Autumn Owl

Hello lovely peeps, hope you are enjoying your weekend.

Today's card features no stamps whatsoever (I know, I was stunned too).

First I covered the front of a 7x7 card with wood patterned paper and die cut a large circle in the middle. 

The owl was cut using the Sizzix Bigz Owl#2 die, from various scraps of paper that I've been hoarding. The heart and wings were red card that I embossed with a dotty embossing folder.

 The leaves were die cut from an old book* using a Cuttlebug die and then swooshed through inks that I had dabbed onto my craft mat and spritzed with water. I've also added some Antique Linen Distress Stickles on them for a bit of sparkle & texture. 

The clear gems are from Inklylicious and the buttons and ribbon are from my stash.

*Cutting up books really goes against the grain for me as I would rather leave them for someone to read, so for this purpose I buy books from charity shops that no-one else would buy (eg. biographies of Z list celebrities, tourist guides that are 30 years out of date, etc. )
 

I haven't done much on the inside, but he did need something to sit on so I cut a branch from Kraft card using an Anna Marie Christmas robin template. Also, because there's not much room left to write anything inside, I have hand-written my greeting along the bottom of the branch (verrrrry slooowly :D )

I would like to enter this in the following Challenges:-
Crafting From The Heart - #81 Anything Goes

Craftin Desert Divas Photo Inspiration (Autumn)

My Time To Craft #306 autumnal colours

 Fan-Tastic Tuesday - #107 anything goes with a twist ... Autumn colours

Crafty Friends#16 Use Gems and/or Pearls (clear gems)

Creative Card Crew 98 Ribbon

Fab'n'Funky challenge #277 ~ Make it Square

Scrap & Craft Inspiration #14 Colours of Autumn

The Sisterhood of Crafters - Die-lirious and Punchy

Crafts Galore - Halloween or make a card for October

Catch The Bug - Bingo (Border, Ribbon, Fall theme)
Hiding In My Craft Room #221 - Favorite Cutting Tool! (eBosser from Craftwell)
Alphabet Challenge Blog - R for Ribbon 
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #20 Anything Goes
Crafting With Friends #8 - Anything Goes

As you like it - Monochrome or Colour (& why)! -
 I love colour, and Autumn colours are my absolute favourite (as a quick look in my wardrobe will attest!)

Always Playing With Paper #46 The colours of Autumn

I'm off to the bat cave now to tidy/craft (mostly the latter)

Thanks for stopping by today,

Katrina x

Going batty

Hello peeps, hope you are well.

Next week I'll be blogging some competition entries that I've made recently, but first I wanted to show you one I made for a competition last year since it's 'Halloweeny'.

It's three panels of card with arches cut out of two of them to create an old underground basement look. I didn't have an arch shaped die so I cut circles and then cut out the bottom half of the arches manually. To get the texture I ran the card through my ebosser with a brick stencil and then inked over the top with brown Distress Ink

The mad scientist character is from a Personal Impressions stamp set called Time Travel, designed by Lindsay Mason. This was coloured with Promarkers and then fussy cut.

The sentiment is by IndigoBlu and was stamped onto white shrink plastic with Stazon and then shrunk.

 It's a bit hard to make out, but I put some wisps of cotton wool dressing (unused!) behind one of the arches for cobwebs. The bats were cut with a Sizzix die and attached with strips of acetate.

For extra embellishments I die cut some cogs from black shrink plastic using a Sizzix die and coloured them with Letraset metallic pens after shrinking. The goggles were from the time travel set again, coloured with Promarkers and fussy cut. I used Glossy Accents to give a shine to the lenses.

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

Allsorts Challenge Blog  #332 No design papers

Not Just Cards #25 Anything Goes

Sisters of Craft - Anything goes 

Just Keep on Creating - Anything Goes  

Pile It On  #90 Funky and/or Freaky

Digi Choosday #41 Feeling sentimental 

THE PENCIL CASE  #4: D= Dark Colours

Try it on Tuesday - ITS FRIGHTENING -/- HALLOWEEN

The Sisterhood of Crafters - Die-lirious and Punchy

Polka Doodles - Use a Die Cut 

Whimsy Stamp Challenge - Anything Goes/Hallowe'en
Crafty Catz #297 Anything Goes
Left of Center #100 Good Old Fashioned Horror/AG 

Thank you for stopping by,

Katrina x

Woof You

Hello lovely peeps. Hope you are all well.

There are fabulous special offers on the Lili of the Valley website from midday today (Wednesday) until Saturday. You can get 6 paper pads for £30, 6 art pads for £30 or 10 selected stamps for £30 (from a huge range). There is also free shipping!

This is another one of the stamps included in the special offer - it's called 'Woof You' and includes a sentiment. I have also used papers from the Always and Forever 8x8 paper pack, and a circle sentiment from the Pretty Grungy - Good Times clear stamp set.

The die-cuts were made using Eyelet Squares (Spellbinders) and Serafina Heart (Memory Box).

The image is coloured in with a combination of Promarkers and Graph'Its.
Fur: Putty and Cinnamon
Nose/Paws: 9205
Flowers: Budding Rose and 5280
Leaves: 8240 and 0000 (blender)
Ground: 9500 and 9502

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

The Ribbon Girl - Any Image Anything Goes

Glitter n Sparkle #158  Use some pink

Everybody-Art #340 Flowers

 Crafty Boots - Pink

Inky Chicks - Think Pink

 Kitty Bee Aloha Friday Animals (2 of 2)

Creative Inspirations #331 Clean and Simple or Fussy and Fancy (F&F)

Crafting From The Heart - #81 Anything Goes

Craft your passion - #283 Anything Goes

 Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - #19 Anything Goes

 Crafting With Friends #8 - Anything Goes

Thank you for stopping by,

Katrina x

Paint the Town

Happy Monday Peeps.

