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

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

A Life on the Ocean Waves

Week 22 and the Letter is N at The Craft Barn Alpha Dictionary Challenge.  I found this letter uninspiring and had a difficult task to make anything of my chosen word Navigate, Mr Mojo has certainly gone walkabout this week hope he comes back soon............

Main image a ship stamp by Sheena Douglass inked with distress ink walnut stain I added water to the image and dragged the ink to paint the sails.  On the other page I stamped a compass in same ink which didn't work it smudged so I re-stamped  onto card with Addirondack Coffee and cut out and stuck over the stamped images, a swirl stamp was inked with distress marker broken glass ........ which is supposed to give the impression of waves!!  Not sure if it does or just looks like a swirl in blue..........
The edges of the pages were inked with combination of the same inks. Although I found these pages a struggle I am quite pleased with how they eventually turned out funny how sometimes things just don't flow..............

I'm  off to have a look at everyone's entries now as I never look before I make my page something I have managed to do since the start.  It is very hard but really enjoy looking after I have my page under my belt as they say...lol.
 
Before I go I would like to share some good news
I also had a lovely surprise to find my Spooky Halloween make had been chosen in the top three at Country View Crafts October  Challenge "Something Spooky" and I have been offered a Guest Designer spot there in December so exciting.

See the original  post here

Thanks for looking
'till next time

G is for ..........................

Garden

Hi everyone and welcome to my new followers and thank you for joining me on my crafty journey.


It's time again for the Alpha Challenge at The Craft Barn and this time it is the letter G lots of choice with this letter so after reading through all the words only two really jumped out to me Garden and.............well you will have to wait for my other choice as it is still under construction.......
I used Distress Ink,  Distress Markers and stamps from Creative Expressions - Wild Flowers.

I coloured the background with distress ink mustard seed and shabby shutters, stamped around the edges with the little effect stamps within the set in vintage photo and wild honey stamping some second stamp

the stamps were coloured using distress markers which I find very relaxing a little huff and they stamp like a dream and I love the effect like a watercolour image

I added stickles glitter onto the flower heads and seed heads and onto the butterfly wings

when I stamped the butterflies I coloured the stamp in a light colour stamped and then without cleaning stamp I added another colour and so one I liked the effects.........no I wasn't being lazy lol
You may be able to just see the glitter on the edges of the wings looks great in real life!

 

All the stamps used have come from the one set except for the word "Garden" which is a very small alpha set.
 Thanks for looking at my "Garden" page which reminds me of the wonderful summer days we enjoyed, which are already seeming a distant memory with darker nights and the rain we have been having.


'till next time

Z is for Zebra

My latest page for the Alpha challenge at The Craft Barn had me delving into my stamp stash to find this stamp, I like how this challenge makes me search through my stamp stash and use the ones which have been left unloved (shame on me!) for a long time.  This stamp is no exception as it has to be one of my early buys when I first ventured into the world of rubber stamps.  It is a wooden cube stamp by JudiKins with 4 designs  I have used just 2 on my page and have chosen to leave it black and white.   I was tempted to get my water colours out......

I stamped with Archival black ink onto my gessoed page creating a scene, the dictionary definition had to be cut from another dictionary as my Y page overlapped the Z page, I inked the edges with black soot distress ink.  The letters are Tim Holtz range.....sorry forgotten what they are called ...they are self adhesive plastic.  I am pleased I decided to leave as black and white as I now have several b/w pages which balance up my very colourful pages lol.

Thanks for looking and for all the lovely comments you have been leaving me on my altered dictionary journey

'till next time, happy crafting

O is for Owl

Hello again and welcome to my new followers and for all the lovely comments you have all been leaving me I really do appreciate each and every one.
Another fortnight is nearly up so that can only mean time for another Alpha Challenge from The Craft Barn and the letter is "O". The choice for me this time was easy peasy as I love love Owls so I had been waiting for "O" to come along.......and 2 nights ago the Tawny Owls (we think) were back in the tree in the garden and that is the first time in many months...........so Owls it had to be................lol.

