Craft Barn alpha Dictionary Challenge #9 A is for Arches....and me

Hey I was up early this morning with Jasper our Lab and while he was doing what dog's do... I was having a coffee and mooching around the computer and found the new Craft Barn alpha -dictionary challenge for this fortnight .... A is for.... Arches. I chose this because I recently bought Sheena Douglass' beautiful Arches stamp.

Background was made using Vintage photo, Rusty hinge, Wild honey and Barn door distress inks smudged randomly then I stamped my arches on with versafine ink... a wet brush was then used  to take out some of the colour in lines .. when blotted with kitchen towel it hopefully gives the effect of light coming in through left hand window. words, ancient, atmospheric & arches were added freehand.

I had to think a bit harder about the second page, and as I was hoovering I remembered some photos I had taken of two bridges  within 5 minutes walk of where I live. The most famous one is Thomas Telford's Menai Suspension Bridge built in 1826 it connects the island of Anglesey with mainland Wales , and the second one is Robert Stephenson's Britannia Bridge, originally when it was built in 1845 to carry trains it was just a tube supported by pillars but after a fire in 1970's they added a new roadway and  the arches to support it.

Choosing a song title for this page was difficult only one I could think of was 'Underneath the Arches' an old 1940's song , I can just vaguely remember Flanagan & Allen singing it. When I googled for other suitable songs this was the one that came out first so I went with it.

Just realised as I came to close this post A is also for ... me.... Annie, Bye xxx

Craft Barn alpha Challenge #8 Letter is W.........and a little bit of Catchup

And so the 8th letter of the Craft Barn Alpha Challenge is W with the added twist of using circles in the background... My word is Wings ...my dictionary definition is  projecting part enabling a bird, insect or bat to fly...

The large wings and text stamps are by Sheena Douglas, Fantasy birds are from Chocolate Baroque, dragonfly & butterfly stamps are from Iindigoblu. Background was created with distress inks through Stampsaway Circles mask, I then used Indigoblu's Bubbles stamp as I thought the masked background wouldn't show up enough in a photo. My song title this time is 'Wind beneath my Wings'

Definition of WING from my dictionary









P.S ..I also took the opportunity to play catch up ... as I have the first 6 letters to do this is going to be work in progress. Today my extra letter was C .... for Circles, Cogs, Clock & Compass.

 Pages were created by laying down some colour and then spraying through Ali's masks with Gold mister and Red firefly cosmic shimmer mister. I then simply added the dictionary meanings of my words in circles in the gaps left by the mask, together with some random words connected to time and compass.

Clock Page

Cogs, Circles & Compass page

I am still feeling my way with journalling but I did feel a bit more random doing these pages .. usually my crafting is quite controlled and thought out. I really enjoyed the freedom to do whatever came into my head. I passed a lovely afternoon getting messy .... that's all xxx Annie

Fussy & Fancy Challenge #87 ... Vintage

Today's Blog post is about Fussy & Fancy's Challenge #87 ....subject ....Vintage. Problem was I had so many ideas racing round my head I couldn't decide where to start. Several attempts ended up in the bin but I finally settled on this one. Problem is Elizabeth Bennet is my favorite Indigoblu stamp,all the work has already been done by Kay Halliwell Sutton she just needs tinting very softly, I really wanted to use her, so nothing else was ever going to feel right. Anyway here she is:

Materials used:

Main Image : Elizabeth Bennet stamp from Indigo blu coloured with promarkes
Background paper : Kanban Lavender Rose paperpack
Spellbinders Grand circles smallest die
Clarity Birdcage stamp
Marianne Clock die
Sentiment & Bird stamp: Papermania Urban stamps Vintage Notes
Crotchet lace from Creative Expressions via Sam Poole's online shop 'Creative Studios'
Flowers: Handmade by me using spellbinders Bitty Blossoms dies

Rose pink pearlised card, Small clock & metal keyhole & key from my crafty stash

Hope you like it, I had so much fun putting it together although distressing paper is a bit alien to me, I like crisp edges but this is my attempt at Shabby Chic meets vintage.

I look forward to seeing your take on this vintage theme, have fun and good luck...

Bye for now

Annie xxx

Pearl Anniversary Card

This post is of a Pearl Wedding card for a friend's husband, my instructions were, no pearls and not sloppy!! It was a hard card to make because I 'm not very good at making cards for men, as I like playing with flowers and lacey girly bits. This is what I have come up with, I used Centura Pearl card and spellbinders:

 

I love the effect of the 4 corners making up the square for the background, I used a very pale duck egg blue card behind it together with a silver mat, then stacked up 3 mats using labels dies to take the peeloff sentiment. I also added a tag and some diecut champagne flutes ... inside i just wrote the words 'Happy Pearl wedding anniversary' and 'Thirty Years together'

 

Just a short post today but I'll be back tomorrow with a Fussy & Fancy post for a new blog challenge, hope you'll like it. Right off to do some more crafting with some goodies that the Postie brought this morning....Bye Annie xxx

 

PS Phew!! Lady has now seen the card and was very pleased with it....a little of bit extra cash for a local charity very close to my heart it is  'Gwynedd Hospice at Home' which helps terminally ill patients to stay in their own homes.

