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 27 April 2014

A little bit inky............I think

A good Sunday morning to you all in blog land.  I hope that the weather is being kind to you all wherever you may be.  I was not amused yesterday as my car is on its holidays at the garage as it failed its mot :-( this means that I have walked EVERYWHERE this weekend.........in the bloody rain, humph! Still I don't need to go out today so if it's not so nice it will be a rainy craft day hurrah :-). Here is my Bee Crafty blog for this week.



For this card I have used:

Distress inks  pine needles, mustard seed, seedless preserves





I started off using some of my spray inks that have mica powders in. After they had dried I stamped on the poppy heads twice in black and then stamped the largest of the branches stamp five times coming at different angles. I then stamped the wordage stamp 'Joy is a flower' and heat embossed with black wow powders.  I then added more colour from my distress ink using pine needles and mustard seed in the middle, using my blending tool I edged the card with seedless preserve.  I added black dots around the branches with liquid pearls and applied glossy accents to the poppy heads.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog entry today and the sunshine has made an appearance wherever you may be.


Crafty hugs,

Clare x x x x









Sunday 20 April 2014

My first official Bee Crafty Blog! (Get me) lol



Hi everyone this is my first official blog for  Bee Crafty. I was absolutely thrilled when Bev contacted me as I really enjoy crafting with these amazing stamps, the quality is brilliant! I was inspired by the   'Inspired by Banksy' range of stamps. I have really enjoyed letting my creativity run wild.



For this card I have used:





I made a mask out of some scrap paper (junk mail comes in handy for this, I keep a pile next to my craft mat so i can clean off stamps after inking or just off load ink from brushes or blenders) and used peacock feathers through the circles mask.  I then changed the paper mask over so that I could blush and blend my ground with peeled paint.  I stamped the girl in black ink and then stamped the balloon in picked raspberry.  I lightly brushed over the sky with dusty Concorde and edged the card all the way around with my blender with picked raspberry. Finally I stamped on the large life wordage stamp.


I hope you have enjoyed looking at this post.  Don't forget all of the items used for this are available from Bee Crafty .  I really look forward to hearing your comments.

Crafty hugs,

Clare x x x 

Saturday 19 April 2014

My new favourite colour.......

Morning all.  Last night I decided to chisel away and make something that I haven't used yet from the NEC and decided on a couple of stamps from Lavinia stamps. I have decided at the moment that my new favourite distress ink is seedless preserves.  I can't think of a project recently that I haven't used it!


For this card I used:  Papermill white linen card & papermill black and teal for layers
                                 Distress inks: Seedless perseveres ( my new fav colour :-)
                                                       Shaded lilac 
                                                       Evergreen bough
                                                       Antique photo
                                 Lavinia stamps: Witches cat & climbing ivy
                                 The dragonflies are from card-io's dragonfly garden
                                 Ranger liquid pearls 
                                 

I lightly swept over my background with evergreen bough to make the pale green background. I then used ripped paper to make a mask for the ground and for the corners that frame the image.  I stamped on the cat and the dragonflies using black versa fine.   I stamped on climbing ivy using my chosen distress inks.  I framed the outside using a makeup sponge with antique photo and seedless preserves ( told you, I love this colour). The stars are stamped in evergreen bough, I applied liquid pearls and a sprinkling of glitter.  I then embellished the rest of the card using  liquid pearls.

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog.  If you have enjoyed don't for get to follow.  I love hearing your comments too.

Crafty hugs,

CLARE X X X X X X X



Thursday 17 April 2014

Posting pastels

Howdy folks I've just finished making a card for my friends 60th birthday.  I haven't gone the traditional route and put her age on the front but I've used an inspirational quote as she is quite an inspirational lady.

My holidays are drawing to a close and that will slow up my crafty shenanigans a little but need to save some energy in order to achieve my next project.  I have the mammoth task of sorting out the cellar but there is a little bit of carrot dangling going on as DH has said that if I do we can convert it into my very own craft room.  Happy Clare :-).





