Sue C's a material girl...

Sue has brought a material element to her project today by using fabric on her tag - and what a tag!!

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Sue C

For my second piece this month I've used fabric as my starting point on a jumbo sized tag. Fabric brings another element of texture to your project and is a great surface to work on. For all the details hop over to my Stamping Sue Style.

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Beautifully designed with stunning colour work, this is gorgeous Sue, thank you!

Whatever your favourite genre, whatever textures and media you like to work with, you can combine it all with our theme this month!

Our next post is a project from Trace on Thursday, we hope to see you then. Have a fab day!

Chris and the team xxx

We're into August and a new challenge...

Hello everyone, welcome to August's new challenge!

Regulars amongst you will know that each month one of our amazing Design Team Members chooses our theme. This month it is the turn of Butterfly (aka Alison) and she's chosen a terrific topic, sure to be a hit with many of you, it's...........

We're looking for entries that focus upon the written word. Your project may be based upon a stamped saying, a proverb, an old adage, a piece of poetry, whatever grabs you. What the challenge is NOT about is sentiments for greetings cards.

As usual, we will be visually serenading you throughout the whole month (every other day in fact) with a view to encouraging, motivating and inspiring you to get out your crafty goodies, make a project (or three) and join in!  >;o)  At the end of the month we will randomly select a winner (using random.org) who will receive the princely prize of a £20 shop voucher from our fabulous sponsor, Country View Crafts.  Alison willl also be choosing her Top 3 favourites and her Special Mention who will all win blog badges and the chance to be a guest DT with us the following month.

Please remember to follow the rules because entries that don't comply cannot be selected as a winner.

Heading up our catwalk of beautiful projects this month is our guest, winner of last month's challenge, Dragonllew (Jenny)...

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Dragonllew (Jenny)

Hi I'm Jenny aka Dragonllew from Bournemouth I'm married to Mark and have 3 gorgeous children who keep me very busy . In my spare time I love to craft and having been crafting for as long as I can remember, for the last few years my passion has been card making. My favourite crafting item has to be my pro markers, I love colouring up stamps with them.

I decided to alter a plain Kraft notebook for this months challenge. Because of the size of the book my normal 6 x 6 papers were too small so I had to dig through my rather old stack of 12 x 12 papers where I found these old Fancy Pants papers which I used to create the base layers. I coloured up my favourite digi stamp at the moment with my beloved pro markers adding some glossy accents to make his glasses pop. I printed the quote directly on to the patterned paper and attached it using a paper clip.

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And now for the projects from our permanent DTM's...

Alison

I've created a simple tag with words at the heart of it.  I started with one of the spare tags I created when I was playing with the Tim Holtz June tag technique.  And if the words are going to take centre stage they deserve a touch of glossy embossing too!

Chris

I had lots of fun creating this shabby word piece. Stamping, die cutting, lots of ink and various techniques all went together to make it. For those of you looking for more details, my step x step is HERE.

Donna

Great theme for a challenge :) Always love to use words and quotes on  things I make.  I had left the first pages of my little moleskine journal clear but decided now was the time to fill them! Seemed like the perfect quote for the opening pages......

....pop over to my blog to see how it evolved. Donna xx 

Doreen

I have decorated a wooden plaque with acrylic paints, I am planning to cover all the door panels in the house with my decorated wooden plaques this is No 4.

You can get full details of how this was made from my Blog.

Gabrielle

I love words, they often act as the springboard for my ideas and so I was thrilled when I saw we had this as a challenge. I took my moleskin journal and roughly drew some houses in pencil and then wrote, by hand, everything home means to me around the houses. Then I coloured the houses in with Portfolio Pastels. I painted the background with watered down paint and revealed some of the writing in areas by wiping them with a baby wipe. I live at number 4 so I stamped a heart on that roof. I love these pages, as much for the personal message in the background as well as for the lovely bright houses in the foreground! There is more detail on my blog.

Jennie

For our wonderful theme this month I have chosen the written word and the lost art of letter writing for the theme of my tag.  After creating my background using Vintage Photo and Evergreen Bough I kept the embellishments quite simple.  There are more details on my blog.

