Green Vintagey Florals

Hello, today I thought I would share a card I made for my sister's birthday:

 

The floral stamp is from papermania and is stamped in adirondak lettuce onto a fancy square cut using an xcut die.  The green background paper is just from my paper drawer not sure who made it.  The embossed border across the middle is from the pampered pets range by docrafts.

I got all the pieces of the card assembled and then distressed them all a bit using antique linen and vintage photo distress inks and added a bit of the lettuce in here and there too to tie all the colours together.  I layered it all up added the brown ribbon, the little happy birthday tag and a few pearls.

All done!

 

I would like to enter my card in the following challenges:

 

Hels Ink on My Fingers Sunday Stamper this week is "green" - you can find her beautiful blog HERE

 

Fashionable Stamping Challenges have chosen florals and handmade flowers as the theme this time around, you can find their blog HERE 

 

The Sweet Stop sketch this week can be found HERE and was a great sketch to work with.

 

Thanks for stopping by!  Claire x

CAS-ual Fridays CFC67

This week over at the CAS-ual Fridays blog the theme is banners and flags.  All the details for the challenge can be found HERE

 

So here is the card I have created for the challenge:

So I used a 6x6 card blank and created a white mat to sit on it.  I created my banners from a sheet of the beautiful Prima botanical collection paperstack.  I then created the border from white card punched on both sides with an xcut leafy lace border punch.  I didn't have any ribbon quite the right colour so I coloured a piece in using a distress marker in tattered rose.  The sentiment in the corner is computer generated using the baroque script font.

 

I hope everyone's having a great weekend - it's a bank holiday here in the UK tomorrow so I'm very much looking forward to the extra day off!!

 

Thanks for stopping by, Claire x

Less Is More - Week 82

Good morning, I made my less is more challenge card yesterday but didn't have time to pop it up on here as we went to a wedding party last night.  The couple were married a couple of weeks ago in Italy and held a party last night to celebrate - the photos from Italy looked beautiful!

 

Anyway so onto my card - so as it's the last week of the month it's recipe time over at less is more.  Mandi and Chrissie have chosen 3-2-1 as the recipe, so we have to to incorporate 3 of something, 2 of something and 1 of something else.  All the details for the challenge can be found HERE

 

So here is my card for this week:

So I used a kraft DL card blank, added the black panel of card with rounded corners at opposite ends.  I punched out three squares of the stampin' up paper (not sure what it's called but I've had it a little while).  I added the black ribbon and stamped the sentiment in black versafine at the bottom which is by papermania.

So for my 3-2-1 I have three paper squares, two words on my sentiment and one ribbon :)

 

I hope everyone is having a nice bank holiday weekend!

 

Claire x

Less Is More - Week 81

This week it's theme week over at Less Is More, Mandi and Chrissie have chosen paper tearing for the theme.  All the details for the challenge can be found HERE

Here is the card I made for the challenge:

I stamped the image of tower bridge by Artemio Stamps in black versafine.  I then used distress markers on my craft mat mixed with water to colour in the image.  The distress markers I used were vintage photo, antique linen, black soot, stormy sky, chipped sapphire and fired brick.

I torn the top and bottom of the image while the card was still a little damp as I thought it would be easier - I was really worried about tearing it at this stage as it had taken me so long to "paint" it and I had visions of it ripping right down the middle!  I layered up the image onto black card and torn the top of that too to match the top of the image.  Around the bottom of the black card I added blue and white bakers twine to try to continue the water theme (well that's how it was imagined in my head anyway!)  The sentiment is from waltzing mouse and is stamped in black versafine also.  To finish off I added the little blue pearls either side of the sentiment.

I hope it is clean and simple enough for the challenge as there isn't too much white space now that it's all finished compared to how I had imagined it when I started out!

Claire x

Joy Candle

The Craft Barn have another challenge on their blog - a colouring technique challenge with the chance to win a £20 voucher!  All the details for the challenge can be found HERE

There are quite a few different techniques you can use to join in the challenge, the one I chose to have a go at was ''altering a candle'' so here is my attempt:

I stamped the 'Joy' and the flourish in green onto tissue paper and used my heat gun to melt it into the candle.  I cut a wrap of green paper from my stash and punched only the top edge then secured it around the candle using the green ribbon.  To finish off I decided to add some green gems to the ends of the flourishes. 

I was quite pleased with the end result!

Thanks for stopping by, Claire x

In The Pink

There's a new blog challenge just starting up called In The Pink.  For their very first challenge they have chosen 'Fifty Shades of Pink' all the details for the challenge can be found HERE

Here is the card I have made for the challenge:

I created the pink panel first by stamping the images randomly with perfect medium and embossing them in white.  I then used my spun sugar DI directly on the card and rounded the corners.  I tied a pink organza ribbon around the square card blank and mounted the pink panel on the card using foam pads.

I stamped the sentiment from waltzing mouse stamps using black versafine then added the three little pearls in the bottom corner to finish off.

Claire x

Wedding Card

Here is a card I made today for a wedding reception we are going to in a couple of weeks, the couple actually got married this weekend in Italy. 

The heart and sentiment is by papermania from their confetti collection.  I 'inked' it with flitter glue and stamped onto black card, then I added chariots of fire gliding flakes by IndioBlu.  I cut a strip of black and gold paper for the side panel and a black card matt for the card blank, everything was edged with the flitter glue and the gliding flakes.

I layered it all up and gave the heart and sentiment a little extra definition by adding foam pads.  At the very end I decided to add in two little golden pearls to the top right corner.

The gliding flakes I've used are a lovely gold shade, I realise that the photos kind of have a bleached look to them due to the sun and the flake looks slightly silver??  I thought taking my photos outside would improve them as I think that is my biggest weakness when blogging :(

Anyway, I would like to enter my card in the following challenges:

The Stamp Man Challenge Blog - Angela has set the theme this time: Precious Medal/Metals - Olympics - Gold/Silver/Bronze.  All the challenge details can be found HERE

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - this week the challenge was set by Helen who chose the theme of Gold, Silver or Bronze. All the challenge details can be found HERE

Ink On My Fingers - Hels has decided to make this week a shiny challenge!  Her excellent blog can be found HERE

CAS-ual Fridays - CFC65 is square cards.  All the challenge details can be found HERE 

Thanks for visiting my humble little blog, please feel free to leave me a comment so I know you stopped by - any advice/suggestions are very, very welcome :)

Claire xx

Make Your Mark

Over at the Addicted To Stamps blog the 'Make Your Mark' Challenge #2 is up and running - the challenge basically involves using markers in your project - all the details of the challenge can be found HERE

Now I'm not the biggest marker fan, I do have a few pro markers and spectrum noir pens but I just never seemed to be able to get the hang of shading and blending and wotnot!  BUT.....then distress markers arrived!  Now these were more my kinda thing!  I haven't had them very long so I'm sure I still have an awful lot to learn about them but so far I'm loving the effect they can produce.  Here is the card I would like to enter into the Addicted To Stamps challenge:

Firstly I would like to apologise for the poor quality of the photos, there seems to be a shadow on them which I didn't notice at the time,  but the little topper and the card blank are actually the same colour.

I cut out the little topper using a xcut die and my cuttlebug.  The stamp is from a papermania set by Lucy Cromwell which is just so sweet.  I stamped it using versafine black ink, once dry I used my distress markers on my craft mat with a little bit of water and a paint brush to colour in the image.  The distress markers I used were antique linen, dusty concord, victorian velvet, forest moss, stormy sky and tumbled glass.

I mounted up my little topper with foam pads, added a thin piece of pink ribbon, and then finished off by stamping the sentiment in the bottom corner which is also from papermania.

Thanks for stopping by, Claire x