Chrstmas is coming

At long last, I have another card to show.

I used the following sketch from Seize the Sketch:

I kept the card very clean and simple. For the banner I die cut the set of 5 Jolly Jingle Bells by Memory Box from kraft cardstock and then heat embossed the bells with Ranger' fine detail gold embossing powder. Love the rustic look. The sentiment is is a digital one created by Paulette of TLC Creations.

I'm also entering this card into the following chalenges:

Less is more -  151 Favourite LIM challenge 

(I was unable to finish this card in time for week 149 - metal + 1 colour)
Totally Gorjuss - 215 Quick Christmas cards
Simon Says Stamp - Bling it on
I'm also linking it up at Jingle Belles (how could I not?) - Wrap-up and Linkfest

Pink Christmas wreath 2

Here's my second version of the pink wreath card. This time I did stamp the pink wreath the way I had intended, namely slightly offset from the white image. It's a technique I've been meaning to try for a while now, and I love the effect that the white and pink give on the kraft.

Again, the card is based on the following sketch:

Because this wreath is more delicate than the one with double pink stamping, I also kept the sequin embellishments more simple, using only a few large silver ones and a number of small white irridiscent ones that have a lovely soft pink glow.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Jingle Belles - Pink Christmas...for the cure

CAS(E) this Sketch - Challenge #50

Creative Craft Challenges - #21 Anything goes blogaversary

SNSSC24 - An. goes with glitter, embossing powder an/or flokcing

That Craft Place - Think pink

The Squirrel & The Fox - #55 Pink for breast cancer awareness

CHNC Extra - always Anything Christmas goes

A Creative Romance - Pink

Pink Christmas wreath 1

Since October is breast cancer awareness month, there are various challenge blogs out there challenging us to use pink on our projects. The lovely Jingle Belles are even donating $4 for every card that's being linked up. As usual, I'm almost too late to link up, so I'll keep this short.

I made two fairly identical cards. The first one did not go exactly as planned. After stamping the wreath (Very Best Holiday by Hero Arts) in white Unicorn ink onto kraft cardstock, I wanted to overstamp the image only once in pink (Memento). However, I put the wreath upside down, so I stamped the wreath once more, making sure the stamp was facing in the right direction this time.

The layout is based on this week's sketch over at CAS(E) this sketch.

I used one of the small banner stencils by Simon Says Stamp to create the banner by dabbing white Versacolor ink into the aperture and stamping one of the sentiments from the SSS Holiday folded banners set. I finished the card off with several Darice sequins.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Jingle Belles - Pink Christmas...for the cure

CAS(E) this Sketch - Challenge #50

Creative Craft Challenges - #21 Anything goes blogaversary

SNSSC24 - An. goes with glitter, embossing powder an/or flokcing

That Craft Place - Think pink

The Squirrel & The Fox - #55 Pink for breast cancer awareness

CHNC Extra - always Anything Christmas goes

A Creative Romance - Pink

Be Jolly...

I succumbed to another Online Card Class, called Insider, but I have a great excuse LOL. They are sooo chock ful of inspiration, tips and incentives and they are real value for money. Besides, there aren't any cardmaking/crafting opportunities in my area, so these online card classes are just perfect for me plus I can watch the videos and student gallery as often as I like.

Anyhow, here's my card for day 1, which was all about adding interesting insides. After mulling over several ideas, I decided to go for a simple design and I knew just what I wanted to do after seeing a choice of new sketches at the CSAYL challenge blog. The idea may have been simple, it still took me quite some time to create the card. But then, I fuss over every little detail to get it just right. And of course, having to colour in a hedgehog for the first time in my life (without much prior experience with colouring anyway) was quite a challenge, esp. since I stamped directly onto the inside of my card (extra thick cardstock from Simon Says Stamp that does not bleed through to the backside. I did practice a little on some scrap cs, though.

As you can see, I followed the sketch quite faithfully, but I also love how the inside of the card turned out. When I was almost done, I needed a sentiment that would fit on my banner, and then my eye fell on one of the sentiments in this fun stamp set (Be Jolly) by Technique Tuesday, which consists of 2 lines. So with some careful masking on the stamp, I managed to stamp the first line on the front of the card and the second line on the inside. I added a few dots on the front with one of the Promarkers I had used to colour the image.

I also thought it would be a fun idea to have the Corner bow (Memory Box die) continue on the inside. I left the entire die cut in one piece and simply folded it around the bottom corner of the card and then glued it onto the card with a Martha Stewart glue pen, which is just perfect for these delicate shapes.

I'm also entering my card into the following challenges:

SSS Wednesday Challenge - Anything goes

CHNC Extra - always Anything Christmas goes

Winter Wonderland - Photo Inspiration (the gold-framed window and the animals)

Sister Act - 26 Anything goes (must be a card)
Bearly Mine Challenges - 105 Anything goes
Christmas Card Challenges - 43 Anything Christmas goes (with optional sketch)
Festive Friday - 18 Holiday project with a star element

New baby

When I saw the new theme of the Totally Papercrafts challenge a few minutes ago I suddenly realised I had not uploaded my entry for this week's Allsorts challenge as yet, so here it is.

The card was inspired by a recent online card class, where we were challenged to use a holiday image to create a non-holiday card. This cute holiday stamp seemed perfect for some baby cards. The layout and colours were also based on the OCC challenges.

I'm also entering this card into the following challenge:

CAS on Sunday - 17 Oh baby (baby card)
I Love Promarkers - 186 Anything goes (I used Flexmarkers to colour my image)
Simon Says Stamp - September blog hop + anything goes with a product available from SSS
 (Neenah Solar white cs, SSS Holiday shapes dies, Glossy accents)
ABC Challenge - V for very cute
Divas by Design - Anything goes
Oldie but A Goodie - Dies and punches + stash older than 6 months (stamp + sequins)

An apple a day...

When I saw this week's sketch over at Tuesday Morning Sketches, I knew I wanted to use it for a CAS card, except I didn't know yet which image I would use. Today, I saw the perfect image for this card. It's a freebie over at Paulette's blog at Create with TLC. The freebie will be available for one week only. I thought it would be perfect for a Get well card (an apple a day keeps the doctor away LOL), which is the prompt over at LIM this week, and also on the Addicted to CAS blog.

And here's the sketch I used:

I wasn't sure if I was going to colour the image with alcohol markers or Aquamarkers, so I printed the image twice (after using Word to recolour the image to a lighter colour) onto some extra heavy white cardstock by Simon Says Stamp, which is supposed to be perfect for creating one-layer cards using alcohol markers. Anyway, I decided to try my new Aquamarkers first, and you can see the result in my card above. Since it's not watercolour paper, you cannot blend the watercolour ink on the paper, but putting on light layers of fairly dry ink worked better than expected.

The sentiment (Hero Arts Everyday Sayings) and washi strips were stamped in Hero Arts shadow inks. The washi strips are from a new KaiserCraft set (Decorative Tape Pieces), which I had to stamp twice to get the desired length. To finish the card, I added a few gold-coloured sequins and added some glossy accents to the apples and to a few leaves.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Tuesday Morning Sketches - Sketch 215 + glitter/bling

Less is More - 137 Get well soon (one-layer card)

Addicted to CAS - 22 Get well

A Little Bit Crafty - Clean and simple

Peace, joy and merry thoughts

It's hard to believe we're already in September. We actually had a little rain here in Crete today, which only goes to show that the summer is almost (but not quite) over. So it's high time I get going with my Christmas cards. I've only made a few so far this year and I'm foreseeing a lot of stress if I continue at this pace...

Forturnately there are several challenge blogs out there to help me along, so here is my card:

For today's card, I have combined a couple of challenges: a sketch from the lovely Jingle Belles,

the cue 'Peace' from the Festive Friday challenge

and the colours red, green and kraft and a choice of ribbon, twine or burlap from the Merry Monday Card Club Challenge 

Materials used:

Kraft cs, Neenah Solar white cs, green ColorCore cs
PPs from an old Marianne Design Pretty Papers pad

Sentiment stamp - Be Jolly set by Technique Tuesday

Memento Tuxedo Black ink

Cuttlebug embossing border from the Just My Type set

Misletoe die - C.C. Designs Cutters

Pearls - Kaisercraft

Twine - Martha Stewart

I'm also entering this card into the following challenges:

CHNC Extra - always Anything Christmas goes

Papertake Weekly - Anything goes
The Glory of Christmas - 15 Alles geht/Anything Christmas goes

I'm also linking my card up at:

52 card pickup 2.36

Make it Monday 156

From the heart...

