Toy Story

Hi and welcome!  I made today's card as part of my NBUS mission!  This set was a must-have a month or so ago, but it has sat unused and I wanted to use it before I took a break from making Christmas cards.  I thought my card would work well for the Baby's First Christmas theme at The Merry Christmas Challenge and I'm also linking to the Anything Goes challenge at Simon Says Stamp.

Without knowing what I was going to make, I stamped and colored all the images in this adorable set. I then set about my layout and come up with this CAS card.

I stamped the sentiment along the bottom to ground the wagon and left a lot of white space.    The spinning top is popped up on foam tape.  The card base was dry-embossed using two nesting triangles, which is hard to see in the photo.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Christmas Toys (SSS)

Ink:  Intense Black (SSS), Versafine Onyx Black

Cardstock:  White

Dies:  Christmas Toys (SSS), Rectangle Infinity Dies (Hero Arts)

Accessories:  Copics, Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pen

Cheers

Karren

Dream Your Dreams

Hi and welcome!  Today's card uses both the sketch and colors from MFT's challenges this week as well as the Make It Sparkle theme at Simon Says Stamp.  As soon as I saw the sketch, I saw a shaker card, so that's the direction I went.

I sponged a white panel with colors as close to Peach Bellini as I could find, then spritzed it with gold shimmer spray and set it aside to dry while I went to work on the shaker components.  I cut various confetti from Tropical Teal and Summer Splash cardstock and some Blueprints dies.  I made the shaker frame and added the confetti along with some white and peach sequins.

The cute little bear from Somebunny I Love was stamped, colored and die-cut and I white-embossed the sentiment onto a panel of Soft Stone cardstock to finish the card.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Somebunny I Love (MFT)

Ink:  Versamark, Black Licorice Hybrid (MFT), Rosie Cheeks, Melon (SSS)

Cardstock:  White, Soft Stone (PTI), Tropical Teal, Summer Splash (MFT)

Dies:  Pierced Rectangle Frames, Pierced Circle Stax, Blueprints 11, Blueprints 23, Basic Stitched Lines, Somebunny I Love (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, Peach Sequins, White Sequins, Heidi Swapp Gold Shimmer Spritz, Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen

Cheers

Karren

Sunrise over New York

I had a couple of hours in the craft room today, Christmas Eve and my DH's birthday, and one of the cards I made was this card for the current Muse Challenge as well as the challenge at Time Out, where we are inspired by the words:  'With each sunrise we are given a chance for a new beginning'

I was inspired by Jenni's skyline and blue background, although I went with a "hello" card instead of a New Year one.  And for the word challenge, I tried to depict a sunrise over the city skyline by sponging orange, yellow and three blues onto a panel of watercolor paper.  Once that was dry after flicking on some water, I adhered the black skyline die-cut and put both layers through the Big Shot with the Sunshine Layers die by WPlus9.

The "hello" was die-cut from white glitter paper and that finished the card.

Thanks so much for visiting!  And as it is Christmas Day here tomorrow, I'll wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Products used:

Ink:  Spiced Marmalade, Scattered Straw, Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Faded Jeans Distress Inks

Cardstock:  White, Watercolor, Black, White Glitter Paper

Dies:  New York Skyline (MFT), Painted Hello (SSS), Sunshine Layers (WPlus9)

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Muse and Time Out

Cheers!

Welcome!  I finished work yesterday for the holiday break and couldn't wait to get into my craft room last night to stamp!  I got the December Hero Arts Monthly Kit earlier in the week and wanted to have a play, so I came up with this card which meets the requirements at a few challenges:  CAS(E) This Sketch, CASology, and both Simon Says Stamp's Monday (Party Time) and Wednesday (Make it Sparkle) Challenges.

I actually used the kit packaging for the background for this card!  Their kits are mounted on the most gorgeous double-sided backing cardboard and I don't throw them away.  I cut this using a stitched rectangle die and adhered it to a white card base.  The bottle was stamped, colored and die-cut and the "cheers" was die-cut from one of the shimmery navy cardstocks in the kit.  I went over the gold on the bottle as well as the die-cut word with a clear sparkle pen which makes this card really shimmery in real life.  I finished with some rhinestones that came in my parcel to depict bubbles from the bubbly.  I was inspired by Jen's gorgeous bokeh card for the CTS challenge.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Hero Arts My Monthly Kit (Dec 2016)
Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid
Cardstock:  White, Kit products and packaging
Dies:  My Monthly Kit, Lil Inkers Stitched Rectangle Mats
Accessories:  Copics, rhinestones, Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pen

