Sue's second make and our last for this month

We hope you all had lots of lovely crafting goodies in your stocking this Christmas, we did! 

It's our last post for this month today and a big thank you to Sue for crafting us this special Christmas make to conclude our theme...

"For my second project I've made a Christmas card using the gorgeous Ornate Frame die."

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

How beautiful Sue, so vibrant and such a stunning card!

You still have three days to use your new crafty items and enter your makes (there is no limit to the number you can enter). We will be back on New Year's day with another new theme to challenge your creativity.

Enjoy the rest of the holiday! xxx

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE !!!

Happy Christmas to everyone from all the Design Team here at Country View Challenges!! 

We hope Santa has delivered all you wanted.

Today we're featuring a project from Christi, our October winner, as well as a second make from Chris. Here is Christi's make...

http://art-without-anxiety.blogspot.co.uk

"As soon as I heard the December challenge for Country View Crafts was “Bah Humbug” I immediately thought of this awesome free cutting file from Bird’s Cards. The title of the cutting file is “When Santa Got Stuck in the Chimney” and I thought there isn’t much more BAH HUMBUG than poor Santa ending up head down in a bunch of soot!  The card was very easy and forgiving to make and Bird even offers templates for those who don’t have cutting machines so you can trace & cut yourself.  I do hope you’ll stop by my blog and look at how I crafted this cute and funny holiday card."

And from Chris...

"My second DT project this month is another card and it's grunge, grunge, grunge all the way!

Call me a cynic if you like, but I just adore Dyan Reaveley's 'Christmas Words' stamp set. They've been around a long time now but I still love bringing them out for Christmas...

 

 

They team up very well with some of the Stampotique characters...

 www.mycornerofheaven.com

You can find the details of what I used on my blog. xxx"

 Thanks to both Christi and Chris for their fab and funny Christmas Day projects!

We'll be back with more in a few days - have a great Christmas everyone! XXX

Hazel's festive wow!

We have the pleasure of sharing another of our Top 3 winner's guest DT pieces with you today and it's another with 'the wow factor'! Over to Hazel...

"I was over the moon and very excited when I received Chris’s email asking me if I wanted to be a Guest Designer for December as my project had made the October top three.

The Bah Humbug theme took me back to my junior school where we had to sit quietly while our teacher read Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol to us – it became one of my favourite books. I decided that I wanted to use an image from the book on my project so I searched the web and found and image of Scrooge being visited by the ghost of Christmas present.

 

For my project I have made a vintage canvas using my favourite Christmas colours red, green and gold. I adhered strips of snowflakes to the sides of the canvas then painted it red, before the paint dried I used a baby wipe to take of some of the paint  on the snowflakes. I edged a piece of green corrugated card with shabby white Frantage embossing enamel and then layered some distressed Christmas papers and added some lace and ribbon, I adhered this to the front of the canvas. I then layered the Scrooge image, the Gecko Galz music and snowmen images and the stamped Artistic Stamper Santa image. Spellbinders scalloped oval dies were used to cut out the images and I edged them with distress ink. For the greenery I used Sizzix Tattered Pine Cone and Holly Branch Dies and added some red beads. I added lots of Ice Stickles to the images and greenery but it doesn’t show up very well on the photos. The wooden snowflakes were painted white and covered with Ice Stickles, the snowflakes on the side of the canvas also got the Stickle treatment."

http://hazelscreativemoments.blogspot.co.uk

Thank you Hazel for this amazing project! So beautifully festive as we approach Christmas Eve.

We're about ¾ of the way through the month now and we're delighted to see so many of your fabulous entries and we know how busy you must be. We hope that more of you will find some time over the Christmas period to share your makes with us.

More on Christmas Day! xxx

November’s winners!

Hi everyone! Apologies for being a little late this month with the announcement but here they are!

The WINNER chosen by random.org is...

#39 – Rita of RMG Creations! 

Well done Rita, your shop voucher and badge are on their way!

The Top 3 and DTMSM (DT Members’ Special Mention) awards this month have been chosen by Brenda…

Top 3

#11 – Desire Fourie of Doing Life	#15 - Meggymay of Meggy's Way	#28 – Jane of Jane’s Journal

DTMSM

#6 – Lorraine C M of Craftylollea's Craftroom

Well done to all of you - your badges and invitations to guest with us are on their way!  Well done also to all the other entrants who supported the challenge and entered their projects - better luck next time!

