Twofer Card Challenge #11

Welcome to the November Twofer Card Challenge! This month we want to see what you can do with your wreath stamps, dies, or stencils. Yes, you read that right, Darnell added stencils to make it easier.

I don't have many wreaths stamps or dies, and no wreath stencils. I picked this older stamp from Hero Arts that I think I have never used before and made a Christmas card and a birthday card with it. 

Stamps: Hero Arts (wreath), Stamplorations (sentiment)

Dies: Simon Says Stamp (butterfly), Nestabilities (circles)

Other: Cuttlebug (embossing folder strip)

The butterfly and the dark circle are actually purple even though the look almost black on the screen...

Just realized that this card fits the current CAS Mix Up Challenge
My choice is die cutting.

Stamps: Hero Arts (wreath), WPlus9 (sentiment)
Dies: WPlus9 (sentiment), Simon Says Stamp (little star), big star unknown

The pink is sparkle paper. Hard to see on the photo.

Every month it's such a pleasure to see what you do with the prompt word! Have fun playing with your wreaths, be it a stamp, die, or stencil! Can't wait to see your creations in the gallery!

Be well and keep in touch!

Wedding Explosion Box Card

Warning: Picture-heavy post!

You might have noticed that I rarely do anything other than regular folded cards but for my niece's wedding (pictures below) I decided to try my hand at an Explosion Box card. It was quite time consuming and one of the reasons I didn't blog much before our departure. I didn't go overboard with embellishments as I didn't think that was their style. Also I went for sort of a rustic look as I got the feeling that the table decorations, etc. would be in that style. Forgive the quality of the pictures, it was hard to get good ones...

One of the hearts on top is gold, btw...

Stamps: My Favorite Things (wood background), Stampin' Up (swirls on cake), Inkadinkado (letters and numbers), Hero Arts (branch with hearts)
Dies: SSS (distressed heart), Impression Obsession (hearts on stems), My Favorite Things (letters), WPlus9 (big wooden heart), Nestabilities ("plate" for the cake)
Other: Punches (all the flowers, heart in the "O")


For those of you who have never seen one of those boxes, the sides are not attached and fall open when you take off the lid hence the name.
I started out with the cake which was quite fiddly I have to say (that's why it doesn't have a third layer, hehe). But I like how it came out.
The plan was to die cut the letters for LOVE on the outside but I discovered that all my dies were too small so I hand cut them intentionally in a loose, sort of organic way to add to the rustic feeling of the card. The top part is where we put the monetary gift and the lower part is where we wrote our wishes for the couple.

And here is a picture of them. They live and got married south of Munich in the mountains and were dressed in the tradition of the area.

And look at the fun car (vintage Ford) they had. A friend of the groom owns it and drove them from the church to where the party took place.

Well, if you made it this far, thank you very much! Your visits and comments are always very much appreciated!

I am sending this card to Time Out Challenge #113 focusing on the word "heart" and because there are lots of reasons to smile at a wedding!

Be well and keep in touch!

Twofer Card Challenge #7

We just returned from our yearly trip to Germany to visit family and friends and it is already time for the new Twofer Card Challenge! I especially enjoyed seeing the gallery last month filled with creative tree cards! This month the word prompt is

It doesn't matter if this makes you think of cold, refreshing or warm, comforting drinks, alcohol or soda - it's up to you (and your supplies)!

I played with the sweet tea set from Uniko. I really love tea (one of my favorites is a good Earl Grey) and wish that we had a place here that served a proper English tea with little sandwiches, etc. While in Germany I met a good friend at a tea house there. That was fun! Anyway here are my cards:

For the birthday card I embossed the cup with Antique Gold from SSS, added the flowers, colored them a little und cut the cup out. I backed it with a punched out oval of lavender colored vellum, added a layer of PP featuring little cupcakes, and an embossed panel. I was going for a Victorian look...

Stamps: Uniko (tea cup), SSS (sentiment)
Dies: PTI (border), SSS (banner)
Other: Taylored Expressions (embossing folder)



To make my other card look different, I stamped, colored and cut out three cups, added white enamel dots, and stacked them together. Added a bit of stenciling in the background, some Washi tape, and a sentiment from the tea set.

Stamps: Uniko (tea cup, sentiment)
Other: PTI (stencil), Washi tape

Now it's your turn! Which type of beverage will you choose?

Please find all the rules and lots of inspiration from my teamies as well as our two fantastic guest designers, Bonnie and Marianne on the Twofer Card Challenge blog

Be well and keep in touch!

Baby Girl

It's been a long, long time since I needed a baby card, so I had a lot of fun creating and personalizing this one for a little girl. I got the elephant theme from a quilt the mother and her cousin made that featured an elephant. What a great excuse to finally use this cute one that was a gift from a friend and has been patiently waiting  in my NBUS box for it's moment to shine. Same goes for the welcome die.

I used products from lots of different companies to make this card. It makes me happy when they play nicely together. *wink* The background is watercolored.

Stamps: Inkadinkado (letters)
Dies: Impression Obsession (welcome), Memory Box (tags), SSS (balloon), Cottage Cutz (baby elephant), My Favorite Things (hill)


Challenges:

Inkspirational #153 "Word Prompt: Attachment"
The balloon is attached to the trunk, plus a baby is very attached to it's mother in the first months...







CAS Watercolor February Challenge "Hearts"
Dear Design Team, I am not sure if my card is CAS enough... If it isn't, please delete it.

Be well and keep in touch!

The Twofer Challenge is Here!

Is your Mojo still snoring in a corner from all the feasting during the holidays? Do not fear, help is near! The brilliant and funny Darnell has come up with a new challenge that is just the thing you need to get out of your post holiday slump! It's called the Twofer Card Challenge and it starts today! For more information and the rules please click on the link and be sure to also read the FAQ section which is extremely helpful with this new kind of challenge that Darnell dreamed up!

Basically you will get a prompt each month and need to use the same stamps or dies to make two cards for two different occasions that should show the stamps or dies used in a very different way. (Darnell explains it so much better than me...)

This month the prompt is "FEATHERS" and as soon as I learned that I thought of breaking out a stamp and die set that a dear friend gave me a while ago. Here are the two cards I made (another important thing to keep in mind is to take a picture of both cards together and only post this one picture):

Stamps: My ArtC (feathers), Winnie & Walter (love)

Dies: SSS (stitched rectangle, you, tiny hearts), Avery Elle (scalloped border), WPlus9 (heart for mask)

This first card I made for Valentine's Day (which is right around the corner, ... just sayin'). I cut out a heart shaped mask, stamped and clear embossed one kind of feather, sponged, and stamped the other feathers. Then I added the you and tiny hearts cut from gold foil paper, stamped the love, cut the white panel with a stitched rectangle die, then with a scalloped border die, mounted it on a piece of patterned paper, and that on a white card. 

Stamps: We ArtC (feathers), PSX (feather background), Stampabilities (background)
Dies: We ArtC (feathers), Gina Marie (oval)

This is actually the second version of this card. A die on the background panel with the white feather background ended up being crooked so I started over and made the card I had in mind. A few days later the crooked panel was still sitting on my desk (I don't like making even "pretty" trash and love recycling). So I had the idea to cut out an oval, mount it on a dry embossed white panel (first stamped with the sentiment), add thin green strips on both sides, some baker's twine and the same feathers I used on the first card (stamped and white embossed on vellum, and cut out with the matching dies) and mount everything on a kraft card base. It makes me happy that I combined the new feather set with a very old PSX feather background on this card. Let me know if you ever had or still have that stamp!

I hope I have inspired you to join us! Can't wait to see what you come up with! Please also check out what the rest of the talented Design Team has created!

Let me know if you have any questions!

Be well and keep in touch!

Modern Birthday Wishes

The challenges for World Cardmaking Day really got me mojo going...
Here is another card that I finished today. Fortunately some of the challenges are open the whole week! 

Stamps: Winnie & Walter (background strips, heart), PTI (wishes)
Die: Stamplorations (Birthday)
Other: Caran d'Ache (watersoluble crayons), washi tape

Sending this to the following challenges (check out the galleries for inspiration):


Winnie & Walter WCMD 2017 Background Building/Pattern Making






CUTplorations October Challenge
My die cut word shares some of the colors in the photo

Simon Says Stamp WCMD 2017








Be well,

Little Sailboat

We live by a rather large lake and I never get tired to look out at the blue water dotted with sailboats in the summer. But I have no desire to learn how to sail and own a sailboat! I wouldn't say no if someone invited me on their sailboat but otherwise I'd rather make a card featuring a sailboat!

Stamps: My Favorite Things (background), Hero Arts (sentiment)
Die: SSS (sailboat)

This is another salted watercolor wash that I made at the same time as the green one. I cut a wavy slit in it to tuck in the sailboat. Added some Stickles there to mimic the sparkling water. Doesn't the balloon string background from My Favorite Things look like the surface of water here?

Since the die and both stamps are NBUS I am sending this over to Darnell's challenge

NBUS #12






Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge "Anything Goes"





Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Be well,

Cat and a Rainbow of Fish

Quite a while ago I got this fun stamp set from the very generous and sweet Gundi from "papierelle" and finally dug it out from my bursting NBUS box to make a birthday card for her. (She likes cats...)

Stamps: ScrapBerry's (cat and fishes)
Die: SSS (balloon)

Just stamped everything in black Versafine, colored it with my Polychromos, added some accents on the fish with glitter pens, and put Glossy Accents on all the eyes! Die cut a little balloon from a scrap of glossy paper. White embossed one of the fish on a strip of black card stock. I had so much fun making this card!

I'm sending this over to the very generous and fun Darnell and her equally fun challenge called

NBUS #12
Check out the gallery to see what people have been finding in their NBUS boxes...

Be well,

Two Cards, Two Techniques

Today I have two cards for you featuring two different techniques. The first one has a strip of Yupo paper (sort of like a sheet of thin plastic) and alcohol inks. In the close up you might be able to see a bit of gold there, too. It's very fascinating to watch how drops of alcohol inks react on Yupo paper. If you haven't tried it you should definitely put it on your list of techniques to try!

Stamps: My Favorite Things (sentiment)
Die: My Favorite Things (happy)


On the second card I played with watercolors on watercolor paper sprinkled with salt. The salt sucks up the color and creates an interesting pattern. I die cut the hearts and the word love from the sheet I created. The close up is supposed to show you the Wink of Stella sparkle that is so hard to capture on a photo!

Stamps: PTI (sentiment)
Dies: PTI (love), Sweet 'n' Sassy (hearts, SSS (stitched frame)


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

CAS Mix Up August Challenge

CAS Watercolor August Challenge

My Favorite Things Camp Create 2017 "Delightful Die Cutting"








Thanks so much for visiting and commenting if you feel like it! Let me know if you have any questions!

Be well,