Spring Card for Challenges

Hi friends!

I'm here with a spring-themed card for some challenges:

Less Is More: New Beginnings

(Spring! The ultimate new beginning every year!) 

Your Next Stamp challenge #56

colors

Inspired by All the Little Things

photo inspiration

Addicted to CAS

Wish

Darnell's NBUS #8

(NBUS product & technique: pearl maker!) 

This card was very hard to photograph but I hope you can have a feel of it from he photo anyway! It's already dark here in Finland so I've used unnatural light for the picture... And the heat embossed background sort of vanishes from sight where there's more shadow. Anyway.. The whole bg is heat embossed with white powder using a large, old bg stamp I have. Great for adding texture and interest for CAS I think! The sentiment stamp comes from Verve. The flower stamp is by Papertey Ink and one of my favorite stamps ever, I use it year after year. I like to shade with Copics but this flower is fun to color without shading, just using one marker for one area of the flower and then changing to a slightly different shade. This stamp is great for someone who wants to use markers but is maybe not so much into shading! I've also added interest with white gel pen + a super old pearl maker that I've had for years and NEVER used on a card. I was surprised it worked this well! I've got to start using this stuff! You can see the effect pretty well in the close-up. Hope you like! Thanks for popping by! 

One Layer Card for Challenges!

Hi again friends!

I don't often post two cards in one day but today I didn't want to miss the deadline of the current Less Is More: One Layer/Favorite Drink challenge so here I am with my card for that and a couple of more inspiring challenges. 

I chose coffee for my drink -I do like tea too but the colors of a coffee-themed card felt more appealing after the first card I posted today and really loved! Anyway... I used STAMPlorations stamps and stencil for this card. The soft bg is made using a stencil and an old blusher brush. The ink brushing is made with the same walnut stain ink than the stamping -this will maybe give you an idea how softly you are able to apply ink using a brush instead of a sponge! I've also used wink of stella for all the coffee cups and for the steam coming out of the cups -the WOS made the ink run a bit and I was actually pretty pleased with the two-tone "steams" I was able to get as a result! Hope you like and thanks for popping by!

In addition to LIM I'm entering:

http://sirstampalotchallenge.blogspot.fi Coffee and Cream

http://modsquadchallenge.com Get Well Soon

http://4craftychicks.blogspot.fi Coffee

STAMPlorations January CAS challenge Anything Goes (no twist)

Chasing Mojo with Sweet Kobylkin!

Hi guys!

Ksenija is hosting a very fun challenge in her blog. Click HERE for all the details and inspiration, you'll love what you see! 

The card I CASEd is made by Angela Tarasenko. You can view her card photo at Instagram HERE. I really hope you'll click the link and view the card: I wasn't able to copy the photo here. 

I loved the way Angela's ombre card design was darker on top and faded to the bottom -something I never do, my ombre cards always fade to the top and are dark at the bottom! I also CASEd Angela's colors, her use of ribbon (mine is out of paper though, the bow die comes from Sugar Pea Designs) and sentiment placement: I almost never stamp the sentiment in the middle so creating this card was very refreshing for me! The swirls stencil is by STAMPlorations and the sentiment stamp comes from Verve. Cream and brown, maybe not the most "spring-like" color combo... But hey, who cares! I wanted to use this sentiment so I just went for it! :) I was very happy with how this card turned out and I was very inspired by this fun challenge.

The other challenges I'd like to enter:

Mix It Up Challenge "27 Anything Goes

http://stampsandstencils.blogspot.fi: Flourishes

STAMPlorations Anything Goes Challenge

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #8 (my NBUS-things are the stencil and the sentiment stamp)

Thanks for popping by and I hope to see you visiting Ksenija and getting inspired! 

New Challenge at Inkspirational!

Hi friends!

