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)

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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.

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.

 

 

Winners: "S" challenge

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

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

89 sanketi

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:
 

93 Chris
140  Amy
156  butterfly

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. 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!

Custom buttons with Ashli

Hi there! Ashli here to share with you how I put together my layout for this week's Button Challenge.

I have had a love/hate relationship with buttons. Yes, it's true. I am not sure why exactly. I just know that for some reason, they always seemed to be "floating" on my page. That is, until I started playing around with different mediums and altering my store-bought buttons.

So, let's take a look at that, shall we?

Here we have some Jenni Bowlin Vintage Buttons as well as some Favorite Findings Wood Buttons:

First up, if we just flip one of those plain wood buttons over, there is a perfectly smooth side...

 Perfect for stamping! A little Archival Ink and A Script Stamp does the trick:

 Ooooooh - pretty!

 And now for some embossing!

 With the buttons turned right side up, a little Wow Embossing Powder hits in all the right places:

 That looks lovely, but I want to play a little more. I should mention that I am not a precision embosser. Well, you have probably figured out that I just don't do precise. So, when I heat emboss, I love to sprinkle on different colors while the powders are hot and play with blending...

Love that gold! How about some more of that? Those Jenni Buttons are so pretty, but a little extra shine won't hurt...

 Alrighty! With all that embossing done, now it's time to break out some Color Shine:

A little spritzing and splashing with some various colors as well as some Distress Paint and we have this:

 Now, with my kraft matt all cleaned up, it's time to finish things off with some Washi:

After sticking that on and trimming, I simply punched the holes back in with my paper piercer and now for some distress around the edges...

 And there they are! Aren't they pretty?

OK, let's get those on a layout. I have a photo here with all my girlies enjoying our newly completed home library. I am thinking the vintage feel of buttons goes quite well with the vintage feel of a library. So... let's go with that!



With my photo all layered up with some Serendipity and Sundrifter papers, it's time to place around those buttons:

Once I had them all tacked in place with some Matte Medium, I just grabbed some basic thread and started stitching them on...

 Making sure to leave lots of extra hanging for some added texture...

And after some finishing touches of a Pocket for my Journaling Tag and some Pen Lines and such...



Here we have it!

 A layout full of vintage, altered, misted, washied, buttoney goodness!

I hope this has inspired you to change-up some of the buttons in your stash and to get your creative play on! Have fun and see you soon!

The Button Challenge

Years ago I was gifted a big jar of buttons. “Oh, nobody wants these old things - except maybe you” she said to me. Yes, yes indeed I would love a jar of buttons! I use them on everything from scrapbook pages to cards and I always love the variety of materials, sizes, and shapes they come in. From wood to paper, sparkly to plain, just one to a whole handful this week we challenge you to use a button on your next project.

 

Suzz  has several mason jars full of buttons but her eyes were drawn to the Prima Engraver Buttons with their whimsical numbers and varying colors and size. 

My  matchbox drawer  was designed to emulate a shirt.  I used the Prima Engravers Button along the right side.I used  a fringe created with the  EK Success Binding Edge punch  to create the shirt edge. On the left side I stamped the  family picture.  In the inside I added the Journey Awakens sentiment along with the same family portraits in the filmstrip. To bring back in a touch of color and vintage feel  around the edges I added Cavallini & Company - Paper Tape - Paris.  

 

Sarah was inspired by Wendy's Blossom Bucket Buttons and thought it would be fun to create her own custom stamped fabric and flowery friend.

I seem to really be hit by the sewing bug again... Maybe because I'm already planning on making some scrummy dresses for my girl Ruby. I wanted to have a go at designing a little toy and figured a chunky owl would be a fun creature to play with. My stamped fabric is created using Tim's Mixed Media dots, Floral Tattoo flower and Wendy's dots. I love the Floral Tattoo set and had forgotten just how pretty it is. I drew a pattern onto paper and went with the rustic, home made look. I just had to add a word - I always do - even to my owl. So Kelly Purkey's set were the perfect size for a little Twit Twoo! Girly? Yes. Fun? Absolutely!

 

Anita doesn't just have one jar of buttons, but has several, so she loved using some on this project. 

Buttons are in every crafter's stash I think, so this challenge will be an easy one for all of you out there. I used a 6x8 Burlap Canvas from Tim's District Market line, and coated it with Claudine's Black Gesso. I followed that up with Tim and Wendy stamps covered in a rainbow of Distress Paints, and then used American Crafts Metallic Glitter Buttons as Flowers. When it comes to creativity, the DREAM is the key!

I (May) immediately thought of making a button covered frame so that I could play with loads of buttons this week.

One of my all time favorite things to play with is buttons. They remind me of the little drawers in my grandma's quilting room, and they can add just the right touch of texture, color, and detail to just about anything. To make this frame I loaded up on buttons - including some of my favorites that Simon carries includes these wood & sparkle buttons, October Afternoon, and Jenni Bowlin. A button covered frame is fun because it can be made as a gift, for any season or occasion, and they're a lot of fun too!   

 

 

Anna-Karin loves clear elements and buttons are no exception.

