Golden Congrats

Hi! Today’s sketch from Freshly Made Sketches was designed by Jacquie Southas and I created a very simple-looking card.

I started by placing two hot foil strip plates onto white cardstock and hot-foiling with gold foil. I then added the stamped sentiment and hot-foiled a star at either end.

It looked a bit plain so I did some partial dry-embossing to the left of the hot-foiling.  I adhered the panel to a white card base and called it done!

Thanks so much for visiting. Please head over and check out the fabulous cards made by the rest of the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Say It In A Starburst (MFT)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black

Cardstock:  White

Dies:  Nested Stars Hot Foil (Pink Fresh), Foiled Brushstrokes & Stripes (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Subtle Embossing Folder (SU)

 

Silver Butterfly

 Hi all!  I'm back as Surprise Party Guest over at Seize the Birthday and this time the challenge is No Stamping.  Now in the good old days, that would be a real challenge, but these days there is so much more to this card-making hobby that it is easy to make a card without stamps.  Here's the card I made:

The brick die-cut is new-to-me from Paper Rose and I die-cut it three times adhering it together for dimension.  Some of the "bricks" fell out so I left in what remained on each layer.  This gives more of a dimensional look which you can see in the close-up photo below.

The butterfly was made from a piece of alcohol-inked Yupo in my stash and is in shades of blue and silver.  I die-cut the base from the Yupo and the top layer from silver foil cardstock.  I then hot-foiled the sentiment and die-cut it with the co-ordinating die.

Thanks for visiting.  Please head over to the challenge blog and check out the cards made by the design team and have a go yourself.

Products used:

Cardstock:  White, Silver Foil Cardstock, Yupo

Dies:  Texture 4 Brick (Paper Rose), Happy Birthday Hot Foil and Die (Waffle Flower)

Accessories:  Silver Foil, various alcohol inks

Cheers

Karren

Sympathy Lilies

It's time for another challenge from the team at Fusion and this time I went with the sketch and took in a few elements from the photo - the burgundy colour of the wine and the calla lilies.

I've had these flowers coloured up for quite a few years - they are part of a colouring class over at Kit and Clowder.  I used my Scan n Cut to cut them out and then went to work on the background.  After embossing a panel of Paver Red cardstock with a brickwork embossing folder, I then used my finger to add some foundry wax to the panel, focusing on the top left and bottom right corners.  I also used a paintbrush to splatter some over the whole panel (not to mention my deskop and my glasses too!) I adhered that to a white card base and finished with a simple sentiment.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Assorted Greetings (Gina K)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black

Cardstock:  White, Paver Red (MFT), X-Press It

Accessories:  Copics, Brickwork Embossing Folder (Tim Holtz), Statue Foundry Wax (Tim Holtz)

Cheers

Karren

Holly

 Hello and welcome!  Judy Rozema is our sketch hostess this week over at Freshly Made Sketches and I took the opportunity to make another Christmas card.

I adhered some glitter cardstock to the bottom of a white card base and then added some embossed panels of Jellybean Green cardstock.  I assembled the holly berries and leaves with the same green cardstock, adding in some Cranberry Cocktail for the berries and gold glitter outlines.  Finally I finished with a simple sentiment.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Dashing Deer (MFT)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black

Cardstock:  White, Jellybean Green, Cranberry Cocktail (MFT), Gold Glitter cardstock

Dies:  Seasonal Sketch (Tim Holtz)

Accessories:  Lumber 3D Embossing Folder (Tim Holtz)

Cheers

Karren

Purple Christmas

It's time for another sketch at Freshly Made Sketches and this week our hostess is Amy O'Neill.  I made another Christmas card for my meagre stash.

I went with a slightly non-traditional colour combo of purple, red and green.  I ink-blended Shaded Lilac onto a white card base and then added a panel with two circle die-cuts, popping it up with foam tape.  The images were coloured with Copics and cut with my Scan n Cut.  I added the tree to the centre and the two penguins in the openings, popping them up on foam tape.

I finished by colouring the baubles with clear sparkle pen and added a simple sentiment.

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

 

Products used:

Stamps:  Holiday Penguins, Present Time (MFT)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K), Versafine Onyx Black, Shaded Lilac Distress Ink

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It

Dies:  Infinity Circle Dies (Hero Arts)

Accessories:  Copics, Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen

Cheers

Karren

Birthday Picnic

 For the first time in ages, I had some time today to make a card for a few challenges.  I'm playing along with the colours from Color Throwdown, the CAS theme at Krafty Chicks and the Tic Tac Toe challenge (Picnic-Checks-Ink Blending).