We have a fun, easy challenge for you at Inkspirational:

I decided to go with "birds fluttering" and chose to use a NBUS (never before used stuff) stamp by Jane Doodle's that I once won from Milka's I love Math Challenge (click HERE for her current math challenge). I love this funny owl and I think he looks even funnier with the goggly eyes I just HAD TO add. :) I colored him with Copics, winkofstellad him allover, and added white gel pen details. The sentiment is by SSS and the die is from MFT. This card turned out sort of masculine (well, the owl is glittery, but still...) but I think it's anyway going to one of my girlfriends in February when the rest of the world celebrate's Valentine's and we Finns celebrate the Friendship Day. :)

Our guest designer this time is Gina whose project is mind-blowing, I could never make anything like that! So do click HERE and check out what Gina and the always fab Ink DT has made. After that I hope to see you playing along! 

I'd like to join:

Mix It Up Challenge #27 Anything Goes

TIME OUT Challenges Reminder!

Hi friends!

I'm here to remind you of our current theme challenge at TIME OUT:

Winter 

with the Optional Twist of

White on White

If you twist along with us you could win a 15 £ voucher from Uniko. Do not hesitate to play along! More DT inspiration in our challenge blog! This time our GD is the fabulous Claire whose style is just wonderful and varies from CAS to more detailed makes with great coloring. 

I decided not to twist this time because of my new STAMPlorations CUTplorations tag dies that I wanted to use... I did some ombre sponging with my fave DI colors and after that stamped some "snow" to the tag with white pigment ink and a Marianne Design bg stamp as well. The white card base is dry embossed with a snowflake-folder and I've also used my die cut machine for the MFT thanks-word. Love this die! The Lawn Fawn snowman, colored in with Copics and white gel pen and die cut, finishes of this simple card. 

It always makes me happy when I end up with a simple looking card that needed quite a lot of effort... I'm funny that way! :) It's hard to define CAS sometimes and this definitely is on the edge of not CAS... But I think the overall look is still clean and simple and nothing is really super busy when you look at the card. To my eye at least. ;)

I hope to see you playing along at TIME OUT!

I'm entering:

1) STAMPlorations January Theme&Sketch Challenge

(stamping, sponging, die cutting, Copic coloring, dry embossing)

2) STAMPlorations January CAS card challenge (no twist)

3) Less Is More Color Challenge: Ombre 

4) Mix It Up Challenge #27 Anything Goes

5) http://justusgirlschallenge.blogspot.fi New (new tag die)

Sympathy Card for Challenges

Hi friends!

I unfortunately needed a sympathy card for one of my former colleagues who lost her mother this week. In the previous card that I posted I used small flowers from this Altenew Peony Bouquet stamp set heat embossed with gold on black card (stamped details with white pigment ink)... And I thought the gold heat embossing on black might work well for sympathy card so tried it this time with the largest flower and leaves from the set. The sentiment is Finnish for "warm condolences". 

I'd like to enter 

http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.fi Dimension (all my leaves and the flower are popped up with 3 d stickers for dimensional look). 

http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/ Start Afresh (using these matching dies for the first time)

http://sevenhillscrafts.blogspot.fi/p/blog-page.html Sketch (turned upside down!) 

http://modsquadchallenge.com Anything But Christmas

Hope you like and thanks for popping by!

My First Post for Happy Little Stampers!

Hi guys!

I have happy happy fun fun news for you today: I'm one of the new proud members of Happy Little Stampers CAS team! I think all the teams at HLS have new members (in addition to CAS Challenge there's CASE the designer challenge, Christmas Challenge, Mixed Media Challenge, Anything Goes with Dies Challenge and even Watercolor Challenge) so head on over to Happy Little Stampers to have a look of all that's going on! Lot's of DT inspiration on offer. 

The HLS CAS Challenge for the month of January is 

You do not have to use Happy Little Stampers products to enter but of course we love to see them in action!

In my card I've used a Simon Says Stamp stencil. I masked a circle, placed my stencil in that "window" and sponged two shades of Distress Inks through it. After lifting the stencil I still held the mask in place and lightly sponged the white areas that the stencil had left with the ink blenders I had been using. This gave me a beautiful tone on tone look! I stamped my MFT sentiment with black Versafine and that's all there is to this card... I attached my stenciled and stamped panel on black base and my card was done! I tried to attach sequins and enamel dots and what not but those of you who visit me often know that I never know where to put them so my cards are almost always embellishment-free! That's good for CAS I guess! :) 

I hope to see your card in the gallery. Happy crafting!