Cool Santa

I'm here with a card for the latest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches, where our hostess this week is Narelle Farrugia.  I created a Christmas card using her fun sketch. 

I started by white-embossing the Christmas Background stamp onto a white card base.  I then adhered a Wild Cherry die-cut circle to the right of centre.  I die-cut and coloured Santa Man before adhering him to a second Wild Cherry die-cut circle.  The red part of his hat and his beard are adhered directly to the circle and the rest is popped up on foam tape.  I also coloured the white parts of his hat with clear sparkle pen.

Finally, I added a hot-foiled sentiment and this card was done.

I hope you'll visit the blog and see the wonderful cards made by the rest of the design team.

I'm playing along with a few challenges with this card:  Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge, Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies and Sweet Stampin' Challenge (Christmas in September)

Products used:

Stamps:  Christmas Background (SSS)

Ink:  Versamark

Cardstock:  White, Black, X-Press It, Wild Cherry (MFT), Silver Hot Foil, Pearlescent Vellum (Lawn Fawn)

Dies:  Santa Man (SSS), Pierced Circle Stax (MFT), Holiday Sentiments Series 2 (Spellbinders)

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

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge.

Monochromatic Tulips

Hi all and thanks for dropping by!  I am the sketch hostess this week over at Freshly Made Sketches. 

 I've gone with a slimline/mini slimline design and here is what I made:

 

I wanted to play along with the Turquoise theme at The Flower Challenge, so stamped four tulips and coloured them all slightly differently to give what is as close to a monochromatic look as I could get.  I coloured the leaves gray to add to the whimsical and modern look.

Before adhering the tulips to the card base, I sponged on some distress ink in an ombre fashion before splattering some of the same ink.  I adhered the fussy-cut tulips to the card base then splattered on some gold ink.  I then added a thin strip of cardstock and the black strip with a gold-embossed sentiment.

Finally, I finished with some gold confetti.

Thanks for visiting!  I hope you'll check out the fabulous cards made by the rest of the DT and I hope you'll play along this week.

Products used:

Stamps:  Whimsical Tulip (Altenew), Mon Ami (CASual Fridays)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K Designs) Peacock Feathers, Broken China Distress Ink, Enchanted Gold (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Black, Adriatic (Hero Arts), X-Press It

Accessories:  Copics, Antique Gold EP, gold confetti

Cheers

Karren

Peachy Birthday

 Welcome to a new Fusion challenge.  This time I used the photo as inspiration to come up with this card.

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I've been drawn to coral/peach shades so my eye was immediately drawn to the peachy rainbow in the photo, as well as the birthday theme.  I also wanted to use the pattern in the background but as I don't have an A2 grid pattern die, I decided to use this interlocking circles die.  

I die-cut the rainbow from various coloured and ink-blended cardstock as well as patterned paper.  I then adhered them to a white card base and ran the front through the Subtle embossing folder for some texture.  I then adhered the coverplate over the top, added a stacked birthday sentiment and some black gems to finish off the card.

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

Products used:

Cardstock:  White, Black Licorice, Peach Bellini, Persimmon, Coral Crush (MFT), Berry Red Patterned Paper (Memory Box)

Ink:  Coral Reef, Passionfruit (Pink Fresh Studio)

Dies:  Block Happy Birthday (MFT), Cascading Rainbow (MFT), Interlocking (Penny Black)

Accessories:  Subtle Embossing Folder (SU), Black Gems

Block Leaves

Welcome to the new sketch from the team at Freshly Made Sketches, where this week our hostess is Cecile Ribon.  She has come up with a fun sketch for us and here's my card: 

After completing the Crushing on Cardstock class at Online Card Classes, I decided to play with some different cardstock techniques for my three panels.  The top panel is faux suede, the centre panel is embossed with a 3D embossing folder and the bottom panel is a tone-on-tone embossed panel.

The leaf is made from alcohol ink on acetate and die-cut.

Here's a close up of the different cardstock panels.

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

I'm entering this in the following challenges.

Tic Tac Toe - die-cuts, leaves, CAS. Inskpirational - autumn leaves  Addicted to CAS - leaf

Products used:

Stamps:  Rustic Linen, Many Thanks (Altenew)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Sunkissed (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Summer Sunrise, Harvest Gold (PTI), Tangy Orange (MFT), Acetate

Dies:  Inside/Out Stitched Squares, Stitched Rectangle Stax, Layered Leaves (MFT)

Accessories:  Alcohol Inks (Butterscotch, Lemonade, Honeycomb, Sunset Orange, Statue Alloy); Modern Squares EF (Altenew)

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Tic-Tac-Toe

Stuck

Hi!  This week's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches was designed by Jen Brum and I used it to make my first Christmas card of the year.

