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 

CC&S #143 Sketch: Snowflake Circles

If I ever make this card again, I'll know what to do differently! It was such a faffy card to make and when I first saw Lizy's sketch for this week at CAS Colours and Sketches, I hadn't envisaged making such a complicated card!

I began by sticking a square of snowflake patterned paper to the front of my card blank and printing the sentiment onto it. I chose my snowflake dies and punches but unfortunately had to choose slightly larger circle dies than I would have liked to allow the flakes some movement! The snowflakes are double-sided and I was going to stick the paper layers together before cutting and then realised that if I wanted to attach thread through the middle that I would have to cut them separately and then try and stick them together! Silly me also chose metallic thread which slipped all over the place when trying to sandwich the various layers together!

I need a piece of card on the inside to cover the thread and because the circles were bigger I decided to place it so that it forms a shadow to the outer circle. The whole card did take me much longer than expected but I quite like the finished design so maybe I might make something similar another day!

Supplies Used:
Dies: Snow Flakes (Die'sire), Standard Circles Large (Spellbinders Nestabilities)
Punch: Large snowflake (XCut)
Sentiment Font: Allegro
Snippets: Snowflake patterned paper, Metallic papers and thread, Pale blue cardstock

I would also like to enter my card into this week's challenge #165 at CASology where their cue word is 'Circles'. I hope Lizy's seemingly straight forward sketch doesn't lead you astray too far? Can't wait to see what you come up with. It's my turn to host again next month and I'm just finalising my colour choices and sketch designs.

Looking forward to sharing them with you and seeing your entries this week.
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

CC&S #118: Monochromatic Shades Of Green

I've not been very well this week, flu, even though I had a flu jab back in October - hey ho!

This month's challenges at CAS Colours and Sketches are being hosted by Louise and for her first colour challenge she has chosen three shades of green. I thought I would make a card for my daughter, Katie's, birthday who will be 23 on 1st April!

The squares started out as a piece of my favourite white linen cardstock. I stamped various leaves with Versamark, clear embossed, then sponged and blended inks in three shades of green. This was then spritzed with water and left to dry. I sponged the same inks onto a spare piece of cardstock and die-cut the base of the dragonfly. I used the dragonfly stamp on vellum with Versamark and white EP, die-cut and glued just the bodies together, finishing with three small gems. I printed the sentiment straight onto the card blank and then assembled the layout, raising the dragonfly slightly with thin foam pads.

Close-up of dragonfly's wings

I would also like to enter my card into the following challenge:
Less is More: Week #217 Combine any three previous Less is More challenges
The three challenges I am combining are:
Week #04: Sketch or Recipe - 3 squares
Week #15: One Layer - Embossing
Week # 89: One Layer - Wings
The DT stated that 'Should you choose a challenge which happened to be a One Layer card in the original challenge, there is no necessity to make it one layer for this challenge, unless you particularly wish to do so'.

As it also fits the criteria of a couple of other challenges, I would also like to enter my card into:
CASology: Week #140 where this week's cue card is 'Spring'

and Seize the Birthday, a new challenge for me, where this week's birthday theme is 'Anything Goes' (with no toppings)!

Supplies used:
Stamp set: Leaf decor stamps (Clear Choice)
Die & stamp set: Dragonfly (Creative Dies) - free with Simply Cards and Papercraft #134
Ink pads: Bundled Sage & Peeled Paint (TH Distress); New Sprout (Memento)
Shimmer dots: Pearlescent black/green (Papermania)
Snippets: White linen cardstock, Clear and White EP 

I'm rather pleased with this one and will definitely make a couple more with the leftover pieces. I'm glad as it's for a special birthday and I hope Katie likes it too!

Stef x

NNBUS Versus RONBUS!

Lots of you will have come across Darnell's quirky blog! She coined the phrase NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) and set up a challenge to encourage us all to use our NBUS to avoid it being forgotten about and left at the back of a drawer somewhere! Some people have interpreted this to mean any stash they haven't used before, even newly acquired items. So I set myself a challenge this afternoon to make two cards, the first using some NNBUS (brand New NBUS) and secondly to use what I'm going to call RONBUS (Really Old NBUS)!

 

Bev' original card used for inspiration

My first card uses some of my sale goodies from Uniko Studio. It uses the Background Builders: Chevrons and the Flower Power 2 stamp sets. I was looking at Bev's Pinterest board for some ideas as her products are relatively new to me and have CASed one of her cards, so I hope she doesn't mind!

I have chosen the turquoise and lime colours (along with black and white) to fit in with the ShowCASe your style challenge #6: Colour challenge. The inks are Versacolor Turquoise and Split Pea. To make the leaves I have coloured a piece of hammered cardstock with Split Pea ink and punched with a Martha Stewart leaf punch. 

This CAS challenge is new to me and this card is definitely where my style is at the moment. I will also enter it into Darnell's challenge and see whether she thinks my NNBUS card is better than my RONBUS one!

My second card uses stuff that I have had for years and personally I don't like it as much as the first card. It reminds me of cards I would have made a few years back and I guess that's why!

The die is an XCut Lacé die and I thought I would use it given its appropriateness to the time of year. The fabric brad is from a set called Riverbank Revels by Trimcraft. I think I bought both these items in a sale quite some years ago! The sentiment stamp is a freebie from a craft mag that I have had for ages. CASology have linked in with Darnell's challenge this week and have NBUS as their cue card so I would like to enter this into their challenge #129 (I think you can only enter once otherwise I would have entered both cards) and also into Darnell's (where I know you can enter more than once).
Edit: I can't see how to enter two cards from the same post on my blog into the same link more than once on a challenge blog.

I have also colour-themed it to fit in with another new challenge to me Colour Me where the colours are Pacific Point and Real Red (along with neutrals).

That's all from me today. I will be back later in the week with my CAS Colours and Sketches card. A new year and I have entered three new to me challenges. Can't be bad!


Take care
Stef x

Let It Snow (but only metaphorically!)

My card tonight is for three different challenges. Firstly for CAS Colours and Sketches. This week it is a 'Make It Christmas' challenge #104 using any previous sketch from their archive. I have chosen sketch #78 from June this year. Secondly, I would like to enter it into the Less Is More challenge. Being the second week of the month it is a one layer challenge #202 with a focus on snow. The third challenge I would like to enter is CASology where Cue Card #126 is also snow!

To interpret the sketch for CAS Colours and Sketches, I have divided the landscape into three, the sky, the hills and the foreground.


I love messing about with inks, torn bits of paper, masks, frames, stamps and sponges. This card has all those! I like to experiment with using different ways of transferring ink to paper and on this card I have used a dry baby wipe to gently rub ink directly onto the card through a frame to create the hills and the sky. For this I have used Distress Inks: Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky and Dried Marigold.

The tree stamps are all from Clarity Stamps inked in first and second generation using Versafine Vintage Sepia. The tree in the foreground has been stamped so that it extends beyond the frame which I think I quite like the look of.

The card has been finished using a silver greeting to base the frame and a few silver stars in the sky.

I would like to wish everyone that visits my blog a very Happy Christmas and, unless I get a chance to squeeze one more in before then, I'll see you all in the New Year with lots more cards to share!

Whatever you're doing, have fun!
Stef x

Button Christmas Card

I've made another Christmas card, this time inspired by the challenges on 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown where they have a colour challenge (alongside a DT call) and CASology where the cue card is 'Festive'. I've kept the card really CAS this time which has definitely become my preferred style over the last couple of years.

The 52CCT colour palette was to use red and green with either silver or gold and white/cream as a base. I'm definitely more of a silver kinda girl so that choice was easy and I think it gives red and green a more modern feel than pairing with traditional gold.



I bought a pretty little jar of Christmas buttons from Abakhan a few years ago and have used some of them here to create the tree shape. The 3D silver star was an odd one I had in my stash and the pot was simply cut from a scrap of textured silver card. I thought the scalloped edge card added a bit of interest and reflected the shape of the buttons. Even though I have created a card, this design would work equally well on a tag.

So I would like to enter it into the following challenges:
52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown: November Colour Challenge
CASology: Week 121 Festive

Thanks for visiting today and for leaving such lovely comments about the cards I've made recently.
Stef x

A trio of challenges!

We have a lot of family and friends' birthdays around this time and tonight I have made a card for my son Phil's birthday which is on Friday. I'm not sure that the card I've made is really CAS enough to fit into two of the three challenges below but as I had them all in mind when the ideas for the card were in my head, I thought I'd go with it and see.

The collage stamp is one I bought at a craft fair several years ago from Butterfly stamps which, sadly, I don't think exist anymore. This has been stamped with blue Versafine ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. The sentiment is from the same set. To try and keep things simple they have both been simply layered in contrasting colours and put onto a background paper that has tiny anchors printed on it.

I would like to enter it into the following challenges:
Allsorts Challenge Blog: Week 283 Masculine

CASology: Week 120 Sea
Freshly Made Sketches: 161 A sketch by Linda

Even if it's not CAS enough for the last two, it certainly fulfils the criteria for the Allsorts challenge!

Thanks for looking!

Stef x