Quick and Easy Card

Just thought I'd pop on and share a recent demo make using docrafts Capsule Pigments A4 Ultimate Paper Pack and the Xcut Winter Forest Die.

For full details please pop over to my docrafts gallery.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Claire x

Batman Shadow Box Card

It was my daughter's boyfriend's 21st Birthday recently and he's a big DC Comics fan. As always time was really short, so when I spotted a DC Comics die-cut decoupage kit I thought it would be perfect for a really speedy make.

I'm quite pleased with how this turned out and will be making lots more cards with the kit as there's far more in there than I anticipated!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Claire x

Winnie in Winterland Bauble Card

Just thought I'd share another recent make using Winnie in Winterland that you may have spied on the recent Polkadoodles Create & Craft TV show.

This was a really simple make and I love how it turned out!

To make this card I simply enlarged the bauble from the disc in a word document. Printed and cut it out, then adhered it to an 8" x 8" card blank, ensuring that part of the bauble overhung the spine. It was then trimmed to size and embellished with a mix of foliage and flowers from the CD. I also added a few of the little pine cones that I made using the flower dies (tutorial here). To finish I added some glitter glue and a sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Claire x

Materials
Winnie in Winterland
Flowers 1 & 2 Dies

Belle Papillon the final cut!

Yep we've come to the end of my samples using this fabulous new kit. I hope you've enjoyed seeing my creations?

This card was fairly quick and easy to make. I distressed the papers with scissors and rolled and scrunched the edges.

The cage was die cut, painted with gold acrylic paint and once dry stamped with Stazon.

The elegant nest die cut has been edged with acrylic paint prior to stamping the sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Claire x

Shabby chic card

Just popping onto share another card made from the Belle Papillon and Bella Fleur collections.

I die cut the large Elegant Nest from the Belle Papillon Paper Pad, brushed the edges with gold paint and then heat embossed the sentiment.

The papers were distressed with scissors. I used Nikky's Stab n Stitch Tool to create the faux stitching and then ran a fine liner over the holes.

The butterflies were stamped onto shrink plastic and the larger one of them was die cut with the matching doublet die.

I then layered up the papers, lace and embellishments onto a kraft card blank.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Claire x

Gorjuss Girl altered notebook

Another little make that I did a while back and forgot to blog!

This time it's a notebook that I've altered using a Docraft's Gorjuss Girl stamps. I thought I'd try using pastel colours as the Gorjuss range tends to be darker shades. I think it works quite well, what do you think?

Thanks for stopping by today.

Claire x

Snowman Christmas Card

This will be my last post before Christmas and I'd like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Peaceful, Prosperous New Year. I'd also like to thank those of you who have supported and encouraged me in my artistic endeavours this year, you really have no idea how much it means!

Anyway, here's a little snowman card that I batch made using Sizzix/Tim Holtz stamps and matching dies. They're really quick and easy, so much so that I managed to create matching envelopes.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Claire x

Another circle card

I'm loving making these little circle cards at the moment. This is another sample that I made for the launch of Polkadoodles Bella Fleur Kit. It was super quick and easy to make and one that I think I will batch make for my card stash.

I hope you're enjoying seeing my projects from this kit launch, if not then you'll be pleased to know that there's only one more card to come!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Claire x

Things got a little inky!

So I'm not sure how why this happened, but I got my Distress Inks out to play and ended up with this. Lots of stamping and masking (made super easy with the doublet dies), then a bit of Glossy Glue and Glitter to finish.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Claire x

Materials
Polkadoodles Bella Fleur Stamps and Dies
Distress Ink
Docrafts Glossy Glue
Glitter

Vintage Frame From An Old Christmas Card Box

Hopefully you all saw the shows on Create and Craft TV on Friday and loved the new collections from Polkadoodles? If you missed it or don't live in the UK you can watch the 11am show and 3pm show for a limited period by clicking on the highlighted links.

If you caught the 3pm show you would've seen the little vintage style box frame with a shrine setting. I was honoured and exceptionally pleased that Nikky demonstrated how to make a similar frame and then put her own spin onto it.

Anyway, here's the frame. I hope you like it and aren't bored by all the photos!

I used an old Christmas card box lid for the actual frame and one of those little wooden boxes that some companies have started using for packaging embellishments for the shrine. I traced the smaller box onto the larger box and then cut just inside of the marking with a craft knife and checked to make sure it fitted snuggly. I then covered the box with papers from the Belle Papillon pads and made a x in the shrine opening. I then popped the shrine in leaving it slightly proud, and glued the papers to the back of it to support it.

The shrine was painted with gold and cream acrylic paint and I used PVA glue to create a crackle effect.

I die cut the leafy branch from the Birdhouse Doublet Set  into an old cereal box and used the negative as a stencil to apply modelling paste to bottom edges of the frame. Once dry I applied Docrafts Gold Acrylic paint with my finger.

The edges of the frame were swiped with ink before heat embossing with gold embossing powder. I stamped a torn piece of the patterned paper with the script stamp from the Belle Papillon Stamp Set and glued it next to the shrine. I then sprinkled some frantage embossing powders over the front of the box.

Using the Belle Papillon Stamp and Doublet die set I cut and coloured a shrink plastic cage, bird and butterflies. Before arranging them inside the shrine.

To finish, I added some moss, broken twigs and flowers.

I'm really pleased with the way this project turned out and plan on making a set for my hallway.

I have a few more projects from the show to share with you over the next few days. Thanks for stopping by today.

Claire x

Materials
Belle Papillon Stamps, Dies and Papers

I'd like to enter this project into the following challenges:

Docrafts Pop Up Box Christmas Parcel Card

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend? I had a really quiet weekend and managed to sneak in a bit of crafty me time. I can't show you what I've been making yet, so thought I'd share one of my recent Docrafts Demo pieces.

This was a really quick and easy card using a Goody Bag, decorative tape, die cut felt shapes and some acetate.

To make, I simply trimmed approximately 1cm off of the edge of a glitter card blank. I then scored the card on the opposite by an equal amount. Keeping the scored edge folded, the edges were then folded to the centre before cutting the card in half on the long edge. Finally I added some staging upon which to mount the embellishments.

I think this makes a really quick and easy show stopper of a card. The best bit is you can make three of these from one goody bag and still have loads of stash left to create with.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Claire x

Mad as a hatter?

I hope you've had a good weekend so far? I'm just popping in today to share my final commission for Papercraft Essentials Magazine using the fantastic Winnie in Wonderland Collection from Polkadoodles. It is of course a shaped belated birthday card.

I hope you've liked my Winnie in Wonderland Projects?

I'll hopefully be back tomorrow to share another project that I've recently created.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Claire x

Winnie in Wonderland is not as it seems.....

As promised I'm back today to share another of my makes from issue 137 of Papercraft Essentials Magazine. It's a really quick and easy card using the Flamingo and backing papers from Polkadoodles Winnie in Wonderland collection (full details can be found in the magazine).

I'll be back on Sunday with my final project that I created for the magazine. I do hope you can stop by and take a peek.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Claire x

Quick Cards Made Easy Valentine's Card

It's me!!! Sorry it's been so long since my last post but I've had my Grandad's funeral and few other things that have kept me pretty tied up.

Anyway, I just though I'd pop on to say I've got one of my cards in the above issue of Quick Cards Made Easy. I have to say I've really enjoyed being on the reader's design team as it has pushed me into using just papers to create a card. I hope you like what I've done with the free papers that came with this issue and I'd love to see what you make if you have them.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Claire x

Tatty Twinkles USA Pop Up Box Card

Are you fed up with these Create and Craft USA samples yet? I hope not.....

As soon as I saw this image and the Puff Balls Dies I knew I had to make a pop up box incorporating them. I'm not going to waffle on about how I made it as it follows pretty much the same format as other boxes I have made and blogged about.

I've also used the new Decorative Bunting dies from Tattered Lace which I have to say are lush.

As always I've stamped the image onto Ultimate Graphic Paper and coloured the image with Graph'It Markers.

I hope you like my project for today. Thanks for stopping by.

Claire x

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Kit & Clowder - Anything Goes

Stemplesonne - Anything Goes

The Creative Blog Hop

Good morning lovely people. You didn't expect to see me here today did you? Well I'm here to take part in the The Creative Blog Hop - not heard of it before? Me neither until my lovely friend Jenny from Dragonlew's Spot tagged me and asked if I'd like to play along! So off I went to investigate and decided it actually might be a pretty neat way of you finding out a little bit about me and what makes me tick creatively.

The hop asks a series of questions and I've tried to answer them as honestly as possible. So here goes...

1. What am I working on now?

Well I have several projects on the go at the moment none of which I can share any pictures of as they are kind of top secret. The only thing I can say is that one of them caused me to reach for the Tena ladies when I got asked! Whilst the projects for this request are really exciting it's kind of stressing me out at the same time as it's important that I get things right and meet the tight deadline!! All will be revealed in October!!!

