Hello everyone. I took refuge with a cool fan in my craft room this afternoon to escape the heat, so I could sort out the pile of demo card toppers I’d made over the weekend at Clarity’s Open Days. And I have to apologise, as I’m late with my DT card for our new challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches which went live a few hours ago. I managed to combine the two things, though, and adapted one of my designs from the weekend to use the rich CCAS colours with the Statement Sentiments and Frames stamps, plus the Dotted Blooms.

So, having cut a 5×5 inch topper from Clarity’s premium card, I stamped one of the Statement Sentiment Frames into the centre, covered it with a mask I’d cut from the blank material and added one of the larger Dotted Blooms on opposite corners.

I masked off my flowers (they come as pre-cut ones with the stamps!) then added a few leaves and a couple of the middle sized peonies around the first image.

I reached for my Polychromos to shade the flowers and leaves – I had a bit of a problem matching my pencils with the dark ‘blackberry bliss’ in the CCAS palette, and had to settle for blending my ‘violet’ Polcychromo with a dark blue to deepen the tone. Once all shaded, I added a mount of green Amazonia companion paper.

The final touch was a Statement Sentiment inside the frame in ‘rustic wilderness’ Distress Oxide and the topper then went onto a 6×6 card blank.

I love the way changing the colours can alter the whole tone and vibe of a card – here’s a look at one of the demos I made at the weekend using lilac and pink shades.

Thanks for dropping in. Do check out the inspiration from the rest of the design team over on the CAS Colours & Sketches blog, and we’d love to see you in our gallery. I’m now off to share this one with Addicted to CAS who are looking for ‘frames’ on our cards, and with Allsorts for the ‘blooms’ option on their challenge.