Winter Wishes

Hi and welcome to another Merry Monday challenge.  This week Kathy is our hostess and she wants us to make the sentiment the focal point of our cards.

For my card, I went with a Faux Mother of Pearl background and some ombre ink blending using Lake Shores, Cloudy Sky and Caribbean Blue inks.  

Once I was happy with the background, I die cut it using the pierced rectangle die from Blueprints 20.  I stacked the die cut sentiment 4 deep and adhered that to the inked panel.  A stacked snowflake topped with a rhinestone finished off the card.

Thanks for visiting.  The rest of the design team have some wonderful cards for you to check out.


Products used:

Ink:  Lake Shores, Cloudy Sky, Caribbean Blue (SSS)
Cardstock:  White
Accessories:  Frost White Shimmer Paint, Wintertime Wishes die (Penny Black), Marianne die (SSS), Blueprints 20 (MFT), Rhinestone

Cheers
Karren

Cupcake Celebration

Hi and welcome!  Today's card is inspired by Nancy's tag at Tag You're It and I'm also using the sketch at Try Stampin' on Tuesday.  As the stamp set I used is NBUS, I'm also linking up at Darnell's blog.

This was another card that took way too long!  I'll spare you all the failed attempts and the mountain of cast-aside cupcake images I have in my bin :)  I finally settled on this cupcake which is a NBUS set called Tasty Treats.  I colored the cupcake with Copics then went over the icing with Wink of Stella.  I had it sitting on a white tag but it looked a bit bereft, so I sponged three different pink inks in an ombre fashion on that white tag and I was quite happy with the effect - especially how the white die-cut sentiment pops.

For the confetti, I went through all my dies to find the smallest shapes and cut them from various colors of cardstock.  Funnily, the little dots are berries from PTI's Harvest Berries set.  The heart on the cupcake is covered in Glossy Accents and the whole cupcake is popped up on foam tape.

The bottom tag is also a white tag that I blended Sparrow and Dark Chocolate ink on in an ombre fashion.  I added more confetti to the card base and finished off with some brown baker's twine.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Tasty Treats (Clearly Besotted)

Ink:  Rosie Cheeks, Twirling Tutu, Hollyhock, Sparrow, Dark Chocolate (SSS), Memento Tuxedo Black

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It, Green Apple, Lipstick, Sunshine, Cotton Candy

Accessories:  Tasty Treats die (Clearly Besotted), Joy to the Woods die (Lawn Fawn), Harvest Berries (PTI), Starry Dies (Verve), Tag Sale #5 (PTI), Wet Paint Cuts III (PTI), Wink of Stella, Copics, Glossy Accents, Baker's Twine

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Tag You're It and Try Stampin' on Tuesday.

Daisy Vase

It's great to see some of my favorite challenges back after a summer break, so I really wanted to play along.  I started out using the daisies theme from Card Concept and the sketch at The Challenge to come up with a Clean and Layered card.

Howewer, this card fought me every step of the way and took an inordinate amount of time.  I'm not happy with the end result, but due to the effort and time that went into it, I feel I have to post it :)

I colored some white embossing paste with Audrey Blue ink and used the Diagonal Stripes stencil from MFT down the left hand side of a white card base.  The vase of daisies was stamped onto some X-Press It cardstock and colored with Copics.  The sentiment comes from the Bold Blooms set.  I then cut the panel shorter, fussy-cutting around the top daisy.  I mounted that onto a panel of Audrey Blue that ends where the stenciling starts and adhered some sequins.

For such a simple card, this took probably two hours!  That's two hours I'll never get back :)

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Daisy Vase (Artee Stamps), Bold Blooms (Essentials by Ellen)
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black, Audrey Blue
Cardstock:  White, Audrey Blue, X-Press It
Accessories:  Copics, sequins, Embossing Paste, Diagonal Stripes Stencil (MFT)

Cheers
Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at The Challenge.

Hello

Hi!  It's time for another fabulous sketch from Freshly Made Sketches and this week our hostess is Jen Mitchell.  Check out this cool sketch:

For my card, I decided to use a new-to-me die from Clearly Besotted called Shaker Shapes Square Hello Die.  

I die cut that from a panel of white cardstock and put it to one side.  I then took a piece of watercolor cardstock and splashed on some watercolors, focusing on blues and greens.  Once I was happy with that, I dried it with my heat tool and then flicked on some gold and pearl paint using my paintbrush.

To put the card together I cut some fun foam to pop up the front panel from the watercolored piece.

