Cosy Christmas

 This is my last week as Guest Designer over at Just Us Girls and I've had a great time!  Thanks so much to the team for making me feel so welcome.  For this challenge, we have a photo inspiration and what a cosy photo it is!

I was drawn to the couch, the Christmas tree and the general colours of the scene.  I was also really drawn to the stag picture and wanted to re-create it somewhere on my card, but couldn't find a good spot so left it out.

I went searching through my Christmas stamps and found the perfect set - My Monthly Hero from November 2019.  I stamped, coloured and die-cut the chair, tree and gift and set them aside to work on the card base. 

For the card base, I masked off a section using 2" Post-It Tape and ink-blended some Weathered Wood Distress Ink at the top to try and mimic the wall colour in the photo, and some Pumice Stone ink at the bottom for the carpet.  I then arranged my elements, making sure to overlap them for cohesion and adhered them.  I used liquid glue for the tree and foam tape for the gift and the chair.  I stamped a sentiment that tied everything together nicely and finished with some clear sparkle pen on the ornaments and star.

Thanks so much for visiting.  Please head over to the Just Us Girls site and check out the fabulous cards made by the team.  And have a go yourself - so much wonderful inspiration in this photo.

Products used:

Stamps:  My Monthly Hero Nov 2019, Christmas Messages (Hero Arts)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K.) Versafine Onyx Black, Weathered Wood, Pumice Stone Distress Inks

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It

Dies:  MMH Nov 2019 (Hero Arts)

Accessories:  Copics, Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen

Cheers

Karren

Dark Snowy Night

 

 Hi and welcome to the last post for the Fusion challenge.  I have decided to close down the challenge after a year of to-ing and fro-ing on the decision.  For today's card I decided to focus on the black and white colour scheme and the snowman from the photo.

Firstly I stenciled some white embossing paste onto a black card panel over a snowfall stencil.  While that was drying, I coloured and fussy-cut the snowman and die-cut some snow-drifts.  Onto one of the snow drifts, I stamped the sentiment.  

I adhered the back snowdrift directly to the black panel and the foreground snowdrift and snowman were popped up on foam tape.

Thanks for visiting and a personal thank you to everyone who has played along in the Fusion challenges and the wonderful design team members over the years.

Products used:

Stamps:  Holiday Hugs Snowman, Hand Lettered Holiday (MFT)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K.), Versafine Onyx Black

Cardstock:  White, Black, X-Press It

Dies:  Snow Drifts (MFT)

Accessories:  Falling Snow Stencil (SSS), White Embossing Paste, Copics

Cheers

Karren

Hello Sunflower

 Hi! Today’s sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches was designed by Jen Brum and here’s my card.

I am a bit over making Christmas cards so decided to put a NBUS stamp set to work. I stamped and Copic-coloured this beautiful sunflower stamp. I kept the rest of the card fairly clean with an embossing folder to add a bit of interest.

The sentiment is hot-foiled to add a bit of shine.  A few enamel dots as embellishments and my card was done.

Thanks so much for visiting. Please check out the gorgeous work by the rest of the design team.

I'm linking this up to The Flower Challenge where they are looking for embellishments.

Products used:
Stamps:  Hello Sunflower (Spellbinders)
Ink: Amalgam (Gina K.)
Cardstock:  White, Daffodil (MFT), X-Press It

Dies:  Modern Greetings 1 (Poppystamps)

Accessories:  Copics, Origami Folds Embossing Folder (Spellbinders), Gold Hot Foil, Enamel Dots

cheers

Karren

Rich Poinsettia

Hi all!  I'm here with my third card as guest designer at Just Us Girls challenge and this week is Color Week, where we've been give the colours of red, green and gold.  

I went the very obvious route and created a Christmas card 😄

 

I gold-embossed the background stamp onto white and cut a panel which I then adhered to an Amarena Cherry card base, adding a thin strip of gold matte foil cardstock down the right hand side.  The sentiment was gold-embossed onto the card base and once that was done, I set to work on the poinsettia.

I die-cut the pieces and sponged the edges with Cranberry Fizz ink before splattering on some gold shimmer spray.  Once that was dry, I curled the edges of each petal and glued each piece together before adding some gold pearls to the centre.  For the leaves, I sponged Eucalyptus ink around the edges but didn't splatter them.

Thanks for visiting!  The design team are sure to have some gorgeous cards using this colour combo so head on over and check them out and play along!

