Birthday card for Grandma

Hi all, did you make it through Christmas all right? I'm feeling very lucky in being able to take time off work, and I'm still at home, enjoying those days when you have managed to get rid of all your guests (as wonderful as they were) and you have the fridge full of leftovers. What else is a girl to do but craft and spend some quality time with the sofa and a good book? And of course hang out with Gary, the new love of my life. He is such a good little chap, and I have to say I really enjoy our time together. He lives right next to my crafting desk, so I feel like I always have company when I craft, even though he mostly likes to keep tucked away in one of his many hides during daytime.

Anyhow, my Grandma is turning 91 soon, which I find is quite a respectable achievement. So I thought it would warrant a very special card. I was inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch. I die cut the letters for the words Happy Birthday Grandma in Finnish (how lucky it's much shorter in Finnish than English, otherwise I would have needed a giant card!!). I also die cut the front and middle panels using a stitched rectangle die. Then I stamped the rose from STAMPlorations Blossom Overture and coloured with Copics. I attached the layers, and finished by adding some Ice Stickles.

I would also like to link up with the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Make It Sparkle
Allsorts - Anything But Christmas
Inkspirational - Bah Humbug, Anything But Christmas
Card and Scrap - Anything Goes 
Creative Craft Cottage - Add some sparkle

Card: 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamps: STAMPlorations Blossom Overture
Dies: Lawn Fawn Cole's ABCs, Stitched Rectangle Dies
Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka in the Dark
Inks and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics R43, R24, R27, R29, R89, YG11, YG13, YG17
Other: Ranger Ice Stickles

Happy Birthday to Baby

I hope you have all had a relaxing Christmas so far with lots of time with the people - and/or four-legged friends - you live the most, some good food and maybe a nice present or two. We spent Christmas Eve with my sister as she had a day off from work. Then we got up really early on Christmas Day and drove down to see the Culinary Consultant's extended family in the most amazing old countryside manor house. Now we are back home and I'm cooking our traditional buffalo roast dinner for five tonight.

I made this card a few days ago, but haven't really had time to blog about it so here we go. I created some masks by die cutting using the Lawn Fawn Fluffy Cloud dies and sponged Distress inks. The dragon is coloured by Copics, and the background paper is Lawn Fawn.

I am linking up with the following challenges:

2 Creative Chicks - ATG

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - ATG with patterned paper

Naughty or Nice - Show us some wing

Crafting Musketeers - Use a Challenge

Inspiration Destination - ATG

That's Crafty Challenge - ATG



Card: White 300 gsm card, 300 gsm hammered card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm card, gold mirri card
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Critters Ever After and matching dies
Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka Mon Amie
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Ink Soft Sky, Wisteria Wonder, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White Craft ink, Copics
Other: Lawn Fawn Puffy Cloud dies, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Happy Birthday Border dies, Mini Snowflake dies

 

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Holly Jolly - Mid month inspiration for Anything Christmas Goes

I know I said earlier that I was done with Christmas posts for the year. I have to admit I had forgotten about our reminder post for the month-long "Anything Christmas Goes" challenge over at Holly Jolly! We have a whopping nine sponsors for our last challenge of the year, so make sure you link up any Christmas related crafting to win some great prizes from our generous sponsors.

Our month long Christmas extravaganza is sponsored by  A Day for Daisies, All Dressed Up,  Bugaboo Stamps, Fred She Said Designs, Lacy Sunshine Stamps, QKR Stampede, Sentimental Susan, Stamp and Create and Stitchy Bear.

 

 

 

I decided to create a few gift boxes I could just grab when I needed them. I found free printables over at Homemade Gifts Made Easy, and made both a small square box and a pillow box in bright patterned papers, and decorated with the gorgeous Christmas Bulbs digi from the lovely A Day for Daisies. What's so clever about these boxes is that you can fully decorate them, and just pop in the gift when you need them. The pillow bow can even be stored flat, so it doesn't take up any space at all. And it's the perfect size for a gift card, so a nice and festive way to give a gift card.

