Crafts Galore Encore February 2025

There is a new challenge starting today at

Crafts Galore Encore Challenge Blog. 

Thank you to everyone who joined in with last month's challenge. The winners have been announced on the challenge blog. This is a month long challenge and you can enter up to three times. There is a full list of rules on the challenge blog.

Our theme every month is the popular

"Anything Goes"

and our sponsor this month is:

Polkadoodles

who are offering a prize of three digi images to our lucky winner.

I have made a birthday card with a lovely paper craft set from our sponsor. The set includes the papers and a choice of sentiments as well as gorgeous coloured peony images and black and white peony digis.

The card base is an A5 card and I covered it with gold mirri card. I printed three of the papers in the set, matted two of them, and added them all to the card.

 I used the Perfect Peony set. I chose one of the pretty images and printed it four times so I could cut out the different layers and decoupage the flower. I printed a birthday sentiment and mounted it on mirri card before placing it across the image.

I added one of the sentiments in the set onto one of the papers before printing it. I finished the card with a double ribbon bow and some pink gems.

Now please visit the  Crafts Galore Encore challenge blog where you can see the wonderful projects and cards created by our talented team using Polkadoodles images.

Grab some inspiration while you're there and enter your "Anything Goes" creations in this month's challenge.

I have entered this in the following challenges:

https://morgansartworld.blogspot.com/2025/02/morgans-artworld-challenge-85.html

https://aperfecttimetocraft.blogspot.com/2025/02/a-perfect-time-to-craft-open-challenge.html

Creative Artiste #112 February 2025

 Welcome to my first post for Creative Artiste in 2025! The team is back from its winter break and we have some exciting news to share! Visit the challenge blog to see.

I was lucky enough to attend a fantastic weekend crafting workshop in January. It was hosted by Art Workshops and had 3 fabulous mixed media tutors, Anna Dabrowska (aka Finnabair), Olga Heldwein and Nuneka Box. They can all be found on Facebook. We were taught 4 wonderful mixed media projects, tried lots of fabulous techniques and worked with some amazing mediums. I hope to be able to use them in the coming months.

Meanwhile ....

 ....Welcome to a new challenge at

Creative Artiste

Creative Artiste is a monthly challenge blog for everyone who likes to mix their media. So, as long as you like to use various mediums on your creations, we'd love to see you enter the challenge.

A big Thank You to everyone who entered the challenge last December. Your projects were all wonderful and our winners have been announced on the blog.

Our theme is always
"Anything Mixed Media Goes"
We have opportunities to be a Guest Designer for all our winners.

I made a 'Dragon Box' as a present for a very special 'Dragon' lady.

The box is made from MDF and is 6" (15cm) wide.

I removed the lock and gave the box a coat of white gesso. Then I used texture paste and stencil #70 from All & Create. Once that was dry I made a paint spray using a dark blue mica powder and mixing it with water. I sprayed the box inside and out. The last process was a light touch of gold wax from Pebeo to highlight the texture paste.

I bought the resin dragon*  already made and gave it a coat of black gesso. I then mixed a blue pigment powder and a turquoise pigment powder with liquid medium to create the two paint colours. I finished with a gold mica powder and liquid medium for the highlights on the spine and wings.

I fixed the dragon on the box with Heavy Body Gel and gave it some pearl beads and 'diamonds' to guard. They are stuck down with Soft Matt Gel.

I tucked some gems behind the dragon and replaced the lock to finish.

Now it's your turn to have fun and create your mixed media projects. You can enter our challenge as many times as you like. A full list of the rules is on the challenge blog. For more inspiration please visit the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog to see the fabulous mixed media projects created by our multi talented team.
Remember to have fun crafting and enter your "Anything Mixed Media Goes" creations in our 

February challenge. 

*If anyone knows who makes this dragon mould I'd love to know. Thanks xx

I have entered this project in the following challenges:

https://theoutlawzchallenges-saturday.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-outlawz-anything-goes-in-card-free_02003369360.html

https://hereisaplacetostart.blogspot.com/2025/02/challenge-020325-anything-goes.html

Crafts Galore Encore January 2025

 Happy New Year everyone!

I wish you all a healthy, happy and prosperous 2025

Now that all the winter festivities are over for another year it's time to get back to normal and that starts with a new challenge on the

Crafts Galore Encore Challenge Blog. 

Thank you to everyone who joined in with last month's challenge. The winners have been announced on the challenge blog. This is a month long challenge and you can enter up to three times. There is a full list of rules on the challenge blog.

Our theme every month is the popular

"Anything Goes"

and our sponsor this month is:

SheepSki Designs

who are offering a prize of 3 digi images from their new blog shop to our lucky winner.

I have made an 8"x 8" (20 x 20 cm) card to celebrate the New Year.

I used a lovely textured paper from the Mulberry Kisses 12" (30 cm) paper pad by First Edition. I matted it onto a green card from Papermania. I used a slim paper cutoff mounted onto green card as a design feature.

