Sunday 31 January 2016

Weekly Challenge



Happy Sunday everyone,


As you are reading this I am coming
back from Newcastle on the train!
I've been to visit Stix2 and see what
new products they have this year which
we will be stocking soon.....
Exciting times!!!
I've never been that far up the country
so it is going to be a very exciting 
trip for me with a little sightseeing thrown in!

So, onto our Challenge, well as you
have seen, the DT have been 
working on Triplets.  I think that is what
I'm going to say to you....
Triplets, you've seen what the DT have
done so hope that will inspire you.
It can be a single picture cut into three,
a set of three pictures, three die-cuts, three
of something else.... whatever you fancy.
How does that sound?

You should know the details by
now, entry via the link where possible
or to me at 
janecraftbarn@gmail.com
and I will add your pics for you.
The link will close at midnight on
Sunday 7th February.
As many entries as you like.
The winner will be picked by Random
Generator and announced on Tuesday
9th February.
There will be a £10 voucher up for grabs!

Have fun, Have fun, Have fun
That's my triplets for you ha ha!

Jane x



Saturday 30 January 2016

Triplets - Dawn Heald



Happy Weekend,

It's Saturday again and I hope you have 
a nice weekend planned!
Not sure what we are expecting weatherwise
but I'm sure its bound to involve
some of the wet stuff!

This is our last post of the week and
today Dawn is here to show you 
what she has been doing....


Dawn says.....
Hello how's everyone doing? For our topic
 this week I decided to make a set of
 ATC's (Artist Trading Cards) as it's been
 ages since I last made any. I also had
 a play with some of the new Liquid Pearls in stock.




To make a background, squeeze some 
Liquid Pearls onto a craft mat and use a 
brayer to apply to white card. Repeat for
 each colour in turn, building up layers.
Finish with a light layer of white gesso 
applied with a brayer.


Cut black card into three pieces measuring
 3.5" × 2.5"


When background is dry cut off a section
 to be used for the ATC's.


Add some stencilling and Stamping
 to build up flat layers.


Cut into three pieces slightly smaller
 than the black pieces of card and glue
 each to the black card.


Stamp, colour and cut out three owls.
Attach owls with foam pads.

Print or stamp twit twoo and stick under  owls.
Add some white paint dots around cards.





The liquid pearls does make
 a great paint and the sheen on it is lovely.
 The white paint layer brings it together well. 
Hope you like!

Yes we do like Dawn, thank you!
What do you think?
I'd never thought of using Liquid Pearls
like that.


Products Dawn used -
White Card

So that is another week gone,
I'll be back with the Weekly Challenge
tomorrow! 
Now, what shall we have this time?

Jane x





Friday 29 January 2016

Triplets - Rachel Snook




Morning all, 

Hope you are all well and looking
forward to the weekend!

This is our second post of the week and 
Rachel is here with us today!

Let's see what she has been up to.....

Rachel says....

TRIPLETS 
Well these normally come in threes and when

 Jane asked me to take part this week I
 knew exactly the die to use!
Creative Expressions Stripped Quilted Blocks.


I am sorry this is a picture heavy post as I 

decided to try and use the die three
 different ways, so I have done samples to
 show this. A lot of the techniques I have
 used, have been covered before and there
 is also a how too section on the website.



First I die cut the strip in black and white card.


I then took a piece of double sided adhesive
 and cut to size and removing one half of 
adhesive backing I stuck to the plain cardstock
 this would be my base for Sheffield steel gilding flakes.


This is done buy placing the flakes on the
 other side of the card and rubbing with 
a scrubby to make the flakes adhere to the
 sticky cardstock.


As you can see I made a black on silver,
 white on silver and then the third was 
silver on silver.
To make the silver different when I had die cut

 the design I turned it over and placed low tack
 tape along the back, turned it over and then
 began to rub the front so that all the cut pieces
 would stick to the tape. This can be fiddly but
 if you like jigsaw puzzles, it should be ok. When
 all the pieces are removed on the tape, or nearly
 all take the frame and place this over top and this
 should frame the pieces. You can see this clearer
 the black and white versions.


Then I decided to colour some white cardstock
 I used Centura Pearl three ways with alcohol ink.


I had gold and silver, pink, lavender 
 and turquoise blue shades with silver.


