Friday, June 28, 2013

Winners: Kraft challenge

You know we're always trying to mix it up here - and this week I'm excited to announce that the top three is no more. But wait - we're not just going to not honor favorite entries. Nope - we're going to do something entirely different!

Starting today, each week we'll put several entries into the spotlight in our Friday winner posts! The selected entries will be linked to, we'll talk about why we loved them so much, and of course there will be a special badge that can be added to your sidebar to show that you were selected for the honor! This will let us share with you inspiring projects, outstanding tutorials, and more! We are excited to get YOU in the spotlight more here at Simon Says Stamp & Show! We'll get to sharing the winners this week, but first...

I'd like to thank Simon Says Stamp for another great chance to win a $50 voucher!!

The lucky (randomly drawn) winner for the "kraft" challenge is...
 
19 Katie - Punk Projects

Please claim your prize within the next two weeks by emailing May.




Now, let's talk about our first batch of spotlight entries!
 
#5 Marjie Kemper shows us a great how-to on her card with an incredible krafty corrugated background. I always love seeing the process, and her great project. Embossing powders are so much fun to use, and we love how she brought this project to life!

Happy birthday to #21 Monique who shared an incredible book filled with krafty goodness- and she even shared a video walk-through of the project too. Ashli says: Her Paris inspired album using a variety of kraft items is so full of eclectic goodness, I just want to touch it! Sandra says: Love the messy style of her mini album. Great vintage images, lots of gorgeous stamps and so much Kraft!

Thinking you might want an accordion card die cut? Check out #101 Anne R for an amazing card crafted for our challenge this week! Tracy says: I particularly like Anne's use of corrugated card on this piece.

Tracy loves #129 Brenda Brown use of gesso on this kraft and neutral piece. I can't get enough of her texture, and how awesome the punched pieces of paper layered (then coated in gesso) look, not to mention how much detail this piece has!

Be sure to visit their blogs and check out their amazing entries. So inspiring! Congratulations to each of you on a challenge well done! Please email May for the spotlight badge to display on your blogs.
 
I'd like to thank everyone who took part in the challenge as it is always a joy to see what you create. I'd also like to say thank you again to Simon Says Stamp for their generosity - each week we give away a $50 gift voucher to the shop that you can use to buy all kinds of fabulous stamps, inks, and paper crafting supplies.

Remember - you just need to enter the challenge each week to be entered into the drawing!

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Exploding Card Tutorial with Tracy Evans

Hi everyone, Tracy Evans here and I am thrilled to be sharing a tutorial with you for an exploding card, inspired by our stripes challenge this week.

I wanted to try something a little different this week, a card with movement and more detail so I opted for an exploding card.  My front cover showcases the fabulous Wendy Vecchi So Serious handsome gent stamp (who has a striped hat!) set against an inky backdrop created with Distress Stains wild honey and walnut stain. The sentiment from Wendy
Vecchi's Steampunk Art was perfect for this gent along with a top hat to embellish.


I love the added detail the water splashes add to the background.

To create the exploding card cut three pieces of Kraft card 8" x 8". Take the first square, score and fold in half. You can make your card any measurement as long as you begin with a square piece of card. Then fold the same piece in the opposite direction.

Open out your card which will now have been folded to create a cross (four squares 4" x 4")

 Now fold the card on the diagonal, using a bone scorer for a good clean crisp fold.

Turn the card over and fold along the same diagonal line once again (this helps the card to fold easily into position).

Repeat this process with three 8" x 8" square pieces of card to create the fold above.

The card folds easily as shown and as you can see we have two mountain folds in the centre.

I have created three pieces for my exploding card but you could have 7 pieces or even 9.


Adhere all the panels together to create the exploding card as shown here.

As you can see the central panel faces the opposite way to the two side panels.

Now it's time to decorate. Cut 4" x 4" squares of white cardstock (twelve total). Then take six of those, and cut them along the diagonal into triangular pieces. This will give you six squares and twelve triangles total.

