Quick thank you cards

Don't you just love it when you partner says can I grab a dozen thank you cards and you only have 3 in your stash. I managed to whip up half a dozen yesterday and if I realised I could do two as quick as one yesterday I would have created 2 more.

I grabbed out the Build-A-Garden: Pristine Peonies (ALT) and stenciled in different colour palates. This is an interesting set as it contains 2 big bloom stamps, each bloom has 3 stencils. I chose to use the stamp that was a double flower but both  flower stamps are stunning.

Each stencil has elements for petals and leaves on it. I found it really easy to use apart from stencil 3 for one of the leaf clusters but this maybe due to the fact I had decided I was stamping off the panel and I may have got a bit confused with what was the place I was looking for. This was only one element I couldn't really work out and in all honesty I don't think it really matters.

All the images have been stamped and blended with Pinkfresh Studio inks. The base colour is Rocky Slope and I thought about restamping with my Versafine Nocturne ink once I blended but decided I actually liked it with the grey outline and it made the black thank you pop more. 

In case you didn't know Versafine ink is very slow drying and I would have had to wait to blend with the stencils BUT by stamping in a grey or brown ink you can work out where to place your stencil, blend and then just put the panel back in the Misti or your stamp positioning tool and restamp with black afterwards.

The first card was done with Grey inks: Misty Coast, Rocky Slope and Metropolis. Green inks Fresh Pear and Grassy Knoll. Yellow inks: Sweet Mustard and Marigold. I used my Gina K Master layouts to do the wee black mat but didn't really line it up perfectly so decided that was an extra step that we weren't doing again!

Second card Peachy inks: Sunkissed, Mimosa, Mango Sorbet. Yellow inks as above. Green inks also added Olive to the blend as well.

Pink inks: Ballet Slipper, Sparkling Rose, Bubble Gum. Yellow and green inks same.

Aqua inks: Waterfall, Turquoise, Paradise. Yellow inks: Sunshine and Marigold: Green inks: Mint, Meadow and Emerald City.

It was probably a couple of hours to create them all but I feel I'm on my way to create him a dozen by the end of this coming week easily!

I have a real crafty weekend coming up with my friend Sarah so should have something to blog and share real soon. Hope yours is as equally as fun!

✿Karen✿

AAA Card Challenge 286: and it's time to follow Kristin's lead!

Hi everyone and it's time for another challenge at AAA Cards Challenges and our latest challenge is to be inspired by our lead Kristin Sluhan's card below.

I thought that looks pretty easy and have ink blended up a panel with Sweet Mustard and Salvaged Patina distress inks. I decided there wasn't enough green created at the overlap of the two colours and bought my Sweet Mustard down further. When I see how my die cut looks that might have been the wrong decision as I don't have enough blue showing on my die cut or I needed to have placed the die further down.

I had 3 ideas for my die-cut : either a flower OR 3 small butterflies OR a leaf with whirls; I went with the die Whirl Leaves (SSS).

 I'm still really happy how my card turned out and I splashed a bit of re-inker to make my splats with a wee paint brush. The lovely sentiment is from Tulips Treasure (ASD), I just loved its font. I think this is a lovely card and could even be used as a sympathy card if required.

Thanks Kristin for the inspiration! I certainly made a card I wouldn't normally create but love it. What inspires you in Kristin's card. It's really rather cool seeing what everyone takes from the same card and the design team at AAA Cards has some great ideas to inspire you too, so do check them all out! I'm also going to play along with Just Add Ink who have a very cool inspirational photo with lots of tropical leaves. I have to admit their photo has got me dreaming about a tropical holiday.

Thanks for popping in.

EDITED 20/3/25: My card was chosen as an honourable mention at Just Add Ink

✿Karen✿

A real CRAFTY card!

Gosh this card was so fun to create!

It truly is a work of art. This is another card from Jenn Shurkus 2024 Creative Art Retreat. In our kit we received the stamped images and sentiments as well as our Distress watercolor paper. These were from a Honey Bee set called Crafty, we received in our kit the dies from a set called Lovely Layers: Paint and Palette to create our artist palette.

I did a lot of the fun bits for this card last year and as I recall we ink blended on the Distress card stock with our Distress ink pads and blending brushes and then we added more layers on top with the corresponding or a darker Distress watercolor pencil. We added the layer on top by wetting the pencil in our water pot letting it get soupy and then scribbling a line on a cello bag which we made into a U and smooshed down on top of the "matching" colour below. Dry with heat gun and repeat with next colour. It really made a fun background with so much interest. We also watercoloured in the palette and the "paint spots" using the Distress watercolor pencils. Then added a double layer of Glossy accents.

I'm going to have another go at recreating this card but will use the wee artist mouse we received in our 

kit from CCC as I couldn't justify buying a stamp set and die with paint brushes and paint tubes but I definitely want to practice creating the background like this plus make another palette!

Thanks for popping in (3 cards to go now I think from this kit)...

✿Karen✿