A New Year, a New CC&S Challenge and a New Design Team!

Hi everyone and a warm welcome to a new year of challenges at CAS Colours and Sketches. Whether it is your first time of playing along with us or you are a seasoned CC&S crafter it is great to share our creative makes with you and to see the wonderful ways in which you interpret our challenges! We have doubled our DT and this month we welcome Bev, Caro, Karen and Liz to the team and are all super excited to be sharing this journey with them.

This month our wonderful team leader Patricia is our hostess and she has chosen a cool wintry colour palette for us this week. As I often do when trying to decide what card to make I had a look at a couple of other current challenges to focus my thoughts and choose a starting point.

I decided to make a winter thank you card using PanPastels, which haven't had much love recently and a stencil technique with glossy white stencil paste. I completely forgot that I don't actually own any glossy white paste and ended up experimenting with making my own using pearlescent paste and adding some white gesso (I have two pots of pearlescent paste and think I must have accidentally picked the wrong one up at the last show I went to)! It worked reasonably well but isn't as glossy as it might have been - oh well, I will just have to go shopping! For the background, I used two colours of PanPastels to match the blues in Patricia's palette and stamped a few snowflakes over the top before doing the stencilling. Once dry the card was simply finished with a computer-generated sentiment and a few adhesive pearls.

Supplies Used:
PanPastels: Turquoise, Pthalo Blue Tint
Stamps: Large snowflake (Magazine free gift set), Small snowflake from Mistletoe Kisses set (Papermania)
Inkpads: Summer Sky (Memento), Cement (Versa Color)
Stencil: Snowflake (Woodware)
Stencil Paste: Pearlescent White (Sweet Poppy Stencils)
Snippets: Linen cardstock, White gesso, Adhesive pearls

I would like to enter the following challenges:
Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge: Frozen
The blues, whites and marble greys of their inspiration photo match our colour scheme perfectly!

Inkspirational #99: Thank You With Something New
The Woodware stencil is new to me as was my attempt at creating a white paste, plus I have entered two challenges both new to me!

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today. I'm updating to Windows 10 over the next couple of weeks and then hope to revamp my blog in the February half term. Please upload your creations to the CC&S blog and share them with us. We love to see what you are all making!

Stef x

CC&S #119: Sketch

What with being ill and having family to stay for Easter, my card for CAS Colours and Sketches is ever so slightly late this week but only by about half an hour so I'll make this a quick post.

My inspiration came from Louise's fab sketch and also from Less is More where their challenge this week is a colour challenge to use 'predominantly black'. I was going to do some Zentangle which I love doing but ran out of time, so I used some 'zentangly' stamps instead! The black background has been embossed with a birthday embossing folder. I have used touches of turquoise just to 'lift' the design by edging the background with a narrow mat, by using small turquoise sequins in the centres of the flowers and finishing the design with a small butterfly.

Supplies used:
Stamps: Mini flowers (Woodware)
Embossing folder: Happy Birthday (Papermania)
Snippets: Turquoise card, sequins and butterfly

Thanks for visiting my blog today. Can't wait to see what you do with Louise's great sketch!
Stef x

CAS Colours and Sketches Challenge #107

This week at CAS Colours and Sketches, we have a colour challenge and the first time I saw the colour combo I immediately thought of a robin. Most UK gardens seem to have their own little territorial robin and ours is no different. It's lovely to see its little splash of colour in the garden on what can otherwise be a grey wintry day. Hence, I don't see why robins should be confined just to Christmas cards! We seem to have a lot of winter birthdays amongst our friends and family and this week is my brother-in-law Keith's birthday so I have made this card for him.

The main image is a patchwork robin stamp from Woodware that has been stamped, scanned and digitally resized to get the size I wanted. It has been simply coloured using my Derwent colour pencils which I've had for donkeys years and are still going strong! I've used colours 15 and 55 to match the SU colours chosen. The sentiment has been hand-stamped in Stazon black. Again I've had this little sentiment stamp for a long time and can't remember who it's by. It always stamps nicely and seems to be a little forgiving if it's not quite straight (but I think it's OK today)! I haven't used faux stitching for some time but it seemed to fit with the patchwork nature of the stamp and I don't think it detracts from the overall CAS style. The finished piece has been matted and layered, first, onto a piece of kraft cardstock and, secondly, onto a white card blank.

My sale goodies from Oyster Stamps and Uniko Studio have arrived so hopefully I will get to play with them during this next week.

That's it from me today. Can't wait to see how this colour combo inspires your creations!

Stef x

First Christmas Card!

I haven't made many Christmas cards yet, I just don't get the time. I have made this week an exception though and have enjoyed a bit of a crafty week but will have to catch up with other things next week... maybe!

The 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown Challenge are looking for DT members. I would love to join a DT. If I had deadlines to meet then my crafting could become a higher priority than it is now and I wouldn't feel so guilty about not doing other things! So I thought I would throw my hat into the ring and make a card to fit their sketch. The card I have made also fits nicely with the non-traditional colour Christmas card theme on one of my favourite challenge blogs, Less is More.

I have adopted a colour scheme of neutrals and metallic neutrals. The stamp is Woodware's Christmas tree bubble stamp which I have stamped with white ink and embossed with white glitter EP. It has been adorned with a variety of adhesive gems & pearls, small brads, Craftwork Cards' Candi and metallic markers. The sentiment is from the same stamp set. As you can see I have followed 52CCT's sketch quite closely. Instead of stitching around the edge I have matted and layered the stamped panel onto kraft cardstock.

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

52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown: November sketch challenge and DT call

Less is More: 196 Non-traditional colour Christmas card

Thanks for stopping by today

Stef x

CAS on Sunday #43 and my first jewellery project!

When looking for inspiration to make my brother Neil a birthday card, I came across this week's CAS 'Lift a Card' challenge on CAS on Sunday's blog and thought I would give it a go. The original card looks like this...

And here is my take on the original design...

I don't have any alphabet dies but found these Doodlebug alphabet stickers which I have had in my stash for ages so thought it was high time they got used! Whilst rummaging in my sticker drawer I also came across some Woodware peel-off bubble stickers so used one of the butterflies on a piece of white card which I fussy cut and embellished with Craftwork Cards candy (coloured with Promarkers to match the design), tiny buttons and also coloured in some of the bubbles with Promarkers. The tab is computer-generated and the ribbon I have also had for ages so the whole project turned out to be a really good way of using some of my old stash!


So I would like to enter my finished card into the following challenge:
CAS on Sunday: #43 Lift a card



The other project I would like to share with you is my first proper adventure into jewellery making. I have made Kumihimo braids with my Guides lots of times before but have never had a serious go at making an adult bracelet. This pattern is a 12-strand twisted Kumihimo braid made with 2mm rattail cord. I made it for my friend Angela's birthday. I was very pleased with the end result (though I learned a lot about sizing on the way) and think that Angela really liked it too. I was immediately asked to make another one for someone else and will probably make some more in different colourways to give as Christmas presents.

Thanks for looking at my blog today.

Stef x