Flowers

It's Saturday and that means a new challenge over at Catch the Bug. This week we're having a RECIPE challenge: Use image,  papers and  embellishments.

My one image is called pretty flower girl and is colored with Promarkers and Distress Ink pads.
My two papers are one with spots and one with stripes. The spotty one is die cut with a Dienamics border die.
For my 3 embellishments I went with 3 different types: flowers, pearls and ribbon.

This card is also for:
Double D Challenges - April Showers Bring May Flowers
Paper Shelter Challenge - #246 Pearls
Passion For Promarkers Challenge - #343 Make it Digital (image)

Body parts

Today I've got a Christmas card to share, one that came to from the inspiration of using "body parts" stamps (no digis). Having no such stamp and having used the legs of my Prima doll stamp in the previous challenge I felt I had to come up with something other than that.
So I used two Santa children stamps from Panduro, just using the heads, hiding the rest behind some Christmas gifts made with a Magnolia stamp.
I paper pieced their hats using paper scraps from Maja papers, the gifts were stamped onto kraft an I colored in some of the details using Promarkers and silver and white gel pens. The sentiment, also from Panduro, was stamped onto a die cut banner made with a Lawn Fan die.
 The lace was bought on a trip abroad, sequins and pearls from my stash.

This card is also for:
Twofers - #18 Body parts
Use Your Stuff - Use Scraps
Rudolph Days Challenge - April
Christmas Card Challenges - #21 Anything Goes

Santa tag

It's Monday and over at Catch the Bug that means we've got some "Anything but a card" inspiration for you.

I used one of my favorites of Jodie's sweet stocking Santa images, colored it with Promarkers and a black pen and glittered it up with silver glitter. I fussy cut the image and placed it onto a piece of kraft paper.

The kraft was dry embossed using my favorite falling snow embossing folder. I used white ink on the raised pattern. The tag is cut using a die from Dienamics.

I added a strip of lace, ribbons and twine from my stash and there's a little metal charm hidden there too stating "Merry Christmas".

This tag is for:
C.R.A.F.T. - #360 Christmas
ABC Christmas Challenge - 'H' is for Hat (Christmas ones)
Crafting By Designs - Get Ready For Christmas

Cupcake tray freebie

Here's my card featuring this week's Freebie Friday image-  you can pick it up at no cost in the Bugaboo store.

I colored the image using Promarkers and teamed it up with a sentiment from TLC that was a freebie in the past.They go so well together don't you think?

I kept my card very simple, layering white papers onto silver mirri card, and I used my Martha Stewart punch to make a decorative border for the top panel. I also added some microbeads onto some of the cupcakes, but that's all there is to this simple card.

This card is also for:
Crafty Boots - Use a Sentiment
Use your stuff- #219 Punches
4 Crafty Chicks - #295 F is For Food

Pink ombré

One of the things I like to do the most is to CASE other designers. Over at City Crafter they are celebrating their 6th birthday with a CASE challenge, I chose card number 3.

I was inspired by the ombre effect in pink, the layout with the die cut leaves, the black sentiment and gems.

I started out sponging the background with spun sugar and picked raspberry DIs. I cut out a rose bouquet using a die from Memeoy Box. Then I heat embossed some Bo Bunny stamped butterflies on inked paper, fussy cut them and mounted them on foam, slightly bending their wings. 

The sentiment is in Norwegian, it's the definition of "greeting".
Various gems and sequins from my stash.


This card is for:
City Crafter Challenge - #307 CASE
Creative With Stamps Challenge - #1 Butterfly
Moving along with the Times - #18 Spring Flowers

Flower Umbrella

It's Saturday and that means a new challenge over at Catch the Bug. This week we're playing BINGO. I went with the buttom row of Bugaboo image + Embossing + Sentiment.


The image is one of Jodie's many umbrella images, colored with Promarkers. I added wink of Stella to the flowers and added liquid pearls to their centre.

The image is fussy cut and placed on to oval die cuts made with dies from Spellbinders. The bow is made with a Tim Holtz die.

The background is heat embossed with silver EP, I used one of my new background stamps from Tim Holtz. I matted the piece onto silver card stock, added zigzag stitching with silver metallic thread around the edges.

The sentiment is also heat embossed, it's one that can be used for birthdays or for a congratulations occasion.


This card is also for:
Tuesday Throwdown - #289 Use your Die Cuts
Love to Scrap - Bow
Cut it Up- #94 Spring Flowers
Open-Minded Challenges- #4 Easter/Spring/Pastels 

Tea

Here's my card featuring this week's Freebie Friday image-  you can pick it up at no cost in the Bugaboo store.

I colored the image using Promarkers and a gold gel pen, fussy cut it and placed it onto a bright yellow doily. What my favorite color is varies betweens seasons and moods, but yellow is always one I've loved for it's cheerful effect and I think looks pretty with many colors. This time I chose black, embossed the paper with a woodgrain EF from Darice.

The spoon is made with a die from Marianne, it looks quite authentic in silver mirri card. The sentiment is cut with a die from Dienamics and says "happiness is a cup of fresh tea" or something close...

My card is for these challenges:
Outlawz Twisted Thursday - Favorite color
Crafty Gals Corner - #67 Die Cuts or Punches
Digi Choosday Challenge - Emboss It

Watercoloring using my DI pads

I treated myself to some new crafting goodies on Saturday. I think I have few flower stamps in my stash, and mostly small ones, so I bought a stamp set with several flowers from Tim Holtz.


I stamped and clear embossed the flowers onto watercolor papper. Then I used these Distress inks to color the image:  wild honey, fired brick, walnut stain, forest moss and twisted citron. Finally I masked the image and sponged salty ocean DI.

