Spring Fusion

Posted on April 7, 2013 by kth

There is a new challenge! It is called Fusion and basically it is 3 challenges – either a sketch, an inspiration, or a combination of both.

I decided to do both! The layout is the sketch (think of the picket fence as the chevrons…the tops do sorta look like it!) and the colors and flowers are a nod to the inspiration photo.

To do the fence, I die cut it twice and trimmed the second one down to just 2 pickets. I also embossed all those pieces with a woodgrain texture.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Enjoy Your Day

All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.

Stamps: Mini Blooms;
Ink/Card Stock: Kraft, Black, White, Orange Zest, New Leaf; Daffodil Delight (SU);
Other: Hibisucs Patterns paper, Mini Blooms die, Happy Trails die, Picket Fence die, Woodgrain impression plate; grass die (MFT);

Graduation Collage

Posted on April 7, 2013 by kth

I created this card using the Make-it-Monday collage background technique.

I’ve been pinning lots of cards lately that all have music staffs in them. So I decided to take that inspiration and use it in my collage.

My niece will be graduating from high school this June. She is a fabulous piano player, so I figured, with the above inspiration, I could make a card perfect for the occasion.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Wishing You Success

All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.

Stamps: Rhythm & Soul, Background Basics: Sheet Music, Fancy Flourishes, For the Graduate;
Ink/Card Stock: Lavender Moon, White, Kraft, Aqua Mist, Black;
Other: sequins (stash);

FYI – Paint Stroke Sky

Posted on April 4, 2013 by kth

It is time for another For Your Inspiration challenge. Check out the latest challenge -> FYI43.

I was really drawn to the colors of the sunset.

After choosing my colors, I went back to the inspiration photo to help me figure out what stamp set to use. I loved how the clouds looked like paint strokes.

I used 3 different stroke images. The top one is inked with Wisteria and edged with Velvet. The middle stroke has Lavender and Melon Berry. The final stroke (really just a dot) is just Melon Berry. I stamped the sentiment with Velvet.

I finished the card off with a little rhinestone dotting the “i” in “big”.

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!

Wish Big

All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.

Stamps: Wonderful Watercolor, Stylish Sentiments: Birthday;
Ink/Card Stock: White, Royal Velvet, Winter Wisteria, Lavender Moon, Melon Berry;
Other: Rhinestone (Kaiser);

Birthday Popper

Posted on April 3, 2013 by kth

I’ve had this set since it came out, but haven’t inked it. I decided it was time!

I wanted a bright and festive card, so that is how I chose my colors. I’m not a fan of pink, but it sure does get the point across for fun.

Design Point: I originally stamped the popper in Wisteria, but it was too light and not working at all. So I pulled out Royal Velvet but that was too dark. Thankfully Goldilocks remembered about generational-stamping! The popper is stamped with Royal Velvet, off-stamped first.

Why did I stamp the greeting in black? I have no idea. If I felt like re-doing it, I would probably use Royal Velvet (either full-strength or off-stamped).

This ribbon is from my stash. I have NO idea where it came from. It was too narrow on its own, so I wrapped it twice. Glossy Accents did NOT want to hold the bow on. I had to wait for it to dry and then use a glue dot.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Hooray

All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.

Stamps: Party Poppers;
Ink/Card Stock: Hibiscus Burst, White, Hawaiian Shores, Royal Velvet, True Black;
Other: Party Poppers dies; circle die (Spellbinders); ribbon (stash);

Salted Watercolor

Posted on April 2, 2013 by kth

So last week I created a watercolor + embossing card and ended up with a lot of ink left over on my craft sheet. I sopped up the ink with some watercolor paper and salted it (tutorial). This is how they turned out:

The brown spots are where the salt pushed the ink away and, I guess, also reacted with the ink. I love the resulting veining! These papers remind me of landsat photos of the earth.

I loved the results so much that I wanted to make sure the papers were not covered much. Both cards are the exact same, so I’m just showcasing one.

