tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-344847270634612602024-03-05T18:01:38.751+00:00avoiding the duster ...by any means possiblemaggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17075901130445306653noreply@blogger.comBlogger305125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34484727063461260.post-80170381228642762962017-12-31T10:51:00.000+00:002018-02-25T08:06:46.729+00:00The Craft Barn Song Challenge - Driving Home for ChristmasHere 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. maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17075901130445306653noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34484727063461260.post-65800517843299204252017-12-23T16:23:00.000+00:002017-12-23T16:23:49.090+00:00The 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 maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17075901130445306653noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34484727063461260.post-18132752924423830292017-12-09T21:00:00.000+00:002017-12-09T21:01:49.107+00:00The Craft Barn Song Challenge - Paint It BlackThis 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 maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17075901130445306653noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34484727063461260.post-26962949627733063222017-11-24T15:50:00.000+00:002017-11-24T15:50:05.658+00:00The Craft Barn Twelve Month Challenge - NovemberHere 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 maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17075901130445306653noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34484727063461260.post-53851888205011278972017-11-05T11:59:00.000+00:002017-11-05T11:59:17.690+00:00 The Craft Barn Song Challenge - Autumn LeavesA 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 maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17075901130445306653noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34484727063461260.post-59848420295314306052017-10-22T17:19:00.000+01:002017-10-22T17:19:22.218+01:00The Craft Barn Twelve Month Challenge - October Another month, another verse in the Craft Barn Twelve Month Challenge and October's verse from the poem "The Months" by Sara Coleridge is
Fresh October brings the pheasant
Then to gather nuts is pleasant.
My Brusho colours have been little used since I bought them a few years ago so it was time to unleash them to make a bright autumnal background on some watercolour card. As I don't have maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17075901130445306653noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34484727063461260.post-84682321940488617902017-10-10T20:25:00.002+01:002017-11-04T21:50:11.825+00:00The Craft Barn Song Challenge - Parisienne WalkwaysThe current song in the Craft Barn Song Challenge is Parisenne Walkways. It's not a song that I am familiar with. In fact most music between 1978 when my eldest son was born until the late 80's when his interest in music began just seemed to pass me by.
I started my postcard by brushing a selection of beigey coloured Distress Inks over the card. I then stamped the image of the couple with maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17075901130445306653noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34484727063461260.post-66832693001911776362017-09-24T10:35:00.001+01:002017-09-24T10:35:53.907+01:00The Craft Barn Twelve Month Challenge - SeptemberJust scraping into the Craft Barn Twelve Month Challenge yet again. I had no idea where I was going with September's verse from the poem "The Months" and it probably shows! The verse reads "Warm September brings the fruit. Sportsmen then begin to shoot."
I didn't have a choice of fruit stamps so it had to be the only one I possess - a pear. I rather ignored the second line and just added some maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17075901130445306653noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34484727063461260.post-12750776777232030922017-09-10T12:35:00.002+01:002017-09-10T12:35:41.009+01:00The Craft Barn Song Challenge - Summer in the CityFor this month's Craft Barn Song Challenge I've taken two lines from the given song "Summer in the City" as my inspiration -
Go out and find a girlCome-on come-on and dance all night
I wanted to create the effect of psychedelic strobe lighting for my background - did we have that sort of lighting back in 1966, I can't remember! So I had some messy fun creating a bleeding tissue background onmaggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17075901130445306653noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34484727063461260.post-15953797772238975732017-08-26T11:19:00.001+01:002017-08-26T11:19:46.293+01:00The Craft Barn Twelve Month Challenge - AugustAnother month, another Craft Barn challenge. And yes, it was a bit of a challenge. This month's verse from the poem "The Months" by Sara Coleridge is "August brings the sheaves of corn. Then the harvest home is borne." We have to include a tractor on our project. Sounds simply enough - not!
