KTZ S4/C3

This card had to have holes on it. I thought of apertures and lace and then remembered I had bought an Xcut prick and stitch die from a bargain bin a while back that I had not yet used. I cannot imagine ever having the patience to embroider these holes myself but I liked the decorative effect of the holes. The stamps are by Katzelkraft stamped with Versafine spanish moss.

KTZ Christmas Challenge S4/C2

This card required drips! Not an easy thing to add to a Christmas card. I made a BG with Stazon in the same way as I did the calendar below. I needed something sufficiently runny so I used some copper spray inks very close up so they pooled and then blew on them to make them run. I considered trying to make a branch from which to hang baubles but my blowing skills were not good enough for that! Looking at the drips I thought if I turned them upside down they sort of looked like fireworks (ok imagination is required). I added a flower stamp that again sort of looks like exploding fireworks. This Katzelkraft stamp of clock hands moving towards midnight seemed to fit in. The text is from a Woodware set of christmas words with a star brad to hold the banner in place.

Calendar Challenge Week 7

This week's prompt for the Craft Barn Calendar Challenge is candles. Not an easy thing to incorporate but luckily I have a suitable stamp by Katzelkraft.  I dabbed Stazon in mustard, pumpkin, blazing red and cactus green randomly over the page for the BG. The main image is embossed in gold and I added gold corners to the page. The swirl is by Penny Black stamped in Pumpkin.

KTZ Christmas Challenge S4/C1

For this card we had to take inspiration from a perfume advert (see below). I made a BG of tumbled glass, broken china, stormy sky & faded jeans DI and midnight blue Stazon and spritzed a blue shimmer spray over. The stars were punched with an Xcut punch and I hand cut the larger primitive star. The crinkled effect on it was a happy accident - when I tried to heat emboss the fairy on silver card, I managed to buckle the silver layer of the card and liked the effect so I used it for the main star. The fairy is moongirl by Stampotique, silver embossed with iridescent paint on her wings. I also painted the crescent moon with iridescent paint. The text is by Katzelkraft.

Tim Holtz Tag - November

I loved the tutorial for this tag on Tim Holtz's blog. I may not have had all the items but the colours and the stamp set are really 'me'. Unfortunately I didn't have the time to buy the required items but this is a stamp set that I feel I would use a lot and is on my wishlist now. Looking at my blog design you probably realise that Autumn is my kind of season. I've always felt an affinity for Autumn colours in my home & in the clothes I wear. I used a variety of DIs for the BG - some DTP, some smeared onto a craft sheet and spritzed with water and some sponged on for the gaps. I basically used the same colours that Tim used in Distress Stains (I don't have any of those) in DIs. The wheat is a stamp by My Paper World from a set called grasses & embellishments which I stamped and clear embossed. After colouring the BG I ironed off the embossing (the FT newspaper works well for this!). I randomly stamped an Elusive Images hessian stamp (is hessian the same as burlap?) and used an Xcut alpha for the text. The embellishments are a piece of hessian (from an old bag) and various leaf punches and diecuts. I drew the acorn and added glossy accents. A selection of autumnal coloured fibres and a knotted piece of hessian with a couple of alcohol inked, metallic leaves finished off this tag. In the 'which Tim Holtz tag are you?' game I am definitely November! 2 more tags to go and I'm thinking of ways to put my year's worth of tags together in a book. What are you doing with yours?

Calendar Challenge Week 6

This week's prompt on the Craft Barn blog was to use felt. I'm a bit time-pressured at the moment and needed to get this done without resorting to going out to buy some felt. I had 2 colours of felt at home - white which I use to make applicators for alcohol ink and a rather hideous sugar mouse pink which I bought years ago to make a costume for DS2 in his school play. He was a lamb and the pink was for the inner part of the ears (when I tell you that my little lamb just turned 18 you'll have an idea of how old this felt is!). I know that the Bigz dies cut through felt so I decided to use the TH tattered florals die. Once cut I tried to tone down the pink with archival plum ink and added a little colour to the white. I also decided to use a black base card to counteract the sickly, sugar pink. I embossed a trellis pattern with my scoreboard and added some punched retro flowers and gems. You should be able to see the embossing more clearly by clicking on the pic below . So, unusually for me, no stamping on this page and just a little hint of ink.

LIM 92 (2nd entry)

This is a quick 2nd entry to the Less Is More challenge for this week. The frame and side panels are a Sizzix die and the flower is of course Chloe Stem from Memory Box (again). The greeting is by Paula Pascual.

KTZ Christmas Challenge S3/C2

Resist was the technique required on this card. There are several different resist techniques but I opted for this simple one. I randomly stamped this holly image from De Nami designs with Versamark and clear embossed. I then applied scattered straw, bundled sage and peeled paint DIs all over and wiped it off the embossed images. The text (by Rubbadubadoo?) was stamped with peeled paint. I stamped the image again in black and clear embossed. The leaves and berries were coloured with Tsukineko embossing pens and clear embossed. A small red bow finished the card.

KTZ Christmas Challenge S3/C1

For this card we had to use a page from a book or a sheet of music. I punched a snowman out of an old book that I picked up for sale at my local library. It took me many years to pluck up the courage to rip up a book but this edition of 'The Count of Monte Cristo' was half dead anyway so it seemed ok. I sponged some Brilliance starlite black which is a nice grey shade around the edge of the snowman for definition. The BG is the same Brilliance ink and tumbled glass DI. The frame is a Spellbinder die that I picked up in The States last year in the bargain bin ($5 I think) and although I've used the inner frame I don't think I've used this one before. I sponged tumbled glass through the die to highlight the embossing.

KTZ Christmas Challenge S3 C3 / LIM 92

It's a twofer this week (2 challenges in 1 card) as the theme over on the Less Is More blog is 'pink'. I combined this with one of the Katzelkraft Christmas Challenge cards this week which had to use wool. The papers are from DCWV rose-tinted Christmas with the purple strip embossed for a bit of texture. I cut the tag with help from a Paula Pascual stamp and the text is from another Paula Pascual set stamped in archival plum and clear embossed. There are 3 different wools used on the tag 'string' and the snowflake embellishment is cut from a Christmas garland.