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CAS Colours & Sketches #391

Oct 062020

Hello there! This week’s challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches features some bright, cheery colors.

For today’s card, I originally was thinking I’d probably do something with abstract flowers. As I was browsing through my folder of white cardstock, I found this piece that had already been cut with a scalloped die. Then my thought wheels started turning in a different direction. I decided instead to make the sentiment the focus of the card, using a combination of alphabet stamps and sentiment stamps. The open outline letters allowed me to color them in an ombre manner with the challenge colors. I chose to use the middle tone of the challenge trio for the card base.

And there you have it. What ideas do you have for these colors? We’d love to see you share your CAS styled card with them at the CC&S site! You have until 6:00 p.m. Eastern U.S. time Monday, October 12 to link your card at the challenge site. Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps: Happy Happy Happy, Quinn’s ABCs (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Pure Luxury White (Gina K. Designs); Melon Mambo (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: markers (Copic); Edgelits Large Scallop die (SU)

CAS Colours & Sketches #389

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Sep 222020

Hello there! It’s the fourth Tuesday of the month, which means we have a new sketch challenge to present to you today at CAS Colours & Sketches.

Some time ago I had used a tree embossing folder on some designer paper that had a birch-like pattern, and cut the trees out from it. Then I decided not to use them for that project, and they just sat in one of my folders of cardstock, where I would see them occasionally. Today’s card finally puts them to use. I ended up trimming the trees down further, both in height and width, so they would fit better onto the card front. For the background, I brushed ink onto glossy white cardstock and blended the colors together, first with the brushes, and then with a tissue. I took the color inspiration from an old “rainbow” ink pad that has four colors of ink, but I added a bit of brown to the bottom edge to help make it look more like ground. I added a simple small white mat because it looked too bare-bones without one. For the sentiment, I die-cut the “thanks” from both white and kraft cardstock because I wanted to stack them for depth. I originally planned to have the white layer on top, thinking that the kraft would add more shadow below it, but the kraft showed up better against the tree trunks so I ended up reversing the layers. And yes, I’ve used the mirror image of the sketch, although I can’t say I did that for any particular reason.

What will you do with this sketch? 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, September 28. Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Glossy White (Stampin’ Up); designer paper from Aspen Frost 6″ x 6″ paper pad (Basic Grey)
Ink: Cranberry, Eggplant, Denim, Bottle, and Espresso (Adirondack)
Other: tree embossing folder (Darice); Olivia alphabet die (ProvoCraft); stencil brushes

CAS Colours & Sketches #388

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Sep 152020

Hello there! 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 that should start helping you think about autumn. Of course, if you live in the southern hemisphere, you’re probably thinking about spring about now, so we hope you’ll show us a springtime way to use them. As always, if you don’t own the exact colors named in the graphic, just use whatever product you have that closely matches them.

I wasn’t in the mood for coloring an image, so I opted to use some dies to create a little scene on my card. The challenge colors made it pretty easy to decide which to use for the tree trunk, the leaves, and a couple of cardinals. After I die cut the bare tree, I laid it on the card front to figure out where I wanted to position it. I didn’t want to fiddle with cutting and gluing a bunch of leaves, so I used a gel stick in a color that seemed to match the challenge yellow and blended it out to add some color for the “leaves”. I cut the male cardinal from cherry cardstock and the female cardinal from the same brown as the tree, adding a little cherry ink to her to make her look more realistic. Offsetting the card front on the mat and the card base allows a little extra color to show. I think the cardinal pair and the sentiment I picked will make this a decent enough anniversary card to give to my husband next month.

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, September 21. Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamp: Picture Perfect (Stampin’ Up)
Cardstock: Baked Brown Sugar, Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla (SU)
Ink: Cherry Cobbler (SU)
Other: Winter Trees dies (Penny Black); gel stick (Faber Castell)

CAS Colours & Sketches #387

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Sep 082020

Hello! Today starts sketch challenge week at CAS Colours & Sketches and YoonYoung has drawn up a very nice clean and simple one for us!

When I first saw the sketch, I thought it would make a good opportunity to use some designer paper. I have a huge variety of papers to choose from, so to narrow it down, I took a look at some of my other favorite challenge blogs and saw that The Paper Players is having a theme challenge to create masculine birthday cards. I picked an argyle print from, I must admit, one of my very oldest packs of designer paper. I knew this pattern would allow for a sentiment to still be easily read. The difficult thing about using this pattern is making sure to line it up so that it’s centered on the card front, but after some careful measuring, I think I’ve accomplished that. I also took the liberty of turning the sketch 180° so that the wider rectangular portion is at the top of the card, and I let the sentiment straddle the line dividing the two parts of the sketch.

So, there you have it! 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 14. Be sure to check out what the other design team members have made, too! Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps: Happy Happy Happy (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Barely Banana, Spring Flowers designer paper (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: Chocolate Chip (SU)

CAS Colours & Sketches #385

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Aug 252020

Well hi there! It’s sketch week again at CAS Colours & Sketches. I think this one can be interpreted in multiple ways, and I’m looking forward to seeing how our challenge participants use it!

I decided to rotate the sketch 90° to the left and have the banner element go horizontally across my card. I chose my trusty scripty “hello” die for the focal point of my banner, and gave it a rainbow striped background that I created by blending gel sticks on shimmery white paper. Since the middle rainbow stripe was yellow, I picked that color for the main card panel.

I hope you’ll go see what the rest of the CC&S design team and our August guest designer have done with this sketch. Then make a card of your own and share it with us by 6:00 p.m. Eastern time Monday, August 31. Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps: none
Cardstock: Basic Black, Yoyo Yellow (Stampin’ Up); Cryogen White (Curious Metallic)
Ink: none
Other: Simply Said Hello die (Avery Elle); gel sticks (Faber Castell)

CAS Colours & Sketches #383

3 Responses »

Aug 112020

Hello there! We have a sketch challenge opening up today at CAS Colours & Sketches.

I took a bit of liberty with the sketch by flipping it mirror image and by changing the shapes from octagons to hexagons and enlarging one of them. I originally planned to use die-cut hexagons but for some reason that didn’t seem CAS enough to me. So I used the cardstock from which I’d cut them as stencils and brushed ink into place on the main card panel. I glued the die-cut snowflakes over the stenciled hexagons. The larger snowflake was die-cut twice and stacked for a little more dimension. I wasn’t sure what sentiment I wanted to use so I decided to just leave one off. I might add one later, but really there’s no reason the card *needs* one. The card still seemed a little plain, so I went digging through my embellishments and found a half-pearl in just the right color and size to adorn the largest snowflake.

Supplies:
Stamps: none
Cardstock: Soft Sky (Stampin’ Up); Curious White (Cryogen)
Ink: Soft Sky (SU)
Other: Stitched Snowflakes dies (Lawn Fawn); hexagon Nestabilities dies (Spellbinders); half pearl (Basic Grey)

CAS Colours & Sketches #382

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Aug 042020

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

CAS Colours & Sketches #381

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Jul 282020

Hello there! It’s time for the last CAS Colours & Sketches sketch challenge for the month of July. If you go to the challenge site and check out the design teams’ sample cards, you’ll see that we’ve represented the circular element of the sketch in a lot of different ways!

I had “Christmas in July” in the back of my mind, I think, because I’ve chosen to make a Christmas card. I used one of my favorite snowflake dies to cut a snowflake from shimmery cardstock for the circular element. I paired a snowflake print patterned paper with a scrap of very subtly patterned paper in a coordinating color for the horizontal striped part of the sketch. I decided to stamp the sentiment with grey ink because black seemed like it would contrast too harshly with the soft minty colors. I’ve used linen textured cardstock for the card base so it wouldn’t look quite so plain, but I’m not sure how well that shows in the photo. I toyed with the idea of adding a rhinestone to the center of the snowflake but in the end decided to leave it as it was.

Supplies:
Stamp: Merry Messages (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Solar White Classic Linen (Neenah); Cryogen White (Curious Metallic); patterned papers from Aspen Frost 6″ x 6″ paper pad (Basic Grey)
Ink: Going Gray (Stampin’ Up)
Other: Stitched Snowflake die (Lawn Fawn)

CAS Colours & Sketches #380

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Jul 212020

It’s new challenge day at CAS Colours & Sketches! This week we have a trio of soft colors for you to work with.

The colors made me think of flowers, so I pulled out a stamp set that has several images of flowers in vases. Even after considering several possibilities with it, I still wasn’t quite feeling a full-out floral vibe, so I ended up doing something a little less obviously floral with other stamps from the set. I used a wavy rectangle outline as a frame for a vertical sentiment, stamping them onto watercolor paper. After the ink was good and dry, I colored in the outline with a watercolor wash of the three challenge colors. I also colored washes of the blue and coral colors onto a scrap of watercolor paper, and punched flowers out of them. I attached the flowers to the card front with coordinating green mini brads and then adhered the front to the card base. Very CAS!

The Paper Players are celebrating their 500th challenge this week! WOW, what a tremendous milestone! Way to go, ladies!

I’m adding this card to the challenge at AAA Cards, too.

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, July 27. Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps: Everyday Greetings Collection (Wordsworth)
Cardstock: watercolor paper (Artist’s Loft)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); Bashful Blue, Sage Shadow, Calypso Coral (Stampin’ Up)
Other: Spring Flower Bouquet punch (SU); mini brads (Making Memories)

CAS Colours & Sketches #379

1 Response »

Jul 142020

Hello there! We have a sketch challenge for you this week at CAS Colours & Sketches, and I think it’s a good one for letting our participants’ creativity shine. The main element of the sketch is a circle, but the other elements can be any shape.

I’ve squashed the sketch into a landscape-oriented rectangle and taken the liberty of using a big, bold sentiment for the main image, with coordinating elements for the smaller shapes. I stamped the sentiment on designer paper before using a die to cut the circle. The hats were stamped on scraps of the same paper that were more yellow, so I colored the stripes and the polka dots orange. The colors match better in real life than in the photo. I used dimensional adhesive to attach the hats to the card. I don’t often use black for card bases but this time it worked to let the colors pop.

Supplies:
Stamps: Cake & Candles (Avery Elle); Hats Off to You (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Basic Black, Watercolor Wonder designer series paper (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: Stitched Circle die (Lawn Fawn)

CAS Colours & Sketches #377

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Jun 302020

Hello hello! It’s Timeless Tuesday at CAS Colours and Sketches, where we have a double challenge for you! This week we’d like you to create a card using the provided color palette and sketch.

I’m the challenge host this week. I have to confess that one reason I chose these colors was because they are based on an old pack of designer paper that I do like, but haven’t managed to completely use yet. Another reason is that I thought that even though these are retired Stampin’ Up colors, there are current colors that are quite similar to these and can be substituted easily.

I actually started out thinking I’d use a floral patterned paper for my card, but I ended up changing my mind at the last minute. I turned the sketch on its side for my card. The sentiment is made of three stamps put together – “happy”, “birthday”, and “to you”. I used markers to color in the stripes on the “happy”. The sentiment is popped up from the background with dimensional adhesive. I decided on the green for the card base to help keep the card more gender neutral, since I don’t know yet who its recipient is going to be.

Be sure to go see what the rest of the CC&S Design Team has made for this challenge! Then create a card of your own and share it with us via the linky tool on the CC&S site. You have until 6:00 p.m. Eastern time Monday, July 6 to link your card. We hope you’ll join in the fun and creativity! Thanks for stopping by today.

All supplies except the stamps are from Stampin’ Up.
Stamps: Happy Happy Happy (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Certainly Celery, striped paper from Petal Patch designer series paper
Ink: Close to Cocoa
Other: Certainly Celery, Blush Blossom, and Bashful Blue markers, dimensionals

CAS Colours & Sketches #376

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Jun 232020

Hello! Today starts sketch challenge week at CAS Colours & Sketches and YoonYoung has drawn up a very nice clean and simple one for us!

When I first saw the sketch, I pictured an opportunity to weave strips of cardstock or patterned paper for the horizontal and vertical blocks. I’ve tried weaving cardstock strips in the past and knew that the thickness of cardstock can be hard to manipulate sometimes. So when it came to actually sitting down and making today’s card, time and patience wore me down to using just two strips of designer paper for each block to accomplish the woven look. A white card base seemed to contrast too starkly with the designer papers, so I chose cardstock that complemented the colors in the patterns. I’ve flipped the sketch mirror image just to give a little variety in the design team’s cards for the sketch.

Be sure to check out the terrific cards the rest of the CC&S Design Team have made. Then make your own card following the sketch and share it with us at the CC&S site. You have until 6:00 p.m. Monday, June 29 to link your card. We’d love to have you join in the fun and creativity! Thanks for stopping by today.

All supplies for this card are from Stampin’ Up unless otherwise noted:
Stamp: Cake & Candles (Avery Elle)
Cardstock: River Rock, scraps from Porcelain Prints designer series paper
Ink: Blue Bayou

CAS Colours & Sketches #374

3 Responses »

Jun 092020

Hi! It’s Tuesday, which means it’s time for a new challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches. This week we have a sketch challenge for you.

I’ve turned the sketch on its side and used die-cut balloons for the circular shapes. The balloon on the right has a couple of scrap cardstock shims behind it to give it a little dimension. The sentiment panel is attached with dimensional adhesive to give it some definition from the card base. It’s hard to tell in the photo, but the card base is linen textured.

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, June 15. Be sure to check out what the other design team members have made, too! Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps: Happy Everything (Stampin’ Up); Happy Happy Happy (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Solar White Linen, Solar White (Neenah); Basic Black, scraps from Watercolor Wonder designer series paper (SU)
Ink: Crushed Curry (SU)
Other: Party Balloons dies (Lawn Fawn)

CAS Colours & Sketches #373

8 Responses »

Jun 022020

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)

CAS Colours & Sketches #372

2 Responses »

May 262020

At CAS Colours & Sketches we have one last sketch challenge for the month of May. It’s one that leaves some openness for interpretation, so it’ll be fun to see what our challenge participants make with it!

This monster was intended for a card a few weeks ago for a different challenge, but I didn’t like the way that card was shaping up so I stopped before gluing him to a card. I stamped him on a piece of designer paper, fussy cut him, and then colored his spiny spikes and his teeth with markers. I had coordinating scraps of designer paper that fit the background elements of this week’s sketch, so I decided to go ahead and use the monster now. I took the liberty of squashing the sketch into a landscape-oriented card so that I had enough room for the sentiment. I know it’s the same sentiment I used on last week’s card, but it still makes me smile.

I hope you’ll go see what the rest of the CC&S design team and our May guest designer have done with this sketch. Then make a card of your own and share it with us by 6:00 p.m. Eastern time Monday, June 1. Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps: Little Monsters (Lizzie Anne Designs)
Cardstock: Soft Sky (Stampin’ Up); scraps from Phoebe 6″ x 6″ paper pad (Basic Grey)
Ink: Early Espresso (SU)
Other: markers (Copic)

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CAS Colours & Sketches #391

CAS Colours & Sketches #389

CAS Colours & Sketches #388

CAS Colours & Sketches #387

CAS Colours & Sketches #385

CAS Colours & Sketches #383

CAS Colours & Sketches #382

CAS Colours & Sketches #381

CAS Colours & Sketches #380

CAS Colours & Sketches #379

CAS Colours & Sketches #377

CAS Colours & Sketches #376

CAS Colours & Sketches #374

CAS Colours & Sketches #373

CAS Colours & Sketches #372

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Really great links

Really great shopping

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