Christmas postbox from Chocolate Baroque

Good morning folks, we've got some gorgeous new stamps this month over at Chocolate Baroque so I've made a start on my Christmas cards using the beautiful Vintage Postbox stamp. This is a lovely stamp and not just for Christmas lol.

I coloured the image with Graph'It markers and added some glitter for a frosty sparkle. I decided to make a shaker card so I cut a square aperture in a piece of cardstock and used border punch to add some interest. I lined this with acetate and used 3d foam tape to create my shaker card adding Shaved Ice to create my snow.

I dusted off some old border peel offs to frame the image and added  a sentiment with a little bow and a button to finish off.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas: Vintage or anything Christmas

Crafty Sentiments: winter

Deep Ocean: die cuts/punches

Penny Black and More: anything Christmas

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Sparkle and Bling

Thanks so much for visiting today, hope to see you again soon

Claire xx

Lily Bug Love

Good morning, Monday already so I'm heading off to work but before I go I though I'd share a card made using the gorgeous Lily Bug  Love Collection (available as a download here or on CD here). The lovely Nikky Hall has outdone herself with this collection, the images are gorgeous and the papers are really lush! I couldn't decide which papers to use for this card so I just went for it and punched loads of borders with my favourite MS punch and layered them up inside the aperture I'd cut out of this card.

The image has been coloured with Lyra pencils, I think I need to work on my skin colours as she looks a wee bit tangoed lol. I cut her out and stuck her into the aperture before attaching the background. I cut the sentiment out, layered it up over a scrap of the leftover border background  and layered it up with 3d foam pads.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Crafting-With-Friends Anything goes

Let's Color Saturday Linky Party : Something coloured/hearts

Quick Quotes: Scraps of paper

The Pencil Case: L is for love is all around

The Stamping Boutique: Die cuts/punches

Wags 'n Whiskers: with love

Thanks so much for visiting today, 

Claire xx

Lace and Pearls at Graph'It Colouring Challenge

Good morning folks, its challenge time over at Graph'It Colouring Challenge and this time around our theme is 'Lace and Pearls' so its a nice easy one to play along. We've got some great prizes up for grabs too, Graph'It goodies from Cult Pens and some gorgeous digis from Oddball Art too! I've used a fab image from Oddball Art for my DT project, she's called Bella and you can find her here, she comes with some really fun sentiments too!

I've coloured Bella with my Graph'It Markers, you can find a full list of colour used over on the challenge blog. 

I've added one of the sentiments that comes with the image and popped the image on a navy blue card blank. I've kept the card layout fairly clean and simple, punching a border along the bottom of the card and just adding some navy blue lace and some faux pearls.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

613 Avenue Create: anything goes

Crafts and Me: Anything goes

Crafts Galore Encore: anything goes

Crafty Cardmakers: punches/dies

Lemon Shortbread: Anything goes

Tuesday Throwdown: anything goes

Whoopsi Daisy: new to you (new image)

Thanks so much for visiting today

Claire xx

Bendy Patchwork Landscapes from Chocolate Baroque

Good morning, my first card of the day features the gorgeous new Patchwork Landscapes stamps from Chocolate Baroque. I adore creating scenic cards to these stamps are going to be a big favourite with me, they are such fun and quirky designs. For my first sample this month I decided to try and create a 'Bendy Card' as I'd seen some on my travels and loved the effect. I'm not great at creating fancy folds but this is a really nice easy one.

I used two 6" card blanks to create this and began by stamping the hills in the background on the inside right panel of one of the cards. I closed the card and stamped the little house. Next I took the other card blank, opened it and trimmed the front section off leaving a strip about 2cm to the left of the fold. On the reverse of the right hand panel I stamped the trees and fencing and then used pva glue to stick the scenes together.

I coloured the images with Graph'It markers and then trimmed around the two front images. I worked out roughly where I wanted the 'bends' to go and used my craft knife to cut slits to pop the ends through and create the card shape.

