February winners

Good afternoon and can I start by saying what a wonderful collection of entries to our Fur and Feathers theme, it really did grab your imagination and there were some great takes on the theme. So as you can imagine there were lots of entries on our shortlists, but as always we had to whittle them down to four and these are the lucky names:

Winner of the fabulous collection of essential adhesive products from Stix2 is...................

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Alison

Congratulations Alison, I think your lovely piece of artwork brought out the inner child in several of us. Please mail me with your full name and postal addy so I can get your prize off to you

And closely on the winners heels are our Top 3.....................

Dot

Jean

Henrietta

Our congratulations to you all, please grab the appropriate logo from our sidebar to wear on your own blogs.

I will be back on Sunday with our new challenge and a rather fabby prize as well.

Lynne's crafting story

This month it is my pleasure to introduce our DT Lynne who has made two more stunning creations following this months challenge theme of Fur and Feathers. Lynne is also giving us a little insight into her crafting passions and what get her into it in the first place.

Q.1. When did your love of stamping begin?

Over 20 years ago. Around 1992 I went to a craft sale where a woman was demonstrating stamping and heat embossing. It was just at the time when art stamping was being introduced over here from the USA. The demonstrator was simply stamping and embossing a picture on to a plain white card and colouring it with felt pens. I'd never seen anything like it before, and thought the embossing was magic! I bought my first stamp (which I still have and use) on the spot and was hooked from that moment! What a long way we have come, in terms of materials and techniques, since then.

Q.2.What do you enjoy most about it?

That even with a single stamp I need never produce the same design twice. I am limited only by my imagination. I'd soon get bored with my stamps otherwise. Oh, and the fact that I can produce an acceptable image without the ability to draw!

Q.3.What is your favourite make of stamp ?

I tend to look for stamps by theme, rather than by manufacturer, so I'm interested in any company which makes stamps suited to my favourite topics. However, a quick look at my collection reveals that topping the league are probably Chocolate Baroque, Crafty Individuals and Inkylicious. (Though not necessarily in that order. I haven't actually counted my stamps. I daren't!)

Q.4. What is your most used stamp/product and why?

Not counting tools, my most used product is probably my Versafine Onyx Black inkpad, closely followed by Distress Inks, both types because of their versatility. My most used stamp is the personalised "hand made by" one which I stamp on the back of all my cards. Apart from that, a classic "Happy Birthday" by (I think) Embossing Arts, which is one of the first stamps I ever bought and which I often still use on the inside of a card.

Q.5. What colours do you most enjoy working with ?

I prefer cool colours: blues, purples, or greens, but I also like autumn shades.

Q.6. What inspires your designs?

Anything nature-related. I have always loved the natural world, and now that I am lucky enough to live in beautiful countryside I am not short of inspiration. However, my mojo does go off on holiday now and then, and on those occasions a trip round Blogland will usually bring it back. The wealth of talent out there constantly amazes me.

Thanks so much for sharing that with us Lynne, I don't know about all of you, but I rather like being a fly on the wall of other peoples crafty space.

February challenge

Good morning and welcome and I hope you are all ready for our February challenge which has been chosen by Lynne and is..................................

********Fur and Feather******** 

It can be one of the other or even both together and I am thinking this gives you no end of scope from cute and cuddly teddy bears, sweet little critter to birds in flight, the options are endless.

We are so pleased to welcome Stix2 as our sponsor again this month who are offering our lucky winner another wonderful selection of crafting essentials, they are things that we all need in our everyday crafting and this little collection is going to keep you going for ages. Do spend a few minutes checking out their website here, I can tell you from personal experience their speed of delivery is fabulous.

The DT have worked their usual magic and created a wonderful selection of inspiration to set you on your way..............................................

Brenda
Fur................


.................and Feathers

Francesca

Lynne

Pinky

Ruth

Sally

Tracy

I really hope you will join us this month and myself and the DT look forward to looking at all your entries.

January winner

Here at last and rather belatedly with the winner and Top 3 from our January challenge, I'm really running on slow at this end so won't keep you waiting any longer other than to say thank you all for your wonderful Friendship creations. 

