AAA Card Challenge 289 : and it's OUR birthday party

Last year AAA Card Challenges celebrated our 10th birthday, gosh and we're another year older and turning eleven. So we'd love if you could join in with us and share clean and simple birthday cards.

I decided I would use a NBUS stamp set so I could justify buying it in the first place and Fabulous Flamingoes (MFT) fitted the bill; it would be fun to play with and it's been sitting uninked for a year in my stash. I've been inspired by Carly Tee Miner who inspired me to buy the set if I recall rightly to create a mono-chromatic CAS card, my card does have a tad of yellow too but overall it's pink, pink and more pink with a wee splash of summery yellow.

To create the card I masked off an area on my card with post it notes top and bottom, then ink blended some Kitsch Flamingo distress oxide ink (RNG). Removing the top post it note I stamped  the tropical island with Versafine Clair's Glamorous ink.

The flamingo and hibiscus flower were Copic coloured up and die cut out and popped up with 1mm stamping foam. A wee white Gelli roll dot to the cheek and a teeny bit of Prisma glitter (LF) to the flower centre.

Our sister blog AAA Birthday Cards is also celebrating it's 6th birthday so I will play along with them too. 

Well I hope you can join in with one or both of the AAA challenges celebrating another year of bringing you card challenges. Thanks for popping in.

✿Karen✿

AAA Card Challenge 288: Sketch Challenge and my first Christmas card for 2025

It's time for another fun challenge with AAA Card Challenges and we have an easy sketch to play along with. As we're half way through April I thought let's make a Christmas card so I can say I have started! I'm not sure about you but I never ever seem to have enough every year.

This is the sketch to play along with:

I've used as my shape a die cut circle with the same sized circle die-cut with a snow die on top. I've kept the background circle colour very light to let my Copic coloured image "shine" and pop out. I've also added some stickles and glossy accents to parts of the image as well.

Copics used (darkest > lightest):
Wee reindeer: E37/33/53/51 R20 R35/32 Y35/21
Car: BG01/000/0000 N6/4/2 Y35
Tree: YG17/25/21 Y35 R35/32

Supply List:
Stamps: Loads of Joy (MFT), Itty Bitty Holiday (MFT)

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Clair Nocturne

Paper: Neenah Solar White, Pool Party (SU!)

Dies: Snowfall - Vertical (MFT), Sweet Stacks: Circles (HB), Itty Bitty Strips (MFT)

Other: Copics, white Gelli roll pen, Diamond stickles (RNG), Glossy accents (RNG), 1mm foam square (SP)

Challenges: AAA#288


✿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✿

AAA Card Challenge 284: Sketch Challenge

It's time for another challenge with  AAA Card Challenges and we've got an easy sketch to play with. Saying that I am always amazed how the design team dome up with so many different ideas for what looks really straight forward.

I decided it was time to play with my Little Signage Agenda stamp set by Mama Elephant, some simple Copic Colouring and a wee sentiment from Itty Bitty Birthday (MFT) and all done.

We'd love to see your twist/take on the challenge, as always you have 2 weeks to play along with us and don't forget to make it clean and simple.

Thanks for popping in.
✿Karen✿

AAA Card Challenge 283: Colour Challenge (pick at least 3)

It's time for another challenge with the AAA Cards and we're introducing one of our new challenge formats for 2025 - a colour challenge. You are provided with FOUR colours and you need to pick at least THREE (neutrals allowed for skin and hair/fur and black and white as well- see graphic below).

I have to admit I thought of wintery scenes looking at the colours but it's mid-Summer in New Zealand so I went for an underwater scene and thought I'd make a "mess" with my Lindy's Magicals. I thought the 3 pots I chose represented the 3 darkest colours above.

My watercolour panel was a bit messy so I trimmed it to 2" and mounted onto a 2-1/4" panel of Soft Succulent (SU!). Once that was completed I Copic coloured in my Mermazing (MFT) mermaid with a Soft Succulent vibe. A very talented crafter called Kim Singdahlsen kindly offers on her blog a link to the closest Copic colour to EVERY Stampin' Up! colour. It's an amazing resource; Kim is also worth watching as she makes fab cards!! I actually have a link on the RHS of my blog to Kim's colour matches for easy reference but do check out her blog. Her colour suggestion for Soft Succulent was BG72/93, so these are the colours I coloured in my mermaid with:

Hair: E57/23/21
Skin: BV04 E04/00
Cheeks: R00/30 
Mermaid tail/bikini: BG72/93

Star shell: BG18
I've stippled the mermaid tail with BG93 and my white Gelli roll pen and added some Prisma glitter (LF) to her star shell.

