Easter Baby

Hi and welcome!  This morning I made this card using the sketch at MFT Stamps, the inspiration photo at Just Add Ink and the Easter-Inspired challenge at Simon Says Stamp.

From the JAI photo (congrats on 400 challenges, by the way!), I was inspired by the pastel colours of the eggs and the speckles so I tried to replcate that in my alcohol ink panel.  I chose my lightest colours of alcohol ink as well as Copper Mixative and went to town on a panel of Alcohol Ink cardstock.  When it was dry, I spritzed it with some Distress Resist Spray and once that was dry, I lightly went over the whole panel with Micro Glaze.

I die-cut the sentiment with copper foil cardstock as well as the strip down the left hand side.  And because the photo (and Spring in general) puts me in mind of babies and new life, I decided to add a new baby sentiment, white-embossed on black.

Here's a close-up of the texture created by the Distress Resist Spray.  This stuff is really cool!

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Yay for You (MFT)

Ink:  Versamark, Alcohol Inks

Cardstock:  White, Black, Copper, Alcohol Ink Cardstock

Dies:  So Many Yays (MFT)

Accessories:  Nuvo Jewel Drops, Distress Resist Spray

Cheers

Karren

Rainy Day

Hi and welcome!  I'm here with another challenge for Fusion and this time we have an adorable photo inspiration and/or an interesting sketch.

I went with the photo for my card and created a rainy day scene that involves critters rather than people.

I used the Drifts and Hills stencil to lightly sponge a sky and ground and then stamped the raindrop background stamp with Barely Blue ink.  The critters were stamped colored and die-cut and the sentiment is white-embossed onto a strip of black cardstock.  The wee dog is popped up on foam tape and slightly lower than the rest of the animals so he looks to be closer.  That way, the fact he is so big compared to the bear and elephant doesn't look too out of place 😃

Thanks for visiting!  The design team have some fabulous cards so head on over and check them out.  I'm linking this up to the challenge at Shopping Our Stash to "put a bird on it" and the Pets theme challenge at Cupcake Inspirations.  I'm also entering this into A Blog Named Hero because this set is without a doubt my favorite Hero Arts set.

Products used:

Stamps:  Fun in the Rain (Hero Arts), Falling Rain (SSS), Sweet Sentiments (Clearly Besotted), Distressed Patterns (MFT)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Barely Blue (SSS), Antique Linen, Tumbled Glass Distress Inks

Cardstock:  White, Black, X-Press It

Dies:  Fun in the Rain (Hero Arts), Stitched Rectangle Stax (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, White EP

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Cupcake Inspirations.

New Adventure

 Welcome to my blog!  I'm here with a card for the latest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches, where our hostess this week is Linda Callahan.  I'm also playing along with the MFT Color Challenge.  Check out Linda's sketch!

I was influenced by Linda's own card when I sat down to make my card.  While it's hard to see in the photo, I created a scene with the diamond shape, fading out the colors towards the edges.

I then stamped, colored and die-cut the sweet little girl image and adhered her with foam tape to the sponged and die-cut panel.  I added a sentiment and then glued that down to a white card base.  Finally, I finished the card by adding a yellow Nuvo Jewel Drop to the flower on her hat.

Thanks for visiting!  Head on over and check out what the rest of the DT have done with this fun sketch.

Edited to add:  Thanks to Barb for reminding me this fit with the challenge at Addicted to CAS.  I never gave a thought to the fact it had "luck" in the sentiment! 

Products used:

Stamps:  Adventure is Calling (MFT)
Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Tumbled Glass, Twisted Citron Distress Inks, Versafine Onyx Black
Cardstock:  White, X-Press It
Dies:  Adventure is Calling, Stitched Rectangle Stax (MFT)
Accessories:  Copics, Nuvo Jewel Drops

Alcohol Leaves

Hi!  While I was making some DT cards yesterday, I also took the time to make this card for a few current challenges.  This uses the sketch at MFT Stamps, the celebration with sequins challenges at CAS on Friday, the monochromatic green challenge at Card Concept and the Green challenge at Work It Wednesday.

I started by creating the alcohol ink panel on Yupo paper.  Various greens and blue inks were used as well as silver mixative.  Once I was happy with the result, I stamped on the panel with archival ink and the leaves from Geometric Greenery, then wiped off the ink to create a resist look.  The panel was die-cut with a die from Blueprints 30, which I extended with some partial die-cutting.

