Freshly Made Colour Q

Hello!

Just a quickie for Colour Q and Freshly Made Sketches:

The background looked a little dull with plain, black card stock so I jazzed it up a little by stencilling with black texture paste. 

I'm about to start my third glass of champagne as it's our 12th wedding anniversary today so probably best I sign off...

Thanks for popping by!

Claire x

Freshly made Sketch #226

 Evening all!

I've been in a 'blue hue' kind of mood lately so combined the cool colours of Colour Q with the sweet sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches:

It's been a while since I made a masculine card so I turned to an oldie but a goodie with Waltzingmouse's Half Pint Heroes. I created a watery background with distress inks and a splash of Perfect Pearls.  The little waves have been stamped using the wavy stamp from My Kind of Guy. Have you heard that WMS is closing it's virtual doors? Not happy about that at all!

Hope you manage to get your fingers inky this week!

Thanks for stopping,

Claire
x

Papertrey Ink Celebrations - Take 2

Hello!

There's another challenge for February from PTI to celebrate their birthday and a new release - this time to create a new card featuring nine 1.5 inch squares, each altered in some way.

Since Doodlie Do was still sat on the bench top, along with the gold embossing powder, I had another play and used the gorgeous set of colours from this week's Colour Q challenge:

I do love square cards but I often struggle on where to put the sentiment so left this one without. It took forever to colour all those blooms!

Speaking of colouring, Kathy is having another 30 Day Colouring Challenge so I'm linking this one to her blog as well!

Thanks for popping over,

Claire x

Mojo Monday/Colour Q

Hi folks, hope you're enjoying a relaxing weekend!

I've been having a play with this week's Mojo Monday Sketch with the latest Colour Q hues:

I have to say I'm not exactly enamoured with the result. I found the sketch really difficult for some reason -  it didn't seem to matter what shape I used, nothing seemed to work. In the end I tilted everything and switched the position of the embellishments. If all else fails, plonk it all at an angle is my advice!

Thanks for popping by!

Claire x

Flowers Galore

 Hello!

I can't believe I haven't played at Colour Q since I left the design team. Where has the time gone? Love this week's colours so I thought I'd combine them with the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches:

I randomly stamped a few blooms from Altenew's Painted Flowers in Melon Mambo and Blushing Bride, then painted around them with some pale blue Glimmer Mist. I love these stamps but sometime I feel that they look a bit overpowering when they cover the entire card, so I added a sheet of vellum to the bottom part to soften it. The sentiment is from Waltzingmouse with a little die cut kraft dragonfly from Fancy That.

Bit late for blogging tonight so enough said...

Thanks for stopping!

Claire x

Colour Q #309

G'day folks!

Can it really be Tuesday again? I thought it was Tuesday only yesterday. We've got another set of fun colours for you to play with at Colour Q based on this gorgeous quilt cover from Macy's:

I have to admit I did make a little error with my colours this week. I reached for my Gray Flannel Memento Ink and picked up the black by mistake. Don't you just hate it when that happens? So my Waltzingmouse Funky Feather is meant to be in gray, rather than black but you get the idea! The distressed ink background is a combination of More Mustard and Fired Brick with a little flick of water across the top of it.

This will be my last card for Colour Q (although I may beg Arielle to have me back!) Having a few weeks away made me realise how busy life is at the moment.  I've taken on some more work and decided to cut back a little on other commitments.  What a lovely, talented group of ladies I've had to work with over the past couple of years...make sure you give them some love when you take a look at their creations won't you?

Thanks for popping by,

Claire x

Colour Q #308

G'day again folks!

Did you manage to join in with last week's Colour Q challenge? If not, there's always this week as it's time for another set of colours:

I thought a nautical and masculine theme would suit these cool, blue hues so I reached for the anchors in Waltzingmouse's Ocean Bound.  For the background I stamped the mini pinstripe backgrounder and used the same stamp to add a little detail to the corners of the central panel. I love how these stripes have a slightly shabby, faded look - kind of like my husband (but don't tell him I said that!)

So now it's your turn. Get your fingers inky and link up your creations by midnight, CST on September 21 to be in with a chance to wear the Colour Q crown!

Thanks for calling by,

Claire x

Colour Q #307

Hello folks!

