Dreaming of angels

I'm here today with an additonal post and I decided on a wall hanging, made for a friend...

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Chris

I love wall hangings and a friend of mine loves angels so this was made with her in mind. Using discarded corrugated cardboard, grunge paste and inks, it was fun to make. Details can be found HERE.

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We have less than four days to go but that's still plenty of time to enter! 

This is NOT our last post of the month, we have a MAGPIE DAY planned for Friday and we think you'll LOVE IT! We hope you'll join us then for some more creative ideas.

Chris and the team xxx

Cec is all steamed up!!

Our post today presents a fabulous steampunk project from the well known and very talented Cec Wintonyk. Many of you will know Cec not just from her own blog but from Frilly and Funkie and Sugar Creek Hollow...

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Cec

My name is Cec Wintonyk of CW Card Creations and I am honoured to have been asked to be a Guest Designer at Country View Challenges. I have been doing one craft or another since I was small, thanks to my very creative Mother. My obsession with paper really took off 5 years ago when I started to blog about the cards I was making. Since then I have been on a number of design teams and my work has been more focused on vintage or shabby chic. Recently I have started to incorporate more mixed media into my creations.

I live outside Toronto, Canada and my husband of 39 years supports my crafting - quite literally since I have been retired from the accounting profession since 2009.   We have one daughter, also very creative who is married and has blessed us with two grandchildren ages 5 and 8.

For my Word Play project, I have created this frilly steampunk card.

The background was white card stock that I inked with Pumice Stone, Frayed Burlap and Black Soot Distress Inks, stenciled with a harlequin stencil and then distressed with my scissors.  The text was computer generated and inked with the same colours as the background.

The vintage clock piece was cut from Tim Holtz Grunge Paper and coloured with a Copic marker.   The steampunk lady was stamped with Jet Black Archival Ink.  I fussy cut her before I outlined her gears with a sparkly black gel pen and coloured her face with Copic markers.  The hand is a digital image that was fussy cut and coloured with Copic markers and some Fired Brick and Aged Mahogany Distress Ink.  The balloon and the corset are also digital images that were both fussy cut and coloured with Fired Brick and Aged Mahogany Distress Ink.  I added some black gems to the corset along with a skirt of tulle and organza.

Other embellishments are gears and a metal arrow that I coloured with a black Copic marker, a washer and a black button.  The flower is made from paper-backed metal tape used in the heating and air conditioning industry.  It was cut using the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die and textured with an embossing stylus.  Black acrylic paint was applied to it and immediately wiped off leaving paint in the depressions.  Once it was dry the highlights were inked with Cranberry Alcohol Ink and a black gem was added for a centre.

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Such a stunning card Cec and the one, simple word shouts out, this is beautiful - thank you!

We are on the downhill slope now folks so a polite reminder to start finishing your projects and getting them entered as soon as you can. The closing deadline is 11.55 pm on the 31st.

I'll be here on Wednesday with the final project on our theme but it won't be the final post as we have a nice surprise for you on Friday >;o)

Have fun everyone. >:o)

Chris and the team xxx

Doreen's been tagged...

Doreen is sharing her second DT make with us today to highlight how useful masks can be in creating beautiful scenes for our projects...

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Doreen

Hello to you all, for my second project  I am back with a tag using distress inks and some masking. One of my favorite techniques is masking off moons and suns,you can get lots of different effects by directing the light where you want it to shine..

You can get more details from my blog.

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A beautiful tag Doreen and a fabulous example of the masking technique - thank you!

Projects entered do not have to be lavish or complicated they can be clean and simple (CAS), monochromatic, whatever you want them to be. The winner is selected at random (using random.org) so EVERYONE has a chance of winning. When we choose our Top 3 and DT Member's Special Mention badge winners we are looking at how well you have interpreted our theme and how original and creatively you have used your materials.

We have a special T3 guest on Monday with an equally special project to share with you - please don't miss it!

Have a wonderful, crafty weekend! >:o)

Chris and the team xxx

Trace is at the heart of it today...

We don't think that anyone can fail to recognise our talented Trace's inimitable style. Today she's at the heart of it all with her second DT make...

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Trace

For my second word play piece I made a hanging piece with words connected to affairs of the heart. I created the heart and added to a distressed background and used chit chat stickers to add lots of words. For all the details please pop across to inkypinkycraft.

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A beautiful and sentimental project Trace, it demonstrates our theme so well too - thank you!

