We are Neet and Wendy and we would like to welcome you to our fortnightly challenge, ‘Artful Times’, where we are offering a variety of challenges to inspire you to create in whichever style or medium of crafting you enjoy. You never know, we might even inspire you to create something out of your comfort zone and try out something new.

Yes like all challenge sites we have rules and guidelines. We hope you will read and follow them, we have Oyster Stamps as our sponsor, and of course, a winner and runner up will be chosen each month. We may also have the occasional guest designer.



Friday 26 April 2013

Challenge 28 - Clean and Simple

Well, I am sure there are lots of you out there who have visited the challenge site "Less Is More" and enjoyed their challenges and maybe even taken part in some of them.  As you know they ask for you to leave the majority of your card white (or a plain colour depending on what you do - to put it simply, not decorated).

This challenge is just about that, leave your card "clean and simple" but do include some stamping.  The image you use can be placed anywhere on your card, top left, bottom right, centre, whatever but it must be surrounded by a nice area of 'nothing'.  You can put a simple greeting (Thank you, Happy Birthday etc) on it as well if you wish but not cluttered up please.

However, it does not have to be a card, it could be a tag, a canvas or whatever you think to use as long as you keep it Clean and Simple.

Incidentally, I did contact LIM to ask if they minded us doing this particular challenge and the answer was that it was fine.

Here is what Von did (I want that lettering set)


and here is mine
Neet


Strange we both chose to do a square card - mine was going to be a canvas but as usual, I ran out of time.  Look forward to seeing what you all make.

You will note that the thumbnails we had in the past have disappeared.  We are now just linking with your name - hope this does not put some of you off.

Please remember to read the rules, link to the actual challenge and not just your blog, a maximum of four other challenges may be entered (no more please), link back to this blog, include a description of what you did/used etc.  Rules and Guidelines are at the top for you to read.

Friday 19 April 2013

Winner Post

Oh dear, this job gets harder and harder.  How to choose a winner and a runner up is so difficult when the standard of entries is so high.

We decided that we should really pick one from each category so the Winner is ...

...

...

wait for it ...

Rosie with her beautiful piece of artwork using alcohol inks.


The stunning colours just got to us - it looked almost like encaustic art - it is so vibrant and we cannot imagine how wonderful it must look in real life.

Our runner up is

Heather with her clever wiring techniques on her handmade charms


But ...

This was such a close event so Cindy, come out and take a bow for your lovely pieces and grab yourself a runner up button as well.


If the two runners up will contact Neet (addie on the right hand side of her blog) for their button to be sent to them and if Rosie will contact her for the details of how to claim the £10 gift from our sponsors, Oyster Stamps,  and her button, we can safely say that is another month of successful blog challenges for Artful Times.  Thanks to all of you who entered - you are all winners really.

Friday 12 April 2013

Challenge 27 Stencils and/or Masks

Hi everyone,  here we are with a new challenge which is sure to get your juices flowing and we are asking you to use stencils and/or masks in your creation.  There is just such a wonderful selection on the market to choose from.

Here's what Von made


and here is Neet's journal page



We are eager to see what you do with this challenge.
 
I'd just like to add a thank you to Janet, Chrissie, Heather and Cindy for joining the swap and when I have them all in I shall post you each a mix of the charms by  the end of next week ♥