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Hi!  Welcome to my blog. Our sketch hostess over at Freshly Made Sketches this week is Kim Singdahlsen.  I used her great sketch to create a card for my son, whose birthday is in a couple of weeks. If he was still with us he would be 27 years old this year.  This is the 6th birthday since he passed suddenly 😢.   

I used the Shiplap die by The Greetery for both the white panels in the background and for the numbers.  The number panel was a leftover piece from a previous session where I ink-blended the panel with Distress Oxide inks before die-cutting.  I then adhered the shiplap back onto a sheet of copy paper before die-cutting with the numbers.  I stacked the numbers with two black die-cuts as well for dimension.

The white shiplap was adhered to the patterned paper with foam tape and I finished with a simple sentiment - not really birthday-ish but true.

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

Products Used:

Stamps:  Squared Spring Florals (Honey Bee)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Antique Linen, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo Distress Oxide

Cardstock:  White, Black, Grain & Grunge Patterned Paper (Honey Bee)

Dies:  Shiplap (The Greetery), By the Numbers (PTI)

Cheers

Karren

Willow Wishes

 Hi and welcome to a new sketch from the team at Freshly Made Sketches, where our hostess this week is Jen Brum.  I am still not feeling very creative after my break from card-making so this is a pretty simple card - that still took forever to pull together!

I'll just say upfront that I completely missed where the sentiment should go, so just ignore that little error, please.

The background is the result of a foiling mistake where I placed the plate upside down on my Glimmer.  This is the negative and I like the soft, abstract look of this.  But I can't remember what plate I used so I'll never be able to recreate this!  The pussy willows were ink-blended when I was away from home recently and I decided instead of a circle, to use two tags.

Thanks for visiting.  The design team have some gorgeous samples to inspire you to play along.

Products used:

Stamps:  Envelope of Wonder Sentiments (Spellbinders

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, various Altenew inks

Cardstock:  White

Dies:  Botanicuts: Pussy Willow (The Greetery), Tags (Spellbinders Advent Calendar 2023)

Accessories:  Baker's Twine, Pacific Northwest Pearls (Honey Bee Stamps)

Cheers

Karren

Got Thyme?

 Hi!  It's time for another Freshly Made Sketch Challenge and this week I am the sketch hostess.  I designed a simple sketch with a grouping of three elements.  For my own card, I flipped the sketch to come up with this:

This was not what I envisaged when I designed the sketch, but I had just received these new dies from Honey Bee Stamps and thought they would work well.  I used a combination of patterned paper, coloured cardstock, with added ink blending, and metallic cardstock with the dies.  The background was die-cut with an older The Greetery die and adhered to a white card base.  I then added some patterned paper for the "floor".  Before I added the pots, I heat embossed the sentiment with copper embossing powder to match the signs.

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

Products used:

Stamps:  Sentiment Strips (Altenew)

Ink:  Versamark, Moss, Parrot, Olive, Grass Field (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Avocade, Artichoke (C+9), New Leaf (PTI), Steel Gray, Cement Gray (MFT), Copper Metallic, Grain & Grunge (Honey Bee)

Dies:  Lovely Layers: Herb Garden (Honey Bee Stamps), Herringbone Parquet (The Greetery)

Accessories:  Copper Embossing Powder (Altenew)

Cheers

Karren

Fishing Birthday

  Hi everyone and welcome.  It's time for a new sketch from the team over at Freshly Made Sketches and this week our sketch hostess is Jen Brum.  I used the sketch to make a birthday card for my father's upcoming 91st birthday.

I was guided by the Colour Cubes and also took a few minutes to plan out my card in the Trinity Stamps Cardmaking Sketchbook, which makes execution so much quicker!

This is a NBUS stamp and die set from Honey Bee Stamps.  I stamped, Copic-coloured and die-cut the images and then went to work on my background.  I embossed a green card-front-sized panel with the Castaway embossing folder, then lined up the brown strip to exactly match and ran that through the embossing folder.  The tiny sentiment was white heat-embossed onto a Jellybean Green strip and I added a copper metallic die-cut circle, onto which I added the images.

