Playing Along in Challenges!

Hi friends!

My work day on Friday was super stressful, goosh... But luckily I had some hours of free time in the afternoon and I crafted for relaxation to take my mind out of "real life" for a moment. :)  I had already checked out some challenges on Thursday evening so this card came together in a heartbeat, so satisfying when that happens! Here's the card that I made:

I've used stamps and co-ordinating dies by Hero Arts (NBUS), foliage dies by W+9, a magazine freebie bow-die, a SSS snowbank die (not as a snowbank this time!) + quick Copic coloring and Stickles for the cream topping on the coffee cup. The white heat embossed sentiment is made with Hero Arts embossing powder (NBUS) that all the superstars of blogland seem to use and after now trying it for the first time I see where they are coming from! What a fantastic product!

...Oh and the work day ended well so I think crafting helped! :)

I'd like to enter this card to:

NBUS #11 at Darnell's blog

(my 3rd entry already... Playing a lot with new goodies lately! If you don't know Darnell -probably impossible!- or her challenges, do check out the link and be inspired!)

CASology: Icing

Cupcake icing made me think of the whipped cream topping of this coffee mug!

Color Throwdown

A Blog Named Hero: Anything Goes with Hero Arts

(All stamps by Hero Arts, my 3rd entry to this challenge!)

Merry Monday Christmas Challenge: Add Twigs or Branches

(my 2nd entry)

ABC Christmas Challenge: Informal

(Casual Christmas Coffee! :) My 2nd entry)

Thanks for popping by and have a fun crafty weekend!

New Challenge at Inkspirational!

Hello friends!

I'm here sharing my DT card for the new Inkspirational challenge. Very easy one this time: a word prompt "spring"!

Our guest designer this time is Trina whose blog I follow and really really like her style. Great to have you joining us Trina! Don't miss her card or the fantastic work by our DT, click HERE!

I was late making my DT card due to a very hectic work week. When in rush, I think stencils are great: you get both an image and some color in one go! Of course solid stamps could be used too but I find stenciling super quick and easy. I used an old flower stencil (brand unknown) and sponged two shades of distress inks through it. I die cut the panel with my new W+9 frame die -I've been longing for this die since it came out and now I finally decided I'll buy it and boy do I ADORE the look of it! I think I might use it in all of my cards now. ;) Also the Hero Arts sentiment stamps are new and came in the same order (you should have seen me happy dancing in my craft room on Wednesday!). I've outlined the black stamped sentiment with white gel pen, inspired by Kelly Latevola's coloring videos. Now when I look at the photo I see I missed a couple of lines -need to take out my gel pen again, lol! :) I finished off the card with three clear sequins. 

I'd like to enter:

NBUS #11 at Darnell's blog

(the frame die + sentiment stamps are NBUS!)

A blog named Hero: Anything Goes with Hero Arts (my 2nd entry)

Improving my Copic Storage

Hello friends!

I thought I'd share my Copic storage with you, I recently re-organized my markers and the system works a lot better than before. The wooden shelf where I store the markers is a frame of a little storage drawer you can have on your desk -I've removed the boxes and use just the frame for storing the markers. You can easily find a storage drawer like this for under 10 euros and it's quite good for pen storage. However, I was unsatisfied with the way I grouped my markers and decided something needed to be done... Here's the before and after pictures with some clarifications! 

Before:

Markers are divided into "big groups": greens, yellows, reds, browns et cetera. Quite overwhelming for eyes when you just quickly want to pick a shade/ color combo for coloring -the cap colors don't tell much about the actual shade of the color and your color charts are lost somewhere as always. ;)

After:

Bottom shelf: Light colors (for example dusk pink or beige browns) 

Middle shelf: Bright colors (for example tomato red or middle-dark browns)

Top shelf: Dark colors ( for example burgundy reds, dark browns + all my grey markers)

You can "work your way up": if you for example color a flower light red but want to have it brighter/darker, you pick a best matching red from the middle shelf, if you still think it looks too pale, you add very strong red from the top shelf.

I'm quite happy with this now and would love to hear how you guys store your markers to get best usage of them! My marker collection is quite broad, I'm unhappy with my greens and yellows though but have just ordered some complementing shades that should make me quite happy with all of these finally. I used to have even more markers but I sold 20-30 of them that I never used -it's not good to have too many either, it's even more confusing to find combos you want to use! If someone can recommend a good violet/purple combo for me, I'd be most grateful. :) Now that my markers are all organized, I think you'll see more coloring from me again! 

Happy crafting and thanks for popping by! 

Time Out Challenge Reminder!

Hello friends!

I'm here to remind you of our current challenge at TIME OUT. We are being Inspired by Words:

'When it rains look for rainbows, when its dark look for stars'

We are being sponsored by the wonderful Uniko and the winner will get a £15 gift voucher to spend in their store. Thank you Bev at Uniko! :)

This time our guest designer is Marilyn. I'm so glad about this because she makes such fun cards and I've only recently found her blog Marilyn's Card Spot. Do visit her, you'll get wonderful ideas!

I was inspired by "stars" from our inspiration sentiment because I saw it as a good opportunity to get more Christmas cards done! This was X mas card number 5 for 2017... My goal is to make at least 20 before the actual Christmas card making "season"starts so I don't end up panicking and out of ideas which happened last year! I used starry night sky paper in my scene.

I had such fun creating this card! I picked up some new goodies from the post office just before making it and used the (for me) brand new MFT Deer Friends stamps and dies along with W+9 Woodland Basics dies. I also used an embossing folder for card base (unfortunately I don't know the maker of this, I have bought this second hand) and a MFT stitched arch die + SSS snow bank dies that I already had in my stash. Oh and the little bow die! I use this frequently although it's just a magazine freebie. 

Along with our own challenge, I was inspired some others too and here they are:

Merry Monday Christmas Challenge: Add twigs or branches

ABC Christmas Challenge: Informal (I think there's nothing formal about this cute deer!) 

Stamping Sensations: Anything Goes

Addicted to Stamps and More: Anything Goes

NBUS #11 at Darnell's blog

Thanks for popping by! Please head on over to TIME OUT challenge blog for more DT inspiration! 

April Christmas Challenge at Happy Little Stampers

Hello friends!

I'm here with my DT card for the April Christmas Challenge at Happy Little Stampers. Our Christmas challenges are always "anything Christmas goes" but with an optional theme and this time the optional theme is embossing. My sentiment (HLS Everyday Sentiments Stamp Set), deer image and stars (magazine freebie) are all heat embossed. I used pale gold card on top of my white card base and used white and liquid platinum (Ranger) powders for heat embossing. Tiny rhinestones finish up the card. This card is quite pretty IRL but was a pain to photograph! 

Please head on over to the challenge blog for more DT inspiration!

Pastel Butterflies

Hi friends!

I'm popping in to share a card I made for a couple of challenges:

Less Is More: Three Pastel Colors

A Blog Named Hero: Anything Goes with Hero Arts

AAA Cards: Shiny Spring

(my butterflies are winked and all shiny!) 

Stamping Sensasions: Anything Goes

I chose pale yellow, pale pink, and pale blue for my pastels. The colors unfortunately look quite bright in the photo due to unnatural light I had to use for photographing at 10.30 pm. :) I find pastels a bit hard to use but I do like them with grey and as grey is a neutral I'm hoping using it in addition to the pastels is allowed at LIM! 

I used my Hero Arts butterflies and co-ordinating dies I LOVE LOVE LOVE. This die design is great for CAS cards! This time I used matching card stock behind the butterflies to bring out the pastel colors even more. The stamped sentiment is by Verve Stamps and the stencil I used is an oldie from my stash, maybe Panduro or something. Grey card for card base and each butterfly got their own little perl embellishment. Wink of Stella was added to the butterflies. 

Thanks for popping by!

April CAS Challenge at Happy Little Stampers

Hello friends!

I'm here with my DT card for the April CAS challenge at Happy Little Stampers. Our theme is "Blend". I made a very simple CAS card playing with HLS Simply Said stamp set, patterned paper and inks. I blended inks to my paper pieced balloons for depth and also blended some blue ink for sky. 

Please head on over to the challenge blog for more DT inspiration! 

I'd like to join:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes

CAS-ual Fridays: No dies allowed