Sue B

I went bright, beautiful and JOFY stamps for my first project. With paints, stencils and embossing paste to the Bg; Yellow is such a joyful colour. My words for this thought provoking statement were all cut using my cricut machine. More details on my Blog.

Sue C

Journalling was never something that I thought I would be interested in. How wrong could I be ! Words are the perfect embellishment for journal pages and for the ones I'm sharing today I've been lucky enough to play with the fab new Colour Bloom sprays ! For the details hop over to my blog .

Trace

I love all things wordy and playing with words always brings to mind my collection of gorgeous wordy stamps, so what better way to play with words than to create a mini album to hold some of my favourite words to live by . For all the details and what's inside please pop across to inkypinkycraft .

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We support and encourage crafting of all genres here from contemporary to vintage, from CAS to shabby chic and grunge, from card making, scrapping, tag art, journalling, altered art and home decor. Our individual posts commence on Sunday and will feature every alternate day throughout the month. We try and bring you DT makes that cover as much of the spectrum as possible - all we'd like now is for you to get crafting and join in!  >:o)

Have a wonderful August!

Chris and the team xxx

Sue C is whispering very loudly!

It's Sue's theme this month and you all know that if Sue is creating then it's going to be something colourful and creative. Today is no exception as she shares her second DT make with us - it's a beauty!

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"For my second piece this month I've finally finished a canvas that I started at a PaperArtsy workshop earlier in the year. Loads of layers of Fresco Finish paints and of course stencilling !"

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Oh wow, stunning colours, fabulous composition and a terrific example of stencilling Sue - thank you!

We promised you a month of very different projects and that's exactly what we're doing but we want to see YOUR projects please and what stencilling means to you.

On Wednesday we're having a 'Magpie Day' and it's something really special so please pop back and join us!

Chris and the team xxx

New month, new challenge!

It's the 1st of July which means we're half way through the year and nearer the end rather than the beginning - that means it's only downhill to Thanksgiving, Harvest Festival, Halloween, Bonfire Night (UK) then....... Christmas! Yay!!!!! So, do you think you know what I'm leading up to here.... you'd be wrong! Sorry, no Christmas theme for this month, it's Sue C's turn to choose the theme and she has chosen something you can all join in with.......

'STENCIL IT!'

Yep.... from Passe partout and parchment craft, from rustic painting to urban chic, from card making to altered art, from oil pastels to texture paste, there are hundreds of opportunities for you to get out your stencils (and masks if you're using it as a stencil) and different media to join in!

Our rules are simple but we do insist you abide by them if you want to be in with a chance of winning our fabulous £20 shop voucher donated by our sponsor Country View Crafts. Our winner is chosen at random (random.org) which means everyone has a chance of winning so whether you are a stalwart crafter or just starting out, YOU could be the lucky winner at the end of the month! As well as the voucher, we also award blog badges to the three entries that we think are the best and a special badge, the DT Member's Special Mention, to the entry we think has shown the greatest originality and creativity for our challenge theme. All of our winners are also invited to join us the following month as a guest designer.

So, are you ready? We hope you are because HERE WE GO!

First up is our May winner, Karen B...

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"My name is Karen Brierley, and I live in Queensland, Australia. I've been scrapbooking for over 8 years. In the past I have been very fortunate to design for several online Australian scrapbook stores, as well as a number of international challenge blogs. A few years ago I took a sudden and unexpected break from scrapping, and have only just started up again. As a result, I have a huge stash of products that have been untouched for almost 2 years, so you won't see much of the 'latest stuff' on my layouts. I make the most of what I have, and I'm happy with that.

I mostly scrap traditional layouts. My scrapping style is fairly eclectic, but most of my layouts are strong on colour, light on embellishments, with lots of machine stitching and/or doodled borders. I am intrigued by mixed media projects and have been slowly trying out techniques to gain confidence and push my boundaries. I devour tips, tricks and tutorials!

Thank you so much for welcoming me as a guest designer. I'd love you to visit my blog: beingkaren.blogspot.com"

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Karen of  BEING KAREN

"For this layout, I used a 6x6 Scrap FX stencil to apply texture paste to the base cardstock.  When it was dry, I painted over the top with Twinkling H2O's water colour - which was really fun!  Not only did I get an unexpected resist effect, but it also has a lovely shine."

