New York City

Hi!  I'm sneaking in a card for a couple of challenges before my Paper Players DT post goes live in a few hours.

This card was made for the Sunset color theme challenge at Less is More, as well as the Something Old, Something New challenge at Sweet Stampin' Challenge and the Vintage cue word at CASology.

The "something old" for Sweet Stampin' and "vintage" for CASology comes from this stamp.  In today's world of monthly stamp releases and our demands for new! new! new! this stamp is positively vintage as I've had it for at least 12 years!  It was manufactured by a wonderful stamp company called PSX who are no longer in business but have some of the best stamps ever!

Now don't get me wrong, I love new and regularly have new schtuff winging its way to my house, but I still love some of these older images and this one in particular.

I stamped the image in black and clear embossed it before sponging on Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade and my "something new" Abandoned Coral distress inks.  Once I was happy with the blending, I cut the image out. I then took a piece of card, 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" and cut a vertical panel out of it, over which I adhered the New York City image.  The top-folding card base was sponged with the same colors in the same area as the cut-out in the top panel is.  

I used foam tape to adhere the panel to the card base.

Thanks for visiting.  It was fun pulling out this old image and getting it inky again.

Products used:

Stamps:  K3156 PXS from The Montage Collection
Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade, Abandoned Coral (Distress)
Cardstock:  White
Accessories:  Clear EP

Cheers
Karren

Edited to Add:  This card was chosen at Sweet Stampin' Challenge.

Clean Color Flowers

Hi and welcome to Freshly Made Sketches Challenge Day.  I want to thank everyone who took the time last week to play along with my sketch.  The gallery was beautiful!

This week our hostess is my closest team neighbor - the wonderfully talented Narelle.  She lives a mere 1,494 miles away!   Here's her sketch:

And here's my card:

This flower is my second attempt with the Zig Kuretake Clean Color Real Brush Pens .  My first attempt was using Wink of Stella as the blending medium and I just couldn't get it to blend, so I resorted to a water brush and had better luck.  I didn't try too hard to get my shading right, putting the color in the center of the flower and pulling it out with the water brush.  

The background is stenciled with embossing paste colored with Squeezed Lemonade ink.  The tag was cut from Lemon Chiffon cardstock and the sentiment was stamped and cut out before being mounted on foam tape.

Thanks for visiting.  The design team have some amazing cards using this sketch so be sure to check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Fresh Flowers (Clearly Besotted), Label Love (Altenew)
Ink:  Archival Black, Squeezed Lemonade
Cardstock:  White, Lemon Chiffon (SSS), watercolor paper
Accessories:  Blueprints 21 (MFT), Stitched Tags (MFT), Fresh Flowers die (CB), embossing paste, Concentric Circles stencil (MFT), Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens

Cheers
Karren

Silver Poinsettia

It's time for another Merry Monday challenge and this week our hostess, Kathy, is asking for some sparkle and shine on our cards.

For my card, I was inspired by the challenge at Time Out, which is to CASE with a twist a card made by the superbly talented Deepti.  

From Deepti's beautiful card, I took the basic layout as well as the patterned top layer and black base.  My twist is that I made my card a Christmas card and used a die for the curve rather than a torn edge.  I also went with silver embossing powder rather than a white chalkboard look.

I stamped the Penny Black background stamp onto some Smoky Slate cardstock using Gray Flannel ink.  I then die-cut the curve.  I also die-cut a curve of silver glitter paper and layered that underneath.

The poinsettia and sentiment were silver embossed onto the black card base.  

All in all, a pretty simple card with hopefully enough sparkle and shine!

Thanks for visiting.  Be sure to check out the sparkle at the Merry Monday blog and see what my teamies created for this challenge.

Products used:

Stamps:  Poinsettia Script (Penny Black), Peace Poinsettias (Hero Arts), Freshly Fallen (PTI)
Ink:  Versamark, Memento Gray Flannel
Cardstock:  Black, Smoky Slate, Silver Glitter
Accessories:  Silver EP, A2 Curved Die (SSS)

Cheers
Karren

Gnome Friends

Hi and welcome to my blog.  It's Monday here and normally I would be at work, but today we celebrate the Queen's Birthday so I get a day off - yay!  What better way to spend it than making a card.

I made this card for the Friday Mashup challenge, to use watercolors and also the sketch from Retro Sketches.

Once again, I used the adorable You Gnome Me set from My Favorite Things.  In my eternal quest for find the perfect tools to make watercoloring easier for me, I succumbed to temptation and bought some Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens. This is my third attempt with them.  My first attempt won't make it onto a card and my second attempt will feature later in the week on a DT card.

I struggled a bit with the red on the gnome - it kept wanting to spread everywhere.  But I have that problem with red Copics too - what is it with reds???  I'm pretty pleased with how much easier these are than normal watercolor paints, though, so for me I think they're a good investment.  

