Summer Lavender

 

Whilst I had the Katzelkraft stamp set out that I used in my previous post I stamped a few more images that reminded me of the warmth of summer. They were both coloured with scribbled marker pens and a waterbrush. The card above was stamped with Memento London fog and the stamped panel was mounted onto a card blank with foam pads. I added some tiny punched butterflies and some punched photo corners.

This was stamped with Versafine smoky gray, matted onto some patterned paper and stamped with a Paula Pascual sentiment.

Wishing You Joy

I am determined to only have happy posts on this blog during lockdown so let me start with this card - made just because - it makes me happy looking at it and I enjoyed the process of making it.

The trellis diecut is the same as in my previous card, in fact it was meant for the other card but I ended up ripping the front when I removed the tape holding the die in place so this is the reverse of that diecut. The watering can is a lovely image from an old Katzelkraft set (KTZ251-02) which I coloured in with watercolour pencils. The sentiment is a diecut and stamp by Simon Says Stamp inked with Wilted Violet DO. The yellow centres for the flowers were made with some very old (over 20 years I think) Tulip fabric paint. I thought yellow centres would finish off the flowers nicely but didn't know what to use. Whilst searching through my Posca Pens (I didn't have yellow anyway) I found some old Tulip paint bottles. I know I had gone through them years ago and thrown out the dried out ones so I was pleasantly surprised to find that this one worked perfectly - I'll have to give the others a try soon. So joyous wishes to everyone reading this.

Katzelkraft Monthly Challenge - August

I finally had a chance to get to my desk and have a little crafting time. This month on the KTZ blog, the challenge is 'anything but a card'. I managed to cut some of my lavender this year and it is drying in the sun at the moment so, as my machine was out, I thought I would make a couple of bags to put the dried lavender in. This is a project that is recycling various items - the bags are made from an old school shirt and the ribbon was cut off from an item of clothing. I had the perfect stamps for this in KTZ 51 and used Stazon ink. As my lavender is still drying I've just filled the bags with something else for the moment to give you an idea of what they will look like.
Here's a closer pic of the back:

 

and the front:

 



Katzelkraft Monthly Challenge - July

 

 

Flowers is the theme for this month's challenge on the Katzelkraft blog. As I have used flowers in some of the other recent KTZ challenges I had to find something different. The main image is from KTZ51_02 stamped on a scrap of patterned paper. I coloured it with coloursoft pencils and Sansodor. The trailing flowers are from KTZ132. The sentiment and die are from Clearly Besotted. It was all mounted on a pink card blank leaving a slight border on 2 sides.

Katzelkraft Challenge - June

This month's challenge theme on the Katzelkraft blog is circles. There are some fab recently issued Katzelkraft stamps that I would love to have used for this but sadly they are still on my wish-list rather than on my stamps-I-own-list. Choosing what to do for this challenge was tricky as you can only use Katzelkraft stamps and nothing I had really jumped out at me. Finally I decided to use the spotlight technique where you stamp an image twice (usually a line drawing) colour one image and cut out parts of the coloured image to place over the plain image. Clear as mud? If you click on the image above you should be able to see the coloured circles that have been superimposed over the main image (there are 6 of them). I added 3 tiny butterflies from a corner punch I have and used a circle die to cut out the completed image. This was mounted onto a kraft card blank and surrounded by various punched circles.
You can read the rules and see all the other entries here.
I am also entering this into the Craft Barn's weekly challenge the theme of which is butterflies.

Katzelkraft Challenge - May

This month's challenge on the Katzelkraft blog is to use a stamp 3 times. My first thought was of those Andy Warhol images repeated in different colours so this is my very pared down version of that. I used a stamp from the contes et merveilles set and stamped it with 3 different inks on 3 different coloured papers. I matted these onto  some card stamped with the clock image from KTZ118. This was put onto a pearlescent lilac long card blank and finished with a sentiment from contes et merveilles.

KTZ Blog Challenge - March

The theme for this month's challenge on the Katzelkraft blog is 'Surprise Me!' not the most straightforward of themes to interpret. Many grey cells were used in trying to figure out what to do with the stamps I have until finally I had an 'Aha!' moment. All the stamps are by Katzelkraft.

I applied gesso to a mint tin and then brushed Impress spring green over it. The flourish border (KTZ 94) was stamped with archival sepia onto tissue paper and applied with PVA all the way around the tin. So where's the surprise?

Inside is a little springtime scene with alcohol inked and embossed metal tape as a base. The bird (KTZ 41.03) was stamped in butterscotch ink. I made the nest by stamping an old KTZ leaf sprig stamp repeatedly on some paper and then cutting very thin strips with my rotary cutter which tend to twist. These were stuck on with glossy accents and the bird was placed with a small coil of scrap card behind to give some added dimension. The 'trees' in the lid are KTZ 132 and the butterfly is KTZ 53.02.
Hopefully that's enough of a surprise.

Bistre/Brusho

Regular readers of my blog will know that I have recently discovered the joy of working with Brusho. Some of my favourite European bloggers are currently talking about a powder called Bistre. I don't know if Bistre and Brusho are the same product but they seem to give very similar effects.
The lady behind Katzelkraft stamps has some wonderful samples of cards made with Bistre on her blog here. She has also done a great video here. It's in French but it's great to see the powders in action and to view the amazing results. Have a look at the older posts as well to see some stunning creations.

Katzelkraft Tag Challenge 2

 

I skipped the first tag challenge on the Katzelkraft forum because I'm not keen on Halloween but the second one was right up my street. The recipe for the tag was a bird, a book page, gesso /medium and some sort of ink or spray. I stuck some ripped pages onto a tag, sprinkled yellow and green Brusho and spritzed with water. When dry I spread some gloss gel medium through a stencil but this just soaked up the Brusho colours creating an effect I hadn't expected. The gel has dried to give the tag some texture and made the Brusho colours even more vibrant. I stamped a KTZ flourish with Stazon and added 2 stamped birds by Stamping Bella. I outlined the birds with a white pen to define them and added the quote from a Paper Artsy Ink & the Dog set.

June Katzelkraft Challenge

There are still 5 days in which to enter this month's Katzelkraft Challenge, the theme of which is summer/summer colours. The details are here so grab your Katzelkraft stamps and have a go. There's a €15 voucher for the lucky winner.

Katzelkraft Stamp Offer

As you know I'm a big fan of Katzelkraft stamps. In case you missed it there is a fabulous discount of 30% on all their stamps at the moment. Just type in the code PAQUES but be quick as the offer ends on Sunday. You can browse through all the stamps here . Happy shopping!

Katzelkraft Sale!

Most of you who regularly read my blog will know that I am a big fan of Katzelkraft stamps. For the past 3 years I've managed to complete the 10 Weeks Before Christmas Challenge on the Katzelkraft Forum. I am not affiliated with the company in any way -  I just like their stamps and so I wanted to let you know that at the moment there are discounts of 10-30% on some of these great stamps. You can see all the offers here . As the stamps are unmounted, postage is very reasonable and delivery from France to the UK is pretty fast, you can even pay with PayPal so it is very simple to do. If there's a stamp you've seen me use that you've liked, this would be an ideal time to buy it. The sale is on while stocks last so don't delay.