Copper Curve

 Hi and welcome!  Today's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches was designed by Jen Brum.  Here's what I did with it:

This was a pretty simple card to make.  I already had the alcohol-inked panel so I just had to adhere it to a card base then add the two die-cut panels on top with foam tape.   The sentiment is hot-foiled with gold foil and I finished with some copper-toned sequins.

Thanks for visiting!  The DT have some wonderful cards as usual, so I hope you'll check them out.

Products used:

Ink:  Alcohol Ink

Cardstock:  White, Yupo

Dies:  Stitched Basic Edges 2 (MFT), Yana's Special Sentiments (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Copper Foil, Copper Sequins

Cheers

Karren

Micey Nice

 Hi and welcome to this unexpected post!  It's been a long time since I've posted a card for a challenge rather than because I'm on the design team.  But this weekend was a long weekend and I had a bit of extra time and enthusiasm to be in my craft room.  On Friday I coloured up every image in the Mice Day to Celebrate set and then today (Monday) I decided to make a birthday card for my youngest niece and pulled out the coloured images.  It was nice to see that most of the colours I'd used matched the current colour challenge at MFT so I decided to work with their sketch as well to come up with this card.

Apologies for the horrible colour of the photo - it's a searing hot day today and all the curtains are closed to try and keep out the heat.  Consequently my lightbox - even with its lights - is casting a dull shade.

Onto the card.  I took the images I'd coloured which matched the colour challenge - I also coloured some with a teal colourway so left them out.  I chose some MFT cardstocks (possibly retired but I didn't have the exact match to the challenge).  I arranged my colours and card in accorance with the challenges and adhered everything but the mouse holding the gift with liquid glue.  For the wee mouse holding the gift, I used foam tape.

I finished by colouring the hats and balloon with clear sparkle pen and added some enamel dots and hearts in the challenge colours.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Mice Day to Celebrate, Birdie Brown Greetings Galore (MFT)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K)

Cardstock:  White, Sour Apple, Ripe Raspberry, Tickled Pink (MFT)

Dies:  Horizontal Stitched Strips, Stitched Rectangle Stax, Stitched Fishtail Flag Stax, Grassy Border (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, White EP, Enamel Dots (Altenew), Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen, Subtle EF (SU)

Cheers

Karren

Kinder

Hi!  I'm late posting my card for the latest challenge at   Fusion.  Doh!  I run the challenge and set up and schedule the challenge posts but forgot about my own!  So I'll be short and sweet here.

This card uses a recent My Monthly Hero kit and a sentiment from SugarPea Designs.  I did some ink-smooshing on the white embossed background, coloured the flowers with Zigs and the bees with Copics.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  MMH January 2021, Abstract Honeycomb Background (Hero Arts), Kindness Matters (Sugar Pea Design)

Ink:  Versamark, Amalgam (Gina K), Obsidian (Altenew), Speckled Egg Distress Ink

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

Dies:  MMH January 2021 (Hero Arts)

Accessories:  Copics, Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers, Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen, White EP

Cheers

Karren

Sympathy Rose

 Hi!  It's time for another fun sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches and this week our hostess is Kim Singdahlsen.

For my card I used a NBUS die set to make this beautiful rose.  Once it was finished, I set it aside and worked on the card base.  I adhered some washi tape to a black strip and adhered that to the card base.  From there I added two embossed panels to mimic the sketch, after stamping the sentiment.  It's difficult to see in the photo but the top panels are popped up on foam tape.

Thanks for visiting.  The DT have some fabulous cards so I hope you'll check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Deepest Sympathy (MFT)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black

Cardstock:  White, Black, Poppy, Persimmon, Coral Crush, Peach Bellini (MFT), Memory Box Lush Green Collection

Dies:  Craft a Flower:  Antique Rose (Altenew)

Accessories:  Allium Pallette Washi (Altenew), Raindrops (PTI)

Cheers

Karren

Dotted Birthday

I'm here with my card for the new challenge at Freshly Made Sketches, where our sketch hostess this week is Jennifer Timko.  

 

I played with some new goodies for this card.  The stamp set is new, as is the embossing folder.  I wanted to do some colouring, which I haven't done in an age, so sat down on Saturday afternoon and coloured up all the images in this stamp set.  I then arranged a few of them into an arrangement and adhered them to the embossed panel.  

For the bottom part, I used patterned paper and some gold washi tape.  The sentiment is white embossed onto some Autumn Rose cardstock, which was the closest match to the flowers.

Thanks for visiting!  The design team have outdone themselves again, so I hope you'll head over and check out their fabulous cards.

Products Used:

Stamps:  Amazing You (Altenew), Essential Sentiments (MFT)

Ink:  Intense Black (SSS), Versamark

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It, Autumn Rose (PTI), Dots & Stripes (MFT)

Dies:  Amazing You (Altenew)

Accessories:  Gold Washi, Copics, White EP, Mod Squares Embossing Folder (Altenew)

Cheers

Karren

Gold Note

Hi and welcome to the new Fusion challenge.  I played with the sketch this week and came up with this last-minute card.

I can't tell you the alcohol ink colours because it's a panel I found in my stash, so this card was reasonably quick to put together, which is good because I was making it 4 hours before this post is supposed to go live!

The sentiment is stamped with gold ink and I finished with some gold sequins.

 

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Opposites Attract (The Greetery)

Ink:  Enchanted Gold (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Black, Yupo

Dies:  Opposites Attract (The Greetery), Embossed Square Edges (Kat Scrappiness), Starburst Debossing Cover Die (Altenew)

Accessories:  Gold Sequins

Cheers

Karren

Slanted Birthday

 Freshly Made Sketches  has a new sketch for us this week, courtesy of  Linda Callahan.  I have to admit this card took me the better part of 5 hours to make!  Me and angled panels do not work well together and I kept second-, third- and fourth-guessing my card.

I knew I wanted an ink-blended background so that part was easily achieved with a white panel and some Speckled Egg Distress Ink.  I then splattered on some white gouache and set it aside to dry.  Now for the angled panel.  I first tried washi tape but didn't like it so back to the drawing board.  After going through my dies I found this one that was made for the sketch so I die-cut it 3 times and stacked them together.  

Then I had the problem of what else to do.  I had just received these little branch dies so cut them from a few different colours and arranged them in the centre of the circle.  Good enough!  I decided to splatter on some Speckled Egg Distress Oxide ink before working on the sentiment.

The sentiment was a whole 'nuther problem because like angled panels, I also don't like the look of angled sentiments but felt I needed to to make it look cohesive.  As you can see from the sketch below, I didn't angle my stripes quite as much as Linda's sketch, but I hope it's good enough!

Head on over and check out the wonderful cards made by the rest of the not-angle-challenged design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Embroidered Blooms (PTI)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Speckled Egg Distress Ink, Speckled Egg Distress Oxide

Cardstock:  White, Grout Gray, Gravel Gray (MFT), Stormy Sea, Ocean Tides (PTI)

Dies:  Surely Stitched Circle (Memory Box), Branches & Berries (Altenew), Stitched Rectangle Stax (MFT)

Cheers

Karren

Green Birthday

 Thanks for dropping by!  I'm here with my card for the latest challenge at Fusion where we have gone with a green theme.

I played with the photo only this time for my masculine birthday card.

I wanted to focus on the circles and the greens in the photo, so pulled out this cover die and lots of green cardstocks until I found four that worked well together. I was going for a blue-green tone rather than yellow-green.  I used die-cut inlay to place all the pieces inside the black frame and when I was finished I added a stamped and die-cut sentiment.

Thanks for visiting!  The DT have created gorgeous cards so I hope you'll check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Label Maker Sentiments (MFT)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black

Cardstock:  Ocean Tide, Stormy Skies (PTI), Cactus (MFT), Sage Leaf (Lawn Fawn), White, Black

Dies:  Mod Circle Frame (SSS), Birthday (Photo Play)

Cheers

Karren

Bloom Note

Hi and welcome.  Jacquie Southas is our sketch hostess over at Freshly Made Sketches this week and I love her sketch.  Here's my card using it:

As soon as I saw the sketch I knew I wanted to use the negative space for those rectangles, so I took a rectangle die and after a bit of measurement, I cut it out three times across the front of a Soft Stone panel.  I then backed it with a black panel and added it to a white card base.

I had just received these Colorize dies and wanted to put them together, so using the packaging as a guide, I chose multiple colours of cardstock and did some fiddly die-cutting and placing.  I had fun doing this and when I was finished, I decided to add some texture by running all the elements through the Subtle embossing folder.  This flattened the layers as well as adding the texture.  To give the big rose some dimension, I lightly sponged around the edge with Victorian Velvet distress ink.  I then added them to the card with foam tape.

