CAS Ideas

 There are so many ideas around for making Clean and Simple cards and once having got over the fear of unwanted inky marks on all that 'white space' it can be quite a fun process although I must say it isn't always as quick a solution as the name suggests.  Today's card was made by adding a block of colour to a piece of plain card which is slightly smaller than the card blank and then over stamping with a floral motif with the addition of a computer sentiment.

Quite a long time ago I purchased an alternative to a gelli plate which I guess was manufactured from the same material as clear stamps. This was A5 in size but I have to confess I was not very successful in using it at the time and not happy with the results, ending up with a couple of genuine Gelli plates instead.  However I came across this item during a sort out of my craft room and decided to chop a piece from it to use as a method of achieving a random inky area - using it like a stamp and inking with Distress Oxide ink, three colours and drying the print each time before cleaning the block, partially re-inking and stamping again.  Once thoroughly dry the flower spray was over-stamped using Versafine Clair in black. I hope this makes sense - much easier to do than to explain in words 😊.  I'm certainly pleased to be getting some use out of what was at the time an impulse buy which I'd regretted and I now have a selection of different sizes cut from the original A5 sheet.

A5 alternative plate - from John Next Door quite a long time ago.
Flower - Funky Flowers design, Kay Carley (The Stampman) - very old stamp set
Distress Oxide inks Twisted Citron, Peacock Feathers, Dusty Concord
Sentiment - produced using MS Word, printed and die cut.

Snippets Playground Challenge #480

 Time for a new challenge and another lovely crafty prize in the Playground - a great floral card for inspiration too.  Everything apart from the card blank and sentiment has come from my snippets collection.  I used white snippets to die cut the border, the watering can was cut from grey card which I'd brushed over using some silvery mica powder and a drop of water.  The lavender stems were die cut from scraps of card which had been coloured with various pigment powders and the flower heads from another scrap which was coloured in the same way using shades of purple - both of these snippets were left from previous projects (I do like to use up every last scrap of these).  The sentiment was die cut from a sheet of sentiments which I'd produced in 'Word' - not sure if this counts as a snippet or not 😉.

Border - die from Creative Expressions Sue Wilson - possibly no longer available
Watering Can - Gummiapan die
Lavender - unbranded dies
Sentiment - produced using Microsoft 365 Word