Well I had a blast making a messy water scene and I need to let the magic of working with Magicals happen more often, the photos don't reflect how sparkly and "magical" it all is either but trust me it is. Thanks for popping in and I do hope you can join us this fortnight. Make time to check out all the fab inspiration from the rest of the AAA Cards Design Team there are so many cool ideas for working with this cool palate of colours.

✿Karen✿

AAA Card Challenge 281: sending Paper Hugs to kick off 2025

Welcome to 2025 and a big hello from me I hope everyone had a fabulous festive time catching up with family and friends. It's great to be back blogging and AAA Cards is starting of the new year with it's first challenge of anything goes as long as it's CAS. Let me remind you how AAA Cards see CAS as it is a lot stricter than other clean and simple challenge blogs.

The optional twist for this challenge was "flies in the air" so many possibilities and the Design Team have explored lots of them so do check them out.

I've chosen to work with a new set for me from MFT stamps called Paper Planes as I can see a paper plane above.

It was a simple card and very pink as Valentine's Day is coming next month so I might as well get started on my Galentine cards ;)

I masked of the card, ink blended and then stamped in a darker colour cute images from the set. My card is inspired by a card on the MFT site by Carly Tee Miner.

Supply List (I thought I'd do it differently this year and list supplies by company):
MFT stamps: Paper Planes (stamps and dies)
Pinkfresh Studios: Sparkling Rose and Bubble Gum ink; 1" blending brush
Copic Markers: RV00/02/04 W2/4/10

Sakura: white Gelli roll pen #8

As always you have 2 weeks to play along so hope you can join in with us.
Thanks for popping in.

✿Karen✿

CAS Christmas Card Inspired by Therese for AAA Card Challenge 279

Hi everyone its time for another anything CAS challenge with AAA Cards and this week the optional topper is Christmas/Winter. Living down under it's definitely not Winter as we head into Summer and I always need one more Christmas card, so Christmas topper for me.

Looking at my Christmas sets I decided I would play with one of my oldest sets called Santa's Elves by My Favorite Things as it was known back then. It's so old the die is solid and when I first started working with these dies I got really really frustrated until some kind person suggested I die cut out a blank shape and then use that to line up my die and that works fine. Today I've made it even trickier as I have been inspired by a set of cards Therese Calvird from Lost in Paper created using this set which you can see HERE. So as well as trimming close to the image I then had to put a solid die on top and line up my Big Shot's top plate to cut out at the line. 

I only  Copic coloured my image once I knew I was successful. Like Therese, I also added some stripes to the cap as I thought that looked really fun, I used minty greens and strawberry pink tones for my colouring. Copics used: G00/02/05; RV13/13/21; E000/00/11/13; N0/2/4. I then added some Stickles, when dry I added my wee panel to the front of an A2 card base using foam strips, you could add directly but it's kind of fun it's "floating". To be honest if you didn't pop up with foam you could stamp and colour directly to an A2 panel and attach to your card base to hide the bleed from the alcohol markers.

Supply List:

Stamps: Santa's Elves (MFT)

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Clair Nocturne

Paper: Neenah Solar White #80 and #110

Other: Copics, Diamond Stickles (RNG), Black glaze pen (Sakura), Gelli roll 10 (Sakura), Sharpie pen. foam strips

Challenges: AAA#279

Gosh this was a quick and effective CAS card and Therese has lots of great ideas, so do check out the link to her above, this design would work for so many images. I hope you can find time to join in with us this week. Thanks for popping in.

✿Karen✿

Just Add Ink 728: Just Choose Two

Hi everyone and time for another fun and fab challenge with the Just Add Ink team and this week we have an easy challenge to choose two from: pens or pencils or patterned paper. I chose to play along with Pens and Patterned Paper.

I'd seen a few examples of a simple corner fold using DSP which looked to me quick and easy and quite effective. This design is great for creating a lot of cards quickly. I've used an A2 card base and then just made all my mats 1/4" smaller, i.e. white mat is 4" x 5-1/4" and the DSP mat is 3-3/4" x 5".

I've used a really old DSP in my stash as it's good to actually use some of it up and not admire from afar. The original colours that coordinated with my DSP were Lost Lagoon and Pear Pizzazz (both SU!). I've used C9's Tidepool as my Lost Lagoon alternative.

