Woo hoo - It's our Birthday

Hi Everyone and welcome to our special birthday challenge. We start with an amazing theme from Debs who has chosen 'Industrial' for us to focus on, so we are looking for industrial images, embossing folder textures, something mechanical, metallic colours with cogs and wheels, robots or something normal made to look metallic/industrial.

Debs

Hi everyone, Debs back, and im sharing a very grungy tag with you. It was a good opportunity to get out the gears makes some flowers and stick it all together with black thick grease (metaphorically speaking). My inspiration? Thoughts of a bygone age when industry was established and man was attempting to mechanicalize everything. Have fun! You can see how this come together here.

Gabrielle

I had lots of fun creating my mechanical heart for this month's Industrial theme. Lots of die cuts, alcohol inks and paints were used! Can't remember the last time I used my alcohol inks so thank you Debs for choosing this theme! More, as always, on my blog. Gabrielle x

Doreen

Wow this was a bit of a hard one for me, I wasn't sure what do do for Industrial so I really hope you like my first make. More details on my blog.

Monika

For our March challenge I made a boyish card using robot stamps, gears and metal embossing folder  to reach an industrial effect. If you want to know more about the supplies, please jump to my blog.

Rachel

Hello there - Rachel here with my first make for the theme Industrial - I had such fun making this Debs - thanks for the challenge! You can find out how I did it on my blog here.

Nikki

When I did my version of Tim Holtz's January tag I made a mental note to try a similar idea for a birthday card! Do pop over to Addicted to Art to see the details and a second version.

Jennie

I am having great fun working with these slim pieces of greyboard and this piece was just perfect to try out some wonderful industrial techniques learnt at a recent workshop with Andy Skinner. Do join me over on my blog if you would like to see some more details.

Sue


Good morning it's Sue here with my first 'Industrial' piece. Living in the North of England our industry has always been coal mining, and this stamp reminds me of pit head winding gear which is now sadly no longer around.

Full details can be found here on my blog x

Brenda

I've a really quirky project for you this month, my inspiration was an old rusty camera but as the project grew, ideas changed and new bits and pieces got added. It definitely has an old and weathered look and the real thing would have been manufactured in a factory.  I have called this 'Through the Lens of Time'.

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So it's over to you now, create your project and link it below and let's see who wins the birthday voucher from Susan this month. To celebrate a bit more there will be an extra special prize and activity coming up for the beginning of April so stay tuned.  And don't forget to come back throughout March for more inspiration - including our January winner Karen of Karen's Crafting Obsessions who will be Guest Designing for us later this month.

hugs Brenda and the CVC team xxx

An InLinkz Link-up

BLOGAVERSARY WINNERS!

Good evening folks!

This evening we have great pleasure in announcing all the winners from our March Blogaversary challenge. We had an amazing response, thank you all so much for joining in!

Our generous sponsor, Country View Crafts, donated TWO £20 vouchers so we have two voucher winners as well as our Top 3 and DTMSM badge winners.

Here we go...

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Winners of the £20 vouchers chosen by random.org are...

#73 - Paula of Just For One Day

AND

#264 - Becky of Crawsome Creations

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This time it was my turn to choose our Top 3 and DTMSM badge winners so here are my choices and  comments...

Firstly, can I say that my job was an extremely hard and vexing one, not only because there were so many gorgeous entries but because the standard of the entries was so high.  I love all kinds of crafting, all genres and styles and that's what we encourage here so it was a pleasure viewing all the entries and seeing such a broad mix - thank you ALL!

Our Top 3 (in numerical order)

#48 - Karen of Cards & Other Crafty Bits

I love to see striking CAS cards! CAS is an art form in itself and this one hit me right between the eyes.  When I read Karen's post I had the added pleasure of learning that she had been playing with household items to achieve the striking effects she's created.  They say nothing is new in crafting and I guess that's so but I do love to see people playing around to achieve their own techniques.  Nice one Karen!  >:o)

#135 - Branka of Vintage Handmade - My Crafty Corner

Another striking make, this gorgeous art journal layout leapt from the screen and shouted at me. Artistic in both design and colour palette it is both beautiful and one of those eclectic treasure makes that lingers in one's memory. Stunning - well done Branka!

#393 - Linsey of Outside the lines

A clever, contemporary (pseudo vintage) make celebrating the birth of Linsey's friends' first baby.  Well designed, cleverly put together and a great little keepsake for her friend to put away to show her daughter when she's grown.  Beautiful - thanks for sharing this Linsey!

