April at Love To Craft

A new month already and the start of a new challenge at Love To Craft. I can't believe that we are a quarter of the way through the year already!

Today I have chosen to share a Just Because card, good to have in stock for those odd occasions when you want to make contact without a specific reason.



Materials used: 
Mari Ko Creations - Just Because
12.5cm square card blank
Memento ink pad -  Lady Bug
X-Press It card
black glass seed beads
Copic pens:
flowers: R29, R39, R59, R89
leaves: G21, G24, YG63, G94, G99

The image has been printed once as a complete image and twice more cropped to just the bottom flowers. All images are coloured and fussy cut. The two cropped images are used to decoupage with. The whole fussy cut image is attached to the front of the card blank that has been coloured around the edges with Lady Bug ink using a foam applicator for the darker shades and a stencil brush for the lighter colour. Finally the seed beads are used to create the centre of the flowers.

You have a whole month to create in and we are an anything goes challenge, any theme any craft. For more inspiration take a look at the Love To Craft Challenge Blog.

Thanks for dropping in. Take care.

Pippa

Entering the following challenges:
4 Crafty Chicks #396 - Anything Goes
Creates and Makes #20 - Anything Goes
Crafting With Friends #64 - Anything Goes
Simply Papercraft #56 - Anything Goes
Jo's Scrap Shack FFC#227 - Anything Goes
Crafty Girls Creations #46 - Anything Goes
A Bit More Time To Craft #65 - Anything Goes
A Bit More Time To Craft Extra - April Anything Goes
Hiding In My Craft Room #346 - Freestyle
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #79 - Anything Goes
Inspiration Destination #147 - Anything Goes
Creative Inspirations - March Anything Goes

Musical Greetings

My youngest brother has taken up the clarinet and for being mostly self taught he is really good. I never know what to put on his birthday cards because until now his only interest has been computers and there are only so many computer themed images and stamps around! So this time I willingly went with a musical theme.

I apologise for the shadows in the photo it was tricky trying to avoid them!

Materials used:clarinet clip art from internet
brown card and paper in various shades
gold mirri card
X-Press It card
musical swirl clear stamp from stash
detail gold embossing powder
music embossing folder
embossing ink pad
happy birthday die
Vintage Photo Distress Ink pad
Copic pens

The card base is made from an A4 piece of mid brown card.  The dark brown layer is made from a textured dark brown card. The embossed layer is coloured with Vintage Photo distress ink. The top layer is stamped and heat embossed with detail gold embossing powder then the edges are also embossed with the same powder. The greeting is die cut from gold mirri card.

The clarinet image is printed on X-Press It card and coloured with Copic pens.

I had a bit of fun 'playing' while making this card. It's been a while since I used a 'real' stamp and got the heat gun out. I think I need to do some more soon!

Thanks for popping in. Take care.

Pippa

Entering the following challenges:
Inspiration Destination #145 - Anything Goes
A Bit More Time To Craft Extra - March Anything Goes
A Bit More Time To Carft #63 - Anything Goes
Artistic Inspiration #194 - Anything Goes
4 Crafty Chicks #392 - Anything Goes/Just Add A Sentiment
My Time To Craft #365 - Monochromatic
Simply Papercraft #55 - Anything Goes

February Challenge at Love To Craft

It's time for Challenge 19 at Love To Craft, the challenge that covers everything! Come play with us! We are an all-crafts challenge blog and welcome any and all kinds of handmade creations - from cards, tags, ATCs and scrapbook layouts - to 3-D projects, mixed media and altered projects - and even knitting, crocheting, quilting and jewelry-making! Whatever you're working on, we want to see it! :)

This month I have some knitting to share with you. My daughter's father-in-law is a keen jigsaw puzzler but he already has plenty of jigsaws to keep him going so this Christmas I made him a cushion with a jigsaw cover.

 Materials used:Love To Knit - Jigsaw Cushion Pattern by Kim Dickinson
DK wool in various colours

This was a fun project to make, if a bit fiddly. I used yarn bobbins, a different one for each colour, which made the colour changes easier. Finding buttons was not so easy. I liked the idea of haveing buttons to match the colours in the cushion but could not find a complete set of the same type and size. In the end I opted for 'rainbow' ones which worked really well.

I hope you will find time this month to share all your crafty projects with us, whatever they may be. Remember we are an anything goes, any project and any craft.

Thanks for dropping in. Take care.

