Mad March Hare

Hello crafters!

Today I have a first inspiration make for our Country View Challenge held in the Facebook  group. This month, the theme is "Mad March Hare" which also includes rabbits and anything Easter!

My first card is a Birthday card but can be adapted easily for Easter.

I created a light background of sky and grass with Distress inks and torn paper masks.

I die-cut my sentiment (a combination of 2 Papertrey ink dies and a letter from the Tim Holtz/Sizzix Alphanumeric Script set - 662228) out of cardstock and out of foam, glueing them together for more dimension.

The focal point is of course rabbits, the funny Katzelkraft Mini 114, which I stamped on kraft colour cardstock and coloured with pencils.

Those who come here often know how much I dislike fussy cutting but... one has to suffer for one's craft! Yes, I did fussy cut those 5 plus another 2 I thought I might need!

I popped them up on foam pads and, voila, hopping rabbits or one caught on a camera's burst mode...

Anyhoo, I hope I have inspired you to enter our March challenge, if you do you could win a nice bundle (see below), but you will need to belong to our friendly Facebook group here.

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield     I am entering the SSS Monday, SSS Wednesday, Allsorts,

                                                         Stamping Sensations, and Addicted to Stamps challenges.

Scenic Winter Card

Hello crafters, 

December starts today and it is time to kick up a notch our Christmas crafting! So cards, tags, decor pieces... anything Christmassy will be welcomed for our Country View Crafts challenge, as long as you use products or brands stocked at Country View Crafts. 

To start us off I made this scenic card with the Katzelkraft stamp set Birches Forest (KTZ285) 

I stamped and masked the chalet and some of the trees before creating sky and hills with Distress inks and paper masks.

I added colour to the chalet and trees with pencils, and a sentiment from a retired Katzelkraft set stamped on a scrap piece of vellum. 

A few touches of white gel pen on the branches and the roof to finish.

I will be back in 2 days for a second make and hope you will join us in the Facebook group to enter our challenge. There is a prize to win...

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield     I am entering the Allsorts, Lost Coast Designs 

                                                          and SSS Monday challenges

Meerkats Antics

Twice in a weekend! Is that a burst of creativity? No, not really, just a catch-up exercise. 2 weeks ago, I showed again my Meerkats Got Talent page on Facebook and they are so funny I wanted to give them a new platform after their disappointment at the singing contest. Today they are just having fun with fallen leaves:

I used a N0 10 MDF tag (That's Crafty) and applied acrylic paints with a painting knife. I bypassed the Gesso step and the result isn't any worse for it, in fact it is one the easiest and quickest landscape I have ever painted!

I stamped a few of the meerkats in various colours of Distress Oxide inks and coloured them with pencils. Then, I had to fussy cut them.... my most hated crafting job, but it had to be done!

The leaves have been die-cut and punched from a piece of Kraft colour paper to which I applied Distress Oxide inks in Fired Brick, Twisted Citron, Scattered Straw and Walnut Stain. And since the Oxides have a tendency to lighten after a while, I enhanced them with some Distress dye inks as well. 

Finally I spattered a bit of Walnut Stain Distress spray.

I layered leaves and meerkats on different levels with foam pads to give the impression they are wading through a stack of fallen leaves.

The little guys still make me smile and I hope they will do the same for you!

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield           I am entering the Allsorts, Stamping Sensations
                                                                 and Creative Artist challenges

NOT going to the next round

Hello crafters, today I have another inspiration make for the Country View Challenge on the theme of 4 Legged Friend, hosted this month by Sue. 

Today's page is a send up of a very popular talent show. I'm not a great lover of that show as I feel over the years it's become less about the talent and more about the dramas but it's one of these silly ideas that popped up in my mind looking at the meerkats stamp set. Go figure! 

I battled with the Gelli plate for a suitable background. It had to be dark enough and not too busy, so after trying out stencils, and several mix of colours I got to this nondescript page. 

I used 2 meerkats stamps (one for the contestants and one for the judges) and coloured them with pencils.

I put the meerkats (Katzelkraft KTZ 216) in the spotlight by adding some yellow paint.

I created the banner on the computer.

The meerkats are not in stock anymore, but this would be so funny with other Katzelkraft sets with their bizarre "animals".

You have one week left so hop to it and create a 4 Legged Friend (domestic or wild) project and link up to the Country View Challenge. You can enter up to 5 times and there is a £20 voucher for the Country View Craft shop. to win.

*******
This is the last post on the Country View Challenges blog as we are taking a break in August and September whilst changes are made to the way the challenge is run. 

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield     I am entering the SSS Wednesday challenge and Allsorts

All aboard

Today I have more inspiration for you for our May Country View Challenge,
where the theme chosen by Monika is "Vehicles". 

I had to use that old train stamp by Katzelkraft (set KTZ 86), it has all the qualities I love:
it's Vintage and realistic with very fine details. 

Using my stamping platform I first stamped the train image with Distress inks (Chipped Sapphire and Walnut Stain) spritzed with water. When dry,  I over-stamped the first image with Versafine black ink to add these very fine details that brings it to life.

I added sky, clouds and grass with Distress inks and a sentiment from my own stamp collection.

Your turn to create a Vehicles inspired project and link up your project to the Country View Challenge for the chance to win a £20 voucher for the Country View Craft shop,
but don't miss the train... less than 2 weeks to play!

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield     I am entering the Allsorts, Stamping Sensations and

                                                      We Love Stamping challenges

The Meerkat's Birthday

Less than a week before the teenager's birthday I found that I had no card for him... plenty of feminine cards but masculine, none whatsoever! I let serendipity help in the choice of supplies, which in turn influenced the design. Mixing my supplies, especially old and new makes me happy! 

For a fun card I chose the Katzelkraft Meerkats stamp set (KTZ216) and let the character dance on the table. The latter is a new die, a freebie from Creative Stamping (issue 105), as is the Happy Birthday sentiment. 

I wanted a balloon and thought of the Shaker Balloons #1 Heart by STAMPlorations but thought it was too big for the card so I drew a balloon shape out of it by tracing the right hand side of another heart die-cut: 

The background is alcohol inks, lifted and applied to photo paper, an experiment that wasn't altogether convincing... but seemed OK as a foil to Mr Meerkat!

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield   I am entering the Allsorts, Stamping Sensations, We Love Stamping, 

                                                      Addicted to stamps challenge

Sightseeing in Paris

I am back as promised for more inspiration for our Country View Challenge where the theme this month, chosen by yours truly is "We will always have Paris".

Today I made a mini album to show you the sites... 

The album is simply constructed with one long piece of cardstock where the pages are accordeon folded. 

The front cover has been embossed with one of the Sizzix Texture Fades Embossing Folder- Eiffel Tower and French Script Set and over embossed with several colours of embossing powders. 

Inside I have stamped and embossed in white directly on the cardstock the words, "il était une fois" from the French Lace set and "Paris" from the Made in France set, both from Crafters' Companion. 

The first page has an old map of Paris (Scripted Streets, Visible image) followed by a description from the A4 stamp sheet KTZ-50 by Katzelkraft . All other stamps are from this same sheet, which is not available anymore. 

I added colour with Distress inks, either as a wash using an acrylic block or with Distress foam.

There you have it, Paris in a nutshell, real and fantasy... don't you love this undulating Eiffel Tower? Your turn now to create something that reminds us of Paris or la douce France for a chance to to win a £20 voucher for the Country View Craft shop. 

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the Addicted to stamps, Paperbabe and SSS Wednesday, challenges.

Rabbits and Flamingo

Today I am publishing the first of 3 posts to show the samples I made for the Katzelkraft show on Hochanda this Monday (22nd of February)

First an ATC trio made on That's Crafty! White/Greyboard ATC's 

I made the backgrounds with Distress Oxides inks as the ATC board is white and doesn't need to be gessoed first. I stencilled with an older Carabelle stencil (Weft Fabric and Numbers) and a even older TCW (Chickenwire reversed).