At this stage it is a good idea to trim each piece very slightly for a perfect fit onto the exploding card if desired. I will be distressing the edges, so I did not trim anything away. Note that I distressed the edges of these triangles and squares before coloring.




Apply Distress Stains to a non-stick craft sheet and spritz with water.

Mop up the beads of ink with each piece of cardstock that we cut previously.

Continue to mop up the ink until you are happy with the coverage, and then dry the card with a heat tool (or let air dry). If desired dab the card into the remainder of the ink to add splatters of ink and dry once again.

Apply Distress Ink in a dark color such as Walnut Stain to the edges of each piece for definition.

Spritz water into the palm of your hand and then flick the water onto the coloured card.

Dab with kitchen towel to remove the ink, leaving bleached out areas in your background.

Place striped background stamp onto a flat surface and ink the stamp with black Archival Ink. Then press the triangular pieces of cardstock onto the inked stamp and remove.
Repeat this process for all the triangular pieces.


Adhere all the decorated triangular pieces to the exploding card.

Before adhering the front and back covers add twine to the back of the squares of white (now colored) cardstock so that the exploding card can be tied shut.

 This is my front cover when fastened.

This is my back cover, which I have stamped with the Moustache Sketch stamp
and I have also added a moustache pin from my collection, which I have
rubbed over with Treasure Gold Olive Bronze wax, applied with my finger.


This is the exploding card fully opened.

To decorate the inside I've added a number of stamps, accents, words, and fun details.

I have stamped the Moustache Sketch once again to the inside of the
exploding card and added a few mini sprocket gears for added dimension
and texture.



I hope you've enjoyed my exploding card, and that you're inspired to create your own!


Supply List:
Wendy Vecchi So Serious Stamp
Wendy Vecchi Steampunk Art Stamp Set
Wendy Vecchi Art Fit For A Queen Stamp Set 
Wendy Vecchi Embellish Your Art Top Hat
Tim Holtz Moustache Sketch Stamp
Tim Holtz Alterations - Mini Moustache and Pointed Finger Movers and Shapers Die
Tim Holtz Idea-Ology - Mini Gears Sprockets
Kraft Core Nostalgic Paper Stack
Distress Stains - Wild Honey, Walnut Stain
Distress Ink - Walnut Stain
Black Archival Ink
Paper Distresser
Non-Stick Craft Sheet
Treasure Gold Olive Bronze Gilding Wax
Prima Flowers Engraver Wood Buttons
Prima Flowers Mini Numbers Sunrise Sunset Vintage Trinkets
Twine


Thanks to Tracy for this amazing tutorial! Now are you feeling inspired to make a book yourself, or perhaps you have another fabulous striped idea? Then join us in this week's challenge! Click here to see the rest of the design team's entries and to enter your creation. For the full rules, read the "challenge rules" posted in the side-bar here on our blog.

Monday, June 24, 2013

Challenge: Stripes

Thick to thin, multi-colored or monochromatic, stripes are all over the place in any crafter’s supply stash. You can make your own out of strips of cardstock, buy papers, or even get a background striped stamp. If you’re feeling really adventurous you could cross your stripes and create a plaid.

Design team member Dan has suggested both stripes and plaid challenges to me, and I’m going to combine them here for this week’s challenge! I do hope you’ll play along - it is easy enough. In some way be inspired by stripes or plaid, or use striped (or plaid) paper or product on your crafting project. This is going to be a fun one, and it has possibilities far beyond mere lines of color on paper. I’m thinking I may be zebra inspired, or perhaps I will go with a rainbow... who knows where the stripes will take me? 
 
Meihsia is very excited about her first project for Simon Says Stamp and Show. She made a scrapbook layout.
I made this layout for Christopher's school open house day using Bo Bunny Weekend Market paper collection which I think is perfect for a boy layout. I first sprayed the background using the Tim Holtz gear diecuts as stencil with ColorShine. After sewing and placing thread, I decorated this layout with some more Tim Holtz metal embellishments and Prima flowers. To make it more interesting, I stamped some text randomly on the background.
 
