Brown Sugar Birthday

There's a great sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches!  It's one of those sketches that can be used over and over and look different each time.  I combined it with the color challenge at Pals Paper Arts and the Anything Goes challenge at Seize the Birthday.

The sentiment is a cut file from the Silhouette store.  I cut it in both Baked Brown Sugar and Calypso Coral.  The main panel is popped up on dimensionals.  The DSP is from Epic Day and is the paper with the faint hexagon pattern, which is why I embossed the card base with the hexagon embossing folder.

The foliage is from the PTI set Larger than Life.  I finished off the card with some Calypso Coral Baker's Twine and one of the old In Color brads.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Larger Than Life (PTI)
Cardstock:  Baked Brown Sugar; Very Vanilla; Calypso Coral; Epic Day DSP
Ink:  Baked Brown Sugar
Accessories:  Larger Than Life die; In Color Brad; Calypso Coral Baker's Twine; Silhouette Cameo

Cheers
Karren

Washi Cards

The challenge at Friday Mashup this week is to use washi tape and/or a set of 3x3 quick note cards.  

I only have one lot of washi tape because I just haven't really bought into the trend yet (I'm always late to the trend party!).  

Anyway, I made a trio of 3x3 cards.  Why three?  Well, I only have 3 different washi tapes and the sentiment set I used only had 3 stamps :)

And here they are:

These are very CAS cards.  A strip or two of washi tape down the left side of a Whisper White panel; some twine, rounded corners and a sentiment and then they were put onto the bases using dimensionals.

Individual shots of each card:

  

Here's your Mashup Challenge:

1. Create a project with "Washi Tape."
2. Create a "set of 3x3 Quick Note Cards."
3. Or Mash it Up and create a "Set of 3x3 Note Cards using some Washi Tape".

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Made For You

Cardstock:  Calypso Coral; Basic Gray; Crumb Cake; Whisper White

Ink:  Calypso Coral; Basic Gray; Crumb Cake

Accessories:  White Baker's Twine; Epic Day Washi Tape; Corner Rounder

Cheers

Karren

Stylish Snowman

As mentioned in my post yesterday, I'm so excited to share that Lesley Croghan of Always Playing with Paper fame has asked me to join the design team at Merry Monday!  And today is my first contribution.

The inspiration picture is this beautiful, serene living area:

And here is the card I made using the theme of Green and White with Woodgrain.

I snapped up Stylin' Snowfolk when it went on the retiring list and this is my first chance to use it, which qualifies it as NBUS according to Darnell.  I decided to go with a distinguished looking professor look, but I think he ended up looking a bit surprised :)

I used Lucky Limeade as my green and dug out the beautiful Candlelight Christmas DSP from last year.  I stamped the sentiment before running a layer of Whisper White cardstock through the Big Shot using the Woodgrain EF.  I did have to deviate slightly from the inspiration photo in order to give the Prof a nose, which was stamped using Tangerine Tango ink.  It's hard to see in the photo but I gave him a bit of shading with my Soft Sky marker.

I used this week's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches, which is a very versatile sketch.

Thanks for visiting and go check out the other DT cards using the inspiration photo and have a go yourself - then you'll be one Christmas card closer to Christmas!

Products used:

Stamps:  Stylin' Snowfolk; Joyous Celebration
Cardstock:  Whisper White; Candlelight Christmas DSP
Ink:  Basic Black; Lucky Limeade; Tangerine Tango
Accessories:  Woodgrain EF; Lucky Limeade marker; Soft Sky marker; Lucky Limeade Baker's Twine

Sneak Peek...

I received a really exciting email during the week.  It was from Lesley Croghan of Always Playing with Paper fame (not to mention Queen of Challenge Blogs fame!) asking me to join the Merry Monday Design Team.

In case you don't know, the Merry Monday Design Team is a weekly Christmas card challenge - and who doesn't like the idea of getting Christmas cards made before the mad Christmas rush is upon us?

The Merry Monday challenges go live on Lesley's blog on Mondays at 5am (PST).  That's midnight Monday night for us Kiwis.  The challenge remains open until noon on the Sunday (that's about 7am on Monday morning here).  Check out Lesley's blog (link above) for all the deets, and while you're there, check out her mad stamping skills!  

Here's a sneak peek of my card for this week's challenge.

So check back tomorrow for the full card and make some plans to join in the fun.  

Cheers
Karren

Silver Reeds

I sat down today to make a card for this week's Freshly Made Sketch Challenge and decided to use the colors at Just Add Ink, which are absolutely stunning together I might add!

For today's card, I started with a piece of Whisper White cardstock and sponged Bermuda Bay ink on it, making sure to not make the sponging too even.  Once that was done, I silver-embossed this gorgeous reed image from the retired Always Thankful set.  I then went over the image again with more Bermuda Bay ink to darken the background around the image.  Finally I spritzed the image with some Silver Smooch Spritz and cut with an oval nestie.  I took some Basic Black DSP from the Neutrals stack and sponged Bermuda Bay ink over it to tone down the white.

The sentiment from Four You was silver-embossed onto the card base.  Some Basic Black taffeta ribbon finished off the card.  I originally had the retired black satin ribbon but it looked too heavy for the rest of the card so I swapped it for this narrow ribbon.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Always Thankful; Four You
Cardstock:  Whisper White; Bermuda Bay; Basic Black; Neutrals DSP
Ink:  Versamark
Accessories:  Silver EP; Oval Nesties; Silver Smooch Spritz; Basic Black taffeta ribbon

Cheers
Karren

E-Cut Thanks

When you look at my card below, the most obvious thing is the "thanks".  I haven't yet got the word thinlits but really wanted to have a die-cut word as my main image on the card.  So I spent Friday evening trolling the internet looking for a loopy, cursive font to give me the look I was after.  Couldn't find anything I liked, so on Saturday morning, I grabbed my Basic Black marker and a piece of white cardstock and hand-wrote my own sentiment.  I then scanned it into my Silhouette software and printed out the thanks you see below.  The possibilities are endless!  I really must spend some more time with my Cameo...

I used the sketch from Hand Stamped Sentiments and the 1-2-3 challenge at Friday Mashup.

The 1-2-3 elements I used on my card are:

1 stamp (butterfly from Thanks for Caring)

2 embellishments (ribbon and candy dots)

3 patterned papers (Modern Medley x 2 and In Color Stack)

1. Create a project with using "A-B-C (use elements on your projects starting with the letters A, B, C). "
2. Create a project using a "1-2-3 card recipe (1 embellishment, 2 Stamp Sets, 3 Colors) ."
3. Or Mash it Up and create a project "A-B-C & a 1,2,3 card recipe. "

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Thanks for Caring

Cardstock:  Basic Black; Very Vanilla; Raspberry Ripple; Modern Medley DSP; 2012-14 In Color DSP

Ink:  Raspberry Ripple

Accessories:  Circle Nesties; Silhouette Cameo; Raspberry Ripple Ribbon; Neutrals Candy Dots

Cheers

Karren

Chevron Father's Day

This card fought me the whole way as I was making it!  It was just one of those days and it finished in spectacular manner when Dexter the Dog managed to entice the sentiment stamp off my desk and into his mouth.  I heard a crunching sound and when I investigated the wood block was full of teeth marks and the "F" from "Father's" on the rubber side was gone! So that's that, then.  Until "Ather's Day" becomes an official holiday, my stamp is in retirement :)  I'm only grateful it was a single stamp and not part of a set.

Anyway, enough chatter.  Here's my card for this week's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.

I realised on Friday that Father's Day is this Sunday in New Zealand and while I'd made a card for my dad months ago, I hadn't made one for DH.  So this was a bit of a rush job.

I used Modern Medley DSP and the new chevron punch.  As I mentioned above the sentiment stamp is a singleton that I've had for some years.  I didn't follow the sketch exactly but I hope it's similar enough to pass muster.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Inky Antics
Cardstock:  Basic Black; Modern Medley DSP; Very Vanilla
Ink:  Basic Black
Accessories:  Chevron Border Punch; Neutrals Button; Linen Thread

Cheers
Karren