Colour Q #285

Hello folks!

We've got another set of colours for you to play with over at Colour Q, a gorgeous collection of brights, inspired by some sweet handmade Easter baskets:

I was tempted to go with flowers again but these happy hues made me think of Mama Elephant's Around We Go.  I used my Silhouette to die cut some grass from patterned paper,  together with a polaroid frame. The frame looked a little bare in white card stock so I stamped it with WMS Woodgrain and embossed it in white.  The background was sponged using Soft Sky, the nearest I have to Cool Caribbean.

Hope you get the time to get crafty this Easter - the kids finish school on Thursday which normally cuts back on my inky time.  I could have sworn they only just went back....

Thanks for stopping,

Claire x

A CAS Cupcake

Hello again,

I seem to be in CAS mode at the moment and did another super quick card for The Card Concept and CAS(E) This Sketch:

I embossed a square background using a Nestability Fancy Square and stamped a WMS cupcake and sentiment.  Not a great photo - a fluorescent light isn't the best source of light for taking a good picture unfortunately! I might try and improve it tomorrow when it's daylight.

Since it is a clean and simple card I'm also going to put it into Time Out's gallery too.

Thanks for popping by,

Claire x

Wedding Style

G'day folks!

A quick card for a couple of challenges today - Casology, where the cue word is 'style' and Time Out, where the theme is 'clean and simple,' with the optional twist of black and white and a splash of colour.

We have acquired some lovely new Chinese neighbours in the last couple of weeks - today they were married and we were lucky enough to see the wedding party celebrating in the back garden of their new home. The bride looked stunning in a traditional Chinese dress and it reminded me of Waltzingmouse's 'You're Lovely' set, although it's certainly more of a traditional,  Western style wedding dress!

What could be more stylish than black and white? I white embossed part of the dress onto black card stock and stamped the rest using black ink, against white card. I then die cut a fancy square and added a sentiment.  Very easy and very quick. I'd like to give it to our new neighbours but I'm not sure of their names yet! Maybe when they get back from their honeymoon.

Enjoy what's left of the weekend!

Claire x

Colour Q #284

Hello bloggers!

There's a brand new set of colours to play with over at Colour Q:

I would have loved to have  had a longer play with these pretty colours but I've had both kidlets  at home sick in the last couple of days so not much time to get creative. It's therefore a very CAS card from me this week - I blended some Blushing Nude,  Perfect Plum and Soft Blue inks and sprayed them with water. I stamped them with some Penny Black poppies, then added some olive watercolour to the base of the poppies and the stems.

Since time was short I got some sketchy inspiration from Retro Sketches too:

Hope you get the time to play around with the colours this week - catch you later!

Claire x

Casology #138

Hello!

This is the second of two posts today - scroll down if you fancy seeing the next one for The Alley Way Stamps.   When I saw the cue word over at Casology I knew I had the perfect Penny Black stamp to practise with my Copics:

Not the best photo, but I've done almost a four hour drive today with two very tired boys who are both coming down with colds. That's 4 hours of constant 'are we there yet', together with Lego Ninjago blaring out from the DVD player. So forgive me if I don't feel like honing my photography skills tonight!

Not much you can say about the card...just wanted to colour. And for that reason I'm also going to enter it into the 30 day Colouring Challenge over at The Daily Marker.  I wish I'd had time to colour every day but once is better than nothing!

Thanks for looking,

Claire x

More TAWS projects!

G'day bloggers!

Hope your weekend has been a good one!

So this is my second post as March guest designer for The Alley Way Stamps - you can catch my first one here. I was lucky enough to have a play with a couple of really fun sets - Good Point and Monster Mash:

I really do need to get back into the scrapbooking because Good Point would be great for a scrap page. There are lots of different arrows and words that can be used on an interactive layout or card.  I used one of the arrows to create a simple pattern in various inks and topped it off with a button and twine. Sometimes it's good just to have a blank card without a sentiment, that can be used 'just because' isn't it?

For my last project I created a fun tag for one of my own little monsters - I white embossed the furry little critter onto black card stock and added a couple of wiggly eyes.  He really is my favourite of the set and, as far as monsters go, really isn't too scary!  I love that because they are all outline stamps they can be coloured with any kind of medium so I'm looking forward to experimenting with some Copics and watercolours.

So that's it for my guest stint - thank you so much for having me Alison and Chrissie...I so enjoyed getting inky!

Make sure you check out the store and the blog for heaps of other ideas!

Thanks for stopping,

Claire x

MFT Wednesday Sketch

 Morning all!

