One Day at a Time

Today's card uses the current sketch from Retro Sketches, the colors from ColourQ and the challenge to use a crimper as well as old stamps from Retro Rubber Challenge.

I started with a white card base and added a crimped panel in Crumb Cake.  While my crimper doesn't live on my desk anymore, it does live close by as I use it when making flowers like the one I used on this card.  I crimp the cardstock in both directions to break the fibers in the paper and that makes it easier to squish up and re-shape.

The stamp I used on this card is a very old PSX one that I've had for probably 10 years.  I stamped it on a white panel using Jet Black Archival ink (love the coverage with that ink!).  To keep the card from looking too heavy, I used open leaves die-cut with Old Olive cardstock.  And because I really, really despise Rich Razzleberry, I used as little as I could and it appears in the form of the brad in the center of the flower and three Candy Dots :)

And yes, if you look closely enough, you can see white Mono Multi glue in the center of the flower which must have squished through from the back when I glued it down.  The glue hadn't dried when I took the photo and I didn't notice!

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Masterpiece (PSX)

Ink:  Archival Jet Black

Cardstock:  White, Crumb Cake, Calypso Coral, Old Olive

Accessories:  Brights Candy Dots, Brights Brad, Crimper, Lorelei Leaf Outline (Poppy Stamps), Scallop Circle Nestabilities

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Retro Rubber Challenge.

Sparkle and Shine

Hi and welcome to our first Merry Monday challenge of 2015!  This week, our challenge hostess is Kathy and she is challenging us to use a snowflake on our card.

Photo Source

And here's my card:

I started with a Sea Glass card top-folding card base.  I then took a piece of white cardstock and die cut the Eliza snowflake and carefully removed it from the panel.  After silver-embossing the sentiment, I then put lots of foam tape on the back and adhered it to the card base.  The center die-cut bits were carefully put back into the snowflake using tiny little bits of foam tape.  Some Simon Says Stamp sequins finished off the card.

Thanks for visiting.  The rest of the design team have some beautiful cards for you to check out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Winter Wonderland (Mama Elephant)
Ink:  Versamark
Cardstock:  Seaglass (SSS), white
Accessories:  Eliza die (SSS), Snowdrift Sequins (SSS), Silver EP

Cheers
Karren

Vintage Birthday

Hi and welcome!  I'm thrilled to be a Guest Designer at The Paper Players for the next few months!  Our first challenge of the year really had me thinking:

I recycle our household waste, but I don't generally recycle card-making stuff, so working out what to do proved to be a bit of a challenge at first.  I then came up with the idea of using some recycled corrugated cardboard and some pretty pink paper a bunch of flowers was wrapped in that was presented to me on my last day of work.

My card has a Crumb Cake card base and some First Edition patterned paper which was grunged up by over-stamping with the Hardwood background stamp in Fog ink, then stamping some of the images from Grunge Me using Crumb Cake ink.  Once that was done, I distressed and sponged the edges.

The flower was made using some floral paper that has the texture of interfacing (I have no idea what it's called!).  I die-cut several scallop circles and wet them before scrunching them up.  Once they were dry, I opened them out and stacked them together.  

The banner was white embossed with a birthday greeting and some silver thread was positioned behind the flower.

Thanks so much for visiting.  Be sure to check out the wonderful inspiration from the rest of the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Birthday Bash Sentiments (PTI), Grunge Me (PTI), Hardwood (SU)
Ink:  Versamark, Fog (SSS), Crumb Cake (SU)
Cardstock:  Crumb Cake, First Edition paper, corrugated cardboard, pink tissue paper
Accessories:  Silver thread, Fishtail Flag Stax (MFT), Scallop Circle dies (Spellbinder)

Cheers
Karren

Brighter Days

Today's card uses the colors from Pals Paper Arts and the Light cue word from CASology.  I'm also entering this into the current One Layer Simplicity challenge (thanks, Ardyth, for the heads up).

