'Winter' Inspiration

Evening folks!

It's official - the kids are driving me ever so slightly bonkers! We're half way through the Summer holidays here - Christmas is over, the presents have been played with, visitors have been and gone and we've now hit the boredom phase!

Thank goodness there are some new challenges for 2015 to keep me sane -I combined a couple of them to make this little card:

I love the Wintry graphic in the Curtain Call challenge, although I wish I'd used a little more white, rather than kraft.  Looking at it now, it kind of looks quite Summery!  I stamped the background with a WMS woodgrain stamp, added a felt flourish and a couple of SU blooms. The silver one has been embossed in pewter and I added some Liquid Pearls to the centre for a bit of texture.  No sentiment...for the simple reason I couldn't fit one on! I also used the latest sketch from Mojo Monday for a little sketchy guidance.

Thanks for coming over,

Claire

A New Challenge

G'day bloggers!

I came across a new challenge in blog land yesterday called The Mixed Media Card Challenge.  Now let me tell you, mists, distress inks, stencils and texture paint are no friends of mine, despite them all lurking in the bottom of my crafty stash.  For someone as anally retentive as I, the thought of a random drop of Glimmer Mist landing where it shouldn't on one of my clean and simple creations is enough to give me nightmares.

But I'm always up for a challenge and the DT cards inspired me to pull out my old and crusty texture paste and have a bash at using it:

There is the option to use leaves and metal for this challenge and I managed to use both of them.  I cut the leaves with my silhouette and used distress inks to colour them.  The background is a Studio Calico stencil which I've used with some texture paste on some Prima paper.  I swiped over the top with some Versamark and added a sprinkling of gold embossing powder.  The tag has been cut out of some balsa wood, stamped with a woodgrain stamp and rubbed with some more distress inks.

It's still pretty clean for a mixed media card isn't it?  I did consider misting the background but whenever I do, I'm never happy with the results so I left it as is.

Over at Curtain Call there's also an Autumnal/leaves theme so I'm going to pop it over in that challenge too!

Thanks for stopping,

Claire x

Colour Q #251

Good evening blogging friends!

It's Tuesday so it must be time for a another Colour Q challenge. And such a pretty, feminine combo we have for you this week:

The dreaded purple normally throws me when it's included in the colour palette, but for some reason it didn't this time. The nearest I have to Calypso Coral is Cameo Coral which is slightly more pink than orange. I've inked up Waltzingmouse's Asian Gardens which is definitely one of my most favourite sets...so much you can do with it (although I always seem to reach for the same stamps...isn't that always the way?)  I used the pretty sketch (#160) over at The Deconstructed Sketch for some inspiration and I'm entering it into Curtain Call's 'Anything Goes' challenge too.

Hope you get inspired by the gorgeous creations from the rest of the DT - go over and give them some love won't you?

Thanks for stopping,

Claire x

Watercolour Delights

G'day folks!

I've been playing around with watercolour pencils for the AAA Card Challenge - make a card using watercolour techniques.  Since I've used the lovely Summery colours over at Curtain Call I'm going to link up my card over there too - it is a birthday card, despite not actually saying 'happy birthday' - you can still send love and hugs on someone's special day can't you?

I used Mama Elephant's Sweet Havana set for this one. I die cut the flowers from watercolour paper  and used a mixture of inks and watercolour pencils to stamp and colour them. I edged the frame with a pencil, then softened it with some water.  There's a great tutorial by Nichol Magourik on how to achieve the watercolour effect using distress inks on the Mama Elephant blog - you can find it here if you want some good tips!

Happy stamping!

Claire x

CASing Myself

Good morning bloggers!

So after my little whinge last night I really wanted to make a quick card using the colours from this week's Card Concept challenge - one where I didn't have to think too much and one which would take me about 10 minutes.  What better way than looking back at past cards and altering one slightly. Is that considered cheating, even though I'm technically casing myself?

If you want to take a peek at the original you can find it here.  I altered the colours (obviously) and I  die cut the flowers with a Paper Smooches die.  I used a watercolour pencil to give them the yellow tinge and added some enamel dots for the centres.

I've also been inspired by the photo over at Curtain Call . Who can't resist a clean white background like the one in the photo?

See you soon,

Claire x

Paper Patchwork

Evening bloggers!

For the first time I've played in the challenge over at Curtain Call, where the inspiration is a gorgeous picture of a patchwork quilt.   I also combined it with MME's 'All You Need is Love' challenge - so I'm all set for next years Valentines....that's if I don't leave the big bloke for a younger/richer/better looking model. I keep threatening him....

I used MME's 6x6 pad 'The Sweetest Thing' for this one - saved me from having to go through my hoards of MME scraps to find papers that matched. I would seriously have been sat there all night.

Have a great day and thanks for looking!

Claire x