GDT At Frilly and Funkie

Good morning, ooooh what an exciting day it is!! I'm a very lucky crafter as I'm Guest Designer at Frilly and Funkie, one of my very favourite challenges. Even better the challenge theme is absolutely fabulous too! The theme is 'Case it' and the idea is to case one of Linda's amazing Christmas tags but with a summery twist. Now I adore Linda's Christmas tags they are always so full of techniques and inspiration but I didn't get chance to play along last year so this was a perfect opportunity to catch up I took my inspiration from this one of Linda's tags

I began with a sheet of mountboard, distressed with a craft knife and Burnt Umber PanPastel. I followed the layout of Linda's tag and the idea of textured panels down the sides. I wanted a much more summery feel though so I set to work with Squeezed Lemonade, Shabby Shutters and Gathered twigs distress ink and a viva decor flexible stencil to create the flower panels. I cleaned the stencils and then applied a layer of Maimeri Glassy Gel, removed the stencil and sprinkled on microbeads (I know, I just can't stop using them at the minute lol).  Once it was all dry I added some colour to the background with PanPastels

The centre panel was made using a distress ink background on a tag, I used stamps from Crafty Individuals coloured with Graph'It markers, adding a die cut birdcage, lace, ribbon, pearl trim and a bird cage charm which I attached to the stamped glassine envelope

Again, following Linda's tag design I cut some burlap squares and gave them a light coat of gesso before attaching the letters (die cuts embossed with vintage silver Frantage powder)

Last but not least I added some flowers made with some scraps of linen card coloured with Magenta tint PanPastel. They were die cut with tattered florals and I added some glittery centres.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Crafty Individuals: tag you're it

Die Cutting Diva's: thing with wings

Hobbycutz: anything goes

Rhedd and Rosie's: Anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: anything goes

Through the Purple Haze: anything goes

Thanks so much for popping by, do pop over and check out the gorgeous inspiration from the Frilly and Funkie DT as they such a lovely talented bunch of ladies!

Claire xx

Flower challenge at indigo Blu

Good morning all, some slightly dodgy pics of today's project, its really shimmery and I do struggle to get a decent pic of anything with a bit of shimmer, hence the dodgy angles on some of the pics lol. I've made a hanging heart for my entry in to this months challenge at Indigo Blu where the theme is 'Flowers'

I began by painting the A5 mdf heart with black gesso and then stamped Blazing Poppies (just love this stamp, sooooo detailed and pretty) with versamark and embossed with Gold EP. I also stamped the image on Neenah card a couple of times too and coloured the flowers in with promarkers.

Next came the Kroma crackle, coloured with turquoise PanPastel and a little spray of turquoise dylusions too. I absolutely adore Kroma crackle, such a fab-u-lous effect! Once it was dry I added a little Viva Precious Metal Paint and then higlighted the crackle with some gold ink (I'd blobbed a load on my craft mat while I was edging the heart with my krylon pen so waste not want not lol)

I've layered the flowers up, with a dewdrop and some black glitter in the centre of the poppies and a tiny dot of enamel accents in the centre of the forget-me-nots. 

To finish off i've added some turquoise ribbon and then a happy accident - I was sorting out a ginormous pile of bits and bobs on my worktable and had stuff everywhere, once it was almost put away I spotted that a tassel and a little chinese coin charm had ended up on this heart - serendipity as they say!

I'm also entering this project in the following challenges:

Crafts and Me: Floral Frenzy

Get Inky: Floral fun

Make my Monday: anything but a card

Word Art Wednesday: anything goes

Well I'm away to work again now (how boring)

have a lovely day and thanks for popping by

Claire xx

Fashionable Flowers

Hi there my fashionable friends, today sees a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges  and this time our theme is Handmade flowers. We are of course sponsored by the lovely Marina who will be providing a gorgeous prize for our lucky winner from her shop Cottage Crafts. For my DT project I decided to combine two of my favourite things, stamping and jewellery making.

I created a grungepaper flower using a freebie stamp from Craft Stamper, painted with viva precious metal paint in turquoise and over stamped with part of a beautiful doodle butterfly stamp (also a freebie from Craft Stamper), layered the 5 flowers up and secured them with a gold eyelet. This allowed me to thread some wired gold myuki drop beads through the centre, I secured them with silicone glue and added some gold glitter. The leaves were made using jade green size 11 seed beads, gold size 15 seed beads and more myuki drops (the pattern for the leaves was in last months Bead magazine). I'd forgotten just how teeny tiny size 15 seed beads are, I'm sure they've shrunk or perhaps I should have gone to specsavers LOL. 

Once I'd made the flower and the leaves I had to try and work out how to attach them together so that i could make a necklace out of them. EEk that was a bit of a nightmare but I used a small nestie to cut a shape from grungeboard and wired the flower and leaves through it and added some silicone glue for a bit of extra security (I'm a bit of a belt and braces girl lol). I added another gold eyelet to the grungeboard shape and attached a gold chain (from one of my expeditions to the charity shop lol. 

Here's a pic to show the detail a little better. Its been so dark and dull here I've struggled to get photo's of this project.

I made a tag to display the necklace, by painting a tag with the same turquoise precious metal paint and overstamping with the same flower and butterfly stamp in gold and then using versamark and embossing with some gorgeous sparkly teal ep from my stash. I attached the necklace using a little turquoise chiffon ribbon.

I'm entering this tag in the following challenges:

Allsorts : Anything but a card

Cheerful Stamp pad: petals

Creative Belli: non paper materials

Flutter by Wednesday: Open challenge with butterfly angel or fairy

Sir Stampalot: Whatever you fancy

Sweet Stamps: Bling it up

Pop on over to the challenge blog to see the gorgeous projects from my fashionable teamies, they've come up with some absolute stunners and we're also introducing our newest member of the DT too!! 

Thanks for calling by

Claire xx