Saturday, 13 September 2014

Astrid's sailing in her own style!

Hi everyone,

We've a fabulous project today and a terrific example of how you can make a nautical piece even if you don't have anything appropriate in your stash. Astrid has cleverly made her own nautical elements...



This month's challenge theme has been a challenge for me indeed, as I don't really have any nautical supplies to speak of. So instead I decided to create my own and had great fun doing so. If you want to know more about how I did that, there is a step by step on my blog, all you need to do is click here.



This is so clever Astrid, a gorgeous make and what a terrific demonstration of how to come up with something relevant to our theme from scratch - just brilliant!

Right everyone, you really do have NO excuse now! >:o)  We'd like to see lots more nautical masterpieces and that can be anything - an ATC, ATB, tag, card, journal or scrapbook page, altered art, home decor or any other crafty genre. We don't mind what your style is, from CAS (clean and simple) to grunge, contemporary to vintage, we lurrrrve them all, lol. >:o)

On Monday we have another guest spotlight so please be sure to come visit and take a peek!

Have a great weekend! >:o)

Chris and the team xxx

Friday, 12 September 2014

Word play winners

It's that time again! Yes, time to announce our latest winners, those for August's challenge and Alison's 'Word play' theme. Our winner of the £20 shopping voucher sponsored by our host Country View Crafts is chosen each month at random by random.org....


WINNER - #81


http://schaerfchenskreativwelt.blogspot.de/2014/08/tag-gentlemans-world.html

Congratulations Dagmar! >:o)



Blog badge winners have been awarded this month by Alison, as follows...

TOP 3

http://geezercrafter.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/word-play.html
I love the slate effect created for the background, and the glow of the light bulbs. It's such a simple but effective illustration of beautiful words. So original.

http://susanjanicula.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/word-play.html
A fantastic fairytale feel to this piece. I love how it's completely inspired by the beautiful song lyrics, and the rustic feel to the simple woodland scene to illustrate them. Fabulous crackle too!

http://2amscrapper.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/its-man-thing-part-2.html
Hilarious words - and the design really puts them centre stage. I love the white on white texture with those fab little pearly accents, and the fishnet topping - so cool!

DTMSM (DT Members' Special Mention)

http://frankieeatsworms.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/words-words-words.html
Words galore in this fantastic mini-book... layers of text and script as well as the whole piece being based around the notion of writing and reading. Beautiful!



Congratulations to all of our worthy winners, your badges and invitations to be a Guest DTM are on the way!

Well done and thank you to everyone else that entered, they were all fabulous entries and Alison told me how hard it was to make her choices!

Good luck to everyone for his month - another project post tomorrow!

Chris and the team xxx

Thursday, 11 September 2014

Kezzy's made it plain sailing!

Hello all!

We're featuring another guest today, Kezzy J (aka Kerry), who was one of our July Top 3 badge winners. Kezzy has put together a really fabulous piece of art to share with you...




My name is Kerry (aka Kezzy) and I’m extremely honoured to be here today.  I started crafting in 2006 and blogging in Jan 2011.  I work part time as an accountant mainly at home due to a bad back, I have two children 15 and 17 and I live with my partner and our dog Jasmine who is almost 13.  Art is a huge part of my life, especially during times when I’m in pain as I can lose myself in paint and stamps, I reckon if art was a pill then everyone would be pain free lol.  I definitely am in to mixed media, I lurrrrrve working with paint, stamps, inks and general messiness.  I taught myself to crochet last year and have become addicted to bright colourful yarn and love to make bright funky flowers for my art.  It’s a big year for me as on the 1st September I became 40, I have a journal ready and decorated so I can record this special year, as they say, Life begins at 40 and I feel good in the knowledge that as long as I have ART then everything will be alright.  I have thoroughly enjoyed doing this project for you today, and have lots more photos, plus a full step by step of how it was made.


I started with a small wooden frame (4 by 4 inch) and painted it with Fresco paint, then used Fresco crackle medium and back with lighter colour paint.  You probably can’t see much of it left, but it’s there lol.  I then used a heavy gel medium in areas and covered with sand to add texture.  I then painted lots of Fresco greens and blue paints plus used blue embossing powder mixed with UTEE to make the embossing run while heating.  All the embellishments were done with the same treatment of paint and crackle, sand and then paint.  I made a fish from fimo as I couldn’t find a fish embellishment lol.  I actually studied a picture on a ship wreck to see how the water affects the ship and that is how I got the colours and texture (picture on my blog).  I wanted to show how the sea flows through the sunken ship and how the sea life makes it home.  Finally I added some sand and drift wood to the top with the title sea wreck.




Wow, what a stunning decorative piece of art, thank you Kezzy!

Our projects so far this month have been amazing (even if we say so ourselves, lol) but there's a lot more to come, we're not even half way through yet!  We hope that you're feeling inspired and gathering lots of ideas to put your project together to enter.......?

Our next post is on Saturday, from Astrid, and she has created an amazing piece from scratch - please don't miss it!  Hope to see you then. >:o)

Chris and the team xxx

Tuesday, 9 September 2014

Alison's sailing the ocean waves...

Ahoy there me hearties! [g]

Yep, we're definitely all at sea with the cliches this month but who cares, we're having fun, right?

Alison's joining in today with a wonderful collaged tag.... she's definitely going first class! >;o)



With limited Nautical supplies to hand (it's just not my usual port of call - sorry! - as, in fact, the undersides of boats and shipwrecks are part of my only phobia) I had to think laterally.  I do have the fabulous Tim Holtz ship stamp, and I seized on the Expedition Ephemera Pack and a sheet of photos from one of Tim's paper stashes to do the rest, over an ocean background.



This is fabulous Alison, and definitely the ticket - thank you!

There's so much nautical flavoured material out there in craftland, we don't think you'll have any trouble laying your hands on something in your stash to craft with. Don't forget, our winner receives a £20 shop voucher from our sponsor, Country View Crafts.

The next ship docks on Thursday!

Chris and the team xxx

Sunday, 7 September 2014

Trace is looking through the porthole...

Hi everyone!

Another post today and again, very different. Regular followers will know that we love to bring you variety both in genre and in style. Today, our clever Trace has come up with quite a different take on the theme and it's a stunner....



For my second piece I wanted to capture the idea of a rusty boat under the ocean and the sea life through the porthole...not sure if I have managed? For all the details of my make please hop here.



Such a fabulous idea Trace and a gem of a project - definitely a treasure, thank you!

Are you getting the idea? You may not think you have anything nautical but we bet you have, it just may not be that obvious. >:o)  Trace has shown you what her lateral thought process led to so let's see what you can come up with.

We're not leaving you shipwrecked, we'll be back with another post on Tuesday, see you then!

Chris and the team xxx

Friday, 5 September 2014

Sue's hooked!

Welcome everyone!

Today, our newest team member, Sue D, is showing you that she's definintely hooked with her second project this month...



Hi continuing with the nautical theme, I've gone with a slide mailer, and lots of PaperArtsy stamps and paints. For more details please check out my blog at Sue The Iron. Hope you like it x



A great make Sue and, again, very different. We love the trawler/fishing angle (oops, sorry about the pun, lol). Thank you!

You might struggle to find nautical papers in your stash but there are so many stamps and stencils, masks and dies out there that we're pretty confident you'll find something suitable in the cupboard!

Don't forget, we award a blog badge (and guest spot) for the project we think is the most original and creative expression of our theme.

Trace will be here to tantalize you on Sunday so be sure to visit and see what she has in store for you (it's fab!!). >:o)

Have a great weekend,

Chris and the team xxx

Wednesday, 3 September 2014

The sea is calling Jennie!

Hi all!

Today is our first individual post for the month and we're being led by Jennie who has nominated this fabulous nautical theme. We have a fully loaded month's worth of posts for you with lots of fab, fab projects of different genres and styles. We hope that you will be sailing through the month with us, lol!



Today I am sharing a canvas which includes quite a number of embellishments which become very important when at sea - clocks, compass, charts, pens, rulers and ropes.  I have included some details on my blog HERE as to how I created the background of the canvas which I recycled from a previous project.



 A beautiful canvas Jennie with fabulous composition, thank you!

A great inspirational post to kick off with. If there is one thing that was clear from the team it was that many felt they had little or no nautical elements in their stash. They did, it just took a little thinking about! We don't mind lateral thinking as long as there is a definite nautical thread in your project. So, come on, thinking caps on, get creative and let's see what YOU can do!!

We'll be back again on Friday with another fabulous project so we hope to see you then!

Have a great day!

Chris and the team xxx

Monday, 1 September 2014

September's challenge...

