Anything Goes at Let's Ink It Up!!

Well we're back from our Christmas break at Let's Ink It Up with a fab new challenge for you and this time around we've kept it easy, our theme is 'Anything Goes' . We also have a gorgeous new logo, do you like it??

Once again we have a fab sponsor and one lucky crafter will win a great prize

 from 'Make it Crafty'

For my DT project this time, I decided to have a play with my trusty brayer and made this card

I've created a brayered scene with big & juicy ink pads and assorted stamps from artemio, Elusive images, Time to Stamp and Enchanted Inc.The background trees and foliage are stamped with the same blue/green inks and the ones in the foreground are stamped with black versafine. I've added some highlights with a white inkssentials pen.

The large butterfly is stamped on to fantasy film and layered up with silicone glue for a little dimension. The scene is matted and layered on to white then black card and I've added a sentiment stamped on a creative acrylic tag attached with black velvet ribbon.

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

The Artistic Stamper: Things with Wings

Dutch Dare: Make a scene (use masking - I've used masking to create the hills)

Craft Your days Away: Anything goes

Sweet Stampin Challenge: Something different (using fantasy film)

Crafty Emma's Challenge: All creatures Great and Small

Aud Sentiments: Anything goes (2 word sentiment)

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

Thanks for calling by, I hope you're going to get inky with us at Let's Ink It Up and join our 'Anything goes' challenge Don't forget no digistamps, we want to see you fab creations with your clear/rubber stamps!!

Check out my LIIU teamies blogs, they have come up with some amazing projects to inspire you

Claire xx

Wishing Star Angel

This weeks Spotlight image at Michelle Perkett Studio is this beautiful Wishing Star Angel, she is available in Michelle's etsy store with 20% off this week! She is such a beautiful angel and I think she's perfect for a New Year card.

 I'm sorry for the dreadful photo, the background is brayered on glossy card and was a nightmare to photograph

I used Big & Juicy Waterfall inkpad to brayer the background and stamped stars from CaroLines rubber stamps on the background and embossed them with gold EP. The main image is coloured with promarkers and has lots of sakura stardust highlights for some sparkle. To finish the card off I added some gold padded stars from my stash and a big gold bow.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Bee Crafty: New Year + digi

Polka Doodles: A wish for the new year

Everybody Art Challenge: Happy New Year

Scrapbook Sisters: Anything goes

Stamp something: Something digi

If the Shoe fits.... : Ribbons

Oh Alice: Capture holiday memories or icy blue theme

Thanks for calling by today.Don't forget you still have time to enter this weeks challenge from Michelle Perkett Studios,  Jan and her lovely mermaids have set the theme of 'Anything goes' so its a nice easy one for you this week :-)

If you don't have any of Michelle's images you can grab a fabby freebie over at her groups on CDAC, SNR or PCP

Its a very grey and rainy day here today, we don't seem to have seen the sun for ages here. Hubby is going to watch the football so I'll be spending this afternoon crafting :-)

Claire xx

My first GDT card for Digi's with Attitude!

I'm thrilled to be joining Digi's with Attitude! as a guest designer for January and this week the theme is 'New Year Resolutions'! I've used this gorgeous image 'Martini Gretchen',  don't you just love the look on her face?? You can find 'Martini Gretchen' and loads of other fab digistamps here at the Digi's with Attitude store!

Martini Gretchen is coloured with promarkers and I've used a corner stamp from Clarity stamps on the image and on the bp (from k&Co). I've used black card from my stash for matting and layering and for the swirly flourished (cut using a Marianne die). I've used the last of my yellow floradoodles and created a sentiment on the pc using a quote from Mae West :

"I generally avoid temptation, unless I can't resist it'

I thought that it would be a perfect quote for this weeks fun theme and would just suit the lovely Martini Gretchen!! The sentiment is die cut using nesties label 10 and attached with  yellow brads (new) and black velvet ribbon. I've added a little black lace bow and some faux black pearls made using ranger black enamel accents (I've only just got this and its wonderful stuff!!)