As a finishing touch I added a punched fence and some little paper flowers.

I'm entering this in the following challenges:

Bearly Mine: Spring

Crafty Hands: anything goes

Creative Card Crew: Spring

Creative Knockouts: Spring is in the air

Divas by Design: Easter/Spring

Paper Pretties: punches

Papertake Weekly: Spring has sprung

Penny's Paper Crafty: flower power

Well Spring seems to have disappeared again in my little corner of the UK, hopefully the sunshine will be back for the Easter break but in the mean time I'm going to spend the day catching up with some TV and crafting, aaaaahhh bliss :-) Have a good day and thanks for popping by today

Claire xx

Summer birthday at PolkaDoodles

Hellooooo, Friday at last and even better I'm working from home this morning :-) I am working honest, hopefully Mr Blogger will post this for me while I've got my nose to the grindstone lol. My card today is for our new challenge at Polkadoodles where the theme is Summer Birthday.

I've used an image and backing papers from Cherryblossom Lane cd from Polkadoodles (of course), now i'm not usually a big fan of animal stamps but I just luuuuurve the bunnies on this cd so I expect you'll be seeing a few more before long lol. The image is coloured with Graph'It and Flexmarkers, inked with distress ink . I've added a punched border, some faux stitching, some scalloped lace and a satin bow topped with a pink rose, The sentiment is also from the same cd, these ticket sentiments are fab! Here's another pic of the image:

To finish off I've popped some little faux pearls in the corners

I'm entering this one in the following challenges:

Digi Makeover: punches/dies

Divas by Design: distressing

fab'n'Funky: animals

In the pink: Pink flowers

Pollycraft: anything goes

I don't know about summer birthdays, it looks more like November outside today, its so dull and we've had torrential rain (again!!) and its forecast to rain all weekend, what that all about? Not good but i suppose its perfect crafting weather as I won't feel bad about leaving the weeds again lol.

 Have a good day and thanks for popping by

Claire xx

A Day for Daisies

Hello folks, bank holiday Monday and the sun is shining :-) Even better I've got a week off work so I'm one very happy bunny. I'm going to spend the evening catching up on some TV and doing a little blog visiting but first I just wanted to share this easel card made with a gorgeous digi stamp from A Day for Daisies. 

The image is coloured with promarkers, the colours have come out a bit weird in the pic for some reason. I've created the shape with a MS punch and used some music score distressed with walnut stain distress ink. The image is layered up over a doiley and I've added some paper flowers made with tattered florals, feathers, little pearl sprays and a die cut sentiment. 

Here's another pic of the image, I love this stamp!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Allsorts: Happy Birthday

A Day for Daisies: anything goes

Crafts and Me: lots of layers

Eclectic Ellapu: handmade flowers

I love promarkers: anything goes

Inky chicks: blue and brown

Lady Anne's Challenge: easel cards

Sweet Stampin: doilies and dies

Thanks for popping by and for your kind comments. 

Claire xx

Punky Flowers from Chocolate Baroque

Good morning, have you seen the new 'Punky Flowers' stamps from Chocolate Baroque, they are fab-u-lous! I love steampunk and these flowers have got such a beautiful quirky steampunk feel I think they are going to be a firm favourite!

As soon as I saw this little 'desk lamp' flower I thought of snowdrops and set to with my distress inks to create the background. The image has been stamped and embossed and painted with Twinkling H20s and I've stamped the beautiful steampunk lacy border from 'Steampunkery' and embossed with a sparkly white EP.

I've kept the card fairly simple, embossing around the edge and matting on some green card. I created the card blank with a Martha Stewart punch and to finish off added some white ribbon and a pretty button. 

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Addicted to stamps: beautiful button

Card Mania: flowers

Craft your Passion: floral delights

Paper Playtime: embossing

Ribbon Girls: add a button

Without Words: floral

Thanks for popping by 

Claire xx

Stamping on fabric

Good morning folks, hope you're having a good week so far. My card this morning features the beautiful new  'Indian Elephant' stamps from Chocolate Baroque. I just love these stamps, they shout out for lots of rich vibrant colours!

I began by creating a frame from black card with a border punch. I stamped the flower with versamark and embossed with gold embossing powder. Inside the frame I used a piece of card covered with layers of chiffon, I used a pokey tool to fray the layers to add a little interest. I used the same stamp but this time I used gold stazon, I stamped the smaller motif with black stazon. I wasn't sure if the stazon would work but I didn't have any fabric ink pads so I just had a play and I was really pleased with the effect.

The topper is a stampboard ATC, I created the background with clayboard inks and embossed the delicate image with black embossing powder.

To finish off I added a little ribbon and a gold metal corner from my stash.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

4 Crafty Chicks: trees

Get Inky: Bling

Sweet Stamps: use 3 of any item (3 pieces of chiffon)

Through the craft room door: anything goes

Tuesday Throwdown: make your own backgrounds

Well its time to go to work again, don't you feel like a little hamster in a wheel sometimes? 

Have a good day and thanks for popping by

Claire xx

Leafy Trails from Chocolate Baroque

Good morning folks, my project today features the gorgeous 'Leafy Trails', one of the new Big Bold Background stamps from Chocolate Baroque, you can find them all here (and some special offers too!) 

I've coloured the images with distress markers, and then inked generously with lots of distress ink. I've added a nestie die cut over the top of the hole and then a 'ring of roses' lol and a green seam binding bow. The beautiful roses are from Wild Orchid Crafts.

The edges of the lid were punched with a MS punch. If you pop over to the Chocolate Baroque Design Team Blog, i've posted a template if you'd like to have a go at making one of these covers. If you do make one, please leave me a link to your blog as I'd love to see it :-)

i'm entering this project in the following challenges

Anything but a card: green/ Irish/St Pats

Celebrate the Occasion: spring is in the air

Creative inspirations paint: go green

Everybody Art: box

Paper Playtime: anything goes

There she goes: shades of green

Wags'n'Whiskers: go green

Thanks for popping by today

Claire xx

Daisies

Hi, I've been getting carried away with my new paint fusion stamps and I thought this daisy background would be perfect for this Sweet Pea stamp, Bess by Elaine Cox.

The main image is coloured with promarkers and Bess has crystal glaze on her eyes and dots of diamond stickles on the background. I've used silver embossing around the distressed edges and a layer of diamond stickles over the top for some extra sparkle. I've layered the image on some vellum punched with a doiley lace MS punch and again edged with stickles. The sentiment is a stamp from Whimsy stamps, I love these faux postage stamps as they come with a matching die to cut them out.

The background is stamped with Sheena Douglass' daisy paint fusion stamps and then painted with a selection of acrylic paints from my stash. I've edged the background with more silver EP and diamond stickles. You can find Sheena's fabby paint fusion goodies here

To finish the card off I've added some white chiffon ribbon, some feathery bits under the white bow for some extra texture  and  a butterfly charm from my stash.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Art Impressions Stamps: punches

Bling it on: anything goes plus a charm

Charisma Cardz: To 'die' for

Crafts and me: photo inspiration plus texture

Crafty Cardmakers: make your own designer paper

Creative Cottage: Spring has sprung

Daring Cardmakers: Going postal

Do you stack up: Add a bow

Fussy And Fancy: SKetch

If the Shoe Fits: Aquamarine

Sweet pea Stampers: Scallops (the vellum is punched with a scalloped edge)

Thanks for calling by today. I'm really going to have to put my paints down and start cooking Sunday lunch lol.

