Monochrome Leaf

Hello lovely peeps, I hope you are well.

I finally got back in my craft room after an absence of several months (more on that later) so that I could make a card for my Guest Designer spot today at AAA Birthday 

This month's challenge theme is 'Monochrome'

You can use shades of any one colour (and it has to be a birthday card). Given the autumnal feel to the weather at the moment I went for orange.    

Birthday snippets

Hello lovely peeps, I hope you are well.
 

I am delighted to say that I am a Guest Designer for the lovely Di over at Pixie's Snippets Playground for the next fortnight. 

Me ol' Bamboo

I'm delighted to say that I'm a Guest Designer over at Retro Rubber for the next fortnight. You have to use stamps older than a year so it's the perfect challenge for me given that I'm a hoarder, lol.

Their challenge this time is an easy one - Anything Goes

The main stamp on my card is 8 years old and is called Party Paws 'Flowers from Bamboo', released by Crafter's Companion. I stamped him onto smooth cartridge paper with grey Memento ink and watercoloured him in with Distress Markers.

The sentiment was done in black Versafine ink with an old 'Large Birthday Sentiments' set by Lili of the Valley from 2 years ago. 

I added a few gel dots tofinish off and mounted on a 7x7" card blank.

Please pop over to Retro Rubber if you get a chance to see the wonderful creations from the team.

Thank you ladies for having me as GDT this time.

I would like to enter my card in the following challenges:-

Animal Friends Challenge  #98 bear

Crafty Animals  #50 AG with animal

AAA Birthday 25 Happy Birthday  

Thanks for stopping by, stay safe
Katrina x

Two Quarters

Hello lovely peeps and Happy Easter to you.

 I'm delighted to say that I'm a Guest Designer over at AAA Cards for their latest challenge. 
 

They've got a new theme this time, which is 'Two Quarters' 



and I chose to follow the optional twist of 'Rainbow'.

Love Bird

I'm thrilled to say that I am a guest designer over at Cut It Up for their 'All You Need Is Love' challenge starting today - thank you ladies for having me.
 

(this is my 2nd option for this year's Valentine card for hubby)

Easter at Stemplegarten

Hello lovely peeps

I'm thrilled to say that I am Guest Designer this month at Stemplegarten.

Less is More GDT

Hello lovely peeps

I am thrilled to say that I am appearing as a Guest Designer for the next fortnight over at Less is More. They are one of my favourite challenge blogs and provide fabulous inspiration for CAS cards (which I am still trying to get the hang of).

The challenge this time is to make a One Layer Card with a Holiday theme.

To start off I printed the digi version of 'James Balancing Act' half way across a piece of A4 card (left margin 15.5cm, top margin 12cm). After folding it in half I cut it down to make a 5"x7" card.

I coloured him in with Copics
Fur: E50, E51, E53, E23, E25, E59
Hat: R32, R35, R29, R89
Present: G21, YG63, G94
Ground: N0, N1, N3
Outline: BG0000

The greeting is from the Large Christmas Greetings set (LOTV) and I stamped a few snowflakes over the top with third generation Faded Jeans distress ink (snowflakes from the Inkydoodles Christmas Ornaments stamp set)

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
Cardz 4 Guyz #208 Christmas critters
Happy Little Stampers (Christmas) optional CAS
Copic UK Official FB Group  Anything Goes with optional Christmas
Simon Says Stamp (Wed) Baby it's cold outside
Cute card thursday #557 festive colours
Addicted to Stamps and More #319 CAS
 Crafting By Designs Something sweet

Thanks for stopping by,
Katrina x

Copic UK GDT spot

Hello lovely peeps

I'm thrilled to announce that I am a Guest Designer this month on the Copic UK Facebook page, where you have a chance to win 2 Copic pens in their Anything Goes Challenge (just post something you have coloured with Copic markers).

Bunny Shaker Card on Throwback Tuesday

Hello lovely peeps

Some exciting news today - Retro Rubber Challenge are having me as a Guest Designer. How fabulous is that? By happy coincidence it ties in very nicely with my Throwback Tuesday feature :D

Fur or Feathers at AYLI

Hello lovely peeps

I'm chuffed to bits to be appearing as a Guest Designer at As You Like It today. They have challenges once a fortnight where you have to choose between 2 options and explain why.
The theme this time is Fur or Feathers, and as my logo includes a cat it really had to be 'Fur' for me.

