Shades of Brown

Hello fellow bloggers!

It's a blistering day here in Sydney today - the heat has been increasing steadily throughout the week.  And so what did my dozy other half do a couple of days ago? He took the kids fishing at the weekend and forgot about the raw fish bait that he had left in an esky in the boot of my car. Can you imagine the stench when I opened my car door on Tuesday morning?  Needless to say he is a naughty boy and is definitely in my bad books at the moment....

Moving swiftly on, the cue word over at Casology this week is 'brown.' When I had a quick look at all my ink pads, I realised I own about 6 different shades of brown ink, so I used a few of them for my card, together with a touch of pink:

This is the first Casology card I've been happy with for ages - I find it so difficult to keep layers to a minimum and always seem to be adding bits and pieces so it no longer looks like a simple card!

Have a fabulous night and thanks for stopping!

Claire x

Hexagon Crazy for Colour Q

Hello again bloggers!

The new colours are here for the latest Colour Q challenge and they are a beautiful mix of Autumnal hues with a little pop of blue thrown in:

Hexagons were all over the place a couple of months ago and it occurred to me that I hadn't seen many for a while. So I was determined to use my hexagon die that's been sitting in it's packaging looking rather forlorn. I'm not sure if it's through lack of use, but for some reason it wasn't cutting properly - what was meant to be a reasonably quick card turned into a lengthy process of hand cutting half of the hexagons (with a little bit of bad language thrown in!)

I've had that little Basic Grey fabric flower sat in my stash for ages so I'm glad I've finally found a use for it..don't you just love it when you have the perfectly coloured embellishment to fit the challenge?!

Go and check out the beautiful projects the rest of the design team have come up with - you can't fail to be inspired!

Thanks for stopping by,

Claire x

Freshly Made Sketch #110

Hello folks,

Just a quickie to show you the card I made using the latest Freshly Made Sketch from Rita. I totally stuck to the sketch this week:

Can't get quicker than that can you?!

Have a great day and thanks for popping by!

Claire x

Triple Whammy

Hello again bloggers,

So how has your weekend been? I've had a 'child free' day today and went to the Sydney Papercraft Festival for a bit of inspiration and a teeny tiny bit of shopping. New stamps=more mojo...isn't that right? Anyway, after spending a few dollars I came home to a quiet house and finished a card that I'm entering for three different challenges - CAS-ual Fridays, CASology and CAS(e) this Sketch:

I stamped and masked the black and white background with the Waltzingmouse Camellia bloom. I then embossed the same bloom and some leaves with white embossing powder on to a black background. I did think it needed a small pop of colour so I matted them against some pink cardstock. It was surprisingly quick to do.....the hardest part was deciding where to put the flower.

Have a great weekend!

Claire x

Getting Scrappy with MME

Hello folks,

Happy Halloween to you! Thank goodness it's almost over for another year - tonight has been spent following a horde of overexcited, sugar infused kids, stuffing their faces with chocolate and sweets, whilst blackmailing all the neighbours into giving them even more chocolate and sweets.   One day I'll actually be organised and won't force my children to wear an oversized costume, hastily put together from the $2 shop.

Now that the kids are in bed and I have a (large) glass of wine in hand I'll show you a layout I did for October's My Minds Eye challenge. I haven't scrapbooked for ages...in fact you can probably tell...but I so enjoyed it. Hopefully the scrappy mojo has begun to return:

I have to admit, it was a last minute layout and I would like to add some more bits and pieces but Mr Linky closes shortly so I've kept it very simple. All the papers are from the gorgeous 'Collectable' set...I truly could never get sick of them!

Thanks for popping by and happy haunting!

Claire x

Colour Q Time Again

Evening bloggers!

Can it really be time for a new Colour Q challenge already? The last couple of palettes have definitely had a Halloween influence,  but this week we have a really soft,  pretty colour combo based on this beautiful patchwork quilt:

I have to admit, one of the colours always seems to throw me a bit - in this case it was the lilac so I tried to use it sparingly.

Hope you have the time to get your craft mojo going with the colours this week - have a good one and thanks for popping by,

Claire x

Another Masculine Freshly Made

Good morning bloggers!

Yet again I'm only just in time to do the latest  Freshly Made Sketch - one day I'll get it done as soon as the sketch goes up instead of rushing around at the last minute! This week the sketch is from Jen M:

I seem to have a bit of a thing about masculine cards at the moment...can't get enough of them. I think it's these 6x6 papers I got (very cheaply) from Authentique - they are perfect for more blokey cards.

 I placed the rectangle on a slant and added some absolutely ancient Stampin' Up hardware too, so I guess it's made it look a little different to the original sketch. I've had that Stampin' Up Timeless Talk set for a couple of months but have never used the old fashioned gramophone. When I inked it up, I forgot it hadn't been used and didn't prep it first so the ink didn't fully take to the paper. I kind of like it though - makes it look like it's been stamped with a crayon. Don't you just love cock ups that work out hey?!

Ok, that's all from me - have a fabulous day and thanks for stopping!

Claire x