 In keeping with the challenge's picnic option, I pulled out this stamp set from MFT and coloured various images in the Color Throwdown colours (the outfit and clouds are aqua-ish, the flowers and butterflies are yellow, the checked paper is green and the girl's hair and lid on the picnic basket are kraft.

To keep the card CAS but still have a "scene", I masked off a small strip on a white panel and ink-blended Peacock Feathers ink very lightly with a cloud stencil.  For the "grass" I cut two strips of check paper in a curved pattern, lightly sponged on some green ink (whatever was on the blending brush!) and adhered them under the clouds.

I then stamped a sentiment to give her foot some grounding and added the images with foam tape.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Everyday is a Picnic, Essential Sentiments (MFT)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K), Versafine Onyx Black, Peacock Feathers Distress Ink

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It, Homespun Gingham (MFT)

Dies:  Stitched Rectangle Stax (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, Micro Cloud Edges die (MFT)

Cheers

Karren

Deco Birthday

 Hi!  I'm back with my second card as Surprise Party Guest over at Seize the Birthday.  Today's challenge is a colour challenge - purple, blue and green.

At first, I was heading down the flower route and then I decided to follow Laura Bassen's lead and check out geometric patterns on Pinterest which gave me the inspiration for this card:

Firstly, I black hot-foiled the Deco Triangles plate onto Hammermill cardstock, then used the co-ordinating stencils to colour up the panel.  I cut it down slightly and matted it onto a Dark Indigo panel before adding it to a white card base.

The sentiment is a new-to-me die from Memory Box which I die-cut from black and mounted onto a white shadow die.  Each layer is stacked two high.

And for those that are interested, here is the inspiration for my card.  I used black foil rather than gold because gold wasn't one of the challenge colours, but I think this card would look pretty cool in gold as well!

Thanks for visiting!  I hope you'll head over to the Seize the Birthday challenge and have a go!

Products used:

Ink:  Ultraviolet, Volcano Lake, Emerald, Desert Night (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Black, Dark Indigo (PTI)

Dies:  Happy Birthday Posh Script (Memory Box), Deco Triangles (The Greetery), A2 Rectangle Stax (MFT)

Accessories:  Black Hot Foil

Cheers

Karren

Beach Hut

Hi and welcome to another Fusion challenge.  This time I played with just the photo and came up with this card.

Unfortunately the scale is a bit off, but I'm sure you get the idea 😄  The beach house was put together with cardstocks matching the inspiration photo and then I created the background with an older MMH monthly kit and a sentiment from MFT.

Thanks for visiting.  I hope you'll check out the wonderful creations made by my team-mates.

Products used:

Stamps:  MMH Jun 2018 (Hero Arts), Itty Bitty Summer, Distressed Patterns (MFT)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Morning Frost (Altenew), Sand Castle, Sea Glass, Bay Breeze (Catherine Pooler)

Cardstock:  White, Fresh Aqua, Stormy Blue (Memory Box)

Dies:  MMH Jun 2018 (Hero Arts), Stitched Rectangle Stax, Beach Bungalow, Beach Bungalow Accessories (MFT) 

 

Christmas Village

 Hi and welcome!  Today's card sketch from the Freshly Made Sketches team was designed by Narelle Farrugia and here's the card I made with it:

I was originally going to use the rectangles as negative space but then remembered I had these hot foil plates that I'd never used so decided they would do the job.  I hot-foiled with gold onto white and then matted them onto gold mirror cardstock.  To make the background more interesting, I dry-embossed with a brick embossing folder.

The sentiment was also hot-foiled and matted onto gold mirror cardstock.  All in all, a fairly simple card.  I hope you'll check out the fabulous creations made by the design team.

Products used:

Cardstock:  White, Gold Mirror Foil

Dies:  Glimmer Winter Village, Holiday Sentiments Series 2 (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Gold Foil, Brickwork Embossing Folder (Tim Holtz), Warm Pearls (Honey Bee Stamps)

Cheers

Karren

Lil Fat Doggy

Hi!  It's my turn to come up with the sketch for this week's challenge at Freshly Made Sketches and, bizarrely for me,  I went with angled panels.  I have a thing for angled panels and try to avoid them whenever I can, but there they are in this week's sketch.  Go figure!

 

I started by deciding it was time to start making a few Christmas cards.  From January through June, the last thing I want to do is make Christmas cards, but once July rolls around, I start getting the urge to get some made before it's too late.  I chose this cute Happy Pawlidays set and coloured this adorable chubby little pooch with Copics, making sure to match the colours with the cardstock I'd chosen for the panels.  I then cut him out with my Scan n Cut and set him aside.

I couldn't think what to use for the horizontal panel so decided to use scoring and an embossing folder.  I scored two lines to mimic the horizontal panel and then did some partial embossing with the Subtle embossing folder, leaving the horizontal panel clear.  To further accentuate the panel, I added a very thin strip of matte silver foil beside each score line.  Finally, I added a sentiment and some pearls.

Thanks so much for visiting.  I hope you'll check out the wonderful cards made by the design team and give my sketch a go.

Products used:

Stamps:  Happy Pawlidays (MFT)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K), Versafine Onyx Black

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It, Dark Indigo (PTI), Caribbean Sea (MFT), Silver Foil cardstock

Dies:  Stitched Rectangle Stax (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, Subtle EF (SU), Cool Pearls (Honey Bee) Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen, Black Glaze Pen

Cheers

Karren

Starry Birthday

 Hi and welcome!  I'm thrilled to have been invited to be a Surprise Party Guest at Seize the Birthday for July and August.  Seize the Birthday is a fabulous challenge because (a) who doesn't need birthday cards? (b) as well as a theme, there is always an Anything Goes birthday card challenge; and (c) the design team create the most wonderful cards as inspiration.

Today's challenge is Metallic.  Lately, whenever I think metallic, I think hot foil, so that's the direction I went with my card:

Apologies for the photo - it's quite hard to get that metallic shine while still keeping the rest of the card looking normal!  For my card I hot-foiled the A2 rectangle plate onto a white panel and also hot-foiled several stars and the sentiment - all from gold hot foil.

I then die-cut the stars with the matching dies and interlaced them by cutting through the bottom layer and hiding the cut behind the star on top of it.  The sentiment was die-cut with a sentiment label die and added with foam tape.

Thanks so much for visiting and thank to the Seize the Birthday team for inviting me to join them.

Products used:

Cardstock:  White

Dies:  Nested Stars Hot Foil, Nested Stars (Pink Fresh), A2 Layers Hot Foil (Waffle Flower), Essential Glimmer Sentiments (Spellbinders)

Cheers

Karren

Hello Flowers

Hi!  Just a quick post from me today as I present my card for the latest challenge at Fusion.  I tried to recrate the hat in the inspiration photo and came up with this card.

 

Products from The Greetery and new-to-me Catherine Pooler inks were used to create the elements for my card.  The card base is cream and the two circles are die-cut from timber-patterned paper to mimic the door in the photo.

Thanks for visiting!  I hope you'll have time to check out the wonderful creations made by the design team and have a go yourself!

Products used:

Stamps:  Hoop Wreath (The Greetery)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Limestone (Altenew), Tiara, Sauna, Daydream, Sandcastle (Catherine Pooler)

Cardstock:  White, Cream (SSS), Wood & Notebook Basics (Snap)

Accessories:  Copics, Marshmellow Confetti

Cheers

Karren

White Leaves

 Hi!  Today's card uses the latest sketch from Freshly Made Sketches, where our hostess this week is Cecile Ribon.  

I started my card with the Dark Indigo panel which I embossed with a 3D embossing folder before adhering it to a square white card base.  I then took another square panel and die-cut the square before adhering it on top of the blue panel.

It's hard to see from the photos but the copper-embossed leaves have been coloured with clear sparkle pen.  I then went hunting to find some hot foil that matches the embossing powder and the closest I could come up with is this pink foil.  I used it with the Hey There foil plates and dies and adhered everything to the card to match the sketch.  Finally I finished with some pearls in a coppery shade.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Leaf Canopy (Altenew)

Ink:  Versamark

Cardstock:  White, Dark Indigo (PTI)

Dies:  Leaf Canopy (Altenew), Square Peek-a-Boo Window (MFT), Hey There Combo (Waffle Flower)

Accessories:  Engraved EF (Tim Holtz), Rose Gold Hot Foil, Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen, Warm Pearls (Honey Bee Stamps)

Cheers

Karren

Sunshiny Birthday

 Hi!  Today's card uses the newest sketch from the team at Freshly Made Sketches, where Kim Singdahlsen is our hostess.  

I stamped and coloured the image before using my Scan n Cut to cut it out.  I then went looking for some patterned paper to look like water and mattted a strip onto black cardstock.  I then stamped the sentiment with black ink.

The image was added with foam tape and I finished with some enamel dots to match the pinks in the image.

I'm linking this up to the photo inspiration challenge at Just Us Girls and the Summer Activities theme at Seize The Birthday.

Products used:

Stamps:  Drink Up The Sunshine (MFT)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K), Versafine Onyx Black

Carstock:  White, Black, X-Press It, Ink Drops:  Earth (Craft Consortium)

Accessories:  White Gel Pen, Copics, Enamel Dots

Cheers

Karren