A second piece from Trace

Here is Trace's second DT piece for this challenge and what a beaut it is!

"Still in my foil flower filled garden , I created a card to show how one flower and an embossed background can make an effective and simple card."

Such a beautiful card! Wow Trace, what a winner, thank you! Even if you're not into card making this piece cannot fail to inspire. Why not join us in our challenge this month? You too could be a winner!

Another piece will be posted in a few days, this time from another third 'Top 3' merit badge winner, Alison (Craftytrog).

Enjoy your crafting everyone. xxx

Laura's guest piece

Laura of 'Laurart' is the second 'Top 3' merit badge winner from March. We are delighted that she said "Yes" when we asked her to do a guest piece for us and here it is...

"The title of this challenge led me to the nursery rhyme and I really wanted to incorporate elements from it - silver bells and cockleshells and pretty maids. A paper maché hanging of three circle frames provided the perfect way to place the pretty maids all in a row....Pastel music paper was chosen as a background, and I selected some vintage style images of ladies. Antique Linen Distress Paint covered the frames  - sadly the stamped Bundled Sage Distress paint doesn't show up well here in the photos taken in bright sunlight. The silver bells - made with cut out card covered in pewter crackle paint, and 'cockleshells' were an essential element. Keeping the colour scheme delicate, a pale peach rose and die cut flowers covered with Tattered Rose Distress stain were added. And that is how my garden grew!!!"

 Another fabulous make to get your creative juices flowing, thank you Laura, this is beautiful!

We will be featuring another new piece in a few days so do pop back and see all the other delights we have in store for you. xxx

Winner & Top 3 Merit awards for our April challenge

There was such a fabulous response to our April 'Butterflies' challenge we must say a HUGE THANK YOU once again to all the entrants and also to all our followers that comment and support us but don't necessarily enter.

Winner

The lucky winner of the £20 shop voucher is #38 - sam21ski - Congratulations Sam! An email and winner's badge should be waiting for you in your mailbox.

Top 3 Merits

Our Top 3 Merit awards have been chosen by Gabrielle:

"Ok! I have been through all of the entrants and it was really, really tough! I had to cut a 'shortlist' of 20+ down - it was really difficult!

134 - Paper Profusion - I loved the butterfly corsets, the detail and the whole sense of movement! Fabulous!

29 - Laurart - I loved the collage and the fabulous array of colours! There was so much to look at the even looking three times I still saw more! Loved it!

2 - Karen P - I loved the multi-coloured background and a great use of the technique. I also liked how the butterfly flies across the card!"

Congratulations to our Top 3 as well! You should have emails and badges in your in-trays too.

For all other entrants, thank you for stepping up for the challenge and sharing your work with us, giving us all such inspiration!

Your Design Team xxx

A DT piece from Jennie

Jennie of 'Live the Dream' was one of our March 'Top 3' merit badge winners and what a worthy winner she was. This is the piece she has done especially for her guest DT debut for us.

"I made a shadow box from recycled packaging and decorated it with some of my handmade flowers and muslin leaves.  I added more texture with some scrim and twine.  I love the Tim Holtz Wrinkle Free Distress technique and this made a great watery background for the white embossed corn.  I wish my garden grew like this!"

 This is fabulous Jennie, thank you!

Hopefully this piece will inspire some of you to make your own piece and enter the challenge but do call back in a few days to see another guest piece from Laura.

Have fun. xxx

Challenge #3 - May 2013

Whoo-hoooo! Thank you everyone for making April's butterflies challenge another great success, so many beautiful, beautiful entries! We will announce the winner and the top 3 merits as soon as we can but today we announce our new challenge.

If you'd like to enter May's challenge and have a chance of winning a £20 shop voucher from our host at Country View Crafts then submit your entries for...

'How does your garden grow?'

Our theme has been chosen by our very special GUEST DESIGNER, the fab' Lin Brown of Yours Artfully who designed some of the Eclectica³ range of stamps and dies for Paper Artsy. Welcome Lin, and thank you for joining us this month as a guest designer.

Not only do we have Lin joining us but also the winner of our first (Pick and mix) challenge in March the VERY talented Alison (butterfly) of Words and Pictures. Welcome to you too Alison.

We have a BUMPER month this month as our top 3 merit badge holders, Alison of Craftytrog's Inky Advantures, Jennie of 'Words and Pictures' and Laura of Laurart will also be featuring with a guest DT piece throughout the month which means 2 new and inspiring pieces published each week! 

Yeeharrrrr, HERE WE GO.......

