New Challenge at Less Is More: Shimmer!

Please click on the photo to make it larger: you'll get a better look of the shimmer!

Hi friends!

One week flew by again and it's time for a new challenge at Less Is More. We have a recipe week ahead of us and we'd like to see CAS cards with shimmer! This week I unfortunately have only one DT card for you but I'm sure the other lovely LIM ladies have several samples for your inspiration. Have a look at their cards and all challenge details HERE. We are very happy to be sponsored by Uniko Studio and to celebrate that I'm using my most favorite Uniko set in my stash called Pure Florals: Chrysanthemum. 

I'm afraid for one month from here on I'll only have one LIM DT card per challenge: I'll be very sadly parted from my crafting supplies! Yes... It's a tragedy! What will I do all days when I can't craft?!? Well, for most of this time I won't be at home so I think I'll survive. In the end of June I'll be back on my normal card making track. I'm already looking forward to that time... Then I'll be on holidays for 6 weeks! :)

So, my card this week:

I've stamped my flower- leaves cluster with the help of some masking and then colored in the images with Copics. I'm not going to lie, coloring this in took a long time... The chrysanthemum is pretty detailed and I stamped lots of leaves! My shimmer is in the leaves and in the sentiment die cut -I simply used Wink of Stella shimmer pen on top of my Copic coloring. This must be my favorite way to add shimmer to my cards. I couldn't resist using the hidden sentiment die technique again... Love it! I was holding my breath when die cutting my colored panel... It would have been NOT FUN if I would have messed up the die cutting! Luckily all went well and I love the outcome. 

I'd like to enter:

Stamp Ink Paper: Card Maker's choice

I used my favorite red and green Copics for my coloring... And in general I just love coloring + am at the moment obsessed with the hidden die cut technique!

Thanks for popping by and happy crafting -I can't wait to see all your wonderful shimmer CAS cards!

New Challenge at Less Is More!

Hello friends!

One week goes by so quickly that it's again time to make CAS cards for Less Is More! This time our theme is "Geometric". There's many possibilities to go with it and our DT and talented guest designer Julie are showing you fantastic samples in the challenge blog HERE and in their personal blogs as well. We are very happy to be sponsored by Uniko. Play along following our guidelines and you could be a monthly winner! 

Card 1 : Aurinkoa Päivääsi 

Entering this card to following challenges:

Colorthrowdown: Color Palette

Addicted to Stamps and More: Make Your Mark

My first card is a one layer with stamped flower image (Woodware) and hand-drawn border. I've colored the image with Copics. I left the vase unshaded and just shaded the flowers -I think this made them pop nicely when the vase is just "blocks of color". I love love love this stamp! I hadn't been coloring on this specific blending card for a while and it was acting up on me a bit... I used the good old "cover it all with Wink Of Stella"-trick to make the blending look flawless after I was all done with Copics. The shimmer really hides your small mistakes nicely... And the shimmer and shine look very pretty IRL! "Aurinkoa Päivääsi" is Finnish language and translates to something like "Sunshine to your day". This must be one of my personal favorites from the cards I've made lately, the stamp is so gorgeous and fun and fast to color in. Isn't it great when you make something that comes together fast and still has quite a lot of impact! 

Card 2 Happy Birthday

I'm entering:

a2scrapbooking: Sentiment focus

My second geometric card is made with a small circle stamp (stamped three times to form a short of triangle) and a Hero Arts sentiment die + stamp. I did the hidden die cut technique which is quite new to me but I'm already rather obsessed with it... Get ready seeing a lot more of this technique in the future! I die cut the sentiment 5 times so it's very sturdy. The layers are from black card, that helped to get the sentiment pop from the card more. 

I really enjoyed making my geometric cards and now I can't wait to see what you will create! Happy crafting! 

New Challenge at Inkspirational!

Hi guys!

We have a new challenge for you at Inkspirational, word prompt "Urban"!

