2015 Topic 7: Niches {Challenge}

Topic 7: Niches

Hi everyone, 

Wow, what an amazing week of #3UP that was to close the first semester of the year! The blog has been inspiring so many people so far in 2015, and we hop that as we move into another season, you continue to take time for yourself to enjoy the creative process. The more we make and play, the more we learn!

Before we start the new topic, here is Gillian to announce the challenge winner for the final topic of the lat semester, Topic 6: Grunge Paste 

Hi everyone, Gillian here. Not just 2 but 3 weeks of amazing projects, hope you loved our 3 up week and round up. Once again you rose the to challenge, in this case texture paste.. and oh wow we had texture upon texture upon texture. Be still my beating heart. Thankyou for all your entries, so inspiring.. 

Sooooo, the winning name from Topic 6: Grunge Paste..goes to... Ruth from A Love To Create

 To claim your £50 voucher, please email me, Darcy with your details to darcydotneedles@hotmail.com and I'll explain how you claim your prize. 

Thanks Gillian for drawing the prize winner, and well done to our latest winner Ruth. 

so....it's Leandra back for the rest of this post to chat some more about possible 'Niche' ideas with you. Topic 7 of 2015 is niches.

Sorry, no video this week, life just got too crazy getting ready for Ally Pally AND Version Scrap. But I do have some scrummy pictures instead!

When I first started moving on from cards and embossing into creating dimensional art, Altered Books was the thing to get stuck into. At that time, the fist thing I wanted to do was make a niche in an old book, but since then, I have realised there are so many other types of niches that are also possible. I wonder what you might do!

I have been keeping a Niche Board on Pinterest, so do take a look there, I have only got a smattering of the samples from there featured here, but Pinterest have so many great ideas to whet your appetite.

Jewellery is a great place to start if you want to do mini niches, 

...bezels offer lots of fun...with ice resin of course!

Tins offer all kinds of options...

...book in a box perhaps??

...altoid tins often can be found re-purposed, I like this orientation 

But you can see niches in all kinds of objects

...you can even buy them ready to decorate

or create them yourself from all sorts of things!

or keep it really simple

...like this matchbox

...or perhaps you feel a spring decorating mission coming on...

fancy arranging some niche shelves??

...a box niche forms the body here

and here looks a similar box with a different vibe

And finally a trio of niches.

All the niches pictured in this post are featured on my Pinterest page, so if you want to see where they came from, go there and follow the links.

So, go on, dig out something with a bit of depth to it, and see what you can do to it!  Have a great week. 

~Leandra

We would love you to join in with challenge #7: Niches. Feel free to join in and share your destructive-creative ideas over the next 2 weeks and link up your creativity to this page.


All links go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Niches link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, April 26th, winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

Challenge Guidelines

1. The challenge is a chance for you to show how you have been inspired by a particular technique of the fortnight. Your entry should contain:

- a mention of which post inspired you and why, and 

- a link in your blog post to that original post on the PA blog.

The whole concept of this challenge is 'play along with us'. You are encouraged to put your own twist on ideas you see on our blog, don't feel obliged to copy an idea exactly, but if you prefer to replicate, of course that is fine too. We love to see how you are inspired!

2. The link you put on our linky page must lead directly to the specific post on your blog where you have explored the technique/ idea mentioned in point 1 above. Don't link to the home page of your blog, or we will be unable to find the post to leave you comments.

3. Spam links will be deleted.

4. We prefer your challenge post is created exclusive to our challenge. Multiple challenge links in one blog post often creates a conflict of interest between the different challenge hosts.

5. You are most welcome to use stamps/ products/ substrates you have to hand from a variety of companies, we do not expect you to exclusively use PA products - but of course it's lovely when you do!

6. You can enter as many times as you like in the fortnight. We don't want to restrict your creativity or participation! Link closes at 17:00 Sunday April 26th.

7. The winner of the random draw will receive a £50 credit to be redeemed on the PaperArtsy Website, the credit includes VAT and postage. We request that one of your purchases is an A5 rubber stamp. You can add any other items to your basket, but the final total should not exceed £50

8. Each Sunday fortnight the winner will be announced at 19:00, also, in the same post, the link for the next fortnight will be posted. It's your responsibility to claim your prize coupon from Darcy: email her darcydotneedles@hotmail.com

Good Luck! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!