Festive Reindeer Wee Gal

These tiny wee pure innocence girls from My Favorite Things I think are just adorable and they are fun and easy to colour up with my Copics. I just recently scored from Krafters Cart in Auckland MFT's PI Reindeer Games, I think this stamp is an old one as only a few stores around the world still stock it and even fewer have it's matching die. I was keen to try it out ASAP to see what my fussy cutting was like for it and even if I say so myself it is fine and I won't attempt to get the matching die unless MFT re-releases it "from the vault".

A couple of my favourite challenge sites had just the right challenge to use my stamp; The Paper Players had a sketch and Time Out Challenges wanted "festive" so hopefully I have filled the brief for both.

Supply List:
Stamps: PI Reindeer Games (MFT)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper: Xpress-IT blending, Neenah Solar White, Garden Green (SU!), Sweetest Christmas DSP (SU!)
Other: Copic Markers, foam squares
Challenges: Paper Players 604, Time Out 221

Yah another Christmas card made, I know who is getting this card already!

✿ Karen ✿

Get well card

I have to admit I haven't really made a get well card before but I have had a set in my stash that I bought as I loved the fun animal images and thought that if I needed a "get well card" they would be perfect. The problem was which one to choose. 

My granddaughter Indie has her 3rd birthday coming up and she loves giraffes, so I chose the giraffe image for today's card so I could practice my colouring in case I use a giraffe image for her card. 

I am playing along with the latest challenges at AAA CAS challenge which has a moodboard for our inspiration this week.

I have Copic coloured up the giraffe on Xpress-IT blending card stock and these are the main colours used for the giraffe's body and spots.

Supply List:
Stamps: Back on your Feet (SU!)

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Dies: Master Layout 2 (GKD) - I used the non stitched rectangle as a CAS challenge.

Paper: Xpress-IT, Neenah Solar White #110

Other: Copic markers

Challenge: AAA #222

This image just makes me smile and hopefully if I ever need a card to send to someone it will make them smile too.

It made the DT smile too as I was chosen in the top 3 cards for the challenge.

✿ Karen ✿

Happy Father's Day

I'm playing along with the latest colour challenge as Just Add Ink. The colours screamed masculine to me and it's Father's Day in NZ come Sunday so I used that for my inspiration for my card today.

Supply List (all SU!):
Stamps: Handsomely Suited

Inks: Old Olive
Paper: Crumb Cake, Old Olive, Pacific Point
Dies: Best Plaid Builder, Tasteful Labels

Other: Dimesionals
Challenge: JAI #618

This is a great colour combo for a masculine card and the Plaid Builder die made making a card very easy.

✿ Karen ✿

Pretty in Pink

The challenge at Addicted to CAS this week is PINK. I thought about a flower but settled on the soft rabbit from Sweet Little Something (SU!) which has 3 layers for the challenge.

I also used my Pinkfresh Studio inks as they have a range of pinks and I used the 3 lightest (there is one darker).

The card came together very quickly and would look equally as delightful in blue or some other appropriate baby colour. I also discovered not all stitched rectangle dies are the same, the one I have used has a smaller and more frequent stitch and I really like it.

Supply List:
Stamps: Sweet Little Something (SU!)
Ink: Ballet Slipper, Sparkling Rose, Bubble Gum (all PF)

Dies: Master Layouts 2 (GKD) 

Paper: Neenah Solar White
Other: MISTI stamping platform, wet glue

Challenge: Addicted to CAS #227

Well I am very happy with my soft and cuddly rabbit and next time someone asks me for a baby card I am prepared as long as it's a girl!

✿ Karen ✿

Favourite bunch of flowers

Flicking through my flower stamp sets for the current Less is More challenge it was hard to pick one flower as my favourite and then I saw a Dylusions stamp set for Journaling by Dyan Reavley (Anatomy of a Journal Page).

I thought this is just perfect; as all flowers are my favourites. I have coloured the flowers up with a mixture of Karin Pro markers and Zig real color brush markers. I have stamped the image in Versafine Clair Nocturne ink and then clear embossed it. The base card is Tim Holtz's watercolour paper and the fab sentiment is from Up the Happy (Essentials by Ellen).

Well I hope you have a little fun today!
✿ Karen ✿

Non-traditional Christmas

Gosh this was another tough challenge for me, I really struggled with ideas for pink, purple and gold for Christmas and the DT had some great inspiration but nothing resonated with what I could use in my stash.

I think I have been guilty of buying "the stamp set" for my Christmas cards for a year and then selling it off and buying a new set the next year. It's been great to offer something fresh and new each year. This year as I am entering challenges I am working with what I have loved and can't bear to part with but it isn't a lot if I have to be honest. So that should make it easier to choose what to try, as I don't have a lot to work with ;)

The card I ended up making for the recent 52 Christmas Card Throwdown I had in my mind for over a week but I wasn't really sure if it would work. Well I thought to myself yesterday let's just make it, the challenge finishes tomorrow and today I babysit, so I finished it late last night and I actually love it! Unfortunately it's another grey and wet day here so not that great for card making but good enough.

Supply List:
Stamps: Poinsettia Petals (SU!) and matching dies
Ink: Petal Pink (SU!), Versamark

Paper: Very Vanilla (SU!), Blackberry Bliss (SU!), Petal Pink (SU!), gold glitter, Honey Gold mirror card (Tonic)

Other: Sponge dauber, Hexagon Tiles coverplate (PF), gold EP (SU!), stampin' dimensionals

Challenges: 52CCT 22-30

Well I think it's a really classy card so rapt I did have a go!

✿ Karen ✿

Black and White with a Pop of Colour

Is the challenge from The Paper Players this week and CAS On Friday wants us to use enamel dots so I thought these challenges work perfectly together.


This card came together really easily and I love the pop of pink with the black and white. I masked off an area and then ink blended with my Spun Sugar, Kitsch Flamingo and Worn Lipstick distress oxide inks. I was trying to make an Ombre look but they're all quite strong pinks.

I have die cut out a 2nd sketched bouquet to add just a tad of dimension.

Supply List:

Stamps: Sketchbook Bouquet  and matching die (TE), Free as a Bird (SU! - sentiment)

Inks: Versafine Clair Nocturne, Versamark

Distress Oxides: Spun Sugar, Kitsch Flamingo, Worn Lipstick

Paper: Lavinia Multifarious Smooth and Supreme white, scrap of black
Other: Farm Fresh Holiday gem stickers (Honey Bee), black gingham ribbon (SU!), Alabaster White EP (Brutus Monroe), masking tape (CTMH), mini stamping dimensional to pop under the end of the sentiment, blending brushes (TE)
Challenges: CAS on Friday #237 - enamel dots, PP604

Thanks for popping in and I hope your day is going rosily!

EDITED: My card made the CUT ABOVE at the Paper Players.

✿ Karen ✿

Never in a Nativity Scene

Is the recent challenge from Christmas Kickstart.

I must be still in a gnomey state of mind after my weekend play but I thought you would never find a Christmas gnome in a nativity scene.

I picked this set up at the end of last year Gnome for Christmas from Close to my Heart as they were phenomenal value for stamps and matching dies. Unfortunately it doesn't look this set is available to purchase anymore. 

Again I have Copic coloured in my images.

Colours used:
Green cap: YG11/25/17

Blue present: B14/16/18

Yellow ribbon/stars: Y32/35/38

Face: E00/93, V12 and R20 for cheeks

Red mushroom: R32/35/46 and E93 for stalk as it was on my table ;)

Red pants: R24/46/39

Boots: N5/7/9

I've used clear Wink of Stella on ribbon and the uncoloured spots on mushroom

That was the easy bit then I really struggled to work out how to mark a card with the lovely images. 

I could have done the round circle mat etc but it is actually a very large gnome so I ended up using some long retired DSP from SU! which I believe is Gumball Green and matting on a Wild Wasabi card base, again long retired but it worked better with the DSP than Granny Apple Green, which matched the cap quite closely. 

The DSP mat is die-cut with Altenew's fab mix and match frames (great set with 3 differing dies). The sentiment comes from an old SSS set called Merry and Bright which is also not available anymore but it's a great size for a small saying. I have white embossed it on the Wild Wasabi card. Last but not least the gorgeous gold trim came from SU! Forever Greenery trim pack.

Well in the end I'm really happy how my card turned out and I have realised I didn't actually own any "plain" Christmas DSP for backgrounds but hopefully that is all rectified now as I just ordered some. So I'm glad I realised this now and not closer to Christmas; so hopefully I should have some DSP to play with next month.

✿ Karen ✿

Revisiting the past

The latest challenge for August at CAS Christmas challenge site is "Pines". I was yearning for my long gone Lovely As A Tree stamp set from SU! that would be perfect for this challenge.

One of my favourite Christmas cards I made with Lovely as a Tree in 2012 involved a brayer, and salt which you can see HERE. 

So I thought to myself how can I make that card in 2022.

I decided instead of brayering I would ink blend using blending brushes with my distress oxides. I tried the salt trick and didn't like it so went for splattering with Perfect Pearls instead for the snow in the sky.

So I used a square of Lavinia Multifarious Smooth and Supreme cardstock to ink blend on. I made a mask with a large post-it note to be my bank of snow. I then ink blended with Tumbled Glass DO, then stamped the "pine tree" from Whimsical Trees with Uncharted Mariner DO. 

I then moved my mask down and changed the angles and lightly blended the edge using a smaller blending brush and Tumbled Glass. When I was happy with my scene I ink blended some of the Uncharted Mariner around the top edges. I then mixed up my Perfect Pearls with a few drops of water and using a small paint brush lightly splattered the panel. 

Then for the real blast from the past and WATCH OUT PETE Dazzling Diamonds glitter has returned for the snow banks. He used to hate going to work and finding his clothes had DD sparkling on them.

I then cut out a bigger square of Pretty Peacock using my layering square framelits. I matted up and put on a Pool Party base. 

My sentiment comes from Poinsettia Petals and I have stamped in Pretty Peacock ink, clear embossed it and then heat set it.

Supply List (all Stamping Up! unless stated otherwise):
Stamps: Whimsical Trees, Poinsettia Petals
Ink: Tumbled Glass DO (RNG), Uncharted Mariner DO (RNG), Pretty Peacock
Paper: Pretty Peacock, Pool Party, (Lavinia) Multifarious Smooth and Supreme White

Other: Layering square framelits, Perfect Pearls (RNG), Zig 2-way glue pen, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, clear EP, post-it notes, blending brushes (TE)

Well that was fun revisiting the past, the last card was made 10 years ago and has stood the test of time and deserved to be "remade in 2022".

✿ Karen ✿

Hanging out with my gnomies

Hi everyone I thought I would try something different over the weekend and just use ONE stamp set and see how many challenges I could enter with it. Now I have a list of 20 challenges sites I like to play with and 3 of them are Christmas themed; so out of the remaining 17; I managed to make 3 cards from the one set to "enter" 5 challenges, how cool is that.

It was great to have a real play with the set as quite often we only use one or two images. Now the set is actually quite a big set called Hanging with my Gnomies by MFT stamps, and its a 26 piece set (yes 26). It also comes with matching dies. I have Copic coloured all my images and die-cut out to make the cards.

We'll start with the A's and work our way down.

AAA cards wanted small and few and (lady) bugs. AAA birthday cards wanted anything birthday. Both these sites are CAS challenge sites.

This was chosen by the DT as the winner at AAA this week, which was a very pleasant surprise.  

Next up was CAS Colour & Sketches which is a sketch challenge. The DSP for the inner layer is Sweet Talk DSP from SU!

 And I am very happy to report that this card was chosen as the weekly winner :)

Just Add Ink this week also gave us a sketch challenge, this sketch is a design I often use in card making. 