I also took advantage of the board's surface to stamp the Flamingo with several colours of ink (favourite technique!):

I coloured the rabbits with water based markers as I didn't have the right colours of alcohol markers and this didn't allow for subtle blending.

The more I looked at the Flamingo and the more I could see a flower... so I tried!

I simply inked the body of the bird and stamped it 5 times in pink ink before colouring with pencils.

There you have it... Let me know if you liked those and watch out for my next post featuring the Wheat fields stamp, with Meerkats thrown in...

You can catch the Hochanda shows on replay here and here.

Thanks for coming by,

I am entering the We Love Chocolate Baroque, Paperbabe, Lost Coast Designs challenges.

More square inspiration

Today I am back with a second inspiration make for our Country View Challenge, which this month is hosted by Corrie, who chose "Use a square" as the theme.  This time I made some coasters (square of course) starting with a simply stamped scene with Katzelkraft stamps from the Fruitful set):

As much as I like the stamping (I managed to extend the splash image without hiccups) the colours are underwhelming and the white background may be too stark. I might start again and make a matching coaster to this next one:

The focal image is from the Shabby Chic Stampendous set, by Andy Skinner, the antique products labels/adverts are the perfect size and style for the coasters. The corners are from Crafty Individuals.

After stamping  I applied some Distress Ink in Vintage Walnut all around and added a layer of crackle paste, "highlighted" (or is it "lowlighted"?) with more Walnut Distress Ink.

I hope we gave you ideas to join in our challenge, if you do, you could win a £ 20 voucher! Only one week left, so don't be square and link your makes!  

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the SSS Wednesday, Stamping Sensations (Katzelkraft stamps and Vintage images are my favourites),  challenges.

ATC Coins - Funny birds

Welcome to my first inspiration piece for our Country View Challenge hosted by the lovely Debs. She has chosen Artist Trading Coins as the theme (AT Coins are 2.5" diameter circles).

I used a piece of paper I had used with Prima Bloom sprays and the Tando Creative Leaves masks for my background.

The small birds are from the Birds of Paradise STAMPlorations stamp set and the cute ostrich head is from Katzelkraft (Ostrich - SOLO088). I coloured all the images with water based pens.

To take the photo I placed the ATCs on a piece of card I coloured with Distress Oxide inks applied in overlapping streaks. I thought it funny the way the Birds of Paradise are looking up at the Ostrich, either with envy or alarm!

Now it's over to you and I can't wait to see what you make... Remember that if you enter our Country View Challenge, you could win a £20 voucher to spend on new crafty supplies, so don't wait up!

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the Addicted to Stamps, and SSS Wednesday challenges.

Mini scrapbook album

I have a photo heavy post for you today, showing a mini album created with a single 12x12 sheet of designer paper which doubles up as a (special) Birthday card.

The front cover is stamped with an image from the Art Nouveau Silhouettes stamp set from Flonzcraft and I added a title with die-cut letters to which I applied gilding flakes.

On the first page I placed some photos and added stamped motifs (Katzelkraft, Prima and more).

Page 2 feature stamps from the Sew Sweet Stamp Set by Rubber Dance and an embossed corner with some Stampendous Frantage powder (the stamp is a CAC by Impression Obsession)

On page 3 more Rubber Dance stamps from the Retro Beach set, some embossed in Wow Vanilla powder

Page 4 uses stamps from Katzelkraft Paris Monuments and Paris Notre Dame sets.

Finally the back cover is adorned with another silhouette from the Art Nouveau Silhouettes stamp set from Flonzcraft.

Pure stamping pleasure and a lot of ink, although the background is patterned paper. To read up on how to make these types of book , you can look here for a tutorial. This has to be one of the easiest album to make, as it only need a few folds and one cut! Since this paper was single sided I added a cover from another piece of paper and a spine too. The construction allows for pockets if you want and I placed a tag in mine, bearing my birthday message for the recipient.

