Friday, 11 September 2026

Good Things

It's time for another challenger over at Tic Tac Toe and this time I went down the left column:  Woodgrain/Ink-blending/Metal Embellishment.


The woodgrain came from a Tim Holtz live that I watched and had to immediately order and replicate.   I had it sitting in the embossing folder waiting for the time to use it and so this card was fairly easy to pull together.  

I used Stamperia Gardens of Time patterned paper and ephemera for the rest of the card.  The tag was die-cut twice and stacked, slightly offset.  I also added some screw head brads for the metal element.

On all the pieces, except the ephemera, I added some ink-blending with Walnut Stain distress ink.


Thanks for visiting!





Products used:

Ink: Walnut Stain Distress Ink
Cardstock:Dark Chocolate (Altenew), Gardens of Time Junk Journal and patterned paper (Stamperia)
Dies: Tag Sale #5 (PTI)
Accessories: Screw head brads, baker's twine, Lumber EF (Tim Holtz)

Cheers
Karren

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Thursday, 10 September 2026

Focus

Hi all and thanks for dropping by.  I am the sketch hostess this week over at Freshly Made Sketches and, fair to say, my card is nothing like I imagined when I designed the sketch!  


This die set was in my NBUS box.  I had placed quite a few orders that didn't arrive until after my husband passed, so they sat untouched for several weeks before I felt up to organising them.  Slowly, I am starting to use them and I thought the sketch would work for this die set.

Onto a Velvet card panel, I stenciled with some coloured grit paste and a text-y stencil.  While that was drying, I set about making the View-Master reel.  I die-cut the reel from Desert Storm cardstock and a black base, then die-cut individual images from patterned paper.  The sentiment was embossed with embossing glaze and die-cut before being added to the centre of the reel.


I did add some light ink-blending around the outside of the reel to age it a bit.

The film strips were die-cut with black and haphazardly placed onto the stenciled panel to sort-of mimic the sketch.  I added the reel with foam tape and called it done.


Thanks so much for visiting.  I hope you'll play along.  Make sure you check out how the rest of the DT have interpreted the sketch.










Products used:

Stamps: Be Your Beautiful Self (SSS)
Ink: Versamark, Frayed Burlap Distress Ink
Cardstock: Black, Desert Storm, Velvet (Altenew), Curated Palette Collection (Tim Holtz)
Dies: Vault Picture Show (Tim Holtz), Artful Palette (SSS)
Accessories: 755 Street stencil (13@rts), Distress Grit Paste, Aged Mahogany Distress Spray Stain

Cheers
Karren

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Thursday, 3 September 2026

Columbine

Hi and welcome!  I'm here with a card for today's Freshly Made Sketches challenge where our hostess this week is Narelle Farrugia.  I decided to use a NBUS die set to make this card.


This die set has a matching stamp set and cleverly, there are three separate floral die sets that work with the same stamp set, so of course I had to buy all three!  I created the flowers, adding the stamped portions as well as some light ink-blending.  I then used a stylus tool to provide a bit of shape to the various pieces. 


The background die is also NBUS and I stacked it two high to give a bit more dimension.  The foiled sentiment was already made so I just had to adhere it to the card and call it done.

Thanks for visiting! Please check out the fabulous cards made by the rest of the design team - most of which seemed to have a floral thing going!





Products used:

Stamps: Flower Centres 3 (Elizabeth Craft Design)
Ink: Alpine Aster, Crystal Violet, Indigo Skies, Parrot, Maple Yellow (Altenew)
Cardstock: White, Sour Apple, Daffodil, Wild Wisteria, Purple Rain (MFT)
Dies: Columbine (Elizabeth Craft Design), Decorative Lattice, Hexi-Gem Sentiments hot foil (Spellbinders)
Accessories: Copper hot foil

Cheers
Karren

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Thursday, 27 August 2026

Hydrangea Love

Today's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches was designed by Michele Ferguson, and in a turn-up for the books, I actually mostly stuck to the sketch!  The last couple of weeks I've worked from memory and mis-sized elements or missed layers altogether!

In fact when I saw the sketch, I knew exactly what products would work for it.  I had bought this Stamperia die set a couple of months ago, but hadn't used it yet, so the notebook edge, torn rectangle and flowers worked perfectly.


I used watercolour paper and smooshed distress inks to colour the flowers and leaves, then set them aside to dry.  Once dry, I spritzed with distress spritz and again left to dry.  After that, I die-cut the flowers and leaves and ink-blended around the edges.  The rectangle panel was die-cut from patterned paper and ink-blended around the edges with Frayed Burlap distress ink.  For the notebook paper, I stamped onto white cardstock with both the notebook stamp and a crackle stamp. After die-cutting, I went over the panel with Antique Linen distress ink to age it up a bit.