I've used Copic markers to colour up my image as listed below (darkest > lightest), in case you are wondering why the additions of Toners Greys to my blend, SU! colours have a lot of grey in them which is the main reason I personally have moved away from using their inks:
Red toboggan and hat: R27/24/22

Teal scarf: T1 then BG72

Bright green scarf: YG03/01 then T0

Pom poms: C3/1

Bear: E33/31/01 R20
Bunny: E43/42/40 R20

Supply List:
Stamps: Snow One Like You (LF), Merry Messages (LF)

Ink: Tidepool (C9), Poppy (C9), Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper: All is Calm Specialty DSP (SU!), Tidepool (C9), Poppy Parade (SU!), Neenah Solar White

Dies: Spotlight on Nature (SU!)

Other: Copic Markers, Quickie glue pen (Sakura), Prisma glitter (LF), Black glaze pen (Sakura), White Gelli roll pen #8 (Sakura), 1mm and 2mm foam squares (SP)
Challenge: JAI#728

Yah another card for my Christmas stash, how do you create cards for Christmas - do you make one design and bulk make or are you like me and make all through the year so everyone gets a card that I feel suits them. If you do bulk make this is a really effective design and easy to recreate.

I hope you can find time to choose TWO and play along with us this week.

Thanks for popping in.

✿Karen✿

More Cheesy Christmas

Hi everyone I blogged the other day HERE about the so cute and fab Christmas cards I recreated at the Create with Us class with Lawn Fawn. The day after that class Jenn Shurkus was offering a paid class, I tweaked the cards quite a bit to make them "more me" as I do like my CAS and "white space" on a card. 

These are my fab 3 cards I KReated and I've commented what I've done differently from "Jenn's".

Card one: I liked Jenn's concept of making a background piece using Candy Canes stencil with pink inks but I added a glitter paste to stencil 2 as well. I also used my woodgrain card stock to make a window as I don't own Build-a-Christmas Tree die so was just working with the stamped cheese tree for all my cards. I went with pink and lime green tones for this card as lime green is my fav colour.

Card two: I left the front of the card plain white and used a pastel pink glitter paper for my Winter Wonderland Window. I also think (unlike Lawn Fawn staff etc.) we work with the 6"x 6" DSP (as that is easy to buy) which is littler and cuter but "also more busy" as everything condensed. I just found the concept of 2 busy DSPs to be too much IMO which is why I didn't add a 2nd DSP.

Card three: I still worked with Ballet Slipper and Guava card stocks but used a piece of left over DSP from yesterdays class for my "floor" and then used a coverplate die to add more white with just a hint of guava and also no multi-coloured candy cane background.

I love all 3 cards and am very happy to have been inspired by Jenn to keep KReating with this stamp set. I'm also going to enter CARD ONE into the latest Lawn Fawnatics challenge as my card is sufficiently different from Jenn's, I feel I can call it my own design.

 I'll list the additional items I used which are not part of Jenn's supply list for this class:

Stamps: Ho-ho-holidays (LF - extra present on card 2)
Inks: do-si-do (CP - my pink ink for stenciling), Watermelon (C9 - used for sentiment in card 3)
Paper: Woodgrain - light brown (LF), delicate pastel glitter pad (Memory Box)

Dies: Frames & Flags (NN), Outside-in stitched rectangle (LF), Itsy bitsy polka dot backdrop (LF)

Thanks for popping in and have a mice day!

✿Karen✿

Cheesy Christmas

This is the name of the latest Lawn Fawn stamp set for Christmas 2024, it's also the name for the latest Lawn Fawn Create with Us fun and free class.

These classes are great they provide written instructions and colouring guides as a PDF and the class is live on YouTube. If you can't make the Live the videos and PDF for class will remain available for us to use afterwards. 

You can recreate the cards or play along with something similar. I have to admit I had everything that was being used for this class and the cards are just adorable!!

The supply list can be found in the link above; the only substitution from the guide is I used Poppy card stock (C9) as my red card, but everything else is identical.

It was a really "cheesy" weekend as today Jenn Shurkus offered a follow-up paid class which I had instantly signed up for. I'll blog about that class another day as I went quite rogue and swapped quite a lot of stuff around but here's a sneak peek of my cards all together.

I can't believe how cute these cards are in real life plus how many little details and dimension my poor photography skills don't reveal.

