A little birdie told Doreen...

Hello out there!

This morning we have something beautiful and bright - a fabulously colourful and creative card from Doreen...

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I am back with my second make.   I have made a collage with  several stamps and a watercolour background.  More details from my blog.

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Wow, we love the colours you've used Doreen and such a fabulous design - thank you!

You don't have to make a huge 3D project to enter our challenge, we love cards, tags, postcards, absolutely everything is appreciated!  Whatever you like to do, including knitting and sewing, show us what you're making and join in.

Brenda will be here on Wednesday with her 2nd make for the month.... you'll love it!  >;o)

Have a great day,

Chris and the team xxx

Pamellia is guesting today - wow!

Greetings!

This morning we have pleasure in introducing you to one of our Top 3 winners from a previous challenge - Pamellia of My Little Craft Things.  Pamellia may be known to you already, she is definitely carving out a name for herself with her wonderful crafty makes...

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Hello Everyone! My name is Pamellia Johnson and I live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada with my wonderful husband and our two little girls, Scully (a teacup Maltese) and Pebbles (a black teacup Pomeranian).

I have been crafting in some form or another ever since I was a little kid, thanks to my very creative and talented Mom. I've dabbled in all sorts of crafts, but I think my true passion is handmade cards. I have only recently tried my hand at mixed media art and altered items, but I instantly fell in love with the messy side of crafting!

When Chris asked me to be a Guest Designer, I was just so honoured and excited. When she told me March 2nd would be their 2nd blogiversary, I knew I had to take advantage of the Anything Goes theme to help them celebrate. So in honour of Country View's Birthday, here is my very first ever steampunk project, a birthday card for my dear ole Dad!

I really wanted the card to have a creaky castle feel, so I slathered up a piece of cardboard with texture paste and used a variety of paints to achieve a old stone wall look. I decided to make the sentiment a hidden element, so I made a little tag and tucked it in between the paper layers. All of my gears were hand made from crafter's clay and treated with a rust technique using various metallic paints. Lots of grit, lots of grime, lots of fun!!

Thank you so much to the Country View team for inviting me to spend a day with them. If you would like to see more photos and details, please visit me at My Little Craft Things.

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Wow!  Fabulous textures and a stunning design Pamellia, thank you so much!

If you like steampunk then why not let us see your techniques?  We want to see all genres so, whatever your passion, please share it with us by joining in our challenge.

Don't forget, we are awarding TWO £20 shop vouchers this month to celebrate our 2nd Blogaversary, both generously donated by our sponsor, Country View Crafts online shop.  We will also be awarding some BLOG CANDY to one lucky visitor who leaves a comment on our main launch post.

Have a wonderful weekend, we hope you manage to get some crafting done!  Doreen will be back on Monday so we hope to see you again then.

Chris and the team xxx

Announcing our February winners

Good evening everyone!

Oh my - we're sooooo delighted to see that we have so many entries to our current challenge already - thank you all very much!  It's now time to announce the winners from our February 'Drips and drops' challenge.  

For the benefit of new readers, we choose the winner of the £20 shop voucher, generously donated by our sponsor Country View Crafts, at random using random.org, random number generator.  Our Top 3 choices as well as our DT Member's Special Mention (DTMSM) are chosen by the DTM who chose the theme for the month, in this case, our talented Sue B.  All are invited to join us as guests in a future challenge.

Here we go....

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WINNER

Our winning entry number is...

and this is...

Chris of pearshapedcrafting

Well done Chris, an email & voucher will be winging their way to you shortly!

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TOP 3 (in numerical order)

Sue's choices and comments...

#25- Ana K 

The solid colours of sunny Yellow and dramatic Black are striking, there is a wonderful balance in this creation, along with flow and movement, it has a simplistic quality but there are such wonderful details and elements included to make it interesting to the onlooker. This is a beautiful piece of work.

#31-Lylac Sparkle Creations.

This Mixed Media  Canvas is a mix of warm and cool colours that juxtapose wonderfully together on the substrate, the design is full of depth with strong contrasts, the texture is gorgeous and sits well with the rusted Heart. 
The liquid glass droplets are impressive.

