The Alpha Challenge - I for Individual

Last letter, I for Individual! I have really enjoyed taking part in The Alpha Challenge at The Craft Barn.  I have never done anything like this before. This last page features stamps by Lost Coast, Unity Stamps, and Penny Black, birds are doodled by me.

I missed the deadline but you can see some gorgeous entries on The Craft Barn blog.

I'm looking forward to the next challenge for 2014.

The Alpha Challenge - X for Xmas

It is the end of this challenge, only two letters left, we had extra time and still I missed the deadline! This is X for Xmas, apologies if you hate this abbreviation, I hate it but there wasn't much choice in X.

I used Little Claire stamps, some magazine freebie stamps and a Molly Blooms stamp. They had to share the page with Yoga.

My other page I was going to be the better page, this page has been ready for a couple of days but not uploaded, the other is to be stamped!

I also wanted to make a cover for the book, but it is now falling to bits literally so not sure if I can or if it is worth trying! Maybe I can glue the pages with silicone where they have parted company with the spine, lots of the pages are glued together for stability and that might have made things worse.

So pop over to The Craft Barn to see the Alpha Challenge entries.

The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge S for sheep.

This is my second page for The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge, S for sheep! All the sheep are Penny Black stamps.

The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge S for Scooter

It is S for scooter at The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge, not sure my Kraftin Kimmie girl is on a scooter or motorbike so I added a couple of Kanban scooters too.

The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge - Q

My question is - where has the year gone? We are nearly at the end of The Craft Barn Alpha challenge, and Christmas is nearly here! It sneaks up on me every year!

The letter is Q my word is Question, simples! I used a Hero Arts clear stamp set on this page, and a bit of doodling, and made it by the deadline, just, even though I planned this a week ago!

I sponged Distress ink on the pages.

It seems The Craft Barn has a new blog, I think everything has been copied across, but I can't find any tags to click on yet, wonder if there will be tags?

I have really enjoyed this challenge, and I wonder what next year's will be? (Another question).

Oh, I nearly forgot to tell you, I made it to the Wall of Fame for my N for night page!

The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge - N

The Alpha Challenge at The Craft Barn is on N, and I chose night in the English section of my dictionary. There was only one other option here for me and that is now glued down between pages! I don't think there was much in the French section either. See the stars at the top of the page? I wanted to stencil stars and the only stencil I had was sequin waste, and I used clear ink and holographic embossing powder which was heat set before applying distress inks to make my sky.

The owl on a branch, bats, sentiment and cat are by Cherry Pie Art stamps (and have featured before), the row of houses is a Hero Arts stamp, the branch on the right is Crafty Individuals and the moths are Paper Artsy, big moths don't you think, rather Dr Who like, the invasion of the giant moths!

I used various colours of Ranger Distress ink to create the sky, and finally I die cut a moon and stars from an Accucut Zipeslim die.

The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge - J Jardin

Here is my first entry for The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge which is on J ending today. J is for Jardin, or garden. I added Stamporsaurus Shed and Greenhouse, Blade Rubber Stamps daisy (one of the first stamps I ever bought back in 2006), Hero Arts ferns, Tulips in pots - The Cottage Stamper (who knows where I got this), and last but not least the finishing touch I needed is a Little Claire hedgehog, the smallest of a group. The fence is made of Sizzix die cuts, ink is Stazon on the page and Memento on the greenhouse and shed, colouring is Marvy Le Plume on the page, and Letraset Promarkers on the shed, greenhouse and hedgehog. See the stepping stones? The only thing missing that is iun my garden is the pond.

This is J for Jigsaw, was working on it and ran over time, I looked at the clock and it was gone midnight - challenge closed, so it has to go on this post. I used Sizzix dies never before used, I really should use them! 

The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge - Z

The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge is on Z (but this is not the end because letters are not given out in alphabetical order) and I can safely say this is all I will do for Z! The Z's in the English section don't have anything much more apart from zip and zoom, and I am not sure how I would do those!

So I chose: Zigzag, Zebra and Zoo, zigzags are hand doodled (you would never have guessed I know lol), zebra is a Kraftin Kimmie stamp, and the zoo animals and foliage are from a Hero Arts set with the addition of a Spellbinders fence and some chipboard letters which I thought about painting then decided to leave as they match the colours.

I stamped with Stazon, much better than Memento on the gesso, and coloured with Marvy's and Whispers. Not so many colour choices as Promarkers but I am reasonably happy with the end result.

Sooty relaxing with crossed paws and quizzical ear in the air!

The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge O for Ombrelle

Here is my first letter O page for The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge, O for Ombrelle. I have two more pages in mind but I am so busy I don't think I am likely to get them done, with luck I might get one more done. I had a lot of choice with O, which wasn't the case for everyone, but there are other letters I am dreading like N!

This time I used Stazon (determined to have no ink bleed) and got out the very neglected Marvy Le Plume markers (couldn't find my watercolour paint pallette) and the few Whispers and Dove Craft markers in the same box, I also used my Distress marker set that I won. All was going well until I doodled in fine liner and coloured it in with Marvy's - whoops not good!

I found all my parasol and umbrella stamps for this page, there are several makes of stamp here, Woodware, Little Claire, Whiff of Joy, Azadi Earles, Hero Arts and another make I can't recall.

