Altenew Monstera In Vase

Altenew Monstera in Vase Stamp and Die

Hello and welcome.  I just popped in for a quick post about Altenew's new mini stamp "Monstera in Vase".  This set is perfect for quick CAS cards.

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

WWC281 - Heidi's Challenge: All About Occasions

Hello and welcome!  This is my design team card for Watercooler Wednesday's All About Occasions Challenge and Heidi is our hostess.

I've created a birthday card using a faux watercoloring technique.  I used bright summer colors and added a bold birthday sentiment die-cut using navy cardstock. 

Supplies Used:
Altenew Inked Lotus stamp and die bundle

Altenew Golden Peach Embossing Powder

Distress Inks:  Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed, Carved Pumpkin, Pickled Raspberry, Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn

Simon Says Stamp Happy Birthday die cut

Picket Fences Blending Brushes

Watercolor Paper

Navy Cardstock (for sentiment die cut)

Cream A2 card base

I am also playing along at:

The Flower Challenge: Summer or Fall I love summer and used bright, happy colors that I associate with summer.

The Paper Players #500 "Clean and Simple Celebrate" Challenge  Congratulations on 500!

Inspired By "Pretty Blossoms"  I was inspired by the floral theme and the colors in the bouquet.

I am so pleased you stopped by and hope to see your card in our challenge gallery.

Karen

WWC258 - Marsha's Challenge: All About Occasions

Hello and welcome!  This week is all about occasions at the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge Website and Marsha is our hostess.

I wanted to make a CAS watercolor valentine for my husband this year.  With pencil, I drew a heart shape in the bottom right corner of a Brutus Monroe Aqua Pigment panel.  Next, with a brush,  I filled the heart in with clean water and then dropped Kuretake watercolors into the heart.  I wanted the pinks and purples to blend.  After the panel was dry, I heat embossed the sentiment (My Monthly Hero,  January 2019).  I erased the pencil lines, trimmed with a stitched rectangle die and mounted onto a top folding A2 card that I had made.

I am very pleased with the valentine and hope Mark likes it too!

I am entering this valentine in:

Clean and Simple on Friday: #173 Love  I made this card for my husband.

Casology #361: Sweetheart I made this card for my sweetheart...my husband.

AAA Cards #158: Up to 1/3 + Optional Hearts I added the optional twist of a heart.

The Card Concept: Be Mine Valentine My card is a CAS/Clean and Graphic valentine.  I was inspired by the heart theme and the large "love" sign.

A Place to Start - Masculine Card I made this valentine for my husband

Allsorts - Add a Heart A heart plus a simple sentiment

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

WWC245 - Anything Goes Challenge

Hello and welcome!  October has five Wednesdays and that means it is "Anything Goes" at the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.  We would love for you to submit your creation!

I came up with the idea for creating a fall birthday card with dark cardstock for a seasonal look.  Prior to die cutting, I backed the patterned card stock with adhesive paper  then I die cut the three blooms and sentiment which  made constructing the layout very easy.  I like the clean autumn look of this card.

Supplies Used:
Simon Says Stamp Stitched Daisies dies
Memory Box Perky Happy Birthday sentiment die
Bohemia Barefoot Beautiful Card Stock #BH1062
Hershey Brown textured cardstock
Sizzix adhesive sheets

The Card Concept: Bountiful Blessings Challenge  I was inspired (by the beautiful brown door, fall flowers and autumnal color palette in the inspiration photo) to make a clean and layered card.


Die Cuttin' Divas Anything Goes Challenge  My card includes lots of die cuts...the flowers, the sentiment and the stitched card base.


Tuesday Taggers Colors of Autumn Challenge I chose browns, yellows and oranges for my colors of autumn.


Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes Wednesday Challenge

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

One Image for a CAS Masculine Card

Several of my nephews have birthdays coming up so it was time to make some masculine cards.  I really like the simplicity of this CAS card.

I started by stamping and coloring the bike from the January 2019 My Monthly Hero kit.  I then glued craft foam to the back and then die cut.  I positioned the sentiment to "ground" the bike.  Quick and easy but eye catching as well.

I am entering this card in:

The Paper Players Clean and Simple Masculine Challenge
UPDATE:  I was very pleased to learn that my card was selected as a "Cut Above" winner at The Paper Players.

AAA One Image + Positivity Challenge


Make My Monday: For A Guy

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

WWC231 - Tristan's "All About Occasions" Challenge

Hello and welcome!  This week it is all about occasion cards at the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge Website and Tristan is our hostess. 

I go through a lot of Get Well cards and it was time to add some new cards to my inventory.  Lawn Fawn's Get Well Soon stamp set has been a longtime favorite and I thought it would be cute as a CAS card with some off the edge die-cutting.    I started with an A2 panel, did the off the edge die-cutting, then stamped and colored the images in with Copic markers.  Next, I added Nuvo Crystal Glaze to the prescription bottle tops to make them shine.  

I am entering this card in:

Lawn Fawnatics "Little Things" Challenge
I love the small little images in the Get Well Soon set. It is one of my most used stamp and die sets because it makes the cutest cards.

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Tropical Pineapple Thank You Card

Hello and Welcome!  I came up with the idea for a CAS framed thank you card.  I love the pineapple form Sunny Studio Tropical Paradise and thought it would be cute in a tall skinny  stitched frame. I added the small flower, leaf and lemon wedge as a cluster.

I used Bristol card stock, colored with Zig Markers and cut with coordinating dies.  I die cut the sentiment to complete the card.  I added some white gel pen accents.  This card came together very quickly.  

I am entering this card in:  

Make My Monday 100th Challenge - Thank You 
Congratulations on your 100th Challenge!

