Time Out - Take Two

G'day folks!

There's still time to play over at Time Out where they are running a 'home sweet home' challenge, using this gorgeous photo for inspiration:

This is my second card in my stint as Guest Designer. Pretty obvious how I've got my inspiration isn't it?   I blended a sunset background with some distress inks and stamped over it using this sweet Jenni Bowlin Silhouette image. 

Hope you get the chance to have some time out and play along this week. The winner will receive a $10.00 voucher towards the Stamplorations store and two runners up will each get a new stamp set.

Thanks for calling by!

Claire x

Colour Q #286

Hello again!

Second post for me tonight - if you want to see my Casology guest designer creation, just scroll down.

We've got a gorgeous bright and fun set of colours for you this week over at Colour Q - I think they may just be my favourites so far:

What do you do when it's pouring down with rain and the kids are entertaining themselves? Trawl pinterest for a technique you've not tried before of course.  I love distress inks but I always seem to end up blending them and stamping over the top.  I found this gorgeous masculine card on 'A blog Called Wanda', with some great instructions for a distress inked background. In a nutshell - lightly smear a collection of distress inks onto a clear stamping block, spray lightly with water and smash it down onto some watercolour paper. So easy - I love how it's turned out!

So now it's your turn to get a little inky - don't forget you can substitute your nearest colour if you haven't got the exact shades and the beauty of a colour challenge is that you can use anything in your stash as long it's one of the required hues!

Happy stamping!

Claire x

Playing with 'Paint'

Hello again,

Second post of the day and another quick CAS card, this time for Casology. The cue word is 'paint:'

I think the PTI set Watercolour Wonder will be featuring a lot for this challenge. I decided to pair it with a Jenni Bowlin stamp. The silhouette of the girl actually shows her holding a star on a string but I swapped this for a paint brush that I cut with my Silhouette.  The inside of the card says - 'so paint the town red!'

Thanks for stopping. Again.

Have a great day!

Claire x

CAS(E) This Sketch! #57

Hello bloggers,

First post of the day for the latest CAS(E) This Sketch challenge:

For some reason I always find CTS a real challenge and this one was no exception. I tried every shape possible instead of circles...stars, windmills...and nothing worked. In the end I thought I'd use the three circles as a base for the Jenni Bowlin stamped image.   For the strip of dots I embossed a Mama Elephant border stamp and then added a sentiment from their Type It set. Looks kind of kooky doesn't it? I'd love to know what you think!

Have a great day and thanks for popping by,

Claire x

Freshly Made Colour!

Hello bloggers!

I seem to be on a roll with the cards at the moment. Not sure what's happened to the scrapbooking - I haven't done a layout for ages and think I should maybe change the name of my blog soon!

There's a great sketch by Amy over at Freshly Made which I've combined with this week's Colour Q combo. I decided to take a 'less is more' kind of approach and only used a little of each colour, along with the black and white.

I stamped the border in Real Red using Mama Elephant's Modern Borders, matted it against some certainly celery card stock and did a spot of colouring with Cameo Coral.

Just a quickie today....enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Claire x

A Retro Card for PDC

Hello peeps,

I mentioned in my previous post that I wanted to sneak a card into the colour challenge over at         Play Date Cafe, as well as a scrapbook page. I also used a sketch from Retro Sketches. This week you are able to choose any past sketch for inspiration - there were about 8 sketches I wanted to use but I eventually went with this one:

Hmmmm - I have to say the jury is still out with these new Stampin Up inkpads...I found it very difficult to stamp a solid image - the ink just wouldn't cover the stamp evenly.  I'm a huge fan of Stampin Up and I know there are a few demonstrators out there who follow my blog so I'd love to have some advice please. It could just be my lousy stamping technique!

I used that lovely Jenni Bowlin image again, together with some October Afternoon and MME papers. A button and twine seems to be obligatory for everything I make at the moment!

Have a fabulous day and thanks for stopping,

Claire x

Muse #5

Hello bloggers!

Time for a bit more Muse inspiration with this lovely card by Marion Vagg:

What a great way to use washi tape...but since I only have 2 rather dull coloured rolls in my collection, I'm not sure they'd create the same effect.  Instead I was inspired by the bright colours, the stripes and the bold, black sentiment. I had a play around with some My Minds Eye lace stamps together with a solid Jenni Bowlin stamp and made a couple of cards.  I asked the bloke of the house which he likes best and he helpfully said 'either.'  So I'll leave it up to you to decide....

Looking forward to seeing how you've been inspired!

Thanks for stopping,

Claire x