Goodbye.....

Design Teams are always changing - People arrive and can't wait to begin their new creative journey. For others, there will inevitably come a time when it is right to move on to new adventures..... 

   It is always sad to say goodbye and while we are sad to see three of our wonderful team leave, we all know that they are not vanishing from our lives....they are just focusing on new challenges.

   We would all like to thank them so much for their hard work, support, kindness and, of course, their professional dedication in bringing to everyone the very best inspiration and creativity. They have all been such a wonderful part of our team that we want to share with you all a look back at some of their wonderful work and enjoy it all again........

    Please join me in wishing them a happy farewell and the very best of luck in their future, wherever their creative path leads them.

Alison

Susan

Karin

We send you off with lots of love, hugs and buckets of admiration.....and we will treasure the happy memories of the time you have spent with us.

 Good luck and happy crafting!

Please Welcome......

Hi everyone!

     We are nearly at the end of 2014 - what an amazing year it has been for Our Creative Corner!

      2015 will hopefully be bigger and better! Although sadly we will be saying goodbye to some of our Team at the end of the year, we are taking on new Team Members to inspire you!


       As always our view at OCC is that it should be a place 'where your crafting creativity has no limitations' and we continue with that same free thinking attitude towards our crafts - now with a larger team and also a Resident Guest Designer on the team to add in some more variety with tutorials and advice. There is also lots more sponsors providing our winners with wonderful prizes - OCC is going to be an even more inspiring place to be....

      So let's welcome our new Team Members.....

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Pamellia

Hello Everyone! My name is Pamellia Johnson and I live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada with my wonderful husband Andrei and our two little girls, Scully (a teacup Maltese) and Pebbles (a teacup black Pomeranian).

Creativity runs in my family, so it's no surprise that I enjoy crafting. I have been crafting in some form or another ever since I was a little kid, thanks to my very creative and talented Mom. I've dabbled in all sorts of crafts, but I think my true passion is handmade cards. I have only recently tried my hand at mixed media art and altered items, but I instantly fell in love with the messy side of crafting!

When Laura contacted me and asked me to be a member of the Our Creative Corner team, I almost fell off my chair! What an honour to be invited to craft along side some of the most talented artists out there! Thank you Laura, I look forward to this next leg of my crafting adventure.

This is my OCC trinket box, to see more you can visit me at My Little Craft Things.

 

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Lys

Bonjour! My name is Lys and I live in a village in south west of France. Beside my full time job I find self balance in scrapbooking and crafting, more and more as my children grow up and create their own life. I just discovered mixed media and the huge possibilities it offers to creativity. I love playing and trying new ways and looks.

I’m so happy and honored today to join  Our Creative Corner team! Creating alongside such inventive and brilliant ladies is amazing and thrilling! Thanks Laura for giving me this opportunity.

Here is my “introducing” layout, which gathers most of my tastes: vintage look, torn papers, layers, inks, textures, words… You can find more details on my blog.

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Shari

HELLO!!  My name is Shari Trumbull and I am so very pleased and honored to be here as a new member of the Design Team for Our Creative Corner.  I come to you from the mountains of North Idaho, USA where I live with my husband, Don and furry family of 3 dogs-Bella, Maxine & Ralph and 2 cats-Lille and Daisy.

I used to have a very hectic and very full-time work life in business administration and management, with not a lot of time for crafting.  Since moving to Idaho 5 years ago, I've been given the opportunity to be able to delve into my creative side and see where it would take me.  The creative journey (still in progress) has been amazing and has brought me here, to Our Creative Corner, working with a
group of AMAZING Artists!  I'm still in shock that I'm here!!  Laura, are you still sure it's Me??! 

Anyway, I'm carrying out the month of December with sharing some of the goodies I made for Christmas.  Some of my Christmas crafties where sent out as little holiday tokens, some--I kept!  Like this chipboard/manila stock ornament--Once I hung it on my Christmas tree, it wasn't going anywhere!! 

I've got a few details of how I put this ornament together on my blog--Come on over, I'd love to see you there!

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Jan

Hi Everyone!

