Floral notes from Chocolate Baroque

Hello folks, my second post today and this one features the beautiful Floral Notes stamps from Chocolate Baroque. A lovely set of beautiful floral stamps, perfect if you need a break from Christmas cards!

I stamped the images using black archival ink, using second and third generation stamping to give some depth. I then created a background using distress inks in shades of blue and green. Once that was dry I coloured the flowers with Lyra pencils and stamped the sentiment which is also from Floral Notes. I distressed the image and layered it up over white and then blue card and added a shabby bow topped with a pretty wooden button.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

4 Crafty Chicks: distressing

Brown Sugar: anything goes

Crafty Catz: anything goes

Little Miss Muffet: anything goes

Wonderful Wednesdays: Anything goes

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

Claire xx

Anything Goes at Polkadoodles

Good morning folks, a quick post to share my DT project for our Anything Goes challenge at Polkadoodles. As always our lucky winner will receive a fabulous prize from the Polkadoodles shop and Top 3 honours will be up for grabs too. The DT were challenged to create a project with a theme of traditional Christmas and I made this card using the lovely Winnie Winterland collection.

I've made a quick card using the fabulous design sheets from Winnie Winterland, just adding ribbon, lace a charm and of course some glitter! 

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Crafty Ribbons: Christmas
Creative Knockouts: Winter wonderland/festive fun
Crimbo Crackers: Animals
Inky Chicks: Christmas in traditional colours
Southern Girls: anything goes

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

All Dressed Up at Colour Crazy Craft Challenge

Good morning folks, we've got a new challenge over at Colour Crazy Craft Challenge and our theme  is Anything Goes. Our lucky winner will receive a prize from All Dressed Up and I was lucky enough to be able to colour this adorable image from our sponsor this week.

The image is called Little Angel and of course I coloured her with my Graph'It Markers. You can find a full list of the colours I used over on the challenge blog. I created a border around the image with some of the lovely stamps from Polkadoodles Stamp Soup collection.

I added lace and bow topped with a little wooden button to finish off. 

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Come and Get It: Christmas

Crafty Sentiments: Anything goes

Creative Moments: anything goes

Dream Valley: Christmas

Holly Jolly Christmas: Anything goes

Whoopsi Daisy: Christmas/Winter holiday

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

Claire xx

Blue Christmas or Anything Goes at Polkadoodles

Good morning folks it's inspiration week over at Polkadoodles and our challenge theme is 'Anything Goes'. There is a fab prize from Polkadoodles for our lucky winner and Top 3 honours up for grabs too,  The DT have been challenged to create a project with the theme of 'Blue Christmas' and my teamies have created some stunning projects so pop over and have a peek if you've got time.

I've made this card using the adorable Winnie, this image is called Bearing Gifts and you can get it as a digi stamp here or treat yourself and buy the full collection here.  I coloured Winnie with Lyra pencils. I die cut the image using my favourite Bubblicious frames die and added some distress ink and frantage powder. The background and sentiment were made using stamps from the Red Red Robin Stamp Soup collection.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Artistic Inspirations: anything goes

A Snoflake promise: Anything goes

Christmas with the cuties: anything cute and Christmassy goes

Colour Inspiration Monday: anything goes with a coloured image

Cutie Pie: cute plus no  designer paper

Lemon Shortbread: Anything goes

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

Claire xx

Mica tags from Chocolate Baroque

Good morninf folks, today's project features the beautiful new stamps Floral Notes from Chocolate Baroque. I love Christmas crafting but these new stamps are perfect if, like me you fancy a change from making all those Christmas cards.

I took some black tags and used a sticky embossing powder that I've had forever, I wasn't sure if it had gone off so I put it to the test, stamping with versamark and applying the powder before heating. Once I'd heated the powder I applied mica powders with a small brush. I heat embossed the sentiments and applied some gilding wax around the edges of the tags and added some rainbow ribbon to finish off.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Crafting Musketeers: anything goes

Crafts Galore Encore: Anything goes

Crafty Enjoyments: anything goes

HeARTful Stamping Challenge: anything stamped

Stamping Sensations: floral fancies

Well I'd better get back to those Christmas cards now lol. If you a minute do pop over to the Chocolate Baroque DT blog as my teamies have got lots of beautiful inspiration for you

Claire xx

Anything Goes at We Love 2 Create

Good morning my lovelies, well Christmas is getting nearer so for our new challenge over at We Love 2 Create I've made another Christmas card using my PanPastels. You can make whatever you like though as our theme is 'Anything Mixed Media/Creative Goes'. We've got some lovely crafty stash for our lucky winners thanks to our sponsors Premium Craft Brands and you don't even have to use our products to enter!

I stamped the little scene using some of my favourite Andy Skinner stamps and then coloured the scene using my Pans (you can find links to the colours used at the end of the post.

The sentiment is a stamp from Chocolate Baroque, stamped in black. I didn't add any ribbon or embellies to this one, just lots of glitter but you can't see that in the pic.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Alphabet Challenge:  T is for trees

Crafty Creations: Christmas

Fab'n'Funky: Christmas

Kitty Bee Designs:  Christmas

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: O Christmas Tree

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

Claire xx

Black COARSE Pearl Medium for PanPastels	Black fine Pearl	White Fine Pearl Medium for Pan Pastels	White Coarse Pearl Medium	Permanent Red Tint Pan Pastel
Permanent Red	Hansa Yellow	Burnt sienna shade	Raw Umber PanPastel	PanPastel - Sofft Knives and Covers

Anything Christmas at Eclectic Ellapu

Hello my lovelies, I'm running very late with this post as I totally forgot to publish it. After months of chaos at work we had our quality visit yesterday so this week has been a bit of a whirlwind. Everything went well though so hopefully now things will settle down and I'll finally manage to be a bit more organised lol. Anyway, it's the launch of our new challenge over at Eclectic Ellapu and the pink team's theme this month is Anything Christmas so you can make a card, a home decor project or perhaps a pressie for someone! 

I've made a card using one of my favourite stamp sets from Chocolate Baroque, New England Winter. I began by stamping the little cottage and colouring it with Lyra pencils. I then stamped in the boughs using a mixture of green and brown memento ink. I masked the cottage and the moon and then inked in the sky using brushes and shades of blue distress inks. I tore a mask to ink in the hills. Once all the inking was done I removed the masks and added a little sparkle to the moon with a silver Graph'It shake pen and added some glamour dust  to the hills and house for a frost sparkle. I decorate the trees with Halo Silver glitter which is soooooo pretty and sparkly but very hard to catch with my dubious photography skills lol.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Craft Rocket: winter time

Moving along with the times: anything goes with Christmas

Simon Says Stamp: anything goes

Through the purple haze: winter/Christmas colours

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

Claire xx

Colour Crazy Craft Challenge

Good morning folks, we've got an Anything Goes theme over at Colour Crazy Craft Challenge so I hope you're going to play along with us for a chance to win a prize from our lovely sponsor Oddball Art! You can use any colouring medium to enter so dig out those pens/pencils or whatever you fancy and join in the fun!

I've used one of the cute images from our sponsor for this card. I coloured her with my Graph'It markers (you can find a full list of colours used over on the challenge blog) and doodled a border around the image. I used a silver Graph'It shake pen for her specs and added a scrap of ribbon and some sequins to finish off.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Addicted to Stamps and More: Anything goes

Crafts Galore Encore: Anything goes

Craft your Passion: anything goes

Lemon Shortbread: anything goes

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

Claire xx

Chocolate Baroque Robin

Good morning folks, it's my turn to share a project with the fabulous new stamps from Chocolate Baroque. This card features Mr Robin, I adore robins and mince pies so this stamp is going to be one of my all time favourites.

I stamped the image and coloured it with Lyra Polycolour Pencils. I inked around the image using distress inks (Pine Needles and Festive Berries) and then added a little distressing with Gathered Twigs. I stamped and embossed a holly border using one of the little stamps from Family Christmas with versamark ink and used a chunky embossing powder, and then added a sprinkle of gold frantage powder. I stamped the sentiment and added a bow topped with a little button and some twine to finish the card.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

52 Christmas Card Throwdown: Old Fashioned Christmas

Aud Sentiments: Anything goes with a sentiment

Penny Black and More: Anything Christmas

Simon Says Stamp: Christmas Critters

The Pencil Case: Anything goes

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

Claire xx

Anything Mixed Media/Creative Goes at We love 2 Create

Good morning folks, it's time for a new challenge over at We Love 2 Create and as always it's nice and easy to play along as our theme is 'Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes'. You don't have to use our products to enter and we've got some lovely crafty goodies waiting for our lucky winner thanks to Premium Craft Brands!!

I've made a little canvas using my PanPastels and some of the gorgeous Stamp Soup stamps from Polkadoodles. I began by applying Bright Yellow Green and shade to my canvas, I then spritzed with a little lime and turquoise dylusions ink and left it to dry. Once it was dry I splattered here and there with acrylic paint. The flowers are made using stamps from the festive Christmas collection, you can find them here. I coloured the images with PanPastels and then used glossy accents to adhere the image to a microscope slide. Once that was dry I edged it with silver embossing powder and stuck it to my canvas. I added some sparkly gems and die cut letters that I'd coloured with Pewter Metallic PanPastel.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Crafty Friends: flowers

Crafting with Friends: anything goes

Creative Corner: Anything goes

Moving along with the times: number/letter dies

Simply Papercraft: anything goes

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

Claire xx

Bright Yellow Green Pan Pastel

Bright Yellow Green Shade

magenta

Magenta tint

Metallic Pan Pastel, Pewter

Anything Goes at Polkadoodles

Good morning folks, it's challenge time over at Polkadoodles and our theme is 'Anything Goes'. Our lucky winner will receive a voucher to spend at Polkadoodles store and you don't even have to use our products to play along!

As always the DT were given a twist to the challenge and this time its was to make anything other than a card so I've made a little wallhanging using lots of Polkadoodles stamps and dies. I've kept the colour palette neutral using plain white card and some white glitter card. I've used lots of kraft card and used Sepia Versafine ink for the stamping.

I distressed some polkadot embossed white card  with gathered twigs distress ink and layered it up on kraft card, then I added a layer of corrugated kraft card and applied some texture paste through a brick stencil. While that was drying I stamped the Christmas tree, garland, holly sprig and sentiment using Sepia Versafine ink, I cut them out and added lots of glitter. I used a mix of stamps from Red Red Robin and O Christmas Tree. I also die cut lots of elements using Polkadoodles Dies: Door/Window, Ribbon Gift Frames/Corners, Elegant Lamplight and Gate, Cherry Blossom Branch/Tree and Bubblicious Frames. I distressed the die cuts with Gathered Twigs distress ink and added glitter, pearls and gems and then assembled my little winter scene. I used white cosmic shimmer glue and glamour dust to create some snow along the base of the tree, fence and door. 

I finished the project off with some seambinding ribbon, pompom trim and a little wooden star with a twine bow.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Alphabet Challenge: S for stars

Christmas at Sweet Stampin: anything goes Christmas

Country View Crafts: Stars

CRAFT: Christmas

Live and Love Crafts: white Christmas

Winter Wonderland: poinsettias or snow is falling

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

Claire xx

November Colour Challenge at Chocolate Baroque

Hi there folks, how's your week going? It's manic at work as always these days and I don't have a lot of time for blogging and definitely not enough time for crafting. I'm an optimist though so hopefully it won't be too long until I win the lottery and become a lady of leisure lol. Anyway back to crafting and my project today is for our new challenge over at Chocolate Baroque where we have an autumnal colour palette based on a card I made ages ago.

I've used the colours to make a poppy themed birthday card

I began with a distress ink background, using scattered straw, barn door, peeled paint and gathered twigs and then overstamped with stamps from Nature Fragments. I love these stamps and the 'tree rings' are so useful for backgrounds. I stamped the poppy stamp with Potting Soil Archival Ink and then used a waterbrush to remove some  of the colour before painting in reds and greens with more distress inks. I added some shading with Lyra Pencils. I stamped the sentiment with versamark and embossed with gold EP.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Anything but cute: An autumn day

Artistic Stampers: Autumn

Wonderful Wednesdays: Anything goes

Paradise of Stamps: Anything goes

The Sisters of Craft: Anything goes

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

Claire xx

Anything Goes at Polkadoodles and Colour Crazy Craft Challenge

Good morning folks we've got an Anything Goes challenge over at Polkadoodles and Colour Crazy Craft Challenge so there are two chances to win goodies from Polkadoodles!!  I've killed two birds with one stone and made a Christmas card for my DT project for both challenges. The paper weaving took me ages as I'm useless at anything fiddly but I do love it so I may well use it again when I pluck up the courage lol.

All the papers, flowers, tages and the gorgeous image are all from the :Polkadoodles Winnie Winterland Collection which you can find here. I've coloured the image with Graph'It markers, you can find a list of the colours used over on the challenge blog. 

I've used Polkadoodles dies  to cut out the flowers which I printed from Winnie in Winterland and Nikky has had a genius idea and included a section called the Fitting Room .... all the images and embellies etc are perfectly sized to fit Polkadoodles die. I used my favourite Polkadoodles Bubbleicious frame die to cut out the image. You can find the Polkadoodles dies here. 

I've added ribbon, a little charm and some faux berries to finish off.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Live'n'Love Crafts: White Christmas

Noor Designs UK: Winter

Ooh La La: Vintage

Stamping Sensations: Christmas Greetings

The Ribbon Girls: anything goes

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

Claire xx

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

Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes at We Love 2 Create

Good morning folks, it's time for our new challenge over at We Love 2 Create and as usual our theme is 'Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes' so there's loads of scope to play along and be in with a chance of winning some gorgeous crafty goodies from Premium Craft Brands!

For my DT project I've made a wall hanging using PanPastels and stamps from Indigo Blu. I love to use PanPastels to colour as they make blending so easy. I've used cream Pastelmat for this project as I knew I wanted to use lots of layers of colour so I needed a base with plenty of tooth to hold the Pans. I began by stamping the images and then set to colouring with my Pans (links to the colours can be found at the end of this post). There's no need to be too precious as most of the colours are erasable so if you go outside the lines you can remove any mistakes. Once I'd coloured the images I added a little more depth and some shadows with Lyra pencil crayons and I used a black fineliner pen to add detail to the centre of the poppies. I also added a little stencilling to the background and a stamped sentiment.

I stamped a couple of butterflies with versamark and coloured them using the same shades, added a little glitter and popped them up with silicone glue. I've layered the finished artwork on a piece of mountboard that I'd 'crackled' with black and red acrylic paint and pva glue.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Creative Corner: encouragement

Simply Papercraft: anything goes

Southern Girls: pop it up

Sweet Stampin: red for remembrance

Word Art Wednesdays: Anything goes

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

Claire xx

Permanent Red	Permanent Red Shade	Permanent Red Extra Dark	Bright Yellow Green Pan Pastel	Bright Yellow Green Shade
Diarylide Yellow Shade	white fine pearl medium	PanPastel Turquoise Shade	PanPastel Turquoise Tint	Yellow Ochre Pan Pastel
Raw Umber PanPastel	PanPastel - Sofft Knives and Covers