*CAS on Friday #307*

 The current challenge at CAS on Friday is to use a stencil... I find that that can be challenging while keeping a card clean and simple... I played with some soft ink colours and a fun daisy stencil.  To keep it more clean and simple, I overlapped by sentiment with my stencilling.

Card Info

*Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! Basic Black

*Stamps:  Stampendous Big Words Happy
*Ink:  Versafine Clair Nocturne; Catherine Pooler Martini, Glitz

*Stencil:  A Colourful Life Designs Daisies

*Tools:  Perfect Layers

*Embellishments:  Crystal Stickles
*Challenges:  CAS on Friday #307

*Blue & White Stripes*

 I came across the current challenge at Just Add Ink this morning and knew I wanted to play along.  I love the look of blue and white stripes.  I pulled out my stencils and decided on this one to play with with a brilliant blue ink...

Card Info

*Images:  The Ton Easy Expressions

*Ink:  Catherine Pooler Suede Shoes; Versafine Clair Nocturne

*Dies:  Spellbinders Be Bold Blooms; The Ton Easy Expressions
*Stencils:  A Colourful Life Striped Waves

*Tools:  Perfect Layers

*Challenges:  Just Add Ink#706

*Just Us Girls #711

I'm cutting it close to enter a card challenge... again LOL!  The challenge at Just Us Girls is an anything goes with stencils challenge.  I saw this colour combination on a card recently and wanted to play with it.  I tried a few different things before settling on this one...

Card Info

*Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! Basic Black

*Images:  Studio Katia It's Your Birthday
*Ink:  Versafine Clair Nocturne; Tim Holtz Wilted Violet, Twisted Citron, Peacock Feathers

*Stencil:  A Colourful Life Big Swirl

*Tools:  Perfect Layers

*Challenges:  Just Us Girls #711

*Let's Celebrate*

 How could I resist playing along with a DOTS challenge at CAS on Friday??  I love the look of dots!  The hard part was deciding what I wanted to do!  I finally settled on some simple ink blending with a stencil...

Card Info
*Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! Tahitian Tide

*Images:  Simon Says Stamp Big Old Birthday
*Ink:  Tim Holtz Distress Salty Ocean, Twisted Citron; Versafine Clair Nocturne

*Stencil:  A Colorful Life Designs Merry Dots

*Tools:  Perfect Layers

*Challenges:  CAS on Friday #254

*AAACards #234*

The team at AAACards is playing with Circles for this challenge... and we hope you will too!  I can't wait to see what you come up with!

I decided to play with a stencil I have in my stash...  and I added some shimmer to it too!

Card Info

*Images:  Pink Fresh Studio Happy Birthday Sentiments

*Ink:  Versafine Clair Nocturne; Tim Holtz Salty Ocean and Twisted Citron

*Stencils:  A Colorful Life Merry Circles

*Embellishments:  Nuvo Glimmer Paste Moonstone; Studio Katia Sparkling Crystals

*Challenges:  AAACards #234

I even created a video with how I made this card...

*Shades of Blue*

I found the Just us Girls challenge later in 2022... I think this is my second time playing with them.  

I don't always like colour challenges but I'm trying to push myself more often.  I was in the midst of making this card on the weekend while chatting with a group of childhood friends.  One of those friends was telling us about some struggles she's been having lately and I knew I wanted to send her a card to let her know how important she is to me.  She and I have known each other pretty much all of our lives... we are a few days different in age and our parents were friends where we were younger so we became friends... that was almost 53 years ago!  She is in so many of my memories, in so many parts of me and my history that I do really think of her as family.

Card Info

*Carstock:  Stampin' Up! Night of Navy

*Images:  MFT Anything But Basic Friendship

*Ink:  Versafine Clair Nocturne; Tim Holtz Salty Ocean

*Stencil:  A Colorful Life Designs Artistic Bullseye

*Dies:  Stampin' Up! Pierced Blooms

*Challenges:  Just Us Girls #661

*Addicted to CAS #232*

The code word at Addicted to CAS for this challenge is sympathy... one of those cards we all hate to make but that I think are probably the most meaningful ones to send.  As it's a tough one to create, I hope you'll find some inspiration from the design team as well as share your ideas with us!

When I go to make sympathy cards I tend towards more muted colours and a simple design.  I really love how this card turned out.  I taped off the edges of my card and placed my stencil over top and stencilled the blue ink through the flowers.  I then went back wth the turquoise ink and blended over top of everything to help mute the blue and make it not so stark of a pattern in the centre of the card.  

Card Info

*Images:  Stampin' Up! Warmest Regards

*Ink:  Versafine Clair Nocturne; Gina K Powder Blue, Turquoise Sea

*Stencil:  A Colorful Life Designs Daisies

*Challenges:  Addicted to CAS #232

*AAACards #224*

 We have a colour challenge for you at AAACards this week... with the optional twist of spots and dots.  Use the graphic below to get your colour inspiration for your clean and simple cards.

The colours were a bit tough for me because while they look fine on this graphic, I had trouble getting them together on a card.  I tried three different things before this one stuck...

