WMS Pajama Party!

Hello fellow partygoers!

It's the first day of Spring for us and it's an absolute beauty here in Sydney...clear blue skies and endless sunshine. Am I making you jealous?

Now I didn't think I was going to be up to any of the Waltzingmouse Pajama Party challenges due to a bad case of the sniffles but I have managed to get one done.  I've had a bit of help from  Colour Throwdown and Freshly Made Sketches - can you tell I wasn't up to thinking any original thoughts last night? I also chose to do the 'golden oldies' challenge, which meant that I didn't have to think about which stamps to use either.

From memory, the first WMS stamps I bought were Musical Backgrounds, Very Vintage Labels no 4 and Fancy Phrases.  I used the teeny tiny musical note background for stamping my panel and to decorate my butterfly die cut, then popped it on to the stamped label. The 'hello' sentiment is probably my most used stamp out of my entire stamp stash...it's the perfect size and seems to fit on any card I make!

Since there's an 'Anything Goes' challenge over at Simon Says Stamp, I'm going to pop it over there too!

Well, that's all for me folks - my head is about to explode...happy partying! Thanks so much for taking the time to comment,

Claire x

Mama Elephant Challenge

Hello Bloggers,

Hope you are enjoying your Thursday!

There's a new challenge over at Mama Elephant this month based on this lovely pic of inspiration:

Now I really wish I'd done this at the beginning of the month since I'm not feeling the best and that does nothing for the mojo does it? The whole family has coughed and spluttered its way through the week so I admit I've been a little short on inspiration:

I've obviously been inspired by the colour scheme as well as the stripes, spots and the type on the cushions. I've used a couple of different sets - Type It and Basic Borders. It's a bit of a mish mash using ideas from previous cards but,  like I said, the mojo's kind of disappeared at the moment!

Thanks for stopping by,

Claire x

100 Freshly Made Sketches!

G'day again,

I couldn't possibly miss out on taking part at Freshly Made this week - it's their 100th sketch challenge and they've gone right back to the very beginning with the very first sketch by Cindy:

It's one of those annoying cards that looks better IRL I'm afraid. Not sure why..probably my lousy camera action.  Anyway, our next door neighbour is due to pop any day now with her first bub so I'm getting prepared for his arrival early. I've used a couple of Imaginisce stamps and embossed them with red, glittery embossing powder. The paper's are some leftover bits and pieces from Authentique.

Enjoy your day and thanks for popping by!

Claire x

Retro Sketches #78

Morning again bloggers!

Another week has gone by and another Retro Sketch is up  based on this brilliant card by Kasia. Here's the sketch:

 

I used a numbered background stamp from Kaisercraft,  die cut a star through the middle of it (always a bit risky with all that stamping done!), added a frame and popped a smaller star over the top. I then couldn't work out where to put the sentiment so stamped it on some acetate with StazOn and popped that on the top too. Talk about a lot of layers...I'll have to take out a second mortgage to post it!

Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with this week! Thanks for stopping by again,

Claire x

Paper Playing

Afternoon folks,

I'm so glad I've had the time to play the Casology challenge today - I've not had the chance to join in for the past few weeks.  The cue word is 'paper:'

I was trying to get the effect of newspaper print using the tiny happy-b-day stamp from Mama Elephant's Type It set.   It's been Daffodil Day today, in aid of cancer research so I added a bright yellow paper ribbon in it's honour.

Thanks for looking and enjoy your weekend!

Claire x

Aqua and Black

Hello bloggers,

I'm having terrible difficulties with Blogger at the moment - it's driving me mad. Anyone else having trouble? A lot of the time I can't log in at all and any posts I try to write refuse to save. It also seems to take ages to download a page. So frustrating!   Anyway,  whilst I'm able to log on I'll quickly load my card for this week's Dynamic Duos and Freshly Made sketch by Rita:

The Dynamic Duos challenge also has the option to use embossing so I have embossed the medallion in white on to black cardstock. I've also used a Spellbinders embossing folder on the white base (although it's not showed up too well in the photo!)

Thanks for stopping by,

Claire x

Retro Sketches #77

Hi folks,

There's another great sketch over at Retro Sketches today and it's based on this fantastically fun card by Arielle:

I had a few ideas and ended up making a couple of different versions:

In the first I used one of the dies from Spellbinders Marvellous Squares to make the negative cuts and then popped it over some scrap MME paper. On the second I partially cut a circle and replaced the sentiment with a spaceship. I used a 6x6 Kaisercraft pad...perfect for the little boys in my life (and maybe the big one too!)

Hope you have time to join in the fun! Have a fabulous weekend!