Pippa

Entering the following challenges:
A Bit More Time To Craft Extra - February Anything Goes
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #74 - Anything Goes

The Challenge For Every Crafter

It's the start of a new month, a new year and a new challenge at Love to Craft. As always it is an anything goes in the widest sense of the term. So whatever your craft is this challenge is for you.

Because I am primarily a card maker, this time I want to share with you the Christmas card I made for my husband. I usually go for a more traditional religious image but saw this one and knew I had to use it. When we moved into our retirement home one of the first things we did was to replace the condemned gas fire with a log burning stove. We share the log fetching duties but not equally, Tim gets the lions share of the work!



Materials used:Mo's Digital Pencil - Carrying the Wood
Docrafts - Christmas Greeting (not sure if it is still available)
X-Press It card
green glitter card
A5 card blank
Cosmic Shimmer Glitter Jewels - Diamond Sprinkles
Copic pens
black archival ink pad

The image is printed on X-Press It card and coloured with Copics. The snow is made using Collall Tacky Glue quite thickly then sprinkled with Dimond Sprinkles. The glue kept it's dimension adding to the snow effect.

The image is trimmed to size, matted onto green sparkly card and attached to the card front. The greeting is stamped on in black.

The challenge at Love to Craft runs for the month so you have plenty of time to join in the fun. Remember we are an all-crafts challenge blog and welcome any and all kinds of handmade creations - from cards, tags, ATCs and scrapbook layouts - to 3-D projects, mixed media canvases and altered projects - and even knitting, crocheting, quilting and jewelry-making! Whatever you're working on, we want to see it!

Thanks for dropping in. Take care.

Pippa

Entering the following challenges:Your Scrapbook Place - Anything Goes January
That's Crafty - Anything Goes 
Crafty Gals Corner #155 - Anything Goes
Di's Digi Challenge - Celebrations
Hiding In My Craft Room #333 - Freestyle
A Perfect Time To Craft Open Challenge #01 - Anything Goes January
A Bit More Time To Craft #59 - Anything Goes
A Bit More Time To Craft Extra - January Anything Goes
Inspiration Destination #140 - Anything Goes
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #72 - Anything Goes
A Gem Of A Challenge #209 - Anything Christmas Goes
613 Avenue Create #204 - Anything Goes/ optional twist Christmas/Winter
4 Crafty Chicks #383 - Glitter

Getting Ready for the Winter

It's that time of year again, the temperature drops along with the leaves of the trees and the Christmas lights start appearing in the streets and the shops. So naturally thoughts turn to getting prepared for the winter. The chimney was swept on Monday, the log basket filled and some twigs ready for kindling.

You may remember that month's ago I shared with you the log basket I had crocheted. Well it is now lined and finished off along with a matching little version for the kindling. The actual crocheting was completed months ago but the lining has only just been accomplished, sewing is not my forte!

Anyway I did say I would show you all the finished items and it just so happens that it coincides with the start of this month's challenge at Love to Craft.



Materials used: 
chunky wool
iron on heavy fabric stiffener
lining fabric
crochet hooks
pattern (came from a series I collected some years ago)
paper and pencil to work out all the adaptations (the log basket is larger than the original and the kindling basket is smaller!)

I was surprised at how many logs I was able to fit into the basket, should be plenty to keep the fire going all evening without having to visit the log store in the cold!

The new challenge at Love To Craft is, as always, Anything Goes and means anything so whatever your particular craft is this is the challenge for you.

HOW TO PLAY

Our challenges are monthly - they go live at 6:00 AM EST on the first day of every month and run until 6:00 PM on the last day of the month - and are always Anything Goes!

Winners and Top Picks are chosen by our Design Team and announced on the 5th of the month following the close of each challenge. We do not solicit sponsorship so there are no prizes. We play for *FUN* and for 'Winner' and 'Top Pick' badges. There may occasionally be a goody bag of craft supplies thrown in by the blog owner or some blog candy scattered for a lucky winner!

You may enter up to five (different) projects in our challenges and you may combine our challenges with as many others as you wish.

Link just your project - not your entire blog - to our challenge via the Linky Tool at the end of the challenge post. List our challenge in your blog post and link back to us.

We allow back-linking of projects that are no more than six months old. Absolutely no digitally-created projects - we want to see tangible handmade creations.

It would be lovely to see your creativity in our challenge so please do share with us.

Thank you for visiting. Take care.