Thanks so much for visiting.  The DT have some gorgeous cards so I hope you'll head over and check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Fishing Legend (Honey Bee Stamps), Curio Labels (The Greetery)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K.) Versamark

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It, Forest (Spellbinders), Jellybean Green, Milk Chocolate (MFT), Copper Metallic

Dies:  Fishing Legend (Honey Bee Stamps), Infinity Circle Dies (Hero Arts)

Accessories:  Copics, White Embossing Powder, Castaway Embossing Folder (Spellbinders)

Cheers

Karren

Striped Blossom

Hi all and welcome to a new board over at Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge.  I've chosen the bottom row Flowers-Dots/Stripes-Green for this in-your-face card!

 

I have been forcing myself to branch out colour-wise with my cards and the use of the Colour Cubes is really helping me because there is no way on earth I would have chosen to work with this palette myself!  I really, really don't like the fuschia/orchid colour so to use it was a real challenge.  This isn't my favourite card but it's not horrible so I can live with that.

Thanks for visiting.  I hope you'll head over to the challenge and have a go yourself!

Products used:

Stamps:  Assorted Greetings (Gina K. Designs)

Ink:  Versamark

Cardstock:  White, Midnight, Tidepool, Fig, Grape (C&9), Tropical Teal (PTI)

Dies:  Cherry Blossom (Honey Bee Stamps), Embossed Edge Circles (Kat Scrappiness), Slim Stripes (Pink Fresh), Herringbone Parquet (The Greetery)

Accessories:  White EP

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 

Oak Note

Welcome!  Today is the last day of my time off work so I've been trying to spend as much time in my craft room as possible the last couple of days.  As well as making a couple of cards for upcoming design team challenges, I also found the time to make a card for some current challenges.  This card uses the sketch at Paper Players as well as the mood board at Just Us Girls.

This card involved a lot of messy play and it was great!  I found a panel of cardstock I'd spritzed with mica sprays last year (using the Halloween 2022 collection).  I wanted to brighten the panel a bit so I added a few yellows and oranges and set it aside to dry.  For the background panel, I ink-blended some Distress Oxide inks and die-cut with the Shiplap Builder die before adding Vintage Photo DOX to the edges of each die-cut.  I adhered all the individual elements to a panel of photocopy paper and then die-cut with a stitched rectangle die.

The kraft panel was embossed with a brick embossing folder after being die-cut with a smaller stitched rectangle die.

Once the mica panel was dry, I die-cut it with the shadow layer of the Oak Leaf die then cut the inner with black cardstock.  The sentiment was die-cut from white and black and adhered together, then it was just a matter of assembly.

Thanks so much for visiting.

Products used:

Ink:  Antique Linen, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo Distress Oxide Inks

Cardstock:  White, Black, Neenah Desert Storm

Dies:  Oak Leaf (Neat & Tangled), Stitched Rectangle Stax (MFT), Shiplap Builder (The Greetery), Just a Note Posh Script (Memory Box)

Accessories:  Brick Embossing Folder (Tim Holtz), various Mica Stain Sprays

Cheers

Karren

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

Mushroom Mountain

 Hi and welcome!  I am the sketch hostess this week over at Freshly Made Sketches and here is the card I made:

Everything on this card is NBUS - the dies are from the Autumn Wonder set by Spellbinders, the sentiment is part of the 2023 Spellbinders Advent Calendar and the patterned paper is from a new pack by Lawn Fawn.  I was pleased that they play so nicely together.

I die-cut all the autumn images from white cardstock and used Distress Inks and blending brushes to add colour.  I tried to create some shading using darker shades of the ink colours.  I arranged them in a pattern pleasing to my eye and used some Press n Seal to hold all the elements together.  I used an A2 Arches die to cute the patterned paper and adhered that to a white card base.  I then added the inlaid sentiment which was die-cut from matt gold foil to match the speckles in the patterned paper.

I then added the ink-blended elements and finished with an enamel heart.

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

Products used:

Dies:  Autumn Wonder, 2023 Advent Calendar (Spellbinders), A2 Arches (The Greetery)

Cardstock:  White, Black, Matt Gold Foil, Spiffier Speckles (Lawn Fawn)

Ink:  Crushed Olive, Shabby Shutters, Evergreen Bough, Pine Needles, Rustic Wildnerness, Carved Pumpkin, Rusty Hinge, Aged Mahogany, Fired Brick, Brushed Corduroy, Antique Linen, Pumice Stone, Vintage Photo, Gathered Twigs Distress Inks

Accessories:  Enamel Heart (Altenew)

Cheers

Karren

Copper Leaf

 Hi and welcome to a new sketch from the team at Freshly Made Sketches where our hostess this week is Cecile Ribon.  I went 100% literal with Cecile's sketch to come up with this card.

 This is another leaf from my play session with mica stain sprays last week.  This time the leaf is from the Greetery, but the way I created it is the same as last week's card.  While the leaf was drying, I cut a 4.5" square white card base and rubbed on some Black Soot Distress Paint and some Silver Metallic Paint Dabber in a random fashion to mimic the sketch.

I finished with a reverse hot-foiled sentiment and some black enamel dots.  I wish you could see this leaf in real life - the mica stain sprays are so gorgeous!

Thanks for visiting!  Please check out the fabulous cards made by our design them.

Products used:

Cardstock:  White

Ink:  Vintage Photo Distress Ink

Dies:  Jumbo Curiosity Buckeye (The Greetery), Hexi-Gem Sentiments Hot Foil (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Mica Sprays (Burning Ember, Fallen Acorn, Decayed, Tarnished Brass) Silver Metallic Paint Dabber (Ranger), Black Soot Distress Paint, Black Hot Foil

Cheers

Karren

Insect Study

 It's time for a new Tic-Tac-Toe challenge and this week I went with the bottom row Gingham-Floral-Insect to come up with this card:

Almost everything on this card comes from NBUS product from The Greetery from their Curio collection.  I die-cut everything from white cardstock and used ink to blend colour onto the elements.  The postage stamp was die-cut from vellum and black cardstock and stamped with Stazon ink.  The paperclips were die-cut from silver foil cardstock.

Thanks for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Pretty Postmarks, Curio Labels (The Greetery)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Stazon Black, Peeled Paint, Frayed Burlap, Brushed Corduroym Black Soot, Bundled Sage, Forest Moss, Antique Linen, Tattered Rose, Tea Dye, Tumbled Glass, Speckled Egg, Scattered Straw, Chipped Sapphire, Villainous Potion Distress Inks

Cardstock:  White, Vellum, Black, Grain & Grunge (Honey Bee STamps) Homespun Gingham (MFT)

Dies:  Curio Divider and Details, Curio: Summer Findings, Curio: Spring Findings (The Greetery)

Cheers

Karren

Mimosa Musings

 Hi and welcome!  I had a bit of spare time yesterday so decided to play with a couple of challenges.  The sketch at Just Add Ink and the colours from Color Hues combined to make this card.  

I stamped the Mimosa Musings images onto white cardstock and die-cut them.  I also stamped the main sentiment onto a white panel before running it through the Brickwork 3D embossing folder.  I chose 3 green cardstock colours and cut strips which I adhered onto the embossed panel and trimmed the sides.

I added the flowers and adhered the whole lot to a white card base.  On the inside, I stamped the remainder of the sentiment (which says "about you today") and added some more of the flowers (forgot to take a photo of the inside!)

Thanks so much for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  Mimosa Musings (The Greetery)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Eucalyptus, Chiffon, Limoncelle (Catherine Pooler)

Cardstock:  White, Jalapeno Popper, Jellybean Green (MFT), Avocade (C9)

Dies:  Nimosa Musings (The Greetery)

Accessories:  Brickwork Embossing Folder (Tim Holtz), Enamel Heart (Altenew)

Cheers

Karren

Triple Hello

 Hi all!  Today's sketch from Freshly Made Sketches was designed by Kim Singdahlsen and I veered off track a tad to come up with this card.

I stenciled onto a white card base with some embossing paste and the Geo Leaves stencil.  While that was drying, I stamped and cut out the images then added some ink onto white cardstock to cut out the Hello die in three difference colours.

Finally, I arranged it all, adhered it to the card base and called it done.

