Another Parasol

Hi there, the weather doesn't know what to do here this morning so I'm not sure if I should call this an umbrella or a parasol lol. It was pouring with rain first thing but now the sun is shining and we're forecast a heat wave later :-) . Life's so hectic its nice sometimes just to spend a bit of time  playing in my craft room. Here's another Parasol Decor Plate (from CaroLine's Rubber Stamps, have a look here as Caroline has some gorgeous new shapes in and they are perfect for painting) 

I used Wilkinson's emulsion tester pots for the background and started with a base coat of dark brown. One that was dry I added a layer of watered down pva glue, gave it a blast with my heat gun and then applied a layer of magnolia emulsion paint. I love making these crackle backgrounds, such messy fun :-)

I stamped the leaves first using stamps from Sheena Douglass 'Berries' Stamp set. I painted the leaves and then stamped and painted the flowers and berries. I've used an assortment of acrylic paints from my stash (Pebeo and Eco-green mainly). Once the paint was thoroughly dry I used gold embossing powder around the edges and then triple embossed the tip of the parasol and the handle with more gold EP. While the last layer of EP was still hot I stamped in to it with a Chocolate Baroque swirly stamp. 

I'm entering this parasol in the following challenges:

Everybody Art Challenge: Anything goes

Inspire Me Fridays: Anything goes

Stampin for the weekend: My favourite things (paint and decor plates)

Crafty Emma's Challenge blog: Anything but square

Scrapbook Sisters: Anything goes

Ruby's Rainbow: Flowers

Diva's By Design: anything but a card

Southern Girls: Anything goes

I hope the sun is shining for you today. I'm hoping to get lots of crafty time this weekend although I'm thinking about paint fusioning the bath panel (If I dare lol) 

Thanks for popping by

Claire xx

In the Springtime with Rainbow Lady's challenge

Its time for a new challenge at Rainbow Lady's Challenge Blog and this time we want to see your Spring projects. We're sponsored this week by our fab regular sponsor Chi Chi Memories, i've used this supercute image to make an Easter wall hanging using a large Decor plate from Caroline's Rubber Stamps and some paint fusion stamps from Sheena Douglass

I used gold ecogreen acrylic paint, pva glue and lemon emulsion paint to create the crackle background. I used the little rosebud border paint fusion stamp around the edges of the decor plate and embossed with Ranger Queens Gold EP. The leaves and rosebuds are painted with various acrylic paints from my stash as I still haven't got the ones Sheena uses. I coloured the cute little Easter chick  in his basket with promarkers and cut it our and matted it on a distressed doiley. I got the polystyrene eggs from The Works - 24 for 99p, what a bargain!! They are painted with acrylic paint and decorated with some sticky ribbon from my stash.

I'm entering my project in the following challenges:

Allsorts: Anything but a square

Bow's and Berries: Easter

Crazy Challenge: Easter

Creative Inspirations: Easter

Die Cut Dreams: Easter

Floweret: Easter

Fun with shapes and more: Easter

Phindy's Place: Easter

Sparkles Forum: Easter

Stampin for the weekend: Easter

Sugar Creek Hollow: Vintage Easter

The Pink Elephant: Easter

Thanks for popping by, I hope you're enjoying some Spring weather, its really cold here again so I hope it improves for the weekend :-)

Claire xx

Playing with Paint Fusion

Hi there, here I am again with another post, my third today. I just wanted to share my first attempts with Sheena Douglass' paint fusion stamps. I've used a couple of large decor plates from CaroLines rubber stamps, they are a good weight and take the paint without bending at all and they are a great size too (you can find them here)

I'm really pleased with this butterfly although it doesn't look as good close up LOL. I made a crackle background with siver acrylic paint, a layer of watered down pva glue and then a layer of very pale blue matt emulsion paint. Once that was dry I stamped the daisies randomly all over the butterfly shape with black stazon. I painted the first layer of the daisies with a shimmery blue acrylic paint (I think from Stewart Gill) and then used white eco green acrylic paint for the top layer. For the centres I used a yellow shimmerz paint and mulch eco green acrylic. The pale green paint is a docrafts acrylic paint. Once the flowers were dry I used tumbled glass distress ink around the edge of the butterfly and then embossed the edges with silver EP. I stamped an artemio bee and embossed with black EP and added some yellow acrylic paint stripes. For the butterfly's body I used some gems from my stash and some green Martha Stewart glitter.

I'm entering this butterfly in the following challenges:

Samuel Taylor Crafts: Butterflies

Craft your days away: for mum or a special lady (this is for my MIL)

A gem of a challenge: anything but a square

I used another crackle background for this decor plate - deep purple matt emulsion, watered down pva glue and then lilac emulsion. The leaves flowers and butterfly were stamped with stazon and painted with eco green paints and then the butterfly was embossed with gold ep.

I'm entering this decor plate in the following challenges:

Sir Stampalot: Spring is in the air (fresh green blossom pink and yellow)

Scrapbook sisters: Spring flowers

Sugar Creek Hollow: anything goes

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge: Anything but a card

Little Claire's : pink and green

I definitely think Paint fusion could be addictive, I've really enjoyed making these, they are so quick and its such messy fun!! I'm not sure about the colours on the scalloped decor plate but I'm really pleased with the daisies especially from a distance lol.

Thanks for visiting today, hope you are having a good weekend

Claire xx

Katie's recipe this week...

Good morning, brrrr its really cold here at the minute and we're told that the first snow is on its way - perfect weather for thinking about Christmas (and for staying in and crafting lol) so I've made a Christmas decoration for this weeks challenge from Cooking it up with Kate. Our recipe this week is :

Paint, Angelic/holidays/rhinestones

and we are sponsored by Pixie Dust who have some gorgeous images! I've used 'Sugarplum Fairy' and although she's not just for Christmas I thought she'd look great for a christmas decoration

I've used a bell shaped decor plate from Caroline's Rubber stamps. I love these decor plates, and the big ones are a great size for making Christmas decorations. I've painted the bell with acrylic paints and then sprayed with pearl glimmer mists for lots of sparkle. More sparkle with the snowflakes which are embossed with enchanted gold EP and have little blue rhinestones in the centres. The creamy/beige papers are from my stash, stamped with the same snowflakes and embossed this time in pale blue and then I distressed the edges with vintage photo distress ink.

Sugarplum fairy is coloured with promarkers and she has clear microbeads on her underskirt, to look like layers of net. She's cut out and layered up on a couple of shapes made with MS topiary punch.

I'm entering my Sugarplum Fairy in the following challenges

Colour Create: Robin's Egg, Seafoam green, cream

Paper Romance: Favourite things (ooh lots of them here, decorplates paint, embossing and of course promarkers and I love Christmas decorations)

Winter Wonderland: Make a decoration

Ai Factory: Bring on the Bling

Tuesday Taggers: Make a decoration

Papertake challenge: cut it out

Passion for Promarkers: Old and new (new image and decorplate, old paint and embossing powder from when I first started crafting)

Thanks for visiting today. As usual I'm counting down to the weekend (or a lottery win lol) so I can have some time off work. Hope you're having a good week and get some time to join our challenge this week

Claire xx

Christmas challenge at Crafty Ann's!

Woo hoo weekend is nearly here! Its my last day at work today and then I have a week off :-) I may do a little Christmas shopping and Crafty Ann's Challenge this week is perfect to get me in the mood for Christmas - we want to see your Christmas creations BUT using non traditional Christmas colours!! We are also celebrating the first anniversary of Crafty Ann's Challenge and we couldn't let that pass with out some treats!!

All the the DT have prizes on their blogs so all you have to do is leave a comment and you'll be in with a chance of winning your choice of one of Crafty Ann's digi stamps or a precoloured sheet on each of the DTs' blog!! Don't forget to leave me a comment to be in with a chance with win!!  And there will be an extra prize over on the challenge blog too so there are  lots of chances to win some goodies!

I've used Crafty Ann's beautiful pointsettia digi stamp (available from Ann's shop here) to make a Christmas decoration. The image is coloured with promarkers and layered up with silicone and I've added some gold microbeads to the centre. The leaves look a grey colour in the pic but they have been overstamped with swirls and versamark and dusted with gold mica powder and its not showing up too well in the pic. Ann has also got some beautiful precoloured images that will be great for quick projects so have a little look around her shop and check them out

The bauble shape is one of Carolines Decor Plates (available here). I always rave about these but they really are a wonderful surface to work on. This one is painted with orchid ecogreen acrylic paint paint. The snowflakes are a stamp from Tim Holtz, embossed with  gold EP. I masked the top of the bauble, swiped it with versamark and again embossed with gold EP. To finish off I added some gold Christmas tree trim, pink velvet ribbon and a big pink chiffon bow.

I'm entering this in the following challenges:

A Pocket Full of posies: Winter bouquet

City Crafter: get your Digi on

Kaboodle Doodles: Vintage

Everybody Art Challenge: Untraditional Christmas

I love promarkers: Snowflakes

Thanks for visiting today. Don't forget to check out the rest of the DTs blog for some fabulous inspiration for your non traditional Christmas project. Remember I'll be picking a comment from the comments  left here to win a prize too

Claire xx

A new challenge at Let's Ink It Up!!

Hi. its time for another challenge at Let's Ink It Up. There were some fantastic entries for Challenge 2, huge congratulations to the winner and Top 3.

Ou challenge this time is

 'Use your favourite stamp, with a twist - add a charm'

We have a fabulous prize again, a £20 voucher for

 CaroLines Rubber Stamps

Caroline is a lovely lady and she designs the most gorgeous stamps, I've used stamps from Caroline's Silhouettes 2 themeplate to make this project.  It is a fab set of stamps with 2 fab backgrounds and lots of little elements to build your scene. I've also used one of Caroline's Decor Plates, the large scalloped circle as the base for my wall hanging. I was lucky enough to win some of these in a challenge a few months ago, they are fab to work and take ink beautifully. Great value too, I just bought some more and some oriental ones too :-)

I coloured the Decor Plate with kaliedacolour inks and my trusty brayer and then sprayed assorted glimmer mists over the top. I then stamped with various leaf stamps from Joanna Sheen which were embossed with gold and copper EPs. The leaves are cut on my cuttle bug as is the flower which is a Marianne Die from Jazzlin Designs. The beautiful Autumn ribbon is from Crafty Ribbons and was a real bargain in their sale.

The central scene was created by brayering a background with the same kaleidacolour inkpad and then embossing the main scene with black detail EP. The fairy, toadstool and hedgehog were also embossed with the same EP. The leaves on the tree are from the same themeplate and stamped once again with Kaliedacolour inks.  I cut the scene out and embossed the edge with gold EP to frame it. To finish off, I added a tiny toadstool charm - if you look closely you can see it just below the flower.

I'm also entering this wall hanging in the following challenges:

City Crafter Challenge: Tree of Books

A spoonful of sugar: Fall into Autumn Colours

Incy Wincy : Autumn Colours

Paperplay challenge: Shaped Project

Everybody Art Challenge: Other Cardform

I hope you are going to dig out your favourite stamp and join us at Let's Ink It Up

I'm sure after seeing all your fab cards I'll have another long wish list of stamps I need!! Why not pop over to my teamies blogs and check out their favourite stamps too - they have some fab projects again this month

Claire xx