Papertrey September Blog Hop Challenge

Hi!  I'm back with another card - this one for the September Blog Hop over at Papertrey Ink.  This is the first time I've submitted a card to any PTI challenge!

I bought the Spruce & Sprigs set just after Christmas last year but the dies were out of stock, so I've only just got the dies now.  From the inspiration photo, I immediately saw a rustic Christmas scene so decided to start with a kraft card base and put another kraft layer backed with Dark Chocolate.  For the arrangement, I stamped and die-cut several of each image in both kraft and white.  In the end I decided to stick with the kraft as they suited the inspiration photo more.

I arranged the images then used Press 'n' Seal to hold it together while I adhered it to the card.  The sentiment comes from Signature Christmas which is still one of my favorites sentiment sets (along with Signature Greetings).

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Spruce & Sprigs, Signature Christmas (PTI)

Ink:  Dark Chocolate, Pure Poppy, Pine Feather, Harvest Gold, Ripe Avocado

Cardstock:  Desert Storm, Dark Chocolate (SSS)

Dies:  Spruge & Sprigs (PTI)

Accessories:  Wink of Stella

Cheers

Karren

Bountiful Birthday

For my second post today, I'm entering a card into the current challenge at Time Out, based on the gorgeous inspiration photo, the autumn challenge at Uniko and the Colours of Fall Challenge at 4 Crafty Chicks.

Even though I've probably never used the word "bountiful" in my life :), I really like this card.  I smooshed distress inks onto my craft sheet then ran some watercolor paper through several times, drying between each pass.  Once I was happy with the result, I die-cut the leaves then stamped the veins.  Finally, I sponged Vintage Photo ink around the outsides of the leaves and put them to one side.  On the white card base, I stamped the leaves and veins using Fog ink down the left hand side, filling in the gaps with some splatter stamps.  I then positioned the leaves, with the smalles one popped up on foam tape, and stamped the sentiment.  The word "Bountiful" was die-cut and adhered to the card base.

I finished the card with some rainstones in various sizes.

Thanks for visiting.

Products Used:

Stamps:  Color Pop Autumn, Leaf Prints (PTI), Distressed Patterns (MFT)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Fog (SSS), Peeled Paint, Fossilized Amber, Rusty Hinge, Bundles Sage, Scattered Straw, Festive Berries, Vintage Photo Distress Inks

Cardstock:  White, Black, Watercolor

Dies:  Color Pop Autumn, Leaf Prints

Accessories:  Rainstones

Cheers

Karren

Awesome Frames

I'm back again!  This time with a card using the sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch, the frames cue word at CASology and the colors from MFT Color Challenge.

As soon as I saw the sketch at CTS, I saw frames and that worked in well with the challenge at CASology.  From there, I just had to decide on colors and I thought I'd do something a bit different with the colors at MFT, which lend themselves to Halloween cards.

This card is pretty simple!  I die-cut three frames in the challenge colors using the smallest of the Pierced Square Frames dies and layered them on top of each other onto a white card base.  I went looking for a sentiment that would fit the space and found this one in the You're Super set.

To finish off the card, I added a green enamel dot.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  You're Super (MFT)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black

Cardstock:  White, Boysenberry, Gumdrop Green, Orange Fizz (MFT)

Dies:  Pierced Square Frames (MFT)

Accessories:  Enamel Dot

Cheers

Karren

Penguin Christmas

Welcome!  Today's card was colored up on Thursday night, when I felt like crafting but didn't want to think about layouts, etc.  So I took this NBUS An Arctic Christmas stamp and just spent some time coloring.

This is such an adorable image and while it is big, it was relaxing coloring it in - apart from when I picked up the wrong marker and started coloring my mountain (see on the left!)  I used some of the blends used by Kelly Latevola as I love her bright and vivid coloring.  Some of the blends worked well and some others I couldn't get a nice blend (the red/orange one!)  I'm not sure if it's partly because I stamped onto Neenah cardstock instead of my usual X-Press It.  I'll need to experiment more.

Anyway, after coloring the image and stamping the sentiment, I painted the ornaments and stars with Star Dust Stickles and put it aside to dry.  I came back to it this morning (Saturday) and die-cut it with a wonky stitched rectangle die and mounted it flat onto a white card base.

