Twelve Month Challenge - October and November

I missed the deadline for October on The Craft Barn's Twelve Month Challenge by a day or so, but I have managed to do November's page in good time, so here they both are!  Life has been very challenging for me in many ways this year and not in a craft sense unfortunately! but I have managed to keep up with this one and only challenge and am looking forward to seeing what will be doing for next year soon!  Again I have been able to use my lovely Crafty Individual tree stamps which I love, and a few embellishments and stickers that I have had for many a year in my stash!!  Always good to use old things as I very rarely buy anything new these days.

Twelve Month Challenge - June

We have our next rhyme for June on The Craft Barn's Twelve Month Challenge and this time I had a suitable stamp for the extra challenge which was to add a posy of flowers!  I used one of my favourite Crafty Individual stamps for the main image as it is of children and so therefore fitted the bill!

Twelve Month Challenge - May

We got our next rhyme for The Craft Barn's 12 Month Challenge a few weeks ago and I've finally got round to getting my page done.  Real life is certainly giving me challenges at the moment let alone trying to do crafting challenges!  I wracked my brain for this one as I don't have any sheep stamps at all but then remembered some papers with sheep printed on so decided to use a bit of that!  I added some stickers from my massive collection and a bit of stamping and got there in the end and before the end of the month too!

Song Title Challenge - Somebody to Love

Our song for February on The Craft Barn's Song Title Challenge is Somebody to Love by Queen.  I knew I had just the right stamp to use for my altered beer mat with this cute Crafty Individuals stamp of the little girl and her dog!  I also managed to use up 3 out of my thousands of Prima flowers that I don't seem to use much these days but 'had to have' when they all came out years ago!  We have to include the words and who sang it on our work.  I feel this has turned out a little drab but maybe vintagey!

Song Challenge - Let it Snow

Another new challenge from The Craft Barn is a fortnightly Song Challenge where we are given the lyrics to a song and have to theme our work on them.  Again I have decided to go with beer mats for my base, having had a break from them last year!  The song this time is Let it Snow and I used a lovely Crafty Individuals stamp for this one.

Alpha/Dictionary Challenge - Y

Nearly at the end of The Craft Barn's Alpha/Dictionary Challenge and yay I am up to date!  Our letter this time is Y and I chose to use Young for my word as I have an appropriate stamp in my Crafty Individuals collection that is just right and I haven't yet used it for this challenge - had to check back over all my pages just in case!  I also noticed afterwards that I had used yellow backing paper but this was entirely unintentional!

Alpha/Dictionary Challenge - U and H

I missed the last challenge from The Craft Barn's Alpha/Dictionary Challenge so still need to catch up on that one (V). Our baby grandson has been with us for 3 months now and has gone home for a few days so I can get a few bits done.  I have finally caught up with H from a few weeks ago and have also managed to get the new challenge U done today!  For H I went for Humming Bird as I have a lovely Crafty Individuals stamp just right for the challenge!  And for U I went with what is probably an obvious one, Umbrella.  I love this little stamp by Tim Holtz but unfortunately it has succumbed to breaking down and crumbling like so many of my acrylic stamps have done over the years (I do look after them properly as advised by manufacturers).  I need to have a hunt around online and see if I can get myself another set of these although I am loathe to buy any more acrylic stamps really.

Alpha/Dictionary Challenge - O and Z

I am playing catch up on The Craft Barn's Alpha/Dictionary Challenge due to the fact that our 5 month old grandson has been living with us for the last month and I have zero opportunity to craft!  Luckily my daughter came to the rescue this morning and I managed to make my pages for Z plus a pearl and today's new letter, O.  I still have H to make but will get to that eventually!

I chose Owl for my O word, yes it's an easy one but I didn't have much time to think about anything more complicated so out came my Crafty Individuals owl stamp for another airing!

For Z I was initially going to go for Zebra but have mislaid my zebra stamp so in the end went for Zoological so I could use a variety of animal stamps that I have had for years!

Alpha/Dictionary Challenge - K

Phew, up to date again!  The current theme on The Craft Barn's Alpha/Dictionary Challenge is K.  I managed to get T made and blogged a couple of days ago although I was too late to add it to the Challenge Blog.  Today I have made my K page and decided to go with the word Knowledgeable as when looking through my collection for a suitable stamp to use, I thought that this Crafty Individuals lady does indeed look very knowledgeable!  As always I added another couple of K words too.

