DT: ATSM #515 die cuts and stencils

Another design team card to share this time our theme at Addicted to stamps and more is die cuts and stencils.

And I went with those Snowcapped holidays birds once again! Again this is mainly due to when I made this I had very few supplies to choose from as the craft room was in the process of being all packed up!

I chose paper leftover from scrapbooking that I couldn’t bear to throw away – such pretty colours in the striped paper. I added this to the yellow card base I made from cardstock to hand!

Then I gathered supplies for the focal elements – the three leaves leftover from the autumnal garland I made back in September but had leftover leaves I have hoarded!

Then the Snowcapped holidays birds and sprig of berries that I thought coordinated.

I lightly inked the leaves with vintage photo ink, adhered them in place and then splattered the card with the ink. Then added the birds and the sentiment.

The sentiment is one of those I did a while back using up scraps and foiling lots of sentiments that I then store ready to go. I added it with the foam adhesive to give a little dimension.

I still had my pouch of enamel gems on the desk so grabbed these orange ones to finish off the card.

Inside I used more of those scraps of the paper cut into banners to just finish off!

Love this bright and cheery card I made! Not bad with limited supplies! I still had some of the birds left in the pouch too – so probably more cards yet to make using these – definitely recommend the idea of making many layered die cuts like these at once and then storing them ready to go! Makes life so much easier when needing to put a cute card together without the fiddling!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

DT: Kingston Crafts – motion springs

I am back with another sample I made for Kingston Crafts using the fun spring mechanism. This time I decided to go to town with the die cut elements and then pop the bird up on the movement spring.

Isn’t the card so pretty? I started with the base using one of the 5×7 card bases to decide my colour combo.

I added the panel of white to give the die cut some grounding. Then I did all the die cutting!

Once it was all die cut out I added inking and then adhered together with the exception of the bird.

I also added glitter glue to the floral elements.

Then added the flowery branch to my card.

Next I added the spring to the back of the bird, lined it up to look like sitting on the branch and added it to the card.

Finishing touch was just the sentiment!

Such a pretty card! And the added element of that movement really steps it up!

And of course this was a ‘as seen on tv’ projects back on Good Friday albeit only briefly!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

DT: Kingston Crafts – Holiday shimmer spritz

I really loved the look of the Sugarplum spritz when I opened the box so this is the first one I played with – I took a piece of lilac cardstock from the pastel cardstock and then totally coated the piece with the sugar plum and then for good measure I also added in the silver colour in a few places to add some different elements. Well as I went heavy this took a while to dry but wow! How gorgeous it is! I decided to go for a big die cut element for the focal point of the card and cut this from that gorgeous pink swirly shiny and shimmer panel!

I then took some of the pastel pink cardstock and partially embossed it with the embossing folder and then blended some ink onto it. Then added that to the card base made from the pastel pink cardstock.

I also cut the base outline panel for the big die cut from the same pink to give it some separation from the textured background.

I die cut a couple of the central pieces from the pink, embossing the sentiment onto the top one in silver and stacked them and added them.

Because the spritzed pink die cut is so shiny I didn’t need to do much more – just a few tiny silver gems dotted around and the card was finished!

I don’t think the photos quite show the level of beauty that the spritz created so I did film a few seconds of film to share with you …

I suspect this spritz colour will get used all year round – it’s definitely not just for Christmas!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Scrappin Saturday

Not sure quite what happened but I seem to have missed blogging about this page I made in February (just found the pics on my phone!) – although have to say I am grateful as still not able to do crafting in the craft room so wouldn’t have had a post if I hadn’t found this!

This was one of those page kits that I bought from HLM a while ago and I pretty much kept the sketch as per the original kit – there was a fair amount of fussy cutting of the flowers but I think well worth it!

The photos as from hubby’s birthday from 2024 when we went to Kingpins at the Trafford Centre.

Love all these bright flowers and the embellishments I added in.

I also added some stencilling to the background – it’s subtle but the dotty circles are such fun!

Lovely bright page!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Festive Friday 2026 #15

I grabbed the Christmas Tags and More speciality dsp kit again as I wanted to make a quick card for this weeks Festive Friday. And this is one that once again I had to make without my usual supplies on hand so had to make do with stash I could easily access from the lounge where it was all piled up as I am still in a state of disarray!

I started by just playing with the little die cut elements and didn’t really get further than that!

There were two banners and two strips of the same size – so I turned the strips into banners and decided they would be the base for my focal element.

I grabbed the cream cardstock I had to hand to make a card base and to create a panel for the background. I then grabbed the Vintage Photo distress ink and inked all the edges of the strips and the panel.

I decided to use the bauble as a focal element but added the mistletoe and bells bunch to that to add something extra.

Then I raised the bauble up onto foam adhesive and threaded some twine through to create a hanger.

I adhered the twine to the other side of the background and then created bow to sit on the top.

I stamped a sentiment strip using magazine stamps and then inked that up too after cutting it into a banner.

This sat across the top of the bauble so foam adhesive for the end so it didn’t ‘flop’ or bend.

I used a shimmer pen to add details and then some liquid pearls onto the mistletoe berries.

I added some scrap cardstock behind the background panel to raise it up a little and then inside I added a scrap of paper which I cut into a banner and inked.

Unfortunately the craziness of my house is now set to continue longer than I thought as there was an issue with the flooring that should have been laid today – so now in addition to my lounge full of the stash and some furniture, I now have the ground floor filled with the flat packed furniture for the room that I now can’t build as no flooring! 🤬 yes all a little frustrating to say the least. Hey ho – will get there eventually!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

DT: Kingston Crafts – motion springs

Got out some old stash to play with to create a card full of movement.

I love the spring slimline cardstock for making a bright sunny card. I added the two panels to the front of the card and then added the die cuts to the mechanisms and added them to the front – so both move!

Really fun – super simple! ❤️

And nice to play with old stash again!

This card got a lot of air time on the Hobbymaker tv programme last week as Dave kept picking it up and playing with it! 🤣 love it!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

DT: Kingston Crafts – paper flowers

The layering flower embellishments pack from Kingston Crafts comes with so many lovely delicate paper flowers (not surprised it sold out on the show on Friday) and so my first thing I wanted to make was a card with a wreath type embellishment with the flowers as the decoration.

I grabbed cheerful patterned cards and made layers for the card base which is 5×5 and then die cut the swirly oval for my wreath type focal point from the foiled cardstock.

I then chose three flower shapes and took three of each and lightly inked the centres using three colours of ink.

I then adhered them to the wreath in three clusters.

Next I added yellow glitter glue to the centres – this adds the perfect touch of sparkle!

Next I stamped and embossed the sentiment and added that too!

Seriously cute little flowers (these are the smaller sizes of the flowers in the pack) and I love the delicate nature of these against the bold patterns on the cardstock.

Martin didn’t get a chance to share many samples as these flowers sold out so quickly! So you are seeing it here first!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

DT: Kingston Crafts – holiday shimmer spritz

I played with the shimmer spritz on some dark green cardstock to create a really fun almost northern lights sky type effect and then I die cut it with the snowflake texture die which punches the pattern rather than cuts out a shape. From this I created the three panels for tags.

I used the solid green from the Everyday paper pad to create the tags – and then to diecut the trees for the embellishments.

I then popped the trees into a box and sprayed them with the white shimmer spritz – this gave it a lovely snowy finish!

I then took some green from the pastel cardstock and die cut some circles. I stamped the sentiment onto the circles.

Once they were all adhered together as layers I added some green ribbon to the tops of the tags – perfect for Christmas wrapping later in the year – much later in the year! 🤣

Love these fun tags!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

DT: Kingston Crafts – motion springs

Back with a project using the spring mechanism which brings some fun movement … this time I needed the butterfly to flutter and I have to admit when I made this I was instantly hooked to using the springs on projects as it really steps it up!

I kept the card itself really simple. Dark coral red card stock cut into two panels, the smaller one then die cut with a negative die (where it takes the pattern out of the panel).

I then raised that up onto foam to give all the lovely dimension. I just love how this looks.

Next I found the butterfly sticker that went perfectly with the colour of the cardstock. I got rid of the stick with the powder from the embossing buddy and then attached the spring mechanism to the back and added it to the front of the card.

This popped it up fabulously to give plenty of space for the movement … and this is the main thing about these mechanisms … the movement is so much fun!

I kept the rest of the card simple – a sticker sentiment and some card Candi to embellish.

Just love how this turned out – so pretty!

And I must admit so happy with how it looked when I saw it on the tv show on Friday!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Easter cards

I actually did some crafting yesterday by pulling a few supplies from the piles in the lounge to make some Easter cards on the dining room table.

I found these cute carrot puffy fabric embellishments that had been in Hey Little Magpie monthly embellishment kit and had kept them to one side of the stash knowing I could use them for Easter. Then I grabbed my pouch of scrap cardstock and made some little layered rectangles for the embellishments to sit on!

I then pulled the pouch of ready made sentiments from the stash – I found three that said hugs that worked with the colours on the carrots and cardstock.

Next I get grabbed three of the card blanks from the Kingston Crafts ready made card blanks choosing the peach, cream and pink ones.

A simple job and perfectly spring like! Admittedly could have done with an Easter sentiment really but that wasn’t an option as would have required searching through the piles of boxes of stash to find my stamps – and that was more than I could face!

So my three Easter cards for this year (admittedly they will be late arriving with the aunties as only made on Easter Saturday!). Cute!

Hope you are having a lovely Easter! 🐣

Happy crafting!

Catherine