Round again (recycling with Carol)

Phewwwww!! Good Morning everyone. It's a scorcher here in Cyprus. Yes we're having a heat wave. Bit early for it in June but then the weather is crazy all around the globe this year. I am trying not to dehydrate as I don't want this kidney to go into shock. So the water bottles are taking a hammering!!

This week at CD Sunday Carol has challenged us to recycle something and to use something from a CD as per normal for our challenge blog. Well I thought why not recycle an old CD. I had used one earlier in the year when I covered it with fibres but I thought this time I would use DP.

I covered the CD with some spotty DP from Hunkey Dory. I cut out hearts with a heart punch and folded them in half placing them centrally on the CD.....a bit like TBag folding. The heart papers were from an Ooh La La Shawn Jenkins CD. I then placed one heart in the centre ....to cover the joins. I couldn't find a suitable card to put it on so I created this card shape. Looking at it now it looks a bit weird....a bit Miss Piggyish lol.... I think anyway.
I then began to 'bling' it up using a bead spray that I cut from a roll of ribbon and beads from Lidls. I added butterfly gems around the top and on the bottom of the card......I've these for eons in my stash. The little bow in the centre matched the beads perfectly....how lucky was that!! With the Hunkey Dorey paper I made the two flower toppers using a flower punch and a petal punch.
I had fun creating this but not sure if I like it or not. This happens sometimes doesn't it. You make a card and then look at in the 'cold light of day' and think NO I don't think this is up to standard.

Anyway I'm sure you can do much better. I know my teamies have come up some brilliant creations and have been recycling like crazy!! So it's over to you. Don't forget you can recycle anything but make sure you use papers from a CD somewhere in your creation.

Off you pop to CD Sunday to be inspired!! Have fun and Happy Recycling.!!

Challenges:
cutecardthursday.........#327 Circles
shoppingourstash......Favourite Colour (Pink....yes defo a Pink Lady)
craftycalendarchallenge......Petal and Pearls (used a petal punch to make flowes & purple pearls)

ATC's with the Dragonflies

Goodmorning fellow crafters. There's another great creative challenge waiting for you with the Dragonflies. Don't think you liked last week's Zentangling so hopefully more of you will be inspired to create three ATC's. The theme is Anything Goes but no cards only ATC's.

"An artist trading card (or ATC for short) is a tiny, original piece of art created with the intention of swapping or trading it with another artist, not selling it. The one rule an artist trading card must adhere to is the size. An ATC must be 2.5x3.5 inches or 64x89mm."

We have two fabulous sponsors this week and they are:

                                               
                                                           Prize: $7 to spend in the shop
                            
                                                                                  

                                                            
                                                               Prize: 3 digis of winners choice

I chose to play with a set of Christmas related images from Pickled Pot Pourri to make my matching ATCs.

I covered each base card with some gold figured tissue paper and netting. I coloured the digis digitally and  used my sharpy pens to add squiggles. This was to give an impression of texture. I then added liquid pearls, peel off waste, embellishments, sentiments and ribbon bows all from my stash. As you can see I have used my fave  Xmassy colours in these ATC's .....gold and silver...always think it makes anything look Xmassie!!

                                                                                      

 

 

                                                                               

 

As you can see you can play around a lot when creating these mini works of Art. So if you want to play and have fun why not give ATCs a go I know you'll enjoy making them like I did.

Off you pop to Crafting with Dragonflies and drool over the ATCs my teamies have created ......I promise you won't be disappointed!!

 

Challenges:

sparklesforumchristmaschallenge..... Favourite colour combo ( always gold and Silver for Xmas)

craftyhazelnutschristmas......Anything Goes as long as it's Christams

Celebrate with Pinspirational

Another lovely day here on the sunshine island. I hope the weather is being kind to you all wherever in the world you may be.
Today at Pinspirational Deanne has inspired us with an evening firework display or could it be a meteor shower and a bonfire. This made me dream of balmy Summer evenings and BBQ fun. What about you ?How does this piccie inspire you?

 

We have been sponsored this week by not one but three very generous digi stores.

 

Prize: 6 digis

 

Prize: 3 digis (4 if you used a Stamping Boutique digi)

  

Prize: 4 digis

 

I chose to play with a BBQ image from 'The Stamping Boutique' and the strap line 'Celebrate!' is from Paper Pretties.

