One more Valentine's

As you read this, I'm surfing down the information highway at very high speed. Fasten your seatbelts! After a long wait, I no longer have to wait for a minute to upload a photo to the blog. We have left the dark ages! I'm so giddy about this, I want to do a happy dance. I must have scared the poor BT engineer with my high-pitched squeal of "Oh my gosh it's working!!!". You can say he had one happy customer.

Today's card is inspired by the wonderful card over at Time Out where the challenge is to CASE the card. It is also inspired by the colours over at ColourQ which I used to colour the flowers on the tag. I'm also linking up at Make My Monday where the theme is Hearts and Flowers (I don't know if it's cheating, but the small flowers look heart shaped to me), at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the theme is Bright and Beautiful, In(k)spire Me "Valentines", Kitty Bee Aloha Friday Challenge "Valentine's/Love", Polkadoodles Challenge "Flower Power" and Simply Create Too "Valentine".

I stamped the flowers onto the tag in Versamark and heat embossed in white. I used Stampin' Up inks and a watercolour brush to colour the flowers and a marker to draw the faux stitching. I embossed the background and printed the sentiment. I added some pink ribbon from my stash and matted the card onto pink card.

Card: 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Melon Mambo
Stamps: Stampin' Up So Very Grateful
Inks: Tsukineko Versamark, Stampin' Up Blushing Bride, Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie, Real Red, Blushing Bride marker
Other: Cuttlebug script embossing folder, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, pink ribbon from my stash, Scalloped Tag Topper punch

Block stamping technique

I'm glad there has been some challenges around lately encouraging you to try new techniques. It's easy to get stuck in the same old "stamp and colour" routine. Not saying there is anything wrong with it at all, but it's fun to try something different from time to time. Recently I tried the "galaxy technique" which you can see here. And today, inspired by the Just Add Ink challenge I have used the clear block stamping technique. It's pretty much what it says on the tin, you ink up your blocks and use them as stamps. 

For this card, I looked for inspiration from two images that both gave me a very similar feel. The colours for this card are inspired by the image from Just Us Girls - vibrant and warm yellows, oranges and reds. Warm colours are so not my thing, but this is all about challenging yourself (and using those ink pads and cardstock that you don't usually use!!). The roses and blacks were inspired by the image from the Fusion Challenge. The black, shiny glass on the table was my inspiration for the intense black sentiments and for the glitter added to the roses. I also used the sketch from the Fusion challenge for the layout of the card, luckily I had a stamp block which was just the right size.

I inked my clear block using Stampin' Up Summer Starfruit, Pumpkin Pie and Real Red. After inking it generously, I spritzed the block with Perfect Pearls water mist (just mix a bit of Perfect Pearls with water in a spritzing bottle). I stamped off some of the ink onto scrap paper and then stamped onto the card. The Perfect Pearls leave a subtle shine and stamping off some of the ink ensures that you don't just get a solidly coloured square, but a watercolour type effect. I think it's really cool, and it's great to see how it will turn out as the ink just spreads around as it wants. You also get different effects depending on what cardstock you use and how it absorbs the water and the ink, so it's fun to experiment. The background squares need to be completely dry before stamping on the sentiments and roses - a heat gun is an impatient girl's best friend. I used Memento black ink for the roses and sentiments. Lastly I added some stickles to the roses. Quick, clean, simple and very easy with a bit of an artsy feel to it.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Pumpkin Pie card
Stamps: Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler, Inspirations Flowers Clear Stamp set
Ink: Stampin' Up Summer Starfruit, Pumpkin Pie, Real Red, Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black
Other: Tim Holtz Distress stickles Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade, Ranger Ice Stickles Coffee Ice

Fox inspiration

Almost all of my cardmaking efforts lately have focused on preparing for Christmas, so I thought I would take a break from the Christmas cards and see what challenges are out there. It turns out pretty much every single colour challenge at the moment features orange in one form or another, and that's a problem for me as I'm not a big fan. I think in general I don't work very well with fall colours and that's why I have rather focused on the Christmas stuff with lots of reds, greens, gold and glitter. But I just adored the inspiration photo over at ColourQ, so I put together this card using a stamp set that came as a free gift with Papercrafting & Cardmaking magazine a while ago. I used the sketch from My Favourite Things for inspiration. I'm also entering the Crafty Creations challenge where this week the challenge is to use orange. Last but not least I'm linking up at the Pink Elephant Challenge where anything goes this week.

