CAS Flowers

Hello bloggers,

The cards are very few and far between in this house unfortunately. I've strained my neck by card making which is the saddest reason to strain your neck isn't it? It would sound so much more impressive if I'd done it rock climbing or jumping out of a plane!

So this is a very simple card for AAA Cards colour challenge and Seize the Birthday where the birthday topping is flowers.  I used a die from Altenew as a stencil to colour the flowers, then popped a clean die cut over the top. The die is quite intricate so it took longer than I thought and quite frankly wasn't worth the effort (or the dodgy neck)! Next time I'll use paper die cuts to colour in the bloom I think!

Happy stamping!

Claire

Seize the Birthday - Surprise Party Guest

 Hello folks,

It's been a busy week with family visiting from overseas. I look forward to these visits for months in advance but saying goodbye is still hard even though I've lived in Australia for 25 years.  I never know quite when I'll see loved ones again so it always takes a few days to get back into the normality of life.

And the normality is that cards need to be made, this time for Seize the Birthday's latest challenge.  I'm chuffed to bits to be their surprise party guest:

The topping for this challenge is 'stencilling' but you don't have to add the topping. I chose a spotty stencil from CAS-ual Fridays and used a rainbow of inks for a bright and cheery background. The sentiment is Whimsy Stamps - stamped in black and embossed in clear sparkly EB. 

There's lots of amazing inspiration from the DT as usual and don't forget, you could get the opportunity to 'take the cake' and be a future party guest on the blog!

Happy stamping!

Claire

Layered Blooms

Hello again,

I haven't been able to play along with Freshly Made Sketches for a while so made this card using the colours from Colour Throwdown and the prompts from Time Out (pastel and floral):

I don't use pastels often - I much prefer brights and bold colours so this is about as 'pastelly' (is there such a word?) it gets. Lots of older products on this from PTI and W Plus 9. 

I'm also popping it over to Seize the Birthday where the topping is 'layer it' - I love a few layers and layered the card stock and flowers to fit the challenge. 

Apologies if you've left a comment recently - I've got family over from the UK and looking for a new job which is a full time job in itself! I will get there eventually.

Happy stamping!

Claire

Celebrating a Milestone

Hello inkers,

My beautiful sister-in-law celebrates her 50th birthday this month so it was a great opportunity to enter Seize the Birthday's challenge to celebrate a milestone:

 

These aren't the colours I envisaged - being the lazy crafter I am I didn't bother labelling any of my blending brushes and when it came to doing some of the petals, there was a darker ink mixed with the lighter stuff. Oops. Not to worry, I quite like the different shades of petals and who said they had to be realistic?

I used a strip of Altenew gold washi tape and added a few glittery, die cuts to the cluster of Altenew blooms.  I've also embossed the background using the same embossing folder to give it some more depth. 

This one's also going over to Time Out where the theme is to base your card on your favourite movie. I've gone with Pretty in Pink - the touch of gold is meant to be inspired by Molly Ringwald's hair! Lovely to see that Claire Brennan from Waltzingmouse Stamps is sponsoring it this week. I should have used some of my (many) WMS stamps!

Happy stamping!

Claire

Pink Profusion

Hello inkers,

There's a profusion of pink around blogland this month for obvious reasons so I've taken that as my cue for both these cards. The first is for Lavinia Stamp's Creative Challenge where the theme is 'what brings you to my humble abode?' Lots of Lavinia products on it including Zen Houses coloured with pencils:

 

The second is a very simple card for MFT's sketch challenge featuring some copic coloured cupcakes and an embossed Garden Flourish background.  I've used the pink hues from the Colorful Options mood board and one of my cupcakes features a sparkly heart which is the topping over at Seize the Birthday. 

I'm afraid Valentines Day is a very underwhelming affair in our household - a card and a box of half-price Maltesers is about as romantic as it gets and both myself and the big bloke woke up and forgot it was Valentines Day! 

Happy stamping!

