March CAS Challenge at Happy Little Stampers

Hi friends!

I'm here tonight (or today, depends where you live!) with my DT card for Happy Little Stampers March CAS challenge. Our theme is "dies". I hope to see you playing along! Our DT has fab samples for you HERE, don't miss any of the cards!

I used pre-made die cuts that I had made ready already earlier, sometimes it's good to put that stash in good use! Actually I think the cloud is a gift from my friend Sandie if I remember right. I made the sky with a Marianne Design bg stamp + blending ink behind the die cuts to "ground them". My sentiment stamps (heat embossed with Ranger liquid platinum powder, my fave!) are available at Happy Little Stampers, the set is called Simply Said and you can have a look at it HERE. 

I've been loving the clear sequins lately, I know I'm super behind in this trend but I do understand why people use them so much... They don't look so distracting as colorful sequins which I find hard to use... And they add beautiful sparkle to your card. The set I bought for myself for X mas has 4 different sizes of sequins which makes it even easier to use! If I remember right it's a mix from Pretty Pink Posh, I got it from SSS. 

Thanks for popping by and I hope to see you joining us! 

Nonni's and Sandie's First Kit Cards 3 and 4

Hi friends! 

I'm back sharing the next 2 cards Sandie and I have made with the same materials. To remind you what materials we played with, here's a list of the kit ingredients:

All About Flowers Kit:

Three different types of stamped and die cut flowers by Altenew (Hennah Elements, Peony Bouquet, Christmas Rose)

Sentiment dies by My Favorite Things 

A stamped PTI Doodlie- Do flower. This is my favorite flower stamp of all times... And I especially wanted to send this to Sandie because it's so nice to color in with markers -no shading is needed for this image to look fab! Sandie is not a fan of shading so I wanted to show her that markers can be fun too and not only intimidating! :) 

Now, today's cards!

Card 1

From the Kit: PTI Doodlie-Do stamped flower

combined with colored, partly embossed paper, border die (manufacturer unknown but love it!), stitched fishtail banner die by MFT, sentiment stamp by Altenew Beautiful Day set.

Sketch inspiration comes from Less Is More

and color inspiration comes from Sunday Stamps

I've colored the flower with Copics but without any shading this time. Some white gel pen and white enamel dots for accents. 

Card 2

From the Kit: Altenew stamped and die cut Peony Bouquet flowers and leaves, MFT sentiment die

combined with MFT white heat embossed sentiment and enamel dots by Happy Little Stampers. I've covered a regular card base with purple paper and popped the flowers up with 3d stickers. 

In case you missed my post on Monday, in the upper row in the photo below you can see the two first cards made with the kit. 

Thanks for popping by! I encourage you all to have crafty fun with friends by swapping materials and getting inspired! 

Nonni's and Sandie's First Kit, Cards 1 and 2

Hi friends!

Last fall I was admiring a card kit group where my friend Sandie was one of the members. I was determined to start a kit club of my own and so I did -with Marina and Pia -and we exchanged a lot of card making materials the autumn. Sandie stayed out of this group (she was already busy with her another kit club) but we agreed that come spring, we'd exchange some materials just the two of us. So, here we are with the first post for Nonni's and Sandie's kit cards! We are posting two cards today and more later this week.

I sent the first materials and of course I didn't photograph them... Grrr... But let me tell you what I sent.:

Three different types of stamped and die cut flowers by Altenew (Hennah Elements, Peony Bouquet, Christmas Rose)

Sentiment dies by My Favorite Things 

A stamped PTI Doolie- Do flower. This is my favorite flower stamp of all times... And I especially wanted to send this to Sandie because it's so nice to color in with markers -no shading is needed for this image to look fab! Sandie is not a fan of shading so I wanted to show her that markers can be fun too and not only intimidating! :) 

So, obviously, this kit was all about flowers. For stamping and card stock I used colors that I thought Sandie would like -purples, violet, ruby reds, yellow. I'm excited to see which two cards Sandie is posting today... Go ahead and visit her blog and have a look you too, click HERE.

Card 1

From the kit: Altenew Hennah Elements flowers heat embossed with gold powder 

I also used a border stamp (a gift from Sandie a couple of years ago), MFT stitched arch die + sentiment stamp from Altenew Ori Kami stamp set. 

I was inspired by the sketch at Less Is More

I must say I'm quite pleased with this card! It was one of those makes that went to many different directions before finding it's path... So lots of wasted cardstock was involved. ;) However, the CAS end result is very pleasing to my eye! The flowers are popped up with foam so the card has nice dimension IRL. 

