The Coo's Tail

Not only is today the last of The Craft Barn's Calendar Challenge, it is also the last day, of the last month, of 2015! 

Talk about just scraping in by the skin of my teeth and the seat of my pants!! Phew!!

Here is my December page using the prompts, Gold and/or Silver and Christmas Trees.

Once again, I am delighted to say that I used my gelatos; in this case, my gold and silver ones. If you can't tell, I have done two silver trees with a gold one in the centre. I added the illusion of snow with a white Posca paint pen. The lettering is done with a silver pen.

I would like to thank Jane and everyone else involved with this challenge on The Craft Barn blog for the fun prompts every month. And I would like to wish all of my visitors a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2016. 

Now I must push on and visit all the fabulous artists showing their final pages too.

Until next time, 

Take care, 

Be Happy and Be Well

{{hugs}} Mo :o)) xx

Happy New year everyone

from 

Wee Man :D

The Craft Barn Calendar Challenge

November

Hello everyone

With only a few days to go until the end of the month, I have finally got around to doing my calendar page for The Craft Barn's calendar challenge. 

The words for this month are Grey and Owl and if you have been following my calendar progress you will know that I have been determined to use my Gelatos each month, so having grey as the colour posed me a bit of a conundrum. 

After much mixing and testing, I couldn't come up with a suitable colour that would also show up on my black paper so I gave in and bought the metallic gelato set, which includes silver. I hope that's not considered cheating; I honestly think it looks like grey on the black paper. 

I added a smudge of light colour in the sky for a moon and wispy clouds.

I am looking forward to finding out what our December words are; but can hardly believe we have reached the end of the year so quickly!! 

Many thanks for visiting, and until next time

Take Care

Be Happy

{{Hugs}} Mo :o)) x

ORANGE and PUMPKIN or FRUIT

They are the words given for The Craft Barn's Calendar Challenge for October.

Hi Everyone :D

I am entering the craft barn challenge almost at the eleventh hour. 

But in my defence, (should I need one), this month has been extra busy and subsequently flown by faster than this year has already done so! 

Anyway, here is my offering:

Again I used my gelatos, and achieved the colours I wanted by mixing on an acrylic block and I used my silver pen for the outlines and lettering.

The tape above the dates has little spiders and webs along it. Cute huh!

Thank you for visiting and for all your lovely comments, I DO appreciate every single one of them!

For anyone interested in more holiday photos from our recent Edinburgh trip, I will post more later today.

Until next time,

Take care, Be well & Be happy

{{Hugs}} Mo :o)) x

The Craft Barn's..........

...Calendar Challenge

Hello everyone, the words for September are Brown and Trees/Leaves

I have been determined to use my gelatos for each month and September is no exception. I admit to worrying initially about how to make brown show up on my black page, but I pulled it off and I hope you like the results.

I mixed my Tangerine and Grape gelatos with some water to make the brown for my tree trunk and used some of my other gelatos for the leaves. 

You can click on the link above in order to check out what the other entrants have created for September.

Thank you for popping over and until next time,

Take Care and

Be Happy

{{Hugs}} Mo :o)) x

PS - I would like to say a very big thank you to all my followers for your continued support and encouragement and for visiting and leaving such lovely comments. I truly appreciate each and everyone of you {{Hugs Hugs Hugs}}

The Craft Barn

Calendar Challenge - August

Hello everyone

Today I am here to share my calendar page for The Craft Barn's Calendar Challenge. 

We are, as you know, in August, (already!) and the words for this month are Pink & Butterflies.

Again I managed to make good use of my gelatos. I smooshed my  Bubble Gum and Guava gelatos onto a sheet of watercolour paper with a baby wipe. Once dry, I used a butterfly punch and glued them onto the calendar page. Using my silver pen I stencilled the month, wrote my quote and added some pink washi tape.

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I would also like to share some more of my Picasso inspired art pieces. 

and another Modigliani inspired picture

I'm having so much fun creating these; I hope you enjoy seeing them, (I have more on the boil lol).

Thank you so much for visiting.

Until next time,

be well and be happy {{Hugs}} Mo :o) x

 

The Craft Barn and Index Cards

Hello Everyone

I hope I find you well, and managing to stay warm or cool, wherever you maybe. We have been enjoying some seasonal weather and with much needed rain, mainly at night time, making sleep a little more comfortable. 

Today we have more index cards to share with you, but first of all I would like to share my July page for The Craft Barn's Calendar Challenge.