Just wait until you see all of the different stripes that Candy incorporated into this Wendy Vecchi Art Parts Gatefold Journal Mini Book!
I have to admit, I am not a huge fan of stripes.  But, Wendy Vecchi products really helped bring this project together! I love her Art Part Gatefold Journal.  The stripes on the front are thanks to Wendy's Yikes Stripes Stencil and Black Embossing Paste.  On the back, more textured stripes from Wendy's Brick Wall Stencil and White Embossing Paste colored with Fired Brick Refill. A Sticky Back Canvas binding on the outside and a Tim Holtz' Large Ring Binder on the inside hold pocket dividers stamped in various stripe patterns and also striped with Tim Holtz' Tissue Tape.

Suzz thought she would make a humorous project this week around her ability to cook.

I have never been a great cook, although if I spent as much time practicing cooking as I do with my inky time I might be a bit better. I loved the Wendy Vecchi Domestic Arts set as I felt a real affinity to the sentiments.  I decided to use the fun Stampers Anonymous Vecchi Yikes Stripes Stencil and apply silver stripes with the Wendy Vecchi Metallic Silver Embossing Paste onto a PaperArtsy Chalk Fresco Paint - Inky Pool background . The sentiment was just perfect for me and I can't wait to hang it in my kitchen.


Ashli decided to create her own "plaid" design this week by weaving some stripes together.

I have had a ton of fun lately playing around with paper weaving. And you know what? Weaving lots of stripes together creates a bit of a "plaid" effect, don't ya think? After applying some soft watercolors in pinks, yellows, and oranges, I cut my papers into strips and then wove them together to create my custom "plaid" background. I love the texture this gives, especially once it is all stitched together! Once I selected a photo that complimented this background nicely, I set about layering up bits from Basic Grey's Mint JulepAmerican Craft's Mayberry, and Crate's Party Day.
 
This week, Dan let his mind go blank and sat down for a good old play.
What is it about tags?  I find them completely addictive, I hope some of you are the same too.  So often when I sit down to have a bit of creative play it's my pile of blank manilla tags that starts to sing it's siren song - not that I'm complaining of course, they're so much fun to work on.  I knew from the outset that I wanted to have torn paper stripes on Queeny's face and I worked some into the crown too for good measure.  As I'd suggested this theme, I thought I'd better make sure the stripe quotient was high enough!  There are more stamp sets used here than you might at first realise, among them were Classics #5, Around the Edge and World Traveler.

Stripes run a muck in Anita's stash, be it paper or stamps, so she had a tough decision on which she would use this week.
After having been asked to create a card for a friend's parent's special anniversary, I decided a Kaiser Craft Wooden Postcard would be fun, and that finally lead me to use a stamp for this project. I ultimately went with Wendy's vintage looking striped background from her Quality Art set. After heat embossing the stripes, I added more stamps, wooden elements, and Prima's Mini Fairytale Roses.

I (May) got to thinking about stars & stripes this week.
With the 4th of July next week I knew I wanted to make a special patriotic card featuring my set of Tim Holtz blueprint stamps. Thanks to some clear and black embossing powder and some creative layering I love how this card came out.
 
Sandra Mouwen made a birthday card for her best guy friend

Turning 30 is a big deal and that needs to be celebrated.  I love stripes and I wanted to create my own striped pattern. I used a scrap piece of Neenah Desert Storm cardstock and cut it the right size. With lots of different washi tape, like Vertical Stripes Teal, Black Chevron and Scattered Dots, I made the striped pattern background by placing them horizontally right below each other. I used the biggest numbers I could find, the Jumbo Numbers, to make notice of the fact he's turning 30!

