Calla lily shaker card

Happy Saturday everyone! I have to admit I slept in this morning. I can't remember the last time I would have slept until 8am, but my body and mind clearly needed it after a crazy week. After pottering around and being useless for the morning, I tackled one of those annoying things on the to-do list - I cleaned out my kitchen cupboards. It's nice to have an idea of what we have in the kitchen, and plan around using up things. But you would not believe the amount of jam we have in this house. Which is highly ironic as we don't really use that much jam at all, and if we do use any, we will use our home-made jam. How we have managed to accumulate a collection of almost a dozen jars of store-bought jam is beyond me! I am planning on getting all of our pantry foods logged onto an app, so whenever I'm in the store I can check what we have and what we don't have . The problem is that the existing apps don't seem very good, and the databased lack a lot of barcodes particularly in the UK. If you are using an app to track your pantry or fridge, let me know what you use and if it works for you!

Today's card is a shaker card I made using Stampin' Up Remarkable you stamps and the Lawn Fawn stitched rectangle frame dies. I started with watercolour paper and Distress inks and created the background. I stamped the lilies on another sheet of watercolour paper, heat embossed them in white and watercoloured with Distress inks. Then I die cut the stitched frame in white card, and another frame from an adhesive foam pad to create the shaker. Last, I added the sequins and beads, attached acetate to the shaker, added the frame and last I added the flowers which I had fussy cut. 

I would like to link up with the following challenges:

House of Cards - Clear papers (use vellum or acetate)

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Emboss It

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Flowers

Craft Rocket Challenge - Flower Power

Ruby's Rainbow Challenges - Use a transparent element (used acetate for the shaker)

Card: 300 gsm watercolour paper, white card, acetate

Stamps: Stampin' Up Remarkable You, sentiment is a wood mounted stamp from my stash

Ink: Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress inks Dusty Concord, Fossilized Amber,  Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves, Spun Sugar, Twisted Citron, Victorian Velvet and Wilted Violet

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched rectangle frame die, adhesive foam sheet, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, sequins and beads from my stash

More Lilies for Easter

Finally we are coming to the end of my series of Easter cards using the Stampin' Up stamp set Remarkable You and watercolours. The two other cards I made are here and here. It's funny that I ended up making so many Easter cards as I usually don't send any at all. Oh well, I guess as carmakers we take any opportunity we get, right?

I started by stamping onto watercolour paper, then colouring with Tim Holtz distress markers and a watercolour brush, using light colours only wanting to enhance the image a little but not overwhelm the simple beauty of the strong lines of the flowers. I did make a bit of boo-boo with my colouring, but I'm just saying it makes the flowers unique and with a hand-made look. It was deliberate, I'm sure. I die cut the panel, and die cut the happy for the sentiment from a leftover scrap of card I coloured with Distress Paints for some other project which never got made. Last, I stamped the second part of the sentiment from a Lawn Fawn set and added a few adhesive gems for that final little extra touch.

I'm linking up with the following challenges:
Amusing Challenges - Easter
Glitter N' Sparkle - Anything Goes
Allsorts - Easter
Sweet Stampin' - Easter
Addicted to CAS - Delicate
Crafty Cardmakers - Easter

Card: 250 gsm white card, 300 gsm watercolour paper, a scrap of watercolour card I coloured with Tim Holtz distress paints
Stamps: Stampin' Up Remarkable You, Lawn Fawn Happy Everything
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Markers Fossilized Amber, Mowed Lawn, Tumbled Glass, Twisted Citron and Weathered Wood
Other: Stampin' Up Hello You dies, Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies

Another Easter watercolour card

Happy Saturday, peeps!! I can't believe it's been a week since I have spent any time in the craft room. Well, technically that's not true, I spent quite a bit of time in the craft room both Wednesday and Thursday evening but that time was spent assembling flat pack furniture, not doing any crafting. I have finally executed part B of the great craft room plan and bough myself a new desk. Those chests of drawers took some assembling, and very annoyingly one screw was missing from one of the flat packs. However, very luckily my Culinary Consultant discovered that one of the screws in my old desk which I was taking apart to make room for the new desk had a screw that was just the right size, so I was able to finish my building frenzy and now have a luxuriously large crafting table. And just look at all that storage space in the drawers, I can have so much more stuff right at the tip of my fingers while crafting! Sadly it still looks quite desolate, but in time I'm sure that will change.

