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 27 June 2014

Winners Challenges 56 & 57

Well our Owl challenge did not bring us many entries but what it did bring us were some superb pieces of artwork and it is from this challenge that we have chosen our winner.

Drum roll please for ...

...

Wildehilde

Who gave us this - a beautiful and most colourful page in her book.


If you go along to her blog you can see just how she created this page as she has two videos for you to watch.  Congratulations!

Our runner up came from the CAS challenge and we had a wonderful selection to choose from which took a lot of deliberation on our part.  We both agreed that we would go with ...

another drumroll please ...


who made this rather splendid card which we thought was a little bit different to the usual images.  Well done!


Both our ladies had adhered to the rules and guidelines which is most important to us.  We like to know how you have made your artwork because it is good to share techniques and how to use materials - quite a compliment to you too if someone uses your technique/idea providing they remember to acknowledge you for it.  

Please remember to read our Guidelines at the top of our page.  (Sam spent so much time for us to make sure everything was easy for you when you joined in a challenge)  We hate not being able to count you in for a prizewinner.

Hope you can find time to join our present challenge which is wood related, and another of Chris's ideas before she left.  It really is easy to stamp on wood and there are lots of wooden shapes out there for you to play with or maybe you ca think of something to do with wood from the garden/woodland (fallen not chopped down of course).

Now, if the two ladies can get in touch with Neet (her email addie is at the side on her blog) she will send you the badges to display on your blog and instructions for Wildehilde to claim her £10 token to spend at our sponsors, Oyster Stamps.  Remember you must do this within the next 7 days.

Friday 20 June 2014

Challenge 58 Made in/on Wood

*Entries must fully comply with the fortnightly theme (this means your creation must follow the rules of the theme set).
*Please link directly to your entry and not just to your blog (this means only link the address for your post to the challenge and not the general address of your blog).  For instructions on how to do this please see page 'Making a Direct Link'.
*Please ensure you make a link back to this challenge blog in your post (this means you need to include a link to Artful Times Challenge blog when writing up your post).  For instructions on how to do this please see page 'Linking Back'.
*Please write a brief description of how you created your entry and some of the materials used, even if it's only a brief list at the end of your posting, as it's nice to know what was used and how it's been done.
*Please do not back link to previous posts prior to the date of the challenge.
*A maximum of 5 challenges may be combined.
*You may enter the challenge several times as long as each entry is with a different creation.
*We encourage you to visit each other's blogs and leave a comment, even ours, it means a lot!
*If you have 'Word Verification' may we ask that you please turn it off, as this makes commenting easier for everyone, especially with the new blogger words which are difficult to read at times.  The comment moderation seems to be a more successful way of avoiding unwanted comments.
*Link your entry before 6pm on the following Thursday.
*Any entries which do not follow the above challenge guidelines may not be commented on by the DT and will not be entered into the prize draw.

Thank you for all the lovely CAS cards we had uploaded last week, what a lovely and varied selection there was.  Will be hard to pick a winner me thinks.

I think it was Chrissie who chose this challenge before she left and it was to make something in or on wood (eg box, plaque/embellishment).  Must admit at first I was a bit "eek" but then I remembered I had lots of wooden things.  I am sure most of you will have something you can decorate, we nearly all have a wooden box somewhere, or maybe a plaque which has been waiting for a touch of paint for simply ages.

Wendy had a box which she needed to decorate (you will have to visit her blog to find out why and how she got that gorgeous colouring in the top left corner)


Neet had a double arch which she had had simply ages and so she decorated that for her "spooky corner".  To see inside and on the back you will have to visit her blog.



the front

Hope you find time to join in with us and hope you enjoy entering.  Remember there is a £10 voucher from Oyster Stamps, our sponsors, for one lucky winner each month.  You need to read the rules to be in it to win.


Friday 6 June 2014

Challenge 57 - CAS

*Entries must fully comply with the fortnightly theme (this means your creation must follow the rules of the theme set).

*Please link directly to your entry and not just to your blog (this means only link the address for your post to the challenge and not the general address of your blog).  For instructions on how to do this please see page 'Making a Direct Link'.
*Please ensure you make a link back to this challenge blog in your post (this means you need to include a link to Artful Times Challenge blog when writing up your post).  For instructions on how to do this please see page 'Linking Back'.
*Please write a brief description of how you created your entry and some of the materials used, even if it's only a brief list at the end of your posting, as it's nice to know what was used and how it's been done.
*Please do not back link to previous posts prior to the date of the challenge.
*A maximum of 5 challenges may be combined.
*You may enter the challenge several times as long as each entry is with a different creation.
*We encourage you to visit each other's blogs and leave a comment, even ours, it means a lot!

*If you have 'Word Verification' may we ask that you please turn it off, as this makes commenting easier for everyone, especially with the new blogger words which are difficult to read at times.  The comment moderation seems to be a more successful way of avoiding unwanted comments.
*Link your entry before 6pm on the following Thursday.
*Any entries which do not follow the above challenge guidelines may not be commented on by the DT and will not be entered into the prize draw.

CAS

Thank you for the entries last challenge, some lovely work there everyone. This week we are offering up "Clean and Simple" as your challenge.  In our minds this means you create a card which has lots of white space on it.  (Your white space does not have to be white, you may choose pale blue or pink or ?as your space) Your image can be in the centre or one of the corners, or even down a side but we want to see lots of space please.

Apart from that you have freedom of choice as to what to go with.  BUT please please please check out the rules and guidelines.  We have had several entries recently which would have won the prize but they did not comply with the rules.  That is why we are putting them at the beginning of this post to remind you.  Remember we may not choose to comment if you do not adhere to them.

As always there is a Winner and Runner Up Blinkie on offer and a voucher from Oyster Stamps for the winner.

Thank you for the owl entries last week, Chrissie's final choice before she moved to pastures new but I am sure she will join with me in saying thank you to those of you who entered our challenge.

Here is what we came up with:

Neet made a couple of cards using white cardstock



Details as to how she made them can be found on her blog along with a couple more.

Whilst Wendy made these cards:



Hope you join in with our challenge