Striped Flowers

Hi and welcome to a new challenge over at  Fusion .  Today I went with the photo but added a couple of elements from the sketch.  I'm pretty sure you can see how the photo inspired me!

I used all of the dies in the Horizontal Stripes die set and cut each colour of cardstock with a different width die.  I then hot-foiled the sentiment onto the black strip and adhered them all to a white card base.

The floral arrangement was made from pieces left over from my FMS card this week so this card was fairly quick to pull together.  I arranged them onto a die-cut circle which I'd run through the Brick embossing folder and finished with some pearls with a gold hue to them.

Thanks for visiting.  I hope you'll check out the wonderful cards made by the design team and have a go yourself.

Products used:

Stamps:  In Bloom:  Addie's Garden (Winnie & Walter)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K)

Cardstock:  White, Grout Gray, Black Licorice (MFT), Dark Indigo (PTI), Fresh Aqua (Memory Box), X-Press It

Dies:  In Bloom:  Addie's Garden (Winnie & Walter), Inside/Out Stitched Circles, Horizontal Stitched Stripes (MFT) Slimline Confetti Hot Foil (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Gold Hot Foil, Copics, Pearls (Honey Bee Stamps)

Cheers

Karren

Polka Dot Bunch

 Hi and welcome!  I'm here with a card for this week's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches, where our hostess is Jen Brum.

I have to confess that I really like how this card turned out.  It was completely different to what I envisaged but I'm happy with the end result.  The floral arrangement was stamped, coloured and die-cut and set to one side.  Onto a white card base, I adhered a strip of yellow polka-dot patterned paper and then worked on the rest of the elements.  

I die-cut the frame using two rectangle dies taped together.  I cut three frames and adhered them together to give added dimension.  Because I wanted the two white panels to be popped up on foam tape, I had to adhere the frame, the flowers and the sentiment to the white panels before adding foam tape and adhering it all to the card base.  This involved temporarily taping the white panels to the card base to ensure the sizing was correct and then adhering the triple-layered frame and the flowers.  Finally I added the sentiment to the frame, removed the temporary tape and carefully turned over all the elements before putting foam tape behind all the exposed parts and adding it to the card base.  

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

Products used:

Stamps:  In Bloom:  Addie's Garden (Winnie & Walter)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K)

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It, Itsy Bitsy Polka Dots (MFT)

Dies:  In Bloom:  Addie's Garden (Winnie & Walter), Essential Glimmer Sentiments (Spellbinders), Rectangle Infinity Dies (Hero Arts)

Accessories:  Copics, Gold Hot Foil

Cheers

Karren

Striped Daffs

 Yesterday was ANZAC Day here in New Zealand and I decided to take today off work to make a 4-day weekend.  I had no plans but did get some time in my craft room to make this card using the sketch from The Paper Players, the board from Tic-Tac-Toe (Florals, Patterned Paper and Die-Cuts) and the Spring theme at Time Out Challenges.

When I saw the sketch at Paper Players, I knew I wanted to use black and white striped patterned paper with flowers over the top.  Luckily, I had these flowers already coloured and die-cut, so this card didn't take forever to make, like my cards usually do!

I die-cut the patterned paper with a wonky stitched square die and arranged them on the white card base, with the centre square popped up on foam tape.  The sentiment was die-cut twice from Harvest Gold cardstock and stacked and then I added a black die-cut at the bottom, slightly offsetting for a shadow effect.

It took longer to arrange the flowers than make the rest of the card!  Finally I was happy with the arrangement and added it with a mix of liquid adhesive and foam tape.  I finished with some clear drops.

