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

The letter 'A'

That's my letter!

The letter for the latest alpha dictionary challenge from the Craft Barn is the letter 'A'.  Now that's my favourite letter - it's not only my initial but also the initial of my birthday month!  That lead me to thinking about birthdays and so the idea of illustrating 'age' popped into my head.  Here we go:

Rifling through my dies

I used dies from seven different sets to create this tag!  The alphabet die cuts were from Spellbinders' font one (upper and lower case).  I then cut out some numbers from each of the three numeral sets that I have - Memory Box typewriter numbers; Spellbinders' Victorian numbers and Etched alphabet.

Finally, the sentiment, balloon, heart, star and tags were from Sentiment 3, 'Fun on a string' and Tag Trio - all from Spellbinders.

The Tag Trio is one of my 'go-to' dies at the moment - especially good for male cards. I've made a few clean and simple cards recently and I use them to support the sentiment.

I made the card here for my nephew Daniel for his recent 30th birthday.  I used a  die set from Sue Wilson, from her Perspectives Collection called Happy.

I need to get ahead on the next challenge as the closing date is while I'm away on holiday - can't wait!

Have a good bank holiday weekend.

Anne

How does your garden grow?bouquet

The post for today is another challenge from the Craft Barn's alpha dictionary challenge.

For this challenge, it's the letter 'G', and the idea I had was to feature flowers from a garden.  Making flowers for my cards is one of my favourite things to do and so I dug out some pretty papers to use.  The die set is a set by Spellbinders called Marissa's Bouquet, which produces very pretty simple flowers.  I've probably gone over the top here, but they're perfect for clean and simple cards.

Here's a lovely sample of them from Christine Emberson's blog Creativity Continues.    

And here's my Garden tag:

I took it quite early in the morning and the shadows are evident.  Sorry about that!  The definition (which is part of the challenge) talks about a lawn and flower beds, and cultivated plants for enjoyment.  While I get a lot of enjoyment out of my garden, it's mainly to do with defeating weeds and eradicating snails!

Have a lovely weekend.  I might even get the chance to make a start on the garden for the first time this year.

Have fun.

Anne