Cities of the World At FSC

Hi there, we're on our travels at Fashionable Stamping Challenges as this week our theme is 'Cities of the World' so perhaps you'll be inspired by your own capital city, or by somewhere that holds special memories for you. Don't forget that to be in with a chance to win a prize from our generous sponsor Marina from Cottage Crafts you need to use a rubber stamp, no digis allowed!!

I was a bit stumped for this challenge as I'm not a city girl at all and then I saw some gorgeous new London stamps from the Artistic Stamper and couldn't resist them. I decided to go with a jubilee inspired wedding anniversary card and got a bit carried away, I threw everything at it lol. I started with a layer of Tim's tissue tand then added a shaped card topper that I'd stamped with a Crafty Individual's union jack stamp coloured with distress markers (fired brick and faded jeans) and embossed the edges with gold EP. Next came a  lady and gent from Joanna Sheen, I stamped and masked the lady and stamped the chap to look as if he's asking her to dance.

 The gorgeous union jack bunting is one of my scrummy new stamps from the Artistic Stamper, coloured with distress markers, cut out and popped on some blue thread. Everything is distressed, inked, torn and a bit crumpled :-)

I love the London skyline from the Artistic Stamper and it fitted perfectly on my perforated postage paper from Chocolate Baroque, how lucky is that??  I wanted it to look a bit faded so I masked the squares  and stamped with an ancient versafine ink pad. 

I've added seam binding ribbon in ivory and coloured some more with faded jeans and fired brick distress stains. The sentiment is from Chocolate Baroque, stamped on vellum. To finish off i've added some flowers made with tattered florals and tattered pine cones dies using watercolour card and again coloured with distress stains. Pop over to my teamie Brenda's blog as she has a fab tutorial for making flowers with watercolour paper and they hold their shape beautifully so thanks for a fab idea Brenda :-)

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Crafting for all Seasons: Handmade flowers

Crafts for Eternity: ribbon

Cupcake: Best of British

Fashionista: Weddings

Joanna Sheen: Flower Power

One Stop Craft : Clebrations

Papercrafting Journey: Vintage

Polkadoodles: distressing

Wags'n'Whiskers: distressing

Thanks for popping by today

Claire xx

Full House at Fashionable Stamping Challenges!

Hi there, we've got a fab BINGO challenge for you this time at Fashionable Stamping Challenges, my teamie Sue has set the challenge and her bingo board is full of such gorgeous things I couldn't just settle for a line, I went for a full house lol. As always there is a fabby prize for our  winner from Marina, our generous sponsor at Cottage Crafts!

I've used a backing paper from 'Vintage Shabby' paper stack, distressed with a craft knife and a little tea dye distress ink and matted it on some blue tissue paper. I then added some texure using a Crafters Workshop template (mini mosaic) and Magi-tac paste dusted with silver mica powder. You can see the effect a bit better in this pic

The ribbon, lace, butterfly and glimmer misted doiley are all from my stash. The silver embellie over the bow is from a broken necklace. The flowers were made using more blue tissue paper, die cut with tattered florals and buttons in the centre. The metal frame for the sentiment is from my stash and I stamped the sentiment on a scrap of vellum. I also added lots of faux pearls with my viva pearl pen.

The focal image is a Kanban stamp, coloured with promarkers and coloursoft pencils and cut out. I stitched the lace up bodice with silver thread, it look me ages as the blinking thread kept getting in a HUGE knot for some reason.

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:

Craftroom Challenge: Vintage

Fairy Fun Fridays: distress it

I love promarkers: ribbons and bows

Paper Shelter: anything goes

Passion for Promarkers: Mum or female relative

Sweet Stamps: Monochromatic

The Pink Elephant: Lets see those layers

Top Tip Tuesday: Stitches real or faux

Totally Gorjuss: anything goes with a button

thanks for visiting today

hugs

Claire cc

For a winter birthday girl (and some bargains!!)

Its my son's girlfriends birthday this month and i thought this beautiful Sweet Pea stamp (Holly Night by Ching Chou Kuik) would be perfect for her card.

I used 2 embossed snowflake card  blanks to make the easel card. The main image is coloured with promarkers and then triple embossed. I added some clear sparkle EP to the middle layer of embossing for a lovely icy effect and some glitter around the candle, it looks beautifully sparkly in real lfe but hasn't shown up in the pic. I stamped some black snowflakes on white pearl card for the layer behind the image and added some flowers made with a Marianne Ribbon flower die and some clear gems. The sentiment is stamped and embossed in black on an acrylic tag, the reverse of the tag is embossed with icicle tex EP. Some black gems and a black velvet bow to finish the card off.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp: Sketch

In a sweet pea dream: Monochrome

ABC Challenge: I is for Ice

Cupcake: Light it up

There's magic in the air: Anything goes

Oldie but Goodie: Christmas Birthday (just sneaking in with my sweet pea stamp I think but my snowflake stamp is at least 2 years old )

C.R.A.F.T: Christmas birthday

Crafty Purple Frog: Easel Cards

Moving along with the Times: For someone special

I love Sweet Pea stamps and Linda at Jazzlins Designs has a fab offer at the minute - 5 stamps for £10!!!! Wow, I'm waiting for the snow to thaw so postie can deliver mine! Pop over to Jazzlins and grab yours if you fancy a bargain

Thanks for calling by

Claire xx

A knew it was a mistake....