As final touches I added a few micro beads to the flowers and stamped a sentiment in Norwegian (the definition of "greeting", so very versatile) and heat set it.

This is very different from what I normally make, but I'm finally being more daring using my inks.



This card is for:
TIME OUT Challenges - #54 Home Sweet Home (inspired by blue and orange)
Cards in Envy - Flowers and/or Fantasy
Dream Valley Challenges - Anything Goes

Gold and White for Christmas

Being inspired by some challenges running at the moment I finished this card yesterday. I've only used gold and white for this card, I really like the look of these colors together.

I had a general plan for the layout in mind and started out embossing the background, using a Tim Holtz EF.

I cut the poinsettia with dies from Marianne, layered it with a sequin and pearl in the centre. Behind it I attcahed some gold metal thread and a few berries on a stem.

I placed the poinsettia onto a gold heat set piece of vellum, using a script stamp from Glitz.


This card was made for:
ABC Christmas Challenge - 'G' is for Green or Gold
52 Christmas Card Throwdown Christmas color
House of Cards - Script and/or colors

Summer penguin

Can't wait for summer to arrive! So my DT card for the new "Stella Says Sketch" challenge that starts today over at Catch the Bug is quite  summery.

I used an image called Poppi Penguin - popsicle colored with Promarkers. I mounted the DPs onto panels of yellow and stitched with red thread around the edges. I added buttons as embellishments. Stitched dies, ovals and scallop, are all Dienamics ones. Die wise I think they were my best investment ever - I seem to use them over and over again, and I see that stitched dies are very much popluar out there in blogland too.

This card is also for:
Dies R Us Challenge - #46 Use Scallops
Through the Purple Haze - #99 Layers
Crafting for all Seasons - #123 Use Die cuts/Punches

Flowers for you

A very clean and simple card today. I was inspired by the April's CASE designer over at HLS for both the layout and theme.

I used a to me new stamp from Penny Black, embossed with clear embossing powder and colored using Distress Inks. I followed the colors of the photo over at ColorQ.
A panel in the middle was cut out and raised on foam, and I only colored in the image on the raised panel.
The sentiment is also heat embossed, it translates "for you" and is from Norsk Stempelblad.

This card is for these challenges:
ColourQ - Color Challenge #336
Happy Little Stampers - April CASE the Designer
Penny Black and More - Birthday
Ett Trykk - Clean and simple
Twofers - #17 Birthday

Similar cards - different themes

My mother needed a card for someone who has moved, so I made a card using my stamps from Hot Off the Press. I started out stamping the house and fence onto kraft, colored in the details of the house with a white gel pen, cut them out, then I chose two DPs ans layered them onto kraft panels. That being done I thought "this is going nowhere".  Ideas totally gone. I decided to pull out a tree die from Marianne and some lace from my stash. The card felt empty at the top, so pondered a bit, took out my star die from Marianne, heat embossed the cut with EP. It got better, but I wanted to add a sentiment to, used my Lawn Fawn banner die to cut it, moved the piece  around and finally settled for a spot.
 
I was sure this was destined to be a card that would end up in the "get back to it later pile" (yeah right) but when finished I actually liked the whole layout so well that I decided to make one similar but with a Christmas theme.

I know that on the photo the roof lookes like moulded cheese, but I used my snow pen for texture and added some glitter and IRL it looks quite nice. I used another tree die, also from Marianne, chose white lace and stamped a Christmas sentiment.

The cards are very similar in design and I've used many of the same items, but I feel I acheived two different looks. Now I would love to hear your opinion - which one is your favorite?

The "Home is where your heart is" card is for these challenges:
Inspiration Destination - #80 Always Anything Goes
Creative Card Crew - #110 Die Cut
Cards und More - # 155 - Use Kraft

The "Joy to the World" card is for these:
Happy Little Stampers Christmas - Die Cuts (tree and star dies from Marianne)
Addicted to Stamps and More - #188 Holiday
A Snowflakes Promise - #20 Anything Christmas Goes

Bear with ladybug wings

This is my DT card to showcase one of Jodie's new releases. She's currently taking a break, but will be back later this week and then this image will be available in the Bugaboo store.

I colored the bear with Promarkers, added glitter and glossy accent to the wings and sponged with shaded lilac DI. I added flowers and ribbons from my stash.

The background is made using a DP from Maja Designs, I used an embossing folder that was a freebie with a magazine, spomged with white ink on top so that the pattern shows better.
The sentiment is die cut using fun foam and a di from Dienamics.

This card is also for:
Come and Get It - Tag You're It
Through the Purple Haze - #98 Flowers
Incy Wincy Designs - Use your Favorite Colouring Medium (Promarkers)

Stencil used as stamp

Over at Happy Little Stampers the CAS challenge of the month is to use a stencil as a stamp. I loved the sound of the concept and got to work, using my Memory Box star stencil as stamp, blue DI and water. I didn't acheive a perfect result, but kind of loved how unperfect it looked, so went ahead.

I added a fussy cut ADFD image, colored with Promarkers and decorated with red glitter. Then I stamped and heat embossed a birthday sentiment from Whimsy Stamps, mounted it all onto a dark blue panel and card base and that was it.

I didn't add any embellies and it's a non fussy card, but I'm worried  it's not CAS enough, but I'll enter it as a CAS card into these challenges and we'll see:
Happy Little Stampers - April CAS: Stencil monoprint
Less Is More - White space but not white
A Day for Daisies - #144 Add Glitter (added glitter to the flowers)
C.R.A.F.T. - #357 Create Your Own Background Paper