Pippa

Entering the following challenges:

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #68 - Anything Goes
Inspiration Destination #137 - Anything Goes
Artistic Inspirations #189 - Anything Goes

Nature's Autumn Bounty

It's the first of the month and time for the start of a new challenge at Love to Craft. Come play with us! We are an all-crafts challenge blog and welcome any and all kinds of handmade creations - from cards, tags, ATCs and scrapbook layouts - to 3-D projects, mixed media canvases and altered projects - and even knitting, crocheting, quilting and jewelry-making! Whatever you're working on, we want to see it! Just to prove the point that anything does go I have come up with something very different this time.

I recently saw on the internet a jar full of fairy wings made from coloured sycamore 'keys'. It got me thinking, why stop at wings why not go the whole way. So with Christmas in mind I thought I would experiment and try making an angel ornament from whateve I could find in the nearby wood.


Materials used:  
hazelnut in it's skirt
acorn in it's cap
sycamore 'keys'
glue gun
linen thread

A walk in the wood collecting 'bits' is always great fun and good for you too! I managed to find quite a lot of nuts and seeds the trick was how to arrange them to  make an angel. It did take a few trial runs before this combination came about.

I used a hazelnut for the body, I thought that the 'skirt' looked good, and a small acorn still in it's cap for the head. The wings are two sycamore keys, at least I think they are, that were still green. They made a good colour contrast with all the brown.

The little angel is all glued together using a hot glue gun.

If I ever get time I hope to make up a few more and hang them on a tree out in the garden for Christmas.

Maybe my post will inspire you to give it a go or even to come up with your own ideas from nature's free resources. We  would love to see you enter the challenge, you have a month to get those creations in. All the details are on the Love To Craft Challenge Blog.

Thanks for visiting. Take care.

Pippa

Love To Craft Challenge For September

A new month and a new challenge at Love To Craft. As always our theme is Anything Goes and any craft goes. So if you are not so much a paper crafter, more a knitter, sewer, cross stitcher or into crochet this is the challenge for you. As it says on our blog: We are an all-crafts challenge blog and welcome any and all kinds of handmade creations - from cards, tags, ATCs and scrapbook layouts - to 3-D projects, mixed media canvases and altered projects - and even knitting, crocheting, quilting and jewelry-making! Whatever you're working on, we want to see it!

This time around I decided to show you some ATC's I've made. If you are a regular visitor to my blog you may well recognise some of the images. When printing out an image for a card I try to use up as much space as I can so often print out smaller versions to practice on. If the practice is not too dire I turn them into ATC's. I belong to a swap group - the UK Stampers Network where members swap ATC's  with each other. I have put in the link if you are interested in finding out more and possibly joining in the fun. We do not only swap ATC's there are other lists you can join in with. All the details are on the web site.





Materials used: 
Sweet Escape Digis – Make Up ( a free image from Facebook Competition but there are lots of wonderful images in the shop)
Aurora Wings – Pansy Sprite
Art by Barb – Whoosh and Apple
Bugaboo Digi Stamps –  Ice Cream Dog
Bugaboo Digi Stamps –  Kidz – Ice Cream
Imagine That Digistamp – Ice Cream Sentiments
Imagine That Digistamp – Ice Cream Parlour Digi Papers
Sparkle N Sprinkle – Mushroom in the Forest
Scrapper’s Delights – Lady Constance
DDDoodles – A Matter of Time Patterned Papers
Bugaboo Digi Stamps – Rose TrioDragons Lair Designs - Artistic Impressions paper set (they are having a closing down sale at the moment. Well worth a visit.)
acrylic text stamp from magazine
black archival ink pad
various coloured card
X-Press It card
Copic pens
gems
small letter dies
gold paper

These are just a selection of some of my personal favourites. It is quite challenging colouring very small images but also very therapeutic.

I hope you will join us this month at the Love to Craft Challenge. You have the whole month to come up with something and remember it can be any sort of crafting you like as long as it is hand made.

Thanks for visiting. Take care.

Pippa

Entering the following challenges:
PIP Challenge #1735 - Anything Goes
Ike's World #96 - Anything Goes
Lemon Shortbread #49 - Anything Goes
Addicted to Stamps and More #257 - Make Your Mark
Crafty Creations #349 - Anything Goes
Crafty Gals Corner #138 - Anything Goes
Crafting By Designs September - Anything Goes
Creative Moments #125 - Anything Goes

Love to Craft? This One Is For You!

