Altenew Inspiration Challenge

Hello and happy weekend to you!

Quick post for Altenew's April challenge featuring the dreaded purple:

I used Floral Morifs, white embossed and watercoloured with Copics.  I splattered some Colorbursts but the colours were so bright they kind of overpowered the delicacy of the blooms so I covered them with some corner die cuts.

I'm also popping this over the Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge where anything goes!

Happy stamping!

Claire x

What's Old is New Again

Hello again,

Another CAS card for you. I'm so enjoying Less Is More's 'Bring Something Back' challenge I just had to enter again. This time I've used SU's On the Spot background stamp and Eastern Blooms, both of which must be at least 8 years old:

I've white embossed the background and stamped the blooms with SU ink, then coloured them with Copics.  The sentiment is PTI.

Have a great weekend!

Claire x

Plenty of CAS

Hello folks!

It's CAS all the way with these three cards. First up are a couple I've made for Darnell's Twofer challenge. The theme is pets so I used Your Next Stamp's goldfish from Keepin' it Reel and a sentiment from Fishy Fun. I think most people have probably owned a goldfish once in their lifetime - normally won at the fair and then flushed down the toilet a couple of months later when it's found floating at the top of the fish tank - or was that only mine?

I'm also popping the first one over to Addicted to Cas where the theme is bubbles. I stencilled some circles over the inked backgound and added plenty of glossy accents to create a shiny bubble effect:

The second one is quite similar but I've stencilled with texture paste behind the stitched frame using one of Sarah G's stencils that she kindly sent me a couple of weeks ago. Check out her other designs here - I've used Geo Circles:

Next up is Less is More's latest challenge which is to bring something back. I really enjoyed this and  went right back to when I first started cardmaking and bought Stampin' Up's Stem Silhouettes. Remember that set?

I kept it very simple and embossed the stem against the inked background using copper embossing powder. I'd forgotten how much I liked this set and it felt good to ink it up after years of non-use - having said that, it made me remember why I don't like using wood mounted stamps as I can't see where I'm positioning the stamp. (And I'm way too lazy to use a stamp-a-ma-jig!)

That's it for now, hope you get the chance to get inky this weekend!

Claire x

Freshly Made Sketch #332

Hello, hope your weekend is going well,

I'm still playing with some new goodies from CAS-ual Fridays - the Funky Flakes dies and Snowy Sayings have been on my wishlist for months:

I thought the flakes would fit in perfectly with Karren's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. I white embossed a snowflake background and die cut the flakes out of some scraps of navy, silver and teal card stock, then finished it off with a sparkly centre.

Happy stamping!

Claire x

Fusion Inspired CAS-ual Fridays

Hello, hello,

Another quick post with another Spring themed card for CAS-ual Fridays using the latest Fusion sketch:

I just received some lovely happy mail from CAS-ual Fridays, including this sweet little bunny from their latest release. I white embossed a W Plus 9 text background, then sponged a Spring sky and sun using distress inks over the top of it. The bunny has been coloured with Copics.

E njoy your week!

Claire x

Spring is in the Air

Hello folks!

Spring is in the air for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere so there are lots of Spring inspired challenges happening in blogland. CAS-ual Friday's latest theme is Spring Fever:

I didn't use CAS-ual Friday's Stamps for this one - instead I used Stamplorations Framed Cherry Blossoms which I embossed in silver and watercoloured with Zigs. It looked a bit lost on the card so I set them on to PTI's Center Style: Masculine Die. It's sentiment free as I didn't want to cover up any of those pretty blossoms!

I've also been inspired by the colours at The Card Concept although I'm not quite sure I can pin it down to one of the styles - maybe clean and simple?

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Claire x

Embossed Sprig

Hello again,

Hope you enjoyed Easter and took the opportunity to gorge on as much chocolate as possible!

I've combined challenges at Less is More and AAA Cards for the card below. Less is More are having a CASE challenge, using Aileen's beautiful card as inspiration and AAA's challenge is to use our favourite technique:

My favourite technique is embossing and Waltzingmouse's Simple Sprig is perfect for this - I've been inspired by the vivid blues in Aileen's card and the silver sentiment.

Thanks for popping by today,

Claire x