Challenge 6 “The Golden rule” July 24, 2008

Our challenge this week is inspired by a quote from the father of the Arts and crafts movement William Morris, who said  “If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”

Now don’t worry we’re not asking you to get rid of your clutter or tidy up, or wonder where you are going to stick your Husband ( only joking) , although you can if you want.

Our CHALLENGE is  attempt to  create something you truly believe is either beautiful or useful.  If like the design team you find that something did nt quite hit  the mark , we still want to see it.  Its about the journey not the destination . We posted all our examples  even the ones we were not quite happy with.

THIS WEEKS PRIZE :  Moonshadow Mist Set - Brown Label – value £19.99

 

The set contains 5 spray bottles containing Moonshadow Mists, a combination of walnut ink and mica.  They are 5 different colours that can be mixed and matched.  Instructions included in pack.

 Here are the colours you will recieve

 Burnished brass, Tawny turqouise, Incandescent copper, Ethereal Emerald, Volacious Violet.

Our great sponsor this week is Jill at The Stamp man who supplied the design team with some amazing products to play with. We had some amazing metal embellishments Egyptian and Buddas  . Gold leaf, Moonglow inks, Starburst stains  , Mists, and some great stamps too, all available from  The stamp man. This weeks examples by the design team. I appologize in advance I again got carried away playing. Its just a shame that the photos really do not do justice to the nature of the starburst stains and moonglow inks. They are magical to work with, and fun  

Our Guest designer this week is

Enfys Cashmore - A word or two from Enfys

 I live in the West Midlands, and in Hudson, Florida, spending three months at a time in each place. I started cardmaking four years ago, and last year started scrapbooking - mainly of my grandchildren, Kiki age 4 and Max age 1. My first love is cardmaking though, and when I am in the US I go to a scrapping group once a week, where I have made great friends. My favourite tool is my Cricut, with the Cuttlebug coming in as a close runner-up! My blog http://going-buggy.blogspot.com  has been featured in an article in Quick and Crafty magazine, and I have recently started designing for Papercraft Inspirations magazine (look out for Septembers issue!). I am on the design team for the US Bitten by the Bug site, and for Funky Hand in the UK. 

 I loved using the products, although the word book took forever!

Tracey here .  I love Enfys book, it looks so tactile

We have free downloadable papers again this week, and a quick tutorial on how to create the tiles used in the love 4 squared  on our project page .

Entries need to be in by 6pm on Wednesday next week.

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We will be in the chatroom from 9pm till 10pm UK time Thursday night, you can come along and ask about our samples or just pop in for a chat . Link in side bar

Challenge 5 All change round up July 24, 2008

Hi all.

Despite the fact that many  people are busy and on holiday we have still had an amazingly good quality of entries. So thank you everyone for taking part in this weeks challenge.

We’d like to say a big thanks to Hayley from Little Lous Craft supplies for Challenge 5s amazing prize and the wonderful CD roms we the design team got to play with. Which I know I for one really enjoyed, and i am absoloutly sure the lucky winner of all three will have great fun with,  not being a fan of a lot of printable cd’s I can honestly say that I will be getting loads of use from the cd and look forward to seeing Hayleys new CD rom releases with more images from the same artist, which I believe will be out later this year.

So our favorite entries this week

 

and this weeks number  picked by random number generator ,was Number  15  so our amazingly lucky winner is.

 Liz whos blog is http://buttonsforbrains.blogspot.com/  you can see Liz’s entry in the slide

We would also like to thank  Joanne  our Guest designer for her stunning billboard picture and if you would like to see more of her work  her blog is here http://mypaperprojects.blogspot.com. So thanks again Joanne

Challenge 5 All Change July 17, 2008

Hi all

This weeks This Thursday  challenge is called All Change. as usual you can use the title.  Or make something that actually changes ie slider , you could Alter something or you could change the way you use a product or tool.  We have a great sponsor Little lou’s craft Supplies   this week who has provided the design team with a CDRom each  of printables to play with , and the great prize of 3 cdroms for the winner of this weeks challenge. All entries should be in by 5 wednesday evening uk time . To give us time to pick our favorites and use the random number generator to pick a winner. You can post your entries after that time but they will not be eligable to win.

