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CAS Colours & Sketches #359

Feb 252020

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

CAS Colours & Sketches #332

2 Responses »

Jul 302019

Hello! July has five Tuesdays, and that means it’s time for a double challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches! This week we’re asking our challenge participants to combine the given colors with the given sketch.

The colors made me think of flowers and Christmas, and in my opinion the best way to combine those two thoughts is with a poinsettia. I’ve used a digital image and colored it with Copic markers before carefully cutting it out. I decided to make the green colors the focus of the card, using the lighter green for the focal panel and the darker green to ink the swirls and the sentiment. I briefly considered using a rose pink card base but the card looked more clean and simple in style with an ivory base to match the ivory sentiment panel. I squashed the shape of the card into a landscape oriented rectangle so I’d have more room for the sentiment, and flipped the sketch mirror-image.

Be sure to check out what the rest of the CC&S Design Team has made. Then get your craft on and link your own card to our challenge post! You have until 6:00 p.m. Eastern time Monday, August 5 to share your card with us. We’d love to see what you can do with our double challenge!

Supplies:
Digital Image: Poinsettia (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)
Stamps: Season of Joy, Sincere Salutations (Stampin’ Up)
Cardstock: Pistachio Pudding (SU); Pure Luxury Ivory (Gina K. Designs)
Ink: Emerald Envy (SU); printer ink
Other: markers (Copic)

hi there, butterfly

2 Responses »

Jan 112019

I feel like I’ve been in a creative slump for quite a while, not creating as many cards as I used to. I’m not one for making New Year’s resolutions per se, but I do want to get back into a cardmaking groove again in 2019. I miss playing along in some of the various challenges I’ve participated in in the past. So today’s post is an effort to get back into the swing of things.

The Paper Players challenge that is closing shortly is to use any sort of animal on a card. I’ve combined that with a recent sketch challenge from Splitcoaststampers. I had the butterfly already colored and mounted to the red scalloped circle, left over from a long-ago cardmaking session, and I thought pairing it with the sketch would make a quick and easy start onto using up some of my “UFOs” (UnFinished Objects). Because of the way the butterfly is oriented, I thought it looked better to flip the sketch mirror-image. The narrow strips were cut from a scrap of cardstock. It’s definitely not one of the most amazing cards I’ve ever made, but it’s cute and perfectly suitable for Send a Smile 4 Kids.

Thanks for stopping by today! Comments are always welcome and appreciated.

Supplies:
Stamps: Somebuggy Loves You (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)
Cardstock: Cool Caribbean, Crumb Cake, Real Red (Stampin’ Up); Solar White (Neenah)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: markers (Copic); big scalloped circle Nestabilities die (Spellbinders); dimensionals (SU)

sketchy little mouse

1 Response »

Mar 122018

Hello! I have a few more days to work on Easter cards before I need to send them off to one of the Send A Smile 4 Kids volunteers, and today’s card is the most recent one I’ve made. I’ve used the current sketch from Freshly Made Sketches but squashed it into a landscape-oriented rectangle. After I colored and fussy cut the image, I used dimensional adhesive to attach it to the card. I’m not sure if you can tell in the photo, but the card base is linen-textured cardstock.

That’s it for today. Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
Stamps: Egg-cited Cocoa (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)
Cardstock: Barely Banana textured, Spring Flowers designer series paper (Stampin’ Up); Solar White (Neenah)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: Premier colored pencils (Prismacolor); odorless mineral spirits (Gamsol); dimensionals (SU)

CAS Colours & Sketches #260

5 Responses »

Feb 202018

Hello there! This week at CAS Colours & Sketches we have a color palette for you to work with. Hopefully the colors will help us all get into a springtime mood!

I will confess that when I was coming up with this challenge idea back in January, one of my main objectives was to choose colors that we hadn’t used at CC&S in a while. I didn’t really think much at the time about what I was going to create with them. So when I settled down to create my sample card for this challenge and looked at the colors… I drew a blank. I eventually came up with a few disjointed ideas. The plum and peach colors reminded me of sherbet, but then I wasn’t sure what to do with the blue. The colors also vaguely suggested a beachy sunset theme but I doubted my ability to pull that off successfully. Finally I remembered that I should add a few more Easter cards to the stash I’m accumulating for Send a Smile 4 Kids, and that I had this Easter egg image that would be suitable with the colors. The layout for this card somewhat follows the current challenge at CAS(E) this Sketch!, turned on its side. I used colored pencils blended with odorless mineral spirits to color the image. The peach color matches the peach sentiment strip better in real life than in the photo. I’ve used an extra layer of scrap cardstock behind the focal panel to give it a little more dimension off the card base.

Be sure to check out what the rest of the CC&S design team and our guest designer have made with these colors! Then create your own card and share it with us using the linky tool on the CC&S site. We’d love to have you join in the fun and creativity! Thanks for stopping by today.

Supplies:
Stamps: Egg-cited Cocoa (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)
Cardstock: Sahara Sand, Marina Mist, Peekaboo Peach (Stampin’ Up); Solar White (Neenah)
Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine)
Other: Premier colored pencils (Prismacolor); odorless mineral spirits (Gamsol); standard circle and petite scalloped circle Nestabilities dies (Spellbinder)

CAS Colours & Sketches #252

12 Responses »

Dec 052017

Hello! It’s time for a new challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches. The first challenge of the month is always a color challenge, but during the month of December, we’re doing something a little different. This week, we’d like for our challenge participants to choose any of our color challenge combinations from 2017 and use it to make a Christmas or holiday card.

I was away for much of September tending to some family business, so I missed out on Challenge #241 when it was introduced. So I decided to use that color combo for my card this week. The layout for my card is based on the current CAS(E) this Sketch! challenge. I added clear craft lacquer to the light bulbs to make them shine and to give them a bit of a 3-D effect. The focal panel is raised up from the card base with shims of scrap cardstock for a little extra dimension.

I’m also going to join in the holiday challenges at AAA Cards and Uniko.

Which of our approximately 25 color combinations from 2017 will you use? You can check all of them out on the CAS Colours & Sketches blog using the Past Colour Challenges tab. Be sure to see what the rest of the design team has made, too! Then link your card to the challenge site by 6:00 p.m. Eastern time Monday, December 11. We’d love to see what you come up with! Thanks for stopping by today.

Supplies:
Stamps: Holiday Baubles (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)
Cardstock: Solar White (Neenah)
Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine); Tranquil Tide, Dapper Denim, Perfect Plum (Stampin’ Up)
Other: Crystal Effects (SU)

CAS Colours & Sketches #235

3 Responses »

Aug 082017

Hello! It’s time for the first sketch challenge of the month over at CAS Colours and Sketches! We have a very easy peasy one that allows for a lot of creativity from our participants. It allows for a non-rectangular element to extend off the edge of the card. (That will make more sense when you see my sample card and the sketch graphic.)

I’ve reached back into my digital images for this week’s card and used one that I’ve always thought was pretty cute. I couldn’t bear to cut off the mouse’s tail, though. In retrospect I wish I’d rotated the image a little differently so that I could cut off more of the heart shape, in keeping with the sketch, while still keeping the tail intact. I originally planned to make this a one-layer card, but my thicker cardstock doesn’t like to feed through my printer. So I had to use a lighter weight cardstock to print the panel and then mount it on a card base. I colored the mouse with my Copics, and chose a card base to coordinate with the grey mouse. I offset the panel, lining it up even with the card base along the top and right of the card, and letting the base add a pop of color along the left and bottom of the card. Oh yeah, the sentiment was generated on the computer, too, printed along with the mouse image.

And there’s another card for the stash I’m building for Send a Smile 4 Kids. Be sure to visit the CAS Colours and Sketches blog to see the terrific cards the rest of the design team has made. I’m sure they’d love it if you left them comments, too. Then show us what you can do with this sketch! Link your card to the CC&S site by 6:00 p.m. Eastern time Monday, August 14. I hope you’ll join in the fun there!

