NOVEMBER CHALLENGE DETAILS

Here I am - late again - with the Crafty Individuals November Challenge details.  I ended up watching some weird sort of horror movie with my son tonight (and I don't normally do horror movies!) - but you know when you get sucked into something that is on the TV and need to see what happens ..........
Do I feel better for having watched it until the end? - no I can't say that I do really.  Ah well lets move on!

Today is 1st November and that means its time for the start of the new Challenge.  The subject matter for the Challenge has been chosen with the oncoming season in mind - and is 'Winter Wonderland' - with big thanks to Lynne for this excellent idea.  Lynne will also be judging this month's challenge at the end of the month, and will be picking five winners who will each be able to choose a rubber stamp from our collection as their 'prize'.  So please do join in if you can - it is always a pleasure to see all your very creative work.

Please note:  As this is a Crafty Individuals Challenge you must include at least one Crafty Individuals product in your submission.

You will be able to submit your entry up until midnight on 25th November, and we are so looking forward to seeing your artwork.

As usual I will paste the monthly guidelines below:

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CHALLENGE GUIDELINES

To enter this month’s Crafty Individuals Challenge please put together your project, following the subject material outlined below (your project should include at least one Crafty Individuals product please), then:

Post your challenge project on your blog, before the 25^th of the month, and include a link back to this blog,

Leave a link in the URL box to take us directly to your challenge project, etc. – which will then appear here on this blog as a thumbnail image – so we can all see your wonderful work.

At the end of the month the CI team and/or guests will set about choosing five lucky participants, each of whom will win a CI rubber stamp of their choice.

Go for it and enjoy the challenge x

.......

I have some lovely 'Rudolph', CI-332, themed projects from the 'Team' to give you food for thought tonight - mmmm!

To begin with a gentle and delightful hanging by LYNNE herself:

Followed by a wonderful card from ISABELLE (loving the scroll effect):

And then a very pretty little box decorated with Stampbord tiles (and Rudolph), by LUCY:

So there we have just a little taster selection, and with more to follow soon.

NB: We have just received the new issue of Craft Stamper tonight, which should be on the CI Website very soon, and it has a few projects within, featuring our products, including one by myself and another one by Joanne Wardle, which is really lovely.  So don't forget to purchase a copy of this great British stamping magazine!

Goodnight all!

Jean x

ps Look out for some more Blog Candy packages to come later in the week.  

FIVE FABULOUS OCTOBER CHALLENGE WINNING ENTRIES ....

Better let you know the October Challenge Winners quick - before the start of the November Challenge.  This Challenge business really brings it home to me how fast the months fly by!  Heavens - its nearly Christmas again!

The five fabulous winning entries have been kindly picked for us this month by Carol (Ginger) and here they are (in no particular order):

A so very pretty card by Paula featuring stamp CI-069 :-

A very spooky framed creation by Brenda (Happy Halloween folks!) - just loving those oh so ancient bottles (Brenda used CI-319 as her background):-

A beautiful box of winged thingz by Myra incorporating CI-108 and CI-135 :-

A creepy, gothic style tag by Lena in fantastic colours, using our stamps CI-062 and CI-227:-

And finally a winged mallards card by Siobhan - just lovely!  Siobhan used CI-297 to make this card.

Nice flower detail too - using crackle stamp CI-116:-

A great choice of projects, we hope you agree?!

Do check out all five blogs for more lovely artwork, and further instructions as to how they went about making their projects.

As always ladies please email us at info@craftyindividuals.co.uk with your winning choice of stamp and your postal address, and your prize will be winging its way to you in no time at all!

Thanks to everyone who entered - its lovely to see so much gorgeous artwork.  I'll be back with the November Challenge details in just a few days.  Hope you will join us!

Have a great weekend all - and go get those fingers inky - you know you want to!

Jean x

SAFELY HOME, WITH LOTS OF LOVELY PHOTOS

We had a fabulous time in Spain, including several colourful days spent in Seville.  It was very warm and sunny and we took around 1,000 photos between us - plenty of future material for crafting there then!

I have quickly put together a little taster (fragments) below - just amazing textures and colours:

Mmmm - yummy!

Plus another one of my favourites:

Well to crack on tonight - I have a few other crafting things to show you.  These are really relating back to the current CHALLENGE, which is now almost ending (just over a day for your submissions folks!), and should have been shown here a while ago.  Firstly a rather lovely 'winged things' wall hanging by SUE - a delight to grace anyone's wall.

Now a beautiful decorated tray by Isabelle - who is making some really creative projects at the moment, so do check out her blog -

Which also doubles as a calendar project - made for THE CRAFT BARN BLOG .....

And whilst I am on the subject of The Craft Barn Blog (which is always a treat to visit) - I spotted this project made by the uber talented ISA (from France) - I hope she won't mind me popping these images on here, but they are just so lovely - using our elements plates CI-255 AND CI-305 -

Go visit ISA'S BLOG as she is one very talented lady (and you can buy stuff too!).

Anyway back to 'winged things' and a lovely shrine by ZUZU, which was also made for The Craft Barn Blog -

And to finish this post tonight TASSY has been busy putting together a couple more of her clever and informative videos, using our products.  The first is on the subject of 'winged things' and can be located HERE - this is the card she is demonstrating:

And the second is a lovely alcohol ink technique based card ....

which can be watched HERE.  Enjoy!

Jean x

BEFORE WE LEAVE FOR SUNNY SPAIN .......

........thought I had better log in with a little post.  Malcolm and I will be away for a week - however there will still be ladies here eagerly waiting for your orders, and whisking them off in the post as usual - so no problems on that score then!

