FORGOT TO MENTION ......

Malcolm and I will be at THE CRAFT BARN, in Lingfield, Surrey, on Saturday, 6th August, where I will be demoing our stamps and stuff, at one of their fantastic MINIFESTS.  If you haven't visited The Craft Barn before - you certainly must!  Its just the greatest, heavenly craft shop with pretty much everything a girl (or boy) would ever need, in the crafting line!  We would love to see you there.

And because I don't like to post without a little something visual I am going to show you a couple of lovely pics of items made by our Ginger (aka Carol) which I reckon you will love!

Firstly 3 Optical Lens Pendants:

Carol has used stamps CI-065, CI-135, and CI-305 on these, along with some resin - so check out her BLOG for further details.

And secondly a very pretty tag:

Using CI-322 and some corrugated card, along with a very pretty flower she made herself.

Just a reminder to the winners of the July Challenge - do get in touch soon ladies to claim your prizes.  And it won't be long until the August Challenge begins (where do the months go to???) so keep a watch out right here.  Better have some blog candy on offer soon too I reckon!

The new issue Craft Stamper should be out shortly - can't wait - should be some CI stuff in there you might be interested in!  More news on that soon.

Jean x

WE'RE BACK FROM HOLIDAY AND HERE ARE THE JULY CHALLENGE WINNERS!

We returned from lovely Northumberland last week, and then I immediately went to Knutsford to visit the Tatton Park Flower Show with a friend of mine.  Had a great time in both places - definitely ones to be recommended - and I will paste in a couple of pics at the bottom of this post.

But without further ado here are the winners of the July competition as chosen (with great difficulty I believe) by ZUZU - in no particular order!

A Fantastic Card by Shirley Sirje

Then A Fabulous Hanging by Sarah Engles-Greer

A Lovely Tag by Alipeeps

A Very Pretty Canvas by Suzanne

And A Beautiful Collage by Florence

All divine entries ladies!  Thank you one and all for entering - and as usual if you could email us at info@craftyindividuals.co.uk giving us your choice of rubber stamp, and your address, we will send them out the prizes poste haste.

Well done to the winners, but also well done to all of you who take part -  you make the challenge so delightful to look at and so much fun!

Finally tonight here are a few little pictures from our trips:

Firstly a sooo peaceful little boat by the sea (just love this!):

A dreamy photo of Bamburgh Castle from the beach:

Malcolm in a poppy field on Holy Island (we couldn't believe our luck when we came across this delight):

And lastly an image of lovely lillies from the flower show:

I think I can feel some more glossy sheets coming on!!!

Good night all.

Jean x

JUST A QUICK POST, AND A CONFIGURATION BOX

Malcolm and I are off to lovely Northumberland for a few days - hopefully to photograph castles amongst other things (however the weather forecast is awful and I'm full of cold - so it will be interesting!), therefore this is a quick post to show you what I did with a Configuration box that I have had in my stash for a while.  Thought it was about time I used it in a Crafty Individuals sort of a way!

I have had a problem with these as up until now I have always felt that the cubby holes were a bit on the deep side for me, so eventually I decided that I would make false bottoms for each one (at different levels) out of card, and I was happy with this format.  Then to decorate I used tissue tape all over the box, softened with a thin layer of gesso.  I covered the false bottoms with CI Background Papers, then added charms, flowers, buttons, glass bottle, bobbins, lace, ribbon, images from our Domino Glossy Sheet and stamped images from our Elements Stamp Plates.  I used our Crackle Stamp embossed in gold on the top edges and on the flourish, and finished with more ribbon, trim, bows and flowers.  I then had a 'brainwave' and used two little bobbins as the feet.

Hope you like it?!

Keep linking in those Challenge Entries whilst we are away.  Thanks everyone.

Jean x

MORE STUNNING INSPIRATION FOR YOUR ARTISTIC SENSES

I meant to show you the following inspirational CI JULY CHALLENGE pieces last week, but as usual the week flew by, and then I was away helping my friend and occasional CI stamp designer Linda with her Open Studio art event in Shrewsbury, over the weekend.  I have known Linda since I was 4 years old - a lifetime in fact - so it is always a pleasure to stay with her and her family, and the event was a great success too!  We also managed to fit in a little shopping, chatting, eating and drinking to finish off the visit - nice!

Ah well, enough of that, and here as promised are the so very beautiful projects by Zuzu.  Zuzu also chose the theme for the July challenge, and will be the judge too this time around.

Firstly a 'sewing kit' purse in the specified colours of pink, brown and cream using our new elements stamps CI-322 AND CI-323:

A stunning project - and much admired by her blog followers!  So she went on to make a box in a similar style:

Thanks Zuzu!

