Fantasy Woodland

Good morning folks, today I'm sharing a little Autumnal canvas made using stamps from Chocolate Baroque.

  I began with a brusho background and then stamped the trees (from  Fantasy Woodland) and embossed with gold embossing powder. I added some little dots of clear glue and created some foliage with beadazzles.

Next I took some brown acrylic paint and grounded the trees. Once that was dry I stencilled in some leaves using green acrylic paint and the Useful Leaves stencil. Next I added some falling leaves using the Seasonal Elements stencil and the word Autumn using the Seasonal Journey stencil and iridescent paste. Once the paste was dry I coloured the leaves and word with alcohol markers.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Allsorts: Trees/Leaves

Creative Artiste: Anything goes

Noor Designs UK: Fall colours

Thats' Crafty: Forever Autumn

The Crafty Addicts: anything goes autumn colours

Thanks so much for visiting today, hope to see you again soon

Claire xx

Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes at We Love 2 Create

Good morning folks, how's your weekend going? It's very grey, damp and cold here so apart from dog walking duties, I'll be bunkered up in my craft room playing. My project today is for our 'Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes' challenge over at We Love 2 Create. You don't have to use our products to play along and we've got some lovely crafty goodies lined up for our lucky winner thanks to the generous people at Premium Craft Brands!!

As I've had some time off work I decided to have a play in my art journal and followed the free lesson from Life Book 2016 'Happy Traveller' from Tam Laporte at Willowing Art. I really enjoyed it, such fun and so relaxing. I'd love to do this years Life Book but with work being so busy I don't think I'd have time. Hopefully things will be better next year and I'll have more time to play. Anyway I won't go into all the details as I just kind of followed Tam's lesson, using lots of different products including of course my beloved PanPastels. I can't add links to the colours I used as I can't remember my log in details to the thumblinky lol so here's a list: Skin: Burnt Sienna Shade, Orange Tint, Burnt Sienna Tint, Permanent Red Tint. Hair: Black Coarse Pearl Medium, White Coarse PEarl Medium, Magenta Extra Dark, Magenta Shade.

I also used Pewter, Violet, Phthalo Blue and Black fine pearl Medium for the background with some stencilling using a Dutch Doobadoo stars stencil.

I also used brushos, acrylic paints and lyra pencils.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Alphabet Challenge: v for violet

Crafty Awesomeness: Anything goes

Creates and Makes: Anything goes

Creative Artiste: Mixed Media

That's Crafty: Anything goes

Thanks so much for visiting today, hope to see you again soon

Claire xx

Chocolate Baroque on the Craft Channel

Good morning folks, a quick post to let you know that the lovely and very talented Lesley Wharton will be on The Craft Channel at 11am today with some gorgeous Chocolate Baroque stamps and Brushos too!  I'm just rushing off to do a little shopping so I'm back in time to watch, I love Brushos but I'm definitely a beginner with them so I'm looking forward to some tips from our Lesley!

This is one of my samples for the show. I had a play mixing Brusho's with white gesso for the background and used one of the fab wooden blanks from Chocolate Baroque. I slapped on loads of white gesso, misted with water and then lightly sprinkled on some crimson Brusho. I was really cool watching the brusho crystals reacting with the water and gesso. Once it was dry I added a little crackle medium and some more white gesso .

The tree stamp is one of my favourites, it's from the Glade A6 set or you can get a full A4 set of lots of gorgeous trees too . I love these stamps as they come with lots of different leaves, flowers etc so you can create you own tree and of course using different colours enables you to change the seasons. 

I stamped the tree on white tissue with versamark and embossed with Gold EP and applied it to the background with matte medium. I chose not to use any of the leaves but added dots of glue, glitter and mica flakes to my tree. The sentiment is another old favourite, from Chocolate Baroque, Words of Inspiration.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Crafting with friends: Anything goes

Creative Fingers: Anything goes

Simply Papercraft: Anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Home decor

Southern Girls: texture

Well I'd better scoot off as the cupboards are bare and I don't want to miss the show!

Thanks so much for visiting today

Claire xx

Chocolate Baroque Challenge 15

Good morning folks, its time for a new challenge at Chocolate Baroque Challenge and this month we've got a gorgeous colour palette for inspiration. I've had fun with Brushos for my DT project and as always my teamies have created some gorgeous projects. Our random winner (chosen from entries using CB stamps) will receive a £15 voucher to spend on goodies from Chocolate Baroque and there are Top 3 honours up for grabs too.

To make this card I stamped the large flower from Sunny Sunflowers onto watercolour card and masked the image off.

I've used Black, Grey and Lemon brusho powders sprinkled onto watercolour card and then misted with water to create my background. I love all the different tones that you get with Brushos, some of the greys have a greenish hue, soooo pretty!

When I removed the mask some of the paint had leaked through but I kind of liked the shadow effect so I didn't worry too much about it.

Next I stamped the bees which are from Rose Tree with black archival ink. I used a little diluted bleach to remove the brusho colour from the bees an then added some colour with distress markers.  I also used my distress markers to colour the sunflower.

I added some glamour dust to the wings using a quickie glue pen.

The sentiment was stamped with versamark and embossed with silver embossing powder (the sentiment is from Words of comfort and Cheer).

To finish off I've added some white dots with a Graph'It shake pen and doodled around the edges.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Aud Sentiments: anything goes plus a sentiment

Corrosive Challenges: Mixed Media

Crafting with an attitude: anything goes

Papertake Weekly: animal magic

Penny Black and more: anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Favourite technique 

(its like trying to pick a favourite child lol but at the minute Brushos are my favourite)

thanks so much for visiting today

Claire xx

People at Fashionable Stamping Challenges

Hi there, its time for a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and this time around we want to see a person or people. You do need to use a rubber or clear stamp though, no digis allowed! As always our lucky winner will receive a $20 voucher to spend at  Flonzcraft!

I began with a brusho background made using shades of blue and green  and a little bleach through a harlequin stencil. Once dry I stamped and embossed the flourishes (from Chocolate Baroque) with versamark and embossed with Black WOW EP, adding some highlights with a White Graph'It Shake Pen.

The focal image is also from Chocolate Baroque although sadly its now been retired. I stamped and embossed on white card, masked the edges and then sprinkled on my brushos and spritzed with water. I used bleach to remove the colour from the faces and clothes and to add highlights to the bikes.

To finish off I embossed some die cut letters with Black WOW EP to spell out the word 'Dad'

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Allsorts: Vintage

Cut it up: Ties for fathers day

Crafters Cafe: one for the boys

Crafty Cardmakers: shaped cards

Mod Squad: Masculine

Sister Act: anything goes

Sweet Stampin: Fathers Day or a special man

If you've got a minute., pop over and have a look at all the inspiration from my very talented DT sisters! Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

Brusho Birdcage Collage

Good morning folks, have you seen the gorgeous new individual stamps from Chocolate Baroque? Goodness me they are stunning and the perfect price for a crafty treat without breaking the bank too.

This one is called 'Bird Cage Collage' and is a lovely image, so detailed!

I began by having a play with my Brushos (Ultramarine, Violet, Emerald and a little Turquoise) and water colour card which I used to create my background. I stamped the image with brown ink and distressed with Tumbled Glass distrss ink. Next I stamped the image with versamark and embossed with gold ep before cutting out and colouring with distress inks. I stamped the focal image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, coloured with my Graph'It markers and carefully cut out before popping up on 3d foam pads.

I've used purple card for matting and layering and simply adding some gems to the corner to finish off.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Challenge up your life: Embossing

Craft Stamper Take it Make it: take a technique colour

Lisa B Designs: Brusho colours

Mixed Media World: bright Colours

Penny's Paper Crafty: anything goes

Sentimental Sundays: No sentiment

Sister Act: anything goes

Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

Anything goes or Go Green at Eclectic Ellapu

Good morning folks, March is here already so its time for anew challenge at Eclectic Ellapu and this month the pink team have a nice easy Anything Goes challenge for you. The purple team are asking you to Go green so there's lots of scope to play along.

I've had a little play with Brushos for my background and used stamps from Indigo Blu to create my card, embossing the honeycomb background and the focal image. I decoupaged the car, and the wheels, added some faux stitching, a button and a bow. Quick and easy :-)

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp: anything goes

Suzy Bees Blooming challenge: anything goes

The Male room: create background paper

Top Tip Tuesday: rubber stamps

Tuesday Throwdown : anything goes

Thanks for popping by today, 

Claire xx