Dragons Dream Tag it on.... Surprise

As usual Frankie has set a great challenge at Dragons Dream Tag it On This week, she wants us to surprise her but we have to use whats already on our desk. I was at an advantage with this one, as usual I've got loads of things started and soooooo much stuff on my desk the challenge began with 'Where's my desk' lol. Anyway I decided to use the bits left over from the last card I made and came up with this tag

For the tag base, I spritzed my craft mat to use up the left over spray already on it, although it was mainly red ink its diluted with the water and looks pink. I cut the tag shape and stamped a butterfly out of the card and distressed with some Lightening black brilliance ink. I'd got a pile of circles cut from old book pages so I mopped some more ink up with them and crumpled them up. When they were dry I distressed them with the same brilliance ink and layered them up. For the centres I used some jewellery findings I got from the scrap store with a blob of glue and some black glitter in the middle. I had a piece of card stamped with a Tim Hotz quote that was headed for the bin as I hadnt got a very good impression so I distressed the edges with my craft knife and them some Aged Mahogony distress ink and stuck the butterfly over the blurred bit. I used my favourite (of the moment, it changes every week) Sweet Pea stamp for the fairy, coloured with promarkers and cut out. I wanted a 'watered down' version of the burgundy for her wings so I used the blender pen with  a little colour added to the chisel end to dilute it. To finish off - a couple of black gems and a scrap of bra strap elastic for the hanger.

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

ABC Challenge: V is for Vintage

Crafts and Me Challenge: Distressed 

Crafty Creations: Use your favourite stamp

Cooking it up with Katie: the recipe is use wings, petals and pink

Cute card Thursday - No designer papers

Allsorts: Black, white + one other colour

Thanks for looking, I hope you are enjoying the bank holiday weekend

Claire xx

First card of the weekend and exciting news!

I've had a lovely crafty start to my long weekend off and finished this card for the challenge from Cowgirl's Sunday Stamp'en Challenge which is to use Black, White and Red. I am so excited as i've been invited to join the DT at Cowgirl Up, I love working with CJs stamps so I'm one very happy bunny. Anyway enough chat, here is my card which uses the Cowgirl Up image  'Cups_Lou', I love this image as she looks such a party animal

I've made a 8x8 card from A4 white hammered cartstock for this card and stamped the Elusive Images corner stamps directly onto the base card with black versafine. I've then added a scrap of red card and some black trim i got from the local scrap store. I think its actually bra strap elastic as its soooooo strong and stretchy you could nearly use it to bungee jump lol.

 I've stamped the Tim Holtz quote onto white card, mounted onto black card and rounded the corners of both and attached it with foam tape.Lou is coloured with promakers and attached with silicone glue

 I made some flowers from some  pages from a book I've started to alter. I saw them on my friend Janet's blog (have a look, they are really easy to make) and thought they were so gorgeous i had to have a play. I cut out 5 circles of paper for each flower and sprayed them with loads of Lava Red cosmic shimmer mist and used black button brads for the centre. I got in such a mess making these lol, here is a pic of my hands AFTER I'd washed them

I look like I've been killing a pig as my granny would have said.

I'm also entering this card in to the following challenges:

Gingersnaps Random Redhead GC55 Challenge: Quotes

Magical Crafts: Black, White + one more colour

Sketch &Stash - I've rotated the sketch and the black trim is new stash from my trip to the scrap store, everything else is from my untidy craft room

Cupcake Craft Challenge: Black, grey + 1 other

Tanda Teaser: Xtra Large

Thanks for looking

Claire xx

Born Free

Here is my entry for this weeks challenge over at Blog-a-Doodle using Lynne's gorgeous image 'Born Free'. They have a blog hop tomorrow too so why not pop over and join in the fun

I've followed the sketch from this weeks challenge at I Love Promarkers and of course the image is coloured with promarkers. I find animals really difficult to colour don't you? The bps are from my stash and I used some scraps of corrugated card to back the image and the foiled sentiment (which is from Elusive Images). I didn't want to use ribbon so I found some memory thread and tied a knot with that and added a little to a couple of wooden buttons to finish the card off.

