Q & L Challenge - Smile

The new challenge from The Craft Barn for this year is Quotes and Lyrics, and our first word/s are Smile and/or Up.  I decided to alter beer mats for this challenge, as I made ATCs last year plus I have a whole stack of beer mats that I bought in bulk in my early crafting days so it will be a good excuse to use them up!  I will make a book of some sort at some stage for them to go in!  I went for Smile as my word, and Googled some quotes and liked this one.  Unfortunately it didn't say where it originated from.  Looking forward to seeing what our next words are!

12 Tags of 2014 - January

I have finally got round to taking part in Tim's Tags!  I've been meaning to since he stopped doing the Christmas ones but not quite managed it!  However, I have now made January 2014's one so am up to date for this year so far!!  I don't have a lot of the up to date projects but managed to find enough things in my stash to make this.  I used mainly Pumice Stone Distress Ink and the clock face is from a sheet of TH paper.

Here is Tim's one:-

Alpha Challenge 2013

The Craft Barn ran the Alpha Challenge throughout 2013 and I am pleased to say I kept up with it and completed it on time!  This is my finished book.  Now looking forward to seeing what the new challenge for 2014 is going to be and wondering if I will be able to keep up with that too!

Gruffies & Guests Challenge #1 - Anything Goes

Today is the day!  The wonderful new challenge blog, Gruffies & Guests, run by my lovely friend Shaz, goes live today with it's first challenge - Anything Goes.

Here you can use any House Mouse, Gruffies or Happy Hoppers that you have in your collections and this blog is for any crafts, not just cards.

Our first sponsor is Crafty Ribbons with a lovely prize of a £10 voucher (excluding p & p) to spend in their store. So pop on over and take part!

I will be back with my own DT piece and a challenge reminder in 2 weeks time!

Alpha Challenge - I and X

We have reached the last 2 letters of the alphabet on The Craft Barn's Alpha Challenge, which has been running all year.  I am very proud of myself to have kept up for the whole year, a rarity for me!  My last 2 ATCs are Insect and Xmas - which I was very pleased to have found was in the dictionary because otherwise I had no idea what I would use for X!

I will pop photos up of the completed set in the book I have made after Christmas.  Too much going on at the moment to sort it all out!

Christmas Candles

I haven't stamped any candles for a while and came across two blank ones in my cupboard so thought I would decorate them for pressies.  My first problem was my Stazon ink pad - it was completely bone dry!  Admittedly I haven't used it for a while, but it was stored upside down, and this is the first ink pad over many years that has COMPLETELY dried out!  Luckily I had a spare one!  My second problem was several of my Marvy Le Plumes, also fairly old, were leaking so I had to make a few impressions that weren't smudged!

Eventually I completed two candles!!  And am entering them for Ruby's Rainbow's Christmas Challenge!

Exciting News - DT Call!!

My dear friend Shaz is starting a new challenge blog on 4th January, called Gruffies and Guests - where you will be able to use all your lovely House Mouse, Happy Hoppers and Gruffies images!  She asked me if I would like to be on the DT and although I thought I had retired from all the challenge blogs I was on, House Mouses are one of my favourites so I came out of retirement and said yes!

If you would like to enter the DT call, pop over to Gruffies and Guests where you will find all the information you need.  The call is open from today until 14th December, so good luck!

Alpha Challenge - S

We are almost out of letters now on The Craft Barn's Alpha Challenge.  This time we have the letter S.  I was going to do Seaside for my ATC but it wasn't in my little pocket dictionary that I am using!  So I went for Summer instead and still used the seaside stamps I was going to anyway!

Beary Christmas

I've finally made a start on my Christmas Cards and I need them to be quick and easy this year without too much being piled on them!  So I have used a digi image by Pink Gem Designs and some bp from a huge pad I've had for years and kept it fairly simple.  I am entering this for:
 Sparkles Christmas Challenge 'Have a Beary Christmas' .
Sparkles Monthly Challenge 'Animals'

Alpha Challenge - Q

I knew exactly which stamp I would be using when we got to Q on The Craft Barn's Alpha Challenge! As it didn't involve much work because the stamp took up pretty much the whole of my ATC I did a bit of paper piecing on it!

November

I don't seem to blog much lately, so to keep things ticking over here are my November calendar pages.  I have just about managed to keep up with this project throughout the year, even though I am usually late finishing each month!  I tried to get a foggy drizzly feel for these ones with a brighter blue for the day squares as we do occasionally get a bit of blue sky, like today!

Alpha Challenge - N

At last I've managed to get my next ATC made for The Craft Barn's Alpha Challenge - I've not had access to my craft room for a couple of weeks!  Our letter this time is N and I went for Numbers for my word.

Alpha Challenge - L

Our next letter on The Craft Barn's Alpha Challenge is L with the added twist of having to have a window on our work.  I chose to do L for Look for my ATC and made what I hope looks more like a window than doors - they are shutters covering it!  I will be blogging the book I have made for all these ATCs but thought I would wait until the challenge is completed and then take photos of all the pages!

Alpha Challenge - J

Our next letter on The Craft Barn's Alpha Challenge is J.  I decided to go for Jolly for my word as I thought it would go with Tim Holtz's lovely vintage Santa!  I don't know if anyone else went for this word choice, I haven't checked the others yet!  I've now made a book to keep all my ATC's in for this challenge, it's nearly full!  I will miss this challenge when it ends!

Alpha Challenge - G

Our new letter from The Craft Barn for the Alpha Challenge this time is G.  I decided to do Girl for my ATC as I always have to bear in mind what stamps I have got that I can use!  This is a Crafty Individuals stamp from my collection.

Ruby's Rainbow Challenges #63 - Team Spirit

The new theme on Ruby's Rainbow Challenges for the next two weeks is Team Spirit.  For my DT work I've made a card using a cute Cuddly Buddly image.

Sparkles Monthly Challenge #48 - Fairies and/or Butterflies

Time for a new theme on Sparkles Monthly Challenges and this time it is Fairies and/or Butterflies.  I made a journal page for this one using a variety of stamps from my vast collection!

Alpha Challenge - Z

Our letter this time on The Craft Barn's Alpha Challenge is Z.  I am guessing quite a few may go for Zebra as I have, but as I had the stamps I went for it too!

Ruby's Rainbow Challenge #62 - It's A Male Thing

Where do these fortnights go!  Time for a new theme on Ruby's Rainbow Challenges and this time it is 'It's A Male Thing'.  I needed a couple of birthday cards for my great nephew's so used some Penny Black Stickeroos for these quick and simple cards.

Sparkles Christmas Challenge #32 - Non Traditional Colours

The new theme for the month on Sparkles Christmas Challenges is Non Traditional Colours.  For my DT card, I used an image from an old Christmas Card which was too good to throw away!  I love my new Christmas tree die so it was a good chance to use it!

We are sponsored for this challenge by Lili of the Valley and the lucky winner chosen at random will get a £10 voucher to spend online.