Daisy Thoughts

Hi and welcome.  So it's been a while since I've been here.  My husband passed away in May and it was completely unexpected and such a shock.  I was actually in my craft room when I got the news and it took me weeks before I could go back into that room.  Even now, I have to force myself to go and sit at my craft desk and try to create.  

This card was the second one I've made since he passed.  The first was for my daughter's 24th birthday last week and, fair to say, it was a pretty crappily executed card, but she liked it so that's all that matters.  This card didn't involve a lot of original thinking.  I used the colour scheme for the daisies from the packaging and then chose a colour combo from the Colour Cubes.

After I die-cut and ink-blended the daisy elements, I used the matching embossing folder to give some 3D details.  I then went with an Acorn card base and onto that I popped an embossed panel with the centre cut out with a square die.

I finished with a white hot-foiled sentiment on black cardstock.

Thanks for visiting.  This card uses the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches and Jennifer Timko is our sketch hostess this week so I hope you'll check out her card as well as all the fabulous cards made by this wonderful design team.

Products used:

Ink:  Berrylicious, Acai Berry, Honey Drizzle, Andromeda (Altenew)

Cardstock: White, Black, Acorn (Spellbinders), Grapevine (Altenew)

Dies:  Inside/Out Stitched Squares (MFT), Always and Forever BetterPress Plate and die (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Lush Botanicals: African Daisy Embossing Folder and dies, Paper Rhythm Embossing Folder (Altenew), white hot foil

Cheers

Karren

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Mother's Day Roses

Hi and welcome to the new challenge over at Tic Tac Toe Challenge. This time I worked with the right column - floral/Mother's Day/Red.

This card involved hot foiling, stenciling and dry embossing and is lovely and shiny in real life.The sentiment stamp comes from a Honey Bee Stamps set and the florals are from Pink Fresh Studio.  I used Altenew cardstock and inks and dry-embossed the red panel with the Subtle EF.

Thanks for visiting.  I hope you'll check out the challenge blog and have a go!

Products used:

Stamps: Layering Wisteria (Honey Bee Stamps)

Ink: Versamark, Heartbeat, Misty Sage (Altenew)

Cardstock: White, Heartbeat (Altenew), Gold matte foil

Dies: Delicate Rosebuds Hot Foil and Die (Pink Fresh), Nesting Rectangle Frames (Waffle Flower), Layering Wisteria (Honey Bee Stamps)

Accessories: Gold hot foil, Gilded Embossing Powder, Subtle EF (SU)

Cheers

Karren

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Woven Congrats

It's Freshly Made Sketches day and this week our hostess is camp mum Jennifer Timko.  I had just received this floral die set so had to use it for my card.

I die-cut the floral image from Peach Bellini and Sage cardstock then added some light ink-blending for interest.  Once assembled, I adhered it to a vellum stitched flag and set it aside.  The embossed panel was lightly swiped with white ink to provide more dimension.

I finished the card with a pre-foiled sentiment.

Thanks for visiting!  The design team have some gorgeous creations, so please check them out.

Products used:

Ink:  Peachy Keen, Eucalyptus (Altenew), Unicorn White (Hero Arts)

Cardstock: White, Black, Peach Bellini (MFT), Sage (SSS), Vellum

Dies: Lovely Layers: Dianthus (Honey Bee Stamps), Hexi-Gem Sentiments (Spellbinders)

Accessories: Woven Embossing Folder (Spellbinders), gold hot foil

Cheers

Karren

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Peony Sympathy

Welcome to a new challenge over at Tic Tac Toe.  I played with the centre column: Colouring Technique (stencils)/Dies/Sympathy to come up with this card.

I used some postage collage dies, stamps and stencils for my main image and backed that onto an embossed panel cut from a very dark purple cardstock. After I stenciled the background I left the stencil in place and spritzed on some Broken China Distress Spritz to give a bit of shine and interest.

The sentiment was already hot-foiled so I stacked it three deep and added it to the card front.  I stamped a sympathy sentiment on the inside of the card.

Thanks for visiting.  Head on over to Tic Tac Toe and play along!

Products used:

Stamps: Nesting Postage (Waffle Flower), Moments of Grace (SSS)

Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Celestial Mist, Glacier Iris, Dreamy Periwinkle, Reindeer Moss (Altenew)

Cardstock: White, Glacier Iris, Andromeda (Altenew)

Dies: Nesting Postage Collage (Waffle Flower), Here For You hot foil and dies (Pink Fresh Studio)

Accessories: Nesting Postage Collage Peony Stencils, Broken China Distress Spritz, Black Hot Foil

Cheers

Karren

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Floral Bucket

It's Freshly Made Sketches day and our hostess this week is Amy O'Neill.  I made this card using some NBUS which just arrived a week or so ago.