I would like to link up with the following challenges:

Daring Cardmakers - All Wrapped Up

Just Add Ink - Gift Card Holder 

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Die Crazy (use die cut)

Crimbo Crackers - Die cuts

Crafting For All Seasons - Anything But A Card

My Time To Craft - Last Minute Christmas Makes

Card: Coloured 240 gsm kraft card grey, Ruby red, beige

Paper: Stampin' Up Nordic Noel and 

Stamps: A Day for Daisies digi Christmas Bulbs, Stampin' Up Endless Wishes

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versamark, Stampin' Up Real Red, Tim Holtz Vintage Photo, Copics

Other: Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, Lawn Fawn Tag Your It, Tim Holtz idea-ology paper twine, Stampin' Up Bow builder punch, Glossy Accents

Christmas gift and tag

Part of the fun with giving gifts is to wrap them prettily. At least it is if you aren't in a hurry, and don't have too many gifts. Which usually during Christmas is never the case... But this time I managed to take some time to wrap this gift up prettily and even make a handmade tag for it. The Stampin' Up White Christmas stamp set is great to make quick and easy tags and cards. This tag was so quick to make. First I used the tag topper punch to make the tag. I then stamped the trees, the cute polar bear and the bird using Early Espresso onto Crumb Cake card and used my white gel pen to draw some snow on the trees and the ground, and some snowflakes in the air. I love the cute polar bear, and I don't care that polar bears are not supposed to be in the woods, I just love the cute scene, and will keep on using it no matter how unrealistic. 

I wrapped the present using Stampin' Up paper and added some red ribbon and a star. To finish off in style, I added a big bow from Stampin' Up Pretty Presents Designer Bows, which are ready die cut pieces you can use to assemble a bow. 

I would like to link up with the following challenges: 
Crafty Cardmakers and More - Snow 
Crafting for All Seasons - Christmas, anything but a card
Sweet Stampin' - Merry Christmas
My Time to Craft - Last Minute Christmas Makes
Challenge Up Your Life - Polka Dots
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Winter Wonderland

Card: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake
Stamps: Stampin' Up White Christmas, Good Greetings
Ink: Stampin' Up Early Espresso, Signo white pen
Other: Stampin' Up Scalloped Tag Topper Punch, Pretty Presents Designer Bows, Festive Designer Kraft Paper, red and white bakers twine and red gift ribbon and star from my stash

Perfect Pearls watercolouring

I have several reasons to be excited today. My long awaited little Brazilian Rainbow Boa Baby finally arrived yesterday. He was going to be called Ziggy after a zig zag pattern on his tail, but my sister keeps calling him Gary, so that has stuck. So at least for now, he will be called Gary. After arriving in his new home, Gary quickly burrowed deep into the soil in his vivarium, and I haven't seen so much as a tail of him. This morning, I couldn't find him anywhere, and I was so worried that he had died during the night I made the Culinary Consultant go in and feel around to make sure he was still alive. Which I'm happy to announce he is. I can now see how this parenthood thing is highly stressful...

The other thing I'm very excited about is my upcoming term as a DT member on the new STAMPlorations CAS challenge. Today I'm flexing my CAS muscles, warming up for the first challenge starting on January 7th. I can't wait until then to get to tell you all about it. In the meantime, you can meet the DT for the challenge over on the STAMPlorations blog.

For today's card I might have gone a bit overboard CAS, I'm not sure if the card is more BAB (bare and boring) than CAS... But I love the colours on the gorgeous STAMPlorations French Marigold Large stamp that I used. I stamped the flower in black Memento ink and heat embossed in clear powder before colouring with Tim Holtz Distress markers. I was going to use some water to blend the colours, but my little watercolouring water container still had some left over water with loads of perfect pearls in it that I had used for another project, so I thought why not use the pearlescent water to do the watercolouring. This gave the flower and absolutely stunning shimmer. Then I simply stamped a sentiment from STAMPlorations Bloom Sketches and that was pretty much it. I like sentiments that are versatile, you could use this for a birthday, or a thank you card, or a general cheering up card.

I would like to link up with the following challenges:
Freshly Made Sketches - Sketch (see below)
Allsorts - Anything but Christmas
Crafty Friends - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Just a pinch (in my case, of glitter)
Hiding in My Craft Room - Choose any challenge from 2015 (I chose #194, Think Spring)
Inkspirational - Bah Humbug! Anything But Christmas

Card: 300 gsm white card, 300 gsm watercolour card
Stamps: STAMPlorations French Marigold Large, Bloom Sketches
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress markers Abandoned Coral, Aged Mahogany, Festive Berries, Fired Brick, Fossilized Amber, Mowed Lawn, Mustard Seed, Picked Raspberry, Ripe Persimmon, Spiced Marmalade, Squeezed Lemonade, Twisted Citron
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched rectangle dies, Ranger Perfect Pearls, Ranger ultra fine clear embossing powder

Ombre background poppies

This whole Christmas thing isn't exactly going to plan. By now I was supposed to be off on my long, and even if I say so myself, well-earned Christmas break. However, turns out I have to work both Monday and Wednesday. Sigh. So I have decided to boycott Christmas, and publish non-Christmas cards to make me feel less bad. A bit hard to not think of the C word though, as I have the constituent parts for four gingerbread houses right next to me, spreading a wonderful Christmas-y scent. Putting them together has to go on the to-do list for the weekend, along with scrubbing the house from top to bottom to make it presentable to the un-laws, preparing Christmas food, doing the big Christmas shopping, getting a few more presents, wrapping the current ones and best of all, finally picking up the snake baby!! That's a to-do list and a half. I cannot wait for those hazy lazy crafty days between Christmas and New Year when I can get back into creative mode again.

Anyhow, today's card is using a stamp that has somehow sneakily become my favourite in the STAMPlorations Bloom Sketches set. And of course watercolour, my most favouritest technique ever ever ever. Not to mention one of my favourite colour combos, turquoise and purple.

Quite a simple card, started by stamping the gorgeous poppies in Staz-on, masked them to create the ombre background using Tim Holtz Distress inks in Peacock Feathers, Cracked Pistachio and Bundled sage. I coloured the poppies in Mowed Lawn and Wilted Violet. Last, I stamped a few sentiments from the same stamp set and adhered the front panel onto linen textured card.

It's not easy to find a non-Christmas related challenge this time of year, but I would like to link up with the following challenges:
Crafting Musketeers Challenge Blog - Use a Sentiment
Inspiration Destination - Anything Goes 
2 Crafty Girls - Anything Goes
Simply Papercraft - Anything Goes
PDE Linky Party - Anything Goes
Brown Sugar Challenge Blog - Anything Goes

Card: 300 gsm linen textured card, 300 gsm watercolour paper
Stamps: STAMPlorations Bloom Sketches
Ink: Tsukineko Staz-On Jet Black, Tim Holtz distress inks Bundled Sage, Cracked Pistachio, Mowed Lawn, Peacock Feathers and Wilted Violet
Dies: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die

Framed Rudolph and exciting news

How are you this fine evening (or day or even morning, depending on where you are)? Today I can finally tell you something I have known for a while, and wanted to shout from the rooftops. I am so very excited to announce that I am joining the STAMPlorations CAS challenge DT!!! As you read this, I'm jumping with joy. Seriously!! I can't believe the amazingly talented Shery chose me to be a part of this team, I can't wait to get started. I absolutely adore STAMPlorations products and I have enjoyed playing with them, you will probably have noticed this if you have been following my blog. I'm linking up a few of my favourites below (you can click on the images to get to the blog posts). Pop over to the STAMPlorations blog to see all the other DT members. If you enjoy creating CAS cards, keep an eye out for the CAS challenge and join us with your gorgeous creations. Coming to a webpage near you first thing in the New Year!

