Christmas Gifts

While I had all the supplies on my desk from making my Deck the Halls card, I made a card for this week's sketch at Create with Connie & Mary.  This is a great sketch with a lot of options.

I embossed my Crumb Cake card base with the Pretty Prints EF, layered my Season of Style DSP onto Basic Black cardstock and colored my gifts stamp with Cherry Cobbler and Old Olive markers.  I then cut the image out and put a tiny rhinestone in the center gift.   The sentiment comes from More Merry Messages.  

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Wishing You; More Merry Messages
Cardstock:  Crumb Cake; Basic Black; Whisper White; Season of Style DSP
Ink:  Basic Black
Accessories:  Pretty Prints EF; Cherry Cobbler & Old Olive markers; Basic Rhinestones

Cheers
Karren

School Thanks

This is my second post today.  Scroll down for my Christmas card.

Just Add Ink have a cool sketch challenge this week and the team at Friday Mashup have a sketch/school theme challenge.  I combined the sketch at JAI and the school theme at Friday Mashup to come up with this card:

My 11-year old is in his last year at primary school and he's got a great teacher this year. Mrs Patten loves technology so the kids get to use iPhones, iPads, iPods and laptops in class - all in the spirit of learning, of course!  In New Zealand, our school year is the calendar year, so I'm a few months early making this, but I wanted something to fit with the Friday Mashup challenge.

I went for a chalkboard look, so the eraser marks are meant to mimic the splatters in the sketch.  The strip of notepaper is from the Notebook DSP from a few years ago.  The arrows are from an old SU arrow punch and the die cuts are from the Naturally Serif die.  I used the new chalk marker to draw lines around the outside of the chalkboard.  Wow, that marker is smooth!  The A+ comes from the First Day set - such a cute set.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  First Day; Sassy Salutations
Cardstock:  Coastal Cabana; Basic Black; Very Vanilla; Real Red; Notebook DSP
Ink:  Versamark; Coastal Cabana; Whisper White
Accessories:  Naturally Serif die; Arrow punch; 1 1/4" circle punch; 1 3/8" circle punch; Chalk Marker; Sponge; Whisper White Baker's Twine; White EP

Cheers
Karren

FMS hits 100!

Congrats to the team, past and present, at Freshly Made Sketches on hitting 100 challenges!  I have a soft spot for FMS as it was the first challenge I ever entered (my blog was only a month old!) and I was picked as a Perfect Princess for that very first challenge card!  The guest designer who chose my card, Kim Singdahlsen, left a particularly heartwarming comment on my post, which made it all the more special.

So I took special care with my card for the 100th challenge.  I also used a heap of NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) thanks to a pre-order of Holiday Catalog goodness arriving this week.

I love the large polka dot pattern in the Season of Style paper stack so my card was based around that paper.  The new chevron punch was put to good use on some Old Olive cardstock which was then run through the Big Shot with the new Pretty Print EF.  I colored the gifts using markers then cut them out.  It's hard to see in the photo but a tiny rhinestone in centred on the middle gift.  The sentiment is really the focal point of my card (lovin' that trend!) and is my favorite in the Christmas Messages set.

In honor of this special occasion, I even decorated the inside of my card :)

Here's the very first FMS sketch, which has been brought out of retirement for the 100th challenge:

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Christmas Messages; Wishing You
Cardstock:  Old Olive; Crumb Cake; Basic Black; Whisper White; Season of Style DSP
Ink:  Cherry Cobbler; Crumb Cake
Accessories:  Pretty Print EF; Cherry Cobbler Bakers Twine; Cherry Cobbler & Old Olive markers; Chevron Border Punch; Basic Rhinestones

Edited to Add:  This card was chosen for a Perfect Princess award at Freshly Made Sketches.

Cheers
Karren

Snowflake Christmas

The challenge at Just Add Ink this week is to just add snowflakes.  I combined that challenge with the sketch challenge at Pals Paper Arts to come up with this card.

I started out digging through my DSP stash to find some paper with snowflakes on and came across the Ski Slope DSP, which is one of favorites - I think I still have 2 unopened packs of it!  I then decided to go with Baja Breeze and Midnight Muse as my color scheme.  Now to find some snowflake stamps.   I decided to go non-SU for this card and was surprised to find I have no wood-mounted non-SU snowflake stamps.  Clear stamps to the rescue!  I found a set of Inkadinkado stamps, called Holiday Silhouettes, which hadn't seen ink that I used for my card.

