Clipboard

Hi and welcome to Freshly Made Sketches weekly challenge. This week our sketch hostess is Jen Mitchell and I love her sketch!

Now, I think this might also apply to a lot of card-makers but I absolutely cannot resist stationery supplies and/or miniatures so when I saw this miniature clipboard in a Tim Holtz vault die set, I had to have it!  I decided to make a teacher card for my daughter who is in her first year of teaching high school boys (brave, brave girl!).  Of course, for her the sentiment should read "Energy Drink, Teach, Sleep, Repeat" 😄

I did some background stamping and inked up the edges of the panels to give everything a vintage-y look.  The little clipboard is so adorable and the top "clip" is popped up on two layers of foam tape to give it a realistic look.  The notebook paper was stamped in a pale blue ink, then I went over the vertical line with a pink Sharpie for realism.

And, by total luck, the stamped sentiment fits perfectly on the lines of the notebook!

Thanks for visiting.  Please check out the fabulous cards made by the rest of the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Steampunk (Tim Holtz), Teach Sleep Repeat (MFT), Smarty Pants (Your Next Stamp)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Rocky Shore, Mocha, Sea Glass (Altenew), Antique Linen Distress Ink

Cardstock:  White, Whip Cream (MFT), Desert Storm, Silver Mirror Foil

Dies:  Torn Paper Edges (MFT), A2 Ripped Notebook (Picket Fence), Vault Noteworthy (Tim Holtz)

Accessories:  pink Sharpie

Cheers

Karren

Flower Bunch

It's time for another Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge and this time I chose the top right diagonal - Flowers/Patterned Paper/Stripes to come up with this card.

I already had the flower stenciled so I only needed to fussy-cut it out.  Onto a white card base I embossed with the Subtle embossing folder and added some patterned paper strips in varying widths.  I then stamped a Mother's Day sentiment, added the flower popped up on foam tape and finished with some pearls.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Bountiful Leaves (The Ton)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Forest Glades, Frayed Leaf, Evergreen, Pastel Sunrise, Canyon Clay, Burn Red, Moon Rock, Lava Rock, Nimbus, Dark Night (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Watercolor Wash Brights (MFT)

Accessories:  Pastel Pearl Stickers (Honey Bee Stamps), Subtle EF (SU), Flower Bunch Stencils (Altenew)

Cheers

Karren

Abstract Hello

Hello (to quote my card below!). Today's sketch hostess over at Freshly Made Sketches is Jennifer Timko.  Once again I used my new Alex Syberia Abstract Background Press Plate - this time with hot foil as well as just using it as ann uninked press plate.

 

To create my panel I adhered two colours of cardstock together with tape on the back and then hot-foiled with copper foil.  Once finished, I cut the panel down and matted one of the pieces onto copper foil cardstock.  Onto a kraft card base, I used my BetterPress to press the Abstract Background plate.  I then adhered the foiled panel and finished with a reverse foiled sentiment from Honey Bee Stamps.

And it wasn't until I was putting this blog post together that I realised I put my sentiment in the wrong place.  Doh!

Thanks for visiting!  The design team have created some gorgeous cards with the sketch so I hope you'll check them out.

Products used:

Cardstock:  Desert Storm (Neenah), Dark Indigo (PTI), Moss (Altenew), Rose Gold Foil Cardstock

Dies:  Abstract Background Press Plate (Alex Syberia), Fall Foliage Sentiments Hot Foil (Honey Bee Stamps)

Accessories:  Copper hot foil

Cheers

Karren

Blocked Birthday

  Welcome to my blog where today we have a new sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches.  Our sketch hostess this week is Judy Rozema and she came up with a fun sketch.  My first thought was the old-school retiform technique using masking and stamping, but that just sounded like too much work so I went with simple colour blocking - letting the gorgeous new Spellbinders cardstock do all the work.

