Winter Trees

I didn't manage to post anything for last week's Craft Barn challenge due to the usual Christmas panic but this week's theme is "Tree" so it seems appropriate to enter a card I made using my Winter Trees Woodware stamp purchased at The Craft Barn. The design is not entirely original as it was inspired by a Brusho's demo by Kay Carley earlier in the year. Thanks Kay.

The trees are stamped and embossed in black on ordinary stamping card then Brushos (grey) added with lots of water. Shabby white embossing enamel is sprinkled on for the snow.

I love tree images so maybe I will manage a second entry for this challenge before Christmas, who knows.

Stay warm,

Julia x

Paper Folding : Trees

My offering for the Craft Barn challenge this week is a set of Christmas tags. They are easy to make. Just cut a 4 inch circle from double sided card or peper, cut them in half, fold the right side in to the middle and then back on itself. Flip it over and fold so the edges meet and form a triangular tree shape and trim the bottom of the tree.

The sentiment is from a Woodware Celtic Christmas set, I love that font, especially on Kraft card.

Some gems and garden twine and the tags are done.

Looking forward to seeing what everyone else comes up with this week.

Winter Cabin

I saw an example of a bauble scene at the Inkylicious stand when I went to the Sincerly Yours show at Maidstone recently. I thought I would have a go, this is my simple Christmas card using a bauble stencil and the Winter Cabin stamp.

Bauble stencil and Winter Cabin stamp from Inkylicious.
Distress ink and Colorbox Mix'd Media white ink was used through the stencil on Kraft card and outlined with a white pen. The cabin is stamped with coffee archival ink and highlighted with a white pen and the sentiment stamped in white ink.

There is a tutorial for this card on the Inkylicious blog if you want to see how the professionals did it.

Snowflake

Well, some of us woke up yesterday to a dusting of the white stuff and for me down here in the South East of England, the day started with wintery showers, thick sleety rain. Yes, there were flakes of snow in it but I am in denial, it is too early. Sunny day today though very cold.
Jane wants snowflakes for the Craft Barn challenge so Jane shall have them. Here is my snowflake card:

I started with a sheet of white card and splodged distress stain on it, Tumbled Glass, Antique Linen and Stormy Sky. Then I spritzed it with Shimmer Spritz.
I die cut the snowflakes with Tim Holtz Paper Snowflakes dies and layered them up adding a small punched snowflake in the middle and a blue gem.
A square piece of white card was run through my swiss dots embossing folder and edged with gold ink. The background paper and banners are paper from my stash, again edged with gold ink and the sentiment was from one of my Woodware sets.

Stay warm and crank that heating up if you have snowflakes where you are.

Fireworks

When I saw the theme for the Craft Barn challenge this week the first thing that popped into my head was the Katy Perry song, Firework.

Ignite the light
And let it shine
Just own the night
Like the Fourth of July

Rather than over thinking this one I have made a firework display panel, mixed media style.

The background is a mixture of DecoArt mixed media paint applied with an old credit card and some translucent PaperArtsy Fresco finish paint applied with a brush over the top.
The landscape silhouette is die cut using a Memory Box die.
The stars were punched (Woodware star punch) from some scraps I had left over from a gelli plate stamping project and I added some doodling with a white pen to make them look like fireworks.

It was fun to do this one, a nice break from the Christmas cards.
Have a good week everyone.

Samhain

Did you know that Halloween has its roots in the Celtic lands and was a harvest festival? The Celtic festival of Samhain marks the end of summer so just to cheer us up, it is winter tomorrow.

This week's Craft Barn challenge theme is Halloween so I made a tag.

Ingredients used

Tim Holtz Stencil : Shatter

Stamps : Chocolate Baroque Witches Brew and Tim Holtz Bird Crazy

Wow Black embossing powder

Birds are coloured with Promarkers

TH Distress Ink : Pumice Stone and Hickory Smoke

Happy Halloween/Samhain everybody x

Good Luck Craft Barn

This is the card I made to wish Sandy and Ian Good Luck with their new Craft Barn journey. The shop is now closed (and I will miss it) but the online shop and classes are continuing and I am sure exciting new things will be coming soon.

The blog challenge theme this week is Good Luck so this is my entry.

