The Craft Barn Song Challenge - Driving Home for Christmas

Here we are at the final Craft Barn Challenge of the year. This month's song title is Driving Home for Christmas by Chris Rea and I've taken the line "Top to toe in tailbacks" as my inspiration.

I started the postcard by sticking a piece of an old road atlas of my local area - I'm up at the top - onto a piece of card. I then gave the map and some die-cut trees a watered down wash of gesso. Snowflakes were then stamped over the map and the edges of the postcard sponged with ink. The die-cut trees were glittered with Stickles and glued onto the background. I brushed a die-cut vintage car with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and then stamped it with a PaperArtsy background stamp and embossed it along with the wheels, wheel arches and bumper with copper embossing powder. The car was then cut in half and glued on "bumper to bumper". I finished the postcard with the computer generated song title and artist's name added.

Postcard Recipe
Card/Paper
Card
Part of a road atlas page
Xerox ColorTech+ card 200gsm
Inks/Paints
Claudine Hellmuth Studio Gesso
Brilliance Pearlescent Sky Sky Blue
Ranger Archival Cornflower Blue
Versamark
Stamps
Snowflake - Crafty Individuals  
PaperArtsy Hot Picks HPXT01
Other
Anita's Embossing Powder - Copper 
Die-cuts - vintage car, trees 
Diamond Stickles
Song title - computer generated “Please write me a song” font

My thanks go to the Craft Barn for hosting this challenge through the year and to Karen Gist for her inspirational pieces each month. Also thank you to Mickie for running the blog, to the Design Team who show us some amazing projects and to Sandy, the Craft Barn proprietor, who makes it all possible.

Finally, thank you to everyone one who has visited my blog during this challenge and to those who have left comments - it is very much appreciated. I wish you all a fabulous 2018.

The Craft Barn Twelve Month Challenge - December

December and the finale of the Craft Barn Twelve Month Challenge. It certainly has been a challenge some months but it has made me think about what I actually have stashed away in my craft room that was in dire need of an airing.

This month's verse from the poem "The Months" by Sara Coleridge is -

Chill December brings the sleet,

Blazing fires and Christmas treat.

Combining sleet, fires and treats onto one page had me stumped so I've done a bit of lateral thinking. The family are inside the little cottage sitting by a warming fire with lots of treats on a side table - nuts, dates, figs, sugared orange and lemon slices.........oops I've drifted back in time to the Christmas's of my childhood!

I started my page by stamping the background snowflake image with Pearlescent Sky Blue Brilliance ink. This stamp was a freebie with Craft Stamper magazine several years ago and I have used it such a lot - it stamps beautifully. I then stamped the cottage image onto a circle of white card and sponged Broken China Distress Ink around the top edge. The house, trees and snowy bank were glittered before the circle was glued onto the background. The leaves were stamped onto white card and watercoloured using Distress Inks. They were then cut out, given several coats of PaperArtsy Gloss Glaze and glued around the edge of the circle. I finished the page by adding the computer generated verse and sponging around the edge of the page.

  
Page Recipe
Card
Anna Marie Designs High White 300gsm
White card 280mic
Xerox ColorTech+ 250gsm
Inks
Brilliance Pearlescent Sky Blue
Versafine Onyx Black
Memento Tuxedo Black
Distress Ink - Peeled Paint, Pine Needles, Broken China
PaperArtsy Gloss Glaze
Stamps
Cottage - Create-It
Leavers - PaperArtsy JOFY
Snowflake  - Craft Stamper magazine freebie
Other
Verse - computer generated with "Papyrus" font    

My thanks go to the Craft Barn for hosting this challenge and to Claire for her inspirational pieces each month. Thank you also to everyone one who has visited my blog during this challenge and to those who have left comments - it is very much appreciated. Finally, I wish you all a very "Happy Christmas!".
  

The Craft Barn Song Challenge - Paint It Black

This month's song in the Craft Barn Song Challenge is "Paint It Black" and there is only one group you associate with this song - The Rolling Stones.

I've taken the line "I see a red door and I want it painted black" as the starting point for my quick and simple postcard. It probably took longer to make the mask than to stamp and complete the piece!

I started at the bottom edge of the card and stamped a row of  houses, then masked them before stamping the next row, continuing in the same way up the postcard. The front door was coloured with a Copic marker and the computer generated song title and artist's name added.

It may have been a quick offering this month but a welcome distraction from Christmas card making.

 Postcard Recipe
Card
White card 280mic
Inks
Versafine Onyx Black
Distress Ink - Hickory Smoke
Copic marker
Stamp
Crafty Individuals CI-467
Other

Song title - Computer generated “Please write me a song” font