Crafty Individuals All Wrapped Up challenge

I wasn't sure I would have time to do the challenge justice and, I must say, given time I would have made some wrapping paper, but this is so time consuming I chose to customise a kraft paper bag instead.

I used CI - 209 for the main image stamped in Versafine sepia ink on top of a glimmer mist background. I embossed a few snowflakes in white, added a wrinkled flower (several layers of tulle heated maintained in place by a brad), buttons die-cut borders threaded with faux twine.
For practical reasons, to prevent anyone peeking inside the bag..., I wrapped a ribbon round with a die-cut buckle.

I hope you will like this project and as it will be my last post for the year, let me wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Easel Christmas Card

I know, I know  the stamp I used is "cute" and it is not my favorite style... but sometimes one has to create with the recipient in mind !



For the background I have used some Black Magic Core'dination cardstock in green and "free" papers from a magazine. I added gems and glitter to the front panel paper and placed a strip of patterned paper with added die-cut borders on top. For the main image I stamped the bear (another freebie) in a light colour of distress ink and coloured it with pencils. Then - this is where it gets exciting - I wanted to clear emboss the whole panel with clear powder, with the edges in glitter clear. However, when I grabbed my canister (I keep a few film canisters for my home made embossing powder mixes) I didn't realise this was the white and glitter powder ! But what a happy accident, as a few of the white grains of embossing reach a flow of clear powder they just look like snowflakes. You can see the effect in the detail photo :

I expect this is the last Christmas card I am going to make this year and I hope I will get some time to catch up with my other crafting projects...

  

Calendar Challenge Finale!!!

At last! The moment has arrived and I can call my calendar finished. So happy it is completed, and that I managed to stay the course, thanks to the Craft Barn challenge and their team of talented designers.
Below is a picture of my front cover and a summary of all my pages.

For the cover, I used patterned paper as my background, overstamped and embossed in gold. The tag is from the same paper pack with added die-cuts. The saying is from a different paper pack and has been embossed and coloured to match the tag.

Hope you have enjoyed the journey...

Calendar Challenge Week 12

Last week of the Calendar challenge at the Craft Barn! The theme is Red and green, pine tree and sparkle.

I was thinking icy white, gold and/or silver.. well I had to rethink and I was not inspired!

The main image has been stamped with a Katzelkraft stamp , embossed in black, then coloured with felt tip pens. I distressed the whole panel with inks and matted it on handmade paper.

There are 2 further stamps (both freebies from a recent magazine) that have been embossed with clear powder directly on the calendar and highlighted with red and green distress inks.

I then used some die cuts around the page, including the tree and snowflake which I glittered in gold, and the holly branch which I "iced" with a mixture of white embossing powder, white/transparent glitter and perfect pearls (I was getting desperate) as shown here:

See you soon for the finale in which I reveal my cover for the calendar...

Calendar Challenge Week 11

This week's challenge at the Craft Barn is "Pale yellow and grey/bare branches". In other words a foggy november day as we have had them this week!

The design came to me easily, as I didn't have a choice of stamps (should have bought that Impression Obsession stamp I have been hankering after) and had to use my go-to stamp fromCrafty Individuals. The realisation, however proved problematic!

The watercolour paper certainly helped creating a seamless grey-to-yellow sky and light-to-dark green field, BUT I could not get a good impression of the CI Individuals stamp with that much paper texture.
Note: Counter-intuitively, finer detail prints better than solid parts of the stamp!

Thanks for coming by,

Blog Candy at the Craft Barn

To celebrate their 600th follower the Craft Barn is offering a fabulous blog candy. You can find it here.

Good luck!

Calendar Challenge Week 10

The theme of the Craft Barn Challenge this week is "Autumn shades and leaves".  My original intention was to have a carpet of leaves with a main leaf more detailed in the foreground, but in the end I chose to leave the background white so that it did not outshine the main leaf's colours.

The main leave has been traced and watercoloured, the medium leaves were made with a stamp and the smaller ones are actually punched out from card (it doesn't show very well in the photo. As a nod to Tim Holtz, I applied some distress inks on some of the punched out leaves.