We had a lovely show in Port Sunlight last weekend, and it was really great to meet all of you who came over to our stand and said hello.  This was one of our decorated Christmas Tags that I further embellished with our new and very popular 'Rudolph' stamp CI-332:

I cut and overlapped parts of the tag around the stamp image, embellished further, and layered the tag onto two complimentary pieces of coloured card.

And the image below is of a tag that has become another one of those little handmade Christmas gifts that I am working on.  I used another tag (the same design as the first one) to cover a little 'cheap' notepad - the side view shows the structure better - and then I glued the covered notepad to the lower front of the first tag.  A cardboard strut back was added so that the project can stand alone - a useful present for a friend!

I'm sure you get the idea!

More gift ideas still to follow.

I also want to show you tonight some lovely sample projects by Lisa and Elaine of Destination Art.  Lisa and Elaine are retailers in Australia who work with and sell our products  - so very pretty!  Do check out their blog and shop!

And ....

Finally tonight I just must show you a couple of beautiful card images sent over to me by lovely Lynne of Adorn - so very feminine as always:

In this one Lynne has used our new Shades of Summer Background Book, plus rubber stamps CI-108 and CI-329.

Then .....

Again with the new background book and stamp CI-329, plus another new stamp CI-331.

To finish tonight just a little reminder about the current CI CHALLENGE - 'Winged Things' which is attracting some very crafty and individual creations this month.  There are still 13 days to go to get your 'winged' projects linked in - so get those stamps and papers out and join in with the fun!

Hoping to get some great photos, ideas and stuff in Seville (and a bit of warmth too perhaps) - back with you soon.

Jean x

MORE OCTOBER CHALLENGE INSPIRATION

This is a very quick post as we are off to Port Sunlight tomorrow morning to set up for the Happy Stampers show.  Looking forward to meeting you there if you have tickets for this great event.

But before we go I am adding a few more Challenge (Winged Things) inspirational pieces as follows:

An extremely creative and lovely piece of work from Zuzu ....

*(SORRY IMAGE REMOVED FOR MAGAZINE SUBMISSION)

Zuzu has used the angel CI-056 (one of my all time favourite stamps) plus our calligraphy stamps to create this - thanks Zuzu.

Then a great hanging using our new stamp CI-329 by Kim - loving this new stamp, which will also be featuring on Dawn Bibby's show I believe, on Create and Craft - Tuesday - so do check it out folks!

Thanks Kim!

A couple of superb 'acetate' cards by Sue featuring images from our Christmas Image Books, plus our calligraphy stamp.

And finally another piece by Helen - a lovely 'winged' pendant which would be a delight to wear.

Thanks to both Sue and Helen! 

Now I had better get back to packing those boxes - bye for now!

Jean x

WE HAVE 4 NEW STAMPS AND A NEW BOOK AVAILABLE NOW ....

If you are on the Crafty Individuals Website mailing list you will now know that we have released the latest new stamps, and our new background papers book - 'Shades of Summer'.  As you know I am in a pretty, pretty sort of crafting mood currently, so the new stuff suits this mood perfectly!  I thought I would show you a few of the items I have been making with the products in the last couple of weeks or so:

Firstly three cards -

This card was made with one of our Portrait Tags, our 'Shades of Summer' background book (cut-out birdcage and dove), stamp CI-258 (such a useful stamp!), plus flowers, lace, heart brads and hand-dyed ribbon (I bought this ribbon, and we are getting it in stock very soon - love it!).

Close-up -

By the way whilst I am the tag subject I have just received my copy of the new issue Craft Stamper (November), and it has a lovely, lovely article by Helen Chilton - using the TAGS in lots of great ways - even little birdhouses out of just one tag.  As soon as we receive our copies for the website we will get them up there for you, so you can check them out for yourself.  Whilst I am on the subject of CS Liesbeth Fidder (a very talented crafter from the Netherlands) also has an article in there using CI items in great creative ways.

Second card:

This time I stamped the new birdcage from CI-329 onto one of the background papers and then carried on in a similar way to the card above.

And the last card:

Using the new papers plus stamps CI-326 and CI-320.

Here are the new stamps:

And the cover of the new book:

We have also added another couple of items by Tando (loving their products!):-

A new Mini House Trio - with little doors and windows, how cute is that?, and another small Printer Tray with Cover.  Thought I would give the tray a bit of a makeover with Christmas in mind - so why not do something similar as a very special card for someone you love -

Close-ups:

And the front and back covers -

Firstly I gessoed and painted the chipboard in a pale blue.  I covered the front and back and inner right hand side with our Christmas Tags and then stamped over the exposed painted chipboard with snowflake stamp CI-241 and embossed.  Then I used the following stamps to decorate:- CI-142, CI-254, CI-327, CI-257 and CI-304, plus a couple of images from our Merry Christmas image book.

Do you like?

I am always delighted to read your comments on my posts, and sorry not to be able to chat to each of you personally (I would just never get any work done!).  However as a little thank you for today I would like to give each of the lovely commentees (is that a word?!) to date, from last night's challenge posting, one of the new stamps (of their choice) .  So we would be very pleased if Lee (Crafty Loops), Netty, Lynne (Ephemera), Daniele, Sid, Gisele, Fliss, Margaret, Florence, Ann B, and Cheryl, would forward their addresses and choice of new stamp to info@craftyindividuals.co.uk, so that we can get them in the post (I haven't included Lynne Moncrieff as she already has them of course!). 

Now I have to go - needing a nice cup of tea, and to settle down ready to watch 'Downton Abbey' (goody!) - no designing tonight then I don't think!

Thanks for checking me out.

Jean x