The cute gnome image I used is called It's a Spring Thing and comes in Jpeg and PNG format. I coloured it with my Copics, cut it out and mounted it on the green card.

I printed the sentiment on my computer and added some flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts. I tied a string bow to finish the card.

Now please visit the  Crafts Galore Encore challenge blog where you can see the wonderful projects and cards created by our talented team using SheepSki Designs images.

Grab some inspiration while you're there and enter your "Anything Goes" creations in this month's challenge.

I have entered this card in the following challenges:

Creative Artiste #111 December 2024

  ....Welcome to a new challenge at

Creative Artiste

Creative Artiste is a monthly challenge blog for everyone who likes to mix their media. So, as long as you like to use various mediums on your creations, we'd love to see you enter the challenge.

A big Thank You to everyone who entered the challenge last month. Your projects were all wonderful and our winners have been announced on the blog.

Our theme is always
"Anything Mixed Media Goes"
We have opportunities to be a Guest Designer for all our winners.

I've made a festive wreath to show you.

The base of the wreath is a 7.5" (19cm) wooden embroidery hoop. I made all the snowflakes using a Stamperia snowflake mould with Hearty Soft Paper clay.

I prepped all the pieces before assembling the wreath.

I first gave the hoop and the snowflakes a coat of white gesso. Once dry I diluted some DecoArt Prussian Blue Fluid Acrylic with plenty of water and painted the hoop and snowflakes. 

The next step was to cover the hoop with DecoArt Crackle Paste and let it dry.

I then wrapped a battery powered string of little lights around the hoop.

Finally, I painted the snowflakes with DecoArt Glamour Dust and sprinkled them with a fine white glitter while they were still wet so the glitter would stick. I added some silver Tim Holtz metallic droplets to the centres of the snowflakes.

I arranged the snowflakes around the hoop and glued them in place with Heavy Body Gel, overlapping them to cover the hoop and lights.

I arranged some plastic pine branches, some mini pine cones and a few little metal bells on one side of the hoop and fixed them with Heavy Body Gel. I tied a bow with wide white ribbon and added some more of the branches, bells and a cone to cover where the battery pack for the lights is attached.

I finished by tying a ribbon onto the hoop to be able to hang it up. 

The wreath looks so pretty when it's lit up from the back.

Now it's your turn to have fun and create your mixed media projects. You can enter our challenge as many times as you like. A full list of the rules is on the challenge blog. For more inspiration please visit the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog to see the fabulous mixed media projects created by our multi talented team.
Remember to have fun crafting and enter your "Anything Mixed Media Goes" creations in our 

December challenge. 

It remains for me to wish a fun festive season to you all, however you celebrate!

I have entered this project in the following challenges:

Crafts Galore Encore December 2024

 December at last! And Christmas is just around the corner. This has been another difficult year for our family as we have lost two wonderful, and treasured, family members. Although they were somewhat elderly, dementia took them sooner than they deserved. Christmas will be a time of reflection and enjoying fond memories as our shrinking family comes together to celebrate.

Plus, we have a lovely event to look forward to next spring!

But, my personal sadness doesn't mean that I can't enjoy some of the fun annual Christmas traditions, starting with making festive cards ....

.... Today sees the start of the December challenge at

Crafts Galore Encore Challenge Blog. 

Thank you to everyone who joined in with last month's challenge. The winner and DT favourites have been announced on the challenge blog. This is a month long challenge and you can enter up to three times. There is a full list of rules on the challenge blog.

Our theme every month is the popular

"Anything Goes"

and our sponsor this month is:

Gecko Galz

who are offering a generous $25 voucher for their online store for our lucky winner.

I used some of the Gecko Galz papers and collage images to create my first set of Christmas cards for this year.

The cards are all 6"x 6" (15 x 15cm). 

I used Christmas Haberdashery collage set for the focal point images on these cards. I isolated the individual images in a photo editing program and printed them on white card. I then cut out the images and matted them on green card from Limetree Craft. 

I used the lovely red papers from the Night Before Christmas ATC set and matted them on the green card and red card, also from Limetree Craft. I used papers from Merry Little Christmas ATC sheet to make the card top left.

I also used the green card for the die-cut sentiments and punched holly border.

I added festive bows, ribbon and cut doileys to complete my designs.

For these cards I used two gloriously vintage papers from Merry Little Christmas ATC Sheet with the  red patterned papers from Night Before Christmas ATC set. The papers have beautiful Victorian type baubles which I cut out and mounted on foam pads on the cards. I matted the papers on gold mirri card and finished the baubles with festive bows.

The gorgeous vintage sentiment is also from the Merry Little Christmas ATC sheet.

Although all the papers are from ATC sets, they do print out much larger with no loss of definition.

Now please visit the  Crafts Galore Encore challenge blog where you can see the wonderful projects and cards created by our talented team using Gecko Galz products.

Grab some inspiration while you're there and enter your "Anything Goes" creations in this month's challenge.

I have entered this set of cards in the following challenges: