A Thank You Card for Challenges

Hi guys!

Here's a card I made for a very good friend of mine who has been very supportive over the last months when I've been absolutely stressed with my work situation (all worked out super well in the end by the way!). I know she has received this card by now so time for posting!

I made this card using a Paper Smooches stamp and some fun techniques. After stamping the flower banner I masked it and also used large posts its for masking the strip behind the image. I sponged the strip with some DI:s and after that I stenciled the fish tail patterns with white pigment ink. I love how it looks! I then removed the masks, colored in the image with Copics and heat embossed the sentiment with white powder. I added some Stickles to spark up the flowers and leaves. The card I used is not normal marker paper but textured card that has little "bumbs" and it was actually very easy to color on. The texture looks lovely IRL but was hard to photograph. The color of the card is sort of off-white, creamy, looks fun too. :)

I'd like to enter the GD search for November at Paper Smooches

...Along with the monthly challenge of November at Paper Smooches: Giving Thanks 

This will also be my second entry for CAS Mix Up November Challenge:

(stamping, masking, sponging, stenciling, heat embossing, coloring in with Copics, using glitter glue)

and last but not least, AAA cards: Thanks

Thanks for popping by! 

New Challenge at Inkspirational!

Hi friends!

I'm here with my DT card for the new Inkspirational challenge, a photo inspiration:

Such a fantastic photo, isn't it? I was trying and trying an trying to come up with good fireworks/burst-ideas but with no success... So just went with hearts then. However, you can see the golden "sparks" in the photo can't you? I went with those adding golden Stickles to my sentiment! :) The sentiment is die cut with my new My Favorite Things die and the hearts are sponged in with a STAMPlorations stencil. I hope you like!

Please visit the Inkspirational blog for fantastic cards from my DT buddies and guest designer Jenny. She is so talented -you do not want to miss her card! 

I'd like to play along at:

https://modsquadchallenge.blogspot.fi Gold

http://craftforthecraic.blogspot.fi 2 colors (red and gold)

http://stampinroyalty.blogspot.fi All that glitters 

http://deepoceanchallengeblog.blogspot.fi Use dies

Thanks for popping by and happy crafting!

TIME OUT Challenge Reminder!

Hi guys!

I'm here to remind you of our current TIME OUT Challenge: 

'Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart'

You can be inspired by the whole sentiment or just choose one word or a couple of words for your starting point.

Please click HERE for all the challenge details and inspiration from our amazing guest designer Karren and our DT members. Karren has great eye for wonderful designs with fun touches -don't miss her blog! 

I'm using my new My Favorite Things Thanks-sentiment die in my card for the first time. I've colored it with Copics and added some sparkle with Stickles (I'm out of Wink of Stella... Shocker!!) For the background I created an ink strip with Black Soot DI and Prima background stamp. My stamping is done with water so "Ghosting technique" is in action in this card. :) I added a couple of die cut hearts for finishing touch. 

I'd like to play along at couple of challenges:

AAA Cards: Masculine

Just us Girls: Focus on Sentiment 

CASE This Sketch

CAS Mix Up:

I used masking for the inked strip, stamping with water (ghosting) + die cutting, coloring with markers + glitter glue. Oh and sponging. For the strip. :)

Thanks for popping by! Have a great rest of the week everyone! 

Christmas Card Kit #2 from Marina: "Cute Christmas"

Hi guys!

It's again time to post cards me, Marina and Pia have been making from the same materials. This time the wonderful Marina send us the items to play with and I had real fun working with the cute goodies she included in her kit! Let's get right to the cards. In the end of this post you'll see the photo of the whole kit. 

Card #1 is my favorite. Marina included wonderful, snowy acetate in her kit and I just looooooved it! The bad news is I was only able to use the acetate in this one card... I experimented with heat embossing ON the acetate and that DID NOT WORK... Which was a real shame because I absolutely loved the acetate. Anyway, for this card, I sponged a night sky background, heat embossed a sentiment on that and adhered the acetate on it by hiding the adhesive under the die cut snowbank. I also used a wooden Christmas tree from the kit which I heat embossed twice: first with pearl white powder, then with transparent glittery powder. The embossing powders still show some wood through so I thought a kraft card base would be a good choice to match the natural feel. Please click the photo larger for all the details -I was unable to use the largest photo settings with blogger with this one. It's a nice card! :) 

I like this card so much I'd like to try my luck at the big DT call that's going on at Happy Little Stampers here. I think my card qualifies both for the CAS team and the Christmas team... Would be wonderful to join one of these groups. So, fingers crossed! :) 

Then, card #2, my next favorite. :) The super cute cut out penguin digi stamp is from Marina's kit. I first tried to go for a night sky scene (similar to my first card) with the penguin but in the end it all looked a bit boring... So I ended up cutting out some squares from the night sky and making a sort of layered CAS layout. I also used my own snowflakes embossing folder (bought second hand from facebook crafts group) and colored in the penguin with Copics. The balloon is sparkled up with Stickles. The sentiment comes from an older Simon Says Stamp set.

