Anything goes at PanPastel UK

Good morning folks,  how on earth did it get to be Easter Sunday already? And we've put the clocks forward an hour so its British Summer time, well it doesn't feel like it here lol. I hope you're enjoying the Easter weekend, and have seen a little sunshine. My card today is my DT offering for our new challenge at PanPastel UK where our theme is 'Anything goes', so no excuse not to enter this week! As always we've got a fab prize of a PanPastel Starter set for our lucky winner thanks to our lovely sponsor Berni.

I've used a vintage mermaid image from the Gecko Galz (I just love their images!) and applied it to a card blank using Maimeri Matte Medium. I coloured around the image with neutral grey PanPastel and then used Maimeri Light modelling paste and a Crafters Workshop Template to create a brick effect around the image. Once the paste was dry I applied Burnt Sienna and Raw Umber PanPastels to colour the bricks. I added some shells, faux pearls and a little piece of fishing net , Here's another pic:

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Artistic Inspirations: fantasy

Clearly Inspired: Anything goes

Happy Campers: add dimensions

Penny's Paper Crafty: anything but a square

Do check out the fab project from my lovely teamies at PanPastel UK if you've got a minute.

Thanks for popping by today

Claire xx

Elephants caught in crystal from Chocolate Baroque

Good morning, my card today features the beautiful Elephant stamps from one of the new stamp sheets 'Indian Elephant' and the silhouette stamp from  Indian Textiles (you can find them both here)

I've used promarkers and Graph'It Markers to colour the elephants and then cut them out. To create the background I used one of the lovely backing papers from the Leafy Brocade download collection and over that I added a die cut circle which frames the silhouette stamped on some 'Caught in crystal' acetate. I love this technique, it always creates some interesting effects (and messy hands lol). To finish off i''ve added a bow to the top of the frame.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Paper Shelter: anything goes

QKR Stampede: animal antics

Simon Says Stamp: anything goes

Simply Create too: animals

Songbird challenge: Oh what a circus

Sparkle and Sprinkle: glitter

My mega talented teamies have some up with some fab-u-lous projects with these gorgeous new stamps so do keep checking out the Chocolate Baroque DT Blog for lots of inspiration.

I'm really enjoying my long weekend off work, even the weather is being kind(er) that it has been for weeks. Hope you're enjoying some sunshine too

Thanks for popping by today

Claire xx

Rosebud hanging ornament from Chocolate Baroque

Good morning blogland buddies, hope you're having a good week. As usual i'm rushing off to work this morning but then I've got 4 days off for Easter, how lovely! I do hope the weather improves a bit but at least I haven't got to go to work so I promise i won't moan too much lol. Anyway this mornings project is a little hanging ornament made with the lovely little rosebud stamp from Periwinkle Corners and Rosebud clear stamp set from Chocolate Baroque.

I drew round a microscope slide twice and  stamped the rosebud with black archival ink and coloured with Derwent inktense pencils and added stamped a little text here and there. Inktense pencils blend beautifully and once dry, the colour doesn't seem to run so they are ideal for a project like this. I took two microscope slides and stuck them to my coloured images using glossy accents and left them overnight to dry.

Once they were thoroughly dry I cut them out and used more glossy accents to stick them together. I sealed the edges with silver embossing powder and added a glue on bail to the top and little metal corner to the bottom. The silver butterfly, little pearls and beads are from my stash.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:
Crafting for all seasons: anything but a card
Crafting by Design: anything goes with a twist Easter/Spring
Crafty Boots: flowers
Penny's Paper Crafty: anything but a square
Sugar Creek Hollow: an altered state
Tando Creative: Flowers

Thanks for popping by, have a good day whatever you're up to
Claire xx

Fairyland Money Box

Good morning all, I'm counting down to a nice long weekend off work and hopefully lots of time in my craft room. I certainly won't be venturing far if the weather stays like this. My project today is my entry for the new Lavinia Stamps Challenge and I've made a little mdf money box that I've decorated with Lavinia Stamps and lots of paper flowers. Sorry about the dark pics, its been so grey and dismal here.

Here's a pic of the front, all the images were stamped with black archival ink and coloured with derwent Inktense pencils:

And here's the back and one of the sides:

And the other side of the money box.

