A colour challenge at Crafty Ann's

Hi there, well I've been very quiet again this week but today its time for a new challenge from Crafty Ann's Challenge blog and this time around its a colour challenge:

you have a choice of either a monochrome card in shades of turquoise/aqua, or lilac/purple or you can do a duotone card using both of these colour palettes. These colours only please, this isn't a general monochrome challenge

I've chosen to make a duotone card using Crafty Ann's image 'Beautiful Hibiscus', its one of my favourite of Ann's images as it looks gorgoeus whatever colour palette you use. I've added a little black enamel accents to the flower centres and popped the image up on 3d foam over a paper doiley. The backing paper is from Crafty Ann's imperial purple scrapbook kit. You can find Crafty Ann's digi stamps and scrapbook kits here.

I've added some ribbon from my stash and some stamped lace, the stamp is from Lace FRagments from Chocolate Baroque, stamped on vellum and embossed with gold EP.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Everybody Art: Anything goes

LEJ DEsigns: anything goes

The perfect Sentiment: anything goes

Simon Says Stamp: anything goes

Thanks for popping by, if you've got a minute do have a peep at my teamies blogs as they have got some beautiful projects to inspire you

Claire xx

I'm dreaming of a blue Christmas

Good morning folks and a happy bank holiday Monday to everyone in the UK, I'm starting the day with a little Christmas spirit (not that sort lol) and another card made with the gorgeous new Christmas stamps from Chocolate Baroque, 'The Gift of Christmas'

The snowflake background was a quick and easy one using Chipped Sapphire distress ink to stamp the snowflakes onto white card and then using tumbled glass and a little more chipped sapphire around the edges. The next layer was made using a mask, embossed with my cuttlebug and distressed using the same distress inks, this time with the addition of a little broken china distress ink too. 

To create the focal image I inked the snowflake stamp up with all three colours of  distress ink and stamped onto some white card, die cut the shape and then triple embossed. I added a sprinkle of clear holographic embossing powder to the middle layer of embossing powder, this gives a beautiful shimmer. Its hard to capture in a photo but hopefully you can see it a little better in this photo

I've matted the triple embossed image on another die cut shape, this time inked with chipped sapphire distress ink and added some beautiful periwinkle Maya road ribbon and added some tiny dots of stickles for some extra sparkle.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Alphabet Challenge: one colour plus white

Anything goes: Make your own background

Deep Ocean: Deep blue

Holly Jolly Christmas: Monochromatic Christmas

Just keep on creating: Christmas

Its lovely to have an extra day off work and I'm going to make the most of it with lots of crafting and plenty of lazing around lol, 

Thanks for popping by

Claire xx

Earth Wind and Fire challenge at PanPastel UK

Hi, I'm back again this time with my DT card for PanPastel UK where our theme is 'Earth Wind and Fire', you don't have to use all three but of course I had to try and be clever and do just that lol. 

I'd kind of decided to go with a fire theme and use my favourite dragon stamp from Chocolate Baroque,  I created a background scene with black, paynes grey and phthalo blue extra dark and then more or less covered it up with my other layers lol. I've make some flames with red, orange, diarylide yellow and black pans, matted on black card, the sentiment is stamped on card coloured with the same pans. 

The dragon is coloured with distress markers and then came the tricky bit, well actually it wasn't tricky at all once I'd worked out what to do but it did tax my poor little brain sell for a while lol. I used black and paynes grey pans and swirled them around the dragon with the edge of a sofft sponge, then to create more of a swirly wind effect I used the edge of a pencil eraser to remove some of the colour.  

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Do you stack up: Fantasy

Penny's Paper Crafty: masculine

Poodles Parlour: winged things

Totally papercrafts: Zesty summer colours

Don't forget that our lucky winner will receive a fab PanPastel starter set thanks to our lovely sponsor Berni from Your Creativity Store

Thanks for popping by 

Claire xx

Floral creations on the catwalk at FSC

Hello there, we've got a new challenge starting over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges, this time we want to see you floral creations or handmade flowers, with of course some rubber stamping too. As always we've got a great prize up for grabs from our generous sponsor Marina from Cottage Crafts.

For my project I've altered a little box and made a little tag to match. After painting the box and lid I covered the box with some scrummy kaisercraft paper, punched with a MS punch. I covered the lid with some of the same paper and inked the edges with a little vintage photo distress ink. I added some gorgeous russet ribbon and cream lace around the lid. The top of the box is decorated with a stamp from Chocolate Baroque (Rose Tree stamp sheet), stamped on watercolour card and watercoloured with distress  markers. I added some sepia accents and micro beads to the centre of the larger flowers. Next came some rose made with kraft coredinations card die cut using tattered pine cone die, the smaller flowers and foliage were made with crealies. 

I used the scraps of paper and ribbon to make the little tag which is stamped with a stamp from Chocolate Baroque (Haberdashery stamps)

I'm entering my little altered box in the following challenges:

Allsorts : Its a gift

Clearly Inspired: Circles

Crafts and Me: Autumn Colours

Eureka Stamps: anything goes

Inspired by Stamping: photo inspiration

Moving along with the times: Anything but a square

Stamp Man: Alter it

Sweet Stamps: watercoloured

Thanks for popping by, make sure you check out my lovely DT sisters blogs as always they've created some stunning projects to inspire you for our new challenge

Claire xx

Christmas Candle from Chocolate Baroque

Hi folks, yippppeeeeeeee its the weekend and not only is it the weekend, we get an extra day off work as its a bank holiday here in the UK. Much as I love my job its heaven to have a long weekend off  lol. Today's card is a very traditional Christmas card, featuring one of the beautiful stamps from 'The Gift of Christmas' themeplate from Chocolate Baroque

The backing paper is from Seasons Greetings CD and the image is stamped on kraft cardstock and coloured with Derwent Coloursoft pencils. I've added some glossy accents to the baubles and tiny dots with a pearl ben for the mistletoe berries. You can see the image a bit more clearly in this pic

To finish the card off I've added some ribbon and a couple of die cut pine cones

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Crafty Catz :  Ribbon and bows

The Crafty Pad: Dies/punches

Winter Wonderland: Red and green

Thanks for popping by, have a great weekend

Claire xx

Christmas Cheer from Chocolate Baroque

Hi there, another Christmas card today using this beautiful cottage stamp from 'The Gift of Christmas', one of the scrummy new themeplates available from Chocolate Baroque.

I've created the background with black PanPastel and used the same mask to add the background to the stamped image. I've coloured the image with promarkers and added stickles to light up the Christmas tree and lots of glitter to give the snow a frosty sparkle. I used a white gel pen to add some snow to the night sky. The sentiment is from the same themeplace. I cut the image out and popped it up on 3d foam over  the ribbon making sure the background lined up.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Anything goes challenge: Make your own background

Craft a Scene: the great outdoors

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas: include a building

My time to craft: Christmas in August

Whoopsi Daisy: Include a sentiment

Thanks for popping by

Claire xx

Little Claire's Christmas

Hi there, todays card is a very quick card made with some of the goodies I bought at Summer Crafting in Doncaster a few weeks ago. I fell in love with this gorgeous owl tree stamp from Little Claire's, (in fact I fell in love with quite a few stamps and I've joined Little Claire's monthly stamp club lol)

I've used a shaped and embossed card blank, inked liberally with peeled paint, shabby shutters and forest moss distress inks. I stamped the tree in black ink (mmmmm maybe I should have stamped it in gold .... I'll have to give that a try next time) and decoupaged the adorable little owls that I'd coloured with promarkers and cut out. Talking of adorable, here's a pic of two of my boys. Benji and Barney have a little rest on my bed. Barney is 11 weeks old now and this is the first photo I've managed to take of him that doesn't just look like a black blob lol. He is a bundle of fun and although he looks very sweet and innocent in the photo he's full of mischief :-)

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:

Challenge up your life: Christmas in summer

Hiding in my craftroom: 2 layers

Little Claire's: best friends

Thanks for popping by, have a good Monday

Claire xx

Add decoupage at PanPastel UK

Good morning folks, this mornings card is my DT card for PanPastel UK where our theme is 'Add Decoupage'. I used to do a lot of decoupage and have spent many a happy evening in front of the TV snipping away lol. I found quite a few images already cut out and layered up in  my craft room and thought this one would be lovely for a summer scene

I masked the sun and used ultramarine blue and ultramarine blue tint PanPastels for the sky, The sun is diarylide yello with a touch of orange and the hills are various shades of green. When I first started using pans I automatically used a mask to create hills DOH!! Its only taken me about 8 months to realise you can just create them with the sofft tools, easy peasy lemon squeazy!! 

I added some stamping using memento inks and Sheena Douglass stamps, I just love those wisteria stamps :-) I popped the decoupage in place and matted on white and purple card. 

I'm entering this one in the following challenges:

Bunny Zoe's: Summer

Craft your days away: anything goes

Craft Punked: Flower power

Crafting for all seasons: Bright colours

Everybody Art: Summer

Hotshot crafts: Panpastels

We've got a PanPastel starter set up for grabs thanks to Berni, our generous sponsor from Your Creativity Store. If you haven't tried Pans yet you're going to be hooked as they are amazing!!

Thanks for popping by today, I'm off to tackle the ironing before it gets too hot (I know how to have good time don't I lol)

Claire xx

Gingham Gift set

Hi there, isn't it lovely to get up and realise its Saturday and you don't have to go to work? Even better I can spend the day in my craft room :-) But before I go and get inky, here's a project made with the new  Christmas stamps from Chocolate Baroque called 'The Gift of Christmas' . It has some beautiful focal images but also the most beautiful snowflakes which I've used on this little gift set.

It was a very quick and easy project, the snowflakes were stamped on to kraft card with versamark and embossed with white EP, I stamped the 'Christmas Cheer' Sentiment in red and then added little dots of red stickles and left it to dry. I matted on some red card, adding gingham ribbon and popped it on a kraft card blank.

I did the same for the tag, this time stamping 'A gift for you' and then recycled some kraft wrapping paper by stamping the snowflake with white stazon and adding some stickles

I'm entering this in the following challenges:

Cards and More: Anything goes

Celebrate the Occasion: Christmas in August

Flourishes: Use kraft paper

My Mum's Craft Shop: kraft

Stars and Stamps Midweek throwdown: kraft

Thanks for popping by today, have a good weekend

Claire xx

Christmas in August at Crafty Ann's

Hi there, a very quick post from me today as I'm having a bit of a nightmare week with so much on at work I don't know if I'm coming or going. But before I dash off to work here's my DT project for Crafty Ann's challenge blog where the theme is Christmas in August or if you prefer Winter Olympics so its a great time to make a start on those Christmas cards

I've created my project in Craft Artist using paper and elements from Traditional Christmas Scrapbook Kit (you can find it here) and the beautiful egg from the Eggstravaganza kit (which is on offer at the minute!). Ann also has a brilliant tutorial that takes you through using the faberge style egg in Craft Artist step by step  - you can find the tutorial here.

Don't forget to check out my talented teamies blogs too as they always come up with the most scrumptious projects. Have a good day and thanks for popping by

Claire xx

Christmas Spirit at Chocolate Baroque

Hi there, Christmas has arrived in my little corner of the UK lol, Glenda has launched some amazing new Christmas stamps at Chocolate Baroque, so I've been busily getting into the Christmas spirit :-)

I love this stamp with the beautiful Christmas tree and the dog and cat silhouettes, isn't it fab? Its on the new 'Gift of Christmas' themeplate, which you can find here

I love to alter bottles and I thought this stamp would be perfect to create a little Christmas Spirit using an old Jim Beam bottle. Good job my son's mates all save me their bottles as I don't drink so I'd be stuck altering milk bottles lol. Anyway back to the details of my project. I painted the bottle with gesso (white where the snow is and around the neck and black gesso in between and left it to dry before giving it another coat. Next I brushed on some Multi medium matte over the white gesso and sprinkled with glamour dust for a little snowy sparkle.

To create the images I used pine needles distress ink and glimmer mists to colour some white card and then stamped the gorgeous silhouette and tree stamp four times and embossed with sparkly white embossing powder. Slight problem as I wanted the silhouettes to be black, fortunately my trusty promarkers came to the rescue and coloured the embossing beautifully. Next I cut the images out and added little dots of stickles for the fairy lights. I used multi medium to adhere the images on each side of the bottle. This pic shows the detail of the image a little better:

To finish off I added snow to the night sky using an Inksentials white pen and then added ribbon and lace around the top of the bottle. The lace was a bit tricky to position but a few blobs from my hot glue gun held it in place. The ribbon around the top has a border of holly leaves so I added a few little berries from my stash.

