October Challenge Winners

Melissa - North Pole December Daily

Hello it's Melissa here and today I'm sharing two pages of my 2013 December Daily made with Kaisercraft's North Pole Collection.  When I first saw this collection I knew it would work perfectly with the supplies I'd already pulled for my album, which primarily included October Afternoon's Sleigh Ride (released last year).  North Pole has a gorgeous Christmas colour palette mixed with features of chalkboard.

Before I show you the two pages, here is the cover and first two pages, made with cardboard that I cut  a window into and painted gold.  The background paper and stickers are by Teresa Collins.  For my 2012 DD I had lots of literal white space with white cardstock as my base.  For my 2013 DD I wanted to embrace lots of pattern with simple embellishment.

The gold doily is from Studio Calico.

The back of my cover page includes stickers from October Afternoon, explaining the book and with the names of my family members and our age.

These next two pages are made with North Pole.  I've chosen to include Instagram photos, and I made my own hashtag for them, so that I'm able to remember exactly what the photos are about, allowing me to create this album months later.  I find creating a December Daily during the month of December too much pressure!

The first page is of my kids starting their advent calendars, and the first chocolate is always very exciting!  I fussy cut "Tis the Season" from a piece of patterned paper.  The banner is a sticker, and the scallop border is a die cut from the 6x6 paper pad.

The second page is of the pregnancy diabetes test I had to take, and shows the disgusting glucose drink I had to drink quickly.

I'll be back in December with some more pages from my album.  You can purchase North Pole in the shop here.

Thanks for looking

Melissa 

Christine - Rustic Harmony Cards

Hi there Christine here with a couple of cards using Kaisercraft's Rustic Harmony.....

This Collection is beautiful with lovely colours and papers.  The patterned papers I have used are from the paper pad, the patterns are smaller which is great for cards and also there are 3 or 4 specialty papers in the pad. I cut out the frames from cream cardstock with a favourite die of mine - Spellbinders A2 Filigree Delight. Then I layered up various Butterfly dies with the patterned paper - I used Spellbinders die -Wonderful Wings and the MFT dienamics -Butterflies.  Easy to add in some pieces from the Collectables pack which I find great to use, and a bit of bling and you are done!

TFL!

Happy Creating!

Christine

Lisa - Rustic Harmony layouts

Good morning! I hope you're all having a lovely, restful long weekend-- and maybe taking the chance to get some crafting done, too. :) It's Lisa here, and today I'm sharing a couple of layouts I've made with Kaisercraft's lovely Rustic Harmony range. The papers have a shabby chic, rustic style, with lots of texture and muted colours. Good fun to play with!

My first layout has plain white cardstock as the base, with some of the Amity paper layered on top. The pale, muted florals in this design are gorgeous. On the left, I've used one of the 6x4 Captured Moments cards, featuring a quote I really like. I've teamed that with three photos on the right-hand side, using circles and curved images to break up all the straight lines of the rest of the page. Along the very bottom, I've used a lace border, taken from the sticker sheet. Some veneer shapes, a die-cut butterfly and some bling gems finish it off.

A closer shot is below:

My second layout also has a sheet of white cardstock as a base, but this time I've used some Ranger Distress Stain in Worn Lipstick to add touches of colour. I kinda smooshed it on (highly technical term there, I know) until I was happy with the effect. To tone it down a little, I blended over it with another colour of Distress Stain: Picket Fence. That gave me the faded look I was wanting.

 

A sheet of woodgrain patterned paper from the small paper pad was used as a base for my single photo-- an Instagram shot of my daughter that I'd combined with another shot of the evening horizon using one of the many photo apps available. The floral design on the photo was also added with yet another photo app-- it's a great way of creating a little bit of digital art to use along with the more traditional method of scrapbooking. :) 

 

Around the edges, I layered a selection of fabric and paper flowers, some of the Collectables, veneer shapes and bling gems, along with some Captured Moments text stickers.

