Berry Wreath

Welcome!  Today's card uses the latest sketch from Freshly Made Sketches which was designed by Kim Singhdahlsen. I went the obvious route with the sketch and created a wreath card using hot-foiling.

The wreath was created with both hot-foiling and stenciling.  Once I had finished that I created a wreath arrangement and set it aside.  Onto a kraft cardbase I embossed with a wood plank embossing folder.  I then added the wreath and finished with a hot-foiled sentiment and some champagne drops.

Thanks so much for visiting. Please check out the wonderful cards made by the rest of the design team.

Products used:

Ink: Green Valley set, Tea Party set, Grapevine (Altenew)

Cardstock: White, Kraft, Black

Dies: Winter Berries Frame hot foil and die (Pink Fresh), Fishtail Flag Layer Stax (MFT), Holiday Florals Background hot foil (Spellbinders)

Accessories: Winter Berries Frame stencils, Clear Drops: Champagne (Pink Fresh), Wood Planks Embossing Folder (Honey Bee Stamps), gold matte hot foil

Cheers

Karren

If you enjoyed this post and would like an email when I post new content, please follow me

Purple Spring

 Hi!  I'm here with my reminder card for the current Flower Challenge which is to use spring colours.  I'm not sure that these purples qualify as spring but it is what it is!

One of my favourite layering stencil sets is Charming Delight by Altenew, so I set to with various ink colours and the stencils and created this floral image.  Using the co-ordinating die, I cut it out and then spritzed it with shimmer spray to give a lovely shimmer to it.

I went with my go-to layout which is a panel down the left hand side of a white card base.  The darker purple strip was created using direct-to-paper and one of the purple ink colours I used.  The sentiment was from a Pink Fresh stamp set.

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

Products Used:

Stamps:  Miss Your Smile (Pink Fresh Studio)

Ink:  Obsidian, Enchanted Garden set, Warm & Cosy Set, Nature's Wonder set (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Proper Pinstripes Pastels (MFT)

Dies:  Charming Delight (Altenew)

Accessories:  Charming Delight stencils (Altenew), shimmer spray

Cheers

Karren

White Flowers

 
Hi!  Today I'm playing along in a CASE It blog hop over on Instagram.  I thought I would post here too because this is where I keep the record of all my cards.  But I encourage you to head over to Instagram and check out the other cards in the hop.  For my case, I was inspired by Donna Mikasa and her gorgeous wreath card (at the bottom of this post).

I first saw Donna's card over at The Flower Challenge (where she quite rightly won the March challenge) and just fell in love with it. I wanted to be inspired but not copy it, so I used the same dies but instead of colour on a white background, I went with white flowers on a coloured background. I also changed up the floral layout but kept the embossed background.

Check out Donna's gorgeous card below.  I hope I have done it justice.   

Products used:

Cardstock:  White, Peach Bellini (MFT)

Dies:  Chocolate Flowers (Altenew), Essential Stylish Ovals (Spellbinders), Wonderful Sentiments Hot Foil (Pink Fresh Studio)

Accessories:  Wood Planks Embossing Folder (Honey Bee Stamps), White hot foil

Cheers

Karren

Sunflowers

Hi and welcome!  I've been absent from the blog for a bit because I've been busy packing up my daughter's house as it has been sold.  She has already moved to a new city for her job, so it fell mostly to myself and my husband to pack up her house.  Fun times!

Anyway, as I'm filling in at The Flower Challenge, it's time for our reminder post and the challenge this month is to add circles with your flowers.  I went the easy route with washi tape to come up with this card:

I die-cut the trio shaker circle die into a panel of Grout Gray cardstock that I'd embossed with the Subtle embossing folder.  I then added the frame to each circle and adhered some sunflower washi tape.  I stamped the sentiment onto a white panel and added that.  

 

The whole panel was then popped up with foam tape on a white card base so the white peeks through the circles.

Thanks for visiting!  Please check out the fabulous cards by the rest of the design team and don't forget we have some prizes this month!

Products used:

Stamps:  Sunflowers (Pink Fresh Studio)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black

Cardstock:  White, Grout Gray (MFT)

Dies:  Circle Trio Shaker (MFT), Sunflowers (Pink Fresh Studio)

Accessories:  Sunflowers Washi (Pink Fresh Studio), Subtle EF (SU)

Cheers

Karren

Postage Flowers

 

Hi and welcome!  Today is Freshly Made Sketch Challenge Day and our hostess this week is Narelle Farrugia.  As soon as I saw her sketch, I saw postage stamps and that's the direction I took.

This is part of an earlier stenciled panel that I first used on this card.  I used the Postage Collage die to select three pieces to die-cut and then added the additional postage-style stamps on them.  The card base is white and onto that I added a Pastel Sunrise panel I'd stamped with the same colour ink and the Crackle background stamp.  I used this stamp on the stenciled piece as well so this ties it together somewhat.

To finish the card, I stacked a BetterPress sentiment three deep and called it done.

Thanks so much for visiting.  The DT have some gorgeous cards so I hope you'll check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Postage Collage (Waffle Flower), Crackle Background (SSS

Ink:  Rose Quartz, Peach Parfait, Purple Wine, Orange Cream, Sunkissed, Fire Brick, Mocha, Sea Forest, Marshland, Misty Moor, Puffy Heart, Mangrove Root, Cosmic Berry, Pastel Sunrise, Obsidian Black (Altenew), Lost Shadow Distress Ink

Cardstock:  White, Pastel Sunrise (Altenew)

Dies:  Postage Collage (Waffle Flower, Here For You Sentiments BetterPress and Hot Foil (PinkFresh)

Accessories:  Charming Delight Stencils (Altenew), Subtle EF (SU)

Cheers

Karren

Hello Florals

Hi!  Today's card uses Cecile's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches and I decided to play with some NBUS for my card.  (Apologies that the photos look a bit garish - I think the camera settings on my phone have changed.)  And, by the way, the price stickers on the ink cubes are in New Zealand dollars not US 😄

The NBUS products I used for this card are the floral dies and the sentiment - both of which come from Pinkfresh Studio.  I stenciled and die-cut the flowers and heat-embossed the sentiment.  For the background, I veered away from the rectangle and went with an oval shape which was embossed with the Brickwork folder from Tim Holtz.  I mounted that onto some matte gold foil and adhered it to a Coral Crush card base.

I then arranged the florals and the sentiment and called it done!  Thanks for visiting.  Please head over and check out the wonderful cards made by the rest of the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Here For You Sentiments (Pink Fresh Studio)

Ink:  Versamark, Chasing Sunsets, Indian Summer sets (Pink Fresh Studio), Shadow Creek, Mountain Pine (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Coral Crush (MFT), Fold Matte Foil

Dies:  Here For You Sentiments, Garden Party (Pink Fresh Studio)

Accessories:  Garden Party Stencils (Pink Fresh Studio), Brickwork EF (Tim Holtz), Antique Gold EP (SSS)

Cheers

Karren

Ring Thanks

 Hi all, I'm here with my card for the latest Tic-Tac-Toe challenge.  This time, I went down the right hand column with Die-Cut/Thank You/Metallic to come up with this card.

I hot-foiled, stenciled and die-cut the floral image and set it aside while I worked on the other elements.  The card base was enhanced with a corner die placed in the top left and right corners, giving a tone-on-tone effect.  For the sentiment, I die-cut from NBUS Pastel Sunrise cardstock to match the flowers, stacking it three deep before adding it to a matte silver foil shadow.

And that's it.  Thanks for visiting.  I hope you'll check out the fabulous cards made by the design team and have a go yourself.

Products used:

Stamps:  Delighted For You (Pink Fresh)

Ink:  Tropical Forest and Martian Terrain sets (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Matte Silver Foil, Pastel Sunrise (Altenew)

Dies:  Delighted For You press plate and die (Pink Fresh) Ring a Ding Corner (Poppy Stamps), Fancy Thanks (SSS)

Accessories:  Silver hot foil, Delighted For You stencils

Cheers

Karren

Treasured Flowers

Hi, just a quick post from me today, using the latest sketch from the team at Freshly Made Sketches where our hostess this week is Jennifer Timko.

I used new-to-me products from Pink Fresh to make this soft-looking card. Hot-foiling and layering stencils made this come together pretty easily.

Thanks for visiting. Please check out the wonderful cards made by the rest of the design team.

Products used:

Ink:  Buttercream, Honey Drizzle, Olive, Moss (Altenew

Cardstock:  White, Lemon Chiffon, Watercolor Wash Brights (MFT), Spooktacular (Honey Bee)

Dies:  Delighted For You Hot Foil (Pink Fresh), Essential Modern Ovals (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Gold Hot Foil

Cheers

Karren

 

Big Things

Hi and welcome to my blog.  Today's card is for the latest challenge at Tic-Tac-Toe where I went with the left-hand column of Stencil-Green-Foliage.

This background panel was a mistake because I put everything upside down on the Glimmer machine so it embossed the cardstock and didn't transfer the silver foil properly.  I kept the panel for months and months because I quite like the look and thought it worked well with this stenciled and hot-foiled leaf.

The sentiment is silver embossed onto black.  I gave this card to my daughter when she ventured into a classroom for the first time on her first placement at a high school as part of her teacher training.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Detailed Leaf (Pink Fresh)

Ink:  Versamark, Sea Shore set (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White Black

Dies:  Detailed Leaf Hot Foil and Die (Pink Fresh), Quadrant Backdrop Hot Foil (Pink Fresh), A2 Rectangle Stax 1 & 2 (MFT)

Accessories:  Silver hot foil, silver embossing powder, Detailed Leaf stencils

Cheers

Karren

 

Berry Boxes

Hi all and thanks for dropping by!  Today's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches was designed by Judy Rozema and at first I was at a loss for how to use it.  Then I had the idea of frames and from there it sort of became a Christmas card.

We've just finished a 4-day long weekend for Easter and, boy, was it good to have those extra two days.  I actually enjoyed a few hours in my craft room and enjoyed putting this card together.  Onto a black card base, I added three thin gold foil cardstock frames.  I added a hot-foiled sentiment into the bottom frame and then popped in some hot-foiled and stenciled leaves and berries into all three frames.

No other embellishments as there is quite a bit of gold already 😄

Thanks so much for visiting.  The design team have some fabulous cards so please head over and check them out.

Products used:

Ink:  Volcano Lake, Lagoon, Crimson, Velvet (Altenew)

Cardstock:  Black, Gold Foil Cardstock

Dies:  Winter Berries Frame Hot Foil and Die (Pink Fresh), Holiday Florals Background (Spellbinders), A2 Thin Frames (SSS)

Cheers

Karren

 

Good Things

 Hi and welcome!  Today's card uses the latest sketch from the team at Freshly Made Sketches where our hostess is Amy O'Neill.  I really feel like I phoned in my card this week.  This year my mojo has been sadly lacking and it seems that everything I try turns to crap.  So this version is completely different to what I had envisaged and came together in about 10 minutes because I was over the whole thing by this stage.

You can sort of see the sketch in my card.  The brick embossing is the horizontal panel and the washi tape is the oval element.  The sentiment is a reverse hot-foiled sentiment from my stash.

Thanks so much for visiting and apologies for the short post.

Products used:

Cardstock:  White

Dies:  Sunflowers, Wonderful Sentiments Hot Foil and Die (Pink Fresh)

Accessories:  Sunflowers Washi (Pink Fresh), Brick Embossing Folder (Tim Holtz)

Cheers

Karren

Mum's Birthday

  Hi and welcome!  Today's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches was designed by Kim Singdahlsen and I used it to create a birthday card for my mum.

The floral image was already stamped, stenciled and die-cut which saved a heap of time.  I used the colours from the image for my background.  I also found the embossed brickwork panel as well as the hot-foiled sentiment, so this card really only involved assembly.

Both the vertical and horizontal panels were embossed with the Subtle embossing folder for some additional dimension.  The floral image was adhered to the brickwork panel and then I used foam tape to add it to the card base.

 

Thanks so much for visiting.  Please check out the fabulous cards made by the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Garden Roses (Pink Fresh Studio)

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

Cardstock:  White, Black, Coral Crush, Peach Bellini (MFT), Chartreuse (PTI)

Dies:  Garden Roses (Pink Fresh Studio), Hexi-Gem Sentiments (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Mini Brick EF (Tim Holtz), Garden Roses Stencils (Pink Fresh Studio), Gold Hot Foil, Subtle EF (SU)

Cheers

Karren

Thinking of White Flowers

 Hi and welcome!  As you may be aware, I have taken over the administration side of The Flower Challenge and have also temporarily stepped in as a designer due to a new member of the team not being able to join us until the new year.  This month's challenge is a colour challenge - Black, White and Yellow.  And here's my card:

I stamped the image in black ink and used pale gray inks with the acoompanying stencil to add a bit of shading.  I then coloured in the background with a yellow Copic marker, using the stippling technique to add more interest.  

I added a hot-foiled sentiment and called it done.

I hope you'll head over to the challenge blog to see the fabulous cards made by the design team and have a go yourself.  The challenge is open until the 25th of November eastern time and I'll be back again mid-month with another card using the same colours.

Products Used:

Stamps:  Miss Your Smile (Pink Fresh)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K), Pebble, Hoodie (Catherine Pooler)

Cardstock:  White, Black

Dies:  Hexi-Gem Sentiments Hot Foil and Die (Spellbinders), Mini Slimline Layers (Waffle Flower)

Accessories:  Miss Your Smile Stencils (Pink Fresh), Black Hot Foil, Y15 Copic Marker

Cheers

Karren

Inlaid Leaves

Welcome to the new challenge from the team at Tic Tac Toe. I went with ink-blending, die-cuts and leaves for my card.

I white-embossed the background stamp and ink-blended over it before due-cutting the Clustered Leaves die. I adhered the panel into a black card base and the popped up the positive image with foam tape. 

I finished with a foiled sentiment.

 

Thanks so much for visiting!

Products Used:

Stamps:  Birthday Word Block (Darkroom Door)

Ink:  Versamark, Scattered Straw, Worn Lipstick, Festive Berries Distress Inks

Cardstock:  White, Black

Dies:  Clustered Leaves (SSS), Wonderful Sentiments Hot Foil and Dies (Pink Fresh)

Accessories:  White EP, Black Hot Foil

Gold Splatters

Hi and welcome!  Today's card uses the latest sketch from Freshly Made Sketches where our hostess this week is Kim Singdahlsen.  I took the opportunity to make a Christmas card to add to my meagre stash.

On a red card base, I splattered some gold shimmer spray and set it aside to dry.  I then stamped and Copic-coloured the Winter Berries Frame stamp and die-cut it.  On a white panel, I embossed with the Tufted embossing folder, added some striped paper and a gold strip then tucked in one of the berry branches.

The hot-foiled sentiment was foiled onto black with gold foil.  I adhered that to the white and striped panel then added it all to the now-dry card base.

Thanks so much for visiting.  I hope you'll check out the wonderful cards made by the rest of the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Winter Berries Frame (Pink Fresh Studio)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K)

Cardstock:  Amarena Cherry (MFT), White, Black, Gold Matte Foil, Happy Gnomes Paper Pad (Waffle Flower)

Dies:  Winter Berries Frame (Pink Fresh Studio), Holiday Sentiment Series 2 (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Copics, Tufted EF (Spellbinders), Gold Hot Foil, Gold Shimmer Spray (Heidi Swapp)

Cheers

Karren

 

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

Bridge Card Celebration

 Hi and welcome to our newest sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches where this week I am the hostess.  I designed my sketch as a way to encourage me to make a fun-fold card - specifically a bridge card.  If you are unfamiliar with bridge cards check out Jennifer McGuire's Bridge Card Video.  I'll wait 😄

I went a bit rogue with the centre panel but when I found this NBUS hot foil and die set, I really wanted to use it, so I did.  The background is hot-foiled and stenciled with green shades and then cut into panels to fit the card base.  

I then foiled, coloured and die-cut the floral images as well as the diamond frame which is popped up on the diamond background.  The sentiment is a reverse hot-foiled sentiment from Pink Fresh.

This was really quite an easy fun-fold so maybe I should venture into more card designs that aren't your standard A2.  Thanks for visiting.  Please head over and check out the gorgeous cards made by the design team.

Products used:

Cardstock:  White

Ink:  Iced Spruce Distress Ink, Wintergreen, Sage, Martini (Catherine Pooler)

Dies:  Diamond Floral Frame,  Geometric Optical Background (Spellbinders), Wonderful Sentiments (Pink Fresh)

Accessories:  Copper Hot Foil, Black Hot Foil, Copics, Geometric Optical Background Stencils (Spellbinders)

Cheers

Karren