Some Sad News

I discovered yesterday that Sandy and Ian of the Craft Barn have decided to retire and are closing  the online store they have been running since the bricks and mortar store closed. Whilst I am happy for them I am very sad about the loss of another craft store especially one whose blog I had followed right from the start. I think I have taken part in and completed all their year-long challenges except last year's  and loved the annual craft fests known as the Extravaganzas. I will miss them.
Having said that, Sandy has announced that there is a lot of stock waiting for new homes so it would be worth visiting the online store to see what's available. As the weeks go by the discounts will get bigger but the stock is going fast.
You can find the clearance page here.

Monthly Challenge

I had the perfect set of stamps for this month's verse in the challenge on the Craft Barn blog. It's by Hobby Art and although I had bought it sometime ago it had not been used. I used pencils and Distress Inks to colour in the scene and heat embossed the lambs with white embossing powder.

Monthly Challenge

Continuing with Sara Coleridge's poem 'The Months' we have to include a daisy or primrose on our page. My previous pages have all been outdoor scenes, this month I've brought the flowers inside as April is usually the month when the garden produces blooms that can be cut and enjoyed indoors. My page shows a freshly picked basket of flowers (including daisies) on a red gingham tablecloth. The shelf above has a vase of primroses.
Here's the link to the Craft Barn blog with all the other entries.

Monthly Challenge

Continuing with the Garden poem for the Craft Barn monthly challenge we have to add a daffodil (preferably dancing) and a hare.
I am finding it very hard to get enthused by this challenge but I've started so I will try and finish. I have chosen a postcard format with a landscape orientation and am finding that once the required elements are added there is very little room for further creativity. I'm probably the only person having this problem but it accounts for my rather lacklustre pages so far. Perhaps by the time we get to October or November I will have got into my stride with this size.
Fortunately I received a daffodil stamp in a freebie set with a magazine recently and whilst I have no hare stamps I do have my Alice Palace bunnies which I thought I could use. I was searching online when I came across this colourful hare which can be purchased as a print by Fox. he seemed suitably mad March hare-like so I decided to incorporate him in some way. I was given several packs of glitter flourishes recently which I thought would be good for depicting the swirling breezes. The daffs were coloured with coloursoft pencils.
That's it for this month, as ever I am curious to see what everyone else has made.

Craft Barn blog candy

The Craft Barn has some blog candy to give away. You can find all the details here. Good Luck!

Monthly Challenge

Continuing with 'The Months' poem by Sara Coleridge for the Craft Barn blog challenge we have to use the verse for February with the addition of cherubs and a heart. It took me a while to get my head around this but here is the result. I brushed faded jeans, spiced marmalade, worn lipstick and tumbled glass DIs over the page and then stamped the B Line Designs image (yes it's more likely a river than a lake but it was one of the few expanse of water images I had). I decided that the only way I could incorporate my (punched) cherubs would be by them holding the verse with a small heart embellishment. I have stamped a raindrop image around the sides and along the bottom in Brilliance platinum planet which catches the light and gives a watery effect.
I am very intrigued to see how everyone else manages the cherub and hearts on this page!

Craft Barn Weekly Challenge - Poppies

 

This week's theme for the Craft Barn blog challenge is Poppies with the added criteria that it should be monochromatic with a splash of red. I took monochromatic to mean black & white and used only 2 colours - hickory smoke DI and Impress poppy red. This CAS card uses a Creative Expressions stamp and a Winnie & Walter sentiment. I stamped the panel, edged it with DI and mounted it on foam. Ignore the pink around the border, that's just a sheet I used to help outline the card for the scanner.

UK Stampers ATC Swap - X for Xebec

This month we have reached the dreaded letter 'X' for the monthly Alphabet swap on the UK Stampers forum. I have tried to produce 3 different ATCs each month depicting 3 different words and it was definitely a challenge this time. A quick search through the appropriate section of the dictionary revealed 'Xebec' a (usually three-masted) ship used in the Mediterranean. So courtesy of Google I am able to show you a Xebec sailing on the sunny Mediterranean sea. The sea was created with tumbled glass, broken china, blueprint sketch, peacock feathers and stormy sky DIs.
I am also entering this into the two-weekly challenge on the Craft Barn blog.

UK Stampers Postcard Swap - March

This month I have chosen the theme of Spring Colours for the postcard swap on the UK Stampers forum. I decided to go for a general theme rather than a spring one. The text is from an Artistic Stamper set and all the other circles are from an Inkadinkadoo circles & dots set. I pulled out some colours of Distress and Brilliance inks that reminded me of spring flowers (yellow for daffodils, soft pink for tulips, deep pink for magnolias etc) and got stamping onto a piece of card that I had lightly brushed with scattered straw DI.
I am also entering this into the Craft Barn fortnightly challenge the theme of which is background circles.

Craft Barn Weekly Challenge

I've been away and haven't taken part in the Craft Barn weekly challenge for a few weeks. When I saw that the final theme for this year was trees I had to take part. This is a very quick and easy Christmas card made with one of the fab Crafty Individuals' Alice Palace stamps. I stamped it in archival sepia and coloured in parts with coloursoft pencils and a gold pen.