#49-Impression Scrap.

This Tag is  sophisticated and timeless. Sober Grey is not an easy colour to work with, but adding interesting tactile elements with a dash of regal Purple lifts the whole design. Lys has dripped and dropped beautifully on the substrate.

DTMSM

#58-Building Your World

A wonderful monochromatic palette, there is a surprise to the eye with the  subtle drips and drops to the heavily textured spray of Flowers. The design has great line; directing the eye from one place to another.

Thanks for your choices Sue - congrats to all four chosen, emails will be with you soon.

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A HUGE THANKS to all of you who joined in with February's challenge, brilliant entries and so very varied!

We'll be back at 6.30 tomorrow morning with another project post, it's a stunner from a fab guest - Pamellia!  Don't miss it!  >:o)

Have a great evening,

Chris and the team xxx

It's a fab message from Donna today!

Hi there!

If you're a fan of the more contemporary collage/journalling styles then you'll love what Donna has in store for us today...

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More playtime for my second make...

...details and pics on my blog :)   Donna xx

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Great colouring and collage work Donna - thank you!

From the contemporary to vintage, from CAS (clean and simple) to shabby and grunge, from cards to home decor, whatever your penchant, we want to see what you're up to!  >:o)

To join in simply link your blog post to ours using our lnLinkz linkie tool on our launch post.

More on Saturday and it's a stunning guest make - don't miss it!

Have a great day,

Chris and the team xxx

Something for Mothers' Day

'Morning all,

For us in the UK, Mothers' Day falls on March 15th, so my second DT make for our challenge is a card especially for a Mum...

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This lovely pinky red colour has been chosen for my card.  Using plenty of texture and lace, with a fragment of embossed mica tile thrown in, you'll find all the elements over on 'My corner of Heaven'.  Chris xxx

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If you're making a card for YOUR Mum, why not join in our challenge.  You can enter as many times as you like, all we ask is that you follow our rules.

Having seen all of the projects coming up for the rest of the month, all I can say is "whatever you do, don't miss them!"   We have a wow of a mix of genres and styles, we think you'll find more than one thing you'll like.  >;o)

Have a wonderful week, come back soon!  (Don't forget one lucky person who leaves a comment on our main/launch post will win some blog candy!)

Chris and the team xxx

It's March and we're celebrating our 2nd Blogaversary!

Good morning everyone!

We've been having fun now for 2 years, can you believe it!!??  I'm extremely proud of our team - they're hugely talented - and we're extremely proud to have been supported by all of you!  Whether you've commented or not, whether you've joined in the challenges or not, a big thanks to ALL OF YOU.  A big thanks too, to those who've become official 'followers'.

To celebrate our 2 years, we're having TWO winners this month, each will win a £20 shop voucher from our generous sponsor, Country View Crafts.  In addition, at the end of the month, we will be awarding a special BLOG CANDY to one of the lucky people who have left a comment on THIS post.  All winners will be drawn at random using random.org as we believe it's the fairest way of giving everyone a chance of winning.  All we ask is that, if you're entering, you follow our simple (and pretty standard) rules.

Without more ado, let's tell you what our theme is.... can you guess......?

 As we like to do, our previous winner and Top 3s will be guesting with us during the month.  We start our DT line up with our last winner leading us out with her interpretation of our theme and that is...... Andrea!......

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Hi, I'm Andrea and in blogland I'm also known as KandA. I've been crafting in one form or another since before I started school many, many years ago. I live in the East Midlands with my super hubby who is the K bit of the crafty name and is very tolerant of my passion for crafting.

I was so delighted to be asked to join in with this months 2nd blogaversary challenge, especially as I was lucky enough to guest design with their celebration a year ago. With the theme of 'anything goes' I decided to have a play with PaperArtsy JOFY09 & JOFY13 stamps which have been coloured with a combination of Memento inks, Promarkers and chalks on canvas.

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CHRIS

I love making albums and often do so using up my scraps - this one is exactly that.  A mixture of brands and products but ultimately coming together as a little travel destinations album.  The details of how I made it (I always use my own templates) can be found on my own blog, here. Chris xxx

DONNA

Had a play with some new Dina Wakley stamps for my 'Anything Goes' ....