I used Kaleidacolor Melon Melody ink with a brayer to make the background on white stamping card and debossed it with my Tim Holtz Layered Leaf embossing folder. The TH layer leaf die was used to cut the leaf aperture out of woodgrain card stock and mounted on top.

I added TH Big Chat stickers for the sentiment and a bit of twine and mounted it all on a deckle edged card.

Best of Luck to Sandy and Ian for the future and many thanks for all the fun times and inspiration at the Sandy Lane shop and Lingfield. x

Firelight

When I saw that this week's Craft Barn challenge was "Light" it was the perfect prompt to get out a kit I purchased at the Craft Barn over a year ago and get it made. It is a Tando Creative kit designed by Karen Gist called Christmas Fireplace. So, my interpretation of light is firelight.

Can you see the tea light flickering in the grate? Obviously it is not a real tea light it is a battery operated one, this piece is made of chipboard and we don't want disasters in the home do we.

I used a Fresco finish and Decoart mixed media paints to paint all the chipboard pieces. I added some doodling with a white pen on the baubles and stockings and glitter of course. There is a bit of distress ink on the bunting over the fireplace as well, I stencilled the stars. For the wood effect on the fireplace I used coffee archival ink and a Kaisercraft woodgrain stamp.

Here's another photo taken outside.

Now you can see the glossy accents on the "Christmas" word and the berries. My favourite bit of this project is the tiling. These pieces were painted with Decoart Cadmium Red mixed media paint with some gold interference paint added on top and finished off with a bit of treasure gold.

A close up of the tiles:

See the little tea light inside, I picked up a pack of three for £1 from the Pound Shop.

I had great fun with this project and am proud of myself for finally getting it made.

Spooky People

My last minute entry for the Craft Barn Challenge this week is a Halloween inspired panel which I have mounted on a card. The theme this week is people and I had at least a dozen ideas in my head, just the usual problem of finding the time to do them, frustrating isn't it. I picked spooky people for my project.

I masked out a moon and used Pan Pastels for the background in purple, red and yellow to get the purple and orange blend. They blend so well. All the elements to build the Halloween scene are cut from Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations dies set : Halloween Shadows from Kraft Core card stock, nostalgia collection.

Have a great Sunday.

Love Lovely Life

Happy Sunny Sunday everybody.

Stamps used :

Stampers Anonymous : Tim Holtz Bird Crazy and Crazy Accessories

Craft Individuals : Alice Palace Love Lovely Life

Alice Palace panel stamped in black archival ink on glossy card tinted with victorian velvet distress ink. The crazy bird is coloured with Promarkers as is her hat and bunch of flowers.

Mounted on a dotty paper frame.

Discovery

A nautical theme for the Craft Barn challenge this week which makes me happy as I get to play with my ship stamps. This is a quick card made using one of my favourite Crafty Individuals stamps : Discovery (CI 295).

I used distress stains for the background : Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky and Squeezed Lemonade, spritzed with water on glossy card. Then stamped the image in black Stazon ink which has to be, in my opinion,  the very best ink to use with these detailed stamps. I stamped some rope around the edges of a 5x5 white card and mounted the panel. An easy card to make as the image does all the work for you.

From Wikipedia :
Discovery was the smallest of three ships that were led by Captain Christopher Newport on the voyage that resulted in the founding of Jamestown in the new Colony of Virginia in 1607. 


I am also entering this card in the Crafty Individuals September Challenge : Anything Goes.

When is a Snowflake not a Snowflake?

.... when it's a tree.

I used distress stains, Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky and Antique Linen on cream card stock and die cut the snowflakes using Tim Holtz Paper Snowflakes dies. The result was a set of snowflakes which I arranged on a background card that was embossed with a Swiss Dots embossing folder to represent snow. I thought the snowflakes looked a bit like pine branches so popped in a crazy bird, added a Merry Christmas and some gems and this is my entry for this week's Craft Barn challenge. The challenge this week is Christmas with snowflakes and snow.

London Fashion Week

I promised more TH Runway projects and it seems fitting that this card should make its appearance in London fashion week.
Back in July I had booked a place on a workshop with Helen Chilten using the runway stamps and watercolours. Unfortunately the class was cancelled but I wanted to have a go using stencils and watercolours anyway as this was the theme of the class.

