Mainly for men at CD Sunday

Hi there, no posts for a week and then 3 in one day :-) I'm back with my GDT card for CD Sunday where the theme is 'Mainly for Men'. I've used one of my favourite bps from the Artylicious CD 'Decadent Brocade.

I've distressed the paper with distress inks and also overstamped with a pocket watch stamp from Chocolate Baroque (Punky Romance themeplate). I've added Tim's tissue wrap, ribbon from Crafty ribbon and some screw brads. The main image has a distress ink background, the stamp is from Chocolate Baroque 'Steampunkery' themeplate, embossed with antiquities EP. The sentiment 'New Horizons' is from the same stampsheet.

I'm entering this one in the following challenges:

Alphabet Challenge: M is for men only

Charisma Cardz: Monochrome

Crafts and Me: anything goes

Fat pages and cards with attitude: Anything goes

Its all about the vintage: anything goes

Stempelsonnen: Free Choice

thanks for popping by and also thanks to the lovely ladies at CD Sunday for inviting them to be their guest designer this month

Claire xx

A is for ......

Hi there, here I am again with my GDT card for CD Sunday where the theme is 'A is for ....' I've gone for A is for Aquamarine and Anniversary for this card and used a beautiful backing paper from the Essence of Nature cd by Artylicious

The bp wasn't quite the colour i wanted it to be so I applied a little turquoise panpastel and the overstamps the corners with a beautiful leafy corner stamp from Chocolate Baroque which I embossed with white EP. I made the butterflies using Marianne dies and a couple of scraps of the same backing papers, I used cosmic shimmer glue to create their pearly bodies. The bow in made from scrunched seam binding ribbon and the focal image was made using a Marianne Designable. I got this last weekend at the craft show and I love it, its so delicate with the embossed pattern and the little lacy cut out bits. I inked it up with tumbled glass distress ink, stamped the sentiment (again from Chocolate Baroque) and added more faux pearls and gems.

I'm entering this in the following challenges:

Always Something Creative: Butterflies

Card and Scrap: things with wings

Card Cupids: wings

Divas by Design: anything goes

Marianne Design Divas: Anything goes

Sparkles Forum: wedding or anniversary

Thanks for popping by, if you get a minute do pop over to CD Sunday and check out the DT's work, they really are a lovely talented bunch of ladies

Claire xx

Pearls and Swirls for CD Sunday

Hi again, i've been loving dusting off my crafting cds during my month as GDT at CD Sunday and rediscovering all the scrummy papers and images on them. For this weeks challenge which is Pearls and Swirls i've used a backing paper from Artylicious 'Peacock Summer Party'.

I don't make many baby cards but its always handy to have a few at the ready as a lot of my son's friends are starting their familes so we'll be needing some baby cards in the next few months. (Fortunately he's not showing signs of getting broody thank goodness as I'm far to young to be a grandma lol). Anyway back to my card, I printed the bp off and distressed the edges with a craft knife and then used a prima mask to add polyfilla which I brushed with mica powder along the botton of the card

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I've used a Whiff of Joy stamp called 'Willow Holding Baby' and coloured her with distress markers before die cutting her with nestiles. I've added a heart shaped doily, lots of paper flowers and some pearly swirls made with cosmic shimmer glue. To finish off i've added some polka dot organza ribbon.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Creative Card Crew: Pearls and swirls

Paper Shelter: Pearls and swirls

Totally Stampalicious: Your favourite embellishment (ribbon)

Thanks for popping by

Claire xx

Butterflies at CD Sunday

Its time for a new challenge at CD Sunday and this week the theme is 'Butterflies', its my last week as Guest Designer at CD Sunday so a big thank you to the DT for inviting me, i've really enjoyed my time with CD Sunday and its been great to explore my crafting cds again:-)

We all love butterflies and I have loads of butterfly stamps but this weeks theme was a perfect chance to use my new favourite stamp. Its absolutely ginormous and is from the 'Butterfly Dreams' themeplate from Chocolate Baroque. I'd already printed my bp out from Artylicious 'Essence of Nature' cd so I used the gorgeous pinks, lilacs and blues as my colour palette.

