Monday 6 July 2015

Final Challenge Winners

Hi everyone!
It's Dawn here with the final winners post for The Crafting Cafe! *Sad Face*
We had 16 amazing entries in our June, Black & White Challenge!
Thanks you all for playing along, it was an honour to visit your blogs to
check out all your fantastic creations!

As always, I asked Mr Random.Org to help with choosing the winner of our 
Sponsor Prize
The choice of 3 Images & 1 Sentiment from

He gave me #11!  Congratulations Lindsey!


Don't forget to email us: craftingcafe@hotmail.co.uk to claim your prize,

Here is your winners badge too!

Winner's badge

Now, on to our Top 3 picks as chosen by the DT
This was a very tough choice to make. I can tell you there was a lot of pushing,
shoving & jumping up & down but we finally manage to agree on
the entries below!


NC_Note


Thank you for your amazing entries ladies! Pleae find your Top 3 badge below!
Top 3 Badge

Thanks to everyone who has played along with us over the past two
 and a half years, it's been a blast!
Thanks to all the sponsors too, the DT had great fun playing with your images.

If you're not already a member of our Crafting Cafe facebook group,
please do pop on over & join us here!
The monthly challenges will continue over there, but will be just for fun!

Now, all that remains is for me to cover everything with dust sheets, make sure the
lights are out & lock all the doors & windows.
Who knows, we may return one day............

Tuesday 30 June 2015

June Challenge

Hi Everyone & welcome to the new challenge at 
The Crafting Cafe
Our theme for this month is

Black & White

We are sponsored this month by the wonderful


Who have kindly provided images for the DT to work with!
Here's a little bit about the company

We are a family owned art rubber stamp company that has been in business since June of 2009.  We are located in the United States in Northeastern, Ohio.  We are proud to say that all of our rubber stamps are made right here in the U.S.A.  We are dedicated to providing crafters around the world with some of the cutest rubber and digital stamp designs.    When Inky Impressions originally opened our doors in 2009, we only offered rubber stamps.  However, after a few years and many requests from our customers, we opted to offer some of our designs in digital format.  All digital stamp images are sent out at 300 DPI.  Opting for digital images allows you more freedom to play with image.  You can resize it, flip it and print it in any color you choose.     As for our rubber stamps, each and every stamp made is “extra deep etched” on quality red rubber for a crisp impression every time!  All Inky Impressions rubber stamps are sold with EZ mount cling and come to you on a laminated 4” by 6” color card.  This color card allows the customer to have a coloring reference when using the image.  Inky Impressions offers many girl and boy characters, however, our main characters are LiLi, Angelica, Nicholas and Christopher.  These characters are cartoon drawings of our children.   I would like to share with you the story of how Inky Impressions was born.  When I first started crafting, I would typically use die cuts and stickers, but eventually started using rubber stamps to create some of my page layouts. I have always loved the cute style!  And as you probably know, finding a cute little girl or little boy stamp back in 2002, consisted of a stick figure rubber stamp that was wood mounted.  It worked for the time being, but after many years, I felt the need to bring exactly what I had envisioned to life…..  This is when we decided to take that leap and go for it!  With much excitement, we had the website built and Inky was born.  I am very proud to say that Inky Impressions was the first rubber stamp company in the world to offer characters with realistic features.  Being a stay at home mommy and wife has allowed me the opportunity and the time to devote to Inky Impressions.  Without the support of my family and friends, my dream of Inky Impressions would not have been possible.  I can’t even begin to express how excited I am to share my dream with you.  We are devoted to you, our customers, so please feel free to share your artwork that is made with our stamps, or to just drop us a line to say hello!BIG HUGS!Nicole
This month will be our last month on the blog, but don't worry, you can still play along with us... We are continuing on our Facebook group.

Thank you so much to all our followers, sponsors and of course all of you for playing along with us.

A massive thank you also goes to all of my design team, past and present.... You have been amazing....
All my team leaders have been fantastic but a special thank you has to go to Dawn. She has been with me from the start and really has been my right hand woman xxx

Pop back over this month to see lots of inspiration posts from the DT.

