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.

Tuesday 27 March 2018

Topflight 1st Birthday Blog Hop

Welcome to the Topflight Stamps 1st Birthday Blog Hop!!!  The past year has been more successful than we ever could have imagined and it’s all because of our amazing customers. We are so excited to celebrate with you and give you our 1st BirthdaySpecial Discount 20% off ALL orders - use code BDAY20. 




Topflight Stamps is a place you will find different and unique stamps from around the world. Today we have an AWESOME blog hop with some of the best paper crafters in the industry. They are each featuring some of our favourite stamps. Be sure to comment on this blog and all the blogs on the hop to be eligible for the GRAND PRIZE a $50 store credit!!!  PLUS  - each of the designers on this blog hop are giving away a $10 gift certificate to one of the commenters on their post. I will announce my winner here on Monday, April 2.  The $50 Grand Prize winner will be announced on the Topflight Stamps Blog the same day. 



To celebrate Topflight's 1st birthday I wanted to make a big project to commemorate the occasion.  On a 12 x 12 canvas board, painted with Paperartsy Fresco Paints, mushroom & nougat I stencilled using  leaves stencil PS081 I stamped using stamps from Paperatsy Jofy #62 and onto card to create my colourful blooms.


I water coloured the flowers adding more intensified colour using pencils.  Happy Birthday Topflight!



Now, be sure to check out all these blogs and comment for your chance to win the grand prize!!

Happy Crafting everyone,

Clare.

Monday 26 March 2018

A year at Topflight!

Today I'm reflecting on my first year blogging with Topflight Stamps.  



Designing for Topflight stamps means that sometimes I end up using  stamps that I wouldn't normally select for myself but this is good, in fact it is excellent! It pushes you out of your comfort zone and stretches your creativity.  I have thoroughly enjoyed my journey with Topflight and I am looking forward to many more.



So I'm taking a walk down memory lane and re-visiting some of my favourite projects over the past twelve months and hopefully sparking some inspiration!



Stamping with smaller stamps is always a bit of a personal challenge for me, possibly because I normally enjoy working on a larger scale but I really enjoyed working on this pocket size mini-book and colouring in the images.  



I love working with inks but I equally love working with paint, I often flit from inks to paint or both!  Using a whole mix of medias keeps me interested in crafting.  I love experimenting on tags, postcards or reference cards.  I've also been known to go into hubby's garage and look for a spare bit of wood or three!



So there you have it! A few of my favourite crafty moments from the past year.  I'm going to take this opportunity to wish Topflight Stamps a Happy 1st birthday and hope that I'm here to see many more!

Happy Crafting,

Clare

Monday 19 March 2018

Fast Food Fun!

 Hello Bloggers, on the menu today we have Burger & Fries!  I've been playing with a cute little set of stamps, made for you by 'For The Love of Stamps'


I prepared a gelli printed background and stamped over using stamps from Paperartsy, designed by Tracy Scott.  I cut my sheet down to ATC sized cards, edged with some distress ink and mounted onto black card.


 


I used Neocolour II and Faber-Castell crayons to add colour to my Burger & fries, neatly cut them  out to place on my ATC's


Once I knew where my fast food meal was going to be placed 
I added in some of the smaller stamps.


I added some doodling with a white sharpie pen before I finally placed the burger, fries & ketchup in place with some silicone gel.



Thank you for visiting today!

Happy Crafting,

Clare.

Monday 12 March 2018

Happy Mother'sDay 2018

  It's Clare with you today and I've been playing with a couple of the Paperartsy mini sets this week to create a card ready for mother's day.


Using my brayer I built up layers of paint before reaching for my mini stamp sets to add in some details.  I stamped with JM





Onto some separate card, painted with the corresponding colours, I stamped the flower from JM59, cut out and coloured over the top using pencil crayons to add a little more colour to the bloom.


I printed my own mother's day greeting and attached to the card.  Using the flower stamp I stamped around the edge of my card blank to create a frame before placing the topper onto the card.


Using this cute little teddy from Magda Polakow, I created my second mother's day card along with Visible Image Ripple effect set.  


On a gelli printed background I stamped on top using Distress Oxides and attached my cuddly buddy to the card.



I hope you have enjoyed your visit today?  I love to hear your thoughts and comments.

Happy Crafting.
Clare xxx

Monday 5 March 2018

All you have to do is fly!

This week I have been playing with some stamps from Studio Light.


Working with Distress Oxides on the background I stamped Background stamp 182 onto my card.




I stencilled some diamonds onto the card using white acrylic paint.  I selected the part of the card that I wanted to use and die cut a tag.


  Using a larger flourish stamp from my stash I stamped and heat embossed with gold embossing powder.  I edged the tag with some black acrylic paint, dried and applied some gold guilding wax.


The butterfly was stamped onto card and coloured with pencils.  I added some glue and fine glitter to the centre of the butterfly to give a more textured appearance.


Thank you for stopping by the blog today.  I hope you've enjoyed your visit?  Remember to pop back for some more inspiration soon.

Happy Crafting,

Clare