I'm entering this cardx in the following challenges:

Creative Craft World: New Year resolutions

Karber Weekly Challenge: Flowers

Paper Playtime: Faces

Kaboodle Doodles: Anything goes

Die Cut Dreams: Quotes

The Crazy Challenge: All things New

Sparkles Forum Challenge: New things

Creative inspirations: Something new

Do it with digi's: New Beginnings

Ai Factory: New beginnings

Cute card thursday: Out with the old (my bp and floradoodle flower)

Sassy Studio Designs: Something new

I can't wait to see everyone's New Year Resolution creations, I don't usually make a new year resoloution as I've got no willpower whatsoever so the quote on this card is just right for me lol. You don't have to use a Digi's with Attitude! image but if you have one we'd love to see your creation! Don't forget to look on the challenge blog and pick up this months fabulous freebie image :-)

Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

This weeks challenge from Fairy Knoll

Don't you just love Fridays? Its nearly the weekend and its time for another fun challenge at Fairy Knoll!!This week our theme is 'Glitter' so we want to see some sparkle on your creations. You don't have to use a Fairy Knoll image but we'd love to see your creations if you do have any of Brandi's gorgeous images, why not have a look here and pick up a fab freebie or two.

I've used one of Brandi's fab new images 'Thoughtful' (available in the Fairy Knoll shop). I love this image, she's so elegant isn't she?

I've coloured the image with promarkers and added black sakura stardust to her sweater, bag and bangles for a little sparkle. The bp is from my raspberry road designs, stamped with a clarity corner stamp and embossed with tea dye distress EP. The swirly frame is made from 2 marianne die cut shapes joined with dst and then a little ribbon added to cover the join. I made the flowers from circles of  crumpled tissue paper and added seed beads and black glitter to the centres. I added a couple of die cut flourishes and to finish off a shrink plastic charm that reads' Friends' which I made using a HOTP stamp.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Sentimental Sundays: celebrate friendship

One Stitch at a time: Anything goes

Catch the bug: Anything goes

Karber Weekly Challenge: Flowers

Lexi's Creations: Pink Winter birthday

Thanks for visiting today, I'm an early bird with this post as I'm dashing off to work.

Have a good day

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

Cooking it up with Katie, back with a new challenge!!

Hi and welcome to a new challenge, our first of the new year at Cooking it up with Katie and this time around Katie has a fab recipe for you, we want to see Buttons, ribbon and animals in your creations. I've used this cute house mouse stamp for my DT card this week

The crumpled gingham bp is from my stash, stamped and embossed with stitching stamps from Elusive Images around the edge and stitched flowers in the corners with tiny lilac buttons in the centres.

The image is coloured with promarkers, the stripey wallpaper in the background was also coloured with promarkers. The mirror is triple embossed with clear EP to give a little shine. The lilac gingham ribbon is from Crafty Ribbons.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge : Buttons and bows

Delicious Doodles: Purple Reign

I did it creations: Favourite technique (ooooh i have loads but heat embossing is one of my all time favourites)

Craft your passion: Anything goes

House Mouse and Friends: New beginnings (this is for a friend who is retiring from work, hope that counts as a new beginning)

Thanks for calling by today, I hope you'll find time to join in and create something with this weeks recipe.

Claire xx

Meet Missy the Mistletoe Pixie

I couldn't resist one more Christmas card, I'd coloured this little cutie, one of the beautiful new images from Michelle Perkett so I decided to make a start on next years Christmas cards lol.

Missy is coloured with promarkers and has stickles on her wings and liquid pearls for the mistletoe berries. The bp is from Anna Griffin, the red and gold ribbon is from my stash. The border is made using Joanna Sheen mistletoe stamps embossed with peeled paint distress EP on vellum and cut out.

I'm entering Missy in the folowing challenges:

Crafty Catz: Your choice (I've chosen challenge 60: Christmas)

Stampin with the Dragon: Your favourite winter colour (I love the traditional red, green and gold)

Crafty Sentiments: Anything goes

Digi Doodle Shop's Best: Anything goes

Crazy 4 Challenges: Celebrate

Christmas Card Challenges: Embossing

There's a new challenge today at Michelle Perkett Studios so pop over and join the 'Anything goes' challenge that Jan and her lovely mermaids have chosen as this weeks theme! If you don't have any of Michelle's images you can pick up a freebie from any of Michelle's groups which you can find on PCP. SNR and CDAC

 

Thanks for popping by, i'm back at work today so I'm not a happy bunny but needs must and I'm sure there's lots of us back with our noses to the grindstone today.

Have a good day, especially if you're back at work after the holidays

Claire xx

The Stamp Man Award and blog hop!