On the other corner, I added a piece of striped cream and grey ribbon, along with a few more embellishments. A piece of crochet lace ribbon along the very bottom of the layout to finish everything off, and it was all done. :)

You can view and order the complete Rustic harmony collection online here. Have a great holiday weekend, and as always, thanks so much for looking!

Cheers,
 Lisa :)

Valou - "A Snap Card"

Hello everybody! 

Valou here with a card! 

To realize this set, I used the file of "Snap Dragon Snippets" " 3d hat box - Midnight Witch " .

I used the new papers "Kaisercraft", collection " Rustic Harmony ". Edges are worn out with "Old Distresser".

I added a piece of "Twill" ribbon and above, I stuck a die-cut of the same collection " Rustic Harmony ".

The butterfly is also a die-cut of this collection.

For the decoration, I added a flower " Kaisercraft " Coral and two small blue flowers " Kaisercraft ".

To finish, I added a piece of ribbon " Organza cremates " (25 mm).

Here we are! I hope that my realization has you more and that it will inspire you.

I thank you for your passage and wish you an excellent day! Bye for now!

Vous pouvez retrouver le matériel provenant de la boutique :

You can find the material resulting from the shop:

                            

A little mixed media anyone?

Those of you who know me, will know that I am obsessed with mixed media. Nothing could make me happier than pulling out my mediums, paints, stencils, canvas.....in fact ANYTHING and play.

Today I thought I would share with you a little mixed media tutorial, to show you how I go about making a simple mixed media layout step by step.

My apologies for the terrible photography. Night time in my craft room is a tad dismal!!

The first step  is to take a piece of Claudine Hellmuth Sticky Back Canvas. ( Liz and the girls can get this is for you, if you wish to try this technique )
I have used a Prima marketing stencil over the top, and have used gel medium through the stencil, using a palette knife. An old credit card works just as well.

You can find gel medium here in the shop, and of course there are a heap of different stencils here

Carefully remove the stencil, and put the canvas piece aside to dry thoroughly. You can CAREFULLY use a heat gun to dry, but take special care to not "boil" the gel medium, as it will bubble up and may burn as well. .....but you can speed up drying, just keep a close eye, and pull back if it starts to burn!!! Don't ask me how I know this!!!

For this next step, I am using some sprays from Lindys Stamp Gang. Again Liz can get these in for you if you wish to add to your collection! There some of the Lindys Sprays available in the shop here
See the design on the canvas? This is the gel medium that has dried, and will act as a resist to sprays, inks, paints etc
HOW COOL IS THAT?

To start, I have misted my canvas with a good spritz of water. This just means that the colours will be less bright in the beginning. Better to start of pale, and build up the layers. Once you have zapped your canvas with spray you cannot get it off!! The thing with the Lindys products is, that they are fabric friendly ( or unfriendly if you have a woopsie and spray yourself). You can use them to alter
t shirts etc, which I am sure will be of interest to many. I think we all have a t shirt where we have spilled, and stained the front. Maybe a stencilled design could be just the thing to extend the life of a favourite shirt!

Gradually build up layers on the canvas, layering your colours so they will blend into each other. 

Sometimes there will be a little build up on the top of the stencilled gel pattern. Simply take a wet wipe and wipe it over the top to get your clean area again.

Now its time to build up some papers, in this case I have used Captured Moments cards from Kaisercraft here
I fell in love with the Antique Bliss cards the moment I saw them! They are so very pretty.
I have also used some of the papers from Rustic Harmony found here
They are just stunning papers. Love love LOVE them with a passion!

Here is the finished page. I have used the elements from the Rustic Harmony collection to build up some more layers, added a polaroid frame, and some resin pieces. To finish the page off I have stamped with a stitches stamp around the edge in grey to give the page a subtle frame

I just wanted to mention, that this technique can also be used over a lot of different substrates. Paper, fabric, chipboard, patterned paper....anything. so give it a go and stretch those supplies in a different direction.....You never know, you might get hooked on mixed media too!

Thanks for looking! And don't forget to let me know how you get on with this technique.

Cheers

Sharon

PS Happy birthday to my Darling hubby today XXX

Hey There... Robbi here....Yep its Me!

