Happy Thursday and as you know by now, this means a new challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches.  But first I’d like to give a big THANK YOU so Sam, aka Pootles, for selecting my card as this week’s winner. It’s such fun playing with challenges and winning the challenge is just the icing on the cake. Which brings me to today’s challenge. It’s a colour challenge this week and I took the opportunity to use my bundle, the Sweet Cupcake stamp set and matching Cupcake Cutouts framelits dies. Okay, if the truth be told, I was determined to make a card using them! They are so incredibly lifelike aren’t they? That’s apparently because the artist who was designing them actually baked cupcakes to be sure that she got them just perfect. Now that’s dedication!

Here’s the challenge banner which inspired my card

Both the cupcake liner and the frosting have three stamps to make the image this realistic. On each I used a single colour, crushed curry for the frosting and tip top taupe for the liner. I stamped off the solid image twice onto scrap paper before stamping it on the card, then stamped off the middle image once and in both cases did the most detailed image full strength. It’s amazing how much variation in colour you can get by stamping off. I then used the matching Cupcake Cutouts framelits dies to cut all three pieces out. The liner is glued to a piece of whisper white and both pieces of the frosting are popped up with stampin’ dimensionals. To add in the island indigo, I used it for my sentiment. I added a skinny tip top taupe mat and then went back and fore between a whisper white or an island indigo card base. Both worked equally but the whisper white made the card more CAS. So that’s the way I went.

I liked the ultra CAS look, but eventually the day after I made it, decided that it was a bit too CAS. So the sprinkles were added to the top layer – the Sweet Cupcake includes the sprinkles and I stamped them in tip top taupe and then added some clear wink of Stella to make them glisten. The following day, I added some extra sprinkles next to the sentiment. Sometimes a card takes a few days to complete!

For some fun, I stamped the envelope, adding a candle (stamped and cut out with the same sets) all in island indigo. I can see Sweet Cupcake producing a lot of fun cards although they are so realistic, it may induce perusal of baking books!

I hope that you’ll pop over to the challenge this week and check out the rest of the Design Team’s creations. And then have a go yourself, it’s really fun. I’d love to see you in the gallery. You don’t need a blog to enter, you can link your entry from an online gallery such as at Splitcoaststampers.com or Flickr.

I’d also like to give a big welcome to my new email subscribers – thanks so much for inviting me into your inbox. Feel free to introduce yourselves or ask any questions that you may have. I should add that I’m a member of the Design Team at CAS Colours & Sketches and therefore on Thursdays my post is later than usual. It’s scheduled to coincide with the challenge blog post and therefore goes live at 7:58am EST.

See you tomorrow,

Liz