Wednesday, 1 April 2015

It's our April challenge!

Good morning craft lovers!

It's April 1st but there's no April fools here today, just a great line up of creativity and imagination from our DT to inspire you to join in our challenge this month!

Sue D (aka Sue the Iron) has chosen our theme for the month and what a great theme it is...


Whether we're into card making, scrapping, mixed media, altered art or any of the other popular crafts, we can all find ways of using kraft card in our projects so this really is a challenge where you have carte blanche.  We're looking forward to seeing all the creative and inventive ways you can come up with for using kraft in your projects, all we ask is that you follow our simple rules.

You can enter as many projects as you like and the winner of our £20 shop voucher, generously donated by our sponsor Country View Crafts online shop, will be chosen at random using random.org.

As usual, we have a previous winner joining us today and leading out the DT...



Hello, I’m Chris, usually known as ‘Pearshaped Chris’!  I’m thrilled and honoured to be asked to take part at Country View Challenges as a Guest Designer.  I started crafting as a young girl, encouraged by my Mum, who used to knit, sew, use natural dyes etc ; although in those days it was known as ‘saving money’!!!  It was only recently, when asked about my crafting, that I realized I have been doing crafty things for pretty much all my life, although once I retired I had more time for it!  I enjoy most aspects of crafting, especially if it involves getting messy or trying something new!


I love using Kraft card and love the effect of white and pastels on the card. I needed an anniversary card for a young couple so used two of my favourite bird stamps to make this card. I hope you will pop over and see what Mr Bird is planning!



Hi, it's my turn to choose the challenge theme this month and I've gone for Kraft card. I love using kraft, it just seems to make all the other colours pop. For my first creation I've used a Sheena Douglass stamp to make a Fathers Day Card.
Full details can be found here on my blog.


 I love playing with neutrals and was tempted stay neutral that but decided the kraft looked great with a splash of colour in the shape of abandoned coral. I made a box to fit my collage style cards into...treasured  family memories in a box . All the details can be found here.


Springtime has to be blue/greens, grasses and butterflies for me... and so my butterflies are very krafty!  They're made with the Bigz/Texture Fades butterflies released this year.  I've also used the kraft card with one of the new Tim Holtz Mixed Media Thinlits, and mounted the whole tag onto kraft card too.


 
 I love using Kraft card, it is so versatile. For this birthday card I used it as the base of my card, but also behind the leaf aperture that was created with the Tim Holtz Layered Leaf die. If you want to see more, just click here


 I made this card for Chris's birthday which was just a couple of days ago using Tim Holtz papers and dies as well as some other bits and pieces. Both the card itself and the butterfly are kraft card, although the butterfly has been painted , crackled, inked and splattered, so it's not so obvious here.


My 'Hope' triptych has a background of treated, textured kraft card with kraft flowers and leaves.  Kraft card is such a great medium to work with.  Details of the how with the what can be found in a picture format step x step here.  Chris xxx


I often use Kraft card, it's such a versatile and easy card to work with so this was a fun challenge.  For this make I've used one of my favourite techniques, combining Kraft with gesso and embossing it...
...there are more photo's and a how to on my blog if you fancy dropping by :)
Donna xx


I have decided to make a start on my Christmas cards, I know you might be saying it is too early but at least I won't be panicking at the end of the year.
More details from my blog


I love kraft card and just how versatile it is! For this postcard I used Translucent Embossing Paste to reveal the kraft card beneath so it became the pattern in the background. As I am going to post my postcard I needed to keep the decoration very flat so I kept the decoration simple, and to a minimum. There are, as always, more details on my blog! Gabrielle x


Crafting with Kraft - a favourite of mine! I recently taught a beginner's scrapbook workshop here in Shetland and based one of the layouts on Kraft cardstock. I find it is very versatile and works well for vintage layouts as well as modern ones.  For a few close ups and how I made a second layout from the same elements please hop on over to my blog.


I have used Kraft card as the surface to create a grungy background using gesso, inks and sand paper. there are more details over at Addicted to Art today.



Phew, what a line up and welcome back to the ranks Trace! >;o)

We love sharing our projects with you and we hope you like them just as much as we've loved making them.  As ususal, we'll be bringing you a new, themed project every other day from today throughout the rest of the month so please bookmark us and remember to come back and visit.

The challenge is open to all crafters and we'd like YOU to join in.  To do so is very simple, just make your project demonstrating out theme and post it on your blog/web page then link that page to us using the InLinkz linkie below.  As well as a £20 shop voucher from Country View Crafts awarded to the (randomly chosen) winner we also award blog badges to our Top 3 chosen projects and to one special project that we think has shown the most originality.  All winners are invited to come and guest with us in a future challenge.

Now it's over to you!  We hope you'll have fun with this theme and look forward to seeing just exactly what you come up with.

Have a fun month!

Chris and the team xxx