More in the morning folks! xxx

Wow! We're in awe of Laura today!

Today we have the most delicious of crafty surprises for you - this amazing make from the very talented and creative Laura (of Laurart) who, we know, so many of you follow...

"I was thrilled to be invited to make something for the Country View Challenges "Bah Humbug" challenge. I adore making Christmas things and I had a wonderful time decorating this little house. I am so glad to be here to show it to all of you. 

 

I really liked the title "Bah Humbug".....I loved the possible 'comical grumpy' element to such a joyous time...and I really hope I captured that here! I think Father Christmas might just have encountered a "Bah Humbug" moment here....those children don't look sleepy to me and I think he is in for a very long wait to be able to deliver all those gifts without being seen! 

 

Thank you so much for inviting me to take part in such a special challenge - Merry Christmas!"

 http://laurabomber.blogspot.co.uk

And a Merry Christmas to you too Laura, thank you so much for sharing this with us, how special and creative this is!

We are so very lucky to have so many talented and creative followers who like to share their creativity with us by entering their projects in our challenges We hope that Laura has inspired more of you to make something for our 'Bah, humbug' challenge.

More to come in a few days. xxx

Gabrielle's on the journalling path...

We're getting ever closer to the holidays and what better to remind us to record our memories is this beautiful and vibrant journal page from Gabrielle...

http://gabrielle-price.blogspot.co.uk

"My second project for our 'Bah Humbug' theme this month is a page in my journal. There are embossing paste snowflakes in the background and a Victorian Santa keeping an eye on my very favourite stamp - my Phrenology head that I've nicknamed Su (as I think she looks a little like Su Pollard!) I really like the detail in the wreath around Su's neck - I think I'll use that lots and lots this Christmas." 

We're half way through the challenge month and delighted to see all your beautiful Christmas entries, PLEASE, please, keep them coming! The winner this month gets the choice of our £20 shop voucher for craft goodies or a special Christmas treat of a workshop ticket to Brenda's workshop in January!!!

We'll have another Christmas treat for you in a few days! xxx

Maggie's masterpiece

Regulars will know that we take pride in featuring ALL of our winners if they're happy to contribute a guest piece for us: Today we're delighted to show you a make from Maggie, one of our Top 3 winners and what a stunning card it is!

http://capricorncrafts.blogspot.co.uk

"My card is heavily inspired by my Tim Holtz stash which seemed appropriate for the challenge theme Bah Humbug which immediately said to me " A Christmas Carol" and Victorian Silhouettes die and Kraft resist Christmas Memories paper stash shouted "use me"! I picked a square with Christmas Carols in resist which seemed apt and inked with Barn Door Distress inks to a deep shade to really bring out the resist areas, Frame was cut from metallic paper and sanded.  Next a layer of designer paper Holidays Past and a Salvage Sticker were mounted behind frame and matted and layered with kraft, red and black card. Tattered Garland die and Festive Greenery were used to cut the flower embellishment, lastly I added some glitter for snow as the carol singers are standing outside and it's snowing on a very cold Christmas Eve!!"

Wow! Thank you Maggie for this wonderfully inspiring project!

Maggie has demonstrated just how creative you can be with just a few items so we hope those of you who haven't entered yet will find a little time to do so.  

More in a few days!  xxx

Donna's been skating!

Thank you all so much for your fabulous entries, we're off to a roaring start! Today we're featuring Donna's second DT piece for this month and she's been skating...

"For my second challenge project I've made a wintery tag featuring Tim Holtz's Ice Skates die and some snowflakes........an icy, Christmas tag which will look great on a gift bag.

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

Full details on my blog.  Donna xx"

 A fabulous tag Donna, it shows just how beautiful Tim's skate die is - thank you!

We hope you're coping with the Christmas shopping - we'll be back in a few days with more fun! xxx

All our yesterdays...

Oh my, the first December weekend is upon us and we think that mebbe you've been out Christmas shopping. What better than to grab a hot cuppa and get crafting? 

To get your juices flowing, here's another fabulous vintage make from our own Jennie - it's so, so endearing...

