Dictionary Challenge - V

Before I show you my dictionary challenge page for this fortnight I have to tell you that I was supposed to be away for a few weeks and knew that I wouldn't be able to complete this challenge on time. I was away in India but a few days into my visit DS1 rang to say he had found a leak in the water tank in our loft. It seemed manageable at first but it soon became obvious that it had done more damage than initially thought and so we changed our flights and came home.
The water has travelled down 2 floors into our kitchen via a bedroom, the bathrooms and the staircase. Since our return we have been kept busy with loss adjusters, electricians and water damage specialists. Upto now they have all been wonderful and I have only praise for them.
Carpets have had to be thrown out, cupboards emptied and stuff sent into storage until we straighten ourselves out again. It could have been a lot worse - we can still live here for now although that may not be the case if the ceilings need to be brought down. For the moment we are living with the endless noise of industrial sized fans and dehumidifiers trying to dry the damaged areas. The mouldy smell has subsided but it will be a few weeks before the fans can be switched off.
I'm not really in the mood but I decided to make an effort to enter this fortnight's challenge because it felt good to do something that was 'normal' and not related to clearing/sorting the mess we find ourselves in.
So on to more pleasant things:

This fortnight's letter on the Craft Barn dictionary challenge is V. I've chosen a simple word 'Vehicle'. I used TH's old jalopy die with an Artemio stamp of London buses & taxis. The background is a SplodgeAway mask with peeled paint DI and some words from TH's traveller stencil. I thought the words were appropriate because the invention of vehicles gave people the ability to travel longer distances than their feet could carry them and opened up the world. I added sequins coloured with a Sharpie for no reason other than I fancied a little sparkle. That's it for this entry, I doubt I will be able to see all your entries but I will try.
Edited to add: This page was picked for a prize by the random generator.

UK Stampers Forum - Update

Yesterday (28th October) the U.K Stampers forum suddenly went offline with a message that reads 'account suspended'. No one knows what has happened but the original owner (who has had nothing to do with it for a long time) appears to have severed all links without warning. There are various swaps outstanding and I had records of all my forum friends in my forum message box which I can no longer access. I have contact details for some people but not all. If you are a former U.K. Stampers forum member please get in touch so that when/if this gets sorted out we can inform each other. I have used this forum for years and am devastated at what has happened.
I will try and post news of any developments on here.
The ATC swap has survived and has a new (temporary) home of the rebel stampers forum.

UK Stampers ATC Swap - D for Domino

My final ATC this month is 'Domino'. I have a domino embossing folder so I brayered it with black ink before running some card through in order to get the black tiles with white dots. I decided to cut out a few to show a small game in progress. the background is made with stamps from a set by Inkadinkadoo called circles & dots.

UK Stampers ATC Swap - D for Duck

My second ATC this month is 'Duck' using a lovely Crafty Individuals stamp and coloured pencils. I raised the duck in the foreground on foam pad, embellished with Glossy Accents and added the number 22 which has the bingo call 'two little ducks' (to which you are supposed to reply 'quack quack').

UK Stampers ATC Swap - D for Dress

 

This month's letter in our continuing ATC swap is 'D'. I have recently had a sort out of very old patterned papers and this gerbera printed paper was one of them. I stamped an unknown grab bag stamp onto it and embellished it with a Pearl pen. The background consists of a couple of Tim Holtz stencils and a text stamp.

UK Stampers Postcard Swap - October

This month's postcard swap has the theme of Autumn. I decided that unlike previous years I wanted to create a postcard with an autumnal feel but no leaves on it. My background was made with Gelatos scribbled onto the card and then blended with a wet finger. I started with yellow and then added a punched circle to mask off the moon before scribbling on the other colours. The tree stamp on the left is by Marion Emberson and comes with separate leaf and blossom stamps to add to the branches. The other group of bare trees is an unknown unmounted stamp. Using a stamp positioner I added an old clarity stamps moon and cloud stamp and then used the edges of that stamp to create a hazy mist effect. It all looked a bit lifeless so I added some Crafty Individual birds from 2 different sets flying south for the coming winter and some text by Paper Artsy.

Dictionary Challenge - E

Great excitement as this fortnight's letter for the Craft Barn challenge is 'E'. There are an enormous number of possible words to choose (too many to enumerate) and I couldn't really narrow it down to just one so there are extras on this page. I finally went for 'Entrance'. The door stamp is by Crafty Individuals and I embellished it with a wreath made from a green pipecleaner, some punched flowers and a tiny bow. The picket fence enclosure is a Sizzix die which I embossed with a woodgrain stamp. I also stamped a few evergreen trees.
So where is the all important definition??????

Enclosed behind the entrance door here:

Stamps by PaperArtsy and Darkroom Door.
Enjoy yourselves!

Memory Box Challenge - October

Spurred on by my success in the draw in last month's Memory Box challenge I have an early entry for this month's challenge the theme of which is sequins. I am still playing with the Brush Strokes stamp set by Inkylicious that I bought at Ally Pally last month and used the smallest of the 3 stamps for the background in faded jeans, salty ocean, broken china and tumbled glass DIs. The sentiment is by Clearly Besotted and some silver sequins complete the card.

LIM 296

The theme this week on the Less Is More blog is turquoise & lilac. I used a brush strokes stamp by Inkylicious with Impress cerulean blue and Stazon vibrant violet for the background. The diecut is by Joy Crafts and the sentiment is by Clearly Besotted (who have now sadly shut up shop until the new year). I edged the panel in blue and mounted it on foam pads.

Dictionary Challenge - X

Well the letter we have all been dreading had to come up at some stage but that is not why I am sneaking such a late entry into the Craft Barn's Dictionary Challenge. For once I knew which word I wanted to do but I have had family staying with me and crafting has had to take a back seat. Regular readers will know that I am also taking part in an alphabet ATC challenge on the UK Stampers forum and had made 3 different 'X' ATCs for that recently. I had sort of figured out which 'X' word to use for the Craft Barn challenge at that point. My word is 'Xenophile' - the opposite of Xenophobe. I love finding out about different people, countries and cultures and so it seemed an apt word for me to use.
I started with some patterned paper from Papermania called 'All Aboard' but sadly it was not long enough to cover my page so I added a strip of another paper from the same range. The join was covered with some decorative tape with a travel theme and the quote 'we are on the way - life is like a journey waiting for us to find all the good things'. The main image is by Hampton Arts, stamped in Sepia, coloured with pencils and cut out. The landmarks were all stamped on tissue paper, cut out and stuck onto the background - this is a really good way to add stamped images if you are worried about ruining your page with a badly stamped image. Most of the images are by Katzelkraft with the Taj Mahal by Judikins and an unknown oriental image. I added some other small tickets/tags from the Papermania set and a Tim Holtz hotel stamp.

October