Love Ya

Hi and welcome!  We're back with our first challenge of the year over at Tic-Tac-Toe and I chose to use the diagonal bottom left to top right option of Punch or Die-cut/Patterned Paper/Pink to come up with this card.

I chose three shades of pink cardstock plus two grays (with the lighter gray being patterned paper) which I got from Colour Cube palette #241 for anyone interested.  I layered patterned paper down both sides of the white card base and also used it to cut the top layer of the sentiment.  After stacking the sentiment three high, I added it to a dark gray shadow and set it aside.  

I then arranged the heart and the sentiment onto a white vertical panel and attached it to the card base with foam tape.

Thanks for visiting.  I hope you'll play along - the challenges are now running for 2 weeks giving you more time to join in.

Products used:

Cardstock:  White, Gravel Gray, Pink Lemonade, Cotton Candy, Ripe Raspberry (MFT), Ink Drops - Monochroms (Craft Consortium)

Dies:  Caprice Heart (Birch Press), Love Ya (MFT)

Cheers

Karren

 

Gnome Letter

 Hi and welcome to this week's Freshly Made Sketch Challenge where our sketch hostess is Linda Callahan.  I used the sketch to make a Valentine's card for my DH.

This was a pretty simple card to put together.  I coloured and die-cut the images and then chose some coloured cardstock to match the colouring.  For the horizontal panel, I used a brick embossing folder on Fog cardstock to keep it neutral but not too plain.

The sentiment was white-embossed onto black and added over the images to help ground them.

Thanks so much for visiting.  I hope you check out the fabulous cards made by the rest of the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Love to My Gnomies, Bitty Hugs & Kisses (MFT)

Ink: Versamark, Amalgam (Gina K. Designs)

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It, Fog (SSS), Fresh Aqua, Berry Red (Memory Box)

Dies:  Love to My Gnomies (MFT), Infinity Circle Dies (Hero Arts)

Accessories: Copics, White EP

Cheers

Karren

Day Filled With Love

 Hi!  I'm here with my card for the latest Fusion challenge.  I played with both the sketch and the photo, but I concentrated on the patterns and colours in the photo and left the gnomes alone :)

This was a very simple card to make.  I used a background plaid stamp and then die-cut two hearts from it.  I used washi tape for the stripes across the middle and a bold sentiment.  The rest is all die-cuts, patterned paper and enamel dots!

Thanks for visiting!  The DT have created gorgeous cards as usual so I hope you'll check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Plaid BG (Concord & 9th), Special Delivery (SugarPea Designs)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K)

Cardstock:  White, Watercolor Wash (MFT)

Dies:  Stitched Rectangle Stax, Stitched Fishtail Flag Stax, Blueprints 32 (MFT)

Accessories:  Delicate Stripes Washi (Altenew), Enamel Dots, Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen

Cheers

Karren

Love Plaid

Hi!  I'm here with a card for the latest challenge over at Fusion. 

This week I played with the photo only, focusing on the red/black gingham, the hearts and the cream background.

I embossed the Picnic Blanket BG stamp onto Cherry Crisp cardstock using Black Sparkle Embossing Powder.  The heart die was die-cut from a panel of cream cardstock and I used foam tape to adhere the embossed panel behind it.  

The sentiment was also die-cut and added to the card front.  This was then all adhered to a side-folding card base.  I finished off with some sequins from an old My Monthly Hero kit.

Thanks for visiting.  Please check out the fabulous cards made by the rest of the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Picnic Blanket (Hero Arts)
Ink:  Versamark
Cardstock:  Cream (SSS), Black Licorice, Cherry Crisp (MFT)
Dies:  Vertical Hearts Channel (Poppy Stamps), Simply Hello & Love You (MFT)
Accessories:  Black Sparkle EP (Ranger), Sequins (Hero Arts)

Cheers
Karren 

Heart Love

Hi and welcome!  Today's post features the newest sketch from the Freshly Made Sketches team where our hostess this week is the talented Kim Singdahlsen.