The latest challenge at The Stamp Man is a little different, Jill and the team want to see our best/favourite creation from last year. They've also organised a blog hop with some amazing prizes on offer too :-)

After a good rummage around my blog, I've got to say that this card is my favourite

After getting a brayer and a couple of big & juicy ink pads it took me ages to really get the hang of brayering and this was the first decent card I made with my brayer. I wanted to add some dimension to the card so the unicorn and toadstool are painted with starburst stains and moonshadow inks, cut out and layered up with silicone glue. I was really pleased with the finished result  and I enjoyed making it so much. I also won the first challenge at Sir Stampalot with this card and I still have to pinch myself to believe it lol

I love this challenge, its great to have a wander through your blog and also to join in the blog hop for some fab inspiration from the DT

Claire xx

More exciting news :-)

One of my dear cyber buddies Cynthia, has a fab challenge blog, Rainbow Lady's Challenge blog. Its one of the first challenges I ever entered so I was over the moon when Cynthia invited me to be on her brand new Design Team starting in the new year!

Cynthia's challenge are weekly so check out the challenge blog every Thursday to be in with a chance of winning! Cynthia has some really exciting challenges lined up and some amazing sponsors too

I hope you're going to pop in and visit us, our first DT challenge will be on January 6th 2011!!

Claire xx

Some exciting news!!

I'm soooooo excited to say that I'm going to be a Guest Designer at Digi's with Attitude! for the month of January!!! There are some amazing digistamps at the Digi's with Attitude! store, with some fab new releases too!!

As one of the newest Designer's With Attitude! I was awarded the My Blog has Attitude! Blog Award. I am so excited to jump start my week and give 5 of my readers this fab blog award! Now this is not just ANY blog award! This one comes with a $5 Gift Certificate! Now that's my kind of award!?!?

In order to qualify for the $5.00 Digi's With Attitude! Gift Certificate you must state 3 things that make you different from everyone else and you must nominate 5 blogs, then let those 5 blogs know you nominated them. Lastly, you must display the Blog Award Badge (above) in your sidebar and link it back to the Digi's With Attitude! Challenge Blog.

For all the details please visit THIS LINK

Note: If someone got this LAST year, they are again eligible for the Gift Certificate again as it is one Gift Certificate per person, per blog, per year.

Right then I'll kick of with 3 things that make me different from everyone else:

1. I love gardening, even weeding! (I know, I'm a bit strange lol)
2. I love making my own backgrounds, embellies etc
3. I'm a huge fan of all things 'Harry Potter'

Now to the difficult bit, its so hard to choose 5 blogs as I get so much inspiration from so many wonderful people in blogland but here goes, I'm passing this award on to:
Alison ( Cockney Blonde)
Lorraine
Jean
Cathy
Kym

Don't forget to stop by on Friday for a fantastic new challenge at
Digi's with Attitude!!
Claire xx

GD spot at Sir Stampalot :-)

How excited was I to be asked to do a guest designer spot at Sir Stampalot Challenge?? Yep,you've guessed, VERY excited lol. Well the day has arrived to share my project for this month's theme which is 'A Winter's Tale', as usual there is an amazing prize from Sir Stampalot and this month the DT are having a blog hop so there are some extra goodies on offer!!

My project is a little shadow box, inspired by the lyrics to the Queen song 'A Winter's Tale' and also by the beautiful view of the wintery sky and frosty houses one morning before Christmas. I certainly had plenty of time to admire it as we had loads of snow and my bus to work was an hour late lol. The sky was the most gorgeous pale peachy, pinks and pastel blue with wispy clouds and a big white moon hanging in the sky. I created the sky with my brayer, masking the moon and making the clouds with versamark and clear EP. I stamped a couple of little birds on the sky too.

I painted the inside and outside edges of the frame with gold acrylic paint and made a frame with an assortment of distress inks and a crackle stamp embossed with sparkly white EP.

The houses and trees are stamps from Elusive Images, coloured with promarkers and glittered with Judikins prisma glitter before being cut out and attached to the frame so that they are overhanging the edges.

The flowers are made from printed copier paper, layered up with dew drops in the centre, The feathers are from my stash and have been lightly sprayed with glimmer mists. The flourishes are cut with a marianne die and glittered with white glitter.

I'm also entering my project in the following challenges:

Gingersnap Creations Spicy Supply Challenge GC 82: White glitter

Stamp Insanity: Sparkle

Pink Elephant: Winter Wonderland

Stamptacular Sunday challenge: Snow much fun

Craft Your Days Away: Punch it out

Stamp something: Something with glitter

Thanks for calling by today, I hope you're going to join in this months challenge from Sir Stampalot! You never know you could win a cracking prize. I couldn't believe it when I won a cricut in their first challenge so don't forget you've got to be in it to win it :-)

Thanks also to Brenda and the lovely team at Sir Stampalot for inviting me to be Guest Designer this month, i've really enjoyed making this little shadow box and  the uber talented DT will have some fab creations to share so make sure you don't miss out on the Sir Stampalot Blog Hop

Happy New Year, I hope you aren't feeling too delicate this morning. I'm fresh as a daisy as we had a quiet night in, oh dear not having a hangover on New Years Day sounds like a sign of getting old lol.

