Quotes & Lyrics - The Book

I finally managed to make some covers and bind all 25 pages of my Quotes & Lyrics Challenge from last year. Most of the papers used are from DCWV Serenity Stack. The fonts are Sizzix's Blocktalk and Cuttlebug's Hippie Chick. The flourish is a TH die.
Inside is an index page with all the words I used:

Here's a view of the inside back cover:

On the back of each page I have written the 2 words we had to choose from, the date I created my page and the authors/lyricists.
Here's my completed book:

I really enjoyed this challenge and will flip through the book from time to time.

Quotes & Lyrics - Harmony

So here we are at the very last entry for the Craft Barn's Quotes & Lyrics Challenge which I have managed to finish and upload just before the deadline. The words were Faith and Harmony and I immediately knew which song lyric I wanted to do BUT it has taken me an age to get to my desk and put something onto paper. Of course I could give you a link for the New Seekers version of the song but anyone who has heard the song before will remember the ad for a certain soft drink from the 70's.
I have used a Sizzix Peace diecut as a stencil in the background with various other stamps and stencils. The singer is a Non Sequitur stamp coloured with coloursoft pencils and raised on foam pads for added dimension. The 'hands around the globe' image is computer generated. So that's that - a full year of challenges completed - now all that remains is to bind the pages together and visit all the other entries. Thanks for all your kind comments. We shall see what 2015 has in store for us.
Edited to add: Here's a round-up of all my entries:

Quotes & Lyrics - Heart

We are at the penultimate word for the Craft Barn's challenge and the words this fortnight are Heart and Risk. I knew immediately that I had to use this quote by Helen Keller which I have as a stamp by Inkylicious. This is a very well known quote but it resonates with me in particular because a framed copy of it hangs in a corridor of a school I try and visit whenever I am in India. You can read more about this school here.
The background is made up of Memory Box and Tim Holtz stencils with spiced marmalade, wild honey and scattered straw DIs. I embossed 2 strips with a Cuttlebug border folder and stamped the Inkylicious text and the Hampton Arts image in Archival grape. Please do click on the pic to view the undistorted image.

Quotes & Lyrics - Journey

Here we are at number 23 of the Craft Barn's quotes & lyrics challenge. The words to choose from were journey and friendship and the choice was made easy for me when I remembered I had a Sizzix die of the word journey. I decided to do a song but it was surprisingly hard to find a suitable song I did think of 'Sentimental Journey' but couldn't figure out a way to put it onto paper. I finally found a C&W song by Jake Owen called 'Journey of your life'  about a grandfather's advice to his grandson. It has the line:

                      'You need an angel flying by your side on the journey of your life'

I started by stamping the ISC face in Archival sepia and masking it. Then I lightly applied some weathered wood and broken china DIs with a brayer. When dry I used a Memory Box alpha stencil over the page in Adirondack mushroom (the letters of the story). Then the following stamps:

        Christine Adolph flower cube in Adirondack terracotta (nature)
        Banana Frog heart in Barn Door DI (love)
        Banana Frog star in Adirondack butterscotch (fame)
        Katzelkraft splats in Archival grape (mistakes)
        Katzelkraft music in Adirondack lake mist (music)

The black lines were applied with a credit card and black acrylic paint (keeping to the straight and narrow) and some white acrylic splodged dots (I mess up sometimes).
While all this was drying I stamped moon girl by Stampotique and embossed her in white. Her wings were given some shimmer with Wink of Stella and raised with foam pads.

 

'Journey' was cut with my Sizzix die and stuck onto some paper from MME's Cut & Paste Charm range which picked up the colours in my background. The remaining text was printed off the computer and I sketched around lines. I removed the mask from my central image and coloured her in with watercolour and coloursoft pencils.

Quotes & Lyrics - Moon

The 22nd Quotes and Lyrics Challenge from The Craft Barn gives us 2 words Moon and Sensation to choose from. Following my pattern this should be a quote week for me but as I have said before I am trying to use any stamps I own that use the given words. This week I happened to have a stamp I got in a grab bag with the song title 'Fly Me To the Moon' so I went with that.
I stamped and masked the image. The background was painted with blue ice Twinkling H2O and when dry I used silver grey Ferro paste through a Memory Box star stencil. I painted the girl's clothes with some more H2Os. The pic below shows the shimmer and sparkle of the page:

 

Edited to add: A Wall of Fame winner.



Quotes & Lyrics - Nowhere and Childhood Catch-up

Get your air guitars ready for the 21st entry in the Craft Barn's Q&L Challenge! The words are 'Nowhere' and 'Hug' and it was a lyric week for me. 'Hug' just seemed too saccharin for the mood I am currently in so it had to be 'Nowhere'. Having The Beatles on my mind this month I immediately thought of 'Nowhere Man' and then the 'Road to Nowhere' (Talking Heads) but I wanted something different... METALLICA! This song is on their Death Magnetic album and is called The Unforgiven 111. It has the line 'How can I be lost if I've got nowhere to go?' It made me think of all the displaced children in the world at the moment. I've used this image of a child behind a barbed wire fence before and thought it fitted well - I find her face quite haunting.
I sprayed 2 shades of Glimmer Mist over TH's shatter stencil and then some random stencilled dots. I highlighted the barbed wire over the image with a silver Sharpie and extended the wires over the page. Added some stamped circles and some black enamel dots. The text is computer generated and 'nowhere' is cut from Sizzix's blocktalk die. I brushed ink over the top half of the letters and like the ombré effect it created. I felt the page needed a lift of colour so added a KTZ splat in red.
Edited to add: I've just noticed that Pauline from the Craft Barn DT has used the same quote. Great minds...

And now for something completely different:

I finally managed to catch up with my missing page for Challenge 18. The words were Childhood and Easier. I was away on holiday and had chosen a quote but couldn't manage to actually do the page until now.
The Childhood quote I've chosen is by Elizabeth Lawrence and reads:

There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colours are brighter, the air softer and the morning more fragrant than ever again.

I wanted to create a slightly magical, unreal scene with bright colours. I started with a background of brushed corduroy, peeled paint and broken china DIs and the stamped some Darkroom Door flowers. The brightly coloured flowers are from a Hero Arts set which I stamped on scrap card, cut out and stuck over some of the stems. The child is an old photo stamp I bought in a secondhand sale which I coloured with DIs. I printed out the quote and added some butterflies stamped onto a leftover scrap of Brusho'd card.

Quotes & Lyrics - Gift

For the 20th Challenge in the Craft Barn's Quotes & Lyrics Challenge the words are Gift & Destiny. This was a quote week for me and luckily I remembered this quote stamp I have that includes the word gift. I stamped the text and then masked the words  Yesterday, Tomorrow and Today however with all the spraying and squirting the colours ran under the masks so in the end I had to re-stamp the words and add them again. The stencil by Balzer Designs was sprayed with 2 shades of Glimmer Mist (aren't these a pain to use ? They just keep blocking up) and outlined with a Pigma micron pen. The remaining background uses my current favourite - Brusho powder paints. I only have blue, yellow, green, black and white so you may start to get fed up of seeing these colours but I love the effects they create. I sprinkled yellow, blue & green and spritzed with water and gold shimmer spray. When dry I dabbed seedless preserves DI over the page and added a layered flower to the stencilled circle with a candi dot centre.
I do try and visit all of your fab entries but I don't do Facebook or Google+ so whilst I admire that work I am unable to comment on it.
Edited to add: A Wall of Fame Winner.

Quotes & Lyrics - Better

I've missed challenge 18 due to personal pressures but I will catch up. I decided to get this fortnight's challenge done in good time. The words to choose from are Patience and Better. I decided on a lyric and came up with this song from Disney's 'The Little Mermaid'. I don't have many aquatic themed stamps so resorted to some computer generated images. My sea background is made by smooshing the edge of tumbled glass, broken china, salty ocean and faded jeans DI pads to create a ripple effect. The seaweed and fish are from a Kodomo set. The dark green seaweed is a small leaf stamp layered up. The shells are from a Crafty Individuals set. I was going for a colourful, cartoonish effect - I hope I've succeeded.

Quotes & Lyrics - Grace

For the 17th challenge in the Craft Barn's Quotes & Lyrics competition the words to choose between are 'Grace' & 'Peaceful'. As my choice last time was a quote I wanted to do a lyric this time however I had a tough time finding a lyric I could work with. I felt that grace and style ought to go together and a quick search unearthed this old Tom Jones song ( I later remembered that 'Vogue' by Madonna also had grace and style in it). Here's the first verse:

Well she's all you'd ever want,
She's the kind they'd like to flaunt and take to dinner.
Well she always knows her place.
She's got style, she's got grace, She's a winner.

 Now I'm not sure that I would want to be 'flaunted' or referred to as 'the little lady' even by the legend Mr Jones so I decided to cherry pick the bits of the song that worked for me.
I recently bought some new stencils and this Dina Wakley silhouette which comes with the negative and positive fitted nicely. The background is a wash of Fresco orchid (a discontinued colour) and white acrylic. I used a diamond stencil and edged the page with Brilliance Victorian violet. The numbers are by Paper Artsy stamped with a Kaleidacolor ink pad. There are also some random white dots which I highlighted with a pink Uni Posca pen and 'chic' stamped with Brilliance platinum planet.
Although I had pencilled around the silhouette, I felt it lacked something so I cut another image, gave it a shaded effect with wild honey, spiced marmalade and barn door DIs and ran it through an embossing folder for extra texture. The arrow was shaded in the same way - I have a stencil of the awesome arrow but unfortunately it was pointing the wrong way so I made my own. The main title was cut with Sizzix petite petals and I die cut some flower shapes for my lyrics. The butterflies were punched from paint chips (more on that in a later post). Unfortunately with all the paint etc the page has curled up so I have scanned it for now but this has flattened the butterflies which are quite dimensional IRL. Here's a close-up of one of the butterflies:

