Be-Leaf

Edited:  I just realised I had my post set to publish next week instead of this week - doh!  Apologies!

Hi and welcome. I’m the sketch hostess this week at Freshly Made Sketches.  I had no card planned when I came up with the sketch and I don’t love my card but it will do.

I bought this propagation collection when Spellbinders had a big sale and this is their first outing. I used a combination of coloured card stock and ink-blending to put together the die-cut elements and patterned paper for the background.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Propagation Garden Sentiments (Spellbinders)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Green Opal, Forest Glades, Sand Dunes, Dew Drops (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Black, Jalapeno Popper (MFT), Avocade (C&9), Grain & Grunge (Honey Bee Stamps), Gingham Pastel (Echo Park)

Dies:  Propagated Plants, Laboratory Glassware (Spellbinders), Infinity Circle Dies (Hero Arts)

Cheers

Karren

Pinboard

Hi all, a quick post from me today.  Cecile Ribon is our sketch hostess over at Freshly Made Sketches and I went very literal because all I could see in her sketch was a Post-It note.  Luckily I had just received a die that is a pinboard note and pin so this card was pretty easy to put together and as I was pressed for time, it all worked well!

 

The photos are a bit glare-y so it's hard to see but I BetterPressed a script plate onto both the card base and the yellow note, using no ink for the card base and cream ink for the note.  I also added ink around the edges of the note to make it look more dimensional.  The sentiment was BetterPressed and die-cut and the flower was ink-blended with inks to match the pin.

This is a very simple card that came together quickly and definitely won't set the world on fire, but it meets the brief.  Thanks for visiting.  The design team have much more imaginative cards using the sketch so I hope you'll check them out.

Products used:

Ink:  Pink Diamond, Pinkalicious, Rubellite, Shadow Creek, Vanilla Cream (Altenew, Versafine Onyx Black

Cardstock:  White, Vanilla Cream (Altenew)

Dies:  Push Pin Notes, BPOM Post Edge Expressions, LDOM Lock & Key Mailbox (Spellbinders)

Cheers

Karren

Stitched Birthday

 Hi and welcome! Jen Brum is the hostess over at Freshly Made Sketches this week and I had the perfect die for it!

This MFT cover die was ideal for the sketch and I paired it with some NBUS dies from Waffle Flower. Most of the dies were cut with white card stock and ink-blended with various Altenew inks. The scissors, pins and safety pins were die-cut with silver mirror cardstock.

I finished with a hot-foiled sentiment. I sort of got my scale wrong for the top panel, but you can almost see the sketch!

The design team have some gorgeous cards so I hope you’ll check them out.

Products used:

Ink:  Volcano Lake, Lagoon, Pastel Sunrise, Dusty Rose, Limestone (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Fog (SSS), Silver Mirror

Dies:  Notions, Sew Fun (Waffle Flower, You Are Everything Sentiments (Spellbinders), Stitched Cover-Up Horizontal (MFT)

Accessories:  Silver Hot Foil

Best Dad

 Hi and welcome!  I'm here with my card for the latest challenge at Tic-Tac-Toe where I went in two directions:  Die-cuts - Ribbon/Twine - Embossing Folder and Masculine - Ribbon/Twine - Plaid.

Onto a panel of Desert Storm cardstock, I embossed with the Woven embossing folder and then adhered to a white card base.  I added a panel of plaid patterned paper and then a sliver of gold embossed cardstock (in hindsight, I regret that strip but it was too late to rip it off).  The sentiment was die-cut from black and I also added a couple of gold-embossed hearts.

Finally, I used my new-to-me twine die-cut which I cut from dark red cardstock and added to the card.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Cardstock:  Neenah Desert Strom, Black Licorice (MFT), Vineyard Berry (Altenew), Black & White Plaid (MFT)

Dies:  Best Dad Ever (MFT), Field Notes Twine, Parcel & Post Heart Decorations (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Woven EF (Spellbinders, Gold EP

Cheers

Karren

Semi Wreath

 

Hi! Today’s sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches was designed by Verena Shapiro @simple_stamper on Instagram.

I immediately saw a half wreath so went that route with some die-cut and ink-blended florals.  Once I had them arranged nicely, I worked on the background. I added an extra layer to the original sketch with an embossed brick background. 

I finished with a die-cut sentiment and some pearls. 

Thanks for visiting. Please check out how the rest of the design team have interpreted the sketch.

Products used:

Stamps:  Bloom With Grace (Honey Bee Stamps)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, various Altenew inks

Cardstock:  White, Pastel Sunrise (Altenew)

Dies:  Bloom With Grace (Honey Bee Stamps), Garden Wreath Add-Ons (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Salvaged Brick Embossing Folder (Honey Bee Stamps), Pastel Pearls (Honey Bee Stamps)

Cheers

Karren

New Home

Hi and welcome!  I'm here today with my card for the latest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches where our sketch hostess this week is Kim Singdahlsen.  Her sketch was perfect for a card I needed to make for my daughter.

Some of you will know that our daughter has moved to Blenheim (about 4 1/2 hours drive from us at the top of the South Island of New Zealand).  She is in her first year of teaching high school in Design and Visual Communications as well as Automotive.  She finally moved into her new home up there a couple of weeks ago and this was the card I made for her to celebrate that.

I created a panel of pink stripes onto a gray card base and onto that I adhered a little house and trees I made using Honey Bee Stamps dies.  I had to do a bit of swapping out between their various house die sets to get windows that more closely resemble hers. I also snipped off some pieces around the roofline. I then took a white panel, die-cut a heart from the centre and stamped a sentiment, before using foam tape to adhere over the die-cut image.

Thanks so much for visiting!  The design team have some gorgeous cards using the sketch so I hope you'll check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  New Home (WP9)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Cloudy Night, Charcoal Suit, Espresso, Volcano Lake, Mountain Mist, Lagoon (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Cement Gray (MFT), Cream (SSS), Sweet Pea, Carnation (C&9), Blush, Tutu, Chiffon (Spellbinders)

Dies:  Spring Cottages, Summer Cabin (Honey Bee Stamps), Infinity Hearts (Hero Arts) 

Tea Party

 Hi!  I'm here with my card for the CASE It Instagram hop where we choose a card that inspires us on Insta and create our version of it.  I was inspired by Debra James' card which I've added below and came up with this card using similar elements:

I bought the stamp set especially for this challenge because I just loved Debra's card so much but didn't want to copy it too slavishly.  I went with a different colour combo and stencils but kept a lot of Debra's original ideas.

Here is Debra's card that inspired me.  Isn't it fabulous?

Thanks for visiting!  The whole hop list is over on Instagram.  The link to my IG is in the sidebar.

Products used:

Stamps:  Par-tea (SSS)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Amalgam (Gina K), Volcano Lake, Lagoon (Altenew

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It, Volcano Lake, Lagoon (Altenew), B&W Stripes (MFT)

Dies:  Par-tea (SSS), Stitched Fishtail Flag Stax (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, Letter & Number Stencil (Stamperia)

Cheers

Karren

Bird Branch

 It's time for another challenge from the team at Freshly Made Sketches and this week our hostess is Linda Callahan.  I went a bit rogue with my card this week - distorting some of the elements on the sketch to fit my card.

I had all these elements apart from the birds already made so I pulled them out and tried to make them work with the sketch.  Apart from the bird and the grass and cloud stencils, these are all from an Altenew Craft Your Life kit.  I arranged the elements to sort of look like the sketch then found a sentiment for the top right corner.

I added some soft stenciling onto the card base for grass and clouds then adhered the images down.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Rustic Charm (Altenew)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Razzleberry, Bamboo, Grass Field, Mountain Pine, Green Onyx, Hazelnut, Milk Chocolate, Almond Butter, Mossy Meadow, Rocky Shore, Mocha, Velvet (Altenew), Speckled Egg Distress Ink

Cardstock:  White

Dies:  Rustic Charm (Altenew), Layered Bird Branch (SSS)

Accessories:  Rustic Charm Embossing Folder (Altenew), Micro Cloud Edges Stencil, Grassy Edges Stencil (MFT)

Cheers

Karren

Clipboard

Hi and welcome to Freshly Made Sketches weekly challenge. This week our sketch hostess is Jen Mitchell and I love her sketch!

Now, I think this might also apply to a lot of card-makers but I absolutely cannot resist stationery supplies and/or miniatures so when I saw this miniature clipboard in a Tim Holtz vault die set, I had to have it!  I decided to make a teacher card for my daughter who is in her first year of teaching high school boys (brave, brave girl!).  Of course, for her the sentiment should read "Energy Drink, Teach, Sleep, Repeat" 😄

I did some background stamping and inked up the edges of the panels to give everything a vintage-y look.  The little clipboard is so adorable and the top "clip" is popped up on two layers of foam tape to give it a realistic look.  The notebook paper was stamped in a pale blue ink, then I went over the vertical line with a pink Sharpie for realism.

And, by total luck, the stamped sentiment fits perfectly on the lines of the notebook!

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Steampunk (Tim Holtz), Teach Sleep Repeat (MFT), Smarty Pants (Your Next Stamp)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Rocky Shore, Mocha, Sea Glass (Altenew), Antique Linen Distress Ink

Cardstock:  White, Whip Cream (MFT), Desert Storm, Silver Mirror Foil

Dies:  Torn Paper Edges (MFT), A2 Ripped Notebook (Picket Fence), Vault Noteworthy (Tim Holtz)

Accessories:  pink Sharpie

Cheers

Karren

Flower Bunch

It's time for another Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge and this time I chose the top right diagonal - Flowers/Patterned Paper/Stripes to come up with this card.

I already had the flower stenciled so I only needed to fussy-cut it out.  Onto a white card base I embossed with the Subtle embossing folder and added some patterned paper strips in varying widths.  I then stamped a Mother's Day sentiment, added the flower popped up on foam tape and finished with some pearls.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Bountiful Leaves (The Ton)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Forest Glades, Frayed Leaf, Evergreen, Pastel Sunrise, Canyon Clay, Burn Red, Moon Rock, Lava Rock, Nimbus, Dark Night (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Watercolor Wash Brights (MFT)

Accessories:  Pastel Pearl Stickers (Honey Bee Stamps), Subtle EF (SU), Flower Bunch Stencils (Altenew)

Cheers

Karren

Abstract Hello

Hello (to quote my card below!). Today's sketch hostess over at Freshly Made Sketches is Jennifer Timko.  Once again I used my new Alex Syberia Abstract Background Press Plate - this time with hot foil as well as just using it as ann uninked press plate.

 

To create my panel I adhered two colours of cardstock together with tape on the back and then hot-foiled with copper foil.  Once finished, I cut the panel down and matted one of the pieces onto copper foil cardstock.  Onto a kraft card base, I used my BetterPress to press the Abstract Background plate.  I then adhered the foiled panel and finished with a reverse foiled sentiment from Honey Bee Stamps.

And it wasn't until I was putting this blog post together that I realised I put my sentiment in the wrong place.  Doh!

Thanks for visiting!  The design team have created some gorgeous cards with the sketch so I hope you'll check them out.

Products used:

Cardstock:  Desert Storm (Neenah), Dark Indigo (PTI), Moss (Altenew), Rose Gold Foil Cardstock

Dies:  Abstract Background Press Plate (Alex Syberia), Fall Foliage Sentiments Hot Foil (Honey Bee Stamps)

Accessories:  Copper hot foil

Cheers

Karren

Blocked Birthday

  Welcome to my blog where today we have a new sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches.  Our sketch hostess this week is Judy Rozema and she came up with a fun sketch.  My first thought was the old-school retiform technique using masking and stamping, but that just sounded like too much work so I went with simple colour blocking - letting the gorgeous new Spellbinders cardstock do all the work.

 

After choosing my cardstock with the help of the Colour Cube, I cut it out and pieced it together to cover a card front.  I then ran it through my Betterpress with my new Alex Syberia plate to provide some subtle texture.  I didn't use any ink, just pressure.  I added some thin slivers of white cardstock to separate the colours and adhered it to a card base.

I then went hunting for a sentiment and found this already-foiled sentiment.  I like the boldness against the pastel cardstock background so decided to use it.  I finished with some enamel dots in the three cardstock colours.

Thanks for visiting!  Please head over and check out the fabulous cards made by the design team and meet our newest team member - who I am sure will be known to most of you... 😉

Products used:

Cardstock:  White, Black, Bellini, Waterfall, Seaside (Spellbinders)

Dies:  Abstract Background Press Plate (Alex Syberia), Happy Birthday Hot Foil (Waffle Flower)

Accessories:  Gold Hot Foil, Enamel Dots (Altenew)

Cheers

Karren

Purple Spring

 Hi!  I'm here with my reminder card for the current Flower Challenge which is to use spring colours.  I'm not sure that these purples qualify as spring but it is what it is!

One of my favourite layering stencil sets is Charming Delight by Altenew, so I set to with various ink colours and the stencils and created this floral image.  Using the co-ordinating die, I cut it out and then spritzed it with shimmer spray to give a lovely shimmer to it.

I went with my go-to layout which is a panel down the left hand side of a white card base.  The darker purple strip was created using direct-to-paper and one of the purple ink colours I used.  The sentiment was from a Pink Fresh stamp set.

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

Products Used:

Stamps:  Miss Your Smile (Pink Fresh Studio)

Ink:  Obsidian, Enchanted Garden set, Warm & Cosy Set, Nature's Wonder set (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Proper Pinstripes Pastels (MFT)

Dies:  Charming Delight (Altenew)

Accessories:  Charming Delight stencils (Altenew), shimmer spray

Cheers

Karren

White Flowers

 
Hi!  Today I'm playing along in a CASE It blog hop over on Instagram.  I thought I would post here too because this is where I keep the record of all my cards.  But I encourage you to head over to Instagram and check out the other cards in the hop.  For my case, I was inspired by Donna Mikasa and her gorgeous wreath card (at the bottom of this post).

I first saw Donna's card over at The Flower Challenge (where she quite rightly won the March challenge) and just fell in love with it. I wanted to be inspired but not copy it, so I used the same dies but instead of colour on a white background, I went with white flowers on a coloured background. I also changed up the floral layout but kept the embossed background.

Check out Donna's gorgeous card below.  I hope I have done it justice.   

Products used:

Cardstock:  White, Peach Bellini (MFT)

Dies:  Chocolate Flowers (Altenew), Essential Stylish Ovals (Spellbinders), Wonderful Sentiments Hot Foil (Pink Fresh Studio)

Accessories:  Wood Planks Embossing Folder (Honey Bee Stamps), White hot foil

Cheers

Karren

Letter For You

 Hi and welcome!  Our challenge hostess this week over at Freshly Made Sketches is Amy O'Neill and she has a fun sketch for us to play with.  I went with an envelope instead of the banner shape in the sketch but I think it still works.

Onto a Grout Gray card panel that I'd cut with a postage edge die I used embossing paste to stencil a text-y pattern.  I thought I was using white embossing paste but this looks more translucent so maybe I grabbed the wrong jar.  

While that was drying, I die-cut lots of flowers and foliage in new Spellbinders colours as well as the sentiment and a white envelope.  I arranged the elements into a pleasing patter and adhered it to the stenciled panel with foam tape. 

I didn't add any other embellishments, leaving it somewhat clean.

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

Products used: 

Cardstock:  White, Grout Gray (MFT), Coral, Bellini, Mint, Fern (Spellbinders)

Dies:  Paper Goods (MFT), Postage Edge Rectangles, Bouquet of Flowers, Just For You Corner (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Book stencil (Stamperia), White Embossing Paste

Cheers

Karren

Spring Bouquet

Hi!  It's time for the April challenge over at The Flower Challenge and this time we're asking for spring colours in your floral cards.  Easy, right?

 

Again, I was pressed for time.  The weekends seem to get shorter and shorter, leaving me less time to get into my craft room.  Luckily, Past Me had some already die-cut and ink-blended floral elements so this card didn't take too long to pull together.  Unfortunately, Past Me didn't record the ink colours I used but they would have been Altenew inks.

Past Me also had a panel of pale yellow cardstock that had been run through the die-cutting machine with a linen look cover plate.  I'm 99.9% sure this is a Papertrey Ink plate but I was too lazy to check! I cut an oval from the panel and adhered it to the white card base with foa tape.  I then arranged the flowers and previously hot-foiled sentiment.

I finished with some champagne drops by Pink Fresh.  

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

Products used:

Ink:  Various Altenew inks

Cardstock:  White, Lemon Chiffon (MFT)

Dies:  Fancy Sentiment Strip BetterPress Plate and Die, Foral Spray, Garden Wreath Add-On, Essential Stylish Ovals (Spellbinders), Canvas cover plate (PTI)

Accessories:  Clear Drops: Champagne (Pink Fresh), Gold hot foil

Cheers

Karren

Leafy Cluster

 Hi and welcome!  Today's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches is from Narelle Farrugia and it played right into my current fondness of stenciling/vintage-looking cards.

Because the purpose of Freshly Made Sketches is clean cards, I didn't distress any elements but tried to give a vintage-y look with ink-blending and stamping onto Desert Storm cardstock.  The foliage is a stamp, die and stencil combo from Simon Says Stamp that I bought in the Black Friday sales but hadn't used until now.  It was quick and easy to put together.

The hot-foiled sentiment was from my already-foiled stash which seems to be my go-to lately when I'm in a time crunch with my card-making (all the time, it seems!)

Thanks for visiting.  Please head over to the challenge blog and check out the wonderful new cards made by our design team - and meet our new team member!

Products used:

Stamps:  Friendship Leafy Cluster (SSS), Vintage Ephemera, Scripted Backgrounds (WPlus9), Distressed Patterns (MFT)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K), Rocky Shore, Swamp Green, Oak Moss (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Desert Storm (Neenah), Black

Dies:  Friendship Leafy Cluster (SSS), Postal Frames (The Greetery), Hexi-Gem Sentiments Hot Foil and Die (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Friendship Leafy Cluster stencils (SSS), Gold hot foil

Cheers

Karren