What Shall I Make Today?

Just a quick post from me today to congratulate my Gran & Grandad on reaching their 70th Wedding Anniversary - quite an achievement I think!!!


I know what you're thinking - the 70th Wedding Anniversary is Platinum and you've used gold!! Well there's a good reason for it my Gran doesn't like the colours Platinum, Silver or Grey!! Anyway, this is inside of the box I made for them.




Thanks for stopping by today.

Claire xx

Materials
White Shimmer Card - The Range
Gold Mirri Card - Papermania
Shrink Plastic
Gold Acrylic Paint
Distress Ink
Buttons
Flowers
Stickles
Pearl Beads
Paper Covered Wire
Ribbon - Crafty Ribbons
Tools
Fiskars Heart Squeeze Punch
Nestabilities Labels 8
Heat Gun
Sizzix Swirls Embossing Folder

I'd like to enter this box into the following challenges:
Creative Inspirations Paint - Anything but a card
Dream Valley Challenges - Sparkle
Craft Your Days Away - Buttons or Bows
Crafty Purple Frog - For someone special
Moving Along With The Times - Ribbons & Bows
Paper Crafting Journey - Anything goes
My Mum's Craft Shop - Things with wings

Morning folks - I can't believe that it's time for yet another Delicious Doodles Challenge and more importantly I can't believe how near to Christmas we are!I'm sure someone has stolen a few weeks from me as I'm nowhere near ready. Anyway, this was another of those challenges that when I first saw the title I thought "Eeek what am I gonna do???" For some reason I couldn't get spiders outta my mind! LOL. Anyway, I had a big think about it and decided that I'd make a Christmas card using an animal (tbh I had thought about using a fairy and telling you all a little tale about her forgetting to purchase hair removal cream, but somehow didn't think it would make the cut - lol)!!

So here's what I settled on - a basic stepper card that has mini steps. I hope you like it cos it was a devil to line up all the layers and to be honest I'm not entirely sure it was worth the effort!!


I used the fantastic A Crofters Winter as the main focus on the card. I used Prismacolor Pencils to highlight small details such as the grass and then Distress Inked the sky. The mini steps give a lot more dimension to the card than using foam pads or silicone glue which was why I persevered with the layering! I added Barn Owl & Baby Deer to the scene and again coloured them with pencils to achieve a really soft look. To finish I added loads of  Stickles to give the snow a bit of texture and sparkle.

I hope you can join us this time - remember you don't have to use a Delicious Doodles image to play. Oh and don't forget to enter the My Memories Software giveaway that I'm currently running.

Claire xx

Materials
Images - Delicious Doodles
White card - The Papermill
Prismacolor Pencils
Distress Ink - Black Soot
Stickles - Picket Fence & Stardust

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
PanPastel UK - Bright & Frosty
Little Red Wagon - Christmas
My Mum's Craft Shop - Things with wings
Everybody Art - Christmas
Top Tip Tuesday - More than one fold
Lollipop Crafts - Anything goes

Haa Ha, bet you wonder what I'm on about?? Well it's challenge time over at Sweet Pea Stampers and this time we want to see your stickers and if ya brave enough you could even dig out some of those peel offs :D

We have two fantastic sponsors this time, Amy from the Crafty Purple Frog and Lynette from Sweet Pea Stamps who have provided a fantastic prize of 2 sheets of Decoupage and 2 rubber stamps respectively . I have to say this challenge left me completely cold. I've never been a hugh peel off fan and stickers aren't really my bag either, I wasn't even sure that I'd got anything in my stash so seriously considered copping out of this challenge. However, a quick rummage through a box of stash that I won from Hot Off The Press and I found some double sided stickers - yay, so that just left a stamp to choose which tbh wasn't too much of a task as I have some lovely new un-inked Christmas ones that I needed to use.

Now I know what you're all thinking - she could've used double sided adhesive sheets/heat embossed etc, etc... So just to prove that I actually did use stickers here's a picture of the sheet with several missing :D


So moving swiftly on, my card......


I created the backing using distress inks and then affixed the stickers and sprinkled with Glamour Dust before brayering them firmly into position. I then heat embossed the image twice and cut the deer and sentiment prior to decoupaging them. The snowflakes and swirls are from the same set of stickers, but I've added white flocking to them. This has given them the appearance of vellum.

Well you've seen mine, so what are you waiting for? Dig out those stickers and peel offs and let's see what you make.

Claire x

Materials
Image - Holiday Collage Sheet, Plate 56
HOTP - Dazzler Stickers
Distress Inks
Gems
Glamour Dust
Flock
Silver Embossing Powder
Ribbon - from stash

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Crimbo Crackers - Make it sparkle
Moving Along With The Times - Let It Snow
Delightful Challenges - Bingo - Add dimension, ribbon, glitter
Southern Girls - Bingo - Glitter, ribbon and embossing
Creatalicious Challenges - Christmas and make it sparkle
The Craft Garden - Christmas - no red or green
Paper Pretties - Christmas - non traditional colours
Paper Shelter - Snowflakes

Morning. Confused?? Nope I'm not here with my Sweet Pea Stampers challenge post (that'll be posted later), but I am here with my GDT card for Polka Doodles!! Can you believe that they asked me to GDT for them?? No me neither, but I'm super excited and having a blast playing with their images and papers from the new Pretty Tuff CD :D

So this week the challenge is Shaped Christmas Cards. Now when I saw the challenge title I knew immediately what I was going to do (or so I thought!!!). However, once I started working on my card it just wouldn't work no matter what I did. I think part of the problem was that I'd become obsessed with certain elements the card and instead of ditching plan A and moving onto plan B, I fixated on those elements and just couldn't move on!!

