Christmas in February

 

Hello

This year I am joining in with some challenges hosted by Isa on FB. Each month there is a Christmas card challenge, with the idea that at the end of the year Christmas cards will be made without the last minute rush.

This month the prompt is dark blue, gold, tree and stencilling.

I started with prussian blue Brusho and aqua lagoon Pixie Powder on watercolour paper.

 
I used Dr Ph Martin's bleed proof white paint through stencils. I also 'swooshed' some snow and added a lot of spatter.

The Crafty Individuals die cut tree was embellished with gems and I decided not to add a sentiment to the front...at least for now.

I added some faded jeans Distress ink and Treasure Gold gilding wax to the edges. The gilding wax picks up the texture of the paper nicely.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by. Have a lovely week xxx

Another fine mess

Hello

Holidays over and back to some kind of routine this week. I'm sharing a quick one today using the Aall and Create Stan and Ollie stamp set, with Giogiocraft stencils and some Kaisercraft borders. The background was done with masking so that it is actually flat, but the sentiment and Stan and Ollie are decoupaged.

Laurel and Hardy were real favourites as children. We had a film projector and the only film we had for it was Two Tars from 1928. Happy days sat in the dark watching it over and over. I've no idea what happened to it.

Hope you have a lovely day with plenty of smiles xxx

Sporting times

Hello

In recent years I've bought more art materials for painting and drawing but I still like to dabble in card making and I find the magazines are a good way to keep in touch with the trends. For Christmas my husband gave me a subscription to Creative Stamping magazine, which for me, of all the magazines, is the one I like best for the variety. 

Issue 92 has a sporting theme.

 

 Here's what I've come up with so far...

These all have particular people in mind for the forthcoming year. I'd never be drawn to buy sporting stamps as it's not a subject that has any interest for me but I think this will be a very useful set to keep hold of.

Thank you for stopping by. Have a lovely day xxx

 

Snarky cat

Hello
Today's post is another project for the #craftingwithgiogio challenge. With a project every other day for April, I must confess to a little slippage, but I'm hoping I can finish on time. It's such a pain when work gets in the way of crafting. The theme for the 25th was 'stamping'.

I was given the fabulous Stampers Anonymous Snarky Cat stamps for my birthday.  I went back to a technique I posted about a long time ago in The Craft Barn design team days. You can still read it here.

 

 
I have some dear friends who will find the sentiments very funny. The good news is these are only one half of the stamps. More to come sometime.

Hope you have a happy week ahead xxx

Spring Flowers

Hello there
I've been off gallivanting and not had much time for crafting or blogging so I'm a bit behind. I did manage to make a quick birthday card using the Distress Oxides and stencils with one of my favourite PaperArtsy Hot Picks stamps.

More details are on The Craft Barn blog. The winter sale is still on and there are a lot of the Hot Picks stamps half price in the phase 2 section.

Thank you for stopping by. Your comments are always greatly appreciated even if I don't get to reply to all of them. xxx

Art-C Endeavours

Hello
It's a bit nippy tonight where I am, so not easy to be thinking about summer and sunshine. I was obviously feeling full of the joys of Spring when I created the project that's live on The Craft Barn blog today.

It's using the Art-C mini house box kit and makes a fun little desk ornament.

Not quite got my creative spark back after a hectic Christmas...maybe a hot chocolate and early night might do the trick! Spring is just around the corner...

Thanks for stopping by xxx

Christmas Table

Hi There
For those celebrating Christmas I hope your preparations are going smoothly. I'm just beginning to enter panic mode, which is normally followed by compromise, acceptance and then relaxation and enjoyment! It's a familiar pattern.

Over at The Craft Barn this week the theme is all about decorating the Christmas table and my Claybord place mat is live today.

For details pop over to the blog. Do check out what the other DT members have been up to, especially Helen's fantastic napkin rings yesterday.

I'm off to tidy the craft room, also known as our guest room, which will need to accommodate my mother-in-law next week. I know there's a bed in there somewhere just got to find it under the craft stash!

Thank you for stopping by.

On The Beach

Hello
A lovely theme this week at The Craft Barn to get you in the holiday mood wherever you are in the world. My project is live today with all the details of how to make it.

Hope you all have a relaxing weekend. Thanks for stopping by. xxx

Fab-U-lous

Another quickish make...

Materials used:

Imagination Crafts stencil: beautiful blossom

Kaisercraft: film edges

ProMarkers

Distress Ink

Wooden it be lovely!

This week at The Craft Barn the DT have been showcasing projects using wooden embellishments. My turn today to show you how you can turn them into fashion statements!

For all the details hop over to the blog for a look. Just a quickie from me as I'm off to The Craft Barn for a day with Helen Chilton and a catch up with some of my fellow DT members. Will show you later what we get up to.

Have a lovely crafty day xxx

Shadow Box

Hello again
A two post day...now that doesn't happen very often!
I've been having a play with the new Art-C kits in stock at The Craft Barn. First up is the shadow box which I think lends itself to a vintage or shabby chic finish. I'm always happy messing around with paint and textures!

For the full method pop over to The Craft Barn blog. When I get a bit of time I'm looking forward to trying out the display box and mini house box too.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you all have a crafty week!

P is for Penguin

To round off the year we have the last letter in The Craft Barn dictionary challenge...P. In my house it just had to be penguin. I discovered a stamp set I must have bought years ago and never used. Think I might use it for next year's Christmas cards!

The background is white gesso, Inktense ink and white acrylic paint with touches of black paint pen. I used Distress Ink through stencils and some stamping for the border.

And here it is...the final letter...

It's been great fun to join in with the dictionary challenge this year. I've enjoyed looking at how everyone has interpreted the letters and a BIG thank you to everyone who has visited this blog and left such lovely comments. Looking forward to the New Year and a new challenge. xxx

Materials used:

gesso

Inktense blocks

PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paint: snowflake

Archival Ink: jet black

Joanna Sheen: Jayne Netley Mayhew penguins

Kaisercraft: edges

Distress Ink: faded jeans

PaperArtsy stencil: PS031

V is for Voyage

Getting ahead of myself I thought I'd tackle the newest letter for The Craft Barn dictionary challenge...V. I was thinking along the lines of Jules Verne's Voyages Extraordinaire.

Having finished the page I then went to put the definition on, and too late, decided I'm not sure it goes! What do you think?

Materials used:

IndigoBlu: grand tour III

Kaisercraft: chevron

Brusho: gamboge, orange, dark brown

Distress Ink: fired brick, walnut stain

Fresco Finish paint: snowflake, old gold, blood orange, china

DecoArt dazzling metallics: glorious gold

Archival Ink: jet black

white paint pen

O is for Outlandish

This fortnight's letter on The Craft Barn dictionary challenge is O.  A bit of a remake of some cards I made earlier in the year, but I love the Art of Brett Weldele stamp set so any excuse...

I had a great time at The Craft Barn today on a workshop with the brilliant Kay Carley and treated myself to the Kaisercraft stamps used here with my voucher from the last dictionary challenge.

Materials used:

Stampers Anonymous: mister meow meow and tweets mcgee, slight alterations

Impression Obsession: solar system

Kaisercraft: hexagons, honeycomb

Katzelkraft: so special

Tando stencil: letters

Dylusions paint: fresh lime, london blue

Derwent Inktense blocks

Archival ink

Pumpkin Power

Work, social life and colds have all conspired to limit my crafting opportunities this month but I couldn't miss out on getting my entry in to the Craft Barn calendar challenge.  This month the theme is Orange with Pumpkins or Fruit.

I've used a digital die cut as both a mask and a stencil and combined Distress Ink and Promarkers for the colour.

Today marks the end of an era as the physical shop at The Craft Barn closes.  I'd like to wish Sandy and Ian all the best with achieving a slightly more leisurely lifestyle and the success of the online shop. I'm very much looking forward to classes in the new venue.  See you soon!

