Traditional Christmas at Flonzcraft Vintage Stamping Challenges

Good morning, where did the weekend go? I can't believe its Monday already and its November too!! Eek it'll soon be Christmas and with that in mind we've got a Traditional Christmas theme at Flonzcraft Vintage Stamping Challenges. You don't have to make a vintage project, just a traditional Christmas project: a card,tag, altered art project ... what ever you fancy. As always my lovely teamies have created some amazing projects to inspire you and of course there is a fab prize of a $20 voucher from our sponsor Flonzcraft!

For my DT project I'ave made a little wall hanging using MDF hearts that I painted with pale blue acrylic paint . I stamped the images, both from Flonzcraft and the sentiment which is from Chocolate Baroque on whhite card using sepia versafine and glued them to the hearts, next I then smothered the hearts with Kroma Crackle. Once it was dry, I gave it a coat of Maimeri Matte Gel and sprinkled over a layer of glamour dust, the sparkle doesn't show up too well but you can see the gorgeous crackle better in this pic

I edged the hearts with tea dye distress ink and then a little treasure gold. I added lots of embellies, some glittered die cut snowflakes, ribbons, buttons, bows, die cut kraft holly vines, a kraft reindeer and some tattered pine cones too. Once everthing was dry I used my hot glue gun to fix the hearts together.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

2 Sisters: Christmas no red or green

Allsorts: Christmas Cheer

Artistic Stamper: Christmas

Aud Sentiments: Christmas Sentiments

Crafty Calendar: all things Christmas

Crafty Ribbons: anything goes with ribbon

Really Reasonable Ribbon: Christmas/winter plus ribbon

Sugar Creek Hollow: anything vintage

Totally gorjuss: anything goes with snow

Winter Wonderland: blue and white

Well its time for me to go to work so thanks for visiting, have a good day 

Claire xx

Mixing it up at Premium Craft Brands PanPastel UK!

Good morning folks, hope you're enjoying your Sunday morning. Its my favourite time of the week, I love to potter around at home, walk to dogs, read the paper with a big mug of coffee while Sunday lunch is in the oven but of course Sunday morning means another fab challenge at Premium Craft Brands too and this week we're mixing it up with mediums. The DT have been challenged to play with the gorgeous Maimeri Mediums but for challenge entrants its 'Anything goes'!! As always there is a fab prize from our generous sponsor, the lovely Berni from Your Creativity Store so don't miss out. 

I've made a card for my DT project, using PanPastels to create the background, I adore turquoise PanPastel its such a gorgeous colour so I used it on white card and then created a background on my gelli plate using a Pronty Mask and Maimeri Iridescent medium for a frosty shimmer.

The focal image is a stamp from Lili of the Valley, coloured with Graph'It Markers. I've mixed up my own 'snow' by adding glitter, shaved ice, mica flakes etc to some Maimeri Glassy gel and I've used this around the edge of the image and around the background too. 

I've added ribbon, lace, faux pearls and die cut snowflakes, some from white card but I also made some by mixing Maimeri Glassy gel with glitter, spreading it out on my craft sheet to dry and then die cutting with Marianne snowflake dies.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

A&T Emerald Faeries: ribbon'lace and bling

Card Crafters Circle: cute cards

Crafts Too: vintage Christmas plus Monochromatic

Crafty Creations: make it yourself

Winter Wonderland: blue and white

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

Claire xx

All about the men at SplodgeAway

Good morning folks, how's your week going? Today's card is for our 'All about the men' week at SplodgeAway, pop over and have a peek at all the gorgeous projects from my talented teamies.

I had a play with my gelli plate and two SplodgeAway masks, Complex Frame and the man silhouette from the Altered Art Kit (you can find them both here). I made quite a few prints using some gorgeous metallic Maimeri Acrylic paints - this began as one of the prints. The paint acts as a resist  so I used distress inks and a spritz of water on my SplodgeAway mat to make an inky background and swooshed my print through it. I really liked this effect although its a bit camera shy so I didn't want to cover it up, I just added some twine, seam binding ribbon, a button , twine and a little key charm.

