Kingfisher from Chocolate Baroque

Good morning folks, today's card features the very handsome Kingfisher from Kingfisher Song. from Chocolate Baroque I love these stamps and had lots of fun making scenic cards but I couldn't resist giving him a crown for this card lol.

I took a pile of gelli plate backgrounds and chose one for Mr Kingfisher, I also stamped him on another background and added some colour with sparkle pens. I stamped the branch on the gelli plate background and doodles a border with a black gel pen. I cut the kingfisher out and layered him up on 3d foam pads and then matted and layered with white and black card. I took an 8x8 card black and some sequin waste and added some stencilling to the base card using coordinating distress inks. 

I added the sentiment and a few black sequins and as a finishing touch I give him a chipboard crown that was embossed with black embossing powder.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Animal Friends: no designer paper

Creative Fingers: Anything goes

Let's Craft and Create: Things with wings

Rubber Dance Art Stamps: Layers

Simon Says Stamp: Anything goes

Thanks for visiting today, hope to see you again soon

Claire xx

Some of my favourite things

Hello there my lovelies, I'm back at work this morning after a long weekend off work but before I go I just wanted to share a project made using lots of my favourite things. The challenge over at IndigoBlu is 'Love is all you need' so I've used some of my favourite Indigo Blu stamps to make this little canvas. I've also used lots of embellies from Craft Box too,  Anna from Craft Box has a very special box of goodies on Hochanda today so if you have time do check it out.

I began by misting my canvas with mica sprays in shades of pink, once that was dry I used IndigoBlu fine texture paste to stencil in the chicken wire and left it to dry. I added some stamping using Memento Lilac Posies ink and the dinkie script stamp from the last IndigoBlu ODS. I filled some of the little shapes on the background with deeper pink mica spray and then added sparkly mod podge to others. I added a few blobs of sparkly ModPodge here and there too. I sprayed some Foamiran Flowers made using Sizzix Tattered Florals with mica sprays, this was a bit of an experiment and they took ages to dry but have a pretty subtle effect

I glued on the flowers, some lace, ribbon and pearl trim, adding some leaves that I'd painted with gold acrylic paint and dusted with glitter. I used stamps from IndigoBlu's Mr Darcy stamps and coloured with pencils before cutting out and layering on my project. I added some gilding flackes and a little more pink mica spray/ To finish off I've added some large hat pins decorated with Craft Box beads and a little cameo, also from Craft Box.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Crafty Cardmakers: add some texture

Dream Valley: add some metal

IndigoBlu: love is all you need

In the pink: Dies or punches plus pink

Lost Coast Designs: Lovers plus rubber stamps

Sweet Stampin: flowers

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 my lovelies, I've got a long weekend off work and for once the weather looks like it is improving so hopefully I'll be able to take the dogs for some nice long walks to tire them out so I can play in my craft room. Today's project is for our 'Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes' at We Love 2 Create where we've got lots of inspiration from my lovely teamies and a some fabulous crafty stash for our lucky winner thanks to our generous sponsor Premium Craft Brands.

I've made this little canvas using quite a few PanPastel colours (you can find links at the end of my post) and lots of embellishments from the lovely Anna at Craft Box. I began by blending PanPastels over the canvas and then spritzed with coordinating mica sprays made with ColourArte pigments for a little sparkle. I added some stencilling with Maimeri Glassy Gel coloured with more pigments and left it to dry for a while.

I added the flowers, leaves, little owl, a pretty seam binding bow and charm and then added the little Snip Art Frame that I coloured with PanPastel mixed with glassy gel medium. I coloured a scrap of acetate with alcohol ink and stamped Thankful with versmark and embossed with Gold EP.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Allsorts: Anything goes

Altered Eclectics: Anything goes

Crafts Galore Encore: Anything goes

Simply Papercraft: Anything goes

My Time to Craft: Anything but a card

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

Claire xx

orange shade	Burnt Sienna	Burnt sienna shade	Raw Umber PanPastel	PanPastel Turquoise Shade
PanPastel Turquoise Extra Dark	Sofft sponge bars	Glassy Gel Medium

Meadow pendant from Chocolate Baroque

Good morning folks, today's project is a little pendant and matching tag made with some of the gorgeous stamps from Chocolate Baroque.  This one was made as a sample for the recent one day special on Hochanda and Lesley is back on tv today with lots more beautiful stamps. You can see Lesley on Hochanda at 7am, 11am and 3pm with some fabulous Spring themed goodies!

I've made a  tag and a pendant made with the leftover ink from making the card I posted yesterday. I had a tiny bit of colour left on my craft mat so I misted it with water and mopped it up with some white card. I cut out the tag and stamped with some delicate foliage and edged with silver embossing. I stamped the rest of the card with foliage and used glossy accents to glue a cabochon in place, once that was dry I cut it out and popped it in a bezel and added some green velvet ribbon to make a pendant.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Crafting from the Heart: anything goes

Simon Says Stamp: Florals

The Corrosive Challenge: Anything goes

Try it on Tuesday: let's get messy

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

Claire xx

Chocolate Baroque Colour Challenge

Good morning folks, we've got a new challenge starting over at Chocolate Baroque Challenge and as always we've got a gorgeous colour palette to inspire us, a fab prize for our lucky winner and lots of inspiration from my lovely teamies too!

I've made a steampunk inspired tag using the challenge colour palette and some of my favourite Chocolate Baroque stamps.

I began with a tag and mopped up lots of  Lucky Shamrock Green Starburst Stain. This wasn't so lucky for me as I managed to spill the pot all over my craftroom lol. I stamped the sentiment from Artistic Affirmations and the lacy border which is from Lace Fragments with versamark ink and embossed with a WOW sparkly copper EP. I also swiped around the tag very roughly with Copper metallic paint and a credit card, adding a little copper EP and heating for some texture. The gorgeous butterfly is from Steampunk Butterfly, again embossed with Copper EP but this time on acetate. I cut it out and coloured the back with green and turquoise alcohol inks. I've added a little ribbon and a brad to finish off.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Crafty Cardmakers: add some texture

Daring Cardmakers: mirror mirror (shiny/reflective)

My time to craft: anything but a card

Penny Black and More: use your stamps

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Favourite tool (heat gun)

Try it on Tuesday: Let's get messy

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

Claire xx

Kingfisher Meadow

Good morning folks, how's your week going? Before I dash off to work I just wanted to share a card made using the beautiful new stamps from Chocolate Baroque. I just love this kingfisher, he's a real beauty!

For this card I began with a background made with ColourArte pigment powders on watercolour card, it's really shimmery in real life but sadly it doesn't show too well in the pic. I overstamped the background with lots of lovely foliage stamps ( you can find all the new stamps here). I stamped the kingfisher on white card and painted him with the same mica pigments, he looked a little flat so I had a rummage in my craft room and found some very old Sakura stardust pens which my some miracle still worked so I used them to give him lots more detail. I cut him out and layered him up on 3d foam pads A stamped sentiment in a little punched envelope were added to finish the card.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

A bit more time to craft: anything goes

Animal Friends: no designer papers

Creative Fingers: Anything goes

Creative Moments: 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

Foamiran flowers

Good morning my lovelies, I hope you're having a good weekend. The weather here is dreadful, cold wet and grey so it's perfect for staying in and crafting. I've seen lots of gorgeous Foamiran flowers around onlne and I wanted to have a go and make some myself so I had a play and made this little canvas.

Here's a pic of the flowers, the foam die cuts beautifully and I bottled out of the advice to heat in on an iron as I'm so clumsy I knew I'd end up with burnt fingers so I had a go with my heat gun and I was happy with the result. I think next time I'll try hair straighteners and see how they work. I've used ivory Foamiran from Craft Box and coloured it with Distress Inks.

The dies I used to make the flowers and leaves are all from Polkadoodles, you can find them here. The background was made with torn tissue paper and some brick stencilling. I gave it a coat of watered down gesso and then used IndigoBlu acrylic paints in pastel shades. I used highlights of gilding wax here and there, some Decoart Crackle Paint and stamping with background stamps from Polkadoodles Belle Papillon stamp set. 

I added some SnipArt heart background, a layer of cheesecloth and then arranged the flowers and the 'love' word which was embossed with Shabby Pink Frantage Powder. I added some gold microbeads and a couple of butterflies (stamped and die cut using Doublet Dies from Polkadoodles)

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

A Vintage Journey: words that are special

Allsorts: Hearts/Flowers

Artistic Stampers: Love hearts

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Young at heart

Stamps and Stencils: Texture, crackle and paint

That's Crafty: I heart you

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

Claire xx 

Anything Goes at Polkadoodles

Hello there my lovelies, I'm late on parade again with my card for our 'Anything Goes' challenge over at Polkadoodles. The DT have been challenged with the theme of 'Show a little love' but you can make anything you want to be in with the chance of winning a fabulous prize from the Polkadoodles Shop!!

I've used some of the beautiful papers from BellaFleur plus stamps and dies from Belle Papillon to make this card. I think this is my all time favourite paper, it's soooo pretty! I didn't want to cover up the pretty paper too much so I used a little heart shaped doily and layered that under a grungeboard heart that I'd covered with yet another paper from the same collection. I added a little distressing with Gathered Twig distress ink and stamped one side with the script stamp from Belle Papillon. The butterfly wings were made using the large butterfly stamp and doublet die from the same collection. I've added some pearl trim, little pearl dots,ribbon and a button to finish off.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Crafting by Designs: love and romance
Crafty Cardmakers: love
Frilly and Funkie: Vintage/shabby chic valentine
Really Reasonable Ribbon: hearts with ribbon/trim
That's Crafty: I heart you

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 my lovelies, we actually had some sunshine yesterday which was a welcome change from all the grey skies we've been used to. Hopefully Spring isn't too far away now. My project today is for our new challenge over at We Love 2 Create where our theme is 'Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes'. You don't have to use our products to enter and of course we have a lovely prize of some crafty goodies from Premium Craft Brands for our lucky winner too!

For my DT project I've altered a little MDF Toadstool house using my Pans and stamps/dies from Polkadoodles. I gave the mdf a coat of white gesso to start off with and once that was dry I coloured the top of the toadstool and the door with shades of Permanent Red PanPastel. I used the darker shades around the edges and the brightest red in the middle. I had a bit of an experiment with the stalk as I decided to put my stencil paste on tissue paper, let it dry and colour it rather than just applying it to the mdf directly. I thought this may be useful on 3d projects as the tissue is very flexible so I'll be doing that again in the future. I coloured the bricks with a little Burnt Sienna and Burnt Sienna Tint PanPastel. The flowers, light and fence were all die cut using dies from Polkadoodles. The windows were made using stamps from Pilakdoodles. I added some faux moss and a little brad for a door handle. I used white pearl Cosmic shimmer glue to create the spots on the roof of my little fairy house. I'm really annoyed with myself as I have a gorgeous Toadstool border die from Polkadoodles which would have been perfect with this make but I totally forgot all about it until I was writing this up! I'll have to remember next time.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Alphabet Challenge: X marks the spots or dots

Fussy and Fancy: Fussy and Fancy

Simon Says Stamp: Colour of love

Star Stampz: lots of red

Through the Purple Haze: Fantasy

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

Claire xx

Permanent Red Extra Dark	Permanent Red Shade	Permanent Red	Burnt Sienna	Burnt Sienna Tint
Little Kingdom - Stamp Soup, Polka Doodles	Polka Doodles Elegant Lamplight

Envelope album from Chocolate Baroque

Good morning crafty friends, it's weekend at last I'm trying to be organised and blog more regularly. Today's project is  a little album made with the envelope from my calendar, waste not want not as the saying goes lol. The envelope was folded into 3 and that gave me the idea of making a mini album with some of this months' beautiful new releases from Chocolate Baroque. They were released on Hochanda a few days ago but will be available at Chocolate Baroque very soon!!

I cut pieces of white pearlescent card to fit all the sides of the envelope and spritzed them randomly with Dylusions inks. I was quite pleased with the result as I'm quite heavy handed and usually just make a big mess with spray inks lol.

Next I added lots of stamping using versamark and white embossing powder to contrast with the vivid colours of the inks. I used a white pen to add some faux stitching around all the panels and then glued with to my envelope, sandwiching some rainbow ribbon for a closure.

I cut lots of little die cut tags and again added lots of stamping and rainbow ribbon.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Crafting from the Heart: anything goes

Crafty Creations: Anything goes

House that Stamps Built: Anything but a card

Kitty Bee Designs: Anything goes/something new

The Crafty Addicts: Anything goes

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

Claire xx

Anything Goes at Colour Crazy Challenge

Good morning folks, well my blog is like a bus stop this morning as after weeks of hardly posting I've got 3 posts one after the other lol. I made this canvas for our new challenge over at Colour Crazy Challenge where our theme is Anything Goes and you can use any medium to colour your image so I hope you're going to play along.

I love this image, she's from our sponsor Lemon Shortbread, she's called Flowers and Curls Girl and you can find her here. IO coloured her with Graph'It Markers and cut her out to layer up on my canvas.

The background was made by stencilling the sunburst and flowers using stencils from Indigo Blu with texture paste. Once that was dry I added some colour with pearlescent PanPastels. I just added some pretty iridescent sequins to finish the project.

I'm entering this one in the following challenges:

Addicted to Stamps and More: Make your mark

Crafty Gals Corner: sparkle

Crafty Girls Creations: Anything goes

Lemon Shortbread: Anything goes

Sunny Day Crafting: anything goes

Thanks so much for visiting today

Claire xx

Anything Goes at Polkadoodles

Hello my lovelies, are you ready for the weekend? I certainly am after another busy week at work. I do love my job but sometimes it's like working at Fawlty Towers not a mental health charity lol. This project is my make for our 'Anything Goes' Challenge over at Polkadoodles. As always we've got a fabulous prize from the Polkadoodles shop and lots of inspiration from my lovely teamies too! The DT are all using Design Sheets for our projects, Nikky crams these with lots of gorgeous elements so you can make a project in minutes!

I've made a little wine glass charm and a tag using elements from one of the design sheets from the Winnie in Wonderland Collection. I used Sheet 2 which you can find here or you can get the whole collection here

I love the white rabbit and couldn't resist making hm the star of the show by putting him in this bezel and adding some charms and little 'Drink Me' bottle (from The Trinket Parlour)

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Crafting by Designs: Anything goes

Creative Moments: Anything Goes

Go Tag Thursday: Anything goes

Through the Purple Haze: Fantasy

Use your stuff: Animals

Thanks for popping by, hope to see you again soon
Claire xx

Kingfisher Scene from Chocolate Baroque

Good morning my lovelies, my first project today features this months beautiful new stamps from Chocolate Baroque which were on Hochanda on Tuesday, if you missed the shows you can still see them on the Hochanda website!!

I've used s a real mix of stamps to create this wallhanging. I had saved the packaging from a calendar and thought this corrugated card would make a perfect backing for a little scenic stamping. I began by spritzing the card with water so that I could pull off the top layer and then applied acrylic paint here and there.

Next I cut 3 squares of watercolour card and stamped all the images to create the impression of a winding stream. I spent a happy couple of hours painting the scene with distress inks before distressing the edges with a little Vintage Photo distress ink. I added some scraps of cheesecloth, a tiny brass bird charm, faux moss, paper flowers and a hessian bow topped with a button. 

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Colouring in Scrapland: Anything goes

Colour Inspiration Monday: Anything goes with a hand coloured image

Corrosive Challenges: Anything goes

Dare 2 b Artzy: Something new (new stamps)

Fab'n'Funky: Birds

Thanks so much for popping by. hope to see you again soon

Claire xx

Anything goes at Eclectic Ellapu

Good morning folks, it's our first challenge of 2017 at Eclectic Ellapu and our theme is 'Anything Goes' . My teamies have lots of lovely projects to inspire you so if you have time pop over and have a look.

I began by stamping the focal images (from Winter Fairies stamp set from Chocolate Baroque) and masking them with masking fluid. I stencilled the stars using a sparkly stencil paste and then stamped the trees and foliage along the bottom with versamark. I embossed with a clear sparkle embossing powder so that I could use a resist technque for the background.

I used a turquoise and a blue mica spray to create the background, adding a little depth with a spray made using Chipped Sapphire distress reinker and water.

Once the background was dry I removed the masking fluid and coloured the images with pencils.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Addicted to Stamps: Baby it's cold outside

Artistic inspirations: Anything goes

Colouring in Scrapland: Anything goes

Fussy and Fancy: Angels/Fairies/Winter

HeARTful stamping: Rubber stamping, anything goes

Thanks for popping by today, hope to see you again soon

Claire xx

Chocolate Baroque on Hochanda!

Hello there crafty friends, I'm so excited as our lovely Lesley from Chocolate Baroque is on Hochanda launching some stunning new stamps and even better, they are the One Day Special today so they are available at a great price and are exclusive to Hochanda for 10 days! We've all been busy bees making lots of samples for the shows and I know Lesley has some stunning demos lined up so book your place on the sofa! I'll have to hide at work and watch on my phone (shhhhhh don't tell lol)

The DT will all be sharing lots of samples over on the Chocolate Baroque DT blog over the next few weeks so it's well worth a visit. This is one of my projects for the show, a little bendy card made using lots of the new stamps. Anyone who knows me will tell  you that I love to create scenic cards to these new stamps are going to be favourites with me!

I stamped the images on the card blank, coloured with Lyra Pencils and cut around the images on the two side panels so they would fold in to create the image. I just added a stamped sentiment and a little bit of ribbon to close the card.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Come and Get It: 3 or more layers

Get Creative: Anything goes

Love to Scrap: Anything goes

Making Memories: Anything goes

Simply Papercraft: Anything goes

Thanks for visiting, hope to see you again soon

Claire xx