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

A taste of the orient

Hi there, I'm late with todays' card, I seem to have had one of those days, you know the ones where everything takes twice as long as usual, your drop everything you pick up lol. Anyway I wanted to share this card which features a gorgeous image from Scrapbook Stamp Society (you can find her here)

I've coloured the image with promarkers and used fineliner pens for her long flowing hair. I wanted to keep the card fairly simple so I made a bp using starburst stains (using shades of lilac, blue and green but the mica makes them look a bit odd lol). Once the card was dry I stamped assorted foliage stamps using black versafine ink. I've used black card to matt and layer and added some black organza ribbon to finish off. I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Crafts 4 Eternity: Clean and simple

Inspire me Fridays: anything goes

Secret Crafty:ribbon

Truly Madly Crafty: anything goes

Thanks for calling by today

Claire xx

Thanksgiving at Rainbow Lady's Challenge

Hi there well this week has flown by and its time for a new challenge from the lovely Rainbow Lady and this week Cynthia wants to see Thanksgiving stamps so I took the opportunity to ink up this beautiful little lady from Sweet Pea Stamps, she is called 'Autumn Harvest' by Ching Chou Kuik

I created the background by painting white card with starbust stains (Jazzy Jivin purple, don't you just love the names of the colours lol). I painted with a stiff bristly bursh to leave the mica in lines and create some texture. Once it was dry i stamped the clarity corner stamp and embossed with gold EP and matted the background on some gold mirri card.

The image is coloured with promarkers and she has sparkle EP on her wings. I've used the new Deluxe Crafters Card from Crafty Boots to stamp the image and this stuff is fab-u-lous! I'd been having a problem with flexmarkers bleeding but with this card  the colours blend beautifully but don't seem to bleed, its a great price too. I've layered her up over a couple of Marianne diecuts, covering the join with a ribbon. The sentiment is also from Sweet Pea stamps

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Aud Sentiments: thank you or thanksgiving

Corrosive challenge: give thanks

Crafty Boots: Fantasy

Crafty Purple Frog: use orange

Hooked on Crafts: die cuts/punches

In a Sweet pea dream:  a thankful project using fall colours

Kaboodle Doodles: thanksgiving

Our Creative Corner: pumpkins or pumpkin pie

Sentimental Sundays: thank you or thanksgiving

Sketchy Colours: orange, green and purple

Stampin Sisters in Christ: gratitude

Thanks for calling by

hugs

Claire xx

Bouquets of birthday wishes

Hi, I love ching chou kuik's Blue Eye Fairy (from Sweet Pea Stamps) although this time around I've given her brown eyes lol. I love colouring hair and eyes and she is a real joy to colour. I had lots of fun making this card, I got my Starburst stains and mica powders out to make the background and had a great messy time in my craft room lol.

The main image is coloured with promarkers and has lots of glittery higlights. She is matted on some card coloured with Rambling Rose Pink Starburst stain.

The main bp is made from green and pink (ramblin rose pink, alpine ice rose and edelweiss moss green) starburst stains clingfilmed to create the icy pattern. I coloured some 180gsm with green and some with pink  stains and put them through my cuttlebug. I coloured the doiley with golden pear mica powder and added some flowers from WOC dusted with crystal glamour dust. The butterflies are punched from vellum with an Anna Griffin punch and coloured with golden pear and rose hue mica powders. I added some rose pink velvet ribbon, cotton lace, irridescent gems and a little heart charm to finish off. The sentiment is a stamp from Chocolate Baroque, stamped with sepia versafine and matted on a scrap of bp. Here's another pic to try and show the detail a little better.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

A spoonful of sugar: Sketch

Craft us Crazy: Favourite embellies and/or something new (I love WOC flowers and my something new is a new technique - colouring the doiley with versamark and mica powder)

Diva's by Design: anything goes

Dutch Dare: Winged things

Fairy Fun Fridays: here come the girls

I love promarkers: pink and brown ( my image is coloured pink and brown but I've used quite a bit of green too so delete my entry if it doesn't meet the challenge requirements ladies)