Sue C of Stamping Sue style

"It's no secret, I love stencils ! There's so much you can do with them, they are my number one go to for all of my projects. For my first project I decided to alter the cover of a Finnabair journal. Lots of stencilling, embossing paste and also dabbling with Portfolio pastels."

Trace of inkypinkycraft

"Well for my first piece I have made an Artist trading Block with a little stencilled quote book inside. I have played with my Tim Holtz layering stencils using distress paint and lots of yummy distress inks to create this stencilled book and also stencilled box creating lots of stencilled layers. For all the details please see my blog."

Astrid of Astrid's Artistic Efforts

"I love using stencils for all sorts of projects. For this one I decided to make a card and envelope set with Dylusion Sprays, Inks and Grunge paste. I used mostly Tim Holtz layering Stencils. Please visit my blog for a full step by step."

Brenda of Bumblebees and Butterflies

"No project from me today, but a masterboard with a stenciling technique using Fresco Finish paints, Grunge Paste and Distress Stains. The process is very simple and great fun, you can make large pieces and then chop them up to use for other things. I have made several of these on greyboard ready to use for journal/notelet covers. I am showing the technique over on my blog."

Chris of My corner of Heaven

"Gesso, Treasure Gold and a stencil (a mask actually) form the basis of this star struck tag. You can find the step x step on my blog."

Donna of Donna's Little Crafty Corner

"I've used a couple of different stencils with distress inks along with a stamp from one of my favourite stamp sets. Full details on my blog.  Donna xx"

Doreen of Doreen's Dream

I have used Fresco Paints, stencils and JOFY stamps for this card, I do use stencils to make a lot of my backgrounds now,they are so useful.

You can get full details from my blog."

Gabrielle of crafty thoughts

"I love stencils, they are so versatile! For my first piece this month I have made a hanging using two stencils. I love watching my garden come to life as the warmer weather hits my corner of the UK and that was the inspiration for this hanging. The flower and leaves are Grunge Paste so the whole piece has some lovely texture. For a more detailed description and a few step by step photos, pop over and see my blog!  Gabrielle x"

Sue B of scrumplescrunch

"Here I have shown how, when you use just one stencil and two colours with the Gelli plate, there can be interesting results, if you don't have a Gelli plate no worries, hop across to my blog and I can give you some tips how to obtain a similar result."

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We hope you like our line up for this challenge. To add to your motivation and, hopefully, your inspiration, we will be posting a new make by one of our DTMs and guests every other day throughout July for you to come and look at!

We want to see what YOU can do so go get those stencils and show us how creatively you can use them - GOOD LUCK!

Chris and the team xxx

An InLinkz Link-up

A textured tag from Sue

We're just through the first week and we're still going strong - how are you doing? This beautifully textured tag is by our talented Sue......

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Sue of Stamping Sue Style

For my second piece this month I've made a tag and stepped into my comfort zone of shades of brown ! I love the sentiments by Wendy Vecchi and this image of the man just seemed to sit perfectly on the side.

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The depth of colour and texture on this tag is delicious Sue!! Beautiful - thank you!

How are you doing? Have you thought of something creative on a masculine theme yet? We hope so because we want to see them and every entry has an equal chance of winning the £20 shop voucher from our sponsor, Country View Crafts.

Alison will be here next, on Thursday, with her second project so please be sure to pop back and see what she has been up to!

Have a fun day,

Chris and the team xxx

A new challenge and some new designers!

Hello everyone, it's June, the beginning of a brand new challenge (#16) and we have some new DT Members too! We are extending our team to bring you more posts and projects throughout the month so please join me in saying hello to our fabulously talented new DTMs...

WELCOME ALISON

WELCOME DOREEN

WELCOME SUE B

We have added our new DTMs' bio's to our Team page so please take a look and see what they've been up to.

This month it is Gabrielle's turn to choose our theme and she has chosen....

