Exciting news!!

Hi there,I'm back with my first DT project for Scrapbook Stamps Society. I was over the moon when I was invited to join such an exciting team, the hardest part was choosing the images to work with lol. For my first project I've made a little shadow box using a stunning digistamp by Heather Valentin called 'Butterfly Fae Fantaseyes' (you can find it here). I love to colour eyes so I couldn't resist this image.

I've coloured the image with promarkers and popped it in to the back of a canvas that I'd covered with glimmer misted scrunched paper to create a frame. I inked around the edges with some black versafine ink and added lots of flowers. The large black roses are made from grungepaper painted with Ranger crackle paint and a sprinkle of black glitter. All the smaller flowers started out white and were coloured with glimmer mists. I've added some black punched leaves and some gorgeous glittery green leaves. 

The little heart charm isn't showing too well in the pic, I made it by colouring translucent shrink plastic with green pigment ink and stamping over with a heart stamp before shrinking to size. Its attached with a couple of jump rings. 

The new challenge over at  Scrapbook Stamp Society Challenge  is open and the theme is 'Hearts and Flowers, there are some fab prizes on offer and some gorgeous freebies too

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

Crafty Emma's Challenge: anything but a card

Creative Belli: Fancy frames

Hotshot Crafts : Flowers

I love promarkers: anything goes

Stampin Sisters in Christ: Make a heart

Sunday Stamper: My eyes adored you 

Totally Papercrafts: Make your own flowers

Through the Craftroom Door: anything but a card plus make your own embellies

Truly Scrumptious: something forgotten 

(my canvas was gathering dust as were the flowers I coloured with glimmer mists)

Happy Crafting

Claire xx

Fashionable Flowers

Hi there my fashionable friends, today sees a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges  and this time our theme is Handmade flowers. We are of course sponsored by the lovely Marina who will be providing a gorgeous prize for our lucky winner from her shop Cottage Crafts. For my DT project I decided to combine two of my favourite things, stamping and jewellery making.

I created a grungepaper flower using a freebie stamp from Craft Stamper, painted with viva precious metal paint in turquoise and over stamped with part of a beautiful doodle butterfly stamp (also a freebie from Craft Stamper), layered the 5 flowers up and secured them with a gold eyelet. This allowed me to thread some wired gold myuki drop beads through the centre, I secured them with silicone glue and added some gold glitter. The leaves were made using jade green size 11 seed beads, gold size 15 seed beads and more myuki drops (the pattern for the leaves was in last months Bead magazine). I'd forgotten just how teeny tiny size 15 seed beads are, I'm sure they've shrunk or perhaps I should have gone to specsavers LOL. 

Once I'd made the flower and the leaves I had to try and work out how to attach them together so that i could make a necklace out of them. EEk that was a bit of a nightmare but I used a small nestie to cut a shape from grungeboard and wired the flower and leaves through it and added some silicone glue for a bit of extra security (I'm a bit of a belt and braces girl lol). I added another gold eyelet to the grungeboard shape and attached a gold chain (from one of my expeditions to the charity shop lol. 

Here's a pic to show the detail a little better. Its been so dark and dull here I've struggled to get photo's of this project.

I made a tag to display the necklace, by painting a tag with the same turquoise precious metal paint and overstamping with the same flower and butterfly stamp in gold and then using versamark and embossing with some gorgeous sparkly teal ep from my stash. I attached the necklace using a little turquoise chiffon ribbon.

I'm entering this tag in the following challenges:

Allsorts : Anything but a card

Cheerful Stamp pad: petals

Creative Belli: non paper materials

Flutter by Wednesday: Open challenge with butterfly angel or fairy

Sir Stampalot: Whatever you fancy

Sweet Stamps: Bling it up

Pop on over to the challenge blog to see the gorgeous projects from my fashionable teamies, they've come up with some absolute stunners and we're also introducing our newest member of the DT too!! 

Thanks for calling by

Claire xx

Challenge 4 at Let's Ink It Up

Hi, how's your weekend going? I'm having a lovely peaceful day, hubby and son are out so I've got some peace and quiet to craft and catch up on some blog hopping. First though, its time for our 4th Challenge at Let's Ink It Up. Thanks for all your wonderful entries for our last challenge and congrats to the winner and top 3. It was really hard to choose again this time around.

The theme for our new challenge is Halloween colours, you don't have to make a Halloween project but we do want to see those spooky colours!! Dont forget though, NO DIGI STAMPS you must use a rubber or clear stamp!! We have a wonderful sponsor again this time, our lucky winner will get a $15 goodie package from Bizzy Becs

I've made a card for my DT project this month and I've used ching chou kuik's 'Not Just a Pumpkin' a very saucy witch from Sweet Pea Stamps. She is stamped onto pearlescent card and coloured with promarkers and some stickles for a little bling.

The letters 'BOO' are cut out on my cricut. I made the background by brayering shades of orange ink on some silk card and then brayered with black over the top before stamping with an Elusive images cobweb stamp and a little toadstool stamp behind  the lower 'O' (I just love those spookly eyes peeping out lol). I added a bit of black glitter to the spiders in the centre of the cobwebs. I made some grungepaper roses, coloured with rust brilliance ink and again finished with some black glitter. The swirly flourishes are cut on my cricut and embossed with tequila sunrise EP.

I don't celebrate Halloween but I love making Halloween cards for some reason lol. I'm entering this little witch in the following challenges:

The Shabby TeaRoom: Vintage Halloween

By the Cute and Girly: Spooky

A Spoofull of Sugar: Sparkle and Shine

Simon Says Stamp:Halloween

Gingersnap Creations GC 73: Gothic Theme

Meljen's : Halloweeny

Glitterbabe: Anything goes

Fussy and Fancy Friday: Halloween

Polka Doodles: Make your own embellishments

Thanks for calling by, I hope you're going to get inky with us and have a play with those Halloween colours. Don't forget to check out the rest of the DT's blogs -  3 new very talented ladies joining have joined our team today so don't miss out on their gorgeous projects

Claire xx

A new Halloween challenge at Cowgirl's Sunday Stamp'en challenge

We've got a new challenge over at Cowgirl's Sunday Stamp'en Challenge today, the theme is 'Anything Goes' but we'd love  to see lots of Orange and Black on your Halloween inspired creations. Over at Cowgirl Up Designs CJ is launching a load of new Halloween images today, I've used one, 'Cat'n'Witch' for this card. Isn't she fab? I really enjoyed colouring her. Our prize this week is from Cowgirl Up, the winner gets 4 of CJs images and the Top 3 also get 2 images - check out the challenge blog for more details!!

I don't really like Halloween to be honest but I love making Halloween cards for some reason. My friend's daughter has a Halloween birthday so I always make her a spooky card, this year she'll be 16 so I think this funky witch will be great for her card.

 I've coloured Cat'n'witch with promarkers and distressed the edges a little. The bp is from a kit kindly sent to me by my blogging buddy Jean, as are the little stickers in the corners. I added some tiny buttons (from the Stampman) to the bp. The rose is made from grungepaper coloured with brilliance ink, I also added a little black glitter. I've also used a creative acrylic tag, embossed the back with some sparkly orange EP and used a sentiment from Elusive Images on the front. I added some orange ribbon and black eyelash fibre to finish off.

I'm entering 'Cat'n'Witch' in the following challenges

Crafts and ME: something for a teenager

Aud Sentiments: Halloween Sentiment

Glitterbabe's Challenge: Embossing

Crafty Emma's Challenge: Get ahead, Get a hat

Baby Bud Challenge: Fall/Halloween

The Crafty Pad: Spooky

Thanks for looking, I hope you're going to join in our challenge this week

Claire xx

Paper Roses

This week Frankie's challenge at Dragon's Dream Tag it On is ' Paper Roses', Frankie has found an amazing tutorial for grungepaper roses at Lynne Forsythe's blog and her challenge is to have a go. I had a bit of a serendipity moment with this challenge as postie delivered Glenda's fab new CD 'Essence of Nature' which has the most gorgeous papers AND some fab artistic elements including some  tags. I've based this tag on one of the tags from the cd, its so beautiful it seemed a shame to cover any of it up really lol

I stuck the printed tag onto a large tag from Graphicus (perfect size!), edged it with silver EP  and then stamped my favourite tree (Glade from Elusive images) to the side of the tag and embossed with silver EP, also stamped one of the leaf stamps in brilliance pealescent lilac and white and embossed with sparkly EP (Glenda used this technique on her blog and it looks fab). I also added some lilac and icicle stickles. I stamped the sentiment under the tree and some hearts down the side ( both from Elusive images 'Lace rose heart')

I followed the tutorial from Lynnes blog to make the roses and used glimmer mists and starburst stains to colour them and added some more stickles. Now my roses are nowhere near as neat as Lynne's or Frankie's, but I sweated blood making these lol. Everytime I got one finished and glued, it sprang apart and trying to get a little strip of grungepaper covered in glossy accents back in to shape is no mean feat I can tell you. I loved making them though, and will persevere until I get them right, honest!! To finish off the tag, I added some lace leaves and to make a loop for the tag.

If you've got Glenda' s new cd. pop over to her blog as she has a little competition running to win a Graphicus voucher!

Have a good weekend and thanks for popping by

Claire xx