 

The sentiment was stamped and die-cut and added with foam tape.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Opposites Attract (The Greetery)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Victorian Velvet Distress Ink

Cardstock:  Soft Stone, Ocean Tide, Autumn Rose (PTI), Sage Leaf (Lawn Fawn), Chocolate Brown, Cactus, Factory Green, Paver Red, Olive, Black Licorice, Hot Fudge, Kraft, Cranberry Cocktail, Pink Lemonade, Bubblegum, Banana Spklitm Lemon Chiffon (MFT)

Dies:  Colorize Bloom (Tim Holtz), Opposites Attract (The Greetery), Inside/Out Stitched Rectangles (MFT)

Accessories:  Subtle Embossing Folder (SU)

Cheers

Karren

Yellow Birthday

 Hi and welcome to a new sketch from the Freshly Made Sketches challenge team!  Our sketch hostess this week is Judy Rozema and her sketch is a classic.  I used it to make a birthday card for my mum.

I started with a slate card base onto which I added a panel of white cardstock which had been stenciled over with pale gray ink and the Flower of Life stencil from Picket Fence Studios,

I stamped some roses and leaves using yellow and gray inks and also die-cut some open leaves with Fog cardstock.

The sentiment is a top edger die which I stacked 3 high and then spritzed with shimmer spray.

Thanks for dropping by!  The DT have some gorgeous cards so I hope you'll check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Antique Roses (Altenew)

Ink:  Pocketful of Sunshine set, Warm Gray set (Altenew)

Cardstock:  Slate, Fog (SSS), Wghite

Dies:  Antique Roses (Altenew), Greetings Top Word Edgers (Impression Obsession), Lorelei Outline (Poppy Stamps)

Accessories:  Flower of Life Stencil (Picket Fence Studios), Shimmer Spray

Cheers

Karren

Created to be You

 Hi and welcome to our newest challenge over at Fusion!  I combined both sketch and photo for my card - although I did flip the sketch to make it work.

This little girl was stamped and coloured with Copic markers before adding some white and silver gel pen dots to try and mimic sparkly sequins on her outfit.  After she was die-cut I set her aside while I worked on the rest of the card.  

The rainbow striped panel may look familiar as I originally created it for this card, but used a small leftover strip for last week's FMS card.  I adhered that to a white top-folding card base and then added some silver stamped stars and a black sentiment.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Unicorns & Glitter (MFT)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K), Versafine Onyx Black, Delicata Silvery Shimmer

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It, Wild Cherry, Coral Crush, Banana Split, Limelight, Blueberry, Lavender Fields (MFT), Paradise (Hero Arts)

Dies:  Unicorns & Glitter (MFT), Slimline Stripes (Pinkfresh Studio)

Accessories:  Copics, White, Silver Gel Pens, Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen

Cheers

Karren

Pretty Amazing

 Hi and welcome to a new sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches, where our hostess this week is Amy O'Neill.  I have to admit I was a bit stumped by Amy's sketch at first, not sure what to use for the horizontal strip which needs to cover both panels.  I then decided to use colour and a stencil and this is the result.

I just got this stencil this week and was keen to put it to use.  I took two panels of Bristol Smooth cardstock to match the sketch and placed the stencil over the larger panel and masked off the centre strip with purple tape before ink-blending with Silver Lake Ink on the top and bottom of the panel.  

I then removed the purple tape and applied it over where I'd just inked.  Then I used Fresh Lemon ink in the centre of the panel.  Before removing the tape, I added the smaller panel to the centre of the larger one, using repositionable tape to hold it in place.  I then went over the centre area with a darker yellow ink - Maple Yellow.  Moving the tape again, I went over the top and bottom with darker gray ink - Gray Denim and the stenciling was done.

Originally I wasn't going to add a mat around the smaller panel but it just didn't stand out enough, so I cut a Cement Gray mat just slightly bigger than the inked panel.  I then decided to add the background stamping with Fog ink so put both inked panels into my Misti and stamped the background text over them.

The rest of the card was pretty simple - a stacked die-cut sentiment with a white-embossed sub-sentiment and I finished with some shimmery hearts left over from a previous project.

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

I'm playing along with the Anything Goes challenge at Happy Little Stampers Stencil Challenge and the cards for teens/kids challenge at Sweet Stampin' as I intend to give this card to my 18-year old daughter when she starts back at university in a few weeks.

Products used:

Stamps:  You Matter, You Matter BG (SSS)

Ink:  Versamark, Fog (SSS), Silver Lake, Gray Denim, Fresh Lemon, Maple Yellow (Altenew)

Cardstock:  Cement Gray, Black Licorice (MFT), Bristol Smooth

Dies:  You (SSS), Blueprints 11 (MFT)

Accessories:  Geo Leaves Stencil (SSS), Shimmer Spray, White EP

Cheers

Karren

Hello Happy

 It's time for another sketch from the team at Freshly Made Sketches and this week our hostess is Narelle Farrugia and she has a beautifully CAS sketch.  Here's my card:

The card base is Blueberry and I used Versamark ink and the Dots & Boxes background stamp to add some interest to the background.  The die-cut sentiment is stacked four high and has a fun retro look.  The rainbow stripes were made using various colours of cardstock and the Slimline Stripes dies. 

Finally I added a simple sentiment to go with the die-cut word.  I might give this to my DH for Valentine's Day.

Thanks for visiting!  The DT have created some gorgeous cards so I hope you'll check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Dots & Boxes (Altenew), More Essential Sentiments (MFT)

Ink:  Versamark, Versafine Onyx Black

Cardstock:  White, Wild Cherry, Coral Crush, Banana Split, Limelight, Blueberry, Lavender Fields (MFT) Paradise (Hero Arts), Black

Dies:  Bold Greetings (Altenew), Slimline Stripes (PinkFresh Studio)

Cheers

Karren

Block Work

 Hi and welcome!  There's a bit of a back story to today's card.  I play a word game in the evenings on my tablet and it features different backdrops.  The latest backdrop really piqued my creative interest and I would ponder how I could re-create it in a card.  Here is a screen shot of the backdrop.

I figured stenciling would be the best way and using white ink to get the lighter tones would be easiest.  So yesterday, which was the last day of a long weekend, I sat down and came up with this card.

I am so happy with how this came out and it was so easy!  I started by looking for square masking stencils but the only ones I had were too big, so I made my own stencil with acetate and three square dies.  I then cut a panel of Bristol Smooth cardstock and selected some Distress Oxide inks.  I ink-blended over the background - sort of mimicking the inspiration photo, but adding more blues and less pink.  Once I was finished, I took my acetate stencil and stenciled over the panel with the Distress Oxide inks, creating the squares you can see in the photo below.

Then, to add the lighter tones, I went over it again with the same stencil and Unicorn White pigment ink and this was the result.

The white faded back a bit as it dried but it still had enough variation to satisfy me.  Once it was dry, I die-cut it into a smaller panel with a stitched rectangle die.  So now onto the card!

I didn't want to cover up that background so I went for an inlaid die-cut sentiment.  I cut the Big Hugs die three times from black and once from the ink-blended panel.  I then adhered the ink-blended panel onto a white card base and stacked the black die-cuts back into the gap.  Now for the Doh! moment.  I decided to add some sparkle to the letters, so grabbed my clear sparkle pen, not for a minute thinking the liquid would react with the oxide inks (as I said earlier - DOH!). I couldn't start again so decided to make a feature of it and liberally sprayed all the letters with shimmer spray. I then added the top layer to the card but very slightly offset each letter so a hint of black would show through.

I white-embossed a sub-sentiment and added that across the die-cut word and then added some black hearts which I also sprayed with shimmer spray.

Thanks for visiting!  I'm entering this card into the following challenges:  

Inkspirational - Hearts

The Paper Players - Hearts and/or Stars

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Love is in the Air

Just Us Girls - Valentine

Products used:

Stamps:  Essential Sentiments (MFT)

Ink:  Versamark, Unicorn White (Hero Arts), Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade, Picked Raspberry, Tumbled Glass, Peacock Feathers, Blueprint Sketch Distress Oxide Inks

Cardstock:  White, Bristol Smooth, Black

Dies:  Stitched Rectangle Stax, Blueprints 11, Band Aids, Big Hugs (MFT), Classic Squares (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  White EP, Acetate, Shimmer Spray

Cheers

Karren

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