Tomorrow sees us into the final week of our challenge so please prepare to finish your projects and think about getting them entered. We'll be back on Saturday with a gorgeous project from Doreen.

Have fun! >;o)

Chris and the team xxx

Sue C's a material girl...

Sue has brought a material element to her project today by using fabric on her tag - and what a tag!!

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Sue C

For my second piece this month I've used fabric as my starting point on a jumbo sized tag. Fabric brings another element of texture to your project and is a great surface to work on. For all the details hop over to my Stamping Sue Style.

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Beautifully designed with stunning colour work, this is gorgeous Sue, thank you!

Whatever your favourite genre, whatever textures and media you like to work with, you can combine it all with our theme this month!

Our next post is a project from Trace on Thursday, we hope to see you then. Have a fab day!

Chris and the team xxx

Sue B has been driven up the wall!

Yes, our post title describes what Sue is up to with her project today but what a fabulous idea and such a stunning result!

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Sue B

Wall Art is fun to do and I used some chip board for this creation, the sentiment is computer generated, the delicious flower is made from vellum and my Key is altered with paints. More info on how I put this together over on my Blog.

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How fabulous is this? Such a kewl idea and a brilliant example of our theme - a gorgeous project Sue, thank you!

How are you all doing? We hope we're giving you lots of good ideas - yes? If so, we'd like to see them please - there's still plenty of time to enter.

Our next post is on Tuesday and it's a wowser of a project from Sue C! Don't miss it! Enjoy your Sunday. >:o)

Chris and the team xxx

Sandy is on the road...

We're midway through the month and what better to inspire you than a guest post? Today we're joined by the very talented S@ndy Diller, one of our Top 3 guests. S@ndy is kindly sharing her project with us despite being on a road trip and what a project to share!

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S@ndy

Hi, S@ndy here and I am so happy to be with you today to share my "Word Play" project.  I'm happily retired and spend my time traveling and crafting, not necessarily in that order.  I am so lucky to be doing both at the moment. As you read this, I am somewhere in Alaska seeing the sights.  I'm sure there will be many more pages to come on this trip. 

The quote I used is one by Charles Kuralt, an American journalist.  Although I am not finding it true on my current trip - I got a chuckle out of it and wanted to use it.  He said: 

"Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything".

While traveling through Canada recently I took the time to "capture life's moments" and was inspired by the beautiful pine trees.  I hope you will stop by my blog, My Crafty Life on the Internet,  to read all about how I created this scrapbook page.

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Such a creative expression of our theme this month S@ndy and how apt! This is beautiful, thank you!

We hope this sparks some ideas for you to get busy and enter.

We'll be back on Sunday with a fabulous project from Sue B - cya then!

Chris and the team xxx

Jennie's journalling with her Mother-in-law!

Journalling is a fabulous alternative to scrapping to celebrate and remember family members and events and that is exactly what Jennie is doing today with her gorgeous project...

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Jennie

I love this Maya Angelou quote and thought it would be most appropriate for this rather glamorous photograph of my mother-in-law taken in 1927. I am loving the freedom of creating art journal pages and learnt a lot from creating this page.  There are more details and a step by step on my blog.

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Wow, what a stunning example of journalling AND our theme for this month Jennie, thank you!

We're almost half way through the month so if you've not entered yet it's time for you to think about it. We're seeing some fabulous entries already but we're greedy, we'd like to see lots more! >:o) Don't forget, everyone that enters has a chance of winning the Country View Crafts' £20 shop voucher as our winner is selected at random (using random.org).

Our next post will be on Friday when we have another T3 guest here sharing her creativity. We hope you'll be able to join us. >:o)

Chris and the team xxx

Blog candy winner

Whoop, whoop! We have congratulations to make to our July Pinterest blog candy winner!

Everyone who joined in has been entered and the winner has been drawn at random using random.org. The winner is...

Lori T of Certified Mad Crafter

Well done Lori we'll be in contact with you shortly so that we can send you the candy. >:o)

Thanks to everyone who joined in and to ALL our Pinterest followers.

More tomorrow....

Chris xxx

Gabrielle's journal is.... SENSATIONAL!

Whichever way you look at our next project, it most definitely IS sensational!