To make my card, I masked off a panel and sponged Wisteria Wonder at the top and Night of Navy at the bottom.  I then stamped the silhouette stamps in Jet Black Archival ink after removing the masks.  I put the masks back on then flicked some silver alcohol ink onto the card to give a lovely silvery look.  The sentiment was silver embossed and looks crooked in the photo but it really isn't :)

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Larger Than Life (PTI), April Showers (Clearly Besotted)

Ink:  Wisteria Wonder, Night of Navy, Jet Black Archival, Versamark, Silver Alcohol Ink

Cardstock:  White

Accessories:  Silver EP

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout-out at CASology.

21st Birthday

Tomorrow is my niece's 21st birthday party.  Now, for the record, there is no way I'm old enough to have a 21-year old niece so let's just assume that someone has played tricks with time :)

When I was blog-surfing the other day, I came across a beautiful card from Joni Andaya on the WPlus9 blog here.  It must have stuck in my sub-conscious because I woke up at 3am this morning with an idea for my niece's birthday card that is heavily inspired by Joni's card.

I struck a bit of an obstacle when I realized I didn't have any number dies small enough to die-cut the front panel, so out came the Silhouette and the job was done.  I then masked and stamped the flowers from Pretty Little Peonies in several different pink inks.  The sentiment comes from Poppy Birthday.  The white panel is popped up on foam tape on top of some silver glitter paper.

The sequins had to be strategically placed because I somehow got three ink smudges on the card front right at the very end and there was no way I was starting over!

Thanks for visiting.  I'm not entering this in any challenges because it's too much of a CASE.

Products used:

Stamps:  Pretty Little Peonies (WPlus9), Poppy Birthday (Verve)
Ink:  Doll Pink, Green Apple (SSS), Memento Tuxedo Black, Peony, Orchid (Versacolor)
Cardstock:  White, Silver Glitter Paper
Accessories:  Silhouette Cameo, Snowdrift Sequins (SSS)

Cheers
Karren

Favorite Cards of 2014 Pt 2

Hi and welcome back.  Today features my personal favorite cards of 2014 for the second half of the year.  My Jan-Jun favorites are at this post.

If you want to see the original post, click on the month.

July

Stencils come a close second to Copics as my favorite tools and I really liked the background on this card.  It was made for my DH but I still haven't given it to him, doh!  Maybe for Valentines.

August

I love the background on this card and the cowboy ain't too bad either ;)

September

This is another card where I love the background.  My Creative Chemistry classes were so worth the money, I've had so much fun using what I've learned!

October

I love the simplicity of this card (and the background!)

November

I like this card because it was the first time I got a person to look okay after coloring with Copics :)

December

I'm not totally sure why I like this card so much.  Maybe it's because it wasn't a Christmas card(!) or maybe it's the fabulous sentiment, courtesy of Hannelie.  Whatever it is, this card just makes me happy.

Thanks so much for coming along on this journey with me.  Have a Happy New Year, everyone!

I'm linking this up to both Mynn's and Lyndal's Favorite Cards Linky Party.

Cheers
Karren

Favorite Cards of 2014

It's New Year's Eve here in New Zealand and I thought it would be fun to go back through the cards I posted to my blog in 2014 and choose my personal favorites.  A lot of people do this at this time of year and I enjoy seeing their cards, so here goes.  If you click on the month, it'll take you to the orginal post.

January

This is one of those rare cards of mine that I really like.  Probably because it's not often I can "randomly arrange" embellishments and have it look okay :)

February

This card was for my mother's birthday.  She got me into card-making and she loves butterflies, so I put extra effort into this card and I love the Fossil Stone background.

March

This is one of my favorite Christmas cards for the year.  I love the red and gray together and the sponging really adds some dimension.  A bit of a departure from my normal white-based CAS cards :)

April

There were slim pickings in April and May because that was when we were living in the garage while our house was repaired after the major earthquake in 2011.  At the same time, I was going through a restructure at work, which ultimately led to me finishing up at CourierPost after 32 years.  

May

I love the faux patina technique and also like the layout of this card.  

June

Yep, another card featuring dark gray - I'm sensing a pattern here!  I love the flower arrangement and the font of the sentiment on this card.  I think I'd only just got the stitched mats dies and was using them on every card - not much has changed in that regard LOL.

I'll go through the second half of the year tomorrow.  Thanks for visiting.

Edited to Add:  I'm linking this up to both Mynn's and Lyndal's Favorite Cards Linky Party.

Cheers
Karren