CAS(E) THIS SKETCH #267

Do you find that different style of stamps make you create different cards?  I'm having another play with my new Cherry Blossom stamp set from Clear Impressions and I seem to be doing slightly different cards - maybe its the theme of the stamps - I'm not sure.

I'm joining in with the Sketch Challenge at CASe this Sketch which gave us this sketch




If you are a regular to my blog you will know I really challenge myself with CAS cards as I always want to add more and I'm never really sure how CAS my cards are.

I used what I think is a type of lotus flower for my main image - and coloured it in with SU coloured pencils in just two colours, Melon Mambo and Rich Razzleberry washed over with a Wink of Stella just on the Razzleberry parts.  I've used Melon Mambo cardstock for the banner and clear embossed the stamp image.  The Joy sentiment is a lovely old SU one I have called Small Script.  I've added a few enamel dots in contrasting purple to finish the card.






 

TIC TAC TOE ZEN CARD

I'm having a play with my new stamps - I could challenge myself to make something with every single stamp on this new set called Cherry Blossom - so often stamps in sets get forgotten.

Tic Tac Toe has a great challenge this week - 



I chose to go for the top horizontal row - Water, CAS, Trees.  I was delighted to see something that would fit the bill in this new set of stamps.

To keep with the water theme and the Asian theme to the stamps I went with SU Pacific Point for my ink and as it is CAS I've kept it simple.  There is a touch of SU Pool Party ink for the water and the bamboo gives us the tree element.  I've gently sponged round the edges with Pool Party and just added some glitter enamel dots.  I love the lettering for this Happy Birthday sentiment too.  A touch of Wink of Stella on the bird finishes off the card.

Thank you for stopping by my blog - I love to hear from you.


 

TAKING TIME OUT.....

I'm taking time out from some Stampin Up stamps - to use a gorgeous set of stamps called Cherry Blossom from Clear Impressions. A fabulous set of 18 polymer stamps I can't wait to start playing with - I loved the blossom, the little panda, the sentiment and the fact that there are some fish here as my husband and daughter are keen fly fishermen/woman.  And at only £2.60 including postage they were a complete bargain.

I chose to first have a play with the gorgeous cherry blossom branch and the flowers and I loved the sentiment.  It seems quite fitting.  I used just one layer using SU Very Vanilla cardstock as the base.   I used SU Early Espresso for the branch.  I inked the flowers up with SU inks - Sweet Sugarplum, Flirty Flamingo and Peekaboo Peach and the sentiment was inked up in Lemon Lime Twist.  A few enamel dots finished it off with some Wink of Stella on the flowers.

I'm entering this one into Time Out challenge this week which has the challenge of Spring with the added twist of one layer.

 

FRIDAY'S FACEBOOK MUSINGS

Two cards from me today for different Facebook Challenges. One is for a challenge on Joy of Sets - my own Facebook Group which celebrates all things SU - retired and current.  I've challenged everyone to Case the Catty before it goes.  I've chosen to do Bookcase Builder, especially as I see it is retiring - I don't think this little set got the love it deserved!  My card is from Page 105 of the outgoing catalogue 2017/2018.  I've had this set quite a while and only from looking at the image in the catalogue did I realise what the small dots were for - keeping the shelves together - Doh!

I'm also entering this one into Watercooler Wednesday's challenge this week which is All About Occasions.

My other card is for a new FB Group I have just joined called Colour Inkspiration  #C131- and their challenge was to use the following colours:

Old Olive, Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry Tempting Turquoise

I opted to go with Feather Together for this one - another set I believe is retiring.  I don't have the framelits to go with this set so had to just cut out the feather for the layering.  I used marker pens for the sentiment.  The ribbon is non SU but it goes so well.

 

RAIN, RAIN GO AWAY

That's exactly how many of us feel in the UK as Spring is really taking its time coming and we are all desperate for some warm weather.  My card today reflects that.

