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

Alison's got a new home!

As promised, we have another guest today! We have just six days to go until the challenge ends and we have one of February's Top 3 badge winners to head up the final thrust towards the month end. So, over to...

Alison (aka Craftytrog)

Craftytrog's Inky Adventures

"I’m Alison aka Craftytrog. I discovered rubber stamping about ten years ago, and haven’t loo ked back since. I dabble in many different crafts, including card- making, altered art, art journaling, & jewellery making. I love colour, & using mixed media."

"I interpreted this month's theme in two ways. I've recently started carving my own stamps, & I've used my hand-carved house stamps on my artwork for the challenge. I also created a new home card, which also means a new beginning.    Here's how I made my card...

I created my background, using a Gelli Plate & PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paint, then cut out a 5x5" square. I stamped a Kaisercraft border from the 'Edges' plate along the bottom edge, then used Crafty Individuals CI-395 to stamp some foliage.    I painted some book paper with a thin layer of gesso, then stamped my houses. I coloured them with Fresco Finish paint, to match the background. I also added some extra details, using a black fineline pen. I used Glue & Seal matt to attach the houses to the background.    For my wording, I edged some Tim Holtz Chit Chat word stickers with black soot distress ink, then attached th em above the houses.    To finish, I edged my artwork with black archival ink, then attached it to a 6x6" kraft card."

A brilliant idea and a brilliant project Alison! Thank you! Do HOP ACROSS and say "Hi" to Alison, she'd love to have you visit.

Amazing what you are all conjuring up, both mentally and creatively, we are seeing some amazing projects being entered, thank you!

Alison's post is the last guest spot this month but we have one more post in which to tempt you and the honour this month goes to Sue, she will be here in a few days. xxx

Jennie

The month is passing by so quickly but we still have lots more to show you! The DT is back today, well, Jennie is, with her second creative make for this challenge...

Jennie

live the dream

"Hello Everyone and today I am sharing another new technique to me as part of our New Beginnings Challenge this month.  I am always envious of those who get a wonderful patina on their gadget gears, so I thought it was time to have a go myself.  I was very taken with a tutorial by my blogging friend Jenny Marples  on her blog Pushing the Right Buttons and I used this as a basis for my rusting.  It was great fun and I loved the way they came out.

As usual there are more pictures and details on my blog."

Ooooh, we're lovin' the rust Jennie - a brilliant project! Thank you!

There's just no telling what this theme means to you until we see what you've done with it. We're hoping that there are lots more projects to come because we love seeing them. There's just over a week to go and we STILL have more to show you. In a few days time we have another guest spot so please visit again soon. xxx

It's time... for Elly!

We love having guests join us and each month we offer guest spots to our voucher and blog badge winners. Our DTMSM award (DT Members' Special Mention) is awarded to the entrant who we think has entered the most original and creative piece. Today we have the pleasure of a guest spotlight on our February DTMSM badge winner....

Elly

Mixed Media and more

"Hi, I'm Elly and I've joined the crafting world as I've found a video about scrapbooking in April 2010. I asked a hobby shop owner a lot questions and borrowed my first heat embossing tool. I uploaded my first video to YouTube two month later. A few mini books and videos later, I was already addicted to mixed media because I detected the art of Michael DeMeng. Another door opened, as I found Andy Skinner and after my first online workshop with him, I was infected with acrylic paint and all the possibilities with altered art in vintage and steampunk style. Mixed Media has unlimited possibilities, creating art with whatever I can get my hands on."

 "Every day is a new beginning for me. As a lover of altered art, I want to give discarded objects a new life, too. In this case I've altered an old CD and made a clock.

I've glued some vintage LaBlanche papers to the CD's and used paper doilys behind. The cyphers on the main clock are cut outs with epoxy stickers on top and I've assembled a clock mechanism from behind.

