The final letter - 'P'!

Dear friends,

Well, we've made it!  After a year's worth of fortnightly challenges, we are now on the final letter of the Craft Barn's alpha dictionary challenge, and it's the letter 'P'.

My choice was easy - having just made Christmas cards that featured poinsettias, it was the first word that popped into my head - I didn't even scour the dictionary for something else!  It's also the longest word I've featured in the challenge during the year with 10 letters to cut out and glue down.  

My tag features:

• A tag die from Heartfelt Creations
• 'Happy new year' die by Sue Wilson
• Poinsettia die by Spellbinders

I have really enjoyed taking part in the challenge over the year; and I've enjoyed meeting other crafters and seeing what they've created throughout bogland.  Thank you for visiting and leaving your comments.

So, to echo my tag, I'd just like to wish you all a very happy new year for 2017.  

Take care.

Anne

Merry Christmas! - 'M' is for Merry!

Hello!

Well we are at the penultimate letter of the Craft Barn's alpha dictionary challenge and it is the letter 'M'.  I settled down today to do two things in my craft room - to make a card for my husband and to do my entry for the challenge.

Here is my card - it uses a set of border dies that I have arranged together to imitate the images so popular in Nordic countries.  It came out better than I expected and I must confess to being quite pleased with it!  I like cutting a pattern out in different colours and then piecing them together.  This is what I have done with the sparkly elements of the card in the snowflakes, the decoration on the baubles and the stars.  I think he will like it.  

Then I immediately hit upon the 'M' of Merry Christmas as my possible solution to the challenge. What's more, I had a lot of 'waste' elements from the card and I just put them together for this tag.

It also reflects what I'd like to say to my blogging friends - I hope you all have a very merry Christmas and a happy new year for 2017.  

Take care everyone,

Anne

'Y' is for 'Yule' of course!

Hello,

The Craft Barn's challenge this week is the letter 'Y'.  Now there aren't many words beginning with 'Y', but as I'm in full swing making Christmas cards, the solution was simple!  Yuletide!

My tag uses the elements I usually have in my cards:  pretty backing paper, tags, a central image and snowflakes!  I love snowflakes and I usually add to my collection each year with something new to tempt me!

I'm off to the Craft Barn's sale in a minute - looking for some presents for two family members.

Hope you like my tag.

Have a good day.

Anne

Ice skating - my entry for 'I'

Hello,

The Craft Barn alpha dictionary challenge this time is the letter 'I'.  For me, this was a simple choice, as I've been playing with Heartfelt Creations two wintery launches called 'Celebrate the Season' and 'Snow Kissed', which contains this lovely skating snowman image.  Frolicking Frosty snowman appears on a number of my Christmas cards this year, along with the pair of skates.

I also used a snowflake stamp in white chalk ink to add to the background.

As we draw to the end of the year, there are very few letters left.  I'm trying hard to enter each challenge, but invariably leave it to the last day!  LOL!

Best wishes,

Anne O

Unite! - my entry for the letter 'u'!

Hello,

The letter for the latest Craft Barn alpha dictionary challenge is 'u'.  Now there aren't really that many words beginning in 'u' if you discount all those that begin with 'un'.  My favourite word was really umbrella, but my attempts at drawing umbrellas for a bit of zentangle were pretty pathetic, so I had to have a re-think.

I was tempted by 'Uncle Sam' - probably because the news is full of the US presidency outcome - and I thought about creating a flag and adding some stars floating off it, but then I came up with 'unite' which I've illustrated by two intertwined hearts.  

This die set is one of the first ones I bought - it's by Heartfelt Creations, which is one of my favourite die manufacturers.  It's called 'Timeless amour' and has got a number of very pretty hearts.  It's a very simple entry this time.  I've been making some Christmas cards and only just remembered that I needed to do an entry...

Thanks for visiting.

Anne

Travelling with luggage

Hello

Today's blog is for The Craft Barn's alpha dictionary challenge and this time it's the letter 'V'.  Once again I've left it to the last minute, so much so that the next letter has been announced.  It's the letter 'U'.  As I was at a loss about what to do - I'd even thought about combining both challenges and illustrating Ultra-Violet - I was beginning to think this might be the first challenge I've not completed.

