Basket of Beans

Hi!  I'm finally getting around to posting my card for the Fall Coffee Lovers Blog Hop!  I made this card earlier in the week and actually used the sketch from MFT but, of course, that challenge is closed now.  Anyway, here is my card:

I used the adorable Harvest Mouse set and masked off the top of the basket so I could add some coffee beans.  I also used masking for the pumpkins.

The images were colored with Copics and the sentiment is white embossed onto Dark Chocolate cardstock.  The kraft card base was stamped with Burlap Background, using Khaki ink.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Harvest Mouse, Burlap Background (MFT), Oh Frappe (Essentials by Ellen)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Versamark, Khaki (SSS)

Cardstock:  Desert Storm (Neenah), Dark Chocolate (SSS), X-Press It

Dies:  Wonky Stitched Circles (MFT), Coffee Words (SugarPea Designs)

Accessories:  Copics, white EP

Cheers

Karren

Snowdude

Hi and welcome!  I've had the week off work (yay!) but today is Friday and my last day (boo!).  I've spent some time in my craft room, but mostly making cards for upcoming challenges.  I took some time out, though, to make this card which uses the Christmas inspiration at The Challenge as well as the sketch at Paper Players.

Excuse the photo!  I had to take it with my phone as my camera battery was charging.  I went quite literal with the inspiration photo as you can see!  This cute snowman is so adorable and he really stands out against the black snowflake-stenciled sky.  For the "hill" I die-cut some Watercolor Wash patterned paper by MFT in the soft blue shade.  I was going to cut it down to match the width of the black strip, but I quite liked the look of it so left it a bit wider.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Swanky Snowdudes (Paper Smooches), Toasty Greetings (MFT)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid

Cardstock:  White, Black, X-Press It, Watercolor Wash (MFT)

Dies:  Swanky Snowdudes (Paper Smooches), Stitched Hills & Slopes (SSS)

Accessories:  Embossing Paste, Falling Snow Stencil (SSS)

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Paper Players.

Santa Paws

Hi and welcome to another fabulous sketch from the team at Freshly Made Sketches.  This week the legendary Jennifer Timko is our hostess and here is her sketch.

I decided to make a Christmas card this week and came up with this card using a couple of different companies' stamp sets.

I took the cat and cat bed from Cool Cat by MFT and added the Santa Hat from Happy Howlidays by SSS/Lawn Fawn to create a Santa Paws :)  All three images were masked and then fussy-cut out.

Once I'd finished coloring and cutting, I put the cat to one side and concentrated on the card base.  For some reason, I was determined to use an open banner frame so had to make the actual base interesting.  I used a stencil and some Scattered Straw ink to sponge some color onto the base and then placed the white stitched banner frame.  I positioned the cat so I could stamp my sentiment and then finally adhered the cat.

Thanks for visiting.  The rest of the design team have some wonderful inspiration for you so be sure to check them out.

I'm linking this up to AAA Cards who have a masking challenge going at the moment.

Products used:

Stamps:  Cool Cat (MFT), Happy Howlidays (SSS/Lawn Fawn)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Scattered Straw Distress

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It

Dies:  Stitched Fishtail Frames (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, Large Grid Stencil (MFT)

Cheers

Karren

Flamingo

Hi and welcome!  This is my last card as September Guestie over at Color Throwdown and can I say it's been a fun month challenging myself!  I'll 'fess up here and say that I find color challenges the hardest and if I'm just playing along in a color challenge, I'll walk away if I don't like the colors.  So agreeing to be guest designer before seeing the color swatches made me a tad nervous!  Luckily it all worked out fine and I should have known it would because Color Throwdown have some of the best color schemes of all color challenges.  And to prove my point, check this out:

Is this not gorgeous?  I was very tempted to go with a floral card, but decided the pinks cried out for me to use my NBUS Flamingo Together set.