Once I had the images colored, I cut them out.  The background was sponged with Distress Inks and adhered to a Desert Storm cardbase.  I then stamped the sentiment down the side.  The gnome and the toadstools were adhered using foam tape as were the clouds.  I then drew some grass with a Copic Multi-liner pen to ground the images.

Here's a close-up where you can see the problems I had coloring the gnome.  I did think about not putting up this photo, but hey, we all have to start somewhere, right :)

Thanks for visiting.  

Create a project with "Watercoloring".

Create a project using "the Sketch"

or Mash it Up! and create a "Watercolored Project using the Sketch".

Products used:

Stamps:  You Gnome Me (My Favorite Things)

Ink:  Archival Black, Tumbled Glass, Peeled Paint

Cardstock:  Watercolor, white, Desert Storm

Accessories:  Zig Real Brush Pens, Flat Bottom Clouds die (MFT), Copic Multi-liner Pen

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got top honors at Friday Mashup.

Happy Smooshing

Hi and welcome!  It's time for another challenge from The Paper Players and this week Laurie has a fun tic-tac-toe challenge for us.

I went with the top row, which was surprising as I never really got into washi tape and only have a few rolls.  I combined my card with both the inspiration pic and the sketch at Fusion Card Challenge.

I went with the fun technique of ink smooshing again - this time using Peacock Feathers and Squeezed Lemonade ink.  Once I was happy with the smooshed panel, I dried it with my heat tool then stamped the sentiment in Archival Black.

I adhered some light gray washi tape to represent the banners in the sketch and a couple of staples.  In keeping with the Paper Players challenge, I also used some blue sequins.

For the card base, I sponged Peacock Feathers ink around the edges of a white card to match the smooshing.

Thanks for visiting and head on over to The Paper Players to see which options the rest of the amazing design team have used.

Products used:

Stamps:  The Big, the Bold and the Happy (Winner & Walter)

Ink:  Archival Black, Peacock Feather, Squeezed Lemonade

Cardstock:  White, watercolor 

Accessories:  Washi Tape, sequins, Blueprints 21 (MFT)

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Fusion Card Challenge.

Coffee?

It's time for another fabulous challenge at Freshly Made Sketches and this week it's my turn to be hostess!  I came up with a simple sketch that is open to interpretation.  In fact, my own card doesn't completely match the sketch - but that's what makes the whole challenge game fun, right?

When I designed the sketch some weeks ago, I had planned on putting a row of flowers along the bottom.  Somewhere along the way, my flowers changed to a coffee cup...

I started with a white card base (as always, it seems!) and stamped the coffee circle stamp using Memento Toffee Crunch ink.  I die cut the coffee cup using Desert Storm, Very Vanilla and a watercolored piece I had on my desk from another card.  I shaped the coffee cup and lightly sponged the sides to give dimension.  The center of the cup is popped up on two layers of foam tape and the sides only one.  

I hunted for a sentiment that was small enough to fit on the panel along with the coffee cup and found this one from PTI.  However, the bottom looked bare so I carefully lined up the square panel with the coffee circle and over-stamped to get some of the coffee circle on the sentiment panel. 

No embellishments on this card as it's probably destined for a male.

I'm entering this into Seize the Birthday's Anything Goes Challenge.

Thanks for visiting.  Please check out the rest of the design team's fabulous inspiration and I hope you'll find time to have a go.

Products used:

Stamps:  Communique Curves (PTI), Inkadinkado 97100

Ink:  Memento Toffee Crunch,  Dark Chocolate (SSS)

Cardstock: White, black, Desert Storm, Very Vanilla, Watercolor

Accessories:  Coffee Cup die (MFT), Lil' Inkers Stitched Square dies, water color paints

Cheers

Karren

Newsprint Christmas

It's time for another Christmas card, courtesy of Merry Monday.  This week, I am the hostess and I've chosen the theme of newsprint.

I love the look of newsprint on cards, so when I saw this photo on Pinterest, I knew it was going to become my challenge.

For my card, I again went CAS, which seems to be my go-to style lately as my card-making time gets condensed.

I die cut a circle mask and placed that over my card base.  I then stamped SU's Dictionary stamp inside the mask with Fog ink and lightly sponged from the outside in to define the circle more.

After that, it was a simple job to die cut a sentiment, color it with Wink of Stella and stick on a few enamel dots.

Thanks for visiting.  I hope you'll find time to join in my challenge.  The rest of the design team have some wonderful and varied uses of the theme in their cards, so be sure to check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Dictionary (SU)

Ink:  Fog (SSS)

Cardstock:  White, Green Apple (SSS)

Accessories:  Wet Paint Holiday dies (PTI), Enamel Dots

Cheers

Karren