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 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 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 166 Sketch: Watercolour Lifting

I've had lots of fun getting messy with inks again creating my DT card for CAS Colours and Sketches this week. I spotted this card on Anita's blog HERE and it reminded me that I had watched the same fab watercolour lifting video technique from Jennifer McGuire HERE and decided to try it out using this week's sketch drawn by our hostess Jane.

Next time I try this technique, and I will try it again because I loved doing it, I will use different paper. For this card I used a 230gsm watercolour paper but it seems to be a bit too porous and I don't think I managed to achieve quite such a marked effect as either Anita or Jennifer. I inked up four pieces of paper directly from inkpads, brushed them with water and dried them off with a heat gun. I then used a background stamp with Versamark and clear embossing powder on each piece. More water on top followed, mopping it up with kitchen roll which removes some of the ink leaving darker patches trapped underneath the embossing!

I then cut five equal pieces, inked the edges and placed them on a 7" x 5" card blank following Jane's sketch. The poppy die was cut from linen card and stuck on top with the sentiment hand-stamped to the side.

Supplies Used:
Watercolour paper: 230gsm (Crawford & Black)
Inkpads: Fired Brick, Broken China, Frayed Burlap, Worn Lipstick (TH Distress)
Stamps: Butterflies Block (Tanda Stamps), Sentiment Sampler (Paper Smooches)
Die: Prim Poppy (Memory Box)

The inspiration for my colour scheme was drawn from this week's challenge #334 at ColourQ so I would like to enter my card into their competition. I don't own any SU colours so have just used the closest that were suitable for this technique.

Thanks for visiting my blog today. I hope you all enjoy a lovely Easter weekend whatever you're doing.

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 162 Sketch: Unusually Orange!

It's my last week as hostess at CAS Colours and Sketches for a while but I've really enjoyed myself this month. To finish I thought I would really challenge myself and dig out an old paper pad in a colour that I don't go for very much - orange! I've also added, unusually for me, a touch of bling! I have a few colleagues at work that I make cards for that do like their bling so I will probably give it to one of them that has a birthday soon.

Instead of adding a sentiment, as in the sketch, I have used a piece of embossed paper that has the main sentiment in a similar position. The rosette was made using a specialist die. Other than that I have used a few papers and the all-important bling (actually I think I quite like the text paper)!

Supplies Used:
Die: Paper Rosette 656931 (Sizzlits Decorative Strip Tim Holtz)
Paper Pad: Sunshine Capsule Collection (Papermania)
Embossing Folder: Happy Birthday (Papermania)
Snippets: Pearlised paper, Button, Sequins, Adhesive gems

Thank you for sharing all your creations with us this month! I hope you'll join us again this week. Next week I believe Jane takes the reigns as your hostess for March.

Have fun!
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

CC&S #156: Wildfowl and Wetlands

This week I have taken a few more liberties than I normally would with our sketch at CAS Colours and Sketches. I usually like to stick very close to it otherwise, personally, I don't see the point of having it. Sure it provides a starting point but if you're going to stray too far away from it I'm not sure how your design can still be an interpretation of the sketch. Anyway, as I said, a personal view!

Apart from the sketch I started with the fact that our eldest daughter Laura has just got a brilliant new job at Slimbridge, the HQ of The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in the UK. I bought this stamp set from Stampin Up (the first product I have ever bought from them!) as I had seen some beautiful cards made with it and thought I may be able to make some for Laura and I to sell to support the work of the charity.

Secondly, I noted that Happy Little Stampers have a CAS challenge using the technique of 'Smooshing' this month and I just love getting messy with all different kinds of inky products.

Last, but definitely not least, I used the blue/green/silver combo from this week's challenge #324 at ColourQ. I can't resist blues and greens, they are just my favourite colours.

I played around with the inky products below till I was happy with my smooshed piece of card. While it was drying I cut an oval aperture from a piece of white cardstock. I didn't want to add a stripe of anything to the top and bottom of the design so thought that by raising the middle I was still being true to Patricia's sketch. I added the reed stamp off the edge of this piece and because the silver doesn't show up that well as a separate colour in the smooshing or as the gorgeous sheen that it is in the photo, I stamped and embossed the greeting in silver EP and die-cut a matching oval to replace the circle in the sketch.

Supplies Used:
Inkpads: Mowed Lawn DI (Tim Holtz), Sage (VersaColor), Green Green (Whisper), Smokey Gray (VersaFine)
Wax Paste: Turquoise (Inka Gold)
Spray Mist: Silver (Cosmic Shimmer)
Stamp Set: Wetlands (Stampin' Up)
Dies: Classic Ovals Large (Spellbinders)
Snippets: White textured card scrap, Silver EP

It's Martin's brother's birthday this week so I think I'll send this card to him, especially as he doesn't live far from Laura and no doubt visits WWT at Slimbridge with his family.

Thanks for visiting my blog today. Our new DT members designed some great inspirational cards last week so do drop by and see what they've made this week - I know some of them were very nervous at being on the other side of the table but they needn't have been, they were amazing!

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 #152 Sketch: Gilded Christmas

I'm very pleased with the way my card has turned out this week for CAS Colours and Sketches. Louise has given us a delightful little sketch to work with and I have also combined my DT card with two other challenges involving the use of metal/gilding.