I'm entering this one in the following challenges:

Craft room Challenge: stencil/mask

A Creative Romance: add metal

Craftitude: anything goes/use twine or string

Crafty Hands: anything goes

Rhedd and Rosie's: anything goes

Simon says stamp: anything goes

thanks so much for taking the time to visit today, 

Claire xx

Anything but ink on the catwalk at FSC

Hi folks, hope you're having a good weekend. We're having soooooo much rain here lately I think I should be building an ark not making cards lol. Anyway enough about the rain, its time for a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and this time our theme is 'Anything but ink' chosen by my lovely teamie Laura. As always our lucky winner will receive a fab prize from our generous sponsor Flonzcraft so grab your stamps (no digis allowed!) and join us but remember to stamp with something other than ink! Now I had to rack my brain a bit for this one but decided to try stamping with acrylic paint for my project.

I've used a shaped card blank from Craft Work Cards and used PanPastels to create the background. The stamps are from the Wild Meadow themeplate from Chocolate Baroque and I used the gorgeous new Maimeri Acryic paints to stamp with, they come in the most scrummy metallic colours and as they are so rich and buttery they stamp beautifully. I wasn't sure how this would work as the stamps are very detailed but I'm quite pleased with the result.

I've edged the card with more Maimeri Acrylic, in bronze which is my absolute favourite colour.I've added some chocolate brown seam binding, a couple of metal leaf charms and some little paper flowers. 

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

A Creative Romance: Metal

Deep Ocean: button it up

LEJ Designs: anything goes

Moving along with the times: No designer papers

Really Reasonable Ribbon: autumn leaves plus ribbon

Totally papercrafts: button it up

Wags'n'Whiskers: fall colours

Well my blogs going to be a hive of activity today as I'll be back later with projects for SplodgeAway and Premium Craft Brands so hopefully blogger will play nicely and post them as I've got a busy day lined up at home too.

Thanks so much for popping by, if you've got a minute have a look here and check out the gorgeous projects created by my talented teamies

Claire xx 

Graph'It Colouring Challenge

Good  morning my lovelies, are you ready for  the weekend? This week seems to have flown by and so its time for a new challenge at Graph'It Colour Challenge and this time we've got a fun Tic Tac Toe challenge so pop over to the challenge blog and find out all the details,while you're there don't forget to check out my teamies fabulous projects and of course check out the fab prize as there are some gorgeous goodies up for grabs!!

For my DT card this week I've used a Sweet Pea Digi called Christmas Bird by Elaine Cox and coloured her with my beloved Graph'It Markers. I love them even more now you can get the brush nibs for them!

Colours used: Hair: 9503, 9505, 5280, 5130, 5125, 5115 and the gorgeous silver Glitter Shake 

Skin: 4180, 4155, 4150, 4115, 5120

Dress and wings: 5130, 5125, 5115 and blender to create the polka dots

Background: Warm greys, also used to add texture to the flocking on the trees for the texture

The line I've chosen is Pink Hair, Fluffy Stuff and polkadots. Its the first time I've ever coloured pink hair so it was a bit scary lol. I've added some sparkly highlights with the gorgeous Graph'It Glitter Shake pen in silver. The fluffy stuff is flocking on the treesand snowflakes and I've given it a bit more texture by adding  a little shading with my Graph'Its. I used the blender pen to create some white polkadots on her dress and wings,I love this technique!! 

 I've diecut the image and edged it with some tiny pompom trim from the Ribbon Girl,added some snowflakes made using Marianne dies,pearls, seambinding,little pins in pink and white and a snowflake charm. The bp is from the Polkadoodles CD  Home For Christmas

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Crimbo Crackers: Pinktober

Cute Card Thursday: sparkles

In the pink: Ribbons and bows

Marianne's Design Divas: winter/Christmas

Through the purple haze: for the girls

Well I'd better go and earn a crust, have a good day and thanks for popping by

Claire xx

Guest Designer at Frilly and Funkie!!