Card Info

*Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! Basic Black,  Parakeet Party sparkle

*Ink:  Tim Holtz Salty Ocean, Kitsch Flamingo, Candied Apple, Mustard Seed

*Dies:  MFT Cheers

*Stencils:  A Colorful Life Dot Duo

*Tools:  Perfect Layers

*Challenges:  AAACards #224

*Addicted to CAS #227*

There's a new challenge at Addicted to CAS today... time to show us your clean and simple creations featuring the colour pink!

I don't know why but I struggled with this prompt....  but then I gabbed out some stencils and had a little play with them.  I stencilled the pink swirls first and then put a second stencil on top of the first stencil and used Glimmer Paste so that the sparkly circles only showed up on the pink swirls.

Card Info

*Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! Basic Black

*Sentiment:  computer generated and printed with a laser printer and foiled

*Ink:  Tim Holtz Picked Raspberry

*Stencils:  A Colorful Life Designs Big Swirls, Merry Dots

*Embellishments:  Moonstone Nuvo Glimmer Paste

*Tools:  Perfect Layers; Fricken Square Corners

*Challenges:  Addicted to CAS #227

*Masked Word*

I tried something a little different (at least for me) with this card... nothing earth shattering, but I masked off the word celebrate before I ink blended over a stencil.  Before I removed my mask, I also blended a little more of the same colours of ink over the piece after removing the stencil to soften the look of the colours a little and to really make my word pop.  I like how it all looks kind of soft and dreamy.

Card Info

*Ink:  Tim Holtz Twisted Citron, Salty Oean

*Dies:  MFT Celebrate

*Stencil:  A Colorful Life Designs Dot Duo

*Embellishments:  unknown bling

*Etc:  foam adhesive

*Softened the Look*

I will admit that I love stencils... and I have a few dozen... but I hardly use them because I feel intimidated by them.  I think it's because I prefer the clean and simple style for my creations and stencils tend to be pretty busy.  I've been trying to pull them out to play with a little more often...  For this card I used the ink through the stencil and then the same colours of inks over top without the stencil to soften the look a little bit.  This is one of the computer generated sentiments I printed with my laser printer and foiled.  

Card Info

*Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! Basic Black

*Stencils:  A Colorful Life Artistic Bullseye
*Ink:  Catheine Pooler Be Mine, Tiki Torch, Limoncello

*Embellishments:  Studio Katia

*Tools:  Perfect Layers; Fricken Square Corners

*Aqua on Black*

This card started out as an experiment... I wanted to see what this aqua coloured paste would look like on black... and let me tell you... it looks fabulous!  It looked so nice I had to make a card with it, even if it's not my usual clean and simple style.

Card Info

*Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! Basic Black

*Images:  Uniko Birthday Wishes

*Ink:  Verasfine Clair Nocturne

*Dies:  Stampin' Up! Tasteful Labels

*Stencil:  A Colorful Life Designs Merry Dots

*Etc:  Simon Says Stamps Seafoam Glitz Glitter Gel

*Color Throwdown #699*

I love the inspiration photo from the current Color Throwdown challenge so I had to play along.  But then I was stumped as to what I wanted to do...  I do much better with sketch challenges than colour challenges I think!

I pulled out a stencil I haven't used yet and this is the result.  I was going to orient my card the other way however the glitter paste made a mess in one area under the stencil so I flipped the panel and covered it with my sentiment!

Card Info

*Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! Tempting Turquoise

*Images:  Studio Katia Birthday Greetings

*Ink:  Versafine Clair Nocturne; Tim Holtz Distress Ink Salty Ocean, Wilted Violet

*Dies:  Waffle Flower Additional Circles

*Stencil:  A Colorful Life Designs Notre Dame Swirl

*Tools:  Perfect Layers; Fricken Square Corners

*Embellilshments:  Nuvo Glimmer Paste in Moonstone

*Challenges:  Color Throwdown #699

*Embellishments: 

*Stencil Background*

I had fun with some light stencilling for my card today.  I wanted some pretty colour without it being overwhelming.  I love layering stencils since it's so easy to do one colour at a time... it's achievable with a regular stencil but you have to be careful with the masking!  I actually used two different stencils for this card but only used a small portion of each, moving it around to fill my background.

Card Info

*Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! Basic Black

*Images:  Uniko Birthday Wishes

*Ink:  Versafine Clair Nocturne; Tim Holtz Distress Twisted Citron, Picked Raspberry

*Stencils:  Gina K Bold Flowers; A Colorful Life Designs Daisies

*Embellishments:  Studio Katia Arctic Breeze Pearls

*Tools:  Perfect Layers; Fricken' Square Corners; Taylored Expressions blending brushes

*Color Throwdown #695*

I pulled out a stencil that I purchased right before I broke my wrist.  Ink blending still isn't easy (and honestly it can hurt) but this was quick and I was able to get through it.  I loved the look of the colours in the current Color Throwdown Challenge so that's what I went with for this card.

Card Info

*Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! Basic Black; silver mirror

*Images:  MFT Big Birthday Sentiments

*Ink:  Versafine Clair Nocturne; Catherine Pooler Stone Blue, Serene, Hot Tub

*Dies:  Simon Says Stamp Big Happy

*Stencil:  A Colorful Life Designs Stripes Waves

*Tools:  Perfect Layers; Fricken Square Corners

*Challenges:  Color Throwdown #695