Papertrey Ink March Blog Hop

Morning!

Hope you are enjoying the Easter break? Papertrey Ink's monthly challenge has hopped around again and this time it's based on a gorgeous black and white pic fused with embroidery:

I love the pops of colour against the grey so this and the embroidery was my inspiration. Unfortunately my sewing skills are on a par with my drawing skills - totally disastrous. However, I did manage to embroider the centre of the Doodlie-Do blooms, using the doodled lines as a guide.  I would have loved to have done the leaves as well but my collection of embroidery floss is severely limited due to my totally inadequate sewing skills! A touch of bling in the centre of the flowers and it was all done.

Hope you get the chance to ink those stamps up this weekend!

Claire x

Dreams and Doodles

G'day folks!

Not much card making in this household after holding a party for 12 boys this weekend. Let's just say I have a whole new respect for those in the party organising industry! Most of Friday was spent making a Minecraft creeper cake at the request of my 10 year old son -what could be easier..it had to be square and green. Even I could manage that!

My first card is for the this week's Freshly Made Sketch. Not sure if it was a lack of mojo but I think this is the hardest sketch I've ever worked with.  It took forever to decide what to do but in the end I used a Memory Box sunburst die to create a very CAS card. The Whimsy Stamp chalkboard greeting, embossed in gold,  happened to fit perfectly within the circle. A sprinkle of sequins and it was done. 

The second card is for Casology where the cue word is 'doodle.' The sweet little flower is from a stamp set by Waffle Flower  - it kind of reminds me of the simple flower doodles I did as a kid. I added a few doodled lines along the petals, coloured it with Copics and embossed a frame around it using Waltzingmouses's Picot Panel die.

Well that's enough waffling from me tonight , I can barely keep my eyes open!

Thanks for calling by,

Claire x

Bye Bye Waltzingmouse

Hello, hello!

Did you see that Waltzingmouse Stamps is closing it's virtual doors? I've always been a big fan of Claire's stamps and at last count there were over 200 posts on this little blog of mine featuring cards using one or more of her stamp sets.  Oh dear..I daren't think how much money I've spent over the last few years....  

Over at the Waltzingmouse Fanatics Challenge Blog, Tara and Deborah have set up a linky to link up your favourite cards using WMS products.

Being such a fanatic myself, it was far too difficult to whittle it down to one card so I chose four using some of my favourite sets:

Coffee Set:

Ocean Bound

Funky Flowers:

Simple Sprig:

Hope you get the chance to take a peek at all the other cards on show. Thank you Claire for enabling me in my stamping obsession and for all the freebies you've given over the last few years!  Can't wait to see where your incredible crafty talent takes you next!

Thanks for popping by!

Claire x

Chalkboard Greetings

Hello bloggers!

Not much time for card making this week as it's been a double birthday celebration for me and my eldest son. 

I did find time to squeeze in a couple of cards this weekend though - the first for Mojo Monday, for which I was in a patterned paper kind of mood:  

And Casology where the cue word is 'laugh',  combined with Less is More where there is a one layer challenge focusing on a sentiment:

I thought the Casology cue word was particularly hard this week - funny stamps are hard to find (gap in the market there perhaps?) and there aren't any in my stash. In the end I went for one of Whimsy Stamp's chalkboard sentiments and I replaced the 'o' with a little enamel heart. (In case you're getting a sense of deja vu, I used one in last week's Casology card too.) I think this sentiment is good advice for someone getting married so I'll probably use it for a wedding card - shame there isn't 'drink lots of wine' on it too!

Thanks for calling by, enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Claire x

Freshly made Sketch #226

 Evening all!

I've been in a 'blue hue' kind of mood lately so combined the cool colours of Colour Q with the sweet sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches:

It's been a while since I made a masculine card so I turned to an oldie but a goodie with Waltzingmouse's Half Pint Heroes. I created a watery background with distress inks and a splash of Perfect Pearls.  The little waves have been stamped using the wavy stamp from My Kind of Guy. Have you heard that WMS is closing it's virtual doors? Not happy about that at all!

Hope you manage to get your fingers inky this week!

Thanks for stopping,

Claire
x

Time for a Spin

Hello, hello!

It's been months since my Mama Elephant set 'Around we Go' has seen ink but it's perfect for the cue word over at Casology this week, which is 'spin':

I've embossed the little ferris wheel in three different embossing powders and mounted it with dimensional tape on a navy background. It looks black doesn't it but I can assure you it's actually navy...trick of the light. (Or just rubbish photography skills.) The little enamel heart has been in my stash for years and as it has never been used, it means my card is eligible for Darnell's fabulous 6th NBUS challenge. That's never-before-used-schtuff, in case you've been sleeping under a rock somewhere. 

Well I'm off to apologise to my Mum for forgetting it's Mothers Day in the UK today. I do wish Australia and the UK would get their Mothers Days in sync..I've forgotten the UK one every year for 15 years!

Thanks for calling by,

Claire x

Christmas Greetings..in March

G'day folks!

It's been sweltering in Sydney over the last few weeks - not with a pleasant, sunny, dry heat but a hot, muggy and humid heat that makes you feel as though you're living in a sauna.  So in an attempt to cool myself down I created a snowy, Christmas scene using Paper Smooches Bitty Bungalows for the latest Addicted to CAS challenge:

 I sponged a dark sky background, then coloured one of the little houses with Copics and added a little glitter for a snowy effect. I cut a couple of wavy snow drifts and added some more of the sparkly stuff and then used my extremely limited drawing skills to hand draw a little Christmas tree in what is meant to be a Paper Smooches kind of style! The snowy background has been created with a Winnie and Walter stencil and gesso.

It doesn't matter how much glittery sparkle I use on a card, I never seem to be able to capture it in a photo - hopefully the close up does it more justice.

Thanks for popping over!

Claire x