For this card I have used: Papermill white linen card
                                        Papermill black card
                                        Tim Holtz distress inks
                                        Adirondack snow peak
                                        Versa magic 
                                        Imagination Crafts stencils harlequin and butterfly delight
                                        Inkylicious peacock feather and live life
                                        Lavinia stamps stars


I used the distress inks to make my pastel background, using the masks is sponged over with ranger snow caps pigment ink.   The images were stamped using pale versa magic colours and I used seedless preserves to stamp the sentiment and darken the edges of the card.

I layered my finished card onto black card and embellished with gems.

I hope you have enjoyed looking at my blog, thank you for taking the time to look.  I really love seeing all of your comments.

Crafty Easter hugs,

Clare x x x x 


Thursday 10 April 2014

Will it work..............?

Well I am blogging this card, one I made a while ago but thought I would have a go at entering it into a blog competition so wish me luck as I've not had much luck with linking up before.

The stamps I've used on this card are from Lavinia stamps and I have created the background using distress inks.



Crafty hugs,

Clare x x x 


Tuesday 8 April 2014

I am proud to announce...........



Good afternoon folks, well I have been as busy as a Bee the past couple of days and have some very exciting news.  I have been invited on to the Bee Crafty design team!  Omg, so excited.  I have never done anything like this before so it is a new challenge in itself.  So here you are my latest blog using Bee Crafty'sBee Crafty Banksy inspired 'Love Hill' and 'Shoot for the moon' wordage stamp.  Embellished with some liquid pearls and a sprinkling of glitter and some glossy accents on the heart balloon.



The stamps used in this card are available at http://www.beecrafty.net


I look forward to hearing your comments and feedback.

Crafty hugs, 

Clare x x x x 

Monday 7 April 2014

Last one today.............promise!



You can tell I'm on my holidays lots of crafting and not much housework, lol.  Well I am still recovering from last week, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.  Note to self.....whip the Hoover over later ;-)  I'm  having so much fun using these stamps from Bee Crafty I have had another play this afternoon.  It is another one of the Banksy inspired and I have also used the da Vinci inspired script as a background stamp. I have used various inks and and masks to create the landscape and a few liquid pearls to highlight the moon and the water. The foliage stamps are from inkylicious and Lavinia.



Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog, I'd love to hear your comments.

Crafty hugs,

Clare x x x x 

Finishing what one started!

I have finally finished the card that I started yesterday! (Managed to sit still long enough lol) again I have used another stamp from the inspired by banksy range made by Bee Crafty as my centre piece along with some imagination masks, Lavinia stamps and also a sentiment from Sheena Douglas.  The colours are all from the Tim Holtz distress ink range. I have also experimented with some of the sweet poppy white paste. I made the flower out of a Tim Holtz die, some old mulberry papers and embellished with some pink beads.



I hope you have enjoyed looking at my latest make.  I will probably be back at my craft table again later. I have so much unused stash at the moment and hope to change that this week.  I would love to hear your comments and maybe gain a few new followers.

Crafty hugs,

Clare x x x x x


Sunday 6 April 2014

The start of things to come........


Yippee! The Easter holidays are here and not too soon. Owing to my current situation (after a little surgery of a delicate nature :-/) I am unable to sit on my toosh for too long so my crafting is limited to short spurts. This is not the card that I started today but it is one that I have managed to complete.  Before I went into hospital on Thursday I ordered a wee stash of stamps from bee-crafty (a stand I completely overlooked whilst I was gleefully filling up my basket with new distress ink colours) and low and behold on my groggy return from said outing I was greeted by a lovely envelope filled with my goodies.  



Like I said it was a very quick card but hopefully I will be blogging a little more regular this week.  I hope you have enjoyed looking at my blog, I love to hear your comments and thoughts.

Crafty hugs,

Clare x x x x