April Rudolph Days

I was determined to play along at Maureen's Rudolph Days challenge every month this year, so I popped into my craftroom while my herbal tea was brewing to create this super quick card using my new background stamp by Uniko (Block Party Christmas).

I used my MISTI to stamp the image using distress inks in Evergreen bough and Brushed corduroy and then used a water brush to pull in a tiny bit of colour in a few spots, such as the star, the holly leaves and Santa's hat. I added some twine to finish things off.

I'm playing at: 

April Rudolph Days

SSS Wednesday - Anything goes

Relax...

Hello! Thanks for stopping by! I have a quick and last-minute card to share for the current challenge at Create a Smile, which is all about circles.

I used one of the freebies and pasted them in a row in Word. To add circles of colours, I simply placed a circle stencil over parts of the ants and blended CP inks using a blending brush. I paired the images with a sentiment from Ladybug Crafts Ink, a small company that is no longer in existence.

I'm playing at:

Create a Smile - Circles

Alphabet challenge - C is for CAS

SSS Wednesday - Anything goes

Fluttering by

Hello and welcome to the blog today. I managed to squeeze in a little crafty time to create a quick card for a couple of challenges.

I started by trimming down a panel and stamping part of a background (Leafy vines, Hero Arts) in Lemon Ice (CP ink) with the help of the MISTI and then selectively inked up the stamp again using Garden Party (CP ink) for a little colour variation. The butterflies (Pretty Pink Posh) were in my UFO elements box and ready to be popped up after I had stamped my sentiment (Essentials by Ellen) and adhered my panel to my card base.

I'm playing at:

LIM - #393 Subtle colours

AAA Cards - #138 Along the edge

Penny Black and More - Spring time

In the forest

I decided to create another card in honour of Earth Day. I used a distress oxide ink panel from my UFO box and one of my new stencils by Uniko (In the forest) to create this Christmas card.

I started by trimming down my inked panel and then applied heavy body paste (Stamperia) through the stencil. Since this paste dries to a creamy white, I looked for a matching card base and found this double-sided glimmer cardstock (of an unknown brand) to be the perfect colour. This card did not need anything by way of embellishing, so I simply added a sentiment strip (Christmas Wishes, Wplus9) with a gold thread nest. I popped up my panel and sentiment strip with thin foam tape.

I'm playing at:

CAS Stencil - Embossing pastes/gels

Jingle Belles - Earth day 

(not entirely sure if my UFO panel fits the brief, 

but I'm linking it up anyway)

HLS Christmas - Anything goes (optional: nature)

STAMPlorations Mixed Media - Anything MM with a stencil

SSS Wednesday - Anything goes

Watercooler Wednesday -  WWC218 All about occasions

Earth Day

As always, the Jingle Belles are celebrating Earth Day by challenging us to reuse, recycle or upcycle stuff on our Christmas cards. And recycling is also the current theme at Sweet Stampin'.

For my card, I repurposed the booklet from the Greek postal services that had held our Christmas postage stamps. I backed my image with thin cardstock before fussy cutting the image and adhered this to an alcohol ink (yupo) panel from my UFO box that seemed a perfect match. All that was left to do was to adhere my panel to a red card base and stamp a sentiment. Done!

I'm playing at:

Jingle Belles - Earth Day

Sweet Stampin' - Recycled elements or AG

Christmas at Sweet Stampin' - Anthing Christmas goes 

(optional: monochromatic)

CHNC - #434 Anything Christmas goes

(optional: house or building)

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to all of you who are celebrating this weekend. Here in Greece, Greek Orthodox Easter is being celebrated next week, so it makes more sense for us to celebrate along with the Greeks next weekend.

I do have an Easter card to share. When Uniko was having a fabulous sale a few weeks ago, I could not help myself. I just had to order a few products I had been eyeing, such as the Passiflora stamp set and the Broken lines stencil, and they arrived within a week. Woot! I used them both to create this card.

I love that Bev has included those tiny spirals that are helping the plant climb. I think they add extra interest to the design.

I used glitter embossing paste to create my background. I had masked off the area where I wanted to add my embossing paste, but then decided I liked it better with a die-cut frame on top. The images were stamped using CP inks. After die cutting all of the elements, I blended a little ink (Lemon ice) to the tips of the petals. The sentiment (from an old sentiment set by Clearly Besotted) was stamped using Grape Crush ink (CP)

After I had created my card, my husband invited me to take a look in the garden, since our own passiflora had started flowering as well. We had planted them in our garden back in the Netherlands, and we were thrilled to discover that the previous tenants of our current house had planted one as well. 

I'm playing at:

CAS Stencil - Embossing pastes/gels

Uniko - #52 Spring (optional: Easter)

Stamping Sensations - April showers bring May flowers

Sparkles Forum - #115 Flowers or religious

Crafty friends

Hello there. I'm popping in with a very quick post to show this card I created for a crafty friend.

I started by blending CP inks (Limoncello and Samba) through my NBUS Blossom stencil from Create a Smile. The crayon stamp is by Whimsy Stamps, and the sentiment stamp and die are by CAS-ual Fridays. I created my own coloured cardstock using the Samba ink onto a scrap before die cutting and die cut the sentiment again using some black fun foam.

I'm linking up my card at:

Create a Smile - Crafty friends

SSS Wednesday - No designer paper

Since I have been using my cut-offs for the strip and die cut sentiment, 

I'm also allowed to enter the gates to Pixie's Snippets Playground - #350

Buttercups

Hello and welcome to my blog! I have been playing with my new stamp set by STAMPlorations (designed by Becca Cruger) and came up with three different versions. Here they are together.

For the first one, I embossed one of the skinny frames of the Frames die set by Simon Says Stamp before stamping my image and sentiment using my Misti. Next, I flipped the flower stamp, so  that I could add colour using the solid side of my stamp. I started with Tiara ink (CP inks) and then added some Sauna (CP inks) for a bit of variation. For the stem, I used Lime Rickey (CP inks). I added some splatters using Tiara and Lime Rickey. Before adhering my panel flat to my card base, I reinforced the embossed lines using my score board and tool. To finish off, I added a few sequins (Studio Calico).

I'm linking up this card at:

Time Out - #133

SSS Wednesday - No designer paper

HLS CAS - One-layer card

For my second card, I switched out the sentiment and added the skinny die cut frame to the embossed impression.

I'm linking up this one at:

STAMPlorations CAS - Anything CAS goes

For my third card, I switched to a lighter yellow for the flower (Limoncello and Tiara) and used an old Cuttlebug strip/folder to ground the image. I trimmed off a strip on the left of my panel before mounting it to my green card base. To finish off, I rounded the top right corner using my 1/4 inch corner chomper.

I'm linking up this one at:

AAA Cards - #137 Made in minutes + dry embossing

CAS on Friday - #155 Spring

ATSM - #336 Anything goes

 

Season's tweetings

Hello and welcome to the blog. In addition to getting back on track with my Christmas card making, I'm also trying to shop my stash and use products that have been waiting to be used. For today's card I combined these sweet sparrows by Lawn Fawn (a small set that jumped into my shopping basket a few months ago) with a large die by Sheena Douglas which I have had for quite some time. I simply snipped off a part of the die cut to fit my card and used some distress ink to add colour.

I masked off the stamped birds to do some soft ink blending on the background before colouring in my images using Copics.

I'm playing at:

Jingle Belles - Three of a kind

HLS Christmas - Anything goes

Sparkles Christmas - Feature a creature

Winter Wonderland - Cute Christmas

SSS Wednesday - Animal antics

Sending smiles

While I had my inks and Winnie and Walter stamps today, I thought I might just as well create a second card.

I used the same inks that I used for the card in my previous post but added Flirty Fuchsia for some extra variation. I created the purple background panel using Grape Crush and a blending tool. The sentiment strip was cut from a snippet of pink cardstock. 

Stamps: The Big, the Bold and Friends, In bloom: Hollie's Festive Flowers (Winnie and Walter)

Die: Essentials: Noelle Cutaways (Winnie and Walter) - I used the large scalloped die but trimmed around the pierced edge using my trimmer.

I'm playing at:

Winnie and Walter - March colour combo with Heather

The Card Concept - #112 Cottage Florals

My clean and layered card was inspired by the floral arrangement

Watercooler Wednesday - #215 Anything feminine goes

Spring card

Hello and welcome to my blog today. I made some time to play in my craftroom today and managed to create two cards, the first of which is below.

Inks used: Garden Party, Grass Skirt, Party Dress and Grape Crush (all CP inks); Versafine Onyx black

Stamps: The Big, the Bold and Extras + coordinating dies, Mini Scenery: Merry Berry, In bloom: Carolina's Flora (all by Winnie and Walter).

I'm playing at:

Winnie and Walter - March colour combo with Heather

Seize the Birthday -  #162 Spring

Watercooler Wednesday - #215 Anything feminine goes

Sparkles Monthly Challenge - #114 Stamped background