New Challenge at Less Is More!

Hi friends!

We have a new challenge for you at Less Is More and it's something different this time: we are CASEing our January winner, Aileen! I love Aileen's cards and was delighted to CASE her. Here's her card:

Now let's look at the 2 cards I made inspired by Aileen!

Card 1: Flowers in a pot

In this card I used a flower stamp and a stencil by STAMPlorations and dies by My Favorite Things. I love this large, swirly thanks-word and wanted to die cut it from silver glitter card as Aileen did in her card! I was also inspired by Aileen's coloring and tried to mimic the same style a little bit by leaving the center of my flower petals white. My coloring is with Copics in both of my cards. The card base looked a bit too bare so I did some super soft stenciling and just a couple of white paint splatters to keep the look CAS. 

Card 2: Jumbo Flower

Again I'm inspired by the blue flower in Aileen's card! My original plan was to CASE her layout too but I ended up making my own layout, this flower is super large and and it took some time to find a good way to place it. Don't know if I succeeded but I'm at least moderately happy! Again, coloring with Copics and yes, I splattered again... Sorry I can't remember the maker of the flower stamp! 

With this card I'd like to join:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Anything Goes

Our April sponsor is Happy Little Stampers. Play along for a change to win a fabulous prize! You could also be showcased as one of our favorite entries or get to guest design in the future. Happy crafting! Oh and Happy Easter too!

New Challenge at Inkspirational!

Hi friends!

I'm here with my DT card for the new challenge at Inkspirational: 

Fun, right? At first I could only think of unicorns but I was able to widen my thoughts a little bit in the end! The creature in my card (by Stampendous) is maybe an elf, maybe a fairy... I don't know really! I picked her up in a sale box from a local craft shop -I think she is definitely worth more than the under 2 euros I paid for her! I paired her with a large sentiment by CAS-ual Fridays -mostly because my stenciled bg was a bit messy from the top and this large sentiment covered it up conveniently. :) Really love this sentiment and I think you are going to see it in many of my Christmas cards this year.  The creature is colored with Copics and I added some white gel pen highlights and Wink of Stella on her wings. I could not help myself from splattering the background with white paint (I can't remember when I've made a card without splatters...) and to me it it really brought the whole background alive. 

I hope you'll now head on over to our challenge blog for all the challenge details and lots of inspiration from our team and our talented guest designer Mimi! Thanks for popping by and happy crafting!

I'd like to join:

ABC Christmas Challenge: G is for glitter (in her wings)

Penny Black and More: Feature a creature

TIME OUT Challenges Reminder!

Hi friends!

I'm here with my reminder card for the current TIME OUT Challenges 4th birthday challenge:

I'm using stamps from our fabulous sponsor Concord & 9th, the stamp set I'm using is called

You Are Here

I'm inspired by the word "love" in our quote: the flower cluster in my card is in a shape of a heart and surely the sentiment is for a beloved friend!

I've heat embossed the image with white powder on kraft (neenah) card and colored it with Zigs and and old Wink of Stella pen, filled with water. This gives the coloring a lovely shine. I was surprised how well the kraft card stock handled water -I was very light handed and maybe that helped but I got only minimal warping. I'm really in love with kraft card at the moment! I embellished the card with white and black paint splatters. The sentiment, simply stamped, is from the same stamp set.

I hope you'll  now head on over to our challenge blog and see what our DT members and talented guest designer Claire have made for your inspiration!

I'd like to join:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Floral Frenzy

The Flower Challenge: Anything Goes

Calling All Sistahs March Challenge: Both photo and colors, just a more pink version! :)

New Challenge at Less Is More!

Hi friends!

I'm here with my DT card for our new challenge at Less Is More:

So, it's our one layer week... Remember to stick with one piece of card stock folded in half, no additional layers attached! :)

The stencil I've used comes from our March sponsor, STAMPlorations. I decided to play with the "white ink shadow" technique on kraft card -I haven't tried this before and wanted to see how it would look. I like it! I stenciled the design first with white pigment ink, then moved the stencil slightly, and used couple of shades of DI:s for the colored flowers. The sentiment is simply stamped. It comes from a Concord & 9th stamp set. I added a couple of small pearls for embellishments. 

Thanks for popping by, friends! I hope you'll now head on over to our challenge blog for more DT inspiration and all the challenge details. STAMPlorations owner and designer Shery is joining us as a guest designer -love the funky card she created for us! Don't miss it or any of the fun, click HERE. 

Guest Designing at CAS Watercolor - Challenge Reminder!

Hi friends!

I'm here with my reminder card for the current "Garden" challenge at CAS Water colour where I have the great joy to be guest designer for the month of March. You can read all about the challenge HERE, don't miss any of the stunning DT creations! Thank you Loll and CAS Water colour team for having me, I really enjoyed making my cards for the challenge!

In my card I've used a floral stamp from my stash, the maker of the stamp is unfortunately unknown, I haven't kept the package. I really love the "messy" look of the image and came to think this would be very fun to color in with layering distress inks. I used my Misti in this technique: I stamped the image multiple times with different shades of yellow and brown ink and "diluted"the outlines with water and paint brush. I think I did this 4 times all together, ending with an outline I did not dilute but kept all the detail. I especially like how the the top flower turned out, the bottom one was my first attempt and with the top one I was more at home with the technique already! :) I finished the look with gold and white paint splatters. The Finnish sentiment is heat embossed with gold powder. 

