Nature's Peace from Chocolate Baroque

Good morning folks, this card features stamps from Nature's Peace from Chocolate Baroque. I wanted to create a sunny Autumn scene.

 I began with a PanPastel background and stamped the tree using brown ink, the foliage in the top corner with green ink and then stamped the foliage in the foreground with a dark green ink, over stamping with the berried inked in red ink. The sentiment was stamped and embossed with a vintage gold ink.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Artistic Inspirations: Anything goes
Love to Craft: Anything goes
Paper Shelter: Make it square
Sparkles Forum: Autumn colours
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, I've made a sunny card for my DT project for our new challenge at We Love 2 Create, as ever it's so easy to enter as our theme is 'Anything Mixed Media/Creative Goes' and you don't even have to use our products to play along. We've got some lovely crafty goodies up for grabs  from the fabulous  Premium Craft Brands too! 

I've used some old scenic stamps and combined them with some of the fab new Tropical Stamps from Polkadoodles to make this card. i stamped the images with black Memento Ink and then added colour with PanPastels and a little definition with Lyra Polycolour pencils. The leaves were stamped with versamark and then  I applied my Pans over the top, The sentiment is also from Polkadoodles.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Addicted to Stamps and more: Holiday

Crazy for Challenges: Holidays

Creative fingers: Anything goes

Fantasy Stampers: Sunshine Colours

Simon Says Stamp: Hip to be square

Sweet Stampin: No designer papers

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

Claire xx

PanPastel Turquoise Shade	PanPastel Turquoise Tint	PanPastel Phthalo Green	Bright Yellow Green Pan Pastel	Pan Pastel bright yellow green shade
PanPastel Permanent Green	Hansa Yellow	Diarylide Yellow PanPastel	Permanent Red Tint Pan Pastel

Free Download at Chocolate Baroque

Good morning folks, I meant to post this yesterday but I forgot lol. Another hectic week at work has scrambled my brains but better late than never I suppose. We've got lots of inspiration for our challenge over at Chocolate Baroque Challenge plus another gorgeous free download from the talented Lesley Wharton! We're also very excited as Lesley is going to be doing regular hows on the Craft Channel!!

This month's free download is a real beauty, Lesley creates such gorgeous papers I always feel its a shame to cover them up so I've stamped a scene over this one so you can still see the pretty paper in the background. I've used stamps from Chocolate Baroque's Landscape Edges and the Design a Tree multi buy for this one. I began by stamping the clouds and background trees with versamark and then applied PanPastels over the top to create a delicate background. Next I stamped the trees and gave them lots of lovely foliage using Memento I'nks. I decoupaged some of the elements from the beautiful freebie paper, distressed everything with Gatherd Twigs distress ink and added a sentiment from Words of Inspiriation to finish off. You can find the free download here.
I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Crafting from the Heart: Anything goes
Crafty Friends: in the garden
Inspiration Destination: anything goes
Stamping Sensations: Anything goes
Sunday Stamps: creating a scene plus sketch
The Crafty Addicts: Anything goes plus a sentiment


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

GDT at Crafting by Designs

Good morning folks, I was lucky enough to be chosen as a Spotlight Winner over at Crafting by Designs in January and so I'm lucky enough to be doing a Guest Design spot for the new challenge which is 'She's so Beautiful'. Pop over to the challenge blog to check out the DT's beautiful projects to inspire you and find out all the details.

For my GDT project I've made a wallhanging using one of my favourite stamps 'Jing' from Prima. I stamped her on Ultimate Graphic paper from Polkadoodles and coloured her up with Graph'It Markers, adding some glitter to the flowers in her hair.

I created some layers for the background, starting with corrugated cardboard given a coat of black gesso and then highlighted with some gilding flakes.  The net layer was a blend of shades of Violet and Magenta PanPastels, I attached the image and overstamped with layers of various Indigo Blu stamps using Memento Inks in Elderberry and Lilac Posies. Next I added some stencilling using white texture past using stencils from Crafters Workshop and Indigo Blu, I left the stencilling white as it was looking a bit dark and added some highlights with gilding flakes.

I used some cosmic shimmer UTEE in the corners, its really shimmery in real life but doesn't show up too well in the pic. 

Last but not least I finished off with ribbon and some embellishments from my March and January CraftBox, I gilded the leaves and the twirly bits of the flowers with gilding flakes and coloured the fabric flower with distress inks and added some of the pretty iridescent pearls here and there.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Creative Craft Cottage: anything goes

Dream Valley: Girlie

Lemon Shortbread: Anything goes

Incy Wincy: Use your favourite colouring medium (Graph'It markers and PanPastels)

Mixed Media World Challenge: vintage

Recycle repurpose, reinvent: anything goes (recycled packaging card)

Retro Rubber: Anything goes

Sparkles Forum: Make it girly

Stamping Sensations: one for the girls

Thanks so much for visiting today

Claire xx

Anything goes with your new stash at Vintage Stamping Challenges

Good morning my lovelies, its time for a new challenge over at  Flonzcraft Vintage Stamping Challenges and this month our theme is 'Anything Goes with new stash' so if Santa was kind enough to bring you crafty goodies for Christmas its a great opportunity to join in. As always though we must see some stamping on your project, no digis are allowed. Our lucky winner will receive a $20 voucher to spend at Flonzcraft so its definitely worth playing along.

I've used some of my newest stamps on this project, I've also used lots of old goodies that I've just unearthed lol. Since I moved house I've been gradually sorting out all my craft stuff and its fab, like having loads of new stash as I'd forgotten I'd got lots of things lol. My project is an altered coffee can and matching tag. I've used Ranger Kraft Resist vard stock that I've inked with Distress Stains and overstamped with some gorgeous flower stamps from Dreamees. I've covered the coffee can with the card, added some string, twill ribbon and seam binding and made a layered flower using the Dreamees stamps and Memento Rhubarb Stalk ink.

I've made a tag in the same way, adding a strip of the leftover kraft resist card to a tag and popping on an extra butterfly. I've also used one of my favourite stamps from Flonzcraft, this gorgeous birdie stamp can be found here. I've embossed the image with black Embossing powder and added some colour with distress markers.

I'm entering this  project in the following challenges:

Allsorts: what's new

Crafty Calendar: something new

Left of Center: all things new

Sweet Stampin: Something new

Recycle. Repurpose, Reinvent: anything goes

Thanks so much for visiting today, if you've got time pop over to the challenge blog as my teamies have some fabulous inspiration for you!

Claire xx

We love 2 Create

Good morning folks, its challenge time again over at We Love 2 Create and we're keeping it nice and easy for you with our theme of 'Anything Creative/Mixed Media' goes. You don't have to use our products to play along either and our lucky winner will receive some gorgeous crafty goodies from Premium Craft Brands!! I've made a quick little scene using my PanPastels, Memento Inks and Lavinia Stamps. I love this fairy and use her every year, she's perfect for Autumn themed cards.

I used my Pans to create the background, masking the moon and using torn paper to mask the hills. Pans blend so beautifully it only takes a few minutes, soooooo much easier than brayering. I've used lots of different Lavinia Stamps to create my little scene. They've all been stampe with Memento Inks in various bright Autumnal colous. Memento Inks work a treat over PanPastels and the colours are lovely and vibrant too. 

