Summer Days and Holidays - Saturday 6th July

Good morning Friends,

Challenge success and a design team project...

Well it looks like Summer has finally arrived! What a scorcher yesterday! Well when I entered blogland  last night to visit your blogs and I had two lovely surprises..first I have another new follower, welcome Viera and thank you so much for choosing to follow me!

..and then I saw that I had been chosen in the top 5 for my Lavender & Lace entry in Allsorts Challenge blog this week...it was the first time I had entered this challenge, although I had been meaning to for ages so I was thrilled! I think it's probably the card I've been most pleased with in a while.

Today is time for my Design Team post for Emergency Crafters and the theme for this months new challenge is summer days and holidays. I decided to make a wall hanging this time...I made a very similar one before and thought I had posted it, but someone saw it and asked to buy it, so it must have been before I posted it...

I used an MDF art part plaque base, covered it with stripey paper and gave it a coat of modge podge to shine and seal. The beach hut stamp is by Michael Powell and is coloured with promarkers. I matted and layered this on blue and white card and added some sparkle netting as the  base layer. I had some striped material which was a good match for the paper, so I cut this into bunting and secured with bakers twine. To finish I added some starfish and craft rope to hang.

Before I go today, I thought you might like to see this photo of one of Bristol's Gromits. You may know that this year Bristol has  placed Gromits  decorated by celebrities, schoolchildren and other invited peopleall over the city and they are a colourful bunch! Last year we had Gorillas...I don't live in the City (though I was born there) but 13 miles outside and in a neighbouring County, we still have a couple of Gromits of our own...this one was decorated by the children of a local Primary School and is just yards away from my office in our local library...when we get to go into Bristol and I find some more, I will post photos...

Have a super sunny Saturday!


Love Carole X

Summer Stepper - Thursday 4th April

Good Morning Friends!

Well my week off work is moving faster than the speed of light, so much so that time totally surpassed me yesterday and I didn't even get time to share my desk at WOYWW yesterday!

Most of what crafting time I had on Monday was spent designing my card for our next workshop (tonight), Tuesday was spent putting all the packs together and making some more examples of using the stamp (which I'll post on later days). Yesterday I should have been working on commissions, but my mojo seemed to have decided that it was time for a brief holiday too, because I spent two hours staring at my design for a wedding card before putting it aside in lieu of playing with my melt pot again and starting an altered art project I have been yearning to begin!

Today it looks like the hens are going to be keeping me on my toes as something in the garden has spooked the two younger ones (Penny and Lacey) and they won't shut up! Penny actually sounds like a puppy barking, so neighbours probably think we now have a dog! They never make a noise and I can't see what is bothering them, despite having poked and prodded the bushes they are clucking at and Bella and Cara aren't bothered, so it could have been a cat, which I don't think the younger ones have seen, but the older ones will chase off..or maybe a toad if it's not too cold. They hate frogs and toads and we have plenty of them in the summer!

Anyway, I digress....this is the card I came up with for my ladies to make tonight. It's a stepper  card, which I made very easily with my very under-used Hougie board. I've used a Michael Powell beach hut stamp and coloured with distress inks. The emphasis tonight is on the colouring and creating the background,which was made using Cosmic Shimmer Vintage Mist in Egyptian Blue, so everything else is in the packs.

 was amazed that some of you recognised it was me who won the Hels Sheridan original on C&C on Monday! I was thrilled; Hels has been one of my biggest crafting inspirations for a long time. I think I'm quite eclectic in my crafting. I love to try different techniques, using various 'tools', but I'm like Hels (as she said herself), whilst I really admire pretty, feminine cards and I do make them sometimes for commissions, I don't feel they are my best work and not the ones I enjoy making so much..I like 'pretty' meaning vintage, shabby chic, 'arty' and grunge, so I think that's why I admire Hels' work so much. The prize arrived yesterday, which was amazing and it is beautiful, really gorgeous. It was actually on Hel's blog yesterday and here it is for you to see!



Before I go.....thanks to Christine for letting me know that I have also won a goodie bag from LOTV...it's my lucky week by the look of it!

Happy Crafting!
Hugs,
Carole X