Casology Week 46

Hello fellow bloggers!

It's our 9th wedding anniversary today - it feels like only yesterday since I walked down the aisle in a wonky tiara to the strains of no music at all  (since the hotel forgot to put the CD on.)   I thought I'd use this week's Casology challenge for a bit of inspiration, although I have to say I struggled a bit since the cue word this week is:

Now I'm not really one for cute, animal stamps so I have to say I was a little limited in my stamp choice.  However, I did find a tiny paw stamp hiding in my collection:

That's about as romantic as it gets in my household I'm afraid...but I'm sure the blokey will get the meaning behind it!


Have a wonderful day and thanks for popping by,

Claire x

Happy Birthday Ardyth!

Hello again!

Out there in blogland someone is celebrating their '21st' birthday today and that someone happens to be Ardyth!  Darnell  has organised a blogging birthday party for her - the idea is to make Ardyth a birthday card and post it on Darnell's blog so we can all have a look at what we've come up with. Isn't that a fantastic idea?

Now I've raved about Ardyth's cards a number of times on my blog. Her style is clean, simple and minimalistic but always with a clever twist. I've attempted to channel her style with a set of new stamps from Mama Elephant:

Unbelievably it was my first attempt - can you tell I've not had a couple of glasses of chardy tonight? I think those lines may have been a bit wobbly if I had.

So, Happy Birthday Ardyth - I hope you're having a wonderful day. And it's also a thank you card as you are always so generous with your commenting. It's a wonder you have the time to make any cards at all!

Cheers,

Claire x

MME Sketch Challenge

Hello,

Over at my favourite paper manufacturer they have a sketch challenge, based on a layout by Ronda:

Since my scrappy mojo is virtually non-existent at the moment I made a card:

I have such a ridiculous amount of MME papers that I am now in self-imposed MME exile and have banned myself from buying any more. Having said that, when I recently went to the US I put a sneaky 6x6 MME paper pad in my basket called Follow Your Heart. It really was very restrained of me - all the 6x6 pads were on offer and I could quite easily have bought them all and gone over my airline baggage allowance. I considered buying the whole range and leaving one of the kids over there, but for some reason the blokey didn't think this was a good idea....

Anyway, I used my trusty, square Nestability dies to cut a heap of patterned papers and instead of stitching it, tied it all together with some bakers twine. The sentiment label is from one of MME's stamp sets.

Hope you're having a great day! Thanks for stopping,

Claire x

Case This Sketch #29

Hello again,

Just a quickie to show what I've done for this week's CAS(e) This Sketch from Jackie:

I used a sentiment from PTI's Birthday Basics and left the rest of the card blank...I don't think it needs another sentiment since I've already stamped it about 20 times!

Thanks for stopping!

Claire x

A Right Royal Casology

Hello bloggers,

This week's cue word over at Casology is 'Royal'.  For some reason it didn't summon up pictures of princesses, crowns or princes but it did make me think of a queen. As in a Queen Bee. Since I haven't got a single bee image in my stamp collection I decided to paper piece my own:

I cut a yellow and a black circle and then used my cuttlebug to cut each of them into sections for his body. His head and mouth is an ancient cuttlebug tag die that I've had for years.  I stamped his wings onto acetate using the dragonfly stamp from Stampin' Up's Bugs and Kisses set and then cut them to size.  His antennae are punched from a McGill flower punch and I've added a bit of bling. The sentiment is part of a free digital stamp that can be found here.  He's quite cute isn't he, although I think he'd maybe look better with bigger eyes. When you turn him upside down his eyes go all squiggly and he looks a little drunk. Maybe he's had too much of the amber nectar.....

Well, that's all folks...thanks for stopping by,

Claire x

White With One

Hello again!

Told you I'd be back today with a layout. I've been a bit slack with the scrapbooking lately. I think I came back from holiday, saw how many photos I'd taken and just had no idea where to start.

So to get me back into a scrappy mood I decided to have a go at White with one -  for May, the colour combo is black and white: and the challenge is to use flags and badges:

Talk about trying to make it difficult for myself. I had no flags and only a few badges, most of which didn't fit the picture. Luckily a friend sent me a pad of gorgeous black and white papers recently so I resorted to making my own. I faded the background of the photo to black and white so that the colours of our clothes stood out, otherwise I thought it would all look a bit drab!