The challenge over at Addicted to CAS #133 is rain and the challenge over at Inkspirational 158 is a photo image.



I've used SU Night of Navy as my base card stock and for the layers - the stamp set is Beautiful You and the little umbrella is from a very old set called A Little Love.  The background paper is non SU.  I've also used an old non SU stamp for the splatters which you can just see on the squares.  I've used SU stitched framelits to cut out the various squares - I was inspired by the photo above to use lots of squares on the card.  There is a touch of Wink of Stella on the umbrellas and the girl to give a bit of a sheen.

I hope you like my card and thank you for visiting my blog.


        

USING MARKER PENS

There are times when only a marker pen will do!  That's especially true if you want to join in with a colour challenge and the only colours you happen to have are in marker pens.

 Ahem - that's me this week with the TGIF challenge - their colours are last year's In Colours which I must admit were not my favourites.  I was lucky enough to win a set of marker pens at Convention but I never did follow up on buying the full ink pads.

The challenge over at Addicted to Stamps this week is also using Marker Pens so my card can double up.

I've kept my card quite CAS (clean and simple) and I've used an old SU set which I've been using lately for some inchies for a swap I've organised on my Joy of Sets Facebook Page.  It;s called A Little Love.

These colours do seem to scream sweets or ice cream and I thought this little sweet dispenser was the perfect stamp.  I've used the Stitched Framelits to layer the little squares and kept the colours as block colours.  The sentiment is from an old Project Life set called Remember This.

 

AUTUMN DAYS

Well, it should be spring here in the UK but it feels more like Autumn -and not a good Autumn at that! Dull, wet, miserable, the dark days of winter are hanging around far too much. Maybe that's what drew me to doing a more autumnal feel to my card today.


This is the challenge over at As You See It  #173 for this week - a wealth of possibility.




I decided to use a very old SU set - Autumn Days.  I started with inking the background with Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Antique Linen, Old Paper, then added some SU Pear Pizzazz and Crushed Curry.  The sentiment stamp is a very old one from Laura Ashley of all people.  It's a word stamps which says - 

"Find your inspiration anywhere, roaming the English countryside, gathering wildflowers, reading a cherished gardening book, watching birds flutter in the sky, following their trail that leads through the woods, sipping tea and watching the sun rise, strolling through the garden amongst the roses, sitting on a swing built for two and watching the world around you."

How idyllic is that imagery.  And just as I was reading it our local Cockerel Pheasant made himself known with that raucous cry they have and there he was in the garden.  The dogs, being gundogs, go mad when they hear him cry but they don't scare him - not one bit.  So there really was no other alternative than to put him on this card for today.

After stamping the word stamp in Tranquil Tide I heat embossed the pheasant with SU brown embossing powder.  He was then coloured in with SU Markers in golds, greens and reds.  I stamped some of the grasses from the set in stamped off SU Crumb Cake and added some Burlap Ribbon and enamel dots.  The sentiment is from Thankful Thoughts and is cut out with Banners Framelits.


Thanks for stopping by - I appreciate reading your comments.


 

A NICE CUPPA FOR #SSC176

One of the sets I like to use is A Nice Cuppa - it's a set I purchased after it had retired as I had lost touch with SU a bit when it came out.  I think one of the benefits of not being an SU Demo any more is I don't have to just use what's current and can get out some of those much loved stamps and re-use them.  That was my thinking behind starting up my Facebook Group The Joy of Sets - details over on the side.  If you love SU and want to still show off those creations using retired sets and colours come on over.

Sunday Stamps this week have a sketch challenge.

Oh my - how daunting at first glance - all those different panels to fill with papers or colours.  As I had decided to use A Nice Cuppa I went with the gorgeous SU DSP for Coffee Break - I do like those lovely soft blues and browns.  I used the framelit for the tea cup and popped it up on dimensionals.  I used some metal rimmed pearls that I actually found at the back of the cupboard - there is a bit of washi tape on there also.  The sentiment is from Watercolor Wings- due to retire I think.