The two words we have to use in on our page this month are

Turquoise and Beach Huts

Because I want to use my Gelatos on all my pages, I wondered what I would do about the colour, so I looked up how to create the colour turquoise, and after mixing Butter cream & Cotton Candy, I was very happy with the resultant colour.  

I drew my bunting and beach hut with pencil then went over it with a silver pen. When that was dry I coloured everything with my turquoise mix. I then added the words, washi tape, the month and days of the week. Et voila!

If you would like to see what others created for this month, then simply click on the Calendar Challenge link above and you will be whisked away to lots more beaches.

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Now here we have days 33 and 34 of my and Wee Man's index cards.

Day 33 from Wee Man

was created with a large XCut butterfly punch, some Wink of Stella to colour their wings and some small stamps in the background.

My Day 33

'I Love Lucy' drawn with Pitt pens and coloured with pencil crayons.

Day 34 from Wee Man

is Happy Teddy Bears, punched from a paint chip strip.

Day 34 from me

was created with used postage stamps and Wishing a safe and Happy Independence Day to all my friends who celebrate it.

Until next time

Take care, be happy.

{{Hugs}} Mo :o) x

And Wee Man of course :D

Anti Journal Pages and June's Calendar Page

Hello Everyone!

Long time no see - Not! Lol. Well I did warn you the other day, that I'd be popping up a little more frequently just now ;-)

Today I am showing you two pages form my Anti Journal

Draw With Words

and

Project Shadows Here. Preserve them in any medium.

I used a black Pitt Pen for the 'Words' page and watercolour pencils for this one.

I'm looking forward to seeing what Carolyn and Karen have done this week. 

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The words and colours on The Craft Barn's calendar challenge for June are

Lavender and Dragonflies

I have been determined since my January page to only use my gelatos and so far I have been successful, except this time I really wasn't sure I could do it. But I did :-D

I covered some card in old book paper and then I covered that in my Lavender gelato and smooshed it about with paintbrush and water. I then used my dragonfly punch to make many wee dragonflies which I glued onto my page.

I'm quite pleased with how the page looks. To see more June pages, simply click on the link above.

Thanks so much for looking.

Catch you soon

{{hugs}} Mo :o)) x

The Craft Barn & Caterpillars

Calendar Challenge

The prompts for our May page in The Craft Barn's Calender Challenge are Magenta and Flowers.

I mixed some purple and pink gelatos with water on a palette and then used a white ink pad to stamp flowers all over my page. I then used the same stamp, dabbed it in my magenta mix and re-stamped the flowers. 

I stencilled May with a silver pen and coloured it in.

I really like the quote but could not find an attribution; it is also written with my silver pen, and then I added a strip of washi tape in a pink/magenta-ish colour, lol.

Finally I flicked on a few specks of silver Wink of Stella. Shame the sparkle doesn't show in the photo.

In caterpillar news, our chrysalides are now in their net habitat.

Hopefully we will see the stirrings of new things in about a week. YaY! It's so exciting!

Stay tuned!

I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all my followers for your love, support and encouraging words, you all mean so very much to me. Thank You!

With loving {{Hugs}}

Take care and be well

Mo :o)) xo

The Craft Barn

Calendar Challenge

The prompts for our April page in The Craft Barn's calendar challenge are Blue and Umbrellas.

I used a wee umbrella stencil through which I smooshed my Cotton Candy blue gelato with my finger.

I flicked on some raindrops using my white Wink of Stella and then stencilled April with a silver pen.

The quote is by Roger Miller, written with a silver pen.

Thank you so much for coming by; I hope you will leave a comment, they always make me smile. 

Take care, be well, and be happy,
{{Hugs}} :-D Mo x

The Craft Barn

Calendar Challenge

The Craft Barn have added the link for the new month's challenge, and the two words for March are Yellow and Rabbit(s) 

If you would like to join in, you can see the rules here

As with January and February, I wanted to use my gelatos.  I found my Easter/Spring stencil and daubed the lemon gelato through the rabbit stencils then spread it with my finger. I know it looks green in the photo but I promise it is Lemon; 

I can only assume it is a mixture of poor daylight and the black base that makes it look green. 

I added some flowers and butterflies also in the lemon gelato, and I stamped a 'sun' flower also with the gelato. I used a silver Pilot pen to do some outlining and for stencilling March on to the page. I added some washi tape fencing, a metallic bee and butterfly and some 'grass' strands in the hope the rabbits don't look like they're floating mid air, hehe.

I stamped the sentiment, Happiness is a state of mind from Rubber Dance Stamps, in a silver ink from Hobbycraft.