The Alpha Challenge D for Direction

This is a very quick page, and unfortunately Memento doesn't dry for ages on gesso! I should have heat set it, which I did eventually, but then the Promarkers made it bleed anyway, and the smudges were already done by then! You should see my hands!

Anyway I got this one in with minutes to spare, and no time to do page number 3 which was to be decoupage and I had some plans for that one being really good!

What didn't help was the corner stamp I was about to use, which didn't cling very well to the block, has disappeared after I dropped the block! I have brushed the rug, searched the box of stamps the block fell into, and anything in the immediate area, but I haven't found that stamp. So I used one and the @ and star from a Smoochie Manoochie set, and the other arrows are  Rhona Farrer set.

The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge - D for Design and Desk

The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge continues, this time it is D.

 I hoped to have three pages completed by now, I think this might be the only one! I chose D for Design, and used some Tim Holtz design stamps, along with some of the finished articles, stamped ticket and die cut mustache and pointing hand. I also chose Desk, had to do it in honour of WOYWW, this is a photo that appeared one Wednesday.

I was very lucky to win the challenge last time and I got a £20 voucher, which I blogged about below.

Change of subject:

This is a dragon fruit, and they are in the shops now. 

I just sliced the top off and ate the delicately sweet flesh with a teaspoon straight from the fruit. Very refreshing and nutritious, and so pretty!

Hot hot hot!

 Here is another page for The Craft Barn Alpha challenge, T for Temperature which is the same in French and English. I had to do this one given the unusual heatwave we have been experiencing here in the UK! I coloured the page yellow and used Tim Holtz stencil letters which are supposed to stick to your paper but wouldn't stick to gesso! So I held them on and dabbed Fired Brick Distress Ink round them. I doodled some bits, stamped some Hero Arts images, and an Elzybells girl with temperature, and some other stamps of Kokopelli and sun faces. I added some swirly bits with a Visible Image grunge stamp.

This is my new Woodware stamp, I wanted this one for ages and got it in the craft shop that is in the motorbike shop the other side of Trowbridge, near Lidls. I bought the Card Candi there too, and I knew I had this matching card stock, perfect. The butterfly was a free die with a magazine and I added gems and flat backed pearls to finish the flower.

I have entered the following challenges:

Crafty Card Makers - 1-2-3 1 Image, 2 papers and 3 embellishments. (19th August)
Crafty Ribbons - Use one or more circles - stamp has circles and the background (sorry peeps I thought I had linked, maybe I didn't save)

Finally I found out I owned another Itty Bitty stamp, and so I made this CAS card, inked the edges with Distress Ink in two shades then spritzed it with water. When it was dry I stamped and heat embossed the image and Hero Arts greeting in gold then coloured the flowers with Stickles.

This card has been entered in the following challenges:

Unity Stamps show and tell on Facebook - Itty Bitty a day, this is the last day, and I only had two Itty Bittys.

The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge - T for Tailleur (Tailor)

The Alpha Challenge at The Craft Barn is on T, no twists. I have so many words I could do in the T section!
For those who don't know, The Alpha Challenge was set at the beginning of the year, and the challenge was to alter an old dictionary. Every two weeks a new letter is given out - not in alphabetical order. Sometimes there is an extra twist to add something, or restriction on which words to use. By the end of the year the alphabet will have been completed.
I don't know if I will manage another of the 3 or 4 T words I have bookmarked though, I have one page prepared but I don't know how I am going to do it, and it will need a lot of doodling!
Well T for Tailleur, or tailor, I had a lot of fun with this one. I used my Toodles and Binks Habedashery stamps, first time they saw ink, and a new Stampendous stamp - the sewing machine. I also used some freebie stamps, the needle and the spool tops. I die cut some elements with a Sizzix Tim Holtz die called Sewing Room, and I wrapped the dummy with material tied with ribbon. I added a couple of scissor charms and a real button to finish.

Wall of Fame at The Craft Barn

I made the wall of fame at The Craft Barn in the Alpha Challenge with this page: B for Brittanique. Finally I am famous!

The other good news is that my Cellullitis is responding well to the new anitibiotics I have been on since Tuesday, and my leg looks almost normal now so I won't be hospitalised!

The Alpha Challenge Y for Yoga and yellow.

The Craft Barn set the letter as Y, and must have yellow on the page. 

Y was a big challenge for me, mainly because I had to patch the back of another page that was tearing so covered up some Ys and there weren't a lot to begin with in the French part of the dictionary. So I chose yoga as the only possibility. There may be a word in the English part, I seem to remember that section is very limited too. I hope to manage a second page.

My U entry actually made the Wall of Fame, and as soon as I recieve a badge in a format I can use I will display it proudly on my blog. This page is not living up to the last two that I did though. Flowers are Hero Arts, lady doing yoga (maybe) is by Funstamps designed by Lindsay Mason.

The Alpha Challenge - B for Britannique

The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge is on B, and I hope I am in time just! I have done Britannique this time, with a variety of stamps from Little Claire, Craftwork Cards, Hobbycraft and some freebies, oh and the phone box is Art Impressions. Paint is Paperartsy Fresco, the red is white with some acrylic mixed in. Real postage stamps!