Farewell Mojo Monday

Happy Friday to you!

After a whopping 500 challenges, Mojo Monday's coming to an end - such a shame. It's one of the first sites I turn to for some sketch inspiration, even if I don't have the time to join in each week.

So I couldn't possibly let the final challenge go by without making a card and in true Mojo Monday style it's a pretty, layered sketch, perfect for showcasing those dust-gathering patterned papers: 

Speaking of patterned papers, CAS-ual Fridays latest challenge is to use exactly that - patterned papers on your card. I've used some old MME papers I've had lying around for years,  together with a Papertrey Ink Stamp from their Autumn Abundance set.

I've been influenced by Time Out's challenge too - they have a Home Sweet Home pic to draw inspiration from so I've used similar colours and a floral theme.

Hope you have the time to give Mojo Monday one last hurrah - thanks for all the inspration Julee!

Claire x

Time Out for Mojo Monday #483

Hello folks!

It's an absolute scorcher in Sydney today - a record heat with 86% humidity and 45C by midday. It is really quite revolting and makes me long for the milder climes of the British Summer I grew up with!

To beat the heat I've stayed in the air con and made a card using this week's Mojo Monday sketch:

I love all the layers in the sketch so used a few scraps of patterned paper and Sweet Smiles by Lawn Fawn as the main image.   I'm also popping it over to Time Out who have a theme of friendship for their latest challenge:

'Friends are connected heart to heart, distance and time can't break them apart'

I've got some very sweet friends and this card will no doubt be winging its way to one of them in the near future!

Enjoy your weekend!

Claire x

Winnie and Walter - World Card Making Day Challenge

Morning bloggers!

Winnie and Walter has challenges galore in honour of World Card Making Day. I decided to go with Taheerah's 'Pick n' Mix' challenge and used white as my neutral, blush, lawn and mustard as my colours, floral as my theme, die cutting as my technique and sequins as my trend:

I also used the sketch from Mojo Monday and the stamps are Winnie and Walter's 'The Big, the Bold and the Extras'. 

Have a wonderful week!

Claire x

Mojo Monday #464

Hello, how's your week going?

I've been playing around with Altenew's Painted Flowers for Mojo Monday's contest sketch:

Lots of stamping in this little card so I'm also joining in at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where the theme is 'stamp it.' 

Thanks for popping by!

Claire x

Mojo Monday #459

Hello and happy Friday!

Quick card for Mojo Monday using Your Next Stamp's Silly Monsters. Not sure about the colours on this one at all - I think I picked an unusual combination!

Over at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog they are celebrating their 6th anniversary with the theme of 'celebrate' so I'm going to link up over there too. My little monster definitely looks like he's in a celebratory mood and has possibly indulged in one too many chardonnays!

Have a great weekend!

Claire x 

Mojo Monday 455

Hello again!

It's contest week over at Mojo Monday and as soon as I saw the sketch I had an idea based on my previous card:

I can't get enough of these sweet MFT elephants - as with the other card I sponged a sky background and then added a Memory Box sunburst in the corner.  It looked a bit unfinished surrounded by white so I framed the little scene with a kraft border.  It's quite a difficult sketch I think but I'm really happy how it turned out!

Thanks for popping by!

Claire x

Happy Sunshine

Happy weekend folks!

Quick card for Casology using Mojo Monday's sweet sketch:

I inked a shiny blue circle using dye inks and Perfect Pearls, then added a cluster of clouds and sun from Whimsy Stamps' Happy Hello'.  I haven't got a rainbow die (next on the wishlist) and tried several times to create a curved rainbow using Copics.  My seven year old son could have done a better job so in the end I just kept a straight edged flag, as in the sketch,  and used a ruler to create a Copic rainbow.

Thanks for popping by!

Claire x

Mojo Monday/Time Out

Hello, hello!

Hope you are having a wonderful Mothers Day if you're state-side or Down Under! I've been thoroughly spoilt by my boys with a handcrafted Lego box of chocolates (all the fun without the calories) and a voucher for the local craft shop. Now I just need them to clean the entire house, do the shopping and make dinner and I'll be even more happy...

Just a quick card using Mojo Monday's latest sketch and CASing the fabulously talented Kay's card for Time Out:

I love grey and pink together so I used Kay's colours to make a feminine birthday card using this sweet little elephant again from Simon Says Stamp. A few circles of MME patterned paper for the border and some dp for the background and it was good to go!

Hope you enjoy the rest of this special day!

Thanks for calling by,

Claire x

Mojo Monday Fusion

Hello!

Happy weekend to you! It's been another quiet week on the crafty front - the kids have finished school for the holidays (where on earth did that term go?) and I've been celebrating my in-laws golden wedding anniversary with a few too many glasses of bubbles!

I have managed to make one card though, using this week's Mojo Monday sketch combined with the pretty colours from Fusion Card Challenge:

                           

I love the pink and teal in the pic and the frosted glass made me think of vellum so I used that for the circular element. The stamps are from Waltzingmouse's Camellia, coloured with some raspberry pink copics. 

Enjoy what's left of the weekend!

Claire X

Chalkboard Greetings

Hello bloggers!

Not much time for card making this week as it's been a double birthday celebration for me and my eldest son. 