 

After choosing my cardstock with the help of the Colour Cube, I cut it out and pieced it together to cover a card front.  I then ran it through my Betterpress with my new Alex Syberia plate to provide some subtle texture.  I didn't use any ink, just pressure.  I added some thin slivers of white cardstock to separate the colours and adhered it to a card base.

I then went hunting for a sentiment and found this already-foiled sentiment.  I like the boldness against the pastel cardstock background so decided to use it.  I finished with some enamel dots in the three cardstock colours.

Thanks for visiting!  Please head over and check out the fabulous cards made by the design team and meet our newest team member - who I am sure will be known to most of you... 😉

Products used:

Cardstock:  White, Black, Bellini, Waterfall, Seaside (Spellbinders)

Dies:  Abstract Background Press Plate (Alex Syberia), Happy Birthday Hot Foil (Waffle Flower)

Accessories:  Gold Hot Foil, Enamel Dots (Altenew)

Cheers

Karren

Purple Spring

 Hi!  I'm here with my reminder card for the current Flower Challenge which is to use spring colours.  I'm not sure that these purples qualify as spring but it is what it is!

One of my favourite layering stencil sets is Charming Delight by Altenew, so I set to with various ink colours and the stencils and created this floral image.  Using the co-ordinating die, I cut it out and then spritzed it with shimmer spray to give a lovely shimmer to it.

I went with my go-to layout which is a panel down the left hand side of a white card base.  The darker purple strip was created using direct-to-paper and one of the purple ink colours I used.  The sentiment was from a Pink Fresh stamp set.

Thanks for visiting!  The design team have some gorgeous cards so I hope you'll check them out.

Products Used:

Stamps:  Miss Your Smile (Pink Fresh Studio)

Ink:  Obsidian, Enchanted Garden set, Warm & Cosy Set, Nature's Wonder set (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Proper Pinstripes Pastels (MFT)

Dies:  Charming Delight (Altenew)

Accessories:  Charming Delight stencils (Altenew), shimmer spray

Cheers

Karren

White Flowers

 
Hi!  Today I'm playing along in a CASE It blog hop over on Instagram.  I thought I would post here too because this is where I keep the record of all my cards.  But I encourage you to head over to Instagram and check out the other cards in the hop.  For my case, I was inspired by Donna Mikasa and her gorgeous wreath card (at the bottom of this post).

I first saw Donna's card over at The Flower Challenge (where she quite rightly won the March challenge) and just fell in love with it. I wanted to be inspired but not copy it, so I used the same dies but instead of colour on a white background, I went with white flowers on a coloured background. I also changed up the floral layout but kept the embossed background.

Check out Donna's gorgeous card below.  I hope I have done it justice.   

Products used:

Cardstock:  White, Peach Bellini (MFT)

Dies:  Chocolate Flowers (Altenew), Essential Stylish Ovals (Spellbinders), Wonderful Sentiments Hot Foil (Pink Fresh Studio)

Accessories:  Wood Planks Embossing Folder (Honey Bee Stamps), White hot foil

Cheers

Karren

Letter For You

 Hi and welcome!  Our challenge hostess this week over at Freshly Made Sketches is Amy O'Neill and she has a fun sketch for us to play with.  I went with an envelope instead of the banner shape in the sketch but I think it still works.

Onto a Grout Gray card panel that I'd cut with a postage edge die I used embossing paste to stencil a text-y pattern.  I thought I was using white embossing paste but this looks more translucent so maybe I grabbed the wrong jar.  

While that was drying, I die-cut lots of flowers and foliage in new Spellbinders colours as well as the sentiment and a white envelope.  I arranged the elements into a pleasing patter and adhered it to the stenciled panel with foam tape. 

I didn't add any other embellishments, leaving it somewhat clean.

Thanks for visiting.  Please check out the fabulous cards made by the rest of the design team.

