Beachy Greetings

This was the name of the class Jenn Shurkus taught for Lawn Fawn at my recent SCT Create and Connect box event and the main reason Sarah and I signed up for the event.

Jenn is one of my favourite teachers and Lawn Fawn never disappoints. We received in our class kit a wee stamp set (Shello, Friend), coordinating dies and coordinating colouring stencil for the stamp set, plus Stitched Seashells dies and Ocean Wave stencil plus some DSP.

We had a great time making some very cool wavy backgrounds and I look forward to playing some more with all these items. In class we just try to keep up. The two of us prefer Copic colouring but it was fun to try the colouring stencils and we both felt if mass producing cards these would be awesome so maybe this years Christmas set something to consider. 

In typical Jenn Shurkus teaching we made all the backgrounds, then coloured all the things, then glittered all the things! One of my crafty friends Anne Shackles had a great idea to also cut down on the amount of glitter we still see adhering to the wee images because of static and that was to use our embossing buddy first to remove the static, then glue with our fine glue pen, then glitter. Great tip Anne, I normally have to brush everything with a soft brush but that sheds glitter all over the place still.

 

We've done water splatters in the background below, in hindsight I needed a darker background to make them stand out more and if I'm honest I'd make my shells darker too and I then placed them down too low so no room for the sentiment, the joys of trying to keep up - you muck up but very minor and still a fun card. I'm pretty sure the background and the shells were all cut out of watercolour paper which was provided.

I love how we've torn our DSP to create the top white wave here. Both panels are ink blended on some Spiffy Speckles DSP to give is splatters without us "mucking them up"

The card below shows how the stencil also has a mask component to it which is one of the cool things Lawn Fawn background stencils always provides. Such a fun happy card!

And the peeks of Jenn's cards to show us we need to practice more! But a fun class and living down under we always appreciate anything beachy as it's a big part of our kiwi psyche.

✿Karen✿

Just Add Ink 732: just add a sketch

Hi everyone and it's time for another "fun" sketch with the Just Add Ink crew and I say fun with clenched teeth as I personally never find sketches fun and require thinking outside the box. Today's sketch is no different and I have been KReative and decided the sketch reminded me of mountain tops and as I still need more Christmas cards I've combined those 2 elements to create a fun card which I know the recipient will love.

Now don't ask me why I decided I would do a no line Copic colouring of such tiny critters but I ended up restamping over the images again with the pale grey ink I was using on the car (Jellyfish) and changed up the presents and animals to a light brown (Crunchy Leaf) as they had lost a lot of definition and then die cut them out. 

I also added a frame as I grabbed the wrong die to cut out a panel with a stitched edge to my Ranger Heavy card stock for blending; I had grabbed a stitched rectangle frame die instead of the stitched rectangle die. As the heavy card stock which is great to blend on is too expensive to waste I just blended on the cut out piece and popped the "frame" up with foam strips. I actually think this was a great mistake, I love the frame, it's almost like a window. 

There's a lot of sparkle and shine on the card from the Pixie dust mountain tops, Distress rock candy glitter border edge and Frost Shimmer spritzed over my ink blended sky, plus Prisma glitter added to the bows etc.

Supply List:

Stamps: Car Critters (LF), Car Critters Christmas Add-on (LF), Over the Mountains (LF), Holiday Helpers (LF)
Ink: Salvaged Patina distress oxide (RNG), Shaded Lilac (RNG), Watermelon (C9), Jellyfish (LF), Crunchy Leaf (LF), Versafine Clair Nocturne

Paper: Vellum (LF), Pixie dust sparkle (LF), Distress Heavy (RNG), Neenah Solar white

Dies: Stitched Mountain borders (LF), Stitched Hillside borders (LF), Stitched Rectangle Frames (LF)

Other: Copics, blending brushes, Glossy Accents (RNG), Distress Rock Candy glitter (RNG), Prisma glitter (LF), Quickie glue pen (Sakura), white Gelli roll pen (Sakura), Black glaze pen (Sakura), foam strips and squares, Frost shimmer spray (imagine crafts)

Challenge: JAI#732

This is my last Design Team card for 2024 and I'm going to spend my time entering challenges and making a few more cards and tags for Christmas. I sincerely hope everyone has a "very Merry Christmas", thanks for supporting my blog and the Just Add Ink challenges and I hope to catch you all in 2025 and hopefully you can squeeze in one more challenge too and join in with the sketch challenge as well. If time is tight do check out what clever ideas the design team came up with for this sketch.

