Coffee and Hexagons

Hi and welcome!  It's Freshly Made Sketch Challenge day and this week our hostess is the lovely Amy O'Neill.  Amy's sketch is fabulous - perfect for creating a focal point in that big centre panel.

I wanted to play along with the Coffee Lovers Bloghop again before it closes so came up with a summery-colored coffee card.  I was inspired by the colors and the hexagon shape at the Pinsights Challenge.

On the centre panel, I blended distress inks onto a panel of Bristol Smooth cardstock before die-cutting it with a stitched die.  I did have to do some partial die-cutting to get the panel deep enough but that was easy enough to do.  Once that was done, I took some black embossing paste and a hexagon stencil and stenciled over the panel.  I love the contrast of the bright colors with the black shapes and sentiment.  The cup was colored with Copics and die-cut and the sentiment was stamped in Versafine Onyx Black.

I used a black stitched frame and then a Limelight strip to add even more bright color!

Thanks for visiting!  The FMS DT have some gorgeous inspiration so head on over and check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Oh Frappe (Essentials by Ellen)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Versafine Onyx Black, Worn Lipstick, Spiced Marmalade, Abandoned Coral Distress Inks

Cardstock:  White, Black, Limelight (MFT), Bristol Smooth

Dies:  Oh Frappe (Essentials by Ellen), Inside/Out Stitched Rectangles (MFT), Blueprints 2 (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, Black Embossing Paste, Graphic Pattern Stencil (Hero Arts)

Cheers

Karren

Caffeinated Mermaid

Hi and welcome!  So the other day I had a post featuring a caffeinated chicken.  Well, today I have a caffeinated mermaid and this time I am on time for the Coffee Lovers' Bloghop (I was a day early with my chicken card - darned time zones)!  I used the sketch from MFT Stamps and the colors from Color Throwdown for my card.  I'm also going to link up to the Make Your Mark challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More and wish them a happy 5th birthday!

I'll start by saying that I wasn't going to get this Mermazing set, but then every release I tell myself I'm not going to get the Birdie Brown sets and my resolve lasts maybe a month and then they're in my cart and on their way to my house!  I paired up this adorable mermaid with an iced coffee from Essentials by Ellen set.  I thought this particular mermaid looks like she might be bending over a big cup of caffeine so that's how I built my card.

The background is sponged through an oval mask directly onto the Tropical Teal card base.  The frame is a panel sponged with Peacock Feathers and Cracked Pistachio then spritzed with a Perfect Pearls mist.  I had to do some fairly major surgery on the sentiment to get it to fit.  I cut off the word "love" and added a die-cut word "coffee" cut from black cardstock.  I also had to cut off the "Sending You" and stamp that separately so I could centre it properly.

The mermaid and coffee are popped up on foam tape and I finished with some clear droplets to represent bubbles.  The coffee, straw, mermaid tail, top and the starfish are all painted with clear sparkle pen for some shimmer.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Mermazing (MFT), Oh Frappe (Essentials by Ellen)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Versamark, Cracked Pistachio, Peacock Feathers

Cardstock:  Tropical Teal (MFT), Black, Bristol Smooth, X-Press It

Dies:  Mermazing, Oh Frappe, Pierced Rectangle Frames, Coffee Cuip (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, Spectrum Noir Clear Spakle Pen, White EP, Perfect Pearls Mist, Clear Droplets

Cheers

Karren

Purple Anenomes

Hi and welcome!  The sketch today at Just Add Ink was drawn by yours truly, so I hope you'll check it out.  Here is my card (I wasn't in my usual CAS mood when making this, that's for sure!)

The patterned paper is from CTMH and a gorgeous bold gold and white stripe.  I die-cut the centre with a rectangle die and added another patterned paper in the negative space.  The sentiment was gold-embossed onto a black die-cut tag and the flowers were ones I coloured for fun when I was playing around with a NBUS stamp set by WPlus9.  I decided I liked the bold purple colour so used them on a card.

Thanks so much for visiting.  The JAI design team have some gorgeous cards for you using the sketch, so please head on over and check them out.

I'm also linking this up to the Anything Goes challenge at The Flower Challenge and the Patterned Paper Challenge at Simon Says Stamp.

Products used:

Stamps:  Modern Anenomes (WPlus9), Birthday Bash Sentiments (PTI)
Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Versamark
Cardstock:  White, Black, X-Press It, Happy Times, Live Beautifully Patterned Papers (CTMH)
Dies:  Modern Anenomes (WP9), Inside/Out Stitched Rectangles, Tag Builder Blueprints 4 (MFT)
Accessories:  Copics, Clear Droplets, Gold EP, Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen

Cheers
Karren

Caffeinated Chicken

Welcome! This is the first of two posts today.  It's time for another Fusion challenge and this time I've gone for a red, white and blue color scheme (or flowers if you prefer) and a fun sketch.



I made this card last weekend using the colors and the (flipped) sketch, thinking I would add it to the Coffee Lovers Blog Hop.  But I got my dates wrong.  Even though it's Friday here in New Zealand, and the challenge opens on Friday, it's not Friday in the US :(  So, I'll just have to try and make another card for the Blog Hop :)

I just love this image from Art Impressions and colored this old girl in the challenge colors.  The sentiment cracks me up as well.  I used a white card base and a navy blue pierced frame popped up on foam.  I fussy-cut the chicken and added her with foam too.

