Colour Q #289

Hello blogging friends!

The week has raced by in record time and another Colour Q palette is here to whet your crafty appetite:

I was a little bit stuck for ink with these colours so I resorted to using some of my mountains of MME scraps - I also had some inspiration from the current Deconstructed Sketch:

Don't forget, if you haven't got the exact colours, you can substitute the closest match.  It doesn't matter how little of the colours you use, as long as all of them make an appearance!

Thanks for stopping,

Claire x

Pink Ombre

Hello folks!

Another CAS card, this time for Casology where the cue word is 'ombre:'

I blended a few distress inks and cut out a stitched panel - it was all looking a little too pink so I die cut a window and backed it with a piece of vellum to soften it. I then added an MFT daisy and a sentiment from WMS and matted it all on black.

We're bracing ourselves for more storms in NSW later in the week. Since my work commute involves
driving a boat along a river, it does make getting to work a little more interesting to say the least.  Last week the journey was spent trying to avoid all the debris floating in the river, as well as a number of boats that had sunk.  I arrived at work absolutely soaking wet (despite full waterproofs) only to find that the power was out so I wasn't even able to dry my clothes! Fingers crossed it won't be the same this week!

Happy stamping!

Claire x

Papertrey Ink Blog Hop - Part 2

Hello again,

Here's a second dose of navy and pink for the Papertrey Ink Blog Hop:

On the second card I dry embossed a fancy square frame and stamped another couple of butterflies. The butterfly trail is the little squiggly stamp from Grunge Me.  Love that set - it's so versatile!

Short but sweet today, thanks for popping over again,

Claire x

Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

G'day bloggers!

Time for another Papertrey Ink Blog Hop, based on the beautiful pinks and navy blue in this inspiration pic:

I stamped a random background using Grunge Me,  then inked up one of the butterflies from Butterfly Kisses and a sentiment from Mixed Messages.

For some reason I'm not able to link up two cards from the same post so scroll down if you want to see my second card!

Thanks for stopping!

Claire x

Freshly Made Sketches #182 (and Colour Q #288)

Hello again!

I'm sneaking this in at Freshly Made Sketches before the challenge closes.  We were invited to my cousin's 50th recently...a lovely thought,  but a party we'll definitely have to miss since it's happening on the other side of the world. Living in Australia is all very well, but it can play havoc with my social life.....

I've had to edit this post as I was a bit cheeky and posted my Colour Q card 24 hours earlier than usual. So, here are the colours - perfect for something masculine don't you think?

I used Casual Friday's cheeky WTF set for this one. I managed to get a few different textures on there..cork, wood, washi, a metal badge and some sweet burlap numbers from Little Yellow Bicycle. 

Hope you get the time to join in before Mr Linky closes his doors!

Thanks for popping by again,

Claire x

CASual Fridays - a Lame Effort!

G'day bloggers!

I've just had two kidlet free days in which I thought I'd be carding up a storm...but Mr Mojo went for a walk and never came back. How annoying is that? A bit of crafty time with no interruptions and I couldn't spot an original idea if it came up and slapped me in the face!

So here's my effort for this month's CASual Friday's challenge, which is to feature flowers, along with twine and kraft:

Not happy with it at all - it's desperately lacking in something..maybe a bit of bling?

If you have any ideas, let me know!

Happy stamping!

Claire x

Colour Q #287 Meets Waltzingmouse Pyjama Party

G'day folks!

How's your week going?  It's a busy one for me - kids holidays and lots of work so not much time to get crafty. Luckily I was organised and managed to make a couple of cards for today's Waltzingmouse Pyjama Party. I made them before we had the new Colour Q palette and one of them happened to be the very colours that Arielle picked...how lucky was that?

So here are the colours:

And here's the card:

The first card is for the Bedtime Story Sketch. It's been ages since I inked up WMS Funky Feathers and I thought it would be a perfect fit for this gorgeous, layered sketch.  I inked the feathers in three different colours and then fussy cut them.  I had a new 6x6 pad of Authentique patterned papers so used those for the rest of the card.

The next WMS challenge was to use an older WMS set from their Nestability compatible range.  I had a few to choose from but ended up with Opera Tags.  I used a couple of other sets too - Ocean Bound, which is one of my absolute favourite masculine sets and the houndstooth from Heirloom Patterns:

I used some distress inks to create the background for the tag, then stamped the anchor and sentiment.  I stamped the houndstooth onto some kraft card stock and clear embossed it. The wave has been cut using my Silhouette.

Make sure you check out the rest of the DT's creations at Colour Q won't you...and at Waltzingmouse too.  They are an extremely talented bunch of ladies!

Thanks for popping by,

Claire x

Time Out - Guest Designer Take Two

G'day fellow bloggers!