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Brown Sugar: anything goes

Creative Fingers: anything goes

Scrap and Crafts: autumn colours

Simply Papercrafts: anything goes

Sweet Stamps: anything goes

The Crafty Addicts: Anything goes/Autumn colour palette

Wags'n'Whiskers: Fall colours

Thanks for visiting today, hope to see you again soon

Claire xx

Neutral Grey Pan Pastel	Silver Metallic PanPastel	White PanPastel	Ultramarine Blue Tint	Bright Yellow Green Shade
Bright yellow green	Raw Umber PanPastel	Burnt Sienna

Anything Creative/Mixed Media goes at We Love 2 Create

Good morning folks, we've got lots of inspiration for you today over at We Love 2 Create and you've still got plenty of time to play along with our 'Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes' challenge!! Pop over and have a look at all the inspiration from my lovely teamies and see if you were picked as winner or one of the top 3 in our last challenge. Our generous sponsors at Premium Craft Brands have some fab crafty goodies up for grabs for our lucky winner too.

For my project I've altered an MDF blank using my PanPastels. Its not the best of photos but thats nothing new for me lol. Once I'd given the mdf a coat of gesso I added some colour with shades of turquoise and bright yellow green PanPastels and did a wee bit of stencilling here and there using a Dutch Doobadoo stencil and some Maimeri Light Modelling Paste. Once that was dry I added some white pearl medium for some sparkle. I stamped the flowers using Dreamees stamps and Memento Ink (Lady Bug) and stamped in some grass here and there too. I added dots of black enamel accents to the centre of the flowers and left it all to dry. I wanted a nice gold edge to the MDF but this is really awkward with a gold pen or embossing powder so I used versamark ink (applied with a cotton bud) and then used Gold PanPastel with one of the sofft tool applicators to give a pretty gold edge. To finish off I added a metal butterfly coloured with white gesso and gold PanPastel, a gingham bow and a paper poppy which unfortunately just looks like a blob in my photo lol.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Crafting with an attitude: anything goes

Crafting with Dragonflies: make it floral

Crafts 4 Eternity: summer

Fab'n'Funky: things with wings

Simply Create Too: anything goes

Try it on Tuesday: Sending you flowers

Thanks so much for popping by today

Claire xx

Bright yellow green	Bright Yellow Green Shade	PanPastel Turquoise Shade	PanPastel Turquoise Tint	White Fine Pearl Medium for Pan Pastels
Light Gold PanPastel

Chocolate Baroque Colour Challenge

Good morning folks, its time for new challenge over at Chocolate Baroque Challenge and also some new and exciting changes too. The lovely Lesley Wharton who has been running Chocolate Baroque for the last year has taken over as owner! Lesley is a wonderful lady and I'd like to wish her every success in the future, Chocolate Baroque is definitely in very good hands. We'll miss Glenda of course, but Glenda has her own very exciting plans too so pop over to the shop blog and find out all the details!

Well back to crafting and as always we've got a colour challenge for you, this month the colour palette is based on a card by yours truly



As always our challenge winner will receive a £15 voucher to spend at Chocolate Baroque and there are Top 3 honours up for grabs too.

I've created a much simpler card this time around, time is against me at the minute so i've just gone for some simple stamping and colouring.

The stamps are from one of my favourite sets, Honeysuckle Butterfly, stamped with Memento Inks. I've coloured the image with Graph'it markers and distressed with Weathered Wood distress ink.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Allsorts: use a stamp not a digi

Crafting from the Heart: anything goes

Incy Wincy : anything goes

Sister Act: anything goes

Wags'n'Whiskers: CAS or one layer card

If you have a min, pop over to the challenge blog as my teamies have some beautiful cards to inspire you. Thanks for popping by today

Claire xx

A new challenge and a giveaway at We love 2 Create

Good morning folks, its challenge time at We Love 2 Create and as always our theme is 'Anything Creative/Mixed media goes. We'll have lots of lucky winners though cos as well as the fabby prize from Premium Craft Brands all the DT are giving away a postcard that they've created for this weeks challenge! I've got a few spare pieces of stampbord too for my lucky winner.

