Little One

Hi and welcome!  Today's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches was designed by Verena Shapiro.  I went through my box of NBUS and decided these geese would work well for the circles in the sketch.

I die-cut the geese bodies and wings from white cardstock and the smaller elements from coloured cardstock.  I added a bit of light grey shading to the geese before assembling them.  

I added an embossed panel cut from Mist cardstock and adhered to a white card base.  A strip of gingham patterned paper was added for the "ground" and I added a sentiment onto a strip of Lemon Tart cardstock.

Thanks for visiting! The DT have some fabulous cards so please check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Essential Sentiments (MFT)

Ink: Versafine Clair Nocturne, Lost Shadow, Scattered Straw Distress Ink

Cardstock: White, Lemon Tart (PTI), Mist (Lawn Fawn), Carrot (Spellbinders), Gingham patterned paper (Echo Park)

Dies:  Silly Goose (The Greetery)

Accessories: Subtle Embossing Folder (SU)

Cheers

Karren

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Best Ever

Today's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches was designed by Kim Singdahlsen.  Originally I was going to use butterflies for the circular elements but couldn't get them to look right, so veered off on a tangent and went with gears for a masculine card.

I embossed onto a panel of kraft cardstock and went over the embossed areas lightly with white ink.  The gears were cut from watercolour cardstock and then spritzed with various distress spray stains.  I arranged the gears onto the kraft panel and adhered them down.  

 

The sentiment was stamped, embossed and die-cut before being added to the panel.  I then added it all to a black card base and called it done.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Dad Squared (The Greetery)

Ink: Versamark, Unicorn White (Hero Arts)

Cardstock: Black, Kraft (MFT), Watercolour paper

Dies: Dad Squared (The Greetery), Vault Watch Gears (Tim Holtz)

Accessories: Timeless Type EF (SU), Black Soot, Antique Bronze, Tarnished Brass, Brushed Pewter Distress Spray Stains, eyelets

Cheers

Karren

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Citrus Christmas

Hi and welcome to another challenge from the team at Freshly Made Sketches, where our hostess this week is Jen Mitchell.  Turns out I mis-interpreted Jen's sketch from the final design so do as I say, not as I do this week... 

I wasn't planning on making a Christmas card when I pulled out these Dried Citrus Slices dies but that's what happened.

I started by creating the citrus slices, which I was intending to use for the scallop element on the sketch.  From there it just morhped into a Christmas card, with ephemera tags, die-cut holly sprig and vintage-looking patterned paper.  I added some ink-blending round the edges of the embossed panel and the patterned paper, but didn't do any distressing in keeping with the clean theme at FMS.

Thanks so much for visiting and to everyone who left heartfelt comments on my post from last week, thank you.  It meant a lot.

Please check out the fabulous cards from the rest of the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Curio Labels (The Greetery)

Ink: Walnut Stain DOX, Walnut Stain, Forest Moss, Aged Mahogany, Festive Berries, Pine Needles, Rustic Wilderness, Antique Linen, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade Distress Inks

Cardstock: White, Desert Storm, Christmas Backdrops patterned paper (Tim Holtz)

Dies: Bigger Botanicals Holly 1, Dried Citrus Slices (The Greetery)

Accessories: Burlap EF (Honey Bee Stamps), Sepia Serenity Ephemera (Aall & Create)

Cheers

Karren

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Toadstool Notes

Hi, I'm here with my not-very-clean card for the latest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches where our hostess is Cecile Ribon.  This card started out when I found a roll of collage tissue paper in my stash.  I decided to have a play and make a panel with scrunched up tissue paper, adhered to cardstock and then spritzed and ink-blended to vintage it up a little.  I then got caught up in the moment and it turned into my FMS card.  Apologies to the team for the vintage-y, distressed appearance. 

I found the toadstools already ink-blended and assembled so then I created the clipboard, which is just so cute and fun!  I made the clip of the clipboard by spritzing a piece of Desert Storm cardstock with Antiqued Bronze distress spray stain and letting it dry.  It gave it a nice, aged metallic look without using foil cardstock.

