F is for Feather

It's been some time since I joined in with the Craft Barns Alpha Challenge. To be honest, crafting has been a bit of a struggle recently, I've had no motivation or inspiration and I haven't been happy with my DT pieces. BUT - today I became the owner of a yummy Gelli plate, thanks to my OH who kindly let me have my birthday present early (lets face it I wasn’t going to stop nagging til I got my own way!!). Here are my first two Gelli prints (I forgot to take a pic before I started stamping.) The large peacock feather stamp is by Stampendous and the smaller one  Blockheads.

I've used the lighter print as the background for my Alpha dictionary page (I'm altering a dream dictionary). This fortnight's letter is F (between FE - FR) and I chose Feather. I went for soft, light colours because in dreams feathers are said to denote softness, lightness and suggest a more gentle approach to situations.

The top strip is also a Gelli print on which I’ve used a flying birds mask and vintage photo distress ink. The square panel is embossed in pirate gold onto a scrap of Gelli print.

In dreams it is thought that feathers often represent flight to other parts of the self and because of the connection with wind and the air, can represent the more spiritual side of ourselves.  I’ve had a lovely few hours playing, finally back in touch with my creative self and am quite pleased with my first attempts – I think you could be seeing quite a few more Gelli print creations !!  Thanks for stopping by – Esther xx

H is for….

…Hourglass. Time for another letter in The Craft Barn’s Alpha Challenge, which this fortnight is ‘H’. To read about the Alpha Challenge visit here. I'm altering a dream dictionary and the entry for hourglass suggests that to dream of an old fashioned symbol that measures time (such as an hourglass) may mean our perception of time and its management is old fashioned and we need to use a different way of measuring those activities.

An hourglass can also symbolise being overly aware of of running out of time – this can occur when we are particularly stressed.

I made an hourglass stencil and mask just on copy paper and used acrylic paint and archival ink. The stamps are an assortment of Tim Holtz, Craft Stamper freebie and a couple I don’t know the brand of.

I found a sentiment stamp which seemed to relate to the suggestion of changing how we measure and perceive time. I don’t know about you but I spend a lot of time worrying about how much time I don’t have to do all the things I’d like to and am sure I miss out on so many moments that pass me by while I'm worrying about running out of time. I'm surprised I don’t dream about hourglasses every night !!

This Alpha challenge is turning into a bit of a journey for me – I'm doing some quite therapeutic thinking while creating these pages, something which hasn't come easily when I've tried other journals. I'm so glad I chose the Dream dictionary and can’t wait for the next letter !

I'm also sharing my page over at Vintage Stamping where the theme is Blues, Browns and Beige.

Thanks as always for stopping by…Esther xx

Last minute Alpha entry

At the end of a very busy week I've just got time to sneak in another entry to The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge. I actually made this postcard last weekend but have only now found time to write the post !

Now my main project for this challenge is a dream Dictionary - I've entered this page already, but I also found a cute little Whinnie the Pooh Dictionary (Forgot to take a pic so I'll have to show it another time) and thought I'd use it to make postcards with if I had time to create additional entries. I'm thinking I'll make them into a book at the end. I've actually used an envelope as my base for this one and as this weeks letter is 'C' I chose the dictionary entry 'Clever Reader' and used stamps by Rogue redhead coloured with watercolour pencils.  

On the back of the postcard is the exert from the Pooh books that contains the chosen word or phrase. 

I'm loving this challenge and looking forward to finding out what the next letter will be....

Thanks for coming by...Esther 

C is for……

…Colour ! Time already for the second letter in The Craft Barn’s Alpha Challenge, which as you might have guessed is C ! To read about the Alpha Challenge visit here, I've chosen to alter a dream dictionary and there was a whole list of colours and interpretations of their meaning.  I’ve had a lovely afternoon playing at my craft desk creating a bright, cheery page while the snow has fallen for nearly ten hours without stopping !

I’m quite please with how my page turned out this week, I painted with a thin layer of gesso before applying lots of colour with inktense sticks and pencils, washing with a water brush and then toning down with a watered down layer of gesso.

I’ve made a Collage of Colour – adding an ordinary dictionary definition, pictures from Crafty Individuals, a sunny sticker and computer generated wording, and of course some stamping.

I tried writing on the page by hand, but I haven’t found a good pen that works over the layers of paint/ink etc yet (if anyone can suggest something I’d be very grateful) so I didn’t like how it turned out and added the printed strips instead. 

This pic also shows the page (though not very clearly!) with the colour interpretations on, which I've just added some soft colour too with pencils.

I’m really enjoying this challenge – and may have another go this week, have lots of words left and am even toying with the idea of doing two different projects as have another dictionary on stand by ! Looking forward to visiting the other entries too…Thanks for stopping by here…Esther xx