Thanks so much for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  In Bloom:  Addie's Garden (Winnie & Walter)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K)

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It, Black, Harvest Gold (PTI), Black & White Strips (MFT)

Dies:  In Bloom:  Addie's Garden (Winnie & Walter), Wonky Stitched Square Stax (MFT), Hello Poe Script (Poppy Stamps)

Accessories:  Copics, Clear Drops

Cheers

Karren

Floral Hugs

Hi, I'm here with my card for the latest Freshly Made Sketch challenge where our hostess this week is Amy O'Neill.  Here is her wonderful sketch:

I decided to do some Copic coloring and over the last few weeks I've decided to just enjoy the coloring process and not worry about trying to make my coloring perfect.  So here is my card using some floral images I spent some time just playing with my markers.

I used a new-to-me die for the background and then arranged the colored and cut flowers to match the sketch.  For the sentiment, I wanted something bold and black to stand out so found this Hugs die from PTI and stacked it three high for dimension.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  In Bloom:  Julie's Roses, In Bloom:  Elsa's Flora, In Bloom:  Addie's Garden (Winnie & Walter)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K)

Cardstock:  White, Black, X-Press It

Dies:  In Bloom:  Addie's Garden (W&W), Big Hugs (PTI), Window Sphere (Altenew)

Accessories:  Copics, Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen

Cheers

Karren

Orange Flowers

Hi and welcome to our 400th sketch at Freshly Made Sketch Challenge!  It's a big week with some big prizes so I hope you'll head over to the challenge blog and check it out.  If you follow along, you'll know that our previous three sketches this month were from past challenges (Sketch #1/#100, Sketch #200 and Sketch #300).  This week we have a brand new sketch and it's wonderful!

I hadn't done any coloring at all since we lost our son in June.  I just couldn't bring myself to sit down and color, even though it is meant to be therapeutic.  So last weekend, I forced myself to sit down and pick up the Copics and this is the result.

And, even though I was incredibly rusty, it was quite calming to focus on nothing but laying down color.  I had no plan when I started - I just pulled out one of my favourite floral stamps sets, stamped a heap of images and picked up the markers.

Once I was finished coloring with markers, I went in with a dark blue Prismacolor pencil to add to the shadow areas.  I think I went a bit heavy in parts, but so be it.

To put the card together, I arranged all the die-cut images plus the embossed sentiment strip and put some Press n Seal over the top to hold them in the arrangement I wanted.  I then die-cut a piece of patterned paper and adhered the floral arrangement to the patterned paper piece.  To mimic the horizontal panel on the sketch, I added two score lines because I wanted to keep the card clean and let the flowers pop off the white card base.

I finished the card with some orange Nuvo Crystal Drops.

Thanks for visiting.  Head on over to the challenge blog and check out the wonderful cards made by the rest of the design team.  And here's a peek of what's on offer from our generous sponsors to some lucky players...

Products used:

Stamps:  In Bloom:  Addie's Garden (Winnie & Walter); Modern Petunias (WPlus9)
Ink:  Amalgam, Versamark
Cardstock:  White, Black, Watercolor Wash Brights (MFT)
Dies:  In Bloom:  Addie's Garden (Winnie & Walter); Inside/Out Stitched Squares (MFT)
Accessories:  Copics, White EP, Ripened Pumpkin Nuvo Crystal Drops

Karren

Thinking Flowers

Hi!  It's time for another fabulous challenge over at Fusion and this time we have a bright and cheerful challenge headed your way!  First up I'll show you my card, which was a fusion of both sketch and photo.

And here is the challenge graphic.  You can see I focused on the bouquet of flowers in the photo.

I colored up several of the images from Winnie & Walter's In Bloom:  Addie's Garden set, which is one of my favourite floral sets.  Once the images were colored and die-cut, I arranged them into a bouquet and used Press 'n Seal to hold the bouquet in place while I worked on the rest of the card - which was pretty simple!

I found some cardstock that most closely matched the pinks in the flowers and die-cut it with a rounded square die before adhering it to a white card base.  Before I added the bouquet, I stamped the sentiment from a Gina K set, which is fast becoming a favourite for caring sentiments.  Finally I added the bouquet and some Nuvo Jewel Drops and set it aside to dry.

Here are the Copics I used to color the images.

