Coffee Time

 

It's time for another challenge from the Fusion team and I took inspiration from both the sketch and photo this time to create a chalkboard-themed card.

The sentiments and images for the background came from multiple stamp sets and after I laid them out in my Misti, I white-embossed them onto black cardstock.  I rubbed on a bit of white pigment ink to give the impression of a chalkbaord and then went to work on the rest of the card.

The cup was already coloured and tucked into my stamp pocket, so that made the job quicker!  I stamped the sentiment with black ink onto a white strip and tucked a piece of vellum behind in line with the sketch.

Thanks for visiting.  I hope you'll check out the rest of the DT cards and play along with us.

I'm playing along with the coffee/tea theme at Cupcake Inspirations Challenge

Products used:

Stamps:  Espresso Yourself, Caffeine Addict (SugarPea Designs), Oh Frappe (Essentials By Ellen), Perfect Blend (Gina K.) Newton Loves Coffee (Newton's Nook), Coffee, Better With You (Verve) Coffee Hour (SSS), Coffee Break (MFT)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Versamark, Unicorn White (Hero Arts), Brown Sugar (Mama Elephant)

Cardstock:  Black, White, Vellum, X-Press It

Accessories:  White EP, Copics (RV66, R59, R56)

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Cupcake Inspiration

Floral Heart

Welcome to Freshly Made Sketch Challenge Day!  This week our hostess is the talented Kim Singdahlsen and she has a fabulous sketch for us:

Now, first things first.  I got the sketch backwards and put my circular element on the right hand side instead of the left.  Doh!  No excuse!

I decided to play along in the Spring Coffee Lovers Blog Hop and used this cute coffee bean heart by SugarPea Designs.  To bring in the Spring theme, I added some flowers and stenciling in Spring-like colors.

The stenciling was done using white embossing paste and two colors of ink - Lemon Zing and Blue Violet.  The flowers were stamped using Altenew inks and then die-cut.  The sentiment comes from a Verve set.

I filmed the process as I was making the card.  You can watch it below or head on over to YouTube.

I'm also linking this up to Work It Wednesday, where the theme is Spring.

Supplies:

Stamps:  Vintage Flowers (Altenew), Caffeine Addict (SugarPea Designs), Better with You (Verve)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid (MFT), Blue Violet, Lemon Zing (SSS), Warm Sunshine, Buttercream Frayed Leaf, Forest Glades, Soft Lilac, Lavender Fields, Deep Iris, Espresso (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White

Dies:  Vintage Flowers (Altenew)

Accessories:  Zig Zag Dots Stencil (SSS), White Embossing Paste (Wendy Vecchi)

Cheers

Karren

Mother's Day Peony

Hi and welcome!  Today's card was made for a few challenges - the current Muse challenge, Simon Says Stamp's Work It Wednesday and the floral theme at Card Concept.

I have been on a self-imposed craft spending ban for the last 2 months and have done quite well, despite all the gorgeous new products that have come onto the market in that time!  However, I really, really wanted Peony Bouquet as soon as it was released and, well, I ended up buying it, plus all the newer Altenew inks.  So today it was time to take them for a spin and this is the result.

I used the new red inks for the flower and one of the grey inks for the outline.  The sentiment comes from a Verve set and was stamped in the same grey ink and clear embossed.  What you can't see in the photo is the two scored lines above and below the sentiment.

I was inspired by Jenni's beautiful flower and bold sentiment as well as her general layout.  I categorising my card as Clean and Simple for Card Concept.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Peony Bouquet (Altenew), Button Best (Verve)
Ink:  Moon Rock, Blush, Rouge, Velvet, Frayed Leaf, Forest Glades (Altenew), Versamark
Cardstock:  White
Dies:  Peony Bouquet
Accessories:  Scoreboard, Wink of Stella, rainstones

Cheers
Karren

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

Rule the World

Hi!  Today's card uses the sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch and made for the Coffee Lovers Blog Hop.  I'm not sure that it's very Spring-like, but I'll use the excuse that it's coming into autumn where I live, so it's hard to feel Spring-y ;)

