AAA Card Challenge 275: and I try a new technique to me

Hi everybody it's time for a new challenge at AAA Cards and this week it's anything CAS goes with the optional twist to use Autumn colours. I'll also play along with CAS on Friday's challenge to add leaves to a card.

I bought the Soft Seedlings (SU!) stamp set awhile ago as it's one of their Distinktive stamps but trying to make the leaves multi-coloured with a blending brush wasn't really happening for me and then I saw Lisa Freeman create a card with this set doing the baby wipe technique which you can watch HERE if you want to know how to do it. I've never done the technique before so thought I'd give it a go, basically you add drops of re-inker to a baby wipe and then stamp and smoosh your stamp.

I've used the following inks Sweet Potato Pie (TE), Citron (PFS), Guava (TE), Mulled Wine (TE).

My original plan was to have one leaf cascading from the top LH corner with the sentiment flowing from it but thought my first "stamp" wasn't that fab so ended up going across the top with the maple leaf and added one little floating seed which was the best stamped image, so maybe I needed more ink or more smooshing into my homemade ink pad to mix the colours. I've splattered with some Rose Gold Gansai Tambai paint and stamped the sentiment in the Mulled Wine ink. It's all been stamped directly onto an A2 card base and I think it's a really lovely card to send to a friend, so much better than my ink blended leaves I was trying to do. So a fun and easy technique to try your hand at.

Well I hope you can join in with the fun at AAA Cards with an Anything CAS goes card or play along with the Autumn colours twist, even though it's definitely Spring in New Zealand now it was still fun to play with the colours.

Thanks for popping in.

✿Karen✿

AAA Card Challenge 269: and I've gone to the beach ;)

It's time for another CAS challenge at AAA Cards; this week anything goes but the optional twist is Summer/Summer colours. Living in New Zealand; Summer is normally all about the beach or BBQs.

I'm also going to play along with Addicted to CAS Summer challenge too and CAS on Friday's watercolouring challenge.

I've gone with the beach as my theme, I've stamped Tyler (POD) on some Ranger watercolour paper on the smooth side with my Versafine Clair Nocturne ink. I've then coloured up the cutie teddy playing in the sand with my Zig Real Colour brush markers and a no. 4 round paintbrush which was barely wet. It was easy and fun to colour up. I did a very faint wash of light aqua but it's very faint now it's dried.

I've stamped a sentiment from Let's Chill (EE) in Versafine Clair Acorn ink and clear embossed it. Then used my Wonky Stitched Rectangles dies (MFT) as I felt they went with the beach vibe and viola all done. Now how easy was that and even if I say so myself how cute ;)

Well I hope you find time to play along too and definitely check out all the inspiration from the Design Team at AAA.

Also if you go with Summer you too can join in the fun over at Addicted to CAS too.

Or play along with watercolouring at CAS on Friday.

Thanks for popping in.

EDITED 24/7/24: I was chosen in the top 3 at Addicted to CAS

✿Karen✿

Clean and simple birthday card

Two of my favourite challenge sites have something I love "cute" at AAA Birthday and "embossing and obviously CAS" at CAS on Friday, so thought I could easily make a card to suit my style with those  parameters.

I thought I would play with a really cute Panda stamp set I had recently purchased which hadn't seen ink for a card but my grand daughter likes stamping with it for fun, the other thing I'd also purchased and been on the lookout for ages was MFT's rectangle peek-a-boo window. I've used their square one a lot but the rectangle is normally out of stock. I found a fun embossing folder so we were good to go and using a panda stamp I only needed a few Copics to colour up the teeny wee heart balloon, party hat and the cheeks.

Supply List:

Stamps: Cheerful Panda Moments (ASD)

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Clair Nocturne

Copics: RV13/21/10 (darkest  > lightest)

Other: Bunch of Balloons 3D EF (ALT), Rectangle peek-a-boo window die (MFT), white Gelli roll pen #8, Prisma glitter (LF), 1mm foam squares (SP)

Challenges: AAAB#62, CAS on Friday #285

This was such a quick but in my mind really effective cute birthday card design so I am pleased I played along with both challenges.

