March Challenge - Clean and Simple

February saw so many talented crafters visit our challenge blog - thank you for stopping by and a massive thank you to all of you who took our challenge and came up with a stunning selection of embossed projects.... watch this space for our winners announcement between the 6th and the 8th.

This month we want to challenge you to get creative and make us a project that is
 Clean & Simple
It can be any type of project that you like but it must be clean and simple. Please check out our challenge rules in the sidebar..... and please note that we only allow one entry per crafter per challenge.

We are lucky to have the uber talented Lindsay from LEJ Designs sponsoring us this month

 LEJ Designs

Lindsay is kindly offering one lucky winner a prize of:

4 images of their choice. These images are currently not for sale,
the only way you can snag them is to win them as a prize
or to find a freebie on the LEJ Designs Challenge Blog!

I have made a couple of cards to get the inspiration going this month, but remember to stop by and check out all the things that my wonderful Design Team have been creating (I've had a few sneaky peeks and I think you are going to love what they have been up to!).

Here are the cards I made,

So, over to you..... remember to check out the rules and please follow the theme - Clean and Simple. We are really looking forward to seeing what you make this month.

Happy crafting
Nikki x

A Host Of Golden Daffodils

'A host of golden daffodils' by Neil Burley

Well, ok, five is probably not a multitude, but Wordsworth wasn't terribly specific!
I was provided with the fabulous Daffodil 2 image from LEJ Designs to work with this month.
 I imported the source image into my graphics program and did a bit of mirroring and scaling to create this bunch from the original single flower.

I laser printed onto my favourite coated card from Rymans before colouring with ProMarkers:
Petals: Yellow / Canary / Sunflower / Gold
Stems: Marsh Green / Forest Green / Pine / Leaf Green
Outline: Powder Blue

I mounted on some Bazzill card stock, using the really useful Stix2 Layer Perfect to help square everything up, used a sentiment from the Craftwork Cards Friend Sentiments die cut sheet with a piece of Tim Holtz Idea-ology Crinkle Ribbon underneath using the Yellow and Sunflower ProMarkers to colour it to match. So that I could have a large white space for my CAS style, I used a 6x6" card to mount everything on.

CAS - Dawn

Hi, Dawn here with my DT card for this months CAS challenge!

The image is from our Sponsor, LEJ Designs.

It's Just perfect for a Clean & Simple card for Spring!

More About my card here

March Challenge - CAS

Hi Everyone

Mags here to share a little more CAS inspiration for our monthly challenge.  Our great sponsor this month is LEJ Designs and I used a lovely little tulips image for my project.

I printed the image onto white card and used distress ink to colour.  I added a small amount of glamour dust to the tulips for added sparkle. I do struggle with CAS cards but quite pleased with how this turned out. For more details please pop by my blog. 

I hope this has inspired you to have a go.  Look out for more inspiration from the design team througout the month.

Bye for now
Mags
xx

Clean and Simple - Foil Seahorse

Hello everyone, I've been looking forward to this month's challenge, as Clean And Simple is my normal style!  Our sponsor this month is LEJ Designs, and I've chosen Lesley's lovely seahorse design to work with. I wanted to show something a little different this time, so for my card, I've embossed the stamp onto foil. For details of how I did it, please visit my blog here.  I hope you like it!

November Challenge Winter Blues

Wow!!!! All the DT have been amazed at the wonderful projects 

 you have all created for us over the last month. 

You are totally amazing!

Don't forget to check back on the 6th November for our 

Winner & Top 3 Post.

Now on to this months challenge.

Our theme this time is "Winter Blues"

You can interpret that any way you like, the choice is yours!

We are lucky to be sponsored by the lovely Lindsay at

LEJ Designs

The prize is 4 images of the winners choice.
Please remember to check out the rules for the challenge before you enter.

So here are a couple of cards that I made to get the inspiration going - I loved working with Lindsay's wonderful images! I challenged myself to only use blue.... These are the cards I wanted to share with you...

We would love to see what you create!
Remember to come back throughout the month to see what the Design Team have been creating.

Happy crafting

xXxNikki & The Crafting Cafe TeamxXx

Winter Blues - Dawn

Hi, Dawn here with my DT inspiration card for our Winter Blues Challenge

The image I have used  is Unhappy Angel, just

one of the fab images from Lindsay our lovely sponsor

from LEJ Designs.

Don't forget to play along if you haven't already!

More about my card here

Winter Blues by Mags

Hi Folks

Mags here to share a little inspiration for our current challenge which is - Winter Blues.

Our sponsor this month is LEJ Designs and the winner will receive 4 free digi images.

Here is my inspiration project using a great image from our sponsor.

The image was coloured with promarkers and matted onto blue cardstock.  I added some liquid pearls around the image to add some interest.  The blue background paper was in my stash and I added an embossed panel using my snowflakes embossing folder.  The snowflake is a spellbinders die and I glittered it up for added sparkle.  A couple of little trees and some ribbon finished the card.

You have until the end of the month to link up your entries and look out for more inspiration from the design team throughout the rest of the month.  Follow the link here to enter the challenge.

Bye for now

Mags (magagiscraftybits.blogspot.co.uk)

xx

Winter Blues by Amanda

Hi everyone, Amanda here with my inspiration card for this month's "Winter Blues" challenge.  Our November sponsor is the lovely Lindsay at LEJ Designs, and I chose her pretty Snowy Haven image for my project.

I've gone for a night-time scene and, although it turns out I'm not Thomas Kinkade after all, I think it's quite a cosy looking cottage.  I hope you like it!  For more info about my card, please visit my blog here.

Summer's Here - July's challenge

Hopefully wherever you are today there is a blue sky and lots of bright summers colours all around you. I always feel so much more alive and filled with energy when the sun is shining....

Thank you to everyone who took part in our challenge last month - what a fantastic bunch of projects you shared with us - very inspiring!

This month our challenge theme for you is
  'Summer's Here'....

 now it's over to you to get creative and then share it with us.....
 remember to link your blog onto this post so that we can pop on over and leave you some crafty love....
if this is the first time you have joined us - 'welcome x'

Please check our rules over in the right hand side bar.

This month our sponsor is the wonderfully talented Lindsay from

 LEJ Designs.

The Design Team have been working away with her designs creating projects

 to inspire you over the month.

The winner of this months challenge will get their choice of 4 digis from
Lindsay's wonderful collection.

Here are a few cards that I made for the challenge,
I used the same 'blossom' digi but achieved 3 totally different looks.

Now it's over to you!
Remember to keep popping back over the month as the
DT members will be stopping by to share their creations with you.

Happy crafting

Nikki x

Hello Summer

Happy Friday everyone!

It's Ria here today :) I'm sharing my take in this month's ''Summer's Here'' challenge.

I used the Blossom digi image from LEJ Designs. I colored them with Promarkers and added a crochet ribbon strip that I already have in my stash to complement the flower colors. Summer has a bright fun colors so I used lively colors of the pallet.

There's still time to play along the challenge so go and have fun creating a card for summer.

Thanks for stopping by today. Enjoy the rest of the summer!

Summer's Here By Sylvia

Hiya Sylvia here I hope you are enjoying the sunshine,

I certainly am,

I would like to show you my DT card for the crafting café.

I decided to do some paper piecing.

Items used.

Digi. http://www.lejdesigns.co.uk/

White cardstock.

Free background image.

Promarkers.

Shells (from my stash)

I look forward to reading your comments .

Lots of love, Sylvia x

Summer's Here - Dawn

Summer's Here!

Most definitely! I love all this sunshine, don't you?

I have used the image Beachy Fun from our lovely sponsor

LEJ Designs

If you haven't entered the challenge yet, there is still time,

you have until the end of the month! 

So go create!

The DT can't wait to visit your blog & leave some love!

Day 19 at The Crafting Cafe

Hi Folks

Mags here on Day 19 of our 'Summers Here' challenge at The Crafting Cafe.

I have used a super image from our sponsor LEJ Designs to create my Summer Themed card.  I created a little beach scene by using glitter paper, beach huts paper and some cut out palm trees.  

For more details of how I created my card just pop by my blog.

You have until the end of the month to enter the challenge.  So let's see those summer creations.  

Bye for now

Mags

xx

Summer 's Here - July challenge by Amanda

Summer is definitely here in Bedfordshire - it's roasting!  Not a great time to be carrying boxes of heavy crafting supplies around the house and building shelves then!  I'm moving my crafty stash into another room at the moment, so my inspiration project this month is a little bit work in progress.

This month's sponsor  is LEJ Designs and I chose Lindsay's pretty floral digi Blossom.  I've used it to make a decoration for my new room and I'm hoping it will inspire me for a long time to come. For more about the project, please take a look at my blog post here.

July Challenge - Summer's Here - By Lindsay

Hiya lovelies, Lindsay here, today I have my Summer's Here themed  card made using a digi from our sponsor LEJ Designs.

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you will all join in with our challenge and if you wish to know more details about the things used for making the card please hop over to my blog

Lindsay xx

Let's Go Shopping

Welcome to Day 19 of our February Anything Goes challenge at The Crafting Cafe.

It's Mags here today and so excited to be sharing my first post for The Crafting Cafe challenge.

I live in the East of England with my hubby and two lovely daughters (well, one is at uni at the moment).  I am not sure they will ever move out (they have it too good I think lol).  I have always been a creative person and have tried many crafts in  my time - knitting, crotchet, cross stitch etc.  About 3-4 years ago my Mum introduced me to cardmaking and the rest is history - as they say.  I still work full time and can't wait for the day when I can retire.  I keep telling hubby to win the lottery for me but to no avail lol.

Anyway, here is the card that I want to share with you today.