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DTMSM (DT Members' Special Mention)

This selection has been especially difficult, I've managed to whittle down my list of 14 to just two and I cannot choose between them so there will be TWO DTMSM blog badges awarded...

#45 -  Liz of Liz's Creative Corner

Liz's dress form is gorgeous!  It is not the idea of the dress form itself that has won her this accolade but the way in which she has interpreted the dress and put it together!  If you haven't seen it, please hop over and take a look at the detail.  The pleats of the skirt, the shaping of the paper and the way it has been decorated, all brought together with such aplomb to achieve the overall effect - gorgeous!  A great make Liz, well done!

#360 - Linda of Linda's Crafty Piece of Heaven

This fabulous little stampunk piece has been made from.... a Pringles tube!  As a lover of recycling an upcycling I thought turning this mundane piece of packaging into such a lovely art piece is inspiring.  I can imagine using this for anything from storing spaghetti in the kitchen to being my button box in the craft room.  It would also make a great storage container for one of the guys too!  Great work Linda!

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A HUGE thank you again to ALL of you that entered, it was such a joy to see so many of you joining in!  Another HUGE thank you goes to ALL of our followers and commenters, without your support we wouldn't be here.

Have a great month and good luck to all of you for this month's challenge!

Chris and the team 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

Double trouble - It's Donna & Gabrielle

Although Gabrielle is rostered off this month she still found the time to create another DT piece for us so today you have a treat - TWO DT projects to finish our fabulous BLOGAVERSARY month off with a big bang!

Donna's second DT make

"So for my second offering for our paper theme I have lots of little Paper Pinwheels, made with various dies,  strung together to make a fun little garland.....

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

More pics and details on my blog."

Gabrielle's 2nd DT make

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

"Paper is often something I take for granted but it really is the building block of most of my projects. For this tag I used paper to make all of the images as well as sneaking in a little Clearly for Art for the jar! The ruler is acting a shelf for my art supplies and I used a variety of Distress Stains and Markers to colour them in. I made far too many supplies for my shelf so I have a few left over for another project - I love it when that happens!"

These are fabulous makes ladies - so diverse too! It's amazing how we all interpret the theme so differently!

We have just 3 days to clsosing time ladies and gentlemen so if you haven't entered yet please do so!

Enjoy the rest of the month and we'll be back on April Fool's day with another fab challenge for April. 

Have fun! xxx

Ana's done it again!

Today we're delighted to be joined again by the very talented Ana K of Anina papirckalnica who has won a Top 3 badge two months in a row! Over to Ana...

"My name is Ana Kavcic and I live in beautiful Slovenia. I start with paper crafting about 3 years ago and I love it more and more. I would describe my style as a mixed media with vintage feeling... I love to use old paper, fabric and flea market finds…above all I create with my heart."

"I love playing with paper and making collages, so this is the perfect challenge for me. I decided to alter some ATCs, but I ended with a little book filled with my favourite quotes.

Each card is altered with vintage images, old book pages and note paper. Covers are made with thick paper, embossed and painted with brown acrylic paint.

http://anina-papirckalnica.blogspot.co.uk/

Once the covers were dry I embellished with winged broken doll. Wings I made of paper; I used flower die and cut two petals for upper pair and leaf die for lower pair of wings. Upper pair I smeared with glossy accents and added some beads. For binding I simply used two cotton strips, so I still can add more pages. If you want to see more about this little book, you are welcome to visit my blog."

This is stunning Ana, so very creative - thank you!

We have about a week to go folks so please get your projects finished and entered. Don't forget we have TWO PRIZES OF £20 SHOP VOUCHERS for the lucky winners this month who are chosen at random!

We still have more to come from the DT so please check back in a few days! xxx

A masterpiece from Brenda

You're all in for a treat today with a beautiful project from our very own and talented Brenda of bumblebeesandbutterflies.com...

"We are coming up to the end of our first anniversary challenge and I wanted to make something special to finish off with. This is an album full of flaps and pockets but I included some of my altered playing cards I have been making as well. The album itself has been made from chipboard with a card cover and every page has been designed with flaps or pockets that will hold some family photos.

 

Here you can see how the album looks with each page completed (although there are no photos in it yet).

The front cover also has a flap and the altered playing card is double sided and can be lifted to reveal a mat for adding the photo to.

 

Every double page has a different colour palette and design.

I used lots of Tim Holtz papers, die-cuts and embellishments to complete the look."

This is stunning Brenda, thank you!

Whether you're a card maker, into tag art, altered art, scrapbooking, journalling, whatever you happen to like crafting, there's plenty of scope with this month's topic. With TWO prizes to be awarded this month and the winners to be chosen at random (random.org) EVERYONE has a chance of winning. We have another 10 days to go so please come and join in!

Another fab project in a few days. xxx

A match anyone?

Today's post is from Claudia, aka die amelie of Von Pappe II, who is making a guest appearance to share this fabulous make with us. Claudia was the winner of our DTM's Special Mention badge in January:

"Servus, my name is Claudia - also known as "die amelie". I live in Vienna with my son, my husband, my dog Bluna, a little budgie family and some fish in a tank.

I have been drawing and crafting since I can remember and I have worked as an arts and crafts teacher for almost twenty years before I became a full time mom and houswife. Now I enjoy a lot of spare time to follow my creative hobbies which are mainly creating with stamps and/or mixed media of all kinds, reading thrillers, watching good TV series and movies with my husband, photography, dancing and being outdoors with my dog in the lovely Vienna Woods. I stumbled upon crafty blogland about two years ago and have been learning so much since that day. I love the inspiration I get from visiting other creative people's blogs and enjoy the massive load of online tutorials. Having finally found crafty blogland a whole new world of possibilities for being creative has opened up to me and there's so much still waiting for me to be explored."

"As I love small notebooks, everything vintage and especially old photographs I decided to do a little vintage style notebook using the Sizzix "Matchbook" die I only recently bought at a sale.

I die cut the matchbook and four tags from white manila card and blended all with DI "pumice stone". I did the same with a cut to size spine that is to hold the four tags. I gave it all some spritzes of water to create a stained and aged look. Some scraps were torn from an old book page  and glued to the tags and the booklet with matte "Decou-page" glue and seal. To add some more texture I used a chicken wire stamp from BoBunny and Ranger black jet archival ink. Using the "Tiny Tags and Tabs" Sizzix die I randomly cut some out and glued them to the prepared tags to add some space for handwritten notes that should be well visible. Once the tags were finished I glued them onto the spine and then glued the whole signature into the matchbook.

The main focus lies on the two lovely photograph stamps from The Artistic Outpost and the Tim Holtz idea-ology hinge clip that holds the matchbook closed. The woman's image also has a layer of rough burlap ribbon underneath and is fixed to that with four tiny brads before I glued the whole panel onto the back cover of the matchbook. The "notes" words were finally added to front and back using my favourite Hero Arts letter stamps. Done!"

This is stunning Claudia - thank you!

There are so many beautiful things to create using paper, whether you prefer to stamp, like diecutting, draw your own sketches - whatever your passion is we'd like to see it please! We have almost another two weeks so there's plenty of time to get your project made, or perhaps a second entry.....?

More from our own DT in a few days. xxx

Trace

Trace is surely scoring a winning goal today with this beautifully layered project - definitely a paper chase here Trace!

 

"For this paper inspired piece, I started with some Tim Holtz paper...and some inking and distressing later my layers seemed to lend themselves to a fairly simple piece...all inspired by the colours and pattern on the paper. I also used the paper to guide my colour choice and to make the flowers..and even resist the urge to add lots of embellishments!"

This is fabulous Trace! Thank you!

We're half way through the challenge but we still have lots more to show you. We're delighted to see the variety of all the projects entered so far but we'd like to see more of what YOU are up to in your craftroom! There will be two lucky voucher winners this month so come on in and join us!

More in a few days. xxx

Terry's dawn chorus

Today we're delighted to be joined by the talented Terry of TERRY'S WORK IN PROGRESS. Terry is one of our Top 3 from January and she is sharing this beautiful project with us supporting our 'Paper chase' challenge...

 

"I have not been paper crafting as long as many, but my passion and love keeps me moving forward and I can't seem to quench my thirst for learning more techniques! I love the vintage with a grungy feel and more and more am dabbling in mixed media as I can! My sewing and painting have definitely taken a back seat to paper, ink and rubber!"

 

"My "Paper Chase" theme is more like a paper trail. The focal stamps were actually gifted to me by Chris and I felt no better way to use them than to wish "Country View Crafts" a Happy 1st Year Anniversary! This started with a paper background that I applied paint to a background stamp for texture. The sweet little birds were inked and clear embossed and then a subtle coloring of Tattered Rose. The Happy Anniversary was computer generated and then some chit chat words for the postage stamps. The die cut lace trim was distressed as well as the paper flowers."  

This is so beautiful Terry, thank you!!

There are so many ways that you can interpret our topic this month so please jump in and join us. Remember, Country View Crafts are sponsoring TWO PRIZES OF £20 shop vouchers this month and the winners will be chosen at random - everyone has a chance of winning.

More in a few days. xxx