A word from our sponsor

I’ve been crafting since I was 4 years old (but I’m not telling you how many years since !) It all started with my mum teaching me how to knit and I’ve been hooked ever since. Like most crafters I started off with a craft box that quickly became a set of drawers - that grew to a kitchen table, then the spare room and eventually it became a shop! Not happy with that we out grew our premises 18 months ago and moved again into a new Unit with a separate classroom and then I was in my element. I love working with and sharing new ideas, methods and materials so classes and workshops are my passion. While looking for new products I stumbled across the work of CC Kuik and that’s when I fell in love with her artwork and felt they’d work brilliantly in all crafting areas so working on a core of 18 characters a variety of craft printables were born and all put together on a series of 3 cdroms - Oriental Fantasy 1, 2 and 3. Knowing how experimental crafters are we also included jpegs of the original characters to maximize the versatility of these amazing works of art.

After completing the 1st CD I approached Ideal World who loved the CDs and within 24 hours of seeing them we had a show scheduled for a few weeks later! This Friday, 18th July at 2pm I’ll be on again showing off all 3 of the CDs to their full potential along with demonstrations featuring some funky projects that I don’t think have featured on TV before so it’ll be well worth tuning in (Sky Channels 634 & 661 , Freeview Channel 22).

All three of the CDs plus a wide selection of Digital Downloads, that are on a 3 for 2 offer at the moment, are available via our website www.cheapdies.co.uk .

Hayley.

Tracey here, I must admit I really loved the images and playing around with them . If only my printable shrink plastic had arrived in time I would have had a few sets of amazing earings and matching pendants Plus I thought these would be great on a charm braclet . Although I think the images theselves are stunningly coloured I loved playing with the colours, and creating my own backgrounds as well as using the ones on the Cd. I am planning to transfer them onto fimo as well in the near future. Todays project is the Fabric bag, with basic instructions for printing onto fabric. If you fancy a go take a quick look Anyway here are this weeks examples from our design team

 Our guest designer this week is Joanne  her blog is here http://mypaperprojects.blogspot.com

a word or two from Joanne

I started making cards about 5yrs ago after a good friend sent me a handmade Christmas card, I loved the card and also the personal touch of it being made for me. I started off with a card kit and quickly found the masses of gorgeous stash available and that’s when my addiction took off. I now have a dedicated craft room, and I have to confess to being a paper addict and there are some sheets of scrummy paper in my room that are just to look at lol.
I have become somewhat addicted to blogland, and spend more time these days searching around all the FAB blogs, especially the challenge ones, than I actually do making anything lol. I found This Thursday it’s …… by accident, I left a comment on one of the FAB projects and the next thing I know Tracey has asked me to be a guest designer!! To say I was chuffed is an understatement and I couldn’t wait to receive my stuff. I must say CD’s are not usually my thing so I had to have a long think of what I was going to do when the CD arrived. I wanted to do something a bit different and came up with the idea of a picture frame made from mountboard with a picture that was coloured on oneside and black and white on the other and changed depending which way you looked at it. I think the overall effect worked quite well but is a bit difficult to photograph but I hope you get the general idea.

So that is this weeks challenge. can’t wait to see what stunning creations you come up with this week, Catch you later. Our winners are picked by random number generator so everyone has a chance to win our amazing prize

Dont forget there is a free project on our project page and some free downloadable papers on our downloads page.

You will find us in the chatroom from 9 pm till 10pm Uk time Drop in for a chat

You can show your support of our blog by posting our banner on your blog

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Challenge 4 Opposites attract round up July 17, 2008

So another week ends and another challenge finishes. Yet again the entries are amazing,

Our favorites

 

 We’d like to thank Vickie for being this weeks guest designer, and thank her for her wonderful examples. You can see more of Vickies work here. http://www.vicki20.blogspot.com/

We’ d also like to thank Marina of Cherry Pie Art Stamps for sponsoring the weeks challenge and providing our winner with such a great prize

and a final thank you to all the amazing entrants

And the winner picked by random Number generator is

 Gisella  http://mueppis-bastelwelt.blogspot.com as soon as we recive your address we will get the prize dispatched to you straigh away

If you love our challenges , please spread the news and show support by displaying our banner on your blog

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We want your views July 17, 2008

So we want to know, What do you like about This Thursday, what do you think needs to change.

