The Craft Barn

Modelling week: all wrapped up Modroc

2012-02-10T08:38:00.000Z

Hi,
Here's another fantastic project for you to try over the weekend.
I must admit... I LOVE all the projects the DT makes, week after week... (I am very lucky to work with such a lovely and talented team) but when I saw what Michelle had done here, I went "Wow!! how on earth did she think of that?" So unusual, effective and really pretty...
Would love to read your thoughts on this one. Don't forget to let us know in a comment or "review tick" below.

I found this card holder at the local charitiy shop and while it's quite a nice chunk of stone, it's missing a little embellishment!

After soaking Mod Roc in water for a few seconds, I folded and wrapped and tickled it into place around the base of the card holder then left it to set with bits of things propping the floppy ends in place.

When it was set I painted it, sprayed it, and prettied it up with a bit of rafia and a stamped inchie.

Quite pleased for a first attempt with a new product - well worth a try!

Products used:

Modroc

PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paints: Beach hut, Snowflake

Perfect Pearl Mists: Mint

Tando Creative: Inchies - Straight

CI-266- birdy squares

Promarkers

Cosmic Shimmer Ultra Thick Embossing crystals: clear

See you tomorrow

Modelling week: clay pendants

2012-02-09T07:00:00.000Z

Hello,
Jewellery today and back to Pardo Clay with Linda who created some lovely pendants for you. For a 1st time using polymer clay, they are truly gorgeous me think... How about you?

The best thing about being on the Craft Barn DT is that in the short time I have been on it ... I have got to play with all manner of things that I have n't touched before! So ... no laughing ... this is the result of my very first time playing with Pardo Jewellry Clay. Give it a go ... it was great fun!
I made three sort of rectangle shapes with the Bronze clay ... piercing a hole (before I baked them) with a kebab stick to place the jump ring. On this first one I stamped into it before baking. Once baked I coloured the recessed birds with a blue Peel Off pen and then glazed over it with Glossy Accents. I then coloured the whole piece with Inka Gold in Blue.

The second one was stamped before baking once again but this time I coloured with Archival re-inker in Crimson and sealed the colour using Glosst accents before attacing the clay star and gem.

On this last piece ... I basically did the same thing again using a different stamp and colouring with a mixture of Inka Gold in Green and Old Silver.

Products Used:

Inka Gold in Blue, Green, Old Silver

Jump Rings

Glossy Accents

Pardo Jewellry clay in Bronze

Tim Holtz Stamps: Shabby French; Mini Classics

See you soon,

Modelling week: Modroc Art Journal

2012-02-08T07:00:00.000Z

Hi,
We continue on our Modroc journey with Neil who used it to create AJ pages. I think it's a wonderful idea and love the effect you get from the Modroc texture covered with paints. What do you think?
Here's how Neil made his pages.

I decided to see how Modroc could be used and created a journal where the pages are created out of Modroc. To begin I cut strips of Modroc twice as long as the width. I dipped them into water and folded then over a wooden kebab skewer and then left to dry. (This takes ages so work somewhere where they won't be in the way for a day or two!)
When they are dry, paint them using acrylic paints and carefully cut a slit about two centimetres from the top and bottom and thread ribbon or lace through and tie a knot in it leaving about 5cm loose ribbon on all the ends. Once you have done this take two "pages" and using one end of ribbon from each page tie a knot to secure your pages together. Once you have done this for all your pages you have a book ready to decorate! (The skewers help keep everything together so you don't tear the pieces as you are tying them!) My book has 10 pages.
Here are a selection of them

Using a cuttlebug folder I swiped the raised area of the folder with Aged mahogany Distress ink, ran it through the folder so that the colour was in the recesses, coloured with Tea Dye Distress and then covered it with clear UTEE and heated before cutting into squares and re-assembling.
The words I wrote say " Make your own pattern for it is still beautiful. Not everything has to be someone else's vision"

This one uses a Tando butterfly that had been inked and stamped then triple embossed with UTEE with some Inka Gold trapped between the second and third layers.

I've used some mica for this one. The bottom piece has some gilding flakes on it and the top one has been stamped with StazOn and the back painted with acrylic paints to highlight the image.

I made the pocket by colouring acetate with alcohol inks, stamping in black archival and removing to get the "ghost" image of the flourish and deer (Both Tim Holtz) mounting onto white card , edging with gold Krylon and attaching The tags are done using mask (crafters workshop flowers)

I tried stamping directly onto the page but it tends to lift off, in this case I thought it looked a bit like worn cave painting so I stamped the words "cave paintings on the walls of my mind"

See you tomorrow

Modelling week: Venetian mask and mini canvases

2012-02-07T07:00:00.000Z

Hi,
We are back for our second day and the new promised medium. Well not new as "never existed before" but new to this blog and fairly new to our site: MODROC.
Modroc is nothing more than plaster impregnated bandages but it's ideal for modelling.
So here's our first sample and step by step on how to use Modroc.
February... Carnival... Venice... Gio.... you get it.. you are in for a treat with gorgeous masks.
Can't wait to read what you think..

I had at home a Venetian mask, and I was looking for a method to create at least another one for the upcoming Carnival. So I used my mask as a mould to create two more.

I covered the original mask with plastic wrap. I cut two pieces of modroc long enough to cover the mask. (If the object you want to cover is bigger than your piece of modroc, you have to cut it in strips and overlap them). I cut two holes for the eyes. Now you have to work very quickly, because the plaster stiffens in few minutes: I put the piece of modroc in a bowl filled with warm water. I keep it for few seconds, I gently rinse off the water and I lay it on the mask. I smoothen the plaster to avoid wrinkles. I put almost immediately a second piece of wet plaster: I tried to eliminate the wrinkles and at the same time to smoothen the surface with the wet fingers: you can see the water and the plaster mixing together and filling the little gaps. Once finished, I set the mask aside to dry.

If you are impatient (like me), put your piece in the warm oven, after a little while turn off the oven and leave the piece inside.

You have to wait until the next day to decorate the mask. When dry, I cut the excess of plaster with scissors and very gently I free the original mask, ready to make another one.

I painted the first mask with Viva Precious Metal paint and I stamped some swirl using Paperartsy Hot Picks 1006 and Plum Archival Ink. I painted the second mask with PaperArtsy Fresco paint Orchid and Snowflake and I stamped it with PaperArtsy Fresco paint Orchid using a swirl stamp from Paperartsy Hot Picks 1006 plate.

I sprayed a piece of vintage lace on my desk with Cosmic Shimmerz Lava Red, Mango Blush and Teal Wash. When dry I covered half of the mask with the lace, I glued to it and then I cut it with scissors.
I added some rhinestones to the masks.

With the same technique I created 3 mini canvas from scratch, using the cover of a tin box as a mould.

Since the surface was plain, I stamped it when the plaster was still wet using Katzelkraft Chandelier and Cage or a background stamp like Swirls from Impression Obsession.
When dry, I painted the canvas using Cosmic Shimmer mists using a paintbrush, to give a shimmery look, and I stamped a text with CI-017 Script stamp and Plum Archival Ink. I glued some pieces of lace.

Modroc

CI-017 Script stamp

Plum Archival Ink

Katzelkraft Chandelier and Cage

Swirls - Impression Obsession

Paperartsy Hot Picks 1006

Paperartsy Fresco paint Orchid and Snowflake

Cosmic Shimmer Misters: angel mist, golden mint, lava red , Mango Blush, Teal Wash, Rose Pink

Viva Precious Metal: lilac and lime

How about this for a first lesson about Modroc?

Did you enjoy this?

Let us know in a comment or rating below...

See you tomorrow

Modelling week: clay heart

2012-02-06T07:00:00.000Z

Hi,
This week will be all about modelling... not only with clay but with another medium... not telling you yet... you'll have to wait and see.
To start this week, Isa has done a video (in English !! bless her) just for you Craft Barn reader, to show you how to make a quick and easy heart... and even nail ~~heart~~... art...
Beautiful pendant, isn't it?
Enjoy!

PARDO Clay andean opal - black - preal rose

Tools - cutter and round plier

Blade and piercing tool

Embossing tool

Stamps CI 207 - 256

Rub-ons set 1

Paint AMERICANA baby pink - royal fushia

Red wire 24G

Gems and glitters

See you tomorrow

Art Journal challenge #2

2012-02-05T07:00:00.000Z

Hello,
I know that many of you have asked for another Art Journal challenge, so here it is.

The theme this time is "FILLED WITH LOVE".

What we will ask is to draw/stencils/die-cut hearts and "fill" them with what you love... It can be pictures of your loved ones... your favourite colours... favourite food... favourite movies.... Anything/one you love and want to journal about should be INSIDE the hearts... The rest is up to you...
Any question, please ask in a comment below, and don't forget to come and see the answer ;)
----
Pour notre nouveau challenge Art Journal, je pourrais traduire par "rempli d'amour" ... St Valentin oblige...
Nous vous demandons donc de dessiner/peindre/couper des coeurs et de les remplir avec ce que vous aimez (famille, couleurs, nourriture, art, films, hobby, passion...) ce que vous voulez, mais ça doit remplir les coeurs que vous mettez sur votre page.
Si vous avez des questions, posez-les dans un commentaire et pensez à venir voir la réponse ;)
Vous avez 3 semaines pour participer... et vous pouvez gagner le lot ci-dessous.

Challenge is open to all countries

and will close on

Sunday 25th February

One lucky participant will win the following "love kit":

*****

Some of the DT members (and myself) had a play and here's what we came up with...

Gay filled her hearts with what she loves in crafts: Text and texture

Gio loves sewing, so her AJ page is all about sewing and stitches

I love drawing (that's very new), but there are things I already like to draw more than others.

Ps: I did not draw in those hearts... I scanned my drawings, photoshoped them to fit in the hearts I then printed, cut and glued on my page. My fav. animal is the tiger... probably why I enjoyed drawing that one so much.

by Linda Elbourne

So who's playing?

I really hope we will get lots of entries as we did last time and can't wait to see your AJs

(My 8 year old daughter Melissa is already on the starting blocks... ready to go LOL)

See you on your blogs...

Simply Saturday with metal and acetate

2012-02-04T07:00:00.000Z

Hello :)
Last day of our Metal & Acetate week with a C&S day and Gay's beautiful cards.
These pictures will also give an idea of the different ways to take photographs of those acetate cards.
I find that acetate cards (as well as the all white cards) are the hardest to take pics of.

The 12x12 acetate was scored and folded and trimmed into a DL card, after embossing with the TH texture fade I used a copic pen to highlight it on the flower as well as the base of the card.

The mini rosette die is great if you want some depth on a card and I felt the centre of this flower needed something substantial. The edge die had to be passed through my cuttlebug twice to get the long border and the pattern doesn't match totally but it works well enough here. I wrapped the result over the long edge of the card and attached it by using Pinflair glue gel in the channel where it wraps around the card, love that scrollwork border. Having a place for the sentiment on a card made of acetate is a bit of a problem so here I hung two tiny labels, not a large area to write on but better than nothing!

This card was a cut off from the 12x 12 acatate and when embossed with the frame I really liked it so embossed some white card and velum to layer. I used the white card so that there is an area to send the message at the back of the card. The only way I could attach the card and velum was with brads and I covered the backs with card candy.

This card was easy and I loved making it, the stamp is a delight and I simply stamped and coloured it. The book was a piece of metal that I stamped with black Stazon and then embossed, I sanded the result and cut it out finishing with a green copic pen for depth of colour.