Jennie's second project

"Today I am sharing a small Christmas frame made from the Tim Holtz Vintage Cabinet Card Die and this absolutely wonderful Dickension Santa/Postman image from Pion Designs.  I got some texture on the frame by scrunching up and layering some gold text tissue paper - all a bit experimental but I wanted to have a go after seeing Brenda doing this on some beautiful Christmas boards.  There are more details on my blog about this technique and how I created the snow."

 http://www.jennie-livethedream.blogspot.co.uk

This is absolutely beautiful Jennie, thank you!

Your project doesn't have to vintage, it can be contemporary, it can be altered art, a card, an ATC, anything at all as long as you made it. Join with us in sharing your Christmas projects by entering the challenge and linking your site with ours using the linkie provided.

Have a great weekend, more in a few days. xxx

OMG! You have to take your hat off to this one!

With the new challenge underway we're back today with the first of our Top 3 winners' posts for this month and what a stunning start! Here is Pauline's fabulous take on our 'Bah, humbug!' theme...

Pauline's project

"Thank you for asking me to be part of Country View Crafts and it an honour for me to share some of my crafts with you.

This months 'Bah Humbug' theme had me so excited.  I have used a variety of different mediums in this project from Stickles and stickers to grungeboard and Graphic 45.  The stamps are from Stampotique and I have used 'Gooseneck', 'Smile' and 'Blah Blah Blah'.  The snow has been made with white glitter and gesso and this has been generally rubbed all over the top hat.  I loved making paper chains as a child and for me this is still something I love to do so I really wanted to include this."

 This definitely has the 'wow' factor Pauline - thank you!

What you think of Pauline's project?  All winners donate their time and projects for us so please share some love and let them know.

We want to see what you're doing now so do be sure to enter your project and you could be the lucky winner of some free goodies.

Have a fab week everyone. xxx

Whoo-hoo, it's nearly Christmas

December is upon us and it's time to start finishing the last of our Christmas cards, get the pressies wrapped and think about the festivities. Some of us love Christmas and some of us are somewhat more cynical so we thought we'd like to keep an open mind with this month's challenge with a theme of.....

Bah, humbug!

Your project can be vintage (eg Dickensian) or contemporary, celebratory or cynical, make what you will, but we must be able to see something connected to Christmas. 

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Here are our DT's makes to get you going - Brenda and Trace are both on time out this month but they'll be back with you in January...

Chris

"'Bah humbug' has several connotations for me - a feeling of a Dickensian scene, Scrooge, etc. Don't get me wrong, I lurrrrve Christmas but I'm saddened and somewhat cynical at the brazen commerciality of it all. For my first piece this month I've focused on the later and chosen one of the somewhat sarcastic sentiments from one of the Dylusions text stamp sets...

 The sentiment is on the inside and the front looks like this...

 http://www.mycornerofheaven.com

 As usual, you can find the full details on my own blog."

Donna

"Well as it's the beginning of December what better than an Advent House in some lovely muted Christmas colours? Lots of distress paint and a little die cutting went into decorating this little advent house....."

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

Gabrielle

 http://gabrielle-price.blogspot.co.uk

"My tag is a homage to a Victorian Christmas card using some of the wonderful new Tim Holtz Christmas themed stamps. I absolutely love the expression on Santa's face and the twinkle in his eye and so I added two little banners. I love Christmas and the build up to the 'big' day is always really a special time in our house!"

Jennie

"This is my first attempt at a decorated bag and tag!  I just love these Winter Wonderland papers from Pion Design and thought they would be perfect for decorating a bag rather than a card.  The tag inside is held in place by a large brad.  I might get hooked!"

http://www.jennie-livethedream.blogspot.co.uk

Sue

"I love the traditional side of Christmas especially the traditional images of Santa.

The vintage gold that Fresco Finish Old Gold creates over the top of Little Black Dress fits perfectly with the traditional theme too."

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

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

This month we have a special Christmas surprise prize for the winner, you can select to take EITHER a £20 shop voucher to spend on the craft goodies of your choice OR you can select a ticket for our upcoming workshop in January worth £40 (travel at your own expense) run by Country View Crafts in conjunction with our very own Brenda Brown...

CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS

The Top 3 and DTMSM award winners will receive a blog badge and invitation to guest alongside us in February.

Whatever you do, have fun! We're looking forward to seeing what you make!

Have a great month everyone! xxx