Tartan Birthday

Welcome to another challenge from the team at Fusion.

For my card, I stuck with the neutral colors but pulled in the teal that looks to be around the blind on the window.

This is a new-to-me stamp set from Altenew called Tartan and it was fun to work with.  I used Altnew inks and then die-cut a thin frame from the centre for added interest.  The centre piece is popped up on foam tape.  

For the sentiment, I white-embossed the "It's Your" and then stacked the "birthday" letters three high so they stood out from the background more.  It was a fiddly job, but worth it.

Thanks for visiting!  I hope you'll check out what the DT have done with the challenge.

Products used:

Stamps:  Tartan (Altenew), Yay For You (MFT)

Ink:  Versamark, Limestone, Silverstone, Industrial Diamond, Pure Graphite, Dew Drops, Aqualicious (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Black, Fog (SSS)

Dies:  A2 Thin Frames (SSS), Urban Alpha Upper (Memory Box)

Accessories:  White EP, Enamel Dots

Cheers

Karren

Bright Hello

It's time for another challenge from Freshly Made Sketches and this week our hostess is Kim Singdahlsen and she has a wonderful sketch for us.

This card took a very circuitous route but here is what I ended up with.

I let the die-cuts and the patterned paper do all the hard work and just added an embossed sentiment in a fun font to give the card an upbeat and fun tone.

The floral die-cut is a new-to-me die by Simon Says Stamp.  I did originally intend to piece it together with different colors to differentiate the flowers from leaves, but that was just too hard so it is what it is!

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Sentiment Sampler (Paper Smooches)
Ink:  Versamark
Cardstock:  Smooth White, Limelight, Party Patterns (MFT)
Dies:  Stitched Dome Frames, Slanted Sentiment Strips (MFT), Flower Cluster (SSS)
Accessories:  Melon Mambo EP (SU), Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen

Cheers
Karren

Audrey

Welcome!  It's time for another sketch from the team at Freshly Made Sketches and this week our hostess is Linda Callahan.

I colored!  After looking at my little chef from last week which was colored an age ago, I decided I wanted to try some coloring again.  So this weekend, I sat down with the intention of coloring something simple and this was the result.

My coloring skills are definitely rusty and I deliberately chose something that would be easy to color but overall, I'm happy with the result.  I hope it's opened the door to more coloring.

The card is pretty self-explanatory.  The striped pattern and Audrey are popped up on foam tape and the sentiment (which I love!) is stamped onto the card base.  I finished with some baker's twine and some raindrops.

Thanks for visiting.  I hope you'll head over to the challenge blog and check out the fabulous cards made by the rest of the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Uptown Girl Audrey Loves Makeup (Stamping Bella)
Ink:  Amalgam, Obsidian
Cardstock:  White, X-Press It, Black & White Stripes (MFT)
Accessories:  Copics, Raindrops (PTI), Baker's Twine

Cheers
Karren

Love Plaid

Hi!  I'm here with a card for the latest challenge over at Fusion. 

This week I played with the photo only, focusing on the red/black gingham, the hearts and the cream background.

I embossed the Picnic Blanket BG stamp onto Cherry Crisp cardstock using Black Sparkle Embossing Powder.  The heart die was die-cut from a panel of cream cardstock and I used foam tape to adhere the embossed panel behind it.  

The sentiment was also die-cut and added to the card front.  This was then all adhered to a side-folding card base.  I finished off with some sequins from an old My Monthly Hero kit.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Picnic Blanket (Hero Arts)
Ink:  Versamark
Cardstock:  Cream (SSS), Black Licorice, Cherry Crisp (MFT)
Dies:  Vertical Hearts Channel (Poppy Stamps), Simply Hello & Love You (MFT)
Accessories:  Black Sparkle EP (Ranger), Sequins (Hero Arts)

Cheers
Karren 

Souper Cool

Hi and welcome to another challenge from the team at Freshly Made Sketches.  Jen Mitchell is this week's hostess and here is her sketch:

For some reason I really struggled with Jen's sketch - nothing wrong with the sketch, it was the card-maker who wasn't in the zone!  In the end, I went through my stamp sets looking for pre-coloured images that I could use and came up with this card - not a favourite but it'll do.

I think I've mentioned here on my blog that since losing my son in June, I've really struggled with both card-making and coloring - both of these things should be therapeutic but my mind just can't focus for long enough to make it enjoyable.  I tried doing some Copic coloring over the Christmas break and gave up after an hour or so.  I truly hope that one day the pleasure I got from card-making and coloring will come back and I can enjoy it again.  So, in my desire for a colored image, I found one that I colored way back when this stamp set first came out.

Because this was colored so long ago, I can't tell you what Copics I used, sorry.  For the square panel, I clear embossed some of the smaller images from the set and quickly colored them with a cream Prismacolor pencil before die-cutting with an embossed edge die.  I die-cut another panel from Banana Split cardstock to match the image and offset that behind the Blueberry panel.

I gave the chef a sentiment to stand on to ground him somewhat.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Recipe for Happiness (MFT)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Versamark, Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink

Cardstock:  White, Blueberry, Banana Split (MFT), X-Press It

Dies:  Recipe for Happiness (MFT), Embossed Edge Squares (Kat Scrappiness)

Accessories:  Copics, Prismacolor Pencil, Clear EP

Cheers

Karren

Love You. Mean It.

Today's Freshly Made Sketch was designed by Jennifer Timko and it's a versatile one:

I didn't have a lot of motivation when I sat down to make my card, so pulled out an alcohol-inked piece of Yupo and designed my card around that.

The piece of Yupo was adhered to a white square card base.  I then cut a slightly smaller square panel and die-cut the mandala die from the centre.  I also die-cut it and additional two times from white card and once from silver sparkle paper.  I added the negative panel to the card base with foam tape, then sprayed the mandala with adhesive and added that in the gap.

The sentiment is white-embossed onto black and underneath it I added a scrap of the Yupo paper.  All very simple.

Thanks for visiting.  I hope you'll check out the wonderful cards made by the rest of the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Essential Sentiments (MFT)

Ink:  Versamark, Alcohol Inks

Cardstock:  White, Black, Silver Sparkle (MFT), Yupo

Dies:  Magical Mandala (MFT)

Accessories:  White EP

Cheers

Karren

Congrats

It's time for another Fusion challenge and here are the details.

I played with the sketch this time and used the green from the photo to come up with this card.

I used a stencil and some glitter paste to create the mandala.  While it was drying, I stamped and die-cut the sentiment and embossed the second part of the sentiment onto a strip of black cardstock.

I finished the card with some irridescent crystals.

Thanks for visiting.  The DT have created some great cards using the challenge so I hope you'll check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Congrats All Round (Mama Elephant)
Ink:  Obsidian (Altenew), Versamark
Cardstock:  White, Black
Dies:  Congrats (Mama Elephant), Stitched Rectangle Stax (MFT)
Accessories:  Seafoam Glitter Paste (BoBunny), Captivating Mandala Stencil (MFT), Irridescent Crystals (Studio Katya)

Cheers
Karren