My inky travels along life's rocky road

Friday 28 November 2014

KTZ Christmas Challenge - S6 C1


For this card we had to use an image from a magazine. I found this cute dog in a newspaper supplement advertising a candle brand called Lilou et Loic. I cut him out and gave him a festive hat with a scrap of red card and a pompom. The card blank was embossed with a Cuttlebug folder and the card was finished with a strip of washi tape.

Thursday 27 November 2014

KTZ Christmas Challenge - S6 C3


Week 6 of the Katzelkraft Challenge was posted a few days late:

        1 Use a magazine image.
        2 Use clear elements on your card.
        3 Repeat stamp an image.
        K Be inspired by a step-by-step from DT member Coco.

I started with 3 which is to stamp an image several times. I used a KTZ leaf sprig with Versafine spanish moss. I stamped the first and second generation image each time to give a variation in colour and formed a background. I cut one of Tim Holtz's styled labels, edged it with spanish moss and mounted it on foam pads. The circle stamp is from a Paula Pascual set stamped in Versafine habanero and the tree is an old stamp coloured with marker pens.



Thursday 20 November 2014

KTZ Christmas Challenge S5 C1


Not too sure about this one - isn't it strange how sometimes the simplest challenges can prove to be the most difficult? This card had to have some lace on it - not a big ask I know but for some reason I agonised over it for ages and I'm not entirely happy with the end result. I did toy with the idea of using a lace die to cut some paper lace but I didn't think that would be in the spirit of the challenge and it wasn't as if I didn't have any lace. Having ironed out my crumpled strip of lace, I fiddled about with it endlessly but came up with nothing. Then I decided to have a sort out of my desk which is a TOTAL mess at the moment. This card is mostly made up of bits that I found while tidying up (not that it looks any tidier as I type this). The card blank was a failed Brusho play. The green bracket shaped die cut was leftover from this project. I think the red die cut and strip of card were waste from this card last year ( I am blushing with shame now). The Crafty Individuals angel image is from a free selection in a now defunct stamping magazine. The mesh stamp is a KTZ image stamped in Impress emerald and the sentiment is from a Paula Pascual set. The chevrons are from a MME paper pad. That's it really - I'm surprised I've managed to keep up to date so far with the challenge this year - I'm expecting a few googlies to be thrown in as we draw closer to Christmas so watch this space...

Wednesday 19 November 2014

Quotes & Lyrics - Journey


Here we are at number 23 of the Craft Barn's quotes & lyrics challenge. The words to choose from were journey and friendship and the choice was made easy for me when I remembered I had a Sizzix die of the word journey. I decided to do a song but it was surprisingly hard to find a suitable song I did think of 'Sentimental Journey' but couldn't figure out a way to put it onto paper. I finally found a C&W song by Jake Owen called 'Journey of your life'  about a grandfather's advice to his grandson. It has the line:

                      'You need an angel flying by your side on the journey of your life'

I started by stamping the ISC face in Archival sepia and masking it. Then I lightly applied some weathered wood and broken china DIs with a brayer. When dry I used a Memory Box alpha stencil over the page in Adirondack mushroom (the letters of the story). Then the following stamps:

        Christine Adolph flower cube in Adirondack terracotta (nature)
        Banana Frog heart in Barn Door DI (love)
        Banana Frog star in Adirondack butterscotch (fame)
        Katzelkraft splats in Archival grape (mistakes)
        Katzelkraft music in Adirondack lake mist (music)

The black lines were applied with a credit card and black acrylic paint (keeping to the straight and narrow) and some white acrylic splodged dots (I mess up sometimes).
While all this was drying I stamped moon girl by Stampotique and embossed her in white. Her wings were given some shimmer with Wink of Stella and raised with foam pads.

 
'Journey' was cut with my Sizzix die and stuck onto some paper from MME's Cut & Paste Charm range which picked up the colours in my background. The remaining text was printed off the computer and I sketched around lines. I removed the mask from my central image and coloured her in with watercolour and coloursoft pencils.



KTZ Christmas Challenge - S5 C3


This card had to use a false watercolour technique. There wasn't a specific technique mentioned so I decided to use 2 different techniques. I thought I'd have a break from Christmas cards and decided to use this KTZ stamp from the physalis set. I used 3 Whispers pens to colour in the flowers and stem, spritzed it with water and stamped it on cardstock. The matting is with Spellbinders labels 4 dies. The background uses watercolour paper. I smeared wild honey, spiced marmalade and peeled paint DIs on a plastic sheet , spritzed it with water and gold shimmer spray and picked up the ink with the watercolour paper. The 'crackle effect' is actually a tree stamp from the KTZ winter sheet (if you look in the bottom left hand corner you can see one of the thicker branches).

Tuesday 18 November 2014

KTZ Christmas Challenge - S5 K


This week's Special K is a tag with a great step-by-step by DT member Sandrine. You can see it here. We had to lift the tag, keeping true to the layout and follow several other constraints such as a background with ink and a stamp, a stamped and cut-out image, a doily, something circular etc etc. I think I've managed to get them all in!
The base paper is from Papermania's (very old) contemporary Christmas set. I used a small flourish from a KTZ set (physalis) and Brilliance starlite black around the edge. The doily is a Marianne die stamped with my favourite KTZ background text stamp and the inner buckle is a Memory Box die. The holly leaves are an old foam stamp that was free in a magazine with candi dots for the berries. I stamped the sentiment in red pepper Adirondack and threaded it through the buckle. I used some Wink of Stella on the berries, leaves and background snowflakes for a little shimmer.

Monday 17 November 2014

KTZ Christmas Challenge - S5 C2


We are at the half-way point of the 10 weeks before Christmas challenge on the Katzelkraft forum. For week 5 we have to:
1 Use lace on a card.
2 Make a square card.
3 Use the false watercolour technique.
K Use the step-by-step from DT member Sandrine to make a tag.

I started with card 2. This specified that not only was a square card base required but all the embellishments had to be square as well. I remembered a card sketch from the KTZ challenge in 2011 which you can see here and decided it would work well for this challenge. The papers are from Dovecraft's Christmas Blues set. I cut and inked the squares with evergreen bough DI. The central image was not quite a square so I mounted it on co-ordinating paper from the same set. The squares in the corners are brads that I added a punched snowflake to. The tree and snowflakes were given a brush of Wink of Stella for a little sparkle.

Sunday 16 November 2014

KTZ Christmas Challenge - S4 K



This card had to be all white, using 2 embossing powders, a cut out stamp and 3D elements. Hmm! After a great deal of thought I decided to use white and holographic EPs with the paisley background from the KTZ contes et merveilles plate. I embossed it in white and cut it out. The sentiment is from a KTZ Christmas plate, embossed with holographic EP, and mounted on foam pads. The corners are a Cuttlebug square die cut in half and embellished with pearls.

Saturday 15 November 2014

Katzelkraft Monthly Challenge - November


It's cold and wet here and I find myself reaching for warmer colours. This month's Katzelkraft monthly challenge on the DT blog is Gesso. Whilst we can use stamps made by other companies for forum challenges, the monthly DT Challenge has to use only Katzelkraft stamps. I decided to use one of my first KTZ stamp sets - contes et merveilles. It has various elements on it that can be used together or singly (I've used 2 stamps here). Although it may not appear so from this card, this set is great for men's cards and I tend to reach for it when I am at a loss for ideas. I stamped the paisley background, embossed with white EP and then coloured with picked raspberry, ripe persimmon and squeezed lemonade. A quick rub with a clean cloth revealed the lovely paisley pattern again. I used a yellow card blank and a tiled chevron stencil with gesso to make the background. While it was drying I stamped the main image in archival sepia and cut it out. This was mounted with foam pads and I sprinkled a little glamour dust on her headdress. To finish I added some flowers and diecut leaves.

Friday 14 November 2014

Katzelkraft Tag Challenge 3


This month's tag challenge on the Katzelkraft forum asks us to be inspired by 2 tags made by Stamping Matilda. I'm a regular reader of her blog so I had to have a go.
I mixed some blue and green Brusho with water and smeared it over the tag. It's amazing how highly pigmented this powder is - just a few crystals is enough. When dry, I used an old plastic card to spread gesso and then evergreen bough DI over the whole tag. The main image is by Penny Black. I used spanish moss versafine on the leaves and some whispers pens over the blossom. The sentiment and the small flowers are from a Paula Pascual set. The distressed lines in the corners are a KTZ stamp. I used seam binding through the tag hole and a small flower-shaped mother of pearl button attached with carpet thread.

Thursday 13 November 2014

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.

KTZ Christmas Challenge - S4 C3


I embossed a Cornish Heritage Farm stamp with clear powder and then covered the card with evergreen bough, picked raspberry and ripe persimmon DIs. The embossed areas resisted the inks. The central image is a KTZ stamp embossed with silver EP. I covered the middle with a printable from Mary Anne's blog (you can find it here) and added some Cuttlebug corner diecuts.