I'm entering this into the current Merry Monday challenge where Kathy is looking for warmth in a Christmas card, as well at Addicted to Stamps and More who have a "Make Your Mark" challenge.

Thanks for visiting.  Here is the mountain of markers I used on this card.

Products used:

Stamps:  An Arctic Christmas (SSS)
Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid (MFT)
Cardstock:  White
Dies:  Wonky Stitched Rectangles (MFT)
Accessories:  Copics, Star Dust Stickles (Ranger)

Cheers
Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Merry Monday.

Balloon Celebration

Hi and welcome!  We have another fabulous challenge for you at Fusion Card Challenge.

I went with the photo this time, concentrating on the theme and colors.

 I used a balloon stencil to create some balloons on a white panel. I then foiled a die-cut sentiment as well as a strip to put down the left side of the panel. The foiled sentiment is backed with a black version  slightly offset.  Some hand-drawn strings and striped paper and my card was done.

Thanks for visiting.  The design team have some gorgeous inspiration for you so be sure to check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Hog Heaven (MFT)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Tumbled Glass, Worn Lipstick, Peacock Feathers Distress

Cardstock:  White, Black, Rose Gold Foil, Dots & Stripes Neutrals (MFT), Toner Paper

Dies:  Celebratory Greetings (MFT)

Accessories:  Wink of Stella, Big Balloons Stencil (MFT), Mini Minc Machine

Cheers

Karren

Embrace the Splatter

Welcome to another fabulous challenge at Freshly Made Sketches!  This week our hostess is the amazing Amy O'Neill and she has a wonderful sketch that is sure to be popular as it's so versatile.

For my card, I decided to create a textured and stenciled background so went to town with my new MFT stencil, some distress inks and finally some matt texture paste by Ranger.  It's hard to tell in the photo, but this has a lovely texture in real life.

After I'd finished my piece, I decided to get bold and add some splatter.  Now, I don't usually like splatter because it's so unpredictable and one extra "splat" can ruin a project, but I did it anyway - hence the title of this post :)  I splattered on some Black Soot distress ink and then dabbed on some gold Color Shine.  I did that to both the stenciled panel and the card base, concentrating in the bottom left and top right corners.

The sentiment is white embossed and I rounded the corner to match the stenciled panel.  Both panels are popped up on foam tape.  I'm linking this up to Tic Tac Toe where I used Stencils/Blues & Greens/Texture.

Thanks for visiting.  The FMS DT have some gorgeous inspiration for you, so please check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Amazing (MFT)

Ink:  Versamark, Black Soot, Cracked Pistachio, Twisted Citron, Mermaid Lagoon Distress

Cardstock:  White, Black

Dies:  Blueprints 24 (MFT)

Accessories:  Heidi Swapp Gold Color Shine, Chevron Grid Stencil (MFT), Transparent Matte Texture Paste (Ranger)

Rainbows

Hi and welcome!  I'm here with my card as September Guestie for Color Throwdown and this week we have a beautiful, bright color combo for you:

What a gorgeous photo!  I decided to do some ink blending for my card and added some black, just like the photo, to come up with this card:

I blended distress inks in a light to dark pattern from bottom left to top right.  Once that was done, I die-cut a black panel using the Striped Sentiment Strip by MFT.  Onto that, I embossed with Tiger Lily EP the sentiment from Rainbow of Happiness set.  The panel was added to the card base with foam tape and I finished with some clear sequins.

Thanks for visiting.  Check out the fabulous inspiration from the talented Color Throwdown design team:

Amy Rohl Amy Rysavy

Barbara Anders   

Broni Holcombe   

Jodi Collins 

Lisa Henke 

Lori Tecler

Lynn Put   

Vickie Zimmer 

Wanda Cullen

Products used:

Stamps:  Rainbow of Happiness (MFT)

Ink:  Versamark, Squeezed Lemonade, Carved Pumpkin, Seedless Preserves, Wilted Violet Distress Inks

Cardstock:  White, Black, Watercolor

Dies:  Striped Sentiment Strip (MFT)

Accessories:  Tiger Lily EP (Wendy Vecchi)

Cheers

Karren