CC&S Double Challenge 180: Eileen's butterflies

I had lots of fun again this week making my card for CAS Colours and Sketches and it was in no small way thanks to my friend Eileen Godwin!

Eileen is very generous in sharing her time and talent with fellow crafters and made a YouTube video this last week showing a really colourful way of using Distress inks and this is my version of it. The depth of colour is not as good as Eileen's but that is what makes her a superstar and anyway I'm pretty pleased with my result. I was delighted when I saw I could combine both our sketch and colours and Eileen's tutorial into just one card! I actually made one in another colourway too but it's not quite finished so will share next time.

I inked and misted an acrylic block with Distress ink pads and stamped it onto a piece of card. Stamping in the shape of an arc as in Bev's design proved quite tricky until I hit upon the idea of making a mask from a plastic punched pocket so that I could see through it and clean it easily and it worked really well! The rain drops were stamped when the ink was dry, removing some of the colour from them with a water brush and highlighting with a white gel pen. I coloured a few spare pieces of card with the three ink pads and left them to dry thoroughly before die-cutting and punching the butterflies. These have then been stamped with a swirly stamp and highlighted as before. I love this sentiment stamp but don't use it nearly often enough and thought it fitted well here. I used a black matt, a colour I don't use much on my cards but think it works well for this technique. Finally I glued the butterflies in place along the line of the arc. Job done!

Supplies Used:
Ink Pads: Cracked Pistachio, Squeezed Lemonade & Worn Lipstick (TH Distress), Onyx Black (VersaFine)
Stamps: Water Drops & Nature Speaks (Inkylicious), Klimt Swirl Block (Tanda Stamps)
Dies: Sizzlits Butterfly #12 (Sizzix), Small Butterfly XCU220 (XCut)
Punch: Small Butterfly (XCut)
Snippets: White & black cardstock, White gel pen

Remember that you must use both Bev's colour palette and sketch together on your CC&S entry if you want to be considered as one of our weekly winners. Looking forward to seeing your interpretations.

Thanks for visiting!
Stef x

CC&S 179 Sketch: Pretty Peony

I loved making my card for CAS Colours and Sketches this week. Bev has designed us a great sketch and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it so I didn't waste any time faffing around trying to decide!

This lovely peony stamp was stamped and embossed in white. The BG is coloured with three blended Distress Inks. The flower was then watercoloured by removing the ink with water and a paintbrush, giving a bleached effect. A few splatters of water were then added to work together with the stamped image. What really makes it come alive is the next part. I used three different Promarker blues to shade around the flower edges and a light grey to add highlights to the petals. The sentiment is also stamped and embossed in white (it shows up better in real life!) and a few gems and sequins added to finish. Finally I attached two loops of coordinating ribbon to the top left hand edge before adhering it to a card blank.

Supplies Used:
Flower Stamp: Dinkie Peony (IndigoBlu)
Sentiment Stamp: Free with a Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine (Clearly Besotted)
Ink Pads: Tumbled Glass, Broken China & Salty Ocean (TH Distress)
Markers: Azure, Sky Blue, Arctic Blue & Cool Grey 4 (Letraset Promarkers)
Snippets: Watercolour paper, Sequins, Gems & Grosgrain ribbon

Please try and find some time to join us this week. Can't you tell I loads of fun doing this! Do visit some of the other DT blogs for even more inspiration.

Thanks for visiting!
Stef x

CC&S 178 Colours: Summer Butterflies

Welcome to our latest set of colours for CAS Colours and Sketches! This week I have gone with my go to favourite 'butterflies' (that's after the first design ended up in the bin)!!

I sponged the blue and green inks through part of the stencil until I got the effect I wanted and then overstamped with the text stamp using all three colours and misting before stamping. I coloured three scraps of cardstock with each of the inks and then die-cut and punched the butterflies, curling them before adding them to the card. Finally I stamped the sentiment and added a few adhesive gems.

I would also like to enter my card into the CAS on Sunday Challenge #85: Butterflies

And also the Inkspirational Challenge #110: Word Prompt 'Text'

Supplies Used:
Stencil: Doodle Squares (Creative Expressions)
Stamp: Script Background SB1 (IndigoBlu)
Die: Butterfly #12 (Sizzlets)
Punch: Small Butterfly (Personal Impressions)
Ink Pads: Bamboo & Celadon (VersaColor), Abandoned Coral (TH Distress)
Snippets: Sentiment stamp, Adhesive gems

Thanks for visiting. I hope to be able to visit more of your entries this week than I've had time for lately!
Stef x

CC&S 177 Sketch: Anchors Aweigh!

I'm so sorry that my post for CAS Colours and Sketches is late, I really have had a busy couple of weeks! It also took me ages to decide what to make and I kept changing my mind!

It's Father's Day in the UK next Sunday so I decided to make a male card. I rarely make Father's Day cards as my Dad died a long time ago. It was, however, forty years ago this year (22/05/76) so I decided I would make a card to remember him. One of my enduring memories of him when we were children is our family day trips to Cromer. He would spend all day fishing from the pier! My mum would walk me and my two brothers into town to the bakers and we would buy a loaf of bread, go back to the pier and make fresh sandwiches as we needed them. We would spend the afternoon trying to catch brown crabs from the pier. It's endearing to observe that kids today still love doing that as much as we used to!

Back to Bev's sketch and my card which is quite self-explanatory! I love this paper pack from Craftwork Cards and it is particularly good for men's cards. The tag is from the separate tag pack. The anchor and shells have been cut from the papers and I used some old rub-ons for the lettering. The windmill (another little piece of seaside nostalgia) was made from a small square of paper and a piece of Candi.

Supplies Used:
Paper and Tag Packs: Harbour Boulevard (Craftwork Cards)
Snippets: Blue textured cardstock, rub-on letters

Next week I hope to be back on track as I'm not away this weekend!
Thanks for visiting.
Stef x

CC&S 176 Colours: A Suffolk Puff Flower Trio

I'm a bit late this week with my DT card for CAS Colours & Sketches, sorry! It has been such a busy week, even though it's half term, with Guide camp at the start and a narrowboating weekend to finish. This month, another of our newer DT members, Bev, is hosting our challenges and has come up with some lovely ideas for us.

I was showing some Guides how to make 'Suffolk Puffs'/Yo-Yo flowers to decorate bags at the weekend and thought I would make some for my card this week. I had a rummage through my fabric box and luckily found some scraps in just the colours I needed. I finished the centres with matching buttons and thread in the same colours. The panelled background was created using a Hero Arts stamp and the design was completed with two small butterflies from the same set.

Supplies Used:

Stamp Set: Birds N Butterflies (Hero Arts)

Ink Pad: Smokey Gray (VersaFine)

Snippets: Cotton fabric, Buttons, Thread, White and yellow linen card scraps, Sentiment stamp

I would also like to enter my card into the following challenges:

CASology who are celebrating their 200th challenge this week!

Addicted to CAS Challenge 89: Petals

The CC&S DT have all interpreted these three colours so differently. Please check out all their ideas and have a go at joining us this week with your card.

Thanks for visiting

Stef x