00It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. This week it's our final challenge for the month of April and Bhavya has asked that we create something with three distinct sentiment elements for her final sketch challenge:
Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card. For my card today I ended up creating not one, not two but three cards! I'm sharing my favourite one first - a clean and simple shaker card - take a look:
Here's the low-down on today's card:
Farewell Playful Alphabet Dies - Time to say goodbye to a craftroom staple - the Playful Alphabet Dies! Yes, they are retiring with current annual catalogue next week and newsflash - there are NO alphabet die sets in the new annual catalogue, so not only will I be hanging on to my set, if you don't have them you have just one week to nab a set! I can't recommend them highly enough: they are so useful for personalising cards, but also to create bespoke messages or greetings. Use them flat or on dimensionals, or as I've done here to create a bespoke message that I then backed with window sheet to create a fun clean and simple shaker card! How cool is this?
Rainbows or Candles? - My initial shaker was inspired by the inspiration challenge of 'make a wish - rainbows' over at TGIF Challenges this week and I paired my simple message with a paper-pieced rainbow made using my Beautiful Rainbow Dies and some scraps of cardstock in Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight, Coastal Cabana and Fresh Freesia to co-ordinate with the (retired) Ice Cream Shaker Sprinkles that I used inside my shaker. I used my rainbow offcuts to add a decorative border to the inside of my card, along with a sentiment from the retiring 'Sweet Ice Cream' stamp set:
I liked this card so much, I made another one, this time using the retiring white, gold and silver Sequins For Everything (currently half price) for my shaker and a trio of (retired) gold Candle Embellishments I found on my shelf:
Check out the sparkles - how fun!
Here are both shakers together - which one do you prefer?
I honestly can't decide - I love this design so much I think I'm going to make a whole bunch more!!
A CAS Thankyou Trio - Finally I have one extra 'bonus' card for you, that was the one I made before my shakers - a super simple repeating 'thanks' sentiment using a trio of dies cut with the Amazing Thanks Dies, with each one backed by the fresh colours of the current Color Dare challenge:
By using the colour for the base layer of the diecut and making the top layer white, it allows for a white base and preserves the clean and simple feel with all that 'white space'. This is a great way to use up scraps and whilst I love the fresh colour combo I used on today's card - Flirty Flamingo, Mango Melody, Daffodil Delight - this simple layout would work with whatever colours you have available.
Here are the visual summaries of the key products used on today's projects for you to pin for easy reference:
You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any.
I actually made four cards for today's challenge; the first one was mediocre at best; I had an idea that just didn't look right when I made it - so much so, I'm not even going to share it with you! So I left it and when I went back to desk 24 hours later, I started fresh and came up with my thankyou trio, quickly followed by my fun shaker cards - suddenly I was on a creative roll! Does that ever happen to you when your creating? How do you combat that feeling you get when you've made something but are just not 'feeling' it? Do leave me a comment below - I'd love to hear from you!
Enjoy your day; the James Juniors are both back to school today following the Easter break so I will be aiming to get more work done this week. This is a super-busy term, with everything from cricket fixtures to the school musical production, internal exams, speech days, university open days and lots more besides! I really do need to get organised!! On that note, I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, there's work to do - happy stampin'!
Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: