Mixed media faux cloisonné gerbera for Uniko's 10th birthday!

Dusted off the blog and hopefully I can get back into posting more often again, rather than just on Facebook and Instagram. Doing a blog post is a great reminder of how I made some of my cards and so useful to look back on in the future! 

Today I have made a card to celebrate Uniko's 10th birthday. I wanted to try out one of the faux cloisonné techniques I recently came across and knew I wanted to experiment with the fabulous gerbera set. 

Pure Florals: Gerbera (Uniko Studio)

For this card, I used the magazine technique. I found a large photo of some yellow Echinacea in a gardening magazine, which I cut out and adhered to a piece of 200gsm white cardstock. I stamped both flower images (one of them twice) and both sizes of the leaf stamp in embossing ink, carefully choosing which parts of the photo to use, embossed in gold and fussy cut. I did find that using glossy magazine paper made the embossing slightly brittle and very easy to chip off so I'm making a note to be very careful with it, especially when fussy cutting the images. 

For my background I used something I previously made in a Tracy Evans workshop by using alcohol inks in plain water and dipping lightweight cardstock into it. This piece was primarily blues, greens and yellows though I can't remember now the colours of inks that I used. I added interest with some blue Distress Oxide splatters, stamped the sentiment in blue and used my embossing ink pad and gold EP to add a border to the edge of the card. I arranged my flowers and leaves on the card gluing the leaves flat. The partially opened flower has just been raised in the middle with foam pads and glued at the edges, whilst the two big blooms were stuck on with foam pads. 

I love how this turned out but next time I want to try using my IndigoBlu Luscious pigment powders to paint the flowers as I think this will give a more realistic cloisonné effect.

Pure Florals: Gerbera (Uniko Studio)

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Pure Florals: Gerbera, Simply Said Birthday (Uniko Studio)

Ink Pads: Stormy Sky (Distress Oxides), Cornflower Blue (Wendy Vecchi Archival - Ranger)

Embossing: WOW Embossing Pad, Gold embossing powder

Snippets: White cardstock (200gsm), Magazine paper, Alcohol inks

I would like to enter this card into the following challenge:

Quest 1: The Linky Party (Uniko Studio 10th Birthday Celebrations)

Many congratulations Bev, on reaching such a milestone birthday. It's no mean feat for a small company especially with all the crazy events of the past few years!

Thanks for visiting!

Stef

CC&S Sketch Challenge 190: I too must say goodbye ...

I'm sad to say that this will be my last post as a DT member of CAS Colours and Sketches. To cut a long story short and keep this post about crafting, my mum has not been well recently and had a short stay in hospital. She has been staying with us since she came out as she lives on her own but it is going to take her some weeks/months to recover. Having taken on a more demanding role at work this term, something has to give so that I have more time for my mum and for now that means that my crafting time will have to be restricted.

So to finish with a card featuring a technique (which, if anything, is what I'll be remembered for at CC&S) and some flowers and butterflies. Karen is our hostess this month and this week she has given us a sketch with lots of possibilities! When I saw it I immediately thought of making a cutaway card which I hope shows up in the photo. To save time, I used part of a masterboard on the inside of the card that I made some time ago having followed a video on the fabulous Eileen Godwin's YouTube channel HERE. I cut away the curve from the front of the card and then trimmed the edge with die-cut and punched butterflies to match the colours used on the masterboard. The sentiment is printed directly onto the card and, after I had photographed the card for my post, I added some pearls to the butterfly bodies.

I think I can just about get away with calling this a CAS card because over half the front of it is still white even though the rest of it is quite busy! I'm going to give this to my friend Angela at work who is lucky enough to be taking early retirement in a couple of weeks' time.

Supplies Used:
Stamps:  Beautiful Blooms 1 (Uniko Studio) 
Ink Pads: Milled Lavender, Tumbled Glass & Worn Lipstick (TH Distress) - I think, though not sure exactly which colours I used now
Stencil: Small butterfly (free with a magazine)
Die & Punch: Small butterfly (XCut)
Sentiment Font: Rage Italic
Snippets: White gesso, Small bubbles stamp, White and silver gel pens

I will carry on crafting, card-making and blogging but maybe with not as much regularity in the next few months. I love it all too much not too and it has definitely become my sanctuary, somewhere where I can lose myself, listen to music and be creative.

Thank you all so much for being part of my CC&S journey and for your continued support of our CAS challenge. I will always remember it for being my first ever DT and I will continue to follow what's happening and join in when I can. The rest of the ladies on the DT are a brilliant bunch of crafters to work with and I am thankful to them for their friendship and support and for helping me to extend my creative boundaries over the last couple of years!