Softly Falling Snow

No this is not wishful thinking. I am quite happy with the weather at the moment although there is a distinct autumnal nip in the air when the sun goes down. This card is for 2 challenges:

Less Is More - something shiny
Craft Barn weekly challenge - snow/snowflakes

I embossed the snow folder on a small square of scrap card and rounded 2 corners. I added a silver Marianne snowflake diecut. The text and the stamped panel were raised on foam pads.

Craft Barn Weekly Challenge

Stencils or masks are the theme for this week's challenge on the Craft Barn blog. I decided to use this heron stencil I bought a couple of weeks ago with some chalks that I haven't used in ages. I mounted it very simply onto a kraft blank.

Craft Barn Weekly Challenge

This week's challenge on the Craft Barn blog is to make a project with some stamping. Last week I was at a craft show and picked up a stamp and matching die set by a company called 'Dare 2B Artzy'. This seemed the perfect opportunity to use one of the stamps. I coloured the butterfly with coloursoft pencils and Sansodor. I found some coordinating patterned papers and cut them with a Tim Holtz alterations die. I have left the card without a sentiment for the moment.

Craft Barn Weekly Challenge

I am trying to get organised for the months ahead and was just finishing off this ATC for the UK Stampers October Alphabet swap  (V for Vixen) when I read that this week's challenge on the Craft Barn blog had the theme of Animals. Unusually for me, this has no stamping on it at all just diecutting and colouring. I have used 2 different X Cut Build a Scene sets and coloured with Coloursoft pencils. The vixen is painted with Twinkling H2Os.

Craft Barn Weekly Challenge

This weeks challenge on the Craft Barn blog is to use pens. I used my Clearly Besotted poppy stamps with my Whispers pens to give a faux watercolour effect. The sentiment is from the same set. The frame is from an old set of foam mounted stamps that I bought on holiday in Florida when I first started stamping. It had been pushed to the back of one of my stamp drawers and when I found it the rubber had perished and was starting to crack. I stamped it one last time before it crumbled and had to be thrown away. I liked the imperfect print and added some bright colours to highlight the swirls.

LIM 234

It's a busy week here but I needed a thank you card for a friend who made us the scrummiest chocolate and raspberry birthday cake imaginable. I used an oval nestie as a stencil with tumbled glass DI and then added the Cuttlebug diecuts which used tiny scraps of paper from my scrap bags. An old Hero Arts sentiment finished off the card.

A very Happy Birthday to Chrissie of Less Is More who is celebrating a significant birthday this week!

 

I am entering this into the following challenges:
Less Is More - Snippets
Craft Barn - Clean & Simple

Craft Barn Weekly Challenge

Circles and flowers are the themes of this week's challenge on the Craft Barn blog. I don't have a lot of crafting time this week but when I saw the challenge I knew straight away which stamp to use. I stamped and embossed the Hero Arts image in Versafine Spanish moss. The flowers and leaves were painted with Twinkling H2Os and I added black enamel accents to the flower centres. Three of the flowers have been raised on foam pads for extra dimension. I punched the corners with my old southwestern punch and matted it onto some black card and then an orange card blank. I've left the card without a sentiment for now.

Craft Barn Weekly Challenge

This week's challenge on the Craft Barn blog is to use words in the background. I dug out a very old Stampington stamp called dark dandelion which has a script background, stamped and heat embossed it over some glossy card coloured with alcohol inks. This was matted onto some black card and then put onto a square kraft blank which had been embossed with a script embossing folder. The kraft is not quite so green-looking IRL.

Calendar Challenge - July

The weather continues to sizzle and makes me think longingly of a dip in the sea and the feel of sand between my toes. A couple of weekends ago we took a trip along the south coast from Brighton to Worthing and the memory of the beach huts I saw along the way was still fresh in my mind when I read that this month's recipe for the Craft Barn calendar challenge is turquoise and beach huts.
The only beach hut stamp I possess is by Craft Individuals (I suspect there may be several people in the same situation this month) so there was no long decision making as to which stamp to use. All the stamps used come from the same CI set except for the sand castle which is a very old Rubbadubadoo stamp. I used Adirondack butterscotch for the sand and various shades of blue/green DIs for the sea in the hope that one or a combination of them would be as close to turquoise as my ink supply could get. The seagulls and the beach hut windows were given a lick of wink of stella for a little sheen. So that's it for another month - I like to get my calendar done early but inspiration doesn't always strike.

Craft Barn Weekly Challenge

This week's challenge on the Craft Barn blog is stars or stripes. I've actually managed to incorporate both. I was playing with some Hero Arts cling stamps and trying out a technique called rock & roll (I think). You ink up the stamp with one colour and then rock the edges of the stamp in another darker colour. The colours are Impress lemon yellow and poppy red. I decided to use these flowers to make a small arrangement in a  vase which I cut from striped patterned paper. I liked the look of the flowers against kraft card and as white is very effective on kraft as well, I added some punched stars.
I will add a sentiment as the need arises.