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 #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 #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