Less Is More Challenge

I'm entering my first Less Is More challenge.  The theme this week is red and orange - more details about this weeks challenge can be found here

So the butterfly stamp I used is by crafty individuals.  I used some random papermania mini ink pads I discovered I had with it - they don't have any colour names on them.  Then I decided it need some sort of sentiment - I used 'let your dreams take flight' as my sentiment which is from the flight of dreams set by inkylicious.  I really like what I have created which is a bit different from my usual style.

Claire x

Easy Christmas Cards

Just a couple of really easy christmas cards to post today.  I made them both using the papermania classic christmas range.

This first card I made by covering the front of a 6 x 6 card blank in the red polka dot paper, I then tore the lovely holly berry paper (which has the nicest red foiling on the berries - it doesn't show up well in the photo) and layered it on one side.  I added the circle topper and layered the bow and bird die cuts on top.  I then added a length of green ribbon and the die cut sentiment from the set and finished it off by rounding the corners.  Very quick and easy but I like how it looks.

Another quick card using the papermania classic christmas range.  I backed some of the tartan paper on gold mirri card and added the red and gold ribbon to the left hand side.  I then added the little wreath sentiment with foam pads and the little die cut christmas trees along the bottom as it looked a bit bare.  To finish it off I added three gold gems in the top right corner.  So pretty simple but a nice flat card for posting!

Love Claire x



Paper Princess

To celebrate Beth's new position on Crafty Cardmakers DT she is giving away some lovely stamps on her blog here

Congratulations Beth and thank you so much for the lovely comments you have left for me about my cards :)

Christmas Card

So today I found a Christmas stamp I had never used before - I think I bought it in the sale at the beginning of this year. It is a really beautiful stamp from papermania. I stamped the first card with chipped sapphire distress ink, layered it onto a dark blue mat then added it to my card. I added glamour dust to some of the swirls and baubles then finished it off with a ribbon at the top.
The second card I stamped using black soot distress ink, mounted it on red shiny card and adhered to my card blank. I then added red stickles to the baubles, faux pearl drops and gold pen the swirls and dots. To finish off I added the red organza ribbon to the top.
Although they are quite simple I think they look quite sophisticated and am very happy with them both.
Claire x

Thursday Card Group

Most Thursdays I go to a card making group in my local church hall.  I love getting together with my Thursday night group as I have learnt nearly everything I know from them and they are all so supportive and helpful - and they let me borrow all their goodies too!!

So last night we were making framed cards.  This is what I managed to create:

I found creating the box frame a little fiddly but I think its turned out quite well.  The frame was from a cd the class leader had, then I added the forever friends topper and sentiment.  You can't see very well in my photo but I then added glamour dust to the topper to highlight the snow and added tiny pearl embellishments to the snowflakes on the frame.

Claire x

Halloween Card

So this is the first ever Halloween card I've made and also the first ever blog challenge card I've made.  

I was inspired to give it a go as part of the challenge on the Polka Doodles blog which you can find details of here: Polka Doodles Challenge

I covered my base card with a piece of cobweb paper, then printed the sentiment, the gravestones and bats from the Polka Doodles blog.  I used chipped sapphire and dusky concorde distress inks to colour the background of the gravestones and the sentiment, adding yellow for the moon.  I cut the bats out and added glossy accents to highlight.

Claire x

Another Reindeer Card

Ok so I seem to have a bit of a thing for reindeers this year.  I had never used this stampendous stamp before so decided to give it a go:

I created the backing paper by randomly stamping snowflakes in blue and silver.  Then I used my brayer, torn paper, a circle of post it note and versa mark covered cotton wool to create the background for my reindeer.  I stamped the reindeer onto the card and added some shading around his base to ground him.

I stamped the merry christmas sentiment by papermania in matching blue ink and matted it all up and added the ribbon at the side to finish it off.

Claire x

Reindeer Christmas Card

So here is one of my first attempts at a Christmas card this year:

I used the snowflake embossing folder on white card, highlighted it with chipped sapphire distress ink.  I diecut the doilie shape using a nellie die and also highlighted these edges with the distress ink.  Then I stamped the reindeer from a kanban stamp set.  I mounted it all and finished off with a white organza ribbon and a little quickie glue and glamour dust on the antlers.

Claire x

First Ever Post

Well this is my first ever post.....I've never had any sort of blog before so we'll see how it goes!

I'm hoping to use this blog to display some of my crafty makes.  I haven't been crafting all that long so I'm hoping that by using this blog it will inspire me to try out new things.  I mostly enjoy creating cards and I really like stamping and using inks. But I mostly just enjoy playing around with my stash and seeing how things turn out.

Well I'll leave it at that for my first post and hopefully I'll be back soon to post some pictures of what I've made.

Claire x