What is Art?

Quotations & Lyrics is The Craft Barn blog challenge for 2014.

A new prompt is provided every other week,

leaving two weeks for us to think about & create our artwork.

The current prompts are

Art & Road

I decided to use art & used my quotation,

"What is art

if not a reflection

of our soul"

This is the front of my bookmark.

This is the reverse.

I used patterned papers by Papermania, Distress Marker (black soot),

an altered image from Graphics Fairy & blue felt.

It's all in the Mind

Quotations & Lyrics is The Craft Barn blog challenge for 2014.

A new prompt is provided every other week,

leaving two weeks for us to think about & create our artwork.

The current prompts are

Marriage & Age

I decided to use age & my quote is from the author Mark Twain.

This is the front of my bookmark.

This is the reverse.

I used patterned papers by Papermania, Distress Marker (black soot),

an altered image from Michelle Ward,

a moth from Papermania's Madame Payraud's Emporium of Curios

& some tape instead of ribbon.

Be Strong

Quotations & Lyrics is The Craft Barn blog challenge for 2014.

A new prompt is provided every other week,

leaving two weeks for us to think about & create our artwork.

The current prompts are

Strong & Miss

I decided to use strong & my quote is from the author Christian D. Larson.

This is the front of my bookmark.

This is the reverse.

I used patterned papers by Papermania, Distress Marker (black soot)

& an altered image from The Graphics Fairy.

Promise Yourself

To be so strong that nothing

can disturb your peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness & prosperity

to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel

that there is something in them.

To look at the sunny side of everything

& make your optimism come true.

To think only the best, to work only for the best,

& to expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others

as you are about your own.

To forget the mistakes of the past &

press on to the greater achievements of the future.

To wear a cheerful countenance at all times &

give every living creature you meet a smile.

To give so much time to the improvement of yourself

that you have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger,

too strong for fear & too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

To think well of yourself & to proclaim this fact to the world,

not in loud words but great deeds.

To live in faith that the whole world is on your side

so long as you are true to the best that is in you.

Silence please

Quotations & Lyrics is The Craft Barn blog challenge for 2014.

A new prompt is provided every other week,

leaving two weeks for us to think about & create our artwork.

The current prompts are

Silence & Dazzle

I decided to use silence & my quote is from the author John Grossmann.

This is the front of my bookmark.

This is the reverse.

I used patterned papers by Papermania, Distress Marker (black soot),

Ranger's Glossy Accents, ribbon

& a couple of recoloured images from my archives.

Smile

Following on from the huge success of their Alpha Challenge in 2013,

The Craft Barn is running another year long blog challenge.

This year the theme is

Quotations & Lyrics

A new prompt will be provided every other week,

leaving us two weeks to think about & create our artwork.

Last year I made a Tag Book, so I wanted to do something different with this new challenge. 

I was privileged to have won a prize in the very last week of the Alpha Challenge,

which was £20 to spend in The Craft Barn shop.

After much deliberation, I was inspired by the wooden book & small notebooks.

The wooden book, has a secret drawer.

In the drawer I will keep the small notebook,

where I will keep the inspirational quotes & song lyrics that we discover throughout the year.

So, continuing with the book theme, this year I will be making bookmarks.

These are larger than my usual mini tags, so I will be able to include more words.

I am also going to use black & white as my underlying theme,

with maybe a hint of colour along the way.

This is a reference to the black & white bookprint.

During the year, I will also alter the wooden book & cover of the notebook,

to reflect the theme of this challenge.

The first word prompts of 2014 are

Smile &/or Up

I have chosen smile & my quote is

Be the reason someone smiles today

I have used patterned papers by Papermania, Distress Marker (black soot),

Ranger's Glossy Accents & white grosgrain ribbon.

be eXtraordinary

The Craft Barn blog challenge for 2013 has finally reached it's conclusion. The final two letters, I & X complete the Alpha Challenge.

I have been making a tag for each letter & to comply with the challenge rules, each one has a dictionary definition on it somewhere.

For I, I used my blog motto of

imagine believe create

For X, I used my motto for 2014

be extraordinary

I used patterned papers Life's Journey Pansy by K & Company, & Distress Ink (antique linen).

To see all the tags made in this series, click here.

Here are a few images of the complete set of tags.

Front of Tags

Back of Tags

Leave your mark

The Craft Barn has revealed another letter in the Alpha Challenge, which has run throughout 2013.

I have been making a tag for each letter, held together by a book ring.

This week my dictionary definition is on the back of the tag.

Leave your mark

upon the world

I used patterned papers Life's Journey Pansy by K & Company, & Distress Ink (antique linen).

To see all the tags made in this series, click here.

I say ...

The Craft Barn has revealed another letter in the Alpha Challenge, which has run throughout 2013.

Following on with my literary theme, I chose the word quotation

& picked a quote I made on my other blog.

"We do not always need to see

what we know to be true"

I used patterned papers Life's Journey Pansy by K & Company, & Distress Ink (antique linen).

To see all the tags made in this series, click here.

Just Nonsense

The Craft Barn has revealed another letter in the Alpha Challenge, which has run throughout 2013.

I composed a Haiku for the back of the tag, inspired by Lewis Carroll & Halloween.

A poem to rhyme

and not to wit or too woo

nonsense it shall be

I used patterned papers Life's Journey Pansy by K & Company, & Distress Ink (antique linen).

To see all the tags made in this series, click here.

Letters of Love

The next letter in The Craft Barn challenge for 2013, known simply as the Alpha Challenge, is the letter L.

The twist this week was to include a window.

I admit mine is more of a door than a window, held closed by a latch created by the letter L.

I composed a haiku for the back of my tag.

Deep thoughts you reveal

when your heart opens to me

letters of love sent

I used patterned papers Life's Journey Pansy by K & Company, Distress Ink (antique linen) & a strip of my handmade washi-style tape.

To see all the tags made in this series, click here.