I'm also entering this card in this weeks challenge from One Stitch at a Time which is 'Furry Friends' and also Incy Wincy Designs where the challenge is 'Button Up'

Its my last day at work this week and then I have 4 days off, so I'm a very happy bunny or I will be when I finish at 4pm. I hope it warms up though as its freezing here this morning

Thanks for looking

Claire xx

Journey Tag card

Frankie's challenge at Dragon's Dream Tag it on is 'Journey with a ticket to ride'. Frankie's challenges are always a real inspiration  but I didn't get my tag finished for last weeks challenge so I was determined to have a play this week and got seriously inky making this tag card

I've used a tag shaped card from my stash and stamped a background with lots of stamps - Non Sequitur stamps, text and ships from the Stampman and then lots of distress inks and glimmer mists in Moonlight and various brown shades to blend the inks together. I stamped the Stampman Ship stamp onto a scrap of  brown card and embossed with Antiquities EP before adding loads of Moonlight glimmer mist and Golden Dubloons Moonshadow ink. I did the same with a 'stamp' stamp from Non Sequitur and tore the images out before distressing the edges. I mopped up all the glimmer misty, inky mess with some pieces of string. I attached the main image with a brad so it can move around. It still looked a bit bare so I painted a parrot and chest (Mo Manning digistamps) with distress inks and more glimmer mists/ Moonshadow inks. I inked part of a cocktail stick for the parrots perch which stick out over the side of the card. To finish off I added an eyelet and the knotted  inky string . Apols for the dodgy photo - I can't seem to get a decent picture and the scanner is playing up.

I'm also entering this tag card in the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge: Tag/Label

Just scraps: A scrap of brown and a splash of colour

The Crafty Pad: Over the edge

Sunday Stamper: Rip it up and start again

Tuesday Taggers: Its a mans world

Thanks for looking

Claire xx

Clean and simple strawberries

This weeks Corrosive Challenge is to make a 'clean and simple' card. I don't usually do this kind of card as I'm such a messy crafter and but when I found this gorgeous strawberry image ( a freebie at Beccy's Place - pop over and have a look at Beccy's gorgeous work) I didn't want to clutter it up with lots of papers or stamping.

I've used  white linen card for the base card ad coloured the image with promarkers. Once I'd cut the image out I mounted it onto a doiley with foam pads and then onto a circle of red card. It was a bit too clean and simple so I added some scraps of rbbon with silicone glue and some red gems in the corners.

I'm also entering this card into the following challenges:

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge: No patterned paper

Totally Papercrafts: A photo inspiration challenge

Well I'd better get ready for work now, I'm so looking forward to the bank holiday weekend

Have a good day everyone and thanks for looking

Claire xx

New York New York

This weeks challenge from Cynthia over at Rainbow Lady's Challenge Blog is 'New York, New York' and as I'd missed the deadline for the challenge last week I decided to be more organised this week. I've never been to New York and I'm  not likely to as Im a real home bird but when I think of New York, i think of the skyline, parties and glamourous ladies in their finery and here is my card inspired by Cynthia's challenge:

The sky is made by brayering some glossy card with orange and yellow dye inks and overstamping with a starry sky stamp from Non Sequitur. The skyline is cut on my Cricut. The lady is actually a bride stamp from Joanna Sheen stamped and coloured her hair and skin with promarkers then the bottom part of her dress with sakura stardust in orange.  I carefully cut her out to remove her veil and paper pieced the rest of her dress with some paper from Artylicious 'Decadent Delights' CD and highlighted the butterflies with some more sakura stardust. The moon is also from Non Sequitur stamped in black versafine and coloured with yellow stampbord ink before being triple embossed. To finish off, a sentiment from Joanna Sheen embossed with Tequila Sunrise EP.

I'm also entering this card into this weeks challenge from the lovely ladies over at CD Sunday which is 'Elegant Ladies' and The Pink Elephant where the challenge is to use Orange

I'm taking some time owing after being so busy at work for the last couple of weeks and having the day off today. Its bliss to get up on a Monday and not dash off to work. especially as it looks like another lovely day. Enjoy the sunshine if you can and thanks for looking

Claire xx

I

Just Breathe...

After a couple of attempts I've finally got my card finished for this weeks challenge over at Michelle Perkett Studio where the theme is 'Flowers Galore'. It isn't quite how it should be as I dropped the card and one of the dogs trod on it and left a big paw print on the last piece of lilac card for the base of the easel lol.
I've used Michelle's gorgeous 'Serena' image and coloured her with promarkers. I've inked the background with a stipple brush and added some gems to the flowers. Serena is matted on some cuttlebugged card and then on some lilac card. I've added some flowers which I  made from acetate coloured with alcohol inks, stamped and embossed with an Elusive Images stamp and lilac EP. I've also added some more lilac flower gems and a ribbon fish.
I'm also entering this card in the following challenges:
Papertake Weekly Challenge: Say it with Flowers
Fab'n' Funky Challenges: Make it yourself
Sew Many Challenges: anything goes

Thanks for looking, hope you are enjoying the sunshine
Claire xx

Stitching and Ribbons

Well its certainly not the weather for thinking about Christmas - its been a real scorcher today but I'm determined to be organised this year so here is my Christmas creation for this week.