✿Karen✿

Anyone need a hug??

I'm delighted to be the Guest Designer for CAS on Friday latest challenge and the theme is

HUGS

Normally I'd choose a cute critter hugging but I thought I would try something different and still hopefully be Clean and Simple. I've stamped a 4" x 5-1/4" panel with the fab flower from Miss Your Smile (PFS). This is actually the first Pinkfresh Studio stamp and stencil set that I bought and it's quite large. It has lots of hugs related sentiments and rather than colouring it up I thought I would just die cut the word hugs with a word die and colour the letters up. 

I've coloured up the die cut letters in multiple colours so I can also play along with Pinkfresh Studios May challenge too; this month it's Flower Power plus/minus a colour combo. I have flowers and I have used the 5 inks for the combo even if I had to stamp a wee sentiment in one of the colours to include it in the mix. I have glued 3 die cuts behind each letter for a bit of dimension as well. The sentiment I have just cut out by hand as there was no dies for this set,

Supply List:

Stamps: Miss Your Smile (PFS)

Ink: Versafine Clair Nocturne

PFS Inks: Bubblegum, Sunkissed, Citron, Ocean Breeze, Atlantis 

Paper: Neenah Solar White

Other: Big Hugs die (MFT), blending brushes (TE), sticky stencil mat (WF)

Challenges: CAS on Friday #284, Pinkfresh Studio May 2024

Thanks for popping in and hope you can join in with the CAS on Friday challenge and maybe try a different way of sharing "hugs".

✿Karen✿

It's bright and sunny...

at my place today, it truly is a perfect Autumn day. I think this may have influenced me what challenges I had a play along with as I had different ideas when I went into play.

So I ended up playing along with Color Hues (pink and yellow) which made colouring up my scene very easy with minimal Copics. CAS on Friday would like some sunshine and Just Us Girls would like a stencil; so sunshine was added to my wee scene with a stencil. I love it when the challenges direct how the card is created.

I chose this really cool sentiment so I had to change the orientation of my card. I actually stamped the sentiment first then stamped the bunny, then masked the bunny, stamped the towel, masked the towel, then stamped the beach umbrella, masked the umbrella, then did my ink blending through the stencil. Removed masks and Copic coloured up quite simply as a 2 colour challenge at Color Hues. I even coloured up my bunny with light pink E's.

Supply List:

Stamps: Beach Day (EE), Let's Chill (EE)

Inks: Versafine Clair Nocturne, Detail Black (PFS), Lemon Whip (PFS), Sunshine (PFS)

Paper: Neenah Solar White #80 and #110lb

Other: Copics, Sunray Background stencil (LF), Inside Out Stitched Rectangle die (LF), blending brushes, masking paper

Challenges: TCH#85, CAS on Friday #282, JUG #724

Well I think that's a trifecta when the sum of the three challenges makes it better than if I did them as stand alone. Thanks for popping in.

EDITED 1/5/24: My card was a runner up at the Color Hues Challenge which makes me really happy as OMG there were some lovely yellow and pink cards entered.

EDITED 10/5/24: Very thrilled my card was the CAS on Friday winner.

✿Karen✿

Spring Flowers anyone??

I'm absolutely delighted to be the Guest Designer for CAS on Friday's latest challenge which is SPRING.

I actually don't have a lot of small flowers but thought it might be time to get out an old favourite the gnomie with a bunch of "Spring Flowers" from Hanging with My Gnomies (MFT). This wee gnomie always makes me smile so hopefully whoever receives the card feels the same.

As this is a CAS challenge I went for stamping directly onto Neenah card stock so I could Copic colour up the image. Then adding a mask to the gnome. I used a die cut out square to make a mask so I could do some simple ink blending through with Twisted Citron and Salvaged Patina Distress inks (RNG).

I've coloured my wee gnomie up with the following colours (darkest > lightest):

Skin: E13/93/00

Beard: W3/1/0

Clothes: YR02/61/20; Y19; W9/5/3

Flowers: Y19/08/02; R22, YG23

I just wanted to add a generic sentiment as it's now Fall down under and definitely not Spring, so I thought this wee sentiment from Butterfly Kisses (LF) was appropriate. 

