Merry Christmas!

Hello crafty friends,

Christmas is almost here and I wanted to wish you all merry festivities!
If this is a hard time for you, my heart goes out to you and I hope you will look for and find comfort and help!

Stamps: My Favorite Things (woodplank background, knit pattern), WPlus9 (sentiment)
Dies: Memory Box (deer trio), WPlus9 (merry)
Other: the star is a good old punch


I was trying out my new Altenew star die and decided to make some star ornaments for my bosses. Afterwards I had patterned paper left over and punched out some circles to not waste it. Suddenly it came to me that I could make matching cards for them...
The "merry" and the star are cut out from silver mirror paper to "mirror" the foiled patterns in the paper.

Stamp: WPlus9 (sentiment)
Dies: WPlus9 (merry), SSS (star)
Other: different punches for the circles

I didn't blog that much this year - life has just gotten so busy, I can barely keep up! Thank you for still visiting and leaving sweet comments!

May the peace of Christmas Eve live in your heart all year long!

Be well and keep in touch!

Monoprinting with a Stencil

The current challenge at CAS Mix Up is monoprinting with a stencil. I was inspired by all the fabulous cards of the DT and by the videos they provided that I wanted to have a play. Looking through my stencils I came across this flower one from Plaid Folk Art which worked really well. I made three cards to use every scrap of the panel! (I thought I had plenty of time to enter them but then time ran away from me and now I am entering almost at the last minute...)

I recently ordered the German label sentiment set from Altenew! I send a lot of cards to my German relatives and friends and even though they all understand "Happy Birthday" I thought it would be nice to make some cards with German sentiments for them.

This German sentiment is a wood mounted stamp by an unknown company that a friend gave me. The flower is a punch. Not sure I have ever used it before...

On the first two cards I used the Avery Elle Rose Gold embossing powder. My blogging friend Greta was kind enough to send me some of her sequins that match the EP perfectly and I used some on the second card! Thanks again, Greta!

CAS Mix Up August Challenge "Stencil Monoprint"







AAA Cards Clean and Simple "Use a Stencil"

Be well and keep in touch!

Twofer Card Challenge #8

Another month went by and it's time for a new Twofer Challenge! Visiting the gallery last month really made me thirsty! Thanks to all who played along!

This month we would like to see you using geometric shapes. As always you have to use the same die or stamp to make two different cards for two different occasions.

I chose to play with my new (to me) Altenew triangle stamps and dies. I made a birthday card for my younger son who just turned 15! He loved the cool geometric design.

The second card is an encouragement card. I used the same tiny triangle die for the sun that I used for the silver accents on the birthday card. I also used some of the same stamps to make clouds. What do you say? There are no triangle shaped clouds in your neck of the woods? That's strange...

Stamps: Altenew (triangles), PTI (sentiment)
Dies: Altenew (triangles)

Stamps: Altenew (triangles), Hero Arts (sentiment), PSX (swirl in the sun)
Dies: Altenew (triangles)


If you haven't checked out what the amazing Design Team has come up with and our Guest Designers, Cheryl from Paper Panacea and Brenda from Inkspired to Stamp please click here and then get creative and play along! Hope to see you in the gallery!

Be well and keep in touch!

Geometric Stencil x Three

I recently got this new stencil from Altenew and played around with it one evening trying out different color combos. The amazing thing is that I already made cards out of three of the backgrounds (usually they sit around here for much longer...). April is one of my biggest birthday month and these backgrounds are great for masculine cards (and geometric design loving girls, hehe). I know that they all look similar but I really loved the font of the STAMPlorations birthday die with the geometric pattern. On the last two cards the birthday die is three deep and covered in Glossy Accents.

Stamps: Altenew (Happy), WPlus9 (wishes)
Dies: STAMPlorations (Birthday)


Challenges:

CUTplorations April Challenge "Focus on the Sentiment"

Inkspirational #159 "Play"
I played with my new stencil...







Seize the Birthday "Vibrant Colors







The Male Room Challenge #83 "Symmetry"
The grey and red card won HM, yay!

Be well and keep in touch!

Twofer Card Challenge 3

Thank you again for the many creative and inspiring entries in our heart challenge last month! Are you ready for the third Twofer Challenge? If you live in the northern hemisphere and you are getting a bit tired of winter you might be especially thrilled to play with our prompt this month:

I picked the Altenew set "Wild Hibiscus" and made a muted, monochromatic sympathy card and a very bright and tropical "Hello" (Aloha is Hawaiian for hello) card.

Stamps: Altenew (Wild Hibiscus), Papertrey Ink (sentiment)

Die: SSS (stitched rectangles)

What can I say? Just love grey. With white. And the sentiment on vellum. 

