In The Spotlight

When I saw the sketch Jane had chosen for this week's challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches I had to agree, you can't get more clean and simple than this

My only concern is that I think I overuse this design in my CAS cards, so I knew I had to do something 'a bit different'. That's when I remembered an old technique somebody showed me way back, when I had just started crafting. It's called the spotlight technique, where you colour just part of an image to create a spotlight effect.

My chosen image?

Swallowtail.

I wanted the image to fill the card, so, after stamping onto a card base I trimmed it up real close. I stamped the image on another piece of card and coloured it all in...well, I wasn't sure which part I wanted to 'spotlight'!

Getting the two images to sit squarely was the only tricky part. I cut a black frame and lined the three parts up. I used Promarkers for colouring. I think they are a bit old school these days, but I still love the vibrant colours. As they always leak through to the other side of the card I used some white paper to put a card liner in.

The sentiment is perfect for me, I'm often a 'little bit late' as anyone who knows me will know.

Hope this and the other DT cards over at the challenge blog will inspire you to have a go with our ultraCAS sketch.

Spotlight on Swallowtail

First week of the Summer holidays for us! Hooray! I love my long summer holiday, one of the main reasons for working in a school, but not always the best for crafting, too many other things to do! I managed to get this one done though, my DT card for this week's Sketch Challenge from CAS Colours and Sketches

This sketch instantly put me in mind of a spotlight card and so that's what I have tried to do.I stamped the large Swallowtail on two sheets of paper, matching them up to form the diagonal line. I did it this way because when I tried joining the card and then stamping I got an edge shadow on the image.
Then I stamped the image again, using my Big 'n' Juicy ink pad to get a rainbow effect and die cut the circle. My circle is a bit more central than in the sketch-that's OK, as long as we can see the elements of the sketch.
Finally, I sponged the edges of the circle, added the sentiments from a set called Happy Congratulations.

Triple Stamped Swallowtail

There is a new sketch challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches today, check it out! What do you think? Very CAS eh? I immediately thought of triple stamping and I knew exactly what stamp I wanted to use.  All I needed was a beautiful DP to show it off, and I found that in these watercolour pages I have in my stash.

The pinks and orange swirl together, they look much better in real life.  I was going to put the sentiment (from Vintage Verses) on the front, but it tipped out of balance and so I compromised and put it inside

Back on Saturday with another Christmas card for you, until then, happy crafting!

Faux Cloisonne Swallowtail

Pinch, punch- it's the first of the month!  Happy October to you! A brand new month and the first Tuesday must mean that there is a new challenge at Technique Time Tuesday and, guess what? This month it's my turn to be hostess.  This means that I have an awesome technique for you to try out, later in the month, I get to case one of your cards and there's a fab prize for the overall winner.  Why not hop on over to the blog and watch the video tutorial on how to make Faux Cloisonne embellishments on your projects. Here's mine..

I knew almost straight away that I wanted to use Swallowtail- it has such fantastic detail that, when stamped and heat embossed with gold embossing powder, looks like the fine metal wires from the real cloisonne designs. Do all this on shiny, coloured magazine paper and you can see it looks like enamel. I also made some smaller butterflies from Papillon Potpourie with the off cuts from the same page and I used a black cardstock for the background, to add to the 'dramatic' look. I have mounted the swallowtail so it is bending off the front of the card (no chance of an envelope for this one!). This is an amazing technique that you could use with flower stamps, medallion stamps, all sorts, you're only limited by your imagination and the stamps in your stash! I do hope you'll give it a try.

I am going to enter my card in three other challenges; first at QKR Stampede , even though it's not from their products it does fit the theme for Butterflies and Bows (There are some gorgeous butterfly projects there already - check it out!) secondly in the Things with Wings challenge at Sweet Stampin', and finally in the Paper Players' Tic Tac Toe challenge

Where I have taken the diagonal line: Ribbon, Embossing, Banner.

Silver Swallowtail

Using my Swallowtail stamp for the card in my previous post gave me an idea for a card for the one layer challenge at Less Is More but I didn't think I would make the deadline.  Lucky me, I got out of work early today and came home to craft with this card already to go in my head (That's the tricky part, a great idea in your head).  As well as one layer the card must be shaped, anything except square or rectangular.  So, butterfly shaped then?

The most difficult part was deciding on a colour scheme. Of course there isn't a die cut for this stamp so my card is cut freehand.  I must admit I've had a few goes to get it just right, never sure how much to cut around fiddly bits like antennae, but this one looked the best to me. It is heat embossed in silver - you can see it better in the second pic below

I thought this might make an unusual wedding card.
First challenge I've been able to enter for ages, holidays now so I hope to do some more.

Starfruit and Swallowtail

Chocolate Chip, Summer Starfruit and Crumb cake - they all sound good enough to eat, and together they make up this week's colour challenge at CAS-Colours and Sketches. I hope you like it!

If you don't have Stampin' Up colours just use the closest shades you have, dark brown, kraft and mustard yellow, I guess.

I am making Thank You cards for my colleagues at work.  We finish tomorrow, so just squeezed this one in in time. The stamp is the amazing Swallowtail, I love stamping this one over the edge (to be honest it's difficult not to!)and the punched shapes and mat are from Summer Starfruit cs. The sentiment comes from the set Perfectly Preserved.

Swallowtail 2

It is a sketch week at CAS-Colours and Sketches and this one is a real classic. I think you will agree, it's very clean and simple.

This, in my opinion, needs a strong image and I think I know just the one for me - my new Swallowtail stamp. I've also used the colour challenge at Lexi's Creations  for a very classic colour combination -black, white and a pop of red-see what you think (I've just photographed it on a green background -that's not part of my card, as you can see from the nest pic!)

 I stamped the butterfly in white onto black cs and then used my white gel pen to add detail and make it stand out more.  A hand-doodled frame centres the off-the-page image. I matted this onto white cs which I die cut  with my Edgelits to make the scalloped edge. I used a black card base, and a strip of red cs for the banner, onto which I stamped a sentiment from Happiest Birthday Wishes and added some red bling. For balance I've added a little red bow.

Swallowtail -my first attempt

I unexpectedly find myself at home this afternoon with a couple of hours spare.  I wonder what I could do....
Here I am a little while later and of course I have something to show you

I have just got this stamp and it's so big and so gorgeous and I so had to use it as soon as possible! I have looked around and there are some fantastic makes with this SU swallowtail butterfly.  This one is mine and it was inspired by the challenge this week at Cas-ual Fridays where you should stamp on DP.  The butterfly was stamped onto two pieces of DP, one in black, and one in white, and heat embossed. Then I snipped part of the white wing out and paper pieced it onto the black. The sentiment is from an old set (nothing wrong with that!) and was perfect for this.  I made a paper banner out of more DP and used a coloured card blank.
I think I will be doing some more with this stamp, it is just too amazing for words!!