A New Challenge - Cut it Up!

Hello bloggers,

I always seem to play along with the same challenges each week but at the weekend I came across a challenge blog I've never played in before called Cut It Up:

As the name suggests, it's a die cut challenge and this week's theme is 'green with envy.' I used a never been inked set from Hero Arts featuring cacti - perfect for the green theme. The die cuts are an MFT stitched frame and a decorative corner die from my local craft store. I've been inspired by the soft greens and beiges in The Card Concept's inspiration pic and created an alcohol ink background on some yupo paper with an embossed green sentiment.(Embossing on yupo is a total nightmare as the paper buckles completely under the heat of the gun.)

I'm really at a loss as to how to describe the style of this card - perhaps a mixed media style suits it best. What do you think?

Happy stamping!

Claire

MFT Colour Challenge - Take 2!

Hello inkers!

I've had another play with the MFT colour challenge, this time using BB Space Explorer:

I'd love to say I've done a fancy background technique but actually that's a Hero Arts stamp called Star Galaxy that one of my lovely friends gave me a few weeks ago. I stamped it in navy blue but it looked a bit dull so I stamped over the top of it in Versamark and added some Holographic embossing powder - it's really given it some green sparkle. 

I'm also popping it over to Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge which is to 'stamp it.' 

 Enjoy your night!

Claire x

Copper Embossed

Hello again,

Less is More's challenge is a metallic theme this week so I reached for my copper embossing powder and had a play with a Hero Arts wooden stamp that a friend gave to me a few weeks ago:

I'm not sure if I like it, partly as I'm not too sure whether I like the stamp. It's a pretty safe bet that if you don't like the stamp you're not going to like the card much either! I find it a bit busy (and completely unforgiving when embossed),  so after embossing it on the corner of the panel, I die cut smaller panel, matted it with some black card stock and popped it up on some dimensional tape. Still not sure about it though.....

I'm entering it into Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge too,  where 'anything goes!'

Hope you get some time to get inky this week!

Claire x

The Card Concept - Part 2

Hello again folks,

Here's my second clean and simple entry to the rainbow themed Card Concept and beach themed Casology:

Have a great night

Claire x

Colour Q #289

Hello blogging friends!

The week has raced by in record time and another Colour Q palette is here to whet your crafty appetite:

I was a little bit stuck for ink with these colours so I resorted to using some of my mountains of MME scraps - I also had some inspiration from the current Deconstructed Sketch:

Don't forget, if you haven't got the exact colours, you can substitute the closest match.  It doesn't matter how little of the colours you use, as long as all of them make an appearance!

Thanks for stopping,

Claire x

Colour Q #271

Evening all!

So another week has whizzed by - the overseas Christmas shopping is done and the Christmas cards have gone out.  Not much time for card making unfortunately and I feel this week's effort is a little lame to say the least!

Thank goodness for sketch challenges - sometimes I'm not sure how I could do without them.  They give me just enough kick up the backside to get a card done when time is tight! This week I used the latest fun sketch from CAS(e) This Sketch.  I made a frame with a couple of Nestability dies, inked it with some distress inks and added a sprinkling of W Plus 9 hearts, together with the cute little birdie from Hero Arts.

Go and check out the rest of the DT's gorgeous creations won't you?  Lots of inspiration to whet the crafty taste buds before Christmas!

Thanks for popping by,

Claire x

Bored Yet? Freshly made Sketch - Again

Ok, even I'm getting bored of all these posts!

Last one today I promise - thought I'd have a quick play with the Freshly Made Sketch again before Mr Linky says goodbye:

Thanks for popping in!

Claire x

Christmas in July? Colour Q #252

Hello again!

Christmas in July seems to be featuring a lot around blog land at the moment - it's quite a big thing here in Australia, particularly in the Blue Mountains where it supposedly originated.  We non-Australians find it very strange to celebrate Christmas in the blistering heat of December so some Europeans take advantage of the cold weather and have a celebration in the mountains in July instead.  

This week's Colour Q challenge has a particularly festive theme:

For those of you who don't know, I'm not a fan of making Christmas cards - particularly when it's the wrong time of year!  I think it's because I make so many in November, that it puts me off for the rest of the year.  So, there isn't a hint of Christmas cheer on my card I'm afraid. Instead I reached for the Hero Arts set called Missing You - I coloured in the moose with a combination of SU markers and Copics, cut the grass using my Cameo and added a sprinkling of love with the W Plus 9 borders and background 3 set. He's quite sweet isn't he...although his eyes are a little wonky - maybe he's just drunk on love.

Hope you get the chance to join in, thanks for popping over,

Claire x

Summer Love

G'day folks,

Just a quickie for the latest CAS-ual Friday challenge - and it was done even more quickly as I used the sketch from Case This Sketch:

The theme for CAS-ual Fridays is to use hearts in Summer colours.  Thought I'd get on the watercolour bandwagon (six months too late as usual) and partially stamped a background using W Plus 9's Defining Words. I die cut a heart and coloured this in using watercolour pencils, then stuck it back down with dimensional tape. Took about 10 minutes....don't you just love that!

Have a great day!

Claire x

Golden Sparkle - Colour Q #241

Hello bloggers!

Where has the week gone? I can't believe I haven't had the chance to get crafty since the last Colour Q challenge. I wish someone had told me that when the kids go to school, you're actually busier.  How on earth does that work?

There's a striking colour combo for this week's challenge which gives you the chance to add a bit of golden sparkle to your project:

I based my card on the simple sketch over at Retro Sketches.  I substituted Soft Sky for Pool Party and stamped a Hero Arts flower background with some added gold embossing. I thought that stamp went perfectly with the crayon-like flower from SU's Flower Shop.  A couple of die cut swirls and some gold embossed WMS leaves and I was all done.  The chocolate chip background paper is some older SU designer paper...it goes so well with the different shades of blue.

