Heart Happy

Hi, just popping in quickly with a card for the latest Muse challenge.  I was inspired by the heart with stripes and the pink shades.

I added some alcohol inks to a panel of Yupo cardstock and tried (again!) to add gold foil hoping it would stick to the wet ink.  Nope - I still haven't got that technique mastered.  I got a bit of foil to stick but not much. Back to the drawing board.

Anyway, I thought the panel didn't look too bad so I chose a good-looking bit and die-cut the Peek a Boo Striped Heart.  I used the negative die cut to add back the strips popped up on foam tape.

The sentiment was gold-embossed onto black and die-cut with a banner die from Blueprints 27.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Because You (MFT)

Ink:  Versamark, Alcohol Inks

Cardstock:  White, Black, Yupo, Gold Foil

Dies:  Peek a Boo Striped Heart, Blueprints 27 (MFT)

Accessories:  Gold EP

Cheers

Karren

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

Spring Bouquet

Hi and welcome!  I'm back with a card for the latest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches and this week our hostess is camp mum Jennifer Timko.  And here is her wonderful sketch:

I had a floral image I'd colored up earlier in the month for the Daily Marker 30 Day Challenge and I was determined to make it into a card with this sketch.  I had to flip the sketch to make it work, so I hope Jennifer doesn't mind!

The image was colored with both Copics and Prismacolor pencils and then I went around the outside with pale blue Copic markers.  I fussy-cut part of the image and die-cut the rest with a stitched rectangle die. The sentiment comes from the fabulous Essential Sentiments set by MFT.

 Onto the Fog card base, I added some black and white striped paper then popped up the image layer with foam tape.  I finished by adding clear sparkle pen to all the flowers.  

Thanks for visiting!  If you haven't already, I encourage you to head on over and check out the gorgeous cards made by the DT.   I'm going to link this card up to Seize the Birthday's Anything Goes Challenge.

Products used:

Stamps:  Jumbo Spring Bouquet (Stampendous), Essential Sentiments (MFT)
Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Versafine Onyx Black
Cardstock:  Fog (SSS), X-Press It, Black & White Patterned Paper (MFT)
Dies:  Stitched Rectangle Stax (MFT)
Accessories:  Copics, Prismacolor, Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen

Cheers
Karren

Sympathy Bouquet

Hi and welcome!  Today's card is for the sketch challenge at MFT Stamps as well as the Color Throwdown challenge and Just Add Ink's "add a window/frame".  I hope the colors are close enough to the challenge.

Once again, I used Painted Prints.  I love that set (and go on about how much I love it in the video!) . It is so easy to use.  This is my third card using it and I've only had the set for a few weeks.  

I stamped the images using Altenew inks and then die-cut them with the matching dies.  I also die-cut two scalloped square frames from Cement Gray cardstock and then arranged my bouquets within the frames.  I kept the bouquets the same so as not to be distracting, but reversed the flower colors.

I used Press 'n' Seal to keep the bouquets in place and adhered them to a white top-folding card base before using my Misti to stamp the sentiment.  I then added the frames with thin strips of foam tape and finished off the card with some Nuvo Jewel Drops.

Thanks for visiting!  As I said earlier, I filmed this card.  You can watch below or over on YouTube.  

Products used:

Stamps:  Painted Prints, Essential Sentiments (MFT)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Minty int, Sweet Leaf, Pink Pearl, Coral Bliss, Pink Diamondm, Pinkalicious (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Cement Gray

Dies:  Painted Prints, Stitched Square Scallop Frames (MFT)

Accessories:  Nuvo Jewel Drops

Cheers

Karren

Triangular Birthday

Hi and welcome!  I'm back with a card for the latest Fusion challenge!  This time we have a very cool photo, full of primary colors, books and monsters!  If that doesn't tickle your fancy, then check out the sketch.  I chose to play primarily with the sketch but brought in the bright blue and green from the photo as well.

I applied the Abstract Triangle Stencil onto a white card base, using Fog ink to get a very light background.  I then die-cut some triangles from Limelight and Blu Raspberry cardstock and sponged along the bottom of them with distress inks.  I die-cut a black pierced rectangle frame and adhered that to the card base with foam tape.

The sentiment was chosen for its size and comes from the Sweet Succulents stamp set by MFT.  After that was stamped, I added the triangles to mimic the sketch, then finished off with some Nuvo Jewel Drops.

Thanks so much for visiting!  The rest of the design team have been inspired in such wonderful ways, so I hope you'll check them out.

Products Used:

Stamps:  Sweet Succulents (MFT)

Ink:  Fog (SSS), Versafine Onyx Black, Peacock Feathers, Twisted Citron Distress Inks

Cardstock:  White, Black, Limelight, Blu Raspberry (MFT)

Dies:  Pierced Rectangle Frames, Triangle Stax (MFT)

Accessories:  Abstract Triangle Stencil (SSS), Nuvo Jewel Drops

Cheers

Karren

Ocean Friends

Hi and welcome!  It's time for a sketch from the team at Freshly Made Sketches and this week our hostess is the wonderful Amy O'Neill.