 

 

 

I think this will be my last Christmas card post, as I just managed to send all my Christmas cards and not only had enough of them, but even a few left over! I created the above Christmas card using several STAMPlorations stamps and stencils. I started by stamping the frame from Floral Bliss onto a piece of scrap paper, and cut it to make a mask. I picked some stamps from Mixed Media Elemenst and stamped through the mask I created in Rusty Hinge and Barn Door. Then I inked through the Christmas Reindeer stencil in Vintage Photo and Ground Espresso. Next I masked the reindeer and stamped the frame from Floral Bliss in Versamark, and heat embossed in gold. Last, I stamped the sentiment from Holiday Sketches in Barn Door. I love creating clean and simple designs, and it's always an added challenge to make it one layer as well. Perfect card for mailing (after I just had to pay a lot of extra as a rhinestone on a card made it too thick to fit into the letter category and had to be sent as a large letter instead).

I would like to link up my one layer reindeer over at the following challenges:

Craft Your Passion - Always Anything Goes

Addicted to Stamps - Christmas

That Craft Challenge - Christmas

The Corrosive Challenge - Merry Christmas

Fantasy Stampers - CAS Christmas

My Time to Craft - Christmas Animals

Color Throwdown - Any colours as long as it's Christmas theme

Card: 300 gsm white card

Stamps: STAMPlorations Floral Bliss, Mixed Media Elements, Holiday Sketches

Stencils: STAMPlorations Christmas Reindeer

Ink: Tsukineko Versamark, Tim Holtz Distress Inks Rusy Hinge, Barn Door, Vintage Photo, Ground Espresso

Other: Gold embossing powder from my stash 

One more snowflake card

I know, I know... Yet another snowflake card. Snowflakes and watercolours have most certainly been the theme for this year's Christmas cards. But I can't resist the gorgeous vibrant colours of Tim's amazingly beautiful inks and I certainly can't resist the Lawn Fawn snowflake dies. I particularly love to die cut them in vellum, as they come out absolutely stunning against the watercoloured background. So here is one more for this year. In fact, the current Daring Cardmakers challenge (use another language) reminded me that I haven't made a Christmas card for my grandmother (who doesn't speak a word of English, so I can't use any of the cards I have made so far as they all have english sentiments). So off I went into the craft room to create. 

Have you put up your Christmas decorations yet? We most certainly haven't and to be perfectly honest, let's see if we get around to doing it at all. Maybe next weekend. A confession that may shock many of you.... I'm not very much of a Christmas person. I love to get the time off work, don't get me wrong, and I love crafting Christmas cards. To be honest, all I want to do is lay down on the sofa with a book and a box of chocolates and not move for the duration of the holidays, not spend my free days like a maniac cleaning the house, cooking enough to feed a small country, and putting up lights and decorations which then stay up until next March as I won't have time to take them down. We have already decided to minimise Christmas presents this year, only something very small and only one present per person. Luckily everyone was being very co-operative, sending some ideas of what they would like to receive, as I rather buy something the recipient wants as opposed to some random stuff. 

Today's card is inspired by the gorgeous sketch over at Retro Sketches, as well as the colours over at Color Throwdown. As I mentioned earlier, I was also inspired by the "Use another language" theme over at Daring Cardmakers. Further, I'm linking up with Make My Monday where the theme is White Christmas, The Glory of Christmas where Anything Christmas Goes, The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers where X is for Xmas (sorry no Snark this time...) and Just us Girls where the theme is Sequins. 

