Save the rhino

Hello crafty friends! I was determined to play along with challenge #3 at the Day of the Month card club, where the theme for May was Save the Rhino day. I did not have any rhino stamps, though, so I did a quick search on the Internet and simply could not resist this sweet digital rhino that I found on Etsy. The rhino and tree are part of a set of African wildlife digital stamps by ClipArtisan.

I arranged and sized the two .png files in Word and printed it onto Neenah solar white cardstock. After colouring them in with Copics I applied liquid masking (Winsor & Newton) before blending my background using distress inks in Tumbled glass and Mowed lawn. I die cut my panel using a stitched circle die (Simon Says Stamp). I paired the digital stamps with this fun sentiment from my brand new stamp set from Create a Smile (Poppin' over). I backed my panel with a circle of fun foam and adhered it to my card blank that I created from hammered cardstock. Since the size of the cardstock is A4, I created a card that is slightly smaller than an A2 (US) sized card.

I'm playing at:

Day of the Month Card Club - #3 Save the Rhino day

SSS Wednesday - Anything goes

Aud Sentiments - #228 Nature + a sentiment

Watercooler Wednesday - WWC223 Anything goes

Stenciled birthday butterfly

When I saw this Stamperia stencil the other day in the (only) craft shop in my area, I just had to have it and have a play.

I started by taping the outline stencil to a half sheet panel of A4 card and blended Tiara ink at the top and Samba ink (both by Catherine Pooler Designs) at the bottom. I then inlaid the detailed stencil/mask and added more Tiara and Samba ink, blending the colours in the middle. Next, I added Grape crush ink (CP) to the tips of the wings. After removing the detail stencil/mask, I decided to add a bit more colour to the antennae.

After cutting the panel down the middle, I used the right half for today's card. I stamped the sentiment from an older SSS stamp set and added the die cut sentiment (Essentials by Ellen) from my UFO box. I foam mounted the panel to my card base on top of a strip of washi sheet (Lifestyle Crafts).

I'm playing at:

CAS Stencil - Stenciling over coloured background

AAA Birthday - #1 Anything birthday goes

Seize the Birthday - #166 Anything birthday goes (no toppings for me)

Allsorts - #520/1 Happy 10th Birthday Allsorts

Christmas Joy

Hello crafty friends! I'm popping in with a card that I created for a couple of challenges.

I dug up this old Christmas Joy stamp set by Crafter's Companion. I stamped the image using black Archival ink and coloured it in using Tombow markers and a water brush. The sentiment is from the same stamp set.

I'm playing at:

CAS Christmas - Stocking

CAS Watercolour - For a child

Watercooler Wednesday -  WWC222 All about occasions

ATSM - #342 Make your mark

SSS Wednesday - Bright colours

No adventure without coffee

Hello there! I'm back with another coffee-themed card. For this one, I went all inky and distressy (is that a word?). This card was hugely inspired by a challenge at StampNation, where we are celebrating a Spring break. The first challenge was to create a card using neutrals that would appeal to the adventurers among us, but with a graphic element for a modern twist. I had this idea in my head, but could not make it work on an A2-sized card, so I created a 5x7 card instead.

I used layers of distress inks and distress oxide inks to create my background panel and then used a stamp set by Stamper's Anonymous to do some background stamping using Vintage photo distress ink. The giraffe, alpaca and the graphic/ethnic element are from a stamp set that came with a UK craft magazine. I stamped the images onto a sheet of patterned paper and pulled in a little colour using a water brush. The coffee cup (SSS) was die cut from the same paper and after fussy cutting the images, I used a blending tool to add more vintage photo ink to the edges. The first two sentiments are from the same stamp set, while the coffee-related sentiment is from a set from STAMPlorations/Becca Cruger. They were heat embossed in antique gold ep (SSS).

In case you hadn't noticed, I'm not really an adventurer. Sometimes I wonder how I ended up living in Crete lol.

I'm linking up my card at:

2019 Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

Daring Cardmakers - A moment in time

Alphabet challenge - D for Distressed

Creative Knockouts - #297 Funny card

It's your day

I'm back with another birthday card for the Coffee Lovers Blog Hop and a couple of other challenges.

This one was quick and easy. I used the Gina K. mini wreath stencil (that I received as a gift from SSS during last year's Black Friday sales) and this sweet mug stamp from a SSS mini stamp set that I also received free with a purchase a few years ago. The sentiment is from a set from a Dutch bargain store. After stamping my mugs and sentiment using CP inks (Pixie dus, Mint to be and Royal treatment), I checked my Copics hex chart (created by Sandy Allnock) to pick copics in matching colours to colour in the hearts. I matted my stamped panel onto the same purple shimmer cardstock that I used a few days ago, and foam mounted this onto my card base from white hammered cardstock.