Thanks for visiting!  I hope you'll check out the amazing cards created by the rest of the design team.

I'm linking this card up to CASology who have a Bouquet cue card this week.

Stamps:  In Bloom:  Addie's Garden (Winnie & Walter), Assorted Greetings (Gina K. Designs)

Ink:  Amalgam, Versafine Onyx Black

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It, Bubblegum (MFT)

Dies:  In Bloom:  Addie's Garden (Winnie & Walter), Nesting Rounded Squares (Lifestyle Crafts)

Accessories:  Copics, Rosewater Nuvo Jewel Drops

Cheers

Karren

Fusion Anniversary

Hi!  I'm here with a card for the latest Fusion challenge.  It's our 5th anniversary challenge and we're kicking off the year by each inviting a guest to join us.  My guest is the super-talented Ksenija Rizova and the card she has created is just gorgeous.  I hope you'll head over to her blog and let her know how beautiful her card is.

For my card, I sort of created a fusion but didn't follow the sketch 100%.

Onto a panel of Bristol Smooth cardstock, I white embossed several butterflies as well as some dots and rings to fill in the gaps.  After heat-embossing, I blended on a rainbow of distress ink colors before working on the rest of the card.

I adhered the butterfly panel to a white top-folding card base and then added some vellum, adhering it down the left side only.  On top of that I added some black and white striped paper and a white cardstock strip.  Both of these were adhered with foam tape.  Finally I stamped the sentiment, from CAS-ual Friday's Big Thanks set and finished with some sparkling clear confetti.

And, as a special celebration, CAS-ual Fridays have offered us a $25 gift code to give away to one randomly drawn entrant in this challenge, so I hope you'll join us.

Thanks so much for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Blissful Butterflies (MFT), Scenery:  Big Bang Confetti (Winnie & Walter); Big Thanks (CAS-ual Fridays)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Versamark, Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Blueprint Sketch, Peacock Feathers Distress Ink

Cardstock:  White, Bristol Smooth, Vellum, B&W Stripes (MFT)

Dies:  Pierced Circle Stax (MFT)

Accessories:  Sparkling Clear Confetti (Pretty Pink Posh)

Cheers

Karren

Owlidays

Hi and welcome!  I'm thrilled to be here today with a card for Michelle Lupton's Challenge Me a Christmas Card.  

The challenge Michelle gave me was Owls - which isn't too difficult and did give me a chance to go shopping for appropriate owl stamps - win/win 😄

For my card, I took a panel of white cardstock and used a stitched dome die to create a mask.  Through the mask, I lightly sponged some Nuvo Embellishment Mousse in Aquamarine.  Once that was finished, I die-cut the panel with a stitched rectangle stax die and went to work on the main image.

I stamped the branch then the owls and colored both before cutting out with my Scan n Cut.  On the Santa's hat I added some Snow Marker for a fluffy look.  I added the owls to the white panel, being careful to make sure none of the mousse showed underneath the branch.  Finally, I stamped the sentiment and mounted the panel on to a white top-fold card base using foam tape.

Thanks for visiting and thanks to Michelle for inviting me to join her.  Be sure you check out her card too.  The old adage "great minds think alike" might just pop into your head 😄

As an aside, and before I go, Michelle gave me a choice of challenges.  I could go with owls or, wait for it, Wal and his dog from Footrot Flats.  Her witty brother suggested that challenge!  Now while I love Wal and Dog, I decided to take the safe route and stick with the owls!

