LOVELY DAY AT BIRDS IN THE BARN

I had a great day yesterday at Birds in the Barn with the lovely Janet McKee (owner and Hostess with Mostest) and some gallant ladies who produced some really lovely work. Take a look...

 Karen Edwards

 Tracy

 Sarah

 Karen (No 2)(forgive me Karen)

Natalie

Not sure what I did to Debbie's photo but I cannot upload it for love nor money. So disappointing as it's another cracker. If you get a chance Debbie, I'd love a photo to share with everybody.

Thank you all for a really lovely day. We laughed loads and everybody pitched in to help out, which was brilliant.

Lx

THAT'S CRAFTY CHALLENGE - FEMININE

Morning crafty people

It's time for another challenge at That's Crafty and this time it is "Feminine".

I had a rummage through my stash and came up with these gorgeously feminine stamps by Kay Carly for PaperArtsy. I used a mixture of watercolours, distress inks and Fresco Finish paints to get the effect I wanted and, though I will probably tweak it some more at some point by adding some longer grasses and softening the point where the blue meets the green, I'm fairly pleased with it so far.

I'm particularly pleased with the flowers and all the little dots and splatters. As I'm sure you gathered it's supposed to be raining.... A little tongue in cheek but summer ain't summer in the UK without a bit of rain and we've had more than our fair share this year haven't we. The little circles were made using a white Posca Pen and That's Crafty's Punchinella Dinky Stencil.

Anyhoo, I hope you'll pop along to That's Crafty's Challenge Blog and join in with the fun. As usual there is a £20 prize for one lucky winner, who will be picked at random. Good luck...

Lx

PAPERARTSY PLAY - THE EYES SEE EVERYTHING

Sometimes things seem to take an AGE to actually come together. I had the idea for this page back in February when Emma Godfrey released her Dream stamps AND PaperArtsy released their new Infusions range.

Well you know how it is, things got busy and I didn't get a chance to get back to my journal spread until this morning while I was waiting for a couple of things to dry...

Here at last is the finished spread and I am mighty pleased with it...

I drew the basic shape of the eye with a black Pitt Pen, used the small circle from Emma's EEG18 set for the iris of the eye and coloured the pupil with a black Pitt pen. I've layered them onto the page with gloss gel medium to give them a bit more dimension on the page and the highlights were done with my White Posca Pen.  The eyelashes are made with one of Emma's Mini 17 stamp. (The one I used for my flower page a couple of weeks ago).

I wanted to see if I could target the Infusions to a very small space directly on the page and was pleased to find that if I filled the large dots (again from EEG18) with water from my paintbrush and then sprinkled on the Infusions, before blowing away the excess, it worked like a charm (I used Golden Sands because I like the way it works with A Bit Jaded, the colour I used for the iris of the eye). I've lifted them with a dot of Glossy Accents and I think they look a bit like Tiger's Eye beads.

I do like contrasts and, for the wording on the page I used two of the stamps from an Ink and the Dog set called Femme. I stamped the Fatal Error stamp fairly haphazardly (As haphazardly as a pointy pencil can manage, that is) and then washed it back with a thin layer of Snowflake and a thin layer of Blue Oyster Fresco Finish paints. Unusually for me, I applied the paint with a baby wipe. It's not something I usually do but it gave me a nice thin wash of colour and knocked the first layer of writing back enough for you to see the focal images. The main quote was stamped with black Archival ink and I've picked out the word "eyes" with glossy accent to bring it forward.

Job done.

Right, back to work now. No rest for the wicked...

Lx

THAT'S CRAFTY CHALLENGE - MASCULINE

The men in my house like to go fishing in their spare time so I couldn't resist this masculine card using some fab PaperArtsy Hot Picks and PaperArtsy Infusions through That's Crafty's Dinky Grid Stencil,

I stamped the fish in brown Archival Ink by ColorBox and then added some shading with my Prismacolour Pencils. I paid more attention to the focal fish and layered him up before adding some glossy accents to give him a bit more presence. I must say, I think he's rather handsome... (for a fish!?)

As usual, there is some amazing inspiration from the fabulous That's Crafty design team and a £20 prize for one lucky winner, who will be picked at random, so check out your stash and see what you can come up with for our masculine theme.

Lx

PAPERARTSY PLAY

I've been proper poorly with a flu type bug and chest infection this last couple of weeks and it's fair to say I haven't been feeling up to much, so when I started to feel better yesterday I raced straight off to my craft room for some long overdue PaperArtsy play time...

Emma's stamps are my go to when I'm in a whimsical mood and these flowers really make me happy. I had a lovely time just footling about. I've used EEG14 and 15 and my current favourite set of Emma's new Mini's EM17 for the stamping.

The background was already in my journal. I made it when I was making samples for Emma way back in the New Year. Fresco paints, of course, in Snowflake, Carribean Sea, Inky Pool, Zesty Zing, Orchid and Limelight. Yum!

Feeling a bit better again today which just goes to show that the BEST medicine is CRAFT :oD

Have a good week everybody.

Lx

IN THE PINK AT THAT'S CRAFTY's CHALLENGE BLOG

It's ages since I made a card and I really enjoyed colouring this beautiful Carabelle mermaid for the challenge this week. I used my trusty Copic Markers and Prismacolour Pencils for the mermaid ad her fishy little friend. PaperArtsy Infusions were perfect for a nice watery effect, and a simple Tim Holtz sentiment finished the job.

I'm looking forward to seeing what everybody comes up with for this challenge. Don't forget there's a £20 prize for one lucky winner, picked at random. Here is a link for the challenge blog. Why not check out the amazing inspiration from the Design Team and have a go yourself. Hope to see you there.

Lx

PAPERARTSY TOPIC #11 - OUR HOUSE

Evening all

I always enjoy the fortnightly topics at PaperArtsy and tonight I have a project to share with you over on the PaperArtsy blog. Come with me through the doorway to my imagination.... I dare you ;oD

Full step outs here on the blog.

Why not have a go yourself. All you have to do is enter your own House related project for a chance to win £50 worth of PaperArtsy products of your choice! If you're still looking for ideas then check out last week's amazing ideas from PaperArtsy bloggers and Darcy's post at the beginning of the fortnight here. She and Leandra have links to their Pinterest Boards which are literally stuffed with all kinds of inspiration for you. Just have fun with it. You've still got time...

Lx