Lin

"I created this project using all things PaperArtsy......a 6x4 box canvas, Grunge Paste, Fresco Finish Paints, Blossom Die and last but not least my hand carved style stamps. It's an easy project to re-create in a couple of hours. I love using these stamps, they are so versatile, all three plates are mix and match but today's project was made with the images from ELB01, full instructions can be found on my blog www.yoursartfully.blogspot.com"

Alison (butterfly)

"I've been playing with Decorative Strip Dies.  I really wanted to see how realistic a wall I could create with the Brick Wall.  Lots of inking, and some embossing paste mortar, and then the brick-laying, and I'm pretty happy with the result.  Then I used the Tattered Flower Garland to create lots of flowers to go in my walled garden... Lots of fun making this - but pretty fiddly at times!"

Brenda

"A tag to fit in with our garden theme this month with a row of Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers on a bed of foliage created from a Cuttlebug embossing folder. Birds and butterflies are attracted to this beautiful red colour and feed on the sweet nectar. A garden for our future generations."

Chris

 

"My first piece is a painty canvas of many layers with a garden scene of birds in trees and flowers. The handmade flowers are paper, stamped and inked with some made from crinkly cellophane packaging stained with alcohol inks. The 3D garden fence is made using Tim's Snowflake die."

Gabrielle

 

"This is a little hanging using the fabulous PaperArtsy stamps designed by my incredibly talented friend Lin Brown. The little MDF plaque was covered in white then blue PaperArtsy paints. I stamped the leaves with green paint and then sanded the whole piece for a shabby, aged look. The flower was covered with white and blue paint and stamped onto grungepaper. A little blue Distress Ink on the very edge of the petals (and for the sentiment) and brown on the edges of the plaque finished it off!"

Trace

"I made a hanging board, using die cut cogs and some steampunk  metal flowerswith light bulb leaves to add to my imaginary garden. The flower centres are bottle tops,filled with UTEE and cogs."

Hopefully, we've whetted your appetite, fuelled your fire, floated your boat and you're raring to go....? Lol. We're hoping to see more of your stunning cards, tags, ATCs, journal pages, sewing projects and altered art pieces etc this month so good luck! Don't forget to check back every few days for more fab' pieces from your Design Team to keep you going.

Have fun everyone,

Your Design Team xxx

Gabrielle - Part 2

Oh my! The competition is hotting up with all these stunning makes, wow, wow, wow! To keep you going here is another beautiful make from Gabrielle...

"I made a giant tag using Dylusion inks and some fabulous JoFy stamps from PaperArtsy. The little butterfly was stamped onto vintage book paper (available from any charity shop!) and not glued down completely so it can still fly!"

There's one week left for you to enter so let's keep the momentum going with your beautiful crafty makes please.

Now we did tell you last week that we have a special guest designer in May and a few people have been trying to guess but our lips are sealed! A clue? Did we promise you a clue? Errr, ummm, well, without letting the cat out of the bag we can tell you that our guest is a lady and more than that we're not saying so you'll have to wait and see, lol.

Have a fab' week everyone. xxx

Butterfly madness...

We're half way through the challenge and what fabulous makes we're seeing, well done everyone!

With another 2 weeks to go here is a second make from Chris called 'Butterfly madness'...

"This grungy butterfly piece can be used as a photo' stand, a mobile or just as an ornament. With layers of stains and inks and a random coating of gold embossing powder it serves as a base for the distressed butterflies and flowers."

Don't forget, you can now enter as many times as you like with whatever craft makes you like so keep them coming please.

Although we can't tell you what the challenge will be next month, we can tell you that we have our winner and runners up from March guesting alongside a very special guest designer. Maybe we'll give you a better clue next week [g].

Have a great week everyone. xxx

A second butterfly piece from Trace

We're 6 days in and already we have lots of entries, how fab' is that? Thank you all so much for sharing your creativity with us. If you've not made anything yet but want to have a go then this second gorgeous make from Trace may inspire you to get going... thanks Trace!

"For this piece I went for one of  of my all time crafty favourites and made a tag. I used more distress paints , distress stains and distress inks as they all combine so beautifully together. I used the same stamp sets as piece one to show how they can be used to create versatile looks and added texture with embossing folders."

Challenge #2 for April

Wow, wow, wow! What beautiful entries we've had for last month's challenge and so many too, we're blown away with the response so a huge THANK YOU for your support!! Winners will be announced shortly but first we have to deal with a few housekeeping bits and then, of course, launch this month's challenge...

We spent a lot of time dealing with emails and queries this past month and several things have become apparent so we're changing the rules. From today onwards you can enter as many times as you like and what you like. Other rules apply so check them out HERE please.

So, without further ado, the challenge for this month is 'BUTTERFLIES'. Here are the initial makes from our talented Design Team which we hope will give you some inspiration...

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BRENDA

"This butterfly box was originally a vintage thimble display box purchased from an antique stall in Bridport. It has been given the shabby look with layers of paint, crackle paint and walnut stain distress ink. Filled with lots of little goodies and a multitude of butterflies."

