Love and Romance Inspiration at Polkadoodles

Good morning folks, my first post this morning and we've got some inspiration for our Love and Romance Challenge over at Polkadoodles today! Not long until Valentine's day so its a good chance to get those special cards made. As always our lucky winner will receive a fabulous prize and Top 3 honours are up for grabs too. I've used one of the gorgeous digistamps and soe of the fab precoloured embellies from the brand new Sticks and Bones collection (you can find it here as a CD or here as a download)

The photo is a bit dark, the joys of trying to take pics after work lol. At least its light when I leave work now even if it doesn't last long as I was starting to feel like a bat. I've printed out the the elements and coloured the image with my Lyra Pencils.

I cut all the elements out and layered them up on some cream cardstock. Next I cut that out to create a shaped card, the only slight problem being that it wouldn't stand up oooops! Necessity is the mother of invention or so they say so I had a think and added a layer of acetate under the front of the card and voila, it stands up perfectly :-)

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

4 Crafty Chicks: love

Crafts Galore Encore: use a stamp or a digi

Craft Rocket: Valentine/love

Creative Moments: Anything goes (twist Love/Romance)

Creative Knockouts: love is in the air

Hannah & Friends: Hearts

Simon Says Stamp: have a heart

Thanks so much for visiting today

Claire xx

Love Actually at Eclectic Ellapu

Good morning folks, our theme this month at Eclectic Ellapu is 'Love Actually', my teamies have loads of inspiration for you and Valentine's Day is nearly here so I hope you're going to play along with our fun challenge.

I've made a canvas using lots of different techniques. I created lots of texture on the canvas using texture paste and stencils, once that was dry I applied matte medium and added a pretty paper napkin to create my background. The napkin had been overstamped using stamps from Chocolate Baroque 'Parfum de Paris' and Potting Soil Archival Ink. I added another layer of matte gel medium over the napkin to seal it to the textured backgroud. While it was wet I sprinkled on some Aged Gold Frantage powder and heated. Once that was all dry I dry brushed with a little cream paint and added some gilding wax to the edges. Here's another pic, the colours are a little more lifelike in this one:

I painted the chipboard letters cream and stamped with a background stamp from Parfum de Paris using Worn Lipstick distress ink. I edged the letters with gold gilding wax and applied a thick layer of rock candy crackle paint.

The butterflies are from Chocolate Baroque's Butterfly Daisy Collage, stamped on cream card with versamark and embossed with gold EP before painting with a little Worn Lipstick distress ink.

To finish off I've added pink braid around the edge of the canvas and glued a crystal drawer knob to the top. I added a seam binding bow (coloured with more Worn Lipstick) and a pretty charm and a paper flower.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

4 Crafty Chicks: anything but a card

Allsorts: bring on the bling

Aud Sentiments: anything goes

Crafting with friends: anything goes

Fantasy Stampers: love is in the air

Simon Says Stamp: anything goes

Southern Girls: Anything goes

Thanks so much for visiting today

Claire xx

Splatters and Drips at Vintage Stamping Challenges

Good morning folks, we've got a new challenge starting at Vintage Stamping Challenges and our theme for February is 'Splatters and Drips'. We're a stamping challenge so make sure you ink up those rubber/clear stamps to play along (no digis allowed) and our lucky winner will receive a generous $20 voucher to spend at Flonzcraft!

I struggled a bit with this theme for some reason although I do love messy crafting. This was my last attempt lol. I began by stamping the focal images from the Flonzcraft stamp set 'Sweet Bird of Love' with versamark and embossing with Gold EP on cream card that I'd die cut. I then sprayed lots of glimmer mist over the embossing and let it drip down the cardstock.. Next I added some splatters of brown Tattered Angels glitter paint and left it to dry.

I used the same brown paint to give the birds a little definition and then added some stencilling with an Indigo Blu stencil and some gathered twigs distress ink. 

To finish off I've added a seambinding bow topped with a brass flower and a pretty bead and a brass bird charm.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Crafty Friends: animals/birds

Cut it up: love is in the air

My time to craft: love is all around

Moving along with the times: embossing

Sweet Stampin: Valentine

Wags'n'Whiskers: with love

Thanks so much for popping by today

Claire xx

A new challenge at We Love 2 Create

Good morning folks, my project today is for our new challenge over at We Love 2 Create and as usual our theme is 'Anything Mixed Media/Creative Goes' so lots of scope for you to play along and be in with a chance of winning some lovely crafty goodies from Premium Craft Brands!!

