Feathers and a night sky

Finally Friday! I was going to leave work early, and at 3pm I thought I would just quickly update our weekly sheets to have it all done for Monday, and then of course I found an error, and then it was six pm... At least the Friday traffic had eased up a bit by then! So as soon as I came home I headed to the craft room for a bit of snake cuddles followed by crafting. 

Today's card was inspired by the inspiration image over at Pinterest Inspired Challenge and the colours over at Color Throwdown and the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch. I started by colouring some watercolour paper with my Gansai Tambi's and die cut the sentiment and feathers. I inked up a bit of the Stampin' Up Irresistibly Yours Speciality DSP with black distress ink and die cut it with a Lawn Fawn Puffy Cloud Border die. I need to use more black, I love how it sets off the colours. 

Card: 300 gsm textured card, 190 gsm watercolour paper

Ink and colouring: Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolours, Tim Holtz Black Soot distress ink

Paper: Stampin' Up Irresistibly Yours Speciality DSP

Dies: Stampin' Up Four Feathers, Lawn Fawn Thinking About You border die, Fluffy Cloud border die

Alpaca my scarf

I am so excited my selected bits and bobs from the Lawn Fawn Christmas release arrived just in time for some weekend crafting. I am trying very hard not to fill my craft room too much, but every time Lawn Fawn comes out with a new release I just want every single bit of it. Sigh. Talk about first world problems. But this time they really outdid themselves. There is an alpaca stamp!! Alpacas are so awesome, they are my favourites. A while ago the Culinary Consultant arranged for me to have a day out at an alpaca farm, and I got to see hundreds of alpacas, including a baby that had been born that day. It was amazing, I put a few pictures from my day on my photo blog here. So I put in my pre-order for the alpaca stamp as soon as I saw it, and was very excited to get to play with it.

This card was inspired by a few challenges. First of all, the layout was inspired by the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge and the colours were inspired by Cupcake Inspirations. I'm also linking up with Crimbo Crackers where the theme is Small and Cute, and also with Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge where the theme is 'twas the night before Christmas. Last but not least I'm linking up with the Anything Goes challenge over at Christmas Stampin' All Year Long.

I created the background for my card using Stampin' Up Irresistibly Yours DSP and Tim Hotlz distress inks in Blueprint Sketch, Chipped Sapphire and Black Soot. I created the snowy hills from hammered white paper using Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Dies. I stamped the alpaca and coloured him with Copics and paper pieced his scarf from the new Lawn Fawn Let's Polka In the Dark paper. I stamped the cute sentiment from the stamp set onto green card and heat embossed it in white. Last, I used the new small snowflake dies from Lawn Fawn to create a few ornaments for the corner. Last, I added a band of the same green paper for the background that I used for the alpaca scarf. It's a small card, only 10x10 cm but I think it's a perfect for this wintery scene. And I just love the funny sentiment that comes with this set, and the alpaca is so unbelievably cute in his little scarf. 

Card: White 300 gsm hammered card, white 300 gsm card
Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka In the Dark
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Winter Alpaca
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Tim Holtz distress inks Blueprint Sketch, Chipped Sapphire, Black Soot, Copics
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside borders die, Mini Snowflakes die, Papermania Seafoam White

One last Easter card

It's been the most ordinary Saturday. We are so set in our routines - we wake up, I have a breakfast while catching up on blogs and then craft for a few hours. We set out to the grocery store, and often also pop to the pet store for some food for the scaly babies. When we get back I make something quick and easy for lunch, which we enjoy while watching something random on the TV. Then the Culinary Consultant settles down to "watch" TV, i.e. taking a nap, while I blog or go back to crafting. In fact, my typing may have just woken him up from his nap... Yep, definitely awake now. And soon, it's time to start preparing dinner, and there is some cleaning that needs doing as well, but not before we finish watching Over the Hedge. I love lazy Saturdays!

This is the card I made this morning. There is a really interesting challenge over at Daring Cardmakers this week. It's about visiting the Kool Kitty blog and getting inspired by Nat's gorgeous creations. I always love finding a new blog to follow. So inspired by Nat's style, I created my last Easter card. I was also inspired by the sketch over at Viva la Verve, the colour combo over at Color Throwdown and the Easter-y inspiration photo over at Just Us Girls. I'm also linking up with Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where Anything Goes.

For the background I masked some of the Irresistibly Yours paper with Washi tape, and inked using Bundled Sage ink. I die cut the foreground rectangle using stitched dies and the Lawn Fawn Let's Polka papers. I stamped the bunnies and easter eggs and coloured using Copics. Last, I die cut the "Happy" and stamped part of an Easter sentiment onto the banner.

Card: 300 gsm white card
Paper: Stampin' Up Irresistibly Yours, Lawn Fawn Let's Polka
Stamps: Paper Smooches A Little Lovin, Lawn Fawn Critters from the Past, Personal Impressions Easter Set 1
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink Bundled Stage, Memento Tuxedo Black
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Stampin' Up Hello you dies, Banner punch

Happy Birthday from the black and white herd

I'm trying to eat really healthy this week. For five days, my diet will consist of smoothies, veggie soups and fruit. I'm almost done with day two, and so far I've consumed bunches of berries, several oranges, avocados, spinach, cucumber, mango, nuts, seeds, broccoli, cauliflower... And I have a terrible craving for crisps. And chocolate. Technically a milkshake is like a smoothie, right? I am eyeing the Culinary Consultant's Hagen Daz with an intention to devour. 

To keep me distracted from the fact that it's almost 48 hours since I've had any food that needs chewing, I'm focusing on crafting. It's not often you get a challenge with the theme "Farm animals" so I couldn't resist when this was in fact the theme over at The Friday Mashup. In fact, it's a mashup of "Farm animals" and "Bling". Based on wonderful DT creations, I wasn't the only one who has happy to use their From the herd stamp for this challenge. I decided to do something slightly different, so I coloured it in black and white instead. I also used Irresistibly Yours DSP and inked it using grey inks for the background. For the bling, I used the Hello You die on mirri card for that finishing touch.

I was also inspired by the monochrome challenge over at CASology and the G is for Grey challenge over at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers (I know this wasn't exactly what was meant by the challenge, but it fits the theme in the most innocent of ways). I'm also linking up at The Pink Elephant, Come and Get It Challenges and Creative Card Crew where the theme this week is Birthday and at Top Tip Tuesday where the theme is rubber stamps only.

Card: Coloured 240 gsm black card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, mirri card
Paper: Stampin' Up Irresistibly Yours
Stamps: Stampin' Up From the Herd
Ink: Tsukineko Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black
Colouring: Copics C1, C3, C5
Other: Lawn Fawn die, Stampin' Up Hello you die

Valentine's Flowers

It seems like I haven't been crafting in ages. I made the cards I posted this week last weekend, so I really haven't crafted much at all this week. I think I'm suffering from a bit of the winter blues, I just don't have the energy for anything right now. I just want to bury myself under the duvet with a ton of chocolate and not surface until April.

But admittedly I'm not having as hard a time as my poor Grandma. She turned 90 years last week! But she had to move out of the flat she has lived in for probably the last 50 years or so, and into a small rental studio while there is some major work being done in her own place. She is so unhappy about it, so I thought I would make her a bright and colourful Valentine's day card to cheer her up.

This card is inspired by my latest new toy, the Tim Holtz Distress Marker Spritzer. It's really fun to play with and creates cool air brushed effects. I used it on the Stampin' Up Irresistibly Yours DSP to create the cool background. I stamped the flowers from I Like You and coloured with Blendabilities and cut out using dies. I printed the sentiment (that says Happy Valentine's day in Finnish, although the literal translation is "Happy Friends Day" as Valentine's is called Friend's Day back home, which I like much more) and used the spritzer tool a bit over the sentiment banner. 

The layout for the card was inspired by My Favourite Things sketch challenge and the colours are from this week's Color Throwdown. I'm also linking up at Shopping Our Stash where the theme is "Not your normal paper" (I used the cool paper from Stampin' Up which comes with resist patterns and you can colour it yourself to match your project), at A Creative Need where the theme is "Something New" (my "new" is of course my new Spritzer tool and getting to use it on this card) and at STAMPlorations where the January challenge is stamps and inks.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, Coloured 240 gsm kraft card teal and baby pink, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card

Stamps: Stampin' Up I Love You

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz distress markers Spun Sugar, Picked Raspberry, Peacock Feathers, Stampin' Up Blendabilities Old Olive, Melon Mambo and Coastal Cabana

Paper: Stampin' Up Irresistibly Yours

Other: Tim Holtz Distress Marker Spritz tool, heart border punch, Stampin' Up Labels Collection Framelits

More Unused Schtuff!!

I got my monthly fix of Stampin' Up stuff in the mail today, and there is so much new goodies that I don't even know where to start. I was supposed to clean the kitchen today when I got home from work. I'm sure the mess will still be there tomorrow...

So what is my new stuff all about then? I immediately fell in love with the new Bow Builder punch. Those little bows are just soooo adorable. And easy to put together! 

I also love the Irresistibly Yours DSP. I can't be the only one who never has the right colour DSP. No matter how many packs you buy, you never have a colour combo you would need. I guess it's the same evil force at work that causes the "I have nothing to wear" phenomenon, which strikes me so often. Again, I can't be the only one, right? Anyhow, this new genius DSP is white with some resist patterns on it, so you can colour it, ink it, spritz it or whatever else you can come up with to create a custom colour DSP. The pack comes with several different patterns. You can't buy it, you can only get it as a free Sale-a-bration gift when you order. How cunning of Stampin' Up!!! I will have to stock up on this jewel, so I might just "have" to make another order soon... 

And can I just mention the new Hello You dies? I love them so much. I have wanted to get on the "word die" bandwagon for a while as I love the creations I see out in cyberspace and now I can finally join in on the fun.

This card came together really quickly, all I needed to do was colour the DSP, quickly punch and assemble to bow and die cut the "Happy". The Birthday part is heat embossed in white, and to finish off I added two Candy Dots. The card was inspired by the colour combo over at ShowCASe Your Style. I was also inspired by the theme over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, which is "It's a Guy Thing". I think this would make a great birthday card for that special guy in your life. I am also entering the card in Darnell's NBUS challenge and Addicted to Stamps where the theme is "make your mark" and I coloured the background DSP with markers.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Black card
Stamps: Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler
Ink: Tsukineko Versamark
Colouring: Stampin' Write markers Pear Pizzazz and Pool Party
Paper: Stampin' Up Irresistibly Yours
Other: Bow Builder Punch, Hello You Thinlits, Candy Dots Subtles, Papermania Seafoam White Embossing powder