Supplies:
Digital Image: Cocoa’s Heart (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)
Cardstock: Solar White (Neenah); Smoky Slate (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: printer ink
Other: markers (Copic)

CAS Colours & Sketches #234

6 Responses »

Aug 012017

Greetings! It’s time for another color challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches.

Karen and I are sharing hosting duties this month, and I’ve kicked things off with a color challenge. When I planned it, I wanted to utilize colors that haven’t come up in our challenges for a while. When I sat down to make a card, however, it turned out to be a little more difficult than I’d bargained for! I finally settled on this cute little bunny image. I wanted to color him with my Prismacolor pencils blended with odorless mineral spirits, but I’m out of the OMS. I’ve heard of other people using Goo Gone adhesive remover or baby oil in place of the OMS. We don’t have any baby oil in the house, but we do have a liquid adhesive remover. It’s Elmer’s brand Sticky Out. I decided to try that. Well, it did blend the colored pencil some… but it also started to dissolve the ink of the bunny’s whiskers and roughed up the cardstock there, and it made a real mess out of my blending stump. In retrospect it doesn’t look quite as bad as I thought it did while I was working on the card. But I did go back to the proverbial drawing board and started over. My second time around, I decided to go old school and used my Stampin’ Pastels chalks to color the image panel. That worked a lot better, even with these pastels being a good 13 years old! I originally planned to mat the image onto a couple of circles, but I had a scrap square of Blushing Bride cardstock that the image circle fit onto perfectly. So I thought “why not?” and squared it up.

Be sure to check out what the rest of the CC&S Design Team and our August guest designer have 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 Monday, August 7. We’d love to have you join us! Thanks for stopping by today.

Supplies:
Stamps: Cute Critters (Sweet & Sassy Stamps)
Cardstock: Tempting Turquoise, Cajun Craze, Blushing Bride (Stampin’ Up); Solar White (Neenah)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: Stampin’ Pastels (SU); standard circle Nestabilities die (Spellbinders)

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - November color challenge

4 Responses »

Nov 122016

Hello! It’s time for November’s color challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown. We have an updated twist on a classic color combination for you – bright red and lime green.

I’ve used this week’s sketch from CAS Colours & Sketches for my layout… which, truth be told, is a sketch I’d originally drawn for 52CCT back in 2013! A strand of Christmas lights seemed to be a good way to show off the 52CCT challenge colors, so I pulled out my Christmas lights stamps. I like that the bulb image is separate from the wire image, so that the bulbs can easily be stamped individually in whatever colors one chooses. I think the sentiment stamp echoes the idea of twinkling lights. I’ve added a couple of rhinestones to dot the letter “i” where it occurs in the sentiment. I’m not sure how well the texture of the red cardstock shows in the photo, but in real life it helps give a little extra visual interest to the card.

And now it’s your turn to show us what you can create! We’d love it if you joined our challenge this week. You have until 7:00 pm Eastern time Friday, November 18 to link your card at the 52CCT site. Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps: Holiday Baubles (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps); Magic of Christmas (Technique Tuesday)
Cardstock: Real Red Core’dinations, Green Galore, Whisper White (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); Real Red, Green Galore (SU)
Other: rhinestones (Recollections)

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - October Pick a Previous challenge

3 Responses »

Oct 292016

Hello! It’s the fifth Saturday of the month, and that means at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown, it’s “Pick a Previous” week! This time we’re asking our participants to choose a previous 52CCT sketch and create a card based on it.

I chose to work with the sketch from January 2015. I’ve had this little penguin colored and matted, left over from our family’s Christmas cards from a few years ago, and I decided it was time to finally make a card for him. The penguin panel seemed like it would fit well in place of the star-shaped element of the sketch. The polka-dotted designer paper worked well with the green leaves and the cherry red hat and scarf, but I felt something else was needed. So I added some brown coloring to the frame around the penguin to tie in with the kraft-colored dots and used kraft cardstock for the other triangular panel of the sketch. I added a black mat to tie in with the penguin, and attached the whole card front to a cherry colored card base. Looking at it now, I realize that I inadvertently flip-flopped the triangular panels, so my card is actually the mirror image of the way the sketch was drawn. But I think the inspiration is obvious!

