A few weeks ago I was delighted to receive an e-mail advising me I had won a crafty prize draw. The prize – some paper tapes! Not really having any idea what these were I was excited to see them and get crafting.

The prize arrived a few days later and I was surprised to see, not 1 roll, but 16! 4 rolls in each of 4 colour sets – red, blue, green and yellow. They are called Washi tapes and are a little like masking tape in that they are a sticky paper tape. Each tape has a pattern. What could I use them for?

With the current trend for bunting being high on my list of enjoyments at the moment, these tapes could not have arrived at a better time. I went bunting mad!

I have been trying to locate a supplier of these tapes in the UK, unsuccessfully, for some time. Until this week! I received an e-mail from fantasticribbons.com to say that Washi tapes are now here in the UK! Hoorah. And the colour options are lovely. Some really subtle patterns. I shall be placing an order very soon.

Happy crafting x

I was asked the other day to make a card by one of my neighbours. Nothing odd there. She needed a card for a wedding, again not that unusual. But it was for a cat wedding! I had to clarify this, was this a wedding for 2 cats then? No, phew! It was for a friend who would be wearing black and is mad about cats.

So where do you start? I went routing through all my crafty stash for anything remotely connected with weddings, cats, and as the dress was to be black, I thought a black and white theme might not be a bad idea. I then spent the best part of an hour thinking up ideas and hoping for divine inspiration.

I eventually hit upon my logo! My business card has 2 cats with heart tails, so why not use that. I drew the cats freehand on to white and black card blanks using black fineliners, then coloured them in using secura pens – black metallic and matt white. Inside I added inserts ‘with love’ and ‘on your special day’. Then added a freehand border using secura pens to the cards and the envelopes.









My neighbour bought the tall white card, so I have a couple of black ones left for the future!

I was quite pleased with how they all turned out. What do you think?

Happy crafting
x

It’s that time of year again when we start to cast our minds towards keeping warm in the Winter! With the Summer we’ve had so far in the UK, it feels pretty wintery anyway. Yet again Innocent are launching their ‘Big Knit’ to raise funds for Age UK.

If you are new to this concept, Innocent have asked people to knit little hats to go on their products to increase sales and they then give funds to Age UK for each one sold. I’ve made a dozen or so of the little hats for the Smoothie bottles in each of the last 2 years, and I will no doubt be making some more for this year.

Visit the Innocent Smoothie site for more information and patterns. http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/bigknit

If you have a spare few minutes and some oddments of wool, why not knit a hat for a very good cause! I will post pics of mine when I have completed a few.

Happy crafting
x

There are many crafting differences across the water in America.

Recently I have been contacted by crafters in America talking about the latest trend there – Clean and Simple or CAS for short. This was a very nice surprise for me as this is my main style of papercrafting.

It seems there is a real movement in the US to keep things simple and minimalist. So just adding a simple topper, shape, stamp or even a sentiment to a plain card is very popular. Of course, the occasional bit of bling and sparkle never goes amiss! It’s surprising just how well a little piece of mirri card as a border makes a topper really zing off the card!

Here’s hoping clean and simple is one trend that catches on in the UK too!

Happy crafting x

With the weather being anything but Summer-like at the moment, I have been trying to find new ways to keep my 3 year old daughter, Alice, amused. Crafting is always a staple activity, but trying to find different things to craft isn’t always easy.

We sat down the other day to route through Alice’s craft box and decided to make something using the contents of a docrafts, Craft Planet goody bag. Alice set her mind on making a rabbit, so I set to cutting out shapes from felt, and she looked for foam stickers to adorn the picture, whilst instrucing me what I needed to do next!

About an hour later, we had our finished rabbit.

These goody bags are great value for money, coming with several different media and loads of accessories, to make cards, puppets, toys. There’s even an inspiration sheet. The only limit is imagination.

Happy crafting x

My business cards have now arrived! Hoorah! So I am now officially ‘in business’ and will start the distribution.

Keep an eye out for the card and don’t forget to drop me a line if you would like a card from the collection or to discuss your requirements for a bespoke design.

I must say a huge thank you to Paul Brooks for helping me set up the website and special thanks to James for spending so much time and effort in the development and design (I know he loves every minute of it).

Thanks also go to all my family and friends who have supported and encouraged me over the last couple of years, as without them, this would never have come into fruition.

Thank you everyone.

Katherine
xx

You can’t have failed to notice, if you live in the UK, that the Union Jack is everywhere this Summer. With the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations in early June, and the Olympics coming in 4 weeks’ time, you can’t turn round without finding red, white and blue flags and bunting.

I’ve been crafting using these themes as they are the key trend of the moment. Using papers and accessories from the Papermania ‘Portabello Road’ collection and others, I created a number of cards for birthdays and Father’s Day.

There are loads of British themed paper collections, but I have found using wrapping papers or colouring my own papers just as useful when making bunting.

The British theme hasn’t just been limited to card making. I often craft with my 3 year old daughter, Alice, and one of our favourite things to do together is icing biscuits. We don’t always have time to make the biscuits, so an inexpensive packet of rich tea, comes in very handy. We held our own Jubilee buffet over the long bank holiday weekend, and these were our creations!

Let’s hope the sun comes out for the Olympics and we can all get outside to enjoy the flags and bunting!

Happy Crafting xx