Elizabeth - if you are visiting this, in answer to your question a couple of weeks ago - BP means backing paper!  Sorry I should have written it out in full instead of being lazy and using the initials! :)

Alpha/Dictionary Challenge - T

I am very behind with The Craft Barn's Alpha/Dictionary Challenge for various reasons, and have just managed to complete the previous letter which is T.  I would usually have gone for Trees but I had just made an A for Arboreal for the challenge before so went with T for Thought instead as I found I had an appropriate Crafty Individuals stamp to use!

Alpha/Dictionary Challenge - A

I'm running out of time for this fortnight's letter for The Craft Barn's Alpha/Dictionary Challenge so just managed to make time to get this one done today!  I flicked through all the A's in my dictionary and eventually decided to go for Arboreal as I have lots of tree stamps!  I found a suitable BP in my extensive stash and as I have several sheets of this was glad to find a use for one! and used some Crafty Individual stamps plus a few other appropriate A words!

Alpha/Dictionary Challenge - J + Dragonfly

I get hardly any spare time to craft these days but do make sure I keep up with this fortnightly challenge on The Craft Barn.  This time our letter to work with is J and we have to incorporate a dragonfly on our work too.  I cheated slightly with this one as time is of the essence!  I found some pretty Crafty Individuals bp that has dragonflies printed on it and chose to use the word Jovial as I remembered I had this cute little girl stamp who does indeed look very jovial in my opinion!  Plus it gave me a chance to use it again!  I embellished with a few pretty dragonflies as I am desperately trying to use up old stash and not buy any new!

Alpha/Dictionary Challenge - D + Pink!

I am running late again and it is almost the end of the current Alpha/Dictionary challenge on The Craft Barn which this time was the letter D plus to use Pink.  I used some pink BP so that covered that part of the challenge and I decided to go for the word Dainty so that I could use an old favourite Crafty Individuals stamp which is one of my original ones as it is a wood mounted one!

Alpha/Dictionary Challenge - G

Where have the last 2 weeks gone!  I've only just got round to making the current letter for The Craft Barn's Alpha/Dictionary Challenge which is G.  I went for Gentleman for my chosen word as I had a couple of stamps I don't often get to use and also found several word stickers beginning with G that I could use and even a little symbol of golf clubs if you look carefully at the top!  As usual I enjoyed using up bits and pieces that I have had in my stash for ages and won't ever replace as I buy very little these days.

Alpha/Dictionary Challenge - L

Our letter for the next two weeks on The Craft Barn's Alpha/Dictionary Challenge is L.  I looked through my stamps and found this cute Lady one by Crafty Individuals that I haven't had an opportunity to use for a while so went with this.  I then added Ladybirds, Leaves and Love for good measure, again using up oddments of stash that has been stashed away for quite some years now!  It turned out a bit more colourful than I intended but I don't have a great deal of crafting time these days so it will have to do!

Alpha/Dictionary Challenge - F

Our new letter this fortnight on The Craft Barn's Alpha/Dictionary Challenge is F plus we must add a heart somewhere too.  I decided to go for the word Friend as I knew that I had a stamp I wanted to use!  Again I looked through my extensive collection of old stash and found some embellishments that would go with the theme.

Journal52 - Plans and Keys

I've managed to catch up with two challenges for Journal52 this week!  Only a few behind now!  The first one is Plans and I went for a bit of a different style for me this time which I have been trying to achieve for a while.  Still need lots of practise though!

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The second one is Keys and I used up some old BP I've had for years and some Crafty Individuals images for this one - I am always pleased to be able to use up old stash although I never seem to gain any space!

Journal52 - Perspective

I am about 6 weeks behind on these challenges on Journal52 but will get there slowly!  I tend to go for quotes for my pages mostly so this one, Perspective, was no exception!  I had fun using Distress Inks and some of my stamps from my collection.

Calendar Challenge - September

Our two words this month on The Craft Barn's Calendar Challenge are Brown and Leaves/Trees.  I got my beer mats altered nice and early this month and used Crafty Individuals images and stamp for these.  I can't believe we only have 3 more months to go this year!

Journal52 - Kindness

Two pages in a week, I am trying to catch up!  The theme a few weeks ago on Journal52 was Kindness.  I Distress Ink Sprayed the background and used a Crafty Individuals image for my page and found an appropriate quote for the theme.