Good morning everyone!

Firstly, a BIG thank you for all your lovely entries in August.... some wonderfully creative thought processes going on out there! Thank you too to those of you who have been following and commenting, it's lovely to know that you like what we do. >:o)

Before we proceed I have some sad news and some good news. We're sorry to say that Sue C has now left us to pursue new ventures. THANK YOU SUE for all your hard work and all the stunning projects you've shared with us, we wish you well for your future enterprises - don't forget us! >:o) 

With Sue's departure we have a new arrival, ANOTHER Sue! We hope you'll all say a BIG HELLO to Sue D, aka Sue The Iron, many of you will already know her. Sue D joins us today to make her debut! WELCOME SUE D, we're glad to have you on board, we're looking forward to working with you and seeing what you create!

So, September is here, the kids are going back to school this week and we're looking downhill at Christmas! Aha, you're thinking, we're having a Christmas theme this month..... sorry, nope, not this month, lol! >;o) This month our very talented Jennie (aka The Flower Queen) has chosen our theme and she would like to see what projects you can create for challenge #19 which is....


Definition (source: Google): of or concerning navigation, sailors, or the sea; maritime.
Synonyms: maritime, marine, naval, seafaring, seagoing, ocean-going; yachting, boating, sailing.
You can create whatever type of project you'd like to, a tag, ATC, card, scrapbook page, journalling page, altered art, home decor or anything else that is crafty. All we ask is that you FOLLOW OUR RULES so that you don't disqualify yourself. Our challenges are open to all, wherever you are in the world and you can enter as many projects as you like.

At the end of the month a winner will be chosen at random (using random.org) to receive a £20 shop voucher from our generous sponsor, Country View Crafts. We also choose the 3 projects we like the best to receive blog badges and a 'special mention' badge to the project we feel has shown the most originality and creativity in expressing our theme. Our winners are announced early the following month and all will be invited to join us as Guest DTMs the month after.

Right, let's get to it..... Our DT is headed this month by Susan Carol, winner of our July challenge...



Art journaling is my new passion but I also love cardmaking, scrapbooking, making mini books, anything involving paper really. I'm a Christian so my art journaling is mainly focused on my faith - hence the name of my blog! I love to do other things too like gardening, flyfishing and walking, especially in beautiful places and by rivers. Most of all I love spending time with my friends and of course my family. I have an amazing husband, Dominic, and 2 wonderful grown up children, Patrick and Izzy.

I was over the moon to have won the stencil challenge at Country View Challenges and to be given the opportunity to be a guest designer for their September one which is 'Nautical'. This is my first time as a guest designer so I admit I had a complete attack of nerves and wondered why on earth I had agreed to do it!! I also have NO nautical items in my stash so I had to engage in lateral thinking to do this project which in the end was a lot of fun.


I decided to do an art journal page using nautical images as metaphors for Jesus.  I wanted plenty of texture to replicate stormy seas so I started by scraping my home made texture paste (pva glue, white acrylic paint and talc) over the lower two thirds of the page, then pressing a swirl embossing folder into the paste.  This gave really lovely texture and I think the swirls are sort of wave like!  Then came lots of layers of paint, torn strips of paper, stenciling and stamping.  I embossed four tags with the swirls embossing folder and coloured in different ways. I journaled on the backs.  They slot in behind the red and yellow strips which are glued on three sides so the tags can be removed for reading.  This challenge turned out to be a lot of fun!


A truly nautical mini-book - made whilst at anchor on our sailing boat Mrs Muir, using an old Admiralty Chart for the wallet and photographs from our sailing cruise last year. There are details of how to make the wallet and book and more photographs on my blog HERE. Looking forward to having you visit!


I was not too confident on this theme I have to be honest, but it is surprising when you are placed out of your comfort zone what can transpire. This was quite a Challenge for me.  
G45 papers were my inspiration for this card. You will be able to view the step by step on my Blog.


Hi, I'm thrilled, and excited and a little bit nervous, but I'm here with my first piece for the Nautical challenge this month. Can you tell how much I love PaperArtsy!  All the details are over at Sue The Iron I hope you will take a look x


I love vintage photos and when I saw this chap in my stash of pictures I knew he had to be the centre stage of my nautical piece along with lots of yummy distress goodies. For all the details please hop here .