Then I happened upon 'Valise' - a small case - and I was away!  I turned to a die set from Heartfelt Creations which comprises a suitcase, various labels and some tickets.  Perfect!  I then turned to a favourite postcard stamp - again from Heartfelt Creations, to link my case, label and ticket with a pretty postcard.

Phew!  Once again, late to post!  Hope you had a good weekend and are rested for the week ahead.

Thank you for visiting.

Anne. x

'E' is for Eight!

Hello!

Today's blog is my entry for The Craft Barn's alpha dictionary challenge and the letter this time is 'E'!

There are quite a few words beginning with 'E', but somehow I wasn't attracted to any of them until I came across 'eight' and 'eighteen'.  While I was initially going to illustrate 'eight' with a rowing boat (The Oxford vs Cambridge Boat Race kind!), I wasn't really happy with my rendition of the long and graceful boats, so the number not the noun it was!

I found some balloon dies (Spellbinders' 'Fun on a string') and I cut out eight balloons and mounted them on a checkered paper that reminded me of a table cloth and a birthday party!  

I added the definition, as usual, but one thing that struck me was the wording:  Eight is defined as one more than seven.  So what if you don't know what seven is?  One more than six?  And why not use the definition as one less than nine?  As definitions go, I think this one is pretty weak!

Perhaps I should have gone with eighteen after all - the tag does look a little bare!  LOL

Have a good weekend.

Anne x

Stocking filler...

Hello!

Yet again, right at the last minute, I'm posting an entry to The Craft Barn's challenge.  This time the topic is 'books', and I have decorated a little note book for my step-daughter Amy as a little stocking filler for Christmas!  

It's a tiny notebook - about 4 inches square - and I found an offcut of some pretty paper with a sort of a paisley pattern.  I then went mad with my glitter glues - purple, turquoise, dark blue, clear and green.  The main challenge was to get it from my little craft room in the garage into the house and photographed without smudging the glues.  I think I made it - just!

I'll put glitter on the spine and the back tomorrow! LOL!

I love Christmas, and I love making cards and decorations - it's never too early to start!  (Oh nooooo! I can hear some of you saying!)  I just can't help it!

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Best wishes,  Anne x 

'X' is for Xerox!

The Craft Barn's alpha dictionary challenge this month is the letter 'X'.  Well it had to come round at some point, I suppose!  I'd initially thought I'd do Xmas, but I never ever write Xmas on cards, as I really don't like the contraction, so I thought I'd try a little harder and up popped Xerox!

I found a small stamp of a jam jar of brushes - I think it was a free gift on the front of a magazine - and stamped it a number of times.  One of them was deliberately stamped off the page and crinkled - in recognition of the problems I always come across with printers and copier!

I hope you like my tag!

Have fun!

Anne

O for Olympics

Hello!

I'm writing this post from my holiday terrace in a small mountain village of Mallorca!  I just remembered to do my tag in time, photographed it and then didn't do my blog until I was reminded by the Craft Barn's blog this morning! Phew!  I don't want to miss it!

I'm entering this tag in the Alpha dictionary challenge, for the letter 'O'.  Spurred on by our recent successes in Rio, I thought that 'Olympics' would be reasonably topical and, more importantly, fairly easy for me to do when I was running out of time....

I don't tend to look to see what everyone else does before I've posted my entry.  I'd thought that lots of folk would have chosen 'heart' for the previous challenge, but I was the only one.  I bet I'm not  the only one to choose Olympics this time!  LOL!

I used up a few scraps to make this card, my usual Spellbinders font and a circle die!  

Thanks for reading my blog!

Anne

 

H is for 'heart'

Hello!

The alpha dictionary challenge this time is to illustrate the letter 'H'.  Once again I'm an hour or so before the deadline and still without my word.  Then out of nowhere my word came to me - heart! I then found an offcut from a lovely piece of Heartfelt Creations paper in a beautiful deep red with a dainty pattern. And, of course, out came my heart dies and I was off! 

My tag features a die from Heartfelt Creations (Timeless Amour) and a Spellbinders heart as well.

