Blossoming Birthday.

Post 109.. Can you tell the children are back at school......I'm on a roll!!!! Love it!

Todays card is a fairly simple birthday card. I've recently purchased the 'Blossoming Buds' stamps from Paper Smooches, and it had to be used. I stamp and embossed in black, then coloured the image with my Lyra aqua colors. Embossing the line makes the colouring in so easy!!!

I matted my image onto some dark purple card, then onto some lighter purple.

I stamped the greeting and again embossed in black. I folded the edge of the vellum around the bottom mat and adhered it at the back. This was all the stuck to an A6 card base.

Random sequins were used to finish the card off, each with self adhesive crystals in the centres.

Inside the card I wanted to include some flowers. I masked off the majority of the insert and stamped the flowers to create a panel. I used a fine liner pen to draw the line defining the area as a panel. I used the same colours on the flowers but made sure they were a little subdued.

Hope you like todays card.

Happy crafting.

Clair xxx

Cup cakes....

Post 108

My brief for this card was a 50th birthday card including cup cakes! So I dug out my cup cake stamps by Chocolate Baroque . 

I started with a 6 x 6 base card, matted some kraft card, and some paper from the 'Silent Night' paper pad by First edition. (one of my all time favourite and versatile paper pads)

I had to use my new Lawn Fawn dies, the fabulous 'Stitched Party Banners', I cut a large banner out of white card, and the smaller banner in kraft card. Into the smaller banner I cut a circle where the cup cake fits perfectly. I used a Lawn Fawn alphabet to make my sentiment the 'Claire's ABC', stamped on kraft card and embossed in white.

The cup cake was stamped onto a few scraps of paper from the Silent Night pad then fussy cut and paper pieced together.I used my sakura stardust pen on the cherry of the cupcake then added some glossy accents.

The banner dies cut holes in the top of the banner so these needed embellishments in the form of bakers twine for the small banner and just covering with punched flowers for the large banner. I needed just a little something else so I grabbed my trusty box of paper roses, most of which are from Wild Orchid Crafts

To finish the front of the card I did some white dash lines to co ordinate with the stiching cut with the dies.

Inside, a simple greeting using the same alphabet stamps and a cup cake, cut out of more decorative paper using the Cottage Cutz 'Mini Cupcake' die.

More mini cupcakes on the back!

Hope you like todays card.

Happy crafting.

Clair xxx

CASED man card...

Post 107

Todays card was completely inspired , and attempted copy! of a card I saw on Pinterest, thank you susiewittwer.

My map stamp was a portrait stamp, I think it's a creative expressions stamp but I've had it so long I'm really not sure. So this dictated  my card would be portrait. The base card is an A6 tent fold card. The base is completely covered with black card. I then cut 2 pieces of kraft card, with odd angles in the bottom left. The map was stamped using Distress ink, Vintage photo. I then inked around the edges of both pieces of kraft but just edged toward the image on the top layer.

The happy is a die cut using Memory box, 'happy script' die , I cut the word out 3 times, the letters are so delicate I such the 3 words on top of each other to bulk it up a little. The 'birthday' was stamped and embossed in white.  The card was finished off with some white self adhesive pearls,

Apologies for the poor photo, the card was put together and on its way before I could get some decent pictures.

Hope you like todays card.

happy crafting.

Clair xxx

Words Words Words....

Post 106

Todays card was thrown together after watching 'One layer Many Birthday Messages' , Thanks Yana for the great card idea.

I used the greetings I had in my stash and added a few bits and bobs, but the use of the sentiment stamps to make the background I found impossible to resist.

I used an A6 tent fold card base. On to a piece of white card I stamped my central sentiment, then all the others randomly around it (picked from several stamp sets!) , filling in the little gaps with various filler stamps from a variety of stamp sets.

The 3 ink splats were stamped with the Hero arts stamp set 'Brush Strokes', using hero arts shadow ink in Pale tomatoe,Green hills and Orange soda. 

I wanted to emphasize the main central greeting so I stamped it on some parchment and positioned it over the original. If I did the card again I think I would emboss this in black. The parchment wrapped around the back of the black mat, then it was all stuck to the card base.

To finish off I added some self adhesive pearls which I had coloured to match the ink splats, using my alcohol markers.

Hope you like todays card. 

Happy crafting.

Clair xxx

Peacock request..

Post 105

This card was a quick one. A congratulations card.
The peacock was requested as was the sentiment.
I knew instantly where I would get the image from.....an old CD rom from Artilicious, now 'Chocolate Baroque I don't think the cd is available but there are some downloadable papers available,( I don't know if this image is amonst them). This image and the backing paper were both from the cd. 

I cut the tail of the bird once I'd positioned where I wanted my die to cut, then lift the tail out of the die away from the cutting edge so it wouldn't get cut. The image and backing paper are matted on to black....it just make the blues of the bird pop!!

The sentiment is printed onto some vellum 'I'm as proud as a Peacock...'

And inside....' And I'm not even your Mother!'

Hope you like todays card.

Happy crafting.

Clair xxx

Boys , boys boys!

Post 104

Seems to be the only sort of cards I'm making at the moment, although this could easily be for a girl, pink or purple colouring and a few sequins or gems dotted about!!

Anyway, another card, for another chap. Once again the stamps are from Paper Smooches, the fabulous 'Teen Routine'. The background is made using the Paper Smooches 'Qwick Qwips' stamps. I used my promarkers to colour in the 'LOL', this was matted onto some black card. 

The phone image has been stamped on black and silver embossed. I stamped a third image on white card to make the insert for the top phone. The images on here are all from the same stamp set.

The card had odd corners rounded, and faux stitching drawn around the edge.

Inside, just a basic sentiment.

Hope you liked todays card.

Happy crafting.

Clair xxx

Cupcakes....who doesn't love a cupcake!!

Post 103

Good morning blog friends.

 Todays card has the beautiful 'Cakestand' stand from Pink Petticoat. I coloured it using my inktense and water colour pencils.

The backing paper is also from Pink Petticoat...more of the 'Chevrons' in a soft brown,  the fine chevrons today though. I die cut part of a circle and positioned the cakestand behind it.

The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted Stamp set 'Say it in Style', stamped on black card and embossed in white, then cut banner style on one end. With this black strip I felt the card need some balance, the black mat provided this. 

I put 2 lengths of ribbon and some bakers twine across the top of the card. 

The card was finished off with some faux stitching, some sakura stardust on the cupcakes, and a little punched flower with a gem in the centre. 

Inside the card I used my left over chevron paper as a mat for some fussy cut cupcakes.

The sentiment is also from Clearly Besotted Stamps, from the 'Make a Wish' set, and it had to have another flower...of course.

Hope you like todays card.

Happy crafting.

Clair xxx