Claire

Seize the Birthday - Masculine: Guest Designer

Hello,

So happy to be the surprise party guest for Seize the Birthday's latest challenge.  The theme is 'masculine:'

I feel like it's ages since I inked up a masculine card - I really don't do enough of them which is very silly as I live in a house with 3 strapping males. 

I used a very old stamp set from Close to my Heart which I haven't inked up for about 7 years. I have to say I struggled with it - the entire card face was covered in those stamped and hand cut chevrons but the background was so busy the sentiment was just lost. So, I decided to add some 'white' space and framed some of the pattern with a circular die cut panel, then added the Altenew lime frame to match the colours.

Go check out the talented DT over at their blogs and see the amazing cards they've done to inspire you. Who knows, you may 'take the cake' and be a future party guest!

Happy stamping!

Claire

Birds of a Feather

Hello again,

Just sneaking in with a card using the colours from Color Throwdown. I was very sad to see that Barbara Anders from Paper Pursuits has passed away. She always really inspired me with her beautiful cards over at MFT - the DT have left some lovely messages about her on the CT blog:

I made a birthday card rather than a sympathy card - I've sent far too many out this year, the latest this afternoon, unfortunately.  Instead,  I've followed the theme over at Seize the Birthday - 'feather.' I used a new to me Jane's Doodles set from 2014 that my beautiful friend gave me from her stash. After some random stamping I gold embossed a few of the outline feather stamp. (I'm hoping gold is considered an neutral along with the chocolate brown.) The die cut sentiment is from Altenew and the stamped one from MFT. 

Thanks for popping by,

Claire

Seize the Birthday - Metallics

Hello inkers,

I'm on a bit of a card making roll this weekend, this time playing along with Seize the Birthday's challenge to use metallics:

Remember this Swallowtail stamp from Stamping' Up? It was absolutely everywhere when it was first released and a lovely friend was organising her stamp stash and gave me hers. 

I used copper metallic embossing powder and was so surprised that all the detail was still captured. I often find with these larger stamps the powder fails to stick to some parts of the stamp and the image isn't as crisp as it should be. I coloured the spaces with gold and white metallic Perfect Pearls and added a simple PTI sentiment.  I love how it turned out but the photo just doesn't capture the metallic sparkle IRL!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

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

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

Rainbows at Time Out and MFT Sketch and Colour Challenge

 Hello, hope you're enjoying your weekend!

A couple of cards for a few different challenges - Time Out's photo inspiration which features all the colours of the rainbow, Seize the Birthday's candle-themed challenge (thanks for the prompt Elizabeth!) and MFT's Sketch and Colour Challenge:

I do love a rainbow and made a very simple card using Whimsy Stamps Happy Everything which has seen a lot of ink over the years. I think I managed to get all the colours on - red, yellow, orange, blue, green and purple pretty much covers the spectrum!

For the MFT card I used Let Your Hair Down with Garden Flourish background stamp (retired.) I didn't use a heart - I find big hearts very hard to incorporate on a card so switched it to a circle instead. I mentioned in an earlier post that this little stamp makes me think of my beautiful niece in the UK - since this one's for her birthday I've tried to colour her hair blonde to look just like hers!

Hope you've had the time to get your inks our this weekend!

Happy stamping!

Claire

Colour Q #300!

G'day folks - hope you're having a great Tuesday!

Can you believe we're having our 300th Colour Q challenge? What better way to celebrate than with a fun, bright palette - great colours for celebrating that special day:

I thought W Plus 9's Fresh Cut Florals would fit perfectly with the colours and with their latest sketch challenge. Inking them up was the easy part but it seemed to take ages to work out how to place them along the diagonal cut.  Don't forget, you can use a small amount of neutral colour - in this case, I used a strip of black patterned paper so that the flowers would look a little more vibrant.

Over at Seize the Birthday there's an 'Anything Goes' challenge so I'm going to link up over there too.

You've got until 12 midnight CST on Monday 27th July to join in with the challenge - why not go and check out the rest of the DT for some more inky inspiration?

Thanks for stopping by,

Claire x