CC&S Double Challenge 180: Eileen's butterflies

I had lots of fun again this week making my card for CAS Colours and Sketches and it was in no small way thanks to my friend Eileen Godwin!

Eileen is very generous in sharing her time and talent with fellow crafters and made a YouTube video this last week showing a really colourful way of using Distress inks and this is my version of it. The depth of colour is not as good as Eileen's but that is what makes her a superstar and anyway I'm pretty pleased with my result. I was delighted when I saw I could combine both our sketch and colours and Eileen's tutorial into just one card! I actually made one in another colourway too but it's not quite finished so will share next time.

I inked and misted an acrylic block with Distress ink pads and stamped it onto a piece of card. Stamping in the shape of an arc as in Bev's design proved quite tricky until I hit upon the idea of making a mask from a plastic punched pocket so that I could see through it and clean it easily and it worked really well! The rain drops were stamped when the ink was dry, removing some of the colour from them with a water brush and highlighting with a white gel pen. I coloured a few spare pieces of card with the three ink pads and left them to dry thoroughly before die-cutting and punching the butterflies. These have then been stamped with a swirly stamp and highlighted as before. I love this sentiment stamp but don't use it nearly often enough and thought it fitted well here. I used a black matt, a colour I don't use much on my cards but think it works well for this technique. Finally I glued the butterflies in place along the line of the arc. Job done!

Supplies Used:
Ink Pads: Cracked Pistachio, Squeezed Lemonade & Worn Lipstick (TH Distress), Onyx Black (VersaFine)
Stamps: Water Drops & Nature Speaks (Inkylicious), Klimt Swirl Block (Tanda Stamps)
Dies: Sizzlits Butterfly #12 (Sizzix), Small Butterfly XCU220 (XCut)
Punch: Small Butterfly (XCut)
Snippets: White & black cardstock, White gel pen

Remember that you must use both Bev's colour palette and sketch together on your CC&S entry if you want to be considered as one of our weekly winners. Looking forward to seeing your interpretations.

Thanks for visiting!
Stef x

CC&S 164 Sketch: Oh What a Beautiful Morning!

Jane has given us a very simple square sketch to work with at CAS Colours and Sketches this week which opens up all sorts of possibilities.

I went to a Sincerely Yours craft show at Leigh recently where I watched Emma from Inkylicious demo a lovely technique of spritzing their ink dusters and using them on a satin card which gives a lovely subtle brushed effect to the inks.

At a similar time I took a beautiful photo in my back garden on a cold, frosty morning of the sun coming up behind the trees. I thought I would try and replicate that scene on my card. Unfortunately my small camera doesn't really do the colours justice and neither does my finished card as they were much more dramatic but hey ho! To finish the scene I tried to replicate the frost on the grass with a gelly roll pen.

Jane's sketch is square and my stamp is rectangular, though it does have the bold frame around it so I layered it onto a square of coloured card and included the greeting within that.

Supplies Used:
Card: Satin Silk 350gsm (Inkylicious)
Ink Pads: Tumbled Glass, Milled Lavender, Spun Sugar, Squeezed Lemonade, Dried Marigold, Bundled Sage, Frayed Burlap (TH Distress); Tuxedo Black (Memento), Smokey Gray (Versafine)
Stamp: Picture Perfect 1 (Inkylicious)
Stencil: Scenic Mountains (Inkylicious)
Pen: Gelly Roll 'Clear Star' (Sakura)
Snippets: Lavender cardstock, Happy Birthday sentiment stamp

We had tons of entries into our last sketch challenge. I hope you will all want to play along with this one. Please remember to follow the squareness of the sketch if you want to be considered as a weekly winner!

Thanks for your visit!
Stef x

CC&S #144 Colours: Night of Navy, Metallic Gold and Soft Sky

Hi everyone! It's my turn for another month of hosting the challenges at CAS Colours and Sketches and as usual we are kicking off with a colour palette.

I had decided that I wanted to do a masked and sponged sky design but TBH it's not come out quite as nice as it was in my head. I guess that's what comes from working hard all day and only having a couple of hours to make a card for this week's challenge.

