Watercoloured Flowers

 I'm here with a card for our newest challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches, where our hostess is Kim Singdahlsen.  I love Kim's sketch and came up with this card using it:

I was trying to sleep one night a few weeks ago and into my head popped the idea that I needed to watercolour some flowers using yellow and orange.  Now, I am not a watercolour artist and to be honest, I try to avoid it, but the next day I pulled out this stamp and a couple of Zig markers and just started colouring and I have to say, I really like the result.  There was no technique to this - I just dabbed on some colours and spread it out with my water brush.

Once it was dry, I fussy-cut the inage and set it to one side, waiting for a card to put it on.  I then went and checked the DT blog for FMS and here was Kim's sketch - perfect to showcase these flowers.  I flipped the sketch to fit the way the flowers are facing.

I found some solid-colour cardstock in similar colours and created an ombre look to match the sketch. The sentiment was chosen because (a) it fit in the gap and (b) it was a very simple font as I didn't want to compete with the flowers.  The strips were die-cut with a die from Blueprints 24 which gives a subtle rounded corner.  The card base was embossed with the Subtle embossing folder from SU and the flowers popped up on foam tape.

Thanks for visiting.  Please head over and check out the wonderful cards made by the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Sweet Flowers, Painted Butterflies (Altenew)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Amalgam (Gina K)

Cardstock:  White, Bristol Smooth, Summer Sunrise (PTI), Harvest Gold (PTI), Orange Fizz (MFT)

Dies:  Blueprints 24 (MFT)

Accessories:  Zig Real Brush Markers, Subtle EF (SU)

Cheers

Karren

Mousey Note

 Our sketch hostess over at Freshly Made Sketches this week is Linda Callahan and I had such fun making this card.

I started with a Desert Storm card base, which I embossed with the Subtle embossing folder.  From there I die-cut the notebook page and stamped the lines with Sea Glass ink.  I then decided to add the wee mouse from Colorado Craft Company and quickly Copic-coloured it because it wasn't stamped onto Copic-friendly paper.  I adhered the notebook page to the card base and then put together the book using the Open Book die set.  The stamping comes from the Special Delivery set which I stamped with Espresso and Grapevine inks.  You will see the sentiment doesn't match the sketch but I didn't have room to put the sentiment at the bottom so had to modify the sketch slightly.

On all the pages and the cover of the book, I sponged some ink to give dimension and on the pages I rolled each side over my finger to round the pages out a bit.  Given that our sketch artist is a retired teacher and librarian, I thought this card was quite fitting for the challenge 😁

Thanks for visiting.  Please head over to the challenge blog and see wahat the rest of the DT have come up with.

I'm linking this up to the Animals challenge at The Male Room.

Products used:

Stamps:  Special Delivery, Noted (SugarPea Designs), Wishing Happiness (Colorado Craft Company)

Ink:  Espresso, Grapevine, Sea Glass (Altenew), Amalgam (Gina K Designs)

Cardstock:  Neenah Desert Storm, White, Whip Cream, Cranberry Cocktail, Hot Fudge (MFT), Translucent Vellum (Lawn Fawn)

Dies:  Open Book, Notebook Journal Card (SugarPea Designs)

Accessories:  Copics, Subtle Embossing Folder (SU)

Cheers

Karren

Gray Roses

 Hi and welcome to our first Fusion challenge of the year.  This time I only played with the sketch to come up with this card:

This card was pretty simple to make, thanks to washi tape which was used for the vertical elements.  The roses were stamped and die-cute with the matching dies and the sentiment was embossed with gold onto black.

Here's a shot showing the gold washi tape in a better light.

Thanks for visiting.  I hope you'll check out the cards made by the rest of the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Antique Roses, Many Thanks (Altenew)

Ink:  Rock Collection set, Nature's Wonders set (Altenew), Versamark

Cardstock:  Fog (SSS), White, Washi tape

Dies:  Antique Roses (Altenew)

Accessories:  Gold EP

Cheers

Karren

Peach

Hi and welcome to the first Freshly Made Sketch Challenge of the year, where our hostess this week is Jen Mitchell.  And Jen has come up with a slimline card sketch for us.  

During the Black Friday sales, I bought a whole bundle of slimline dies from The Ton for a really good price, so I'm all set now for slimline card-making 😀

This grid background is from The Ton and I die-cut it with Fog cardstock before adhering it to a 9" x 4" card base.  I added the sentiment strip and the die-cut sentiment which was stacked three high and coloured with clear sparkle pen.

The peaches were stamped and then cut with my Scan n Cut.  I used the same colour for the peach itself - just double-stamping to get that distinction between shades.  The peach slice was stamped-off to get that lighter flesh colour.

The card was finished with some enamel dots to match the peachy-orangey tones.

