Category Archives: cards

Acorn & Wood

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Today is Papertrey Ink’s Blog Hop. The inspiration was a wonderful autumn vignette:

2016-10_ptibloghop

I loved the white washed wood paired with the leaves. Those are the inspiration bits for my card:

Thanksgiving | by karen @ carefree creations

To do the background, I inked the stamp with a sponge so it faded out at the edges.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Thanksgiving
Stamps: Autumn Acorns, Background Basics: Farm & Barn (Papertrey Ink – PTI);
Ink: Soft Stone, Canyon Clay, Cocoa Bean, Dark Chocolate (PTI); Hello Honey, Cajun Craze (Stampin’Up);
Paper: White (PTI);
Other: Autumn Acorns die, Chocolate baker’s twine (PTI);

Love You to My Core

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

ccs_2016-10-20_196

And here is my take:

Love You to My Core | by karen @ carefree creations

Ack, copper as a color?!? I had to dig out my ancient embossing powder and hope it still worked! Thankfully it did! I don’t have much luck with embossing powder staying good for long.

I used the copper for the sentiment, apple seeds, and apple stem (I know in the photo it looks brown, but if I got the shine then the rest of the card was off color, sigh – one day I may learn how to take photos).

I hope you join us at CAS Colours & Sketches!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Little About the Challenge: This weekly challenge is posted on Thursday, and alternates between color and sketch (if there is a 5th week in the month you get the double dose of color & sketch).

Love You
Stamps: Fruit Fusion: Apple (Papertrey Ink – PTI);
Ink: Scarlet Jewel (PTI); Garden Green (Stampin’Up);
Paper: White (PTI);
Other: copper embossing powder;
Technique: one-layer card; embossing;

Birthday Masquerade

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Masked Leaves | by karen @ carefree creations

Another card for the SCS Falliday Fest.

I die cut the leaves from masking paper and adhere it to watercolor paper. Then I used Distress Inks to watercolor the background.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Birthday
Stamps: Birthday Bash Sentiments (Papertrey Ink – PTI);
Ink: Bundled Sage, Faded Jeans Distress Inks (Ranger); Cactus (My Favorite Things – MFT);
Paper: Watercolor (Ranger); Cactus (MFT);
Other: Fancy Foliage Details die (PTI);
Technique: masking; watercolor;
Challenge: SCS Falliday Fest

Halloween Trio

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Halloween Icons Trio | by karen @ carefree creations

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Halloween
Stamps: Halloween Backgrounds (Stampin’Up – SU); Keep it Simple: Halloween (Papertrey Ink – PTI);
Ink: Peekaboo Peach, Daffodil Delight (SU); Grape Jelly (My Favorite Things – MFT); Embossing ink (Ranger);
Paper: White (PTI); Gravel Gray (MFT);
Other: white embossing powder (Hero Arts); Take Three die (PTI);

Halloween Spotlight

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Halloween Spotlight | by karen @ carefree creations

I really loved this card by Erin Lincoln – the layout is awesome!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Halloween Greetings
Stamps: Haunting Hill Wheel (Stampin’Up); Happy Day (Papertrey Ink – PTI);
Ink: Royal Velvet (PTI); Orange Fizz (My Favorite Things – MFT);
Paper: Royal Velvet, White, Winter Wisteria, Winter Wisteria Patterns (PTI); Orange Fizz (MFT);
Other: Ric-Rac die, Happy Day die, Celebrations die (PTI);
Technique: spotlight
Inspired/CASEd from: Erin Lincoln

Thanksgiving Leaves

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Thanksgiving Foliage | by karen @ carefree creations

Splitcoaststampers is having a Falliday Fest – a week of challenges all focused on the upcoming holidays. I’m a bit behind, but I managed a card for the first challenge: be inspired by the fall colors of NYC and use text. This dovetailed quite nicely with One Layer Simplicity Challenge of using red, orange, and yellow.

