BasicGrey Challenges 31 - Autumn/Harvest Time

Hi everyone, hope your weekend is off to a good start. A new challenge on BasicGrey challenges today which is Autumn/Harvest Time. There's some wonderful inspiration from my DT friends and a great prize from our sponsor Simon Says Stamp so I hope you can join us.

I've given my plain wooden box the distressed treatment with acrylic paint, lots scraping back and sanding and over stamping with a polka dot background stamp. On top I've decorated with die cut paper from the BasicGrey Capella collection and a moulded acetate TH alterations die cut leaf which has been coloured with alcohol inks and covered in Utee, I also added the metal catch on the front and some gold metallic ink inside and on the edges of the top panel which means I can enter the SSSS challenge this week of 'show your metal' :). 

Enjoy your Saturday and thanks as always for your lovely comments.

BasicGrey Challenges 30 - Sparkle

Hi everyone, hope your weekend is off to a good start. A new challenge on BasicGrey challenges today which is Sparkle and also it's the announcement of our new DT members Christine, Gio, Lou and Sandra so welcome to you all girls, it's great to have you with us! There's some wonderful inspiration from my DT friends for the sparkle challenge and a great prize from our sponsor Simon Says Stamp so I hope you can join us.

I've made a little canvas which has some BG Wassail paper for the background, a Crafty Individuals printed image from a Christmas pad, some metal corners, gems, paper poinsettia flower and lace, then a layer of beeswax coated in perfect pearls for more sparkle.

Enjoy your Saturday and thanks as always for your lovely comments.

BasicGrey Challenges 28 - Paper Piecing and DT CALL

Hi everyone, hope you've all had a good week and a bit of sunshine! A new challenge on BasicGrey Challenges today and some news about our challenge too which is further down in the post. For this challenge we're paper piecing and my DT friends have made some beautiful paper pieced cards for inspiration so I hope you can join us. I've chosen a digi image by Cristy Croll which I've paper pieced digitally onto Websters Pages Sweet as Cherry Pie paper printed on textured card and coloured with copics. The background paper is from BasicGrey's Lemonade collection and I've added a punched border, purple ribbon and a punched flower to finish off.

The news: we're having a DT call! So if you fancy joining our little BasicGrey challenges family and love BasicGrey products then all the details are below.

Hey all

The team and i think its about time we had some new faces added to our little BasicGrey Challenges Family, don't you?, so we have decided to run a Design Team Call and we are looking for 4 new members to add to our little Family :)

So here are all the details then :)

(Please be sure to read everything thoroughly before applying)

What We Are Looking For

We are looking for 4 new Design Team Members with a love of BasicGrey just like us :), any and all styles of crafting is welcome :)

How Long The DT Call Is Open

The DT Call will be open for 2 weeks, closing on Saturday the 18th of September at 11.00pm (GMT), all applications must be received by then

How To Apply

To apply all you need to do is to take part in this fortnights challenge here and leave a link to your creation in the Mr Linky Widget at the bottom of this post, please put DT beside your name to try and save confusion to the peeps taking part in this fortnights challenge two posts down.

If you do not have a blog to link to then by all means feel free to Email Us your Applications :)

DT Requirements

As a DT Member you would be required to take part in our Fortnightly Challenges following the theme of the set Challenge, you will know all of the upcoming challenges in advance, so not to worry, You would also be required to take part in any other events that we may hold, like a Blog Hop for example :) (one of which will be held very very soon)

Part Of Another Design Team

Not to worry, as long as you can commit to the BasicGrey Challenges DT and are not conflicted with other DT work then of course feel free to apply, but please consider the new workload before you apply, the last thing we want is for you to struggle to keep up with the Challenges, this is meant to be fun and stress free, not a job that you feel obliged to do, so again please do keep that in mind :)

No Previous Design Team Experience

Not a problem at all, we welcome all applications whether you have DT experience or not, in fact we would encourage peeps with no previous DT experience to try out for our Design Team, more so over those that do, we want to give everyone a fair chance :)

No Blog

No problem, a blog is not required to be part of the BasicGrey Challenges Family, as long as you have an active Email account so you can send us your DT Creations then that is fine and dandy :)

When The New DT Will Be Announced

The new DT Members will be announced during our upcoming blog hop (date to be announced very very soon), this way we can celebrate our new Family Members in style :), and yes that means you will be required to take part in the blog hop, we hope that is ok? (for other DT requirements please see above)

FAQ

A few things you might like to know :)

Are you associated with BasicGrey?

Sadly no :(, we are not in anyway associated with BasicGrey, We are just crafters who have a love of their wonderful crafty goodies like many of you :)

Do I Need To Use BasicGrey Products?