Happy crafting

Nikki x


Monday 29 June 2015

A furry farewell


This is the last DT post I'll be doing for The Crafting Cafe, and I think I have the honour of being the last to post a DT image on The Crafting Cafe blog too! The image and sentiment are from our sponsors this month, Inky Impressions, and I've sized and printed the images onto my favourite coated card stock and coloured in with ProMarkers before cutting to shape and mounting on an 8x8" card, matting onto black card and embellishing with some Deco ribbon.

To all the friends I've got to know along the way, happy crafting, and enjoy The Crafting Cafe as it moves to its new Facebook home. I'm still going to be crafting away elsewhere, and if you wish to, you can follow me at my blog, or at my Facebook page.

TTFN

Neil

Tuesday 23 June 2015

Black and white

Morning all, Sammy here with some more black and white inspiration for you all.

I used the fab sentiment provided by our sponsor Inky Impressions and layered it onto a card with some lovely black and white paper, ribbon and pearls.



Over to you guys. There's still a week to enter!

Have a great day!

Sammy-x

Wednesday 17 June 2015

Black and White - Mags

Hi
Mags here to share some inspiration with you for our current Black and White Challenge.  I used an image from our sponsor Inky Impressions for my project.


The papers are from Papermania.  I added lots of pearls and paper roses for bling on this card.  

I hope you like it and are tempted to join in with the challenge.  You still have until the end of the month to enter.

Bye for now
Mags
xx

Sunday 14 June 2015

Black & White - Dawn

Hi everyone,
I'm here today with my DT inspiration card for this month's challenge 


Our lovely sponsor this time is

Inky Impressions
I've used one of my own images from the sponsor company,
The sentiment is from them too!
Pop on over to my blog for more details.
Don't forget to check out the rest of the DT inspiration!
Can't wait to see what you create for this one!

Friday 12 June 2015

Black and White, by Amanda

Hi everyone, here's my inspiration project for the June challenge - Black and White. The sponsor this time is Inky Impressions, and I've used their cute "Kitty with Bow" digital stamp. Details of the other things I used can be found on my blog, here.



Happy crafting!

Amanda

Tuesday 9 June 2015

Black and White Challenge


This months challenge here at the Crafting Cafe is Black and White. So this time I have decided to do my card just black and white, so I have added no other colour at all. The image I have used is from this months sponsor. It is such a cute kitty it must be a little girl.



I have just used lots of layers of black and white papers and the image has been decoupaged. Then just a bit of ribbon and some gems.


Pop back and see the ideas that my fellow DT members come up with to inspire you. This will be the last month you can join in the challenge here on the blog, starting next month the challenge will be moving to our facebook page. So please join in we would love to see your creations.



Wednesday 3 June 2015

May Winner & Top 3

Good morning all, Dawn here with the 
Winner & Top 3 for our last months challenge
Around The World
Not so many entries entries this time but those we had were all great!
We loved all the different intertpretations of the theme too!
Everone deserves a big pat on the back & I wish you could all have a prize but
there can only be one winner!

I asked Mr Random.Org  to give me a number & he chose


With this lovely little travel themed box


You have won our sponsor prize of 7 images of your choice from
Bugaboo Digi Stamps

To claim your prize, please drop us an email to
craftingcafe@hotmail.co.uk 

Don't forget to grab your winners badge from below!

Winner's badge

Now on to our Top 3 as chosen by our DT






Grab your Top 3 badges from below ladies & wear them with pride on your blogs!

Top 3 Badge

I hope you'll play along in this month's challenge here

Sunday 31 May 2015

May Challenge

Welcome to the new challenge here at

The Crafting Cafe

First of all we'd like to thank everyone who played in our
challenge last month. We had some great entries, so well done everyone!

The DT will have a tough job on their hands deciding on the Top 3
Check back in a few days to see who the lucky entries are!

