A little bit of sunshine is just what we need!

How are you? Sorry I haven't been around. Don't even get me started. It's been insane. I keep thinking that the job will ease up as soon as we get through x. But then there is y. And no matter how much we think that will be the last level of craziness then there is z and it's five best friends sneaking up on us around the corner. Sigh.

I did manage to squeeze in a little bit of crafty time the other day, but it's like going back to the gym, the first time is a complete disaster. I did manage to do an intervention to save today's card from joining it's friends in the bin by applying a bit of banner magic. As we haven't seen the sun for ages, I thought a bright yellow card would light up the day a bit. I used the spritzer tool on the background card, and splattered some watercolour as well, although it doesn't show very well on the photo.

I'm linking up with the following challenges:
Shopping Our Stash - Dreaming of something warm
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Ray of Sunshine
Time Out - Love is the flower you've got to let grow
Addicted to CAS - Bloom
Allsorts Challenge - Clean and Simple
Cardz 4 Galz - Fantastic Florals
Hiding In My Craft Room - No red or pink

Card: 300 gsm white card, 190 gsm watercolour card, scrap of Stampin' Up Old Olive card
Ink: Tsukineko Staz-on Jet Black, Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Inks Fossilized Amber, Mustard Seed, Shabby Shutters, Spized Marmalade and Squeezed Lemonade
Stamps: STAMPlorations Bloom Sketches
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

More pastel Easter

Looks like my theme for this year's Easter cards are pastel colours and Distress ink backgrounds. For Grandma's card, I used an adorable Easter digi from Bugaboo stamps, which I coloured with Copics. I created the background by embossing resist, I stamped the ornate Easter egg and heat embossed with clear powder before inking with just three colours, yellow, turquoise and pink. Where the colours overlap they create such wonderful, vibrant greens, purples and oranges as well, so it looks like there was much more colours used. This is such a great tip especially if you are new to crafting and haven't built up a big stash yet, by choosing smartly you can get so much more out of your stash. I die cut the image and background vellum using Lawn Fawn dies, and printed the sentiment as I have a very limited supply of Finnish sentiments (my Grandma doesn't speak a word of any other language than Finnish). 

The card was inspired by the sketch over at STAMPlorations. I was also inspired by the wonderful inspiration board over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge. I'm also playing along with the Catch the Bug March Bingo Challenge (my Bingo is Spring/Easter Image, Player's Choice = vellum and Die Cut), Addicted to Stamps where Anything Goes, Just Add Ink "Eggs or Ovals", Shopping Our Stash "Make your own background" and Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers "E is for Easter".

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Inspiration Board

Card: 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum
Stamps: Personal Impressions Easter Set 1, Bugaboo Scene It Easter
Colouring: Copics of many colours (I might have forgotten to make a note of which ones I used, but it was pretty much all Copics I own)
Ink: Tsukineko Versamark, Tim Holtz disterss ink Peacock Feathers, Picked Raspberry, Squeezed Lemonade
Other: Ranger Super Fine Detail Embossing Powder, Lawn Fawn Stitched Journal card die, Stitched Rectangle dies

Butterfly bonanza

This set of birthday card and home-made wrapping paper were all made to match. I saw the tutorial on how to make the flowers using the Stampin' Up blossom punch here and wanted to give it a try. In addition, I had a few swallowtails I had stamped, embossed and coloured earlier. The swallowtail works so well in every card I have made with it, it brings that extra something. I love colouring the stamp, this time I did it by sponging distress ink. I embossed the background for the card using a Cuttlebug embossing folder

To make the wrapping paper, I stamped a big and smaller swallowtail stamp and stamped using Tim Holtz Distress Embossing ink and dusted with Perfect Pearls powder onto basic brown wrapping paper. This gives such a beautiful, subtle effect. The pictures really don't do it justice as the shiny powder doesn't quite show up on photos as beautifully as it does in real life. Also, to get the best result, you should only stamp one stamp at a time, add the perfect pearls and then go on to stamping the next stamp. If you stamp all the butterflies and then start adding the powder, the ink will have dried and the powder won't stick anymore.

To further snazz up the wrapped present, I added two yellow ribbons from my stash and stamped the Chalk Talk stamp and fussycut it. I also inked a doily and attached another swallowtail I had coloured. 

I would like to enter the following challenges: 

Party Time Tuesdays - Anything Goes

Bunny Zoe's Crafts - For the Girls

Incy Vincy Designs - Punch or Die Cut (flower punch for the flower)

My Craft Creations - Anything Goes

Perfectly Rustics Design Challenge - Wings

Through the Purple Haze - Flowers

Vintage Stamping Challenge - Bring on those Spring Colours

Stamping Sensations - Anything Goes

Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge Blog - Anything Goes with a twist: wings

Crafty Calendar Challenge - Anything Goes 

Cardstock: Hobbycraft three shades of yellow 160 gsm cardstock, Hobbycraft white 160 gsm cardstock, Craft UK kraft card
Inks: Tim Holtz Peacock Feathers, Pumice Stone, Shaded Lilac and Squeezed Lemonade, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain distress inks, Stampin' Up Markers in Bright colours
Stamps: Stampin' Up Swallowtail and Chalk Talk, Hobbycraft Butterfly clear stamp, Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Sketch CMS131
Other: Cuttlebug embossing folder textured script, Ranger Perfect Pearls in Interference Blue, Interference Green, Interference Red and Interference Violet, Papermania tinsel silver embossing powder, Stampin' Up Blossom Punch, doily and yellow ribbon from my stash, brown kraft wrapping paper

Roaring savanna sunset

I love the Lawn Fawn stamp sets, one day I will have them all. I increased my collection from 1 set (Critters Ever After) to two after I received the aaahh so cute Critters on the Savanna set. There is so much you can do with these cute little guys, but this time I was inspired by three challenges. First of all, I saw the savanna sunset in this week's Freshly Made Sketches sketch (below). Also, I saw the savanna sunset colours in this weeks Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge which is themed Not So Mellow Yellow. Indeed, not very mellow, with that big roaring cat sitting there in the middle of it all! And third, this week's Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge is Anything goes but with the amazing and inspiring DT using Lawn Fawn stamps, I felt like I should join in the fun.

I started with creating the sunset using Tim Holtz distress inks, ink blending tools and masks. I then stamped the critters in black ink and fussycut using scissors. They were sponged with Black Soot ink enough so that they would look like shadows against the sunset, but still showing those cute details through the ink. For the sentiment, I used a scrap piece from my stash that I have created earlier using Tim Holtz distress paints onto watercolour paper. I attached the sentiment onto my block in a wavy pattern. Lastly, I stamped some grass in black onto the savanna, and adhered everything into place and onto yellow carstock. I have to admit, I'm a teeny weeny bit proud of the colours of the sunset, I absolutely love playing with the distress inks. The way they layer, blend and make such a lively and vivid result is just amazing. And it's fun to get your hands literally dirty too!

Card: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White Card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white cardstock, Daler&Rowney 190 gsm watercolour paper, Stampin' Up Daffodil Delight cardstock
Inks: Hobbycraft black pigment ink, Tim Holtz distress inks in Aged Mahogany, Black Soot, Fired Brick, Spiced Marmelade, Squeezed Lemonade and Wild Honey
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Critters of the Savanna

Andy Warhowl

Today's card is inspired by the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge. This week's theme is Let's have a laugh. The Simon Says Stamp Design Team presented such cute cards using Paper Smooches stamps. I don't have any Paper Smooches stamps although I would love to get some. But right now, as I recently invested in a Big Shot I won't be buying more stamps anytime soon. Well, I guess I will, but not quickly enough for this challenge. I do have some stamp sets with cute animals so I thought I might be able to make something funny with those. I decided to make a Andy Warhol inspired card using the cute owl from the Stampin' Up Animal Stories stamp set. The card is quite simple, but I think it turned out all right.

I started by dividing a 12x12 cm piece of white cardstock into a 3x3 grid. I stamped the owls in Distress Embossing ink and heat embossed using clear embossing powder, using a Stamp-a-ma-jig to place the stamps. The using scrap paper to mask every square, I used ink blending foam to colour the background using Tim's Squeezed Lemonade, Salty ocean and Picked raspberry distress inks. I used a grey Sharpie to draw lines between the different colours. I left the middle square empty, and printed the sentiment onto yellow Hobbycraft cardstock. The font is a free one called Always in My Heart which I downloaded from a free font repository here. I die cut (of course!) the sentiment using the Chalk Talk dies, inked around the edges with Squeezed Lemonade and very lightly with Picked Raspberry and attached two adhesive gems. Last, I matted the owls onto yellow, pink and blue cardstock and attached to Kraft card.

Inks: Tim Holtz distress embossing ink, Squeezed Lemonade, Salty Ocean and Picked Raspberry Distress Inks
Stamps: Stampin' Up Animal Stories owl
Cardstock: Hobbycraft white 160 gsm cardstock, blue and yellow cardstock from the Hobbycraft 3 Shades of Yellow and 3 Shades of Blue 160 gsm cardstock, pink cardstock from the Papermania Sizzling Red Hot collection
Other: Ranger super fine detail embossing powder, Stampin' Up Chalk Talk dies, Sizzix big shot, Papermania Capsule Sunshine adhesive gems