Best Dad

Hi everyone!  I'm back with a card for the latest Freshly Made Sketches challenge where our hostess this week is Lee Ann Barrett.  And what a great, CAS sketch she has for us!

I love sketches like this so my mind was whirring!  Eventually I settled on this card for my father's upcoming 86th birthday.

He'll get a laugh out of the sentiment - not sure how my three sisters will feel though 😃  This has actually photographed darker than it should.  The cogs are dark gray stacked and slightly offset onto black to form a shadow.  These are 5 layers deep.  Once I was finished layering (thank God for spray adhesive!), I put them to one side and worked on the rest of my card.  I embossed two separate sentiments from two different stamp sets onto a strip of black cardstock with Platinum embossing powder.  

I then added a strip of Scor-Tape and burnished on some gilding flakes.  I like that they give an imperfect finish - just right for a masculine card, I think!

Thanks for visiting!  The design team have some gorgeous cards using this sketch, so I hope you'll check them out.

I'm linking this up to the DIY challenge at The Male Room - the cogs put me in mind of a workshop - and also the Southern Girls Challenge, who are looking for projects for or about someone special.  Well, my dad is pretty special to me 💕

Products used:

Stamps:  All About Dad, More Essential Sentiments (MFT)
Ink:  Versamark
Cardstock:  White, Black Licorice, Steel Gray (MFT)
Dies:  Steampunk Corner (Memory Box)
Accessories:  Platinum EP (Ranger), Nuvo Gilding Flakes

Cheers
Karren

Create

Hi and thanks for visiting!  It's time for another Fusion challenge and here is the latest graphic:

I went with just the photo this time and decided to get inky with a stencil.

I masked off a panel on a white card base and very lightly sponged over my Industrial stencil by Tim Holtz.  I used Hickory Smoke ink although it looks blue in the photo!  Once I was done, I removed the stencil and blended some ink over the whole masked panel to separate it a bit more from the whiteness of the card base.  I then added some striped paper at the bottom and two thin strips of black cardstock above and below the stenciling.

To finish the card I die-cut the word "create" from some wood card and adhered it to the bottom right corner.  And that's it!

Thanks for visiting.  Please check out the rest of the DT's cards and it would be great if you would join us.

Products used:

Ink:  Hickory Smoke Distress Ink

Cardstock:  White Black, B&W Stripes (MFT), Wood card

Dies:  Classic Block Alpha (Essentials by Ellen)

Accessories:  Industrial Stencil (Tim Holtz)

Not Alone

Hi and welcome.  I'm here with a card for the latest sketch from the Freshly Made Sketches team where this week our sketch hostess is another of our new teamies, Jacquie Southas.

Here is Jacquie's fabulous sketch:

And here is my card:

Feel free to skip this next bit if you're only interested in how I made this card.  I don't often post personal stuff on my blog, but felt I needed to write something about what has happened.

As some of you know, I live in Christchurch, New Zealand.  And as most of you have probably heard Christchurch was the scene of a brutal terror attack on Friday 15 March.  As I write this on Sunday afternoon, 50 men, women and children who were praying at their mosques were killed by someone who believed he had the right to commit such a disgusting crime.  And to make matters worse, he live-streamed it while he was doing it.  

To say Christchurch and New Zealand are in shock is a gross under-statement.  Our little country with a population of 4 million never, ever expected something like this to happen to our citizens.  Our brave police force captured the offender very quickly afterwards and he is now going through the criminal system.  He is not a New Zealander, for which I am thankful in a perverse sort of way.    

The last couple of days we've had police helicopters flying overhead, which is both reassuring and frightening at the same time.  

Personally, I do not know anyone who was directly affected.  My youngest son (16) was caught up in a lockdown at his college which is in the central city and he didn't make it home until 8pm.  Fair to say, he got a big hug from me when he made it home.  He didn't open up much on Friday night about what it was like, but yesterday he told me that while he was in class on the ground floor of a building facing onto one of the main avenues in the city they were told to grab nothing but their cellphones and run upstairs.  They were kept in lockdown for 4 hours.  At times they were told they weren't allowed to talk in case the shooter was nearby.  The college's wifi had been turned off and information online was sketchy and some of it was downright untrue but at the time no-one knew that. Just after 6pm the lockdown was lifted and he could try and make his way home - after facing an in-depth inspection by police of himself, his car and his belongings.  Road closures meant what should have been a 15 minute trip home took nearly 2 hours.  

