Author Archives: kth

Have a Spooky Day

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by karen @ carefree creations - Spooky Day

I’m squeezing in a card for the latest Paper Smooches Sparks challenge – a designer draft sketch.

I seriously considered having the sentiment say “Have a Spoopy Day” – but I wasn’t sure if anyone would get it (I think I spend too much time on Fail Blog 🙂

Thanks for taking a peek!

Have a Spooky Day
Stamps: Spookalicious, Alphadot, Wake Up (Paper Smooches);
Ink/Card Stock: Kraft (PTI); Plum Pudding, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie (SU); Black (VersaFine);
Other: Flourishes die, Duo Die 2 die (Paper Smooches);

Bokeh Smiles

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It is time for another CAS Colours & Sketches challenge. Check out the latest challenge: #47 – colors.

CAS Colours & Sketches Challenge #47

And here is my take:

by karen @ carefree creations - Bokeh Smiles

These colors are Valentine to me, but I haven’t even made Halloween cards, let alone Christmas – or Valentine’s Day!

I’m always in need of birthday cards, so I wanted a design that would work with these colors but be birthday.

I’ve been wanting to try the Bokeh technique for a while and decided this was the perfect opportunity. There are only the two pinks – but lots of generational stamping, getting lighter as you move 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).

Smiles
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Stylish Sentiments: Birthday, Dot Spot;
Ink/Card Stock: White; Early Espresso, Rose Red, Pink Pirouette (SU);
Other: Mat Stack 4 die; dimensional adhesive (SU);

Autumn Flowers

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It is time for another CAS Colours & Sketches challenge. Check out the latest challenge: #46 – sketch.

CAS Colours & Sketches Challenge #46

And here is my take:

by karen @ carefree creations - Autumn Flowers

I have misplaced my Stamp-a-ma-Jig. I know I’ll find it eventually, but I have no clue where it has gotten to. Thankfully since I unmount (foam too) my rubber stamps, and trim close, I was able to fake it pretty well! I can’t be the only person desperately waiting for the time StampinUp puts out a pretty flower PHOTOPOLYMER set!!

Anyway….I’m not sure how CAS this card is, but it is what popped into my head when I saw the sketch. The vanilla is actually the card base peeking through the frame I created with the browns.

I was going to pop the frame, but I thought, with the flowers popped too, that might be too much.

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: Field Flowers, Bring on the Cake;
Ink/Card Stock: Naturals Ivory, Crumb Cake, Baked Brown Sugar, Tangerine Tango, Cajun Craze, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip;
Other: Woodgrain embossing folder;

Party Poppers

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by karen @ carefree creations - Party Poppers

CAS(e) This Sketch is another challenge I enjoy playing so I pulled up the current sketch to make another needed birthday card.

I seem to use this color scheme a lot for birthdays.

I trimmed the card to be 4 x 5.5 inches.

Since this is a fairly simple card, I added some Spica glitter pen accents to the poppers and confetti. You can’t see it in the photo, but in person it does add a nice touch.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Celebrate
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Party Poppers;
Ink/Card Stock: White, Hibiscus Burst, Summer Sunrise, Hawaiian Shores, Smokey Shadow;
Other: Party Popper dies; Glitter Pen (Spica);

Sorbet Chevrons

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by karen @ carefree creations - Birthday Chevrons

I need a couple birthday cards for a RAK group I am part of – and this is probably my last chance to stamp until the weekend.

Since the CAS-ual Friday challenge will be over before the weekend, I thought I’d play in that challenge today. The challenge was to use chevrons and sequins.

I bought this cool chevron stencil ages ago and haven’t used it yet, so I thought I should get it out. I have a few mists – this one is an old one from Tattered Angels. The color is called Coral, but it is a perfect match for PTI’s Berry Sorbet!

I really don’t understand why I always pick to work with pink….you’ll never see me wear or decorate with that color, but it does seem to be a go-to when I’m card making.

I wanted the misting to be darker at one end and lighter at the top (actually I hardly wanted any at the top, but I don’t mist often, so no practice means less ability). I cut a paper mask to make sure no mist got onto the bottom of the card base. This is practically a one layer card!

I did chose to use GinaK white cardstock because it is so thick and I didn’t want any bleed through.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Birthday
Stamps: Bigger Blooms (PTI);
Ink/Card Stock: Smokey Shadow (PTI); White (GinaK);
Other: Coral Glimmer Mist (Tattered Angels); Chevron Stencil (Studio Calico/Mister Huey); Silver Sequins (Neat & Tangled); Berry Sorbet Satin Ribbon (PTI); Fancy Flourishes die (PTI);
Technique: stencil, masking, misting;

Mosaic Christmas

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by karen @ carefree creations - Mosaic Christmas

Mom needed a Christmas card for an upcoming stamp camp. I thought it would be fun to show how to use a non-Christmas stamp set to create a holiday card.

I loved seeing all the great ideas pour forth when the Mosaic Madness set was first released. I pulled my inspiration from those cards.

To do the border around the Vanilla panel, I used a border stamp from the same stamp set. I stamped it half-on and half-off the panel. It was actually quite easy to line up (I unmount my stamps – even the foam – and cut close) to do the long edges.

The hanging lines were drawn with a marker and ruler.

I finished off the ornaments with a little pearl in the centers.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Merry Christmas
All supplies Stampin’Up! unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Mosaic Madness, Delightful Dozen;
Ink/Card Stock: Always Artichoke, Raspberry Ripple, Very Vanilla;
Other: Pearls, Petals-a-Plenty embossing folder;

Glad You’re Home

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by karen @ carefree creations - Glad U R Home

My kiddo has been on a week-long school field trip and we have missed them! I thought I’d make sure they knew we all were thinking of them by creating a card to show them we were glad they were finally back home!

I’m entering this in the Paper Smooches Sparks challenge – Anything Goes.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Glad U R Home
Stamps: Chubby Chums, Chubby Chum Pals, Hullabaloo, Alphadot, Shadows (Paper Smooches);
Ink/Card Stock: Lemon Tart, White (PTI); Black (Memento);
Other: markers (Copic); twine (stash);

Halloween Wishes

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by karen @ carefree creations - Halloween Web

Today is World Cardmaking Day. I’m ignoring the fact that I’m sick and I’m playing along anyway. (Thankfully I do feel a bit better than yesterday.)

I pulled up all my favorite challenges (why are there too many to actually play all of them???) and I found this cool sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.

I don’t do circles easily, but this sketch seemed doable as the circle was a background element.

I browsed my supply index looking for something that would spark an idea. The first thing that brought forth an idea was a stamp set with a filigree circle and Halloween theme. Once I got to the Halloween theme my brain started churning and I thought about the web dies I recently purchases. Thus my card was born 🙂

I embossed the spider with black embossing powder – because I wanted it to be shiny…because I knew I wanted to use either bling or sequins to accent the sentiment. And here I am breaking one of my rules for masculine cards: no bling. But every rule has an exception (hmmmm…does that rule have one too??), so I didn’t mind adding the bling.

I haven’t created enough Halloween cards to send to all my family (which is sad since that only numbers 10), but I have a couple folks I *must* send to. So I’m glad I’ve got one done with time to mail!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Halloween
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Trick or Treat, Spooky Sweets II;
Ink/Card Stock: Smokey Shadow, Canyon Clay, True Black; Vellum (stash);
Other: Spooky Sweets II die, Spider Webs die; sequins (Neat & Tangled); Black embossing powder (Filigree);

Anniversary Flowers

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It is time for another CAS Colours & Sketches challenge. Check out the latest challenge: #45 – colors.

CAS Colours & Sketches Challenge #45

And here is my take:

by karen @ carefree creations - Anniversary Flowers

It is a new month at CAS Colours & Sketches challenge. A new month brings a new challenge hostess. Patricia came up with some wonderful challenges for this month – the first one is a gorgeous color palette.

She shared that this challenge is on the day of her anniversary (Happy Anniversary, Patricia!!), and so she chose colors from her wedding. In the spirit of the challenge, I chose to make an anniversary card.

I stamped the poppies image and then watercolored. I did use Cherry, but when you watercolor with that color it goes very pink instead of red.

The layout is from an old Retro Sketch challenge (#26).

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).

Happy Anniversary
Stamps: Pleasant Poppies (SU); Round & Round (PTI);
Ink/Card Stock: Soft Sky, White, Cherry Cobbler, Basic Grey (SU); Charcoal (Palette);
Other: Square Lattice embossing folder (SU); ribbon (PTI); Labels die (SU);
Technique: watercoloring

Grateful Greetings

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by karen @ carefree creations - Grateful Greetings

Tis the season to be creating fall cards!

Addicted to CAS just posted their new challenge: Autumn/Fall.

On my last card my kiddo really wanted me to use burlap instead of raffia (or as they called it, hay). So I told them they could chose the elements for this card. Burlap and pumpkins with a thanksgiving greeting – those were their choices.

I pulled out the Ocean tides again because it is such a great compliment to orange.

I used a retired StampinUp set. My kiddo also chose to have me color with Copics instead of watercoloring.

To adhere the burlap pieces I first held them to the back of the Ocean Tides panel with some tape; then I machine stitched them down. I covered the stitching with the linen thread.

The whole bunch is adhered to a Rustic Cream card base. I like that you see it through the edge of the burlap – it helps bring in the sentiment banner.

The pumpkins are popped with foam tape at different heights.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Grateful Greetings
Stamps: Autumn Harvest, Grateful Greetings (SU);
Ink/Card Stock: Rustic Cream, Ocean Tides (PTI); Rich Cocoa (Memento);
Other: markers (Copic); burlap (stash); linen thread (SU); Sketched Shapes die, Woodgrain impression plate (PTI);
Technique: machine stitching