Marbling with Shaving Cream

I LOVE making backgrounds. Almost more than making cards. There, I said it. There are so many decisions involved when you make a card...
Anyway, the marbling technique with shaving cream is quite easy and tons of fun. A couple of weeks ago I made a card to enter at the current CAS Mix Up but when it was all finished I realized there was no stamping on it! Might not have been CAS enough anyway. I'll show it to you some other time. A couple of days ago I made another card with stamping.

Stamp: Sentiment (Verses Rubber Stamps)
Die: Avery Elle (stitched scalloped border)

Just used a strip of marbled paper to keep it CAS. The yellow dots are made with nail polish. Read about this months ago somewhere on this world wide web. You make them on a craft sheet and after they are completely dry you adhere them to the card with a drop of glue.
By the way, the colors of the background piece and the border are a little different in real life (nicer) but no amount of editing would change them.


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


CAS Mix Up Challenge - September 2016
So excited that this card won "Outstanding Design"!






Addicted to CAS #97 "Stitched"






Be well,

Susanne

Wild Hibiscus with Ferns

Today's card was made with leftover pieces of this card and that card.  I am a little proud of myself for not adding the pieces to the huge pile of stuff I will use "later" but actually made something with them.
ETA: I should probably mention that this is a 5x7 inch card.

A close up so you can see the shimmer:

Stamps: Altenew (Wild Hibiscus), Hero Arts (sentiment)
Other: Fern stencil (TCW)


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

Virginia's View Challenge #23 "Spray, Mist, Splatter"
The background was sprayed and splattered, and even the butterfly was stamped on a piece of sprayed in blue.
ETA: This card won Honorable Mention!






The Ultimate Challenge Blog Hop with Altenew
For some reason I cannot copy the image to this post. Please click on the link to see all the different challenge blogs that are participating!


Thank you so much for stopping by! Have a great week and

be well,

Susanne

Sailboat

The latest NBUS (Never-Before-Used-Schtuff) challenge over at Darnell's blog is almost over but I really wanted to play because I am so grateful that she is regularly nudging us towards using the things we buy. My NBUS box is bursting at the seams and given the time I could have made hundreds of cards... Alas, time to create is still very scarce right now but I sat down yesterday and made a card. I really wanted to use this MFT sailboat die (that I have had for way too long) while real sailboats are still on the lake.

Stamps: None!
Dies: My Favorite Things (sailboat), Memory Box (waves), SSS (stitched rectangle), cloud unknown


I cut out the different parts of the sailboat from various PP, the waves from a recent play with spritz bottles and adhered everything to a stitched rectangle that I thought was a very light blue but looks grey on the photo.

Speaking of photo, I am suddenly unable to download photos from my camera to my computer. I have no idea why. Plus I also can't do a backup on my external hard drive. I just hope my laptop doesn't break down before get a new one... So this blog post almost didn't happen! But I took a photo of the card with my phone and managed to get it on the post (not hard but I had never done it before). Phew!

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


NBUS #7







Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge #30 - "Anything Goes"







Virginia's View Challenge #23 - "Spray, Mist, Splatter"






Uniko Challenge #35 - "Inspired by a Song Title"
(In my case it's "Sail Away" by David Gray - one of my favorite songs, check it out if you don't know it!)





Thanks for stopping by despite my infrequent postings of late! Your visits and comments still make my day so please don't give up on me!

Be well,

Spritzed Ferns with Dragonfly

Just popping in to show you a card I made recently.

The CAS Mix Up August Challenge inspired me to shake up my neglected spritz bottles. I picked a beautiful, shimmery green from LuminArte but after a test spritz it didn't work any more. The same has happened with my gold from the same brand that I now use only to splatter with a brush. Since several bloggers mentioned that they had good luck with the mini mister from Ranger and I had one, I poured some green into it,  and grabbed my fern stencil.

A close up to show you the shimmer

Stamp: Penny Black (script)
Other: Fern Stencil (TCW), Spritz bottles (LuminArte), Dragonfly (punch)


Afterwards I sponged the panel with Antique Linen DI, stamped it partly with a script stamp, splattered some gold on it, ran a brush dipped in the gold along the edges, and attached a dragonfly punched from some shimmery, textured paper. I backed it with some foam and attached it to a white card. I decided against a sentiment.


Challenge (click on the link for more information and lots of inspiration):


CAS Mix Up August Challenge
(I stamped, spritzed, sponged, splattered)
ETA: This card was voted Outstanding Design!






It felt so wonderful to finally take some time to play again!


Be well,

Purple and Green Flowery Birthday

Sorry that I am still not back to more regular posting (if there ever was such a thing on this blog) but it's still summer and there is still lots going on. I'll do the best I can and appreciate your visits and kind comments more than ever.

The 7 Cardologists celebrated another birthday! This time it was for the girl who moved away last year but is back right now for a visit! How wonderful it was to be all together again!

She loves purple so that made the color choice easy. The oval with the sentiment matches the flowers in real live much better. And the layer is not black as it looks on screen but dark purple. There is Wink of Stella on the flowers but that's, of course, not visible on the photo.

Stamps: Uniko (Beautiful blooms III), Happy Little Stampers (sentiment)


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


Uniko July Challenge "Flowers"







Happy Little Stamper CASE the Designer - Gloria Lee







Be well,

Happy 13th Birthday

Today my youngest turned 13! Now I have two teenagers in the house! Since both my boys also speak German I chose a German sentiment for his card. The balloons that look almost white are actually a light green. 

We are currently away on an island on beautiful Lake Muskoka, Ontario, Canada. This is out last night here. This summer turns out to be crazy busy. But soon I hope to find more time to craft and post! 

Stamps: Create a Smile (numbers, sentiment)
Dies: SSS (balloons)


Challenges:

Create a Smile July Challenge "Birthday"





Seize the Birthday - No Topping







Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge "Anything Goes"








Be well,

Happy Birthday with Wild Hibiscus

First I would like to apologize about the long breaks between posts. Working, visitors, traveling, summer activities etc. don't leave much time for crafting let along writing a blog. I don't like that one bit and feel like my batteries are slowly draining and I need to recharge them in my craft area.

Today I do have a card for you that I made for a Cardologist friend. We had recently talked about both owning Altenew's Wild Hibiscus set and not having played with it yet. So she challenged me to use it for her birthday card.

In the close up you can see the Wink of Stella shimmer:

And here the glittery flower centers:

Stamps: Altenew (flowers, leaves, butterfly), Winnie & Walter (sentiment)
Other: Stencil (My Favorite Things)

I stamped the flowers, butterfly, and leaves on watercolor paper, colored them with distress inks, and cut them out. The stenciled background I made a while ago on a Thursday night. It belongs to Dora. Thought it worked well on this card.


Challenges:


Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge "Flora and Fauna"







The Mixed Media Card Challenge #25 "Sparkle"







Seize the Birthday "Bold and Bright"







Thank you so much for your visit and your sweet comments. They never fail to cheer me up!

Be well,