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CAS Colours & Sketches #143

Sep 242015

Hello there! It’s the fourth Thursday of the month, which means at CAS Colours & Sketches, we have a new sketch challenge for you to try. This one is open to interpretation in different ways – any shape can be substituted for the star shapes, and the sketch may be rotated or flipped or manipulated to a rectangle if you desire.

I’ve stretched the sketch into a landscape-oriented rectangle. You might remember that a couple weeks ago I shared a card with some leaves I had die cut from cardstock colored with a watercolor wash. I had about half of that piece of cardstock left over, so I’ve put it to use for today’s card. Once again I’ve die cut leaves from it, and I arranged them on my card front in place of the star shapes. It doesn’t show in the photo, but the vanilla cardstock for the card front is textured. The maple and oak leaves were stacked with additional cardstock underneath, so they have a bit of dimension, which was also hard to capture in the photo. I thought this sentiment went well with the brightly colored leaves. The stamp has the sentiment all in one line, but due to the space on my card, I’ve broken it up into two lines, which also allowed me to highlight the last two words in a different color. I thought it was a good positive attitude type sentiment for a card to send to Send a Smile 4 Kids.

I had die cut an extra leaf when I was making my card a few weeks ago, so I put it to use to brighten the inside of the card. This photo shows the dimension of the two larger leaves a little better than the other photo.

I’m submitting my card to a few other challenges. AEIHeartU is looking for cards with a non-white base, Addicted to CAS would like to see cards with leaves, and Retro Rubber is asking their participants to show off an ombre effect like I’ve done with the leaves. (Edited after I received Katy’s comment to add – I’ve had this stamp set for about 15 months. Thanks for the reminder to note that for the Retro Rubber challenge!)

Challenge 28

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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 Wednesday, September 30. Thank you for stopping by today! Comments are always welcome and appreciated!

Supplies:
Stamp: So Happy (Avery Elle)
Cardstock: Marigold Morning, Very Vanilla textured (Stampin’ Up); watercolor paper (Artist’s Loft)
Ink: Marigold Morning, Real Red (SU)
Other: Riding Hood Red and More Mustard reinkers (SU); Stitched Leaves dies (Lawn Fawn); corner rounder punch (EK Success)

CAS Colours & Sketches #142

16 Responses »

Sep 172015

Hello! This week at CAS Colours & Sketches we have another color challenge for you. This time we have some great colors from nature, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what our challenge participants do with them.

My card combines the color challenge with several other challenges. The layout for my card is taken from the CAS(E) this Sketch! challenge that will be closing later this morning. I don’t have any alien/outer space stamps that fit the theme for the current Shopping Our Stash challenge, but I thought this monster stamp worked well with the colors. Aliens could be monsters, right? The monster stamp is an oldie but goodie from a set I bought about five years ago. The background stamp is even older than that. I used it here to stamp a background for the monster, forming a gradient with the greens, making this card eligible for the current Retro Rubber challenge. I used dimensional adhesive to pop up the monster over the background. The sentiment comes from the same stamp set as the monster image.

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Be sure to check out what the rest of the CC&S Design Team has done with these colors! Then share your own card with us by linking it to the challenge post by 6:00 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday, September 23. We’d love to have you join us!

Supplies:
Stamps: Little Monsters (Lizzie Anne Designs); Single Brushstroke (Hero Arts)
Cardstock: Wild Wasabi, Chocolate Chip (Stampin’ Up); Pure Luxury White (Gina K. Designs)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); Chocolate Chip (SU)
Other: markers (Copic); Word Bubbles Framelits die, dimensionals (SU)

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - September sketch challenge

10 Responses »

Sep 052015

Hello! The year is passing by quickly! Can you believe there are less than 4 months until Christmas? If you’ve been participating in our challenges at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown, you should have a nice supply of Christmas cards on hand ready to use for the upcoming season.

Our challenges this month start off with a sketch challenge. As always, you’re welcome to turn the sketch on its side or manipulate it into a square. So long as the basic shapes of the sketch are easily recognizable in your card, it’s all good. For my card, I’ve stayed pretty true to how the sketch was drawn. It’s a good one for using some designer papers! The biggest change I made to the sketch was substituting a bow for the snowflake embellishment. In real life, the color of the bow matches the red ink and cardstock better than it shows in the photo. I opted not to put a sentiment on the card so it could be used any time throughout winter, and not specifically for Christmas.

I’m linking this card to the current challenges at Shopping Our Stash and Retro Rubber.

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Go see what the rest of the 52CCT design team has done with this sketch, and then show us your own take on it! We’d love to have you share your card at the 52CCT site. The challenge deadline is 7:00 p.m. Eastern time Friday, September 11. Please join in the fun and creativity!

Supplies:
Stamp: A Beautiful Season (Stampin’ Up)
Cardstock: Riding Hood Red (SU); Pure Luxury White (Gina K. Designs); designer papers from Very Merry Christmas 6″ x 6″ paper pad (Echo Park)
Ink: Riding Hood Red (SU)
Other: Large Scallop Edgelits die, Cherry Cobbler seam binding, dimensionals (SU)

sketchy, snarky numbers

13 Responses »

Aug 102015

Hello! Here’s a reasonably quick card I made this morning combining a few challenges. The Retro Rubber challenge has a numbers theme, so that gave me the perfect reason to use this designer paper that I’ve had for a while. I’ve had the stamp set with this sentiment for about 18 months now. I like reading this sentiment with emphasis on the word “how”, as in, “You’re HOW old?” said with a lot of snarky disbelief – so that ties in with the Shopping Our Stash and Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers challenges. The layout for this card is from Freshly Made Sketches. It’s hard to see in the photo, but the yellow panel behind the sentiment is dry embossed for a little bit of texture and visual interest.

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(I don’t know why the background on the FMS graphic turned black. Their graphics have been doing for me that the last few weeks. They used to be white. Call me confuzzled.)

Thanks for stopping by today! All comments are read and appreciated – well, the spam ones aren’t so appreciated, but I actually do read them too.

Edited on August 17, 2015 to add: Thank you to the Retro Rubber Design Team for choosing my card as one of their Fab Five!

Supplies:
Stamp: Just Sayin’ (Stampin’ Up)
Cardstock: Gumball Green, Marigold Morning, Naturals White (Stampin’ Up); Brigham and Zachary papers from Oh Baby! Boy collection (Basic Grey)
Ink: Gumball Green (SU)
Other: Plaid embossing folder (Sizzix); dimensionals (SU)

CAS Colours & Sketches #125

14 Responses »

May 212015

Hello! It’s time for another color challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches! Our hostess, Stef, has chosen some bright springtimey colors for us this time.

I ended up making two cards for this challenge. The first one uses the sketch from the CAS(E) this Sketch! challenge that closes later this morning. I’ve used watercolor washes of the three CC&S colors for the stripes of the sketch. I die cut the word “hello” a couple times from Crushed Curry cardstock and once from black cardstock and stacked them together for the star-shaped element of the sketch. I was going for the idea of the stripes making a landscape with the “hello” working as a sun, but I’m not sure I quite achieved it because I didn’t want to blend the color washes together too much and end up with a yucky color where the purple and yellow met. But anyway, I think it will still fit into this week’s Less is More challenge theme of “hello sunshine”.

My second card is more CAS than the first one. Since I still had my reinkers out from the first card, I started off with a watercolor wash for the background. Then I added in some simple flowers and a sentiment, rounded two corners of the image panel, and adhered it to the card base. Seriously, the most time consuming part of making this card was waiting for the background to dry. This card uses the sketch from The Crooked Stamper Sketch Challenge and the “May Flowers” theme from Retro Rubber.

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Go see what the rest of the CC&S Design Team has done with these pretty colors! Then use the colors to make a card of your own, and share it with us at the CC&S challenge post. You have until 6:00 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday, May 27 to link your card. We hope you’ll join us! Thanks for stopping by today.

