Winner and Top 3 plus….

Wow, our 'How does your garden grow?' challenge resulted in such fabulous entries it was hard to know where to start! THANK YOU ALL so much for sharing your beautiful projects with us! A BIG  THANK YOU too, to all our guest designers - the very arty Lin Brown (PaperArtsy) of Yours artfully), Alison (butterfly) of Words and Pictures, Laura of Laurart, Alison of Craftytrog's Inky Adventures and Jennie of Live the dream for supporting our challenge community and sharing their inspiration and creativity with us. 

This month we've decided that we are going to introduce something new - the 'DTM's Special Mention'. Each month the Design Team Member who has chosen the theme gets to choose the Top 3. We want to introduce this special mention for the entry we think has shown the best creative and original interpretation of the theme. The winner will get their own special blog button and will also be invited to guest as a designer for the following month's challenge. So, let's get to it! 

The winner (decided by random.org) is:

Congratulations to #79 - Julie Owens, your £20 shop voucher and winner's badge is on it's way! We hope you'll guest for us next month.

This month, the Top 3 have been chosen by Chris:

"I have to reiterate what my colleagues have expressed in previous months - it is so hard to choose! There have been so many beautiful entries it's difficult to know where to start. My thoughts on challenges is not how much you have but what you do with it. Therefore, I've based my decisions on how well I felt the project met the theme and on composition - the creativity with which the elements chosen had been brought together to convey the theme."

In numerical order:

	#23 - Asia King
	#30 - Lin
	#73 - Craftyfield

Congratulations to all three, your badges should be in your in-tray. We hope you'll join us as guests next month too. 

Chris’s DTM's Special Mention goes to:

#39 - Rosie x

"I've chosen Rosie's entry because it demonstrated the creative thought of doing something different. Starting with a photo', then using recent techniques and stitching, but adding parchment in an unusual way. I found this piece quite refreshing."

Congratulations Rosie, our first ever winner of the DTMSM award, your button should also be in your letterbox and we hope you'll step alongside us next month! 

Well done everyone and thanks again for taking part. xxx 

Chris's second make

Last but not least we have Chris's second make, a beautiful garden clock...

"Florals are so very popular so I wanted to make something a little different for my second piece. If you look carefully around the edges of the clock you will see the peeled paint distressing which has been done using embossing powder. I've been used to using Viva's Inka-gold metallic pastes but Brenda introduced me to Paper Artsy's Treasure Gold - wow! This was my first time using them and I love them!"

A beautiful clock, thanks Chris.

We have just a few more days to go so please, if you want to enter, don't leave it too late.

Have a great week! xxx

Brenda's second make...

If you love making tags well, you're in for a big treat, because here is another beautiful tag from Brenda for her second make for this challenge...

"A tag using the gorgeous distress paints which have been used on the focal image and metal embellishments. This is a size 8 tag, but I love extending them  using backing card which creates greater possibilities in adding a sentiment and enlarging your overall design."

 A work of art Brenda, thank you!

There's still more to come, we'll be posting another make from Chris in a few days time so please make time to pop back and see it. xxx

Gabrielle's second make

Phew! Your gorgeous makes keep on coming, thank you! If you haven't entered a piece yet or are looking for ideas or creativity then why not have a look at Gabrielle's second make for some...

"I took the idea I had from my first project and decided to make a complimentary plaque so I could display them together. So I used the same stamps and PaperArtsy paints but added some Grunge Paste through a stencil to change the background a little. The two layered flowers were made by painting grungepaper with a little Butternut paint first before stamping the flowers with more white and blue paint. The sentiment was a little too long for my little plaque so I cut it so it says 'Secret Garden'."

Thanks Gabrielle, another beautiful piece of art to get us motivated!

Well, it's over to you now - if you haven't entered something yet time is marching on, we're two thirds the way through the challenge.

In a few days we'll be featuring Brenda's second piece so do be sure to come back and see us.

Have a great week! xxx

Alison's guest piece - 'Grow some love'

Yes, we promised you another make from our other 'Top 3 merit' badge winner, Alison (aka Craftytrog) and here it is...

"Here’s how my piece ‘Grow Some Love’ was made…

I took a piece of packaging, about 5 x 4 “, and glued on some pieces of torn music sheet. I then gave it a base coat of gesso. Next, I used Bombay Inks in blues & greens, to create a water colour background. I used my fingers to add some more gesso in places & around the edges, to tone down the colour.

I stamped the heart flowers from the Paperbag Studios Little Feet plate three times, onto my base. I stamped the large heart, the baby’s face, & a Chocolate Baroque flower onto some music sheet, then cut them out & glued them in place. I used a water brush & some teal Bombay ink to add some colour around the baby’s face.

I used alphabet stamps to create the words on some plain music paper, cut them out, edged them with black ink, then glued them in place.

I finished off my artwork, by punching two holes, adding some eyelets, & a piece of lace to hang it with."

Another wonderful make to get you thinking and making, thank you Alison!

We're now half way through our challenge month but if you thought that's it then think again for we have more great makes lined up for you to see - the challenge isn't over until the last second! In a few days time we'll have another post showing Gabrielle's second make.

Hope to see you soon, happy crafting! xxx

A second piece from Trace

Here is Trace's second DT piece for this challenge and what a beaut it is!

"Still in my foil flower filled garden , I created a card to show how one flower and an embossed background can make an effective and simple card."

