New Challenge at Inkspirational!

Hi guys!

We have anew challenge for you at Inkspirational:

I hope to see you joining us! This time the talented Cathy is our guest designer. Play along and one day you could be asked to join us as GD too! As always the regular DT has made inspirational samples for you as well. 

I had a bit of a trouble with this word prompt: English is not my mother tongue so sometimes it can be hard with some words. When this happens I turn to Thesaurus.com for synonyms and words related to the word prompt... And this is what I did this time too. I found out that one could for example think of a snap shot or just something that's quick and easy... And I combined these things in my card. I used a stencil that leaves a white frame (like in a polaroid) and just in general stenciled cards are the fastest ones to make! Also I already had the strip of vellum with white heat embossed sentiment ready in my stash so this card came together in no time at all! In addition to DI:s for inking I used plain water, white gold pearl water color and white acrylic paint for splattering some "snow" to my stenciled design. The rectangle is cut with a Winnie and Walter die. 

I'd like to join:

ABC Christmas Challenges: P is for Plain (I hope this simple one layer design will do as plain! I've attached the stenciled panel to a card base but basically it's a one layer) 

Thanks for popping by and I can't wait to see what you'll create!

Time Out Challenges Reminder!

Hi friends!

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

I wanted to think a little bit outside the box this time and went to Thesaurus.com for worlds related to bright. Golden and shiny were both listed... So I ended up watercoloring a gold heat embossed image. There's very subtle shine in the coloring because I added some pearl watercolor to my water. The rose stamp is by Stampebdous. I really like how this turned out. I was ready to give up at some point but I'm glad I just ended up adding more and more color layers because the final look is very pretty to me! I finished the card with some white paint splatters and golden sequins. 

This challenge is sponsored by Happy Little Stampers with a $20 voucher to out winner, chosen by the DT. There's lots of gorgeous inspiration from our DT members and talented guest designer Anila

so don't miss any of the fun, click HERE! I hope to see you joining us!

With this card I'd like to join The Daily Marker Coloring Contest (Intermediate). 

I'm also joining the August Flower Challenge: One Layer Card

Guest Designing for STAMPlorations!

Hi friends!

I'm here to share my GD cards for the second post for August! I have 3 cards to share with you so I'll just jump right into telling you about them, this post will be long and photo heavy! :) Please have a look at the other gorgeous GD projects in STAMPlorations blog HERE.

Card 1 Darling Dog Roses

In my first card I've watercolored gold heat embossed images with Sakura Koi watercolors and Kansai Tambi Starry Colors. Also lots of golden, white and black paint splatters were added to make the card look a bit more artsy. :) I've die cut some dimension to the panel using Crazy Double Running Stitched Rectangle Nesting Dies. The hello-sentiment is unfortunately discontinued. I wasn't loving my watercolor blending so that's why I ended up using the Starry Colors on top of some of the flowers. When in doubt, add glitter, shine and splatters! LOL! 

Here's the piece after just one coat of watercolor. 

I hope you can see some shine from the Starry Colors in this photo!

Card 2 Framed Daffodils

My second coloring project was made with Polychromos colored pencils, coloring in the Framed Daffodils stamp. I added just layers and layers of color until the look pleased me! I colored the petals using sharpish strokes with the pencils and the centers I've blended with round motions for a "no lines" look. After my coloring was finished I masked the image and stenciled the Stained Glass stenciled design to the card. My favorite stencil in the whole world! Some white paint splatters finish off the card.

With this Daffodil card I'd like to join The Daily Marker Coloring Contest (Intermediate).

Only one layer of color here! Love how it's possible to add so much depth and color with many layers of pencils!

   Card 3 Bloomtangled ATC #3

My final GD project for August is Bloomtangled ATC #3 stamp colored in with my trusted Copics... I love many coloring mediums but Copics have been my favorite for years. Bloomtangled #3 is a rectangle stamp but I used a MFT die to cut out just a portion of. I first planned on a "strict" pink, yellow and green color combo but ended up adding blue and red too. As almost always, the final project is "jazzed up" with lots of gel pen details. This sentiment stamp is from the Fond Expressions set. 

My first plan for the color scheme..

...I ended up going more crazy! :)

So, here were the 3 projects! I hope you have enjoyed what you see here and feel like doing some coloring in yourself! Thanks for popping by and happy crafting! 

New Challenge at Less Is More!

Hi guys!

We have a new challenge for you at Less Is More: Sketch! 

I'm a bit on a hurry when writing this so let's keep it short and sweet and jump right into my cards!

Card 1 Green Birthday Card

In my first card I used tiny Paper Smooches tags dies to represent the squares in the sketch. The tiny flower stamps come from Clearly Besotted stamps and the minimalistic coloring needed was done with Copics. The sentiment is from an old set, sorry don't know the maker of that. The tags are popped up for dimension and the sentiment is simply stamped to the green card base. I try to use up my colored card and save some white!

With my green card I'd like to join:

  CAS-ual Fridays Challenge: Inspiration photo. I'm inspired by the banners in the photo. 