I used two of my favourite stamp sets to make these pages and of course some distress ink/pens
Large Owl and words are from IndigoBlu Hocus Pocus set and stamped in Adirondack Esspresso and Archival Jet Black. Tree branch and small Owl are from Sheena Douglass A little Bit Scenic Range stamped in Ranger Archival Coffee.  Wild Honey and Rusty Hinge TH Distress Markers for the background splodged around with a water brush, vintage photo distress ink was used around the page edges.

I'm still enjoying the lovely summer days we are having which I love but it is playing havoc with my crafting time and my room is such a mess I have to get in there and tidy up, today I had to clear a space to work and ended up with a space roughly A4 size...............which got smaller as I worked lol. Have a lovely weekend whatever you are doing
'till next time

Y is for..................

Yellow............
Hi everyone from scorching North Devon, we are on our travels again in the Motorhome and on our way to glorious Cornwall where I always feel I have arrived "home"..........anyways I suddenly realised I hadn't posted my Alpha Page so here it is..............The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge for week 14.....already wow.....is the letter "Y" and the twist being to use the colour yellow. Well I haven't many word on my page for "Y"  and have limited stash with me so I went with the word yellow.......I coloured page with  distress markers (never leave home without them) scattered straw, wild honey, stamped design with vintage photo and wild honey, ripped a page from a magazine ripping the pieces I wanted to use and stuck them to the page, inked around all the white edges with vintage photo and stamped over with same design.

 



I haven't got palm trees here but the weather and stunning sunsets have been just as idyllic as these pictures that I'm sure is why I was drawn to using them.  I'm sorry I haven't been around to visit but I will catch up when I can

bye for now from sunny Barnstable and tomorrow I will be in Cornwall Yippee............

'till next time

 

U is for..........................

Ugly ..............

As I went through all my U words to see what I could find for this Alpha Challenge at The Craft Barn, the  words that stood out I seemed to have already used the stamp images for other words... Umbrella....I had used my Umbrella Man for "weather" so on sorting through my boxes of stamps I thought Underwater................now I know I have a mermaid and some fishes somewhere............well they seem to have swum off ......when I came across the stamp I have used.....

when I saw it I immediately knew that it fitted the "ill tempered" part of the definition....what do you think lol

She really really looks miffed at something, I have kept it simple so not to detract from that face!  Page was distressed with antique linen ink and washed with water, Stamp is a PaperArtsy set I have had since I began stamping many years ago and had forgotten about....shame on me...... I stamped in versamark and embossed in black, corner is one of Tim's stamps which is embossed in black.

I found this a hard challenge as most of the stamps I had already used fitted and it was hard not to take the easy option and use them again......I really LOVE Umbrella Man and it was sooooo hard not to do " Umbrella" lol

Hope you have enjoyed looking and I must pop over to The Craft Barn and take a look  at all the entries I'm very behind this time.

till next time

F is for Flower..........

Letter F in the Alpha challenge at The Craft Barn Challenge   I am away at the moment with limited supplies I had some flower stamps with me so my word had to be flowers . Background was made by stamping the leaves with versamark and dusted over with green Pan Pastels.  Flowers were stamped in versafine black and painted with cosmic shimmer paints, smaller ones were stamped in distress inks.  Stamps are Sheena Douglas Little bit sketchy range Flower Power, words are a Creative Expressions Stamp.

Short and sweet from me I'm afraid as I'm on battery power only and it is running very low, I was thrilled to be chosen for the wall of fame for my last page Kimono and wearing my badge with pride.

till next time

K is for ........................

Kimono

Another Alpha Challenge  this time it is the letter "K" that has been chosen at The Craft Barn, I didn't have many words to choose from in my dictionary but reading through them Kimono jumped out at me, also I had some uninked stamps  from Kanban which I have had for a long time.........bad crafter..........so just the excuse (push) I needed to get them inky.

After I had stuck the pages together I washed over the background with distress ink Antique Linen I wanted a light wash just to age the paper...as it isn't showing up I succeeded there then... lol; everything was stamped in black versafine ink and coloured with distress markers.  The gorgeous lady was stamped onto white card and coloured, I firstly stamped directly onto the page but the colours didn't pop enough so I decided to stamp her into card and cut out , I have gone around the image with a watercolour pencil in blue and added a little water to add a shadow.

Thank you for looking and I apologise for all those I still haven't visited from the last challenge I will get there eventually as I love to see everyone's work,  life is still a little hectic here although Mum is a little better and  my thumb is much better.

Thanks for all the comments
bye for now

A is for ........................

Archway......

Another Week in the Alpha challenge at The Craft Barn and lots of choice within the A section.  The first word that came to me was Arch so when I looked in my dictionary Archway was there so an easy choice, now I have several arch stamps so I was spoilt for choice,  anyway,  I have chosen to use an IndigoBlu stamp from the Hocus Poscus set which is one of my fav sets. 

Firstly I glued some pages together as usual and painted over them with Ranger paint dabber Lake Mist, stamped the Arch image onto light yellow card cut out and stuck to my page (left) and also straight onto the page (right page)  with black Stazon and highlighted the definition which reads
 " archway an arch or vaulted passage esp leading into a castle"
I added some birds accross the page Tim Holtz stamp and Black Soot Distress Ink.

A quick page for me this time as I'm finding it hard to craft at the moment Mum is not too well so a lot of time is spent with her and I also injured my thumb in my left hand and OMG is it sore...... now I know why the saying "sticks out like a sore thumb" is so true.... ouch!!!

Again a great big thank you to all of you that visited my last page and left amazing comments, I will visit as many as time will allow I love to see everyones work.

bye for now



Items Used:
Stamps IndigoBlu, Tim Holtz; Inks Stazon, distress ink black soot

W is for .........

Weather this is my choice of W word for the Alpha challenge at The Craft Barn, there is also a twist this time to include circles.  As always I read through my dictionary first and Weather jumped out at me and also the stamps I could use for my page also April Showers which seems to be the weather we are getting here over the last few days.

Firstly I glued several pages together and then using Distress inks swiped the pads stormy sky  over the pages direct to paper, then I chose a weather compass mask (circle) and used frayed burlap to ink through, North and South are showing up but West and East got almost stamped over you can just see them by Umbrella Man, I also used a  (circle) mask  at the bottom of the page with shabby shutters.

 

 My first page is Showers I used a mask for the letters and distress ink pen.  I drew a sun (circle) round a top and coloured with distress inks scattered straw and tore a cloud from paper and inked with stormy sky drew rain (circles) with distress ink pen and covered in glossy accents to make them look wet and also covered the umbrella with it too Umbrella man is stamped in black Versafine ink.

 



This page is my Sunshine page! I found a piece of card in my bits box which had been embossed with (circles) which I punched out for the sun, highlighted the Weather definition and stamped Umbrella Man (Tim Holtz) in Denim Adirondack ink.  I found some paper with (circles) in my bits box I  paper pieced the umbrella part.

I am having so much fun altering my dictionary and just as much fun visiting everyone who is taking part, again I have a very big Thank You to everyone who visited me and for all the lovely comments left for my last page Roost.  Pop over to The Craft Barn blog and take a look..... some great things going on!

'till next time



Ingredients

Masks: Creative Expressions; Sudio 490
Inks: Distress Inks ; Versafine Adirondack; Distress Pens
Stamps Tim Holtz
Others Glossy accents, card

"P" is for Poppy

2 posts in one day wow!
This is my second altered page for the Alpha Challenge at The Craft Barn where the letter is "P" I love Poppies so decided to alter a second page to share at this challenge, only trouble is everything didn't go to plan..............think that is an understatement to say the least, I started by painting the poppies in acrylic paint "fusion" style which went wrong from the start need more practise......anyway instead of just abandoning it I then decided to add some red colour ink to the top of the page and spritz and let the colour run over the page I blotted with paper towel, next I used stencils and black acrylic paint for the bars, words and numbers, then I over stamped the poppies and embossed in black which I also did for the word Poppies, also added rings with a bottle lid and white paint.

Without realising it I seem to have made a remembrance page so I thought I would share anyway as things don't always need to go to plan............do they?
Thanks for looking and for the lovely comments on my Pear page here

Nearly time for our new letter can't wait



Ingredients
Stamps Sheena Douglass, Pepeo Acrylic Paint, Distress Inks shabby shutters; black EP; stencils Studio 490, others