Missing You

Hi and welcome!  Today's card was made to mark the end of the Friday Mashup challenge, which has been running for almost five years!  What an achievement!  I'm sad the challenge blog is closing as, to my knowledge, Friday Mashup was the first challenge to have a combination of challenge themes.  I've played along as often as I have been able and enjoyed each and every challenge.  Thanks to Holly, the challenge creator and the wonderful inspiration provided by the team over the years.  I tried to mashup this last challenge but only managed to get one bunny onto my card :)  I used the colors from Color Throwdown and am also linking to Cards 4 Galz and Simon Says Stamp, who are both looking for cute and cuddly.

As you can see, I flipped the sketch onto its side.  I stamped and colored the adorable girl and bunny from Adventure is Calling and put them to one side.  I then cut some green "grass" and adhered that to a panel I'd cut with Wonky Stitched Rectangles after stamping the sentiment.

The largest Wonky Stitched Rectangle was used to cut a white panel which was adhered to a white card base.  The diagonal was die cut with On the Diagonal die by Lil' Inkers.  Lastly I adhered the girl and bunny onto the smaller panel and popped it all up on foam tape.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Adventure is Calling (MFT)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid

Cardstock:  White, Plum Pudding (PTI), Simply Chartreuse (PTI)

Dies:  Adventure is Calling (MFT), Grass Border (MFT), Wonky Stitched Rectangles (MFT), On the Diagonal (Lil' Inkers)

Accessories:  Copics

Cheers

Karren

This Little Piggy

Hi and welcome!  It's a scorching hot Saturday afternoon here - 29 degrees celsius and no breeze.  Ugh!  Interestingly enough, we have a new guy at work who has moved to New Zealand from India.  He says that our heat is hotter than that in India and that he struggles to cope in our heat.  Hard to fathom - you'd think that 29 degrees here is the same as 29 degrees anywhere in the world.  Anyway, probably my Northern Hemisphere friends would quite like 29 degrees right about now :)

My card today was made using the sketch at MFT, the hat theme at Cardz for Galz, the critter theme at Tag You're It and the birthday/stencil theme at Friday Mashup.

I started with a white card base and stamped the sentiment right at the bottom.  I then took a piece of black and stenciled over it with the English Brick Wall stencil and white ink, fading out at the sides, top and bottom.  That panel was adhered to the card base using foam tape.  I had the girl from Green Pastures colored as part of The Daily Marker 30 Day Challenge so I put her and the little pig onto a vellum tag.  I colored some ground on the back side of the tag.  Before I adhered the tag to the card, I stuck a thin strip of Limeade Ice cardstock to the black panel.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Green Pastures, The Whole Herd (MFT)
Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid (MFT), Unicorn White (Hero Arts)
Cardstock:  White, Black, Vellum, X-Press It, Limeade Ice
Dies:  The Whole Herd, Green Pastures (MFT), Anytime Tags (Lil' Inkers)
Accessories:  Copics, English Brick Wall Stencil

Cheers
Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Cardz for Galz,  Friday Mashup and Tag You're It.

Love You Roses

Hi and welcome!  Today's card was made using the current sketch at MFT as well as the colors at Color Throwdown.  There are also many Valentine/love themed challenges out there at the moment (not surprisingly!) and I've chosen to link my card up to Simon Says Stamp (Have a Heart), Friday Mashup's Valentine-themed challenge and the Card Concept, where I've categorised my card as Classy and Elegant.  Phew!  I don't think I've broken any challenge rules and linked up to too many challenges :)

When I saw the graphic at Card Concept, I was inspired by the repeat pattern in pink, red and white, but instead of using hearts I went with roses and used MFT's Roses All Over background stamp.  I white-embossed it onto watercolor cardstock, then randomly painted it with Worn Lipstick and Festive Berries distress inks.  Once it was dry, I cut it using a pierced rectangle die and layered it with foam tape onto a white panel that is 1/8" larger than the watercolored piece.

I then took one of the curve dies from Blueprints 25 and used it to die-cute some Slate cardstock.  I white embossed the word "you" which I took from the Amazing stamp set.  Then I was on the hunt for a die-cut word "love".  Believe it or not, I only have one and that is from PTI's Wet Paint dies.  I die-cut that with Seaglass cardstock then added liquid glue all over the front before dropping it into my Rock Candy Distress Glitter.  Love that stuff!

