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 160 Sketch: Mothering Sunday Roses

This week I have made cards for my Mum and my MIL ready for Mothering Sunday which we celebrate here in the UK on 6th March this year. However I was almost stumped by my own sketch at CAS Colours and Sketches. Having said to the rest of the DT that the circles in the sketch were slightly different sizes, I thought that they and other crafters might think that that was a non-alterable element in the sketch.

I tried clustering two different sizes of the rose stamp together but I couldn't get them to look right because I think they are too different in size (for this card anyway). I then played around with adding smaller leaves instead of more flowers and decided that looked much better. Other than that the card came together quite simply. The sentiment is one I had saved on my PC, I loved it as soon as I saw it and I think it has several sources on the internet.

I would also like to play at a couple of challenges:
Addicted to Clean and Simple #81: Code Word 'Bloom'

Time Out 'Inspired By Words' Challenge #49: 'Love is the flower you've got to let grow' from a John Lennon song 'Mind Games'. I thought this phrase tied in a beautifully with the sentiment behind any card for Mothering Sunday.

Supplies Used:

Stamp Set: Flower Power #6 (Uniko Studio)

Inkpads: Hyacinth, Heliotrope, Smoke Blue, Atlantic, Bamboo (VersaColor)

Sentiment: Found on the internet

Snippets: White linen cardstock

I hope you like the sketch and you'll want to play along. You have until Wednesday 17th Feb to link up your design.

Thanks for visiting!

Stef x

CC&S #153 Christmassy Sketch: Joy To The World

For my last post for CAS Colours and Sketches this year I have chosen my most favourite sketch of the year from challenge #124 in May. flipped it vertically and made it Christmassy! I have also taken the opportunity of combining my DT card with a few festive challenges along the way!

It combines two of my favourite card-making techniques (thus making it eligible for the HLS challenge)! Firstly the cling film technique used with my Cosmic Shimmer mists. Love, love, love this technique and while you're getting messy it's good to experiment with colours and make a few new pieces. The colour combos don't always dry how you'd imagined but that's half the fun of experimenting! Here I have simply die-cut three squares from a blue/silver piece, stamping the Wise Men image with black Versafine and raising this one with foam pads. The second technique involves my love of paper engineering/folding and here I have made a 3D star of Bethlehem from a 9cm square of holographic paper that itself has stars gleaming in it when it catches the light. A very clear tutorial for folding the star can be found on YouTube HERE. The sentiment is computer generated and the card is simply finished with a few silver star sequins.

Supplies Used:
Spray Mists: Aqua Lagoon & Silver (Cosmic Shimmer)
Stamp: Wise Men (DoCrafts)
Sentiment Font: Maiandra GD
Snippets: Silver holographic paper, Silver sequin stars

The challenges I would like to enter are:
Addicted to CAS: Challenge #78 Code Word 'Joy'

AAA Cards: Game #54 'Silent Night, Holy Night'

CAS on Sunday: Challenge #73 'Stars'

Happy Little Stampers: December CAS challenge 'Favourite Technique'

A very contemporary card but for me, this is a lovely reminder amongst the hustle and bustle of what Christmas is really all about. Thank you all for your visits to my blog over the last year and for your support for our CAS Colours and Sketches challenge. A few changes and some new faces joining the team in the New Year so please join us all then!

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
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 #132: Stars and Stripes

This week Jane has given us a lovely sketch to work with on CAS Colours and Sketches. My card has also been influenced by the themes from a couple of other challenges and so I thought I would make a patriotic card for all my blogging friends from across the Atlantic and a graduation card for my friend Rachel at the same time!

I haven't done any paper folding in a while so the focus of my design is a five pointed origami star made from a piece of blue starry paper. A video showing how to fold this star can be found on YouTube HERE. These make wonderful hanging decorations and I have made them previously in all different sizes. This one was made from a pentagon in a 6cm square (Edit: 12cm square). I cut some stripes from some matching paper and two smaller stars from a piece of red starry paper and stuck them to the card blank. The sentiment is computer-generated and finally the origami star was placed between the other two.

The other challenges I would like to enter are:
Less Is More Week #231: Colour theme 'Red, White & Blue'

And Addicted to CAS Challenge #67: Code Word 'Patriotic'

Supplies Used:
Origami Star Instructions: http://www.homemade-gifts-made-easy.com/5-pointed-origami-star.html
Sentiment font: Grilled Cheese
Snippets: Striped and starry papers

It's so busy at the end of the school summer term. Roll on the holidays!
Hope you have lots of fun with Jane's super sketch.
Thanks for visiting!
Stef x

CC&S #129 and just a few challenges!

