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

 

Love Hearts

Hi, I'm here with my card for the latest challenge at Tic Tac Toe where this time I went through the centre with CAS, hearts and stripes for this almost white-on-white card (which is notoriously difficult to photograph!)

I die-cut and stacked different sized hearts and adhered them to a white panel.  Onto the card base I added strips of black and white striped paper then popped up the heart panel with foam tape.  I found a pre-foiled sentiment which worked perfectly so added that to the centre.

Finally, I finished with some clear sparkle pen on the hearts and a mini clay heart.

Thanks for visiting!

 

Products used:

Cardstock:  White, Black & White Stripes (MFT)

Dies:  Blueprints 32 (MFT), Fall Foliage Sentiments (Honey Bee Stamps)

Accessories:  Copper hot foil, Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen

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

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

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