The Craft Barn Twelve Month Challenge - November

Here we are at the penultimate month of the Craft Barn Twelve Month Challenge. How can it be November already? It certainly doesn't look like a November day here in Bedfordshire today. It is a bit chilly but there is a beautiful blue sky. The garden seems to very confused with the seasons. I have an azalea that has just started to bloom, a clematis that is flowering for the second time this year and roses which refuse to believe it's winter.

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

Dull November brings the blast

Then the leaves go whirling past

I started my page (measures 5.75ins square) by brushing Hickory Smoke Distress Ink over the card. I coloured some homemade texture paste with a little Black Marble Dylusions Ink. (I would have used acrylic black paint but it seems to have disappeared into the black hole that exists in my craft room. When I came to finish this piece my little glue applicator had joined it!) I spread the texture paste thinly through a stencil and set it aside to dry. 

On another piece of card which was also brushed with the Distress Ink I stamped the tree image. With several cotton buds taped together as a "brush" and using autumnal colours of PaperArtsy Fresco paints I dabbed on the leaves. I then added some Distress Ink stencilling before distressing the edges. The tree image was attached to a piece of corrugated card and then a leaf brad added.  I finished the page by adding the computer generated verse. 

 

Page Recipe
Card
White card 280mic
Xerox Colortech+ 200gsm
Corrugated card
Inks/Paints
Distress Ink - Hickory Smoke
Versafine Onyx Black
PaperArtsy Fresco paints - Chartreuse, Yellow Submarine, Tango, Toad Hall
Stamp/Stencil
Tree - Crafty Individuals CI-209
Swirls - Andy Skinner stencil "Whirlpool"
Other 
Homemade texture paste coloured with Black Marble Dylusions Ink
Leaf brad
Verse - computer generated with "Papyrus" font 
 

The Craft Barn Song Challenge - Autumn Leaves

A seasonal song this month for the Craft Barn Song Challenge - Autumn Leaves. This song has been sung by a plethora of artists and I have chosen the Eva Cassidy version. No fancy production just a beautiful voice and a guitar.

I took the line "When autumn leaves start to fall" as my starting point and gathered together autumnal colours of Distress Ink and created a wrinkle free technique background. Once I was happy with it I stamped it with the Hero Arts "Pod Branch" in Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

It's such a long time since I used my alcohol inks I decided to make use of them to colour the leaves. I dabbed suitable seasonal colours onto a piece of glossy card and then stamped the leaves and cut them out and glued to my postcard. I finished the piece off with the computer generated song title and artist's name.

The scan of the postcard doesn't capture the shininess of the alcohol ink on the leaves.

Postcard Recipe
Card
White card 280mic
Glossy card - Craft Creations Chromolux card
Anna Marie Designs Super Smooth Printer Card 250gsm
Inks 
Distress Inks - Rusty Hinge, Vintage Photo, Crushed Olive, Peeled Paint, Ripe Persimmon, Mustard Seed
Ranger Alcohol Inks
Brilliance Graphite Black
Stamps
Hero Arts Pod Branch E3651
Leaf - Inkadinkado
Other

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