Purple Poppies - A colour challenge - Chocolate Baroque

Glenda's just issued a challenge over on her blog which originated from beautiful poppies seeding themselves in the gravel where they park their cars.  They are such an unusual colour she has issued the challenge based on their colours.  As I've been off line all day due to problems with BT I thought I'd play along with this as the colours are gorgeous.......

I started off with the Artylicious Essence of Nature CD and printed out some background paper and a tag.  I then found some lovely circle frames which I also printed out.  I've then taken an 8x8" scalloped card blank and matted on some purple card which had the top and bottom edges punched with a Martha Stewart edge punch.  The background paper was matted onto some pewter mirri and black card and I then criss-crossed some purple ribbon over.  The main image is a Penny Black stamp called "Flying Stars" which I inked with Distress Inks and clear embossed.  I then used a Quickie Ink Pen and added glitter.  I cut out the circle frame using my EK Success circle cutter and added some acetate behind the aperture.  I used some shaker tape around the frame and added some more glitter to the image and mounted on top of the background papers.  The sentiment and tag were from the Essence of Nature CD and I then added some flowers.

Thanks for stopping by - please leave a comment as they are always appreciated.

Less is More - week 16 Butterflies

This week's challenge over at Less is More is butterflies. 

For absolutely ages I have had some 12x12 sheets of acetate in my stash which is printed with different sizes of butterflies.  It is from Christine Adolph and I think it was part of a kit bought from QVC.  Anyway for this card I selected the butterfly I wanted to use and die cut around it using nesties.  I then cut out another butterfly to decoupage.  Around the frame of the nestie I used my Quickie glue pen and Glamour Dust to define the edges.  I also used this on the wings of the top butterfly.  The sentiment is from a Fiskars Butterfly Magic clear stamp set and embossed in purple e/p (although it looks blue in the photo!).  This sentiment was then die cut using Spellbinders fancy tags and attached with ribbon.

This is a close up showing the decoupaged butterfly.


Many thanks for dropping in.

Tissue Box Cover

Hi Folks

Just a quick post today as we're up to our eyes at the moment as we're having a new conservatory built - really glad we've got good weather for the guys!

We've recently redecorated our main guest bedroom and I was having difficulty finding a nice box of tissues to match the colour theme.  Then I saw the technique for this lovely tissue box cover over at Splitcoaststampers which is a wonderful resource for all us crafters.

I cut out all the card to size and prescored it but instead of making up the box at this stage and then adding extra layers, I decided to decorate the whole box and lid.  For this I have used the stamp plate Meadow Breeze from Inkylicious which is a really handy set of stamps.  I used Distress Inks to stamp - Mustard Seed, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint and Old Paper - and then used Mustard Seed and a blending tool to ink and soften all the edges.  Whilst it was still in it's "unmade" state I used a Quickie Glue Pen and Glamour Dust to add a bit of glitz.  For the opening in the lid I used one of the small oval nesties and then created a collar to go over the top using the scalloped oval nestie and a labels die for the inside.  This was put through my die cutting machine in a universal floral embossing folder and I then sponged it with more Mustard Seed Distress Ink before glueing it to the top of the box.

Thanks for dropping by.

Bah Humbug Christmas Scene Challenge

The challenge over at Bah Humbug this week is Christmas Scenes.  For this card I have used the village stamp from Creative Expressions Create-a-scene set.  I stamped onto cream pearlescent card with SU Chocolate Chip ink and then used a water brush to drag in some of the colour.  When it was dry I used a Quickie Glue pen and Glamour Dust to the roofs, trees and bridge etc but I am not sure that this photo shows the glitter up that well.  I die cut some photo corners from a Sizzix die and then matted and layered onto matching co-ordinating cardstock.  For the punched border I used a Martha Stewart snowflake embossing die.  The sentiment is from a Papermania Silent Night set stamped onto the cream pearlescent card and clear embossed and I used my SU oval and scalloped oval punches to matt and layer.

Thanks for looking.