Pinecones

 Hi and welcome!  It's my turn to design the sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches and I came up with this one in about 30 seconds - then wondered what on earth I was going to make with it!  In the end, some NBUS dies came to the rescue.

I die-cut the pinecones and needles from white cardstock and used ink to colour them up.  Onto the pinecones, I flicked some Black Soot distress ink followed by gold ink and onto the needles just the gold ink.  I then assembled the pieces and adhered it all together.  

The patterned paper is from some my mother gave me and is from CTMH.  The Desert Sorm card based was embossed with the Burlap embossing folder.

Finally, the sentiment is a BetterPress plate that was hot-foiled with gold foil.

Thanks so much for visiting.  The design team have made some fabulous cards so I hope you'll check them out.

Products used:

Ink:  Evergreen, Green Onyx, Enchanted Gold (Altenew), S'Mores (Catherine Pooler), Ground Espresso, Black Soot Distress Ink

Cardstock:  Neenah Desert Storm, White, Home for Christmas patterned paper (CTMH)

Dies:  Lovely Layers: Winter Greenery (Honey Bee Stamps), Fishtail Flag Stax (MFT), Fancy Sentiment Strips (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Burlap EF (Honey Bee Stamps), Gold Hot Foil

Cheers

Karren

Starry Birthday

Hi!  Our sketch hostess this week over at Freshly Made Sketches is Jen Brum and I knew exactly what die I would use when I saw her sketch. 

This die was given to me by my mother who accidentally ordered two of the same (haven't we all done that??)  I die-cut it from white three times and from a gold-speckled patterned paper and pieced it together.  The sentiment looks really garish in the photo but in real life the gold is matte and much more subdued and works with the gold speckles beautifully.

I finsihed the card with some enamel dots and called it done.  Thanks for visiting.  The design team have some fabulous interpretations of the sketch so please head over and check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Bitty Birthday Wishes (MFT)

Ink:  Versamark

Cardstock:  White, Black, Gold Matte Foil, Spiffier Speckles (Lawn Fawn)

Dies:  Star Cluster (Close to My Heart_, Outline Hello (Waffle Flower)

Accessories:  White EP, Red Cosmos Enamel Dots (Altenew)

Cheers

Karren

Just a Note

Hi all!  Jen Brum is our sketch hostess at Freshly Made Sketches and she has given us a fun sketch!  I went very simple and let patterned paper and hot foiling do all the work. 

The camera has turned these colours muddy but they're actually a pretty ombre pattern with a dark burgundy at the bottom, fading up to pinky tones.  Originally I was going to die-cut six pieces and line them up on the card base, leaving a gap for the sentiment (as per the sketch), but I had fits trying to get these all lined up so ended up cheating and using three panels and adding the sentiment over the top!

The sentiment is hot foiled and I found some Rose Gold foil cardstock to mat the sentiment to make it pop a bit more.  I finished with some pearls in a matching colour.

Thanks so much for visiting!  I hope you'll head over and check out the fabulous cards made by the rest of the design team.

Products used:

Cardstock:  White, Rose Gold Foil, You Are Enough (CTMH)

Dies:  Stitched Rectangle Stax (MFT), Essential Glimmer Sentiments (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Rose Gold Hot Foil, Warm Pearls (Honey Bee)

Cheers

Karren

Tulips

Today's Freshly Made Sketch is brought to us by Lee Ann Barrett and she has a graphic design for us this week.  I decided to define the sketch elements using masking and ink blending.

I started out by masking off a triangle in top half of the card and sponged Hickory Smoke ink in the gap.  I then moved the masking tape and re-positioned it in the bottom half and repeated the process.  Once that was finished, I removed the tape and lightly sponged ink over the whole panel before placing the stencil down and inking through that.  After the panel was dry, I die-cut it with a stitched rectangle die, stamped the sentiment and then some splatters from the stamp set using Hickory Smoke ink.  I kept the splatters to the left hand side of the card so they would tie in the flowers with the background and sentiment.

The tulips come from a new-to-me stamp set by Close To My Heart.  Originally I was going to color them with Copics but I thought the sketchy look more suited watercolor, so I pulled out a couple of Zig markers and did some very basic coloring.  Once they were dry, I fussy-cut them and created an arrangement.  The flowers are adhered with foam tape.

