CC&S Challenge 185 Colours: Shades Of Blue

It's Liz's turn to host at CAS Colours and Sketches this week (I hadn't realised that it was her debut!) and she has chosen a trio of blues for us to work with including one of the new SU colours. I love all shades of blue so absolutely no problem coming up with ideas this week!

I also wanted to try out the technique of pattern stamping as seen in one of Jennifer McGuire's videos HERE recently. I didn't have any tiny stamps that were suitable for colouring in so I just had to go and buy the same cute little set that Jennifer uses - what a shame! I do have some small stamps, mostly from Card-io but they are almost all silhouette stamps which I couldn't have used to achieve the same effect. I have only partially stamped the cardstock to keep it CAS but will definitely try some all over designs too. I have used three shades of Promarkers to colour in with. I included the aperture with the sentiment adhered to the inside of the card but by design, thanks to Jennifer, and not to cover up any mistakes!

I enjoyed playing so much that I made three quite similar cards in one afternoon, unusual for me, using different embossing powders and colour combinations (will show the others after they have been given to their intended recipients!)

Supplies Used:
Stamp Set: Just For You (Lia Griffith for Hero Arts)
Marker Pens: Denim Blue, Sky Blue & Indigo Blue (Promarkers)
Ink Pad: Smokey Gray (VersaFine)
Snippets: Clear EP, Computer-generated sentiment

Do visit some of the other DT blogs if you have time, especially Liz. I remember how nerve-racking my first challenge was! I'm taking a short break from CC&S for the next two weeks for a family holiday but I'll be back before you know it!

Have fun!
Stef x

CC&S Challenge 183 Colours: Let's Go Geometric!

It's lovely to be back as your hostess at CAS Colours and Sketches this week as we each take a turn during the months of July and August. For my colour choices I decided to dust off some unloved colours, or should I say colours that haven't featured in any of our colour paletttes lately.

I also thought that I would play around with two of Bev's Uniko stamp sets that haven't had much love from me since I bought them and as I'm hosting I thought I would make two cards for you! The cards themselves don't need much explanation - I have simply stamped some of the images from the sets in each of the palette colours in patterns represented by the stamps themselves. I couldn't have done it so easily without my MISTI which helped me line up the images perfectly!

I've experimented a little with inkpads though. I have to confess I don't really like Memento ink which I've used on the first card. I prefer the colours in this case, but find that you get a grainy finish which doesn't matter with these geometric images but is not so good for sentiments. On the second card I used Versacolor which gives a much smoother coverage but I found the colours difficult to match here and don't think this particular combo shows them to their best advantage.

Supplies Used:
Stamp Sets: Background Builders: Squared & Background Builders: Triangulate (Uniko), Sentiment Sampler (Paper Smooches)
Ink Pads: Dandelion, Bahama Blue & Gray Flannel (Memento), Canary, Turquoise & Cement (VersaColor)
Snippets: White cardstock

I'm looking forward to seeing how you are inspired by these colours. Don't forget to visit some of the DT's blogs and find out how they made their fantastic cards.

Thanks for visiting today!
Stef x

CC&S Challenge 181 Colours: Masking with Card-io

I have to admit I wasn't feeling the love for our colour combo at CAS Colours and Sketches this week (sorry Caro!) and found it really hard to settle on a design (I think it's the inclusion of brown, I'm never quite sure how to use it)! It probably doesn't help that, once again, I don't seem to have much time for card-making this week.

Anyhow I decided to resurrect the first Card-io peg stamp set that I ever bought and do some masking. I'm not sure that I like the finished card much either, it looks like I didn't know when to stop! I know she's had hundreds of years of practice but Wendy (from Card-io) always makes it look so easy to get the balance right with her peg stamps... I guess I just need more practice!

Supplies Used:
Peg Stamps: Butterfly Blooms (Card-io)
Sentiment Stamp: All Occasion Sentiments 1 (Uniko)
Ink Pads: Pinecone & Violet (VersaColor), Green from an Ink It Up set
Snippets: None

I've just realised I didn't put the butterfly on the card! Never mind, I think I had better take all my negativity away and come back next week - lol!!

