Your Next Stamp Sketch and Colour Challenge #56

G'day folks!

Have you checked out the latest Your Next Stamp challenge over on the Your Next Stamp blog?  I had a play with one of my favourite sets - Silly Monsters, together with the matching dies:

This time I used both the colours and the sketch but you can choose to use just the colours or just the sketch to be in with the chance of winning a YNS Store gift ceritificate. 

Hope you get the chance to get inky!

Claire x

A Touch of Gold

Hello again,

Quick card for this week's Freshly Made Sketch which I've combined with CAS-ual Friday's latest challenge to use gold:

I love blooms with detail like Altenew's Hennah Elements -  I think they look so pretty when they're embossed in gold, especially on elegant cream and black.

Hope you have a fabulous week!

Claire x

Your Next Stamp - Hearts Feature Day

Hello folks!

It's time for us to get all loved up over on the Your Next Stamp blog. With Valentines Day just around the corner we've been asked to create a card including at least one heart:

I used Cool Backgrounds for my card and added three sparkly die cut hearts smothered with white glitter. The sentiment is from the new Love Birds set, released earlier this month.

As always, you have the chance to comment and win over on the blog.  One commenter will be picked at random to win the stamp set of their choice.

I'm also popping my card over to The Card Concept challenge where they have an inspiration pic to inspire. For my clean and graphic card, I was inspired by the square, patterned cushions, the vibrant pinks and oranges and the red cup on the bedside table.

Thanks for popping by!

Claire x

It's Time to Check...

Hello folks!

It's the 17th of the month which means it's the CAS-ual Fridays' Calling all Sistahs Blog Hop - this is a timely reminder for all us girls to check their boobies for any abnormalities. You can read how the hop started here.

This month the lovely folk over at Pretty Pink Posh have donated some of their gorgeous sequins to those of us who have joined in with the hop. These are now available exclusively at CAS-ual Fridays Stamps as part of the Calling All Sistahs range.

Living in Australia does have it's drawbacks, one of them being Australia Post. It would be quicker mailing something via carrier pigeon quite frankly. Needless to say my sequins failed to reach me in time but luckily I already have some PPP sequins so I used them instead.

I also used the Calling All Sistahs set for my card - this set has lots of great phrases to help those fighting breast cancer and to remind our sisters to check their breasts each month. I die cut a variety of circles, blended some pink distress inks (with a touch of yellow thrown in), then added the sentiment in bold black. No avoiding what this card's reminding the recipient to do! Don't forget, 50% of the profits from the Calling All Sistah's range of stamps and dies go directly to NBCF.org to aid research into this insidious disease.

Of course with every hop there's a prize - make a comment on any of the blogs below and you could win one of two CAS-ual Fridays Gift Certificates. next on the hop is Kelly so make sure you drop by to say hi:

CAS-ual Fridays Stamps

Rahmat Gouse

Penny Ward

Gwendolyn Estrada

Vicki Dutcher

Ceal Pritchett

Kara Stainbrook

Sue Nagata

Kimberly Rendino

Susan White

Shona Chambers

Lori McAree

Nora Noll

Melissa Miller

Lori Kobular
Lydia Evans
Sandi Pressley

Lisa Lahiff

Mary Moisan

Kelly Griglione

Theresa Knopf

Jeanne Jachna

Heather North

Hope you have fun hopping and don't forget to check those boobs!

Thanks for stopping,

Claire x

Adorable Elephants

Hi there bloggers!

I combined the latest sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches with this week's colour challenge over at My Favorite Things using their sweet Adorable Elephants set:

I created a Bokeh background and after much faffing decided to put it against black card stock instead of my usual CAS white.  I'm hoping that's allowed under the MFT rules! The little scene I created just didn't work with the column so I stuck to my old rule: if all else fails, stick it at a tilt! 

Hope you have a fabulous week!

Claire x

Your Next Stamp: Sketch and Colour Challenge

Hello, hello,

Have you checked out Your Next Stamp's latest Sketch and Colour challenge? There's the chance to win a gift certificate if you join in:

Don't forget, you can use the colours or the sketch for your YNS project, or even both together. I almost managed to to use the colours as well as the sketch but thought the little cow from Funny Farm Crew could do with a pink nose! 

Hope you get the chance to have a play this week!

Happy stamping!

Claire x

Time Out - Wintry Reminder

Hi folks!

I've had the honour of being this month's Guest designer over at Time Out this month so here's a second card to remind you to get your entries in for their latest challenge. The theme is Winter with the optional twist of  White on White:

This week I chose to do the optional twist and used PTI's Lovely Layers to create a snow white Winter bloom. I smothered a couple of the layered die cuts with white glitter, then alternated the layers with vellum and white cardstock. The Pretty Frame Die is another PTI purchase...I love the layered look you can create with it. 

Go check out the talented design team's creations won't you and if you include a card with the twist, you'll be in the running for a gift certificate from Uniko!

Happy Stamping!

Claire x

Your Next Stamp Design Team Dare: 3 Colours

Hello again!

It's time for a Design Team Dare over at Your Next Stamp using new stamps from the January release. This week the challenge is to use 3 colours only, together with any neutrals:

I inked up Love Birds again, this time using the little cockatoo stamp. My chosen colours were yellow, red and a tiny touch of pink because my sweet little cockatoo is blushing furiously.  The image makes me smile as our garden is absolutely full of cockatoos at the moment and they are truly the naughtiest, cheekiest birds out there. I certainly can't imagine them blushing! We have 4 chickens and the cockies are continually stealing their food - at last count, there were 18 cockatoos in the tree overlooking our garden just waiting for me to put more food out for them to steal!

I also used the Thick Stripe-tastic Diagonal Edge and a scattering of White Sugar and Sparkle Gum Drops which I can't seem to get enough of. I don't think the packet is going to be lasting long!

Head on over to the blog to see how everyone else has interpreted the latest dare and get some more ideas for those new stamps.

Thanks for calling by!

Claire x

Your Next Stamp: New Release Blog Hop!

Hello inky friends!

There's a brand new release happening over at Your Next Stamp and,  to celebrate,  YNS are having a January New Release Blog Hop. There's lots of inspiration from the design team and there's the chance to win a $25.00 gift certificate, simply by making comments.  Remember, the more comments you leave, the better the chance of winning!

I used the latest sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches for the card above. It features a couple of sweet birds from the brand new Love Birds set which I coloured with Copics. For the striped borders on the left I used the Thick Stripe-tastic Diagonal Edge.  I'm loving this border - it's big and bold but for a more subtle look you can do what I've done and white emboss it on to white card stock. The splashes of ink behind the birds are from Cool Backgrounds,  released in December.

 

To celebrate the new release there's also a special discount on all new purchases made between January 7th from 10pm and January 11th at midnight - by using the online code Jan2017 when placing your order,  you can get 20% off your entire purchase!

Next on the hop is Sue so pop on over, get inspired and leave a comment for the chance of winning that gift certificate!

Thanks for calling by,

Claire x

Products Used:

An InLinkz Link-up

Your Next Stamp - New Release Preview

Hello folks!

There's a brand new release happening over at Your Next Stamp this weekend and each of the design team has had a play with some of the new products to give you a preview of what's on offer.  Pop on over to the store to see what's available and keep an eye out to see how you can win a YNS gift certificate to fuel your stamp obsession!

For my card I used a fun, new set called Get Your Fiction On - it's perfect for birthday or graduate congrats cards and features a sweet little bookworm having a read of his (or maybe her) favourite book.  I made a removeable bookmark and placed the sentiment underneath.  There's also another new stamp on this card called Thick Stripe-tastic Diagonal Edge. I white embossed it on to some white cardstock and used the strip to hold the bookmark in place. 

Hope you've enjoyed a taste of this weekends's new release - why not head on over to the design team's blogs to see what they've created.

Thanks for popping by!

Claire x

Time Out Card Challenge - Guest Designer

G'day again folks!

Hope 2017 is proving a good year for you all. I had a little win over at Time Out last month so I'm delighted to be guest designing for their latest challenge.  This week it's a theme challenge: 'Winter, with the optional twist of white on white.'

I kept my creation very CAS - I sponged a circle using distress inks and then stamped and embossed the pretty snowflake inside, adding a touch of bling for some Wintry sparkle. The centre of the snowflake has been die cut and popped up with some dimensional tape.  It's the first time I've used the snowflake stamp - it was a magazine freebie from Spellbinders and I must have had it for well over a year! I'm also linking up with Casology this week where the cue word is 'cold.'

Make sure you head on over to Time Out and have a look at what the talented ladies have done for their projects won't you? I'll be back next week with a second card for the challenge.

Happy stamping!

Claire x

Your Next Stamp - January Guest Designer

Hello and a Happy 2017 to you! 

A new year has to start off with a new card and it just so happens that the lovely folks at Your Next Stamp have invited me back for a second bash at guest designing this January. Keep an eye on their blog won't you as there's lots of things happening this month, including a brand new release!

The Cute Gnomies stamp set has been on my endless wishlist for quite a while so I was eager to get it inked up and coloured! I love the tiny little bees - it's another really fun set and a good one for the boys.  For the background I used Cool Backgrounds - I wanted it to be quite subtle but more interesting than a piece of kraft so I used Versamark with one of the square stamps to create a subtle pattern. It kind of looks like patterned paper without overpowering the image.

Head over to the blog for heaps more inspiration using Your Next Stamp products and I'll be back to show some more creations later in the week!

Thanks for popping by,

Claire x