I'm adding this card to the gallery at Sweet Kobylkin's Chasing Holiday Mojo challenge.  I'm playing along with Tasha's card

Products used:

Stamps:  Happy Owlidays (Winnie & Walter)
Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Versafine Onyx Black
Cardstock:  White, X-Press It
Dies;  Stitched Rectangle Stax, Stitched Dome Stax (MFT)
Accessories:  Copics, Nuvo Embellishment Mousse (Aquamarine), Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen, Snow Marker

Cheers
Karren

Happy New Year

Hi!  I'm thrilled to be Guest Designer over at CAS On Sunday where the theme for this challenge is Happy New Year!  I don't have any stamps specific to New Year (I know, right!) so I had to mix and match what I did have to come up with this card:

I have a new, replacement Mini Minc machine after my last one died in a smoky mess, so I foiled the die-cut word "happy" with silver foil and set it to one side.  I white embossed the words "new" and "year onto a strip of Audrey Blue cardstock and die-cut one end with the same scallop die I used for the white layer.  Onto that scalloped white layer, I spritzed some gold Color Shine.

I assembled the card, hooking the blue strip through the loop on the "y" and then placed some sequins and Nuvo Crystal Drops.

Thanks for visiting.  And thanks to Janneke and the team at CAS on Sunday for choosing my card in their "Pets" challenge that lead to this GD spot.

Products used:

Stamps:  The Big, the Bold & the Happy (Winnie & Walter)

Ink:  Versamark

Cardstock:  White, Audrey Blue (SSS), Silver Foil, Toner Paper

Dies:  Happy Script (Mama Elephant), Scalloped Rectangles (Couture Creations)

Accessories:  Heidi Swapp Gold Color Shine, sequins, Stickles

Cheers

Karren

Floral Birthday

Hi and welcome!  I took some time today to make a card for the current Muse challenge, as my friend Aileen is the Guest Muse and she created a gorgeous floral card.  I'm also linking up to Winnie & Walter's Precious Metals Challenge, Simon Says Anything Goes, 4 Crafty Chicks Anything Goes and The Card Concept where I'm calling my card Clean and Layered Challenge because of the arrangement of flowers.

I didn't go with the fruity theme at Card Concept, but I was inspired by the colors and came up with an orange, yellow and green bouquet of flowers.  From Aileen's gorgeous card, I stuck with the floral arrangement in the bottom left corner and the big bold sentiment in the top right quadrant.

I stamped, colored and die-cut the flowers before arranging them into a bouquet.  On the card base, I added some splatters with a toner pen before foiling them with Rose Gold foil.  The die-cut sentiment is also foiled with Rose Gold and the "birthday" sentiment was stamped with black ink.

Thanks for visiting.  Before I go, I want to let you know about a new challenge blog starting up on Tuesday.  It's called The Flower Challenge and it's all about, you guessed it, flowers!  It's a month-long challenge so there's plenty of time to play along.  Hope to see you there!

Products used:

Stamps:  In Bloom:  Addie's Garden, The Big, the Bold and the Happy (Winnie & Walter)

Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Toner Pen

Cardstock:  White, Toner Paper, Rose Gold Foil

Dies:  In Bloom:  Addie's Garden, The Big, the Bold and the Happy (W&W)

Accessories:  Copics, Mini Minc machine

Cheers

Karren

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

Bold Blooms

Today's card was made using the inspiration at Muse as well as the beautiful colors at Color Throwdown.

From Jenni's gorgeous card, I took inspiration from the layout, the black sentiment and the floral arrangement.

I was lucky enough to win a $25 gift certificate to Winnie & Walter in the last Coffee Lovers' Bog Hop and I put that towards the Addie's Garden stamps and dies and today was their first outing.  I colored the flowers using the CTD colors, leaving the blue for the sponged background.  The card base is white and I used a Soft Stone layer, cut with Blueprints 14.  The white circle was cut with Inside Out Circle dies and the sentiment comes from CASual Fridays.

The flowers and leaves were generously painted with Wink of Stella as a finishing touch, which you can see in this next photo.

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  In Bloom:  Addie's Garden (Winnie & Walter), Mon Ami (CASual Fridays)
Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Broken China
Cardstock:  White, Soft Stone (PTI), X-Press It
Dies:  Inside Out Circles, Blueprints 14 (MFT)
Accessories:  Copics, Wink of Stella

Cheers
Karren

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