In my jaunt around blogland this week I kept seeing this fantastic sketch for the MFT Wednesday Sketch Challenge:

I knew this MFT Dienamics die would be perfect for the sketch - I sponged some Distress Inks on some card stock and die cut the sentiment, then added some Glossy Accents to make it shine.  I did the same for the arrow, then added some washi and enamel dots - it all came together very quickly...love that!

Thanks for popping by,

Claire x

Guest Designing for TAWS!

G'day folks!

A few months ago I was thrilled to be asked to be Guest Designer for March over at The Alley Way Stamps blog.  I've so enjoyed playing with a couple of different TAWS sets: Monster Mash and Good Point:

So what's the first thing that springs to mind when you think about monsters? For me, it's a wardrobe. My husband finds it highly amusing that, despite being over forty, I still have to have the wardrobe doors closed when we go to sleep.  I think this may be because I was convinced there were monsters hiding there when I was a kidlet and that's what first came to mind when I saw this sweet set. I found a wardrobe template on my Silhouette, stamped each of the little monsters on patterned paper and stuck them inside.  I then stamped one of the larger arrows from Good Point to put on the wardrobe doors...just to warn the recipient that monsters are lurking inside!

It was Valentines Day around the time I did my second card...love was in the air and I knew these little monsters would look extra cute, staring into each others googly eyes.  This time I used distress inks to colour them...I'm not sure if they're ready to kiss or eat each other but I reckon they've got the hots for each other!

So that's it for now...I'll be back with some more projects at a later date - don't forget to check out the TAWS shop for lots of other lovely goodies!

Thanks for stopping by,

Claire x

Thinking of You

Hello bloggers!

I haven't had a play over at The Card Concept for a while - they currently have a 'Thinking of You' challenge which I've combined with the latest Retro Sketch:

I haven't inked up W Plus 9's Fresh Cut Florals for ages - as soon as I saw the inspiration pic I thought this would be  the perfect set to use. The chevron arrows peeping through the card stock belong to a strip of washi tape. Despite the many 'thinking of you' sentiments in my stash, not a single one fitted the image so I used a sentiment from a Technique Tuesday set instead..I think 'I'm here for you' gives the same impression!

I'm sticking this one into the 'classy and elegant' category this week - hope you get the chance to join in!

Claire x

Colour Q #283

Hello folks!

Not much playing with ink for me this week - it's been a big birthday week with my oldest son celebrating his 9th birthday and me celebrating my 40th (for the third year in a row...). So, how did I spend my birthday weekend? Lounging around in a luxury spa perhaps? Being waited on hand and foot? No. Making 40 cupcakes for my son's class mates, hosting a sleepover for 4 very noisy little boys and making a giant cheesecake at the birthday boy's request!

But I did have time to fit in my card for the new Colour Q challenge at least:

I knew I had the perfect MME papers for these colours. I used the pretty sketch from CAS(e) This Sketch, stamped and embossed Waltzingmouse's Simple Sprig onto some kraft and fussy cut it.

Hope you have time to get inky this week - you've got until midnight next Monday to link up your creations!

Thanks for stopping,

Claire x

Colour Q #282

Evening all!

Hope you've had a good start to the working week. Are you ready for a new set of colours to play with for the latest Colour Q challenge? They are a complete contrast to last week's pretty and soft hues:

Since my last Bokeh attempt was quite bright and girly I thought I'd have another go at it with these more masculine colours. I used Marina Mist with Soft Sky and added the newsprint bloom from Stamping' Up's Flower Shop.  I punched a flower from some old dictionary paper and layered it with a brad, then added the fancy flourish.

Go and have a peep at the rest of the design team's creations won't you? Heaps of inspiration to give your mojo a kick start!

Thanks for popping by,

Claire x

Rocking with Freshly Made

G'day folks!

A very CAS card for a very CAS sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. I used the theme from Time Out which is 'rock around the clock.' 

Not having anything time-related in my stash I opted for a card with a musical theme.  I've been meaning to try out this bokeh technique for ages...if you haven't tried it, it truly is the easiest technique in the world! There are so many great tutorials out there but I used a combination of these - http://www.stampawaywithme.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/august-2014-release-week.html and
http://dawnsstampingthoughts.typepad.com/dawns_stampin_studio/2015/02/bo.html.

I used distress inks for the background but it looks like pretty much any kind of ink will do. The guitar has been cut using my Silhouette and the sentiment is PTI.

That's all from me folks, hope you have a fabulous week!

Claire x