I just love these flamingoes and as my collection was lacking flamingoes of any kind, I decided to buy these a few months ago and this is their first outing.  I sponged Broken China and Antique Linen inks onto a white panel then flicked some water over it before cutting it out with a pierced rectangle die.  The flamingoes were colored with Copics and the palm trees stamped with green and brown inks before being die-cut.

Finally I embossed the word "flamin-go" in Melon Mambo embossing powder and stamped the rest of the sentiment around it in black ink.

Thanks for visiting.  The Color Throwdown DT have some gorgeous inspiration for you so be sure to check them out.

Amy Rohl Amy Rysavy

Barbara Anders   

Broni Holcombe   

Jodi Collins 

Lisa Henke 

Lori Tecler

Lynn Put   

Vickie Zimmer 

Wanda Cullen

Products used:

Stamps:  Flamingo Together (Lawn Fawn)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Broken China, Antique Linen Distress Inks, Dark Chocolate, Green Apple (SSS), Versamark

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It

Dies:  Flamingo Together (LF), Blueprints 29 (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, Melon Mambo EP

Cheers

Karren

Papertrey September Blog Hop Challenge

Hi!  I'm back with another card - this one for the September Blog Hop over at Papertrey Ink.  This is the first time I've submitted a card to any PTI challenge!

I bought the Spruce & Sprigs set just after Christmas last year but the dies were out of stock, so I've only just got the dies now.  From the inspiration photo, I immediately saw a rustic Christmas scene so decided to start with a kraft card base and put another kraft layer backed with Dark Chocolate.  For the arrangement, I stamped and die-cut several of each image in both kraft and white.  In the end I decided to stick with the kraft as they suited the inspiration photo more.

I arranged the images then used Press 'n' Seal to hold it together while I adhered it to the card.  The sentiment comes from Signature Christmas which is still one of my favorites sentiment sets (along with Signature Greetings).

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Spruce & Sprigs, Signature Christmas (PTI)

Ink:  Dark Chocolate, Pure Poppy, Pine Feather, Harvest Gold, Ripe Avocado

Cardstock:  Desert Storm, Dark Chocolate (SSS)

Dies:  Spruge & Sprigs (PTI)

Accessories:  Wink of Stella

Cheers

Karren

Bountiful Birthday

For my second post today, I'm entering a card into the current challenge at Time Out, based on the gorgeous inspiration photo, the autumn challenge at Uniko and the Colours of Fall Challenge at 4 Crafty Chicks.

Even though I've probably never used the word "bountiful" in my life :), I really like this card.  I smooshed distress inks onto my craft sheet then ran some watercolor paper through several times, drying between each pass.  Once I was happy with the result, I die-cut the leaves then stamped the veins.  Finally, I sponged Vintage Photo ink around the outsides of the leaves and put them to one side.  On the white card base, I stamped the leaves and veins using Fog ink down the left hand side, filling in the gaps with some splatter stamps.  I then positioned the leaves, with the smalles one popped up on foam tape, and stamped the sentiment.  The word "Bountiful" was die-cut and adhered to the card base.

I finished the card with some rainstones in various sizes.

Thanks for visiting.

Products Used:

Stamps:  Color Pop Autumn, Leaf Prints (PTI), Distressed Patterns (MFT)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Fog (SSS), Peeled Paint, Fossilized Amber, Rusty Hinge, Bundles Sage, Scattered Straw, Festive Berries, Vintage Photo Distress Inks

Cardstock:  White, Black, Watercolor

Dies:  Color Pop Autumn, Leaf Prints

Accessories:  Rainstones

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at 4 Crafty Chicks, Time Out Challenges and Uniko.

Awesome Frames

I'm back again!  This time with a card using the sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch, the frames cue word at CASology and the colors from MFT Color Challenge.

As soon as I saw the sketch at CTS, I saw frames and that worked in well with the challenge at CASology.  From there, I just had to decide on colors and I thought I'd do something a bit different with the colors at MFT, which lend themselves to Halloween cards.