I was planning on putting the bucket of flowers onto a vellum oval, but I decided to leave it as is, so my card doesn't toally match the sketch, but close enough, I think.  The die-cut elements were cut from coloured cardstock and then ink-blended for added dimension.  After I assembled all the pieces, I set to work on my background.  Onto a card-sized panel of patterned grid paper, I roughly stamped a text stamp, deliberately missing bits.  I adhered that to the card base then added a strip of woodgrain for the "ground" for my bucket to stand on.

I then went through my pre-foiled sentiments and found this simple birthday sentiment.

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

Products used:

Stamps: Handwritten (Simon Hurley)

Ink: Tea Dye, Walnut Stain, Hickory Smoke, Shaded Lilac, Tattered Rose, Dried Marigold, Abandoned Coral, Evergreen Bough, Rustic Wildnerness Distress Inks

Cardstock: White, Olive, Rouge, Pastel Sunrise (Altenew), Cement Gray (MFT), Lavender (Lawn Fawn), Wood & Notebook (Snap Basics)

Dies:Wildflower Bucket (SSS) Hexi-Gem Sentiments Hot Foil (Spellbinders)

Accessories: Copper hot foil

Cheers

Karren

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Flower Barrel

Hi and welcome!  Today's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches was designed by Michele Ferguson.  I was originally going to create an arch as in the sketch but then found this NBUS die set from Spellbinders and thought the barrel would be a great substitute.

I went with a dark background and embossed it with a brick embossing folder before adhering the panel to a card base.  I then added a kraft coloured pierced frame.  All the die-cut elements for the focal point were die-cut with white cardstock and ink-blended with Altenew inks or Distress Inks.  The foliage was already ink-blended and I have no idea what inks I used!

After arranging the flowers and foliage, I found a pre-foiled sentiment and decided that this card would make a suitable sympathy card.

As an afterthought - I was just previewing this post before publishing and I looked at the card with the sympathy sentiment and immediately thought "body in a barrel" along the lines of my favourite TV serial killer Dexter, so maybe I need to replace the sentiment with something a little more appropriate 😱😁

Thanks for visiting.  The DT have created some gorgeous cards so please check them out.

Products used:

Ink: Orange Sorbet, Apricot Frost, Canyon Clay, Pastel Sunrise, Mocha, various green inks (Altenew), Scorched Timber, Gathered Twigs Distress Inks

Cardstock: White, Black, Dark Chocolate (Altenew), Paper Bag (Lawn Fawn)

Dies: Rustic Garden, Hexi-Gem Sentiments (Spellbinders), Chocolate Flowers (Altenew), Lovely Layers: Mini Fall Florals (Honey Bee Stamps), Pierced Rectangle Frames (MFT)

Accessories:  Gold hot foil, Rustic Brick Wall EF (Honey Bee Stamps), shimmer spray

Cheers

Karren

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Butterfly Love

Hi and welcome to the latest sketch from the team at Freshly Made Sketches where our hostess this week is Jen Brum.  I used the sketch to make a soft butterfly card.

The background text is a BetterPress plate inked up with soft brown ink.  I then die-cut the postage edge frame and adhered it to a white card base.

The butterflies were hot foiled, stenciled and die-cut and I chose three for the sketch (one more than the sketch but I like odd numbers). 

I finished with a sentiment chosen to cover as much of the horizontal panel as possible.

Thanks so much for visiting.  I hope you'll check out the rest of the DT's cards - they're gorgeous!

Products used:

Stamps: On The Line: Succulents (Honey Bee Stamps)

Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Warm Linen (Altenew), Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey, Dried Marigod, Fossilized Amber, Black Soot Distress Inks

Cardstock: White, Black, Alabaster (Spellbinders)

Dies: Small Butterflies hot foil and die (Pink Fresh Studio), Post Edge Expression Press Plate (Spellbinders), Postal Frames (The Greetery)

Accessories: Satin Pewter hot foil

Cheers

Karren

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Blue Leaves

Here I am back again - two days in a row - that must be a record!  I made this card for the Color Hues blue and white challenge and the Inskpirational shades of blue challenge.

