Happy Birthday challenge at PanPastel UK Challenge

Hi there, well we've got our first snow of the year, I know its a pain but I can't help being a bit excited. Snow always brings out the big kid in me and of course the dogs love to play in the snow too so i'll be getting my luverly pink wellies on and taking a trip to the park this morning :-) Anyway down to business, its time for a new challenge over at PanPastel UK and this week we have a 'Happy Birthday' theme!  

For my DT card i've used a couple of fun images from Dilly Beans, coloured with promarkers and carefully cut out (you don't know how lucky the cheshire cat is to have hia tail in one piece Lol.

The background is of course created with PanPastels. I used a Sofft Knife with a round cover to create the sky, using Ultramarine Blue PanPastel and a mask I created by cutting a scalloped shape from a scrap of card. I used  a torn paper mask to create the hills, again with a Sofft Knife//round cover using Chromium Oxide Green. I added some grass using the edge of the Sofft knife. All done I thought but then decided it looks a bit plain so I stamped a fairy castle (from Debbi Moore) with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and using a Derwent Eraser Pencil I just rubbed the PanPastel out where I'd stamped the castle. I just love the fact than you can rub PPs out, it makes them so versatile and of course its much easier than masking. I coloured the castle with white PanPastel and blended in  a little black . The flags are coloured with Red Iron Oxide PanPastel and I also added a little more green at the base of the castle. 

To finish off I matted the scene on white card then blue card, attached the images with 3d foam pads and added a computer generated sentiment and a couple of scraps of blue ribbon.

Don't forget you don't have to use PanPastels to enter our challenge, but if you want to try them don't forget our generous sponsor Berni from Your Creativity Store will be sending our lucky winner a fabulous PanPastel Trial set !!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

365 Cards: inspired by a book (Alice in Wonderland of course lol)

Allsorts: free and easy February

Crafting for all Seasons: blue and white

Craft us Crazy: anything goes

Crazy 4 Challenges: Make  a  scene

Creative Card Crew: fantasy

Do you stack up? anything goes

Fab'n'Funky: use a digi

Simon Says Stamp: animal antics

Sparkles Forum Challenge: New Crafty Goodies (my Dilly Beans images) 

Thanks for popping by,  make sure you call in and see my teamies gorgeous projects. As always they have come up with some real stunners this week :-)

Claire xx

Love is in the air at Crafty Ann's

Eeeek yet another horrible photo! This card, my DT project for Crafty Ann's new challenge 'Love is in the Air' was a real horror to photograph, mainly because the gold card i've used for matting and layering doesn't like having its photo taken at all lol. Anyway the last 2 weeks have flown by and Ann has a brand new challenge for us, don't forget there is always a fab prize from Crafty Ann's Digi Shop up for grabs too

I've used one of Crafty Ann's gorgeous embossed hearts papers for this card, overstamped with a freebie heart stamp from Craft Stamper and embossed in gold. The focal image is Crafty Ann's Music Collage,, coloured with promarkers and distressed with Aged Mahogany distress ink. I adore this image, its one of my all time favourites.  i've added red ribbon and some paper flowers from my stash. I also added a few tiny red rose buds spilling over the image. 

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Creative Belli: Hearts/Valentine (my flowers are my old stash)

Digi Makeover: Be my valentine

House that Stamps built: heat embossing

Paper Shelter: love is in the air

Penny's Paper Crafty: love is in the air

Truly Scrumptious: love and hearts

Thanks for popping by. 

Claire xx

Love is all around at Sarah Hurley's Challenge Blog

Hi there, my second post for today and this time its my DT project for Sarah Hurley's Challenge where my lovely teamie Emma has chosen the theme of 'Love is all around'. Perfect for this time of year as Valentine's Day is sneaking up on us at a rate of knots. 