Do you like the  challenges, do you think they are to hard to to easy.

Do you like the fact that we are picking guest designers from entrants.

Do you want prizes, or not

Do you like the downloads and projects

Did you like the fact that you were informed if your project was chosen in our top 15 or do you prefer to come and take a look

We want This Thursday to grow with the people who support us, so your opinions matter.

We would like you to nominate guest designers who you would like to see.

Use this post to post your opinions about This Thursday anytime you want

Opposites Attract Challenge 4 July 10, 2008

Hi All

This weeks challenge is Opposites Attract , As per usual you can use the title, or use opposites in your peice,  eg hot and cold, black and white, hard and soft, in and out to name but a few

This weeks challenge is Sponsored by Cherry pie Art stamps whos very talented and generous owner is Marina who was our guest designer for our week 2 challenge,

The prize this week is the winners choice of one of Cherry Pie Art Stamps Full stamp plates . To see the range that the winner can choose from Click HERE All stamped images in the examples are Cherry Pie Art Stamps

 A few words from our Sponsor

Cherry Pie was born in 1991 in Italy. At that time Europe was just beginning stamping and the request was for cute images or fancy borders to stamp on stationery.
That’s my beginnings too.
Shortly after I started reading RubberStampMadness and finding out there was a lot more to stamping than I had ever thought . So I started to make scenic stamps and then exploring new possibilities like reproducing the Masters…….. DaVinci, Michelangelo, Gustav Klimt, Munch, Dali……. it’s been a slow but enjoyable growing process. Meanwhile we also relocated in Florida in 2001.
Nowadays I have over 600 images, designed or edited by myself (Marina Lenzino).
I have just issued a bunch of new ones that can be found HERE

So here are this weeks design team examples

We would like to introduce and thank our guest designer for challenge 4, Vicki Parker. Who’s blog is HERE a word from Vicki
When I was asked to be guest designer I felt really honoured - little old me as a guest designer alongside ladies with such incredible talent! I am predominantly a digital scrapbook designer, but I started my crafting life making cards about 5 years ago. When I received my stamps from Cherry Pie Art stamps, I was forced out of my comfort zone. I’ve only used stamps for words really before and it’s not something that has previously appealed to me. However, I really enjoyed being forced to think outside the box!
I decided on two approaches for the stamps - the first was a card (which seemed the most obvious using stamps) and the art stamps lent themselves perfectly to a very simple black and white theme. Then, with the kind permission of Cherry Pie Art stamps, I scanned the stamped impressions and used them for a piece of hybrid art - a digital scrapbooking page. I love the way they turned out - it’s definitely something to consider for digital scrapbookers with a stamp stash from previous paper scrapping!

Brilliant examples from Vickie Fiona and  Susie this week.
So that’s it from us the rest is up to you , and we are looking forward to seeing more of your amazing work come in .

There are free downloable papers on our downloads page  which were designed by messing around with negatives and a project to create a melted baby wipe background on our project page

The design team and Vickie will be in the chatroom from 9pm till 10pm Tonight (Thursday)
The design team is in the chatroom every thursday night at that time however you can arrange to meet other entrants and crafts in our chatroom at times to suit yourselves. If we notice specific times and days becoming busy we will come and join in

Clearly Clever challenge 3 round up July 10, 2008

Every week we are just amazed at the variety and sheer genius of our entries.  This week is no different , there are so many that we really adore , Anyway here are our favs this week

Some really brilliant and inspired peices.

We would like to thank our amazingly generous sponsor Clever Cut for the brilliant array of Acrylic goodies that is challenge 3’s prize, and also for the cute Stamps Away  stamps and acrylic shapes the design team used.

So the winner picked by ransom number generator is Melanie  . Her entry was

Melanie as soon as we recieve your address we will be posting out these wonderful acrylic items. We know you will enjoy playing with them, we did.

Don’t forget you can chat to the design team in our chatroom ( link in sidebar) every Thursday Night between 9pm and 10pm , you can ask about their examples or just pop in for a laugh and a chat.

Challenge 3 Clearly Clever July 3, 2008

Hi

wow have we got a great challenge prize for you this week . thanks to this weeks generous sponser. Clever Cut.