Good morning folks, woooo hooo what an exciting day!! I was chuffed to bits to be the DT's choice for a guest designer spot over at the Frilly and Funkie Challenge, of course I jumped at the chance to play along with such a talented bunch of ladies. Anyway the challenge is to create a card or project that reflects the abundance of the harvest season and the gratitude we express at Thanksgiving. Hmmmm, I had to get my thinking cap on for this one and I decided to take inspiration from the harvest theme and the beauty of nature and here is my project .....

A couple of weeks ago I was busy decluttering ( I don't know about you but I'm always decluttering and the house is still full of clutter lol) and I came across a funny little handbag that was a free gift with some make up. It had been gathering dust for years and was looking very sad, I decided that I'd keep the clasp and as I was prying it off the bag I thought I'd keep the bag and add it to my huge pile of stuff waiting to be altered. Here's the before pic

I began by giving the outside a coat of gesso and then smothering it with a layer of Flitter Glu and Kroma Crackle before blasting it with my heat gun. I'm so loving this effect at the minute, I'm crackling everything in sight lol. Once it was dry I added some colour with my PanPastels and gave it a coat of Maimeri Glossy Gel Medium, it looks a bit like a dragons egg doesn't it?

For the inside I stamped two little scenes, the top one with stamps from Joanna Sheen and the bottom one using a Clarity Stamp, I coloured them with Graph'It markers and created a cloudy sky with some PanPastels. I layered the little scenes up over loads of tissue paper. Next It was time to add lots of leaves and other goodies. I die cut lots of leaves from kraft Glassine, coloured with Memento Inks in various shades of yellow, red, purple, green and orange. I crumpled all the leaves up for some texture. I added the leaves around the edges of the little scenes, adding some little berries, lots of raffia and some die cut flowers made from Crinoline Fabric. 

To finish off I added some gingham bows and some little rusty bells. 

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Artistic Inspirations: Fall colours

Cuttin and Stampin: Autumn harvest

Heck of a Challenge: Autumn colours

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: anything goes

Sweet Stampin: Woods, trees, leaves

There she goes: Leaves

Thanks to the lovely ladies at Frilly and Funkie for inviting me to join you for this challenge, its such an honour :-) and thanks to you for popping by today, hope to see you again soon

Claire xx

Fancy Flourishes from Chocolate Baroque

Good morning my lovelies, todays card features the gorgeous new clear stamps from Chocolate Baroque, Fancy Flourishes  and a little topper made from Tim Holz tissue wrap. I adore this stamp set, such beautiful intricate designs.

I made the background by blending Dusty Concorde and  Milled Lavender distress inks onto some white cardstock. I stamped the flourish using Imperial Purple Versafine ink, its so easy to position these clear stamps. I made the topped by wrapping a little piece of card with tissue wrap, and adding some colour with more distress inks. I coloured the butterflies with Graph'It Markers and added some tiny dots of stickles to the wings before edging the topper with a gold krylon pen. I've just added a little bow and a die cut butterfly to finish off. I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Crafty Bloggers: things with wings
Crafty Cardmakers: monochromatic purple
Fitztown: things with wings
Glitter 'n'sparkle: add some black
My time to craft: butterflies

Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

Gecko Galz Christmas Angel

Good morning my lovelies, oooh what terrible weather we're having! I hope you're keeping warm and safe wherever you are. My term as Guest Artist at the Gecko Galz is coming to an end but I wanted to share this little wall hanging with you, I've had  so much fun working with these gorgeous designs!

I began by printing the focal image which is a digital stamp from the Figgy Pudding Collection, isn't she a beauty? I've coloured her with Graph'It markers and added some tumbled glass distress ink around the edges, the little snowflakes were made with a mask and stencil paste, liberally sprinkled with glamour dust. I applied Maimeri Matte Gel Medium to adhere the image to a chipboard oval and edged the image with some pretty lace and iridescent beaded trim from the Ribbon Girl. To finish off I added some pretty blue seam binding ribbon  Here's another pic of the image ....

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas: music

Crafty Little Fairies: anything goes

Creative knockouts: favourite twine or ribbon (mine is seambinding ribbon)

Creative Moments: Lace/anything goes

Delightful Challenges: winged things

Moving along with the times: shape up

Totally Papercrafts: No squares allowed

Don't forget to check out the fabulous Gecko Galz blog, as well as the amazing artwork there are some fun challenges, blog hops and of course freebies too!