I did this cross stitch ages ago (about 7/8 year ago to be honest ) but I found it with a load of other finished (and unfinished) stitching projects at the weekend and decided to finish it off. I used plain black fabric for the back and added scraps of ribbon to tie it on to the wooden hanger. I have to confess I hand stitched it as I couldn't be bothered to get my sewing machine out. I really must motivate myself and dust it off - I got a new sewing machine about 2 years ago and I can never be bothered to set it up and use it. The pic is taken on the dining table as I didn't want to risk hanging it up incase it was bad luck lol.

I'm entering this in to this weeks challenge from Bah Humbug which is 'Ribbons' and also Susie and Vikki's Christmas Club where the challenge is 'Stitching'

Have a lovely weekend and thanks for looking

Claire xx

Punched borders

I seem to have loads of projects started and stuff all over my craft room at the minute, it looks like an explosion in a paper factory but I've been struggling to get anything finished for some reason. Anyway I've managed to get this card finshed for the Bah Humbug challenge this week which is punched borders.

It was a real challenge for me as I don't have many punches at all, I've just never really got into them. I do have some papermania punches that I got for a real bargain price ages ago and thanks to Ann on the Bah Humbug team who did a tutorial for this tecnique ages I managed to make this card. I have to say it wasn't easy and they aren't lined up perfectly but at least its punched lol. I used red glitter card for the punched border background. The image is a stamp from Joanna Sheen, coloured with inktense pencils and glittered with a little prisma glitter to highlight the snow. The image is matted on to some green mirri card and I added a scrap of green and gold ribbon to finish off.

Im also entering this card into the challenge from Winter Wonderland which is 'See amid the winter snow'

Thanks for looking

Claire xx

Peekaboo

 

I don't often make 'baby' cards but I couldn't resist this image from Karen's Doodles - she's such a cutie peeping between her chubby little knees. I've used a bp from a Joanna Sheen pad I've had for ages but never really used (why do we keep paper for stroking instead of using it?) . the image is coloured with promarkers and cut out before being matted onto a doily (again from Joanna Sheen). To finish the card off I've added some ribbon and card candy. For the layout I've followed this weeks sketch from Karen's Doodles UK Challenge but 'stretched' it a bit as I fancied a change from square cards. I'm also entering this card into this weeks challenge from ABC Challenge which is 'U is for Unused Stash'.

Thanks for looking, better go and get myself ready for work now
Claire xx

Lets get Distressed

This weeks challenge from Michelle Perkett Studio is to use distressing so I've used some of my favourite techniques in this card as I love distressing

The image is coloured with promarkers and the background watercoloured with Shabby Shutters and distress inks. I used to same colours to create a background sheet and then cut it up and altered the pieces for this weeks sketch from Sketch Saturday. The large background is overstamped with a swirls and versamagic 'eggplant'. The vertical panel is inked with lots of the darker eggplant ink, cuttlebugged and then sanded.The two smaller pieces are overtstamped with swirls using with the same two distress inks and dusted with cosmic shimmer powders. I then distressed the edges of all the pieces with my craft knife and inked them with eggplant. The image is mounted with foam pads and I added some paper rose, ribbon and a little charm which says 'Follow your Dreams' to finish off for this weeks challenge from I Love Digi which is Charming

Thanks for looking and happy Monday morning to everyone :-)

Claire xx

A special card

I can't believe that next Sunday will be our first wedding anniversary!! A year ago we were rushing around making sure flowers, dresses, bridesmaids etc were all organised and now we are like Darby and Joan lol. I wanted to make a special card for Paul, he was really ill just a few weeks after our wedding so he can't work but he is a fantastic 'Home Hub' and has learnt to drive the hoover, the cooker, the washer  - just got to train him to use the iron now.
The theme for our wedding was 'butterflies' and our colour scheme was pale blue, gold and ivory so when I saw the fabby challenge from Sir Stampalot was Butterflies and Blossoms,  my brain started ticking over. As I was the lucky winner of last months Sir Stampalot Challenge I am the proud owner of a lovely shiny new cricut (huge THANKYOU'S again to all the team at Sir Stampalot) and I've used it to cut the base and sentiment for this card:

The inner circle is coloured with inks and cosmic shimmer powders swooshed around on my craft mat to make a pale shimmery gold colour. The sentiment is from Elusive Images, stamped and embossed with gold EP and mounted on foam pads. The blue background is satin card coloured with dye inks and a stipple brush to (hopefully) look like blue sky. The flowers are made from an assortment of stamps - some stamped on acetate and glittered, some stamped on card and painted with H2o's and some stamped on vellum (it took blooming ages to cut them all out). I mounted the blue background on foam tape and attached the flowers with silcone to give them some dimension. The butterflies are Elusive Images, stamped on acetate and glittered on the reverse - they look gorgeous but so hard to get a decent photo.

