Autumn is in the Air

Autumn (or Fall) has officially arrived and looking out I am reminded of a passage from Gerald Durrell's autobiography, 'My Family and Other Animals'.

“The gold and scarlet leaves that littered the countryside in great drifts whispered and chuckled among themselves, or took experimental runs from place to place, rolling like coloured hoops among the trees. It was as if they were practising something, preparing for something, and they would discuss it excitedly in rustly voices as they crowded round the tree trunks.”

Our challenge for the next two weeks is all about this season with it's wealth of colours and textures.  As always with our challenges, you can use any materials you like, to make anything you like, for example, a card, a box top, a gift bag, a scrapbook page, an ATC, or an inchie.

Our Design Team have come up with a few ideas to give you an idea of the sort of thing they had in mind.

Card by Lisette

Card by Dionne

Card by Lisette

Card by Dionne

 We should like to give you the opportunity to join in the fun at Crafty Boots Challenges and, therefore, we are offering guest design team spots to the winner and two runners up of this challenge.

This challenge will remain open until 12 Noon on Sunday, 9 October. There are very few rules to our Challenges but, if you would like to read them for yourself, you will find them here.

We are looking forward to seeing your projects, good luck.

'All Squared Up' Mid Challenge Reminder

We are back with the Mid Challenge reminder for the 'All Squared Up' Challenge.  The Design Team have been having a great time looking at all of your designs and there is still plenty of time to enter your projects.

The winners of this Challenge will be given the opportunity to be featured in a future challenge .  Zoe (This Little Place) and Wendy (Confessions of a Papersniffer) recently won our  fist ever Picture Challenge.  They are both very talented crafters, check out their blogs.

Zoe

  Hello I'm Zoe and delighted to have been asked to be the Guest Designer for this challenge.   On reaching 60 earlier this this year came retirement, completely loving this and taking full advantage of the time it gives me to do what I love best.   What is that? messy arty crafty things of course!

My earliest memories of card making are of a card and glitter set my Mum got me when I was about 8.   Because of dyslexia my thought process are pictorial it came as a big surprise when it was explained to me that most people mentally visualise words and letters.   Try as hard as I might that skill eludes me, but hay the compensation is a rich parade of pictures often in cartoon form!   Little wonder then that expressing myself visually.

Happy to play with most mediums, not so good with needle and thread but that cross stitch project might get finished one day.   Favourite activities are things you get your hands into, the messier the better.  As soon as I learn't today's theme my mind went to the squares shadow stamp and some old KanBan mats.   After that it was easy, a little stamping some white pen highlights and lots of layering.   Have fun with the challenge and thank you again for inviting me.

Wendy

  Hi, my name's Wendy Fraser, otherwise known as Papersniffer, and yes, I really do love the smell of craft paper! I'm a married, stay at home Mum of one living in Inverness in the Highlands of Scotland and I'm passionate about all thing papercraft. If I'm not crafting you can usually find me in the kitchen cooking or baking or chatting with friends over a large pot of tea. 

As always, our fabulous Design Team have a few more cards to show you, you just cannot stop these ladies from crafting!

Card by Lisette

Card by Dionne

Card by Jess

Card by Lisette

Card by Dionne

This challenge will remain open until 12 Noon on Sunday, 25 September. Please click here to go directly to the challenge.

'All Squared Up' Challenge

Today sees the start of a new Crafty Boots Challenge, which we have called 'All Squared Up'. For the next two weeks we challenge you to use lots of squares in your projects, big squares, small squares, one square, many squares, square cards, square canvasses, square scrapbook pages etc.

Your project does not have to be a card, you can use any materials you like to make anything you like, for example, a card, a box top, a gift bag, a scrapbook page, an ATC, an inchie, etc, just as long as you include squares.

Our Design Team have come up with a few ideas to share with you:

Card by Lisette

Card by Dionne

Card by Lisette

Card by Dionne

We should like to give you the opportunity to join in the fun at Crafty Boots Challenges and, therefore, we are offering guest design team spots to the winner and two runners up of this challenge.

This challenge will remain open until 12 Noon on Sunday, 25 September. There are very few rules but, if you would like to read them for yourself, you will find them here.

We are looking forward to seeing your projects, good luck.

'You are My Sunshine' Mid Challenge Reminder

We are back today with our 'You Are My Sunshine' Mid Challenge Reminder. All of the entries we have seen so far have been so uplifting, the designs are bright and cheerful.

The winners of this Challenge will be given the opportunity to be featured in a future challenge as Guest Designers. Deanne and Carole recently won our 'Christmas in July' Challenge and we are so pleased that they are able to join the Design Team for this week and we are sure that many of you will be familiar with their blogs 'Little Bot O'Paper' and 'Craftilicious Creations'.

Deanne

My name is Deanne Clarke-Saunders. My hubby and I live in Paradise, Newfoundland Canada. I was an elementary teacher for 23 years but retired early. I am now an Early Childhood Educator (couldn’t stay away from the kiddies!!). I have always enjoyed playing with paper, scissors, glue, and ESPECIALLY crayons and pencil crayons, ever since I’ve been a small child. I just couldn’t stop playing, so I continued by scrapbooking and card-making!  I love it!!! My hubby calls me a paper hoarder. He just MAY be right, but I’d never tell him that!!! A man doesn’t need to know he’s right!!! haha!

Carole

Hello! My name is Carole Jones. I live in the NW of England with my husband, David, and Casey, our cat.  My blog is called Craftilicious Creations.  I’m currently on a Design Team and have a couple of Guest Designer spots coming up. I’m over the moon as I’ve just been selected for a new DT role which starts in December.

I have been a crafter for as long as I can remember and have tried everything from cross-stitch to scrapbooking, journaling, mixed media, pocket letters and mosaic making. I started learning how to make cards earlier this year and created my blog so that I could enter challenges. I love looking through and commenting upon challenge entries and DT samples and love it when I find a new technique that I can use.

Thank you to all at Crafty Boots for having me as a Guest Designer – it really is an honour!

This has been such a fun challenge we were unable to stop the Design Team making a few more cards.

Card by Dionne

Card by Lisette

Card by Dionne

Card by Lisette

Card by Dionne

This challenge will remain open until 12 Noon on Sunday, 11 September. Please click here to go directly to the challenge.