Friendly Flowers

 

Hi all and welcome!  TodayI am thrilled to be a Guest Designer at The Flower Challenge where the theme is to add spots or stripes.  And in more great news, I will be taking over running of The Flower Challenge from October, to give Viv and Aileen a well-deserved break after 7 years.  I have fond memories of this challenge, because I helped Aileen set it up at the beginning and I was on the design team for several months before having to step down due to other commitments.

Anyway, onto my card.

This was a stenciled image I had in my stash so this card was reasonably easy to pull together.  I gold hot-foiled the stripes onto a white panel, cut the panel down to fit onto a coral card base and then added the flowers with foam tape.  I made sure to leave enough room for the gold hot-foiled sentiment to fit near the top.

Thanks so much for visiting.  The Flower Challenge DT have some gorgeous cards, so please check them out and have a go yourself.

Products used:

Stamps:  Garden Roses (Pink Fresh Studio)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K), Martian, Tropical Forest sets (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Coral Crush (MFT), Pitch Black (Hero Arts)

Dies:  Garden Roses (Pink Fresh Studio), Skinny Stripe BG, Hexi-gem Sentiments (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Garden Roses stencils, Gold Matte Hot Foil

Cheers

Karren

Framed

 Hi!  I was thrilled when my card was picked by Nancy and the team at Color Hues a few weeks back.  As part of winning the challenge, I was invited to be a guest designer for this new color challenge and what gorgeous colours they are:

I immediately wanted to make a floral card and this is the end result.

I stamped the main image from Garden Roses onto white card and used the co-ordinating stencils to colour it.  My ink colours were Clay Mask (light and darker) and Polished for the flowers and Matcha and Sage for the leaves.  Once finished, I used the die to cut it out and arranged it on a white card base.  My original intention was to have the flowers draping from the top left and the sentiment in the lower right.  After I stamped the sentiment, I realised the off-cut would look pretty in the bottom right.

Then I decided it looked a bit bare and cut a Sage Leaf frame to frame the centre of the card and the sentiment.  Then I decided to go all out and die-cut quite a few different-sized frames and positioned them on the card base just for some added interest.

The CAS-lover in me thinks this is too much, but it is interesting and a bit different from my usual style, so I'm putting it out there!  I finished the card with a wee coral enamel heart.

Thanks so much for visiting and thanks to Nancy and the team for inviting me to play along!  Please head over and check out the wonderful cards made using this gorgeous colour combo.

Products used:

Stamps:  Garden Roses (Pink Fresh Studio)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K.), Versafine Onyx Black, Matcha, Sage, Clay Mask, Polished (Catherine Pooler)

Cardstock:  White, Sage Leaf (Lawn Fawn)

Dies:  Garden Roses (Pink Fresh Studio), Nesting Rectangle Frames (Waffle Flower)

Accessories:  Garden Roses stencils (Pink Fresh Studio), Enamel Heart (Altenew)

Cheers

Karren

Deer Greetings

Hi everyone!  I'm thrilled to be playing along with the Tic Tac Toe team this week as a guest designer.  We have a fun board to play with and I chose the left column - Snow/Animal/Frame for my Christmas card.

I had seen these gorgeous ink-blended background skies on Pinterest and wanted to create one for myself so I set to work with Distress Inks on a white panel.  Once the ink-blending was finished, I took a snowfall stencil and some white embossing paste and added the "snow".  Unfortunately my snow absorbed some of the ink colour so I have orange-ish snow (just lucky it's not yellow 😉)

 

While that panel was drying, I stamped and Copic-coloured my critters and cut them with my Scan n Cut.  Now if I'd just turned the stamp packet over, I'd have seen I had the co-ordinating dies.  Doh!

For the frame component, I took the Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Backdrop and cut it from white cardstock.  I stamped my sentiment from a WPlus9 stamp set and adhered the die-cut to the ink-blended panel with foam tape.  I then added the critters and some enamel dots to match the background.

Thanks so much for visiting and thanks to the Tic Tac Toe team for inviting me to play along.  I hope you'll head over and play along as there's lots of great choices in the board.