I've mentioned before that angled panels on cards make my eye twitch, so you can imagine how I felt when I saw three of them!  I actually spent several days pondering how I was going to pull this off and in the end I decided to mimic the lines of the angles with a die.

So I used this circle die to cut three lines in a white panel and once that was done, I adhered it to a Gravel Gray card base.  I then die-cut the Caprice Heart dies from Grout Gray, Cement Gray and Gravel Gray cardstocks and layered them up.  The sentiment was cut down from a longer one and stamped in black ink on the same angle as the circles.

I positioned the heart so the centre opening was right over one of the circle cutouts.

And that's my card!  Simple and angled 😄

Thanks for visiting!  The DT have some gorgeous cards - in fact when I added my card to the DT blog, I saw that Lee Ann and I had very similar ideas!  Well, you know what they say - great minds think alike 😀

Products used:

Stamps:  More Essential Sentiments (MFT)
Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black
Cardstock:  White, Grout Gray, Gravel Gray, Cement Gray (MFT)
Dies:  Caprice Hearts (Birch Press Designs), Blueprints 21 (MFT)

Cheers
Karren

Always and Forever

Hi all!  This week it's my turn to host over at Freshly Made Sketches and here is my sketch.

It's a bit different but I just love color-blocked cards and this layout is perfect for that!  Having said that, I ended up not doing a color-blocked card, but rather an ombre card instead.

To create my frame, I took one of the dies from Blueprints 27 and did some partial die-cutting to get the look I wanted.  Here's what the die looked like originally (the window die):

So instead of the 3 squares, I only wanted one rectangle.  It didn't matter too much about the top square because I knew the sentiment would cover it up, but I carefully die-cut around the bottom two squares.  I did end up with a couple of horizontal stitch lines, but I couldn't avoid that.

To fill in the panels, I blended some distress inks onto some Strathmore Bristol Smooth cardstock and spritzed a Perfect Pearls/water mist over the top before cutting the panel down the middle .  I turned one strip upside down so the red tones were at the top and adhered them behind the window frame.  I then added some foam tape behind the frame and adhered it to a white top-folding card base.  The sentiment was white embossed and die-cut with a Stitched Fishtail Flag die.  I die-cut a heart from some leftover sponging and added that to the banner before covering it with Nuvo Crystal Glaze.

Thanks for visiting!  I hope you'll head on over to the FMS blog and see how the rest of the DT interpreted my sketch - they are amazing!

I'm linking this up to AAA Cards, Paper Players and Just Us Girls, who all have Love/Valentine themed challenges running and Sunday Stamps who have a color challenge.

Products used:

Stamps:  Lots to Say (Reverse Confetti)

Ink:  Worn Lipstick, Spiced Marmalade, Picked Raspberry, Abandoned Coral, Candied Apple Distress Inks, Versamark

Cardstock:  White, Black, Bristol Smooth

Dies:  Blueprints 27, Stitched Fishtail Flag Stax (MFT)

Accessories:  White EP, Perfect Pearls, Nuvo Crystal Glaze

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Just Us Girls

Hog Heaven

Hi and welcome!  This is the first card I've made just for fun in quite a few weeks and it felt good!

Today (Tuesday) is a holiday here in New Zealand, so while it was weird to have one day at work, then one day off and tomorrow we have to go back to work for three more days, I'll take that over five days work any time 😄

I wanted to play along with MFT's sketch this week, so started with that, then went looking for some MFT stamps to play with.  I really felt like coloring so out came Green Pastures - I love coloring this little cowgirl.  I paired her with Hog Heaven to come up with this card.

I stamped, colored and die-cut all the elements and set them aside to work on the card base.  After die-cutting the opening from a panel of white cardstock, I stamped the sentiment in Versafine Onyx Black ink in such a position that the cowgirl can be "standing" on it, to ground her.

