Elf Christmas

Welcome!  I took a bit of time in between making cards for upcoming DT commitments to make a card for the current sketch and color challenges at MFT Stamps.  I'm also playing along with the Circles theme at AAA Cards and the To Die For theme at Simon Says Stamp.

This elf was one I colored up last year following along with a video made by Sandy Allnock, so this card didn't take too long to put together.  Forgive the deep shading on the elf's face - this was me practicing with BV shadows.  

I die-cut from the card base a stitched circle and on the cut-out part I stamped with the Candy Stripes Background in Maliblue and Hollyhock inks by SSS.  I then adhered the cut-out back into the card base.  The elf is standing on a strip of Maliblue on which I embossed the sentiment from Winter Wonderland (surgically altered).  As there is no Hollyhock paper, I smeared Hollyhock ink onto a piece of white and when it was dry, I adhered that under the blue.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Santa's Elves, Winter Wonderland, Candy Stripes Background (MFT)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Versamark, Maliblue and Hollyhock (SSS)

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It, Audrey Blue (SSS)

Dies:  Inside/Out Stitched Circles, Santa's Elves (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, White EP

Cheers

Karren

Christmas Poinsettia

Hi and welcome to Freshly Made Sketch Challenge Day!  This week, I am the sketch hostess and, true to form, I've got a pretty simple sketch for you.

I decided to create my own background pattern to come up with another Christmas card.

And now that I look at the sketch, I notice that I didn't follow it totally, putting the flowers a bit higher than the sentiment.  Doh!

My background was made by white-embossing various images onto a panel of Soft Stone cardstock, then die-cutting with a stitched edge die.

The sentiment was cut from gold foil because my Mini Minc up and died on me - after nearly asphyxiating me with the smell of burning plastic!  Back to the shop it went and I'm waiting on another one to be sent to replace it.

I stamped the ponsettia and leaves using Altenew inks then die-cut them out and colored them with clear Wink of Stella.

All in all a pretty simple card.

Thanks for stopping by!  The rest of the design team have created some gorgeous cards with the sketch, and I hope you'll have a go too.

Products used:

Stamps:  Spruce & Sprigs, Holiday Greens (PTI), Holiday Petals and Leaves (Hero Arts), Pretty Poinsettia (WPlus9)

Ink:  Versamark, Caramel Toffee, Paper Bag, Rouge, Velvet, Crimson, Frayed Leaf, Forest Glades, Evergreen (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Soft Stone (PTI), Gold Foil

Dies:  Pretty Poinsettia (WP9), Merry Christmas (Stamplorations), Blueprints 20 (MFT)

Accessories:  White EP, Wink of Stella

Cheers

Karren

Birthday Grid

Hi!  Today's card was made for my son's upcoming 19th birthday.  His grandmother wanted a card to give him so I made this.  Now to make one from us 😄  I'm playing along with the Ombre challenge at Addicted to CAS as well as the sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch.

This is a pretty simple card - I white embossed the lattice grid background onto a white panel and blended various distress inks in an ombre fashion.  I then die-cut the panel with a Blueprints die.  The sentiment was die-cut from black cardstock and positioned using the stamped grid as a handy guide!  I know the word "birthday" is a touch to the right but I wanted the "p" in "happy" and the "h" in "birthday" to line up so that's why.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Lattice Grid Background (SSS)

Ink:  Versamark, Mermaid Lagoon, Peacock Feathers, Cracked Pistachio, Twisted Citron Distress Inks

Cardstock:  White, Black

Dies:  Happy Birthday, Blueprints 15 (MFT)

Accessories:  White EP

Cheers

Karren

Skater

Welcome and thanks for dropping by!  Today's card was made using the Christmas Critters theme at Simon Says Stamp, the CAS Christmas theme at Paper Players as well as the Pets theme at CAS on Sunday - not that I'd want mice as pets, but some people like them 😃

These mice were some colored as part of the Daily Marker 30 Day Challenge and I decided to make them into a card by creating a little scene.  The mountains come from a Mama Elephant die and I lightly sponged the mountain part with Broken China ink.  I also sponged the stitched hills at the top as well.  I wanted to keep the background CAS so didn't do anything to the sky.

