Guest Designer - Sharon Traynor

Hello everybody! We're delighted to welcome Sharon Traynor from From My Craft Desk as our guest this month.  Sharon won our Industrial challenge in March with her zingy tag, and today she's here with her take on this month's Crackle theme.  You're going to love what she's created, so without more ado, let's hand over to her...

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I have always loved anything arty or crafty since being a child. In sixth form I took 'A' level Art, but have sadly let my drawing and painting skills dwindle since then. At first I moved on to sewing window dressings and clothes, then it was cross stitch, until I discovered card making and stamping back in 2008. I have been totally hooked since then. 

I adore nothing better than slipping away to my craft room. My real passion is donning a pinafore, throwing some music on and then splashing, daubing, spraying and smearing ink, glosses and crackle all over things! I make so much mess that I have recently started to learn how to create CAS (Clean And Simple) cards, to try to discipline myself into not throwing the proverbial kitchen sink at my creations. So my new blog is mainly dedicated to that CAS journey. 

However...........there is only so much CAS I can do before the inner ink demon reemerges! ;-)

I had fun with this little trinket box because when I think of this month's theme, "crackle", I naturally would head to the dark, grungy, muddy colours to show the crackle off.

My challenge to myself for this guest designer slot was to make an inspiration piece for you that was light, pretty and feminine. I hope you like it.

Details of how I made this piece can be found on my blog.

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Fantastic, Sharon!  Thank you so much for joining us this month as our guest with all that lovely crackle.  There's still plenty of time to join in with our Crackle challenge, and I'm sure this will have given you even more inspiration on top of what the brilliant team is sharing here throughout the month, so we hope you'll come and play along.

Alison and the CVC team x 

Guest Designer - Kim from Tangled Blue Rose

Hello all!  We're delighted today to welcome Kim from Tangled Blue Rose as our guest.  Kim was the winner of our Make Your Own Background challenge back in February (you can see her fabulous dragonfly monolith here if you missed it), and today she's sharing a fantastic creation made for the current Use A Stencil theme.  So let's take a look...

Kim says: I am happiest when I can play and create, something, anything! I love to use stamps and stencils and lots of colour and texture. 

What a gorgeous hanging, Kim!  Thanks so much for joining us this month as our guest.

Don't you just love all that stencilled crackle texture?  And the butterfly is stunning!  If you'd like to see more of this lovely project, do visit Kim at Tangled Blue Rose for all the details.

You still have just a couple of days to enter our Use A Stencil challenge and Birthday Bloghop.  The usual £20 voucher is on offer for the winner of the challenge, and the possibility of a Guest Design spot here at Country View Challenges, and the fabulous prize for the Bloghop is a Sizzix BigShot Machine and Die Bundle, so you can either get creating or get hopping or both!  See you there!

Alison and the CVC team x