CAS Colours and Sketches - DT call

This afternoon, I held a technique class with a lovely group of ladies. I'd demonstrated how to make faux metallic paper for them before they made a piece and used it for a Christmas card. While I was packing up, I decided that the demo piece was too good to waste so I used some of it for this card for the sketch at CAS Colours and Sketches this week.

I spent quite a bit of time choosing between Garden Green and Old Olive holly leaves. I wanted to bring out the green in the faux metallic DSP. There's a bit of green in the inking to add a touch of verdigris which I wanted to accentuate. I think the right choice was made, in the end. 

Ingredients

Card: Very Vanilla, scraps of Old Olive, Gold foil card

Stamps: Holly Berry Happiness

Inks: Versamark, Pear Pizzazz, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Tuxedo Black

Other: gold embossing powder, Holly embossing folder, Holly builder punch, Real Red enamel shapes, Pear Pizzazz stamp'n'write marker to highlight holly leaves.

Paper Players 318, LIM Acetate

I've had the most fabulous long weekend away with a friend while our respective husbands were off doing their own thing. The only negative to the scenario was the lack of card-making opportunities!

This morning, while checking out my feeds, I discovered two lovely and compatible challenges. The sketch at The Paper Players, one of my favourite challenges, was gorgeous - as usual.

Meanwhile, it was recipe week at Less is More and the recipe was to use acetate or vellum.

I recently purchased some magnificent foil acetate. Like many of my paper purchases, it seemed destined to end up suffering from "I-can't-use-you-you're-too-beautiful syndrome." Fortunately, I managed to overcome that for today's card...

I'm also still very much in the in-love phase with my new Altenew Peony Bouquet set. I'm still playing with it a lot, trying out new colours and uses. This is normally not a colourway I'd use but the apricots and oranges do seem to work well with black and gold.

Update: Delighted to be a Cut Above at The Paper Players this week.

Ingredients

Card: Basic Black, Whisper White, Foil acetate

Stamps: Altenew Peony Bouquet, SU Zoo Babies (retired for the sentiment)

Inks: Tuxedo Black, versamark, Peekaboo Peach, Calypso Coral, Tangelo Twist, Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive

Other: gold embossing powder, Peony Bouquet dies

CAS Colours and Sketches 196 - DT call

This week's colour combo at CAS Colours and Sketches is almost my favourite Christmas combination. I think gold still tops copper as my favourite metallic but it's a near-run thing!

I've made a lot of cards using Garden Green and Cherry Cobbler recently but this morning, I put together this card for the challenge.

I like the way the Swirly Scribbles dies are so versatile that they also make fabulous Christmas wreaths in a variety of sizes. Layered, they look very pretty.

I'm feeling a little nostalgic because this is Challenge 196 and I think that the first time I discovered CAS Colours and Sketches was Challenge 96. It seemed a kind of sign that I should have a try for the Design Team call.

Update: Delighted to be a Weekly Winner at CAS Colours and Sketches.

Ingredients

Card: Very Vanilla, Copper Foil, Garden Green, Cherry Cobbler

Stamps: Oh What Fun!, Holly Berry Happiness

Inks: versamark, Tuxedo Black

Other: Swirly Scribbles dies, Cherry Cobbler enamel dots, Copper embossing powder, Holly builder punch and dimensionals for the bow.

All products Stampin' Up.

Merry Monday Christmas 218

An all year round site entirely devoted to Christmas Cards! That's the Merry Monday challenge, a site I've not played at before. This week's challenge is...

So, I had this idea of some tartan Christmas trees against a sponged background and some hills. Since Christmas for us is a summer event, I just couldn't do snowy hills so we've got a summery scene instead.

The front layer of hills is popped up on dimensionals. The hills were created with Simon Says Stamp Stitched Hills and Slopes dies, which are pretty much NBUS even though I've had them a while. I think I'll use them more, now.

The trees are varying numbers of layers thick in order to create more sense of depth.

Ingredients

Card: Garden Green, Whisper White, DSP from Warmth and Cheer stack and Trim this Christmas stack (retired)

Stamps: Oh What Fun!

