Birthday Twosome

Hi bloggers,

Here's a couple of birthday cards, the first using the pretty colour palette from The Colour Throwdown:

I'm throwing this over to Less is More which has a recipe challenge featuring solid and outline stamps. I used Winnie and Walter's Big Bang Confetti and a sentiment from CAS-ual Fridays, stamped in black.  I'm also popping it over to Addicted To CAS who have a one layer challenge>

The second card is for MFT's Wednesday Sketch Challenge which I've combined with their latest Birthday Project challenge - to make a card featuring a party.  I used so many different stamp sets for this one - Birthday Chicks, Hog Heaven, Happy Hippos and Rain or Shine, with a sentiment from Fluttering Friends. The DP is from the Sweet celebration Paper Pad. 

Hope you get the chance to get inky this week!

Claire

Happy Birthday AAA!

Hello folks,

It's AAA Cards 6th birthday so there's a birthday theme for their latest challenge:

I'm also going in with The Paper Players in their Tic Tac Toe challenge. I chose the row on the right - birthday, silver and embossing. I've embossed one of the circular patterns with pewter embossing powder.

Happy stamping!

Claire

NBUS - Teddy Bear Christmas

Hi folks,

I've made another card for FMS #436, creating a snowy scene using Winnie and Walter's Into the Woods and Your next Stamp's Huggles Christmas:

I've had these W & W birch trees for a while but didn't really know what to do with them - I realised I didn't really have any animal stamps or dies I could use with them so they've sat uninked for a few months.  Then I remembered this sweet little teddy bear from YNS which I've had for a while and haven't inked up either. Since neither have been used I'm linking up to Darnell's NBUS challenge too.

The background has been blended with distress inks and the birch trees embossed over the top with a sprinkling of stencilled snow. It's made a nice change to all the CAS cards with lots of white space that I've been making recently.

Happy stamping!

Claire

Swell Circles

Hello fellow inkers,

In this age of isolation I'm so thankful to have a hobby that I can do at home. We're not in lockdown in Australia but looking at Europe, I'm wondering if it's only a matter of time before we are. 

Anyway, here's a CAS card for AAA Cards which has an 'along the edge' theme this week. No optional cats and dogs on this one - just a cute little puffer fish from Your Next Stamp. They have a 'critter' theme for their Friday challenge - can a puffer fish be considered a critter?

Addicted to CAS has a circle theme for their challenge so I created the 'water' by stamping lots of different sized Winnie and Walter circles in varying shades of blue.

Hope everyone is keeping safe and well in these very trying times,

Happy stamping!

Claire

Rainbow Symmetry

Hello, hope you're having a good weekend.

I've made a CAS card for 3 different challenges today - although I'm wondering if I'm pushing the boundaries a little with one of them:

 The first one to catch my eye was the ATCAS code word of 'symmetry.' Symmetry appeals to my anally retentive nature when it comes to stamping, so I reached for Winnie and Walter's Bigger Bang Confetti and played around with the large and small diamond stamps to create a symmetrical rainbow coloured pattern.  Since I've used different sizes I'm also popping it over to Less is More for their 'big and small' challenge,  but looking at them, they look more similar in size than I realised, so Kylie might hit the delete button on this one! The last challenge I'm entering it for is CASology where the cue card is 'tall.' It's a tall pattern in comparison to the PTI sentiment...wonder if I'm pushing it with that one too?!

Happy stamping!

Claire

MFT Sketch Challenge + AAA Cards

Hello again,

Just a quick post. The weather's going from bad to worse here in Sydney, resulting in huge power cuts all over the city. We've been without power for over 24 hours now with no indication of when it will be back up and running. What's a girl to do then, but make a couple of cards;

I used Bring Out the Sunshine for the MFT card, inspired by their Wednesday Sketch.  The second card is for AAA's latest challenge, to only use up to one third with the colours from Colour Thowdown.  I was just going to have the stars peeping out in the top half of the card but it looked a bit boring like that so I put the white card stock at a slant to create a bit more interest. I still reckon it's only a third that's showing though!

Hope you have the time to get a bit inky this week - happy stamping!

Claire x

Freshly made Sketch #420

Hello and happy Monday to you!

I've been playing around with the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches using the colours from Colour Throwdown:

I've used Waltzingmouse's Simple Sprig for the main image and stamped the same image on the background panel using Grout Grey Ink on Grout Grey card stock.  I love using matching inks and card stock as it looks subtle and doesn't overpower the card.  The sentiment is from Altenew and the stamped red circle around the die cut was a freebie I received recently from Winnie and Walter. I'd won a gift voucher and they threw in another stamp set for free as they were closing down - how nice is that!

Hope you get the time to get inky this week!

Claire x

CASology Guest Designer

Hello fellow inkers!

I'm delighted to be guest designing for CASology's first challenge of 2020. The cue card is 'repeat:'

I feel like life is on repeat at the moment - get up, go to work, look after kids, sleep, repeat, particularly at this time of year when the kids are on Summer holidays for 6 weeks!

As you can see, the repetitive elements on my card are all those stamped circles from Winnie and Walter's Big Bang Confetti. Did you know they are closing? Such a shame - I've seen so many small stamping businesses close over the the years. Head over to the W & W website as they have lots of bargains in store.