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Gabrielle

I really love words and often turn to quotations to act as inspiration and this Oscar Wilde quotation always makes me chuckle! There are stamped images in the background and then very thin layers of paint over the top to make new colours and areas of interest. The images are from Lynne Perrella for PaperArtsy and I love mixing these images up to make new people. I love using individual letter stamps for each word, the act of stamping each one out gives me great pleasure as I watch each word form on the page! There's more detail on my blog.

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Yep, sensational colours, sensational imagery and a sensational project Gabrielle! Thank you!

Whether you like journalling, or another form of crafting, we want to see your creative efforts please. If you've never entered a challenge before it really is simple, just navigate to the main challenge post (HERE) and use the linkie tool to enter.

We'll be back on Wednesday when our wonderfully creative Jennie will be here with her second project for this month. Cya there! >:o)

Chris and the team xxx

Jenny t3

Hi everyone,

Many of you will know our Top 3 guest today as she is a contributing DT member for several of the most popular craft blogs, it is the very talented Buttons herself... Jenny of Pushing the right buttons!

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Pushing The Right Buttons

I've been artistic and crafty all my life, sewing, drawing, stitching, sometimes for pleasure, often out of necessity. As a keen genealogist I needed to find a way of presenting my extensive family history research and discovered the joys of scrapbooking. One thing led to another and card making for friends and family soon took over. A persistent Hels Sheridan encouraged me to start a blog in April 2012, I discovered the world of Distress, and it all grew exponentially from there. As a qualified teacher I have a real passion for sharing techniques and ideas with anyone who'll listen! After all, isn't this about 'sharing the love'?

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I was delighted to have been placed in the Top 3 for the June 2014 challenge and given the opportunity to be a Guest Designer at Country View Challenges for their August theme 'Word Play'. Having seen the standards set by previous guests I knew whatever I created for this theme it would need to be something special.



So this card started with a paste-stencilled background that I made, loved and puzzled over, particularly as this month's challenge theme requires words or phrases to be used. Do you keep it simple and just die cut some letters to put on top? Do you attempt to layer things over the whole lot and risk making it way too busy? Well no, in my case you grab a Bigz die and (with heart in mouth) chop into the middle of it to create a frame for the rest of your design. And as a bonus you are left with the central section for another card/project!

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A stunning project Jenny, and a fabulous example of our theme this month - thank you so much for joining us today.

We're delighted to see the gorgeous projects you've already entered, a fabulous variety of genres and colours - keep them coming folks please! >:o)

We'll be announcing our Pinterest Blog candy winner shortly so please watch for that and we have more on Monday with Gabrielle, see you then.

Chris and the team xxx

Announcing July's winners

Hi everyone,

Thank you to everyone who contributed to our challenge in July - so many fabulous and varied entries - and thanks too to those of you who commented.

Our winner each month is chosen at random (random.org) to ensure that EVERYONE has a chance of winning. We also award blog badges to our Top 3 and a DT Members' Special Mention badge to the project we feel is the most creative and original in depicting our theme of the month. Here are our winners...

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#75 Susan Carol of Faith Words Faith Expressions

Well done Susan, your blog badge and winner's voucher will be with you shortly.

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As Sue C had chosen the topic for the month it fell to her to choose our Top 3 and DTMSM blog badge awards. Here are her choices and what she had to say about them...

There's so many I liked I could have a top 10 at least ! Anyway I have restrained myself and below are my picks :

#10 - Kezzy of KEZZY'S CRAFTY JOURNEY

A beautiful stencilled bag, the attention to detail is stunning and the stencilling is excellent !

#32 - Meggymay of Meggy's Way

The stencilled children on this project really caught my eye, coupled with the fairy I think this is a truly magical piece !

#92 - Julie Lavalette of Juliz Deign Post

This is a truly elegant project, I loved the transformation and the use of the doily stencil is gorgeous !

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#12 - Claire C of CLAIRE'S CRAFTY CREATIONS

I loved all the texture created on this beautiful piece and the gold metallic finish is just stunning !

Congrat's to all our blog badge winners, your badges are on the way.

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All of our winers are invited to guest with us next month to show you a project that they've made on the theme for the month. If you'd like the opportunity then please enter this month's challenge to be in with a chance.

Another post tomorrow, a great guest with a fabulous project - don't miss it!

Chris xxx

Sticky post - Blog candy

Don't forget we're offering Blog Candy if you've signed up to be one of our Pinterest followers. Click HERE to see our original post details and to enter.

This post will remain top of the list until the closing date - August 8th.

Normal blog posts continue below this one.

Chris xxx