Inkyfingeredcat

Today I am sharing the four layouts I did last weekend at the Warrington crop. I had such a fabulous day and had a really good laugh whilst also being pretty productive! There were a few of us who were involved in the Scrapbook Challenges UK group so there was a fair amount of competition going on and great deal of banter! All four of mine were included in the challenge for the week as either 4 or 3 pointers – I couldn’t work out a way to get balloons in the pages! 🤣

Page one was a page kit I tweaked. Sarah designed this one and I loved working with it but felt it was too vertical with the photo so had to turn the layout and then mixed it up a little more.

Really happy with how this turned out.

Next I used the leftovers of the papers from the page kit and added in some other bits leftover from #100patternedpaper challenge pile which I had taken along with… this made this page of me and the hubby.

Really liked how the dark background helped to make the colors pop and the pinks picked up on the colours in the photo.

It was fund to also hunt through my limited supplies from being at a crop to make this work – I think the star gems I added must be around 15 years old – definitely good to get something old used!

Next I will share the page I actually made last because I made use of a lot of the stickers left from the page kit – plus a few bits of the paper – but teamed them with very different papers from my #100patternedpaper pile.

Those stickers were perfect for making the subject of the photo and story work and I loved working the torn red circles for pulling out the pattern on M’s hat – plus the check in the background just helps ground it all I think!

A fun page that came together quickly – although I will admit I left the journalling to the day after as I was super tired at this point in the day! Who knew crafting could be so exhausting! 🤣

To be honest I was probably exhausted by this final page I am sharing where I decided to add lots of sewing!

I was inspired by having seen a lot of pictures of other peoples makes where they used strips to make a Christmas tree in the background – and so that is what I did. I did make it a little different by having each strip be a triangle (the challenge for week 2 included using triangles on a page).

I then used a new stitching ruler that Sarah has designed for Hey Little Magpie that I bought at the crop to pierce the different designs across the tree and then sat and sewed them all with the brown thread.

This was time consuming and headache inducing (the pattern on the other side of this paper did not make it easy to see the holes!) but I think well worth the effort!

I loved adding the Pom Pom ribbon on this and all the embellishments from the embellishment kit (and a couple of new purchases from the HLM shop like the title!).

So those are my four pages. I’ll share more details on instagram but here is a quick collage!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I’m combining this weeks Festive Friday with my prompt response for the Christmas in July group too – as I must admit I kind of forgot about it and then Karen has been posting all those fabulous snowmen cards in the group so I got crafting!

Our theme for January was do you wanna build a snowman and this is the card I made featuring many many snowpeople!

Now it is quite an unusual colour scheme for a Christmas card but I love it!

I chose the colours based on the ColourCube card I selected from the Winter selection.

I must admit I might have been tempted to say this is more autumn than winter vibes but I think it still works! Admittedly my colour choices might have been more pinky than orangey but still not bad!

What really amused me was that I was visiting my friend Deb’s blog last night and she had used a random number generator and it gave her the same card I had chosen! Can’t believe in the same week we’ve used the same card as inspiration by accident!

I used my alcohol markers to add the colour and then base of the grey and the coral pink colour to keep it going!

Added the Mossy meadow sentiment, because I wanted to bring in a bit more of the dark green.

I then went to town with the wink of Stella for shimmer! 💖

Inside the card I added a strip with a few more snowpeople and edged it with the pen to give it some framing – otherwise kept it simple!

So it turned out I did wanna build multiple snowmen … but as someone who hates being cold and physical work I only like building them like this inside my warm craft room! 🤣

So there we go – four Festive Fridays done – including this one which is also my Christmas in July January project.

I did record the process of this card too if you want to check out my YouTube video

Happy crafting!

Catherine

So this cute otter card was a card kit that was gifted to me by the fabulous Tricia.

I needed a quick project to do when I only had 30 mins till an episode of the Traitors last Friday night and so grabbed this that has been sitting (along with some more of the cute otter papers she also gifted) in my to do pile for quite some time and made up the card.

Of course you know me I did change it up a tiny amount! Firstly I used the reverse of the paper for the main square and also trimmed down that square a bit more so I could see more of the embossed panel of blue. I sort of wish I had trimmed it down a bit more but hindsight is of course a wonderful thing!

I changed the sentiment and grabbed this one from an Indigo Blu old magazine paper as I thought the colours worked with the papers and the otter image.

I also grabbed the thread from my stash to add a bow and love how this adds some softer texture – oh and also the cream sequins.

I raised the patterned paper panel up on foam adhesive to give dimension.

Inside the card I just added the off cuts of the paper and brown cardstock to the bottom as a fun staggered strip.

A lovely project to put together – now having thoughts as to what to do with the other otter papers too as they are so cute!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Hello! For today’s design team card for ATSM our theme is any occasion so I decided to just use up papers that were on a pile on my desk leftover from a scrapbooking project and see where it took me!

And it took me to this vintage shabby chic look of a card! And I love it!!

Papers came from old SU packs and then those flowers I fussy cut and have had in a pouch for years – I used them for a patterned paper challenge around 2 years ago! Seriously why do I hold onto these things? Oh because then the perfect project like this comes along!

I layered the smaller cluster of flowers over the larger one with foam adhesive to give it some dimension. I love how the angle I had cut the paper on gave a fun peep through effect for the background too.

Before I adhered it though I realised that the new braided twine I bought from SU would work well and so adhered a strip of that down – this really adds a lovely texture.

I then chose this lovely elegant font sentiment and gold embossed it onto the crumb cake. I then used the punch to finish the edge into the pennant type finish.

I raised one end on the foam to be the same height as the flower bit.

I am currently obsessed with wink of Stella and so went over all the flowers with that to give them shimmer. I then chose some cream card Candi to embellish.

I edged the panel with some brown ink (I did the same to the sentiment) and then adhered to the crumb cake card base.

Inside the card I added a panel which I had edged and then lightly inked. I then added the other floral element that had been in the pouch with the others.

So much fun to just grab supplies and see what comes from it – this really was a mix of such old supplies and then the addition of the newest with that twine – but it just worked perfectly!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Another page made to meet the challenge over at Scrapbook Challenges UK winter team challenge week 2. This page added 5pts to our team score as it included all the elements needed.

Three or more word title, sequins, ribbon, balloons, triangles

I used papers leftover from the Wicked page I shared last week along with a softer green panel leftover from a different page. Again these are all pulled from my 100 patterned papers pile!

The photo I scrapped (if it’s not obvious from the title) is of me on my 21st birthday – which was only a few years ago! 🤣

So the triangle bunting and the balloons work well with that theme – and of course all the sparkly sequins! As I hadn’t put the die and stencil set away it was a perfect thing to pick up and play with for the layout – I just snipped the panel into two to have it on either side of the photo!

It was really good to scrap such an old photo and remember the day and some of the oddities of my 21st which was on a campsite in Chertsey.

It was also nice to use pretty colours and pull in some gorgeous flower embellishments from the Hey Little Magpie embellishment kit!

A fun page! This challenge has absolutely given me a drive to scrap and will have many more pages to share with you over the coming months!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

So I decided this months Make It Masculine project would be balloon themed!

I prepped ahead of the video, choosing the colours based on the Colour Cube Card 001, and then stopped to foil some sentiments in readiness!

Of course a couple of days later when I came to actually make the project I totally forgot the foiled sentiments so they didn’t end up making an appearance!

Anyway – this is a filmed process project – so please do grab a cuppa and go and watch the video!

I love how it came out!

Perfect fun card!

I love the little white highlights I had added and the combination with the die cut sentiment.

Inside the card I decided to add some more stencilling and then a white panel on the top.

So a good fun start to the Make it Masculine challenge for the year – eleven more to go!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today I have another page I actually made a few weeks ago as part of the Scrapbook Challenges UK week one in the Winter Team event.

It fulfilled the following requirements- used the Freaky Fast recipe …

And included thread and circles to also score some points for the team.

It was also meeting the criteria for week one on the 100 patterned paper challenge group where the challenge was a take 5 …

Circle, small word sticker, die cuts, thread, something new

And of course I used three papers from my pile of papers ❤️

So I love how this came out. I paired the coral heavy page with the black and cream and the duck egg blue elements.

The pic is one of me looking glam for our Boxing Day meal out! This was actually after the meal and I was about to get back into pjs – after all this is the rule of Christmas period to spend as little time as possible in proper clothes! 🤣

I used a lot of lovely die cut foliage in both black and the shiny bronze.

I used stickers and elements from the stash like the Hey Little Magpie embellishments – the hearts were my something new as these were from the December kit I had not opened and used until this point!

I did use very sparkly letter stickers for the title and then Tim Holtz stickers for my little word sticker requirement for the challenge.

I added the embroidery floss thread bow to add another texture and then dots of black enamel accents across the page to finish off!

I loved the Freaky Fast recipe as it really was a quick way to determine layers and still flexible in approach to design my own layout.

A fun page and pleased to have used more papers from the 100 patterned paper challenge pile! I still had a fair amount of one of the coral pieces left and some of the black and cream so left it on my desk after this page I made to see what else I could do with it – although on the day I made this page I had run out of energy so didn’t immediately do anything with it!

So you will have to wait to see what I did!

I am off to the crop shortly so hopefully will come back with more pages completed – if I manage to stop chatting long enough to make anything!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Hello! Friday comes around so quickly some weeks – so I am glad I had this project made, photographed and video edited and loaded so it was ready to share for this weeks Festive Friday!

I had woken up the day I made this thinking I fancied using this stag stamp which is one of my all time favourites – a very old Creative Stamping Magazine one I think.

He is so handsome. I stamped him in archival on crumb cake cardstock and then added colour with my watercolour paints.

I also added lots of splatter, in both paint and the shimmer ink.

I then created the card using green cardstock and layers of the lovely papers – the tartan is Indigo Blu paper and the red check was actually cut from an envelope I received a card in and loved so I cut a panel from it and stuck it in the Christmas paper stash!

I used card Candi and a little loop of ribbon to embellish.

Inside the card I added some of the off cuts of the paper that were left on the desk to bring the outside of the card inside and repeated the same sentiment.

I really love that stag stamp – I just think he adds a touch of elegance and perfect for a tartan based card too! Could just imagine him in the highlands!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Yes I know it isn’t Saturday but I wanted to share this scrapbook page I made a couple of nights ago as part of our Scrapbook challenges UK FB group Winter Team challenge. I’ve been doing quite a lot of pages and not sure when I will get around to sharing them all but wanted to share this one now.

I love it!

I will say though that it took forever to make! Far longer than I normally take when scrapping at home – I wouldn’t mind the thing that looks the fiddliest bit (the triangles) was easy and quick – really don’t know why the rest of it took so long!

Anyway our challenge earns us a point for our team for each of these things …

Minimum of Three word title, sequins, triangles, ribbon and balloons (hot air counts!)

So my page scored us five points!

I pulled all the papers for this page from my 100 patterned paper pile – so another good starting point on the page.

I cut some 2” squares and then cut them in half for the triangles. I decided I wanted a frame for the page so that was the starting point adding an 11” square of white into the centre.

The papers are all Kingston Crafts ones so that made it easy to add some plain card in with the coordinating solid cardstock.

The sequins and the ribbon came from a few different Hey Little Magpie embellishment kit.

I decided against adding more bits and pieces from the stash as the triangle pattern seemed busy enough. I also decided I liked the negative of the die cut letters for the first part of the sentiment.

Of course my highlight of the page has to be the swoonworthy Mr Bailey picture who of course I had to had a selfie with! 😍

As I said earlier I love this page – the photos aren’t the best but the memories of our trip are now there for us to look at and remember that on the way out at least two of us had very blotchy faces from the crying! 🤣

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Time to start working through a new magazine kit – this time the one from Indigo Blu.

My video includes a show off of all the elements – but then I get on with making my first project …

Isn’t that Lavender so pretty?

I did ink up and add the white embossing to the background paper along with the stamping and of the image and making the topper for this card and I LOVED making it!

So happy with how it turned out and to be starting on this new series of projects.

I think that the slightly grungy mixed media type effect is right up my street!

What do you think? A good start for the new series?

Happy crafting!

Catherine