Lemonade

Hi!  Yes, I have been a prolific blogger this week - blame a week off work for that!  Apologies for filling up your inbox.  It's back to work on Monday though, so I'll be back to my usual 1-2 posts per week after that.

But... as I mentioned in my recent post, it's been great to play along in challenges I don't usually get time to play in.  Todays cards (yes, two!) are for one of those challenges.  It's Darnell's Twofer Challenge and this month the theme is beverages.  Now, for unknown reasons, this challenge really scares me - I never, ever make two cards at the same time using the same stamps and I really had to step outside my comfort zone 😅.  These cards actually took me most of the morning - including the hour I spent going through all my stamps trying to find inspiration.  I hope they aren't too similar for the challenge.  In hindsight, I should have made one lemon and one orange 😄but I did color one with Copics and one with Zigs, if that helps?

So for the first card, I used the sketch at SugarPea Designs and the colors from Cupcake Inspirations. 

I colored the images with Zigs and the embossing powder is Crushed Curry from Stampin' Up.  Here's a close up of the card:

I dry-embossed a 3D embossing folder onto a die-cut white panel before adhering it to the card base.  The sentiment is die-cut with a jumbo flag die, which I extended to fit the sentiment.

For my second card, I went with a thanks theme and I'm also linking up to 4 Crafty Chicks.

These images were colored with Copics.  Onto the white card base, I sponged over the Bubbly stencil with Mustard Seed and Squeezed Lemonade distress inks.  I then stamped the sentiment in Versafine Onyx Black ink and added the images.  The lemon squeezer and glass are popped up on foam tape.  

I finished both cards with some Sparkling Clear Confetti.

Here are the various colors I used for the images.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Card 1:

Stamps:  Pucker Up (SugarPea Designs)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Versamark

Cardstock:  White, Black, Bristol Smooth

Dies:  Mod Rectangle Stax, Jumbo Fishtail Flag Stax (MFT)

Accessories:  Zigs, Crushed Curry EP, 3D Texture Fades EF (Lumber), Sparkling Clear Confetti

Card 2:

Stamps:  Pucker Up (SugarPea Designs)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Versafine Onyx Black, Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed Distress Inks

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It

Accessories:  Copics, Bubbly Stencil (Newton's Nook), Sparkling Clear Confetti

Cheers

Karren

Pink Baby

Hi!  This is my last day of a week off work 😢and in between taking my newly-licenced son for driving lessons (like 3x a day!), I've been in my craft room.  It's been so good to actually play along with a few challenges that I just don't get time to play with in my usually limited crafting time.  One of those challenges is Addicted to CAS - every fortnight I see the new cue word and want to play along and before I know it, the challenge is closed and I've not made a card. 

Another challenge I haven't played with in ages is City Crafter.  I decided to combine these two challenges into the card below.

The cue word at Addicted to CAS is Baby and City Crafter are looking for pink, flamingoes, wooden blocks, hello or phones.  I went with pink, wooden blocks and hello.  This set is NBUS called Hello Little One by MFT Stamps.  I don't know anyone having babies but it's always good to have a couple of baby cards on hand.  I stamped and colored the images with Copics and cut them with my Scan n Cut.  For a bit of fun, I added some white dots onto the baby pram using a white gel pen.

On a white top-folding card base I lightly sponged some Spun Sugar and Worn Lipstick distress inks.  I stamped the sentiment in Black Licorice Hybrid ink and then added the images.  The blocks are popped up on foam tape.  

To finish the card, I added some Nuvo Crystal Drops in White Blizzard and colored the blocks with clear sparkle pen.  

Thanks so much for visiting!  I have another card I made this morning, so I might end up with two posts today, depending on how organised I am 😄

Products used:

Stamps:  Hello Little One (MFT)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick Distress Inks

Cardstock:  White

Accessories:  Copics, Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen, Nuvo Crystal Drops (White Blizzard), White Gel Pen

Cheers

Karren

Stay Awesome

Hi and welcome!

I love the colors at Color Throwdown this week, but for some reason I never like anything I make that uses kraft cardstock.  Anyway, I love gray and yellow so decided to push past my fear of kraft and make a card using the sketch at MFT Stamps, which is beautifully CAS.  I am using the tic-tac-toe board at Southern Girls Challenge (I went with bling-stamp-yellow).

I inked up this new-to-me stamp set (which has now been retired) and colored it with Copics.  I added some white gel pen dots to her dress to zhoosh it up a bit (she is in France, after all 😁). I die-cut the images with the co-ordinating dies and set it aside to work on my card base.

I stamped "Stay Awesome" from Essential Sentiments onto a strip of Desert Storm cardstock and added a thin strip of black underneath before adhering that to a white card base.  I then added the Eiffel Tower, moving it up the card a bit to appear further away, and finally the girl.  I colored her scarf and handbag with clear sparkle pen and also added some sparking clear confetti.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Mon Cheri, Essential Sentiments (MFT)
Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid
Cardstock:  White, Black, Desert Storm, X-Press It
Dies:  Mon Cheri (MFT)
Accessories:  Copics, Sparkling Clear Confetti (Pretty Pink Posh), White Gel Pen, Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen

Cheers
Karren

Plaid Birthday

Hello!  Thanks for popping by!  Today's card is for the current challenge at Freshly Made Sketches - designed by none-other than our co-Camp Mum Jen Mitchell.  Jen has got a very interesting sketch for us with lots of room for interpretation.