Over the last 2 days, I have found myself feeling more and more sombre.  I am not a religious person but people can hold whatever religious beliefs they wish, so long as those beliefs do not hurt anyone else.  How is this so hard for some people to understand?  If anyone is interested, this report is very well-written and puts a human face to the lost lives.

I have gotten very little done this weekend as I've been glued to news updates.  I did take some time to make my card for this week's sketch, even though I wasn't feeling the least bit crafty.  But as I worked through the creative process and ended up with this card, I thought it quite fitting that this was the final result.  

I looked through my dies for anything with a grid pattern that didn't cover the full card front and found this in my Blueprint collection.  I had to do some altering to get the 3x3 grid but I think it doesn't look too bad,  The centre heart is popped up on foam tape.  

For the sentiment, I wanted something simple but heartfelt.  I didn't want a sympathy message but a solidarity one and I think this one fitted the bill perfectly.

Thank you so much if you took the time to read this far.  Please check out the gorgeous cards made by the rest of the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Essential Sentiments (MFT)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black

Cardstock:  White, Audrey Blue, Smoke, Slate, Green Apple (SSS)

Dies:  Blueprints 20 (MFT)

Cheers

Karren

Flamingo Queen

Hi and welcome!  Today's Freshly Made Sketch Challenge comes to us from one of our newer teamies, Judy Rozema and she has a great one for us:

I needed a birthday card for my niece so used the sketch to come up with this fun card.

I stamped and colored the images with Copics, before cutting them out with my Scan n Cut.  I white embossed the sentiment onto a strip of black and added that to a white top-folding card base.  I then tucked the palm trees behind the black panel and popped up the flamingo on foam tape.  I finished the card with a few sequins and clear sparkle pen on the crown and beak.

Thanks for visiting!  I hope you'll check out the fabulous cards made by the rest of the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Flock Yeah! (WPlus9)

Ink:  Amalgam, Versamark

Cardstock:  White, Black, X-Press It

Accessories:  Copics, Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen, Sequins, White EP

Cheers

Karren

Minty Hello

Hi all and welcome!  I missed the last Fusion challenge because I just couldn't get my mojo together but I'm back and loving this challenge graphic!


For my card, I used a new background stamp from Hero Arts and white embossed it onto a panel of Bristol Smooth cardstock.  I then blended Altenew inks over the panel in an ombre fashion before die-cutting it with a stitched rectangle die.

For the sentiment, I die-cut the Hello letters several times from white cardstock, stacking them together.  I topped them with a white glitter cardstock.

Below are a few close-up photos so you can hopefully see the embossing and the glittery word.

Thanks for visiting!  The rest of the Fusion team have some gorgeous cards so I hope you'll head over and check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Deco Flourish (Hero Arts)
Ink:  Versamark, Minty Mint, Sweet Leaf, Just Green, Hunter Green (Altenew)
Cardstock:  White, Bristol Smooth, White Glitter card
Dies:  Stitched Rectangle Stax (MFT), Classic Block Alpha (Essentials by Ellen)

Cheers
Karren

Ombre Rings

Hi!  It's the lovely Amy O'Neill's turn to host at Freshly Made Sketches and she has come up with a wonderful sketch to inspire us.

I decided to be quite literal in my interpretation of the sketch and used circles 😄

This die is the Fine Frames - Circles die from Altenew and I die-cut it 5 times from 5 different shades of blue cardstock.  I then took 3 rings from each color and put them together, using sticky tape on the back to hold it in place.  For the 2 smaller circles, I just used 2 colors.

Onto a white card base I masked off the left, right and bottom and then blended on some Peacock Feathers ink, slowly fading it away at the top.  I then stamped the sentiment and added the small circles directly to the card base.  The big circle was popped up on foam tape.

And that's it!  Card done!

Thanks for visiting.  I hope you'll check out the gorgeous cards created by the rest of the design team.

I'm going to link up to Just Us Girls birthday word challenge. 

Products used:

Stamps:  More Essential Sentiments (MFT)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Peacock Feathers Distress Ink

Cardstock:  White, Tropical Teal, Blu Raspberry, Summer Splash, Berrylicious, Sno Cone (MFT)

Dies:  Fine Frames - Circles (Altenew)

Cheers

Karren