As a new twist on Love to Create Challenges, the DT thought it would be nice to share our pan pastels love with you all, so for this challenge each DT member is giving away their project; a postcard. The DT are taking this opportunity to say thank you for following both the challenges and us, so have created this RAK (random act of kindness) giveaway. One lucky commentator will receive my postcard at the end of this challenge (Sunday 28th June) so that gives you 2 weeks to enter both the challenge and also comment on my blog. The winner of my postcard will be both announced on the Love to Create challenge blog and here on my own blog.

I have made my postcard by ..... your blurb ....

Remember to be in with a chance to win my postcard, leave me a comment on this post and I will pick a random winner on Saturday 27th June with the winner being announced the following day. Don't forget to visit the other DT because if you do not win my postcard, you might win one of their fabulous postcards instead.

My post card is kind of tag shaped but t really is a postcard honest, I've been hoarding it for ages but thought it would be perfect for this weeks project

I began by applying my PanPastels to the postcard, blues at the top and greens at the bottom, blending them in with my sofft applicator. I cut a circle in a scrap of copier paper to add the sun and then set too stamping. I used some free Sheena Douglass stamps from a craft mag and Memento Inks to stap the images. 

I used a pencil eraser to remove the PanPastel from the butterfly and then added some White Fine Pearl PanPastel Medium to give it some shimmer. I used a white Graph'It Shake pen to add highlights to the flowers.Then I added some eyelash fibres, pearl trim, a purple bow topped with a pretty button to finish off.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Artistic Stamper: summer is on its way

Crafting Musketeers: shades of summer

Crafty Creations: all creatures great and small

Creatalicious: butterflies 

Creative Knockouts: ribbons and bows

Scrap and Craft: tag it

Simply Papercraft: anything goes

Through the purple haze: bright colours

Thanks so much for visiting today, don't forget to leave a comment if you'd like to win my postcard and some stampbord!!

Claire xx

ultramarine blue	Ultramarine Blue Tint	Bright Yellow Green Shade	Bright yellow green	Diarylide Yellow PanPastel
Graph It shake it white marker	White Fine Pearl Medium for Pan Pastels

Stampbord Pencil pot

Good morning my lovelies its challenge time at We Love 2 Create with Premium Craft Brands and our theme is 'Anything Creative/Mixed media Goes' so there's lots of scope for you to play along to be in with a chance of winning some gorgeous goodies from Premium craft brands! As always you have two weeks to enter and if you're struggling for inspiration pop over to the challenge blog and check out my teamies gorgeous artwork!

I've made a pencil pot using Stampbord ATCs, Premium Craft Brands stamps and PanPastels, you can find all the links to the products I've used at the end of this post.

My lovely Chocolate Baroque teamie Judith made one of these a while ago and I couldn't resist having a play as I think they are so cute. Pop over to Judith's blog and have a look.

I began by lining my ATCs up and colouring the stampbord with my PanPastels, using Yellow Green and a little of the pearl yellow and green, I added some pearl blue for the sky and then set to stamping. I used Memento Ink in Bamboo leaves and stamped a magazine freebie from Indigo Blu and the gorgeous dandelion from Premium Craft Brands postcard set. Next I stamped the sentiments usind Black Archival ink

I used my Stampbord tools to scratch in some cloud shapes and then glued the stampbord ATCs to a strip of designer paper. Once this was dry, the strip of ATCs was glued to a square of mountboard. I used pearl trim to cover the corners.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

2 Creative chicks: anything goes

Country View Crafts: simply scenic

Crafting by designs: sentiments

Crafting with an attitude: anything goes/ spring fever

Creative knockouts: sentimentally yours

Dream Factory: secret garden

Fab'n'Funky: flora and fauna

Rhedd's Creative Spirit: anything goes mixed media

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

Claire xx

Stampbord ATCs	Stampbord Scraper Tools	Premium Art Brands, Postcard stamp set	Premium Art Brands Roses stamp set	Pan Pastel pearlescent green
Pan Pastel pearlescent yellow	Bright yellow green