Getting Sketchy at Kraft +

Hello and welcome back!

Kraft + have a fabulous sketch this month. I  made my project partly digital and I had a lot of fun doing it.

Will you join in the challenge? You can find it here.

Happy krafting!
Heather

An Inspirational Board at Kraft +

Ohhh, the challenge this month at Kraft + is to be inspired by their challenge board and it's a beauty! I took my inspiration from the black and white stripes and the pink-orange pattern.

Here's the challenge board:

To make my stripes, I took a digital words and quotes page from an ArtStacks pack and printed it at half size on both white and kraft cardstock. I tore these into strips and layered them at different heights.

I found a piece of patterned paper that was almost identical to the one in the challenge board, however most of it is hidden behind the photo!

What will your photo inspiration be? You can find the challenge here.

Happy scrappin'! 

Heather

Stand Out From the Crowd

The May challenge over at Kraft + is to be inspired by "Words to Live By". In essence, you need to use a quote on your kraft-focussed project. I had so many quote options for this challenge that I found it hard to choose! I eventually decided to use a photo of some sunflowers that I took on a recent holiday and chose a quote from ArtStacks to suit. I used a digital file and printed the quote straight onto my page.

Will you join in this month? You can find the challenge here.

Happy scrappin'!
Heather

Inspired by Lisa Oxley!

I was so excited when I saw this month's challenge over at Kraft Plus. The challenge is to be inspired by the amazing Lisa Oxley! Not only is Lisa Oxley an incredible artist who I really admire but I'm in the enviable position of publishing her papers over at ArtStacks!

I made this:

Lisa has so many gorgeous images to choose from in her ArtStacks packs. I really love this stunning pink floral background that's printed on canvas paper. I added Lisa's tissue leaves and other papers. In fact all the papers on this page, except for the kraft background, are Lisa's.

And one last surprise - if you look closely at the pictures you'll see I'm wearing one of Lisa's t-shirts! Can you tell I'm a big fan? Haha!

Will you join in this colourful challenge? Don't forget the kraft! You can find the details here.

Happy krafting!

Heather

Sunrises and Sunsets

Hello! The new challenge at Kraft + this month is to use red or orange and yellow on your kraft page. These are sunrise and sunset colours. I took my cue from the photo on the challenge board and used a sunset photo, plus orange and yellow. My photo had pinks in it too so I added plenty of pink around the photo. Pink, orange and yellow is one of my favourite colour combos.

I used almost entirely old papers and embellishments on this page. Some of them are ancient but they worked together well. The gorgeous chippie is fromDusty Attic.

Will you join us this month? You can find the challenge here.

Happy krafting!

Heather 

Everything Old is New Again!

Hello! At Kraft Plus this month you can choose to create from any of our past challenges! I went with something that's simple for me as I didn't have a lot of time. The August 2022 challenge was to Embrace Your Handwriting so I chose this.

I hand-wrote the large title, adding a bit of doodling as well. This is a fun page so I kept the colours bright. The chipboard arrow with feathers is from Dusty Attic and I added some extra feathers on top.

Which challenge will you choose? You can see more details about the challenge here.

Happy scrappin'!

Heather

Scraplift at kraft Plus

 Hello there!

I love the new challenge at Kraft Plus. In honour of the founder of Kraft Plus, Sandra Wallace, this month the challenge is to scraplift a layout of hers. It's a gorgeous design so I stuck to it fairly closely.

I made this while I was travelling and I only had one photo with me. It was taken by one of two amazing ladies who owned one of the accommodation places we stayed in. It's a mini Polaroid. It's not a great shot but I had to work with what I had!

The gorgeous butterflies and wings are from ArtStacks.

I hope you can join the scraplift challenge! You can find the details here.

Happy scraplifting!

Heather

Spread Your Wings and Fly Away

 Hello! The November challenge at Kraft+ is to be inspired by song lyrics. This one gives us lots of options.

I made an art journal page. I was inspired by the Queen song, "Spread your wings". I used ArtStacks images from both the All Dressed Up pack and the Wings & Things pack. I love how versatile these images are.

Will you join in this month? You can find the challenge here.

Happy creating!

Heather

Remember the Feeling

Hello! I'm super-excited to share my first project using the new release "All Dressed Up" pack from ArtStacks. I absolutely love this pack! The images are so varied. I can see them working with so many different styles of projects.

This project is for Kraft + where the challenge is to use blue, red, orange, yellow and, most importantly, kraft! I made an art journal page.

I layered up some scraps of patterned paper, book paper and Deb Weiers' stunning backgrounds to get the right colours and added some crazy stitching. I took the new All Dressed Up pack and cut out the gorgeous little boy, sat him on a mushroom and gave him balloons, all from the same pack.

I used the title, again from the same pack, to remind us to treasure those special moments from childhood.

Will you join us this month? You can find the challenge details here.

Happy creating!
Heather

We're All In This Together

Hello again! The new challenge at Kraft + is to use handwriting on your project - and kraft of course.

I had fun with this one. I made an art journal page using scraps off my desk. I love the random, messy effect that scraps give to my pages.

I tore the book page then wrote my journaling on the kraft background between the torn sections. I used one of Deb Weiers' gorgeous little pieces of two people from ArtStacks and wrote "We're all in this together" repeatedly on the kraft background between the torn sections. This is a statement about world events, mainly the war in Ukraine and covid. 

The book paper already had leaves and circles punched out of it so I utilised those in my page.

I hope you'll play along this month. You can find the challenge here.

Happy krafting!

Heather

Monochromatic and Kraft!

Hello!

The new challenge at Kraft Plus this month is Monochromatic. I rummaged through my new Deb Weiers papers and found this cool dude in an orange shirt. There's also a very cool background on translucent paper that is mostly orange so I went with that. It wasn't until after I finished the page that I realised how many other colours are on that background too. Whoops!

I hope you can join in the challenge this month. You can find it here.

Happy creating!

Heather

A Bit of Banksy

Hi there. I don't usually get political in my artwork but this month's challenge over at Kraft + sent me heading in this direction. The challenge is to be inspired by Banksy and to use kraft of course.

Banksy's artwork often makes a social statement and a huge social issue at the moment is the invasion of the Ukraine.

Banksy often paints figures in black and white so I found a photo of Putin and digitally altered it to look like it's painted. I added a quote by the Ukrainian president (I altered the quote slightly from the original) which I think sums up the ridiculous reasons Putin has come up with to justify this war.

Banksy often adds splashes of colour, particularly red, so I used this to symbolise the casualties of war.

I love the way challenges inspire us to try new things!

I hope you can join us. You can find the details here.

Happy creating!

Heather

Framed at Kraft +

Hello and welcome back!

Have you seen the new challenge at Kraft+ yet? The challenge is to get 'Framed'. Oh there are so many cool options for this one!

I was walking the other day and spied these stunning Rainbow Lorikeets eating the brilliant red blossom in a red flowering gum. The colours were so striking that I just had to create about them.

I'm a bit smitten with the papers in Lisa Oxley's new packs over at ArtStacks. I loved this particular page so much that I just added the whole page to my kraft background. The kraft really made the vivid colours pop! 

The rainbow, which is from the same Bright & Bold Stack as the main paper, was a perfect touch for my Rainbow Lorikeets.

I used a Dusty Attic chippie frame around my pic. This one is one I designed for a class a while ago. 

Will you join us this month? Head here for more info on how to enter.

Happy krafting!

Heather

Be Inspired by Fruit!

Well the challenge over at Kraft + this month is different - you need to be inspired by fruit! And don't forget the kraft of course.

I remember when my kids were little I did a whole series of projects using fruit as inspiration - the kids eating watermelon or grapes or picking cherries. I went hunting through my photos but couldn't find any recent fruit-themed pics at all! Then I remembered another page I did years ago - it was called "Under Blueberry Skies". I had plenty of photos of gorgeous blue skies from our Queensland trip so I scrap-lifted myself and went with that.

I had this part of a pianola roll sitting on my desk for a while waiting for the right project. I love the vintage feel and interesting shape it added to the page. It was a bit awkward trying to keep the original items on the paper exposed (the printing and the stamp) but I got there.

My title and the heart (which is actually the leftover piece from a flourish) are both from The Dusty Attic. The flowers and butterflies are from ArtStacks.

I hope you can join us at Kraft + this month. You can find the challenge here.

Happy creating!

Heather

Dreaming of Travel

Welcome back!

In case you haven't already heard, the challenge at Kraft+ this month is Dreaming of Travel. Have you managed to get any travelling in recently? It's so difficult to plan anything at the moment so, even if you're just dreaming of travel, I hope you can join in the fun. And don't forget the kraft!