Card 2 Thanks

I'm literally stretching the sketch in my second card... And am afraid the CASness of this card could be better... What do you guys think? I had this pre-made black and white card base ready and I colored in 4 of the circle images to represent the sketch. The border stamp is from the same set tham the sentiment in my first card. I die cut a Winnie and Walter sentiment 3 times and adhered the pieces together to make a thick sentiment embellishment but it didn't pop from the busy background. :( I adhered the extra black strip behind it which does help but I do not like it! 

These were my two cards for you this time. I hope you like them! Our August sponsor is STAMPlorations so do play along for a chance to be invited as guest designer or winning the sponsor prize! Lot of fabulous DT inspiration in our blog and in the personal blogs of our designers. Don't miss any of the fun, do join us! 

New Challenge at Inkspirational!

HI friends!

I'm here to share my DT card for the new Inkspirational challenge for you. For the next fortnight we are inspired by the fun ice cream lollies photo you can see below my card... And can you see how I was inspired? I used the stripes of the lollies as my inspiration! I had just come across some old paint chips in my stash and really liked the idea of using them for this photo inspiration... And I even think it turned out pretty stylish, graphic and fun! I hope you guys agree! The Hugs-die is by Winnie and Walter. I stacked 3 die cut sentiments together so that it would pop better from the paint chip stripes. Some clear sequins and this quick card was done and ready! 

I hope you'll join me, our talented GD Chrissie and the design team in this fun, summery photo challenge! I'm pretty sure you all know Chrissie's blog Simply One of a Kind but if not, you are in for a treat. After admiring all the inspiration, do join us! Happy crafting! 

Guest Designing for STAMPlorations!

Hi guys!

I'm here with my 3 projects for the first STAMPlorations GD post for August! I had a lot of fun coloring various STAMPlorations floral stamps again. :) My two first cards are colored in with Copics and gel pens and the last one is water colored using Zig Clean Color Brush Markers. This post will be very photo heavy so let's dive straight into it! 

Card 1 

Pocket Blooms

My first card has a very clean look. I've stamped a cluster of daisies from Pocket Blooms stamp set -I've used masking for stamping a whole bunch of them! The original stamped image has 3 flowers. I've also stamped a greeting from Big Greetings stamp set and colored it also with Copics. Copics work well on normal card too, you don't always need to use marker card! It's fun to experiment on different base cards for various different looks. Tone on tone, as showed here, is one of my favorites!

Here's the close-up of the flowers before adding the gel pen details. 

I think using the pens adds a lot of dimension and interest! What do you think? 

With this card I'd like to join The Daily Marker Coloring Contest Intermediate level! Exciting! :) 

Card 2 

Floral Bliss Trio

Here I've used a flower cluster stamp called In Bloom: Floral Bliss Trio and again the sentiment from Big Greetings. Big Greetings is such a fun set because you can color in your greeting to match the other images in your card! I used Neenah kraft card as my base. I love blending Copics on kraft -it's so easy! The colors do turn out darker than on white so you might want to choose your lighter markers for this. 

This is how the coloring looks before adding details with the pens and  Wink of Stella. 

And here's a close-up of the pen details. I do love them... What  do you think? I've used the same gel pens than in my first card. You can see some shimmer from Wink of Stella in this photo too. Shimmer is always so hard to capture to photos!

Card 3 In Bloom: Precious Plumerias

Here I decided to switch my usual Copics to Zigs, water and a paint brush. :) I've heat embossed the image with white embossing powder on Bristol card stock (best for Zigs) and added several layers of color, allowing the layers to dry in between. When the coloring was finished, I added lots of splatters with gold water color, white acrylic paint and on also with the pink color from the Zigs. The sentiment is stamped with golden Delicata ink and comes from the Pocket Blooms stamp set. 

Not much dimension yet in the first layer of water coloring!

Here you can see how the depth has begun to develop by adding orange on top of yellow, darker green on top of the green and darker red on top of the pink!

I hope you've enjoyed having a look at these three cards and maybe now feel inspired to color in something by yourself too! Thanks for popping by! 

New challenge at Less Is More!

HI guys!

It's time for a new challenge at Less Is More and this time it's a theme challenge:

Fun, right? Time to dig out all those animal stamps and dies!

I have two cards for you in this challenge and let's get right into the details of them. They don't really need much explaining though, both are very simple designs! Both of the cards have stamps by Clearly Besotted in the main role and in the first card all the dies come from Winnie and Walter, in the second the scalloped rectangle is from W+9. 

The minimal coloring in my first card (above) is made with Copics. I also added some white gel pen accents. I just love these dotted rectangle dies by Winnie and Walter, they are new in my collection! 

The second card demanded a bit more time -in this one I used Polychromos pencils. I bought a set of them nearly two moths ago and yet this is the first time I'm using them!! This card was a trial and error make and what you see here is the second version. After having the first go on coloring I realized I need to leave the stamps to my MISTI for stamping them again after coloring... This was very exciting I can tell you! Luckily the re-stamping worked alright! This card goes to my colleagues who recently got married. They own a black poodle called George and had blue and green as their wedding colors. :)

Our guest designer this time is one of my favorite bloggers, Hannelie. Her card are just so stylish!!! Play along and one day you could also be our guest designer too! As always the DT blog is filled with inspiration so do click HERE for more inspiration. Out August sponsor is STAMPlorations. I can't wait to see what you create for us! Happy crafting!