I am so please to announce our January winner of all those goodies from Stix2 is.....................

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Ruby

Congratulations Ruby, a lovely elegant card, please mail me with your full postal addy so I can get your prize in the post and don't forget to grab our winner logo.

And our Top 3 this month, it was really tough coming up with just three, but here they are.............

Cathy

Shaz

Viv

Well don all of you, please grab our Top 3 sidebar buttons.

I will be back Sunday with our new challenge.

Tracy's crafting passions

Good morning crafters, time for our mid month inspirational post and over the next few months will be doing something a little bit different and inviting our DT's to answer a few questions about their personal crafting..........a bit like being a fly on the wall in their craft room.

This month Tracy is in the spotlight and has created a fabulous piece of artwork....................

And here's what she has to tell us about herself and her crafting......................

Q) When did your love of stamping begin?

About three and a half years ago, when I found blogland and saw all the beautiful cards.  I had just started scrapbooking then, but loved all the cards, so thought I'd give it a go. Bought a couple of stamps and loved the fact I didn't need to be an artist to produce something decent by my own hand

Q) What do you enjoy most about it?

"I love the colouring and how the stamp comes to life as you colour it"

Q) What is your favourite make of stamp ?

"Oh anyone reading this will know my answer - House Mouse and Penny Black"

Q) What is your most used stamp/product and why?

"A set of Dovecraft Sentiments, I use them all the time, in fact I used them on this card.  It's a large set and covers a lot of celebrations and names"

Q) What colours to you most enjoy working with ?

"Pastel and vintage colours"

Q) What inspires your designs?

"I think animals and nature are my biggest inspiration. I always start with the image and imagine the colours, then match papers and embellies. And I suppose Blogland is a huge part of it too"

Thanks so much for sharing that with us Tracy.

Next and because I forgot earlier in the month, here at last are two winners of our 1000 followers candy.

Sheetal

and

Maria

(I couldn't find a link to any blog on your profile, so please do mail me with your details so I can add them)

Congratulations to you both, please mail me with your full postal addy's.

Our January 'Friendship' challenge is proving popular and if you're not already entered hope you will do so and don't forget you can enter up to 3 times and can combine with our challenges of your choice.

January challenge

A very good morning to all our crafty friends, I hope you had a lovely Christmas and New Year and are all raring to go with our new challenge and to kick start January we have a theme selected by Tracy which is.................

********Friendship********

As always you can create whatever you like, enter three times and combine with other challenges.

We have another fabulous sponsor this month Stix2 who are offering our lucky winner a bumper pack of crafting essentials, they are things that we all need in our everyday crafting and this little collection is going to keep you going for ages. Do spend a few minutes checking out their website here, I can tell you from personal experience their speed of delivery is fabulous.

Now you for some inspiration from the design team who as always have come up with a diverse collection of inspiration, first up is Jane who won our challenge last month and is joining us as a guest designer for January.........

Jane

Brenda

Francesca

Lynne

Pinky

Sally

Tracy

Good luck to you all from myself and the design team and we look forward to visiting all your entries.

Note added: Our 100 follower candy is still open (hands up because I actually forgot earlier) we have just reached our goal but will let it run for a few more days to give everyone a chance of winning. All you need to is leave a comment.

December winners

Good Morning to you all, I bet you thought I had forgotten all about this months winner and top 3, truth is I nearly did, I'm really not sure where my week has gone.

So I will get straight into it and firstly thank you all for your wonderful TreeMendous entries which judging from the lovely work we have seen you enjoyed it as much as the DT did. 

Our lucky winner of the fabulous collection of stamps from Visible Image is..........................

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Nancy

Huge congratulations Nancy, please mail me with your full postal addy so I can arrange to get your prize posted off to you and don't forget to pick up our winners logo from the sidebar.

And our Top 3 for December are.......................

Lisa Jane

Christine

Katie

Congratulations to all three of you, well deserved credit for your lovely work, please grab our Top 3 logo.

I will be back on Sunday with our new challenge and another fabulous prize.