Row of Gifts

Hi and welcome!  It's Merry Monday Challenge Day and this week, it's my turn to hostess.  I chose a simple challenge - feature gifts on your card.  Easy, right?

I had originally planned to make a row of rainbow gifts but ended up going with a totally neutral card.

I was looking for some cardstock and found some Fog - my favorite neutral!  It was at that point I decided to go with Fog, white and black and came up with this very simple card.

I used a 4 1/2" square card base and adhered the white gifts die-cut along the bottom. I then stamped a very simple sentiment in Archival Black and that was that!

Thanks for visiting.  I would love it if you added a card to our gallery.  In the meantime, check out the wonderful cards from the rest of the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Holly Berries (SSS)

Ink:  Black Archival

Cardstock: Fog (SSS), white

Accessories:  Brilliant Gifts die (SSS)

Cheers

Karren

Distress Flowers

Hi!  It's time for another challenge from The Paper Players and this week Ann is challenging us to make a CAS floral card.  

I had just received some Altenew sets and included in my order was Persian Motifs.  Now, I have to admit that this set intimidates me because there are some absolutely stunning cards out there using this set, not least of which those made by my blogging friend, Marika.

Anyway, I decided to have a go with this set and came up with this watercolored card:

I used distress inks and a paintbrush to color, so it's quite loose with not a lot of shading.  Once I'd finished coloring the sheet of watercolor paper, I then used a curved die to cut it into two.  

I then went looking through my collection for a long but small sentiment and found one in Clearly Besotted's Sweet Little Sentiments set.  I placed it on my stamp press and laid the die next to it.  I then curved the stamp around the die before stamped it onto the card base.

The colored panels are popped up with foam tape to give some added interest.

Thanks for visiting.  The rest of the design team have some CAS beauties to inspire you, so be sure to head over there and check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Persian Motifs (Altenew), Sweet Little Sentiments (Clearly Besotted)

Ink:  Versamark, Archival Black (Ranger), Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Shabby Shutters, Crushed Olive (Distress)

Cardstock:  White, Watercolor (Tim Holtz)

Accessories:  Stitched Slopes and Hills die (SSS), White EP

Cheers

Karren

Bluebells

It's late Sunday afternoon here in New Zealand and I spent most of the afternoon stamping - a perfect Sunday :)  I decided I wanted to do some Copic coloring as I haven't done much at all since I started work in January and I felt really rusty.  My first attempt will show up down the track as it was a future design team commitment, but this was my second attempt and I'm pleased that the technique was starting to come back.

I used the sketch from Fusion and the colors from Color Throwdown for this card.  What you can't see in the photo is that down each side of the grey panel I have scored two lines 1/4" apart.  This adds a bit of interest as I couldn't figure out how to handle that panel in the sketch.

The flowers were stamped and colored with Copics then cut out using the matching die.  I cut a piece of Blue Violet cardstock as that was the closest match to the colors and white embossed the sentiment.  Looking back at the challenge colors, I got my purples a bit dark, but I hope it is still okay.

To finish off the card, I tied some white baker's twine around the grey panel and curled the ends.

Thanks for visiting.  

Products used:

Stamps:  Fresh Flowers (Clearly Besotted), Strictly Sentiments (WP9)

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark

Cardstock:  White, X-press It, Smoky Slate (SU), Blue Violet (SSS)

Accessories:  Fresh Flowers die (CB), Copics, white baker's twine, scoreboard, white EP, corner rounder

Cheers

Karren

Love of Label Love

It's Freshly Made Sketch Challenge Day and this week it's my turn to be the hostess.  And here is the sketch I came up with.  I hope you like it!

For my card, I went with the soft colors from the inspiration picture at The Card Concept.  I didn't make a Thinking of You card, so I hope it still meets the criteria.  My card comes under the Clean and Layered category.

It's hard to tell, but my background uses the Bokeh Technique.  I colored a piece of watercolor paper with some light colored Distress Inks, then sponged on some white ink over some circle cut-outs.  I rounded one corner and layered that onto some black.  The sentiment is from Label Love - I've been wanting this set since it came out and now I have it and I love it - hence my blog post title :)  

I colored both the strip of black and the sentiment with Wink of Stella to give it a bit of shimmer.  I then smeared some ink onto a scrap of white cardstock and die-cut some tiny tags.

And that's it!  Thanks for visiting.  Check out what the rest of my amazing design team friends have done with my sketch.  I hope you'll give it a go as well!

Products used:

Stamps:  Label Love (Altenew), Basic Borders (Mama Elephant)

Ink:  Archival Black (Ranger), Squeezed Lemonade, Spun Sugar, Milled Lavender, Shabby Shutters (Tim Holtz), Hero Arts Unicorn White

Cardstock:  Watercolor, Black, White

Accessories:  Black Twine, Tiny Tags Dies (SSS), Wink of Stella, Corner Chomper

Cheers

Karren

Blue Snowflakes

Hi and welcome to Merry Monday.  This week our hostess, Debbie, has challenged us to make a blue monochromatic card.

I took inspiration from the background of the graphic above and came up with this card:

I taped down a snowflake stencil to a piece of white card and spritzed it with Heidi Swapp Teal Color Shine.  I quite like the mottled and subtle effect it gave.  I cut the panel with a stitched rectangle die and stuck it to a white card base.

The rest of the card was pretty easy to finish - I stamped the sentiment with Audrey Blue ink and die-cut a couple of snowflakes.  The last step was to finish it off with a Frosted Finishes embellishment.

Thanks for visiting.  Check out the blue beauties created by the rest of the design team.

Products Used:

Stamps:  Winter Wonderland (Mama Elephant)

Ink:  Audrey Blue (SSS)

Cardstock:  White, Audrey Blue

Accessories:  Heidi Swapp Teal Color Shine, Winter Snowflake Lace Stencil (Memory Box), Rizza, Lindeman dies (Memory Box), Stitched Rectangle die (Lil' Inkers), Frosted Finishes Embellishment (SU)

Cheers

Karren

Hey There, Cupcake

Hey there, cupcake :)  Welcome to The Paper Players challenge, where this week Anne Marie has a color challenge for us.  Check it out:

And here's my card...

I used this week's Fall To Layout for my layout. As well, I had to join in on the 200th challenge at Friday Mashup!  Congrats to the team on 200 challenges!  The two challenges I chose were #89 Heat Embossing and #178 Stitching.

To make my card, I white-embossed both the cupcake and the sentiment onto a Crumb Cake card base.  I then colored the cupcake with Hero Arts Unicorn white ink.  Once it was dry, I lightly colored the image with Crisp Cantaloupe, So Saffron and Wild Wasabi ink.

The icing on the cupcake started to pill a bit because I worked it too much so I camouflaged that by painting on some Wink of Stella.

For the side panel, I die cut one of the dies from the Speech Trio set. I then got out the sewing machine and stitched it to the card base.  

And that's pretty much it!  Thanks for visiting.  Be sure to check out how the rest of the design team have used these pretty colors.

Products used:

Stamps:  Cutie Pie (CTMH)

Ink:  Versamark, Hero Arts Unicorn White, Crisp Cantaloupe, Wild Wasabi, So Saffron (SU)

Cardstock:  Crumb Cake

Accessories:  White EP, Speech Trio dies (Mama Elephant), Wink of Stella, sewing machine

Cheers

Karren

Long Thank You

I'm back with another card for Freshly Made Sketches!  This week our hostess is Cindy Hall, who makes the most beautiful cards!

Cindy has a fantastic sketch for us this week - a long card!  Love it!

I decided to take a stamp-free approach to this sketch and came up with this card:

I used the Little Letters dies by Stampin' Up to cut out the word Thank You from white cardstock.  I then discarded the die-cut letters and used the negative.  After cutting the scalloped edge, I popped that layer up with foam tape onto a card base that had some striped paper adhered to it.  A bit of matching twine and the card was done!  Quick and easy!

Thanks for visiting.  The rest of the design team have some fabulous cards made using this sketch so be sure to check them out.

Products used:

Cardstock:  White, Just Add Cake paper

Accessories:  Little Letters dies (SU), Large Scallop die (SU), Yellow Twine

Cheers

Karren