A special Thank you

H i there.
I needed to make a thank you card for my son's soccer Coach, as it was their end of season bbq yesterday. Their coach is a great guy, endlessly patient, and always with a good word for each of the kids, whatever their ability. Whilst I was mulling it over, this card popped into my head fully formed! I just love it when that happens! Unfortunately I didn't have the stamp sets I needed to execute the card, so, a few frantic text messages and a couple of phone calls later, I had the set that I needed on Friday night. Thanks so much for lending it to me Lynda! (Check out Lynda's gorgeous blog at Stampinkins).
I used masking to create the pile of soccer balls and to cluster the team together. The Stamp-a-majig saved my sanity when trying to line up all the arms and legs and heads! The kids are all wearing their soccer strip, which I watercoloured with ink pads and an aqua painter. Their coach is wearing the colours of his beloved Brisbane Lions AFL team – a touch he seemed to appreciate. The best thing about it was the kids all recognized themselves in the card! The goalies by their shirts, the girls by their hairdo's etc. It really was a fun card to make. I hope you like it. Thanks for looking.

Claire.

A cased condolence

Back again. At last… I am just popping in to share a card that I totally "cased" from a stamp artist calling herself cmsuto on Splitcoast Stampers. I don't normally completely "case" cards, but this card had the most beautiful dreamy quality about it. I just had to try and recreate it. As it happens, I had need of a condolence card recently and this card seemed the right one to make.
I used the "spray, ink and smash" technique to create the backround on glossy cardstock. If you would like to try it, click here for a tutorial from "Markie's Mom". The re-inker colours I used were Going Grey, Perfect Plum and Elegant Eggplant. To create the moon I used reverse masking and Whisper White craft ink, sponged again with Going Grey and Elegant Eggplant classic inks. Then I stamped the flowers from the sadly retired Stem Silhouettes and the butterfly from Natural Beauty in black Staz-on Ink. (Those of you with sharp eyes for detail will notice that I masked the border around the butterfly to prevent it stamping!) The butterflies were coloured with Elegant Eggplant, Brocade Blue and Regal Rose markers. I finished by matting my feature panel on Perfect Plum and making the base card Basic Grey.

Thanks for looking, let me know what you think.

Claire