Today I'm showing you my second Easter card in my watercolour Easter card series I made using Stampin' Up Remarkable You - the first one with Calla lilies is here. I simply stamped the flower in Staz-On Jet Black Ink and coloured with my Gansai Tambi watercolours, adding some glitter with a Wink of Stella pen. Last, I stamped the sentiment using Lawn Fawn Violet's ABC. Perfect one layer card for sending (I have learned that it's very expensive to add embellishments on cards going abroad - just one rhinestone can push it past the limit of maximum thickness and all of a sudden the postage goes up 50%).

I'm linking up with the following challenges:
Just Add Ink - Just add E (Easter)
The Card Concept - Inspiration Image (I chose to go with the Pink and the Eater theme, but also the blue around the flower is inspired by the straw around the eggs in the basket)
The Friday Mashup - This time I chose to only go with the Easter theme, and I'm also very sad to see that this is the last ever Friday Mashup so thank you for all the inspiration over the years!
Brown Sugar - Spring
In The Pink - Spring flowers in pink 

Card: 300 gsm white textured card
Stamps: Stampin' Up Remarkable You, Lawn Fawn Violet's ABC
Ink: Tsukineko Staz-On Jet Black and Memento Tuxedo Black, colouring with Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolours
Other: Wink of Stella pen

Easter Calla lilies

I was working out in the greenhouse on the weekend, and after turning the soil over for about a minute, I was sweating all over. That is a clear sign that spring must be on it's way. It was lovely to feel the sun, even though it was only warm inside the greenhouse - outside I still had to put my jacket back on. But it was lovely to enjoy a bright and sunny day, and I think my cheeks caught a few rays of sun as well, they feel nice and warm. 

Another thing that's quickly speeding towards us is the chocoholic holiday that is elsewhere known as Easter. I'm not big on sending Easter cards, but happy to use the excuse to create some flower themed cards. This particular one has a greeting in Finnish, so you will just have to take my word for it, but I promise it says Happy Easter in Finnish. I used the lovely Calla lilies from Stampin' Up set Remarkable You and coloured with my Gansai Tambi watercolours. All stamped and coloured in one single layer using nothing but two stamp sets and watercolours. It doesn't get much more clean and simple that that.

I'm linking up with the following challenges:

AAA Challenges - Easter

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Add a Little Bit O'Green

Allsorts - Spring is in the Air

My Time to Craft - Flowers 

Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge - Anything Goes with twist Easter

The Artistic Stamper Creative Challenge - Springtime

Card: 300 gsm watercolour card

Stamps: Stampin' Up Remarkable You, Lawn Fawn Violet's ABC

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Staz-On Jet Black and Memento Tuxedo Black, Gansai Tambi watercolours

Happy Mother's Day

Still no cleaning in the InvisiblePinkHouse, but I did make another card! I entertained myself yesterday by making a palette of my watercolour pencils, and so I thought why not make a card with the pencils as well as I've got them out. After a trip to Tesco yesterday I was reminded that UK Mother's Day is coming sometime soon as there was a whole isle full of pink cards, chocolates and champagne. I can never remember when Mother's Day is celebrated here in the UK, as Finnish Mother's day coincides with US Mother's day in May. Which makes much more sense, as Easter is usually in March and you already get all the chocolate bunnies and eggs, so it makes more sense to try and sell chocolate to people in May instead of the same month as the main annual chocolate celebration. Oh well, that's just my five cents.

Anyhow, I was asked to make a card for my mother unlaw (well, since we aren't married she isn't my mother in law, but almost, so why not unlaw...). I wanted a nice image with lots of space for doing some nice colouring. My card was inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch and the colour combo over at Color Throwdown. I'm also linking up with Crafty Friends Challenge where the theme is Floral, Sweet Stampin' where the theme is Mother's Day, The Pencil Case where the theme is New Blooms/Spring Flowers and Fantasy Stampers where Mums Rule.

Card: 300 gsm textured card, scrap of kraft card

Stamps: Stampin' Up Remarkable You, Lawn Fawn Happy Everything

Ink: Tsukineko Staz-On Jet Black, Stampin' Up Sahara Sand 

Colouring: Faber Castell Albrech Dürer watercolour pencils

Other: Stampin Up Hello You die, Wink Of Stella pen