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.