Ganz liebe Panda Grüße

Heya my dear crafty friends!

I hope you all had a great start to this week! Today I would like to share my inspiration card for the Papercraft Challenges with you. Our theme is "All Critters Great and Small" and our awesome sponsor is Gerda Steiner Designs. You could win a $15 gift certificate to their shop. This is my inspiration card made with one of their lovely digi stamps:

After colouring the panda bear I cut a white piece of paper to the size I wanted, stamped the greeting  and added loads of grey hearts to add a bit more interest to the background piece. Using the same shades of pink I had for the hearts I also coloured a strip of paper to punch the edges and also to die cut the hearts from. 

The hearts help to "break" the design a bit and guide the eyes over the card from the top left to the bottom right. Whenever a card feels too empty I like to add little elements like hearts, stars or dots to it. If you love critters on cards like me I would love to see one or even a few of your projects in our gallery! Have a wonderful rest of the week and happy crafting to all of you ;o)))

PS: About a year ago I made a card with the same digi stamp and the same dies. If you interested in seeing the panda in a slightly different surrounding just click here ;o)

Material / supplies:

Stempel / stamps: "Panda in Love" von Gerda Steiner Designs

Stanzen / dies: "Mini Hearts Set" von Simon Says Stamp 

Punch: EK Success

Challenges:

2 Crafty Critter Crazies #23
Creations in Pink "Anything Goes in Mainly Pink"
Daisy Chain Challenge "Have a Heart"
Make My Monday "Make it Krafty"
Dragonfly Dreams "Include a Heart"
Pile it on "Pink and / or Blue"

Happy Birthday Winter Owl

Heya everyone!

We at Challenge Up Your Life always want to provide inspiration for you, so this time we thought we would challenge you to CASE our Design Team members: Simply choose a card from one of us and use it as inspiration. You can case the layout, the colour pallette, the motive or anything you like really as long as we can recognize how you got inspired. My card was inspired by this fun and cute card made by Silke of KartenKram:

I stamped the owl on a piece of Copic friendly paper and die cut it after colouring. To get the coloured frame I die cut a second slightly larger circle and coloured it with the same shade I had used for the scarf so it would match the image. I added it on to some designer paper and stamped the sentiment on a banner to match Silke's card.

I hope you are going to play along with our "CASE the Designer" challenge and I am looking forward to seeing your projects in our gallery! Have a lovely and sunny weekend, everyone and happy crafting ;o)))

Material / supplies:

Stempel / stamps: "Flora" von Purple Onion Designs

Stanzen / dies: "Stitched Circle Stax" von My Favorite Things 

Patterned Paper: Gummiapan

Challenges:
Seize The Birthday "Anything Birthday Goes"
Cute Card Thursday "Wings"
The Crafty Addincts #57 "Anything Goes" 

Cardz For Gals "Weather - Any Condition"

TA-DAAAAAA ;o)

Hello everyone!

Finally the winter break is over at PINspirational Challenges! Personally I love getting inspiration from a picture. There are colours, motives, shapes and themes to choose from. This time I got the idea for the card's background from the picture. But have a look yourself:

I punched loads of hearts from cardstock in four different colours and used those hearts to embellish the lower part of the card base. I had created a blue ombre beforehand, so that the colours of the hearts could pop off a bit more. 

Using a circle frame and vellum I created a shaker window and filled in some more of the same hearts and added the focal image over top. As a sentiment I used alphabet stickers to spell out Ta-Daa which I felt was perfect for this image, don't you think? I hope you like the card and also our inspiration picture! I'd love to see your card in the PINspirational Challenge gallery! 

Material / supplies: tba

Stempel / stamps: "" von C.C. Designs (retired)
Stanzen / dies: "" von Lawn Fawn
Punch: EKSuccess Heart Punch
Letter Stickers: Create A Smile

Challenges:
Dragonfly Dreams Challenge "Love / Hearts"
Sweet Stampes "Stitching Real or Faux"

Shopping Our Stash "Make Your Mark"
Use Your Stuff "Hearts pink or red"

Sending Love and Hedgehugs

Heya everyone!