The other projects are inspiration projects for my DT commitments. Oh and I almost forgot I am working on a little something that's just for me and that's learning to use my Distress Markers - but more on that another day!

2. How does my work differ from others in my genre?

Wow this is a hard one to answer.... I guess that my work differs from others in as much as I play with paper, inks and stamps as most paper crafters do, but tend to mix things up with techniques and images from mixed media artists. For example the recent sardine tin that I show-cased has it's roots firmly in the mixed media arena but then I've mixed things up a little by adding a super cute decoupaged image from a pe-printed topper sheet. That is not what artists in either arena would expect to see!
3. Why do I create what I do?

I guess the easy answer to that it makes me happy!

4. How does my creative process work?

Ummm...basically I see something like an image, a scrap of paper or piece of junk and have to create! I don't tend to have a set process either. I know a lot people take their background papers and then colour images to match but I rarely do that as I tend to be drawn to an item or image and let that take the lead. One thing I am strict with myself over is not having a hissy fit if things go wrong which means that I rarely put anything in the bin. For example, if I've almost coloured an image perfectly and then ruin it at the last hurdle by going out of the lines or dropping a pen onto the face I'll simply cut it out and decoupage it. Life is too short to spend hours creating something and then because of a simple mistake you have a meltdown and bin it - almost everything is salvageable and some of my best pieces have the been the result of an accident!

The final part of this hop is to share some of the uber talented folk out there inspire me creatively. This was the hardest part for me, not because there isn't anyone who inspires me creatively but simply because there are too many of you! So without further ado I'd like to introduce my two victims both of whom are hugely talented and never cease to amaze me with their creations!

Louise Sims - I started card making 5/6 years ago when I was enticed or should I say "lured in" by a handmade card I had been sent by a friend. I loved the idea that someone had designed, made and sent me a card that they had crafted: it made the card even more special.
I am very lucky to be part of the Polka Doodles design team and adore the varied range of products Nikky designs. I also am part of the Pan Pastels and Dutch Doobadoo teams too. My aspiration is to be able to do successfully CAS card but I feel that this aspiration might be a long time coming as I am partial to an embellishment or two.

Carmen Wing - hi everyone. My name is Carmen and I have a little blog called Whoopidoo...ings. I love to play with Acrylics, Watercolour and Mixed Media. I also love books, fairy tales and all things spooky. I'd love for you to come along and say hello.

Hopefully you now have insight into me and my creativity? If there's anything else you want to know, please ask and I'll do my best to answer.

Claire x

PS If you pop back later in the week I might have a little something creative to show you all....

Another Pop Up Box Card!

I know, I know.....but these are such fun to make and each one looks totally different so hopefully you'll forgive me? The post is a touch picture heavy but that's because there's so much going on :)

I made this card as a sample for the Create and Craft launch of the new Tatty Twinkles Timeless collection. I used a selection of Tattered Lace Dies and of course the new Timeless Tatty Twinkles Stamps. I have to say this was one of those makes where you're never quite sure where it's going to take you, but I think it worked out OK.

The base was made using the no measure technique as demonstrated here by Nikky Hall. If you haven't tried one of these little cards because you think they look to complicated or time consuming then watch the video and I'm sure you'll be dashing off to make one!

Tatty and the dragonflies were stamped on Ultimate Graphic Paper and coloured with Graph'It Markers and then I added Stickles to the wings and the edge of her dress and Glossy Accents to her shoes.

I used three of the new dies from Tattered Lace - Bell Flower Border Die, Christmas Florals Rose Hips, Butterflies. All of the dies were coloured with Graph'It Markers before being glittered, shaped and embellished with gems.

To finish I added some Dew Drops, gems, lace, beads and ribbons.

I hope you're not bored to tears with seeing these boxes? I will have something different to show you soon!!!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Claire x

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes

Top Tip Tuesday - Anything Goes

Card Mania Challenges - Butterflies and Bows

Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Summer Colours

Crafting From The Heart - Anything Goes

My Craft Creations - Anything Goes

Stamp & Create - Anything Goes

Come & Get It Challenges - Anything Goes with a sentiment

Glitter n Sparkle - Butterflies

Natalie & Amy's Challenge - Die Cuts & Flowers

Graph'It Marker Challenge - Fur 'n' Feathers!

Yep this week over on the Graph'It marker blog we want to see Fur 'n' Feathers! I opted for feathers as I was desperate to use this gorgeous little guy from Polka Doodles! Isn't he just the cutest thing ever??