I don't have much in the way of Nautical crafty stash... but this 7 Gypsies set "Legend" is full of the signs and symbols and markings you find on old maps, for navigating the oceans.  I used them to create a tiny ATB, with some ship's rope to finish it off.  If you want to see the other sides, you'll have to come and visit Words and Pictures!


I created a small box canvas for the challenge, but have to admit I found it quite a struggle, as I have literally no nautical supplies, so improvisation was the order of the day. You can find out more about how I went about it by visiting my blog.


I've had lots of fun using the reverse of a deep canvas to make my nautical display using a Tim Holtz Found Relative, rusted metal embellishments, texture paste and distress inks and I even learned how to tie the 'Celtic Plait'. The gorgeous letterpress blocks were given a thin coat of distress paint to bring in a bit more colour.


One of my passions is making boxes from scratch to use for gifting pressies to friends and family. This little box is made from ATCs and was created in one of those moments of 'play'. If you'd like more details you can find the how and what here.


....when I headed for my crafty stash I discovered that I don't have much in the 'Nautical' line but after a bit of playing with some distress inks, couple of stamps and some circle dies I came up with this little 'salty' tag.  Pop over to my blog for a few more pics etc.....Donna xx


Hello to you all, I have made a tag today .
 I found this hard as it does seem male orientated and I don't do male very well but I did manage to find some stamps that I think fit the role. you can get full details from here


I don't have much that's Nautical (mainly because I'm still very traumatised after a week's holiday on the beautiful Norfolk Broads a few years ago!) but I do have these little ships! The saying is one my parents said every family seaside holiday and it really amused me that Su (my Phrenology head) can't see the ships because they're balanced on her glasses! There is more detail on my blog if you'd like to know more!



Wow, what a line up, we hope you've enjoyed it! Now we're looking forward to seeing what you create, you've got 30 days to do it, lol! Don't forget, we'll be posting a themed (nautical) project every other day for you to look at here (and a step x step project of various topics inbetween over on our shop project's blog).

As our lead DTM this month, Jennie will be up first on Wednesday, so please remember to bookmark us and pop back then!

Have fun!

Chris and the team xxx


Friday, 29 August 2014

Magpie Day - We have postcards!

It's our last post for this month and it's a Magpie Day!

Q: What is a Magpie Day?
A: Whatever takes our fancy!

We've introduced Magpie Days for the occasional spare date in our calendar. Our DTMs suggest a topic and play with that theme. Today we thought it would be fun to feature POSTCARDS!

Here's what our talented team came up with...



My postcard is called 'A postcard from Paris' and makes use of Tim's new French flight Framelits dies with stamps. There's a kewl map of Liege cut from one of the new 'Come away with me' papers from Graphic 45 too. On the serious side, the postcard journey starts in Liege (Belgium) and ends in Paris and is commemorative of the centenary of WWI. You can find exactly what's been used and how HERE.


Doreen
Hello, I have made a vintage postcard  from a wife to her husband who is away at war.
More details from my blog here. xxx


Sue B
My Postcard is from the North Pole, posted by Santa to a child that has been very good all year.

A step by step is over on my Blog.


Trace
 and here is the back :
I love all things vintage and love playing with the new papers, so this vintage style postcard from Paris was created using mostly collaged elements x For all the details please hop here .

Alison
Making a postcard means I can get out one of my first ever stamp purchases... the Tim Holtz PostCard label.  It's still one of my favourites - I don't know why I don't use it more!  For more details of my melancholy message, take a trip over to Words and Pictures.


Gabrielle
My son starts Secondary school in September and so my postcard is themed with him in mind! Lots of my most favourite Wendy Vecchi stamps were used - in fact I think there are 23 stamped images in total! For more on how I made this, please pop over to my blog!

Jennie
I rather indulged myself with an old favourite stamp which I hadn't used in a while to create this vintage postcard.  There are more details on my blog here.



We hope you've enjoyed peeking at our postcards. If you have some time, do please hop around to see the details and share some love with the DT Members who work SO hard to create our projects for you to see.

We'll be back on Monday with a brand new challenge for you and more lovely projects to share from our team.

Thanks to you all for your support and all the lovely comments this month, have a fabulous weekend!

Chris and the team. xxx

Wednesday, 27 August 2014

Dreaming of angels

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




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.



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

Monday, 25 August 2014

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...




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.



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

Saturday, 23 August 2014

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...




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.



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

Thursday, 21 August 2014

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...




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.



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