Hello Sweet Friend

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This post is for the PTI’s Floral Challenge.

I have lots of flower sets to chose from, but I ended up going with The Sweet Life – a favorite:

Hello Sweet Friend | by karen @ carefree creations

I hardly ever use pattern paper because I have a hard time working with it. I had the idea for this layout and didn’t want to let it go. Getting the stamping colors right took forever! I like the vintage feel of the final card.

Thanks for taking a peek!

hello, sweet friend
Stamps: The Sweet Life, Keep it Simple: Friendship (Papertrey Ink – PTI);
Ink: Sweet Blush, Autumn Rose, Scarlett Jewel, Prairie Grass (PTI); River Rock (Stampin’Up – SU);
Paper: Vintage Cream (PTI); Le Jardin DSP (SU);
Other: Flax Twine (The Twinery); Sweet Life die (PTI);

Birthday Cake Remake

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I’m playing along with the next Papertrey celebration challenge: Transformation Tuesday.

The idea behind the challenge is to take a past card and transform it – either to make it better or just to change it up. I had selected a few cards, but settled on this one:

Sweet Cake | by karen @ carefree creations

And here is my remake:

Birthday Cake Remake | by karen @ carefree creations

From the old card, I kept the dark chocolate card base, the frosting border die, and the bling on the flowers. I changed up the cake and flower colors and the overall layout. For the layout I used a past PTI Inspiration sketch as well – from April 2014.

I am so so happy with how this turned out!!

Thanks for taking a peek!

happy birthday
Stamps: Just Desserts, Birthday Basics (Papertrey Ink – PTI);
Ink: Kraft, Dark Chocolate, Cocoa Bean, Lovely Lady, Hibiscus Burst, Raspberry Fizz, Limeade Ice (PTI);
Paper: Dark Chocolate, White (PTI);
Other: Just Desserts die, Frosted Border die, Doily Details die (PTI); Rhinestones (Kaiser);

Butterfly Birthday

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It is time for another CASology challenge. Check out the latest challenge – Butterfly!

Here is my take:

Butterfly Birthday | by karen @ carefree creations

I love this huge butterfly image! To keep the card CAS I stamped the image off the edge and kept the number of colors to a minimum.

I hope you join us at CASology – and, for more inspiration, check out the other design team members:

Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday Wishes
Stamps: Swallowtail, Sincere Salutations (Stampin’Up – SU);
Ink: Black;
Paper: Island Indigo, Soft Sky (SU);
Other: Banner dies (SU);

You Make Me Happy

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

And here is my take:

You Make Me Happy | by karen @ carefree creations

As soon as I saw these colors, I knew I had to break out the piggy set (so adorable!). I used a blender pen to color the image (and now I remember why I don’t like that technique, lol). Still, I quite like this card…it does make me happy!

The notebook paper die is adhered with just a little bit of tape in the center so that I could curl the edges up. Just a touch to help the card have interest.

I hope you join us at CAS Colours & Sketches!

Thanks for stopping by!

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

You Make Me Happy
Stamps: This Little Piggy (Stampin’Up-SU); Because You (My Favorite Things);
Ink: Powder Pink, Berry Burst, Wild Wasabi (SU); Black (Palette); Versamark (Tsukineko);
Paper: Powder Pink, Berry Burst (SU); White (Papertrey Ink – PTI);
Other: white embossing powder (Hero Arts); Spiral Notebook, Wet Paint dies (PTI);

Rainbow Fiesta

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It is February and that means Papertrey Ink is celebrating another birthday – 11 this year!!

For the first day of their celebration, we are using one of the provided sketches. I went with Lizzie’s sketch mostly because my cover plates don’t get nearly enough love! Here is my card:

Rainbow Fiesta | by karen @ carefree creations

As I’ve said many times before – I love rainbows! I knew I wanted to do a birthday card (my stash is in need), so I thought a rainbow would be perfect and I have a fun scallop cover plate to carry the theme.

I wanted that rainbow to be the focus, so I kept everything else very simple and just white. I really love how white can act as a pop of color!

To make my background, I took a large piece of watercolor paper and used kid-grade watercolors to make my color stripes. The oranges offered in my set are very pale, so I did end up using a distress ink for that. I die cut the scallop cover plate from the watercolored panel, and the rest of the panel was kept whole and used to back the die cut.

Thanks for taking a peek!

happy birthday
Stamps: Keep it Simple: Birthday (Papertrey Ink – PTI);
Ink: Black (PTI); Carved Pumpkin distress ink (Ranger); watercolors (stash);
Paper: Watercolor (Canson Montval); white (PTI);
Other: Scallops Cover Plate die, Birthday Balloons die, Balloon Strings die, Double-Ended Banner die (PTI);

Oh Dear!

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It is time for another CASology challenge. Check out the latest challenge – Swoon!

Here is my take:

Oh Dear! | by karen @ carefree creations

I wasn’t sure what direction I wanted to go with this cue, so I asked my family for advice. My kid said they picture an old woman clutching her pearls and fainting. That got me thinking of a hanky.

I die cut some linen vellum with a stitched and scalloped edge – to look like a hanky. I embossed a flower and leaves in the corner and colored them on the back using Copics. Some of the color stuck in the crevices of the linen vellum which unfortunately looks like adhesive, but I only put adhesive behind the pearl and down the stitching of just the center leaves.

Originally the layout was the vellum at the bottom of the card and the sentiment on the vellum, but the contrast was too much. My kid suggested putting the vellum at the top and leaving the sentiment at the bottom. It worked!

I hope you join us at CASology – and, for more inspiration, check out the other design team members:

Thanks for stopping by!

oh dear
Stamps: Stitches & Swirls (Papertrey Ink – PTI);
Ink: Versamark (Tsukineko); markers (Copic);
Paper: Peach Bellini (My Favorite Things – MFT); Calypso Coral (Stampin’Up); Linen Vellum (PTI);
Other: Stitch Scallop Basic Edges die (MFT); Emma alphabet die (Echo Park); white embossing powder (Hero Arts); Pearl (Kaiser);

You Are My Happy

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It is time for Timeless Tuesday challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches. Check out the latest challenge:

This special challenge involves some retired colors AND a past sketch (you have to use both). Here is my take:

You Are My Happy | by karen @ carefree creations

Double challenges are so challenging for me! I usually spend all my time coming up with ideas for either the colors or the sketch. It takes quite a bit of brain power to do something with both. And even then it usually involves something geometric or abstract – as this card is.

Thankfully I have those old colors in marker form as well as ink – so I used those to color my image. Using the MISTI, I was able to stamp my image multiple times ensuring complete ink coverage.

My white panel started out as wide as a card base. After stamping my image, I used a circle die to make an impression around the image. The impression also helped when cutting around the image.

Since the card is fairly flat, I added a button to the image center for interest.

The card above is actually iteration 2. Originally, my white panel went from the top to bottom:

You Are My Happy | by karen @ carefree creations

I was actually putting this blog post together with the original version when I realized the sketch showed space at the top and bottom – and after seeing the card on screen, I wish I had done that. So I peeled off the layer, trimmed it up and took a new photo.

I actually like both cards. I was fairly surprised that I liked the trimmed panel as much as I do! What do you think?

I hope you join us at CAS Colours & Sketches!

Thanks for stopping by!

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

You Are My Happy
Stamps: Dot Spot (Papertrey Ink – PTI); Essential Sentiments (My Favorite Things – MFT);
Ink: Apricot Appeal, Certainly Celery, Coastal Cabana (Stampin’Up – SU); Versamark (Tsukineko);
Paper: Coastal Cabana (SU); White (PTI); Gravel Gray (MFT);
Other: white embossing powder (Hero Arts); Circle die (Spellbinders); Summer Sunrise button (PTI);

Monkey Friend

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My last January 2016 Splitcoast Dirty Dozen card. Each month has a theme; if you are a member of the Fan Club, you can view more details about this card and its relation to the challenge here.

Monkey Friend | by karen @ carefree creations

Fussy-cutting can be quite therapeutic. I am honestly amazed I cut everything out so well….I’m guessing it was a good day, lol.

While this is not a cas card, I still kept it simple by not adding more pattern or texture to the card base. Lots of twine and even a button – definitely a hand-carry creation!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Hello Friend
Stamps: Monkey Business, Paradise (SU); Little Labels (PTI);
Ink: Gumball Green (SU); Burnt Umber (Palette);
Paper: Sour Apple (MFT); Crumb Cake (SU); Lemon Tart (PTI);
Other: Tremendous Tags (PTI); button (stash); twine (SU); Rectangle die (Spellbinders);

Winter Friends

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Another card from my Splitcoast January 2016 Dirty Dozen time. Each month has a theme; if you are a member of the Fan Club, you can view more details about this card and its relation to the challenge here.

Winter Friends | by karen @ carefree creations

I broke out another oldie but goodie for this card. Hedgehogs are so adorable!! Not as cas as my usual style, but I like it all the same. I love that tiny little tag.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Hi There
Stamps: Holiday Hedgehogs (SU); Mixed Messages (PTI);
Ink: Gray Flannel (Momento);
Paper: White, Spring Rain (PTI); Holiday Thyme pattern paper (SU);
Other: twine (SU); Tiny Tags die (PTI);

Ladybug Thoughts

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Here’s another card from my Splitcoast Dirty Dozen time. Each month has a theme; if you are a member of the Fan Club, you can view more details about this card and its relation to the challenge here.

Ladybug Thoughts | by karen @ carefree creations

I started with a regular 4.14 x 5 card base but trimmed it down to 4″ wide to make the little images feel bigger.

White is pretty much my go-to color for card bases, but occasionally I like to change it up and use a color. I like the bright colors of this card.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Thinking of You
Stamps: Squiggle Lady Bug (The Angel Company);
Ink: Black (PTI);
Paper: Spring Rain, Pure Poppy (PTI); Green Leaf (SSS);
Other: Leaf Silhouettes die, Woodgrain impression plate (PTI);