✿Karen✿

AAA Card Challenge 280: last challenge for this year

Wow were did 2024 go, it's the last challenge for 2024 for AAA Cards and to finish off we have a sketch, which you might know by now I do not like sketches and this one was no exception. 

This year we have alternated sketches at AAA Cards with "an anything goes CAS with an optional twist". In 2025 Maaike has some interesting challenges lined up and we have different themes which I'm really excited about, we also only get a sketch challenge every 4th challenge - that I am even more excited about!

Anyhow onto the last challenge of the year which I actually had a few ideas for so maybe I am "getting better at them." In reality making my card was the easy bit, photographing and showing how shimmery was the hard bit!

I've flipped the sketch on it's side and ink blended through a rectangle mask stencil (TE) a dark night sky using Distress Oxides: Picked Raspberry, Blueprint Sketch, Villainous Potion and then Black Soot around all the edges but darker at the top. I then added some hot foiled fireworks as thought it would be fun to make a Happy New Year Card especially as this challenge is for a month and finishes on January 4th 2025.

Supply List:
Stamps: Merry Messages (LF)
Ink: Versafine Clair Glamorous; Picked Raspberry, Blueprint Sketch, Villainous Potion, Black Soot Distress Oxides (RNG)

Paper: Hammermill, Neenah Solar white #110, Basic Black (SU!)

Other: Fireworks Hot Foil plates and dies (LF), Rainbow Glimmer foil (SP), Glimmer machine (SP), Rectangles masking stencil (TE), blending brushes (TE), Frost Shimmer spray (imagine crafts)

Challenge: AAA#280

Well I hope you can rise to the challenge and have a go at the sketch, this time you have FOUR WEEKS to play along with us. The Design Team have some great inspiration to get you started, so do check them all out. 

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that plays along with us at AAA Card Challenges, without you we wouldn't have a challenge blog. I hope everyone has a magical and festive season however you celebrate it and my sincere best wishes for a Happy New Year.

✿Karen✿

Just Add Ink 730: just add fruit

What a fun challenge at Just Add Ink this week, there are so many fruits one can add to a card, which is why I ask myself why am I still trying to decide two days before my DT card is due which one to use!! As I have procrastinated so long I decided I would take the easy route out and use up some left over lemons I had watercoloured for another card which you can see HERE.

After that it was pretty easy I had the wee sentiment already white heat embossed and the thanks die-cut was also sitting with the die. The other cool thing about my card is all the papers are "fruit-inspired" in their naming.

Supply List:

Stamps: You're the Zest (LF)

Ink: Versafine Clair Nocturne, Versamark

Paper: Lemon Lolly (SU!), Granny Apple Green (SU!), Melon Mambo (SU!), Fruit Salad 6x6" DSP (LF), Distress watercolor (RNG), Basic Black (SU!), Neenah Solar White

Dies: Thanks Jotted Script (Memory Box), Sunflower Greetings (LF: I've used the wee scalloped rectangle)

Other: Foam strips and squares (2mm), ZIG Real Color brush markers, white Gelli roll no. 10 (Sakura), Alabaster white embossing powder (BM)
Challenge: JAI730

Well I hope you can join in with the fun, Summer is definitely hitting us down under so lots of fresh fruit to enjoy IRL too :)

✿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✿

More cute birthday critters

I'm absolutely honoured and delighted to be Seize the Birthday's Guest Designer for August and September playing along with their "optional topper". This is a fortnightly challenge and you can enter any birthday card for the challenge or play along with the optional topper. I always like as much direction as possible to get me started, so I love the topper and normally choose to use it when I find time to play.

This week the challenge is cute critters - my favourite kind of birthday card! I've been wanting to play with my Treat Cart set from Lawn Fawn which until now hadn't seen any ink. I missed the Create with Us class as I was out of town but decided I would like to make my cart a rainbow and played along with the colouring guide they provided for the class tweaking the colours a bit and adding in the bunny as well. I made a rainbow using my Tim Holtz Rays stencil (I liked it was a bit uneven) and the wee foam domes and distress oxides that were similar shades to my ice cream cart. I don't own every colour and the only colour I would choose to swap out is the Victorian Velvet to Milled Lavender if I owned it.