Materials used:

Distress Ink: wild honey, scattered straw, squeezed lemonade, 

shabby shutters, twisted citron, pine needles

Promarkers: cool grey 1, 2, 3 and 4, pressed leaf, leaf green, lime green, winter spruce 

Archival Ink: jet black

Impression Obsession: Seth Apter solar system

PaperArtsy: EDY05

Kaisercraft: edges

Gelli plate soup

Hi
On the very last day of my long summer holiday I finally had time to revisit the fabulous Journal Soup 2 tutorials by Kate Crane.   I had an enormous amount of fun getting messy with the Gelli plate and returned to work with paint encrusted fingers and nails.

People who know me will no doubt agree that I can't follow instructions without making my own changes and this was no different!  I chose the option of stamping on tissue paper, not to avoid mistakes, but because it allowed me to paint colour on to the back.  The result is that my creations are probably not as bold as Kate's.  I blended some Stabilo All pencil with water around the images to create a faint shadow.  I also used Fresco Finish Chalk Paint which dries quite quickly and so the background colours are not as blended.  Overall I was fairly pleased with the results and would definitely use the techniques again.

Materials used:

Gelli Plate

PaperArtsy Fresco Finish chalk paints

The Crafters Workshop stencil: mini circle explosion

Stampers Anonymous: stuff to say

PaperArtsy: EDY05

Pam Carriker stamp: Ophelia

Katzelkraft: KTZ118, Chatool KTZ63

Kaisercraft Clear Stamps: edges, film edges

black and white gel pen, Stabilo All pencil

Leave a trail

The August issue of Craft Stamper features a free camper van stamp...very handy when you know someone with a camper van with a birthday coming up in September!

The sunshine was created using Brusho through a stencil and blotting to get second and third generation images.  The road was added using distress ink through the same stencil.  The van is decoupaged and the windscreen is cut out so that the background shows through.  The IndigoBlu sentiment is one of my favourites and I've used it many times before.


I can't decide whether I like the top card best with the stronger colours or the bottom one with the van coloured in more traditional colours.  It might depend on if you're a VW purist...what do you think?

Materials used:

IndigoBlu: Grand Tour III sentiment

PaperArtsy: EDY10 flying birds

Kaisercraft texture clear stamps: chevron, edges

The Crafters Workshop: mini sunburst mask 

Brusho: scarlet, ornage, yellow, lemon

Ranger Archival Ink: jet black 

Distress Ink: faded jeans

Promarkers: ice grey 2, capri blue, sky blue, orange

Singing in the Rain

The April calendar challenge at The Craft Barn is Blue and Umbrellas.  I must admit I struggled with inspiration and had to resort to Pinterest to get the ideas going. 

Firstly I embossed the umbrella and the dog and masked them off. I wet the paper all around the mask and sprinkled Brusho at the top of the paper, letting it drip down.  Once the blue was dry I wet the paper under the umbrella and let the yellow run upwards.  Using a wet paint brush some of the paint could be moved around to create the puddle underneath.  The sentiment was stamped and rain drops added with paint on the edge of a credit card.  Finally a little stamping was added to the edge to create a frame before adding the calendar.

Materials used:

watercolour paper

Brusho: ultramarine, turquoise, black, lemon, yellow

Ranger Archival Ink: jet black

Ranger Distress embossing ink

Stampendous embossing powder: midnight black

PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Paint: little black dress

Tando mask: accessorise

Creative Expressions: dreamy sentiments

Kaisercraft clear stamps: edges

Thank you for taking a look.  Why not pop over to The Craft Barn to see some of the other entries?

Smile

Hi there

Not a lot of time for crafting or blogging at the moment but here's a little something with a Valentine's flavour.

The heart is made with grunge paste through a Tando stencil, which is why it was difficult to get it all in focus.

The Craft Barn calendar challenge for February is Red and Hearts...I'm hoping I can get away with one heart!  Thank you for taking the time to have a look.

Materials used:
PaperArtsy: Grunge Paste

PaperArtsy stamp: JOFY  JM05
PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Paint: eggplant, claret, orchid, red London bus, mermaid, snowflake
Ranger Dylusions Ink Spray: post box red, funky fuschia
Ranger Dylusions stamp: The Right Words

Kaisercraft stamp: Arty

Tando stencils: Hearts, Giovanna Spiral
The Crafter's Workshop stencil: Mini Circle Grid
Stabilo All pencil
silver paint marker