Grunge For You

We're planning some renovations around our home to tie in with earthquake repairs which we're hoping to have done before next winter, so I'm a bit distracted at the moment - choosing paint colors; carpet colors; tile colors etc etc.  But I have to say it's fun!  When we built our house 14 years ago, it was the ultimate shopping experience  - and I love shopping :)

Anyway, I did sneak into the craft room for a while this morning and made a card to cover three challenges - Just Add Ink which is Just Add Grunge; Create with Connie & Mary's color challenge and the sketch at Pals Paper Arts.

Raspberry Ripple and Soft Sky look so pretty together.  I grunged up both colors as well as the DSP using Gorgeous Grunge.  Then I wanted to put a flower on the card but didn't want it to look too pretty, being as it was a grunge card of course!  So I made my own flower using Hemp Twine and a Designer Builder Brad.  The center of the brad is also grunged-up Soft Sky cardstock.

Here's a close-up:

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Gorgeous Grunge; Great Friend
Ink:  Raspberry Ripple; Soft Sky; Crumb Cake
Cardstock:  Soft Sky; Raspberry Ripple; Modern Medley DSP
Accessories:  Hemp Twine; Designer Builder Brads

Edited to Add:  This card was chosen as an Artists Pick at Pals Paper Arts.

Cheers
Karren

Leaf Text

I got up early this morning (Sunday) and instead of folding laundry, I decided to make a card (not much of a debate with myself over that decision, I might add).  I combined challenges from Create with Connie & Mary; Dynamic Duos and Friday Mashup to come up with this card:

Firstly, I need to apologise to the Dynamic Duos team.  I saw the challenge this morning and went off to make my card.  However, I thought the challenge was Pumpkin Pie and Basic Black.  I really, really wanted to use Tangerine Tango, but told myself "No, stick to the challenge colors" doh!  I do think this card would look better in Tangerine Tango but it is what it is.  That'll teach me that at my age, I really should write things down rather than rely on my memory!

Anyway, onto the card.  I finger-walked the Dictionary stamp onto Very Vanilla cardstock, using Crumb Cake ink.  I then over-stamped with a couple of the spatter stamps from Gorgeous Grunge.  The circular panel was made by stamping the leaf from Faith in Nature (after I mounted it - NBUS!) in Black Stazon onto watercolor paper.  I then dripped water onto the paper and swirled Pumpkin Pie ink over until I was happy with the result.  Once it was dry, I lightly sponged the edge in Crumb Cake ink and mounted it onto a scrap of Faux Suede Pumpkin Pie cardstock that I'd had in my scrap folder forever.

I wrapped some Early Espresso Baker's Twine around the vanilla layer (oh how I wish that came in black!) and then stamped and cut the sentiment to fit under it.

I don't know if leaving the circle over the edge of the card is quirky or dorky, but decided to leave it as it is.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Faith in Nature; Gorgeous Grunge; Dictionary
Ink:  Black Stazon; Pumpkin Pie; Crumb Cake
Cardstock:  Basic Black; Very Vanilla; Pumpkin Pie; Watercolor Paper
Accessories:  Early Espresso Bakers Twine; sponge

Cheers
Karren

This Booquet's For You...

Today is the first day of my week long stay-cation.  Unfortunately I had to spend most of this morning with a flood clean-up company as they positioned multiple fans and dehumidifiers around our house to try and dry out the damage from Friday night's burst pipe.  The noise is rather loud and poor wee Dexter-Dog can't go to his room (the laundry) so he's feeling a bit lost.  Tomorrow they'll come back to check how effective the equipment is and hopefully at some stage an insurance assessor will come round and tell us what's going to happen to repair the damage.

Enough of that - it's time for a card.  I made a Halloween card today.  Now I don't celebrate Halloween but I had to buy the sets Best Fiends and Just Between Fiends because I just love the artwork.  Never knew if and when I'd use them, but today they came in handy for this card.

I used the sketch from Create with Connie & Mary; the colors from Fab Friday and the Halloween challenge from Paper Players.

I stamped Count Dracula onto watercolor paper and colored him using markers and blender pen.  I cut him out using an oval framelit.  The card base is clear-embossed using Positively Chevron and the DSP comes from an old pack called Ghostly Greetings - again I had no plans for this paper when I bought it, but I just loved the black and grey striped sheets :)

I used a large oval framelit to cut a piece out of the DSP to frame the main image.  Some linen thread and a brights button finish off the card.  I even decorated the inside because I really love the little bat image in the set:

Thanks for looking.

Products used (all Stampin' Up!):

Stamps:  Best Fiends; Just Between Fiends
Cardstock:  Basic Black; Watercolor Paper; Very Vanilla; Ghostly Greetings DSP
Ink:  Versarmark; Black Stazon
Accessories:  Clear EP; Tangerine Tango, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Basic Black and Smokey Slate markers; Blender Pen; Linen Thread; Brights Buttons; Ovals Framelits

Cheers
Karren

Christmas Gifts

While I had all the supplies on my desk from making my Deck the Halls card, I made a card for this week's sketch at Create with Connie & Mary.  This is a great sketch with a lot of options.

I embossed my Crumb Cake card base with the Pretty Prints EF, layered my Season of Style DSP onto Basic Black cardstock and colored my gifts stamp with Cherry Cobbler and Old Olive markers.  I then cut the image out and put a tiny rhinestone in the center gift.   The sentiment comes from More Merry Messages.  

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Wishing You; More Merry Messages
Cardstock:  Crumb Cake; Basic Black; Whisper White; Season of Style DSP
Ink:  Basic Black
Accessories:  Pretty Prints EF; Cherry Cobbler & Old Olive markers; Basic Rhinestones

Cheers
Karren

Pistachio Birthday

I wasn't feeling it yesterday when I went into my craft room.  Not helped by the winter cold I've managed to pick up from my kids!  But I did make a card to cover three challenges:  the color challenge at Create with Connie & Mary; the sketch challenge at Freshly Made Sketches and the Birthday challenge at SUO Challenges.

I scored the base of my card in a diagonal pattern using my Simply Scored tool.  The circles are popped up on dimensionals.  The balloons are stamped in Blushing Bride and Pistachio Pudding and cut out.  The tails were stamped in the same colors and cut out.  By the time all that was done, the card still looked meh so I put some tiny rhinestones at some of the scored intersections and called it a day.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Up Up & Away
Cardstock:  Pistachio Pudding; Smoky Slate; Whisper White
Ink:  Blushing Bride; Pistachio Pudding; Smoky Slate
Accessories:  Simply Scored Diagonal Plate & Tool; Basic Rhinestones; 1 1/4" circle punch; 1 3/8" circle punch

Cheers
Karren

Color Blocked Wishes

Here's a very CAS and unadorned card I made using the sketch at Create with Connie & Mary and the colors at ColourQ.  I wasn't feeling too well yesterday when I made this, so I kept it very simple.  In fact, it took me longer to decide on the "random" placement of the candy dots than it did to make the card!

I had to hunt through all my DSP to find paper in each of the challenge colors and I have to apologise to the ColourQ team because I couldn't find any Night of Navy DSP at all and had to use Not Quite Navy from Wonderfully Worn.  I think it's a close enough match in this case, though.  The Soft Sky DSP came from an old pack called Western Sky - loved that paper!  Perhaps it's time I invest in some of the new paper stacks!

The sentiment comes from my favorite sentiment set in the catty - Four You.  Love the size and fonts of these stamps.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Four You
Cardstock:  Whisper White; Western Sky DSP; Epic Day DSP; Wonderfully Worn DSP
Ink:  Basic Gray
Accessories:  Regals and Subtles Candy Dots

Cheers
Karren

Flyin' High

Well it was back to work this week and let me tell you, it was a long week!

After I got the household chores done today, I finally got into my stamp room to make a card for the challenges at Just Add Ink to just add blokes; Create with Connie & Mary's color challenge and the sketch challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.

All three challenges just seemed to go so well with each other this week and it didn't take too long to come up with this card.

I clear-embossed the plane from Plane & Simple onto Whisper White cardstock and cut out.  I then punched a large scallop circle from acetate and used that to make clouds with a sponge and Bermuda Bay ink.  The DSP is from some old DSP called Ghostly Greetings and Thoroughly Modern.  The light stripe in the black pattern matches Smoky Slate perfectly!

What you can't see too well in the photo is I scored down both sides of the card base and the sponged panel.  The greeting was stamped and cut out to look like a banner flying behind the plane, which was popped up on dimensionals.  A button and some baker's twine finished off the card.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Plane & Simple
Cardstock:  Smoky Slate; Whisper White; Thoroughly Modern DSP; Ghostly Greetings DSP; Acetate
Ink:  Black Stazon; Bermuda Bay
Accessories:  Scallop punch; Neutrals button; White Baker's Twine; Simply Scored

Edited to Add:  This card was chosen as Top Pick at Just Add Ink. Cheers
Karren

Coffee?

This is my second post today.  Scroll down to see my golden starfish card.

The sketch challenge at Create with Connie & Mary really appealed to me.  I love circle elements on cards, but ironically, I didn't go with a circle for this card!

I inked up the coffee cup from Perfect Blend and stamped it onto Shimmery White cardstock using Black Stazon ink.  I then colored the cup using Crumb Cake ink and the lid using Sahara Sand ink.  Some DSP from the Epic Day pack was used for the band around the middle.

For the circle element, I paper pierced an oval using the Occasions Paper Piercing Pack.  The Needlepoint EF was used down both sides of the Crumb Cake layer.  Some more of the Epic Day DSP and the large scallop framelit was used down the left side.

I stamped the sentiment onto Shimmery White cardstock and then punched with the oval punch.  Both the coffee cup and the sentiment are popped up on dimensionals.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Perfect Blend
Cardstock:  Basic Black; Crumb Cake; Shimmery White; Epic Day DSP
Ink:  Black Stazon; Crumb Cake; Sahara Sand
Accessories:  Occasions Paper Piercing Pack; Large Scallop Framelit; Needlepoint EF; Oval Punch

Cheers
Karren

Vanilla Slush

I combined the sketch challenge at Create with Connie & Mary with the tic-tac-toe challenge at Friday Mashup to come up with this card:

I chose Flowers, Butterflies, Lace for my card.  Although I have to confess that my butterflies are unfortunately singular as I couldn't work out how to fit more than one on my card without looking contrived.

The lace is from the Artisan Embellishments Kit, which I cut down to make narrower.  Lots of little pearls were used on the flower centers and it was great to use up some of the smallest pearls as they tend to sit unused on the sheets.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Secret Garden; Morning Meadow
Cardstock:  Strawberry Slush; Very Vanilla
Ink:  Strawberry Slush; Old Olive
Accessories:  Delicate Doilies Sizzlet; Secret Garden Framelits; Artisan Embellishment Kit; Basic Pearls; Beautiful Wings Embosslits

Cheers
Karren

Butterflies a deux

It's the middle of the long Queen's Birthday weekend here in New Zealand and you'd think I'd be taking advantage of that to stamp, stamp, stamp.  But no, in my typical perverse style, I stayed away from my stamp room all day and chose to do chores instead!  I know!  I finally sat down and made a card for the color challenge at Create with Connie & Mary and the sketch challenge at Fab Friday and this is the result:

The colors are Island Indigo, Pool Party and So Saffron.  I stamped the butterflies onto Shimmery White cardstock using Stazon ink.  I then colored them using inkpads and a blender pen. The Pool Party is a bit scarce but I did use it to color my butterflies.  It's hard to see in the photo but I also paper-pierced lots of circles around the butterflies, to add a bit of interest.

Thanks for looking.

Products used (all Stampin' Up!):

Stamps:  Just Believe; Papillon Potpourri
Cardstock:  Island Indigo; Whisper White; Festival of Prints DSP; Subtles DSP; Shimmery White
Ink:  Black Stazon; So Saffron; Pool Party; Island Indigo
Accessories:  2 1/2" circle punch; butterfly punch; Essentials Paper Piercing Pack; corner rounder

Cheers
Karren

Edited to Add:  This card was chosen as a Top Pick at Fab Friday.

Calypso Thanks

I love the sketch challenge at Create with Connie & Mary this week - very CAS!  And here's my submission.

I decided to use the flowers from the Pop-Up Posies designer kit, which led me to a Calypso Coral and Pool Party color combo.

I spritzed the flowers with water and scrunched them up.  Once they were dry I spritzed them again with Calypso Coral ink in the color spritzer before using a brad to join all the individual flowers together.  The Very Vanilla banner was run through the Big Shot with the Honeycomb EF then tied with some baker's twine.  A very subtle, tone-on-tone "thank you" in the bottom right hand corner finishes off the card.

Thanks for looking.

Products used (all Stampin' Up!):

Stamps:  Made for You
Cardstock:  Calypso Coral; Pool Party; Very Vanilla
Ink:  Calypso Coral
Accessories:  Honeycomb EF; Calypso Coral marker; color spritzer; Calypso Coral Baker's Twine; Pop-Up Posies Kit; 2011-13 In Color Brad

Cheers
Karren

Because I Care

After a busy week back at work, it's now Saturday and I've had some time this morning to make a card.

This card uses the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches and the colors at Create with Connie & Mary.

I made Basic Gray my main color with Calypso Coral as my second color and the only Pool Party I used were two buttons from the SAB 2013 kit.  I turned the buttons upside down because I preferred the smoother side.

Thanks for looking.

Products used (all Stampin' Up!):

Stamps:  Secret Garden; Because I Care
Cardstock:  Whisper White; Basic Gray
Ink:  Calypso Coral; Basic Gray
Accessories:  SAB 2013 buttons; Basic Pearls; Secret Garden Framelits; Basic Gray Two Tone Ribbon

Summer Muse

I'm pleased to say my long, long work week is over.  The bulk of the budgets for the 2013-14 year are done and now I have a week off work because my boys are off on school holidays.  Initially I didn't even feel like stamping today, but I made myself go into my craft room and I managed to churn out a couple of cards - one of which I even like LOL.

Here's the first card I made (and the one I like).

 When I first saw the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches, I wasn't sure how I was going to make the rectangle at the top work.  But then I decided to use the colors from Create with Connie & Mary and it all seemed to fall into place.  Initially, I had the white panel as a flag, but then I rounded the bottom corner using my 2 1/2" circle punch and it looked much better.

The flower was made using 5 scallop circles separated using the faux suede technique then topped off with a Summer Starfruit brad from the Pop Up Posies kit.  DSP from the Print Poetry stack provides a subtle background.

Thanks for looking.

Products used (all Stampin' Up!):

Stamps:  Afterthoughts
Cardstock:  Midnight Muse; Whisper White; Print Poetry DSP
Ink:  Midnight Muse
Accessories:  2 1/2" circle punch; 1 3/8" scallop circle punch; Pop Up Posies kit; Bird Punch; Basic Pearls

Edited to Add:  This card was a top pick at Create with Connie & Mary and a Perfect Princess card at Freshly Made Sketches.

Cheers
Karren

Little Girl's Birthday Card

It's my niece's third birthday party tomorrow so I thought I'd better get a card made for her.  Roisin (pronounced Ro-sheen) is a wee character and the youngest of my nieces and nephews.  I used the colors from this week's challenge at Create with Connie & Mary and the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.  I'm also going to use this for this month's Creative Crew challenge to use the 2011-13 In Colors with the challenge being to use our least favorite.  My least favorite is hands-down Wisteria Wonder, but Calypso Coral is a color I like but struggle to make work, so I'm choosing that.

Speaking of the Creative Crew at Splitcoaststampers, I've been invited to join the Crew for the May-August period, which is pretty awesome!  Keep an eye out on 1st May for my first challenge cards.

And after all that waffle, here's my card:

This card is pretty self-explanatory.  It's 5" square.  I punched three circles out of the challenge colors and stuck them together.  On top of the Island Indigo circle, I adhered a die-cut "3" which I then colored used Dazzling Details.  As a rare treat, I even decorated the inside of the card as well using stamps from Create a Cupcake!

Thanks for looking.

Products used (all Stampin' Up!):

Stamps:  Create a Cupcake
Cardstock:  Whisper White; Island Indigo; Calypso Coral; Real Red
Ink:  Island Indigo; Calypso Coral; Real Red
Accessories:  1 3/8" circle punch; Timeless Type Sizzlets; Calypso Coral Bakers Twine; Dazzling Details; Create a Cupcake Punch

Cheers
Karren

CCMC245 Sketch Challenge

Well, I'm sad to say this is my last card as a member of the Thursday Challenge Team at Create with Connie & Mary.  I've had great fun and it was made easy knowing the challenges would always be high quality.  Thanks Connie and Mary for the opportunity!

So my last challenge is a sketch challenge.

For my card, I've used lots of goodies from the Spring Catalog to create a birthday card for my mother.  I have to say that this is my most favorite card I've ever made and it's fitting it's for my mother as she is the one who got me into stamping in the first place!  I always feel I have to do something a little bit special when I make cards for her and my dad.  I hope she'll like this card, cos I sure do!

I colored the flower trim by first smooching them in the inkpad, then painting the uncolored bits with ink and an aquapainter.  I deliberately left a few unpainted spots to add to the shabbiness of the card.  The base is Whisper White and on top of that is a piece of Pool Party Core'dinations cardstock run through the Honeycomb EF and lightly sanded.  The scalloped piece is also Core'dinations cardstock but left unsanded.  The love ticket comes from the Artisan Embellishment Kit and the new Designer Brads finish off the card.

Thanks so much for joining me on my journey with Create with Connie & Mary.  I'll now go back to playing along with the challenges as often as I can.  Head on over there and check out the other fantastic cards from the Challenge Team.

Products used (all Stampin' Up!):

Cardstock:  Whisper White; Pool Party Core'dinations; Primrose Petals Co-ordinations; Old Olive; 2012-14 In Color DSP
Ink:  Primrose Petals
Accessories:  Basic Pearls; Honeycomb EF; Delicate Designs EF; Large Scallops Edgelits; Big Designer Brads; Little Leaves Sizzlet; Itty Bitty Circle Punch; Artisan Embellishment Kit; Paper Doily; Pool Party Seam Binding Ribbon; Flower Trim

Cheers
Karren

CCMC244 Color Challenge

Hi all.  Today is color challenge time at Create with Connie & Mary.  The colors we have for your viewing pleasure today are:

And my card using these colors:

You just have to take my word for it that there is some Marina Mist on this card!  I sponged Marina Mist down the bottom and Not Quite Navy on the top of the panel, after masking the moon with a circle punch-out.  When I finished with the blues, I carefully sponged in some Daffodil Delight for the moon.  Then I stamped the image from Serene Silhouettes using Black Stazon.  The sentiment comes from the Bring on the Cake set.

Head on over to see what the rest of the Challenge Team have done with these colors.

Thanks for looking.

Products used (all Stampin' Up!):

Stamps:  Serene Silhouettes; Bring on the Cake
Cardstock:  Whisper White
Ink:  Marina Mist; Not Quite Navy; Daffodil Delight
Accessories:  Sponges

Cheers
Karren

CCMC243 Sketch Challenge

Hi and welcome to another sketch challenge at Create with Connie & Mary.  This week we have a cool square sketch.  I love square cards!  I think it comes from being a bean-counter - I love the symmetry!

Here's the sketch:

And here's what I did with it:

Funny story about this card.  I'm not the most patient of people and after I covered my leaf with Crystal Effects, I made myself walk away for a couple of hours.  When I came back I stuck my finger in the leaf to see if it was dry yet.  Well, you guessed it - a lovely fingerprint worthy of CSI analysis!  Hence the button, which I hope doesn't look too out of place.

There's lots of distressing and sponging going on with this card.  I used a favorite set French Foliage and  the soon-to-be-retired SAB set Feeling Sentimental for the sentiment.

Thanks for dropping by.  The rest of the challenge team have come up with some fantastic creations using this sketch, so why don't you give it a go as well?

Products used:

Stamps:  French Foliage; Feeling Sentimental
Cardstock:  Soft Suede; Very Vanilla; Crumb Cake; First Edition DSP
Ink:  Soft Suede; Cherry Cobbler; Crumb Cake
Accessories:  Sponges; Distressing Tool; Crystal Effects; Naturals Button; Linen Thread

Cheers
Karren