✿Karen✿

Just Add Ink 726: be inspired

It's time for another fun challenge at Just Add Ink and this week we have an inspirational mood board to inspire you.

Pic credit: https://ar.pinterest.com/pin/241575967501293188/

What do you see when you look at the mood board? I saw terracotta/apricot and sage greens plus the wee ginger kitten stole my heart. So I have ended up working with different greens than I normally would, which was actually quite a lot of fun. I'm sure I'm not the only person who gets stuck in the same rut and would normally work with bright yellow-greens to craft with. I've also added a wee kitty as well - one ginger and a wee grey tabby one, representing my fur baby Cinder.

I started by lightly blending some Shabby Shutters Distress Oxide ink in the top left hand corner. I then used a Leafy Background stencil (PFS), which is a set of 3 stencils to add Cracked Pistachio, Evergreen Bough and Lucky Clover. 

I have Copic coloured up Newton's Blooms (NN) and tried to only colour with Apricot/Terracotta/Sage green tones. 

Copics used:

Ginger kitty: Y38 YR21/20 E000 R32/30

Grey kitty: W6/4/2 R32/30
Terracotta pot:  E19 YR27/24
Green leaves/grass/ pot: G85/82

Apricot flowers: Y38  YR02/61/20

White flowers: Y38 BG000
Bee: Y38 YR27 BG000

Well I sincerely hope you have a purr-fect day and you can find some time to play along with us. Do check out the fab inspiration from the Just Add Ink team, we'd love to see what inspired you.

Thanks for popping in.

Old School Masculine Card for Tic Tac Toe Challenge 248

Hi everyone I'm very excited to share the good news that I have joined Team X at Tic Tac Toe Challenges. I'm really looking forward to getting to know the TTTC faithful and this week we have a fun board to play along with chosen by Felicita. 

I just had to choose the bottom line (die cut, drink, masculine sentiment) as I bought a stamp set because my partner actually does drinks Whiskey BUT I've never used it for him after many years of hoarding it, so this seemed a really good reason to ink it up.

I've managed to pick up a head cold from my grandson and I meant to make a card using this set last week and it would have looked a lot different than today's efforts. So the head cold turned out to be fortuitous as it delayed me making the card and I got to watch Kristina Werner making a piece of white card stock look like weatherboards this morning whilst I was lying in bed watching YouTube videos on my tablet. So I thought I'd give it a go and would make my own DSP (instead of using a brown one in my stash). You can click on her highlighted name to see her blog post and links to the video.

Basically you score the card. Kristina used the old kind of rounded embossing tools we all used to have and yes I have several in my stash but I have no idea where I have stored them so I just used a bone folder and my Scor-pal and scored at 1/4" marks. I used  Distress heavy card stock for this step. You then swipe ink over them semi-randomly, I didn't go as dark as Kristina as I knew Whiskey is a golden brown/amber colour.

I then went a bit rogue and did my own thing as I thought it might look quite cool with an a bit of woodgrain embossing folder on it as well.

At this stage I decided it needed darkening and I had originally wanted to add Scorched Timber to the mix so decided I might as well be brave and add it now on the raised embossed areas lightly.

I've then trimmed my A2 panel down to 4" x 5-1/4" and used an old school distressing tool to distress the edges but I do think they might have made a come back.

I've never coloured up whiskey before but it looks pretty close compared to my partner's bottle.

Copics used (darkest >lightest):

Whiskey: YR27/24/23/21

Decanter and glass: C5, B34/32, 0

Decanter stopper: C7/5/3

Ice cubes: BG11/000/0000

And the final card all by itself:

Supply List:
Stamps: Whiskey Business (SU!)

Distress inks (RNG): Scattered Straw, Tea Dye, Shabby Shutters, Brushed Corduroy, Gathered Twigs, Scorched Timber

Ink: Crunchy Leaf (LF), Mango Melody (SU!), Acorn (Versafine Clair)
Paper: Distress Heavy (RNG), Natural white (Neenah 1101b)

Dies: Fancy Circles (PFS), Stitched Sentiment strips (MFT)

Other: Copic markers, 1mm and 2mm foam squares (SP), Scor-pal, Woodgrain embossing folder (SU!), distress tool (SU!)

Challenges: TTTC #248

If you're new to my blog I have a list of abbreviations for my favourite companies at the very bottom of the blog.

Well thanks for popping in, I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone KReates, do check out the fab designs from the rest of Team X as inspiration for more masculine themed cards.

✿Karen✿