I am so excited to be here, my first time as a Design Team member, thank you so much Laura for inviting me.

My name is Jan Hill, I live in Coventry, England, with my long suffering husband and son. I have been crafting as long as I can remember. I have made Dolls Houses and Miniatures for a number of years before I discovered Scrapbooking and Mixed Media. Now I am hooked! I spend a lot of time in my craft room in the attic, please check out my blog at

www.scrapintheattic.com

I created a scrapbook page for my intro piece. I chose a photo of my favourite place, Calvi on the beautiful island of Corsica, a special place for myself and my husband. When I see this photo I can feel the sun on my skin and smell the wild herbs of the Marquis! 

I hope you like it too! There are details on my blog of how I created the page

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Laurie

Hi my name is Laurie Moore and I’m truly honored to be a part of this wonderful talented team of artists. Thank you Laura for inviting me and letting me share in the adventure of the OCC blog.

I live in the USA near the small town of Lebanon in Oregon on a farm with my husband Richard. I have two married grown children and five grandchildren that are the loves of my life.

I can’t remember a time when I haven’t done some kind of crafting. I had been scrapbooking for about 10 years when I discovered mix media and altering things. I've done many different styles of scrapbooking over the years but altering items and giving them new life is my true passion. As you can see here I've altered a little red truck and created a home decor piece for my vintage style house.

I hope you will come share in my creative adventure and visit me on my blog 

www.MooreArtFromTheHeart.blogspot.com

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Candice

I am Candice (Aka Tincan Crafter) from South Africa.  I do like to make things and I LOVE UPCYCLING JUNK (hence Tincan Crafter).  I collect and buy really random things that I think can be turned into crafty supplies and tools – like dental picks and coloured hair mousse.  You might think that is sad, until you find your inner-dental-pick-collecting crafty goddess, then you will know, oh how you will know.  For a few hours a day I teach Philosophy at a University in Kwazulu Natal, South Africa and for the rest of the day I CRAFT!!!  I really think I only work so that I can buy crafting supplies…… I keep a little blog where I journal my crazy craft experiments and that you can check out here - tincan handmade craft deli

When Laura asked me to be a Guest Designer for OCC – I nearly fell off my chair!  I had no idea that anyone would think I was worthy enough to be featured as a guest designer, I have never ever taken design or art at any kind of educational level and I have always thought that I would never be good enough without any kind of formal training.  Then when she asked me to join the team for this coming year I actually did fall off my chair – seriously, got scraped and everything. I can hardly believe I have this blessed an opportunity to work on a team like this. I have been around to all the other team members blogs and I am so honoured to be included amongst this mind-blowingly creative, arty, talented group.  I feel challenged to step up and be as awesome as they are. 

I don’t think that I have a particular style, or if I do – I haven’t noticed it.  I don’t think that I am specially attached to one type of craft either, except crochet and knitting – never quite got the hang of that….heehee see what I did there, I am a crabbler (crafting dabbler) of note.  Needless to say my house is quite a mismatched, hodge-podge of bits of craft – I call this design style eclectic grunge!  It happens when you buy random dental picks and things.  For this little introductory post I am going to share my nutty love for Hot Air Balloons and show you how I made this mobile of cheery hot air balloons by upcycling old Incandescent Light Bulbs and Baubles, and a few other items that you are sure to have at home.  It was a fun project and I love the pop of colour it added to my house.

Looking forward to sharing my brand of crazy with you all and I know that I am going to be inspired beyond my wildest imaginings by you all.

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Ana K.

Hello dear crafters... I'm really delighted to be here, in company with very talented Our Creative Corner ladies...thank you for invitation Laura!

My name is Ana and I am from beautiful Slovenia. Creating came into my life by accident, but quickly I became addicted...I love everything old or old looking and that you can see in my creations...I love to create mainly collages, but I also love making altered projects and books...during creating process, I completely “eliminate rest of the world” and I can say that crafting is my escape from reality...

For introduction I made a project inspired by quote I like...welcome to my blog, where you will find details. 