I'm quite pleased that I was brave to use all those papers together lol!

 

SMILE

Well I can definitely say my card today has colours I wouldn't normally use or put together - but they were chosen as this week's challenge at The Paper Players -and after all isn't that what challenges are all about.  I have lots of different coloured card stock, inks and ribbons that hardly get used so its good to challenge yourself, especially out of your usual colours.





These are lovely colours though and the image is so inspiring, but sadly I didn't have any stamps that looked like lavender so I went with Colourful Seasons.  I didn't actually have Wisteria Wonder ink but substituted it for an old SU colour Almost Amethyst which is very similar.

I used my water brush to soften the colours and used Elegant Eggplant top and bottom with the Almost Amethyst in the middle.  The deckchair was inked in Early Espresso and Tranquil Tide as was the sentiment.  A popped up flower with some purple embellishments was added.  I layered it onto Tranquil Tide and then Wisteria Wonder card stock which I did have.  I finished it off with some Tranquil Tide ribbon and a wash of Wink of Stella - just to make it sparkle.

I think these colours give this more of an autumnal feel for this deckchair rather than summer.






          

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS - CHALLENGE #287

Our challenge today at Hand Stamped Sentiments is a Colour Challenge.




Now - can I let you into a little secret - Flirty Flamingo is not one of my favourite colours.  There I said it - it's out in the open.  I therefore don't have any ink for this or anything similar but I do have it in a marker pen which I won from On Stage last year.  Lemon Lime Twist on the other hand is one of my favourite colours.

I've used two Stampin' Up sets for this card - the background flower stamp is from Colourful Seasons and has been inked up in Soft Sky.  The butterfly is from Watercolor Wings and I've used all three colours with a wash of Wink of Stella over the wings to make it sparkle.  The Sentiment is also from Colourful Seasons and a few enamel dots are added to the bottom.  I've inked the edges with the Flirty Flamingo and mounted the card onto Lemon Lime Twist.

I hope you like my card and join in with our challenge.  




 

INSPIRED BY

A new challenge again for me today - Inspired By and their challenge this week is a lovely inspirational photo.




I do enjoy the challenges that have these lovely images - there is so much to be inspired by.  Blue is a colour I realise I don't often use - most of my blue inks are quite dry too so maybe there is a purchase ahead? 

Here is my interpretation of the image.  I've used SU's Night of Navy for my ink - stamping it off for the background.  The background tea stain type image was made with Tim Holtz Stencil - Splatters.  The diagonal images are from Cherry Pie Art Stamps.  The Tea Cups are from Stampin Up's A Nice Cuppa.  I've used some Washi Tape and some scraps of other papers for the background.  The ribbon at the bottom is SU Sweater Trim Ribbon - keep a thing long enough and you eventually find a use for it lol!

Thanks for dropping by and please leave me a comment so I can come and visit you.



I'm delighted by card was chosen as the winning card this week.




 

ALL ABOUT THE RETRO

My card today has been inspired by CASE this Sketch challenge blog which is also doing a Retro Case.

Although not strictly as CAS as it should be I'm still going to enter my card into their challenge.  

I kept with the idea of retro and went to the back of my cupboard and found some very old Stampin' Up Stamps - the little nappy pin is from Riveting, the Yeah Baby is from A Little Love stamp set and I don't know where the bird came from.  I used one of the Stitched framelits to cut out all the images and used Stampin Up ink in Soft Suede, Island Indigo and an old Bordering Blue.  

The paper is some I had on my desk and is from Marianne Design - Arctic Winter.  It spoke of babies to me so I chose to do a baby card.  The sentiment from Colourful Seasons is just perfect for baby cards.  And then I went off piste in a CAS sort of way - I still had my button jar out from yesterday's card so I added the three little start to the bottom and then I had added a pearl to the inside of the flower so three just also happened to land on the bottom of the card.  Gulp - not CAS! 


It certainly makes a change from blue or pink cards!



 

DOUBLE D - TWINE - A NEW CHALLENGE

I found another new challenge blog on my travels through the internet! Double D challenge and their challenge is to use Twine on your project - they have also given a mood board for inspiration - I chose to go with the greens for my card.

I've used Grey cardstock for the base and the layers - It looks purple here but isn't in real life.  I've used the Seasonal Layers Thinlets from Stampin Up for the leaves and the Colourful Seasons Stamp Set for the sentiment and the leaf stamp on the image.  The embossing folder is also old SU.

I've used a button - I haven't used a button on my cards for years and used to love adding them - it was quite therapeutic rummaging through my button jar so I think I may get them out again more often.

I'm not sure if it shows up but I've actually filled the space where I cut the solid leaf out of the green cardstock with the more delicate leaf thinlet backed on to a solid grey leaf.  So three leaves in total. I hope that makes sense.

Thanks for stopping by on your travels - do leave me a comment so I can come and visit you.




 

JAR OF LOVE

I thought I'd have a play with one of my old sets from Stampin' Up today - Jar of Love hasn't seen much love from me lately lol!  My colours were inspired by the challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches  who gave us these three colours to work with - 





I don't have Calypso Coral but I do have an old SU Cameo Coral which is very similar - as most of the colours are.

I tried to keep in with the rules for the CAS and only used very little embellishments such as a few dimensionals on the flowers and on the label.  I did use one other colour also, Soft Sky for the jar and the water.  I stamped off the main colours inks too on some of the flowers just to give them a different hue.  There is a touch of Wink of Stella on the flowers and in the water.

I am also putting this in for Watercooler Wednesday's Challenge this week which is Marsha's Feminine Challenge.



 

LOST MOJO

Well I must admit my creative mojo packed its bags and left me this morning - here I was all set to do some crafting and I couldn't settle to do anything or find any inspiration.  I popped on to the Facebook Group I run Joy of Sets and put in an SOS for some help.  My good friend Andrea Parr suggested I go through my scraps and see what I could come up with.

At the same time I had gone on to Jackie Aitken's blog and found a challenge blog she is part of called Just Add Ink - which had this challenge:


 

I don't have any foils and I don't really have many stencils other than the Tim Holtz ones I've been using to death lately,  But there in my stash of bits I came across a cut out of a leaf from one of the SU Botanical Builder framelits from last year.  I had just found my stencil!  I used Melon Mambo to ink it onto the Powder Pink cardstock.

I stamped the cockerel from the Wood Words set together with the sentiment Hello Friend and added it to a stamped piece of Wood Textures DSP.  The other sentiment is from a very old SU set - called Riveting.

It just goes to show - never throw anything away!

 

PRETTY KITTY INSPIRATION

The Challenge over at TGIF Challenges this week is to take inspiration from one of the Design Team - what a great idea for a challenge.  My eye was drawn to this lovely basket of flowers by Ashley Van Camp.

I decided to go with the lovely little image of the cat in its flower pot from Stampin Up's Pretty Kitty set.  I kept the colours similar using Powder Pink Cardstock  but added a touch more greens and a bold Melon Mambo for the sentiment.  The ribbon is old SU.

I am also putting this into the Crafty Animals Challenge which is Anything Goes - as long as it has an animal on it I think I'm right in saying.

I am a sucker for cats - known by my family as a slightly mad Cat Lady I have recently taken on the job as a Volunteer Cat Fosterer for Andover Cat's Protection.  That basically means that I have two cat pens in my garden and cats that find themselves out of their homes for one reason or another come to me to look after them until a new home can be found.  So far it has taken about two weeks for new homes to be found but sadly I have an older cat with me that may be around for a while.  Her name is Scrumpy and she is 10 year old and slightly grumpy so she needs an understanding home. 





I'm thinking of producing a lot of cat cards using this set to raise funds for the cats.