Claire xx

Shabby Chic at Rainbow Lady's Challenge blog

Hi there, Thursday means a new challenge at Rainbow Lady's Challenge and this week we have a fab 'Shabby Chic' theme and a wonderful sponsor, our lucky winner will receive a prize from Steph of crafting.co.uk

I struggle with Shabby Chic although its a style I really love. I've used embossed card from Hunky Dory for the background, distressed with my craft knife and Victorian Velvet Distress Ink. I've used a beautiful rose fairy image from Joanna Sheen, coloured with promarkers, cut out with a nestie and inked with distress ink. The rose bp is from one of Joanna Sheen's paper pads. The lacy frills are made with a strip of paper punched with MS doiley punch and pleated. The ribbon is from Crafty Ribbons and the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts.

I'm entering this little fairy in the following challenges:

2Sisters: embossing

Cardmad Fairy's Digiday: Distressing

Corrosive Challenge: Magical Creatures

Crafts and me: Things with Wings

Crafty Creations: At the bottom of my garden

Crazy 4 Challenges: Use a die

Creative Card Crew: Fantasy

Lexi's creations: Flowers

Ooh La La: Pink Pink and more pink

Sparkles Forum Challenge: Fairies

Stamps R Us: for the girls

thanks for calling by, don't forget to check out my teamies fab blogs as they have some gorgeous Shabby Chic creations for you

Claire xx

The Queen of Hearts

Hello there, wow we actually had a lovely sunny day yesterday, shame I was a at work but it still makes you feel better when the sun shines. I've made a very quick card for my DT card for Michelle Perkett Studio as I'm still battling on decorating the kitchen. I coloured the gorgeous Queen of Hearts (you can find her in Michelle's ETSY store) a little while ago and got her stuck in my MS punch!! I managed to get her out and surprisingly safe and sound so I've used her to make this little card

The image is coloured with promarkers, punched with MS doiley lace punch and matted on black card also punched with the same punch. I've used an A6 card blank for a change and added a little black gem in each of the corners and a black bow at the top.

A really quick and easy card but to be honest this image is such a cute little character I don't think she needs much else with all those lovely hearts around her!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Bee Crafty: Hearts

Cardmad Fairy's Digi Day: Romance

Crazy 4 Challenges: Hearts

Fun with shapes and more: Hearts

Gingerloft Challenge: The colour red

Guylou's inimitability: I {{heart}} you

One Stop Craft Challenge: Love is in the air

Scrappy Frog Challenge : Love

Stamp-n-Doodle: Red/Pink and white plus 1

Thanks for visiting today, hope you're having a good one

There's a new challenge today over at Michelle Perkett Studio so pop over and check it out, Jan and her lovely team of mermaids have set the theme of 'Your Choice' so its a pretty free and easy challenge you just need to use one of Michelle's beautiful stamps. If you don't have any of Michelle's images pop over to her groups on CDAC, PCP and SNR where you can pick up a fab freebie or two!!

Claire xx

A wintery sketch challenge at Rainbow Lady's Challenge blog!!

Hello, its time for a new challenge over at Rainbow Lady's challenge blog, what a fantastic response to last weeks challenge! Wow we couldn't believe how many gorgeous entries we had so a big thank you to everyone who took part!! This week we have a fab sketch by my lovely teamie Audrey and a wintery theme for you. Our challenge this week is sponsored by Chi Chi Memories and the DT were lucky enough to be able to use a gorgeous wintery image for our cards!! I chose this adorable little snowman, how cute is he??