I've also used MFT's Stitchable DotCircle STX to make the circle, this die set does not cut and you need to use a plain circle die if you want to cut it out but I like it as it's different. I have used a "circle" from SU! Tasteful Labels to add an inner.  

The thank you also comes from an old retired SU! set called Free As a Bird and I thought the "right size" for my sentiment. I have white embossed the sentiment on a scrap of black card stock and fussy cut out. I have added a few white highlights to the image with a white Signo Uniball pen.

The yellow card stock is Lemon Chiffon from SSS. I'll also enter this card for SSS Wednesday Challenge as they are "highlighting" MFT and adding some colour or music to your cards for "Summertimes Blues".

I have to say this set is just adorable and I'm really glad I got it, there were so many gnome stamp sets on the market when I bought it late last year, it was hard to pick which one to buy but I think the sheer number of images you got in the set made it a no brainer which one to choose and hopefully I have demonstrated what a versatile set it really is. 

EDITED: Wow 2 challenge winners amongst this great set of cards is a testament to what a fab stamp set this is.

Thanks for popping in.

✿ Karen ✿

For Lindsay

The crew at Color Hues have made this week's challenge all about LINDSAY who was part of their design team and their challenge is to honour her with her favourite hues and to be inspired by what inspired "her". Now that surely is a challenge worth entering to honour and remember her.

Now this week's hues are purple and blue so I immediately thought of my most inked stamp Mondo Hydrangea (Essentials by Ellen) which I think is perfect for this challenge. My favourite technique with this stamp is watercolouring so I thought I would use my "new to me" Nuvo Shimmer Powders I picked up at SENZ and my favourite white cardstock post-SENZ for colouring whether it's blending or watercolouring on, that honour goes to Lavinia Multifarious Smooth and Supreme white cardstock; which I love and is now an essential in my craft room.

Trying to show the shimmer of the watercolour wash and the glimmer in the black glitter with this close up but not sure if I succeeded.

I sprinkled the powders on my stencil mat from Waffle Flower and added a few drops of water to make a wash and then painted in each individual flower with my no. 2 round brush. I couldn't cope with the leaves just being "blue" so added a bit of green.

Supply List:
Stamps: Mondo Hydrangea (EE), You (Photoplay)
Inks: Veramark
Paper: Lavinia Multifarious, SSS #120lb (trying to use up) but a great card weight for the base of the card, Vellum Paper (SU!), black glitter (CTMH), scrap of black cardstock (?SU!)
Dies: Mondo Hydrangea (EE), You (Photoplay), Blanket Stitched rectangle (PF), Hexagon Tile coverplate (PF), sentiment strips (Photoplay), A2 Layering (Waffle Flowers)

Nuvo Shimmer Powders: Violet Brocade, Lilac Waterfall, Blue Blitz, Falling leaves
Other: Alabaster White EP (Brutus Monroe), no. 2 rounded brush, foam strips

Challenge: Color Hues #46

Now I personally didn't know Lindsay but she sounded an amazing positive person and crafter and my sympathy goes out to her family and friends. There are some amazing cards honouring her so do check out the challenge site and if you have time join in with the challenge.

✿ Karen ✿

Another Toi Toi beach sunset card

Time out Challenge have a fab image as our inspiration this week to play along with :

And I knew my very old rubber stamp from Rubbadubbadoo would be just perfect. I recently blogged using this stamp HERE and interestingly enough I went off to the Rubbadubbadoo website and the stamp is still available to purchase and yes it is called Toi Toi (large). If you're interested in getting your own stamp you can click HERE to see it at Rubbadubbadoo.

I emboss resisted this card two times. I first stamped the toi toi image on with Versafine Clair Nocturne ink and then added clear embossing powder and heat set it. I then made a mask using a border die. I then stamped the Gentle Waves stamp set with Versamark.  I then used ICE embossing powder which is a very old product from SU! which at the time we all believed to be a mixture of clear EP and dazzling diamonds glitter, but I think it makes good waves.

I then created my background with the mask and its reverse using distress oxide inks. I white embossed my sentiment on a scrap of black card stock and fussy cut it out.

Supply List:
Stamps: Toi Toi (Rubbadubbadoo), Gentle Waves background (SU!), Rain or Shine (HA - sentiment)

Ink: Versamark, Versafine Clair Nocturne
Distress Oxides: Antique Linen, Shaded Lilac, Dried Marigold, Fossilized Amber, Abandoned Coral, Tumbled Glass

Paper: Lavinia Multifarious white for the blending on, Calypso Coral (SU!), Basic Black (SU!) SSS white #120
Other: White, clear and ICE embossing powders. mini stampin' dimensionals, landscape borders die (Wplus 9), Gina K masking paper, A2 layering dies (Waffle Flowers), blending brushes
Challenges: Time Out 219 - Photo Prompt

Thanks for popping in. 

Edited Really happy to report my card got "Honours"

✿ Karen ✿

Creating a rainbow of clouds

Is really easy if you use MFT stamps cloud and rolling cloud stencil and I own both so I have 8 sides so no cleaning between blending. I wanted a wee card for my great niece Grace who has just turned 1 & I also used my Hippo Happiness stamp set and matching die from SU!

 I used Pinkfresh studio inks for the hippo and balloons : Rocky Slope, Ballet Slipper, Bubble Gum, Grassy Knoll, Sunshine and Candy Violet.

Distress Oxides used were Spun Sugar, Dried Marigold, Squeezed Lemonade, Cracked Pistachio, Tumbled Glass and Shaded Lilac.

I just used one of SU! wee notecards as I thought that was an appropriate sized card for the wee hippo.

I don't think my clouds were perfect but it's the first time I have done a multi-coloured array of clouds and I loved it. So many happy returns wee Grace.
✿ Karen ✿

Simple Butterfly Card

The Less is More challenge site is challenging us to use "butterflies" I personally have too many butterfly stamps if there is such a thing and my first card which was stamped I actually threw in the bin. So here's a non-stamped butterfly. though there is a bit of scripty stuff going on if peek through the vellum layer.

I looked in my SCRAPS of watercoloured card stock and liked this reddish-purple one. I stamped on top with a Script background stamp (IndigoBlu) with Crumb Cake ink and then die cut out with a very old SU! die called butterflies thinlits and then die cut out of vellum card the overlay with it's matching die from Bold Butterfly framelits. I'm not sure what SU! were doing back then as both die seem to be one part of the butterfly and one part for another sized butterfly.

Supply List:

Stamps: Butterfly Gala (SU! - sentiment)

Ink: Versafine black, Crumb Cake (SU!)

Dies: Bold Butterfly and Butterflies (both SU! and both well and truly retired), Peek a boo square window (MFT), A2 nested rectangles (Waffle Flowers)
Paper: Neenah White, watercolour, Vellum Card

Other: Clear EP, Champagne rhinestone jewels (SU!), mini stampin' dimensionals

Challenges: LIM #470

Now my second go at the challenge was much easier then the first go, which according to the guidelines on the site is a good thing so I'm glad I didn't like the first card. The colours weren't grabbing me and then I double stamped the middle bit of the butterfly so time to start again.

FYI: Less is More is a Clean and Simple challenge, but what does clean and simple (CAS) mean and what are we looking for in your cards.

• One main focal point
• Lots of clean / open / non-patterned / non-textured space (often called 'white space' although not necessarily white) 
• Space with NO PATTERN and NO TEXTURE on it
• Minimal or NO layers
• Minimal embellishments
• Quick and easy to recreate

Thanks for fluttering by and the challenge doesn't finish till August 12th 7pm in New Zealand  so plenty of time to join in too.
✿ Karen ✿

Christmas in August has commenced

For those that have followed me for awhile way back when I was a SU! demo my team and I ran our Christmas events "CIA" in August mainly because originally it was when we could get stamps, DSP as we used to be behind the States by a month. 

I am still trying to do at least 2 card challenges a week but I'm especially making sure I do any Christmas ones I find. I'm hoping come Christmas with stamping classes and extravaganza and online events I have signed up for I will have enough cards in my swag to send out. I have to admit I don't like bulk producing cards and it kind of sucks the pleasure when you do the same thing over and over.

