Favorite Cards of 2023

Happy New Year! Each year I pick my favorite projects that I have made and blogged (and most were also shown in a video), and create a blog post to share them. It is a fun review and there is a link under each one if you would like some more details on how they were made. 

January 2 Karen Burniston Bam Box Gift

February 27 Crealies Gatefold Pop Up

March 28 card with Spellbinders dies

April 10 Spirelli Card

May 29 Light Up Grill Card 

June 5 Stencil and Stamped Card with Blue Knight Rubber Stamps

July 26 Karen Burniston House of Cards

August 28 The Greetery dies and stamps

September 18 Cover die technique with Technique Junkies stamp

October 9 with Spellbinders and Stampendous

November 20 Crealies ornaments

December 20 Solar Paste Embossed

I had great fun playing with all the awesome dies, stencils and stamps to make these and many more cards this year. Which is your favorite? 

A Holiday Discount For You From A Colorful Life Designs

I am the guest dt member at A Colorful Life Designs in December, and I had a great time creating many layered and pounced cards for my video here. I am posting a couple each week all month and here is some great news for you:

YOU CAN SHOP AT A COLORFUL LIFE DESIGNS ALL MONTH WITH MY DISCOUNT CODE "KARENH" AND SAVE 10%! 

But you just have a few more days to take advantage of that savings! I had great fun layering stencils for the many cards I made and the card above features the Halftone Circle and Scandinavian Flowers stencils from ACLD. I pounced on embossing ink through the top stencil and added Brutus Monroe Mic Drop Embossing Powder which sparkles IRL.

My favorite stencils from A Colorful Life Designs are their Split image stencils and I think I have all of them in my stash. Here is a layered card I made with two new ones - the Split Sprigs and Split Circle with one side made with green embossing powder and a sentiment stamp also from ACLD:

I love how all the cards turned out and highly recommend you check out all the awesome stencils at A Colorful Life Designs before the new year and use my discount code KarenH to save 10%!

More Solar Paste Embossed WOW Cards

I love how this card turned out that I made in the new video here with Simon's Hurley's Solar Paste, a 3D embossing folder from Spellbinders and the LOVE letters eclipsed. I had so much fun creating metallic shifting 3D embossed backgrounds, I made 9 cards to share in the new video! 

Here are 4 more cards with a few details on each one below the picture:

I used a Sizzix 3D embossing folder, 3 colors of Solar Paste on black cardstock and a vertical greeting from Crealies on this fun fold card. 

After I applied several colors of the Solar Paste to a black piece of cardstock, I embossed it with a Tim Holtz Sizzix alphabet 3D embossing folder. I cut a gold frame (from Kat Scrappiness), embossed it with the same embossing folder and raised it up when attaching in the same location as the card front. 

The embossing folder with matching die cuts is from Simon Says Stamp, the sentiment die is from Karen Burniston, and I added spatters created with the gold Solar Paste and water. 

And this embossing folder with matching dies is also from Simon Says Stamp.

I had so much fun creating all these gorgeous cards for my new video and hope they encourage you to give some of the ideas and products a try!

More Layered Stencil Cards With A Colorful Life Designs

I am the guest dt member at A Colorful Life Designs in December, and I had a great time creating many layered and pounced cards for my video here. I am posting a couple each week all month and here is some great news for you:

YOU CAN SHOP AT A COLORFUL LIFE DESIGNS ALL MONTH WITH MY DISCOUNT CODE "KARENH" AND SAVE 10%! 

On the card above I applied blue ink through the gorgeous Lined Leaves stencil from A Colorful Life Designs. I also applied peach ink through the Radiant Star stencil from ACLD and put the two together on a square card base.

I was excited to try pouncing on embossing ink with a Pouncer from Picket Fence Studios and found them to be much easier to use for this purpose than regular blending brushes as I show in the video. This stencil set is called Layered Fall Foliage, but I decided to go with purple leaves and the somewhat transparent Distress Wilted Violet Embossing Glaze from Tim Holtz for the layers on this card. The sentiment and the bling are all from A Colorful Life Designs.

Amazing Embossed Cards With Simon Hurley's Solar Paste

Have you tried Simon Hurley's Solar Pastes with 3D embossing folders? Solar Pastes start as a creamy white paste and when the jar is opened and it hits the light, it transforms into a paste with a metallic color shift that is just gorgeous on embossed card fronts! I had so much fun playing with them, I created 9 cards with them for my newest video here. 

This is one of the cards I make in the new video. I used a distress tool with a sponge to apply all the colors of Simon Hurley's Solar Paste to a 5 x 7 piece of black cardstock, let it dry a little and then embossed with Spellbinders Beveled Diamonds 3D Embossing Folder. The yarn, knitting needs and heart buttons are from a set by Concord and 9th. 

I found that applying several of the colors of the Solar Pastes to black cardstock, embossing with a 3D embossing folder and then adding a few die cuts is all that is needed to make amazing cards. The beauty of the metallic shift of colors in the Solar Paste backgrounds is hard to capture in the photos, so I recommend you watch the new video to see it and get some tips on dos and don'ts when applying the Solar Paste. Here are 3 more cards I made with that easy formula:

The embossing folder on this card is from Simon Says Stamp and the beautiful frame die is from Spellbinders. 

The embossing folder on the card above is from Sizzix and the layered love die is from Gina K Designs.

The embossing folder on this card is from Altenew and the layered heart and perfect sentiment dies are from Concord and 9th. 

Layered Holiday Cards With A Colorful Life Designs Stencils

I am the guest dt member at A Colorful Life Designs in December, and I had a great time creating many layered and pounced cards for my video here. I am posting a couple each week all month and here is some great news for you:

YOU CAN SHOP AT A COLORFUL LIFE DESIGNS ALL MONTH WITH MY DISCOUNT CODE "KARENH" AND SAVE 10%! 

My cards today are made with the Cover Die Eclipse Technique and the card above features the Merry Christmas stencil from ACLD. I have made cards with this technique with stamps and patterned paper, but never thought of using a stencil until I saw the idea on the Snippets blog. To achieve this look, simply add ink through the same stencil twice, cut and raise one of the layers over the other so the pattern flows from the background to the front. Here is another card I made with this technique and the Layered HoHoHo stencil set from A Colorful Life Designs:

I love how all the cards turned out and highly recommend you check out all the awesome stencils at A Colorful Life Designs and use my discount code KarenH to save 10%!

I am entering the 1st card in the Use Craft Dies challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday. 

Crealies Circle Layers of Beauty

I love playing with unique layering dies like the Frame and Inlay Nina die set from Crealies and in my newest video here I share three cards and how to make the one above. The layering die pieces were attached and raised above a circle cut from the same pretty floral designer paper. The card itself is a gatefold easel card cut with another innovative die from Crealies. Here is a view of the inside of this card: 

Positives and negatives on a card are a great way to add interest and this is the concept I used to create this card:

I cut the die set twice out of blue and silver patterned mirror card and mixed and matched the pieces for a fun look. I also chose to raise some of the layers for more interest and depth.

I thought the die set would make a fun circle rocker and love how this card turned out! I used the same floral pattern paper on the background and the Frame and Inlay - Nina pieces once again with the pattern flowing from the background in the raised pieces. 

I had great fun playing with these unique dies from Crealies for my new video. Remember if you are in the USA you can find these and many other Crealies at the Frantic Stamper Website. And of course all the dies are also available at the Crealies website here. 

I am entering the 1st card in the Use Craft Dies challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday. 

Pounce and Layer For Beautiful Stenciled Cards with A Colorful Life Designs

I was thrilled to say YES when asked to be the guest dt member at A Colorful Life Designs for the month of December because I love their stencils! I had so much fun playing with all the gorgeous stencils and pouncing on color and embossing ink for the many cards I share in my newest video here. I am going to share a couple of the cards each week this month while I am GDT and here is some good news for you: 

YOU CAN SHOP AT A COLORFUL LIFE DESIGNS ALL MONTH WITH MY DISCOUNT CODE "KARENH" AND SAVE 10%! 

I recently won a whole set of Pouncers from Picket Fence Studios and show in the video how to easily pounce on bright colors and also embossing ink so we can use embossing powder and even attach foil with Brutus Monroe's Foil Reactive Embossing Powder! Here is the card I make step by step in the video: 

I show in the new video how to easily pounce on red ink and then pounce on embossing ink with Brutus Monroe's Foil Reactive Embossing Powder that will grab the foil (also from Brutus Monroe) to make this cool layered flame card. The fun stamped sentiment is also from A Colorful Life Designs and I layered that too with red and black ink. Here is another card I made with many of the same products: 

This slimline card was made with the same stencil, foil and Foil Reactive Embossing Powder but I think I might have forgotten to use my powder tool first so I have speckles of foil. I love the grunge foil look so am happy with this card too. As you probably know, after foiling there is lots of beautiful color left on the foil and with a toner sheet that can be saved, but then the flames would be black. I used a colored toner sheet from Pink & Main instead of a black one and this is the result:

I cut the double foiled piece into strips, glued on a black slimline card base and added a sentiment on both from Simon Says Stamp.

I love how all these cards turned out and hope you will watch the new video here to see how to make these and many, many more layered pounced cards. I will post them all this month on the blog and on my social media sites, so watch for those. 

I am entering the first card in the Anything Goes challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday. 

Winter Cards 4 Kids and Last Post for Send A Smile 4 Kids

The theme this month at Send A Smile 4 Kids is Winter Cards 4 Kids and I had fun creating this card with an open diagonal slit and an adorable winter bird and a cute winter sentiment from Stampendous.

This posting is a bit bittersweet for me as it is the last one I will do for Send A Smile 4 Kids. Back in 2011, I was looking for a place to donate my cards and I was happy to find Send A Smile 4 Kids. They were (and still are) collecting handmade cards for kids who are inpatient in many children’s hospitals. I joined their design team in April of 2011 and very shortly after that, the previous owner and coordinator asked me to take over running SAS4Kids as she was stepping away. I said yes and was the owner, volunteer coordinator and challenge DT leader for almost 9 years.

I was happy and proud to lead SAS4Kids for those years as we grew and cheered many kids and their families with handmade joy. At the end of 2020, I stepped aside as the owner and leader of the volunteer and challenge sides, and two wonderful ladies from the team stepped up and have done an awesome job continuing to grow and maintain Send A Smile 4 Kids. I thank Jen and Sybrina for that, and wish them the best as they keep Send a Smile 4 Kids going into the future.

I have been on the DT now for almost 12 years and it is time for me to step aside, and thank our volunteers and design team and everyone who has sent in cards for our kids and joined in our challenges through the years.

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday.