YES INDEED - ITS OCTOBER CHALLENGE TIME 2013! ....

Challenge time again folks!  The title to work with this month is simply 'October'.  That means your project theme can be anything that springs to your mind when you think of the month of October.  It may remind you of Halloween of course, or Autumn perhaps in all its glorious colours, or even simply a time when Christmas preparations begin?  Just follow where your imagination takes you!

CHALLENGE GUIDELINES

To enter this month's Crafty Individuals Challenge please put together your chosen project, which must include at least one Crafty Individuals product please, then post your Challenge project on your Blog, before the end of the month, and include a link back to this Blog.  Leave a link in the URL box displayed in this post to take us directly to your Challenge project, which will then appear on this Blog as a thumbnail image - so we can all see your wonderful arty work.

At the end of the month we will set about choosing five lucky participants, each of whom will win a CI rubber stamp of their choice, and don't forget that as per usual, once you have linked in your creation, you can also claim a lovely 25% discount code to use on anything you purchase from the CI Website, which will be valid until the 10th of November.

Go for it, and enjoy the challenge x

......

We always look forward to seeing your entries - you will be in with a chance of winning a free stamp, and you will also be able to obtain a cool 25% web discount!  When you have linked in your entry please email us at info@craftyindividuals.co.uk to obtain your special code, and then go shopping!

......

The team have really come up trumps again with some glorious and extremely clever Challenge inspiration!!

First off to get us going is a bit of spooky stuff from Effie ..

Soooo imaginative, and using several CI stamps!  Check out Crowned Bunnies by Alice, Roman Numerals Clock Face, and Night of Romance.

Still on the subject of spooky Helen has sent this over..

Creepy spider is by Tando - loving it, and that barbed wire!  Stamps are The Crow, and The Crow Element.

Plus another spooky creative Crow sensation tag by Brenda..

And finally this evening a fabulous little creepy card by Gio - what a splendid little witch - incorporating the Lovely Lace stamp plus lady image from People and Places Book 2.

Lots more to come soon, but I hope that has given you a nice little taster trick or treat ....

Jean x

ALMOST PORT SUNLIGHT TIME .....

We are madly busy this week getting everything made, priced, boxed and ready for the Happy Stampers show at Port Sunlight, which is taking place this Saturday.  Hope you have got your ticket already as it is a ticket only show, and always very busy, and lots of fun!

I thought I had better do a quick blog post as I won't get a chance this weekend, and as usual have lots still to show you.  I also want to let you know that lovely Carol Fox, aka Ginger is going to be very busy exclusively demoing Crafty Individuals stamps and products at Birds in the Barn, Essex next month.  This is a great craft shop that carries a substantial range of our products, and Carol will be demoing for them on 27th October, so do pop along and say hello!  For another little taster of Carol's fantastic mixed media work have a look at this great board featuring lots of different projects Carol has made with CI stuff:

Lots of great techniques on show here, and a very creative piece to put them all on display together!

Now to show you a few more makes - firstly a delightful and colourful project by Sylvie.  The project uses a vinyl record as the backdrop for a Triple Arch Frame by Tando, and our latest Alice Palace stamp the 2 Penguins:

Such amazing icy cool colours - perfect for a pair of penguins!

And for a totally different use for the same penguin pair Effie has made some very cute Shrink Plastic buttons - those rubber stamps are so versatile!

I have a few other delights also by Effie - delicious tags using Elements stamp CI-397:

Plus a pretty card and two pretty pillow boxes using another new stamp CI-394:

Love these!

Thank you all, and thanks also to Lucy who has been stamping some lovely all over cards using CI-397 again, and CI-395:

Now I'm off to get some much needed beauty sleep before more show preparations tomorrow!

Jean x

ADORABLE MAKES, AND A LITTLE BIT OF SPOOKINESS....

It was lovely to see how many of you enjoyed seeing Viola's work (my last post), and I do hope you had a good look around her blog - always inspirational!  Also I see Viola has since posted another beautiful make with a stamp of ours - albeit discontinued - but it certainly goes to show how versatile stamping is in mixed media works as well as simply in papercrafting on its own, and reminds me to keep getting out that vintage sewing machine, as some stitching on projects does look gorgeous.

I have a gather of makes to show you and will focus on several tonight that use our most recent issue of new rubber.  If you feel like getting in the Christmas spirit Daniele has made this lovely, lovely softly coloured tag card with the new Santa image from CI-396 ..

Makes me feel all warm and festive - now where's that glass of mulled wine?

Daniele has also made a pretty card with the Oriental Fan stamp CI-393...

And now I have a few items made using the new Elements plate CI-394 - No Guarantee without the Stamp.  I made a card (Stampendous embossing powder again involved in this) ...

Gio made a very pretty card, and the most adorable little suitcase with the same stamp, plus bits from the Oriental Fan stamp as well ...

How sweet is the little Shrink Plastic necklace fan?!  Love the top front of the suitcase where Gio has used our Butterfly Panel Mask and embossing paste to give the gorgeous raised effect on either side.  Which reminds me that we must make some more YouTube videos - as someone suggested that a video about the multi uses of Masks would be very interesting.

Lovely Sylvie has also made a card with CI-394 and CI-393 in stunning colours ..

Superb - thank you ladies!

To finish - a little bit of spookiness to assist with those sweet dreams this evening.  I love the freedom of creating for Halloween flavoured projects, and I used our latest Tando chipboard blank 'Layered Arch with Cobweb', plus CI-361 and Whitby Abbey CI-227  for this creepy make...

Night, night all!

Jean x

VIOLA .....

So nice of you to leave comments on my last 'results' post - the Challenge entries certainly were fantastic - every single one of them!  One of the 'chosen ones' in the Challenge was a very talented lady by the name of Viola, who's Blog I'm sure many of you will have already discovered?!  Viola has been on my special bookmarked list for a long time, and her work never disappoints.  You will find her Blog Here, and you will really enjoy having a look around.

I thought tonight I would have a little 'Focus On' post to show you a few of Viola's fantastic projects, particularly, of course, those that recently featured Crafty Individuals rubber stamps.  I love textiles, lace and trims, and the following show fabric shabby chic craftwork at its best don't you think?

This is the divine book cover collage that appeared in my last post -

And next an adorable card design - just love that feather!

And here we have some gorgeous decorated storage baskets -

Gorgeous, and so useful too!  Stamps featured above are Parisian Romance, CI-260, Hummingbird Collage, CI-205, Little Perched Wren, CI-191, Little Blue Bird, CI-200, Milano Bird, CI-179, Venezia Bird, CI-180,  and Seven Cheeky Songbirds, CI-230.

Thanks to Viola for letting me share the above with you - all very inspiring and very lovely.

Back soon,

Jean x

RESULTS TIME...

Yes, its time for the August Challenge results - yet again it was an incredibly difficult task to pick out five projects, and we picked out lots more to start with.  Of course in the end we had to make a decision, to here are the results:

Rosie's Bestelwelt: Whitby Abbey - very atmospheric!

Made by Myra: Very pretty and detailed!

Shabby Chic Inspired: Stunning!

Dot's Dabbles: Great idea!

Sue's Art of Craft: Lovely!

Even now I'm thinking - should it have been that one, or that one, or maybe that one .....

Well done everyone who entered, and thank you all loads for taking part.  Would the five 'owners' above please email us with your choice of rubber stamp and your address so that we can send the goodies off to you soon.

Jean x