When I chanced upon the From The Heart blog earlier this month and saw this adorable (digital) stamp, I simply had to have it. It was the free stamp of the month of August, provided you played in the July free stamp of the month challenge. Since I had just found the blog, I had to buy this one, but I cannot wait to find out what adorable image Faith has in store for us next month.

I also used the sketch from the current From The Heart sketch challenge:

I printed the image onto watercolour card (Crafter's Companion) and coloured the image with my new AquaMarkers (Letraset). The image and cardstock circles (Coreidinations ColorCore) were cut with Lifestyle Crafts circle dies and adhered using foam tape. The heart embellishments () were cut from a piece of veneer paper (Life birch wood, Simon Says Stamp), adhered with foam tape and finished off with a layer of Glossy Accents. I also used the Glossy Accents to adhere the button.

Materials used:

Digital image - The cat's out of the bag (From The Heart Stamps)

Sentiment - Birthday Bash set (Verve Stamps)

Colouring medium - AquaMarkers (Letraset)

Papers - Watercolour card (Crafter's Companion); Core'dinations ColorCore

Patterned papers - Bluebell 6x6 pad (My Mind's Eye)

Ink - Tuxedo Black (Memento)

Heart dies - Large Holiday Shapes, Simon Says Stamp/Memory Box

Circle dies - Lifestyle Crafts

Button & twine - from my stash

Glossy Accents, foam tape, glue tape runner

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

From The Heart - Free digital image stamp of the month challenge

From The Heart - Sketch challenge (no. 32)

Seize the Birthday - always Anything goes birthday

Sweet Stampin' - Spots and stripes

Just Add Ink - 180 Just add colouring

Sister Act  - 22 Anything goes

New and old

For today's card I'm combining several challenges. Hero Arts want us to make a project based on a project on the HA website/blog/gallery that inspires us. My inspiration came from this card made by Kelly Rasmussen. I thought it would be fun to turn it into a masculine birthday card using the new Number Pattern background stamp.

The colours were inspired by the following Design Seeds inspiration photo for the current LIM challenge:

I masked off the area where I wanted to stamp. I then stamped the Number Pattern stamp by Hero Arts in embossing ink (Ranger's) and heat embossed in clear embossing powder (HA). I used Ranger's distress inks (Scattered straw, Antique linen and Pumice Stone) to sponge in the background. The vintage car (from a gently used stamp set that I received as an extra gift with the stamp set that I won over at Kathy Racoosin's blog) and the the sentiment (HA It's your day stamp set) were stamped in HA ink (Cup O'Joe, from a set of 4 cubes) on a separate piece of Neenah solar white card stock, which I then cut out and adhered using foam tape. I finished the card off with some matching pearls, for which I rubbed a piece of Neenah cs with Cup O' Joe ink, punched circles in different sizes with my eyelet punch tool and then added Glossy Accents. I had just read about someone (don't recall where I saw it, sorry) who used this method to create gold pearls and I decided to give it a go myself.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Less is More - 131 Colour challenge
Hero Arts - Stamp your story inspiration challenge

Seize the Birthday - Anything Goes Birthday

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything goes

CASEd hot air balloon card

Today's card was inspired by the new challenge over at the Clearly iStamp blog, namely to lift/case a card from the person before you, i.e. the person who commented before you saying s/he would play along. So I had a look at AJ's blog and found a card that enabled me to use my new hot air balloon stamp set by Dear Lizzy AND play along with Tuesday Morning Sketches again, which was long overdue. So here's my card:

I tried to incorporate the hot air balloon and the clouds, as well as the green and blue of AJ's card below, which was the one that I lifted/cased. I also threw in some hearts for good measure lol.

I first inked up my balloon with Hero Arts Pool ink and then applied some Tide Pool on the edges and Cup O' Joe on the basket before stamping on Neenah solar white cardstock. I used a stamp positioner to stamp a second time for a more solid image. I then masked the balloon and stamped the clouds from the same stamp set in Soft Pool. I matted the image piece on another piece of Neenah after rubbing the edges with the same Pool ink and rounding the corners of both pieces with my corner chomper. The patterned paper is from the Bubblegum Hills 6 1/2" paper pad collection by Kaisercraft. I finished the card off with a few rhinestones and hearts from my stash.

Both our cards are based on the following TMS sketch, which is an oldie (#161) revisited.

Since my main image already includes a prominent sentiment, I did not add a sentiment as a separate element.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Clearly iStamps - 4 Lift the person before you

TMS - Sketch 209/161 revisited

Simon Says Wednesday challenge - Anything goes

Fairwee Daphne's Balloons

This week, I had to make a card for a sweet young lady who turned 6, and I thought Amy Young's sweet fairwee Daphne (Sweet November) would be the perfect image.

And here's the sketch I used from Papertake Weekly, #81:

I coloured the image with Promarkers/Flexmarkers and used some papers from a very old, brandless paper pad. I added a little glitter to the balloons and wings with some glitter glue. When cutting the paper, I made sure that the number 6 would still be visible. I coloured it with the blue marker and added some glitter glue.  I also stamped the single Happy circle around the number, but that does not show very clearly.

TTT TIP:
You can use markers for a lot more than colouring images, such as colouring pearls and rhinestones, but you can also use it to create borders that perfectly match your coloured images. I coloured a strip of Neenah solar white cardstock with the same marker I had used for the dress and then used this strip to die cut my border.

 Materials used:

Image stamp - Daphne's balloon (Sweet November)

Sentiment stamp - All Year Round set (Paula Pascuel)

Dies - oval (Crafts Too); round (Lifestyle Crafts); border (from Die'sire Grace Frame set - cut in 3 goes)

Inks - Tuxedo black (Memento), Lilac posies (Memento Dew Drop), Tide Pool (Hero Arts cubes)

Colouring - Promarkers (LE Spring/Summer); Flexmarkers

Glitter glue - from stash

Twine - plain kitchen twine from the supermarket

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly - Sketch #81

Sentimental Sundays - 165 Anything with wings

Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes

C.C. Designs - 2 Summer dreaming

Top Tip Tuesday - 106 Spooled items
Incy Wincy Designs - Birthday and balloons
Cute Card Thursday - 280 Anything goes

OCC wk3/day2 - Die-cutting techniques - Butterflies 2

For my second card using the block-cutting technique shown by Betsy Veldman, I used the positive die cut and adhered it to some dark brown Core'dinations cardstock, using foam adhesive for some added dimension and added just a few sequins. I love the pop of colour against the dark background. To give the butterfly (Die'sire Butterflies die) centre stage, I cut out a simple tag (Spellbinders) out of Neenah Desert Storm cardstock, stamped the sentiment (Laybug Crafts Ink) in brown ink (Hero Arts Cup O' Joe) and attached it to the card with some twine.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Crafter's Companion - Dies and die cuts

Papertake Weekly - Dies/punches

Top Tip Tuesday - 106 Spooled items

Craft Your Passion - 172 Happy Birthday
Great Impressions - Anything goes
Make it Monday - 151 always Create/Share/Inspire
Paper Craft Journey - Punches/die cuts
Seize the Birthday - Anything Goes Birthday

OCC wk3/day2 - Die-cutting techniques - Butterflies

Week 3, day 2 of the online class Summer Card Class 2 focused on die-cutting techniques. Today, I'm showing 2 cards using the block-cutting technique shown by Betsy Veldman. Since I don't have any alphabet or sentiment dies, I decided to die cut a butterfly (Die'sire Butterflies die).

For my first card, I used the negative cut and then cut two more butterflies in purple cardstock and vellum. I pulled the papers from different paper pads. The lilac paper came from a collection of specialty papers (1 in lilacs and 1 in purples) from a Dutch bargain store, and when I took them from my stash, I discovered they came with a collection of mixed sequins, which came in very handy for this card LOL.