I'm playing at: 

SSS Wednesday - Happy Birthday

2019 Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

AAA Cards - #139 Sketch

AAA Birthday - #1 Anything birthday goes

Double Trouble - #28 Spring/summer

Three Amigos - Food and/or drink

Coffee and cupcakes

A birthday calls for coffee (or tea/cocoa) and cupcakes (or some other form of cake). Right?

Anyway, I'm back with another card for the current Coffee Lovers Blog Hop and a couple of other challenges, including the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challeng, which is celebrating it's 10th anniversary this weekend. Wow! And there's a new birthday-themed challenge out in blog land, AAA Birthday, which is a sister challenge to the AAA Cards challenge. Their very first challenge was launched this morning. So without further ado, here's the card I created.

Isn't it fun? And isn't it interesting to see how the type of stamp inspires a different type of card? The image of my previous card called for something elegant (or so I thought), while these stamps (from a huge coffee-themed set by Poppy Crafts that I snagged in an online sale) asked for a more playful approach. I stamped a few of the smaller images onto a panel of Ranger watercolour card and used my Zigs to colour them in. Since the colour doesn't move well on this watercolour card, I scribbled some colour onto my craft mat and picked it up with a water brush. That also gave me a chance to mix blue and green to create a teal colour.

I die cut my panel using the large rectangle die from the Bundle of stitched shapes (Simon Says Stamp) and used strong double-sided tape to adhere it to my lilac card base. The sentiment (Coffee Break, Whimsy Stamps) was heat-embossed in white ep (SSS) onto a scrap of black cardstock and popped up using thin foam tape.

I'm linking up my card at:

2019 Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

SSS Wednesday - Birthday

AAA Birthday - #1 Anything birthday goes

Time Out - #134 Playful

Seize the Birthday - #164 No toppings for me

Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

Hello and welcome! Thansk for stopping by!
In case you hadn't noticed, the Spring/Summer edition of the 2019 Coffee Lovers Blog Hop has started, which means that lots of crafters out in blog land will be sharing their coffee, tea or cocoa inspired creations this week. I had lots of play time this weekend, so here's the first card I created.

I used one of the two freebies that STAMPlorations is offering, printed it onto a sheet of Neenah solar white cardstock and coloured it in using Copics. I stamped one of the sentiments from About a Rose (STAMPlorations), trimmed down the panel and matted it onto a panel of purple shimmer cardstock before adhering it to my card base. To finish off, I added a little sparkle to the cup and saucer and to the yellow sprigs.

I'm linking up my card at:

2019 Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

Watercooler Wednesday - #219 AG Feminine 

The Paper Players - PP440 Friends

STAMPlorations CAS - Anything CAS goes 

(optional: lilac)

Create a Smile - Waving hello

Hello and welcome! I'm super excited to be guest designing for the new challenge at Create a Smile, after I won a recent challenge with this card.  The theme for the current challenge is Favorite critter, and here's what I created.

I have a weakness for penguins, but I normally only use them on my Christmas cards. Since I don't own many Create a Smile products yet – I do intend to go shopping soon to spend the gift certificate that I won – I was very happy to find this sweet surfing penguin among the freebies on the Create a Smile blog. I inserted the image into a Word file, adjusted it to the desired size and printed it onto Neenah Solar white cardstock. After doing some simple colouring using Copics, I fussy cut the image out. In the picture below you can also see the shimmer that I added using a Spectrum Noir sparkle pen.

To create my background, I started by running a scrap of blue cardstock through my die cutting machine with a new embossing folder that came with a UK crafting magazine. I used my scissors to cut around the waves to trim them down to the size I wanted. Next, I lightly ran a mini cube of Salty Ocean distress ink over my panel to add some colour variation. I masked off the edges of my card panel and blended some CP inks (Tiara, Bellini, It's a boy) to create my sky, and added some water droplets. I popped up my sweet penguin using a small action wobbler, for some interactive fun.

For my sentiment, I stacked two die cuts and adhered them using liquid glue. Since Create a Smile is a German company (owned by Christine Drogt), it offers several stamp sets and dies in German. Fortunately for me, 'hallo' has the same meaning in both German and Dutch, so it's perfect for cards I wish to send to my Dutch relatives and friends. The 'hallo' die set also has a solid die, and the set is also available in an English version.

That's it for now. Thanks for stopping by! I do hope you will check out the current challenge and maybe take a peek in the shop while you're there. Happy crafting!

I'm also linking up my card at:

Pixie's Snippets Playground - #351 Using up those snippets!

(I used a scrap of blue card for my sea and 

a snippet of white card for my sentiment)

SSS Wednesday - Anything goes

Colour Crazy - #16 Anything goes with colouring