Author Archives: kth

Celebrate with a Beer

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Congrats - by karen @ carefree creations

A friend of mine is retiring soon. I made this card for him.

The beer image was stamped on Hello Honey paper and then sponged with Wild Honey distress ink.

For the foam on the beer, I used Liquid Applique and heat set it right away – you get more “bubbles” that way!

I won’t be posting much the next couple of weeks. I’m doing a lot of clean-up work in the galleries at SplitCoast and I have company.

Thankfully I’ve already created my CAS Colours & Sketches cards and posts for the next couple of weeks – so those will happen!

Thanks for taking a peek!

congrats
Stamps: Cheers to You (SU); Congrats All Ways (PTI);
Ink/Cardstock: Naturals Cream, Lost Lagoon, Hello Honey, White (SU); Black (PTI);
Other: Limitless Layers Circle die, Double-Ended Banner die (PTI); Peekaboo Frames die (SU); Liquid Applique;

Butterflies Float in the Sky

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Miss You - by karen @ carefree creations

I had such a good time stamping this past weekend! And this is one of the last ones I stamped. And woooboy! I got 5 challenges into this card! Each of the images below links directly to the challenge.

PaperSmoochesSparksBadge  CrazyForCASBadge  CASologyBadge  AddictedToCASBadge  CASOnSundayBadge

Whew!

Crazy for CAS’s keyword is Butterflies.
CASology’s keyword is Float.
Addicted to CAS’s keyword is Sky
(seriously – how could I not put all those together??)
The Paper Smooches challenge is an Anything Goes.
CAS on Sunday is all about one-layer cards.

The butterflies were stamped onto the white card base and masked with masking paper. Then I sponged the light blue ink to form the sky (need to practice that, lol). Finally the sentiment was stamped with a darker blue.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Miss You
Stamps: Flap Happy, Scripty Sayings (Paper Smooches):
Ink/Cardstock: Berry Sorbet, White (PTI); Tumbled Glass (Distress Ink); Marina Mist (SU);
Other: masking paper;
Technique: masking, sponging;

Piano City

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Months ago I pinned a really awesome poster (click to see the whole beautiful image…this one is cropped):

I finally got around to making the card today:

Piano City - by karen @ carefree creations

Of course my hubby did not see a piano until I told him (even in the original poster), so I’m not sure if my niece will get it or not, but as she plays the piano, is going to college for said playing, and I generally send her music-related cards, my fingers are crossed that she’ll get it 🙂

I also used a current challenge on SplitCoast: SCS CAS challenge #279 – sunsets.

My sunset starts just above the sentiment in pink and then transitions to purple with blue at the top (all in distress ink). I added “stars” with some water drops. I recently splurged on all the Distress Inks and honestly, I am loving them. I’ve heard the hype for years, but never really believed it….but dang the inks are awesome!

Oh and something else I tried for the first time – multi-layered sentiment. One day I’ll get bold and try the different colored version too, but for this, all three layers of sentiment are the same color. I really love the added dimension, without having to trim tiny tiny pieces of foam adhesive.

Thanks for taking a peek!

hello
Stamps: none! can you believe it??
Ink: Worn Lipstick, Dusty Concord, Faded Jeans (Distress Inks);
Cardstock: White, Black, Berry Sorbet (PTI);
Other: Cityscape Nightlight die (Memory Box); Skyline Border die (My Favorite Things); Wonderful Words Hello die (PTI);
Technique: sponging;

Blooming Birthday

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Blooming Birthday - by karen @ carefree creations

This is another card I made for my mom’s stamp camp. Lots of different colors, but since the card base is blue the white sentiment panel still pops as the focal point.

I did mask the large flowers when stamping the leafy stem, but all the other flowers are just stamped so they don’t overlap.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Blooming Birthday
All supplies StampinUp unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Flower Patch;
Ink/Cardstock: Soft Sky, Whisper White, Strawberry Slush, Wild Wasabi, Daffodil Delight, Pool Party, Calypso Coral;
Other: Apothecary Accents Framelit die;
Technique: masking;

Awesome

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It is time for another CAS Colours & Sketches challenge. Check out the latest challenge: #81 – colors.

CAS Colours & Sketches #81

And here is my take:

Awesome Thanks - by karen @ carefree creations

I decided to do a StampinUp only card for this challenge. I haven’t used Mosaic Madness in a very long time and I thought it would work well for these colors.

