Adventures In Needle Felting

Well I went to the Brighton Show on Friday and despite my best efforts to restrain myself from buying new stash and investigating new crafts I ended up with a pile of new stash and a new craft to try out. You guessed it I bought a Needle Felting Kit! In fairness I have looked at this craft before but always thought it looked a bit complicated and time consuming, but the demonstrators made it look fairly easy and were more than happy to answer my many many questions.

The kit I bought enabled me to make keyrings. Now don't ask me why, but I got it into my head that I didn't want to make the keyring that I had instructions for but wanted to make an owl for my bag! So I had a google and found this video on youtube and a couple of other tutorials that convinced me it was do-able and off I went.

This is the end result, not too bad for a first ever attempt. I know it's far from perfect, but the great thing is I know what I did wrong and have started to get a feel for how the fibre works, so hopefully my next project will be much better.

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp - Anything but a card

Sweet Pea Stampers Challenge - Poppy Love

It's challenge time over at Sweet Pea Stampers and this time we have a sketch for you to follow designed by the awesome Vanessa. The prize is three sheets of digi decoupage from our fabulous sponsor Amy at The Crafty Purple Frog. I'd like to remind you that we currently have a DT call out, so if you fancy joining us, pop over to the blog to check out the details. Oh and don't forget to enter my blog candy draw, the post for it is at the top of the page.

Right onto my card, this is my take on the sketch. I've basically followed it with one or two slight changes. For more inspiration, pop over to the challenge blog to see what the other girls have done, there's some fantastic cards.

I've used Ching-Chou Kuik's Poppy Love from Sweet Pea Stamps. The image has been coloured with my trusty Promarkers and then blinged up a bit with Stickles, Viva Pearl Pen and a Sakura Gel Pen. I've then embossed some Co-dinations Black Magic Cardstock using a Sizzix embossing folder and then sanded it over to reveal the core colour.

The flower has been made using my Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Sizzix Die I've spritzed it with Tattered Angels Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mist and finished it off with a fancy button. The giant heart pin is from The Ribbon Girl.


Thanks for visiting today and I'll look forward to stopping by to see your creations.

Have a fab weekend.

Claire xx

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Crafts & Me - Red
Flourishes - Buttons
Tuesday Throwdown - Buttons
Craft Your Passion - Anything goes
Cupcake Craft Challenges - Seeing Red
Simon Says Stamp & Show - Embossing
Gingerloft - Red
Catch the Bug - Anything goes
Little Claire's  - Anything goes
Mark's Finest Papers - Self made flowers
In A Sweet Pea Dream - Anything This Time

Now for something a little different - well for me anyway!

OK having a week of extremes here! Friday was all deep, dark and mysterious, today it's all pretty and cutesie!! Still, I'm not gonna be accused of being a one trick pony - LOL!

It was a very dear friend of mines birthday yesterday and she's a superb cardmaker which means that the pressure was on me. Now whilst I know that she likes what I do, I also know that she doesn't like a lot of the images I use, so I'm really hoping that she'll like this one!

 I printed  and coloured the image multiple times and then decoupaged it. The edge of the image has been inked with Distress Inks prior to mounting on card. I've distressed the designer papers and then used my new Sew Easy Tool from We R Memory Keepers to add some stitching to the papers. I have to say I think I'm in love with this little tool despite my initial reservations.

Materials:
Image - Heather Ellis
Promarkers
DP's Papermania Rose Garden
Sew Easy Tool - Simon Says Stamp
Flowers - from stash
Sentiment - Ladybug Crafts Ink
Distress Ink
Lace - form stash

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Papertake Weekly - Have a heart
Penny's Paper Crafty - Hearts a flutter
Stampin' Royalty - Hearts
A Spoonful of Sugar - Show some love
Craft Your Passion - Anything goes
My Time to Craft - Hearts and Flowers
Crafty Cardmakers - Hearts
One Stitch At A Time - Use a digi
Bee Crafty - Hearts
Catch the Bug - Anything goes
Little Claire's - Anything goes
Sew Many Cards - Anything goes
Stamp Something - Digi
Stampin' With The Dragon - Anything goes
Totally Papercrafts - Friends

I'm Nuts About You Valentines Card

It's my turn to post over on the Delicious Doodles Blog , so I thought I'd better have a card to show everyone. My mojo's been a bit weird this week and hasn't allowed me to settle at any one project, so I have about fifteen unfinished projects on the go most of which need to be completed by the weekend! Anyway, I started this card intending to go in one direction, but it ended up going in a totally different one!

I've used the squirrel image from the Delicious Doodles Shop and have simply coloured it with Promarkers, cut it out and added some glossy accents to her nose, eyes and the acorn. I've cut some Sizzix Tattered Leaves, coloured them with Distress Inks and then given them a blast of Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mist. I've then mounted the whole lot onto a piece of Bazzil cardstock.

