Still Playing Catch Up over at The Craft Barn

J is for Joker

Getting there slowly, just a few more to catch up on.  My choice of word for the letter J is Joker.  I covered the pages with harlequin and gold tissue papers then made three tiny ATC sized envelopes, embossed at the top and lined with gold tissue paper for the tiny Joker cards.  the image on the right I layered on the contrasting paper to match after embossing the edges with gold.  Sticker letters and the dictionary entry finish the card.  Please take a few moments to check out my other catch up letters below.  Link to the challenge can be found HERE

Off to enjoy the other posts, thanks for looking and comments and suggestions are always welcome.

T is for Tulip

The tulip is one of my favourite flowers, it heralds Spring with such vibrant colour.  To echo this I used Gelatos for a dripped background on gesso.  Stamps and stencils remove and add colour to the pages.

Y is for Yurt

The letter over at the Craft Barn is Y with some yellow on your page.  I chose the word Yurt.  Sprayed glimmer mist through stencils background.  Texture paste spread through leaf stencil and painted black then highlighted with Viva paste.  Window cut through several layers to reveal the inside of a yurt.  On the outside of the window is another photo of a yurt.

B is for Bathing Beauties, Beige, Black, Border, Brown, Brownie

Beige brown striped paper background, harlequin stamp, Edwardian girls at the seaside photo with black die cut border.  A cardstock sticker of a Brownie box camera and a rub on word.  All with a lace border.

Christmas Cards - Step

Finally got round to making a few of my Christmas cards.  I bought a Cutz Mountain Lodge die last January in the sales and this is the first project I have made with it.  On the left side I embossed the white cardstock with a holly embossing folder and coloured the berries with bright red stickles.  On the right side I frosted the trees, the background stamped cardstock and mountain lodge diecut with crystal glitter.  

From the side it looks like this, instructions for the construction of the card can be found on Youtube.

 I made a couple of alternative cards using blue and white cardstocks, each one is pretty in its own right but I much prefer the black and white version.

Craft Barn Dictionary Challenge Catch-up

G is for Gable

 

Sorry for my long absence, so many letters to catch up on, had my hip replacement and been to England to stay for 6 weeks with my daughter and my grandsons, oh what fun we had.  To continue on with my altered dictionary challenge over at The Craft Barn Blog HERE for the letter G I have painted a watercolour of a barn showing the gable end.

 

If you have time please look at my other letters below that I have finished so far, still got a few more to go but on my way. 



 

U is for Urban Decay

 

 

Seen to much these days, I found this photo of what was once a splendid building.  So far I it has not been painted with graffiti, so I added some of my own.  My first ever attempt at this art form, and believe me it is not easy. 

 

 

F is for Ferruginous

 

 

The colour of iron rust.  Acrylic paints in black, rust red, yellow and orange brayered onto Tyvek and stuck to the pages to make the background.  The same colours used to stencil across the bottom of the page.  Two pockets torn from the painted Tyvek on the right side hold tags of red headed girls and the main picture on the left is matted onto blue cardstock and edged with gold marker.

 

K is for Knot

 



 

 

Love this photograph on the right of rope knots had to use it.  6 knots tied with cord and mounted on cardstock.  Tried to get a nautical feel to the pages with the use of red, white and blue colours.

 

A is for Aquarium

 

 

Two zipper plastic bags filled with hair gel and placed on a mixture of blue sprayed background with stamped fish and ferns.  Frames of cardstock hide the edges of the bags.  The cheaper the hair gel the more bubbles you get in it.

 

W is for Wall

 

 

 

I removed a piece of from the keyboard of my computer which made a perfect stencil for the wall.  First coated pages with gesso, printed a picture of poppies in a field (circle heads) and stuck it to the pages.  Cut 3" circles from cardstock to mask the "hole" and masked an inch strip along the top with paper.  Another coat of gesso over the whole page, let it dry.  Keyboard mask down sprayed with watered down ink. Flower stamps coloured with Twinkling H2Os.

R is for Robin's-egg Blue

  I chose Robin's-egg Blue for my letter "R".  I used my water soluble oil pastels for the background, nest and eggs.  Stamped an American Robin in brown Stazon ink and coloured it in with the oil pastels too.  Die cut silhouette letters on robin's egg blue speckled paper backgrounds (though you can't see the paper clearly in my photo) finish my page.