I painted the money box with soft cream emulsion paint and then dry brushed green acrylic over the bottom and blue acrylic at the top. The fairies all have a little glamour dust on their wings and I stamped little stars with flitter glu and added some pastel coloured glitter here and there.

The roof of the money box hides the slot to pop the money in, I cut  a rectangle from grungeboard and then attached lots of paper flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts with my hot glue gun (ouch! I always end up with burnt fungers and covered in glue gun cobwebs lol)> Once it was finished I sealed it all with a coat of Maimeri Matte Gel Medium

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

Artistic Inspirations: Fantasy

Crazy Challenge: Fairies and flowers

Everybody Art: Fairies

Sparkle and Sprinkle: Glitter

Through the craft room door: anything goes

Tuesday Throwdown: something dimensional

Thanks for popping by today

Claire xx

Periwinkle Corner Frame

Good morning folks, brrrrrr it certainly doesn't feel like spring is round the corner yet but hopefully this card will bring a little sunshine to brighten up a dull wintery day. I've used the gorgeous Periwinkle Corner, one of this months fab new stamps from Chocolate Baroque

 I thought this pretty little flower would make a lovely little narcissus and set to stamping to create a frame. Clear stamps make it so easy to position the image when you're creating a frame like this.

I stamped all the flowers with Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured with distress markers. I inked liberally with lots of distress inks in yellows and greens and used some olive green card to mat and layer.

The sentiment is from Words of Comfort and Cheer, die cut with Spellbinders Marvellous Squares and inked up with distress inks. To finish off i've added some green ribbon and some paper flowers from my stash.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Card Making Mamas: spring colours
colour me creative: Spring colours
Delightful Challenges: get well card
Everybody Art: spring
Paper shelter: spring
Sweet Stampin: lots of layers

Right i'd better go and get the bus to work, I think I'll need my thermals on as its sooooo cold and windy! I nearly blew away yesterday when I took the dogs to the park, they love this weather as it means lots of sticks to squabble over lol.
Thanks for popping by today and for all your kind comments
Claire xx

Photo Inspiration from PanPastel UK

Good morning my lovelies, Sunday morning already so we've got a brand new challenge starting at PanPastel UK and this week our challenge is an inspiration photo by the very talented photographer Les Arnot so pop over and be inspired! As usual our lucky winner will receive a fab prize of a PanPastel Starter set from our lovely sponsor Berni from Your Creativity Store.

I've taken inspiration from the beautiful lillies in the photo and altered a little wooden heart. I gave the heart a coat of soft cream emulsion paint and stamped the images (From Sheena Douglass) with Memento tuxedo black before colouring with Graph'It Markers. I then painted the flowers with a generous layer of Maimeri Glassy Gel and left it to dry. Next i coloured the background with permanent green and tint PanPastels and overstamped with a text stamp and gold stazon. The Glassy gel gives a fabulous resist technique, I really love this stuff :-)

To finish off i've edged the heart with some renaissance treasure gold and added some seam binding ribbon.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Addicted to stamps and more: Markers

Crafting for all seasons: anything but a card

Hotshot Crafts: anything but a card

Love to Create: anything goes

Tuesday Alchemy: anything goes

I'm waiting for the plumber to visit, Barney our black furry bundle of mischief managed to pull a radiator off the wall yesterday and damaged the pipe so we've had to turn the heating off. Fingers crossed he'll come nice and early as its far too cold to manage with heating brrrrrrrrrrrrrr! 

Thanks for visiting today, have a lovely Sunday

Claire xx

Paper Piecing at Fashionable Stamping Challenges

Hello folks, I hope you're keeping nice and warm in this horrible wintery weather, what on earth has happened to Spring? Still its just the weather to do some crafting so we shouldn't complain really lol. We've got a new challenge starting over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and this time our theme is 'Paper Piecing', chosen by yours truly (goodness knows why as its not a technique i use a lot). Our lovely sponsor Leo from Flonzcraft has a fabby prize for our lucky winner so I hope you're going to ink up those stamps and join us.

For my card i've created a background using PanPastels, Maimeri iridescent medium through a prima mask and Stampers Anonymous stamps. I stamped the sentiment from Non sequitur with black stazon. 

The focal image is from Chocolate Baroque, I stamped and coloured her with Graph'It Markers and then stamped her again o some gorgeous Prima Firefly paper and embossed with black EP. I paper pieced her dressed and then stamped another dress from the same stamp set on some more prima paper, cut it out and popped it on a little beaded coat hanger.

