Kraftyhands December Blog.

Christmas No Squares Allowed is this months title.

This months end of year challenge is No Squares Allowed, so the 8 x 8 cards were left untouched. 

After watching the British Craft Network and enjoying Kay Rutter doing a star card demo I decided to use the star idea to make a decoration.

In the Create It Magazine there is a beautiful image of a stain glass window of the nativity scene. So with shape and image chosen I looked for a rich Christmassy paper in which to make the star. I chose one from Vintage Christmas and printed it on white pearl paper.

I mounted the image on one of my favourite dies using a buttery gold mirri card. 

Fronds in gold were added to each arm of the star and finally a pearl at each point.

A thin gold ribbon was added to allow it to hang. It is decorated on the back, but could  have a personal greeting on the back

Pram I have just Finished

Hope this video works and you can see the pram.

Kraftyhands Christmas Cheer

Here is my sample for the November Challenge from Kraftyhands.

For this months challenge I chose the lovely Santa image from the Create It 3 magazine. I wanted some heavily patterned paper fro the scroll and the background so I looked in the Finishing Touches CD.

 Had some mucky fun with inks to make the papers look old and worn.

 Then to add the magic of Christmas I added some of Chloe's chunky gold glitter, gold ferns and a dark red silky crush ribbon.

I think that the stamp was a freebie from a magazine.

Tag Challenge for Kraftyhands

When the challenge title was chosen I got excited, all that ink and distressing.

Time to get inky and messy.

I have always loved this image from the CD so I built it around her.

Using strips of backing paper I glued it to the tag. I distressed a piece of paper from an old book and added some 3D paste in the form of dots. The paper was then torn and the edges embossed in gold.

The cogs are cut from craft card, inked and embossed in the same gold.

The key is wooden, inked in green and embossed in gold.

The words were printed out on the computer and then inked to look old. 

Butterfly Botanicals British Craft Network Samples.

Large Butterfly Card.

Side view of 8 x 8 card.

Inside of the card

Card front

As soon as this CD arrived for the samples to be made I just fell in love with it. 

The combination of backing papers and butterfly images are fantastic. The CD has a Victorian Butterfly collection feel about it but with paper butterflies.

The images on Kraftyhands  CDs are always so good that you can play around with them and I like to push it to the limits sometimes and resize  them.

I had in my mind a k card because I wanted to have some movement in the central aperture with a butterfly dangling. It was hard to choose which butterfly to use, but I finally decided on this one. 

Using the snapshot tool on Adobe I cut and pasted the butterfly into Word then enlarged it to fit on the front of an 8 x 8 card. It was printed on white card so the bright white needed to be toned down with distress in to make it less stark. I printed a second butterfly and cut this one out without the antenna. This means that when you decoupage the second one on top you have a clean image below to make it look real. The wings are slightly curved and held in place with silicone glue. The edge was embossed in an old gold embossing powder. To give some texture to the front I added black organza ribbon with cream lace. The gold embellishment is made out of paper clay and painted gold.

For the inside I used a die to cut the aperture and tonic butterfly dies. The side panels are gold card embossed with a butterfly embossing sheet. The butterfly is made by printing two butterflies and gluing them back to back with a thread fixed in the middle for it to hang by.

I added a sentiment but it could have been left without one and become a piece of  decoration. 

I think if I was giving or selling  this card to someone I would present it in a box.

Hope you like the card.

Septembers Kraftyhands Blog Challenge

I cannot believe that the month has gone so quickly. Here we are again with another challenge from Kraftyhands. 

This months challenge is Autumn colours and it was not difficult to find an image on the A Little Bit Naughty CD. These ladies are lovely, plump and fun.

I chose this image because of the colour of her bikini and the ripe wheat. Also I have had these red leaves for ages in my crafty store and they fit perfectly. 

I made the background with a stencil and distress inks.

It is over to you now to show us your creations.

August Kraftyhands Blog Challenge

This is my version of the Sketch for this months challenge. I like working to a sketch as it takes out the planning of how to construct your card and you can just play with the images. I wanted to make a very pretty feminine card to celebrate this years lovely crop of flowers.