Garden Art Butterfly, Butterfly Feeder, Butterfly House, Dragonfly, Abstract Garden Art and Potting Benches- Welded Metal and Woodwork

As you can see below my partner has been very busy welding some garden art from scrap metal while I have been recovering.  I love his creativity by up-cycling old pieces of metal to create something for my garden.  

A butterfly for the new butterfly garden, my flowers need to grow up a bit but give them time.

A butterfly feeder made out of a chips and dip tray and a sauce holder and mesh scourers.

A dragon fly to accompany it

This is what my daughter calls Road Runner

A fish jumping after a dragonfly

A trellis for our Monkey Brush Vine

Butterfly House

Finally, potting benches for my orchid shade house, notice the new trellises at the end for my Passionflower incense (smells wonderful) and Thunbergia mysorensis Acanthaceae.  

I am so lucky to have such a wonderfully gifted and practical man.

Bracelet for a dear friend

This is my take on one of the bracelets from Melanie Doerman's book "the Art of FORGOTTEN Things".  I made this bracelet for a very dear friend of mine I hope she enjoys it.  The leaves are Lucite, the charms are bead flowers, the button an antique that was asking to be decorated with matching beads.  It took a long time to make but I had plenty of that after my operation.

Altered Book Alpha Challenge - P is for Pirate and Privateer

Thank you everyone for your kind comments last challenge, I really enjoyed looking at everyone's work.  As you know I have just had a total hip replacement that has left me unable to do much crafting, if any.  But I just had to keep up with this one.  The background is a copy of a treasure map showing the wrecks of the Spanish Fleet around the coast of Florida, aged with walnut ink,on top of which is my favourite drawing of Blackbeard the Pirate, gold doubloons, rubies, pearls, gold ingots and emeralds all caught in a net along the bottom.  A copy of a Letter of Marque on onion paper singed at the edges with a wax seal and my torn out dictionary piece for Pirate and Privateer finish off the spread.

At the moment I am not supposed to bend more than 90 degrees so sitting and typing is banned.  Got my partner to do this for me.  I will continue to look at and enjoy everyone's work but comments will be few and far between.

Link to challenge HERE

Altered Book Alpha Challenge - M is for Mask

Thank you everyone for your wonderfully encouraging comments last week for my watercolour sunflowers.  My entry this week in the Craft Barns Alpha Challenge HERE is a 3 dimensional page made with Sculpey. The inspiration for this spread was from a piece of work that I saw by a Swedish lady, Mikaela, whose work with Fimo is amazing.  Two pieces of cardstock form the base for the pages and a thin layer of sculpey transparent placed on top.  After stamping and creating texture with chains I made two eyes from yellow cardstock with a pupil drawn on each and then stuck with glossy accents to flat bottomed glass rounds, the type used in floral decorations.  Each eye was surrounded with clay and  moulded to form the lids.  Tiny cuts for lashes and balls of clay surround the eye to give it dimension, some of which are squashed flat to make the scales.

 A vine of clay, leaves and the word mask are additional decoration.  I have used a base coat of black gesso and then rubbed with olive green and copper Inka Gold to highlight the stamping and texture of the pages.

May not make the next challenge for a while as having a total hip replacement and not sure how comfortable I will feel at my crafting desk, but I will try my best to keep up. 

Kids Daily Calendar

I made this for my grandsons so that when I go to visit I can start the day off with learning about the date, season, weather and give them a chance to try to identify how they are feeling that day.  I have put some cards in with activities that we will do together on the days my daughter is at work.  I put a section at the bottom where they can stick stars on when they have been good or helped in some way.  Everything is made of felt except for the clear plastic pockets, edging and activity cards.  My daughter says they both benefit from knowing what they will be doing during the day, so I hope they like this activity with their "nanny".

Altered Book Alpha Challenge - H is for Heliotrope

The Alpha Challenge over at The Craft Barn HERE this fortnight is the letter H.  Sunflowers are one of my favourite flowers and my page this time is H for heliotrope, any plant that turns to face the sun.  The head of a sunflower will follow the path of the sun through the day and I chose them for my watercolour pages.

Thank you everyone for the wonderful comments you left me last week, I look forward to seeing all of your pages for this letter.

Mouse in a Tin

I made these two mice in Altoid tins for my grandsons.  I got the idea from Pinterest and they are made from small scraps of material with felt for ears arms and feet.  My grandsons are at a very nurturing stage so my daughter said they would love something like this.  One of them asked me just the other day to make something and send it to them, hope they like them.