On to the May Challenge!
Our theme this time is 

Around The World

We are sponsored this month by the wonderful
Bugaboo Digi Stamps
Who are offering one lucky winner their choice of 7 images

We can't wait to see how you interpret this one!
In my minds eye I can see globes, circles, modes of transport, people from different
nations, food from foreign lands, national costumes,
animals from different countries...........
The list is endless!

Can we politely ask that you read our rules before you link up & please,
please, in the inteterest of fairness, only one entry per person!

Our DT Call is now closed & we'd like to thank
 everyone who showed an interest in joining our Design Team.
You really are a very talented bunch!
If you've been successful, we'll be in touch with you over this month.

Pop back over the month to see what the Design Team have been up to.
 They are all having great fun using images provided by  Bugaboo Stamps
  I can't wait to see their creations.

Happy crafting from all at
xxxThe Crafting Cafe xxx



Friday 29 May 2015

Iridescence with ProMarkers


It's a bit of a stretch of the 'Around The World' theme this month, but we're off to the Americas to where the hummingbirds do their amazing flying, hovering and most particularly their colour and iridescence. How to capture that on paper? This image from our sponsors this month, Bugaboo Stamps, needed bright colours, as well as delicate shading, and ProMarkers were my first choice. A light touch with some Star Dust Stickles added the iridescence that I wanted - it also helps to use more than one colour on the plumage.

Pens used:
Sky: Arctic Blue/Pastel Blue
Bird: Lavender (wings), Denim Blue/Turquoise/Bright Green
Flowers: Maroon/Magenta/Hot Pink/Carmine, Gold/Canary
Leaves: Pear Green/Bright Green

The sentiment is a die cut from Craftwork Cards.

Until next time, which will be my last time on this fabulous DT,

Neil


Wednesday 27 May 2015

May - Around the World - Angelie

Hi Everyone

Hope you enjoyed the long weekend! I've decided to use this cute image for my DT project as it made me smile :) I've coloured it with promarkers and attached it to a little handmade gift box which would fit one or two posh chocolates.
Looking forward to seeing your makes before the end of the month


hugs
Angelie

Saturday 23 May 2015

Inspiration by Sammy


Hi all, Sammy here with some more around the world inspiration for you featuring a fab image from our sponsor Bugaboo.



The sentiment is in Doric, a dialect spoken in North-East Scotland, and means "How are you?" (which I added to the bottom of the card, as you can see.) It's a bit of an in-joke, as my brother - the recipient - is becoming more and more intelligible every time we see him. I'm sure he's making half of it up! ;-)

There's still a week to enter this month, so I hope you'll come and play along!

Sammy-x

Wednesday 20 May 2015

Around the World - bugaboo stamps , Design team post

After I had chosen my image to use this month, I realised that the theme was around the world !
Lovely image of flowers and hummingbird from the sponsors Bugaboo stamps made me think it was a bit oriental , so that's what I have gone with & I hope you like it .







Sunday 17 May 2015

Around the World - Mags

Hi Folks
Mags here with some inspiration for our current challenge which is Around the World.



I used an image from our sponsor Bugaboo Stamps to create my altered gift box.  I do tend to keep empty boxes for recycling and this was a Turkish Delight box from Christmas.  I coloured the image with promarkers and matted onto a diecut.  I covered the box with chocolate themed papers from my stash and some chocolate ribbon.  

Thanks for popping by and you have until the end of the month to enter the challenge.  
Bye for now
Mags
x

Thursday 14 May 2015

Around The World - Dawn

Hi all, Dawn here, with my DT inspiration card for this month's
Around The World Challenge!


I've used a sponsor image to make my
"Across The Miles" Christmas card!
More about the challenge here
More about my card here
I for one can't wait to see what you create!
Don't forget to check back to see what the rest of the DT create!



Friday 8 May 2015

May Challenge by Janet

It's new month, new challenge time here at the Crafting Cafe. I've used an image from our sponsor this month who are Bugaboo Stamps. 

I have made most of the card black and white and just coloured the image sketchy style using a Wink of Stella glitter pens.  Then decoupaged the flowers.


I hope you like it. Please pop back for more inspirational ideas from my other DT members. 
Please join in the fun and you may well win a lovely prize.



Sunday 3 May 2015

April Winner & Top 3

Good morning all, Dawn here with the 
Winner & Top 3 for our last months challenge
Flights Of Fancy 
There were lot's of amazing entries this time!
We loved all the different intertpretations of the theme too!
Everone deserves a big pat on the back & I wish you could all have a prize but
there can only be one winner!

I asked mr Random.Org nicely & he gave me the number

A brilliant card!

You've won our sponsor prize of two images of your choice from
Doctor Digi's House of Stamps

To claim your prize, please drop us an email to
craftingcafe@hotmail.co.uk 

Don't forget to grab your winners badge from below!

Winner's badge

Now on to our Top 3

After much pushing, shoving & a bit of jostling,
 (I can assure you there was no actually bodily harm but 
someones jumper did get a little bit snagged) Lol! 

The Dt have agreed on the following!

#18 Crafty Clarey (it's your lucky day)



https://otomys.wordpress.com/2015/04/28/sweet-tweets/

Grab your Top 3 badges from below ladies & wear them with pride on your blogs!

Top 3 Badge

The DT Call has now closed!
Thanks to everyone who expressed an interest in joining the team.
Such a talented bunch of crafters!
We'll have a look at all the entries & be in touch soon.

Thursday 30 April 2015

April Challenge

Welcome to the new challenge at The Crafting Cafe.

Firstly may we thank everyone who played along last month.
Not too many entries but they were all great!
Thanks to those who added their names to the DT call too. 
Find out more about that below!

The challenge theme for the month of April is
"Flights Of Fancy"
Take from that what you will!
Here's a definition to help your thought process:
Flight Of Fancy:- An idea, narrative, suggestion etc which is extremely imaginative and which appears to be entirely unrealistic, untrue or impractical:thinking which is speculative.
Or you could use include something to do with flying on your project!

The images that the DT are working with this month were provided by our Sponsor
Doctor Digi's House of Stamps
who is offering a great prize of: 
Two images of the winner's choice from the shop.

DT Call
We would like to add some more creative team members to the DT.
Are you creative, able to create with digis and able to work to a deadline.....?
Do you want to be part of this very friendly DT? 
Then we would love to hear from you.....

What you need to do -
Enter the challenge this month and put DT behind your name.

What is involved in the DT -
You are required to create one project per month (or more if you like)
using a given a theme/digi, which you will then post to the 
challenge blog on a specified date.
You are also required to comment on challenge entries.
(The DT are allocated numbers for this)
You will be invited to join our friendly Facebook groups.

This DT post will initially be from June - December.

Our DT call will end on the 27th April, so make sure you enter before then. We will then be looking at the DT entries from last month and this month and will announce our new teamies in May.
 

The Crafting Cafe is a very friendly team......
we are really looking forward to seeing what you create for the challenge x




Wednesday 29 April 2015

Out of this world!

I think it's the first time I have used our design team images to create a digital project. Our sponsors this month for our 'Flights of Fancy' theme, Dr. Digi's House of Stamps, allow their images (in this case, Moon and Cosmo-nut) to be resized, coloured and adapted as long as any posted projects are no longer in line format - which makes them great for digital work.

I imported the line art into Photoshop and added the colour using the gradient tool (line gradients and radial), overlaid the asteroid texture onto the moon, imported a space image for the background before finally adding the text. Then it was just a case of printing out, chomping the corners and matting onto a 5x7" kraft card and adding the Royal Blue Liquid Pearl dots.

Until next time,

Neil


Monday 27 April 2015

April - Flights of Fancy - Angelie

Hi everyone

Hope you are gearing up for the long weekend! For my DT project I decided to use this cute image and picked the sentiment based on the expression on the bird's face :) The image has been coloured with promarkers and compiled in serif craft artist.


Looking forward to seeing your designs before the end of the month!

Thursday 23 April 2015

Flights of fancy - Sammy

Good morning everyone, Sammy here with a slightly cheeky card for you this month!