 

I've rotated Audrey's fabby sketch and  used a stripey bp from Artylicious Seasons Greetings CD. The image is coloured with promarkers and then masked to ink in the moon, sky and hills. I've used navy blue card from my stash for matting and layering and for the border (punched with a MP punch). The snowflakes are die cut using Marianne dies, the sentiment is an old stamp from a See D's set die cut with nesties labels 10. The ribbon is a new one from Crafty Ribbons, I have a huge roll of this so you may be seeing a lot of it lol.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

CD Sunday: New Year, new to you (ribbon and new image)

Cupcake Craft Challenge:New

My partner in crafting crime: Something new

Pollycraft Challenge: New Things

Christmas Card Challenges: Snowmen

Christmas cards all year round: Anything goes

Papertake Weekly Challenge: Cold and Frosty Morning

Thanks for calling by, I'm looking forward to seeing your interpretation of Audrey's sketch this week

Claire xx

Family, gold, punches

Hi, time for a new challenge at Cooking it up with Katie, this week we are sponsored by Fairy Knoll and our challenge is to use these ingredients in your card: Gold, punches and family. I've used some gorgeous stamps from Whiff of Joy for this sidestep card.

The images are all coloured with promarkers and cut out. I made the background panels by dotting glossy card with a versamark pen for stars and brayering with blue and then black dye inks. The sentiment is also from Whiff of Joy, stamped and gold embossed on a creative acrylic tag and then attached to some brayered card with glossy accents. I added a gold punched border and a couple of gold bows to finish off.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Creative inspirations: Christmas/winter

Cute Card Thursday: Anything goes

Thanks for visiting today,

Claire

A new challenge at Michelle Perkett Studios!!

Hi there, hope you  are having a good week. Its really grey and miserable here at the minute so hopefully this card with brighten things up a little. There is a new challenge today at Michelle Perkett Studios and the theme this week is 'Girly with Bling!'

 I've used the beautiful 'Bella the Baker' from Michelle Perkett Etsy Store and bps from Raspberry road designs for this card.

Bella is coloured with promarkers and some sparkly sakura stardust highlights on the flowers and cake for a little bling. Its matted on matching card from my stash. I've made the border with a MS punch, added some velvet ribbon, paper flowers and some swirly corners cut on my cricut to finish off.

I'm entering Bella in the following challenges:

Incy Wincy: Anything goes

One Stitch at a time: anything goes

Alphabet: V is for Vintage

Charisma Cardz: Anything goes

Tuesday throwdown: all about punches

Fab'n'Funky: Quote me happy ( I love the quote on this image from Michelle, the only thing is whenever I colour it, I end up singing the song all day - no wonder its raining lol)

Thanks for looking. Don't forget to pop over to my teamies blogs to see their fab cards using Michelle's images and remember if you don't have any of Michelle's images yet you can pick up some fantastic freebies over at CDAC, PCP and SNR (links on my sidebar)

Claire xx

Happy Birthday wishes from Polly, Dolly and William

Its time for another challenge over at Michelle Perkett Studios and this week our challenge is 'Stitching', we want to see some kind of stitching on your cards this time around - real or faux its up to you. I've used this beautiful new image from Michelle's Etsy Store  for this birthday card

I love this image, they are so cute in their vintage costumes!! I coloured the image with promarkers and matted it on a little pink glitter card. The stripey  bps are from Raspberry Road designs and I though they'd be fab with this vintage inspired image. I punched borders with a Martha Stewart punch and added some pastel blue velvet ribbon. The stitching was done with my sewing machine, i struggled with the tension but I thought this would be fine for a shabby chic style card (well thats my excuse lol) I used a leafy stitch around the bps and a kind of zigzag around the image. I coloured some strips torn from a roll of canvas with brilliance ink and glimmer mists and made some roses to embellish the card. (You can find a tutorial for these fab roses on Lynne's blog here but be warned they are addictive lol)

I'm entering Polly, Dolly and William in the following challenges:

Fab'n'Funky : Material (mmm I think my canvas counts as material)

Moving Along with the Times:  In Stitches

Alphabet challenge: S is for Scallops

Paperplay Challenge: In Stitches

Cute card Thursday: Material girl

Ooh La La : Stripes

Meljen's : Stripes

I hope your're going to join us for our Stitching challenge at Michelle Perkett Studios this week, why not check out my teamies blogs for some fabulous inspiration

Thanks for calling by,

Claire xx