Saturday, 7 March 2026

High Top Birthday

Hi and welcome!  Today's card uses the sketch over at Card Challenges as well as the Green/Gold colour combo at Color Hues, the green die challenge at Just Us Girls and the stencils or dies challenge at Just Add Ink, where I used dies but not stencils.


Seeing the new Spellbinders club dies reminded me I had this die set from many years ago, so out it came and I had fun making some green, slightly grubby high-tops.  I die-cut the elements, added some ink-blending to dirty them up and put them together.  I used gold for the eyelets and the stars and then I also added some white thread for the laces.


I embossed a black panel with the Quilted embossing folder and adhered that to a white card base.  I then added a thin strip of gold foil and the sentiment.  Finally I propped up the shoes with foam tape.



Thanks for visiting!








Products used:

Stamps: Be Original, Birdie Brown Greetings Galore (MFT)
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Morning Frost, Reindeer Moss (Altenew)
Cardstock: White, Black, Reindeer Moss (Altenew) Matte Gold Foil
Dies: All-Star High Top (MFT)
Accessories: White twine, Quilted Embossing Folder (Tim Holtz)

Cheers
Karren

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Thursday, 5 March 2026

Coffee


Hi and welcome!  I'm this week's sketch hostess over at Freshly Made Sketches and I decided to add a tag to the sketch.  I love the look of tags, but don't often think to use them so this was my chance.  However, the card I had in mind when I designed the sketch ain't nuttin' like the finished product!


I was playing around with vellum and alcohol inks and did a whole sheet in browns, grays, black and touches of mixative, finishing off with some gold foil I placed down onto the tacky ink.  Once it was dry, I adhered it to a sheet of double-sided adhesive paper and then die-cut a card-based size with a stitched edge die.  That set me on the path to making a coffee-themed card. I adhered that onto a white card base and then added a strip of kraft.  I took a smaller strip of kraft and embossed it with the Burlap embossing folder, edging it with black before adding that to the larger kraft strip.


For the tag, I stamped the sentiment, leaving enough room for the die-cut coffee cup and then added the tag topper and some linen thread.

Thanks so much for visiting.  Please check out the FMS blog and see how the DT have interpreted my sketch - they'll be fabulous for sure!




Products used:

Stamps: Teach, Sleep, Repeat (MFT)
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, various alcohol and alcohol pearl inks, alcohol mixatives (Time Holtz)
Cardstock: White, Black, Ivory (Gina K), Desert Storm (Neenah), Vellum paper
Dies:  Blueprints 25, Stitched Traditional Tag Stax, Die Cuts & Scraps (MFT), Tag Sale 5 (PTI)
Accessories:  Linen thread, Burlap EF (Honey Bee Stamps)

Cheers
Karren

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Sunday, 1 March 2026

Colourful Leaves

Hi all!  I'm playing along with this week's colour challenge over at Card Challenges.  I'm trying hard to play along every week to get me back into the swing of challenges and making cards just for the fun of it and not for any DT deadlines.  This week's colours threw me for a bit but when I decided to go for some unrealistic leaves and came up with this card.


I chose the closest match to the challenge colours from cardstock and die-cut multiple leaves using the Leafy Greenery set.  I then arranged them across the top of a white card base and topped it with a previously embossed strip of black cardstock.  I actually got a little glue on the top so to cover that up, I added another strip - this time some yellow. Shhh - I won't tell if you don't 😉



I thought a big, bold sentiment would work with this layout so used the Because die backed with another black die-cut and a yellow one very slightly offset.  I stamped the sentiment because *this world* (rolls eyes) and added some blue pearls to finish.

Thanks so much for visiting.



Products used:

Stamps: Because You (MFT)
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black
Cardstock: White, Black, Beeswax, Carrot, Fern, Cosmic Sky (Spellbinders)
Dies: Leafy Greenery, Because (MFT)
Accessories: Window Slats EF (Altenew), Pacific Northwest Pearls (Honey Bee Stamps)

Cheers
Karren

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Friday, 27 February 2026

Tag Wishes

Hi, I’m here with my card for the new challenge at Tic Tac Toe Challenge. I chose to work with the first column - Circles/Layering/Neutral Colours.


This card was simple to put together. A cover plate, neutral colours and a double tag.


I finished with an enamel heart and some baker’s twine.

Thanks for visiting.





Products used:

Stamps: Mini Messages & More (MFT)
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black
Cardstock: Fog, Slate (SSS), Black, White
Dies: Happy Circles Panel Die (Waffle Flower), Tiny Tags (SSS)
Accessories: Enamel Heart (Altenew), Baker's Twine

Cheers
Karren

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Thursday, 26 February 2026

Toadstool Notes

Hi, I'm here with my not-very-clean card for the latest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches where our hostess is Cecile Ribon.  This card started out when I found a roll of collage tissue paper in my stash.  I decided to have a play and make a panel with scrunched up tissue paper, adhered to cardstock and then spritzed and ink-blended to vintage it up a little.  I then got caught up in the moment and it turned into my FMS card.  Apologies to the team for the vintage-y, distressed appearance. 



