Cherish Friendship

This is my first time using this lovely stamp set, Cherish Friendship.  I combined several challenges in producing this card:  the sketch challenge at iSpy Sketches; the chevron challenge at Just Add Ink; the color challenge at Color Me Beautiful and the inked embossing folder challenge at Hand Stamped Sentiments.

The sketch is actually rectangular but I changed it to a square card as the chair image is actually quite large.  I watercolored the image using markers and blender pens and managed to get in all the colors in the challenge.    The chevron layers were inked in their matching colors using a brayer then run through the embossing folder.  I made sure to line up the chevrons between both layers.

To finish the card off, I attached a button to the bottom right hand corner.

Thanks for looking.

Products used (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):

Stamps:  Cherish Friendship

Cardstock:  Soft Suede; Perfect Plum; Old Olive; Watercolor Paper

Ink:  Black Stazon

Accessories:  Soft Suede, Perfect Plum, Old Olive, River Rock, Baja Breeze, Going Grey markers; blender pen; circle nesties; Chevron EF; brayer; bronze button; linen thread

Cheers

Karren

CAS Fall Foliage

Here is my second card today.  This card covers the color challenge at Pals Paper Arts and the free-for-all sketch challenge at iSpy Sketches.

I used sketch 26 from iSpy and chose to go with a masked sponged panel and a couple of cut out leaves for embellishments.

I masked the card base and then sponged More Mustard in varying degrees of intensity.  From about 2/3 down the panel I sponged Cajun Craze from light to dark.  With the masks in place, I then stamped the text stamp from French Foliage in Crumb Cake randomly over the panel, followed by leaves and splatters using Early Espresso ink.

The cut out leaves were colored using markers and then sponged over the top.  I used the side of my Cajun Craze marker to outline both leaves.  To make them stand out a bit more from the sponged panel I popped a 1 3/4" circle underneath.  

Thanks for looking.

Products used (all Stampin' Up!):

Stamps:  French Foliage; Teeny Tiny Wishes

Cardstock:  Whisper White

Ink:  More Mustard; Cajun Craze; Early Espresso; Crumb Cake

Accessories:  More Mustard, Cajun Craze markers; Linen Thread; 1 3/4" circle punch

Cheers

Karren

iSpy Colour Me Beautiful

When I saw the colors this week at Colour Me Beautiful I almost didn't even attempt a card.  Wisteria Wonder is one of those colors that just doesn't appeal to me.  However, as you'll see from my card, I buried the Wisteria Wonder so it only makes a tiny appearance.

  

I decided the colors would make for a good brayered card, so with no idea of the final layout, I brayered a panel using Wisteria Wonder and Elegant Eggplant with some River Rock at the bottom.  I then stamped two images from My Friend using black ink.  It was at this point I realised I could use this card for the card sketch at iSpy Sketches, so I made a flower using Elegant Eggplant and Wisteria Wonder for the circular layer on the sketch.  Unfortunately the last step involved spraying some Shimmer Mist onto the flower and I got a big blob of it in a very prominent place - I'm sure you can see it without looking too hard LOL.

Thanks for looking.

Products used (all Stampin' Up!):

Stamps:  My Friend

Cardstock:  Sahara Sand; Whisper White; Basic Black; Wisteria Wonder; Elegant Eggplant

Ink:  Elegant Eggplant; Wisteria Wonder; River Rock; Basic Black

Accessories:  Brayer; Fancy Flower Punch; 5 petal Punch; Boho Blossoms Punch; Neutrals Brad; Shimmer Mist

Edited to Add:  The team at Colour Me Beautiful chose this card as their Colour Conqueror.  Thanks guys!

Cheers

Karren

Delightful Decorations

For my second Christmas card for my upcoming class, I used this week's color combo at Dynamic Duos and the sketch at iSpy Sketches.  I'm late to the party because I'm only just starting to love Lucky Limeade as a color.  It really pops when used with Basic Black.

I know it doesn't look like it, but the black polka dot DSP is actually three strips - the bakers twine covers up the gaps.

The decorations are clear embossed making them nice and shiny IRL.  There is a rhinestone in the center of the bottom decoration.

Thanks for looking.