The grass comes from Yappy Birthday Add-on and Butterfly Kisses sets; the clouds from All the Clouds set.

The wee critters look like they are having a fab time and looks like they may even get some birthday cake as well. I've added Prisma glitter to the icies with a Quickie glue pen. Well I hope you have time to join in as who doesn't like to get a cute critter birthday card. Thanks for popping in.

✿Karen✿

Birthday Critters

Hi everyone thanks for popping in, I'm delighted to be the Guest Designer for AAA Birthday and their latest challenge to make a Birthday Card with a Critter. Now that's a cool and fun theme, the problem which critter to choose??

I bought a new stamp set this year called Party Animals and have slowly been working my way though all the images - today it was time for the bear to shine and eat cake. You can see my other cards HERE, HERE and HERE. I have to admit this has been one of my favourite purchases in 2024, I just love how cute they all are and I still have a few more party animals I haven't used as yet!

I started off with colouring with 3 distress inks to make a rainbow using a splashy stencil from MFT. I also used a few stamp sets from Lawn Fawn to make some bunting and add some balloons and a sentiment and all done.

I then coloured my wee stamped images with my Copics. I colour most of my animals up with this brown combo below but the other colours were chosen from what was in a big tin on my desk I normally take a picture of my jar of Copics but there's too many so will list the colours here (darkest > lightest):

• Bear: E37/33/53/51/50 R20 BV000/0000
• Aqua: BG13/32/11
• Yellow: Y38/15/11
• Red:R35/32/30
• Pink: RV13/21
• Green: YG05/01
• Violet: BV04/02/00

Supply List:

Stamps: Party Animals (P&M), Really High Five (LF), Elephant Parade Add-On (LF), Fangtastic Friends (LF)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Clair Nocturne, Squeezed Lemonade (RNG), Kitsch Flamingo (RNG), Salvaged Patina (RNG) 
Paper: Really Rainbow 6"x6" DSP (LF), Xpress IT blending card stock, Neenah White

Other: Watercolor wash free form stencil (MFT), blending brushes (TE), Outside In stitched rectangle die (LF), 1mm and 2mm foam squares, Copic markers.

Challenge: AAAB#64

As always you have a whole month to create a birthday card with critters if you would like to join in with the fun. It's always great to have spare birthday cards in the stash but do definitely check out the fab creations from the DT at AAA Birthday.

✿Karen✿

Beachcomber Class

I had a really enjoyable Saturday doing Jenn Shurkus' Beachcomber class with my friend Sarah who also loves all things Lawn Fawn. It was a really cool class as we used one tin (yes only one tin) of Distress Watercolor Pencils to do our backgrounds and all our colouring. 

We both made the error of stamping all the images first time around with Memento ink as we're so used to Copic colouring with Jenn. I was very fortunate that I hadn't actually die cut my images out or finished stamping when I realised. So I started again using a waterproof ink (Versafine Clair Nocturne). Jenn always uses Lawn Fawn's Jet Black ink which is both alcohol friendly and waterproof. I don't like how it stains your stamps, so I'm sticking to Memento ink for Copic colouring and Versafine for watercolouring and embossing.

All images have been stamped on the SMOOTH side of Ranger Distress Watercolor paper and all the backgrounds have been created on the same cardstock too.

We used tin three of the pencils and 11/12 pencils were used, only unloved one was Rustic Wilderness. This class is still available to purchase as it's a virtual class with videos and PDF booklet to download. The link above will tell you the supply list I had to be creative for card one as I didn't own Bayou Backdrop die and used a frame die plus some tropical vine border dies plus some seaweed diecuts (MFT's Under the Sea). For card two I replaced the radiating sun background with my Mermaid's Melody Cove coverplate from Alex Syberia.

It was quite hard inserting all the shells etc. behind the "seaweed" and I can see I have Distress rock candy glitter sticking to places where glue has obviously leaked whilst squeezing everything in.

Well another fab class with Jenn, her classes always make me so happy as they involve backgrounds and colouring!

✿Karen✿

AAA Card Challenge 268: Sketch Challenge

Gosh this was another AAA Card Challenge that challenged me. Maaike had gotten in early and used the silhouette flowers ideas.

