Author Archives: kth

Captain Dad

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by Karen @ Carefree Creations - Captain Dad

I created this card for the CASE this Sketch #21 challenge.

Not sure if this will go to my hubby or his dad. At least I have time to figure it out 🙂

Thanks for taking a peek!

Father’s Day
All supplies StampinUp unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: The Open Sea, Best Dad Ever;
Ink/Card Stock: Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Pool Party, Island Indigo;
Other: Circle dies (Spellbinders);

Happy Easter

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by Karen @ Carefree Creations - Easter Mini Notes

These little cuties are the mini note cards I made for my girls. The cards are 3 1/2 inches square.

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Spring
Stamps: Spring Fling (Paper Smooches);
Ink/Card Stock: White (PTI); Green Galore (SU);
Other: Markers (Copic); Grass die (My Favorite Things);

Birthday by the Seashore

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It is time for another CAS Colours & Sketches challenge. Check out the latest challenge -> #18 – sketch.

CAS Colours & Sketches #18

And here is my take:

by Karen @ Carefree Creations - Birthday by the Seashore

This is such an easy sketch that I know I will use it over and over (heck, I posted a card last weekend that used the sketch – you had a preview and didn’t know it, hee hee).

My colors were very much inspired by last week’s color challenge – but I went with Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, and Riding Hood Red.

For those of you who know my mom – this card will be in the April camp.

Thanks for stopping by!

Make sure you check out the other design team members:
Jacqueline
Kylie
Louise
Paula
Sandie

I hope you join us at CAS Colours & Sketches!

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

Happy Birthday
All supplies StampinUp unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: By the Seashore, Best Dad Ever;
Ink/Card Stock: Naturals Ivory, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Riding Hood Red, Vanilla;
Other: Circle die;

MIM – Watercolor + Embossing

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Yesterday’s Make-it-Monday challenge at Papertrey was Watercolor + Embossing.

Today I was inspired to take that challenge. I was looking through my Pinterest board looking for inspiration, and found something I had re-pinned last week: a bright geometric pillow.

Here’s my card:

by Karen @ Carefree Creations - Bright Watercolor

I purposefully didn’t blend my colors, but now I’m thinking this might look a little better if I had. So I decided that I needed to do another and the Dot Spot came to mind. So I made another card:

by Karen @ Carefree Creations - Blue Green Watercolor Spots

I’m quite happy with how both cards turned out. I even have a sheet of watercolor paper that I used to soak up the remaining ink from the blue/green card. I’ll try to make something with that soon!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Fabulous Day
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: B ackground-Basics: Super Stripes, Signature Greetings;
Ink/Card Stock: White, Raspberry Fizz, Orange Zest, Harvest Gold, True Black;
Other: white embossing powder;
Celebrate
All supplies Papertrey unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Dot Spot, Celebrations;
Ink/Card Stock: White, Enchanted Evening, Hawaiian Shores, New Leaf;
Other: white embossing powder;

Enjoy Spring

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by Karen @ Carefree Creations - Enjoy Spring

I created this card for a couple challenges. First, the Addicted to CAS challenge whose code word is Spring. I chose my colors because the make me think spring – and butterflies…can’t wait for them to come around!

Next up is the Paper Smooches Sparks Picture Perfect challenge that showed buttons on a bulletin board. I used circles on my card in reference to the inspiration piece buttons.

The card base is 5 1/2 x 3 3/4 – the sentiment strip is 4 1/4 wide.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Enjoy this Day
Stamps: Flap Happy (Paper Smooches);
Ink/Card Stock: White (PTI); Black ink (Memento);
Other: Country Drive Pattern Paper (Echo Park); Fancy Fan embossing folder (SU); lots of different circle punches;

Happiest Thoughts

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When I first saw the latest Freshly Made Sketch (FMS78), my mind immediately went to Field Flowers.

by Karen @ Carefree Creations - Happiest Thoughts

I didn’t want to make the flower pink, and I had done purple before, so this time I did yellow. That drove my other color choices. I do believe I’ll miss this year’s SU colors – Indigo is such a beautiful blue and Limeade is a perfect green.

