The Craft Barn Fortnightly Challenge - Blue

Good grief, it's only the end of August and I've made a Christmas card! I've had the new Crafty Individuals robin stamp sitting on my desk for a couple weeks waiting to be inked and I decided to team him up with some blue snowflakes. Blue is the the theme of this fortnight's Craft Barn Challenge.

I stamped the snowflakes directly on the card blank using Brilliance ink. The stamp was a freebie from Craft Stamper magazine a few years ago and it has been well used. The robin was watercoloured with Distress Inks before cutting out.  The sentiment was stamped, embossed with silver fine detail powder and matted onto a piece of card that had been edged with the Brilliance ink. I thought the bird needed some Christmas cheer so I gave him a little Hero Arts Santa hat.

One Christmas card down but I have no doubt the rest won't be made until we hit December, as usual!

Card recipe
Card
Craftwork Cards card blank
Anna Marie Designs Super Smooth Printer Card 200gsm
Inks
Brilliance Pearlescent Sky Blue
Memento Tuxedo Black
Versamark
Distress Inks - Frayed Burlap, Barn Door, Dried Marigold
Stamps
Snowflake - Craft Stamper freebie
Robin - Crafty Individuals CI-456
Sentiment - Crafty Individuals CI-142
Hat - Hero Arts B2588 Santa's Hat
Other
Silver fine detail embossing powder
Stampendous Ultra Fine Crystal Glitter

The Craft Barn Alpha/Dictionary Challenge - Letter Z

When playing Scrabble I don't enjoy drawing the letters X or Z and the same goes for the Craft Barn Challenge. It had to happen eventually and this is the week the letter Z has been drawn.

There are not many words in the dictionary to choose from and I have gone with the word zeta - the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet. Zentangle was not a choice as that word has been copyrighted and presumably will not appear in a dictionary. I decided to tangle my background but I certainly didn't get any zen from Zentangling - I found it a very stressful process! I would much rather have pieces of paper that I can move around freely before deciding their finished position.

After drawing the design I computer generated the Z and definition, cut them out and glued them to the postcard. This week the challenge has a twist - add one ore more pearls to the project - so I finished off with three flat back pearls.

Postcard Recipe
Card 
Anna Marie Designs Smooth Stamping Card  300gsm
Anna Marie Designs Super Smooth Printer Card 200gsm
Inks
Sakura Micron Pigma pens
Hickory Smoke Distress Ink
Other
White flat back pearls
Z and dictionary definition - computer generated

The Craft Barn Fortnightly Challenge - Beach Scene with a Beach Hut

I've spent the last week at (a virtual) Copacabana Bay so the current Craft Barn Two Weekly Challenge to create a beach scene, which must include a beach hut, is very apt. I'm just scraping under the wire with my entry to the challenge as it has been so difficult to tear myself away from the sofa and the Olympics!

I started my card by creating the sun with Distress Inks (DIs), masking it and then brushing on inks for the sand and sky. The beach huts, gulls, A-board and kite were all stamped onto card, coloured where necessary and cut out. The sentiment was also stamped on to card which I cut using an oval die before slicing off the unwanted bottom half and brushing with DI. The huts, gulls and sentiment were glued to the background which was layered onto black card and then onto the card blank. The "For Hire" board and kite were attached to the card with silicone to give some depth. With hindsight I feel the sand is a bit wishy washy and I should have added some darker shades of yellow here and there.

Well time to get to my sofa-beach for another week of sport - it's a good job the Olympics only come round every four years!

Card Recipe
Card 
Anna Marie Designs Super Smooth Printer Card 250gsm & 200gsm
Black card
Card blank - Craftwork Cards   
Inks
Ranger Archival - Jet Black, Watering Can
Memento - Tuxedo Black
Distress Inks - Picked Raspberry, Squeezed Lemonade, Peacock Feathers, Frayed Burlap, Broken China, Scattered Straw, Dried Marigold
Stamps
Beach huts & gulls - Crafty Indvduals CI-278
"For Hire" board & kite - Crafty Indvduals CI-454
Sentiment - PaperArtsy Hot PIcks HPXT03

The Craft Barn Alpha/Dictionary Challenge - Letter C

As I used cat images on my last two postcards I've made for the Craft Barn Alpha/Dictionary Challenge I thought I had better find something completely different than use the word "cat" for the letter C.

My husband and I were discussing where time disappears to these days. We are quite sure that in our childhood, days seemed to last so much longer! With that in mind I dug out an unused stamp and combined it with a stencil that I had just received as part of my prize for my winning entry in the Craft Barn Two Weekly Challenge.

I started by brushing the card with Dried Marigold Distress Ink (DI) before stencilling the sun's rays with Spiced Marmalade and Rusty Hinge DI's. The image was stamped with Versafine and then a touch of watered down DI was added along the bottom of the grass. The computer generated dictionary definition completed my postcard.

So, a simple entry this week as a reminder of those bygone long summer days of childhood in the late forties and fifties.

Postcard Recipe
Card 
Anna Marie Designs Smooth Stamping Card  300gsm
Anna Marie Designs Super Smooth Printer Card 200gsm
Inks
Versafine Onyx Black
Distress Inks - Dried Marigold, Spiced Marmalade, Rusty Hinge, Peeled Paint
Stamp 
Stamp Addicts Gone Fishin' plate SA-5013  
Other
Dictionary definition - computer generated Typewriter font