December challenge - Your favourite thing from 2014

Merry Christmas!
I know that there is still a little time to go, but not long really!
On a personal note I would like to take the time to thank everyone who has played along with our challenges over 2014. You are all very talented and you have helped to inspire us every month.
I would also like to thank my design team - thank you for joining us and for all your wonderful inspiration every month. You are all uber talented and a joy to work with.
A massive thank you to all of our sponsors over 2014 - we hope you will all agree to sponsor us again in 2015 as we have loved working with all of your wonderful images.
And a special mention to my two team leaders, Dawn - who has been my right hand woman from the very start and sorts out all the sponsors for the team to work with and for you to win prizes from and Marlene - who joined us, stepped up when we needed a team leader and who helps the DT when they are stuck.
Without them, our sponsors and of course all of you, there would be no Crafting Cafe. So thank you!
Here's to a fun and crafty filled 2015!

So this month the challenge is for you to reflect 'Your favourite thing from 2014', that could be colours, creative mediums, and image or embellishment.
We can't wait to see the projects that you share with us.

This month there is no sponsor. This one is just for fun.
The design team will be popping back over the month to inspire you and show you some of their favourite things from 2014.....

Here are a few of my projects to get the ball rolling

 I have loved working with all our sponsors and I have loved getting creative with digis....

 I love, love, love all things die cut!

 Playing with pyrography...

 Having fun with fimo......

Now it's over to you.... we would love to see what your favourite thing has been this year - it's just for fun so really there are no rules....

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.
Happy crafting
Nikki & The Crafting Cafe Design Team x

An InLinkz Link-up

December- Favourite thing from 2014 - Angelie

Hi there

Hope you are all enjoying the festive season and the sales! Watercolour is something new I wanted to try this year and I've loved learning this medium - its my favourite colouring technique at the moment!

Hope you all have a lovely new years

2014 Favourites

This month's challenge is to share your favourite makes of the year.  2014 has been quite a special crafting year for me for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, it's the first year I've done any significant amount of scrapbooking.  I've always wanted to scrap, and becoming a Mum in 2011 gave me an extra reason to do it, but I hadn't managed more than the odd isolated project.   At the start of the year I set myself a target of creating one layout per month, and I'm happy to say I exceeded that, not least because I think that's the first time I've ever kept to a new year's resolution!  My top 3 favourite layouts for the year are these:

"Bob's Bumpy Bark Rub" (this was my first of the year, and incorporates a bark rubbing):

"Great Minds" (think alike), made for a sketch challenge on the do crafts scrapbook forum:

and "Bob's First Proper Christmas", my first 12x12 double page layout:

The other reason 2014's crafting has been special is that my little boy has very recently become interested in making things :-)  To capitalise on this, I made an activity advent calendar that included some crafting and cooking projects.  Despite the fact I spend all of every day with him, I think we're both really benefitting from this more focussed 'time in'.  This is my favourite of the things that we've made so far - partly because Bob stayed interested from start to finish, and partly because I managed to resist the temptation to neaten it up!

I hope you like my faves.  Thanks for reading and Happy Christmas!

Amanda

Our December Winners

Thank you for the wonderful entries into our sketch theme challenge last month.
You all did a beautiful job.

The winner of the challenge, picked by Mr Random Generator is....

 6. Ajaschas Bastelecke

Please email us about your prize.

And our fabby top 3 goes, in no particular order, to,

12. Winter Fairy by Leona

1. Dorothy S

3. Grammy's Attic (NanaConnie)

Please take your blog badges ladies and wear them proudly on your blog!

Thank you again for everyone who entered, we hope to see you all again very soon...... This month the theme is 'Anything Goes'.

December Challenge - Working With A Sketch

Wow - how on Earth did we get to December already!
What a busy year - but oh so much fun as well!
Before we get started on this months challenge I wanted to say a massive thank you to all of you.... thank you for stopping by our little space in the blog world, thank you for leaving lovely comments on our posts (we always appreciate you taking the time out to do that) and thank you for entering our challenge every month. You are all really talented and you all inspire us too. So thank you x
I also wanted to say a massive thank you to my design team, they are a very talented bunch. Over the year we have seen a few changes - and over the next month you will see the new dt members popping by with their inspirational projects, so do keep popping back as they introduce themselves. I know they are all very excited and really looking forward to working with the team.
I also wanted to say a massive thank you to all of our sponsors this year.... we have had wonderful images to work with and have enjoyed working with them all x

So for this months challenge our sponsor is ....... me!
I have designed a sketch or 4 for you to work with.... all you need to do is pick one of these sketches and use that as you template/guide to create your project.
Here are the sketches....

I have used sketch number 3 on my inspiration card...
You can twist the sketch around and add some extra bits too.....
Here is my card.....

The prize this month will be a goody bag of crafting goodies....
So, now over to you..... pick your sketch - have a look at the rules (check them out in the side bar) - create your project and then link it to your blog post here....
Remember to let us know what sketch you have used (you can do this by putting the sketch number with your name when you enter.