We were lucky enough to squeeze in a trip to Queensland last year. It's such a wonderfully different world there compared to the southern part of this country. I took sooooo many photos so I decided to  see if I could get a lot of them on this page. I got 21 photos on! 

The photos are backed by digital ArtStacks leaves that I printed straight onto my own geli-prints. I'm not sure it was good for my printer but I love the effect!

You can find details on the challenge here. I hope you'll join us!

Happy kraftin'!

Heather

Rainbow Love at Kraft Plus!

Hello and welcome to THAT month! Have things got a little crazy for you yet? I'm ok at the moment but I'm about to get very busy with so many December events on.

Luckily, creating is still my relaxing time and I've been able to get a project done for the new challenge at Kraft Plus. You have to be inspired by rainbows. What a cool challenge!

I adore colour so I had trouble deciding what to create at first, but in the end I found this fantastic quote and decided to create an art journal page based around the quote.

To make this, I first layered the RAINBOW letters onto the cardstock then added Magicals on top then lightly sprayed them with water. You then need to let everything dry thoroughly before removing the letters. This left the word in white behind which I outlined with black.

I raided my bits and pieces drawer to find small images to add to the page - I even found a rainbow and a cloud! To keep to the kraft requirement, I backed my page with kraft and added a large leafy image made with kraft.

Will you join us over at Kraft + this month? You can find the challenge here.

Remembering Our Dog

Hello! 

The challenge over at Kraft Plus this month is to create about "All creatures great and small". As soon as I saw this I knew who I had to create about. We lost our nearly 18-year-old dog a few months ago. He was not the world's smartest dog and as age caught up with him he became very needy, but I chose to highlight one trait that always struck me - he was always so full of joy! I think people can learn a lot from dogs sometimes.....

Another thing I didn't have to think too much about was using ArtStacks' new Trees & Leaves stack for this. I'm finding these images are really useful for when I don't want to use flowers on my page. 

I was rapt that we had kept his name tag. I think that adding it to the page is the perfect way to keep it safe.

Will you share your favourite pet with us this month? Head to the Kraft+ page to check out the details here.

Happy scrappin'!

Heather

It's Manga Time at Kraft Plus!

Manga! Ooohh yes, this is a challenging challenge isn't it? There have been some great interpretations of the challenge already though. This topic is more flexible than you might first think! 

I'm lucky that both my kids loved manga as they were growing up. Courtney has made some amazing manga drawings and paintings over the years so I thought I'd create about some of those. For a fun twist, I embellished the page with ArtStacks flowers and butterflies as Courtney drew those as well. 

Will you join us over at Kraft + this month? 

www.kraftpluschallenges.blogspot.com

Happy scrappin'!

Heather

A New Kraft + Challenge!

 Hello there!

Oh gosh - the new challenge over at Kraft + is a beauty this month. You have to be inspired by Laura Horn. Laura's work is beautiful - I really love it. There's lots of watercolour and abstract shapes.

I created my background using Laura's work as my inspiration then added an Altered Ancestor figure and a quote from Lorraine Haight Moraine's new stack over at ArtStacks. There's a double-artist inspiration on this one!

I'm still using my collaged sheet made up of leftovers on my desk that are largely from "The Homemaker" stack at ArtStacks. I cut rough circular shapes from it to add to this background. I really love these!

I hope you can join us at Kraft +. You can find the challenge details here.

Happy creating!

Heather

Doesn't Follow Directions......

Hello! It's the first of the month which means there's a new challenge over at Kraft + and it's such an original challenge. You have to use pie-chart shapes on your kraft-based project!

I thought about this then decided to create some funky, oversized flowers that are in a pie-chart shape.

My flowers started out as a collaged piece of paper using up scraps that were lying around my desk, mostly from ArtStacks' The Homemaker Stack. I simply collaged these onto a blank background then used this collaged paper to cut out my flowers.

To create the flowers, I simply cut rough circles from the paper then cut a couple of pie wedges from the circles, moved them out from the main circle slightly, then decorated them with 'stamens'.

The funny woman and the quote are from Lorraine Haight Moraine's CoreStack from ArtStacks. I love these!

I thought the lady is the very strange dress clearly doesn't follow directions - or understand the meaning of "one word" - lol!

I hope you can join in the challenge. You can find the details here.

Happy scrappin'!

Heather