New flapper Girls !!!(posted by Maria)

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to show you how beautiful these new ladies are for making feminine tags!! I used some distress ink  for the background , I coloured them  with copics (of course you can colour them with pencils too!) , at the corners I used the fragment stamps  of CB and coloured them with my panpastels - gold and copper. I love these panpastels to give a finishing touch to my cards, they look so elegant with this, don't they!!

Have a nice day!!
Greetings
Maria

Magic Happens (posted by Claire)

Good morning, I hope you've all enjoyed the Easter Weekend. It seems to have gone so quickly but although Easter is over Spring is well and truly here and the Springtime Edges stamps are perfect for so many different projects.   I've used them with one of the beautiful Spring Fairies for this card she is from the March set

I began by stamping the fairy with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and masked her with Masking Tissue to stamp the lovely primrose edge in the background (this time I used Memento Bamboo leaves). I left the mask in place while I created the background. Using PanPastels I added some shades of green to the foreground of the scene and then took shades of Yellow to create a sunny effect behind the image. I sealed the PanPastels with hairspray and used distress inks through the Lucious Leaves Dylusions stencil. I removed the mask and coloured the fairy and the primrose edges with Graph'It Markers. To finish off I added some tiny die cut flowers and stamped the sentiment which is from Fairyland Words.

Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

Spooky (posted by Claire)

Hi there, Claire here with a little 'Spooky' inspiration using the new clear Halloween stamps 'Witches Brew. I love to create scenes with rubber stamps and clear stamps make it so much easier as you can position your images really easily

I've used all the stamps from the set on this project. I started with the lovely cobweb stamp and created a background by brayering Tangelo Memento ink on to glossy cardstock. I love memento inks for brayering.

The Spooky scene was made using PanPastels. I made a mask for the moon and positioned it where I wanted the image to go and then created the sky with Paynes Grey, Violet and a little black Panpastel. I added the ground using Chromium Oxide green panpastel with a little black. I removed the moon mask and stamped in the images with versamark, as the stamps are clear you can position your moon in exactly the right place. Next came the witch, in the foregroud and I added the sentiment in the sky. They are all embossed with holographic black EP for a little spooky sparkle. Its so easy to create sky effects with PanPastels, I wanted to add some misty clouds around the moon so I used the shading on the stamp as a guide and lightly used a pencil eraser to remove some of the panpastel to create a misty effect. I added some shadows to the foreground with a little black panpastel.

I stamped the fence stamps on acetate, embossed with the same embossing powder and cut them out, leaving the acetate a little longer than the scene panel. I scored and folded the acetate to curve around the scene slighly and then matted the image on black card. As a finishing touch I used an inksentials white pen to add a few stars to the sky.

Thanks for visiting today. Keep popping back as we've got lots more projects using the new stamps to share with you

Claire xx

Steampunk beetle (posted by Claire)

Hi there, Claire here with my first project using the new Steampunkery and Steampunk Travel Stamps, I really enjoyed experimenting with different products to make this card.

The background was made using black and brown shades of PanPastels just blended together and then stamped with the text from Steampunk travels using versamark ink. I brushed over gold mica powder and not only did it pick the detail up beautifully it left a slight golden shimmer over the panpastel base. The next layer was  made using the same shades of panpastels this time using the 'Gears' template from Crafters Workshop. I added a top coat of Claudine Hellmuth Multi Medium Gloss , dabbed on with some kitchen roll, Next came a layer of torn card coloured with panpastels and stencil paste applied through a Tile Texture Crafters Workshop template

I stamped the beetle three times on some black Clearly for Art modelling film using versamark ink and embossed with gold. I painted the beetles with twinkling h20s and cut them out before giving them a coat of Matte Multi medium. I layered them up and finished off with a layer of glossy accents on the beetle and the clock face. You can see the detail a little better in the photo above

I hope you're enjoying all the inspiration from my team mates, these stamps are going to be perfect for those tricky male themed cards with the steampunk images and the fun sentiments

Claire xx

Tall Trees and Sunny Sunflowers (posted by Claire )

Hi there, Claire here with a card made using the beautiful new Sunny Sunflower stamps and one of my old favourites, Tall Trees. I love these delicate trees and created a little forest to co-ordinate with the backing paper from Essence of Nature with PanPastels

To create the little forest scene I used permanent red shade panpastel and black panpastel then added a little white for a misty effect. I stamped and embossed the trees with Pearl White WOW EP  and then stamped again with black archival ink. 

