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.



Wednesday 30 May 2012

Our Challenge Blog Sponsor

For those of you who don't already know, Neet is a DT member and show demonstrator for Oyster Stamps.  She has been liaising with the lovely Tracey (and gorgeous Graham), owners of Oyster Stamps and Tracey has agreed to regularly sponsor our Artful Times challenge blog by giving a £10 voucher for one lucky winner who will be chosen from the previous 2 challenges.  

The winner and runner up will be announced on the following Friday after the closing date of the second challenge, ie after every even numbered challenge.  So, starting this month the team will choose a winner and a runner up from challenges 3 & 4 and announce them on Friday 01 June at 6pm.  The winner will have 7 days to contact Neet via email to claim the code for the prize to be spent in the Oyster Stamp on-line shop.  The £10 voucher can only be used towards the purchase of goods and no cash refund will be given if goods chosen do not cost the full amount.  Postage and packing will have to be paid for by the winner.  For all UK residents, postage rates are £1.00 flat rate up to £49, any purchases over £50, the postage is free.  Overseas residents will have to contact Oyster Stamps direct for mailing costs.  

If the prize is not claimed it will not be re-offered to someone else.

The decision of the Design Team is final and we will not enter into any further correspondence regarding the matter.  It is the responsibility of the winner to contact Neet and they will not be chased if no contact has been made within the 7 days.  The prize will then be withdrawn.

If you have any questions or require any further clarification please do not hesitate to contact a member of  the team.


Friday 25 May 2012

Challenge #5 ~ Ribbon & Lace

Great to see all your fabulous bird makes over the last couple of weeks, it certainly proved to be a popular topic.  It's back round to my turn already to choose another theme, doesn't time fly eh, pun intended, bird~fly - yeah!!  So I decided to go for something a little bit different for this bi-weekly challenge.  I would like to see you using ribbon and lace in your creations, as much or as little of each as you wish.  Any mediums, any format, any size, just be sure to follow the rules to be in with a chance to win the prize kindly donated to us by Tracey at Oyster Stamps.


So what did we make then?


DT Creations:


Sam ~ for more information on how it was made visit my blog



Neet made an Atc, for further detail visit her blog


Von made a tag, pop along to her blog and leave a comment



Thursday 17 May 2012

Breaking News!



Hi, Neet here with some news - tomorrow is the beginning of a Blog Hop with Oyster Stamps – you may have noticed the logo (which our Sam designed for them) on our side bar, and it starts off on my blog here.  Each day up until, and including Wednesday, a member of the Oyster Design Team will put up a post showing how they have used the Cut, Tuck and Fold dies.  By following the Hop each day and leaving a comment on each DT members blog you can be in for a prize draw at the end to receive two of the Cut, Tuck and Fold dies courtesy of Oyster Stamps.


There is also another competition running with Oyster Stamps as they would like to have a customer gallery and so they are running a card competition.  First prize is a Grand Calibur, second prize will be four Spellbinders Dies and third prize will be a Becca Feaken Bowmaker.

You must use either Memory Box dies, Spellbinders dies, Cheery Lynn dies or a mix of all three.  Any medium, shape or size is acceptable.  You need to send your cards to Oyster Stamps not later than the 28th June and you can enter as many cards as you want.  (cards will not be returned, sorry)

Now why am I telling you all this about Oyster Stamps you may well ask.  Well, if you look closely in our side bar you will see that they are our Sponsors and will be issuing a £10 voucher against goods from their online store to the winner in our Challenges in the future.

Please give them support in the Blog Hop (and me!) and help yourself to be in with a chance to win something. (And check out the price of their PP's whilst there)

Friday 11 May 2012

Challenge 4

Hello fellow crafters,

It was wonderful to see how many of you talented followers took the 'Time' to join us with such splendid creations.

Von here bringing you the challenge for the next fortnight.

Birds of all kinds and with the weather we have been having here in the U.K. ducks come to mind lol, so off you go and find those stamps or dies and create whatever takes your fancy as long as the main feature is birds :)

Now don't forget for a chance to be a winner you will need to adhere to the rules

Sam's Tag



Von's Card


 


Thursday 3 May 2012

Time - Our Third Challenge

Hi there Crafters, it's Neet popping in to see you all this week, as if you hadn't already guessed with the title of this week's Challenge - "Time".  Yes, it is a favourite topic of mine and I have all kinds of things around the house with some reference to "Time" on them.

Not that I am ever on time, as Sam will verify.  She rang me and reminded me that this week I had to do the blog - guess what?  I hadn't even done the piece of artwork!  There was I with a half finished (oops, nearly let the cat out of the bag for the next challenge) piece of work on my desk for the wrong challenge.  Perhaps you could say I have been a little pre-occupied this week (or have got my wrong Worzel head on).

Well you can make what you want, a card, an atc, a wall hanging, a tag (I have done a gigantic one this week), whatever takes your fancy but it has to be something to do with "Time".  Upload it to our blog and sit back until there are some more on there and then go visit and see what others have done.

Can I remind you that we do have rules (sorry but a challenge cannot function well without them) and there are buttons above to help you if you are unsure on how to do something.  Then there is always the team you can contact - we love helping you if there is a problem and we are so pleased that we have had so many followers and such a wonderful number of entries for our challenges.

Right, with no further ado I will show you what the Design Team has come up with this time

Von made an easel card



Sam did a postcard


Me (Neet) made a gigantic tag


That's it for now, hope to see you entering this challenge - wonder what you will come up with?????

Tuesday 1 May 2012

We have our First Winner

It's the 1st of May, the time of the year when we all begin thinking of our summer clothes but remember what Mother used to say "Don't cast a clout, till May's gone out" (which for those who do not understand means 'Don't change your winter clothes for your summer ones until the beginning of June'.)  Or do we?  It's been awfully cold these last few days and certainly in the north of England the weather has been pretty dire since that lovely week way back in March.

Well, we have been busy behind the scenes here at the Artful Times and now is the time to announce our first Challenge Winner.

It was a hard decision to make as we had such a lot of lovely entries for our first and second challenges (Tags and Sea of Greens).  We were thrilled with so many entries, both for our first and second challenges, and we actually enjoyed going back and forth again to look at the entries you had all made.

Some of you had not, unfortunately, followed all the rules of uploading and one or two links took us to your main blog and not to the specific entry.  (Click on the button above - Making a Direct Link - to learn how to do it if you are unsure.)  Also one or two of you had entered more than the five challenges we asked you to keep to.  Sorry we had to eliminate those entries this time but we hope that next time you stick to our rules and don't punish us by not entering because you don't like rules.  We so enjoy seeing your work.

That last paragraph was not easy to write as we love all the entries we had but have to abide by what we said initially.

Anyway, here we are with our winner and a runner up.  Congratulations from us all here on the Design Team.  Can the winner please get in touch with Neet (email addie on the RH side of her blog - www.hickydorums.blogspot.com) within the next seven days as she has a little something for you.

Drum roll please ...

...

...

...

And the Winner Is

Cathryn

here are her two entries:
 Tag, week 1

  Sea of Greens, week 2

Take your blinkie Cathryn and display it with pride on your blog.


and a very worthy runner up is

Hazel

here are her two entries

  Tag, week 1

  Sea of Greens, week 2

Here is your blinkie to put on your blog Hazel - hope you enjoy having it displayed.



I am sure you all would like to join us in offering Congratualtions to both of these ladies - and who knows, next time it could be YOU!