Thanks for coming by,

I am entering the Mini Album Makers, The Artistic Stamper, SSS Wednesday Challenge and Paperbabe Stamps challenges.

Come aboard!!!

This summer whizzed by and it's time for our September Country View Challenge! The theme is Planes, Trains, Automobiles hosted by Miriam. It had been a while since I played in my journal so...

Of rusty supplies...

No April fool, no joke, we're going rusty at Country View Challenges! All lovers of things aged, distressed, grunged up this is your chance to shine and maybe win a £20 voucher to spend on goodies!

For my first project I used a professional product to ensure a perfect rust! Rust powder is the simplest and truest rust form possible for crafting... Here in the UK, it is sold by popular brand Paper Artsy, and stocked in all the good craft shops, including Country View Crafts of course.
If you have held an Infusion bottle from Paper Artsy you will be surprised at how heavy the Rust bottle feels, although it is the same size as the Infusion! This is because the powder is actual metal and not a pigment.

To use, coat the items to be rusted, in my case some cardboard cogs, with an acrylic medium and sprinkle the powder over the top. Let the medium dry, then spray water or water+vinegar to activate the powder and within 20mns to half an hour the rust colour will appear as if by magic!
Don't forget, like I did, to paint a basecoat for your rust effect BEFORE applying the powder!
 
 
I chose dark grey and blue, and had to apply it after the rust... Alcohol inks were perfect and disaster was avoided. [Sorry no photos of said rusting cogs in action...]
Before I get further in my explanations let's show you my make!

For the background I coated my canvas with a mix of Primary Cyan and Prussian blue DecoArt fluid acrylics with some thick gel medium.


Next I applied some crackle glaze and, when dry, a coat of medium grey acrylic. It didn't look very good so I added some pink acrylic ink and then some ochre.

My focal point is an image by Katzelkraft which I stamped on tissue paper with Brilliance ink. I chose this ink because Archival or Versafine inks have a tendency to spread on such a thin paper. Using a wet brush around the image I obtained a feather edge to the image , this helps to get the tissue paper to "disappear" on the finished canvas.
I painted the back of the figure in white where the highlights are, and stuck it with acrylic medium, coating the top as well as the back.

I stamped some texture with a Prima clear stamp (Peeled Paint) and embossed with a mix of powders that include Wow Black puff, clear UTEE, Frantage Aged Copper and some tarnished gold. I can't be more precise than that as I use the same container for my mix and I can't remember what it had in it before I added that day's powder...
It's fun to see the results though!

For the finishing touch I added my rusty cogs with acrylic medium, adding a snippet of fabric and some micro beads.

Do visit the Country View Challenge blog to see more inspiring projects by my teamies and come back from my 2nd Rusty make later this month.

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the Vintage Journey, SanDee & Amelie's,  Fashionable Stamping, The Artistic Stamper and SSS Wednesday challenges.

Sunday Souvenir

SSS Monday Challenge is about powders, and I fancied using my Brushos... Brenda at Floral Fantasies did a wonderful CAS card last year and I took inspiration from it to come up with this card, for a special Birthday.

The stamps are all from Katzelkraft, except the letters  forming the "On!!!" of the sentiment.

I first stamped the saxophone image and masked it before stamping the music score. Then, I spritzed some water and shook some Brushos  powders over the wet areas, trying to give the impression of the musical notes floating with the colour, as if it was a vapour.

I turned my white base card into an easel and added an embossed Whitewash Core'dination piece of card (a Cuttlebug border), sanded back.

The special number has been stamped on top a triple embossed piece of MDF from Calico Craft.
Hope you will like it and of course the recipient!

Also entering the Allsorts and SSS Wednesday challenges.

Travel Mini book part 2

Glad to see you back here for Part 2 of my Travel Mini book!