I have to say I struggled and I'm finding it increasingly hard to switch from making cards to doing a layout. Maybe I need to do a class...or go on a shopping spree...sounds like a plan....

Thanks for popping by,

Claire x

Retro Colour Q

G'day bloggers,

Hope you're enjoying the weekend!  I've spent every waking (and sleeping) minute with my highly infectious 4 year old this week. No preschool, no play dates and no park visits for either of us -  talk about craving adult company and fresh air!

To keep me sane I've been crafting up a storm, even managing to get a layout done which I'll stick in a different post. I've also made a card using this weeks sketch over at Retro Sketches and combined it with the colour combo over at Colour Q:

Don't you just love it when you realise you have something in your stash that perfectly matches a colour challenge?.  In this case it was a strip of ribbon from Green Tara. The numbered background is a Kaisercraft stamp, embossed in white on baja blue cardstock, The stamped balloons were done with a the very first stamp I ever bought. In fact, it's so old I can't even tell what brand it is. I stamped them on cardstock with Midnight Muse and added a touch of Dimensional Magic for some gloss.

That's enough blogging from me for now...watch this space for a scrapbook page...my first one in ages.

Thanks for stopping,

Claire x

Another Blooming Card

Hello. It's me. Again.

I seem to have gone a bit flower happy in the last couple of days so I'm entering another card into the Casology challenge. In case you missed it, the cue word this week is 'bloom:'

Bit different to my other one isn't it? But I've been dying to have a play with some Perfect Pearls I bought recently. I used a Hero Arts stamp, embossed some of the flower outlines in white emboss powder and used a mix of Perfect Pearls powders for the blooms. I can't help thinking there is something missing. A sentiment maybe? In fact, I may come back to it and make an adjustment or two.
I'm also going to enter it into this months Simon Says Stamp challenge which is 'Flower Power.' It's great when you get to do a double whammy isn't it?!

Thanks for stopping. Again.

Claire x

Freshly Made Colour!

Hello bloggers!

I seem to be on a roll with the cards at the moment. Not sure what's happened to the scrapbooking - I haven't done a layout for ages and think I should maybe change the name of my blog soon!

There's a great sketch by Amy over at Freshly Made which I've combined with this week's Colour Q combo. I decided to take a 'less is more' kind of approach and only used a little of each colour, along with the black and white.

I stamped the border in Real Red using Mama Elephant's Modern Borders, matted it against some certainly celery card stock and did a spot of colouring with Cameo Coral.

Just a quickie today....enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Claire x

Waltzingmouse Blog Party

Hello everyone,

It's time for one of my favourite challenges of the month again - the Waltzingmouse Blog Party!

This month the theme is 'teacher appreciation.' It's a bit early in the year for us to be sending thank you cards to teachers in Australia - our school year ends in December. But who said you had to wait till then anyway?

I went back to Claire's chalkboard technique tutorial for this one. I wanted it to look like lines on a blackboard so I used the 'for my teacher' stamp from the Frame It set. I drew the apples and added some Dimensional Magic, then stamped the leaves in Versamark using the tiny leaf from Folk Art Medallion.

Well that's enough partying for me this month...off to see how all the other guests have dressed!

Thanks for stopping,

Claire x

Blooming with Casology

Hi everyone,

Another day, another card and another Casology challenge. This time the cue word is 'bloom.'

Unfortunately I'm one of those card makers who finds it very difficult to throw away the tiniest scraps of patterned paper. I have a whole file full of MME scraps and this was the perfect card to use some of them up. I punched a flower from a die cut square of bazzil, covered the petals with some coordinating papers and covered the flower with the cut square, using some dimensional tape. Has to be one of the easiest, quickest and cheapest cards I've made in a long time!

Hope your day is blooming - thanks for stopping!

Claire x

A Dynamic CAS(E) This Sketch

Good morning bloggers,

I've been meaning to have a go at a Dynamic Duos challenge for ages so I combined it with this week's sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch. Unfortunately I just missed the CAS(e) deadline. Oops...don't you just hate it when that naughty Mr Linky shuts shop?!

Yes, ok I know.  I am just a little bit obsessive over that typewriter! But it will end soon...promise.  I've combined it with another set of Mama Elephant stamps called Modern Borders.  It's the kind of set I could play with for ages, if only I didn't have to do all the other 'important' things in life like look after the kids....