Moving Along with the Times: 2B's -  my bees are butterflies and bling

In a Sweet pea dream: Bling it up

Oldie but Goodie: say it with flowers

Paper Pretties: Texture

Sisterhood of Crafters: Let it shine

Stamp Scrap and Doodle: Old supplies (the starburst stains are years old and this was one of the first sweet pea stamps I every bought)

Stamp something: Anything goes

Sweet Pea Stampers: Showers of Flowers

Top Tip Tuesday: Floral Frenzy

Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

Guinevere

Hi there, its my favourite day of the week and after a dull start the sun has come out too :-)

Today's card features the lovely Guinevere from Michelle Perkett Studio. I coloured her and then couldn't find any papers that looked right  (how annoying is that??) so I decided to get out my starburst stains and make my own.

I made two sheets of backing paper using pale pink and green shades of starburst stains on copier paper (I used alpine ice rose, ramblin rose pink, eidelweiss moss greeen and a little gator gumbo olive - you've got to love the names they give these colours lol). I covered one sheet with cling film and scrunched the other up and left them to dry.

Guinevere is coloured with promarkers and has green glitter for a bit of extra bling in her hair and on her headband. I cut her out with a nestie and a gold mat too. I used the scrunched paper for the main background and punched a border from the cling film bp. The lace is from WOC and the ribbon from Crafty Ribbons. I used the leftover scrunched background to make the flower - punched 3 flowers with a woodware punch, layered themup and added a gold centre and a rose from WOC. The flourishes are made from gold mirri card cut with a marianne creatable die. To finish off I added some faux pearls and dew drops from Crafty Emma's Store. I'm really pleased with the flower, especially as its just made from copier paper lol, you can see it better in this pic. 

Today our spotlight Saturday post at MPS is giving all the DT members chance to talk about their favourite charities. Its hard to choose a favourite charity but Rethink and Mind the two big mental health charities are very close to my heart (in fact I work for a small branch of Mind). I'm going to be doing a local craft fair later in the year ( a scary thought) and hopefully my cards will make a little money for our charity. Things are very difficult for small charities at the minute so every penny counts.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Cardmaking Mama's: embellish it

Crafts and Me: glitter

Freshly Brewed: flowers

Going grey with scrap creations: recipe challenge, my ingredients are ribbon, glitter and pearls

Mami Doodles: Use a punch or die cut

Pixie Dust: Lace it up

Tellen's Place: Sparkle and Lace

The Stamping Boutique: handmade flowers

Thanks for visiting today, I hope you are having a good weekend. After a nightmare of a week at work I've been out weeding and taken all my frustration out on all the poor dandelions lol, now I've had chance to chill out I'm going to have a couple of hours in my craftroom :-)

Claire xx

Celebrating St Patrick's Day with Rainbow Lady

Hello, lovely to see you visiting today. I've got a couple of days annual leave which means a long weekend off work so I'm really looking forward to some 'me time' in my craft room although I should really tackle some spring cleaning. This weeks theme over at Rainbow Lady's Challenge is 'St Patrick's Day', we are also celebrating the birthday of none other than Cynthia, our Rainbow Lady herself!! This week we are lucky enough to be sponsored by

CRAFTY NOTIONS ... our lucky winner will recieve a fab mixture of goodies! I'm really jealous and the Crafty Notions shop is a real Aladdins Cave of crafty loveliness :-)

Anyway my card this week features a gorgeous shamrock image which is a freebie from Waltzing Mouse (as is the sentiment, you can find them here). The image is coloured with promarkers and cut out with one of my favourite nesties and distressed with antique linen distress ink. The image and sentiment are both matted on green mirri card edged with a gold krylon pen.

I made the background with starburst stains, I love using these inks they are so shimmery! I had to use 'Lucky Shamrock Green' and Golden dubloons for the background on a St Patrick's Day card lol. After a layer of lucky shamrock green I added random splodges of golden dubloons and sprinkled it with lots of sea salt. When you dust the salt off the dry background it give a really lovely mottled effect. Its hard to see on a photo but hopefully this shows it a little better

The swirly corner stamps are from Elusive Images and the green and gold  stripy ribbon is from Crafty Ribbons and the gold gems are from my stash.

