The Crafting Cafe: Challenge

Showing posts with label Challenge. Show all posts

Monday, 31 March 2014

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

Monday, 9 December 2013

Introducing Erin

Hi everyone, Erin here.

I am so excited to be here I can't tell you, so, here's a little bit about me...

I'm Erin, I am engaged to Mike.We live in Portsmouth
with our two cats Jasper and Bailey.

I love Paper Crafting and where possible I like to craft everyday if I can.

I also love anything Fantasy and this often comes out in my work.

I have recently found Zentangle very therapeutic.

My crafting has helped me a lot through bouts of ill health and having to give up work last year.

I have also gained so much inspiration from some wonderful talented

people through blogging and taking part in challenges.

I'm so happy to be part of this wonderful Design Team.

I'm also really looking forward to sharing my work with you.

This month Nikki did some fabulous sketches for us to choose from,
I chose sketch #2 to work with.

Here's what I did.

I have created this project by doing the following, I printed the sketch first and made a template. I cut around the template onto the card. I have added some flowers from my stash and also some white cotton. The image is Holly Fairy from Delicious Doodles and coloured with Pro Markers. I added a die cut butterfly and added a flower to the centre with some white cotton, lastly I added a computer generated Magical and a black flourish die cut.

We would love to see all your creations using Nikki's sketches for this challenge, don't forget to leave your link to your post so we can pop by and leave a comment for you..

Hugs Erin x

Saturday, 31 August 2013

A baby is born - August challenge

A huge thank you to everyone who took part in our challenge last month. We have all loved seeing the wonderful creations that you have made.

This month the have an exciting new challenge and theme for you to work with....
This month your theme is

A baby is born...

Well, when I set the themes for the year at the very beginning of the year, I could never have imagined how well timed this months would be!
We have a new Royal baby to welcome and at my work there have been 3 babies this month connected to my team! Not to mention all the other lovely babies that I keep hearing about.

This month we are lucky enough to be sponsored by the wonderful

The amazing prize for this months challenge will be 7 digis from Bugaboo! Wow - what a prize!

My card to help get the inspiration going this month is.....

Keep popping on over to the blog to see all the wonderful creations that the DT have been making.

Please make sure you pop on over to the right hand side bar to read our rules before you enter - we love to see your creations but we have to stick to the rules to make it fair for everyone. xxx

Happy crafting
Nikki x

Saturday, 3 August 2013

August Challenge - A Baby Is Born - By Lindsay

Hiya lovelies, Lindsay here, today I have my A Baby Is Born themed card made using a digi from our sponsor Bugaboo.

Before I post my card, I have some sad news and some happy news, this will be my last post as team leader and full dt member for Crafting Cafe (for a while at least) as I will be starting an art & design course at college in September and although it was a difficult decision to make I didn't feel I would be able to keep up with all the duties involved with being a team leader. I would like to say a massive thanks to Nikky and Dawn for giving me the opportunity to help them get this lovely challenge started and also for all of the support and friendship they have offered me, they are both amazing ladies and I count myself lucky to have been able to work with them.

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

Wednesday, 31 July 2013

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

Friday, 21 June 2013

Black and white

I just fell in love with the images for this month.
And thanks to Dawn (massive thanks again Dawn!) I was able to play with them... my computer wouldn't talk to my printer so Dawn was kind enough to print me off some images to create with.

This is the card I made to share with you this month...

It's been great seeing all the wonderful cards you have been creating this month too.
Thank you for joining in with the challenge.

Happy crafting
Nikki x

Friday, 31 May 2013

May Challenge goes live

Thank you all so much for stopping by our blog and
for taking part in last months challenge.

We love seeing all the creativeness that you have been up to -
you really are a talented bunch, so a massive thank you
for all your inspiration to us x

This month we are so lucky to have the wonderful
Bugaboo Stamps

sponsoring us..... pop on over to their site to see
the wonderful images that they have on offer
(and there are some fantastic freebies for you to use too!)...

The challenge theme for this month is

Lady Luck.........

So what does that mean?
Well we want to see your creativeness in however you see the theme
and with whatever product you would like to use!
Lady luck!

Please have a look over the rules (you will see them over on the side bar)
to make sure that your project fits in with the challenge rules.

Here are a couple of cards from me to get the inspiration going,
remember the uber talented Design Team will be popping by here
every couple of days with some more projects to offer even more inspiration
(I've seen some of the projects coming your way - they are amazing!!!!).

Now over to you.....

We can't wait to see what you create this month for the challenge.

Happy crafting
Nikki x

Tuesday, 30 April 2013

April and a fab new challenge

Well what can I say - we have all been blown away by the fantastic entries to last months challenge.

You really are a very very talented lot - we had so much fun looking at all the inspiration and wonderful designs that you all created - well done to all of you!

Onto this months challenge - and this month our theme is ' Let's Celebrate'..... we would like to see your projects on the theme, remember you can enter any form of crafting to the challenge but please only enter once (the rules are over on the side bar)...... we love to see you thinking outside the box too!

This month we are sponsored by the very talented Crafty Sentiments Designs.

The Design Team have been lucky enough to have been working with digis from Crafty Sentiments Designs, so do pop back over the month to see what they have created to inspire you. This post will remain at the top of the page so that it is easy for you to find, Design Team inspiration posts will be under this post, just scroll down to see them.