Time for my midway post for the Love To Craft Challenge. Most of my projects are cards because that is my main craft. However I must just point out that the Love to Craft Challenge is always Anything Goes and covers any craft from cards to knitting, crochet to jewellery making, in fact anything goes. (It does what it says on the tin!) So whatever your particular craftiness is please share your projects with us at Love to Craft.

Today I would like to share with you the birthday card I made for our school administrator who is Womble mad.


Materials used:  
page from a Wombles book
black card
red card
white A5 card blank
Polychromo pencils

Colour the page in with Polychromos, trim to size and mat onto black card.

Use a computer to type out and print the greeting at a size that will fit the space in the middle of the picture. Attach to the topper.

Attach a piece of red card to the front of the card blank and finally add the topper.

I used a page from a book because I could not find any Womble stamps. If anyone knows of any out there please let me know! I have a few friends who are keen on the Wombles. In September my old class will be using the Wombles as a theme because the whole school is covering the topic 'Going Green' looking at environmental issues in general. I think maybe I should have waited one more term before retiring as I am fond of the Wombles too!

Thank you for dropping in. Take care.

Pippa

Entering the following challenges:
A Bit More Time To Craft Extra Challenge August - Anything Goes
A Bit More Time To Craft #50 - Anything Goes 
Crafts Galore Encore August - Anything Goes
Not Just Cards #47 - Anything Goes
PIP Challenge #1733 - Anything Goes

Love to Craft Midway Reminder

It's like Clapham Junction  today with the meeting of three challenges!


We are already half way through the current challenge at Love To Craft and as always the theme is Anything Goes. My project is the engagement card I made for a colleague at school for all the staff to sign. Debbie and her fiancé Paul are both keen cyclists so I could not resist this image from Polka Doodles.



Materials used: 
Polka Doodles - Tandem Ride - Winnie (also available as a precoloured image)
X-Press It! card
red card
silver mirri card
black card
white printer card
Copic pens
metal heart accents
A5 card blank

Print the image on X-Press It! card at the required size and colour with Copics. Trim to size and mat and layer onto silver and black card.

Print the sentiment on white printer card leaving a gap for the prepared topper and the accents. (I could have done with making the middle space a little bigger really.)

Trim the printed white card slightly around the edges. Cover the front of the card blank with red card then attached the trimmed white card.

Attached the topper to the middle of the card and the metal hearts at the bottom.

I am happy to say that Debbie and Paul liked their card, big sigh of relief!

The Love To Craft challenge runs until the end of the month so there is still time for you to get an entry in, so come along and join the fun. We are an all-crafts, just for fun challenge blog and welcome any and all kinds of handmade creations - from cards, tags, ATCs and scrapbook layouts - to 3-D projects, mixed media canvases and altered projects - and even knitting, crocheting, quilting and jewelry-making! Whatever you're working on, we want to see it!

Our challenges are monthly - they go live at 6:00 AM EST on the first day of every month and run until 6:00 PM on the last day of the month - and are always Anything Goes!

Winners and Top Picks are chosen by our Design Team and announced on the 5th of the month following the close of each challenge. We do not solicit sponsorship so there are no prizes. We play for *FUN* and for 'Winner' and 'Top Pick' badges. There may occasionally be a goody bag of craft supplies thrown in by the blog owner or some blog candy scattered for a lucky winner!

You may enter up to five (different) projects in our challenges and you may combine our challenges with as many others as you wish.

Link just your project - not your entire blog - to our challenge via the Linky Tool at the end of the challenge post. List our challenge in your blog post and link back to us.

We allow back-linking of projects that are no more than six months old. Absolutely no digitally-created projects - we want to see tangible handmade creations.

Thanks for swinging by. Take care.

Pippa

I would like to enter the following challenges:
PiP Challenge #1728 - Anything Goes
Artistic Inspirations #183 - Anything Goes/optional twist Summer Colours
Crafting From The Heart #167 - Anything Goes
A Bit More Time To Craft #48 - Anything Goes
Crafts Galore Encore July - Anything Goes
Crafty Girls Creations #38 - Anything Goes
Not Just Cards #46 - Anything Goes
Your Scrapbook Place June - Summer Fun
Ike's World #92 - Anything Goes/optional twist Relax
Crafty Sentiments Designs - Sun, Sea, Beach or Sand
Lemon Shortbread #45 - Anything Goes
Creative Inspirations #279 - Anything Goes
Crafting By Designs - Summertime
Inspiration Destination #132 - Anything Goes
Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge #337 - Anything Goes

Love To Craft Challenge Midway Inspiration

We are now half way through the Love To Craft June Challenge. As always the theme is Anything Goes.



Materials used:Sweet Escape Digis - Make Up ( a free image from Facebook Competition but there are lots of wonderful images in the shop)X-Press It card
pale blue and mid blue textured card
white adhesive gems
white A5 card blank
Copic pens

The image is printed on X-Press It card and coloured with Copics. It is trimmed and edged with one of the pens used to colour the dress.

The card blank is edged with a blue Copic and the same pen used to to colour the gems. Two strips of blue card are added as show.

Finally the topper and gems are added to the card front.

Not quite sure what happened to her eyes in the photo, it may be a strange shadow as it does not look like that in the original.

There are still a couple of weeks left to join in the fun at the Love to Craft Challenge so why not come on in. All details can be found on the blog.

Thanks for dropping in. Take care.

Pippa

Love To Craft Midway Reminder

Can you believe we are half way through May already! Time certainly does seem to be speeding up these days. I cannot believe that my eldest daughter is 30 (how did that happen!) and my youngest brother is 50. My sample for Love to Craft is the card I made for him. His wife has been on a cooking course and has been making the most amazing sweet dishes which is good for  my brother as he has a sweet tooth. I thought a donut card would be just the thing, little did I know that as a result  of all the wonderful home baking he has been on a diet. Oh well at least these donuts are fat free!



Materials used:Bugaboo Digistamps - Clown 5 and Clown 0 (I cannot find these in the store so they may have been retired)
green and yellow card
X-Press It card
A5 white card blank
Copic pens

The clowns are positioned on the page and printed out on X-Press It card. The image is coloured with Copics then trimmed to size before being matted and layered onto yellow and green card.

Finally the topper is attached to the card blank.

The greeting inside said:







Why  not come and join in at Love to Craft Challenge for May. The theme is always Anything Goes and you can enter up to 5 times. It would be lovely to see you there.

Thanks for stopping by. Take care.

Pippa

I would like to enter the following challenges:
Crafty Friends #57 - Cute
Crafty Creations #341 - Anything Goes
Inspiration Destination #127 - Anything Goes/Optional Twist - Masculine
Addicted to Stamps #241 - Anything Goes
Penny's Challenge #328 - Anything Goes
Not Just Cards #44 - One for The Boys/Anything Goes

Love to Craft Midway Inspiration

We are at the halfway point of this month's Love to Craft Challenge and time for some inspiration. This time I have made an ATC to share with you.


Materials used:A lot of bits from my snippets box!

This little ATC card is made up entirely of bits and pieces from my snippets box. The horses head is from some colouring practice a while back which I did not know what to do with at the time.

The  ATC blank is cut from a piece of black card left over from a previous project as is the stable door. The door outline and hinges are drawn by hand with a black pen (now you see why I don't draw!)

I acutally surprised myself when this all came together, a rare moment of inspiration!

Please do come and join in the fun at Love to Craft. We are an all-crafts challenge blog and welcome any and all kinds of handmade creations - from cards, tags, ATCs and scrapbook layouts - to 3-D projects, mixed media canvases and altered projects - and even knitting, crocheting, quilting and jewelry-making! Whatever you're working on, we want to see it!

Thanks for visiting. Take care.

Pippa

Love To Craft Challenge Midway Post

The Love to Craft Challenge has reached the midway point which means it is time for a reminder and some inspiration. All the details on where to find us and how to enter will be at the bottom of this post.



Materials used:Lilies Digi Stamp from Kit and Clowder Elements of Nature Class - (I am trying to find out the source so I can update this information for you)
acrylic greeting stamp
X-Press It card
pink, pale green and dark green card
square white card blank
pink ribbon

The lilies are printed onto X-Press It card, coloured in with Copics, trimmed then matted and layered on the colour before being attached to the card front.

I attached the image slightly off-centre and then balanced it out by adding the pink bow along the fold edge.

The greeting is stamped at the bottom of the card with black ink.

The eagle-eyed among you may notice that this card is slightly different from the picture on the challenge blog, that is because having made up my first attempt I discovered I did not have a big enough envelope to put it in! I had to trim down the card in order for it to fit which is why the image ended up not quite centred and the ribbon was added. I actually think this version is an improvement which just shows that mistakes can improve things sometimes!

  (The original card)

Here, as promised, are the details for the Love To Craft Challenge:

HOW TO PLAY

Our challenges are monthly - they go live at 6:00 AM EST on the first day of every month and run until 6:00 PM on the last day of the month - and are always Anything Goes!

Winners and Top Picks are chosen by our Design Team and announced on the 5th of the month following the close of each challenge. We do not solicit sponsorship so there are no prizes. We play for *FUN* and for 'Winner' and 'Top Pick' badges. There may occasionally be a goody bag of craft supplies thrown in by the blog owner or some blog candy scattered for a lucky winner!

You may enter up to five (different) projects in our challenges and you may combine our challenges with as many others as you wish.

Link just your project - not your entire blog - to our challenge via the InLinkz tool at the end of the challenge post. List our challenge in your blog post and link back to us.

We allow back-linking of projects that are no more than six months old. Absolutely no digitally-created projects - we want to see tangible handmade creations.

I do hope you will pop over to the Love to Craft Challenge Blog and see the wonderful samples my team mates have come up with this time. Hopefully we will have inspired you to have a go yourself.

Thanks for dropping in. Take care.

Pippa

Love to Craft Midway Reminder

We are half way through this month's Love To Craft Challenge, have you had a go yet? Remember it is always 'Anything Goes' so no need to think around a theme. My sample this time is a birthday card I made for my daughter's step-daughter who loves giraffes.



Materials used:Scrappers Delights - Needs A Hug Giraffe Digi Stamp
acrylic greeting stamp
black archival ink pad
X-Press It card
yellow and brown card
white A5 card blank
Copic pens

The giraffe is printed out on X-Press It card and coloured with Copics then trimmed, matted and layered on the coloured card and attached to the card blank.

The greeting is stamped in black at the bottom of the card.

CAS is my favourite style, fairly obvious from the past few cards. I think having taken all the effort to hand colour an image it seems a pity not to show it off by not making it too frilly. Having said that I do admire the ability to be able to embellish away and yet still keep the focus on the image, a skill I need to work on!

I hope you will be inspired to head on over to Love To Craft and take a look at the wonderful samples from my team mates and have a go yourself.

Thanks for dropping in. Take care.

Pippa

Love to Craft Midway Reminder

It does seem a little strange posting my sample in the middle of the month having just got used to posting for the start of the month but at least I remembered to do it!



Materials used:Art By Mi Ran: With Love Lucy
X-Press It card
Copic pens
blue, orange and black card
white A5 card blank
greeting peel off sticker

The image is printed on X-Press It card and coloured in with Copic pens before trimming and matting and layering on matching coloured card.

The greeting sticker is attached to the balloon.

I like to keep my cards using Mi Ran's images fairly clean and simple to allow the image to take centre stage.

Can you believe it, we are already half way through January, it only seemed like yesterday that it was Christmas! I find it hard to believe that it is now almost four months since we moved house. Nearly all the boxes have been sorted and homes found for everything. My craftroom is in need of some more tidying and sorting but I think it is going to have to wait until half term now.

Don't forget to have a look at the Love to Craft challenge, you still have a couple of weeks left to enter and it is always anything goes. So whatever your craft is from card making to cross stitch, painting to paper folding, woodwork to welding, this is the challenge for you to show off your talents.

Thanks for dropping in. Take care.

Pippa

A Work in Progress

Happy Advent to you all. I'll let you into a secret, I love Advent, the anticipation, the preparation, the secrets wrapped in colourful paper. But I am saddened that Advent is no longer allowed to be that preparation time. Already shops and houses are decorated, lights and trees up everywhere and then on the 26th of December most of them disappear like morning mist in the rays of the sun. Our tree remains firmly in the roof ready to make a grand entrance between 16th and 20th of December, depending on when the end of term is, and remains in glorious splendour until the 6th of January, sometimes beyond, this time dependant on when term starts. In my humble opinion the commercialisation of Christmas has robbed it of its magic as well as any meaningful religious remembrance.

I also love winter, at least the crisp, frosty and, even better, snowy ones. I don't like warm wet winters, somehow they leave me feeling cheated! This year we are having a bit of a frost end to November and it has been very chilly, at least by Somerset standards. One of the first things we had done in our new house was a little log burner put in the lounge. We only have a small house and our log basket is too big now so I decided to crochet one! I tried to pick out the colours in the brickwork along with some contrasting ones.

This is a work in progress as I had to order the lining material and interfacing. I will try to remember to post an update when it is completely finished though I warn you that may not be for a while yet!



This is my DT sample for December's Love to Craft Challenge.

I do hope you will come and join us, we welcome all kinds of handmade projects – from cards, tags, ATCs and scrapbook layouts to 3-D projects, mixed media canvases and altered projects – and even knitting, crocheting and jewelry! We want to see whatever you’re working on!

You may enter up to five different projects and combine our challenges with as many other challenges as you’d like! Winners and Top Picks are chosen by our design team and announced on the 10th of the month following the close of the challenge!

We can’t wait to see what you create! Hope to see you there.

Thanks for visiting. Take care.

Pippa

Jumping back in

Well that took a lot longer than I thought it would! Quick catch up, the wedding, August 27th, was a wonderful occassion, the sun shone, the bride glowed and the groom looked like the cat that got the cream! The house move, September 23rd went smoothly and it did not rain! However sorting out, unpacking and downsizing has taken a lot longer than I had anticipated. There are still a few boxes left to sort out but we are getting there.

Meanwhile a new month is starting and I am back in action on the DT's. Today's offering is for the start of the Love To Craft November Challenge. I thought I would share the card I made for my daughter and her now husband for their wedding.



Materials used:Art by Mi Ran -  Wedding Digital Colouring Page
X-Press It card
blue card
silver mirri card
metal heart embellishments
silver peel-off letters
white ribbon roses
copic pens

My daughter's colour for the wedding was blue so I have put some blue in the grooms clothing and the bride's flowers on her swing.

Mi Ran's image does have a very pensive bride, almost sad looking so I have attempted to put in the hint of a thoughtful smile!

Why not come and join us over at the Love To Craft Challenge Blog. Our challenges are monthly - they go live at 6:00 AM EST on the first day of every month and run until 6:00 PM EST on the last day of the month - and are always Anything Goes!

Although you'll probably see mostly paper crafts, we welcome any and all kinds of handmade projects - from cards, tags, ATCs and scrapbook layouts - to 3-D projects, mixed media canvases and altered projects - and even knitting, crocheting and jewelry! Whatever you're working on, we want to see it! :)

Winners & Top Picks are chosen by our Design Team and announced on the 10th of the month following the close of each challenge. We do not solicit sponsorship so there are no prizes. We play for *FUN* ... for WINNER and TOP PICK badges. There may occasionally be a goody bag of craft supplies thrown in by the blog owner or some blog candy scattered for a lucky winner! ;)

You may enter our challenges up to five times (as long as each project is different) and you may combine our challenges with as many other challenges as you'd like.

Link just your project - not your entire blog - to our challenge via the InLinkz tool at the end of the challenge post. List our challenge in your blog post and link back to us.

We allow back-linking of projects that are no more than six months old.

Absolutely no digitally-created projects - we want to see tangible handmade creations.

Hope to see you there.

Thanks for dropping in. Take care.

Pippa

I would like to enter my card into the following challenge:
Art By Mi Ran Facebook - October Anything Goes

Love To Craft Challenge #1

Today sees the launch of a new craft challenge, Love to Craft. For my first project I have chosen to showcase the gift basket I made to contain an end of school year present for the teacher I work with. It was just large enough to hold a special mug.

                    

Materials used:
Dragons Lair Designs: Earth Tones Mini Kit
printer card
2 vintage buttons
scrap of ribbon
circle die

The box base is made up of printed off sheets of paper from the kit. The handle uses two elements and the circle decorations use a collection of elements put together to form one image using Craft Artist 2 and cut out with a circle die.

For the tag I used the tag and a flower from the kit putting them together in Craft Artist before printing out.

I added two vintage buttons, one at the end of each end of the handle and used ribbon to die on the tag.

I do hope you will come and join us in this new venture. We welcome all kinds of handmade projects - from cards, tags, ATCs and scrapbook layouts to 3-D projects, mixed media canvases and altered projects - and even knitting, crocheting and jewelry! We want to see whatever you're working on!

You may enter up to five different projects and combine our challenges with as many other challenges as you'd like! Winners and Top Picks are chosen by our design team and announced on the 10th of the month following the close of the challenge!

As an added incentive, should you need it, there will be a giveaway when we reach our first milestone of 100 followers.

We can't wait to see what you create! Hope to see you there.

Thanks for dropping in. Take care.

Pippa