My card involves gilding in three different ways. Firstly, I made the background. This involved getting messy with my mica spray mists, a piece of hammered cardstock and the cling film technique which pools the mica together in glorious folds when it's dry. Then I simply cut a rectangle with a stitched die. For my second gilding technique, I sponged Flitter Glu directly onto a piece of white cardstock and applied gilding flakes to make a solid piece of gilded card. From this I die-cut two circles of different sizes. I die-cut a small white Christmas tree and stuck it to the centre of the larger gilded circle and then layered this onto a white scalloped circle. This was then cut in two down the middle and positioned on the background piece as shown in the sketch, raised on foam pads. The third piece of gilding involves the printed gold sentiment  which was stuck onto the smaller gilded circle and adhered to my card with foam pads.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:
CAS-ual Fridays challenge #145: Precious Metals

and Happy Little Stampers November CAS challenge: Gilding

Supplies Used:
Dies: Stitched Rectangle Layers (Memory Box), Plain & Scalloped Circles (Spellbinders), Christmas Tree (free gift on PaperCrafter 88)
Mica Sprays: Meadow Lush & Rich Gold (Cosmic Shimmer)
Gilding Flakes: Yorkshire Dales (IndigoBlu)
Greeting: Gold sentiment (Craftwork Cards)

I hope you're not too busy yet with your Christmas preparations to join us this week and don't forget that we currently have a DT call!

Edit: So sorry my card didn't post on time. I had saved it as a draft instead a published scheduled post!

Thanks for visiting!
Stef x

CC&S #149 Colours: Double Birthday Cards

If I'm honest, I haven't really liked one or two of the cards I've made recently, probably because they've been a bit rushed. So this week I've put a bit more thought and care into the design of my DT card for CAS Colours and Sketches and with no small thanks to Louise's absolutely gorgeous colour combinations I'm pretty pleased with the end results. That's just as well as this week I needed to make two cards for the special men in my life, my husband Martin and my son Philip.

I was looking to see if there were any other challenges that I could combine my entry with when I stumbled across last week's Muse challenge and some gorgeous cards particularly from Anita (the muse) and Julie (one of the honourable mentions). And so my cards began to take shape. 

My first challenge was to cut out a circle aperture from my 5" x 7" card blank, tricky as I only have a 'Big Shot' and the card wouldn't fit sideways through the machine but after a couple of goes I worked out the best way to do it. I cut 5cm from the right edge of the card and lined the inside of the card with some dark purple polka dot paper. The leaves were all stamped onto linen cardstock in the other challenge colours (using some newsprint for one of the cards) and cut out leaving a margin. It took a while to assemble them in a group but when I was happy with the design they were stuck down, some raised with foam pads. Finally the sentiment was stamped on the left front. I made both cards similarly but not quite the same!

So unfortunately I found it too late and can't enter my card into the Muse challenge but I'm so glad to have been inspired by it anyway. Huge thanks also to Louise for bringing us such a gorgeous colour combination to work with this week.

Supplies Used:

Die: Standard Circles Large (Spellbinders)

Patterned Paper: Purple Polka Dot (free download from www.pixelscrapper.com)

Stamps: Leaf Decor CCS006 (Royal Langnickel), Happy Birthday (Clearly Besotted)

Ink Pads: Pinecone (Versa Color), Elderberry & Peanut Brittle (Memento), Imperial Purple (Versafine)

This weekend Katie and Tom are throwing a party for Phil down in London so I get to spend the weekend with all my children - can't wait!

See you soon

Stef x

CC&S #147 Sketch: Christmas Tree Triangles

Hi everyone! When I drew this week's sketch for CAS Colours and Sketches, it just screamed Christmas trees to me and therefore it wasn't hard to come up with a design.

I used a lovely 5-piece layered Christmas tree die set which I really haven't used enough especially as the trees are so easy to assemble. I curled, shaped and inked the edges of each layer to give the trees some dimension. The trunks are cut from snippets of brown paper and each tree is finished with a silver star. They are mounted onto a die-cut stitched rectangle which has also been debossed using a swiss dots embossing folder. The sentiment is printed directly onto the card blank.

Supplies Used:
Patterned Papers: Christmas Fancy (Dovecraft)
Dies: Christmas Stacker Tree (Dee's Distinctively), Stitched Rectangle Layer (Memory Box)
Embossing Folder: Swiss Dots (Magazine Freebie!)
'Greetings' Sentiment Font: Scriptina
Snippets: Brown paper, Linen cardstock, Sequin stars, Crystal Stickles

Well, that's another Christmas card made. Thanks so much for visiting. I hope you get a chance to play along with us this week!

Stef x

CC&S #145 Sketch: Two for the price of one!

Hi everyone! I hope that you like my tag sketch for this week's challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches and that you'll be inspired to have a go and share what you make with us.

I needed to make a new baby card for a work colleague and at the time of making it she was still waiting for the happy day to come not knowing what sex her baby was so I made two cards, one for a boy and one for a girl. I'm happy to say that she had her little girl on Sunday so that is why I have featured the pink card first and shown the other one further down.

The tags for both were die-cut with a stitched die and stamped with free dies from old copies of two different magazines. The stamping on the pink card is simply highlighted with a matching coloured pencil. The coiled string graphic is printed onto the card background.

With the blue card I have coiled some gold metallic thread behind the tags to replace the graphic and stamped the image with a coordinating ink pad. Both cards are finished with a matching ribbon bow.

As it's an 'Anything Goes' week and I have principally used one of their dies, I would also like to enter my cards into the Paper Smooches Sparks October Week 1 challenge. I only have a few of their products but love using them and the dies cut really well.

Supplies Used:
Die: Tag Stitched KFBD126 (Paper Smooches)
Stamps: Magazine freebies
Ink Pad: Atlantic Blue (Versacolor)
Snippets: Coloured cardstock, Ribbon oddments, Pink pencil, Gold metallic thread

Congratulations to Jaye and her husband on the safe arrival of their beautiful baby girl, Sophie!

Thank you to our readers for visiting and for joining in with us each week at CAS Colours and Sketches. See you next week with another colour palette and more inspiration from our DT!

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