A fab colour challenge from Chocolate Baroque!!

Hi there, have you entered our new challenge over at Chocolate Baroque Challenge blog? We've got a fab colour inspiration challenge and our lucky winner will receive a £15 voucher for the Chocolate Baroque website! Its a monthly challenge so lots of time for you to enter, there is weekly inspiration from the DT too! My project is a quick and easy tag

I began by splodging distress inks in Mowed Lawn, Peacock Feathers and Squeezed Lemonade on my craft sheet and sprizting with water. I swooshed my tag through and once the tag was dry I blotted up some more ink. I used stamps from Indian Textiles and Indian Elephant and added some colour with Graph'It markers. I stamped the words, from Artistic Affirmations and embossed with Gold embossing powder.

I wanted to add a splash more red so I applied diluted bleach through a Crafters Workshop harlequin stenciland once that was dry I added Festive Berries distress ink. To add some texture and sparkle I realigned the stencil and applied Maimeri Glassy Gel Medium over the red ink, I removed the stencil and poured on some microbeads. To finish off I added some flowers made with Crealies die cuts and some black ribbon.

I'm entering this tag in the following challenges:

Craft you Passion:  Flower power

Crafting when we can: make your own background

Crazy Challenge: die cuts/punches

Die Cuttin Divas: anything but a card

Whoopsi Daisy: two or more die cuts

I hope you're going to join our challenge, pop over to the new challenge blog for all the details and lots of inspirations from my lovely teamies.

Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

Flora and Fauna with PanPastel UK

Good morning, hope you're having a lovely crafty weekend! We've got a fab new challenge starting at PanPastel UK today and our theme is Flora and Fauna. We've also got a lovely talented new teamie joining us too so hop on over and meet the lovely Doreen and check out the challenge details too as there is a fabby prize of goodies from Premium Craft Brands for our lucky winner! I've made a little canvas for my DT project

I began with a little 8x8 canvas and primed it with Maimeri Gesso, adding texture here and there with my brush Once that was dry I applied versamark through the Pronty Butterfly Stencil and then added some colour with Pastel PanPastels. I used yellows and greens for the background and sealed it with some hairspray. I repositioned the stencil and applied Maimeri Glassy Gel with a palette knife and then removed the stencil and applied a layer of microbeads to the glassy gel. While it was drying I made lots of paper flower with Britannia and Sizzix dies, adding colour with PanPastels and applying some glamour dust here and there. For a bit of extra sparkle I used some iridescent beads for the flower centres

The sentiment stamp is from Chocolate Baroque, I stamped it on tissue paper with Bamboo Leaves Memento Ink and applied the tissue with Maimeri Matte gel medium. To finish off  I used Maimeri Rich Gold Acrylic paint around the sides of the canvas and splattered a little of the paint on the background

I'm entering this in the following challenges:

Brown Sugar: summer

Charisma Cardz: sparkle and shine

Crafty Catz: 2 dies

Fussy and Fancy: things with wings

Its all about the vintage: use dies

Simon Says Stamp: stencil 

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

Claire xx

Through the window

Good morning, today's card features the new Gothic Fragments stamps available from Chocolate Baroque, this is a lovely stamp sheet which lends itself to so many different projects.

The background was made using a Crafters Workshop mask and distress inks to create a brick effect, I thought this would echo the bricks around the window image. I coloured the window image with promarkers and carefully cut out the 'glass' using a craft knife and die cut the image using nesties. I stamped the image again on acetate and embossed with black embossing powder and then used adhesive film to attach gilding flakes to the reverse of the image before attaching it behind the window. The sentiment is from 'Words of Comfort and Cheer' stamped with versamaemark and embossed an with an antique gold embossing powder. To finish off I added a bow andtwo delicate borders, die cut from white card using Crealies dies.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Crafty Bloggers: anything goes

Hiding in my Craft Room: die cuts

Its all about the vintage: embossing

My time to craft: just sepia

One Crazy Stamper: Clear or acetate

Squirrel and the fox: use a ribbon

Stamptacular Sunday: No rules

Well I'd better get organised and go to work, its really grey and miserable here at the minute, just the weather for bunkering up in my craft room but I suppose I'll have to get wrapped up and go earn some pennies.

Thanks for popping by today

Claire xx

Floral creations on the catwalk at FSC

Hello there, we've got a new challenge starting over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges, this time we want to see you floral creations or handmade flowers, with of course some rubber stamping too. As always we've got a great prize up for grabs from our generous sponsor Marina from Cottage Crafts.

For my project I've altered a little box and made a little tag to match. After painting the box and lid I covered the box with some scrummy kaisercraft paper, punched with a MS punch. I covered the lid with some of the same paper and inked the edges with a little vintage photo distress ink. I added some gorgeous russet ribbon and cream lace around the lid. The top of the box is decorated with a stamp from Chocolate Baroque (Rose Tree stamp sheet), stamped on watercolour card and watercoloured with distress  markers. I added some sepia accents and micro beads to the centre of the larger flowers. Next came some rose made with kraft coredinations card die cut using tattered pine cone die, the smaller flowers and foliage were made with crealies. 

I used the scraps of paper and ribbon to make the little tag which is stamped with a stamp from Chocolate Baroque (Haberdashery stamps)

I'm entering my little altered box in the following challenges:

Allsorts : Its a gift

Clearly Inspired: Circles

Crafts and Me: Autumn Colours

Eureka Stamps: anything goes

Inspired by Stamping: photo inspiration

Moving along with the times: Anything but a square

Stamp Man: Alter it

Sweet Stamps: watercoloured

Thanks for popping by, make sure you check out my lovely DT sisters blogs as always they've created some stunning projects to inspire you for our new challenge

Claire xx

Get inky and messy at FSC

Hi there, sorry I'm awol at the minute, my hubby is still very poorly in hospital and I've also got computer gremlins. Fingers crossed things will soon settle down but in the mean time here's a very quick post with my DT card for Fashionable Stamping Challenges. Our theme this time around is 'Get Inky and Messy' chosen by our very own top model Shirley :-)

I've used distress inks on glossy card to create this card. The background was made with the spring distress inks with the addition of some tumbled glass and shabby shutters. I've used stamps from Stampers Anonymous 'Papillion' and coloured the main image with distress markers. The flowers were made from Crinoline Fabric coloured with distress inks and stamped with text using black archival ink. You can see them a bit better here

 

I've added some black buttons, die cut foliage and some more little butterflies 

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Classy cards and such: Handmade flowers

The Stamp Man: Anything goes summer colours

Stempelsonnen Challenge: Summer

Totally Papercrafts: Lots of layers

Thanks for popping by. I hope you are keeping out of all this rain, it never seems to let up does it? 

Claire xx

In England's green and pleasant land

Hi there, this is one of my DT project for Chocolate Baroque featuring some of their gorgeous new stamps (Artistic Expressions from Chocolate Baroque and Britannia from Crafty individuals). As soon as I saw the sentiment 'In Englands's green and pleasant land I thought of the gorgeous stamps from Home Sweet Home stampsheet and wanted to combine them to create a little wall hanging

I used the reverse of a 5x7 canvas and cut out some card to cover the frame, I gave it a crackle background with a layer of green emulsion, then watered down PVA glue and a top coat of cream. Once it was dry I stamped the gorgeous swirls from Artistic Expressions with versamark and embossed with a pale green embossing powder. I used the same EP for the Britannia image on cream card, cut it out and popped it up with silicone glue.

Creating the little scene was easy, I just cut some card to fit the aperture of the frame, stamped the images with Memento Tuxedo black and coloured with promarkers. I made the flowers using Crinoline fabric, die cut with Crealies dies and coloured with glimmer mists. The fabric scrunches beautifully. The leaves are also die cut with Crealies, this time embossed with pale green embossing powder.

I'm entering this in the following challenges:

Art Impressions Stamps: CAS or anything but 

Hiding in my craft room: bring on some spring

Stampman: colours of spring/Easter

Stempelsonnen: a flower for you

Thanks for calling by

Claire xx

Monochromatic +1 on the Catwalk at FSC

Hello there, i've been a bit quiet on the blogging front this week as I've not been feeling too well andI've just been collapsing on the sofa after work every night. I must be getting old lol.  Anyway  I'm back in action with my DT project for Fashionable Stamping Challenges where the theme is monochromatic plus 1. As always we have a fab prize up for grabs from our generous sponsor Marina from Cottage Crafts! I've gone for shades of brown with a pop of pink to brighten it up.

I've made a beeswax collage on a large manilla tag using stamps from Punky Romance from Chocolate Baroque. I'd created a crackle background on the tag ages ago using cream and brown emulsion paint with PVA glue and never got round to using it. I stamped it with the gorgeous butterfly steampunk corrner stamp and then stamped the butterflies again and painted them with distress inks. I also stamped some of the lovely Dandelion clocks and added a little colour with Victorian Velvet ditress ink. I coated the tag liberally with wax and then added the cut out butterflies, some dried flowers. I stamped into the wax with the large cogs background stamp for come texture and highlighted it with some metallic wax. The pink flowers are made with crealies dies, the brown prima roses and the brads were in the gorgeous box of goodies I received from Hels for winning the Sunday Stamper birthday blog candy the other week. I added some pink seam bindingribbon and added  glass glintz to the centres of the dandelion clocks, they aren't showing up very clearly in the pic though as in real life they magnify the little clock faces beautifully.

I'm entering my tag in the following challenges:

Craft your passion: anything goes but no patterned papers

Craft us Crazy: anything goes

Dragon's Dream Tag it on: time

Scrapbook Sisters: anything goes

The StampMan: texture

I hope you're keeping warm and cosy in this snowy weather. Its so cold here  i've been bunkered up in front of the tv since I went shopping yesterday morning -eeeeek it was -9 degrees. that was enough of an excuse for me to crank the heating up and start eating chocolate lol! Thanks for visiting today, if you get chance pop over to my teamies blogs and have a peep at their stunning projects. They've really come up with some stunning creations again this time

Claire xx

Use 2 of Something at PanPastels

Good morning folks, hope you've got your sunspecs on this morning as my card share today is rather bright lol. Today sees the start of our second challenge over at PanPastel UK Challenge Blog and our theme this time is to use 2 of something. We're really looking forward to seeing your beautiful artwork as we had so many gorgeous entries last week. This is a real change from my card last week which was very muted colours, for this card i've used  Iron Oxide Red and Yellow PanPastels with a little black

I made the background by applying red PanPastel around the edge of the card and yellow in the centre using a large angle sofft sponge and then gradually blended the colours together to graduate them. PanPastels are so velvety they blend perfectly and you can create a background in  literally a couple of minutes.  I then used black PanPastel to stamp the swirls around the border,  when you stamp with PanPastel apply to your stamp using a sofft sponge, they give a really soft and muted effect.

For the main image I used the same PanPastel colours, this time I masked a circle of the yellow before I blended in the with the red. I used a post it note, dabbed onto fabric to get rid of most of the sticky so that it didn't lift the colour. 

The large stamp with the 2 gorgeous birds is from Chocolate Baroque (Woodland Dreams themeplate) stamped with versamark and embossed with black detail EP. I've found that PanPastels are great for embossing on as you don't seem to get any static so no messy specks of powder on your project. 

I've painted the berries with Tinkabella ink, this gives a lovely shine but that doesn't show up too well on the pic. I've added die cut flowers (tattered florals) again coloured with the same PanPastel colours, a button, some twine and die cut leaves. In line with our theme I added a couple of tassels and 2 die cut borders.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Cheerful Stamp Pad: Birds of a feather

Crafty Catz: buttons and bows

Incy Wincy: Bold and bright

Moving Along with the Times: things with wings

My time to craft: Your favourite embellisment

 (I adore tassels on cards but i'm very mean with them so don't use them too often lol)

Tanda Stamps: Scenic

There she goes: Scene of back to nature

TCP Tuesday: Embossing

Totally Papercrafts: Make your own flowers

I hope you're going to join our challenge again this week, don't forget our lucky winner gets an amazing prize, our lovely sponsor Berni from Your Creativity Store will be providing a trial set of PanPastels for this weeks winner

Thanks for calling by today

Claire xx

Make a tag at FSC

Hi there folks, its time for a new challenge at Fashionable Stamping challenges and this time our theme is 'Make  a Tag'. As always we have a great prize from the lovely Marina at Cottage Crafts up for grabs so pop over to the challenge blog and check it out :-)

For my tag, I've used some new stamps ' The Art of Chess' from Chocolate Baroque. I used post its to mask squares to create the background using black versafine swiped across the alternate squares. The edges are embossed with gold EP. The focal image is stamped on acetate using black stazon, double sided adhesive film and then gilding flakes added to the back. I've used the same technique for some of the smaller chess pieces and the other are embossed in black on ivory card. I've also triple embossed one of the larger chess pieces. I've added gold and red ribbon, stamping one of the sentiments on the ribbon. It reads 'Every pawn is a potential Queen'. I die cut the flowers using Crealies 18 and scraps of black and red card stamped with text and added black gems to the centres.

I'm entering this tag in the following challenges:

Cards for men: G is for ..... gilding flakes

Crafty Boots: Anything goes

Craft your days away: Make your own flowers

Crafty Creations: Anything but a square

Creative Belli: Acetate or vellum

Creative Card Crew: anything goes

I brake for challenges: backgrounds

Incy Wincy: make your own flowers

Paperplay: 2 or more stamped images

Ribbon Carousel: anything goes

The Rubber Cafe: no designer papers

Totally Gorjuss: Its a man thing

Woodware USA : Anything goes

 If you have a little time to spare, call in and check out my teamies gorgeous creations for our 'Make a Tag' challenge as they've really come up with some stunning projects again this time.

Claire xx