Less is More "Small Images" Challenge

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Summertime Beverages

Hello there!  It's Memorial Day Weekend and time for parties and festive warm weather beverages.  I combined the "beverages" theme from Shopping Our Stash "Get Your Drink On" Challenge with the color and tropical theme (lei in particular) for Time Out Challenges "Home Sweet Home" photo challenge.

I LOVE Sunny Studio's Tropical Paradise set for fun summer cards.  This is one of the first stamps sets I bought when I started cardmaking.   I started by stamping the beverage images on Bristol card stock and then colored them with my new Zig Clean Watercolor markers.  

I wanted to subtly frame the grouping so I die-cut a stitched rectangle as a backdrop.  I die-cut Celebrate three times and glued them together for a substantial looking sentiment strip.  I glued the rectangular panel and back 2 drinks directly to the A2 card with Gina K Connect Glue. The front two beverages are adhered with foam squares for a bit more dimension. 

I am proud to enter this card in the Time Out and Shopping Our Stash Challenges (links in first paragraph).

      

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Karen

Impression Obsession Rainbow Giraffe

Hello and thank you for stopping by!  I am very excited about this bright fun card!

One of my most used and loved stamps is Impression Obsession Baby Giraffe.  I came up with the idea of watercoloring each "spot" with two colors and then letting them organically blend.  I knew that giraffes spots are all unique like human fingerprints, so I thought a vibrant rainbow giraffe would be fun to create.

I started by embossing in brown on watercolor paper and then selected bright watercolor hues.  I made four cards changing the look with gold and black embossing and whats fun is that it is impossible to create identical cards.  It reminds me of working with alcohol inks. I wanted to keep the design clean and simple so that the focus was on the giraffe with rainbow colors.    I matted on a neutral card base and it is ready to send.

Casology's Africa Challenge - Giraffes are definitely my favorite African animal and I have to say that  I LOVE hand feeding giraffes lettuce leaves.+

Happy Little Stampers "Bright" Watercolor Challenge


Karen

UPDATE:My card was selected: 

Ombre with Alcohol Inks

I have been somewhat obsessed with alcohol inks for the last month or so.  I used the "side to side" method where I put blending solution on yupo paper and then added three lines of alcohol ink  and tilted side to side until the colors were blended.  Lots of fun and very quick. You want to blend quickly so that the colors flow into one another.

Sunshine Yellow, Sunset Orange, Flamingo

I set the yupo paper aside to dry and then die cut using Papertrey's Yellow Sunshine.  I added a quick sentiment and the card was done.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
Addicted to CAS "Ombre" Challenge

AAA "Made in Minutes" Challenge

Casology "Burst" Challenge - I was going for a sun"burst" look with my alcohol inks.

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Modern Christmas Thank You Note

I am trying to stay ahead so I began creating my holiday thank you notes.   The idea for this card came to me over several days.  I won a challenge this summer and the prize was a gift certificate to Visible Images.  I selected several stamp sets and thought it would be fun to do a modern card using some of the circles and spheres that came in the sets.  Aqua and red are perfect  for this time of year.

I embossed all the images in silver on watercolor paper and used just two watercolor hues.  I changed the shades by adding more water to the areas I wanted less intense, so while I had just two colors on my pallet, I had several pools of aqua and red in varying shades to work from.  I added a strip of aqua to the edge to accent the colors.  I love the shine and shimmer from the silver embossing powder.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Color Throwdown #519 Challenge  I got my color inspirations from this challenge.  I had been pondering aqua and apple green, but when I saw this challenge I knew I wanted to use red and aqua.

Simply Less is More #384 Metallics Challenge  I love their metallic prompt!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

CAS Floral Card

 My daughter is getting married this month and my sister is hosting a Bridesmaid's luncheon for Kristen.  I wanted to make a thank you card to go with the hostess gift.  I had a Catherine Scanlon (Clara Paisley) stamp set that I hadn't used yet so I decided to play with it.  I was VERY pleased with the clean and simple finished card. 

I found a Copic color scheme that I really like:  V04, B02 and YG01.  Just three colors and very easy to stamp, color and duplicate.

I am looking forward to giving this card to my sister.

I am entering this card in:
CAS #141 Flowers Challenge

Addicted to Stamps Clean and Simple Challenge


Muse Card Challenge #282.  I focused on:

• The floral theme
• Simple color palette 
• CAS design.

Pause Dream Enjoy Challenge


Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

In June, I won the AAA 4th Birthday Challenge with my Yappy Birthday submission.  I won a 30 pound gift card to Visible Images!  AAA also asked me to be a guest designer for today's Challenge:  AAA Cards Over The Rainbow Challenge.  I was so excited that I created two different cards and liked this one the best, so I submitted it to the Challenge.

The Doodle Buds Stamp Set by WPlus9 is a favorite and I thought it would be fun to ink blend the Rainbow.  I stamped the images and colored/blended with my Copic markers.

I also gave this card to my card making friend, Chris.

I am entering this card in two Birthday Challenges:

Seize The Birthday Challenge


Always Happy Birthday Challenge


Update:  I was happy to learn I won "Birthday Honours" at Seize the Birthday!



Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Yappy Birthday

There's not much better than a card with puppies on it.  I needed some more birthday cards and since I usually send the ones with puppies first, I thought I better come up with a new design.  AAA cards is celebrating their 4th birthday so I an entering this card in their CAS Big Birthday Bash Challenge

I drew two pencil lines so that I could keep my stamped images aligned in a band.  I used Mama Elephant's Playful Pups, which was one of the first stamp set I purchased, and is still a favorite.  I colored with Copic markers and like the simple color scheme.

Happy Birthday AAA CAS Card Challenge!

UPDATE:
I am so excited to learn that my card won 1st place in the challenge!



AAA Cards Challenge Results

Thanks for stopping by,
Karen