Birthday Circles

Hi, I'm here with my card for this week's colour challenge over at Card Challenges. I'm also playing along with the current Inskpirational challenge, where I was inspired by the repeating circles in the top right image and pastel colours in the bottom right image.  

The challenge colours threw me for a bit until I re-read the blog post and decided to pastel-ise the colours a bit more.  So I found softer tones of the challenge colours and then used a MFT circle stencil to stencil them onto the left hand side of a white panel.  I deliberately softened the ink-blending as I got near the top of each circle to add to the feel.  Once I'd finished with the circles I stamped some mini splatters onto each circle, using the stencil for the smaller circles to keep the splatter inside the ink-blending.  

I then stamped the sentiment from the same stamp set and mounted it onto a mat in a cardstock colour that most closely matched the pink ink.  Because I like the look of the black against the soft colours, I added some black enamel dots and a black enamel heart.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps: Mini Messages & More (MFT)

Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Saltwater Taffy, Broken China, Shaded Lilac, Evergreen Bough Distress Inks

Cardstock: White, Dahlia (Spellbinders)

Dies: A2 Stitched Rectangle Stax 1 & 2 (MFT)

Accessories: Basic Shapes: Circles stencil (MFT), Enamel Dots

Cheers

Karren

If you enjoyed this post and would like an email when I post new content, please follow me

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

If you enjoyed this post and would like an email when I post new content, please follow me

Brrrthday

Hi and welcome!  This is the last card I got to make as part of my week off work.  I used the colour challenge from Addicted to CAS, the Anything Goes challenge at Seize The Birthday as well as the Cold cue word at Inkspirational to come up with this card.

 

I stamped, Copic-coloured and die-cut the images and then arranged them onto a strip of black cardstock.  I did this partly because black was one of the challenge colours and also because it's a CAS theme and I didn't want to busy it up with a scene in the background.  I quite like the way the images pop off the black.

I stamped a sentiment onto a white cardbase, then adhered the black panel.  I added some clear sparkle pen on all the pom-poms and called it done.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Snow Buddies, Ready, Set Snow (MFT)

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

Cardstock:  White, Black, X-Press It

Dies:  Snow Buddies (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen

Cheers

Karren

Corner Flowers

 Hi all and welcome to another sketch from the team at Freshly Made Sketches.  Our hostess this week is Jennifer Timko and I went the obvious route with flowers for my card!

I stamped and stenciled these flowers and used the co-ordinating dies to cut them out.  Onto a white card base I added a panel die-cut with the Triangle Background die and then added a white frame popped up with foam tape.

I then popped up the flowers with foam tape as well as the white-embossed sentiment.  Finally, I finished with some clear drops.

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

I'm linking this up to the current Color Hues challenge to use Teal and Orange.  My orange looks a bit washed out but I can assure you they started out as orange inks :)  I'm also linking to Inskpirational who are looking for stencils, with layering stencils as an optional twist.

Products used:

Stamps:  In the Woodland (Altenew), Elegant Sentiments (Waffle Flower)

Ink:  Versamark, Amalgam (Gina K), Golden Sunset set, Sea Shore set, Espresso (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Black

Dies: In the Woodland (Altenew), Elegant Sentiments (Waffle Flower), Nesting Rectangle Frames (Waffle Flower), Triangle Background (C+9)

Accessories:  In the Woodland stencils (Altenew), White EP, Clear Drops

Cheers

Karren

Swoopy Roses

 

Hi and welcome to another challenge over at  Freshly Made Sketches where our sketch hostess this week is  Jen Brum.  Here's the card I made using Jen's sketch:

I die-cut the "swish" out of a white card panel before running the two leftover pieces through an embossing folder.  I matted some black behind the swish as well as some text patterned paper.  

After colouring and die-cutting the flowers I added those to the front along with a black hot-foiled sentiment.

And that's it!  Thanks so much for visiting.  Please check out the gorgeous cards made by the design team.

I'm adding this card to the Inkspirational challenge to add embossing and Addicted to Stamps & More's birthday challenge.

