BLOG/FACEBOOK CANDY WINNER .....

Lots of lovely comments regarding our recent candy offering - thank you all for taking the time to put fingers to keyboards!  Sorry there is only one prize this time (but there will always be another time, so please keep an eye on our pages!)  Our random winner for the little lot below has come from the Facebook comments on this occasion, and is ............. drum roll ....... TRUDIE AMAZEBALLS HOWARD (sweet comment too).  Please can you email us at info@craftyindividuals.co.uk Trudie with your address so that we can get your goodies posted off to you asap. 

Jean x

AND CONTINUING WITH THE SPRING CHALLENGE IMAGES ......

Amazing - 520+ comments so far on the blog and facebook re the giveaway in my last post, and the facebook page has had 8,964 views - incredible!

But must get on with the Challenge inspiring makes from the Team and one from myself.  I've made a very pink and yellow and extremely girly heart hanging.  It started off as a piece of recycled corrugated cardboard, which was meant to be a feature, but somewhere along the line I must have forgotten and totally covered up the feature corrugated cardboard with faffery and frippery!!  Bit OTT on the pink and yellow, but I do tend to get a bit ott quite often!

I've used the pretty young girl's face from CI-338, in a laser cut chip frame (soon available to purchase on our website), along with frippery from CI-328 and CI-306, with a cheap dangly earring to dangle.  Our young lady is busily choosing her essential Spring wardrobe items in a dressmaker's shop - very 'Spring in Fashion'.

Next I have a really superb make by Sylvie, which is also so very fashionable.  I once had one of these plain white fans, and don't think ever came up with such a lovely way to decorate it as this (in fact I don't think I ever decorated it at all - now then where is it I wonder? ......)

Simply stunning ..  Featuring elements from CI-323, CI-364 and CI-379 in beautiful bold colours.

Followed by another extremely fashion conscious and delightful make from Lucy, topped with an very floral Easter bonnet - just how they should be!

Beautifully floral with touches from CI-206 and CI-322.

Back with the giveaway winner's comment soon, followed by more Springlike makes!

Bye for now,

Jean x

BLOG/FACEBOOK CANDY ITCHING TO BE GIVEN AWAY...

We have put together a little selection of CI goodies which are itching to be on their way to you!!  Please leave a comment here or on our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Crafty-Individuals/254141151307918 to give yourself a chance of winning the products pictured below, and we will randomly pick out one lucky person next Wednesday, 10th March, (ooops yes sorry 10th April!) to receive the package.  Good luck!

We currently have a Challenge going on too, which you can view on my last blog post at: http://craftyindividualsblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/yipee-challenge-time-again.html, and the entries have begun to be linked in - lovely!  It would be great if you could join in too!

I will be back with more inspiring projects on that subject soon, but meanwhile I'm going to pop a very pretty image sent over by Sam Read of a beautifully decorated ceramic heart below.  Sam used a new Alice Palace design to decorate her heart - CI-382, Love Lovely Life.

Plus a picture of a brooch, given to me as a gift recently, by Helen Chilton, using another Alice design - Bubble Bird - delightful!

Don't forget to leave a comment within the next 5 days please,

Jean x

YIPEE .... CHALLENGE TIME AGAIN....

Almost forgot about it until the last week in March - and then emailed Gio in Italy at the last minute and asked if she would be very kind, at extremely short notice, and choose a subject for the Challenge for April, and then at the end of the month choose the 5 winning designs.  Gio came up trumps thankfully and has made the most beautiful creations to get us started today.

The weather here is finally a little more springlike with some sunshine, although it is still very cold.  Gio's Challenge title is based around this delightful time of the year, which brings to mind yellows, pinks and pastels, and is 'SPRING IN FASHION' (I like that idea a lot!).

So here are the usual Challenge details to get you going:

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, you can also claim a lovely 25% discount code to use on anything you purchase from the CI website until the end of the month.

Go for it and enjoy the challenge x

.....

Please do join us in this new uplifting seasonal challenge - you have a full month to create your project - and you can link in your sample and your blog at the top of this post!  Just for doing this you will be able to get a code from us that will enable you to obtain a whopping 25% discount from your next Crafty Individuals web order (code will apply until the end of this month).  Please email us at
info@crafty individuals.co.uk when you have linked in to obtain your special discount code.

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

Here are Gio's beautiful creations to inspire you:

Gio made these two stunning bags above by firstly downloading a bag template from the internet (2 sizes), then covered them in pages from background books Shades of Summer and Springtime.  She used CI masks and spray mists to decorate the insides and added a mini book to the larger bag, and placed butterflies (cut from Butterflies and Flowers) inside the smaller bag.

Here are some more images from the mini book below:

The mini book backgrounds are created from more of our stamps and masks, and Gio used CI-323, Fashionable Twenties Ladies to top the pages.

As if that little lot were not enough she has also made an adorable necklace/headband using an old doily and decorated it with more miniature images from our books.  So very creative!!

I am going to sign off here and hopefully you will get your thinking caps on and wow us all with your 'Spring in Fashion' projects soon.  Lots more lovely images coming soon from the 'Team', and another Blog Candy offering is waiting in the wings (and about time too, I know!!), so watch this space please!

Hope you are all still munching through those luscious Easter eggs - still loving my chocolate cream eggs (never get fed up of those I'm afraid!).

Bye for now,

Jean x

EXCELLENT CRAFTING WEATHER IN THE UK ...

The title of this post was a suggestion via a comment on my last post from Stempelientje Stempy, and as the weather hasn't improved at all from last Sunday's dismal showing (except I would almost swear I saw a glimpse of the long forgotten sun this afternoon), I thought that the title kind of fitted today perfectly too.  And it is particularly excellent weather to craft at the moment that is for sure!

Tonight I am going to show you some images collected recently based around books, journals and scrapbooking themes, and to kick us off Sylvie has made the most delightful page using the latest Alice Palace stamps - so as you can see stamps come in very useful for scrapbooking decor too - perfect!

I also received the following images from Isabelle showing how she has altered a book beautifully - a dictionary I believe - using a variety of Crafty Individuals rubber stamp images -

And to join in the fun her daughter decorated her own page as well - great stuff!

Thank you ladies, and do have a look at The Craft Barn Blog folks for more arty ways with dictionaries, plus lots more to inspire you x

I have also been having fun playing, and joining in a couple of workshops locally, taught by a very talented collage artist called Kirsten Jones.  I managed to combine some stamping and some quick doodle drawings (based on lace and flower heads) in a little sketchbook during the class, and it has inspired me hopefully to play some more with collage in the future...

 

- The third page is of course a 'work in progress' -lots of possibilities with collage here!

As Kirsten often uses pieces of wood and cardboard for the basis of her collages, we all had a go with some ourselves and I made this little picture (which fortunately fitted very nicely into a little frame I had already), plus another (as yet to be photographed) ....

Background created with acrylic paint plus our Victoria Corner masks and rubber stamp CI-171 (a very useful harlequin background stamp).  A good time was had by all who attended - and if you happen to live anywhere near, the classes were held in a great little arts venue at The Courthouse, Thirsk - definitely worth a trip out - nice gallery and a great cafe too.

Jean x

ANOTHER COLD WET MISERABLE SUNDAY IN THE UK ...

Well that's the weather here anyway - so hopefully I'm going to cheer us all up with a bit of delightful crafty stuff to warm our hearts!

I've got lots of lovely images ready to display tonight, but I'll just set off with an overview of the sort of cards we made in my 'Make and Take' session at Strikes Garden Centre in Northallerton on Saturday.  I was kept pretty busy all day, and met some very nice ladies, a gentleman, and a very young lady, who all happily made some of these one layer cards to take home with them -

The process involved using a Stix2 A4 Masking Sheet to mask out areas, which were then coloured with the Domed Stencilling and Blending Brushes (these are really great brushes for blending inks) and Distress Inks.  If you find Cut n Dry Foam tricky to use, give these brushes a go - they are inexpensive and have nice, soft and dense bristles for apply ink evenly to your surface.

Whilst on the subject of crafting with lovely ladies, I must show you the results of a day spent in the company of Lynne and co at The Craft Den in Sheffield.  I took along a 'Home Sweet Home' decorated Tando Mini House Printer Tray:

And the lovely ladies all decorated their own - in their own unique ways, and these are the results:

Just click on the image for a closer look!  Thanks to everyone who came along, and also to Lynne and her husband, who helped make the day run so smoothly and pleasantly.  If you live in the vicinity of Sheffield, you must check out Lynne's shop at The Craft Den which is packed with delights to purchase, along with her other planned workshops which she is running during the year.

Amongst other bits and pieces we used the Victoria and Albert Swirl Die, and the Gilded Cage Die to adorn our houses.  The Swirl Die is currently nicely in stock, and the Cage Dies will be back in stock very soon (just stuck in UK customs as we speak - hopefully soon to be released). 

Next I have lots of projects by the CI team to show you.  Firstly 4 cards made very beautifully by Daniele:

We have several stamps making their appearances on these - Heartfelt Bird CI-220 (top), and new stamps - Musical Notes, A Royal Bird,  and Dreaming of Lilies (middles and bottom) .  Daniele has also used the Flower Heads Elements plate on the lower two cards, and she has stamped everything on various sheets of our Background Books (which do take stamping so very nicely).

Brenda has used Dreaming of Lilies too, to make a pretty 'Get Well' card -

Plus she has used a slightly older stamp depicting those idyllic Country Cottages to make a delightful card below -

 

And Lynne has been very busy with quite a few CI stamps recently, and here are just a couple of her gorgeous makes:

Loving the backgrounds here and the detail Lynne has obtained with stamp CI-148, Floradora Girl, and the Element Plate CI-341 - perfume bottles!

Lynne has also made a gorgeous project with the new dancing couple from CI-377 - in soft and beautiful colours -

Again the detail is stunning!

Hope you have enjoyed tonight's post, and now you feel warmed and relaxed and ready to craft?!

Thanks everyone.

Jean x