Challenge #282, Distress It!

Hi everyone! Welcome to another challenge at Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps!

The winner of last week's challenge, #281 Karen Marcotte!!  Congratulations, be sure to email Kimmie to get your KKS Giftcard!

Have you joined the Kraftin Kimmie's Krafty Friends fb group??  It's the best place to keep up with all of the goings on as well as sharing YOUR creations and getting inspired by other Krafty Friends' creations!!!

FRUGAL FRIDAY specials are UP!!!  Happy shopping!  Speaking of shopping, have you heard Kimmie's working on another FABULOUS kit?!?   Be sure you've liked the Krafty Friends FB group and you'll be amongst the first to know when it's available!!  OH!  and have you seen all of the super cute buttons Kimmie's gotten in???  I'm tellin' ya, ya gotta go shop!! lol

In addition to the great Krafty Challenges & Wonderful Wednesday, each month we will post a Sketch.  The sketch will last all month long and if you use it in ANY of our Challenges or WW's during that month you will get an additional chance to win a store gift card!  You do NOT have to use the sketch, it's just a little extra boost for your mojo if ya need it!  Here is May's sketch...

Now create a card, scrapbook page or altered item with a Kraftin' Kimmie Stamp or any other stamp and be sure to use our THEME as a starting point for your creation!!!  You will have until June 5th at 11:55 pm EST to get your entries in!

Pull out those fabby stamps and play along!  Have some krafty fun and join us this week!!   We always enjoy your creations so be sure to submit them so you can WIN a $10 gift card to the Shop!!  Show us your stuff!!

Hello Krafty Friends. Tracy here with this week's challenge. For me, one of my 'go to' techniques on many of my cards is DISTRESSING! There are many ways to create a distressed look. My favourites include fraying or tearing the paper, and inking the edges of the paper to give everything a worn look. I did all of those distress techniques on my card using the 'grill master' from the Wild and Crazy Guys set.

It's Frugal Friday Time!

It's our favourite day of the week!!!
It's FRUGAL FRIDAY!!!!

I've chosen a bunch our favourite stamp sets

 and put a dozen of them

on special 25-50% OFF just for the weekend!
And only while supplies last!!

This week's Frugal Friday Specials are:

ROCKER CHICK - 25% OFF!

A LETTER TO SANTA - 30% OFF!

HAPPY CAMPERS - 25% OFF!

BELINDA BONES - 50% OFF!

HAVE AN ICE DAY - 25% OFF!

PICK OF THE PATCH - 50% OFF!

SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT - 30% OFF!

RAYNE - 40% OFF!

YOU'RE A ROCKSTAR! - 40% OFF!

SANTA & PUP - 30% OFF!

NETTIE - 30% OFF!

PRIVATE MESSAGE - 50% OFF!

Wonderful Wednesday

It's Wonderful Wednesday time!!  We hope you can play along!!  As always....it's ANYTHING GOES!!  Break out your Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps and get krafty!!

Did you know that Kimmie carries more than just uber-cute stamps?  She's got LOTS of paper pads, adhesive, sequins and other embellies!  New goodies are in the Krafty Store!  Check it out, happy shopping!

We want EVERYONE to be able to play along so your submission can use ANY stamp and can be any theme, any style, any design and it can be a card, a scrapbook page, an altered item....you name it!!  It must be a NEW creation and you can enter on this post until June 2nd at midnight!  At the end of the month one random winner will be chosen from all the submissions for the whole month and will receive a $20 Gift Card to the shop!!!  What do you think.....wanna WIN??  Let's see your krafty stuff!!

In addition to the great Krafty Challenges & Wonderful Wednesday, each month we will post a Sketch.  The sketch will last all month long and if you use it in ANY of our Challenges or WW's during that month you will get an additional chance to win a store gift card!  You do NOT have to use the sketch, it's just a little extra boost for your mojo if ya need it!  Here is May's sketch...

Hey everyone! Krafty Girl Stephanie here and very proud to be hostessing the last Anything goes challenge for May! I thought I'd get ahead with my Father's day card using the latest set from Emilie called Wild & Crazy guys! I've been making cards for a while now, and I honestly think I couldn't live without this set anymore. Name the first thing most cardmakers struggle at when doing cards? Masculine look. Well, here it is!

   

Krafty Tips and Tutes-Putting It All Together

So, I get asked a lot, and so do my other Krafty Girls, how do you all decide what all to put on your card? Well, I can't speak for everyone, here is a brief, and hopefully helpful overview of my thought process for how I decide what I am going to do when putting together a card. 

First, start with the theme of the card, or it's purpose. Now, by purpose, it could be that you are making a card for a birthday, or for a challenge, a wedding, what have you, but for whatever reason you have for making it, begin there. 

Since you have that starting point, you're going to have to pick what stamp you want to start with, so chose the image you want to use. Make sure that if you are going to be doing a sketch, you chose an image that fits that sketch....nothing is more frustrating than trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. You will get to the end of your card and no matter what you do, you will not be happy with the end result, trust me....been there.  

