The last two letters..

in the Craft Barn blog Alpha challenge, and what about that, I kept up!  Rather proud of myself, really although the last two were touch and go owing to the holiday crafting hiatus - but I did it - just.

So I proudly present -

X is for X-ray

and

I is for IVY

I would love to show you the full set...but it's all been packed away until after New Year.  Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the ATC's, and if you were playing as well, I hope you enjoyed the challenges as much as I did.  Will I be joining in again next year (assuming the Craft Barn run a challenge)?  I don't know...I'll have to have a bit of a lie down and a think about it first!

Thank you for visiting my blog and have a great 2014!

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

S is for...

The latest Craft Barn Blog Alpha challenge is brought to you by letter S, which is a relief after last time (Q was not easy!)  After some thought, I went for  - Snowflake.

Nothing very complicated about this one, just die-cut and punched snowflakes cut from flock paper left over from another project (waste not, want not) on card coloured with shades of blue.  Job done!  

Q is for...

We had to get there eventually...it's letter Q's turn in the spotlight at the Craft Barn blog Alpha challenge.  There's not an awful lot of words to choose from in my little dictionary, but after a bit of thought I've chosen QUARRELSOME.

The Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland was a pretty quarrelsome person, so I've used her on my ATC.    I masked her with a Post-It and stamped the tiled floor and blended DI's over the background.  She's coloured in with Promarkers in bright primary colours.  

So I'm still keeping up and not many letters left...although one of them is X...

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

N is for...

Not long to go in the Craft Barn Blog Alpha Challenge, and I'm still keeping up.  This time we've reached  letter N, and I've chosen

Nocturnal

A no-frills ATC, this time, beginning with a bit of Antique Linen DI to soften the color of the card a bit, then masked off a circle for the moon and then Stormy Sky, Black Soot and Dusty Concord blended over the background.  I stamped the bat and the branches using Surfacez ink and drew in some stars and highlighted edges with white pen.

And there we are - I wonder what the next letter will be?

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

L is for...

The 21st letter in the Craft Barn Alpha Challenge is "L" and I've chosen "Leaf" for my little ATC.  The project has to feature a window, so I made a little window envelope for it -

And here it is in the nude...

I haven't played with Paint Fusion for a while so I decided it was about time I did.  The image is a bramble leaf from one of Sheena's Paint Fusion sets, which I overstamped and embossed with gold powder after I'd done the painting.  I also added in some swirls and dipped the edges of the ATC in gold powder before I blended Wild Honey and Tea Dye over the card.  Simples!

Crafty hugs,

Keren

J is for...

We’ve reached letter J in the Craft Barn Blog Alpha Challenge.  I’ve chosen “Japanese” for my little ATC this time.  

It’s a very straightforward piece, being just the image stamped with permanent ink onto my favourite Centura Pearl card and coloured with Promarkers.    But – just a minute – did I say Permanent ink and Promarkers in the same breath?  Well, yes I did.  I used a new ink called Sufacez, which is permanent, dries on all sorts of difficult materials, and can be used with alcohol markers.  (It comes in all sorts of yummy colours as well – but I was only able to get black and brown)  Good, eh? 

Crafty hugs, 

Keren

Snowdrops

Hi blog friends, welcome to my part of the blogiverse.  Did you know that the amazing Ike, who creates wonderful digis, has a new challenge blog?  The first ever Ike's World Challenge is to make something from the tic-tac-toe grid -

I  chose doily, tag and ribbon - 

The first version of this met with an unfortunate accident,which is why I am sliding in through the doors just before they shut them...I hope. (The blog is denying me permission to read it.. )  I'd printed out the snowdrops (an Ike digi) and glued micro beads onto the reverse.  I'd coloured the picture on the computer to save myself time and left it on one side for the glue to dry.  I forgot that the cat (Craft Supervisor Mysti) has a strange addiction to licking plastic. The project was not improved by the addition of cat spit, believe me!  (BTW, Mysti seems is OK - she obviously didn't like the taste of the ink as she didn't lick much - just enough to ruin it!)

So, take 2- as well as the aforementioned micro beads, I used a doily cut from a Cheery Lynne die, a teeny-tiny tag cut with a punch I've had for a long time, and a bit of velvet ric-rac ribbon (I LOVE velvet ribbon!) on some paper printed from a Sheena Douglass CD, mounted on a bit of textured silver card.  

Hope you like it! 

Crafty hugs,

Keren

G is for...

Time for the latest Craft Barn Blog Alpha challenge, and this time it's letter G.  Now you may find it hard to believe, but I struggled to think of a suitable word.  Me, Mrs I-Love-Steampunk herself.  Talk about overlooking the obvious - it was even one of the DT's words!  Of course, it HAD to be -
Gears!

I embossed the usual bit of Centura Pearl with an M- bossibilities folder - I rubbed Walnut Stain DI over the inside of the folder first to get a letterpress look. Then I rubbed Wild Honey DI over the surface, and gave it a light rub of Gleam wax.  Finally, I glued on a few gears that I'd die-cut for other projects and coloured with Gilder's Paste and topped them off with a few Dew Drops

And there we are.  Can you believe that there are only six letters left to go?

