It's beginning to look a bit like Autumn...

Well hello there!

I'm conscious that the blog has been rather quiet recently, but I have been preparing a whole host of projects with my newly appointed craft barn design team member hat on, so watch this space!!

For now, I wanted to share a little autumnal make with you. This is the first autumn that I have owned a dog and I am so grateful that it gets me out in the woods every day so I can truly see the season changing. This year seems to be a particularly good one for mushrooms so if you're out and about, keep your eyes peeled!

This card is made with some paper from my stash, a bit of gold sheen vellum and of course a lovely penny black hedgie stamp coloured with promarkers. I used sizzix autumn gatherings die to cut the leaves out of gold paper and vellum and stuck them down with quickie glue. I have found it's a really good glue on vellum as it doesn't show through.

Take care and enjoy the sunshine while it lasts!

Lou x

Linking in to the following challenges;

Penny black and more

Penny Black Saturday

Stamping Sensations

Simon Says Stamp - Work it Wednesday

Crafty individuals clean and simple style

I've had the idea for this card in my head ever since the crafty individuals less is more theme was announced . Today I finally got to put it on to paper!

I cut a wave shaped mask and stuck it down with repositionable glue. Next I stamped the dragonflies in clear embossing ink before lifting part of the mask to stamp the greeting in black. I embossed all of the stamping in clear embossing powder and repositioned the mask ready to blend a selection of distress inks over the top. To give it a finishing touch, I added a few dabs of alchemy wax.

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

Fintastic!

Hi There!

Today I'm sharing the card I made for my husband on our 8th anniversary which was on Tuesday. Having had a beautiful set of inktense pencils for my birthday, as well as stitched circle dies, it seemed only fair that I have a play at using them to make this card.

 The stamps are from Lawn Fawn's fintastic friends set which are proving to be very versatile indeed!

I'd like to put this card forward for the following challenges;

Allsorts - Anniversaries
Penny black and more - add a sentiment
Stamping Sensations - one for the boys
Simon Wednesday - Clean and simple
Simon Monday - At the movies (I feel it has a bit of a Finding Nemo/Finding Dory feel to it)

H is for...

Oops! I've had such a strange work shift pattern recently I hadn't actually clocked that it was Sunday! Nearly missed the craft barn dictionary deadline and only just remembered in time.

I picked a nice simple word, Haw, fruit of the hawthorn. My hubby and I once went foraging for them and turned them in to Haw ketchup, it tasted awful!!!

This page was simply made with watercolour paints and liquid pearls. I moved the dictionary when the liquid pearls were still wet and the page flicked over and printed some spots on the opposite page. I think it's my favourite part of the design!

Thanks for stopping by. I know things have been a bit quiet on here lately but hopefully I'll have a bit more time again now work has settled down!

Z is for...

Well this is probably the latest I've ever submitted a dictionary challenge entry, but still just about in time!! I didn't really have the energy for crafting this evening but once I got going I found it hard to stop!
The challenge set by the craft barn was Z, including a pearl. In keeping with my natural theme I chose Z for zinnia.

I wasn't totally sure what they looked like, so having run a quick Google search I rummaged for some paper artsy stamps that I thought looked suitably similar and then coloured them with my brightest promarkers! (If you do happen to search for zinnias ever, make sure to wear your sunglasses, the results are blindingly bright!!!)

Anyway, enough chat, here's my page

As mentioned it was necessary to include a pearl so I used liquid pearls in bisque and garnet for the centre of the flowers. I also added a fair amount of doodling to finish off.
Thanks for stopping by.
 Lou x
I'd like to enter this in to the following challenges (as well as the craft barn)
Simon Wednesday - make for the border
Penny black and more- anything goes
Stamping sensations- anything goes
Allsorts- fabulous florals

Containing myself!

This week I've combined the altenew inspiration challenge (see pic below) and the Simon Says Stamp challenge 'Try to contain yourself' challenge to share this little make with you. I purchased a set of mini mdf drawers from 'the mdf man' at a show a while back and have only just got around to having a play with them.

I painted them in Annie Sloan Chalk paints (old white and paloma) and then stamped the layered altenew rose stamp set on three of the drawers using versa colour ink pads. Quite a straight forward make but perfect for holding all the bits and bobs on my dressing table!

As well as the previously mentioned challenges, I'd also like to enter this in to the following;

Stamping sensations - anything goes

Penny black and more - anything stamping goes

Inspiration for the Altenew challenge