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

Gold Greetings

It's been a busy weekend and now we're back around to Monday and another Merry Monday challenge.  This week Deanne has challenged us to use sequins on our cards.

I went very CAS and elegant this week, with a gold and black color scheme.

I gold-embossed the greeting and layered it onto some Brushed Gold cardstock which I'd cut from corner to corner to add a bit of interest.  I then arranged some sequins and rhinestones and called the card done!

Thanks for visiting.  The rest of the design team have some fabulous sequin-y cards for you this week so be sure to check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Joy to the World (SU)
Ink:  Versamark
Cardstock:  Basic Black, Brushed Gold
Accessories:  Gold EP, Lil Inkers Stitched Mats Rectangles, gold sequins, basic rhinestones

Cheers
Karren

Rock Star

It's my turn to host the challenge at Freshly Made Sketches and I came up with a fairly CAS-style sketch.  

I hope you can play along.  As you can see from my own card, I took a fairly liberal approach to the sketch!

 The card base was stenciled with a Tim Holtz stencil and embossing paste, colored green.  The filmstrip is stamped directly onto the card base.  I tucked some thread behind the banner and the arranged some enamel dots, sequins and rhinestones.

The sentiment is die cut and clear embossed a couple of times before being adhered to another layer to give it some depth.

Thanks for visiting.  The rest of the design team have produced amazing cards, as always, so be sure to check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Grunge Rock, Gorgeous Grunge, Filmstrip, (SU), Rock On (PTI)
Ink:  Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo, Versafine Onyx Black.Versamark
Cardstock:  Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, Island Indigo
Accessories:  Happy die (Clearly Besotted), Birthday die (PTI), Clear EP, Basic Jewels, Freckled Fawn Enamel Dots, sequins, thread, Banner framelits (SU), Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste, Tim Holtz Bubble Stencil

Cheers
Karren