Stef x

CC&S Challenge 183 Colours: Let's Go Geometric!

It's lovely to be back as your hostess at CAS Colours and Sketches this week as we each take a turn during the months of July and August. For my colour choices I decided to dust off some unloved colours, or should I say colours that haven't featured in any of our colour paletttes lately.

I also thought that I would play around with two of Bev's Uniko stamp sets that haven't had much love from me since I bought them and as I'm hosting I thought I would make two cards for you! The cards themselves don't need much explanation - I have simply stamped some of the images from the sets in each of the palette colours in patterns represented by the stamps themselves. I couldn't have done it so easily without my MISTI which helped me line up the images perfectly!

I've experimented a little with inkpads though. I have to confess I don't really like Memento ink which I've used on the first card. I prefer the colours in this case, but find that you get a grainy finish which doesn't matter with these geometric images but is not so good for sentiments. On the second card I used Versacolor which gives a much smoother coverage but I found the colours difficult to match here and don't think this particular combo shows them to their best advantage.

Supplies Used:
Stamp Sets: Background Builders: Squared & Background Builders: Triangulate (Uniko), Sentiment Sampler (Paper Smooches)
Ink Pads: Dandelion, Bahama Blue & Gray Flannel (Memento), Canary, Turquoise & Cement (VersaColor)
Snippets: White cardstock

I'm looking forward to seeing how you are inspired by these colours. Don't forget to visit some of the DT's blogs and find out how they made their fantastic cards.

Thanks for visiting today!
Stef x

CC&S Challenge 181 Colours: Masking with Card-io

I have to admit I wasn't feeling the love for our colour combo at CAS Colours and Sketches this week (sorry Caro!) and found it really hard to settle on a design (I think it's the inclusion of brown, I'm never quite sure how to use it)! It probably doesn't help that, once again, I don't seem to have much time for card-making this week.

Anyhow I decided to resurrect the first Card-io peg stamp set that I ever bought and do some masking. I'm not sure that I like the finished card much either, it looks like I didn't know when to stop! I know she's had hundreds of years of practice but Wendy (from Card-io) always makes it look so easy to get the balance right with her peg stamps... I guess I just need more practice!

Supplies Used:
Peg Stamps: Butterfly Blooms (Card-io)
Sentiment Stamp: All Occasion Sentiments 1 (Uniko)
Ink Pads: Pinecone & Violet (VersaColor), Green from an Ink It Up set
Snippets: None

I've just realised I didn't put the butterfly on the card! Never mind, I think I had better take all my negativity away and come back next week - lol!!

Stef x

CC&S Colours #163: Real Red Roses

I'd like to start off by welcoming my newest follower Kath Buckle! I don't have so many so it's nice to know that someone likes my cards enough to want to follow my creative journey.

Jane is our hostess at CAS Colours and Sketches this month and she has chosen a lovely set of colours to kick off the month. I decided to make an alternative Mothering Sunday card so that my Mum and my MIL both get something a little different but using the same stamp.

I have followed the sketch from The Paper Players Challenge #284, a lovely sketch by Claire. I didn't want to use newsprint, though I do love it, so have represented this element with my notebook stamp. My card need to be very CAS for our challenge so for the background I embossed a piece of white cardstock with some simple diagonal stripes and edged it with a stripe inked by my computer to match the Mint Macaron. The flowers and leaves are from different Uniko sets; the solid background rose was stamped with second generation ink giving a lighter tint than the detail rose. The sentiment is computer-generated in white again on a background to match with our colour palette.

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Flower Power 6 & Beautiful Blooms 1 (Uniko Studio), PMA 907003 (Papermania)
Texture Plate: Diagonals (Sizzix)
Inkpads: Scarlet & Celadon (VersaColor), Green Green (Whisper)
Sentiment Font: Candara
Snippets: White cardstock

Now all I have to do is decide which card to give to which Mum! Thanks for visiting my blog today. I hope you get a chance to join in with our colour challenge this week!

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 159 Colours: To Brighten A Wintry Day

It's my turn to act as hostess for the month at CAS Colours and Sketches. In my first challenge I have chosen some bright colours to cheer up the gloomy, wintry days we have been having in the UK. Hopefully they'll also suit those on the other side of the world where I guess it's the middle of summer!

I've stayed with a Valentine theme so now I have a choice of which card to give my OH! I'm not usually a reds and oranges kinda gal, but I thought that these three colours worked rather well together. I had so much fun with the inlaid die technique a couple of weeks ago that I thought I would try it with a different die. It was trickier as the outline is a lot narrower, more complex and it's easy to stretch it when adhering it to the card but once I'd worked out a way of doing that successfully, it was very easy! The card was finished with a white embossed sentiment and a stray white heart.

Supplies Used:
Die: Heart Ribbon (Memory Box)
Sentiment: Always and Forever (Uniko Studio)
Snippets: Kraft, Orange, Pale Pink & Bright Pink cardstock, White EP

I hope you feel inspired to join us in our challenge this week. Please pop by the rest of the DT blogs to see what these colours led them to create.

Thanks for visiting!
Stef x

CC&S #158 Sketch: Always & Forever

This week’s sketch at CAS Colours and Sketches is quite open to interpretation. Because of the simple nature of the sketch, I decided to concentrate on the background. I also wanted to play with my new Always and Forever stamp set from Uniko Studio and with a mixed media technique new to me that I learned by following one of Eileen Godwin’s YouTube videos called the Masterboard/Gesso Resist technique. Alas, I felt that my finished Masterboard even after simply matting onto a card blank was not CAS enough for our challenge so I made another card for CC&S and will post the Masterboard card separately! 

I stamped the smallest flower from the Beautiful Blooms 1 set using Versamark and clear embossing powder onto a piece of violet cardstock. This was simply matted onto a card blank and trimmed to follow Patricia’s sketch. I stamped the image with the flower from the Always and Forever set onto a piece of white linen cardstock and again clear embossed it. The sentiment stamp comes from the same set and this has been die-cut using a banner die. I felt the contrast between the dark mat and the white card blank was too much so added the white punched hearts, but I’m still not sure if that was the right thing to do. Hey ho, it is what it is and done now! I'm sorry for the reflections in the photo but with all that embossing it was difficult to get a good picture without the shine!

I would also like to enter my card into a couple of challenges:

CASology Week #182: Cue Card ADORE

Uniko Studio: Anything Goes with the option of a LOVE theme

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Beautiful Blooms 1 and Always & Forever (Uniko Studio)

Inkpads: Versamark (Tsukineko) & Violet (VersaColor)

Die: Tag Along (Clearly Besotted)

Snippets: Violet & White linen cardstock, Small heart punch

We would love to have you join us in our challenge. You can find the details HERE and you have until Wednesday 3rd February to share your card.

Thanks for visiting!

Stef x

CC&S #150 Sketch: Happy Birthday Us!

We are marking our third anniversary and our 150th challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches this week. I feel honoured to have been part of the DT for almost a year now and delighted to be part of such a fantastic team. This week Louise has designed a very special sketch to celebrate our birthday and we have also have prizes to give away too! So what are you waiting for? Whether you've been with us all the way or have only just discovered our challenge please enter into the fun this week with your clean and simple cards!

When I saw that we needed to design a card with an aperture and a number on it, my mind went immediately to making a shaker card using a circle aperture as the number '0'. The celebrations made me think of designing a 50th birthday or golden wedding anniversary card using '5' as my number. And as Bev is not only our guest designer for this month but her company, Uniko, are sponsoring one of the prizes I thought it would be great to use the large Uniko 'congratulations' sentiment which I have only recently acquired.

And so the card came together quite easily. I have used pearlised card throughout to suit the occasion and kept the design all in one long banner to fit in with the sketch. The shaker element was created using the funky foam technique and the sentiment is stamped with Versamark and embossed with gold EP.

Supplies Used:
Stamp Set: All Occasion Sentiments #1 (Uniko)
Circle Dies: Standard Circles Large & Classic Scalloped Circles Large (Spellbinders)
Snippets: Ivory pearlised cardstock, Gold pearlised paper, a random number '5' sticker, assorted sequins and sparkles

I do hope you'll find some time to join in with our very special birthday challenge this week! I think I'll give my card to very special couple at church who are celebrating their golden wedding anniversary in a couple of weeks time.

Until next time
Stef x

CC&S #136: Summer Pastels Colour Challenge

Hi everyone! Just a tad late and missed the CAS Colours and Sketches deadline by a little over an hour but things are getting oh so busy around here with just over a week to go now so I hope you'll forgive me!

Patricia is our hostess this month and has given us a beautiful summer pastel colour palette to work with this week. I decided to use my first ever purchase, a stamp and corresponding die set from Uniko Studio (Beautiful Blooms 1) and it is still my favourite! I inked the centre of the flower with a slightly darker ink and the outer petals with a lighter ink but I don't think this really shows in the final photo.

