Global Design Project 114 Sketch Challenge

Afternoon all, as I write this it is a chilly Autumn afternoon and I am sat in my Dad's house waiting for him to be discharged from hospital. My boys are out in Dad's back garden with shovels and brushes digging a huge hole and pretending to be road sweepers. They're all wrapped up in coats and bobble hats. Luckily I can still see them from where I am which gives them the opportunity to have a bit of free rein and me the chance to write up this post! My Dad has a huge back garden which the two of them are able to run round, digs holes in and just generally be kids. We don't have a very big garden and so I love bringing them here and just letting them play, get muddy and go off in search of frogs and insects. It brings back fond memories of me doing the same in my grandparents garden.

I just love the Santa's Suit stamp set, it makes such fun and jolly cards, I haven't used it anywhere near as much as I should have done considering it's nearly December. It's really easy to use as it has individual stamps for the outlines and the block colour sections. This makes colouring them in so simple.

When the latest sketch challenge from the Global Design Project came into my inbox I immediately thought of this set as it has several individual items that can either be used together to create a full Santa or individually like I have here. I was tempted to use the Santa in his undies stamp as well, off to the side as if he was looking up at his clothes but it didn't look quite right. The natural twine bow worked quite nicely instead. The twine is another example of a product that I've had for AGES and hardly used! I'm getting slightly better at using what I have before buying anything new but I still have a long way to go. He he.

I used my layering square dies to produce the white and red layers. I could have used a slightly larger die for the red layer but decided against it as I didn't want the card too cluttered. The background has been created by using one of the designs from the Be Merry Designer Series Paper, I wanted something to add a little bit of extra colour without taking away from the main focal point of the six squares. 

I don't know about you but whenever I think of Christmas there is always glitter and sparkle involved and now that I've worked out how easy it is to add Dazzling Diamonds Stampin' Glitter to any project using my fine tip glue pen I add it wherever I can. Doesn't Santa's suit look so magical with a bit of glitter?

I've finished just in time, the boys have decided it's too cold outside now and my Dad is on his way home! Happy crafting and I hope you'll come back to my blog again soon.

November RAK Blog Hop

Happy Sunday everyone and welcome to my very first Random Act of Kindness (RAK) Blog Hop. For those of you that don't know me my name is Cat Herrington and I am based in England. Today I am showcasing the cards I have given & received as part of the Random Act of Kindness Group on Facebook. 

Each month, we each select a few people from the Group to send a RAK card to, to brighten their day. Please feel free to join the Group if you would like to participate in the RAK cards movement (blogging is not mandatory).#imbringingRAKcardsback #makeacardsendacard

This is the card that I made to send out to people this month and I will be showing how I made the background as the first part of Technique Tuesday over on my Facebook page this week.

I have not been a member of the RAK group for very long so I only received the one card to show you so far. This lovely card was made by Jacqui Vaughan in Australia and made my day! My husband had the day off when the card arrived so messaged me to say I had received a card from Australia, this then meant that I spent the next couple of hours at work very excited and wanting to get home and open my happy post! I have the stamp set that Jacqui used and it makes me want to get it out and use it again, I haven't stamped with this one in a while.

I hope the projects you've seen here on my blog today have inspired you & brightened your day. You are currently visiting Cat Herrington. Please see the list below & hop around all of the people on the list to see all our projects. You don't want to miss any!

Missing you

Good evening all, I'm a little bit late with this weeks post as we've had a very hectic weekend. It started with a lovely Thai meal out with my NCT girl friends Friday night. Breakfast on Saturday with my Dad and Uncle, followed by a girly shopping trip with my Mother in law and Sister in law, then out to my amazing friend and up-line's wedding party Saturday night. Then Sunday we went to view the photos from a photo shoot we'd had done of the four of us a little while ago and then back to Dad's for Sunday lunch. It was nice to go back to work today for a rest!

Somehow while doing all of that I managed to squeeze in a bit of crafting! Pickle even decided to give me a hand with the cutting!

Today's card was inspired by the CAS Colours and Sketches challenge which this week was a colour challenge. I have to admit, Night of Navy is one of my favourites but the other two I very rarely touch. It's nice to get out of my comfort zone every so often and use colours that aren't my first choice.

I was quite tired while making this card so I made a couple of mistakes, one of which actually turned out to be a happy accident. I'd taken out my eclectic layers dies and thought it would be nice to use the leaves die so you could see the layer of lemon lime twist card through the white card stock. So I happily rolled it through my big shot expecting it to create a lovely cut through piece. Only problem was I'd used the die that embosses not cuts....whoops! I had already wasted several bits of card stock, as I had a real problem reading measurements while making this one, I decided I wasn't going to throw it away. I grabbed my aqua brush instead and just painted over the leaves. I hope you'll agree that it turned out quite nicely! 

I hope you all enjoy the rest of your week and I'll be back next week.

Santa Scene

Good morning all, I can't believe it's Sunday already, this week has gone so fast. Luckily this weekend we haven't been that busy so I've been able to get some relaxing crafting done as well as some more organising/planning. We're off on a lovely family walk later along the old Meon railway line, we're going to take the boys on their bikes so it should be fun!

As a Stampin' Up! demonstrator we sometimes get early access to certain products, which means I get to play with them before being able to sell them to customers. The latest early release is the new alcohol markers called Stampin' Blends. These are only available to demonstrators and there isn't a customer release date yet, however if you sign up to join my team before the end of today you can choose the Stampin' Blends as part of your starter pack, meaning you get them early too! For some more of my colouring in pop over to my Facebook page.

Apart from the Christmas tree and Santa hiding behind it, everything on this card has been coloured in with my Stampin' Blends. I absolutely love them already, they are so easy to use and really enjoyable to colour with. How cute is this little dog sniffing out Santa's cookies?

Today's card has been made using the Santa Suit and Ready for Christmas stamp sets and matching framelits. I have to admit these two sets are actually ones that I put in my order and took off again several times before finally buying them, I just couldn't make my mind up. I am so glad I decided to get them, I've played with the Santa Suit set more than any of the others I bought. I've got so many ideas for the Ready for Christmas set too, including a scrapbook layout.

I hope you like today's card, I'm off to measure Rory's head for a cycle helmet! Happy Sunday everyone!

Dragonfly Dreams

Happy Sunday! It's just a quick post from me today, we have had a really busy weekend going to football training, a family BBQ and a birthday party. I can't believe it's almost over already, back to work tomorrow, boooo!! 

About a week ago I posted on Instagram the below photo of a Dragonfly we had seen on our walk back from town and my interpretation in ink. However I totally forgot to share the completed card so thought I would share it on my blog! Here is the original photo I took of the Dragonfly, you can barely see the wings in the photo.

This was the photo of the my version of the Dragonfly. To stamp the wings I used Cajun Craze and Crushed Curry which I sponged onto the stamp so that I was able to achieve a good mix of colours. I then used my Cajun Craze Stamp 'n' write marker to colour in the body of the Dragonfly to stop the ink from going onto the wings. The body was also stamped again using the two step stamps in the set.

I'm really pleased with how this turned out and although the wings aren't see through like the real thing I think the colour combination works well together.

Once I had my Dragonfly I wasn't sure what to do next so I reached for my tablet and searched Pintrest for some inspiration. I found this lovely card made by Michelle Last which inspired me to use the dots in the set to make a frame round the card. I hope you like it!

Don't forget if you'd like to have a go at making any of these cards yourself just get in touch and I can pop a catalogue in the post to you or if you're local why not come to one of my card making classes?

Building Orchids for CAS Colours and Sketches

Good morning! Before I start I just want to warn you this is quite a picture heavy post as I am a little bit in love with today's card. As I don't often say that about my own cards I hope you'll excuse the amount of photos! If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram  you'll have seen my Dragonfly post yesterday saying that I often get inspired by nature. Well on my kitchen window sill I have several Orchids and my pink one is currently in flower. Every time I see it I keep thinking I should try and replicate it with my Orchid builder set, obviously nothing is as good as nature itself but I do like my version as well. 

Today's card was also inspired by the sketch challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches I'm not sure why when I saw it I thought of using Orchids but I did!