Well ….. yes, this is a BasicGrey Challenge Blog after all, so you will need to use at least one item of BasicGrey on each of your fortnightly challenge creations, this means you will be required to have at least a few BasicGrey products in your collection

Will I Be Given BasicGrey Products To Use In My Design Team Work?

As much as i would love to spoil each of the DT Members with ooodles and ooodles of BasicGrey goodies, truthfully i am afraid my purse wouldn't be very happy with me if i did :(, but … keeping that in mind, i do like to send my lovely BG challenge family members little surprises now and again ;) , but shhhh don't tell my purse lol

Right then, i think everything has been covered :), here is the Mr Linky then :), we look forward to your applications :)

Have a great weekend!

BasicGrey Challenges 26 - Pearls

Hi everyone, hope your weekend is off to a good start. A new challenge today on BasicGrey Challenges and this time our theme is pearls as well as including something from a BasicGrey collection. There's a great prize as always from our sponsor Simon Says Stamp and some amazing inspiration from my DT friends so I hope you can join us.

I used some paper from the Porcelain collection, made a border with a Martha Stewart heart punch and the image is from a Crafty Individuals pad of nature themed images. I've decorated with punched butterflies, Viva pearl pen and white satin ribbon. Enjoy your Saturday and thanks for all your lovely comments, they're very much appreciated.

BasicGrey Challenges 16 – Tutti Frutti

Hi everyone, hope you’re all well and already enjoying the weekend. It’s a new challenge on BasicGrey and this time our theme is Tutti Frutti!  Amazing inspiration as always from my DT friends and a great prize from Simon Says Stamp to make things even sweeter :D, I hope you can join us.

I’ve used one of the lovely papers from the new BG Green at heart collection, a pear stamp by ‘Me and Carrie Lou’  to fit in with the challenge which I embossed in gold then water coloured with distress inks. All the edges are distressed and sponged with Walnut stain ink, the pear has been cut out and mounted over the punched square of cream card with dimension tape. The cream square is also popped up but I didn’t manage to catch the effect in the photo. Amazingly, NO stickles was used on this card………… think I’d better go and have a lie down :D! TFL and thanks as always for your lovely comments, I appreciate them very much.

BG 14 – Colour inspiration

Hi everyone, hope your weekend is off to a good start. We have a lovely colour combo to work with for challenge 14 on BasicGrey Challenges which I loved so thanks Martine. We’re sponsored as always by Simon Says Stamp, offering a lovely prize as long as you include a BasicGrey product on your creation and there’s some gorgeous inspiration from my DT friends, I hope you can join us.

I’ve made a butterfly shaped card, cut on the Cricut from yellow Core’dinations card and on top I cut another smaller butterfly from Paper from the June Bug pad. All the edges are sponged with aged mahogany distress ink, closest I could get to maroon and to finish off I added some pink gemstones and a pretty ribbon. Have a good weekend and TFL.

BasicGrey Challenges 13 - Sketch

Hi everyone and wishing you all a happy weekend. Another BasicGrey challenge starts today, I don’t know where the weeks are going! This time we have a great sketch designed by our lovely Martine and it’s one that I’ll be keeping in my stash with all her others :), thanks Martine! I realise now that I completely lost the plot with the underneath layers  :) oops! As always there’s superb inspiration from my DT friends and some gorgeous takes on the sketch (correctly done :) and images used. I hope you can join us and of course there’s also a lovely prize from our sponsor Simon Says Stamp

I’m also entering my card into these challenges: ABC challenge with a theme of ‘new’ using new stash, my focal image is from a Crafty Individuals book ‘nature’s beauty’ which has just come out and is available at the Craft Barn and I got this recently. La La Land Crafts has a heart theme and there are a few of those on my card.
I used the pretty dragonfly image from the image book and I inked around the edges with distress ink, matted on white and placed some gems cut from a prima gem swirl over the top. The card is a gatefold shape, I’ve used BG Marrakech paper, two die cut trellises on either side, die cut border and heart all of which were sponged around the edges with Walnut stain and Milled Lavender distress ink. To finish off I glittered the heart with chunky glitter, added the gem, pearl pin, lemon tulle, leaf ribbon, flowers, Melissa Frances resin corner and the little sentiment tags (Elzybells stamps). I decorated the inside too but forgot to take a photo of that :)!
I forgot to mention earlier that Winter Wonderland Challenge Blog is holding a week long blog hop this week with lots of prizes to be won, it finishes tonight at 6pm so there’s still time to do it. As ever I’m way behind with commenting……… same old story from me, apologies. TFL.

BasicGrey Challenges - 6 - Colour Combo

Hi everyone, hope you're all off with a good start to the weekend. We have a new challenge at BasicGrey challenges today with a lovely colour combination of  green red and blue and if you include a BasicGrey product you can be in with a chance of being entered into the monthly draw. There's some fantastic cards from my DT friends which I hope you can pop over to see and that you'll join us for the challenge. I'm also entering this card into the Just Magnolia challenge which this week is bright and zingy.