Originally, the tiles were going to be in a random “falling” array, but I don’t do random well, so these ended up lining up and making a pattern – I like it nonetheless 🙂 especially as I see space invaders in it, lol.

Now that I’m done I wish I had used a different sentiment (I’m not overly fond of the “grunge” look); this card should have had a bit more elegant font…oh well – next time.

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).

Awesome
All supplies StampinUp unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Yippee Skippee, Mosaic Madness;
Ink/Cardstock: Crumb Cake, White, Basic Grey, Strawberry Slush;
Other: Elegant Lines embossing folder, Mosaic punch;

A Reprise

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Thinking of You - by karen @ carefree creations

It is time for me to make the cards mom will use at July’s stamp camp. I really loved the card I made last week using Summer Silhouettes, so I decided to reprise it.

This time around mom wanted me to use Meadow Moss and Blackberry Bliss. I fiddled with an accessory color, and settled with gold. StampinUp has a divine new ribbon in gold (and silver); I couldn’t help but use it!

I even added a trio of gold dots to the flower centers.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Thinking of You
All supplies StampinUp unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Summer Silhouettes, For You;
Ink/Cardstock: Naturals Ivory, Blackberry Bliss, Meadow Moss, Versamark;
Other: gold Emboss Powder, gold Satin Ribbon, gold Dazzle Marker;

Pet Loss

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Pet Sympathy - by karen @ carefree creations

A week or so ago my mom had to put one of her cats to sleep. I couldn’t be there to hug her myself, so I sent her a card.

Thanks for taking a peek.

Their Love
All supplies StampinUp unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Summer Silhouettes; With Symapthy – Pet (PTI);
Ink/Cardstock: Naturals White, Lost Lagoon, Pool Party, Chocolate Chip;
Other: Soft Sky seam binding ribbon;
Technique: sponging, olc;

Happy Healing

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Happy Healing - by karen @ carefree creations

My sister-in-law had some shoulder problems and is now in physical therapy. I wanted a happy and fun card to send to her.

I thought it would be cute to have the band-aid appear to hold the card together. The card base is blue and I just trimmed some white cardstock to fit the front in two panels.

The sentiment is part selective inking and part alphabet.

Thanks for taking a peek!

happy healing
Stamps: Healthy Vibes, Christmas Sampler (“happy”), Alphadot (Paper Smooches);
Ink/Cardstock: White, Aqua Mist, Simply Chartreuse, Pure Poppy (PTI);

Drinks on the Beach

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It is time for another CAS Colours & Sketches challenge. Check out the latest challenge: #80 – sketch.

CAS Colours & Skethes Challenge #80

And here is my take:

Drinks on the Beach - by karen @ carefree creations

This is my final challenge this month. I thought it would be fun to get away from rectangles! Of course, since it is my challenge I used the same shape for my card that I used when creating the challenge graphic – but you can use any shape! I hope you join us!

I haven’t played with my StampinUp supplies in awhile, so I thought I’d make an SU only card for this challenge. The only die that I have that would be big enough for a card is the Labels Framelits. Even then I didn’t use the largest size!

I kept the card design simple and just added a little white outline to help finish the card.

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).

Cheers!
All supplies StampinUp unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Happy Hour;
Ink/Cardstock: Soft Sky, Crumb Cake, Indigo Island, various markers;
Other: Label framelits; white gel pen;

Watercolor & Embossing

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Watercolor & Embossing - by karen @ carefree creations

Here’s my last July 4th card.

I was inspired by a recent video by Jennifer McGuire about watercoloring and embossing folders. Her technique uses distress inks and watercolor paper. I used plain ole dye ink and regular cardstock.

I smeared ink onto the embossing folder, spritz with water, added my cardstock and ran it through the machine. The right-side did NOT blend, so I covered up part of it with a cardstock border.

The sentiment is stamped on another panel (part of it is handwritten with a marker).

I won’t post my very last card because it is a complete CASE of this awesome card by Janelle.

Thanks for taking a peek!

happy July 4th
All supplies StampinUp unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Skinny Mini Alphabet;
Ink/Cardstock: Night of Navy, Real Red, Naturals White;
Other: Navy marker, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder;
Technique: watercolor & embossing folder