I used this image from our lovely sponser LEJ Designs for my project.  I decided to do something a little different and I made a gift card.  The little pocket on the front is just big enough to fit a gift card in.

For full details of this card just pop over to my blog and take a look.

Now it's over to you.  Looking forward to seeing your entries in our 'Anything Goes' challenge.  Don't forget to keep popping back throughout the month to see more fab inspiration from the DT.

Thanks for popping by.

Mags

xx

Anything Goes Challenge - Tulips

Hi Everyone and welcome to my very first post here at the crafting cafe challenge blog!

My name is Claire and I live in the north east of England with my husband Richard and our two cats, we both work full time but in my free time I enjoy creating!  I haven’t been into crafting all that long but in the short space of time that I have been I have tried out a ton of different techniques and have acquired a huge amount of crafting goodies!!  My personal blog can be found HERE if anyone would like to check it out!

So my project for my very first post is using the tulips digi from LEJ Designs:

To create my project I first printed out my digi and coloured the tulips using my distress markers (victorian velvet, milled lavender, worn lipstick, peeled paint and pine needles), I inked around the edges of my square with tumbled glass distress ink then I used the crackle stamp from Indigoblu stamped in vintage photo distress ink.  Then I gave it three coats of UTEE to give it an old ‘tile’ appearance.

I then used the fancy frame mask from Splodgeaway to create the background using distress inks (old paper, vintage photo, mustard seed and victorian velvet) and cut n dry foam.

I mounted my ‘tulip tile’ onto the background in the centre using foam pads, then added the ribbon and backed it onto the green cardstock before finally mounting onto my 8x8 card blank.

I hope you enjoyed my very first project and that you will join in with the challenge this month – the theme is Anything Goes!!

Thanks for visiting and I hope to see here soon!

Claire x

Hello - Lyndi Here!

HI THERE!

 

I'm Lynne, but known to a lot of my crafting friends as Lyndi and one of the new DT Members for The Crafting Cafe Challenge Blog along with a whole lot of other very talented people.

 

I'm super excited to be a part of such a wonderful DT and had a lot of fun with my card for the first challenge that you can enter above!

 

I live in Beith, Scotland with my hubby Billy, two sons Robert (16) and Ross (5) and our cat Barney (6). I have been crafting since my mum taught me to knit when I was 5 and started card making after my sister decided that it would be a good idea if I made her wedding invites etc...

 

Since then crafting has taken over my life from making CAS cards to Altering bits and pieces and turning them into works of art (well - to me they are LOL). I'll never stop crafting and am quite keen to learn some new things like glass blowing and stained glass art. My husband has also taught me to weldand apparently I'm 'not bad' at it - high praise coming from my hubby :oD!!!

 

I work part-time at the moment and can't wait to retire so that I can spend all my time creating. Hopefully by then I will have my own craft room (at the moment my dining room table is straining under the weight of all my craft stuff) and it will likely be bursting at the seams with stash, but you can never have enough stash. 

 

This is the card I made for the challenge:

 

To find out more about how I created this card using LEJ Design's 'An Angels Touch' digi stamp please visit my blog here.

 

Now it's over to you! Let's see your creations for the Challenge, which this time is anything goes. You have the chance to win four digi images from our lovely sponsor LEJ Designs!

 

Looking forward to spending time with you all and seeing your wonderful creations :oD xx

 

Love n Kisses

 

 

 

 

 

Greetings and giraffes

Happy Sunday everyone!  Amanda here with my February project using one of the lovely Lindsay’s gorgeous digi stamps.  First, I should introduce myself though, as I don’t get onto the Facebook group as often as I’d like.  I live in Bedfordshire with my college sweetheart Adam, my little collie-sheltie cross Molly, and, since September 2011, my little baby boy Bob.  I’ve been a freelance papercrafts and jewellery designer/demonstrator working mainly through do crafts for a few years.  I’m having a break from demos for a while though, as I’m not yet ready to contemplate leaving little Bob for a whole day.  I’m soooo happy to be on the design team, as Bob takes up as much time as I can give and some housework has to happen, so I’ve been in a bit of a crafting wilderness.  Making a commitment to craft, even just once a month, means I’ll definitely make the time for it, so thank you, you’re all helping me stay sane!

Onto my project… I fell in love with Lindsay's sweet, tottering giraffe straight away.  It's perfect for new baby or first birthday cards, and I’m planning to use it to scrap some piccies I have of Bob’s early walking too.  It also gave me an excuse to use some yummy Tim Holtz papers I bought a couple of weeks ago, as they’re really giraffey colours.  This was my first foray into digital crafting and I really enjoyed it.  Stamps are quite an obsession of mine (after paper of course!), but they are just the one size, and do take up a lot of space.  I loved being able to decide how big to make the image, it opens up so many possibilities!

Anyway, here it is.  I hope you like it.  Full details of what I used are on my blog.  Please stop by and say hello, and don’t forget to enter the challenge!