At this point I ALWAYS decide what paper I am going to be using because I am a firm believer in coloring my image to match my paper and not the other way around. Again, nothing is more frustrating than trying to do it the other way around. Don't make your life any harder than it has to be....stamping is therapy, not torture....allow it to soothe you, not drive you insane. :)

So, now we've chosen our paper, our theme, our image, and she's nice and colored. Now to make the card. Some people are blessed with the ability to see a card in their head and be able to make it come to life with little to no effort. Others, take a bit more work. If you are one of those that take a bit more work, don't worry....those people have developed their own personal style over years of card-making, and you will, too!!

Any-who, at this point, I start by choosing the card-stock colors that best co-ordinate with my paper. Now, if you are someone like me, who likes a LOT of layers, chose 3 colors max, if you are someone who likes simple, go for less, there ARE NO RULES!!! This is art, and YOUR art more importantly, YOU make the RULES!! Layer as much, or as little as possible. 

For me, I like to play off of the patterns in the paper, if they are circular patterns, I chose square shapes, if they are more squarish patterns, I chose more round shapes when I cut my paper. I find the contrast between the two makes it stand out more. Have fun with it. I almost always use designer paper, and go for minimum of one pattern, but no more than 3....I don't know if you are sensing a pattern here...3 is kind of my limit for most things. Again, there are exceptions to all rules, and IT IS ART, and YOUR ART more importantly, have fun!!

The next part, as you can see by my finished card is the embellishing. Yes, I have my go to's, and my Krafty Sisters have theirs. They love flowers, I love buttons and brads, you may love eyelets and metal, burlap and twine, whatever your heart desires, there's no right or wrong answer, but the key to everything is balance. I almost always ground my card with something in the four corners. but as you can see, if I put something big on the right side, I try to counter that on the left.  So with this card, I chose to put a big orange bow on one side, and buttons on the other....I never would have put them on the same side, because it would have thrown the card off balance...does that make sense? 

A spiral clip near the top, and to balance it out, one at the bottom. Basically, you don't want to throw every embellishment you have on one side of the card, and then leave the other side completely naked, it would make it look completely unbalanced, and draw your eye to that side. With a balanced card, your eye is drawn in all directions and pulled towards the center to where your image is, which is where you want your main focus to be.

To put it all simply, making cards is supposed to be fun, and for me it is therapy. It relaxes me. I love it, and it has been a huge part of my life for so many years. DON'T LET IT GET TOO TECHNICAL!! Have fun with it!! Play with color, play with shapes, go outside your comfort zone!! Use balance, especially if you are like me and have a life that basically has none, lol!! My rule with embellishing is, add stuff until it feels right, then stop. You will know when you are done. Trust your instincts, develop your own style, love your art, and share it with the world. 

I hope this helped you in some way!!

Have a Krafty Day!!

Challenge #281, Get Sporty!

Hi everyone! Welcome to another challenge at Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps!

The winner of last week's challenge, Jennifer Scull!!  Congratulations, be sure to email Kimmie to get your KKS Giftcard!  We always enjoy your creations so be sure to submit them so you can WIN a $10 gift card to the Shop!!  Show us your stuff!!

Have you joined the Kraftin Kimmie's Krafty Friends fb group??  It's the best place to keep up with all of the goings on as well as sharing YOUR creations and getting inspired by other Krafty Friends' creations!!!

Frugal Friday specials are up in the store!!!  Kimmie has posted some FABULOUS stamps for sale, through Sunday only!  A little birdie told me that there are TONS of super fun buttons in the store... Happy Shopping!!!!!!!!!

In addition to the great Krafty Challenges & Wonderful Wednesday, each month we will post a Sketch.  The sketch will last all month long and if you use it in ANY of our Challenges or WW's during that month you will get an additional chance to win a store gift card!  You do NOT have to use the sketch, it's just a little extra boost for your mojo if ya need it!  Here is this month's sketch...

Now create a card, scrapbook page or altered item with a Kraftin' Kimmie Stamp or any other stamp and be sure to use our THEME as a starting point for your creation!!!  You will have until May 29th at 11:55 pm EST to get your entries in!

Pull out those fabby stamps and play along!  Have some krafty fun and join us this week!! 

It's Jenny here! And my challenge for you this week is to 'Get Sporty'! Around here, baseball and soccer season are in full swing! My two youngest sons are playing soccer, and in a glorious twist of fate, a sports miracle has occurred and they practice on the SAME FIELD at the SAME TIME on the SAME DAYS!!!!!!! Any sporting mom of multiple children will understand what kind of rare beauty this is, and it pretty much comes around as often as Halley's Comet.

I made a coach thank you card in anticipation for the end, LOL! Our team colours are black and red, so I went for that on the card. I used this little David Beckham Jr from the set You've Got Game.

Here's a closeup shot- I added a little banner and soccer ball die!

Check out the other Krafty Girls blogs for more inspiration!!