Clean and Simple Takes

Hello again,

A couple of CAS cards today. The first combines four different challenges - Addicted to CAS where the code word is 'nature', CAS on Sunday which has a butterfly theme, CASology with the cue card of 'mask' and Fusion:

It's a long time since I inked up Papillon Potpourri from Stampin' Up - I'm not used to stamping with rubber stamps any more and even with a stamping platform it was quite difficult to mask. I was inspired by the rainbow colours from the Fusion pic which gave me a great excuse to get out some new inks from Catherine Pooler called Zen Garden - the colours are so vivid and the ink is really juicy...I highly recommend them!

My second one is another take on Freshly Made Sketches 500th sketch using an older stamp from Penny Black. Both sentiments are from PTI. 

Happy stamping!

Claire 

 

Colour Throwdown Meets Sunday Stamps

Hello again,

I was itching to have a go at the lovely, layered sketch over at Sunday Stamps , a new challenge for me, which I've combined with the colours of Color Throwdown:

 

Lots of different stamps used for this one - the pretty, blue doille background is WMS, with blooms from Penny Black, Wood Plank background from MFT and a sentiment from PTI. Below the wooden strip, I've white embossed a script stamp from W Plus 9 but the light was almost gone when I took the photo it's not very clear in the pic!

I'm also linking up to Just Us Girls which has a 'layers' challenge this week.

Hope you get time to get inky this week!

Claire 

Addicted to CAS - #153

Hello fellow bloggers,

Addicted to CAS has a new code word - 'grid:'

I had the perfect stamp in my stash for this challenge - the appropriately named 'Grid' stamp from Kaisercraft. I used it with Penny Black's poppies from Blooming Garden which I coloured with Copics and smothered in Wink of Stella to give it a touch of sparkle. It looked a bit bare with just the grid so I coloured a few random squares to add a little detail.

Happy stamping!

Claire x

Fusion Card Challenge - Guest Designer: Rustic Flowers

Morning!

I'm absolutely thrilled to be back as guest designer for Fusion Card Challenge this August.  Karren has chosen some wonderful photos for you to be inspired by - don't forget that you can either make a card based on the photo or just use the sketch. Or you can combine them together as I've done:

I drew inspiration from the rustic, wooden plant holder, as well as the pretty blossoms. I've stamped the poppies from Penny Black's Blooming Garden and used MFT's Wood Plank background for the right hand panel.

Those lovely ladies from the DT are as talented as ever so pop over to their blogs to see how they've used the photo to create their cards. You have until Wednesday 15th August to link up on the Fusion blog!

Thanks for popping by,

Claire x

AAA Card Challenge - Blending

Good morning!

Very quick card for the latest AAA card challenge:

I masked a strip and blended a selection of pink distress inks, then embossed the poppy image from Penny Black over the top in gold.  Unfortunately I pulled the poppy off the acetate block and it's head snapped clean off so my poor poppy is a little worse for wear now...but luckily still usable.

Have a great weekend!

Claire

Sketch Saturday

G'day again!

My stash of patterned paper has been woefully neglected recently so when I saw the latest sketch over at Sketch Saturday I thought I'd blow off the dust and have a play:

The image is from a set by Penny Black, bought for the sole purpose of practising my Copic 'skills.'  I'm getting a little better - at least she doesn't look like she's blushing or suffering from some kind of blotchy skin condition like previous attempts have. The hair though definitely needs some practise! Since I'm practising my colouring again, I'm going to link up over at The Daily Marker's 30 Day Colouring Challenge too!

Thanks for popping by!

Claire x

Seeing Red

Happy Australia Day folks!

Hope it has a been a good one for my Aussie friends!

Quick card for Addicted to CAS and CAS(E) This Sketch tonight:

My Copics have been getting a good workout recently - I bought a whole load of new markers as a Christmas present to myself a few weeks ago. I do love Copics but I've come to the realisation that you can never have enough of them. I've watched a few video tutorials and you seem to need about 8 markers to do one strand of hair! These Penny Black poppies were coloured with 3 different reds which is pretty much my limit at $8.50 a marker. I have to admit though, they are very addictive!