This card is pretty simple!  I die-cut three frames in the challenge colors using the smallest of the Pierced Square Frames dies and layered them on top of each other onto a white card base.  I went looking for a sentiment that would fit the space and found this one in the You're Super set.

To finish off the card, I added a green enamel dot.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  You're Super (MFT)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black

Cardstock:  White, Boysenberry, Gumdrop Green, Orange Fizz (MFT)

Dies:  Pierced Square Frames (MFT)

Accessories:  Enamel Dot

Cheers

Karren

Penguin Christmas

Welcome!  Today's card was colored up on Thursday night, when I felt like crafting but didn't want to think about layouts, etc.  So I took this NBUS An Arctic Christmas stamp and just spent some time coloring.

This is such an adorable image and while it is big, it was relaxing coloring it in - apart from when I picked up the wrong marker and started coloring my mountain (see on the left!)  I used some of the blends used by Kelly Latevola as I love her bright and vivid coloring.  Some of the blends worked well and some others I couldn't get a nice blend (the red/orange one!)  I'm not sure if it's partly because I stamped onto Neenah cardstock instead of my usual X-Press It.  I'll need to experiment more.

Anyway, after coloring the image and stamping the sentiment, I painted the ornaments and stars with Star Dust Stickles and put it aside to dry.  I came back to it this morning (Saturday) and die-cut it with a wonky stitched rectangle die and mounted it flat onto a white card base.

I'm entering this into the current Merry Monday challenge where Kathy is looking for warmth in a Christmas card, as well at Addicted to Stamps and More who have a "Make Your Mark" challenge.

Thanks for visiting.  Here is the mountain of markers I used on this card.

Products used:

Stamps:  An Arctic Christmas (SSS)
Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid (MFT)
Cardstock:  White
Dies:  Wonky Stitched Rectangles (MFT)
Accessories:  Copics, Star Dust Stickles (Ranger)

Cheers
Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Merry Monday and Addicted to Stamps and More.

Balloon Celebration

Hi and welcome!  We have another fabulous challenge for you at Fusion Card Challenge.

I went with the photo this time, concentrating on the theme and colors.

 I used a balloon stencil to create some balloons on a white panel. I then foiled a die-cut sentiment as well as a strip to put down the left side of the panel. The foiled sentiment is backed with a black version  slightly offset.  Some hand-drawn strings and striped paper and my card was done.

Thanks for visiting.  The design team have some gorgeous inspiration for you so be sure to check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Hog Heaven (MFT)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Tumbled Glass, Worn Lipstick, Peacock Feathers Distress

Cardstock:  White, Black, Rose Gold Foil, Dots & Stripes Neutrals (MFT), Toner Paper

Dies:  Celebratory Greetings (MFT)

Accessories:  Wink of Stella, Big Balloons Stencil (MFT), Mini Minc Machine

Cheers

Karren

Embrace the Splatter

Welcome to another fabulous challenge at Freshly Made Sketches!  This week our hostess is the amazing Amy O'Neill and she has a wonderful sketch that is sure to be popular as it's so versatile.

For my card, I decided to create a textured and stenciled background so went to town with my new MFT stencil, some distress inks and finally some matt texture paste by Ranger.  It's hard to tell in the photo, but this has a lovely texture in real life.

After I'd finished my piece, I decided to get bold and add some splatter.  Now, I don't usually like splatter because it's so unpredictable and one extra "splat" can ruin a project, but I did it anyway - hence the title of this post :)  I splattered on some Black Soot distress ink and then dabbed on some gold Color Shine.  I did that to both the stenciled panel and the card base, concentrating in the bottom left and top right corners.

The sentiment is white embossed and I rounded the corner to match the stenciled panel.  Both panels are popped up on foam tape.  I'm linking this up to Tic Tac Toe where I used Stencils/Blues & Greens/Texture.

Thanks for visiting.  The FMS DT have some gorgeous inspiration for you, so please check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Amazing (MFT)

Ink:  Versamark, Black Soot, Cracked Pistachio, Twisted Citron, Mermaid Lagoon Distress

Cardstock:  White, Black

Dies:  Blueprints 24 (MFT)

Accessories:  Heidi Swapp Gold Color Shine, Chevron Grid Stencil (MFT), Transparent Matte Texture Paste (Ranger)

Rainbows

Hi and welcome!  I'm here with my card as September Guestie for Color Throwdown and this week we have a beautiful, bright color combo for you:

What a gorgeous photo!  I decided to do some ink blending for my card and added some black, just like the photo, to come up with this card:

I blended distress inks in a light to dark pattern from bottom left to top right.  Once that was done, I die-cut a black panel using the Striped Sentiment Strip by MFT.  Onto that, I embossed with Tiger Lily EP the sentiment from Rainbow of Happiness set.  The panel was added to the card base with foam tape and I finished with some clear sequins.

Thanks for visiting.  Check out the fabulous inspiration from the talented Color Throwdown design team:

Amy Rohl Amy Rysavy

Barbara Anders   

Broni Holcombe   

Jodi Collins 

Lisa Henke 

Lori Tecler

Lynn Put   

Vickie Zimmer 

Wanda Cullen

Products used:

Stamps:  Rainbow of Happiness (MFT)

Ink:  Versamark, Squeezed Lemonade, Carved Pumpkin, Seedless Preserves, Wilted Violet Distress Inks

Cardstock:  White, Black, Watercolor

Dies:  Striped Sentiment Strip (MFT)

Accessories:  Tiger Lily EP (Wendy Vecchi)

Cheers

Karren

Hey Chick

Hi!  I have spent a good few hours today in my craft room and it was fun!  I made a couple of cards for upcoming challenges and also made a couple of cards for some challenges going on right now.  This one is for the current farm inspiration at SugarPea Designs as well as the Stamp theme at Work It Wednesday and Anything Goes at Seize the Birthday.

I started this card by stamping out all the images onto cardstock and coloring them with Copics.  I had no idea how I was going to lay out my card, but I just felt like coloring :)  Once I was finished, I die-cut them all and then worked on a layout.  A few pieces couldn't fit so I've put them away for next time.

On the card base, I cut a sloping mask from copy paper and sponged on Broken China ink for the sky and Cracked Pistachio for the ground.  It's really faint in the photo but you can see it IRL.  All of the images were adhered directly to the card base apart from the girl who is popped up on foam tape.  I then drew in some shadows with a C3 and C1 marker.  Here are a couple of close-ups.

And even though I tried to limit how many different colors I used, here is the photo of the Copics used on this card - too many for the container I usually use for the photos!

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Barn to be Wild, Best of Cluck (SugarPea Designs)
Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Broken China, Cracked Pistachio Distress
Cardstock:  White
Dies:  Barn to be Wild
Accessories:  Copics, white gel pen

Cheers
Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at SugarPea Designs.

Spring Bouquet

It's time for another fabulous sketch from Freshly Made Sketches and this week our resident Queen of Layers, Narelle, is our hostess.

As we're coming into Spring here in New Zealand, I decided to go bright and cheerful with my card.

This is one of the quickest cards I've ever made!  I adhered two strips of washi onto a white card base to start.  I had a whole bunch of these flowers and foliage die-cut and stamped from a previous card, so I put them together into a bouquet using Press 'n' Seal.  I glued that onto the card base, colored the flowers with Wink of Stella and stamped the sentiment from a NBUS stamp set and I was done!

Thanks for visiting!  The DT have some beautiful cards using this sketch, so I urge you to check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Funky Wreath Spring Addition (SugarPea), Mini Thanks (Create A Smile)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Teeny Bikini, Twinkling Tutu, Willow, Beanstalk, Sea Glass, Maliblue, Apricot, Coral Reef, Lemon Chiffon, Duckling

Cardstock:  White

Dies:  Funky Wreath Spring Addition (SugarPea)

Accessories:  Washi Tape, Wink of Stella

Cheers

Karren