Pink and Vellum

Hello again,

Sickness is still rife in our household so doesn't inspire much card making. However, earlier in the week this great tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers appeared in my inbox by Chrissie Stokes which I knew I wanted to try. Less is More's 'vellum' challenge gave me the necessary nudge to have a go:

 

It's a total CASE of Chrissie's beautiful card. I used Altenew's Leaf Clusters and Tiny Sentiments, white embossed the front of the vellum panel and then stamped the back in bright pink. I added a stitched frame from MFT to finish it off. 

This one's also off to Addicted to CAS for their 'pink' challenge - in a houseful of boys I need my pink fix!

Happy stamping!

Claire

Feeling Festive

Hello, happy weekend!

I'm cracking on with my Christmas cards and the latest colours at MFT are perfect so I used the ever popular Santa's Elve's combined with the layered sketch over at Sunday Stamps: 

I added few papers from the Very Merry paper pad and the sentiment's from Bitty Holiday Wishes. Can you believe I've had that stamp set for years and I don't think I've ever inked up that elf?  He does look like he's been a bit neglected - hopefully he made Santa's 'nice' list!

This one's also going over to Time Out who have a festive themed challenge happening.

Happy stamping!

Claire

Fusion Colour Palette

Hello inkers,

I made a very simple card using the pretty colours from the latest Fusion inspiration pic:

 

It's entirely different to what I had in mind - I had wanted to do a simple beach scene by masking a striped background and adding a sail boat. Since that didn't work I stamped the Clearly Besotted bloom over the stripes instead but it looked very dull and flat so I used the matching die to cut the image out and then popped it up with some dimensional tape. I also matted it against some black card to make it pop. Amazing what a difference a bit of dimensional tape can make!

Happy stamping!

Claire

MFT Sketch #606

Hello folks,

Sneaking in with a very quick post before sketch challenge #606 closes at MFT:

 

I used BB Space Explorer (long retired) and made my own space-like background using distress inks so I'm popping it over to Time Out for their 'make your own background' challenge. I painted my 'moon' with some pewter paint, then splatted it with some acrylic paint dabbers and added some stencilled circles - that's pretty much my limit using mixed media!

Thanks for popping by!

Claire

My Little Hoot!

Hello, happy weekend to you!

Some of my much loved stamp sets have been very neglected recently so I was determined to wipe off the dust and use a few older sets for this card. Four different challenges - Just Us Girls 'use a stencil', Time Out's 'make your own background', Sunday Stamps colour palette and the latest Freshly Made Sketch from Jacquie Southas:

 

This is an older Hero Arts set for Operation Write Home (2014). For the strip of background behind the owls I've blended some distress inks and added a stencilled sun peeping through the stamped Winnie and Walter birch trees. I'm probably pushing it a bit with the stencil but I can assure you it is there! 

This one's going to my youngest son in October. I've just booked to go back to the UK for the first time in 3 years, without the kids and hubby - as if that's not bad enough I'm also missing his birthday so I figure a special card from me is definitely required! 

Happy stamping!

Claire

Altenew August Inspiration Challenge

Hello inkers,

There's a Summer-inspired pic for this month's Altenew challenge - it makes me feel lovely and warm just looking at it:

It took at least two attempts which failed miserably - they're not colours I'd normally use but when I saw the inspiration pic over at Time Out,  the silhouetted grasses made me think of one of my newer sets - Leaf Clusters. I really love the sentiments in this set. 

It's Just Us Girls' Word Week so I've added the butterfly from Ori Kami, coloured with Copics. I'm also popping it over to Less is More who have a butterflies challenge happening as well. 

My leaves looked a little flat so I added a little gold embossing using a teeny tiny stamp from Hennah Elements - a few gold sequins and it was done. 

Happy stamping!

Claire

MFT Colours Meet Sunday Stamps

Hello again,

Another MFT card, this time using colours from MFT challenge #194. Sunday Stamps has the perfect layered sketch to showcase their pretty patterned papers:

All retired products on this one - Happy You Day, Sassy Pants Birthday Greetings 2 and Birthday Brights DP.  

Happy stamping!

Claire

MFT Sketch #604 and CAS'd Card

Hello folks,

A couple of new cards for a few different challenges - the first is using the latest MFT sketch for The Paper Players Tic Tac Toe Challenge:

I've used the middle row going across - the die cut is MFT's Selfie Square and the patterned paper (including a blue one) is from the Very Merry paper pad. I've used SY Selfies with Santa - surely one of the sweetest Christmas sets around!

 

The second card is for Less is More's 'butterflies' challenge and for this one I CASE'd one of my favourite designers for the Just Us Girls wild-card week challenge. 

It's one of Cécile Ribon's cards and I've CASE'd the colours and the layout. I used alcohol inks for the background and added a Stamplorations die cut butterfly, smothered in glittery gold EB. The sentiment's an ancient one from Papertrey Ink. The only difficulty I had with this challenge was choosing one of Cécile's cards - all of which are CAS stunners.  I haven't played around with alcohol inks for ages and forgot how therapeutic it is swirling around all that ink until you get the desired effect!

Hope you get some crafty therapy yourselves this week!

Claire