I found a really nice sketch that I thought would work well with my idea over at Freshly Made Sketches #198, so I would also like to enter my card into their challenge with thanks for the inspiration from their DT! The stamped flowers and leaves have been layered up onto scraps of corresponding card from my snippets box, the rectangles having been die-cut with my stitched rectangles die.

The sentiment has been stamped with a recent Paper Smooches acquisition - I love the fonts in this set! For a finishing touch, the flower and sentiment have been highlighted with a touch of Stickles. I decided to use a square card blank for all my layers so that I could also enter my card into the current themed challenge #256 at The Paper Players: It's Hip to be Square!

Supplies Used:
Stamp and Die Sets: Beautiful Blooms 1 (Uniko Studio)
Die: Stitched Rectangle Layers (Memory Box)
Ink pads: Hyacinth & Smoke Blue (Versacolor), Whisper Pink (Whisper)
Sentiment Stamp: Sentiment Sampler (Paper Smooches)
Snippets: Pale textured yellow, Pale pink & Dotty hyacinth card scraps, Rhinestone Stickles.

I think that's all from me for now! Our guest designer at CC&S this month is Magic Flying Boots who has featured in our weekly favourites several times lately with her stunning designs so be sure to drop by and say hello!

Stef x

CC&S #133: Colour challenge

I made my card for this week's CAS Colours and Sketches colour challenge very late one night for my friend Ros's retirement from the school where I work. Sometimes those cards turn out to be better than those made when you're wide awake! I'm not entirely happy with the way the background came out but I loved watercoloring the flower.

I have used the Gerbera stamp set from Uniko Studio. The flower has been stamped with Versamark and heat embossed using white EP. I masked the flower and stamped and embossed two leaves to sit behind it.

The other week I found a fantastic Brilliance ink pad in my local craft shop. The colour is 'Rocket Red Gold' and I have been dying to have a play with it. It is the most gorgeous shade of red/orange/pink with a gold shimmer in it and I thought it matched rather well with Jane's choice of Melon Mambo for this week. The flower has been painstakingly colored with this and a matching turquoise green for the leaves. I thought the flower needed lifting from the background a little so used a very watered down shade of brown. I then cut a frame from the image and mounted both pieces onto separate pieces of dark brown cardstock before sticking them back one on top of the other. A sentiment from the same set stamped in the same brown ink finishes the card.

I would also like to enter the following challenges:
CAS on Sunday: Challenge #62 Embossing

And also CAS-ual Fridays: CFC #141 Embossing

Supplies Used:
Stamp set: Pure Florals: Gerbera (Uniko Studio)
Ink pads: Rocket Red Gold (Brilliance), Celadon (Versacolor) & Espresso Truffle (Memento)
Snippets: White EP, White linen & Dark brown cardstock

I hope this close-up might show the gold shimmer in the ink a little better! It would be lovely to see a few more entries in this week's gallery before you all go off on your summer holidays! Just remember to only use the three challenge colours chosen by Jane plus any neutrals.

Thanks for visiting today!
Stef x

CC&S #122: The dreaded double?

Do you dread it or do you love it? As April has five Thursdays we have both a sketch and a colour palette chosen by Louise for you at CAS Colours and Sketches this week.

I've been wanting to join in the challenges over at Uniko Studio for a while and thought I would try and kill two birds with one stone. It's been a real challenge! I pondered over Louise's sketch and decided to use one of Bev's trailing vine stamps, but then couldn't find an ink pad to match 'Calypso Coral' from amongst my stash anywhere! It got really complicated as I only have a small collection of Uniko Studio stamps at the moment and definitely don't have anything that remotely resembles 'Things With Wings'...hmmm!

So after some thought, I set about creating butterflies from one of the 'Flower Power' sets using the half flower, experimenting with stamping two of the three petals and then trying to create a mirror image. I think they turned out OK and have got a few spares to use another time. I cut them out and mounted on foam pads adding some adhesive pearls and stamping a few tiny flowers and dots from the vine set in the challenge colours along with a sentiment also from the 'Flower Power' set.

I hope that Louise thinks I have been true enough to her sketch and that Bev approves of my butterfly creations.

Supplies Used:

Stamp sets: Background Builders - Vines & Flower Power #2 (Uniko Studio)

Ink pads: Pacific, Smoke Blue (Versa Color) & Orange (Whispers)

Snippets: White adhesive pearls

Next month it will be my turn to host the CC&S challenges. I can't wait to share my colours and sketches with you and hope you'll continue to play along!

Stef x  

CAS Colours and Sketches #111

This week we have a sketch for you at CAS Colours and Sketches. It's strange how sometimes the simplest of things can go wrong. I decided what I wanted to do with the sketch but then had loads of problems with the making, mounting and photographing of the finished card. I got ink all over the 'white space' of the card from my messy hands right where I didn't want it so had to remount it and then I had to take about 15 photos before I got one I was happy with! Still, I am happy enough with the finished card and will re-learn the lesson about inky fingers!!

I have stuck very closely to Patricia's sketch and have used Uniko Studio's Background Builders: Vines to stamp the floral borders using the solid rose overstamped with the petals. I went to the 'Stitching, Sewing & Hobbycrafts' show at Event City in Manchester last Saturday. I had decided to replace some of my really old ink pads and bought some Memento ink pads for the first time which I thought I would try out. The stems are stamped with 'Gray Flannel', the solid roses with 'Angel Pink' and the petals with the aptly named 'Rose Bud'. The birthday greeting is stamped with 'Tuxedo Black'.

I would also like to wish the 'Less is More' challenge blog a very happy fourth birthday this week and enter my card into their challenge which is to use the colours pink and grey.

I really loved working with this sketch and look forward to seeing your interpretations.
Stef x

CAS Colours and Sketches Challenge #109

I must admit that I found this week's challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches quite tricky. I studied the sketch graphic for ages before deciding how to interpret it but then it's good to be really challenged sometimes and do something outside of your comfort zone. As it's a fifth week of the month it's a double take and is therefore also a colour challenge.

I have kept my card very simple and made it for a male work colleague whose birthday falls this week. I have turned the sketch 90 degrees and played with my new chevron stamps from Uniko Studio to make the background and then matted and layered this onto a piece of green cardstock. The two small squares in the centre of the sketch have been transformed into the first two letters of 'Happy Birthday' using some ancient See D alphabet stamps lurking in the bottom of one of my drawers. The rest of the sentiment is computer-generated in the same font and has just been raised at one end with foam pads to counteract the layering.

As I don't have any SU products the inks I have used are Whispers Chestnut, Whispers Sage and Adirondack Lettuce, these being the closest I could find to match the SU colours in the challenge.

Not really sure I like the finished card but I've no time to make another one this week. Still I can't wait to see what you make of it!
Stef x

NNBUS Versus RONBUS!

Lots of you will have come across Darnell's quirky blog! She coined the phrase NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) and set up a challenge to encourage us all to use our NBUS to avoid it being forgotten about and left at the back of a drawer somewhere! Some people have interpreted this to mean any stash they haven't used before, even newly acquired items. So I set myself a challenge this afternoon to make two cards, the first using some NNBUS (brand New NBUS) and secondly to use what I'm going to call RONBUS (Really Old NBUS)!

 

Bev' original card used for inspiration

My first card uses some of my sale goodies from Uniko Studio. It uses the Background Builders: Chevrons and the Flower Power 2 stamp sets. I was looking at Bev's Pinterest board for some ideas as her products are relatively new to me and have CASed one of her cards, so I hope she doesn't mind!

I have chosen the turquoise and lime colours (along with black and white) to fit in with the ShowCASe your style challenge #6: Colour challenge. The inks are Versacolor Turquoise and Split Pea. To make the leaves I have coloured a piece of hammered cardstock with Split Pea ink and punched with a Martha Stewart leaf punch. 

This CAS challenge is new to me and this card is definitely where my style is at the moment. I will also enter it into Darnell's challenge and see whether she thinks my NNBUS card is better than my RONBUS one!

My second card uses stuff that I have had for years and personally I don't like it as much as the first card. It reminds me of cards I would have made a few years back and I guess that's why!

The die is an XCut Lacé die and I thought I would use it given its appropriateness to the time of year. The fabric brad is from a set called Riverbank Revels by Trimcraft. I think I bought both these items in a sale quite some years ago! The sentiment stamp is a freebie from a craft mag that I have had for ages. CASology have linked in with Darnell's challenge this week and have NBUS as their cue card so I would like to enter this into their challenge #129 (I think you can only enter once otherwise I would have entered both cards) and also into Darnell's (where I know you can enter more than once).
Edit: I can't see how to enter two cards from the same post on my blog into the same link more than once on a challenge blog.

I have also colour-themed it to fit in with another new challenge to me Colour Me where the colours are Pacific Point and Real Red (along with neutrals).

That's all from me today. I will be back later in the week with my CAS Colours and Sketches card. A new year and I have entered three new to me challenges. Can't be bad!


Take care
Stef x