For the heart, I smooshed Worn Lipstick ink onto a scrap of watercolor paper and die-cut it using the smallest heart in the Pierced Heart Stax.  I then also added distress glitter to that as well before adhering it to the card front.

And that's my card!  Considering I don't make many Valentine's, I'm quite happy with this.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Roses All Over, Amazing (MFT)
Ink:  Versamark, Worn Lipstick, Festive Berries
Cardstock:  White, Slate, Seaglass, Watercolor
Dies:  Pierced Rectangle Stax, Pierced Heart Stax, Blueprints 25 (MFT), Wet Paint (PTI)
Accessories:  Rock Candy Distress Glitter

Cheers
Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Color Throwdown and The Card Concept.

Music Notes

Hi!  Here's my first card of the weekend, which I made using the challenge at Friday Mashup, the colors from Cardz for Guys and the sketch from Sunday Stamps.

I started by white embossing the Sheet Music Background onto some white cardstock and then sponging over the top with Tumbled Glass and Stormy Sky ink.  I then cut it with a stitched curved die.  The headphones were die cut out of black cardstock and also some blue cardstock that I made by rubbing Faded Jeans ink onto some white card.  The curved panel and the headphones are popped up on foam tape.

The sentiment comes from the Noted set by SugarPea Designs.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Noted (SugarPea Designs), Sheet Music Background (MFT)
Ink:  Versamark, Versafine Onyx Black, Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky, Faded Jeans
Cardstock:  White, Black
Dies:  Headphones, Stitched Basic Lines (MFT)
Accessories:  White EP

Cheers
Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Cardz for Guys.

Ombre Fleur

Hi and welcome!  It's Saturday evening here and I've spent most of the afternoon in my craft room.  This is the last card I made and I'm not that fussed with it, but given the amount of time I spent on it, I'm posting it anyway :)

I made this card for the current Muse challenge, the color portion of the Friday Mashup Challenge and the Ombre Challenge at Simon Says Stamp.  I was immediately drawn to the beautiful colors on the Friday Mashup graphic and tried to incorporate as many as I could into my card.

From Anita's gorgeous card, I took the general layout, the "row" of floral images and the darker strips top and bottom of the image panel.

I watercolored the flowers with my Zig markers after white embossing them onto watercolor paper.  I also watercolored a panel in ombre fashion to layer behind the Soft Stone layer.  All three flowers are popped up on foam tape.  The sentiment is stamped in Enchanted Evening ink.  Here's a close up:

And that's about all there is to say about this card!  Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Mon Ami (CASual Fridays), Keep It Simple Birthday (PTI)

Ink:  Versamark, Enchanted Evening (PTI)

Cardstock:  White, Soft Stone, watercolor

Dies:  Mon Ami Fleur, Vertical Stitched Stripes (MFT)

Accessories:  Zig markers, White EP

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Friday Mashup.

Beach Babe

Hi and welcome!  It's a beautiful Spring day here today - the doors and windows are open and fresh air is flowing through the house.  Just glorious!

I must have had the approaching summer in my head when I made this card.  Friday Mashup are looking for a decades-themed card and when I was looking through my stamps, I came across a set from CTMH that had never seen ink.  I used the sketch from The Challenge and the colors from ColourQ to make this card:

When I first saw the colors at ColourQ, I decided to run as fast as I could in the other direction.  But then when I saw the images, I thought these colors were retro enough to work with these 50's inspired stamps.  I had to dig out my SU cardstock, which I haven't used in quite some time to get the right color matches.

I started by die-cutting three panels using the Horizontal Stitched Stripes dies.  I then used some tape to adhere them together before stamping the World Map background using Versamark.  The sentiment was stamped in Versafine Onyx Black ink.

The central image was stamped in black onto Island Indigo cardstock and again on Raspberry Ripple cardstock.  I used a stitched circle die to cut a spotlight and adhered that to the blue panel, which was then adhered to a notebook die-cut.  Three tiny banners were adhered to the side and the whole piece was mounted on foam tape.

This is definitely not my normal sort of card, but it was fun to make!  Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Bright Sunshiny Day (CTMH), World Map (SU)
Ink:  Versamark, Versafine Onyx Black
Cardstock:  White, Raspberry Ripple, Cajun Craze, Always Artichoke, Island Indigo, Black
Dies:  Stitched Circles (Lil' Inkers), Horizontal Stitched Stripes (MFT), Blueprints 8 (MFT), Spiral Notebook Page (PTI)

Cheers
Karren

Silhouette Sympathy

Hi and welcome!  This card, unlike the one I made last week, is fortunately not needed so will go into my stash.  However, I wanted to join in the challenge at Just Us Girls who have a "sympathy" word challenge.  I'm also joining in at Friday Mashup who are looking for a full colored background (check) and/or a silhouette image (check); Simply Create Too has an autumn theme, Time Out Challenges has a quote featuring the word "autumn" and I used the colors from Color Throwdown.  Phew!  So after all that, here's my card:

I watercolored the background using various distress inks, then splattered ink onto the panel with a paintbrush before also spritzing water to take away some of the color.  Once that was dry, I stamped the silhouette image from Paper Garden onto the right hand side of the watercolored panel.  I really like this image as it has some text and nicks built into the acrylic which gives a nice effect.

I then dug out my With Sympathy die to find in the packet I already had one die-cut in black and covered with Glossy Accents.  Score!  So I adhered that to the watercolored panel and then onto an Early Espresso card base.  I rounded the bottom corners, which in hindsight, I wish I hadn't but you can't put back bits you've cut away :)

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Paper Garden (CTMH)

Ink:  Ripe Persimmon, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door, Festive Berries, Peeled Paint distress inks, Ranger Archival Black

Cardstock:  Watercolor, black, Early Espresso

Accessories:  With Sympathy die (SSS), Glossy Accents, Corner Chomper

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Color Throwdown.

Inlaid Hello

Hi!  Today's card came to me during the night when I was meant to be sleeping!  I'm sure that happens to other people, too :)

So as soon as the first load of laundry was in the machine this morning, I dashed into my craft room to put it together.

I used the sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch, the colors from ColourQ and the inlaid die-cutting technique at Friday Mashup.  And because this card is pretty much all die-cutting, it works for Simon Says Stamp Die Crazy Challenge.

I started by sponging over a Silhouette-cut stencil using Tumbled Glass and Faded Jeans ink.  I tried to stay in a loose pattern to resemble the sketch elements.  I then temporarily stuck two square dies together to create a frame and cut a frame from both the card base and a piece of PTI Stone cardstock.  The Hello die is from PTI and was cut using Kiwi Kiss cardstock and also in the cardbase/frame.

The word was painted with Wink of Stella to give it a lovely shimmer.  Once I had all the pieces die-cut, I inlaid it all back into the cardbase.  I finished the card with some black enamel dots to loosely mimic the banner in the sketch.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Ink:  Tumbled Glass, Faded Jeans (Distress)

Cardstock:  White, Kiwi Kiss (SU), Stone (PTI)

Accessories:  Noted die (PTI), Nesting Rounded Squares (Lifestyle Crafts), Silhouette-cut stencil, Enamel Dots

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Friday Mashup.

Doodle Flowers

I had to play along at the brand new Pinterest Inspired Challenge when I saw the fun inspiration pic they had for us!  I combined that challenge with the sketch at Mojo Monday and the Summer Flowers theme at Friday Mashup and the Homegrown Summer theme at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.

I concentrated on the color scheme from the inspiration pic and the doodle-y flowers.  I stamped a whole bunch of the flowers and foliage from Doodle Buds and colored them with Copic markers.  And yes, I have teal leaves and grey flowers LOL.

After I'd cut them out, I colored them all with Wink of Stella then added some dots with my white gel pen.  The yellow circle was cut from a piece of white cardstock I'd smooshed Squeezed Lemonade on to try and match the yellow flowers.  The banner was done the same way using Peacock Feathers ink.  It took me longer to arrange the flowers than it did to do everything else!  I was trying to separate the colors and, of course, wasn't organised enough to plan out how my bouquet was going to look before starting to color :)  I was happy enough with it in the end, so all's well.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Doodle Buds (WP9), Scribbled Flowers (Clearly Besotted)

Ink:  Squeezed Lemonade, Peacock Feathers Distress Inks, Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark

Cardstock:  Smoke (SSS), white, black, X-Press It

Accessories:  Copics, white EP, Pierced Circle Stax (MFT), Fishtail Flag Stax (MFT), Doodle Buds dies, Wink of Stella, Blueprints 21

Cheers

Karren