Once I'd stamped my images, I cut them out using circle nesties and before removing the die, I lightly sponged Baja Breeze ink onto the image.  The two little poinsettias were colored using my Cherry Cobbler marker and a blender pen.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Inkadinkado Holiday Silhouettes
Cardstock:  Midnight Muse; Baja Breeze; Ski Slope DSP; Whisper White
Ink:  Midnight Muse; Baja Breeze
Accessories:  Circle Nesties; sponge; Cherry Cobbler marker; Finishing Touches Edgelit

Edited to Add:  This card was chosen as a PPA Pick.

Cheers
Karren

Pistachio Birthday

I wasn't feeling it yesterday when I went into my craft room.  Not helped by the winter cold I've managed to pick up from my kids!  But I did make a card to cover three challenges:  the color challenge at Create with Connie & Mary; the sketch challenge at Freshly Made Sketches and the Birthday challenge at SUO Challenges.

I scored the base of my card in a diagonal pattern using my Simply Scored tool.  The circles are popped up on dimensionals.  The balloons are stamped in Blushing Bride and Pistachio Pudding and cut out.  The tails were stamped in the same colors and cut out.  By the time all that was done, the card still looked meh so I put some tiny rhinestones at some of the scored intersections and called it a day.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Up Up & Away
Cardstock:  Pistachio Pudding; Smoky Slate; Whisper White
Ink:  Blushing Bride; Pistachio Pudding; Smoky Slate
Accessories:  Simply Scored Diagonal Plate & Tool; Basic Rhinestones; 1 1/4" circle punch; 1 3/8" circle punch

Cheers
Karren

Pennant Parade

The last item I made for this month's Creative Crew challenge was for the DSP/color focus.

CCREW0813DF - DSP/Color Focus:  Let's get in one last afternoon picnic!  Use the Afternoon Picnic DSP or just work with the colors of it:  Basic Gray, Coastal Cabana, Crushed Curry, Pear Pizzazz, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Wisteria Wonder

As I don't have the Afternoon Picnic DSP, I worked with the colors.  I managed to get all the colors except Soft Suede into my card:

I took the Pennant Parade set and my stamp-a-ma-jig and made a triangle pattern across part of the Very Vanilla card base.  I then white-embossed the birthday greeting from Delightful Dozen onto a Wisteria Wonder circle.  A couple of flags in Coastal Cabana and Crushed Curry were placed behind the greeting and a wee Coastal Cabana flower finished off the card.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Pennant Parade; Delightful Dozen
Cardstock:  Very Vanilla; Coastal Cabana; Crushed Curry; Wisteria Wonder
Ink:  Coastal Cabana; Crushed Curry; Wisteria Wonder; Pear Pizzazz; Versamark
Accessories:  White EP; Itty Bitty Punch; Subtles Candy Dots

Cheers
Karren

Hello Tag Card

I got back into my stamp room yesterday afternoon after chasing round looking for new school shoes for my eldest and of course, being a teenage boy, they had to meet his high standards!  Anyway, mission accomplished and hopefully they'll last longer than the pair he's just worn to pieces after 5 months.  So much for buying high quality - a teenager will destroy anything given enough time!  I now completely understand when my mum says that I was always hard on shoes - sorry Mum!

So back to the card.  I have a feeling I went for one too many challenges with this card and I don't know whether I like the end result, but I thought I'd post it anyway.

The sketch came from Freshly Made Sketches but I also used a tag for the main image panel, which fits in with the challenge at Friday Mashup.  Finally, I used the colors from the current Fab Friday challenge.  (As an aside, I fleetingly considered naming this post "The F-Word Challenge" because all the challenges begin with "F" but thought it might be mis-construed and attract the wrong kind of readers LOL).

I used PTI's Embroidered Blooms for this card.  I love, love, love this set.  It's so delicate and pretty.  I stamped the flowers in Crisp Canteloupe and So Saffron and the leaves in Pistachio Pudding onto a tag using a PTI die.  The little embellishments were from the Itty Bitty Punch Pack and some black candy dots.  To cover the whole in the top of the tag, I used a small black button and some Crumb Cake baker's twine from the Boutique Boxes kit. Some paper piercing finished off the card.

1. Create a project with a "Tag (as an embellishment on your project or as the project itself )."
2. Create a project using the colors "Crisp Cantaloupe, Soft Sky, Primrose Petals & Bermuda Bay".
3. Or Mash it Up and create a project "with a Tag using the color combo above".

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Embroidered Blooms
Cardstock:  Crumb Cake; Very Vanilla; Crisp Canteloupe
Ink:  Pistachio Pudding; Crisp Canteloupe; So Saffron; Basic Black
Accessories:  Crumb Cake Baker's Twine; Neutrals Button; Neutrals Candy Dots; Itty Bitty Punch; Essentials Paper Piercing Pack

Color Blocked Wishes

Here's a very CAS and unadorned card I made using the sketch at Create with Connie & Mary and the colors at ColourQ.  I wasn't feeling too well yesterday when I made this, so I kept it very simple.  In fact, it took me longer to decide on the "random" placement of the candy dots than it did to make the card!

I had to hunt through all my DSP to find paper in each of the challenge colors and I have to apologise to the ColourQ team because I couldn't find any Night of Navy DSP at all and had to use Not Quite Navy from Wonderfully Worn.  I think it's a close enough match in this case, though.  The Soft Sky DSP came from an old pack called Western Sky - loved that paper!  Perhaps it's time I invest in some of the new paper stacks!

The sentiment comes from my favorite sentiment set in the catty - Four You.  Love the size and fonts of these stamps.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Four You
Cardstock:  Whisper White; Western Sky DSP; Epic Day DSP; Wonderfully Worn DSP
Ink:  Basic Gray
Accessories:  Regals and Subtles Candy Dots

Cheers
Karren

Life & Moments

As I said in a previous post, I love the Amped Up Ampersands MDS kit and bought it especially for this piece for this month's Creative Crew Challenges.

The challenge is:

CCREW0813SF - Scrapbook & More Focus:  Make a scrapbook page, a T&T journal entry or a piece of framed art inspired by the project on p120 of the catalog.

I went with a piece of framed art, which if I ever get it printed, might even end up framed LOL.  Instead of the quatrefoil shape in the catalog piece, I went with hexagons and most of the patterns in the DSP that comes in the Ampersand kit.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Background
     Color = 230,WATERMARK 255,255,255

Stamps
    _Designer Kits\Number One\Number One - life & moments, Color = 0,0,0
    _Designer Kits\Number One\Number One - life & moments, Color = 230,WATERMARK 255,255,255

Punches
    Basics\1.25 Square Punch,  Filled with: Designer Series Paper\_Designer Kits\Amped Up Ampersands - designer series paper\Amped Up Ampersands - 6
    1.25 Square Punch,  Filled with: Designer Series Paper\_Designer Kits\Amped Up Ampersands - designer series paper\Amped Up Ampersands - 11
    Basics\Hexagon Punch,  Filled with: Designer Series Paper\_Designer Kits\Amped Up Ampersands - designer series paper\Amped Up Ampersands - 4
    Basics\Hexagon Punch,  Filled with: Designer Series Paper\_Designer Kits\Amped Up Ampersands - designer series paper\Amped Up Ampersands - 5
    Basics\Hexagon Punch,  Filled with: Designer Series Paper\_Designer Kits\Amped Up Ampersands - designer series paper\Amped Up Ampersands - 8
    Basics\Hexagon Punch,  Filled with: Designer Series Paper\_Designer Kits\Amped Up Ampersands - designer series paper\Amped Up Ampersands - 6
    Basics\Hexagon Punch,  Filled with: Designer Series Paper\_Designer Kits\Amped Up Ampersands - designer series paper\Amped Up Ampersands - 4
    Basics\Hexagon Punch,  Filled with: Designer Series Paper\_Designer Kits\Amped Up Ampersands - designer series paper\Amped Up Ampersands - 3
    Basics\Hexagon Punch,  Filled with: Designer Series Paper\_Designer Kits\Amped Up Ampersands - designer series paper\Amped Up Ampersands - 7
    Basics\Hexagon Punch,  Filled with: Designer Series Paper\_Designer Kits\Amped Up Ampersands - designer series paper\Amped Up Ampersands - 8
    Basics\Hexagon Punch, Fill Color = BASIC BLACK 19,27,29

Hello Blossom

This card is for the Holiday Focus challenge for this month's Creative Crew.  

CCREW0813HF - Holiday Focus:  August is one of the few months that we don't have any holidays, however, August does begin the garden "harvest" time, so this month your "holiday" is to celebrate anything garden related.  Take a look at the Gingham & Garden/Garden Delight suite (p80-95).  Re-create or case one of the projects on these pages, however, you must change at least two/three things to make the project more your own.  Tell us which project you cased and what changes you made.

I chose the card on p82 and while I kept the layout the same I changed the colors; the background and the sentiment.

