Katzelkraft S3/C3

This week's recipes (8 weeks before Christmas) are:

1 A painted card

2 A card with musical scores and splashes

3 An inspiration picture

4 A card inspired by DT member Ellie's work.

 

I had an idea for card 3 based on the inspiration picture below from some bits that I had lying around on my desk. This KTZ flying bird stamp with a snowflake pattern on it seemed perfect.  I tried to match up the colours on the pic and ended up with dusty concord and worn lipstick DIs and Brilliance sky blue. All 2 were heat embossed with holographic powder for a light shimmer. The text is something I picked up in Hobbycraft last year stamped with Versafine Spanish moss.



 





Craft Barn Alpha Challenge - N

This fortnight's letter for the Craft Barn Challenge is N. This was a surprisingly thin section of my dictionary but there were a few words that caught my eye - Nymph, Nature, Nuture, Newspaper and Night. However with time constraints Number seemed the easiest to do. I covered the pages with navy ink (well Adirondack denim) but left the words showing through (newsprint?), added a number embossing folder and a bingo card. The numbers were cut with the curls and swirls Cuttlebug dies and an old Xcut alpha set. The text was made up from random letters I keep in a box when I diecut a whole alpha strip. That's it really quick and simple.

Katzelkraft S2/C3

My final card for this week was inspired by a picture (see below). I had never attempted a picture inspired card until I started doing the Katzelkraft challenges and I do quite enjoy them but this one hasn't turned out as I wanted it to. I thought I'd go through my thought process for this card.

Quite clearly the card needed to be black and white but also contemporary not traditional in style. There are straight, clean lines but also curves. I spotted the lampshade on the table and the overlapped edges sort of reminded me of a Christmas tree so I went with that idea. Looking at the picture again the hanging lampshade could be a flying bird or butterfly. I drew a rough conical shape, tore it out and then tore it across into several pieces. I reformed the tree shape by overlapping the pieces to give the ruffled effect of the lampshade. The semi-circular wire basket looked quite industrial so I used a Katzelkraft stamp that echoed that and the gingham floor covering. My first idea was to make a background of overlapping rectangles with different patterns inside but I couldn't get them to fit or look right so I went with these punched shapes which sort of look like snowflakes and echo the patterns on the chair and back panel. The star on the tree is waste from the punch. I had doodled on some black paper with a white pen for my original idea and decided to punch some proper snowflakes with this paper to fill in the gaps in the background.
So that's week (semaine) 2 completed. I only hope I can manage to keep up as the weeks progress.

Katzelkraft S2/DT

This week's DT card for the Katzelkraft challenge is to look at DT member Neil's work and cardlift one of them. Neil (who is also a Craft Barn DT member) has done many interesting pieces but the one that caught my eye is this one:

I have this KTZ stamp set and while I love the plum and green colours I thought I would make it in a more traditional palette of red & green. I also have some small (4"x4") scalloped card blanks which I bought this year for my overseas Christmas cards (postage is exorbitant now). Adirondack red pepper & meadow were the inks I used. The central motif is a Paula Pascual stamp embossed with holographic powder, mounted on foam pads and with a snowflake brad added.

Katzelkraft S2/C1

We had to put a window on this card for week 2 of the Katzelkraft challenge. I've used a Memory Box die with a few tiny windows, some snowflake patterned paper from K & Co and a Crafty Individuals santa & sleigh stamp.

Katzelkraft S2/C2

This is the second card for week 2 and the instructions are to use some paper with text. Well it must be at least a fortnight since I last used the Alice Palace crowned bunnies by Crafty Individuals and they look so good stamped on book pages. The pages in question are a law book my son was getting rid of and I helped myself to a few pages before it was consigned to the recycling bin (it was very old and out of date so no use to anyone except me). The star is a jumbo punch glittered with something called fool's gold and the embossing folder is sunrays by Craft Concept. The text is a line from the carol 'We Three Kings'.
The recipes for this week's cards are:

1. Use a window.

2. Use some paper with text.

3. An inspiration picture.

DT. Take inspiration from a piece of artwork by DT member Neil.

Katzelkraft S1/DT

An additional feature of this year's Katzelkraft Challenge is that a member of the DT will make a card each week which we can make instead of or in addition to the other cards of the week. This week's card is by Fabien (see below) and the additional card we make has to feature colour blocking.

I used post-it notes to mask off strips of card and brushed on barn door, wild honey, mowed lawn and peacock feathers DIs. I heat embossed the KTZ reindeer with gold and added a small banner with text by Paula Pascual.

Katzelkraft S1/C3

For this card we had to draw inspiration from the poster below. I would have liked to have used a variety of fonts but I couldn't get the Christmas text stamps I had to fit together properly. I decided to use an old CB embossing folder and the colours on the poster.

