Bundle of Joy

Here's a card I made which covers three challenges:  SUO Challenges (welcome, baby); Dynamic Duos color challenge and the sketch challenge from Hand Stamped Sentiments.

I used a single stamp called Bringing Baby and stamped it in Stazon onto Shimmery White cardstock.  I then lightly colored it using Primrose Petals; Blushing Bride and Smokey Slate markers.  I cut it out using an oval framelit.  The background layer is Primrose Petals Core'dinations, run through with the Needlepoint Border EF and lightly sanded.  The retired Blushing Bride pleated ribbon was stuck down using Sticky Strip but still manages to look crooked LOL.  Some Primrose Petals ribbon is folded behind the stamped image.  A button from Twitterpated and a tiny Baker's twine bow finish the embellishments.  The sentiment comes from the retired set Little Angel.

Thanks for looking.

Products used (all Stampin' Up!):

Stamps:  Bringing Baby; Little Angel
Cardstock:  Whisper White; Shimmery White; Primrose Petals Core'dinations
Ink:  Black Stazon; Primrose Petals
Accessories:  Blushing Bride, Primrose Petals, Smokey Slate markers; oval framelits; Needlepoint Border EF; Blushing Bride Pleated Ribbon; Primrose Petals ribbon; Twitterpated button; white baker's twine.

Edited to Add:  This card was chosen as a Top Pick at SUO Challenges.

Cheers
Karren

Dexter's Birthday

Tomorrow is a special day in our house - it's Dexter's 2nd birthday.  Dexter is our Bichon Frise and we love him to bits!  And in completely pathetic fashion, I made Dexter a birthday card.  I really wanted to put a row of doggy chocolates instead of the ribbon, but wasn't sure how to stick them down safely.

I wanted the images in the squares to be off-center and quirky but looking at the photo, they offend my desire for symmetry, so maybe I'll call that an experiment not to be repeated.  The designer paper is from the long-retired but still plentiful (in my craft room) Sweet Slumber Specialty DSP.

I'm entering this card into three challenges:  the sketch challenge at Fab Friday; the tic-tac-toe challenge at Paper Players (birthday; designer paper; ribbon) and the color challenge part of Friday Mashup.

And if you're interested, here is a picture of Dexter.

This is a quick post tonight, because I've just discovered the TV show Breaking Bad and am working my way through the seasons on DVD.  About to commence Season 2 and keen to start watching LOL.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  D is for Dog; Patterned Party
Cardstock:  Early Espresso; Cherry Cobbler; Very Vanilla; Sweet Slumber DSP
Ink:  Early Espresso
Accessories:  Naturally Serif Die; Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding; Cherry Cobbler; So Saffron markers

Cheers
Karren

Christmas Wall

The challenge this week at Merry Monday had me thinking for a bit.  

Use the colors red, pink, light green, dark green and white.  Hmmm, what to do, what to do?

I ended up looking for images in my collection that I could color as I figured that was an easy out.  So I stamped the sled image from Winter Memories onto white watercolor paper and colored in with ink pads and blender pen.  

Wanting to incorporate most of the challenge colors into more than just the image, I also layered up the card base - something that doesn't come easily to me.  In fact, I spent more time agonising over the layers than I did coloring the image!  Anyway, the ink colors I've used are:  Early Espresso; Real Red; Pixie Pink; Crumb Cake; Pear Pizzazz and Always Artichoke.  For the sentiment I doctored one of the Chalk Talk framelits although I made a wee faux pas on the bottom right corner of the top layer and had to cover it up by embellishing with pearls!

Check out the other cards from the talented Merry Monday Design Team and give this non-traditional challenge a go!  You'll be so glad you did.

Products used:

Stamps:  Winter Memories; More Merry Messages

Cardstock:  Early Espresso; Whisper White; White Watercolor Paper; Candlelight Christmas DSP

Ink:  Early Espresso; Real Red; Pixie Pink; Crumb Cake; Pear Pizzazz; Always Artichoke; Black Stazon

Accessories:  Paper Piercing tool and template; Circle cutter; Brights Buttons; White Baker's Twine; Basic Pearls; Chalk Talk Framelits

Cheers

Karren

Autumnal Squares

Today's card for the Freshly Made Sketch Challenge is a bit deceptive, and because of that, I'm also entering it into this week's CASology challenge.  

The deceptive bit about this card is that all the squares are masked and sponged so while it looks multi-layered, it's actually pretty CAS!

I cut masks using square nesties and acetate and sponged Cajun Craze and Old Olive ink in the smaller squares and Crushed Curry and Cajun Craze in the large square.  Keeping the masks in place, I then stamped the water droplets image in Smokey Slate.  I then went around all the squares with the fine end of my Basic Black marker and a ruler.

The leaf was stamped in Old Olive and sponged before being cut out.  After it was cut, I ran around the edges of the leaf with Basic Black marker.  The sentiment was stamped onto Whisper White and cut out using one of the Labels Nesties.   It was all layered onto a Cajun Craze card base.

If you look carefully, you can see that my squares aren't exactly perfect.  I started out measuring and calculating, but I spend my working week calculating and working with numbers and didn't want to do it on my weekend so I just decided to eyeball it.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Gently Falling; Afterthoughts; Water Droplets (Designs by Ryn)
Cardstock:  Cajun Craze; Whisper White
Ink:  Cajun Craze; Old Olive; Crushed Curry; Smokey Slate; Basic Black
Accessories:  Labels 2 Nesties; acetate; square nesties; sponge; Basic Black marker; ruler

Cheers
Karren

Gingham Congrats

This is a quick post before I head off to work.  My card today uses the sketch from Just Add Ink and the colors from ColourQ.  I have to say it's not very original - I stuck to the sketch - even down to the hexagons which I printed out of MDS as I don't have the hexagon set.

I did use Border Banter for the banners stamping the arrow banner twice - once in Strawberry Slush and once in Night of Navy.

Not much else to say about this card.  Thanks for looking. 

Products used:

Stamps:  Border Banter

Cardstock:  Whisper White

Ink:  Strawberry Slush; Night of Navy

Accessories:  White Baker's Twine; MDS

Cheers

Karren

PSX Snowman

The challenge this week at Merry Monday is to use a snowman on your card - not too difficult when making Christmas cards, right?

I pulled out another old, old stamp to make my card.  This one is from PSX - one of my favorite stamp companies of all time.  I have many, many PSX stamps and will never get rid of them!

This snowman is particularly cute, with his scarf waving in the breeze and his birdie friends come for a visit.  I stamped Mr Snowman then masked him using Eclipse Masking Tape.  I then used more masks to sponge some snowy hills.  At the top I stamped the row of trees from Lovely as a Tree in Smokey Slate stamped off.  I then sponged some Soft Sky ink for the sky.  

After I removed Mr Snowman's mask, I colored him using inkpads and a blender pen.  There's not a lot of shading going on because the paper is not designed for laying down too much color.  I popped Mr Snowman up on dimensionals and layered him onto a Soft Sky base.  I then stamped a couple of tags and punched them out using the retired Jewellery Tag punch.  A tiny little Baker's Twine bow finished off the card.

Thanks for looking.  Have you checked out the rest of the Design Team's snowmen cards?  Such talent!  

Products used:

Stamps:  Snowman (PSX); Lovely as a Tree; Tiny Tags
Cardstock:  Soft Sky; Whisper White
Ink:  Black Stazon; Soft Sky; Real Red; Old Olive; Marina Mist; Smokey Slate
Accessories;  Jewellery Tag Punch; Blender Pen; Sponges; White Bakers Twine

Harvest Time

I'd been pondering the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches for a couple of days and couldn't come up with anything to make.  But then I saw the challenge at Friday Mashup and finally had an idea!

I looked through my stamp sets for a fall-ish set and came across Gifts of the Earth.  So I stamped the harvest image onto some Watercolor Paper and colored it using many, many different inkpads.  (Edit:  I just realised that what I thought was an eggplant is actually a marrow.  So for the purpose of this card, let's all just pretend that this is a really, really big eggplant LOL) I then found some really old (2006) DSP called Outlaw and chose a couple of fall-ish patterns.  One of the patterns had the two stars already punched out of it so I decided that rather than cut around them, I'd incorporate them into my card.  

The sentiment came from the Wetlands set and was stamped in Early Espresso onto the DSP.  A couple of Pumpkin Pie Candy Dots finished off the card.

1. Create a project with a "Fall/Harvest Food Theme (Preserves, Apples, Pumpkins etc.)."
2. Create a project using "Paper Piecing."
3. Or Mash it Up and create a "Fall Food themed project with some Paper Piecing "

Thanks for looking.

Products used:  

Stamps:  Gifts of the Earth; Wetlands

Cardstock:  Early Espresso; Watercolor Paper; Outlaw DSP

Ink:  Sahara Sand; Creamy Caramel; Close to Cocoa; More Mustard; Soft Sky; Marina zmist; Elegant Eggplant; Always Artichoke; Pumpkin Pie; Tangerine Tango; Smokey Slate; Crushed Curry; Early Espresso; Mellow Moss; Black Stazon

Accessories:  Brights Candy Dots; Blender Pen

Cheers

Karren