There will be a special offer on lots of fabulous stamps at Lili of the Valley this week (from Wednesday onwards). There will also be a Facebook competition running at the same time, so hop on over on Wednesday and join in the fun.

One of the special offer stamps is Painting Puppy. He's been running amok and dripped paint everywhere. You have to forgive him though, he's so adorable :D

This was great fun to do -  I splattered some watered down paint onto linen textured card and left it to dry for about ten minutes. The main image was coloured with my Graph'It markers and then matted onto card. Rather than spend ten minutes hunting out matching cardstock, I just coloured the edges of some white card with one of the markers I used for doing the paintbrush

For the paw prints I used two different sizes of epoxy dome stickers which have a lovely glossy finish to them. The sentiment was printed from my computer using Backtalk Serif BTN font.

Challenges:-
Allsorts Challenge Blog #332 - No design papers
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Crafty Boots - Pink

Seize The Birthday - Anything Goes/Splatter 
Kitty Bee Aloha Friday Animals

Live & Love Crafts - Pink

Inky Chicks - Think Pink
Creative Fingers #95 Anything goes
Southern Girls - Let's Celebrate
Sweet Stamps - Anything Goes

Hope you all have a lovely week, thanks for stopping by.

Katrina x

Dinomite

Morning lovely peeps, I hope you are all well.

Today's post is my second as Guest Designer for Pink Gem. The challenge this fortnight is
'Spots and or Stripes'

The prize as always is 
2 Individual Digi images
(NO SETS, PERSONALIZED WATERMARKS OR SENTIMENT SETS)
of the winners choice from PINKGEM DESIGNS

This little fella is Dino Dinosaur.
Isn't he cute? I've coloured him in with Graph'It markers

The 'dinomite' die-cut was created with my Craft Robo - I typed the letters using Caslon Oldface font and welded them together with the software before cutting it out from black card. I've hand-drawn little spirals in place of the dots over the i's to match Dino's nostrils :D

I've also used:-

 'hope your birthday' sentiment from Lili of the Valley

background papers from Nitwit
buttons from my stash.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:- 
Pile It On  #89 123 (1 image, 2 papers, 3 buttons) 
Cardz4guys #91 Button It!
Crafty Sentiments Designs - Anything Goes
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Fan-Tastic Tuesday - #106 anything goes with a twist ... use two patterned papers
Die Cuttin' Diva - October Sketch (diecut dinomite)
 Polka Doodles - Use a Die Cut
Crafting by designs - Anything Goes
Creative Inspirations #330 Stars and / or Stripes!
Little Red Wagon #310 - It's All About The Boys
Digi Choosday - Use Something New (new digi stamp)
Going Grey - Birthday
Simply Papercrafts #15 Anything Goes
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - #19 Anything Goes
 Little Miss Muffet - #122 - Anything Goes

As you like it - Monochrome or Colour (& why) - I love colour , whether it's bright or subtle. I can spend ages picking out just the right combination for a project.

Please visit A Gem of a Challenge to see the creations from the rest of the wonderful team.
Thanks for stopping by today,
Katrina x

New beginning

Hello lovely peeps.

I'm very excited today as we're starting up our Craft Club again after a looooooooooooooooooooooooooong summer break.

Just wanted to show you the tag that I made during the Club session in February, run by the lovely Kristi.

  The tag had a little colour to start with but I added more with Distress Inks and overstamped some script, swirls, etc. with grey ink. The feather stamps (Sheena Douglass) are embossed with white powder. The sentiment (Dyan Reaveley's Dylusions) was just stamped onto white card and cut out.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
Allsorts Challenge Blog  #331 Nature
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge Blog - Anything Goes
ABC Challenge - S is for Sprinkles
Not Just Cards #25 Anything Goes
Sisters of Craft - Anything goes 

I'll be back on Saturday with my second card as Guest Designer for Pink Gem.
Thanks for stopping by,
 Katrina x

Halloween for Crafty Calendar Challenge

Hello lovely peeps, hope you are all well.

The theme for this month at Crafty Calendar Challenge is 'Halloween' and you could win a $12 voucher from our sponsor Di's Digi's.

For my DT inspiration card I have used 'the mummy the witch and the pirate' from Stamping Bella, designed by the very talented Christy Croll.

 I have stamped it onto white card and coloured it in with Graph'It markers

 (and my solitary Copic marker)

It's been matted and layered onto a 5 3/4" square card with papers from LOTV (Bonnets and Bowties Solids) and Docrafts Gorjuss (from their first launch).

The buttons and twill ribbon are from my stash and the sentiment was typed on my computer.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
Tuesday Throwdown  #264 Clean and Simple
Creative Inspirations - Anything Goes + Option of a Sketch!
Cute Card Thursday #393 Masculine
 Alphabet Challenge Blog - Q for Quick & Simple
 Crafts Galore - Halloween or make a card for October 
Crafting by designs - Anything Goes in October
Sisters of Craft - Anything goes
Crafting With An Attitude  #8 Anything Goes
Sweet Stamps - Anything Goes

 Please visit the Crafty Calendar Challenge Blog for more fabulous inspiration from my teamies,
Katrina x