Birthday Letter

Hi and welcome!  It's a long weekend here in New Zealand as it is our national holiday today, Waitangi Day.  I took some time to make a card for some challenges.  I'm so happy that MFT Stamps have started up their card challenges so I had to play along with the first challenge, which is a sketch.  Even though MFT Stamps has closed its shop doors, I will continue to use their products, partly because I have more MFT in my craft room than anything else, but also because I love their products.  

I am also playing along with the hearts die challenge at Just Us Girls, the birthday challenge at Krafty Chicks and the pink and red challenge at Color Hues. 

All the stamps and dies on this card are MFT Stamps.  I started by making the little envelope and letter and then I found an already coloured hand so had to incorporate that.  I adhered it all to a vellum pierced heart die and set it aside.  The pink background was stamped with the Romantic Script background stamp using pink ink.  

Onto a white card base, I embossed the bottom portion with the Subtle embossing folder and then added the pink panel.  I put some liquid glue behind the vellum where it wouldn't show and added that.

Finally I white heat embossed the sentiment and adhered that, making sure it covered up the edge of the hand so it wasn't floating in mid-air 😄.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps: Romantic Script, Mini Messages & More, Bitty Birthday Wishes (MFT)

Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Versamark, Dusty Pink (Altenew)

Cardstock: White, Black, Vellum, Blush, Dahlia (Spellbinders), red scrap

Dies: Paper Goods, Crafty Hands, Pierced Heart Stax (MFT)

Accessories:  White EP, Copics, Subtle Embossing Folder (SU)

Cheers

Karren

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Edited to Add: This card got a shout out at Card Challenges (MFT) and Color Hues.

Bluebird

Hi and welcome!  I'm trying to spend more time in my craft room this year to try and bring back some of the joy in the hobby that disappeared when my son passed in 2019.  Today, I made a card for a few challenges, which I used to do every week, but now do so very rarely.  This card is for Addicted to Stamps & More (Any Occasion), Time Out Challenges Favourite Technique (stenciling and ink-blending), Krafty Chicks Masculine Challenge and Just Us Girls Stencil Challenge.

Any New Zealanders reading this post will hopefully recognise my inspiration for this Valentine card for my husband.  For those that don't recognise it, this is a play on one of the most popular potato chip brands (see photo of packet below).  He loves potato chips so buying this die and stencil set from Hero Arts was a no-brainer.  I die-cut the elements from white cardstock and used Distress Inks to colour them.  I went looking through my stash for a penguin and did some masking to remove the cocktail glass this one was holding up.  I then filled in the gap with a black Copic pen (although in hindsight I didn't need to because the chip covered it up anyway).

I took the "originals" from the chip pack and added the sentiment (although I wish I had white-embossed it now, but never mind).  

On the card base, I stenciled over the Geo Leaves stencil with Distress Grit Paste and once dry I assembled all the elements.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps: Penguins In Paradise, Be Original (MFT), Peony Memories (The Ton)

Ink: Amalgam (Gina K), Scattered Straw, Fossilized Amber, Tea Dye, Blueprint Sketch, Chipped Sapphire, Fired Brick, Festive Berries Distress Inks

Cardstock: White, X-Press It

Dies: Snack Attack (Hero Arts), Penguins In Paradise (MFT)

Accessories: Geo Leaves stencil (SSS), Distress Grit Paste, Copics

Cheers

Karren

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Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Just Us Girls and Krafty Chicks

Bokeh Rose

Hi and welcome!  I am the sketch hostess this week over at Freshly Made Sketches and I have to admit I made the sketch fit this card that I had made some months ago and never posted!

I used pink, yellow and peachy inks to create a blended background and then went over it with a bokeh stencil to create a soft-looking background.  I then die-cut an arch frame from white cardstock and adhered that to the base.

For the rose, I started with white cardstock and ink-blended the same colours onto the various layers, adding greens for the stems.  When I was assembling the rose, I used foam tape in between each of the layers for added dimension.

I finished with a simple gold hot-foiled birthday sentiment.

Thanks so much for visiting.  I hope you'll check out the way the rest of the design team have used my sketch.

I'm linking this card up to the Anything Goes Die Challenge at Just Us Girls as well as the Mark Your Mark challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More (ink-blending on background and rose).

Products used:

Ink:  Pinkalicious, Warm Sunshine, Caramel Toffee, Buttercream, Mossy Meadow, Misty Sage, Green Opal (Altenew), Unicorn White (Hero Arts)

Cardstock:  White, Black, Bristol Smooth

Dies:  Lovely Layers: Rose (Honey Bee Stamps), A2 Arches (The Greetery), Hexi-Gem Sentiments Hot Foil  (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Bokeh Stencil (Taylored Expressions), Gold Hot Foil

Cheers

Karren

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Edited to Add:  This card got a shout-out at Just Us Girls and Addicted to Stamps and More.

Do Not Adjust Your Set

Hi and welcome!  Today is my last day of my holiday break and I'm back at work on Monday.  Today is also the first chance I've had to make a card just for fun.  The Honey Bee Stamps Buzzworthy Challenge FB group is asking us to recreate a favourite card from 2024 using Honey Bee Stamps products.  My card I chose is this one from February 2024. To be honest, I wouldn't call it my favourite because it's got colours that really make my eye twitch (magenta and fuschia are not my favourite colours!) but I like the layout and the stripes as well as the die so I decided to recreate it using the absence of colour - which corresponded with the current challenge at Color Throwdown.  As it also predominately uses dies, I'm also linking up to Just Us Girls die challenge.

 

I cut strips of cardstock in various shades of gray and also black and adhered them onto some double-sided adhesive paper.  Onto a white card base I stenciled over the Salvaged Brick stencil with white embossing paste and set it aside to dry.  I then created the cherry blossom using the same gray cardstocks as the strips.  I added a touch of gray shading where I thought it was needed and finished with a liberal spritz of shimmer spray to feminise it a bit.

The sentiment was stamped and die-cut and added to a Soft Stone die-cut circle.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  On The Line - Succulents (Honey Bee Stamps)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Morning Frost (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Black, Soft Stone (PTI), Cement Gray, Gravel Gray, Steel Gray (MFT)

Dies:  Cherry Blossom, On The Line - Succulents (Honey Bee Stamps)

Accessories:  Salvaged Brick Stencil (Honey Bee Stamps), Embossing Paste, Shimmer Spray

Cheers

Karren

Oak Note

Welcome!  Today is the last day of my time off work so I've been trying to spend as much time in my craft room as possible the last couple of days.  As well as making a couple of cards for upcoming design team challenges, I also found the time to make a card for some current challenges.  This card uses the sketch at Paper Players as well as the mood board at Just Us Girls.

This card involved a lot of messy play and it was great!  I found a panel of cardstock I'd spritzed with mica sprays last year (using the Halloween 2022 collection).  I wanted to brighten the panel a bit so I added a few yellows and oranges and set it aside to dry.  For the background panel, I ink-blended some Distress Oxide inks and die-cut with the Shiplap Builder die before adding Vintage Photo DOX to the edges of each die-cut.  I adhered all the individual elements to a panel of photocopy paper and then die-cut with a stitched rectangle die.

The kraft panel was embossed with a brick embossing folder after being die-cut with a smaller stitched rectangle die.

Once the mica panel was dry, I die-cut it with the shadow layer of the Oak Leaf die then cut the inner with black cardstock.  The sentiment was die-cut from white and black and adhered together, then it was just a matter of assembly.

Thanks so much for visiting.

