Karen Oliver

It’s that time again!  Yep time for another wonderful Spring Mini, and there are some many fabulous new things, cordoury brads, jumbo brads, new rubons, ribbons, and of course stamp sets and papers.  I’ve used 2 new stamp sets on this card, one is a cute little set called Forest Friends, and the other is a set that goes with the fabulous new oval punches.  Did I mention we have a new oval scallop punch as well?  Isn’t that awesome!

If you’d like a copy of the new mini please send me an email on mail@kareninks.com and I’ll happily pop one in the post for you.  There is lots of great new stuff to look at.

With all the yummy new Christmas stuff coming out I couldn’t help but make another Christmas card using Snow Swirled.  It’s such a lovely gorgeous set.  This one I concentrated on the tree which I think looks spectacular embossed in silver.

And don’t the Baja Breeze and Riding Hood Red look hot together?  Loving this Christmas combination.   I also added a star brad on top of the tree, just to give it some dimension, I have a feeling I’m going to be going through quite a few of these brads lol.  Hope you all like it!

This a new Christmas set in this years Catalogue, and the last Elite Challenge, this one was a sketch challenge, I love sketch challenges, they get me out of a rut and make me think outside the box.  I had a desire to make a Christmas Card, I know it’s only July but this is a perfect time to get started, 5 cards a week, imagine how many you’d have done by Christmas!

I went with the very traditional red and green’s for this one.  I quite like it, and I really love the sketch, I think I might have to do a couple of different cards using the same sketch.  It’s very cool.

This is another Elite Blog Challenge, this one was just to use Circle Circus.  I did CASE this slightly from a card design in the Catty, I loved how they used this stamp to look like a flower, and well I just had to do my own version.  I’m quite pleased with it.  And it does show the wonderful versatility of this stamp set.  By just using different colours you can have male or female, funky and fun or soft and subtle.

I also punched little holes where the dots are on this stamp.  It adds just a little texture to it.  Which I think looks quite funky.

I bought this stamp set a month ago and haven’t really had a chance to play with it yet.  But I dug it out the other night to complete and Elite Blog Challenge.  This challenge was a colour combo one, Not Quite Navy, Saraha Sand and Whisper White.  I’m very happy with how it turned out, different and perfect for a male birthday.  Hope you like it.

And don’t you love that awesome circle brad!  It’s so cool, one from the new brad sets in the catty.  They’re so yummy to use.

I am so sorry it’s been a while since I’ve blogged. Real life has kind of gotten in the way for a while.  Darn it!

But here’s a card I made the other day when I was inspired, I had a stack of scraps on my table that I was sorting through and just kind of put this together.  I really like the colours.  I think the Riding Hood Red looks awesome with the Saraha Sand. 

The stamp has been coloured using the markers too, I used Elegant Eggplant and Always Artichoke.  Colouring direct to your stamp is a great way of getting the multiple colours on your image with little effort.  You should try it!

Stamp Set - Upsy Daisy

Cardstock - Elegant Eggplant, Saraha Sand, Riding Hood Red

Inks - Rich Regal Markers

Accessories - Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon, Filigree Brads