Supplies for the “hello sunshine” card:
Stamps: Simply Said Hello (Avery Elle)
Cardstock: Crushed Curry, Basic Black (Stampin’ Up); watercolor paper (Artist’s Loft)
Ink: Garden Green (SU)
Other: Elegant Eggplant, Crushed Curry, and Garden Green reinkers (SU); Simply Said Hello die (Avery Elle)

Supplies for the floral card:
Stamps: Spring Garden, Three Little Words (Stampin’ Up)
Cardstock: watercolor paper (Artist’s Loft)
Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Garden Green (SU)
Other: Crushed Curry reinker (SU); corner rounder punch (EK Success)

Cards in Envy - When Nature Calls

7 Responses »

May 042015

Hello, and happy Monday! It’s time for a new challenge at Cards in Envy. For the next couple of weeks, we have a challenge theme of “When Nature Calls”. Your card should feature something found in nature. Remember to make it A2 size (4.25″ x 5.5″) and thin enough to fit in an envelope.

I pulled out a lot of retired supplies for my card – the stamps, the multicolored ink pad, and the red and mustard cardstocks. I made the focal panel by liberally spritzing water onto a piece of natural cardstock, inking up the leaf stamps with the multicolored ink pad, and stamping onto the wet cardstock, which caused the dye ink to run and blur. After the cardstock dried, I stamped the leaves again, providing the detailed veining in them. The layout of my card is OWH Stars & Stamps sketch #253. I’m also going to enter this card into the current Retro Rubber “Anything Goes” challenge.

Now it’s your turn! Show us your own card depicting something found in nature by linking it to the Cards in Envy challenge post by 7:00 p.m. Eastern time Sunday, May 17. We’d love to see what you create! Thanks for stopping by today.

All supplies for this card are from Stampin’ Up unless otherwise noted:
Stamps: Autumn, Always On My Mind
Cardstock: Ruby Red, More Mustard, Naturals Ivory
Ink: Pumpkin Patch Spectrum pad
Other: standard circle Nestabilities dies (Spellbinders)

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - May sketch challenge

12 Responses »

May 022015

Hello! Saturday means it’s time for a new challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown, and I’m excited to be the challenge hostess for the month of May! We’re kicking the month off with a sketch challenge that I’ve designed. You’re welcome to rotate the sketch onto its side, flip it mirror-image, or manipulate it into a square if you like. The star-shaped element of the sketch can be replaced with any shape. So long as we can see the basic elements of the sketch in your card, it’s all good!

I’ve chosen to go with a snowy theme for my card, using a snowflake patterned paper for the “bars” along the sides of the sketch and using a die-cut snowflake for the star element. I stamped the snowflake twice, once in grey and once in aqua. I trimmed out the center of the aqua one, added a cardstock shim to the back to give it a little dimension, and then adhered it to the center of the grey snowflake. The grey snowflake also has a cardstock shim behind it to raise it up a bit from the card base. A tiny rhinestone in the center of the snowflake adds a bit of sparkle.

I’m also going to include this card in the current challenge at Retro Rubber Challenge Blog since all the stamps I’ve used are more than a year old.

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So now it’s time for you to check out all the challenge details at the 52CCT site, and visit the rest of the design team members’ blogs for more inspiration. Then create your own card and link it at the 52CCT site by 7:00 pm Eastern time Friday, May 8. I’d love to see what you do with my sketch!

Supplies:
Stamps: Festive Flurry, Season of Joy (Stampin’ Up); Winter Wishes (Unity)
Cardstock: Pure Luxury White (Gina K. Designs); Winter Frost designer series paper (SU)
Ink: Smoky Slate, Pool Party (SU)
Other: rhinestone (Recollections); Festive Flurry die (SU)

Cards in Envy - Pretty in Pink

16 Responses »

Apr 202015

Hello! It’s the third Monday of the month, which means it’s time for a new challenge at Cards in Envy. This time we have a color challenge for you – “Pretty in Pink”.

I wanted to use the current sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch! for the layout of my card. The vase of flowers in the inspiration photo at Addicted to Stamps and More nudged me in the direction of using pink flowers on my card, and the creamy white table and chairs inspired me to choose ivory for my card base. I looked through my stamp sets to figure out which one to use, and found this one that I hadn’t used for a long time. I thought it might work well with some of my stash of Prima flowers, so I went through them and found these that were just the right size, with the bonus of the darker ones matching the dark pink cardstock perfectly. The rediscovered stamp set and flowers tie into the current Shopping Our Stash challenge. The current challenge at Retro Rubber is to use brads, so I looked through my horde of brads and found these little green ones that would work as the centers of the flowers. So I was able to combine all the challenges together and came up with this:

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Now that I’ve completed my card for this challenge, I have the Psychedelic Furs song “Pretty in Pink” running through my head, and I’m tempted to see if I can find the Molly Ringwald movie on Netflix. Ah, the 1980s. Good times! 🙂

If you need additional inspiration, please go check out the Cards in Envy site and see what the rest of the design team has made. Then create your own pink card following our challenge guidelines and share it with us on the Cards in Envy site by 7:00 p.m. Eastern time Sunday, May 3. You can make your card for any occasion or theme you like, so long as the dominant color is pink, it’s A2 sized, and that there are no lumpy, bumpy embellishments that would prevent the card from being mailed at the first class postage rate. We’d love to have you play along with us! Thanks for stopping by today.

Edited on April 24, 2015: Thank you to the Addicted to Stamps and More team for naming me as an Honourable Addict for their challenge! What a sweet surprise!

Edited on April 26, 2015: Thank you also to the Retro Rubber Mod Squad for selecting my card as one of their Fab Five! What a happy way for my week to start!

Supplies:
Stamps: Artfully Asian, Three Little Words (Stampin’ Up)
Cardstock: Pure Luxury Ivory (Gina K. Designs); Pink Passion, Pink Pirouette (SU)
Ink: Wild Wasabi, Pink Passion (SU)
Other: marker (Copic); flowers (Prima); brads (Recollections)

Cards in Envy - Child's Play

10 Responses »

Apr 062015

Hi there! It’s Cards in Envy challenge introduction day! For the next two weeks we have a theme challenge of “Child’s Play”. Show us your A2 sized cards that are suitable to be given to a child. Remember to keep your cards flat enough to fit in an envelope and be mailed at the first class postage rate.

Since I don’t have any young children in my life, my card is going to be sent to Operation Write Home. I wanted to keep it gender neutral, so I chose a gray and bright yellow color scheme with pops of some other colors. The cute jumping smiley face is appropriate for either a boy or a girl. Although the smiley face stamp and the sentiment stamp might seem like they were made for each other, they are from different companies. I bought them several years apart from two different stores. The layout I used for this card is the sketch from the current Retro Rubber challenge. Well, actually it’s the mirror image of the sketch. I did it that way so the smiley face would seem to be looking toward the middle of the card rather than off the edge of it.

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Be sure to check out what the rest of the Cards in Envy design team has done for this challenge, and then go make a card to brighten a child’s day! We’d love to see your creativity! Share your card using the linky tool at the Cards in Envy site by 7:00 p.m. Eastern time Sunday, April 19. Thanks for stopping by today!

Edited on April 12, 2015: Thank you to the Retro Rubber Design Team for naming my card as one of their Fab Five for their sketch challenge! I’m delighted and honored!

Supplies:
Stamps: Jump – Smileys (Uptown Design Company); sentiment stamp (Studio G)
Cardstock: Crushed Curry, Smoky Slate, Watercolor Wonder designer series paper (Stampin’ Up); Pure Luxury White (Gina K. Designs)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: markers (Copic); Stitched Scalloped Borders die (Lawn Fawn); candy dots (SU)

52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown - March theme challenge

13 Responses »

Mar 212015

Hello! Once again, it’s time for a new challenge at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown. This week’s theme is “Silent Night”. There are lots of ways to interpret that, so feel free to check out the 52{C}CT site to see what the rest of the design team has made.

