Laura Rumble - Crafter

 It's new sketch day at CAS Colours and Sketches ... I had a lot of ideas for this one!  Up first is my official dt card... This is a Time For Tea coverplate, Concord and 9th cardstock and a Simon Says Stamp thanks die. My original idea was to use this Time For Tea coverplate and highlight just the centre motifs with inlaid pieces... Again I've used Concord and 9th colours.  I cut the whole plate in grapefruit and half each of nectar and sorbet.  Of course this produced more than one cards worth of die cuts so... I made a couple more with the leftovers. These alpha dies are from Trinity Stamps and have a beautiful embossed line detail too. There where quite a lot of the tiny hearts so the obvious thing to do was to make a shaker card.  This is a flat shaker made with recycled packaging.  The panel is an embossed coverplate (from Alex Syberia Designs) and I've also used the leftover larger hearts from the first card. Hope to see you over at CAS Colours and S...

I'm excited to have joined the team at CAS Colours and Sketches .  This is my first make for them and it is a colour challenge. I struggled to find an exact match for the berry burst shade but Pinkfresh's Regal Kiss was a good enough match.  I also went with Hydrangea, Spruce Tips and Lush Forest, all from Pinkfresh's ink line.  If green is in a colour swatch I immediately go to leaves and I fancied pulling out my Alex Syberia florals so that was an easy decision.   Keeping it CAS I stamped off the edge of the card base and embossed in white for a subtle look.  I then used the coordinating stencils to ink blend.  As I was blending rather than stamping my colours are a touch on the softer side.   Then I decided my greeting would go smack bang across the middle of my image.  Perhaps controversial?  Why place it over the prettiness?  I don't know really, I just like the closeness of everything design-wise. Come over and join us at CAS Colo...

 Here's my first card of 2024, based on the January sketch from Stick It Down. I feel I've stuck pretty faithfully to the sketch for this one. The die set is an oldy from Pinkfresh Studio and the sentiment stamps are from Alex Syberia.  All the patterned papers are old scraps from the box of doom. I started out thinking just three or five confetti sequins but I got well and truly carried away!  They add a subtle iridescent shine.  In the photos they lean towards pink but in the flesh they mostly flash green and blue matching the leaves and stamping perfectly. Stick It Down runs as a Facebook group now.   Do pop over and join if you'd like to be kept in the loop.

The batch of challenges that came out at the beginning of the month all struck a chord with me.  I've made a couple of cards to enter it to a few challenges... First up we have a mini slimline based on a sketch from There's A Stamp For That and the Colour Throwdown palette. The ephemera is from Cocoa Vanilla Studio.  The hearts and the heart strip are scraps fom die cutting experiments.  The stamping is from a couple of Alex Syberia stamp sets.  The background stamping is meant to be subtle and just to add some texture rather than be super readable. Here's the sketch and swatch: Of course, I've missed the link up for CTD, doh!  I have very little physical energy available at the moment but a lot of thinking and creative energy.  It's a really frustrating pairing! (But much better than having nothing of anything!)  Also fits Simon's slimline challenge which I may sneak into on time. Then I have this green and gold birthday card...   This one is f...

Here's a little update on my circle creations over the last few weeks.  You can read about the concept here . So, the layout I was fired up to create at the beginning of the month, the one based on the sketch I shared, is still unmade.  No matter though, as this was a no pressure, no deadline, playtime kind of project.  I have created a few other things...   This layout uses a folded cut file, which is something I want to explore further throughout the year.  I cut half a shape essentially, just one line, then score between the beginning and end of that line and fold it back.  When you cut a file like this on double-sided patterned paper you end up with both sides showing.  This is both good - because it looks great; and restrictive - because you have to have the right kind of pattern on both sides. (For example a cut-apart sheet on one side would not give the effect I am after.)  Perhaps it was trickier for me as my double-sided paper stash is li...