.

Despite there being lots of room for photos in the book, I still had a few too many and also some were portrait in orientation and so didn't really fit so I created a second page making the whole thing a double-page layout.  Luckily our kit from the class included some spare papers and embellishments so although it doesn't match exactly it certainly co-ordinates well.

I really loved the design (which I may well use again) and am very pleased with the final layout.

Hope you are having a good day :).

Kate xx

A little piece of sunshine!

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are having a good day.  It has cooled down a little making it a touch more comfortable so I am much happier!

I was having a play at the weekend with some stamps and ink and came up with this very bright, sunshiny card.

I stamped the flowers in Versamark onto white card and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  I then used Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade Distress Inks which I blended over the card.  In the gaps I inked a few of the small flowers with the Distress Inks.  It was backed onto some scraps of orange card and I stamped some extra flowers and inked to create my embellishment.  I added a sentiment (from Lili of the Valley), ribbon and a button.  I finished off with a little Stardust Glitter Glue.

And I just had to give the inside a little treatment too!

Hope your day is bright and sunshiney :).

Kate xx

Graduation

Morning Everyone,

Last week was my son's Graduation from University - definitely a 'Proud Mum' day :).  This is the card I created to congratulate him on his achievement.

The papers are from the Prima 'Engraver' range and the Owl and Learn Live Hope stamps are both Penny Black and I have used a faux silk ribbon.

I coloured the owl using my Promarkers and I have Glossy Accented his eyes but that doesn't show up in the picture unfortunately. The owl is raised up slightly on 3D foam pads and I have inked the edges of the papers with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

Have a wonderful day.

Kate xx

Wild Thing!

Hello Everyone,

My Nephew was 18 at the end of June but he was celebrating away with friends in Portugal (not something you want to dwell on for long!), consequently we celebrated with him on Sunday and this is the card I created.

The stamp is a Penny Black and the image made me smile.  You can't really see in the photo but the white background has been embossed with a brick design.  The wording was printed on the computer and the papers are old Jillibean Soup pieces that I had lurking in my, newly organised (!), scraps bag, as was the red cardstock, there is something so satisfying about using up scraps!  I coloured the image in with my Promarkers and some of the motorbike has a coating of Glossy Accents which, again, doesn't really show up in the picture - sorry!

Have a wonderful day,

Kate xx

Opal the Optimist

Hello Everyone,

Sorry, it has been a while since I blogged; really, what happens to the time?!!

I have been busy creating though and here is a card I have made using one of the new Stamping Bella stamps  'Opal the Optimist'.  I love the sentiment that comes with the image in this set and of course any image with a bottle of bubbly included has to be a winner!

I have paper-pieced the dress on the image to co-ordinate with the background papers which are the gorgeous new range from Echo Park 'Beautiful Life'.  I finished off colouring the image with my Promarkers and then cut out the image and used silicone glue to raise it slightly giving a bit of depth.  The border punch is a Martha Stewart one and the ribbon is some I had in my stash.

Have a wonderful day,

Kate xxx