No Tricks

No Tricks - by karen @ carefree creations

Woohoo, another night of stamping! (We won’t talk about the library books that I’m ignoring.)

The colors for this card were inspired by many cards I’ve seen lately. I really love the autumn, but bright, look of this combination!

I have a couple family members who aren’t into the “fright” of Halloween, so I always need a couple tame cards. I thought this color combo lent itself to a fun candy card.

Thanks for taking a peek!

No Tricks Just Treats
Stamps: Trick or Treat (PTI); Bitty Boos (SU);
Ink: Autumn Rose, Smokey Shadow (PTI); Pumpkin Pie, Crushed Curry (SU);
Cardstock: White (PTI); Pumpkin Pie (SU);
Other: Scallop Frames die (Paper Smooches);

Time for Boos

I managed another Halloween card last night (just 5 more to go!). This card was very much inspired by StampinUp’s Making Spirits Bright stamp set. I loved the holiday twist on the drinking glasses.

Even though a drink-inspired card would fit my brother and sister-in-law, since I already made a card for them (yesterday’s post), I figured I’d make this card for my sister. And she has decided that I have to up my card-creating game (someone sent her a pop-up card and she’s decided every card must be special now ;). That meant I needed to make her card interactive.

Time for Boos - by karen @ carefree creations

After she pulls the “zipper”, she’ll find this:

Time for Boos - by karen @ carefree creations

I should have taken a few more photos. The orange panel is just what you see – a rectangle of cardstock. The “inside” piece is printer paper (I chose that because I needed to make little flaps to attach the orange rectangle, and I didn’t want it too thick). Once the zipper is pulled, the top and bottom bits of the orange sentiment will be attached to the flaps of the white inside piece.

I arranged the sentiment the way I did because once the zipper is pulled, the sentiment that is on the zipper will no longer be a part of the card (and will get lost)…but the words that are left will still make sense.

The sentiment is computer generated (except for the “boos” which is an alphabet die). To print on a specific piece of cardstock, I first print my words on a piece of printer paper. Then I position the cardstock overtop that and run it through the printer again (this works best if you have a bypass tray so the paper doesn’t have to bend a lot). For those that are visual, I do have a photo showing the process in this post.

Thanks for taking a peek!

It’s Halloween
Stamps: Movers & Shakers Sentiments (PTI);
Ink: Black (PTI);
Cardstock: Limeade Ice, Black (PTI); Tangerine (SU); white printer paper;
Other: Halloween Prints pattern paper, Zipper die (PTI); Bubblegum Sans font; Drinking Glasses die (Paper Smooches); Parker Lower Alpha die (Memory Box);
Technique: interactive;

Great Pumpkin

Great Pumpkin - by karen @ carefree creations

I made this card for my brother and sister-in-law. She loves the Charlie Brown special and I used that as inspiration (if it wasn’t obvious). The background is Linus’ striped shirt. Then there is his sign and the pumpkin patch.

I created the sign with some free clipart I found on the web. The message is computer generated as well. I finished off the pumpkins with a couple little leaves and tiny strips of paper that I curled into tendrils.

Behind the Scenes:
So I have a few grass dies. One is tall grass; one is a grass border (meaning it cuts the bottom as well as the grass); and one is a grass edger (it only cuts the top). I used the edger on this card, but unfortunately it left a mark along the bottom where the die metal edge was. I’m sure I could have run the die through my machine so that it didn’t leave the mark, but done is done. I just covered up the mark with twine….and honestly, I think that added such a great touch and I don’t know if I would have thought to add it otherwise!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Welcome Great Pumpkin
Stamps: Jack of All Trades (SU); Super Stripes (PTI);
Ink: Orange Zest, Black (PTI);
Cardstock: Pure Poppy, Vintage Cream (PTI); Old Olive, Crumb Cake (SU);
Other: Sign (free clipart); A Little Pot (font); Grass die (Clear & Simple Stamps); Tender Leaves dies (Memory Box); Linen Thread (SU);

Teen Birthday

Teen Gadges - by karen @ carefree creations

My oldest kiddo turns 15 today! Like most teens, they thrives on electronic devices: cell phone, laptop, video games, etc.

I recently painted their bedroom a really pretty shade of light purple – so I thought I would start with that. I’ve been wanting to do a random background again, and I thought the gadgets would be a great backdrop.

I knew I wanted the sentiment to be spotlighted, but part of the background, so I stamped that image onto the card base first and added the other images around it. I then stamped the main image onto white paper and cut it out to pop up over the background image.

The last touch I added was to put “15” in the screens of the phone and music players.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Birthday
Stamps: Teen Routine, Hullabaloo, Alphadot (Paper Smooches);
Ink: Lavender (Simon Says Stamp SSS); Royal Velvet (PTI);
Cardstock: Grapesicle (My Favorite Things MFT);

Wicked Halloween

This weekend I realized that I have no Halloween cards in my stash, so I needed to get stamping. I only send out about 8 cards, but honestly, it takes me forever to stamp!