Thanks for visiting today, hope to see you again soon

Claire xx

Sing your Song

Good morning my blogland buddies, hope your week has got off to a good start despite the weather, omg its  a bit wild here lol.  Today's card is one made a while ago that I forgot to post, the background was made with PanPastels and a gorgeous Pronty birdcage mask (from Your Creativity Store)

The sbird cage stamps are from Chocolate Baroque, as are the little birds which were made with Maimeri Iridescent medium buttered on to the stamp which I'd inked with black stazon. I made the flower using the same technique using a stamp from Paper Artsy. I've added some die cut twigs and stamped the sentiment which is also from Chocolate Baroque.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Craft Room Challenge: feathered Friends

Inkspirational : anything goes

Sugar Creek Hollow: birds of a feather

WordArt Wedneday: anything goes

Word play Saturday: anything

Well I'm going to brave the elements and go to work, hope you're keeping  warm and safe in this terrible storm we're having

thanks for popping by today,

Claire xx

Shades of grey at Premium Craft Brands PanPastel UK

Good morning folks and a big warm welcome to my new followers, its lovely to 'meet' you. We've got a fab new challenge starting over at Premium Craft Brands, with a fab prize from the lovely Berni at Your Creativity Store for our lucky winner too so pop on over to the challenge blog and find out all the deets. While you're there make sure you check out the gorgeous projects from my teamies too, you've still got time to enter our blog candy too (loads of scrummy goodies up for grabs so don't miss out!!)

For this weeks card I began by stamping the gorgeous little house from the Premium Art Brands clear stamp set 'Snowy Cottage', the image is coloured with Graph'It markers and glittered with lots of glamour dust. 

The background was made using the large tree from Winter Spruce, stamped with versamark and then I applied lots of silver and pewter PanPastels, the snowflakes were created using the same technique. It looks loads better in real life as the metallic pans really shimmer beautifully.

I'm entering this in the following challenges:

4 Crafty Girlz: anything goes

Kitty Bee Designs: black, white and one other colour

My Heart Pieces: anything Christmas

Papertake Weekly: Oh Christmas tree

Sister Act: anything goes

Southern Girls: shine on

Well as usual Sunday morning means cooking lunch and ironing before I can play so I'd better make a move and geet thos jobs out of the way. Enjoy your day and thanks for visiting 

Claire xx

Green Godess

Good evening everyone, hope you're having a great weekend folks. Its been perfect crafting weather here, with grey skies, howling winds and heavy showers so I've been having a play in my craft room. I've used a gorgeous digistamp from Lavinia Stamps for this card, I love this image she is so pretty.

I've coloured the image with Graph'It Markers and stamped leaves (also from Lavinia stamps)  in lots of different shades of Memento Inks around the edges. The frame is made from kraft, die cut with spellbinders, distressed with vintage photo DI  and layered up over some chocolate brown card.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges;

Brown Sugar: autumn

Card Crafters Circle: autumn splendour

Crafty Hands: anything goes

Dream it up: Mystical and Magical

Fab'n'Funky: distress

Lavinia Stamps: autumn colours

Well i'm off to put my feet up and watch some tv now

thanks for popping by, hope to see you again soon

Claire xx

A fun challenge at Polkadoodles

Morning all, Friday at last and the weekend is on the horizon yippeeeeeee! As its Friday you'll find PolkaDoodle gorgeousness in my little corner of blogland as we've got a fab new challenge starting at Polkadoodles and as you can see, we're getting into the Christmas spirit. As always there's a fab prize for our lucky winner and lots of inspiration from my lovely teamies so pop over and have a peek. There's also a fab new digi challenge 'Digi Choosday' too so theres lots to see in the land of Polkadoodles! 

For my DT project I've made some little Christmas decorations, they were very quick and easy to do as I used some of the gorgeous precoloured images from the PolkaDoodles cd  Home for Christmas, popped a layer of glossy accents on them and layered them up over some scrummy polkadot paper from the same cd. The decorations are double sided, here's a pic of the other side:

I've layered them up on kraft baubles die cut with nesties and topped them with some scraps of seam binding ribbon.