I used a harsh sponge, a mask and an old credit card with Versamark to create the sun. It looks better in real life as there are a few more gold speckles that don't show up in the photo but using inks over the top of it has definitely dulled it's brightness! The sky was coloured using my fabulous ink dusters from Inkylicious and there are also a couple of hills which, again, don't show up too well. I stamped the trees before removing the masking and then stamped and embossed the greeting. I love getting messy with inking techniques but definitely need some more practice at this one when I'm not too tired.

Supplies Used:
Ink Pads: Nautical Blue & Summer Sky (Memento)
Stamps: Lone Spruce and Sprucescape Trees (Clarity)
Sentiment: Xmas Wishes (Inkylicious)
Snippets: Ink dusters, Gold EP

Looking forward to seeing what you make of my colour and sketch choices this month.
Thanks for playing along with us!
Stef x

CC&S #131: Colours and LIM #230: Sketch

Busy week so quick post from me today! Jane is our hostess for the challanges at CAS Colours and Sketches this month and we have a lovely summery set of colours to start us off. They reminded me of cornfields/sand & sea/sky so have gone down that route and created a little sunset scene.

By masking off areas of my rounded cardstock one at a time I have blended inks to create the basic landscape. I then used a watercolour brush to give some depth to the scene by creating a few shadows and textures. The meadow in the foreground has been stamped with two colours using different parts of the same stamp.

The sentiment has been die-cut and the negative placed over a piece of rounded cardstock coloured with the same ink that I used for the sun. The butterfly has been die cut from a spare piece of the same cardstock using the same die and mounted slightly off the edge of the main image.

When searching for inspiration I came across this wonderfully uncomplicated sketch at Less Is More #230. I thought it would suit the design I had in mind so would like to enter it into their challenge too.

Supplies Used:
Inks: Amethyst & Turquoise (Versacolor) and Toffee Crunch (Memento)
Stamp: Wild Meadow (IndigoBlu)
Die: Happy Birthday (free with a copy of Papercraft Essentials)
Snippets: White linen cardstock

Thanks for visiting. Look forward to seeing your entries!
Stef x

CC&S #118: Monochromatic Shades Of Green

I've not been very well this week, flu, even though I had a flu jab back in October - hey ho!

This month's challenges at CAS Colours and Sketches are being hosted by Louise and for her first colour challenge she has chosen three shades of green. I thought I would make a card for my daughter, Katie's, birthday who will be 23 on 1st April!

The squares started out as a piece of my favourite white linen cardstock. I stamped various leaves with Versamark, clear embossed, then sponged and blended inks in three shades of green. This was then spritzed with water and left to dry. I sponged the same inks onto a spare piece of cardstock and die-cut the base of the dragonfly. I used the dragonfly stamp on vellum with Versamark and white EP, die-cut and glued just the bodies together, finishing with three small gems. I printed the sentiment straight onto the card blank and then assembled the layout, raising the dragonfly slightly with thin foam pads.

Close-up of dragonfly's wings

I would also like to enter my card into the following challenge:
Less is More: Week #217 Combine any three previous Less is More challenges
The three challenges I am combining are:
Week #04: Sketch or Recipe - 3 squares
Week #15: One Layer - Embossing
Week # 89: One Layer - Wings
The DT stated that 'Should you choose a challenge which happened to be a One Layer card in the original challenge, there is no necessity to make it one layer for this challenge, unless you particularly wish to do so'.

As it also fits the criteria of a couple of other challenges, I would also like to enter my card into:
CASology: Week #140 where this week's cue card is 'Spring'

and Seize the Birthday, a new challenge for me, where this week's birthday theme is 'Anything Goes' (with no toppings)!

Supplies used:
Stamp set: Leaf decor stamps (Clear Choice)
Die & stamp set: Dragonfly (Creative Dies) - free with Simply Cards and Papercraft #134
Ink pads: Bundled Sage & Peeled Paint (TH Distress); New Sprout (Memento)
Shimmer dots: Pearlescent black/green (Papermania)
Snippets: White linen cardstock, Clear and White EP 

I'm rather pleased with this one and will definitely make a couple more with the leftover pieces. I'm glad as it's for a special birthday and I hope Katie likes it too!

Stef x

CAS Colours and Sketches #113

Being the fourth week of the month we have a sketch challenge for you at CAS Colours and Sketches. I decided to go with the same stamp set as last week, as they were still on my desk, but with colours that I feel more at home with and at the same time enter challenge #212 at Less Is More where their theme this week is 'Wings'.

