Happy 2nd birthday to Fusion challenge!

Just popping in very quickly to show todays' card without further chit-chat. It's all a bit manic right now with job, life and whatnot. Off to have dinner with the Culinary Consultant and a few of his friends. 

Fusion card challenge is celebrating it's 2nd birthday with an colourful flowery image which was the inspiration for today's card.  Happy Birthday Fusion! I wanted to join in the celebrations as I needed to make a birthday card for a friend as well so that all worked out perfectly. I was also inspired by the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. I'm also linking up with Four Crafty Chicks where the theme is Chevron, Craft Rocket Challenge where the theme is Happy Anything, Let's Colour Linky Party where the theme is anything coloured goes (optional twist pink), Crafting With Friends and PDE Linky Party where Anything Goes.

Card: 300 gsm textured card, 190 gsm watercolour paper, Stampin' Up Melon Mambo and Daffodil Delight 
Stamps: Stampin' Up So Very Grateful and Positively Chevron, Lawn Fawn Happy Everything
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Daffodil Delight, Tim Holtz Distress markers Shabby Shutters, Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn, Spun Sugar, Milled Lavender, Picked Raspberry, Fossilized Amber
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle Dies, Stampin' Up Hello You die, yellow and pink adhesive gems from my stash

Great CAS(E) this Sketch and some more craft room organizing

Summer and crafting just don't seem to go together. There is so much to do, and the days just pass by so quickly. Of course the fact that I have also spent a few evenings just lazily falling asleep on the sofa while watching TV really doesn't help either, does it? But today I'm home alone and after having finished my rat shopping in the morning (yes, the babies have to eat although daddy is out and about), I did camp out in the craft room and have been multitasking crafting, getting inspired, cleaning and organising.

Today's card is inspired by the awesome sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch. I was also inspired by the great colour combo over at Colour Me...! I am linking up over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where Anything Goes as well. I went for a very literal interpretation of the sketch this time. I created the chevrons in the background by colouring parts of the Positively Chevron background stamp using markers. I also coloured the Gorgeous Grunge stamps using markers to get the coloured splatters for the background.

I've also been organising my stamps and dies. I finally got the Avery Elle Stamp Storage pockets I ordered a while ago. I think my stamps look so much neater now that they are all in identical pockets. I have put in a cardstock sheet for support in the pockets along with the stamps. For sets with matching dies, I bought some magnetic sheets which I attached to black cardstock, and the dies stay beautifully organised on the magnetic sheets. I have popped the dies into the same pockets with the matching stamps, so now it's always easy to find the matching stamp sets and dies, and I know even the tiny little dies stay safe on the magnetic sheets and in the sealable pockets. Unfortunately some of the larger stamp sets don't fit in the pockets, so I have to figure out something else for them.

Stamps and dies stored in plastic pockets. Matching dies
are stored along with the stamp sets. 

Card: Stampin' Up Rich Razzleberry, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, scraps of Bermuda Bay and Tangerine Tango Card

Stamps: Stampin' Up Positively Chevron and Gorgeous Grunge

Ink: Stampin' Up Rich Razzleberry, Tangerine Tango, Bermuda Bay

Other: Stampin' Up Hello You dies

Pink and grey patterns

I should be cleaning. Instead I have been crafting and blogging, and catching up on my blogs. I did do something useful though, I did an inventory of our freezer. I can't believe how much blackberries and plums we still have from last year. I'm clearly not very good with using plums. Any ideas? 

This morning was a bit more successful in the craft room after yesterday's creative block. First thing in the morning I headed into the craft room with my cup of coffee and blackberry muffin. And I was inspired by the great picture over at The Card Concept. I was inspired by the beautiful grey and pink colour combo and the pink chevron pattern on the curtain as well as the striped grey pattern on the wall. I have to say I wasn't too into shaker cards, but they have somehow grown on me. There was a really good series of posts on shaker cards on My Favourite Things which inspired me to give them another chance. The layout is inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch. I'm also linking up at Chocolate, Coffee & Cards where the theme is Die cuts and In the Pink where the them is "Make it Sparkle (in Pink of course)" and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge where the theme is Clean and Simple. 

I used washi tape to create a mask for the grey inking. I then die cut the hello and crated a shaker that I filled with sequins and tiny little beads. The background is stamped using a chevron stamp. I really like the stamp, as I can create any custom coloured backgrounds. I think I will look for a few more stamps like that, maybe a stripy background and a polkadot background stamp too. With a few select background stamps I would basically never need to buy any more patterned paper, and I would always have backgrounds in the right colours. 

Card: 300 gsm hammered white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, acetate

Stamps: Stampin' Up Positively Chevron

Inks: Stampin' Up Smokey Slate, Picked Raspberry

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Hello die, sequins and beads from my stash