Products used:

Stamps:  Amazing You (Altenew)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K)

Cardstock:  White, Black, X-Press It, One Of A Kind (Paper Rose)

Dies:  Amazing You (Altenew), Blueprints 25 (MFT), Everyday Sentiments II (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Four Petal Floral Embossing Folder (Spellbinders), Copics, Black Hot Foil

90 Years Young

 Hi and welcome!  Cecile Ribon is our sketch hostess this week over at Freshly Made Sketches and she has a fabulous sketch for us to play with.  I needed a 90th birthday card for my father and the sketch was perfect.  As you can see, I took a literal interpretation to come up with my card.

I die-cut the leaves and the 90 from white card stock and ink-blended various green inks onto the die-cuts.  I also die-cut a pierced heart from both white and vellum.  I arranged the leaves both behind and in front of the white heart and adhered everything to the card base.  I then adhered the 90 to the vellum heart and added that to the card front as well.

To finish the front, I white-embossed a sentiment onto black.  I didn't add any embellishments.  For the inside, I added a couple of stamped sentiments, then die-cut another heart from vellum and added a leftover leaf sprig to it.

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

I am linking this up to the CAS challenge at Inkspirational, the Stencil and/or Dies challenge at The Male Room and the Garden theme at Addicted to CAS.

Products Used:

Stamps:  More Essential Sentiments (MFT), Lots to Say (Reverese Confetti)

Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Wintergreen, Sage, Seafoam, Spruce (Catherine Pooler)

Cardstock:  White, Black, Vellum

Dies:  Pierced Heart Stax (MFT), Curvy Leaves (Elizabeth Craft Designs), By The Numbers (PTI)

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout-out at The Male Room

Green Leaves

 Hi and welcome!  Today's card was made for the Seize The Birthday/Color Hues collaboration challenges where the idea is to make a birthday card using navy and lime green.  I'm also linking up to the Repetition challenge at Inskpirational where I've repeated the die-cut elements and the scored lines.

I decided to go with a more masculine card featuring my favourite navy blue colour, Dark Indigo from Papertrey Ink.  I paired that with some alcohol-inked leaves and white polaroid frames to come up with this card.

The Dark Indigo panel was first partially embossed with the Subtle embossing folder then I added some score lines at the bottom before blending Chipped Sapphire ink around the edges to add more interest.  The sentiment was white-embossed.

The alcohol-inked panel was from my stash so I can't remember what ink colours I used.  The leaves were stacked using white die-cuts underneath the alcohol-inked panel.  I then die-cut some polaroid frames and arranged the elements onto the Dark Indigo panel.

Finally, I adhered it to a white card base using foam tape.

Thanks so much for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Sentiment Strips (Altenew)

Ink:  Versamark, Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink, Alcohol Inks

Cardstock:  White, Dark Indigo (PTI), Yupo

Dies:  Precious Polaroids (MFT), Eucalyptus Leaves (SSS)

Accessories:  Subtle EF, Score board, white EP

Cheers

Karren

Block Leaves

Welcome to the new sketch from the team at Freshly Made Sketches, where this week our hostess is Cecile Ribon.  She has come up with a fun sketch for us and here's my card: 

After completing the Crushing on Cardstock class at Online Card Classes, I decided to play with some different cardstock techniques for my three panels.  The top panel is faux suede, the centre panel is embossed with a 3D embossing folder and the bottom panel is a tone-on-tone embossed panel.

The leaf is made from alcohol ink on acetate and die-cut.

Here's a close up of the different cardstock panels.

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

I'm entering this in the following challenges.

Tic Tac Toe - die-cuts, leaves, CAS. Inskpirational - autumn leaves  Addicted to CAS - leaf

Products used:

Stamps:  Rustic Linen, Many Thanks (Altenew)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Sunkissed (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Summer Sunrise, Harvest Gold (PTI), Tangy Orange (MFT), Acetate

Dies:  Inside/Out Stitched Squares, Stitched Rectangle Stax, Layered Leaves (MFT)

Accessories:  Alcohol Inks (Butterscotch, Lemonade, Honeycomb, Sunset Orange, Statue Alloy); Modern Squares EF (Altenew)

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Tic-Tac-Toe

Bokeh Rainbow

 Welcome!  I'm here with a card for the latest Freshly Made Sketch challenge, where our hostess this week is Judy Rozema.  And I have to say, I really like the card I made (and I don't say that often!)