I love to see Sue Wilson's cards on C&C, she really has  a way with die cuts and I've taken inspiration from her style for this card. The papers I've used are from Sarah Hurley's 'Oz' cd (you can find it here) and they are the most scumptious sugary pink. The image is a rubber stamp from Chocolate Baroque, stamped in Memento London Fog and die cut before being inked with Spun Sugar Distress ink. I've also added some corners made from one of the tags from Shapabilities Fancy tags 2. I've added some roses made with Spiral blossom 2 and more of Sarah's gorgeous papers. The leaves are die cut using Crealies dies and they are all matted on yet another of Sarah's papers cut with Nesties labels. The large butterfly is a marianne die and the smaller ones were made using an Anna Griffin punch. i've added glamour dust and pink stickles to the die cuts for a bit of sparkle. To finish off i've added pink satin ribbon and lace from my stash with a couple of die cut hearts embellished with pearls in the corners.

i'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Allsorts: one or more heart

Crafty Catz: Things with wings

Di's Digi Designs: Valentine

Hotshot Crafts: flowers

Marianne Design Diva's: In with the new 

(the Spiral blossom die is my new toy)

Simply Create too: love is in the air

Stempelsonnen: Valentine

Totally Papercrafts: Pearls and Lace

Wags'n'Whiskers: Valentine/Love

Thanks for calling by, don't forget to check out my teamies blogs to see their gorgeous projects

Claire xx

Wear Red at Rainbow Lady's Challenge

Good morning, this week over at Rainbow Lady's Challenge blog we are celebrating 'Wear Red' day so our theme is, yep you've guessed it.... wear red! My card was a very quick and easy one, the bp is from Joanna Sheens Dancing With Shadows cd, matted on some black card. I'd forgotten about the gorgeous lacy bps on the cd, but this one was perfect for my elegant lady.

The stamped image was given to me by my lovely friend Tess, she is coloured with promarkers and has a little flowersoft and glamour dust on her furry cuffs. I've added some fancy corners with a Clarity stamp in black and again matted on black card.

To finish off i've added some red organza ribbon and a bow.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Cardmaking Mama's: something old (My Joanna Sheen cd)

Diva's by design: anything goes

Make it colourful: Shade with red

Paper Pretties: ribbon/twine

Secret Crafter: ribbons

Thanks for calling by

Claire xx

Challenge 19 at Christmas Challenges {with sketches}

Its time for a new challenge at Christmas Challenges {with sketches} and this time around we have a sketch from our lovely teamie Linda,  we also have a twist to our challenge this time, we also want to see you use kraft on your project.

There is a fab prize up for grabs from our generous sponsor Alles om te Scrappen so hop on over to the challenge blog for more details and of course to see Linda's gorgeous sketch!!

For some reason the colours on the pic are nothing like on the card itself (I don't know why i sound so surprised, its probably because it was me using the camera lol). I've used an assortment of papers from my scrapbox, matted on kraft card. The image is one of my favourite stamps from Paper Pretties, he's called Bundled Up Cooper, I've coloured him with promarkers and cut him out with nesties. The sentiment from Whimsy stamps, I adore their postaage stamp sentiments! I stamped with sepia versamark on craft card and die cut with the matching postage stamp die and then stamped it again on a scrap of pale blue card and just used the centre.

I'm entering this one in the following challenges:

Crafty Hazelnut's : Just make it square

Crafty Sentiments: punches or dies

Crimbo Crackers: for a child

Delicious Doodles: Winter wonderland

Die cutting diva's: anything goes

Jelly Park: winter Wonderland

Thanks for calling by today, its freeeeeezing cold here lately so it will be 'Bundled up Claire' this morning to venture out to work. No snow in my neck of the woods yet though although I think we may have some soon. How exciting, snow always brings out the big kid in me lol. Anyway better go but if you have a minute, check out my teamies blogs as they have created some gorgeous cards again this time.

