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 #153 Christmassy Sketch: Joy To The World

For my last post for CAS Colours and Sketches this year I have chosen my most favourite sketch of the year from challenge #124 in May. flipped it vertically and made it Christmassy! I have also taken the opportunity of combining my DT card with a few festive challenges along the way!

It combines two of my favourite card-making techniques (thus making it eligible for the HLS challenge)! Firstly the cling film technique used with my Cosmic Shimmer mists. Love, love, love this technique and while you're getting messy it's good to experiment with colours and make a few new pieces. The colour combos don't always dry how you'd imagined but that's half the fun of experimenting! Here I have simply die-cut three squares from a blue/silver piece, stamping the Wise Men image with black Versafine and raising this one with foam pads. The second technique involves my love of paper engineering/folding and here I have made a 3D star of Bethlehem from a 9cm square of holographic paper that itself has stars gleaming in it when it catches the light. A very clear tutorial for folding the star can be found on YouTube HERE. The sentiment is computer generated and the card is simply finished with a few silver star sequins.

Supplies Used:
Spray Mists: Aqua Lagoon & Silver (Cosmic Shimmer)
Stamp: Wise Men (DoCrafts)
Sentiment Font: Maiandra GD
Snippets: Silver holographic paper, Silver sequin stars

The challenges I would like to enter are:
Addicted to CAS: Challenge #78 Code Word 'Joy'

AAA Cards: Game #54 'Silent Night, Holy Night'

CAS on Sunday: Challenge #73 'Stars'

Happy Little Stampers: December CAS challenge 'Favourite Technique'

A very contemporary card but for me, this is a lovely reminder amongst the hustle and bustle of what Christmas is really all about. Thank you all for your visits to my blog over the last year and for your support for our CAS Colours and Sketches challenge. A few changes and some new faces joining the team in the New Year so please join us all then!

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Stef x

CC&S #153: 2015 Colours Revisited and Make It Christmassy!

For this week’s Christmas colour challenge at CAS Coloursand Sketches I have chosen a colour palette that I devised for one of our October challenges (#144). I wasn’t very happy with the card I made that week so wanted to see if I could come up with something better.

I really wanted to have another go at the bokeh technique and so for this card I sponged corresponding inks in the two blues onto a piece of watercolour paper. After letting this dry I sponged white ink from a chalk inkpad through a homemade circle template in vary levels of intensity. This was then mounted onto a piece of gold cardstock. Looking at internet images of bokeh, I’m not sure that my circles are really soft or out of focus enough but I like them anyway so I guess that’s all that matters.  

The snowflakes were a right faff to die-cut. I always seem to have trouble cutting very intricate dies though I have tried all sorts of tricks to make it easier without any real success! Eventually I cut enough (some in white, some in gold, one in felt) that were OK and layered them onto a piece of shimmery netting from a recycled wedding favour all held in place with a beautiful snowflake brad! Finally, after several hours with the snowflakes, the greeting was die-cut and added to one side.

Supplies Used:

Inkpads: Nautical Blue, Summer Sky (Memento), Cloud White (VersaMagic)

Dies: Snowflakes (Die'sire), Peace Word (Clearly Besotted)

Snippets: Gold, white, navy & watercolour paper/cardstock, White felt, Recycled netting, Snowflake brad

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

CAS on Sunday: Challenge #72 ‘Christmas’

Time Out: Challenge #45 ‘Snowflakes are Winter’s Butterflies’

52 Christmas Card Throwdown: November Technique Challenge ' Sponging/Brayering'

Addicted To CAS: Challenge #77 'Dimension'

So sorry that my post for CC&S is late this week and that I've not managed to visit and comment on last week's entries - it's been a really busy week (and next week's not looking great either)!

Stef x

CC&S #133: Colour challenge

I made my card for this week's CAS Colours and Sketches colour challenge very late one night for my friend Ros's retirement from the school where I work. Sometimes those cards turn out to be better than those made when you're wide awake! I'm not entirely happy with the way the background came out but I loved watercoloring the flower.

I have used the Gerbera stamp set from Uniko Studio. The flower has been stamped with Versamark and heat embossed using white EP. I masked the flower and stamped and embossed two leaves to sit behind it.

