Woodland Ferns

Hi everyone and welcome back to Freshly Made Sketches.  This week our sketch comes from our very own Artisan, Jennifer Timko!  

I wanted to go masculine with my card, so I pulled out the Hardwood stamp, which had been sitting on my shelves for a few months and never inked up (NBUS!)

To get the aged look I wanted with the Hardwood stamp, I used the Direct to Paper technique to smear Sahara Sand ink onto Sahara Sand cardstock.  I then inked up Hardwood in Early Espresso and stamped that on top.  

Okay, had that done, but what next?  After a few failed attempts using other stamps, I grabbed Meadow Greens and its matching die and created a fern using Very Vanilla cardstock and Pear Pizzazz ink.  To make it stand out on the Pear Pizzazz tag, I placed a 2" circle die cut in Early Espresso underneath the fern.

Here's a peek at the very simple inside.

Thanks for looking.  Do go check out the inspiration from the rest of my Design Team friends.  You're sure to be inspired!

Products used:

Stamps:  Hardwood (SU), Meadow Greens (PTI)
Ink:  Pear Pizzazz, Sahara Sand, Early Espresso
Cardstock:  Early Espresso, Sahara Sand, Pear Pizzazz, Soho Subway DSP, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Button Latte button, black twine, PTI tag die, PTI Meadow Greens die

Cheers
Karren

Brickworks

Hi and welcome back to another Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge!  This week, we have a fabulous color challenge for you from Margaret:

This isn't my favorite ever card, but it'll do!  I used Translucent Embossing Paste and a brick stencil on the Always Artichoke card base.  It looks all shiny IRL!  The main layer was stamped using Peaceful Pinecones stamp set.  The sentiment is embossed with gold embossing powder.  The whole panel is layered onto Gold Foil Paper.

Thanks for looking.  Take the time to check out the rest of the DT cards and try these colors yourself!

Products used:

Stamps:  Peaceful Pinecones (PTI)
Ink:  Early Espresso, Always Artichoke, Versamark
Cardstock:  Whisper White, Always Artichoke, Gold Foil Paper, Holiday Harmony DSP
Accessories:  Early Espresso Baker's Twine, gold sequins, gold EP

Cheers
Karren

Primary Colors

After a busy, busy week at work, it's now Saturday and in between loads of laundry, I've got some time to stamp!  Today's card uses the fun, primary colors from Color Throwdown and the sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch.

My youngest niece is turning 4 next month, so I thought I'd use these fun colors to make her birthday card.  What little kid doesn't love red, yellow and green?  I tried to go SUO for this card and nearly pulled it off!  The tag die, the black twine and the Wink of Stella are the only things that aren't SUO on this card.  Go me LOL.

I have to admit I quite like this card - it's CAS but still has a lot of interest.  I used Jennifer McGuire's trick to get some dimension in the balloons by stamping once, then re-inking and rubbing off some of the ink before over-stamping.  

The card base is Real Red which was scored on all four sides.  Two PTI tags were cut - one from Daffodil Delight and one from Whisper White.  The balloons were cut out and had some black twine stuck to the back of them.  The number 4 was cut out of Real Red using the Bigz Typeset Alpha die.  All three balloons and the number 4 were painted with Wink of Stella for a lovely subtle glittery look.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Up Up & Away, Express Yourself

Ink:  Daffodil Delight, Lucky Limeade, Real Red, Memento Tuxedo Black

Cardstock:  Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White

Accessories:  Black Twine, Wink of Stella, PTI tag die, Bigz Alphabet Die

Cheers

Karren

A Good Thing

It's Freshly Made Sketch Day so let's look at what Amy has in store for us this week.

What a fun sketch!  For my card, I tried a new-to-me technique that I've seen in blogland lately and in particular on Jennifer McGuire's blog called Watercolor Background.  

I white-embossed the sentiment onto a piece of Tim Holtz watercolor paper.  I then smeared some distress inks onto the watercolor paper before spritzing liberally with water.  I dried the paper with my heat gun.  I then took a Sahara Sand marker and outlined each letter of the sentiment.  I realise now that I didn't copy the sketch properly onto my scrap paper and didn't carry the horizontal strip right across the card front.  Sorry, Amy!

I made some rolled roses using white cardstock I'd sponged with distress inks.  Some leaves cut from Lucky Limeade finish the card.

Thanks for visiting.  Go check out the amazing cards from the rest of the design team.  This sketch is great fun and I'd love to see what you make with it.  As my card includes flowers, I'm linking up to Friday Mashup as well.

Products used:

Stamps:  Allegro (Penny Black)
Ink:  Tattered Rose, Rusty Hinge, Scattered Straw Distress Inks, Versamark
Cardstock:  Whisper White, Basic Black, Tim Holtz Watercolor Paper
Accessories:  MFT Rolled Rose die, Little Leaves Sizzlet (SU), Sahara Sand marker

Cheers
Karren

Houndstooth Christmas

Hi everyone and welcome back to Merry Monday!  

I have to confess - I really struggled with this challenge.  I don't have any country-themed Christmas stamps so I had to find other things to provide the country charm.

I used the patterned paper to give the country feel and then used a die cut that had what I consider to be country-looking angels on.  The stitching was paper piercing and I used a token button!

The inside was finished very simply.

Thanks for looking.  If you check out the rest of the DT cards, you'll see some beautiful cards with real country charm!

Products used:

Cardstock:  Riding Hood Red, Holiday Treasures DSP, Early Espresso
Accessories:  Couture Creations "Angel" die, Essentials paper piercing kit, Crumb Cake Baker's Twine, Neutrals Button

Cheers
Karren

Four Pears

It's Sunday night here and time to get ready for another working week!  I did take some time today though to make a card using this week's colors from ColourQ.

When I saw these colors, I immediately thought of pears for some reason, so I hunted through my pear stamps for something suitable.  This stamp from Hampton Art Stamps was perfect and I decided to go for a loosely watercolored look.

I white embossed the pears stamp onto watercolor paper then spritzed liberally with water.  I then loosely colored the pears using Summer Starfruit ink.  Once that dried, I re-spritzed and colored with Cool Caribbean ink.  As some of the starfruit ink had run into the background, I decided to spread some starfruit ink across the whole background to give a greenish tint.  

I spent more time trying to decide how to finish the card that coloring it!  I didn't want to cover up the image so I kept it very simple, using a sentiment from PTI's Meadow Greens set.

I'm also linking this up at the Linky Party at Seize the Birthday.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Four Pears (Hampton Art Stamps), Meadow Greens (PTI)
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Summer Starfruit, Cool Caribbean
Cardstock:  Crumb Cake, Basic Black, Tim Holtz Watercolor Paper, Xpress-it
Accessories:  1 1/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, aquapainter

Cheers
Karren

The Dust of Everyday Life

After a bit of a stressful week, I made it into my craft room today to make a couple of cards.  This card uses the fab colors from Color Throwdown and the cue word "Paint" from CASology.  I'm also linking this up to Stampin' Royalty as it's a CAS card.

"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life"  I love this saying.  This stamp is very old and made by Hampton Art Stamps.  I stamped it in Memento Tuxedo Black onto Whisper White and then over-stamped the paint splatter images from Grunge Me in both Tangerine Tango and So Saffron.  I layered that panel onto a piece of Tangerine Tango after rounding the top left corner.

The inside mimics the front:

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Art Soul (Hampton Art Stamps), Grunge Me (PTI)
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Tangerine Tango, So Saffron
Cardstock:  Whisper White, Tangerine Tango
Accessories:  Corner Chomper

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Color Throwdown.

Cheers
Karren