How will you interpret the word 'repeat?' Head on over to the CASology blog for heaps of inspiration from the DT!

Thanks for stopping by,

Claire x

Freshly Made Sketches #328

Hello bloggers!

It's been a busy week with my son and I both sharing a birthday - we celebrated with a weekend away with family and friends, lots of wine and even more food.  I'm amazed I didn't have to be rolled out of there!

It's time for a brand new sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches where I'm guest designing for the month - this week's sketch is from Linda:

As soon as I saw the diamond I knew exactly which stamp set I'd use - Lovely Layers from PTI.  I used Glimmer Mist to create the soft, stencilled background and the sentiment is Winnie and Walter. There's a whole heap of inky inspiration from the FMS Design Team so make sure you check out there cards and pop by won't you?

Thanks for taking a peek!

Claire x

AAA Card Challenge - Ink Blending

Hello folks!

Is it really two months since I made a card? I've been back to the UK with the kids for a few weeks and left my mojo somewhere over the Pacific. Every time I go home the jet lag seem to gets worse on the return and the thought of making a card exhausted me!  Must be a sign of age...

Anyway, I'm getting back into the swing of it with a simple card for AAA Cards - their latest challenge is to do some ink blending:

I blended a circular panel with distress inks, added some gold embossing using Paper Smooches Curls and Swirls and a pretty die cut dragonfly. The sentiment's Winnie and Walter. 

Not sure whether that mojo's been found yet but it's a start. Hopefully it won't be another two months between inky sessions!

Happy stamping,

Claire x

Celebrating 300 Weeks!

Hello folks!

A clean and simple card for Less is More which is celebrating a whopping 300 challenges - the theme this week is 'celebration:'

Why do clean and simple cards take me so long? It took about 5 minutes to blend up a background with some distress inks, perhaps another few minutes to add the snowflakes in embossing powder and Versamark. And then it kind of stopped there. Should I have the whole panel covered in the snow scene (no, too busy), should I have a panel at the base, partially covering the pattern (the pattern at the top overpowered the bottom), should I have curved edges, straight edges, should the panels be white or navy...the list of questions went on....

Anyway,  it didn't look 'clean' enough for Less is More so I ended up using a couple of curved panels using some Lawn Fawn dies to clean it up a bit. I'm happy now!

Thanks for taking a look!

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

Freshly Made Sketch #244

Hello folks!

A very quick post for the latest Freshly Made Sketch:

I started this card very late in the day and quickly realised that I had very few Copics suitable for colouring farm animals! Yet another excuse to buy more them. The stamp set is Funny Farm Crew from Your Next Stamp. Not sure where the cows are and why they're not partying with the rest of the animals on the farm....perhaps they've gone clubbing instead...

Have a fabulous Monday!

Claire x

Freshly Made Sketch/The Card Concept

G'day folks!

It seems ages since I did anything other than a CAS card but when I saw the latest Freshly Made Sketch I felt the need to create some layers!

I used the inspiration pic over that The Card Concept as a starting point - I love cream and black, so elegant and perfect for a wedding or anniversary card.  I used a script stamp from W Plus 9 and gold embossed some Winnie and Walter blooms onto some vellum. I then layered these over some cream card - the vellum has made them look a lot softer than in the photo. I really must improve my night time photography skills....

Yet again I'm struggling to put this one in a category - classy and elegant or clean and layered? Let's go with clean and layered.

Thanks for calling by!

Claire x

Christmas Greetings..in March

G'day folks!

It's been sweltering in Sydney over the last few weeks - not with a pleasant, sunny, dry heat but a hot, muggy and humid heat that makes you feel as though you're living in a sauna.  So in an attempt to cool myself down I created a snowy, Christmas scene using Paper Smooches Bitty Bungalows for the latest Addicted to CAS challenge:

 I sponged a dark sky background, then coloured one of the little houses with Copics and added a little glitter for a snowy effect. I cut a couple of wavy snow drifts and added some more of the sparkly stuff and then used my extremely limited drawing skills to hand draw a little Christmas tree in what is meant to be a Paper Smooches kind of style! The snowy background has been created with a Winnie and Walter stencil and gesso.

It doesn't matter how much glittery sparkle I use on a card, I never seem to be able to capture it in a photo - hopefully the close up does it more justice.

Thanks for popping over!

Claire x

Valentine's Rose

Happy Valentines Day!

No dozen red roses for me but I did get a big box of Malteser's after some particularly heavy hints were left that they were on offer in the local supermarket. Roses or chocolate? Chocolate wins every time!

Speaking of roses, I used one from Winnie and Walter's 'The Big, the Bold and Extras' for this card, based on the latest Freshly Made Sketch. I also used the colours again from The Colour Throwdown:

There's a real mix of stamps on this one - the sentiment  is from Mama Elephant and the tag is Waltzingmouse, as is the background stamp which I white embossed on vellum.  Instead of adding the strips behind the label, I added a few extra leaves.  

Well, that's all for me on this Valentines Eve...hope you have a good one and if there's no-one special in your life at the moment, it's the perfect excuse to break out the chocolate!

Claire x