Hello there! It’s the start of a new year of challenges at CAS Colours & Sketches!

As usual, we’re starting off with a color challenge. Jeanne, our host for the month of January, has chosen some lovely bright, rich colors for us to work with. My brain toyed with the idea of doing something with florals, but I wasn’t completely sold on that, so I decided to browse through some of the other online challenges to see what they had going on. The Paper Players is asking participants to create a birthday card, and AAA Cards has a sketch challenge. The proverbial light bulb went off in my head, and I came up with this:

OK, it may not be the most conventional color trio to see on party hats, but I thought it worked all right.  Grouping the hats was tricky, and I realize that viewing the hats as one whole image, it’s not centered, but oh well.  I know I’m picky about that kind of thing. 

I hope you’ll join in the fun and creativity at CC&S! You have until 6:00 p.m. Eastern U.S. time Monday, January 22 to link your card to the challenge post. Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps: Hats Off to You, So Much to Say, Happy Everything (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Solar White (Neenah); Berry Burst (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine)
Other: markers (Copic); Stitched Rectangle die (Lawn Fawn)

Hello!  I decided to join in the color challenge this week at CAS Colours & Sketches.

I thought the pretty colors worked well for Easter since that’s coming up pretty soon.  I’ve also been eyeing the current AAA Cards challenge and decided to combine that with the color scheme.  I stamped the bunny and some Easter eggs on a scrap of white cardstock, colored them with Copics (trying to match the challenge colors), and fussy cut them.  I opted for a landscape-oriented card using the challenge green for the card base.  To create the little scene, I used a die to cut out a rectangle that was 1/9 the size of the white card front, arranged the bunny and the eggs around it, and attached the white panel to the card base with shims of scrap cardstock underneath it to give it a little dimension.

 

Thanks for stopping by today!  Remember, the CC&S challenge will remain open until 6:00 p.m. Eastern U.S. time Monday, March 7.  We hope you’ll join in the fun and creativity!

Supplies:
Stamps: Happy Easter (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Soft Sea Foam (Stampin’ Up); Solar White (Neenah)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: markers (Copic); rectangle die (Spellbinders)

Hello hello!  At CAS Colours & Sketches, we’re celebrating our challenge blog’s 400th challenge this week!  To thank our challenge participants for helping us to reach this milestone, we’re offering up a prize from Uniko to one lucky player in this week’s challenge.  You won’t want to miss out on this event!  All the details are at the challenge site.

We’re also getting into the holiday spirit by asking our challenge participants to choose any CC&S challenge from 2020 and turn it into a seasonal card.  I ended up using the mirror image of sketch challenge #381.  To get the variegated lighter shade of green for the leaves on the wreath, I inked up the stamp and then pressed a paper towel against the ink, to lift some of the ink off the stamp.  Then I stamped onto the cardstock.

We’d love to see what you can create with this week’s colors, and to have you join in celebrating with us!  Share your card at the CC&S website by 6:00 p.m. Eastern time Monday, December 14, 2020.  We hope you’ll continue to join in our challenges.  Thank you to our fantastic sponsor for this week, Uniko!

https://uniko.co.uk/blog

I’m joining in the challenges at AAA Cards and The Paper Players with today’s card, too!

All supplies for this card are from Stampin’ Up:
Stamps: Wondrous Wreath, Short & Sweet
Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Thick Whisper White
Ink: Wild Wasabi, Cherry Cobbler
Other: Wonderful Wreath Framelits dies

Wow!  It’s already the third Tuesday in November, and that means it’s color challenge time again at CAS Colours & Sketches.

I decided to combine the colors with the sketch from the current AAA Cards challenge and the theme from this week’s challenge at The Paper Players.  I used a tree die for the vertical and horizontal elements of the sketch, and I hope with the wash of color for the sky behind it, that I’m not taking too many liberties with the sketch idea.  The little birdie fills in for the “any shape” element.  I stamped the birdie onto a scrap of cardstock, colored him in the grey and darker purple of the challenge colors, and fussy cut him (even around his tiny little legs!) so I could glue him in place on his perch.  Then I used my stamping platform to help me add the sentiment precisely in place.  I opted to use the grey from the challenge color trio for the card base because it’s neutral and it matched my coloring the best.

 

What will the CC&S colors inspire you to create?  We’d love to see your clean and simple card in our challenge gallery!  You have until 6:00 p.m. Eastern U.S. time Monday, November 23 to link your card to the challenge post.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps: Winter Sparrows (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Basic Gray (Stampin’ Up); The Langton Prestige Extra Smooth Hot Press watercolor paper (Daler-Rowney); Pure Luxury White (Gina K. Designs)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: Almost Amethyst reinker (SU); markers (Copic); Winter Trees die (Penny Black)

Hello there!  It’s time for a new color challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches.

When I first saw that several of my fellow design team members had used flowers on their cards for this challenge, I tried thinking of other ways to use the colors.  But I just couldn’t get flowers out of my head, especially after seeing that the current challenge at Less is More calls for using flowers.  So I decided to combine that theme challenge with the “along the edge” layout challenge at AAA Cards and our CC&S colors.  I chose one of my older Stampin’ Up sets for the flower image.  It’s actually a two-part stamp where the blossoms and foliage are two separate stamps, which makes it easy to use multiple colors for the image.  Confession time – for a long time I thought this image was of a gladiolus, and just a couple of years ago I realized it’s probably supposed to be a hollyhock.  Ooops.  I’m not sure I’ve ever seen real hollyhocks, but my mom had gladioli in her flower border, so I guess my mind tricked me into thinking it was what I was familiar with.   Anyway…  I used very narrow strips of cardstock in two of the challenge colors along the edge of the card to give it a little extra color, and stamped the sentiment in the same color as the card base.  I don’t have any actual Terracotta Tile cardstock or ink, so I used what I had that seemed like the closest match.  And here’s the final product:

 

How will you use these colors?  Be sure to check out the CC&S blog to see what the rest of the design team and our August guest designer have made.  Once you’ve made your own card, be sure to link it at the challenge post by 6:00 p.m. Eastern time Monday, August 10.  We’d love to have you join us!  Thanks for stopping by today.

All supplies for this card are from Stampin’ Up.
Stamps: Spring Garden, Trendy Trees
Cardstock: Garden Green, Cajun Craze, Blushing Bride, Whisper White
Ink: Garden Green, Blushing Bride
Other: Really Rust marker

Well hello there!  We’re starting a new month of challenges at CAS Colours & Sketches today, and with it, the design team is doing something a little bit different.  Instead of having one team member being the hostess for the entire month, we have five team members each hosting one challenge this month, and the other four members will each host a challenge in July.

As always, the challenge for the first week of the month is a color challenge.  I’ll admit it took me a little while to settle on what kind of design to use with these week’s colors.  In the end I figured one can pretty much never go wrong with florals.  The green in the challenge combo worked perfectly for the stems and leaves, and the light aqua made some pretty blossoms.  The kraft cardstock is a nice neutral to ground the elements together.  In retrospect I probably should have had the stems extend off the base of the card so they’re not “floating” so much, but it’s too late now – the card is in the mail to its recipient already!

This card works into the top row of the current Tic-Tac-Toe challenge at The Paper Players.  OK, maybe it’s not THE most girly card, but it’s definitely more feminine than masculine!  I’m also going to use this card to join in the celebration at AAA Cards.  Happy 6th birthday to their challenge!

 

 

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I hope you’ll make a card with these challenge colors and share it with us at CC&S.  You have until 6:00 p.m. Eastern U.S. time Monday, June 8 to link your card at the challenge site.

Supplies:
Stamps: Painted Petals (Stampin’ Up); Birthday Greetings (Gina K. Designs)
Cardstock: Pool Party, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla (SU)
Ink: Pool Party, Pear Pizzazz, Crumb Cake (SU)

Hello there!  After taking a little break last week, my creativity is back in the saddle again for this week’s challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches.  We have a sketch to follow this week.

I originally planned to make another Easter card that I could donate to Send a Smile 4 Kids, but none of my Easter stamps seemed to fit the sketch very well.  As I was browsing through my stamps I rediscovered a set of fruit and vegetable stamps I hadn’t used in a long time.  The beet seemed like it would work with the sketch, if I flipped the sketch mirror-image.  So I decided to roll with that idea.  For the circular element, I thought about using a different color, or even a patterned paper, but in the end I went a much more CAS route by piercing the circular shape on the card panel.  Then I stamped the beet and the sentiment, and I colored the sentiment with colored pencils blended with odorless mineral spirits.  I attached the panel to a card base that matches the colored pencil better in real life than the photo makes it look.

I’m going to enter this into the current AAA Cards challenge.  I concede that the corner idea might be a bit of a stretch, but since the last time I used this stamp set was 2015 I think I’ve gotten the twist of using older supplies.

 

What will you do with this sketch?  There are so many possibilities!  Be sure to go see what the rest of the Design Team has made.  I hope you’ll try out something and share what you create with us!  Link your work to the CAS Colours & Sketches blog by 6:00 p.m. Eastern time Monday, March 2.  Thank you for stopping by today!  Comments are always welcome and appreciated!

Supplies:
Stamps: Punny Fruits & Veggies (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)
Cardstock: Berry Burst (Stampin’ Up); Solar White (Neenah)
Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine)
Other: Premier colored pencils (Prismacolor); odorless mineral spirits (Gamsol); Paper Piercing Pack Essentials (SU); piercing tool

Hello there!  It’s time for a new month of challenges at CAS Colours & Sketches.  Our host this time is Samantha and she has some fun ideas in store for us!  As always, we start off the month with a color challenge.

I opted to get into February’s Valentine season for my card, using a die I bought a few weeks ago.  I started by using the die along the edge of a card front cut from shimmery cardstock.  I was careful to keep all the hearts that were cut so that I could use markers to color them in the pink and red of the challenge combo.  I added more layers of color to some of them to give some depth to them.  I stamped the sentiment on the card front, opting not to heat emboss it so it would better match the metallic silver cardstock I attached to the edge of a pink card base.  I added a shim of the pink cardstock to the other side of the card to make up the difference in layers before carefully attaching the white card front into place.  Then I glued the colored hearts back into place.

The card layout is more or less based on last week’s CC&S sketch challenge.  I didn’t put a ruler to it to measure it for exactness, but I think it’s close enough to count for the current challenge at AAA Cards.  It definitely includes their optional twist!

I just realized my card also fits the current CASology challenge so I’m going to enter it there, too.

 

Of course, just because we had Valentine’s Day in mind at CC&S, it doesn’t mean that you need to create a Valentine card in order to participate in our challenge!  Let your creativity take you wherever it wants to go.  Just be sure to share your card with us at the challenge site before the linky tool closes at 6:00 p.m. Eastern time Monday, February 10.  We’d love to have you join us!  Thanks for stopping by today.

Supplies:
Stamps: Happy Everything (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Flirty Flamingo, Metallic Silver (Stampin’ Up); Cryogen White (Curious Metallic)
Ink: Silver (ColorBox)
Other: Cascading Hearts Border die (Technique Tuesday); markers (Copic)

Hello!  It’s another Tuesday, which means it’s new challenge day at CAS Colours & Sketches!  This week we have a trio of colors for you to work with.

The colors initially spoke nature and flowers to me, and when I was starting to work on my card yesterday, I noticed that several of my CC&S design teammates had used floral images for their cards.  Then I felt like I wanted to go with something different to add some variety to the mix.  I saw that the AAA Challenge was to create a one layer card with an optional twist of including a polar animal.  Even though one layer cards are not my favorite (because there’s nowhere to hide any mistakes!) I decided I’d try combining the challenges.  Since I don’t own any ink or cardstock in the challenge colors, I knew I’d have to do some coloring with either markers or colored pencils in similar colors.  I hadn’t used this polar bear image for a while, but it’s a great image to color and it fit into the AAA challenge twist.  My original thought was to use all three colors on the scarf, but then I realized the blue would make a nice sky color for the background.  Using colored pencils blended with odorless mineral spirits means no color bleed through to the inside of the card (another reason why I shy away from one layer cards).  The sentiment comes from a different stamp set that I haven’t used in years.  I chose it because it filled out the space on the card better than any of the sentiments in the set with the image.  I rounded the bottom corner for two reasons – to give a little extra visual interest following the curve of the image, and to trim off a corner of the cardstock that had gotten slightly bent.

 

After browsing around some more challenge blogs, I believe this card also works for the current challenges at Less is More and Addicted to CAS.

                                                         

We’d love to see what you can create with this week’s colors! Share your card at the CC&S website by 6:00 p.m. Eastern time Monday, January 27.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps: Cozy Friends (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps); Year Round Sentiments (Hero Arts)
Cardstock: Solar White (Neenah)
Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine)
Other: Premier colored pencils (Prismacolor); odorless mineral spirits (Gamsol); corner rounder punch (EK Success)

Hello!  The design team from CAS Colours & Sketches is back from holiday break and ready to begin another year of fun clean and simple challenges!

We’re starting off 2020 with a color scheme for you to consider when designing your card.  I’ve decided to fast-forward to Easter and used that for the theme of my card.  Even though I don’t typically send Easter cards, I know some people do, and I like to send a few to Send a Smile 4 Kids.  I’ve stamped a little scene following the current sketch challenge going on at AAA Cards.  The tulips are stamped directly on the card base.  I stamped the eggs and bunny on scrap pieces of cardstock and fussy cut them.  The eggs are glued directly onto the card base, but the bunny is popped up with dimensional adhesive.  The images were colored with colored pencils blended with Gamsol.  I like that this coloring method doesn’t bleed into the cardstock, so it’s good for coloring directly onto the card base.  I rounded the bottom corners of the card to give the card a little extra interest that ties in with the shape of the eggs.

Be sure to stop by the challenge blog and welcome our newest Design Team members, Julie and Shannon!  Then create your own card using these colors, and link it to the challenge site by 6:00 p.m. Eastern time Monday, January 13.  We’d love to have you join us!  Thanks for stopping by today.

Supplies:
Stamps: Happy Easter (Lawn Fawn); Lucky You (Lizzie Anne Designs)
Cardstock: Solar White (Neenah)
Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine)
Other: Premier colored pencils (Prismacolor); odorless mineral spirits (Gamsol); corner rounder punch (Stampin’ Up)

Wow!  November is flying by and it’s already time for our second color challenge of the month at CAS Colours & Sketches.

It was hard NOT to think of flowers for this week’s color combination.  I toyed with a slightly different idea but wasn’t sure I could pull it off, so I ended up choosing a floral stamp set I hadn’t used in a while.  The layered parts of the flower made it easy to incorporate all the challenge colors.  To get the two shades of green on the stem, I stamped off the solid image once, and used the full-strength ink for the details.  I couldn’t decide on a sentiment so I opted to just not use one.  The card front still seemed a little plain, so I pulled out some ribbon to embellish the card.  I don’t often use ribbon on my cards, but I think I’ve still kept this one simple enough to qualify it as CAS in style.  Even though the ribbon has a different color name than the ink, I thought the two matched well enough to use them together. Having the panel offset to one corner gives the card a little additional visual interest.

I’m going to go ahead and enter this card into the current challenge at AAA Cards, where they are asking for CAS cards with just one image.

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you’ll share your own card with the CC&S challenge colors by linking it to the CC&S site by 6:00 p.m. Eastern time Monday, November 25.

All supplies for this card are from Stampin’ Up:
Stamps: Lotus Blossom
Cardstock: Blushing Bride, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White
Ink: Blushing Bride, Rich Razzleberry, Pear Pizzazz
Other: Certainly Celery satin ribbon

Hello!  It’s time for a new month of challenges at CAS Colours & SketchesKaren and I are sharing hosting duties during November.  I hope you’ll enjoy the cards the design team and I make, and I hope you’ll join in and make some cards, too.

A new month always gets started off with a color challenge, and I’ve chosen the colors for this week.  I don’t remember exactly what I had in mind when I picked them, but I ended up pulling out a butterfly die to use with them.  The die cuts the curvy line and the butterflies all together, so I put it through my die cutting machine three times, once for each color.  Then I fussy cut the red and yellow butterflies so I could glue them into place over top the lavender one.  The die doesn’t cut wide enough to stretch across an A2 card base, so I also die cut a panel the width of the die.  I wanted to give the focal panel more definition from the card base, so I put a scrap piece of cardstock behind it to act as a shim and raise it up just a bit.  (OK, I’ll admit that by “scrap piece of cardstock” I mean my first attempt at the focal panel, where the sentiment stamp wiggled on me and made the letters look really shaky and yucky.  Ooops.)  After I stamped the sentiment, I added a few tiny pearl embellishments for the butterflies’ bodies, and called the card done.  Very clean and simple!

As always with our color challenges, you may substitute any companies’ products for the Stampin’ Up colors, so long as you match the colors as closely as possible.  I’ve done that myself this week, substituting retired colors of SU cardstock and ink for the heather and mango colors.

I’m going to enter this card into challenge #152 at AAA Cards.  I don’t think the butterflies will qualify for the geometric twist, but I do think the white space on this card is pretty well maximized.

