Pastel Trees

Hi and welcome!  Today's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches was designed by Linda Callahan and I used it to make a non-traditional Christmas card. 

This die set is an old one from MFT that actually cuts the tree as negative space, but I snipped the decorations away from the tree to give me the tree base and then added white die-cuts over the top of the three pastel-coloured trees.

In keeping with the sketch, I used my scoreboard to add lines above and below the stamped sentiment.  All in all, this was a pretty simply card to make.  What can't be seen in the photo is the clear shimmer pen on the white ornaments and stars.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Merry Christmas Duo (Waffle Flower)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black

Cardstock:  Pink Lemonade, Coral Crush (MFT), Mist (Hero Arts), White

Dies:  Christmas Tree Window (MFT)

Accessories:  Clear Sparkle Pen

Rich Poinsettia

Hi and welcome!  Today's card uses the latest grid from the Tic Tac Toe Challenge and for my card I went down the centre column with Poinsettia-Free-Stencil to come up with this card.

I used the absolutely gorgeous Festive Poinsettia stamp, stencil and die set from Alex Syberia to create the poinsettia and heat embossed sentiment.  Once that was complete, I created my card base by adhering some plaid patterned paper down the left hand side and edged with some gold foil cardstock and some black cardstock for a bit of drama. 

I then cut down the poinsettia image and butted it up against the black strip.  I finished with the heat-embossed sentiment and some gold pearls for the centre of the poinsettia.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Festive Poinsettia (Alex Syberia Designs)

Ink:  Versamark, Amalgam (Gina K), Shadow Creek, Mountain Pine, Pink Pearl, Coral Bliss, Sweet Cherry, Velvet (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Black, Gold foil, Home for Christmas patterned paper (CTMH)

Dies:  Festive Poinsettia (Alex Syberia Designs)

Accessories:  Antique Gold EP (SSS), gold pearls

Cheers

Karren

 

Tis the Season

Hi and welcome!  As soon as I saw Jen Mitchell's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches I saw a Santa belt and I couldn't unsee it, so just had to go with it!

I did have to re-arrange the sketch layers to fit my vision but I think you can still see the sketch.  This was really simple.  A square gold frame, black strip and red background - both of which were embossed with the Subtle embossing folder to add some fabric-like texture.

The sentiment was already hot-foiled so this was probably the quickest card I've made in months!

Thanks for visiting.  The DT have some fabulous cards so I hope you'll check them out.

Products used:

Cardstock:  White, Black, Cherry Crisp (MFT), Gold foil

Dies:  Square nesting dies (Waffle Flower), Holiday Sentiments Series 2 (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Gold Hot Foil, Subtle Embossing Folder (SU)

Cheers

Karren

Case Me a Pinecone

 Hi, I'm so pleased that Michelle Lupton is again doing her Case Me A Christmas Card series after having to take a break from organising it last year.  I'm delighted she has asked me to play along again.  I chose this card to CASE and was inspired by the following elements:

• the slimline size
• the foliage in a curve down the left hand side
• the big bold sentiment in gold on vellum
• the two tone geometric background

And here's my card (I'll post the card I cased down below).

I started with a white slimline card base (full slimline size) and added a cream die-cut striped cover plate.  I also cut the cover plate in kraft and filled in the stripes with kraft strips.  I then set that aside while I worked on the pinecones and foliage.

I die-cut the base of the pinecones in Milk Chocolate and the top in Hot Fudge.  I wanted to add some interest to the base layer so spritzed it with Crooked Broomstick and Fallen Acorn mica sprays.  Once they were dry, it looked a bit bright, so I inked over the top with Ground Espresso Distress Ink to tone it down.  I also spritzed the pine needles with Tree Lot mica spray after sponging the edges with Green Onyx ink.  On the sage foliage, I added some Wintergreen ink but it was too similar to the cardstock colour so near impossible to see.

Once everything was dry, I arranged it into a curve and adhered it to the card base.  The sentiment was heat-embossed on vellum and die-cut and adhered with a mix of liquid glue and tiny slivers of foam tape.  Finally, I finished with some gold pearls.

Here's Michelle's card that I chose to case.  I hope you can see how I was inspired.

 

Thanks to Michelle for inviting me again.  I am excited to see which of my cards she chose to case.  I haven't made many cards this year, so the pickings are slim...  Here is a link to the card Michelle created based on one of mine.

Products used:

Stamps:  Merry Christmas Duo (Waffle Flower)

Ink:  Versamark, Wintergreen (Catherine Pooler), Ground Espresso Distress Ink, Green Onyx (Altenew)

Cardstock;  White, Whip Cream, Kraft, Hot Fudge, Milk Chocolate (MFT), Pinefeather (PTI), Sage (Spellbinders), Vellum

Dies:  Slimline Short Strips (The Ton), Lovely Layers: Winter Greenery (Honey Bee Stamps), Merry Christmas Duo (Waffle Flower)

Accessories:  Tree Lot, Crooked Broomstick, Fallen Acorn Mica Sprays, Antique Gold EP, Champagne pearls (Honey Bee Stamps)

Cheers

Karren

Circle Line

 Hi and welcome!  Amy O'Neill is the hostess over at Freshly Made Sketches this week and she has a fun one for us!  I decided to play with dies for my card.

After die-cutting the elements from various coloured cardstock, I added some ink blending for dimension and then assembled.  I decided to add some blue circles to more replicate the sketch and position my die-cut pieces around and on them.

The sentiment is a negative hot-foiled sentiment which was already prepared so I quickly added that and called my card done!

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

Products used:

Ink:  Gathered Twigs Distress Ink

Cardstock:  White, Wild Cherry (MFT), Paradise (Hero Arts, Spring Moss, Pinefeather (PTI), Avocade (C&9, Dune (Spellbinders)

Dies:  Luminary Circles (SSS), Welcome Winter Sled, Joy, Fancy Sentiment Strips BetterPress (Spellbinders), Gingerbread House (MFT)

Accessories:  Black Hot Foil

Cheers

Karren

Chalkboard Christmas

Hi and welcome.  I'm the sketch hostess over at Freshly Made Sketches and I decided to add to my meagre Christmas card stash with this card. 

Firstly, I inked up one side of an embossing folder with white pigment ink and ran it through with kraft cardstock.  I repeated this a few times to get a good layer of white ink then set it aside to dry.  Once dry, I lightly inked around the edges with Vintage Photo distress ink.  Then my plans came unstuck!  I had planned to use some patterned paper my mother gave me a piece of which had scripty Christmas words over a chalkboard-looking background, but I didn't have enough!  So I decided to make my own.  I used a chalk bg stamp first then stamped over that with a text Christmas stamp.  It's not the same but it's okay.

I added the two panels to my card base and included a thin strip of gold foil cardstock at the join.  The tag was hot-foiled and then die-cut and I also die-cut some holly leaves and berries which I added to the tag.  I finished with some twine tied in a bow onto the tag.

Thanks so much for visiting.  Please head over and check out what the rest of the DT have done with my sketch.

Products used:

Stamps:  Chalk Background (Hero Arts), Christmas Background (MFT)

Ink:  Cloud White (Altenew), Vintage Photo Distress Ink

Cardstock:  White, Black, Kraft, Amarena Cherry (MFT), Pinefeather (PTI), matte gold foil

Dies:  Seasonal Sketch (Tim Holtz, Tag Sale #5 (PTI), Christmas Mailbox Greetings Hot Foil (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Gold hot foil, twine, Holly & Foliage EF (Spellbinders)

Cheers

Karren

Colour Blocked Poinsettia

Hi and welcome!  I'm the sketch hostess this week over at Freshly Made Sketches and I went back to my roots for my sketch - colour blocking!  Way back in the late 90's/early 2000's when I started stamping, I was particularly drawn to colour-blocked cards.  So decided to come up with a sketch that has a colour-blocked look.

I also decided to make a Christmas card and luckily, I had all of the floral images and sentiment already stamped and embossed so I really just had to work on the background.  I temporarily taped the three panels together and, using my Stampwheel, stamped over all three panels with a background stamp and Versamark ink, several times.  I then carefully removed the red layer and re-stamped, then removed the green layer and re-stamped to ensure good coverage.  Once that dried, I re-assembled it and adhered it to a card base.

From there it was a simple matter to add the floral elements and the sentiment.  I finished with some pearls.

Thanks for visiting.  I'm keen to see how the rest of the DT interpreted my sketch, so please head on over and check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Poinsettia Wishes, Berry Branches (The Ton), Christmas Background (MFT), Poinsettia Bouquets (WPlus9)

Ink:  Versamark, rouge, Crimson, Velvet, Forest Glades, Evergreen, Espresso (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Black, Amarena Cherry, Jalapeno Popper, Kraft (MFT)

Dies:  Poinsettia Wishes, Berry Branches (The Ton)

Accessories:  Platinum EP, Holiday Pearl Stickers (Honey Bee Stamps)

Cheers

Karren

 

Berry Boxes

Hi all and thanks for dropping by!  Today's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches was designed by Judy Rozema and at first I was at a loss for how to use it.  Then I had the idea of frames and from there it sort of became a Christmas card.

We've just finished a 4-day long weekend for Easter and, boy, was it good to have those extra two days.  I actually enjoyed a few hours in my craft room and enjoyed putting this card together.  Onto a black card base, I added three thin gold foil cardstock frames.  I added a hot-foiled sentiment into the bottom frame and then popped in some hot-foiled and stenciled leaves and berries into all three frames.

No other embellishments as there is quite a bit of gold already 😄

Thanks so much for visiting.  The design team have some fabulous cards so please head over and check them out.

Products used:

Ink:  Volcano Lake, Lagoon, Crimson, Velvet (Altenew)

Cardstock:  Black, Gold Foil Cardstock

Dies:  Winter Berries Frame Hot Foil and Die (Pink Fresh), Holiday Florals Background (Spellbinders), A2 Thin Frames (SSS)

Cheers

Karren

 

Pinecones

 Hi and welcome!  This week's Freshly Made Sketch hostess is Jennifer Timko and her sketch is below.  I made a Christmas card using this great sketch.

I am totally, totally over Christmas cards at the moment, but I had this panel already stamped, stenciled, coloured and die-cut so it wasn't too onerous to create another Christmas card. I had to mirror the sketch for the panel to work.  For the background I used Neenah Desert Storm cardstock die-cut with the Herringbone Parquet die by The Greetery.

After I'd put the card together I looked at the sketch and realised that (a) it was a square card; (b) it had an additional layer; and (c) the sentiment was adjacent to the circles.  In my original version, I had put the sentiment under the pinecones so had to carefully lift it and move it.  In lifting it, I damaged one of the pine needle images but an enamel dot covered that nicely.  Couldn't do anything at this stage about the lack of squareness or the layer, so it is what it is - we're pretty forgiving over at FMS!

Please head over to the FMS blog and check out how well (or how rogue😄) the rest of the DT did with this sketch.

Products used:

Stamps:  Glad Tidings (Honey Bee Stamps)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K.), Versafine Onyx Black, Moss, Green Onyx, Olive, Velvet, Crimson, Espresso (Altenew)

Cardstock:  Desert Strom (Neenah), Whip Cream, Jalapeno Popper (MFT), Forest (Spellbinders)

Dies:  Glad Tidings (Honey Bee Stamps), Herringbone Parquet (The Greetery), Embossed Edge Circles (Kat Scrappiness)

Accessories:  Glad Tidings stencils, Clear EP, Enamel Dots, Copics

Cheers

Karren 

Christmas Goodies

Hi and welcome!  Our sketch hostess at Freshly Made Sketches this week is Amy O'Neill and she has a fabulous sketch for us.  I have to admit to being a bit over making Christmas cards and I haven't even given a thought to posting any yet!

But still, I made another Christmas card - primarily because a big Spellbinders order from Black Friday arrived and I wanted to play.

I die-cut all the elements from white cardstock and blended ink onto the pieces in various colours.  Once finished I found a pre-foiled sentiment panel and figured that I would arrange all the elements around the sentiment.  Once it was all arranged and glued down, I dry-embossed a background panel using more NBUS and adhered that to a white card base.

I finsihed with the sentiment panel and topped everything off with some clear sparkle pen.

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

Products used:

Ink:  Crimson, Velvet, Rhodolite, Bamboo, Olive, Volcano Lake, Lagoon, Limestone, Fresh Lemon, Honey Drizzle (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Summer Splash (MFT)

Dies:  Christmas Wonder (Spellbinders) Holiday Florals Hot Foil (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Holiday Greenery EF (Spellbinders), Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen, Navy Hot Foil

Cheers

Karren

 

Pinecones

 Hi and welcome!  It's my turn to design the sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches and I came up with this one in about 30 seconds - then wondered what on earth I was going to make with it!  In the end, some NBUS dies came to the rescue.

I die-cut the pinecones and needles from white cardstock and used ink to colour them up.  Onto the pinecones, I flicked some Black Soot distress ink followed by gold ink and onto the needles just the gold ink.  I then assembled the pieces and adhered it all together.  

The patterned paper is from some my mother gave me and is from CTMH.  The Desert Sorm card based was embossed with the Burlap embossing folder.

Finally, the sentiment is a BetterPress plate that was hot-foiled with gold foil.

Thanks so much for visiting.  The design team have made some fabulous cards so I hope you'll check them out.

Products used:

Ink:  Evergreen, Green Onyx, Enchanted Gold (Altenew), S'Mores (Catherine Pooler), Ground Espresso, Black Soot Distress Ink

Cardstock:  Neenah Desert Storm, White, Home for Christmas patterned paper (CTMH)

Dies:  Lovely Layers: Winter Greenery (Honey Bee Stamps), Fishtail Flag Stax (MFT), Fancy Sentiment Strips (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Burlap EF (Honey Bee Stamps), Gold Hot Foil

Cheers

Karren

Snowy Porch

Hi and welcome to my blog!  I'm here with a card for the latest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches, where Kim Singhdahlsen is our sketch hostess.  I had to play with some NBUS dies so designed my card around this gorgeous Front Porch die and the add-on Christmas set. 

This is a big die so to fit the sketch, I made a 5x7 card.  All the elements were die-cut from white cardstock apart from the door and sidelights which were cut from red.  I coloured the various elements with distress ink and assembled it all.  For the background I adhered Dark Indigo to the card base then added a panel behind the front porch which I edged with matte silver cardstock and popped up with foam tape.  The horizontal element in the sketch is the snowdrift and I added a reverse foiled sentiment along the bottom.

This is such a cool die and I am hoping Honey Bee come out with more add-on sets.  Thanks for visiting - please check out the wonderful cards made by the rest of the design team.

Products used:

Ink:  Peacock Feathers, Ground Espresso, Walnut Stain, Pumice Stone, Rustic Wilderness, Antique Linen, Black Soot Distress Inks, Versamark

Cardstock:  White, Dark Indigo (PTI), Amarena Cherry (MFT) Silver Matte Foil

Dies:  Lovely Layers: Front Porch, Front Porch Holiday Add-On (Honey Bee Stamps), Holiday Sentiments Series 2 (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Copics, White EP, Silver Hot Foil

Cheers

Karren

Triangle Trees

Hi and welcome to the latest sketch from the team at Freshly Made Sketches, where our hostess this week is Linda Callahan.  I again used my Trinity Stamps Cardmaking Sketchbook to design my card and the execution was made so much quicker!   

My only deviation from the sketchbook was that I had originally thought to emboss the triangle trees, but then saw some metallic gold spray and decided to drop that onto the ink-blended panels instead.  All in all a very quick card.  The sentiment was white embossed onto some peach coloured card and I finished with some clear confetti.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  The Man, The Myth (SSS)

Ink:  Versamark, Volcano Lake, Lagoon (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Peach Bellini (MFT)

Accessories:  White EP, Gold Color Shine (Heidi Swapp), Sparkling Clear Confetti (PPP)

Cheers

Karren

Minty Christmas

Hi it’s time for another sketch from the team at Freshly Made Sketches and our sketch hostess this week is Judy Rozema.

The background was stamped with Lost Shadow DOX ink on white and a strip was stamped with Versamark onto Fog cardstock and white heat-embossed.  I then layered the gray panel onto the background and added two strips of black on either side.  The main image was Copic-coloured and die-cut and I added it to an ink-blended panel with foam tape.

The sentiment was stamped in the same ink colour as the background panel and an inked panel was cut for the second banner layer.  For the stitched part of the sketch, I decided to die-cut some scalloped borders and layer them.  Again, I used the same ink in a direct-to-paper technique.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Holly Jolly BG (Honey Bee), Letter to Santa (MFT)

Ink:  Lost Shadow Distress Oxide, Versamark, Amalgam (Gina K), Mountain Mist, Volcano Lake (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Fog (SSS), X-Press It

Dies:  Letter to Santa (MFT), Stitched Scallop Basic Edges (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, White EP, White Paint

Cheers

Karren

Gingerbread

 Hi and welcome.  This week for the Tic-Tac-Toe challenge I went down through the centre with Fun Fold-Gingerbread-Any Holiday to come up with this bridge card:

I'm not much of a fun-fold card-maker but these bridge cards are pretty easy, so that's what I started with. I added some plaid patterned paper and set it aside to work on my gingerbread men and sentiment.

I stamped, Copic-coloured and cut the gingerbread men and then white-embossed a sentiment onto a panel of Sno Cone cardstock before die-cutting it with a fancy rectangle die.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Gingerbread Cookies (Mama Elephant), Star Snowflake Sentiments (Waffle Flower)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K.), Versamark

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It, So Cone (MFT), Perfectly Plaid Winter (Lawn Fawn)

Dies:  Hemstitch Rectangle (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Copics, White EP

Cheers

Karren

Village Scene

 Hi!  Today's card uses the latest sketch from Freshly Made Sketches where our designer this week is Jacquie Southas.  I had great intentions of using the pinwheel set from The Greetery for my card, but it wasn't working out, so I decided to flip the sketch upside down and came up with this card.

I bought this die set last year when it was released and this is the first time I've used it.  I've come to the conclusion that I prefer die-cutting all the elements from white cardstock and adding colour - this time with Copics.  I created the various elements and arranged them on a panel of white cardstock die-cut with a snow drift die.  Once that was completed, I stamped a sentiment and then set it aside to work on the card base.

I placed a moon mask onto the card base and ink-blended various distress inks on the card.  Once that was finished I flicked on some white paint and put it aside to dry.

Once it was all dry, I added the buildings with foam tape and called it done.

Thanks so much for visiting.  Please check out how the rest of the design team used the sketch.

Products used:

Stamps:  Abstract Holiday (SSS)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Black Soot, Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans, Stormy Sky Distress Ink

Cardstock:  White

Dies:  Winter Village (Honey Bee), Infinity Circles (Hero Arts)

Accessories:  Copics, White Gloss Spray

Cheers

Karren