I inked up the flower from Gifts of Kindness using markers and stamped it onto Whisper White cardstock which I'd cut out earlier using my Silhouette Cameo.  The card base was embossed using the Alphabet Press embossing folder and the sentiment from Four You was stamped in Elegant Eggplant ink.  The color scheme came from the Color Coach - I've said it before but the color coach is an amazing tool and great when you're looking for new and fresh color combos.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Gifts of Kindness; Four You
Cardstock:  Old Olive; Whisper White; Melon Mambo; Elegant Eggplant
Ink:  Elegant Eggplant
Accessories:  Old Olive marker; Melon Mambo marker; Alphabet Press EF; Finishing Touches Edgelit; Melon Mambo ribbon

Vintage Shopping

I wasn't sure where I wanted to go with the sketch at Fab Friday this week, so just jumped in and decided to go wherever it took me!

I was playing around with my new Shop Around wheel and some Soft Suede ink to create a sepia-looking image.  A bit of cutting and sponging and I'm quite happy with the result.  Once I'd positioned the pieces onto my Soft Suede card base, I then had to figure out what to do for the circular element.  I stamped a doily with the script stamp from Notable Notions and the splatter from Gorgeous Grunge then lightly sponged Soft Suede ink over it to vintage it up a bit.  

The sentiment was stamped using markers and is from a SAB set called Vintage Verses.  The button comes from an older Deck the Halls button pack and I used a sliver of the stamped wheel offcut as thread.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Notable Notions; Gorgeous Grunge; Vintage Verses
Cardstock:  Very Vanilla; Soft Suede
Ink:  Soft Suede
Accessories:  Soft Suede marker; Cherry Cobbler marker; Deck the Halls button; paper doily

Cheers
Karren

Flyin' High

Well it was back to work this week and let me tell you, it was a long week!

After I got the household chores done today, I finally got into my stamp room to make a card for the challenges at Just Add Ink to just add blokes; Create with Connie & Mary's color challenge and the sketch challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.

All three challenges just seemed to go so well with each other this week and it didn't take too long to come up with this card.

I clear-embossed the plane from Plane & Simple onto Whisper White cardstock and cut out.  I then punched a large scallop circle from acetate and used that to make clouds with a sponge and Bermuda Bay ink.  The DSP is from some old DSP called Ghostly Greetings and Thoroughly Modern.  The light stripe in the black pattern matches Smoky Slate perfectly!

What you can't see too well in the photo is I scored down both sides of the card base and the sponged panel.  The greeting was stamped and cut out to look like a banner flying behind the plane, which was popped up on dimensionals.  A button and some baker's twine finished off the card.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Plane & Simple
Cardstock:  Smoky Slate; Whisper White; Thoroughly Modern DSP; Ghostly Greetings DSP; Acetate
Ink:  Black Stazon; Bermuda Bay
Accessories:  Scallop punch; Neutrals button; White Baker's Twine; Simply Scored

Edited to Add:  This card was chosen as Top Pick at Just Add Ink. Cheers
Karren

Create Canvas

This Creative Crew project took me way out of my comfort zone.  One of the reasons I don't scrapbook traditionally is because a 12x12 page is just too daunting.  I now do a bit of MDS scrapbooking, but that's easier because of the undo button!  This challenge was to use one or more of the products on p156.

CCREW0813CF - Catalog Focus:  Beyond the paper basics.  Take a look at p156 of the main catty.  Wow us with one of the following "beyond the basics" products:  Canvas Creations; Vellum Cardstock; Window Sheets or Coaster Board Sheets.  Challenge yourself to think outside your normal comfort zone - most of the things you can do with cardstock you can also do with these products - stamp on them; die cut them; turn them into boxes/bags etc.  Look into mixed media art, try something different.

So I purchased 2 Canvas Creations sheets (an heir and a spare, so to speak!) and some coaster board.  I also threw in some creped filter papers for good measure.

Here's the finished result (unframed at this stage):

I started by second-generation stamping En Francais in Smoky Slate across the whole sheet.  I did some finger-walking across the stamp to leave some blank spots in the stamped image.  I then used numerous images from Gorgeous Grunge as well as the Off the Grid stamp; Film Strip and the Music Notes wheel - all stamped in Smoky Slate - either first or second generation stamping.  I did the same to a ripped piece of creped filter paper after scrunching it up and loosely flattening it out again.  

I then gold-embossed  Off the Grid randomly across the sheet and the filter paper.

The word "create" was cut using Typeset Alphabet in both cardstock and coaster board.  The cardstock letters were sponged before being adhered to the coaster board.  and stuck to the canvas using glue dots.  The filter paper was adhered to the bottom right corner using Mono Multi glue a la Faux Silk technique.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Off the Grid; Filmstrip; Gorgeous Grunge; En Francais
Ink:  Smoky Slate; Versamark
Accessories:  Canvas Creations; Creped Filter Paper; Coaster Board; Typeset Alphabet Die; Music Notes Wheel

Cheers
Karren