Craft Barn Calendar Challenge 2015

This year's Craft Barn Challenge is going to consist of 2 separate challenges. The first is a 2016 calendar challenge which will run every month for 2 weeks. Every month 2 words will be given which will have to be incorporated into the calendar page. This month's words are aqua and snowflake. The second challenge will be revealed next month.
I decided to make a portrait orientated calendar 12 x 18cm. I usually have a year to a page calendar on the wall by my desk and also a separate calendar for the current month next to it. For this reason my calendar pages will not be bound until after the year has ended. I used a Marianne snowflake die set to cut some masks which I sprayed a blue shimmer spray over. I know it's not really what I would call aqua but it was the closest I could get. I edged the page with a Gelato that I felt was a better representation of the colour aqua.I then used white acrylic paint and a speckle stamp to add a little more 'snow'. While this was still wet I sprinkled Glamour Dust over. The houses are a Tim Holtz die brushed with spiced marmalade, ripe persimmon and festive berries DIs to give an ombré effect. The bird bringing in the New Year is from a KTZ set.
I hope to visit all the entries and see how many of my Quotes & Lyrics buddies are joining in this year.

Bloom

While playing around with a new Paper Artsy stamp I made this quick card. The image was stamped and masked and the BG coloured with DIs and a speckle stencil. The tall card blank was from a pack I got in a Craft Barn goodie box.

A Thank You Card

I've been occupied with various non-papercrafting things recently and I've just taken up my knitting needles again to knit a scarf but I needed a quick Thank You card. I used rose red and lime green Brusho and sprinkled it on the diagonal. I spritzed with gold shimmer from the bottom left across the diagonal to get this effect. The stamp is from a Hero Arts set.

Pink Poppies

Another airing for my Clearly Besotted Brushed Poppy set. I went with more subtle colours in keeping with the theme of the card. I used Brilliance orchid and Archival plum inks with Versafine Spanish moss for the stems.

UK Stampers Postcard Swap - January

This month's postcard swap on the UK Stampers forum has the theme of Panto. It took many grey cells to come up with this. I used a new button stencil for the background (Cinderella, panto, Buttons, get it?) and then sprinkled some Brusho (yes I have bought new colours!!!!) and spritzed some shimmer spray. The shoe is cut from a very old calendar with glossy accents on the flower. The text is Parker by Memory Box.

Another Poppy!

Towards the end of last year I went a bit mad and bought quite a few new craft items. I was tempted by various Advent Calendar deals (I can't resist a bargain) and also some non-bargain items. I have seen Clearly Besotted stamps used on various blogs and browsed their website a few times but it was only when I saw the brushed poppies stamp that I got the credit card out. I also bought the mini basic banner die and stamp set (sold separately). Although I was in full-blown Christmas card mode I had to have a try of the stamps so I grabbed whatever was nearest to me on my desk (in this case a scalloped diecut) and had a go. While having a clearout of my desk a few days ago I came across these stamped bits and decided to put them together into a quick card. The red card blank is a Christmas leftover that seemed to work well. I love the stamps - they are well thought out and stamp well. I'm sure you will see more of my December madness purchases over the coming months.

UK Stampers ATC Swap - January

I love this time of year when the pressure to make cards to a deadline has ended and I can just play and resume the swaps and challenges I feel like doing. Continuing with song titles as themes, this month's ATC swap on UK Stampers is 'All That Jazz'. My background is made with 2 stencils - a diamond chevron and Memory Box's starry night with pumice stone DI and denim Adirondack. All the stamps used are from Non Sequitur's April in Paris set. The record player card had some punched music notes added; the singer was coloured with coloursoft pencils and Sansodor; the dancer was coloured with Twinkling H2Os. All the ATCs were edged with walnut stain DI.

KTZ Christmas Challenge - S10 K

This is the final card in this year's last year's Katzelkraft Challenge. Taking inspiration from DT member Sandrine we had to make a card with heat embossing, a book page and 1 main colour with a touch of another. The stamps are all by Katzelkraft.
I have really enjoyed doing this Challenge again (the 4th year running) and would like to thank everyone on the Katzelkraft forum for making it such fun. Only another 10 months to the next one...

KTZ Christmas Challenge - S10 C3

This card used a sketch:

Towards the end of last year I had a tidy up of my scraps and decided to roughly colour code them. I also decided to split up some very old pads of paper. They are now in large clear zipped folders with a tag for each colour.  I have 6 colours so far but will probably add a few more this year as the system seems to be working for me.
I used the purple folder for this card - even the card base was cut with card from this folder. I used shaded lilac DI and smooshed some colour down. The background text is a PA stamp. The various scraps of card and paper were embossed and the main image is a KTZ stamp. I decided to echo the shape of the flowers (physalis) with a heart shaped brad (from a Craft Barn goodie box) and the initial of the recipient.

KTZ Christmas Challenge - S6 CK

This card was using the techniques on a card by new DT member Coco here. She had made a wintry scene using a KTZ stamp as a stencil and as a 3D image. I didn't want to do a wintry scene but went for a more spring-like one. All the stamps are by KTZ. 2 butterflies are stencilled, 2 are stamped and 2 are partially glued on so that their wings stand up.

KTZ Christmas Challenge - S10 C3

This is a double pull card. I used a tutorial from here (in French but with good pics). The papers are by Crafty Individuals and are so gorgeous I felt there was no need to add to them. The card opens on both sides like this:

and I embossed my Inkylicious quote stamp in white.

Happy New Year!!!!

Image from the BBC

I hope 2015 brings you peace, health and happiness. I managed to complete the Katzelkraft 10 semaines avant Nöel challenge and will show each of the remaining cards individually later on in the week but I thought it would be nice to show all the cards together.