Thursday, 18 September 2025

Torn Hodgepodge

Hello and welcome!  Our sketch hostess this week at Freshly Made Sketches is Michele Ferguson and I went a tad rogue with my interpretation, letting Distress Spray Stains  and white embossing define the sketch elements.


After being on my wishlist for months, I finally purchased the Hodgepodge stamp by Tim Holtz.  I absolutely adore collage stamps, which goes back to the early 2000's but don't often incorporate them into my mostly clean stamping style these days.  But I had to have Hodgepodge and the week it arrived, I put it to use on this sketch.

I was originally going to do ink-blending so started out with some Bristol Smooth cardstock, but then veered to spray stains so the paper choice probably wasn't best but it worked.  I white heat-embossed the stamp onto the paper, then created a stencil from some torn paper edge dies and some stencil plastic.  Once the stencils were in place, I went to town with all the sprays you can see in the product list below!  Before removing the stencils, I flicked on some foundry wax and heated it for some added shine.



I had a week bit of ink seep under the stencil but a strategically placed sentiment fixed that problem.

Thanks so much for visiting.  Please check out the fabulous cards made by the design team.






Products used:

Stamps: Hodgepodge (Tim Holtz)
Ink: Versamark, Black Soot Distress Ink
Cardstock: White, Bristol Smooth, Black, Gold Kraft Stock
Dies: Outlined Hello (Waffle Flower), Torn Paper Edges (MFT)
Accessories:  Distress Spray Stains: Crackling Campfire, Rusty Hinge, Tumbled Glass, Gathered Twigs, Weatherwed Wood, Bundled Sage, Scorched Timber. Distress Oxide Spray: Salvaged Patina. Distress Spritz: Rusty Hinge, Hickory Smoke. Gilded Foundry Wax, White EP, Stencil plastic

Cheers
Karren

If you enjoyed this post and would like an email when I post new content, please follow me


Friday, 12 September 2025

Tall Hello

Hi and welcome!  Today's card is for the latest over at Tic Tac Toe Challenge. I went with the top row - Rectangle-Die-cut-Stripes for this card.


I already had the strips of gray cardstock adhered together so it was a simple matter to die-cut the word out of the panel.  I then also die-cut it from a blue panel and pieced it back into the negative on the stripes.  I painted over the letters with clear sparkle pen, matted it onto the same blue cardstock and called it done!


Thanks for visiting!  I hope you'll get time to play along.






Products used:

Cardstock: White, Grout Gray, Cement Gray, Gravel Gray, Steel Gray, Black, Tropical Teal (MFT)
Dies: Slimline Stripes (Pink Fresh), Tall Hello (MFT), A2 Rectangle Stax 1 and 2 (MFT)
Accessories:  Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen

Cheers
Karren

If you enjoyed this post and would like an email when I post new content, please follow me


Thursday, 11 September 2025

Bokeh Rose

Hi and welcome!  I am the sketch hostess this week over at Freshly Made Sketches and I have to admit I made the sketch fit this card that I had made some months ago and never posted!





I used pink, yellow and peachy inks to create a blended background and then went over it with a bokeh stencil to create a soft-looking background.  I then die-cut an arch frame from white cardstock and adhered that to the base.

For the rose, I started with white cardstock and ink-blended the same colours onto the various layers, adding greens for the stems.  When I was assembling the rose, I used foam tape in between each of the layers for added dimension.



I finished with a simple gold hot-foiled birthday sentiment.


Thanks so much for visiting.  I hope you'll check out the way the rest of the design team have used my sketch.
I'm linking this card up to the Anything Goes Die Challenge at Just Us Girls as well as the Mark Your Mark challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More (ink-blending on background and rose).






Products used:

Ink:  Pinkalicious, Warm Sunshine, Caramel Toffee, Buttercream, Mossy Meadow, Misty Sage, Green Opal (Altenew), Unicorn White (Hero Arts)
Cardstock:  White, Black, Bristol Smooth
Dies:  Lovely Layers: Rose (Honey Bee Stamps), A2 Arches (The Greetery), Hexi-Gem Sentiments Hot Foil  (Spellbinders)
Accessories:  Bokeh Stencil (Taylored Expressions), Gold Hot Foil

Cheers
Karren

If you enjoyed this post and would like an email when I post new content, please follow me

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout-out at Just Us Girls.




Thursday, 4 September 2025

Circle Congrats


Welcome to another challenge from the team at Freshly Made Sketches where Cecile Ribon is our sketch hostess this week.  I "sort of" stuck to the sketch to come up with this card.


I wasn't sure what to use for the circle element, then thought of a circle sentiment and it sort of grew from there.  I wanted a dark cardbase and found these floral images already stamped (score!) so this card came together pretty quickly.


The dark blue panel was embossed with a Linen cover plate to give it a bit of texture.  I finished with some enamel dots to match the sentiment.

Thanks for visiting!  The design team have some fabulous cards so I hope you'll check them out.