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 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 174 Colours: Time to Say Goodbye (Part Two)

A quick post from me this week cos it's got really late again! Caro has chosen the other two retiring SU colours alongside silver for us this week at CAS Colours and Sketches.

I still need a lot of practice both with my ScanNCut and watercolouring but I had a some fun with both tonight so, I suppose, that's the main thing! I learned how to cut the rectangle outline with my SNC to match my die cut rose outlines, adhered the pieces to watercolour paper and played with some inks and brushes. I cut around them and arranged them on a card blank, raising the flower up and finishing with a greeting sticker and a few gems.

Supplies Used:
Die: Roses (Paper Smooches)
Ink Pads: Dusty Concord (TH Distress), Celadon (VersaColor)
Snippets: Watercolour paper, Greeting sticker, Adhesive gems

Sorry for the rubbish photo, it kept catching the light. Have a great week!
Stef x

CC&S 172 Colours: Time to say goodbye...

... to SU's retiring in colour collection 2014-2016. One of our newest DT members Caro is hosting for CAS Colours & Sketches this month and has chosen the retiring colours for this month's challenges. As there is a green and two flower colours in the mix I decided to do one of my favourite floral cards.

I haven't used this Rubbernecker stamp set in a while but I do love it and being a four step stamp it's very easy to get a great look. I inked the largest image with a yellow DI and used a water brush to colour the tips of the flowers with orange. After a couple of mists with water I stamped it onto a piece of linen cardstock. The stems were stamped in black without misting. The leaves were stamped in a similar way to the flowers using a green DI and the random splatters with an orange DI. This piece was then matted onto a piece of coordinating orange cardstock.

I stamped the sentiment in black onto a vellum strip and wrapped it around the mat adhering it to the back to secure it in place and then stuck the whole thing onto an A6 card blank.

I was trying to think of a different way of presenting this stamp and came across this great sketch at Freshly Made Sketches so would like to enter my card into their challenge 235.

Supplies Used:
Stamp Set: Flowers In The Breeze (Rubbernecker)
Ink Pads: Scattered Straw, Dried Marigold & Peeled Paint (TH Distress), Onyx Black (VersaFine)
Snippets: Linen & orange cardstock, Vellum

This is the first time Caro has hosted one of our challenges so please visit her blog and say 'hi'.

Thanks for visiting!
Stef x

CC&S 170 Colours: More Decorative Roses

As my 'Decorative Rose' stamp set was still on my desk from last week I thought I would have a go at using it with Louise's colour choices for CAS Colours and Sketches this week. It's been a while since I did some straight forward stamping and used Promarkers to colour in, so I thought I would give that a go this week.

I have only used two different pens to do the colouring but have gone over parts of the design several times to get the darker colour. To finish, I used 'Glossy Accents' on the flowers, again something which I'm a bit out of practice at using. It didn't go on as perfectly as it should have, but well enough! I finished by matting and layering onto a coloured card blank with a top fold, again, something I've not used in a while!

Supplies Used:
Stamp Set: Decorative Roses (with Creative Stamping, Issue 30)
Ink pad: Espresso Truffle (Memento)
Promarkers: Rose Pink & Sky Blue (Letraset)
Snippets: Brown textured cardstock, Glossy Accents (Ranger)

So, a bit of nostalgia from me this week. What will you be able to come up with? Sorry that I've not been commenting a lot on the entries in the last couple of weeks. Hope to put that right this week.

Stef x

CC&S Challenge 165 Colours: I Am Sailing

Imagine my complete surprise when my husband suggested buying me a Brother Scan'N'Cut for my birthday! He knew that one day I would like a digital die-cutting machine with wi-fi connection so that I could create my own designs on my computer and cut them out electronically ... and so much more. But I never expected to get one just yet, I thought I would have to wait for several years! Anyway it has arrived and I have started to have a play with it for this week's card for CAS Colours and Sketches.

As soon as I saw Jane's colour choices with two blues I knew that I would make some kind of nautical scene though it took me a while to settle on this design. The frame and the boat have been cut on the BS&C. It will take ages to learn how to use all the different functions but I'll get there! The waves have been cut with a die using my Sizzix. The frame has been popped up on foam tape to give some dimension.