I was drawn to the blue squares in the Inskpirational visual prompt so after embossing and ink-blending my leaves, I decided to go with a postage theme and die-cut pieces with both a rectangle and a square postage edge die set.  I backed both pieces with a Midnight postage edge border and overlapped them for added interest.  I found the Herringbone Parquet panel already die-cut with my Midnight cardstock, so decided to go with a blue-on-blue theme.

Finally, I went looking for a pre-foiled sentiment and found this one which worked perfectly.  The postage images and the sentiment are popped up with foam tape to provide some separation from the background.

Thanks so much for visiting.

Products used:

Ink:  Uncharted Mariner, Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink

Cardstock: White, Midnight (C&9)

Dies: Postage Edge Rectangles, Postage Edge Squares (Spellbinders), Herringbone Parquet (The Greetery), Wonderful Sentiments hot foil and dies (Pink Fresh Studio)

Accessories: Leafy Splendor Embossing Folder and Stencils (Altenew), black hot foil

Cheers

Karren

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Dramatic Strawberries

Hi, I'm here with my card for this week's challenge over at  Freshly Made Sketches where our sketch hostess is Jen Timko.  I decided to play with some NBUS dies from Honey Bee stamps and went with a dramatic dark green background to showcase them.

I die-cut the strawberries, leaves and flowers from various coloured cardstock then added some shading with a bit of ink-blending.  For the background I embossed a card panel with the Molded Frame embossing folder to mimic the additional layer in the sketch.  I then die-cut some embossed circles from the same green cardstock and adhered to the embossed panel.

After adding the strawberries, I went looking for a sentiment and found this one already foiled, so score!

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

Products used:

Ink:  Green Opal, Lemon Ice, Mid Yellow, Dark Chocolate (Altenew)

Cardstock: Forest, Pomegranate (Spellbinders), Jalapeno Popper (MFT), Reindeer Moss (Altenew), Harvest Gold (PTI), White 

Dies:  Lovely Layers: Strawberries (Honey Bee Stamps), Embossed Circles (Kat Scrappiness), You Are Everything BetterPress (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Gold Hot Foil, Molded Frame Embossing Folder (Spellbinders)

Cheers

Karren

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White Poinsettia

Hi and welcome!  It's New Year's Day here in New Zealand and it's raining so a perfect time to get into the craft room just for fun.  For the first time in I don't know how long, I made a card for a couple of challenges.  I made a Clean and Simple card for the Addicted to CAS - Christmas challenge and as soon as I saw the inspiration photo at The Card Concept I was immediately drawn to the white and the glass in the kitchen so I drew on that inspiration for this card

I went with a white on white card with little touches of gold.  I hot-foiled the brushstroke stripe onto the card base and then hot-foiled a sentiment using the same gold foil.   I die-cut the sentiment and stacked it three deep so it stood out from the card base.

The flower and leaves were die-cut from vellum and white brushed metallic cardstock.  The glass I was inspired by is created using the "see-through" top layer of the die-cut and the vellum base layer.  After adhering the two elements together I added some tiny gold pearls to the centre.  I didn't add any other embellishments.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Cardstock: White, Vellum, Brushed Metallic Antique Assortment (Spellbinders)

Dies: Seasonal Sketch (Tim Holtz), Foiled Brushstrokes & Stripes, Glimmery Christmas Flora (Spellbinders)

Accessories: Gold Hot Foil, Pastel Pearl Stickers (Honey Bee Stamps)

Cheers

Karren

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Edited to Add: This card got a shout-out at The Card Concept and Addicted to CAS.

Berry Wreath

Welcome!  Today's card uses the latest sketch from Freshly Made Sketches which was designed by Kim Singhdahlsen. I went the obvious route with the sketch and created a wreath card using hot-foiling.

The wreath was created with both hot-foiling and stenciling.  Once I had finished that I created a wreath arrangement and set it aside.  Onto a kraft cardbase I embossed with a wood plank embossing folder.  I then added the wreath and finished with a hot-foiled sentiment and some champagne drops.

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

Products used:

Ink: Green Valley set, Tea Party set, Grapevine (Altenew)

Cardstock: White, Kraft, Black

Dies: Winter Berries Frame hot foil and die (Pink Fresh), Fishtail Flag Layer Stax (MFT), Holiday Florals Background hot foil (Spellbinders)

Accessories: Winter Berries Frame stencils, Clear Drops: Champagne (Pink Fresh), Wood Planks Embossing Folder (Honey Bee Stamps), gold matte hot foil

Cheers

Karren

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Embossed Leaves

Hi and welcome!  It's time for another Tic Tac Toe challenge, and this time I went with the centre column Foliage/Leaves - Free - Thank You to come up with this card.

I've been a bit obsessed lately with Distress Spray Stains so once again I pulled them out to have a play.  I white embossed the Hodge Podge stamp onto watercolour paper then went to town with multiple spray stains and spritzes.  Once I was happy with the result I let the paper dry then die-cut with various leaf shapes.  Before I adhered the black layer on top, I took each leaf and added some foundry wax with my finger before heat-setting.

I embossed a kraft panel with the Burlap embossing folder then added a black frame.  Within the frame I arranged the leaves and a gold foiled thanks sentiment and called it done.

Thanks for visiting.  I hope you'll have time to play along with us.

Products used:

Ink: Versamark, various Distress Spray Stains and Distress Spritz

Cardstock: Neenah Desert Storm, Black, Distress Watercolor Paper (Tim Holtz)

Dies: Fall Leaves, Nesting Rectangle Frames (Waffle Flower), Hexi-Gem Sentiments Hot Foil (Spellbinders)

Accessories: Burlap Embossing Folder (Honey Bee Stamps), White Embossing Powder, Gold Hot Foil, Gilded Foundry Wax (Tim Holtz)

Cheers

Karren

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Bokeh Rose

Hi and welcome!  I am the sketch hostess this week over at Freshly Made Sketches and I have to admit I made the sketch fit this card that I had made some months ago and never posted!

I used pink, yellow and peachy inks to create a blended background and then went over it with a bokeh stencil to create a soft-looking background.  I then die-cut an arch frame from white cardstock and adhered that to the base.

For the rose, I started with white cardstock and ink-blended the same colours onto the various layers, adding greens for the stems.  When I was assembling the rose, I used foam tape in between each of the layers for added dimension.

I finished with a simple gold hot-foiled birthday sentiment.

Thanks so much for visiting.  I hope you'll check out the way the rest of the design team have used my sketch.

I'm linking this card up to the Anything Goes Die Challenge at Just Us Girls as well as the Mark Your Mark challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More (ink-blending on background and rose).

Products used:

Ink:  Pinkalicious, Warm Sunshine, Caramel Toffee, Buttercream, Mossy Meadow, Misty Sage, Green Opal (Altenew), Unicorn White (Hero Arts)

Cardstock:  White, Black, Bristol Smooth

Dies:  Lovely Layers: Rose (Honey Bee Stamps), A2 Arches (The Greetery), Hexi-Gem Sentiments Hot Foil  (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Bokeh Stencil (Taylored Expressions), Gold Hot Foil

Cheers

Karren

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Edited to Add:  This card got a shout-out at Just Us Girls and Addicted to Stamps and More.

Numbers

 

Hi and welcome!  Today's card uses the latest sketch from Freshly Made Sketches where Kim Singdahlsen

is our hostess.  I decided to get messy with Distress Spray Stains, Distress Spritz and an embossing folder for my card.

These panels started out as white watercolour paper and after lots of spraying and splattering, they became this.  I die-cut the panels and mounted them onto black cardstock before adhering to a kraft card base.  The sentiment is pre-foiled in gold.

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

Products used:

Ink: Black Soot Archival

Cardstock: Desert Storm (Kraft), Black, Distress Watercolour Cardstock

Dies:A2 Rectangle Stax 1 and 2 (MFT), Additional Square Die (Waffle Flower)

Accessories:  Numbers Embossing Folder (Tim Holtz), Crackling Campfire, Rusty Hinge, Tumbled Glass, Weathered Wood, Gathered Twigs Distress Spray Stain, Salvaged Patina Distress Oxide Spray Stain, Salvaged Patina, Hickory Smoke Distress Spritz

Cheers

Karren

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Balloons

Hi and welcome!  Today's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches was designed by Judy Rozema.  I originally was going to put flowers in the corners but then I remembered this hot foil plate, die and stencil set and decided to use it for my card.

The hot foiled images were stenciled using Distress Inks and then die-cut.  It's hard to see in the photos, but there is a larger bunch of balloons in each corner and a smaller bunch popped up with foam tape closest to the centre circle.

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

Products used:

Ink:  Saltwater Taffy, Abandoned Coral, Spiced Marmalade, Ripe Persimmon, Scattered Straw, Fossilized Amber Distress Inks

Cardstock:  White

Dies:  Balloon Arch Hot Foil and Dies (Honey Bee Stamps) Stylish Script Thank You and Happy Birthday (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Balloon Arch Stencils (Honey Bee Stamps) Copper hot foil

Cheers

Karren