MORE INSPIRATION FOR THE JUNE CHALLENGE ....

Many thanks to all for your very kind and lovely comments about my little accident last weekend - plus the very useful suggestions!  My wounds are now healing, but apparently my top front teeth are pretty much wrecked sadly - so lots of dental work to come I think!

Malcolm and I (plus little Monty Moodle) are having a few much needed days away in Northumberland very soon, and by golly do I need a little holiday!  However our lovely Kay will be in charge of the web orders, so don't worry if you are about to place an order at www.craftyindividuals.co.uk, as it will be despatched as quickly as usual.

Because of this I am going to rattle through the rest of the inspiration for the June Challenge as sent over to me by the 'Team'.  I will simply link to the team members blog rather than link to all the items used as usual.  But of course you can find most of the products used for decoration on our website.

Firstly a great colourful idea from Lucy - a flip flop box!

Perfect for storing all your beach combing shell collections.

Then I have some pretty projects by lovely Helen ...

I love the way Helen has found to make this tag stand alone - perfect!

Neat idea to stamp and decorate a stone - what a great bathroom decoration that would make!

Now an assortment of lovelies by Gio ...

Adore that porthole (excellent card idea!)!!

And last, but not least, of course, a very attractive piece of crafty decor by Brenda..

Beautiful watery seaside effect here Brenda.

So that's it for now folks - keep those fabulous entries coming - and you will find the Challenge entries so far and all details HERE

Jean x

MORE ON THE LATEST STAMPS...

As previously promised I am going to show you some of the sample projects I made with our new release of stamps whilst at The Craft Barn Extravaganza recently.  I am feeling a bit fragile at the moment as I tripped and fell over a concrete slab in a public car park area yesterday, with my face taking the full force of the fall, and have ended up with two stitches above my top lip, plus other grazes and scratches on my face.  I have also knocked one of my front teeth a bit backwards - so all in all not a pretty sight at the moment.  Still I didn't break anything bone wise, so have to count myself lucky I guess, and of course I can still write my Blog and do everything else that needs doing - it could have been much worse.

Anyway Malcolm has taken some photos of the samples mentioned, and as The Craft Barn sells Imagination Crafts Sparkle Medium I just had to have a play with that in a few different colours along with our masks whilst demoing.

You will find the new stamps on these pages HERE and HERE.  Helen Chilton has started me off playing with Distress Ink Pads again, and I found the swooshing technique with the pads and a water spritzer works marvellously with our 'Queen of Arts, Ivory Silk Card' and 'Regency White Satin, Silk Card' and stamps beautifully afterwards.  I had great fun swooshing and adding the glitter medium here and there!

A few members of the Team have been playing nicely too, and I love the following images.  A beautiful grungy tag by Brenda using the giraffe stamp - perfect!

Another gorgeous tag - this time by Paula!

Plus a very pretty card by Gio -

Thanks ladies.  And I will be back soon with more Challenge inspiration from Lucy, Helen, Gio and Brenda.  Our new Challenge post can be found HERE, and some great entries so far too ... Looking forward to seeing Your entry!

Jean x

BRAND NEW STAMPS RELEASED NOW...

If you are on our mailing list for the CI Newsletter you will now know that we have released 5 brand new stamp designs this week.  If you are not on the Newsletter list please sign up for it on our website Home Page for all the latest news and extra special offers.

I will give you a quick overview here as well, to show you the new designs, which are as follows:

You will find the first three very pretty Individual Collage stamps all Here - CI-387, CI-388, and CI-389, 'Love is all Around', 'Tiptoe through the Tulips', and 'Tea at Three'.  Then there are two new mini Elements Plates:

CI-390 and CI-391, 'On Safari' and 'Teatime Delights', which you will find in the Elements section Here. 

We managed to get some made into rubber ready for the Craft Barn Extravaganza last weekend and that was my first chance to have a play with them there.  Will get the samples photographed and blogged soon.  However in the meantime I can show you a few images as Nefertiti has sent some projects over to me tonight - and very lovely they are too!

Nice colours and distressed papers!  Sylvie has also incorporated two of our latest dies beautifully in the above - Floral Branch and Elegant Swirl. 

A lady we met up with at the Extravaganza in Surrey - Rukhshana aka 'Scrapmate' has had a bit of a collaboration with a quick sample I made there and gave to her, and turned it into a pretty card - see below:

Thanks for sending that image over to me Rukhshana!

As well as the new stamps we have also recently added lots of items to the 'Must Haves' section on the site, including several different handmade flower packs - gorgeous!

Sorry bad picture! I just pulled it off the website, so it is low resolution - but it gives you an idea anyway.  They look much better on the site. You will also find new laces and ribbons on there, plus a really useful slim acrylic block for using with your CI rubber - one size fits all!

Now a little update on the current Challenge - great title by Nefertiti - SEA, SUN AND BEACH.  No entries as yet but I just know you are beavering away madly out there!!  But I do have a couple more 'Team' inspirational projects to share, first one from Carol aka Ginger.  I love this and funnily enough I was going to using the Beach Babe on one of these fabby chip boats from Tando myself - thought it would make a great class.  Will show you mine when I get it done.  Perfect stamp to use with those adorable little boats!

Great driftwood stand here, plus cool crackle and our Lighthouse stamp featuring inside the boat. Carol has some more seasidey items in the most recent Craft Stamper issue too (which will be on our site to purchase soon).

Isabelle Norris sent over some pretties recently and she has used the same parasol lady on a card, so I think it fits in very well with the new Challenge theme ..

A page from our Seaside background book looks lush here too, and I love the seaside words Isa has found to compliment the image!

That's all for tonight, thanks for clicking,

Jean x

ps  Monica asked on a post recently about where to buy our stamps in the USA.  A few shops do sell them there, but you are also welcome to buy from our website, and we do post all over the world.  We might have more news on the USA front soon!

THE JUNE CHALLENGE - A LITTLE LATE, BUT LOTS OF CRAFTY FUN!

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Our visit to The Craft Barn Extravaganza was lots of fun - this year we were at the new shop near Redhill, situated on a beautiful farm, with a great farm shop, garden centre and (I am told) a fabulous cafe!  Love the surroundings, and the new shop - crammed full of 'must have' crafting goodies.  The demonstrators (x25) were doing their stuff in 3 marquees next to the shop, and the marquees were a joy to be in.  The weather was amazing and the interiors were light and cheerful.  We met lots of lovely new people, and lots of old friends - hope you too enjoyed yourself?!  We should have taken more photos (now why on earth didn't we?), but Malc remembered to take one of Gio (all the way from Italy), and myself, at Gio's demo table, just before we set off back for home.  Gio has more photos of the occasion on her Blog HERE..

Both of us sporting gorgeous crowns made by Gio herself (Malcolm had one too)!

We also met up again with Lucy Edmondson, Helen Chilton and Brenda Brown, all from the 'Team' - lovely to see you ladies!

Now on with the Challenge details for June:

Sylvie aka Nefertiti has chosen the subject for the Challenge which is a lovely summery theme -
'SEA, SUN AND BEACH'.  And here are the usual Challenge details to get you started:

CHALLENGE GUIDELINES

To enter this month's Crafty Individuals Challenge please put together your project, following the subject material outlined above (your project 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, etc., which will then appear here on this Blog as a thumbnail image - so we can all see your wonderful arty 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.  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 valid until the 10th July.

Go for it and enjoy the challenge x

.....

Please do join us and create your own project based on the idea of 'Sea, Sun and Beach' and just for linking in you will be able to get a code from us that will enable you to have a huge 25% discount from any order you place with us at Crafty Individuals valid until well into July this time.  When you have linked in your image please email us at info@craftyindividuals.co.uk to obtain your discount code.  So don't be shy and do make a seasidey kind of a card, or altered art kind of sunny, beachy project, and link it in soon!

PLEASE NOTE:  TO PARTICIPATE IN OUR CHALLENGE YOU MUST INCLUDE AT LEAST ONE CRAFTY INDIVIDUALS PRODUCT IN YOUR ENTRY PROJECT.

Here is Sylvie's superb project to inspire, made from an altered wooden table frame - what an imagination! Have a look at Sylvie's Blog for more details.

And to end this post I want to show you Janet's - of 'The Inked Edge' fame - framed creation which I thought fits very nicely with this Challenge theme.  Janet made this at our class when we were concentrating on TAP transfers to cotton.  I think it was intended to be a gift to her sister - but I'm not sure if her sister will actually be lucky enough to receive it, as Janet rather likes it herself (you know how it is!)

Back with more pretties soon!

Jean x