The other week I found a fantastic Brilliance ink pad in my local craft shop. The colour is 'Rocket Red Gold' and I have been dying to have a play with it. It is the most gorgeous shade of red/orange/pink with a gold shimmer in it and I thought it matched rather well with Jane's choice of Melon Mambo for this week. The flower has been painstakingly colored with this and a matching turquoise green for the leaves. I thought the flower needed lifting from the background a little so used a very watered down shade of brown. I then cut a frame from the image and mounted both pieces onto separate pieces of dark brown cardstock before sticking them back one on top of the other. A sentiment from the same set stamped in the same brown ink finishes the card.

I would also like to enter the following challenges:
CAS on Sunday: Challenge #62 Embossing

And also CAS-ual Fridays: CFC #141 Embossing

Supplies Used:
Stamp set: Pure Florals: Gerbera (Uniko Studio)
Ink pads: Rocket Red Gold (Brilliance), Celadon (Versacolor) & Espresso Truffle (Memento)
Snippets: White EP, White linen & Dark brown cardstock

I hope this close-up might show the gold shimmer in the ink a little better! It would be lovely to see a few more entries in this week's gallery before you all go off on your summer holidays! Just remember to only use the three challenge colours chosen by Jane plus any neutrals.

Thanks for visiting today!
Stef x

CAS Colours and Sketches Challenge #110

Where did January go? I swear the months and years roll by quicker than ever these days! Patricia is our wonderful hostess at CAS Colours and Sketches in February and we start the month with a colour challenge. I thought for this that I would have a play with a new stamp bought from Oyster Paper Crafts and manufactured by Rubbernecker, a company that is new to me. I have always liked watercolouring and love that it is so trendy in the card making world at the moment! Their stamps really lend themselves to this technique and I will definitely have to buy some more as I really enjoyed playing with this one!

This stamp is called 'Flowers In The Breeze'. The flowers come as a four-part stamp set accompanied by a choice of sentiment. Firstly, I used TH Distress Inks in 'Worn Lipstick' to stamp the main flowers highlighting the stamps with Whispers dual-tipped brush markers and misting with water before stamping. Then I stamped the stems using Whispers 'Black' ink. The leaves were stamped in a similar way to the flowers using TH DI 'Frayed Burlap' and the dots with TH DI 'Spun Sugar'. As the card dries, the colours merge together creating a lovely watercolour effect. Finally I stamped the sentiment in Whispers 'Black'. As the 'Spun Sugar' doesn't show up too well, I matted and layered the card onto a piece of pink cardstock matching SU's 'Pink Pirouette' in the challenge colours.

I'm also entering my card into two challenges:
CAS on Sunday #51: Theme - Flowers
CAS-ual Fridays #136: Theme - Must Love Watercolour

I must also mention the brilliant Eileen Godwin's blog today. I have never met this amazingly talented lady (she is at the other end of the country to me!) but I have been a secret follower for a while. Thanks must go to her for my discovery of these lovely stamps and one or two other lovely arty techniques which I hope to try out soon.

Can't wait to see what you do with these gorgeous colours! Thanks for visiting today.
Stef x

CAS on Sunday #43 and my first jewellery project!

When looking for inspiration to make my brother Neil a birthday card, I came across this week's CAS 'Lift a Card' challenge on CAS on Sunday's blog and thought I would give it a go. The original card looks like this...

And here is my take on the original design...

I don't have any alphabet dies but found these Doodlebug alphabet stickers which I have had in my stash for ages so thought it was high time they got used! Whilst rummaging in my sticker drawer I also came across some Woodware peel-off bubble stickers so used one of the butterflies on a piece of white card which I fussy cut and embellished with Craftwork Cards candy (coloured with Promarkers to match the design), tiny buttons and also coloured in some of the bubbles with Promarkers. The tab is computer-generated and the ribbon I have also had for ages so the whole project turned out to be a really good way of using some of my old stash!


So I would like to enter my finished card into the following challenge:
CAS on Sunday: #43 Lift a card



The other project I would like to share with you is my first proper adventure into jewellery making. I have made Kumihimo braids with my Guides lots of times before but have never had a serious go at making an adult bracelet. This pattern is a 12-strand twisted Kumihimo braid made with 2mm rattail cord. I made it for my friend Angela's birthday. I was very pleased with the end result (though I learned a lot about sizing on the way) and think that Angela really liked it too. I was immediately asked to make another one for someone else and will probably make some more in different colourways to give as Christmas presents.

Thanks for looking at my blog today.

Stef x