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The new challenge at Artful Times is make a post card using some alphabet letters,script. Brilliant samples from the Artful team as always and all very different to inspire. I painted my background with H20 paints then spritzed them and let them all run into each other. Next I added  gold alcohol ink dabs. Now into paint shop pro to add the digital image of a Steampunk boot that I got from here  -all free images and some really interesting ones. The picture with the clock I have had for a while and I did add some script at the right bottom corner but it isn't very visible now :( I used a cog stamp from Kanban to fill the corner and some peel-offs--just because:)

At Addicted to Stamps and More  the have a Spring Challenge. I was going to do daffies, tulips etc but while I was looking for a stamp I found this one that I had never used. The stamp is by Dovecraft and I coloured it with Promarkers which I also used around the outside of the white card. On the darker coloured card I used Distressed ink. Made a tag then added peel-offs as I am still on a campaign to use all of them up in my lifetime lol. I added the little tag that I made to match the theme.

Hello dear Friends and Followers Hope you have had a nice week and will join us in this latest challenge. Lovely to see the things that you made for the Oriental Challenge-such wonderful works of art. Congratulations to  Valerie-Jael  who won the Out of a Hat prize donated by Tracy -hope this helps your cold get better Valerie :) This week at Out of a Hat Creations  we are challenging you to decorate a bottle or Jar. I really enjoyed making this and it just seemed to evolve with no plans at all. It was a clear glass wine bottle at first -I sanded it down a bit and painted the top half in Blue Acrylic Paint. The botton half I covered in dark blue tissue paper that was just torn into rough bits and added like papier mache. Next came the idea of the fairies dancing in mid air around the bottle and I attached them all to gold ribbon and wound them in and out as if the bottle was a Maypole.The very top of the bottle has dark blue tissue paper on it as well and an added lace flower that I m

The 3rd Challenge at Crafty Emblies is 'The Dressmaker' and I couldn't wait to start on my entry. I used the corset from CE and added some flimsy material and tied it at the waist with a bit of sparkly wool. Then added a bit of lace at the bottom all this as inspiration really for the rest of the piece. The background I made in Paint Shop Pro and I found the anonymous quotes on Google. A largish piece of patterned lace under the corset-a lovely CE sewing machine and CE buttons to finish off the piece. I may use this as a card topper-not decided yet.

Ay the Crafty Mess Challenge blog we are asked to make anything we like so long as it follows the theme of distressed /aged. I always seem to need little gift bags for something so I thought I would make one for the challenge. I used one the pages of a book of papers by Crafthouse Press that I bought quite a while ago. The papers are all very good quality and nice designs. Then I scored and folded the paper to make the bag shape. Before I assembled the bag I distressed all around the edges with Rangers rusty hinge Distressed Ink. The stamp is a Chocolate Baroque and I used the same ink for that but embossed it with clear embossing powder.   Time now to add some of the Crafty Emblies buttons and a sentiment Last of all I added some beautiful silk ribbon that my friend Sandra sent to me--thank you Sandra.

At Addicted to Stamps this week the challenge is a Bingo mix again. Always great samples from the team there and lots of inspiration. I chose the Birthday-Square and Purple -BINGO! The card is square and I added two more squares in different shades of purple. To that I added some of a Carron Visson decoupage sheet but added the three images side by side instead of on top of each other. I am not a big fan of decoupage and a friend had sent me this and other sheets a while ago so I have been thinking of different ways to use them. Lastly I stamped a Happy Birthday and edged it with a Promarker that matched the card. I think that's it for now.

The present challenge at Craft-room Challenge  is make something to show a childhood memory. I bought this Abracadabra stamp quite a while ago because it reminded me of my Irish Grandmother and the wonderful stories she used to tell when I was a child. Dragons, Magicians, Fairies and many other things were real to me--still are---because of her wonderful story telling. I stamped straight onto the tag and coloured the image with Pro markers. Then I covered that with a Nestabilty shape and distressed the whole thing with various inks. The shape looked so nice I decided to use it as the top of the tag. To finish it off I added two small tags with inspirational words on them.

Hello Followers and Freinds It has turned cold, windy and dark in the mornings and the early evenings all at once here and I am not keen at all :( I am hopeful that warmer days will come back soon :) This week at  Out of a Hat Creations  we would like you to make something with the theme of Halloween in mind. This subject came to mind when Tracy  offered to send a prize to a random draw winner and the prize is a set of Halloween stamps. Just a few more days to enter then all the names go into a hat and one will be chosen and Tracy will send them the stamps. I made these pumpkin pincushions from an old, orange coloured tee shirt and some green felt. As Florence would say, 'you can never have too many pincushions'- and I know she is right because mine are all over the house. I used Martha Stewart's idea here  -it is very easy and a lot of fun to make. My daughter and me made loads of kits for the guides to make up using red tee shirts to make the tomato ones. They are stuffed

Time for another challenge at Show us your Twinchies  and this time we are asked to add a stamped. I used a shiny card stock for the background and added Distressed inks and spritzed them with water to give some texture. The shape is one I got in a die cut swap. I used part of a stamp by Kanban-Jasper-Code 9039. I stamped this onto plain card and coloured it with Promarkers then cut it out to stick onto the Twinchie. The last thing I added were a couple of little plastic flower shapes.

Sandie at Somewhere to be Me  has a Halloween challenge to make something spooky. When I saw her digital collage I just wanted to join in and make one myself as I do so little of this sort of thing these days with all the stamping etc. Hope this is suitable for the challenge Sandie I really enjoyed making it. I started off with a photograph of an old yew tree that my husband had taken and a silhouette picture I had painted digital a while ago. I then added effects and 'images with effects'--finally finding a suitable quote to finish it all off. Love Chrissie xx

A t Artful Times for the next two weeks they have a challenge that I couldn't wait to start-Von has challenge us to have a tree as the main focus. I just love trees but one tree inparticular that I visit often and love to hug. It is in Sewerby Hall and Gardens where we have a yearly pass each year so we go there whatever the season or the weather. So many wonderful old and new trees and beautiful plants. This collage is to celebrate my favourite tree I used the same photograph of the tree three times and added effects to make it look a bit different in each picture. The background paper is from an old card that I recycled. The lace was sent to me by a friend--thank you Sandra. I found the tiny cones on the road side in town--not sure what the tree is that bears them but it does grow well with all the traffic that passes it every day. The slice of wood is one of many that I bought from a charity shop. The wooden embellishments are some I won at Crafty Emblies. The quote I found on

At Addicted to Stamps  this week we are asked to use our marker pens again. Great samples from the team there to inspire. I used a Personal Impression stamp set and coloured the Butterflies with Promarkers. The backing paper is Crafty Individuals and the wooden buttons are from Crafty Emblies and I coloured them with alcohol inks. The shape is a Nestabilites. Rangers Distressed ink here and there and some faux stitching Hope you like it. Love Chrissie xx

Hello Everyone hope you are all well and happy and ready for another challenge This week at Out of a Hat Creations  the theme is Oriental Influence so lots to chose from. The colours and patterns of anything Oriental are usually amazing so you can let your imagination run free. This is what I made in traditional oriental colours with red, black and gold. The first thing I did was cut out 6 triangles with extra bits added to each edge to give it depth and strength These were in red card already so I could stamp straight onto them with my Hobby Art CS025D stamps and Memento Tuxedo Black Ink. Join all the pieces together to form a fan shape I am still on a mission to use up peel-offs when ever I get an opportunity so I have added some of those in gold .The one at the bottom I mounted on acetate and coloured it from the back.  The flowers are made from gold tissue paper and the centres are some plastic emblies from Poundland. I did try to get a gold tassle but I couldn't find one so sp

Just love the colours of Autumn and so nice to be able to make a twinchie using them as it is an Autumn challenge at Show us Your Twinchies I used three different coloured paper for the background and splashed them with a bit of colour here and there. The leaves I dyed with alcohol inks . The flower was already an autumn colour but I distressed it with the Rangers DI Aged Mahogany and fastened it on with a tiny red brad. The little label I made in Paint Shop Pro.

It's sketch time again at Addicted to Stamps  so it meant thinking cap on and, as it is a lovely sunny day, some summery colours for a card. The strips of paper were bits of some I designed myself for another project. The circles were cut using Nestabilities and my Cuttlebug. The cliock stamp is Chocolate Baroque and the sentiment stamp is Molly Blooms. A bit of doodling with Promarkers and that's it.

This is my beautiful prize from Crafty Emblies -I felt so honoured when I was chosen as the winner of their first ever challenge. Thank you to Sandie for choosing my entry and to Judie for the wonderful emblies that you make.

At Out of a Hat Creations this week we are asking that you use some packaging that you received. This can be just part of your project or maybe you want to recycle a box, envelope or anything that you got with something inside it. I made this Hanging for the guest bedroom--that should get folks up for sure .Mainly for my wonderful son-in-law who loves to stay in bed :) I used an Amazon cardboard envelope, a cottage cheese carton and a box that had strawberries in it.  I painted the sky and grass straight onto the card with some emulsion I found in the shed. Cut out some shapes from the carton and the box and Cuttlebugged em in a folder-then painted them with acrylic paint.. The red wavy edges are strips from the sides of the strawberry box. The stamps are Chocolate Barouque-Punky Romance and a Lakeland Oriental stamp set -no longer available but I am pleased I have it cause I just love using the stamps in the set. Hope you will join in with the Hatters for this challenge and visit Flo

I have been wanting to make a book to stick my postcards in for ages and got a few things ready yesterday to make a front cover. It was great to see that the things I had chosen fit in with a few of the challenges that I follow. At Crafty Individuals the theme for September is Last Days of Summer Crafty Cardmakers has Things with Wings A new challenge blog, Anything but a Card  is anything you chose so long as it isn't a card A challenge blog I never miss is Craft-room Challenge  and their theme is Collage. This book cover fits in with all of those and I had everything ready to make it before I looked at the challenges :) The background is a piece of strong card and I dabbed it with various things to make it look distressed. The paper is Crafty Individuals-Travels in Italy and the stamp is Crafty Individuals as well as I thought it went well with the theme of my book. I sewed a strip of material onto the background then threaded a piece of ribbon through it. Next I coloured the st

I always find it difficult to think small but inchies at Artful Times   was a challenge not to be missed. I have been wanting to try something that is new to me--'Found Poetry'. Do look it up on the net if you want to know what it is all about. I had seem this being used in artwork so I thought I would have a go-the arty form is a bit of a deviation from the writers form of Found Poetry but has the same basic elements. About erratic, young fashion. A rare way of dressing? A way of shocking society? the page before A friend sent me some pages from an old book she found in the attic-- thank you Max -so I have used that to 'find my poetry'. The actual page is about cooking a chicken so nothing to do with what I ended up writing. You chose the words then mask them in some way, leaving them where they were on the page. Then do any artwork you like that relates to the words-the Inchies were ideal for this . Not easy to chose words that can be used in order but that is how I h

At Crafty Emblies this month the challenge is Perfect Picture. Well I am not saying this picture is perfect as I painted it over 20 years ago and it has stayed in a folder with a few others that I did at the time. I wouldn't call myself a painter at all but this is just to say that if you sit and gaze at something for a few hours while you paint it then that scene becomes timeless to you. As far as I know this small part of Ennerdale lake in the Lake District National Park looks exactly the same as it did the day I painted this picture cause I haven't been there for many a year. I layered the picture and distressed the edges of the white card. The hardboard is the back of the frame. Added a Crafty Emblies clock and the quote--I made that up. The frame I stamped with a Personal Impressions clear stamp--Fluttering By.