Welcome, friends!
Yes, We're officially into 'Summer' and, whilst we know many of you will be spending less time in the craft room and more time out in the garden, our lovely Astrid has chosen a theme for this month to entice you to join in - it is...
We're hoping that you will ALL join in. If this is not a genre that you're used to crafting, perhaps you've NEVER attempted it, please do! Our outright winner of the £20 shop voucher, generously sponsored by Country View Crafts, is chosen at random. Our four blog badge awards are chosen by the DT and we often recognise those crafters who have stepped outside of their normal boundaries of comfortability to try something new and join in wth us. All we ask is that you follow our simple rules so that you don't inadvertently disqualify yourself. The challenge remains open until 11.45 pm/23.45 hours on the last day of the month. Winners are announced usually around the 10th of the following month.
Our DT have excelled themselves again this month and provided a crafter's feast for the eyes. They are led out by TWO previous winners, who have created makes especialy for you - thank you to both Becky and Paula, your projects are stunning!!...
Hi, I'm Becky
from 'Crawsome Creations'. I've always been 'arty' and always felt that
is where my future lay but I took the safe option and am now in a secure
adult type job which has zero opportunities for artistic flair or
imagination! Hence all my crafty longings are now fitted into the tiny
amount of free time I have between a full time job, a husband, a young
son and a very lively cocker spaniel.
~ o ~ O ~ o ~
I have to admit that shabby chic does not come naturally to me! I'm much
more of a brights and grunge person but I was determined to give it a
go. I decided to take an altered art approach and made over an empty
pickle jar. I primed the jar with a couple of coats of white gesso
before using texture paste through a harlequin stencil. Once dried I
sponged over Tim Holtz distress paints in bundled safe and tumbled
glass. The next step was adding a decoupage rose and peacock image in a
dusty attic frame. The remainder of the project involved trying to
'artistically' arrange ribbon, pearls, paper flowers, dusty attic
butterfly and beads to create a the finished piece. I'm pleasantly
surprised at how it turned out considering half way through the project I
felt completely lost! Thank you so much to CVC for giving me this
opportunity, it's great to be here :)
Morning All – My name is Paula and you’ll have to excuse me as I’m rubbish at writing about myself…..so, what’s there to say – I started card making in 2004 and have been playing/creating ever since. I’ve had work published in UK and US based magazines. I mainly love to make clean and simple pieces using minimal materials but now and again I’ll dip my toe in to the mixed media side of things.
~ o ~ O ~ o ~
When I was told the topic was ‘Shabby Chic’ – I have to admit I was scared stiff because what is Shabby Chic! Anyhow, I had a look round and just went with my gut instincts. I’ve used a Wendy Vecchi Arts Parts Arched Frame as my base and covered it in a thin layer of white gesso. I then used DecoArt Modelling Paste through a Tim Holtz Stencil. Once the modelling past was dry, I took sandpaper to the frame to give it a work look, followed by some brown ink and stamping a splatter effect stamp around the edges too. I made the roses using the Tim Holtz Sizzix pine cone die and the centre panel is patterned paper and a stamped image of a woman. For more info just hop over to my blog http://justforoneday11.blogspot.co.uk
June Often being the month of wedding I decided to make a card that
could be used as a wedding card. Layers and home made flowers often
define Shabby Chic for me, so that's what I did. More details can be
found on my blog
I have thoroughly enjoyed making a shabby card for Astrid's fabulous
challenge theme, it seems years since I last made one. One thing I do
when I have a design I like is make two or three of them so I can add
them to my card box as I never seem to have enough choice these days.
Just recently I've started to challenge myself to use products I have that are rarely used. For my Shabby chic make I decided to use two colours that don't often see the light of day - yellow and orange. I also made use of this rarely used stamp too. You can find the step x step pic's and products used over on my blog if you'd like to see them. Chris xxx
I'm never really sure exactly what Shabby Chic is but hopefully my first
make where I've combined a distressed embossed background with some
vintage images and some floral elements, all in soft muted colours fits
the bill.....
...details are on my blog, please stop by and say hi :)
Donna xx
Hello , I have got to say I am totally out of my comfort zone with this
months challenge, I could never figure out how two words Shabby and Chic
could be remotely related to each other but there you go... I have come
up with what I consider Shabby Chic. I hope you like it
More details from my blog.
Shabby Chic! Well, I haven't tackled this theme in a long time! That's
the lovely thing about challenges, they often ask you to think outside
your current comfort zone! I hadn't use this birdcage die for a long
time and so made a simple plaque. As always, there's more on my blog here! Gabrielle x
Shabby Chic is just about my all time favourite style so I put together
this card using all the elements which for me are "shabby chic". It was
a great design for using up some much loved Maja Design papers and
scraps. Please do visit me on my blog if you want to see some more close ups.
For my first 'Shabby Chic' post of the month I have made some cute
little wall hangings using fresco paints and the cracked glass
technique. There are more details over at Addicted to Art today.
The theme Shabby Chic is one of my favourites, this is my go to genre
whenever I have a creativity block. Do not let the word Shabby fool you,
even though the look is at times unstructured the effect can look
timeless. More details on how this card was made up is on my Blog.
For my second piece this month I decided to alter a mirror with all my
favourite shabby chic elements - lace, hand made flowers, fancy metal,
buttons and pearl pins. Most have had a coating of gesso and were then
sprayed with Victorian Velvet and Vintage Photo Distress Ink Sprays.
Please do visit my blog if you want to see more.
Wow, great work everyone - fabulous projects, a great variety in style, lots of inspiration!
We hope you like our line up, we also hope that it motivates you to have a go and join in. As usual, we will be posting a new project by either a DTM or a guest every alternate day for the rest of the month. Having seen them all, we can tell you that you're in for a huge treat!
Good luck everyone!
Chris and the CVC team xxx