My cards #3 and #4 are both made around cute images that Marina sent. Both are colored in with Copics. In the dog-card I also used a charm Marina added in her kit. I chose to use a snowflake stencil I own for grounding these images and I think it worked out nicely. Marina's kit also included pretty papers -the second card here has one of those papers as background. I like the layered look of card #3 -cards with tags are one of my faves and I like the look of this card although it's more "full" and busy that my cards usually are. 

Our plan is always to make 4 cards with the kit materials but this time I ended up making five! My card #5 uses patterned papers from the kit and I simply combined them with a stamped sentiment, die cut snowflakes and rhinestones. Super simple. :)

Thank you so much Marina for this inspirational kit! I hope you'll now head on over to Marina's and Pia's blogs and have a look what they have made. I'm sure you'll enjoy your visits! I'll end this post with the photo of the kit. Thank you everyone for popping by! 

New Challenge at Inkspirational!

Hi guys!

We have a new challenge for you at Inkspirational and this time it's a super fun one for me because I've got to choose the topic, yay! I chose

"Use 5 or more stamps"

When you look at my card you might be all "What?!? Where are all the five stamps?!?" I wanted to create a subtle background stamping with several background stamps -well 3 this time to be exact- and used a very light blue ink for this. This kind of stamping gives a wonderful airy look and adds a lot of interest to the eye when you try to catch the light, faded patterns and images from the background. 

My Hero Arts butterfly is colored in with Copics and I added some white gel pen too. I love this stamp-die set, so beautiful. Sentiment is by Chocolate Baroque. I hope you like my card and I hope to see you playing along at Inkspirational! 

Close up: The background consists of stamping with 3 background stamps: a grid stamp (Kaiserkraft) , a "tile" stamp (Stamping Up) and a dotty, mixed media-sort of background stamp (Prima)

Ghost Stamping

Hi friends!

CAS Mix Up Card Challenge has just begun with a new monthly challenge and this time the theme is ghosting. This is not a completely new technique to me but I still enjoyed watching the video tutorials provided in the challenge. In the end I decided to go with stamping with water on distress inked background. The stamp I used is an older STAMPlorations sunflower stamp. I used it both for the ghosted background and then stamping normally with brown ink. Loll suggested using mixed media paper for ghosting in her video and that's what I picked and I do think it worked wonders! My "your choice"-mixed media element is heat embossing and I also used linen card stock for card base for extra texture. 

CAS Mix Up Card Challenge now also has a sister challenge blog: CAS Watercolor Challenge. What a cool and unique idea for a challenge blog! The first challenge is autumn and I made my card this in mind, I chose autumnal colors and a fall flower. It's amazing, the fall has been so warm here in Finland this year that the sun flowers are still growing in my neighbor's garden! They are super tall and so beautiful.

 Both CAS Mix Up and CAS Watercolor challenges have a DT Call and I'm thinking to "throw my hat in the ring" for both of these challenges -would be great to be picked for one of them! Wish me luck friends and thanks for popping by! 

Breast Cancer Awareness Challenge at TIME OUT

Hi friends! 

We have a very special challenge for you today at TIME OUT:

Theme of Breast Cancer Awareness and/or Friendship.  

Optional Technique Twist: Embossing and/or Use pink

We are being sponsored by CAS-ual Fridays Stamps. Our winner will receive $25 gift voucher to CASual Fridays store! There's also a special prize for grabs for those using pink and embossing: a package from CASual Fridays Calling All Sistahs collection. This collection of stamps were designed to promote breast cancer awareness and to help us encourage our friends (sistahs) to do their monthly self check.

In my card I've used CASual Fridays stamps and dies combined with STAMPlorations heart stencil, a tag die and some pink lace (from you, Sandie!) I colored in the hope-word with Copics. This card is very simple but also quite feminine, soft and pretty -something to give hope, hopefully! 

Thanks for popping by and I'd love to see you playing along at TIME OUT. Conil is our guest designer this time: play along and you could get to guest design for us someday too! Don't miss the cards by DT and Conil, everyone has done wonderful job as always. After admiring their inspiration cards... It's your turn to take TIME OUT and craft!