These mice were colored as part of my practice session with 4 color blends.  I started with the second to darkest color, worked down to the lightest than added in the darkest color and worked my way down again.  I'm still not terribly happy with the blending so back to the drawing board.  The beauty of the 30 day challenge is that it's okay to just practice with no requirement to make a card.  Usually, I go into the craft room with the intention of making a card, therefore when it doesn't work out, I feel as if I've wasted time.  I'm sure that whoever in my family receives this card won't complain about the blending 😉

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  On Thin Ice (Clearly Besotted)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Broken China Distress

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It

Dies;  On Thin Ice (CB), Snow Capped Mountains (Mama Elephant), Landscape Trio (Mama Elephant)

Accessories:  Copics, White Gel Pen, Wink of Stella 

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Paper Players and CAS on Sunday

Sunflower

Hi and welcome!  Today's card uses an image I colored early on in the current Daily Marker 30 Day Challenge.  I had great intentions of coloring every day, but with the stresses of work and other things, it just didn't eventuate.  So I'm gonna try when I can and if I can't, then so be it 😃

I've used the image to create a card for the current challenge at Card Concept, where I was (obviously) inspired by the sunflower and also the plaid pattern.  The card I've made is clean and layered and follows the sketch at SugarPea Designs and the colors from ColourQ.  It also meets the Thanks/Thanksgiving challenge at Simon Says Stamp.

The sunflower is a digi stamp from Power Poppy - I just love their images and have a few digis and my first clear stamp set is winging its way to me at the moment from SSS.  Apparently Power Poppy are having a big Black Friday Sale, so I'm sure I'm going to be adding to my fledgling collection!

I cut the image into a rectangle (changing it from the oval in the sketch) and stamped the "Thank You" from SPD's Gift Greetings in Dark Chocolate ink.   I mounted the panel onto a Dark Chocolate layer and set it aside.  I spent quite some time last night stamping the plaid pattern (yes, that was the highlight of my Saturday night 😄)  I didn't want the plaid to upstage the sunflower so I covered it with a strip of vellum cardstock before mounting it onto a Dark Chocolate layer.  Both panels were mounted onto a Desert Storm card base.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Sunflower Power (Power Poppy), Gift Greetings (SPD), Jumbo Stripes (SSS)
Ink:  Dark Chocolate, Simply Chartreuse, Harvest Gold, Orange Zest (PTI)
Cardstock:  Desert Storm, X-Press It, White, Dark Chocolate
Accessories:  Copics, Wink of Stella

Cheers
Karren

Peaceful Greetings

Hi and welcome.  This week at Just Add Ink we have a fun new type of challenge for you:

I went with die-cut and designer paper and came up with this CAS Christmas card.

I die-cut two patterns of plaid paper and positioned them as "hills".  I then stamped and die-cut these tiny little images from the Hero Arts Monthly Kit and created a wee scene.  I finished the card with a die-cut sentiment cut from glitter paper, which looking at it now shows the 'l' in Peaceful is a bit skewed :)

Thanks for visiting!  Be sure to check out how the rest of the design team have used this challenge.

Products used:

Stamps:  October Monthly Card Kit (Hero Arts)
Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black
Cardstock:  White, White Glitter Paper, Perfectly Plaid Winter (Lawn Fawn)
Dies:  Stitched Hills & Slopes (SSS), October Card Kit (HA), Peaceful Greetings (MFT)
Accessories:  Wink of Stella

Cheers
Karren

Single Snowflake

Welcome to another challenge at Fusion!

I just love the inspiration pic - grays and neutrals get me every time 😃 And I also played along with the sketch - rather literally!

The snowflake is white embossed onto vellum and die-cut.  To make it pop more, I added a stitched circle behind it in red, that I colored with clear Wink of Stella.  The sentiment is also white embossed.  Blueprints dies were used for the two gray layers and everything is on a white card base.  Pretty simple!