CHRIS

 

"This miniature started out as a 2"x3" frame. Add a Tim pediment, paint and crackle and it becomes the base for my tiny 'Butterfly garden'. The flowers and butterflies are distressed very lightly to give a gentle shabby chic feel without it being too heavy."

 GABRIELLE

 "A combination of Tim Holtz dies, Ideaology, PaperArtsy paints and stamps were used to make this Spring birdcage. The birdcage was cut from Grungepaper and inked with Tarnished Brass Distress Stain and clear embossing powder."

 TRACE

 

 "For this piece I  went for my new found favourite toy the wonderful distress paints, lots of great Tim Holtz stamps and one of my favourite colour combinations of blues and browns. I added lots of inky layers and plenty of stamping to create my canvas on its easel."

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 We hope these beautiful makes from our Design Team will inspire you to share your creativity with us again this month. Ladies and gentlemen, we're off and running for April - Good luck!

Winner & top 3 for March

WINNER

It has been an amazing month with so many beautiful, beautiful entries and all are worthy of a prize for one reason or another! I don't think any of us appreciated when we started that we would have so many entries and of the obvious quality that they all are. For that reason we've decided to use random.org to pick the winner.

The winner of the March 'Pick and mix' challenge is:
#19 - butterfly (Alison) with her beautiful Glampunk birdhouse

 Congratulations Alison!


 TOP 3 MERIT BADGES

Each of the Design Team members will be taking turns to decide the top three merit badge winners and this time it is Brenda's choice.

"Hi all, it's Brenda here and I have the priviledge of choosing the top three for our first ever challenge at Country View Challenges, but I have had the most difficult job in the world. We had 93 wonderful entries and each one has taken time and energy for you to produce and the standards of each piece have been amazing. So, having gone through all the entries again, I decided that I needed some guidance for myself (it must be the teacher in me, lol) and a way of making choices that weren't just based upon my favourite styles but on criteria that give a meaning to the decision making.

I wanted to choose pieces that are different types (ie card, tag, journal, box, frame, hanging, scrapbooking page, etc, etc) and look for use of materials, use of colour, techniques used, how shape, form and texture were used as well as different styles of craft/art. How did this help you may ask? Well it did and I was able to whittle a very long list down to just three (in several stages I may add).

In the order of entry number I have chosen...

#2 - Alison at Craftytrog's Inky Adventures

I loved Alison's journal entry with her self-portrait and fabulous colours done in oil pastels. Alison has used words to express her feelings and create memories for the future.

#49 - Jennie Atkinson at Live The Dream

Jennie's monotone tag in greens has a wonderful feel of spring and she has used lots of ways to include texture and I particularly love how the visible elements are united and fit perfectly together to create a fabulous composition.

#52 - Laura at Laurart

I chose Laura's frame hanging not only for the lovely piece she ended up with but for the processes she went through to achieve it. Laura describes her journey from having the idea for a tag to finishing with a balsa wood frame that can be hung on display.

I am loving the new entries already submitted for challenge #2 so thanks for joining us on our new journey.

Hugs {Brenda} x0x"

Congratulations Alison, Jennie & Laura!

DON'T FORGET OUR GIVEAWAY!!!!!

This month is our launch month so there is an additional competition to win our launch GIVEAWAY!!! You don't have to enter a craft piece so click HERE to find out how to enter.

A second piece from Trace...

We're about to go into week 4 so here's another make to tempt you...

"For my second piece I decided to use the same colours and techniques of the wonderful distress paint as my journal page and also inks to create a tag with a pocket suitable for a gift card or as I have done a matching ATC with sentiment. The beauty of distress is you can use them for all sorts of projects, using just one colour family or blend different colours for great effects." Trace

This beautiful double-sided tag matches Trace's main make (see below) and makes a great holder for her ATC. Another fab' idea for you to consider if you haven't joined in the challenge already. We have just over a week left so come on, come and join us!

Have a great Easter holiday everyone! xxx

Using the linkie with images...

Morning everyone, hope you're safe and warm in this bitter weather!

A quick word about the linkie tool and picking up images from your url, I've answered several via email but there are still comments about it so please read on if it affects you... 

If the linkie isn't finding images it is because you're using the url of a main page not the SPECIFIC url of the piece that includes the image. I had this same problem when I first started to use it on other challenge sites until someone explained to me that if I clicked on the exact post that contained the image the linkie would pick up the images there and allow you to choose which one. If you're pointing to a general page containing a lot of posts it will not give you the option of seeing the images there. You don't have to be using blogger, it can be a standard web page, Pinterest, Facebook, whatever, just make sure you have the url of the piece containing the SPECIFIC picture(s).For future reference you can find the InLinkz info HERE and I'll add it to the sidebar.

Have a great weekend folks and watch for another make VERY shortly.

Chris xxx