Valentine's Card for Snazzy's

Hello Everyone!

Today is my last share for the month over on the Snazzy Design Team Blog *HERE*

Here is a little glimpse of my card:

Hope you can pop over to the Snazzy blog to check it out in full - there's some candy up for grabs for one lucky commenter!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Claire x

Snazzy DT Project #2 - Jilly Bean Soup Kit

Hello Everyone!

Today I am sharing again over on the Snazzy's Design Team blog :-)

Here is a little peak at the project I've made using the Jilly Bean Soup Heart Healthy Red Bean Soup kit:

Hop on over *HERE* to check it out in full!

Thanks for stopping by,

Claire x

Snazzy's DT Project - JellyBean Soup #1

Hello Everyone!

This week it is my turn to share my projects over on the Snazzy's Design Team Blog

Today I am sharing my first project using the JillyBean Soup Heart Healthy Red Bean Soup collection.

Here is a little sneak peak:

Hop on over *HERE* to see it in full!

Claire x

Paperartsy Make - Inspired by Ellen Vargo

Hi everyone

Today I've made a tag inspired by Ellen Vargo who is the guest designer on the Paperartsy blog this week.  You can see Ellen's Paperartsy makes *HERE*

Here is the tag I've made using Ellen's techniques as a starting point:

So Ellen used a brayer to add the Fresco Finish paints onto her projects.  I started my tag by adding Mermaid, Candy Floss and Orchid with my brayer.  Then I added a little Beach Hut and South Pacific also using the brayer:

 Next I added Grunge Paste through a SplodgeAway mask:

 I rubbed Royal Amethyst Treasure Gold onto the Grunge Paste with my finger and stamped the circles from JOFY14 using Snowflake Fresco:

 I stamped the flower and stem from Eclectica ELB01 onto some card using a mix of Mocha Mousse and Toffee.  I coloured the centre dots of the flower with a gold gel pen, rounded out the petals and leaves with a ball tool, then added to the tag.  I also stamped the sentiment from the same stamp set using onyx black versafine, cut out and doodled a line around the outside before adding to the tag:

 So there we are - all finished!  A totally different colour scheme from the ones that Ellen has been using but one I'm really loving at the moment :-)

Thanks for stopping by my blog today - don't forget to pop over *HERE* to see what everyone else was inspired to create!

Love Claire x

Mini Tag Book - Inspired by Julie Ann Lee

Hello Everyone

Getting in there by the skin of my teeth with my Paperartsy inspired project this week!  This week the special guest designer was the lovely Julie Ann Lee from magpie heaven.

Julie Ann made a wonderful casket but I decided to take one element from her make for my project - her tiny tag book.  To see her project in full click HERE to pop over to the Paperartsy blog where it was shown over the course of three nights.  Here is my take on the mini tag book which was inside the casket:

To start I smooshed five small kraft coloured tags through watered down Fresco paints in Irish Cream, Toffee, Mocha Mousse and Cinnamon on both sides and dried.

 Then I stamped on various images from Paperartsy's Hot Picks sets 1007, 1008 and 1009 using Orange Blossom and Potting Soil Archival inks:

Next I added a little colour and shading to the stamped images using my Inktense pencils.  I then punched some holes in the tags and threaded them with thick black embroidery thread:

 Here are some close up's of the individual tags:

 And here is the little tag book closed:

 And all finished:

 Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Claire x

DT Card for The Crafting Cafe

Hello Everyone

Today it's my turn to share a card over at The Crafting Cafe blog.

This month the theme is a nice, easy 'Anything Goes' and we have a sponsor offering the challenge winner a prize!

Here is a peek at my card:

So pop on over to the challenge blog HERE to link up your project!

Claire x

Quotes and Lyrics - a new challenge at The Craft Barn

Hello Everyone!

The Craft Barn have a new "Quotes and Lyrics" challenge for 2014 - I enjoyed last year's dictionary challenge soooo much so I'm hoping I can keep up this year too.

So every other week Izzy will issue two words - you can make whatever type of project you like - but you have to include some sort of quote or song lyric in there associated with either one or both of the words. To find out more about the challenge click HERE

So for the first week the words are SMILE or UP - I went with the word SMILE:

This year I have decided to go with an ICAD (Index card a day) format as I found this really handy pack in Tesco that come on a book ring and I thought it would be perfect for this challenge:

So for my first ICAD I coloured the card using Tumbled Glass, Shaded Lilac and Victorian Velvet Distress inks.  Next I used the flower power mask from Splodgeaway and misted with water to lift some of that colour out.  I stamped my image from Paperartsy Hot Picks 1008 straight onto the ICAD using onyx black versafine.  The girl now had loads of flowers on her face so I bleached them out using water and dabbing, then to enhance her a little I used a white pencil to highlight her eyes and teeth then coloured her eyes with Tumbled Glass and her lips with Victorian Velvet Distress ink.  Finally I added my quote from Mother Teresa using a black micron pen.