I used for the first two cards

Tim Holtz Dies: Tattered Florals, Tiny tabs and tags, Mini Rosettes, on the edge Scrollwork

Tim Holtz texture fades, Fancy and Floral Frames

Embossing folder Craft Concepts, Budding Vine.

Acetate

Ten Second studio metal sheet peacock

Crafty Secrets Stamps, Journaling

CI 307 stamps for the sentiment

Small pastel brads.

Craftwork Cards Candi

For the last card I used

Crafty Secrets Stamp, Story of Me.

Ten second Studio metal and the Basic Metal work set.

Copics and TH Distress inks to colour

See you soon,

Metal & Acetate: idea book

2012-02-03T07:00:00.000Z

Hi everyone,
Enjoying the week so far?
Now this is a very special project today, but I love the idea.... such a neat project to start...
I will let Linda tell you all about it....

This was one of those projects that you dread starting ... then you have such a good time ... you lose track completely. I am a visual type of a girl ... I even think in pictures ... so ... something handy and visual in my craftroom is great for inspiration. I call this little book a technique journal. Basically ... there are no words ... just lots of different ways to attach "stuff" to acetate including metal. Is it finished? Hopefully not! As I learn new ways ... I will just keep adding them.

I attached the frame on the cover by making two groups of two holes in the acetate and the frame and tying it in place with waxed cotton ... I have Shari Carroll to thank for that little gem!

Tip of the day

To get a neat finish for metal on acetate ... I put Humungo tape on the back of the metal before I die cut it ... that way the whole object is covered and gives a much neater finish on the reverse.

Products used

Acetate

Ten Second Studio Metal

Humungo Tape

StazOn ink

Fired Brick Distress Ink

Word Sticks

Locket Keys

Bigz Dies: Weathered Clock; Gadget Gears

Muse Tokens

Tim Stamps: Steampunk

Game Spinners

See you tomorrow

Metal & Acetate: flowers

2012-02-02T07:00:00.000Z

Hi,

Question #1 to start today's post...

How do you turn this....

into... THIS !

Question #2: who's behind such a beauty? Isa's Art of course. Isa took a little break the last few weeks, and I'm so glad she is back with us this week as I love her projects. And I know you do too!

So I will let Isa tell you all about it...

STEP 1 : I cut the flower with the Tim Holtz Sizzix Tattered Floral die for the 3 big flowers and Sizzix Original Frame and Sculpted for the little one.

STEP 2 : I used Ranger's Alcohol inks to colour the flowers

STEP 3 : I stamped the Crafty Individuals flower swirls with Versamark ink and embossed it with Ranger Frosted embossing powder

I purposely used a acetate which is NOT heat resistant to have the flower curling up once heated.

STEP 4: to shape the flowers, place them on a bottle cap, heat to soften the acetate and press with an applicator handle. You can also shape the petals when they are still warm

STEP 5: you can highlight the petals with Rub 'n Buff

Add a button or other embellishment at the centre of the flower and decorate your jar

The jar lid was painted with acrylic paint

Sizzix Original Frame and Sculpted

Stamps Crafty Individuals CI-235 and CI-

Ranger Frosted embossing powder

Acrylic paint

Rub 'n Buff

Self adhesive gems

See you tomorrow

Colour a tag challenge Winner

2012-02-01T20:03:00.004Z

Hi everyone,

Time for our latest winner..

We got a lot of entries again, that's fantastic. Really enjoyed going through all the blogs.

Our winner this week...

Julia

Congratulations Julia

Please get in touch with your snail mail address so we can send you your prize ASAP.

Watch out for a new challenge next Sunday ;)

See you soon,

Metal & Acetate: embossed acetate

2012-02-01T07:00:00.000Z

Hello,
Back today with Neil and his stunning tag. If I was a reader, I would definitely click the "oh wow" box on that one. This is sooo gorgeous and stylish me think.
Neil chose to emboss the acetate which is very effective, as well as embossing the metal. Lots of texture on here.
So wadayathink? "oh wow" or not??

I cut a tag out of white card and acetate. I made the background using distress ink and stamped the butterflies in brown ink.

I embossed the acetate using an embossing folder. To add interest I covered the acetate with white paint, wrapped tissue around an acrylic block and wiped the surface clean leaving a subtle wash of colour in the recessed areas.

I cut two butterflies and vintage lace out of silver metal and embossed the butterflies. I lightly swiped a clear embossing pad over the surface and heat embossed with cosmic shimmer bronze lustre embossing crystals to add a bit of colour.

I attached the lace to the main tag as seen and attached the butterflies to the acetate with glue dots.

I just tied the two tags together with ribbon and added a couple of baubles.

Materials list

Distress inks - Tumbled Glass, Vintage Photo and Stormy Sky

Dies - Tag and book plate, movers and shapers Mini Butterfly set, strip die Vintage Lace.

Acetate and white card

Cosmic shimmer Bronze Lustre embossing crystals

Stampers anonymous - Urban Chic

Embossing folder

Americana Warm White acrylic paint

See you tomorrow

Metal & Acetate: jewellery

2012-01-31T13:10:00.001Z

Hi,
Today Gio had made a gorgeous little set for you which would make a great gift: a little altered box with matching earrings.
Absolutely LOVE this... and can't wait to hear what you think.

Don't forget you can click the little review "boxes" at the bottom if you don't have time to leave a comment. It does help us to see what projects you like to see on this blog.

For the earrings:
I cut out two circles from a Metal sheet - real copper. I embossed them using Craft Concept embossing folder: Sun rays.
Now the magic: I put the metal near a flame, until the metal changes colour. You can get always different effects depending how long you heat it.
I stamped a sheet of acetate with Black Stazon using Katzelkraft rubber stamps - Sandglass.
I cut out two little clocks from the acetate and I glued them with Glossy accents to the metal circles. I put an eyelet and added the Fish hook Earwire.

For the little box:

I cut out a circle of metal. I distressed the edge with a rolling wheel from Ten Seconds Basic set.

I cut out the circle in 4 parts and I embossed them separately, using Cuttlebug folders and a Craft Concept embossing folder.

I added a bit of colour with Viva Pardo Precious Metal paint.

I glued the 4 pieces to the metalllic tin, previously coloured with ranger Alcohol Ink pitch black.

I added the stamped acetate with Glossy accents.

I even created two little stands for the earrings, using leftovers of acetate

I made a second version cutting out the greatest circles from a stamped acetate using Stampers Anonymous - Tim Holtz: Flourish ATC stamp, and the smallest ones from metal.

Material used:

acetate

Metal sheet - real copper

Katzelkraft unmounted rubber stamps - Sandglass

Craft Concept embossing folder: Rays and Retro circles set

Viva Precious Metal paints: lime, lilac, yellow, blackberry

Stampers Anonymous - Tim Holtz: Flourish ATC stamp

StazOn Jet black

Cuttlebug embossing folder: floral Fantasy

Cuttlebug embossing folder: mesh

Glossy Accents

Ten Seconds Basic set

ranger alcohol ink

Fish hook Earwire: black

Split Rings 5mm

See you tomorrow

Metal & Acetate: a few tips

2012-01-31T13:10:00.000Z

Hello,
Hope you had a lovely weekend.
New week, new theme: Metal and acetate. Lovely combination to make very stylish cards (and other projects) as you will see throughout the week.
Michelle is your host today, giving you a few tips if you have never stamped on acetate (or tried and never succeeded).

Assemble everything you need before you start, be prepared and take a deep breath.........then exhale, repeat three times and you will be 'in the zone'

Seriously it does help to have everything at hand, including some alcohol ink blending solution and a bit of kitchen towel to wipe away mistakes

Make sure that your block is the right size for your stamp. If it's too big you will tend to rock when you put pressure on the stamp and it will blur.

Work with your acetate over a sheet of white paper so you can see what you are doing.

Tip of the day

Make sure your acetate sheet is flat, if you need to crease it to make a card, do it after your stamp has dried so you are working on a perfectly flat surface.

Ink up your stamp with Stazon Ink. Holding your stamp perfectly level lower it onto your acetate (Press lightly and hold in place for a few seconds then lift gently and vertically up from the acetate holding the acetate as it sometimes sticks to the stamp. If you are using an acrylic or clear stamp try stamping without any pressure for a perfect image as they do tend to spread a little

Don't worry if you make a mistake, just wipe it off with some blending solution and a piece of kitchen towel. Leave to dry well then try again!

If you stamped vertically onto the acetate then lifted the stamp vertically from it you should have a lovely sharp image. Leave it to dry well.

To finish the card I stamped the Cover-a-card cloud stamp onto glossy card using a dye ink. After trimming it to fit my card and laying the acetate image in place to see where to stamp, I stamped the sentiment onto the cloud background.

I trimmed the acetate to fit the front of the card then attached it with a thin length of DS Tape which I then covered with a ribbon. These stamps are so beautiful they need little in the way of embellishment, the simple beauty is so very appealing!

Impression Obsession - Gary Robertson designs: Ocracoke lighthouse

Impression Obsession - Cover-a-card: Clouds

Hobby Art Clear Stamps: By The Sea

Clear Acetate - 10 sheets

StazOn ink pad - jet black

Alcohol Blending Solution

See you tomorrow

Simply Saturday cover a card

2012-01-28T07:00:00.002Z

Hi,
Welcome to our last day of Cover-a-Card week. We hope you enjoyed it.
Today, Gay is showing you how she made her vibrant papers she used on a card and Art Journal page.
Let us know what you think ;)

I used watercolour paints and painted and covered a large sheet of 300gsm rough watercolour paper, sprayed with cosmic shimmer mica mists and then stamped with IO cover a card Stamps. By cutting the result into strips it was easy to move them about until I achieved the colour contrasts that I was looking for. I punched a large circle to include one of the coloured areas that I really liked. Playing about with the shapes gave me an idea how they could lay on the card and then I chose the sentiments to compliment the shapes created by the strips.

I made a journal page with one of the strips.

I used Cover a Card Stamps:

Thin Stripes

Ornate Floral

Vines

Cosmic Shimmer misters

Personal Impressions: Just Because

As for water colouring, you have several options on our site:

Watercolour paper can be found in the Specialty paper here

Derwent Inktense pencils and blocks

Cosmic Shimmer water colouring sets

Zig Art & Graphic pens

See you next week

Have a great weekend

FREE POSTAGE

2012-01-27T18:59:00.002Z

FREE POSTAGE ON ALL UK ORDERS

from 6pm Friday 27th January until 6pm Thursday 2nd February

For EU customers free postage applies to orders above £20 and

for deliveries to the rest of the world to orders above £30.

**********

**FRAIS DE PORT GRATUITS

POUR TOUTES LES COMMANDES POUR LE UK**

de 6pm vendredi 27 Janvier jusqu'à 6pm jeudi 2 février

pour l'Europe, les frais de port sont gratuits pour toute commande au-dessus de £20

et pour toute commande au-dessus de £30 pour le reste du monde

Cover a Card: scrapbooking

2012-01-27T07:00:00.000Z

Hello everyone,
As Isa'sArt is taking a little break, I will be the one contributing to this week Cover-a-Card with this scrapbook page.
This is not something which happens very often as I am mainly a digital scrapbooker (because it's quicker and I have tons of pictures and very little time), but I really enjoyed making this page.
Here's how I made it.

1/ Take any plain scrapbook page. I think this one was Basic Grey, but it does not matter. You can even use a plain 12x12 card which you ink up with Distress inks. Using the BG one meant that I did not have to ink it up (told you I was short on time lol). Stamp the background randomly with the Woodgrain Cover-a-Card stamp and Sepia Versafine ink.

2/ Stamp Cover-a-Card newsprint using Smokey Grey Versafine.

Tip of the day

Only ink up the centre part of your stamp to avoid the straight edges. You will get a more "natural" look

3/ Spritz your background (lightly) with Cosmic Shimmer Bronze mister

4/ Ink up the edges of the page to match some colours of your pictures (used Versamagic Oasis Green) and stamp Newsprint again in the corners in black this time for a better contrast.

5/ Add your pictures (I used double sided tape for the 1st one, 1mm foam squares for the second and 2 mm for the third picture).

6/ Cut the TH Caged Bird from recycled cardboard (keep those boxes from the famous online book store starting with A. They are perfect). Ink it up with the Oasis Green Versamagic and stamp it with the Newsprint stamp.

6/ Die-cut branches with TH Festive greenery in colours that match your pictures and add them to your page.

Details:

Self-adhesive pearl added for the eye

Newsprint stamped on the chipboard letters

"A gift from" attached with 3D foam squares

Distress Stickles added to the bird cage

Material used:

Impression Obsession Cover-a-card stamps Woodgrain and Newsprint

Inks: Distress inks, Versafine and Versamagic

Cosmic Shimmer Bronze Blush mister

Die: TH Caged bird & Festive Greenery

Self-adhesive pearl

foam squares

Distress Stickles

Hope you enjoyed this.

See you tomorrow

Cover a Card: Wrapping and AJ

2012-01-26T07:00:00.000Z

Hi,
How about some wrapping and Art Journaling for today with our Italian inspirational Gio. Lovely idea to make your own wrapping paper. Always better than Thomas the Tank engine when you realise you have run out of wrapping paper for the last minute present...
Let's see how Gio mastered that one...

I cut out some simple shapes from a piece of acetate, a circle and a diamond.
I start to stamp a sheet of newsprint using the stencil and a IO Cover a card -swirls and flourishes, using different mediums.
I even cut out from a sheet of acetate an high heel shoe and I stamped the newsprint with TH Distress ink . I outlined the shoes with the help of the stencil, with a black permanent pen.

This is the template I used:

You can use these newsprint to wrap gifts, make background for scrapbooking pages, cards or AJ.

I used mine to wrap some presents

and to make an AJ page:

I covered the page with Claudine Hellmuth Multi medium Matte , I glued a piece of newsprint paying attention to create some wrinkles, to add texture to the background.

I even highlighted the wrinkles with TH Distress ink Worn Lipstick.

I cut out a shoe from another piece of stamped newsprint and I traced out the silhouette with Claudine Hellmuth gesso. I glued it to the page.

I stamped and cut out the sentiment with the Crafty Secrets Alphabet stamp and TH Distress Ink.

Material used:

Impression Obsession Cover a card Swirls , Flourishes

Artcoe Blue bell spiral cartrige book: short edge A5

PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paints: Haystack - Guacamole - Orchid

Archival Ink Coffee, Crimson

Acetate

TH Distress Stains Peeled Paint, Dusty Concord and Wild Honey

TH Distress ink WornLipstick- Broken China - DustyConcord - Aged Mahogany- Mustard Seed

Claudine Hellmuth Multimedium Matte

Claudine Hellmuth gesso

Crafty Secret Alphabet stamp

See you tomorrow

Cover a Card: Cards

2012-01-25T07:00:00.000Z

Hello,
Today is Michelle's turn or "how to make 3 beautiful and very different cards with one stamp".
It's amazing how you can achieve such different looks depending on the technique you use, don't you think?
Here's how Michelle made her cards...

On the first card I stamped the tree Impression Obsession - Cover-a-card: Branches with Brilliance Dew Drop ink pad - thyme and embossed it with clear embossing powder, then inked the card with TH Distress Ink pads. The card was then mat and layered and embellished with Shapeabilities - Banner basics three.

I then cut a deep yellow insert which I stamped with one of the stamps from Katzelkraft rubber stamps -

Katzelkraft rubber stamps: Norris and JMC: nature quotes

Cover-a-card: Branches

Brilliance Dew Drop ink pad

Detail embossing powder: clear

Shapeabilities - Banner basics three

****

This card was very simply stamped with TH bundled sage ink. I cut it out then printed the sentiment in place.

Distress Ink pad: Bundled sage

Cover-a-card: Branches

****

To make this card I first stamped the tree image onto white card with Pumice Stone ink.

Stamped the bird from TH Urban Chic set, then printed the sentiment as before. I had some grungy music card in my stash which was perfect for making a gate fold card on which to mount the image. On the outside I pasted black Dreamweaver paste through Dreamweaver crows stencil onto the same card and cut to fit when dry. The sentiment was just hand written on the front after mounting on sticky pads with the ribbon behind.

Cover-a-card: Branches

Distress Ink pad: Pumice stone

Versafine ink pad - black

Stampers Anonymous - Tim Holtz: Urban chic

Dreamweaver stencil: crows

Dreamweaver embossing paste: matte black

See you tomorrow

Cover a Card: book cover

2012-01-24T07:00:00.000Z

Hi,
Back today with a book cover and a very cool technique which Linda chose to show you on her sample today.
I have not tried this myself (well, not with paint), but probably will, love the effect, isn't it gorgeous?
ok, over to you Linda...

Along with the Wallpaper Cover-a-Card stamp I used Lord Tim's Shabby Chic technique to create this simple Scrapbook Cover. I am a Cover-a-Card stamp virgin ... it may be my first time ... but it certainly aint gonna be my last ... No lining up and matching edges ... No hitting and hoping ... Just stamp once and you are good to go ... Perfick!

I painted two pieces of 6" by 6" board squares with Black Acrylic ... waited until it was dry and then stamped the Cover-a-Card plate in Versamark ink and embossed with clear powder. I then painted a layer of Eco Mulch and Pure Gold over the top and waited it for it to almost dry naturally. Next I spritzed with water and wiped with a soft cloth to resist the embossing. Simple!

Products Used
Cover-A-Card Wallpaper stamp
Versamark Ink pad
Clear embossing powder
Heat tool
Idea-Ology Ornate Plate
Grunge paper
White Acrylic paint
Rock Candy Distress Stickles
Eco paint: Black; Pure Gold; Mulch
Bind-it-All
Glossy Accents
Fired Brick Distress Ink
Sizzix Tattered Florals Die
Steampunk Clock face charm

See you tomorrow

Cover a Card: Distress cards

2012-01-23T07:00:00.000Z

Hi,
Hope you had a lovely weekend :)

This week we will be talking about backgrounds, or more precisely background stamps with the beautiful Cover-a-Card stamps by Impression Obsession. You will see how our talented DT has been using them. Lots of different ways for lots of different projects..
Are you ready? Today we start with Neil and how he used those stamps with Distress inks for a watercolour effect.

To achieve a water colouring look, I lay the stamp onto my work surface, face up and add random colours with distress ink pads to cover the whole stamp. (I don't worry about mixing the colours onto my pads as I've never had any contamination but I do recommend working light to dark just in case!)

When you've covered the stamp with ink then spritz the surface with water and take a sheet of white and and lay it over the stamp and gently rub to ensure the whole surface is covered. Lift off and dry with a heat gun.

You can usually get a second print, lighter than the first without re inking)

To make the second card I created two sheets of this colour and trimmed and matted one onto white card to fit a 15 x15cm grey card blank and the other one I cut using the Alterations tattered floral die and used 3 pieces to create the flower. To finish I added a small gem to the centre of the flower and more gems to the card to finish.

I've left the card front empty of words so that it I need a quick card for a specific occasion I can just add "Thank You; Congratulations" etc.

Card number one uses Wild Honey, Crushed Olive and Stormy Sky distress inks and card number two uses Tumbled Glass and Dusty Concord distress ink

Materials
Cover a card stamp: Geologic

Grey and white A4 card

Distress inks

Small adhesive gems

Sizzix Alterations Tattered floral die

Tip of the day

Neil's technique does not require the 6x6 acrylic block because any "blurriness" you might get is part of the water colouring look.

But if you want to achieve a crisp and sharp image (which most of the time you do), you will need the 6x6 block.

The Mega Mount (that's what it's called) is a curved block especially designed for those large stamps. Without this block, the centre part of the image would not stamp properly. I'm sure many of you have experienced this in the past, which is very frustrating.

It also has a very practical handle which really helps (try holding and stamping comfortably with a very large square block... not great is it?).

So thanks to that curve, each point of your stamp will be pressed down and therefore you will get a perfect image effortlessly.

So here's how it goes... Place your Cover-a-card stamp on the block, ink it up, and then stamp from left to right (or the other way... whatever is more comfortable for you) following the curve of the stamp. There you have your perfectly stamped image.

Of course, you can use your mega block with other stamps... especially those large stamps to avoid that blind spot in the middle.

See you tomorrow

Andy Skinner Workshop Special offer

2012-01-22T12:53:00.001Z

Hi,

Have you seen Andy Skinner’s latest fab on line workshop on his blog?

Well we have a special offer for you to help you with the cost of products.

Once you have registered with Andy to take part in the workshop, Andy will send you an invitation to the workshop website where a list of the products you need to complete the project is available. Email me to let me know you are successfully registered and I will email you back a 10% discount code which is valid on our website for one order only. Enjoy :o)

Comments and "reactions"

2012-01-22T07:00:00.000Z

Hi everyone,

Just a quick post to let you know of a couple of changes. Those of you who read my blog would have seen this earlier this week there too.

I have activated the "threaded comments", which means that when you ask a question in a comment, I can now answer direct on that comment and you receive a notification (I think). Others can see the answer too so it's good for everyone.

Next, about the comments... First of all, we have had more comments on our posts lately and I will never thank you enough. It makes a huge difference to the team (who work hard to offer amazing samples and projects on this blog) but also to me, who spend a lot of time on here. I like to know what you think and like as it helps us schedule to following months.
Having said that, I do understand that we all follow tons of blogs and we don't have time to comment on each and everyone of them. Therefore, you have now the option to tick one of the "reaction" boxes below (just above the comments) and let us know what you think. It takes 1/2 a second but still shows your appreciation.

You can choose between: It's ok -- Like it -- Love it -- or -- Oh Wow!

I do hope you will use that easy tool in the future when you come and visit.

You can also use it on previous posts.

See you tomorrow for a brand new week and theme,

take care,

Izzy

Simply Saturday mechanics: pop-up card

2012-01-21T07:00:00.001Z

Hi,
Welcome to our Simply Saturday's post. Gay has done wonders again with a pop-up bath tub ;)
I like pop-up cards, they are always a nice surprise when someone opens it. (although I must confess, I have never tried making one myself).
So let's see how Gay made this beautiful stylish card.

First I stamped and cut out the bath. The photos show how I gauged the size of the bath on the inside fold of the insert card.

I cut two slits in the insert and scored the top line in both directions to help fold. I find when matching up the two cards it's easier to only uncover a small amount of the tape and this gives you room to move them about and get them in the right position.

Gay used

Kanban clear stamps Mocha Boudoir

Judikins Diamond Glaze for the bubbles

Copics for colouring

See you next week

Have a great weekend

Card mechanics week: Scroll card

2012-01-20T11:11:00.002Z

Hi,
If you thought I posted many pictures yesterday, wait until today's post!! Michelle is spoiling you here with not only a gooorgeous project but tons of details. I hope she gets tons of comments because she truly deserves it ;)
She made a beautiful "scroll card". I had never seen one of these before but I might try it!

Grab a small box and some paints, the TH alterations box is perfect.

Paint the box with Eco Green Crafts - Acrylic paint

When dry paint with a thick coat of Viva Croco Paint: transparent

Measure the width of the inside of the box (here 38mm)

Cut a piece of thin card 38mm off the long side of an A4 sheet. Stamp the LaBlanche silicone stamp: 2 meadow stamps along the bottom of the card strip then brush TH Barn Door, Broken China and Mustard Seed Distress inks along the sky area of the card.

Colour the grass and flowers in the image and stamp a message along the card using a mini alpha stamp set. See Go Kreate - Rome alpha stamp

Pierce two holes in both long sides of the box, large enough to hold a barbecue skewer

Push barbecue skewers through the holes and trim to size. Stick wooden beads on each end of the skewer using glossy accents.

Adhere one end of the card strip to the skewer using PVA glue, hold in place till set and leave to dry thoroughly.

When dry roll the card onto the skewer using the beads to move the roll.

Repeat at the other end of the card and roll up the scroll until it's fairly closely rolled.

Cut and score a piece of heavy card to fit the box.

Decorate with patterned paper as desired.

I finished the gift card off with a Tando Dove a bit of ribbon, a flower and a sentiment, all finished with a quick rub of rub and buff.

Material used

Tim Holtz Configurations: 6.75 x 8.75

Eco Green Crafts - Acrylic paint: Moss

Viva Croco Paint: transparent

LaBlanche silicone stamp: 2 meadow stamps

Distress Inks: broken china, mustard seed, peeled paint, Barn door,

Versafine ink pad - black

Sakura Soufflé pens: orange, white, pink

Rub 'n Buff: Autumn gold

See you tomorrow

Card mechanics week: foldy book thingy

2012-01-19T07:00:00.002Z

hello :)
Here we are again, with a funny name... Today you will be shown how to make a "foldy book thingy". This time, I did not come up with the name. This is how Linda called her project.
Lots of pictures and very informative step by step coming up. So grab a cuppa and off we go...

I love making this card ... it looks fiddley ... but trust me ... once you have made one ... everytime you need a special card or a keepsake ... well you will be hooked.

Cut four pieces of card 8 ¼” by 5 ¾” and score all four pieces of card 2 1/16” from each end to form a tri-fold.

On one piece score again at 1 7/8“ from each end to form a mini spine.

Line all the corners up and round them off ...

Cut a further piece of card 8” by 5 ½“ and score down the middle and round all four corners.

Line the three tri-fold cards up and tape the middle flaps to the outer two cards so you now have a long card.

On your spined card make holes at 2 ¾” and 3 ½” approx ¾” in from the spine on each side with your favourite hole punch tool.

Now cut a straight line from each edge of your circle to form a slot.

Feed a piece of ribbon through the slot that is long enough to go around the card and tie.

Adhere the back of the middle part of your long card to cover the ribbon part of your spined card.

Adhere your final card to the front of the middle part of your long card to form an insert.

Decorate as desired!

Materials

Tim Holtz Stamps: Stuff to Say; Reflections; Shabby French; Urban Chic

PaperArtsy: HP1009

Distress Stains: Fired Brick; Spiced Marmalade; Mustard Seed; Barn Door

Distress Ink: Walnut Stain

Perfect Pearls Mist: Heirloom Gold

Idea-Ology embellishments

Ranger Archival: Jet Black; Crimson

Gold Paint

See you tomorrow

Card mechanics week: secret pull

2012-01-18T07:00:00.002Z

Hi,
You know what's the tricky part for me this week, is to find a name for all those unusual cards the DT have made for you. When I was looking at the pictures (back stage), I was like "OMG, how on earth did she / he think of that".
Here's a "pull thingy" one with GIO... stunning work...
Who's going to give it a go?
If you are, please don't forget to share it with us!

I made a masculine birthday card, recycling a glue dots box : I think a guy can enjoy a card with a mechanism inside.

1- I cut a long stripe of paper from an A3 sheet of copy paper. I gessoed it with Claudine Hellmuth gesso.
I glued to it pieces of torn book page with Claudine Hellmuth Multimedium Matte.
2- I stencilled the background with Tando Masks: Cogs group and TH Distress Ink Tea Dye.
3- I stamped the word 'Happy Birthday' with Crafty Secrets: Artsy Alphabet and TH Distress Ink Black Soot . I added some little swirls from the same Alphabet stamps and I distressed the edges with TH Distress Ink Tea Dye

4-I prepared the mechanism: I cut a pencil with a knife, the length is equal to the box plus 1 cm on both sides. I coloured the Pencil with TH Alcohol ink Pitch Black
5-I made two holes on both sides of the box, large enough to slip the pencil inside.
6-I black gessoed the box with Claudine Hellmuth black gesso.
.

7-I gessoed a piece of book pages. I cut two gothic arches. I stamped one with a text with Stampers Anonymous - Just thoughts stamp, and the other one with some swirl from the Alphabet stamps using TH Distress Ink.
8-I cut this arch in two and I glued two hinges. I glued one arch to the front of the box, and I attached the two little doors with a brad to the box.
9-The last and trickiest part is to glue the long strip of paper to the pencil: you can open up the box, or you can slip the strip inside the box and glue to the pencil. I attached an eyelet to one edge of the strip along with some embellishments.

Material list

Tando Masks: Cogs group

Viva Pardo jewellery clay: onyx glitter

Claudine Hellmuth Studio - Kit - Mediums

Crafty Secrets: Artsy Alphabet

Stampers Anonymous - Tim Holtz: Just thoughts

Metal fittings

Tim Holtz embellishments: Game spinners

TH Distress Inks

Glossy Accents

Adirondack alcohol ink - Pitch black

See you tomorrow

Card mechanics week: Fish card

2012-01-17T07:00:00.001Z

Hi,

This week we are talking mechanics... nahh, not the greasy fingers kinda mechanic... having said that, it will still be inky fingers for some of us I think ;)

What do we mean by "card mechanics"? Well, you know, those cards with that special extra touch... those that roll out, that folds, that pop up... you know the kind.
Our DT has worked hard again to bring you AMAZING projects! Most of them with step by step pictures so you can make them too...

Starting this week is Neil, with a fishy card... with a lovely sense of humour. Love this!!
Hope you like it too !!

Stamp the man, mask and add the buildings to the front cover, colour with inks and glue the cover to the inside piece. use wire and a twig to create the fishing rod and attach as seen. Add the sentiment in small alphabet stamps.

The pop up bit is the mouth of the fish.

To make the inside score and fold the card in half and open. On the fold line draw a square 3cm diamond shape dissecting the fold. Use a craft knife to cut a line inside left to right and score the other lines to create a mouth that opens and closes as you open the card. Draw a fish shape to fit the mouth onto a piece of card, stamp it with steampunk style stamps and colour with distress inks. Colour the mouth on the card blank in the same colours. Tear strips of white paper onto the card (cutting away from the mouth) and colour with the blue inks before gluing the fish onto it.

Material list

PaperArtsy mini MN58

PaperArtsy HP1110EZ

Distress inks - Wild Honey, Brushed corduroy, Aged mahogany, Tumbled glass, Chipped Sapphire, and Stormy Sky

Small watch parts

Archival black ink

Wire

See you tomorrow

Colour wheel tag challenge

2012-01-15T07:00:00.000Z

Hi everyone!

Who wants to "tag along" for a new challenge?

We have been talking colours and colour wheel and colour combinations all week.. you have seen the different possibilities through all the DT's samples...

Now it's your turn...

All you have to do is make/alter/colour a TAG.

Follow the wonderful tips the DT gave you and colour away!!

and you could win

One Colour Wheel

One set of Cosmic Shimmer Acrylic Mists

One Artemio ribbon set

all in the beautiful blue/purple winter colours

So who's playing?

Challenge will run until Sunday January 29th

(so two weeks)

and is open to all countries

NEW artwork only please
(no recycling ;))

Just add a link to your colourful tag below

(link to your tag post please)

You can enter as many times as you want

Have fun !!

Colour wheel for Simply Saturdays

2012-01-14T07:00:00.000Z

Hello,
and welcome to our final Colour Wheel day. Hope you enjoyed this week and that it has helped you a bit if you were struggling with colours.
Gay has done it again with three stunning C&S (one layer) cards. Same stamp and design, but they look so different because of the colours.
Let us know what you think...

These are my cards for the colour week, 1 of each Analogous, Complimentary and Triadic. All three are one layer cards.

This is the Triadic combination using orange green and violet.

This is the Analogous combination, using Purple, Blue and Lighter Blue.

And this the Complimentary version using Dark Blue and Light Orange.

Stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black the Gorguss Girl is a lovely open design with plenty of room for colour. I stamped her on 3 blank cards and then onto Eclipse tape, cut her out and masked her on the card, I used the same mask for all 3 cards and still have it saved for future use, value for money , oh yes!
Tearing a piece of copy paper gives a mask for the horizon, which I sponged with Cut and Dry and Distress inks. The other piece of the torn paper gives the mask for the skyline. I also masked the margin because I didn't want the colour to flood all over the card. I removed all the masks and painted the Gorguss Girl with Distress inks. Her hair was coloured with Copics and kept neutral to emphasize the colours used.
No sentiments because I think you could almost get her to say anything : Happy Birthday, get well soon, hello, sorry I forgot, are just a few that come to mind!

Judikins Eclipse masking tape.

Gorguss Girl, The Winter's Night

Distress inks, Broken China, Chipped Sapphire, Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey, Peeled paint.

Copic Markers

See you next week

Art Journal challenge winner

2012-01-13T18:54:00.000Z

Hello everyone,

Time to announce the Art Journaling challenge winner.
But before I do so, let me say ... WOW !!!! So many entries, beautiful Art Journal pages. I guess you liked that one. There will be another AJ challenge in February, so watch this space ;)
(on a personal note, a big thank you to those who left a comment on my DD's AJ page. She had a blast doing it and really enjoyed reading your comments).

So, drum rooooll please. The winner for our first AJ challenge is....

CATH !

Congratulations!

Please get in touch with your snail mail address and we will send you your prize ASAP.

Fancy another challenge? Come back on Sunday, I'm preparing something for ya ;)

Talk soon,

Colour wheel week: Jewellery

2012-01-13T07:00:00.000Z

Hi,
A few pieces of jewellery today as Michelle used Friendly Plastic to make those three projects. I really could not pick a favourite. I love them all.
How about you?

On the first one, she used primary colours

On the second one, secondary colours

And on the last one, neighbouring colours

Products used

Friendly Plastic stick: Bright sprink - Dark teal/black - F.G blue/black - Rainbow strip

Heat Gun

Mixed Beads

Jewellery findings

Brooch back 25 mm: silver

Round jump rings 3 mm: silver

Spring Cord Ends : silver

Lobster Clasp 14 mm: silver

See you tomorrow

Colour wheel week: Art Journal

2012-01-12T07:00:00.000Z

Hi,
Another colour wheel day and complementary colours this time with Gio and this beautiful Art Journal page. Look at all the details on there, how she did her journaling, the doodling on her sleeves and ring on her finger, the little heart on the camera lens... love it...
What do you think? Have you tried Art Journaling yet?

***

An AJ page, with a bit of scrapbooking (I used a picture of me of 2010 Halloween). I used the complementary colours: Purple, Green and Orange.

I glued some pieces of torn book pages to the page with Claudine Hellmuth Multi Mediums Matte.

When dry I covered the background with Claudine Hellmuth Gesso spreading it with an old credit card. This add some texture to the page.

Once this is dry, I drew the camera tracing out the same credit card, then I coloured the page with TH Distress Ink and TH Distress Stains. I sprayed with water, I blotted with a wipe and I dried everything with the heat gun.

I painted the camera with TH Distress Inks using a Zig BrusH2O Waterbrush. I add some details with a permanent black pen. I put the picture on the page and I traced out the silhouette with a pencil and then with TH Distress Ink black soot and the waterbrush.

I stamped the background with Andy Skinner stamps: Antiques using distress ink and Emerald Archival ink.

I stamped the journal with Crafty Secrets: Artsy Alphabet stamp and TH Distress ink Dusty Concord

I glued the picture to the background and I doodled it with a white permanent marker. I pat lightly here and there with Versamark ink pad and I sprinkled some Cosmic Shimmer Blaze Embossing powder: raspberry violet and I melted it with the heat gun, to add more texture.

I glued to the bottom of the page some torn gessoed pieces of old book page.

Andy Skinner acrylic stamps: Antiques

Artcoe Blue bell spiral cartrige book: short edge A5

Claudine Hellmuth Multi Mediums Matte

Claudine Hellmuth Gesso

Crafty Secrets: Artsy Alphabet

TH Distress Inks Dusty Concord, Black Soot, Forest Moss

TH Distress Stains Wild Honey

Archival Ink Emerald

Versamark ink pad

Fantastic work, thank you Gio.

See you tomorrow

Colour wheel week: tags

2012-01-11T07:00:00.000Z

Hi,
Neil is your host today and made 3 beautiful tags in different colours to show you how different it can look depending on the colour, even if the image/stamp is the same...

I made 3 tags the same but in different colours

1. Neighbouring colours

Colours used: Purple, blue and green

I coloured the tag with Dusty concord, Stormy sky and Peeled paint Distress Atains and dried with a heat gun. I used Distress inks in the same colours to add cogs using the Tando mask.

The main image and bottles were stamped with black archival ink. I inked up the compass and stamped it onto scrap before stamping onto the tag to create the background. I stamped the sentiment onto half a journal tag.

The main tag and the journalling tag was distressed using the distress tool and the main tag was inked with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and the small tag with Peeled Paint Distress Stain and attached with a small brad.

2. Complimentary colours

Yellow and purple

Dusty Concord and Scattered Straw.

3. Triadic

Red, blue and yellow

Fired Brick, Faded Jeans and Scattered Straw.

Products used:

Distress stain - peeled paint, stormy sky, dusty concord, faded jeans and fired brick.

Distress ink; same colours as above plus walnut stain.

Stamps - Paperartsy HP1110

Tando mask - cogs

Tim Holtz journalling tags

Small brads

See you tomorrow

Colour wheel week

2012-01-10T16:24:00.000Z

{{ SORRY, this should have appeared earlier in the week and for some reason, it did not...

As I am still on holiday, I only saw it today. Hope you find it useful...

Izzy ... }}

Hi,
This week, as part of our "back to basic" month, we are going to talk about colours and particularly how to use the colour wheel.
This is something a lot of crafters struggle with. I have had emails (through the Craft Barn or me personally) asking about colour balance and how to get it right. So hopefully, this week will help you a bit.

If you are one of those who struggle with the choice of colours, the best thing is to use a Colour Wheel. You can find them here on our website. Those wheel or colour guides will help you as they are the perfect aid to selecting, mixing and understanding colours.

In the meantime, the DT will show you samples throughout the week using different colour combinations, sometimes with the same designs/stamps so you can see how different it looks depending on your colour choice.

Here are a few facts about colours

Primary colours (red, yellow and blue) are the 3 basic pigment colours that can not be mixed or formed by any combination of other colours. All other colours are derived from these 3 hues.

Secondary colours (green, orange and purple) are the colours you will get by mixing the primary colours.

Tertiary colours (yellow-orange, red-orange, red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green and yellow-green) are the hues you will get by mixing a primary and a secondary colour.

Now to create something pleasing to the eye, here are a few tips.

You can use analogous colours, also known as "neighbouring" colours.
They are any three colors which are side by side on a colour wheel. Usually one of the three colors predominates.

You can use complementary colours. Those are any two colors which are directly opposite each other, such as red and green , blue and orange, purple and yellow.

You can use triadic colours. Those colours are evenly spaced around the color wheel. Triadic colour harmonies tend to be quite vibrant so should be carefully balanced. It is best to let one colour dominate and use the two others for accent.

Tones, shades and tints
Those words are often confusing and used incorrectly so here's a bit of help...
A tint is when a colour is made lighter by adding white
A shade is when a colour is made darker by adding black .
And if grey is added, the result is a different tone.

I hope this will help you a bit in understanding colours and being more confident when you create. So why not giving it a go? Take your inks or paints out along with pieces of cards and have a play. You can keep those as swatches for reference (write the brand of ink or paint you have used as well as the name of the colours at the back...).

See you tomorrow

Colour wheel week: ATC

2012-01-10T07:00:00.000Z

Hello,
Linda is with us today and made three terrific ATCs with neighbouring colours: from yellow to red. I love her use of Glossy Accents on there.

I have used Red; Orange and Yellow for my ATCs which are of course neighbouring colours on the colour wheel.

I often work on A4 card to build a large background in one go and then cut it to size for whatever I choose to make. My red elements are manilla card shaped with a ball tool and then covered with Glossy Accents ... I love the way that makes the colour really pop!

Linda used:

Mustard Seed Distress Stain

Fired Brick Distress Ink

Ranger: Coffee Archival; Jet Black Archival

Tim Holtz stamps: Itty Bitty Grunge; Steam Punk

PaperArtsy: Hot Picks 1009

Glossy Accents

Gold Krylon

See you tomorrow

Simply Saturday inks itself silly too

2012-01-07T07:00:00.000Z

Hello,
Final day for our Ink Yourself Silly week.... We hope you enjoyed it and that it gave you more ideas on how to use your inks, whether you are a beginner or an advanced crafter.
Gay is your host today as it's Simply Saturday and has done some really striking cards for you.

This card uses Versamark ink and I brushed gently over the stamped image with mica powder and stamped the sentiment afterwards.

The versamark ink is quite sticky and accepts the mica beautifully.

This is a detail of the sentiment.

Here is an example of a very simple card with Versamark used as a watermark.

The sentiment is stamped in black.

This card uses the other stamp from the set which is the reverse image. I inked the stamp with Versamagic this time, it's chalky and brilliant on dark cardstock. I used a light pink and green and you can't really see in the photo but there is a subtle shading in real life. The sentiment was inked in Versafine, Onyx black which is my go to ink for a rich deep black image but not for use with copics as they will bleed with it.

My last card is using Versafine again but this time it's the brilliant Deep Lagoon, a really rich colour that gives a wonderful strong impression. I've turned the card on it's side and added the bird in Onyx black to make it stand out.

Gay used:

Versamark Watermark ink,

Versamagic Chalk ink Pixie Dust and Aloe Vera

Versafine, Onyx Black, Deep Lagoon.

Mica powder

Stamps by Hero Arts Clings Two Vine Scrolls

Stamps by Crafty Individuals CI 278

Stamps by Katzelkraft, KTZ56, English Quotes

Stamps for the watermark card,

Happy Birthday from Crafty Secrets, Bathing Beauties

Tip of the day

Versamark also is brilliant for embossing and makes a good watermark image.

See you soon,

Ink yourself silly: Tag

2012-01-06T07:00:00.000Z

Hi,
I hear you from here.. a Christmas tag?? again??
Let me explain... you know that we work ahead of time behind the scene and the DT worked on this week's projects end of November/beginning of December...
So Isa looked at the theme (inks), and 100% in the Christmas spirit at the time, she made a .... xmas tag.. only to realise afterwards it was for a January post. She offered to make another one, but I said no... First of all, it's beautiful and I really wanted to share it with you but also.. who cares? We can start xmas 2012 early, can't we? ok... maybe not, but I'm sure that you can use the technique/ suggestion on other tags, card or scrapbook project.
No particular technique actually, but Isa wanted to show the effect of the beautiful Brilliance inks, especially on a dark or black card.... What do you think?

Tip of the day

Although it is a pigment based, Brilliance inks can be used (and will dry) on shrink plastic.

There is a lot of choice of colours in this range, with some of the inks (like the one Isa used) being pearlescent and giving a lovely shimmery effect.

Isabelle used:

BRILLANCE inks: platinum planet, gold

DISTRESS and Versafine inks

KATZELKRAFT stamps: Noel, Trees

Sizzix Tim Holtz dies: Tag, Frame & pendant

Gems

Ink yourself silly: scrapbook page

2012-01-05T07:00:00.000Z

Hello,
I mentioned last weekend that we would try to showcase different types of projects from now on, including scrapbooking pages. And this is just what Neil did this week and beautifully too! Look at the colours on here, truly stunning!
Here's how Neil achieved this.

Start by inking up the ink applicator tool with the alcohol ink. and ink all around the edges of the 12x12 acetate to create a border.

Flip the acetate over and, using black stazon, stamp the trees along the bottom of the page to create a continuous line along the bottom. Allow to dry.

Take 3 different sized fragments and a piece of acetate apply the same colours of alcohol ink to these and then add some gold mixative and blending solution to the pad and apply touches of gold to them too.

Tip of the day

Take the fragments one at a time and using black archival ink stamp your image onto the same side of the fragment that you applied the alcohol ink too and immediately take a piece of kitchen roll and begin to blot the ink away (This will create the "white stamping" on the tiles.

When you have removed most of it then you can gently wipe it to remove the rest. Repeat this for the other two. Use a small blob of 3d glaze to attach them to a piece of white card. (put the inked and stamped side down onto the card) When they are dry, trim the excess card, edge with gold (I used the gold mixative), thread ribbon through and you should end up with something like this.

To finish the page I blended a little bit of frayed burlap and black soot onto the areas of the white paper that was not covered by the alcohol ink overlay to tone the white down a bit; matted the photos onto black card and attached to the page. I layered the acetate over that and attached the fragments to it and then cut some leaves from the prepared acetate and creased with my fingers to add some dimension and attached with glossy accents to the page.

Crafty Individuals stamp: CI 209
HP1005 Paperartsy
Alcohol inks - Sandal, Caramel, Sunset orange, Red pepper, pesto and gold mixative
Distress inks - Frayed Burlap and black soot
12 x 12 white card and acetate
Jet Black StazOn
Archival black
Idea-ology fragment charms
Tattered leaves die

How was that for the 1st scrapbook page of the year?
Can't wait to read what you think.
See you tomorrow

Ink yourself silly: glass charms

2012-01-04T07:00:00.000Z

HI :o)
After the handbag charm, Gio is here with us today to show you how she made those gorgeous glass charms. Love the vibrant colours, this would look soooo nice on the table. What do you think?
Let us know in a comment below...

I took a Stampbord domino. I stamped with black Stazon and PaperArtsy Hotpicks 1006.

I started to colour with distress Ink, picking colours with a finger covered with a baby wipe I started with the light colour and trying to blend the colours together.

I covered one side of the tile with Versamark and silver embossing powder. I heated with the heatgun and embossed all 4 sides.

Tip of the day
You can double emboss, to get a faux soldering effect.

With the same rubber plate I created little embellishments out of shrink plastic, stamping with Black and Red Stazon, cutting the images and shrinking with the heat-gun (remember to make a hole in the plastic before melting)

I made two holes on the tile and I added beads and embellishments.

This tiles are perfect to use as keyrings, because they are unbreakeable and light, but I used them as "glass charms".

To make these kind of charms you have to use a long head-pins and bending it on one side, creating a loop to use to hang the charm to the glass.

Gio used:

Hot Picks 1006

Stampbord squares and rectangles. Assorted bag

Jet black StazOn

Blazing Red StazOn

Distress ink Mustard seed, Barn door, broken china, Worn Lipstick

shrink plastic

head-pins silver

Tim Holtz embellishments: Game spinners

Cosmic Shimmer Lustre Embossing powder: silver shine

assorted beads

Stunning isn't it?

See you tomorrow for more inky fingers...

Ink yourself silly: handbag charm

2012-01-03T07:00:00.000Z

Hello :o)
You've been waiting for this... Linda Elbourne's first project on this blog and it is such a beautiful project (they always are). After talking about misters yesterday, we are featuring alcohol inks and permanent inks today used with Fragments and Shrink Plastic.
So over to you Linda...

This handbag charm is really simple to make and makes a fab last minute gift... which are the types of gift I like ... because I am usually last minute :0)
I die cut the butterflies from Shrink Plastic and stamped on them with StazOn ... Why StazOn? Because it is specifically designed to be permanent on any shiny surface.
Once shrunk ... I then added colour with Alcohol inks! If you blow gently on the inks while they are drying ... you get a lovely soft colour which looks like vintage glass.

Some butterflies were hole punched before shrinking ... but the others were shrunk, shaped and attached to fragment charms which had also been coloured using Alcohol ink and then attached to white gloss card stamped with Ranger Archival ... that is my "Go to" ink for just about everything!

You can find our metal charms in the embellishment section on our website

Products used:

Shrink Plastic

Jet Black StazOn

Ranger Jet Black Archival

Alcohol Inks

Glossy Card

Glossy Accents

PaperArtsy Hot Picks 1005

Idea-Ology: Jump Rings; Key Chain; Fragment Charms

Gold Krylon

Love this!! Makes me want to sit and craft and make one myself.

Thanks Linda :O)

Tip of the day

Use the alcohol ink on one side of the shrink plastic/fragment and the stazOn on the other. StazOn being solvent based is not compatible with alcohol inks. If you want to stamp on the side you coloured with alcohol inks, then use the Ranger Archival instead ;)

See you tomorrow

Ink yourself silly: cards

2012-01-02T07:00:00.000Z

Hello,
Welcome to our first day of inky techniques with a beautiful project (and step by step) by Michelle.
We will start easy with a simple "mist and stamp" technique. Let us know what you think...

Spray a piece of A6 white card with Perfect Pearl Mists: Green Patina, Mandarin and Forever Red

Sprinkle on some rock salt (I use dishwasher salt) Leave it to dry.

Tip of the day
Dont waste the spray left in the tray, mop it up with more card!

You can dry it quicker with an heat tool if you wish.

Cut one of the A6 cards into a square but keep the offcut.

Lay the The Crafters Workshop template - Houndstooth over the inked square and lightly dab with a Brilliance Dew Drop ink pad - graphite black along one corner.

Repeat with the offcut.

Stamp the PaperArtsy stamps: Clocks 6 using Versafine ink pad - black

Mount the stamped images on Black Mirror board and onto a black card blank.

And here's one I made with the leftovers!

How is that for a first 2012 post?

Gorgeous cards, aren't they?

come back tomorrow for more inky projects.

See you then

Happy New Year everyone

2012-01-01T07:00:00.001Z

Hello,

Sandy, the staff at the Barn, the DT and myself would like to wish you all

happy, healthy and crafty new year!!
Très bonne année à tous!

2011 has seen a huge change to this blog going from 150 something followers to nearly 1000 (as I type this). Thank you so much for your support. We hope that you will keep on following us throughout 2012 and enter our challenges and competitions.

What's in store for this new year?

Well, you know that we have a new DT member (Linda) and you will start seeing her (beautiful) work this week.

We stick to our 5 or 6 posts per week at least for the time being... with TONS of samples and tutorials and tips to help you with your crafting. You will still see the cards, tags and 3D samples, but also more Art Journaling, scrapbooking and jewellery from now on.

We are going to start "theme weeks" as from tomorrow, and in January, we will be focusing on "back to basics". Maybe you are new to crafting and are intimidated... or maybe, you only have been making cards, or scrapbook pages and you would like to start something new. We'll try to help you along with that - everything from choosing inks to using colour wheels across all sorts of types of projects

If you are an advanced crafter, you will still looooove what's in store this month: gorgeous stuff !

So I guess that's all for now, don't want to say to much.. you will have to wait and see...

Don't forget you can follow us on FACEBOOK or TWITTER (click on the logos top left).

See you tomorrow

WICKED WINTER SALE

2011-12-30T09:00:00.003Z

Hi

Just a quickie to remind you that our Winked Winter Sale starts on line at 9am tomorrow and in store at 9:30am tomorrow (Saturday 31st December).
Juste un rappel que nos soldes commencent demain, Samedi 31 décembre à 9h (GMT) en ligne et à 9h30 en magasin.

We do have a release of Goody boxes as part of the sale (on line only I'm afraid). The RRP value is well over £50 and as always we are selling them at just £15, as you know these usually sell out within a few hours so do pop on over to the website early if you want to grab one.
Les "goody boxes" sont de retour (en ligne uniquement). Leur valeur est de £50 mais elles sont en vente pour £15. Soyez rapide, elles partent généralement très vite.

I hope you had a great Christmas and wish everyone a Happy New Year
Nous espérons que vous avez passé un bon noël et nous vous souhaitons une très bonne année 2012.

See you soon
A bientôt
Sandy et Izzy

ART JOURNAL CHALLENGE 1

2011-12-24T07:00:00.000Z

Helloooo dear crafters...

And you thought I would be quiet during the holiday break? Nope ...and I'm even here to post a new challenge for those of you who want to keep your fingers inky when the kids are busy playing with their new toys after Christmas...

We saw a lot of enthusiasm during our Introduction to Art Journaling week, some of you mentioned the word "challenge" so here we go... your Christmas wish is granted LOL.

If you are new to Art Journaling, now is the time to give it a go... take a journal, or even an old book and start inking.... and journaling (although you don't have to post your journaling if it's too personal).
Don't know where to start? Check our Introduction to Art Journaling week posts and off you go. If you have any questions, ask in a comment below. I'm on holiday, but I'll try to come and check every so often ;).
I might do a page myself, you never know...

We keep the same theme:

BUILDINGS

... of all kinds... you can interpret it any way you want, just have fun...

I will be back to work sometimes during the week of the 9th January, so I will post the winner at the end of that week (yes, I have an Outlook reminder set up this time so I don't forget LOL).
This leaves you nearly 3 weeks to get creative. You can enter as many times as you like.
All countries welcome ;)

What is there to win? Well... a bit of a AJ starter pack really... Even if you already have one (or more) Art Journal(s) on the go, I'm sure you'll be happy to get a new one, won't you?

You will get

One bluebell book

One Cosmic Shimmer mister

One Americana acrylic paint

One Claudine Hellmuth medium kit

Here's a few of the DT's AJ pages published so far..

Now it's your turn !

Have fun !!

MERRY CHRISTMAS ONE AND ALL!

2011-12-23T08:00:00.004Z

Hi

Just thought I would pop on and wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

As is usual at this time of year, I have been doing a bit of reflecting on the last year!

It's been a very strange year with a real mix of highs and lows. The biggest low being three staff associated with the barn either being diagnosed with breast cancer or undergoing follow up treatment, thankfully they are all on the mend now, fingers crossed. If there is only one piece of advice you ever listen to please, please, please check yourself regularly, it really is so important.

I have to say that the rest of our team have been amazing throughout these last months. They have worked so hard to provide cover, working extra hours, changing holiday and generally being accommodating to help us keep everything on track and they deserve a massive thank you from me and that includes Izzy who has been writing all the blog posts that you have been seeing since Jane has been out of action.

One of the highs for me has been the way that our DT has evolved and developed . They are an amazing bunch who consistently produce inspiring and stunning work and manage to maintain a sense of humour even when we pull them way outside their comfort zones and pile on the pressure!

Our tutors too deserve a big pat on the back, they have been wonderful, coming up with some truly fabulous class projects and this has been reflected in the number of sell out classes we have these days and how far people are willing to travel to take the classes. We have had people from as far afield as Norfolk, Portsmouth, Manchester, Southampton and Bristol to name but a few and this has been another highlight for me.

I also really enjoyed our Extravaganza this year even though we were all shattered by the end of the weekend. We had more visitors than ever and a great selection of really talented demonstrators. I was amazed by how many people from outside the UK and from various groups and forums around the UK travelled to see us - including loads of Sara's crew from Cardmaking Paradise who are such a nice bunch and are always up for making a weekend of it!

Finally I want to say a massive thank you to all of you for your fantastic support. For taking time to follow our blog and leave comments, for shopping with us at the barn and on line and most of all for sharing our journey.

We promise to keep the journey going and to do everything we can to make 2012 a great year for you and of course for us too!

Hugs Sandy

Calendar winners: week 11 and 12

2011-12-21T15:07:00.000Z

Hi,
So sorry about the delay on that one. I was SURE,... positive that I had done this post but apparently not...

Anyway... it's a nice early xmas present for two of you, isn't it?
Hope you forgive me ...

So the winner for the Calendar challenge week 11 is....

MRS A

And the winner for the Calendar challenge week 12 is....

Scrapmate

Congratulations to both of you.

Please get in touch so I can have your email address and send your voucher ASAP

Keep an eye on this blog for a holiday break challenge coming soon....

Talk soon,

DT showcase: Gay's turn

2011-12-18T07:00:00.000Z

Hi,
Here we are... Our last (but not least!!) DT member today: the adorable Gay.
Gay joined the team this year and brought with her a fresh new (to the blog) Clean and Simple style I absolutely love. Each time she posts a card, I just look at it and think "now why didn't I think of doing that?"
Those samples she picked for you today were some of my favourite too. I LOVE the fish card, so clever!

What about you? Do you love Gay's work and ideas?
Let us know in a comment below. I'm sure Gay will love to read them.

*******

This card for me is the essence of what I try to achieve when making a C&S card, the colours sang together and the stamp of the tree was structurally an absolute delight, must dig it out again.

This was one of my first projects and I just loved the surprise of finding fish in the brackets, quite happy how the grungy stamps turned into a sea scape on my card

This is one of the pages from the Calendar project that we have just finished.The colours of the fall leaves with the contrasting background aren't dissimilar to the first card, I think I must like the combination. Texture on a card can be difficult sometimes but these die cut leaves are such a basic design and could be coloured quite differently and I would find them easy to incorporate into lots of projects.

It has been a revelation to me, I thought the calendar was a huge undertaking but I'm so glad to have attempted and finished it all and am really pleased with the result! My lesson learned, don't be put off by a large project and take small steps to achieve. Thanks to the support of the lovely team members and Sandy and Isabelle for coming up with the inspiration.

I have thoroughly loved being part of the Craft Barn team and I feel so privileged to have been chosen. It's six months since I joined the design team and it's flown by so quickly. Working with the really talented team has truly inspired me and so have our wonderful customers when they have participated and by leaving kind comments. Learning to work to a time limit and incorporate new products into my work is good because I have been known to prevaricate if left alone too long!

Next year I'm hoping that our journals will play a part in the design team repertoir. This is a new adventure and I'm loving playing with it so far, colour is going to be explored soon and I'm really looking forward to expanding my knowledge.

*********

I'm sure that Sandy will pop onto the blog during the holiday to have a little chat with you, but in the meantime, I (Izzy) want to thank you for all your kind comments and support, it means a lot when, like me, you spend a lot of time on a blog.

I wish you all a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS.

I will see you in the new year :)

DT showcase: please welcome.....

2011-12-17T07:00:00.001Z

Hi everyone,

So we had the sad day with Chris leaving us.... but I promised a happy day with someone NEW on our team.
Please welcome LINDA Elbourne.
I am sure many of you know her already (through her blog or/and on Craft Stamper magazine) and you will be delighted (as we all are) to now see her gorgeous work on this blog.
Linda has a very grungy, inky (very inky) style... She is known to be linked at the hip to Ranger ... (and Tim... yes, "that" Tim... but shhhh, I didn't tell you, ok??) and love exploring new techniques. She has also a fantastic sense of humour and I'm sure she will fit right in.
I have asked Linda to pick 3 of her favourite projects and tell us more about herself...

Welcome to the team Linda xxx

**********

Helloooooo.
My name is Linda Elbourne. I have been crafting since forever in one form or another. My passion for stamping took over about 7 years ago. I am a Ranger girl at heart and love nothing more than trying new things and getting inky and messy ... My style is eclectic ... if that is a style :0) and I will give anything a go at least once! I am extremely proud to have been asked to join the design team here at the Craft Barn and I am really looking forward to seeing all the contributions each week and working with Sandy, Isa and their wonderful team.
The three projects I have chosen to share with you from 2011 are:-

My Tim Holtz configuration ... this was my first one and boy did I get hooked! Great fun!

A Greetings card ... LOVE the PaperArtsy flower Hot Pick ... sooooooooo versatile! It's not often that something turns out like the picture in my head ... but this one did.

Finally ... This mini suitcase and chunky ATC project ...

I told you my style was eclectic!

So what do you think?

Happy that Linda has joined the team?

Let us know in a comment below...

See you tomorrow...

DT showcase: day five

2011-12-16T07:00:00.000Z

Hi,
Today, we are showcasing Isa'sArt's amazing work (Isabelle Juin is her real name).
When I met Isa a few years back through a common DT, I was genuinely intimidated by her work. But throughout the years, I have learnt to know her better and realised that she is very humble, down to earth (and a bit shy too), but most of all extremely generous with her talent and time.
When I say "humble" here's an example... when I asked Isa to pick 3 of her favourite pieces she did for us, she said: "this is going to be difficult as I am never totally happy with what I do". Can you believe this?
We are very fortunate and grateful to have her on our team. There is not one project I don't learn from, and I'm sure you guys love them too.
How about letting her know in a comment below? Now is your chance...

As I said, I asked for 3 samples... Isa gave me 5 and said "take your pick".... OMG, how do you want me to *choose*? I can't , so you will have 5 samples today... And I'm sure you won't hate me for it ;)

********

Hi everyone,

2011 on the Craft Barn team has been great. Great to be on a team who "push" us to try all sort of products and techniques, which is very nice indeed. Great to be on a team who is so nice and where the quality of work is always an inspiration. So I am very pleased to be here even if sometimes.. because of my limited English, and because of a busy life I can't be as much here as I would like to be.

I love creating ornaments and embellishments and see what people will do with them.

2012? There are so many products I want to try and experiment with and I'm looking forward to it. I also would like to use more fabric on my project, which is something I am enjoying more each day.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all xx

See you tomorrow

DT showcase: day four

2011-12-15T07:00:00.001Z

Hi,
Today, it's Michelle's turn. What can I say... another member of our team whose work I absolutely love. Love the grungy Distress style... how she can make wonders with inks.
Despite her very busy life, she always finds the time to provide the most gorgeous samples and tutorials.
If, like me, you love Michelle's work on this blog, please take the time to let her know in a comment below. I'm sure she will be delighted.

**********

Hi all

I've had a great year this year, working with some of the most amazingly skilled crafters around and have enjoyed every project I've worked on, but remembering them all is hard work so I've just chosen a few to show you from the photo's that are easy to find on my computer!!

The first couple of projects I've chosen are special because I made them for my oldest son who's had a tough time so a lot of love went into them. Love of Tim Holtz stamps and Katzelkraft have nothing to do with it! lol

This card I absolutely love but it was a complete fluke, just a quick spray of smooch followed by those marvellous cover a card stamps and I was completely wowed!

And this little Terrific Tando creation just makes me smile.

I love working in miniature so this little bird house was a joy to make

CALENDAR CHALLENGE.... and the winner is...

2011-12-14T13:13:00.002Z

hello:)

Time to announce the Calendar challenge winner, but first I would like to thank all the participants, who entered our 12 challenges, week after week. It was great to see your work and how your calendars came along.

The Design Team, Sandy and I voted for two of our favourite calendars (it was too hard to pick just one ;)), so I'm happy to announce that the winner of the 2011 Craft Barn calendar challenge is...

LAURY 55

Click on her name or the picture to see all her entries.

Well done Laury, please get in touch and I'll send you the code for your voucher ASAP.

Have a great day everyone,

DT showcase: day three

2011-12-14T10:19:00.000Z

Hello,
Well... this is going to be a hard one to write... I told you on Monday that one of our DT members was leaving us and here we are. I'm VERY sad to say that it's Chris Dark.
Chris has been on our DT from the beginning, so about 3 years and a bit I think. I personally know Chris as we met several times when I was living in England. She is adorable and extremely talented... as a designer... as an artist (her colouring techniques are unbelievable) and she will be truly missed.
We are all sad on the team to see her go and wish her all the best for the future.

If you too have enjoyed Chris' work on this blog, please take the time to leave a comment below. You never know, we might make her change her mind ;)

**********

Hi everyone! The year in review post is a sad one for me as it means it's my last post on the Craft Barn blog. Due to time constraints I've had to cut back unfortunately but I will still be around at the shop for the odd demo here and there which is lovely otherwise the withdrawal symptoms would be too great :D!!

Thank you to Izzy for always making everything run so smoothly and easy for us on the blog team, it's extremely hard work and you do it with great style and lots of laughs. Most of all thank you Sandy for giving me the opportunity to work on the blog and in other areas over the last three years, I can never be grateful enough or thank you enough for that. Thank you also to my team mates you're all such lovely and supportive people and I'll continue to be inspired by you all on your blogs of course and here. To the visitors to the blog, thank you for every comment you left that was very much appreciated and I know you're going to love everthing that's coming up in the future.

OK, Oscar speech over!!!

I picked some of my projects from this year to show here and although I started out mainly as a colourer :) what I've very much enjoyed about being on the Craft Barn team is that I discovered I love to play with inks and paints and to make altered projects just as much,these four items confirmed that for me when I looked back. It's always good to look back and see how things have changed and progressed and find the projects that have given you the most pleasure in creating. So all the best to everyone on the team and visitors to the blog, Merry Christmas and I wish you a very arty crafty new year! :)

Truly inspirational work, don't you think?

See you tomorrow

DT showcase: day two

2011-12-13T07:00:00.000Z

Hi,
Second team member, and only guy on the team. Kudos to him for putting up with us ladies on a nearly daily basis LOL.
I personally admire Neil's work because of all the techniques he uses and the quality of the finished projects. Thank you Neil x

********

My favourite projects this year for The Craft Barn have to be...

My journal using Andy Skinner's stamp set

I just loved how everything turned out, the colours, the background etc etc! Still love it and am still trying to get the courage up to ink the first page!

This Medieval grunge book

I really like the feel of this book in my hand, it just fits so comfortably! The process of creating it was great fun too!

Lastly, this is also a pretty special piece to me too, the first piece I did for The Craft Barn!

Have you noticed a common thread yet? All these are books! I love books (and boxes too)
This year with The Craft Barn has been an amazing time for me. I've had the opportunity to share my creative journey with you all; been inspired by all the fabulous projects from the rest of the design team and had the amazing opportunity to teach at the shop!

So what am I looking forward to in 2012? More of the same I hope! I also want to challenge myself to try new things; experiment more............
I want to dream, create art and share the journey with you guys by my side and hopefully inspire you to create amazing art.

If you enjoy seeing Neil's work on this blog, here's your chance to tell him.

Please take a little time to leave a comment below and tell us what you think.

See you tomorrow,

DT showcase: day one

2011-12-12T07:00:00.000Z

Hi,
This week will be our last week of posting on this blog for 2011 so our talented team can have the break they deserve. Having said that, they are already working hard on the 2012 projects and we hope that you will be here to enjoy all the samples, tutorials and surprises we have in store for you.

This week, we have chose to showcase our DT members and their amazing work.
I asked each member to pick 3 or 4 of their favourite project they did for us this year and tell us a bit how the year has been for them and what they are looking forward to in 2012.

I must add that we have bad news and good news this week... one of our team members is leaving us and we are all VERY sad... The good news is that we have someone new joining us... But more about that later in the week.

Before we start, I personally want to thank all the DT for their hard work and commitment, but also for being such an amazing bunch to work with. Thank them for their patience (not easy to put up with me everyday I know LOL) and understanding. Not only do they work hard and produce awesome pieces of art and tutorials, but they are the friendliest and funniest people to work with. I am very, very lucky indeed.
Love you guys and wish you all the best for 2012 xxx

So we start with Miss Gio who joined us a few months ago, and boy, aren't I glad she did. Love her work... and when I was talking about funny team members, she sure is one of them....

********

These are the pieces I choose from 2011

This is a meaningful piece for me because it's the piece I've made for the last post on my challenge blog, and it's important because i'm pretty sure it's been crucial for Craftbarn Dt search.

This is my very first piece for the CraftBarn DT, I was so worried and frightneed by these new committment, but everything has been alright. It's made from scratch, I love the steampunk style and the papers and embellishments I used

This is my laptop's case, I think it's me! Canvas, stitching, image transfer, stamping and I even brougt it with me at the airport (and I had to show it at the metal detector, such 'A bella figura' I've made :-))

And last but not least, a card, it's important because I don't make card, and I'm proud of this one, just a reminder for the new year: more cards!

Thank you Gio

See you tomorrow

Simply Saturdays on an AJ

2011-12-10T19:21:00.000Z

hi,
Told you Gay would be back today with more stunning pages.
I love how she uses the tags hanging out of the pages, this will add so much to the finished book. Lots of room left to add the journaling, yet a very effective way to show off the images.
Here's how Gay made her pages..

I started these pages by recycling some M&S tags, I loved the colour of the ribbon :0) Painted black all over the tags then scraped on some crackle let that dry and then added the moonlight Fresco paint and watched it crackle, I like that bit! The background is sponged on the page through a template . You can use the Spellbinders Nestabilities Large circles simply cut out circles and sponge Distress inks through the cut out holes.

Then I stamped the pretty CI swirly frames and mounted the tags over them.

The CI Visit to London images I stamped onto paper and placed them on the page after colouring with Copics.

Finally I stamped the sentiments and postmarks. I like the tags hanging out of the journal they add texture to the whole book and I will be able to find these pages instantly.

Material used

Paper Artsy Fresco finish, Little Black dress, Moonlight and Crackle glaze.

