How to add dimension to one layer cards

Hello, crafting friends!

Welcome to another Tuesday of fun challenge from CAS Colours and Sketches! As a new month starts we say hello to a new hostess *waves hello to Holly* and she has chosen a sunny, earthy palette for you to try this week.

I used a small flower image from a favourite floral set, Pretty Perennials by Stampin' Up, to create a one layer card which looks as if flower heads have been scattered over it.

I love one layer cards! They're practical to post and often quick to make. Some people think it's hard to create interest and dimension with them but I'm here to give you some handy tips! Instead of adding real layers, the answer is to create the illusion of layers. Stencilling is good for that and masking is useful for creating the illusion that something is in front of something else. Today's card doesn't use either of those techniques though...

A large sentiment stamped over lighter colour floral elements gives the impression that it has been attached in front of the flowers. This 'happy birthday' from Perfect Sentiments by Pinkfresh Studios has been heat embossed with clear embossing powder and the shininess adds to the dimensional effect.

Another way to add dimension to  stamped images is to add extra detail with another colouring media. Here I used coloured pencils in a slightly darker shade of the colours, blending them out from the centres, which really gives them depth. Another trick is to add a shadow to one side of the images - I used a soft grey here which is only visible when you look closely but which helps to make the flowers pop.

I hope you enjoyed these tips and found them useful :)

Right, so now it's your turn! It's not necessary to make one layer cards for our clean and simple challenge (unless you love them as much as I do!) but do keep layers to a minimum and include plenty of clear space. You'll find lots of inspiration from the team over at the CAS Colours and Sketches challenge blog and from this month's special guest Michal from Scrappy Hour. You'll also find the Linky Took so that you can share your own creation. Have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm joining in with the Anything Goes option of the Seize the Birthday challenge; and also with Helen's All Things Feminine theme at Watercooler Wednesday.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

One of the things I love about Eva is that she comes to me for help. Every morning she comes up to say hello and lifts her face up for me to wipe the sleep out of her eyes with the corner of a tissue. If she has something in her paw, she will limp in an exaggerated way to ask me to sort it out; or if she has a snag in her fur - she'll try to bite it out and then look at me with  an agonised expression. Today she came up and sat in front of me, lifted her head as she does in the morning and opened her eyes wide. I could immediately see she had an eyelash on her eye. It takes a while to learn to communicate with  a dog but it is so rewarding when you do :)

Sending hugs,

Tequila Sunrise flowers

Hello, crafting friends!

It's that fabulous time of the week when inspiration comes at you courtesy of CAS Colours and Sketches! Shannon is hosting this month and she's come up with a beauty of a sketch for you this week:

We love the rule of three don't we! I chose a flower from Stampin' Up's Pretty Perennials for my three shapes, stamping them in a pale yellow and then building up glowing colour with orange and red coloured pencils. They were fussy cut and centred with bright red enamel dots, then set aside while I made a background to set them off.

I wasn't letting up on the tropical colours, choosing to stencil hot pink stripes across a card base. I used a large striped stencil from Funky Fossil for this, masking off the stripes I didn't need. The flowers were attached in a row and I stamped a sentiment from Just For You by Clearly Besotted, which fit nicely below one of the flowers in the bottom stripe.

So now it's over to you! What shapes will you choose? I'm looking forward to seeing :) Hop on over to the CAS Colours and Sketches challenge blog where you'll find lots of inspiration from the team, as well as this month's guest star, Deborah Wheeler. You'll also find the Linky Tool there so that you can upload your own creation. Remember to keep it clean and simple with lots of lovely clear space!

CHALLENGES

Oh those colours at Just Us Girls this week! I couldn't wait to get crafting with those; I'm also joining in at Stamplorations Stencil challenge where Anything Goes; and I'm linking up at The Flower Challenge where this month's theme is Clean and Simple Flowers.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I'm afraid it's happened again... while I was making this card, all I could think about was a tequila sunrise cocktail! Anyone joining me? On second thoughts, it's probably best to wait until later as I believe it's frowned upon in some circles to be quaffing back the tequila sunrises at 10 o'clock in the morning lol!

Sending hugs,

A Pretty Perennial note

Hello, crafting friends!

Welcome to another Tuesday and another fun challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches. Wei is our host this month and she has a great sketch for you today:

I love that circle-within-a-circle element and there's so much you can do with it! I opted to go really simple with a watercoloured grey circle and a round looking flower inside.

Using pink ink, I stamped a flower from Styampin' Up's Pretty Perennials and added shading with a darker pink coloured pencil. I gave it a heat embossed gold centre before glueing it to the watercoloured circle. The sentiment, from Clearly Besotted's Simply Said, was also heat embossed in gold. I trimmed the card panel with a stitched rectangle die by Heffy Doodle before attaching it to the card base.

By the way, the front of the envelope I photographed the card with has been sponged with pink ink and decorated with a leafy image from the same stamp set. Obviously this is only suitable for hand delivery as Postie could end up covered in pink ink if it were to rain, and may not be on board with being decorated in this way!

We would love to see what you make of our sketch! Head over to the CAS Colours and Sketches blog where my team mates have some fabulous inspiration for you - and we're also lucky enough to have the ever creative Melanie Hungerford guesting with us :) You will find the Linky Tool there too so that you can link up your creation. Don't forget to keep it clean and simple!

CHALLENGES

I used the Pink/Grey/Gold colour theme at Less is More for this card so I'm linking up there; 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Do you ever have one of those days when nothing goes yright? That was yyesterday for me! I spent what felt like the entire day trying to sort one thing out and just creating a massive mess; then, when I decided to take a rest and turned on the computer, I accidentally tipped a glass of water over the keyboard! If only I knew how to read tea leaves, I feel sure that the leaves in my morning cuppa would have formed capital letters saying DO NOT GET UP TODAY!!!

Sending hugs,

Floral circles

Hello, crafting friends!

What a lot of fun I had making today's card! It was one of those days when I had a vague idea that I wasn't particularly excited by, but then got carried away and ended up having loads of creative fun!

The idea was to sponge some circles onto a card base and decorate each with flowers and leaves. I opened a new stamp set, Pretty Perennials by Stampin' Up, which I'd been looking forward to using. But when I'd done the stamping, it all looked a bit flat. So then I got my coloured pencils out and started adding a bit of shading to some of my stamped images and suddenly things started looking a bit livelier! 

I spent quite a bit of time looking for the right sentiment and came up with a custom one, made by mixing 'wishing you a very happy' from Lawn Fawn's Easter Party and 'Birthday' from Winnie & Walter's Sugar Rush. I spotted the hearts in the Sugar Rush set too and added those to bring all the images together. The panel was trimmed, mounted onto coordinating pink card stock and attached to a card base.

CHALLENGES

I'm playing at Color Hues, where the colour duo is Pink and Green; Just Add Ink is asking us to pick two out of Feathers, Leaves and Petals - I've gone for Leaves and Petals; Inspired By has inspired me again, this time with a photo featuring beautifully decorated cupcakes; I'm also going to share this card at the NBUS challenge, the place to show off our Never Before Used Schtuff!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Eva and I met up for a walk with some friends of ours the other day. One of the friends is two-legged and fun for me to chat with, and the other friend is a black lab called Otis who has a zest for life to match Eva's. They enjoy many of the same interests - finding sticks, swimming, cocking an ear at the sound of a pheasant and giving chase to pheasants, rabbits and deer (who are always MUCH faster than they are!)

Here they are in a pond that they discovered in a handy gap in the hedge. They explored it thoroughly and I get the impression that they rated it 'Ten out of ten, would visit again'!

Sending hugs,