PDCC#104 and All things weird and wonderful, all creatures great and small (to be sung!)*

* blog title shamelessly knicked from Sue's blog 'cos it fitted my post beautifully

I can't believe that this week sees the two year anniversary of The Play Date Cafe Challenge!  Where has the time gone!  I've not managed to play along since I stepped away from my place as co-collaborator with my fabulously creative friend Julie Ranae, and on the design team, but this week is half term and a bit quieter work-wise so last night I collected some fabrics and set too...

I LoVe this colour combo, that creamy yellow is just gorgeous, and I knew I had some old velvet curtains in a similar green to this so...

... now I have a new owl in my collection :)  I started him by sewing some yummy aubergine coloured velvet onto a similar colour felt, then I attached this to a piece from the curtains.  He's stuffed with a bag of rice so he sits up and doesn't fall over.  He doesn't look very happy to me, and I'm wondering how you make happy owls!  Any tips gratefully received :)

But then, Lucy Casson's creatures don't look happy, but the actual pieces make me smile!  This is one Sue and I saw on a visit to Knighton on Saturday.  As part of Powys' open studios event, Lucy Casson had some work on display, so we went and had a look :)  

There are a few artists working in the Old School House, 

...some with tastes similar to Sue's ;)...

(these were in the porch on our way in!)

...including another artist who works with recycled metal...

This is taken from a balcony looking down, how cool is that giant fish slice!!!?!  

'The Voles think God is Dead!'

We had such a fab day out, and Sue's shared some different pictures on her blog if you'd like to share in our fun day :)

a great British Play Date Cafe Challenge :)

...cos this week I chose the colours :)  and Tracy Evans is our guest designer :) :)  How cool is that!!!

This image reminds me of bubble painting with the kids at school - a great activity :)  I love the splash of bright green mixed amongst the blues.

I was tempted by a peacock theme this week but ended up with my favourite hydrangeas!  Julie was telling me she's just got some of the new Martha Stewart punches so I ended up checking out the new releases - and fell in love with cherry blossom!  They are random flowers just like the hydrangeas - need to get saving!

I felted some bright green curly locks onto some green felt, then free machined some punched painted paper before stitching on the blue ric rac and adding some blue shinies!

Have fun with these colours :)  And don't forget to check out what our DT have been working on this week -

but don't forget to enter your piece over at The Play Date Cafe ~ have fun!

Jinny Newlin

Libby Hickson

Michele Gross

TRacey Kuzniak

Colleen Dietrich 

Julie Ranae 

Savannah O'Gwynn 

Ruby2Shoes 

Andrea Ewen

Fiona Schultz

Jaclyn Miller

and this week's guest designer

Tracy Evans

This week we're kindly sponsored by 

welcoming Ruby as a colour inspirer at The Play Date Cafe!

This week's challenge was described by Andrea as 'Howard and Seddon' colours - remember the architect's office from November?

I've been in crochet mood so spent last Saturday evening crocheting this little cushion.  You really need 'feelynet' to truly appreciate it, it's made with cottons so feels really soft and cuddly :)  It's equivalent in size to an A5 sheet of paper.  I did fancy crocheting a unionjack in these colours but I couldn't work it out in time so went with the seasonal idea of hearts.

If it helps any, think of these wonderful colours chosen by Ruby as three shades of red and a blue.  Your blue could be an accent, and your shades of red could be hearts, or flowers, or butterflies.  I bet they'd look fantastic on a journal page too.  Hmmm, might need to play with them there too! ;)

I started with a simple heart crocheted in pink, following a pattern I found on t'internet, then kept changing yarn colour doing around each subsequent heart; I made some of this up so there is the odd bit of wonkiness but hey, it's handmade, and my first crocheted cushion YAY! :)

I'm now rather tempted with the idea of crocheting a heart garland.....I just need more hours in a day, or more days in a week!  Check out Ruby's account of her first experience of choosing a colour story over at The Play Date Cafe and see what our designers made of this week's colours.  Have fun, and enjoy the real challenge of getting these colours to work for you - you'll be pleased you did!

Julie Ranae 

Savannah O'Gwynn 

Ruby2Shoes 

Andrea Ewen

Fiona Schultz

Jaclyn Miller

Jinny Newlin

Libby Hickson

Michele Gross

TRacey Kuzniak

Colleen Dietrich 

all of a twitter at the Play Date Cafe

I've been making little books recently in preparation for my 'basketful of books' workshop.  I decided to see if I could make a little origami pocket with felt and free machining and was rather pleased with the result!  This week's play date cafe colour inspiration comes from the wonderful Quentin Blake's new range of fabrics based on some of his illustrations.

Unfortunately my boys are now too old to have their rooms decorated in this fabric, otherwise I'd be creating a jungle bedroom lol.  I just love the splash of colour against the grey, and of course Quentin Blake's fabulous illustrations.  Those birds are just so, so FaB!!!

After putting my envelope together, I created a tiny book (4cm square) to fit inside, using a scrap of stencilled paper from my stash.  I added orange stitching and a scrap of green fabric to the front cover.  Leafing through an old book I came across a mention of 'orangey-red and green' so couldn't resist basing my text on this.

One of the things I love about old books is opening them and reading a random sentence - usually a great source of amusement.  

Don't 'Wind-Clouds and Star-Drifts' sound amazing?  Very Roald Dahl!  The book is made from a 9cm square of paper, folded into quarters and cut along one of these lines into the middle.  This creates a little pocket into which I've tucked the torn book page.

Have fun with these colours, and don't forget to visit our fabulous team of designers for some great inspiration!

Julie Ranae 

Savannah O'Gwynn 

Ruby2Shoes 

Andrea Ewen

Fiona Schultz

Jaclyn Miller

Jinny Newlin

Libby Hickson

Michele Gross

TRacey Kuzniak

Colleen Dietrich 

PDCC 64 with our brand spanking new design team :)

It's like an enormous party over at The Play Date Cafe today as we launch our new DT!  Sooooooo much fabulous inspiration over there :)

And Julie's choice of colours is very 'me', although I don't think I've ever combined grey and beige before.  

Isn't that soft blue so beautiful!  I've had a ball of grey wool in my crochet hook in my bag for a week or so now so always planned to include a grey crocheted flower in this piece.  I just love greys...although not grey, dull days I have to say!!!

I used a 7 gypsies Paddington paper on my tag (it had to be a tag, I was getting withdrawal symptoms lol) available in the UK from The Stamp Attic, along with some smidgeons of paper hanging around my desk!  The brads are 'Making Memories' upholstery brads and the washer is lovely and rusty, picked up off some pavement/car park somewhere ;)

 

Have a wonderful time visiting our design team this week, and apologies for not getting around to 'see' everyone last week, life caught up with me a little!

Julie Ranae [senior DT]

Savannah O'Gwynn [senior DT]

Ruby2Shoes [senior DT]

Andrea Ewen

Fiona Schultz

Jaclyn Miller

Jinny Newlin

Libby Hickson

Michele Gross

TRacey Kuzniak

Colleen Dietrich [private blend designer]

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 :) 

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!!

Christmas in the Play Date Cafe

Don't say I didn't warn you!!!  This week we are sponsored by the fabulous Elusive Images by Glenda Waterworth.  I have many of Glenda's stamps and am so pleased that we have another great British stamp company sponsoring the Play Date Cafe.

I received the GoRGeouS Frosty Trees set to play with and decided to go green with just a hint of watermelon using Julie's fabulous colour inspiration

Glenda is offering a tremendous prize this week.  The winner of the Cup of the Week will receive FouR sets of stamps, and each of our Fab Four will win one set of stamps each.  How cool is that!!!  Head over to The Play Date Cafe for more information on how to play along, and to see what you can win,  and don't forget to check out the inspiration from our regular designers, the Elusive Images design team, and Glenda Waterworth, our guest designer this week.

Julie Ranae

Suzanne Czosek

Andrea Ewen
Savannah O'Gwynn
Lisa Somerville
Ruby 2 Shoes

Glenda Waterworth
Elusive Images Design Team

it's colour splash time again at the Play Date Cafe #40

And this time our additional splash of colour is GREEN!  We've not ventured around to this side of the colour wheel in colour splash before, and when I went hunting for an inspirational photo, I fell in love with this image!

How gorgeous is that fabric?  So your challenge this week is to make a black and white piece (be it a card, ATC, canvas, journal page, scrapbook layout....) with just a splash of green.

We're sponsored this week by Memory Box who make some stunning stamps.  Every member of the design team were thrilled to receive two butterfly images.

I layered papers, and stitched around them, adding detail to the word 'inspire' by stamping it in green.  I used the small butterfly image inside, which co-ordinated beautifully with the flock paper I found in my stash.

The 'Inspire butterfly collage' has incredibly tiny text in the background (I LoVe text!) so I tore a rectangle to layer under the small butterfly inside the card.

Have fun with this week's challenge, and don't forget to check out all the wonderful inspiration, and this week's prize, over on the Play Date Cafe blog :)

EDIT: This week's prize is the two stamps I've used here.  They don't appear to be available in the UK so head on over to the caff to have a go at winning them :)