Such a beautiful card! Wow Trace, what a winner, thank you! Even if you're not into card making this piece cannot fail to inspire. Why not join us in our challenge this month? You too could be a winner!

Another piece will be posted in a few days, this time from another third 'Top 3' merit badge winner, Alison (Craftytrog).

Enjoy your crafting everyone. xxx

Laura's guest piece

Laura of 'Laurart' is the second 'Top 3' merit badge winner from March. We are delighted that she said "Yes" when we asked her to do a guest piece for us and here it is...

"The title of this challenge led me to the nursery rhyme and I really wanted to incorporate elements from it - silver bells and cockleshells and pretty maids. A paper maché hanging of three circle frames provided the perfect way to place the pretty maids all in a row....Pastel music paper was chosen as a background, and I selected some vintage style images of ladies. Antique Linen Distress Paint covered the frames  - sadly the stamped Bundled Sage Distress paint doesn't show up well here in the photos taken in bright sunlight. The silver bells - made with cut out card covered in pewter crackle paint, and 'cockleshells' were an essential element. Keeping the colour scheme delicate, a pale peach rose and die cut flowers covered with Tattered Rose Distress stain were added. And that is how my garden grew!!!"

 Another fabulous make to get your creative juices flowing, thank you Laura, this is beautiful!

We will be featuring another new piece in a few days so do pop back and see all the other delights we have in store for you. xxx

A DT piece from Jennie

Jennie of 'Live the Dream' was one of our March 'Top 3' merit badge winners and what a worthy winner she was. This is the piece she has done especially for her guest DT debut for us.

"I made a shadow box from recycled packaging and decorated it with some of my handmade flowers and muslin leaves.  I added more texture with some scrim and twine.  I love the Tim Holtz Wrinkle Free Distress technique and this made a great watery background for the white embossed corn.  I wish my garden grew like this!"

 This is fabulous Jennie, thank you!

Hopefully this piece will inspire some of you to make your own piece and enter the challenge but do call back in a few days to see another guest piece from Laura.

Have fun. xxx

Challenge #3 - May 2013

Whoo-hoooo! Thank you everyone for making April's butterflies challenge another great success, so many beautiful, beautiful entries! We will announce the winner and the top 3 merits as soon as we can but today we announce our new challenge.

If you'd like to enter May's challenge and have a chance of winning a £20 shop voucher from our host at Country View Crafts then submit your entries for...

'How does your garden grow?'

Our theme has been chosen by our very special GUEST DESIGNER, the fab' Lin Brown of Yours Artfully who designed some of the Eclectica³ range of stamps and dies for Paper Artsy. Welcome Lin, and thank you for joining us this month as a guest designer.

Not only do we have Lin joining us but also the winner of our first (Pick and mix) challenge in March the VERY talented Alison (butterfly) of Words and Pictures. Welcome to you too Alison.

We have a BUMPER month this month as our top 3 merit badge holders, Alison of Craftytrog's Inky Advantures, Jennie of 'Words and Pictures' and Laura of Laurart will also be featuring with a guest DT piece throughout the month which means 2 new and inspiring pieces published each week! 

Yeeharrrrr, HERE WE GO.......

Lin

"I created this project using all things PaperArtsy......a 6x4 box canvas, Grunge Paste, Fresco Finish Paints, Blossom Die and last but not least my hand carved style stamps. It's an easy project to re-create in a couple of hours. I love using these stamps, they are so versatile, all three plates are mix and match but today's project was made with the images from ELB01, full instructions can be found on my blog www.yoursartfully.blogspot.com"

Alison (butterfly)

"I've been playing with Decorative Strip Dies.  I really wanted to see how realistic a wall I could create with the Brick Wall.  Lots of inking, and some embossing paste mortar, and then the brick-laying, and I'm pretty happy with the result.  Then I used the Tattered Flower Garland to create lots of flowers to go in my walled garden... Lots of fun making this - but pretty fiddly at times!"

Brenda

"A tag to fit in with our garden theme this month with a row of Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers on a bed of foliage created from a Cuttlebug embossing folder. Birds and butterflies are attracted to this beautiful red colour and feed on the sweet nectar. A garden for our future generations."

Chris

 

"My first piece is a painty canvas of many layers with a garden scene of birds in trees and flowers. The handmade flowers are paper, stamped and inked with some made from crinkly cellophane packaging stained with alcohol inks. The 3D garden fence is made using Tim's Snowflake die."

Gabrielle

 

"This is a little hanging using the fabulous PaperArtsy stamps designed by my incredibly talented friend Lin Brown. The little MDF plaque was covered in white then blue PaperArtsy paints. I stamped the leaves with green paint and then sanded the whole piece for a shabby, aged look. The flower was covered with white and blue paint and stamped onto grungepaper. A little blue Distress Ink on the very edge of the petals (and for the sentiment) and brown on the edges of the plaque finished it off!"

Trace

"I made a hanging board, using die cut cogs and some steampunk  metal flowerswith light bulb leaves to add to my imaginary garden. The flower centres are bottle tops,filled with UTEE and cogs."

Hopefully, we've whetted your appetite, fuelled your fire, floated your boat and you're raring to go....? Lol. We're hoping to see more of your stunning cards, tags, ATCs, journal pages, sewing projects and altered art pieces etc this month so good luck! Don't forget to check back every few days for more fab' pieces from your Design Team to keep you going.

Have fun everyone,

Your Design Team xxx