Circles and Leaves

Hi and welcome!  Today is the first time since I finished work for the holiday break that I've actually wanted to make a card.  It really irritates me that when I get the opportunity to make cards every day, I don't want to!  Of course, it does take time to decompress after the working year and this is day 8 so I guess about a week to unwind and relax is normal. 

Anyway, onto today's card.  I was scrolling through Pinterest and was drawn to a print I found there and that gave me the impetus to actually go into my craft room and start creating.  This is the result:

I started with a gray panel and using a circle stencil and some circle masks I die-cut from stencil material, I stenciled the background.  On some of the circles, before removing the stencil, I would flick on some gold, black and/or white ink.  Once it was dry, I die-cut it with a stitched rectangle die and adhered it to a white card base.

For the foliage, I die-cut various leaves from both black and gold cardstock and arranged them onto the card panel.  The large black leaf die is popped up on foam tape.  The sentiment was hot-foiled in gold onto black and popped up with foam tape.

Thanks for visiting.  I am going to link this card to the All Occasions challenge at Krafty Chicks as well as the Anything Goes stencil challenge at Happy Little Stampers (so sorry to see they are going on an indefinite break - but totally understand.  Running a challenge is hard work - let alone running several).

Products used:

Ink:  Eucalyptus, Green Opal, Lemonade Stand, Caramel Toffee, Mangrove Root (Altenew), Unicorn White (Hero Arts), Black Soot Distress Ink

Cardstock:  White, Black, Cement Gray (MFT)

Dies:  Infinity Circles (Hero Arts), Standard Circles, Hexi-Gem Sentiments Hot Foil, Sealed Botanical Sprigs (Spellbinders), Tattered Leaves (SSS), Stitched Rectangle Stax (MFT)

Accessories:  Basic Shapes - Circles Stencil (MFT), Gold hot foil, Gold Color Shine (Heidi Swapp), White Acrylic Paint.

Cheers

Karren

Gold Birthday

 Hi all!  I'm here with my card for the reminder challenge over at The Flower Challenge where we are looking for gold in your floral cards.  I decided to add some gold hot foiling as well as gold pigment ink and pearls to my floral card.

These flowers were stamped, coloured with the co-ordinating stencils and die-cut.  I hot-foiled a gold frame onto a white card base and a gold sentiment onto a scrap and die-cut it with a fishtail flag die.  After arranging everything onto the card base, I added some gold pearls and called it done!

Thanks so much for visiting.  Please check out the fabulous cards made by the design team and join in our last challenge of the year.

Products used:

Stamps:  In the Woodland (Altenew)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K), Water Hyacinth, Alpine Aster, Silver Sage, Jade, Enchanted Gold (Altenew), S'Mores (Catherine Pooler)

Cardstock:  White

Dies:  In the Woodland (Altenew), A2 Layers Hot Foil (Waffle Flower), Fancy Sentiment Strips (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  In the Woodland stencils (Altenew), Gold Pearls (Honey Bee Stamps)

Cheers

Karren

Christmas Goodies

Hi and welcome!  Our sketch hostess at Freshly Made Sketches this week is Amy O'Neill and she has a fabulous sketch for us.  I have to admit to being a bit over making Christmas cards and I haven't even given a thought to posting any yet!

But still, I made another Christmas card - primarily because a big Spellbinders order from Black Friday arrived and I wanted to play.

I die-cut all the elements from white cardstock and blended ink onto the pieces in various colours.  Once finished I found a pre-foiled sentiment panel and figured that I would arrange all the elements around the sentiment.  Once it was all arranged and glued down, I dry-embossed a background panel using more NBUS and adhered that to a white card base.

I finsihed with the sentiment panel and topped everything off with some clear sparkle pen.

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

Products used:

Ink:  Crimson, Velvet, Rhodolite, Bamboo, Olive, Volcano Lake, Lagoon, Limestone, Fresh Lemon, Honey Drizzle (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Summer Splash (MFT)

Dies:  Christmas Wonder (Spellbinders) Holiday Florals Hot Foil (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Holiday Greenery EF (Spellbinders), Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen, Navy Hot Foil

Cheers

Karren

 

Pinecones

 Hi and welcome!  It's my turn to design the sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches and I came up with this one in about 30 seconds - then wondered what on earth I was going to make with it!  In the end, some NBUS dies came to the rescue.

I die-cut the pinecones and needles from white cardstock and used ink to colour them up.  Onto the pinecones, I flicked some Black Soot distress ink followed by gold ink and onto the needles just the gold ink.  I then assembled the pieces and adhered it all together.  

The patterned paper is from some my mother gave me and is from CTMH.  The Desert Sorm card based was embossed with the Burlap embossing folder.

Finally, the sentiment is a BetterPress plate that was hot-foiled with gold foil.

Thanks so much for visiting.  The design team have made some fabulous cards so I hope you'll check them out.

Products used:

Ink:  Evergreen, Green Onyx, Enchanted Gold (Altenew), S'Mores (Catherine Pooler), Ground Espresso, Black Soot Distress Ink

Cardstock:  Neenah Desert Storm, White, Home for Christmas patterned paper (CTMH)

Dies:  Lovely Layers: Winter Greenery (Honey Bee Stamps), Fishtail Flag Stax (MFT), Fancy Sentiment Strips (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Burlap EF (Honey Bee Stamps), Gold Hot Foil

Cheers

Karren

Poinsettia

Hi!  I'm late with my post for the newest challenge over at The Flower Challenge where this month we are asking players to use gold.  Here's my card which features gold embossing and gold pearls. 

I actually made this card some weeks ago and then realised last week it would work for this challenge - so win!  I stamped, stenciled and die-cut the flower and added a die-cut cover plate to a white card base.  The sentiment was gold heat-embossed then I went around the edged with darker ink to make it stand out more,

Finally, I finished with some gold pearls.

Thanks so much for visiting!  Please check out the fabulous cards made by the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Festive Poinsettia (Alex Syberia Designs)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K), Versamark, Sage, Spruce, Rose Petals, Rouge, Peppermint Scrub, Merlot (Catherine Pooler)

Cardstock:  White, Cranberry Cocktail (MFT)

Dies:  Festive Poinsettia (Alex Syberia Designs), Rock Glass (Catherine Pooler)

Accessories:  Festive Poinsettia Stencils (Alex Syberia Designs), Gold EP, Gold Pearls

Cheers

Karren

Guava Thanks

 Welcome to a new Tic-Tac-Toe challenge.  This week I went with Pearls - Two-Step Stamping - Embossing for my card.

I already had these flowers and leaves stamped and die-cut so this card came together pretty quickly.  I dry-embossed the Tufted folder onto Fog cardstock, edged it with some Guava cardstock and added it to a white card base.  The sentiment was die-cute from Guava and Gravel Gray cardstock and I finished with some pearls to match.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Beautiful Day (Altenew)

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

Cardstock:  White, Guava (Lawn Fawn), Fog (SSS), Gravel Gray (MFT)

Dies:  Beautiful Day (Altenew), Yana's Layered Script Sentiments (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Autumn Pearls (Honey Bee Stamps), Tufted Embossing Folder (Spellbinders)

Cheers

Karren

Starry Birthday

Hi!  Our sketch hostess this week over at Freshly Made Sketches is Jen Brum and I knew exactly what die I would use when I saw her sketch. 

This die was given to me by my mother who accidentally ordered two of the same (haven't we all done that??)  I die-cut it from white three times and from a gold-speckled patterned paper and pieced it together.  The sentiment looks really garish in the photo but in real life the gold is matte and much more subdued and works with the gold speckles beautifully.

I finsihed the card with some enamel dots and called it done.  Thanks for visiting.  The design team have some fabulous interpretations of the sketch so please head over and check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Bitty Birthday Wishes (MFT)

Ink:  Versamark

Cardstock:  White, Black, Gold Matte Foil, Spiffier Speckles (Lawn Fawn)

Dies:  Star Cluster (Close to My Heart_, Outline Hello (Waffle Flower)

Accessories:  White EP, Red Cosmos Enamel Dots (Altenew)

Cheers

Karren

Snowy Porch

Hi and welcome to my blog!  I'm here with a card for the latest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches, where Kim Singhdahlsen is our sketch hostess.  I had to play with some NBUS dies so designed my card around this gorgeous Front Porch die and the add-on Christmas set. 

This is a big die so to fit the sketch, I made a 5x7 card.  All the elements were die-cut from white cardstock apart from the door and sidelights which were cut from red.  I coloured the various elements with distress ink and assembled it all.  For the background I adhered Dark Indigo to the card base then added a panel behind the front porch which I edged with matte silver cardstock and popped up with foam tape.  The horizontal element in the sketch is the snowdrift and I added a reverse foiled sentiment along the bottom.

This is such a cool die and I am hoping Honey Bee come out with more add-on sets.  Thanks for visiting - please check out the wonderful cards made by the rest of the design team.

Products used:

Ink:  Peacock Feathers, Ground Espresso, Walnut Stain, Pumice Stone, Rustic Wilderness, Antique Linen, Black Soot Distress Inks, Versamark

Cardstock:  White, Dark Indigo (PTI), Amarena Cherry (MFT) Silver Matte Foil

Dies:  Lovely Layers: Front Porch, Front Porch Holiday Add-On (Honey Bee Stamps), Holiday Sentiments Series 2 (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Copics, White EP, Silver Hot Foil

Cheers

Karren

Striped Wreath

 It's my turn this week to design the board over at Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge. For my card, I went two ways: Stripes-Free-Flowers and Sparkle-Flowers-Celebration.