Thanks for visiting.  I hope you'll check out the fabulous cards made by the rest of the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Peachy Keen, Just Peachy (The Greetery)

Ink:  Sunkissed, Frayed Leraf, Forest Glades, Espresso (Altenew), Versafine Onyx Black

Cardstock:  White, Fog (SSS), Orange Fizz (MFT)

Dies:  Just Peachy (The Greetery), Slimline Grid (The Ton)

Accessories:  Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen, Enamel Dots

Cheers

Karren

Pink Flowers

 Hi!  I'm back with another card for a few challenges.  This card is for the Altenew challenge, Krafty Chicks ATG challenge, Addicted to CAS who have Emboss as their code word and Happy Little Stampers January Watercolour Challenge.

I don't watercolour very often but had the urge to do something a bit looser than Copic colouring and so pulled out my Zig markers to colour up this gorgeous Altenew stamp.  Once I was finished, I fussy-cut the image and set it aside to work on the card base.

Firstly I splattered Aged Mahogany and Black Soot Distress Oxide inks onto a white card base using Perfect Pearls spray to dilute the inks.  When the ink was dry, I ran it through my die-cutting machine with the Subtle embossing folder.

I was totally inspired by the graphic in the Altenew challenge to add stripes to my card.  To most closely match what I saw as the darkest colour, I used the Direct to Paper technique to add Aged Mahogany oxide ink onto a strip of Bristol Smooth paper.  Once it was dry, I die-cut it, along with some Cotton Candy, Razzle Berry and Black cardstock with the Slim Stripes dies by Pink Fresh.  I used Rose Gold embossing powder on the Razzle Berry strip and embossed the words Thank You.  I then adhered all the strips onto the card base and finished with the flower, which is popped up on foam tape.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Sweet Flowers, Many Thanks (Altenew)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Versamark, Aged Mahogany and Black Soot Distress Oxide Inks

Cardstock:  Bristol Smooth, White, Black, Cotton Candy, Razzle Berry (MFT)

Dies:  Slim Stripes (Pink Fresh)

Accessories:  Rose Gold EP, Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers, Perfect Pearls Spray, Subtle Embossing Folder (SU)

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Krafty Chicks.

Celebration Lily

 Hi and welcome!  I am in the middle of a couple of weeks off work and also in the middle of a DT break, so thought I would make a card for a couple of challenges.  This is the first time I've entered any challenges since losing my son 18 months ago.  Card-making became a chore not an enjoyment and I only stuck at it because I was on a couple of design teams and didn't want to let anyone down.  I also knew that if I stopped stamping I probably wouldn't ever start again and I want that joy to come back.

Anyway, enough maudlin chatter.  I set the intention of doing some colouring while I was off work and this lily was the second image I've coloured in the last week.  I put it onto a card that would fit with the Any Occasion theme at Krafty Chicks and the Sparkle and Shine challenge at Simon Says Stamp.

Apologies for the darkness of my photos.  I'm using my iPhone instead of a digital SLR camera and still haven't sorted out the appropriate settings.

This is a slimline card.  Onto a pierced panel in white, I added a silver foil pierced panel and then a navy blue pierced panel I ran through my hot foil machine with the Diamonetta BG and some silver foil.  

The image is a Power Poppy digi and I coloured it with Copics and Prismacolor pencils before cutting it out with my Scan n Cut.  I added it to the card front with foam tape.

I finished the card with a stacked die-cut sentiment using white cardstock and silver foil.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stanps:  Alluring Lily digi (Power Poppy)

Cardstock:  White, Silver Foil. In the Navy (GinaK Designs), X-Press It, Silver Hot Foil

Dies:  Slimline Pierced Nested (The Ton), Celebrate (MFT), Diamonetta BG (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Copics, Prismacolor Pencils

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout our at Krafty Chicks.

Missed

 Hi and welcome to the last challenge of the year over at Freshly Made Sketches, where our hostess is Jennifer Timko.

Using Jennifer's sketch I made a card for my angel son, Matthew, who would be 23 today, NZ time.  This is a bit of an odd birthday card, but I can't really wish him a happy birthday and this sentiment sums it all up anyway.

Matthew loves sloths so I have bought several sloth stamps over the last 18 months.  I coloured this one with Copics (very rusty colouring!) and fussy-cut the images.  I adhered some patterned paper onto a black panel and then used foam tape to add the sloth pieces.  The card base is pale gray.

Thanks for visiting!  I hope you'll visit the challenge blog and see the cards made by the rest of the design team.  This challenge is open for a few weeks to give people time to join in over the Christmas period.

Products used:

Stamps:  Sloth Peeker (Impression Obsession), Greetings & Salutations (MFT)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K), Versamark

Cardstock:  Soft Stone (PTI), Black Licorice (MFT), X-Press It, Whatever the Weather (SugarPea Designs)

Accessories:  White EP, Copics

Cheers

Karren