Thanks for visiting.  I'm linking this up to the Hello challenge at Just Us Girls.

Products used:

Stamps:  Lemon Blossom (The Greetery)

Ink:  Pixie Dust, Sixteen Candles, Grape Crush, Sage, Spruce, Chiffon, Lemoncello (Catherine Pooler)

Cardstock:  White

Dies:  Hello Poe Script (Poppy Stamps)

Accessories:  Geo Leaves Stencil (SSS), White Embossing Paste

Cheers

Karren

Christmas Hoop

 Hi!  It's time for another sketch from the Freshly Made Sketches team and our hostess this week is Linda Callahan.  I took her sketch and made a Christmas card for the stash.

For the vertical element in Linda's sketch, I took a hot-foiling plate and foiled it in gold foil onto a white panel.  I then stamped and die-cut the flowers, foliage and hoops and arranged them onto the panel. I finished with a gold-foiled sentiment on black cardstock and called it done!

Thanks so much for visiting.  The DT have some gorgeous cards so please check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Hoop Wreath (The Greetery)

Ink:  Aquatini, Rouge, Merlot, Twilight, S'Mores (Catherine Pooler)

Cardstock:  White, Black, Eiffel Tower (MFT)

Dies:  Hoop Wreath, Hoop & Fringe (The Greetery), Twilight Sparkle Strip, Holiday Sentiment Series 2 (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Gold Hot Foil

Cheers

Karren

Par Avion

Hi and welcome to a new challenge from the Tic Tac Toe team.  This week I went with Travel, Die-cut, Antique for my card.

 This background stamp is a very old wood-mounted stamp from a company called Just For Fun.  I don't think they are in business anymore but I have had this since the early 2000's and I think this was the first time I used it!  I white heat-embossed it onto a panel of Bristol Smooth cardstock, then ink-blended with various colours of ink.  Once I was finished, I die-cut it with the largest of the Postal Frames dies then added Vintage Photo ink along the edges to darken them up and splattered some S'Mores ink onto the panel.  I die-cut a black postage edge frame and off-set that slightly before adhering to the cream card base.

I stamped and die-cut the envelope, envelope liner, note and wax seal and added a tiny bit of ink to the edges for an aged look, before adhering it all to the card.  Finally, I added Nuvo Crystal Glaze to the wax seal and left it to dry.

Thanks so much for visiting.  Please check out the wonderful cards made by the Design Team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Background Stamp from Just For Fun Stamps, Signed & Sealed (The Greetery)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Versamark, Ginger, Terracotta, Sand Castle, S'Mores (Catherine Pooler), Antique Linen, Vintage Photo Distress Inks

Cardstock:  Bristol Smooth, Black, Whip Cream (MFT)

Dies:  Signed & Sealed, Postal Frames (The Greetery), 

Accessories:  Clear EP, Nuvo Crystal Glaze

Cheers

Karren 

Just a Little Note

 Hi and welcome!  Today's card uses the latest sketch from the team at Freshly Made Sketches, where hostess Jennifer Timko has given us an oval to play with.

For some reason, I am not a fan of ovals - probably because I can never get them straight.  I decided to work with some products from The Greetery and create an almost one-layer card featuring a sort-of oval shape.  The original stencils create an arch design, so to make it look more like an oval, I stenciled and stamped the left-hand of the card then flipped the stencils to mirror image the right-hand side.

Once I was finished stenciling and stamping, I selectively stamped part of the arched sentiment and did some subtle ink-blending to define the shape more.  I finished with a die-cut and stacked sentiment.

Please be sure to check out the fabulous cards made by the design team.

I'm linking this up to Happy Little Stampers stencil challenge.

Products used:

Stamps:  Floral Arches, Arched Sentiments (The Greetery)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Matcha, Sage (Catherine Pooler), Antique Linen, Tea Dye, Aged Mahogany, Old Paper Distress Inks, Fossilized Amber, Brushed Corduroy, Ground Espresso Distress Oxide Inks

Cardstock:  White, Black

Dies:  Hello Poe Script (Poppy Stamps)

Accessories:  Floral Arches Stencils (The Greetery)

Cheers

Karren