Products used:

Stamps:  Outline Winter Floral (SSS), Poinsettia Bouquets (WPlus9)

Ink:  Versamark, Cranberry Fizz, Eucalyptus (Catherine Pooler)

Cardstock:  White, Amarena Cherry, Jellybean Green (MFT), Gold Matte Foil

Dies:  Layered Poinsettia (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Gilded Embossing Powder (Brutus Monroe), Gold Shimmer Spray, Gold Pearls

Cheers

Karren

25

 Hi and welcome!  As I mentioned earlier in the week, I have had this week off work and as well as catching up with a few friends, I spent a bit of time stamping and it was wonderful!  Today is Saturday and Monday I'm back to work so I wanted to play along in a last few challenges before then.

This card evolved over the course of a few hours and as I was part-way through making it, I thought it would make a perfect birthday card for my late son, Matthew, who would be 25 next month.  I was firstly inspired by the latest Tic Tac Toe challenge and my eye was drawn to the word "Rust" and I immediately decided I wanted to try and re-create the rust patina on old cars.  Matthew loved cars and I know he'll love this card, even though there isn't a car on it.

To create the background, I went back to an old video of mine where I showed a technique I'd learned about 15 years ago, now.  Here's a link if you want to see how I made the background and here's how the background looked once it was finished.  I started with a panel of black cardstock and added Distress Paints in the following order (the video will make more sense of what I'm about to write):  Antiqued Bronze, Twisted Citron (spritzed), Antiqued Bronze, Broken China (spritzed), Cracked Pistachio (spritzed), Antiqued Bronze (sparingly).

From there, I had to decide how to use the panel and I came up with the idea of adding leaves down the left hand side, the number 25 to represent how old he would be and an inlaid metallic frame.  The leaves were die-cut from distress inked panels that were in my stash so I don't know the colours.  Once I'd cut them, I added some Foundry Wax in both Mined and Gilded to the edges and heat set it.  

Two of the leaves were die-cut from a failed hot-foiled panel where I'd tried to use the solid hot foil plate after foiling a whole lot of sentiments.  It was a failure but I kept the panel because I could use the back.  However, I decided to use the front and I love how it came out.  There's a photo of what's left of the panel and a close-up of the leaves I cut from that panel.  I even left the letters in.

Thanks so much for visiting.  I have to say I absolutely love this card, and not only because of what and who it represents.  I'm a CAS card-maker so to dabble in these different products is unusual for me.

I'm also linking this card to the Many of Something challenge at Seize the Birthday (my second entry), the Four Seasons Fall challenge, Tic Tac Toe Challenge (Rust/Free/Any Shape Die) and the Happy Little Stampers Birthday and Dies Challenges.

Products used:

Stamps:  Bitty Birthday Wishes (MFT)

Ink:  Versamark, various Distress and Distress Oxide inks

Cardstock:  White, Black, Rose Gold Matte Foil

Dies:  Nesting Rectangle Frames (Waffle Flower), By the Numbers (PTI), Leaves Die (Impression Obsession), Fall Foliage (Tim Holtz)

Accessories:  Distress Paint (Antiqued Bronze, Twisted Citron, Broken China, Cracked Pistachio), Foundry Wax (Mined, Gilded), Gilded Embossing Powder (Brutus Monroe)

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Seize the Birthday and Tic-Tac-Toe

Berry Branch

 Hi I’m here with my card using the latest sketch from Freshly Made Sketches where our hostess this week is Kim Singdahlsen. 

I used the sketch to make another Christmas card and, because I already had the branch stamped and die-cut, the hardest part was choosing the sentiments to fit the sketch layout. Once I found two suitable sentiments, I gold embossed them onto Cherry Crisp cardstock and added them to the card front.

I finished the card with a few gold pearls and coloured each of the berries with a clear sparkle pen,

Thanks so much for visiting. Please head over and check out the fabulous cards made by the rest of the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Berry Branches (The Ton), Winter Scene (SSS)

Ink:  Versamark, Mocha, Espresso, Crimson, Velvet (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Cherry Crisp (MFT)

Dies:  Berry Branches (The Ton)

Accessories:  Gilded Embossing Powder (Brutus Monroe), Warm Pearls (Honey Bee), Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen

Cheers

Karren

Poinsettia Joy

 Hi, I'm back with a card for the current Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge where I've gone with the centre row of Holiday Floral/Free/Red.  I also used the sketch at Sunday Stamps and the Christmas theme at Krafty Chicks.

I created the poinsettia from a Spellbinders die set and before adhering the layers together, I added some Statue Foundry Wax to the edges of the petals and holly leaves.  I die-cut the word Joy from matte gold foil and adhered the J and the Y to a smaller panel of white, which I'd matted onto some more of the gold matte foil. 