Hope you all had a fabulous weekend! The mid of Febuary is quickly approaching and so is Valentine's Day. Keeping that in mind you might not be super surprised that we chose the theme "Love, Love, Love" for our current challenge at the Crafty Cardmakers. This is my take on the theme:

The focus is definately on this cute hedgehog, so I tried to give it a lot of dimension with Copics and the help of a white Gelly Roll Pen.I also created an ombre-background for it using "Picked Raspberry Oxide Ink" and spritzing it with water to give it a bit more interest. After stamping the sentiment I raised the front panel up using foam tape and also added a baker's twine ribbon. That's my card all done ;o)

I hope you like my inspirational card and that you are going to join our challenge at the Crafty Cardmakers. Have a lovely week my crafty friends and happy crafting to you all!!! Maike ;o)

Material / supplies:
Stempel / stamps: "Unmounted Stamp Set 05" von Magda Polakow
                              "Happy Hedgehogs" von My Favorite Things

Stanzen / dies: "Stitched Arch STAX" von My Favorite Things
                        "All Prettied Up" von Mama Elephant

Challenges:

Sweet Stampers Challenge "Stitched Real or Faux"

2 Crafty Critter Crazies Challenge #23
Craft-Dees BowZ Febuary Challenge
Daisy Chain Challenges "Have a Heart"
Sweet Stampin Challenge "Velentines"

Love is in the ... SEA ;o)

Heya everyone!

Today I'd like to share my card for the current challenge at Challenge Up Your Life with you. The theme is "Love is in the air" which I have altered slightly for my card:

 

For this card I created a background using Distress Oxide Inks: Peacock Feathers, Salty Ocean and a bit of Mermaid Lagoon. I die cut a heart from the panel and dry embossed it as well as giving it a darker edge for more interest.

The cute image is from C.C.Designs, but it seems it is discontinued. However I think this card would work with any two fish facing each other, don't you? The sentiment stamp was only partially inked and I added the word "sea" instead of "air".  I hope you like the card and that you are going to join us for this fortnight's challenge ;o))) Have a lovely weekend and happy crafting, yours Maike

Material / supplies:
Stempel / stamps: "Love is in the Air" von Hobbywelt Kreativ
Stanzen / dies: "Heart Frame" & "Wonky Stitches" von Avery Elle
Embossing Folder: "Bubbles" von Taylored Expressions

Challenges:
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "Anything Goes"
Simon Says Monday Challenge "Love is in the Air"
Cards in Envy Challenge "Love"
Pile It On "Land or Water Animal"
Pattie's Creations "Love, Love, Love"

Happy Happy Happy Panda

Heya my dear crafty friends!
Today's card is my inspiration for the new "Texture" challenge at the Crafty Cardmakers. I added texture in lots of ways to this birthday card. Can you spot them?

An easy way to add texture to a card is an embossing folder I find. Because I wanted it to take it up a notch I used Nuvo Embellishment Mousse for the top background which adds a metallic look. Next I created the second background for the back using Distress Oxide Ink. Dripping wate on Distress Inks and drying it with a paper towel would have given some texture on that piece as well, but I decided against it because I wanted the window area to look crisp and clean - compared to the rest at least ;o)

Another way to add texture to a card is dimension, so I created three for this card. The third one being the balloon which I die cut from some "nuvo'ed" paper and added an extry layer of enamel dots. I hope you like the card and that you are going to enter a card with texture to our gallery ;o) Have a wonderful week and happy crafting, yours Maike

A close-up, so you can see the layers and the shine a bit better ;o)

Material / supplies:
Stempel / stamps: "Happy Pandas" von My Favorite Things (discontinued)
                              "Birthday Wishes" von Pink and Main (discontinued)
Stanzen / dies: "Party Balloons" & "Small Stitched Rectangles" von Lawn Fawn
Embossing Folder: "Graphic Impressions -Birthday" von Taylored Expressions

Happy Birthday Polaroid

Heya everyone!

Have you managed to keep away from germs and whatever the plural of virus is? ;o) I hope you did!!! I'd would like to share my card for the "Bright Colours" theme at Papercraft Challenges with you:

When I think of bright colours the colours of the rainbow always come first to my mind... That's why I coloured the sentiment and the stripes on the camera that way ;o) The digi of the fun camera was kindly sponsored by Dr.Digis. I glued it to a stencilled background after colouring it with Copic markers and cutting it out. I lifted the polaroid picture up using a tiny piece of rather flat foam tape, but that was enough to give the impression of that part sticking out from the camera.

For a final touch I added some Nuvo drops around the digi and darkened the edges of my panel a little. I hope you are going to join our "Bright Colours" challenge and hope to see you again soon ;o)Take care of yourself my crafty friends and happy crafting to all of you, yours Maike

Material / supplies:

Stempel / stamps: "Birthday Cheese" von Dr. Digi's House of Stamps

Stanze / die: "Wonky Stitches Elle-Ments" von Avery Elle

Schablone / Stencil: "Concentric Circles" von Create A Smile

 

Challenges:

Allsorts Challenge "Make it masculine"