Autumn glow

Yesterday my first ever craft barn dt post went live:) I thought I would share the project here too although you can see the full tutorial on their website here.

 This scene was stamped using card-io pleasant pastures on to tissue paper with a distress ink background.

I affixed it to a jam jar using watered down PVA.

And added a few finishing touches to create an autumnal lantern.

I'd like to enter this project in to the autumn challenges at Stamping sensations and Penny black and more.

O is for...

Good evening!

Tonight I am sharing the next installment of my dictionary for the craft barn alpha/dictionary challenge. The chosen letter is O and although I've spotted a few other people who've picked this word, I couldn't resist...
 O is for Owl :)

I have a lovely set of hobby art owls which were out to good use in the making of this page!

I never like to fully hide the dictionary page, but I did feel that text all over the owls would be too much so I used a bit of chalk paint to roughly cover the background.

Next I added in the bark stamps and smooshes of ground espresso distress ink applied with a paint brush.

The owls are coloured with inktense pencils and I finished off with some spots of glitter and started to light up the sky.

That's all for now, thanks for calling by.

Lou x

K is for...

Ok, if I'm honest I've cheated a bit with this one. See I went through my dictionary and wasn't sure what to choose and then my new set of lawn fawn stamps arrived. I so wanted to use them I've slightly shoehorned them in on the basis that K is for...

Kelp

a large type of seaweed according to the definition in this dictionary. 

Of course all I need now is a dog and I could enter both of the current craft barn challenges!!!

However, failing that, I'd like to enter this in to the craft barn dictionary challenge , cutie pie splish splash splosh challenge and stamping sensations feature a creature challenge.

An inky summer garden

This week's theme at Simon Monday is a summer garden. When I saw it I knew I absolutely had to take part but it's taken till now to find the time - eek!
Anyway after a good inky fingers session this morning here is what I've come up with.

There's a mix of stamps used here from Lavinia, hobby art, crafty individuals and penny black. I've used mainly distress inks, blended, spritzed and stamped, although there is some fineliner and gel ink highlights added in. I finished it all with a good dose of wink of Stella but this is the best photo I could get off that I'm afraid.

I'd like to enter this in to:

SSS Monday - summer garden

Craft stamper- get inky 

Penny black and more- flower power

Little Claire- create a scene

Penny black Saturday- birthdaysI decided against adding a birthday message after some deliberation but as this card is destined for a birthday girl I'm hoping it still counts!)

The big 100!

As the title suggests this is my 100th blog post since starting on a blogging venture almost a year ago! I make no apologies for the longer length of this post - it's a special one, hopefully with something of interest for everyone!

I start with the previously promised tour of my new craft space. It was high time I had a proper space - no more running up and down the stairs between the craft cupboard and the kitchen table every time I thought of something I needed!

There was a pretty tight budget involved here. We already owned the shelving unit although it wasn't previously in use. The table top and two drawer units came from Ikea along with the shiny new lamp which was the one extravagance. Also new from Ikea were the white magazine boxes giving a total spend of just under £100. The little brown tubs are ones I have been collecting for some while. Riverford send us our veg in them but I thought they would be perfect for all those little bits and pieces! 

The set of drawers immediately to my left contains all the things I need to have 'grab-able.' Top down this is; Ink pads, stationery and sticky things, colouring pens and pencils, glitters, embossing powders and liquid pearls, card blanks, paper pads.

A closer look in a couple of drawers. I'm really enjoying the ink pads laid out in a single layer - so easy to pick the one you want! Nothing is labelled yet to give me time to check it all works and make any changes I need to.

On the shelves the little boxes are filled with all sorts from punches to paints to smaller acrylic stamps. The magazine style white boxes house more stamps, dies, craft magazines and scraps of paper. Wooden stamps are in the mini chests of drawers below so that everything is in reach.

At some point I hope to have a little pin board on the wall in front of my work space and this handy chart will definitely be on it! I found it the other day on the hobby art website along with some others. It's so useful, you colour the squares that you have which not only gives you a quick reference guide to what you own, but also shows the pens true colours. 

Under the shelves are a few more key bits and pieces - scrap book papers, stickers, rub-ons and embellishments stored in the folders and a range of miscellaneous items stored in the giant shoe box. 

Now for the shameful bit. This is my ribbon box :0

I'd love to hear how you all organise your ribbons or if you have any top tips because I'm stumped! some ribbons are on rolls or card and they're fine but it's the really silly scraps that I just haven't got tamed! 

Ok, so that's the tour. Now on to a few cards eh?!

