Gilded Hello

 Hi and welcome!  Today's Freshly Made Sketch was designed by one of our Camp Mothers, Jennifer Timko and it is really versatile.  I had so many ideas but ended up going with a no-stamping card which let patterned paper, 3D embossing and gilding flakes take centre stage.

The card base is black and onto that I embossed the Tim Holtz Doily 3D embossing folder.  It is really thick and I struggled to find a sandwich that worked to get the really striking 3D effect and I didn't want to risk damaging my Platinum so it's not as pronounced as it could be.  The patterned paper is from the Patina pack from Craft Consortium and I chose a blue-toned paper.  

Down one side of the patterned paper, I adhered some 1/2" score tape then added gilding flakes.  Those suckers fly everywhere, so I was careful to add it while it was all contained in a large container.  I then had the bright idea to gild the sentiment as well.  That was a bit trickier as the secret to gilding is burnishing and I didn't want to damage the delicate die-cut letters.  In hindsight, I should have gilded after I stacked the die-cuts together, but I didn't think of that at the time!  The end result is smoother than it looks in the photo but not as smooth as the strip but I still like the effect.  The important thing is nothing flakes off when you rub it.

I have had gilding flakes for years and never think to use them, so I was happy that a tiny fraction of them was put to use today.

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

Products used:

Cardstock:  White, Black, Patina (Craft Consortium)

Dies:  Hello Poe Script (Poppy Stamps)

Accessories:  Gilding Flakes, Doily 3D Embossing Folder (Tim Holtz), Warm Pearls (Honey Bee)

Cheers

Karren

Textured Birthday

 Hi!  It's Sunday afternoon here in New Zealand and I had some time today to just play in my craft room, so I made this card for three challenges:  Tic Tac Toe (Die-cut/Flowers/Stenciling); the sketch at Just Add Ink and the Anything Goes challenge at Seize the Birthday.

It was so hard getting a photo of the texture in this card without the glare from the hot foiling so apologies for the photos!  I started my card by stenciling through the English Brick Wall stencil with embossing paste and setting it aside to dry.  I then die-cut the shiplap out of white cardstock, also running it through with an embossing mat to increase the texture.

I then went hunting through my stamp sets for some flowers that were already stamped because I couldn't be bothered starting from scratch.  I found these partial wreath images that had been stamped in Altenew inks and die-cut and figured they would work.

The sentiment was hot-foiled with gold foil and die-cut with a sentiment strip die.  Everything is popped up on foam tape on the card base.  Apologies to the ladies at Just Add Ink that my vertical strips don't overlap but they were too narrow and it didn't look right, so I added a bit of space between them.  Hope this is okay.

Thanks so much for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Charming Floral Wreath (Pink Fresh Studio)

Ink:  Various Altenew inks

Cardstock:  White

Dies:  Charming Floral Wreath (Pink Fresh Studio), Shiplap Builder (The Greetery), Essential Glimmer Sentiments (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Gold Hot Foil, English Brick Wall Stencil (MFT), Embossing Paste

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout-out at Seize the Birthday.

Kindness Bouquet

Hi and welcome to another challenge from the team at Freshly Made Sketches, where our host this week is Jacquie Southas.  Such a fun sketch with lots of room to play.

I had just gotten this set of dies to make this cute bouquet and wanted to test them out, so I created a bouquet using coral tones and assembled it.  I then took a Ripe Persimmon cardbase, added a smaller white panel and three strips of cardstock in Coral Crush and Ripe Persimmon.  On the middle strip, I white-embossed a sentiment,  (In hindsight, I wish I'd moved the sentiment over to the right, but I'm not changing it now!)

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

I'm linking this up to the CAS Blooms challenge at The Paper Players and the Flowers theme at CAS On Friday.

Products used:

Stamps:  Sentiment Strips (Altenew)

Ink:  Versamark

Cardstock:  White, Ripe Persimmon, Coral Crush, Hot Fudge, Jelly Bean (MFT), Simply Chartreuse (PTI), Desert Storm (Neenah)

Dies:  Slanted Sentiment Strips (MFT), Bouquet of Flowers (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  White EP

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at The Paper Players and CAS on Friday

 

Tree Gnome

Edited to add:  This post is a day late due to me not being able to work out time zones correctly!  Apologies to the team at Tic Tac Toe! 

Hi and welcome. I am thrilled to be guesting with the team at Tic Tac Toe this week after winning a challenge there a wee while ago.

 

I chose trees, colouring and faux stitching to come up with this card using an adorable image from Stamping Bella.

I coloured the image then masked around it to create the sky and grass.  I then cut it down leaving the leaves sticking out the side.  I carefully die-cut the edges with a stitching die and mounted it onto a green panel die-cut with the same stitching die.

I then added a sentiment and called it done.  

Thanks so much to the team at Tic Tac Toe for inviting me.