Finally I added some clear Wink of Stella to the butterflies, some orange Wink of Stella rays radiating from the sun and I splattered white WoS over the page. 

Thank you so much for coming by; I hope you will leave a comment, they always make me smile. 

Take care, be well, and be happy, ((hugs)) :o) Mo x

The Craft Barn

Calendar Challenge

Hi there everyone! *Waving*

The Craft Barn has posted the link tool for the second month of their calendar challenge. And of course the second month is February  ~ See the instructions here.

The two words we are to use on our calendar this month are Red and Hearts. 

If you visited me in the past few days you will know that I didn't realise there were also words to be used for my January page and I got a little ahead of myself in my preparations. Hence my seemingly being quick off the mark this month. *grin* 

However, for February, I am lucky to have accidentally got it right. Although, I think you may agree that with Valentines day being this month, it would have been a little bizarre to have been wrong, 

haha. 

So without further twaddle, here is my February page.

Again I used my gelatos in shades of red, pink & orange. I sprayed them and moved them about a bit with my finger, then used a baby wipe to remove some colour through a heart stencil. I dried it with my heat tool and then speckled it with white Wink of Stella and added some silver Cosmic Shimmer spray.

I used an alphabet stencil and silver pen to add February to my page and stamped in white Versacolor,

Chocolate Men Coffee

Some things are better RICH

I added some washi tape above the dates and, like January, added the days in silver pen. C'est fini! 

Take care and thanks for coming by; any comments you leave are most welcome and much appreciated ((hugs)) Mo :o) x

Craft Barn

Calendar Challenge

I didn't intend to start a new challenge this early into the new year, but when I got an email telling me about this new challenge, and having been given a blank calendar some time last year, I just couldn't ignore the nudging of my reacquired  mojo/muse now could I? *grin*

The Calendar Challenge is a monthly challenge posted on the first Sunday of the month with two weeks to post entry. It is late this month, but The Craft Barn peeps say that from February it will be on time. 

The pages of my calendar came in black with white speckles. I didn't have a clear idea at all of what I wanted to do, I just knew I wanted to use my gelatos, (which I happened to purchase with a gift voucher courtesy of The Craft Barn during their Quotes & Lyrics challenge last year). 

I roughly applied two of my gelatos, sprayed them with water, tried to get them to run a little, smooshed them around a wee bit with my finger and used a baby wipe to remove some of the colour through a star stencil.  I dried it off with my heat tool then I used the baby wipe and an alphabet stencil to add 'January' to the page by removing some more of the colour but it just wasn't very clear at all. Using the stencil again I went over it with a silver pen and noticed how wonky my original stencilling had been. 

Don't say Oops, say interesting. Oh well *hehe* 

I stamped in white Versacolor, Our tomorrow's start with the dreams of today, which you can see a little clearer in the close up below. 

I decided that this calendar is for 2016; the silver dates are already added but without days. so I added abbreviated days over the numbers and added some washi tape over which I added some extra text, also in white ink.

I wanted to add some white speckles on top, so using my finger I flicked white Wink of Stella over the page and I also flicked some silver Wink of Stella for a little shimmer, (not that you can see it here). 

Et voila. My January page. I shall hunt down the Linky thing on the blog and look forward to posting February's page soon,

Take care and thanks for coming by; any comments you leave are most welcome and much appreciated ((hugs)) Mo :o) x

Edited to add: Ok. I've just stumbled across the correct page on Craft Barn's blog, with the Linky thingy, instructions etc, and it seems there are specific items to be used and for January; there should be Aqua and Snowflakes used on ones page. I guess I could fudge the Aqua bit, but there are no snowflakes on my page, so I reckon I shall be discounted for any prizes etc. Oh well, I shall link up anyway and try to visit as many people as I can.

Q&L Challenge number 25

Wow, I can't believe we are at the end of The Craft Barn's Quotes & Lyrics challenge! The year seems to have gone by ever so fast don't you think?! I am very happy that I managed to complete every challenge, albeit by the skin of my teeth occasionally, but I did it! *Grin*

Many thanks to everyone at The Craft Barn for hosting this interesting challenge and to all those who visited me and left such lovely comments for me, they were all very much appreciated. Thank you! ((Group Hugs))  

So, back to this week, and the final words we have, are Harmony and/or Faith and as with every other week, we are to use a Quote and/or a Lyric in our work. 

The theme over at Tag Tuesday is Christmas Angels and as time is at a premium for all of us at this time of year, I figured I could use my quote on a tag and double up with both of my challenges.

