Vellum Hearts

Hi!  I'm back with a card for the latest Fusion challenge, where we have gone with  lots of hearts this time round!  Of course, if you're not into hearts, you can be inspired by the colors, the stained glass or the sketch.  The choice is yours!
I made this card some weeks ago and at the time I was having fun playing with alcohol inks.  I decided to use vellum as it is non-porous and I thought the transparency with the alcohol inks would make for a fun look.

Once the ink was dry, I die-cut the panels with a pierced heart die and adhered them to a white card base using vellum tape for the purple hearts and clear foam tape for the blue/green heart.  The sentiment was die-cut from both black and silver foil - I love this two-part die by Create A Smile.

This was a very simple card to make and alcohol inks are so addicting and fun!  I've had mine for years and years and periodically pull them out to play with.

Head on over to see what the rest of the team have done with this challenge.  I hope you have time to join us.

Products used:

Ink:  Alcohol Inks (Ranger)

Cardstock:  White, vellum, silver foil, black

Dies:  Pierced Heart Stax (MFT), Thanks Twice (Create a Smile)

Cheers

Karren

Welcome Baby

This old blog hasn't had much on it lately, I'm sorry to say!  I'm just not feeling it at the moment and making a card has been hard work for the last few months.  I'm hoping my mojo comes back soon, because I want to enjoy this hobby again!  In the meantime, I'm keeping my hand in with my DT commitments and today it's the turn of Freshly Made Sketches, where Cecile has a very versatile sketch for us.

I decided to make a baby card - not that I need one, but it's there for when I do 😃

I used the Rectangle Peek-a-Boo die for the "frame" part of the sketch and created a shaker for the centre part.  On a white card base, I masked off the edges and blended some Distress Oxide inks into the centre, before dropping on some Perfect Pearls mist.  I then set that aside and went to work on the top panel.

First, I die-cut the rectangle opening and also the stitched edges.  The "baby" is from a Ranger Letter-It set and I double-embosed it with Denim EP onto a white panel.  The "welcome" is from a PTI set and I white embossed that onto a strip of black cardstock.

I added acetate behind the window and then foam tape all around.  I dropped some sequins onto the card base then added the front panel and called it done!

  

Thanks so much for visiting!  The design team have some wonderful cards using this sketch, so I hope you go check them out.

And, thanks to my friend Barb for reminding me, I'm adding this to the gallery at Addicted to CAS who are looking for ombre this challenge.

Products used:

Stamps:  Letter-It Baby (Ranger), Boutique Borders Baby (PTI)

Ink:  Versamark, Broken China, Faded Jeans Distress Oxide

Cardstock:  White, black

Dies:  Rectangle Peek-a-Boo Window, Stitched Rectangle Stax (MFT)

Accessories:  Denim EP (Zing), White EP (Hero Arts), Sequins

Cheers

Karren

Silver Celebration

Hi and welcome to Freshly Made Sketches, where we have another fabulous sketch for you.  This week our hostess is Jen Brum and her sketch made me swoon - check it out:

Now before we go any further, I'd like to tell my mum to close her email and not scroll any further because this card is her birthday card...  So, step away from the computer, Mum😅

This card uses new and old products from MFT Stamps and I had some fun with some Perfect Pearls on the background stamps.  I've had the Perfect Pearl color for years and years, but have just ventured into some other colors.  This color is Confetti White and it's so pretty.  I inked up the Marble Background stamp with Perfect Medium ink and then brushed on the Perfect Pearls powder.  Once it was covered sufficiently, I brushed off the excess and lightly spritzed the panel with water to set the powder.  I then die-cut it with a stitched die and adhered it to a white card base.

I die-cut some rolled roses from white cardstock and made them up before then die-cutting some layered leaves from silver foil.  The word die is also cut from the same foil.  The rest of the sentiment came from the Uncorked stamp set and I did a bit of surgery to just get the words I wanted.  That was cut using a stitched fishtail flag banner and a thin strip of the new Black & White Stripes paper was adhered along the bottom.  I love, love, love that MFT now has a pad of just black and white striped paper as that was all I used from the Neutrals pack 😊

Finally, I arranged everything on the card front and glued it down using Multi Medium Matte.  I finished with some Sparkling Clear Confetti.

Here's another view of the front so you can hopefully see the gorgeous shimmer from the Perfect Pearls.

Thanks so much for visiting, and Mum, if you've read this far then you have as much willpower as I do! 

I'm linking this up to the new Birthday Project challenge at MFT stamps and the Anything Goes theme at Seize the Birthday 

Products used:

Stamps:  Marble Background, Uncorked (MFT)

Ink:  Perfect Medium, Versafine Onyx Black

Cardstock:  White, Silver, Black & White Stripes (MFT)

Dies:  Celebrate, Stitched Rectangle Stax, Stitched Fishtail Flags, Layered Leaves, Mini Rolled Roses (MFT)

Accessories:  Confetti White Perfect Pearls, Sparkling Clear Confetti

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Seize the Birthday.

A Good Book

Oh what a guilty pleasure it is to sit down during the day with a good book and a coffee!  And even better if it's a cold day and you can wrap a blanket around your legs and get all cosy!  Alas, it's not often I get a chance to do that (I try to limit my reading to night-time) and we're in the middle of a scorching hot summer here, so the thought of being wrapped in a blanket just about brings me out in hives 😀  But, never to mind, because here is our latest Fusion challenge and guess what - it's all about coffee and a book!

I decided to go with creams and browns as per the photo and also bring in the book theme with my stenciled background and cute images.  And if you look closely, there's also a coffee cup in the scene 😃 

I stamped, colored and cut the images before setting them aside to work on the rest of the card. The drawers, coffee cup and books were masked and stamped and so I cut them with my Scan n Cut as one piece.

The card base is Whip Cream (as an aside, that sounds so weird to me because here in New Zealand we say "whipped cream"), then a layer of Hot Fudge and another stitched edge layer of Whip Cream which I stenciled over using my favorite stencil, Scribble Script.  The sentiment is embossed onto Hot Fudge cardstock using Brown Sugar Embossing Powder, which ties it in nicely with the creams on the rest of the card.  And hard to see in the photo, but the cream panel behind the stamped images is embossed with a knitting pattern embossing folder, to represent the blanket in the photo.

Thanks so much for visiting!  The design team have some gorgeous cards to inspire you, so please head on over and check them out.  I'm linking this up to the Stitch Me Up theme at Southern Girls Challenge.

Products used:

Stamps:  Our Story (MFT)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Versamark, Kraft (MFT)

Cardstock:  Whip Cream, Hot Fudge (MFT), X-Press It

Dies:  Stitched Rectangle Stax 1 & 2 (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, Scribble Script Stencil (Donna Downey), Brown Sugar EP (Zing), Knitted Pattern EF (Richard Garay)

Cheers

Karren

Love Notes

Welcome to another challenge from the team at Freshly Made Sketches.  And this week, we have some fabulous news - we have the super-talented Teresa Kline joining us as a guest designer for the next two months!  Our sketch hostess this week is Kim Singdahlsen and here is her sketch:

I decided to have notebook pages as my over-hanging elements and the heartbeat die as the sentiment strip, but I hope you can still see the sketch!

I started with a white top-folding card base and adhered a black panel cut with a notebook die.  I then offset a panel cut from notebook paper.  The sentiment was die-cut from black cardstock and the heartbeat from red.  All in all a very simple card!  I did color over all the die-cut pieces with clear sparkle pen to give it a bit of shimmer.

Thanks so much for visiting!  Be sure to head on over and check out what the rest of the DT have done with the sketch.  They're amazing, as always!

Products used:

Cardstock:  White, Black, Poppy (MFT), Wood & Notebook Basics (Sn@p)

Dies:  Love Stamps & Die (Hero Arts), Notebook Journal Card, Heartbeat (SugarPea Designs)

Accessories:  Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen

Cheers

Karren

The Sweetest

Welcome!  Today's card uses both the sketch and colors from MFT's latest challenges.  I'm also linking this up to the Clean and Simple challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More.

I colored up this sweet little bear using two of the challenge colors then cut it with my Scan n Cut.  I added Crystal Glaze to the honey and set it aside to dry.  The Summer Splash panel was clear embossed with Roses All Over and adhered to the left hand side of a top-folding card base.  I did some ink-blending onto a piece of Bristol Smooth cardstock, using distress inks that most closely matched the challenge colors, working from dark to light.  I then cut the piece with the Pierced Rectangle Stax die.

I was going to go with my usual white-embossed on black sentiment strip, but decided to be brave and add more color 😁  The Banana Split cardstock was stamped in black and then die-cut with a Pierced Fishtail Flag Stax die. 

Finally I added the bear with foam tape and called it done.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Roses All Over, Bitty Bears (MFT)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Versamark, Squeezed Lemonade, Dried Marigold, Abandoned Coral, Fired Brick

Cardstock:  White, Bristol Smooth, X-Press It, Summer Splash, Banana Split

Dies:  Pierced Fishtail Flag Stax, Pierced Rectangle Frames

Accessories:  Copics, Clear EP, Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen, Nuvo Crystal Glaze

Cheers

Karren

Gingham Celebration

Hi and welcome!  Today's card was made for a few challenges - the colors from Color Throwdown, MFT's Blueprints challenge, the patterned paper theme at Simon Says Stamp and the sketch from Paper Craft Crew.

When I first saw the sketch I gulped, because me and angled panels are not friends, but in the end I wasn't too unhappy with how this turned out.  I used several Blueprints dies on this card - for the angled panel, for the stars and for the banners at the bottom.

Looking at the photo, I now wish I had lowered the word "celebrate" and had it connect with the star.  I did try and detach the word die, but it was stuck down and not moving!  Oh well, live and learn 😄

The word die as well as the stars are coated with clear sparkle pen and the two smaller stars are also coated with Nuvo Crystal Glaze.

When I cut the two top panels, there were no stitched lines, so I used my Stitched Basic Edges die to add some stitches.  Because this die adds stitches on either side of the stitched line, there was a sliver of stitching left over.  Rather than throw this away, I adhered it to the patterned paper as an additional feature.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Cardstock:  White, After Midnight, Blu Raspberry, Homespun Gingham (MFT)

Dies:  Celebrate, Blueprints 24, 30, 18, 26, Stitched Basic Edges (MFT

Accessories:  Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen, Nuvo Crystal Glaze

Cheers

Karren