 Then taking further die cut quilted squares, I 
heat embossed a black square with clear embossing
 powder, a white square with jewelled gold
 and I adhered the third to a base piece
 of black card and painted with Deco Art Magenta
 Interference Paint. When this was dry
 I heat embossed with Kaleidoscope
 embossing powder.

I attached the black to the pink...


 The gold to a piece of the gold and
 silver cardstock...


This is the kaleidoscope version, as you can
 see the powder and paint compliment each 
other with lights in the powder and paint react...


This time I layered a black square to a
 black base and rubbed over with white fire
 guiding wax and buffed to a shine...


As I still had some ink coloured card I took
 a white die cut square and with white fire
 gilding wax applied the same technique as you
 can see it tones in well...


This time I took the aquamarine gilding wax
 and used the same process.
Of course you can do this with any colours you
 may have but I only have those two.
These individuals squares when mounted on a
 small square cards would make a nice gift.


This shows three of the same squares two black
 outlines with white and one white outline with black.


This shows the examples set out and hopefully
 these variations on a theme will inspire.



This is what Rachel used -

Creative Expressions Die - 
Stripped Quilted Blocks
Double Sided Adhesive Sheets
Gilding Flakes - Sheffield Steel
Black and White 12 x 12 Cardstock -
This is available in MME cardstock packs
Alcohol Inks - various colours
Treasure Gold Gilding Wax
Low Tack Tape
Cosmic Shimmer Glue

Wow, well that is what is called getting the 
most from your dies!!  And so you
should.  It's good to remind ourselves
of the different options.
Thank you Rachel and yes I think these 
photos will inspire 

Well, I'm off now but I'll be 
back tomorrow.

Jane x

Thursday 28 January 2016

Triplets - Neil Walker




Good Morning everyone,

Welcome to a busy week here on the blog.
We are at the last week of January 
already.  Goodness how time flies!

So what have we got for you this 
week, well, we thought the
DT were in need of a bit of repetition, 
three times in fact so we gave 
them the word Triplets!
And the details were.....
A design cut into 3 or a series of 3 designs.

Well, this is what Neil has made,
a fantastic project with so much
work in it....




For my Triple I selected 3 door plates from Andy 
Skinner's and glued them together along with
 cutting some chipboard strips to raise up 
the top and bottom sections


When dry I painted them as seen with DecoArt Fluid
 Acrylic in four colours.



When they were dry I covered everything with
 a layer of Titan Buff.



I scrubbed back areas to reveal the colours,
 covered everything with Antiquing Cream and
 wiped back to give layers of faded distress.



Using one of my masks and Gold Interference
 paint I added a little subtle patterned shimmer
 detail. Then everything was sealed
with spray sealer.


I created a base board from thick A4 chipboard,
 burlap and crackle paste.



When dry I coloured with paint.



Further detail was added with Seth Apter stamps,
 embossing ink and Frantage powder.



Then the fun began. I added my door plates
 to the board and rummaged through my
 embellishment drawers to add metal accents.



I love these old style keys and ornate
 metal lock plate.



Thank you Neil, I absolutely love this.....what do you think,
we'd love to hear your comments!

This is what Neil used -

Tando Creative - Andy Skinner -
Industrial Elements Kit
Burlap Mat Stack
DecoArt Faux Finishing Medium
Mixed Media Acrylic - Gold Interference 
Mixed Media Speciality - Raw Umber -
Antiquing Cream
Mixed Media Speciality - White Crackle Paste 

Tuesday 26 January 2016

Alpha/Dictionary Challenge 2016 Winner



I'm Back!!

Time to announce the winner of
the first Alpha/Dictionary Challenge
for this year.  Wow, wow, wow,
so many entries, thank you so much, 
the poor Random Generator had smoke 
coming from out of his ears!  You've certainly 
kept him busy this weekend,
41 superb entries, that must be 
a record since I took over the blog!


Well, not to keep you waiting 
any longer.....
who has Mr Random Generator picked...



....no 29....

Jo L




Congratulations to Jo
please contact me at
janecraftbarn@gmail.com
so that I can send you your prize.

Well that's it for today, I keep saying 
it but thank you to all who entered, we can't do
these challenges without you!

Jane x