Retirement Card

Hello! Monday soon over - that's a good thing!
I've made a CAS card with a coffee theme for a man who's going to retire soon.
I was inspired by the layout of this week's card over at The Cutting Edge, but I'm not going to enter it there since I did not use any die cuts.
I printed the digital sentiment from Raindrop Echo Desigs directly onto the card base.
I've used stamps from a set from Lawn fawn. The coffee beans are stamped with brown ink and the coffee cup and steam with black. I stamped onto a scrap piece of DP and brown paper. And that's about it!

I'm linking this card to these challenges:
1) Inkspirational - Beverages/Drink
2) Cuts Crops & Creativity - Coffe Lovers Bloghop
3) Addicted to Stamps and More - #114 CAS
4) Sweet Stampin - Just for men

A Froggie Hello

Happy Thursday everybody! There's a new challenge over at the Outlawz Twisted Thursday and this week's optional twist is "Anything Goes"!
I used an image from Oak Pond Creations, our sponsor for September. I love this little frog, he makes me think of Kermit the Frog from the Mupppet Show. I loved this program as a child, and I had a mug with Miss Piggy, a puzzle with Animal and a pajamas with the whole crew. I colored the frog using Promarkers in  different shades of green, and I added glossy accent to the eyes. The papers are from Doodlebug Design. I used a die to make the leaves (I believe it's from Poppy Design). I mounted it onto a piece of thick cardstock to get it raised from the background. I did the same with the sentiment, made with a die from Dienamics.

This card is also for these challenges:
1) Love to Create - Fussy Cut
2) Allsorts - #277 Based on a film title (The Muppet Movie)
3) Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge - #47 Anything Goes, Twist Spots or Dots

What's this?

I'm not sure how to define my card. It's not CAS nor embellished. It's not typically female, masculine or childish. It's not very autumn like, nor does it say spring, summer or winter. 

I don't know what this is, I just know I wanted to use my cute owl stamp from StampingBella. And I wanted to make a wooden frame. And I love my birch tree die from Memory Box. And I wanted to use that freebie paper and my favorite flowers at the moment. And I wanted to reduce my stash of small bits and pieces, hence my paper pieced owls.  

No sketch, no color inspiration, only the words of wings, flight and forest, which resulted in this card, made for these challenges:
1) Inkspirational - Flight

2) Sparkles Forum Challenges - Things with Wings

3) Craft Room Challenge - Forest Friends

Pumpkins

Thursday means a new challenge over at the Outlawz Twisted Thursday and this week's optional twist is "Autumn".  
I used an image from Oak Pond Creations, our sponsor for September. I colored it with my Promarkers and cut out a frame for it using a Spellbinders die. I used another die from the same set to make the card base.
The background paper is a scrap piece with orange and green lines, I chose this one as I felt it didn't take away the focus of the image and die cut details.
I stitched with gold thread around the edges of the frame and panel and added to wooden leaves.

This card is for these challenges:
1) Dies R Us Challenge - #10 Fall Festival
2) Craft Your Passion - Harvest Time
3) Incy Wincy Designs - Shaped Cards
4) Come and Get It - Use a Digi with An Autumn Theme

The Creative Blog Hop

I was nominated by Janet from Mainely Cards to do The Creative Blog Hop. We're on the same DT over at the Outlawz Twisted Thursday The Creative Blog Hop happens every Monday and hops from crafter to crafter. We all answer the same questions. I'm a day late, I hope you can forgive me - better late than never, right?

1. What am I working on?
I'm always working on something. I've got images colored up, ready to use, card layouts prepared, cards waiting to be embellished... Sometimes I just need my projects to lay there for a while before deciding on how to finish them...
2. How does my work differ from others of my genre?
I'm not sure I have a specific style as such, I'm a bit all over the place. I love vintage and cute, elegant and simple, you name it. I especially love making Christmas cards, and I do perhaps make more than the average number of masculine cards during a year.
3. Why do I write/create what I do?
I've always enjoyed crafting, for me it's a really relaxing activity. Nowadays I make mostly cards, but I used to make lots of jewelry, knitting, cross stitcing,... Crocheting is something I'm really bad at though.
4. How does my creation process work?
I love sketches and CASE challenges, and I also find inspiration from themes and others' work. I definitely find color challenges the hardest.
Sometimes I have a colored image ready and pick papers and embellishments afterwards. Other times I start with the papers and layout and decide on the image later. It depends on my source of inspiration. I'm a REALLY messy crafter. When people show photos of their messy craft deks I'm thinking "this is my craft space on a really good day"... I like to have many things at hand (= lots of papers, images and stash laying around on my desk), so I can try out different options before I decide to stick everything to my card. That's probably why I'm a slow card maker.

I'm nominating Jackie of Kreate with me 2 as the next hopper. I love her cute and colorful style, great coloring skills and her eye for layouts and detailing.

Maculine Birthday Card with a Rosette

I've got a sheet with male stickers from "Old Guys Rule" in my stash and this is the first one I use.
I needed to make a card for a man who prefers the clean & simple style, and he's got a great sense of humour, so I thought this sticker would be a good starting point.
I wanted to make a decorative card with no fussy elements and details, so I decided to add the sticker onto a die cut rosette made with a Tim Holtz die.
I found the light blue ribbon in my stash and thought the color matched the background of the sticker perfectly.
I used a dark blue paper and an embossing folder to make the background and I framed it using white paper and stitching before I attached the panel onto my dark blue card base.