Hope you will like this page,

Crafty Individuals Winter Wonderland challenge

The Crafty Individuals Challenge for November is Winter Wonderland. No traditional Christmas red and green for this one as I am quite bored with this color scheme. I  chose white and blues and greens... The stamps used are from CI- 209, I love these trees stamps and thought that in white they just cried out Snow!

For the base of the card, I (dry) embossed some snowflakes which I highlighted with distress inks. For the main image, I stamped and embossed several trees on white card, then applied distress inks in blue and green. Around the trees, to give them definition, I placed dark colours with markers and a water brush.

Thanks for taking a look,

Calendar Challenge Week 9

The theme of the Craft Barn Challenge this week is "Old paper" and red lines with die-cuts optional. As I need to keep my pages fairly flat I have incorporated only one die cut as a frame for the girl image.

The background was made by stamping second and third generation of a script stamp in Versafine sepia ink directly on the page, the first generation having been stamped on a separate piece of a spiral paper pad. Using cut  & dry foam I then applied Antique Linen Distress ink over all of the stamped script and once dry drew the lines with red pen. Finally,  to complete the (vintage) "school girl desk" look, I splodged some black ink (yes on purpose!).

Thanks for coming by,

Calendar Challenge Week 8

The theme of the Craft Barn Challenge this week is Deep/Dark colours and Circles.

Since this week was all about Katzelkraft stamps (one of my favorite brand) this is what I chose for my main image.

The background was made by coloring circles inside and out with distress inks, then spraying with glimmer mist (this doesn't show well in the picture).

Hope you will like this page !

Calendar Challenge Week 7

The theme of the Craft Barn Challenge this week is Lilac/Purple and Embossing. Although the embossing part was optional, I decided to try it anyway... isn't the point of these challenges to strech our abilities ? There aren't many options to dry emboss an opaque, thick and large (A4) watercolour page. You cannot see through to emboss a brass stencil over a lightbox, you cannot use an embossing folder unless you have a large die-cut machine... what I do have is a set of Fiskars' embossing stencils and this proved to be adequate.

The stamps are from a Papermania Clear stamps set that I could not resist thanks to the wonderful designer's  illustration on the packet. Sadly, it is impossible to get the same perfect results with the stamps...  

Thanks for coming by,

Calendar Challenge Week 6

The theme of the Craft Barn Challenge this week is Turquoise and Lace.

I have decided on a simple design focusing on turquoise lace as my background. This was sprayed through a doily, then I collaged a stamped image in the foreground which I have lightly colored with distress inks.

Hope you will like it,

Winged things challenge

The Crafty Individuals Challenge for October is Winged things. I did not overthink this one as I wanted to use my latest CI-319 stamp. What with Halloween coming up and this broody stamp, I went for a traditional Halloween color scheme with high contrast.

Most remarkable about this make is the fact that none of the embellishments were shop-bought. The broom is a toothpick with a tassel die-cut, the cat has been stamped with a Craft Stamper freebie and flocked, the patterned paper is from a chocolate box and the title was made with alphabet stamps and die-cut. I used some acrylic interference paint to highlight the embossing on the "gloop" and around the cat.

Thanks for coming by,

Calendar Challenge Week 5

The theme of the Craft Barn challenge this week is "Pink and Birds".

Had I known this last week... I would not have used a bird stamp! So this week I had real trouble with inspiration, since birds aren't really my thing and I do not own cute birds stamps that would go with a pink color scheme!

For the main image I combined 2 tree stamps  and a bird then splattered some pink and turquoise watercolour over.I was aiming for a "cherry trees in blossom" impression.
For the bottom border, I have used part of the Crafty Individuals-266 stamp to create "stamps" (cut with pinking scissors) and over-stamped with several postmarks.

Thanks for coming by,

Calendar Challenge Week 4

This week's theme for the Craft Barn Calendar challenge is Yellow and masks.

 I had an initial idea of the mask I wanted to use, but alas, it did not fit in with the yellow colour scheme ! Instead, I opted for a contemporary colour scheme which had me employ numerous media (Promarkers, watercolour pencils, dye ink, crafting inks) in order to achieve the colouring without one colour bleeding in another.

