Just add Ink 108 Colour challenge

Hi my stamping friends!

It's been a while since I have found (made!) the time to participate in a stamping challenge. I was delighted to see the fresh colours over at this week's Just add Ink colour challenge.

The colours are Pool party, Island indigo, Whisper white and Early espresso. I am so loving these beautiful blues at the moment from Stampin' Up!s current in colours.

I have used the now retired Seaside stamp set and my handy Bring on the cake stamp set for the sentiment. I LOVE the variety of birthday greetings and styles in this set. And a lovely antique brad for a little interest!

Thanks for looking! Happy Stamping!

Love, Claire

Just Add Ink Colour challenge 91

Hi my Stamping Friends!

They have a very sweet Colour challenge going on over at Just Add Ink at the moment which is to use Blushing bride, Cherry cobbler and a Neutral of choice. I chose Very Vanilla.



This card was very quick to make using two of  the new Stampin' Up! hostess stamp sets. The stamp sets are called Simply Soft (the two step stampin' main image) and Precious Butterflies (the background and sentiment). I have also used the soft stitched ribbon in Blushing bride.

This is a really lovely colour combo and I might try to fit in another attempt this week, no promises but I will try!

Happy Stamping!
Love, Claire

PS I'm trying out a new view on my blog that Blogger have started... what do you all think?

Time for tea?

Here is my little submission for this weeks Just Add Ink challenge. The girls over at JAI have come up with a lovely sketch for us to play along with this week!

I have made this card half the usual size (So it's half an A5 sheet folded) and used some of our lovely in colours, Peach parfait, Concord crush and Pear pizzazz. The stamp sets used are Vintage vogue and Morning cup and I have used the curly label punch and the eyelet border punch.

You can see in my first photo that I have used paper-piecing for this card using the free hostess set of In color patterned papers - so sweet! I just love these papers, the patterns are really beautiful! You will definetely want a pair of paper snips scissors if you plan to cut out little pieces like this!

Happy Stamping!

Love, Claire

Just in time for Just add ink!

I have a last minute entry for this weeks challenge over at Just add ink. This is such a sweet colour combo that I couldn't miss it! The colours are: Early espresso, Soft suede, Rose red and Regal rose. I have been waiting on my order to arrive from Stampin' Up! which included some soft suede cardstock but alas it is not here yet so this card had to go ahead without it! Please excuse the poor photography... it was way too windy outside today to get a decent photo and I had dear little Levi (2 years old) 'helping' me with the camera also! lol


I really love using this Vintage vogue stamp set. Here I have done a little collage stamping using soft suede and rose red. The collage panel is dotted with three small hand cut flowers each centred with a basic pearl. This is then mounted onto some regal rose cardstock which is on some embossed Rose red which is finally mounted on some Early Espresso for the card base. This sweet soft suede polkadot ribbon is from the mini catalogue in Autumn last year. I do wish I had bought more of this ribbon at the time! Oh well...

I hope this inspires you to create something today!
Happy Stamping!
Love, Claire

Just add ink 52 - A sketch challenge

This week there is a great sketch challenge over at Just add ink. And this is my take on it.

I had already watercoloured these little teacups and the teapot to make a thank you card for a lovely friend of mine that I love to share a cuppa with. She has been so generous in making meals for our family since Samuel's birth so I wanted to make a special card for her.

This sketch challenge just helped me to complete the design! I love using challenges for a bit of inspiration. Why don't you head over to Just add ink now to see this week's challenge and give it a go yourself!

Colours: Rich razzleberry, Pear pizzazz, Very vanilla

Stamps: Vintage vogue, Morning cup

Accessories: Watercolour paper, Aquabrush, Rich razzleberry grosgrain ribbon, Corner rounder punch, Top note die, Big shot.

Happy Stamping! Love,

Claire

Just believe in Monochrome for Just add ink!

This week at Just add ink the challenge is to just add Monochrome. My friend and upline, Paula has lent me this delicious stamp set, Just believe and I thought it would look great in a monochromatic colour scheme. I have made two cards, but the first one pictured is my entry for this weeks challenge.

This first card has a Baja breeze base with Not quite navy and whisper white card stock on top. The ribbon is Marina mist in grosgrain and the ink is Night of navy - I managed to use lots of different blues here but I think it all works. Baja breeze and Marina mist are such soothing colours to me, I just love them.

The main stamp has a faux silk effect on it using scrunched up tissue paper. It gives a really nice effect, making it look a bit more special.

This second card is very similar, here the card base is Marina mist with Not quite navy and whisper white cardstock and the ink is Night of Navy. I have just used the eyelet border punch down the side. Again, there is the faux silk effect on the main stamp. For the sentiment here i have used the Teeny tiny sentiments stamp set and the markers with the stamp-a-majig to position it all in the right place!

I thought I'd photograph my cards in front of our very lush garden! It is so wet up here at the moment (I am not complaining though, we are not flooded) but the ground is so soft and muddy and everything especially the weeds are growing like crazy and so green!

Thinking of all those who are in flood affected areas, now extending further down south :( God bless you all.

Love, Claire

Birthday Bakery at Just add ink

There is a very delicately sweet colour combo challenge over at Just Add Ink this week. The colours are Pretty in pink, So saffron, Certainly celery and Crumb cake (used to be called Kraft).

So what a perfect opportunity for me to create a card with the equally sweet new Hostess stamp set called Birthday Bakery! My order from the new Idea Book and Catalogue landed on my doorstep yesterday so after assembling my stamps and unwrapping everything yesterday I had fun creating today! I also couldn't resist using a little of my new roll of Pretty in pink taffeta ribbon.

This was also doubly enjoyable as I was stamping this card for a good friend who lives up in the Northern Territory serving with her family up there as missionaries. It was her birthday in August but I knew of something she was excitedly wanting from the new Idea book so I am sending her a late birthday gift.

Cardstock: Pretty in pink, So saffron, Crumb cake, Whisper white

Ink: Basic black, Pretty in pink, Certainly celery, So saffron

Stamps: Birthday bakery, Perfect punches

Accessories: Taffeta ribbon in pretty in pink and whisper white, Scallop oval punch, Wide oval punch, Mat pack, Blender pens, Snail adhesive.

Happy Stamping!

Love, Claire

Just Add Ink 31 - Colour challenge!

Good Morning Ladies!

Last night I found an ounce of energy so I decided to stay up past my bedtime (8pm!) and do some stamping. :) It was so fun and this weeks colour challenge from Just add ink was the perfect inspiration (I love these colours):

I decided to use the beautiful new stamp sets Cottage Garden and Heard from the heart. I just love these new sets. Cottage Garden is a two step stamping set which is one of the first things that I loved about Stampin' Up's range of products. To stick with the colour challenge I stamped the second part of the two step (the solid flower) with real red ink stamped off once. I think this worked okay.

I was feeling fancy so I pulled out the heat gun and did a bit of heat embossing on the greeting (hard to see in the photo unfortunately). To achieve this with SU inks you need to ink up in Versamark and then coloured ink and then stamp, sprinkle with clear powder and heat set.

The little butterfly has been given a similar treatment but I used heat and stick powder and dazzling diamonds on it instead of the clear powder.

The ribbon is 5/8"chocolate chip ribbon from SU - only available until August 31st!

I hope this gives you all a little creative inspiration for your day!

Happy Stamping! Love Claire

Just Add A Man Card!

Hi girls!
This week over at JAI the challenge is to Just add a man card but to make it doubly challening they also added in a colour challenge which is Baja breeze, Chocolate Chip and Kraft.
Here is my simple entry which uses the weathered background stamp and a sentiment from Cute and Curly. The punched star is adhered with a silver brad. The faux stitching is achieved with the white signo uniball pen.

I hope this simple card inspires you to create your own 'man card'! And head over to the Just Add Ink website to check out the gallery of wonderful creations of 'man cards' over there!

Happy Stamping, Love Claire

Wonderful Brothers - JAI 27

Hey girls.... I just had to give this sketch challenge at Just add ink a second go! I have decided to do a scrapbook page with some photos of my boys. I am sorry about the photos - they're fairly average due to it being too late at night to take them outside!

I have used textured Not quite navy as the background with Baja breeze. The DSP is from Urban garden. I am really loving my little Alphabet dies for the Big shot! So handy for scrapbooking.

I love these photos. Ethan and Levi were just walking along the street hand in hand. Ethan was being such a good big brother and Levi wasn't resisting the guidance. Totally cute.

Here is a close up of the little pocket I made to hide my journalling.

Happy Stamping!

Love Claire

Just Add Embossing!

Hello Girls!

Today I have a couple of cards to share with you. Both are inspired by the challenge over at Just Add Ink which is to Just add embossing. The first card uses two of my favourite colours, Not quite navy and Baja breeze. I was in awe of Danielle Daws take on this beautiful technique using clear embossing and brayering so I had to give it a go myself.

Project 1 supplies:

CS: Not quite navy, Baja breeze, Whisper white, Walk in the park DSP. Ink: Versamark, Not quite navy. Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Teeny tiny sentiments. Accessories: Baja breeze striped grosgrain riboon, scallop oval punch, brayer, heat tool, clear embossing powder.

My second project is a bit of a challenge to myself but I have included embossing on it. I used colours that don't normally appeal to me and also my Organic Grace stamp set which I have not used a lot. I am quite happy with the final outcome even though it's quite different for me. This project uses all retiring colours.

Project 2 supplies:

CS: Really rust, Handsome hunter, Mellow moss, Apricot appeal. Ink: Versamark, Apricot Appeal, Handsome hunter, Mellow moss. Stamps: Weathered (background stamp), Best yet (hostess set), Organic Grace (hostess set). Accessories: Hemp twine, stampin' dimensionals, heat tool, clear embossing powder.

Please remember that at the end of August many colours will be retiring with Stampin' Up. Please check with me to see which colours are leaving us and what you need to stock up on!

Happy Stamping!

Love, Claire

Just Add Ink 25

Well here is my very last minute entry into this weeks Just Add Ink challenge. It's a colour challenge this week and I decided to do a scrapbooking layout. The colours in the challenge are Elegant Eggplant, Very Vanilla, Rose Red and Soft suede - stunning colours. I have used the very beautiful Vintage Vogue stamp set from our current mini catalogue. Even though I would never claim my style to be vintage I do love this set.

Update on Thursday - here are some better pictures so now you can see the colours better :) Don't you think that the rhinestone brads just work beautifully with these flowers?

Happy Stamping!
Love, Claire