Wednesday 12 November 2014

Quotes & Lyrics - Moon


The 22nd Quotes and Lyrics Challenge from The Craft Barn gives us 2 words Moon and Sensation to choose from. Following my pattern this should be a quote week for me but as I have said before I am trying to use any stamps I own that use the given words. This week I happened to have a stamp I got in a grab bag with the song title 'Fly Me To the Moon' so I went with that.
I stamped and masked the image. The background was painted with blue ice Twinkling H2O and when dry I used silver grey Ferro paste through a Memory Box star stencil. I painted the girl's clothes with some more H2Os. The pic below shows the shimmer and sparkle of the page:

 
Edited to add: A Wall of Fame winner.


Tuesday 11 November 2014

KTZ Christmas Challenge - S4 C2


This is pretty self-explanatory - a clean and simple card using a KTZ stamp embossed in silver and a sentiment from a Paula Pascual set. The card blank is a metallic graphite colour.

Monday 10 November 2014

KTZ Christmas Challenge - S4 C1

This week's challenges are:

1 Use some pages from a book.
2 A CAS card.
3 Use the resist technique.
K Make a white card with 2 embossing powders and some 3D stamped images.



For the first card I decided to follow an online tutorial on the Domesticali blog and make an origami wreath. It's fiddly but quite effective. I used a lattice embossing folder for the background and a ready printed sentiment.

Thursday 6 November 2014

UK Stampers ATC Swap - November


This month's ATC swap on the UK Stampers forum has a theme of 'I'm dreaming of a white Christmas'. I decided to present a trio of cheery snowmen. I used the background I had made for yesterday's post and added my snowmen, some text and a few punched snowflakes. The middle ATC has a shrink plastic snowflake holding the text banner in place.

Wednesday 5 November 2014

UK Stampers Postcard Swap - November


For this month's postcard swap on UK Stampers, Sam has asked us to make something festive. I used a large sheet of white card and stamped and clear embossed various snowflakes from Paula Pascual's large Christmas set. Then I applied tumbled glass, broken china & salty ocean DIs across the whole sheet. I'm trying to save some time and decided to use this as a background for my postcard and my ATCs for this month. The papers are all from DCWV rose-tinted Christmas pad. The banner and text are from a Papermania set. I added some punched snowflakes which I covered with Wink of Stella and highlighted some parts of the trees to give a slight shimmer.

Tuesday 4 November 2014

KTZ Christmas Challenge - S3 C3


This card uses a fun technique that has been named flat embossing. You emboss a piece of card, make a mask of your main image (mine is a KTZ stamp) and place it on your embossed card. Use an ink pad direct to paper to highlight the embossed patterns and then remove the mask. Run the card through your embossing machine again but this time place the card under the folder so it flattens the embossing out. Stamp your main image in the blank space left by the mask.
I added some more ink (tumbled glass DI) to the edges and mounted it onto a blue card blank.

Monday 3 November 2014

KTZ Christmas Challenge - S3 C2


A quick card with some direct to paper stamping (I love this KTZ stamp) in Brilliance starlite black and some 3D elements. I re-stamped the hat and scarf, coloured them with gelatos and mounted them with foam pads. The central word Noel has glossy accents over it.

Sunday 2 November 2014

KTZ Christmas Challenge S3 C1


This card had to use at least 5 scraps of printed paper. We had the same recipe last year and I had made this card so I decided to do something different. The papers were cut with a Sizzix framelits die. I inked the edges and used frosted lace Stickles. The sentiment is by Paula Pascual and I raised that hexagon with foam pads for added interest.
While I was at it I made another card using the same paper set (Dovecraft Winter Blues):

 
 
I keep meaning to buy a new set of Christmas papers but I have so many old sets that I feel I need to use up first. They come out every year and the stack doesn't seem to diminish. I'm not really into making festive minibooks or anything that would use a larger amount in one go so I'm just going to have to make an effort to use my patterned paper whenever I can.

Saturday 1 November 2014

LIM 196/KTZ S3 K



This week on the Less Is More blog the challenge is to make a Christmas card with non-traditional colours. I covered a piece of card with peacock feathers, picked raspberry and ripe persimmon DIs and then stamped and embossed a KTZ stamp. I cut out 3 of the 4 tiles  and triple embossed them with UTEE. The tiles were mounted onto an orange card blank which I embossed with the snow folder and highlighted with a white Uni Posca pen.
I am also using this card as my special K entry for this week's Katzelkraft Christmas Challenge which requires us to revisit a technique we haven't used in a while.

November


Another month from Mary Anne's printables. If you head over to her blog she has new printables for next year and some lovely seasonal items as well.

Week 3's Katzelkraft recipes are:
1 Use at least 5 scraps of printed paper.
2 Stamp directly onto a card base and use some 3D elements.
3 Use a technique called flat embossing which you can see here (instructions in English as well).
K Make a card using a technique or medium you haven't used in a while.
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