Stamps used : Tim Holtz Runway, Tim Holtz Cityscapes by Stampers Anonymous.
Stencil : Prima Marketing "Stencil Bubbles".
Distress Markers used for the stencilling on watercolour card with loads of water : Tumbled Glass and Wild Honey.

For the stencilling I scribbled the distress markers on the stencil, spritzed with water and used it as a stamp. Then I used a dry baby wipe to move some of the colour left through the stencil and then added a third layer of bubbles with the same colours. I love the green that the wild honey mixed with tumbled glass makes.
The runway fashion models are stamped on white stamping card and coloured with Promarkers then cut out and arranged on the background.

This is my last minute entry for this week's Craft Barn Challenge which is to use stencils and/or masks.

Doodles

The theme for this week's Craft Barn challenge is stamping so I have combined stamping and doodling for my entry.

Stamps used : Leane Creatief Doodle Pine Cone and Woodware sentiment from Trio of Trees set.
Doodling by me.
Coloured with Promarkers : Shale, Cinnamon and Honeycomb
Clear Wink of Stella on the pine cone to add some shimmer (does not show up well in the photo as it is subtle).

I reckon this one is more autumnal than Christmas. Maybe I should add some snow?

E is for Elephant

My entry for the Craft Barn challenge this week is a tag. The theme this week is animal which is handy since I have an outstanding alpha tag project that is yet unfinished and I needed to do something with an elephant. I have also been playing with a home decor project today so had some scraps of paper that really needed using up. This tag is what happened.

Distress inks : Peeled Paint and Hickory Smoke (love that new Hickory Smoke)

Paper scraps : Tim Holtz Wildflower Paper pad

Ribbon coloured with the same inks used for the background

Dylusions Spray : Linen White - when it reacted with the distress is went a light grey colour, nice.

Elephant Stamp : Any Skinner Circus set, a bit of water colouring with the hickory smoke ink

Random stamping around the edge : A TH swirly floral thing 

Sentiment : Tim Holtz

I am having a great Sunday doing nothing but crafting, hope you are enjoying your Sunday too.

Thank you for visiting.

Runway

The Craft Barn weekly challenge is to use spray. I thought that would be pretty easy but the first part of the challenge was to find my sprays as I'd not used them in a while.

I found some Fireworks sprays in Angel Pink and London Fog, a nice colour combination but, those little bottle nozzles get clogged up so they needed a good wash. The pink did not spray, the result was more of a blot but I liked it so went with it. My white teapot also got a bit of a makeover as some of it ended up there as well. I have to say, I don't recommend these sprays.
I got a much better effect using the Tim Holtz distress spray. It is easier to control and the colour is richer.

For the challenge I have made two note cards. The sprays are used for the backgrounds on watercolour card.

Stamps used :
Tim Holtz Cityscapes CMS224
Tim Holtz Runway CMS214

I stamped the images onto the watercolour card and masked them before spritzing the backgrounds with the sprays. The sentiment on the London version is a die cut and Bonjour is stamped. The panels are mounted on Kraft card and a bit of baker twine added to finish them off.

More Runway and Cityscapes to come, currently work in progress.

I Love Chocolate

The Craft Barn weekly challenge theme is "something sweet and sugary" so this theme is just begging for a chocolate offering. I decided to try and keep it simple, mainly using paper crafting although some stamps are used for the sentiments on this card.

Ingredients:

Marianne Designs : COL1366 Chocolate is the Answer Die & Stamp Set 

Marianne Designs : COL 1367 Box of Chocolates Die & Stamp set

Spellbinders Nestabilities : Labels Four

My Minds Eye : Paris & Co paper

Ranger : Coffee Archival Ink  

Tim Holtz Distress Ink : Vintage Photo

The paper bow was made using a We R Memory Keepers envelope board. This card is big, at 7 inches by 7 inches that is a bigger card than I would usually make but where chocolate is concerned, I reckon big is good.

Craft Barn Weekly Challenge 9 : Colouring

It has been an age since I entered any blog challenge so here goes, this is my entry for the Craft Barn Weekly Challenge 9 which is colouring using pens.

Stamp: Stampendous Cling Winter Birds.

I used Promarkers to colour the image:

Greens : Lime Green, Bright Green and Forest Green

Reds : Lipstick Red, Crimson and Burgundy

Browns: Satin, Sandstone, Cocoa and Walnut

Blue (for the dotty shadows) : Powder Blue

Some glitter is added to the bobbles on their hats and the snow on the branch and the card finished off with a bit of peeled paint distress ink around the edges.

Another Christmas card done to add to my 2015 stash, I am ahead of the game!

Pretty Pastels

It was Saturday morning and I was up earlier because I had booked a TV ariel engineer to come to my house. I was thinking it would be a good idea to play with my new PaperArtsy JOFY stamps so I have no idea how I ended up making two cards using Inkylicious stamps. Anyway, these two cards are what I made.

Stamp : "Poppy Lea", sentiment "Make a Wish"

Background : Adirondack Caramel, Raisin and Denim dye inks applied with duster brushes.

Poppies are highlighted with Sakura pens and a border doodled with a black pen.

You need glossy card stock to get the inks to blend nicely but it is quite hard to get a sharp image with the stamping. My meadow flowers faded away at the bottom but I reckon that's OK, it is a hot summer's day and I have rescued it by popping a bow on top. 

Stamp : "Allium"

Background : Masked a shape and applied the same colours of dye ink with a duster brush.

The Allium are highlighted with a silver Sakura pen and similar doodling around the shape.

Until next time, Thank you for looking. x

Robot

A little card for a friend's birthday this week :

Stamps : Personal Impressions by Lindsay Mason : Overhaul Needed

This one was fun to do, I love that Robot's expression.

Christmas in July

I caved in and bought those adorable Tim Holtz Bird Crazy stamps and now I see there is a set of crazy accessories too. I have them on pre-order from Oyster Stamps. They are due mid August but I can't wait for them so I made a Christmas hat for my little bird from last year's half tone set.

I used watercolour card stock and distress markers to colour her. Fun flock is added to the hat and ground for snow.

This got me in the mood so I played with my Tim Holtz  Sizzix Alterations set called Merry Christmas that I picked up in the sales earlier this year. This one is almost a copy of the example on the back of the packet and I think a good one to make a bunch of quick cards for Christmas.

I used distress markers direct to the stamp, die cut and mounted with foam pads.

Colours used were Barn Door, Frayed Burlap and Wild Honey. I still love the names of the TH colours.

Happy July 25th!

Patchwork

I've lost my mojo. In an attempt to get it back I played with my patchwork die.

Stamp : PaperArtsy Lin Brown ELB16
Sentiment : Penny Black Snippets
Die : CREAlies Modern Patchwork No.1

Life Memories

I love the nostalgic, collage look of the Tim Holtz May tag. It is possibly my favourite so far this year. I say possibly my favourite as each month I think the tag is better than any I have seen before.
The tutorial is on Tim's blog:
http://timholtz.com/12-tags-of-2015-may/

My version this month is pretty close to Tim's example as I had quite a few of the ingredients this time, including the lovely photobooth embellishments. I chose the same photo for my tag. Colour tinting photos with distress markers is effective, I like this.

This is my version:

I like the look of the stencilled texture paste on the burlap background but as usual, struggled with the words so I chose "life memories" as the tag seemed to say that to me.

Penny Black Demure Take 2

I have been playing with my Penny Black Demure stamp again, this time using Brushos. Its always a good idea to have more than one project in mind when you buy a new stamp and I have thought of at least four ideas using this one.

Penny Black stamp : Demure
Brushos : Brilliant Red and Leaf Green
Highlighted with Pink Candy Stickles

This is stamped onto ordinary white stamping card using versamark and embossed in white. The Brushos paint is added afterwards and spritzed with water. Leaf Green is so full of different colours, see the turquoise and yellows it makes.

Watercolour Effects

A quick post showing two cards I have made using Rubbernecker stamps.

Fall Tree

2 Daisies

These are so ridiculously easy to make. Just colour the stamps with distress markers, spritz with water and stamp them onto watercolour card. I added a bit of detail to both with the fine point of the pens then mounted them on cards.

