Craft Barn Twelve Month Challenge : January

A new year and a new challenge from the Craft Barn, this year the challenge is based on Sara Coleridge's poem, The Months.

January brings the snow

makes our feet and fingers glow

Click here for the link to the challenge page to join in.

This year I had a plan which is a massive improvement on 2016 when I had no plan for the alpha/dictionary challenge other than the dictionary itself. My original plan was to make postcards and send them to people each month but my plan is now modified. I am going to make a mini book with twelve pages in it, one for each month. Now, the postcard idea was still in my head so that is how I dealt with Mickie's twist challenge for January which is to include a bird in wellington boots. I had to draw the boots and the bird but I have made it into a postage stamp and stuck it on the page.

About three years ago I went to a workshop at the Craft Barn by Kay Carley, the first craft class I had ever attended! We did two lovely winter scenes using Lavinia stamps so I thought I would revisit that style for my January entry. Here it is:

Stamps used:

Lavinia Stamps : Spring Trees

Kanban : Stag and Doe

Woodware : Deck the halls

Paperartsy : ELB30 by Lin Brown

Clarity Stamps : postage stamp

The background is made using distress ink : Milled Lavender, Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky and Chipped Sapphire. The trees are stamped with stormy sky and the fir branches are stamped with silver ink, I think you can see those silver branches if you look closely, they are subtle. 

The rhyme is from the poem on the Lin Brown set which I fortunately have so hope to be able to use it for all the pages in the challenge over the year but I think it might be a challenge to do that as the text is small.

I finished it off with some Stampendous Frantage shabby white embossing enamel to make the snow, I love that stuff, gorgeous little bits of gold in with the white.

OK, thats me done for this post, enjoy your weekends wherever you are and thank you for dropping by.

Alpha/Dictionary Challenge 2016 : J

My Craft Barn Alpha/Dictionary Challenge 2016 page is done. This time we have been given the letter "J" but have to include a dragonfly. I chose Jigsaw for my dictionary word.

Stamps used:
Hobby Art Butterfly Kisses - Art's Collage
Hobby Art Anna's Collection - Just for you (the tiny dragonfly from the set)
Clarity Stamps - Jigsaw

I stamped the collage image with Memento dye inks in Potters Clay, Peanut Brittle and Paris Dusk twice. Then stamped the jigsaw puzzle image on top and from one of the panels cut three jigsaw pieces. I added the tiny dragonfly to the main image and coloured him with a silver Wink of Stella pen. The definition is outlined with a gel pen.

This was difficult as I really wanted to choose Juggler for my "J" word and do a circus themed page but I couldn't get my brain around that dragonfly. I don't actually have a decent dragonfly stamp, only the tiny sketchy one I used on this page and a similar bigger version. This is odd considering the vast collection of stamps I have greedily accumulated over the years!

Alpha/Dictionary Challenge 2016

Wishing a belated Happy New Year to all my followers, I have some catching up to do in blogland.

My first post this year is my entry for the Craft Barn Alpha/Dictionary challenge. I have always admired altered book page projects but never tried myself, this year I get to play with this idea.

This fortnight Jane has chosen the letter B so opening my book and thumbing through the pages, which took some time as I just love reading dictionaries anyway, I chose Britain.

I used Ranger archival ink in blue violet and red pepper dye ink for the stamped images, adding a little watercolouring around the edges and to highlight the dictionary definition.
Stamps used :
Indigo Blu : Pomp and Pagentry
Papermania : Portobello Road
Clarity Stamps : Britain map

I had fun with this, looking forward to the next letter.

Rainbow Fish

The challenge on the CASology blog this week is fish. I've not played in the CAS challenges for some time but an idea came to mind last night so I made a card.

I started with a piece of white card just over 14cm long and drew 7 pencil lines 2cm apart. I don't have one of those positioning thingys so a ruler and pencil does the job fine but remember to rub out the pencil after the ink has dried or there will be nasty smudges. Stamp the fish in black archival ink 7 times and colour them red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and purple. Now I have rainbow fish.

I added some bakers twine and the happy birthday sentiment from my Papermania celebration set and mounted it on yellow cardstock that where the bottom edge has been punched with a Tonic Studios paper punch. All mounted on a C6 white card.

The fish is a mini angel fish from Clarity stamps.

Enjoy your Saturday.