About Me

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Hi I'm Clare, I live in the South West of England in the seaside town of Torquay. I adore playing with inks, paints and generally getting messy. It is the calm place which fits in between my hectic life whilst working as an outreach support worker, looking after my son, daughter, foster son and hubby. Not forgetting our gorgeous springer spaniel, Suzi.

Sunday 24 November 2013

Blogging In my Jim jams!


I thought Sunday was supposed to be a day of rest pffft! After the vast amount of housework (extra dust due to new bathroom being created) washing, cleaning and cooking...... You know the drill, finally after finishing the roast I have managed to get in and start crafting.  I was having a mess around last night and as a result this is what I ended up with.



The stamps are paper mania dragon flies, there were 3 on one stamp but I cut them all up so that I could use them individually.  the background is a mask which I inked with clear in then embossed with verdigris embossing powder



I layered up the dragonflies with some more die cuts and then embossed a square piece of card using a creative expressions mask and added some pearly dots.



I added some turquoise organza ribbon and made just a plain white flower and embellished with a sparkly flower.


Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog I am hoping to get around to everyone this week.


Crafty hugs,
Clare x x xx x. 

























Saturday 23 November 2013

The gelli plate is out

Last weekend I had my gelli plate out and printed some backgrounds. So now it's time to put them to use.



I distressed around the edges then stamped my images on but I also stamped the flower on to card, cut out, coloured with pro markers and added glossy accents.





I made a rose and added some flourishes.   I also stencilled on some stencil paste and added some lovely blue glitter. I added some pearly dots around the butterflies, flowers and sentiments.






I hope you have enjoyed looking at my latest make I would love to hear your comment.


Happy crafting.
Clare x x x x 



























Sunday 17 November 2013

From this.....................to this!

Well as we all know it's that time of year when pound signs start appearing before our eyes with the daunting thought of christmas looming.  I was sat last night thinking I really could do with some new stamps (stamps are like shoes, too many is never enough) and thought to myself I cannot buy anymore stash until after christmas.  With not much on the t.v. I decided to find out my sketch pad and have a go at creating something of my own.




So I drew this........................



And I ended up with this.  I photocopied the original image onto some card and then masked off the toadstool and inked in a background.  I coloured the toadstool with promarkers and made some flowers out of some prints I did on my gelli plate.

I hope you have enjoyed looking at my blog.  Please leave a comment I would love to hear your comments.

Crafty hugs Clare x x x x x 




















Sunday 10 November 2013

Happy birthday Sophie x x x

As in my title it was my daughter Sophie's 10th birthday on bonfire night and thought that I should post her birthday card on.  It was a very simple make but using her favourite pinks and purples it went down a treat.



In true motherly form it was down to me to provide a card for William to send to his sister even though he is old enough to go and get his own I made him this card to send. 




I masked part of an imagination craft stencil and using sweet poppy paste and a smattering of glitter I mat and layered to make this cute butterfly card.

Been having a change of direction today.  When I recently went to a local craft show I visited the card-io stand and found them stamping onto clay tiles, this wanted to try!  Unfortunately they were not stocking them so tried to source some locally without any joy.  So I popped to the works and picked up some air dy clay to have a og at making my own.



This is the first one (my experiment) I'm quite pleased so I have just been and made a variety of shapes and sizes might even make up some fridge magnets ideal for teachers gifts at christmas.

That's me for tonight, I hope you have all had a brilliant weekend weather crafting or crafty shopping at the NEC I will get there one day!

I would love to hear your comments.

Happy crafting,

Love Clare x x x x 






















Saturday 2 November 2013

Gold finger.........

Infact inky and gold fingers.  Well to be truthful I wasn't intending on blogging against soon but my fidgety finger and crafty hands have been busy.  I have been putting together the finishing touches to my daughters birthday card and decided to try out a new stamp that I haven't used yet.





I used some cs mist a while ago and just keep a stash ready for such occasions (a handy hint from my auntie) and just stamped on the trees using inkylicious birch trees stamp.



Then using my distress inks I created a rocky background.  I embossed the card itself and it then received and ink dusting and some gold mica smudged in (hence the gold fingers).




I added a bit of ribbon to the side of the card but apart from the gold I have added no bling!  I think I am going to enjoy using this stamp and have already got some more ideas brewing for using this in a different style.

Please leave a comment below I love hearing from you all.

Nighty night. 

Big hugs Clare x x x x x




































































Friday 1 November 2013

End of half term......... Boo hoo :-(


Well it's the end of half term and whilst many of you are looking forward to the school run on Monday it means that my alarm will be waking me to go back to work.  Still I have had a rather productive week with a few cards completed and a couple of new projects on the boil.




A friend of ours turned 40 last week so just had to make a card. I always find male cards quite difficult but over the summer I did invest in some male influenced stamps, in this case fish being the theme! 





 

I found some card that I had spritzed with cosmic shimmer spray then stamped my image, masked and stamped inkylicious crackle stamp over the top then added some sparkly embossing powders.




Well I do have some more projects on the go and despite going back to school on Monday I will hopefully find some time to blog.  My special little lady turns ten on Tuesday so will definitely be blogging her card at some point next week.

Have a crafty weekend peeps, big hugs!

Clare x x x