Exciting News

Helen

 

I had some fabulous news at the beginning of December, I was a runner up in the Scrapbooker of the Year competition run by Scrapbook Magazine. The layout above was one of three I submitted.

Sead beads individually sewn on.

Very apt stamp from Inkylicious.



December Challenge

Welcome to our just for fun challenge for December.

One of the birth flowers for December is the Narcissus.  Your challenge is to take inspiration from this picture - be it the flowers, the colours or something else.

Picture source


This month the challenge is just for fun as crafting is intended to be and here is what our fabulous design team have created:

 Kelly

 For my card I was inspired by the pretty white flowers and the traditional nature of the December flowers.

Helen

I was really surprised to see that Narcissus was the birth flower for December as I always associated them with spring. As I was looking forward to making something Christmassy for this months challenge I decided to still do that so made a snowflake tree decoration using the colours of Narcissus. This is actually two snowflake frames, one stuck onto of the other to give a fuller look. This challenge spurred me on to make a few more in other colours which I have put on my blog.

Emma

I was inspired by the splash of yellow in the centre of the flowers and made this gift tag!

Eleni

I was inspired by the flowers and the colours to create this art journal page.


Kerry

I made a brooch inspired by the colours in the photo.

Tiffany

 I made a layout using the white and yellow of the flowers.

November Challenge

Welcome to November.

While I was researching ideas for this months challenge I came across the picture below from here
I was immediately drawn to it. I think it must be the little girl in me so your challenge is to be inspired by the picture


My Creative Classroom are our sponsor this month with a prize of a class of the winners choice.

I will pick a winner at random from the entries received.  Entry closes on 30th November 2012 at 23:59 GMT.

My Creative Classroom is an online arts and crafts learning center. Our interactive and in-depth courses are instructor led and filled with wonderful projects and techniques to help you get the most out of your supplies. Our Fall Semester is just beginning with over 100 classes to choose from. My Creative Classroom has a little bit of everything for everyone. We are offering classes on the Cricut, mixed media, rubber stamping, scrapbooking, sewing and more! Don't miss out on some wonderful classes starting this Fall:

• Mixed Media to Die For
• Holiday Cards
• NEW! Mug Rug Madness
• The Magic of Christmas
• All About Ribbon

We are excited to be sponsoring The Craft Garden Challenge. You can view our entire class list on our website at My Creative Classroom. You can also view classes on our Facebook Page too! One lucky winner will receive a free seat to a class of their choice.....Good Luck!

 

 

Here is what our amazing design team have produced to inspire you:

 

 

 

By Helen

I struggled with this months challenge, fairies and delicate things are not really my thing so I decided to look at the colours and work with those. Rather than use a combiation of the colours I decided to pick one and see what I could do with it, the card above is the result!

I started by using a map stamp as a background and used a mask so the images didn't overlap with Distress Ink pad Bundled Sage. I used stamps from Stampers Anonmous and Indigoblu for the main images in DI Peeled Paint. I am pleased with the result as it makes a great card for a man and I always struggle with men!

 

 



Kelly 

I love the inspirational picture for this month's challenge because I love fairies! I was inspired by the colours, the berries, and of course the sweet fairy. 

 

 

 

Cathy

I went with the fairy theme, as I just love these silohuette fairies, and there is some purple in there too. 

 

 

Tiffany

I used the colors from the inspiration photo for my layout, and added some of Kerry's wonderful flowers as embellishments!

 

 

Eleni

  I was inspired by the Fairy because I call my Mom my Housefairy, so I decided to make a double page for my art journal.  I've used the colours to decorate my fairy.

 

 

Emma

I was inspired by the beautiful fairy and the colour combo, I have used Rainbow Fairy from Some Odd Girl you can find her Here, the papers I have used are basic grey and I used copics to colour her skin and promarkers for everything else

 

 



August Winner

I'm so sorry this has taken so long. The winner of our August challenge is Anita with this gorgeous project

Anita please can you email me at craftgardenshop@aol.com with your address details and I will send your prize.

October Recipe Challenge

Welcome to October.
Your challenge is to choose 4 of the ingredients from the following list chosen by the design team:

Kerry - buttons

Luanne - banner

Helen - flowers

Kelly - Pink

Eleni - ribbon

Cathy - a tag

Emma - Sparkle

Helen

I used the following from the recipe: Tag, pink, ribbon, buttons.

The background stamp I used is from Dylusions, the face is an Inkylicious stamp and I used WOW heat embossing powder in Paprika.

Helene

I wanted to do a big and messy banner so I made a textured one using modeling paste, forming it by hand. I also did some doodling on the page to make it more playful. The pink on the background is made using Pan Pastel. On the arrows I wrote the names of my daughters baby dolls and an explanation to what you see in the pictures. (The plaid is a slide and the cushion is the stair.) I love to use scrapbooking as a way to remember details in life that you would otherwise forget! (I used buttons, a banner, flowers, pink and a ribbon.)

Emma

I used pink, sparkle, buttons and flowers to make my card the stamp is really sweet and i love how the kraft works with the pink.

Kelly

For my card I have used pink, tag, flowers and sparkle!

Cathy


I went for tag, sparkle, ribbon and flowers

Eleni


I love how you get so many different designs with 
a recipe challenge. I've chosen buttons, ribbon, tags & pink.

Tiffany

 Recipe challenges are so much fun! I chose buttons, banners, tags and sparkle (on my title).

Your prize this month is a selection of  flowers and embellishments.  I am way behind with a few things at the moment and taking this photo is one of them. It will follow shortly.
I realise that I haven't drawn the prize winner for August and that will be done in the next few days.
Entry for the October challenge is below via the inlinkz button. Our rules are that you can enter no more than three other challenges with the project you make for this challenge and you can enter no more than three projects. Projects must be made during October 2012. Entry closes 23:59 GMT on 31st October 2012.

Brooch Giveaway

I'm having a giveaway for the pink fluffy brooch pictured below.  Entry is via rafflecopter and the link for entry can be found here on my Facebook page

Craft Fairs

I've booked to be at some upcoming craft fairs in Yorkshire between now and Christmas. I will be at:

National Coal Mining Museum near Wakefield on Saturday 6th October

Glasshoughton Centre, Castleford on Sunday 18th November

Mapplewell Village Hall on Saturday 1st December

National Coal Mining Museum on Sunday 9th December

I am also on a couple of reserve lists so might be doing more.

Last Saturday I was at Mapplewell and although it was very quiet I did OK. Here are a few piccies

September Challenge

Welcome to September
Michaelmas Day is on 29th September celebrating St Michael - patron saint of seafarers
Your challenge this month is to take your inspiration from W A T E R

This month is all about having fun as we don't have a sponsor.  Link your items using the inlinkz button below and I will choose a winner who, if they wish, can join us for a guest spot one month in the future.

It's also the first month with our new design team members Emma and Helene. I'm sure you will join me in welcoming them on board.

Here is what the design team were inspired by W A T E R

Helen

I made this card by first stamping the circles on white vellum (this is a single stamp from Crafty Individuals), I then smudged the ink with my finger to remove the sharpness of the stamping. I added the black solid circles (again a single stamp from The Artistic Stamper) to represent bubbles from the fish. I made the weed using glossy card and alcohol inks and cut to shape. The fish is a rub-on by Kaiser as is the 'Gone Fishing' title, I've noticed that rub-ons seem to be making a come back and these proved easy to use and I think quite effective too. I added pearl brads from Hobby House to add a bit of bling and depth and they also helped secure the vellum too. The Vellum was attached to some blue Bazzill and added to a C6 white card.

Eleni
Living in Greece, and loving to travel has given me the opportunity to see many a beautiful 'water' places ...
So it was just a matter of showing off the place that I have been impressed by, and that is Kyanu Caves on Zakynthos island ... the most amazing blue colour ever!



Kelly

For my project I was inspired by the word 'water' which made me think of rain, so I made my card with a cute little critter out in the rain!

