Seize the Birthday - Surprise Party Guest!

Hello again!

 I'm delighted to be the surprise party guest at Seize the Birthday this week - they've have a great challenge for you to get your inky teeth into!

Use red,  white and one other colour on your birthday card for the chance to be guest designer in an upcoming challenge. Who doesn't like to be a surprise party guest eh? 

I chose yellow and used lots of dies for my card including MFT's Daisy die-namics (long retired but still a favourite), a Fancy That flourish die and Altenew's new Mini Instant Camera Die.  The sentiment's from MFT,  as is the Lined by Hand background - one of my new favourites as it's a subtle background stamp that doesn't overpower the main event!

Hope you can join in with the challenge and even if you can't, pop over to the very talented DT's blogs to send them some inky love!

Happy stamping!

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

Chanelling Vintage

G'day again folks!

Just managed to get this little card into Freshly Made Sketches and The Card Concept before the linky closes:

The Card Concept has a vintage theme this week - I've taken my cue from the pretty script, the gold on the paper and the browns and creams. The panel was inked up with distress inks and gold embossed with a W Plus 9 script stamp.  I think it fits in the classy and elegant style best. 

Thanks for popping by!

Claire x

Crafting at the Midnight Hour

G'day again!

Since the distress inks were already out and I was on a bit of a crafting roll, I made another quick card for Casology and Addicted to CAS:

It was beyond midnight by the time I finished, which is kind of appropriate since that's the Addicted to CAS code word this week.  I stencilled a moon, then masked it off and blended a dark sky. The birds weren't showing up on the dark background so I die cut another set of birds in pale card stock and matted it under the black. Kind of looks like the moon is shining on them I think.

Anyway, that's all for now - happy stamping!

Claire x

All Things Distressed

Hello!

I've just managed to get a quick card into the Casology challenge where the cue word is 'distress.'

I'm not a big fan of deliberately tearing or distressing paper - it goes against my clean and simple instincts - so I had a play with my Distress Inks for this one. I smooshed a background on some watercolour paper, then used a Winnie and Walter snow scene stencil to add a touch of gold embossing powder.  A little die cut dragonfly in black and gold and a gold embossed WMS sentiment and it was all done!

Hope you find the time to get distressed for the challenge - in a crafty kind of way of course!

Thanks for stopping,

Claire

Flowers Galore

 Hello!

I can't believe I haven't played at Colour Q since I left the design team. Where has the time gone? Love this week's colours so I thought I'd combine them with the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches:

I randomly stamped a few blooms from Altenew's Painted Flowers in Melon Mambo and Blushing Bride, then painted around them with some pale blue Glimmer Mist. I love these stamps but sometime I feel that they look a bit overpowering when they cover the entire card, so I added a sheet of vellum to the bottom part to soften it. The sentiment is from Waltzingmouse with a little die cut kraft dragonfly from Fancy That.

Bit late for blogging tonight so enough said...

Thanks for stopping!

Claire x

Colour Q #280

Hello again bloggers!

Tuesday's rolled around in the blink of an eye which means it's time for the new challenge over at Colour Q. This week it's full of rich and luxurious hues - I can imagine a few Christmas cards will feature in the thumbnails this week:

You'll have to take my word that there is a hint of purple on this. It's kind of blended in with the Picked Raspberry distress ink but I can assure you it has been used. I'm not big on stencils - love the look but never quite know what to do with them.... I really should consider doing a class.

I double embossed the die cut dragonfly with gold embossing powder and added some sparkly glitter to the body. It's wings are cut from patterned paper and the sentiment is stamped in Seedless Preserves distress ink.

Make sure you check out all the inspiration the rest of the DT have provided!

Thanks for popping by,

Claire x

An Oriental Flavour

G'day there bloggers!

Hope your week is going well! I've been playing around with some Perfect Pearls Powders for the latest Addicted to CAS challenge - the cue word is 'Oriental' so what could be more perfect for the theme than Waltzingmouse's Asian Gardens:

I've had a set of these powders for well over a year now and I've used them precisely once.  In fact, one of the colours hasn't been opened at all so I'm also entering this card into Darnell's NBUS (never before used schtuff) challenge.  Haven't heard of Darnell? Then you must be hiding under a rock somewhere in blogland...she can be found over here and has an absolutely unique and often hilarious blogging style!

Since my card also features three stamped panels (again), I'm going to enter it into Casology's challenge too - this week the cue word is 'three.'

Happy stamping!

Claire x

Freshly Made Sketch #142

Hello bloggers!

Hope you are having a restful Sunday! As soon as I saw the sketch by Jen over at Freshly Made Sketches I knew I wanted to get a bit inky. But talk about a deceptively simple sketch - I thought it would be a real quickie once I'd stamped the background but I tried every embellishment possible - ribbon, butterflies, flowers - nothing seemed to work. In the end I used a Fancy That die cut dragonfly:

I stamped a W Plus 9 script stamp and then clear embossed a Bo Bunny bloom and sponged some distress inks over the top.  I absolutely love that script - it's just so pretty.  

I have a few distress inks in various colours but really don't use them enough so I'm also entering into Monday's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge which is 'I ought to use this more!'

Thanks for popping by,

Claire x

Colour Q #237

Well hello bloggers!

I've been AWOL from blogland during the last couple of weeks - the mojo went walkabout (and still hasn't returned), I've pretty much had back to back visitors for the last couple of months and the kids are now on their school holidays. Seriously - can term 1 really be over? I feel like they've only just gone back to school after Christmas!

Moving on, there's a gorgeous new colour combo at Colour Q to tickle your crafty taste buds.  I used the colours with this week's Cas(e) This Sketch:

Don't forget if you haven't got the exact colours, use the nearest you have in your stash - I have to say my 'peach' is looking a little more like 'rust' in the pic!

Have a fabulous Tuesday and thanks for stopping.

Claire x

Check Out These Blooms!

Hello folks!

More happy mail arrived over the holidays that I've only just had a chance to ink up - some Funky Flowers from Waltzingmouse.  I used them with this week's Freshly Made Sketch from Jen:

I flipped the sketch, cut a couple of panels and randomly stamped the big bloom for a patterned background. I then stuck these on to the embossed card with dimensional tape and added the dragonfly and sentiment.  Just a quickie but I like how it's turned out.

Have a great day!

Claire x

Freshly Made Colour Q

Hello again folks,

Hope you're having a wonderful Monday. I spent last night playing around with the sketch by Jen over at Freshly Made Sketches. I also combined it with the gorgeous colours at Colour Q:

I sponged the cloudy sky with Midnight Muse and a touch of Bliss Blue as they're the closest I had to the colours.   Luckily I had a few papers from the new Sweetpea collection by Kaisercraft which pretty much fitted in with the rest of the colour combo.

Thanks for looking!

Claire x

5 Years of Colour Throwdown!

Hello to all those in blogland!

Colour Throwdown is celebrating a massive 5 years worth of challenges and to celebrate they have a heap of prizes on offer!  Here's the colour combo:

I used my Fancy That balloon die for this one. Not quite Bermuda Bay but close enough I think!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend folks!

Claire x

Cardabilities Play Date

Morning all,

I can't remember the last time I played along at Cardabilities - there's a gorgeous sketch by Karan Gerber and I've combined it with the pretty pastel colours at Play Date Cafe:

I've embossed the Waltzingmouse flower background onto vellum and added a chipboard ring which I inked, covered in dimensional magic and sprinkled with glitter.

Just a quick one again today...it's kids holidays here in Australia so I have some mothering to do!

Thanks for stopping and particularly if you take the time to comment.

Claire x

Triple Whammy

Hello folks,

Not much time for the crafty stuff for me this week - I managed to do one card though and combine 3 challenges to save time. Firstly, over at Muse,  Anita is the guest designer:

I love Anita's cards - definitely one of the queen's of clean and simple! I went with her pretty colour scheme and scattering of bling.  No sentiment as I may add it later. I also decided to join in with Casology where the cue word is 'free' - I think dragonflies are a pretty good symbol of being free....all that fluttering around wherever they please.  Lastly, I used the sketch over at CAS(e) This Sketch. Oh, and I'm entering it into the Simon Says Stamp 'anything goes' challenge for this week. Think that covers everything!

Thanks for stopping - have a great weekend!

Claire x

Freshly Made #91

Good morning bloggers,

I had to make a card last night simply for the therapeutic benefits. My youngest son is 4 and a half, had the biggest tantrum he's ever had in the middle of my local shopping centre yesterday. It was the kind of tantrum when all mothers look at you with complete sympathy but at the same time think 'thank God that's not my child.' In fact, when one man saw I was struggling he told me I 'would get my reward in heaven.' Actually, I got my reward yesterday evening in the form of a huge glass of wine....swiftly followed by another...

Anyway, in my quest for therapy involving less alcohol I had a play with Cindy's lovely sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches:

I'm really enjoying using 6x6 paper pads at the moment...it takes the guesswork out of matching papers and just makes the whole process that much quicker. I've used an MME one for this card, together with a balloon die from Fancy That. Loved the sketch and I'm sure it's one I'll go back to again.

Have a great day and thanks for popping by!

Claire x

Seeing Yellow

Good morning folks,

Hope you're having a relaxing weekend. I had a lovely day at the Stitches and Craft Show in Sydney yesterday. Without children! Always a bonus when you can actually look at stuff isn't it?  I came home with some fantastic new dies from Fancy That.   Since new stuff has a habit of kick starting the mojo I used one of them for this week's  Casology challenge. The cue word is 'yellow' and as luck would have it, the card I had in mind fitted perfectly with the sketch over at CAS(e) This Sketch:

Yellow made me think of the setting sun so I sponged a sunset background and added this little strip of die cut birds and a WMS sentiment. Birds always remind me of when I first came to Australia - it was the sound of the birds that made me feel homesick....the dawn chorus in Australia is far more tropical than the UK...lots of squawking from cockatoos and hysterical laughing from the kookaburras. So completely different to what I was used to.

On that chirpy note, enjoy your weekend and thanks for stopping!

Claire x