I adhered that to a white top-folding card base with foam tape after adding a piece of gingham patterned paper behind the opening, and then added the colored images.  Finally, I added some black gel pen to the eyes.

I'm also playing along in a few other challenges:  Just Add Ink "Romance", Sweet Stampin' "Anything but a Birthday", Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes and Cupcake Inspirations "Love"

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Hog Heaven, Green Pastures (MFT)
Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Versafine Onyx Black
Cardstock:  White, X-Press It, Fresh Gingham (MFT)
Dies:  Green Pastures, Hog Heaven, Jumbo Peek-a-Boo Circle Window (MFT)
Accessories:  Copics

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Sweet Stampin' and Just Add Inkhttp://just-add-ink.blogspot.co.nz/2018/02/just-add-ink-394winners.html

Love Notes

Welcome to another challenge from the team at Freshly Made Sketches.  And this week, we have some fabulous news - we have the super-talented Teresa Kline joining us as a guest designer for the next two months!  Our sketch hostess this week is Kim Singdahlsen and here is her sketch:

I decided to have notebook pages as my over-hanging elements and the heartbeat die as the sentiment strip, but I hope you can still see the sketch!

I started with a white top-folding card base and adhered a black panel cut with a notebook die.  I then offset a panel cut from notebook paper.  The sentiment was die-cut from black cardstock and the heartbeat from red.  All in all a very simple card!  I did color over all the die-cut pieces with clear sparkle pen to give it a bit of shimmer.

Thanks so much for visiting!  Be sure to head on over and check out what the rest of the DT have done with the sketch.  They're amazing, as always!

Products used:

Cardstock:  White, Black, Poppy (MFT), Wood & Notebook Basics (Sn@p)

Dies:  Love Stamps & Die (Hero Arts), Notebook Journal Card, Heartbeat (SugarPea Designs)

Accessories:  Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen

Cheers

Karren

Doggy Love

So, I made this card on the weekend, but I missed the deadline for one of the challenges I made it for because I forgot to blog it!  Luckily, there are lots of fun challenges out there at the moment looking for love or pet themes so I'm adding this card to those challenges at the bottom of my post.

I dry-embossed my card base using two rectangle dies and then did some ink-smooshing with Hickory Smoke distress ink.  The cute little dog was colored with Copics and I added Glossy Accents to the red heart and his nose.  The sentiment is white-embossed onto black and die-cut with a flag die before being adhered to the card base.  The dog is popped up on foam tape.

And that's my card!  I've been enjoying making Valentine's cards this year - although here in New Zealand we don't tend to give them to anyone other than our significant other and my boys will scoff if I give them one because they're "too old" for "lovey-dovey cr@p".  But maybe, just maybe, I'll give them all to Pete next Tuesday, because who says that one is enough 😃

These are the challenges I'm linking to (click on the graphic to be taken to the challenge):

Cheers
Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Addicted to CAS and Addicted to Stamps and More

Will Always Love You

Welcome to another challenge from the team at Freshly Made Sketches!  This week our hostess is the fabulous Jen Brum and she has a classic and versatile sketch for us.

Now, I completely got the orientation of the sketch wrong, as you will see.  99% of the cards I make are top-folding portrait, but for some reason, I went for a landscape layout for this layout, so apologies to Jen!

My fellow teamie, Kim, is on the Taylored Expressions design team and when I saw her cards featuring these fun music themes a month or so ago, I just had to have them!  The blue panel was sponged with distress inks, leaving the center lighter than that outsides.  I then over-stamped with a music background stamp and Stone ink before adding the sentiment with black ink and clear-embossing over the top.  Now admit it, aren't you singing that song now? 😁

A cute little die-cut record and some heart-shaped music notes finished the card.

Thanks for visiting.  Check out how the rest of the team have used the sketch (with the correct orientation, I might add!)

I'm linking this card up to a few challenges:  Cardz for Guyz Love You, The Paper Players Will You Be My Valentine and Happy Little Stampers February CAS Challenge

Cheers
Karren

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