So there is the new additions to the OCC Design Team - Please hiop along to their blogs and leave them some love - I am sure they would love to see you all there!

 They will be here on the 1st Jan with the rest of the OCC team to bring you the first challenge of 2015 which is going to be hosted by Pamellia....We all hope you come back and join in the fun!

Happy Crafting 

Laura xxx     

Tando Sponsor Spotlight No.3

Hello everyone,  this is Astrid, welcome and how lovely to see you here around this very special time of  year.

Let me start by wishing you all the most wonderful festive season, and much peace and creativity!

It being the 25th of the month, means another sponsor spotlight here at OCC, and this month we are sponsored by the wonderful Tando Creative.

Well, it being Christmas and all that, I had to make something gift and Christmas related of course. I decided to make a Christmas card/gift card holder.

The tando piece I worked with was this lovely deer

I thought he would just be perfect to adorn the front of a card.

I started with a size 10 tag, folded it in half and coloured the front with some Distress Sprays.

I used Faded Jeans and Peeled Paint and gave it just a few quick spritzes.

Next I stamped a wintry stamp from Indigo blue in Cobalt Archival and quickly embossed it with clear embossing powder. I also created a moon with the help of the punched circle mask and some Distress inking to deepen the colour, using two colours of Distress Inks, Faded Jeans and Walnut Stain. I also stenciled some snowflakes using Walnut Stain spray.

The next steps were quick and easy, just what you want at this time of year. I added some Clear Rock Candy Distress Glitter to the deer for some festive sparkle and added a little tag and ribbon and a little crown.

The sentiment and a little pocket are on the inside:

The circle on the right and the pocket on the left (for the gift card) were both made with Spellbinder dies, and as you can see, the inside had become pretty dirty after all the spritzing and inking, so I lined it with a piece of decorative paper first.

Well, that's pretty much it.

Thank you so much for visiting, and don't forget, there are just a few days left to add a project to Alison's current "Have yourself a merry little Christmas" challenge and you could be lucky enough to win a prize from Tando Creative!

Everyone at Our Creative Corner wishes you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Tando Sponsor Spotlight No.2

Hi everyone!

Welcome to the second of this month's Sponsor Spotlights!

This month our Sponsor is Tando Creative and there is a wonderful prize waiting to be won by a randomly selected entry to our challenge this month!

                            Here is what I have chosen to make with some festive Tando goodies

Mini Christmas Scenelit

And here is my finished creation...

I adore Folk Art....it is such a homely, comforting look for Christmas that I decided to base my decoration of the Christmas Scenelit on this iconic style. It's simplistic layers certainly made it perfect for this

Now where to start....the scenelit is in layers to give depth so I started at the back and worked forward. I chose a set of muted dark Christmas papers that I felt captured the muted Folk Art colours well.

I chose a navy sky effect full of swirling snowflakes and glued it to the back board

The next layer had the moon attached so I covered that with ivory paper that had postmarks and snowflakes on it. I added some faux stitches with permanent fine marker

The next later was the trees - so I chose a green paper that was marked with music notes. Again I added the faux stitches and topped the trees with texture paste and gesso that was sprinkled with Rock Candy Distress Glitter.

The next layer was the largest house - I chose a peach coloured paper and cut out windows in ivory card to stick on - colouring around the edge with a black brush pen and drawing the diamond window panes with fine marker.

The roof was covered in brown paper and topped with gesso and glitter. The same was done for the next layer which had the nearest house. This house was covered in darker red paper.

This layer also had the fence, gate and tree....

 I painted the tree, fence and gate with Chocolate Pudding and French Roast Fresco Paint.

The tops on the gate and fence were dabbed with texture paste and sprinkled with glitter. 

 The tree was dabbed with gesso and then had diluted white acrylic paint spritzed over it.

The bells on the gate were decorated with gold paint and the bow made from Copper Liquid Pearls

The holly was cut from a printed picture and was also used on the fence

The snowman was cut from card. I drew the face on with pen and dabbed around the edge with vintage Photo DI and a touch of Tattered rose for a hint of blush. I cut the hat and scarf out from pattered paper and stuck to the snowman. The twig hands were cut from card and inked with Gathered Twigs DI.

 I then stuck the Snowman onto the scenelit and dabbed texture paste around him covering the bottom of the frame while the rest of the frame was painted with White Acrylic paint. A sprinkle of Rock Candy Distress Glitter added to the snow effect with its wonderful frosty sparkle

I had stamped a sign with the words Merry Christmas. This was edged in Old Paper and Vintage Photo DI. I then added some faux stitches around the edge.

Folk art is quite a rustic shabby look, but seeing the layers around the edge didn't work for me...while I love a shabby look I do need an element of 'neatness'....so I got out some tissue tape that was covered with script and stuck this around the edge

I wanted a way to hang this scenelit up with all our other Christmas decorations that I add to year after year!

So I drilled a hole into the scenelit and tied some twine through it

and I couldn't resist it...a lovely folk art style Gingham bow....

And there is my Mini Christmas Scenelit...already hanging up and looking wonderfully festive...such a lovely keepsake to treasure for years and years...

If you like Tando items then why not enter our current challenge - one lucky entrant will receive some Tando goodies! What a wonderful treat!

And of course you could always be the winner of the challenge and be invited to be our Top Talent. You could be basking in the spotlight right here at Our Creative Corner!

All you have to do is enter the Have Yourself A Merry LITTLE Christmas - ATCs and ATBs hosted by Alison - Come and share your Festive ATCs and ATBs with us!

There will be one more festive Tando Spotlight to visit this month on Christmas Day!!! Hope you will come back to take a peek!

Happy Crafting!

Laura x

A Merry LITTLE Christmas

Hello all, and a warm welcome on this winter's day!

I'm back to introduce our guest for December, and I'm absolutely delighted to welcome the lovely Kasia of Papierowy Wymiar (Paper Size) to Our Creative Corner.  I'm a huge fan of her work, and I'm lucky enough to be the owner of some of her amazing handmade books.

She's a brilliant user of texture and layers and all sorts of wonderful materials and fabrics.  She's a recycler, an upcycler, a scrapper, a book maker and a fabulous ATC creator… so I knew straight away she was the perfect guest for my Have Yourself A Merry LITTLE Christmas challenge.

If you've never visited her blog, I really urge you to do so.  There's so much inspiration, and a unique creative style on show, as well as beautiful photography - not only of her creations, but of lots of other things too - all of them showing her eye for an unusual angle or quirky close-up.

I'm sure you'll be blown away by what she's created for us today… and it would be lovely if you could drop over and leave some love for her over at Papierowy Wymiar too.

Take it away, Kasia!


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Hi  everyone! I have a great pleasure to be a Guest Designer for the December.  Thanks so much Alison, for choosing me with a group of very talented creatives!

The challenge Alison chose for Our Creative Corner this month is to make Christmas Artists Trading Cards.  I created some ATCs and decided to make them into an album. So, here is ATC Christmas album :)

The cards of album are ATCs. The base of  the ATCs are pieces of card dyed by coffee and tea. I spread a sheet on a baking tray, pour the coffee and tea, and put into a warm oven :)

'First star'

'Chrismas tree'

 I used  old lace, a piece of fabric, some paper napkin, little wooden stars, tea bag, a piece of  jewellery, white litlle balls (from Alison :)) and tiny metal and glass balls, and some scrapbooking papers.

'Choco tea time'

Snowflakes are closed in one of the tabs.

'It's snowing'

Lace and fabric are also dyed by coffee.

'Oh, deer'

 Here is back cover of this little album. 

Another look at my ATC album :)

Thank you for looking at my work!

Take care everyone!

Kasia

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Glorious work - thank you so much Kasia!

I hope that will inspire you to come along and play with us this month.  

Remember, we're looking for festive ATCs, ATBs and/or chunky ATCs, so you can really 

Have Yourself A Merry LITTLE Christmas!

You have until 28th December to play - and you'll find all the challenge details as well as lots of inspiration from the brilliant Our Creative Corner design team by clicking on the challenge link.

Have fun, and happy festive crafting all!
Alison xx