I know I know its been ages since I last blogged.....but good things take time!
well I keep telling myself that....waiting waiting......
Anyway The Weddings are over (One in March and One in Oct) the bank account is now very empty lol but worth it and
that means on the horizon will be some wedding layouts - oh yea and then my Boss volunteered me to create a wedding album for a friend of his.....he thinks its a freebie....I think otherwise! but more on that in the future

So what have I been busy doing while I have been hiding from reality
well the Teddy Bear Collection from Kaisercraft ended up at my place so I got a little creative and using one of the 9'
MDF frames from Papervine created a little piece of wall art from photos of when the kids were little.

 

Kaisercraft Paper Teddy Bears Picnic

 



I have cut up some of the smaller Teddies and added them to the suitcase to make it look like they are climbing out to play

in this pic you can see the little bottle of teddy bits along with the sewing pattern scissors etc





Shows the side view so you can see the dimension

 

The other goodies I have been playing with is some of the new cute little doll stamps from Prima

here is a card I made recently for class it is using 3 of the Dolls including Aidan - This card could be made as a Birthday card, for a Boy/Girl just use 3 of the appropriate stamps or could be a Christmas card just add some little hats to their heads and make their clothing more Christmas like.

Aidan stamp along with Chiara and Keira. I have also been using the watercolour tags lately from the Prima Tag Pads and love them....have you tried them, the paper seems to really "grab" the ink from the stamps.

 

Another card I made is using some of  the Prima Epiphany collection

 

These papers are truly amazing and I think could be used for a very special card for a wedding or birthday or even that special sympathy card if need be.

What do you think...have you tried any of this wonderful collection?

A little while ago Liz did a post on "Our Scrap Rooms" and I obviously missed that month (again!) so here is some pics of my scrap room. I thought it would be a great idea to get new shelves and lots of plastic containers - Man I never realised how expensive the containers would be...thank goodness for on of the regular Briscoe's sales. Anyway here is some pics of my nice sparkly new room, yep more carpet can be seen now but everything is tucked away nice and tidy.





So here is my messy old room...but at least I could still find things lol

 

Nice tidy new room with everything in its place

 

 Finally somewhere for all my inks and stickles (shhhhh that's only the ones I use regularly the others are tucked away!)
 

 

Betsy - A Card Selection

A lovely good morning all - Betsy here this morning to share some cards I have made recently.

 After a very cold day yesterday, it was a treat to wake to such a lovely Spring day today. The weather is so unpredictable these days but I do suppose it is usual for October. My thoughts go back to lambing time at the farm, with the hassles that the weather brought. We always lambed later down South as the grass did not recover until the weather warmed up - more feed for the sheep etc. It is great to be able to leave it all behind for our son and daughter-in-law - he is a very capable farmer, so we have no doubt he will manage, as he has done previously for a number of years now.

Now, here's the show and tell ladies.

Ella, our sweet grand-daughter was the recipient of this card, made using the Violet Crush from Kaisercraft. She loved it although I had to give her a lesson on how to stand it up by pushing the front up under the circle at the top. It's not that she isn't bright - it's Nana does odd cards!!

This is a simple recessed window card using a 3D image of a car. David is a bit of a car fanatic! Sorry I can't remember the collection I used here but it was a Kaisercraft. Old age is starting to take it's toll!!

A lever card made for a special patchwork friend who has moved from the area. I do enjoy making this style of card and a tutorial can be found on Splitcoaststampers site. Very easy made and it is so effective. Now the collection is a bit of a problem, as I can't remember where it came from, as it has been around for a while. I do love the colours though. A Fiskars punch was used to cut the border. 

There has been some exciting things happening at Artfull Crafts lately, so do remember to check out their website for further information. Must away and enjoy this lovely day.

Happy crafting everybody, and many blessings.

Betsy.

New Design Team additions for Christmas!

Hi everyone
We're pretty excited to announce the FIVE successful ladies who are joining the Artfull Crafts Design Team for the Christmas Countdown. We get a LOT of blog traffic over the festive season, and these ladies are going to be joining the existing team to keep you inspired!

CONGRATULATIONS to Megan Gourlay, Beverley Cunningham, Fiona Angus, Christine Santos and Jessica Toulmin. We are really loking forward to working with you and we welcome you onboard. We will be introducing these ladies at the start of November and we intend to kick off the Christmas Countdown from the 9th of November. Tell your friends!

CHRISTMAS STORE IS LAUNCHED
We also want to remind you that we have a Christmas section on our website where you can find all your festive themed products in one place. Head there now and start to prepare for the season ahead.
.

Have a great day!

Melissa - Kaisercraft Tropical Punch Layouts

Hello its Melissa here! Today I'm sharing two layouts that I made with the new Kaisercraft Tropical Punch range, which is summery, colourful and fun!

The first layout was quick and easy because the special patterned paper background had done most of the work for me.  All I had to do was layers some papers, add die cuts, stickers, ribbon, India ink and my journaling and call it done!  The photo is of my eldest daughter and husband at her Frozen Party when she turned 5 in June.  My husband was dressed up in his white suit and opened the door and welcomed all the princesses!

For the second layout I challenged myself to use this summery line for winter photos, and I love how it turned out!  Queenstown is considered a paradise, and so I thought the juxtaposition of hot and cold worked really well.  These are photos of our first and only big snow dump of 2014.

You can buy Tropical Punch from the shop here.

Thanks for looking!  

Melissa

Lisa - Teddy Bear's Picnic layout & card

Hello! It's Lisa here, with a layout and card to share. Both were made using Kaisercraft's cute Teddy Bear's Picnic range, one of their September releases. (Yes, I'm a little late with this one. Blame it on springtime madness, or something.)

Now, here's where I admit that the "cutesy" style of crafting isn't really my thing, but that being said, this range was surprisingly fun to work with. I think it's good to be challenged every once in a while, and to try something that's not in my usual creative comfort zone.I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with the results. :)

I used a base of kraft cardstock, and chose a sheet of the floral "Cuddles" paper as the background. The black & white vintage photograph I've used is one I found on the internet and downloaded-- three little girls (sisters, I suspect), all dressed up in their Sunday best dresses and hats. I thought it fitted perfectly with the sweet, slightly retro theme of this range. 

Around the photo, I've layered a selection of Collectables, buttons, some gorgeous flowers, a few wooden veneers and a strip of lovely lace ribbon along the bottom.

A couple of closer shots are below:

 

 

I also made a simple card, using  a cute image cut from the Bear Love paper, which I mounted on a sheet of embossed cardstock. A couple of Pearl Brads and a little wooden veneer heart underneath, and it's all done. :)

Thanks so much for looking, and I will see you again later in the month! :)

Cheers,
Lisa

Valou - "Home Decoration"

Hello everybody! 

Valou here with a Home Decoration! 

Pour le matériel, vous pouvez tout trouver dans la boutique "Artfull Crafts Shop". 

For the material, you can find everything in the shop " Artfull Crafts Shop ".

This is my realization in images! 

I used the papers of the new collection " Kaisercraft ", " Tropical Punch ". A collection in the very slightly acid colors, completed for children's photos!:-)

I also stuck on several frames of this home decoration, several die-cuts of the same collection.

On the top of the heart-shaped frame, I added a knot which I realized with the ribbon " pink Organza fushia ". Above, I added a yellow flower " Kaisercraft " and two white pearly pearls.

On the round frame, it is a realized knot with the piece of yellow ribbon that I stuck and decorated with a pink flower " Kaisercraft ".

On the big rectangular frame, I stuck a piece of ribbon on roses fushia pink.

I also added diverse flowers and a knot realized with a piece of white lace.

On other frames, I added flowers " Kaisercraft ", flowers " I' m a Rose " and other cloth flowers.

Here we are! I hope that my realization has you more and that it will inspire you.

I thank you for your passage and wish you an excellent day! Bye for now!

You can find the material resulting from the shop: