Time Out Challenges Reminder!

Hi friends!

I'm here to remind you of our 5th birthday challenge at TIME OUT! I can't believe we already turned 5... My life has turned upside down (and even several times!) during these 5 years... It's good to have some stability in your life though... So I'm very grateful to Sandie for keeping this challenge blog going! 

To celebrate TIME OUT and our fabulous leader Sandie I wanted to make a card with her on my mind. This card has a lot to do with her: I've received the Concord and 9th flower stamps from her as a gift and also the Winnie and Walter sentiment die cuts are from her... I know she likes my coloring and also I tried to keep my design CAS for her taste... So I hope she likes this!  Love you hon! 

All the flowers are simply stamped and colored in with Copics on kraft. I've added some gel pen details + splattered white and gold paint on top. 

The challenge is Inspired by Words:

The winner will receive an amazing $50 gift voucher to STAMPlorations store! Please have a look at all the details and more DT inspiration from our challenge blog HERE. This time Kara joins us as guest designer! LOVE LOVE LOVE the floral card she made for our reminder post, don't miss it! 

I'd like to join:

The Flower Challenge: Anything Goes (my 3rd entry)

Thanks for popping by and happy crafting!

New Challenge at Inkspirational!

Hi friends!

We have a new challenge for you at Inkspirational! This time it's a photo inspiration, have a look:

So cute, right? I was inspired by the white & pink -color combo, the heart-shaped cookies and the bold sentiment on them. I used a Concord and 9th die for the heart and the die cut Winnie and Walter sentiment is a pressie from my good friend and fellow Ink team mate Sandie. :) The heart is inked with distress inks and I added splatters of water, pearl white water color and white acrylic paint on it. A very simple CAS card! 

Have a look what the rest of the Ink design team created from HERE and I hope to see you playing along! 

I'd like to join: 

Crazy for CAS: Dies

CASology: Smile

A hug always brings a smile to your face! 

New Challenge at Less Is More!

Hi friends!

I'm here today with my DT card for the new challenge at Less Is More. This time we have a sketch for you:

Skull and Cross Buns continues as our January sponsor with a prize for our monthly winner. 

Immediately when seeing the sketch I thought about this pretty old PT stamp with the bow and the strings... I thought it was perfect! I went with a die cut sentiment (Winnie and Walter). It's cut from red card and I've inked an ombre effect on it and added sparkle with WOS -unfortunately the camera didn't really catch neither of those effects very well. 

Our guest designer this time is the fantastic Toni. Have a look at her fun card and all the DT inspiration in our challenge blog HERE... And then is your turn to show us how the sketch inspires you! Thanks for popping by and happy crafting!

I'd like to join:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: CAS

Time out Challenges Reminder!

Hi friends!

I'm here to remind you of our current challenge at Time Out, where we are inspired by one of our Home Sweet Home photos. Before I'll show you the photo I'll also mention that our blog has a fabulous new look including new badges! I'm sure you'll love it. :) Here's the new players badge:

And now let's get into the photo.

I was inspired by Christmas look, the square shape of the pillows and the overall color palette. I love the fresh, Scandinavian look my card turned out to have! Sorry for the dark photo though... We haven't seen sun in weeks. :( You'll have to just take my word that the white is white IRL! The die is by Marianne Designs and the sentiment is from a Winnie and Walter set. 

I hope you'll join us! This challenge is sponsored by the amazing Altenew and our guest designer this time is Mughda. Love her unique card making style! Don't miss any of the inspiration, head on over to our challenge blog, with the new fantastic look, HERE!

New Challenge at Less Is More!

Hi friends!

We have a new challenge for you at Less Is More:

This challenge is sponsored by Happy Little Stampers. Do play along for a chance to win a fabulous prize or to be chosen as a guest designer in the future!

I made two cards this time. It's been grey and rainy for the past week in Finland so photographing these was a pain... Please try to imagine the whites as pure whites and click the photos larger for closer look at the details!! 

Card 1 Silver

For my first card I chose silver. I've die cut a Marianne Design snowflake and backed it with silver mirror card, it shows beautifully from the openings the die cut. I also die cut a circle from silver glitter card and heat embossed a CAS-ual Fridays sentiment. Lot's of silver in this card! 

Card 2 Copper

My second card is a bit more busy but hopefully still CAS. I've die cut a Papertrey Ink snowflake and heat embossed it twice with sparkly copper powder. The Winnie and Walter sentiment is heat embossed on non-sparkly copper powder. The soft pink rectangle is die cut with a Penny Black die. I love copper and pink together! 

This post is pretty short and sweet, sorry about that... But I'm glad to have you popping by and hope to see you again! Do visit my DT buddies for more metallic inspiration! 

New Challenge at Less Is More!

Hi friends!

I'm here with my DT card for our new recipe challenge at Less is More:

Dimension is one of my favorite "spices" to add to clean and simple card making so I just love this recipe of ours! I'm happy to be back at Less Is More after a break for one whole month -I've moved house and my crafting supplies have been out of reach. Slowly getting back into the swing of things! 

The month of October is sponsored by Uniko. Play along for a chance to win a fabulous prize... And for a chance to be called to guest design for us! Our guest designer this time is Claire and her card is full of great ideas for dimension -don't miss it! 

My card is created with dies by Concord and 9th and Winnie and Walter. As soon as I saw this glorious leaf die from Concord and 9th I knew I had to have it. I love the large size and the detailed look! I cut the leaf from orange card and gave it ombre ink blending for more dimensional look. I also spashed some golden water color on it for sparkle. I've popped up the white pierced rectangle (cut with Winnie and Walter die) and the sentiment banner with fun foam for extra dimension. The sentiment is heat embossed with white powder for subtle extra dimension! Hope you like! 

I'd like to join:

Crazy for CAS: Fall in Love

CAS-ual Fridays: Inspiration photo

CAS on Friday: Fall or Halloween

I hope you'll visit our challenge blog for more DT inspiration! Thanks for popping by! 

New Challenge at Inkspirational!

Hi friends!

For the next fortnight at Inkspirational we'd like you to use vellum in your projects! My sample is super simple and maybe the easiest way to use vellum ever but our DT has plenty of more complex inspiration for you in our challenge blog! Our guest designer this time is the talented Wei. Play along and one day you could be invited to guest design as well!

I've colored in a Winnie and Walter rose image with Copics. I had the pre-stamped and heat embossed Hero Arts sentiment on vellum ready in my stash... And I decided to use if tor this card. The gold looked a bit "lonely" so I added lots of pen detail to roses with two shades of metallic gel pens to bring more gold to the card. That's really all there is to this card... Super simple!

I hope to see you joining us! 

Time Out Challenges Reminder!

HI friends!

I'm here to remind you of our current challenge at TIME OUT Challenges. You still have about one week to join us and we challenge you to be...

Our sponsor is the fabulous Winnie and Walter

Really love their products! This time I had fun using the Essentials Katharine Cutaways and a sentiment from Winter Wishes with Evelin T Designs. I'm trying to make Christmas cards as much as I can now... I'm behind!! I've used a wooden snowflake embellishment from my stash. No idea where it came from! I thought using two different reds would maybe make an elegant and yes, very colorful Christmas card. I quite like the end result although this was really simple to make! I've added dimension with fun foam and used just one rhinestone in the middle of the snowflake as a finishing touch. I hope you can see the dotted die cut details in the rectangles -love these dies! 

Please head on over to our challenge blog for all the challenge details and lots more DT inspiration! 

Time Out Challenges Reminder!

Hi friends!

I'm here to remind you of our current Inspired by Words challenge at TIME OUT Challenges:

As always in our Inspired by Words challenges you can be inspired by the whole quote or just one word or some words. I was inspired by the words happy and sand -I chose sand colored card for my base, stamped Happy-word twice and also used card making techniques that make me happy: copic coloring, stenciling, paint splattering and adding sparkle! This is a super simple card and I can't decide if I like it or not but at least it was fun to create it! 

This challenge is sponsored by Uniko -the winner will receive a stamp set of their choice from Uniko store. 

Please have a look at all the design team inspiration in the challenge blog and then it's your turn to take TIME OUT and craft! 

New Challenge at Less Is More!

Hi friends!

We have a wonderful new color challenge for you at Less Is More:

Unfortunately I had time to make only one card this time but I'm sure you'll find a lot more inspiration in my design team mates blogs! Click HERE for the challenge post with all the challenge details. 

We are already in September which means we have a new monthly sponsor and this time it's CAS-ual Fridays Stamps. Play along for a chance to win a fabulous prize! Do note the 20% code for Less Is More players!

I decided to play with my Polychromos colored pencils to create ombre pink colored flowers (we allow ombre in this color challenge). I heat embossed a Clearly Besotted flower stamp on black card and spent a nice hour or so coloring in the cute flowers. I finished the coloring with a coat of Wink of Stella. The sentiment, simply stamped, is by Uniko, and the dies I've used come from Winnie and Walter. The rectangle has dotted details in the edge -the photo unfortunately didn't really catch the dots. 

Thanks for popping by and I hope to see you playing along! 

New Challenge at Inkspirational!

Hi guys!

We have anew challenge for you at Inkspirational:

I hope to see you joining us! This time the talented Cathy is our guest designer. Play along and one day you could be asked to join us as GD too! As always the regular DT has made inspirational samples for you as well. 

I had a bit of a trouble with this word prompt: English is not my mother tongue so sometimes it can be hard with some words. When this happens I turn to Thesaurus.com for synonyms and words related to the word prompt... And this is what I did this time too. I found out that one could for example think of a snap shot or just something that's quick and easy... And I combined these things in my card. I used a stencil that leaves a white frame (like in a polaroid) and just in general stenciled cards are the fastest ones to make! Also I already had the strip of vellum with white heat embossed sentiment ready in my stash so this card came together in no time at all! In addition to DI:s for inking I used plain water, white gold pearl water color and white acrylic paint for splattering some "snow" to my stenciled design. The rectangle is cut with a Winnie and Walter die. 

I'd like to join:

ABC Christmas Challenges: P is for Plain (I hope this simple one layer design will do as plain! I've attached the stenciled panel to a card base but basically it's a one layer) 

Thanks for popping by and I can't wait to see what you'll create!

Guest Designing for STAMPlorations!

Hi friends!

I'm here to share my GD cards for the second post for August! I have 3 cards to share with you so I'll just jump right into telling you about them, this post will be long and photo heavy! :) Please have a look at the other gorgeous GD projects in STAMPlorations blog HERE.

Card 1 Darling Dog Roses

In my first card I've watercolored gold heat embossed images with Sakura Koi watercolors and Kansai Tambi Starry Colors. Also lots of golden, white and black paint splatters were added to make the card look a bit more artsy. :) I've die cut some dimension to the panel using Crazy Double Running Stitched Rectangle Nesting Dies. The hello-sentiment is unfortunately discontinued. I wasn't loving my watercolor blending so that's why I ended up using the Starry Colors on top of some of the flowers. When in doubt, add glitter, shine and splatters! LOL! 

Here's the piece after just one coat of watercolor. 

I hope you can see some shine from the Starry Colors in this photo!

Card 2 Framed Daffodils

My second coloring project was made with Polychromos colored pencils, coloring in the Framed Daffodils stamp. I added just layers and layers of color until the look pleased me! I colored the petals using sharpish strokes with the pencils and the centers I've blended with round motions for a "no lines" look. After my coloring was finished I masked the image and stenciled the Stained Glass stenciled design to the card. My favorite stencil in the whole world! Some white paint splatters finish off the card.

With this Daffodil card I'd like to join The Daily Marker Coloring Contest (Intermediate).

Only one layer of color here! Love how it's possible to add so much depth and color with many layers of pencils!

   Card 3 Bloomtangled ATC #3

My final GD project for August is Bloomtangled ATC #3 stamp colored in with my trusted Copics... I love many coloring mediums but Copics have been my favorite for years. Bloomtangled #3 is a rectangle stamp but I used a MFT die to cut out just a portion of. I first planned on a "strict" pink, yellow and green color combo but ended up adding blue and red too. As almost always, the final project is "jazzed up" with lots of gel pen details. This sentiment stamp is from the Fond Expressions set. 

My first plan for the color scheme..

...I ended up going more crazy! :)

So, here were the 3 projects! I hope you have enjoyed what you see here and feel like doing some coloring in yourself! Thanks for popping by and happy crafting! 

New Challenge at Less Is More!

Hi guys!

We have a new challenge for you at Less Is More: Sketch! 

I'm a bit on a hurry when writing this so let's keep it short and sweet and jump right into my cards!

Card 1 Green Birthday Card

In my first card I used tiny Paper Smooches tags dies to represent the squares in the sketch. The tiny flower stamps come from Clearly Besotted stamps and the minimalistic coloring needed was done with Copics. The sentiment is from an old set, sorry don't know the maker of that. The tags are popped up for dimension and the sentiment is simply stamped to the green card base. I try to use up my colored card and save some white!

With my green card I'd like to join:

  CAS-ual Fridays Challenge: Inspiration photo. I'm inspired by the banners in the photo. 

Card 2 Thanks

I'm literally stretching the sketch in my second card... And am afraid the CASness of this card could be better... What do you guys think? I had this pre-made black and white card base ready and I colored in 4 of the circle images to represent the sketch. The border stamp is from the same set tham the sentiment in my first card. I die cut a Winnie and Walter sentiment 3 times and adhered the pieces together to make a thick sentiment embellishment but it didn't pop from the busy background. :( I adhered the extra black strip behind it which does help but I do not like it! 

These were my two cards for you this time. I hope you like them! Our August sponsor is STAMPlorations so do play along for a chance to be invited as guest designer or winning the sponsor prize! Lot of fabulous DT inspiration in our blog and in the personal blogs of our designers. Don't miss any of the fun, do join us!