Author Archives: kth

Silver & Poppies

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It is time for another CAS Colours & Sketches challenge. Check out the latest challenge: #87 – sketch.

CAS Colours & Sketches Challenge #87

And here is my take:

Plum Poppies - by karen @ carefree creations

This is such a classic sketch, I decided to make my card fairly classic too.

I started by wrapping my card base with silver satin ribbon – it is secured with regular tape under the poppy panel. The poppy panel is outlined with a silver pen and the sentiment is silver embossed.

I watercolored the poppies; they are a bit darker in person.

Make sure you check out the other design team members:
Jacqueline
Lizy
Louise
Patricia

I hope you join us at CAS Colours & Sketches!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Little About the Challenge: Posted every Thursday, the challenges alternate between color and sketch (if there is a 5th week in the month you get the double dose of color & sketch).

Birthday Wishes
All supplies StampinUp unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Pleasant Poppies, Four You;
Ink/Cardstock Colors: Island Indigo, Perfect Plum, Very Vanilla, Black; Versamark ink;
Other: silver pen, silver embossing, silver ribbon;
Technique: watercoloring;

Don’t Panic

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So today is my hubby’s birthday – and he turns 42. One of his favorite books is Hitchhiker’s Guide and he works in quotes from it as often as he can. Of course, that meant I wanted/needed to make a themed card for him this year. Check it out:

Don't Panic - by karen @ carefree creations

I was so happy how this turned out (despite how hard it was to cut those hands out, even as poorly done as they are)!

I tried my hand at the galaxy technique. I used Kristina W’s distress ink video as a guide. I didn’t have distress paint, so I used watercolor crayons and layered the colors. Not sure if I’ll do it this way again…may have to figure out another medium (or learn to be patient and let layers dry ;).

Oh, since the front says “don’t panic”, on the inside I wrote “it’s just another birthday”.

Thanks for taking a peek!

don’t panic
Stamps: Hot Concoctions – mug, Mini Monograms – numbers, Great Chemistry – mouse, Sunny Side Up – mouth (Paper Smooches);
Paper: watercolor paper; Soft Stone, Pure Poppy, White, Black (PTI); Crushed Curry, Green Galore (SU);
Other: watercolor crayons (SU); black watercolor paint (kid’s craft stash); white distress paint (Ranger); Alpha Whimsy dies (Paper Smooches);
Technique: layered watercolor galaxy

New Digs

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New Digs - by karen @ carefree creations

I started this card for my sister-in-law’s family, but it seems like a better fit for my niece, so I may hold on to it until she gets settled in. Of course that means I need another “new home” card.

For this card I used an old sketch from Dahlhouse – Wanna Sketch #5. I used the paper piecing technique on the lamp shade and chair.

I hand wrote “congrats” before the “new digs”. I know grammatically I need “on your” but it was a stylistic choice.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Congrats New Digs
Stamps: Vogue Abode (Paper Smooches);
Ink/Cardstock: Dark Chocolate, Cream (PTI); Pool Party, Crisp Canteloupe (SU);
Other: Lime Twist pattern paper (My Mind’s Eye); Flag Tag dies (Paper Smooches); Woodgrain embossing folder (SU); Stitched Squares die (Lil Inkers);
Technique: paper piecing;

Patriotic Hello

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It is time for another CAS Colours & Sketches challenge. Check out the latest challenge: #86 – colors.

CAS Colours & Sketches Challenge #86

And here is my take:

Patriotic Hello - by karen @ carefree creations

My nephew is at West Point for college. He has been there since the first week of July and isn’t allowed online or any outside interaction except mailed notes/cards. So this one is for him!

I was going to try to do some negative/positive die-cutting wizardry, but that didn’t work out so well, lol. Instead, I die cut the ‘hello’ from the circle, then I die cut ‘hello’ from both blue and cream. I layered the cream onto the blue and fit it into the circle. I did the layering because I wanted the tiny bit of shadow to help the letters outside of the circle stand out.

Make sure you check out the other design team members:
Jacqueline
Lizy
Louise
Patricia

I hope you join us at CAS Colours & Sketches!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Little About the Challenge: Posted every Thursday, the challenges alternate between color and sketch (if there is a 5th week in the month you get the double dose of color & sketch).

Hello
Stamps: Star Prints, Let Freedom Ring, Super Stars (PTI);
Ink/Cardstock: Scarlet Jewel, Cream (PTI); Night of Navy (SU);
Other: circle die (Spellbinders); hello die (My Favorite Things);

Summer Simplicity

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Summer Simplicity - by karen @ carefree creations

OneLayerSimplicityChallenge

There is a new challenge at One Layer Simplicity – summer color inspiration. I used the #5 scheme:

SimplicityOLC#8-shadesofsummer5

I also used an old sketch from Case This Sketch (#79).

The “birthday” that comes with the Wet Paint set just does NOT work with the “happy” (the spacing is all wrong to fit the way I would want). I was able to find a suitable replacement in another set…and this makes me happy!

I wanted the sentiment to stand out by being the one furthest to the left. Of course, happy is only 5 letters…so I needed a bit of filler on the right – hence the bit of sketched pennant.

To get the right side straight, I just masked off a 1/4 inch of the card base.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Birthday
Stamps: Sketched Shapes, Wet Paint, All About You (PTI);
Ink/Cardstock: White, Lavender Moon, Melon Berry (PTI); Blushing Bride, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Pistachio Pudding (SU);
Technique: one-layer card (olc)

Boo!

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Boo! - by karen @ carefree creations

I made this card for my mom to use in her August stamp camp. She wanted a Halloween card, and I had the photopolymer set Bite Me, so that worked out 🙂

The card base is orange. To make the top layer, I made a cut from the center-point on the edge to almost center-point of the card. Then I rolled the flaps back exposing the stamping on card base. The sentiment banner is a long strip which is rolled/folded and tucked behind the flaps.

