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.