 

 

I used Pergamano colouring pencils and sharpie pens to colour. I left a lot of the background uncoloured as I wanted the BBQ to dominate the scene. The 'Celebrate!' sentiment is digitally coloured using a Microsoft graphics programme. The main card is some jolly, striped card that I bought in an A3 sheet from my local bookshop and I cut it down to size. I know it may sound strange but not a lot of actual craft shops here. Only one!! So we have to source our goodies wherever we can and we find them in some strange places. We found out this week that quilling stuff can be found at 'Public' which, as some of you may know, sells ipads/phones etc. Strange but true!! This is why we love this crazy country.....every day something makes us smile and going out for a drive is always an adventure!!

 

This card could be a Fathers Day card or with July 4th coming along shortly for our American friends I think this weeks inspiration would also be a July 4th card. What do you think? As you can see I used a bit of red white and blue on my card but it's a Celebration of Fathers Day too.

 

So hop over to (pin)spirational challenges and see what the rest of my teamies have created. There's some fab inspiration.....I kid you not. Check out Marinas hippie tent!! Fab!!

 

Don't forget to have fun and leave some love on the way!!

 

Challenges: freshbreweddesigns......Red, White and Blue

                                 hobbybookdesignerchallenge.......For Dad/Male card

themaleroom........Fathers Day

 milkcoffee.......Summer Fun

lisasomerville.......Summertime

brownsugar..........Dots and / or Stripes

creativecorner.......Summertime

open-mindedcraftingfun......Patriotic Colours #13

pumpkinspice......Masculine (voting from June 28th)

 memascrafts.......-only-men-allowed.

www.craftindesertdivas.......red, white and blue

aurorawings..........color-bingo.(Red, White and Blue)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Midway at Unstampabelles

Challenge Mixed Media Unstampabelles #36

At Unstampabelles we are midway through the challenge for June. This month the challenge is to use Mixed Media  in your project, and the Twist is to Alter Something.  You can choose to take the challenge plus the twist or just take the challenge!

My inspiration for the Mixed Media challenge came from an idea I had for a piece of Mail Art.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Mail Art it has been described as 'Travelling Love' which I think is very apt.

"Mail-art is a luxury for creative people who have time and money to spend. I have always seen it as a communication-form between creative people. These people can also produce art, send the art, but this art isn't the mail-art. The process is the mail-art. The artifacts can be art, but in most case mail-art tends to be junk-art, quickly made mailings that go around the world” Ruud

If you would like more information about the History of Mail Art a Google search will help you.

This is my mail art which I created to depict my moving from my old home and family to my new life on the Summer Lovin' island of Cyprus full of sunshine..

I using mixed media to alter an envelope.

 

The back

 

This is the back showing images of my 'old' life. The background is blue acrylic paint applied with a medium hard brush to create a variety of interesting marks.  I've added postage art pics depicting home and family. The 'faces'  and tears of rain from my family were hand drawn. With a sharpie pen, 'Goodbye' words in several languages are written around the border. The Memory seal is from K&Co.

 

The front

 

 

 

Using the same paint and hard bristled brush I was able to create an outline of a 'Palm Tree'. The sun is a handcut circle painted using orange acrylic. The  typical Cypriot doorway was taken from a magazine. Again a sharpie was used to create the hand written 'Hello' greetings around the edge. There is no address written on it at present as it's still here with me waiting to be sent to a Mail Art pal.

                                                                                                  Inside

 

The lining is painted yellow with blue wavy lines in dark blue pen to represent the sand and sea and I have created a map of my new island home of Cyprus to place inside. The arrow points roughly to where I live. The art stamp says 'My New Home'. 

 I've tried to explain my creative process, plus my thoughts along the way. Hope it is clear. If there is a question you wish to ask about it please feel free to leave it in the comments box and I will endeavour to answer it.This creation has also fitted well with a great challenge Summer Lovin' at Anything but a Card x.

So just one idea to use Mixed Media and altering something, without using stamps.....it can be done! So off you pop to Unstampabelles and see what some of my teamies have created to inspire you.

Challenge: rheddscreativespirit.......june-challenge. Altered Art
alteredeclectics.........Alter something(envelope)
Crafting my life.....all crafts challenge June/July
anythingbutacard.......Summer Lovin' #36
 

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Dies

Good Sunday morning to you all. I hope all is well wherever and whatever you may be up to in your part of the world.

June here hasn't begun too well weather-wise but it has  improved now so we shouldn't complain. We have lost a lot of fruit so far this month due to some very windy nights...... so not a happy bunny about that.