Card: 300 gsm watercolour paper, kraft card, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink Salty Ocean, Picked Raspberry, Versamark

Stamps: Fiskars Easy Stamp Press Christmas

Dies: Lawn Fawn Stitched Snowflakes, Mini Snowflakes, Stitched Rectangle dies

Other: Perfect Pearls, Papermania Tinsel Silver embossing powder, silver sequins from my stash

Last minute quick and easy Christmas card

Hello dear friends! Long time no see. How have you been? I'm sorry I've been gone for so long, I didn't plan to. But this new job is squeezing every last drop out of me. Add all the usual Christmas stuff, and setting up everything for my snake-baby which has been much more work than expected (some due to circumstances beyond my control which have caused endless vexation) I haven't stepped into my craft room in ages and ages. Today I finally had a few moments, so I decided to make some last minute super quick and easy Christmas cards. I think I already have more than enough Christmas cards, but it seems wrong to make anything else at this time of year. 

I have to say I really love this design as you can use any stash you happen to own. Often you see so many wonderful cards, but they require having a specific die or stamp or whatever. There's nothing wrong with getting ideas for new stuff to buy, but also I think it's sometimes nice to just use the stash you already have sitting in your crafty den. So for this card you can use any inks or watercolours you happen to have. I love watercolouring with my Tim Holtz distress inks, they are so fun and highly reactive with water. Pick your favourite colour combo. I picked turquoise and purple. I also did another one in warm colours, although I'm not a huge fan of reds and oranges. But it's a more Christmas-y I guess. I then mixed a tiny amount of water with some Perfect Pears and used my watercolour brush to flick droplets of this glittery water all over the backgrounds, which i then left to dry. I used the Tim Holtz dies to cut the sentiments from silver and gold mirri card, and adhered them to the cards when the backgrounds were dry. To finish, I added a few adhesive gems from my stash and adhered the panels to white card. Very quick and easy. If you don't have dies, you can use stamps for the sentiments and just heat emboss them in your favourite colour. Or even stamp and heat emboss in clear powder before adding the watercolour if you want to use the emboss resist technique, that should work also.

Now I'm off to make some Finnish gingerbread, as I'm planning to make giant gingerbread snowflakes for my colleagues. I can't wait for my Christmas break to start so I can have a bit more time in the craft room. See you soon again (I hope!).

I would like to link up with the following challenges:
Happy Little Stampers - Favourite Technique (watercolour)
The Friday Mashup - Use dies
Christmas Cards All Year Long - Keep It Simple
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes as long as it's Christmas
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything Goes
Sparkles Christmas Challenges - Die Cuts for Christmas
Fussy and Fancy Challenge - Happy Holidays 
ABC Challenge - W is for Wishes

Card: 300 gsm watercolour paper, 250 gsm white card, gold and silver mirri card
Inks: Tim Holtz distress inks Cracked Pistachio, Peacock Feathers, Wilted Violet, Seedless Preserves, Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade, Abandoned Coral, Festive Berries
Dies: Tim Holtz Holiday Words, Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies
Other: Adhesive gems, Perfect Pearls

Holly Jolly - Last Challenge of the Year

Sorry if you popped by my blog earlier today, I mistakenly published the wrong post! How embarrassing... I spent a lovely weekend away with my bestie, and didn't get home until 1am last night, heading off to work just after 6 am this morning. I have been so tired that not only did I manage to mess up my blog posts, I forgot a meeting at work as well. What a day. So onto more fun things, such as a month long challenge and some really bright red poinsettias.

It is already the last Holly Jolly Christmas challenge of the year. Sadly, for me it's also my last as a member on the DT as it's time for me to move on to new adventures. Thank you to Cindy and Lynn for all their hard work with the challenge, and for taking me on when I didn't have any DT experience. It's been a lot of fun!

For December we are running a month-long Anything Christmas Goes challenge. Hop over to see the inspiration from the DT, and you will see we have created different kinds of crafts to inspire you. And don't forget to come back and visit us in two weeks as we have more inspiration for you at that time. Most importantly of all, don't forget to link up your gorgeous creations with us. All our wonderful sponsors from this year are contributing generous prices for our winners. Our month long Christmas extravaganza is sponsored by  A Day for Daisies, All Dressed Up,  Bugaboo Stamps, Fred She Said Designs, Lacy Sunshine Stamps, QKR Stampede, Sentimental Susan, Stamp and Create and Stitchy Bear.

 

 

 

I created a one layer Christmas card, perfect for sending flat in an envelope using the gorgeous Xmas Poinsettia image from Stitchy Bear. I printed the poinsettias twice, mirror flipping the image once to create a large skinny card, and coloured with Copics. I used a yellow Copic to trace around the poinsettias to add some interest to the card. Then I stamped the sentiment from the Lawn Fawn Joy to the Woods stamp set and heat embossed in gold powder. I matted the image onto Christmas red cardstock, and last I drew a wonky freehand frame around the image using a gold sharpie.

I would like to enter my card in the following challenges:
Just Add Ink - Just Add C (for Christmas and also for Copic)
Just Us Girls - Merry
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Holly Jolly Stamping 
Christmas Cards All Year Round - Keep It Simple
A Snowflakes Promise - Winter / Christmas
Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

Card: Coloured card Christmas Red, Hobbycraft White card 160 gsm
Stamps: Stitchy Bear Xmas Poinsettia, Lawn Fawn Joy to the Woods
Ink and Colouring: Versamark, Copics, Gold Sharpie
Other: Gold embossing powder from my stash

Guest Designing over at The Challenge

As you are reading this I am spending a long weekend with my bestest friend ever. We hardly ever get to see each other after she went back home and I stayed over here in the UK. So right now we are having a girl's weekend in Riga. But I scheduled this post to go live right at this moment as I have a really special card to share today. I was absolutely chuffed to bits when I saw that my macaron card was picked as the winner over at The Challenge a few weeks ago. It's always a thrill to see one of my cards picked as a favourite in one of the challenges, it's just so nice to know someone else enjoyed something you made. The prize you get for winning is the honour of joining the amazingly talented DT as a guest designer. So thank you to The Challenge DT for having me, and for you for popping over to my blog to see my creation. For the next week The Challenge is to create something using the sketch below. So come and join us over at The Challenge to see what the wonderful DT has created to inspire you, and then get creative and don't forget to share your gorgeous creations!

This is such a great sketch as it will really let your imagination run free. I'm not very good with using circles, and I always try to replace them with another shape. I absolutely adore the Lawn Fawn Stitched Snowflake and Mini Snowflake dies, and I used them with vellum to create a beautiful snowflake flower. I have to admit that despite a penchant for stockpiling patterned paper, I don't have very much Christmas themed paper. I do have a Stampin' Up set from last year called All Is Calm, and I love the delicate snowflakes and gorgeous colours on it. So I decided to use that for the strip of patterned paper and create a watercolour background using Distress Inks in similar colours. I die cut a piece of watercolour paper using a Stitched Rectangle die and watercoloured an ombre background using Cracked Pistachio, Peacock Feathers and Mermaid Lagoon, splattering some ink onto the background as I went along. I heat embossed the sentiment from the Winter Penguin stamp set from Lawn Fawn in white powder and added a few adhesive gems and finally a dash of glitter using a Wink of Stella pen.

A closer look at the vellum snowflake embellishment. You 
can just about see a bit of the glitter on it, but it doesn't show
up very well in the photo.

I would like to link up my card with the following challenges:

Unicorn Challenge - Winter Theme

CAS-ual Fridays - Snowflake

Make My Monday - White Christmas

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Let It Snow

Time Out - Snowflakes are Winter's Butterflies

Sparkles Christmas Challenge - Die cut

Our Crafty Corner - Anything Goes/Winter

Card: 300 gsm white card, 300 gsm watercolour paper, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum

Paper: Stampin' Up All Is Calm

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Winter Penguin

Ink: Tsukineko Versamark, Tim Holtz Distress inks in Cracked Pistachio, Mermaid Lagoon and Peacock Feathers

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangles, Stitched Snowflake and Mini Snowflake dies, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, adhesive gems from my stash, Wink of Stella pen