As soon as I saw Judy's sketch I thought I would do traditional colour blocking with cardstock or patterned paper, but ended up using masking and ink-blending and stencils to create my colour-blocked panels.  I used part of a PTI die to create the mask for the blocks and then I blended distress inks in a rainbow order.  Once that was finished and before removing the mask, I added the bokeh with stencils and white pigment ink.

I then removed the stencil and added a clean white cardstock die-cut.  The eucalyptus leaves were stacked three high and added with liquid glue and I finished with a white-embossed sentiment on black.

I liked the card so much I decided after almost three years to make a video showing how I created it (partly in case I forget down track!). If you want to watch it you can go  here or watch it below.

Thanks so much for visiting.  I'm entering this card into the following challenges:  Addicted to Stamps and More - Die-Cuts and/or Stencils, Seize the Birthday - Anything Goes, Inskpirational - Spots and Dots  

Products used:

Stamps:  Itty Bitty Birthday Wishes (MFT)

Ink:  Versamark, Picked Raspberry, Candied Apple, Carved Pumpkin, Mustard Seed, Twisted Citron, Broken China, Chipped Sapphire, Wilted Violet Distress Oxide Ink, Unicorn White (Hero Arts)

Cardstock:  White, Black; Bristol Smooth

Dies:  Comic Strip (PTI), Eucalyptus Leaves (SSS)

Accessories:  White EP, Bokeh Stencil (Taylored Expressions)

Cheers

Karren  

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Addicted to Stamps and More, Inkspirational and Seize The Birthday

Block Work

 Hi and welcome!  There's a bit of a back story to today's card.  I play a word game in the evenings on my tablet and it features different backdrops.  The latest backdrop really piqued my creative interest and I would ponder how I could re-create it in a card.  Here is a screen shot of the backdrop.

I figured stenciling would be the best way and using white ink to get the lighter tones would be easiest.  So yesterday, which was the last day of a long weekend, I sat down and came up with this card.

I am so happy with how this came out and it was so easy!  I started by looking for square masking stencils but the only ones I had were too big, so I made my own stencil with acetate and three square dies.  I then cut a panel of Bristol Smooth cardstock and selected some Distress Oxide inks.  I ink-blended over the background - sort of mimicking the inspiration photo, but adding more blues and less pink.  Once I was finished, I took my acetate stencil and stenciled over the panel with the Distress Oxide inks, creating the squares you can see in the photo below.

Then, to add the lighter tones, I went over it again with the same stencil and Unicorn White pigment ink and this was the result.

The white faded back a bit as it dried but it still had enough variation to satisfy me.  Once it was dry, I die-cut it into a smaller panel with a stitched rectangle die.  So now onto the card!

I didn't want to cover up that background so I went for an inlaid die-cut sentiment.  I cut the Big Hugs die three times from black and once from the ink-blended panel.  I then adhered the ink-blended panel onto a white card base and stacked the black die-cuts back into the gap.  Now for the Doh! moment.  I decided to add some sparkle to the letters, so grabbed my clear sparkle pen, not for a minute thinking the liquid would react with the oxide inks (as I said earlier - DOH!). I couldn't start again so decided to make a feature of it and liberally sprayed all the letters with shimmer spray. I then added the top layer to the card but very slightly offset each letter so a hint of black would show through.

I white-embossed a sub-sentiment and added that across the die-cut word and then added some black hearts which I also sprayed with shimmer spray.

Thanks for visiting!  I'm entering this card into the following challenges:  

Inkspirational - Hearts

The Paper Players - Hearts and/or Stars

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Love is in the Air

Just Us Girls - Valentine

Products used:

Stamps:  Essential Sentiments (MFT)

Ink:  Versamark, Unicorn White (Hero Arts), Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade, Picked Raspberry, Tumbled Glass, Peacock Feathers, Blueprint Sketch Distress Oxide Inks

Cardstock:  White, Bristol Smooth, Black

Dies:  Stitched Rectangle Stax, Blueprints 11, Band Aids, Big Hugs (MFT), Classic Squares (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  White EP, Acetate, Shimmer Spray

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Paper Players.