Remember the Now

Hi!  I've got a couple of days off work and what better than to spend some of that time stamping!  I made a card for several challenges that I'd like to show you.  I used the sketch at Fab Friday, the colors from Color Throwdown, the neutrals theme at Card Concept and the buttons theme at Cardz for Guyz.

I went with a different style to my usual CAS and I guess you'd call this Shabby Chic.

I started off by stamping a Paper Artsy collage image onto a sheet of watercolor paper using Grout Grey ink, which made a very, very light impression and was the look I was going for.  I then tore the edges and sponged Antique Linen all over the panel, concentrating on the edges.  The watercolor panel underneath was lightly sponged with Weathered Wood distress ink and I then stamped some first and second generation splatters on using my new CTMH Ink Blot stamp set.  I used an off-cut from that panel for the sentiment, which was stamped in Slate ink as I didn't want a stark black ink on the card.

Pulling it all together, I decided to add some sewing, so I sewed two deliberately wonky lines all around the edges on the Desert Storm base and also stitched the sentiment panel onto the card as well.  I threaded a button with some of the same thread and glued that to the card.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Hot Pick 1305 (Paper Artsy), #Hashtags (Stampers Anonymous), Ink Blot (CTMH)

Ink:  Grout Grey (MFT), Slate (SSS), Antique Linen, Weathered Wood (Distress)

Cardstock:  Desert Storm, watercolor

Accessories:  Button, sewing machine

Cheers

Karren

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

Papillon Hello

And we've rolled around to another wonderful Freshly Made Sketch Challenge!  Love these sketches and love this team!  This week, Jennifer Timko, who makes such classy, CAS cards, has come up with a superb sketch.

Look at the freedom this sketch allows for!  I did some Iron Off Embossing and lots of sponging on my card and I'm really happy with how it came out.

I clear embossed the script image from Tim Holtz' Papillon set onto some watercolor paper before sponging on various yellow and orange distress inks.  I used watercolor paper because my original intention was to smoosh inks into my craft mat but I decided I wanted more control, so went with sponging.  Once I was happy with the panel, I ironed off the clear embossing.  I didn't want to cut the panel down to suit the sketch, so I interpreted the sketch slightly differently by adding strips of black cardstock to a piece of vellum paper.

I then stamped the sentiment using Stazon ink.  I placed some orange enamel dots on the vellum as a finishing touch.

I am linking this to this week's Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge to use your favorite technique.  I love everything to do with color - sponging is one of my favorites was to mix color.

 

Thanks for visiting.  The design team have some wonderful inspiration to tempt you to try this sketch, so please check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Papillon (Stampers Anonymous), Painted Butterflies (Altenew)

Ink:  Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed, Dried Marigold, Spiced Marmalade Distress Inks, Black Stazon, Versamark

Cardstock:  White, Black, Watercolor, Vellum

Accessories:  Clear EP, Enamel Dots

Cheers

Karren

Hashtag Birthday

Hi and welcome!  I made a card this morning using the colors from this week's Color Throwdown challenge as well as the last sketch from Deconstructed Sketch.  I love Jen's sketches and find them beautifully balanced and interesting.  My CAS style sometimes struggles with them, but I try and play along occasionally.  I'm also adding this card to a new-to-me challenge blog, City Crafter Challenge Blog, who are looking for tags (Thanks, Samra for the heads up!)

I'm still practicing with my Zig Clean Color Brush Pens and last night I watched a video fom Michelle Short which I found really helpful with my coloring.  So I immediately went into my craft room and started coloring.  This time I used a paintbrush rather than a water pen and it went so much better.

Once I'd finished coloring, I left it overnight.  This morning when I came back to it, I knew I wanted to use it with this sketch.  Coincidentally the colors of hot pink and lime green were part of the line-up at Color Throwdown, so I immediately had the color scheme for my card!

The card base is Neenah Desert Storm and the gray panel was die cut with the cross stitch pattern from Blueprints 20.  The Green Apple panel was stamped with a very old Hero Arts script stamp.  The sentiment comes from a NBUS set called #Hashtags by Tim Holtz.  Both the sentiment and the tag are popped up on foam tape.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Fresh Flowers (Clearly Besotted), #Hashtags (Stampers Anonymous), Italian Poetry Background (Hero Arts)
Ink:  Versamark, Green Apple (SSS)
Cardstock:  Desert Storm, Slate (SSS), Green Apple (SSS), Watercolor 
Accessories:  Blueprints 20 (MFT), Tag Builder Blueprints 1 (MFT), Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens, Twine

Cheers
Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got the random pick at Color Throwdown.

Sending Hugs

It's time for another fabulous sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches and this week the Queen of Color Combos, Amy O'Neill, is our hostess.  Here's her sketch.

For my card, I wanted to use a lime green and white color combo so, along with the sketch, that was my starting point.  From there, it was like pulling teeth to get a completed card!  I won't go into how many versions and how much cardstock I wasted, but I finally got a card finished.

I think my problem with this card stemmed from the oval.  A bit like Jen B's aversion to circles, I'm not a fan of ovals and I struggled with how to use the oval in the sketch.  In the end, I went with emboss resist and a Stampers Anonymous collage stamp and framed it in black.  Framing in black makes everything better, in my opinion :)

The dots down the left hand side are white-embossed onto Lucky Limeade cardstock and the sentiment is also white-embossed onto black cardstock.

Thanks for visiting.  The rest of the design team have dished up some wonderful inspiration for you as usual so be sure to head over to the blog and check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Anonymous Collage (Stampers Anonymous), Basic Borders (Mama Elephant), Friendship Messages (SSS)

Ink:  Versamark, Lucky Limeade (SU)

Cardstock:  White, black, Lucky Limeade

Accessories:  White EP, Clear EP, Oval Nestabilities

Cheers

Karren

Hey There

It's time for my favorite sketch challenge - Freshly Made Sketches!  This week, our hostess is the wonderful and clever Jen Brum.

And here's Jen's sketch:

I received the Bird Crazy set some weeks ago and was a bit too intimidated to break it open and color one of those adorable birds.  On the weekend, though, I finally colored up a bird in a very simplistic way and put him on my card.

I really just had a bit of fun with this card and stenciled some brickwork on the bottom panel and stamped the Script Stripes stamp on the top panel.  I then went looking for a sentiment to fit between the lines and came up with Sentiment Sampler.

The bird is popped up on foam tape to give a bit of dimension.

Thanks for visiting.  The rest of the design team have done some amazing things with this sketch so be sure to check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Bird Crazy (Stampers Anonymous), Script Stripes (SSS), Sentiment Sampler (Paper Smooches)

Ink:  Green Apple (SSS), Gathered Twigs (Distress), Memento Tuxedo Black

Cardstock:  White, Vanilla, X-press It

Accessories:  Copics, Mini Brick Stencil (Crafters Workshop), Blueprints 18 (MFT)

Cheers

Karren

Road Trip

Welcome to my post for this week's challenge at The Paper Players, where Sandy has given us a Transportation theme.

I pulled out my Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz set called Travel Ways but really wasn't in the mood to create a vintage card, so I took the vintage-looking images and created a CAS card.

First I stamped the car in black onto the card base and clear-embossed it.  I then used the ink-smooshing technique again (love how easy that technique is!) and used the colors from ColourMe, but in Distress inks - Rusty Hinge, Scattered Straw and Wild Honey.

Once I was happy with the ink placement, I stamped the sentiment in Archival Black ink and my card was finished!

Thanks for visiting.  The rest of the design team have some wonderful cards using this theme, so I hope you'll have time to join us.

Products used:

Stamps:  Travel Ways (Stampers Anonymous)

Ink:  Archival Black, Scattered Straw, Wild Honey, Rusty Hinge

Cardstock:  White

Accessories, Clear EP, Acetate

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout-out at Colour Me.

82 Years Young

I had fun in my craft room today and after last week's struggles, the two cards I made today came together in a way that I'm happy with.  The first card I made is for the next Freshly Made Sketch Challenge, but this card is for my Dad's 82nd birthday next week and uses the colors from ColourQ and the sketch from Mojo Monday.

I really, really like this card and I hope my Dad will too.  I went a bit Tim Holtz on this card using lots of stencils and lots of sponging.  I'll try and remember how I made the center panel...  

I started with a strip of white cardstock and sponged over the Crocodile stencil with Pumice Stone ink.  I then sponged in the following order:  Cargo with Wild Honey ink; Measured with Dusty Durango ink; Splatter with Dusty Durango ink; Shatter with Pumice Stone; Lattice Work with Pumice Stone and Numbered with Peacock Feathers.  Phew!  I then sponged around the edges with Vintage Photo before stamping over the whole piece with the text stamp from Papillon painted with Antique Linen Distress Paint.  After heat-setting that, it created a resist and I sponged on more Vintage Photo ink.

The card base was also stamped with the same stamp and Antique Linen Distress Paint.  Here's a close-up so you can see some of the layers of sponging and stenciling.

The circular panel was first die-cut then stamped with Archival Black ink using my Misti - perfect coverage and placement!  I sponged a strip of white cardstock with Peacock Feathers ink and cut a couple of pieces of Wild Honey and Dusty Durango cardtock.  Some thread finished off the card.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Roundabout Additions (Reverse Confetti), Papillon (Stampers Anonymous)

Ink:  Peacock Feathers, Pumice Stone, Wild Honey, Vintage Photo (Distress Inks), Dusty Durango (SU), Archival Black (Ranger), Antique Linen Distress Paint

Cardstock:  White, Neenah Desert Storm, Hello Honey, Dusty Durango (SU)

Accessories:  Lil' Inkers Stitched Circles dies, thread, Tim Holtz stencils:  Cargo, Splatter, Measured, Shatter, Lattice Work, Crocodile, Numbered

Cheers

Karren

Anonymous Collage

Today's card was made for a few challenges:  Tuesdays Morning Sketches, Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge theme of Thanks/Thanksgiving, and the color challenge at ShowCASE Your Style.

I dug through my stamps to find a really old Stampers Anonymous stamp and used Cold Laminate and Gold Leaf to create a beautiful background for the image.

The rest of the card is fairly self-explanatory.  I used SSS Fog cardstock to frame the central image and also as a layer on the right hand side.  The die-cut sentiment represents the banner in the sketch and the enamel dot the button.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Anonymous Collage (Stampers Anonymous)

Ink:  Black Stazon

Cardstock:  White, Black, Fog (SSS), Cold Laminate

Accessories:  Enamel Dot, sequins, rhinestones, gold leaf, thank you die (PTI)

Cheers

Karren

Fall Leaves

Hi and welcome back to my blog.  Today I have a card I made using the colors from Color Throwdown and the sketch from Fab Friday.  

I hope the leaves are orange enough to meet the criteria at Color Throwdown.  They started out orange but I toned them down using some brown inks.

The card base was stamped with the text stamp from the Papillon set using Crumb Cake ink, then I sponged Smoky Slate ink over a notebook stencil before sponging the edges of the card with Crumb Cake ink.

The leaves were watercolored using various orange-y distress inks before sponging with brown inks.  I popped them up on the card base using dimensional tape then glued on a bow with long tails (for the banner elements in the sketch).

So, in summary, a little bit of a departure from both challenges :)

I used the same stencil on the inside.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Papillon (Stampers Anonymous), Fantastic Foliage (SU)
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Smoky Slate, various distress inks
Cardstock:  Crumb Cake, watercolor
Accessories:  Hemptique black twine, American Crafts stencil

Cheers
Karren

Umbrella Man

Hi and welcome!  I'm so excited because today I get to be Guest Designer at Color Throwdown because my card was chosen as Featured Stamper last week.  How cool is that!!!

Here are the fantastic colors for this week:

Aren't they gorgeous? I had the intention of doing a very clean and graphic card using these crisp colors, but somehow I ended up with this card.

It might be hard to see where all the challenge colors are, but they are in there :)  I'd just received an order which had a lot of Tim Holtz layering stencils and the Mini Muse stamp set which has this "umbrella man" stamp which is one of my all-time favorites.  So of course, I had to use it all!

The card base is Crumb Cake. I sponged over several stencils using Stormy Sky, Crushed Olive and Pumice Stone distress inks, as well as Smoky Slate ink from SU.  After that, I used Picket Fence distress stain and the Shatter stencil for some white highlights.

The main panel is watercolor paper that I coated with Pumice Stone distress stain, then painted over with Crushed Olive and Stormy Sky ink.  I also used some Picket Fence stain on this piece as well.  Umbrella Man is clear embossed over black and then the "Live the life you've imagined" stamp was stamped several times down the right hand side. The edges of all panels were distressed and sponged with Vintage Photo ink.  A tiny little piece of filmstrip ribbon was stapled to the top left corner.

For the sentiment, I used a leftover piece of painted watercolor paper and dabbed on some Picket Fence paint to give more of a blank panel.  After that dried, I stamped the Penny Black sentiment.

Thanks for visiting.  Be sure to check out the wonderful creations from the Color Throwdown team - their work is amazing!

I'm entering this card into the Monday Challenge at Simon Says Stamp, which is to use stencils and stamps.

Products used:

Stamps:  Mini Muse (Stampers Anonymous), Thinking of You (Penny Black)
Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Crushed Olive, Stormy Sky, Pumice Stone, Vintage Photo distress inks (Ranger), Smoky Slate (SU)
Cardstock:  Crumb Cake, Watercolor
Accessories:  Picket Fence Distress Stain and Paint, Pumice Stone Distress Stain, Tim Holtz Layering Stencils:  Speckles, Dot Fade, Measured, Schoolhouse, Shatter.  Tim Holtz Filmstrip ribbon, staples, MFT Fishtail Flag Die

Cheers
Karren

Winter Cabin

Here we are again with another Merry Monday challenge.  I hope you're building up your Christmas card stash with our challenges.

Today's challenge from Katie is to add sparkle, shimmer or shine on your card.

Being someone who doesn't reach for the glitter, this was a hard challenge for me!  I ended up with this card which is about as glittery and shimmery as I get :)

It's always hard to see glitter in photos, so I'll explain what I've done with this card.  The card base was spritzed with Frost White Shimmer spray and the bottom was cut with a curved die so some silver glimmer paper could show through.  After the scene was die cut, I colored the roof of the house and the branches of the trees with a Versamarker, then heat embossed with Irridescent Ice embossing powder.

The sentiment was white embossed.

Here's a close-up from another angle so you can see a bit of the shimmer.

Thanks for visiting.  Be sure to head on over to Merry Monday to check out the glittery and shimmery creations from the rest of the design team, who obviously don't have the same glitter issues that I have LOL.

Products used:

Stamps:  Mini Holidays (Stampers Anonymous)

Ink:  Versamark

Cardstock:  Midnight Muse, Silver Glimmer Paper, Whisper White

Accessories:  Winter Cabin Landscape die (Memory Box), Irridescent Ice EP, Versamarker, Frost White Shimmer Spray, Spellbinders A2 Curved Die, silver ribbon

Cheers

Karren

Color Blocked

As soon as I saw the sketch at Retro Sketches, I immediately thought of color blocking.  I love color-blocked cards but I have to confess it took me quite a while to choose the colors!  I knew I wanted to use the gorgeous new Lost Lagoon and Basic Black, and I ended up combining those with Riding Hood Red, So Saffron and Wild Wasabi.  It's a bold color combo for me, but I quite like it.

This is just a fun card and it uses six stamp sets.  Each of the panels was cut into 1 1/4" strips then stamped with various stamps.  All of the panels were stamped first with Off the Grid to give some continuity to the pieces.  Once I had all the stamping done, I cut the pieces to size and over-stamped with the Binding Edge stamp from Stampers Anonymous.  It wasn't until after I'd stuck all the pieces to the card base that I remembered I wanted to sponge around the edges - doh!

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Gorgeous Grunge, Off the Grid, Grunge Rock, Background Builders (SU), Wall to Wall Textures (Bo Bunny), Sentiment Sampler (Paper Smooches), Binding Edge (Stampers Anonymous)
Ink:  Lost Lagoon, Wild Wasabi, Riding Hood Red, So Saffron, Memento Tuxedo Black
Cardstock:   Lost Lagoon, Wild Wasabi, Riding Hood Red, So Saffron, Basic Black
Accessories:  MME Enamel Dots

Cheers
Karren

Travel Ways

Hi and welcome!  Today I made a card using a new-to-me stamp set and a new In Color.  I used the sketch from Seize the Sketch and the inspiration from Card Concept to come up with a clean and layering card.  I also used the theme from Friday Mashup to stamp on something other than cardstock and make a card for Father's Day.  For my card, I used the Faux Silk technique and stamped onto tissue paper.

The stamp set I used is called Travel Ways by Stampers Anonymous and has a lot of cool collage-y images.  I stamped a number of images onto onto the card base and also onto white tissue paper.  I then scrunched up the tissue paper before adhering it to a Very Vanilla panel.  The ship was stamped in Midnight Muse ink and embossed with Clear Embossing Powder.  I used the new In Color that immediately appealed to me - Lost Lagoon - love that color!

I googled a Sailor's Knot and tied it using Hemp Twine.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Travel Ways (Stampers Anonymous)
Ink:  Midnight Muse, Gray Flannel (Memento)
Cardstock:  Midnight Muse, Lost Lagoon, Very Vanilla, tissue paper
Accessories:  Clear EP, Hemp Twine, Lil Inkers Tag Die

Cheers
Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout-out at Seize the Sketch.