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

CAS Colours and Sketches #115

Jane has put together a great sketch for us to work with this week at CAS Colours and Sketches. I have also opted to tie my design in with Less Is More where they have a colour challenge this week. Their DT has asked that we try to keep to just the two spring colours of green and yellow, with the optional use of neutral shades if necessary.

I felt very comfortable using Jane's sketch just as it is. I have just used a square image instead of a circular one and placed the sentiment in a more appropriate place. I have managed to use only green and yellow for my colours (with a little bit of white). My well-loved and used daffodil stamp from DoCrafts has been stamped in green, masking off the bottom border which I didn't want to use, and coloured with Promarkers. Even the sentiment has been printed from my computer in dark green directly onto the Core'dinations cardstock used for the banners.

My biggest achievement came from my first ever attempt at the Bokeh technique. I had seen it around quite a bit and have been dying to have a go. I moistened a piece of cardstock quite liberally with water and was then a bit stuck as I don't have any water-based liquid inks or re-inkers! So I sprayed on Cosmic Shimmer mists in Mango Blaze and Meadow Lush. I also tried some ink directly from inkpads using a brush. The darker spots are my experiment at using a green Adirondack alcohol ink, but clearly this doesn't really spread like the other inks and has ended up looking almost brown! I then left it to dry very thoroughly. I made myself a stencil using a piece of acetate and my Spellbinder circle dies and sponged white ink from an inkpad over the top in varying sizes and degrees. I cut a slice to use on this card but still have plenty left for another project and have to say that I'm quite pleased with my first attempt! It's definitely something that I'll have another go at.

I wonder if you'll challenge yourself to try a new technique on your card this week? Can't wait to see what you come up with!

Stef x

New Year, New Challenge!

Not going to make any promises to myself this year about blogging but hopefully will be more active than last year! Spotted this challenge on Charmed Cards and Crafts blog so thought I would enter this card I made recently for a friend's daughter's 18th - she sooooo loves shopping! Just posted in time I hope!

Stamps and papers: Docrafts 'Born to Shop (Bubbles)'