So what do you think of when you think of Spring?? I think of flowers but the team at CAS on Friday would love you to join in and show us what Spring means to you.

✿Karen✿

Surprise Easter Card

I wanted to play along with CAS on Friday's Easter challenge plus combine with the elements from Tic Tac Toe too. So my card front is my clean and simple card for CAS on Friday:

I wanted to make a peek-a-boo window for my wee Easter chicken but I only own a square one from MFT so made my own using Just Stitching Double Circle dies (LF) and a circle die to make a window inside the double stitching.

Now I could have stayed with the CAS theme for Tic Tac Toe but I wanted to make a wee scene inside the card so I'm entering the inside of the card for TTT243 (Easter Eggs, pastel colours, grass). I'll also enter the inside of the card into the collaboration for "birds of a feather" with Time Out and Just Us Girls as well, plus Simon Says : Easter/Spring for their Wednesday Challenge too!

Aren't they just adorable, I've used an older stamp set from Lawn fawn called Chirpy Chirp Chirp and it has stamps to fill in the Easter egg and also the wee flower petals and wee butterflies, which made Copic colouring the chickens and bunny helmets easy.

I just grabbed 2 colour combos from my earliest blends I have, so nothing too fancy but I do like the peachy one a lot.

Supply List:

Stamps: Chirpy Chirp Chirp (LF), Eggstraordinary Easter Add-on (LF - sentiment)

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Fresh Freesia (SU!), Pale Papaya (SU!), Sparkling Rose (PFS), Sunshine (PFS)

Paper: Neenah Solar White #110, Xpress IT blending, Flower Market DSP (LF - retired)

Dies: Grassy border (LF), Just Stitching Double Circles (LF), Sweet Stacks : Circles (HB)

Other: Copics

Challenges: CAS on Friday #279, TTC#243, TOC#259 , JUG#718, SSSW

Well that was a lot of fun combing a CAS card front with an Easter scene inside, hope you can find time to join in with one or all of the challenges.

EDITED 29/3/24: Very excited to say my wee card was chosen as the winner at CAS on Friday. I loved the card so pleased others agreed.

✿Karen✿

Take 4 challenges and ...

I dilly dally around sometimes so much that someone gets in first with my idea. I'd decided I was going to combine Color Throwdown's latest colour challenge with Freshly Made Sketch's sketch using my old SU! set Watercolor shapes for the circle shape but Christy bet me to it. So back to "thinking" of a plan B. In the end I decided I would just go for it and use a circle mask and ink the peach and sage inks and see what it looked like

Once that was done, I then decided I would use a new stamp set I received from Pretty Pink Posh recently in a Virtual class kit as it had a nice flower plus foliage, and then the next bits fell into place really easily as that set has a Hello Friend sentiment which covered Addicted to CAS's and CAS on Friday's latest challenges too - the first one wants Friends and the latter Hello. Now that's what I call working smarter not harder. I used my Gina K Master Layouts to get my nice squares all matted and stitched. The coloured mat is just the Sunkissed ink swiped all around the edge.

Supply List:

Stamps: Hummingbird Floral (PPP)

Ink: Sunkissed (PFS), Sage (PFS), Versafine Clair Nocturne

Paper: Very Vanilla (SU!)

Other: Master Layouts 3 (GKD), circle masking stencil (TE), blending brushes (TE), Leaf Glitter drops (PFS)

Challenges: ATC#253, CAS on Friday #378, CTD#783, FMS#626

Well actually just starting on the first 2 challenges stopped me dillying dallying and my card came together really quickly.

Thanks for popping in.

EDITED 12/3/24: Gosh my entry at The Color Throwdown was the "lucky number" to join this very talented pool of ladies for a future challenge. Not sure if I should be scared or excited but probably a mixture of the two.

EDITED 12/3/24: Gosh this design and colours are on a roll, over at Freshly Made Sketches my card is Kim's choice :) " I love Karen’s fresh take on the sketch. The colors are lovely on the half circles and the simple image and sentiment fit perfectly!"

