Author Archives: kth

Jolly Holiday

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by karen @ carefree creations - Jolly Holiday

To expedite my Christmas card stamping, I have all my holiday stamps gathered into one place. When I spied the ‘jolly’ letter dies, I wanted to play with them. I came up wit this card right away. I doubt I’ll make any more as lining up the dies was tedious (I did draw a line to help).

I think if I was to do it again, I’d cut the pattern paper in two so that the stripes under the letters go in the opposite direction from the bit at the bottom (of course I didn’t think about that until the white piece was glued to the pattern paper 🙂

I love the Stitched Rectangle Mat dies – they have well paid for themselves at this point! They make me happy (just like this card does)!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Jolly Holidays
Stamps: Holly Jolly Sentiments (Lil Inkers)
Ink/Cardstock: White, New Leaf, Pure Poppy (PTI);
Other: Jingle Jolly dies, Holly Jolly dies, Stitched Rectangles Mat dies (Lil Inkers); Candy Cane Prints paper (PTI);

Filled with Thanks

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by karen @ carefree creations - Filled with Thanks

I needed one more Thanksgiving card before I could mail them off. Thankfully the Paper Smooches Sparks color challenge this week was a great one to put to use (it was sneak peeked on Sunday).

My card ended up with a tropical feel, but I like how happy it feels.

Most of the greeting is done with a font – CK Buddies. The CK (Creating Keepsakes) blog has free fonts every Friday – I downloaded this one back in July. But if you do an internet search, I’m sure you can find it.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Filled with Thanks
Stamps: Reflections, Pretty Phrases (Paper Smooches);
Ink/Cardstock: Soft Sky, Pear Pizzazz (SU); Pure Poppy, Orange Zest, White, True Black (PTI);
Other: Duo Die 2, Reflections Flowers die (Paper Smooches); Burlap impression plate (PTI); CK Buddies font;

You Are My Sunshine

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by karen @ carefree creations - My Sunshine
I am sneaking this card into the CASology – Triangle challenge…with just a few hours to spare!

It took me a long time to find something “triangle” in my stash. I don’t buy into the triangle trend so I didn’t have a set that would just work. And despite the DT’s creative takes on the challenge, my brain didn’t want to find triangles in unexpected places 🙂

After perusing my pinterest board, I did finally see a photo that triggered a thought: sunshine. I knew I had a set that had sun rays and thankfully they were even triangle shaped!

Thanks for taking a peek!

You Are My Sunshine
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Sending Sunshine;
Ink/Cardstock: White, Harvest Gold, Summer Sunrise, Dark Chocolate;
Other: Diamonds impression plate;

Snow Globe

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by karen @ carefree creations - Tree Snow Globe

I created this card for the latest CAS(e) This Sketch.

I’m not sure if I’m going to make a few more of these for my friend, or just leave it as a one-off for my own stash. It is cute, but I try to make fairly conventional cards for my friend (her family isn’t initiated to the creativity that can be card-making ;).

Thanks for taking a peek!

merry christmas
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Winter Snow Globe (PTI);
Ink/Cardstock: Blueberry Sky, White, Enchanted Evening (PTI); Unicorn White (Hero Arts); Rich Cocoa (Memento/Tsukineko);
Other: Winter Snow Globe die (PTI); G24 & Y02 markers (Copic);

Season’s Greetings

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by karen @ carefree creations - Season's Greetings

Oh boy was this card trying! It all started with a Pin.

I used about 12 quarter sheets of scrap paper designing this card. I even had to preform stamp surgery! And I still managed to ruin 2 cards! But I did get 4 of these one-layer cards done without problems. Whew!

I love that inspiration photo (I pinned it from someone else – but now that I go look at the original I see that card is 5 x 7…no wonder I couldn’t get 5 wreaths on my A2!!).

My card has two different-sized wreaths on it – that is where the stamp surgery comes in. I trimmed out a small section and was able to bend the stamp a bit more to make a smaller complete circle.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Season’s Greetings
Stamps: Berry Christmas, More Merry Messages (StampinUp); Birds of a Feather, Bird Watching, Birthday Style (PaperTrey Ink);
Ink/Cardstock: White, Simply Chartreuse, Pure Poppy, Spring Rain, Chocolate (PTI); Crushed Curry (SU);

Frosty Tree

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by karen @ carefree creations - Frosty Tree

I made this card hoping to use it for the set I’m making for a friend, but no. My original plan (without the sequins) was just too plain. I still want to try the idea (emboss-resist tree), but haven’t figure out how to make it work.