I used a marker to selectively ink the stem so I only had one.

For the scallops along the top, I used the Lace tape from the Spring Mini catalog.

I’ll be sending this card to my mom for her inspiration shelf.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Thoughts are Happiest
All supplies StampinUp unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Field Flowers;
Ink/Card Stock: Island Indigo, White, Lucky Limeade, So Saffron, More Mustard;
Other: Lace Tape, Indigo ribbon;

Star Spangled Banner

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by Karen @ Carefree Creations - Military Thanks

This week’s CAS-ology challenge cue is Song. I chose to be inspired by the Star Spangled Banner (I even managed a banner on the card!!).

When I first stamped the stars and stripes they ended up being very bold and overpowering the eagle image. One tip I learned in the Pattern Play course was to alter bold patterns to dampen their affect. I used distress inks (Old Paper & Tea Dye) to tone down the colors. Also, I originally cut closely around the eagle, but I think the lack of edge helped it get lost. So I stamped it again and this time left more of an outline; I think that brighter border helps bring focus to the image.

It is hard to tell in the photo, but the sentiment banner has some additional shading. After stamping the banner image with Linen ink, I went back with a Copic marker and slightly darkened the “behind” pieces.

The reason for the anchor is that this will be going to a naval recruit.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Thank You
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Est.1776, Bountiful Banners, Paper Tray;
Ink/Card Stock: Kraft, Cream, Linen, Dark Chocolate, Enchanted Evening, Pure Poppy; Distress Inks (Ranger);
Other: Banner die;

Dino-Party

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by Karen @ Carefree Creations - Dino Party

I created this card for the Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge – Fiesta Colors. I love those colors!

With a challenge name like Fiesta – I knew I needed a party card. To get the green in the card, I decided to go with a green animal. I had fun coloring the dino and even added a few spots for interest.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Birthday
Stamps: Cuteasaurus, Hullabaloo, Geographic, Sentiment Sampler (Paper Smooches);
Ink/Card Stock: Summer Sunrise, White (PTI); Black (Memento);
Other: Flag die (Paper Smooches); markers (Copic);

Stamp Free

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The latest CAS-ual Friday challenge (#95) is to make a card but NOT use stamps. What?!?

by Karen @ Carefree Creations - Party Pieces Birthday

OK, that was actually easier than I thought. Since I signed-up for the Online Card Class Pattern Play (I say “signed-up” and not “participated” because I am just now getting around to watching the lessons – this week was just too crazy at school!)…um what was I saying – oh yes, pattern paper. I figured I could use pattern paper to make a card without stamps.

In my pattern paper stash are old Stampin’ Up scrapbook kits – complete with pre-printed accents! This card was so quick and easy. I didn’t have to come up with a color scheme – the kit took care of that for me! To bring all my colors together, I took a strip of stripe pattern paper (included in the kit) and used it like I learned in the Pattern Play class.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Birthday
Stamps: None!
Ink/Card Stock: White (PTI);
Other: Party Pieces Scrapbook Kit (StampinUp);

FYI – Desert Balloons

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It is time for another For Your Inspiration challenge. Check out the latest challenge -> FYI42.

FYI Challenge #42

I really like the striking color combination in this photo!

by Karen @ Carefree Creations - Desert Balloons

Honestly, this is probably my 4th attempt at a card (but that is what I get for waiting til the last minute!) – so I went old school simple with this layout (and we won’t talk about how eerily similar it is to the card I post a bit ago).

Thanks for stopping by!

Make sure you check out the other design team members:
Debbie
Michelle
Mynnette
Rochelle
Rudlis
Sara
Steph
Vicki

I hope you join us at For Your Inspiration!

A Little About the Challenge: The For Your Inspiration challenge is posted the first and third Thursday of every month; each challenge is open for two weeks. To play, use the photo to inspire you and create a card – very simple! Make sure you tell us in your blog post how you were inspired!

Birthday Wishes
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Up Up Away;
Ink/Card Stock: Pacific Point (SU); Blueberry Pie, White, Terracotta Tile, Canyon Clay, Summer Sunrise;
Other: Up Up Away dies, Linen/Canvas Impression plate;