Rainbow of Happiness

 Today’s card uses Cecile’s sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches and I was stumped at first then thought of a deconstructed rainbow so that’s what I went with.

To avoid too many clashing colours, I kept the other elements neutral. The sentiment comes from an old SugarPea Designs stamp set.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Whatever the Weather (SugarPea Designs)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Lost Shadow Distress Ink

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

Dies:  Lovely Layers: April Showers (Honey Bee Designs)

Accessories:  Subtle Embossing Folder (SU)

Cheers

Karren

Willow Wishes

 Hi and welcome to a new sketch from the team at Freshly Made Sketches, where our hostess this week is Jen Brum.  I am still not feeling very creative after my break from card-making so this is a pretty simple card - that still took forever to pull together!

I'll just say upfront that I completely missed where the sentiment should go, so just ignore that little error, please.

The background is the result of a foiling mistake where I placed the plate upside down on my Glimmer.  This is the negative and I like the soft, abstract look of this.  But I can't remember what plate I used so I'll never be able to recreate this!  The pussy willows were ink-blended when I was away from home recently and I decided instead of a circle, to use two tags.

Thanks for visiting.  The design team have some gorgeous samples to inspire you to play along.

Products used:

Stamps:  Envelope of Wonder Sentiments (Spellbinders

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, various Altenew inks

Cardstock:  White

Dies:  Botanicuts: Pussy Willow (The Greetery), Tags (Spellbinders Advent Calendar 2023)

Accessories:  Baker's Twine, Pacific Northwest Pearls (Honey Bee Stamps)

Cheers

Karren

Floral Wishes

Hi, I’m back after a break of a few weeks. My daughter has major surgery in another city and I went with her as her support.  I took some white die-cuts with me and some ink cubes and spent a little time ink-blending. The flowers used in this card are some of those die-cuts.

This card uses the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches where this week our sketch hostess is Kim Singdahlsen. I wasn’t feeling very crafty after a busy and stressful few weeks so this card isn’t my best but it’ll do. 

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Sentiment Strips (Altenew)

Ink:  Versamark, various Altenew and Pink Fresh inks

Cardstock:  White, Fog (SSS), Cement Gray (MFT)

Dies:  Garden Wreath Add Ons (Spellbinders), Anytime Tags, Stitched Mats Rectangle (Lil Inkers

Accessories:  White EP, Grand Stream Washi (Altenew), Autumn Pearl Stickers (Honey Bee Stamps)

Cheers

Karren

 

Trio of Daisies

 Hi and welcome!  Today's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches was designed by Judy Rozema and I immediately saw a trio of flowers so that's what I went with.

I used the NBUS Upsy Daisy die from MFT and cut out multiples of each size.  I then lightly ink-blended some yellow in the centres and pink around the edges before layering them up with foam dots in between the layers.  The leaves and centres were also ink-blended.

They looked a bit plain on the card base so I added some embossing paste over a stencil and also a stacked frame.  The sentiment came from my already-foiled stash.

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

Products used:

Ink:  Frosty Pink, Mountain Mist, Silver Sage, Jade, Buttercream, Warm Sunshine, Sand Dunes (Altenew

Cardstock:  White

Dies:  Upsy Daisy (MFT), You Are Everything Sentiments BetterPress and Die (Spellbinders, Nesting Rectangle Frames (Waffle Flower)

Accessories:  Letter & Number Stencil (Stamperia), White Embossing Paste

Cheers

Karren

Friendship Boots

 Hi!  I'm here with a card for the latest Tic-Tac-ToeTic-Tac-Toe challenge and this time, I went right down the left column with Layers-Die-cut-Patterned Paper to come up with this card.

These dies are just new to me and I decided to make a fun card using polka dot paper.  To be honest, I pretty much bought this die set for the flowers but the rest of it isn't bad!

I did some ink-blending to add a bit of dimension and shading and used a pre-foiled sentiment.  Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Ink:  Mustard Seed, Kitsch Flamingo, Rusty Hinge, Wilted Violet, Twisted Citron, Forest Moss Distress Inks

Cardstock:  White, Black, Party Patterns (MFT), various coloured cardstock scraps

Dies:  Lovely Layers: April Showers (Honey Bee Stamps), Hexi Gem Sentiments Hot Foil and Dies (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Gold hot foil

Cheers

Karren

Postage Thanks

Hi and welcome. Our sketch hostess this week at Freshly Made Sketches is Amy O’Neill. I immediately saw postage in the sketch and went to work with a new stencil set and the Postage Collage due from Waffle Flower.

I was guided by the Colour Cubes for my colour combo and used Altenew inks. Once stenciled, I cut the due apart and arranged the elements onto a larger postage die panel.  After stamping a sentiment I adhered the panel to a white card base and called it done.
 

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Postage Collage (Waffle Flower), Sentiment Strips (Altenew)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx black, Bamboo, Parrot, Mocha, Espresso, Wisteria, Hydrangea, Andromeda, Ultramarine, Azurite, Citrus Burst, Fresh Lemon, Pale Mauve, Amethyst, Silver Sage (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Grout Gray (MFT)

Dies:  Postage Collage (Waffle Flower), Postage Edge Rectangles (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Postage Collage Blocks Stencil, Wild Flower Stencil (Waffle Flower)

Cheers

Karren

Spotlight Rose

 Hi all.  A very quick post from me as I have left this to the last minute to write up!  Today's sketch hostess over at Freshly Made Sketches is Narelle Farrugia.  I wanted to use some new stamps, dies and stencils so made it work by creating a spotlight card.

This is an Altenew Craft Your Life kit called Bewitching Rose and it is lovely.  I created the flower then die-cut a circle from the centre then I ran it through the matching embossing folder before matting it with a black circle and adhering it back onto the main image.  To mimic the sketch, I added a blue-gray square in the top right corner.  I used the same colour cardstock for the sentiment strip and finished with some cool-tone pearls.

Thanks for visiting.  

Products used:

Stamps:  Bewitching Rose (Altenew)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Pink Pearl, Coral Bliss, Coral Berry, Ruby Red, Bamboo, Parrot, Olive, Moss (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Black, Stone Gray (MFT)

Dies:  Bewitching Rose (Altenew), Infinity Circles (Hero Arts), Nesting Rounded Squares (Lifestyle Crafts)

Accessories:  Bewitching Rose Embossing Folder (Altenew), Cool Pearls (Honey Bee Stamps), Bewitching Rose Stencils (Altenew)

Cheers

Karren

Got Thyme?

 Hi!  It's time for another Freshly Made Sketch Challenge and this week I am the sketch hostess.  I designed a simple sketch with a grouping of three elements.  For my own card, I flipped the sketch to come up with this:

This was not what I envisaged when I designed the sketch, but I had just received these new dies from Honey Bee Stamps and thought they would work well.  I used a combination of patterned paper, coloured cardstock, with added ink blending, and metallic cardstock with the dies.  The background was die-cut with an older The Greetery die and adhered to a white card base.  I then added some patterned paper for the "floor".  Before I added the pots, I heat embossed the sentiment with copper embossing powder to match the signs.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Sentiment Strips (Altenew)

Ink:  Versamark, Moss, Parrot, Olive, Grass Field (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Avocade, Artichoke (C+9), New Leaf (PTI), Steel Gray, Cement Gray (MFT), Copper Metallic, Grain & Grunge (Honey Bee)

Dies:  Lovely Layers: Herb Garden (Honey Bee Stamps), Herringbone Parquet (The Greetery)

Accessories:  Copper Embossing Powder (Altenew)

Cheers

Karren

Ampersand

 Hi and welcome!  Today's sketch hostess over at Freshly Made Sketches is Cecile Ribon and as always, she's given us a fun and unique sketch to play with.  Here's my card:

Originally I was going to do a colour-blocked card, but that evolved into this.  I found the Ampersand dies that I'd never used and through it would work for the centre element.  There is lots of gold embossing in this card and all the floral elements were ink-blended.

Thanks so much for visiting.  The design team have created gorgeous cards so I hope you'll check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Bitty Thanks and Gratitude (MFT), Confetti Borders (The Ton)

Ink:  Versamark, Sunkissed, Orange Cream, Pastel Sunrise, Canyon Clay, Burnt Red, Mahogany Bark, Mountain Mist, Volcano Lake, Cloudy Sky, Nimbus (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Indigo (Spellbinders)

Dies:  Sentimental Ampersand (Spellbinders), Sentiment Labels (SSS)

Accessories:  Antique Gold EP (SSS), Clear Drops: Champagne (Pink Fresh)

Cheers

Karren

Fishing

 Hi and welcome.  Today's card is for the latest Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge  where I went right down the centre with Slimline-Stenciling-Fishing to come up with this masculine card.

I stenciled the circles onto a mini-slimline card base and then added the stamped, Copic-coloured and die-cut elements.  Finally I finished with a stamped sentiment and called it done!

Thanks so much for visiting.  I hope you'll have time to play along!

Products used:

Stamps:  Fishing Legend (Honey Bee Stamps)

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

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It

Dies:  Fishing Legend (Honey Bee Stamps)

Accessories:  Fading Circles (SSS), Copics

Cheers

Karren

Oval Flowers

 It's time for another challenge from the team at Freshly Made Sketches and this week our hostess is Jen Brum.  And here's my card:

Can I just say up-front that I am embarrased by this card.  It will probably never see the light of day again 😆  I decided to do some Copic-colouring for the first time time in almost two months and, boy, am I rusty!  I really, really don't like how this image came out but time was against me so it is what it is.  After colouring the image, I used my Scan n Cut to cut it out.  Onto a Peacock card base I added some woodgrain paper I cut with the Torn Edges die.  I then added the coloured image and finished with a pre-hot foiled sentiment.

Thanks so much for visiting.  I hope you'll check out the wonderful cards made by the design team.  And please send good vibes to the universe that I get my missing mojo back soon - it's been months!

Products used:

Stamps:  Stylish Oval Birthday Wishes (Spellbinders)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K.)

Cardstock:  X-Press It, Peacock (C&9), Grain & Grunge (Honey Bee Stamps), White

Dies:  Torn Edges (MFT), Hexi Gem Sentiments Hot Foil (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Copics, Black Hot Foil

Cheers

Karren

Holly Background

 Hi and welcome!  Today's sketch hostess over at Freshly Made Sketches is Kim Singdahlsen and she has given us some fun angles to play with.  I had just received a new hot foil cover plate with matching stencils so decided to put that to use for another Christmas card for my meagre stash.

After hot-foiling and stenciling, I then cut the panel at an angle and adhered it on top of a strip of gold sparkle cardstock.  I added thin slivers of the same sparkle cardstock to both stenciled pieces.

The sentiment was probably the hardest part because it took an age to find a sentiment die that fit proportionately in the space.  Finally, I decided on this MFT die and stacked it three high before adhering to the card.

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

Products used:

Ink:  Evergreen, Moss, Hunter Green, Green Onyx, Crimson, Rhodolite (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, black, Gold Sparkle (MFT)

Dies:  Glimmer Holly Background Hot Foil (Spellbinders), Merry Christmas (MFT)

Accessories:  Glimmer Holly Background stencils (Spellbinders), Driftwood Hot Foil

Cheers

Karren

Birthday Wishes

 Hi and welcome.

Linda Callahan is our sketch hostess at Freshly Made Sketches this week and I took a few liberties to come up with this card.

The die-cuts were from a previous crafty session so this card was reasonably simple to put together. 

The gold frame was die-cut using two oval frames stacked together.  I added it to a white card base, arranged the flowers and then added a NBUS hot-foiled sentiment on black.  

As an aside, I placed my first crafty order since January last week, in the hopes that getting new stuff will inspire me.  Fingers crossed!

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

Products used:

Ink:  Sage, Pastel Sunrise, Vanilla Cream, Coral Bliss (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Black, Sage (Spellbinders), Coral Crush, Peach Bellini, In the Buff (MFT), Cream (SSS), Matte Gold Foil

Dies:  Be Bold Blooms, Essential Stylish Ovals, You Are Everything Sentimenst BetterPress (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Gold Hot Foil

Cheers

Karren

Flower Cart

    Hi all and welcome to my blog.  Today's card is for the latest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches where our sketch hostess is Jen Mitchell.