Distress Markers meet Alcohol Pens

The sun is shining, Spring is here and it is still light after 8pm. I do love this time of year.
This weekend I have been having a go at the technique I learned from Kay Carley last weekend.
Have a look at Kay's beautiful work on her blog:
http://kaycarley.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/may-class-at-glitter-pot.html

I cannot claim the colour schemes used on the flowers as my own as they are the same as Kay used on the example I saw in the demo but I shall play with this again using different colour schemes.
My first card uses the new Penny Black Demure stamp and for the second I used a Lin Brown flower for one of my PaperArtsy sets. The sentiments and sprigs are from Hobby Art sets.

The flowers are coloured using Copics and the background stamping and watercolour effect is achieved with distress markers. 

Enjoy what is left of the weekend,

Julia x

P.S. Note to self ..... I must do blog updates more than once a month!

Free Stamps

We spend all this money on craft products and just once in a while, free stamps come your way that just work so well together. My friend gave me the Stampendous cling stamp called Parasol Portrait as it was just not her thing and she thought I would like it, I do, I really like it.
The free stamp that came with Craft Stamper magazine this month is by Visible Image and is a grunge flourish which I thought would work perfectly with the portrait.

The background is distress ink : Weathered Wood, Victorian Velvet and a touch of Milled Lavender.
Stamped the flourish part of the freebee stamp in sky blue memento around the edges of the A6 shiny card to get a pale and interesting background.
Then I added the image in black stazon and stamped the grungy part of the stamp around the edges. I like the graphic look of it stamped in black. The sentiment and rose text was added later and the roses coloured with distress markers.

That's all for today, the Sunny day sent me outdoors so minimal crafting has been done.

Night and Day

My post today is to show the results of my mixed media panels that I made at the Craft Barn yesterday in Helen Chilton's class entitled Night and Day.

We got to play with the DecoArt interference paints and DecoArt mixed media fluid acrylics, Lin Brown stamps, stencils, Frantage embossing enamel and more.
The stamps used to build up the scenes were PaperArtsy Lin Brown 13, 14 and 16.

Night

Day

I loved doing that class and highly recommend if anyone gets the opportunity to do a class with Helen, don't hesitate.

12 Tags of 2015 : March

Here is my offering for the March TH tag.

Step by step instructions for Tim's beautiful butterfly version are on his blog:
http://timholtz.com/12-tags-of-2015-march/

I had to improvise this month as I have no texture paste for the stencilled lettering so I used Imagination crafts sparkle medium through the TH Schoolhouse stencil, I quite like the result but will try the texture paste and embossing powder technique on Tim's blog when I get hold of a pot of that paste.
I also have no butterfly stamp, at least not large enough for a focal image on the tag so I decided to use a cameo and frame. The loop pin I used to attach my butterfly charm was one I saved from a price tag on some clothing I bought recently, I knew that would be useful at some point. Always a good idea to save these things.

Here is a close up of the embossing.

I like the texture and Tim's tip to use clear embossing powder on black archival ink to avoid embossing powder dots.

The distress paints I used for my marbelled background are :

Crushed Olive

Evergreen Bough

Scattered Straw

Cracked Pistachio

I really enjoyed this one, good use of a few hours on a Saturday.

12 Tags of 2015 : February

Last day of February and I have managed to finish my TH tag just in time.
I am not planning on writing details as the step by step tutorial is on Tim's website :
http://timholtz.com/12-tags-of-2015-february/

I really had to do this tag as I already had most of the ingredients. I improvised with the heart as the idea of using the sewing machine that has lived in the cupboard for years is a step too far for me. I loved doing the collage part of this tag and especially like the shadow effect using the black soot distress pen and smudging it around the collage parts. I have added a close-up of that.

Good fun to do this tag and I managed the deadine too!

Romance

I am feeling rather proud to have been recognised as Runner Up in the Artful Times Challenge for my Recycled Christmas card and it reminded me to try much harder to enter these challenges more regularly.

The Challenge 74 is Romance, not unsurprising as it is February. I actually completed this project on the 14th day of Feb and here it is :

Materials used :
MDF heart covered in paper from Tim holtz Menagerie paper stash.
PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paint : Nougat
Tim Holtz mini die : Cupid and heart
InkyDoodles clear stamp sentiment stamped and embossed in black.