And finally tonight a project by lovely Sue Abbott, who has been working so very hard on her new house recently, and still found time to inspire us with her lovely framed image:

Thanks for tuning in, and thanks for submitting the great challenge projects everyone.  Still 13 days to go to get your results linked in folks and let us all see just what YOU can do!

Jean x

DRESSMAKER'S SHOP FRONT IN PINK, CREAM AND BROWN

As promised here is my offering for the CI July Challenge - I hope you like it - do let me know (I certainly loved making it)!

With a couple of close-ups:

And now I will give a few instructions on how I went about making it ....

I used a little wooden compartment tray which you will find on our website on the 'Must-Have's' page HERE.  I covered the tray in the Tim Holtz tissue tape (from my own stash), which I then lightened by painting all over with thin gesso, and a touch of pink acrylic paint.  In one of the sections I added a 'false bottom' - by making a simple box/tray from cardboard, which I covered in CI background paper (top left) and I decorated this section with ribbon and charms as shown.  The other sections were also decorated with lace, ribbon, and flowers and then a stamped corset and a stamped parasol from CI-306 were added, to top right and bottom left, plus stamped and cut-out words from CI-258.  I finished off the last section - bottom right with a painted wooden reel and ribbon and another charm.  Then I glued thin cream trim around the top edges as shown, with a bow to the centre.

I cut a piece of strong card on which to mount the box with a section at the top to hold the 'Dressmaker' ad from CI-322, and I cover the card with coloured thin card.  When I had glued the dressmaker ad in place I added a couple of flowers and a bow.

I then decided that the box needed doors.  So I cut these out of the same coloured card with an extra folded section added on that I could then glue to the sides of the tray.  I used the stamped door hardware from CI-304 to add decoration to the doors.

To finish my shop front I added the two lovely ladies (coloured with my trusty Copics) again from CI-322, some ribbon around the doors and the top of the ad (and to hang), and some dangly brown shell trim as pictured.

Give it a go folks - its fun, fun, fun! (We would love to see your results!)

I was going to show you a couple more lovely 'team' challenge projects as well tonight, but here I am having yet another late night (just toooo many late nights recently - these computers just eat away the hours!), so I'm going to save those for next time around (soon!).

Blog followers total just crept over 300 - thanks all - I am so honoured!

Bye for now,

Jean x

JULY CHALLENGE DETAILS & BLOG CANDY WINNER

Its a little later in the day than I had intended - but here are the July Challenge details as promised.  As usual the guidelines will be outlined, followed by the subject matter, and finally some 'team' inspiration to get those creative juices flowing.

CHALLENGE GUIDELINES

To enter this month’s Crafty Individuals Challenge please put together your project, following the subject material outlined below (your project should include at least one Crafty Individuals product please), then:

Post your challenge project on your blog, before the 26^th of the month, and include a link back to this blog,

Leave a link in the URL box to take us directly to your challenge project, etc. – which will then appear here on this blog as a thumbnail image – so we can all see your wonderful work.

At the end of the month the CI team and/or guests will set about choosing five lucky participants, each of whom will win a CI rubber stamp of their choice.

Go for it and enjoy the challenge x

CHALLENGE SUBJECT - 'PINK, CREAM AND BROWN'

The subject matter for this month's challenge has kindly been chosen by Zuzu, who has picked a colour scheme - 'pink, cream and brown', for you to work to.  These are colours that look beautiful together and I think you will find it a lot of fun to join in - and remember it also gives you something interesting and special to add to your own blog when you finish your project.  

Here is Zuzu's very pretty picture:

Closely followed by a pretty little box by Lucy 

A gorgeous muslin bag by Kim who is one of our most recent 'team' members.  Kim was a Craft Stamper 'Stamper of the Year' winner, and I'm sure she would be delighted if you popped on over to her blog to have a look around, and sign up to be a follower if you like what you see (and I'm sure you will)!

Then we have some lovely jewellery bits by Ginger

And an altered slide mailer with a pretty seaside theme by Jo  

Next we have a lovely, lovely project by Helen 

And to finish off tonight two of Isabelle's stunning creations - 

Who could fail to love all the above delicious offerings - so now it is over to you to show us what YOU can do!

Now you might (?) be wondering what happened to my own crafty creation.  Well I can promise you it is made and photographed, but I thought I would hang on and blog it within the next couple of days, with some instructions as to how I went about making it.  I really enjoyed this challenge and can't wait to show you what I have come up with - so watch this space!!

Finally to finish the posting tonight I have promised to announce the winner of yesterday's posting of a bundle of blog candy.  We went with a tumble of the dice on this one and I am delighted to say that our winner is SID this time around.  Hope you enjoy your products Sid - and I see you have recently become a follower - what a wise man!!!!  Please get in touch with your address so we can send you your goodies poste haste.  Thanks to all who left comments - great to read so many kind words!

Back soon,

Jean x