Best wishes,

Anne

Some cool blues for this hot summer!

Hello!

The Craft Barn challenge for this week is 'blue' - I rather think that the intention was blue skies, blue sea in tune with the beautiful summer weather we're currently enjoying.

However, I've just treated myself to some Heartfelt Creations dies and stamps from their new collection called Snow Kissed.  It's absolutely beautiful, with a stunning snowflake, a tag die (I love my tags...), snowmen and pine trees.  For my card, I chose some icy blue colours and cut up one of the 12" x 12" papers to form the background.  I stamped the pretty tag pattern onto dark paper using white chalk ink.  It's not as clear as I expected, but I quite like the mottled tones.  This stamp is gorgeous on a solid colour.  There are snow flake stamps and dies to cut them out and these are what I used to decorate my card.  Finally, I had to add some glitter - dark blue in the centres of the snowflakes and diamond over the flakes and around the edge. 

The sentiment is from Sue Wilson.   This is such a clever die - you get two sentiments each time you use it.  I've kept the 'waste' for my tag, and the words that have fallen out of it are waiting to go on the next card! (Well, assuming I don't lose them of course!)

It's quite unusual for me to start Christmas cards this early, but with so many lovely things coming out, I've made some headway.

Oh dear - it doesn't look as blue as it really is!  Will it still count?

Have a good bank holiday weekend.

Best wishes,  Anne x

Z for zebra

This week's alpha dictionary challenge from the Craft Barn was the letter Z with a pearl.  So, I needed to choose something beginning with Z and add a pearl to my tag.

I left it a bit late in the fortnight and because of some family celebrations that would take up most of the weekend, I realised that I needed to make my mind up soon!  One of my earlier tags featured zentangle, and I thought that the technique would help me depict a zebra print on my tag.  Once again, I made a stencil to produce the wording.

I'm surprised how much I enjoy making up these patterns and filling in the spaces.  It's quite therapeutic.

Hope you've had a good weekend.

Best wishes,  Anne x

On camera

Hello everyone

Today's blog is for my entry to The Craft Barn's alpha dictionary competition.  This time its the letter 'C'.  The choice for me was easy - Camera.  I remembered that I had some Kaisercraft paper featuring cameras and photography and I thought they would be perfect to illustrate my word.

Trouble was, where did I put them?  Some hours later and the tidiest of tidy craft rooms, I had found them.  I'd used the papers at one of the mini-album classes I go to, and all that was left were a few tiny scraps!  As they were in sepia, I decided to make the whole of my tag sepia, reflecting the golden age of photography with negatives and slides.

As well as my Kaisercraft paper (sorry, I can't remember the name!), I used:

• Font 1 from Spellbinders
• A sizzix die for the slide mounts 
• Tim Holz distress inks - vintage photo (what else!)

Thank you for visiting my blog,

Anne x

Clean and simple - part 2

The two-weekly challenge from the Craft Barn is clean and simple.  As I mentioned on my last blog, I don't really do clean and simple very well as I have a tendency to embellish.  I thought I'd have a second entry this week.

This heart is one of the first dies I bought so I have a great fondness for it, and I still think it's better than lots of hearts around.  It's a Memory Box die.

I've teamed it with my favourite set of sentiments called 'scripty sayings' by Lawn Faun and a small rose from Spellbinders Bitty Blossoms.  I've made two cards.

I hope you like my second entry for the challenge.

Thank you for reading my blog.

Anne

Clean and simple

The two-weekly challenge from the Craft Barn is clean and simple.  I don't really do clean and simple very well as I have a tendency to embellish, and add, and add some more, and then do some glitter, and some more... But I thought I'd have a go.

This is a belated birthday card for a family member who does not really go in for fussy things, so a perfect candidate for my card.  I have used three die sets:

• 'Happy' from Sue Wilson's perspectives collection - I love the concept of this die set.  It comes with a variety of words to help you extend its use. You can cut into the card as I have done, or you can cut out of card.  I really hope she brings out some accompanying add-ons to help with 'Happy Christmas' and 'Happy New Year'
• Spellbinders Marissa's bouquet - this is a die set with a number of different simple flower styles and leaves.  Perhaps I should just have had one layer, not two!  (Oh dear, I can't help myself adding things)
• Spellbinders Tag Trio - this is a die set with three patterned tags.  I like the bunting for birthday cards, but there is also a heart version and a sunbeam pattern.  They make a nice embellishment for a man.