Stamps: Altenew (Wild Hibiscus), sentiment unknown
Other: Papertrey Ink (stencil), washi tape, embossing paste

I had the stenciled panel and one orange blossom on my desk and they put me in the mood to go totally tropical! It's fun to look at this colorful card, especially during those grey winter months. I also enjoy the contrast between of the graphic patterns and the softer flowers. I stamped them on watercolor paper using Distress Inks and the colored them using the same inks.

ETA: Greta kindly pointed out that the second card would work for the current

Time Out Challenge #104 "Bold"
and it's true, it certainly is bold, hehe...






Now be sure to check out the amazing creations of my team mates! And for the first time we have a guest designer: Verna Angerhofer who won the January challenge! Please leave her some love! And then play along!

Be well and keep in touch!

Birthday Card for the Best Sister

I have the best sister in the whole world. I am truly sorry for you if you thought yours was the best... ;)

Anyway now that we cleared that up I want to show you the card I made for her birthday which happened to be last week. The inspiration for the card came to me last summer when we stayed at her house (she and her husband are also the best and most generous hosts). They have these black and white dishes with flowers for a long time. Who knows why all of the sudden last summer it occurred to me that I could turn them into a card. I wanted to take a picture of them but forgot. So I had to go by memory. Mine is not the best anymore. And remember it's six months later...

Stamps: Altenew (flowers, leaves), Create a Smile (sentiment)
Dies: My Favorite Things (chevrons)


My sister was kind enough to take a picture of one of the plates. You can see that instead of the pale yellow I should have added a deeper, more redish orange... Oh well, she liked the card and that's all that matters!

Entering the card into the following challenges:

CAS Watercolor January Challenge "Birthday"

Time Out Challenge #100 "Being Thankful"
Congratulation on 100 challenges! You asked what we are thankful for and I am very thankful to have such a wonderful sister!







Thank you for your visits and comments!

Be well and keep in touch!

Playing with Embossing Paste - Take 2

Before I show you my card I would like to let you know that I will take a blogging and commenting break to spend some time with my family in Germany.

In my last post I promised to show you the card I made with a stenciled panel that didn't buckle because I used heavy Stampin' Up card stock. Julia inspired me to use colored cardstock. This time I also added some sparkle to the embossing paste. (Can't tell you right now what it was I added because I am not at home while I type this...) You can see it in the close up, although it didn't sparkle as much as I hoped for. This card looks very different from my last one...

Stamps: Altenew (flower, leaves), Uniko (sentiment)
Other: Memory Box (stencil)


Here is a close up to show you the sparkle in the embossing paste.

Challenges (click on the links for more information and lots of inspiration from the DTs and the galleries):


CAS Mix Up June Challenge "Embossing Paste/Gel"
My choice is fussy cutting







Time Out Challenge #84  'Flowers and Friends make life a garden'







The Flower Challenge #9 "Anything Goes"

Be well,

Watercolored Wild Hibiscus

Before I go to bed I would like to share a card with you using gold embossed and watercolored flowers that had been sitting on my desk...

Stamps: Altenew (flowers, leaves), Create a Smile (sentiment)


Challenges (click on the links for more information and lots of inspiration from the DTs and the galleries):

CAS Mix Up May Challenge "Splatters"
My choices are watercoloring and heat embossing





CAS Watercolor May Challenge "Flowers"
ETA: This card won "Outstanding Design"! 





So glad, that I finally managed to combine these two challenges!
Have a fabulous week and

Be well,

Reminder for Time Out Challenge #83

Hello there,

Just popping in to remind you that you still have time to CASE Hannelie's fantastic card for the Time Out Challenge #83

Here it is again:

Stamps: Altenew (flower, leaves), Hero Arts (background), STAMPlorations (sentiment)
Die: Nestabilities (circle)
Other: Brushos


As you can see I stuck with the same color scheme but used it on the flower this time (stamped on the same Brusho panel). I also used a negative circular die cut and lots of black and white. I am a bit disappointed with myself that both times I didn't use any splatters considering how much I like them! On this card I sprinkled a few gems around to imitate the splatters.


I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

CAS Watercolor May Challenge "Flowers"
ETA: This card won "Outstanding Design"!






STAMlorations May CAS Challenge

I had so much fun CASEing Hannelie's card, now it's your turn! I hope to see your creation in the gallery! You have until May 25th to enter and you could win a $15 voucher to Happy Little Stampers! For more details go to Time Out Challenges.
Thank you very much Nonni and the DT for inviting me to guest design!

Be well,