I set myself a huge challenge this week! Lizy's colours at CAS Colours and Sketches are just lovely and I wanted to do a butterfly (just because I love butterflies). But when I started thinking about a design I came across just a few challenges that if I was clever I could make one card to fit them all (how greedy is that)!

The code word for Challenge #65 at ATCAS is 'Butterfly' so I could already tick that box! I decided to die-cut a steel grey butterfly and use my Cosmic Shimmer mists in green and gold to match Lizy's colours.

I love the scrunched up cling film technique with the mists and the beautiful marbled effect that you get with the mica all drying in the folds (sorry, it probably has a more technical name than that) and decided to cut some shapes from it to sit the butterfly on! That fits with the second challenge as the June theme at Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge is to use sprays or mists on your cards.

Then I discovered a great sketch for Challenge #127 at CAS(E) this Sketch featuring a butterfly and a square window!

This was when it started getting a bit trickier. There is a super colourful butterfly inspiration photo at Challenge #37 for The Card Concept this week. I don't think I've ever played there before so thought it was about time! My preferred style is definitely CAS but at heart I think I'm a little less 'S (simple)' and a bit more 'T' (technique) which isn't always necessarily simple; so CAT! possibly? I absolutely love trying out new techniques and getting inky and messy and have certainly dabbled in other styles along the way. I have a yearning at the moment to try out some mixed media stuff which very probably won't be CAS at all!

Studying the photo at The Card Concept, I really wanted to find a way of interpreting the writing icing on the butterfly cookies so went for a kind of zentangled background for the squares and finished with two gold star sequins either side of the printed sentiment to match the stars in the centres of the butterflies in the inspiration photo.

Phew! And that's it, card accomplished. I think it turned out OK and liked the colour scheme better than I thought I would.

Supplies used:
Dies: Butterfly (free with Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine) & Classic Squares Large (Spellbinders)
Mica Sprays: Meadow Lush & Rich Gold (Cosmic Shimmer)
Patterned Paper: Colour with Candi (Craftwork Cards)
Sentiment Font: Bodoni MT
Snippets: Metallic steel grey cardstock, Watercolour paper, Gold star sequins

Bye for now and thanks for visiting!
Stef x

Christmas Dots

Hmmm, definitely not one of my best! This week has been crazily busy and I haven't really got time to squeeze crafting into it. However because I want to fulfil the commitment I'd made to myself to enter the DT call at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown I have to enter a card into the challenge for the last week in November which is a 'Pick A Previous' Sketch challenge.

I have chosen sketch #26 from March 2014 and thought it also fitted very well into this week's challenge at Addicted to CAS whose code word this week is 'Dots'.

I have used a beautiful Marianne Design bauble die that came free with a magazine  and some metallic papers. I think what I don't like are the punched circles as they seem too big now they are stuck to the card! I think they detract from the delicacy of the baubles.

Three snowflake stamped images from Card-io's 'Winter Flurry' set and a couple of gems complete the sketch with a peel-off greeting in silver. Now, that's not something I use very often these days but I really need to use up some of my old stuff. Maybe there should be a challenge that makes use of ancient stash!!

That's all for tonight.
Thanks for visiting.
Stef

Round and Round

Taking inspiration from the Less is More 'Round and Round' and the Addicted to CAS 'Wheels' challenges this week I made this card for my daughter Laura's partner, Max. He is a very keen sports addict and the more extreme the sport the better as far as I can understand! So my card for Max is an iris folded pattern of my own design for a bicycle. I'm not sure it completely fits the notion of CAS, maybe not quite enough white space, but will I enter it into ATCAS and as my second entry into the LIM challenge anyway and let the experts decide!

Entered into the following challenges:
Addicted to CAS Challenge 35: Wheels
Less is More Lucky Dip Week 165: Round and Round

Stef

CAS Autumn Tree

I wanted to make an Autumn card for my brother's birthday on Friday and taking inspiration from some of the CAS challenge blogs came up with the following design. My main inspiration came from sketch #10 on Less is More. I used a circle aperture card blank and created a background using my Ink Dusters, a moon mask and Distress Ink Pads (Peeled Paint, Bundled Sage, Dried Marigold, Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap).



















I stamped the image (Oak Tree/Lavinia Stamps) in Frayed Burlap/Peeled Paint and used gilding flakes (Yorkshire Dales/Indigo Blu) to highlight part of the tree trunk and branches. The card was finished with a simple sentiment from Craftwork Cards.

Happy birthday Neil and enjoy your holiday!

I would like to enter it into the following challenges:
Less is More: Week 139 Sketch #10
Addicted to CAS: #23 Code Word - Autumn/Fall
Addicted to Stamps and More: #64 CAS
Crafty Little Fairies: Autumn Colours

Stef