It's Tuesday so time for a new palette of colours over at Colour Q: 

It was Father's Day on Sunday so I made a quick card for the big bloke. I really had to search deep into the depths of my stash for the colours.   It's the first card I made after a four week break...can you tell? My mojo was flying somewhere between England and Australia I think.

The super talented Darnell is having one of her NBUS challenges so I'm going to plonk it over there as I haven't used the WMS sentiment stamp before. Have you seen the prizes she has on offer? I'm wondering if she's been resorting to a little bribery, there's so much on offer....

Ok, that's all from me - make sure you check out the rest of the DT's stuff won't you? Whilst I've been away a couple of new ladies have joined the team and they are so talented, Joyce and Michelle.

Thanks for stopping,

Claire x

Colour Q #301

Hello there!

Did you manage to have a play with the Colour Q palette last week? If not, then why not have a play with these ones instead:

It was a bit of a struggle to find the colours in my stash for this one - my Midnight Muse is almost dry and I only have a very old (and almost empty) Cameo Coral marker from SU. In the end I opted to sponge a masked background using More Mustard distress ink, together with the marker and an apricot-like ink from Versamark.  At least I managed to squeeze just enough ink out of the Midnight Muse to stamp the Penny Black blossoms!

There's some really gorgeous cards by the rest of the DT this week - why not pop along to these lovely ladies blogs for some more inspiration:

Lisa

Jen

Sylvia

Amy

Kim

Happy stamping!

Claire x

Colour Q #300!

G'day folks - hope you're having a great Tuesday!

Can you believe we're having our 300th Colour Q challenge? What better way to celebrate than with a fun, bright palette - great colours for celebrating that special day:

I thought W Plus 9's Fresh Cut Florals would fit perfectly with the colours and with their latest sketch challenge. Inking them up was the easy part but it seemed to take ages to work out how to place them along the diagonal cut.  Don't forget, you can use a small amount of neutral colour - in this case, I used a strip of black patterned paper so that the flowers would look a little more vibrant.

Over at Seize the Birthday there's an 'Anything Goes' challenge so I'm going to link up over there too.

You've got until 12 midnight CST on Monday 27th July to join in with the challenge - why not go and check out the rest of the DT for some more inky inspiration?

Thanks for stopping by,

Claire x

Colour Q #299

Hello bloggers!

Did you manage to play along with Colour Q last week? A week just never seems to be enough time for all these challenges does it?

Not to worry if you didn't manage to use last weeks colours - the latest hues are a gorgeous combo of rich and vibrant with soft and pretty and are sure to whet your inky tastebuds:

I received a lovely piece of happy mail from France last week, sent by the super talented Anita from My Papercraft World. I've always loved the card stock she uses and I mentioned a long time ago that I liked a certain die she had used for one of her cards. So she very kindly sent me some blank cards using said card stock, together with some die cut panels using said die.

I  made a very simple card by colouring a couple of die cut feathers using a combination of distress inks, an SU marker and dye ink. The colours haven't blended brilliantly but it's kind of worked. (The feather was a surprisingly good freebie with one of the Aussie paper craft mags a couple of months ago.) I'm sure all those little die cut squares are meant to be popped out of the card stock but I quite like the look of them like this...it adds some detail without overpowering the card.

Anyway, this little card will be winging its way to France at some point in the near future. Thank you Anita for your lovely goodies and for enabling me further in my obsession - that card stock is currently on order in the UK!

Enjoy your week!

Claire x

Colour Q #298

Good morning!

Are you having a good week? We've been flat out with in-laws, a 40th birthday party and various friends over for dinner. Not much time to get inky!

We have a soft, pretty palette for you over at Colour Q this week:

I have to admit, my mojo took a bit of a beating with all that purple. It's never been my 'go to' colour and I always struggle with using it. I was lucky enough to win some happy mail from Waffle Flower Crafts though - and doesn't some new stuff always help? I used some distress inks to colour some card in various shades of purple and mustard, then stamped and fussy cut the flowers and added some Glossy Accents to the centres. The bouquet has been coloured in with Spectrum Noir markers.

Hope you are able to join us this week - entry deadline is Monday 13th July at midnight CST!

Thanks for calling by!

Claire x

Colour Q #297

Hello folks!

How's your week going?  We've started the school holidays over here and enjoyed a few hours at a friend's property today. The kids came back tired, happy and very dirty, although one of the boys probably could have done without the blood sucking leech on his leg!

