Craft Barn Blog Candy - not to be missed

I wish I lived nearer to the Craft Barn - or at least that I didn't have to sit on the M25 for hours to get there!  Great shop, fab classes and today they have amazing candy - click here for the details.

For Ewe at Christmas

I had a wonderful time at Craft Barn on my class with Jenny Mayes, she worked us hard but no one was under pressure unless they wanted to be.  We mostly worked with her Hobby Art Scene-It stamps and I came away with 3 new sets!  This is a Christmas card that I've put together by cannibalising a few different projects:).  The tiny house has sparkle added and I put in some falling snow with a white gel pen.  There are, I think, 3 different sheep stamps used on the bottom scene along with skyline and grass.  The sheep have a little Fluffy Stuff on them and more glitter; both scenes are watercoloured with Aquamarkers as well as Tombow pens.  The card is dry embossed and the sentiment is from Craftwork Cards.

This card is for the following Challenges:

Paper Sundaes - Christmas in August
Totally Gorjuss - Christmas in August
Crafty Cardmakers - Glitter & Sparkle 
Secret Crafter - Make a Start on Christmas

More Jenny inspired work later!

Down by the Jetty

This week at Corrosive Challenges we are following Janet's sketch and I've used it to make a card that's been on my mind for a few days, while I'm trying to increase the number of cards suitable for men in my stash.  This week's Simon Says Challenge is Sing It Baby.  After watching Oil City Confidential about Dr Feelgood and their Canvey Island beginnings  I have had All Through the City on the brain:

"I've been searching all through the city
See you in the morning down by the jetty"

Now admittedly the jetties there are no doubt for huge oil tankers and my jetty is rather a romanticised version but it is a jetty:).

My card is heavily inspired by an article by Karen Kerr in Cardmaking & Papercraft, who demonstrates using the Hobby Art stamps to build a scene.  The sentiment is from Craftwork Cards and the watery DP came from Stamp Attic.

My card also fits Totally Papercraft's By the Sea Challenge and  Secret Crafter's Saturday Challenge of It's a Man's World

Sketch Saturday gets Christmassy

For some reason I'm struggling with my House Mouse new stamps, I've tried colouring this with watercolour pens, Copics, pencils, you name it!  I think this is the best of the bunch using watercolour pencils.  I went out yesterday and visited a Do Craft stockist.  I was quite snobbish about their stuff when I started out but I've found that they do have some nice stuff if you take the time to look.  This DP came from a lovely pad of papers in traditional Christmas colours which inspired me to make a card based on this week's Sketch Saturday Challenge.  Sentiment and diecut holly are from Craftwork Cards.

Craft Barn Dreamweaver Candy

The Craft Barn has candy - here's what you can win:

Our brand new Dreamweaver Stencil and Pastes DVD

One jar of white embossing paste

One palette knife

One roll of magic tape

One Stampendous Glitter

One Cupcakes stencil

One Chrismas tree stencil

Check out their blog for the details - candy ends 30 July - good luck!

House Mouse - B is for...

House Mouse Challenge this week is the letter "B" - use anything to do with the letter B.  This is a card I made at Craft Barn's Open Weekend, on a make and take.  I've not blogged it before, but I would like to give credit to Craft Barn, sorry can't remember which demonstrator this was though.  It's coloured with Distress Inks, the 3d top to the card is punched with a Martha Stewart punch and has some BLING added with Stickles.  There is a BIG, BLUE, BOW and the main image has a BIG, BLUE, BEVERAGE cup:).

I've another card to show you, just for fun.  This has NO stamping on it  -gasp!  It's a House Mouse decoupage from Joanna Sheen, only I've got bored with just decoupaging the image as it's shown and my meeces are escaping off the image.  The marshmallows use Woodware Fluffy Stuff.  The green shaped cardstock is packaging from some Prima flowers that was just too pretty to throw away.

Just a note...

When I got home from holiday a few new stamps from Stampinbella were waiting for me; this typewriter is one of them.  Comes with several sentiments, saw a sample card made with it at the Craft Barn weekend and couldn't resist!  One Stop Craft Challenge has a monochromatic theme this week and this very simple card fits their challenge.  I've coloured with Copics, edged with Distress Inks, and added some white faux stitching around the black square, which was just too plain:).  The DP is a from new Basic Grey pad that I bought at Craft Barn.  What do you think of the stamp?  It just looks so useful to me, had to get it...

Summer Seaside

Here's Dad's birthday card, a fairly clean and simple card. I used a new set of Hobby Art stamps called Harbour Scene that I got at Craft Barn recently, they mix and match with the seaside set that I have. I used a lovely sketch by DawnyP from the Lili of the Valley Challenge, with the scene spilling over onto the white card in the sketch. I'm also entering Stamp Something's Summer challenge. Sentiment is Papermania, I've used a My Mind's Eye stripe DP and Cuttlebugged some blue cardstock.

Smooth Sea Never Made a Skilled Mariner

This was my card for my Dad for Father's Day, it was also his birthday yesterday so he needed multiple cards making! I'm entering this for the One Stop Craft Challenge of One for the Boys. This card is based on a great sketch at Truly Scrumptious by Beth and is heavily influenced by Beatrice Neumeister who I saw demonstrating at the Craft Barn. I've used an Elusive Images stamp and sentiment, gold embossed. I overlaid a Nellie Snellen frame and a Nestie to come up with a fairly round shape, the main image is mounted onto silicon glue to give it dimension. Both frames are sponged with Distress Inks and then edged using Brilliance gold reinker on a sponge. The bottom DP is Basic Grey and the swirly wave one says it's from Flair Designs. Candy is from Craftwork Cards and plain navy ribbon from stash. I really enjoyed making this one, will post the birthday card tomorrow:)

More Craft Barn purchases

Here's another quick card heavily influenced by my jolly to the Craft Barn :). I've made my image into a sort-of oval shape by adding a Nellie Snellen frame behind the main image, so it fits the lovely sketch by Bev at Create4Fun Challenge this week.

Stamp is Katzelcraft by Beatrice Neumeister and all backgrounds have Distress Ink on them, no patterned papers used. The two die shapes were new purchases at Craft Barn, as was the sentiment stamp (Personal Impressions). The gold edging is Brilliance Gold reinker, used from the bottle onto my craft sheet (thanks Beatrice! Another great tip). Really the only existing stash is the lovely organza ribbon with autumn leaves printed on it, which is almost completely obscured by the image and sentiment! Oh, gems are Hobby House from my stash too:).

Happy day!

Yesterday I had a wonderful day out, I travelled to my friend Val's house and then we went on to Lingfield, to the Craft Barn for their Open Day. It was a long way but the journey was really worthwhile, I had a wonderful time and I learnt so much from the demos that I watched. My only regret was that there were not enough hours in the day to see everything:). The first demo that I watched was by Beatrice Neumeister who creates the beautiful Katzelcraft stamps. Beatrice was really helpful and friendly (as were all the demonstrators) and between her English and my French I enjoyed wathcing her creating fabulous backgrounds with Distress Inks to showcase her gorgeous stamps. One of the things I picked up from her is to mix and match Nestie frames, I am going to ty to be more adventurous, instead of framing an oval with a scalloped oval. Of course this is a great justification to buy more Nesties... LOL!

Here I used a Nellie Snellen frame that I've owned for a while, and used foam pads to pop it up above the layer behind it. Also picked up from another crafter: add another layer of card when using the Nellies to get them to cut more cleanly - yes it worked!

The cute stamp is Charlotte Ketto, a Stampinbella, Emily had come all the way from Canada and was demo-ing her stamps. I like the Stampinbellas but they didn't call my name - until I saw the cards and samples that Emily had and also another of the demonstrators that is! I now have a long wish list for these:). I've coloured Charlotte with watercolour pencils and Copic on her face as well as some Stickles in her hair.

The DP is Basic Grey Kioshi, which is great for Papertake's Challenge this week. As ever, Dawny P's sketch is a lovely one to use, they have an optional theme of using lilac and lemon this week. Sentiment is Papermania. I'm also entering this for Stamp Something's Happy Challenge.