Anyway, I tried something a little different this week with my colouring and I have to say I'm really pleased with the end result! I coloured the robin with my Graph'It markers and then added a few light strokes with my Prismacolor Pencils. I think the result is awesome as the pens add real depth to the image whilst the pencils help to add even more texture.

I made a little box card to sit him in and used a range of the new stamps that Polka Doodles have launched to embellish the card with.

I hope you like my project this week and that you'll come and join us.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Claire x

Ingredients:

Robin Stamp, Poinsettia Stamp, Spruce Bough, Holly Heart Wreath 

Graph'It Markers - 2110, 2150, 5220, 3245, 3255, 1180, 9500, 9503, 9909, White Shake Marker

Backing Paper - Rose Budd CD

Prismacolor Pencils

Distress Inks

Snowflake Embossing Folder

Stickles Glitter Glue

Pinflair Glue

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Eclectic Paperie - Embossing

It's All About The Vintage - Photo Inspiration (The chandeliers reminded me of icicles)

Addicted to Stamps - Make a mark

Crafting for All Seasons - Feature a creature

Crafty Creations - Flower

Little Red Wagon - embossing

Simon Says Stamp - Sparkle

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Crafting from the Heart - Anything Goes

Make My Monday - Birds

Graph'It Marker Challenge - Frills and Fancy!

Morning. It's a quickie from me today. This weeks challenge over on the Graph'It Marker Blog is Frills & Fancy. Now I'm not sure why, but this challenge threw me! I think I possibly over thought it and as a result left myself very little time to actually make a project!

I was going to make something using lots of ribbon and lace but decided as it was a colouring challenge I'd try and make my image the "frills and fancy", so this is what I ended up doing....

I printed the image onto Ultimate Graphic paper and then coloured it with Graph'It markers. I added some sparkle to the choker and hemline using the Shake'It Silver Glitter Pen. To make the sparkle subtle I dabbed at it with my finger.

The card base was covered with DP's before adding some web lace and grosgrain ribbon. The image was cut out and then mounted onto designer papers. I then sprinkled some silver embossing powder around the edge to add some texture and interest and attached a piece of lace to the base of the image before attaching to the card.

To finish I added some die cut foliage, bats and punched flowers all of which were coloured with my Graph'It markers.

I really hope that you can join the challenge this time. Remember you have two weeks to submit a project and you don't even need to use Graph'It markers, simply follow the theme.

Thanks for stopping by today. Have a lovely weekend.

Claire x

Materials:
Ultimate Graphic Paper

Graph'It Markers
Skin: 4110, 4115, 4120, 4145
Hair: 9100, 9501, 9504, 9506, 9909
Other Colours: 5220, 6110, 6175, 6190, 0000, Shake'It Silver Glitter Pen






I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes
A Step In The Dark - Anything Goes/Purple
Fan-Tastic Tuesday - Anything Goes
Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes
Artistic Inspirations - Anything Goes/ Things with wings
The Paper Nest Dolls - Anything Goes

So Kawaii...

Good morning. Firstly I'd like to thank each and everyone of you who have taken the time to visit me and leave a comment or email since I've returned. You really have no idea how much it means to me! Secondly, I hope that those of you who follow me in the UK have escaped the storms and floods that have been battering us for the past few weeks. We've been really lucky here on the South Coast and escaped with nothing more than a few damaged fence panels. The only good thing to come out of the seemingly relentless rain and wind is that I've managed to squeeze in some sneaky craft sessions. The bad news is I'm still playing with very limited stash... (well apart from the new Graph'It Markers my lovely hubby bought me for Valentine's Day :D).

This card is aimed at those difficult to please teens! Hopefully it will be met with approval - but hey who knows??!! I think you'll be surprised to see that I've used the fantastic Dollie Daydream Goes East CD to create this card!! See not a fan in sight!

The image and sentiment have of course been coloured with my new markers and the ribbon was in my stash. I've then placed some washi tape across the papers before adding some sequin waste and paper flowers. The little skull and crossbones embellishment was made by taking the character image into paint and then selecting just that area and erasing the parts that I didn't require before re-sizing in a word document. I've then added some black glitter to the eyes, nose and mouth and then put Glossy Accents onto the bones.

Thanks for stopping by today. I'm hoping that I'll be back at somepoint in the next week with another project for you, but it will depend upon what is happening with the house.

Claire x

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Ribbon Carousel Blog - Washi Tape
Shopping Our Stash - Make your own embellishment
Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes
Craftin Desert Divas - Glitter
Make It Monday - Anything Goes
Just B Creative Crazy - Anything Goes