 This weeks challenge is Clearly Clever . You can use anything that you can see through, You can use the title , You can use any technique you think is clearly clever as long as you tell us how to achieve it . You can do something about about someone or something that is clearly clever . Whatever the title says to you , The prize reflects the challenge and Clever Cut has kindly donated design samples and this amazing prize Of Acrylic items. As acrylic dosn’t photograph well we have shown them in graphic form. 

 

What an amazingly great prize, I think you will agree. So thanks again to our sponsor

A bit about Clever cut

CleverCut started when we put our first selection of Professional Craft Packs on sale through Ebay, and at that time our product list consisted of approx 10 different christmas packs. Within a couple of months our pack range had grown to over 48 packs. Now many months on our die cut packs are a small part of the product range we offer. We are now dealers for many different craft suppliers, as well importers for a wide range of products.

But we know that sometimes bringing value to the market place means manufacturing or importying exlusive ranges, which is exactly what we have done with Stamps Away, foiled again! and the Above Board range of products.

Since starting our business has grown from a part time venture to a full time family business. In April 2005 we moved the business to larger premises on a business park in the Leicestershire countryside. We are proud to announce that our new retail shop is now open at East Calton Country Side Park. A selection of all the products we stock are to be found there as well as a great day out for the whole family.

 Anyway here are the design teams examples for this week.  The Owl, little bird  and the happy birthday stamp are all Clever Cuts  Stamps Away Stamps arn’t they cute. Plus all the tags arrows and buttons are Clever cut as well. Which you can see in their online shop  as well as at the new retail shop.

Thanks to our guest Designer this week Julie Allain

Hi I’m Julie Allain and I’m married and have two sons. I have been crafting for approx 3 years and I love papercrafts and altered art. I’m on the design team for Auntys Forum and  I’m proud to have created the Inspirational Blogs and to have Co Created Arty Girlz Challenge Blog. I really love blogging as it has put me in contact with so many talented crafters.  you can see more of Julies work HERE

Hope you liked this weeks examples, We can’t wait to see what stunning entries our amazingly talented readers come up with this week.

Guest designer this week Is Julie Allain

Thank you for taking part and good luck. You can join the design team in the CHATROOM at 9 PM (UK TIME) You can ask about the examples or just enjoy a random chat about crafts or just a laugh .

We will be posting next weeks prize preview on Sundays on our personal blogs so pop in and see next weeks great prize.

Bye for now

Challenge 2 round up July 3, 2008

Hello all

Well we’ve had loads of amazingly great and diverse  entries. From jewellery to dolls as well as papercrafts . digital and altered items , its a real pleasure looking through the weeks entries, and again being inspired to try something new ourselves. So as the whole point of This Thursday is to see differnt items entered to the challenge we can safely say that its already a resounding success. So thank you all for helping us to get This Thursday off to a flying start.

We’d also like to thank our very generous sponsor Daisy chain beads and our great Guest designer Marina for making challenge 2 a great success

So here are our 15 favorites this week, and again it was amazingly difficult to decide which ones leave out.

as you can see. So many absoloutly stunning peices that we had to get rid of many more we loved.

And this weeks winner chosen by the random numner generator is Louise Crosbie creator of one of my very favorites

Congratulations Louise as soon as we get your addy we will be posting the great prize donated by Daisy Chains beads,

Bye for now

Challenge 2 Beaded Beauties June 26, 2008

This weeks challenge was influenced by the prize

 which has been kindly offered by our second brilliant sponsor

Daisy Chains Beads specialise in selling beads in smaller or rural communities that have less access to bead shops. We love to get out and about and meet beaders , experts and beginners alike. I  see so many beautiful beaded pieces, our customers are a real inspiration. i have a bit of a dream to invite them to come and display their work at an arts centre in Powys, maybe in 2009 or 2010. It will take a lot of organising and some grant aid, but perhaps it will happen one day.Our stock is very mixed, from Swarovski to plastic, Murano to delicas to ethnic wood. We also like to keep a good stock of threads and findings. Our main speciality is probably our clearance lines, I think most of customers are very pleased at our prices ! Recently we have had strands of 8mm glass crackle beads for just 95p each. I can’t promise there will be any of them left at future sales, but there will be other excellent buys. We open from 10.30 - 3.30 and admission is free. For more information see www.artsandcrafts.co.uk. You can find us over the summer at the following venues;
  