To finish off i've added some seambinding, die cut swirls and a paper rose from Wild Orchid Crafts.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Brown Sugar: anything goes

Charisma: die cuts

Crafty Creations: embossing

Polkadoodles: embossing

Vickie's Challenge: anything goes

If you've got a minute, why not check out my lovely teamies beautiful projects. As always they've created some stunning artwork to inspire you

thanks for popping by and for your lovely comments

Claire xx

Tattered florals

Hi there folks, brrrrrrrrr its absolutely freezing cold here and after a couple of days rattling round on trains and waiting at draughty railway stations i'm chuffed to bits its the weekend! Before I put my feet up with a glass of wine and a box of maltesers (why do they taste so much nicer when they are in a box???) I just wanted to share my entry for Tim's Tattered Floral challenge.

I use my Tattered florals die so much, its so versatile. For my first project I coloured some Crinoline fabric from The Funkie Junkie Boutique with alcohol ink (Stream and Snow Cap) and die cut with tattered florals, layering up some die cut white netting. I added a button that I'd coloured with pebeo fantasy paint and some bakers twine in the centre. I added some myuki drops around the edge for some sparkle, this was a bit of a trauma as I'd used glossy accents to stick the layers together and stitching the beads in place was hard work so in the future I'll have to stitch the layers together. I die cut a circle of grungepaper to back the flower and added a couple of eyelets so that i could attached some beading to make a pretty tattered choker. I've used pearls, some teal crystals and some turquoise chips.

My second project is a very similar flower, coloured with eggplant and snowcap alcohol ink but this time I've added a brooch pin to the back and used a pretty little floral button for the centre.

Thanks for popping by, do pop over and have a look at the wonderful projects in the challenge if you've got a min .

Have a lovely evening

Claire xx

Indigo Blu Challenge

Hi there folks, I'm just sneaking in with my project for the first Indigo Blu Challenge where the theme is Blu. I couldn't resist some (ok a lot) of the newly released stamps from Indigo Blu and this project features the gorgeous 'Elizabeth Bennet'. She really is a lovely stamp with so much detail. 

I've used an mdf collage frame and painted it up with cream emulsion and distressed with tunbled glass and frayed burlap distress inks. Next came a some Maimeri light modelling paste through a harlequin template from The Crafters Workshop and once that was dry i applied some flitter glu through the template and gilded with Royal Peacock gilding flakes.

I used some cream card for the base of my collage frame, I stamped Elizabeth with flitterglu and gilded her with some more Royal Peacock gilding flakes. Next PanPastel Ultramarine blue and tine through a Rosette flowers teamplate and some more gilded harlequin modelling paste.

I glued the base layer in place and then brushed versamark ink around the edge before adding all sorts of glitter, embossing powder and microbeads in blues and golds. A fair bit of it blew away when i heated it but hey ho, what's left has a pretty sparkle.

I stamped the image again on Neenah Card and coloured Elizabeth with promarkers, adding some microbeads for a bit of dimension to the centres of the flowers and layered her up with some 3d foam. You can see her a bit better in this pic: 

Next came lots of embellies: some cheesecloth, faux pearls, some little blue roses I made with UTEE and some larger blue roses made with Tattered pinecone die cuts (I stamped these with an Indigo Blu fabric weave stamp, a freebie with a previous order and such a useful stamp!) I also added a bird cage die and a birdy on his branch (from Country View Crafts at a real bargain price!!), both distressed with a little distress ink and some gilding flakes. The butterflies were made with an Indigo Blu craft stamper freebie, stamped on acetate and gilded before being glittered on the reverse, they are soooooo sparkly in real life but my dodgy pics haven't captured that too well.

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

Craft Room Challenge: In the garden, anything but a card

Country View Crafts: pick and mix

LEJ Designs: Add flowers

Marker POP: use glitter

Passion for Promarkers:  butterflies

Well I'd better go as although i've got a day off work I've got an assessed presentation tomorrow and I need to practice (eeeeeeeeeek!!) as well as walk the dogs and mop the floors - Barney has been playing in the garden all morning and seems to have brought most of it in to the house with him lol

Have a lovely day and thanks for popping by

Claire xx

New stamps and some recycling

Good morning, Monday morning and back to work for me but I'm not in too much of a grumpy mood as I've got Tuesday and Wednesday off :-)

My project today features the gorgeous new 'Leafy Brocade' one of the scrummy new Big bold Background stamps from Chocolate Baroque (pop over and have a look at all the new stamps here)

I began by dry brushing gold paint on some corrugated cardboard. My next layer was created by stamping the Leafy Brocade stamp on acetate with black stazon and layering that up over some textured card coloured with the scrummy paints from the Vintaj Patina 'Weathered Copper' set and attaching with some brads.

