Thursday, 1 October 2009

New Blog

My blog has moved to http://www.clairemackaness.com/blog.htm

Wednesday, 29 July 2009

LYC Lace & Pearls

This weeks LYC challenge is lace & pearls. Sadly I've been holed up in bed with a cold all week so couldn't take part, but I have added a card I made a few weeks ago to show you how funky the singers can look with a vintage feel about them.

Wednesday, 22 July 2009

Blue & White

Another dodgy picture I'm afraid, but heres a new baby card I made for this weekes Colour Create Blue and White Challenge. I was planning on personalising the top right hand corner with a name, but my friend nabbed it to give to a friend of hers before I could attack it with stick on lettering!

Triple Play

Our Creative Corner are challenging you to use three types of embellishment on your cards this week. I made this card for a customer using, flowers, ribbon and pearls.

Animals

This weeks Pink Elephant challenge is Animals. Here is a card I made for a customer with a farmyard theme. Please excuse the dodgy photograph I still havn't got to grips with my new cameras settings!

Wednesday, 15 July 2009

LYC Challenge #3

Well it's LYC time again and here is my creation for our 3rd challenge. This week we have a fab sketch for you to follow and I'm offering a lovely prize to the winner. We have opened up to all this week and you can take part even if you dont have any of our downloads for now. I'm sure you'll be hooked soon though!

I have a few friends who are expecting any day now so I'm stocking up on the old pink and blue cards. This just shows you that even though our images are quirky you can still make something cute and traditional with them.

Sunday, 12 July 2009

Win $1,000 at TheCuttlebugSpot.com!

I have just discovered that The Cuttlebug Spot is having a contest - "The Journey to 1,000"! They are trying to reach 1,000 followers by the end of July and need your help. To enter all you have to do is go to their site, sign up as follower and complete a few easy steps and you could win a $1,000 gift certificate to Custom Crops (www.CustomCrops.com)! GO NOW and check it out at www.TheCuttlebugSpot.com

Thursday, 9 July 2009

Blue & Green should never be seen

According to Daring Cardmakers anyway! What a load of rubbish, they look great together. Here is a card I've made using the brand new Monster downloads available from the Little Yellow Company. Pop by and check them out, they have some fab designs and blog candy too!

Hearts

Not my usual style I admit, but it was an order from a very sweet little boy at a local fete I attended last weekend. He wanted a card with teddies and a cuddle on it! This is a free Cuddlybuddly download which I have cut out and placed spotty paper behind. Perfect for this weeks Spoonfull of sugar Hearts challenge

Black & White

This weeks Cupcake Challenge is Black & White. Perfect to showcase the card I made recently for my boss who is a huge fan of the Specials. Those of you who know the band will recognise their album cover in the background. It's also a Musical theme challenge on My Time to Craft this week so I'm fitting it in there too.

My Favourite things..........

Is this weeks Papertake Weekly challenge. My favourite thing is 'Green' so it was perfect to be able to make a card to say thankyou to the girls at Toms nursery. He moved up into the Toddler room Runner Beans this week and as he had been in the baby room Pea Pod this colour is perfect!

Wednesday, 8 July 2009

LYC Challenge #2

This weeks Little Yellow Company challenge is baby blue. My card has been kept simple just to showcase you a sneeky peek at our new monsters set coming soon.

Monday, 6 July 2009

Sketch & Stash

Wow, for the first time in ages I have taken part in a challenge. Well actually I cheated a bit as I sponsored this weeks Sketch & Stash challenge and therefore got the sketch in advance to play with!

Heres my card. It's made using the Singers downloads from The Little Yellow Company. Pop by as we have some great blog candy you could win at the moment.

Thursday, 2 July 2009

Our first challenge on LYC

The Little Yellow Company has been a pet project for me and will hopefully help my artist friend Terry launch his artwork into the world of crafting. We have been building up to the launch of our challenge site and were excited to go live yesterday with our first challenge. 'Sparkle & Shine'. I've been so busy that I have taken till today to tell you all about it!

There is a free download for everyone who takes part this week, so my card was made to show you the lovely little chicken you would receive if you played along. Pop along and check out the blog and visit the shop to see the 3 sets of stamps we have on offer so far.

Terry is busy creating as I type and I can let you know that our next batch is for the boys and will include robots, space ships, ray guns and aliens!!!

Friday, 26 June 2009

What an exciting day

We've announced our DT over at the Little Yellow Company. The girls are furiously crafting and getting ready for our first challenge on Wednesday.

Pop by and take a look. We are giving all participants a free download, simply for taking part so make sure you visit in Wednesday.

Tuesday, 16 June 2009

Where am I?

I just wanted to let you know that I havn't fallen off the edge of the earth. I'm still here and going strong but have somewhat neglected my family and house in order to craft over the past few months so I've had to admit defeat and cut back DRASTICALLY. With the summer months coming the garden needs looking after and with a 2 year old on my hand once the evenings come I'm ready to conk out rather than craft. I will keep you posted with things as and when so please keep following.

Thursday, 14 May 2009

What a busy week - 5 in one for me

Wow! My little boy turned two last weekend and my husband made it to the grand old age of 31 so there were a couple of parties to throw. The house has been in chaos and I've been doing airport runs like they were going out of fashion and to top it all off I've been ill too. Somehow I managed to get a card made in time for my stint as Guest Designer on the Dutch Dare Challenge team this week where our theme is 'Blue, White & One Other Colour'.

I made this card using a Digi Stamp, soon to be available from The Little Yellow Company. Make sure you pop by and add the site to your favourites. They are also holding a DT Call with no close date at present for their new challenge site.








The card also fits a few more challenges this week, so I've gone for a bundle. Pink Elephant are looking for Green, Blue and White cards, as are Colour Create. Spoonful of sugar are on the hunt for buttons and Dare you Digi Stamp are hunting for Gingham and stitching.

A star is born

Here is my DT card for this weeks Charisma Challenge a star is born

Monday, 11 May 2009

Vees Sketch on Charisma

Naughty me, I've just noticed I havn't posted my card for last weeks Charisma challenge! Vee designed a lovely sketch. Heres my take on it.

Thursday, 7 May 2009

Announcing a new arrival

The Little Yellow Company.................
My good friend Terry Maughan has been doodling again and we have just launched a brand new Digi Stamp site and accompanying challenge blog. We are currently on the look out for a Design Team too, so check out both the sites and dont forget to add yourselves to the followers list for updates.

Sunday, 3 May 2009

Something for a mum

This weeks Stamp something challenge. I found last years Mothers Day hard to keep on top of, so I've made a head start on stocking up in time for next March!! Our Creative corner are also asking for Mothers Day cards this week so it's a two in one for me.

5 Embellishments

That was this weeks cupcake challenge. Shall we count them?

Image
Diamantes
Rine Studs
Ribbon
Flowers

Spots and Stripes

The name of the game for this weeks Papertake Weekly challenge. Here is the RSVP card I made for my Best Friends wedding. It follows the theme of her invites.

This is also just perfect for the Saturday Challenge of flowers!

AWOL from Charisma last week - so sorry

Life is just soooo blooming crazy at the moment. Just after Tom had chicken pox, my Parents returned from Oz, I went to Norwich to help plan my friends wedding and returned with numerous crafty tasks to do all in a month which includes a long weekend away for her hen weekend and My sons 2nd birthday party, MIL arriving and my husbands birthday and my best friends 30th! Madness.

So sorry I went AWOL, here is my card for last week and I'm just off down the studio to do the next two so I can get ahead!


Thursday, 23 April 2009

My first DT challenge at Charisma

Well..........I've been on the DT at Charisma for a few weeks now but today is my turn to set the challenge! I decided to try my hand at making a sketch as these are one of my favourite types of challenge. Here's my sketch and here's my card! Come on over to CCC and have a crack for yourself.

Monday, 20 April 2009

Colour Create - Pink, White & Black

This was the colour scheme on Colour Create this week and as an added extra, you could add polka dots. Just perfect for an order I received from a customer today for a 60's inspired card!

I'm really missing my challenges, you might have noticed I'm not blogging as much as usual. To be honest though I was letting craft rule the roost and the house and garden were running to ruin! I've had to be good and pull back a bit and stick to doing just a couple a week again.

Thursday, 16 April 2009

Little Black Dress

Thats the theme set by Carly this week on Charisma Cardz Challenge and here is my DT card. I used my new Basic Grey Cupcake papers and lots of bling. Hope you like it.

Sunday, 12 April 2009

One for the guys

Well we all know how hard it is to make male orientated cards, so thanks to colour create and their chocolate, coffee and cream challenge I managed one for the box! The added extra was distressing so I made these torn up edges. I've also added it into the One Stop Craft Challenge as this weeks task was to include 'torn'.

Handmade

I hate not being able to use Patterened paper and Embellishments, but this weeks Dotties World challenge was to make everything yourself asides from a ribbon! I'm not happy with this card, but nobody can say I wont rise to a challenge. The background is Claire Curd signature range stamps and the flower embellishment is made up with punches and a diamante.

Happy Easter + More Chocolate

I'm noticing a theme with this weeks challenges, there seems to be rather a lot of chocolate! This card follows the sketch on Friday Sketchers, the recipe on Dutch Dare and fits the Marshmallows and Chocolate theme on Cute Card Thursday and as my favourite Chocolate Centre is a Raspberry Ruffle it suits the Basic Grey Challenge too! HAPPY EASTER xx

Chocolate Orange Yummy!

This weeks challenge on the Secret Crafter was a fab little sketch with a twist. Chocolate Orange! This is a colour scheme I've never used before but it turned out well, dont you think? I've used Maternity Dottie from the Love and Marraige Collection and my new scrummy Dovecraft papers.

Saturday, 11 April 2009

Bling

This week on Dare You Digi Stamp the theme is bling. This card was an order for a friend and I've used the lovely Girl about Town images from Charmed. The photo doesn't make the bling stand out I'm afraid but the dots on the scalloped circle are purple diamantes.

Thursday, 9 April 2009

This weeks Charisma DT Challenge

Wow what a week. Last week it was MIL staying and this week it's chicken pox! My little man has been so miserable and spotty so yet another week has passed without crafting. Hopefully next week will be back to usual again.

This weeks Charisma challenge was purple and green. I love this colour combo so I made this little card to a few more challenges too. The sketch is a flip of Sketch Saturday, It has a bit of Off Beat BG paper so I've added it to their spring challenge and the stitching on the ribbon makes it fit for One Stop Crafts all sewn up challenge too.

Wednesday, 8 April 2009

It's all Go, Go, Go

Well I had to cancel a meeting I had tonight as hubby dearest needed to work late. A good job really considering I'd forgotten to make an order which needs delivering tomorrow!

This card is for one of the staff at Toms nursery for her to give to her daughter. I've made it really bright and funky for this weeks Dotties World challenge. It's also perfect for the denim challenge on My Time To Craft and the Age challenge on Spoonfull.

Thursday, 2 April 2009

What a crazy week

I've had my Mother in Law to stay and it's been go, go, go. I havn't had time to craft at all! I managed to sneak half an hour though to keep up with my DT commitments and made this lovely little boy card for this weeks fab sketch on Charisma. Pop over and give it a ago.

Thursday, 26 March 2009

Charisma DT card # 12

This weeks Charisma challenge was to use our favourite things. Well my favourite thing is to buy new stash, so what better excuse than a trip to Sugar and Spice! I made this card using my new spotty paper, personal impressions flourish stamp and these gorgeous hat pins threaded with beads from my stash. The fab chipboard flower is from Sarahs Cards and I covered in papermania green ink, doodled the white spots and then covered it in UTEE.

Wednesday, 25 March 2009

Baby Boom

There is a huge Baby Boom amongst my Mummy friends with lots of them due babies any day. I'm expecting a bit of a rush on orders any day now, so you might see quite a few being poste dup here. I'll have to be carefull though as one of those expectant mums is a follower on my blog! (Yes Louise, I'm talking about you).

This card follows the sketch on Pink Elephant and also incorporates a textured background. I've used my new Snag-ems stamps and I think this is a real cutey!

Another challenge

Create a card in Navy, Turquoise and Lime but dont use any patterned paper. I nearly cried when I read this challenge on Colour Create as I have the most gorgeous K&Co paper that would have fitted perfectly! Still I got out the lace and embossing folder and doodled away to create this beauty. I follwed the sketch on this weeks Dutch Dare and used a nice femal image so it could be entered into this weeks DCM 'Women' Challenge. As you might notice I'm running low on age cards in my stock box LOL!

Simple yet effective

I've been playing with my new Dovecraft paper. it's so lovely you dont really need to do anything to it, so I decided to use it as a background and add a simple Clare Curd butterfly stamp with diamante. This card is very spring like in my opinion so is just perfect for this weeks Stamp Something Challenge.

Who says simple needs to look boring?

Cute Card Thursday set a challenge to use no more than 4 embellishments (that includes layers of flowers.....eeeeeeeekk) 2 papers and something ripped. I thought I'd struggle with it, but chuck in a huge chipboard flower, a funky dome sticker and some gorgeous new Dovecraft wild blossom paper and look what you have:


I used my new penny Black stamp and added a spot of doodling for this weeks PB challenge and followed the sketch on Our Creative Corner.