CAS Mistletoe

Hi and welcome back to another Merry Monday challenge.  This week, Debbie has given us a theme challenge - use mistletoe on your card.

I went very CAS with my card this week:

I inked up my mistletoe stamp with black ink, the used a Q-tip to rub off the ink from the bow before coloring it with a Cherry Cobbler marker.  I then loosely colored the leaves with a Copic marker and colored the berries with a white gel pen before painting over that with a Wink of Stella pen - which I couldn't capture on film!  I used dimensionals to pop the narrow panel up on the Cherry Cobbler card base.

Thanks for looking.  Make sure you check out the rest of the Design Team's inspiration.

Products used:

Stamps:  Christmas Blessings (SU), Signature Christmas Greetings (PTI)
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Cardstock:  Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White
Accessories:  Cherry Cobbler marker, Copic marker, White Gel Pen, Wink of Stella

Cheers
Karren

Inlaid Birthday

It's Sunday night here and I finally had a chance to sit down and just create!  It's been a hectic few weeks with packing up the house and de-cluttering some of our accumulated schtuff.  I really didn't have the energy to make a card, but I went into my bare craft room and made this card for the ColourQ challenge:

I signed up for the latest Online Card Class (which was fantastic!) but didn't have time to put into practice anything I learned.  I was seeing my fellow FMS team-mates making gorgeous cards with the things we learned on the course and I really wanted to play along! 

Anyway, this card uses the inlaid die-cut technique and be warned - this is my first attempt so it's not perfect.  I'm a bit limited in my word dies but I just got the speech bubble dies and thought they would work well.  NB:  This card is in no way unique as I've seen the speech bubbles and overlaid words but it wasn't openly CASE'd off any card.  I painted the "birthday" with Wink of Stella pen to give it a lovely shimmer.

Naturally, when I wanted to use Apricot Appeal and Going Gray, I find I've already packed them away, so I had to use Crisp Cantaloupe and Smoky Slate instead.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  The Big, the Bold & the Happy (W&W), Wonderful Words:  Birthday (PTI)
Ink:  Smoky Slate
Cardstock:  Crisp Cantaloupe, Whisper White, Coastal Cabana, Calypso Coral
Accessories:  Birthday die (PTI), Speech Bubble Framelits (SU), Wink of Stella pen, MME Enamel Dots

Cheers
Karren

Ombre Embossing Paste

Hi everyone and welcome back to another Freshly Made Sketch challenge!  This week our hostess is the one-and-only Jen Mitchell, who has given us this fun sketch to play with.

Now when you see my card, you'll likely think - well, she didn't stick to the sketch!  And you'd be right!  When I drew the sketch onto scrap paper, I neglected to note that the vertical panel was off-center.  And I've only just realised now!  Doh!  

While I love the stenciled panel and the sentiment on this card, the feathery/leafy blob just doesn't look right, but I couldn't spend any more time on it!  In my defense, I've spent all my spare time over the last two weeks packing up our house, as movers are taking into storage about 80% of our belongings so that tradesmen can do the repairs following the two major earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 (with a couple hundred thousand houses to repair, it can take a while...).  Now, I can easily live without a lot of my clothes and I use my iPad for reading but losing 90% of my stamps for 6 weeks is heart-breaking.  As I was packing things up, I kept thinking "I might need that" but I had to be ruthless.  To console myself, I have a rather large Simon Says Stamp order on its way to me ;)

Anyway, enough chatter.  I went for an ombre look with my embossing paste, by adding slightly more ink to the paste as I moved down the stencil.  Before it dried, I added some Dazzling Diamonds glitter and gave it a quick heat set.

I know the rest of the design team have wonderful inspiration for you so head on over to the challenge site and check it out!

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Oh Happy Day (Avery Elle)

Ink:  Dusty Concord Distress Ink, Versamark

Cardstock:  Eggplant Envy, Basic Black, Whisper White

Accessories: Doily, Feather die (SSS), Little Leaves Sizzlet (SU), White EP, SSS Stencil, Dazzling Diamonds (SU)

Cheers

Karren

Christmas Tag

Hey there!  This week it's my turn to host the challenge at Merry Monday and I chose to go with a color challenge.  The first thing that draws me to a card is color, so it is quite fitting that for my challenge I chose some of my favorite colors - grey, red and white.

I won't tell you how long it took to make this card, but suffice it to say, this is probably version 5 or so :)

I really want to do a faux mother of pearl for the tag, but when I'd finished I realised there was no white on my card, so back to the drawing board.  In the end, I white embossed this beautiful Inkadinkado image onto Real Red cardstock and cut it out.  For the Basic Gray layer, I stamped the Christmas Collage stamp then sponged the edges.

I hope you'll check out the rest of the design team's inspiration and I do hope you'll give my challenge a go and build your Christmas card stash one card at a time!

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Inkadinkado, Christmas Collage (SU)
Ink:  Basic Gray, Versamark
Cardstock:  Real Red, Basic Gray
Accessories:  White EP, Basic Gray Ribbon, black twine, sponge

Cheers
Karren

Dad's Birthday

It's time for another Freshly Made Sketch challenge and this week, our lovely hostess is Rita Wright.  Rita has given us a fantastic sketch which has wide open spaces for DSP or stamping or coloring or whatever you want!

I decided to go the coloring route.  My Dad's 81st birthday is next month and as a joke, I bought a digi stamp from Mo's Digital Pencil that I used for his card.

Disclaimer:  My Dad looks nothing like this - he's still young and sprightly and very handsome!

My Dad pretends to be grumpy when we acknowledge his birthday or give him a gift.  It happens every year without fail, so this year, I thought I'd play to that "grumpiness" and make an appropriate card!  I printed Grumpy Old Man onto Xpress-it cardstock and colored him with Copics.  I layered him onto Basic Black and used some DSP for the bottom panel.  Some red twine finishes off the outside.

For the inside, I went a bit cheeky with this:

I left plenty of room at the bottom for a personal note (possibly begging forgiveness for being so cheeky LOL).

Thanks for visiting.  If you haven't checked out the rest of the fabulous cards by the DT, head on over now.  I'd love to see your card in the gallery!

Products used:

Stamps:  Digi stamp by Mo's Digital Pencil, Shenanigans (Casual Fridays)
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Cardstock:  Real Red, Basic Black, Xpress-it, Brights DSP (retired)
Accessories:  Copics, red twine

Cheers
Karren

Quirky Christmas

Hi and welcome to the 100th Merry Monday challenge!  What an accomplishment!  For nearly 2 years Lesley has been helping us to create Christmas cards regularly rather than in a massive rush at Christmas!

To celebrate the 100th challenge we have a choice - sketch or colors or both.  I combined the challenges to come up with this:

I'm not a fan of pink normally but I do love bright pink and lime green together - it's such a modern and bright combo.  I chose a cute and whimsical stamp to go with these colors.  As cute and whimsical is not a regular occupant in my craft room, I was limited, but Polar Party came to the rescue.  I stamped the trees image and colored with Copics. 

As I don't have any pink/green patterned paper, I made my own, using a Tim Holtz stencil and sponging on Melon Mambo ink.  I then moved the stencil and sponged on some Lucky Limeade ink.  The green panels were dry embossed before being cut.

Here's a peek at the inside.

Thanks for looking.  Head on over to the challenge blog to check out the amazing creations from the rest of the DT.

Products used:

Stamps:  Polar Party
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Melon Mambo, Lucky Limeade
Cardstock:  Melon Mambo, Lucky Limeade, Whisper White, Xpress-it
Accessories:  Copic Markers, White Organza Ribbon, Tim Holtz stencil

Cheers
Karren

Stitched Birthday

Today's card comes courtesy of the gorgeous colors at ColourQ, the sketch at Fusion and the stitching option at Seize the Birthday.  

I love the addition of the newsprint option for ColourQ.  My newsprint is all on a vanilla base, so I painted some with Gesso to whiten it up a little.  From there, I stamped the waterdrops from Designs by Ryn onto the Gesso in Crumb Cake and then clear embossed them.

The leaves were cut and stamped using the Harvest Berries set and the sentiment is from Birthday Bash Sentiments.  This is my first card with machine stitching on it!  In the past, I've been too lazy to get my machine out, but it just happened to be out today, so I bit the bullet and gave it a go!  All the cut off bits of thread were stuck randomly behind the leaves for a bit of added interest.

Here's a look at the very simple inside.  Some more waterdrops stamped in Crumb Cake.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Harvest Berries, Birthday Bash Sentiments (PTI), Waterdrops (Designs by Ryn)
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Memento Tuxedo Black, Lucky Limeade
Cardstock:  Crumb Cake, Basic Black, First Edition DSP, Whisper White
Accessories:  Gesso, Clear EP, Harvest Berries die, sewing machine, Neutrals button, Linen Thread, Fishtail Flags (MFT)

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

Cheers
Karren