Be merry (pine trees and Santa)

Heya my dear crafty friends.

I hope you have started well into December. Christmas is just around the corner, so I would love to share a Christmas card with you which I have made as an inspiration for the newest theme "Pine Trees" over at Challenge Up Your Life:

For this card I started with stamping the trees in the back and colouring the sky as well as the trees themselves with Copic markers. I also added a bit of light blue in a hill shape to give the large white space a bit of interest. I think it makes the snow scene look more interesting that way.

Next I stamped and coloured an older but beloved Santa image stamp. It has just the right size to almost fill a card but still leave enough room to fill in whatever you like. I used this image and the two similar ones that also come in the set loads of times. 

Next I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment "be merry" by Lawn Fawn and also cut it out with the matching die. I thought it would be the perfect sentiment for this scene. I hope you are going to join us this month and share your lovely designs with us and the world. Happy crafting everyone and please stay safe! Yours Maike

Supplies:

Stamps: "Here comes Santa Claus" by Sugar Pea Designs

              "Festive Tree Trio" by Purple Onion Designs

              "Winter Big Scripty Words" by Lawn Fawn plus matching die

Die: "Small Stitched Rectangle Stackable Dies" by Lawn Fawn

Challenges:

Simon Wednesday Challenge "Anything Goes"
Bastel-Traum Challenge "Winter"

Creative Craft Cottage "Christmas / Winter"

Sweet Stampers "Christmas"

Warme Grüße (Warm greetings - Walrus)

Heya everyone!
I hope you are enjoying a lovely, lazy, sunny, funny Sunday! Today I am back with an inspiration card for the newest Papercraft Challenges theme. This time we would like to see "Selfmade Backgrounds" in your projects. The DT have so many differents examples to share, you really should risk a peek ;o) This is my piece:

I created a wintery background using the Tambai watercolours and after it had dried completely I embossed the snow flakes over top. For that I used a stencil by Create A Smile and dabbed the Versamark ink pad right over it. Worked like a charm!

I die cut the paper with a scalloped die and also die cut a piece of white felt to represent the snowy ground. The cute walrus is a digi by our kind sponsor Dr. Digis and you could win 2 digis from them if you participate in our challenge. This one is a really great image to colour, because it consists of many large areas and also a walrus had smooth looking skin, so there is no need to create fluffiness which for me makes it a lot easier to colour ;o) I hope you are going to join in the fun and that I will get to see your creation in our gallery! Have a wonderful Sunday and happy crafting,
yours Maike

Supplies:
Stempel: "Cuddly Critters Walrus" by Dr. Digis
Stencil: "Schablone" by Create A Smile (discontinued?)

Hey Gnomie!

Hello everyone ;o)

We have started a new challenge at Challenge Up Your Life on Sunday, but I am a little late posting my card. This time we have a "Colour Challenge" for you and this is our inspiration picture:

I really like the colours, don't you? I think you could easily create a Christmas card with the colour palette but as you can see the image had me inspired as well ;o) Recently I got the gnome themed stamp set by Hello Bluebird and I thought it would be perfect for this challenge. 

I masked the gnome before stamping the first mushroom and also had to mask two of those before getting the result I wanted. The tiny ladybug was far enough away, so I didn't have to mask it. In hindsight I widhed I would have remembered to take the ink off the stamp towards the bottom, so that it would look like they were standing in the grass and not on it if you know what I mean. However, it seems I can never remember this early enough... Is there something you tend to always forget when you are crafting? And time doesn't count ;o)

I hope you are going to join us for this November challenge at Challenge Up Your Life! I would love to see your creation in our gallery! Until then, have a wonderful time and happy crafting, yours Maike ;o)

Supplies: 

Stamps: "Next Door Gnomes" by Hello Bluebird 
Dies "Single Stitch Line Rounded Square Frames" by My Favorite Things (discontinued)

Challenges:
Unicorn Challenge "Anything Goes"

Happy Halloween (cat and dog)

Hello everyone ;o)
this is a sad post to write, even though I really like this card and am quite happy how it turned out. The sad part is that this will be the very last challenge at the Crafty Cardmakers. Our wonderful Lin from the "Twisted Witch" blog has good reasons to step down from coordinating the team and the challenge. However I am really heartbroken that the challenge won't continue. I have met so many lovely and fabulous people and talented crafters through the challenge. I am grateful for having been a part of this team for as long as it lasted and I wish each and everyone just the best of luck, good health and happiness! 
But now onto today's card. This is my inspiration for you for our "Things That Go Bump In The Night" challenge:

I started with the background and used different Distress Inks to create a lighter middle and a darker outside and also stamped a cemetary scene on top of the grassy hill. When in the end that still didn't feel dark enough I went around the panel with "Black Soot" and that really made even the darker, duller colours pop. 