Inks: Garden Green, Delightful Dijon, Crumb Cake

Other: Tree punch (retired), Simon Says Stamp Stitched Hills and Slopes dies, Metallics enamel shapes, dimensionals, sponges

Pals Paper Arts 322

I really should be spending my time doing other things but I so wanted to get a card done for the sketch at Pals Paper Arts because it's been nagging at me ever since I saw it to come play with it.

In fact, it took me a while because there were SO many possibilities and because I didn't find it an easy sketch to get balance with. Anyway, here's how it turned out.

Ingredients

Card: Night of Navy, Whisper White, Silver glimmer paper

Stamps: Holly Jolly Greetings

Inks: Night of Navy

Other: Delicate Ornaments thinlits, Floral Boutique washi tape, Silver trim cord (retired), dimensionals, Night of Navy marker

Freshly Made Flowers

Today's card is inspired by two challenges: the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches and the 'anything goes floral' theme at a brand new challenge, The Flower Challenge.

Update: Utterly delighted to be chosen as The Queen of Clean at Freshly Made Sketches.

Ingredients

Card: Basic Black, Whisper White, Blushing Bride, Blushing Bride DSP

Stamps: Altenew Peony Bouquet, W&W Big, Bold and Party

Inks: Tuxedo Black, Pear Pizzazz, Blushing Bride, Flirty Flamingo, Rose Red

Other: Peony Bouquet die, Basic Gray marker to colour cut edges, sequins (unknown provenance), dimensionals

Case This Sketch 194

A thunderstorm struck with a vengeance this afternoon, so what's a girl to do but retreat to the craftroom where the latest sketch from Cas(e) This Sketch was waiting.

I've 'landscaped' the sketch and done something I seldom do - grabbed out the patterned paper. I'm often seduced by lovely paper and then leave it sitting in my drawer so today's wee challenge to myself was to use some!

I'm feeling pretty pleased with the bright and cheerful result.

Ingredients

Card: Basic Black, Melon Mambo, DSP from Pop of Pink suite.

Stamps: Wild About Flowers, Labeler Alphabet

Inks: Old Olive, Melon Mambo

Other: Little Letters thinlits (retired), dimensionals.

Global Design Project 57

The wonderful colour challenge at Global Design Project has stuck with me ever since I saw it earlier in the week.

Over the last few days, I've mentally designed several cards and mentally experimented with three new techniques but when I sat down to actually turn one of these ideas into reality, the colours seemed to have a mind of their own. In the end, I didn't do anything really fancy. I just let those delicious colours speak for themselves in the company of a stamp set I've really under-utilized: Number of Years.

The stamps lend themselves to an impressionistic approach so I've used double strength Blushing Bride in places to give more illusion of depth as single strength pink recedes quickly into the background.

Ingredients

Card: Rich Razzleberry, Mint Macaron, Whisper White

Stamps: Number of Years

Inks: Rich Razzleberry, Mint Macaron, Blushing Bride

Other: Mint Macaron Washi Tape (from Affectionately Yours), Blushing Bride baker's twine, pearls, dimensionals.

AAA Challenge 75

I kept thinking about the challenge graphic at AAA Cards challenge. It was pretty and it was out of my comfort zone somehow. I've never done rainbow colours before.

It turned out to be more difficult that I thought, with a number of false starts finding their way to the bin. I used the dotty background stamp from Timeless Textures and after spending quite a lot of time getting it perfectly lined up, decided that it looked too clinical and then put a couple of random stamps over the top of it. I wanted it to look light and airy, to pick up the polka dots from the inspiration photo but at the same time act like foliage in a tree with dappled light.

I resisted the temptation to add any Wink of Stella, Perfect Pearls or other highlights to the butterflies although I did attach them with glue dots in the centre so that their wings lift ever so slightly off the page.

Ingredients

Card: Wild Wasabi, Whisper White; scraps of Rose Red, Calypso Coral, So Saffron, Marina Mist, Perfect Plum, Elegant Eggplant

Stamps: Papillon Potpourri, Sunshine Sayings, Timeless Textures

Inks: Wild Wasabi, Tuxedo Black

Other:  Bitty Butterfly punch, pearls, dimensionals

CAS Colours and Sketches 194 CAS(E) 193

I didn't mean to play two challenges at once! There I was putting together my bits and bobs to make something for the sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch, as it was one of my favourite sketches ever, when I realised that I was putting out the colours from CAS Colours and Sketches.