Thanks for visiting.  The design team have some fun cards so I hope you'll check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  A Million Little Things (CTMH)

Ink:  Obsidian (Altenew), Hickory Smoke Distress Oxide

Cardstock:  White, Bristol Smooth

Dies:  Stitched Rectangles (Lil Inkers)

Accessories:  Zig Markers, Scribble Script stencil (Donna Downey)

Cheers

Karren

Lest We Forget

Hi all.  It's time for another Fusion Challenge and here is my card:

The challenge this time tips its hat to our servicemen and women.  On 25 April, it is ANZAC day in New Zealand and Australia.  This year, there will be no services to commemorate this date, so I wanted to create a card to convey my thanks.

You won't believe this but there are 10 Distress Inks in my background!  I wanted a yellow/orange background but didn't want it smooth and even, so I used multiple inks.  I then went over the panel with a stencil and darkened the ink, before adding translucent embossing paste.  While that was drying, I worked on the ground, where I used Vintage Photo, Hickory Smoke and Black Soot.

The soldier was stamed in Obsidian ink and cut with my Scan n Cut.  I fussy-cut the gap between his gun and legs. I used cream cardstock for both the soldier and the sentiment as I didn't want anything stark.  The sentiment was die-cut from cream and black cardstock.

I put all the elements together using foam tape for the ground and soldier.  I then added it all to a cream card base.

Thanks for popping by.  I hope you'll check out the wonderful cards made by the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  ANZAC Day (CTMH)
Ink:  Obsidian (Altenew), Mustard Seed, Tea Dye, Scattered Straw, Rusty Hinge, Ripe Persimmon, Wild Honey, Fossilized Amber, Vintage Photo, Hickory Smoke, Black Soot Distress Inks.
Cardstock:  Cream (SSS), Black Licorice (MFT)
Dies:  Thanks (SSS)
Accessories:  Sunrise Radiating Rays Stencil (MFT), Translucent EP

Cheers
Karren

Remember - Video Blog Hop

***UPDATE***I collated all comments from the YouTube video and this blog post and used random.org to pick a winner. The winner is Julie-Anne Hoffman who commented on this video. Thanks to everyone for their likes and comments - much appreciated!


Hi!  I'm thrilled to be joining in with a group of wonderful card-makers from Australia and New Zealand for the ANZAC Day Friendship Remembrance Video Hop.  This is the brain-child of Therese Calvird and I was thrilled when she asked if I'd be interested in joining.  If you're not sure what ANZAC Day is head on over to Wikipedia for an explanation.

Now, I haven't made a video in nearly a year because I was using my son's Mac to edit the videos and he got sick of me always borrowing his Mac, so I stopped making videos 😭😭  But I'm back and I hope you'll like my card - plus there's a prize as well.  Details at the end of the video and this blog post.

So my original thought when I was contemplating what card to make was to stick with the poppy theme and create a friendship card, but then when I was visiting my mum a few weeks ago, she showed me this new CTMH set and it was just perfect for my card, so my mum very kindly lent it to me.

I started by creating the alcohol ink panel onto Yupo paper using various purple inks.  Once I was finished, I set that aside to dry and worked on the card base.  I stamped the two poppy images in Grout Gray ink across the bottom of the card base, triple stamping because I think my ink pad is getting a bit dry!  The sentiment was stamped in Black Soot Archival Ink.  Originally, I had planned to stamp the soldier directly onto the alcohol ink panel, but it just didn't show up enough, so I stamped him onto white and used my Scan n Cut to cut him out.  He is popped up on foam tape (and conveniently covers up the failed stamped image!)

And that's my card!  You can watch the video here, or over on YouTube. 

Now onto the prize.  Leave a comment either on YouTube or in the comments below.  You don't have to subscribe to either, but it would be appreciated 😉 I'll randomly draw one name to win either a brand new copy of the ANZAC Day stamp set by CTMH or Mama Elephant's Playful Pups stamp and die set (which I inadvertently bought twice!).  I'll ship by airmail post to anywhere in the world.

Thanks so much for visiting!  I appreciate your time.  To start at the beginning of the hop, head on over to Alicia's video, or if you want to go to the next blog on the list, which is the amazing Therese herself,  head here.

Here's a full list of video hop participants in order:

Video Hop List
Alicia – Youtube Video here
Ali F – Youtube Video here
Ali H – Youtube Video here
Dianne – Youtube Video here
Eloise – Youtube Video here
Helen – Youtube Video here
Jo – Youtube Video here
Karren – Youtube Video here
Therese – Youtube Video here

Products used:

Stamps:  ANZAC Day (CTMH)
Inks:  Black Soot Archival Ink, Grout Gray (MFT), Alcohol Inks (Purple Twilight, Cool Peri, Amethyst, Wild Plum, Silver Mixative)
Cardstock:  White, Yupo

Cheers
Karren

Silver Love

Hi, again!  This is my third post today, but the linky at CASology is closing and I want to link my card to that challenge.

I just had to make a card for this week's challenge at Less Is More - white on white is such a hard challenge, but so beautiful!  I went for a love card and am also linking it to the current Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge, CAS on Sunday and AAA Cards - the latter two both have love/Valentine themed challenges.  For Tic-Tac-Toe I'm using the top row - Love, Shimmer and Hearts.

It's hard to see in the photo, but I've white embossed cascading hearts all down the front panel of this card.  You can see them slightly better in the close-up photo below.  I adhered two strips of silver glimmer paper down each side of the panel then used craft foam as a backing and mounted it onto a white card base.  I also adhered some white cardstock to some craft foam before die-cutting the sentiment.

It's so hard to photograph white-on-white card, but trust me when I say this is much prettier IRL :)

Thanks for visiting.  It's back to work for me tomorrow, but at least it's a short week!  It's been so nice having a long weekend.

Products used:

Stamps:  Charming Cascades (CTMH)

Ink:  Versamark

Cardstock:  White, silver glimmer

Dies:  Little Letters (MFT), You (SSS)

Accessories:  Craft Foam, White EP

Cheers

Karren

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

Demure

Hi and welcome!  Today's card was made for the neutrals challenge at Less is More, the word challenge at Just Us Girls, the challenge at Inkspirational and the new stash challenge at Sweet Stampin'.

My new item on this card is the floral stamp from Penny Black called Demure.  I've had this for a month of so, but this is the first chance I've had to ink it up.  I colored it with warm grey Copic markers after stamping it onto my card base.  I then stamped the "thank you" from CTMH along the bottom.

The card looked a bit dull so I die-cut the frame and popped it up on tiny little slivers of foam tape.  I deliberately cut it at an angle to add interest.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Demure (Penny Black), A Thousand Thanks (CTMH)

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black

Cardstock:  White

Dies:  Frames (SSS)

Accessories:  Copics, white gel pen

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Sweet Stampin'

Grid Thanks

Today's card was one I came up with and executed quickly (for me!)  I wanted to play along with the challenge at Less is More which is "Fire" and the Thanks challenge at Simon Says Stamp.  As well, I'm entering for the first time into Virginia's View Challenge which has a theme of texture this month.

I took a piece of watercolor paper and white-embossed Hero Arts' Graph Background stamp.  Once that was done, I used the ink smooshing technique to smoosh different yellow and orange inks in the bottom right corner.  I then dripped a solution of  Perfect Pearls and water to give a subtle shimmer.

The panel was then die-cut with a pierced rectangle die.  The sentiment is white-embossed and comes from a brand-new-to-me set  by CTMH called A Thousand Thanks.  I can see I'm going to get a lot of use out of this set!

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Graph Background (Hero Arts), A Thousand Thanks (CTMH)
Ink:  Squeezed Lemonade, Wild Honey, Scattered Straw, Spiced Marmalade, Fossilized Amber, Ripe Persimmon (Distress), Versamark
Cardstock:  White, Black, Watercolor
Dies:  Pierced Rectangle Stax (MFT)
Accessories:  White EP, Perfect Pearls

Cheers
Karren

Edited to Add:  This card was in Virginia's wrap up post.

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

Rock On!

Hi!  This quick and very CAS one-layer card was made late on Sunday night with a few challenges in mind:  ColorQ, Seize the Birthday with a splatter theme, Less is More with a masculine theme, Cardz for Guyz with a rock theme and Time Out where I was inspired by the colors.

I stamped the sentiment onto a white card base using Slate ink and then stamped the guitar in black ink "resting" it against the sentiment.  I then stamped the smaller ink blots in Orange Peel ink and a triangle of larger ink blots in Burnt Orange ink.

And that was it!  No embellishments because it's for a guy.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Ink Blot (CTMH), Rock On (PTI)

Ink:  Slate, Orange Peel, Burnt Orange (SSS), Archival Black

Cardstock:  White

Cheers

Karren