Products used:

Stamps: Grouped Fresh Dahlias (The Ton)
Ink: Grass Fields, Tea Party sets (Altenew)
Cardstock: White, Dune, Oceanside (Spellbinders)
Dies: Grouped Fresh Dahlias (The Ton), Congrats Circle Frame (MFT), Linen & Canvas plate (PTI)
Accessories: Warm & Cozy Enamel Dots (Altenew)

Cheers
Karren

If you enjoyed this post and would like an email when I post new content, please follow me


Thursday, 28 August 2025

Thinking Trio

Hi and welcome!  We're up to sketch #701 over at Freshly Made Sketches and Jen Brum is our hostess this week.  I, of course, mis-remembered the sketch and put the sentiment in the wrong place, so I hope Jen forgives me!


I started by using a stencil on a white card base and ink-blending some orange and yellow inks.  Before removing the stencil, I spritzed on some shimmer spray.  Setting that aside to dry, I die-cut all the floral and foliage elements from Mini Fall Florals and set to work colouring them with multiple ink colours and blending tools.


Once that was done, I created an arrangment and adhered it to the card base.  I finished by adding the sentiment and some dark brown pearls.


Thanks for visiting.  Please check out the fabulous cards made by the rest of the design team.


Products used:

Stamps:  On the Line: Succulents (Honey Bee Stamps)
Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Maple Yellow, Orange Cream, Autumn Blaze (Altenew), Fossilized Amber Distress Ink (for stenciling), Puffy Heart, Rose Quartz, Purple Wine, Cosmic Berry, Canyon Clay, Pastel Sunrise, Vanilla Cream, Pumpkin Pie, Hazelnut, Mocha, Espresso, Plum, Grape Agate, Green Opal, Forest Glades, Maple Yellowm Red Jasper, Paper Bag, Caramel Toffee, Honey Drizzle, Mossy Meadow, Misty Sage, Swamp Green (Altenew), Fossilized Amber, Scorched Timber Distress Inks (for the flower
Cardstock:  White
Dies:  Lovely Layers: Mini Fall Florals (Honey Bee Stamps)
Accessories:  Rectangle Trio Stencil (MFT), Shimmer Spray, Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen

Cheers
Karren

If you enjoyed this post and would like an email when I post new content, please follow me


Thursday, 21 August 2025

Typewritten

Hi and welcome!  It's a very exciting week over at Freshly Made Sketches as we hit sketch #700!  That's 14 years of different sketches to inspire all you cardmakers out there! For such a special occasion, we went back into the archives and are, appropriately, using sketch #14 this week. And to make it more fun the design team are showing their first FMS card as well as their new #700 sketch card.

I started playing at sketch #20, which was also the first time I had ever entered a card challenge and I was thrilled to be named a Princess.  My poorly lit card is down below (and that was from back in the day when I used SU products).  I was thrilled to be asked the join the design team from sketch #118 in January 2014 and have been a proud DT member ever since.

Now onto my card for #700.  I wanted to do something a bit special so went into full layering mode and back to basics with stamping and embossing.  I white heat-embossed the You Matter background stamp onto some Oceanside cardstock and because it looked a bit stark, I stamped over it with the Chalk Background stamp and white ink.  I then cut the panel into four, matted it onto dark gray cardstock and then tried to adhere them evenly onto a Soft Stone panel, which was then layered onto a white card base (see what I mean about layering!)


I assembled the typewriter from MFT using peachy and gray tones.  The sentiment is from a Woodware stamp set.  I adhered that using foam tape and finished with a die-cut heart which I coated in Glossy Accents.  It wasn't until I was writing up this post that I realised I put my heart in the wrong place, but we're pretty forgiving like that over at FMS!


And here is my first entry from FMS20 which was back in 2012.  


And continuing with the trip down memory lane, here is my first card as a member of the design team - FMS118.  I remember being so scared it wasn't going to be good enough, but it must have been okay because they haven't fired me yet!



Thanks so much for visiting and getting through this long post.  Please check out the first and newest cards from the rest of the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Vintage Typewriter (Woodware), You Matter (SSS), Chalk Background (Hero Arts)
Ink: Versamark, Unicorn White (Hero Arts), Versafine Onyx Black, Sunkissed (Pink Fresh)
Cardstock:  White, Black, Soft Stone (PTI), Gravel Gray (MFT), Oceanside (Spellbinders), Nectar, Grapefruit (C&9)
Dies: Typewriter (MFT), Infinity Hearts (Hero Arts)
Accessories: Glossy Accents, White Embossing Powder

Cheers
Karren

If you enjoyed this post and would like an email when I post new content, please follow me


Friday, 15 August 2025

Letterboard Birthday

The new Tic-Tac-Toe challenge is a good one! I went left diagonal: letters-free-rectangle shape where my "free" is flowers.


I used MFT’s Letterboard and alphabet to make this birthday card. The flowers were pre-made so this card came together quickly.



Thanks for visiting!



Products used:

Cardstock: White, Black, Rouge (Altenew)
Dies: Letterboard, Letterboard Letters (MFT), Garden Wreath Add-Ons (Spellbinders)
Accessories:  Pastel Pearl Stickers (Honey Bee)

Cheers
Karren

If you enjoyed this post and would like an email when I post new content, please follow me