Special offers at Chocolate Baroque

Hi there, oh dear Mr Blogger has not been my friend this week, I haven't been able to add pics as its telling me I'm over my storage limit when I'm not grrrrrrr. I wanted to share some exciting news, Glenda over at Chocolate Baroque always has some fab special offers on new stamps but she has decided to have a special offer on one of the older stamps too! This week's offer is on the Christmas script series of stamps, have a look here as they are gorgeous!

I've coloured the large stamp from Mistletoe Script with Derwent Inktense pencils, adding lots of shadow around the leaves to give them some depth and die cut with nesties before distressing with Iced Spruce distress ink, I really love this colour, its one of my favourite distress colours. The background was made with iced spruce and peeled paint distress inks using the spritz and flick technique, overstamped with the smaller mistletoe stamp. I've added a little silver charm, some white organza ribbon and some tiny faux pearls made with my viva pearl pen.

i'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Addicted to Stamps: Christmas

Crafts and Me: ribbon or trim

Crafty Boots: anything goes

Crazy for Challenges: put a bow on it

Our Daily Bread: winter holiday

Papercraft Star: holiday greenery

If you get a minute have a peek at the rest of the stamp in the collection over at Chocolate Baroque.

Thanks for popping by

Claire xx

Better be quick ....

Don't miss out on the chance to win a fab array of crafty goodies from the lovely Donna, you'll have to be quick though as there are only a few more days to enter. Pop over to Donna's blog here and find out all about it. If you're in the UK, Donna also has a brand spanking new Epson printer up for grabs!

Claire xx

Two roads

Good morning, my card share today features the new clear stamps from Chcolate Baroque,  Terrific Treescapes,  I've partnered them with stamps from Woodland Dreams   and PanPastels to create a misty Autumn scene.

I've had this card in my head for a long while and these new stamps were just perfect to create it. The sentiment from Woodland dreams was the inspiration for the card, unfortunately its a little blurred in the photo but it reads 'Two roads diverges in a wood, and I, I took the one less travelled by'. 

It can get a bit tricky making quite complicated scenes using a brayer but its so easy with PanPastels. I  used a torn paper mask for the hills at the back of the scene and also a mask for the sun but apart from that I just used the Sofft tools to create the scene with shades of green and brown PanPastel. I stamped the trees with Memento inks. The little bird is also from  Woodland Dreams, coloured with distress markers. I've used brown card for matting and layering and one of the Guild papers in the background.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Crazy Challenge: Autumn colours

Creative Card Crew: anything goes

Heck of a challenge: shades of Autumn

LEJ Designs: Favourite technique (making scenes)

Thanks for popping by today

Claire xx

A spring wedding ...

Good morning, hasn't the weather been awful this weekend? We seem to have had so many grey days lately I thought this card would be a little reminder of Spring sunshine. I've used the fab new clear stamps from Chocolate Baroque 'Terrific Treescapes' with a lovely little church stamp from Sunburst Scenes

I began by stamping the church image in the foreground and then adding the trees to create the scene. I stamped the images in black archival ink. I've used distress markers to colour the scene and then used Tumbled glass distress ink for the sky.

I die cut the image using a circular die and layered it up over a little doily. I used a backing paper from one of the Guild paper packs and layered a larger doily over that. The flowers are from my stash and the leaves have been cut with crealies dies. I've added some green ribbon and  a little pearl buckle to finish off.

I'm entering this in the following challenges:

Crafts and Me: Circles

Deep Ocean: pastel colours

Joanna Sheen Challenge: anything goes except Christmas

Oldie but goodie: anything but Christmas (my 'oldies' are flowers, doilys and backing paper)

Papertake Weekly: ribbon and pearls

Pile it on: anything but a Christmas card

Polka Doodles: Any die will do

Shoppin our Stash: leaf/leaves

Sweet Stampin: flowers

Well for a pleasant change I'm not rushing out to work this morning as i've got a few days annual leave. Isn't it bliss to be able to potter around and relax instead of rushing round like headless chicken. Hopefully today will be a bit drier than it has been, if not I'll have to find my wellies as the park was like a mudbath yesterday when I took the dogs. I hate getting my wellies out for the winter, I always think there'll be a ginormous spider hiding in one lol

Thanks for popping by

Claire xx

Frosty and Bright at PanPastel UK

Good morning all, Sunday morning so we've got another challenge at PanPastel UK for you. This week our theme is 'Frosty and Bright' and I've combined PanPastels with the fabby new Maimeri mediums available from Your Creativity Store. Apologies in advance for the decidedly dodgy photos, we don't seem to have seen daylight for weeks lol.

I've layered up assorted die cuts on my canvas, using Maimeri Matt gel to adhere them and then giving the whole thing s coat of Maimeri gesso. Once dry, i've used while, ultramarine blue and tint and some Raw Umber for a little shaddow. To add more texture I've used a couple of Crafters Workshop templates, the snowflake frame with Maimeri modelling paste and the mini mosaic with Maimeri iridescent medium (love love love this stuff!!!) Next came lots of rock candy glitter, faus pearls and some red acrylic paint applied in dots with the end of a paint brush. 

I stamped the focal image, Stampendous 'Snow Bird' on to the canvas with sepia versafine and also on some water colour paper. I coloured the image with distress markers and then cut out the bird and berries and popped them on to the canvas. I added white glue and glamour dust for some frosty sparkle

The sentiment is a clarity stamp, stamped on tissue paper and applied with more Maimeri Matt Gel

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Crafty Creations: christmas is coming

Delicious Doodles: Something that flies

Fussy and Fancy: feeling blue 

Just keep on creating: Christmas

Little Claire's : Christmas

Sparkles Forum Christmas Challenge: contemporary colours

Tanda Stamps: Christmas

As always our lucky winner will receive a fabby prize of a PanPastel Starter courtesy of the lovely Berni from Your Creativity Store

I hope you're enjoying your weekend, I've got a few days off work lined up and loads of jobs that I should be doing. I say should as its very tempting to spend the day in my craft room lol.

thanks for popping by

Claire xx

Birds or Animals at Crafty Ann's

Good morning folks, where did the last two weeks go? I think I must be getting old as time is really flying this year. Anyway as its Friday its time for a new challenge at Crafty Ann's and this time our theme is 'Birds or Animals'. Our lucky winner will as always receive a fab prize from Crafty Ann's Digi Shop but as Ann has some fabulous special offers on at the minute everyone can grab a bargain!! Do pop over and have a look, as Crafty Ann's digi kits are all less than a pound! What a bargain as they are crammed full of papers and images. While you're having a look, don't forget to check out the freebies page too :-)

Anyway back to my card, i've used Crafty Ann's gorgeous squirrel image, coloured with derwent inktense pencils and die cut with nesties. The backing papers are from Crafty Ann's polished stone collection and the Cream Dream collection. I've made the flower from recycled tissue paper coloured with distress inks and die cut with tattered forals. I've used kraft cardstock for matting and layering and added ribbon, button and twine from my stash. The sentiment is from Chocolate Baroque.

I'm entering this one in the following challenges:

Craft Room challenge: Die cuts/punches

Created with love: Fall 

Hannah and Friends: Animals

Incy Wincy: Square cards

Oldie but Goodie : Anything but Christmas

(my oldies are ribbon, button and sentiment stamp)

Ribbon Carousel: Fall/give thanks

Whoopsi Daisy: die cuts/ punches

thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

Through the window

Good morning, my project today is an altered Graze box, as soon as I received this box my first thought was that it would be perfect to make a little window scene (typical crafter lol) and the new Terrific Treescapes clear stamps from Chocolate Baroque are just the job for creating a  winter scene for my project. I've combined the new stamps with some of my favourite stamps from Christmas Creatures and Home Sweet Home.

The box is painted with acrylic paint . I've coloured the images with promarkers and masked the images to create the background and the snowy sky. I've used Broken China and Chipped Sapphire distress inks for the sky and added snowflakes with a white gel pen.

Here'a pic of the inside with lots of glitter and an icicle border along the top of the 'window'

And here's a pic of the window scene:

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

The Crazy Challenge: decorate the inside of your card

Fashionista Challenge: Blue Christmas

Fussy and Fancy: feeling blue

LEJ Designs: alter it

Victorine Originals: Christmas

Stamping Sensations: Traditional Christmas

As usual I'm dashing off to work but I don't mind so much today as we're celebrating our 30th birthday party (well work is not me, I'm a teensy bit older than that lol) so we're having a party this afternoon with balloons and bunting and a yummy buffet. 

Thanks for popping by today

Claire xx

The Funkie Junkies's Christmas Tags,

Good morning, a very quick post from me before I dash off to work. Here's my bunting pennant inspired by Linda at the Funkie Junkie's 6th Christmas tag. Sorry for the awful photo, this is a really sparkly project in real life but I've managed to make it look really flat and dull in the pic so you'll have to use your imagination.

I've used the same background technique as Linda and stamped the trees (from Stampers Anonymous)with vintage photo distress ink. I've added Maimeri irridescent medium through a Crafters Workshop template at the top of the tag. The clock and snowflake are embossed with sparkly EP and the ribbon and bow are from my stash. I've added a little bell at the bottom of this pennant. I only had silver ones so I embossed it with sparkly gold EP and it looks gorgeous :-)

Well I'm still playing catch up with Linda's beautiful tags, if you want to find out more about the challenge pop over and read all the details on Linda's blog here. The challenge is generously sponsored by Linda's store 'The Funkie Junkie' boutique so its definitely not to be missed!!

Well I'd better go and get ready for work. I hate this time of year, its dark when I go to work and dark when I come home. I'm starting to feel like a bat lol

have a good day and thanks for popping by

Claire xx

A winter scene

Hi there, todays card is a frosty winter scene created with PanPastels and the fab new clear stamps 'Terrific Treescapes' from Chocolate Baroque. I love these stamps, they are so detailed and as they are clear you can see exactly where you are stamping.

I've used PanPastels to create my scene, I've used shades of grey, ultramarine blue tine and a little red tint and diarylide yellow tint for the clouds. I didn't use masking for the hills but just sketched in the hills with a sofft knife tool and then stamped the trees using Memento Tuxedo black ink, adding a litle grey for shadows.

I've simply matted the scene in red, white and then black card. 

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Craft a Scene: Troubled Skies

Joanna Sheen Challenge: Cold and Frosty

My Mum's Craft Shop: winter wonderland

Totally Gorjuss: Plain and Simple 

Totally Papercrafts: CAS/Black and White

Thanks for popping by

Claire xx

Red and Green at PanPastel UK

Hi again, my second post of the day and this time its my DT project for PanPastel UK where our theme is 'Red and Green' so of course that's a perfect excuse to make another Christmas card. 

I've used permanent red PanPastel and Bright Yellow Green shade to create the background for this card, I've overstamped with a gorgeous background stamp from Chocolate Baroque using flitterglu and gold gilding flakes. For some reason I really struggle with gilding flakes grrrrrrrr. I've layered the background on kraft card and used kraft for the focal image (also from Chocolate Baroque)

The image is stamped with versamark and embossed with WOW gold EP and coloured with PanPastels. The poinsettia has also been decoupaged.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Card Mania: embossing

Crafty Bloggers: Christmas anything goes

Divas by Design: Anything goes

Happy Campers: Bright colours

Moving along with the times:  Seeing Stars

Papertake Weekly: flower power

There she goes: Let it snow

Don't forget to pop over and see my teamies beautiful projects for this weeks challenge, as always they've got lots of inspiration for you and you won't want to miss out on the fab prize for our lucky winner! Berni from Your creativity store will be sending one lucky crafter a PanPastel starter set!!

thanks for visiting today, 

Claire xx

Home Sweet Home at FSC

Hello friends :-) I hope you're having a good weekend. I'm sharing another Christmas card, this time my DT project for Fashionable Stamping Challenges where our theme of 'Home Sweet Home' has been chosen by the lovely Yvonne. As always our generous sponsor Marina from Cottage Crafts has a voucher up for grabs for our lucky winner so you won't want to miss out. Don't forget though, we're a rubber stamping challenge so no digi stamps allowed. Do pop over and have a look at the gorgeous artwork my DT sisters have created to inspire you this time, as always they are a-ma-zing!!

This challenge was the perfect excuse to get out one of my all time favourite stamp sets, New England Winter from Chocolate Baroque. I stamped the image and masked it so that i could create the background using black PanPastel which I fixed with a blast of cheapie hairspray. I added the 'snow' with a white gel pen and die cut the image nesties

The image is coloured with promarkers and has lots of glamour dust for snow and glossy accents to give the tree lights some definition. You can see the focal image a bit better here

The sentiment is from Whimsy Stamps and the background is made using Chocolate Baroque snowflake stamps. To finish off i've added some lace, red organza ribbon, black velvet ribbon and a little silver Christmas tree charm

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

4 Crafty Chicks: Winter

Bunny Zoe's Crafts: Winter

Crafty Sentiments: Christmas

Fun with shapes and more: the first snow

Holly Jolly Christmas: inspired by a carol (Let it snow)

I love promarkers: Christmas trees

Its all about the vintage: Snow

LEJ Designs: Seasons Greetings

My Mum's Craft Shop: Winter wonderland

QKR Stampede: Winter wonderland

Well thats another one for the Christmas box, eeeeek its not long until Christmas now! Barney our lab puppy is now 5 months old and absolutely full of mischief, I can see him having some adventures with our Christmas tree lol. 

Have a lovely Sunday

Claire xx

A Christmas pin

Good morning, its a really horrible grey damp day here today so I'm going to stay in and get on with some more Christmas cards but before I settle down to some crafting I thought I'd share a little Christmas pin I made using beads from my stash and stamps from Chocolate Baroque's themeplates Pears and Baubles and The Gift of Christmas.

The snowflakes and trees were stamped in brilliance ink and dusted with mica powder on shrink plastic, I punched holes with my crop-o-dile before shrinking them and then added tiny dots of stickles for some sparkle. Its not a very good photo so the sparkle doesn't show up too well.

I'm entering this in the following challenges:

Allsorts:Its a gift

Crafty Catz: let's have sparkle

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge: Something more than 6 months old 

(beads and shrink plastic)

Sweet Pea Stampers: gifts

I hope you're enjoying your weekend so far. 

Thanks for popping by today

Claire xx

Bottlecap flowers

Good morning, my project today features the gorgeous new 'Tangled Garden' stamps from Chocolate Baroque. I've had these little vases for ages but couldn't find flower in the right colour, when I saw these new stamps I thought they'd be just the job for making some flowers for my vases.

They were very quick and easy to make. I used watercolour paper as it holds its shape very well when making flowers. I coloured each sheet of paper with ink and glimmer mists until I got the colours I needed and then once they had dried I stamped the large open flower from Tangled Garden twice and the detailed flower twice on each sheet with versamark and embossed with gold embossing powder. I cut the flowers out and layered them up.

The flower centres were made with bottle caps crushed in my cuttlebug, I used the centre of the detailed flower and glossy accents in side the bottlecaps.

I found that drinking straws were the perfect height to be used as the stems for my flowers so I painted some with gesso and acrylic paint. I attached the straws while I was assembling the flowers. I layered up the 3 layers of petals with strong wet glue, once this was dry I punched 2 small holes in the centre of each and threaded some ribbon through before attaching the straw at the back of the flower with a hot glue gun. The ribbon then ties around the straw in a pretty bow so the back looks pretty too.

I'm entering my flowers in the following challenges:

Artistic Inspirations: Recycle/Anything goes

Dream Valley: anything goes

Papertake Weekly: flower power

Tuesday Alchemy: anything goes

Thanks for popping by and for your kind comments

Claire xx

Christmas Rose from Chocolate Baroque

Good morning, I've got a girly Christmas themed card to share today using the new Tangled Garden stamps from Chocolate Baroque .

The background was made using one of the new M-bossabilities 'Holiday Magic' and brushed pewter Distress Stain, I really love the new metallic distress stains, they give a wonderful finish.

I decided to create a Christmas rose with the detailed flower from  'The Tangled Garden' and stamped it 3 times on to vellum with versamark ink and then embossed with clear sparkle embossing powder. I also created some leaves using the same embossing powder, this stamp sheet really has a great selection of leaves too. The centre of the flower is a crushed bottle cap with a mixure of rock candy glitter, silver microbeads and silver glitter in the centre. 

To finish off  I've added some silver ribbon from my stash and some of the beautiful Scallop Rose Lace

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Addicted to Stamps and more: Flowers

A Gem of a Challenge: Ribbon and Lace

Hooked on Craft: Christmas no red or green

Our daily bread: gold or silver

the Ribbon Girls: Add sparkle

Totally Stampalicious: bling

Thanks for visiting today 

Claire xx

Linda's Christmas Tags: number 5

Hi there, its a case of one step forward and two back with my festive Christmas bunting. I've caught up with Linda's scrummy fifth tag (check it out here and all the challenge details here, the challenge is sponsored by Linda's store The Funkie Junkie Boutique so you won't want to miss out!) and I've made a start on Tag 6 .... but Barney has eaten Tag number 2. He's at that kind of 'teenage' puppy stage where his paws look huge, his legs are too long for his body and he's always in to mischief lol. He had a lot of fun chewing up my second bunting pennant but I suppose I should be grateful it wasn't a pair of shoes or something. Anyway here's my project inspired by Linda's Tag number 5. Sorry about the dark photo, my photography skills don't improve lol.

The background was made with tarnished brass, picket fence and tea dye distress stains and I've used a Stampers Anonymous music stamp with vintage photo distress ink and chocolate baroque snowflake stamped with snowcap pigment ink, adding some faux pearls for a snowy look. The postage stamps are Whimsy Stamps, I love these as they have a gorgeous little die to cut them out. I've added a little concertina snowflake with a bead cap in the centre and popped it on to a gorgeous brass snowflake charm from The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

I'm entering this one in the following challenges:

Its all about the vintage: Snow

My Mum's Craft Shop: sentiments

My time to craft: Vintage

Penny Black and more: any die will do

Rogue Redhead Designs: uncard

Thanks for popping by today

Claire xx

An Autumn Tag

Hi there, I hope you're having a good weekend. I've had a bit of a lazy day today and had  a play with my new autumn distress inks. I missed out on them last year and I'm so pleased to have them in my inky mits (very inky now lol). I love Autumn with the gorgeous colours of the leaves but every so often you find a little remnant of summer. Yesterday when I was gardening I was surprised to find roses in bud and some cosmos still flowering in the garden. I didn't actually see any butterflies but I was inspired by the challenge over at Dragons Dream Tag it on and decided to add a couple of little 'self propelled flowers' 

Anyway back to my tag, I created the background using the wrinkle free distress technique, adding a wee bit of Tarnished Brass distress stain here and there. I stamped the Paperartsy flowers with walnut stain distress ink and then removed the background colour with a waterbrush. I recoloured the flowers with Seedless Preserve DI. I stamped some Indigo Blu butterflies on a scrap of card and painted them with Seedless preserves and ripe persimmon before giving them a coat of rock candy crackle paint.  I added the butterflies to the tag and gave them some movement by adding trails of cosmic shimmer glue pearls.

In my last order from Linda at the Funkie Junkie Boutique I got some gorgeous freebies, thank you Linda :-). I used the lovely leaf die cuts and coloured the glassine envelope with wild plum, espresso, pesto alcohol inks and latered them up over some brown velvet ribbon. I added another PaperArtsy flower topped with a little brass button and attached the envelope to the tag with a brad. The ribbon and the tiny tags at the top of the tag were also from The Funkie Junkie.

I'm entering this tag in the following challenges:

Crafts 4 Eternity: Tags

Crafting for all seasons: Falling leaves

Flutterby Wednesday: open challenge with a butterfly or fairy

Frilly and Funkie Challenge: Tic Tac Toe 

(my line is Alcohol inks, Metallic Distress stains and crackle paint

Paper Playtime: Autumn colours

Tuesday Throwdown: Autumn leaves

Thanks for visiting today,

Claire xx

Make your own embellishments at PanPastel UK

Good morning, Sunday morning is here again so its time for a new challenge at PanPastel UK and this time we want to see you make an embellishment. As usual there is a great prize for our lucky winner, a PanPastel starter set from our generous sponsor Berni at Your Creativity Store! 