The greeting is a peel-off, coloured black to fit in with our rules at CC&S. It's such a shame that each week we have to eliminate some entries from our voting as they just don't comply with our few simple rules!

Supplies Used:
Cutting Machines: Big Shot (Sizzix), Scan'N'Cut (Brother)
Die: Breezy Waves (Memory Box)
Snippets: White linen & coloured cardstock, peel-off greeting

Thanks for visiting and please remember just to use the three challenge colours plus stated neutrals if you want to be considered as a weekly winner when entering our challenge.

Stef x

CC&S Colours #163: Real Red Roses

I'd like to start off by welcoming my newest follower Kath Buckle! I don't have so many so it's nice to know that someone likes my cards enough to want to follow my creative journey.

Jane is our hostess at CAS Colours and Sketches this month and she has chosen a lovely set of colours to kick off the month. I decided to make an alternative Mothering Sunday card so that my Mum and my MIL both get something a little different but using the same stamp.

I have followed the sketch from The Paper Players Challenge #284, a lovely sketch by Claire. I didn't want to use newsprint, though I do love it, so have represented this element with my notebook stamp. My card need to be very CAS for our challenge so for the background I embossed a piece of white cardstock with some simple diagonal stripes and edged it with a stripe inked by my computer to match the Mint Macaron. The flowers and leaves are from different Uniko sets; the solid background rose was stamped with second generation ink giving a lighter tint than the detail rose. The sentiment is computer-generated in white again on a background to match with our colour palette.

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Flower Power 6 & Beautiful Blooms 1 (Uniko Studio), PMA 907003 (Papermania)
Texture Plate: Diagonals (Sizzix)
Inkpads: Scarlet & Celadon (VersaColor), Green Green (Whisper)
Sentiment Font: Candara
Snippets: White cardstock

Now all I have to do is decide which card to give to which Mum! Thanks for visiting my blog today. I hope you get a chance to join in with our colour challenge this week!

Stef x

CC&S 161 Colours: Text Me Purple

I had to work the first couple of days in half term but now I'm off for the rest of the week, yay! And it's back to my favourite cool colours for this week's colour palette choice at CAS Colours and Sketches. 

With my interest in mixed media slowly building, the starting point for my inspiration (alongside the three colours) was a challenge new to me organised by Craft Stamper magazine. Their February technique challenge is 'Text Me' i.e. to use text or script background stamps, or text paper in our projects. These can be any language, any style, old book pages, bits torn from magazines, scrapbooking papers, etc.

I stamped the script stamp with two colours of Distress ink, spritzing the stamp with water before stamping. The Rennie Mackintosh inspired 'Glasgow Rose' stamp was free with an old copy of Craft Stamper Magazine (July 2014). This was stamped with Versamark and embossed with silver EP. I coloured parts of the image with the same colours of Distress ink using a paintbrush. I then stamped and embossed the image again on an old book page. I cut just a few sections of the image out and paper-pieced them over the original image. Both layers have been matted onto a piece of metallic silver paper and the sentiment is computer-generated, again in silver.

I hope you feel inspired to make a card using these colours and joining us at CC&S this week and I would like to enter my card into the Craft Stamper challenge.

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Glasgow Rose (Chocolate Baroque/Craft Stamper July 2014), Script Background SB1 (IndigoBlu)
Inkpads: Dusty Concord & Shaded Lilac (TH Distress Inks)
Sentiment Font: Allegro
Snippets: White cardstock, Silver EP, Metalllic silver paper, Old book page

You have until Wednesday 24th February to link your card at CC&S. Don't forget to check out the fabulous inspiration from the rest of the DT!

Stef x

CC&S 159 Colours: To Brighten A Wintry Day

It's my turn to act as hostess for the month at CAS Colours and Sketches. In my first challenge I have chosen some bright colours to cheer up the gloomy, wintry days we have been having in the UK. Hopefully they'll also suit those on the other side of the world where I guess it's the middle of summer!