I am really looking forward to seeing what you create with the sketches.
Happy crafting
Nikki x

An InLinkz Link-up

Introducing Angelie

Hi there,

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas break!

My name is Angelie and I’m thrilled to be joining the talented Crafting Cafe Design Team and sharing my designs with you.

I live in London and love papercraft, there is nothing better than taking a blank piece of paper and creating something beautiful. I’m a complete patterned paper hoarder [occasionally some of it even gets used :) ] and I adore my promakers.

This is my design (using sketch #4) and as I hardly ever make circle cards, this was nice change for me

There have been some lovely creations this month and we’d love to see your designs too if you haven’t joined the challenge yet. If you join, please make sure you leave a link to your blog in the challenge post so that we can pop on over and visit you!

My personal blog is here and I’d love to have you stop by when you have time.

Happy new year in advance

Angelie

Working With A Sketch - Dawn

Good morning bloggers, we're nearly there!

Are you ready yet?

It's time for my DT Project for this month's challenge

Working With Sketches

Here's a little Christmas tag I made using Sketch No. 4

I was going to share some of the others I had made with you but 

the light is appalling & I need to get my wrapping up sorted so

I'm afraid must get on with it!

To read more about my tag, visit my blog here 

If you haven't entered the challenge yet & you're wrapping presents

 & making tags,why not try using the sketches for your inspiration,

take a little photo & link up to the challenge here!

The challenge is open until the 31st December.

Hope to see your entries soon!

Introducing The Sparkly Fairy

Hi there and a Merry Christmas!,

 I am so pleased to be joining the Crafting Cafe Design Team.

My name is Emma  (aka The Sparkly Fairy) and I just love to craft...

I live on the South Coast of England, just a walk away from the sea.

My favourite thing to do in crafting is stamping, but will have a go at 

most crafts - although I've not been very successful with

 knitting and crochet!

I'm looking forward to working with all the design team and to sharing 

my creations with you all.

This month we are working with sketches that Nikki has created, 

I chose to work with this one.......

This is what I created with it......

a very simple card just in time for Christmas. I used two holly stamps 

to create the background and coloured them with Promarkers. 

I then used black as a matting layer to really make the design stand 

out. Lastly I added a greeting. 

We would love to see all your creations with the sketches..... 

if you join in with the challenge make sure you leave your link in the

 challenge post so that we can pop on over and visit you.....

December Challenge - Mags

Hi Folks

It's Mags here to share a little inspiration with you for our December 'use a sketch' challenge.  

My daughter asked me for a birthday card for one of her friends so I used sketch number 1 as the starting point for this creation.  The papers are from Papermania and the cupcake topper was hiding at the bottom of my stash box.  Has to be at least two years old.  I used some glitter card for sparkle and lots of pink.    

There are four fab sketches to choose from and the winner will receive some crafting goodies from our very own Nikki.  The challenge runs until the end of December so get those entries in for a chance to win.

Bye for now

Mags

xx

December Challenge & Introducing Samantha K

Hey everyone :) My name is Sam (AKA Samantha K in the blogging world!)
 and I'm soooo thrilled to have been picked to be part of the wonderful 
design team here at Crafting Cafe.

Today they have been crazy enough to let me loose on here so I'd love to 
quickly introduce myself and then show you my card for this months 
"Sketch Challenge".

'I am a happily married, mum to two gorgeous girls, one 18 years old 
and the other a 1 year old! I love animals, have quite a few pets 
and live in England, UK. :)

I love trying out new techniques and although still relatively new to 
the crafty world, I am loving every bit of it. 

My favourite thing at the moment is colouring! And I use Promarkers.
 If I can, I like to make everything I use on a creation from scratch. 
I love learning and find that I am learning every day from all you 
wonderful crafters out there :)' 

So onto this months challenge which was to use ONE of the four (yes four!) 
fabby sketches that our talented Nikki has created for us all. 
(You can find the sketches in the pinned post above) 
I choose to use sketch number 1.

And this is my take on it :)
 (For more piccys and to find out how I put this card 
together please hop over to my blog)

We would love for you to share your creations using any of the
 four sketches. If you are joining in the challenge,
 please remember to leave your link in the challenge post 
so we can pop by to visit you :)

Hugs 

Samantha K

x

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone and welcome to our December sketch challenge!  I love working with sketches, as it cuts out one big area of procrastination from my crafting :-)  Our lovely Nikki has created 4 great sketches for us to work with this month, and I couldn't resist the triangular one.

I've used it to make a snowy Christmas mountain decorated with 3 happy snowmen.  I hope you like it!  For a bit more information about my project, please see my blog here

.

Wishing you a very crafty Christmas and 2014

Amanda x

December Challenge - Dawn

Hi all,

I hope you get the time to play in our sketch challenge,

Nikki has done a great job drawing not just 1 but 4 sketches for us all to play with!

I was so excited, I just couldn't wait for my turn!

 So I nipped in to a vacant slot!

Here's what I made!

I used sketch No. 3 as the basis for the layout of an engagement card!

The card is decorated on the inside too!

My card was also made for the Just Inklined Blog Hop

Read more about my card & the hop on my blog here