For A Loved One (Giraffe with heart)

Heya my dear crafty friends!

Today I would like to share my make for the newest challenge over at Papercraft Challenges with you. The theme is "For a loved one" and I love this cute giraffe by our kind sponsor Bugaboo:

I created a background using a stencil and a light pink Distress Ink and die cut the heart frame to help focus the eyes a bit. The giraffe was coloured with Copic markers and I coloured its hooves and the snout (?) twice so I could create something more 3D:

You can see it a bit better in this picture above. I only added two strips of paper to somehow center the image even more and stamped the greeting a bit below from where I wanted the image to be. I hope you are going to create something "For a loved one" and share it with us in our gallery! Remember you can win a lovely prize from our sponsor as well as making someone you love happy ;o))) Isn't that a win-win? Have a wonderful week everyone and happy crafting, yours Maike

Supplies:
Stamps: "Giraffe Heart" by Bugaboo

              "tba" by Neat and Tangled

Dies: "Heart Frame" by Avery Elle

Stencil: "Polka Hearts" by Create A Smile

Liebe Grüße (Bear greetings)

Hello everyone :o)

It is Febuary already - well it has been for a day, but don't tell anyone, because I am a little late posting this card... I have created it for the "Hearts" challenge over at Challenge Up your Life. I am not a whole lot into Valentine's cards because my loved ones never throw those cards away I give to them - which is lovely and shows appreciation and all that, but they tend to pile up in our home, so I usually give other things for Valentines like a cake or some flowers or hugs ;o) However, I love hearts on cards, so even this is a perfect theme for Valentine's cards I created a "Hello" card and love how it turned out. I hoipe you do, too:

To get a bit of a shadow effect I die cut the hearts beackground die twice, once from white and the second time from dark red cardstock and glued the slightly offset together as you can see in the picture. Next i cut a wonky circle and two speech bubbles from the same red cardstick. I heat embossed my sentiment on the speech bubbles and afterwards added the faux stitching line with a white gel pen.

Next I die cut some copic friendly paper with the bear die, added some colouring and or shading to the individual pieces and assembled the bear back together again. The way I do this is to take the biggest die and colouring around it with a pencil. Next I will cut it out not on the line but rather a quarter inch inside of the line to give myself a piece of paper to glue all the individual pieces to. That way I can cover the big peiece with adhesive and don't have to worry about putting a tiny bit of glue on each and every piece. I adhered the bear to the wonky circle using foam tape on the top and regular tape towards the bottom to give it that angle to really make it look at you and also added the speech bubbles. I hope you are going to join us at Challenge Up Your Life. With the updated rules you can now post three projects to our challenge, sharing even more of your talent with us ;o) Have a wonderful day everyone and happy crafting ;o)
Yours Maike

Supplies:
Stamps: "tba

Dies: "Cool Cuts Speech Bubbles" by Create a Smile

         "Big Picture Book Bear" by Simon Says Stamp

         "Fluttering Hearts Cover Plate" by Honey Bee Stamps

Merry Christmas (Skydiving Santa)

Hello everyone,

let me start today's post with saying "After Christmas is Before Christmas" and I do hope you'll agree. It seems that every year there are less cards in my stash than I would actually like to send, so again I vowed to keep creating Christmas cards all year long. And so here is another one I made and would like to share with you:

I created a slider card for the newest theme "Heat Or Dry Embossing" over at Papercraft Challenges with this super cute skydiving Santa by our kind sponsor Dr. Digis. You could win 2 digis from their online store if your entry numbers wins! Isn't that fun? For my card I started by heat embossing the text backround on to a piece of white cardstock and added the clouds through a stencil after it was cooled down completely.

Next I added the sentiment towards the bottom of the card and figured out how long the slider "tunnel" could be for Santa not to fly too high or land on or over the sentiment. I added a piece of foam tape to the back (around where his head is) and stuck this piece through the "tunnel" I had cut into the embossed paper. From behind I added a coin, so it would have enough weight to move. Have you started on a new Christmas card stash already?

