Author Archives: kth

Time Together

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It is time for another CAS Colours & Sketches challenge. Check out the latest challenge: #74 – colors.

CAS Colours & Sketches Challenge #74

And here is my take:

by karen @ carefree creations - Time Together

This is a card that took a couple tries, and some serendipity, to get right – but I’m glad I kept at it as I’m quite happy with the final outcome.

The clock face is stamped-off (second generation) of Midnight Muse ink (it is too dark as a first gen – especially next to the grey…just not enough contrast).

The flowers are done with Primrose Petals and (second-gen) Midnight Muse.

The sentiment – part from the Hands of Time set and part from the Round & Round set – is all stamped with Basic Grey. Originally I stamped the anniversary line centered under the other sentiment, but that didn’t feel right. So on my second attempt, I lined them all up right-justified. Much better.

When I die cut the clock hands, I had two pieces of grey cardstock together – but didn’t know that. Since it didn’t cut well, I put it through the machine again. That resulted in a perfect hand (where the intricate details popped right out) and a hand that the details stayed in. The more solid hand was definitely a better choice (the open one just faded into the background).

I did shave 1/8″ off the side of 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).

Time
Stamps: Hands of Time, Rosie Posie, Rosie Posie Step 2, Round & Round (PTI);
Ink/Cardstock: Cream (PTI); Midnight Muse, Basic Grey, Primrose Petals (SU);
Other: Hands of Time die (PTI);

Formula Fun for the Math Teacher

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by karen @ carefree creations - Formula Fun for the Math Teacher

Another end-of-year teacher card. This time for the math teacher. My kiddo took geometry this year, so I thought this Formula Fun background was perfect for the card.

I was inspired by Barb Murphy’s card. I don’t think I would have thought to use this stamp for the chalkboard technique…but love it!

Making the frame to go around the ‘chalkboard’ was harder than it should have been. As usual, I made the chalkboard before I made the frame, if I was smarter, I would have figured out what tools I had to make the frame so that my chalkboard would be the right size. No matter, I made it work! Though I am now eyeing the new My Favorite Things dies that just came out – they would have made this easy as pie!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Thank You
Stamps: Formula Fun (Hero Arts); Bountiful Banners, Tag Its #6 (PTI);
Ink/Cardstock: Kraft, White, Fine Linen, Pure Poppy (PTI); Soft Suede, Forest Foliage (SU);
Other: white embossing powder (Hero Arts); red bakers twine (??); Bountiful Banners die (PTI);
Technique: chalkboard

CASE-ing for More Teacher Cards

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by karen @ carefree creations - Music Teacher Thank You

For this card, I CASEd Betsy’s card (last one in her post). I loved the music notes floating on the flourishes! I simplified by making my card a one layer card. I also opted for a slightly more masculine color palette.

by karen @ carefree creations - Gym Teacher Thank You

For this card, I CASEd both Debbie Olson’s card as well as Heather’s card.

Thanks for taking a peek!

thank you
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Life’s Music, Fancy Flourishes;
Ink/Cardstock: White, Aqua Mist, Kraft; Lucky Limeade (SU);
Other: Wonderful Words: Thank You die;
MVP
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: All Star Team, Have a Ball;
Ink/Cardstock: Kraft, Harvest Gold, White, Dark Chocolate, Orange Zest, Pure Poppy;
Other: Woodgrain impression plate, Seeing Stars die;

Shabby Chic for Mom

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Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there! Since this card is for my mom, I had to wait until it arrived before I posted it.

by karen @ carefree creations - Shabby Rose

I’m usually a CAS stamper – and hardly ever stray to the shabby chic style, but the sketch I used (Cardabilities #97) seemed to call for it. It was fun to break out a bit 🙂

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Mother’s Day
All supplies StampinUp unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Stippled Blossoms, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Travel Journal wheel;
Ink/Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Soft Sky, Pear Pizzaz, Old Olive, Crisp Cantaloupe, Calypso Coral, Early Espresso;
Other: Lattice die, Soft Sky seem binding;
Technique: sponging, machine sewing;

Thanks Art Teacher

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It is time for another CAS Colours & Sketches challenge. Check out the latest challenge: #73 – sketch.

CAS Colours & Sketches Challenge #73

And here is my take:

by karen @ carefree creations - Thanks Art Teacher

The end of the school year is fast approaching (only 3 more weekends – eek!), so I am trying to get started on my thank you cards for all the teachers. This is for the art teacher.

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 Teacher
Stamps: Positive Strokes, Just a Note, Smarty Pants (PS); Little Labels (PTI);
Ink/Cardstock: White, Dark Chocolate, Berry Sorbet, Winter Wisteria, Summer Sunrise, Hawaiian Shores (PTI);
Other: Little Labels die (PTI);

Flower Box for Mother’s Day

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by karen @ carefree creations - Flower Box

These box in a card projects have been showing up everywhere and I just had to try one! I used Sandi MacIver’s tutorial. Though I did make my flaps a tiny bit shorter (I scored the flaps at 2 1/2 instead of 2 3/4).

