Craft-Room , Favourites

Would you believe that this is our last challenge of 2013?   As a team we are taking a little break over Christmas and so after this one our next challenge will be 7th January 2014.

Debi, enjoying a Summer Christmas in New Zealand, is our host for this challenge and the very generous Crafty Individuals are our sponsors.

And what you ask is the challenge for this time?   FAVOURITES!   Taking her queue from her favourite season Debi asks us to share our favourites with her and explain why it is a favourite.

Like so many of you at this time of year I'm a little short on time and thought I might have to miss this one until Debi explained that any favourite would work including for us the DT our favourite team sample for this year.    Well that helped and I was quickly able to narrow it down to about 26!    Seriously I reviewed that year one evening and what a trip down memory lane that was and what talent on display both from the team and from our followers.   So I slept on it, one tag A frame card kept coming back to mind more than any other project, this one.

The mica powders on the craft card have such wonderful natural tones, the feather is one I picked up on a walk and kept because of it's beauty.    The little Kaiser Craft tree embellishment left naked the string and little metal bee charm all very natural and calm.   This is such a peaceful, restful tag and enjoyable for just that reason.

Which brings me to the point, what is your favourite technique, image, style or maybe old project?  We would love to see it and learn more about it so please bring it on we are all ready and waiting to visit for the last time this year.

Playing Cards

A few people have asked for more information, which is encouraging so I'll try to explain more.

The idea is not a new one, sets such as the one I'm proposing are made every so often when a group of artists get together.   The results are unique and very special, but this art form/charity fund raising is not that well known.    There is a market for playing cards, playing cards are collected and the 'industry' is supported by the Grand Order of Cardmakers one of the London Guilds see at the Lord Mayor's Parade every year.    When and if we are able to start on the project I will apply to the guild for advise about printing and marketing.

Any and all artist medium and materials can be used the only thing to consider is how the end result will look.   We will be designing playing cards, these are printed flat and on one layer.   So laying and texture will be reduced to one layer in the process.   That is not to say the original cannot be layered or dimensional just that it will not be reproduced that way.

Animals represented?   I'm researching endangered animals and would like to find 4 far flung creatures to represent.    Ideas so far are Amur Leopard, Sumatran Orangutan, African Wild Dog, Eurasian Lynx but there are so many other animals on the edge or close to it that no final decision has been made yet.

The cards do not need to fully depict the animal or an accurate drawing of it.   It is the sense of the creature which needs to come across, of course to avoid confusion for card players there needs to be enough of the animal represented to make the suite identifiable but not in any particular style.   So cartoons, line drawings, distinctive features, habitat with maybe just a glimpse of something identifiable will work.

I'd like the charity to be a small one where the funds raised will help make a difference.   However as my artist friends are from all around the world it might be that only a larger international charity will be fair.    That is something still very much under consideration.

Hoping you will join in, let me know in a comment or on face book.

Lets make playing cards

I am looking for 51/52 artists to help create a pack of playing cards.   The intention is to make a limited edition set for sale in support of a wildlife charity.    This is not a new idea, every so often packs like this are created generally for fund raising purposes.

So what is involved?  Each of the 4 suites will be represented by an endangered spices, each artist is given a specific card to design with the only requirement is that the designated animal is incorporated into the design.

The art work does not have to be playing card sized, in fact larger art pieces are better.    All the designs  are compiled to make a full deck, of course the backs of the cards are all the same.     It is not unusual for the original art works to be sold as well but that is up to the artist.

We as paper crafters could create something different vibrant fun and special if we want to. 

There are collectors of playing cards just as there are collectors of other things, so we know there is a market.    By donating the sales proceeds to charity we will be helping other people/beings at the same time.

I have been looking on the internet this evening to try to find a link that might help you envision my idea.   This is the nearest I have found, and the general idea is the same all the playing faces of the cards have a common theme.

If you are interested you can leave a comment with contact details here or if you know me on Face Book you'll find my post there about this idea and can confirm your interest there.   I really hope we can do this we could all find it a fun project.

Craft-Room, Vintage Christmas

Good morning, or if you are reading this in the wee hours before going to bed sleep well.   Another fortnight has flown by and it is Tuesday time for another challenge at the Craft-Room Challenge just for you.   Mervi is your host for this challenge, and her theme for us all is a Vintage Christmas, if you have not visited Mervi's blog please do it will be a real treat for you especially if you like vintage style and/or creations that are just a little bit different.   Our sponsor this time is a small American Stamp Company and personal favourite of mine, Rogue Redhead Designs.

Christmas cards are something I don't make many of these days just one or two for very special people. That means that a lot of love goes into each one I make and a vintage theme for Christmas is right up my street.    Santa (the green man made red by that big brand of fizzy pop) is an essential image here I've stamped him onto a paisley shaped die cut, coloured him and edged the die cut with Gold ep.   To give hime the lift a main image needs his glasses frame and some of the strands of his beard gilded with gold flakes.  This has been stuck onto a circlur die cut shape whose edges have been touched with Red and Gold inks.

Plain cream card stamped with the ornaments down the opening side.  The card then cut out along the outside line of the design to give it a 'fancy' edge.   Some treasured DP added to the card and a gold snowflake peel off laid down the crease edge of the card.    Holly stamped and coloured top and bottom, larger bauble image stamped in Red and Gold then fussy cut out.    The bow is seam binding tied into a bow and sprayed with glimmer mist.   The main image is attached with an eyelet and has movement.   A little metal moon and stars medal attached the bow another metal charm, this time a snowman, sits in the v of the holly stamp at the bottom of the card.   Just in case all this gold did not add enough bling some sticky back gems adorn the baubles.

While we hope you will share your Vintage Christmas treasures with us I am sharing my card with a few other challenges.

Love to Create - 3 of your favourite embellishments, Ribbon, Gems and Little metal charms

Take a Word - Vintage

C is for Challenge - Ornament

Fashionable Stamping - Shabby Chic Christmas

Crafty Calendar Challenge - All things Christmas

Creative Corner - Heavy Metal

Crafts too Challenge you - Vintage Christmas, Polychromatic (3 or more colours)

The Crafters Cafe - Heavy Metal

Leanne's card

A colleague went on materity leave today,  her second child is expected in 4 weeks.  This is the card I made for all of us to give her.   Made from 12" square card folded in half using, it is Kraft Card printed with Ledger journal lines Leanne is an accountant.

With just one kinda cute baby stamp luck was with me, Leanne already has a little boy and has been told that the new arrival to be is a little girl.   White card cut in a double die which was used again to provide a pink frame.   The stamped image has been coloured with Promarkers.

The dp came from a pad I brought in a sale a very long time ago.  It seemed perfect for this special card and the M S deep edge punch dresses it up nicely.

So now I can share it with the world, here are some challenges who might like it.

Ruby's Rainbow - Pink and Blue
Crafty Creations - Dies and Punches
Addicted to Stamps - Dies and Punches

Craft-Room Challenge, Afternoon Tea

Afternoon Tea!

Our Suzanne has come up with a brilliant challenge for us all this time, you can take inspiration from the picture, which is titled 'Afternoon Tea' or take your queue from that title.

We are sponsored by "The Stamp Man" and the Winner will get £10 to spend at their online shop.

As always we had a great time visiting you all and seeing your fantastic stencilled and masked projects, thank you for sharing your art with us.   I wonder what you will all make of this challenge.

I love the richness of the cups in the picture and the theme of Afternoon Tea, which translates to me as High Tea.    So I decided to make a 'shape' card of my own design, and drew a cup onto folded card.

After cutting the card out it was stamped with a Stampendous and WOW find gold detail ep.    Then with DI 'Barn Door' and the ink dusters the are was coloured great care taken to avoid the stamped image.    This was coloured with Whisper Pens.   The pearls on the arch of the crown and around the rim were left white and to my mind look like 3d additions and not part of the stamped image.    The flourishes were also stamped and embossed.

A small paper doily was cut in half and the edge given a little gold EP gilding.   The centre of the doily was snipped the flap stuck inside the card so that the cup sits on a doily.

I'd also like to share this with;
Bloggers Challenge - Doilies
My time to Craft - One Layer or less

Remembrance Sunday - The story of the Poppy

Today in churches up and down this island, and other parts of the world, special services of remembrance will take place.   The congregations will then lay wreaths of paper poppies at the memorials.

Of all the religious and/or historical events we celebrate this is one that has it's roots in modern times.   Its origins are the Great War aka WWII or the 1914/18 war.   A war that changed warfare, the leaders military and political thought of war in terms of marches to battlefields and then face to face hand to hand fighting ending in orderly retreats with clear winners and losers.   Not so this war Tanks entered the battlefields, Airplanes flew gathering information and engaged in aerial battle.    The old canon and somewhat inaccurate long range guns were replaced by more accurate and faster machines that bombarded the enemy.     Worse of all chemical warfare made it's debut Mustard Gas or Nerve Gas a dreadful completely alien to comprehension of the powers that be at that time.

In the thick of all this men, young and old, lived in appealing unthinkable conditions.   They dug (or later used those dug by the enemy) trenches, six foot deep open top passages cut in to the ground.   Open to all the elements rain, snow unshaded sun these places had no conveniecnces such as running water or power for a cooker or heater.    These trenches were vacated only when the men were on the march to the next set of trenches or going into face to face hand to hand battle with the men from the trenches opposite.   Battles made worse by bombardments of shells and the belief of the war lords that war and these 'set piece' battles were the same as they had been in the preceding century, the Bore war had started the change but nothing like this and its lessons were ignored.

Understandably some men simply could not take this and ran away.   Something else that has always happened in warfare men would abscond and go back to their family and fields.   Now we understand stress but not then it was seen as cowardice and deserters were executed by firing squad.

At the end of this carnage a generation of men were de-mobbed and that was that.   These men were all pretty much damaged some visibly with missing limbs or terrible shortness of breath a legacy of the gas.  Others were damaged in their mind or soul all were left to the mercy of society.

In 1919 there was a flu outbreak (Spanish flu) it killed more than had died in the war or so we have been told.   As this island began to recover that was little resource or facility to sympathise with the former soldiers or capacity to give the help.   Most had some occupation to fall back on but life was hard.   Others the maimed could only beg.

For them a societys' were formed to raise money to help them and to give them occupation.   I worked for one that continues today providing homes and care for the impaired of today Enham.   Another group now the Royal British Legion gave some of these occupation basket weaving and making other useful things.  They also made paper poppies to raise funds, I remember being told that it was one poppy for every man who fell.   Today it is thousands more.

Why poppies, they are survivors the first plants to bloom on those scared battle fields were poppies.  If you see the poppy fields in the summer (a wonderful sight in the English country side) all those little red flowers waving in the breeze.   You can see why they are such a powerful symbol.

Today we remember not just the solders of that war but of the wars that followed and continue today.   Warfare has developed and become more dreadful but perhaps it was never a bloody and raw as the 1914/18 war to end all war.

Many of us paper crafters are remembering today and this is for them.

Delicious Doodles - Remembrance Sunday
SweetPea Stampers - Let us Remember/Thinking of you
Creative Inspirations - Poppies and or Red flowers
Stamp n Doodle - Remembrance
The Male Room - Remembrance

Thank you to all of them for giving this special occasion it's voice in our paper craft world.