Once you’ve been inspired by the design team’s work, make a Christmas or wintry card of your own using one of our previous sketches. Share it with us by linking it at the 52CCT site by midnight GMT Friday, November 4. We’d love to have you join us! Thanks for stopping by today.

Supplies:
Stamps: Cozy Friends (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps); Warm Penguin (Lizzie Anne Designs for Gourmet Rubber Stamps)
Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Basic Black, Kraft, Season of Style designer series paper (Stampin’ Up); Solar White (Neenah)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: markers (Copic)

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - August color challenge

5 Responses »

Aug 132016

Hello there! It’s the second Saturday of the month, and that means it’s color challenge time at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown. This time we’re asking our challenge participants to be inspired by the classic color combo of red, black, and kraft.

It’s been a while since I’ve used any of my digital images on a card, but this one particular bear image seemed to be the perfect thing to use for the color challenge. I’ve colored him with Copic markers and added some hand stitching along the edges of the image panel. I’ve used the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge for the layout of my card. I’ll admit that this card might be more accurately described as “clean and layered” rather than “clean and simple” but I’m going to go ahead and enter it into the current challenge at AAA Cards.

Be sure to check out what the rest of the design team has made. Then show us what you can create with these colors! We’d love it if you joined our challenge this week. You have until 7:00 pm Eastern time Friday, August 19 to link your card at the 52CCT site. Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Digital Image: Rhubarb Santa (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)
Stamps: Happy Everything (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Kraft, Basic Black, Real Red textured (Stampin’ Up); Pure Luxury Ivory (Gina K. Designs)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); printer ink
Other: markers (Copic); embroidery floss (DMC); dimensionals (SU)

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - July theme challenge

4 Responses »

Jul 162016

Hello! It’s theme challenge week at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown, and this time we’re inviting our participants to create cards using the theme of “The Twelve Days of Christmas”.

I puzzled over this for a while, and finally decided to go with the idea of “four calling birds”. I thought it would be cute to have the birds perched on a set of Christmas lights rather than simply on a tree branch or on an overhead wire. I stamped the birds and the light bulbs onto scrap white cardstock so that the colors would be more true than if I’d stamped and colored on the sky blue background. Fussy cutting them took a little while but I think it was worth the effort. The birds are colored with markers to coordinate with the colors of the lights. I splattered some shimmery white paint on the focal panel to look like falling snow. The layout for this card is an old sketch from Operation Write Home, although I changed the focal panel from a rectangle to an oval.

I’m going to link this card to this week’s “Make Your Mark” challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More and to the “Christmas in July 4 Kids” challenge at Send a Smile 4 Kids.

Thanks for stopping by today! Be sure to see what the rest of the 52CCT design team has done for this challenge, and then link your own card at the challenge site. You have until 7:00 p.m. Eastern time Friday, July 22 to enter.

Supplies:
Stamps: Winter Sparrows (Lawn Fawn); Holiday Baubles (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)
Cardstock: Sahara Sand, Soft Sky, Real Red (Stampin’ Up); designer papers from Holly Jolly Christmas 6″ x 6″ paper pad (Echo Park)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Gumball Green (SU)
Other: markers (Copic); Frost White shimmer paint (SU); petite oval Nestabilities die (Spellbinders)

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - July color challenge

3 Responses »

Jul 092016

It’s color challenge week at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown, and this week we have some cool wintry colors for you. We’d like to see what kind of wintry or Christmasy card you can make with shades of blue, plus white and silver.

As I was deciding what to do for this challenge, my mind first went to snow and snowflakes. I figured that was a pretty obvious choice. And then, since I don’t always like doing the obvious, I decided to go a different route and use ornaments instead. I’ve stamped them on a white background using three shades of blue that are kind of on the teal end of the blue spectrum, and matted the images with the same three shades. The ornament garland and the sentiment are stamped in silver; in the photo you can see some of the shimmer of the silver ink in the word “cheer”. I’ve used this week’s sketch from Freshly Made Sketches for the layout of my card.

Cutting the mats was the trickiest part of making this card. Rather than cutting the ovals, layering them, and adhering them to the card front, I decided to layer the rectangular pieces of cardstock from which I cut the ovals. So the white layer is adhered directly to the card base, and the other layers are stacked on top of it.

Now it’s your turn to show us what you can make with these colors! If you need more inspiration first, go visit the 52CCT site and see what the rest of the design team has created. Be sure to link your card at the 52CCT site by 7:00 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, July 15. We look forward to having you join us!

Supplies:
Stamps: Holiday Baubles (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)
Cardstock: Baja Breeze, Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, Whisper White (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: Baja Breeze, Blue Bayou, Soft Sky (SU); silver (ColorBox)
Other: Petite Oval and Petite Scalloped Oval Nestabilities dies (Spellbinders)

CAS Colours & Sketches #171

5 Responses »

Apr 282016

Hello! It’s time for the last challenge of the month at CAS Colours & Sketches. This week we have a sketch challenge. It’s a bit unusual with some interesting curvy elements.

The curved lines of the sketch made me think of one of my oldest Stampin’ Up stamp sets. This set has four small border stamps, and three of the stamps have the images arranged in a curve. I decided to go with the little bug design and paired it with an appropriate sentiment from a different stamp set. I turned the sketch on its side. For each pair of curved lines in the sketch, I used the bugs for the “upper” line, and drew in some grass for the “lower” line. To add a little extra visual interest, I offset the mat behind the focal panel. Although this isn’t the type of card I personally would send someone, I think it’ll be a cute one to donate to Send a Smile 4 Kids.

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you’ll check out what the rest of the design team has made, and then join us over at CAS Colours & Sketches with your own take on this sketch! You have until 6:00 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday, May 4 to link your card at the challenge website.

Supplies:
Stamps: Itty Bitty Borders (Stampin’ Up); Somebuggy Loves You (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)
Cardstock: Real Red, Green Galore, Whisper White (SU)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: markers (Copic)

CAS Colours & Sketches #168

15 Responses »

Apr 072016

Well hello there! It’s the first Thursday of the month, which means we have a new hostess of the month over at CAS Colours & Sketches! Louise has come up with some neat challenges for us, and we hope you’ll join in to show us what you can do with them.

We’re starting off the month with a color challenge, and Louise has chosen some bright colors for it. I used them to create a watercolored background, so the colors are toned down a bit on my card. The way the colors blended kind of created a fourth color, but trust me, I used only the three challenge colors for the background. When it was dry, I stamped some silhouetted flowers to make it look like the flowers are set against a sunset sky. Or maybe it’s a sunrise. Use your imagination! 🙂 I added a simple thin black mat to the image to make it stand out from the card base, stamped a sentiment, and called it done. It felt good to use some of my older stamps for this card.

I’m going to submit this to the current Less is More challenge, where the theme is “white space that isn’t white”.

Go see what the rest of the CC&S Design Team has done with these vibrant colors! Then make your own card with these colors and share it with us at the CC&S challenge post. You have until 6:00 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday, April 13 to link your card. We hope you’ll join us! Thanks for stopping by today.

Supplies:
Stamps: Serene Silhouettes (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps); Everyday Sayings (Lizzie Anne Designs)
Cardstock: Kraft, Basic Black (Stampin’ Up); The Langton Prestige Extra Smooth Hot Press watercolor paper (Daler-Rowney)
Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine)
Other: Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, and Tangerine Tango reinkers (SU)

Older Entries

CAS Colours & Sketches #359

CAS Colours & Sketches #332

hi there, butterfly

sketchy little mouse

CAS Colours & Sketches #260

CAS Colours & Sketches #252

CAS Colours & Sketches #235

CAS Colours & Sketches #234

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - November color challenge

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - October Pick a Previous challenge

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - August color challenge

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - July theme challenge

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - July color challenge

CAS Colours & Sketches #171

CAS Colours & Sketches #168

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Really great links

Really great shopping

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