I wanted to get a shabby effect on this so dry brushed around the edges of the heart and the die cut images. I used Ranger Glue N' Seal to stick the paper and die cuts on the heart and highly recommend it, best glue I have found for this type of work with a nice matt finish.

New PaperArtsy Products, Brushos and Demos

Having spent some time each evening watching the videos of the new PaperArtsy products launched this month, I was really looking forward to browsing them at The Craft Barn yesterday. I wasn't disappointed, a fabulous new range of plates.
Check out the PaperArtsy blog if you haven't yet seen the examples from the design team :
http://blog.paperartsy.co.uk/

The demos yesterday at the Craft Barn were particularly inspiring this month. The demonstrators are so generous with sharing their knowledge. This month we got to talk with Helen Chilton, Kay Carley and Carol Cockbain demonstrating the new Lynne Perrella stamps, Brushos and Sue Wilson dies.

So, I bought new stuff (no surprise there) and was determined to try the techniques I learned about yesterday. Fortunately I have some Brushos already so here is a little card inspired by Kay's examples. All products used in my projects today are available from The Craft Barn.

I used the same Woodware stamp as in my last post : Bubble Blooms

The image is stamped with a versamark ink pad and embossed with white embossing powder first. Then sprinkle some Brushos, a tiny bit of Brilliant Red first in the flower heads, spritz with water and dry with a heat gun. I added some Leaf Green roughly around the foliage and repeated the same.

To finish off, I added some Stampendous Shabby White embossing enamel. Kay uses that Shabby White a lot on her artwork, nice effect, I love the little gold bits in it. 

Here's a close up :

My second project this weekend was inspired by Helen and for this one I played with my new Lynne Perrella stamp plate : LPC033. I tried Helen's technique of using the same stamp for the background as used for the focal image. My panel is a bit messy but I had loads of fun with it.

The background was made using the same stamp coloured with Distress Markers : Peeled Paint, Broken China and Worn Lipstick. The focal image is stamped with Stazon ink on glossy card and colured with distress markers : Broken China, Worn Lipstick and Squeezed Lemonade. Some of the elements from the LPC033 plate added to the background and border. My Stazon ink pad is a tad juicy so I might try this again using second generation stamping.

I had some of the background left over so made a bookmark:

Many Thanks to Helen and to Kay for the inspiration for the above. I am feeling quite pleased with my crafting productivity this weekend.

Enjoy what's left of Sunday. x

Dotty Demos

My first visit to the Craft Barn for a demo day was last Saturday and the theme was dots. The demonstrators were using the new Woodware stamps and alcohol markers. Copics were used for the demonstrations but Promarkers work equally well.

Follow this link for Jane Gill's example from the demo.

Here are my attempts at using dots.

Woodware : Love Tulips

Promarkers : Forest Green, Lime Green, Pastel Blue and blender pen.

Woodware Clear Stamp : Bubble Blooms

Promarkers : Burgundy, Walnut, Coral, Marine, Oasis

Black dots added with a Sakura Micron pen

Many Thanks to Jane Collman and Jane Gill at the Craft Barn for the inspiration.

Lavinia Stamps Challenge 1 "Anything Goes"

There are some great examples from the Lavinia Stamps design team for the Challenge 1 this month. Take a look here for some inspiration.

Here is my entry for the challenge, using only Lavinia Stamps.

Lavinia Stamps used :
Spring Trees, Horse and foal, Creeping Vine.

I began with a Scene-Scapes card no. 013 for the background and stamped the spring trees using distress embossing ink and embossed them with Cosmic Shimmer embossing powder (Denim Lilac Aurora). The horses are stamped with black Versafine ink and the vine leaves stamped randomly using milled lavender distress ink. I added some 'ground' for the trees and horses to stand on with a victorian velvet distress marker.

A simple card to make.

Recycling Christmas

My first blog challenge contribution for 2015 is a card made from a set of six inchies cut from one of my Christmas cards.
I wanted to arrange them so that the images were random but the layout needed some symmetry as six is a difficult number to arrange, especially as they are squares. I stamped some swirls for the background and edged them with a black pen then added some green gems and bakers twine to finish it off.

I am entering this card in the Artful Times challenge where we are to make 6 inchies out of received Christmas cards.

Happy New Year and wishing you all successful crafting in 2015.