Part 1 was all about the construction and part 2 is all about the fun things... such as stamping my pages. However, as I tried to write this post, I wasn't sure how easy to understand my project was, so I had a shot at making a video to show the completed project in action. Do forgive the lack of skills and equipment, although the quality of the picture from my phone camera is pretty good considering it's not top of the range.

Let's take a closer look at the pages and the details, starting with the cover:









I have embossed the cover with the Sizzix/Tim Holtz folder Eiffel Tower and rubbed some Treasure Gold in Onyxite, Amethyst and White fire to highlight some of the texture.






I showed the first page at the beginning of the month here.

The 2nd page uses stamps from the Paper Artsy set HP1208.

I stamped the 3rd page with a map, in black, and the Travel word embossed in WOW Vanilla embossing powder both from the Travel plate by Rubber Dance . I also overstamped and embossed 2 motifs from the Docrafts set All Aboard - Air Mail (Vanilla and Pomegranate Wow EPs).

 

On page 4 and 5 I have teamed up images from the Travel plate by Rubber Dance (stamped in black) with labels from the Carnaval Venise plate (Katzelkraft- KT55), which I have embossed in Vanilla EP. The tucked in "Polaroid photo " seen in the video is a stamp from the same Venise plate.

 

The stamps on my last 2 pages are all Katzelkraft from the Paris Monuments plate (KTZ-50).

 

The tags which I have tucked in the pockets are some of my pre-prepared "embellishments", and are standing in for ephemera.

You might have noticed that I have punched out semi circles where I have pockets so I can pull out the tickets stubs easily. I did this after the stamping so I would not end up trying to stamp over  a hole!

I hope you find this project inspiring and fun to make and will join us at Country View Challenges to share your Travel makes.

Thanks for coming by,


Also entering the WOW Embossing powders challenges.

Mini Travel book Part 1

This month the theme at Country View Challenges is Travel, hosted by my teammate Jennie. Too late for the summer holidays... but in time for the next trip,  I have created a mini book with pockets to add ephemera collected on my travels.
All it takes is one 12"x12" piece of paper, a few cuts, scoring and folding to create.
I have decorated each page with stamps - you'll have to come back later in the month to see part 2 - but you could use photos of the actual trip to create a mini scrapbook instead.

You can make this type of book in different sizes, the smaller the pages the more pages in the book.

Starting from a 12x12" sheet and dividing in half horizontally and vertically, the largest page size is 6"square which makes a book with 4 pages.

Dividing the sheet in thirds you get 7 pages each 4" square, which is the size I chose, dividing in fourths you get 16 pages 3" square and in theory you can create mini books with 2" or 1" pages but that is too small for most purposes.

To make the book I used a one sided sheet of patterned paper, since the reverse side will not be on view.
To be sure I didn't cut in the wrong place, I first made up a "model" using copy paper to use as a reference.

First I scored my cardstock every 4" vertically and horizontally. Before cutting I marked the reverse side lightly in pencil with the page numbers, this also helps when coming to fold.

Then I cut the 2 horizontal lines in red on the photo.
Note: It is better to use a paper that has no obvious "direction". For instance if you have text on your paper the text will be upside down for some of the pages.

Then I folded all the blue lines as follows to get this:

Once the book is made, you could flip it upside down and it would still be a book. However, I designed it this way so I had most of the opening at the top, to use them as pockets.


At this point I decorated my pages before sticking down the pockets. Use dry adhesive for this to prevent the paper from puckering.

For covers there are many options:
  - None!
  - Glue the first and last page on a single piece of cardstock (don't forget to include a  spine)
  - or as I did only glue the last page to the cover,
the reason I did it this way is so I didn't have to sacrifice my page 1 to glue onto the cover.
 - ....

My first page has been stamped with an image and part of the sentiment from The Journey set (CMS021) by Stampers Anonymous. I added a label die-cut (Impression Obession) as a way to grab the first page easily.

Come back on the 21st to see how I decorated my mini book and don't forget to enter the Country View Challenge with your travel themed makes... you could win a £20 voucher to spend on crafting goodies!

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the SSS Wednesday challenge.