The sentiment has been generated on the computer using Happy Sans font from dafont. I cut a piece of the wood effect paper from my pad of matters using oval nesties and then used the masking technique to get the font where I wanted it. I doodled on the tree rings using a fine liner. The edges have been distressed and then rubbed over with Distress Inks. I've finished the card off with some gorgeous little wooden primitive hearts.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Bunny Zoe's - Love is in the air
Papertake Weekly - Have a heart
Ladybug Crafts Ink TLT - Love is in the air
Simon Says Stamp - Love is in the air
Passion for Promarkers - Let there be love
A Spoonful of Sugar - Lets see some love
Crafty Cardmakers - Hearts
Incy Wincy - Love
Creative Cowgirls Challenge - Love is in the air
Polka Doodles - With hearts

Advance Candy Warning and CSN Review

Hi Folks. It's me again, three times in one weekend - shocking I know! I don't have a card for you today, but will definitely be back later in the week with one.

As many of you are aware I've done a few giveaways with CSN Stores who stock a huge range of products from chest of drawers, desk lamps and cake stands.  Well, they've contacted me again and I'm afraid that this time I thought I'd be a little selfish and have a product for myself. I haven't decided what just yet as there are just so many products to chose from! As soon as I do decide, I'll be back to show you what I've got and to give you an honest review of the product and service.

Now, I don't want to leave my lovely followers out, so I had a quick route around and have pulled together a small blog candy. I'll post further details tomorrow, so be sure to check back here.

Claire x

Sweet Pea Stampers DT Call

It's official we're having a Design Team call. So if you fancy joining us please visit the Sweet Pea Stampers Blog and sign up via Mr Linky.

To submit an application you will need to write a post on your blog about the DT call with details of why you want to be on the Sweet Pea Stampers Design Team. You also need to show us what you consider to be at least 2 of your best pieces of work.

We're looking for people with a well maintained blog who post regularly. You will be required to produce an awesome project once every 2 weeks. You will be expected to comment on challenge entrants cards.

The call will end on March 1st. So what are you waiting for??

Claire xx

Delicious Doodles Challenge #11 - The darkness has decended!!

Morning folks I hope you're all ready and raring to go? I hope so, cos this week we have teamed up with the fabulous Smeared Ink and are running a sketch challenge and blog hop. There will be two prizes up for grabs this week, Delicious Doodles are offering five digis of your choice and  Smeared Ink are offering five single digis or one digi set. Full details of this weeks challenge and the blog hop can be found on the Delicious Doodles Challenge Blog. For those of you already hopping the running list is at the bottom of this post.

Smeared Ink kindly let the DD DT chose an image each from their store, and whilst they are renowned for their "alternative and darker" images, I happened upon some fabulous vintage stuff as well as dare I say it, some cutsie images!

Now I must've had a moment of madness as I've taken myself completely out of my comfort zone and played with one of the darker images! Yikes!!! It was all going rather well until I decided to check back onto the Delicious Doodles Admin Site only to discover I was supposed to be following the sketch! Those of you who read regularly will know I'm not the biggest sketch fan, so you can imagine it threw me completely. Anyway, I managed to salvage almost everything I'd done with the exception of the fantastic sentiment that goes with this image. I just couldn't find anywhere to put it, so I'm afraid it's ended up tucked inside the card. The sentiment reads " Have a howling good time" and can be found here. So... whadya think of my efforts?

I've used my beloved Distress Inks to create the image background. The image has been coloured with Promarkers and I've then randomly stamped some foliage with black memento ink. I've then given everything a generous blast of Glimmer Mist to soften the inks.

The backing paper has made from white paper sprayed with a mixture of Maya Road Mists. The main BP has simply had a flourish stamped over it. The other BP's have been run through the Big Shot in embossing folders.

Materials:
Cardstock - The Papermill
Distress Inks - Tumbled Glass, Chipped Sapphire and Forest Moss
Maya Road Mists - Blue Corn, Evergreen and Licorice
Flourish stamp - Viva decor
Foliage Stamp - Tim Holtz
Embossing folders - Sizzix/Tim Holtz Woodgrain and Craft Concept Garden Swirl
Nellie Snellon - Flower Punch
Little Claire's Fern Die
Stickles

If you're looking for the blog hop running order it's here:
Teri
Anita Marie
Pascale
Allison
Ildiko
Alex
Claire
Terra
Tori
Alison
Kelli
Black Dragon
Lady Brayton
Meredith
Kapree
Lisa
Jane

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Crafty Hos' - No designer Papers
Craft Us Crazy - Anything goes 
I ♥ ProMarkers - Anything goes
Papertake Weekly - Anything goes
Passion for Promarkers - Photo Inspiration (landscape & blue) 
Magical Monday - Flowers