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

Last but not least...

Our very creative Gabrielle is bringing up the rear this month with a fabulous push to the end!

 www.gabrielle-price.blogspot.co.uk

"For my second project for this month's theme of Letters I wanted to use a quotation as these are my very favourite ways to use letters. This is one of my very favourite quotations that many people will recognise as being pretty truthful!

I made a hanging using my favourite Wendy Vecchi Art Parts and stamps with a little Ideaology. The quotation is one of my favourite PaperArtsy stamps and I couldn't use any other colours but chocolate brown!"

 This is fabulous Gabrielle, thank you and I think that most of us relate to the message [g]!

We hope that this encourages you to make and enter a 'Letters' project of your own. Don't forget that there is a £20 shop voucher from our generous host, Country View Crafts which would make a great Christmas pressie for any crafter! You have until 11.50 pm on November 30th to enter so please lets see more of what you've been creating!

See you in December [gulp]! xxx

Look!! We've another teamie!!!

Yes, today we're delighted to announce another permanent DT Member joining us, the very talented and creative Sue C! Here s Sue's debut project for our 'Letters' challenge...

"I'm very excited to be here at Country View Crafts with my first DT piece ! As soon as I saw the challenge was letters I knew I wanted to use my WordPlay die, love this die !

I also love to use my Fresco Finish paints, so I've indulged myself on this piece. You can find all the details on my blog."

www.stampingsuestyle.blogspot.co.uk

We have almost a week to go before the challenge closes so there is plenty of time to get your project entered. There will be another post in a few days time from our very creative Gabrielle so don't forget to pop back and take a look.

Have a fabulous week!  xxx

Introducing Donna!

We hope that today you'll join us in giving Donna a hearty welcome with her first project as a fully fledged member of the DT! Whoop, whoop! Over to Donna......

"Well here goes for my first piece as part of the DT.  Gone festive with my 'Letters' piece using dies by Sizzix and Spellbinders and lots of lovely distress paint.......love that paint!

www.donnaslittlecraftycorner.blogspot.co.uk

"Details of how it was made can be found on my blog.

Donna xx"

This is beautiful Donna, thank you! 

What a fabulous project for Donna's debut, great use of our theme and something quite different for you to think about. Let's see those entries please, we want to know how you interpret the theme, whether it's something for Christmas or something totally different.

There's still more to come so see you in a few days when we'll have something else new for you.

Keep happy, keep crafting! xxx

Bring it on Brenda!

We're over half way through our challenge so who better to add some sparkle and motivation to the pot than the lady who thought of this month's theme..... Brenda! This is her second DT piece...

www.bumblebeesandbutterflies.com

"I had great fun playing with the melt pot and beeswax to create this little piece which is going in my kitchen. I used a variety of letters in text including Italian dictionary paper, stamping, napkins and die-cuts. I enjoyed the wax so much I will definitely have to get the melt pot out more often."

This is beautiful Brenda and will certainly look good on your kitchen wall! You can see more details by visiting her blog HERE.

We hope this gets your mojos off and running, there's plenty of time to get creative and enter! Don't forget to come and visit us again in a few days time because we have lots more to come!

Have a great week everyone. xxx

Jennie has the ball...

We're officially half way through the challenge and our clever Jennie has the ball! This is what Jennie has made for her second DT project this month...

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

"Today I am sharing a small vintage tag book made from Ranger Size #8 Manilla Tags.  I have used some old stick on letters to create an embossed surface on the covers which I then covered with gesso (they were a greenish blue!).  Recently I have been making home made sprays from re-inkers and perfect pearls and my covers were sprayed with a combination of Victorian Velvet and Vintage Photo.

The cover tags were then stuck onto some board and I added six tags to create the little book.

There are more photos and details on my blog."

This is beautiful Jennie, THANK YOU! You can see the details of what and how for this tag by HOPPING HERE and visiting Jennie's own blog.

Please keep your projects coming, there's no limit to how many times you enter.

There will be another DT piece on Tuesday. Have fun! xxx

Something special from Julie Ann

We are loving your interpretations of our theme, please keep them coming. The winner (chosen at random) receives a £20 shop voucher from our fab host - Country View Crafts.

Today we have another guest designer - Julie Ann from magpieheaven who won our DTMSM award in September. Julie Ann has created this fabulous box for us...

http://magpieheaven.blogspot.co.uk/

"When Chris emailed me to say that my tag had won the Design Team Members' Special Mention and that I would have the opportunity to Guest Design for Country View Crafts I was thrilled. ‘Letters’ really appealed to me because although I love to text, blog and email I still write and receive letters! My interpretation of this month’s theme is not letters as in ABC exactly but the letters we write expressing our hopes, dreams and feelings! A crafting friend sent me a beautiful box for my birthday and I thought I would alter this and turn it into a place where I could keep a collection of treasured letters.