Products used: 

Cardstock:  White, Grout Gray (MFT), Coral, Bellini, Mint, Fern (Spellbinders)

Dies:  Paper Goods (MFT), Postage Edge Rectangles, Bouquet of Flowers, Just For You Corner (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Book stencil (Stamperia), White Embossing Paste

Cheers

Karren

Spring Bouquet

Hi!  It's time for the April challenge over at The Flower Challenge and this time we're asking for spring colours in your floral cards.  Easy, right?

 

Again, I was pressed for time.  The weekends seem to get shorter and shorter, leaving me less time to get into my craft room.  Luckily, Past Me had some already die-cut and ink-blended floral elements so this card didn't take too long to pull together.  Unfortunately, Past Me didn't record the ink colours I used but they would have been Altenew inks.

Past Me also had a panel of pale yellow cardstock that had been run through the die-cutting machine with a linen look cover plate.  I'm 99.9% sure this is a Papertrey Ink plate but I was too lazy to check! I cut an oval from the panel and adhered it to the white card base with foa tape.  I then arranged the flowers and previously hot-foiled sentiment.

I finished with some champagne drops by Pink Fresh.  

Thanks for visiting.  The DT have some gorgeous Spring-y cards so I hope you'll check them out.

Products used:

Ink:  Various Altenew inks

Cardstock:  White, Lemon Chiffon (MFT)

Dies:  Fancy Sentiment Strip BetterPress Plate and Die, Foral Spray, Garden Wreath Add-On, Essential Stylish Ovals (Spellbinders), Canvas cover plate (PTI)

Accessories:  Clear Drops: Champagne (Pink Fresh), Gold hot foil

Cheers

Karren

Leafy Cluster

 Hi and welcome!  Today's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches is from Narelle Farrugia and it played right into my current fondness of stenciling/vintage-looking cards.

Because the purpose of Freshly Made Sketches is clean cards, I didn't distress any elements but tried to give a vintage-y look with ink-blending and stamping onto Desert Storm cardstock.  The foliage is a stamp, die and stencil combo from Simon Says Stamp that I bought in the Black Friday sales but hadn't used until now.  It was quick and easy to put together.

The hot-foiled sentiment was from my already-foiled stash which seems to be my go-to lately when I'm in a time crunch with my card-making (all the time, it seems!)

Thanks for visiting.  Please head over to the challenge blog and check out the wonderful new cards made by our design team - and meet our new team member!

Products used:

Stamps:  Friendship Leafy Cluster (SSS), Vintage Ephemera, Scripted Backgrounds (WPlus9), Distressed Patterns (MFT)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K), Rocky Shore, Swamp Green, Oak Moss (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Desert Storm (Neenah), Black

Dies:  Friendship Leafy Cluster (SSS), Postal Frames (The Greetery), Hexi-Gem Sentiments Hot Foil and Die (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Friendship Leafy Cluster stencils (SSS), Gold hot foil

Cheers

Karren

Bird Birthday

 Hi!  It's time for another Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge and this time I went down the right vertical column with Patterned Paper-Birds or Chicks-Stencil to come up with this birthday card.

The card base is stenciled with a cloud stencil before adding a couple of pieces of patterned paper.  The images were stamped, Copic-coloured and die-cut.  I added them with foam tape.  Finally I stamped a birthday sentiment.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Birthday Chicks (MFT), Bubble Over (Spellbinders)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K), Versafine Onyx Black, Speckled Egg Distress Ink

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It, Homespun Gingham, Watercolor Wash Brights (MFT)

Dies:  Birthday Chicks (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, White Gel Pen, Mini Cloud Edges Stencil (MFT)

Cheers

Karren

Herbs

 Hi all and welcome!  I am the sketch hostess over at Freshly Made Sketches this week and I decided I wanted a banner in the sketch, so that's what I did.  My card is for my dad's upcoming 92nd birthday.  He loves his vegetable garden so this was as close as I could get.  He'll get a laugh out of the fact that I used "thyme" for one of my labels, given his age 😂

I die-cut all the herb elements with white cardstock expect for the bucket base.  I then ink-blended and adhered all the layers.  Once finished, I set then aside and went to work on the rest of the card.  The banner is cut from woodgrain cardstock and popped up with foam tape onto a stenciled background.  The horizontal strip is cut from the same copper foil as the herb labels.

For the oval, I stenciled over the oval lining up the stencil so it matches the card base underneath.  I finished with a pre-foiled sentiment.

Thanks for visiting.  I hope you'll check out the DT cards and have a go yourself.

Products used:

Ink:  Espresso, Limestone, Misty Sage, Mossy Meadow, Swamp Green, Oak Moss, Silver Stone, Industrial Diamond (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Milk Chocolate (MFT), Grunge & Grain patterned paper (Honey Bee Stamps), Copper Matte Foil, Silver Matte Foil

Dies:  Lovely Layers: Herb Garden (Honey Bee Stamps), Fishtail Flag Layer Stax (MFT), Essential Stylish Ovals, Everyday Sentiments II (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Copper hot foil, Daily News Coffee & Chocolate stencil (Stamperia)

Cheers

Karren

Copper Bricks

Hi and welcome!  I'm here with my card for the latest Freshly Made Sketches challenge where Cecile Ribon is our hostess.  I was absent last week but back with this card: 

Time was again short so I had to to something quick.  Washi tape foliage and a stenciled background made this card pretty easy to put together.  The stenciling was done with Lunar Paste and it has a lovely sheen to it which you can see in the second photo.

The sentiment was put in the wrong place (doh!) because I wasn't paying attention so I hope Cecile will forgive me 😁

Thanks for visiting!  The design team have some fabulous cards so I hope you'll check them out.

Products Used:

Stamps:  Written Words (Concord & 9th)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black

Cardstock:  White

Dies:  Floral Shadow (Altenew) Watercolor Wash Freeform (MFT), Written Words (Concord & 9th)

Accessories:  Teal Shadow Washi (Altenew), Copper Lunar Paste, Salvaged Brick stencil (Honey Bee Stamps)

Cheers

Karren

Sunflowers

Hi and welcome!  I've been absent from the blog for a bit because I've been busy packing up my daughter's house as it has been sold.  She has already moved to a new city for her job, so it fell mostly to myself and my husband to pack up her house.  Fun times!

Anyway, as I'm filling in at The Flower Challenge, it's time for our reminder post and the challenge this month is to add circles with your flowers.  I went the easy route with washi tape to come up with this card:

I die-cut the trio shaker circle die into a panel of Grout Gray cardstock that I'd embossed with the Subtle embossing folder.  I then added the frame to each circle and adhered some sunflower washi tape.  I stamped the sentiment onto a white panel and added that.  

 

The whole panel was then popped up with foam tape on a white card base so the white peeks through the circles.

Thanks for visiting!  Please check out the fabulous cards by the rest of the design team and don't forget we have some prizes this month!

Products used:

Stamps:  Sunflowers (Pink Fresh Studio)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black

Cardstock:  White, Grout Gray (MFT)

Dies:  Circle Trio Shaker (MFT), Sunflowers (Pink Fresh Studio)

Accessories:  Sunflowers Washi (Pink Fresh Studio), Subtle EF (SU)

Cheers

Karren

Blended Circles

 Hi and welcome! Our sketch hostess this week at Freshly Made Sketches is Kim Singdahlsen and while I missed a couple of layers, I stuck pretty close to the sketch.

I stenciled onto the white card base with embossing paste and once that was dry, I used a circle stencil and some distress inks to ink-blend through the stencil. Once finished, I took a damp paper towel and rubbed over the ink to reveal the white stenciling.

I finished with a new stamp and die set for the sentiment that I did a bit of ink-blending on, and some black enamel dots for a bit of drama.

Thanks for visiting. Please check out the wonderful cards made by the rest of the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Written Words (C+9)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey Distress Inks

Cardstock: White

Dies:  Written Words (C+9)

Accessories:  Masking Circles (Taylored Expressions), Daily News: Coffee & Chocolate (Stamperia), White Embossing Paste, Clear Embossing Powder, Black Enamel Dots

Cheers

Karren

Circle Flowers

 Hi all!  A surprise post from me today.  As some of you know, I administer The Flower Challenge blog and due to injury within our design team, I am stepping in to fill the gap for the next few months.  This month's challenge is to Add Circles and because it's our 100th challenge, some of the design team have prizes on offer, so I urge you to head over to the challenge and check it out.

My card is fairly simple.  A tone-on-tone stenciled background (which includes some circle shapes); a die-cut and stacked circle frame and a small floral arrangement.  The flowers and leaves were left over from a previous card so all I had to do was arrange them.

I finished with a sympathy sentiment and some matching pearls.  

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Assorted Greetings (Gina K.)

Ink:  Limestone, Industrial Diamond, Eucalyptus, Pastel Sunrise, Coral Bliss (Altenew)

Cardstock:  Jellybean Green (MFT), Soft Stone (PTI), Steel Gray, Coral Crush, Peach Bellini (MFT), Ocean Tides (PTI)

Dies:  Circle Loops (SSS), Be Bold Blooms (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Geometric Grid Stencil (Aall & Create), Pastel Pearls (Honey Bee Stamps)

Cheers

Karren

Yellow Flowers

Welcome to the latest challenge from the Tic-Tac-Toe team. I designed the board for this challenge.  I went right column with Thinking Of You - Foliage - Die Cuts to come up with this card.

I stamped and stenciled the image then die-cut it using the co-ordinating die.  I also die-cut the square out of the centre. I added some additional colour to the flowers and leaves with Copic markers.  After stamping the sentiment, I die-cut that as well.  

Onto a Lemon Tart card base which I'd embossed with the Subtle embossing folder, I added the focal image and sentiment with foam tape.  I finished with some yellow enamel dots.

Thanks for visiting!  I hope you'll join us!

Products used:

Stamps:  Squared Spring Florals (Honey Bee Stamps)

Ink:  Memento London Fog, Versafine Onyx Black, Moon Rock, Misty Sage, Mossy Meadow, Buttercream, Warm Sunshine, Fresh Lemon (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Lemon Tart (PTI)

Dies:  Squared Spring Florals (Honey Bee Stamps)

Accessories:  Subtle EF (SU), Copics, Enamel Dots

Cheers

Karren

 

Except Young Again...

 Hi and welcome!  Linda Callahan is our sketch hostess over at Freshly Made Sketches and, knowing her as I do, I think she'll get a laugh out of the sentiment on my card.

Now, before I start, yes my card is flipped and the reason is solely because I must have turned my die-cut panel upside down before working on the rest my card.  Doh!  

To make my card, I took a panel of freebie patterned paper and adhered it to a white card base.  I then took a word window die and die-cut three openings to (originally) match the sketch out of a panel of Coral Crush cardstock.  I then lined up the sentiment stamps with the openings and stamped them onto the patterned paper.

I wanted to add some drama so added slim strips of black to peek out from each opening.  I then spattered on some white ink and some gold ink before adhering the panels together.  In hindsight, I sort of wish I didn't do the spattering, but too late now. Finally I finished with some enamel dots and a heart.  I like the serious look of the sentiment and then there's the last line...

Thanks for visiting.  Please check out the wonderful cards made by the rest of the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Mini Messages: Sassy Birthday (Honey Bee Stamps)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black

Cardstock:  White, Black, Coral Crush (MFT) Freebie patterned paper

Dies:  Stitched Rectangle Word Window (MFT)

Accessories:  Black enamel dots, Gold Shimmer Spray (Heidi Swapp), Unicorn White Ink Spray (Hero Arts)