I've used the gorgeous Magnolia Dinner Tilda and I've water coloured her with distress inks. The matting layers are red and blue bazzil card and BasicGrey Eskimo Kisses paper, I've done a bit of sponging on the edges and punched a border with an MS punch. The base card is pale green and I've stamped onto that with an Artistic Stamper dot background stamp in Fired Brick distress ink which I've rubbed off in places with a tissue. Added some doodling in red pen, some stickles, red flowers, a white rub on sentiment which I don't think shows up too well and I rounded some of the corners with a corner rounder punch to finish. Have a good weekend. TFL.

BasicGrey Challenge 5 - Sketch

Hi everyone, hope you had a good Saturday and here I am a bit late I'm afraid with my card for BasicGrey Challenges. This week we have a great sketch for you to follow which has been designed by our lovely Martine and which you can rotate or flip however you like as long as the sketch can still be seen. I hope you can join us, there's loads of amazing inspiration from all my DT friends and of course there's the fantastic prize draw as long you use a BasicGrey product on your creation. We would also like to welcome Ruth as our guest designer for the month of October it's great to have you on the team Ruth and I hope you enjoy it.

I've coloured a sweet little Ketto stamp for this card (thank you Kim x) which I've coloured with copics and added some Stardust Stickles for a bit of sparkle. The base card and the piece embossed and sanded with a CB music folder are Coredinations Card. The other layers are BG Sugared and I've used a small piece of this to make the little curled sentiment strip and used a Doodlebug rub on for the sentiment. To finish off there's some thin ribbon and pink gems and BG buttons. Hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend. TFL.

BasicGrey Challenges 4 - Embossing

Hi everyone, hope you're off to a good start with the weekend, we have a bit of sun here so I'm happy! A card today for BasicGrey Challenges where this time it's the lucky draw challenge and the theme picked is embossing which can be dry or heat embossing or both and the project must contain at least one BG product. I've chosen dry embossing for my card and I've embossed the BG Boxer background paper with a CB Argyle folder, I also embossed a panel of the Kraft card. The image is a Gorjuss Girl from Sugar Nellie water coloured with distress inks and I've added some stickles here and there and sponged the edges of the image with peeled paint distress ink. The BG paper is edged distressed with scissors and I've added some doodling with a white gel pen. It's all finished off with a pretty flower that I got from the Craft Barn, gems, punched leaves and a rust coloured satin bow. I hope you can join us this time and there's some wonderful inspiration from my DT friends to start it off. Enjoy your Saturday, Chris x

BasicGrey Challenge 29 - Easter/Spring theme

Hi everyone, I hope you're weekend is off to a good start, and you're ready for another BasicGrey Challenge which this week has lovely theme of Easter/Spring. Hope you can pop over to the challenge blog and join us and you'll find some fantastic inspiration and great ideas from my lovely DT friends as always (they amaze me every single week!)

I've used my Easter Egg with Tulips digi image for this card which I printed on white card and coloured with markers for the flower section and distress inks for a muted effect on the top and bottom. I cut it out taking off the scallops that are all around the border on the image as I wanted to create an oval scalloped aperture with the egg image raised on dimension tape on the inside of the card. I created the aperture by attaching the BG sugared paper over the cream card blank and then cutting out with the largest oval scalloped nestie to make the hole. I've doodled around the edges of the paper and the card blank, added some stickles, gems and the sheet dotted ribbon to finish. Hope to see you in the challenge. TFL. Chris x

BasicGrey Challenge 23 'Colour Combo'

Hi everyone, another Saturday and another BasicGrey Challenge which this week is a colour combo and a choice of:

Pink and Green
Pink and Brown
Blue and Brown

I hope you can join in this week, there's fantastic inspiration from my DT friends and a lovely prize of 2 downloads of your choice from new sponsors The Cutting Cafe. We've all been lucky enough to be able to use the gorgeous cupcake images for our cards this week. I chose the pink and green colour combo and coloured my cupcake with markers, cut it out and added some stardust stickles to the icing. I also used the cake stand from the set which is cut with rectangle nestabilities and matted on the scalloped rectangle of pale pink bazzil card, the image panel is finished with some sparkly pink gel pen doodling. The background paper is from BG Porcelain collection layered over some green coredinations card which I've distressed at the edges. I punched a border for the top with a MS doily lace punch, added the pink and green ribbons, little sentiment circle from the set and a gem to finish. TFL. Chris

BasicGrey Challenge 19 - Recipe Challenge

Hi everyone, Saturday and time for another BasicGrey Challenge.
I hope you can join in, the DT have some incredibly beautiful cards for inspiration and there's a great prize too.

