CAS(E) this sketch 66….and a new photographing location!!

Good Evening all,

This is the first of two posts I have to share with you this evening. After the success of receiving and honourable mention for my last CAS(E) this sketch entry - seen here, I was feeling very creatively inspired to get going with the next sketch!!

The sketch was very open ended and so I needed just a little more inspiration which luckily I was able to find from Pinterest….I love just looking through 'everything' and seeing what jumps out at me. For me, it was this….

I had just recently bought some twine for using on my craft projects and I had also received Bright Butterfly dies from Uniko Studio. These combined would be perfect - or so I thought.

I decided to do 3 layers of card which I had preprinted with some fancy script writing and then add a top layer of vellum. When I tried to tie these together as above with my twine, it just didn't work! I decided that my twine was too thick and so changed to just one layer of card, one layer of vellum and glued these together down the centre and added some stick on pearl embellishments. I was much happier with this.

The other main inspiration for my card came from a recent visit to a wedding fair where I was having a good browse at the wedding invitations. The Kraft card is SO big just now and I just had to get in on the action. Unfortunately I did not have any kraft card in my stock and so I made do with bog standard brown parcel paper - I think it does just the job.

I really wanted to add curved corners on the main section of my card which I had to fussy cut as I do not own a round corner chomped…..It is definitely on the wish list however!!

So without any further explanations, here is my card….

I am really pleased with how it all turned out. Comments very much appreciated as always…..Also, what do you think of my new location for taking photos??? I think it works!!!

Stamps: Large Butterfly (Visible Image), Birthday (Uniko Studio All occasions Sentiments 2) Wishes (Uniko Studio Pure Florals: Chrysanthemums)

Dies - Uniko Studio Bright Butterflies

Ink - Memento Desert Sand

Embossing folder - Sizzix more dots

Card - Papermill Direct  - Ivory, Brown parcel paper from stash

Embellishments - Ivory ribbon from stash, sequin from Hobbycraft

Laura xx

Uniko Studio Challenge 7………squealing with delight!!!!

Good Afternoon all,

I am here with a post to introduce my entry for the latest Uniko Studio Challenge. Before I show you, I want to share a revelation I had the other night. I was showing my husband a card I had made for a challenge and he said that he didn't really like it! I then realised, that I didn't very much either…..

It then occurred to me that I don;t want to get in to a cycle of making cards just to fit a challenge, I want to make cards that I love, and only enter them if I love them.

When I saw the challenge for Uniko studio my heart fell when I saw the word 'distressed'…..I just am not a fan at all of that look. I was delighted however when I saw there was also the option of vintage and so that is the road I have gone down.

I typed vintage in to pinterest and lots of florals and lace were coming up and so I began planning in my head what I wanted to achieve.

I wanted to create some 'lace' and so I embossed with paper mania seam foam white on to card. It was nice, but not great. I tried again using vellum (my favourite medium) and this worked a treat. The sea foam white EP goes kind of crackly when it dried which further gave the illusion of lace. I used two different stamps for the lace which worked brilliantly together.

I decided to make a square card, but to give a more vintage effect, I cropped the corners using an art deco corner punch. I LOVED what I was beginning to build up.

Oh, in order to get one of the stone colours for the colour inspiration part of the challenge, I tried tree staining my card thinking that it would give an 'old' look - but this looked rubbish so that idea was scrapped.

Uniko Studio do such beautiful flower stamps and so I decided to use them to introduce the colour inspirations. I used my Spectrum Noir pens to colour in the flowers and leaves.

I decided to add pearls to the centre of the flowers which just really made them pop, but I got a bit carried away and added them to perts of the lace too - I am super pleased with how this looks though!!

I had made a big mistake when using my heat tool on the Vellum, in that I melted a corner of it! I thought I would be able to cover it up, but in fact, I decided to crop the vellum to just the top two thirds of the card and leave the bottom third as the ivory card. I added a ribbon to cover the join and place my flowers off centre. I was actually squealing with delight by this point as I just LOVED it so much.

I was feeling that this was a card that had to go to someone really special and I remembered that Mother's Day is coming up at the end of next month and because she has had a really rough few weeks as you will know from my last post, this just HAD to be a special card for her. I therefore got out my 'Mum' stamp fro Papermania and stamped in a co-ordinating light teal colour. The final touch was to add an extra pearl on the stamped 'Mum.'

I can honestly say, I have never ever been so delighted with a card I have made. I am so excited to share it with you.

Here is my 'Vintage' card……..

I just know my Mum will love this card. I hope you like it too after I built it up so much!!
Any comments so very very much appreciated.
Laura xxxxx

Stamps: Uniko Studio Pure Florals (Chrysanthemum and the leaves), Bright Butterflies (smaller flowers on the lace), and Flower Power 2 (coloured in flowers)
Cardstock: Papermill Direct Smooth Ivory, Vellum from stash.
Inks: Hobbycraft green, Spectrum Noir BT1 & BT2 (leaves), PP3 & PP5 (flowers), Papermania Seafoam White EP.
Embellishments: Ribbon and Pearls from stash.
Tools - We are Memories Corner Stub&Art Deco tool.