You're Amazing

Hi and welcome!  I'm back with a card using the latest sketch from Freshly Made Sketches and this week our hostess is the delightful and talented Linda Callahan.  And check out the fun and versatile sketch Linda has for us:

I immediately saw the angled panel as negative space, so took a panel of white cardstock and cut it from corner to corner, then took a strip off each angled panel.  I did a bit of stenciling on the left hand panel, stamped part of the sentiment then adhered both panels to a black card base using foam tape.

From there it was a simple matter of die-cutting the "because" twice - once in lime and once in black and slightly offsetting the black layer to create a shadow.  Some black Nuvo drops finished the card.  Easy as!

Thanks for visiting!  Head on over to the blog and check out the fabulous creations by the rest of the DT.

I'm linking this up to the black, white and one other color challenge at The Challenge.

Products used:

Stamps:  Because (MFT)
Ink:  Twisted Citron Distress Ink, Versafine Onyx Black
Cardstock:  White, Black, Sour Apple (MFT)
Dies:  Because (MFT)
Accessories:  Triangle Grid Stencil (MFT), Nuvo Crystal Drops

Cheers
Karren

Bearing Gifts

Hi!  This is another card I made during my few days off work.  I used the colors from MFT Stamps and the sketch from The Challenge.

I started with a Tropical Teal card base and I clear-embossed the Mermaid Tail Background stamp onto it, as I thought that went with the fish in the bucket.  From there I masked, stamped and colored the images onto a panel of X-Press It cardstock.  Once they were colored, I added the sentiment and adhered that to a panel of Gravel Gray cardstock.

I die-cut two little flags from black and attached them at an angle, as per the sketch, and my card was done.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Polar Bear Pals, Mermaid Tail Background (MFT)
Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Versamark
Cardstock:  X-Press It, Gravel Gray, Tropical Teal (MFT), Black
Dies:  Blueprints 15 (MFT)
Accessories:  Copics, Clear EP

Cheers
Karren

Hug Resist

Hi and welcome to my second post today!  This card is for the Remarkable Resist Camp Create Challenge.  I also used the gorgeous colors from The Challenge.

After white-embossing the Roses All Over background stamp onto a panel of Bristol Smooth cardstock, I ink-blended Picked Raspberry, Abandoned Coral and Spiced Marmalade inks over the image.  I then flicked on some water (which I later regretted, but what's done is done!) and die-cut the panel with a scalloped edge die.  The word "hugs" was die-cut from Audrey Blue and then stacked with 3 layers of white before being adhered to the inked panel and then adhered to a white card base.  I finished the card with some Nuvo Crystal Drops and colored the die-cut word with Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Roses All Over (MFT)

Ink:  Versamark, Picked Raspberry, Abandoned Coral, Spiced Marmalade

Cardstock:  White, Bristol Smooth, Audrey Blue (SSS)

Dies:  Big Hugs (MFT),  All Prettied Up (Mama Elephant)

Accessories:  White EP, Nuvo Crystal Drops, Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen

Cheers

Karren

Snowdude

Hi and welcome!  I've had the week off work (yay!) but today is Friday and my last day (boo!).  I've spent some time in my craft room, but mostly making cards for upcoming challenges.  I took some time out, though, to make this card which uses the Christmas inspiration at The Challenge as well as the sketch at Paper Players.

Excuse the photo!  I had to take it with my phone as my camera battery was charging.  I went quite literal with the inspiration photo as you can see!  This cute snowman is so adorable and he really stands out against the black snowflake-stenciled sky.  For the "hill" I die-cut some Watercolor Wash patterned paper by MFT in the soft blue shade.  I was going to cut it down to match the width of the black strip, but I quite liked the look of it so left it a bit wider.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Swanky Snowdudes (Paper Smooches), Toasty Greetings (MFT)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid

Cardstock:  White, Black, X-Press It, Watercolor Wash (MFT)

Dies:  Swanky Snowdudes (Paper Smooches), Stitched Hills & Slopes (SSS)

Accessories:  Embossing Paste, Falling Snow Stencil (SSS)

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Paper Players.

Grid Roses

Hi!  This is my second card today and I'm joining in with a few challenges:  The Card Concept, The Challenge and Muse Card Club.

I'm calling my card Clean & Graphic and was mainly drawn to the patterns and greens in the challenge graphic.  The ways Michele's beautiful Muse card influenced me are:

• colors
• scribble flowers
• camouflaged die cut
• thanks theme

I started by masking off the right and bottom of a white card base.  I then sponged Scattered Straw and Twisted Citron inks onto the card base.  After that was done, I took the Large Grid Stencil and laid that over the sponged area before sponging again with those same two colors.  This gives a subtle tone-on-tone pattern.  After removing the stencil, I spritzed the panel with a Perfect Pearls and water mist before removing the masking tape.

The flowers were cut from white fun foam and then sponged with the two distress inks.  For the sentiment, I die-cut the sentiment four times - three from white cardstock and one from the card base.  I then carefully stacked them back up again onto the card base.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Ink:  Scattered Straw, Twisted Citron Distress Inks
Cardstock:  White
Dies:  Thanks (SugarPea Designs), Single Roses (SSS)
Accessories:  Large Grid Stencil (MFT), Perfect Pearls, Fun Foam

Cheers
Karren

Caribbean Snowflakes

Hi!  Today's card was made for the current Muse challenge, as well as  the Thanks/Thanksgiving theme at Simon Says Stamp, the inspiration pic challenges at City Crafter and The Challenge and the snow/white theme at Simply Create Too.

We don't celebrate Thanksgiving here in NZ, so I've gone with a general thanks card.  I used the blue/white colors in the inspiration photos and from Anita's gorgeous card I was inspired by the white on white layers, the layout, and the tag with the hearts.  In my case, I used a die-cut snowflake.

My snowflakes were stamped with Caribbean Blue ink and I also smooshed some onto some white card for the layers above and below the snowflakes.  The snowflake panel and the die-cut snowflake were spritzed with a Perfect Pearls/water mix.  Everything on this card happens to be Simon Says Stamp product, apart from the twine, which is from Lawn Fawn.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Lots of Snowflakes (SSS), Tiny Tags Words (SSS)

Ink:  Caribbean Blue (SSS)

Cardstock:  White

Dies:  Maryanne die (SSS), Tiny Tags (SSS)

Accessories:  Perfect Pearls, Lawn Fawn twine

Cheers

Karren

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

Beach Babe

Hi and welcome!  It's a beautiful Spring day here today - the doors and windows are open and fresh air is flowing through the house.  Just glorious!

I must have had the approaching summer in my head when I made this card.  Friday Mashup are looking for a decades-themed card and when I was looking through my stamps, I came across a set from CTMH that had never seen ink.  I used the sketch from The Challenge and the colors from ColourQ to make this card:

When I first saw the colors at ColourQ, I decided to run as fast as I could in the other direction.  But then when I saw the images, I thought these colors were retro enough to work with these 50's inspired stamps.  I had to dig out my SU cardstock, which I haven't used in quite some time to get the right color matches.

I started by die-cutting three panels using the Horizontal Stitched Stripes dies.  I then used some tape to adhere them together before stamping the World Map background using Versamark.  The sentiment was stamped in Versafine Onyx Black ink.

The central image was stamped in black onto Island Indigo cardstock and again on Raspberry Ripple cardstock.  I used a stitched circle die to cut a spotlight and adhered that to the blue panel, which was then adhered to a notebook die-cut.  Three tiny banners were adhered to the side and the whole piece was mounted on foam tape.

This is definitely not my normal sort of card, but it was fun to make!  Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Bright Sunshiny Day (CTMH), World Map (SU)
Ink:  Versamark, Versafine Onyx Black
Cardstock:  White, Raspberry Ripple, Cajun Craze, Always Artichoke, Island Indigo, Black
Dies:  Stitched Circles (Lil' Inkers), Horizontal Stitched Stripes (MFT), Blueprints 8 (MFT), Spiral Notebook Page (PTI)

Cheers
Karren

Witches Go Riding

Hi and welcome!  Today I'm thrilled to be a Guest Designer at The Challenge, thanks to my monster card being picked a couple of weeks ago.  This week we have an inspiration picture for you - a very, very cool inspiration pic, I might add!

Now, while I love the picture, I was stumped with this one.  You see, New Zealand doesn't really celebrate Halloween so I haven't got much in the way of Halloween stamps.  Initially I thought of just using the colors and patterns, but then I decided to go digi-shopping and came up with this card.

This is a fun Bugaboo digi stamp and after I printed it onto X-Press It cardstock, I colored the pumpkins and broom with Copics.  I then masked those items and sponged Chipped Sapphire, Dusty Concord and Black Soot ink onto the background.

The layout was kept pretty simple - I took the stripes from the inspiration pic and added some striped paper to my cardbase and then popped up the image with foam tape.  Some orange enamel dots and I was done.

Thanks so much to Lesley and the team for letting me join in this week!  Be sure to check out all the wonderful creations from the rest of the team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Bugaboo digi
Ink:  Chipped Sapphire, Dusty Concord, Black Soot
Cardstock:  White, X-Press It, Dots & Stripes Neutrals (MFT)
Accessories:  Copics, Wink of Stella, enamel dots

Cheers
Karren

Monster Pyramid

Hi!  This is the end of my short 3-day break from work.  I've had some fun in the craft room as well as spending time with my boys.  This card was made for Lesley's monster/birthday themed Challenge and also the "M" challenge at Cardz for Guys.  My "M" words are monsters and masking.

I started my card by cutting masks of all six monsters using Eclipse masking paper.  I then arranged them in a pyramid on some X-Press It cardstock and carefully removing masks as needed, I stamped each monster.  Once that was complete, I colored with Copics in a semi-rainbow fashion.  To create a background, I masked the monsters again and sponged Mowed Lawn and Tumbled Glass distress inks.

For the sentiment banner, after I'd embossed and die-cut it, I carefully cut around the feet of the bottom three monsters and tucked the banner under their feet - giving them something to "stand on".  Blueprints dies came to the rescue with layering as did some Reverse Confetti banner dies to tie in with the inspiration picture.  I quite like this little card which I think would be suitable for a young boy.  My favorite monster has to be the teal one in the center bottom.  I wanted to color him red because I think he looks like the red M & M :)

Thanks for visiting.  I'm also linking this to Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday Challenge to use a stamp.

Products used:

Stamps:  Out of this World (Clearly Besotted), KIS Birthday (PTI)

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Mowed Lawn, Tumbled Glass

Cardstock:  White, black, X-Press It

Accessories:  Copics, Pierced Fishtail Flag Stax (MFT), Blueprints 20 and 21 (MFT), Double Banner Garland (Reverse Confetti)

Cheers

Karren

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

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.

Off the Edge

Hi and welcome to Freshly Made Sketches Challenge Day!  Today, Kim, who makes the most beautiful CAS cards, has a very fun and interesting sketch for us.  This sketch calls for an element to be off the edge of the card.  How cool is that?

For my card, I decided to play along with the challenge at Friday Mashup, to use either umbrellas or polka dots.  I went with both.  I'm also linking to The Challenge where polka dots are the theme.

On my white cardbase, I stamped the polka dot strip in Audrey Blue down the left side of the card.  I then stamped the sentiment in black.  Then I used my Misti to stamp my umbrella and its components onto the die-cut before popping it up with foam tape on the card base.

The umbrella was painted with clear Wink of Stella, which you can't see in the photo.  Some blue sequins and I was all done.  In hindsight, I possibly should have made the polka dot strip wider, but it's done and I ain't doing it again!

Thanks for visiting.  Be sure to check out the gorgeous creations from the rest of the amazing DT.  And as a special treat, we have the genius who created Freshly Made Sketches as a guest.  Be sure to check out Lesley's blog - she does amazing work!

Products used:

Stamps:  April Showers (Clearly Besotted), Basic Borders (Mama Elephant)
Ink:  Green Apply, Audrey Blue (SSS), Daffodil Delight (SU), Memento Grey Flannel, Memento Tuxedo Black
Cardstock:  White
Accessories:  Wink of Stella, sequins, April Showers die

Cheers
Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Friday Mashup.