I'm also entering this card in the following challenges:

Allsorts: Luck of the Irish

Alota Rubber Stamps: St Patrick's Day green

Alphabet challenge: Stripes

Crafty Cardmakers spotlight: Make your own designer paper

Crafty Ho's Challenge: gold, green and white

Creative Card Crew: Green

Delicious Doodles: green for St Patrick's Day

ECP challenges: Green

If the shoe fits: St Patrick's day

Inspiration Avenue: St Patrick's Day

Mamie Doodles: Monochomatic green with a bit of the Irish

Sentimental Sunday: Let's go green

Sisterhood of Crafters: St Patrick's Day

Stamp something: something cream and green

Tellen's Place: St Patrick's Day celebration

Thanks for visiting, I'm really looking forward to seeing your

St Patrick's Day inspired cards this week.

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

A bit of sparkle

Well we're drying out now after the leak in the kitchen thank goodness, but the gremlins are still about, my printer is their latest target. I've been promising myself a new printer for a while so its a good excuse to get one, this time I think I'm going to get one with a CISS so If anyone can recommend one that will print on card I'd be grateful :-)

I love some messy crafting and I've been playing with starburst stains. I love their shimmer but they are so hard to photograph. I decided to use this beautiful image from Michelle Perkett, she's called 'Fire' and she's available in Michelle's etsy store here.

Fire is coloured with promarkers and I'added some ultrafine glitter to the trim on her clothes and the flowers. The layers of card and the K&Co bp are all embossed around the edges with gold EP. Red organiza ribbon is from my stash , the red butterfly is a die cut with a Marianne die. The flowers were made using some of the bps I made with starburst stains which were sloshed around liberally on copier paper and scrunched for some texture. Once the paper was dry I attached it to some grungepaper and let it dry. I wasn't sure if my little cuttlebug would cut it but I popped it through with a marianne flower die and it cut fine :-)

I'm entering Fire in the following challenges:

Crafty Cardmakers: Spotlight Water (my starburst stains)

Crafty Emma's Challenge: Bold and Bright

I did it creations: Red

Just us girls: make your own flowers

Do you stack up? : Patterned paper

Paper Playtime: Digi Monday,, anything goes

Stampfairy: Homemade flowers

Thanks for calling by today, make sure you check out the new challenge at Michelle Perkett Studio, its Jan and her team's turn to host the challenge this week and I'm sure they'll have a fab theme as always. I'm back at work this week so things are a bit hectic but I had a little good news this morning - my Fairytale Fairies card made using Michelle's 'Juniper and Cecilia' was picked as one of this weeks 'Ginger Gems' over at Gingersnap Creations :-)

Claire xx

A knew it was a mistake....

I should have known better than to make a card with starburst stains, glitter card and mirri card - a recipe for photographic disaster lol! I wanted to make something a bit different for my brother-in-law's Christmas card this year, he's a real 'blokey bloke' so cute is out of the question and i thought that by using Christmas colours of Starburst Stains on black card i'd get something suitable for a men's card. I used Sparkle and Sprinkle 'Sparkle' EP and Tim Holtz snowflakes and reindeer stamps to make a resist for the starburst stains background.

Sorry for the dodgy photo, I did my best honest :-). i'd love to be able to get a decent photo of this card as I'm really pleased with the colours and the shimmery effect in real life but this is the best pic i can get so you'll have to use your imagination ;-)

The starburst stains i used are poinsettia red gold (with a little red mica powder mixed in as the mica in this ink is gold), winter jasmine gold and cathederal pines green. I've used black/green glitter card and gold mirri card for matting and layering. The black and gold ribbon is from Crafty Ribbons. As my BIL is a bit of a grumpy old man, I used a 'Tis the season to be jolly' sentiment with the same EP and starburst stains.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

The Stampman: anything goes Christmas

Simon Says Stamp and Show: Your fav Tim Holtz stamp (I love both the reindeer and the snowflakes)

Cards for Men: Animals

Anything Goes Challenge: Embossing

Thanks for calling by, hope you are keeping warm and cosy. Its terrible weather here in the UK so I'm staying in and crafting all day :-) I've been messing around with my new melting pot this morning (messing being the operative word here lol) and had a great time making some beads. You don't want to see the mess I've made  ;-)

Claire

Cowgirl's Sunday Stamp'en Challenge - Hip NOT to be square :-)

Another Sunday and another  challenge over at Cowgirl's Sunday Stamp'en Challenge, this week the theme is 'Hip not to be square', we want to see your shaped cards (anything but a square or rectangle). Once again we have a wonderful sponsor - Delicious Doodles!! Some of the DT got digistamps from Delicious Doodles to work with for this weeks challenge and I was lucky enough to get this gorgoeus lily!! I love flowers and have lots of lilies in my garden so I've really enjoyed colouring this beautiful image.

I've made an octagonal easel card. The shape was an easy one to do as I found a pack of tri-fold shaped cards I got ages ago from Joanna Sheen. I cut one of the octagons off to decorate and made the base of the easel card from the rest of the card. I'd totally forgot I'd got these card blanks there are loads of different shapes from tags to perfume bottles etc. 

 The background is made using a resist technique - I stamped a sketchy bow all around the card base and the easel and embossed with clear EP. I then coloured the card with assorted starburst stains and glimmer mists. I embossed the edges with gold EP. The doily is coloured with pearl glimmer mists, unfortunately the glimmer isn't showing up in the pic. The beautiful lillies are coloured with promarkers and attached with silicone for some dimensions. The butterflies and ivory ribbon are from my stash. The ticket sentiment reads 'Special Friend' and is from Crafty Ann's

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Crafts and Me: Easel Cards

Corrosive Challenge: Clean up the dust

Cute Card Thursday: Tweet and a flutter (no tweets lol but a couple of fluttery little butterflies)

Stamp Something: Digi day

Lots to Do: Monochrome

Check out my teamies blogs for some fab inspirational shaped cards, some are using gorgeous images from CJs shop Cowgirl's Digital Stamp'en Ranch. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with for this weeks challenge. You don't want to miss out on the chance to win a fab prize from Delicious Doodles, and don't forget the Top 3 get  a prize and a badge for their blogs too!!

Thanks for looking, I hope you are having a good Sunday. Horrible rainy weather here so I think an afternoon in front of the TV with my promarkers sounds a good idea :-)

Claire xx

A new challenge from the mermaids at Michelle Perkett Studios!

This week the challenge at Michelle Perkett Studio's is hosted by Jan's team and they have a fab challenge for you ... 'Hold on to Summer Fun'. Summer is nearly over here in the UK but I thought this image was perfect for a summery themed card. I don't often make baby cards but I just love this image from Michelle Perkett, Enchanted Slumber Fairy (you can find it in Michelle's store here)

The image is coloured with promarkers and has lots of sakura stardust highlights. I love making my own backgrounds and embellies and I had loads of fun making this card. The backgrounds are maded from assorted starburst stains sloshed onto copier paper and scrunched up. Once it was dry I gave at another spray with glimmer mist in pearl for a bit more bling!! The flowers and leaves are made with ribbon using techniques from the Crafty Ribbons blog with some sparkly brads in the centres. I used the bps i'd made, flowers and ribbon to decorate an easel card. I also stamped a new baby sentiment and embossed with pale pink EP - now I just need someone to have a baby so I can send it to them lol!!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Flutter by Wednesday: Open challenge with a butterfly angel or fairy

Lots to do : Angels and Fairies

Drunken Stampers: Favourite Summer Song (Hey Baby - my friend and I have sung this many a time when she's got the karaoke machine out after a bbq on a summer evening, so its doubly apt for the drunken stampers lol)

One stitch at a time: Girly/colour inspiration challenge

Cupcake craft challenge: Let's get digital

City Crafter: Let your Light Shine

Thanks for calling by, I hope you're going to try and join Jan and her mermaids at Michelle Perkett Studio this week

Claire xx