Along with LIM I'd also like to enter this card to:

City Crafter Challenge Blog: A few Stitches (my die has stitches)

Card 2 

From the Kit: Altenew Christmas Rose stamped and die cut flowers, MFT Hello-sentiment die

I also used the border stamp from card 1, a sentiment stamp from Altenew Beautiful Day stamp set + clear sequins by Pretty Pink Posh.  

I hope you like these two cards and will come later this week for the 2 more cards I've made! 

New Challenge at Inkspirational!

Hi friends!

I'm here today with my DT card for our new Inkspirational challenge, "connect". Often when we have word prompts (or when CASology has a tricky cue word for example) I google synonyms and words related to that word... And that's what I did this time too. One of the words related to "connect" was "touch" and that made me think of "hugs". This NBUS (never before used) W+9 holiday stamp was waiting to be inked and that was it, my direction for this challenge was decided! :) Click HERE for all the DT projects, you'll love them! 

I used my Copics and white gel pen to color in the image + did some basic masking for stenciling the sky design with a snowflake stencil and light blue ink. I love how this turned out! I haven't had time for coloring lately and I was very happy to have a free day today and to practice on my blending skills again. I tried new cardstock: it's not specific blending card but it is meant for crafting. It's called Vivaldi by Canson. I really liked working with this card. Copics just glided on it! Word of warning though if you want to try this paper: it does take longer than normal for Memento (or any ink I'd guess) to dry on this surface. I heat set it with my heat gun after a couple of messy attempts! Your coloring could also bleed more easily (go outside lines) but this wasn't a problem for me really after I got the hang of the card. I really recommend this! It's something a bit different!

Thanks for popping by and I hope to see you at Inkspirational! 

I'd like to join:

ABC Christmas Challenge

C= creature (bear) + D= dimension (created with masking + shading with Copics)

Happy Little Stampers February Christmas Challenge: Anything Goes

Stamping Sensations

Animal Magic

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes

TIME OUT Challenge Reminder

Hi guys!

I'm here to remind you that you still have about one week to play along in our latest challenge at TIME OUT Challenges! We are inspired by a fab wall mural you see below my card photo... Love it! So many ways to be inspired. Our DT and talented guest designer KandA have many different types of inspiration cards for you. The DT has been playing with stamps by STAMPlorations, our sponsor, and there's 2 prizes for grabs in this challenge! Don't miss any of the fun, click HERE! 

In my card I used a STAMPlortions set called Dee's Artsy Impressions Party Mates. This set has many fun party images including 3 type of balloons! I chose the star shaped ones for my card. My layout is inspired by the current Mojo Monday. From the inspiration photo I picked the blue bg, waves, used a banner and balloons (there's even stars in the photo!) using the color of the banners on the mural. This was such a fun photo, many possibilities for inspiring! 

I'd like to join: 

Mojo Monday -sketch

STAMPlorations: February CAS challenge

STAMPlorations: Never Ending Anything Goes Challenge 

Mod Squad Challenge: Geometric

(my 2nd entry. I have triangles in the stars, half-circles on the black border and spirals in the patterned paper)

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

Playing with Dies for Challenges... Again! :)

Hi guys!

Here's a second card I made using the Pretty Pinks Posh storybook die I bought back in December (first one is in my previous post!). I also used a sentiment die and sentiment stamp by MFT, gold card + patterned paper that mimics wood. I die cut the sentiment 4 times: 3 times out of the same gold card I used for the base and once from gold glitter card and stacked them together. The sentiment is heat embossed with white powder. 

I was inspired by:

Addicted to CAS: Wood

The Paper Players: Sentiment as Focal Point

Stamp Ink Paper: Kindness

It's a kind message, isn't it! And it's always kind to send a card for someone just because they are great! :)

Mod Squad Challenge: Geometrics

(I have several rectangles in my card)

Hope you like and thanks for popping by!

Playing with Dies for Challenges!

Hi friends!

I had house guests all weekend but managed to squeeze in a little bit of crafting before bedtime yesterday! Bedtime was sort of late because of the card making though... Was super sleepy at work today! :)

Anyway, I was inspired by this week's Less Is More: Alphabeth. After seeing the challenge topic I immediately thought of these designer papers I had... And the Happy Little Stampers sentiment I decided to use fits the challenge pretty well too I think! I played with my Pretty Pink Posh die that I hadn't used before -when I bought this die I though it would be great for using designer paper in a CAS way. The flower die is by Penny Black. I winked it but this is photographed in grey Finnish winter day light so you can't see the shine. :)

I'm also entering:

The Heart Desires Challenge: photo inspiration

(flowers + baby blue and baby pink)

I've saved this cute inspiration photo on my computer and finally I was playing with colors that worked! My first time entering here!

http://pennybfriendssaturdaychallenge.blogspot.fi 

Try something New (new die + designer paper in a CAS way) 

Happy Little Stampers: Anything Goes with Dies

Thanks for popping by!