Birds of a Feather.

Birds of a feather stick together!
The theme for the current May calendar challenge at The Craft Barn is Pink and Birds and to use a 'Crafty Individuals' stamp if possible.
I have their CI - 234 bird stamp which I randomly stamped onto a blank sheet of paper (I had already printed the month and year onto) using Memento 'London Fog'. The days of the week is another of their stamps (sorry don't know which one) that I stamped using a pink pigment ink pad and then wrote the days in on the apple part.. The large bird is by T.H. and has been crackle painted and then over stamped with the pink pad and adhered using sticky pads. Feathers are curtesy of the birds on the River Thames.

Also entering this week into the following challenges
Simon Says Stamps: Stamp and show things with wings.
Hooked on Craft: Anything but a card.
Fasionable Stamping: Anything but a card.
Crafty Individuals: Winged things.

April Showers.

So onto the April calendar page for The Craft Barn challenge which couldn't for me be anything other than 'April Showers'. The theme for this month was masks and yellow.
I used a Tando creative mask called 'Garden with Watering Can' as I thought I could work that quite well into the page. The mask was made up of several elements watering can, flowers & grass, clouds & sun and butterflies (which I didn't incorporate on this occasion). The mask was placed over the page and I coloured using promarkers being careful not to let the paper bleed.
Picture is not that brilliant but if you look closely you should just be able to see that the watering can is spraying drops of water i.e. Glossy accents down the page. (I love using this product). My take on april showers!
Blanking days are more masked clouds raining this time and the days of the week were masked onto a seperate sheet cut out , covered with Glossy accents and adhered with foam sticky pads.


Phew!! Coasting down hill now as I have caught up with the current theme for this week which is
Pink (my fav colour) and Birds so watch this space as they say.

March Hares.

This is my March Calendar page for the challenge over at The Craft Barn. This month you must use the colour green somewhere on your page and flowers which can be stamps, dies, drawings, doodling images,embellishments etc so quite a choice. March to me makes Hares spring to mind so having looked through my stamps I found this cute rabbit which for the purposes of my page has now turned into a Hare.!!
I stamped him hopping randomly (as Hares do) around the page using distressed ink 'Forest Moss' and to make the buttons for the days of the week which are adhered with sticky pads so they stand out.
The flowers were made using the three smallest sizes of a scallop nestie from plain cardstock, colouring with watercolour pencils, spritzing with water and scrunching up. Once dry they were layered up and drizzled with Glossy Accents. Leaves were made from a leaf stamp again coloured with the pencils and sprizted so they curled slightly as they dried. Blanking days are little flower brads.


Off to make the next month now which can't be anything else but 'April Showers'!!

Spooky!!

The boys have been delving in my odds and ends craft stash and seem to have commandered one or two things. I did ask what they wanted them for but they just said "It's Spooky" so best to leave it at that I think for the present. They did ask though if they have the same insides as me? Off to find the answer unless of course you know?

WOYWW no 122

Very late today . So what can you see. Well there is the start of the March calendar page. Theme is green and flowers so okay with that after the embossing crystals fiasco. See previous posts for Jan and Feb. The next up cyclyed dress is all unpicked and ready to be altered and you can just see in the background a pretty nightie that I picked up for a song in the local charity shop. It has lovely buttons and lace on it and should make 3 more little dresses from it as it is full length.
Playing around with making flowers at the moment and a little rabbit stamp that I found in my stash. He may just have to grow into a Hare though for the March page.!!!!!


If youv'e got a spare mo why not pop on over to Julia's blog for a good old rummage around others people's desks. It's very telling and also very addictive.

True Love!

As February next year has 29 days (being leap year) my Calendar page couldn't really have anything else but a heart theme especially as the challenge at the Craft Barn is for Red and Embossing.
I used Distress ink in Fired Brick red to over stamp the days using a heart stamp and to blank out days not required. February 14th has a red heart for Valentines Day.
I really had fun or not for the embossing part. Following the instructions on the Cosmic Shimmer Embossing Crystals jar I used the ink pad to cover an area with ink then sprinkled on a thick layer of crystals. Instructions then said melt the crystals with a heat gun until molten. Well you have to catch the darn things first cos as soon as you switch the heat gun on your in a sand storm!!! Got there in the end by placing in a deep tin and covering with a piece of paper then wipipng off at the last minute before the crystals set. Once melted you can then push a stamp into the molten surface and leave to cool. Phew!! 3hours later and a near empty jar of crystals I managed to get a an embossed heart which I cut out and then rubbed over with Inka Gold. Picture is not very clear but it really does shine. The days are hearts cut from card and again rubbed over with Inka Gold and attached with foam pads to give some dimension.


Off to make the March page now as still running to catch up.

January Already!!

Over at The Craft Barn They are running a 12 week calendar challenge where you create a different month each week.

Week 1 was to create January using the colour Blue and crackle.

The whole calendar does not have to be blue, but you must include at least a bit of blue and some crackle ( paste,paint,glaze,stamp, image with crackle whatever....) on your calendar entry - whether it is the first page or a complete calender.

This seemed a pretty good challenge for me to tackle as I usually have copious pieces of paper/post it notes stuck all over my desk with challenge and swap deadlines written down. Have it all in one place I thought stuck behind my lap top. Easy Peasy. So from next year on I will be organised!!!

Decided to go with a large sheet with room to write notes on each day.

January , blue and crackle imediately sprung into my mind as Winter, snowflakes and icicles.

I played around with various layouts just stamping large and small snowflakes over a sheet of plain paper but decided that was too heavy and would be hard to read any writing on.

Finally came up with the above result.

Month and date are computer generated and printed onto plain white paper which I then ruled up to make the seperate days and dates. I then randomly stamped plain spaces and stenciled spaces using Stormy Sky and Chipped Sapphire distress ink. I attached white lace across the top of the page which I thought looked a lot like icicles hanging down.

The die is Snowflake from Sizzix which stamps out in two sizes. Some I cut out using plain blue paper and the rest from card. These were painted over with distress crackle paint which because I only had it in Brushed Corduroy I painted over using white acrylic matte finish. Again some of these I overtamped using the distress inks. I then covered the days and blanking snowflakes with glossy accents and attached with sticky pads to give dimmension.

Off to make February now as I'm running to catch up.