Looking forward to seeing what other quotes and/or lyrics will come up throughout the year!

Thanks for stopping by,

Claire x

Paperartsy Tag - Inspired by Helen Chilton

Hello everyone!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today - I would like to share a tag with you that was inspired by a very colourful Helen Chilton project over on the Paperartsy blog HERE

I created my tag by smearing Fresco Finish paints onto my tag using a spatula.  I used Candy Floss, Orchid, Bora Bora, Vanilla and Guacamole.  I did this all very randomly but I knew I wanted it to be bright!  Next I took a dotty stencil and sponged Eggplant and Bora Bora through it onto parts of the tag.  

I then used Smokey Grey Versafine to stamp the small text stamp from Hot Picks 1007, all the other stamps used were from Hot Picks 1008. I added the twiggy branch down the left side using Cornflower Blue Archival.  I stamped the main image of the feather using onyx black versafine ink.  I then used the black versafine to stamp the sentiment onto a piece of white card, cut it out and added it to the tag - then I highlighted it using a black pen.  I used black soot distress ink around the edge of the tag before adding a black eyelet and ribbon to the top.

Thanks for stopping by today,

Claire x

Feeling Blue?

Hello Everyone!

Today I would like to share a card with you:

This card was really difficult to photograph as the light kept bouncing back at the camera due to the white embossing!

To create my card I took a couple of pieces of white card - one piece I inked all over using Chipped Sapphire distress ink.  The other piece I covered with a variety of stamps from Chocolate Baroque, I used perfect medium to stamp them and then embossed with Stampendous white detail powder.  I then inked up this card with distress inks in Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean and a touch of Chipped Sapphire around the edges.  I then cut this piece into three sections and mounted them onto the first piece of card.  I stamped the happy birthday sentiment from a Paperartsy JOFY set and added the two little pearls before finally adding to a card blank.

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

• Artful Times - Shades of Blue, click HERE for details
• Pan Pastel Challenge - Anything Goes, click HERE for details
• Just Us Girls - Sketch challenge, click HERE for the challenge and see below for the sketch

Thanks for dropping by today, Claire x

Paperartsy Christmas Cracker - Video #2

Hi Everyone

Today I would like to share a tag I made to join in with the second Paperartsy Christmas Cracker video which you can find HERE

I found this challenge a little daunting so decided to go with a tag rather than a whole canvas:

I mixed up three different grunge pastes mixes using Haystack, Spanish Mulberry and Eggplant Frescos.  I then applied them using a spatula - some of the layers went on thicker than others and I now think I should have used cut n dry but never mind.  I added texture into the pastes by pouncing the back of the spatula, squiggling it with the end of a paintbrush, pressing in some mesh and stamping with a script stamp. At this stage it was all looking very bright and pastel-ish so I was brave and did a wash like Leandra - I used Irish Cream for this and it did mute it somewhat.  To darken the tag a little more I smudged on a bit of French Roast here and there with my finger.

I then painted half a cotton reel with a mixture of Mocha Mousse and French Roast and painted the little resin bird with Sky and a touch of Eggplant.  I added these to the tag and then added three eyelets to the left hand side before finishing it off with some twine at the top.

Not really how I was hoping it would turn out - the grunge paste patches aren't nearly as neat as I would like them but it was good to try out something totally new and outside my comfort zone!

Claire x

Brand new calendar for 2014

Hello everyone

Thanks for stopping by my blog today :-)

Today I created a project to join in with a couple of challenge's: - Our Creative Corner have a 'no more shopping sins' challenge which I wanted to combine with the monthly colour challenge over at  A Sprinkle of Imagination

I had a rummage through my box of stuff I've bought that I intend to alter and never ever do (it's getting quite full!) and came up with the same hanging board that the lovely Astrid used - although my calendar looks very different from hers!

So with Astrid's calendar hanging board in my head I went and created this:

 I painted my grey hanging board with a mixture of Snowflake and Irish Cream Fresco to give me a nice neutral background to work with.   I coloured around the edges of the board using Haystack and Smoked Paprika Fresco's.

Next I used an Inkylicious French script stamp to add text randomly to the background with Pansy Fresco.  I then used black archival to stamp the flowers and butterfly from Paperartsy JOFY sets 13 and 14 and set about painting them all in using Fresco's in the following colours: Snowflake, Pumpkin Soup, Smoked Paprika, Haystack, Pansy, Eggplant and French Roast.

 Finally I added two eyelets to the top of the board with a crop-o-dile and then another rummage turned up an old piece of twine which was perfect for the hanging.  Then all that was left to do was to add the little calendar tab to the bottom!

So here is the colour picture from A Sprinkle of Imagination that I followed:

Thanks for stopping by my blog, it's been a lovely crafty start to the year for me today but unfortunately it's back to work again tomorrow - not looking forward to that!

Claire x