It's a fast card to make too.  It takes just one A4 sheet of card and a contrasting layer for matting, plus some scrapes for the tag and flower.  I found a nice glass centre for the flower.

I hope you like my entry for the challenge.

Thank you for reading my blog.

Anne

Numbers, numbers

Today I'm sharing a tag that I've made to enter the latest Craft Barn's alpha dictionary challenge.  It's the letter 'N' and as I was going through the dictionary, I was beginning to wonder if I'd manage to do anything!  Night, nut, nine came to mind, but then I found number!

Having recently gone through the cupboard where I keep my embossing folders,  I already knew I had a nice folder called Numbers and Letters from Spellbinders.  I often forget to get out my embossing folders, but I'm always so pleased with the impression you get for the folders!  I gently rubbed some ink over the tag to bring out the numbers and I added a few numbers form a Memory Box set.

Oh dear! I've not been very straight with my letters this time!  Haha!

Thank you for visiting!

Anne

Butterflies

The latest Craft Barn challenge is 'butterflies' - well, that's quite an easy one for me as I frequently add a butterfly to most birthday cards I make.  I don't often add more than one, though!

This card uses a mini striplet die by Sue Wilson called 'Butterflies in flight' and I have cut it out four times to create a frame for my sentiment.  The fallaway from the die cut leaves you with a number of butterflies that you can add to your creation.  It's quite a quick card to make for those occasions when a birthday comes up unexpectedly.  The sentiment is from Justrite.

How many butterflies can you see within this card?  

Thank you for visiting my blog,

Best wishes,

Anne O

Winter in July!

Well, with the weather we're having at the moment, you could be forgiven for thinking that we're experiencing winter - wind, rain, cold.  You never know what to wear or what to take out with you!

The reason for my title in this blog is that the alpha dictionary challenge for the Craft Barn this time is the letter 'W', and I have chosen to illustrate 'winter'.  I think I've also been influenced by all the lovely new dies for Christmas that have been hitting the craft stores and showing online!

I love making Christmas cards and so I very happily dug out some of my wintery dies!

The paper I've used is a small scrap of BoBunny paper featuring snowflakes, and I added a few snowflake dies on top.  Finally, I added a liberal pinch of glitter in all the centres (although the photo does not show it terribly well!)

I had an even smaller scrap left over and so I made a small Christmas card, using Sue Wilson's tag die and her new Christmas sentiment.  I really like the style of the sentiment, combining capital letters and a friendly scripty font.  OK, so that's the second Christmas card I've made so far!  Only about 80 to go! LOL!

Thank you for visiting!

Keys, keys, keys!

The letter 'K' is the challenge for this fortnight at the Craft Barn's alpha dictionary challenge.  K doesn't seem to have very many words in the dictionary and I was at a loss about what to do until I happened across 'key'!

This tiny word has so many meanings - additionally, it's a noun, an adjective and a verb, so lots of opportunity for illustration.  My tag illustrates two of the meanings - physical keys which I have cut out using Heartfelt Creations Burnished Key die; and a motto (Keys to a good life) taken from the Burnished Key background.

I stamped the key images and coloured them with mica powder - the photo is a bit flat but the keys are all quite shiny in real life.  

I'm pretty hopeless with keys.  Not only do I seem to spend half my life looking for them, but I always manage to be involved in a key drama on holiday.  One year I locked the keys in the car at a pretty remote beach in Mallorca, so my husband and I had to walk from the beach up to the town (quite a hike in heat) and catch a bus back to the next village to retrieve a spare set!  Then at our most recent holiday, we managed to lock a phone in the car at the airport and they weren't able to come out in time - so no phone for my husband for a week until it arrived home having been nicely packed up and posted!

Hope you like my tag - thank you for visiting my blog.

Anne x