At the beginning I was a bit lost with this one but then I remembered the fantastic stamped image I've received from blog friend Pia -isn't it gorgeous! It's from Penny Black and absolutely beautiful. I've colored the image with Copics (well, only partly as you can see!) and also stamped on it... My inspiration for this came from The Heart Desires monthly challenge: 

See the square down left? The dress and the handbag? My blue is a bit more blue than turquoise ( I had checked the photo a couple of days earlier and forgot about the shade...)  but I so loved creating this dress! I found a small stamp from a Uniko stamp set (a "flower building"-stamp) that I'm using here just to give pattern to my stylish Venetian lady's dress. The inspiration photo does not have any white dots but I'm hopeless, I just have to put them everywhere... :) I used the same red patterns on the clutch, there it's a tone on tone look and looks pretty fab there too! The sentiment is Finnish for "to a dear friend"and I hope this qualifies as an entry to Penny Black Saturday Challenge: Weddings, Anniversaries and All things Love. To me friendship definitely is "a thing of love"! 

I hope you'll now head on over to Inkspirational Challenge blog for more DT inspiration. Our guest designer this time is Aileen who is a fantastic card maker whose blog I've followed already for some time! 

Happy crafting!

Time Out Challenge Reminder

Hi friends!

I'm here with a reminder for our current TIME OUT Challenge where we are CASEing this fantastic card by Hannelie from Desert Diva:

Click HERE for all the challenge details and prize info -we are sponsored by the fabulous Happy Little Stampers! The challenge blog is also, as always, filled with inspiring card by our DT. This time our guest designer is Susanne whose cards for this challenge have both been stunning. Thanks for joining us, Susanne! 

In my card I focused on many elements of Hannelie's card: the sponging, the warm color palette, the black and white flowers + I tried to mimic her cutting file design with the background stamp I heat embossed on my card base. Also my layout is very close to Hannelie's. I can thank my wonderful DT friend Anita for this PTI flower die cut I used -I own the stamp set but not dies and Anita was super friendly and sent me some die cuts to stamp on. Thank you so much dear Anita! I think this flower worked very well for this challenge and I loved the way this card turned out. The die cut stitched shape behind the flower is by MFT and the heat embossed sentiment is from a Concord & 9th set. 

Thanks for popping by and I hope to see you playing along! To me Hannelie's card was one of the most fantastic cards we've ever CASEd! 

I'm entering:

CASology: warm

I think this sponged sunset looks super warm! 

Playing Along in Challenges

Hi friends!

I'm here to share a card where I'm using a brusho background! I made it in a watercoloring + brushos class in a crafting event one week ago. This class was super inspiring and I don't feel so freaked out about water coloring anymore! The brushos were great... I don't own any yet but am going to! :) 

The technique we did involved adding water on the brushos and then using rock salt for creating extra texture and patterns. We wet the water color card, sprinkled some brushos on it, sprayed, splattered  and painted with water (everything was allowed pretty much) and after we were done playing with water we poured rock salt on the wet project. After that was all dry we just brushed away the salt and the final results were so fantastic... Everyone's bg looked different and in mine you can see the splatters and water movement pretty well + the salt has even left some sparkly texture on the bg. Love it! 

I heat embossed the Hello Lovely flower from Concord 6 9th on my bg and made it into a card. I framed the brusho + heat embossed panel and attached it on a card base I had covered with watercolor style patterned paper. I decided not to add a sentiment, I did not want to cover the pretty sparkle from the salt! I added even more sparkle by "coloring in" the flower with WOS.

Where Creativity Meets Concord & 9th: Florals

CAS Watercolor Card Challenge: Flowers

Mixed Media World: Anything Goes/Moodboard

Love to Create: Anything Goes

Thanks for popping by!

New Challenge at Less Is More!

Hi friends!

We have a new challenge for you at Less Is More. It's a one layer week (one layer = one piece of cardstock folded in half) and we want to see spots and stripes in your one layer cards!

Our sponsor in May is the wonderful Uniko  and some of the DT is showcasing their great products! Don't miss any of the gorgeous inspiration, click HERE. We also have a guest designer, one of my first acquaintances here in bogland, Sue. She makes such beautiful CAS cards. Congrats on your GD spot, Sue! 

Now let's have a quick look at my cards.