I decided that those angled panels would be good for a die-cut sentiment, so I went hunting through my dies to find two big dies that say "happy birthday". 

I also wanted to do some stenciling with embossing paste in the background.  I love my stencils but I mostly use them with ink-blending so I wanted to get out the embossing paste and add a touch of color to it.  I filmed the making of this card if you're interested - link down below.

So I colored my embossing paste with Hickory Smoke Distress Ink and then appied it over the Plaid #1 stencil from Carta Bella to a panel of white cardstock cut with a stitched die down one side.  Once that was dry, I added the die-cut sentiment and popped the whole panel up on craft foam for some added dimension.  No embellishments as this is a masculine card.  

All in all, a very quick card (for me!) . You can watch the video over on YouTube or below.

Products used:

Ink:  Hickory Smoke Distress Ink

Cardstock:  White, Black, Cement Gray (MFT)

Dies:  Happy Trio, Happy Birthday (WPlus9) Basic Stitch Lines  (MFT)

Accessories:  Embossing Paste

Balloon Bear

Hi and welcome!  This is my last card for MFT's Summer School and this card uses Primary Colors.  I also used the sketch from MFT and I'm joining in with the 400th challenge at Paper Players.  Congrats, ladies, what a wonderful achievement!

This card was made for my great-nephew's 2nd birthday.  These images are adorable and the primary color scheme is perfect for a toddler.  I stamped and colored the images with Copics and also sponged the angled panel with the Mini Cloud Edges stencil and some Tumbled Glass distress ink.

The sentiment is white-embossed onto black and die-cut with the larger of the two Slanted Sentiment Strips.

I filmed the making of this card and, by request from a viewer, have not sped up the video as much as I usually do.  Hopefully, it's not too long - I know I prefer watching shorter videos and would love if I could make them like Laura Bassen - her videos are amazing and so full of information (and stories!), yet still quite short.

Anyways, if you want to watch the video, head on over to YouTube or watch below.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Up in the Air (MFT)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Tumbled Glass Distress Ink

Cardstock:  White, Black, X-Press It

Dies:  Up in the Air, Slanted Sentiment Strips, Stitched Basic Edges (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen

Cheers

Karren

16 and Driving

Hi!  I'm back with another card for Summer School - this one is the challenge for Complementary Colors, which really was a challenge for me as I don't like complementary colors!  Not even red and green although I will use them together at Christmas, of course.

So I chose my least unliked combo of blue and orange - but I have to admit to going with a lighter aqua blue and a deeper red-orange, so I hope this still passes muster 😄

My youngest son reached the ripe old age of 16 yesterday, and here in New Zealand that means he can sit the theory test for his Learner's Driver's Licence.  Of course, yesterday was Sunday and nothing was open so it was a very impatient wait for 8am this morning to come round so we could go to the testing centre.  

I'm happy (I think!) to say he passed with 100% and now the fun part starts, where either myself or his dad have to give him lessons for the next six months before he can go sit the practical part to be able to drive by himself.  To celebrate, I made him a car card using MFT's Joy Ride Die-namics, with Summer Splash and Persimmon cardstock (meeting the blue/orange combo).  I also added some gray for the accents and black for the wheels and wiper.

The back window is made from acetate and I added Nuvo Crystal Glaze to the lights.  I stacked the registration plate 3 high to add some stability to it.

This was pretty simple to put together and I like the uncluttered finished look.  I thought about adding a scene behind it, but wanted to keep it simple.

I'm also adding this to the Zoom challenge at CASology.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Cardstock:  White, Black, Cement Gray, Persimmon, Summer Splash (MFT), Acetate

Dies:  Joy Ride (MFT)

Accessories:  Nuvo Crystal Glaze

Cheers

Karren

Smile

Hi and welcome! Today's card is for the White Space challenge at MFT's Summer School.  I'm also playing along with the gorgeous colors from Color Throwdown's 500th challenge, the CAS challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More and the Inspired by Words challenge at Time Out.

I used some Faded Jeans Distress ink and what is probably my favorite stencil ever - Geometric Grid.  I only sponged ink in the bottom left corner of a white top-folding card base.  I set that aside and stamped some flowers from Painted Flowers set using some pink inks.

Finally I die-cut the word "smile" from toner paper and ran it through my minc with some gold foil.  I adhered all the elements to the bottom of the card, leaving a lot of white space to the top and right.  I finished with some Nuvo drops in White Blizzard.

Thanks for visiting!  Come back tomorrow for another of my Summer School cards.

Products used:

Stamps:  Painted Flowers (MFT)

Ink:  Pink Pearl, Coral Bliss, Heart Beat (Altenew), Faded Jeans Distress Ink

Cardstock:  White, Toner Paper, Gold Foil

Dies:  Painted Flowers, Double the Smiles (MFT)

Accessories:  Minc Mini machine, Geometric Grid Stencil (MFT)

Cheers

Karren