The large flower was made by cutting open a pop can and die cutting the metal with my tattered florals die, I used the same paints to colour the metal and the button in the centre. I also stamped with the gorgeous Leafy brocade background stamp. I curled the petals and layered them up over a flower i'd cut from a scrap of black funky foam. This was the first time I'd made one of these flowers and although the metal is very sharp when you cut the can, its not too bad once it has been die cut. I've added some ribbon and lace from my stash and a couple of flourishes, die cut with a Dienamics Flourish die. Here's another pic to show the dimension of the flower:

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Clearly Inspired: die cuts

Crafters Cafe: Green and or St Pat's day

Creative Belli: St Pat's day or green

Loves Rubber Stamps: shades of green

Twisted Tuesday: Spring into Green

Have a lovely Monday and thanks for popping by

If you have a minute, try and check out the Chocolate Baroque DT Blog as my lovely teamies have created some really stunning projects with all the new stamps!

Claire xx

A touch of green at PanPastel UK

Good morning folks, and a big warm welcome to me new followers. Its lovely to 'meet' you.  I hope you're having a good weekend so far. I'm having a lazy one as I've got a bit of a cold and don't seem to have an ounce of energy so yesterday was spend lolling around on the sofa. Today sees the start of our new challenge at PanPastel UK where our theme is 'a touch of green'. Here's my DT project, which was one of the samples I made for the Graph'It markers show on C&C. As always our lucky winner will receive a fab PanPastel Starter kit from our generous sponsor Berni from Your Creativity Store.

I must apologise for the pics of this project, now my photography skills are pretty poor at the best of times but for some reason my camera really struggles to take a pic of anything purple, how weird is that? Anyway for my little canvas I took some Ranger tissue wrap stuff and coloured the back with yellow green shade PanPastel and some magenta extra dark and then applied the tissue to the canvas with Maimeri glossy gel medium. Once that was dry I applied light modelling paste through my favourite harlequin crafters workshop template and let that dry before applying gilding flakes to through the template (using flitter glu). I added more gilding flakes around the edge of the canvas too.

The poppy is a stamp from Chocolate Baroque, coloured with Graph'It markers and added some depth with PanPastels. I used Ranger black enamel accents for the centre and again used Maimeri glossy gel to fix the poppy to the canvas. The little heart embellie was also coloured with PanPastels and Graph'It markers, stamped with text and gold stazon and a layer of glassy gel. The wings were a freebie from Craft stamper, I 've used Clearly for Art modelling film, coloured with Graph'its and stamped with gold stazon and attached them with some cute little hinges from The Funkie Junkie boutique, adding some tiny purple gems. Here's another pic of the heart which shows the colours a little better:

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

2 sisters: flowers for spring

Artistic inspirations; Flowers

Die Cutting Diva's : green and gold

Funkie Junkie Boutique: Sunday share

Just add ink: just add green

One Stop Craft: anything goes

Wags'n'Whiskers: go green

Have a lovely Sunday, its dry here this morning so hopefully I won't get drenched taking the dogs out. Barney, our labrador puppy is really struggling to understand that his lead is for me to lead him and not the other way around lol. 

Thanks for popping by, and for your comments they always brighten my day

Claire xx

Crafty Ann's prize winner!!

Good morning folks, i've been a wee bit quiet for the last few days as work has been sooooooo busy and I'm a bit under the weather with a cold but I couldn't miss announcing the prize winner from Crafty Ann's Challenge Blog! As the challenge blog is closing, Ann is giving a prize to one person who has left a comment on each of the DTs blogs and my lucky winner is:

 Comment number 3 Jackie of Jackiescraft!!!

Congratulations Jackie, please pop over to Crafty Ann's Digi Shop to pick your prize (any one item from the whole shop!) and then email Ann(there's a link on the challenge blog or the shop) to let her know and your prize will be winging its way to you in no time! 

Claire xx

Leafy Trails from Chocolate Baroque

Good morning folks, my project today features the gorgeous 'Leafy Trails', one of the new Big Bold Background stamps from Chocolate Baroque, you can find them all here (and some special offers too!) 

I've coloured the images with distress markers, and then inked generously with lots of distress ink. I've added a nestie die cut over the top of the hole and then a 'ring of roses' lol and a green seam binding bow. The beautiful roses are from Wild Orchid Crafts.

The edges of the lid were punched with a MS punch. If you pop over to the Chocolate Baroque Design Team Blog, i've posted a template if you'd like to have a go at making one of these covers. If you do make one, please leave me a link to your blog as I'd love to see it :-)

i'm entering this project in the following challenges

Anything but a card: green/ Irish/St Pats

Celebrate the Occasion: spring is in the air

Creative inspirations paint: go green

Everybody Art: box

Paper Playtime: anything goes

There she goes: shades of green

Wags'n'Whiskers: go green

Thanks for popping by today

Claire xx

Paint fusion poppies and daisies

Good morning folks, well after my long weekend off work my nose will be back to the grindstone this morning but before I venture out into the snow here's a quick couple of projects. Sorry about the pics, the light was really weird yesterday one minute it was bright sunshine the next black clouds and a blizzard. I've made a couple of mdf plaques that I got from Joanna Sheen and given them the paint fusion treatment.

This first project was inspired by the lovely Brenda's special celebration challenge. pop over and have a look here.  Brenda has been a very special inspiration to me so I had to have a play and enter. Brenda is so generous with her ideas but also unbelievable generous with her goodies - she is celebrating her 4th blogaversary with some really special prizes! Happy Blogaversary Brenda, we should really be giving you pressies for all the inspiration you share with us.

Anyway back to my project, I gave the mdf plaque a quick coat of magnolia emusion paint and then a light sanding. Next I stamped the poppies with black stazon and painted them with acrylic paint. Now this was meant to be a quick project and the painting didn't take long at all but the letters - what a nightmare! I decided that I wanted nice sparkly letters  and thought all i need is some lime stickles and a bit of glossy accents, easy peasy .... mmmmm maybe not! I cut the letters on my cricut, coloured them with promarkers and then added the stickles. Left them to dry and when i went back i was a 'p' short and i'd lost my apostrophe! So back to the cricut, promarkers and stickles, left them to dry and added the glossy accents. Now I'd lost the 'm' grrrrrrrrr. How annoying, even more when I'd made another 'm' and then found the first one stuck to my sleeve lol.

My second plaque was made in the same way using Sheena Douglass' daisy stamps. This time I added some little daisies I'd made with air dry clay.

I'm also entering the following challenges:

Addicted to stamps: bring on spring

all that stickles: any green stickles

Artistic inspirations: flowers

Crafting for all seasons: spring

Paper Crafting journey: anything but a card

Thanks for popping by,

have a lovely day 

Claire xx

Easter with the Gecko Galz

Good morning my lovely friends, Monday already but for a pleasant change I'm not moaning about going to work as I've got the day off ! We seem to be back in the grip of winter, yesterday was freezing cold and we had snow, snow in March,eeeeek thats not good.  My card this morning is my entry for the Easter challenge over at the Gecko Galz yahoo group. I've used a gorgeous vintage image from Gecko Galz (of course lol).

I've created a background with PanPastels and used Maimeri iridsescent paste through a Crafters Workshop template. Once that was dry I added some colour with Graph'It markers. I've layered the image up over a scrap of card embossed with a texture fade and some cheesecloth. I've added blue velvet ribbon, green gingham ribbon and a little heart charm, along with some cream lace from The Ribbon Girls. I've gone a bit OTT with embellies on this card, I've added one of my bargain birds nest from the pound shop (coloured the eggs with markers), flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts,  and some faux pearls too.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Brown Sugar: Easter

Crafty Calendar: Easter Eggstravaganza

Live and Love Crafts: Easter

My time to craft: embossing

Oozak : spring

Quirky Crafts: make your own background

Well i'm off to have a very lazy day, after such a hectic week at work last week I don't seem to have any energy so I'm going tidy up and throw some washing in then recharge my batteries in front of the TV with a pile of images to colour (and a large bag of maltesers too). Ahhh bliss! 

Have a good day

Thanks for visiting today, 

Claire xx