Sunday 22nd June 2008       10:30 - 3:30       Gresford Memorial Hall,  Gresford, Nr Wrexham	Sunday 29th June 2008       10:30 - 3:30       Bartestree Village Hall, Herefordshire
Sunday 20th July 2008       10:30 - 3:30       Uckington Village Hall,  Gloucestershire	Sunday 27th July 2008       10:30 - 3:30       Hatton Village Hall,  Warwickshire
Saturday 9th August 2008       10:30 - 3:30       St Isan Church Hall, LLanishen, Cardiff	Sunday 24th August 2008       10:30 - 3:30       Chalgrave Memorial Hall, Nr Luton
Bank Holiday Monday* 25th August 2008       10.30 - 3.30       Tackley Village Hall, Nr Oxford	Sunday 6th September 2008        10.30 - 3.30        Powick Village Hall,  Worcestershire
Sunday 28th September 2008      10.30 -3.30      Minerva Arts Centre, Llanidloes, Powys

Tracey here , if you get the chance you really should go, I went to a recent one and bought all the beads I used in my button shank braclet. The selection and prices were brilliant, oh and I bought a  few strand of the crackle glass beads for 95p

So thats our sponsor and what a stunning prize. I know i have been drooling over it since it arrived.  I now have all of them on my too buy list . The lucky winner will enjoy playing with these

So todays challenge is Beaded Beauties, you can use beads (and for definition we will allow gems in as flatback beads) You can use images of beaded ladies etc. You can use the title, if you make art beads you can enter those . If its beaded and you have made it it can be entered. You can use digital beads.  If you can relate it to the title then you can enter it, Good luck we can’t wait to see what amazing peices you come up with after last weeks entries. All the beads in the examples are available from Daisy Chains beads either on their site or at their fairs

Our Guest designer today is Marina talented crafter and designer and owner of Cherry Pie Art stamps . A few words from Marina about the challenge

When I accepted being a guest designer I didn’t know I was up for real challenge. I’m a stamper and painter before anything else so it was a surprise to hear I’d be working with beads! I love beads, but I can’t consider myself a beader. A collector of beads… yes!
Anyway, I decided to add to it another challenge by using another medium I never used before: aluminum (alluminium in British English?) sheets. And third challenge: do something I can hang on a wall and wear too!
I started with cutting a rectangular piece of aluminum sheet (the thin kind you can emboss and cut with your scissors).
Then I cut strips of it on the short side leaving them attached to the long side. I didn’t pay much attention to cut straight or cut them all the same size. Then I took silver wire, put some beads in and started weaving
through the cut strips. One strip up and one strip down. One bead or two on the upper side until I reached the end and then the same again each row but alternating beads and aluminum. (hard to explain……… ouch! Does it make any sense?)For the last row I folded the endings inside.
Next I attached my beaded “thing” to black cardstock, more alluminum background and a black frame.

This same piece is flexible and it can be shaped like an armband. (see photo)

Tracey here again , I should also point out that Fiona and Susie both took a deep breath when they found out what the challenge was and have been beading outside their box this week, as neither have used many beads before, and Susie has made her 1st  jewellery a lovely set of earings well done, I’ve only been beading myself for 2 months and I made my 1st earings too,  and with no more addue (if thats how you spell it). Here are the design teams examples

 

All the design team went Wow when we saw Marina’s art peice, I think she rose to the challenge really well you can see more of marina’s work at http://zneiscrafty.ning.com/profile/marilenz and http://www.ebsqart.com/Artists/cmd_6212_profile.htm

Don’t forget that you can find us in the Chatroom this evening between 8pm and 9pm gaurenteed and later if we really get chatting .

I  was going to do a photo tutorial on my bolt of fabric bead, however , my 1st attempt at a photo tutorial did not go well, so I will be linking to a tutorial and just giving a few tips on how to acheive the bolt of fabric bead   , and there is a great collection of blingy paper downloads as seen on  JAKE The our little diamond digi lo,  on our freebee page.

Good luck to all who enter here Lol