Best Wishes Bouquet

Hi and welcome to my blog!  I'm here today with a sketch by Narelle for the latest Freshly Made Sketches challenge.

Now, being a Narelle-sketch, how could I not use flowers? 😄

I created a couple of bouquets of flowers using MFTs Painted Prints stamp set and dies.  I stamped the images with Altenew inks and positioned them onto a white panel stenciled with a brick wall stencil and Grit Paste.  It's hard to see in the photo, but it has a lovely bumpy, grainy texture - just like a brick wall!  You can see a close-up down below.

The sentiment was white embossed onto black and I have to confess to cutting apart the sentiment as it was all one stamp, but I wanted a white "congratulations" and a black-framed "and best wishes" so I cut apart the stamp.  It was a really tight fit and I actually nicked the bottom part at one point, so had to fix the stamped image with a black marker.  You can't tell in the finished product, so it's all good!

I filmed the making of this card so you can watch the video below, or over on YouTube.

Thanks for visiting.  The design team have a beautiful selection of cards so I hope you'll check them out.

I'm linking this up to The Flower Challenge and chose the previous challenge from November 2016 for an Occasion card, as well as Work It Wednesday's Summer theme.

Products used:

Stamps:  Painted Prints (MFT), Loads of Wishes (Avery Elle)

Ink:  Versamark, Versafine Onyx Black, Pink Pearl, Coral Bliss, Heart Beat, Rose Quartz, Puffy Heart, Purple Wine, Bamboo, Parrot, Olive, Moss (Altenew)

Cardstock:  Coral Crush, Black Licorice (MFT), White

Dies:  Painted Prints, Stitched Rectangle Stax (MFT)

Accessories:  White EP, Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen, English Brick Wall Stencil (MFT), Distress Grit Paste (Ranger)

Cheers

Karren

Purple Mother's Day Posy

Hi and welcome!  It's time for another fun challenge from the team at Just Us Girls and this week we have a color challenge:

I decided to make a Mother's Day card with a purple card base - it's not often I have a non-white card base😄

I stamped some flowers in purple shades and added in one pink flower for interest.  I arranged the flowers with the help of some Press n Seal and set the bouquet to one side while I worked on the rest of the card.  Onto a Boysenberry card base I added a white stitched rectangle frame which was popped up on foam tape.  I then added the bouquet and a white-embossed Mother's Day sentiment.  It was at this point I thought the card base looked too bland so I grabbed my new favorite accessory - Distress Resist Spray and, using a piece of scrap paper to protect the frame, flowers and sentiment, I spritzed the spray over the purple.

I was much happier after doing this, although it was rather hair-raising at the time because it could have completely botched an already finished card 😄  Some black Nuvo drops and I called it done!

Thanks for visiting!  I hope you can carve out some time to make a prominently purple card and add it to the gallery!  In the meantime, head on over and check out the gorgeous cards made by the DT.

I'm linking this card up to the current Altenew challenge as well as Work It Wednesday who are looking for cards honoring mums.

Products used:

Stamps:  Painted Flowers (Altenew), KIS:  Mother's Day (PTI)

Ink:  Versamark, Minty Mint, Sweet Leaf, Soft Lilac, Lavender Fields, Deep Iris, Pink Diamond Pinkalicious (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Black, Boysenberry (MFT)

Dies:  Pierced Rectangle Stax, Slanted Sentiment Strips (MFT), Painted Flowers (Altenew)

Cheers

Karren

Hey Chick

Hi!  I have spent a good few hours today in my craft room and it was fun!  I made a couple of cards for upcoming challenges and also made a couple of cards for some challenges going on right now.  This one is for the current farm inspiration at SugarPea Designs as well as the Stamp theme at Work It Wednesday and Anything Goes at Seize the Birthday.

I started this card by stamping out all the images onto cardstock and coloring them with Copics.  I had no idea how I was going to lay out my card, but I just felt like coloring :)  Once I was finished, I die-cut them all and then worked on a layout.  A few pieces couldn't fit so I've put them away for next time.

On the card base, I cut a sloping mask from copy paper and sponged on Broken China ink for the sky and Cracked Pistachio for the ground.  It's really faint in the photo but you can see it IRL.  All of the images were adhered directly to the card base apart from the girl who is popped up on foam tape.  I then drew in some shadows with a C3 and C1 marker.  Here are a couple of close-ups.

And even though I tried to limit how many different colors I used, here is the photo of the Copics used on this card - too many for the container I usually use for the photos!

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Barn to be Wild, Best of Cluck (SugarPea Designs)
Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Broken China, Cracked Pistachio Distress
Cardstock:  White
Dies:  Barn to be Wild
Accessories:  Copics, white gel pen

Cheers
Karren

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

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

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

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