Thanks for visiting!  I'm linking this card to Merry Monday and also MFT's Color Challenge.

Products used:

Stamps:  Hand Lettered Holiday, Simply Snowflakes (MFT)

Ink:  Versamark

Cardstock:  White, Slate, Smoke, Schoolhouse Red (SSS), Vellum

Dies:  Simply Snowflakes, Blueprints 20, Blueprints 24, Inside/Out Stitched Circles (MFT)

Accessories:  Wink of Stella, White EP, Sequins

Cheers

Karren

Blessings Basket

 Hi and welcome!  Today is a very special day as I am representing Freshly Made Sketches in a wonderful blog hop - the Giving Thanks Blog Hop for Stamplorations.

The lovely Shery Russ from Stamplorations has invited several challenge blogs to join with her design team so you can hop around and check out the fabulous creations using the newest Stamplorations products.  And there's prizes, which I'll tell you about shortly.  But first, let me show you what I made with these gorgeous products.  My first card uses all the products I received - a fabulous stencil, stamp set with die and word die.

I sponged some distress inks onto a watercolor panel and then placed the stencil over the top before lightly spritzing with water and quickly removing.  left behind was a faint outline of the leaves pattern in the stencil.  I die-cut the panel and adhered it to a white card base.  The basket was colored with Copics and die-cut and adhered with foam tape.  For the sentiment, I sponged distress inks in an ombre fashion before die-cutting the word die.  I also cut it from black cardstock and adhered it slightly offset.

My second card was made very similarly but without the stenciled background, making a more CAS card.  I also used a side-opening card base to give it a different orientation.

Here's a close up:

And the markers I used:

Now, back to the hop and those prizes I mentioned earlier.

Giving Thanks Hop

• ONE (1) winner randomly drawn from all comments left on the STAMPlorations blog and participating designers blogs will receive a $50 gift certificate.
• THREE (3) winners randomly drawn from all comments left on the STAMPlorations blog and participating designers blogs will each receive a $20 gift certificate to the shop.
• ONE (1) commenter randomly drawn from our Facebook page will win a $15 gift certificate for herself and a $15 gift certificate for one friend she tags in her comment.
• ONE (1) commenter randomly drawn from our Instagram account will win her choice of Giving Thanks bundle (Be Thankful, Oh So Grateful, or Many Blessings)/

Commenting ends on November 30 at 11:55 p.m. Pacific

Giving Thanks Linky Party

• ONE (1) winner randomly drawn from all entries linked up will receive the Be Thankfulbundle (stamp set with coordinating die, word die, and stencil)

• ONE (1) winner randomly drawn from all entries linked up will receive Oh So Grateful bundle (stamp set with coordinating die, word die, and stencil)

• ONE (1) winner randomly drawn from all entries linked up will receive Many Blessings bundle (stamp set with coordinating die, word die, and stencil)

[Players have until November 30 to link up their projects to the linky party.]

Winners will be announced on December 9 in the November Challenges and Hops winners post. Winners have until December 20 to claim their prize.

And now it's time to hop along and check out the wonderful creations made by the Stamplorations Design Team and their guests.  If you get lost along the way, you can go back to the Stamplorations blog by clicking on the Giving Thanks graphic at the top of this post.

Have fun!  Thanks to Shery for inviting Freshly Made Sketches to be a part of this fun event.

Products used:

Stamps:  Many Blessings (Stamplorations)
Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Versafine Onyx Black, Scattered Straw, Spiced Marmalade, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint Distress Inks
Cardstock:  X-Press It, White, Watercolor
Dies:  Many Blessings, Blessings (Stamplorations)
Accessories:  Autumn Falling Stencil (Stamplorations), Copic Markers

Cheers
Karren

Edited to Add:  I am thrilled that my second card above was featured on Kathy's All About You post as part of The Daily Marker 30 Day Challenge.

Peek a Boo

Welcome to Freshly Made Sketches where the lovely Cecile has a fun sketch to challenge you.

Luckily I didn't have to think too long before this idea popped into my head.  I white-embossed the background stamp onto watercolor cardstock then blended some distress inks over the panel.  I deliberately made the bottom darker to mimic the line in the sketch.

I die-cut a piece of vellum with various sized circle dies and then run both the watercolor panel and the vellum panel through a stitched frame die.  The stacked sentiment and sequins hold the vellum into place.

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

As suggested by my friend, Barb, I'm linking this card to the ombre challenge over at Addicted to CAS.

Products used:

Stamps:  All Over Roses (MFT)

Ink:  Versamark, Scattered Straw, Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade, Ripe Persimmon Distress Inks

Cardstock:  White, Black, Watercolor, Vellum

Dies:  Celebrate (Neat & Tangled), Blueprints 21 (MFT)

Accessoires:  Sequins, Star Dust Stickles, White EP

Cheers

Karren

Contemporary Birthday

Hi and welcome to the mid-challenge post for The Flower Challenge.  This month we're looking for floral cards for a special occasion.

And here's my card.

I'm practicing with 4-colour blends with my Copics and decided to go bold and bright for this contemporary birthday card.  The images were stamped, masked and colored and then I trimmed the panel down so I could fit some patterned paper and gold foil down the left hand side.

The sentiment is popped up on foam tape and the die-cut is from Stamplorations.

Thanks for visiting.  There are more floral beauties on the challenge blog, so please check them out and have a go yourself.

Products used:

Stamps:  Spring Flowers, It's Your Birthday (SSS)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Versamark

Cardstock:  White, Black, X-Press It, Gold Foil (DCWV), Dots & Stripes Neutrals (MFT)

Dies:  Birthday (Stamplorations)

Accessories:  Copics, White EP

Cheers 

Karren

Christmas House

Hi and welcome!  I have come to the conclusion that my Christmas card supply is woefully under-stocked, so expect to see more Christmas cards for the next wee while :)  This card was made using the Muse Christmas Visions challenge, where I was inspired by the patterned paper background and the buildings on Chriss' beautiful card.  I'm also linking up to the Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies challenge.

I started my card by adhering some patterned paper to a white card base.  From there, I die-cut a hilly slope for the bottom.  Then I set to stamping and die-cutting the Winter Village set by PTI (more NBUS).  Once I was done with that, I stamped and embossed the greeting and "driveway" then adhered all the die-cuts.  The white slope is popped up on foam tape.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Winter Village (PTI)
Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Stone, Smoke, Schoolhouse Red (SSS), Versamark
Cardstock:  White, Let's Bokeh in the Snow (Lawn Fawn)
Dies:  Winter Village (PTI), Stitched Hills & Slopes (SSS),
Accessories:  Liquid Platinum EP (Ranger)

Cheers
Karren

Merry Skis

Hi and welcome!  It's my turn to host the challenge at Inspired By All The Little Things this week and I've chosen a wintry/Christmassy photo to hopefully inspire you.

I decided to focus on the skis in the photo and pulled out my PTI set Two Feet Deep to come up with a CAS card.

My mojo appears to have deserted me of late and this is the result :)  I stamped the skis and position them onto a panel I'd sponged with Broken China ink.

Mounted onto foam tape was a white panel die-cut with a hill die, onto which I'd stamped the word "Christmas".  The "merry" was cut from some silver glitter paper and has a lovely sparkle.

Thanks for visiting.  I hope the inspiration pic inspires you and for added inspiration, check out the DT samples, as well as my special guest, Rosemary Dennis!

Products used:

Stamps:  Two Feet Deep (PTI), Merry Stamp & Die (Hero Arts)

Ink:  Classic Kraft, Dark Chocolate (PTI), Broken China Distress Ink

Cardstock:  White, Silver Glitter

Dies:  Stitched Hills & Slopes (SSS), Two Feet Deep (PTI), Blueprints 20 (MFT)

Cheers

Karren