Anyhow I found a new site and it's linked on the RHS of my blog with the Challenge sites called 52 Christmas Card Throwdown they may do a challenge every week all year so I'll be well and truly set up in 2023. 

This week's challenge is their 28th of the year and is a technique challenge - watercolouring.

I knew exactly the set I wanted to use as it's a set I have had in my stash a very long time and never been used! It was SSS monthly kit in December 2016 which is all honesty meant it turned up in NZ at Christmas or in the new year of 2017. So too late for me to use but I have always loved it as it's so adorable. I'm also going to play along with a couple of Simon Says Stamp challenges. 

I do easy watercolouring smooshing my mini distress ink pads on my stencil mat and then using a no. 2 round paint brush I fill in each section I want to paint with water then the smooshed ink colour. It's actually very quick and easy the hardest thing was fussy cutting them out as watercolour paper is quite thick.

I also managed to incorporate my new Whimsical Woodland 3D embossing folder from SU! in the background. I have swiped over the top of the embossed images with my white pigment ink pad.

Supply List:

Stamps: Merry and Bright (SSS monthly kit Dec 2016)

Ink: Versamark, Unicorn White pigment (HA)
Distress inks: Brushed Corduroy, Festive Berries, Fossilized Amber, Gathered Twigs, Kitsch Flamingo, Lucky Clover, Peacock Feathers, Salvaged Patina, Spiced Marmalade, Squeezed Lemonade, Tattered Rose, Twisted Citron

Paper: Granny Apple Green (SU!), silver glitter, watercolour (RNG)
Other: Alabaster White EP (Brutus Monroe), no. 2 round Silver Velvet watercolour brush, Waffle Flowers stencil mat, Honey Bees gem stickers : Hugs & Kisses, Whimsical Woodland 3D EF (SU!), single stitch line rounded square frame (MFT), mini stampin' dimensionals
Challenges: 52 Christmas Card Throwdown #22-28, SSS Instagram Challenge (layers), SSS Wednesday Challenges (anything goes)

My lovely card got an honourable mention at Christmas Card Throwdown.

✿ Karen ✿

Jumbo-licious cards

I feel like I should be asking "would you like fries with that" as this is a BIG JUMBO card. I don't normally make 5x7" cards but can see that these would be great for work cards when you have a lot of people to sign one card. I've been slowly getting bits to Altenew's Magnolia Butterfly set (it might have been originally a Craft Your Life project set but I managed to get the embossing folder and the stencils ages ago and finally managed to get the stamp set and dies the other day so it needed inking up and it seemed like the Color Throwdown challenge of  powder blue, cream and kraft were the perfect match for it.

I gold embossed the flower using my MISTI so I could stamp it twice with Versamark I think there maybe one small piece that still needed a bit more stamping to get but with use this problem should go away. 

I then blended with my inks through the corresponding stencil heaviest in the middle. Die cut out the image and added it to 3 other die cuts to add a bit of dimension but when I went to lay it up I felt like it was too bland as is. I then I spied a recent embossing folder I got called Tufted (Spellbinders) which is also HUGE. It says it is perfect for slimline cards and 5" x 7" cards and it was just perfect. A few gold embellishments from Trinity Stamps finished it all off.

Supply List:
Stamps: Magnolia Butterfly (and matching dies & stencils- Altenew), Easy Expressions Sympathy (The Ton)
Inks: Versamark, Sky Blue (PF), Doe (PF)
Paper: Strathmore Bristol Smooth, Very Vanilla (SU!)
Other: Tufted 3D EF (SP), Rose Gold EP (ALT), Gold Eclipse embellishment mix (Trinity Stamps), blending brushes (TE)
Challenges: Color Throwdown #703

Well they were dreamy and soft colours to work with and I  loved how delicate the image looked with these soft  colours.

EDITED: My card was chosen as a favourite at CTD which is always a lovely surprise.

Thanks for popping in.

✿ Karen ✿