I've made an MDF heart using lots of my favourite goodies. I'd actually started this heart ages ago and it had gone horribly wrong so I gave it a coat of white gesso and mixed in a little Magenta Extra Dark PanPastel. This is one of my favourite PanPastel colours as its a lovely dark colour but blends to create a subtle pink. I also dusted over some White Coarse PanPastel Medium for some sparkle.

I coloured some Dutch Doobadoo Honeycomb with Pewter PanPastel and added some scraps of lace and paper flowers dusted with silver glitter. 

I made the butterfly by applying versamark to a Stampbord domino and adding more Magenta Extra Dark.. I embossed the word Fly (using Indigo Blu alphabet stamps) with silver EP and added some pearl trim to the bottom. The wings were made with Clearly for Art white film, love this stuff as you can shape it when its warm. It works beautifully with Pans too which actually surprised me as its a very smooth surface. I stamped the Indigo Blu Butterfly stamp with versamark and applied my Magenta Extra Dark PanPastel before cutting the wings our and attaching one to each side of the stampbord. I added some little gems and a ribbon for the butterflies antennae.

To finish off I popped seambinding bow and a paper flower at the top of the heart.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Allsorts: Bring on the bling

Brown Sugar: Anything goes

Frillie and Funky: enjoy your embossing

Fussy and Fancy: Monochrome

Moving along with the times: embossing

Through the Purple Haze: Things with wings

Thanks for popping by, hope to see you again soon

Claire xx

PanPastel Magenta Extra Dark	Magenta Shade Pan Pastel	White COARSE Pearl Medium for PanPastels	Metallic Pan Pastel, Pewter	Stampbord Assorted sizes
PanPastel - Sofft Tools Kit	Dutch Doobadoo Softboard Art Honeycomb

Lace and Pearls at Graph'It Colouring Challenge

Good morning folks, its challenge time over at Graph'It Colouring Challenge and this time around our theme is 'Lace and Pearls' so its a nice easy one to play along. We've got some great prizes up for grabs too, Graph'It goodies from Cult Pens and some gorgeous digis from Oddball Art too! I've used a fab image from Oddball Art for my DT project, she's called Bella and you can find her here, she comes with some really fun sentiments too!

I've coloured Bella with my Graph'It Markers, you can find a full list of colour used over on the challenge blog. 

I've added one of the sentiments that comes with the image and popped the image on a navy blue card blank. I've kept the card layout fairly clean and simple, punching a border along the bottom of the card and just adding some navy blue lace and some faux pearls.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

613 Avenue Create: anything goes

Crafts and Me: Anything goes

Crafts Galore Encore: anything goes

Crafty Cardmakers: punches/dies

Lemon Shortbread: Anything goes

Tuesday Throwdown: anything goes

Whoopsi Daisy: new to you (new image)

Thanks so much for visiting today

Claire xx

Spring Garden from Chocolate Baroque

Good morning folks my first post of today is a  Spring themed card using the beautiful new release stamp 'Walled Garden' and one of my old favourite sets  called Glorious Spring from Chocolate Baroque.The winter seems to have been very grey and wet so I thought it was time for a reminder that Spring isn't too far away (hopefully)

I began by stamping and masking the primroses from Glorious Spring on watercolour card. Next I stamped the Walled Garden and then the two rabbit stamps, I didn't bother to mask the Walled Garden stamp. Next I inked the sky using Tumbled Glass and Broken China distress inks applied with an ink blending tool. To create the clouds, I used a very wet paintbrush to create some cloud shapes in the sky. I left the water for a minute and then blotted with kitchen roll. I coloured the images with distress inks and inked around the edges with brown ink. The sky looked a little blank so I stamped the sentiment (again from Glorious Spring) in the cloudy sky.

I matted the image on kraft card and added a bow, paper flower and a filigree corner from my stash.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Crafting by Designs: add a flower

 Creative Craft Crew: Anything goes

Inspiration Destination: anything goes

Little Miss Muffet: Anything goes

Ooh La La: In the country

Simon Says Stamp: Anything goes

Wonderful Wednesdays: Anything goes

Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

Anything Creative/Mixed Media goes at We Love 2 Create

Good morning, I've been missing from blogland a wee bit lately as I had to have my beautiful fur baby Benji put to sleep so its been a very sad time here although its hard to be sad for long when you've got a bouncy labrador to keep your spirits up. My project today is for our inspiration post over at We Love 2 Create and as usual we just want to see you let your creativity run wild so our theme is 'Anything Creative/Mixed Media goes'. As always our lucky winner will receive a gorgeous crafty prize from our sponsors Premium Craft Brands,

My project is a little box made using Stampbord and PanPastels. I can't take the credit for this design as I've seen one somewhere in blogland although I can't remember where and been meaning to make one for ages.

The box and lid are made from 2" stampbord squares that I'd coloured with PanPastels, stamped with one of my favourite stamps from the Premium Craft Brands 'Roses' stamp set. I coloured the images with Graph'it Markers and used Stampbord tools to scratch some highlights. I also stamped the top with the leafy background stamp from the 'Stop' Stamp set using versamark ink and applied more green PanPastel over the top. I glued the box together with strong PVA glue and once it was try added some Light Modelling Paste to the corners. I used gilding wax around the edges and added some pearl trim to the lid. The lid was also decorated with moss, beads and little faux berries.

Here's another pic, I was really pleased with the way my Graph'It Markers blend on the Stampbord

The base was made using the same leafy background stamp, I used a Stampbord coaster and a 2" square and then made a column using 1" stampbord squares (rotating each one a little) and plenty of glue. I've added more moss, berries a red gingham bow and a little daisy from my stash.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Addicted to stamps and more: Make your mark

Crafty Ribbons: fabulous flowers

Creative Fingers: anything goes

Inky Chicks: Anything goes

Not just cards: anything goes

Sweet Stamps: anything goes

The Crazy Challenge: ribbons

Wags'n'Whiskers: anything goes

Thanks so much for popping by, hope to see you again soon

Claire xx

Bright Yellow Green Pan Pastel	PanPastel Ultramarine Blue	Ultramarine Blue Tint	Premium Art Brands Roses stamp set	Premium Art Brands STOP stamp set
Pan Pastel bright yellow green shade	Graphit	Stampbord assorted squares	PanPastel - Sofft Tools Kit	Stampbord Scraper Tools

Winter Birthday at Polkadoodles

Good morning folks, its challenge time over at Polkadoodles and our theme is 'Winter Birthday'! As always my lovely teamies have got loads of inspiration for you and we've got a fabby prize for our lucky winner too so pop over to the challenge blog for all the details.

I've used a cool colour palette to create this winter birthday card. I've used papers and embellies from the fabulous Octavia Frosted Winter Collection (available as a CD here or a download here) and combined them with one of the beautiful images from the Serenity Collection (you can get the full collection here or the image 'Serenity Blossom' as a digi here) The image is coloured with Lyra pencils and I've added some silver glitter for a little frosty sparkle.

All the papers have been distressed with a craft knife and Iced Spruce distress ink and I've added lace, ribbon , a button, a tiny silver charm and some gems from my stash.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Artistic Inspirations: Anything goes/winter blues

Creative Fingers: anything goes

Little Miss Muffet: anything goes

Southern Girls: one for the girls

Wags'n'Whiskers: Anything goes

Thanks so much for visiting today

Claire xx

Steampunk Skies

Good morning my lovelies, I've got a  steampunk themed card to share today. I've used stamps from Steampunk Travel by Chocolate Baroque to create this card which would be great for someone perhaps leaving work or going on their travels.

I began with some ivory linen card and inked around the edges with some Black Soot Distress Ink. I took some dictionary pages and cut out some cloud shapes and again inked them with a little black ink before glueing them onto the linen card.

I stamped the images with versamark ink and embossed with Gold embossing powder and added some colour with a little more black ink. I cut the images out and layered them up with 3D foam pads. The words were stamped in black ink, cut out and again inked around the edges with black ink. to finish off  I layered the linen card over some glitter card and popped some gold faux pearls in the corners.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Crafting for all seasons: Monochrome

Crafting with an attitude: anything goes

Forever Dark: anything goes/steampunk

Inky Chicks: anything goes

Inspiration Destination: anything goes

Through the purple haze: Anything goes 

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

Claire xx

Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes at We Love 2 Create

Good morning folks, its inspiration time over at We Love 2 Create  so you've got another week to enter our challenge and be in with a chance to win some crafty goodies from those lovely people at Premium Craft brands! I've been playing with my PanPastels and Twinkling H2os to create this project. I love the contrast between the sparkle of the paint with the velvety matte finish of the PanPastels although it doesn't show up too well in the pic.