This was actually harder than I thought it would be, but for a first try, I think it turned out pretty good.

Oh and I am now out of Lucky Limeade paper – if anyone has some they’d be willing to sell, please let me know – this is one of my favorite colors!!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Mother’s Day
Stamps: Day Dreamer, Tag Its #2 sentiment, Tag Its #5 frame (PTI);
Ink/Cardstock: Blueberry Sky, White (PTI); Real Red, Lucky Limeade, Blushing Bride (SU);
Other: Day Dreamer dies (PTI); Lorelai Leaf die & Gentle Leaf die (Memory Box); old pattern paper (SU);
Technique: Card in a Box;

Stand Under the Stars

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It is time for another CAS Colours & Sketches challenge. Check out the latest challenge: #72 – colors.

CAS Colours & Sketches Challenge #72

And here is my take:

by karen @ carefree creations - Stand Under the Stars

These stamp sets may have been out for a year, I only recently bought them. And this card is the reason. That sentiment is awesome and I decided I just had to have it.

I CASEd Pinefeather’s card – just changed up the sentiment and colors.

The background was made using a recent PTI Make-it-Monday tutorial: Water Splats. I used regular white cardstock and sponged on the ink then finished it up with water drops.

Originally I just stamped the star chart image with white ink but as it dried it pretty much just disappeared so I re-stamped (as close to the original placement as I could get) and heat embossed with white powder.

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).

Stand Under the Stars
Stamps: Star Gazer, Star Gazer Additions (PTI);
Ink/Cardstock: White, Black (PTI); Smoky Slate, Daffodil Delight, Bermuda Bay (SU);
Other: sponges; Versamark & white embossing powder;
Technique: Water Splats (PTI MIM#161); heat embossing;

May Stamp Camp Cards

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Wow, my youngest kiddo has been out of school for a couple days (teacher work-days) and that means I’m not up there volunteering and THAT means more time at the stamp table…and boy have I been stamping!

May is just around the corner and my mom asked me to make a couple cards for her to use at stamp camp. The camp is all about retiring products. I squeezed as many as I could onto these cards!

First up, Fabulous Florets:

by karen @ carefree creations - Fabulous Florets

I stamped the leafy greens a couple times onto the Vanilla panel. The two flowers are hand-cut. The sentiment frame is done using the Designer Frames embossing folder (another retiring product). After I embossed my scrap paper, I cut the frame out and adhered it with dimensionals.

My other card uses Zoo Review:

by karen @ carefree creations - Zoo Review

Another clean and simple card (surprise, lol). Mom wanted a masculine card for this set. The Crumb Cake panel is sitting right-justified on a Midnight Muse card base. The card base is stamped (sideways) with the Woodgrain background to give that little strip peeking out a bit of texture.

Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday Wishes
All supplies StampinUp unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Fabulous Florets, Bring on the Cake;
Ink/Cardstock: Raspberry Ripple, Very Vanilla, Gumball Green, Primrose Petals, Chocolate Chip;
Other: Designer Frames embossing folder;
Wonderful Day
All supplies StampinUp unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Zoo Review, Bring on the Cake, Woodgrain;
Ink/Cardstock: Midnight Muse, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Summer Starfruit;

Embroidered Blog Hop

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Papertrey Ink April Blog Hop is all about embroidered inspiration!
2014-04_PTIBlogHop_EmbroideredInspiration
And here is my card:

by karen @ carefree creations - Mother's Day Stitches

Since I had just purchased the Solid Stitches & Swirls set, I knew I wanted to use that, and with Mother’s Day just around the corner the theme was set too. I chose bright happy colors.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Mother’s Day
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Stitches & Swirls, Solid Stitches & Swirls, Happy Day;
Ink/Cardstock: Black, White, Winter Wisteria, Berry Sorbet (PTI); Lucky Limeade (SU); Orange Fizz (MFT);
Other: Happy Day die (PTI); White embossing powder (Hero Arts);
Technique: heat embossing;

Fine Feathers

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It is time for another CAS Colours & Sketches challenge. Check out the latest challenge: #71 – sketch.

CAS Colours & Sketches Challenge #71

And here is my take:

by karen @ carefree creations - Fine Feathers

If you follow my blog, you’ll know this card is actually my second attempt. For this card I wanted a more simple card – both in design and color. I decided the blocks in the background could be stamped images and the colors would be more calming.

Since the longest feather was also quite skinny, I decided to make my card a 4 1/4″ square card.

FYI – this feather set is being retired by StampinUp – as is the sentiment and embossed frame!

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).

Thinking of You
All supplies StampinUp unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Fine Feathers, Sweet Essentials;
Ink/Cardstock: Soft Sky, Naturals White, Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze, Early Espresso;
Other: Designer Frames embossing folder;