I decided to go with what I think is a peaceful winter scene. I stamped the trees onto glossy cardstock with white pigment ink and then heat embossed them with clear embossing powder. Then I masked off the ground, to keep it white and looking like it’s snow-covered, so I could sponge some deep blue inks above it to create a nighttime sky. After I removed the mask, I added in a tiny bit of light grey ink to the ground to create a few shadows. The current challenge at Retro Rubber is to use embossing powder, and I’ve used the sketch from The Crooked Stamper Sketch Challenge (but turned it on its side) so yay – that’s three challenges in one card.

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What will you do with our theme? Please show us by linking your own Christmas or wintry card at the 52{C}CT site by 1:00 p.m. Eastern time Friday, March 27. We’d love to see your artwork! Thanks for stopping by today.

Supplies:
Stamps: Lovely As A Tree (Stampin’ Up); Holiday Script (Lizzie Anne Designs)
Cardstock: Not Quite Navy, Smoky Slate, Whisper White, Glossy White (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: Not Quite Navy, Midnight Muse, Smoky Slate, Whisper White (SU)
Other: clear detail embossing powder (SU); Snowflakes embossing folder (Darice); oval Nestabilities dies (Spellbinders); corner rounder punch (EK Success); sponge

CAS Colours & Sketches #115

11 Responses »

Mar 122015

Hello! It’s time for a sketch challenge again over at CAS Colours & Sketches. You’re welcome to manipulate the sketch, or change the circle to another shape, so long as we can still easily recognize the main elements of the sketch.

I actually made two cards. For both of them, I stretched the sketch out to a rectangle. I made one card with a portrait-oriented layout and the other with a landscape-oriented layout. I flipped the portrait-oriented one mirror image, just to make it a little different. The tags that I used for the circular element are from the same stamp set. I used designer papers from the same package for the strips and banners elements of the sketch. On the portrait-oriented one, I decided to pleat the horizontal strip to give it a little extra visual interest.

I suppose I could enter both of these cards into the current Retro Rubber challenge, but I’ll just go with the one with the pleated strip since that’s a little more unique.

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Thanks for stopping by today! Be sure to see what the rest of the CC&S Design Team has done with the sketch. Then show us your own take on it by linking your card at the CC&S site by 1:00 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday, March 18. We’d love to have you join us!

All supplies for both cards are from Stampin’ Up.
Stamps: Too Terrific Tags
Cardstock: So Saffron, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White, Tea Party Designer Series papers
Ink: Wild Wasabi, Pretty in Pink
Other: tag punch, candy dots

a convergence of challenges

11 Responses »

Mar 112015

Hello! I have just a quick post tonight to share a card I made combining several online challenges. The current Lawnscaping challenge is to use dots and/or stripes. I’ve used a stripey paper and a dotty paper for that. At Retro Rubber Challenge blog, they are inviting their participants to use older stamps (at least a year old) and to incorporate a tag on their project. The butterfly and the sentiment are from two of my older Lawn Fawn stamp sets. As I was starting to put the tag on the card front, I noticed how much the card was resembling the current sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch! So I thought about what to do for the trio of banner elements, and decided to use these really old snap/rivet things I have. Anyone else remember them? On a card they look like brads, but they attach like eyelets. Yes, I had some fun pounding them with my hammer, LOL. Even though the colors and patterns aren’t my usual thing, I kinda like the way the card came together.

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Thanks for stopping by! All comments are read and appreciated… well, except the spam comments – they’re read, but not appreciated. Unless they’re so bizarre that they make me laugh. I can always appreciate a good laugh! LOL

Supplies:
Stamps: Flutter By, Sophie’s Sentiments (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Naturals White (Stampin’ Up); designer papers from Bright Side Petite Paper Pack (Lawn Fawn)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: markers (Copic); tag corner punch, Calypso Coral twine (SU); Lemon twine (Really Reasonable Ribbon); eyelet and snaps (source unknown)

CAS Colours & Sketches #143

CAS Colours & Sketches #142

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - September sketch challenge

sketchy, snarky numbers

CAS Colours & Sketches #125

Cards in Envy - When Nature Calls

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - May sketch challenge

Cards in Envy - Pretty in Pink

Cards in Envy - Child's Play

52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown - March theme challenge

CAS Colours & Sketches #115

a convergence of challenges

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