My husband, who is approaching the ripe old age *cough* of 42, is often teased by our youngsters about how terribly old he is. It is a running joke in our household that dad is in fact 65 million years old (he used to have a pet dinosaur, you know...) and hubby plays along with good cheer, regaling them with stories from over the millennia. If he is to be believed he is responsible for many things, both good (he invented the first language, because the grunts of the Neanderthals were getting too confusing) and bad (he's lost count of the amount of earthquakes he's caused after eating sprouts and beans!).

So when I saw the images provided for us by our fab sponsor Doctor Digi's House of stamps, there was one in particular that stood out, because it fit so perfectly with out little running family joke.

This was the result:




So yes, a little cheeky really, but I know hubby will appreciate the joke, and the kids think it's hilarious!

Hope you'll find the time to play along with us this month. There's still a week left!

Sammy-x

Monday 20 April 2015

Flights of Fancy , with Mr Digi's house of stamps DT post

This is my DT post for the crafting cafe this month' it's Flights of fancy
The sponsor is :-
who is offering a great prize of: 
Two images of the winner's choice from the shop.

I made a card for my friends grandson who is 4 , I managed to get a photo of him to put in the helmet
I know he will love it , hope you do too !

Friday 17 April 2015

Flights of Fancy - Mags

Hi Folks
Mags here to share some inspiration for our current challenge 'Flights of Fancy'.


I used a cute image from our sponsor Dr Digi called Quackers.  I coloured the image with promarkers and created the background myself by using my new brushos.  To finish the card I added some ribbon, bow and heart buttons.
For more details just pop over to my blog.

Don't forget that you have until the end of the month to join in with the challenge.

Bye for now
Mags
x


Tuesday 14 April 2015

Flights Of Fancy - Dawn

Hi all,
Dawn here with my card for this month's challenge!



I've used two of the images kindly supplied by our sponsor this month.
Doctor Digi's House of Stamps
Meet Captain Thunderpants & Phyllis the Festive Fairy!
Captain Thunderpants has a flight of fancy that one day he & Phyllis will fly off
into the wild blue yonder together............
not sure what Phyllis would make of it though!
Enter the challenge here
More about my cards here
Cant't wait to see what you create!


Monday 13 April 2015

Flights of Fancy, by Amanda

Hello, Amanda here, with my project for our theme this month, Flights of Fancy. Our sponsor this time is Dr Digi's House of Stamps, and I've used two of their images (Moon and Cosmo Nut) to create glow in the dark ceiling decorations for my 3 year old boy's room. Sadly the glow in the dark paint isn't bright enough for any of the cameras in our house, so I can only share pictures of the decorations in daylight. When the decorating is done, the ceiling and top half of his walls will be painted like sky, and the light fitting is shaped like the sun. There'll be aeroplanes and birds for during the day, stars and planets for night time, so these moons and astronaut should fit in really well! For more info, please visit my own blog:


Their temporary home on the bed until the decorating is done
Happy crafting!
Amanda

Wednesday 8 April 2015

April challenge Flights of Fancy

Our challenge this month is Flights of Fancy, My inspirational make is more fancy than flight although he has got a few wings on his costume, 
This image is called Captain Thunderpants and it's from our sponsor Dr Digi.



This is definitely a fun card for a male birthday.
Please pop back and get some more inspiration from my fellow DT members, please join in too and see if you can win a fabulous prize.

Thursday 2 April 2015

March Winners & Top 3

Hi everyone!
Dawn here with the Winner & Top 3 for our March challenge.
Thanks to everyone who entered, your cards were all amazing!

I asked Mr Random.org to choose the winner of our sponsor prize from

The Stamping Boutique

The number he gave me was


Congratulations! 
To claim your prize, drop us an email to
craftingcafe@hotmail.co.uk
Your winners badge is below

Winner's badge

Now on to the top 3 as chosen by the DT

#19 Shelly



#22 Katies Craft Room



# 14 Hazel


Please pick up your Top 3 badges below!

Top 3 Badge


Wear it with pride & brag all about it!
We hope everyone can play along this month too!
Find the challenge details here

Crafty Hugs
xX Dawn Xx