Claire x

Freshly Made Colour Q

Hello again folks,

Hope you're having a wonderful Monday. I spent last night playing around with the sketch by Jen over at Freshly Made Sketches. I also combined it with the gorgeous colours at Colour Q:

I sponged the cloudy sky with Midnight Muse and a touch of Bliss Blue as they're the closest I had to the colours.   Luckily I had a few papers from the new Sweetpea collection by Kaisercraft which pretty much fitted in with the rest of the colour combo.

Thanks for looking!

Claire x

Time for Dessert

Hello, me again.

Not often I do two posts in one day but I thought I'd slip in a quick card before the deadline over at Casology:

You can't beat a cupcake for dessert can you? Or Banoffi Pie, chocolate mousse, lemon meringue, cheesecake, Pavlova....I'm piling on the pounds just thinking about them all!

Thanks for popping by...again....enjoy what's left of the weekend!

Claire x

Retro Sketch #76

Morning crafty folk!

This week has absolutely flown by and it's already time for another Retro Sketch. Since I'm lucky enough to be this month's headliner the sketch is based on a card by yours truly - if you would like to see the original you can have a nose here:

I kept it pretty simple and used Mama Elephant's typewriter image from the Type It set. I had a Studio Calico 6x6 paper pad with the perfect typed patterned paper so used that as my background panel.  I then replaced the heart stamp with a punched heart and made it pop a little with some dimensional tape.

 I've made quite a few 'love you' cards recently...shame I've only got one husband to give them to.....I'm considering investing in another one just so I can use some of these cards up...

Hope you can all join in with the challenge! Thanks for stopping by,

Claire x

Dynamic Mojo Monday

Hello folks,

This is going to be a really quick one as I'm off to bed - a mix of Mojo Monday with Dynamic Duos:

I have to admit I struggled with the sketch - in the end I decided it looked better upside down!

Thanks for looking!

Claire x

Sunglasses Required!

Evening all,

Another day, another card - I seem to be on a bit of a roll this week. This time it's for the latest Color Throwdown challenge. Not once, have I ever had all the colours for a colour challenge in my (pretty small)  ink collection. Until now! So, no patterned papers in this one...just a heap of repetitive stamping...in a very bright, Summery colour combo:

At least it may brighten up someone's day - although I think it may have been easier to do all that stamping with a pair of sunglasses on!

I'm also going to enter it into the Simon Says Stamp 'Anything Goes' challenge...well, you never know your luck do you?!

Thanks for popping by,

Claire x

Retro headliner!

Hello fellow bloggers!

Hope you're having a fantastic weekend.

Anyone who has a peek at my blog will know I love a Retro Sketch, so you can imagine how excited I was when I received a little email from Arielle, asking if I would be August's Retro Sketches Headliner.  Hmmmm,  do you think she needed to even ask?! The answer was obviously a very excited yes and this week the sketch is based on a beautiful card by Laurie:

There was a bit of a mix up with dates so I'm all set for the next sketch but this week's card was a little rushed - there's nothing like working under a little pressure is there?! The dotty border is a Mama Elephant stamp which I stamped on the base - I then used the same stamp on a panel and stamped over it with the WMS dress form. This allowed me to mat the entire image in black so that it would pop out more against the dots.  Looks so simple doesn't it? But it took me about 3 attempts to match the dotty border with the dots on the panel and get the dress form in the right position!

Anyway, huge thanks to Arielle for asking me to headline for August...hope you get the chance to join in with the fun!

Claire x

200 Colour Q's!

G'day again bloggers!

It appears to be anniversary time out there in blogland at the moment. All the challenge sites seem to be celebrating milestones left, right and centre! This week it's Colour Q's turn with a whopping 200th challenge.  There's a lovely masculine colour scheme and I've teamed it with Retro Sketch #74:

I swear the night sky is a very, very dark navy but I have to admit, it looks black in the photo! I reckon Midnight Muse is almost black so here's hoping I can get away with it. The sentiment is inside as it was too long to fit on the card - it says 'have a blast on your big day!'

There's also the opportunity to win a place on the Colour Q design team....now wouldn't that be lovely!

Thanks for popping by,

Claire x

A WMS Bedtime Story

Hello bloggers!

At the end of the Pajama party over at Waltzingmouse there is a bedtime story in the form of a sketch:

I'm sure I'm not the only card maker out there who buys a brand new set of stamps and uses one particular image all the time, whilst the others get left to gather dust. I can't believe I've never used the dress form from the 'You're Lovely' set  so I was determined to get it inky for this challenge.

I'm also entering it into the latest Simon Says Stamp challenge which is 'Anything Goes.'

Thanks for stopping,

Claire x