FYI – I got a job! After 14 years I am heading back into an office. I’m looking forward to it, but at the same time, I’ve gotten quite spoiled by being at home and it will take some adjusting! Anyway, my point is I probably won’t be posting as much (though the past few weeks haven’t been much either – so maybe about the same, lol).

Thanks for taking a peek!

Boo!
All supplies StampinUp unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Bite Me;
Ink/Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie, Smoky Slate, Perfect Plum, Basic Black;

My Sunshine

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It is time for another CAS Colours & Sketches challenge. Check out the latest challenge: #85 – double.

CCS_2014-07-31_#85

And here is my take:

My Sunshine - by karen @ carefree creations

I started a card for this challenge and it morphed into this because I loved the concept enough I had to figure out how to make it work.

It may not be too obvious at first glace, the Smoky Slate color is the “silver lining” to the clouds. I die-cut the clouds from both white and gray and adhered them together a just a slight off-set.

Make sure you check out the other design team members:
Jacqueline
Lizy
Louise
Patricia

I hope you join us at CAS Colours & Sketches!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Little About the Challenge: Posted every Thursday, the challenges alternate between color and sketch (if there is a 5th week in the month you get the double dose of color & sketch).

My Sunshine
Stamps: Textile Rectangle (My Favorite Stamps); Hello Sunshine (PTI);
Ink/Cardstock: White (PTI); Crushed Curry, Lost Lagoon, Smoky Slate (SU);
Other: Cloud dies (MFT);

Too Much Happy

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It is time for another CAS Colours & Sketches challenge. Check out the latest challenge: #84 – sketch.

CCS_2014-07-24_#84

And here is my take:

Too Much Happy - by karen @ carefree creations

I chose to do a small square card (4 1/4″). I knew I wanted to have my sentiment in the circle so I started by finding a sentiment that would fit.

I built the card from there – since the sentiment was “happy”, I chose happy colors and a butterfly motif.

Make sure you check out the other design team members:
Jacqueline
Lizy
Louise
Patricia

I hope you join us at CAS Colours & Sketches!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Little About the Challenge: Posted every Thursday, the challenges alternate between color and sketch (if there is a 5th week in the month you get the double dose of color & sketch).

too much happy
All supplies StampinUp unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Yippee-Skippee!, Papillon Potpourri, Handcarved;
Ink/Cardstock: Marina Mist, Pear Pizzazz, White, Pink Pirouette, Melon Mambo, Black; Versamark;
Other: Elegant Butterfly punch, Bitty Butterfly punch, Circles Collection framelits;

Big Thanks

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It is time for another CAS Colours & Sketches challenge. Check out the latest challenge: #83 – colors.

CAS Colours & Sketches Challenge #83

And here is my take:

Big Thanks - by karen @ carefree creations

Of course these colors make me think flowers so I pulled a new-to-me set: Painted Flowers (these are so gorgeous).

I made this card a couple weeks ago because I had company coming and wanted to make sure I got my challenge card done. That same day I tried the layered die-cut idea on a card – but used all the same color. When I designed this card I figured I’d try again, but with different color cardstock – this one is white, perfect plum, and the bottom layer is elegant eggplant.

Make sure you check out the other design team members:
Jacqueline
Lizy
Louise
Patricia

I hope you join us at CAS Colours & Sketches!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Little About the Challenge: Posted every Thursday, the challenges alternate between color and sketch (if there is a 5th week in the month you get the double dose of color & sketch).

Thanks
Stamps: Painted Flowers (Altenew);
Ink/Cardstock: White (PTI); Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum, Mossy Meadow (SU);
Other: Big Thanks die (SimonSaysStamps);
Technique: layered die-cuts;

Mr & Mrs

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It is time for another CAS Colours & Sketches challenge. Check out the latest challenge: #82 – sketch.

CAS Colours & Sketches Challenge #82

And here is my take:

Mr & Mrs - by karen @ carefree creations

Oh boy! I thought this was going to be a challenging sketch, but I had a couple ideas within a few minutes of looking through my stamp index. I am quite happy with how this turned out – and I kept it clean & simple!

One way I kept it CAS was to keep the colors down. Since it was lots of white on white, I embossed the background so that flat-white layers would stand out. I also used lots of dimensional adhesive! For the banner/flags I only adhered the ends (under the &) with tape, leaving the fish-tail ends to be free to pop-up some.

I normally don’t like to mess around with the layout of sentiments because I don’t want it to be hard to read. But I think by keeping the two sentiments (Mr & Mrs and forever & always) in two different colors, I managed to separate them. I do wish I had swapped the colors so the “focus” of the sentiment would be “forever & always”…that way I could do this as an anniversary card or wedding card – to me, this card is really best for a wedding since the “mr & mrs” is what is boldest.

Yes, very happy with how this turned out!

Make sure you check out the other design team members:
Jacqueline
Lizy
Louise
Patricia

I hope you join us at CAS Colours & Sketches!

I’m also going to submit this for the PaperSmooches Anything Goes Challenge 🙂

PaperSmoochesSparksBadge

Thanks for stopping by!

A Little About the Challenge: Posted every Thursday, the challenges alternate between color and sketch (if there is a 5th week in the month you get the double dose of color & sketch).

Mr & Mrs
Stamps: We Connect (Paper Smooches);
Ink/Cardstock: White, Pure Poppy, Soft Stone (PTI); Black (Brilliance);
Other: Decorative Dots embossing (SU); Ampersands die (Paper Smooches); Heart Prints die (PTI);