I heat-embossed the sentiment (Ladybug Crafts Ink) in white embossing powder (Artemio) onto some soft brown Papicolor cardstock. I matted the background on some brown Core'dinations cardstock and adhered it to a Neenah Solar white card.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Crafter's Companion - Dies and die cuts

LCI - Happy Birthday

Papertake Weekly - Dies/punches

Craft Your Passion - 172 Happy Birthday
Stamping Sensations - Summer colours
Great Impressions - Anything goes
Make it Monday - 151 always Create/Share/Inspire
Paper Craftting Journey - Punches/die cuts
Seize the Birthday - Anything Goes Birthday

First attempt at making a shaker card

On day 3 of week 2 of the online card class Summer Card Camp Kelly Marie Alvarez showed us how to make this amazing Shaker Circle Box that I just had to try. And try is what I did. ;-(

The colours are from this week's colour scheme and the brown & cream border was inspired by Kelly Marie's card, but I turned her Happy Birthday card with hot air balloons into a Christmas card with my new Hero Arts stamps and dies. They are so cute!

For various reasons, you cannot actually shake the box (the shaker elements got glue on them, maybe there is some static from the acetate, the elements got stuck in the outer cirles - for which I used cardstock layers because I did not have any crafting foam - and because the box simply isn't deep enough ...) Need I say more?

Anyway, it was a good learning experience and I hope I can come up with a new and improved version, since I do like the design LOL.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenge:

CHNC Extra  - always Anything Christmas goes
Merry Monday Month long Anything Christmas goes
Clearly iStamp - 3 Christmas in July
Great Impressions - Anything goes
Make it Monday - 151 always Create/Share/Inspire

10 minute card

Yay! I managed to create today's card in 10 minutes flat! The buzzer sounded when I was rounding the second corner with my corner chomper. I'm sure more experienced crafters would be able to create this card in less than 10 minutes, but I'm so proud of myself that I pulled it off in 10.

I'm taking part in another Online Card Class, Summer Card Camp 2, and I'm loving all the videos, cards and inspiration. Day 4 of week 1 was all about creating a card in less than 10 minutes using this week's colour combo.

The stamp is from a set by Technique Tuesday and was stamped in different shades of Hero Arts mid-tone inks (soft pool, pale tomato, orange soda and butter bar). The greyish line below the orange soda was caused by applying soft pool onto a badly cleaned stamp, but I actually like the effect this gives. The sentiment stamp is from a Hero Arts set and was stamped in another Hero Arts mid-tone ink (charcoal). I bought several sets of mini cubes (much cheaper than buying the full-sized ink pads) and find they work perfectly for this type of stamping.

The online class is giving me a real boost to try new techiques and I'm sure I'll be trying some more 10 minute cards. They are great when you don't have a lot of spare time, LOL.

Mojo Monday #300

Mojo Monday are celebrating ther 300th sketch, so I thought it was high time I made another card.

I also challenged myself to us no patterned papers as per this fortnight's prompt from the lovely Jingle Belles.

I'm also playing along with the following challenges:

Allsorts - 214 Favourite things (embossing folders)

CHNC Extra - Always Anything Christmas goes

Papertake Weekly - Anything goes
Crafts and me - 138 Anything goes
Merry Monday - Anything Christmas goes

Woohooo!

I finally managed to finish and photograph this card, which was based on a recent TMS sketch.

 Here's the sketch I used:

Materials used:

Stamps - Paper Smooches

PPs - BasicGrey (Hopscotch)

Cardstock - Neenah solar white

Colouring medium - Flexmarkers

Glossy accents

Corner chomper

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge - Anything goes

Addicted to stamps - 42 Make your mark (use markers)

Passion for Promarkers - 195 Animals

BasicGrey - 92 Masculine

Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes
DDC - 60 Celebrate

TMS #195

I just had to play along with TMS this week, since I love this week's sketch. This was also a perfect opportunity to break in my new SSS stamp set, which is a recent win.

And here's the sketch:

Materials used:

Stamps - Like your style by Simon Says Stamp

Papers - So Sophie by MME

Dies - Lifestyle Crafts (Nesting frames 4); not sure about the make of the oval die

Ink - Cup O' Joe by Hero Arts

Miscellaneous - Purple pen, Glossy Accents, Sakura white glaze roller, fibre (Avec)

I'm also entering this card into the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Says Stamp - Anything goes

Crafty Catz -180 Purple

Recycling

It's recycling time again, in honour of Earth Day (22 April), plus it was high time I joined the fun at Jingle Belles again.

The layout for my card is based on one of the sample cards that Kristina Werner made for the Simon Says Stamp December 2012 card kit. The papers I used are also from the December kit. 

The recycled elements on my card are the snowflake, which was die-cut from the packaging of the tofu I used in my breakfast smoothies this week. It has a nice soft grey aluminum shine, but I wanted a blue colour so that it would match the papers I used, so I used one of my Flexmarkers to colour it. I found the blue baker's twine in my recycle box.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Jingle Belles - Earth Day/Recycle

DDC - 59 Earth Day/Recycle

Totally Gorjuss - 189 Embossing

Joanna Sheen - Recycle

Holly Jolly Christmas - Embossing + ribbon

Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes
Festive Friday - FFC06 Holiday project with a retro theme

Silhouette grasses

Today's card was inspired by the work of Brenda of Floral Fantasies. To celebrate her 4th blogaversary and (nearly) 4000 followers, Brenda has aked her followers to join in the celebration by creating a card that is inspired by her blog or her creations. For crafters that are familiar with Brenda's work, my choice of stamp (A little bit scenic - Silhouette grasses by Sheena Douglas) and medium (distress inks) will not come as a surprise, nor the addition of something with wings (a dragonfly instead of a butterfly LOL). The birthday sentiment is from a set by Studio Light and the fibre is an old one by Avec.

This one's for you Brenda. Thanks for all the inspiration you provide to me and other crafters worldwide!

I'd also like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp - Happy Birthday

Penny Black and more - Blossoms and bows

Allsorts - 201 Spring has sprung

LCI - Anything goes
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Fly
Great Impressions Stamps - Pastel colours and/or polka dots

PP day 2 - Bold Christmas

Day 2 of the Pattern Play online card class focussed on patterned paper and stamping, and Jennifer McGuire  showed this cool technique of using emboss resist (using a stamp with a solid pattern) and distress ink to alter your patterned paper.

Jennifer used a bold and solid floral pattern stamp for the resist technique, but since I didn't have anything similar, I used the most solid patterned stamp I had (Tweed background stamp by Hero Arts), to alter the floral paper below.

After heat-embossing the stamped image in clear embossing powder (Hero Arts), I inked the paper panel with distress ink (Broken China by Ranger's). Because the embossed panel proved extremely busy with the glossy embossed pattern, I removed the embossing again (after inking) by placing paper towel on top and heating it with my iron (another technique shown by Jennifer). The paper towel absorbs the embossing power, leaving a clean (or almost clean) paper. In hindsight, I might have gotten the same result by stamping my background stamp in colour right away (due to the type of stamp I used), but at least I got to try this technique and love the result.

I combined my boldly coloured paper panel with two pattened papers from 2 different Kaisercraft 6x6 pads (Chanteuse Collection & Bubblegum Hills Collection) and a small strip of white cardstock. The Christmas tree and sentiment chipboard elements are from a set by Bella BLVD (Christmas wishes) and were adhered using foam pads. I added some gloss and texture to the tree with Glossy accents and 2 Sakura gel pens (clear and white).

I just love how I have turned a flowery paper into a perfect background for a bold and bright Christmas card. It ties in nicely with the "Merry" theme over at the Festive Friday challenge blog that I have just found.

I'm also entering this card into the following challenges:

CHNC - 117 Use 3 of something (3 PPs)

CHNC Extra - Always Anything Christmas goes
Totally Gorjuss - 176 Something borrowed (I repurposed the floral PP)
Festive Friday -  FF04 Merry
Great Impressions Stamps- Going green
ABC Challenge - J for Just as you like
A Blog Named Hero - 22 Free Style!

