PDCC59 - inspired by...

One of my favourite things about teaching workshops is seeing what other colour combinations people come up with for the same project.  We all have our favourite colours, our 'comfortable colours to work with', and colours we want to try together and have decided that workshop day is the time to try them.  This makes for a great range of colour combos, and makes me think of other colour choices to try.

Whilst planning this week's play date cafe challenge  I was doing a bit of blog hopping and a piece of work on BonnieRose's blog just jumped out at me.  I'd been looking for an 'easier' colour combo as I feel like I've given you a fair challenge my last two choices!  Julie did chuckle when she heard this; I guess 'easy' or 'hard' depends on what our natural colour choices would be!!!

BonnieRose kindly said we could use an image of her artwork for our challenge this week - so thankyou  BonnieRose!  If you'd like to see more of her work, head over to her blog 'A Life UnRehearsed'.  I just AdOrE the colours in her blog banner :)

I got out my trusty Inkadinkadoo snowman from a couple of year back, and mounted him against a distress ink background.  The main background of the card is stamped with an impression obsession 'cover a card' stamp.  

As usual our design team have come up some stunning cards to inspire you...

Andrea Ewen
Savannah O'Gwynn
Ruby 2 Shoes

Julie Ranae - senior designer

And don't forget to head on over to the Play Date Cafe to see what's happening there this week :) 

WOYWW - settling in to my space in the attic :)

This is what my desk looked like a few weeks ago or so...far too sparse!

I spent quite a bit of time on Sunday unloading bags and organising my craft space, so that now my workdesk is workable on, and I have my essential crafting supplies to hand!

I had to laugh to myself though when I saw the full cup of tea in each of these shots!!!  I found it very difficult to work in the sparser space, although looking at the images, there isn't much difference!  I've moved the cuttlebug and it's gubbins onto a shelf elsewhere and the table shelf now has some wooden stamps and some pieces waiting to go to Julie in the States ;)  I must just prefer the look of wooden stamps to a cuttlebug!

I managed to squeeze in a tiny bit of me time last night - much easier when you are at the top of the house and the rest of the family are scattered about the house!  I used some 'I believe' reindeer paper by My Mind's Eye and decorated a little tag book.  For the main feature of the front cover I made a large tree in the style of the one printed on the paper whilst watching 'Miranda' - such a funny sitcom!

Have fun perusing the desks of those who choose to join in with, what is known in these circles as 

'WOYWW'

the stampman challenges you to...

make something Christmassy

with just

three colours

I'm in my colour comfort zone at the minute of blues and greens, and added a versamark 'vanilla' to my colour choice.  That last colour (neutral technically but hey!!) was a bit serendipitous, it was the easiest pad to get to and I just love how effective it is on the white card :)

I just LoVe that 'Fabulous Flourish' by Hero Arts, it's so, so versatile, and an exquisite image! 

I cut out my star using my friend's Sizzix die, but a punch or similar die would work just as well.  I distress inked it, and layered it over my moonglow paper made HERE.  Making batches of paper with Starburst Stains keeps the messy task separate from the card making and makes for a very clean card making process :)  There is a smidgeon of sequin waste (punchenella) sewn behind the star, along with a snippet of organza ribbon.

We're on Challenge #11 this week over at The StampMan.  Head over to the challenge site for some gorgeous inspiration from the design team, which includes

Michelle

Debbie

Jill

Frankie

Janet

Brenda

Lisa

Sue

Kay

Vix

then link up your own project so we can come and take a look at your work!!!  Have fun :)

PDCC58 Christmas is coming

I love the Play Date Cafe challenges, because they vary between really challenging, ie unusual colours to work with so take a bit of thinking about, to less challenging where the challenge may be with more familiar colours so you can add your own personal challenge to it eg trying something new, or just getting something done in an already busy week.  This week Julie has chosen us some lovely Christmassy colours to work with:

Although you are right Paul, it is really only one colour plus a neutral ;)

For me, getting something done was the challenge recently, as I've been busy recovering from accidents and incidents, preparing and helping at Christmas fairs,  and travelling between Manchester and Birmingham to train teachers in teaching maths using a structured apparatus called Numicon.  

For me, free machining a pattern on a felt heart wasn't a creative challenge as such, but I think trying to use just red and white on a journal page would have been.  I'd love to know what makes a challenge a challenge for you - let me know ;)  

We have a smaller design team this week whilst we wait for our new members to be chosen, but their work is great so head on over to take a look and be inspired

Andrea Ewen
Savannah O'Gwynn
Ruby 2 Shoes

Julie Ranae - senior designer

And don't forget to head on over to the Play Date Cafe to see what's happening there this week :)  Take care if you're struggling in the snow, it's hit the UK hard this week.  But look who I found in the Manchester Christmas markets this afternoon...

Now he MuST be the real Father Christmas!  I think he's hiding so he can get a bit of a rest in before the big night!!

a parliament of owls

John Lewis' Christmas department is full of owls :)

It took lots of willpower not to put any in my shopping basket!

These were wobbly, metal owls about ten inches tall.  Walking around the corner I discovered a collection of owls for the Christmas tree...

...the knitted variety (of which a couple did make it into my basket I have to say!!!)...

...and some jolly metal ones, which I have my eye on!!!

There were more cushions in the soft furnishing department.  Some for Christmas...

...but some for every day.  This one I just LoVe :) -

And I don't think I'm the only one!  He was sitting there all alone!

And these are my latest owls :)  I made them for the advent fair at church, and as birthday gifts for my many friends and family with birthdays at this time of year!!!

I'm really pleased with them, and have more felt and fabric to get some more made to sell before Christmas.

PDCC57 a load of old pegs

Actually the ones I used are new but old sounded better in the post title!

I've been busy making things for our church Advent fair on Saturday, which meant a hunt for crafts that look good but are quick to make.  I'd already chosen this week's photo inspiration a while back, but when I came across the idea of decorating clothes pegs and putting a magnet on the back to turn them into magnetic clips for your fridge I just knew I had to do it for this week's play date cafe challenge!

I just love the shades of browny-grey that pegs go when they are weathered.  This week we are sponsored by a UK company, Stamp Attack, who very kindly supplied the DT with their choice of stamps.  I chose an Alice in Wonderland set.

I printed an early, handwritten copy of part of the Alice story from the internet, coloured it with coffee and glued it to the front of the peg.  I love the contrast of the brown and the grey/black of the old style illustrations.

Sadly we are saying goodbye to two of our super talented design team members this week.  

Suzanne Czosek

Lisa Somerville

We'll truly miss them but wish them all the best in what they do next, but will obviously be staying in touch as they do such gorgeous work (and Lisa is our technical wonder who is always able to help us out in the land of computer wizardry :)  )  The other guys have decided to stay on another long while, and Julie and I are busy oohing and ahhing over our DT entrants for the next team.

Andrea Ewen
Savannah O'Gwynn
Ruby 2 Shoes

Please check out the DT's wonderful work, and head over to the Play Date Cafe to see the results of Player Appreciation week - everyone seemed to enjoy this week's colours :)

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving all my US friends!!!

i just LoVe owls!

... so for a bit of relaxation this weekend I got out my felting tools and made myself a phone case.  The idea came from Etsy but I designed the owl to fit my own quirky sense of fun :)

I just love the distressed look you get when felting sheer fabrics so used my hand felting tool to embellish a circle for each eye, the wings and the body.  I then hand sewed the eyes and beak together, something I find very relaxing, before sewing the pouch together with the sketchy machine sewing I so enjoy.  

I don't 'do' neat, specific sewing on my machine as the slightest wrong stitch would really bug me, but I love the look of sketchy, mad stitching and enjoy doing it too.

Now to design some little keyring owls for the Advent Fair at church on Saturday...watch this space :)