MFT Birthday Challenge

Morning bloggers!

My Favorite Things have a birthday challenge this month featuring cupcakes:

I've had this set, Birthday Chicks, on my MFT wishlist for quite a while now - it always seemed to be out of stock so it's taken me ages to get my inky fingers on it.

I've had a go at no line colouring with Copics. I've practised this technique so many times and find it a really difficult one to master - all my attempts have ended up in the bin so far but I'm reasonably happy with how the little chicks turned out on this one so I actually decided to use them. 5 out of 10 for technique but 9 out of 10 for perseverance!

I also used MFT's Blueprints 27 die and if you recognise the Bokeh watercolour background it's because I used the leftovers from my previous card.

I'm also popping this one over to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where anything goes!

Happy stamping!

Claire x

Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

G'day from a very hot and sticky Sydney!

In an attempt to cool down I had to make a snowy themed Christmas card for the Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop:

This cute little penguin is from a new set by Your Next Stamp called Waddles Winter Happiness. He looks very happy with his hot cup of coffee - perhaps he's added a tot of whisky to it to warm himself up.  Go and check out the YNS blog where they are having a Winter Wonderland themed showcase - make a comment and you could win a prize.

Over at Simon Says Stamp Monday blog, there's a snow themed challenge so I'm going to pop this little fellow over there too. I created a glittery, snowy background using a Winnie and Walter snow stencil with some gesso, then sprinkled it with glitter before it dried.

Thanks for calling by,

Claire x

Watercolour Woes

G'day again!

The cue word at Casology this week is 'watercolour,' a technique that I love on other people's creations but rarely on my own.  I treated myself to some Zig Clean Color markers a couple of months ago and I'm hooked - their fine brush tips make it so much easier to paint more detailed images, that even an unskilled painter like myself can make a half decent card with them!

I randomly white embossed a panel of watercolour paper using the blossom from Penny Black's Blooming Garden, then coloured with the markers.  I wanted to keep it as simple as possible so left some of the stamped images without colour.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge theme is 'fabulous florals' so this one's going over there too!

Enjoy the weekend!

Claire x

Time Out #55

G'day folks!

Time Out  are running a celebration challenge with fussy cutting as an optional twist. It was the perfect opportunity to ink up a new stamp I received free for my birthday month from Simon Says Stamp. Don't you just love freebies?

I also used some new Blueprints dies from My Favourite things. I love the idea of these dies - I find it so difficult to design a card sometimes and these are perfect for a starting off point. The only problem now is that I want all of them....

The patterned paper layers are all MME papers, matted on red card stock and I coloured the elephant with Spectrum Noir markers, then fussy cut him.

As I've used one of their lovely stamps, I'm linking it up with Simon Says Stamp's 'anything goes' challenge too!

Enjoy your weekend!

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

Freshly Made with Foil

Good morning bloggers!

Jen B has come up with a fabulous sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches...so many possibilities...I'm sure I'll be using this one again:

 I bought some multicoloured leaf foil a couple of weeks ago from my local craft store. The first time I used it was a total disaster...it just wouldn't stick to the sticky embossing powder and I ended up wasting an entire sheet of the stuff (and it's NOT cheap!) So, I went back to the craft store and got a bit of advice and it worked perfectly...I 'm really pleased with the result.  I used it with a Stampin' Up Papillon Potpourri butterfly. I searched every nook and cranny in my stash and couldn't find any matching buttons or brads to embellish it, so in the end I covered a couple of pearl brads in some Versamark, dipped it in the sticky emboss and added the foil to those too. The patterned paper is more of the pretty Japanese yuzen paper that I don't seem to be able to stop using lately!

Since the challenge over at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog is embossing, I'm also going to enter the card there. As well as using the foil, I've dry embossed the background.

Hope you have a wonderful Monday, thanks for stopping,

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

Colour Q Challenged

Hello again,

I tried to have a go at the latest Colour Q challenge a couple of days ago but really struggled with it and gave up. Not to be beaten I had another bash today and combined it with this week's Retro Sketch:

The nearest I had to turquoise was some 6x6 papers from Studio Calico - not quite the bright turquoise in the pic but I think I can get away with it. The strawberry stamp is Waltzingmouse and I've added some dimensional magic just to make it a bit juicier. I'd liked to have fit a sentiment on the front but I just didn't have the room so 'thank you berry much' is stamped on the inside instead.

There seem to be a lot of fruity cards out there at the moment as the theme for the Simon Says Stamp challenge this week is 'Summer Fruits.' So, I'm going to link up with that fruity challenge too!

Thanks for stopping,

Claire

Another Blooming Card

Hello. It's me. Again.

I seem to have gone a bit flower happy in the last couple of days so I'm entering another card into the Casology challenge. In case you missed it, the cue word this week is 'bloom:'

Bit different to my other one isn't it? But I've been dying to have a play with some Perfect Pearls I bought recently. I used a Hero Arts stamp, embossed some of the flower outlines in white emboss powder and used a mix of Perfect Pearls powders for the blooms. I can't help thinking there is something missing. A sentiment maybe? In fact, I may come back to it and make an adjustment or two.
I'm also going to enter it into this months Simon Says Stamp challenge which is 'Flower Power.' It's great when you get to do a double whammy isn't it?!

Thanks for stopping. Again.

Claire x