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!