Casology Week 46

Hello fellow bloggers!

It's our 9th wedding anniversary today - it feels like only yesterday since I walked down the aisle in a wonky tiara to the strains of no music at all  (since the hotel forgot to put the CD on.)   I thought I'd use this week's Casology challenge for a bit of inspiration, although I have to say I struggled a bit since the cue word this week is:

Now I'm not really one for cute, animal stamps so I have to say I was a little limited in my stamp choice.  However, I did find a tiny paw stamp hiding in my collection:

That's about as romantic as it gets in my household I'm afraid...but I'm sure the blokey will get the meaning behind it!


Have a wonderful day and thanks for popping by,

Claire x

Happy Birthday Ardyth!

Hello again!

Out there in blogland someone is celebrating their '21st' birthday today and that someone happens to be Ardyth!  Darnell  has organised a blogging birthday party for her - the idea is to make Ardyth a birthday card and post it on Darnell's blog so we can all have a look at what we've come up with. Isn't that a fantastic idea?

Now I've raved about Ardyth's cards a number of times on my blog. Her style is clean, simple and minimalistic but always with a clever twist. I've attempted to channel her style with a set of new stamps from Mama Elephant:

Unbelievably it was my first attempt - can you tell I've not had a couple of glasses of chardy tonight? I think those lines may have been a bit wobbly if I had.

So, Happy Birthday Ardyth - I hope you're having a wonderful day. And it's also a thank you card as you are always so generous with your commenting. It's a wonder you have the time to make any cards at all!

Cheers,

Claire x

MME Sketch Challenge

Hello,

Over at my favourite paper manufacturer they have a sketch challenge, based on a layout by Ronda:

Since my scrappy mojo is virtually non-existent at the moment I made a card:

I have such a ridiculous amount of MME papers that I am now in self-imposed MME exile and have banned myself from buying any more. Having said that, when I recently went to the US I put a sneaky 6x6 MME paper pad in my basket called Follow Your Heart. It really was very restrained of me - all the 6x6 pads were on offer and I could quite easily have bought them all and gone over my airline baggage allowance. I considered buying the whole range and leaving one of the kids over there, but for some reason the blokey didn't think this was a good idea....

Anyway, I used my trusty, square Nestability dies to cut a heap of patterned papers and instead of stitching it, tied it all together with some bakers twine. The sentiment label is from one of MME's stamp sets.

Hope you're having a great day! Thanks for stopping,

Claire x

Case This Sketch #29

Hello again,

Just a quickie to show what I've done for this week's CAS(e) This Sketch from Jackie:

I used a sentiment from PTI's Birthday Basics and left the rest of the card blank...I don't think it needs another sentiment since I've already stamped it about 20 times!

Thanks for stopping!

Claire x

A Right Royal Casology

Hello bloggers,

This week's cue word over at Casology is 'Royal'.  For some reason it didn't summon up pictures of princesses, crowns or princes but it did make me think of a queen. As in a Queen Bee. Since I haven't got a single bee image in my stamp collection I decided to paper piece my own:

I cut a yellow and a black circle and then used my cuttlebug to cut each of them into sections for his body. His head and mouth is an ancient cuttlebug tag die that I've had for years.  I stamped his wings onto acetate using the dragonfly stamp from Stampin' Up's Bugs and Kisses set and then cut them to size.  His antennae are punched from a McGill flower punch and I've added a bit of bling. The sentiment is part of a free digital stamp that can be found here.  He's quite cute isn't he, although I think he'd maybe look better with bigger eyes. When you turn him upside down his eyes go all squiggly and he looks a little drunk. Maybe he's had too much of the amber nectar.....

Well, that's all folks...thanks for stopping by,

Claire x

White With One

Hello again!

Told you I'd be back today with a layout. I've been a bit slack with the scrapbooking lately. I think I came back from holiday, saw how many photos I'd taken and just had no idea where to start.

So to get me back into a scrappy mood I decided to have a go at White with one -  for May, the colour combo is black and white: and the challenge is to use flags and badges:

Talk about trying to make it difficult for myself. I had no flags and only a few badges, most of which didn't fit the picture. Luckily a friend sent me a pad of gorgeous black and white papers recently so I resorted to making my own. I faded the background of the photo to black and white so that the colours of our clothes stood out, otherwise I thought it would all look a bit drab!

I have to say I struggled and I'm finding it increasingly hard to switch from making cards to doing a layout. Maybe I need to do a class...or go on a shopping spree...sounds like a plan....

Thanks for popping by,

Claire x

Retro Colour Q

G'day bloggers,

Hope you're enjoying the weekend!  I've spent every waking (and sleeping) minute with my highly infectious 4 year old this week. No preschool, no play dates and no park visits for either of us -  talk about craving adult company and fresh air!

To keep me sane I've been crafting up a storm, even managing to get a layout done which I'll stick in a different post. I've also made a card using this weeks sketch over at Retro Sketches and combined it with the colour combo over at Colour Q:

Don't you just love it when you realise you have something in your stash that perfectly matches a colour challenge?.  In this case it was a strip of ribbon from Green Tara. The numbered background is a Kaisercraft stamp, embossed in white on baja blue cardstock, The stamped balloons were done with a the very first stamp I ever bought. In fact, it's so old I can't even tell what brand it is. I stamped them on cardstock with Midnight Muse and added a touch of Dimensional Magic for some gloss.

That's enough blogging from me for now...watch this space for a scrapbook page...my first one in ages.

Thanks for stopping,

Claire x