I started by brushing Distress Ink (DI) over my base card. The choice of colour was a no-brainer of coursemaggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17075901130445306653noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34484727063461260.post-90139588223841015872017-08-06T11:27:00.000+01:002017-08-06T11:27:24.713+01:00The Craft Barn Song Challenge - Summer Holiday
We're going where the sun shines brightly
We're going where the sea is blue
We've seen it in the movies
Now let's see if it's true
Probably not true if you have been holidaying by the sea in the UK during the past few weeks if the weather here in Bedfordshire has been anything to go by - it's been blowing a hooley non-stop with frequent heavy showers to go with it.
"Summer Holiday" is themaggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17075901130445306653noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34484727063461260.post-88454881993923832972017-07-23T15:07:00.000+01:002017-07-23T15:07:54.690+01:00The Craft Barn Twelve Month Challenge - JulyNever throw anything away has proved its worth this month for the Craft Barn Challenge. July's verse is "Hot July brings cooling showers, apricots and gillyflowers" and we have to include a gillyflower on our project.
My first task was to identify a gillyflower. The dictionary definition is-
1. Archaic. any maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17075901130445306653noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34484727063461260.post-36130140261019494492017-07-08T20:47:00.001+01:002017-07-08T20:47:51.714+01:00The Craft Barn Song Challenge - What a Wonderful WorldThis month's song for the Craft Barn Challenge is the perennial "What A Wonderful World" and this time we have to add the lines of the song that inspired our project. I have chosen the first line "I see trees of green, red roses too" but I could have also used "I see skies of blue, and clouds of white."
I started my postcard making the background using the wrinkle free watercolour technique withmaggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17075901130445306653noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34484727063461260.post-39850107979826330512017-06-25T17:59:00.000+01:002017-06-25T17:59:35.530+01:00The Craft Barn Twelve Month Challenge - JuneThe verse this month for the Craft Barn Challenge from the poem "The Months" by Sara Coleridge is " June brings tulips, lilies, roses. Fills the children's hands with posies." and the finished piece has to include a bunch of flowers.
I've gone down the vintage cutesy route with my challenge entry. It was time to dust of this cute little stamp in my collection which has only been used once maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17075901130445306653noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34484727063461260.post-44120785225416679582017-06-10T22:03:00.000+01:002017-06-10T22:03:30.036+01:00The Craft Barn Song Challenge - Forever Young When I read that the song title for this month's Craft Barn Song Challenge was Forever Young I automatically thought of the song by Rod Stewart. However the challenge one is by Bob Dylan. The songs by Dylan and Stewart are similar and apparently the pair agreed to participate in the ownership of Stewart's song and share the royalties.
I have owned an aerosol of shaving foam for some years maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17075901130445306653noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34484727063461260.post-27143064305595248712017-05-27T21:57:00.002+01:002017-06-25T18:17:34.285+01:00The Craft Barn Twelve Month Challenge - MayMay's page for the Craft Barn Twelve Month Challenge involved lots of masking on my part. This months verse is:
May brings flocks of pretty lambs
Skipping by their fleecy dams.
I started by stamping the house, wall and sheep and then masked them all. Cutting out those little sheep masks was a bit of pain! I then stamp the trees on the left behind the wall. Leaving the masks in place I maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17075901130445306653noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34484727063461260.post-29700394171087491582017-05-06T16:20:00.001+01:002017-05-06T16:20:32.081+01:00The Craft Barn Song Challenge - I Can't Stand the RainThe current song title in the Craft Barn Song Challenge is "I Can't Stand the Rain". Not one that is on my song radar so "You Tube" had to come to my rescue. Of the various videos I watched the disco version by Eruption was my top choice.
I started my postcard (my chosen format for this challenge) by spraying the base card with Distress Spray Stain. The window was stamped on to a piece of card maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17075901130445306653noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34484727063461260.post-51806189109920810732017-04-22T21:28:00.000+01:002017-04-22T21:28:30.641+01:00The Craft Barn Twelve Month Challenge - April
I'm finding the Craft Barn Twelve Month Challenge just that this year and I've just about made the deadline again.
The Twelve Month Challenge is based on the poem by Sara Coleridge "The Months" and April's verse is "April brings the primrose sweet, scatters daisies at our feet". Our finished piece has to display the verse and this month must also include maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17075901130445306653noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34484727063461260.post-26636325963452093942017-04-07T19:48:00.000+01:002017-04-07T19:49:36.275+01:00The Craft Barn Song Challenge - Blowin' in the WindThe third song in the Craft Barn Song Challenge is Blowin' in the Wind. Although Bob Dylan wrote the song and recorded it on an LP (that shows my age!) it was Peter, Paul and Mary who had great success with it as a single and who I first heard it sung by.
For my postcard I have stamped a piece of black card with feather stamps and then embossed the feathers with embossing powder before mounting maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17075901130445306653noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34484727063461260.post-19648749601662502242017-03-26T17:51:00.000+01:002017-03-26T17:51:46.418+01:00The Craft Barn Twelve Month Challenge - MarchIt's taken me three weeks to think of a way to illustrate this month's verse for the Craft Barn Challenge which has to include daffodils and hares. Inspiration seems to have eluded me, no middle of the night light bulb moments, so I've gone for a clean and simple page.
Both the stamps I've used were freebies with Craft Stamper magazine. The daffodil must be years old when the free stamps were maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17075901130445306653noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34484727063461260.post-87622485743464780692017-03-16T14:27:00.001+00:002017-03-16T14:27:17.544+00:00The Craft Barn Blog Candy
Want to win a set of the 12 new colours of PaperArtsy Infusions? You have until Sunday 19th March to pop over to the Craft Barn Blog for all the details.
maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17075901130445306653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34484727063461260.post-55573504210407763422017-03-12T17:00:00.002+00:002017-03-12T17:00:54.272+00:00The Craft Barn Song Challenge - Somebody to LoveThe next song title in the Craft Barn Song Challenge is Somebody to Love by Queen.
A simple entry from me this time around as family life has intervened in my crafting activities over the past few weeks. I started by brushing Distress Inks over the base card and then used the same ink to stamp the crackle effect over the top. I drew the heart freehand on another piece of card and brushed it overmaggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17075901130445306653noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34484727063461260.post-70487209475304837342017-02-16T15:04:00.001+00:002017-02-16T15:04:45.710+00:00The Craft Barn Twelve Month Challenge - FebruaryThe month thief has been around again and stole January! I can't believe we are now half way through February already and time to complete the next page for the Craft Barn Challenge. The verse to be illustrated from Sara Coleridge's poem "The Months" is "February brings the rain, thaws the frozen lake again." but to make it more challenging we have to add a cherub and a heart!
I don't havemaggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17075901130445306653noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34484727063461260.post-32873924131602832282017-01-28T20:42:00.000+00:002017-01-28T20:42:47.853+00:00The Craft Barn Song Challenge - Let It Snow!Another challenge has started on the Craft Barn blog and it's based on song lyrics.
I am going to make my entries postcard size (6 x 4 ins). I used this size in 2014 for the Craft Barn Lyrics and Quotes Challenge with all my entries being portrait orientated and then again last year for the Alpha Dictionary Challenge but in landscape. I also made them as flat as possible so they could be maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17075901130445306653noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34484727063461260.post-55005122618046219332017-01-22T10:57:00.000+00:002017-01-26T22:21:10.409+00:00The Craft Barn Twelve Month Challenge - JanuaryA new year brings a new challenge on the Craft Barn blog. It's a twelve month challenge based on the poem by Sara Coleridge "The Months".
So for January we start with the lines "January brings the snow, makes our feet and fingers glow" and to the illustrate those words our entries must include a bird in a wellington boot!
I'm going to use a square format for my monthly entries - 5.75 x 5.75insmaggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17075901130445306653noreply@blogger.com6