The vellum was torn on three sides to match the sketch and I added a sentiment which was stamped with black onto white then I clear heat-embossed over the whole thing to give it a true Dymo tape look.

Thanks for visiting.  The DT have created some wonderful (cleaner) cards so I hope you'll check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Faded Type, Mini Muse (Tim Holtz), Winter Herbarium (The Greetery), Best Sentiments (Altenew)

Ink: Obsidian (Altenew), Hickory Smoke, Gathered Twigs, Old Paper Distress Oxide, Walnut Stain Distress Ink, Versamark

Cardstock: Neenah Desert Storm, White, Paper Bag (Lawn Fawn), Vellum, Tissue Wrap (Tim Holtz), Off the Grid patterned paper (MFT)

Dies: Vault Noteworthy (Tim Holtz), Botanicals toadstood Garden (The Greetery)

Accessories: Salvaged Patina Distress Oxide Spray, Scorched Timber, Antiqued Bronze Distress Spray Stain, Clear Embossing Powder.

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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CASE It - Distressed Leaves

Hi and welcome.  Over on Instagram I'm joining in the CASE It Instagram Hop and this month I was inspired by Amy Rohl and her gorgeous card which I've shown at the bottom of my post.  I created a panel with various Distress Spray Stains and Spritzes and used some Altenew dies to cut them out.  I then set about the card base with a postage edge panel which was orignally going to be left out and just use the frame, but I liked the look of the splattered panel so re-inserted it.

The outline for the leaves comes from a previously foiled black panel where I made a mess and it only partly foiled.  I've kept it for a couple of years and finally put it to use.  I think it adds a suitably grungy look to the card. The sentiment comes from a Spellbinders stamp set.  I finished with some gems.

Thanks for visiting.  Here is Amy's card - isn't it gorgeous?

Head on over to Instagram and check out the hop.  It'll be amazing as always!

Products used:

Stamps: Hello Sunflower (Spellbinders)

Ink: Versafine Onyx Black

Cardstock: Watercolour paper, Black, Kraft

Dies: Leaf Mix (Altenew), Postal Frames (The Greetery)

Accessories: various Distress Spray Stains, Hickory Smoke Distress Spritz, Gold Color Shine (Heidi Swapp), Back to Basics Gem Stickers (Honey Bee Stamps)

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.

27

Hi!  Welcome to my blog. Our sketch hostess over at Freshly Made Sketches this week is Kim Singdahlsen.  I used her great sketch to create a card for my son, whose birthday is in a couple of weeks. If he was still with us he would be 27 years old this year.  This is the 6th birthday since he passed suddenly 😢.   

I used the Shiplap die by The Greetery for both the white panels in the background and for the numbers.  The number panel was a leftover piece from a previous session where I ink-blended the panel with Distress Oxide inks before die-cutting.  I then adhered the shiplap back onto a sheet of copy paper before die-cutting with the numbers.  I stacked the numbers with two black die-cuts as well for dimension.

The white shiplap was adhered to the patterned paper with foam tape and I finished with a simple sentiment - not really birthday-ish but true.

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

Products Used:

Stamps:  Squared Spring Florals (Honey Bee)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Antique Linen, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo Distress Oxide

Cardstock:  White, Black, Grain & Grunge Patterned Paper (Honey Bee)

Dies:  Shiplap (The Greetery), By the Numbers (PTI)

Cheers

Karren

Willow Wishes

 Hi and welcome to a new sketch from the team at Freshly Made Sketches, where our hostess this week is Jen Brum.  I am still not feeling very creative after my break from card-making so this is a pretty simple card - that still took forever to pull together!

I'll just say upfront that I completely missed where the sentiment should go, so just ignore that little error, please.

The background is the result of a foiling mistake where I placed the plate upside down on my Glimmer.  This is the negative and I like the soft, abstract look of this.  But I can't remember what plate I used so I'll never be able to recreate this!  The pussy willows were ink-blended when I was away from home recently and I decided instead of a circle, to use two tags.

Thanks for visiting.  The design team have some gorgeous samples to inspire you to play along.

Products used:

Stamps:  Envelope of Wonder Sentiments (Spellbinders

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, various Altenew inks

Cardstock:  White

Dies:  Botanicuts: Pussy Willow (The Greetery), Tags (Spellbinders Advent Calendar 2023)

Accessories:  Baker's Twine, Pacific Northwest Pearls (Honey Bee Stamps)

Cheers

Karren

Got Thyme?

 Hi!  It's time for another Freshly Made Sketch Challenge and this week I am the sketch hostess.  I designed a simple sketch with a grouping of three elements.  For my own card, I flipped the sketch to come up with this:

This was not what I envisaged when I designed the sketch, but I had just received these new dies from Honey Bee Stamps and thought they would work well.  I used a combination of patterned paper, coloured cardstock, with added ink blending, and metallic cardstock with the dies.  The background was die-cut with an older The Greetery die and adhered to a white card base.  I then added some patterned paper for the "floor".  Before I added the pots, I heat embossed the sentiment with copper embossing powder to match the signs.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Sentiment Strips (Altenew)

Ink:  Versamark, Moss, Parrot, Olive, Grass Field (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Avocade, Artichoke (C+9), New Leaf (PTI), Steel Gray, Cement Gray (MFT), Copper Metallic, Grain & Grunge (Honey Bee)

Dies:  Lovely Layers: Herb Garden (Honey Bee Stamps), Herringbone Parquet (The Greetery)

Accessories:  Copper Embossing Powder (Altenew)

Cheers

Karren

Fishing Birthday

  Hi everyone and welcome.  It's time for a new sketch from the team over at Freshly Made Sketches and this week our sketch hostess is Jen Brum.  I used the sketch to make a birthday card for my father's upcoming 91st birthday.

I was guided by the Colour Cubes and also took a few minutes to plan out my card in the Trinity Stamps Cardmaking Sketchbook, which makes execution so much quicker!

This is a NBUS stamp and die set from Honey Bee Stamps.  I stamped, Copic-coloured and die-cut the images and then went to work on my background.  I embossed a green card-front-sized panel with the Castaway embossing folder, then lined up the brown strip to exactly match and ran that through the embossing folder.  The tiny sentiment was white heat-embossed onto a Jellybean Green strip and I added a copper metallic die-cut circle, onto which I added the images.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Fishing Legend (Honey Bee Stamps), Curio Labels (The Greetery)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K.) Versamark

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It, Forest (Spellbinders), Jellybean Green, Milk Chocolate (MFT), Copper Metallic

Dies:  Fishing Legend (Honey Bee Stamps), Infinity Circle Dies (Hero Arts)

Accessories:  Copics, White Embossing Powder, Castaway Embossing Folder (Spellbinders)

Cheers

Karren

Striped Blossom

Hi all and welcome to a new board over at Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge.  I've chosen the bottom row Flowers-Dots/Stripes-Green for this in-your-face card!

 

I have been forcing myself to branch out colour-wise with my cards and the use of the Colour Cubes is really helping me because there is no way on earth I would have chosen to work with this palette myself!  I really, really don't like the fuschia/orchid colour so to use it was a real challenge.  This isn't my favourite card but it's not horrible so I can live with that.

Thanks for visiting.  I hope you'll head over to the challenge and have a go yourself!

Products used:

Stamps:  Assorted Greetings (Gina K. Designs)

Ink:  Versamark

Cardstock:  White, Midnight, Tidepool, Fig, Grape (C&9), Tropical Teal (PTI)

Dies:  Cherry Blossom (Honey Bee Stamps), Embossed Edge Circles (Kat Scrappiness), Slim Stripes (Pink Fresh), Herringbone Parquet (The Greetery)

Accessories:  White EP

Cheers

Karren

Pinecones

 Hi and welcome!  This week's Freshly Made Sketch hostess is Jennifer Timko and her sketch is below.  I made a Christmas card using this great sketch.

I am totally, totally over Christmas cards at the moment, but I had this panel already stamped, stenciled, coloured and die-cut so it wasn't too onerous to create another Christmas card. I had to mirror the sketch for the panel to work.  For the background I used Neenah Desert Storm cardstock die-cut with the Herringbone Parquet die by The Greetery.

After I'd put the card together I looked at the sketch and realised that (a) it was a square card; (b) it had an additional layer; and (c) the sentiment was adjacent to the circles.  In my original version, I had put the sentiment under the pinecones so had to carefully lift it and move it.  In lifting it, I damaged one of the pine needle images but an enamel dot covered that nicely.  Couldn't do anything at this stage about the lack of squareness or the layer, so it is what it is - we're pretty forgiving over at FMS!

Please head over to the FMS blog and check out how well (or how rogue😄) the rest of the DT did with this sketch.

Products used:

Stamps:  Glad Tidings (Honey Bee Stamps)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K.), Versafine Onyx Black, Moss, Green Onyx, Olive, Velvet, Crimson, Espresso (Altenew)

Cardstock:  Desert Strom (Neenah), Whip Cream, Jalapeno Popper (MFT), Forest (Spellbinders)

Dies:  Glad Tidings (Honey Bee Stamps), Herringbone Parquet (The Greetery), Embossed Edge Circles (Kat Scrappiness)

Accessories:  Glad Tidings stencils, Clear EP, Enamel Dots, Copics

Cheers

Karren 

Oak Note

Welcome!  Today is the last day of my time off work so I've been trying to spend as much time in my craft room as possible the last couple of days.  As well as making a couple of cards for upcoming design team challenges, I also found the time to make a card for some current challenges.  This card uses the sketch at Paper Players as well as the mood board at Just Us Girls.

This card involved a lot of messy play and it was great!  I found a panel of cardstock I'd spritzed with mica sprays last year (using the Halloween 2022 collection).  I wanted to brighten the panel a bit so I added a few yellows and oranges and set it aside to dry.  For the background panel, I ink-blended some Distress Oxide inks and die-cut with the Shiplap Builder die before adding Vintage Photo DOX to the edges of each die-cut.  I adhered all the individual elements to a panel of photocopy paper and then die-cut with a stitched rectangle die.

The kraft panel was embossed with a brick embossing folder after being die-cut with a smaller stitched rectangle die.

Once the mica panel was dry, I die-cut it with the shadow layer of the Oak Leaf die then cut the inner with black cardstock.  The sentiment was die-cut from white and black and adhered together, then it was just a matter of assembly.

Thanks so much for visiting.

Products used:

Ink:  Antique Linen, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo Distress Oxide Inks

Cardstock:  White, Black, Neenah Desert Storm

Dies:  Oak Leaf (Neat & Tangled), Stitched Rectangle Stax (MFT), Shiplap Builder (The Greetery), Just a Note Posh Script (Memory Box)

Accessories:  Brick Embossing Folder (Tim Holtz), various Mica Stain Sprays

Cheers

Karren

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

Mushroom Mountain

 Hi and welcome!  I am the sketch hostess this week over at Freshly Made Sketches and here is the card I made:

Everything on this card is NBUS - the dies are from the Autumn Wonder set by Spellbinders, the sentiment is part of the 2023 Spellbinders Advent Calendar and the patterned paper is from a new pack by Lawn Fawn.  I was pleased that they play so nicely together.

I die-cut all the autumn images from white cardstock and used Distress Inks and blending brushes to add colour.  I tried to create some shading using darker shades of the ink colours.  I arranged them in a pattern pleasing to my eye and used some Press n Seal to hold all the elements together.  I used an A2 Arches die to cute the patterned paper and adhered that to a white card base.  I then added the inlaid sentiment which was die-cut from matt gold foil to match the speckles in the patterned paper.

I then added the ink-blended elements and finished with an enamel heart.

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

Products used:

Dies:  Autumn Wonder, 2023 Advent Calendar (Spellbinders), A2 Arches (The Greetery)

Cardstock:  White, Black, Matt Gold Foil, Spiffier Speckles (Lawn Fawn)

Ink:  Crushed Olive, Shabby Shutters, Evergreen Bough, Pine Needles, Rustic Wildnerness, Carved Pumpkin, Rusty Hinge, Aged Mahogany, Fired Brick, Brushed Corduroy, Antique Linen, Pumice Stone, Vintage Photo, Gathered Twigs Distress Inks

Accessories:  Enamel Heart (Altenew)

Cheers

Karren