Helene

This is my first layout as a DT member here at The Craft Garden and first I want to say that I’m so grateful to be part of the team!

I used gesso, pan pastel, mist and acrylic paint on the background and then I added some blue patterned papers and embellishments. I also had a small metal anchor in my stash that fitted perfectly with the theme. :) If you want to see some close ups or read about how I did the background you can go here.

Cathy
I was inspired by a recent seaside holiday,
and my younger daughter's rockpool mermaid stories (she has a very vivid imagination!!!)

Emma

I was inspired by all the rain we have had all summer I used this fab Whiff Of Joy image stamped onto acetate for  a glassey, watery feel teamed with rain inspired papers from My Minds Eye...

Tiffany

I knew I had great pics of my kiddos and all their cousins poolside this summer! I started with a super-fun calendar card I had from The Paper Source- don't you love that adorable little purple octopus? I then pulled papers and embellishments in coordinating purples, greens, blues and greens to build my layout.

Delighted To Introduce....

our two new design team members.

Emma Stephenson who guested for us this month

and

Helene Bogren


Thanks so much to everybody who applied.  I am only sorry that I don't have room for everybody.

Design Team Call

Thanks to everybody who applied. I'm going to have a look through them all over this week and hopefully have a decision by the weekend.

August Challenge

Welcome to August. Hope the summer is treating you well.
Your challenge this month is to take inspiration from this photo

Source
I provided the design team with some products to use from the palette of colours.  One lucky winner chosen at random will also receive a package of these products as their prize.
As always you can only enter 4 other challenges with the project you enter into this one and entry is limited to 3 projects per person.
This month we had two very talented guest designers. 

Emma Stephenson

I took my inspiration from the colours in the picture and the kit, such a fun photo.

Anam Stubbington

I was inspired by the hand drawn designs on the Elephants to decorate a folding fan. The designs reminded me of henna so used brown as my main line colour and let myself flow with the hand drawn feeling.

I took colour inspiration from the embellishments and used the included butterflies as templates for my main image. I drew around them to make the main pattern and then added hand drawn details. The fabric on the fan did allow the colours to bleed a bit but I liked the look in the end.

I added the flowers, jewels and beads from the embellishment pack to the handle for a final touch.

 Here is what the design team came up with

By Helen

I was delighted to see elephants in this months challenge as I adore them! So I decided to make three mini canvas prints using different techniques.


For the first one I started by using sequin waste and a distress ink pad to give the canvas a background. I then used a distress marker to add faux stitching and the word 'Elephant'. I took some patterned paper, tore it and wrapped it around the canvas before adding the elephants head. I added three brads and to complete the look added a bindi to the elephants head.

The second canvas I covered with distress crackle and left to dry. I then used four distress stains to colour the crackle before adding my mounted elephant.

The third canvas is covered with printed tissue paper before being coloured with a distress ink pad. Using ribbon supplied by Kerry I added a strip to the side of the canvas and then covered it with a film strip. I sandwiched an adage tag (play seemed so appropriate for elephants) and added a bit of sparkle (again supplied by Kerry). The elephant and tree are from Jolees and I finished off by dismantling a flower Kerry had supplied and cut and scrunched it to make it look like bush, the colour and paper was a perfect match for the background.

Luanne
I love the colors painted on the elephants and used them on my project.

Kelly
I was inspired by the fabulous colours for this month's challenge and of course the gorgeous elephants:

Eleni 

I was inspired by the colours, the lovely embellishment kit and the design ON the elephants ...



Here is close up of some of the embellishments that Kerry provided us with:

Cathy

I went with the bright colours and some of the patterns.

Kerry:

I found some old photos of two of my sons feeding the elephants. I used coffee and gesso on the background and dribbled some mists before adding the embellishments I had provided for this months challenge.

So if you are inspired by the picture to create your own project and win a pack of embellishments similar to what the design team used then simply add a link to your project using the inlinkz button below. Entry is open until midnight UK summertime on 31st August.


We also have our design team call going on until mid August. Full details can be found a couple of posts down.