The mask is the flourish, coloured with cut & dry foam. I am quite happpy with the result, on the basis that, and this is very unusual for me, the end result is what I had in mind when I set out ! Yes, even when heart in mouth I did the splatter of yellow in lieu of leaves and a free-hand branch for the bird it did not turn out a complete disaster as it could so easily have.

Calendar Challenge Week 3

This week's theme for the Craft Barn Calendar challenge is Green and Flowers. No problems with inspiration there... I have plenty of flowers stamps! My choice of images has been constrained by the technique I wanted to use on this page as not all rubber stamps work equally well (acrylic stamps work even less well).

To take advantage from the watercolour paper my calendar is made from, I applied watercolour crayons (Neocolor but Inktense blocks would work) directly to the stamps and sprayed with water before stamping the flowers. The butterfly has been stamped with regular inkpad before coloring and then masked before stamping the central flower.

If you have never tried this technique have a go,  it's unpredictable but great fun!

Calendar Challenge Week 2

For this second week the theme of the Craft Barn Calendar challenge is Red and embossing

I have put a smattering of red, including the heart which received the embossing treatment. It is not visible in the picture but I have taken inspiration from Isa's project and flicked a few specks of gold embossing powder before covering the lot with clear powder for a distressed effect.

I took advantage of the calendar being made out of watercolour paper and painted the background and stamped images with watercolour paints.

Hope you'll like it.

Calendar Challenge : Week 1

For the next 12 weeks the Craft Barn has a Calendar challenge. Each week one calendar or one page of the calendar must be done using the Week 1 Challenge theme, blue and crackle.

I have decided to do a full calendar, on the basis that among my stash I do have a blank that I have failed to tackle so far and this is the push I needed.

My page this week has some stamping, stencilling and crackle. The latter doesn't show too well in the picture. Some of the colour choices were dictated by the supplies I had, and I faced several hiccups along the way... unlike a card, where one can start all over again if necessary, with this calendar there is only one chance !

Thanks for coming by,

Hanging about...

The Crafty Individuals challenge for September is "Hanging about", literally (as a physical hanging) or not. I have chosen the latter after researching a way to make my stamped image "hang" within an easel type card and finding that yes, it DID hang but it just didn't look right.

So, as I am attracted to photographic stamps these days and was really looking forward to use the CI - 284  stamp, I went for a non literal "hanging" and my gals are indeed hanging about!

I have first inked a piece of card with distress inks and then stamped in black ink over the top. I used a Spellbinder label to cut the stamped image out the cardstock and then cut another piece from the remaining inked cardstock to use as a "shadow" frame.  

Rather than use patterned paper on the right of the card I used Tim Holtz tissue tape.

Tip: I often use the tape as masking tape when I ink cardstock and hey presto, as a bonus to my inked cardstock, I get inked tissue tape which matches my project. If I don't need it I just keep it for a later project.

Thanks for coming by,

Gilded Christmas Tree

I got some rolls of silver and gold foil last year and have loads left so what better to use it on Christmas makes!

The main image has been embossed with a folder then glue pen applied on the raised areas then the foil. To ensure that the foil is in good contact all around the embossing the easiest is to put the card back into the folder and press firmly. I am still working on the best way to apply the glue... may try a brayer next.

Bright and beautiful

Long time no post! Yes I am just back from hols and have a mountain of stuff to catch up with (I will need ANOTHER holiday after that).
Well I don't know about beautiful but bright it is...This is my entry to the Crafty Individuals August Challenge.

I have used several dye inks on the stamps (CI 221 and CI 228) and kept everything else to a minimum.When I come to use it I will probably add a greeting bottom left.  The paper is from an old Making Memories pad.

Alcohols inks and acetate

Over at the Craft Barn blog, the challenge this week is to use alcohols inks choosing one of the methods presented in 6 lovely projects.
My attempt below very nearly qualified for the Clean and Simple, but no, I couldn't help it and let it snow!
And yes it is this time already... at Craftyfield the Christmas Card making season is opened...

For the design I have used a Katzelfraft stamp and traced over it (from the reverse) with my outliner, before filling/painting with the inks. The stamp represents baubles but I decided to turn it upside down into balloons or abstract trees.

So have you started your Christmas makes ?