Card 1

Sentiment stamps by MFT

Other stamps by Simon Says Stamp

This card has no special techniques or anything, it's simply stamped -after I was sure about the design I wanted to make I think this took under 5 minutes to make! :)

I'f like to enter this card to 

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Going Dotty

AAA Cards: Bright and Beautiful

Card 2

Sentiment stamp by Freshly Squeezed Stamps (no longer in business)

Flower stamps by CAS-ual Fridays

This card took a bit longer than 5 minutes but not much! 

I've masked off a wide stripe and gently brushed grey ink to it to make it stand out from the white. My tools for this are not exactly fancy: an old blusher brush + very old and dry black memento ink pad that's nowadays grey! :) 

I then stamped the flowers and colored them in with Copics. After that was dry I added some Wink of Stella to the colored in areas and made the white dots in the flowers stand out even more by using white gel pen. I also added extra dots to some of the completely black "flowers". I think these could double as snow flakes in a winter card! :) 

I'd like to enter this card to 

Your Next Stamp: Color palette

Mod Squad Challenge: Let's color

CAS-ual Friday Challenge: 6 of something + birthday card

(6 x colored in flowers)

Now it's your turn to show where our one layer theme Spots and Stripes takes you. Happy crafting! 

Floral Bliss with Altenew Take Two :)

Hi guys!

On Monday I posted my first ever card with Altenew Adore You-flowers and this is now the second one I talked about then. Adore You is a very good name for this stamp set... It's very easy to adore it! 

I've again used Copics for coloring. I made this card in a crafting event I went with my friend Milla and was able to borrow a couple of light YG-markers from her I don't have myself... Also the stitched die is from Milla . Thank you friend! Apart from stamping + masking, coloring in and die cutting there's not much to talk about this card, it's very self-explanatory. I used fun foam for popping up the center panel and stamped a greeting by Concord & 9th. Thanks for popping by, hope you like! 

The challenges I'm entering:

CASE this sketch

Simon Says Monday Challenge: It's a Frame Up

AAA Cards: Bright and Beautiful

Altenew May Inspiration Challenge

(inspired by flower theme + combination of reds and green)

Floral Bliss

Hi friends!

I named this post "floral bliss" because that's how I feel about this Adore you- stamp set by Altenew! I just got it and immediately made two cards, these flowers are just heavenly to color in with Copics! I'll share the second card in a couple of days. 

In this card I used the middle color palette of Seven Hills Crafts May Challenge . This is my second entry to the challenge -in my first one I used the color palette on the right. 

In addition to the flower stamps from the set I've used a MFT wonky stitches border die (thanks Milla for borrowing it!) + patterned paper by Lawn Fawn, it's a wonderful paper pad with water color look papers. I've also used a STAMPlorations stencil for the bg behind the flowers. This stamp set is so wonderful and the amount of different flower cluster you can make with it is endless, all you need is some masking... And a bit of patience with the masking! :)  

In addition to Seven Hills I'm also entering:

STAMPlorations May CAS Challenge

Simon Says Monday challenge: the great outdoors

Simon Says Wednesday challenge: a hint of pink

Thanks for popping by! 

My First Post as Less Is More Design Team Member!

Hello friends! 

I have extremely exciting and fun news to share with you! I am one of the three happy crafters joining the Less Is More design team from today on. The other two are

Izzy/ Izzyscrap 

Trina/ My Crafting Closet

and I'm sure Izzy and Trina are as excited as I am!  Less Is More is one of the greatest and most popular CAS challenges around and I can't describe to you how happy I am to join this team. I've been happy dancing several times since knowing about it! When I begun blogging I was still struggling to find my style and exactly Less Is More Challenge made me realize I'm mostly a CAS girl! And now I'm part of this dream team myself... It's hard to believe it! 

Now let's take care of my new DT duties and tell you about the current challenge! :) 

Our challenge this time is to use the color combo of grey and yellow. One of the LIM DT members, Anita, is having her birthday tomorrow and she has had the honor of choosing the color combo for you. Happy Birthday Anita! 

