Daffodils for Mum (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with a sunny card made using stamps from Spring Bird Daffodil, one of this month's beautiful new releases. As soon as I saw these stamps I couldn't wait to colour this image as I love daffodils, they are always such a welcome sight after a long winter.

I stamped the images on smooth white card and coloured them with Graph'It markers before die cutting them. I stamped the sentiment using Bamboo Leaves Memento ink and then inked around the edges with Squeezed Lemondade distress ink.

I made the easel card using craft card, popping my die so that it overlapped the fold and running it through my die cutting machine in an embossing sandwich. This creates an embossed effect slightly larger than the die cut shape so you can cut it out and layer up your image.

To prop the easel up I decoupaged the daffodils and added a little green bow topped with a pearl.

Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

Trees of different seasons

I have made three very similar cards using Terrific Treescapes, the layouts are the same but the colours suggest different seasons of the year.

For the first I used yellows and greens. A large circle of paper was used for the outline if the sun/moon and Squeezed Lemonade edges it.

The sun/moon of this card was created using the waste form the circle of the first card. Dried Marigold is the colour of the sun and I used my favourite red, Vermillion Archival Ink for the trees and sentiment.

The soft blues of this one make me think of winter. On all three of the cards I masked the bottom of the card and inked a line so the sentiment words had something to sit on. Thankyou for visiting Debbie

Butterfly Corners (posted by Claire )

Good morning, Claire here with a card featuring the gorgeous new Steampunk Butterfly stamps. As soon as I saw the stamp sheet I fell in love with the beautiful Art Deco style corners and wanted to show them off. 

I took a 6x6 card blank and stamped the corners in each of the 4 corners of the card. I also stamped the corners 8 times on scraps of white card. I coloured all the corners using my promarkers and created a frame in the centre of the card by cutting out 4 of the corners and popping them up with 3d foam. I cut out the flower from the remaining 4 corners and again used 3d foam to decoupage the corners on the card. The sentiment  and frame are from 'Best Relative Ever', die cut with nesties labels 4. I was going to leave the card at that but I couldn't resist adding a couple of butterflies from 'Steampunk Butterfly', again coloured with promarkers, with little black faux pearls for their bodies.

I hope you're enjoying all the inspiration from my talented teamies, 

Claire xx

A vase but not a vase (by Debbie)

Hi Folks. I thought I'd show a card today that I made a little while ago. I was telling a friend about it on Sunday at a local craft show when she was purchasing some of Chocolate Baroque Halloween Clear Stamps.

I have turned the lantern upside down to look like a vase. The tassel was masked so the black ink didn't go on to it. Another mask was used to cover the top of the vase so I could place the blossom branch in it. I coloured with promarkers and stamped a sentiment from Best Relative Ever. A couple of pearls and matting onto black finished off the card. Thanks for visiting, Debbie

Lantern Easel Card (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here again with a little easel card using one of the clear stamps from 'Chinese Lanterns'

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I made a little shaped easel card using nestabilities and cut an aperture in the top part of the easel to hold the focal image which is stamped on vellum. I embossed the lantern from the reverse with a ball tool and added a little colour with coloursoft pencils. The sentiment and frame are  from 'Best Relative Ever'. stamped with versamark and embossed with WOW gold detail EP, I used a gold krylon pen around the edges. Glenda has the Krylon pens on offer at the minute (have a look here in special offers)

To prop the easel up I used the die cut shape from cutting out the aperture and added some of the lovely cherry blossoms from Chocolate Baroque and some paper roses. Here's another photo showing the side view, I've popped a little battery tea light in to shine through the lantern

Thanks for popping by

I hope you're enjoying the new clear stamps as much as I am

Claire xx

Celebrating Friendship

Good morning all. My card today is a clean and simple card that uses a combination of the new clear stamps. I love the way that these new stamps can be mixed up. The lanterns are from Chinese Lanterns and the sentiment is from Best Relative Ever.

I used Memento black ink to stamp the lanterns and coloured with alcohol pens. It's not easy to see on the photograph but I drew around the edge of the lanterns with a light grey to give them dimension. The words are stamped individually and the beauty of clear stamps is that the can be lined up so easily. I matted onto black card and fixed to a white base card. I have a special friend who is having nearing the end of her chemotherapy and this card will be heading over to her in a few weeks as I want to hand deliver it but I've been full of cold and have stayed away as not to pass it to her. Have a good Wednesday. Debbie

In the Frame (posted by Judith)

Hi Folks, here's a sample using the great new clear stamps from Chocolate Baroque. I have used the Best Relative Ever stamp set and stamped one of the great little frames onto a Nestability shape that I have cut out and coloured with Pan Pastels. I stamped the frame and the sentiment with Versamark ink, and swiped over the top with more Pan Pastels. The beauty of these clear stamps is that you can get the placement exactly where you want them.

I created a background by using one of the new Prima masks available on the website, and covered this with texture paste. Once this had dried, I used Pan Pastels to create a soft background, and stamped some co-ordinating swirls in each corner. These came from the Butterfly Flourish Swirls stamp set. I added a couple of wooden butterflies and some handmade flowers to finish.