The Good Reading BG stamp was stamped onto Desert Storm cardstock with Frayed Burlap DOX and then ink-blended around the edges before splattering with some Tarnished Brass Distress Spray Stain.

I finished with a pre-foiled sentiment and some blue pearls in the centres of the flowers.

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






Products used:

Stamps: Good Reading BG, Crackle BG (SSS), Notebook Paper (MFT)
Ink: Frayed Burlap, Antique Linen, Peeled Paint, Bundled Sage, Rustic Wilderness, Salvaged Patina, Broken China, Uncharted Mariner Distress Inks, Broken China, Lost Shadow, Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide Inks
Cardstock: White, Desert Storm, watercolour, Traces of Time patterned paper (Aall & Create)
Dies: Notes & Flowers (Stamperia), Essential Sentiments II (Spellbinders)
Accessories: Sweet & Spooky Pearls (Honey Bee Stamps), Gold hot foil, Tarnished Brass Distress Spray Stain, Uncharted Mariner and Rustic Wilderness Distress Spritz

Cheers
Karren

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Thursday, 20 August 2026

Strawberry Thanks

Hi and welcome to another sketch from the team at Freshly Made Sketches where our hostess this week is  Cecile Ribon.

I was a bit rushed for time with this card so I went looking for some already prepared die-cut pieces and found a few leftover strawberries from this post.  I had to do some jiggery-poke with the diamond die because it was designed for an A2 card, not a square card, so I extended the sides a bit to make it fit.  Although looking at the sketch, it appears I have completely missed a layer - doh!


I wasn't thrilled with how bright the Teal Cave cardstock looked against the strawberries and as I wasn't going to finagle with the diamond die again, I went over both panels with some Uncharted Mariner distress ink to darken it up.  The Paper Bag card base was embossed with an embossing folder to add some interest to the diamond cut-out and I embossed the sentiment with Scorched Timber Embossing Glaze.

At this point in time, I decided the diamond panels were a bit splotchy so I covered that up by stamping over the top with a background text stamp and Uncharted Mariner Distress Oxide ink - taking care to not give complete coverage.




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






Products used:

Stamps: Good Reading BG (SSS), Written Words (C&9)
Ink:  Versamark, Uncharted Mariner Distress Ink and Distress Oxide Ink
Cardstock:  Paper Bag (Lawn Fawn), Teal Cave (Altenew)
Dies:  Halfsies Diamond (The Greetery), Written Words (C&9)
Accessories: Scorched Timber Embossing Glaze, Herringbone Decor EF (Spellbiders)

Cheers
Karren

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Friday, 14 August 2026

Butterfly Note

Welcome to a new board over at Tic Tac Toe Challenge.  This time I went with the right diagonal - insects/gems/free to come up with this card.


Onto a white card base I added the teal cover plate.  I then used foam squares to pop up the pre-foiled and stenciled butterflies.  In keeping with the challenge, I added black gems for their bodies.


Finally I finished with a die-cut and stacked sentiment cut from dark blue cardstock.  A pretty simple and quick-to-make card.  

Thanks for visiting.  I hope you head on over to the challenge and give it a go.






Products used:

Ink: Blue Suede Shoes, Dress Blues, Sea Glass, Utown, All that Jazz, Daydream Black Jack (Catherine Pooler)
Cardstock: White, Teal Cave, Desert Night (Altenew)
Dies: Striped Sentiment Strip (MFT), Just a Note Posh Script (Memory Box), Small Butterflies hot foil and dies (Pink Fresh)
Accessories: Silver hot foil, Small Butterflies stencils (Pink Fresh), Black Gem Stickers (Honey Bee Stamps)

Cheers
Karren

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Thursday, 13 August 2026

Cosmos Celebration

Hi!  Today's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches was designed by Jen Brum.  I used it to make a birthday card for my youngest sister.


I die-cut and ink-blended some Altenew cosmos flowers and set them aside while I worked on the background.  Onto a Rouge panel, I dry embossed a brick embossing folder and adhered it to a white card base.  I then cut a white panel into two angled pieces and, after hot foiling the sentiment, I attached a thin strip of gold foil to each angled edge.


The angled panels were adhered with foam tape and then I arranged the flowers and leaves.

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






Products used:

Ink:  Apricot Frost, Citronella (Altenew), Rustic Wilderness Distress Ink
Cardstock:  White, Rouge (Altenew), Gold Matte Foil
Dies:  Garden Cosmos (Altenew), Celebrate hot foil (Pink Fresh)
Accessories: Gold hot foil, Rustic Brick Embossing Folder (Honey Bee Stamps)

Cheers
Karren

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