I wanted to follow Patricia's sketch reasonably closely. First of all I used my ink dusters and Pan Pastels, in shades of blue, green and purple, through a rectangle mask to create a background directly onto my card blank, masking off an area for the sentiment. I then inked my script background stamp from Indigo Blu with  DIs in Bundled Sage, Faded Denim and Dusty Concord, spritzing the stamp with water before applying to my card.

The butterfly is from IB 'Wild Meadow' set which has been stamped onto a piece of spare cardstock in Bundled Sage and Dusty Concord. I then used a water brush and the ink pads to draw the colour further into the white areas. The butterfly has also been stamped in fourth generation Stazon Black ink, so that it didn't overpower the other colours, onto a piece of acetate, cut out, creased very gently and mounted over the top to accentuate the lines and give movement to the butterfly adding three small lilac gems on its body.

The sentiment is one I've had for ages and has been simply stamped in the space I left for it. I may give this card to my mum for Mothering Sunday which is coming soon on Sunday 15th March. I made another one at the same time in slightly different colours so I have one for Martin's mum too! I hunted high and low in my stash for a Mothering Sunday sentiment stamp only to discover that I don't have one so I will have to rectify that for next year!

Thanks for visiting my blog today. I love reading all the comments you leave me and visiting as many of the challenge entries as I can and commenting there too!

Stef x

CAS Colours and Sketches #112

I've had a really busy week. I've just found some photos on my camera of a card I made for a friend the other day that I meant to enter into a challenge but completely forgot about it and have now missed the deadline!! Never mind, this week's challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches is a colour challenge. This particular colour combination has definitely taken me outside my comfort zone as I'm not a reds, oranges, yellows kinda person. But I thought I would team this with some of my favourite stamps and see what happened and I'm kinda pleased with the result so that's OK!

Using my ink dusters I blended Memento inks onto a strip of linen cardstock from the left with 'Cantaloupe' and from the right with 'Tangelo'. I then stamped the image using 'Bahama Blue'. The stamp is from an IndigoBlu set called 'Wild Meadow' which I have had for ages and used many times before. I then mounted the strip onto a matching piece of cardstock and onto a card blank. The butterfly stamp is from the same IB set. This has been inked and stamped onto a spare piece of card using a combination of the orange and yellow colours, cut out, curled and mounted with foam pads. The sentiment has been stamped with 'Tangelo'.

We would love to have you join us in our colour challenge this week. Please remember that if you would like us to consider your card for one of our top three, you must stick reasonably close to the challenge colours with black, white and ivory being the only other colours allowed. I don't have any Stampin' Up ink pads but always try very carefully to match the colours with other makes of ink that I have in my stash. Your card must also feature some stamping on it and be CAS, of course!

Thanks for visiting today
Stef x

Let It Snow (but only metaphorically!)

My card tonight is for three different challenges. Firstly for CAS Colours and Sketches. This week it is a 'Make It Christmas' challenge #104 using any previous sketch from their archive. I have chosen sketch #78 from June this year. Secondly, I would like to enter it into the Less Is More challenge. Being the second week of the month it is a one layer challenge #202 with a focus on snow. The third challenge I would like to enter is CASology where Cue Card #126 is also snow!

To interpret the sketch for CAS Colours and Sketches, I have divided the landscape into three, the sky, the hills and the foreground.


I love messing about with inks, torn bits of paper, masks, frames, stamps and sponges. This card has all those! I like to experiment with using different ways of transferring ink to paper and on this card I have used a dry baby wipe to gently rub ink directly onto the card through a frame to create the hills and the sky. For this I have used Distress Inks: Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky and Dried Marigold.

The tree stamps are all from Clarity Stamps inked in first and second generation using Versafine Vintage Sepia. The tree in the foreground has been stamped so that it extends beyond the frame which I think I quite like the look of.

The card has been finished using a silver greeting to base the frame and a few silver stars in the sky.

I would like to wish everyone that visits my blog a very Happy Christmas and, unless I get a chance to squeeze one more in before then, I'll see you all in the New Year with lots more cards to share!

Whatever you're doing, have fun!
Stef x