Thanks for popping by and I hope to see you joining CAS Water Colour!

Time Out Challenges 4th Birthday!

Hi friends!

At TIME OUT Challenges we are celebrating our 4th birthday, woot woot! I can't believe how fast time goes and how big the challenge has grown -mostly thanks to our wonderful Time Out boss Sandie! Very proud and happy to have been her partner in starting this blog and nowadays continuing as a "regular" DT member. I hope you'll all check our blog, all the DT inspiration and the current Inspired bu Words challenge:

Our guest designer this time is Claire. I love Claire's clean card making style, her cards are always so so stylish! 

Our whole DT got the opportunity to play with amazing Concord & 9th products. They are sponsoring the challenge with a generous $25 gift certificate for the winner!

Concord & 9th also has an inspiring blog -click HERE and check it out! 

My card is inspired by the word "love" in our inspiration sentiment. There's heart-shaped leaves and a heart shaped masked shape in my card... Along with a sentiment for someone dear! The products used are:

Give Thanks stamp set

You Are Here stamp set

Heartstrings dies

I've played with Altenew, Memento and golden Delicata inks (the word "always" is over stamped with gold and has lovely shine!) and made some splatters with golden water color paint by Kuretake. The rectangle die is by MFT.

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

New Challenge at Inkspirational!

Hi friends!

We have a new challenge for you at Inkspirational Challenges, a word prompt:

Quite fun and different, right! Our guest designer this time is the talented Bharati and our regular team members all have wonderful samples for you. I look forward seeing what you'll create! 

At first I was a bit out of ideas with this word prompt but going though my stash gave me many ideas... I was thinking many different occupations for example... But in the end I decided to go with a sort of encouragement card with an empowering message for all us women in the work life! I think this quote from Eleanor Roosevelt is pretty awesome and after making the card I read about her career in wikipedia too so all and all this was an inspiring, educational  and fun card to make! The tea bag and sentiment stamp come from SSS and the brush stroke stamp in the background is by Marianne Design. I've inked it with rainbow colors of DI:s and sprayed some water to the stamp before stamping. I've also splattered white, black and gold paint to the card but the photo unfortunately doesn't show this very well. Well you can see the black splatters! :)

Thanks for popping by, happy crafting!

I'd like to join:

CAS-ual Fridays Challenges: Beautiful Rainbows

CASology: Abstract 

abstract looking background)

TIME OUT Challenges Reminder

Hi friends!

I'm here to remind you of our current challenge at TIME OUT where we challenge you to be:

I went with bold leopard print! :)

In my card I'm using products from the sponsor of our challenge, Poppystamps. Their store is a delight to visit and is packed with top quality goodies-take a look here. They also have a fab blog. Take a look at it here and sign up so you don't miss out on all the fun! On their blog they are running a 'Clean and Simple' challenge. So if you have some of their products and make a clean and simple card for our challenge...then link it up to their challenge for a chance to win more prizes!!

The die I used can be purchased in Poppystamps store HERE and the sentiment stamp is from a floral stamp set HERE. I've used the flowers from the stamp set in a card a couple of weeks ago (with a very similar design, this is one of my faves right now!) HERE . Here's a quick photo of some of the flowers in the stamp set:

Thanks for popping by and I hope you enjoy this CAS card. Have a look at all the TIME OUT design team inspiration in our challenge blog. This time our guest designer is the talented Marieke, I truly love her style! Happy crafting, everyone!

I'd like to join:

Poppystamps March Challenge: Clean and Simple

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Girl Power

girly leopard print sure is powerful, right! :)

AAA Cards: Ombre

my patterned paper has an ombre look!

New Challenge at Less Is More!

Hi friends!

It's time for a new fortnightly challenge a Less Is More. We have a color challenge for you and it's a nice an easy one: monochrome. Our DT has created wonderful samples for you, don't miss any of them! Many of the girls might have extra cards in their blogs too. Our sponsor for the month of March is STAMPlorations and we are thrilled to have STAMPlorations owner and designer Shery to join us as guest designer. Her project, created with new products, is on it's way to the challenge blog, just wait for it! :)

In my card I've used a fun STAMPlorations die called Christmas Icons - Christmas Tree 1! I love this fun, wonky, contemporary tree. I thought it would look wonderful all sparkly and ended up with an all grey color palette that I've jazzed up with silver. 

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

I'd like to join:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes

Guest Designing at CAS Watercolor!

Hi friends!

Today I have the great joy to join CAS Watercolor Challenge as their March guest designer. Thank you Loll for inviting me, I really enjoyed creating my projects and love your challenge! You can read all about the challenge details and have a look at the DT inspiratoion HERE. The challenge theme for the month of March is "Garden".

In my card I've used stamps by Uniko Studio. This sentiment is perfect for the challenge, isn't it! I love the size of these butterflies -they are very large but not too huge! :) My watercoloring is made with distress inks. I've first added color with the " pressing wet ink with acetate to your card"-method (I now this technique has a name but it has escaped my mind!!) and after that watercolored some parts of the image old-fashion way with a brush and in the end added splatters with the distress inks and also with white acrylic paint. I love how this turned out, I hope you do too! The sentiment is heat embossed with white on black card... My favorite way to add a sentiment. :)

Thanks for popping by and thanks again Loll for having me! Happy crafting everyone!

I'd like to join:

Simon Says Monday Challenge: In My Garden

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes