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Hello Everyone and a warm welcome to my blog. Always good to see you and to read any comments that you leave Great matchboxes from the people who joined in at the Hatters for the last challenge Well February is almost over and here we are with another challenge at Out of a Hat Creations . This week the theme is hanging about so this could mean something different to all of us. I chose to make a hanging from a piece of material I had 'hanging' around for a long time. It was a very sunny day when I took picture this so one side looks a bit faded but it isn't in real life. I did blanket stitch and cross stitch in brown wool and the bit at the top is the metal that you find at the top of very cheap calendars. It is ideal to use for hangings and even better, I could thread it through the material on this one. The flowers are in Kanzashi style. There are lots of different tutorials for these on the net but all are a bit different so I have tried to do my own Variation. To finish

Seems to be a bit of thing about cards for men at the moment so I made an Anniversary card for my hubbie for the Addicted to CAS challenge this time. It is our Anniversary in March. I used part of one of the photographs he took in our garden and made it black and white in PSP. Then lightly shaded the flower which was bright pink in photograph. The leaves are a stamp from Joanne Sheene and I coloured those with Promarkers--added the sentiment and a couple of hearts and that's it.

Hello Everyone and welcome to my new followers. So pleased to have reached 80 of these special friends and I do love to read your comments and visit your blogs. At Every Inchie Monday this week we have the theme Road Sweeper. It seems that my mind is connected to, the very talented Hazel, and we had chosen the same image for the inchie even though there were hundreds to chose from. I have made another one as well which is quite different. It seems like we are on the same inchie wavelength almost every week.:) I found this image of a road sweeper from the past and I drew around the image in black pen so that it would show up when I took the picture. I find that they pixelate so easily without defining the edges. I did read a bit of the history of the road sweepers about the time of Jane Austen and they had an awful time with all the stuff in the streets that they had to clear late at night and before people got up. Thanks for looking Love Chrissie xx

Hello Everyone and welcome to my blog today. This week at Out of a Hat Creations  we are altering a matchbox. I loved doing this as I have never done one before and it is always good to try something new. The one on the right is the little box before I started on it. I sent for some of these online as we don't have any match boxes in the house these days-well just the very large one that I use for lighting candles. I covered the box with some embossed paper and painted it all copper then highlighted the embossing with a silver ink pad. I made a couple of flowers for the outside and used a bit of old jewelery as leaves. The inside has little treasures in it and the word inspire. To finish it off I make some danglies with beads and other things and fastened them onto the box with a brad. Hope you will join us in the challenge and do go and see what Janet and Sandra have made for it on their blogs Love Chrissie xx Link to where I bought the matchboxes here

Not sure that the man I have in mind for this creation would take too kindly to being called vintage even if he is older than me and I am vintage. He may well say that his bike is a lot newer than the one in on the card as well. I have made this for two of my favourite challenge blogs Craft-Room Challenge  and Addicted to Stamps and More At the Craft-room the theme this time is 'Something for a Man' and the ATSAM  have the Vintage theme this week. I thought I would get in early there this week as I have been making things for the challenges there and forgetting to post them--thanks to Florence I did scrape in last week with my entry. Always wonderful inspiration from the DTs at both blogs and they are all very friendly which is nice. I chose a piece of A4 card and printed the quote onto it then folded it in half, Next I distressed around the edge. Then I searched for an old map that I had bought a while ago to use for crafting. It is paper stuck onto canvas and tears really w

This must be a record for me three posts in one morning--I will need to go for a lie down. The letter this time for The Craft Barn  dictionary challenge is H. Lots of great words to chose from on the H pages and I chose Head. For the background I used various colours of ink sponged onto the paper then I sprayed it with  Cosmic glitter mist-Ancient Copper. I am still looking for a dictionary to use and still scanning the pages from our one in the bookcase, so far. This meant I could make the word I was using bigger to show it up on the page. The right hand page is also all 'head' words with so many things to chose. The head on the left is me-digitally messed about with and the one on the right is a head I drew in Paint Shop Pro many years ago when we used to call them 'tubes'. I used a couple of stencils--the swirly one is from Imagination Crafts and the music one from Dreamweaver.. The letters I have had for years and never used. Nice to have you drop in today-it is alw

Hello Again--second post from me today. At Artful Times this time the theme is to make anything you like using colour techniques. I jumped straight in and did my own thing for the first one though I am sure I have seen the technique somewhere along the way. For this tag I used distressed inks for the background then damped the whole tag before dropping on some alcohol ink. I let this spread out and dry then had a look to see what shapes had been left behind. It looked like a spray of flowers so I edged the blobs with white pen and then drew some leaves and stalks. I think this is called a butterfly effect. Firstly fold a piece of paper or card in half and blobs of whatever you like on one side. I used food colouring on this one as I had been clearing out a kitchen cupboard and wondered why I had ever bought them--never used them for the proper use at all. Next fold the other side onto the blobs and pat down the paper--I used a brayer to make sure all the colour had spread out on both

Hello Everyone-lovely to have you visit today. I am going to try to post up three challenges today so must get on with this one. At Every Inchie Monday  the theme is broom. Not an easy subject for me really but I want to make the full 52 to keep as a set so here is my effort. I drew the background with Promarkers, then decoupage my broom image-also coloured with Promarkers. I am learning to print a lot smaller for the inchies challenges so I added a quote. Ant printing always looks messy on a photo of something so small--well maybe that is just an excuse :( Thank you for looking Love Chrissie xx

Hello All--hope you are feeling well and thanking for dropping by my blog today and a very warm welcome to my new followers This week at Addicted to Stamps and More  it is Bingo week so lots of possibilities for the challenge with some great choices for a line. I chose the digi, free and love as my line. The giraffe image was a free digital image I have had for a while, sorry I don't know who drew it I coloured it digitally in Paint Shop Pro. I also made a matching paper in PSP as well and added the text.  My  'love' is in the text also love is built into the card as it is for my daughter and son-in-law for their 3rd wedding anniversary and they are very lovable :) The 'free' is the backing paper and the sparkly card I used to mount the image. Always love the Bingo challenges as it means I can get cards made that I need. Love Chrissie xx

Hello Everyone-Thank you to everyone who visits and leaves comments they are always much appreciated. Lots of inspiration on textures from the people who joined us at the Hatters with the last challenge-always lovely to have people join in with us. This week at Out of a Hat Creations we are having a Birds and Butterflies Challenge. You can make something with either or both and any project you like so plenty of scope for this challenge.  To see what Janet and Sandra have made for the challenge be sure to visit their  blogs  Hope you will visit Sandra and Janet's Blogs to see what they have made for the challenge. This is what I did. My daughter bought me a cane heart and said she thought I might like to decorate it--she was right I did  really enjoy decorating it before after First of all I sprayed it a light pink then I cut out butterfly shapes from a paper napkin and made bead bodies for them. Next I made flowers from the same napkin and some stiffer ones as well which I spray

Hello Everyone-hope you are all feeling great today and a big thank you for visiting my blog. What a lovely word to chose as a challenge at Every Inchie Monday this week. Always difficult to know what to fit onto just an inch square but a good way to challenge yourself for sure. I found this drawing on the web and printed it out-I love the way it puts lots of things that make us happy around the edge and Happiness in the middle. I painted the inchie in bright colours then cut out the head and stuck it onto the inchie. Love Chrissie xx

Hello Everyone--I hope your day is going well and lovely to have you visit my blog today  I have taken a few days to make some flowers for the challenge at The Craft-Room  as I only just bought the Sizzix, Tim Holtz, Tattered Florals Die-I know everyone else has had it forever but I have to think about things lol. I looked at few tutorials before venturing into making these and then used the ideas to do things my own way. The 'leaves' are a 'JOY crafts' die and I bought a few of the crocheted doilies a while ago. The card I put through a Cuttlebug folder and distressed it with Tim Holtz Distressed Ink-Rusty Hinge which I love. I also made the bow but it took me several attempts even with my bow maker.:( Great samples and entries for this challenge so do pop and have a look and join in with some of your own--always good to get ideas. Love Chrissie xx

Well that is the theme for the challenge at Show Us Your Twinchies this time. Great inspirational pieces from the DT as always and a nice subject to chose. I did the background with Promarkers and then cut out the little birds from a picture on an old card. Next a bit of black thread in their beaks and some heart bunting with the letters spelling LOVE. The sun is really yellow but looks green on the picture for some unknown reason A few punched flowers from my mini shapes set and kisses then that's it. Love Chrissie xx