To make this I took a canvas board and applied shades of Turquoise and Bright Yellow Green PanPastels. Next I made a kind of mosaic using stampbord tiles to fit my stamp (Antique Songbird from Indigo Blu). I find it easiest to assemble my stampbord onto strips of double sided tape which holds it together to decorate the piece. I stamped the image with black Archival Ink and then painted with my H2os. I used the same colours to splatter the canvas board and coordinate with the stampbord. To finish off I've added a seam binding bow.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Artistic Stamper: anything goes

As you like it: anything goes

Brown Sugar: anything goes

Crafty Ribbons: anything goes

Indigo Blu Challenge: all that sparkle

Sweet Stampin: Flowers

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

Claire xx

Bright Yellow Green Pan Pastel	Bright Yellow Green Shade	PanPastel Turquoise Shade	Turquoise Pan Pastel	PanPastel - Sofft Tools Kit
Stampbord Assorted sizes

Thanks at Fashionable Stamping Challenges

Hello there my lovelies, we've got our new challenge starting over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and this month Esther has chosen the theme of 'Thanks/Gratitude' for us. As always our lucky winner will receive a $20 voucher from Flonzcraft ! Don't forget that you do need to ink up those stamps to play along, no digis allowed!

I've used some old paper scraps from a 12x12 kit that I thought would be perfect with this lovely Snowdrop image (from Imagination Crafts). This is the first time this stamp has been inked up although I've had it for a while. I've used kraft card for matting and layering and lots of distressing with a craft knife and also Gathered Twigs distress ink. The image was stamped with versamark and embossed with Mercury Grey WOW EP, as was the sentiment and I've added some colour with Twinkling H2os. You can see the sparkle of the EP a bit better in this pic.

I've also used ribbon, lace and pearls from my stash.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Allsorts: ribbon and lace

Card and Scrap: stamps

Crafting by Designs: Anything goes

Crafts Galore Encore: Anything goes

Crafty Catz: Flowers

Creative Fingers: Anything goes

We Love Vintage: Anything vintage

Thanks so much for visiting today

Claire xx

Winter Blues and a Tutorial

Good morning my lovelies, Friday at last! I always find this time of year a bit of a drag but the weekend is here so I'm a happy bunny! We've got a fab challenge over at Graph'It Colouring Challenge and our theme is 'Winter Blues'. We've got some fab prizes up for grabs too, one lucky winner will receive a prize from East Wind (wow some fab images to choose from!) and another ill receive some gorgeous Graph'It Goodies from Cult Pens! I've used this fab East Wind image for this canvas, she's called Magnified Star and I really enjoyed colouring her. I've also used my GIs and glossy card to create the background, if you've got a min scroll down as I've done a tutorial on this easy technique!

 

I've printed the image out on Ultimate Graphic 160gsm card from Polkadoodles, coloured her and cut her out to layer up over my background. For a full list of all the colours used pop over to the challenge blog.

I've done a quick to tutorial to create this background using my Graph;it Markers and glossy cardstock. I love colouring but don't have a lot of patience for colouring detailed backgrounds that take hours and hours but I do love this technique.  You'll need an assortment of Graph'It markers (or whatever alcohol markers you have), a blending mat (or you could use a glass cutting mat or a nonstick craft sheet) and some Mix'It Fluid. You're best to choose pretty dark shades of the colour you're using as the Mix'It Fluid will soften the colours.

Firstly scribble your markers on your blending mat in a random pattern

Spritz lightly with Mix'It Fluid

Swoosh your glossy card through the inky mess on your blending mat and repeat, mopping up the ink to fill in any white areas

Here's my A4 sheet

Next drip your Mix'it fluid onto the background using the inside of the spritzer bottle

Add some larger drops with a paintbrush handle

Leave it to dry to create a lovely sky effect

I've distressed the edges with black soot distress ink and then added some stencilling with black archival ink

To add some stars or snow just splatter your scene with ink from a White and Silver Graph'It Shake pens

and your background is finished, ready to add your image or perhaps stamp a sentiment. I've added a sentiment using one of my favourite stamps from Indigo Blu, stamped in versamar and embossed with WOW Mercury Grey EP, its my favourite at the minute as its a lovely warm sparkly silver! The sentiment isn't showing up too well in the pic but it reads: Courage, strength and determination, that's what little girls are made of.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges

Crafting with an attitude: Anything goes

Creative Knockouts: anything goes

Fab'n'Funky: Something new  (new image)

Live and Love Crafts: Something new (new image)

Moving along with the times: spots and dots

Simon Says Stamp: something new (new image)

WOW Embossing Powders: Winter

World Wide Open Design Team : Anything goes

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

Claire xx