This week, Anna-Karin was inspired to do a triptych showcasing two old family photos.
As several of my team mates, I was also inspired to use Wendy Vecchi's Yikes...Stripes stencil for my project, together with her Metallic Gold Embossing Paste. It was meant to symbolize newly plowed soil on a farm. My other type of stripes are the rays from Tim Holtz Psychedelic Grunge set, gold embossed as the sun above the photo. The triptych was made with Tim Holtz Arch Frame die and inked with yellow and brown shades of Distress Ink. I stamped it with various sentiment, image and background stamps and embellished with a pocket watch die cut from grungeboard and smeared with gold paste.
 

An exploding card held Tracy's attention this week, passing away many happy hours in her craft room and she will be sharing a tutorial on Wednesday.

I wanted to try something a little different this week, something to add movement to my piece, what better way than an exploding card!
 
For more inspiration click on our design team's blog links so you can see more photos (and full supply lists) for their projects.
 
As always, Simon Says Stamp is giving away a $50 gift voucher that will go to a random entry chosen by Random Generator. To qualify all you need to do is create a new project that ties in (in any way!) with our theme and post it, along with a link back to this challenge, and add a link here. This challenge will end at 11:59pm on Sunday June 30th EST.

For the full rules, read the "challenge rules" posted in the side-bar here on our blog.
 
 







Friday, June 21, 2013

Winners: Button Challenge


THANK YOU for being such a wonderful part of our creative community, for supporting and taking part in these challenges, and making it a true blessing to share our work here with you. Each week is better than the last - so thank you! Now, let's talk winners!!  I'd like to thank Simon Says Stamp for another great chance to win a $50 voucher!!

The lucky (randomly drawn) winner for the "button" challenge is...

10 Janny jager 't hooft
 
Please claim your prize within the next two weeks by emailing May. Now let's talk about the top 3 projects as chosen by the Stamp & Show design team! This week the honors go to:
 
15  Kelly Shults
21 Monique
107 barbarayaya

Be sure to visit their blogs and check out their amazing entries. So inspiring! Congratulations to each of you on a challenge well done! Please email may for the top 3 blinkie.
 
I'd like to thank everyone who took part in the challenge as it is always a joy to see what you create. I'd also like to say thank you again to Simon Says Stamp for their generosity - each week we give away a $50 gift voucher to the shop that you can use to buy all kinds of fabulous stamps, inks, and paper crafting supplies.

Remember - you just need to enter the challenge each week to be entered into the drawing!

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Introducing: new DT member Meihsia Liu

It is my pleasure to introduce one of our new design team members - Meihsia Liu! She has frequently entered our challenges here and her work is such a stunning mix of colors and materials. From scrapbook layouts to altered objects and anything in between - I think you're going to love the projects she brings!!

Meihsia will start sharing her work as a design team member on Monday - so be sure to tune in and check it out! We're excited to have her join us, and I will let her share a bit more about herself:

I live in Texas with two children ( ages 9 and 10 ) and my husband. I started paper crafting in 2011 and love to experiment different materials, styles and techniques to make cards, scrapbook layouts, mixed media and altered projects.

When I am not creating, I love to see movies, go jogging, camping and shopping. The most important thing for me when making paper crafts is having fun.



Welcome to the team Meihsia!! For more of her work and to see even more projects you can check out her blog here. Stay tuned for Monday's challenge too - it's going to be a fun one!

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Painted Kraft tag with May Flaum


May Flaum here, and what I realy wanted was to figure out a way to have colors stand out vibrantly yet in a distress kind of way onto my kraft tag for this week's challenge. What I found is that Distress paints are perfect for this - and I made my tag into the card you see above.


Coloring is the real fun part in a project like this, and the distress paints truly were made to do things just like this! To truly explain my process I thought a video would be the way to go:


If you've got distress paints I hope you give this idea a try! I've got a second card (made from the tag you see at the end of the video) up on my blog today too!

Links to supplies used:
kraft tag
distress paints in chipped sapphire, salty ocean, tarnished brass, seedless preserves, and spiced marmalade
time travelers stamps
gears stamp
gold paint
gathered twigs and chipped sapphire distress ink
black embossing powder
walnut ink re-inker
letters
ruler stamp and faded jeans distress ink (background on card)



Are you ready to get Krafty? Then join us in this week's challenge! Click here to see the rest of the design team's entries and to enter your creation. For the full rules, read the "challenge rules" posted in the side-bar here on our blog.

Monday, June 17, 2013

Challenge: Kraft

Team member Sandra suggested a “kraft challenge”, and how fitting! As someone who uses kraft cardstock weekly, not to mention a fan of Tim’s kraft offerings, cardboard, and shopping bag brown in general- I’m in! How about you?
 
From paper to paint, stickers to chipboard any loose interpretation of “kraft” is welcome here! This would be a great challenge to break out the Ranger kraft tags, some of Tim’s chit-chat stickers, or even some plain chipboard or corrugated cardboard! A grocery bag made of kraft brown paper could work - the krafty field is wide open it is up to you to decide how - and what - you’ll make this week. 

This week we do bid a fond farewell to two of our designers - this is the final challenge for Sarah and Trace. We're going to miss them so very much!! Let's start with their fantastic pieces.

Sarah created a Krafty Crafty Curtain Call with her last design piece...
Although I was kindly given total artistic freedom with my last piece, I ended up reaching for the Kraft tags after all! Funny that. I really wanted to showcase these wonderful stamps from Tim as well as indulge in my signature style of Vintage Grunge... The tags are stamped with the lovely floral spray from Urban Chic and the word strip from Stuff To Say before I added painted scrap cardboard layers. I love Mica sheets for adding that translucent quality but you could also use acetate sheets coloured with Alcohol Ink! I raided my stash of Idea-ology to add metal accents before setting everything on a double base of Tissue Wrap and old packaging.
 
Trace kept things simple this week with different shades of kraft for her final design team creation.
First thing I did when I heard the theme for this week was Kraft was to pull out all things that had a "kraft" colour to them, I sure had a lot to choose from! I have to say my all time favorite kraft coloured product is Neenah's Desert Storm paper, and boy oh boy it shines when stamped in Memories Unicorn white ink. I love how this Dot Flowered Patten background cling stamp from Hero Arts has quite a bit of stamping area to show up the ink and design. Another good neutral/kraft paper is Hero Arts Layering paper in colour Latte, it just seems to match everything!

Candy loves little books; especially when they can also serve as a gift card holder.  This week, she is sharing her "kraftiness" with this fun and easy matchbook style mini book with a butterfly theme.
 When I saw the word "kraft-y" for this challenge, I immediately thought of Tim Holtz' Kraft Resist Cardstock Pad.  How cute would that paper be on a mini book?  So, with a little bit of chipboard, the kraft resist paper, some New Tim Holtz Elements Remnants Rubs, Tim's Papillon and Fabulous Flourishes stamp sets, Queen's Gold Embossing Powder and various Distress Inks,  I created this vintage style mini book/gift card holder.  Just wait until you see the covered coin envelopes on the inside! 

Tracy was inspired to create a 17th birthday pop up card for her son this week.
Teenage cards are always a challenge, especially trying to decide what imagery to use, however, the Birthday Cake Sketch stamp from Tim Holtz is perfect for either male or female cards. I used the Kraft Core Nostalgic Paper Stack to create the backdrop and to give a masculine feel when combined with black card. I used Wendy Vecchi's Stencils For Art Classic Words to add numbers to the background of my card using black Embossing Paste to add wonderful texture. Fingers crossed now that my son likes his birthday card!