Pattern Play day 1 - Neutral Noel

This week I learned a lot about using patterned papers on my cards. The first day of the Pattern Play online card class focused on how to balance different patterned papers. I decided to combine my card for day one with this fortnight's prompt over at Jingle Belles, namely to use only neutral colours for a Neutral Noel. I also challenged myself to use non-Christmas papers for this one, since I bought a Kaisercraft 6x6 pad quite some time ago that has lots of gorgeous patterns in neutral colours (After Five Collection).

Because the middle PP pane has a rather bold and busy pattern in black, taupe and bits of white, I kept the rest of my card very simple and white. The sentiment (Merry Everything by Simon Says Stamp) was heat-embossed in white Artemio embossing powder, while the angel (set of Christmas clear stamps by Inkadinkado) was heat-embossed in white twinkle embossing powder (Crafter's Companion) onto vellum (Crafter's Companion) and then cut out with a small border and adhered onto the card with foam pads. I finished the card off with some twine from the supermarket and a few Kaisercraft pearls and rounded two of the corners.

I'm also entering this card into the following challenges:

CHNC - 117 Use 3 of something (3 PPs)

CHNC Extra - Always Anything Christmas goes
CSAYL - 8 Anything goes
Crafty Catz - 175 Sparkle with a bow
Christmas at Sweet Stampin' - 4 No red & no green
One Stop Craft - 221 Recipe: 1 image, 2 or more embellishments, 3 PPs
ABC Challenge - J for Just as you like

Lots of buttons

For today's card I have combined several challenges, involving a sketch, handmade embellishments (buttons), and pink.

The following sketch is by Lucy Abrams:

I created the buttons by stamping the Tim Holtz woodgrain stamp in Memento Rich Cocao onto some cream cardstock and using a die to cut out the circles. Next, I used a smaller circle die to emboss the inside circle and then pierced the button holes using a real button as a guide. After inking the buttons with distress ink, I threaded all buttons with some button thread and adhered them onto a piece of soft pink Papicolor cardstock (which I've had for ages) using foam tape. The die-cut pink flower and the strips of PP are by Kaisercraft. The pink fibre comes from a very old selection of Kars fibres. The sentiment (Paper Smooches) was also stamped in Rich Cocao.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Lucy's sketch challenge - Day 3

A Blog named Hero - 121 Just make your own!

Totally Gorjuss - 173 Anything goes with pink
A Gem of a Challenge - 69 Button it

Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes

Cute Card Thursday - 258 Something old

Allsorts - 196 For a lady

Crafts and Me - 122 Dies and punches

Bearly Mine - 75 Anything goes

Muse #5 Happy Birthday

Earlier this week I found this new Muse challenge blog/Card making club where crafters are challenged to let themelves be inpired by the weekly muse.

And here's the card by Marion Vagg that inspired me:

I was inspired by the layout and the bold colours/patterns, so I dived into my new paper pads to see if I could find sth. similar to the washi tape Marion used and found some in the Baby Jane collection by Cosmo Cricket.

I stamped the flower (unknown brand from Dutch bargain retail store) on watercolouring paper in Memento Rich Cocao and coloured it with distress inks. The sentiment (Paper Smooches) was also stamped in Memento Rich Cocao, onto Neenah solar white cardstock and cut out with a Wplus9 die.

CAS2 - Day10 - Loving hugs

On day 10 of the online CAS card class we were presented with not 3 but 6 different ways to use the same stamp set. So inspiring!

Our assignment was to try and using 1stamp in three different ways (creating 3 cards) or to take a stamp and use it in a super creative way. I took inspiration from Teri Andersen's minimalistic design and came up with the following card, using stamps from 3 different sets.

Things did not go according to plan with this one. I started out by stamping the sentiment (Paper Smooches) in clear distress ink and heat-embossing it in black. I had forgotten to use my new powder tool and found that the black embossing powder was everywhere, including the back side. So I started fresh, this time powdering like mad and after heat embossing there were only a few specks of black where they did not belong. To balance the sentiment weight with the brackets I decided to stamp and emboss the sentiment again to give it a little more body (this time using my stamp press to get the placement right). Somehow I was not really paying attention while heat setting it, because I thought I was done, I touched the embossing powder to check and the powder went everywhere. I decided to include the specks as part of my design (no one will know it was an accident unless I tell them LOL) and did another round of heating it with my heat tool, this time making sure I did it right. I stamped the brackets in charcoal to avoid making them too heavy. I added a smaller heart inside the stamped red heart with glitter glue and applied some Glossy Accents when this had fully dried. I used my corner chomper on the corners of my panel and my card and adhered the panel with foam tape.