I hope you are going to join us at Papercraft Challenges and I wish you and your loved ones all the best and as always happy crafting, yours Maike ;o)

Supplies:

Stamps: "Skydive Santa" by Dr. Digis

              "Christmas Background" by My Favourite Things

Dies: "Merry Christmas" by My Favourite Things (unfortunately discontinued it seems)

Happy Ho Ho Ho-lidays (Foxes)

Happy New Year everyone ;o)

I hope you had a wonderful start in a new year full of hugs, crafting, joy, all the things you love and health! Let's start with a new card! This is one I created for the new "Snowflakes" theme at Challenge Up Your Life. 

I used these cute foxes from Hello Bluebird and created a lovely wintery scene for them using Distress Inks. I just fell in love with the combination of Shaded Lilac,Blueprint Sketch and Chipped Sapphire. You should definately give it a try. Depending on how much you use of each hue you get a more blue or purple result. I think it is the perfect combination and you will be seeing loads of it... So I do hope you like it, too ;o) I added a few splashes of water and dried them off as and also added a few Opaque White splashes to add this "Snow is falling"-feeling. 

I knew I was going to use the snowflake background paper by Stampin Up which is kept in blue and also turquoise hues, so I added a sentiment stamped in Mint Julep and also used Copics grom the BG family for the scarf of the fox on the left and the present. To set the scene I used the trees on the left which I had blinged up a little and added snowflake die cuts around the foxes, so that one of them cut put its tongue out to catch a snowflake with it. ;o) I hope you like my first card of 2021 and that you are not too tired of holiday cards yet... There will be a few more I should think... ;o)
It would be awesome if you would start this crafty year with us and join us with a "Snowflake" project! Hope to see you again soon! Happy crafting my friends and again a very happy new year,
yours Maike

Supplies:
Stamps: "First Snow" by Hello Bluebird
              "Puffy Holiday Greetings" by Mama Elephant

Dies: "Mini Snowflake dies" by Lawn Fawn
          "Manga Fluffiga Granar" by Gummiapan (Tree Dies)

Challenges:
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "Sparkle and Shine" (Sparkle on trees and gift)
Christmas Craft Creations "Winter Blues"
Sweet Stampers "Anything Goes"
2 Crafty Critter Crazies "January Challenge"
Creative Crafting Uncles "Christmas"
Love To Craft "Anything Goes"
Crafty Galz Creations "Tis the Season"

Joy - 1 layout, 4 different looks

Heya my dear crafty friends!
Only two days left until Christmas :o) I am not in a christmassy mood yet, but I hope that will come once I have sorted out what to cook and what else needs decorating and that kind of thing. Are you always prepared in advance or more like me? Well if you are a little bit like me in that matter maybe you still need some quick Christmas cards? Then this might just be the post for you then.
Creating these three cards...

...went very quickly, because I had made this card first:



and really liked the whole layout with the big sentiment saying "Joy" and also the two stripes at the sides of the patterned paper. As you can see (in the picture above and the following ones) depending on which patterned paper was used the card gets a very different feel.

The patterned paper in combination with the sentiment and the snowy hills are elements of all of these 4 cards. I also added two critters to each card, making sure they at least kind of faced each other and coloured their accessories in a matching or complimenting colour for "their" background colour. When you choose animals like penguins, rabbits or polar foxes they can be coloured quite quickly I think. 

Also I found that by using different elements such as trees or mountains it changes the feel of a  scene a tiny bit, too ;o) Which one is your favourite? I hope that, if you are still in need of some Christmas cards, you will try this layout, because I really liked it. If you do so, I would be thrilled if you could comment here on my blog or tag me on instagram (@maikreations)

Until next time I wish you and your loved ones a happy time, please stay safe and happy crafting,
yours Maike

Supplies:

Stamps: "First Snow" & "Skating Party" by Hello Bluebird

             "Me and my Yeti" by Mama Elephant (perfect for the little elements)

Dies: "Mini Snowflakes Dies" & "Finley's ABCs" by Lawn Fawn

Challenges:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "Christmas Critters"
Animal Friends Challenge "Fox and / or Rabbit"
Send a Smile 4 Kids "Winter Cards 4 Kids"
Sweet Stampin "Last Minute Christmas"
Inkspirational Challenge "Snow"
Stamping Sensations "Anything With Wings" (Penguins)
Sparkles Christmas Challenge "Non-traditional Christmas Colours"
Fezziwigs Festive Frolics "Santa Says Last Minute Makes"
Alphabet Challenge Blog "S is for Snow Scene"
Always Fun Challenges "Christmas"

Merry & Bright (Huge Snowflake)

Hello everyone ;o)

So glad you stopped by! I hope this post finds you well and in good spirits :o) Many lovely people deserve a handmade Christmas hello and so I always need and create loads and loads of Christmas cards!

For this card I used the super cute image of Henry the skating bear and the huge and wonderful snowflake stencil by Create a Smile Stamps. Even though the image is rather small compared with the card size I fell that the big snowflake helps to tie it all together ;o) What do you think? Also it is made rather quickly, because there is only one time-consuming element in form of the Copic coloured bear. However, the card can be created withing 30 minutes I would dare say.

For the snowflake I used Distress Inks in Picked Raspberry and Wilted Violet and created a kind of ombre effect going darker towards the edges. To finish the card off I also added a bunch of sparkling sequins, the sentiment and also - of course - sweet Henry ;o) I hope you like the card! There will be one or two more to be found here until Christmas and I will choose cards that can still be made last minute ;o) Hope you'll stop by and until then I wish you a lovely time, all the best and stay safe! Happy crafting, yours Maike

Supplies:

Stamps: "Henry - skating bear" by Purple Onion Designs
              "Jingle Greetings" by Mama Elephant
Stencil: "Snowflake" by Create a smile Stamps

Challenges:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "Christmas Critters"

Allsorts Challenge "Sparkle and Shine"

Crafty Calendar "Christmas Theme"

Sweet Stampin "Last Minute Christmas"

Cute Card Thursday "Anything Goes"

Fezziwigs Festive Frolics "Santas Says Last Minute Makes"

Modsquat Challenge "Bears"

2 Crafty Critter Crazies "Anything goes Challenge #45"

Snowflakes at Papercraft Challenge

Heya my dear crafty friends,
today I am back with an inspiration card for Papercraft Challenges. Our theme this time is "Snowflakes" and our kind sponsor is Gerda Steiner Designs. That cute snowman image is one of their digis and if you'd also like to work with it or do like their stamps you should definately play along with us this month. Gerda Steiner Designs offers a $15 gift certificate for the winner of this month' challenge. 

This year I really fell for the combination of blue and purple shades for my Christmas and winter themed cards. It transports a frosty feel that I really like, so I coloured the snowman accordingly. For the shading of the snowman I used Copics in BG11 and BG10 to give it a bit of a rounded appearance and more dimension. The patterned papers I used are from Echo Park "Winter Magic"paper pad and I just adore the colours! To tie it all in I used "Shaded Lilac" Distress Ink on the edge of my card base and also coloured a strip of paper which became the sentiment strip. Lastly I added the snowflakes all over the card to help guide the eye a little and added some glitter glue accents using Nuvo Glitter Drops in the clear version "White Blizzard".

I hope you are going to play along with us and share your lovely "Snowflake" makes in our gallery! Have a fantastic day and happy crafting everyone! Yours Maike

Supplies:
Stamps: "Snowman and Birds Digital Stamp" by Gerda Steiner Designs
              "Merry Messages" by Lawn Fawn

Dies: "Rounded Stitched Window" by Reverse Confetti
          "Mini Snowflakes" by Lawn Fawn

Challenges:
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "Let it Snow"
Simon Says Monday Challenge "Ice Cold"
Send a Smile 4 Kids "Winter Cards 4 Kids"
Little Red Wagon "Snow Day"
Crafty Calender Challenge "Christmas Theme"
The Cutie Pie Challenge Blog "White Christmas"
Christmas With The Cuties "Have yourself a merry little christmas"
Sweet Stampers Challenge "Anything Goes"