Altered Dictionary

Hi hope you all had a lovely Christmas , Today I have completed my lovely altered dictionary it now has a nice new cover and title. This has been great challenge by The Craft Barn and I am looking forward to their new challenge starting in January hope to see you all there.

I used an embossing folder with orange card and inked this with walnut stain and black soot distress inks, the edges of the book I covered with black repair tape (from the DIY shop) before I glued  the panels to the front and back of the book covers, then using the same tape I covered the spine.  Grunge paper letters (Tim Holtz) were inked with walnut stain and black soot and stuck to the front panel with glossy accents.   I love my book and I am sure it will give me lots of pleasure every time I look through the pages.  Thank you Craft Barn peoples and all the lovely people I have shared this journey with, I really enjoyed looking through all the fabulous altered pages each fortnight.

Happy New Year  I will see you in 2014

Bah Humbug

After a trip to an old fashioned sweet shop and my purchase of humbugs I simply couldn't resist another  little project for the challenge over at Country View Crafts which is Bah Humbug, a funny play on words this time.
I have been making these little boxes for ages after finding the tutorial at Splitcoaststampers a long time ago.   They are so versatile and can be for any occasion.

I have used up my Christmas bits and pieces on the front, amazing what you come up with after a rummage in the bit box isn't it.  The only pieces I cut today were the two die cuts with Tim Holtz paper which cover  the top and bottom of the box.  Bah Humbug was printed with a labelling machine. 

Box was created in Kraft colour (to match the humbugs) which used to be sold unwrapped I seem to remember.............perhaps I shouldn't own up to that fact lol........
I stamped snowflakes in white brilliance ink all over the inside lid and around the outside edges added tissue paper and humbugs. 
I will discretely add the box to a table and wait to see the reactions which I think all add to the Christmas fun! 

I will also be joining in at The Artistic Stamper anything goes

Thanks for popping in
Merry Christmas



Products used
Time Holtz Alterations dies, Paper pad, distress inks
Spellbinder dies
Kaft card
White brilliance ink

A few of my favourite things

Hi everyone are you all ready for Christmas I have finished, DH made the supermarket dash this morning while I finished off some wrapping and my very last page of  my Alpha Dictionary which has been a fabulous challenge over at The Craft Barn.  The last letter is "I" and the only words I could choose was Inspire/Inspired/Inspiring which this challenge certainly has done and I stayed in from start to finish yah :)

For this page I decided to only use things that inspired me to use, so I flicked through some stamps, Tim Holtz of course, and then dug around in my bits box and did the same.

 I ended up with a collage of some of my favourite quotes, all beginning with "I" of course, stamps and bits and bobs from the box, the colours of ink are also a mixture of colours that said "use me".  All that remains to finish my lovely book is the cover  which will have to wait until after Christmas but I will post and share.  Thank you to everyone who has shared this journey with me and left comments which have been truly appreciated and  not forgetting The Craft Barn  for a very Inspiring challenge looking forward to the new one in January 2014.


Merry Christmas
Thanks for popping in at this busy time

HO! HO! HO!

Santa is coming to Town....bet you are all singing along...........lol. 

We are nearly at the end of the Altered Dictionary Challenge at the Craft Barn with the last two letters X and I so I am here to post my X page no prizes for guessing what my choice was.............what do you mean you can't guess...............ho ho ho.  With only 3 words to choose from which were   xray  didn't have a stamp for this one,  xylophone no that didn't do it either so I went with........drum roll   Xmas  oh you had already guessed.............although that word grates on me I had fun with the page being short of time I grabbed the Christmas stamps that were sat on my desk Tim Holtz of course.

Now you will have spotted that Santa has a very yellow tint to his beard this is due to the very yellow page for Y which is overleaf and I tried white paint but the yellow soaked through so I gave that up, perhaps we could imagine Santa has been busy in his workshop and got yellow paint in his beard........yep that works for me!!
Pine branches were stamped in top corner and I added tissue tape all around the page (don't tell anyone this is hiding the very yellow paint). I loaded the page with glitter but I couldn't get a photo which showed it well  it looks really glittery in real life.

I will be back hopefully soon with my I page, I also have to alter the cover of the book, thanks for looking.

'till next time

Carol Singers

I was thrilled to be asked to be Guest Designer at Country View Crafts after my October Halloween project here was chosen in the top 3............. even when I learnt my project was going live on the blog on Friday 13th............ yikes!! Me superstitious.............never.......... :-(

The current challenge is Bah Humbug.  The Film "A Christmas Carol" and my Tim Holtz stash heavily inspired this card which I hope you like.

A piece of Kraft resist Christmas Memories  was inked within an inch of its life with barn door until a dark shade had been achieved which really bought out the resist areas.  Frame is a spellbinders and I cut this out of metallic paper I found in my craft room, sanded it lightly. A layer of designer paper Holidays past and a salvage sticker were stuck behind the frame.  This was layered onto kraft red and black card before adding to a white card blank.  Tattered Garland die and Festive Greenery were used to cut flower greenery from various papers including co-ordinations which I sanded and inked the edges with black soot.  Message is a TH stamp a favourite of mine stamped in black archival ink onto kraft card and cut out free hand.
I couldn't resist glitter so I added some to the carol singers who are singing away on a very cold and snowy Christmas Eve!!

Thanks for looking
'til next time


Items used
Tim Holts Stamps, Alterations dies and paper stash, distress inks, card and paper from my stash

Memories of Summer





Hope all your Christmas preparations are going well it's mad here as I'm trying to get everything finished, I managed to make the Christmas cake and some damson jam yesterday, the fruit was taking up too much space in the freezer so I had to do it and I have to say it is yummy.........well I had to try it didn't I!!!  I think a few jars will be going out as presents too.

December challenge over at Craft-room Challenge has asked us to share our favourite project of 2013 which was a hard choice to choose only 1 but it was great fun looking back over the last 12 months at all my crafty projects.  I eventually chose this Hanging which I made in summer.

 

 

 

You can see original post here

My reasons for choosing this project are mainly because I had great fun making it as it involves everything I love to do, Stamping (of course) altering something and recycling materials and it also reminds me of Summer.  Thank you to everyone at Craft-room Challenges for this challenge and I look forward to your challenges in 2014'

 

Thank you for popping in at this busy time

'till next time

 

 

Secret Garden

S is for................... Secret which is my chosen word this time for the letter "S" in the Alpha Dictionary Challenge at The Craft Barn, a quick and simple page.  I was running out of time as challenge ends on Sunday and as we are nearly at the end of the challenge I simply couldn't miss one now as I have kept up all the way through, some weeks I have finished my page just under the wire!!

 A little bit Magical Stamp set Sheena Douglass and distress inks, vintage photo, walnut stain, forest moss, pine needles were used to make this Secret place, I adore this set  and this is the first time I have inked them up.

Off to have a look at the other entries while I have time, thank you to everyone who stops by my blog and spends time leaving me lovely comments I really appreciate it and enjoying reading them.

Dare I ask how your Christmas preparations are going................hectic here  this time last week we were away for the weekend, then visitors for a few days,  they have gone home now so today is the first chance I have had to play, Christmas shopping to finish and baking to do..............not sure when I will be back.........

'till next time
bye for now