So whilst thinking of another idea I thought of having a go at making some bubbles. This is just one way I have seen them made on the internet. In a nutshell blend a very small amount of ink through a circle stencil in 4 light colours (yellow, pink, blue/purple and a green). Then you add highlight with white gel pen/posca pen and darken the edges with a pencil. So my first problem was limited range of pencils and it does make a difference, so inks were chosen to work with the pencils I owned. 

I made my circle stencil/mask with dies and some masking paper. I also used my new tiny blending foams from Ranger and I wasn't overly rapt with them but will try on another project. I probably should have used distress inks as have more blending options for them but I think the emphasis is on really light blending to try and make your bubbles translucent, so most of the ink you pick up gets tapped into the paper towel. My last bubble is a tad dark and I probably needed to create another circle mask as the one I was using had picked up too much ink which transferred then to last bubble. 

Overall I'm pretty happy with the final result for my first go, the sentiment comes from Lawn Fawn's Bubbles of Joy which seemed pretty appropriate. I have used one of the new in-colours from Stampin' Up! called Petunia Pop as it seemed to be a good match for my bubbles.

A few days before the blog post goes live and I'm still unhappy with my original card and decided to have another go this time adding a wee mouse from the Bubbles of Joy set and using Lawn Fawn's Bubble stencil and trying again with Distress Watercolor Pencils as I have been playing with them a bit lately. I'm happier this time, probably because the mouse looks cute!, plus the bubbles seem to have more life in them too.

I've used the Distress pencils on the stencil colouring in the outside with a line and then pulling the colour in with a barely wet brush. I saw Emily Midgett demoing and she wiped her brush on a damp stamping shammy and it is great for controlling the water on your brush - it really is a great tip! 

I used my Zig brush markers to colour in the wee mouse and this time I used Bubble Bath card stock from SU! for my card base.

Well I hope you can join in with us, as always you have 2 weeks to have a go, do check out the fab inspiration from the DT at AAA Cards and if you are stuck, have a go at making some bubbles ;)

I'll also play along with Addicted to CAS's Critter Challenge as I think the wee mouse is the cutest and s/he is having so much fun blowing bubbles.

EDITED 10/7/24: My card was chosen in the Top 3 at Addicted to CAS

✿Karen✿

Time to return to my craft room

Gosh I didn't realise how much time a new kitten takes up but I'm really happy to report that Cinder is settling in really well after a few weeks of some TLC and I decided it was time to start crafting again. It might have been easiest to catch up on a class but decided I was going to have a go at combining a few challenges as I really enjoy my challenge blogs and so today's effort was trying to work out how I could create a card that could cover a few to ease me back in. 

In the end as I played with the cat too long I've had to snap my card late at night with artificial light but tomorrow rain is predicted and we always have the grandkids on Friday so this will be as good as it gets!

I wanted to play along with The Color Throwdown's colour combo of yellow, green and aqua. These colours played nicely with the moodboard at AAA Colourful and I chose to play along with the latest Lawn Fawnatics' latest challenge which is a Bingo board (I'm doing the vertical line under I: bright, critter, lawn cuts, stamp and cute). It also plays nicely with BOTH the Simon Says Stamp challenges; Monday's wants Up in the Air and Wednesday's Anything Goes

Lawn Fawn Supply List:

Stamps: Fly High, Wheely Great Day, Winter Birds
Dies: Just Stitching Double Circles

Other: Prisma glitter

Other Supplies:

Ink: Versafine Clair Nocturne, Memento Tuxedo Black, Salvaged Patina oxide (RNG), Cracked Pistachio oxide (RNG)
Paper: Neenah Solar White, Xpress IT Blending

Other: Copics, clear EP, white Gelli Roll pen no 8., Sweet Stack Circle dies (WF), Additional A2 Rectangle dies (WF), mini cloud edges stencil (MFT), blending brushes (TE)
Challenges: CTD #790, AAAC #3; LF#171; SSSM; SSSW #116

Well I thought I would share what is keeping me from crafting and I'm sure you would agree that Cinder is a very good excuse.

Thanks for popping in and hopefully will be back to blogging more regularly/normally going forth.

EDITED 30/4/24: My card caught the eye of Wanda at The Color Throwdown

EDITED 1/6/24: and a Top 4 at AAA Colourful

✿Karen✿