Spectacular is what you are

I'm so happy tomorrow is Friday. I have lots of plans for the weekend. Among other things I am planning to sleep in late, lay on the sofa like a vegetable, read a book, eat chocolate and maybe some cake, and sleep some more. I'm going to be very busy indeed! 

Today's card involved lots of fun stamping. I was inspired by the Silly theme over at CASology, and thought the glasses from the Crazy Things  stamp set would bring the perfect silliness together with the custom made sentiment using Lawn Fawn Violet's ABCs. The layout is inspired by this week's sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch and the colour combo is inspired by this week's colour swatch over at Color Throwdown.

Card: 300 gsm white linen card, Vanguard VA017 Ivory card
Stamps: Tim Holtz Crazy Things, Lawn Fawn Violet's ABC
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up So Saffron, Pistachio Pudding
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies

White embossing in a twisted citron kind of way

I have been contemplating my crafting lately. In fact, I have been contemplating more than crafting, which I'm sure is the wrong way around. I've been contemplating the justification of putting as much money into this hobby as I have in the last few years. I have been contemplating Facebook and other services constantly telling me I should grow my blog, advertise it, reach out to get more followers. But I don't want to! I'm perfectly happy doing this as a hobby, and I am not the type of person who wants to push my blog anywhere it doesn't want to go naturally. I just want Facebook to leave me alone, stop showing me those horrible "advertise your blog here" things. They stress me out. I have been contemplating whether my cards have "a look". Whether my cards would be recognisable as my cards. I have started to feel that after more than two years of crafting I have started to find my own look, at least in my head. It's all about watercolours and bright colours and cute critters and die cut sentiments and stitched die cuts and clean and simple designs. Most of the time. I think. At least that's how it's all in my head. Anyhow, they are my cards so if I say I have a look, that must be how it is. Right? Oh well, I take myself way too seriously most of the time.

I didn't take this birthday card too seriously though. I just stamped and watercoloured and had fun with the little Lawn Fawn party stamps. Too bad it was quite tricky to photograph, and it does look much better live than it does in the picture. I seem to have the crafting bit down a bit better than the photography bit.

I was inspired by the embossing challenge over at Lawnscaping.  I was also inspired by this weeks Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge where the theme is Citrus with a twist, which made me choose some very uncharacteristic colours for me. I was also inspired by the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. FMS is celebrating the 200th sketch with a major, major challenge and a huge amount of sponsor prizes. Happy 200th FMS, and here's to many more!

I stamped a mix of the small party stamps from the Lawn Fawn Party Animal set in Versamark onto watercolour paper (I have to start buying that stuff in bulk!) which I had die cut with a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die and heat embossed them in white powder. Then I took Tim Holtz distress markers in Squeezed Lemon, Twisted Citron, Pistachio Pudding and Peacock Feathers and smudged them onto a clear block. I picked up the ink with a watercolour brush and just played around to create the background. I die cut the sentiment from a leftover piece of coloured paper I had created with Tim Holtz distress paints for my crazy bird and doughnut card here. I then double heat embossed the sentiment with holographic powder before attaching onto the card. I attached the coloured panel with foam pads onto some linen textured card. For a little subtle bling, I added a few sequins in the same colour scheme as the card. I hope you like the card as much as I do, it's simple but I have to say it turned out quite nice, didn't it. Oh well, I'm off now to enjoy bread week on the Great British Bakeoff!

Card: 300 gsm white linen textured card, Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine watercolour paper
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Party Animal
Ink: Versamark, Tim Holtz Squeezed Lemonade, Pistachio Pudding, Twisted Citron and Peacock Feathers
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle and Happy Birthday border dies, sequins from my stash, Papermania Seafoam White and Holographic embossing powder

Stampin' Royalty Guest DT - Photo inspiration

I can't believe this is already my third guest post for Stampin' Royalty. Time truly flies when you are having fun, doesn't it. This week we have a gorgeous inspiration photo for you. The colours could not have been more perfectly picked for me! Green and pink is one of my all time favourite colour combos. I absolutely loved making this card. Hop over to Stampin' Royalty to see how the amazingly talented DT have been inspired by the image. Then, please have a play around for yourself and join us as we love to see your gorgeous creations. 

For my card, I was inspired by the beautiful colour combo and the bright pink flowers. I was also inspired by the gold and silver bling in the beautiful jewellery. I started by stamping the large flower from Bloom With Hope in Staz-On onto watercolour paper. I coloured the flowers with pink markers and used a waterbrush to blend the colours. Then I fussy cut the flowers. For the background I stamped the Brushstrokes stamp in Pistachio Pudding. This is such a great stamp, and it certainly has not got all the use it deserves so far. I also die cut two feathers from gold foil. Then it was just a quick job to assemble it all onto a doily, add one of those gorgeous wood veneer sentiments, a bit of silver thread and a few rhinestones. Hey presto! 

I would like to link up with the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Anything Goes
Fab n' Funky - Flower Delights
Natalie and Amy's Challenge - Summertime
Happy Little Stampers - Sketch

Card: Stampin' Up Whisper White Thick cardstock, Gold Foil
Stamps: Stampin' Up Brushstrokes, Bloom With Hope
Ink: Stampin' Up Pistachio Pudding Stampin' Markers Strawberry  Slush, Melon Mambo, Blushing Bride, Pink Pirouette, Memento Staz-On Jet Black
Other:  Stampin' Up Expressions Natural Elements, Silver Metallic Thread, Tea Lace Paper Doilies, Feathers die, Jewels Basic Rhinestones

Surprise guest DT card

I've been dying to tell you, and today is finally the day. I'm soooo excited to be guest designing for the STAMPlorations sketch challenge as my narwhal card was picked as one of the top picks for sketch #33!!! I love playing along with their amazing sketches so I'm very honoured to be joining the amazingly talented DT for the current challenge. You have lots of time to play along as the deadline for this challenge isn't until the end of July! Hop over to the STAMPlorations blog to see what the rest of the DT have created using this amazing sketch and make sure to join in the fun.

For my card, I was working with the STAMPlorations Tropical Drink digi. I wanted summery colours and went with Stampin' Up Calypso Coral, Pistachio Pudding and So Saffron. I started by watercolouring the background. After the colours had dried, I stamped the Tim Holtz Script and Curiosity stamps, and added some splotches using the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set. I printed the digi and coloured using the same colours. I also printed the digi onto vellum and cut out the glass to give it a more "glassy" look, although it doesn't show very well in the image. I stamped splatters around the glass and sentiment using the Gorgeous Grunge stamp and matted them onto Calypso Coral card. I also added one panel from the Sweet Sorbet DSP. I think it ended up being a wonderfully summery card, and I really want a nice cocktail now...

Card: Stampin' Up Calypso Coral, So Saffron, Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine watercolour paper, 160 gsm Hobbycraft white card
Stamps: STAMPlorations digi stamp Tropical Drink, Each Day Holds a Surprise, Stampin' Up Gorgeous Grunge, Tim Holtz script and curiosity stamps
Ink: Stampin' Up Calypso Coral, Pistachio Pudding, So Saffron 
Paper: Stampin' Up Sweet Sorbet

Bloomin' Marvellous birthday

I had to get up a bit earlier than usual this morning, and was greeted by the most stunning sunrise. Pink, orange and a bit of blue to admire while I got dressed. And when I got home from the gym in the evening, the sky wasn't completely black yet, you could just about make out a bit of dark blue on the horizon. It's not going to be long now when it's still light when I get home! This is the most amazing time of the year, when you know you have all the spring and summer still ahead. 

This week has been manic, and I haven't had much time for crafty business. Therefore today's post is just a quick little birthday card. The Stampin' Up Bloomin' Marvellous is a really versatile stamp set. It works for such a variety of occasions. Here, I stamped in various greens and yellows and cut out the tag using the Chalk talk framelits. I added some banners from my leftover paper scraps stash at the bottom and stamped one of the sentiments from the Bloomin' Marvellous set. I finished with a cute little bow for that final little touch.

I'm linking up with the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge - B is for ... (bloom, blue, banner, bow, bird)
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - Things that fly
Artistic Stampers - Spring is Coming
Artistic Inspirations - Anything Goes with a Twist of Green
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Spring Colours
Sweet Stampin' - Use green

Inks: Stampin' Up So Saffron, Daffodil Delight, Pistachio Pudding, Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party
Stamps: Stampin' Up Bloomin' Marvellous
Cardstock: Craft UK Kraft card 5x7 in, Hobbycraft three shades of green 160 gsm cardstock, Hobbycraft three shades of blue 160 gsm cardstock
Papers: Stampin' Up Brights DSP Stack, International Bazaar
Other: Chalk talk framelits, blue bakers twine

Bloom with Hope in watercolour

I am enjoying another evening of being home alone, and have been glued to my crafting desk for the whole evening. One of the results is this card, which was inspired by the Retro Sketch challenge, which is ending in just a few hours. I was also inspired by the wonderful colours over at ColourQ. For a while I have been planning to do a watercolour style flower card, and I thought this colour and sketch combo would be perfect for it. I'm also entering over at A Little Bit Crafty where the theme is Anything goes but not Christmas, and it's fun to take a bit of a break from all those Christmas cards.

I stamped the flowers from Bloom With Hope in Antique Linen onto watercolour paper and used an aquaflo brush to colour the flowers using Stampin' Up inks. I also painted a faint pink around the flowers and the edges of the watercolour paper, but unfortunately as the photo had to be taken in really abysmal lighting conditions it doesn't show. I coloured the sentiment using marker pens. I selected to use cardstock in Crisp Cantaloupe and selected a matching paper from the Sweet Sorbet DSP.

Card: Stampin' Up Crisp Cantaloupe, Daler&Rowney Aquafine Watercolour paper
Stamps: Stampin' Up Bloom With Hope, Yippee-Skippee
Ink: Tim Holtz Antique Linen, Stampin' Up Bermuda Bay, Calypso Coral, Pink Pirouette, Pistachio Pudding
Other: Stampin' Up Sweet Sorbet DSP, Crisp Cantaloupe Thick Baker's Twine 

Fairies

The most recent issue of Cardmaking & Papercraft came with a fairy stamp set. They really weren't the kind of stamps that go with my style of card-making, but they were free, so I thought why not give them a try. I was inspired by this weeks great sketch from Mojo Mondays. I was also inspired by the fun challenge over at Daring Cardmakers, which is "Something Old, Something New". Obviously the fairy stamp is my something new, whereas the rest of the card is my something old. I used a Dovecraft DSP called Princess Fairytale which I have had for ages but hardly ever used, so I thought it would be perfect for this challenge. The stamps were also perfect for the new challenge over at Shopping Our Stash where the challenge is to use something you got for free. I'm also entering this card over at The Pink Elephant where Anything Goes. 

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm three shades of blue and white card

Paper: Dovecraft Princess Fairytale DSP

Ink: Stampin' Up Pistachio Pudding and Wild Wasabi

Stamps: The Fairy Collection (free with current issue of Cardmaking & Papercraft)

Spring colours

I am in complete denial. I refuse to admit it's November. It's 20 degrees and bright sunshine outside. I picked raspberries from my garden yesterday. I cannot be November. Especially as it was August yesterday. I swear. So instead of making Christmas cards or fall cards, I decided to pick beautiful spring colours and flowers for today's card. 

The inspiration for today's card is a Viva La Verve sketch. I used papers from the lovely Stampin' Up Sweet Sorbet DSP and stamps from the Petal Parade set. Funnily enough, I didn't like the stamp set at all at first, but it grew on me. I also didn't like Summer Starfruit at all, but again it slowly grew on me. I didn't even like the DSP at first. So given that I didn't like any components of this card, I think it turned out rather nice after all.

Card: Stampin' Up Crisp Cantaloupe card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Paper: Stampin' Up Sweet Sorbet
Stamps: Stampin' Up Petal Parade, Bloom With Hope
Ink: Stampin' Up Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding and Pool Party
Other: X-cut scalloped circle die

Poppy Challenge #4

Inspiration is funny sometimes. I really loved this week's Poppy sketch, and immediately got an idea what I wanted to make. But I couldn't make that work, and at the same time this idea came to me instead. I really like the Banner Blast stamp set and matching punch, but haven't used it very much (isn't that always the same story!). I didn't have the exact colours for the challenge, but I used the closest replacements from the Stampin' Up palette.

I guess it's quite obvious from the card how it was created. I stamped the banners and punched out, stamped the background using Gorgeous Grunge and the star from the Banner Blast set. Last, I stamped the sentiment and attached everything into place. 

Card: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Crisp Cantaloupe and Coastal Cabana card
Inks: Stampin' Up Crisp Cantaloupe, Coastal Cabana and Pistachio Pudding
Stamps: Stampin' up Banner Blast, Gorgeous Grunge and Yippee-Skippee!
Other: Stampin' Up Banner punch

Birthday present bag and card

I'm going for a birthday celebration tomorrow, and wanted to make a customised gift bag and matching card for the present. I got my inspiration from the beautiful pastel yellows, greens and pink/coral of the chocolate box I bought as a present. 

The inspirational colour combo

For the card, I used the colour combo from the chocolate box and I stole the idea for the card from my guest stamper, my Sis. She made the awesome green and pink birthday card you can see below, and I used the green hardwood background as an inspiration for my card. I added the same Petite Petals flowers I used for the bag and added a birthday sentiment in bright yellow. It was so much fun stamping with my sis. She got very creative and also made some artwork for her home.

Birthday Card made by Sis that I used for inspiration.

My Sis got inspired by stamping and made this scrapbook page.

To create my bag I measured the chocolate box and calculated the size of the gift bag that would be needed. I ended up using a 10x12 in piece of DSP, and used the remaining 2 in piece to create the tags for the ribbon. I scored the DSP at 1.5 and 8.5 in in the longer direction and at 5 1/4 and 6 3/4 in in the shorter direction (see sketch below). Then just cut as indicated, fold and put some double sided adhesive on the small squares and one of the long side "flaps" on both sides and assemble. I got the idea for this bag from the Pootles blog, which has a video showing how to assemble the bag (although it's a different size to mine), check it out. I then inked the edges of the bag with Daffodil Delight ink and a foam applicator and created 2 tags with the scalloped tag punch. I inked the edges of the tags as well and attached the ribbon to the back of one of the tags. I then attached the tags to the gift bag. To finish off the bag, I stamped four flowers in Pistachio Pudding using the Petite Petals matching stamp set and punch, curled the leaves of the flowers and attached adhesive gems. 

For the card, I stamped the hardwood stamp in Pistachio Pudding onto white cardstock. I also stamped the birthday sentiment from See Ya Later in Daffodil Delight and cut out in the shape of a banner. I used the same ink and a foam applicator to ink the edges of the banner. I stamped flowers in Daffodil Delight and Crisp Cantaloupe I attached everything into place and matted onto Crisp Cantaloupe cardstock. 

The theme of this week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge is Five. I'm entering my card with five flowers. I'm also entering this card as my second contribution to Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the theme is "Anything goes" (my first contribution is here).

Card: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White Card, Stampin' Up Crisp Cantaloupe, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Paper: Stampin' Up Sycamore Street DSP
Inks: Stampin' Up Crisp Cantaloupe, Daffodil Delight and Pistachio Pudding
Stamps: Stampin' Up Hardwood, Petite Petals and See Ya Later 
Other: Green Ribbon from my stash, Stampin' Up Petite Petals Punch, Papercraft adhesive gems in Capsule Verde

Madison Avenue thank you card

I got out of bed ridiculously early this morning as I seem to have managed to catch a bit of a cold. Lying down made my sinuses feel like they were exploding. So I was up long before the sun, and what better to do on a Saturday morning at ridiculous o'clock than to catch up on some card challenges and get inspired!

This time two challenges caught my fancy. The Freshly Made Sketches #127 got my the inspiration neurons firing and I decided to combine it with the Stampin' Royalty #219 colour challenge which this week was So Saffron, Pistachio Pudding and Early Espresso. Another colour combination I wouldn't have picked myself, and completely out of my comfort zone.

To me the colour combo seemed quite retro, and to me the most retro stamp set ever is the Stampin' Up Madison Avenue set. I love it, but hardly ever get around to using it. I also have the matching embossing folder which I think I haven't used at all so far. That's pretty much how this card came together. I used the stamp-a-ma-jic to align the stamps for the flower and to place the little sentiment from the Tiny Tags stamp set.

Cardstock: Stampin' Up Early Espresso, So Saffron, Pistachio Pudding, Craft UK kraft card
Ink: Stampin' Up Early Espresso, Pistachio Pudding
Stamps: Stampin' Up Madison Avenue, Tiny Tags
Paper: Stampin' Up Tea for Two DSP
Other: Embossing folder Vine Street, Scalloped Tag Topper Punch, butterfly brad from my stash

Banner Blast Birthday Card

I have been making quite a few birthday cards lately. And I have been trying out my new Stampin' Up goodies. The hardwood background stamp has become one of my favourites and it seems to feature in at least half of all the cards I make. I love the combo of the hardwood background and the banners. So fun and quirky. And you can modify it to no end by changing the colours. This time I went with the 2013-2015 in colours.

Inks: Stampin' Up Strawberry Slush, Pistachio Pudding, Coastal Cabana, Chocolate Chip
Cardstock: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake, Pistachio Pudding, Strawberry Slush, Craft UK Kraft card
Stamps: Stampin' Up Hardwood, Banner Blast and See Ya Later
Other: Bakers twine from my stash

Thank you cards with Wildflower Meadow

My most avid (and possibly only) fan, my Mum, asked me to make a few Thank You cards for her. Always eager to oblige should anyone have a need for my cards, I put together this little set of sweet cards using the Stampin' Up Wildflower Meadow set with matching stamp and embossing folder. It's so quick and easy to make embossed cards now that I have my Sizzix, compared to using the rolling pin method I have used before. Embossing is now a breeze and I want to make an endless amount of embossed cards. For these cards I chose to use the Stampin' Up seasonal colours for 2013-2015. I printed the sentiments as I don't have a Finnish "thank you" stamp. The font I used is called Xiomara and I downloaded it for free from here. I used this website which contains the RGB codes for all Stampin' Up colours to match the colours of the prints as closely as possible to the ink and cardstock.  I think I need to calibrate my printer colour profile as the Coastal Cabana didn't quite match up, the rest of them were great. 

I cut out Crumb Cake card in 10x20 cm to make eight 10x10 cm cards. I cut a mat of the coloured cardstock 9.5x9.5 cm. I stamped the image onto white cardstock and embossed using my Sizzix. I then cut the stamped and embossed image to 9x9cm. I printed the sentiments and cut using scissors. I also cut the banners using scissors. Finally I attached everything onto the Crumb Cake card and added an adhesive gem.

Inks: Stampin' Up Strawberry Slush, Coastal Cabana, Crisp Cantaloupe and Pistachio Pudding
Cardstock: Stampin' Up Strawberry Slush, Coastal Cabana, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding, Crumb Cake, Hobbycraft white 160 gsm cardstock
Stamps: Wildflower Meadow
Other: embossing folder Wildflower Meadow, adhesive gems either clear and coloured using my 80's glam Sharpies or from Papermania Capsule verde.

Turtle friend - late birthday card

I realised the other day that I missed a friend's birthday, so I wanted to make a card quickly and also play on the theme of being late. This adorable little turtle friend is from the Stampin' Up Fox and Friends stamp set and I think he is perfect for a late Birthday Card.

I stamped my little turtle friend on Pistachio Pudding cardstock using Pistachio Pudding ink. I also stamped him onto white cardstock, and cut it out in the shape of a circle. I fussycut the scalloped circle in Crisp Cantaloupe cardstock. I used the Hobbycraft alphabet stamp to stamp the "Sorry I'm late" sentiment and cut the banner in Crisp Cantaloupe cardstock. I stamped the "Happy Big Day" sentiment from the Chalk Talk stamp set onto white carstock and fussycut it using scissors. I also cut a slightly bigger banner in Crisp Cantaloupe. Then it was just all about assembling it all onto Kraft cardstock and adding the little ribbon and bow. Hopefully my friend will be charmed by the cute little turtle and will forgive me for the card being late.

Colours: Stampin' Up Pistachio Pudding and Crisp Cantaloupe (inks and cardstock)
Stamps: Stampin' Up Fox and Friends, Chalk Talk, Hobbycraft Clear Stamps Typewriter Alphabet
Cardstock: Stampin' Up Pistachio Pudding and Crisp Cantaloupe, Hobbycraft white 160 gsm cardstock, Kraft card
Other: green ribbon from my stash