Merry Monday - Say What?

Welcome to Merry Monday!  This week, we have no Christmas cards for you.  Say what?  
We're throwing a surprise birthday blog hop for our fellow design team member, LeAnne Pugliese of Wee Inklings fame!  LeAnne is celebrating a milestone birthday and we want to make her birthday extra special.

Hopefully you've come here from the blog of my talented team-mate, Debbie Henderson.  Wasn't her card fabulous?  And here is my card to honor LeAnne:

I tried to channel LeAnne while I was making this card!  I went for a vintage image, colored with Copics.  I also used some vintage-looking papers and a card to celebrate LeAnne wouldn't be complete without a shabby bow, now, would it?  Here's a close-up shot.

I haven't had much practice at coloring people, so don't look too closely :)

Here are the copics I used, if you're interested.

So what next?  Well, follow the blog hop around to see everyone's fabulous cards.  The next stop is the very clever Sue Joyce.  Once you've been around the blog hop, go make a birthday card for LeAnne and link it up to Merry Monday.  We'll be choosing a winner and honorable mentions like any other challenge, so have a go!

I used a recent Verve sketch for this card.

Last but definitely not least, I hope you have a wonderful birthday, Leanne!

Products used:

Stamps:  Greeting Card Kids, Petite Pairs (SU)
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Soft Sky
Cardstock:  Sahara Sand, Soft Sky, Xpress-it, Attic Boutique DSP, Sweet Slumber DSP
Accessories:  Very Vanilla Seam Binding Ribbon, Circle Nesties, Circle Scallop Nesties, Banner Framelits, Basic Pearls, Adorning Accents EF and framelits, Pretty Prints DSP, Copics

Cheers
Karren

Tiny Flags

Hi everyone!  Today's card uses the fabulous colors at The Card Concept along with the sketch at Seize the Sketch.  My style for this card would be Clean & Layered, I'm guessing.

I started out with the background panel which I'd sponged with distress inks and flicked with water.  I then white embossed the Tiny Flags stamp over the top.  I love how the aqua and lime inks blended to look yellow!  It's hard to see in the photos but I also stamped the flag background in Versamark on the White panel.

The horizontal panel gave me fits!  I tried so many different option but had to give up in the end and used this white embossed panel which I line up with the triangles in the main panel. 

The sentiment was cut twice in both colors then cut apart between the "thank" and the "you".  I then used the "thank" in Lucky Limeade and the "you" in Coastal Cabana.  

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Tiny Flags (HeroArts)
Ink:  Shabby Shutters (Distress), Coastal Cabana, Versamark
Cardstock:  Coastal Cabana, Lucky Limeade, Whisper White
Accessories:  Feathers die (SSS), Thank You die (PTI), White EP, Enamel Dots (MME), Basic Rhinestones (SU); lime American Crafts twine

Sooner or Later

Hi and welcome to Freshly Made Sketch Challenge day!  This week, our hostess is the sweet and talented Amy.  She makes the most wonderful cards and uses the coolest color combos!

For my card, I used a Close to my Heart set which is a bit tongue-in-cheek.  As you can see I flipped the sketch so the lady wasn't looking off into nowhere. 

The retro, 1950's look really appealed to me.  I stamped the 50's housewife in Strawberry Slush and then clear embossed it a couple of times.  The two colored panels are dry embossed with the Needlepoint embossing folder, because of course a 50's woman would be a SAHM, stitching away during the day :)  My lady is popped up on dimensionals. The colors in the photo look like Really Rust and Crushed Curry, but they are actually Strawberry Slush and Daffodil Delight.

I used the colors from this week's Fab Friday challenge for my card today.

Thanks for visiting.  If you haven't checked out the rest of the design team's creations, be sure to pop over and visit the FMS blog.

Products used:

Stamps:  Mother's Day Occasions (CTMH)
Ink:  Strawberry Slush, Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark
Cardstock:  Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, Coastal Cabana
Accessories:  Clear EP, Needlepoint EF, Corner Chomper, Enamel Dots, Rhinestones

Cheers
Karren

Button Christmas

It's Merry Monday time and this week Lori is challenging us to use ribbon and buttons on our cards.

I love the rainbow shades that are all over blogland at the moment and decided to add my little bit to the rainbow revolution :)

I made five little bows and stuck them to five buttons the ran some twine from the buttons to look like ornaments.  The sentiment is white embossed.

Very simple if a bit bulky but I like it.

Thanks for visiting.  Check out the rest of the design team's cards then go dig out some buttons and ribbons and join in the fun!

Products used:

Stamps:  Signature Christmas (PTI)
Ink:  Versamark
Cardstock:  Basic Black, Whisper White
Accessories:  Brights Buttons, white baker's twine

Cheers
Karren

Color Chemistry

Hi and welcome to Sunday!  Today has been a fantastic day for me as I was named Featured Stamper over on SCS!  This is such a thrill for me and I'm truly grateful.  Now onto my card for today.

I combined the color challenge at Just Us Girls with the sketch at Retro Sketches to come up with this card.

For the background panel, I used a new stencil from Studio Calico and I lightly pounced ink over the stencil before moving it to another position and changing ink color.  The stamped image was colored with Copics and the sentiment was white embossed.  I didn't use the ribbon element as per the sketch because I'm planning on giving this to my DH and he's not really a ribbon-sort of guy.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Scientifically Speaking (Clearly Besotted)
Ink:  Wild Wasabi, Lucky Limeade, Coastal Cabana, Memento Tuxedo Black
Cardstock:  Coastal Cabana, Xpress-it, Whisper White, Lucky Limeade
Accessories:  Scientifically Speak Dies, Copics, Banner Dies (SU), Lil Inkers Circle Stitched Mats, Studio Calico stencil

Cheers
Karren

Geometric

Hi and welcome!  It's Saturday afternoon here and I've been playing in my craft room in between loads of laundry.  Now, normally I don't love cards I make - I always look at other people's cards and wonder why I didn't think of using the stamp that way or putting those colors together, etc.  I'm sure there are a few of you out there who can relate, right?

But, this card I totally love!  It may not be an original idea but I haven't seen it out in blogland.  

I used a new-to-me set and dies from Clearly Besotted called Geometric Style.  I was going to stamp the shapes using the stamp set but when I cut all the dies out at once, I liked the pattern left by the negative die cut so decided to go that route.  I sponged the color onto the shapes, shading more on the left hand side.  I layered the negative die cut piece onto a Basic Black card base then popped up the shapes on dimensionals so you can see a hint of black behind the shapes.

The sentiment is from the stamp set and I finished off with some thick hemp twine. 

Thanks for looking.  I'm entering this card into this week's ColourQ challenge and Seize the Birthday where the toppings option is twine.

Products used:

Stamps:  Geometric Style (Clearly Besotted)

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Coastal Cabana, Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade, Tangerine Tango, Tempting Turquoise

Cardstock:  Whisper White, Basic Black

Accessories:  Hemptique black twine

Cheers

Karren

Tangelo Hello

Hi and welcome to Freshly Made Sketch Challenge Day!  This week, the Queen of Fussy-Cutting and my fellow antipodean, Narelle Farrugia is our host and she has come up with this wonderful sketch for us.

On my card, I wanted to make the layer behind the circle the focus and that was totally because I'd just received a new embossing folder and had to use it!  I saw this embossing folder used on the card of a recent Princess at FMS, Sonja, and immediately went searching for it online.  It arrived yesterday and so became the focal point of my card.

I also bought some linen cardstock at the local stationery store the other day and thought that would add some nice texture.  I inked up one side of the embossing folder with Memento Tuxedo Black and then run the linen card and folder through the Big Shot.  

The butterfly was colored with Copics, then painted with Wink of Stella and some Glossy Accents on the body.  The "hello" was clear embossed to give it some extra body.

Thanks for looking.  You really need to check out the awesome gorgeousness of the rest of the design team's samples!

Products used:

Stamps:  Papillon Potpourri (SU)
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark
Cardstock:  Basic Black, Tangelo Twist, Xpress-it, linen
Accessories:  Hello die (Clearly Besotted), Retro Cirque EF (Tim Holtz), Circle Stitched Mats (Lil Inkers), Rectangle Stitched Mats (Lil Inkers), Fishtail Flag Stax (MFT), 1 3/4" circle punch (SU), clear EP, Copics

Cheers
Karren