I found the toadstools already ink-blended and assembled so then I created the clipboard, which is just so cute and fun!  I made the clip of the clipboard by spritzing a piece of Desert Storm cardstock with Antiqued Bronze distress spray stain and letting it dry.  It gave it a nice, aged metallic look without using foil cardstock.

The vellum was torn on three sides to match the sketch and I added a sentiment which was stamped with black onto white then I clear heat-embossed over the whole thing to give it a true Dymo tape look.




Thanks for visiting.  The DT have created some wonderful (cleaner) cards so I hope you'll check them out.





Products used:

Stamps:  Faded Type, Mini Muse (Tim Holtz), Winter Herbarium (The Greetery), Best Sentiments (Altenew)
Ink: Obsidian (Altenew), Hickory Smoke, Gathered Twigs, Old Paper Distress Oxide, Walnut Stain Distress Ink, Versamark
Cardstock: Neenah Desert Storm, White, Paper Bag (Lawn Fawn), Vellum, Tissue Wrap (Tim Holtz), Off the Grid patterned paper (MFT)
Dies: Vault Noteworthy (Tim Holtz), Botanicals toadstood Garden (The Greetery)
Accessories: Salvaged Patina Distress Oxide Spray, Scorched Timber, Antiqued Bronze Distress Spray Stain, Clear Embossing Powder.

Cheers
Karren

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Tuesday, 24 February 2026

Up In The Air

A quick post tonight as I managed to sneak in a little bit of time to make a card for the MFT Card Challenges sketch which closes in a few hours.  I'm also joining in with Seize the Birthday Anything Goes (as I wouldn't call this card CAS).  I did take a few liberties with the sketch but you can sort of see it!


I haven't done any Copic colouring for quite some time so I'm quite rusty.  Nevertheless, I quickly coloured up these images and die-cut them.  Onto a white panel I used a couple of stencils and some distress ink to create a background.  I then matted that panel onto a Wild Cherry panel and then onto a white card base.


I added the coloured images with foam tape and finished with some yellow enamel dots.


Thanks so much for visiting!




Products used:

Stamps:  Up In The Air (MFT)
Ink: Amalgam (Gina K.), Rustic Wilderness, Tumbled Glass Distress Inks
Cardstock:  White, Wild Cherry (MFT), X-Press It
Dies: Up In The Air, A2 Rectangle Stax 1 & 2 (MFT)
Accessories:  Copics, Grassy Edges stencil, Micro Cloud Edges stencil (MFT), yellow enamel dots

Cheers
Karren

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Sunday, 22 February 2026

Grateful Heart

Hi! My Simon Says Stamp February card kit arrived on Friday and I couldn't wait to have a play with it.  This was my first month subscribing to the kit, but I fell in love with the Artful Palette stencils and dies and had to have it.

I also happened to get around to watching Tim Holtz' latest live and he showcased the kit and the patterned papers.  I took one of his ideas and covered some strips of the patterned paper with packing tape to give a tile look.


I'm normally a CAS card-maker but my roots are in the collage-type of cardmaking from the late 90s, early 00's so it was fun to revisit.  I also dug out some really old embellishments for this card.

I started with a panel of TH kraft cardstock which I embossed with an Altenew clocks/gears embossing folder.  Once that was finished, I ink-blended round the edges with Walnut Stain distress ink and then went over various parts with a Stamperia stencil and the same ink.  I then added a bit of Black Soot to the edges before splattering on some Black Soot Distress Spray Stain and some Heidi Swapp Gold Color Shine.  I then set it aside to dry.


After adding packing tape to some strips of cardstock, I chose my stencil and die-cut various pieces.  For the sentiment, I stamped on some Pencil Eraser cardstock with Walnut Stain DOX ink before die-cutting and then adding some Walnut Stain distress ink around the edges.  All the die-cuts apart from the sentiment are adhered straight to the embossed panel.  The sentiment is popped up on foam squares from the kit.


The big round embellishment started out silver so I added some alcohol ink to it to colour it up, more in line with the rest of the card.  The butterflies were die-cut from a scrap of leftover Antiqued Bronze Distress Spray Stain sprayed cardstock and I added some tiny vintage pearls to the centre before popping up their wings.

Thanks for visiting!  This took me all afternoon but it was so much fun just getting messy and playing.


Products used:

Stamps:  Be Your Beautiful Self (SSS)
Ink: Walnut Stain Distress Oxide, Walnut Stain, Black Soot Distress Ink
Cardstock: Kraft (Tim Holtz), Pencil Eraser (Lawn Fawn), Curated Palette Collection (Tim Holtz)
Dies: Artful Palette (SSS)
Accessories: Traces of Yesterday Embossing Folder (Altenew), Daily News stencil (Stamperia), Teakwood alcohol ink, Rose Gold Mixative, Black Soot Distress Stain Spray, Antiqued Bronze Distress Spray Stain, Gold Color Shine (Heidi Swapp), expoxy rose, large grommett, Warm Pearl Stickers (Honey Bee Stamps)

Cheers
Karren

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