Products used:

Stamps:  Gnome in a Tree (Stamping Bella), Elegant Sentiments (Waffle Flower)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Amalgam (Gina K), Forest Glades (Altenew), Tumbled Glass Distress Ink

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It, Lush Green Collection (Memory Box)

Dies:  Basic Stitch Lines (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, White Gel Pen, Micro Cloud Edges Stencil (MFT)

Cheers

Karren

Get Well

   I'm here with my card for the latest challenge at Fusion where I created a fusion of both photo and sketch to come up with this card:

 

I focused on the bookshelf theme and the colours in the photo and coloured up these images from a Birdie Brown set.  Once coloured, I die-cut them with the co-ordinating dies and arranged them on a strip of woodgrain patterned paper.

On the white card base, I dry-embssed a text embossing folder for added interest and finished with a Get Well Soon sentiment, which was white-embssed ont black and die-cut.

Thanks so much for visiting.  I hope you'll check out the fabulous cards made by the DT and play along.

I'm also playing along with the CAS challenge at Krafty Chicks and the Cute challenge at Time Out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Our Story (MFT), Elegant Sentiments (Waffle Flower)

Ink:  Versamark, Amalgam (Gina K)

Cardstock:  White, Black, X-Press It, Wood & Notebook Basics (Snap Basics)

Dies:  Our Story (MFT), Elegant Sentiments (Waffle Flower)

Accessories:  Copics, White EP, Timeless Type EF (SU)

Cheers

Karren

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

Dad's Birthday

 Hi and welcome!  I'm here today with a card for the latest sketch at Freshly Made Sketches, where our hostess is Judy Rozema.  I flipped Judy's sketch to come up with this card for my Dad who will be 89 next month.

I had just got some new hot foil plates and couldn't wait to try them out.  So I took a panel of white cardstock and using Platinum foil, I foiled the frame and the splatters.  I then stamped the Happy Birthday sentiment with black ink.

The word "Dad" was die-cut three times from black cardstock and once from some alcohol-inked Yupo paper I had in my stash.  I stacked them together and adhered them to mimic the sketch.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Many Everyday Messages (Hero Arts)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, various Alcohol Inks

Cardstock:  White, Black, Yupo, Pewter Hot Foil (Spellbinders)

Dies:  Splatter Sentiments (Spellbinders), Dad (MFT)

Cheers

Karren

Christmas Cheer With Newton

Hi, I'm thrilled to be back again with a card for the Caffeinated Christmas challenge where this month the team is looking for green.  I chose a sponsor image I have had for several years to come up with this Christmas card.

I created the wreath with a WPlus 9 set onto a white panel and die-cut it with a wonky rectangle die.  I then stamped and coloured up Newton with his coffee.  The sentiment is from another WPlus9 set.  I mounted this panel onto a green panel cut with a larger wonky rectangle die and then onto a white card base.

Thanks so much for visiting and thanks to the team at Caffeinated Christmas for inviting me to play along this month.

Products used:

Stamps:  Newton Loves Coffee (Newton's Nook), Welcome Wreath, Poinsettia Bouquets (WP9)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Amalgam, Green Valley, Ruby Red, Espresso sets (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Green (SSS), X-Press It

Dies:  Newton Loves Coffee (Newton's Nook), Wonky Stitched Rectangle Stax (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, Copic MultiLiner, Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen

 

Blooming Branch

I'm back with my card for our newest sketch at Freshly Made Sketches, where our hostess this week is Amy O'Neill.

I had found this stamped and stenciled image in its stamp pocket and thought it would work well for the sketch so I set about finding co-ordinating colours.  The card base was embossed with the Subtle embossing folder and onto that I added the green scalloped panel, also dry embossed, with the bottom cut with the hemstitch rectangle die to match the centre panel.  Speaking of the centre panel, this was a piece of the Memory Box Color Wheel Paper Pad collection, which I love!  I also die-cut that with the hemstitch rectangle dies.

I stamped the sentiment in Onyx Black ink and clear embossed it before adding the floral element with foam tape and finishing with some enamel accents.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Blooming Branch, Bloom (Pink Fresh Studio)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Martian Terrain, Coffee Break, Tropical Forest sets (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Lush Green, Berry Red (Memory Box)

Dies:  Blooming Branch (Pink Fresh Studio), Stitched Scalloped Borders (Lawn Fawn), Hemstitch Rectangles (Spellbinders)

Cheers

Karren

 

Teal Roses

 Hi and welcome to the latest challenge from the team at Fusion.  I decided to just play with the inspiration photo this time and tried to recreate the look using dies and ink.

I made the flowers using Memory Box papers and gold foil.  Before I placed them onto the cardbase, I used a watercolor wash freeform stencil and sponged various Distress Inks through it.  I then flicked on some Faded Jeans ink and spritzed with mica spray.

I finished with a bold sentiment, but in hindsight I wish I'd centred it rather than positioning it to the right hand side, but it is what it is.

Thanks so much for visiting.  I hope you'll visit the challenge site and see the cards made by my fantastic teamies.

Products used:

Stamps:  Say It In A Starburst (MFT)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Peacock Feathers, Salvaged Patina, Evergreen Bough Distress Inks, Enchanted Gold, Nimbus (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Bristol Smooth, Matte Gold Foil, Hot Fudge, Milk Chocolate (MFT), Fresh Aqua (Memory Box)

Dies:  Bloom Colorize (Sizzix), Layered Leaves (MFT)

Accessories:  Watercolor Wash Free Form Stencil (MFT), Enamel Dots

Cheers

Karren

Playing Cards

Hi and welcome!  I'm thrilled to be playing cards today with my friend from across the world, Michele Ferguson.  Michele invited me to play cards with her and the guideline for this challenge was to celebrate National OLD Stuff Day! and play with stamps older than 5 years.  I immediately thought of my poor, neglected wood-mounted stamps that I started collecting back in circa 2001 when I first started stamping.  And what fun it was to go through those drawers and decide what I was going to use.  I ended up using three wood-mounted stamps to make this card.

So my first challenge in making this card was finding my Stamp-a-majig because the Misti wasn't going to work 😆  Once I found it, I stamped the background stamp multiple times on a panel of X-Press It cardstock using London Fog Memento ink (Copic-friendly).  I then stamped the bucket of tulips over the top and coloured with my Copics.

The final stamp was the Penny Black sentiment.  I die-cut the panel with a postage frame die and foam-mounted it onto a Fog cardbase that I'd run through my die-cutting machine with the Subtle embossing folder.  I finished with some soft gray enamel dots.

Thanks so much for visiting and a huge thanks to Michele for inviting me to play cards with her.  I'm heading over to her blog now to check out her card.  And you never know, Michele, one day we might be able to play cards in person!

Products used:

Stamps:  Bucket of Tulips K-1695 (PSX from 2001), Manuscript Background H2141 (Hero Arts from 2001), Thank You 2421F (Penny Black from 2002)

Ink:  London Fog (Memento), Amalgam (Gina K), Versafine Onyx Black

Cardstock:  Fog (SSS), X-Press It

Dies:  Postal Frames (The Greetery)

Accessories:  Copics, Enamel Dots, Subtle EF (SU)

Cheers

Karren

 

Jukebox

 Welcome!  Today's card is for the latest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches where it is my turn to host.  As usual, I came up with a simple sketch and used the wide open space in the middle to create a small scene for this cute jukebox stamp.

After stamping and Copic-colouring the jukebox, I fussy-cut it out and set it to one side while I created the background.  I stamped one of the images from the On The Ground set and coloured the black squares with Copics.  I then masked off that area and lightly sponged mint ink above that, fading into white.

I then gold-embossed the sentiment and bordered the long edges with gold foil cardstock.  The card base is white, but I added two black strips I'd embossed with the Window Slats embossing folder.  There are no embellishments because I made this for a male.

Thanks so much for visiting.  I hope you'll play along this week after checking out the fabulous cards made by the design team.

I'm entering this card into Time Out Challenges 8th Birthday challenge as well as Addicted to Stamps and More All Occasions challenge.

Products used:

Stamps:  Jukebox Jive (SugarPea Designs), On the Ground (SSS)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K.), Versamark, Versafine Onyx Black, 

Cardstock:  White, Black, Gold, X-Press It

Accessories:  Copics, Gold EP, Window Slats Embossing Folder (Altenew)

Holly Coffee

 Hi and welcome!  I'm thrilled to be guest-designing with the Caffeinated Christmas Challenge team this month.  And our theme this month is Coffee and Green.

My card evolved over several hours.  I knew I wanted to use the leaves from the Seasonal Sketch die set and this coffee cup I coloured with Copics, but I couldn't figure out how to tie it together and add the Christmas theme.  But as I was trawling through my Christmas dies, I came across this frame and knew I could make it work.

Once I had all the components, it didn't take much to pull together.  The card base is Whip Cream and I dry embossed it with the Subtle EF.  I adhered the coffee cup and the leaves directly to the frame then popped them all up on foam tape, which looks great in real life but gave some horrible shadows in the photos!

Thanks so much for visiting.  This challenge is being sponsored by Newton's Nook and while I didn't use their products for this card, watch this space...  Just sayin'...

Products used:

Stamps:  Thanks a Latte (Lawn Fawn)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K Designs)

Cardstock:  Whip Cream, Black Licorice, Prickly Pear, Jelly Bean (MFT), X-Press It

Dies:  Seasonal Sketch (Tim Holtz), Holiday Frames (SSS)

Accessories:  Copics, Subtle EF (SU)

Cheers

Karren