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 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 #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 #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 #141: Flowers Sketch

Lizy is our hostess at CAS Colours and Sketches this month and this week her inspirational sketch makes it very easy to create a quick CAS card.

For my background piece, I used one of my Cosmic Shimmer Mist sprayed pieces of cardstock in green with touches of blue and yellow that have merged together to make even more interesting green shades. The gold mica forms a lovely pattern by scrunching clim film over the top while it's still wet. I love getting messy with this technique, it just needs patience whilst it dries.

I interpreted the sector of the circle at the top by using a circular sentiment printed in gold. The poppy flowers have been simply die-cut in white cardstock.

I would like to enter my card into challenge #240 at Less Is More this week where the theme is to use the colours green and gold and very little else!

Supplies Used:
Shimmer Mists: Meadow Lush, Aqua Lagoon, Mango Blaze (Cosmic Shimmer)
Die: Prim Poppy (Memory Box)
Snippets: Circle sentiment

Just beginning to catch up now after my busy summer but still got loads to do!
See you all next week!

Stef x

CC&S #138 Colours & A Little Masking

Slowly getting back to normal after the wedding! Went back to work today so that brought me down to earth with a bump! For this week's challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches, Patricia has given us a set of colours that I wouldn't normally use together but I have enjoyed the challenge of working with them and am reasonably pleased with the result!

I took inspiration for my card from the current challenge #129 at Muse. I don't think I've ever played there before, though I have often wanted to, so thought it was about time! I was inspired by Anita's square stencil pattern and the die-cut leaves in her design. Using Patricia's colour palette I inked through part of a stencil mask with a biscuit shade of brown directly onto a card blank and then, using the faux cross stitch technique, used a darker shade of brown through a fibreglass screen to achieve the cross-stitch effect.

I chose the sentiment stamp as it has a similar texture to the stencilling and stamped the two-parts using the same shade of dark brown. The flowers are die-cut from two snippets of cardstock that match with the colour palette. I turned the green flower over as it suited the composition better. The card was simply finished with a few adhesive pearls.

As I have used stencils and masking techniques on my card I would also like to enter it into the following challenges:

AAA Cards: Challenge #46 - Masquerade

Happy Little Stampers: August CAS Challenge - Masking

Supplies Used:

Stencil Mask: Doodle Squares (Creative Expressions)

Stencil: Fibreglass Screen (Dreamweaver)

Sentiment Stamp: Happy Birthday (Clearly Besotted)

Ink Pads: Bisque & Brown (Versacolor)

Flower Die: Prim Poppy (Memory Box)

Snippets: Blue & green cardstock, Blue adhesive pearls

I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully, to share the card that I made for Katie and Tom on their wedding day and will post a few photos once I have some! Meanwhile enjoy this week's challenge!

Stef x

CC&S #136: Summer Pastels Colour Challenge

Hi everyone! Just a tad late and missed the CAS Colours and Sketches deadline by a little over an hour but things are getting oh so busy around here with just over a week to go now so I hope you'll forgive me!

Patricia is our hostess this month and has given us a beautiful summer pastel colour palette to work with this week. I decided to use my first ever purchase, a stamp and corresponding die set from Uniko Studio (Beautiful Blooms 1) and it is still my favourite! I inked the centre of the flower with a slightly darker ink and the outer petals with a lighter ink but I don't think this really shows in the final photo.

I found a really nice sketch that I thought would work well with my idea over at Freshly Made Sketches #198, so I would also like to enter my card into their challenge with thanks for the inspiration from their DT! The stamped flowers and leaves have been layered up onto scraps of corresponding card from my snippets box, the rectangles having been die-cut with my stitched rectangles die.

The sentiment has been stamped with a recent Paper Smooches acquisition - I love the fonts in this set! For a finishing touch, the flower and sentiment have been highlighted with a touch of Stickles. I decided to use a square card blank for all my layers so that I could also enter my card into the current themed challenge #256 at The Paper Players: It's Hip to be Square!

Supplies Used:
Stamp and Die Sets: Beautiful Blooms 1 (Uniko Studio)
Die: Stitched Rectangle Layers (Memory Box)
Ink pads: Hyacinth & Smoke Blue (Versacolor), Whisper Pink (Whisper)
Sentiment Stamp: Sentiment Sampler (Paper Smooches)
Snippets: Pale textured yellow, Pale pink & Dotty hyacinth card scraps, Rhinestone Stickles.

I think that's all from me for now! Our guest designer at CC&S this month is Magic Flying Boots who has featured in our weekly favourites several times lately with her stunning designs so be sure to drop by and say hello!

Stef x

CC&S #130: Sweet Poppy Stencils, Translucent Paste & Micro Beads

Lizy has given us a nice uncomplicated sketch at CAS Colours and Sketches and I have combined my DT card with three other challenges this week. I like to try and design to the sketch we have been given as far as possible and this week it has given me the chance to use my recently acquired stitched rectangle dies.

The technique of using stencilling/pastes features in two challenges this week; Theme week #229 at Less Is More and Game #42 at AAA Cards. I taped my stencil onto my die-cut rectangle having printed a computer-generated sentiment. I then inked gently through the stencil using two different colours of distress inks. I removed and washed the stencil leaving the ink to dry. Then I replaced the stencil and applied some translucent paste. Carefully removing the stencil I covered the image with micro beads and left it to dry overnight. I absolutely fell in love with this technique having first discovered it on Eileen Godwn's blog and then watching the lovely Lucy from Sweet Poppy Stencils demoing at a show. I especially like how the tiny beads also stick to the sides of the paste where it is raised giving a beautiful translucent outline to the image. Some of the stencil is too narrow to ink through successfully but when finished this gives a lovely clear accent to the coloured areas.

Inspiration for the colours has come from CAS-ual Fridays CFC: #140 Michelle's Idea of Summer where we are challenged to create a CAS project using tan, white and one bright colour.

I mounted the finished image onto a piece of tan linen cardstock using some twine at the base of the image to tie in with Lizy's sketch and then onto a white card blank.

Supplies Used:
Die: Stitched Rectangle Layers (Memory Box)
Stencil: Dove (Sweet Poppy Stencils)
Inks: Broken China & Antique Linen (TH Distress)
Paste: Translucent Paste (Sweet Poppy Stencils)
Beads: Clear Micro Glass Beads (Creative Expressions)
Sentiment Font: Bodoni MT
Snippets: White & tan linen cardstock, Turquoise baker's twine

Thanks Lizy for a fantastic month of colours and sketches. Hope you'll have time to play with this week's sketch!

Stef x