Cheers
Karren

Smooth Birthday

Hi and welcome to our last Freshly Made Sketch Challenge of the year!  Our hostess is the fabulous Jen Mitchell and she has come up with a square card sketch for us.  As an added bonus, we also have extended the challenge out to 2 January so you have plenty of time to make a card or two 😉

I love square cards and it's been a while since I made one, so this was a fun card to make.  Now, I have to confess that I had the tag with the images on made and waiting to put on another card, so I feel like I cheated a little bit here, but time was against me and I think you can still see the sketch.

Now that I'm done making Christmas cards to send for this year, I'm back to my NBUS mission.  It doesn't seem to be working too well though, because when I started my NBUS mission, I had 39 sets to use.  I've used several but now have 41 NBUS sets!  I blame the Black Friday sales that were going on because I've rarely met a sale I can resist 😃

The images were stamped, colored, die-cut and I added Glossy Accents to the bowl of the blender.  They were popped up onto a sponged tag with foam tape and the sentiment is white-embossed onto black.  The plaid paper was chosen to match the Copic colors and the whole card is 4.25" square.

Thanks so much for visiting this year.  Please check out the fabulous creations made by the rest of the design team and I hope all our FMS players have a wonderful holiday season.

Products used:

Stamps:  So Smooth (Lawn Fawn)
Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Versamark, Broken China
Cardstock:  White, Black, Perfectly Plaid (Lawn Fawn)
Dies: So Smooth, Tag Me (Reverse Confetti)
Accessories:  Copic Markers, Glossy Accents, Twine, White EP

Cheers
Karren

Bunny Selfies

Hi and welcome!  It is so nice to have time to make a card for a couple of challenges!  The last few weeks have been hectic and once I get my DT commitments out of the way, actually sitting down to make a card for fun has seemed too much like hard work!  But this weekend I got a few hours to just play and I put together this card using the latest sketch at MFT Stamps as well as the colors from Color Throwdown.

When I saw the sketch, I immediately thought of a window, but discovered I don't have any window dies!  Shock, horror!  So I then thought of polaroids and fortunately I do have the Precious Polaroids set so I put it to work, along with my NBUS set Somebunny.  I colored the little rabbits in the challenge colors and white-embossed part of the sentiment onto black and the rest was stamped onto the polaroid frame.

To keep the polaroids from looking too messy with them being angled, I backed them with some Soft Stone cardstock cut slightly larger that the cut-out.

The three frames with the bunnies in are adhered directly to the grey panel and the sentiment frame is popped up on foam tape.

The card was finished with a few clear sequins.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Somebunny (MFT)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Versafine Onyx Black, Versamark

Cardstock:  White, Black, Soft Stone (PTI)

Dies:  Somebunny, Precious Polaroids, Wonky Stitched Rectangles (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, White, EP, Sequins

Cheers

Karren

Edited to add:  This card got a shout out at Color Throwdown.

Geometric Birthday

Hi and welcome!  Today's card is for the new challenge at Just Add Ink which is a color challenge:

For my card, I decided to use some NBUS I've just received from MFT Stamps latest release.

There is no stamping on this card, just dies so it was quick and easy.  The gray panel was die-cut and adhered to an Old Olive card base.  I then cut the white panel and popped it up on foam tape.  The sentiment was die cut from gray and double-embossed with clear EP.

Thanks for visiting!  The rest of the design team have created some fabulous cards with these colors so check them out!

Products used:

Ink:  Versamark
Cardstock:  White, Basic Gray, Old Olive
Dies:  Stitched Tri Peek a Boo Window, Star Grid Cover Plate (MFT), Celebrate (Neat & Tangled)
Accessories:  Clear EP

Warm Moose

Hi!  Today's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches comes to us by the talented Jennifer Timko and she has created a fabulous one to inspire us to create.

Even though I don't need any more Christmas cards, I couldn't help bringing out this adorable moose one last time for the season.

I masked him and the rug and sponged some yellow and orange distress inks onto the panel.  Then I colored him using Copics.  I actually stamped the sentiment directly onto the white panel, but the stamp must have had some fluff on it and the image came out all jagged so I had to cover it up with the white-embossed panel, which I matched to his sweater.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  The DT have created some gorgeous card to inspire you, so please check them out.