EDITED 15/3/24: This wee card is a real winner it's also a favourite over at CAS on Friday's site.

EDITED 21/3/24: I can't believe it my card made the Top 3 at Addicted to CAS this is the first time I've entered multiple challenges and all of the challenges have seen the card as "worthy". Big kudos goes to Freshly Made Sketches for the sketch.

✿Karen✿

Masculine Birthday Card

Doesn't the 3 words in the title make you grimace. It's my SIL birthday soon and he's a keen golfer so I thought I would play along with a few challenges to help get me started.  CAS Colours & Sketches has provided me with a sketch which was my starting point. CAS on Friday just wants boy/male and I'm getting ready to go away for a crafty weekend and I really wanted to acknowledge Time Out Challenges for celebrating their 10th anniversary/birthday, what a worthy achievement and definitely deserving a shout out!

The SIL is a keen golfer so I grabbed the SU! set I bought especially for him but went CAS this time, the last time I used it was 2 years ago and you can see that card HERE - it had a fun fold.

I've Copic coloured up the golf ball on the tee and made a background panel using an Argyle stencil and then matted up on a strip of Gray Granite card.

Supply List:

Stamps: Clubhouse (SU!)

Ink: Jet Black (LF), Poppy (C9), Sahara Sand (SU!), Gray Granite (SU!)

Paper: Sahara Sand (SU!), Gray Granite (SU!), Xpress IT blending, Neenah White #80

Other: Copics, Argyle stencil (PFS), foam squares
Challenges: CAS C&S #531, CAS on Friday #277, TOC #257

Well it certainly speed up the creativity block when you mention masculine adding some parameters from a challenge. Thanks for popping in.

✿Karen✿

The Gnomies are Sharing some Love

This hopefully is the last love/Valentine's card for this year from me and it was pretty quick and simple apart from letting the Crystal Glaze dry. I wanted to play along with CAS on Friday's Valentine Challenge (CAS and Valentine), The Paper Player's Love theme and Tic Toe Toe's challenge board (today I'm using the diagonal: enamel dots, die cut, dry or heat embossing). I'm also going to play along with Simon Say's Stamp's Wednesday Challenge (Anything Goes).

I've had this wee set in my stash for a while and haven't used the gnomies before, I do love the size of them small but not too small. 

Looking on the MFT site I saw a fab colour combo from Rachael Alvarado and really liked how bright her pink was and that she had added green to the blue-green combo. I think I may need to practice some more to even slightly emulate her but they are fun and vibrant colours. I'm laughing today I can see what I thought was a face she's coloured as a beard!! I also discovered that if you have a few bubbles in your glaze don't add more to it, it may make it worse. I only used the Crystal Glaze as in the end I thought the RVs were too bright but liked her BG combo and will definitely do that one again. I added clear embossing powder to my stamped sentiment so it's nice and shiny and black. I added Rock Candy glitter to the cap stripes and Prisma Glitter to the pom pom. I also die cut out 2 more gnome shapes and glued them all together to give him a bit more dimension but otherwise a one-layer card.

Copic Colours used (darkest > lightest):

Bright pink: RV66/55/52/00

Teal blue: BG18/23/11 G00

Pom pom: C2/0

Skin: E13/21 RV10

Supply List:

Stamps: Love to my Gnomies (MFT)

Ink: Jet Black (LF), Versafine Clair Nocturne, Salvaged Patina distress oxide (RNG)

Paper: Xpress IT blending, Neenah Solar White #110

Other: Copics, Fine sparkle adhesive backed gems (SU!), Crystal Glaze (Nuvo), Prisma glitter (LF), Rock Candy distress glitter (RNG), clear embossing powder, blending brush

Challenges: CAS on Friday #276, PP#675,  TTTC #240, SSS Wednesday Challenge #113

Well this was a really quick Valentine/love card to come together, so another one for my Galentine's cards which I'd better get in the mail today so they could arrive by the 14th. Have a fab day and thanks for popping in.

✿Karen✿