Take time to enjoy your day - CHF Challenge

Each week I have been joining in the weekly Cornish Heritage Farm Summer Challenge and I have found each one more difficult than the last.

This challenge especially so.



It is called 'Make a Scene' and the challenge is to make a scene with a least one (or more) stamps from the CHF range.

I haven't had time to build up the collection of stamps - yet - from Cornish Heritage, so have been limited with what I can do!

I was really stuck with this one - until last night - when I was out in my studio in the garden and saw the sunset - and started to day dream.

The stamp I have used is from the Rummage Bin and called 'Sweet Little One'. It's a collage stamp - so I have just used a small portion of it. The little girl crouching.


So I daydreamed about a little girl playing out in the meadow on the farm, having a wonderful time - until mummy calls her in for bed time. She crouches down and plays hide and seek waiting for her mum to find her, almost camouflaged in her pink dress, and the wild flowers, and the reflection of the sun as dusk begins to fall. You can almost feel the anticipation on her face as she is keeping as quiet as she can - and wondering if mummy will find her - which of course she does, sweeping her up off her feet, giggling as she is carried indoors for supper.

Cornish Heritage Farm - Summer Challenge

I have been joining in the weekly Cornish Heritage Farm Summer Challenge and quite a challenge it has turned out to be - for me!

For a start, I hadn't made many cards - and now I am 'forced' to make one each week. I could made an alternative project, but I really haven't had the time.

I was out this morning, and lunch time and early afternoon we had the most horrendous storm again, right over where I live. The power kept going off - and we got hailstones again, and the roof leaked in the conservatory at one end - because they haven't been yet to repair the last damage.

But - I was able to protect the chair and catch the water - so no big deal, nothing got soaked except some towels.

It did give me the opportunity to try out the 'Resist' challenge for this week!

Oh my gosh - did I find it hard! Had several attempts - and this is my final effort.



Using a lace background stamp from Cornish Heritage Farm, I stamped in clear ink onto card stock, used clear embossing powder, and heated from the reverse (as per instructions on a tutorial on their site (using different stamps).

I inked over it with Hazelnut, then ironed off the embossing powder. The other two CHF stamps you have seen me use before - and these were stamped in the usual way.



I mounted them all onto a deep purple/maroon card which I had previously stamped with Hazelnut using the Lace background stamp, so the pattern is the reverse to that of the white backing paper. I 'grunged' the little label on the tag I made too.

It is a nice effect in real life.

Looking through some magazines as I was sorting out, I noticed that the 'in thing' seems to be scattering a few petals around your art work - so I scattered all the ones I have - and luckily the colour matched - perhaps it will get my entry noticed for all the right reasons this week. LOL

Paper piecing at 4am in the morning - for CHF

I woke up early this morning and just could not sleep - so got up, let my chickens out of their run which looks much like this in the stamped image, then headed for my studio and experimented with paper piecing for the Cornish Heritage Farm challenge which is taking place this summer.

I haven't been able to do any crafting or much else this week - so it was really good to have a play again.



This stamp is from their Rummage Bin range, and I just had to have it!

Paper piecing is when you stamp on different sheets of paper with the same stamp, and then cut out different elements of each one to form one picture.

I stamped a number of times on a 12x12 sheet of Basic Grey 'Perhaps' which has large stylised flowers on it in 'blobs' of shades of pink, also 'blobs' of greens and browns and blues.

Because of the intricacy of this collage stamp, I found it really difficult and tricky to cut out and around each part of the image. Ditto the tee-shirts - and trying to cut out that wording - took so many attempts!

For instance - either side of the chicken wire fencing in the background - very hard to cut around their heads and arms with out lopping off something I shouldn't and to get it to butt up tight to their faces and heads and arms, and to layer it all so that it looks seamless and 'flat' was quite a challenge for me - but I felt a buzz of achievement when I finally finished it.


The first stamped image was on textured cream card - although it looks white in my photo tsk. I coloured the arms and faces in a pale pink blusher and shaded them.

The chicken run is a darker brown than in the photo - and this I cut out after stamping on a plain sheet of brown paper.

All the other pieces are from the Basic Grey sheet. The backing paper is K&Co printed on Vellum.

I used floristry antique gold chicken wire to mount it on - but I am not sure that it works.


This is the 'naked' version - which do you think is best.

The challenge is just a bit of fun - but there are prizes each week - I am not holding my breath for any of those LOL - pop over and take a look at the gallery with the entries in - my there are some extremely talented ladies on there.

What this is doing, is getting me to make the effort to try different things with my limited CHF stamps, and to do something every week!