I made the flower using the large and small flower from Sunny Sunflowers, coloured with distress markers and cut out. I added Sepia glossy accents the the centre and some deep red ribbon.

Claire xx

Vellum Sunflowers (Posted by Claire)

Hi there, Claire here with another card made using the beautiful Sunny Sunflowers stamps. 

For this card I've stamped and embossed the flowers and leaves onto vellum using WOW White Pearl embossing powder and coloured the flower and leaves on the reverse with PanPastels from the tints set. The sentiment is from the 'Loving Sentiments' set, its one of my all time favourite sentiments and the font is so beautiful too. 

Thanks for visiting today, I hope you're getting lots of crafty ideas from my team mates beautiful samples. 

Claire xx

Pastel Sunflowers (posted by Judith)

Hi folks, I'd like to show you another sample that I have made using the lovely 'Sunny Sunflowers' stamp set from Chocolate Baroque.

I have chosen to create this sample using Pan Pastels in shades of yellows browns and greens, reminiscent of a field of sunflowers. There is a local farmer that grows sunflowers near where I live, and I love to see them in the Summer.

I created a base for my card using two shades of Yellow Pan Pastel, and then sponged Versamark through the Mini 'Art Is' Crafters Workshop Template in two opposite corners of my card. I swirled a mixture of yellows and green Pan Pastels over the top of this, and then burnished the surface with some paper towel. I stamped the large swirl from the Butterfly Dreams stamp plate in the two remaining corners using Versamark. I then again used a mixture of yellow and green Pan Pastels as before to cover the Versamark.

I stamped two large sunflowers, two smaller flowers and several leaves before heat setting these with a heat gun. I coloured them using a small Sofft tool and Pan Pastels. You can pick the colour up with these small tools and use them just like a paintbrush with really good accuracy. I have used two colours of green on my leaves, and two colours of yellow on the petals, to give shading, just like I would when using pencils.

Finally, I used a Nestability shape which I coloured with Pan Pastels and stamped a greeting from the Loving Sentiments stamp plate.

These flowers are just so cheery aren't they? Don't forget to keep checking back to see what the other Design Team members have been making over the coming days. Judith xx

Paper pieced flowers and panpastels (posted by Claire)

The new Sunny Sunflowers themeplate has some gorgeous detailed flower images but as soon as I saw these stamps I thought how useful the plain flower stamp would be for making paper pieced flowers. No matter how many paper flower you have in your stash you sometimes can't find just the right colour. For this project I made flowers to match the papers I used from the Kaisercraft Play Pack 

The focal image was made using PanPastels, its so easy to create a beautiful scene with panpastels I hardly ever seem to use my brayer these days. I masked a moon and used green yellow and blue shades from the tints set, applied in layers with a sofft sponge. I used stamps from some of my all time favourite Chocolate Baroque stamps Nature Table and Autumn Hedgerow stamped with distress inks. PanPastels are perfect with the honesty stamp from Nature Table as you can use a pencil eraser to rub out the colour and leave a lovely white papery finish. The ribbon is also from the Kaisercraft playpack and the swirls were cut with Die-namics fancy flourish die.

I hope your enjoying all the inspiration from my teamies. There's lots more to come too so keep checking in 

Claire xx

You are my sunshine (posted by Claire)

Hi there, Claire here with my first sample with the beautiful Sunny Sunflowers stamps. 

To create the flower I stamped the large flower and small flower twice on white card with clear embossing powder and coloured with Diarylide yellow panpastel before cutting out. The flowers are layered up with 3d foam and a little glitter in the centres. These stamps are perfect with PanPastels as they pick up the detail and shade the flowers without any effort at all.

The background was a bit of an experiment, I had some Heidi Swapp Invisibles in my stash which I'd been hoarding for ages. I just swiped Diarylide yellow panpastel over the top and then buffed up with some tissue. I added a computer generated sentiment and a couple of die cut swirls created using  a Die-namics fancy flourish die.

I think you're going to love these new stamps, my very talented teamies have certainly come up with some beautiful artwork so keep popping back so you don't miss out

Claire xx