Scandinavian Mitten

It's Merry Monday time again and this week the challenge is to make a card using mittens.

I didn't think I had any mitten stamps and wasn't feeling up to making a shaped card, so I looked through my stamp inventory and actually found several stamps featuring mittens.  I chose to go with Scandinavian Season, which is NBUS (hangs head in shame as it retired a few years ago)

This is a very clean and simple card.  The mitten and the greeting are stamped in Midnight Muse and embossed in Clear EP.  There is a very fine Midnight Muse frame around the Whisper White and that is all layered onto a Whisper White card base.

I really like the simplicity and white space on this card.

Head on over to Lesley's blog to see what other mitten creations the DT have come up with.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Scandinavian Season; Christmas Greetings
Cardstock:  Whisper White; Midnight Muse
Ink:  Midnight Muse
Accessories:  Clear EP

Cheers
Karren

Sweet 16???

My oldest son turns 16 next week so I thought I'd better make him a birthday card.  I used the sketch from Fusion (so glad that is back!) and the acetate challenge at Friday Mashup.  My son is a typical teenager - surly, uncommunicative and always knows best LOL.  My younger son saw this card and thought it was "over the top" so yeah, I have two adorable sons :)

I stamped various words from several Paper Smooches sets in Coastal Cabana, Island Indigo, Bermuda Bay and Real Red.  I had to take a few liberties with the sketch to avoid covering up any of the words with the flags in the sketch.  

Apologies to the Friday Mashup team because there's not much acetate on this card.  I had great intentions of using a window sheet overlay with circle cut-outs and arrows pointing to certain words on the card, but for the life of me, I couldn't get the arrow thinlits to cut the acetate.  So I ended up using my arrow punch and a circle nestie.  Here's a close-up of the acetate:

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Slang Gang, Super, Sentiment Sampler (Paper Smooches)
Ink:  Coastal Cabana, Island Indigo, Bermuda Bay, Real Red, Daffodil Delight
Cardstock:  Bermuda Bay, Whisper White, Real Red, Window Sheet, In Color DSP, Celebrations DSP
Accessories:  Arrow Punch, Timeless Type Alphabet Dies, Circle Nesties

Cheers
Karren

Bermuda Christmas

Today was the first time I've stamped in two weeks!  (My Merry Monday DT cards were made a while ago).  It's bizarre but even though stamping relaxes me, it's the first thing I walk away from when things get stressful.  The stress is nothing major just the usual Christmas stress combined with insurance/earthquake repair stresses.  Working for a courier company means that the lead-up to Christmas is never peaceful and even though I don't work in the day-to-day operational areas, it's still a cray-cray time LOL.

Anyway, enough about my life.  It took a few attempts to get a card I was sort of happy with but here it is.

I went all multi-challenge with this card - combining the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches with the fun colors at ColourQ plus the snowflake challenge at Stampin' Royalty and the non-traditional Christmas challenge at SUO Challenges.  Phew!

I was inspired by the ColourQ DT - many of whom made Christmas cards with these colors, so I dug out some snowflake sets and my inkpads and stamped away.  I stamped snowflakes from both Snowflake Soiree and Serene Snowflakes onto a Whisper White panel using Lucky Limeade, Real Red and Pool Party ink.  I layered that onto a Real Red panel and then onto the Bermuda Bay card base, which I'd embossed with Northern Flurries EF.  

Not my best card, but not the worst either.  Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Snowflake Soiree, Serene Snowflakes, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink:  Lucky Limeade, Real Red, Pool Party, Bermuda Bay

Cardstock:  Whisper White, Real Red, Bermuda Bay

Accessories:  Frosted Finishes Embellishments, Northern Flurry EF

Cheers

Karren

Chalkboard Joy

And I'm back with another Merry Monday card.  This week we are using one of my favorite techniques - chalkboard!

I wanted to use a large sentiment on my card, so turned to my Joy to the World set.  Love the size of the sentiments in this set!  

When I was looking through my sets for something to complement the sentiment, I found the perfect image - a globe ornament from the old hostess set Peaceful Season.