Craft Barn Alpha-Dictionary Challenge #7 R is for...

Well here is another first for me, I have been trying my hand at Art Journalling for a couple of weeks and then while I was looking at the Craft Barn Blog I found this Alpha dictionary Challenge, I have 6 letters to catch up on which will take some time. As the letters are given to us randomly this fortnight's letter was R. It was a close run thing between Romance and Rainbow, Romance lost out because my old dictionary which I am using to cut up for flowers etc didn't have the definition for Romance as in Love ?? don't ask !! it is very old

So here is my Rainbow page very basic and naive but I hope to improve as I go along at least I am getting to look at more experienced  art journalists on the Craft Barn Blog

Clouds background was made using clarity stamps Cloud mask and Stormy skies Adirondack ink, flowers are Indigoblu stamps coloured with Pan pastels rest is freehand.

Some people are actually doing their artwork in an old dictionary , I have bought myself a sketchbook from The Range, I chose it as it had a white canvas cover that I could customise, so far it has just been spritzed through one of Ali's  masks with Cosmic Shimmer Mica Shimmer Mists. I'm sure this will be added to.

An interesting fact I have always hesitated about altering books as I have always been a great lover of books... and then I heard someone say that the majority of secondhand hardback books end up in landfill, so i have changed my mind and whenever I find a hardback book in a charity shop I will buy it to recycle it and give it a new lease of life.
Will I really produce 26 pages ( we have been promised some will have a twist ???) we will have  to wait and see! Well off to link up with Craft Barn Challenge now ...Bye Annie xx

Clarity Challenge 2.. 'In the Garden'

So I have spent days thinking about... a couple more days planning it and now it's finished .... Come into my garden:

 

I have so enjoyed putting this card together, I was very inspired by all the DT samples and you will recognise elements from many of their cards.

I started with 2 8"x8" cards and overlapped them to form the back I scored the 2 outer flaps in half vertically to form a type of foldback gatefold card, this gave me plenty of room to play!

 

I cut an aperture in each of the end flaps, I love Clarity's poppies stamps so I stamped them twice onto heat resistant acetate and embossed them, coloured them in with promarkers and reversed one of them when I put it in the apeture to give me a mirror image. I also added my Mum's favourite quote taken from her schoolgirl autograph book : The Kiss of the Sun,( I was thrilled when Clarity brought it out). Then I planned and made a scene on seperate pieces of card to put behind each of my windows

 

 

 



Next I sketched and set about making my centre scene ... lots of puzzling over masking .. but that's what I love doing ...I spent 40 minutes just puzzling how to create a stack of flowerpots ( as seen in cards by Sazzle & Jane Telford). I find it quite nerve wracking when doing these scenes because right at the last moment you can make a mess of the whole thing by stamping a dodgy image ... I have got quite good at covering stray spots of ink with butterflies etc.  Artistic Licence was used to turn Barbara's lovely little Log Cabin into my garden shed at the top of my garden. The new pointillism stamps came in useful for the border flowers, luckily I had seen Barbara using them yesterday and overstamping  with 2 colours. Of course my Lab Jasper had to put in an appearance because since we have had him our garden is his playground rather than a garden, it's usually littered with his toys and balls. I didn't cut his legs off,honestly it was planned that way :) , as our lawns are not flat & beautifully manicured he is stood behind one of the many hummocks in the grass. :)

 

Lastly I continued the scene around the sides and added 2 Clarity sentiments and I was done.

 

 

This last picture shows how it closes down to fit flat into an 8x8 envelope.

 

Well that's it again for today, it's been a great Clarity weekend with all the programs and plenty of crafty Clarity playtime .... what will I do next ... only thing for certain is ... it'll be crafty

Night, night, xxx Annie

 

Ps just off to link it to Clarity Challenge blog nearly forgot after all that blogging & chatting !!

Clarity Classroom Lesson #15

Well today Clarity Classroom Lesson 15 .. the first one for 3 months. Barbara has designed some stamps which will enable us to add texture as well as colour to lineart stamped images.. a faux Pointillism.

 At first I hadn't been too sure about this set but after three attempts I have a result of sorts  I do like the shading and textures I was able to get... my biggest problem was producing the freehand drawn boat ..it still looks like a rusty bucket, many of the other ladies have mastered it much better than me in fact some of them are even able to craft-a-long with the program and have produced brilliant results.

Well that's it for Saturday it's well past my bedtime but I was determined to give it one last go..
nite nite Annie x