Anyway, after much huffing and puffing I finally decided to scrap my initial plan of a snow globe and use similar elements to make a bauble card. I'm reasonably happy with the outcome, but would make a couple of changes if I made another one - not least of which would be to suspend the kraft element in between the acetate outers! Anyway the one thing I'm really pleased with is the fact that not only is this a card which can free stand, it can also be used as bauble if the recipient runs out of room on the mantle or wants it as a keepsake.


I've also struggled to photograph my card. The pictures don't show the sparkle, shimmer and texture of the card and sadly the snowflake stamped acetate obscures the snow scene background (in real-life the snowflakes are really subtle and you can clearly see the trees and super sparkly scene). In an attempt to show you the snow scene I've lifted the acetate front panel - but my piccies really don't do this card justice :(


I hope you like my card and will pop over to the challenge blog to see what the other DT members have created.

Have a great weekend folks.

Claire x

Materials
Polka Doodles - Pretty Tuff CD
Acetate
Kraft Cardstock - Papermania
Stickles - Frosted Lace
Promarkers
Prismacolor Pencils
Ribbon - Crafty Ribbons

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Cards for Men - Christmas
Craft Your Passion - Let it snow
Hooked On Crafts - Something Punchy
Paper Sundaes - Digital
Scrappy Frogs Challenge Blog - Kraft
Di's Digi Designs - Ribbons & Bows
Little Claire's - Shaped Cards
Papertake Weekly - When is card not a card?

Wow - When The Craft Barn have candy, they certainly have CANDY!!! Take a look at the piccie and then get yourself over to the blog for a chance to win all that lovely loot! I'll be keeping my fingers well and truly crossed for this one.

Morning Folks. Just popping on to tell you about the new challenge over at Delicious Doodles which is REMEMBRANCE. If you read my post you will see how I have chosen to interpret the theme, but you can interpret it in anyway you like. For example, you may wish to make a sympathy card, or a birthday card with I remembered on it.

Today is of course Remembrance Day where we remember those who have given their lives or have been seriously wounded in return for our freedom. Each year the nation expresses its unequivocal support for The Royal British Legion's charity work through the Poppy Appeal by buying paper poppies (details of their work and how you can help can be found here). In our modern day lives it is all too easy to forget the importance of this day, so I decided that I'd make a card in honour of those who have fallen.


The image was coloured with Promarkers and Prisma Pencils, I added some Stickles to her dress and some Black Enamel Accents to the centre of the poppies. I created the backing paper using Distress Inks, spritzed with Glimmer Mist, stamped some swirls and then heat embossed them, finally I sponged some ink through some sequin waste. The poppies have been made from satin fabric and I've added Stickles to the centres.

Materials
Delicious Doodles Poppy
My Paperworld Grasses & Embellishments
Versamark Ink
Promarkers
Prisma Pencils
Stickles - Stardust, Black Soot
Enamel Accents
Satin Fabric - Poundland
Sequin Waste
Heat It Up Embossing Powder - Black
Distress Inks - Fired Brick, Black Soot, Forest Moss
Ribbon - Crafty Ribbons
Spellbinders Foliage Die
Nestabilities Labels 8
Tools - Heat Gun, Bigshot, Tim Holtz Blender

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
The Artistic Stamper  - Backgrounds
Cute Card Thursday - Reds for Remembrance
Dutch Dare Card Challenges - Punches & Dies
Just Inspirational Challenges - Remembrance
PanPastel UK - Dark & Mysterious

I'm back with another one :) Are you fed up of seeing them yet?? If so I'm sorry, but they are soooo addictive! This time I've made a Christmas bird house, which was really quick and simple.


I painted the house with acrylic paint, applied some patches of crackle glaze and then sponged gold paint over it using a baby wipe. The bird is from the Sizzix Tim Holtz Birdcage Alterations Die, I chopped his tail and legs off . The flowers, button and ribbon were in my stash.


Thanks for stopping by today.

Claire xx

I'd like to enter this project into the following challenges:
Little Claire's Designs - Christmas
Crafty Catz - Anything Goes
ABC Christmas Challenge - V is for vintage
Cooking It Up With Katie - Anything but a card
Freshly Brewed - Anything goes
Paper Shelter - Christmas Fun
Bearly Mine - Anything but a card
Christmas Inspiration - Bows
I Did It Creations - Christmas

Morning - I'm back again. You don't see me for months and then I'm back almost daily!!  :D

It's Friday and time for another challenge over at Sweet Pea Stampers. This time we want to see cards that fit the theme REMEMBER. The prize is kindly supplied by our lovely sponsor Amy from the Crafty Purple Frog . If you're stuck for inspiration, head on over to the challenge blog, I guarantee you will be blown away the fantastic creations the DT have made for this challenge!

I've made a card using the gorgeous Marshmellow Dragon by Lisa Victoria. Now I can imagine that you're thinking "Huh???? What's this got to do with remember!!??" Well don't ask me why but when I saw the challenge title, the poem "Remember, remember the 5th of November" sprang to mind. For those of you haven't heard the poem it goes something like this - be warned you're also in for a bit if a history lesson LOL:

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
the Gunpowder Treason and Plot,

I see no reason why Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, t’was his intent to blow up King and Parliament.

Three score barrels were laid below to prove old England’s overthrow;
By God’s mercy he was catch’d with a dark lantern and lighted match.

Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

Hip hip hoorah!

Just popping on to say a massive THANK YOU to each and everyone of you that took the time to vote for my card in the Sweet Pea Stampers Card Making Superstar Contest. I'm thrilled to be able to tell you that I won :) I really appreciate the help you all gave me.

Hugs
Claire xx