Check out the other chalkboard projects made by the rest of the DT.  If you don't know how to do the Chalkboard Technique, here's a quick step-by-step:

1.  White emboss images onto black cardstock
2.  Once the embossing dries, gently sponge white ink over the black cardstock to give the impression of chalkboard dust
3.  Use a chalk marker or white pencil to add additional details if desired.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Joy to the World; Peaceful Season
Cardstock:  Whisper White; Cherry Cobbler; Basic Black; Season of Style DSP
Ink:  Versamark; White
Accessories:  White EP; Chalk Marker; sponge; Designer Builder Brads; Large Scallop Framelit; Lacy Brocade EF

Cheers
Karren 

White Christmas

This week's challenge at Merry Monday is to create an all-white or all-ivory Christmas card.  How can that not be classy and elegant???

Just look at the beautiful inspiration photo that Lesley chose:

As soon as I saw the challenge details, I knew I wanted to do some white-on-white embossing and produce a very CAS but elegant card.  This doesn't show up in the photo quite as nicely as in real life but I hope you get the idea.

I white-embossed the tree from Christmas Lodge onto a panel of Whisper White cardstock.  I then stamped the sentiment from Contempo Christmas in Crumb Cake ink.  I rounded one corner and added some white Baker's Twine before adhering to the card base using dimensionals.  Here's a close up of the embossing.

You'll just have to trust me when I say this looks better IRL :)

Check out the other DT cards and have a go at the challenge.

Products used:

Stamps:  Christmas Lodge; Contempo Christmas
Cardstock:  Whisper White
Ink:  Versamark; Crumb Cake
Accessories:  White EP; White Baker's Twine; Basic Pearls

Cheers
Karren

Hello Friend

I have spent much of today cleaning our house - a job I don't enjoy!  We are having our first scoping meeting with the company who will be doing our earthquake repairs and they will be looking in every nook and cranny of our house to identify the damage, so it has to be spotless.  Can I just say I hate washing skirting boards (baseboards) LOL! 

I did take some time out to make a card though.  Today's card is for the color challenge at Color Throwdown and the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.

I love these colors - Dusty Durango is such a deep color and goes so well with the other colors in the challenge.  I decided to make Dusty Durango my main color and used a whole half sheet of my very limited supply of this color :)

I used Stippled Blossoms for this card and stamped the rose in Peach Parfait and Dusty Durango.  The sentiment was stamped in Soft Suede and Dusty Durango onto Very Vanilla.  I added a bit of interest to the plain card base by scoring a frame using the cool technique shown by Brenda Quintana.  My frame isn't 100% but it's a heck of a lot closer than previous attempts LOL.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Stippled Blossoms, Embroidered Blooms (PTI)
Ink:  Soft Suede, Peach Parfait, Dusty Durango, Pear Pizzazz
Cardstock:  Dusty Durango, Very Vanilla, Soft Suede
Accessories:  Simply Scored

Edited to Add:  This card got a mention at Color Throwdown.

Cheers
Karren

Celebrate

I had an unexpected day off work today due to a sick child, so in between playing card games and keeping him amused, I managed to crank out a CAS card.  This card uses the sketch at CAS(e) This Sketch, the word challenge at CASology (Bell) and the Paper Players challenge to make a CAS card with leaves.

This card didn't quite come out as I imagined but the general concept is there.  I stamped the bells from Bells & Boughs onto Neenah Solar White and colored with Copics.  I have to say, that I must be doing something wrong, because the colors bled something awful which I've never had when I've colored onto Whisper White.  On the card base, I masked a rectangle and sponged Pool Party ink, leaving the right hand side "unfinished".  The sentiment is an old Printworks Australia stamp I have.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Bells & Boughs, Printworks PWG-626
Ink:  Pool Party, Brilliance Graphite Black
Cardstock:  Neenah Solar White
Accessories:  Copic Markers, sponge

Edited to Add:  This card was named a Favorite at CAS(e) This Sketch.

Cheers
Karren