AAA Cards Challenge 260: Sketch Challenge

The challenge at AAA Cards turned out to be a real easy one for me this week as I had the perfect set to just do the sketch "as is". I've used  a few of my oldest Altenew stamp sets; Painted Butterflies and Label Love. I'll also pop my card up in Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with "Anything Goes".

The only tricky thing was getting 5 butterflies along an edge, so I made a bigger card (7" x 5") to squeeze them all in). 

I was stamping on a 6-3/4" x 4-3/4" mat when I decided I wanted to add some washi, at this stage the balance looked wrong to me, I was worried I had too much white space. I found an old striped black and white washi in my stash which I feel works perfectly. As I ended up "placing" the mat on the RHS directly I ended up cutting  off 1/4" off the top of the card to balance it all up and my final card's dimension is 6-3/4" x 5".

Pinkfresh Studio inks used for my colour combos (top > bottom; lightest > darkest):

• Cherry Blossom/Peony
• Sunkissed/Mimosa
• Limoncello/Bay Leaf
• Waterfall/Paradise
• Soft Lilac/Lavender

And the sketch which was my inspiration:

Just a reminder what CAS means to AAA Cards, we maybe the most restrictive of all the CAS Challenges but it also means the card is relatively easy to create. Now the trick is to make your images pop, and I hope I have done that today.

As always you have 2 weeks to rise to the challenge and I hope you can join us and please do check out the other fab designs on display at the AAA Cards blog. Thanks for popping in.

✿Karen✿

Overboard on green

I've been inspired by a few challenges for this card, Time Out Challenges latest photo inspiration is a GREEN frog as their challenge started on Leap Day (29 February), Simply CAS monthly challenge has the option of Green, Tic Tac Toe wants your "favourite colour" and mine is Lime Green (the line I choose also had "free" and CAS") so the stars seemed to be aligning and Lawn Fawnatics want Spring Cards. I always think of the colour Green when I think of Spring, new leaves and fresh lush grass; hopefully green frogs and green clouds are Spring-like - well my frog can do "springing too" and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge has an Anything Goes.

As it's clean and simple I tried to keep it to minimal layers so used the double stitched circle die to add some interest to my card  panel. I then made a mask out of a 4.25" x 4.25" square of masking paper and die cut out a circle from the middle of the square that was slightly smaller than the stitched circles.

I placed this mask panel over the stitching and added a post it note top and bottom to protect the top and bottom of my panel. From the die cut circle middle I drew a "hill" free-hand which I cut out. I placed this bit back inside the circle mask and keeping with the GREEN theme did a very, very light blend of Twisted Citron to make my clouds. I placed the top of the circle back in and removed the bottom bit blended with Salvaged Patina to make my pond then splattered with a small paint brush some smooshed Blueprint Sketch ink. I felt it was too white at the end which is why I used my Master Layouts #1 to add a hint of a green mat.

Supply List:

Stamps: Toadally Awesome (LF), Hive Five (LF - wee trail)

Ink: Jet Black (LF), Versafine Clair Nocturne, Twisted Citron (RNG), Salvaged Patina (RNG), Blueprint Sketch (RNG - splatters)

Paper: Cilantro (LF), Xpress IT blending, Neenah Solar White

Dies: Toadally Awesome (LF), Just Stitching Double Circles (LF), Everyday Sentiment Banners (LF), Sweet Circle stack (WF), Master Layout 1 (GKD)

Other: Copics, mini cloud edges stencil (MFT), Masking Magic (GKD), blending brushes (TE), 1mm foam squares (SP), white Gelli roll pen 10 (Sakura), clear embossing powder

Challenges: TOC#258, TTTC#242, SCS Cards March 2024, Lawn Fawnatics #167 , SSS Wednesday #114

Well that was a lot of fun I'd better go sort out the craftastrophe as surprisingly for such a simple card it actually used a "lot of stuff"

✿Karen✿

Geometric Fun with AAA Birthday Challenges

Hi everyone I'm absolutely delighted to be the Guest Designer at AAA Birthday for their March Challenge, as soon as I saw the graphic it reminded me of a hot foil plate I had sitting in my stash.

I hot foiled the plate with black foil and then thought maybe I should have just stuck to gold so did another one this time with matte gold. My first go was with the matte gold and Slumber, Sapphire, Lavender and Raspberry Bliss inks using my 1/2" blending brushes. It was pretty but it wasn't as dramatic as I wanted, partly because I'd graduated my blending and the colours faded back more than I thought they would when they dried. I also used 4 of the 5 stencils in the set as I wanted some areas to remain uninked and white.

So it was back to PLAN A and the black foiled image and this time I just went for the 3 darkest inks and also used my bigger blending brushes so easier and quicker to do a heavy ink blend for each stencil layer. I've only used 3 of the 5 stencils so I also have more uninked areas and more white spaces.

I wish I could show how vibrant the black foil is in real life but it is crisp and shiny, a bit like it has been black heat embossed. I've also laid 2 plain die cuts under the sentiment to make it have a bit more dimension.

Supply List (all Pinkfresh Studio unless stated otherwise):
Hot foil plates: Modern Design Blocks (and stencils), Perfect Sentiments (and cutting die)

Ink: Sapphire, Lavender, Raspberry Bliss (plus Slumber for gold foiled card)

Paper: Hammermill White (foiling), Neenah Solar White #110 (base card)

Other: Glimmer Hot Foil machine (SP), Black glimmer foil (SP), Matte Gold glimmer foil (SP), Magenta glimmer drops, blending brushes (TE) and 1/2" blending brushes

Challenge: AAA Birthday #59

Well I hope you have time to play along, you have a whole month to get creative, I for one am really interested to see what the Design Team came up for this Challenge as it certainly is different than the norm.

Thanks for popping in.

✿Karen✿