Card: Craft UK kraft card, coloured 240 gsm kraft card Chocolate Brown, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamps: Oscar the owl & pals(free with an old issue of Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine)
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip, Stampin' Up markers in Chocolate Chip, Pacific Point, Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive
Paper: Stampin' Up Summer Smooches
Other: Xcut scalloped circles die, Stampin' Up Sycamore Street Designer Buttons, baker's twine from my stash

Indian summer or early fall?

This week the colours over at Color Throwdown are summery, but in my mind the yellow and orange bring a feeling of the upcoming fall. And looking out the window, that's exactly what it looks like. Leaves are starting to turn just slightly yellow, and evenings are getting dark although the days are still sunny and warm. It's so hard to give up the thought of summer, with dark and cold mornings to come. I guess it mirrors other things that are going on in our life currently, it was warm and carefree and happy and all of a sudden things have switched around and it's no longer all joy and laughter. But all you can do is have faith that just as the fall turns to winter and then slowly back to spring again, life will slowly turn around and get better.

And in the meanwhile, there is always crafting to bring those bright colours back into a drab life! The other inspiration for this card was the Mojo Monday sketch which should be quite evident from the card. Last but not least, I was inspired by the Indian Summer theme over at Make My Monday and wanted to use one of my favourite flower stamp sets, Petal Parade for a feeling of summer and sunshine.

I also stamped inside the card and on the envelope

Cardstock: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Melon Mambo and Pumpkin Pie cardstock, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card

Paper: Stampin' Up Pattern Stack - Brights collection

Stamps: Stampin' Up Petal Parade, Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler

Inks: Stampin' Up Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo and Pumpkin Pie

Other: Stampin' Up Sizzix Big Shot Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, basic adhesive gems

Floral Celebration

Looks like my lil' old mojo came back for a short visit this morning, and I finally managed to finish my card for this week's Fusion challenge, which I have been attempting for days, only producing things that went right into the bin. But this morning I managed to put this card together. Not my best one, but good enough for public scrutiny. I'm also entering this week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where anything goes this week.

I adore the Penny Black Life's Messages stamp set I used for the sentiment. It is one of those stamps that I just had to have when I saw it, and it did involve quite an intricate hunt over the interwebs before I managed to secure it. I love to use it for scrapbooking (see here) and I have used it on some faux chalkboard cards (see here). It's just so versatile. The little star in the sketch immediately became a flower in my mind, and I even managed to use up the green leaves I had coloured in when I was testing some markers the other day. It's always great to get rid of things in your stash, isn't it!

Cardstock: Cream linen textured card from my stash, Hobbycraft 160 gsm cream card
Paper: Stampin' Up Patterns Stack Brights and Polka dot parade DSP
Stamps: Penny Black Life's Messages, Stampin' Up Flower Shop, Petite Petals and Mixed Bunch
Inks: Stampin' Up Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie and Regal Rose
Other: Lace from my stash, Stampin' Up Basic Pearls, matching punches for the flower stamps

Thank you cards with Mixed Bunch

Browsing through some old card photos I realised I never blogged about these wee little ones. In fact, I found quite a lot of cards I didn't even remember making! So I will try to get around to blogging about them at some point. This whole card thing is getting out of hand, I love making them but I hardly send any cards. So I have dozens and dozens... I keep thinking I should try to sell them, not so much to make money but mostly just to cover my expenses and most of all, just get rid of them!

These little colourful monochrome cards were created because my Mum needed a bunch of thank you cards (hence Kiitos - thank you in Finnish). I didn't want to make anything too complicated as I needed to make ten of them. I thought something bright and colourful is always appreciated. Stamping and punching the flowers was a quick job, as was stamping and fussy cutting the Chalk talk tags (this was back in the day before I had bought the dies). The most time consuming part was stamping the sentence using alphabet stamps as I don't have a Finnish thank you stamp. I bling-ed it up with a bit of ice stickles around the edges of the sentiments as well as in the middle of the flowers and finished off with a small adhesive gem.

Cardstock: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake, Melon Mambo, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Rich Razzleberry and Tempting Turquoise, Hobbycraft white 160 gsm cardstock
Inks: Stampin' Up Melon Mambo, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Rich Razzleberry and Tempting Turquoise
Stamps: Stampin' Up Chalk Talk and Mixed Bunch, Hobbycraft Clear Stamps Typewriter Alphabet
Other: Stampin' Up Blossom Punch, Rangers Ice Stickles glitter glue, Stampin' Up adhesive gems