INKY FINGERS

Just sharing a few cards I made this week…

I love Christmas and I love Christmas cards, but I make very few these days. This year I decided to make a few to send to family and special friends, so I dusted off my ‘C’ stamps, glitter and dies and made these.

I used Weathered Wood over a tree stencil on this one and used an old Stampington cube to stamp some subtle background snowflakes, using Delicata Shimmer White, which you can’t see at all on the scan so I took a photo to show some of it. The swirls are home made mica spray, to add sparkle and the star is glittered. Of course there are some white acrylic spatters, too.

Once I’d made a few Christmas cards, I needed to kick back and do something for fun, so I grabbed a square of card from my ready cut basket and smooshed some Oxides in greys and pinks. I had no idea there was a Faux Batik image on that piece of card, so I was pleasantly surprised when my favourite fuchsia stamp appeared...and just added more stamping to complete it.

CAS Watercolour have a Thank you challenge at the moment, so I made this…using embossing resist, to qualify for the CAS Mixup challenge. Not sure it’s very CAS, though… I used Inktense pencils for the wash.

Words 2 Craft By have a Blessings Challenge, so thinking of that, I made the following two cards using backgrounds and images from my stash. I was too late for the challenge, drat

There’s a ‘B for…’ Challenge at SSS Mondays and I’m also linking to the following challenges…

Addicted to Stamps and More, Anything Goes

Fussy and Fancy, Winter Christmas

Ellibelle’s Crafty Wednesday, Snowflakes, Snowmen or Winter

Moo Mania and More, Trees

Dare 2B Artsy, Winter

Fashionable Stamping, Winter

Back soon

Thank you so much for popping by…

Cath

xxx

Allsorts this week is Fairies, Fantasy and Magical and while I was thinking about that, I noticed the challenge at Sunday Stamps is to use 3 of the colours on the photo below, plus one neutral, so I combined them…

…to make this

The above is a photo and this is a scan – the true colours are more in between the two, but the photo shows the different shades of pink more clearly

I used three shades of Distress Oxides and Distress Inks; Spun Sugar, Tattered Rose and Victorian Violet, then coloured the wings with similar shades on Promarkers, using a Spun Sugar reinker for the palest pink. It’s mounted on grey, then on a Dusky pink card.

I painted Ice Stickles onto the wings and the stars, so I’m also linking to

Sparkle ‘n’ Sprinkle Creative Challenges and

 Creations in Pink – Mainly Pink

Make My Monday have a Non Traditional Christmas colours challenge, as do

Addicted to Stamps and

Dare 2B Artsy are looking for Winter creations

So I made these…

Yes,I have a ‘thing’ for grey at the moment…

Mix it Up are asking for NO STAMPS (eek!)

and

Creatalicious are Anything Goes + optional stencil

I used Irridescent Stencil Paste through my stencil, then sprayed over the sponged Distress Ink background with Mica sparkle spray (home made) before adding the die cut Joyeux Noel.

I’m also linking to SSS Wednesday’s Anything Goes challenge.

Thank you for popping by….

Back soon

Cath

xxx

Today, I’m thankful that while every day may not be perfect, there’s something good in every day and always something to be thankful for

This brings me to the end of my month of Thankfulness and I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s been so good for me to focus on the good things every day.

It also brings me to the end of AEDM, which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. Big thank yous to Leah, for organising this and to our small – but very select – group of daily contributors. I’ve enjoyed getting to know you a little bit more and sharing your art.

THANK YOU!

I know I’ll see some of you on AJJ and other sites

I’m also linking to the

Anything Goes challenge at SSS Wednesdays

I’ll be back soon

Thanks for calling in

Cath

xxx

Today, I am thankful for language and words.

I’m really enjoying my current book – the latest Sansom novel, Tombland, and I actually look forward to bedtime, so I can go back to England 1549, and relive the peasants’ revolt and catch up with the characters.

A really good book can make us feel we’re actually living in the story and this is one of those that does it for me So I started thinking about language and words and how important they are. I don’t usually watch a lot of TV, but lately, I’ve been watching a lot of French dramas  – thanks to More 4 – so that’s why I sometimes find myself in ‘French mode’. I lived in the suburbs of Paris for a short time and have never tired of being besotted with the French language… I just think it’s so graceful. Yet, they have far fewer words at their disposal than we English do and there are things that are really difficult to express in French.

I can’t help but think about what the Bible says:-

‘The tongue has the power of life and death’ (Proverbs 18).

It’s so true. We can use our words to bless or to harm people. So here’s my page for today…

I went hunting for my collection of words torn or cut from various magazines and was pleased to find they weren’t a casualty of my recent ruthless clearout! I just stuck them onto my page randomly and added a few of my own. There was definitely no plan here, lol.

I’m linking this to AEDM

and to

Art Journal Journey’s Vintage or Modern

Have a great Thursday!

Thanks for stopping by…

Back soon

Cath

xxx

I’ve had a free day today, so I’ve been enjoying the quiet of my craft room… bliss!

Only 2 more days left in November… I thought I’d be relieved, but I’m beginning to realise I’ll miss my (almost) daily visits to the AEDM peeps… but I’m sure Christmas prep will soon take over! Good AND bad but definitely busy… and I can see most of you at Art Journal Journey.

Today, day 28, I’m thankful for flowers.

Earlier today, I went into my yard to check the bulbs I’d planted and was pleasantly surprised at just how many fuchsias are still in bloom. I love them at any time but they just looked especially beautiful this morning because I didn’t expect them. (I should explain that in England a yard isn’t a garden, as it is in the US, but a paved area behind the house, most often found in older terraced (all joined together) houses, like mine. This house is over 100 years old and was owned by the builder of the whole terrace – about 8 houses and 2 small shops - so it’s a little bigger than the others and had just been completely renovated when I moved in . I keep lots of pots of flowers, herbs, hanging baskets and other things there.)

My journal page is a stark contrast to yesterday’s plain page (now with more stamping and stencilling added) – it’s busy – way TOO busy, really but I was having fun I was in French mode, so did a lot of my journalling and stamping in French but the torn text is in English.

As usual, the die cuts have absorbed some of the Oxide inks behind them but I don’t mind that. The black flowers are stencilled, not stamped, but they are embossed because I used Versafine ink to stencil with.

I’d forgotten I also intended posting this pic of my favourite floral treat – when in season – I’ve only recently begun to love tulips, but love the fact that as they are decaying, they open up and gradually change colour, displaying an amazing range of hues and looking more and more beautiful – a bit like Autumn leaves. I keep them until they really are falling apart.

I made some cards for a couple of challenges, too.  In keeping with the Floral theme, I made this one…

…which fits in nicely with the challenge over at

Addicted to Stamps and more - photo inspiration

This one is for Moo Mania and More – Trees

I also made another tree card – I think the grey, dark weather was influencing my choices, today.

This one is for Time Out’s Black, White and one colour challenge…

and also for

Craft Creations, Anything Goes

and

Casology – Girl

I am, of course, also linking to AEDM

Thank you for stopping by

See you again soon, hopefully tomorrow

Cath

xxx

Am I confusing you?  I confuse myself…

I’m going back a day to journal my Day 26 of thankfulness in November because I was out all day and way too tired to play when I arrived home. But I was SO very thankful to be able to come ‘HOME’.

I spent 17 years (mostly by choice, I hasten to add) living in a house I never really felt was my home and after another 4 years in a small flat, I was so very grateful to move into my current home! So I decided to celebrate it in a very simple journal page.

I live in what used to be a mining village in the industrial North West of England. It may not be the prettiest of villages and my house may not be a super duper big house, but it’s where I feel at home and I have almost everything I need virtually on my doorstep. I’m blessed.

I thought I’d add a couple of my mop up journal pages while I’m here… this one has a faint image of Icarus flying in the background and is one of my favourite da Vinci quotes. I have it in a stamp but it’s hard to read.

This page is very rough but is one of my favourite Bible verses…

Hopefully, I’ll be back to the right day tomorrow…

Linking this to AEDM – even if it IS a day late…

Thanks for looking

See you soon

Cath

xxx

This fortnight’s challenge at Try it on Tuesday is Winter Wonderland. We’d love to see you there

I used torn paper and Distress Oxides to create mounds of snow around my first and second generation stamped and embossed trees. I painted Ice Stickles on for the glistening snow and sprinkled Stampendous Frantage Chunky White embossing powder around to represent falling snow.

That’s Crafty also have a Winter Wonderland challenge and the SSS Wednesday challenge is Baby it’s Cold Outside.

I’m thankful for seasons for Day 27 of my November Thankfulness… I may not enjoy every single thing about every season, but the hard parts make the good bits all the more enjoyable and I appreciate them more. My brother came back to England from New Zealand because he missed seasons… and while he was living there, came home each Christmas for the winter weather.

