Monthly Challenge - October

This month's letter is H for Harvest with only one colour option of heliotrope (a pinky purple).
I used an old Heartfelt Creations stamp set for the image and the text stamping it in sepia ink and colouring it in with Coloursoft pencils and solvent. As the image wasn't wide enough I added a couple of extra pumpkins.

Monthly Challenge - September

This month's letter in the monthly postcard challenge is M for Music with colour options of mustard, magenta and maroon.
I wanted to use this very old Non Sequitur image of a singer and found a Hans Christian Andersen quote I thought would be suitable to go with it. I stamped the image and masked it before making the background with various stamps and stencils. I stamped the musical score (by Katzelkraft), then removed the mask and coloured the image with pencils and solvent. I added the computer generated words and some punched music notes.

Monthly Challenge - August

This month's letter for the monthly challenge is L for Lace with colour options of Lavender/Lilac, Lemon and Lime I had a few ideas in my head and for once I actually managed to (sort of) create what I imagined. I know that this would have been perfect for June's W for Wings challenge but sadly this did not come up in my thoughts then. I was going for a collage type effect this month and didn't really want the lace to be the focal point.
The background started off with DO's in fossilized amber and spiced marmalade roughly brayered over the card. I added TH's lace stencil in twisted citron DO but wasn't happy with the effect so added a few torn strips from a book and lightly gesso'd over all of it. As it was drying I used a hessian effect background stamp in places where the gesso was a little thicker to add some texture (this would have been more effective if I'd thought of doing it before most of the gesso had dried!). I decided to try the TH lace stencil and twisted citron DO again and this time I was happier with the result. I wanted some splatters so mixed up a little scarlet Brusho and water. When dry I added a lacy border die cut (a very old Xcut one) and a strip of lace held in place with some flower brads. The scribble circle die cut is by TH and the bird is a Katzelkraft stamp. I added some ruled lines and stamped the quotation from a  Hampton Arts stamp and die set. Finally I added some clear sequins and a few tiny gems.
Here's a better view of the sequins:

Monthly Challenge - July

This month's letter is U and the word is Umbrella. I decided to pass on TH's Umbrella man and Crafty Individuals parasol lady at the beach and then contemplated a weather related postcard but finally decided to use this balancing lady die I bought last year. The background is a scrap I'd used to clean my brayer off on and I decided to continue with the green theme adding some red gems for contrast and some purple swirls. The stencilled swirls are by Splodge-a-mask in dusty concord DI. The sentiment is by Paper Artsy from Swirls and Curls 4 and the swirls along the edge are Bricks and Mortar 3. I thought she seemed to be struggling to balance herself and felt the sentiment was appropriate for us all as we wobble our way through life. I edged the card with bundled sage and pumice stone DIs.

Tropical Toucan

I started this with the idea of using it for the 'Wings' monthly challenge for June but then went in a completely different direction for that project.
The background was stencilled with various colours of Distress Oxides. The toucan die is by First Edition Craft (from Hobbycraft). The branch is a Memory Box die. I added some punched flowers and dragonflies and embellished with tiny pearls.

A Gin Card

I can't be the only person to have noticed how gin seems to be very much the 'in' drink of the moment. At Ally Pally in April I saw a Crafter's Companion stamp set called 'Chocolate, Coffee, Gin' which looked perfect for the gin-lovers I know. The set comprises of various words (6 in total) that can be added to the main text. On the same stand was a Crafter's Companion Gemini stamp and die set called 'Cocktail Hour' which I thought would fit perfectly with the text stamp. The Gemini dies are outline dies that come in 2 parts - either half can be used or the two can be used together to cut out the whole shape. Here I've used the right hand half to cut out half the stamped shape. I coloured the stamped image with pencils and solvent and gave the 'gin and tonic' some added sparkle with Wink of Stella. 

Monthly Challenge - June

This month's word is W for Wings. I bought a set of layering dies at Alexander Palace in April. They can be used independently but are designed to be cut and used on top of each other. I cut the first layer with purple card and the second (top) layer with lilac card. These were both mounted onto white card to give the above effect. The size of each die is quite small so it had to be cut twice to achieve the 10x14cm size I needed. It was very fiddly but in all fairness my cutting plates are very old and marked and I think new plates would have given better results. The main image is an old Crafty Individuals stamp and the slight golden sheen you can see on the wings is actually silver foil. The flowers were made by punching out circles, cutting out a rough spiral and rolling it. I added pearls in the centres and punched some leaves in a contrasting green. The text is by Paper Artsy. To finish I added some tiny pearls to the background.

Monthly Challenge - May

This month's letter is:

                Q for Quotation                     

and the (optional) colour is Quartz Grey

 

 

I had originally planned to use another quote but it didn't work out. Having had a significant birthday last month I decided to use this unattributed quote which I used at my birthday dinner.

I made a background with Distress Inks and Oxides and stencils. The diecut is TH's Old Jalopy cut in black with silver trim. The windows were looking a little bare so I diecut them again and stamped a series of formidable looking ladies from an old stamp called 'The Girls' by River City Rubber Works. The quotation was computer generated.

I'm not entirely happy with this but there's a lot going on in my life at the moment and I hope I have more time to spend on next month's challenge.

Monthly Challenge - April

The first letter in the Monthly Challenge is E and the word is:

ENCHANTED

                        Possible colours options are Emerald, Eggplant and Ecru.

 



We are making postcard-sized pieces of art which can be landscape or portrait. There are various reasons I chose this size - it can be stored in a regular photograph album if wished or bound into a book or held together with a book ring or even put onto a standard sized card blank.

For my enchanted forest postcard I started with a background that I had made with a small gelli plate. I wasn't entirely happy with it so I added some extra colour by pouncing on some Distress Oxides with a mini blending tool. To give a starry effect I splattered some white acrylic paint and added a few punched stars. I stamped, coloured with alcohol markers and cut out the mushrooms and added some white enamel accents for the spots. The fairy is an Intricut die and I gave her silver wings and a silver star on her wand. The leafy frame is an XCut die which I coloured with emerald ink and edged with black. I punched some tiny butterflies from some scraps of Brusho painted paper and the birds were from a Joy Crafts die. The sentiment is from a Cuttlebug die and I have added a little sparkle to the mushrooms with a Wink of Stella pen.

A New Challenge and a Blog Post At Last!

After many months I have finally managed to summon up the motivation to write a blogpost. A lot has been happening and after packing away my craft stuff for the decorators and then unpacking it all into newish homes I lost my mojo. Most of the previous sites I used to visit for challenges and swaps have disappeared for one reason or another and I realised that I had a vast amount of stuff that I no longer used. I decided to try and use up some of the coloured card blanks, aperture cards etc etc that I no longer required and make up some cards for a local charity. I have used up some stuff (well I've made a small dent) and am happy that a good cause will benefit from it.
I was chatting with friends on a craft forum and a few of us mentioned a lack of motivation. With this in mind I decided to start a new challenge. Each month I pick a word and have to make a postcard sized (10x15cm) piece of art on that theme. I'm hoping to cover every letter of the alphabet in time and if possible to use a colour beginning with that letter as well. Let's see how it goes!