My first card, above, is made with stamps by STAMPlorations (flower + hello-word) and My Favorite Things (friend-word). I used a simple straight paper mask for masking off the bottom of the flower stamp: I wanted the flowers to "grow" out of the sentiment like the sentiment was a vase or something so I wanted the bottom edge of the flowers to be very sharp. After stamping I covered the flowers by masking off the top third of the card and brushed grey ink to the bottom of the card. I then colored the sentiment and flowers with Copics and added white gel pen accents to the flowers. The friend-word is heat embossed with white powder on black card. This was originally supposed to be a one layer but let's just say stamping can be hard sometimes -even if you have the MISTI! ;)

My second card, below, is a Christmas card with a Finnish Christmas sentiment. I wanted to see if I could make this non-traditional Christmas color combo work for Christmas and I like the results! I chose very pale yellow and very dark grey card + heat embossed the sentiment with silver powder -it's kind of grey, isn't it! The star of this card is the die cut snowflake by Joy Crafts. I'm repeating myself, this is an old design from 2 years ago... But it's still pretty! :)

Now it's your turn to share your yellow & grey cards with us! The LIM designers have wonderful inspiration for you in the challenge blog HERE. Don't forget to follow our guidelines and you could win a prize from our May sponsor, Uniko Studios! 

I'd like to enter my first card to STAMPlorations May CAS challenge

New Challenge at Inkspirational!

Hi friends!

We have a fun new challenge for you at Inkspirational, a photo inkspiration challenge:

The photo can lead you to many direction from using lamps, circles or feathers to simply following the color palette of the photo. I went with colors and feathers...  And circles too! :) The focal point of my card is a wonderful dream catcher die cut (Spellbinders) which I cut both from pale gold and white card and added the white feathers to the golden piece. I used a W+9 die for making layers for my card -I don't really know why I wanted my card to have so many layers, I normally tend to be so CAS these days, but I do love this card and all the dimension it has (yep, fun foam and other 3d adhesive was used too). The sentiment (Freshly Squeezed Stamps, unfortunately not in business anymore) is heat embossed with gold, I think it fits the dream catcher pretty well. 

Now it's your turn to show us where the photo leads you! Click HERE for more DT inspiration. Happy crafting!

May Christmas Challenge at Happy Little Stampers

Hi friends!

I'm here with my DT card for May Christmas Challenge at Happy Little Stampers. Our challenges are always Anything Christmas Goes but there is an optional twist on offer too. This time we are looking for cards with masking and I went for the twist myself. I masked a simple snowbank and inked a sky using 3 shades of distress inks. I then stamped "snow" with white pigment ink and Marianne Design splatter stamp. The sentiment is Finnish for Merry Christmas. This card is pretty much a re-make of a Christmas card I did some weeks ago but I loved the look -just went with different colors, different sentiment stamp and non-one layer this time. :) There's many wonderful samples in the HLS DT blog, don't miss any of them, click HERE. Thanks for popping by!

I'd like to enter

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Hint of Pink

ABC Christmas Challenges: K= Keep it Simple

Christmas Cards All Year Round: Precipitation

TIME OUT Challenge Reminder

Hello friends!

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

Flowers with the Optional Twist of Kissing

Are you familiar with the kissing technique? In this technique you use a solid stamp + a detailed stamp for forming one image -you transfer the detail to the solid stamp by "kissing" the inked solid stamp with the inked detailed stamp before stamping your design on the paper. In my card I've used solid flower and leaves stamps from PTI and altered them with kissing them onto a Kaisergraft grungy grid- style stamp before stamping on paper. I absolutely love how different these flowers look after the kissing! You can barely believe it's the same, clean-lined, solid PTI stamp! 

My card is a simple one layer. I've masked a curve and inked it lightly with grey ink before stamping the images. The sentiment comes from Happy Little Stampers, who are sponsoring our challenge with a 15£ voucher to their store, randomly drawn for one "twister". Go ahead and do some kissing then, right! :)

Click HERE for more inspiration from our DT members.  

I'd like to enter CASology: Flow

The wavy curve adds flow... And so does the stamped, continuous, pattern!

I'm also entering the Paper Players: Tic Tac Toe, my 2nd entry

(pink, flowers, leaves)

Addicted to CAS: Grunge

(I've grunged up my flowers with the grungy grid-stamp!) 

City Crafter Challenge : You Can Do It (Make your own bg)

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: A hint of Pink