CTC393– Case a Blending Brush Technique

Welcome to another week at CASEing the Catty Sunday Blog Hop, where utilise the projects within the current Stampin' Up! catalogue to inspire our own projects each week. We also invite you to join with us in the challenge each week by using this inspiration in your own creations and uploading a photo to our Facebook page.

This week we are taking our inspiration from techniques using Blending Brushes! You can pick a project from either of the catalogues so flick through them and see what catches your eye.

I was inspired by this technique from page 66 of the Mini Catalogue, I like the way you can mask off an area of the card and choose exactly where you want your ink to go. 

I wanted to keep the overall card simple so that the technique was the star of the show.  Because I don't trust myself to cut an accurate square I used one of the stitched square dies from Stylish Shapes Dies.  What I didn't realise when making this choice was that my blending would actually go through the small perforations and create a stitched border around the square!  How cool is that.   

The other thing that happened by accident on this card was that when I stamped the leave in Early Espresso it was taking ages to dry, so I decided to add some clear embossing powder so I wouldn't smudge it. To my horror of course the powder stuck to the sponged square!  When I looked closer I could see that there was more embossing powder at the bottom where there was more ink, and so when I heated it, I ended up with an ombre shine over the square which added subtle texture that I really liked. No mistakes, just creative opportunities.

With the choice of sentiment I decided to add a stamped insert into my card.  I did think about adding some colour to the leaves, but decided it makes a nice accent just as it is. 

I hope you are inspired to join in the challenge this week, post a picture of your project to the CTC Facebook page.

  

Time to hop on over and see what Rachel has created this week.

Happy Stamping
Monique

CTC #392 - CASE This Annual Catalogue Sketch

Welcome to another week at CASEing the Catty Sunday Blog Hop, where utilise the projects within the current Stampin' Up! catalogue to inspire our own projects each week. We also invite you to join with us in the challenge each week by using this inspiration in your own creations and uploading a photo to our Facebook page.

This week we are taking our inspiration from the card on page 58, specifically the layout of this pretty creation.

Here is the sketch we are playing with. 

I was playing around with different papers and card bases for this challenge and settled on this pretty Textured Chic piece of DSP with a strip of Distressed Gold for the feature. The fern frond is from Nature's Prints stamped in Soft Suede and then coloured in Pale Papaya then coloured with water colour pencils to bring out the image.  I have been doing a lot of colouring lately so decided to bring it into this project.  I will do a post soon showing my drawing and colouring journey.

I hope you are inspired to join in the challenge this week, just use the challenge sketch to inspire your creativity, then post a picture of your project to the CTC Facebook page.

  

Time to hop on over and see what Kathryn has created this week.

Happy Stamping
Monique

CTC #390 - Case the colours of Santa Express DSP

Welcome to another week at CASEing the Catty Sunday Blog Hop, where utilise the projects within the current Stampin' Up! catalogue to inspire our own projects each week. We also invite you to join with us in the challenge each week by using this inspiration in your own creations and uploading a photo to our Facebook page.

This week we are taking our inspiration from the colours in the Santa Express DSP. These are Poppy Parade, Petal Pink, Granny Apple Green, Evening Evergreen, Shaded Spruce and Mint Macaron. 

I wasn't sure what to do with these colours, but then it occurred to me that I have always wanted to try this stamped one sheet wonder technique. I have seen a few versions of this lately and thought these colours would suit it very well, having so many greens. Monica Formosa's creation for Colour Inkspiration Challenge was the first one I saw that really popped out.  I started by drawing feint lines on the A4 cardstock and then stamping my flowers first then filling in with greenery. It was missing something so I added some blended colour to darken up some areas. From this sheet I then made 4 standard sized cards, 3 mini cards, and 2 gift tags (not included due to being incomplete!). I wanted to make each of them a little different to show the versatility and appeal to different tastes. 

The three gift cards above turned out really well, I tried a petal pink background on one of them, but decided I liked the Granny Apple Green border much better. 

This is the first of the standard sized cards, this one featuring the lovely Evening Evergreen Ribbon.

This one I kept fairly simple as it had a lot of the stamped images, just adding some bling and the sentiment. 

My third standard card I chose to do a circle instead of the square for the sentiment and added different ribbon. I did think about adding some rhinestones as well, but decided against it. 

On this final card I added some rhinestones coloured with one of my Stampin Blends to coordinate, I think it was the Evening Evergreen.

I hope you are inspired to join in the challenge this week, just use the colours of the Santa Express DSP in your creation, then post a picture of your project to the CTC Facebook page.

  

Time to hop on over and see what the lovely Judy has created this week.

Happy Stamping
Monique

CTC #389 - CASE An Annual Catalogue Bundle

Welcome to another week at CASEing the Catty Sunday Blog Hop, where utilise the projects within the current Stampin' Up! catalogues to inspire our own projects each week. We also invite you to join with us in the challenge each week by using this inspiration in your own creations and uploading a photo to our Facebook page.

This week we are taking our inspiration from the Bundles in the Annual Catalogue, you can find these at the back of the catalogue. 

I was inspired by this image from page 161, in fact it is the first of the bundles listed in this section. This card caught my eye because I really don't like the colour combination and it got me thinking that the layout was nice, and that I would see what it could look like using different products.

I have been in the swing of making Christmas cards recently, working on the theory that if I make them early enough I might actually send them in time!  The Boughs of Holly DSP was a great option for this card as it allowed me to use complementary and contrasting strips and background as well as fussy cut the poinsettias from one of the sheets to use instead of the butterflies. I popped one of the flowers up on Dimensionals and added Bronze Brushed Metallic Dots to the centres of the poinsettias for some subtle texture.  I also flicked some Wink of Stella onto the front of the card before adhering the flowers but as usual the photograph just doesn't pick this up. 

I am glad that I wasn't put off by the original card, as this is a great layout to use up those thin scraps you might have, and doesn't really need a lot in the way of supplies. You could use die cuts or stamped images if you don't like fussy cutting of course!

I hope you are inspired to join in the challenge this week, just use any of the samples from the Bundles in the Annual Catalogue to inspire your creativity, then post a picture of your project to the CTC Facebook page.

  

Time to hop on over and see what Sandra has created this week.

Happy Stamping
Monique