The circles were die-cut with Tropical Teal ink and positioned onto a white card base to match the sketch.  I then added the Yupo panel and the black die-cut sentiment.  Finally, some crystal clear confetti and this clean and layered card was done.  In the photo aboe, you can see hints of the silver mixative.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Geometric Greenery (MFT)

Ink:  Archival Veridian, Ranger Alcohol Inks

Cardstock:  White, Black, Yupo, Tropical Teal (MFT)

Dies:  Blueprints 30, Inside/Out Stitched Circles, Celebratory Greetings (MFT)

Accessories:  Pretty Pink Posh Confetti

Cheers

Karren

Life is an Adventure

Hi and welcome!  I'm here with a card for the new challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.  This week our hostess is Jen Mitchell and she has a great sketch for us.

My card ended up very simple, but it didn't start out that way!

I decided that the sand dunes from the December My Monthly Hero Kit worked perfectly for the angled panel and the people on the flying carpet worked for the star element.  Those pieces were easy to pull together, even though both people and the mat are all separate images that required some masking, fussy cutting and partial die-cutting.  That's where the easy part ended!  I had originally created a sponged sunset scene for the background and flicked on white acrylic paint and let it dry.  I put the card together and what a hot mess!  I ended up cutting it all apart and walking away from it for a couple of days.

Then two days before the challenge was due to go live and I still didn't have a card, so I decided to revert to type and added the rescued pieces from the original card to a white card base and called it done!  What is hard to see in the photos is that I added three layers of foam tape behind both people to create a curved mat to look like it was flying. 

So for all that, my card is done!  I hope you'll check out the rest of the design team because their cards certainly don't look like they struggled 😄

Products used:

Stamps:  My Monthly Hero (Hero Arts)
Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid
Cardstock:  White, X-Press It
Dies:  MMH (Hero Arts)
Accessories:  Copic Markers

Cheers
Karren

Magnolia Wish

Hi!  I'm back!  It's time for another challenge at Fusion.

While I took some elements from the sketch, I mostly focused on the photo for my card, taking the white and green floral theme to come up with this card:

The flower was stamped in the upper-right corner of a piece of X-Press It cardstock and colored with Copics.  I stuck to the BVs and Ns for the petals, which made them look whitish with a hint of purple.  I went over various parts of the image with Prismacolors to deepen the shaded areas or add more purple tones.  The sentiment was white-embossed and comes from an old PTI set "Mum's the Word".  I specifically wanted a big, multi-word sentiment to balance out the big flowers.

Thanks for visiting!  Head on over and check out the fabulous cards made by the rest of the design team.  You'll be glad you did!

I'm linking this up to the PaperCraft Crew Tic Tac Toe challenge (Emboss-Elements of Sprintime-Birthday) and the Anything Goes challenges at Addicted to Stamps and More and Simon Says Stamp.

Products used:

Stamps:  Make a Wish (Clearly Besotted), Mum's The Word (PTI)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Versamark

Cardstock:  Black, X-Press It

Dies:  Stitched Rectangle Stax , Slanted Sentiment Strips (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, Prismacolors, White EP

Cheers

Karren

Tulip Wishes

Hi!  Our hostess this week at Freshly Made Sketches is Jennifer Timko and check our her fabulous sketch!

I wanted a big colorful central image on my card, so I played with a NBUS stamp set that I got last Stamptember and hadn't inked up. 

After I stamped and colored the image, I masked it off then sponged some Distress Inks around the flowers.  After removing the mask, I went around the outside of the image with a yellow Copic marker to accentuate the flowers.  I die-cut both the card base and the colored panel with a stitched die and added a strip of striped paper inbetween the two layers.

The sentiment comes from another WPlus9 set and was cut with a slanted sentiment strip die.

Thanks for visiting.  Head on over and check out what the rest of the DT did with this wide-open sketch.  I'm linking this up to Southern Girls Nature Challenge.

Products Used:

Stamps:  Humble & Kind (SSS/WP9), Modern Peonies (WP9)
Ink:  London Fog (Memento), Versafine Onyx Black, Scattered Straw, Mustard Seed Distress Inks
Cardstock:  White, Black, X-Press It, Black & White Stripes (MFT)
Dies:  Stitched Rectangle Stax, Slanted Sentiment Strips (MFT)
Accessories:  Copics, Sherbert Shimmer Nuvo Drops

Cheers
Karren