To make this card, I masked off the edges and then did my stamping. I used a very pale ink for the added text as I didn’t want it to overwhelm anything.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Thanksgiving
Stamps: Leaf Prints, Basket of Happiness, Background Basics: Text (Papertrey Ink – PTI);
Ink: Pure Poppy, Fine Linen, Dark Chocolate (PTI); Crushed Curry, Peach Parfait (Stampin’Up);
Paper: Cream (PTI);
Technique: one-layer card; masking;
Challenge: Splitcoaststampers Falliday Fest; One Layer Simplicity Challenge

Thanksgiving Dinner

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

ccs_2016-10-13_195

And here is my take:

Thanksgiving Dinner | by karen @ carefree creations

This is such a versatile sketch – I had lots of ideas!

I thought this would be a cute take on the sketch – setup like a dinner place setting (the plaid paper being the napkin).

I hope you join us at CAS Colours & Sketches!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Little About the Challenge: This weekly challenge is posted on Thursday, and alternates between color and sketch (if there is a 5th week in the month you get the double dose of color & sketch).

Happy Thanksgiving
Stamps: Autumn Acorns, Keep it Simple: Thanksgiving (Papertrey Ink – PTI);
Ink: Crushed Curry, Peach Parfait, Chocolate Chip (Stampin’Up); Persimmon (My Favorite Things);
Paper: Kraft, Rustic Cream, Silver card stock (PTI); Perfectly Plaid Fall pattern paper (Lawn Fawn);
Other: Flatware 2 die (Paper Smooches); Autumn Acorns die, Sketched Shapes die (PTI);

Halloween Dots

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I found some inspiration on Pinterest and couldn’t wait to make a card.

Halloween Dots | by karen @ carefree creations

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Halloween
Stamps: Brush Stroke Alphabet (Stampin’Up – SU); Get to the Point Sentiments (Papertrey Ink – PTI); Lots of Dots (Simon Says Stamp);
Ink: Lucky Limeade, Tangelo Twist (SU); Black (PTI);
Paper: White (PTI);
Other: Happy Spooky Halloween die (PTI);
Inspired by: Pinspiration

Merry Bright Trees

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

ccs_2016-10-06_194

And here is my take:

Merry Bright Trees | by karen @ carefree creations

I love using non-traditional color schemes for Christmas cards. When I was brainstorming for this challenge, I thought about blue and green (and after a few other ideas) came to trees and this card formed!

I added a square rhinestone to the top of each tree. I’ve had those square blings for ages and this is the first time I’ve used them – but I thought they would look like little stars.

I hope you join us at CAS Colours & Sketches!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Little About the Challenge: This weekly challenge is posted on Thursday, and alternates between color and sketch (if there is a 5th week in the month you get the double dose of color & sketch).

merry&bright
Stamps: Merry & Bright, Holiday Swoosh (Papertrey Ink – PTI);
Ink: Emerald Envy, Tempting Turquoise, Melon Mambo (Stampin’Up);
Paper: White (PTI);
Other: rhinestones (Basic Grey);

Halloween Wreath

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Halloween Wreath | by karen @ carefree creations

A special Halloween card for my sister-in-law who *loves* Halloween more than anything!

I’m sending this in a package, so I could do lots of depth. The watercolor panel is up on foam; the wreath is 5 layers thick; and the sentiment uses quite a few dimensionals!

This card sat on my desk for weeks before I was able to finish it to satisfaction. I had found the inspiration on Pinterest ages ago, and even picked out the sketch I wanted to use. I think putting all those eyes on was intimidating because it required planned randomness!

My original watercoloring included a bit of stencil painting over a lighter background, but it was just too much going on. I put more ink on the panel to make it darker and bigger (and cover up the stencil pattern) and I liked it much better.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Halloween
Stamps: Keep it Simple: Halloween (Papertrey Ink – PTI);
Ink: Peeled Paint Distress (Ranger); Versamark (Tsukineko);
Paper: Orange Zest (PTI); Watercolor (Ranger); Wild Wasabi card stock, Nite Owl DSP, Ghostly Greetings DSP (Stampin’Up – SU);
Other: tons of googlie eyes (stash); Swirly Scribbles die (SU);
Sketch: RetroSketch 222
Inspired by from: Pinterest