Bird and Blossom for CAS Mix-up

I just can't get enough of Loll's and Bonnie's new challenge, CAS Mix-Up.  It perfectly suits my style and interests!  The March challenge is stamping, watercolouring, and your choice.

Sponging my stencil with my Distress inks is my choice of another medium this time.

 

I used a stamp I'd never inked up before. I stamped it on a scrap of watercolour paper, painted it with watercolour paints, and fussy cut it.

The background is a Tim Holtz stencil, sponged with pink and green Distress inks. It's popped up on the card base with fun foam and the nest is popped up on the background with pieces of foam tape. 

You've got until March 24th if you want to join in with the CAS Mix-Up challenge.

I also did the card for this week's SCS CAS challenge - "Spring Critters".

 

Stamps: B-Line Designs bird, PTI sentiment

Paper: white cs, watercolour cs

Paper Size: 5.25" square

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Distress Peeled Paint and Spun Sugar

Accessories: Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, foam tape, fun foam, Tim Holtz blossom stencil

CAS Mix-Up Reminder Card

As this month's Featured Designer for Loll's and Bonnie's great new challenge, CAS Mix-Up, I was happy to make a card for the reminder post.  The March challenge is:

For this card, I used the Tim Holtz butterflies stamp, a great Gina K vertical sentiment stamp, sponging with Distress inks and watercolouring with Brushos for the background around the butterflies, and heat embossing.

I stamped and heat embossed the butterflies in gold on coated cs. 

Then I sponged Antique Linen and Old Paper Distress inks around the butterflies to tone down the white of the cs. 

I spritzed carefully  just in certain spots around the butterflies and sprinkled black Brushos on the wet spots.  I used my waterbrush to move it around a bit more.  And yes, it was BLACK Brushos - amazing the colour it came out, perhaps influenced by the Distress inks underneath it.  Whatever it was, I really like how it came out.

I added the butterfly panel to a black cs background with the vertical sentiment stamped and heat embossed in the same gold.  The cardbase is cream cs.

You have until March 24th to join the fun at CAS Mix-Up.

Supplies:

Stamps - Tim Holtz butterflies, Gina K sentiment

Ink - ColorBox Gold, Distress Antique Linen and Old Paper

Paper - PTI Vintage Cream cs, black cs, coated cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Stampendous Pirate Gold embossing powder, black Brushos

Watercoloured Butterflies

The March Mixed Media challenge over at Happy Little Stampers is "water".  

 
For my Design Team contribution, I chose to stamp my Happy Little Stampers butterfly stamps with water and brushos.

I sprinkled various Brusho powders into a paint palette and added water, then painted my butterfly stamps with it - it's hard to judge exactly how much water is needed so a couple of my attempts were tossed.  I used the matching dies to cut them out. 

My Mixed Media are: Brushos, ink, corrugated cardboard, Gesso, and small flower sequins.

I took a strip of corrugated cardboard and randomly painted over it with Gesso.  The butterflies are slightly shaped and attached with foam tape.

I used a vertical sentiment and finished off with a few tiny flower sequins for embellishment.

The Happy Little Stampers' challenge runs until the end of the month.  Come and join in!

I'm also adding this card to the new CAS Mix-Up challenge.  This month the challenge is stamping, watercolouring, and your choice of other mediums.  I used the butterfly stamps and thank you stamp, I watercoloured my butterfly stamps, and my other mediums are corrugated cardboard, gesso, and flower sequins.

Supplies:

Stamps - Happy Little Stampers butterflies, Hero Arts sentiment

Ink - Ranger Archival Potting Soil

Paper - white cs, watercolour paper, corrugated cardboard

Size - A2

Accessories - Happy Little Stampers butterfly dies, Gesso, Brushos, small flower sequins

Christmas Shapes at Happy Little Stampers

The March Happy Little Stampers' Christmas challenge for March is:

                                             

For my Design Team card, I chose a triangle as I have some shimmery red triangular card blanks that are perfect for challenges like this.

I kept the card very CAS to allow the shape to take centre stage.  I die cut the Flowering Christmas Tree in once in shimmery gold cs and twice in white cs and glued the three together to give it dimension.  I stamped and heat embossed "joy" in gold in the corner and added dark gold nailheads to the flowers to tie in with the dark gold of the "joy".

Here's hoping you can join us at Happy Little Stampers.  The challenge winner will receive one stamp set from HLS!

Supplies:

Stamps - Stampendous "joy"

Ink - Versamark

Paper - gold shimmer cs, white cs, blank red shimmer triangle card base

Size - fits an A2 envelope

Accessories - Memory Box Flowering Christmas Tree die, gold ep, dark gold nailheads

Peaceful Snow

I'm back from vacation and happy to be checking out some challenges.  I made this card for the SCS CAS challenge (Sparkly Sentiments) and the Sparkle Creations Christmas Card Challenge.

For Sparkle Creations we were to be inspired by this photo:

I immediately thought of the old SU set "Solemn Stillness".  I stamped my tree in Versamark and heat embossed in white ep, then sponged around it with Distress inks (more blues than purple as I'm not a huge fan of purple).  I cut two layers of snow banks and added a bit of sponging to them.

Once the snow banks were glued on, I sprinkled with chunky white ep and heated from underneath.

I popped it up on a piece of fun foam and added a die cut sentiment, cut out of glitter cs.


I might come back and try one using the other Solemn Stillness stamp, and maybe even stretch myself and do it in purple!

Supplies:

Stamps - SU Solemn Stillness

Ink - Versamark, Memento Summer Sky, Distress Faded Jeans, Chipped Sapphire, and    Dusty Concord

Paper - Gina K white cs, pale blue glitter cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Impression Obsession peace sentiment die, white embossing powder, Stampendous chunky white embossing powder, fun foam

A Fabulous New Challenge!!

For those of you who like to make mostly CAS cards but also want to dabble in mixed media, my good friends Loll Thompson and Bonnie Klass have come up with a great new challenge called CAS Mix Up.  And they've invited me to be their first Featured Designer - I am so honoured!

The March challenge is "stamping + watercolouring + your choice of one other".

On the challenge parameters, there is a great list of the possibilities for the "your choice".  I saw burlap on the list and thought it was a great opportunity to use a piece of cream burlap I bought recently as it keeps the border very CAS.  Here's my card:

My focal image is also very CAS.  I started by doing a watercolour wash for the background.  As it dried, the green bled upwards into the blue, giving a lovely grassy effect.  Perfect for my bird perched on some taller stalks of grass!

I stamped the bird / grass image in green on the watercolour background.  And, because I didn't want the bird to be green, I stamped the image twice in brown on a scrap of watercolour paper.  Working with the two brown images, I cut one of the birds out without colouring it, then watercoloured the other brown bird in shades of brown and cut it out.  And glued the two brown birds on top of the one stamped in green on the background to give it some dimension.

I used my stitched rectangles to die cut the panel.   Watercolour washes often warp the paper so I glued a second rectangle of heavyweight cs to the back of it to flatten it out.  I popped it up with some foam tape.

I'm so excited about this challenge as I think it will help people start to bring in a bit more mixed media to their CAS cards.  The challenge runs until March 24th so there's lots of time to join in!

Supplies:

Stamps - SU Simply Sketched

Ink - Ranger Archival Library Green, Ranger Wendy Vecchi Potting Soil

Paper - PTI Vintage Cream cs, watercolour paper

Size - A2

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, cream burlap, Lil Inkers stitched rectangle die, foam tape