The sentiment was hot-foiled onto black.  I decided not to add any embellishments because I wanted a clean card.

Thanks for visiting.  And before I go, it's coming into summer here in New Zealand and I went out to the garden this morning and picked this bunch of flowers, which is something I very rarely do!  The roses smell lovely!

Products used:

Cardstock:  White, Black, Gold Matte Foil, Jelly Bean, Wild Cherry (MFT)

Dies:  Holiday Blooms, Holiday Sentiments Series 2 (Spellbinders), Big Joy (SSS), A2 Rectangle Stax (MFT)

Accessories:  Statue Foundry Wax, Gold Matte Hot Foil

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Sunday Stamps.

Many Arches

Hi and welcome!  I'm at the beginning of a week off work and I have no plans but to relax, create and maybe catch up with a few friends - my idea of a perfect holiday!

This first card was made using the colours from The Paper Players and the Many of Something theme at Seize the Birthday.  I have many arches and used many blues in my masculine birthday card.

I silver hot-foiled the Geo Arches hot foil plate onto some white cardstock and then used the co-ordinating stencils to colour it.  Believe it or not, this has about 6 different blues on it!  I wasn't happy with the combo originally so went over a couple of stencils again with different blues.  I ended up with Prize Ribbon, Faded Jeans and Uncharted Mariner.

I die-cut it with a rectangle stax die and matted that onto silver foil before adding it to a black card base.  The sentiment was already hot-foiled with the same silver foil so it was easy to add some foam tape and adhere it to the card.

I'm also linking this card to the Happy Little Stampers Stencil and Birthday challenges.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Products used:

Ink:  Prize Ribbon, Faded Jeans, Uncharted Mariner Distress Inks

Cardstock:  Black, Silver Foil, White

Dies:   Geo Arches Hot Foil Plate (Pink Fresh), Happy Birthday Hot Foil Plate and Die (Waffle Flower), Rectangle Stax (MFT)

Accessories:  Geo Arches Stencils (Pink Fresh), Silver Hot Foil

Cheers

Karren

 Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at The Paper Players.

Butterfly Wishes

I'm here with my second card as Guest Designer over at Just Us Girls Challenge.  This week we are challenged to make a matching envelope. 

I don't ever think to make a matching envelope so this was a fun challenge.  I decided to see how hot-foiling on envelopes worked and I'm happy to report it worked perfectly!

I hot-foiled the butterflies onto cardstock and the smaller one again on a white envelope.  I then used stencils to colour them in before using my Scan n Cut to cut the cardstock ones out.  Onto a white card base, I hot-foiled a frame using the same gold foil and also a birthday sentiment.  I added some black under the sentiment to give it a bit of weight.  I then added the butterfly with foam tape.  Here are a few more photos.

Thanks so much for visiting.  Please head over to the Just Us Girls blog and check out the fabulous cards and matching envelopes made by the design team, then give it a go yourself!

Products used:

Ink:  Whipped Honey, Tiara, Glitz, Mandarin Spice, Midnight (Catherine Pooler)

Cardstock:  White, Black

Dies:  Butterflies (Pink Fresh), A2 Layers (Waffle Flower), Modest Greetings 1 (Poppy Stamps)

Accessories:  Gold Matte Foil, Warm & Cozy Enamel Dots (Altenew), Butterflies Stencils (Pink Fresh)

Cheers

Karren

Plate of Cookies

 Hi it's time for another challenge from the team at Fusion and we have a Christmas theme going on this time.  I decided to focus solely on the gingerbread cookies and the sketch to come up with this card.

 

The plate of cookies and gingerbread man were stamped and coloured a year ago, so I can't remember which colours I used. I cut the images using my Scan n Cut and went to work on the rest of the card.  The card base is white and over that I added a piece of patterned paper to sort of look like a benchtop.  I white-embossed the sentiment onto Desert Storm cardstock and matted that onto a piece of cardstock to match the tea colour in the scarf of one of the gingerbread men.

The plate and extra gingerbread man was adhered with foam tape and I called it done!

Thanks so much for visiting.  Please head over to the challenge blog and check out the wonderful cards made by the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Gingerbread Cookies (Mama Elephant), Winter Village (Lawn Fawn)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K,) Versamark

Cardstock:  White, Desert Storm, X-Press It, Adriatic (Hero Arts), Floor to Ceiling Patterned Paper (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, White EP

Cheers

Karren