Products used:

Stamps:  Dashing Deer (MFT), Poinsettia Bouquet (WPlus9)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K.), Versafine Onyx Black, Tea Dye, Victorian Velvet, Aged Mahogany, Seedless Preserves Distress Inks

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It

Dies:  Stitched Hillside Backdrop Portrait (Lawn Fawn)

Accessories:  Copics, Snow Flurry Stencil (MFT), White Embossing Paste, Enamel Dots, white gel pen

Cheers

Karren

Cosy Christmas

 This is my last week as Guest Designer over at Just Us Girls and I've had a great time!  Thanks so much to the team for making me feel so welcome.  For this challenge, we have a photo inspiration and what a cosy photo it is!

I was drawn to the couch, the Christmas tree and the general colours of the scene.  I was also really drawn to the stag picture and wanted to re-create it somewhere on my card, but couldn't find a good spot so left it out.

I went searching through my Christmas stamps and found the perfect set - My Monthly Hero from November 2019.  I stamped, coloured and die-cut the chair, tree and gift and set them aside to work on the card base. 

For the card base, I masked off a section using 2" Post-It Tape and ink-blended some Weathered Wood Distress Ink at the top to try and mimic the wall colour in the photo, and some Pumice Stone ink at the bottom for the carpet.  I then arranged my elements, making sure to overlap them for cohesion and adhered them.  I used liquid glue for the tree and foam tape for the gift and the chair.  I stamped a sentiment that tied everything together nicely and finished with some clear sparkle pen on the ornaments and star.

Thanks so much for visiting.  Please head over to the Just Us Girls site and check out the fabulous cards made by the team.  And have a go yourself - so much wonderful inspiration in this photo.

Products used:

Stamps:  My Monthly Hero Nov 2019, Christmas Messages (Hero Arts)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K.) Versafine Onyx Black, Weathered Wood, Pumice Stone Distress Inks

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It

Dies:  MMH Nov 2019 (Hero Arts)

Accessories:  Copics, Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen

Cheers

Karren

Rich Poinsettia

Hi all!  I'm here with my third card as guest designer at Just Us Girls challenge and this week is Color Week, where we've been give the colours of red, green and gold.  

I went the very obvious route and created a Christmas card 😄

 

I gold-embossed the background stamp onto white and cut a panel which I then adhered to an Amarena Cherry card base, adding a thin strip of gold matte foil cardstock down the right hand side.  The sentiment was gold-embossed onto the card base and once that was done, I set to work on the poinsettia.

I die-cut the pieces and sponged the edges with Cranberry Fizz ink before splattering on some gold shimmer spray.  Once that was dry, I curled the edges of each petal and glued each piece together before adding some gold pearls to the centre.  For the leaves, I sponged Eucalyptus ink around the edges but didn't splatter them.

Thanks for visiting!  The design team are sure to have some gorgeous cards using this colour combo so head on over and check them out and play along!

Products used:

Stamps:  Outline Winter Floral (SSS), Poinsettia Bouquets (WPlus9)

Ink:  Versamark, Cranberry Fizz, Eucalyptus (Catherine Pooler)

Cardstock:  White, Amarena Cherry, Jellybean Green (MFT), Gold Matte Foil

Dies:  Layered Poinsettia (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Gilded Embossing Powder (Brutus Monroe), Gold Shimmer Spray, Gold Pearls

Cheers

Karren

Butterfly Wishes

I'm here with my second card as Guest Designer over at Just Us Girls Challenge.  This week we are challenged to make a matching envelope. 

I don't ever think to make a matching envelope so this was a fun challenge.  I decided to see how hot-foiling on envelopes worked and I'm happy to report it worked perfectly!

I hot-foiled the butterflies onto cardstock and the smaller one again on a white envelope.  I then used stencils to colour them in before using my Scan n Cut to cut the cardstock ones out.  Onto a white card base, I hot-foiled a frame using the same gold foil and also a birthday sentiment.  I added some black under the sentiment to give it a bit of weight.  I then added the butterfly with foam tape.  Here are a few more photos.

Thanks so much for visiting.  Please head over to the Just Us Girls blog and check out the fabulous cards and matching envelopes made by the design team, then give it a go yourself!

Products used:

Ink:  Whipped Honey, Tiara, Glitz, Mandarin Spice, Midnight (Catherine Pooler)

Cardstock:  White, Black

Dies:  Butterflies (Pink Fresh), A2 Layers (Waffle Flower), Modest Greetings 1 (Poppy Stamps)

Accessories:  Gold Matte Foil, Warm & Cozy Enamel Dots (Altenew), Butterflies Stencils (Pink Fresh)

Cheers

Karren

Don't Fence Me In

Hi and welcome!  I'm thrilled to be Guest Designer at Just Us Girls challenge for the month of November.  The first challenge is to include a fence in your card.

I created this card with this super-cute dog and a die-cut fence.  To start, I stamped and coloured both the head and body of the dog.  The body is actually backwards so I had to mask off his tail before stamping it.  I then die-cut the pieces with the co-ordinating dies before setting them aside to work on my card base.  

I used some masking tape to mask off on the card base so I could blend some Twisted Citron ink for grass then I moved the masking tape and blended Tumbled Glass for the sky.

I adhered the dog's body onto the card base then added the die-cut fence.  I used foam tape to pop up the dog's head.  I finished with a birthday sentiment.

Thanks for visiting.  Please head over and check out the wonderful cards made by the design team and have a go yourself!

Products used:

Stamps:  You Make My Tail Wag, Lucky Dog (MFT)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K), Versafine Onyx Black, Tumbled Glass, Twisted Citron Distress Ink

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

Dies:  You Make My Tail Wag, Picket Fence (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics

Cheers

Karren

 

Boxy Birthday

Hi and welcome to my last post as Surprise Party Guest over at Seize The Birthday.  I'd like to thank Nancy and the team for inviting me to play along these last two months.

Today's challenge is a sketch and here's what I did with it:

This adorable stamp set has been sitting in my NBUS box for a while so I decided to colour up this little kitty in a box and use him on a card.  The vertical hot-foiled strip was already done and sitting in my scrap box so this card didn't take too long to put together.  I hot-foiled the sentiment onto a black panel using the same foil as the vertical strip and then adhered all the elements to a white card base.  The cat and yarn is adhered using foam tape to give it a bit more dimension.

Thanks so much for visiting.  I hope you'll head over to the challenge and have a go with this fun sketch.  And if you don't want to use the sketch, it's always Anything Goes Birthday.

And I've just realised that all four of my cards as Surprise Party Guest have hot-foiling on them.  Obsessed, much? 😀

Products used:

Stamps:  I Knead You (MFT)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K)

Cardstock:  White, Black, X-Press It, Aramena Cherry (MFT)

Dies:  Happy Birthday (Waffle Flower), Skinny Stripes Background (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Gold Hot Foil, Black Glaze Pen

Cheers

Karren

 

Silver Butterfly

 Hi all!  I'm back as Surprise Party Guest over at Seize the Birthday and this time the challenge is No Stamping.  Now in the good old days, that would be a real challenge, but these days there is so much more to this card-making hobby that it is easy to make a card without stamps.  Here's the card I made:

The brick die-cut is new-to-me from Paper Rose and I die-cut it three times adhering it together for dimension.  Some of the "bricks" fell out so I left in what remained on each layer.  This gives more of a dimensional look which you can see in the close-up photo below.

The butterfly was made from a piece of alcohol-inked Yupo in my stash and is in shades of blue and silver.  I die-cut the base from the Yupo and the top layer from silver foil cardstock.  I then hot-foiled the sentiment and die-cut it with the co-ordinating die.

Thanks for visiting.  Please head over to the challenge blog and check out the cards made by the design team and have a go yourself.

Products used:

Cardstock:  White, Silver Foil Cardstock, Yupo

Dies:  Texture 4 Brick (Paper Rose), Happy Birthday Hot Foil and Die (Waffle Flower)

Accessories:  Silver Foil, various alcohol inks

Cheers

Karren

Deco Birthday

 Hi!  I'm back with my second card as Surprise Party Guest over at Seize the Birthday.  Today's challenge is a colour challenge - purple, blue and green.

At first, I was heading down the flower route and then I decided to follow Laura Bassen's lead and check out geometric patterns on Pinterest which gave me the inspiration for this card:

Firstly, I black hot-foiled the Deco Triangles plate onto Hammermill cardstock, then used the co-ordinating stencils to colour up the panel.  I cut it down slightly and matted it onto a Dark Indigo panel before adding it to a white card base.

The sentiment is a new-to-me die from Memory Box which I die-cut from black and mounted onto a white shadow die.  Each layer is stacked two high.

And for those that are interested, here is the inspiration for my card.  I used black foil rather than gold because gold wasn't one of the challenge colours, but I think this card would look pretty cool in gold as well!

Thanks for visiting!  I hope you'll head over to the Seize the Birthday challenge and have a go!

Products used:

Ink:  Ultraviolet, Volcano Lake, Emerald, Desert Night (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Black, Dark Indigo (PTI)

Dies:  Happy Birthday Posh Script (Memory Box), Deco Triangles (The Greetery), A2 Rectangle Stax (MFT)

Accessories:  Black Hot Foil

Cheers

Karren

Starry Birthday

 Hi and welcome!  I'm thrilled to have been invited to be a Surprise Party Guest at Seize the Birthday for July and August.  Seize the Birthday is a fabulous challenge because (a) who doesn't need birthday cards? (b) as well as a theme, there is always an Anything Goes birthday card challenge; and (c) the design team create the most wonderful cards as inspiration.

Today's challenge is Metallic.  Lately, whenever I think metallic, I think hot foil, so that's the direction I went with my card:

Apologies for the photo - it's quite hard to get that metallic shine while still keeping the rest of the card looking normal!  For my card I hot-foiled the A2 rectangle plate onto a white panel and also hot-foiled several stars and the sentiment - all from gold hot foil.

I then die-cut the stars with the matching dies and interlaced them by cutting through the bottom layer and hiding the cut behind the star on top of it.  The sentiment was die-cut with a sentiment label die and added with foam tape.

Thanks so much for visiting and thank to the Seize the Birthday team for inviting me to join them.

Products used:

Cardstock:  White

Dies:  Nested Stars Hot Foil, Nested Stars (Pink Fresh), A2 Layers Hot Foil (Waffle Flower), Essential Glimmer Sentiments (Spellbinders)

Cheers

Karren

Amazing Butterflies

 Hi and welcome!  I'm thrilled to be back with the Tic Tac Toe team as guest designer.  The board this week is so fun - I think I just about covered all the squares except Floral Bouquet and Vellum, although I intended to play with the top horizontal row of Butterfly, Encouragement, Slimline.

Full slimline cards can be a bit tricky to photograph and this is the best I could do, but you can see 99% of the card.  I started with a white card base and a die-cut cover die from The Ton.  Behind the first three columns of grid I adhered three strips of cardstock which matched the alcohol-inked pieces that formed my butterfly bases.  This alcohol-inked panel came from my stash so I can't remember which colours I used but I think they were Pearls I was playing around with when I first received them.

I wanted to keep the card light and airy so I cut the top layer of the butterflies with white cardstock and adhered them slightly off-centre for a fun look.  For an encouragement sentiment, I used "you are amazing".  The "you" was die-cut from Ripe Persimmon cardstock and backed with two layers of white.  The "are amazing" was white-embossed onto some Coral Crush cardstock.

I then placed all the elements onto the cardbase and adhered them down with liquid glue.  Finally, I finished with some co-ordinating enamel dots and a heart.

Thanks so much for visiting.  I hope you'll check out the cards made by the design team and give this challenge a go - it really is a fun one!

Products used:

Stamps:  Penned Rose (Altenew)

Ink:  Versamark

Cardstock:  White, Ripe Persimmon, Coral Crush, Peach Bellini (MFT), Yupo

Dies:  Slimline Grid (The Ton), Detailed Butterflies Mini (Tim Holtz), You (SSS)

Accessories:  Alcohol Pearl Inks, White EP, Enamel Dots (Altenew)

Cheers

Karren