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This week at Out of a Hat  we have Summertime as the theme. With the summer not being so good this far here in the UK it was difficult to feel inspired for sure. I bought a very large barbeque fork from Poundland-hung the tags and covered with flowers I had made. The Summer banner I made in psint shop Pro and finished it all off with a twisted cord. It would be nice to hang it outside in the garden but I guess it would get very soggy. Do pop to Janet's blog,    Florence's blog and Sandra's blog to see what they have made for the Summer time project and join us at Out of a Hat where we would love to see what you make of the the theme for this week

At Addicted to Stamps  we are challenge to make something using a line on their Bingo board I chose the bottom line-FLOWERS-BUTTONS-BLUE Stamped and distressed the edges of a white card then added a background made from a Marianne die. Onto that four buttons with a jewel in the middle. The flowers are made from tissue paper and were an idea from my friend Max--hoping to add a tut to my blog soon on how to make the flowers. A simple silver peel-off and the card is finished. Link to Max's tut for making the flowers is here -thanks Max

I usually try my best to make something for just one Challenge Blog at a time but life seems to be getting in the way at the moment and I only seem to have half the time I need to do the things I would like to do. I decided that it would be ok to do a combined challenge and make a present for my friend, who isn't very well, at the same time At Craft-room Challenge  the theme is' Friendship' so that was appropriate. The Crafty Card Makers  have 'Create you Own Flowers' and I just love doing that. Last but by no means least Sugar Creek Hollow   are asking for 'Circles'. Brain in gear I have combined the three and hope my friend will like the result. I am sure she will like the bottle of red wine in the bag and the vintage type bracelet I have added to the Crafty Individuals tag. The flowers are a length of gathered, white lace with double sided tape stuck to the gathered edge and wound round and round on a circle of card to make the shape. Then I dabbed them w

Well the weather we are having is anything but seaside weather even so we do walk along the prom, prom, prom most days and so does a neighbour who will be 65 next month so I made him this card for the Artful Times Challenge The beach hut stamp is a digital one that I have had for a long time--I even think that Von sent me the link to get it so quite appropriate as she has set the challenge theme. I added the grasses and the do not disturb. The background was made with a small lighthouse stamp and little fish and the sun cut out and coloured  before being raised up a bit on the card. Stamped the text and the big seagull and that's  it finished.  Maybe I will add a 6 and a 5 in the top left hand corner though I don't think he really wants to be reminded about his age lol.

It was the first birthday for Craft-room Challenge and they had 'events' where we could enter and win prizes. I won Julia's Mystery Prize and here it is - just arrived this morning I am thrilled with all of the things and especially the beautiful tag from Julia. Thank you for a lovely birthday 'party' all and for the hard work that must have gone in to arranging it. Love Chrissie xx

The challenge this week at Out of a Hat Challenges  was to be A Domino Book but we decided to include any small book no more than 3x3 inches. I hadn't a clue where to start but I did have some dominoes so that was a good place. I found the wonderful Artful Musing blog of Laura Carson  with this fantastic tutorial. I could have spent all day just looking at the wonderful little book that she had made but jumped in with both feet to start making my own. Maybe one day I will be able to make something as beautiful but for now this is my effort and a big thank you to Laura and all the wonders on her blog Front-Difficult to take a photo as the picture is printed on acetate inside inside back side of it closed. Hope you will venture to  Janet,   Florence  and  Sandra's  blogs to see what they have made for this weeks challenge. Sandra had the idea to have this challenge as a swap amongst the four of us as we have become such good crafting friends. I got the beautiful one that Sandra m

A new challenge blog 'Addicted to Stamps'  has just started and each month they are going to have a scrapbook page challenge as well as a weekly blog challenge. This month the challenge is to use bunting on the page. On Tuesday this week the Olympic Torch passed by the end of our road and we, with thousands of others, lined the road to see it go by. There was an amazing atmosphere and a real feel good factor about the whole thing and certainly worthy of a page and some bunting for sure-thank you for the challenge--I hope this will inspire me to make more pages as I have had the scrapbook for many years and still only has 7 pages completed in it :(

A new challenge blog-good luck with the venture all! This week the challenge at Addicted to Stamps is Markers so I have used my Promarkers to colour a stamped image--sorry don't know the make as I stamped several of the images when I was staying with my daughter. The background is made with a cupcake stamp that was free with a magazine ages ago. Another use for the Promarkers was to colour the 'cherries' on top of the cakes to match the image

We went to the end of our road to see the Olympic Torch pass by--if you would like to see some of the pictures we took you can see them here This is just a taster. Love Chrissie xx

The Challenge at Sugar Creek Hollow  wants us to make something with lots of embellishments. I found things I had forgotten about and gathered  lots on my little table. Didn't know where to start to be honest lol. I stamped the background and coloured a bit here and there with black Promarker then distressed around the edge of the card with black ink. Sorted out black and white things and kept adding them to the card. It was fun to do this for sure-great challenge from Sugar Creek Hollow again. I guess it's knowing when to stop with this sort of card :)

Buttons is the challenge this week at Out of a Hat Creations so do pop over and join in with us if you have time we love to see what you make of our challenges. I was wishing I had kept my old box of buttons that I had collected for years but before I joined blog challenges I sent them to the charity shop. Now I see the word buttons all over the place and have started a collection again as they are so expensive to buy new. We do have 2 carboot sales each week in the summer near to where I live so now I have started to get quite a few buttons again and I am thrilled-nice to be easily pleased isn't it? This is a fairly large modern frame that I have had for a while. I stamped with different colours and stamps to make a background then I crotcheted and knitted some flowers to make a bouquet. All it needed was the buttons as centres and a bow to turn it into a bouquet. Add a quote and a couple of flutterbys and there you have a picture. Do visit Janet's blog, Sandra's blog a

A nice challenge at Craft Room Challenges this time and I couldn't wait to make something for it.I haven't any Furry Four Legged Friends but I know someone who has always had them in her life-both horses and cats.  My daughter lost two very old cats in a short space of time and wasn't going to replace then as they had been her best friends for above half of her life. She has helped the Cat Protection League with all sorts of things for years now and just popped in to give them a raffle prize. These two little kittens mewed to her and that was that really-she got them as soon as she could- just on trial of course lol. They have been there for almost a year now and are well loved and love everyone back. I am not a big fan of making scrapbook pages so this may well end up on a card to send to my daughter as she has just had a operation and needs cheering up. It will be a big card for sure.. The background and texts were made in Paint Shop Pro and took the photographs the las

At Artful Times the challenge is something for men-never something I find easy. Also at Crafty Cardmakers  the challenge is no cards, tags or ATCS so I have combined the two. A few weeks ago we went to stay in a fisherman's cottage at Whitby and one of the days we took a train to Grosmont to see the workshops where the volunteers work on the steam trains. What a great day out it proved to be, it was like being transported back in time and so many bits of old engines and carriages it's steampunk heaven. We strayed to a path that goes up a hill and overlooks the workshops and saw some amazing old rusty water tanks --huge so couldn't get one in my rucksack unfortunately. Vic took lots of photos and I have chosen three to make a picture to hang in the lounge and I know he will just love it. It wasn't easy to photograph this as there seem to be reflections where ever I stood it and a bit dark where it is going to hang. The frame was one from Wilkinson and was plain black so

This week at Out of a Hat Creations  the theme is for you to use your favourite stamp(s) to make anything you like. Everyone is welcome to join in and we love to see what you have made. I seem to have collected lots of stamps in the last year since I started blogging and love all of them so it was quite difficult to chose the ones to use for this project. My choice was Swirly Birds from Personal Impression I had some very old coasters that had been used as drip mats under plants for a few years and they definitely needed a make over. Firstly I painted them with matt emulsion then dabbed a little distressed ink here and there and worked that into the emulsion while it was still wet. When all that was dry I stamped on the birds and a few leaves, painted a 'sky' and did the edges with gold paint. The little bits of wood and canvas were an after thought but add a bit of texture. Do visit Florence , Sandra and Janet's blog and see how they made their challenge projects for thi

Happy 1st Birthday to Craft Room Challenge ! Always a lovely friendly blog to visit with some great challenges and wonderful inspiration from the DTs. I know one of the lovely ladies there likes cats lol so I made this with her in mind. Now to go and have a go at my very first blog hop which they also have to celebrate their birthday. Love Chrissie xxxxxx

At Crafty Individuals the challenge is A Summer Ball and there are some wonderful samples for inspiration. Well we will all need something amazing to wear for the ball so I nipped to Paris for my designer dress and found a wonderful corsage at the same time I used one of the Crafty Individuals tags from the Landscape range and also some of the beautiful flower stamps in the C1-293 pack-so many to chose on the stamp. The dress stamp is by Kanban. All coloured with my trusty Promarkers.-except the tag which is already beautiful coloured and gave me the palette I needed to work with.

The challenge this week at Sugar Creek Hollow  is Father's day. My dad died many years ago but I thought I could still make him a card he might be looking down on me somewhere and think it is a nice idea. He loved music and cars and travel so I have tried to put a bit of that into the card. The picture I aged by making it more like a stamped imaged and sepia coloured. Tim Holtz cog die cuts and a gold, embossed flower I made to complete the card. The bottom saying is advice he gave me from an early age and the top one is mine.