Into the forest

Hi everyone. I'm a day late with this post, after a fab weekend of demos and a whole day First Aid course yesterday.

Yesterday morning, Hunkydory celebrated 9 years on Create and Craft with a wonderful new launch, Twilight Forest, along with some beautiful matching dies. The collection is a mix of pixies and forest creatures and was a joy to work with.

One great thing about the collection is how good it is for masculine cards. I think the wolves are my favourite:

This card uses an insert in the background. The central image is a square cut from the corner of the printed cardstock. I added toppers and a border strip from the topper sheet and cut an owl from Black Mirri card with one of the dies.

These are some of my other samples, I'd love to know which is your favourite.

Hope you have a good week. Thank you for visiting today, I really appreciate your comments xxx

Sparkling Snowflakes

Hi everyone. Today I'm going to be spending the day organising myself for a weekend of Trimcraft demos in Bristol. On Saturday I'll be at The Range in Stoke Gifford from 10-4 and on Sunday it's the Imperial Park store from 11-4. It'll be a packed weekend but I'm looking forward to it.

Today's card has been made using Trimcraft's Time to Sparkle collection:

I have layered up fabulous black, white and gold papers and washi tape from the collection. The snowflake die is a First Edition one and the sentiment die is from Tonic.

I'm looking forward to making more cards like this over the weekend. Cathy x

All you need is love...

Hi everyone. I have had a lovely weekend celebrating two big events with my favourite friends. On Saturday evening we went to a 40th birthday party but before that we were privileged to be at a very beautiful wedding. Some of you may remember that one of my friends lost her husband to a brain tumour 2 yrs ago, when he was just 35. She dealt with her loss with incredible courage and we were all thrilled last year when she found happiness again with an old school friend. On Saturday they got married at her parents' orchard. The sun shone throughout the ceremony and it was the most joyous occasion.

Of course I had to make a card, so I used Hunkydory's Rose Gold Moments collection to make a simple Z-Fold card:

The kit also includes mini suitcases, so I made one to hold a money gift:

I love all the elements of this collection and the beautiful rose gold foiling.

Hope you all have a great week. I am getting used to going into work 3 days a week and am back to tutoring every day. I am also midway through some DT samples so will be very busy this week. Thanks for visiting today. Cathy x

Snowflakes

Hi everyone. Recently I've had a bit of a lack of mojo when it comes to crafting, so this week I decided to take some time to take a look online for some designs to inspire me. I really wanted to use some of my Christmas dies and so I was delighted to find a design I liked using one of the Trio Snowflake dies. I took some elements of the design and changed a few to come up with this card:

To be honest I love snowflake dies, I have quite a few (!), but don't always know how best to use them. I really like this large die as it becomes the focal point of the card.
Products used:
Hunkydory Rainbow Mirri, Lilac Mattastic and white Topper Weight card, pearls
Tonic Christmas Trio Snowflake die and Sentiment die
Sara Davies Snowflake Embossing Folder

I would love to reference the designer of my influence but sadly couldn't find a name- if anyone recognises the design please let me know! Cathy x

Don't Worry Bee Happy

Hi everyone, hope you have had a good weekend. I had a great Trimcraft demo in Gloucester yesterday, but the long drive left me exhausted!

We are a house full of worriers and last week my eldest boy was feeling anxious after a falling out with a friend. I decided to make him a card to help cheer him up:

I couldn't resist these cute bees in the Hunkydory Bee Happy Craft Stack but it was the sentiment that made me smile most. Definitely a saying us Cloweses need to remember!

Wishing you all a great week, Cathy x

Tales from Patchwork Forest

Monday is here again and it's a big week- the boys go back to school on Wednesday and I also start a new contract teaching English and maths to apprentices at a local training provider. It's only a few hours each week and is going to fit in well with my family and tutoring work. I'm excited and nervous about building my business in this way.

On Friday I shared one set of Hunkydory DT cards and here is another, this time made with the super cute Tales from Patchwork Forest Craft Stack.

There are some really lovely papers and gorgeous images in this collection, perfect for lots of occasions. I enjoyed spotting some of my cards on Create and Craft over the weekend and on Saturday the presenter, Martyn, name checked us all, which was lovely.

Hope you have a lovely week, whatever you may be doing. Cathy x

Poppy Fields

Hi everyone, September already- how on earth did that happen? Today sees the launch of 4 new Hunkydory Craft Stacks. If you haven't seen these, they are 8x8 books filled with papers, toppers and inserts. I was lucky enough to work with two gorgeous stacks and today I'm sharing my Poppy Fields samples.

I really do love the beautiful poppy designs in this craft stack and decided to make a special card, with the theme of remembrance in mind:

The picture is of my husband's grandfather, Arthur Hyde, who served in the RAF during WW2. Regular visitors will know that my sons are very interested in all things military and they both took great pride in sharing Arthur's war medals with their classmates last year. I love the fact that this craft stack can be used in this way.

This week we also thought about my Granddad when we visited the Tank Museum and my eldest son got to try on a Home Guard uniform (the guide was surprised that my son knew exactly what the uniform was as soon as he saw it!):

My Granddad used to tell us how he once mistook the Vicar's dog for a German soldier and shot the poor dog. Definitely something straight out of Dad's Army!

Thank you for dropping by today and for lovely comments. Cathy x