Claire xx

Ladybird Ladybird

Hi there, today's card features some of the stunning new stamps released this month by Chocolate Baroque.  When postie delivered these stamps I was blown away as they are fab-u-lous. I adore flower stamps and have loads but as always Glenda has come up with some more 'must have' stamps, you can check them all out here and the new stamps are on offer too so don't miss out. This card was quite a challenge as anyone who knows me will tell you I'm a real bodger and not the neatest stamper so getting this frame right was a bit tricky. It might have helped if I'd been able to find my stamp positioner lol.

I've used the large allium type flower stamps from Fragrant Honeysuckle stamped 4 times to create the corners. I pencilled in a line to give me a guide where to stamp and then just went for it lol. I stamped the images with versamark and embossed with black detail embossing powder.  I used a clear ruler and a fineliner pen to create the frame.

The ladybirds are from the same stampsheet. again embossed with black EP and coloured with tinkabella ink and given a coat of glossy accents. The quote is one of my favourites, from Chocolate Baroque's 'Curly Birds' stamp sheet. It all looked a little plain so I masked off the outer frame and  lightly spritzed red and black mica spray. I matted the finished artwork on red and black card before attaching to an 8"square card blank.

i'm entering this card in the following challenges

Crafts 4 Eternity: clean and simple

Fussy and Fancy: polkadots (on my ladybirds)

Moving Along with the times: blooming marvellous

My Mum's Craft Shop: flowers

 I hope you like it, there are some amazing new stamps available from Chocolate Baroque again this month so pop over to the Chocolate Baroque Design Team blog as my talented teamies have some gorgeous projects to share 

Thanks for calling by

Claire xx

Glitter and Glitz with PanPastels

Good morning folks, here I am bright an early with my DT card for our new challenge over at PanPastel UK Challenge where our theme is 'Glitter and Glitz'. You don't have to use PanPastels to enter the challenge but of course we'd be happy if you did. :-). Apologies in advance for the awful pic, we don't seem to have had any light to get a decent photo for weeks now. 

Now for a change there isn't a lot of stamping on this project. I was playing around with PanPastel colours and loved the combination of  Diarylide Yellow, Ultramarine Blue and Permanent green. My truly horrible photography skills have bleached out a lot of the colour in the pic but in real life these 3 colours are totally scrumptious together, adding the yellow creates a fab lime shade. Anyway the backgrounds were created in a matter of minutes by simply applying the panpastels with a sofft sponge and blending them together.

The focal image was made using a beautiful dreamweaver stencil from my not-so-secret Santa Annie :-).  I  applied creative expressions black glue to the stencil carefully removed it and sprinkled on  Beadazzles in Macarena. I wasn't sure if the black glue would work or not so it was a bit of an experiment lol. The colours haven't shown up to well in the pic but they have a lot of copper in which contrasts beautifully with the greens.  You can't beat Beadazzles for a some serious glitter and sparkle lol. 

I left the tree overnight to dry and to complete my card I added stickles in midnight blue and more beadazzzles (this time attached using red line tape. The butterfly is a stamp from Chocolate Baroque, stamped on acetate and embossed with black and glittered on the reverse. The sentiment stamp is also from Chocolate Baroque.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Crafty Cardmakers: beads

Drunken Stampers: something new (my new tree stencil)

For your inspiration: Photo inspiration

Gingersnap Creations GC136: Glorious Greens

Stamp Scrap and Doodle: anything goes

I do hope you can join us at PanPastel UK this week, our lucky winner will receive a fab prize from our generous sponsor Berni, from Your Creativity Store who is offering a PanPastel Trial Set!

Before I go i'd like to give a big warm welcome to my new followers, its really lovely to 'meet' you all :-) 

Thanks for popping by today

Claire xx

Make it a Guy thing at FSC

Hi there, phew I really struggled with this card for our new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges. Our theme is 'Make it a guy thing' and as always our lovely sponsor Marina has a fab prize up for grabs. Don't forget we're a rubber stamping challenge so no digi images are allowed.