For this weeks challenge we would like you to follow a recipe, you can of course add more embellishments etc to your creations but please make sure to use all of the ingredients in the recipe on your creations, and of course not forgetting to use at least one item from BasicGrey

Ingredients

2 Patterned papers
1 Button
1 Ribbon and Bow
3 Brads

For my card this week I haven't used an image, I wanted to use the Granola papers which I think are gorgeous and I wanted to highlight the lovely flower pattern. All the layers are matted on black card and the edges distressed on the smaller panel. The sentiment is Penny Black stamped in Timber Brown Versafine ink, sponged with distress ink and mounted on dimension tape as is the flower paper panel. I added three small gold brads and gold ribbon to this panel and made the button from a punched out flower of white card and only because I wanted a gold button and didn't have one! It was fun to do and very quick and you can even see the dimension tape I mounted it with if you look closely LOL. ah well, too late now. I punched the four holes with a piercing tool and then double heat embossed with gold embossing powder. TFL. Back soon, Chris

Materials:
Paper and Card: BasicGrey Granola 6x6 pad, black canson card
Stamp: Penny Black, versafine timber brown ink
Embellishment: Doodlebug gold brads, scissors for distressing, dimension tape, wide gold ribbon, stampendous gold embossing powder, piercing tool, Ranger Distress ink: old paper, sponge

BasicGrey Challenge 18 - Digi-print

Hi everyone, I can't believe another week has gone by and it's time for the next BasicGrey Challenge. This week it's digi print and a huge treat for everyone as there's a fantastic free Valentine image to download and print to use for your card by my fabulously talented team mate Kim. Thank you Kim your illustrations are wonderful, full of character and a real pleasure to colour. I chose the gorgeous Valentine girl, she has such a lovely wistful look about her, I wonder who she's day dreaming about? The whole time I was colouring her for some reason the Phil Collins song 'Two hearts' was going through my head so it ended up on my card! I think I'm taking a leaf from the book of my other team mate Tara who crafts to music and uses song titles, and I love that. I used markers to colour and cut the image out with the largest scalloped heart nestie, doodled the song title and dots around the edges and then attached to the card over a layer of BG Wassail paper (it's not just for Christmas LOL)! I used a CB die for the heart corner and the centre pieces from them for the other side of the card, these have all been given a coating of red stickles. Added a red ribbon and doodled faux stitching around the edges on the card blank in white gel pen. I hope you can join in this week and there's some fantastic inspiration from the challenge team. Hope your weekend has started well. TFL.

Materials:
Image: Digi-stamp by Kim (paperbabe), Valentine girl
Colouring: Promarkers
Paper: BasicGrey Wassail, red Canford card
Embellishment: Red organza ribbon, red stickles, CB heart corner die, white gel pen

BasicGrey Challenge 17 - Chipboard

Hi everyone, hope your weekend is off to a good start in these freezing temperatures!

On BasicGrey Challenge this week.

"For this weeks challenge we would like to see you use some chipboard in your creations, fear not if you don't have any chipboard though, a good alternative is to recycle think cardboard that is usually found in boxes, simply cut some shapes from it, decorate it how you please and your good to go :), and of course not to forget to use at least one item from BasicGrey somewhere on your creation" I hope you can join in this week and that you'll be able to visit the rest of the creative team to see their wonderful work"!

I've made up a chipboard accordian tag with pictures I took in my garden for the challenge this week and I really enjoyed making it as I don't often do this kind of project. The tag started life plain brown and so I painted the whole thing with white acrylic paint and allowed to dry. Next step was to sponge on distress inks in lots of colours in a random way all over it, I blended these together with the sponge and allowed to dry which takes a bit longer than normal because of the acrylic paint underneath. I used a basic grey flower stamp to randomly stamp over everything and sponged around the edges with black ink. I then placed my pictures which are matted on black card, doodled some dots on them with a clear sparkle gel pen and added stickles in various colours to the centres of some of the stamped flowers. The paper flowers are punched from BG Two Scoops papers with a retro flower punch and shaped with a ball tool, I also placed pearls and gems in the flower centres. To embellish I did some swirly doodling between the flowers on the background, added the ribbons to the top of each tag piece and wrote on the date of the pictures with a black fineliner pen. I've taken a few more pictures (see below) close up of each panel as it's difficult to photograph the whole tag and still see the details. TFL and have a great weekend.




Materials:

K&co Chipboard accordian tag
Stamps: Basic Grey Ornamental garden
Ink: Versafine Black Onyx, Ranger Distress inks in Aged Mahogany, shabby shutters, milled lavender, spiced marmalade, mustard seed, dusty concord, black soot.
Embellishment: White acrylic artist paint, EK Success Retro Flower punch, ball shaping tool, foam mat, stickles in star dust, blue, green, yellow and fruit punch, Sakura clear sparkle gel pen, black fineliner pen, pearls and gems and various ribbons from stash, sponges

Back soon, Chris