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

Last Chance to Play

Back to work on Monday L. So I'm using today as my last chance to have a play with my new stuff from the Summer Mini. Today I have been having a go at Colour Blocking. I have used this technique before in my scrapping but had not thought about using it for a card, until I stumbled across a whole gallery of them on Splitcoast Stampers! It was quite inspiring, here are my attempts.

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Live Your Dream

Cardstock: Soft Sky, Basic Grey, Old Olive, Whisper White, Orchid Opulence

Inks: Soft Sky, Orchid Opulence, Old Olive.

Technique: Colour Blocking

Accessories: Vintage Brads, White Gel Pen, Sponge, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Eastern Blooms

Cardstock: Purely Pomegranate, So Saffron, Mellow Moss, Not Quite Navy

Inks: Purely Pomegranate, So Saffron, Mellow Moss

Accessories: Eastern Elegance Rubons, White Gel Pen, Sponge, Stamp n Write Markers

Technique: Colour Blocking, Marker direct to Stamp

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Ocean Commotion, Polka Dots and Paisley

Cardstock: Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi, Certainly Celery, Blue Bayou

Inks: Soft Sky, Certainly Celery, Wild Wasabi

Acessories: Sponge, White Gel Pen, Ribbon, Crystal Effects

Technique: Colour Blocking, Masking

I have made a New Year's resolution to try and move out of my comfort zone when it comes to colour choices and combinations. I have tried some new combos with these cards – no Gruesome Guava (sorry Groovy Guava) or Cameo Coral just yet. I'm building up to it!! Keep checking back to see if I have managed it! Would love to know what you think. Thanks for dropping by.

Claire

Frantically Festive!

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to everybody! I hope you all had a fun and fabulous festive season. For me here, every day since Christmas Eve there has been an event to go to, or friends and family to catch up with. It certainly has been a social whirl and lots of fun! Just a little exhausting though …

Not much time for crafting I'm afraid, though I did find time to make a birthday card for my DH (darling husband) who celebrated his birthday on Christmas Eve. Here it is:

It is a double challenge combo, as it combines the Faux Silk Pop , technique lovers challenge and the sketch challenge number 188, on Splitcoast Stampers. It was VERY nice to have a break from Christmas projects!

Card recipe:

Stamp sets: Ocean Commotion (from the new Summer Mini), Polka Dots and Paisley
Cardstock: Bordering Blue, Night of Navy, Mellow Moss, Really Rust
Inks: Bordering Blue, Mellow Moss and Really Rust
Accessories: Vintage Brads, Stampin' Dimensionals
Techniques: Faux Silk Pop and Masking.

I also wanted to share with you some of the gorgeous handmade Christmas cards I received from some of the wonderful people I have spent time with this year, in my capacity as a Stampin' Up! Demo. It was really lovely to receive these in the mail, thank you so much to the people who took the time to create them and send them to me. I really love them! Here they are:

Finally, I would like you to meet one of the new members of our family. My little guy received a Fish Tank for Christmas. So, for his birthday (30^th December, I told you we had been busy around here!!) he received some fish to go into it. Here is one of the new additions – his name is Felix. Felix had three other companions in the tank, unfortunately the move was too much for Whizzer and he joined the big aquarium in the sky this afternoon. The others are still going strong, and in a week or two they will hopefully have some brightly coloured companions!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you had a wonderful time over the festive season. I'm looking forward to sharing more crafty ideas with you in 2009.

Claire