Challenge 8 at Christmas Challenges {with sketches}

Hi there, this time at Christmas Challenge {with sketches} we have a fab sketch by my lovely teamie Linda so pop over to the challenge blog and check out Linda's sketch and the gorgeous cards from the rest of the DT.

While you're there, make sure you check out the prize from our generous sponsor  Alles om te Scrappen 

For my DT card, i've gone for a traditional look this time using gold glitter card, papers from GCD and stamps from Chocolate Baroque. The image is coloured with promarkers and framed by a Marianne star diecut highlighted with gold embossing. The sentiment is also gold embossed and the flower is another marianne diecut. To finish off i've added red faux gems from my stash.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Crafts 4 Eternity: Christmas

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge: build it up

Passion for Promarkers: anything goes

Samuel Taylor's Challenge: christmas card using rubber stamps

Thanks for calling by today

Claire xx

Ribbon or Lace at Fashionable Stamping Challenges

Hi there, how's your weekend going? As usual we've got rain for the bank holiday weekend but after the last few weeks at work I'm not too bothered as its just bliss to be at home :-) This weekend is extra special as not only is it time for a new challenge at Fashionable Stamping Challenges but today's the day you get to meet our uber talented new teamies!! Make sure you call by the challenge blog and check out their amazing work and also find out more about the prize on offer from Cottage Crafts

For my card I took inspiration from some delicious chalky pastel acrylic paints I added to my crafty stash recently. I made the background using pastel pink, pearl white and pale green paints. I used a wet into wet technique to blend the colours. I overstamped with my trusty foliage stamps from the Autumn Hedgerow stamp sheet from Chocolate Baroque.

I created a frame from greyboard cut with nesties labels 4 and 11  and crackled that using pink and white acylic paints and pva glue. The focal image is Sugar Nellie stamp, I've had her for ages but this is the first time I've inked her up. She's painted with distress inks. You can see her a little better in this pic

I've added loads of paper flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts , some foliage cut with crealies, faux pearls, ribbon and lace from my stash. I used an Anna Griffin punch and distress ink to make the butterflies and added a sprinkling of glamour dust to them and the flowers

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Corrosive Challenge: Girlie

Creative Belli: Gingham

Crafts and me: Lace

Digi Doodle Shop's Best: Anything goes

Flutter by Wednesday: Open challenge with butterfly angel or fairy

Paper Creations Ink: Show us your flowers

Paper Playtime: anything goes

Paper Pretties: Make your own bp

Sisterhood of Crafters: Flower Power

Stamp with fun: Summer

Truly Scrumptious: rocked up pink

Woodware USA: try a new technique

Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

Home Sweet Home

Hi there, get your shades on before you go any further as this is a very bright card lol. It was made for a forum cardswap and inspired by the fab tutorial by Glenda Waterworth using the new 'Home Sweet Home' stamps from Chocolate Baroque (you can see Glenda's tutorial here)

I stamped and masked the cottage and extended the lines to ground the image and drew some hills in the background and masked them too. More masking to create the sunburst effect which was inked using brilliance inks and then shaded with coloursoft pencils. The cottage and hills were also coloured with coloursoft pencils and the edges inked with black soon distress ink before being matted on orange and yellow card.

I really enjoyed making this card, lots of inky fun :-)

Art impressions stamps: summertime

Craft Room challenge: Masking

Craft us Crazy: Anything goes

Crafty Calendar: Hot colours

Crafty Purple Frog: hot red hot

Dream Valley: Lemon, lime and orange

Ooh la la: no backing papers

Now I just with the weather would take a hint and it would stop raining long enough for us to enjoy some sunshine.  I hope you're having a good weekend

hugs

Claire xx

It'll be all white on the night

Hi folks, I can't believe I haven't managed a single post all week, its been another hectic week at work and I don't seem to have had a minute. Anyway its time for a new challenge over at Crafty Ann's Challenge Blog and I've got to say this one was a real challenge for me as our theme is 'It'll be all white on the night' so we just want to see colour on the main image only. I've used Crafty Ann's beautiful Morning Glory digi stamp (you can find it here in Crafty Ann's Digi Shop)

I've kept the card fairly simple, coloured the image with promarkers, cut with a nestie and inked around the edge with victorian velvet distress ink and matted it on another nestie inked with shabby shutters distress ink.