Design Point: My original plan was to use hemp twine/jute (more masculine in my opinion – and it did match those little salt dots in the background) but it really did not look right and as soon as I switched it out for white – the card popped.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Birthday

All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.

Stamps: Ad Sense (“happy”);
Ink/Card Stock: White, Lemon Tart, True Black, Enchanted Evening, New Leaf;
Other: Tiny Tag die, Wonderful Words: Birthday day; twine (SU);

MIM – Watercolor + Embossing

Posted on March 26, 2013 by kth

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:

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:

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;

Star Spangled Banner

Posted on March 24, 2013 by kth

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;

FYI – Desert Balloons

Posted on March 21, 2013 by kth

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

I really like the striking color combination in this photo!

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!

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;

Tiffany’s Box

Posted on March 14, 2013 by kth

It is time for another CAS Colours & Sketches challenge. Check out the latest challenge -> #16 – sketch.

And here is my take:

I am so happy with how this card turned out! I got the idea as I was browsing my index looking for stamps to use for this sketch. When I came across the Ribbons & Bows set – I knew just what I would do.

This card may be clean and simple, and actually relatively easy, but it was NOT quick! So much embossing! I started by embossing the large bow, then I went back with a line/stripe stamp. I’m not sure it matters, but I did use an Xacto to scrape off the embossing powder (pre-heating) from where the line went over the bow (I didn’t want it to look like the lines were on top of the bow).

** ETA – So my mom asked me why I didn’t stamp the stripes first and then the bow (to save from scraping away the powder). Well, I like to do things the hard way! Seriously though, I had a couple reasons. First, the stripe stamps I used are not long enough to go the whole distance of the card (I do have the set by PTI that is longer, but the smallest width in that set was just a bit too wide); so I thought the bow would provide a good “break” point for the lines (if I had tried to connect them perfectly, it would never have worked and the connection point would surely have fallen in an open space and been more visible – this way I had control over where the potential goofs would occur). Second, I don’t do a lot of embossing, so I didn’t know what embossing over embossing would do/look like and I really really wanted the bow to be “in the front”. If I had more time I would have experimented more.

When it came time to do the sentiment, I actually started out by doing a pale grey frame and dark grey sentiment, but something about it just felt off. So I die cut another label and this time embossed the frame in white – definitely the better choice for this card.

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).

Celebrate

All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.

Stamps: Ribbons & Bows, Faux Ribbon, Boutique Borders-Mother;
Ink/Card Stock: Aqua Mist, White, Smokey Shadow;
Other: Boutique Borders-Mother die; lots of Versamark & white embossing powder;

Happy Pi Day!

Posted on March 14, 2013 by kth

Firstly, a big happy Pi day to my math-loving kid! I think they have about 40 digits memorized (it constantly grows).

I made this card for them to help them start the day.

To be honest, I hadn’t intended on playing in PTI’s Make-it-Monday clear card challenge, but when I started thinking about creating this card, it just made sense. See, I wanted to use the digits of Pi, but knowing my kid, they’d be upset if I covered any of them up (even if they were digits 300 and above, lol). This way, the digits are in the design, but not obscured.

On the inside (back side of front sentiment – ugh, did that make sense??) is another black circle & red heart with “love you” stamped on the heart.

To get the Pi digits, I used the PiDay website.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Pi Day

All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.

Stamps: Little Bitty Bird, Fresh Alpha;
Ink/Card Stock: Black, White, Poppy, Clear;
Other: Limitless Layers: Circle die, Framed Out #11 (heart) die, Double-ended Banner die;

Carefree Creations

papercrafts by karen h

Category Archives: Papertrey Ink

Spring Fusion

Graduation Collage

FYI – Paint Stroke Sky

Birthday Popper

Salted Watercolor

MIM – Watercolor + Embossing

Star Spangled Banner

FYI – Desert Balloons

Tiffany’s Box

Happy Pi Day!