All in all a very simple but fun-to-make card.  I'm linking this card up to CAS on Sunday who have a Splash theme - quite a bit of water went into my watercolored background :)

The rest of the design team have some wonderful inspiration for you so be sure to check them out.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:  

Cardstock:  White, Watercolor
Accessories:  Shaker Shapes Square Hello Die (Clearly Besotted), Kuretake watercolor paints, fun foam

Cheers
Karren

Pears

I made a quick card this morning because I really wanted to play along in a few of the current challenges - especially those involving fruit!  I have a decent collection of wood-mounted stamps featuring fruit from when I first started collecting and it was time to dust those off and make a card.

So this card was made for City Crafter Challenge and The Male Room, who are both asking for fruit and because my stamps are so old, I'm joining in at Retro Rubber's Anything Goes challenge.  I'm also linking this to CASology with a cue word of "write" and Less is More who want to see green and gold.  I'm a bit iffy about linking to these last two challenges because while my card is CAS in my eyes, there's not a lot of "white" space going on.

Anyway, I white embossed the beautiful calligraphy image onto black cardstock and adhered it with foam tape to the card base with a little sliver of gold at the bottom to add interest.  The pear was stamped onto X-Press It cardstock and loosely colored with Copics before being fussy cut.  It is also popped up on foam tape.  And that's it!

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  N1768 (pear text) A Stamp in the Hand, pear stamp by Collections

Ink:  Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black

Cardstock:  White, black, gold foil

Accessories:  White EP, Copics

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at City Crafter Challenge.

Text Feathers

Hi and welcome!  This is my second post today - scroll down to see my first Father's Day card.

This card is for my husband and I used the sketch from Fab Friday, the colors from Colour Me and the inspiration from Muse.

I was inspired by the feathers - especially the ones with text in them and that's what I brought over into my card.  I also tried to keep the detail to the top portion of the card, just like Carol's card.  

I stamped the alphabet background stamp onto white die-cut feathers using Unicorn White ink.  Once that was dry, I smooshed the feathers into an Olive inkpad from SSS.  The white ink resisted the olive ink and gave a nice soft image.  I used the same stamp on the circle frame and also a masked off circle on the card base.

The sentiment was white-embossed onto a black double-ended banner and popped up on foam tape.  I wish the sentiment wasn't on quite such an angle, but I had to keep it in line with the text so it wouldn't look skewed.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Tiny Alphabet Background (SSS), Keep it Simple:  Father (PTI)

Ink:  Olive, Fog (SSS), Unicorn White (HA), Versamark

Cardstock:  White, Fog

Accessories:  Pierced Circle Frames (MFT), Fanciful Feathers die (WP9), Blueprints 2 (MFT), linen thread

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at ColourMe and Fab Friday.

Guiding Light

Hi and welcome!  It's Father's Day here in New Zealand tomorrow, so I thought today was a good day to make a couple of cards :)

This card uses the sketch from Fusion Card Challenge the circles challenge from Stampin' Royalty and the colors from Color Throwdown.  This will be going to my father and as always, I really feel the pressure when making cards for either of my parents, because I want to give them something special.  I'm happy with how this came out.

I sponged various blue inks onto a panel of white cardstock then flicked water onto the panel.  Once that was dry I white-embossed some stars and cut it out with a pierced circle die.  I kept the bottom part of the circle lighter than the top.  I did a similar thing with the rectangular panel, using yellow distress inks and the water flicking.

With a piece of leftover blue, I embossed the word "light" using Crushed Curry EP and die-cut it with a flag die.  The first part of the sentiment is white embossed onto a piece of slate cardstock.

The lighthouse was stamped using Fog, Slate and Onyx Black inks and I really like the neutral tones in front of the vibrant color.  Unfortunately when I was sticking the two banners together, the bottom one must have slipped slightly and now my sentiment is crooked!  I hate when that happens, but I didn't have any more leftover inked cardstock, so I had to leave it as it is.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Guiding Lights (PTI), Unforgettable (WP9)
Ink:  Fog, Slate (SSS), Stormy Sky, Faded Jeans, Chipped Sapphire, Scattered Straw, Mustard Seed (Distress), Versafine Onyx Black, Versamark
Cardstock:  White, Slate
Accessories:  Pierced Circle Stax (MFT), Pierced Fishtail Flag Stax (MFT), Pierced Rectangle Stax (MFT), Guiding Lights dies (PTI), White EP, Crushed Curry EP

Cheers
Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Stampin' Royalty and Fusion Card Challenge.