Mojo-a-gogo!

Goodness, I have just realised it has been 3 weeks since my last post! How terribly slack of me, my apologies to those of you that check in on me regularly to see what I have been up to. The answer to that question is of course - not much! Well not much crafting to be more precise. I have come to the conclusion that since becoming a Stampin' Up! Demo, I hate the month of March! There is so much hype around the retiring list and the new Ideas Book and Catalogue arriving, that my crafting mojo goes into hiding. I have sat down at my desk a few times in the last week or so, but with images of stamp sets yet to come looming large in my head, suddenly the old ones don't seem so inspiring.

Anyway, rather than disappear of the face of the earth entirely, I thought I would share with you some swap cards that I made. These swaps were made to send to a sister demo in Canada. The idea was to make 3 complete cards (preferably from sets that they don't have in their catalogue) and post them to your swap partner. I received three gorgeous cards from Cathy Jonstone a very talented SU demo in Canada, you can check out her blog, here. I will post them later in another post, it is too dark and gloomy today to get good pics.

Here are the three I made to send to Cathy (thanks to Lynda for the loan of the All Aboriginal and Happy Christmas Mate stamp sets!). I can post them here now, as Cathy has received them.

Card Recipe:

Stamps; Ocean Commotion, Baroque Motifs

Cardstock; Ballet Blue, Gable Green, Ruby Red, So Saffron

Inks; Whisper White, Gable Green, So Saffron

Acessories; Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware, Crystal Effects, Stampin' Dimensionals

Card Recipe:

Stamps; Happy Christmas Mate

Cardstock; River Rock, Real Red, Dashing DSP, Watercolour paper

Inks; Stazon Black, Old Olive

Techniques; Markers direct to watercolour paper

Accessories; Markers, Aquapainter, Corner Rounder punch, Double Slot punch, non SU circle cutter, Ribbon

Card Recipe:

Stamps; All Aboriginal

Cardstock; Chocolate Chip, Brocade Blue, Ruby Red, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Spring Break DSP

Inks; Versa Mark, Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Ruby Red, Brocade Blue

Techniques; Emboss Resist

Sketch: Makeesha's Sketch Challenge No. 5

Accessories; Markers, Clear EP, White Gel Pen

Hope you like them. Please leave a comment and let me know you stopped by. It's alway nice to know who has visited. My preorder of goodies from the new catalogue has finally arrived, so I will have some new creations to share with you soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

Claire

A Challenge combo

Hello, me again. Just recovering from the *shock* of the enormity of the Stampin' Up! retired list this year. My stamp collection is officially decimated! I will be particularly sad to say goodbye to my Paisley background stamp, I think I will have to keep that one for "personal use" lol! Looking forward to the new catalogue though, I can't wait to see what wonderful goodies they have replaced my old favourites with.

Now, to the real reason for this post. A challenge combo. For this card I have used Makeesha's Inkspirations sketch challenge no. 5 (to check out the other fab entries go here), along with Kristina's colour inspiration for this week. (Play along with Kristina's challenge here).

Kristina's colour challenge reminded me of some photos my Mum took on a trip through central Australia last year, lots of earthy desert colours combined with the green of the sparse vegetation and the blue of the sky. That inspired me to make this card with a set I borrowed from a friend to make some swaps. (Thanks Lynda!)

Not the greatest pic (it's late) but you get the idea! I used some of the masking and sponging techniques I learned doing Michelle Zindorf's chef tutorial (see this post) and have to say I am really pleased with the way this one turned out!

Card recipe:

Stamps: All Aboriginal, Polka Dots and Petals, Live your Dream

Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, Brocade Blue, Old Olive, Spring Break DSP

Inks: Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip, Versa Mark, Ruby Red, Old Olive

Accessories: Markers, White Gel Pen, Stampin' Dimensionals

Techniques: Emboss resist, Masking

Hope you like it. Please leave a comment, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks for stopping by.

Claire