Have you had a go at the latest Time Out challenge yet? It's a CASE challenge based on this beautiful card by Kim:

This is my second card based on Kim's - I was inspired by the beautiful silver outline on her flowers, as well as her design.  I used Waltzingmouse's Simple Sprig with some SU Pewter embossing powder.  I stamped the blooms in pink and added a little glimmer with Wink of Stella.  The white embossed sentiment is WMS Big Day Today.

Heaps more inspiration over at the blog by the very talented design team - hope you get the chance to get crafty!

Claire x

Colour Q #286

Hello again!

Second post for me tonight - if you want to see my Casology guest designer creation, just scroll down.

We've got a gorgeous bright and fun set of colours for you this week over at Colour Q - I think they may just be my favourites so far:

What do you do when it's pouring down with rain and the kids are entertaining themselves? Trawl pinterest for a technique you've not tried before of course.  I love distress inks but I always seem to end up blending them and stamping over the top.  I found this gorgeous masculine card on 'A blog Called Wanda', with some great instructions for a distress inked background. In a nutshell - lightly smear a collection of distress inks onto a clear stamping block, spray lightly with water and smash it down onto some watercolour paper. So easy - I love how it's turned out!

So now it's your turn to get a little inky - don't forget you can substitute your nearest colour if you haven't got the exact shades and the beauty of a colour challenge is that you can use anything in your stash as long it's one of the required hues!

Happy stamping!

Claire x

Casology Guest designer!

Hello folks!


Hope you had a wonderful Easter and that the Easter bunny was kind to you.

This is the first of two posts tonight.  I was thrilled to win the last Casology challenge - and then a slight feeling of mild panic set in as it meant I would be guest designer for this week. I mean the Casology design team is a lot to live up to isn't it? How they think of such clever ideas each week is beyond me - sometimes I look at the cue word and all I'm hit with is a complete blank!


The cue word this week is 'news.'

I took the cue word quite literally and used an appropriate sentiment from Waltzingmouse's Camelia set.  I die cut the Dienamics daisy from some newsprint paper,  blended in some colour and put it against a gesso stencilled Memory Box background.

Make sure you check out all the Casology Design Team have to offer won't you - they are sure to get your crafty taste buds going!

Thanks for popping by,

Claire x

A Freshly Made Easter

Happy Easter everyone!

Hope you have enjoyed your day.  The 'Easter Bunny' was completely sprung at our house this morning when my youngest son caught me putting Easter eggs in the garden, ready for the hunt. He was in floods of tears because he thought I was stealing them all - I hadn't realised he thought so little of his mother!

I had a quick play last night for the latest Freshly Made Sketch:

 I had some bokeh stamped cardstock left over from this card so I cut a sentiment using an MFTdie, then used a Nestability to cut a circle underneath.  The black card looked a little bland so I clear embossed a WMS houndstooth background to create a subtle pattern.

Make sure you stop by the DT's beautiful creations - they always have something to inspire!

Thanks for stopping,

Claire x

Addicted To CAS

Hello again,

Unfortunately it's a wet and miserable start to the Easter holidays for us  - it hasn't stopped throwing it down for 48 hours and my two boys are very concerned that the Easter Bunny won't manage to leave any Easter eggs in the saturated garden tomorrow.

With the rain still pouring and the two kidlets safely entertaining themselves making paper aeroplanes, I made a quick card based on the latest Addicted to CAS code word - cute.

I saw this little Hot Off the Press monkey in my local craft shop the other day for a bargain $4 - not sure if I would call him 'cute' or cheeky but I thought he would be ok for the challenge.  I've coloured him with Copics, added a Paper Smooches sentiment and given the falling leaves a little glimmer with some Wink of Stella. 

Hope you have a wonderful Easter tomorrow - here's hoping the Easter Bunny can find us in all this rain!

Thanks for stopping,

Claire x

Time Out - Guest Designer

Hello bloggers!

I did a little happy dance a couple of weeks ago when I won challenge #25 with this little card over at Time Out.   The happy dancing continued when Sandie asked me to be guest designer for April, especially since it's a CASE challenge, based on this beautiful card by Kim:

For those of you who don't know, CASE means 'copy and share everything' - in other words, create a card that has been inspired by Kim's.  You could be inspired by the colours, the white embossing, the design...so many different directions to go with this.

I chose to do a little 'Black Magic' - there are some wonderful tutorials for this technique...it really is so easy to do.   I stamped a W Plus 9 Fresh Cut Wreath in white pigment ink, waited for it to dry and coloured it with some watercolour pencils.  Any pencils will do, but I found these were more effective than those in my son's pencil case, simply because they produce a bolder colour. In keeping with Kim's card, I white embossed the sentiment.

The good news is that there's also a prize on offer from Clearly Besotted Stamps - challenges are always that bit sweeter when there's the possibility to add to our stash aren't they?

Make sure you go and check out how the Time Out design team have been inspired...they are an extremely talented bunch of ladies!

Thanks for stopping by,

Claire x