Paper Players - Colour Challenge

Hello inkers,

Love the colours over at the Paper Players and I envisioned a pretty floral creation - after procrastinating for what seemed like hours and trying various floral stamps, nothing seemed to work so it turned into a welcome baby card:

 

These Mama Elephant Nursery Deco stamps are very well used but they're still my go to for new baby cards. The stripes are PTI. Now I just need to find someone to have a baby so I can give it to them...

Happy stamping!

Claire

Just Us Girls #681: CAS Week - Silhouette

Hello folks,

Time for a new challenge at Just Us Girls where I'm guesting for May - this week it's CAS week with the theme being 'silhouette:' 

I haven't got too many solid stamps in my collection - most of them are outline stamps as I like to colour so I reached for the dies and created a little country scene. I sponged a dawn background with distress inks and added a Memory Box die cut in black card stock. The sentiment and balloon is from Mama Elephant and  I framed the scene with a die cut frame from PTI.

How will you interpret the word 'silhouette?'  Link up to JUGS for the chance to be 'Chic of the Week' or a future guest designer. This is my last week for this month so hope you've enjoyed all the challenges for May - do check out the cards by the DT for some silhouette inspiration!

Happy stamping!

Claire

Seize the Birthday - Guest Designer

Hello inkers!

I'm delighted to be gatecrashing Seize the Birthday's party again as guest designer - they have a great new challenge for the next couple of weeks, the theme being 'balloons:'

I've got quite a few balloon themed stamps and dies in my stash but I went with this older Mama Elephant set, Up and Away, as I haven't inked it up for a while. I set it against a stencilled, sunny background and added some white space with the stitched cloud die cut. Hope he's wearing factor 50+ being that close to the sun!

Join the party and head on over to the very talented design team to see how they've been inspired!

Happy stamping!

Claire

CASology _ Guest Designer: Type

 Hi folks,

I'm delighted to be guest designer at CASology for their latest challenge. The cue card is: Type:

I do like it when the cue card is quite specific -  I knew exactly which set to ink up for it: Mama Elephant's Type It featuring a very old fashioned typewriter. Remember those? Probably not if you're under 40. I showed it to my youngest and he said 'oh that's a typer from the old days'  making me feel about 90! 

The ink splashes underneath are a combination of PTI and Your Next Stamp - a trio of enamel dots and it was done.

There's 3 weeks to get inky for this one so no excuses not to join in!

Happy stamping!

Claire

Dotty Birthday

Hi folks,

Here's a CAS card for 4 different challenges - AAA Cards birthday challenge, combined with the gorgeous colours over at Sunday Stamps, using the sketch at Less is More and the polka dot theme at The Paper Players. 

I started off by stencilling a rectangle, then stamped the polka dots over the top with Mama Elephant's Basic Border stamp. I wasn't thinking of having the sentiment in the corner, but since the dots were difficult to line up, it was perfect for covering up the error in my alignment. The added bonus was that the sentiment fitted perfectly. Don't you just love it when that happens? The stamped bloom and sentiment are from Ink to Paper's It's a Sign: Birthday Sentiments.

Thanks for calling by!

Claire

Less is More - CASE Card

Hello folks,

Not a card in sight in this household, just a very heavy workload and no time to get inky unfortunately. This little card for Less is More took all of 2 weeks, 10 minutes here and there amidst all the chaos:

The challenge is to CASe Sharon's beautiful card. I wanted to go with a masculine version so coloured some fishing themed images with some Copics and distress inked a watery strip to set them against. The sentiment's from Mama Elephant. 

Thanks for stopping by,

Claire

Back to CAS

Hi bloggers,

I'm back to my CAS self with this little card for CASology and Less is More:

Despite living in Australia where the new school year starts in January, September always makes me think of the new school year in the UK as that's where I was brought up. 

I did the chalkboard technique for Less is More's latest challenge,  using the letter board stamp from Mama Elephant's Nursery Deco, then added an apple from Whimsy Stamps. The background splatters are PTI's Grunge Me and the sentiment's from Waltzingmouse.  I do like combining stamp sets, especially when they're older ones that haven't seen ink in a long time!

Hope you get the chance to play along!

Claire

Freshly Made Sketch #450

Hello folks,

It's been a while since I inked up Nursery Deco by Mama Elephant. You get to a certain age and baby cards just aren't required any more!

 

I've used the pretty colour palette over at The Colour Throwdown and combined it with Karren's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. The white embossed woodgrain background was stamped with MFT's Wood Plank. 

Happy stamping!

Claire

Rainbow Borders

Hello again,

Here's a very quick card for Less is More which has a 'borders' theme for their latest challenge:

I used a die from MFT and one of the border stamps from Mama Elephant's Modern Borders, stamped in black and coloured with a rainbow of Copics. 

Happy stamping!