....all details and more pics are on my blog :)

Donna xx

DOREEN

I have made a background of Fresco Acrylic paints and JOFY stamps for my card today

You can get more details from my blog.

GABRIELLE

Congratulations Country View Crafts Projects on your Blogaversary! I am more than a little obsessed by the new Lin Brown for PaperArtsy colour Bougainvillea and it will feature heavily in my posts this month! For my first project I have made a small mdf blank with a sentiment which seemed so appropriate after the day at work I’d had!!! As always, there are more details on my blog!

JENNIE

Such a fabulous challenge theme this month for trying something new! I recently purchased a stamp and die cut flower set from Heartfelt Creations and have been playing around making some different flowers to my usual makes. Hop on over to my blog if you want to know more!


NIKKI

'Anything goes' means time to play with my current favourite stamps - Bird Crazy! Lots of texture too and the wonderful new Big Chat stickers. Be great to see you over at Addicted to Art if you would like to see how I made this one.


SUE B

It was a case of 'Anything Goes'  on this card, I took this theme literally!!!

All the steps are on my Blog.

SUE D
Wow it's March already, I really hope that Spring is on it's way. I've been having a play with one of my new Kate Crane stamps. The full details can be found here on my blog.

ASTRID

For my first project I decided to play with my new Tim Holtz Correspondence papers. I created a little W book following Tim's great bideo. If you want to readd my little story of adventure, just pop over to my blog.


BRENDA

Spring is coming and holidays are approaching so I have made myself a travel scrapbook to take to America with me. It is a hardbound, soft spined book very similar to the one I am teaching at the next CVC workshop - Essential Bookbinding Techniques. (Full details on the shop site). Once you know how to stitch the pages together these are super easy to make.

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Wow ladies, what a line up, thank you all so much!

Whatever your prefered craft, whatever genre you choose, we'd like you to create something this month and join in.  We will be publishing a post every 2 days with a brand new project for you to see and help you along the way.

Good luck everyone, have a wonderful March!

Chris and the team xxx

Nikki's playing with FX...

God morning everyone and welcome to our last post for February!

Nikki is here with us today sharig a fab' make combining contemporary and vintage styles to great effect. Nikki is also playing to find her own techniques...

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Nikki

I created the background of this card using alcohol drops onto wet paint - a fun technique where you are never quite sure how it is going to come out. There are more details on my blog today explaining the process if you would like to have a play!

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A fab' make Nikki and a great example of experimenting to achieve your own personal FX - thank you!

We hope you're all having fun out there with your crafts and perhaps you'll have the time to make or finish one in time to enter....?  This challenge closes at 5 minutes to midnight (London time) tomorrow night.  Of course, we'll be back with another brand new challenge on Sunday so make a date!

Have a fun weekend and take care,

Chris and the team xxx

It's a skipping cherub from Sue B!

Hello out there!

Good morning everyone, I hope you're ready for Sue B's third project this month, it might be her last but wowser, it's a beauty!...

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Sue B-scrumplescrunch

Dripping and dropping like crazy on the substrate. What eventuated was mixed media meeting Shabby Chic...God it was fun to create. 

I have more details on my Blog.

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This is stunning Sue, the colours, textures, layout, absolutely gorgeous, thank you!

What does our 'Drips and drops' theme mean to you?  Something delicate and pretty like Sue's?  Perhaps something funky or grungey?  Whatever it conjures up in your mind, we'd very much like to see it.  You still have a few days left so grab your crafty bits and pieces and let's see what you can do!

We still have another post to come and that is Nikki's second project which she will share with us on Friday.  We hope to see you again then.

Have a fab day!

Chris and the team xxx

Whatever next - Jennie's sharing Martinis!

Hi everyone!

We love to see scrapbook layouts, it gives such an insight into those we hold dear.  Today Jennie is sharing a personal moment and there's more to our Jennie than you might think - much more!  >;o)

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Jennie

This time last year I was madly learning lines for my part in the Noel Coward play Fallen Angels. I have been wanting to scrap this fabulous photo taken during the final dress rehearsal for a while and our current theme of drips and drops seemed perfect for creating a suitable background. I tried to create a 1920s feel to the layout and used layers of grey and sepia papers and picked up the gold in my fabulous costume. There are a more details on my blog, as well as a few more photographs from the play and why I was drinking martinis!

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This is not only a great layout Jennie but such a fab' example of using vintage/shabby techniques in scrapbooking - gorgeous!  Thank you!

We have shown you so many different types of crafting with lots of different styles too but we'd very much like to see YOURS!  Join us by linking your project and you could be one of our winners this month - a £20 voucher or a blog badge together with an invitation to join us as a guest designer in April.  I hate that saying, 'you have to be in it to win it' but it's TRUE!  The deadline for entering is 5 minutes to midnight on February 28th (London time).

We still have more to show you, Sue B will be here again on Wednesday so please make a note to come back and see us.

Chris and the team xxx

Gabrielle's having a party...?

Hi there!

Our Gabrielle's here this morning to share her second project with you in her own inimitable style - fun, colourful, quirky, gorgeous!...

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I have really enjoyed this month's theme of Drips and Drops. For my second project this month I decided to make the drip into something for my chap to stand on. As always there are more details on my blog (including how I attached the balloons!) Gabrielle x

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This is just so much fun Gabrielle and a fabulous take on our theme - thank you!

Wow!  Can we show you much more diversity...... perhaps! >;o)  You'll have to come back again on Monday and see, lol!

Have a great weekend,

Chris and the team xxx

Doreen's put a beautiful new spin on the rain!

Greetings folks!

Not long to go 'til the weekend and Doreen is here today with another beautiful tag to share and motivate us until we get there...

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Hello, I am back with my third share this month and another technique I don't use very often. Again, more details of the making of this from here.

 

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Another fab' saying Doreen and what a beautiful tag - great imagery and a gorgeous palette - thank you!

Whether you like making tags or cards, journals, scrapbooks or home decor, whatever your partiality, we want to see what you're up to!  Remember we have a short month, this month, so there is just over a week to go.

Gabrielle will be entertaining us on Saturday with another kewl make so come back and join us.  Until then, keep safe and keep warm!

Chris and the team xxx

Alison has her journal out - wow!

Hello there!

It's colour and beauty all the way today with a gorgeous project from our talented Alison.... in her art journal!

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Alison

I headed for an art journal for my second piece of inspiration this month.  What better place to play with Sue's fabulous theme of Drips and Drops?!  I had a lovely time playing in my favourite Jan/Feb vivid blues and greens (and there's even some yellow in there this time!), as well as book pages, crackle and glossy textured stencilling.  What more could a woman want?!

 It really is worth coming over to Words and Pictures to see some close-ups of this one... hope to see you there!

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How gorgeous is this!!??  A fabulous layout Alison and what a fun way to express our theme - thank you!

If you're into journalling then why not show us what you can do?  If you're not, then how about trying it?  Whatever you craft, we'd like to see how you can take our 'drips and drops' theme and make it your own.

Doreen will be here on Thursday with another of her beautiful makes - please come back and visit us again then!

Chris and the team xxx

Donna's beautiful big butterfly...

Good morning all!

It's a brisk Sunday morning out there but no cowering under the duvets please - time to rise and CRAFT, CRAFT, CRAFT!  Donna is up already and showing us a more colourful and summery theme with her beautiful butterfly...

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Not a CAS card but a MAS ... messy and simple card for my second 'Drips and Drops' make.  A beautiful big butterfly and watery distress..

More pics and 'how to' are on my blog if you get a chance to pop over :)  Donna xx

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Great FX there Donna and a beautiful card, fab contrasts - thank you!

We're half way through the challenge and seeing so many themes but all making use of those drips and drops - over to YOU!  Remember, you can enter as many times as you like as long as you follow our simple rules - you could be our winner!

Next on parade is Alison and she'll be here on Tuesday, don't forget to join us!  >:o)

Have a lovely day,

Chris and the team xxx