I painted a Christmas tree using green acrylic paints, edged the tag with red and created a star with silver Wink of Stella. I drew the angel, coloured her with pencils and fussy cut her out. I wrote the quote by Doug Floyd,  You don't get Harmony when everybody sings the same note, onto some white card, cut it out and edged it with green. 

I am looking forward to finding out what The Craft Barn's new challenge will be, in January. I hope you will join in too. 

Until next time.................

.................thanks for stopping by to say 'Hi' ((hugs)) :o) Mo x

Q & L Challenge number 23

The words from The Craft Barn this fortnight are Journey and Friendship. I can hardly believe we're almost at the end of this year long challenge; I wonder what's in store for us next ;)

For this time, I chose to use Journey and have made a one line drawing; not a thousand miles long, but then I doubt I would have had enough ink for that, (hehe) ;)

I used distress inks for the colouring and the stickers are from a chit-chat pack I have and I hand wrote the words I don't have stickers for. The quote, The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, is by Lao Tzu, who was a philosopher and poet of ancient China.

Please follow the link above if you would like to see more work related to this challenge.

And until next time..............
.........have a fabulous weekend, and thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' ((hugs)) Mo :o) x

T stands for treats, Q&L #21 & Tag Tuesday

I'm late for tea again so I hope my friends at Elizabeth's will forgive me and will still join me for a cuppa anyway. If you would like to join us, pop over to the Altered Book Lover and post a blog link that shows your beverage of choice.

I had a real treat this morning, I was invited to a friend's house for coffee, along with another lady, and whilst there we started chatting about cups and mugs and she showed me this pretty blue cup that is part of a set she was given when she got engaged over fifty years ago. I just love the pattern on it and asked if I may take a couple of photographs with a view to sketching it. She was very happy for me to do so. 

After my chat and catch up I did a little shopping and then went home for a light lunch and another coffee. My Moomin mini-mug was a gift from my son in Sweden a couple of years ago. It is just the right size for me. Bon appetit!

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This afternoon I did a little crafting to complete my entry for #21 of the Quotes & Lyrics Challenge from The Craft Barn where the words to choose from are Hug and/or Nowhere. I chose the word Hug.

My quote, from I know not where, is 'Keep Calm and Hug Someone'.  I have a stamp of a girl and I have a stamp of a teddy bear, but I couldn't figure out the best way to stamp them so the girl was holding the bear, so I decided to draw my own and I'm really rather pleased that I did. I did a quick sketch with a pencil then went over her with a micron pen. I did the background with Neocolor IIs and coloured the little girl with Inktense and Faber Castell watercolour pencils.  

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I am also using this tag as my entry for Tag Tuesday this week, where the theme is 'Fright Night'; and all things halloween; bu-ut, being a lazy person, I decided not to do another tag and use this tag as the antithesis of halloween. Hehehe. Why not pop over and see the scary tags already posted? 

I double-dog dare you! 

Until next time...........

............thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' ((hugs)) :o)) Mo x

Q & L Sketchbook

I haven't done much more than drawing practise lately and I haven't posted them for fear of boring you all to distraction, but I have also managed to complete my latest entry to the fortnightly Q & L Challenge over at The Craft Barn. We are up to #20 and the words this time are Destiny and Gift. We are to use one or both words from a Quote and/or a Lyric in our work. I chose to use the word Gift. I had no idea what I was going to do until I opened my book and found a page I hade been playing on with some watercolours.

The trees and bird stamps are from Rubber Dance Art Stamps, I can't remember where the butterfly is from I'm afraid, and the lettering is just a wee alphabet set I have in a cute wooden box.

I am also linking this to The Sketchbook Challenge where the theme is Trees. 

Wee Man and I are off on a new adventure on Monday; we are going to Cardiff, the capital city of Wales, to meet up with Helen for the first time. It is all really exciting, to be flying down there, getting on different trains and buses and then meeting someone who has been a fabulous friend over the past few years. I have no doubt Wee Man will tell you all about it soon after we get back.

In the meantime, have a great weekend whatever you are doing, especially if your name is Tracey Fletcher King and you are celebrating your birthday tomorrow (Sunday)


Until next time.............
.................Thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' ((hugs)) :o) x

Spotted Photo Theme & Q & L Challenge 18

This is a long post, but mostly with pictures, so I hope you will stay and have a look-see ;o)

First up, the theme this month for Hanna's Spotted Photo theme is colour, so I thought I would take part. Thank you to Tammy Garcia for the heads up and link to this fun idea.

The idea is to trawl through your photographs and post pictures relevant to the current month's theme. It really is quite literal. Check these cuties; last month the theme was Animal Love.