I'd like to enter my card in these challenges:
1) Crafty Catz - #246 Clean & Simple
2) Crafty Cardmakers - Dry Embossing
3) Dream Valley Challenges - No Stamps
4) Unstampabelles - Funny + Frame It
5) Darnell's NBUS challenge #2 - NBUS Sticker and in general my neglected stash of ribbons

Sunflowers and a Ladybug

Thursday means a new challenge over at the Outlawz Twisted Thursday and this week's optional twist is "add a Ladybug".  
I used an image from Oak Pond Creations, our sponsor in September. I colored it with my Promarkers and added yellow enamel dots the flowers' centers.
My ladybug element is a brad from Totally Gorjuss which I mounted onto a crocheted flower. Papers are from Doodlebug Design. I stitched with golden thread around the edges and added a die cut sentiment, made with a die from Dienamics. I also used lace from my stash.

This card is also for these challenges:
1) Come and Get It - Autumn In The Garden
2) Love to Create - Flowers & Stitching

Christmas Card with Tag

I've got a quick and easy card to show you today.
I was inspired by the theme over at Winter Wonderland - Scandinavian Christmas - and I also wanted to try something new to me - I made a tag to put on the card front! I got to use my Crop-A-Dile for the first time and use an eyelet from my huge stash.Yay!
The background with snowflakes I made myself with a Fiskars stamp and white embossing powder. The tag is made with a DP from Wild Rose Studio and letter stickers. The teddy bear is a wooden element. I also used white string.

I'd like to try my luck in these challenges with this card:
1) Winter Wonderland - – Scandinavian Style
2) My Time to Craft - Teddy Bears Picnic
3) Operation Write Home - Create your own background
4) Darnell's NBUS challenge #2

Inspired by a Peacock

Hello! I hope you've had a good weekend and a great start of the week! I've got a new card to show you, and this one is rather 'international' with paper from the UK (thanks Sandie!), doily from a food store in Dubai and gold/bronze paper bought in Sweden. My choice of colors is inspired by the photo over at Inkspirational. I pondered for a week about what to do, should I use my peacock stamp, a peacock metal charm, lace... I decided on a simple 'hello' card as I've got mainly birthday and Christmas cards in my stash right now. Once I had decided on what to make the card came together rather quickly. The feathers are cut out with my Spellbinders dies, and for the sentiment I used on from Dienamics. Pearls from my stash. I machine stitched using white thread.

This card is for these challenges:
1) Inkspirational - Photo
2) 4 Crafty Chicks - Sewing Real or Faux
3) Aud Sentiments Challenge - #114 No Birthday Sentiment

Wedding Card with Cats

For me this is a really embellished card. I picked up inspiration from several challenge blogs to make this one.
My first inspiration was wedding/love. I decided to use my new cats die from Marianne and red heart shaped sequins for a shaker card. I covered the cats with frantage.
The theme of music also came to mind, hence my choice of DP from Landstoken for the cats' background and the flowers from Storyteller as both have musical note patterns. I then chose to keep with lighter colors, so I used a die from Marianne to cut out a frame of kraft covered with white gesso. Other DPs from Fabscraps. String, pearls and wooden butterfly button from my stash. I machine stitched with white thread and ruffled up the edges. For a sentiment I used vellum and curled the edges to make a scroll. The stamp is from Marianne, and I heat set the sentiment - "L'amour" - with gold glitter EP.

This card is for these challenges:
1) TIME OUT Challenges - #13 If music be the food of love play on
2) Marianne's Design Divas - Anything Goes (2 dies+1 stamp)
3) Storyteller - #22 Wedding (brown flowers)
4) City Crafter Challenge - #227 I see clearly (acetate+vellum)

Cat with some Sparkle!

Phew... What a week, I've been away for work this week, it's so good to be back home and tomorrow is Friday, yippee!
But first - Thursday means a new challenge over at the Outlawz Twisted Thursday and this week's optional twist is "Make Something Sparkle".  
I used an image from Oak Pond Creations, our sponsor in September, and gave it a silhouette look. I cut the image close to the lines, colored it with a black pen before I covered it with black holographic embossing powder and heat set it. The heart hanging from the cat's tail got red glitter glue on it. I die cut a sentiment with a Dienamics die and added 3 red enamel dots. For the background I used a DP from Authentique, mounted onto a red panel.

I'd also like to enter this into these two challenges:
1) Sparkle N Sprinkle - Anything Goes with Glitter, Embossing Powder and/or Flocking
2) Ooh La La Creations - CAS

Shaker Card with Snowman

I think this snowman from Bugaboo is going to be found on many of my Christmas cards this year. So fun and easy to color! I was inspired by the sketch over at Bugaboo's challenge blog and decided to make a shaker card with glitter and transparent pearls. I used my Marianne die to make the trees. I used silver mirri card and a Spellbinder die for the frame. The red paper was a leftover and I used an embossing folder for the brown paper. Some red gems and a big candy cane striped embellie and my card was done!

This card is for these challenges:
1) Stella says sketch - Sketch #213
2) Sweet Stampin - Embossing
3) Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - #23 Anything Goes
4) The Glory of Christmas - Bingo (red+digi+tree)
5) Completely Christmas - #27 Anything Goes