DRACULA DREAMS?! ....

We have pumpkin faces bathed in candlelight in the kitchen - that good old Halloween smell! So have happy haunting dreams tonight everyone, and I'll be back tomorrow with details of a new Challenge - the last before Christmas!

Whitby Abbey - home of Dracula of course!

Jean x

A LITTLE BIT OF CHRISTMAS IN OCTOBER..

I wonder how you are all doing with your Christmas crafting preparations?  We have been busy in the Christmas department, and I have some projects to share with you.  In a recent post I showed you what Helen Chilton had been doing with our new masks and embossing techniques with a die cutting machine.  You can use the masks to emboss beautifully with the aid of an embossing mat, and if you combine with Coredinations cardstock you can sand back and create fantastic effects, as seen in my post HERE.  I have been playing nicely too and we made these in a class recently, with the aid of our Starry Christmas Tree mask:

Very quick and easy to do - this embossing is perfect for quick and easy Christmas cards (just add some glitter and sparkly gems and you are done!).

I have also been mixing embossing and stamping (and Rudolph)..

- These two cards feature CI-332 and CI-358, and sentiments from CI-281, and CI-282.  The embossed masks are Beautiful Butterflies and Fine Flowers.

Members of the team have been using CI-358 too, and here are the results:

Lynne had made these with her usual pretty and delicate touch:

Loving the pearl on the end of his nose - top!

Brenda has made three different very striking cards with the same stamp:

And Brenda also recently sent me an image of a tag she made with CI-136 - an older stamp but still a classic!

Beautiful tag - full of lovely detail!

Gio has sent over quite a few projects which I will share with you over the next few weeks, but for now here are some delightful earrings she has made with our current special offer star stamp which you will find details of HERE.

Thanks Gio!

To finish off tonight I am going to get you all into ghoulish mode again, with a superbly creepy project by Ginger, with the assistance of our lovely poison bottles and suchlike from CI-360, and I think I have just spotted the crow from CI-361 dangling by the side of the bottle too!

Well I've finished just in time to catch Downton tonight, and a little bit of much needed relaxation, before Monday hits us full on again!

Bye, bye - back soon.

Jean x

A BIT MORE HALLOWEEN MAGIC - JUST FOR FUN..

Before its too late to show you I have some more spooky projects by the ladies to share!  Firstly a slide mailer creation by LYNNE (I see Lynne has used one of our little swirly frames on her latest super cool blog project - I'm just re-playing with these myself, and they are fun - however I digress, so on with the evenings show!) -

Loving the colours Lynne has used here, and of course our poisons plate CI-360 can be used all year around, as well as for Halloween, in a Steampunky kind of a way perhaps?!

DANIELE has also been playing with this stamp and has made this fabulous card - check out her blog for further instructions - great stuff Daniele, and nice use of our crackle stamp CI-116 in black too!

Such a lovely black spider crawling in on the scene, bottom left - yuk!

And finally BRENDA has been having fun in a creepy kind of a way -

both inside and outside - and another 'cute' spider making its appearance here - appropriate as they are making an appearance in my house too - coming in from the cold about now I guess!

Marvellous - thanks all!

Back soon,

Jean x

MORE AMAZING CRAFTY WORKS ...

Hello All - Mountains of lovely project images building up over here.  Better get blogging rapidly, and show you all what's going on!

The author of a lovely blog http://scrapcocofolies.canalblog.com Coco recently showed us some of her work with Crafty Individuals products which I want to share with you:

Loving the children from CI-292, and especially the stars and the string - great idea Coco!  Plus a very pretty scrap page -

- using the same stamp.  Thanks for sharing!

Also lovely Annette of http://nettyscraftings.blogspot.co.uk/ has been busily playing with her CI winning goodies +

Lots of our stuff here, and how fabby is that bauble?!!  Annette has used CI-359 in this creation, but you had better check with her how she went about making it.

Margaret kindly sent me images of this little beauty ..

Great stamping and colouring of CI-357 to make a bookmark, or gift tag.

Now for some more 'team' work.  Ginger has been creating some quickie Christmas makes.  Now they might have been quick, but they are certainly gorgeous ..

This is a little decorated box using our free special offer stamp - see our HOME page for more details, and get it whilst you can!

Ginger has also made some cards and tags for Christmas -

Lovely!  Check out the reindeer stamp HERE.

And Nefertiti made this beautiful layout for her daughter's 21st birthday -

As well as our stamps Nefertiti has used our masks to decorate her layout.  You will find more info on her blog Here.

Whilst on the subject of masks (which you will find Here) Helen has been making a project for The Craft Barn Blog using our Victoria and Albert Swirl put through a home die cutter in an embossing sandwich.  Check out the blog to see what Helen made with her embossed and sanded papers as seen below:

Nice effect Helen!

I have also been using the Beautiful Border Mask on a couple of little cheap frames I picked up for £1 each - very versatile!

