Hi there - Christine here.
 Well its back to school this week after the holidays. So I thought it would be appropriate to  share the Layout and cards I have made using Kaisercraft's Class Act Collection.

This Layout is of my daughter ready for school! Yes it is a few years ago now that she was off to school!
Next are some cards - how about some Thankyou ones for the awesome Teachers!

 These 2 easel cards were made with the Kaisercraft square cards in Kraft - I just took 3 cards and with one of them I cut in half and then used each half as the front piece with one of the other cards as the easel. This made it a very simple easel card to make!
I stamped on the black card with versamark ink and then embossed with white embossing powder, this gives the effect of a Chalkboard look which has been popular lately. Here is a link to a tutorial on it from Betsy Veldman.

TFL

Happy Creating!

Christine

Betsy here today and good morning to everyone.

Well, here we are at the beginning of a New Year and what an exciting first week we have had, as far as work goes. Never dreamt in my wildest dreams  that I would ever be in front of a TV camera but that is exactly what we have been doing. At Artfull Crafts, on Wednesday, we had the crew there doing the promotional film for "Tell A Friend" campaign, as the shop was one of the finalists. Oh well, one never knows!!
Another exciting piece of news, is that I have been Guest Designer on Lowri McNab's blog, PaperVine
this week, and what a thrill it has been to read all the lovely comments.

Now, for a couple of cards I have done over the holiday period. It is always a pleasure to make cards for one's very good friends.



The die I have used on this card is Leane 007 n'45.8114. The square is part of the die which I cut out in brown card, layered it onto sage card, then cut out the flourish again in the natural card and slightly off set it.
The image is from Moonlight Magic Studio blog.



I am rather fond of the Marianne Design dies ( as well as many others!!) and I have used LR0236 to cut this shape out, firstly the solid brown and then the lace one on top. It is so effective and of course one of my favourite colour combos.
All from me today, trust you are all enjoying the lovely weather we are having.
Happy crafting and many blessings for the year ahead,

Betsy.

Hi there, Christine here with some cards to show you using the Kaisercraft Marigold collection.

I used my new Silhouette Cameo to cut out the black silhouettes in the first two cards.
The third card I used a Spellbinders Shapeability - Fancy Lattice, cut out in black and then framed with Spellbinders Decorative Labels one.
I have enjoyed creating with the orange and green papers in this Marigold collection.

TFL

Happy Creating!

Christine

Hi everyone, this is my layout for Artfull Crafts using Botanical Odyssey.  This photo was taken at my Father n laws 80th Birthday.  The girls were all together which only happens a couple of times a year, if we are lucky.

I started with the Promenade paper, and very carefully cut out some of the butterflies and the middle of the paper.  At this stage I had intended to use the back of this paper as the photo mount.

 

I cut around the wings of the large butterfly on the promenade paper.  Then I adhered Lattice paper over the top, which covered all the holes that I had just made. I was then able to bring the bottom butterfly over the top of the blue paper.      


I then coloured in the cut out butterflies from the first paper.  I used distress pens, and added glossy accents to the wings.  I added the cut out butterflies, onto the ones on the layout using pop dots.

 
 I also coloured in any other butterflies that could be seen, and added glossy accents to those wings as well.


 Then I added the photo, that I changed my mind and decided to mount on Explore paper.  I added a few triangle stickers from the Botanical Odyssey Alpha sticker sheet  and spelt out Cousins, then cut some leaves from the large sticker with the flower on the Botanical Odyssey sticker sheet. 


I hope you enjoyed this project, check out all the products used on the Artfull Crafts website, just click on any of the links to take you there. 

Hi there, Christine here - finally I am back for 2013 with some cards to show you!

I have used Kaisercrafts Pickled Pear papers - a favourite of mine! I really love using the Collectables that come with each Collection, but of course I do like creating my own using Spellbinders fabulous dies. I have used Spellbinders Label 10 on these cards - a great oval shape. Some Bakers twine and Kaisercraft pearls add the final touch.
On this next card I have used MFT dies for the fence and grass.



I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas & New Year and are that you are now all geared up to get crafty again!

TFL

Happy Creating!

Christine

Hi Everyone!  Nichole here with a new card.  This month I'm using Kaisercraft's Botanical Odyssey.  This bright and cheerful range is filled with images of flowers, birds, cages, and butterflies.

The colours of this collection range from golden yellow tones, cool pinks, to cool hues of teal.  They invoke the lazy days of late summer, or offer a non-traditional palette for Valentine's day as a theme of love is repeated throughout the line.



For the card front, I used a teal arabesque design from the Botanical Odyssey 6x6 Paper Pad.  I trimmed the first 2cm from the edge of the card to use a cutout edge from the coordinating die cuts in the 6x6 paper pad.  I gently rounded the edges of the raw card with a file as not to contrast with the die cut edge.  Another die cut was put over the edge to soften the transition from the edge to the full card front.


After assembling the front, I used a Botanical Odyssey swirl rub on to accent the background.  It took heaps of rubbing and careful peeling, but well worth the effort!



Carefully layering accent items and using foam adhesive to give them dimension.  Definite "love" theme here, I like how the warm yellows and cool pinks and purples really give this a slight vintage edge.

"Adore" from the matching Clear Stamp set was embossed using Copper embossing powder to match the copper metallic accents of the background paper.



I lined the inside of the card using paper from the Grant Archival 6x6 Neutrals in a coordinating warm yellow tone.  This paper is around 80gsm and layers well on the inside and finishes the card off nicely.



I gently inked the edges using a sponge dauber and Tim Holtz Antique Linen as it coordinated with the warm yellow tone.  Inking the edges softens the contrast between the paper and the cardstock, giving it a more solid feel.







Head on over and check out Artfull Craft's range of Kaisercraft Botanical Odyssey collection!


Overall Botanical Odyssey was a fun line to work with as I love holiday themed papers that can be repurposed and used for other things.  As this was a "love" themed line I feel that it wasn't specifically geared towards Valentine's and can be used year round!

Thanks for reading and happy scrapping!

Hi everyone, and welcome to my first blog for Artfull Crafts 2013.  

This project was created using the January release of papers from Kaisercraft, Botanical Odyssey, and the new stencils from Kaisercraft.  

The idea was taken from a book by Julie Nutting.  A very talented lady, and I have done this project a few times now. If you click on her name it will take you to her blog. 

What I used on this project:
Two identical black and white laser copied pictures of a lady in some sort of dress, short, long, evening, day what ever you like.
A canvas, size dependent on the picture you have photocopied, mine is very big 20 inches x 16 inches.
One sheet or more of a range of paper, (Botanical Odyssey of course)
Some paint, Glimmer mists or whatever you want to cover the background with.
Modelling compound, or gesso. 
Gel medium or glossy accents
Stencils Kaisercraft.
Printed or plain tissue or serviettes. 
Decorations, Collectables, glitters, flowers etc. 

 Firstly I used some tissue scrunched up and flattened,  I used gel medium to adhere to the canvas.  I also had a few floral serviettes that I also adhered. I used some tissue from Tim Holtz with words printed on it.   I used the Modelling compound on the Kaisercraft clock stencil.  I added some muslin over the tissue to add some interesting texture.

This picture is not the one I am describing, but I wanted to show you what it looked like, I lost my data on my phone, so I redid this part to show you.    
 
  
 I painted most of the canvas with a cream paint (leaving some parts clear), and then sprayed glimmer mists all over the canvas. I used distress ink around the edges and over the clock to add extra colour, and the stencil I used down the top right and bottom right hand corners.

Then I cut out the lady from one of my laser printed pictures and adhered to the canvas using gel medium. This is why it must be laser printed, otherwise the ink would run on my canvas. 
I then cut out the second photocopied picture, but I only cut out the dress this time.  I turned it over, and put it on the back side of the paper that I wanted, like this:

Originally I had been going to use several different colours of paper to make the dress, but decided on one colour.  As you can see above, I cut the dress originally into three parts.  You can glue or tape this down before cutting out, or you can just trace it.  When you turn it over, you have a perfect replica of the dress.  Note I didn't like the way this dress finished, so I actually added a bit more to finish it off.  

Adhere that to the canvas using gel medium, also go over the top of the dress.  Now that the messy part is over, it is time to start decorating, and making the dress your own.  I painted the edges of the dress, and the folds.  I gave her hair a little colour using Distress pens. Once distress pens are dry you can gel medium over them.   I added the butterfly and the birds and cage and some of the flowers, from the Botanical Odyssey collection.  I used Kindy Glitz to make the butterfly more interesting, and some kaisercraft flowers.  I used glossy accents to adhere the necklace and earrings on.  I also used it on the bling, as the sticky will not stay on for long, especially in any heat.

I used rubons on rectangles of paper, making lots of fun words, that I thought might be appropriate for this lady.  I used a big swirl of Zva bling to add some interest to her dress.  I had this pleated white ribbon which I used on the bottom of the dress, it keeps pulling, so it will be interesting, and I used the cut off piece from one of the pages, which had more positive words on it, and hid the join of the fabric and dress.

I didn't mind the wrinkles under the dress, like normal fabric would have, if you didn't want that, you would have to ensure you didn't put anything on the canvas under the dress.

This is a great project for the younger girls in your life to do as well as yourself.  I have done this project with a group of 12 girls aged from about 6-11 and they all did a great job.  
 
I hope you are now inspired to start making something special.  Did you promise yourself that you were going to be more creative this year?  Then what are you waiting for?