Pink Makup Bag

Hi and welcome.  I took some time today to make a card for the latest challenge at Seize the Birthday which is Primarily Pink, as well as the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge which is Make it Feminine featuring Paper Rose Studio products.  I made this card below and the patterned paper strip along the bottom is from Paper Rose Studio's One of a Kind paper pack.  I spritzed it with Distress Spritz and changed it from white to pink to match the rest of the card.

I assembled all the die cut elements using a mix of ink-blending and coloured cardstock.  I then arranged them and adhered them together.  The card base was embossed with the Plaster embossing folder which is a tongue-in-cheek nod to those who plaster on their make-up 😉

While assembling the various elements I added a thin strip of gold foil cardstock to tie everything together.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps: Essential Sentiments (MFT)

Ink: Versafine Clair Nocturne, Antique linen, Worn Lipstick, Picked Raspberry Distress Inks

Cardstock: White, Black, Gold Matte Foil, Vellum, Blush (Lawn Fawn), Bubblegum (MFT), Warm Sunshine (Altenew), Tutu, Fruit Punch, Alabaster (Spellbinders), One of a Kind patterned paper (Paper Rose Studio

Dies: Lovely Layers: Makeup Add-On, Lovely Layers: Zipper Bag (Honey Bee Stamps)

Accessories: Plaster embossing folder (Spellbinders), Worn Lipstick, Picked Raspberry Distress Spritz

Cheers

Karren

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

Magnolia

Hi and welcome!  I made this card using the sketch over at Card Challenges, but it also fits the theme at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge as well as CAS on Friday and Addicted to CAS.  For both of these challenges, I hope my card is CAS enough.

I don't colour anywhere near as often as I used to and I don't know why.  So today, I thought I'd make myself colour and guess what?  Once I started, I really enjoyed it!  I coloured up this magnolia using Copics and die-cut it with the co-ordinating die.  In keeping with the sketch, I lightly stenciled a circle shape onto the card base using the English Brick Wall stencil and Lost Shadow Distress Ink.

For the bottom panel, I embossed a strip of Pink Lemonade cardstock with the Subtle EF and then adhered it to a strip of lightweight vellum and then onto some black & white striped patterned paper.  The vellum softened the boldness of the black and white in keeping with the rest of the card.  Finally I stamped the sentiment and added some pearls to match the pink of the magnolia flowers.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps: Magnolia Blossoms, More Essential Sentiments (MFT)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K.), Versafine Clair Nocturne, Lost Shadow Distress Ink

Cardstock: White, X-Press-It, Pink Lemonade, Black & White Stripes (MFT), vellum

Dies: Magnolia Blossoms (MFT)

Accessories: Copics, English Brick Wall Stencil (MFT), Holiday Pearl Stickers (Honey Bee Stamps), Subtle EF (SU)

Cheers

Karren

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Edited to Add: This card got a shout-out at Addicted to CAS and CAS on Friday.

Triangle Birthday

 Hi and welcome!  Yesterday was my last day before heading back to work after the holiday break 😞.  While I didn't make as many cards as I would have liked, I did spend a huge amount of time adding about 80% of my "current" stamps and dies into Evernote.  I started using Evernote about 6 years ago but got slack and the thought of adding all my earlier supplies was too daunting.  But with the amount of product that I double (and triple) buy, I decided to invest the time and be more disciplined about keeping it up-to-date.  As of now, I only have sentiment dies, floral dies and tag dies plus all my stencils left to catalogue.  Then, of course, there are all my old wood-mounted stamps....  In the last week I've added 1373 stamps and dies and I've still got to go back and add suitable tags.  But it does feel good to have the bulk of the initial data entry done, even if it did come at the expense of stamping time.

But enough waffle.  Today's card was made by the current Color Hues challenge of light pink and gold.  I immediately wanted to use my new Waffle Flower stencil with these colours and came up with this card.

I tried really hard to get the gold pigment ink to show its gorgeous shimmer in the photos, but no luck, so just imagine there is lovely shimmer to the gold.  I used Pink Champagne ink from Catherine Pooler for the pink and Enchanted Gold Pigment ink from Altenew for the gold and blended over the Layered Triangles stencils from Waffle Flower.  While it was drying, I also blended the two colours of ink onto scraps of white card and die-cut the sentiment.  I added a black sentiment behind the pink and gold layers which you can see from the side, and then brought in the black frame to tie it together.

Finally, I finished with some gold enamel dots from Honey Bee Stamps.

I'm also entering this into Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge which is Something New and Darnell's NBUS challenge.  Both the stencil and die are new.

Products used:

Ink:  Pink Champagne (Catherine Pooler), Enchanted Gold Pigment Ink (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Black

Dies:  Happy Birthday (Couture Creations), Fine Frames Cover (Altenew)

Accessories:  Layering Triangles Stencil (Waffle Flower), Autumn Enamel Dots (Honey Bee Stamps)

Cheers

Karren

This card got a shout out at Color Hues

Butterfly Birthday

Hi and welcome.  Today's card is one I put together for a few challenges.  The blue and gray theme at Seize the Birthday, the "New" theme at both Simon Says Stamp and Time Out and the Stamp Act challenge at Krafty Chicks.

My "new" is crafty goodies (of course!).  On this card the NBUS is the Brilliant Butterflies set and the Splatter hot foil plate.  Funny story about the hot foiling.  I put my plate upside down on my Foil Press in error with the result that it debossed the cardstock as well as putting foil where it wasn't meant to go.  I was using an almost transparent gray foil so the effect was really pretty, in my opinion.  Here's the piece before I adhered it to the card base.

I decided it would make a cool background for these fun butterflies that I stamped in blue/teal inks and then coloured the blue parts with a clear sparkle pen.

I finished the card with some strips of patterned paper and solid-colour cardstock down the left hand side and some sentiment strips white-embossed onto gray cardstock.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Brilliant Butterflies, Itty Bitty Birthday Wishes (MFT)

Ink:  Dew Drops, Aqualicious (Altenew), Versafine Onyx Black, Versamark

Cardstock:  White, Gravel Gray, Black Licorice (MFT), Adriatic (Hero Arts), Modern Neutrals (Waffle Flower), Gray Foil

Dies:  Brilliant Butterflies (MFT), Splatter Hot Foil Plate (Altenew)

Accessories:  Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen, White EP

Cheers

Karren

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

 

Block Work

 Hi and welcome!  There's a bit of a back story to today's card.  I play a word game in the evenings on my tablet and it features different backdrops.  The latest backdrop really piqued my creative interest and I would ponder how I could re-create it in a card.  Here is a screen shot of the backdrop.

I figured stenciling would be the best way and using white ink to get the lighter tones would be easiest.  So yesterday, which was the last day of a long weekend, I sat down and came up with this card.

I am so happy with how this came out and it was so easy!  I started by looking for square masking stencils but the only ones I had were too big, so I made my own stencil with acetate and three square dies.  I then cut a panel of Bristol Smooth cardstock and selected some Distress Oxide inks.  I ink-blended over the background - sort of mimicking the inspiration photo, but adding more blues and less pink.  Once I was finished, I took my acetate stencil and stenciled over the panel with the Distress Oxide inks, creating the squares you can see in the photo below.

Then, to add the lighter tones, I went over it again with the same stencil and Unicorn White pigment ink and this was the result.

The white faded back a bit as it dried but it still had enough variation to satisfy me.  Once it was dry, I die-cut it into a smaller panel with a stitched rectangle die.  So now onto the card!

I didn't want to cover up that background so I went for an inlaid die-cut sentiment.  I cut the Big Hugs die three times from black and once from the ink-blended panel.  I then adhered the ink-blended panel onto a white card base and stacked the black die-cuts back into the gap.  Now for the Doh! moment.  I decided to add some sparkle to the letters, so grabbed my clear sparkle pen, not for a minute thinking the liquid would react with the oxide inks (as I said earlier - DOH!). I couldn't start again so decided to make a feature of it and liberally sprayed all the letters with shimmer spray. I then added the top layer to the card but very slightly offset each letter so a hint of black would show through.

I white-embossed a sub-sentiment and added that across the die-cut word and then added some black hearts which I also sprayed with shimmer spray.

Thanks for visiting!  I'm entering this card into the following challenges:  

Inkspirational - Hearts

The Paper Players - Hearts and/or Stars

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Love is in the Air

Just Us Girls - Valentine

Products used:

Stamps:  Essential Sentiments (MFT)

Ink:  Versamark, Unicorn White (Hero Arts), Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade, Picked Raspberry, Tumbled Glass, Peacock Feathers, Blueprint Sketch Distress Oxide Inks

Cardstock:  White, Bristol Smooth, Black

Dies:  Stitched Rectangle Stax, Blueprints 11, Band Aids, Big Hugs (MFT), Classic Squares (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  White EP, Acetate, Shimmer Spray

Cheers

Karren

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

Celebration Lily

 Hi and welcome!  I am in the middle of a couple of weeks off work and also in the middle of a DT break, so thought I would make a card for a couple of challenges.  This is the first time I've entered any challenges since losing my son 18 months ago.  Card-making became a chore not an enjoyment and I only stuck at it because I was on a couple of design teams and didn't want to let anyone down.  I also knew that if I stopped stamping I probably wouldn't ever start again and I want that joy to come back.

Anyway, enough maudlin chatter.  I set the intention of doing some colouring while I was off work and this lily was the second image I've coloured in the last week.  I put it onto a card that would fit with the Any Occasion theme at Krafty Chicks and the Sparkle and Shine challenge at Simon Says Stamp.

Apologies for the darkness of my photos.  I'm using my iPhone instead of a digital SLR camera and still haven't sorted out the appropriate settings.

This is a slimline card.  Onto a pierced panel in white, I added a silver foil pierced panel and then a navy blue pierced panel I ran through my hot foil machine with the Diamonetta BG and some silver foil.  

The image is a Power Poppy digi and I coloured it with Copics and Prismacolor pencils before cutting it out with my Scan n Cut.  I added it to the card front with foam tape.

I finished the card with a stacked die-cut sentiment using white cardstock and silver foil.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stanps:  Alluring Lily digi (Power Poppy)

Cardstock:  White, Silver Foil. In the Navy (GinaK Designs), X-Press It, Silver Hot Foil

Dies:  Slimline Pierced Nested (The Ton), Celebrate (MFT), Diamonetta BG (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Copics, Prismacolor Pencils

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout our at Krafty Chicks.

Hedgie Friends

It's time for a new Fusion challenge and check out our adorable inspiration photo:

Foolishly, I was looking at the sketch from the last challenge instead of this one, so by default I'm only playing with the photo this time😬

I struggle with coloring hedgehogs, but I persevered and came up with this one, which is semi-acceptable if you close one eye and squint through the other!  I made a little scene for him with some toadstools and acorn on a field of grass.  The Watercolor Wash patterned paper is fabulous for scene-building if you don't want to color up a scene.

I don't have a photo of the Copics I used, as the acorn and toadstools were colored earlier and I don't know what colors I used.  The hedgie was colored with markers in the E40s.

Thanks for visiting.  I'm linking this up to the stitching challenge at Simon Says Stamp.

Products used:

Stamps:  Happy Hedgehogs (MFT)

Ink:  Amalgam, Versafine Onyx Black

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It, Watercolor Wash (MFT)

Dies:  Happy Hedgehogs, Inside/Out Stitched Circles, Grass Border, Stitched Basic Edges (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, White Gel Pen

Cheers

Karren

Mother's Day

Hi and welcome to my first non-DT card in months!  I am getting to the end of a 4-day weekend and have had this idea in my head all weekend and finally got some time in my craft room today to translate it into a card.  This is going to be my card for my mother for Mother's Day, but she's gonna see it here first 😄

My clean and layered card was inspired by several challenges - the color inspiration at SugarPea Designs, the floral challenge at Krafty Chicks, the Spring Mood Board at Simon Says Stamp and the spring/floral elements from the Card Concept.

I created a bouquet of flowers using the challenge colors and arranged them then added Press n Seal over the top before putting it to one side.  The message board was easy to create as the die does it all for you.  The hardest part was adding all the letters and trying to keep them straight - which they're not!

I added the bouquet and then decided to add some stars as a final touch.  The stars and some of the flowers were colored with clear sparkle pen for some shimmer.  This card is bigger than usual at 5.25 x 5.5" but as I'll be hand-delivering it, it's all good.

Thanks for visiting!

Stamps:  Funky Wreath Spring Addition (SugarPea Designs)
Ink:  Teeny Bikini, Twinkling Tutu, Willow, Beanstalk, Apricot, Coral Reef, Lemon Chiffon, Duckling, Hollyhock, Jellybean
Cardstock:  White, Black, Grout Gray
Dies:  Letter Message Board (SugarPea Designs), Funky Wreath Spring Addition (SugarPea Designs)
Accessories:  Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen

Cheers
Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at The Card Concept and Krafty Chicks

Snowflakes

Welcome!  It's time for another sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches and this week our challenge hostess is Kim Singdahlsen

I sort of went a bit over-sized with a couple of my elements, but I think you can still see the sketch.

The background panel is one I embossed and ink-blended a few weeks ago for another project and ended up going in a different direction.  So this card was reasonably quick to whip up . I die-cut the panel with a Mod Rectangle Stax die and adhered it to a white card base.  The sentiment is embossed with the same gold EP onto Blu Raspberry cardstock.

For the snowflake I also gold-embossed that onto Blu Raspberry and cut it out with the co-ordinating die.  I made a smaller snowflake with vellum and adhered them both together before gluing them both to a gold sparkle circle.  I finished with a clear droplet in the centre.

Thanks for visiting!  The DT have some gorgeous cards, so please head on over and check them out.

I'm playing along with 4 Crafty Chicks Snowflake challenge, as well as Simon Says Stamp All That Glitters is Gold and Southern Girls Inks and Sprays (hope ink-blending counts?)

Products used:

Stamps:  Cool Christmas, Simply Snowflakes (MFT), Outline Snowflakes BG (SSS)

Ink:  Versamark, Peacock Feathers, Blueprint Sketch, Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink

Cardstock:  White, Bristol Smooth, Blu Raspberry, Vellum, Gold Sparkle (MFT)

Dies:  Double Stitched Circle Stax, Simply Snowflakes, Mod Rectangle Stax (MFT)

Accessories:  Antique Gold EP, Clear Droplet (Pretty Pink Posh)

Cheers

Karren

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