The last few letters for the Craft Barn, here's the i

And I picked immortal. I have a serious addiction to vampire films and series which started with the Twilight sage. Read the books and have seen all the pictures (more than once, blush). Now I'm into the Vampire Diaries and the spin off called the Originals. Henceforth my choice of word. I did the background and the flames with acrylic paint and used a black Pitt pen to shade around the flames.

De digi is by Rick St Dennis, he makes the most fabulous images, but the are a challenge to colour, so much detail. Can you see which famous actor this gorgeous vampire looks like? ..................................
yes, it's Johnny Depp. I coloured him with my Copics and used a grey Pitt pen to shade around the image and make him stand out more against the background.

 And of course I owe you the word.

Challenge:
http://www.thecraftbarn.co.uk/blog/alpha-challenge-last-two-letters/

I'm joining in de Round Robin art journal and this is my first page.

Next year the Craftorij is organizing a Round Robin art journal. That means I make the first page in my own journal and then send it to the next person on the list who will add a second spread and send it to the third person and so on. Somewhere in September I will (hopefully) receive my art journal back, filled with lots of inspiration from other people. Meanwhile I will receive art journals from all the others on the list and make a spread in their journals. I just love the idea!!

Now the technique I used for the background is one I had seen on a video by Andy Skinner on You Tube. It's really quite easy. I glued a colourful background page down and sealed it with 2 layers of acrylic varnish. Then I used some modeling paste and a stencil to make my owls. After drying I painted the entire background with black acrylic paint. While that was stil wet I splattered drops of acrylic retarder on the background which prevents the paint underneath those drops from drying. When the reast of your black paint is dry, you simply take a piece of kitchen roll and wipe away the retarder which reveals the colours underneath. How cool is that?!

I used a black permenent marker to colour the modeling paste extra black in order to make them stand out against the black background. I then scanned the Internet for 'owl' quotes and found two I liked. Using my white Sharpie I wrote them down on the left page around the edge of the page and on the right at the bottom of the page. I then used the marker to make white paintsplatters.

Hope you like my spread. I wish you all Merry Christmas!!!
Challenges:

http://craftingfromtheheartchallengeblog.blogspot.nl/2013/12/challenge-3.html
http://bunnyzoescrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/our-last-challenge-of-2013-wings.html
http://artisticinspirationschallenges.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.sparklingblackrose-craftmylife.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/all-crafts-challenge-decemberjanuary.html
http://hobbycutzchallenges.blogspot.nl/2013/12/merry-christmas-challenge-30-anything.html
http://www.creativeinspirationspaint.blogspot.nl/2013/12/inspired-by-anything-goes-week-2.html
http://challenges4everybody.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/challenge-36-anything-goes.html
http://craftcreatoins.blogspot.nl/p/new.html
http://thatcraftplaceblog.blogspot.nl/2013/12/the-last-challenge-for-2013-so-we.html

Yeahhhh, December is finished even before the month is over LOL!

I did it! I finished December before the month is over! I'm so happy. I will try to keep this up in 2014....

I started with a background of Avec Red glimmer spray combined with Fuzzy Navel Peach spray by Lindy's stamp gang. The page has this lovely shimmer. On this picture the shimmer shows a little. The Christmas trees were made with Christmas papers by Kaisercraft Merry and Bright collection and I got these in a PIF recently. Love these papers!!

December and 2013 were stamped and embossed with gold embossingpowder. The numbers on the trees were made with printable Christmas numbers and were a free downloadable printable from Ephemera's Vintage Garden, and so are the white and creamcoloured Christmas bulbs. I stamped snowflakes here and there and embossed them with Bridal embossing powder by Ranger.

The small Christmas bulbs at the top of this spread are matching stickers. Alle the Christmas bulbs have some gold embossing where the hangers are. The white speckles were made by flicking a white Sharpie pen.
I hope you like my spread, I sure enjoyed making it!