Claire

Addicted to CAS - Silhouette

Hello folks,

Here's a very simple card for Addicted to CAS where the code word is 'silhouette:'

Funnily enough I don't think I've ever used this Memory Box die as a black silhouette - I always seem to use it in a white snowy scene. This time I put it against MFT's Sunbeam stencil. The hot air balloon and sentiment is from Mama Elephant. 

Happy stamping!

Claire 

Easter Three-fer

Hello fellow inkers and happy Easter!

Despite the isolation we still managed an Easter egg hunt in the back garden and a special meal followed by pavlova. I think after all this is over I'll be rolling out of the house - eating and drinking seem to be taking up most of my time!

The remainder's taken up with card making (unfortunately very little calorie burning there) so here's a few clean and simple ones I made for a variety of challenges:

The first is for CAS(E) This Sketch.  I've stamped and embossed some Mama Elephant Basic Borders and added a large die cut butterfly from Stamplorations which has been coloured using alcohol inks. A scattering of sequins and MFT sentiment and it was done.

The second one is for MFT's latest sketch challenge. In case you missed it, MFT and Torico have made all four Birdie Brown doctor and nurse images available as a free printable. The one above looks just like one of my closest friends, currently working in the ICU of one of Sydney's largest  hospitals. Unfortunately I'm not catching up with her as much as I'd like so this is just to remind her that she hasn't been forgotten.

The last is for the Paper Smooches colour story challenge and Fusion's cute gnome inspiration pic which has similar pastel colours.  The decorative chain of spheres above the gnomes reminded me of Paper Smooches Hearts Dies. I tried to add in another PS stamp or die but despite my growing Paper Smooches collection nothing seemed to work so I used the same Stamplorations butterfly which seemed to fit well with the pretty sentiment from Fun and Flirty.

Hope you get the time to get a bit inky this long Easter weekend - happy stamping!

Claire

The Card Concept - Favourite Card of 2019

Hello again,

Just a very quick post - The Card Concept's final 'challenge' of the year is to share a photo of our Christmas tree or a pic of our favourite card from 2019. For the first time ever we decided to buy a fake tree this year - it's something I swore I'd never do but I've never been keen on the Christmas trees in Australia. They're a completely different shape in comparison to the traditional fir in the US and UK and I find it very hard to hang the ornaments on without pulling all the needles off!

So, rather than show you my fake tree, I'm sharing my favourite card of the year which is the one above using this Ferris wheel from Mama Elephant.  It was interesting going back throughout the year and seeing what I'd done - I managed to narrow it down to 4, all of them clean and simple like this one. 

Have a fabulous new year and hope you get to do lots of card making in 2020!

Claire x

Mad for Plaid With Your Next Stamp!

G'day stampers!

Your Next Stamp have a plaid challenge this month - I have a lovely YNS Christmas paper pad full of plaid patterned paper but I'm so over Christmas cards I thought I'd go in a completely different direction and make a baby card using Baby Blessings:

I've used the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches and, since there could hardly be anything better than celebrating a new life,  I'm also linking up with Time Out's theme challenge of 'celebrations.'

Since I didn't have any pink plaid paper I created my own again using a selection of border stamps (see the previous post for another example). A pink on grey woodgrain background and a scattering of sequins and fluffy clouds finished it all off!

Happy weekend!

Claire x

Time Out for Freshly Made Sketches

Hello fellow inkers!

I bought the Sweet Holiday Penguins set from MFT just before I went to the UK - it seems to have taken weeks to get round to actually using them.   I thought this little fella would work well with the latest Freshly Made Sketch: 

I've also used Time Out's Home Sweet Home inspiration pic. I've been inspired by lots of things - the gingham pattern on the pillows, the white duvet (or doona as we say over here) on the bed and the traditional Christmassy colours. I didn't have a gingham stamp so had to get creative and used a few different stamps from Mama Elephant and Waltzingmouse to create my own patterned paper. Lastly, an embossed snowy background using Tim Holtz' Snowfall Speckles which is probably one of the best crafty investments I've bought!

Thanks for calling by!

Claire x

Rainbow Wheel

Hello bloggers,

Who can resist a challenge with the word 'rainbow' in it - that's one of the words of inspiration in Time Out's latest challenge:

This Mama Elephant Ferris wheel hasn't seen ink for ages - I don't think I even owned Copics when I bought this set so thought it would be fun way to add a splash of rainbow colour.  It took a while but I really like how it turned out.

I used AAA's simple sketch again but put the horizontal panel towards the top of the card this time. You can see my previous entry on my last post!

Thanks for calling by!

Claire x

Fusion - Take 2

Hello fellow inkers!

I enjoyed the Fusion challenge so much that I thought I'd have a second go at it. This time I looked at the picture with my glasses on - and realised that there isn't actually any orange on it.  You can see my previous, incorrect take on it if you look at the previous post!  Note to self: keep my specs on when crafting! I used the latest sketch from Freshly Made Sketches for the layout:

The second card is for Time Out - I thought there was so much to draw from - the striped cushion, the butterfly and the way the wall has the subtle detail which almost looks like it's embossed:

Have a fabulous week!

Claire x

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