"You can't craft without Kraft", says Anita, and she used a whole lot of it here on this layout.
I know you are shocked to see a layout, but since it was just Father's Day, I thought it was time to honor the special man in my family's life. Using corrugated kraft paper as the base of this 12x12 page, it was distressed, torn, Goosebumped, and stamped on. I used Maya Road Card Sentiment Word Stamps to make phrases about dear old dad, and then used Dyan's Dylusions to add some color. The gents at the bottom were stamped on Inkssentials Kraft as well as the sentiment from Wendy's 3 Cheers For Art Stamp Set.

Suzz's  Oriental poppies are in bloom which had her thinking about pulling out her flowers stamp and creating a garden on paper. 
My poppies are blooming and I wanted to make an indoor garden that will stay in bloom. I did switch up the colors to make them unique poppies. I started with a brown paper bag which was ripped into pieces and smeared with the Snow Cap Paint Dabber to create a palette for my flowers. I used the beautiful Hero Arts Delicate Blossoms to create the main image and the Butterflies and Flower Path from Stampendous to finish my creation. Now I have my flower garden year round and with no weeds.

Ashli took her inspiration this week from some fabulous Jenni Bowlin Tags!
I love working with kraft and often start my layouts on a base of kraft card stock. For this week, I decided to take my inspiration from the fabulous set of Kraft Tags by Jenni Bowlin. Once I selected my Crate Paper background, I knew I wanted arrange those tag pieces along the circular pattern of the paper. To further emphasize that idea, I stenciled and misted some basic kraft card stock that I then cut out into the large triangle shapes. Some layering with more little bits of Crate Paper goodness provided a nice spot for my photos and some Crate chipboard from The Pier Collection finished off this fun and krafty layout.

This week, kraft made Anna-Karin think of paper bags and gift packaging.
I love using kraft as a base for projects, and it looks particularly good together with colourful embellishments. I die cut a gift bag and a gift box from kraft resist paper. The flowers were made with the brand new Susan's Garden dies, a Poppy and a Rose. You can make wonderful flowers real easy with these dies. I used Neenah cardstock inked with Distress Inks to make these. The flowers are mounted on magnets and are removable so that the recipent can use them as ornaments. I stamped the bag and box with Darkroom Door stamps, and added some chit chat stickers and wood veneer shapes.

Sandra Mouwen made her own album full with Kraft goodies for her Parisian trip she went on last month.
I so love the color of Kraft and the sort of rough texture of it. I use it in my projects all the time and can't get enough of it. It's so versatile and can easily be embedded in any kind of project. This week I got Krafty and made my own album out of canvas boards and covered them with the gorgeous Studio Calico Classic Volume 3 Paper Pack. The spine is covered with Neenah Cardstock Dessert Storm and put some Studio Gesso White over it to distress it a bit. I used a lot of Kraft goodies from Maya Road, like  Time Flies Clocks, Ticket and Jotter tags. I fell in love with the beautiful Hero Arts Neon Pink paint, and used it as my accent color.
 

Dan was inspired by stained glass windows for his creation this week.
A friend of mine has recently started to learn the art of stained glass and I had that very much in mind when I started to create this.  All of the segments have been created with paper from the Kraft Resist stash and I love how the brown of the card has made the colours even more dingy and grungey.  To give a more glass-like finish I covered each piece in clear packing tape for extra shine.  Among the stamp sets I used were Oddities, Classic Collages, The Big Top and Floral Tattoo.

May wanted to figure out a way to create a really grungy kraft tag, but still have the gentleman stand out and not get washed out in all the mess.
To see how she distressed this tag, tune in Wednesday for a tutorial.

Now it's your turn to get Kraft-y!! For more inspiration click on our design team's blog links so you can see more photos (and full supply lists) for their projects.
 
As always, Simon Says Stamp is giving away a $50 gift voucher that will go to a random entry chosen by Random Generator. To qualify all you need to do is create a new project that ties in (in any way!) with our theme and post it, along with a link back to this challenge, and add a link here. This challenge will end at 11:59pm on Sunday June 23rd EST.

For the full rules, read the "challenge rules" posted in the side-bar here on our blog.