I've dusted off one of my embossing folders for the background and added some faux pearls from my stash. The gorgeous ribbon is from Crafty Ribbons  and to finish off i've added a couple of beaded pins made with head pins, crystals and pearls from my jewellery making stash.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Corrosive Challenge: Girlie

Crafting for all seasons: Bingo challenge 

(my line is ribbon, glitter/shine - my pins and flowers)

Kaboodle Doodles: ribbon

Ooh La La: No patterned paper

The Paper Shelter: die cuts and punches

Papertake Weekly: dies to die for

Passion for Promarkers: No patterned paper

Scrapbook Sisters: flower, ribbon and gem

Sisterhood of Crafters: flower power

Sweet Stamps: White on white

I love Fridays and when i type my post for Crafty Ann's challenge it always reminds me that the weekend is nearly here and its a bank holiday this weekend so an extra day off work too :-) 

Thanks for calling by today, pop over and check out my lovely teamies blogs as their cards are just beautiful as always

hugs

Claire xx

Steampunk Christmas

Hi there, I've had a lovely lazy Sunday so far pottering round in my craftroom. I've been itching to have a play with these gorgeous new stamps from Chocolate Baroque and had a fab messy inky time making this easel card.  Its great to find some stamps for men's Christmas cards and as well as traditional Christmas stamps there are some lovely corners and cog stamps that will be used all year round.

I set to with white card and glimmer mists (creme de cocoa and vanilla breeze) and spritzed the card generously to create the background colour. Once it was dry I stamped the cog background stamps and embossed with stickums powder and dusted liberally with metallic shades of mica powders. The tree was stamped in versamark on a piece of the glimmer misted card and embossed with metallic EPs (Silver, gold and antiquities, all from Sparkle and Sprinkle). I did the same for the 'NOEL' sentiment and then inked all the edges with black soot distress ink.

I added some copper ribbon from my stash and some little gold jingle bells from Crafts 4 You. The gorgeous flower is also from Steampunk Christmas. To finish off I decorated the tree with some cogs and watch bits from my stash. Here's a pic to show the detail

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Artistic Stamper: Macho men

Bah Humbug: something new

Bunny Zoe's Crafts: easel cards

Christmas Cards all year round: 4 of ... (my four are ribbon, inking, stamping and metal embellies)

Christmas Stampin: non traditional colours

Crafty Hazelnut's challenge: Christmas birthday or anything goes

Frosted Designs: clocks/timepieces

Just some lines: embossing

Marks Finest Papers: emboss it

Simon Says Stamp and Show: some bling

Totally Papercrafts: Christmas in August

Winter Wonderland: Cards for men/boys

Thanks for visiting today

hugs

Claire xx

Time for Tea

Hi folks, how's your weekend going? Its very quiet and peaceful here as DS has gone away with his friends for a few days, in fact its almost too quiet . I shouldn't complain as he'll be home tomorrow with piles of washing lol. Anyway todays card is for the progressive challenge over at Crafters Digital Art Centre . There are some gorgeous images and i've coloured a few of them but this was the first chance i've had to make a card. 

The gorgeous teapot image is by Sandy Samples and is coloured with promarkers. I  love fuschias, they are one of my favourite flowers and always make me think of summer so I couldn't resist this lovely teapot. Sadly all the fuschias in my garden bit the dust in the bad weather :-(.

It took ages to get the creamy background colour I wanted and I carefully wrote down which promarkers I used and guess what ..... lost the list! I've used spun sugar distress ink around the image and matted it on some dark cream card. The bp is Prima Madeline and the pearls, ribbon and lace are from my stash.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Craft us Crazy: anything goes

Crafty Sentiments: no sentiment

Fussy and Fancy: 3 or more of your favourite embellishments

My mum's craft shop: summer

Jellypark: favourite embellishments

Papertake Weekly: Bingo challenge (my line is pearls, ribbon and freespace)

Simon Says Stamp: food and drink

Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

Another one for the Christmas box

I've been having a play with some gorgeous new stamps called 'Home Sweet Home' from Chocolate Baroque, I've used the cute little cottages framed with Mistletoe stamps from Joanna Sheen that I've had for years and years to make a simple Christmas card for this weeks 'Kissmas' challenge from the lovely ladies at Hunbug Hall.

I stamped the cottages and mistletoe in black versafine on white cardstock and masked the mistletoe and the moon to ink in the sky. I used memento inkpads in summer sky, danube blue and tuxedo black applied with a shaving brush to build up the night sky. I added the snowflakes with an inksentials white gel pen.

I extended the snow drifts around the cottages with a black fine line pen and coloured the scene and mistletoe with derwent coloursoft pencils and added some glamour dust to make the snow sparkle on the roofs and branches and the tops of the snow drifts. I used a gold krylon pen to finish off.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Bah Humbug: Kissmas

Cards for men: anything goes

Clear it out: glitter

Challenge up your life: No patterned paper

Christmas Card Challenges: Christmas cheer

Christmas Inspirations: clean and simple

Crafts and Me: blues or blue and green

Crafty Hazelnut's Challenge: simply Christmas

Creative Stamp Friends: Handmade background

Oldie but Goodie: the great outdoors

Ooh la la: Oh Christmas

Secret Crafter: christmas is coming

Try it on Tuesday: anything goes

Thanks for visiting today

hugs

Claire xx

Challenge 7 at Christmas Challenges {with sketches}

Hi there, its time for a new challenge at Christmas challenges {with sketches} and this week Janneke has designed a beautiful sketch to inspire us. 

Pop on over to the challenge blog to check out Janneke's gorgeous sketch and also to find out about the fab prize on offer from our sponsor Crealies

I've used one of my favourite Christmas stamps for this card, I just adore mistletoe and this mistletoe ball from Chocolate Baroque is so delicate. I've coloured the image with promarkers, distressed with some distress ink and added glossy accents to highlight the berries. The bps are from GCD and have been distressed with a craft knife. i've used a Marianne die and swiped through with versamark to emboss the stars with gold ep. The ribbon and gems are from my stash.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Bah Humbug: Christmas kisses

do you stack up: emboss it

Dream Valley: distressing

One stitch at a time: anything goes

Marianne's Design Divas: anything Marianne goes 

Ooh la la: Christmas

Paper Playtime: anything goes

Pollycraft: Distressing

Secret Crafter: Christmas is coming

Simply Create: time to distress 

Sugar Creek Hollow: Vintage Christmas 

Thanks for popping by, 

Claire xx

Baby card

Hi there,  I thought I'd better make a few baby cards as I'm doing my first craft fair in a few weeks, this one uses a gorgeous digi stamp from Mo Manning.

I've coloured the image with coloursoft pencils and added some glamour dust highlights. The bp is from the Artylicious 'Decadent Brocade' cd and has been distressed with victorian velvet distress ink. The main image is matted on a doiley and the roses are all from Wild Orchid Crafts. The daisies are from Kort and Godt and are almost to pretty to use, the flowers all have a little sparkle from some glamour dust but it doesn't show up in the pic. I made a little shrink plastic sentiment and attached it with silicone, the ribbons and pearls are from my stash. Here's another pic to show the detail a little better

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Crazy 4 Challenges: Monochrome

Cupcake Craftroom: Soft and sweet

Gingersnap Creations GC 113: Babes and Tots

Glitter Fairies: pretty in pink

KB Cute monday: Babies

Paper Creations Ink: show us your flowers

Paper Playtime: anything goes

Stamps & Fun = Creativity: Monochrome

Thanks for calling by today

hugs

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

Tatty Button

Hi there, weekend at last and after some awful weather the sun is finally starting to peep through.  Before I go and tackle the rain forest, oops I mean garden lol I just wanted to share this card. This weeks challenge at CD Sunday has a buttons theme and coincided with this gorgeous Tatty Button stamp arriving from the lovely Lynn at Crafts 4 You (half price so I just couldn't resist lol) After another manic week at work I wasn't sure if i'd get my card finished in time but here it is although the photo is terrible for some reason.

I stamped Tatty with memento ink, masked her and stamped the fence behind, coloured the image with promarkers and inked in the sky with a scalloped mask and some tumbled glass distress ink. I've watned to use a gingham paper but of course I didn't have the right colour but fortunately I rememberd a free cd that came with a magazine called Complete Cardmaking, it has some gorgeous Christmas bps on it and this lovely blue gingham paper. The other bp from Prima Madeline pad. I've added some tiny buttons from the Stamp Man and some ribbon from my stash. To finish off I punched some flowers and die cut some swirls from the leftover bps and inked them with distress inks. I embossed the flowers on the reverse to curl the petals and layered them up with a button in the centre.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Craft us Crazy: anything goes

Crafty Emma's Challenge: Mix and Match

Incy Wincy: Something old, something new (new stamps, old cd)

Order of the Opus Gluei: No sentiment

Papertake: Grow your own

Stampin Sisters in Christ: something you had to buy but had forgotten about (cd)

Stampin B's: a card with clouds

thanks for popping by today, have a good weekend

hugs

Claire xx

Show us your scallops at Crafty Ann's

Hi there folks, sorry i've been so quiet lately. Its so annoying when work gets in the way of important things like crafting isn't it? Its time for a new challenge at Crafty Ann's Challenge blog though and this time our theme is 'Scallops and/or Fancy borders'

I've used Crafty Ann's beautiful 'Bird on Blossom Branch' for my card, its one of my favourite images and you can find it here in Crafty Ann's Digi Store. I've coloured the bird with promarkers, cut out with a nestie and added some tumbled glass distressing around the edge. The bp is from the Prima Madeline papers, cut with a scalloped border die. The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the brown velvet ribbon is from my stash. I've added one of Crafty Ann's fab ticket sentiments for a finishing touch.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Crafty Sentiments: punches/die cuts

Delightful Challenges: things with wings

Little Red Wagon: use a bird on your project

Make my Monday: birds or bugs

Sentimental Sundays: flowers plus sentiment

Thanks for popping by, if you get chance do check out Crafty Ann's digi store as she has some wonderful metallic frames, papers and images! They are brand new and she has them on special offer at the minute so you get 2 for only 75p, bargain or what??

I've been so busy at work i haven't had chance to play but hopefully i'll get some time at the weekend to use them as they are FAB

hugs

Claire xx

Sheena's Paint Fusion giveaway

Just a quick post to let you know Sheena Douglass has an amazing giveaway on her blog to celebrate the launch of her new Christmas Paint Fusion range on C&C this Friday! I'm so excited about the new stamps as I love paint fusion and I love Christmas, a perfect fusion lol.

Anyway pop on over to Sheena's blog and find out how you can be in with a chance to win this beautifully fusioned wine box as well as the new stamps and DVD too!! 

I'm at a work event on Friday so i'll miss the launch of the new stamps, gutted or what! What's worse is that I volunteered to go, how daft am I lol? I'll have to keep my fingers and toes crossed that the blinking BT vision decides to play nicely and record it as these stamps are going to be FAB_U_LOUS

If I get chance at the weekend i'll post a pic of my paint fusioned bath panel

Hugs

Claire xx

No card again today but

I thought I'd share some of my work from the Colouring 101 course at My Creative Classroom. I've always been a huge fan of Glenda Waterworth and I've always struggled with pencil colouring so when I spotted this course I had to enrol. Its a wonderful course and i've learned so much already. Its good to actually stop and think about the materials you're using and how they work together. So far we've looked at inkpads and how they work with different types of cardstock, water etc

I've used the types of card and inkpads I use most often in my crafting to see how they work together. I've also dragged a wet paintbrush across the images to see how the inks react with water on the different types of card (shown by the arrows at the top) and also ran a promarker blender pen across the images (the arrow at the bottom). I'll keep referring to these again and again as its unbelievable how the images differ. The stamp i've used is from the Fuchsia stamp sheet from Chocolate Baroque, I love this stamp and as its very detailed I thought it would be ideal to test the ink pads.

Once we'd tested our ink pads we moved on to experimenting adding colour to stamped images using various mediums

In week 2 we looked at light and shade, I always struggle with this but the videos are fab-u-lous and really made it a lot easier to see where I'd been going wrong. Here's some of my week 2 work. I've found it really interesting to see how different types of pencils blend and create different effects. We've also looked at adding detail to a watercoloured image with pencils.

We're into week 3 now and we're looking at colouring skin and hair as well as water and reflections etc. I always used to love watching Glenda's demonstrations on C&C so its wonderful to be able to watch the videos on My Creative Classroom. I still love my promarkers but I'm gradually getting more confident with my pencils and I love the effects you can achieve with them. I've got a little behind with work being so busy but hopefully I'll get chance to practice  this weeks techniques later

Thanks for visiting

hugs

Claire xx

Playing with pencils

Hi there, hope you've had a good week well better than mine anyway lol. Still its nearly the weekend and I can escape the horrors of work for a couple of days. Apart from being busy at work, i've also been busy with my 'homework' from My Creative Classroom Colouring 101 course which is amazing! I've got loads of colouring pencils and now I've started using them a lot more. Here's a card made using one of my favourite stamps from Chocolate Baroque, Fuchsia stamp sheet.

I stamped the fuchsia stamp to create the background and for the main image, coloured  with coloursoft pencils and decoupaged the two flowers in the foreground. The main image is diecut with nesties labels 4.  I've used some hot pink card to mat and layer, edged with gold krylon pen. The ribbon is from Crafty ribbons and I stamped the sentiment in copper stazon (I always think this looks more like gold than the gold one lol) on shrink plastic, edged with pink ink and gold krylon and attached with jump rings. The sentiment is also from Chocolate Baroque, 'Words of Gratitude' sheet. Its one of my favourite stamps and it reads "Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom". 

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Crafts and Me: Anything goes

Fab'n'Funky : Friendship

For Fun Challenge: anything goes

Ladybug Crafts Ink: favourite stamps

Kaboodle Doodles: In the garden

Sassie Studio Designs: Lets get sentimental

Sentimental Sunday: Its a garden party

Sugar Creek Hollow: make your own designer paper

The Paper Shelter: flowers, flowers, flowers

Thanks for popping by

Claire xx

Challenge 6 at Christmas Challenges {with sketches}

Hello folks, can you believe its time for a new challenge at Christmas Challenges {with sketches} already? This week its my turn to design the sketch, its my very first attempt (eeek how scary lol!) so I hope you like it.  

This week our challenge is sponsored by Hobbystempels so pop on over to the challenge blog and check out my sketch and also find out more about the fab prize on offer :-)

I've used a lovely stamp from Whiff of Joy for my card, 'Confirmation Melinda' and coloured her with promarkers (of course she needed a little glamour dust too lol). She's matted on some pale pink glitter card. The bp is from Raspberry Road Designs, they have such scrummy papers and this is one of my favourites. I've added some mistletoe diamonds (stamp from Joanna Sheen) stamped on pink vellum with gilded ivory EP and a stickles border. The flowers are also cut from pink vellum (with a Marianne die) and have faux gems in the centres and lots of glamour dust. The sentiment is from Chocolate Baroque.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Craft your passion: Anything goes

Colour Create: Pink Green and White

Come and Get It: Anything goes

Fussy and Fancy: Christmas in July

Sparkles Forum: One for the girls

Stamps & Fun = Creativity: Christmas card

Sweet Stampin Challenge: Christmas in July

Totally Papercrafts: bling it up

Winter Wonderland: Fairies or Angels

Well thats another one for the Christmas box :-) 

Make sure you call by and check out my teamies gorgeous cards, they've really come up with some stunners again for this challenge

hugs

Claire xx