I colored up some NBUS from the latest release from MFT Stamps (seriously, I probably should just get my salary put directly into their bank account 😄)

My first task was to stamp and color a whole heap of the fish and plants from the Gill Friends set.  I googled "tropical fish" to get some different colorways and stuck to a predominantly blue, yellow and orange color scheme.  I added the line around the mouth and the stripe on the bottom right fish with a Copic Multiliner pen before coloring him.  Once colored,  I cut them all with my Scan n Cut and put them to one side to work on the "ocean".  

On a piece of Bristol Smooth cardstock, I sponged over the Waves Stencil with Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans, Mermaid Lagoon and Broken China ink, darkest at the bottom and working up to the lightest.  I removed the stencil then went back over the whole panel with a light coating of all of the inks before finally adding some Black Soot to the very bottom.  I then die-cut the panel with the Stitched Rectangle Stax 1 die set.

I arranged my fish and plants onto the panel and adhered them in place, making sure I had some off the panel to indicate movement.  In reality, the blue/yellow one at the bottom had to be off the panel because the paper slipped while it was in the Scan n Cut and I got a big cut across his belly before I could pause the machine!  

In keeping with the sketch, I went hunting for something for the bottom layer.  I was going to use some blue cardstock, but decided to stick with neutrals and used some Fog cardstock.  I die-cut this with the next size up Stax die and then shortened it with some partial die-cutting.

Finally, I stamped a sentiment and adhered all the panels onto a white card base, before adding some clear sparkle pen and black gel pen eyes.  Ha!  I thought sticking to a limited color palette would mean less markers - but no - below are all the Copics I used on these images 😄

Thanks so much for visiting!  The design team have created some gorgeous cards with Amy's sketch so I hope you'll head over and check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Gill Friends, Beach Buds (MFT)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Versafine Onyx Black, Unicorn White (Hero Arts), Black Soot, Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans, Mermaid Lagoon, Broken China Distress Inks

Cardstock:  White, Fog (SSS), X-Press It, Bristol Smooth

Dies:  Stitched Rectangle Stax 1, Slanted Sentiment Strips (MFT)

Accessories:  Waves Stencil (Newton's Nook), Copics, Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen, Black Jelly Roll Glaze Pen

Cheers

Karren

Best Wishes Bouquet

Hi and welcome to my blog!  I'm here today with a sketch by Narelle for the latest Freshly Made Sketches challenge.

Now, being a Narelle-sketch, how could I not use flowers? 😄

I created a couple of bouquets of flowers using MFTs Painted Prints stamp set and dies.  I stamped the images with Altenew inks and positioned them onto a white panel stenciled with a brick wall stencil and Grit Paste.  It's hard to see in the photo, but it has a lovely bumpy, grainy texture - just like a brick wall!  You can see a close-up down below.

The sentiment was white embossed onto black and I have to confess to cutting apart the sentiment as it was all one stamp, but I wanted a white "congratulations" and a black-framed "and best wishes" so I cut apart the stamp.  It was a really tight fit and I actually nicked the bottom part at one point, so had to fix the stamped image with a black marker.  You can't tell in the finished product, so it's all good!

I filmed the making of this card so you can watch the video below, or over on YouTube.

Thanks for visiting.  The design team have a beautiful selection of cards so I hope you'll check them out.

I'm linking this up to The Flower Challenge and chose the previous challenge from November 2016 for an Occasion card, as well as Work It Wednesday's Summer theme.

Products used:

Stamps:  Painted Prints (MFT), Loads of Wishes (Avery Elle)

Ink:  Versamark, Versafine Onyx Black, Pink Pearl, Coral Bliss, Heart Beat, Rose Quartz, Puffy Heart, Purple Wine, Bamboo, Parrot, Olive, Moss (Altenew)

Cardstock:  Coral Crush, Black Licorice (MFT), White

Dies:  Painted Prints, Stitched Rectangle Stax (MFT)

Accessories:  White EP, Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen, English Brick Wall Stencil (MFT), Distress Grit Paste (Ranger)

Cheers

Karren

Birthday Cow

Hi

I'm closing in on the end of my weekend and I've got a card to post for a couple of current challenges.  This uses the sketch at MFT Stamps and the "farm" theme at CASology.  I'm also linking to the challenge at The Male Room (Little Boys) and the Favourite Things challenge at Shopping our Stash.  My favourite things are, without a doubt, My Favorite Things stamps and dies 😄

I created a wee farm scene on my stitched tag, using Watercolor Wash patterned paper.  Oh how I love that paper - it's perfect when you don't want to use plain cardstock but you also don't want to use a busy pattern that detracts from the focal point.

I stamped, colored and die-cut the cow and put him (her!) aside so I could create the background.  I die-cut the tag from white cardstock and then from the blue and green patterned paper.  I also cut the green piece with the hill die from the Spring Scene Builder die set, and some clouds with the pale blue patterned paper.  There is no brown in the paper pack so I used Hot Fudge cardstock for the fence.  

I arranged the elements onto the tag and adhered them in place.  I added some "grass" along the bottom before adding the cow.  I was originally going to add a sentiment strip under the fence, but thought it would look too crowded, so added the sentiment along the bottom, which doesn't strictly follow the sketch, but hopefully it's allowed 😄

Thanks so much for visiting!

Products Used:

Stamps:  The Whole Herd (MFT)
Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Versafine Onyx Black
Cardstock:  White, Hot Fudge, Watercolor Wash (MFT)
Dies:  The Whole Herd, Tag Builder Blueprints 3, Spring Scene Builder (MFT)
Accessories:  Copics

Cheers
Karren

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

Not a Cupcake in Sight...

Hi!  Welcome to another Fusion challenge.  Check out the gorgeous cupcakes on offer this week:

I have to admit, when I came up with this challenge, I never thought I'd struggle to make a card using the inspiration photo, but for weeks now I had nothing!  So I decided to work with just the sketch and one of my new Newton stamp sets.

Yep, it's another Newton card!  Sorry, not sorry 😂I thought the oval in the sketch would work well with Newton drifting up into the sky with his balloons, so I created a little scene behind him that also used the elements of the sketch.  I die-cut the grass three times and sponged some Mowed Lawn ink on the top of the blades to add dimension.  I used the Mini Cloud Stencil and some Tumbled Glass ink to create the clouds and for the sentiment panel, I white-embossed the sentiment onto a strip of black cardstock.  The black was adhered directly to a white card base, but the sky and grass were popped up on foam tape.  Finally I added Newton.

Thanks for visiting!  I hope you check out the rest of the design team's cards - they're gorgeous as always.

Products used:

Stamps:  Newton's Birthday Balloons (Newton's Nook)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Versamark, Mowed Lawn, Tumbled Glass Distress Inks

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It, Sour Apple (MFT)

Dies:  Newton's Birthday Balloons (Newton's Nook), Grass Border (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, Mini Cloud Stencil (MFT), Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen, White Gel Pen

Cheers

Karren

Newton's Boxes

Hi and welcome!  I'm here with another sketch from Freshly Made Sketches and this week it's my turn to be hostess.  Here is the simple sketch I came up with.

My teamie, Jennifer Timko, is on the Newton's Nook design team and after seeing her release posts, I had to go visit the store and buy up large, so expect to see a few Newton's Nook cards on the blog for the next wee while as I ink them up and turn them into cards 😄So here's the first:

I colored up this adorable image and cut it with my Scan n Cut before setting it aside to work on the rest of the card.  I had it in my head that I wanted an embossed resist background, so I partially embossed the Prism Lines stamp by Hero Arts and then added distress inks with my finger to create a sort of rainbow background.  I then stamped the sentiment at the bottom and added thin black strips of cardstock down either side.

I added foam tape behind that panel and adhered it to a top-folding white card base.  I then added more foam tape behind the Newton image and adhered that to the top.

Thanks so much for visiting!  My teamies have done some amazing things with my sketch, so I hope you'll head on over and check them out and I'd be thrilled if you joined in and added a card to the gallery.

I'm linking this card up to the Paper Players Animal Antics Challenge

Products used:

Stamps:  Newton Loves Boxes (Newton's Nook), Prism Lines (Hero Arts)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Versafine Onyx Black, Twisted Citron, Squeezed Lemonade, Worn Lipstick, Candied Apple, Peacock Feathers Distress Inks

Cardstock:  White, Black, X-Press It

Accessories:  Black Nuvo Drops, Copics, White EP

Cheers

Karren

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

Muse and Muse

Hi all!  I'm here with a card I made yesterday using the inspiration from both the Muse challenge and the Muse Christmas Visions challenge.

When I first saw Anita's Muse card, I thought the white die-cut along the bottom was snowflakes and that gave me the idea to create a snowflake card.  Looking closer at her card, I can now see they are flowers, but the inspiration still stands.  I was also inspired by the white and blue color scheme and the white die-cut sentiment, although I added a touch of ink to my sentiment.

From Pam's Muse Christmas Visions card, I was inspired by the layout, the "joy" sentiment and the inky, masked circle.

I die-cut a stitched circle from masking paper and added it to a white top-folding card front.  I then sponged distress inks into the circle, keeping the centre lighter.  Before removing the mask, I spritzed the card with clear shimmer spray.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that the ink had gone through the stitch lines in the circle die-cut, adding more interest.

The snowflakes are stacked three high and were also spritzed with shimmer spray before being added to the card.  The "joy" is also stacked three high and on the top one I lightly sponged the same inks I used for the circle and then also spritzed with shimmer spray.

Here's a side view where you can just see the shimmer.

Thanks for visiting!  I'm also linking this up to Southern Girls challenge and HLS June Christmas challenge.

Products used:

Ink:  Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans, Broken China Distress Inks

Cardstock:  White

Dies:  Let it Snowflake Too, Jumbo Peek a Boo Circle Window, Joy (MFT), Maryanne, Melody (SSS)

Accessories:  Sheer Shimmer Spray

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Southern Girls Challenge.