I brayered some glossy card with big'n'Juicy Hydrangea inkpad, masking a moon and then overstamped with the main image in versamark ink. I embossed with black detail EP and coloured the berries with Tinkabella 'Rose' ink, this dries to a lovely sheen - great for berries etc. Once the ink was dry I added white highlights with a Range inksentials white gel pen. the main image has 2 butterflies but I stamped out several on acetate and glittered the reverse. I ended up adding 5 acetate butterflies to the card with silicone glue to give the wings some dimension. I guess you can never have too many butterflies lol. You can see the detail better in this pic

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Creative Craft Challenge: embossing

Digi Doodle Shop's Best: Glitter and glitz

Fabulous Friday: birds or butterflies

Flutter by Wednesday: Open challenge with angel fairy or butterfly

Freshly Brewed Challenges: sparkle and shine

Little Miss Muffet challenge: glitter and shine

My Mum's Craft Shop: all that glitters

The Paper Shelter: Inspired by Nature

Top Tip Tuesday: Open Challenge

thanks for visiting today, dig out your crafty cds and join us for this weeks 'Butterflies' challenge at CD Sunday. Don't forget to pop over and check out the DTs gorgeous work too

Claire xx

Happy Birthday CD Sunday

CD Sunday is celebrating its first birthday!! So of course the theme for this weeks challenge is

"Happy Birthday"

I'm really pleased to be Guest Designer for such a special challenge and in honour of the occasion decided to put my stamps away and get printing. i've used a beautiful bp and decoupage from Debbi Moore's Evergreen' cd and printed them on pearlescent paper.

The BP is matted on gold mirri card and the decoupaged lady is glittered to highlight the pattern on her dress. I've added some green ribbon from Crafty Ribbons, some gold mirri die cut swirls and made a shrink plastic 'Happy birthday' charm. I die cut the shink plastic (nestie labels 4) and stamped Happy birthday on it with ivy green brilliance ink and covered the back of the shink plastic with galaxy gold brilliance ink. I made holes with my cropodile and then heated it with my heat gun. I added a green heart shaped bead from my stash and attached it all with jump rings. To finish off I've added some pale gold dew drops from Crafty Emma's

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Sugar Creek Hollow: Monochromatic

Fabulous Friday: Homemade embellishment

Inspire Me Friday: anything goes

Aud Sentiments: Anything goes

Crafts and Me: ribbon

Thanks for calling by, I hope you're going to join in and wish CD Sunday a very happy first birthday :-) There are some fab prizes for the winners of this weeks challenge  too

Claire xx

A song in your heart at CD Sunday

Its my second week as Guest Designer over at CD Sunday and this week there is another fab theme : a song in my heart. I'd got some music related sheets printed off from Joanna Sheen's cd 'Dancing with Shadows' (one of my all time favourite crafting cds) when I spotted this beautiful silhouette of a girl dancing, now she really does look like she has a song in her heart.

I printed the silhouette out on acetate and then used some glossy card, masked a sun and  brayered a spring sunset scene using B&J Soothing Sunset (of course lol) and over stamped with some foliage stamps from Chocolate Baroque. The acetate is attached to the scene with some pale green pearl brads. The bp is printed from another of my favourite cds, 'Essence of Nature' by Artylicious and is matted on some black card.

I  inked some scraps of white card with B&J foliage ink pad and sprized with water, then I stamped the leaves with Sheena Douglass stamps and once they were dry I cut them out and decoupage them up with silicone glue. The flower is made from the scrap paper from brayering the scene, I punched out about 6 flowers with a woodware punch, scrunched them up and then layered them, adding some stamens and glitter in the centre. I also added some little curls of memory thread.

The sentiment is from Joanna Sheen, stamped on some spare card from making the leaves, cut with a nestie and layered on some more black card.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

2 Sisters: Spring

Challenge up your life: Masking

Craft us Crazy: Easter or Spring

Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight: decoupage

Dutch Dare: spring has sprung

Fabulous Friday: brads

If the shoe fits: Spring is in the air

Make it colourful: Colouring skies (I love brayering skies as its such a quick and effective technique but I'm not sure if this technique counts so just delete my entry if it doesn't)

Simon Says Stamp: spring colour or easter

I hope i've inspired you to dust off your crafting cds and join our challenge at CD Sunday this week. I'm looking forward to seeing your creations :-). Its a lovely spring morning here today, blue sky and sunshine so i'm going to spend the morning weeding :-) For some reason I love weeding, and generally pottering round in the garden and of course its even better when the sun is shining. Have a good day

Claire xx