I've created a background with permanent red and permanent red shade PanPastels which I've stamped with snowflakes from Chocolate Baroque using Snowcap Pigment ink.

I used coredinations whitewash card and the Holiday Magic M-bossabilities to create the panel. Once I'd embossed the card I sanded it to highlight the baubles. I used white PanPastel around the baubles as I'd sanded a bit too enthusiastically lol. 

I used Permanent Red Shade PanPastel on white card for the bauble, another Chocolate Baroque stamp which is embossed with gold embossing powder. The bauble is supended with gold graid

I added white lace and some gorgeous red gingham ruffled trim from The Funkie Junkie boutique and some red ribbon from my stash. I created another embellie by making a bow topped off with a button and some bakers twine.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

ABC Christmas: Vibrant colours

Card Mania: embossing

Crafts and Me: Reds

Happy Campers: use bright colours

Papertake Weekly: anything goes

Whimsy Inspiration: Traditional Christmas colours

I love Sunday, its so nice not rushing round getting ready for work and having some time to potter round at home. I'm hoping to do some tidying up in the garden today, have you ever tried sweeping leaves up with a labrador puppy helping?? Lol its certainly fun although it takes about 10 times longer than it would if Barney didn't help lol, 

thanks for popping by,

Claire xx

Linda's tags 3 and 4

Good morning, we'll I'm still playing catch up with Linda's fab tag challenge but I've finished another two and got another two started. I'm making some festive bunting inspired by Linda's tags so here are my third and fourth pennants. If you want to check out the details of the challenge pop over to Linda's blog here to find out all about it. There are some amazing prizes from Linda's store the Funkie Junkie Boutique too

I've really struggled to get a pic of the snowman tag. I used the same background technqie as Linda in her tag (check it out here) but had to improvise for some of the ingredients. I've embossed the snowman die cut with Gilded ivory embossing powder for some sparkle and given him a bobbly scarf and a bow on his hat.  I've added die cut holly and the hart and snowflakes were some of the lovely freebies in with one of my orders from Linda's store (thank you Linda!!). The red heart is embossed with sparkly red EP. I've also used some rusted metal mesh, attached with multi medium, sprinkled over with lots of rock candy glitter. I've got a  pack of cute little letter beads which I wanted to use for the 'FROSTY' but wouldn't you know it, I didn't have an R left! Grrrrrrr,  after a bit of a panic I decided to use a 'J' bead turned upside down. Well they do say necessity is the mother of invention and all that.

For my fourth tag I've used some gingham paper and ribbon that came with the Molly Blooms Christmas Carnival kit and a stamp from Crafty Individuals for the focal image. I've also added a grungeboard star embossed with gold EP, some more holly die cuts and a tattered pine cone flower. I've also added some card embossed with one of the texture fades I recently received from Linda's shop. I rubbed the embossing with some flitter glu and then gave it a good sprinkle of gold glitter. I don't have a lot of luck with flitter glu and gilding flakes but its fab with glitter!

. 

I'm entering these into the following challenges:

The Funkie Junkie 12 tags of Christmas : Tag 3 and Tag 4

Christmas Stampin all year long: anything goes

Crafts and me: reds

Crafty Individuals: Festive Sparkle

Fairy Tale: embossing

Paper Play: Snowflakes

Southern Girls: Christmas

Sweet Stamps: Christmas

Right I'd better go and try and catch up with Linda's tags, I'm having so much fun making them and its so cold and grey here my craft room is the best place to be

Have a lovely Saturday, 

Claire xx

Tic Tac Toe challenge at Crafty Ann's

Good morning folks and a warm welcome to my new followers. Its lovely to 'meet' you. 

Well its Friday (thank goodness) and time for a new challenge at Crafty Ann's where we've got a Tic Tac Toe challenge set by my lovely teamie Kym! 

I've used Crafty Ann's Aga image with a cute little Tilda stamp for my card, both coloured with promarkers. You can find the Aga image here, its perfect with this stamp. I've used kraft card and a stripy bp from my stash and added raffia, gingham ribbon, lace a button and some twine.The pearls in the corners were made with cosmic shimmer glue. For a finishing touch I've made a little tattered pine cone too. 

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Crafty Creations: No flowers

Divas by Design: cute

Marvellous Magnolia: Pearls and lace

Right I'd better got, i've got the day off work but heaps to do. I seem to have been so busy at work lately the house looks like a bomb site and I've got a mountain of washing to do so that will keep me out of mischief for a few hours

have a good day 

Claire xx

New Stamps and a Zentangle Flower

Good morning, these Monday mornings come around far too quickly for my liking. Anyway before I rush off to work, I thought I'd tell you about all the gorgeous new stamps from Chocolate Baroque! There are some gorgeous new clear stamps and also a fab A4 sheet of rubber stamps called 'Tangled Garden' 

I stamped the flower 3 times and cut out the layers to decoupage the flower. I also stamped and cut out some leaves. The card was very simple to make I took a square of white card and drew a border around the edges and then spent a happy hour zentangling in the border. I then added dots around the border (I have to confess that I'm a very messy crafter and had got a couple of spodges on the nice white card so I added the dots to camouflage my little mistakes. I quite like the effect so perhaps it was a happy accident)

I used black card to mat my zentangle border and then added the flower and leaves with silicone glue. I also stamped the sentiment which is from the clear stamp set 'Best Relative Ever'.

To finish off I added some dotty black and white ribbon.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

ATCs and Cards with Attitude: add a sentiment

Craft us Crazy: black as your main colour

A gem of a challenge: Polka dots/spots

Rogue Redhead Designs: go dotty

Do pop over to the Chocolate Baroque DT blog if you've got a few minutes as there are some really stunning projects from my teamies to inspire you. We'll as I didn't win the lottery this weekend I suppose I'd better go to work, have a good day

Thanks for popping by

Claire xx

Bonfire Night Challenge at PanPastel UK

Good morning, time for a new challenge at PanPastel UK and this week we've got a 'Bonfire Night' theme for you. I struggled a bit with this one as I didn't have any firework stamps at all but managed to improvise lol.

I began by masking a moon and stamping rows of houses using stamps from Artistic Outpost. Then creating a dark night sky with PanPastels in Black, Paynes Grey and Violet Shade, removed the masks and gave it a blast of cheap hairspray to seal the PanPastel. I don't usually bother to seal it but I tried using pearl card which is very smooth so I thought I'd better seal it just to be on the safe side.

Next I coloured the couses with Graph'It markers. I rummaged through my stash and found some flower stamps from Chocolate Baroque that I thought would do for fireworks, I stamped them with versamark and then dusted over various shades of mica powders. While I was rummaging I came across some neon sakura pens that I haven't used for years so I doodled some more fireworks and added some light to the windows of the houses.

To finish off I added scraps of ribbon and fibres in lots of bright colours. 

I'm entering my tag in the following challenges:

Alphabet Challenge: T for tags

Forever Night: Make a tag

My Mum's Craft Shop: bold and bright

Polkadoodles: Bright colours and sparkle

As always our challenge winner will receive a fab prize, a starter set of PanPastels thanks to our lovely sponsor Berni from Your Creativity Store

As always I've got a fun packed Sunday morning cooking and ironing but hopefully it won't take too long and I'll manage to grab a few hours crafting  too. Its  freezing here, winter is definitely here we've had a few frosty mornings already so apart from walking the dogs I won't be venturing further than my craft room today

Have a lovely Sunday and thanks for popping by

Claire xx

A Musical Challenge at Fashionable Stamping Challenges

Hello and a big warm welcome to my new followers :-) HEre's my card for our new challenge over  at Fashionable Stamping Challenges where our theme of 'Musical' has been chosen by my lovely teamie Esther.As always our lucky winner will receive a voucher for Cottage Crafts from our generous sponsor Marina, and of course we want to see some rubber stamping. 

I've made a Christmas card with a musical theme. I began by stamping a music stamp on to a cream card blank with vintage photo distress ink and then used the same ink to distress the edges. The next layer is card covered with Tim's music tissue, scrunched up and coloured with distress stains with some faux stitching round the edges. I've added a pretty doily from my stash coloured with distress ink and glimmer mist. The sentiment is from Chocolate Baroque, embossed with brown EP and  layered up over a lattice diecut. The angel is also a Chocolate Baroque stamp from the same themeplate which is now discontinued. I've stamped her with memento ink and coloured her with promarkers, adding glamour dust to her wings for some sparkle. You can see her a bit better in this pic:

To finish off I've added faux pearls, a pale blue seam binding bow and a little brass angel charm.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Christmas Stamping all year long: Anything goes

Crafty Ribbons: Christmas

Divas by Design: Christmas

Hooked on Craft: Christmas no red or green

Its all about the vintage: Make your own background

Live and Love Crafts: Christmas

Really Reasonable Ribbon: Winter holiday and ribbon

the Stamp Man: Emboss it

Totally Stampalicious: anything goes

Thanks for popping by and for your lovely comments.

Claire xx

Photo Inspiration at No Matter Which

Hi there, we've got a new challenge starting at No Matter Which Challenges today and this month we've got a photo to inspire your projects so do pop over to the challenge blog and have a look at the pic, and also check out the gorgeous projects from my lovely teamies too.

We've got a great prize up for grabs, our lucky winner will receive a $10 dollar gift certificate for Sweet Stamps!! 

As this year seems to be flying by and before we know it Christmas will be here (eeeeeek) I thought I'd make another Christmas cards and took my inspiration from the gorgeous colours of the photo and the basket weave furniture, a perfect excuse to use my Spellbinders lattice dies. 

The backing paper is from one of the GSC Christmas pads from last year. The die cuts were distressed with tattered rose distress ink and sprayed with glimmer mists.

I've used a Molly Bloom stamp for the focal image, she's coloured with promarkers and has some glamour dust on her wings. To finish off I've added lace, blue seam binding ribbon, a little spray of pearls and flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Brown Sugar: Pearls and Lace

Cute Card Thursday: Fairies and angels

Fab'n'Funky: Die cuts/punches

Fussy and Fancy: Pearls and Flowers

I love promarkers: Cute

Thanks for popping by

Claire xx

A colour challenge at VSC

Hellooooo, well its time for our second challenge at Vintage Stamping Challenges and this month we've got a colour challenge: you can use any of the following: red, green blue and purple. Of course we're a rubber stamping challenge so we want to see some stamping too :-) Our lucky winner will receive a prize from our generous sponsor Leo at Flonzcraft so do pop over to the challenge blog and find out more, while you're there have a look at the gorgeous project from my talented teamies too! 

Anyway on to my card, I've used these gorgeous little girls from Flonzcraft (Vintage Children 05)

Sorry about the pic, we don't seem to see much daylight here at the minute lol. I've stamped the little girls on water colour card and masked them to stamp in the background using stamps from Sheena Douglass. I've coloured the image with distress markers and created the sky with distress inks and lots of water.

I've used some paper from my stash for the background and red card to mat and layer. I've added a red bow, button, bakers twine and a couple of little bells at the bottom of the image. At the top I've cheated (sssss don't tell lol) and used some ready made layered up die cuts from an Anna Griffin kit I've had for years but until now i don't think I'd used any of the die cuts for some reason. I've added some cosmic shimmer white glue and some glamour dust for a bit of snow on the poinsettias and flowers.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Holly Jolly Christmas: Oh Christmas Tree

Love to Create: lots of layers

Ooh La La: Christmas

Pink Elephant Card Challenge: Vintage/Shabby Chic

Shopping our Stash: 3d flowers

The Crafty Pad: Christmas is coming

As always I'm chasing my tail getting ready for work, we're sooooo busy at work lately I'll meet myself coming back before long lol. Anyway have a good day, won't be long till weekend

Thanks for popping by and for your lovely comments

Claire xx