'ONLY MEN ALLOWED'

You can submit any genre of project you like as long as it clearly demonstrates a masculine theme. The winner will be chosen at random to receive a £20 shop voucher from our sponsor, Country View Crafts. There will also be blog badges awarded to a further 4 entrants who the DT feel have created the most inspiring entries.

We know that sometimes it's a struggle to make things for the guys so our talented DT Members have crafted a fabulous display of projects to get you motivated...

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Gabrielle of crafty thoughts

"I love Oscar Wilde's witty comments and this one leapt off the page! The dapper chaps are a PaperArtsy stamp that seemed a perfect fit with the quote! The tag had paint thinly scraped across it with a palette knife in many layers which creates lots of texture in the background and a perfect home for my smart chaps! Do check out my blog for close up photos that might show these layers in more detail."

Jennie of live the dream

"I have got a bit addicted to making these pop up card boxes! and thought it about time I made a male-themed one.  Once you get the hang of the measurements they are very easy and quick to produce and then it is all about having fun decorating! There are more details on my blog and a link to a great tutorial for the card box."

Sue B of Scrumplescrunch

"A few firsts for me this month; number one, my first creation as part of this very talented team at CVC, and secondly which is a biggie, my first ever Masculine card! When I was told the theme; 'Only Men Allowed' I did not know what I was going to do, I had some precut cogs and gears, so worked with them alongside G45 paper. It is a steampunk creation, which is also a first."

Sue of Stamping Sue Style

"For my first project for this challenge I've revisited something that I made in a Tim Holtz workshop and thought it was time that I gave it another go ! My plans are that I will add tags to the book as the binding mechanism will hold loads more !"

Alison of Words and Pictures

"Hi everyone!  I'm absolutely delighted to be sharing my first Country View Crafts creation with you.  I hit the metal for this tag, and my favourite crafty men of all: Tim Holtz and Umbrella Man.  The steely, stormy blues really please me - I hope you like it too - and if you'd like to see more details, do come and visit me at Words and Pictures."

Astrid of Astrid's Artistic Efforts

My husband travels a lot and I made a little accordion fold journal for him in which he can put his photos and journaling notes if he wishes. I used the Sizzix Big Ticket die which is just the perfect size (5.25 x 3.5 ") for this. For instructions on how I made this, please visit my blog.

Brenda of Bumblebees and butterflies

"I have made a triptych tribute to my Dad for Father's Day. The main background frames are made using the Cameo Frame and Pediments dies and each of the elements signify something about him."

Chris of My corner of heaven

"This shadow box was made especially for my GP who is retiring this month. Rather than buy a bottle of champagne I thought he might like something a little different - he did! The bottle labels show that the bottles contain all I wish him - good health, joy and laughter. You can find a list of the materials and tools I've used together with a step x step on my blog."

Doreen of Doreen's Dream

Hello to you all,well here I am my first post for Country View Crafts I am so happy to be here with  all these talented crafters. For my first creation, as it is Fathers Day on the 15th of this month here in the UK, I have made a Fathers Day Card. You can get details of how this was made over on my blog.

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We hope you like our line up, there are plenty of ideas to think about. We have lots more to show you y from our DTMs during the month so please pop back every few days and see what's new.

Hopefully, you'll seize the theme and jump in and join us, we're bursting to see what clever and different ideas you can come up with. As Fathers' Day falls in June for many countries (not all) around the world we're hoping that this will serve as a great opportunity for you to make something and enter..... we shall see! >;o)

Please remember to check out our rules for entering as we should hate for you to be picked and passed over because you haven't complied. The rules are very simple, you can find them HERE.

As ever, our challenge closes just before midnight on the last day of the month - GOOD LUCK!

Chris and the team xxx

An InLinkz Link-up

Sue has the last post for April

We promised you something special for the end of the month and we don't think you'll be disappointed. Our last piece is inspirational, from one of our own DTMs...

Sue

Stamping Sue Style

"For my second piece this month I've continued with the new home theme and created a wall hanging. I've also had a little dabble with UTEE and making my own mold. So maybe this too will be a new beginning !"

Sue, your post might be short and sweet but your project speaks volumes - stunning! Thank you!

As April ends on the 30th you have less than 3 days to finish your projects and link them up. Winners will be announced in early May - Good luck to you all! xxx

Its challenge #14!