A super simple LIM. I fell out with the inlaid die technique in a big way after my last attempt but when I cut this new Sheena Douglas die it was just crying out for it. It's fair to say the technique and I have made peace again! This is based on the less is more sketch. I'd also like to throw it in the mix for casology's CAS 200 challenge.

I had been wondering how to address the Penny Black Saturday 'Masculine' challenge when I found this PB stickeroos yachting set. I teamed it with papers from Basic Grey and Kanban (fitting with the 2xpapers craft barn challenge) and added some green ribbon layered with the grosgrain ribbon. (For the crafty ribbons masculine challenge)

This one hasn't photographed well but it was another attempt at a shaker card. I mixed a magic potion (ingredients photographed below) masked part of the card and spritzed away. The flamingo is a magazine freebie die backed with some pink paper from the stash and filled with pink beadazzleds. The sentiment is from craftwork cards. I made this card with the allsorts pink challenge, SSS Mask it challenge and SSS monochrome challenge in mind. It was based on the Less is More sketch and suitable for the celebrations at AAA cards.

PHEW, what a long post! I'm glad you stayed with me to the end! TTFN Lou x

Pop art?

Being a little short on card making time at the moment I've had a go at combining a few challenges in this one card. Little Claires theme is Butterflies - that's straight forward enough. At Simon Wednesday the theme is 'Fun with Felt' so I used a felt butterfly by do-crafts. Simon Monday have the theme 'Make a wish' so I used craftwork cards birthday wishes sentiment stamps. AAA cards are celebrating their 2nd birthday, so this is the birthday card for them. Finally Less is More have the theme of 'things that pop or bang'.... can you guess? I used bubble wrap stuck around my acrylic block to make the background! It's my favourite thing that 'pop's' after all :)

Thanks for stopping by! Lou x

Saints, Dragons and Heros

Well they couldn't have timed it better over at Less is More, the same day my new Lavinia Stamps dragon arrived from the Craft Barn, they announced a dragon themed challenge! Unfortunately as Friday tends to be my crafting day, I've had to wait until now to have a play with it.

I teamed the dragon up with another Lavinia stamp - the castle, as well as a little inky goodness to make the rocky background et voila! Very simple I know, but then this is Less is More. I tied my colour scheme in to the Craft Barn challenge too (especially since that's where the stamp came from) to match their red and black theme this week.

Butterflies and Happiness

Hello!

I simply couldn't let Simon Says Stamp's Butterfly Beauty challenge pass me by this week, I just love crafting with butterflies!

I made this card with a Sheena Douglas stamp set that my Mum gave me.

I stamped the sentiment first and embossed it to make it stand out. The butterflies were stamped and masked while I smooshed a good bit of distress ink around the page. I added the flowers and grasses from the set also in distress ink and sprayed a bit of smooch spritz for the splatter effect. Finally I peeled off the masks and added some colour to the butterflies and some highlights using white gel pen.

I'd like to enter this card in to the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge,, Craft stamper spring flowers and Stamping Sensations challenge - one for the girls.

Washi tape, polka dots and more

I had a little card making time this morning, so I decided to combine a few challenges to come up with this. Less is more are asking for creations with polka dots, Little Claires and Simon says stamp wednesday have 'anything goes' challenges running, ATCAS are looking for delicate creations and CASology want to see washi tape used. 

I started with the polka dot washi tape and stamped Little Claires bicycle stamp in impress chocolate ink. I added ranger's ground espresso distress ink around the edge and some delicate punched paper flowers with a liquid pearl dot in the centre of each. The whole thing is mounted on 3D foam mounts.

Thanks for stopping by today, Lou x

What's outside your window?

This week I have had the honor of being a guest designer at Less is More. Their theme for the week is 'What's outside you window?'

For me, the answer to this is the stunning Devon countryside with occasional glimpses of Dartmoor rising up in the distance.  I hope I shall never take these beautiful views for granted and couldn't be given such a topic without acknowledging them. With that in mind, the first card I wish to share with you is this one;

The window frame is a sizzix die cut, mounted on 3D foam mounts. I used a selection of distress and versa colour inks to create the landscape. I tore along the edge of a piece of paper and used this as a mask while I inked, starting with the sky and working downwards to create the layered hills.

 

The flower in the vase and the sentiment come from a papermania stamp set. I coloured them with promarkers, cut out and again fixed with 3D foam mounts. For a final flourish I coated the flower and vase with glossy accents. 

And here is our lovely view, just so I haven't kept it all to myself!