This fortnights challenge at CD Sunday........yes don't forget it's fortnightly now so gives you more time to trawl through those long forgotten CD's. If you're anything like me I get side tracked when I'm looking for something and then the time has just flown by and nothing has been chosen for the next challenge lol!!

See I got side tracked again. What I was about to tell you is that our theme is 'Dies' and has been chosen by our lovely Jenny. Now I've not got too many dies but a friend in the UK did send me a lovely Spell Binder Flourish die recently which I have been longing to use.

I thought I'd also have a go at making a pop up box card which seems to be popular at the moment. It's looks tricky to make but isn't. Very easy peasy!! There are lots of tutorials on You Tube. So search and you will find.....or should that be 'seek and you will find'. Here's one link but there are plenty others youtube.com

The base card for the box was made with some pretty blue card stock that I've had for eons. I covered it with designer papers from the CD by Ooh La La's Shawn Jenkins collection. The blue tone matched perfectly.

For the pop ups and floral embellishments on the lid I printed off some pink floral background paper......not sure who the designer is. If anyone recognises it let me know and I will give credit,....it's so pretty. I then fussy cut the flowers and leaves individually thus now having readymade toppers.

The little blue butterflies....again the colour is perfect....what a lucky girl I was finding all this matching stuff in my stash. Anyway they were a silky ribbon strip and I just snipped them off and voila more individual toppers!

I used white card stock to cut the flourish die and added it to the back of the box together with three of the tiny butterflies.

So that's my contribution for this latest challenge at CD Sunday. I really had fun making this box and I'm going to show my crafters tomorrow at my craft group just how easy it is to make. I'll take piccies and put them on here later...... if I remember to take my camera that is !!

Now it's your turn. Off you pop to CD Sunday and take a peek at the designs the rest of the team have created.  Don't forget you must use an image or some DP from a CD to qualify for a prize and don't forget to follow the challenge theme which this fortnight is DIES.  Easy Peasy!!!

Just want to add that I love reading all you supportive comments, thank you, and don't forget to click if you wish to be a follower!! Have a fun week and hope you visit again soon x.

Challenges: 2sisters.......#177 Make your own embellishments (flowers, butterflies)
                    toptiptuesday.........Shaped Card
                    colorthrowdown.........CTD296

dreamweavers.........Something Old(butterfliesribbon)Something New (Flourish Die) Something Borrowed(C.A.S.E. from YouTube link) Something Blue ( card)
craftitude.....Use Flowers
.lisasomerville creations.......Flowers
fussyandfancy........Anything with Wings

Zentangled!!!

Wow we've been Zentangled over at Crafting with Dragonflies this fortnight. Hilde does like to stretch our creativity, which I love!! So no complaints from me. I must say I haven't Zentangled before or as I would called it 'doodling'. Now we've all doodled I'm sure when we've been chatting on the phone maybe and had a pen in our hands. Am I correct? Now it's got a fancy arty name, Zentangle!! Who thinks of these new words?

                                                        We have two sponsors this time.

Prize: 8 digis

 

 

Prize: 3 digis

 

I have chosen an image from Bugaboo, Hi Flower.

 

 

I used black card stock for the base and printed the image onto white card. Then I began playing with my black sharpie pen. I found lots of inspiration for Zentangle patterns on the web. So just do a Google search and you'll come up with many designs or you could make your own doodles. Just play around and have fun.

As you can see I doodled the flower and the leaves and the grass and the word 'Hi'. I also did some Zentangling on a square of paper and then cut strips from this and placed them down the sides of the main image to frame it.

 

I am going to make more, as a set of notelets, using the same image. I don't know about you but I use a number of notelet cards throughout the year. This will be useful when I'm sending a gift or just a note to tell someone I'm thinking of them.

 

I must say I enjoyed this task. I found it very relaxing to doodle. I'm sure you will too once you get started. So off you go and see what the rest of the team of Dragonflies have Zentangled. You won't be disappointed, there are some great ideas to get your mojo going.

 

Don't forget this is a card challenge with some Zentangling and it has to be black and white. Please can I also plead that one of the rules is to be a follower. We often get entries that are not and therefore can't be considered for a prize or a top three spot. Such a shame when just a simple click of the button will put you in with a chance to win.

 

Have fun and Happy Zentangling!!

 

Challenges:

abc-challenge.......Monochromatic

allsortschallenge.......One Layer

mytimetocraftchallenge.......No Design Papers

jeanette-soartfulchallenges.......Black and White

 

 

 

Enjoy the view with (pin)

Good Morning fellows bloggers. Well I hope the weather is better with you than has been here the last few days. This is crazy weather for June. I think the world has gone haywire with the change in weather patterns. I think it's going to settle this week but hey I don't do storms especially in June.

