Peacock Summer Party

Good morning and Happy Wednesday, if you squint you can nearly see the weekend lol. Today's card features some of the new Peacock Stamps from Chocolate Baroque, pop over and have a look as they are on special offer this month! 

I've used a backing paper from the Peacock Summer PArty Cd. I've stamped the peacock on Neenah cardstock and coloured with promarkers and flexmarkers. I've stamped the edges with a feather stamp from the same stamp set using distress inks. I've matted the image and the backing paper on card coloured with distress inks. I've added some die cut branches and blossoms die cut with spellbinders dies.

I'm entering this in the following challenges:

Bunny Zoe's: wings

CD Sunday: fine plumage

Paper Playtime: anything goes

Sweet Pea Stampers: birds of a feather

Totally Papercrafts:punches/dies

Thanks for calling by today, if you've got a minute pop over and check out the Chocolate Baroque DT blog, its chockablock with gorgeous projects from my lovely teamies

Claire xx

Mainly for men at CD Sunday

Hi there, no posts for a week and then 3 in one day :-) I'm back with my GDT card for CD Sunday where the theme is 'Mainly for Men'. I've used one of my favourite bps from the Artylicious CD 'Decadent Brocade.

I've distressed the paper with distress inks and also overstamped with a pocket watch stamp from Chocolate Baroque (Punky Romance themeplate). I've added Tim's tissue wrap, ribbon from Crafty ribbon and some screw brads. The main image has a distress ink background, the stamp is from Chocolate Baroque 'Steampunkery' themeplate, embossed with antiquities EP. The sentiment 'New Horizons' is from the same stampsheet.

I'm entering this one in the following challenges:

Alphabet Challenge: M is for men only

Charisma Cardz: Monochrome

Crafts and Me: anything goes

Fat pages and cards with attitude: Anything goes

Its all about the vintage: anything goes

Stempelsonnen: Free Choice

thanks for popping by and also thanks to the lovely ladies at CD Sunday for inviting them to be their guest designer this month

Claire xx

A is for ......

Hi there, here I am again with my GDT card for CD Sunday where the theme is 'A is for ....' I've gone for A is for Aquamarine and Anniversary for this card and used a beautiful backing paper from the Essence of Nature cd by Artylicious

The bp wasn't quite the colour i wanted it to be so I applied a little turquoise panpastel and the overstamps the corners with a beautiful leafy corner stamp from Chocolate Baroque which I embossed with white EP. I made the butterflies using Marianne dies and a couple of scraps of the same backing papers, I used cosmic shimmer glue to create their pearly bodies. The bow in made from scrunched seam binding ribbon and the focal image was made using a Marianne Designable. I got this last weekend at the craft show and I love it, its so delicate with the embossed pattern and the little lacy cut out bits. I inked it up with tumbled glass distress ink, stamped the sentiment (again from Chocolate Baroque) and added more faux pearls and gems.

I'm entering this in the following challenges:

Always Something Creative: Butterflies

Card and Scrap: things with wings

Card Cupids: wings

Divas by Design: anything goes

Marianne Design Divas: Anything goes

Sparkles Forum: wedding or anniversary

Thanks for popping by, if you get a minute do pop over to CD Sunday and check out the DT's work, they really are a lovely talented bunch of ladies

Claire xx

Pearls and Swirls for CD Sunday

Hi again, i've been loving dusting off my crafting cds during my month as GDT at CD Sunday and rediscovering all the scrummy papers and images on them. For this weeks challenge which is Pearls and Swirls i've used a backing paper from Artylicious 'Peacock Summer Party'.

I don't make many baby cards but its always handy to have a few at the ready as a lot of my son's friends are starting their familes so we'll be needing some baby cards in the next few months. (Fortunately he's not showing signs of getting broody thank goodness as I'm far to young to be a grandma lol). Anyway back to my card, I printed the bp off and distressed the edges with a craft knife and then used a prima mask to add polyfilla which I brushed with mica powder along the botton of the card

.

