Sunflower

Hi and welcome!  Today's card uses an image I colored early on in the current Daily Marker 30 Day Challenge.  I had great intentions of coloring every day, but with the stresses of work and other things, it just didn't eventuate.  So I'm gonna try when I can and if I can't, then so be it 😃

I've used the image to create a card for the current challenge at Card Concept, where I was (obviously) inspired by the sunflower and also the plaid pattern.  The card I've made is clean and layered and follows the sketch at SugarPea Designs and the colors from ColourQ.  It also meets the Thanks/Thanksgiving challenge at Simon Says Stamp.

The sunflower is a digi stamp from Power Poppy - I just love their images and have a few digis and my first clear stamp set is winging its way to me at the moment from SSS.  Apparently Power Poppy are having a big Black Friday Sale, so I'm sure I'm going to be adding to my fledgling collection!

I cut the image into a rectangle (changing it from the oval in the sketch) and stamped the "Thank You" from SPD's Gift Greetings in Dark Chocolate ink.   I mounted the panel onto a Dark Chocolate layer and set it aside.  I spent quite some time last night stamping the plaid pattern (yes, that was the highlight of my Saturday night 😄)  I didn't want the plaid to upstage the sunflower so I covered it with a strip of vellum cardstock before mounting it onto a Dark Chocolate layer.  Both panels were mounted onto a Desert Storm card base.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Sunflower Power (Power Poppy), Gift Greetings (SPD), Jumbo Stripes (SSS)
Ink:  Dark Chocolate, Simply Chartreuse, Harvest Gold, Orange Zest (PTI)
Cardstock:  Desert Storm, X-Press It, White, Dark Chocolate
Accessories:  Copics, Wink of Stella

Cheers
Karren

You Say Witch...

Hi and welcome!  Today's card was made the other evening, when I felt like doing some coloring.  After I'd finished coloring, I decided to make it up into a card and this is the finished result.

I'm linking this up to ColourQ and City Crafter challenges.

This is another NBUS image that has been in my NBUS box since near the beginning of the year!  I stamped her onto Neenah Solar White and colored her with Copics.  I then masked her using a Molotow masking pen and sponged Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and Carved Pumpkin inks around her, finishing off with some Black Soot at the bottom.  I then removed the masking fluid and stamped the sentiment.

Finally, I cut the panel with a pierced rectangle die and adhered it to a white card base.  I then took my Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen and colored her skin, a la Edward Cullen :)

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Esmeralda Girl (Unity)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hyrbrid, Versafine Onyx Black, Black Soot, Spiced Marmalade, Carved Pumpkin, Mustard Seed

Cardstock:  Neenah Solar White 80lb

Dies:  Blueprints 21 (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, Sequins, Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen

Cheers

Karren

Halloween Fairy

Two fairy cards in one week?  Why, yes there is :)  This fairy is slightly different to the fairies from the other day though:

Not quite as dainty, is she?  I made this card for the challenge at Art Impressions "Too Cute to Spook", the Hip to be Square challenge at Simon Says Stamp, the current challenge at ColourQ and I based my card on the sketch at MFT.

I stamped and colored the fairy onto some X-Press It cardstock and colored some "ground" for her.  I cut the panel with a stitched square die and mounted that onto an Old Olive panel that was 4.75" square.  The sentiment is white embossed onto black and comes from the adorable Which Way is the Candy set by MFT.  Also in that set is the wee frog and I thought the look on his face went so well with my fairy that I stamped and fussy-cut him out before placing him at her feet.

I finished the card by coloring her dress in clear Wink of Stella and her wings and pom-poms in Star Dust Stickles.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Birthday Fairy (Art Impressions), Which Way to the Candy (MFT)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Versamark

Cardstock:  Old Olive, X-Press It, Black

Dies:  Stitched Squares (Lil Inkers), Stitched Fishtail Flag Stax (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, Wink of Stella, Star Dust Stickles, White EP

Cheers

Karren

Lucky 13

I took advantage of the recent 20% off Ranger sale at Simon Says Stamp and got some new Tim Holtz products to play with.  So this morning I delved right in and created this card using a new stencil and texture paste.

I stenciled over the Industrial stencil using Ranger Texture Paste onto some Specialty Stamping Paper.  Once it was dry, I sponged over the panel using the ColourQ colors, or in my case, Weathered Wood, Peacock Feathers and Vintage Photo.  I then flicked some water onto the panel.  What I noticed was that as well as bleaching the cardstock, it also bleached the texture paste, so I went back over all the raised parts with a paintbrush and some water to make the stenciled image stand out more.

I kept the layout really simple - a Basic Gray cardbase, a strip of Hawaiian Shores down the left hand side and a white-embossed sentiment banner.  I finished off with a couple of homemade enamel dots in the closest color I could find to Taken With Teal.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:  ColourQ, The Male Room, Simon Says Stamp and Cardz for Guyz - the last three all having Father's Day/Male themes for their current challenges.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  KIS:  Father (PTI)

Ink:  Versamark, Weathered Wood, Peacock Feathers, Vintage Photo

Cardstock:  Specialty Stamping Paper, Basic Gray (SU), Hawaiian Shores (PTI)

Dies:  Fishtail Flag Stax (MFT)

Accessories:  Industrial Stencil (TH), Ranger Texture Paste, enamel dots

Cheers

Karren

Birthday Elephant

Hi and welcome!  Today's card encompasses a few challenges that are out there at the moment:  Muse Card Club, City Crafter who are looking for elephants on your card, ColourQ, and MFT Sketch Challenge.

From the adorable Muse card, I took the elephant, the balloons (although I only used one) and the solid color background.

I loosely painted distress inks plus Island Blue from SSS onto a panel of white cardstock.  Once that was dry, I flicked some of the Blueprint Sketch ink on top using a paintbrush before cutting the panel with a stitched die.

The elephant and balloon were colored with Copics and die cut.  I then stamped the sentiment onto a flag and adhered both the elephant and balloon to it.  The tag was cut from white cardstock and I also cut the top reinforcer from a scrap of the watercolored panel.  The sentiment, elephant and balloon are all popped up on foam tape.  I finished the card with some rainstones.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Adorable Elephants (MFT)
Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Blueprint Sketch, Peacock Feathers, Island Blue
Cardstock:  White, X-Press It
Dies:  Adorable Elephants, Blueprints 20, Stitched Flag Stax (MFT), Tags a Lot (Mama Elephant)
Accessories:  Copics, Wink of Stella, Rainstones

Cheers
Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Muse and was the random winner at MFT Sketch Challenge.

Giraffe Buddies

Hi and welcome!  Today's card was made for the sketch challenge at WPlus9 as well as the color challenge at ColourQ and the Anything Goes challenge at Simon Says Stamp.

I've had this Party Animal set since it was released in June and for some reason, I have been totally intimidated by it and scared to color those giraffes!  In the end, and as part of my mission to reduce my NBUS, I bit the bullet and this is the result.

I stamped both giraffes in the set and just decided to color them, without paying much attention to shading.  After they were colored and die-cut, I focused on the card base.  I took a panel of Desert Storm cardstock and die-cut it with Blueprints 24 and the new Homespun Stitched Lines die.  This mimics the shape in the sketch.  I stamped the sentiment then positioned the giraffes, with the standing giraffe popped up on foam tape.  I placed some sequins to represent some of the circles in the sketch and my card was done.

Thanks for visiting.

Products Used:

Stamps:  Party Animal (WP9)
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black
Cardstock:  White, Desert Storm, X-Press It
Dies;  Homespun Stitched Lines, Blueprints 24 (MFT), Party Animal (WP9)
Accessories:  Copics, Pretty Pink Posh Sequins

Cheers
Karren

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

Holiday Joy

Hi and welcome!  Today is a bonus day for me as it's our provincial holiday, so that means a day off work - yay!

I made this card for the current Just Us Girls Challenge to use stripes, as well as the sketch at Just Add Ink and the colors from ColourQ.  I CAS-ified the sketch somewhat but I hope you can still see the sketch in my card.

I stamped and colored the snowman and fire from my new Toasty Greeting set by MFT.  I just adore the Birdie Brown sets and can't help buying one or two when ordering from MFT.  The other thing I love about MFT is that they offer Fedex shipping, so I get my goodies in just over 48 hours - from Florida to New Zealand!  The best part is if I only buy stamps, die and stencils, it's the same price as USPS.

But I've digressed enough.  Back to the card.  I stamped the Bold Diagonal Stripes Background stamp down the left side of my card base using Old Olive ink.  I then cut a smaller piece of white and raised it up on foam tape before adhering my snowman and fire.  The sentiment was black-embossed onto vellum and tucked behind the snowman.

Thanks for visiting!  Once I've linked this up, I'm heading back to my craft room.  A perfect day :)

Products used:

Stamps:  Toasty Greetings, Bold Diagonal Stripes Background (MFT)

Ink:  Old Olive (SU), Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark

Cardstock:  White, Vellum, X-Press It

Dies:  Toasty Greetings, Fishtail Flag Stax (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, Black EP

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Just Add Ink and ColourQ.

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