So get your sparkly stuff out - sequins....embossing powder....papers and link up to the latest challenge. Don't forget to pop over to the rest of the DT for some crafty inspiration!

Thanks for looking,

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

Bold and Cheery

Hello folks,

I barely seem to have time to do a card at the moment, let alone post it on my blog. So I'll make it quick and show you what I've done for the sketch over at Freshly Made and the bold and cheery colours over at Dynamic Duos:

I absolutely love those chevron stamps from Close to My Heart - they stamp so crisply and cleanly. I may be pushing it a bit with the Freshly Made sketch but since that's where I got my inspiration I thought I'd post it anyway..Mr Linky can always hit the delete button!

Have a great night and thanks for stopping,

Claire x

Retrosketches 82

Hello folks,

The crafty side of me has been a bit quiet this week...the kids have just started their Spring school holidays so not too much time for playing with paper. 

There's a great, new sketch over at Retrosketches based on Arielle's fabulous card here:

This one's a bit of a mish mash of leftovers from previous cards.  I had some old scraps of black cardstock with some flowers on it, stamped in Perfect Pearls. I punched a strip from this and added one of the 'experimental' butterflies I embossed using the goldleaf foil from my previous card.  The embossing folder is a new one that happened to fall into my shopping basket at the local craft store last week...I didn't think much else was needed, since it's such a detailed design.

Hope you have the chance to join in with the sketch this week - only one week left until my headlining days are over!

Thanks for stopping,

Claire x

Retro Sketches #78

Morning again bloggers!

Another week has gone by and another Retro Sketch is up  based on this brilliant card by Kasia. Here's the sketch:

 

I used a numbered background stamp from Kaisercraft,  die cut a star through the middle of it (always a bit risky with all that stamping done!), added a frame and popped a smaller star over the top. I then couldn't work out where to put the sentiment so stamped it on some acetate with StazOn and popped that on the top too. Talk about a lot of layers...I'll have to take out a second mortgage to post it!

Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with this week! Thanks for stopping by again,

Claire x

Neon Bright

Hello again,

I was playing around with colours for a challenge last night, then noticed that when I sprayed the stamping with Glimmer Mist, the ink went very bright. So, since 'neon' is the cue word over at Casology, I switched challenges:

To me, neon sums up everything that was bad about '80s fashion...remember those hideous, ultra-baggy,  neon t-shirts with 'Frankie Says Relax' on them? Or Madonna prancing around in fishnet tops and fluorescent bits of string in her hair?  Definitely a fashion era that needs to be forgotten! And the same goes for this card I think.....

Thanks for stopping,

Claire x

CAS(e) This Play Date!

Morning all!

There's a fab sketch by Chrissy over at CAS(e) This Sketch this week. So many ways I could have used this - I decided to combine it with the colours from Play Date Cafe:

Now this severely limited my options! In the end I just threw a few bits and pieces together and hoped for the best..sometimes that's the best way isn't it? I white embossed a hexagon Mama Elephant stamp on to the grey background and layered a bright pink (and very ancient) Glitz rubon, together with a Studio Calico vellum speech bubble and button. I thought it looked a bit bare so luckily I had some teal paint which I splattered over it.

Thanks for stopping by,

Claire x

Another Blooming Card

Hello. It's me. Again.

I seem to have gone a bit flower happy in the last couple of days so I'm entering another card into the Casology challenge. In case you missed it, the cue word this week is 'bloom:'

Bit different to my other one isn't it? But I've been dying to have a play with some Perfect Pearls I bought recently. I used a Hero Arts stamp, embossed some of the flower outlines in white emboss powder and used a mix of Perfect Pearls powders for the blooms. I can't help thinking there is something missing. A sentiment maybe? In fact, I may come back to it and make an adjustment or two.
I'm also going to enter it into this months Simon Says Stamp challenge which is 'Flower Power.' It's great when you get to do a double whammy isn't it?!

Thanks for stopping. Again.

Claire x

Muse Challenge #11

Morning folks,

Just a quickie this morning for this week's Muse challenge based on Laurie's beautiful card:

What did she inspire me with? The strip of stamped circles underneath the sentiment, the twine, the panel, the tabs...the list is endless. (In fact, it looks like I'm still being inspired by Ardyth's card from last week too!) 

I love it when a card makes me think of something I've got in my stash that I haven't used in ages. In this case, it's a punch that punches a strip of circles along the page. I backed the circles with different coloured card  and made some 'tab's with some die cut circles in the same colours.

So, thanks Laurie for making me use what I've got in my stash and for the inspiration. This will be my last post for a while so see you in a few weeks! 

Thanks for stopping by,

Claire x

Hero Stamps/Studio Calico Challenge

Hello Bloggers!

Thought I'd have a bash at a new challenge today - the Hero Arts challenge and the Studio Calico Sunday Sketch. I'm not sure if you're able to combine challenges so I'll have to have my stamping hand slapped if I'm not allowed! There are three challenges at Hero Arts but I decided to go with the colour one. You can find the Studio Calico sketch here and this is the colour swatch...

Very Christmassy aren't they? So naturally I didn't do a Christmas card and went for a (very) early Valentines card instead:

I combined some Studio Calico from the Memoir collection and some from one of their latest card kits. The kit came complete with some Hero Arts stamps so a perfect opportunity to combine the two challenges!

Have a fabulous Wednesday and thanks for stopping by,

Claire x