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

Z is for...

Well, we had to get there sooner or later - it's time for letter Z over at the Craft Barn Blog Alpha challenge.  This is one of those letters with a relatively limited range of words to choose and I went for -
Zigzag.

My ATC is just some doodles in a zigzag pattern, done with Micron pens, and with a bit of Black Soot Distress Ink around the edges to give some dimension.  I've done a bit of Zentangle-style doodling as well.  Simples, as someone once said!

Crafty hugs,

Keren

O is for...

The Craft Barn Alpha challenge number 17  is brought to you by letter O.  I considered Octopus - they are truly amazing creatures - or Orange, but in the end I decided on Oriental as my word of the fortnight!

I die-cut the jar using my new Tattered Lace die from paper covered with double-sided adhesive film.  It took a few passes through the Calibur to cut - I would probably have been better off using the Big Shot, which seems to have a bit more oomph when cutting tricky materials, even with wafer thin dies.  I blended blue inks over the back of the ATC (my usual Centura Pearl, reverse side), stuck the die-cut shape paper side down onto the card (I used Cosmic Shimmer glue, it has a nice fine tip and is a great glue).  Once the glue was nice and dry, I removed the protective layer from the adhesive film and sprinkled on glitter - Diamond Sprinkles from Cosmic Shimmer.  It's a white glitter rather than crystal.  (Actually, I was going to use Micro Beads but I've put them somewhere safe....)

Thank you for stopping by - I hope you enjoyed the visit.  Come back soon!

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

D is for...

It's downhill all the way to the end of the year now (scary thought) and we're on challenge 16 from the Craft Barn Alpha challenge.  This challenge is brought to you by the letter D, and I've chosen Dance. 

A nice easy one, this - I cut the dancers out of vinyl with my Cameo, and then just stuck them onto a scrap of Dufex (another D-word) .  I chose this image because it looks like a move from an Argentine Tango, which is the dance that we (the Love of My Life and I) have just learned and really enjoy (I do a mean gancho and my ocho's are a sight to behold!) although this particular step always brings on an attack of Waltzheimer's (that's when you can't remember the next steps) on my husband's part and I've nearly incapacitated him on a number of occasions as I step forward between his feet and he doesn't move...

Anyroad, he's survived so far, and so have I.  Thank you for visiting, see you soon!

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

T is for...

We're on number 15 in the Craft Barn Blog Alpha Challenge and this time it's letter T.  Letter Y was a toughie, but there are so many good T-words to choose from!  I picked " tete-a-tete".

This is one of my favourite stamps - it's from Inkadinkado and is called Victorian Couple Walking.  Slight snag- it's too large to fit comfortably on an ATC, so a workaround was called for.   I cut my ATC out of my favourite Centura Pearl card ( the reverse side is a great surface for stamping), and also cut an ATC sized piece of copy paper.  I die-cut an oval out of this piece.  I also stamped my Victorian couple onto the copy paper and cut them out.  Then I put repositionable adhesive on the back of all three pieces.

Then it was masking time!  I used the aperture mask first and stamped the couple in Cocoa Brown Memento ink.  Then I masked off the couple (leaving the aperture mask in place) and brushed on shades of yellow, pink and mauve (from my Big & Juicy Soothing Sunset pad) with Inkylicious Colour Dusters.

Then I removed the masks and covered the work I'd done so far with the oval piece of copy paper and blended ink (Old Paper, Tea Die and Wild Honey) over the background and stamped the script stamp in Memento over the top.

Finally, I coloured in the couple with Promarkers and added the definition.

I'm also entering this in The Artful Times Challenge No 34 - Masking.

Y is for...

More than halfway through the alphabet challenge at The Craft Barn blog now - and the latest letter is Y, with the added condition that the project must have some yellow on it. After a lot of thinking,  I remembered that I had this stamp of a cat playing with a ball of wool, so I've chosen "Yarn" as my word.

It's a straightforward ATC - the cat and ball of yarn was stamped in Cocoa Brown Memento ink, coloured with Promarkers in shades of yellow and gold, then masked off the image (Quickie Glue is great to use on the back of the mask to add repositionable glue at the fiddly bits) and blended yellow inks (Adirondack yellow and butterscotch) over the background. 

I wonder what letter will be next?  We'll just have to wait and see!

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

B is for...

Hello blog friends!  Welcome to my part of the Blogiverse, where today I am sharing my contribution for the  Craft Barn blog Alpha Challenge, which this week is brought to you by the letter B.

I considered "Bird" and "Butterfly" and even "Bricks", but in the end I went for

"Brave" - as in Native American warrior.

The stamp is from Creative Expressions, and I stamped it onto the reverse side of a piece of Centura Pearl.  I made three masks - one of the whole stamp, one of the brave's face and headdress, and one that masked off the outer part of the card (leaving the inner frame open).

First I masked off the whole of the stamp and coloured the background using my ink dusters and Big & Juicy inkpad (Foliage).  I picked up inks in the Ginger/Cranberry/Butterscotch sections.  The ink dusters make blending SOOOO easy, I love them.  Then I masked off the brave's head and the area I'd just coloured, leaving the circular frame behind the face open. This time I used the Waterfall Big & Juicy to get the blues and a hint of green. 

Finally, I coloured in the face and headdress with Promarkers and stuck the definition onto the card.  Job done!

Thank you for stopping by!

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

U is for...

The Craft Barn's fortnightly Alpha Challenge has reached letter U.  Not the easiest letter to illustrate - I have to admit, this one nearly defeated me...but not quite!.  I considered "Umbrella", and "Unicorn" before settling on "Udjat"

The udjat is an Egyptian amulet, also known as the "Eye of Horus".  The right eye - which this stamp by Clarity shows - represents the sun (the left eye is the moon).  I stamped it onto some scrap Centura pearl card (the reverse side) embossed it in gold WOW powder and then dug out my Sakura Gelly Roll pens to add colour .  I blended DI's (Scattered Straw, Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade) over the background card, put some silicon glue onto the eye and stuck it on.  Then all that remained was to add the definition, and the job was done!


Thanks for visiting....

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

F is for...



Hi blog friends!

 

The latest Craft Barn Alpha challenge is letter F, with the added condition that the word chosen must begin with the letters FE to FR.  I've gone with "Feather" 

 

One of the things I love about ATCs is the speed.  I've mentioned elsewhere that crafting has had to take a back seat of late (but soon, my lovelies, I shall be back up to full strength - mwah-hah-hah!)  I coloured the reverse side of a piece of Centura Pearl card with DI's in Mowed Lawn, Peacock Feathers and Black Soot.  Once it was dry I stamped the small feather (a Sam Poole stamp) in Versamark and brushed on some mica powders in gold, turquoise and green.

I stamped the large feather in FlitterGlu and gilded it and job was done.

Thank you for visiting - hope you enjoyed yourself!

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

K is for...

Hi blog friends - good to see you!  If you've been keeping up with the Craft Barn Alpha challenge, you will know that we're up to K.  Not the easiest letter, even if it is the initial of my first name. After toying with "King" or "Kite" or "Kitten", I finally decided on - "Knight".

The knight chess piece is from an "Alice in Wonderland"  set I've had for years.  I masked it out and stamped the tiled floor (from Lost Coast Stamps) over the top, blended Weathered Wood and Pumice Stone DI's over the back and added the shadow around the knight with grey Promarkers.

And that's it.  Short & sweet tonight, folks - the OH is in hospital (don't worry, it's pretty minor stuff) so I'm off to visit the sick!

See you soon!

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

A is for...

Hi blog friends, and thank you for visiting my blog.  Today's offering is my contribution to the Craft Barn Alpha challenge, for which I am making a series of ATC's.  The latest letter for the challenge is "A" and I've chosen "Arachnid".

The ATC itself I embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder, then tinted with Distress Inks in Iced Spruce and Salty Ocean, with a  touch of Black Soot over the raised areas.  Then I lightly rubbed in a bit of Pearl Moon metallic gilding wax to highlight the web. 

The spider was cut with my Cameo and given a coat of Glossy Accents.  And then all I needed to do was to add in the definition and the job was finished!  Simples!

Crafty hugs,

Keren

W is for...

Hi all, welcome to my blog.  Today I'm sharing my contribution to the Craft Barn Blog Alpha challenge.  The letter of the moment is "W", with the extra condition that the background must feature circles.

I've chosen "Watch" (as in timepiece) .  The foreground stamps are by Sam Poole, the circles in the background are Tim Holtz (Bitty Grunge).  What else?  I used Sepia archival ink for the watch and the sentiment, Butterscotch Adirondack for the circles (after masking out the watch with a post-it) and Wild Honey Distress Ink blended over the background.  The watch was a bit stark white when I removed the mask so I went over it with some Antique Linen DI to calm it down, and traced the outline with a pale grey Promarker to help it stand out from the background a bit. 

Add in the definition, and that was it! 

Thanks for visiting.

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

R is for..

Well, I've managed to keep up with the Craft Barn's Alpha challenge so far- much to my surprise!  This time we're asked to illustrate the letter R.  I had to think about this one - what would I choose?  Red?  Rings? Rose?  Well, in the end I plumped for -
RUST!

I learned techniques that I used to make the rust effects in Andy Skinner's Timeworn Techniques online workshop, so I'm not going to go into details as to how I did it - I highly recommend that you sign up if you can afford the modest course fee, though - I've been amazed at the things I've learned how to do!  Suffice it to say that I've signed up for two further workshops and have got my eye on another one...I'm Andy-addicted!

Anyway, thank you for stopping by  - I do hope you enjoyed your visit!