Hi everyone, thank you for all your entries for March, we're now in the process of choosing our Top 3 and DTMSM and we'll be announcing the winners soon. In the meantime, it's April, it's challenge #14 and Chris has chosen our theme for this month, it's...

'NEW BEGINNINGS'

Our challenge is about what 'New beginnings' means to YOU. It could be a baby, a wedding, a new home, Spring, Easter, a change of career, emigrating to another country, and much, much more. We'd like to see how you interpret the theme and, then, what your creative thoughts produce!

As usual, to get you started, we have a line up from our talented DT...

Chris

My corner of heaven

"My 'New beginnings' project is a wedding planner which was brought to mind by the news that 2 family members will be getting married later this year, starting new lives with their respective partners. The planner uses Tim's new clipboard clips and has been made to look like a book.

You'll find a step x step and product gallery on my blog."

Donna

Donna's Little Crafty Corner

New Beginnings......thought about this trying to decide what to do and being a bit of a quote lover decided that that was the route I would take.  Actually new beginnings is pretty apt for me at the moment because I'm going to have to make one myself and the quote that I've used on this tag for my first challenge piece is really one that I need to hang on to!

Full details of what I've used are on my blog."

Gabrielle

crafty thoughts

"New Beginnings is a wonderfully all-encompassing theme which sparks loads of ideas for me. I chose to focus on Spring in the hope that it encourages my garden to begin to come alive! I adore Jo's stamps and think they represent Spring beautifully. The flowers were stamped again on a separate piece of card and coloured with Dylusion inks and then I added water so they 'bled' creating lighter shades in the inner circles. The butterfly was coloured the opposite way! I then cut them out and added them to the tag."

Jennie

Live The Dream

"I thought I would use our fabulous challenge theme - New Beginnings - to try out some new techniques.  So here is the first! I am not sure what you would call it but I first dry embossed my tag using an embossing folder and then I used a palette knife to smear Distress Paints over the top.  Messy and fun but oh what a lovely effect! I decorated the tag with some  handcrafted flowers.

There are more pictures on my blog and details of the paint smearing and of course the flowers."

Sue

Stamping Sue Style

"New Beginnings for me is really apt at the moment as we're in the process of moving house. So for my first project of the month I had this theme in mind and wanted something that I could display in my new home."

Brenda

Bumblebees and Butterflies

"I have had fun with the new Chatsworth collection of papers and stamps from PaperArtsy. When I think about new beginnings this time of year I always am reminded about re-birth, re-growth and new plants in the garden. I love my pots and use them to give me additional bursts of colour around the patio and decking and that was the inspiration for my piece of art today.

By altering the paper I feel I have created greater depth to the background and these beautiful blooms by Lin Brown became my focal point. The final piece has ended up in my art journal."

 

Now it's over to you! We hope you like the challenge this month, you have lots of choice so we're hoping to see lots of entries. There will be our usual prize of a £20 shop voucher from our fabulous sponsor, Country View Crafts, the winner is chosen at random by random.org. The DT choose the three projects they like the best who receive blog badges and there is a 'special mention' award too for the project we think shows the most originality and creativity.

Our Guests and DT Members will be posting new projects every few days throughout the month to keep you motivated and, hopefully, to add some inspiration to the mix.

Have a great month! xxx

An InLinkz Link-up

Sue has paper chasing paper!

Today we have another post from Sue, one of our permanent DTMs. Sue, renowned for her love of stamping, has put together another wowser of a project to share with us! It's paper, paper, paper, all the way...

Sue

of Stamping Sue Style

 

 http://www.stampingsuestyle.blogspot.co.uk/

 "Speciality Stamping Paper is a fabulous surface to work on and I took the opportunity with this project to dabble with Wendy Vecchi's re-inker and rubbing alcohol technique."

 Beautiful colours, beautiful design, this is gorgeous Sue, thank you!

We hope we're demonstrating some great and creative paper projects for you. 

Remember, for this month only, we will be having TWO £20 SHOP VOUCHERS TO BE WON and both winners will be chosen at random!

More in a few days time. xxx