Rainy Day Cheer

Firstly, sorry for the bad photo – one of my lights went out and I did not have another white-light bulb in the house 🙁

by Karen @ Carefree Creations: Cheer Up

I created this card for the current Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge – Designer Draft.

This sketch was a hard one, but I’m really happy with how this one turned out. One detail that is hard to see in the photo is that I embossed a rectangle around the clouds & umbrella.

I also worked in some polka dots as a nod to last week’s Spark challenge that I did not get a chance to participate in.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Cheer Up
Stamps: Sunny Side Up (Paper Smooches);
Ink/Card Stock: Baja Breeeze (SU); Black (Memento);
Other: Flag Tags die (Paper Smooches); Lemon Tart, Soft Stone True Black Pattern Paper (PTI); Stitched Mat die (Lil Inkers);

Basket of Daisies

by Karen @ Carefree Creations: Basket of Daisies

I created this card for the Retro Sketch #50 challenge.

To start this card, I pulled this basket of daisies out of my discard pile (discarded only because it didn’t work for its original intention). I chose to go with the blue because blue and yellow is one of my favorite combinations. I thought the picnic impression plate worked well. I finished it off with a bit of bitty box pattern paper.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Birthday
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Vintage Picnic;
Ink/Card Stock: Spring Rain, White, Lemon Tart; Brown (Memento);
Other: Bitty Dot (in Lemon Tart) pattern paper; Tag Sale #6 die, Double Ended Banner die, Picnic Plaid impression plate; markers (Copic);

Just Called to Say Hello

I really wanted to spend all weekend getting inky, but I had an offer I couldn’t say no to (involving my other hobby – reading). But I squeezed in a bit of time this evening and came up with a card for a few challenges.

by Karen @ Carefree Creations: Hello

I didn’t get a chance to finish the second week of the Clean & Simple class at Online Card Classes, so I’m catching up now. This card is a one-layer card. I used off-set stamping to help give dimension and grouping and lines to draw the eye.

I used a layout from Papertrey’s current Anniversary festivities (sketch #5).

In addition, the current CAS-ual Friday challenge is to be inspired by a love song (cfc89). The song I used was “I just called to say I love you”. I know, my card says “hello” not “love you” – but there is a telephone and a heart on it!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Hello Friend
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Heart 2 Heart #4, Little Bitty Bird, Think Big Favorites #3;
Ink/Card Stock: Lemon Tart, Smokey Shadow, Summer Sunrise, Hibiscus Burst;

FYI – Neo Graphic

It is time for another For Your Inspiration challenge. Check out the latest challenge -> FYI39.

FYI39_2013-02-07

This photo is full of modern design. I pulled my inspiration from the window design and the bright colors.

by Karen @ Carefree Creations: Neo-Graphic Birthday

The bright colors caught my eye first so I pulled out ink that I think represented them well. Next, I chose to work with Square Prints because it has a great triangle image that represented the window design to me.

Since the overall feel of the photo is modern, I kept my card simple and graphic.

Thanks for stopping by!

Make sure you check out the other design team members:
Debbie
Michelle
Mynnette
Regina
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!

Happy Birthday
Stamps: Square Prints, Birthday Basics (PTI);
Ink/Card Stock: White (PTI); Pacific Point, Tempting Turquoise, Pumpkin Pie (SU);

My MVP

So the lesson on day 3 was about techniques. Kristina’s video was about offset stamping (which I still do want to try), but it reminded me about a repetition technique. I don’t know if it has a name or not, but the idea is to represent movement by stamping your image repeatedly without re-inking. Like so:

Karen @ Carefree Creations: My MVP

This card was inspired by the current CAS-ology cue (game). I chose to do football based on the Inspired By challenge.

I chose Denver Bronco colors for this card. When we moved to Colorado my husband started rooting for the local team. I too root for them – as long as they are not playing MY team – the Ravens (which they’ve done a couple times this year). I’m so excited that my team made it to the Super Bowl (and even more stoked that the bowl is brother coaches!!).

Thanks for taking a peek!

You are my MVP
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Have a Ball, All Star Team;
Ink/Card Stock: Enchanted Evening, Orange Zest, Rustic Cream, Dark Chocolate;
Other: Block Alpha dies;

Orange Motif

Karen @ Carefree Creations: Orange Motif

Today is day 4 of the Clean & Simple class (don’t worry I haven’t forgotten about day 3…I’m working on it 😉 ). The theme is white space. Since that was my only direction, I looked for a challenge to help me out.

I found two that worked well: a sketch from Less is More and colors and motif from Paper Smooches Sparks (the current Picture Perfect inspiration challenge).

I think this week is the most my heat gun tool has ever been out! For this card, I embossed the motif directly onto the orange card base. Then I cut pieces of grey card stock to frame the motif.

I probably could have gotten away without the top strip, but I liked the strips in the inspiration photo.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Birthday
Stamps: Potpourri, Sentiment Sampler (Paper Smooches);
Ink/Card Stock: Orange Zest, Dark Chocolate (PTI); Sahara Sand (SU);
Other: White embossing powder (Zing);

Birthday Blues

It is time for another CAS Colours & Sketches challenge. Check out the latest challenge -> #10 – colors & sketch. Since this is a bonus week in the month – you get both a sketch and colors to work with!

2013-01-31

And here is my take:

Karen @ Carefree Creations: Birthday Blues

I’m not normally one to combine challenges, but when I do, I start with the colors – because, to me, they dictate the type of card I’ll be making. Though I will admit that if I can make a birthday card, that is what I’ll do (and did in this instance).

I did have some other thoughts – blue bringing to mind snow or sympathy, but once I found this sentiment I knew the blues would work for a birthday card.

I didn’t want the arrows to overpower the sentiment, so I made sure they were the lightest shade of blue. The frame is medium blue, and the sentiments are dark.

The frame is popped-up on dimensionals – but everything (including the framed sentiment) is stamped directly on the white card base.

Thanks for stopping by!

Make sure you check out the other design team members:
Jacqueline
Kylie
Louise
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).

What Goes Up
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Movers & Shakers Sentiments, Get to the Point;
Ink/Card Stock: White, Aqua Mist, Enchanted Evening; Island Indigo (SU);
Other: Fabulous Frames die; dimensionals;

Just Flippin’ Relax

It is after 8pm, so the title may not be funny in the morning, but right now I’m feelin’ kinda clever 😉

So anywho…lesson 2 at Clean & Simple Cards (Online Card Classes) is about one layer cards. I don’t normally get into masking and other techniques (I take forever to do a simple stamped card, if you add any complexity and it may take me a week to complete). However! Debby Hughes provided a cool card where she used a die to deboss and it added some depth and interest to the card.

As I was going through my stamp index, I saw this flip-flop set and this idea immediately came to me.

Karen @ Carefree Creations: Flippin Relax

The idea being the embossed flip-flops are the past footprints (maybe that is obvious??) and the ink splatters are sand granules.

I like the idea, but I think I could have done better in execution – and patience. I used Jennifer’s ink splatter idea, but lost patience in waiting for it to dry (I smooshed scratch paper down to soak up the extra water and just made ugly blobs instead – learn from my mistake!!). To try to cover that up I used an ink spritzing tool to add additional color spots.

Also I think I could have placed the flip-flops (both stamped and embossed) a little better for balance. BUT I’m pretty much a “done is done” gal.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Relax
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Flipping Out;
Ink/Card Stock: Fine Linen, Ocean Tides, Dark Chocolate, Kraft;
Other: Flipping Out dies; R22 marker (Copic); ink spritzer tool (SU);

Coral and Gold

Karen @ Carefree Creations: Coral & Gold

Today’s lesson at Online Card Classes was about one layer cards. Ack! I always have a hard time with these types of cards!

For this card I decided to take on an idea I’ve had in my head for while. I love this stamp set and when I first saw it I knew I wanted to do a gradient coloring. I chose gold because Maile has been rocking the gold lately and I chose coral because I recently pinned an inspiration that was gold and coral (and coral is just not-pink enough that I really like the color).

I lined up my card base on my grid paper and made sure I stamped everything straight. Again, I can’t say enough how well a juicy Versamark pad goes to good embossing. After embossing I colored in the sections with my Copics (R01, R02, and R05).

And those lovely markers allowed me to play along with CAS-ual Friday challenge too!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Birthday
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Quilled Elegance, Think Big Favorites 12;
Ink/Card Stock: White;
Other: Versamark ink; Gold embossing powder; Copic markers;

Birthday Rose

kth_bday_birthdayrose

This is my other “reject” card for the Paper Smooches CHA promo (Flag Tags die). I had so much fun playing with the stamps and dies that I had too many cards.

This is the card that first came to mind when I received the products.

The flower is stamped on 3 different pattern papers and then cut and layered.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Birthday
Stamps: Pretty Momma, Salutations (Paper Smooches);
Ink/Card Stock: Black (Memento); Spring Rain (PTI);
Other: Flag Tag dies (Paper Smooches); Country Drive pattern paper (Echo Park); Linen impression plate (PTI);