I should have known better than to make a card with starburst stains, glitter card and mirri card - a recipe for photographic disaster lol! I wanted to make something a bit different for my brother-in-law's Christmas card this year, he's a real 'blokey bloke' so cute is out of the question and i thought that by using Christmas colours of Starburst Stains on black card i'd get something suitable for a men's card. I used Sparkle and Sprinkle 'Sparkle' EP and Tim Holtz snowflakes and reindeer stamps to make a resist for the starburst stains background.

Sorry for the dodgy photo, I did my best honest :-). i'd love to be able to get a decent photo of this card as I'm really pleased with the colours and the shimmery effect in real life but this is the best pic i can get so you'll have to use your imagination ;-)

The starburst stains i used are poinsettia red gold (with a little red mica powder mixed in as the mica in this ink is gold), winter jasmine gold and cathederal pines green. I've used black/green glitter card and gold mirri card for matting and layering. The black and gold ribbon is from Crafty Ribbons. As my BIL is a bit of a grumpy old man, I used a 'Tis the season to be jolly' sentiment with the same EP and starburst stains.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

The Stampman: anything goes Christmas

Simon Says Stamp and Show: Your fav Tim Holtz stamp (I love both the reindeer and the snowflakes)

Cards for Men: Animals

Anything Goes Challenge: Embossing

Thanks for calling by, hope you are keeping warm and cosy. Its terrible weather here in the UK so I'm staying in and crafting all day :-) I've been messing around with my new melting pot this morning (messing being the operative word here lol) and had a great time making some beads. You don't want to see the mess I've made  ;-)

Claire

Christmas challenge at Crafty Ann's!

Woo hoo weekend is nearly here! Its my last day at work today and then I have a week off :-) I may do a little Christmas shopping and Crafty Ann's Challenge this week is perfect to get me in the mood for Christmas - we want to see your Christmas creations BUT using non traditional Christmas colours!! We are also celebrating the first anniversary of Crafty Ann's Challenge and we couldn't let that pass with out some treats!!

All the the DT have prizes on their blogs so all you have to do is leave a comment and you'll be in with a chance of winning your choice of one of Crafty Ann's digi stamps or a precoloured sheet on each of the DTs' blog!! Don't forget to leave me a comment to be in with a chance with win!!  And there will be an extra prize over on the challenge blog too so there are  lots of chances to win some goodies!

I've used Crafty Ann's beautiful pointsettia digi stamp (available from Ann's shop here) to make a Christmas decoration. The image is coloured with promarkers and layered up with silicone and I've added some gold microbeads to the centre. The leaves look a grey colour in the pic but they have been overstamped with swirls and versamark and dusted with gold mica powder and its not showing up too well in the pic. Ann has also got some beautiful precoloured images that will be great for quick projects so have a little look around her shop and check them out

The bauble shape is one of Carolines Decor Plates (available here). I always rave about these but they really are a wonderful surface to work on. This one is painted with orchid ecogreen acrylic paint paint. The snowflakes are a stamp from Tim Holtz, embossed with  gold EP. I masked the top of the bauble, swiped it with versamark and again embossed with gold EP. To finish off I added some gold Christmas tree trim, pink velvet ribbon and a big pink chiffon bow.

I'm entering this in the following challenges:

A Pocket Full of posies: Winter bouquet

City Crafter: get your Digi on

Kaboodle Doodles: Vintage

Everybody Art Challenge: Untraditional Christmas

I love promarkers: Snowflakes

Thanks for visiting today. Don't forget to check out the rest of the DTs blog for some fabulous inspiration for your non traditional Christmas project. Remember I'll be picking a comment from the comments  left here to win a prize too

Claire xx

Another for the Christmas card box

This weeks challenge from the lovely ladies over at Bah Humbug is to use text as the focal point of your card. I've used a text stamp from Elusive Images for this card

The text is stamped in versamark and then brayered over with inks from the blue/green end of Hydrangea big and juicy inkpad.  The text was cut out with a Marianne die (as is the shimmery star frame) from Jazzlins Designs. I stamped the snowflakes (Tim Holtz stamps) with versamark and brayered  over with the same blue green ink. I added a little white organza ribbon, some fb diamante gems and a little charm.

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

Truly Scrumptious: Sketch + optional blue and green

Die Cut Dreams Christmas: Words only

Winter Wonderland: Monochromatic Christmas

Tuesday Taggers: Diamonds are forever

Thanks for looking, sorry about the shine on the pic. My new camera is still totally baffling me lol

Claire xx