The wood frame was already painted white, but of course you could paint a plain frame yourself.  To decorate I placed the mask down one side at a time securing at the corner mitre with masking tape, and sprayed over with artists spray paint.  I repeated this on each side.  When dry I sanded it all back a little.  It was extremely quick and easy to do.  The image in the frame was put together using tiny hearts from CI-342 and a little Pink Shell Button.  I added a line of machine stitching down the centre.  I think this would make a nice present for a young girl?!

Here is a close-up:

That's all for now, check back again soon folks.

Jean x

TANDO BLOG HOP - THE CI WINNER, PLUS CHRISTMAS CARD MAKES...

Thank you to all who took part in the great Tando Birthday Bash Blog Hop, and Di at Tando has named the hopper comment winner of their amazing stash of goodies as KAY!  So now its time to pick the winner of the Crafty Individuals Tando hopper prize as seen HERE, along with my Tando Halloween project!  There were 101 fabulous comments!!!!  And we picked the random number 46 to receive the giveaway, and on counting down number 46 is BUTTERFLY - who also happens to have a very nice blog I discovered.  If Butterfly would email us at info@craftyindividuals.co.uk with her address we will send off her CI goodies (and hope to see some creations with the goodies on her blog maybe?!).  Thanks to all who participated, left comments, and made the hop such a success.

As I have gathered a fair few makes with our new Christmas stamp CI-359 made beautifully by the CI 'team' I thought I would share them with you tonight.  This stamp features our take on the London skyline at Christmas.  However a useful one all year round too if you simply remove the tree as adorable GIO has done here (marking her visit to London this year, with a very sweet little book in a box) -

And two little coordinating cards:

Such a simple stamp to use, and works so well on a variety of backgrounds.  SUE has used Distress Inks and water splashes to make her fun backgrounds for the stamp (nice moon!) -

And NEFERTITI has made 4 simple but so effective cards with this stamp and embossing powders-

DANIELE has made a very pretty Christmas card using CI-359 again, with the addition of the wording from CI-138 and Santa on his Sleigh from CI-254 (such a popular stamp!) -

And LYNNE has worked in sepia tones with white to create this lovely card (also using the star from CI-257 to create a fun background):

Tricky to see in photographs - but there is some lush shimmering going on in these projects too.

I think the above projects show brilliantly how many totally different looks can be achieved with one stamp - thanks ladies!  And I hope it has given you some ideas too?!

Jean x

SEPTEMBER CHALLENGE WINNERS ......

I am going to post the September Challenge winners this evening - and about time too I can hear you say!!  However firstly if you have arrived here from The Craft Barn Blog - http://thecraftbarnblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/tando-creative-blog-hop.html during your Tando Blog Hop Birthday Bash, you need to leave a comment on my previous post (and check out my Tando and CI combination project) at: http://craftyindividualsblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/yes-you-have-arrived-safely-at-next.html, before moving on to the next blog at: http://craftbarjan.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/tando-birthday-blog-hop_1.html where you will also find your next link.  It sounds complicated but it really isn't - its fun, and there are giveaways to be won just for leaving comments!!  And there are some very kind comments so far indeed - so I guess you are all enjoying the hop experience.  This blog hop continues until next Sunday evening - so go get hopping!

Now on with the Challenge results.  Ginger (Carol) chose the theme of 'Last Days of Summer' and she has also kindly chosen her fave five participant projects, using Crafty Individuals products, from the thumbnails HERE.  And in no particular order here they are:

CHRIS DARK with her stunning art book layout:-

ELLY PIRALLY with this very intricate and adorable birdhouse:-

The last two images show how Elly went about making the roof 'tiles' - amazing!



KATIE K  with her beautiful double easel card: -

MYRA  with such a lovely teapot book: -

And RITA with a very pretty card indeed:-

Thank you all so much for entering this month, and do watch out for the next CI Challenge coming in November.  If the five ladies above would like to email us at: info@craftyindividuals.co.uk with your choice of stamp, we would be delighted to post them out.

I want to continue a little with a few more 'team' projects as my word they have all been so busy!  GINGER as well as judging the Challenge has been creating more lovely domino pendants with our glossy images:

You will find more info on her blog about how she created these beauties.

SYLVIE has made this totally gorgeous framed project -

 

Sylvie has used lots of our stamps in this such as CI-352, CI-357, CI-358, CI-268 and CI-292.  Totally fabulous colours and texture here!

Finally tonight BRENDA sent over a few images recently and I will say goodnight with this very pretty little tag -

CI-306 - the dressform, is taking centre stage here.  Lovely!

Just a quick mention too that we have a great special offer on our website at the moment at www.craftyindividuals.co.uk where we are giving away a brand new free Christmas star stamp, with orders over £15 before postage, and this is it:

 A great focal point for your Christmas creations this year!

Back soon,

Jean x