CC&S #126: Bunting Sketch & Laura's Birthday

A while back I bought a mini bunting die set from Clearly Besotted and have been itching to find the time to have a play so have put that right by making it a feature of my sketch for CAS Colours and Sketches this week. My thinking was that if I had no other time to play I would have to make a card for that. Why exactly is it that I have to go to work... hmm? I know... retirement will come soon enough!

It is also our eldest daughter, Laura's, birthday very soon so I wanted to make a special card for her. She and her fiance are still away travelling in South East Asia and Australasia. They went at the beginning of December 2014 and will be back at the beginning of July - seven months! I can't send the card to her except via facebook but will save it for her when she gets back - can't wait to hear all her stories.

When looking for inspiration, I found that the themes from three other challenges seemed to fit perfectly and so my card was born. I love making these die-cut metal flowers from beer and pop cans. Each one is different depending on the can colours and not only are they amazing and definitely have that wow factor, they are a good way to upcycle and Laura would definitely approve of that! Today I have used a Pimms can, very appropriate for the time of year though you wouldn't think so to look at the weather outside!

It's recipe time at Less Is More this week and the recipe is 'to use some metal'. I love to join in their wonderful challenges when I can so will enter it there. Besides the flower, I have also used some metallic holographic gold card as the base for some of the bunting.

I would also like to enter it into the twin sister of the recently discovered Happy Little Stampers challenge and enter this card into their May CAS challenge where the theme is to use die-cuts or punches on your card. As well as the flower, I have obviously die-cut all the bunting elements.

The final challenge I would like to link to is the May challenge at Uniko Studio where the theme is 'flowers'. I would like to wish Bev a very belated happy birthday and in case I don't get a chance to enter with a card using Uniko stamps, I thought I would kill two birds with one stone, as it were, with this card!

Supplies Used:
Dies: Bigz Flower Daisies #2 (Sizzix), Mini Bunting Die Collection (Clearly Besotted)
Stamps: Circle Letters and Numbers (See-D's)
Ink Pad: Rose Red (Versacolor)
Sentiment Font: Vijaya
Snippets: Pimms can, Textured white brad, White linen, holographic gold & red cardstock, Red twine

I have so enjoyed my month looking after the challenges at CAS Colours and Sketches. Thank you for all your support, amazing entries and wonderful comments! Lizy will be our hostess for June. In the meantime I look forward to seeing all your interpretations of my summery sketch!

Stef x

Bleeding Art Tissue Technique Playtime!

It's half term which means I've found a bit of extra time to play! I first saw the bleeding art tissue technique on the fabulous Eileen Godwin's blog and she has since made a YouTube tutorial which explains it really well. I bought some of the tissue a few weeks ago from Amazon and when I was thinking about what to do for my first project with it I found three challenges that combined so well with the technique that I vowed I would have a go this week.

I have used some of my favourite white linen cardstock as a base for the technique. I chose pinks and blues because I really wanted to enter Lavinia Stamps Challenge #5 as Eileen is on their DT. Their theme this month is to use 'Blue, Pink or Both', together with Lavinia stamps or dies. I have used three different stamps: Sky (the musical fairy) inked with Versafine, the Spiral of Spells inked with Memento and the fairy dust from another set which has been inked with Versamark and embossed.

I also wanted to enter Happy Little Stampers Sketch Challenge for May. I only discovered Happy Little Stampers quite recently and along with it the equally fabulous Loll Thompson's blog. Loll is on the HLS DT and makes wonderful CAS cards. Their sketch features circles of colour. Hence I chose circles as my theme: the bleeding art tissue circles, the Spiral of Spells stamp, the fairy dust stamp and in the background some inking through a piece of sequin waste. I did end up turning their sketch 90 degrees as I found my finished piece looked better on my 5x7" card blank this way round.

I also really fancied entering the current Time Out Challenge #31. Their theme this fortnight is 'Grunge with the optional twist of embossing'. I make so many quite CAS cards these days that I really fancied the challenge of combining grunge with CAS and I hope the team think I have pulled it off. I was going to distress the edges and maybe add a few splatters but something said I should stop and not overdo and maybe spoil it!

