Craft Barn Alpha Challenge - Letter U

Hi everyone. Seems like such a long time since I was here. All sorts of things have been getting in the way of blogging and creating. Life is sometimes like that isn't it? So much going on and the thing you most love to do has to take a back seat. Hopefully, life has settled down a little now and normal activities can be resumed!

I couldn't miss the Alpha Challenge at the Craft Barn. We are asked to use the letter U and depict the definition in a visual manner. I have chosen to work in a secondhand dictionary but you can use other ways to display your work as long as you include the definition.

For my letter U, I have chosen the word 'URBAN' as I happened to have a stamp plate which fits the bill perfectly designed by Sam Poole.

The word and definition were masked off. Two shades of DecoArt Traditions paint were then used to roughly coat the pages. I made sure that the two colours weren't mixed but used side by side on a craft mat then blended straight on the page.

The definition after the masking tape was removed.

The sketchy stamping was achieved using archival ink.

The letters were die cut, painted with Fresco snowflake followed by stencilling with DecoArt Traditions paint. Archival ink was then randomly applied with cut and dry. Once attached to the page, each letter was  outlined with a black waterproof pen and some edges were shaded with a black pencil.

the footprints were stamped onto old book pages, cut out and glued into position. Carbon black DecoArt paint was applied using an Andy Skinner stencil onto both pages.

More stencil work was added using the same paint. A white pen was used to outline the stencil work.

An image reflecting the word definition was stamped onto old book paper, cut out and attached. Black pencil was used around the edges to add shading.

Script was stamped in the background with DecoArt Traditions paint. It gives a great effect using the paint for stamping. You can also see the shades created with the two colours of paint used in the background.

Not entered the Craft Barn Apha Challenge yet? You can join in any time, so why not have a go?

Thanks for everyone's patience and I'm sorry to have missed so many wonderful pieces of work. I will catch up with you all again but please bear with me!