Distress Crackle paint Picket fence (white)

Distress inks

Crafters workshop, Mini Basics circles.

Crafty Individuals stamps, CI 173, CI 307, CI 221.

So here we are for our first Art Journaling week.

We would love to hear what you think...

Do you want to give it a got?

Is this something you would like to see more often on this blog?

Can't wait to read your comments

See you on Monday for a very special week and news

Introduction to Art Journaling: day five

2011-12-09T07:00:00.000Z

Hello :))
I can tell you that we have had quite a laugh back stage with Michelle's page.
I think it's great. Didn't we say that on your AJ, you have to express how you feel inside?
Well, there you go. Not only her stamping and colouring are gorgeous, but her quote was the last thing I was expecting and it really made me (us) smile.
Let's see what you think of it...

PS: we are out of stock of the La Blanche silicone stamps, but you can use the Crafty Secrets Floral Art or the PaperArtsy HP1009 to make a flower /grass border

Stamp "County seat: and the smaller of LaBlanche silicone stamp: 2 meadow stamps on your page using Versafine ink.

Colour around the flower stamping with a stencil brush and TH shabby shutters ink pad. Load the brush by brushing in circles on the ink pad then apply to the paper in small circular movements, starting off the page and moving to where you want to apply the colour.

Brush a layer of mustard seed above and blended into the shabby shutters ink, then a layer of broken china. Keep the colouring fairly light to start off with as we will add more colour later.

Brush more Broken china and Mustard Seed through some sequin waste to give a little texture to the background

Colour the foliage on the bottom of the page using your colouring medium of choice. I used water colour pencils which I keep in a small journaling kit as I tend to journal when I'm waiting for appointments or off in the caravan for a couple of days. Make sure you don't colour in the daisies!

To increase the impact of the daisies I used a white Sakura souffle pen to highlight the white areas and a few dots of yellow and orange to add colour to their centres

The 'county seat' was also coloured with watercolours with the red flowers applied as little dots with a red Sakura gel pen

You'd be forgiven for thinking that this step was a crucial part of the design but in actual fact I painted this bit with Gesso to cover up some pretty abysmal stamping!

When that had dried though I used an old alpha stamp to stamp the text. But out the Alphabet stamps in the shop here, or the stickers here there are some perfect for journaling. After that add a few small Stamped flowers around the text and you've got yourself a journal page!

Michelle used:

Artcoe Blue bell spiral cartrige book: long edge A5

LaBlanche silicone stamp: 2 meadow stamps

Impression Obsession - Gary Robertson designs: County seat

Versafine ink pad - black

Distress Ink pads Broken China, Mustard Seed, Shabby Shutters

Derwent Inktense pencils tin 24

Sakura Soufflé pens: white, apricot

Sakura Glaze pen: red

Claudine Hellmuth Studio - Gesso

See you tomorrow,

Introduction to Art Journaling: day four

2011-12-08T07:00:00.000Z

Hi,
Today we have another mixed media type page, and a seasonal one too.
Isa'sArt (and her little helper Zoé) used die cuts, paints and inks to make this Art Journal page.
What do you think?

Isa used the Marianne D's creatable baubles

She started her page by glue some old book pages with Decopatch which will seal the paper as gesso would and then cut out her baubles from recycled cardboard (milk/juice bottle).

She then painted (with Americana paints) and inked (Distress) over.

The snow effect was done with white paint and an old brush.

The snow on the house and the bird is done with gesso + Stickles Glitter glue

The pages were torn with a distressing tools (or can be done with scissors)

She also added a lot of glitter, but unfortunately, it does not show on the pictures.

Little Zoé (Isa's kitten) is keeping an eye on the bird house... Just in case a bird would pop out LOL

Distress inks : Walnut + Stain walnut and antique linen

Cosmic shimmer misters : candy pink - bronze

Americana acrylic paints: white - burnt umber - burnt sienna - indian turquoise - alizarin crimson

gesso - Decopatch

Stickles : Star dust - Fruit Punch - frosted lace -

Permanent black pen

Sizzix Bigz Die - Birdhouse - TH Caged bird - TH tag

Marianne Design creatables: Baubles -

KATZELKRAFT stamps : Wonderland

We will be back tomorrow with more Art Journaling.

See you then

Introduction to Art Journaling: day three

2011-12-07T07:00:00.000Z

Hi,
Art Journaling... 3rd day... how are you liking it so far?
Your host today is Neil, and he has made a background using acrylic paints. This is a cool technique, quite easy and very effective..
Here's how Neil did his pages...

I used 3 colours of Americana, burn't sienna, celery green and warm white.

Using a flat brush begin to add "squares" of colours

When the page is covered take some old lids and a card

and use them to add patterns to the page with the same paint and you then end up with a page looking something like this.

I thought the theme was "home" and it kinda evolved from there.... My thought process was really about how if we carry our home in our heart it does not matter where in the world we are; we never feel lost.....

Then we get to the interpretation of the theme bit. Buildings, the first thing I covered the page with some perfect pearls and walnut stain re inker mix and also covered the page with brushed corduroy distress ink. I used Paperartsy stamps to build up the scene and added the Tando compass to the page. (Also coloured with perfect pearls and walnut stain re inker) and my writing on the right hand side.

Materials

Bluebell book

Americana acrylic - burnt sienna, celery green and warm white

Distress ink- brushed corduroy

Perfect pearl and walnut stain re-inker mix

Tando small compass

Paperartsy stamps HP1005EZ

Archival ink black and olive

Love, love, love it... how about you?

Let Neil know what you think of his page in a comment below...

And see you tomorrow for more :)

Introduction to Art Journaling: day two

2011-12-06T13:07:00.000Z

Hi, and welcome to our second Art Journaling day.
We talked about more messy and grungy AJ yesterday... well, here you go. Completely different style...
a lot of texture... yummy work on a page..
Gio is your host today and she's going to tell you how she achieved this.

Spread some Claudine hellmuth gesso on the page with an old credit card.

Stamp the wet gesso with a text stamp, like one from Paperartsy HP1006

When the gesso is dry, add texture with a stencil, mine is Arlequin from Crafter Workshop, you can use gesso, or Viva Croco Paint: transparent

or DreamWeaver Crackle' paste

While your page is drying, gesso an old book page and stamp some building with BlackJet Stazon and

CraftyIndividuals CI 273 plate and Paperartsy HP1007

When the page is dry spritz it with your favourite mists, I used Cosmic Shimmer Mister: lava red , Cosmic Shimmer Mister: mango blaze and Cosmic Shimmer Mister: Teal Wash.

To highlight the texture I use several TH Distress Inks

I cut out the stamped image and glued to the page with Claudine Hellmuth multimedium Matte

I stamped some words with the Alpha stamp set from CraftySecret and Black stazon and add some

journal and doodles with a permanent black pen

To make her page, Gio used:

Artcoe Blue bell spiral cartrige book: short edge A5

Claudine Hellmuth Studio - Kit - Mediums

Crafty Secrets: Artsy Alphabet

Hot Picks 1007

CI-273 - Memory lane

Viva Croco Paint: transparent

Dreamweaver Crackle' paste

Cosmic Shimmer Misters: lava red , mango blaze, Teal Wash

The Crafters Workshop template - Harlequin

Tando Masks: Sequin Waste

TH Distress Inks Mustard Seed, Broken China, Worn Lipstick

Permanent black pen

Stazon Jet black

so how is this?

Did you like it? Let us know in a comment below...

And see you tomorrow for more...

Introduction to Art Journaling: day one

2011-12-05T07:00:00.001Z

Hi,
I had promised you a new feature on our blog, here it is ART JOURNALING. We have already posted a sample the other day (Isa'sArt page on the die-cut week) but we are thinking of making it a regular feature... if you are interested.. . let us know in a comment below... or wait until the end of the week if you are not sure...

What is Art Journaling? well as it says on the box... it's "art" on a page, a book, a sketch book, a watercolouring book... and "journaling".... a quote, a text, a meaningful song, your own words.. .something you want to say.. how you feel at a particular moment when you make art on your page... maybe the colours inspire you, or the theme and you want/ feel the urge to talk about it...

Or maybe what you want to write is too personal to add on your blog? well, that's fine... I feel like that too, and I rarely post the journaling on my blog, but still show my pages and our DT will do just that (unless they use a quote or want to share their thoughts)... and sometimes with a nice sense of humour too (wait until you see Michelle's page later this week..).

You might think that AJ is always messy and grungy... well, nope... Gay will show you that your AJ pages can be clean, simple and stunning... Starting today... Have a look at what she has done below...

Oh, and Michelle suggested a theme for this week: BUILDINGS.
You will see that there has been a lot of (sometimes wild) interpretations to this theme ;)

So off we go, starting with Gay's pages...

The Cosmic Shimmer inks are great when used as a wash over the page, brushed on and dripped, gently does it with the Golden Mint the colour is very intense.

I stamped the houses onto tissue paper and then inked them from behind, a bright splash of the hot pink letraset alcohol ink for contrast. I was thinking about the buildings and the layers of history and thought it would be good to have the houses layered on my page. So stamped them again and adhered them just at the top so the history could be revealed under the facade.

I used Multi Medium to glue the houses because the tissue when wet is difficult to handle without tearing. The extra layers were stamped on coloured post it notes and distressed with TH Distress inks.

The distortion of the pages will settle when I've done some more pages.

The finished pages...

Gay used:

Artcoe Bluebell book, Long Edge A5

Crafty Individuals stamps, CI-274 houses and CI-221 for the text.

Cosmic Shimmer Mist Ocean Sunlight (diluted with water) and Golden Mint

Letraset Inks, Hot Pink, Moss

Distress Inks, Alcohol Blending solution and Snow Cap.

Claudine Hellmuth, Multi Medium Matte

After a few days, there was a message from Gay:

I have been playing again, I'm loving the freedom of the journal!

so she made more pages for this week's theme... you will see them on Saturday ;)

And this is so true... There is is no rule with Art Journal, it's very "liberating"

So what do you think?

Want to see more? Come back tomorrow...

We'll be here ;)

See you then

Gift week: day six

2011-12-03T07:00:00.002Z

hi,

Today is jewellery day... with a gorgeous pendant by Isa'sArt!! I just SOOOO love this project, I really want to make one for my daughter, she will love it !!
Have you tried playing with clay before? It's not that hard, and our Pardo clay is stunning. Give it a go, you won't be disappointed...
If you already have worked with clay, I'm sure you will try this out this weekend... Don't forget to come and show us:)

Start with a ball of each colour. Roll the clay to flatten it and then run it through your pasta machine putting each colour next to each other so it "blends" together. Don't worry if you dont have a pasta machine, you can do this with your roller.

This is what it looks like once blended

Press your favourite stamp into the clay

Cut it out and make a little hole as well as a few beads. Time to bake (follow manufacturer's instructions)

Add paint, glittler, Rub 'n Buff to distress them and make them more girly (all girls love glitter, right? mine definitely does ;))

The two hearts are the cover for a little secret book (you could add pictures too;))

Isa stamped the same heart on grunge paper "pages"

Add the beads, a few fibers and your little princess will have a secret book to add notes, pictures etc.

to make this project, Isa'sArt used:

PARDO clay: ivory, pearl rose, bronze, tiger's eye

Black acrylic paint

STAMPENDOUS! glitter

Grungepaper

KATZELKRAFT stamps: Love

DISTRESS inks Victorian velvet, Walnut

Hope you enjoyed this project.

See you next week with a brand new feature on this blog :)