My all-time favourite buttons are the Autumn Leaves Foof-a-la Clear Bag-O-Buttons and I decided to showcase them in a wall-hanging, using a photo of my mom as a little girl. Tim Holtz Cameo Frame, with an Oval insert, was die cut from grungeboard, painted and stamped with a script stamp. I coated it with Glossy Accents and covered the frame with clear buttons. Mica flakes and Rock Candy Glitter were sprinkled on top to fill in the gaps. The base was covered with French Industrial paper and the wall-hanging was embellished with Tattered Pinecone roses made from kraft-core cardstock.

 

Dan's project was inspired by a couple of movies he saw recently.

This "cabin in the woods" was inspired by the movie of the same name, with a little bit of the witch's cottage from "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters" thrown in for good measure.  My plan was to use real buttons for the shingles but they didn't look right laid side to side and they were too small to overlap successfully.  Enter Martha Stewarts buttons punch to save the day - buttons punched from cardstock work so much better as roof shingles!  I also used the Darkroom Door Corrugated Iron and Woodgrain background stamps and one of Tim Holtz's idea-ology plaquettes.

 

A new button hair style was the key this week for Tracy's mixed media canvas.

As soon as we were given this challenge I knew I wanted to use the face from the Stampers Anonymous Classics 5 stamp set and give her a new hair style created with, yes you guessed it, buttons. I used lots of buttons from my collection but I also added some extra special ones from Prima Flowers Fairy Belle Wood Buttons . The background to my canvas has been given lots of textural interest using Wendy Vecchi's White Embossing Paste, Black Embossing Paste and Metallic Gold Embossing Paste. This piece is so tactile!

 

Sandra Mouwen made this card out of an old cardboard box.

My best friend just moved into her new home. She told me she moved around 250 boxes full of stuff! That sparked my creativity to make a card out of a cardboard box. After I cut out the card, I started pulling some of the top layer, so the corrugated layer would show through. I stamped with My Mind's eye Pictures Ginger and Simon Says Stamp Exclusive stamps You Can Do Anything and On Edge. The Word Play letters I painted with Pool Paint Dabber and swiped Pitch Black Paint Dabber on top in on direction and not covering everything, and topped it off with Teal Color Shine. Í love using buttons on my projects, and in this case I used some Doodlebug Swimming Pool buttons.

 

Trace chose a fun and easy technique to coordinate with her buttons.

I started this project with these pretty Doodlebug Boutique Buttons in my hand and built the project around them. I wanted to showcase them, and thought they would look pretty as a flower center in My Favorite Things Plentiful Petal Dies. Using Hero Arts Acetate cards I cut out my flowers and coloured them using a fun and easy technique with various colours of Ranger Alcohol Inks. I couldn't help myself, I just had to use my "go to" stamp sentiment set again! This Tim Holtz Cling Rubber Stamp Set is just so right for so many projects.

 

Candy decided to take a vintage approach to the buttons challenge this week.  She has created a very feminine and dimensional vintage 8x8 canvas.

Graphic 45's A Ladies' Diary Papers are so lovely.  They are the perfect background for this vintage canvas using Tim Holtz' Sewing Room dress form, dripping in tulle, white organza roses and a sash transformed into a gorgeous vintage pink with Vintage Pink and Vanilla Breeze Glimmer Mists.  Enter the buttons! Tim Holtz Accoutrements buttons have such a nice vintage quality about them; absolutely perfect for this piece.  The Shabby Collection can easily be altered (as I have done on this piece) with Tim's New Distress Paints to be any color you want them to be.  The Fanciful Buttons Collection are a mixture of faux glass and embossed "metal" buttons. They can really "make" a vintage piece.

 

Ashli takes this button challenge seriously... 

In fact, check back in on Wednesday for a tutorial all about how to customize and personalize store-bought buttons and to see the layout she made for this week’s challenge!

 

For more inspiration and details about these projects click on our design team's blog links so you can see more photos (and full supply lists) for their creations. Then be sure to join in the challenge too!

 

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 16th eastern (aka "simon") time.

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

 

 

Winners: Into the Woods

First - Simon moved the blinkies for this blog to another account- so if you would like to fix/replace yours here it is:


code:
<a href="http://simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://i1327.photobucket.com/albums/u670/simonsaysstamp1/Blinkie%20Graphics/SimonSaysStampandShowChallengeBlinkie_zps5af93fef.gif" /></a>

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 "into the woods" challenge is...
 

26  Cheryl Lea

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. Note: if you've won a top three honor in the past your blinkie isn't working right now - rather than have all of you email me for the code, I will share it right here:

<a href="http://simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://i1327.photobucket.com/albums/u670/simonsaysstamp1/Blinkie%20Graphics/SimonSaysStampandShowtop3Blinkie_zps77864cf0.gif" /></a>
If you've won a top 3 honor in the past, please feel free to replace the code with this one. Thank you!
Ok so let's talk about this week's winners!! This week the honors go to:

9   Laurart
28  Valerie-Jael
40  Hels Sheridan

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 feel free to grab the code (listed above) for your own blog.

 

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!