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 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 Sketch 173: Layered roses in navy and mint!

I don't often buy craft magazines these days but when I saw one with an Altenew build-a-rose stamp and die collection with it, well, I just had to get it and try out the latest craze for myself! Caro has given us a fairly straight-forward sketch to work with this week at CAS Colours & Sketches so those were my two starting points.

I found it quite tricky to align the 3-layered stamps with each other but I suppose, with practice, I'll improve! Two outline dies were included for the flower and the leaf but TBH it was just as easy to fussy cut them out, especially the leaves. I used pigment inks in three different shades of blue for the flowers and three shades of green for the leaves. I stuck a spare piece of navy paper onto a square card blank, to tie in with the sketch, and played around with the positioning of the flowers and leaves until I was happy with them. The flowers are attached with foam pads, to add dimension, and the leaves have been curled and glued under the edges of the flowers. The sentiment was stamped onto a narrow length of textured mint paper and then adhered to the card blank to form the second band in the sketch.

It might seem a slightly odd colour combination for my subject but I chose them so that I could play along with challenge #108 at Inkspirational this week. I think this combo is gorgeous and actually I think the navy BG really shows off the flowers well.

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Build-a-rose stamp & die collection (Altenew - free with Simply Cards & Papercraft 149), Sentiment Sampler (Paper Smooches)

Ink pads: Smoke Blue, Atlantic, Indigo, Sage, Celadon, Turquoise (VersaColor), Majestic Blue (VersaFine)

Snippets: Navy & mint paper/cardstock

Well, that's all from me this week! Thanks for visiting.

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 #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 #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

Wedding Card for Katie & Tom

As promised, a photo of the card I made for Katie and Tom. It was designed with lots of elements from their wedding threaded into the card.

The background was made using the faux mother-of-pearl technique as learnt on Loll's blog HERE. This technique produces lovely pieces of artwork and I chose it because Katie borrowed a string of pearls from me to wear with her dress. I chose shades of blue inks because the bridesmaids wore royal blue and it featured in many of the decorative elements in the marquee, the flowers and on their stationery too. The rose is die-cut from a page of Katie's favourite book 'The Time Traveller's Wife' adhered to a piece of cardstock for strength. As I've mentioned in previous posts, Katie made paper roses for her bouquet with pages from this book and I made quite a few used in the decorations and on the cake too. The book pages also featured in the 66 metres of bunting that Laura, Lachlan and I made to decorate the marquee! Finally, the verse is an extract from the reading from the Song of Solomon read at the church service by Tom's mum, Fiona, printed in gold which there were also small highlights of through the wedding.

As the theme at Less Is More this week is 'Congratulations', I would like to enter it into their challenge #237, especially as the challenge was posted on their wedding day!

And also into the Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge Blog where the theme for August Week 3 is 'Anything Goes' using Paper Smooches products. I absolutely love this rose outline die and this is my first time playing in their challenge!

Supplies Used:

Faux Mother-Of-Pearl Technique: Pearlescent liquid acrylic - White Pearl (Daler Rowney)

Inkpads: Tumbled Glass & Faded Denim (TH Distress)

Die: Roses (Paper Smooches)

Sentiment Font: Edwardian Script

As soon as I get some photos of the wedding, I will post a few for you to see.

Thanks for visiting!

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 #135: A Double Challenge!

A fifth Thursday in the month means a double challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches with both a colour palette AND a sketch to work with together. Some hate it and some love the usually tougher challenge but Jane has made it easy for us by giving us both a super colour trio and a delightful sketch to work with.

I needed to make a card for Martin's Mum whose birthday is next week so decided to kill two birds with one stone as time is precious at the moment! I have interpreted the sketch using flowers, with leaves in place of the dots. I used a Marianne Designs die to cut the spirals for my paper roses in a scrap of navy paper. The centres of the flowers are white Candi that has been coloured with an appropriate Promarker and fixed with foam pads. The leaves have been cut using the same die set in a scrap piece of green card carefully matching the colour palette. The banners have been cut with a CB tag die again using scraps of cardstock. Lastly the sentiment from Paper Smooches has been stamped using a Memento ink pad.

Supplies Used:

Spiral & Leaf Dies: LR0162 Roses (Marianne Design)

Candi: Icing Sugar (Craftwork Cards)

Promarker: Buttercup (Letraset)

Banner Dies: Tag Along (Clearly Besotted)

Sentiment Stamp: Sentiment Sampler (Paper Smooches)

Ink Pad: Nautical Navy (Memento)

Snippets: Navy, Green and Textured Yellow cardstock

As all the cardstock I have used is from my snippets box I would also like to enter my card into this week's recipe challenge #234 at Less Is More and at the same time wish Chrissie a very happy birthday. I have followed her blog and her challenge for some time now.  All her cards are fabulous and she is a great source of inspiration to me and, I know, many other crafters! Edit: I forgot to link up my card to the LIM challenge - silly me!

I think I had roses on my mind because I have been making some paper roses for the wedding from a pattern found on the internet by Lia Griffith. Katie is making her bouquet from paper roses using pages from an old copy of her favourite book 'The Time Traveller's Wife'. So I am making some extras to partially decorate the cake and maybe for the tables, etc. I'm very pleased with the way they are turning out and more importantly Katie likes them too so I thought I would share photos of them with you.

That's it for now. Hope you enjoy the double challenge. 

See you next week!

Stef x