Anyway, if you know of any cheap Copic retailers let me know - otherwise I really will go bankrupt.

Thanks for popping by,

Claire x

Colour Q #301

Hello there!

Did you manage to have a play with the Colour Q palette last week? If not, then why not have a play with these ones instead:

It was a bit of a struggle to find the colours in my stash for this one - my Midnight Muse is almost dry and I only have a very old (and almost empty) Cameo Coral marker from SU. In the end I opted to sponge a masked background using More Mustard distress ink, together with the marker and an apricot-like ink from Versamark.  At least I managed to squeeze just enough ink out of the Midnight Muse to stamp the Penny Black blossoms!

There's some really gorgeous cards by the rest of the DT this week - why not pop along to these lovely ladies blogs for some more inspiration:

Lisa

Jen

Sylvia

Amy

Kim

Happy stamping!

Claire x

Nature's Call - Again

Hello again,

Here's my second Time Out card for their latest challenge - this one features flowers rather than critters and is based on this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Now this was a difficult sketch! Circles always throw me and it was a struggle for me to find something that worked - in the end I opted to make a square card as it seemed to be a better balance. I used a combination of Camelias from WMS and the leaves are from a Penny Black set called Blooming Garden. I've used a combination of Copics and Spectrum Noir markers which I love , but I do find they don't blend particularly well together. The Spectrum Noir's always seem to look a little patchy- which is probably why they are about a third of the price.  Does anyone else find this?

That's all for tonight...time to put the big kidlet to bed!

Thanks for popping by,

Claire x

Colour Q #284

Hello bloggers!

There's a brand new set of colours to play with over at Colour Q:

I would have loved to have  had a longer play with these pretty colours but I've had both kidlets  at home sick in the last couple of days so not much time to get creative. It's therefore a very CAS card from me this week - I blended some Blushing Nude,  Perfect Plum and Soft Blue inks and sprayed them with water. I stamped them with some Penny Black poppies, then added some olive watercolour to the base of the poppies and the stems.

Since time was short I got some sketchy inspiration from Retro Sketches too:

Hope you get the time to play around with the colours this week - catch you later!

Claire x

Casology #138

Hello!

This is the second of two posts today - scroll down if you fancy seeing the next one for The Alley Way Stamps.   When I saw the cue word over at Casology I knew I had the perfect Penny Black stamp to practise with my Copics:

Not the best photo, but I've done almost a four hour drive today with two very tired boys who are both coming down with colds. That's 4 hours of constant 'are we there yet', together with Lego Ninjago blaring out from the DVD player. So forgive me if I don't feel like honing my photography skills tonight!

Not much you can say about the card...just wanted to colour. And for that reason I'm also going to enter it into the 30 day Colouring Challenge over at The Daily Marker.  I wish I'd had time to colour every day but once is better than nothing!

Thanks for looking,

Claire x

Colour Q #279

Hello folks!

It's that time again - a new colour combo to play with over at Colour Q. And it's definitely one of my favourite ones to date (didn't I say that last week?)

I love a bit of newsprint and I had the perfect W Plus 9 set to ink up - Defining Words. The poppies are from Penny Black and have been coloured with Copics - such a great stamp if you're a Copic novice like me. It has shading so you don't have to guess where the shadows are. It was a last minute decision to chomp off that corner...and I immediately regretted it. Don't you just hate that?

I'm determined to play along with some different challenges this year. I do seem to pick the same ones from week to week, largely because of the time factor. I'm playing along at Inkspirational for the first time with this card, where the theme is 'rose' (as in the colour.)

Hope you get the chance to play along this week - looking forward to seeing everyone's creations!

Thanks for stopping by,

Claire x