The professor is stamped with StazOn on acetate and painted with acrylic paint on the back. The doilies had a treatment with Tattered Angels Chalkboard *orchid* and Glimmer Glaze *saffron*."

 

Such a creative project Elly and the sentiment is perfect! Thank you!

We hope you enjoy Elly's project and will visit her to share some love.

More from the DT in a few days. xxx

You can now follow us on Pinterest too!

Yay!! For those of you who are Pinterest fans you'll be pleased to know that you can now follow us on Pinterest too!  Just click the Pinterest button on the top of our sidebar (right) to find our page and boards!

We'll have another fab project post for you bright and early tomorrow morning!   xxx

Gabrielle

We're half way! Yes, can you believe it? We are already half way though the month and half way through the challenge. We're loving what we're seeing and wondering what YOU are making! We have another DT post today, this time from...

Gabrielle

crafty thoughts

"For my first project this month I used JoFy stamps from PaperArsty to create a spring-like garden... for my second project I used some of the new Dylusion stamps and made something a little more wild (and a lot more like my own garden!) I love the new leaves stamps and the flower becomes an explosion bursting from the tag! I adore the new Hashtag stamps from Tim Holtz and so had to include one!" 

 This is gorgeous Gabrielle, quite funky too, thank you!

We'd like to see more of what your 'New beginnings' are so please keep them coming. Don't forget that there's a generous prize for our (random) winner of a £20 shop voucher to spend at Country View Crafts!

We'll have more for you in a few days time. xxx

 

We're flying with Donna today!

We're happy to see so many variations on our theme this month - some fabulous interpretations and really great projects. It's time for another of our DT makes today...

Donna

Donna's Little Crafty Corner

"For my second piece for this challenge I've made another tag featuring another quote which I thought was rather appropriate, after all new beginnings often involve us in learning new things and having the courage to run or take flight with them.....

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

 

 

This is gorgeous Donna! Thank you.

We're approaching half time folks so we hope you're all having fun in your crafty areas creating and playing. We'll be back with more in a few days. xxx

Our March winners

It's time to announce our BLOGAVERSARY winners!

As you know, our sponser, Country View Crafts shop, very generously donated TWO prizes each of a £20 shop voucher to celebrate our first anniversary in blogland. Our winners are chosen at random using the random number generator at random.org to ensure that all entrants have a fair chance of winning. These are the two numbers of our lucky winners that it generated:

#58 Sue O’Connell of Something out of Nothing

#111 Susan Janicula of paste sister (klistersøster)

This month it is Chris's turn to choose our badge winners...

Top 3

"My top 3 consist of a mixed media project, a tag and a card, to represent a wide a spectrum of crafting as possible. 

#15 - Mary Elizabeth's tall configuration box shouted out to me as it is so tall and thin and full of paper parts. What a fabulous present for her Mum!

#18 - Doreen's tag is pretty, feminine and striking. Doreen has stamped, sanded and painted her papers to maximise her techniques and effects.

#51 - Craftyfield's card struck me immediately, so many different coloured and patterned papers which have been layered and brought together so beautifully!"

	#15 Mary Elizabeth of ME AND MY WALK ON THE CREATIVE SIDE
	#18 Doreen of Doreen’s Dream
	#51 51 Craftyfield of Cardmaking, Scrapbooking and other papercrafts...

Last but not least - our DT Member's Special Mention badge

"Anne has created this awesome storage box but it's actually a box of storage boxes so cleverly and beautifully done. Hats off to Anne for this creative and special project!"

#127 Anne of Redanne

Well done to all of our winners and  a BIG thank you to all our other entrants. As ever, it was a hard choice and any one of you could have been a winner!

Another creative post tomorrow! xxx

A new baby girl...

We're spoilt for choice this month with our theme - so many great things we can choose from. It's very much a 'family' oriented month for Chris this month - she started with weddings and has now moved on to babies - well, a baby girl actually.....

Chris

My corner of heaven

"I seem to be card making less and less these days as the little time I get to craft is spent more on tags, multimedia and altered art so it was a pleasure to take time out to make this. A friend of mine announced recently that she is pregnant and expecting the baby in July. Last week she found out that she's having a girl, hence the card. New beginnings are so very special when they involve new life."

Very pretty Chris, thank you!

It's great to see so many of you joining in, we hope you're loving the them as much as we are.

More in a few days. Enjoy your crafting! xxx

Julie Ann is playing cupid!

Every month we have the honour of publishing posts from guest designers who are the winner from previous challenges. We have a great project from one of our talented February Top 3 badge winners today...

Julie Ann
magpieheaven

"I was so excited to hear that I had been chosen as one of the Top 3 for my Painty Pleasures entry for the February Challenge at Country View Crafts. It was such a thrill to be selected, as I’d really enjoyed the fun of using paint with the new Lynne Perrella stamps: I’ve loved her detailed designs almost from the moment I began crafting seriously. That was around two years ago, although I’ve loved creating everything from little books for my toys to read to hand-sewn notebooks for the endless lists I need to make these days! I started craft blogging back in April 2013 when my blog, Magpieheaven fluttered into the unknown. I can hardly believe April is my first blogaversary! Although I started as most people do, making greeting cards, my first real crafty experiment was an exploding box which I made for a friend’s birthday using PaperArtsy stamps. I was quite pleased with the result and sent some pics to Leandra of PaperArtsy who suggested I start a blog and that was the beginning of a love affair with all things inky and painty! I live in Bromley with my long-suffering and patient family of two grown-up children and husband who’ve grown accustomed to sharing their home with ever-increasing stacks of corrugated card; teetering towers of Distress Inks and a mum, who in between tutoring English Literature paints with Cheesecake, Chocolate Pudding, Guacamole and Toffee!"

"I was delighted when Chris emailed me to say that I had been chosen as one of the top 3 in the Country View Crafts February Challenge, Painty Pleasures. I was really thrilled and privileged to be asked to do the Guest Design spot today and to have the opportunity to interpret the Country View Crafts April Challenge ‘New Beginnings’. I wanted to capture the idea of the new beginnings Spring offers so I chose to alter a little mobile wooden heart within a heart and to make its focal image a winged cherub – maybe the lady’s face on the butterfly is that of his mother, Venus, the goddess of love! He could be Cupid, the young god of Love just discovering the new delights all around him. I liked the way the mobile turned in the breeze so that I could position the cherub/cupid as if he were trying to catch butterflies on a leaf. I used Fresco Greens, blues and yellows, Grunge Paste through a Clear Scraps stencil of trees, Treasure Gold and Shrink Plastic butterflies die-cut from a Sizzix butterfly die and stamped with Lynne Perrella images and a resin figure and flower. If you would like to see in more detail how I created this little mobile, please pop over to my blog http://magpieheaven.blogspot.co.uk/ to find out more. I do hope my make will inspire you to create something and link it to the Country View Crafts ‘New Beginnings’ Challenge."

This is gorgeous Julie Ann, thank you!

Julie Ann is celebrating a blogaversary herself this month so please share some love and visit her blog if you can!

We will have more in a few days. Have fun! xxx

A mini booklet from Brenda

We're right at the beginning of our challenge and what better way to take a step forward is there than by having a post from one of our DTMs? Today Brenda is posting details of her second project on this theme...

Brenda

Bumblebees and Butterflies

"I have used some of the new Tim Holtz stamps to create a mini booklet and will use it as a positivity journal adding affirmative, supportive and encouraging quotes throughout the year.

The first page is a simple introduction and a happy reminder that every new day that dawns can be the start of something new. If you would like to see how I made the book and a simple way to sew your own pages to insert them into a journal you will find all the details on my blog."

How creative - it's beautiful, thank you Brenda!

We hope this inspires you along the way. There will be another post in a few days.

Have a fab day! 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