Products used (all Stampin' Up!):

Stamps:  Delightful Decorations; Petite Pairs

Cardstock:  Basic Black; Lucky Limeade; Whisper White; Neutrals DSP

Ink:  Versamark; Lucky Limeade

Accessories:  Clear EP; Ornament Punch; White Bakers Twine; Basic Rhinestones

iSpy French Foliage

When I saw the colors at Pals Paper Arts this week, I thought uh oh!  I don't do Halloween and they screamed Halloween to me.  So I took a few liberties with nature and used the colors for an Autumn card.  I thought the colors would look good on a color block card and the iSpy sketch was just perfect!

There's a lot of sponging on this card to try and add some depth of color.  The French Foliage set is perfect for layering of stamped images and I used all but one of the images in the set.  I had plans for the postmark image but it didn't pan out, otherwise that would have been used as well.

Thanks for looking.

Products used (all Stampin' Up!):

Stamps:  French Foliage, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Cardstock:  Basic Black; Lucky Limeade; Pumpkin Pie; Elegant Eggplant; Very Vanilla

Ink:  Basic Black; Lucky Limeade; Pumpkin Pie; Elegant Eggplant

Accessories:  Brights buttons; 2011-13 In Color Brad; sponge; linen thread

Cheers

Karren

Blue Christmas

One card, three challenges!  The sketch challenge at iSpy Sketches is another great one this week, with those gorgeous fishtail banners.  Plus Just Add Ink have a "Blue & Bling" challenge and as soon as I saw the inspiration photo at Stampin' Royalty, I thought "blue & bling" - bonus!

Here's my submission for all three challenges:

A few notes about the card.  Apart from the card base, all the rest of the layers are Whisper White.  The blue layers were sponged with Island Indigo before stamping.  The fishtail banner was stamped and embossed in white and the Labels Framelit layer was stamped and embossed with Iridescent Ice EP.  IRL it's a lovely shimmery layer.  

Thanks for looking.

Products Used (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):

Stamps:  Snow Swirled; Many Merry Messages

Cardstock:  Island Indigo; Whisper White

Ink:  Island Indigo; Whisper White

Accessories:  Iridescent Ice EP; White EP; Snowflakes EF; Fishtail Flags (MFT); Labels Framelits; Island Indigo Ruffled Ribbon

Cheers

Karren

At the Beach

When I saw the sketch at iSpy Sketches, I knew I wanted to use the long panel for a scene.  In a stroke of luck, the challenge at Hand Stamped Sentiments is Beach/Pacific Coast Highway.  Now while I've heard of the Pacific Coast Highway, it is quite literally foreign to me (being from the other side of the world), so I stuck with the beach part of the theme.

The image panel was created using sponges and masking off different areas.  I then used a white gel pen to try and create waves.  The shell was stamped and colored using markers.  I gave it a quick spritz with Champagne Shimmer mist before adhering it to the card with dimensionals.

Thanks for looking.

Products used (all Stampin' Up!):

Stamps:  Seaside; Teeny Tiny Wishes; Up Up & Away

Cardstock:  Whisper White

Ink:  Black Stazon; Crumb Cake; River Rock; Baja Breeze; Pool Party

Accessories:  Crumb Cake; River Rock; Baja Breeze; Soft Suede markers; blender pen; white gel pen

Edited to Add:  This card was chosen by Hand Stamped Sentiments as one of their top 3 picks this week.  iSpy Sketches also chose this card as one of their Top 2.   Thanks, guys!

Cheers

Karren

Thanks Card

I'm enjoying my week off work and wondering how I can convince my boss to keep paying me to stay home LOL.  Somehow, I don't think he'll be as keen on the idea as I am!

Here is another card I've made this week.  This time it covers three challenges, Pals Paper Arts color challenge; iSpy Sketch Challenge and SUO Challenges, which is to make a special thank you card.  The iSpy sketch challenge is new to me, but I saw the sketch on another blog and loved the symmetry of it, so had to play along.

There is no stamping on this card, it's all Big Shot dies and hand-cutting for the rolled roses.  I love these colors together.  I was never a fan of Daffodil Delight  but I've been using it a bit lately and it's growing on me.  One of the upsides of challenges!

Here are the challenge details:

Thanks for looking.

Products used (all Stampin' Up!):

Cardstock:  Crumb Cake; Early Espresso; Cherry Cobbler; Daffodil Delight; Brights DSP; Regals DSP

Accessories:  1 3/8" circle punch; Little Leaves Sizzlet; Naturally Serif Alphabet Sizzlet

Cheers

Karren