July Kraftyhands Blog Challenge.

June Kraftyhands Blog Challenge

Floral Fancy

This months challenge is Floral Fancy.

I used the Floral Fantasia CD, not a hard choice to go straight to.

I love lilies but orange is not one of my favourite so I chose this image as a bit of a self challenge.

I printed the backing paper straight onto A4 card then folded it to form an easel card.

The topper is decorated with an ivy stamp repeated three times at the bottom and embossed with Wow powder. The blue ribbon on the right of the flower image is highlighted with some gold glitter.

Sometimes the stopper on an easel card irritates me as it does not lie correctly. I decided to try using pearl beads to hold the image a little further back from the topper. I like the look and am going to us it again. I did not add a sentiment as I like the phrase on the image and feel the message inside would be suitable. It could be Birthday, New Job, Graduation or Thinking of you card. 

Hope you like.

Crafty Wishes.

Laura XXX

May Kraftyhands Challenge

The Theme this month is anything goes.

I wanted to make a very feminine card to say Thank You. I chose the Preferable Pastel CD because I had to used this little treasure and wanted lots of flowers. 

What a Hoot

These are my samples using the Kraftyhands new CD 

What a Hoot.

To make this card I use the 6 inch square pop up cards from Craftwell Cards. They are already creased for you. I measured the inside of the triangles that form in the creases then cut the pieces from the matching backing paper to fit and not go over the folds. The little owl in the centre is on a piece of acetate and does move a little. 

 For this card I had to enlarge the image for the sky and clouds. Very easy to do. The branch is made from craft card and then inked. The little leaves are from a printed out topper. I had the idea in my head of hanging one of the owls upside down for a get well soon card. The 'Get Well Soon' message is not on the CD but I found a very similar style of font and printed the message.

I really enjoyed making this card. It is a while since I have made a bow fronted card but I thought it would suit the image of the owls, making it look like a tree.

The shaped front and body of the card is made using craft card. The flowers are cut out using a variety of flower punches and dies. They are cut from various backing papers on the CD. The ivy leaves are cut using a Tattered Lace die. Finally I added a few feathers.

Kraftyhands Blog Challenge

Sketch

Here is my take on this months challenge with the Sketch.
I used the Create It magazine with the Baby Boy Card Project 9

April Kraftyhands Blog Challenge

This month I have used the Create It CD which comes with the magazine Issue 1. I love this image of the blue elephant and wanted to use it with this months Sketch.

March Challenge on Kraftyhands Blog Easy Easter

Kraftyhands Blog Challenge For February

Spring Flowers

The challenge this month is Spring Flowers

I used the Floral Fantasia CD and originally was going to make a card with tulips on. I then found this image of the daisies and thought what better flower to show that Spring was here. 

I wanted to keep the card simple with just the colours and the image standing out. The stepper card is made to fit the image by using the cut and fold method rather than using a template. The card I used was white with the background printed on from the CD.

Hope you like it. 

Kraftyhands New Die Cuts

Samples made from the new die cut range out this January.

Lovely cup cake die cuts with a french chocolate feel. Mixture of chocolate, turquoise and pinks.

I wanted to use as many of the die cuts as they are all so pretty so I went for this card shape to be able to use three.

I found this little pot of chocolate Easter Eggs and the die cut from the tea cup animals fits on perfectly. I trimmed it with a simple pink bow.

This is a 6 x 6 inch card with the front founded back, shows off the die beautifully with backing papers from Vintage Treasures CD.

Inside and outside of this 8 x 8 card. The centre image hangs on a thread and rotates.The sentiment on the front is a Tonic Die 'You're a Star' The stars on the inside panels are from a memory box circle die cut up and re-arranged.

This is a small stepper card made with white and silver. The sentiment is decorated on each side with some silver beads on wire.

The decorative card was coloured with distressing inks to tone with the colour of the image. A crisp green gingham bow trims some small red roses. The sentiment is cut with a die cut in green to match the mount for the image.