The prize this month will be either 3 digis or 1 stamp...... the winner will get to decide....

So what are you waiting for....... get creating your 'Let's Celebrate' projects....... and make sure you come and link to your blog post here so that we can pop on over and visit you.

Here is my card to start of the inspiration

I loved working with this image - she is sooooo cute.
I'm celebrating Spring and birthdays with my card.... what will you be celebrating?

Happy crafting
Nikki x

Friday, 26 April 2013

April challenge - Let's Celebrate

Hello everyone! It's Ria here today.

This month's challenge theme, Let's Celebrate can come in any form, birthdays, anniversaries, graduation or a celebration of life itself.

In my card today, I used a digi image from the Crafty Sentiments Designs, isn't she adorable :)
I love her sweet, innocent smile, just like my sweet little girl KC.

I consider this card as a celebration of life, just fit fit the sentiment I also used here "You're my sunshine'. I colored her with Promarkers and added some buttons for additional texture.

There's still time to play along in this month's challenge so go ahead and create something to celebrate.

Have a great day!

Sunday, 31 March 2013

March - a new challenge.

Before I go any further, I wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone who stopped by our challenge blog last month and an even bigger thank you to those of you who entered in the challenge and played along with the design team.

It has been wonderful to look through all of your wonderful creations and see all the crafty things that you have been up to.... wow - you really are a very talented bunch.

Make sure you pop back later on to see who won last months challenge....

Our challenge this month is sponsored by the uber talented Teri over at Delicious Doodles,

The winner will get to chose 4 of her wonderful digis as their prize.

This month the theme is............. your favourite colour....

We would love to see you play along with us this month too.....

Have a quick read through the rules (see the side bar)...... and make sure you leave us a link so that we can pop on over and leave you some crafty love.

Please remember to keep popping back to see all the inspirational projects from the design team. They will be posting all throughout the month to help inspire you - let's get creative.

Friday, 29 March 2013

Birthday card for Dad

Hi there everyone! Ria here today.

This month's challenge, use Your Favorite Colour in your creations. So since March is the birthday month for my dearest Dad, I used my favorite blue colour for Dad's birthday card.

I used the digi image Vintage Chevy from Delicious Doodles. I find it just perfect for a man's card isn't it? I colored the Chevy with Promarkers then used random papers on the background. Behind the image, I also used two strips of vellum with some diagonal scored lines for some added texture. I just love the subtle touch of texture without being too much.

I then added my bithday sentiment and the word 'dad' from my sticker stash.

So there you go. There's still time to play along the challenge so I hope to see your creations too.

Thursday, 28 February 2013

Our first challenge

Welcome to the Crafting Cafe blog!

This post will stay at the top of the blog for the whole month, please scroll down to see the latest posts.

Ours will be a monthly challenge blog and we would love it if you could come along and play along!

Every month we are looking for the top 3 and a winning project.

This is our launch month and our theme for this month is

Anything Goes....

We would love to see what you create - anything at all. All you need to do is get creating!

This month we are sponsored by the uber talented.......

LEJ Designs

All the Design Team are working with her wonderful digis and the winner of the challenge will get to chose 4 digis from the LEJ design portfolio - how wonderful is that!

You will see all the inspiring creations from the Design Team over the whole month so please do keep popping back to see what they have created.

Please add you link to your blog here so that we can pop over and leave you some Crafting Cafe love x

Tuesday, 26 February 2013

A Happy Hello

A happy hello to everyone. Ria here today.

I am very excited to be part of The Crafting Cafe's design team and now sharing my first take on the challenge is just as exciting.

I always love arts and crafts especially cardmaking and sewing. It's only less than a year that I started documenting my creations on my blog Heart for Handmade and each and every project post just makes me happy. There's always something about these creative works that I find relaxing.

With this month's Anything Goes challenge, we are given the opportunity to select an image from LEJ Designs and I have chosen this one called Daisies. This is from their Floral and Nature digi stamps.

I colored the images with Promarkers and cut the two Daisies in the right to pop using foam squares. It's nice to put dimensions into cards for added texture. I also used a yellow strip washi tape to run on the left to complement my main daisy image. I had fun coloring these flowers and I hope you try them too. There's a selection of other interesting digi stamps at the LEJ website so check them out too.

Now off to my project

Sunday, 10 February 2013

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!

Monday, 4 February 2013

A Big Hello From Me

Hi lovelies, I am Lindsay and it's my turn to post some inspiration for you today it's really quite exciting to be doing my first post on our new challenge blog, big thanks to our lovely Nikki for having me on the team.

Since it's Anything Goes this month and my digi store is sponsor I thought I would use one of my newest digi's on this card which can be found here .

Full details on my card can be found on my blog here and I would love for you to stop by.

I hope that you will all have fun joining in with our challenge and keep hopping back to see all of the DT's fabby inspiration that will be getting posted through out the month.

Thanks for reading this post

Lindsay xx

Challenge Rules

We are always happy to see the wonderful creations that you come up with, but there are a couple of rules to follow...

1. Please follow the theme of the challenge (this will change every month.
2. Please only enter one card to the challenge.

3. No Back-linking please.
4. Remember to leave us a link to your post with the entry in it.
5. Please mention and link to the challenge in your post.
6. Come back after the challenge and see if you have won!
7. Most of all! Have fun!

Thank you for taking part in our challenge.

Winners & Top 3 will be announced on the 9th of the following month.

Pages