So I just went with it. Blogland is currently full of autumn challenges - which I enjoy, as the colours are so rich - but here in New Zealand, it's spring. The colours suggested springtime and flowers and I do have a soft spot for masking and sponging, so here it is. Rather like the spring growth, I seem to have been a little exuberant myself.

Wink of Stella continues to be difficult to photograph!

For such a card that seems so exuberant, it's only one-step removed from being a one-layer card and easily could have been one.

Update: Delighted to be a Weekly Winner at CAS Colours and Sketches.

Ingredients

Card: Whisper White

Stamps: Wild About Flowers, Endless Birthday Wishes, Touches of Texture (dragonfly)

Inks: Melon Mambo, Emerald Envy, Pacific Point (the closest I have to Tempting Turqoise)

Other: Sponges,  Clear Wink of Stella, Metallic enamel shapes, Stamp'n'write marker to partially colour the dragonfly.

PPA 321 and CCMC 427

Despite spring being all around me, there's still something very appealing about the rich colours of autumn and these colours are the challenge at Pals Paper Arts this week.

I've also taken inspiration from the sketch at Create With Connie and Mary this week.

I'm very pleased with the 'DSP' I created using some of the stamps from Totally Trees, stamped in Elegant Eggplant onto the same coloured card. This will be an idea I will play with some more, I think.

Getting the right mix of Elegant Eggplant and Crushed Curry leaves took a bit of experimentation: too close together and the colours blended into an unrecognisable mush, take off too much ink and the yellow was lost altogether, don't take off enough and you get a row of yellow leaves that look like they belong to some other tree... but it worked out in the end.

Ingredients

Card: Elegant Eggplant, Cajun Craze, Whisper White

Stamps: Totally Trees, One Big Meaning

Inks: Cajun Craze, Elegant Eggplant, Crushed Curry

Other: Elegant Eggplant solid baker's twine, dimensionals

Casology - Support

The cue word at Casology this week is 'support'. It's been a while since I played here and I was keen to play this week as I had an idea to explore.

Can bling and layers be clean and simple? I think the answer is yes, as long as the colour scheme is simple and there's still a lot of white space to counterbalance it. So, here's my experiment, in response to that question.

The inside continues the message of support, from Thoughtful Branches.

Update: Incredibly delighted to get an Honourable Mention at CASology.

Ingredients

Card: Bermuda Bay, Whisper White, Silver glimmer paper

Stamps: Thoughtful Branches, Sunshine Sayings

Inks: Bermuda Bay classic, Bermuda Bay ombre.

Other: Beautiful Branches thinlit dies, Metallic shapes.

AAA74 and JAI331

Masking is a technique I really enjoy playing around with, so I was very interested in the latest challenge at AAA Cards. This is a site that I always look at but it's been a while since I entered there.

I'd been mulling over several options for this when one of my favourite challenge sites, Just Add Ink, offered up this theme challenge:

Suddenly, the way forward was clear and I came up with this double masked card using one of my most used and oldest sets, Papillon Potpourri.

I first cut a circular mask from photocopy paper and stamped the butterflies in Stazon onto watercolour paper. I water-coloured them using Calypso Coral and Crushed Curry. After they were dry, I added in some highlights with white gel pen before masking them out. Finally, I added in the distressed foliage in Mint Macaron before removing the original circular mask from the watercolour panel.

This is a peek at the inside.

I do like the effect created by this double mask - it looks a bit like a floating bubble. My lovely mother-in-law is turning 84 this week and I think it will be perfect for her.

Ingredients

Card: Mint Macaron, Calypso Coral, watercolour paper, Whisper White (inside)

Stamps: Papillon Potpourri, Timeless Textures, Birthday Blooms (sentiment)

Inks: Black Stazon, Calypso Coral, Crushed Curry, Mint Macaron, Smoky Slate

Other: White gel pen, paintbrush, circle framelits and butterfly punches to make masks.