There's a somewhat patriotic feeling to this week's Colour Q palette - just in time for US Independence Day on Saturday:

I love these colours...perfect for a masculine card aren't they? I made a clean and simple thank you card using WMS Ocean Bound, together with Opera Tags.  I stamped the kraft tag in red ink, added the white panel and embossed the anchor in navy. The background paper is MME.

Hope you get chance to get in crafty mode this week - check out the rest of the DT's creations for some inspiration. For those of you Stateside, have a wonderful long weekend!

Thanks for stopping,

Claire x

Colour Q #296

Hello!

Where on earth does the time go? This week has absolutely flown by and it's time again for a new Colour Q challenge:

It's a rare Colour Q when I have the exact inks. I thought they would be perfect for a masculine 40th card using this fun CAS-ual Fridays set. I love the stripes in this set - it's so easy to create a background in different colours.  I used this week's Retro Sketch for some design inspiration, although I have to admit I've kind of adjusted it a bit.

Check out he blogs of the lovely ladies form the rest of the team won't you?

Happy stamping!

Claire x

Butterfly Crazy

G'day folks!

Butterflies abound throughout blog land at the moment. Over at Addicted to CAS the codeword is 'butterfly', at The Card Concept there is a butterfly theme and the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch has....you've guessed it a butterfly:

I love the colours so much at Colour Q this week that I've used them again here - I embossed the WMS Camellia in gold against the navy card stock and then added a navy embossed SU butterfly.

Sometimes the hardest challenge over at The Card Concept is to categorise your card isn't it? I'm not sure if it's clean and graphic, clean and simple or clean and layered but since it has a couple of layers I'll put it in the clean and layered basket!

Thanks for popping by,

Claire x

Colour Q #295

Hello folks!

How's your week going? This is the first post tonight and it's for the latest Colour Q challenge.  I love this combination...so elegant. It would be perfect for a wedding card I think:

I embossed a couple of Waltzingmouse's Camellias in gold and coloured one with some Spectrum Noir markers. I then used a different bloom from the same set to stamp a masked background.  Not a great photo I'm afraid so I may try and take a better one in the morning.

You've got until Monday at midnight CST to link up your creation - hope you get time to join in this week!

Thanks for stopping by,

Claire x

Colour Q #294

Hello for the second time today!

So are you ready for Summer (if you're in that part of the world)?  This weeks Colour Q hues are a Summery, sunny affair inspired by these pretty, frilly thongs:

I used a combination of MME patterned papers and ink for this card - I masked and sponged a Summer background scene using Soft Sky, Daffodil Delight and Mustard Seed distress inks.  I then used Frayed Burlap to stamp the flowers from Technique Tuesday's One of a Kind. Don't forget, if you haven't got the exact colours, just use the closest at hand.

I loved the layered sketch over at Fusion this week so I used that for some added inspiration. 

There's heaps more inspiration from the rest of the design team so make sure you go and check out their creations and leave them some love!

Happy stamping!

Claire x

Colour Q #293

Evening all!

So after an extended challenge, it's time for Colour Q #293. Can you believe we're almost up to our 300th challenge? It's a bright, bold and fun palette today...I can definitely see a few cards for the boys using these colours:

I used this week's Retro Sketch to kick start my mojo and Mama Elephant's Nursery Deco to create the little nursery scene.  I've had babies on my mind recently as I became an auntie again a couple of weeks ago. In a family of boys, you can imagine my delight that I'm able to buy something pink at last.  And I'm even going to get to see her in person soon when I make a trip back to the UK (dare I say it, without the kids!)

Enjoy getting inky this week - thanks for stopping by!

Claire x

Colour Q #292

Hello bloggers!

It's time for a new set of colours over at Colour Q and it's a gorgeous set of brights to play with:

I used Whimsy Stamps 'Happy Everything' again...I can't seem to put that set down at the moment - this time I used the balloons and the circle burst stamp to create my own patterned paper. I also used a sketch from Deconstructed Sketch - there's 200 sketches to choose from this week so I went for sketch #166:

Have you spotted the slight error? I've just realised I missed putting on the border underneath the image...oops.  I've always said that drinking wine and card making don't mix... Since I wanted the card to have bit of a fun feel, I also tilted the layers. (I can assure you, this was to alter the look of the card and wasn't as a result of drinking that wine!)

Well that's all from me folks - enjoy your week!

Claire x