Products used:

Ink:  Antique Linen, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo Distress Oxide Inks

Cardstock:  White, Black, Neenah Desert Storm

Dies:  Oak Leaf (Neat & Tangled), Stitched Rectangle Stax (MFT), Shiplap Builder (The Greetery), Just a Note Posh Script (Memory Box)

Accessories:  Brick Embossing Folder (Tim Holtz), various Mica Stain Sprays

Cheers

Karren

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

Perfect Time

Hi and welcome!  I'm at the start of a week off work and have great plans of spending time in my craft room.  Maybe not as much time as I had planned when I first booked the leave, because our daughter has gone and got herself a Spoodle puppy, so I'm a fur-grandma and the fur-baby spends a bit of time at our place.  As she's only just 3 months old, she can't be left unattended outside of her crate, so babysitting it is 😄  She's pretty cute though, but with our Dexter being 12, I had forgtten how boisterous and nippy little puppies are.  Here's a photo of mother and puppy on the day she brought her home.

Anyway, onto my card.  I made this card for the challenges at Paper Players (CAS Signs of Autumn), Just Us Girls (Pumpkin), Sweet Stampers (plaid-gingham-tartan) and Sunday Stamps (sketch).

I hope this is CAS enough for The Paper Players.  I tried to keep it clean lined, even though there's not a huge amount of white space.  I started by stamping the background and creating a mask which I used to ink-blend the sky and grass.  I then splattered ink and white gloss paing onto the background, while keeping the various masks in place during each step.  I coloured the tree and bushes and die-cut with a rectangle die.

for the central image, I stamped, Copic-coloured and fussy cut each image.  I also stamped onto some patterned paper and fussy cuty for some paper piecing detail.

I positioned the pumpkins and adhered with liquid glue and added a bit of gray shading.  The little girl was popped up with foam tape and I also added some gray shading to ground her.  The sentiment was white-embossed onto black.

Thanks so much for visiting.  It was so nice to stamp just for fun and not for DT commitments.  Here's hoping I can keep it up for the rest of the week.

Products used:

Stamps:  Fall Friends, Scene Builder (MFT)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K.), Peeled Paint, Tumbled Glass, Broken China Distress Inks

Cardstock:  White, Black, X-Press It, Plaid Patterned Paper (MFT)

Dies:  Rectangle Stax (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, White Gloss Spray

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout-out at The Paper Players, Sweet Stampin' and Sunday Stamps

Triple Hello

 Hi all!  Today's sketch from Freshly Made Sketches was designed by Kim Singdahlsen and I veered off track a tad to come up with this card.

I stenciled onto a white card base with some embossing paste and the Geo Leaves stencil.  While that was drying, I stamped and cut out the images then added some ink onto white cardstock to cut out the Hello die in three difference colours.

Finally, I arranged it all, adhered it to the card base and called it done.

Thanks for visiting.  I'm linking this up to the Hello challenge at Just Us Girls.

Products used:

Stamps:  Lemon Blossom (The Greetery)

Ink:  Pixie Dust, Sixteen Candles, Grape Crush, Sage, Spruce, Chiffon, Lemoncello (Catherine Pooler)

Cardstock:  White

Dies:  Hello Poe Script (Poppy Stamps)

Accessories:  Geo Leaves Stencil (SSS), White Embossing Paste

Cheers

Karren

Latte

 Hi and welcome!  Jennifer Timko is this week's sketch hostess at Freshly Made Sketches and her sketch allows for lots of creativity.  I went a bit rogue with her sketch but I think you can still see it, sort of 😄

This card is a 180 from what I had planned, which involved sunflowers, but I am quite pleased with how it turned out.  The coffee and hand had already been made over my Christmas break, so once I had the idea, the card didn't take too long to come together.  

I stamped the Notebook Paper background stamp onto white cardstock then die-cut it with the Notebook Edge die.  I stamped the sentiment in Versafine Onyx Black and adhered it to a white card base with foam tape.

I added the cup and hand and called it done.  My "latte" looks a bit suspect - I was trying to get the milky coffee look but failed miserably.  Never mind, I'd drink it 😆

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

I'm adding this to the current challenge at Just Us Girls with their fabulous moodboard.

Products used:

Stamps:  Notebook Paper Background, Mini Messages & More (MFT)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Misty Morning (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Kraft, Cherry Crisp (MFT), X-Press It, Silver Matte Foil

Dies;  Notebook Edge, Creature Comforts, Crafty Hands (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, white gel pen

Cheers

Karren

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

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