Strangely I don't actually have many cat stamps as I don't often come across one that I like, but I love this background from IndigoBlu - 'Kibble Kits'. I stamped it onto watercolour card with Black Versafine ink and coloured it with Distress Oxides (I splodged them onto my craft mat and picked up the colour with a damp paintbrush).

I fussy cut along the top around all the ears and trimmed the edges down before mounting it on more watercolour card.

There are larger cat stamps that go with this background but I don't have them (yet). Instead I've used one of the images from the Three Amigos set by Mama Elephant which has three adorable critters holding up signs.

The set includes lots of little words but I wanted some a little (OK, a lot) more cheesy so I printed some sentiments off onto watercolour card from my computer (Verdana font, size 11).

 and stamped the cat around them.

I coloured in with the Distress Oxides again and cut out the cat with a little border.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
Show us Your Pussies-Cat Only Challenge #21 Furrything Goes
Cardz 4 Galz # 54 Cats or kittens
SSS Work it wednesday  STAMPtember
2 Crafty Critter Crazies #5 Anything Goes with a critter
Crafty Animals  #5 Anything Goes
Oddball Art Stamps  Life in technicolor
That's Crafty! Challenge Blog Only cards
Deep Ocean Challenge #162 Fave Colour combo 

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x

Spring Walks

Hello lovely peeps

Some exciting news today - I am appearing as a Guest Designer at All Dressed Up. Woo hoo!
I love working with Wendy's images, they are great to colour. The sketchy style is right up my street and the older girl stamps in particular are very elegant. Of course I love all of the cute images too :o)

All Dressed Up very kindly sent me Spring Walks to play with. I printed it at 60% size onto Hunkydory 'Colour Me' card and coloured it with Promarkers and Flexmarkers
Grass: Pear Green, Lime Zest, Aniseed
Jeans: Duck Egg, Cool Aqua
Top/Flowers: 2140, Amber, Saffron
Skin: Coral, Sunkissed Pink, Blush
Hair: Cocoa, Cinnamon, Tan
Dogs: as per hair, plus Putty, Almond 

I went around the edge of my card with my stab and stitch tool then joined up the dots with the fine end of a Tan Spectrum Aqua marker

The background paper is by BoBunny and the flowers were cut using Sheena's Honesty Die in white card and coloured with Promarkers.  The sentiment is from the Fancy Sayings stamp set from Clearly Besotted, stamped in Espresso Adirondack Ink.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-

Passion For Promarkers Challenge #399 add a sentiment

Little Red Wagon #398 Dogs or Cats

Sheepski Designs #3 Girlz Rule
Let's Craft & Create Challenge #126 Girls, girls, girls
Mod Squad Challenge - make it square
Dream Valley Challenges # 158 Square cards only
 Creative Inspirations #277 Our furry/feathered friends 
Glitter n Sparkle #243 Bright Colours

Paper Play Sketches Colour 

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x

Monstrous Party for Color Throwdown

Hello lovely peeps

I'm very excited to be joining the very talented team at Color Throwdown today as their 'Guest Star Stamper'. Colour really inspires me and is usually the main reason I am drawn to a particular card design/patterned paper etc.

They provide a little picture each week for inspiration and pick out the main colours that you need to have in your creation. The picture for this week's challenge is

So I had a little troll through my digi stamps and found a little gem from Tiddly Inks called 'Monstrous Party' which suits this colour scheme down to the ground.

I printed it onto stamping card and coloured it in with a mix of Graph'Its and Promarkers
Ground: Ice Grey 1-4
Left hand Monster: 4115, 4155, 4180
Middle Monster: 5255, 5270, 5280
Right hand Monster: 5150 and Ice Grey 4
Balloon: 6125 and 6140
Horns, feet and arms: Morning Mist and Grey Squirrel

I typed the sentiment on my computer and layered it up with scraps of patterned papers to match the colours on the main image.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
Allsorts #371 One for the Boys
Send a Smile for Kids CAS 4 Kids
The Pencil Case #22 W=Whateva!
Crafty Creations #319 Clean and Simple
Art Impressions Stamp Challenge #188 Anything Goes
Craft Your Passion #320 Anything Goes (Always)
Crafting With An Attitude #17 Anything Goes Always
Addicted to Stamps and More #202 Make Your mark
Fab 'n' Funky #313 Add a sentiment
As You Like It Challenge Favourite Markers Inks or Pencils (& why) - My favourite markers are Graph'Its because the colours are so vibrant and you have the option of using brush tips which give a lovely finish as well as letting you get into the tiniest areas.
Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x