Thank you so much for looking at my project and thank you Country View Crafts for giving me this wonderful opportunity."

A fab idea and a fab project Julie Ann, THANK YOU! You can HOP over to Julie Ann's blog to see more details and pic's.

We hope you like what you've seen so far but there's a lot more to come. 

See you on Saturday. xxx

It's Barbarayaya time!

Yes, it's time for another guest! Today we have another Top 3 winner, it's Barbarayaya of yaya scrap and more from Italy with this fabulous project...

http://yayascrap.blogspot.it/

"When I received Chris's mail telling me that my project was chosen among September the top 3 I was beyond amazed and very happy! I proudly and enthusiastically accepted to be GD for this month! The theme "letters" made me immediately think about using a solitary letter and since I love Christmas time, I used the letter "C". To me, "C" is for Christmas!

Those who know me, know that I have a thing for Tim Holtz from his stamps to distress inks, so for my project I decided to use materials that suits me best! I started from the middle of this project, using one of the new Tim Holtz Christmas Stamps set! I stamped it using Versamark, then I sprinkled over some sticky powder and Antique Linen glitter distress. I wanted to try a different technique and I did it light on a dark base opposite to the dark on light base that you often see around. After that I took another element that I like to work with: TAGS.

I chose a Manila tag size 12 and ripped it in half and then put it together again using what I like to call "my personal touch" : a zip! I love zips and I often use it in my projects! What came next is me playing around using a Christmas color palette: cream, red and green (I used distress inks and archival for my stamping). To finish it off I used stars that I colored with alcohol inks, different stamps (always from Tim Holtz) and merriment red tissue tape.

In order to create the word "December" on the low part, I took the letters from other words I had in my stash. To give it a little touch and to hang it I applied two tiny clips with double ribbon: same fabric that I used on the tag and crinkle ribbon to close it all.

This project is a home decor that you can definitely use to spice up your next holidays!"

What a terrific tag Barbarayaya, we love the zip! THANK YOU for joining our team this month! You can find more projects over at Batbatayaya's blog so do please HOP HERE and share your comments.

There will be another project from the team in a few days.  

We hope you're having fun! xxx

More from the Design Team

Wow, we're loving your projects! It's great to see you all joining in, there are some really novel ideas and beautiful, beautiful projects - thank you!

Today Chris is appearing with her second piece which is somewhat unique we think.... a crossword card! Read on...

www.mycornerofheaven.com

"I wanted to make something really different and, being a puzzle fanatic, this came to mind. It makes a fab card for a guy and I've put the full details together with the puzzle clues and solution in a pdf file for you to download on my own blog. Come to think of it, you could even use it to make a thoughtful Christmas card for the right person. I hope you have fun with it."

Thanks Chris, this looks like fun - it's certainly different! You can see the details and download Chris's pdf file from her own blog.

We hope you're having fun with this theme because we're looking forward to seeing more entries with more of your great projects. We will be showing you another creative idea in a few days time.

Have fun! xxx

New DTMs & winners

Before we announce the winners of last month's challenge, a little about our DT call...

A HUGE THANK YOU to all of you who applied, we had 18 entries which we are delighted with. Every member of the team has been involved in the decision making  - we can tell you that it was a very close run thing and we wish we could have appointed more. I'm sure you'll join in and say congratulations to our new DTMs who are:

Sue Carrington of 'Stamping Sue Style'

&

Donna of 'Donna's Little Crafty Corner'

Well done ladies!

♥     ♥     ♥     ♥     ♥

Now to our WINNERS of last month's 'Something spooky' challenge....

We were very disappointed that when we reviewed the entries as a few of you disqualified yourselves by either not stating what the theme was or putting the theme as Halloween which was wrong. PLEASE do read the rules - they're quite simple.

The WINNER of the £20 shop voucher (chosen by random.org) is:

Congratulations to #74 Christi Conley of Art-Without-Anxiety  -  A £20 shop voucher and blog badge will be with you shortly Christi!

Our fabulous Top 3 have been selected by Gabrielle this month and they are:

#46 Hazel H of Hazel's Creative Moments

 

#62 Pauline A of Pollycraft

#115 MaggieH of CAPRICORN CRAFTS

Lastly, our DTMSM award goes to:

#101  Laura of Laurart

 Congratulations to you all, blog badges and GDT invites are on their way!

Well done everyone that joined in,  stunning entries!  xxx