CTC #397 - Case Texture Chic 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 Texture Chic DSP

I was inspired by this image from the Texture Chic Suite Collection page 98 of the Annual Catalogue.

I am not sure if the project in the catalogue is a card or a little box, but it inspired me to create a little card box. I started out creating one to hold 3"x3" cards, then I changed my mind and decided what I needed for Christmas was lots of gift tags.  So I made one to hold my "go-to" bulk tags. It is 4-1/2" x 2-1/4" and 1" deep.

Here are the gift cards I made to go inside.  These look impressive but are super easy to mass produce.  I cut a piece of A4 cardstock in half length ways to create two pieces that are 10.5cm by 29.8cm (you could also do this with the US cardstock as the initial sizes don't matter too much).  I stamped the snowflakes from Season of Chic along  both edges of the cardstock, then adhered a 1cm strip of DSP and 0.5cm strip of Distressed Gold Specialty Paper along one edge.  Next cut each piece into 2" wide pieces, you should get 5 tags from each piece, 10 tags in total.  Then use a tag topper punch on the non-DSP end and add some Bakers Twine or Gold Thread. I stamped the To and From on these but you could easily write that on yourself.  The little box I made holds at least 15 of these, and could hold at least 10 more. 

I hope you are inspired to join in the challenge this week, be inspired by the Texture Chic DSP in your project, then post a picture of it to the CTC Facebook page.

  

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

Happy Stamping
Monique

CTC #396 - CASE A Watercolour Project

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 inspiration from projects in the catalogues that use a water colouring technique.

I was inspired by this card from page 72 of the Annual Catalogue, I was drawn to the water colouring background, and had a new technique that I wanted to try to achieve this.

Here is my card. I chose Gorgeous Grape, Melon Mambo and Bermuda Bay for my three colours, giving the card a bolder look than the original.  I am all in Christmas card mode at the moment so had to give this a Christmas theme even though the colours are non-traditional. Usually to create the background I would use my aqua painter to pick up ink from the lid of an ink pad, however I wanted to try something a little different. I have stepped it out below. 

I was going to just draw on the watercolour paper with my watercolour pencils, but when I realised I needed to sharpen them first another idea struck me.  I sharpened each pencil directly over the paper so that the shavings fell in three groups.

Once I had removed the wood part of the shavings I used my finger to rub the flakes of pencil core over the page, overlapping each colour slightly.  I was going to put a tissue over my finger, but it was good to do it directly as it gave me more control and gave me a better feel of where the shavings were. 

Then it was time to get out my Aqua-painter and I used horizontal strokes to activate the colour.

I then decided to sprinkle the left over pieces of core directly over the damp water colour area, and then spritzed it lightly with water.  Had I been planning on doing this I might have kept the core colours separate, but they were all jumbled in together so I just used them like they were. 

I let this dry completely, using my heat tool to speed up the process a little, then gently brushed off the chunkier pieces of pencil core to leave a cute speckle behind on the paper. I was so happy with how this turned out, the effect reminded me a little of when we had the Brusho pigment powders.  

I love that it is a technique that uses a part of the pencil that would normally be discarded. I think I'll call it the "No Waste Watercolour". Tell me what you think of this technique by leaving me a comment below.

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

  

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

Happy Stamping
Monique

CTC #394 - CASE Your Favourite Stamp Set

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 get to CASE our favourite stamp set in either catalogue, how fun is that? You can choose a card, scrap page, or 3D item that uses your favourite, or at least one of your favourites (because we love our stamp sets equally, just like our children)!

One stamp set that I really love is the Leaves of Holly set and coordinating dies, so I chose this card from page 66 of the Mini Catalogue as the inspiration for my project.  

While I kept fairly similar to the original card in layout, I did change up the colour scheme. I thought it would be a fun take on the original to use Balmy Blue and Highland Heather as non-traditional Christmas colours and pair them with Granny Apple Green.  I love all the layers on this card, and I even added an additional one for the sentiment.  

I hope you are inspired to join in the challenge this week, just use any of the samples using your favourite stamp set,  in either 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 Rebecca has created this week.

Happy Stamping
Monique