Tea Break Craft Classes

I had planned a lazy Sunday today. I watched a couple of Eileen Godwin's youtube videos this morning which prompted me to head to my craft room for a bit of a play. The ironing will have to wait, who cares when there are interesting things to do.
Whilst the technique was fresh in my mind, I made two panels and mounted them on cards. I made two as I was pretty sure I would mess at least one of them up but I am quite pleased with both results.

The video is here if you want a watch, short enough to watch during a tea break:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ktNf5vqqLY

Stencils used : Paperartsy - JOFY PS009 and Tim Holtz - Shatter
Stamp : bubbles from JOFY 09
Distress Inks : Picked Rasberry, Peacock Feathers and Wild Honey with Black Soot to finish
White pen, gold gel pen and sequins to embellish (note: those larger sequins are silver, they look black in the photo).

This was good fun to do and great practice for layering.
Thanks to Eileen for the inspiration today.

Alpha/Dictionary Challenge 2016 : Q

Which word should I pick for the letter Q? The obvious answer is "Question" as the Q words are darting through my head and I am wondering which one to choose.
This is my page for the Craft Barn Alpha/Dictionary Challenge :

What I am finding most challenging at the moment is working with the very thin dictionary pages. For this attempt, I gave the pages a thin wash of gesso avoiding the definition on the page. I like the look of the words fading away in the background but it still does not strengthen the pages.
Taking a photo of this outside today also proved a challenge as it is still windy, the tail end of last night's storm, but I got it, ha! - just need to be patient.

Materials used:
White Gesso
Stencil : Any Skinner "Have Your Say" by Tando Creative
Distress inks : Blueprint Sketch, Dusty Concord, Weathered Wood
Stamp : Dreamer by Inkylicious
Tim Holtz Chit Chat stickers
Doodling with a black fineliner pen

So I will leave you with a question;
What do we talk about when there is nothing to talk about?

Hat Crazy

This is my entry for the Craft Barn Weekly challenge. The theme this week is "Hats".

Stamps used :

Tim Holtz Flower Garden CMS215

Tim Holtz Bird Crazy CMS212

All images are coloured with distress markers. The flowers and stalks are stamped onto white stamping card, cut out and mounted on the background. The bird is stamped on watercolour card. All mounted on a 7 x 5 Kraft card.

I was planning on doing a series of ATCs for this "hat" challenge but I had seen a similar idea from one of the TH design team and wanted to give it a try. Don't those flowers make great hats!

Happy Saturday everyone.

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.

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.