I finished the artwork by embossing the fairy's wings (though this doesn't really show up on the photo). I used a mat of dark blue card and finished with a computer-generated sentiment onto a piece of blue vellum which I've then cut into a banner.

Supplies Used:

Tissue: Spectra Art Tissue (Amazon)

Stamps: Sky (fairy), Spiral of Spells, fairy dust (Lavinia Stamps)

Ink pads: Blue Lagoon (Versafine), Summer Sky & Angel Pink (Memento), Versamark

Embossing Powder: Stardust (Funstamps)

Sentiment Font: Angelic War

Snippets: White linen cardstock, Sequin waste, Powder Blue Promarker, Blue textured cardstock, Blue vellum (Papermania)

I really enjoyed taking time out to experiment with a new technique today and join in a few new challenges. Thanks so much for stopping by. I will be back tomorrow with this week's card for CAS Colours and Sketches.

Stef x

CC&S #125: My favourite flower colours

I'm back today with my second choice of colours in my hostess month of May at CAS Colours and Sketches. As I banged on about irises being my favourite flower in the challenge post, I thought I should rise to the challenge and see what I could come up with!

OK, I know I still need to practise a lot to perfect my watercolouring skills particularly in the light and shade areas but I had so much fun colouring this. The iris is a drawing I found on the internet printed onto proper 300gsm watercolour paper. I simply transferred ink from three different ink pads onto a plastic lid and used a watercolour brush with water and the inks to colour the image. I had a couple of goes at it and left it to dry in between in an attempt to capture the shaded areas. The sentiment is computer-generated and the piece matted and layered onto a piece of coordinating cardstock.

Supplies Used:
Iris drawing:  Found at http://lifestyle.howstuffworks.com
Ink Pads: Dusty Concord & Mowed Lawn (TH Distress), Cantaloupe (Memento)
Paper: 300gsm watercolour paper (Papermill Direct)
Sentiment font: Ar Berkley
Snippets: Purple cardstock

So much looking forward to seeing your creations. You have until Wednesday 27th May to link up your design.

Have fun!
Stef x

CC&S #124: Three Squares Sketch and Some Nostalgia!

This week at CAS Colours and Sketches I have a sketch for you. It is based on a design that I made for my daughter Katie's birthday back in April. I really enjoyed working with this particular sketch and the techniques used so I thought I would make something very similar for Martin as this Friday (15th) is our 33rd wedding anniversary!

As before, the squares started out as a piece of my favourite white linen cardstock. This time I stamped various small flowers with Versamark, white embossed, then sponged and blended inks in shades of pink and lilac. This was then spritzed with water and left to dry before die-cutting the squares.

I printed the sentiment straight onto the card blank and then assembled the layout. The butterfly was simply die-cut from a piece of the same linen cardstock, adhered by the body only, lifting the wings, and the design finished with three matching adhesive gems.

I chose the flowers and colours to match the cotton material that I made the bridesmaid dresses with for my two, then young, cousins all those years ago! I made the dresses for the older bridesmaids too with lots of help from my Mum! Don't know if you would like to see, but I thought I would sneek a photo of them in.

Gill, Cathy, Doreen (Mum), Andrea, Ros & Nicola

And whilst I'm being nostalgic this week, one of me on the day too! I usually dislike photos of me, which is why I use a picture of a skylark as my avatar, but this particular photo is one of the nicest I've ever seen and therefore I don't mind showing it!

Those were the days... back to the here and now! I hope you enjoy working with this layout as much as I have done. I can see me using it often. As stated in the challenge post, you do not have to use a butterfly as your focal point. I mainly chose it because it represents our new-look challenge blog. However, we do need to clearly be able to see the sketch in your finished design.

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Various small flowers from Festive Bouquet, Emily's Garden & Mum's Garden sets (Card-io)
Ink pads: Angel Pink & Lulu Lavender (Memento)
Dies: Classic Squares Large (Spellbinders), Butterfly #12 (Sizzix Sizzlits)
Snippets: White linen cardstock, White EP, Adhesive gems

Have fun and I look forward to visiting your blogs.
Thanks.
Stef x

Happy Birthday!

Today I have found a little time to join in with a few other challenges! I started out wanting to make a 1st birthday extravaganza card for Game #39 at AAA Cards Challenges.