I'm entering these decorations in the following challenges:

Crafty Ribbons: anything but a card

Moving along with the times: shape up

Rhedd and Rosie's : anything goes

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

Claire xx

Happy Christmas from Chocolate Baroque

Good morning folks,  today's card is a quick and easy Christmas card made with the gorgeous new clear stamps from Chocolate Baroque, Fancy Flourishes

We always have so many cards to make for Christmas, so its nice to be able to get stamping and have a bit of a 'production line going with some simple but effective designs. The new Fancy Flourishes are fab for creating borders, backgrounds and frames so I thought they would be just the job for a a pretty Christmas design. I stamped the flourishes in Ladybug Memento Ink to create the frame, its so easy to line the clear stamps up. I added the sentiment from Bold Christmas Words and matted on some red card. To finish off I added a little red bow

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Addicted to Stamps: Christmas is coming
Allsorts: ribbon and bows
CRAFT: Christmas
Delightful Challenges: Frame it
Thanks for popping by today
Claire xx

Gecko Galz Guest Artist: Beautiful Dreamer

Good morning folks, how's your week going? My card today is one of the projects I created as Guest Artist over at Gecko Galz. As well as lots of gorgeous Christmas goodies, there are some beautiful vintage collage sheets called 'Beautiful Dreamer' and I couldn't resist using one of the lovely wistful ladies for this card.

I used a pretty vintage backing paper, also from Gecko Galz (from the Camelot Paper Pack) to cover a pretty shaped card blank and layered the image up over cheesecloth, feahers, pretty lace and ribbon (from the Ribbon Girl). I added lots of gorgeous flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts, some little wired gems from my stash and some fluffy feathers.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

365 cards: Vintage with fabric

Allsorts: ribbon and bows

Creative Moments: Lace/ anything goes

Happy Campers: show us your flowers

Paper Shelter: 2 colours

Ribbon Girl: October Colour challenge

Sister Act: anything goes

If youv'e got a min, do check out the amazing Gecko Galz blog, as well as amazing artwork from the talented DT you can sign up for a fabby newsletter which comes with a grogeous freebie too.

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

Claire xx

Time for a new challenge at Premium Craft Brands PanPastel Challenge

Good morning folks, how's your weekend going? I got loads of jobs done yesterday so I won't feel guilty having a lazy play day in my craft room today. I'm going through one of those phases where you start loads of stuff so i've got bits and bobs drying all over the house lol. As its Sunday its time for a new challenge at Premium Craft Brands PanPastel UK Challenge and this week we're using Autumn Colours on our projects. As always there is a fab PanPastel Starter set for our lucky winner from Berni our lovely sponsor at Your Creativity Store. Pop on over to the challenge blog and find out all the deets and of course check out my teamies fab projects too.

I've made a canvas for my DT project, its one of those projects that nearly ended up in the bin soooooo many times lol. I began by using Maimeri Light Modelling paste through a couple of different stencils, once that was dry I set too sticking all manner of bits and bobs on with Maimeri Matte Gel Medium - i've used die cuts, ribbon, bead string, some old earrings, some little square plastic tiles, gems etc etc.

 Next I added a liberal coat of Maimeri Matte Gel all over and while it was wet I used a duster brush to sprinkle on PanPastels. I used all Autumnal shades - Phthalo Green, Yellow Green Shade, Burnt Sienna, Raw Umber and then lots of Metallic PanPastels. I just loooooove the Metallic PanPastels!!!  Once it was dry I went over with my brush again, blending all the colours together to create a distressed metallic effect.

Lastly I added some black and then some Silver PanPastel to highlight all the texture, its so hard to get a decent pic as the Metallic Pans are so shimmery?

I added a sentiment to fnish off, I thought this quote was pretty appropriate lol, its from Chocolate Baroque and is one of my favourites.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

All Crafts: anything but a card

Artistic Stamper: alter something

Crafty Ribbons: anything goes with ribbon

Creative Moments: lace/anything goes

Quick Quotes: stamping

Word Art Wednesday: anything goes

Thanks so much for visiting today, have a lovely day

Claire xx