I'm entering my bottle in the following challenges:

Do you stack up: 4 legged friends
Gingerloft: Silhouette

Little Miss Muffet: Scallops

My Mum's Craft Shop: Christmas

Totally gorjuss: lacey, lacey

Winter Wonderland: Ribbon and Lace

Thanks for popping by today

Claire xx

Create a Scene at PanPastel UK

Hi there, here's my DT card for PanPastel UK where our theme is 'Create a Scene', I love to create a scene (lol) and Pans make it so easy, much easy than brayering anyday

I've created the scene using shades of green and blue PanPastel, using a sofft knife and cover its really easy to create the hills and add depth to the scene. To create a little reflection in the water I just smudged the green panpastel in to the blue. The ballon stamps are from Kaisercraft (in the fabby candy I was lucky enough to receive from Paula) and the scarecrow and trees are Clarity stamps, I've added some colour to the images with distress markers and matted on some blue pearl card with some red gingham ribbon to finish off. 

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

2 Sisters: on the farm

4 Crafty Chicks: up up and away

Anything goes: Summer days

Craft a Scene: the great outdoors

Creative Stamp Friends: Stamp a scene

Moving along with the times: Summer

Stamping Boutique: Balloons

This week we have a new sponsor, Mountain Ash Crafts and our lucky winner will receive a fab prize of £10 worth of Sofft tools!!

Thanks for popping by today, enjoy your Sunday. We're enjoying some beautiful weather so I'm going to spend the day in the garden with the dogs and my panpastels, ahhhhh bliss!

Claire xx

Icecream colours at Fashionable Stamping Challenges

Hi there and a big warm welcome to my new followers, its lovely to  meet you. I don't seem to have had a minute to blog all week as work is sooooo busy at the minute, I'm  a happy bunny to have the weekend to catch up and have a crafting fix. But before I sneak off to my craft room, here's my DT card for Fashionable Stamping Challenges where we're modelling Ice cream Colours this time, chosen by my lovely teamie Avril. As always our lucky winner will receive a fabby voucher for Cottage Crafts courtesy of our generous sponsor Marina.

I've had a job getting a pic of this card, for some reason my camera doesn't like 'Neopolitan ' icecream lol. I've created a background with panpastels using white, magenta, diarylide yellow tint and burnt sienna, adding some texture with Crafters Workshop harlequin template and polyfiller. Next comes a layer of kraft glassine misted with glimmer mists and perfect pearls. The focal image is a gorgeous stamp from Crafty Individuals, I've decoupaged the image using gold embossing for the corners, glossy accents on the hearts and sepia accents on the little beads at the bottom. The image is coloured with distress markers and derwent inktense pencils. You can see the image a bit better in this pic:

I've also added some seam binding ribbon coloured with panpastels, lace, a sparkly pink brad, a rose made with tattered florals and tattered pinecone dies, some netting, a little butterfly charm and some die cut butterflies (from the lovely Linda at the Funkie Junkie boutique). To finish off I've added some little faux pearls made with cosmic shimmer glue

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Addicted to stamps: Pearls and lace

CRAFT: Add a charm

Craft your passion: anything goes

Deep Ocean : Anything goes

Dream Valley: Die cuts and punches

Love to Create: punches and dies

Papertake Weekly: Anything goes

Pixie Dust: Vintage

Thanks for popping by, before I go I thought I'd share this pic of our gorgoeus little puppy Barney after a hard day in the garden playing with his big brother Benji lol. He had such a fun time chasing around but came and crashed out lol

Have a lovely Sunday 

Claire xx

Summer Fun at PanPastel UK

Hi there folks, I've been battling with the weeds this weekend so the thought of sipping a cocktail and  having a paddle in the sea is very appealing lol. Our theme at PanPastel UK this week is 'Fun in the Sun', hopefully you're getting some sunshine where you are but if not the new challenge is  a great excuse to create a little sunshine 

Right on to my DT Card, but first apologies for the dreadful photo, I'm blaming the weather as its been a very cloudy (I'm not complaining though as at least it hasn't rained all weekend)

I've used a shaped card black and of course PanPastels to create the background. I've used ultramarine blue plus the tint and shade for the sky and rubbed out areas for the clouds before highlighting with a little paynes grey, magenta and hansa yellow tint. I've use yellow ochre and a little burnt sienna for the beach and for the sea I've used shades of turquoise panpastels.

The gorgeous little cutie having fun on the beach is a Marianne clear stamp, I cut her out and popped over the ribbon with foam pads. I've added some texture to the sand and the waves and  a little sandal charm to act as a stopper for the easel. The charm was bright pink and glittery, eeeeeeek now annoying when I'd looked everywhere for it but I used gesso to change the colour and painted it with acrylic paint and added stickles to the tiny flower. I've used some secret ingredients for this card, but you'll have to watch this space to find out more lol.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Crafting for all seasons: Splash me

Crafts 4 Eternity: summer sun

Creative Belli: Vacation/travel   

Cupcake Craft: The great outdoors    

Hannah and friends: Summer

Marianne Design Divas: Anything goes

Moving along with the times: Summer

Whimsy Inspiration: summer fun

Our lucky winner will receive a fab PanPastel starter set courtesy of the lovely Berni at Your Creativity Store

Thanks for popping by, have a happy Sunday

Claire xx

How exciting!!

I'm sure you all know by now what a chatterbox I am, well can you believe that I've been keeping a secret for AGES and I've been bursting to tell! A wee while ago Pete and Kerry who coordinate the PanPastel DT blog asked us if we would like to do a masterclass for Papercraft Inspirations magazine!! Of course we jumped at  the chance and the tutorials are in the new issue and GUESS WHAT??? My card is on the cover, ok its only in a tiny corner of the cover but I'm still thoroughly over excited. There are fab tutorials from my talented teamies Linday, Brenda and Kerry with lots of ideas for different techniques with PanPastels!! 

Right I'm off to do a happy dance round the garden lol

Claire xx

Blog Hop at No Matter Which Challenges!!

Hi there, we're all thoroughly over excited to be kicking off No Matter Which Challenges with a fun blog hop and an 'Anything Goes' challenge!! There are some amazing prizes up for grabs so make sure you comment on all the blogs in the hop to be in with a chance of winning

If you've arrived here from Velma's blog you're on the right track, if not hop over to NMW Challenge blog where the fun begins. We've got some really generous sponsors:

Sweet Stamps

Kitty Lane

Make it Crafty

and last but certainly not least

Mad for Markers

Well if you've made it this far you're doing well lol. Here's my DT project for our first challenge, 

I won't bore you with too many details, I've used stamps from Chocolate Baroque's 'Key to my dreams' themeplate, lots of distress inks and a little distress EP. I've also had my first play with the ranger adhesive foil stuff I got from the Funky Junkie recently, coloured with alcohol inks and embossed with one of my new embossabilities. I've used a stamped kraft tag as the focal point and added ribbon and a little ideology key. The ribbon frill was a bit of a happy accident as I've got the card more or less finished and realised it didn't quite fit the card blank eeeeeeeeeek!! I quicky coloured some seam binding with distress ink and added a little frill to fill the gap lol. 

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

4 Crafty Chicks: distressing

Amusing Challenges: Anything goes

Crafting When We Can: monochromatic

Inky Impressions: Embossing

Anyway I hope you're enjoying the hop, your next stop is my lovely teamie 

Suzanne's Blog, 

make sure you start and fnish at the challenge blog and leave some love all the DT s blogs to be in with a chance of a prize!

Thanks for popping by

Claire xx

Circles at Crafty Ann's

Eeek I'm running late again, life seems to get busier by the minute doesn't it? I can't tell you how pleased I am its Friday :-) Here is my DT project for Crafty Ann's Challenge Blog where the theme is circles and my very first project using Craft Artist. 

I've never been struck on digital crafting, I tried the MCS cds and just couldn't get on with them so gave it all up as a bad job, anyway I decided to give it a try (blame Ann and Trish lol) and I've got to say I'm  converted, it seems really easy to use although there are sooooooo many different things it can do it will take me ages to find my way around it. For this project I've used elements from Crafty Ann's stunning 'Temping Turquoise' collection with a lovely vintage lady from The Graphics Fairy. I've got to say a huge thank you to Ann for the brilliant instructions on how to get the pictures into Craft Artist in the first place lol.

I'm entering this in the following challenges:

Divas by Design: Flowers

The Perfect Sentiment: anythng goes

I'm going to try and catch up with all my blogging buddies this weekend, I've got a nice new lappy and for a pleasant change I haven't got a pile of paperwork to do so I'm looking forward to a nice lazy weekend with lots of crafting and blog hopping too

Thanks for popping by

Claire xx