Perfectly CAS June challenge #28

 hello there crafters!

It's time for the next challenge at Perfectly CAS and for this month the theme is: one quarter. 

This means we want you to make a card that has just 1/4 of the card panel covered, with 3/4 as blank space. Sounds easy, doesn't it?

I decided to use a square card base - something different for me, but I guess I reasoned using 1/4 should be easier on a square shape 😉. To begin I calculated 1/4 of my 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 inch card base. I cut out this size which was 2 3/4 in square, from white card. This square I scored in 1/8 inch lines then splattered with black ink diagonally through the centre. Another square the same size was stamped with background writing and was die cut to get a picture frame effect. Then I embossed it with a subtle design. This was popped up on thin foam to allow some room for the leaf sprays. 

Some ink smooshed card was die cut with leaf sprays and adhered in one corner, under the frame. The 'happy' was die cut from black card and adhered towards the top, and the 'birthday' word was stamped, trimmed and edged in black, then adhered with foam to sit over the frame.

All of the components sit within the 2 3/4 inch square which is perfect because it keeps it all inside 1/4 of the card base.

Thanks so much for stopping by - we can't wait to see your creations in our gallery!

• stamps: kaisercraft script, altenew sentiment strips
• dies: hero arts infinity squares, mft in focus florals, mft fab foliage, newtons nook holiday greetings
• inks: salvaged patina distress oxide, memento tuxedo black, versafine clair nocturne
• embossing: SU subtle 3D embossing folder

for you

 hello stampers!

I am playing along with the talented team at CAS colours and sketches this week where they have a colour challenge #470.

I wanted to use a new embossing folder from Sizzix along with some Tim Holtz distress foundry wax in Sterling silver. Totally new to me and I found it pretty amazing! I began by embossing a small card piece with Sizzix 3D texture fades embossing folder Mini Foundry. Then I added some foundry wax in Sterling to make it look industrial. The foundry wax is highlighted by heat embossing. It really brings out the texture and adds a lot of shine!

I used MFT In Focus Florals and MFT Fab Foliage die sets to die cut some leaf sprays from some card roughly inked up with 2 colours from Altenew Cerulean Skies ink cubes. The flowers also got a little coating of foundry wax for the silver look. I used MFT Bitty Banner Alpha die set for the sentiment.

I'm also linking this card with Darnell's NBUS blog as the embossing folder and foundry wax are new. So happy to see you're back in the swing of things, Darnell!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

      

hello

 hello crafty stampers!

I'm playing along today with the paper players challenge #591 where they've asked for a cas card with the theme 'house'.

I decided to use the paper rose bird houses die set for the house and the little birdies. I began by stencilling using scrap matts branches stencil and distress oxide inks onto the card panel and another card scrap. I die cut the bird house from the card scrap and adhered it over the card panel so the stencil shape was in place. A little white twine held up the bird house. The birdies were die cut from some ink blended card, as well as the house heart. The sentiment from altenew sentiment strips was inked with the same distress oxide ink. Some wink of stella on the bird house and a few dew drops to finish.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

hello

 hello stampers!

I have been inspired lately by the cas cards of Shayne Eddie and Chris Stokes and have been trying out some of their techniques on my cards recently. This weeks cas colours and sketches challenge #469 provided the perfect opportunity to practise some more.

I began by die cutting a square from a panel I had from a previous project where I used the leftover ink on the stencil, sprayed it and smooshed it onto a card. This gives such wonderful, soft forms and gentle colours. The seahorse was stamped in my Misti 3 times - onto scrap card, onto the inked square and onto the card panel. The scrap card was die cut with the coral shape.

The edges of the square were inked then it was adhered in place over the seahorse, the die cut was popped up on thin foam squares to allow the shape to sit up over the twine, with the other die cut tucked under the twine. The sentiment was stamped in a coordinating colour and the panel was finished with a few droplets.

I do love this Chris Stokes eclipse technique where the die cut is stamped and laid in place - it gives such interest and dimension!

Thanks so much for spending some time with me today! 

• stencil: paper rose small drops
• stamps: darkroom door under the sea, altenew ornamental bliss
• dies: mft flower silhouettes, hero arts infinity squares
• inks: tumbled glass, blueprint sketch, shaded lilac distress oxides

thanks

 hello stampers!

It's been a while since I played along with freshly made sketches so thought I would join in this week with challenge #534 where the awesome Cecile has a sketch for inspiration.

I began by die cutting the feather and then used the die cut negative as a stencil to ink blend the 3 colours. Then the die cut feather was adhered and the sentiment die cut 3 times, layered up and adhered on top. 

I think these are my new favourite colours!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

• inks: salvaged patina, pumice stone, stormy sky distress oxides
• dies: paper rose feather trio, altenew fancy thanks

hello

 hello crafty stampers!

I'm playing along with the talented team at cas colours and sketches #468 colour challenge.

I was inspired by a die cut overlay technique shown recently by Chris Stokes and thought I'd try it. The technique involves multiple copies of layered stamping then die cutting select parts for an overlay effect. 

The die cut butterfly is popped up on teeny tiny foam bits. The die cut hearts are adhered to the card for a more subtle effect.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

• stamps: altenew beautiful day, altenew ornamental bliss (sentiment)
• inks: tea dye, abandoned coral, vintage photo distress oxides
• dies: paper rose amaya butterfly, mft cool day

be you

 hello lovely stampers!

I've just scraped in to the latest challenge for the color throwdown and how could I not join in with the current challenge for just us girls where they have an inspiration photo this week from fabulous Cecile. 

I used a Craftgiraffe Stones stencil with distress oxide inks to blend the background. The words were selected from Altenew Sentiment Strips, stamped then die cut using Paper Rose Arrows die set and MFT Petite Clouds die set. They were cut 3 times and stacked, then edged with a black sharpie.  The heart from MFT Cool Day was stamped with memento tuxedo black. Doodles were drawn using the black sharpie and a white gelly roll pen.

Isn't it funny how the colours matched up for both challenges - pure serendipity!

Thanks for stopping by today!

 

especially for you

 hello lovely stampers!

I stumbled upon a new challenge for me and thought I'd give it a go! The card concept challenge gives an inspiration pic and 7 different styles of design to make a card of your own. Fantastic information on the different styles as I've never seen them laid out so well before. I never really know which style I prefer as it does change from time to time, but I think this one I made is clean and layered? 😀

I was inspired by the flowers, the colours and the black and white details. The weave is a nod to the fabric on the cushion!

I began by using Altenew Beautiful Day stamp to stamp the flowers with distress oxide for the first layer, and distress oxide heat embossed for the detail layer, for some lovely shine and to bring out the gorgeous red colour. The leaves from the same set were also layer stamped. The coordinating dies were used to cut them all out. I stamped Darkroom Door Flourish texture stamp with memento tuxedo black on 2 separate card panels, cut them into 1/4" strips and weaved them with a basket weave, adhering it to a black card square. The sentiment is from Penny Black Grown with Love stamp set.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Thank you to the team at the card concept for the Honorable Mention - I'm thrilled!

Perfectly CAS April challenge #26

 hello crafty stampers!

The 15th is here again and we can't wait for you to join us in the Perfectly CAS challenge this month. This time the theme is: Gold.

I wanted to use the beautiful Paper Rose Amaya Butterflies die set and thought it would be whimsical to have the gold butterfly fluttering to a vase of gold flowers. The background was ink blended with distress oxide ink after masking off the centre third. The vase was die cut using Paper Rose Little Vases die set 3 times, and stacked, the top one was given a light blending of distress oxide ink. The flower and leaves were die cut using Altenew Leaf Mix die set die set using some gold paper adhered to a scrap of card, and some green card.  

The sentiment from Altenew Sentiment Strips was stamped in the same colour as the background. The butterfly was die cut 4 times, stacked with the gold cut on top and adhered to the top of the panel. 

We'd love to see your card in the Perfectly CAS gallery this month - just remember your design should be 1/3 of the card or less. Thanks so much for stopping by!

snarky ATCs

 hello stampers!

The awesome sisters at snarkystampers have put out their latest challenge which is #207 A is for ATC. I do like the idea of smaller card space and I certainly have lots of little stamps so it's a win-win for me! lol

I couldn’t resist making more than one - they are soooo cute. I think I could have ended up with a whole box if I’d kept going! And of course I had to make it a red-back spider - a morning's gardening here is not complete without coming across at least one of those little buggers!

I decided to showcase little blueprint stamps from Tim Holtz - bunny and web. For bunny, the background had Altenew Color Block Triangle stencil inked with salvaged patina distress oxide ink, dried then Scrapmatts 5080 stencil inked along the side. Kaisercraft Script stamp and several small random stamps were also stamped in the same colours and water splatters were added. For web, the background was an offcut from a gel print, inked over the top with Scrapmatts 5080 stencil. 

Bunny and web were stamped in black on a scrap of card and clear heat embossed, then watercolored. They were cut into a tight rectangle, edges inked and adhered to the card panel. The Tim Holtz small talk sticker sentiments were edged in ink and adhered. The cards were then mounted onto black card base 3.5” x 2.5” in size. Here’s closeups of each card.

Thanks for stopping by!

feel better

 hello crafty stampers!

I just love the colours for the current challenge at color throwdown #685. They actually made me think of autumn rather than spring but I guess that's what makes life interesting!

I wanted to show the changing of the seasons with orange to signify autumn, bare limbs for winter, green for spring leaf and summer for flowered greenery. I'm sure trees feel much better when they're looking their glorious best 😉

I used MFT Tall Trees die cut with kraft and coloured card for the trees, the flowers being orange sparkly gems. The sentiment is from Altenew Sentiment Strips.

Thanks for stopping by today!

here for you

 hello lovely stampers!

Playing along today with the addicted to cas challenge #216 - Water.

I've wanted to use this splash stencil from Paper Rose for a while and thought it would be perfect this time. The stencil was inked with distress oxides and splattered with water. The fish from Darkroom Door Under the Sea were stamped on ink blended card, fussy cut and popped up on foam. The sentiment is from Altenew Sentiment Strips.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

hugs

 hello crafty stampers!

I'm joining in today with the aaacards challenge for game 210 with a lovely card featuring my favourite colour.

The theme is a sketch and a silhouette. 

I wanted to use a new stamp set from MFT Flower Silhouettes and chose this tall slender stamp. I used MFT Circles stencil to ink the circle design with Altenew Dew Drops which gives a lovely soft aqua tone. The sentiment is from Paper Rose Hugs Fine Script die set, cut from matching ink blended card and also black card slightly offset to create a shadow effect. Lastly some wink of stella was applied to the sentiment for shine.

Since this is the first time using this lovely MFT flower silhouettes stamp set, I'm also entering this card in Darnell's NBUS blog.  Hope you're doing well, Darnell! sending hugs ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

Perfectly CAS March challenge #25

 hello lovely stampers! 

I'm so thrilled and honoured to be joining the talented design team at Perfectly CAS! Every month they showcase wonderful CAS cards around a theme, and all using no more than 1/3 of the card panel. Doesn't sound too hard does it? I do love CAS cards and can't wait to get into it. 

This month the theme is: Die Cuts.

The middle third of the card panel was masked off for the background, ink blended with bundled sage distress oxide ink then stamped with the same ink using Darkroom Door Flourish texture stamp. 

Using Paper Rose Bird Houses die set, the bird houses and birds were die cut from slate, white and pink card. The sentiment from Altenew Mini Daisy stamp set was stamped in Altenew Silver Stone then heat embossed with clear for some shine. Lastly some pink card scraps were adhered to the top and bottom of the card base.

We'd love you to join us in the challenge this month - we can't wait for you to show us your die cut creativity! Just remember to use 1/3 of the card or less.

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you in our gallery!

warm blessings

 hello crafty stampers!

I'm joining in with the addicted to cas challenge this fortnight where the theme is a code word: snowflake.

I used several colours of distress oxide inks to create some ink smooshed panels, then used the Hero Arts Large Snowflake and Swirls dies to die cut and assemble the snowflakes. Some wink of stella was added to the outside points of the snowflakes (although it's hard to capture in the pic).

The sentiment from Altenew Warm Blessings is stamped in distress oxide then clear heat embossed. Finished it off with a tiny blue jewel in the centre of the snowflake.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

hey succa

 hello again stampers!

I thought I'd play along with the talented team at justusgirls challenge #620 colour week. I felt the colours lent themselves to a masculine card and who doesn't need more of those?

The background was ink blended using Darkroom Door Brick Wall stencil and distress oxide vintage photo ink. The succulents were stamped using Hero Arts Floral Succulent stamp & cut set and watercolored (!) using Altenew Teal Cave and distress oxide vintage photo inks. They were die cut and popped up on foam squares over 3 die cut rectangles using Paper Rose stitched rectangles die, cut from orange card. The sentiment was stamped in vintage photo using Altenew Ornamental Bliss and the little sentiment from the Succulent stamp set stamped in teal. A scrap of vintage photo blended card was adhered under the sentiment. The panel was mounted on a white card base.

Thanks for stopping by!