Challenges:
http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.nl/2013/12/week-237-snowflakes.html
http://craftycalendarchallenge.blogspot.nl/2013/12/crafty-calendar-challenge-cold-and.html
http://craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge.blogspot.nl/2013/12/chnc-challenge-155-whatever-is-urgent.html
http://polkadoodle.blogspot.ca/2013/12/week-49-polkadoodles-challenge-make.html
http://stampinfortheweekend.blogspot.nl/2013/12/use-some-red.html
http://www.sarahhurleychallenges.blogspot.nl/2013/12/challenge-87-create-your-own-background.html
http://delightfulsketches.blogspot.nl/2013/12/weekly-challenge-color-challenge-red.html
http://4kraftygirlzchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/

Finally it is November, oops, November's gone already....

Story of my life, I have November ready and it turns out November has come and gone....bummer! But, December is only 5 days gone, so on the upside, I have 26 days to finish December and will still be on time (sort of LOL)!!
Anyhow, since I have always been a quilter, I decided to use the Amish quilt as a basis for my calendar. I started out by painting the entire spread black. Then I cut my triangles to make the pinwheel from bright coloured papers.

The feather pattern at the bottom of my 'quilt' was made with an actual quilting stencil that I used on one of my quilts. All the 'stitching' was done with a white Sharpie pen.

I stamped the month with a grungy stamp alphabet and white Stazon ink and accentuated again with the white Sharpie.

And just like in real quilting, all the points have to be sharp and matching.

Hope you like my 'quilt' spread! Have a great weekend. Hugs Frea
Challenges:
http://4kraftygirlzchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.baffies-kreativladen.blogspot.de/2013/11/challenge-26-november-dt-call.html
http://thethreemuseschallenge.blogspot.nl/2013/12/the-three-muses-challenge-art-journal.html
http://thestampingchef.com/Challenges/2013/12/04/welcome-to-our-new-tsc-anything-goes-challenge/
http://flourishes.org/2013/12/timeless-tuesday-249-stitch-it-up/
http://www.lovesrubberstampschallenges.com/2013/12/challenge-81-anything-goes.html
http://papertakeweekly.blogspot.nl/2013/12/anything-goes.html
http://www.anonymousstamps.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/november-challenge.html
http://www.sparklingblackrose-craftmylife.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/all-crafts-challenge-decemberjanuary.html
http://www.ttcrd.blogspot.nl/2013/12/through-craftroom-door-challenge-dec-3.html
http://dreamvalleychallenges.blogspot.nl/2013/12/challenge-71-anything-but-card.html
http://tokbobok.blogspot.nl/2013/12/tbc-7-anything-goes.html
http://scribbleandscrapcrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/challenge-6-always-anything-goes.html

Yess. I made top 3 and was a winner with my hearts.

Woop woop, I made top three at Creative Creations Challenges:

and was a winner at Craft my life challenges

and I won 4 gorgeous digistamps by Sassy Studios!!

S stands for ........

The background of this spread was an experiment. I saw a video by Andy Skinner the other day where he used this technique. I started out by gluing down the most ugle cheap scrap paper I could find in my stash over the entire page, a picture of a peacock. It did have lovely bright blue and green colours though.

And no, you don't see the peacock anymore, I'll explain. You cover the D.P. with 2 layers of acrylic varnish. Then you cover the entire page with acrylic paints (preferably in a colour opposite from the ones underneath). Now here comes the trick: you drop some acrylic retarder on the wet paint. Then you let the paint dry completely (you can't use a heat gun, so you will have to be patient). After drying you take a piece of kitchen roll and let it soak up the retarder which will stell be wet. Then you take a dry piece of kitchen roll and simply wipe away the paint which was underneath the retarder and which is still wet. This is the result:

The digital stamp is by Kenny K. and I printed her quite large in orde to make her fit the page. That did make her a lot more fun to colour in. I printed her twice to use on a card (which makes her a lot smaller) and just about needed a magnifier in order to colour her up LOL!  At least now I could manage with my regular glasses.

And then finaly I owe you the word:

Challenge:
http://www.thecraftbarn.co.uk/blog/alpha-dictionary-challenge-letter-s/