My favourite colour is green, so I was surprised at how few things I had photographs of, that are green. There are lots of trees and grass in my photographs but almost none that I could pick out and say, yes, that's a 'green' picture, but seeing as how I felt determined to use green, I did some photo editing and came up with these >>>

A path in a local park

A Christmas decoration I sent to son #1 in Sweden

A tag

Scene from a viewing tower in the local forest

Nessie on a t-shirt

Cable guide on the funicular rail on the Cairngorm mountain

A charity store find - love this plate.

You can find the themes for next few months on Hanna's blog. I hope you can join in too.

The Craft Barn Q & L Challenge #18 and also, Art Journal Journey

The words for this fortnight's challenge are Childhood and Easier. I found a nice quote then got out my small sketchbook and my watercolour pencils. I realise the grass colours don't blend very well, but I had fun creating the page anyway.

'Happiness is spending time with Childhood friends' ~ there was no attribution for the quote, but I think it's lovely - and very true :-D

I am linking also to Art Journal Journey with huge thanks to Valerie for nudge.

Until next time...................

...................thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' ((hugs)) :o) x

Q & L #17

This fortnight, The Craft Barn's Quotes & Lyrics challenge brings us the words Peaceful and Grace. We are to use one or both of the words from a Quote and/or a Lyric.

If you would like to find out more about the challenge and the rules, go here. If you want to jump right in and join in or just see what others have created for the current words, then go here.

I chose to use the word Peaceful, and after hunting for a while I found a quote that I liked.

I used a mixture of Dylusion sprays, distress paints, watercolour paints, watercolour pencils and the stamps are from Rubber Dance Art Stamps. 

The fabulous quote is by Mandy Hale.

Until next time............
...............thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' ((Hugs))

Craft Barn Q & L Challenge #15

I have been absent from my blog whilst joining in with the Index Card A Day challenge on Facebook, created by Tammy Garcia of Daisy Yellow. And with the school Summer Holidays in full swing here, I just haven't had the time to do that and write blog posts too. That is also the reason I didn't get to visit everyone for challenge 14, for which I sincerely apologise; nor manage to reply to all your wonderful comments about my Darla Horse which I really & truly appreciated ((hugs))

My Wee Man, (7 year old with autism), also joined in with the ICAD challenge and ended up creating Fifty amazing index art cards. I am hoping to share them all on here, but I have a few technical issues to deal with first.

In the meantime, I would like to share my newest page for The Craft Barn's latest challenge. The words to choose from this time are Mind and/or Ignorance. We are to use one or both of the words with a quote or a lyric. I chose the word Mind and used a quote.

This quote is a great support to me when Wee Man is having a particularly bad time in public. It doesn't happen very often, but when he does, the reactions of people can be enough to make one despair for lack of human understanding and compassion. Something else I was once told is to look at 'these people' and ask myself three questions: Do I know them? Am I likely to come across them again? Do they mean anything to me? And if the answer to them all is, No, then s*d them. Their ignorance is their own shame.

*Stepping off my soapbox* and back to my page - I simply used distress paints through three stencils and some washi tapes. I love the book one :D Many thanks for looking.

Until next time............
...........thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' ((hugs))

The Craft Barn's Q & L Challenge #12 Proud & Vintage ~ Also ~ Summer of Colour 2014 ~ Week 2

I've done a 'Twofer' page this time ~ that is, one page for two challenges.  Gives more time to play dontchya think?! ;)

First up, it's time for The Craft Barn's 12th Q & L challenge, for which they gave us the words Proud and/or Vintage.  I chose the word, Proud.  Also, we are to use a Quote and/or, a Lyric in our work.   My quote cannot be attributed to any one person, but is often used as inspiration in sports.  Today is another chance to make yourself proud.  I think it could be applied equally to almost any activity.

The second part of my 'twofer', is from the Summer Of Colour challenge, where this week, Kristin has given us Coral, Teal and a smudge, splash or pop, of Bright White to use.  I had problems at first, getting my head around what the colour coral was and how I could make it.  But with lots of input from the fabulous people doing the challenge and others on Facebook, I got there, (I think).  Not sure I could get the same again mind you, lol.

I had lots of fun stamping the flowers & leaves, and then coloring the flowers with my coral watercolour paint and the leaves with my teal inktense pencil, using my water brush.  I went over some of the outlines with a pen, to sharpen them up a bit.

Please click on the links if you would like to find out more about the challenges, and if you have time, it would be awesome if you could visit some of the other blogs and leave some love.

Thanks for looking;

and until next time...............
.............thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' *hugs*