Craft Barn Challenge patience and/or better.

I am up with the Lark today, loved the words and I have chosen Patience. I am off on holiday today to Nepal (hense the early rise) and thought patience fits right in with the Hindu and Buddhist belief.  The quote is:

'The Greatest Patience is Humility' Buddha

I sprizted a background with a picture of Buddha in the corner and then stamped. I used 1st 2nd and 3rd generation stamping so it wasn't to in your face and easy to write over.

Thank you all for looking at my page and leaving lovely comments and those that look but cant leave comments. I may not get around to looking at all your lovely pages this time, and if I do it will be from Nepal.

Hope you like and will be back again in a couple of weeks.

Craft Barn Challenge Childhood and/or Easier

Hi

Before I start can I just say I  live in Southampton not Spain, if only I was so interesting. I remember once when selling our house in Norwich I put an advert in our window (it was the late 80's you could sell houses that easily then) saying for sale £45,000 phone Spain on... After a number of calls about our non existent villa in Spain we re worded the advert!

Took me a while to find a quote this week. However came across this, and I do like Miranda Hart.

'I spent my childhood clad in 1970's hand-me-downs, primarily from male cousins, which mainly consisted of a selection of beige, brown and orange dungarees. That, combined with a perfectly round pudding bowl haircut, made me look, on a good day, like a cross between Ann Widdecombe, one of the flower pot men and a monk.'

I sprizted the page with yellow and blue colour bloom and then made a collage of a what I envisaged Miranda Hart meant - complete with straw hat. I used a male template to emphasise they were boy dungarees, but also added girly shows and blouse.

Hope you like.

Craft Barn challenge. Peaceful and/or Grace

Hi

Today is the perfect day for crafting...rain, a bank holiday and no work. Plus a Husband to feed me tea and wine!

When having a look for lyrics I came across Human by The Killers. I think most people must know this song and have sung it a little sozzled at some do or other.

The part I have chosen is:

Pay my respects to grace and virtue
Send my condolences to good
Give my regards to soul and romance
They always did the best they could

And so long devotion
You taught me everything I know
Wave goodbye, wish me well
You've gotta let me go

I don't know how this page came about. It had to be melancholy as the song says good bye to everything. I used dylusions on the background and the colours puddled by the spine of the book to look like a tree trunk. So I added a tree with black marker and stamped leaves with black stayz on ink. Then it needed something going away and of course that had to be butterflies. I wrote the words with white gel pen adding little flourishes. It was still lacking so I added a simple silhouette figure playing a flute.

Hope you like.

Piano hinge journal

Hi

At the last craft club at Jendenink's  http://www.jendenink.co.uk/ I was asked by the group to show them how to make a piano hinge book. I don't normally stand up and do stuff like this so was a great challenge for me. Happily the evening went well and everyone had fun and went home with a journal.

To make an A5 journal you need:
Scoring board
Ruler
Scissors
A4 Paper - any sort depending what you want to use the journal for. I used water colour paper so I could     paint backgrounds.
Bamboo skewers
Wool and/or ribbons

Method:
1. Fold the paper in half and score a 1/4 inch or 5mm in from the folder edge.

2. Measure and mark at 1/2 inch or 1cm along the folder edge and then snip to the score line and bend backwards and forwards.

3. Push the pointed end of the bamboo skewer through every other tab.











4. With another piece of paper and bamboo skewer...push it through the 1st tab of the 2nd piece of paper and the 2nd tab of the 1st paper and continue to weave them together. (I hope that makes sense!) and continue till your journal is the size you want it.

As you add more paper and sticks it can become a bit of a challenge to get the sticks through. We thought whether candle wax can be used and some people put the bamboos through the tabs first to open them up and then remove and weave with page before. You may have to make tabs deep especially if you have very thick paper.





5. Weave wool or ribbon in and out of the sticks. This stops the sticks moving. You may wish to add a little amount of glue that dries clear to stick the wool to the bamboo. I used acrylic glue. Leave the ends as that is what you will use to hang beads and embellishments. Then snip the bamboo ends.












So that is the basic journal and the fun is in the decorating. You can make them in various sizes and types of paper.






This one I added an old book cover too. I made the pages the correct size before putting in the bamboo. This was my Paris scrap book.













I also found you can use cockail sticks!











This I used to stamp and add silly sayings. I did have to readjust the score and tab measurements though. It is small and dinky and could be used for birthdays and other occasions.







Have a go and enjoy and remember it is not meant to look perfect.

Craft Barn challenge family and/or thing

Yay another chance to use lyrics from Pink Floyd..thing(s).

It is a silly song but I love it. I have used the first verse and chorus.

I've got a bike, you can ride it if you like. 

It's got a basket, a bell that rings 

And things to make it look good. 

I'd give it to you if I could, but I borrowed it. 

You're the kind of girl that fits in with my world. 

I'll give you anything, everything if you want things.

It was written by Syd Barrett and is an early song..I was 3 at the time.

I knew in my head what I wanted and went on google images to find an image of a lady with a bike, I then found a bell and a basket. Once stuck on to a background all I had to do was add

'things to make it look good'

So out came the sharpies, ribbon and bits of paper. I enjoyed this, hope you like.

A reading for a wedding.

Hi

Those that know me know I freak if I have to make something for someone else. My creativity shrivels up and I end up a bit of a wreck. I can make cards to give people, but that extra step of making something for someone to give someone else is a step too far. My friend Sam is doing a reading at her sisters wedding and she asked if I would make a double sided card for it to give to her sister to keep afterwards. So deep breathe and I went for it.

It had to have cup cakes, photography and an anchor on it. I downloaded lots of photography related images plus a picture of a pint glass with  bike on that Sam liked on to publisher. Put them together, turned them sepia and then a little paler. I did not find an anchor but did find a lovely quote :

You are the anchor to my heart

a cup cake was made and cut in half. For the front I painted a heart and wings and Sam wrote her reading which was stuck down and surrounded by lace. I am quite pleased with the result and hope Sam and the couple like it too.

Craft Barn challenge mind and/or ignorance

I decided to go with the song 'The Windmills of Your Mind' sang by Noel Harrison in the Thomas Crown Affair. It took a while to decide what to do as there are so many images in it. I decided on the first verse which is about spirals, balloons, carousels and apples.

After making a background I stamped on cogs and a clock and hand drew a balloon. Then I used translucent paint to add colour and depth. I found a stamp from my stash that was a girl with lots circles in the background which I felt was just right for this. Finally I added the Lyrics in a spiral in keeping with the song.