Happy Sunday Everyone or Happy any day if Sunday has already gone when you visit. Thought I had better get some posting done this morning as I will be watching the rugby again this afternoon. Two matches yesterday-and then I wonder where the time goes. Now to the challenge at Addicted to CAS this time. I was really quite stuck as the word is CANDY as the meaning of that in my dictionary is boiled sugar. Thank goodness for the wonderful samples by the DT team which showed me that it means sweet treats of any kind. Well I hope that's what it means. I decided to go with my fave which is definitely chocolate. Embossed the card with a folder. The shape is a die cut and I edged that with distressed ink. The quote is one I found on Google. The bottom edge is peel off  lines and Promarker Brown. Love Chrissie xx

Hello Friends and Followers everywhere. A big thank you for taking time to visit my blog and all the wonderful comments you leave. This week at The Hatters the project is 3 Textures and I know some people can make wonderful textures in all sorts of ways but mine are a bit 'normal' I'm afraid. I am making a book of dictionary alpha pages at the Craft Barn  so I thought I would use the textures challenge to make the cover for the book First of all I covered the book with some paper from my Search Press Bumper Book of Papers and painted it with H20 shiny gold paint. Then I added a piece of card that was embossed with a folder and highlighted with Distressed Ink. Lastly, to add extra strength to the sides, I edged them with some nice, thick, patterned ribbon. This should stay strong for the whole year it is going to take to do the Alpha Challenge Pages. Hope you will visit Janet and Sandra to see what they made for this challenge and if you have time, join with us in this cha

Hello All from a wet, cold and dark NE UK. We did venture out to do some shopping but were very pleased to be back home again. And even more pleased to see what the postman had brought. I saw this tag on Sam's Blog  and I really loved it and she has sent it to me--how kind is that--thank you so much Sam. I have put the size of it on the photograph as I hadn't realised it was so big when I saw it on her blog. It has jewels on it and the lace and the fancy ties are so beautiful in real life. It has brightened my day for sure Love Chrissie xx

Two posts today and both of them for some of my favourite challenges This one is for Every Inchie Monday  and we are doing 52 inchies all different subjects which I think is a really terrific idea. This week the subject is RUIN. My favourite ruin has to be Whitby Abbey which I visit as often as possible. It has such an air of mystery and if you can see it on the horizon at night it is even better. Difficult to capture the total magic of the place on an inchie but I had to try. The Abbey picture was one I took myself last year. Hope it doesn't look like a parachute landing at the side but no picture of anything Whitby would be complete without something to do with Dracula as Bram Stoker is said to have written the famous book there. I used the bat image with dripping blood--YUK. Love Chrissie xx

Hello Everyone--hope your week is going well so far. It seems to have got cooler here on the NE UK coast so I have slowed down a bit as I do love the warmer weather. The letter at The Craft Barn  this time is E. It is a difficult letter as there didn't seem to be a lot of Nouns. I did fancy EYES as my word but when I scanned the dictionary page with 'eyes' on it the word was on the crease and not legible at all. So I chose EARTENWARE instead. Not the most exciting word but a real challenge. For the background I used distressed inks and kept masking with a  piece of card, and over lapping to make the stripes. The images were from a magazine and I found the quote on Google. Then I just stamped this and that to fill the spaces. The page is now safely stuck in my book so it doesn't get lost. I seem to lose all sorts of things in my craft room or they just go on holiday and turn up when I don't need them :( Love Chrissie xx

Happy Sunday Everyone and lovely to have you pop by whatever the day that you visit here. A warm welcome to my new followers. This morning I have made a card for 2 challenges that I try to join in every time. Artful times  where Neet and Von set challenges for us every 2 weeks and this time the theme is Asian. Then there is Addicted to Stamps and More  where there is a challenge each week and some sort of pattern to them that I must write down so I  can remember what is coming when. It is sketch week there this time so I followed the lovely sketch for my card. This was difficult to photograph and the colour of red is nothing like the card I actually used which is a rich red. First thing I did was cut out a rectangle and then I stamped the tree so it is inside the card. The stamps are all from a Hobby Art set that I won on another blog and use often. Then I added some fringed card and the edging around the rectangle. I have had this set of rolls for ages but never used most of them. Fi

Saturday-Hello everyone and welcome to my blog on this cold and wet day in the NE UK. I am fairly happy that the weather isn't too good as I plan to watch the 6 Nations rugby matches on television and maybe do a bit of knitting while I am sitting there. Hope you all have a good day and thank you for popping by-always lovely to have you visit. This time at Addicted to CAS  the code word is HEART so here is what I made. Not a lot to say about it really-just lines, punched hearts and a sentiment-definitely simple and hopefully clean. Love Chrissie xx