Products Used:

Stamps:  Merry Christmoose (MFT)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Versamark, Scattered Straw, Spiced Marmalade Distress Inks

Cardstock:  Desert Storm, White, Green Room (MFT)

Accessories:  Falling Snow Stencil (SSS), White Embossing Paste, White EP, Copics

Cheers

Karren

Mouse Wreath

Hi!  I made this card on the weekend for the Wreath challenge at HLS Christmas Challenge, the sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch and the Holiday Challenge at Addicted to Stamps & More

This is a NBUS stamp from Your Next Stamp and I stamped and colored it using Copics.  Stupidly, I then got a black glaze pen to highlight the eyes and it splodged!  To fix it, I re-stamped the image, colored the mice heads and fussy-cut them out and adhered them over the splodgy ones.  Problem solved!  

The sentiment was stamped in black and clear embossed and I went around the image with blue Copics to make it stand out.  The poinsettias, berries and bow were all colored with clear Wink of Stella and the center of the poinsettias were colored with Stickles.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Sending Joy (Your Next Stamp), Layered Wreath (Clearly Besotted)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Versafine Onyx Black

Cardstock:  White

Dies:  Blueprints 15 (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, Clear EP, Stickles, Wink of Stella

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Happy Little Stampers.

Happy New Year

Hi!  I'm thrilled to be Guest Designer over at CAS On Sunday where the theme for this challenge is Happy New Year!  I don't have any stamps specific to New Year (I know, right!) so I had to mix and match what I did have to come up with this card:

I have a new, replacement Mini Minc machine after my last one died in a smoky mess, so I foiled the die-cut word "happy" with silver foil and set it to one side.  I white embossed the words "new" and "year onto a strip of Audrey Blue cardstock and die-cut one end with the same scallop die I used for the white layer.  Onto that scalloped white layer, I spritzed some gold Color Shine.

I assembled the card, hooking the blue strip through the loop on the "y" and then placed some sequins and Nuvo Crystal Drops.

Thanks for visiting.  And thanks to Janneke and the team at CAS on Sunday for choosing my card in their "Pets" challenge that lead to this GD spot.

Products used:

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

Ink:  Versamark

Cardstock:  White, Audrey Blue (SSS), Silver Foil, Toner Paper

Dies:  Happy Script (Mama Elephant), Scalloped Rectangles (Couture Creations)

Accessories:  Heidi Swapp Gold Color Shine, sequins, Stickles

Cheers

Karren

Truck Tidings

It's my turn to host over at Inspired By All The Little Things and I've chosen a classic Christmas inspiration pic and a wonderfully talented guest to join me - Anita Madden.

There is so much to be inspired by in this photo - the plaid, the tree, the colors, the truck...  As you will see, I went pretty literal with my card!

The truck and tree were stamped and colored with Copics before being die-cut with the matching dies.  Onto a white card base, I adhered a black panel, then some plaid paper.  I stamped the sentiment under where the front wheel would go and then adhered the truck and tree.  On the tree's baubles I added some Stickles to give them a glittery, raised look.

Thanks for visiting!  I hope you'll have time to play along and check out Anita's gorgeous card, as well as the design team's wonderful cards.

Products used:

Stamps:  Truck Tidings (Stampendous), MMH Oct 16 (Hero Arts)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Black Soot Archival

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It, Black, Perfectly Plaid (Lawn Fawn)

Dies:  Truck Tidings

Accessories:  Copics, Stickles

Cheers

Karren

Ancient Poinsettia

Welcome to the reminder post at The Flower Challenge where this month we're looking for you to use your older floral stamps, dies or stencils.

Once again I went back into my wood-mounted stamps drawers and came up with another really old PSX stamp.

I stamped the poinsettia in Versamark ink and gold-embossed it before coloring it with my Zigs.  I lightly stenciled onto a white card base with Antique Linen ink and then chose another really old Penny Black stamp for the sentiment.  Once the flower was dry, I fussy-cut it and adhered it to the card base.

Thanks for visiting!  The Design Team have some more gorgeous floral cards to inspire you and I hope you get time to play.

Products used:

Stamps:  G3341 Poinsettia (PSX),Celebrate the Season (Penny Black)

Ink:  Antique Linen Distress, Black Licorice Hybrid, Versamark

Cardstock:  White, watercolor

Accessories:  Scribble Script stencil (Donna Downey) Gold EP, Zig markers

Cheers

Karren