Over at (pin0spirational we have a lovely photograph to inspire us. A father and daughter enjoying a quiet moment together. How adorable is this.

It would be a great inspiration for a Fathers Day card. I went with the tree and grass tho as I won't be making a Fathers Day card. My Dad, bless him, passed away a number of years ago and I still think about him every day. He was my rock!!

                                                     We have three sponsors this week.

 

Prize: 3digis

Prize: 3digis

 

                                                                      Prize: $10 voucher
        
                 I went with an image by Sweet N Sassy and created a scene using some tree images.

Recipe:

• White card stock
• Green and blue card from my stash
• Embossing folders for grass and clouds. (Free gift in a card magazine)
• Paper pieced the trees with a leafy paper scrap I had in my stash. (How lucky was this!)
• Tree trunks....paper pieced with brown textured wood grain card from my stash
• Trees and text digis are from Sweet N Sassy

So this is only one idea. There are lots more designs on (pin)spirational from the rest of the team. So grab a cuppa and pop over. I look forward to seeing  your interpretation of the photo.

 Have fun!!

       

Challenges: addicted-to-stamps-.........#84 Outdoors (use a stamp or digi)

cleanandsimpleonsunday........paper piecing

 glitternsparklechallengeblog........use a digi

 onestitchatatimechallenge........use a digi #216

 theeastwind.......Embossing (wet or dry)

totallygorjuss.......Embossing

Mixed Media

Good morning peeps. Well I'm truly honoured to say that Unstampabelles challenges  have invited me to join their design team. This monthly challenge blog is digi and stamping free which suits me fine as I really have a bit of a phobia about both.

This month Susan has challenges us to used Mixed Media with a twist to alter something.

                                                            The sponsor this month is 

 

and the prize is....

 

.....a Marianne Die.

Wow !!! How generous is that.

 

This is a photo frame I have decorated and then swapped with an online crafting friend, Margaret. I painted it with creamy white paint and added blue gems, using my new gem setter from Lidls. I added cream silk flowers to the corners. As you can see I have also added gems to the stand at the back. So not too fussy but still pretty.

 

 

I hope you'll find time to pop over and visit Unstampabelles and see the amazing mixed media designs the rest of the DT has created. Why not join in and have fun trying out a new technique. Don't for get visit our generous sponsor Bizzy Becs.

 Happy Crafting!!

 

Challenges:

 alteredeclectics.........Alter something

rheddscreativespirit.........Altered Art

movingalongwiththetimes........No Image

mytimetocraftchallenge.......No Design Paper

milkcoffeechallenge.......Anything but a card

Craft my life....All crafts June/July

At the Seaside with Caz

Good morning everyone. Well I hope the weather is as good in your part of the world as it is here. I had a lovely time with my son when he came to visit from the UK last week. But sadly time flies and he's returned  home. I am missing him already.

Over at CD Sunday Caz has set our minds thinking about the Seaside with her choice of the  challenge this week. I have lots of CD's with seaside images on so it was hard to choose. Finally I went for an image from Tom Mielko CD and Project.  The majority of images on there are of the Seaside so lots of inspiration and good value if you're looking for another CD to add to your collection.

We've a few changes over at CD Sunday. We are now setting challenges for you every two weeks instead of every week. So this gives you a little bit more time to go through your CD's and create something. I know once I start looking I get carried away and the time flies. So now it won't be so frantic to come up with the most suitable image. I hope you'll agree that this is a much better arrangement. Oh and we're back to being one team too. So you'll find more inspiration from all the DTs to get your mojo going.

Now on to my card for the this week's challenge.

The background paper and the decoupaged image are from the Tom Mielko CD. The sentiment,
 ' "Seas" the moment ' is from a free CD which I got with Creative Cardmaking craft magazine and it's from the Nitwits digi collection. The seashell toppers are by Kathleen Francour 'Paper Adventures'.

I hope you have a CD in your collection suitable for this challenge. If you need more inspiration please pop over to CD Sunday and see what the rest of the teamies have created.

Hope you all have a productive crafty week.

Challenges:
pumpkinspice.......#74 Summer
creativeknockouts.......#39 Summers Coming
craftycreationschallenges.......#264 It's all about 'S' (shells, sea, sand, sails, Summer)
rheddandrosies......No Flowers or anything Floral
bastel-traum.......Summer