Next I stamped and coloured the two fun images by Simon Says stamp. They are from an older set which is new to me though. They are quite big and I also love the sentiment which is from the same set. That one was stamped and embossed before I added the cat and the dog, but after the background had dried for quite some time. I thought, that the top was a little too bare so I added the spider and her net to the upper left corner and that finished off my card. I hope you like it and I also hope that you will help us leaving blogland with a bang by participating in our last challenge! 

Supplies:

Stamps: "Trick Or Treat" by Simon Says Stamp
Dies: "Cute Cobweb" by Lawn Fawn

Challenges:
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "Layer it Up" (3 layers plus inked layers)
Animal Friends Challenge "Spiders"
Dragonfly Dreams "Spooky and / or Cute"
Sweet Stampin Challenge "Halloween"
Send a Smile 4 Kids "Anything Goes"
My Time to Craft "Halloween or Cats"

Boo to You ;o)

Heya everyone ;o)
Good to see you today for another challenge over at the PINspirational Challenge blog. This is our inspiration picture for you:

I love this picture as inspiration because there is so much to choose from. The theme for once and also all the different elements. I chose the ghosts and also the theme as my inspiration. The ghosts are from a set by Hello Bluebird. Tey were stamped on a piece of vellum and then heat embossed, because I  wanted to have the outline show in white. Next I backed the entire piece of vellum with Stick It! adhesive before I fussy cut them all out. 

Only the things they were holding or wearing were stamped on Copic friendly paper and I coloured them in. I placed the die cut stars from a cover up die by Your Next Stamp on an orange card base, coloured in the stitched lines with a white gel pen and then placed the little ghosts, making sure you could see their eyes. Next I freehanded two little spiders into my design and added the sentiment. I hope you like my card and that you will join us for this challenge. It will be the last on the PINspirational Chalenge blog for a few month, so it would be really nice to have a gallery brimming with fabulous ideas this time. Have a wonderful week and happy crafting my dear friends! Sending you all a virtual hug, yours Maike

Supplies:
Stamps: "Frightful Little Bits" by Hello Bluebird
Dies: "Star Panel Die" by Your Next Stamp

Challenges:
Try It On Tuesdays "Halloween"
Animal Friends Challenge "Spiders"
Make My Monday "Orange as Main Colour"
Dragonfly Dreams "Spooky and or Cute"
Cutie Pie Challenge "Too Cute Too Spook"
Unicorn Challenge "Spooky or Cute"
Crafty Calendar Challenge "Halloween"
My Time To Craft "Halloween or Cats"

Squirrel having a pile of fun

Heya everyone,

so glad to see you here in my little part of Blogland ;o) Today we are starting a new challenge over at Papercraft Challenges. This time the theme is "Autumn Colours" and the winner will get a little surprise in addition to all the fun ;o) This is my take on the theme:

For this card I used the cute images by MFT stamps and started with stamping the pile of leaves on the already prepared background and quickly coloured in all the leaves in different colours and the "inside" of the pile in a dark green. It could either be that the inside of the pile is quite dark or that you can still see some grass underneath all the leaves. 

Next I stamped the squirrel and some extra leaves and coloured them in using my Copic markers again. This time I made sure I had a lot of contrast and depth to what I coloured. After that was done I die cut the frame and stamped the sentiment right next to the edge of the inside of the frame, placed the squirrel where I thought it looked best and then scattered some of the leaves around to make it look like the suirrel had just jumped into the pile of fun ;o) I hope you like the card and that you are going to join us in our "Autumn Colours" gallery. I would love to see what you create! Have a wonderful and cozy Autumn time, stay safe and happy crafting everyone, yours Maike ;o)

Supplies:

Stamps: "Piles of Fun" by My Favourite Things

              "Wonky Scalloped Frames" by Avery Elle

Challenges:

Sweet Stampers Challenge "Autum or Halloween"
Stamping Sensations "Autumn Glory"

Moving Along with the Times "Animals or Birds"

Shopping Our Stash "Happy Fall YÀll"
A Place to Start "Harvest Time - Use Red, Yellow and Green"
Aud Sentiments Challenge "Halloween / Fall Sentiment"

Christmas Tags

Hello my crafty friends,

when October arrives I am usually already in a slight panic about my Christmas cards. So when I saw that the new theme at the Crafty Cardmakers was "Tags" I knew immediately that I wanted to create some Christmas tags:

Usually tags get thrown away after the presents are opened, so I didn't want to put too much time into the tags, but still wanted a nice design. So I went through my dies and found the trees and also these cute birds and the idea for the design was born. 

Using Distress Inks (in Salty Ocean. Blueprint Sketch and Chipped Saphire) I created a background for the tags on a large piece of paper, so that I could get a few tags die cut from that piece.After die cutting the tags I placed the on red cardstock and only leaving a very thin boarder cut around them. Next I punched the hole for the ribbon to go through, though if I'd recreate the tags I would place the hole a bit more towards the top. 

I hope you are going to join us, because I would love to see you "Tag" creation in our gallery! Have a wonderful week and happy crafting, everyone! Stay safe,
yours Maike