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: 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

Bleeding Art Tissue Technique Playtime!

It's half term which means I've found a bit of extra time to play! I first saw the bleeding art tissue technique on the fabulous Eileen Godwin's blog and she has since made a YouTube tutorial which explains it really well. I bought some of the tissue a few weeks ago from Amazon and when I was thinking about what to do for my first project with it I found three challenges that combined so well with the technique that I vowed I would have a go this week.

I have used some of my favourite white linen cardstock as a base for the technique. I chose pinks and blues because I really wanted to enter Lavinia Stamps Challenge #5 as Eileen is on their DT. Their theme this month is to use 'Blue, Pink or Both', together with Lavinia stamps or dies. I have used three different stamps: Sky (the musical fairy) inked with Versafine, the Spiral of Spells inked with Memento and the fairy dust from another set which has been inked with Versamark and embossed.

I also wanted to enter Happy Little Stampers Sketch Challenge for May. I only discovered Happy Little Stampers quite recently and along with it the equally fabulous Loll Thompson's blog. Loll is on the HLS DT and makes wonderful CAS cards. Their sketch features circles of colour. Hence I chose circles as my theme: the bleeding art tissue circles, the Spiral of Spells stamp, the fairy dust stamp and in the background some inking through a piece of sequin waste. I did end up turning their sketch 90 degrees as I found my finished piece looked better on my 5x7" card blank this way round.

I also really fancied entering the current Time Out Challenge #31. Their theme this fortnight is 'Grunge with the optional twist of embossing'. I make so many quite CAS cards these days that I really fancied the challenge of combining grunge with CAS and I hope the team think I have pulled it off. I was going to distress the edges and maybe add a few splatters but something said I should stop and not overdo and maybe spoil it!

I finished the artwork by embossing the fairy's wings (though this doesn't really show up on the photo). I used a mat of dark blue card and finished with a computer-generated sentiment onto a piece of blue vellum which I've then cut into a banner.

Supplies Used:

Tissue: Spectra Art Tissue (Amazon)

Stamps: Sky (fairy), Spiral of Spells, fairy dust (Lavinia Stamps)

Ink pads: Blue Lagoon (Versafine), Summer Sky & Angel Pink (Memento), Versamark

Embossing Powder: Stardust (Funstamps)

Sentiment Font: Angelic War

Snippets: White linen cardstock, Sequin waste, Powder Blue Promarker, Blue textured cardstock, Blue vellum (Papermania)

I really enjoyed taking time out to experiment with a new technique today and join in a few new challenges. Thanks so much for stopping by. I will be back tomorrow with this week's card for CAS Colours and Sketches.

Stef x

O Little Town Of Bethlehem

I have made today's card taking inspiration from two challenge blogs. Firstly from the challenge at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown. This week it is the November Theme Challenge {Christmas Window}. I was inspired initially by Gill's DT card that uses a window, but not an actual window!

I also decided to use embossing with metallic EP to fit into challenge 19 at Time Out. Week three of their monthly rota is a theme with a twist which this week is embossing with the optional twist of sparkle. I also thought it would make a change to be one of the first to post a card instead of being one of the last! The idea for the card is one from my back burner that I've been meaning to make for a while and I'm so glad I did as I'm quite pleased with the way it's turned out.

It uses the 'O little town of Bethlehem' carol stamp and silhouette nativity scene both from Clarity Stamps. Firstly I stamped the carol in Versamark and embossed with gold EP (I think I need to buy a finer grade EP as the words are not as crisp as I'd like and I'm sure it's not the fault of the stamp!) I masked the carol and then stamped the nativity scene, making sure to mask off the star and remembering to take the tape off the stamp first - nearly forgot! I then stamped the star in Versamark, masking off the rest of the stamp, and embossed that also with gold EP. I didn't wait quite long enough for the stamped silhouette to dry as some stray specks of EP landed on the roof of the stable and wouldn't come off. But I decided that it was a happy accident as it actually looked quite good that way and wouldn't have thought of doing it otherwise!

I put the mask back over the carol and masked off a circle around the stamp. Using two Distress Inks, Stormy Sky and Antique Linen, I gently sponged some colour into the sky and sandy areas. Finally I matted and layered the image onto a matching piece of cardstock using the best present I got for Christmas last year, my Perfect Layers rulers!

Well, that's another Christmas card made! Thanks for visiting today.
Stef x

Thinking of you

I love the sketch at CAS Colours & Sketches this week! I have also been inspired by the lovely 'Home Sweet Home' photo inspiration from Challenge #18 at Time Out challenges so I thought I would combine the two and hopefully come up with a beautiful card of my own!

I have followed the sketch very closely and at first I was going to use stamping as the focal point of my card but decided to stamp a background strip instead taking my inspiration from the fir cone pots in the photo. The stamp set I have used is 'Festive Fir Cones' by Card-io, a local company to me, based in Wigan. I have also tried to pick out various colours from the photo in the stamping, the focal sentiment and the vertical background strip. The finishing touch was a narrow lightly striped paper strip placed across the stamped fir cones to suggest the pine floor boards and the wooden crate from the photo.

So I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

CAS Colours & Sketches: Sketch Challenge #100

TIME OUT challenges: #18 'Home Sweet Home' photo inspiration

A colleague at work, Angela, has lost a very dear friend of hers recently so I have made this card to give to her.

Thanks for dropping by.

Stef