Unbeknownst to me, when I pulled the stamp off the packaging to use for the first time, I left a bit of her claw behind.  Luckily, the sketchy nature of the stamp means it's not too noticeable - in fact I didn't notice until I put the stamp away again and saw the claw still on the packaging!

Thanks for dropping by!  The rest of the DT have some gorgeous cards using the challenge graphic, so I hope you'll check them out.

I'm going to link this up to the animals challenge at CAS on Friday (assuming a chicken is also an animal?) and the CAS feathered friends challenge at Paper Players.

Products used:

Stamps:  Spring Chicken Set (Art Impressions)
Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Versafine Onyx Black
Cardstock:  White, X-Press It, Soft Navy (SSS)
Dies:  Pierced Rectangle Frames (MFT)
Accessories:  Copics, Stardust Stickles

Cheers
Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Paper Players.

Silver Snow

Hi and welcome!  This week it's my turn to be host at Freshly Made Sketches and I tried to come up with something a bit different from my usual CAS style.  The card I made has lots of glitter, so I'm linking it up as my final card for MFT's Camp Create - Glitzy Glitter.

As you will see, I didn't exactly get my own sketch right on my card, but the idea is there!

To make this card, I die-cut a panel of silver glitter paper with a stitched circle die.  I then placed the snowflake dies on and off the glitter panel and die-cut them - leaving the negative space.  Each of the snowflakes was then die-cut out of white cardstock using various inks and then I added Dazzling Diamonds to them.  What a mess that made!  Glitter everywhere - reminding me why I never work with glitter :)

The glitter panel is raised up on foam tape.  To finish the card, I used silver embossing powder for my sentiment and some Nuvo Crystal Drops to match the ink colors.

Thanks so much for visiting and I'm so glad to have earned all the badges from this session of Camp Create!  Be sure to head on over to check out the rest of the DT cards - you'll see a great variety and some wonderful interpretations of our sketch.

Products used:

Stamps:  Simply Snowflakes, Hand Lettered Holiday (MFT)
Ink:  Blue Breeze, Cornflower, Sour Apple, Tropical Teal (MFT), Versamark
Cardstock:  White, Silver Sparkle (MFT)
Dies:  Simply Snowflakes, Stitched Basic Edges (MFT)
Accessories:  Dazzling Diamonds (SU), Silver EP (Ranger), Nuvo Crystal Drops

Cheers
Karren

Sparkly Hello

Hi and welcome!  This card is for the bonus challenge at Camp Create - Divine Dry Embossing.  I'll apologise in advance for the brightness of the photo, but I had to brighten it up considerably so the dry-embossing would show up - otherwise you'd be looking at an extremely boring looking card 😄

I used the Triangles dies for this card and didn't even snip them apart - jus placed them onto a white panel and run them through the Big Shot with an embossing pad.  I die-cut a black "hello" and colored it with Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen before attaching it to the card base across the rectangles. 

I adhered the panel to a white card base and then wanted to add something more.  I finally settled on a white scalloped frame die-cut from a Blueprints set and then cutting the insides out with a rectangle die.  I adhered the little scalloped frame to the card base and called it done.

Thanks so much for visiting!  My last card for Camp Create will be along late tomorrow as it is my DT card for the next challenge at Freshly Made Sketches 😊

Products Used:

Cardstock:  White, Black

Dies:  Thanks & Hello, Triangles, Blueprints (MFT)

Accessories:  Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen

Cheers

Karren

Pirate Slider

 Hi!  Today's card is for Day 4 of Camp Create - Sensational Sliders!  For my card, I used the adorable Party Like a Pirate set and created a beach scene.

I started by creating the beach scene on a panel of Bristol Smooth cardstock.  I created a mask from torn copy paper and sponged Antique Linen at the bottom.  I then took the small dot stamp from Distressed Patterns and stamped over the sand to give some texture.  I did the same thing to the card base behind where the slider was going to go.

I then reversed the mask and also added a straight piece of paper to separate the sea from the sky.  The sea was sponged with broken China and the sky with Tumbled Glass.  Partway through sponging the sky, I remembered I had the Cloud Stencil so used it but you can hardly see it.  I stamped the waves from Otterly Love You in white ink and also used a white gel pen to put dots of "sea foam" between the sand and sea.  Finally, I stamped a couple of birds and set the panel aside.

I stamped, colored and die-cut various images from the stamp set and then placed them onto the panel so I could decide where to place my slider element.  Once I was happy with placement, I die-cut the slider component and placed a slider mechanism behind the beach panel before adhering to the card base using foam tape.  It was at this point I realised I had forgotten to die-cut the "waves" so I could slot the ship into the gap, so to fix the problem I die-cut the bottom of the ship with the waves die and you can't tell the difference!

All the images were then adhered to the card, and I finished by going over some of the elements with Glossy Accents.  

Thanks for visiting!  I'm also going to link this up to Sweet Stampin's Creations for Children Challenge.

Products used:

Stamps:  Party Like a Pirate, Otterly Love You, Distressed Patterns (MFT)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Antique Linen, Broken China, Tumbled Glass, Unicorn White

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It, Bristol Smooth

Dies:  Party Like a Pirate, Otterly Love You, Surf & Turf (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, Glossy Accents

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Sweet Stampin'