I added the sequins to dress it up, but I don’t trust them to stay on through mailing, so I’ll add this card to my own stack.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Peace, Love, & Joy
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: In the Meadow, Happiest of Holidays (PTI);
Ink/Cardstock: Enchanted Evening, Spring Rain, White (PTI);
Other: sequins (stash); Versamark (Tsukineko);
Technique: emboss resist

Gobble Gobble

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It is time for another CAS Colours & Sketches challenge. Check out the latest challenge: #51 – sketch.

CAS Colours & Sketches Challenge #51

And here is my take:

by karen @ carefree creations - Gobble Turkey

I stamped this last weekend while I was making all my Thanksgiving cards. This turkey image is so fun – I love using it!

The footprints are from another set and I think if I use them again, I’ll cut them apart so it is only 1 set of feet per impression…right now it sorta looks like a four-legged bird creature made those tracks lol!

This card is 4 x 5 1/2.

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).

Gobble Gobble
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Gobble Gobble, Birds of a Feather;
Ink/Cardstock: Orange Zest, Summer Sunrise, Canyon Clay, Terracotta Tile, Dark Chocolate; Baked Brown-Sugar (SU);
Other: Gobble Gobble die;

You Are My Heart #2

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by karen @ carefree creations - You Are My Heart

I recently pinned a cute little doodle artwork that inspired this card.

In addition, I used Addicted to CAS’s anniversary challenge as well as CAS on Sunday’s one-layer challenge.

Since this was more of a playful card, I didn’t bother drawing a grid. I did line up my card so the center was over the darker lines on my grid paper. That helped with eye-balling the placements.

Thanks for taking a peek!

You Are My Heart
Stamps: Gently Seasoned, Friendly Flowers, Flap Happy, Falling for You, Chit Chat, Warm Hearts (Paper Smooches);
Ink/Cardstock: Basic Grey, Soft Sky, Crumb Cake (SU); Limeade Ice, Lavender Moon, Harvest Gold, Sweet Blush, White (PTI);
Other: Stitched Rectangle die (Lil Inkers);

Circle of Light

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by karen @ carefree creations - Circle of Light

A couple months ago I pinned an incredible card by Nancy Penir. Without that inspiration I would never have thought to bend my string of lights around!

I originally was going to make this a one-layer card, but honestly chickened out. I figured it would be easier to waste a quarter sheet than a half (though I suppose half of the half could still be used for scrap and die-cutting).

Anyway, when it came time to mount the light panel to a card base, I struggled over what color to use. I first thought to match the yellow circle, but I used crushed curry and while I love the ink, the cardstock can be a bit overpowering. I had 3 shades of yellow and a green on my desk and still couldn’t decide. Thankfully my kiddo was able to put into words why I couldn’t decide. When I called them over to help, they immediately said, “green, because it makes the yellow pop”. Ah! Yes….when I used yellow as a background, the sentiment faded away and the light strand was the focus.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Merry Christmas
Stamps: Holiday Lights (PTI);
Ink/Cardstock: White, New Leaf, Pure Poppy (PTI); Crushed Curry (SU);
Other: Limitless Layers 1 3/4 circle die (PTI);

Sweet Christmas

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by karen @ carefree creations - Sweet Christmas

I am a little behind in making Christmas cards for a friend. Last year I made 6 of 4 designs. This year I’m going for the opposite: 4 each of 6 designs. I’ve managed to sketch out 4 ideas. This is the first one.

I trimmed the branch piece so that the candy cane could hang on the branch. I did stamp a couple additional pines onto the white panel to fill out the branch.

The candy cane image is quite long – so I had to trim a bit off the end so that I had room for everything.

The sentiment is pieced together from 3 sets!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Sweet Christmas
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Candy Cane Christmas, Peaceful Pinecones, Strawberry Sentiments, Mistletoe & Holly sentiment, Wonderful Words: Holiday sentiments (PTI);
Ink/Cardstock: Pure Poppy, Simply Chartreuse, Dark Chocolate, White (PTI); Baked Brown-Sugar marker (SU);
Other: Candy Cane Christmas die (PTI);