I flipped the topmost panel to the other side to fit better with my die-cut but other than that, I stuck pretty closely to the sketch.  This is the first time I'd put together this flower cart die and it was pretty easy.  The card base is kraft and I added some patterned paper and some thin slivers of Forest cardstock top and bottom to help define the layers.

The sentiment was white heat-embossed onto the same Forest cardstock and added to complete the card.  

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Elegant Sentiments (Waffle Flower)

Ink:  Versamark, Rocky Shore, Jade, Coral Bliss, Industrial Diamond, Volcano Lake (Altenew)

Cardstock:  Neenah Desert Storm, Velvet Rose, Forest (Spellbinders), Amarena Cherry, Gravel Gray, Hot Fudge (MFT), Guava (Lawn Fawn), Ocean Tides (PTI), Grain & Grunge (Honey Bee Stamps)

Dies:  Market Cart Builder (Honey Bee Stamps), Elegant Sentiment (Waffle Flower)

Accessories:  White EP

Cheers

Karren

Big Things

Hi and welcome to my blog.  Today's card is for the latest challenge at Tic-Tac-Toe where I went with the left-hand column of Stencil-Green-Foliage.

This background panel was a mistake because I put everything upside down on the Glimmer machine so it embossed the cardstock and didn't transfer the silver foil properly.  I kept the panel for months and months because I quite like the look and thought it worked well with this stenciled and hot-foiled leaf.

The sentiment is silver embossed onto black.  I gave this card to my daughter when she ventured into a classroom for the first time on her first placement at a high school as part of her teacher training.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Detailed Leaf (Pink Fresh)

Ink:  Versamark, Sea Shore set (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White Black

Dies:  Detailed Leaf Hot Foil and Die (Pink Fresh), Quadrant Backdrop Hot Foil (Pink Fresh), A2 Rectangle Stax 1 & 2 (MFT)

Accessories:  Silver hot foil, silver embossing powder, Detailed Leaf stencils

Cheers

Karren

 

Embossed Day

Hi and welcome!  Today's Freshly Made Sketch challenge was designed by Jennifer Timko and I took a literal route to come up with this card.

Please excuse the watermark.  My daughter borrowed my laptop so I had to make do with a very basic text overlay!  I pulled out Beautiful Day for this card and stamped the layering images before die-cutting.  I arranged them onto a dark gray circle die-cut and then onto a dry-embossed lighter gray panel.  I finished with a die-cut sentiment, using direct-to-paper to get the same colour shadow panel as my leaves.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Beautiful Day (Altenew)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K.), Orange Sorbet, Pastel Sunrise, Canyon Clay, Misty Morning, Cloudy Sky (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Steel. Gray, Gravel Gray (MFT)

Dies:  Beautiful Day (Altenew), Just a Note Posh Script (Memory Box), Infinity Circles (Hero Arts)

Accessories:  Four Petal Flowers Embossing Folder (Spellbinders)

Cheers

Karren

 

Berry Boxes

Hi all and thanks for dropping by!  Today's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches was designed by Judy Rozema and at first I was at a loss for how to use it.  Then I had the idea of frames and from there it sort of became a Christmas card.

We've just finished a 4-day long weekend for Easter and, boy, was it good to have those extra two days.  I actually enjoyed a few hours in my craft room and enjoyed putting this card together.  Onto a black card base, I added three thin gold foil cardstock frames.  I added a hot-foiled sentiment into the bottom frame and then popped in some hot-foiled and stenciled leaves and berries into all three frames.

No other embellishments as there is quite a bit of gold already 😄

Thanks so much for visiting.  The design team have some fabulous cards so please head over and check them out.

Products used:

Ink:  Volcano Lake, Lagoon, Crimson, Velvet (Altenew)

Cardstock:  Black, Gold Foil Cardstock

Dies:  Winter Berries Frame Hot Foil and Die (Pink Fresh), Holiday Florals Background (Spellbinders), A2 Thin Frames (SSS)

Cheers

Karren