This card was pretty simple to put together.  The wreath was all cut from white cardstock and coloured with ink-blending.  The black cover plate was added to a white card base and then I arrange the wreath and a negative hot-foiled sentiment.  All of the flowers were spritzed with shimmer spray before being added to the wreath.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Products used:

Cardstock:  White, Black

Dies:  Build-a-Wreath, Hexi-Gem Sentiments Hot Foil and Die (Spellbinders), Bold Stripes Cover-Up (MFT)

Accessories:  Gold hot foil, Sparkling Clear Sequins, Shimmer Spray

Cheers

Karren

Yellow Day

 Hi all!  I'm back with my reminder card for the current challenge over at The Flower Challenge where we are looking for yellow, black and white cards featuring flowers.

I have to admit to really liking this card!  The yellow panel was created with mica stain sprays and adhered to a black panel before adding to my white card base.  The Beautiful Day image was stamped in yellows and light grays before being die-cut with the co-ordinating dies.  Finally the sentiment was stamped, die-cut and stacked.

Thanks for visiting!  Please check out what the rest of the design team have created with this colour challenge.

Products used:

Stamps:  Beautiful Day (Altenew), Love Thanks (Waffle Flower)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K.), Versafine Onyx Black, Fresh Lemon, Honey Drizzle (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Black

Dies:  Beautiful Day (Altenew), Love Thanks (Waffle Flower)

Accessories:  Mica Stain Sprays:  Harvest Moon, Flickering Candle, Frozen Fog

Cheers

Karren

Triangle Trees

Hi and welcome to the latest sketch from the team at Freshly Made Sketches, where our hostess this week is Linda Callahan.  I again used my Trinity Stamps Cardmaking Sketchbook to design my card and the execution was made so much quicker!   

My only deviation from the sketchbook was that I had originally thought to emboss the triangle trees, but then saw some metallic gold spray and decided to drop that onto the ink-blended panels instead.  All in all a very quick card.  The sentiment was white embossed onto some peach coloured card and I finished with some clear confetti.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  The Man, The Myth (SSS)

Ink:  Versamark, Volcano Lake, Lagoon (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Peach Bellini (MFT)

Accessories:  White EP, Gold Color Shine (Heidi Swapp), Sparkling Clear Confetti (PPP)

Cheers

Karren

Frosted Flowers

Hi and welcome!  Jen Mitchell is our hostess over at Freshly Made Sketches this week and she is wanting a square card.  My card isn't totally square because the dimensions were a bit off on the various elements, but it's close to.

I started by die-cutting the tag from In the Navy cardstock and then I ran it through the die-cutting machine with the Japanese Anenome 3D embossing folder.  Once that was done, I lightly rubbed Versamark ink over the raised areas and then sprinkled on Frosted Crystal embossing powder and heat set it.  Once that was completed, I took some Sterling Foundry Wax and dabbed some over the heat embossed areas with my little finger, adding more or less to areas to add interest.  Finally, I heat-set the foundry wax and set the tag aside.  It's got such lovely texture in real life.  I bought the Frosted Crystal EP some time ago and couldn't remember what/who had inspired me to purchase it (typical!) so I've been playing around with it a bit lately.

The rest of the card was fairly simple.  I stamped a background stamp on some aqua paper and corner-rounded two corners.  I adhered that to a white card base and then took a previously prepared embossed panel which I'd sprayed with Frozen Fog mica stain spray.  I die-cut another tag and also a strip which I adhered to a strip of darker aqua cardstock.  I offset the navy tag from the silver one and added some navy baker's twine and glued it to the card.  Finally, I silver heat-embossed the sentiment, stacked it three deep and added that to the card.

This was an interesting exercise, because again I used my Cardmaking Sketchbook, but this time, I didn't take the time to actually plan out the card.  I drew the sketch onto one of the blank pages and put some vague ideas beside it about a Christmas sprig, patterned paper and a vellum band.  In the execution, I changed everything and without having the pre-planned sketch notes to help me, this took twice as long as last week's card.  I wrote a couple of notes in the sketchbook as I was working to remind me.  So my unintentional experiment proved to me that the time spent up-front planning the card saves me a lot of time in the execution.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  To The Wise One (Honey Bee), You Matter (SSS)

Ink:  Versamark, Pool (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, In The Navy (Gina K), Fresh Aqua (Memory Box)

Dies:  Stitched Traditional Tag Stax (MFT, To The Wise One (Honey Bee)

Accessories:  Sterling Foundry Wax, Frozen Fog Mica Spray Stain (Tim Holtz), Burlap Embossing Folder (Honey Bee), Japanese Anenome Embossing Folder (Lisa Horton), Silver EP, Frosted Crystal EP

Cheers

Karren

 

Thinking of White Flowers

 Hi and welcome!  As you may be aware, I have taken over the administration side of The Flower Challenge and have also temporarily stepped in as a designer due to a new member of the team not being able to join us until the new year.  This month's challenge is a colour challenge - Black, White and Yellow.  And here's my card:

I stamped the image in black ink and used pale gray inks with the acoompanying stencil to add a bit of shading.  I then coloured in the background with a yellow Copic marker, using the stippling technique to add more interest.  

I added a hot-foiled sentiment and called it done.

I hope you'll head over to the challenge blog to see the fabulous cards made by the design team and have a go yourself.  The challenge is open until the 25th of November eastern time and I'll be back again mid-month with another card using the same colours.

Products Used:

Stamps:  Miss Your Smile (Pink Fresh)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K), Pebble, Hoodie (Catherine Pooler)

Cardstock:  White, Black

Dies:  Hexi-Gem Sentiments Hot Foil and Die (Spellbinders), Mini Slimline Layers (Waffle Flower)

Accessories:  Miss Your Smile Stencils (Pink Fresh), Black Hot Foil, Y15 Copic Marker

Cheers

Karren

Snowflake Parade

 

Hi and welcome to another post for Tic-Tac-Toe where this week I went with the bottom row of Paper Tearing-Snowflakes-Blue to come up with this card.

I die-cut the snowflakes from a mix of navy cardstock and light blue sparkle cardstock.  I then die-cut strips of white and silver sparkle cardstock with a paper-tearing die.  Onto the white panel I hot-foiled the sentiment with navy foil.  Somehow it looks crooked in the photo above, but I assure you the sides are straight 😄 I think it's because the torn panels are popped up with foam tape.

I then put it all together and added some light blue pearls to finish.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Products used:

Cardstock:  White, Dark Indigo (PTI), Blue and Silver Sparkle Paper (MFT)

Dies:  Eliza, Kinley, Melody (SSS), Holiday Florals Background Hot Foil (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Navy Hot Foil, Pale Blue Pearls (Hero Arts)

Cheers

Karren

Let's Do Coffee

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

I was originally going to make another Christmas card, but as I was scrolling through my IG posts, I came across a photo of some of these miniature dies that I'd made up and thought they would work for the three circular elements on the sketch.    To make it even better, I'd just received the Trinity Stamps Cardmaking Sketchbook as a gift from Trinity Stamps and, can I just say, the few minutes spent planning the card saved me so much time in the execution.  Occasionally, I will sketch on scraps of paper a rough outline of my card design, but then the finer details take me ages to finalise when I'm making my card.  Using this sketchbook was such a time-saver and it looks so pretty.  It's quite large but when I'm not using it I keep it under my 6" Tim Holtz trimmer so it doesn't take up any real estate on my desk.  See below for a photo of my original sketch.  It came out pretty close with only a few minor alterations - mostly involving the sentiment.  

Anyway, back to the card.  I inlaid the panels back into the background die, using Grout Gray for 3 of them to mimic the sketch.  The heart was ink-blended to give some dimension and then I embossed the whole thing in Frosted Crystal embossing powder and it provided such a lovely look and texture.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Coffee Order (MFT)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Aqualicious, Velvet, Espresson (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Grout Gray, Summer Splash, Sour Apple, Red Hot (MFT), Silver Foil, brown scrap

Dies:  Snow Drifts Cover Up, Crafty Hands, Creature Comforts, Blueprints 4 (MFT)

Accessories:  Frosted Crystal EP, Copics (to colour hand)

Cheers

Karren

Minty Christmas

Hi it’s time for another sketch from the team at Freshly Made Sketches and our sketch hostess this week is Judy Rozema.

The background was stamped with Lost Shadow DOX ink on white and a strip was stamped with Versamark onto Fog cardstock and white heat-embossed.  I then layered the gray panel onto the background and added two strips of black on either side.  The main image was Copic-coloured and die-cut and I added it to an ink-blended panel with foam tape.

The sentiment was stamped in the same ink colour as the background panel and an inked panel was cut for the second banner layer.  For the stitched part of the sketch, I decided to die-cut some scalloped borders and layer them.  Again, I used the same ink in a direct-to-paper technique.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Holly Jolly BG (Honey Bee), Letter to Santa (MFT)

Ink:  Lost Shadow Distress Oxide, Versamark, Amalgam (Gina K), Mountain Mist, Volcano Lake (Altenew)

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

Dies:  Letter to Santa (MFT), Stitched Scallop Basic Edges (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, White EP, White Paint

Cheers

Karren