Katzelkraft S1/C2

The second card this week had to use 5 pieces of scrap paper. I wish I had cut a larger card blank so that there was more white space on this but it's too late now. I stuck some torn scraps of patterned paper onto a piece of scrap card and die cut a Marianne Christmas tree. This was then edged with DI and embellished with some stick-on pearls and a tiny star gem. The BG is brushed with barn door and fired brick DIs and stamped with one of my favourite KTZ stamps. I find this script so useful it is the BG stamp I tend to reach for first. The Sizzix frame was cut out of a leftover piece of gold paper.

Katzelkraft S1/C1

The first card this week asked for fabric to be used. I stamped the KTZ santa image with Versafine Olympia green on some plain Ikea calico cotton. I stuck it onto a diecut circle for extra stability. The card blank is gold embossed with the Cuttlebug snow folder and a scrap of patterned paper has been added.

Katzelkraft's 10 weeks before Christmas

... or 10 semaines avant Noël as they say on the Katzelkraft forum. This is the third year that I am taking part and in addition to giving me a rigorous French workout it also gives me the incentive to make a variety of Christmas cards. The idea is that every week for the 10 weeks leading up to Christmas you make 3 cards according to the recipes posted on the forum. This could be a technique, a colour scheme, an inspiration poster or something similar. You make the cards (they don't have to be specifically for Christmas) and post them in your own personal gallery on the forum. You don't have to make them in order or complete them all every week but if you finish all 30 cards by January 10th 2014 you will have completed the challenge. The use of Katzelkraft stamps is not compulsory but I do try and use them if I can (I managed to complete my first year of the challenge with no Katzelkraft Christmas stamps at all).
In addition this year the DT will be posting a card a week from which something (a technique perhaps) will be highlighted. You can make this card instead of one of the cards of the week or in addition to.
This is a very friendly forum and everyone is very tolerant of my bad French and appalling grammar - they always respond when I am uncertain of what a word or phrase means and have made me very welcome. If you are interested in taking part I am sure you will be made as welcome as I am.
This week's cards are:

1 Use fabric on your card

2 Use 5 scraps of paper on your card

3 An inspiration poster



A Birthday Card

I think I saw this layout on Pinterest and drew a rough sketch of it. I brushed the edges of the patterned paper with Archival teal. The stars are a Cuttlebug die set.

Craft Barn Alpha Challenge - L

This fortnight's letter for the Craft Barn Alpha Challenge is L with the extra requirement of a window on the page. I've chosen lazy as my word this time as I had this lazy lady stamp by Tatty Button. I wanted her to lie (languish) on a brick wall so I sponged through the stencil with barn door and fired brick DI. The houses are a TH diecut with lit windows. The Lavinia Lane text is by Crafty Individuals and the other text is by Paper Artsy (stamped in Brilliance pearlescent lavender). I used a lattice stencil with Brilliance pearlescent orange and added a Hero Arts lantern. Some punched leaves finished the pages. Sorry the pic makes everything look a bit wonky but it is all straight IRL.

LIM 140

A white on white Christmas card is this week's theme on the Less Is More challenge blog. It's very hard to get a decent image of the card but I used a Cuttlebug bauble folder and some silver ribbon. The text is a Paula Pascual stamp with Brilliance starlite black.

Autumn Leaves

Over on the Crafty Individuals blog, Jean Hardy has set a new challenge with the theme of  October. I was inspired by the samples provided by the DT especially Efemera's which used the crowned bunnies Alice Palace stamp (CI 372). It reminded me that I haven't used mine for a little while. I decided to make a little picture on mountboard to hang on my wall. I brayered a BG with wild honey, picked raspberry, ripe persimmon and aged mahogany DIs leaving a small area for the sponged grass (mown lawn and peeled paint DI). I cut one of the bunnies out and gave him a light watercolour wash and glittered crown. The tree (CI 234) was stamped with Adirondack terracotta and then I coloured the bird and branches. The punched leaves were coloured with watercolour pencils and scrunched up to give a little dimension. The computer generated text is a line from the very atmospheric song - Autumn Leaves.
There's plenty of time to take part in this challenge and if you do you qualify for a generous 25% discount code to use on the CI website which is a great reason to stock up on some more fabulous Crafty Individuals products.

UK Stampers Postcard Swap - Blue

This month's theme set by Sam on the UK Stampers Postcard Swap is blue. I decided to use the grid technique and my Alice Palace party puffin stamp. There's lots of masking on this with post-it notes, eclipse tape and some narrow masking tape. The BG is tumbled glass, salty ocean and broken china DIs, the puffin is stamped with archival cobalt and the BG images (all Tim Holtz except for the water droplets)  are stamped with Versafine majestic blue. A bit of coloursoft colouring, some glitter on the crown and glossy accents on the heart finish this off.