I've used a Whiff of Joy stamp called 'Willow Holding Baby' and coloured her with distress markers before die cutting her with nestiles. I've added a heart shaped doily, lots of paper flowers and some pearly swirls made with cosmic shimmer glue. To finish off i've added some polka dot organza ribbon.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Creative Card Crew: Pearls and swirls

Paper Shelter: Pearls and swirls

Totally Stampalicious: Your favourite embellishment (ribbon)

Thanks for popping by

Claire xx

Sunny Sunflowers from Chocolate Baroque

Hi there, what a change in the weather, on Saturday we had blue sky and sunshine, Sunday it was grey, rainy and cold, and yesterday was a bit of a mixture I even put the heating on..... in June, eeeek!! Anyway  today's card share features the fab new Sunny Sunflowers stamps from Chocolate Baroque. in traditional sunflower colours to brighten up another grey day.

I coloured the stamps with distress markers, I do love these pens!! The flowers are layered up and I've added stickles for a little sparkle and popped them on some coredinations card that I popped through my trusty cuttlebug and sanded. The bp is from the Essence of Nature cd, sentiment from Chocolate Baroque's Essence of Nature themeplate. All the bps are distressed with my craft knife and matted on kraft card and I've added an organza bow to finish off

I'm entering this card in  the following challenges:

CD Sunday: Gorgeous green

Crafty Calendar: flowers in bloom

Crafty Cardmakers: Distress it

Diva's by Design: Anything goes

The Perfect Sentiment: Anything goes with a stamped sentiment

Thanks for popping by

Claire xx

Trees and Baubles and Rainbow Lady's Challenge

Hi there, you may have a feeling of deja vue when you see this post lol, that's because I got totally confused and posted it last week by mistake. Anyway hopefully this time I've got myself organised for Rainbow Lady's challenge this week which is 'Trees and Baubles'

I've used one of my favourite Christmas stamps for this card, I love this quirky Christmas tree from 'Family Christmas' themeplate by Chocolate Baroque. I've painted the image with H2os and die cut it with nesties labels 11 and distressed with bundled sage distress ink. The bp is from the Artylicious cd, Seasons Greeting. This is one of my favourite papers and I didn't want to cover it up too much so I kept the layout pretty simple and just added some green organza ribbon, some die cut leaves and rolled ribbon roses.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Christmas cards all year round: Anything goes

Craft Room Challenge: Make your own flowers

Come and get it: Anything Christmas

Fairy Tale: Christmas

Gingerloft: Winter or 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

Our first challenge at Christmas Challenges {with sketches}

Woo hoo!!! How exciting, its time for our very first challenge over at Christmas Challenges {with sketches}, we have some amazing sketches lined up for you and the team have also got some unbelievable prizes from our sponsors too! For our very first challenge we have a very generous sponsor....All that Scraps so make sure you join in for your chance to win a $30 gift certificate!!! Now thats what I call an amazing prize :-)

For our first challenge,we have a gorgeous sketch from Janneke, who is the founder of Christmas Challenges {with sketches} and she has certainly come up with a brilliant sketch for our debut challenge.

Here's my card using Janneke's beautiful sketch. I've used a text bp and a stripe bp from Artylicious Season's Greetings cd rom. I've also made two snowflake bps, the one on the left of the pic was made by stamping Tim Holtz snowflake stamps on to white card and embossing with clear EP as a resist. I then sprayed with lots of Cosmic Shimmer spray in Midnight blue. The background on the right was made by stamping the same stamps on dark blue card with versamark and dusting with pearl cosmic shimmer powder. 

I've edged all the bps with a little glamour dust for some extra sparkle. The snowflakes and icicles are die cuts made with marianne creatable dies, liberally coated with more crystal glamour dust. The main image is ching chou kuik's Winterberry from Sweet Pea Stamps, she is a real beauty isn't she? I've coloured her with promarkers and added a little silver embossing to the trim on her dress. I use a quicke glue pen to apply the embossing powder as its much finer than my versamark pen. I also embossed the snowflakes and berries on the image with clear sparkle EP and then painted in the background with distress ink in Tumbled Glass. You can see the detail a little better in this pic

To finish off I've added some wide blue and silver ribbon from Crafty Ribbons, some pale blue gems and some clear dew drops. The sentiment is a stamp from Paper Pretties.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Christmas Stamping all Year long: Christmas and vintage

Clear it out: colouring mediums

Crafty Emma's Challenge: Embellish it

Crafty Purple Frog: Monochromatic

Going Grey with Scrap Creations: Use at least 3 different bps

Passion for Promarkers: all the 2s (2 hand made bps, 2 printed bps

Phindy's Place: Christmas in May

Stamp Man challenge: Bingo (my line is blue/ribbon/sparkle and bling)

I do hope you're going to play along with our first challenge, you don't want to miss out on our fab prize and of course if you start your Christmas cards now you'll be way ahead by December too.

Pop over to my new teamies blogs if you get a minute, they have created the most gorgeous selection of cards to inspire you

Claire xx

With a flourish at Rainbow Lady's Challenge

Hello, thanks for visiting :-) Todays offering is my DT card for Cynthia's challenge over at Rainbow Lady's Challenge Blog where the theme is 'With a Flourish'. Our challenge this week is sponsored by crafting.co.uk so don't miss out on the chance to win a fab prize!!

I've used a beautiful bp from Artylicious Butterfly Bliss cd, printed out in the turquoise option. I stamped the ornate corner stamps (from Chocolate Baroque New England Winter themeplate) and added a lilac gem to each one. I brayered a background with Big'n'Juicy hydrangea inkapad. The gorgeous stamps are from CaroLines Rubber stamps and are some of my favourites for brayered backgrounds, so many detailed silhouettes they are great to build up a scene. I die cut some flourishes using Marianne dies. The flowers are also made using Marianne dies, one of the ribbon flower ones  - I coloured tissue paper with the same inkpad and cut out 5 layers for each flower and scrunched them up lightly before adding a tiny black button  in the centres.

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:

A Spoonfull of Sugar: anything goes

CD Sunday: Die cuts or Yeehaw 

Corrosive Challenge: birthdays

Dream Valley Challenge: Dig out the old to use with the new (the corner stamps are new and the cd is one of my oldest,and a real favourite)

Emerald Faerie Garden: Anything goes

Fab'n'Funky: Make your own blooms

One Stitch at a Time: anything goes

Paper Pretties: Flowers

Sentimental Sundays: Handmade flower plus sentiment

Truly Scrumptious: Anything goes

Thanks for calling by today

Claire xx

Rainbow Lady's 'Lady in Red' challenge

Hello there, its time for another challenge from our lovely Rainbow Lady  and this week Cynthia's theme is 'Lady in Red'. We also have  fab prize from our regular sponsor Joanna Sheen too so don't miss out :-)

For my card I've used a bp and one of the bookmarks from Artylicious 'Essence of Nature' cd. The blue bp and bookmark were distressed wth fired brick DI and edged with a gold krylon pen. I added some cuttlebugged red card and a couple of grungepaper roses (coloured with the same distress ink and some red stickles highlights).

The main image is a gorgeou stamp from Crafts and Me called 'Hiding' by Molly Harrison, the image is coloured with inktense pencils. To finish off I've added some royal blue seam binding ribbon and a couple of dew drops coloured with alcohol ink.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Ambers Crafts and Stuff: Special Lady

CD Sunday: Stamping

Challenge up your life: bookmarks

Divas by design: anything goes

Flutter by Wednesday: Open challenge with butterfly angel or fairy

The Paper Variety: Let's get messy

Stamp something: something with wings

Thanks for popping by today, make sure you check out my teamies blogs as they have some amazing cards lined up this week

Claire xx

Butterflies at CD Sunday

Its time for a new challenge at CD Sunday and this week the theme is 'Butterflies', its my last week as Guest Designer at CD Sunday so a big thank you to the DT for inviting me, i've really enjoyed my time with CD Sunday and its been great to explore my crafting cds again:-)

We all love butterflies and I have loads of butterfly stamps but this weeks theme was a perfect chance to use my new favourite stamp. Its absolutely ginormous and is from the 'Butterfly Dreams' themeplate from Chocolate Baroque. I'd already printed my bp out from Artylicious 'Essence of Nature' cd so I used the gorgeous pinks, lilacs and blues as my colour palette.

I brayered some glossy card with big'n'Juicy Hydrangea inkpad, masking a moon and then overstamped with the main image in versamark ink. I embossed with black detail EP and coloured the berries with Tinkabella 'Rose' ink, this dries to a lovely sheen - great for berries etc. Once the ink was dry I added white highlights with a Range inksentials white gel pen. the main image has 2 butterflies but I stamped out several on acetate and glittered the reverse. I ended up adding 5 acetate butterflies to the card with silicone glue to give the wings some dimension. I guess you can never have too many butterflies lol. You can see the detail better in this pic

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Creative Craft Challenge: embossing

Digi Doodle Shop's Best: Glitter and glitz

Fabulous Friday: birds or butterflies

Flutter by Wednesday: Open challenge with angel fairy or butterfly

Freshly Brewed Challenges: sparkle and shine

Little Miss Muffet challenge: glitter and shine

My Mum's Craft Shop: all that glitters

The Paper Shelter: Inspired by Nature

Top Tip Tuesday: Open Challenge

thanks for visiting today, dig out your crafty cds and join us for this weeks 'Butterflies' challenge at CD Sunday. Don't forget to pop over and check out the DTs gorgeous work too

Claire xx

This Genie has attitude!

Hi there, its a beautiful sunny morning here in my little corner of the UK and after a really stressful weekend i've booked a day off work. I'm planning a little gardening and lots of crafting but first I wanted to share this card made another fab image from Digi's With Attitude!

She is called 'Grumpy Gretchen -Genie' and you can find her here

I've coloured Gretchen with promarkers, its the first time I've really tried darker skin tones and I'm pretty pleased with the result (I used walnut, cinnamon, cocoa and tan). The corner stamps are from Chocolate Baroque  and I've matted the image on some red and black card punched with a MS doiley lace punch. The bp is from one of my favourite craft cds, its called Decadent Brocade by Artylicious and you can find it at Chocolate Baroque too.. I've edged the bp and the black mat with a gold krylon pen and added some black and gold ribbon from Crafty Ribbons to finish off.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Anita B: Anything goes

Crafty Ho's: Sketch or use a rubber stamp with a digi stamp (I've used rubber and digi stamps)

Digital Tuesday: Little Women

Do You Stack Up?: Scallops

Kenny K: Anything goes

One Stitch at a Time: Make it Sassy

Paperplay: Photo Inspiration

Sugar Creek Hollow: Monochromatic

Thanks for calling by today, I'm going to do battle with the dandelions now as the garden is full of them at the minute. Why is it weeds seem to grow faster than plants?

Claire xx

Lilac wine with the Rainbow Lady

Time for a new challenge over at Rainbow Lady's challenge blog and this week our topic is 'Lilac Wine'. As usual we have a fab sponsor and this week our lucky winner will receive a  prize from Joanna Sheen

Here's my DT card for this week, I had to get my thinking cap on as I wasn't sure where to start with this weeks theme but then I found this beautiful digistamp from Squigglefly which I thought would be perfect

The image is coloured with promarkers and the glass is triple embossed with clear EP. I distressed the edges with lots of distress ink in shades of green

The bp is from Artylicious 'Essence of Nature' cd printed in green on one side of the paper and lilac on the other. I lightly drew around the edges of the image on the reverse of the bp and then cut an 'x' over the image shape, I stamped and embossed a swirly corner from Chocoloate Baroque in the corners and used a gold krylon pen along the edges. I rolled each side of the 'x' back and stuck the corners down with a little glue.

I embossed a large swirly corner on the corners of the bp and then layered it up over the image.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Cards for Men: Embossing

Creatalicious: two tone

Catch the bug: Anything goes

Die Cut Dreams: Use a food themed digi

I did it creations: anything goes

Make it Monday: Anything goes

Stamp -n-doodle: Shabby chic or vintage

Totally Papercrafts: One for the boys

Thanks for visitng today, I'm looking forward to seeing your 'Lilac Wine' creations. If you need some inspiration, pop over and check out my talented teamies blogs for some more ideas:-)

Claire xx

Surprise your Mom at Michelle Perkett Studio

It doesn't seem 2 minutes since our last challenge at Michelle Perkett Studio but its Tuesday again so its time for a new challenge and this week our theme is

'SURPRISE YOUR MOM'

It was Mother's Day on Sunday here in the UK and I don't think its long until our friends in Europe celebrate their Mothers Day. I've used this lovely image 'Thanks Mum' for this card, I love the cute little girl cudding her mum ... so sweet! You can find this gorgeous image in Michelle's Etsy Store

As usual the image is coloured wiht promarkers and this time I've carefully cut it out. I've used a bp from the lovely 'Essence of Nature' cd by Artylicious and highlighted the swirls with faux pearls using my viva pearl pen. The image is layered up on a lovely square doiley and to finish off I've added plenty of lilac and white flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts and a pretty charm from Bunny Zoe's crafts.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Craft Your Passion: Anything goes

Crazy Challenge: Add flowers

Creative Inspirations: Mother's Day

Delicious Doodles: For Mum

I did it creations: Anything goes

Kaboodle Doodles: Lets get Girly

Paper Play: for mum

Sarah Hurley Challenge: Mums the word

Scrapbook Sisters: for mum

Stamp Something: April Digi Day

Thanks for visiting today, if you're a UK mum I hope you had a wonderful day on Sunday, my son certainly surprised me as for the first time in years I got a card and pressie :-)

 I hope you can join our challenge at Michelle Perkett Studio this week, you can pick up an image from Michelle's Etsy Store or why not  grab a freebie from Michelle's group on Papercraft Planet.

We're planning a fun Easter Bunny Blog Hop for the weekend of April 16/17th with prizes and lots of fun too, you can find out more and sign up to join in here

Claire xx

Wooo hoooo!! Guest Designer over at CD Sunday :-)

I was over the moon when I was invited to be this month's GDT over at CD Sunday, not only because its such a great challenge but also because I have some good friends on the team too.

This weeks challenge is 'For Someone Special' and its sponsored by Cute Daisy May, and I was lucky enough to be able to use this gorgeous digistamp (you can find her at Whoopsi Daisy). She's such a beautiful stamp, I really enjoyed colouring her, especially all that lovely hair.

When I first started crafting I used CDs a lot but I've got more into stamping and my poor cds have been sat on a shelf in my craft room gathering dust. Anyway I dusted them off and had a good browse and I found loads of goodies I'd forgotten about.  For this cd I've used a bp from Artylicious 'Essence of Nature' CD, I must admit I do use this cd quite a bit as the backing papers are stunning but I had a really good look through it and found all sorts of things I'd never used. I printed the circular frame off twice and decoupage it up to giveit a bit of dimension. I edged the frame and bp with a gold kryon pen. I stamped and embossed a background using tree stamps from Elusive images on some vellum and inked in a sun.

I coloured the image with promarkers and added some glitter to her wings and the flowers in her hair. As its a card for someone special, I added loads of flowers. The large ones are also printed from Artylicious 'Essence of Nature' CD, cut out sprized with glimmer mist and scrunched up before being layerd up with glittery centres. The rest of the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and have been glittered. The lovely little charm is from Bunny Zoe's crafts and the pearls are from my stash

You can see the vellum background and the layered frame a little better in this pic

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Allsorts: Blooming blossoms

By the Cute and Girly: Cute and Girly

Bunny Zoe's Crafts: Happy Birthday with lots of pearls

Cardmaking Mama's : Embellish it

Charisma Cardz:Bling and Sparkle

Crafty Calendar: April Showers bring May flowers

Do you stack up? :Clear, light pink and mauve (I hope my vellum counts as clear)

Incy Wincy: Sparkle and Shine

Little Claires: Spring Celebration

Stampin Vacation: Square and circles

Stamp Something: April Digi day

Whoopsi Daisy: glitter and glitz

Thanks for calling by today, I hope you'll dust of those crafting cds and join this weeks challenge over at CD Sunday and of course pop over and check out the DTs fab cards as the ladies have come up with some beautiful creations.

Claire xx

Happy Spring!!

Hi there, Spring is definitely on the way, we've had some beautiful sunny days and it really does seem to be getting warmer at last :-) After the long winter we've had its great to see the blossom starting to appear on the trees and the spring flowers popping up in the garden.

Todays card features a gorgeous new image 'Oh Happy Spring' from Michelle Perkett, isn't this little bunny the cutest?? You can find him in Michelle's Etsy store here.

The little bunny is coloured with promarkers and I distressed the edges with pink and grey distress inks. The bp is from the Artylicious cd 'Decadent Brocade', its from the neutrals section but i've distressed with some pink ink to blend it in. The image and bp are both matted and layered on pearl grey and pastel pink card. The ribbon is from Crafty Ribbons and the gems and charm are from my stash.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

2 sisters: Furry friends

Bling it on: Anything goes + a charm

Card making Mamas: Animals

Crafty Sentiments: animals

Creative inspirations paint: animals

Do you stack up: Add a bow

Mamie Doodles: Celebrate spring

Some odd girl: think Spring

Wags'n'Whiskers: Spring

Woodware USA: Spring is coming

You still have time to enter this weeks challenge over at Michelle Perkett Studio, Shelley and her team have a fab St Patty's Day challenge lined up for you! If you don't have any of Michelle's lovely images you can grab a freebie from her groups on PCP, SNR or CDAC and join in the fun to be in with a chance of winning one of Michelle's gorgeous images.

Thanks for calling by today. I'm sorry if I haven't visited your blog lately, things are a bit hectic here with work and also my dear FIL is in hospital at the minute. Hopefully things will settle down soon and I'll have a bit more time for my lovely blogland buddies :-)

Claire xx

Soulmates

This weeks Spotlight Image at Michelle Perkett Studio is 'Soulmates', a perfect image for an alternative Valentine card and this week you can get a fab 20% off this lovely image in Michelle's Etsy Store.

The image has been coloured with promarkers and for some added bling I used stickles for the bubbles. Once the stickles dried I covered them with glossy accents. Michelle finds the most beautiful quotations to accompany her images but I've used this one separately for a change.

I made the bp using peeled paint and tumbled glass distress inks and some starburst stains. I covered the wet background with a layer of bubble wrap while it was drying to give a bubbly, watery effect. The flowers were made from papers from the Artylicious 'Essence of Nature' cd.

To finish off I added some blue and green organza ribbon, an acetate goldfish made with a stamp from Joanna Sheen, coloured with orange tinkabella ink and some lime green memory thread 'seaweed'.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Cardmad Fairy: Romance

Fairy Fun Friday: for a Sweetheart

I love Promarkers: Anything goes + promarkers

Karber Weekly challenge: Something old + a digi (my goldfish stamp is my something old)

Sew Many Challenges: Anything goes

Simon Says Stamp: Love is in the air

Stamp Something: digi day

Stampin' Sisters in Christ: Green and blue

thanks for visiting today, you still have time to enter this weeks challenge over at

Michelle Perkett Studio!! The theme is 'Scallops and Frames' and the DT have come up with some amazing samples

Claire xx

Rainbow Lady's Challenge, 'It's all new to me'

My very first card as part of the lovely Cynthia's DT over at Rainbow Lady's Challenge Blog and not only do we have a fantastic challenge, "Its all new to me" but we also have a wonderful sponsor. Our challenge is sponsored by the lovely Joanna Sheen who is offering our lucky winner a £10 voucher for her shop! I started stamping after seeing Joanna demonstrating on Create and Craft quite a few years ago and I just LOVE her stamps! Our challenge this week was a great excuse to invest in some new stamps from Joanna.I'd wanted these beautiful handbag stamps for ages and as they were on offer I got a real bargain too!!

I've used a bp from the 'Essence of Nature' CD by Artylicious and embossed swirls around the edges using a HOTP stamp and then edged the bp with black soot DT. The gorgeous vintage lady image is a stamped image from my lovely friend Tess, she is coloured with promarkers and has a little feather and gem added to her hat and belt. The ribbon is from Crafty Ribbons, the feather is from Joanna Sheen as is the handbag stamp. The handbag is stamped and embossed in black on purple mirri card with lilac glitter added to the stripes and gunmetal stickles to the clasp and trim.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

By the Cute and Girly: Bling it on

Lots to do: New Beginnings

Sweet Stampin Challenge: Your favourite song (Purple Haze for me, ooops showing my age

now lol)

Crafty Emma's Challenge: Anything goes

Simon Says Stamp'n'Show: Your newest stamp

The Shabby Tea Room: Welcome 2011 (my 11 elements are: black card, purple bp, swirly stamp, black feather, handbag, glitter, purple feather, gems, floral ribbon, stickles, stamped lady image,  I'm tempted to add fondue set and cuddly toy for those of you who remember the Generation Game lol)

Paper Sundaes: Something new

I do hope you're going to join us at Rainbow Lady's Challenge Blog and show us something new, it could be new craft goodies, a new technique or maybe a new fold.

Thanks fo calling by

Claire xx

Recycling at Let's Ink It Up

Its time for a new challenge at Let's Ink It Up,

we had some wonderful entries in our last challenge so I can't wait to see what you have in store for us with our new challenge where the theme is

Recycling!!

We have two fabulous sponsors for our challenge, so 2 lucky entrants will win a prize!! Our sponsors are Whimsy Stamps who are are giving the generous prize of a $15 voucher to one lucky winner! Wags'n'Whiskers have kindly offered a wonderful prize of a £15 voucher for
 Bunny Zoe's Crafts!!

You don't want to miss out on a chance to win one of those fab prizes!! I love this kind of challenge and I decided to recyle a book for my DT project for this challenge, I used an old book that was destined for the tip - i've always been a real book worm so I hate the thought of defacing a book lol. But its all in a good cause! I won't go into too much detail as this is a long post already but if you fancy having a go, there is  a wonderful tutorial from Elina over at Gingersnap Creations for how to go about altering a book so pop over and have a look if you fancy having a go. Here's the inside:

and a closer look at the lady below, the opposite side hasn't shown up too well in the photo as its a versamark resist technique but I've used an inspirational quote stamp from Graphicus. I gave the book a coat of gesso and then splodged on some purple. teal and blue paint before giving it all a coat of  Viva turquoise precious metal paint. The lady is from Elusive Images 'Peacock Ladies' themeplate stamped onto glossy card and masked to brayer the background. I stamped her again and painted her dress with H20s and gave it a layer of stickles, cut it out and decoupaged it with some silicone glue. The corner tiles are stampbord inchies and all the gold flourish and border stamps are also by Elusive images embossed with Ranger Queens gold EP.

The flowers are more recycling, I used the left over sheets of copier paper I'd used to get the excess ink off my brayer, die cut them with an assortment of Marianne dies, scrunched them, sprayed them with glimmer mists and then layered them up to make the flowers.

Here's the front of the book (sorry for the dreadful pic, all the acetate, embossing and glitter has totally foxed my camera LOL) The bp is from Artylicious Peacock Summer Party Cd,  stamped roughly with a crackle stamp for a shabby look and embossed with gold EP. The main image is from the Elusive Images 'Peacock Ladies' themeplate. I stamped it on card, coloured the face with promarkers and made a painted background with twinkling H2Os and then added a layer of acetate stamped with the same image. This time i didn't colour the face but added various colours of glitter to the gorgeous headress. The frame is a stamp from Stamp'n'around and is embossed in Peacock EP on gold mirri. The tassel was a white one coloured with glimmer mists

The back of the book is covered with the same BP as the front. I made a brayered background again using Waterfall Big& Juicy inkpad and then stamps  beautiful Elusive Images peacock stamp and embossed with Gold EP. The words are hard to read because of my horrible photography skills but they read 'The Result  of a Horrible Stamping Accident'. I love this stamp, I'm not sure of the make but it always makes me giggle whenever i use it :-)

I'm entering this altered book in the following challenges:

Rainbow Lady's Challenge: Make a picture

Paper Romance: everything but the kitchen sink

Gingersnap Creations GC 77: Haute Couture

Inspiration Avenue: Happiness is... this

Ooh La La: Remember remember

Simon Says Stamp and Show: Something Shabby

Thanks for reading this post, i'm sorry its gone on forever lol. I do hope you'll find time to join in our recycling challenge at Let's Ink It Up, I'm looking forward to seeing all your ideas !!

You have until November 30th to get your entry in so plenty of time!!

Claire xx