 

I couldn't resist MFT Stamps' latest card kit and it arrived last week.  I used one of the examples in the kit to create my ink-blended background which I then hot-foiled with gold "snow" once it was dry.  The Santa and chimney were oloured with Copics and die-cut and the sentiment was also hot-foiled.

When it came time to sort out a card base, I didn't want to go with white so went with Eggplant which is a lovely deep purple shade.  Of course, I had to emboss it with the Subtle embossing folder!  I matted the central image with gold mirror cardstock and then adhered all the elements onto the card base.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Stuffed Santa (MFT)

Ink: Amalgam (Gina K Designs); Black Soot, Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans, Dusty Concord Distress Inks

Cardstock:  X-Press It, Bristol Smooth, Gold Mirror Card, White, Eggplant (MFT)

Dies:  Stuffed Santa, Rectangle Stax dies 1 & 2 (MFT); Holiday Sentiment Series 2, Glimmer Winter Village (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Copics, Gold Foil, Subtle EF (SU)

Cheers

Karren

Shiny Leaves

 Hi!  I'm here with a card for a few challenges:  Just Us Girls want 6 of something on their cards to celebrate their 600th challenge which is an amazing achievement!  Sunday Stamps have a gorgeous colour challenge, although I now see it says the colours must be the primary colours and I think the black card base may disqualify me.   (So I went back to my craft room and made a second card using all the same products but with a cream card base 😄) I played with Sketch Saturday's sketch and, without measuring, am hoping my card fits the Up to One Third challenge at AAA Cards, where I did use the optional twist of leaves.

I started this card by creating the alcohol-inked panel with Yupo paper and various alcohol inks matching the colours at Sunday Stamps.  Once I was finished I die-cut it with a leaf die and also stacked it four deep with three white die-cuts to give it some stability.  

The sentiment was white-embossed onto a strip of Sage Leaf cardstock and added to the card base.

And here is the second card with the cream card base:

I have to say I much prefer the dramatic look of the black card base, but the cream one is pretty, too.

Here's a photo of the alcohol-inked Yupo I had left over after die-cutting my leaf, so you can see the gorgeous colours.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  More Essential Sentiments (MFT)

Ink:  Versamark; Alcohol Ink (Lemonade, Dandelion, Butterscotch, Valencia, Terra Cotta, Pesto, Statue)

Cardstock:  Black, Whip Cream (MFT), Yupo

Dies:  Skeleton Leaves (Tim Holtz), Stitched Dot Circle (MFT)

Accessories:  White EP

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Sketch Saturday and Sunday Stamps.

Blue Bear

 

Hi and welcome to a new challenge at Fusion!  I played with both the sketch and the photo for my card this week.

I've had this bear coloured up for a couple of years, so I can't tell you what colours I used but I decided it was time he was featured on a card.  I used a stencil to mask my background and ink-blended blue inks in an ombre fashion to mimic the cake.  Before I removed the stencil, I flicked on Chipped Sapphire, white gouache and shimmer spray.  I had to colour up the balloons and die-cut them before adhering them to the bear's hand.

The sentiment was die-cut from white and navy blue cardstock and adhered to the card front.  The bear and balloons are popped up on foam tape.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Birthday Bears, Beary Special Birthday (MFT)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K. Designs), Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean, Mermaid Lagoon, Prize Ribbon, Chipped Sapphire Distress Inks

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It, Dark Indigo (PTI), Bristol Smooth

Dies:  Beary Special Birthday, Simply Celebrate (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, Shimmer Spray, White Gouache, Watercolor Wash Rectangle Stencil (MFT)

Cheers

Karren

Stacked Hexies

 Hi again!  I've been a more frequent blogger these last few weeks and I'm back today with my first post of two.  This post is some more homework from the Crushing on Cardstock class that I joined.  I made a card using one of Kristina Werner's classes as inspiration and came up with this card:

The hexagons were die-cut and outlined with a Fantastix applicator and Enchanted Gold pigment ink.  I then stacked them using glue dots between the layers to keep the total depth down.  Onto the bottom layer I added a black panel with some hexagons stamped in the same gold pigment ink.

The bees were already stamped, coloured and die-cut so it was a simple thing to add them with foam tape.

The sentiment was gold-embossed and I finished with some white pearls.

The bonus day was about organisation, so here is a photo of my coloured cardstock.

I have all my cardstock in file drawers.  Most colours have one shade per file but I'm running out of room so newer acquisitions are put two to a file.  Inside each folder is the cardstock in its original packaging and a L-shaped plastic folder for cut cardstock and scraps.  I put a punched out sample of each colour onto the tag so I can see the shades at a glance.  I have one drawer for coloured cardstock, a second drawer for neutrals and assortment packs of coloured card and a third drawer for patterned paper and specialty cardstock.  The tabs without a manufacturer are my MFT cardstocks because they form the bulk of my collection.

I'm linking this card to the Take Flight theme at Cupcake Inspirations Challenge and the Nature theme at Addicted to CAS because bees are critical to nature and our very survival (even though these are bumblebees but I'm using a bit of artistic licence, here 😄)

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  My Monthly Hero January 2021 (Hero Arts), Assorted Greetings (Gina K Designs)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K), Versamark, Enchanted Gold (Altenew)

Cardstock:  Black, X-Press It, Harvest Gold (PTI), Lemon Tart (PTI), Banana Split (MFT), Lemon Chiffon (MFT)

Dies:  My Monthly Hero (Hero Arts), Hexagon Infinity Dies (Hero Arts)

Accessories:  Copics, Antique Gold EP (SSS), Pearls, Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen

Cheers

Karren

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

Peach Flowers

Hi all and welcome to sketch #501 at Freshly Made Sketches.  Wow, what a great week last week was when we celebrated 500 sketch challenges.  Our gallery was bursting with card eye-candy and it was wonderful to see so many players.  Our sketch this week is brought to us by Kim Singdahlsen and here's the card I made with it:

I've been having fun playing along in other challenges after a couple of years of not doing much more than fulfilling my DT commitments.  So this card was made with the following challenges in mind:  Tic Tac Toe (Stencil/Any Colour Ink/Birthday) and Time Out Challenge (Coloured Card Base with Twist of Embellishments - my embellishment is the little peach enamel heart).

The floral image on this card is created using layering stencils.  I've been really drawn to coral/peachy colours lately so I went in that direction for my flowers and matched them with a Peach Bellini card base which I embossed with the Subtle EF.  The sentiment is embossed with Calypso Coral EP which is a close-enough match and I added some striped paper and thin strips of black cardstock in the background.

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

Finally, before I go I would like to announce the winner of my blog candy offered up last week.  There were two NZ-based commenters on last week's post and as I have extra brand-new goodies to give away I will send both Lyn and Dawn T a prize.  Lyn and Dawn - thank you for your support.  Please email me by clicking on the blue envelope in the right-hand sidebar and let me know your mailing addresss.

Products used:

Stamps:  Birdie Brown Greetings Galore (MFT)

Ink:  Versamark, Sea Shore, Coffee Break, Sugarplums, Martian Terrain sets (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Black, Peach Bellini, B&W Stripes (MFT)

Dies:  Stitched Rectangle Stax (MFT)

Accessories:  Flower Bunch Stencil, Enamel Heart (Altenew), Calypso Coral EP (SU), Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen

Cheers

Karren

 

Beautiful Birthday

 Hi and welcome!  I am thrilled to win a recent challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More and receive an invite to be a Guest Designer for this challenge where the theme is Birthdays.

For my card I went with a floral theme to come up with this card:

I have to admit I put off buying Beautiful Day for years.  When it first came out, it was as if every second card on the internet used this set so I didn't buy it as I was seeing it too much.  I gave in recently and bought it when it was on special and I can now understand why it is so popular!  It is a beautiful set and so easy to line up.

I stamped with coral shades for the flower and gray shads for the leaves.  I stacked together the three Fiori plates for the base, adding interest without detracting from the flower.  I arranged the flower and leaves in the bottom left corner and finished with a white-embossed sentiment on black cardstock.

Thanks for visiting and thanks to Kylie for inviting me to join them for this challenge.

I am linking this card up to the tic-tac-toe challenge at The Paper Players (feminine/birthday/florals)

Products used:

Stamps:  Beautiful Day (Altenew), Bitty Birthday Wishes (MFT)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Pink Pearl, Coral Bliss, Morning Frost, Evening Gray (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Black

Dies:  Beautiful Day (Altenew), Fiori Plate Set (Birch Press Design)

Accessories:  White EP

Cheers

Karren