I had great fun creating this card with the orchid builder stamps and framelits. so I though I would include step by step photos of how I created them to show you how easy it is! First you stamp out all of your layers, I used plain whisper white this time with Berry Burst ink but it would also look good on the shimmery card stock.

Then use the matching dies to cut out all of your layers, I find the magnetic platform really helps, this way I know the borders round my layers are going to be as equal as possible and I won't accidentally cut part of my image off. It might just be me with messy die cuts without the magnetic platform though!

As I wanted a little extra colour on the petals I sponged the edges as well. Then with my pierce mat underneath to give it a soft surface I pushed the edge of my bone folder into each petal section to give it a bit of dimension. This step is not essential but it does make them stand out a bit more.

Then finally glue the layers together, I personally use glue dots between each layer as I can accurately put them where I need them and they're not messy! As a little extra touch I used my wink of Stella pen (seriously cannot get enough of this!!) on the centre of the flower.

For my card I made two of the small Orchids and one of the large ones, I then glued these on a stem cut using the seasonal layers dies. The sentiment came from the Orchid builder set as well and was stamped in Garden Green.

So what do you think? As I said I actually love this card, I think it also helped that I already had a recipient in mind when I started making this. Sometimes without realising it I'll put extra effort into a card if I already know who I'm giving it to. 

Thanks to Garden in Bloom

Hello again, this week's card is a simple thank you card inspired by a colour combination challenge over at the Global Design Project.

They provided the colour combination to use all I had to do was create the card, easier said than done this week! If you follow me on Facebook you'll know I was hoping for a crafting fairy to magically appear and put the card together for me.

Unfortunately a fairy didn't appear so I had to put it together myself. I knew I wanted it to be a thank you card as I have run out but that was about it until I had a flick through the Stampin' Up! catalogue and saw Garden in Bloom with their instructions on how to emboss an image using their embossing powders. I love the shine you get with embossing powders, it just makes the flower pop! I've used Stampin' Up! Copper embossing powder on this one, although the photo makes it look more brown than copper. 

When I first saw Garden in Bloom I knew I wanted it, I loved the butterflies and bees in the set, but I don't think I've used it since I bought it. I do that far too often! I decided to do a similar flower to the one shown in the catalogue but using the colours set in the challenge. I pulled out a scrap of DSP, my stitched framelits dies and ta da the below card was created. I hope you like it!

It's been a while

Hello all, I hadn't quite realised how long it had been since I posted last so apologies for this, but I am back as a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator and getting the chance to play with my crafting goodies again. So a really quick catch up, I've been back at work after having Pickle for over a year now and we're back in a good family routine. Monkey loves his little brother and it's lovely to hear them laughing and playing together. With both of us at work we're trying to make the most of family time at the weekends as well as trying to squeeze in a little bit of time for our hobbies. I'm not 100% impressed with the fact that Craig has a sign on the door of our shared hobby room that says 'To the Trains' but at least we're able to spend time together while still doing our individual hobbies. Although I may have to make my own sign soon!

As my order from the holiday catalogue has arrived I am starting to think about Christmas, I know it's only September but we crafters like to think ahead! The first set I started to play with is the new Merry Patterns set, this is a gorgeous two step set that creates some lovely patterned images. While playing with the candles in this set (aren't the candle flames so cute!) I may have fallen a little bit in love with one of the current in colors Fresh Fig. Surprisingly I think it works quite well as a Christmas colour when combined with greens and golds. 

Originally the card had the candles above the wording and then white space underneath, it looked good but it was missing something. I didn't think that pearls or gems would quite do it and there wasn't enough space to stamp the reindeer in the set but then I remembered the foil snowflakes I had ordered on a whim. I cut one of the gold ones down to fill the space and it just finishes the card off perfectly!

So how do you get your hands on the Merry Patterns stamp set? If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram you will have seen my post yesterday about a wonderful offer that Stampin' Up! currently have running. It's called the Merry Patterns host promotion and is running from now until the end of October. This stamp set is only available during this promotion and you cannot purchase it. In order to get your hands on it you either need to host a qualifying party (£250 or more) or by placing an order for £250 or more. You get all of the usual hostess perks but the bonus is you get this fantastic set for free. As you can see from today's card I have been having fun with it already.