But when gathering inspiration came across a few other challenges that my card would also fit. Inspiration for the cupcake comes from AAA Cards birthday game photo:

I bought this large stamp several years ago and have used it for lots of different projects including some notebooks I made with my Guides. I thought I would use marker pens in bright, bold colours, a bit of a challenge in itself for me as I'm much more at home with soft, muted colours. Inspiration for the colour palette comes from this week's challenge (#290) at ColourQ:

I think this colour combo is simply gorgeous (probably because it includes a shade of turquoise, my favourite colour)! I decided to use sketch #185 from this week's challenge at Freshly Made Sketches as it suited my card composition really well and I needed a background to use the fourth colour:

And because of the bold, strong shapes in my design I thought it would also fit right into this week's challenge at CASology where week #145's cue card is SHAPE:

I wouldn't normally combine so many challenges into one card, but I've had lots of fun this afternoon and they all seemed to fit together so well! The design was simply finished with some frosting on the hearts and swirls which you can just about see in the photo. Gotta have a bit of frosting on a special birthday card!

Supplies Used:
Stamp: Large cupcake CG157 (Hero Arts)
Dies: Scalloped rectangle (Spellbinders) & 'Tag Along' (Clearly Besotted)
Promarkers: Poppy, Pink Carnation, Peach
Frosting: Crystal Stickles (Ranger)
Sentiment Font: Bodoni MT Black
Snippets: Pearlised turquoise cardstock, Peach cardstock (Core'dinations)

Thanks for visiting my little world today!
Stef x

Mum's card for CAS Colours and Sketches #123

In my previous post I explained that my Mum is staying with me for a few days whilst I recover from my recent op and she wanted to make a card to enter the CAS Colours and Sketches Challenge #123.

She has stamped directly onto the card blank and coloured with Promarkers using the challenge palette. The sentiment is a random one that I've had for ages which has been stamped alongside finishing with a few pieces of brushed gold Candi.

Supplies Used:

Stamp: Tilda with candle (Magnolia)

Ink pad: Gathered Twigs (TH Distress)

Promarkers: Antique Rose, Caramel

Snippets: Pale grey brush marker, Brushed gold Candi (Craftwork Cards)

Looking forward to seeing what you all make of these colours!

Thanks Mum!
Stef x

CC&S #123: First week as hostess!

Hi everyone! I have the honour of hosting the challenge blog at CAS Colours and Sketches for the month of May and we kick off with a colour challenge.  Rather stupidly, when choosing the colours and sketches for the month I didn't really stop and think as to what stamps, inks, etc from amongst my stash that I might use to make my cards and have definitely found my first set of colours a personal challenge! That'll teach me!

Sorry, the photo's not the best

With both a brown and a grey to use I decided to use my Swirly Whirly Owl stamp on a piece of white cardstock. The stamp has been coloured with various shades of Promarkers using the challenge palette. It has then been mat and layered onto a piece of peach textured cardstock, die-cut at one end with a scalloped die just to add interest. A piece of baker's twine finished the design which was then mounted onto a 7"x5"card blank. The sentiment is computer-generated and printed directly onto the card.

Supplies Used:

Stamp: Swirly Whirly Owls (Little Claire)

Ink pad: Smokey Gray (Versafine)

Promarkers: Peach, Soft Peach, Umber, Tan, Cool Grey 4

Die: Large scalloped rectangle (Spellbinders)

Sentiment font: Youngsook BTN

Snippets: Pale grey brush pen, Peach cardstock (Core'dinations), Peach/white baker's twine

I decided to make this card for the surgeon and whole team of doctors, nurses and other staff that looked after me so well during my brief stay in Southport hospital last weekend. The operation was planned but the actual date came at rather short notice! Hence my Mum is staying with me in my first few days of recovery. She wants to have a go at making a card for the challenge and although she does a lot of cardmaking she doesn't have her own blog nor does she usually make CAS style cards so it's a challenge for her too! I will post her card separately and hope that's OK with everyone.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you enjoy working with my colours and sketches this month. I look forward to visiting as many of your blogs as time allows and commenting on all your entries.

Stef x