After gathering all my Halloween supplies, I needed inspiration, so I headed to Splitcoaststampers. The recent Inspiration Challenge did the trick! The provided inspiration was a pinterest board with lots of cool cakes. I found this one that, to me, just screamed Halloween.

Here is my take:

Wicked Halloween - by karen @ carefree creations

I knew right away I wanted to use the old Cheesecloth background and some satin ribbon. Since the cake was all greys, I decided to keep my card monochrome too.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Wicked Halloween
Stamps: Spooky Sweets II (PTI); Wicked Cool, Cheesecloth background (SU);
Ink: Smokey Shawdow (PTI);
Cardstock: Smokey Shadow, Soft Stone (PTI);
Other: Smokey Shadow satin ribbon (PTI);

Birthday on the Runway

Yesterday was Papertrey Ink’s Stamp-a-Faire event. The last challenge I tried was the Runway Inspiration challenge. I went with this one:

Though my colors are slightly different, my card is very much inspired by the fashion:

Birthday Quills - by karen @ carefree creations

What I took from the inspiration dress was the flow of flowers, in both directions, from the ribbon at the waist and the layers of color on the flowers.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Birthday
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Quilled Elegance, Think Big Favorites #12;
Ink: Ripe Avocado, Spring Moss, Teracotta Tile, Melon Berry;
Cardstock: Vintage Cream, Melon Berry, Ripe Avocado;
Other: rhinestones (Kaiser);

Thankful for You

Yesterday was Papertrey Ink’s Stamp-a-Faire event. (I didn’t do every challenge, so “next up” really just means the next one I tackled.) Next up was the Mix & Match Challenge. The idea being either to mix pattern papers or create a color palette you don’t normally use.

Thankful For You - by karen @ carefree creations

I used a technique I learned ages ago which is to ink the edges of the paper with a neutral color so that their edge colors match up and help unify the look. I took it a step further and sewed the seams as well. The quilt effect helped reinforce my thanksgiving theme too, so bonus!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Thankful for You
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Think Big Favorites #19, Boutique Borders #1;
Ink: Harvest Gold, Dark Chocolate, Chamomile;
Cardstock: Vintage Cream; Kraft;
Other: Autumn Abundance pattern paper;
Technique: sewing;

Love Can Travel

Yesterday was Papertrey Ink’s Stamp-a-Faire event. This challenge was Threads – using twine on a card.

Love Can Travel - by karen @ carefree creations

In her video, Danielle offered 10 different ways to use twine on a card. I went with the “serve a purpose” technique.

To attach the embellishment, I first glued down the twine (Tombow Mono liquid glue) then I added a dot of the same glue to the back of the hearts and stuck them to the twine.

Those hearts came from the Tiny Tag dies – such perfectly sized for this image!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Distance Love Can Travel
Stamps: Road Trip, These United States (PTI);
Ink: Marina Mist (SU); Black (PTI); Poppy Parade marker (SU);
Cardstock: Pure Poppy, White (PTI);
Other: Ting Tags die, red/white twine (PTI);

Christmas Pine

Yesterday was Papertrey Ink’s Stamp-a-Faire event. The next challenge was a Patterns sketch challenge. I used this sketch:

Here is my take:

Christmas Pine - by karen @carefree creations

I took a large panel of white cardstock and stamped the pinecone image. Then I cut it to size, leaving gaps where the stamping overlapped. I hand-cut around the overhanging bits.

The “Christmas” die cut is die cut 3 times and layered up for dimension.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Christmas Blessings
Stamps: Peaceful Pinecones, Wet Paint: Holiday (PTI); Linen background (SU);
Ink: New Leaf (PTI); Baked Brown Sugar (SU);
Cardstock: White (PTI); Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler (SU);
Other: Wet Paint: Holiday dies (PTI);
Technique: break-the-box;

For the Mr & Mrs

Yesterday was Papertrey Ink’s Stamp-a-Faire event. I was able to create 5 cards this weekend!

The first challenge was a Bridal Challenge.

For the Mr & Mrs - by karen @ carefree creations

I have a niece that will be having a wedding in the next year or so (her fiancee is deployed). I wanted to create a card that was similar to the engagement card that I made for them. I kept the idea of stripes and used the same paper flowers as well as sentiment set.

In between the stripes I added glitter (Wink of Stella pen), the frame on the circle is white embossed, and the flowers have a shimmer. I wish I could have captured all the shimmer and shine, but I could not get a good photo.

Thanks for taking a peek!

For the Mr. & Mrs.
Stamps: Scrolling Script, Limitless Layers Labels (PTI);
Ink: Truffle (Momento); Versamark (Tsukineko);
Cardstock: White (PTI);
Other: Wink of Stella (Zig); white embossing (Hero Arts); paper flowers (stash); Limitless Layers circle die; Simple Stripes impression plate;