I'm entering this into the following challenge:

Great Impressions - Have a heart

CAS2 - Day9 - Embossed butterflies2

For my second butterfly card, I applied the distress ink on the inside of the embossing folder before embossing. After embossing, I applied a little more distress ink on the edges.

I love how you can never predict the resultThis time I used the largest banner from the banner die set and pleated the ends because it was a trifle too wide. The sentiment was (Marianne Design) again heat-embossed in white. I finished the card off with some Kaisercraft pearls.

CAS2 - Day9 - Embossed butterflies1

Day 9 of the online CAS card class was all about adding texture to you clean and simple design. I have this new long and narrow Darice embossing folder and this seems a good opportunity to use it.

I created 2 cards using different parts of the embossing folder and using 2 different inking techniques to hightlight the embossing. For this one, I first embossed the butterflies and then applied distress ink, working from the outer edges. The banner was cut with a W9plus die and the sentiment (Paper Smooches) was heat-embossed in white onto Colorcore cardstock. The button is from my recycled stash.

CAS2 - Day7 - Christmas in the air

On day 7 of the online card class our teachers showed us how we could use all sizes of stamps to create an impact on our clean and simple cards. Guest designer Cristina Kowalcyk proved that you can create a great card with a lot of tiny stars and one heart. She inpired me to make the following card.

I discovered I had quite a few tiny stamps hidden away in several stamp sets, including quite a few snowflakes (much smaller even than this one by Verve Stamps) and several heart stamps. This online class does make you look at your stamps in an entirely new way, which is great.

Materials used:

Snowflake & sentiment stamp - Verve Stamps (Christmas in the Air set)

Heart stamp - Brandless 'love and marriage' set (from Action shop, the Netherlands)

Inks - Memento tuxedo black & Tsukineko VersaColor scarlet

Cardstock - Neenah solar white

I'd like to this card into the following challenges:

Jingle Belles - Ho Ho H2O!

Great Impressions - Have a heart

7 or less challenge #1 - Use a maximum of 7 items on your card

CAS2 - Day4 - Hey there

Day 4 was all about using white space or negative space to make the design pop. After creating my rainbow card, I was left with with a number of smaller rainbows, a couple of clouds I had already die cut. So this card actually came together fairly quickly.

My corner chomper arrived earlier this week, and this seemed like the perfect opportunitly to try it out. Love it!

CAS2 - Day3 - Winter sky

After 10 days, the online CAS2 card class is coming to a close, and I have been working like crazy today to get some more cards finished. So I'll get right to it and show the cards I have made so far.

Day 3 was about inking and stamping techniques and our assignment was to try out a new technique of bring back an old favourite.

I have quite a collection of distress inks but I have not used them as much as I would like, so I decided to try and create a winter sky using some of my distress ink. This card turned out to involve two 'happy accidents'. Applying the distriss inks did not go as smoothly as I intended, but I do love the end result. The blotchy sky makes a nice contrast with the snowy landscape on the foreground. The sentiment stamping did not stamp correctly the first time, so I tried to stamp it again, which caused the shading (I now know I should/could have used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to align it LOL). However, I decided to leave it as is, since it reminds me of fuzzy prints in the snow.

Materials used:

Dark blue cardstock from my stash

Neenah solar white cardstock

Die - Country landscape by Memory box

Sentiment stamp - Christmas Wishes set by Wplus9

Ink - Mememto tuxedo black

Distress inks - Ranger (spiced marmelade, tumbled glass, faded jeans)

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Jingle Belles - Ho Ho H2O!

Sparkles Christmas Challenge - 25 Anything goes

CHNC extra - Anything Christmas goes

Bunny Zoe - Anything goes

Papertake Weekly - Anything goes

Bearly Mine - 72 Anything goes