I find mens cards tricky, and this one was no exception. Its my FILs birthday next week so I wanted to make a card that he would like rather than one I like lol. So the messy inky backgrounds and the steampunk stamps were put away in favour of a more sedate watercoloured scene lol. I've used a stripey bp from my stash and ribbon from crafty ribbons (one is navy blue and one is bottle green although they both look the same on the pic lol). The focal image is a stamp from Sheena Douglass, stamped on watercolour card and painted with distress inks. The sentiment is a Chocolate Baroque stamp, cut out with nesties. I've used dark green and dark blue card to mat and layer but again it doesn't show up too well with my dreadful photography :-)

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Celebrate the Occasion: Masculine birthday

Crazy 4 Challenges: layer it on

Marks Finest Papers: at least 4 layers

Simon Says STamp: anything goes

Sisterhood of Crafters: Striped paper

Thanks for calling by, I hope you're going to join us on the catwalk at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and share your masculine creations with us

Hope you have a good Sunday, if it wasn't followed so quickly by Monday mornings it would be my favourite day of the week

hugs

Clairexx

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

Burn's Night Challenge at Rainbow Lady's Challenge Blog

Hi there folks, Thursday again so time for a new challenge from the lovely Cynthia over at Rainbow Lady's Challenge and this week our theme is 'Burns Night' so we want to see anything to do with Scotland.

For my DT card i've created a brayered scene using my favourite 'Mountain Meadow' Big&Juicy inkpad and stamps from Clarity. I've matted the scene on white card,then black card. The gorgeous tartan backing paper is from Crafty Ann's , the colours are a perfect match for the inkpad and fitted the theme beautifully. 

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Craft a Scene: anything goes (with a scene)

Crafty Boots: Inspired by a song title (By the light of the silvery moon)

Let's Ink It Up: anything goes

Stamp & create: anything goes

Victorine Orignals: anything goes

Thanks for popping by today

Claire xx

New stamps from Chocolate Baroque

Hi there, today's card share features some of the gorgeous new stamps from Chocolate Baroque. 3 new sets of stamps have just been realeased and they are all fab-u-lous (you can see the stamp sheets here on the Chocolate Baroque DT Blog) 

I've used a backing paper from the Butterfly Bliss CD, and added a little victorian velvet distress ink to pink it up a little. I've used silk coated cardstock to create the scene using the focal image from Rose Tree 3 times in the foreground of the card. I used eclipse masking tape to stamp the central tree before stamping another tree on either side. I masked the sun and added the sky and hills in the background with my brayer and Memento inks (Summer sky, Danube blue, New Sprout and Bamboo leaves). Once the inks were dry I coloured the flowers and leaves on the trees with promarkers and gave it a gentle polish.

The castle in the background is actually a halloween stamp, from Howling Moon stamp sheet.  I inked it up carefully with memento tuxedo black inkto miss out the spooky moon. I added foliage from Wisteria Lane along the top and bottom of the little scene and used a make up sponge to intensify the colour around the trees. As a finishing touch I used the butterfly from Rose Tree, stamped on acetate and glittered on the reverse and popped up with silicone glue to let the glitter sparkle.

Its so rainy and miserable here in the UK at the minute, I hope this card brings a reminder that spring isn't too far away now. 

Claire xx

Exciting news!!

Hi there,I'm back with my first DT project for Scrapbook Stamps Society. I was over the moon when I was invited to join such an exciting team, the hardest part was choosing the images to work with lol. For my first project I've made a little shadow box using a stunning digistamp by Heather Valentin called 'Butterfly Fae Fantaseyes' (you can find it here). I love to colour eyes so I couldn't resist this image.

I've coloured the image with promarkers and popped it in to the back of a canvas that I'd covered with glimmer misted scrunched paper to create a frame. I inked around the edges with some black versafine ink and added lots of flowers. The large black roses are made from grungepaper painted with Ranger crackle paint and a sprinkle of black glitter. All the smaller flowers started out white and were coloured with glimmer mists. I've added some black punched leaves and some gorgeous glittery green leaves. 

The little heart charm isn't showing too well in the pic, I made it by colouring translucent shrink plastic with green pigment ink and stamping over with a heart stamp before shrinking to size. Its attached with a couple of jump rings. 

The new challenge over at  Scrapbook Stamp Society Challenge  is open and the theme is 'Hearts and Flowers, there are some fab prizes on offer and some gorgeous freebies too

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

Crafty Emma's Challenge: anything but a card

Creative Belli: Fancy frames

Hotshot Crafts : Flowers

I love promarkers: anything goes

Stampin Sisters in Christ: Make a heart

Sunday Stamper: My eyes adored you 

Totally Papercrafts: Make your own flowers

Through the Craftroom Door: anything but a card plus make your own embellies

Truly Scrumptious: something forgotten 

(my canvas was gathering dust as were the flowers I coloured with glimmer mists)

Happy Crafting

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

Caroline's fab candy

My friend Caroline has a new blog for her gorgeous rubber and digi stamps and to celebrate she has some yummy candy up for grabs!

Aren't these stamps gorgeous??

I adore paint fusion so I'll be sat with my fingers crossed that i'm the lucky winner lol. Pop over to 

CaroLines Creative Stamps, 

become a follower and find out how to enter.

hugs

Claire xx

GDT at Sugar Creek Hollow

Hi there, I'm so excited to be GDT at Sugar Creek Hollow for this weeks challenge, its a real pleasure to join such a talented team of ladies. I always admire their beautiful shabby chic and vintage projects so it was such an honour to be invited :-). This week's theme is 'Go Girly' and one lucky winner will receive a digi stamp of our choice and a winner's badge to display on their blog. In addition, the Design Team will choose one project as Card of the Week, the creator will receive a badge and be in the running for a Guest Designer spot!

For my GDT project I've used a gorgeous stamp from Crafty Individuals (a birthday pressie from my lovely MIL and FIL). I stamped the image with sepia versafine and watercoloured with distress inks (Tea dye, Vintage photo, Victorian Velvet). I made the background by stamping words onto card stock with distress inks, coating with gesso and then overlaying scrunched up tissue stamped with text stamp (from Chocolate Baroque's Paisley Elephant stamp sheet). To create the edge I cut the tissue paper larger than the card and once it was dry, ran a wet paint brush around about 1/2cm from the edge, this lets you tear the tissue in a straightish line but leaves a lovely feathery edge.  I've also added stitching with shimmery embroidery floss. 

I've gone to town with lots of girly embellies, pearls, iridescent gems, seam binding ribbon, lace, irridescent beaded trim and some lovely sparkly pins from Crafty Boots. The sentiment stamp is from Chocolate Baroque. I've added some hand made flowers too, rolled ribbon roses and the larger flowers were created with crinoline fabric from Linda, The Funky Junkie's Etsy store. I die cut the fabric using Crealies dies, coloured with Victorian velvet distress ink and scrunched up to dry. Once they flowers were dry, I layered them up and added iridescent seed beads to the centre. The punched leaves are made from kraft glassine.

The shimmery heart was made using a technique I saw on the Particraft blog,  (I think its on Sue's dvd too). This is the first time I've used it but definitely not the last as its so easy and really effective. To get the heart shape I stamped a heart stamp on some scrap card, cut out the shape and then spread pva glue over the reverse of the shape.  I added a good dusting of mica powders in pink and pearl and then blasted with my heat gun.  

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Clearly Inspired: Pastels
Crafters Companion: love is in the air
Crafty Creations: Valentine
Crop Stop: Distressed vintage or shabby
I brake for challenges: Fancy folds
Pretty Little Ribbon Shop: Be my valentine
Scrapbook Sisters: Sweet Valentine
Simply Create Too: love is in the air
Totally Papercrafts: Make your own flowers
Wags'n'Whiskers: Valentine/love


Thanks for calling by today. I hope you're having a good weekend
hugs
Claire xx