The challenge at Sweet Stampin is Whatever the Weather, so thinking of weather and seasons, I made this...

‘Everywhere you go, you always take the weather with you’… one of my favourite songs!

I’m also linking to AEDM (almost forgot…)

I missed Day 26, so I’ll be back later with more art…

We would love to see you over at TIOT with your Winter Wonderland art

Thank you for looking

See you soon

Cath

xxx

I’m catching up again…life has a habit of getting in the way of daily blogging. Or maybe I’m just not very good at blogging every single day. Only five days left and I’ll be back to my intermittent, spasmodic posts

I journalled my thankfulness for yesterday this evening – after making my day 25! Yesterday, I didn’t go into my craft room once – now that really IS a record these days, lol. BUT I did spend a number of hours colouring and cutting out images I’d stamped previously. I had a huge pile of them waiting, so thought I’d clear them all – and I actually managed it! But when I did venture into my favourite room, I found some more in there, so I have yet another pile of images here, waiting – albeit a much smaller pile – and my box of Promarkers is still here!  Unfortunately, I have a busier week coming up, so they may take me longer to clear.

This was what I did yesterday, for AEDM…a very colourful and productive day!

I’m looking forward to just being able to glue them on!

Thankfulness Day 24 was for a new day…

I don’t know about you, but there are days I’m glad come to an end, for one reason or another. Someone once said God was very kind to give us night time, because it’s as if he pulls the curtains on the day and when we wake up, it’s a brand new day and a chance to start again. I like that thought     

It’s a very simple page – a Kraft page, painted with white acrylic, stamped, embossed, stencilled around the edges with Espresso Oxide, then a little bit of journalling around the edges.Every day is a new day!

I’d also like to enter Art Journalling Journey’s Old and New Challenge.

Today, day 25, I’m thankful for music. I love music of many genres and am usually singing around the house, even when it’s very quiet. Mum played piano and although I only learned to play the recorder at school, that meant I learned to read music, which helped a lot in later years. My two brothers and I all played guitar and I spent many an evening with one of them, playing and singing – as I often did with my oldest friend, who I’ve known since I was sixteen and am very close to. She also joined my brother and me many a time.

My church doesn’t have a choir, but at Christmas, we do have a small one for Carols by Candlelight, and practices begin this week. I’m so looking forward to that – we laugh as much as we sing, and have so much fun.

This week’s challenge at Allsorts is Inspired by a Song, so I used some of my newly (wildly) coloured birdies to make this card.

I’ll link this to Colour Crazy Challenge – Anything Goes

This one started out as a CAS card but ended up being not so CAS because I cut it down… It’s a while since I’ve used these Paperartsy Christmas stamps.

I may not make tomorrow – but I’ll try to do something quick and if not, catch up on Tuesday.

Thanks so much for calling in…

Back soon

Cath

xxx

Better late than never…

It’s been one of ‘those days’…

I did make a simple journal page, but I dared to do a bit of script handwriting over it and wasn’t happy with it, so spent ages trying to cover it up – badly - with mismatched die cuts and find a way to hide it – duh!

I liked the original much better. I must learn to be more comfortable with my mistakes

Today, I’m thankful for the freedom to choose. There’s a story behind this, but I won’t bore you with it… 

I’m linking this to Art Every Day Month

I’ll be back soon

Thanks for looking

Cath

xxx

Today I just want to wish all of you Happy Thanksgiving!

I’m counting my blessings… I know we don’t celebrate in the UK, but maybe we should… I used my favourite Oxide colour combination and simply concentrated on saying Thanks.

We don’t yet have snow, though some parts of the UK have, but it’s certainly cold… so I thought I’d link these to the Simon Says Stamp challenges.

SSS Wednesday – Baby, It’s Cold Outside

I stamped the snowflakes and the words in Versamark, embossed in white powder, then sponged three different shades of blue Oxides over, finishing off with the large Woodware die cut snowflakes embossed in Stampendous Frantage Chunky White powder (which is also scattered over the background) and a couple of EK Success snowflake punches, with some Nuvo Sparkle drops.

SSS Monday – Let it Snow

This is a Michael Powell design from Do Crafts, coloured with Promarkers and spattered with Dylusions White Linen.

I’m also linking to Art Every Day Month – AEDM

It’s not too late to join in – it’s fun to see what people share each day.

Thanks for looking

Back soon

Cath

xxx