Quotes & Lyrics - Family

This fortnight's word choices for the Craft Barn's Quotes & Lyrics Challenge are 'Family' and 'Thing'. I try to use any relevant quotation stamps I have so decided to choose 'Family'. The stamp is one I had made a few years ago and reads:

'Like the branches of a tree

a family grows in different directions

but its roots remain as one'

 

I recently bought an X Cut Build A Scene Woodland die and decided to use it. The dies cut a portrait orientated image so I had to manipulate it to fit my landscape format. My background was built up by brayering mowed lawn, evergreen bough and peeled paint DIs onto my page. I embossed a leafy tree folder and highlighted the raised edges with gold. I cut a TH stylised label in half, brayered the same DIs and stamped the quote with the help of a stamp positioner. The text was fastened with a stapler.
Edited to add: A Q&L Challenge winner!

Quotes & Lyrics - Ignorance

I've managed to complete my entry for this fortnight's Quotes & Lyrics Challenge. The 2 words are 'ignorance' and 'mind'. I chose some lyrics from An Englishman in New York by Sting:

It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile

Be yourself no matter what they say.

 

 

The main image is from Paper Artsy's Gentleman plate 5, as are the numbers. I used stencils, some Banana Frog stamps and various DIs.

Thank you for your comments on my previous page. I hope to be able to visit all your entries this time.
Edited to add: A Wall of Fame winner!

Quotes and Lyrics - Logic

This fortnight's entry for the Craft Barn Quotes and Lyrics Challenge. This is a last-minute entry from me as life unfortunately is getting in the way. The quote is by Joel Coen from the George Clooney movie 'O Brother Where Art Thou'. Due to lack of time this page has been created bit by bit over the course of several days . I've used embossing folders, gelatos and decorative tape with a Spellbinders labels 4 diecut. Sorry I haven't been able to visit your entries this time.

Quotes & Lyrics - Horizon

So we are halfway through the year and onto challenge no13 of the Craft Barn's Quotes and Lyrics Challenge. This fortnight's words are 'Path' and 'Horizon'. I wanted to do a song lyric and I decided to choose horizon as my word. I considered The Carpenters 'We've Only Just Begun' (sharing horizons that are new to us) but in my mind it looked a bit similar to the 'Music' page I did a few weeks ago and also I have already used sun rays a couple of times. When this challenge started I knew there were certain singers/groups who I definitely wanted to include - Freddie Mercury and Queen were one and Abba was another.
This Abba song, Eagle,  is not one of the most well-known ones but it has a chorus that may be familiar to you (be warned it's an earworm that I couldn't stop humming all night). OK so my birds are not eagles but they look rather mystical (like the song) and I see them swooping around in the sky at will. At the bottom of my page are houses and trees all firmly rooted to the ground and between the two is the horizon. Click on the pic for a clearer view of the quote which reads:

                  'They've seen places beyond my land and they've found new horizons.
                                       They speak strangely but I understand'

The stamped birds are from a Fiskars set and the other bird is a Sizzix die. All have Wink of Stella glitter pen on them for a little sparkle.

Quotes & Lyrics - Vintage

This fortnight's words for the Craft Barn challenge are Proud and Vintage. I decide to use a quote and the word vintage. The quote is by a musician and record producer called Tony Visconti (who was married to Mary Hopkins  for a while). It reads 'it is easily overlooked that what is now called vintage was once brand new'. Although unintentional my page ended up being a sort of homage to Tim Holtz's products. The label die is the only non-TH item I've used.

I look forward to seeing the other entries this fortnight.

Quotes & Lyrics - Mistake

Mistake and mountain were the 2 words chosen for the 11th challenge on the Craft Barn blog. I found many inspirational mountain quotes but wanted to do a song and finally remembered these lines in the 1986 song Human by The Human League .
Last weekend was the annual Extravaganza at the Craft Barn and I try and go to meet up with old crafting friends and watch some brilliant demos. Unfortunately I only managed to spend a couple of hours there before I had to leave but not before I had seen Helen Chilton demo the Faber Castell Gelatos. I've been interested in seeing these in action for a while and Helen's demo inspired me to pick up a special edition set - 50's Diner and a metallic set of 2. A cruise around the net brought up this tutorial by Donna Downey where she shows the drip technique (OK not majorly complicated but she has some good tips). I gessoed the page and used 3 of the 4 Diner colours to make the drips. The image was found on the net. I've been wanting to try some art journal style lettering and this seemed a good place to use it. I pencilled in the lines and words and then went over them with a 0.08 Pigma Micron pen. Unfortunately I discovered the gelatos rub off with an eraser as well so there are a few pencil marks. I splattered some watered down Adirondack espresso all over and added some Katzelkraft splats as well. For a first effort I'm quite pleased with my lettering and keen to give it another go soon. I look forward to stopping by and seeing all your artwork for this fortnight.

Quotes & Lyrics - Music

Two very interesting words to choose from this fortnight for the Craft Barn's Quotes & Lyrics Challenge - music and passion. I was very tempted to do Abba's 'Thank You for the Music' but having done a classic song last time I thought I'd do a quote. These oft quoted words are the opening of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. I thought this might be a popular choice of quote but I didn't have the time to research anything else this week. The loved-up couple are a Katzelkraft stamp as is the curvy score. I used distress inks scattered straw, wild honey, broken china, crushed olive and peeled paint with die-cuts, stencils and punches.
Edited to add: In order to introduce their new website Katzelkraft have 30% off their rubber stamps and some fab Limited Edition stamps at only €15 for an A4 sheet.

Quotes & Lyrics - Fame

Number 9 for the Craft Barn's Quotes & Lyrics Challenge and the words chosen are unique and fame. There was no way I was going to complete a lyric challenge without a mention of Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of Queen and 'We are the Champions' seemed a good one to do. If by any chance you have been on another planet and haven't heard this song, here are Freddie (wearing slightly less than in the pic above) and the band singing it live. Although it is very much a stadium anthem I find the lyrics very poignant
The banners are cut from a Sizzix framelit die and the letters are from Tim Holtz's stencilled die. I wanted the background to be colourful to reflect his colourful life and I used various flower stamps that (sort of) look like fireworks as a celebration. That's it for another fortnight then. I will be checking out what you have created with interest.

Quotes & Lyrics - Hurt & Travel

This fortnight's words for the Craft Barn's Q&L Challenge are knowledge and hurt. I decided to use this quote because although hurt tends to be a negative word this quote is quite positive.  I made a background with some stamping paint, mists and stencils. I used my new Tim Holtz courtyard frameworks die and added some white dots to highlight it. The chipboard letters were stamped with a background stamp and added in a curve.
I'm sorry I have not been able to look at and comment on everyone's entries for a few weeks but I do hope things will improve this week.

I have managed to get up-to-date with this challenge at last. The word choices were flower and travel and I could have chosen either but for some reason Sweet Dreams by The Eurythmics stuck in my head. I love to travel and the lyrics seemed appropriate for me. The background is broken china and peeled paint DI (to represent land and sea) smooshed onto a sheet of acetate and spritzed with gold shimmer spray. I did each colour separately and dried in between to prevent the colours becoming muddy. The lady image is by Hampton Arts and the world sights are by Katzelkraft. The lettering was done with an old-fashioned alphabet stencil and then I added dots to the letters.

Quotes & Lyrics - Truth

I've fallen behind with the Craft Barn's Quotes & Lyrics Challenge but I decided to try and complete this fortnight's page and then catch-up later. The 2 words chosen are truth and change. When this challenge started I decided that whenever I could it would be nice to use an appropriate quote stamp that I had so it was fortunate that when I saw the word choices I remembered an old Elusive Images stamp set called A Thing of Beauty.
Last week at Ally Pally I watched a demo on the Paper Artsy stand by a lady whose name I don't know. She built up a wonderful background with layers of book paper, Fresco paints and grunge paste. My background is a nod to the various techniques she used. The main image is a stamp by Inkylicious and the background has been created with Impress inks, stencils, Ferro paste and stamps. I used the cap from a bottle for the rings and the edge of an old credit card for the stripes. The splats and background text are from a Sheena Douglass set called Ageing Beautifully.
Edited to add: I have no idea why the face image is so blurry. Please click on the pic and you should see a much clearer image. A Wall of Fame winner!

Quotes & Lyrics - Road

Firstly let me thank everyone for their kind thoughts after the death of my Father-in-Law. He was 90 and died peacefully which I guess is all you can ask for.
This fortnight's words are art and road. I had a lot of road songs in mind - 'the Road to Hell' by Chris Rea, 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road' by Elton John plus a few others. I decided on the Bob Dylan classic 'Blowin' in the Wind' . The segment I've chosen is I believe a protest against the racism that was prevalent at the time.  I made a paper mask to create a road and used scattered straw DI over a trellis effect stencil ( a nod to the yellow brick road). For the rest of the background I used shaded lilac, peacock feathers and picked raspberry DIs and then Brilliance starlite black over a swirl stencil to represent the swirling wind. I stamped umbrella man on some scrap card and added him to the road. The strips of tape which I bought thinking they were washi are in fact fabric.
I'm looking forward to seeing all your entries.