For the second card on this theme, I wanted to play around with the idea of the windows a bit more. I was trying to think about how to make them a little different. I came up with the idea of portholes as they have the more unusual shape.

At this point I'm sure you're expecting me to tell you I die cut the circles. Alas no. For some reason I've never got as far as purchasing a circle die set so the inside of the circle was punched out with a woodware punch. I have a strange compass type thing with a blade attached which while rummaging through my stash I occasionally stab my finger on (why didn't it come with a cover?!) Imagine my joy when I realised I finally had a use for it! After several attempts I got a satisfactory measurement and cut the outer edge of the portholes. 

I gilded them in bronze Stix2 foil and added brown brads. The inside of the portholes was done by masking the card and stamping a wave stamp from a papermania set called 'Ahoy there.' I added the sentiment from this set and a doodled border in blue fineliner. To finish off I added wink of stella to the waves for a bit of sparkle.

This close up shows the shine a little better.

Thanks for stopping by today, I'd love to hear what you think of these projects, do you have a favourite? Please call again soon!

R is for...

This week over at the Craft Barn, the letter for the alphabet challenge is R. They also have their fortnightly challenge running which is to create a background with circles. I've combined the two for my entry this week where R is for...

Reptile 

I inked the whole page lightly first, then  added circles of colour using home made stencils.

 My dictionary has diagrams illustrating some of the words and reptile was one of them, which made it particularly appealing. Unfortunately on the opposite page was a full diagram of reproductive organs! Since we all already know what they look like I made the most of some reptile shaped die cuts strategically placed to ensure consistency in the theme!
I added a bit of journalling and shed loads of liquid pearls dotted everywhere to finish it off.

Distressed!

I couldn't miss the opportunity to take part in Casology's 'distress' challenge this week with the fabulous lawn fawn as their sponsors. Here's the first card I made on the theme of distress

I started by stamping hobby art's cracked paint background in châteaux grey versa ink, then stamped crafty individuals floral postage stamp in DI using second generation stamping for a more faded look. I inked both images with different coloured distress inks and tore round the edges. They are mounted using 3d foam mount squares and the sentiment is another from crafty individuals. As well as Casology, I would like to enter this in to the craft barn's less is more challenge with flowers as there are flowers on the stamps :)

One Layer Stem

This week's Less is More challenge is one layer, including a stem, the perfect opportunity to try out some new stamps I picked up from Hobby Art.
I stamped the bird first and then masked it while inking the background with distress inks. I then added in the grasses stamp. I've coloured it with promarkers and added a little wink of stella to the leaves for a bit of added interest.
As well as entering the Less is more challenge, I'd also like to put my name forward for their DT call (exciting stuff!)
I'm also putting this card forward as a loose interpretation of Addicted to CAS's 'Bloom' challenge.

F is for...

This week the Craft barn dictionary challenge letter is F. The added twist is that there has to be a heart included somewhere on the page.

Having done a couple of fairly serious entries I wanted to have a bit of fun with this one.
I chose to make my page about FROGS!
I kept things pretty simple by using some penny black stickeroos for the images. The background is made with a combination of ink blending and stamping bubble wrap and spritz effect hobby art stamps. I stenciled on the all important hearts and added a few extra bits such as the gingham ribbon.

As well as the craft barn challenge I'd also like to enter this in to the following challenges;
Penny black Saturday - red or hearts
Craft Stamper - text me
Crafty ribbons- leap, for the leap year!

Happy owliversary!

Hi There!
Wow, it seems like a long time since I last blogged. I got the craft table back in action today while the pup had a big sleep (he had his first jab yesterday and vet said this might be one of the benefits side effects ) Who could resist that beautiful face though eh?!

Still, on with the important matter of crafting!

This card has been made with the hobby art owls stamp set and the textures stamp set. The background has been inked with DI in ground espresso with a touch of carved pumpkin thrown in for good measure.

I die cut the scalloped circle and the bunting leaves and attached them to a piece of natural twine. The whole image is coloured with promarkers.  I doodled a border with fine liner and will add some glossy accents to the owls eyes when I find a pin to unclog the nozzle with!

I'd like to enter this card in to the following challenges;

Little Claire's - Bunting

Crafty ribbons - animals

Penny Black and more - anything with a die

Stamping sensations - anything goes

A thought for 2016

So did anyone watch the queens speech on Christmas day?! I must confess I never have done before but did for the first time this year. HM was talking about how it had been quite a 'dark' year in many ways, think; Paris attacks, flooding, refugee crisis etc and it is easy to see where she was coming from. In my personal life, 2015 was a pretty tough year and included a fair number of unexpected trials. The Queens message didn't stop there however and she quoted the passage from John 1v1 in the bible, which says; 'The light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not overcome it.'

Personally I found it a really encouraging message (you never know, I might even watch again next year!) It is easy in the midst of things to start feeling hopeless and as though evil, be it in the form of famine, war, terrorism or natural disaster, is taking control. What this passage is saying is that although these terrible goings on are happening all around us, they are not enough to overcome the good that is also in the world. 

I decided it was time to focus on the good a bit more. I am determined that 2016 will go better than 2015 and I came up with this little crafty project to help me on my way. (Lets face it, all good ideas need a crafty project to help!)

This is my jar of hope for 2016. As you can see in the picture there are some little tags attached to the outside. As the year progresses I plan to write the good things that happen on these tags and post them in the jar. At the end of the year, no matter what else has gone on, I will be able to look back over all the good things from 2016. 

    

I used a large flat sided kilner jar and covered it in torn pieces of blue mulberry paper glued on with a mix of pva and water. This represented the 'darkness.' I added a moon shaped mask and inked on a moon and stars using a Lavinia stamp. I also added brilliance moonlight white ink directly over some areas.

I cut four panels of K and Co paper, used a circle punch to create inverted round corners and drew a border with a brown fineliner. I then stamped Crafty individuals 'stamp a meadow' set and stuck each panel to the jar. I wanted to show plants growing in the night as a way of representing light in the darkness.

I printed the text using hero arts alphabet sets and cut the individual words out. Finally I finished off using bits and bobs, a few buttons and a ribbon from crafty ribbons. 

For the tags I printed on scrapbook paper from my stash using Crafty individuals stamps from a variety of sets (I'm absolutely loving the dragonflies at the moment!) and giving them a more varied look by applying bits of DI in tumbled glass. 

As you can see for the lid I die cut a scalloped circle, added more stamping and distress ink and finished off with buttons.

Thanks for stopping by today. I'd love to hear if anyone else is doing a new year inspired make?

Id like to enter this make in to the following challenges;

Craft stamper; take it make it

Crafty individuals; lace, buttons, bits andbobs

Stamping sensations; Anything with a die

Crafty ribbons; Fabulous flowers

B is for...

This is the challenge that I have been most excited about getting started on. I remember seeing snippets of the Craft Barn's last alphabet/dictionary challenge but I wasn't on the blogger scene back then so this is all new and exciting for me.

It's not being done in alphabetical order and this is the first week, so,

B is for.... buttons... bees...burst....balloons....?

I considered all of these before deciding B is for ....

Butterflies!

I couldn't help myself, Butterflies were the theme for our wedding and I just love them. Whenever I can I photograph butterflies and in my minds eye I had a bit of an idea about what I might do. All I had to do was work out how to make it work!

First off I drew round the definition with my fine liner. I'm really enjoying the fact that my dictionary has the occasional picture in it, and this just happened to be one of them, so I went around that too.

Next I inked all around the edges of the page with tumbled glass distress ink. After that (although not pictured here) I added a bit of bundled sage DI, including inking some through a memory box floral stencil.

I die cut this little memory box garden and butterfly die in a beautiful basic grey paper called blush, and added a little bundled sage DI.

I now set about punching out a LOT of butterflies, as well as cutting round some that occurred on the gorgeous memory box paper 'butterfly ballet' I inked them all randomly with splashes of tumbled glass.

I folded a couple more strips of blush paper and balanced them on the dictionary, then I set about layering up the butterflies, balancing them one on top the other and sticking with a strong adhesive.

I stamped one of the stamps from the Little Claire's butterfly tree set in both lower corners of the pages and coloured with watercolour pencils.

A few more embellishments followed, including some punched flowers and spots of liquid pearls, and there you have it, week one of the dictionary challenge! It just about works as a pop up page but I am very cautious opening it!

I used the following materials for this make;

Distress ink; tumbled glass, bundled sage.

Versa colour; Neptune

Inkssentials blender

Memory box stencil; Garden floral confetti

Memory box die; Garden and butterflies (actual name unknown!)

Basic Grey paper; Blush, Admire

Memory box paper; Minuet, Butterfly Ballet

Woodware Butterfly punch small and medium

Little Claires stamps; Butterfly Tree

Derwent; Watercolour pencils

Liquid pearls; Garnet

Stickles; Eucalyptus

As well as the Craft Barn challenge, I would also like to enter this in

The Butterfly challenge (Butterflies and ink) 

Craft stamper TIMI challenge (Take a stamp)

Stamping sensations - anything with a die