January 6, 2010 by billiescraftroom
Welcome Back
Having announced the concept for the overall theme for 2010, in the last post. January 2010’s theme is:
A
Great I hear you say, but now what? Well for those of you who would like a few ideas to get you started, here are some colours, products and techniques to help you choose, where you could go with this month’s theme. Feel free to use your own ideas for the letter A.
Colours
Products
- Alcohol Inks
- Acrylic Paints
Techniques
- Acrylic; this could be as a surface to paint on or to create a 3d project with.
- Altered Art: Don’t be afraid of the title, this simply means taking an object and altering it, recovering it in pretty paper, ink, paint that sort of thing
- Art
- Art Journal; Always wanted to start one of these? This could be the perfect time to start
- ATC; Artist Trading Card, 2.5 x 3.5″ card, decorated to your chosen theme.
The most important thing about this challenge is that you have fun and explore. Don’t feel pressured to have a finished item at the end of the month. Explore different styles and techniques either in person, if you have the suppliers or through research, looking online. You learn so much more when you take away the rules and just PLAY.
Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon
Billie
Posted in Art, Art Journal, Paper Craft, The Virtual Crafting Challenge | 2 Comments »
January 4, 2010 by billiescraftroom
Welcome Back
While thinking up ideas for this years Virtual Crafting Challenge, one of the biggest challenges for me, is to create themes that will be accessable to creative people of all abilities. Something that someone new to creating can join in with as well as something that season crafters/artists will also find challenging.
This year I’ve decided on a slightly different concept, a continuing theme running, but with plenty of scope for people to take the challenge in many directions according to their current skills. I think your going to like it
The ongoing theme is
The Alphabet
Here’s the twist though, this challenge is more about exploring new ideas rather than having a finished piece at the end of each month. Each month will have a letter of the alphabet assigned to it, but how you interpret that is personal choice. I’ll suggest a few colours, products and techniques that begin with the letter that you could try. Everyone’s creative journey is different, there are plenty of challenges where the design of a finished product is given and you just fill in the blanks, but these are everywhere.
With The Virtual Crafting Challenge it’s all about where YOU want to go. I may suggest some ideas to get you started, even if you don’t have the tools to actually create something, have a look around the internet on the techniques mentioned, you may just discover it is something you want to try later on. You may wish to choose your own subject based on that month’s letter, great go for it, that’s just the sort of thing this challenge encourages.
At the end of the month if you have created something you wish to share, leave me a comment. I’d love to see where you go with these ideas.
Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon
Billie
Posted in Art, Art Journal, Hint & Tips, Paper Craft, Stamping, Swaps and Challenges, The Virtual Crafting Challenge | Leave a Comment »
January 1, 2010 by billiescraftroom
Welcome Back
Wishing you all a Happy healthy New Year
Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon
Billie
Posted in Announcements | 4 Comments »
December 30, 2009 by billiescraftroom
Welcome Back
Today I would like to share a free download with you. After the popularity of the December calendar page, I’ve been busy again and created a new one for you, for January 2010. I wondered what image to use, then luckily we had a generous snowfall and so many beautiful scenes arrived.

January 2010 Calendar Page to Download
How to Use
- Click on the image to open the calendar picture to full size.
- Right Click and choose ‘Save As’ from the list of options.
- You can print it as, is or open a Word Processing programme and insert the image. (Once it is on your machine.) This will give you more control of the final size of the calendar page.
Feel free to tell your friends about this offer and forward them a link to this site.
Let me know what you think, of these calendar pages. If comments suggest this is popular…it just might become a regular feature.
Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon
Billie
Posted in Announcements, Freebies | Tagged January 2010 Free Calendar | 4 Comments »
December 28, 2009 by billiescraftroom
Welcome Back
In the fourth installment of my Altered Baubles project here is my latest creation.

Gold, browns & green Altered Christmas Bauble
As before the original baubles looked like this;

Original Baubles before altering
Today’s bauble was originally bright Gold. It was coloured using Ranger’s alcohol inks in; Terracotta, Rust and Bottle.
These would make great presents and be ideal wrapped using the exploding box, shown in an earlier post. Do have a go at these yourself and let me see the results.
Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon
Billie
Posted in Art, Hint & Tips, Paper Craft, Ranger, Show & Tell, Stamping | Tagged Altered Baubles, Altered Christmas Decorations, Christmas project | 4 Comments »
December 25, 2009 by billiescraftroom
Welcome Back
Thank you to everyone who has visited my blog this year and a special Christmas kiss to everyone who left me a comment.
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Christmas Tree
This was a break from tradition of Gold and Red for the tree colours. Silver and purple….not sure, it’s a bit cold ;( I think next time it will be back to trad colours. I miss multi coloured lights. These purple lights, turned out more hot pink than purple. Reds & golds are much warmer colours.
I do adore my blown glass birds though, there’s four hiding in the tree, see how many you can spot
Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon
Billie
Posted in Announcements | Tagged Season's Greetings | 1 Comment »
December 23, 2009 by billiescraftroom
Welcome Back
In the third installment of my Altered Baubles project, here is my latest creation.

Gold, browns & green Altered Bauble
As before the original baubles looked like this;

Original Baubles before altering
Today’s bauble was originally the matt gold one. It was coloured using Ranger’s alcohol inks in; Terracotta, Rust and Bottle.
These would make great presents and be ideal wrapped using the exploding box, shown in an earlier post. Do have a go at these yourself and let me see the results.
Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon
Billie
Posted in Art, Hint & Tips, Paper Craft, Ranger, Show & Tell, Stamping | Tagged Altered Baubles, Altered Christmas Decorations, Christmas project | 2 Comments »