Not a fairy in sight

Good morning folks, today I'm sharing another sample from the Chocolate Baroque Spring Fairies Collection but there isn't a fairy in sight on this one!

I've used a little MDF heart. I gave it  a coat of white gesso and once that was dry I applied distress ink in Shabby Shutters and Tumbled Glass to create the background. I stamped the flowers along the left side of the heart and coloured with pencils. I stamped the clouds from Fantasy Castles in the sky with Black Stazon and added a little white gesso. This is where I should have stopped as it looked lovely but no, I had to carry on and added some grey paint which to be honest doesn't look as nice. I stamped the little scroll around the edges with Versamark and embossed with Gold. I added a little acetate butterfly, again embossed with Gold embossing powder and glittered on the back.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Crafting from the Heart: Anything goes

Creative Fingers: anything goes

Fussy and Fancy: Flowers

Simply Papercraft: anything goes

Through the Purple Haze: anything goes

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

Claire xx

Anything Goes at We Love 2 Create

Good moring folks, I've been having a play with my PanPastels and paints to make this journal page for our 'Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes' challenge over at We Love 2 Create. As usual there are some lovely crafty goodies for our lucky winner thanks to our sponsors Premium Craft Brands and of course there's Top 3 honours up for grabs too!

I wanted to create the look of weathered copper for this page so mixed lots of  beautiful PanPastels quite randomly for my base layer (you can find links to the colours I used at the bottom of this post). Next I mixed some copper acrylic paint with Glassy Gel Medium and applied through a stencil. Once that was dry I applied a bit more PanPastel and then wiped most of the colour off the stencilling. Glassy gel medium is about the only thing I've found that gives a good resist effect with PanPastels.

It kind of started to go wrong from this point as I decided to add some of the beautiful Steampunk Cogs from Stamperia. I've never used these before and they are so lovely but they are on rice paper which I thought would kind of disappear like tissue does. Unfortunately it doesn't! I carefully tore around the images and applied with matte medium and was left with a white feathery border around the image  - not the look I was after at all so I just kind of went over them with PanPastels to try and blend them in a bit. I'll have to remember to cut the images out of the rice paper next time.

I dabbed versamark ink here and there and used some WOW Verdigris EP  to create some more weathered texture, I love this stuff, it looks fab in real life.

The butterfly is from Chocolate Baroque, stamped with versamark on acetate and them embossed with WOW Copper EP. I cut the butterfly out and coloured the back with alcohol inks. I used silicone glue to give the butterfly a bit of dimension.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

A Inky Mess: Anything Mixed Media Goes

Dream Valley: things with wings

Let's craft and Create: make your own background

Sandee and Amelie's Steampunk Challenge: Anything goes

WOW Embossing Powders: anything goes with WOW EPs

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

Claire xx

Metallic Pan Pastels	PanPastel Phthalo Green	Bright Yellow Green Pan Pastel	PanPastel Permanent Green	Raw Umber PanPastel
PanPastel Turquoise Shade	Sofft sponge bars	Glassy Gel Medium

Anything Goes at Colour Crazy Challenge

Good morning again! My second card today and' this little cutie is for our 'Anything Goes' challenge over at Colour Crazy Challenge. Our sponsor this time around is Di's Digi Stamps so our lucky winner will be in for a treat as Di's images are adorable!

I've made a little rocker card using Top of the Cupcake World, one of Di's supercute digi stamps. I've coloured her with Graph'It markers and added a little glamour dust before layering up over a heart shaped doiley.

The pretty papers are left overs from my other card today and are from the Eden collection by the lovely Nikky Hall at Polkadoodles. I've added a pink organza bow and a sparkly dazzler to finish off.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Inspiration Destination: anything goes

Lemon Shortbread: Anything goes

Simon Says Stamp: Furry Friends

Sparkles Forum: 4 or more legs

The Ribbon Girls: Any image plus ribbon

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

Claire xx

Anything goes at Polkadoodles

Good morning, weekend is nearly here and I'm looking forward to 3 days off work! I just hope this lovely weather lasts. My first card today is for our 'Anything Goes' Challenge over at Polkadoodles and of course we have loads of inspiration from my teamies and a fab prize up for grabs too.

The DT were challenged to use 2 or more papers so I've made a card using the beautiful Eden collection this week. I coloured the image (Eden Butterflies) with Graph'it markers and layered her up over 3 of the lovely papers in the collection and added some of the little butterflies and a sentiment too

I added a few little pearls and found some lace that was the perfect shade of plum to match in my stash,

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Crafty Sentiments: anything goes

Creative Moments: anything goes

Fairy Tale: things with wings

Paper Minutes: butterflies

Paper Shelter: lace and pearls

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

Claire xx

Spring Fairy Concertina Frame

Good morning my lovelies, today I'm sharing another project made using the beautiful Spring Fairy Collection stamps from Chocolate Baroque. These stamps are so lovely I wanted to show them off so I made a little concertina frame card (I'm not really sure what they are called but I do love making them lol) 

I won't go into detail describing each panel or you'd fall asleep but the backgrounds are all made using distress inks and overstamped with some of the worker stamps from the Spring Fairy Collection, I've also added the Large Crackle Background and the hilly treescape from Magical Landscapes into the mix for my background stamping. 

The focal images are all coloured with Lyra pencils and all the edges have been given a bit of distressing with my craft knife and a shimmer of gilding wax. 

I've added a couple of butterflies to the inside, these were stamped on acetate with Versamark and embossed with Gold embossing powder before being glittered on the back. I used gold vellum to create the concertina frame effect but you can't see it on the photos so you'll have to use your imagination lol. I've also added a little tag stamped with the pretty little primula stamp

I really enjoyed making this project, I love fairies so mixing them up with colouring and inky fun is a lovely way to pass the time. 

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

A Inky Mess: Anything goes mixed media

Artistic Stampers: Floral Fantasy

Colouring in Scrapland: anything goes

Country View Crafts: flower power

Let's Craft and Create: make your own background

Stamping Sensations: Butterflies/Fairies/Fantasy

World Wide Open Design Team Challenge: Anything goes

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

Claire xx

Anything Goes at We Love 2 Create

Good morning my lovelies, where did the last two weeks go? I can't believe it's already time for a new challenge over at We Love 2 Create but here we go with our theme of 'Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes'. It's so easy to take part as you don't have to use our products to enter and our lucky winner will receive some fab crafty goodies from Premium Craft Brands!

I've made a little tag for my DT project this time and used lots of different PanPastels and stamps from  Polkadoodles (Absolute Vintage and Wish you were here) with a sentiment stamp from IndigoBlu. You can find links to the Pans I've used at the end of this post.

I began by applying ultramarine blue PanPastel to the bottom of my tag and ultramarine Blue tint to the top and blending over my tag with Colourless Blender. I stamped in the postcards and post marks using brown ink and used an eraser to remove some of the blue colouring. I then overstamped with the twiggy background stamp and dusted over copper PanPastel. Next came the cogs and watches, stamped with versamark and then coloured with copper and gold PanPastels.. I stamped the butterflies on versamark with brown ink, cut them out and added a hint of blue to the back with PanPastels. I stamped the sentiment with blue versafine ink and  I've just added a dark blue bow to finish off.

I'm entering this tag in the following challenges:

Addicted to stamps and more: Anything goes

Crafting with friends: anything goes

Crafts Galore Encore: Anything goes

Inky Chicks: butterflies

Making Memories Crafting: anything goes

Moving along with the times: Butterflies

The Crafty Addicts: add a sentiment

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

Claire xx

PanPastel Ultramarine Blue	Ultramarine Blue Tint	Metallic PanPastel Set	Pan Pastel Colourless Blender	Absolute Vintage Stamp Set
Polka Doodles "Wish you were here" clear stamp set

Welcome to Fairyland

Good morning folks, today I'm sharing one of the samples I made for Lesley's Spring Fairy shows on Hochanda. I love all the gorgeous stamps in the Chocolate Baroque range but I have to confess that the fairy stamps are a particular favourite so I really enjoyed making this project.

I began with some corrugated card, misted with water to remove the top laer and then applied white gesso roughly to the surface. Once that was dry I dripped acrylic paint in shades of blue and green here and there. To make the scene I stamped the two castles with black Stazon (the top one is from Magical Landscapes and the bottom one from Fantasy Castles). Next I painted in the background quite loosely using watered down acrylic paint, blotting the sky with a tissue to life some paint and create a cloudy effect. To make the waterfall I just continued straight down where the stamped image ends and added a mix of blue and green paint. Once that was all dry I added detail to the scene with coloured pencils and used a white pen to add detail to the waterfall. 

Next I stamped the fairy (from May Fairy and Pegasus (from April Fairy) and glittered the wings with some glamour dust. I glued the scene to the card and added some ribbon and embellishments to finish off. 

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Artistic Inspirations: Anything goes

Craft Rocket: Fantasy

Moving along with the times: Fairies

The Corrosive Challenge: Anything goes

The Mixed Media World: Anything Mixed Media

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

Claire xx

Anything goes at Polkadoodles

Good morning my lovelies, we've got a new challenge starting over at Polkadoodles and of course our theme is 'Anything Goes'! There is a lovely prize from Polkadoodles for our lucky winner and loads of inspiration from my teamies too! The DT were challenged to use a die cut for this challenge and that was a real treat as there are so many gorgeous Polkadoodles dies to choose from.

 I've used stamps from the beautiful Bella Fleur A5 Clear stamp set to create this little wildflower meadow. I stamped the images with versamark on watercolour paper and embossed with white embossing powder before watercolouring with distress inks. The butterfly is from Belle Papillon Stamp Set and I've used the matching Butterfly Doublet Die to create the butterfly using acetate and glitter on the back. The frame was from the pound shop, it was a bit of a bright colour so I painted it with white gesso and popped my little scene in the frame.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Artistic Stampers: Floral Fantasy

As you like it: Favourite die and why

 (my favourite die is this lovely butterfly die from Polkadoodles, its great to use on it's own but even prettier with the matching stamp)

Country View Crafts: Flower Power

Die Cut Divas: Flowers

Little Miss Muffet: Anything goes

Paper Shelter: Flowers

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

Claire xx

Anything Goes at Eclectic Ellapu

Good morning my lovelies, can you believe it's May 1st already and a bank holiday here in the UK so of course rain is forecast lol. We've got a new challenge starting at Eclectic Ellapu and our theme this time around is 'Anything Goes'. My lovely teamies have got load of inspiration so if you've got time, pop over to the challenge blog and have a peek.

For my DT project I've made a page for my art journal using some old favourite stamps. I began by spritzing the card with glimmer mists. Once that was dry I added a little stencilling and a dusting of glamour dust for a little more fairy sparkle. I stamped the images which are some of my oldest wood mounted stamps from Stamps Happen using black ink and coloured them with Lyra pencils. I added some more sparkly by highlighting the stars with a silver Graph'It shake pen,

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Fussy and Fancy: anything goes

Incy Wincy: so so cute

Moving along with the times: Fairies

Simon Says Stamp: anything goes

Simply Papercraft: anything goes

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

Claire xx