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