 

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you’ll make a card with these colors and share it with us at CC&S. You have until 6:00 p.m. Eastern time Monday, November 11 to link your card at the challenge site.

Supplies:
Stamp: So Much to Say (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Thick Whisper White, Lavender Lace, Poppy Parade, Marigold Morning (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: Lavender Lace (SU)
Other: pearls (SU); Happy Butterfly Sash die (Poppystamps); Stitched Rectangle die (Lawn Fawn)

Hello there!  It’s time for a new color challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches.

I decided to create a little scene on my card.  For each color, I pressed the ink pad onto an acrylic block and spritzed the ink with water; then I painted a wash of color onto the cardstock (the red, bright blue, and grey were done on scraps; the pale blue was done on a card front).  I stamped the balloons and the elephant onto their respective colors after the washes dried.  When the pale blue was dry, I masked off a small area at the bottom of it and dabbed red and blue ink into the area to create a ground for the elephant.  Then I fussy cut the elephant and balloons, positioned them into place so I knew where to draw in the balloon strings, and then glued everything to the card front.  Finally I attached the card front to a pale blue card base.  I opted not to put a sentiment on the card.  I’ll be donating it to Send a Smile 4 Kids, and I figured without a sentiment, it could be used for a wider variety of occasions.

I kept the current AAA Cards challenge in the back of my head while I was figuring out the layout for my scene.

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you’ll join us over at CAS Colours & Sketches with your own take on these colors!  You have until 6:00 p.m. Eastern time Monday, October 21 to link your card at the challenge website.  Also, we’re looking to add some new members to our design team, so if this is something you’re interested in, be sure to add the letters “DT” to your name when you link your card, and play along in next week’s sketch challenge, too!

Supplies:
Stamps: Ellie, Storybook (Avery Elle)
Cardstock: Pool Party (SU); watercolor paper (Artist’s Loft)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); Pacific Point, Pool Party, Real Red, Smoky Slate (Stampin’ Up)
Other: multiliner pen (Copic)

CAS Colours & Sketches #336

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Aug 272019

Hello!  We have one last challenge for you this month at CAS Colours & Sketches and this time it’s a sketch challenge.

After browsing through my craft supplies and looking for images and dies that would work with the sketch, I decided to use my snowflake dies for the star elements of the sketch.  I originally planned to cut them from shimmery white cardstock and add a bit of blue ink to them to give them some definition.  But in my folder of shimmery cardstock, I found some leftovers from when I made my family’s Christmas cards a few years ago.  So I saved myself some time by cutting the snowflakes from the blue section of the cards that didn’t get finished then.  I added a couple of rhinestones to the snowflakes to give them a little extra sparkle.  I used shimmery white cardstock for the card base because it reminds me of the sun sparkling on fresh white snow – although it’s hard to capture that in my photo of the card.  I wanted to create the mood of falling snow, so I used a portrait-oriented card base.  A set of alphabet stamps made it easy for me to make the sentiment with the words oriented vertically.  And there you have it – a very CAS card!

 

What will you create with this sketch?  Share your work with us at the CAS Colours & Sketches site by 6:00 p.m. Eastern time Monday, September 2. Be sure to check out what the other design team members have made, too!  Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps: Jessie’s ABCs (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Cryogen White (Curious Metallic)
Ink: Pacific Point (Stampin’ Up)
Other: gel sticks (Faber Castell); Stitched Snowflakes dies (Lawn Fawn); rhinestones (SU)

Well hi there!  It’s color challenge week at CAS Colours & Sketches.

I decided to go floral with the colors. I used just part of one of my newest stamps because the stamp itself is a whopping seven inches long.  The yellow leaves are a little different, but I thought about how the leaves on my balloon flowers turn yellow after we get frosty fall weather so I went with it even though the stamped blossoms aren’t balloon flower blossoms.

I kept the current AAA Cards challenge in my mind as I was working on the layout for this card.  I couldn’t think of a song to tie into it, though.

 

There ya have it!  I hope you’ll try this color challenge and share your card with us at CC&S!  You have until 6:00 p.m. Eastern time Monday, August 26 to link your card at the challenge site.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps: Delightful (Penny Black); Everyday Greetings Collection (Wordsworth)
Cardstock: Solar White (Neenah); Crushed Curry (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: markers (Copic)

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