The Craft Barn Weekly Challenge - Tando

This weeks Craft Barn challenge is to use something from the Tando range on a project.

As I have lots of cards to make for March birthdays, it's the ideal opportunity to get cracking on them. The Tando flower stencil I've used on my card has seen plenty of action but I can't say the same about the two bags of Tando butterflies that have been in my possession since the Craft Barn Extravaganza two years ago! I'm sure I bought them with a project in mind but whatever that project was the idea drifted from my brain some time ago.

To begin, I applied a background of Distress Inks before brushing around the flower stencil, again with Distress Ink. I had intended the postmark to be at more of an angle and slightly off the top edge but it didn't go to plan and as this was second attempt (I dropped the postmark stamp on my first piece, sadly nowhere near were I wanted it) and was running out of time so it had to do. The butterfly was painted with Fresco paint, stamped and then covered in Fresco Metallic Glaze.

The photograph has distorted the colours somewhat - the butterfly is a paler pink in real life and the background is more orangey than red.

Card Recipe
Card
Craftworkcard Digital Ultra Smooth Premium Cardstock
Bazzill card
Card Blank - Anna Maria Designs, Super Smooth, Super White, Printer Card 300gsm
Inks/Paints
Distress Inks- Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door, Worn Lipstick
PaperArtsy Fresco Paint - London Bus, Snowflake, Metallic Glaze
Ranger Archival Ink - Watering Can
Stamps
Wishing You - Crafty Individuals CI-410
Postmark - Crafty Individuals
Happy Birthday - Woodware JWS03
Script - PaperArtsy MN44
Trail - 4th Dimension
Other
Tando Butterfly BUTFLYGRB

The Craft Barn Calendar Challenge - February

Red and hearts have to feature somewhere on February's Craft Barn Calendar Challenge entry.

I used the wrinkle free distress ink technique for the background of this tag. Rather than just using red (Festive Berry Distress Ink) which may have looked like a nasty nose bleed on the card, I mellowed it by adding Crushed Olive. I stamped  a couple of extra hearts and stuck one directly onto the stamped image and the other under Glossy Accents on a bottle cap. The bottle cap was painted around the edge with PaperArtsy Fresco's "London Bus" and then a coat of their Metallic Gloss was added at which point it turned a bit pink rather than the red I hoped for. A little lace was added and a piece of seam binding coloured with Distress Ink and that's February tag in the bag. I feel as if the year is already rushing by!

Tag Recipe 
Card
Anna Maria Designs Super Smooth, Super White, Printer Card 300gsm  
Ink/Paint
Distress Inks - Worn Lipstick, Crushed Olive, Walnut Stain
Versafine - Onyx Black, Satin Red
PaperArtsy Fresco Paint - London Bus, Metallic Glaze 
Stamp
Crafty Individuals  CI-224  
Other
Lace
Bottle top
Seam binding

The Craft Barn Weekly Challenge - Shoe

The weekly challenge on the Craft Barn blog is to make a shoe related project.

My entry is a shoe birthday card using one of Sara Sandberg's  templates to be found on the Cardmaking Paradise website.

I don't own a cutting machine so any template has to be hand cut and this one is so easy to cut. I added some distress ink around the edges of the shoe and a bit of glitter on a few of the flowers but neither of these show up very well in my photos.

Card Recipe
Bazzill card
Scrapbook paper
Worn Lipstick Distress Ink
Self adhesive tear drop pearls
Stickles glitter

The Craft Barn Weekly Challenge - Mini Albums

Way back in August 2013 I took part in an atc swap over at Cardmaking Paradise but I have never got around to displaying the cards properly. This week's Craft Barn challenge was just the spur I needed - to make a mini album.

I started by cutting a piece of 12"x 12" down to A4 size before stamping and stencilling both sides with Fresco paints -  Bora Bora and Nougat mixed together. I then folded the paper to make the mini album. Card for the covers were inked over with Distress Ink and then homemade dimensional paste coloured with the paint mix was applied through the cornflower stencil. Touches of were Treasure Gold applied once dry. I attached eight polythene atc sleeves to the inside pages to hold and  protect the cards. I have misplaced one but I think I know where it is but probably involves removing a lot from my craft room before I can retrieve it. I (or it) may be gone sometime!

 Mini Album Recipe 
Card/Paper
Tim Holtz "Vintage Shabby" scrapbook paper
Xerox Colortech + card
Paints
PaperArtsy Fresco paint - Nougat and Bora Bora
Frayed Burlap Distress Ink
Homemade dimensional paste
Treasure Gold - White Fire 
Stamps/ Stencils
Swirl stamp - Judikins C351
Stencils -The Crafter's Workshop - Mini Cornflowers TCW375s and Mini Art Is TCW261s
Circles - punchinella 
Other
Ribbon
Atc polythene sleeves