I did find time to squeeze in a couple of cards this weekend though - the first for Mojo Monday, for which I was in a patterned paper kind of mood:  

And Casology where the cue word is 'laugh',  combined with Less is More where there is a one layer challenge focusing on a sentiment:

I thought the Casology cue word was particularly hard this week - funny stamps are hard to find (gap in the market there perhaps?) and there aren't any in my stash. In the end I went for one of Whimsy Stamp's chalkboard sentiments and I replaced the 'o' with a little enamel heart. (In case you're getting a sense of deja vu, I used one in last week's Casology card too.) I think this sentiment is good advice for someone getting married so I'll probably use it for a wedding card - shame there isn't 'drink lots of wine' on it too!

Thanks for calling by, enjoy the rest of the weekend!

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

Runway Inspired

Hello again bloggers!

Hope all of you State side had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day yesterday! 

I had a quick play with paper for this week's Runway Inspired challenge using the sketch from Mojo Monday:

As you may know, purple is definitely not my 'go to' colour in the ink department! I white embossed the Winnie and Walter bloom against a navy background, then coloured a separate bloom with purple distress inks and a Copic marker. The white embossed background strip is from Waltzingmouse.

Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

Thanks for stopping by,

Claire x

Mojo Monday #418

Hello folks!

My crafty mojo has been a bit lacklustre this week so I turned to Mojo Monday for some sketch inspiration:

I used CAS-ual Fridays brand new Scallop Tag Fri-dies and added the PTI bloom and sentiment.  Another easy card! 

I'm in the middle of learning some new stuff for work and after 8 years of not having to think about anything but the kids, it's been an interesting challenge. Hopefully my mojo will come back when things have settled down!

Have a great weekend!

Claire x

'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

Mojo Monday #370

G'day bloggers!

How's your weekend going? The kidlets have just spent most of the day in beautiful sunshine playing on the banks of the local river.  I really wish they could appreciate how lucky they are to live in Australia...I keep explaining that my English childhood was very different and outdoor play was rather constrained by the copious amount of rain!

I managed to get a quick card done using the sketch from Mojo Monday,  simply because I had some bits and pieces left over from a previous challenge.  I wanted to break out the Asian Gardens Additions set from Waltzingmouse which I've had for a couple of months and hadn't yet inked up.  Can you spot the PTI stamp too?  I noticed that the chain from PTI's Men of Life set was the perfect size to use as a hanging cord for the lanterns.  The beautiful dragonfly paper is a strip of Japanese yuzen paper and I've gold embossed the background from the original Asian Gardens set.

Hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Claire x

Back to School?

Hello again folks!

How's your weekend going? 

It's that time of year when school shoes have to be polished, uniforms ironed and pencil cases refilled - or at least in the Western hemisphere.  So there seems to be a few 'back to school' themed challenges out there in blogland - the one over at The Card Concept has an inspiration pic which I combined with the latest sketch from Mojo Monday:

I have to admit, I'm not feeling the love for this clean and layered card.  I think I may be suffering from the shock of having to make an impromptu speech in front of about 50 parents this morning on behalf of my son's soccer team.  For someone who loathes public speaking and had no warning whatsoever and therefore no preparation, it was not a pleasant experience!

Hope you get a bit of time for crafty stuff this weekend!

Claire x

Stretch Your Stamps - Outline Stamps

G'day folks!

I've been busy learning a few new techniques from Online Card Classes' Stretch Your Stamps 2.  Laura Bassen made a couple of beautiful tags, placing the stamped focal point off centre and colouring it in with Copics.  I've got a very limited number of large outline stamps (make that one) and used Waltzingmouse's Camellia set:

I white embossed the bloom on to white card stock and used a combination of Copics and a Kaisercraft blender pen.  It didn't blend quite as well as the Copics but I quite like how the petals are more defined because of it.  Of course, once I'd coloured the image in I wasn't quite sure what to do with it so turned to Mojo Monday for a bit of inspiration - thank goodness for sketches! And wouldn't you know, this fits in with Waltzingmouse Fantatics challenge - 'make your mark' so I'm popping it over there too. (Thanks Kate!)

See you later with the Colour Q challenge!

Claire x

Microbead Mayhem

Hello folks,

Have you seen the latest Mojo Monday sketch?  Definitely a 'go to' sketch for future cards and perfect for what I had in mind for the Paper Smooches Sparks 'Anything Goes' challenge:

Deeply entrenched in my copious stash of unused items there is a little pot of Microbeads that I've had for about 5 years.  There's a reason why they rarely see daylight...they are the fiddliest of items to use, spill all over the place no matter how careful I am and I seem to be continually vacuuming them up for weeks after I've opened them. I thought this Paper Smooches Little Fella would look good covered in Microbeads so proceeded to spend half an hour doubled over trying to get an even coverage, whilst swearing politely under my breath.  Here's a close up:

I did a resist stamped background using the two little stars from the same set and some Glimmer Mist - another item that I seem to have collected over the years, only to remain unused.

For the first time in a while I'm happy with how one of my card's has come out - even happier that I've used a few more things from my ever growing collection of craft stuff!

Have a fabulous day!

Claire x