Love on the Farm

Here's my postcard for The Craft Barn Quotes and Lyrics Challenge where the words are Marriage and/or Age.   Well I've been searching for quotes and lyrics but nothing inspired me till I found these lyrics on marriage from 'Love on a Farmboy's Wages' by XTC (early 1980s). 

I'm not sure I've quite captured the scene but it's supposed to be an idyllic country setting with a colourful sunrise and a cornfield - done with Distress Inks.  I've stamped and embossed Tim Holtz's Sunrays using Sunflower Brilliance and lots of vegetation from Chocolate Baroque and Crafty Individuals stamped with Thyme and Pearlescent Ivy Brilliance. 

If I have time, I may have another go at this to see if I can improve the perspectives.  Meantime, I'm off to see what everyone else has created.  Thanks for looking and for your comments - they are very much appreciated!!

Journal52 - Found Poetry

Week 8 of the Journal52 Challenge is to find poetry - take a book or magazine page, highlight words with meaning and create a poem.

I chose a newspaper article about monarch butterflies as I liked the photo, highlighted words with a marker and then just painted out the other words with Shaded Lilac Distress Stains.  Here's my poem entitled the 'Faltering March of the Monarchs':

Great spectacles on this planet
Migration of the Monarch Butterfly
Mobile shards of a stained glass window
Extraodinary
Win hearts and minds
The great wonders of the world
But no
The lowest point
The world gets a little duller.

 

Metal Machine

It's a glorious day here with the sun shining and one crocus out. We've been out for a walk and now I'm multi-tasking - watching the Olympics, the Rugby and crafting too!   Here's a quick card for the Less is More Challenge week 160 where the recipe is METAL.  The link is to the challenge is  here.

I've used a new stamp from Crafty Individuals CI-404  - I saw it and thought it'd come in useful as my DH is a Railway Engineer.  The sentiment was a freebie stamp that came with it and the background is the Checkerplate from Kaisercraft stamped with Archival Manganese Blue.  I've just added a little blue tint to the engine and a silver metal cog.

Hope you like and thanks for looking.  I'm off to see what everyone else has created!!

Journal52 - When I Grow Up

Well it's raining yet again so I decided to have a play and do my week 7 piece for the Journal52 challenge.  The prompt this time is When I Grow Up. 

I had no idea what I wanted to be at school but I did like Maps.  I remember this conversation with the Careers Officer at Uni which was obviously before online forms were commonplace.  I said Maps, he thought I said Maths and advised me to do accountancy.   I had to laugh!!   I like Maths but not for a career.  The old maps are beautiful and you can stare at maps for hours and still see something new.

So my page today uses the Map Background stamp from Darkroom Door,  the Vintage Map from Hero Arts and I've inked through a Studio Calico Zigzag mask for some waves.

I'm still dithering whether to bind all the pages together or just use split rings so that's why there's a gap to the left.  Hope you like my piece this week and thanks for looking.

Shabby Chic Wedding

Still having a go at some wedding card samples - these are based on a shabby chic type feel but romantic with the roses too.

The base for all of these was a piece of watercolour paper sprayed with the new colours of Ink in a Bottle from Oak House Studio - French Wine and French Mint - torn and used on various types of cream card.   I've added some gold embossed Cross Stitch (from the Stitch in Time stamp set) too.

I've used all 3 sizes of Oak House Studio's Rose stamps and watercoloured with the Inks in a Bottle - the large Rose makes a nice focal on the wedding invitation and the Rose Bud is just the right size for a place card.   If you don't fancy all the painting and cutting out, then you can just emboss it onto a rectangle of card and use that as shown on the Order of Service.   I've added the gold embossed  Wedding Words stamp set and inked some satin seam binding to match.

All the stamps, inks and embossing powders are from Oak House Studio.

Oak House Studio - Citrus Challenge

It's the start of a new challenge on the Oak House Studio blog - all you have to do is create something in Citrus colours and using one Oak House Studio product.

Here are my creations:

A card (could be birthday or mothers day) using the Pansy Pot stamp gold embossed about 4 times and decoupaged to make a lovely full pot of pansies.  I've mixed Brazil Nut and Citrus Orange Ink in a Bottle to make a terracotta colour for the pot and the flowers have just been painted with Citrus Yellow, Citrus Orange and Citrus Lime Ink in a Bottle.  I used a pipette to decant some ink into a paint palette and painted with a water brush.  To add further detail I've stamped and clear embossed a border of pansies.

My next piece is for all those scrapbookers out there.  I started with a 12 x 12 of white linen card and just flicked Citrus Yellow and Orange ink with a paint brush.  I made some homemade washi tape using 4 stamps (Mack Rose, Rosette, Checkerboard and Thoresby) and Pigment Ink Pads  (Spring Green, Daffodil, Valentine and Lemon Yellow.  I sprayed some white paper flowers with the Citrus Inks in a Bottle, added some brads  and finished with the sentiment stamp Bloom where you are planted.  

All the stamps, spray inks and ink pads can be bought from Oak House Studio.   Why not pop over to the blog to see what everyone else has created and have a go - there's a prize to be won!!

Miss Elaine

Here's my third postcard for The Craft Barn's Quotes and Lyrics Challenge where the words are STRONG and/or MISS.    I've spent 2 days searching for something profound to depict but have drawn a blank so I've chosen to do the lyrics of the song MISS ELAINE by Run D.M.C. which is about a school teacher.

The background is a mix of Barn Door and Festive Berries Distress Inks overstamped with the numbers from Tim Holtz's Fairytale Frenzy set.  I've written physics formulas on some chalkboard and framed this with a wood stamp distressed with Vintage Photo.  I've just printed the words on the computer. 

Never heard of this song?  Neither had I and having listened to it (Hip-Hop/Rap)  and read the lyrics, I don't want to again.  But my name is Elaine and my friend's husband calls me Miss Elaineous (in a friendly way) and it made me laugh. 

Having looked on Amazon for the date (2011)  there seem to be other songs too - Miss Elaine by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion which sounds just as awful, Miss Elaine E.S. Jones by Engelbert Humperdinck and I Miss you Elaine by Say it Messages.  The only one I like is by the Electric Light Orchestra but that is Dear Elaine!!
 
As I said last week, this challenge is going to be educational but sometimes not in a good way.  So much for producing a book of lovely quotes!!   Anyway thanks for looking and for your lovely comments!

Journal52 - Love Letters

I've joined in with the Journal52 project on facebook and am keeping up with the prompts so far.  Today I did the week 6 prompt - the Lost Art of Love Letters - so thought I'd show it as I really liked the result.

I chose the saying by F. Scott Fitzgerald and took my inspiration from the art deco style card below  as  they were both the same era.

I've used red Distress Inks and Oak House Studio stamps -  the Checkerboard border stamped through a paper mask, the Heart Palette stamp and the Fir Sprig from the Christmas Collection stamped in Pearlescent Ivy and Thyme Brilliance.

I'm sticking the pages back to back and then will bind them all together at the end of the year.  Hope you like and thanks for looking.
    

Butterfly Script

It's a lovely bright afternoon here so I thought I'd have a go at the Less is More Challenge  week 158 - this time it's a One Layer card and Anything Goes.

I had a quick look through my stamps and decided to use this Nottinghill set from 7Gypsies.  I stamped the butterfly with Vermillion Archival, masked them off and overstamped with the script stamp in Potting Soil Archival.  Memories is from the same set and to finish I've used a small butterfly from the Crafty Individuals Foliage set (CI-207).

Hope you like and thanks for looking.

Tim's Tag - February 2014

Here's my interpretation of Tim Holtz's Tag for the 12 Tags of 2014 Challenge.   I say interpretation as I have very little of the supplies he used but it's a case of rummaging through the stash, using something similar and trying out the techniques.

I have no pale brown Distress Inks so I used Vintage Photo and Worn Lipstick for the base of the tag.  I don't have the Hearts stencil so I used the Dot Fade one instead.  I cut a heart out of grungeboard and coated that with Christmas Red Stickles plus extra red glitter.  The arrow I fashioned from Paperartsy's Metal on Card, the bottom border is painted with Silver Dabber and I stamped Oak House Studio's Enjoy What You Do stamp with White Dabber onto a Black Chalk ATC and then rubbed over it with chalk. 

So I've made a tag and had fun doing it.  I've had to think what to use and found stuff I'd forgotten I had.  I think I might be buying the Idea-ology arrows though when I find some in the UK - I have friends who do archery and I'm from Robin Hood country so I'm sure they'll come in useful.

Thanks for looking and for your kind comments.

Rainbow Trees

Here again with a quick card for the Less is More Challenge where this week the theme is RAINBOWS.  It's the Less is More Challenge's 3rd Birthday so congratulations to Chrissie and everyone else involved - thanks for the challenge and for all the inspiration every week.

My card is fairly basic - a line of Cog Trees from the Punky Flowers set from Chocolate Baroque inked in a range of rainbow pigment ink pads from Oak House Studio.  The Warm Wishes stamp is from Hero Arts.   Simple but colourful I hope you agree.

Thanks for looking and for all your wonderful comments!!