I'm really not sure about this card, but I'm putting it out there anyway.  I stamped the images using Verve sets Better With You and Coffee.  I stamped the coffee cups onto Desert Storm cardstock as well as white and paper-pieced them together.  The pink polka dots are my nod to Spring and were stamped using one of the images from Geometric Style onto a scrap and then I over-stamped with the coffee cup and cut out the band.  The two bands are liberally painted with clear Wink of Stella.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Better With You, Coffee (Verve), Geometric Style (Clearly Besotted)
Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid (MFT), Hollyhock, Sparrow (SSS)
Cardstock:  White, Desert Storm
Accessories:  Copics, Wink of Stella

Cheers
Karren

Deepest Sympathy

Hi and welcome!  Today I have the thrill of being guest stamper at Color Throwdown, because my card was randomly drawn as Featured Stamper.  The colors this week are just gorgeous - check them out:

The colors are kraft, pink and pale green.  Of course, when I saw those colors, I immediately thought of flowers!

I wanted to try pencil coloring on kraft after seeing some beautiful cards on my friend, Sonja's blog (and having received one from her in real life!)  So I took a new Unity Stamp flower stamp and stamped it onto some Desert Storm cardstock.  I then very loosely colored it with pink, green and white Prismacolor pencils.  The sentiment comes from Verve and is one of my favorite sympathy sentiments.

I layered the panel onto black and Pink Pirouette and then onto a Desert Storm cardbase.  To finish the card, I kept it pretty low-key and only added some Rainstones.

Thanks for visiting.  Be sure to check out the fabulous creations from the team at Color Throwdown - they amaze me every week with their gorgeous cards!


Products used:  Lean, Pretty Please (Unity Stamps), Deepest Sympathy (Verve)
Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid (MFT)
Cardstock:  Desert Storm, Black, Pink Pirouette
Dies:  Blueprints 20
Accessories:  Prismacolor Pencils, Rainstones (PTI)

Cheers
Karren

Thanks a Bunch

Hi!  I'm thrilled to be Surprise Sweetie over at Cupcake Inspirations Blog today!  The theme this week is Tags.  Check out this gorgeous cupcake:

I tried to stick to a similar color scheme with pinks, kraft and white and this is the card I came up with.

I took a sheet of watercolor paper and placed it onto my craft mat where I'd smooshed Tattered Rose, Spun Sugar and Worn Lipstick inks and spritzed with water.  I then die-cut a tag and a banner from the panel and layered them onto some black cardstock.  The flowers come from Bloom & Grow by Verve and were stamped with Rosie Cheeks and Hollyhock inks.  The leaves, from Turning a New Leaf, were stamped with Green Leaf ink.  These were arranged onto a white panel I'd run through my Big Shot with PTI's Canvas cover plate.

All of this was adhered to a kraft card base.  Some pearls were colored with a black Sharpie for the centers of the flowers and a twine bow finished the card.

Thanks for visiting and thanks to the team at Cupcake Inspirations for inviting me to join them this week.  I hope you'll make a tag card and link up.

Products used:

Stamps:  Bloom & Grow (Verve), Turning a New Leaf (PTI)
Ink:  Tattered Rose, Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick Distress Inks, Green Leaf, Rosie Cheeks (SSS), Versafine Onyx Black
Cardstock:  White, watercolor, black, Desert Storm
Dies:  Floral Circles (Verve), Blueprints 24 (MFT), Stitched Fishtail Flags (MFT), Stitched Tag Stax (MFT)
Accessories:  Twine, Pearls

Cheers
Karren

Sunflowers

Hi and welcome back to another fabulous challenge at Fusion!  Today our inspiration pic has some gorgeous autumn tones and check our our sketch:

For my card, I used elements of the sketch but mainly focused on the mint green can and the floral arrangement to come up with this card:

I used an image from the CTMH set Country Born and colored it on X-Press It cardstock using Copics.  Because I wanted more of a rustic look, I toned down the white background by coloring with various light colored markers.  The Desert Storm base was embossed with a brick folder and some very old SU patterned paper was used along the bottom.  A thin strip of black cardstock was added as was the Verve sentiment.  

And that's it!  A pretty simple, rustic-yet-clean card!  I hope you'll have time to join us.  Choose either the sketch or the inspiration pic - or both - and make a card.  Check out the design team for some fabulous inspiration!

Thanks for visiting.


Stamps:  Country Born (CTMH), Poppy Birthday (Verve)
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black
Cardstock:  Desert Storm, Black, X-Press It, Outlaw PP
Accessories:  Pierced Circle Stax (MFT), Copics, enamel dots, Brick Embossing Folder (SU)

Cheers
Karren

Leaves

Hi!  I wanted to make a card featuring leaves to meet a few current challenges, but I didn't know what sort of card to make, so I pondered on it for a while today.  Unfortunately, I got a phone call from a former workmate advising of the sudden death of another workmate's young wife, so I needed a sympathy card.  Because of the nature of this card, I spent quite some time trying to make it the best I could.  Consequently, there were a lot of steps that aren't immediately apparent.

I am playing along in the autumn colors challenge at AAA Cards, the autumn splendors challenge at Simply Create Too and the current Tag You're It Challenge.  Admittedly, I didn't take too many elements from the gorgeous inspiration tag, but I was trying to produce a more muted and somber card.  I did use the leaves, autumn colors and I used white paint splatter instead of sequins.

I started with a manila tag and sponged on various Distress Ink colors in a random fashion.  I then over-stamped the tag with a blueprint-type image in Stone and Cobblestone inks.  The Layered Leaves dies were used to cut some leaves and I sponged the edges in Vintage Photo ink before adhering the open layer to the bottom layer at the stem only.

I white-embossed a sympathy sentiment onto a die-cut tag and then I careful cut around the reinforcing circle from the manila tag and adhered that to the black tag.  Another tag in Desert Storm was arranged behind the black one.  Finally I splattered some Picket Fence Distress Paint onto the tag using a paintbrush before adhering the tag to the card base.

So, that's my card, that'll be mailed out on Monday.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Deepest Sympathy (Verve), Steampunk (Stampers Anonymous)

Ink:  Peeled Paint, Rusty Hinge, Spiced Marmalade, Fossilized Amber, Squeezed Lemonade, Wild Honey, Vintage Photo (Distress), Stone, Cobblestone (SSS), Versamark, White Picket Fence Paint 

Cardstock:  White, Black, Desert Storm, Dots & Stripes patterned paper (MFT), manila tag

Accessories:  White EP, Layered Leaves dies (MFT), Pierced Traditional Tag Stax (MFT), twine

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Simply Create Too.

Java

Hi and welcome to Freshly Made Sketch Challenge Day!  Today's sketch comes to us from Rita and she has a fun sketch featuring banners.

My card didn't come out quite how I envisaged it but that's okay!  I wanted an ombre base and for some reason I chose to use purple shades.  I was initially inspired by this card of Julee Tilman's I found on Pinterest.  So, after white embossing the java image from Verve, I sponged on Lavender, Wisteria and Hydrangea inks.  I sponged and I sponged and I sponged and didn't get the sort of contrast I was hoping for, so it is what it is.

The rest of the card is fairly self-explanatory.  I copic-colored the coffee cup and paper-pieced with some MFT patterned paper.  The banner was die-cut with the same paper and the whole lot was popped up on foam tape.  A few sequins in the upper left and my card was finished.

Thanks for visiting today.  Be sure to check out the wonderful cards made by the rest of the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Better With You (Verve)

Ink:  Lavender, Wisteria, Hydrangea (SSS), Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black

Cardstock:  White, Black, X-Press It, MFT Dots & Stripes

Accessories:  White EP, Copics, Stitched Fishtail Flag Stax (MFT), Stitched Scalloped Borders (Lawn Fawn), sequins

Cheers

Karren

Coffee

Hi!  Today's card has a few more layers than I'm used to working with, but I enjoyed making it.  I used the sketch from Viva la Verve, the kraft theme from Inkspirational as well as the food and markers themes from Friday Mashup.

I started with a card base using Neenah Desert Storm and die cut that with my stitched rectangles die.  The Dark Chocolate panel was stenciled with translucent embossing paste and the Splatters stencil by Tim Holtz.  

I stamped and colored the coffee cup using Copics and stamped the sentiment using Dark Chocolate ink onto a die cut tag.

The patterned paper comes from an old Stampin' Up pack called Well Worn.

You can see the embossing paste better in this next photo.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Better With You (Verve)

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Dark Chocolate (SSS)

Cardstock:  Neenah Desert Storm, Very Vanilla (SU), Dark Chocolate (SSS), X-Press It, Well Worn Patterned Paper

Accessories:  Lil' Inkers Stitched Rectangles and Circles dies, Tag Builders Blueprints 2 (MFT), Splatters Stencil (Tim Holtz), Translucent Embossing Paste (Wendy Vecchi), Copics

Cheers

Karren

Pink Brick Wall

Hi and welcome!  Today's card covers a few different challenges.  I'm using the sketch from Verve as well as the colors from Color Throwdown for my card.  As it's a birthday card, I'm also entering it at Seize the Birthday (although no toppings this time).

This card has far more layers than I usually use, but it was fun to make.  I started out with a black card base die-cut with a stitched rectangle die.  I stamped a brick background stamp onto the pink panel using Cotton candy ink and adhered that to the card base after stamping the sentiment.

A Green Apple stitched circle was next then two tags - the pink one again stamped with the brick background.

The flowers were stamped and colored with my Zig Real Brush pens using pink for the leaves and orange for the centers.  The leaves are from MFT.

And that's about it!

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Lean on Me, Poppy Birthday (Verve), Brick Background (Impression Obsession)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Cotton Candy (SSS)

Cardstock:  Black, watercolor, Cotton Candy, Green Apple (SSS)

Accessories:  Pointed Flower die (Verve), Layered Leaves die (MFT), Zig Real Brush Watercolor Pens, Twine, Tag Me die (Reverse Confetti), Stitched Circle and Rectangle dies (Lil' Inkers)

Cheers

Karren

Candlelight

Hi and welcome to Merry Monday - where we get to make Christmas cards all year round!  This week, Sue has challenged us to use candles and flowers on our Christmas card.

I have to admit to struggling with this challenge as I don't really have many Christmas stamps with candles and flowers and I didn't feel like doing any punch art.  I dug into the deep dark recesses of my Christmas stamps and found a set that features a candle and holly.  So for today's challenge, I'm declaring that holly is a flower :)

I stamped the candle onto some X-press It cardstock and colored it very quickly with Copics.  I went over the whole image in Wink of Stella so it has a lovely shimmer IRL.  I outlined the image in B0000 and B000 pens and then decided to use that as my accent color.   So I cut a strip of Audrey Blue cardstock for the left hand side.  

The sentiment comes from a Verve set called Christmas Joy.

Thanks for visiting.  The rest of the DT have some wonderful inspiration so be sure to check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Yuletide Greetings (CTMH), Christmas Joy (Verve)

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black

Cardstock:  White, X-press It, Audrey Blue (SSS)

Accessories:  Copics, Wink of Stella

Silent Scream

Hi there!  If you're looking for my Color Throwdown post, scroll down. 

Welcome to Freshly Made Sketch Challenge day!  Today, the wonderfully talented and expert-enabler Jen Mitchell is our hostess and she has an awesome sketch.

I just received an order from Verve the other day, so decided to use some of my NBUS on my card.

I stamped the coffee containers and colored them with Copics.  For the band, I stamped onto some foil patterned paper and did some paper piecing.  Whilst the center panel is perfect for patterned paper, I kept mine plain, just adding a sentiment from one of my new sets and a stacked die cut.  I went over the die cut with my clear Wink of Stella pen.

And that's it!  Thanks for visiting.  Be sure to check out how the rest of this amazing team have interpreted the sketch.

Products used:

Stamps:  Coffee, Better With You (Verve)
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Cardstock:  Desert Storm, Vanilla, Dark Chocolate, Rosie's Wedding Paper Pack
Accessories:  Copics, Coffee word die (Verve), Wink of Stella

Cheers
Karren