I've stayed with a Valentine theme so now I have a choice of which card to give my OH! I'm not usually a reds and oranges kinda gal, but I thought that these three colours worked rather well together. I had so much fun with the inlaid die technique a couple of weeks ago that I thought I would try it with a different die. It was trickier as the outline is a lot narrower, more complex and it's easy to stretch it when adhering it to the card but once I'd worked out a way of doing that successfully, it was very easy! The card was finished with a white embossed sentiment and a stray white heart.

Supplies Used:
Die: Heart Ribbon (Memory Box)
Sentiment: Always and Forever (Uniko Studio)
Snippets: Kraft, Orange, Pale Pink & Bright Pink cardstock, White EP

I hope you feel inspired to join us in our challenge this week. Please pop by the rest of the DT blogs to see what these colours led them to create.

Thanks for visiting!
Stef x

CC&S #157 Colours: Roses Are Red...

This week at CAS Colours and Sketches, I haven't let my inky meanderings take me very far. In fact, the only inking on the card is the sentiment which is very unusual for me!

I have paper-pieced my roses outline die, a technique that I haven't done much with die-cutting and I have stuck strictly to the colour palette chosen by our hostess Patricia. I drew round the die and cut out the shape in a spare piece of card to which I stuck the outline, this made the piecing a whole lot easier! I didn't really want brown leaves but couldn't change the colours so I have just cut the outline of these in some brown cardstock and think they look better for not being pieced.

The large rose looks a bit orangey but I think it's just the light. It's so difficult to get good photos at this time of year when you can't take them in daylight.

Supplies Used:
Die: Roses DED186 (Paper Smooches)
Coloured Cardstock: So Mod (Core'dinations)
Sentiment: Sentiment Sampler A1SO13 (Paper Smooches)
Inkpad: Pinecone (VersaColor)
Snippets: White linen cardstock

I found myself really challenged by this colour trio, they're just not my colours, and it took me absolutely ages to come up with an idea for my DT card. But it's also very inspiring to try something totally different. Please join us this week and let's see what you make of them.

Thanks for visiting!
Stef x

A New Year, a New CC&S Challenge and a New Design Team!

Hi everyone and a warm welcome to a new year of challenges at CAS Colours and Sketches. Whether it is your first time of playing along with us or you are a seasoned CC&S crafter it is great to share our creative makes with you and to see the wonderful ways in which you interpret our challenges! We have doubled our DT and this month we welcome Bev, Caro, Karen and Liz to the team and are all super excited to be sharing this journey with them.

This month our wonderful team leader Patricia is our hostess and she has chosen a cool wintry colour palette for us this week. As I often do when trying to decide what card to make I had a look at a couple of other current challenges to focus my thoughts and choose a starting point.

I decided to make a winter thank you card using PanPastels, which haven't had much love recently and a stencil technique with glossy white stencil paste. I completely forgot that I don't actually own any glossy white paste and ended up experimenting with making my own using pearlescent paste and adding some white gesso (I have two pots of pearlescent paste and think I must have accidentally picked the wrong one up at the last show I went to)! It worked reasonably well but isn't as glossy as it might have been - oh well, I will just have to go shopping! For the background, I used two colours of PanPastels to match the blues in Patricia's palette and stamped a few snowflakes over the top before doing the stencilling. Once dry the card was simply finished with a computer-generated sentiment and a few adhesive pearls.

Supplies Used:
PanPastels: Turquoise, Pthalo Blue Tint
Stamps: Large snowflake (Magazine free gift set), Small snowflake from Mistletoe Kisses set (Papermania)
Inkpads: Summer Sky (Memento), Cement (Versa Color)
Stencil: Snowflake (Woodware)
Stencil Paste: Pearlescent White (Sweet Poppy Stencils)
Snippets: Linen cardstock, White gesso, Adhesive pearls

I would like to enter the following challenges:
Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge: Frozen
The blues, whites and marble greys of their inspiration photo match our colour scheme perfectly!

Inkspirational #99: Thank You With Something New
The Woodware stencil is new to me as was my attempt at creating a white paste, plus I have entered two challenges both new to me!

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today. I'm updating to Windows 10 over the next couple of weeks and then hope to revamp my blog in the February half term. Please upload your creations to the CC&S blog and share them with us. We love to see what you are all making!

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