Claire xx

A Thank You card

My third post today and this time here's a thank you card using 'Summer' from Michelle Perkett, you can find her here. This is one of my favourite images from Michelle, Summer has such a beautiful serene expression on her face.

The bp is from K&Co and the image is coloured with promarkers and the background sponged with tumbled glass distress ink. The corners are chipboard corners from an old scrapbook kit that I didn't use so I peeled the patterned layer off and embossed with blue EP. The sentiment is a stamp from HOTP and the ribbon is from Crafty Ribbons.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Allsorts: Thank you

Ai Factory: Elegance

Cute Card Thursday: Thank you

C.R.A.F.T challenge: Thank you

Sassy Studio Designs: Thank you

Papertake Weekly: Be Thankful

Cupcake Craft Challenge: Thank you

Phindy's Place: Thank you (+optional use scraps)

I hope you're having a good day, I've had a very lazy start to the new year, sat in front of the TV with my promarkers and a big box of chocolates, I could get used to this lol

Thanks for looking

Claire xx

A new baby card

Here's a card made with the beautiful 'Willow holding baby' stamp from Whiff of Joy, I don't often make baby cards but I fell in love with this stamp and the sketch over at Whiff of Joy challenge blog

Willow is coloured with promarkers as usual and I stamped swirls around the edge with cream pigment ink and embossed with clear EP before distressing with spun sugar and victorian velvet distress inks. The pink gingham and teddy bps are from Joanna Sheen, the cream embossed card is from Hunky Dory and the corners were cut on my cricut. I added a gorgeous sentiment (a freebie from Sentimental Sunday), pink velvet ribbon, lace, star stickers and some roses from Wild Orchid Crafts to finish off.

I'm entering Willow in the following challenges:

Whiff of Joy: Sketch

Sentimental Sunday: Baby plus sentiment

The Shabby Tea Room: Shabby Chic Baby plus fabric (I hope my ribbon and lace count)

Alphabet Challenge: I is for Infants

Incy wincy: Distressing

Sew Many Challenges: New things

Thanks for visiting today,

Claire xx

Happy New Year!!

I'd like to wish you all a very happy New Year, I hope 2011 brings you health, happiness and creativity. Its about a year since i started blogging and its been a wonderful year during which i've found so much inspiration, 'met' so many wonderful people and learnt so many new techniques. Here's to the next year of fun and creativity :-)

I'm going to sort out some blog candy to celebrate my first year blogging and as a thank you to all you lovely people who've given me so much inspiration with your art and so much encouragement with your  comments. I have some goodies waiting in my craft room but where they are goodness knows, I should never have tidied up as it seems to have opened up a black hole (anyone else have one of those in their craft room??) Anyway I'll search it out today and hopefully post it in the next few days

Happy New Year!!

Claire xx

Anything goes at Fun at Fairy Knoll

New Years Eve already! I can't believe how quickly this year has gone by. No wild parties for me tonight, a couple of drinks and an evening in front of the fire sounds a better idea. OMG I must be getting old lol. Anyway my last card for this year is my DT card for Fairy Knoll and i've used this supercute image from Brandi, isn't she adorable?? I couldn't wait til next Christmas to use her lol, you can find her and some more fabulous freebies here ! Our theme for this weeks challenge at Fun at Fairy Knoll is 'Anything Goes' so its a nice easy one again

The image is coloured with promarkers and cut with my new favourite nestie. I've used a bp from papermania and distressed the edges of the bp and the image with rose red versacolour ink. The red border is cut with an EK success punch and I've added some red stickles to the image and the corners of the card.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Fab'n'Funky: quick and easy does it

Pixie Cottage: Sketch and/or party/celebration (I'm still celebrating Christmas lol)

Stampavie and More: Red

My time to craft: Brand Spanking New (new image and new nestie)

The Crafty Pad: Anything goes

Gingerloft Challenge: Distressing

Karber Christmas Challenge: Christmas card with a digi

Paper Sundaes: Cut it out

Thanks for calling by, I hope you all have a very Happy New Year

Claire xx