I hope Paul likes it, i've tried to capture not just our theme colours but also the flowers, sunshine and happiness of a truly wonderful day (awwww, getting a bit tearful  lol). i've just got to try and find him a pressie now.

I'm also entering this card in to the following challenges:

Creative Card Crew - Sketch

Totally Papercrafts: Wedding/Anniversary

Your Next Stamp Challenge: Cut it out and pop it up

Quixotic Challenge: Let your garden grow

Thanks for looking

Claire xx

Anything Goes

Hello everyone, I seem to have so many things started at the minute - my craft room looks like a bomb site so I'm going to try and actually finish a couple of cards today lol. The first is this one.
The challenge at Crafty Ann's Challenge blog is 'Anything Goes' so I've been inspired by Ann's fantastic shaped easel cards and made this card.

 I've cut the circles on my Cricut using papers from K&Co. I've used Crafty Ann's Easy Chair digistamp and a cute little tilda and coloured both with inktense pencils. The flower is punched using a woodware punch and has a gorgeous sparkly button for the centre. To finish the card off Ive tied a bow using some pink organza ribbon and made a pin from gold headpins and some beads from my stash.

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

Truly Scrumptious: A gorgeous sketch this week

Just Magnolia: one for the girls

Creative Card World: Easel Card

Just Scraps: Think Pink

My time to craft: Too cute

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge: Metal

Thanks for looking

Claire xx

Santa's Treats

The Bah Humbug challenge this week is 'Christmas Food', I thought it was a brilliant challenge until i had a rummage through my stamps and realised that I didn't have any Christmas food stamps apart from a couple of little SeeD's stamps(I'll soon rectify that though lol). Anyway not to be put off I decided to use one of my favourite images from Joanna Sheen's Enchanted Christmas Cd and make a little recipe book to put all my Christmas recipes in.
I was planning on having it finished with all the recipes written in and the pages decorated but I've had one of 'those' weeks at work and only just managed to cobble it together at the last minute.

I used a little wooden book blank I've had for years and sprayed the cover and pages with moonshadow inks (golden dubloons and jolly roger red) and then inked around the edges with poinsetta red gold starbust stains. I cut the image out and stuck it on to the cover, coloured a couple of little stamped images with inktense pencils and added a little sticker from my stash. I stamped the 'Santa's Treats' title with paperartsy alphabet stamps using brilliance rocket red ink. I then tied lots of ribbon to the book rings and made a little bookmark from ribbon and a couple of bells and attached that to the book ring too. I added 4 little gold brads to the corners to finsh it off - had to take a deep breath in case my cropodile split the wood but it didn't.

I'm also entering my little recipe book in the following challenges:

Susie and Vikki's Christmas Club: Jingle Bells 

ABC Christmas Challenge: J is for Jingle Bells

Fab's Big Christmas Challenge: Cosy/Inked edges

CD Sunday Challenge: Country Charm (stretching it a bit I know ladies but the little girl makes me think of a cosy country cottage kitchen)

Thanks for looking

Claire xx

Puppy Love

I was so excited to see the challenge over at Blog-a-Doodle this week which is 'Pets' , you get to choose one of Lynne's gorgeous images to work with and one of them was a German Shepherd. As I am lucky enough to have 2 german shepherds it was an easy choice for me and here is the card I've made

The image is printed on to printable acetate, Lynne's images are wonderful to work with and all I needed to do with this one was glitter the back with chantilly lace sprinkle and sparkle glitter - a perfect GSD colour lol.  I made the background using some cream textured card and created some hills using sepia versafine ink and then sprayed them with golden dubloons moonshadow ink before distressing the edges. I made the sky using bucaneer bay blue moonshadow ink - the first time I've tried that and I'm really pleased with the effect. The sentiment is stamped again with sepia versafine using a paper artsy alphabet. As the challenge at Tuesday Taggers is Step out of your Comfort Zone, I decided to try some stitching on my card. I love to see it but can never be bothered - I can see why now as it took me ages lol, I do like the finished result though.  I attached the dog with some silicone glue and then made a 'lead' from brown ribbon, a couple of brads and a charm from my stash and attached it to some more inked/stitched card to support the easel.

I'm also entering this into the following challenges:

Sophisticat: a colour challenge, blue, brown and cream

Papertake Weekly Challenge: shiny, sparkly and special

Cards for men: The great outdoors