I'm also going to enter this one into the Simon Says Stamp challenge this month which is 'things with wings.' May be pushing it....but hey, there is a bird on it and Simon can always hit the delete button!

Have a great day and thanks for popping by!

Claire x

Play Date Cafe

Hello folks,

Another pretty colour combo over at the Play Date Cafe this week:

I've used a few Kaisercraft papers from their Peachy Keen collection for this one. I fussy cut the flowers from the patterned papers and added a few stamped leaves from the Waltzingmouse Folk Art Medallion set. I've used a stamp from the same set to stamp the background on to a Marvellous Square die cut.  I love the boldness of the blue with the peach and apricot - definitely a colour theme I'll be using again....if only I had the talent to think of it in the first place!

Thanks for looking!

Claire x

Casology Hexagons

Well hello bloggers,

I have to say I've struggled with the Casology cue word this week:

Why did I struggle? Because I've really caught the 'hexagonal' bug and realised I have way too much hexagonal stuff to choose from! Should I use the hexagonal die cut? Or maybe the embossing folder? Or the hexagonal woodgrain stamp? Then again I could use the mask...

In the end I went for a new stamp that I got from Mama Elephant recently, coloured it with a few markers and added a stamped circle from Waltzingmouse, together with a Stampin' Up flower from their Eastern Gardens set. I also used the mask but I'm wondering if this has steered me away from the 'clean' element of the challenge!

Of course, since I've finished this card I've had another 100 ideas about what I could have done....

Can't wait to see how everyone else has interpreted the word this week!

Thanks for stopping,

Claire x

A Deconstructed Sketch

Hello Bloggers,

I've been meaning to have a go at a Deconstructed Sketch for a while now so what better time to try one than on their 100th sketch:

So many possibilities with this sketch - I'm sure I'll be using it again. I'd loved to have done some real stitching on those banners but I'm way too lazy and have absolutely no sewing skills, so some paper piercing and faux stitching will have to do!

Thanks for stopping,

Claire x

CASing CASology

G'day bloggers,

I've approximately 7 minutes to sneak my entry into this week's CASology challenge so I'll keep it short and sweet! I've also used sketch #26 from CAS(e) This Sketch:

The idea was to stamp the rainbow lines on to the square but it failed miserably so I cheated and used a ruler and Stampin' Up markers!

Thanks for stopping,

Claire x

Colour Q #187

Morning all,

There's a gorgeous colour combo over at Colour Q this week and for once I pretty much had the entire colour collection in my ink stash:

I rarely make a card using just a stamp and ink but the Folk Art Medallion from Waltzingmouse can be used in so many different ways so I just kept on stamping until the entire card was covered. I almost kept it to one layer but decided it needed a bit of dimension so I added the circles and a few tiny pearls.  I'm sure this will be my new 'go to' set for an ultra quick card in the future - it can be used in so many different ways!

Hope you have a great weekend - thanks for stopping,

Claire x

Another Retro Play Date

Good morning folks,

Another day, another card - this time for Play Date Cafe and Retro Sketches:

I bought a few Mama Elephant stamps recently so I've been dying to have a play with them - that typewriter is kind of retro and vintagey all at the same time. Love it!

Have a fabulous day and thanks for popping by,

Claire x

Muse #15

Well hello bloggers!

It's been a little while since I posted - not surprising really, since we've just come back from a family holiday to San Francisco and Canada. It really was the trip of a lifetime, especially the couple of days we spent at Disneyland - I'm not sure who had most fun, us or the kids! Now I'm just wondering how I'm going to have time to scrapbook the photos...all 2000 of them.....

I'm letting myself get back into crafty mode gently this week so what better way to do it then getting inspired by this week's Muse challenge with a fab card from Jen Mitchell:

Isn't it gorgeous? I have to admit I think I've been a little 'too inspired' by it as my version is a little too similar for my liking:

Pretty obvious what I've been inspired by isn't it?  Erm, all of it perhaps? I used a strip of washi tape on the panel which came from Michaels. Oh dear. What's a girl to do when a HUGE craft store is a 10 minute walk from where she's staying in SFO? Well go in and spend money of course. Again. And again. And yet again. Those pesky 40% coupons got me every time!

Well, I'm feeling the mojo now so I'm off to do a couple more things and have a look at the gallery. Thanks for stopping by,

Claire x