Frohe Ostern - Bunny with Easter basket

Heya everyone,

this is my inspiration card for our "Easter" challenge at the Crafty Cardmakers.

It is made with images by Gerda Steiner Designs and some lovely Lawn Fawn paper. I used a sketch I had put into my sketch book a while ago and love the result - especially with these light colours. I hope you like my inspiration card too and that you will join us for our current challenge. I feel that in the current situations handmade greeting cards are even more valuable than usual as they give a personal touch - so join me in sending out as many as you can ;o)))) Happy crafting and take care everyone ;o)

Kroküsse in pink

Heya everyone,

over at Challenge Up Your Life we would like to bring spring into your craft rooms by making the next challenge a "Focus on Flowers" one. If you know my blog you might know that I tend to use animals as my focal image 98% of the time - if not more so this was a real challenge for me. I love the flower images by Create A Smile, so I looked through them and found these crocus-images which I love so I decided to go with them and then I let myself be inspired by a wonderful Christmas card I got from Karolin. (You should definately hop on over to her instagram account, she makes such amazing cards!)

For the background I used the Cosmic Shimmer Metallic Gilding Polish in Lush Pink which really gives a wonderful rich colour and a lot of shine! (You can see it clearly in the first picture.) I placed the stamped and Copic coloured flowers on top taking my time to arrange the blooms and before glueing them down for good I also stamped the sentiment. The last thing to add was some Nuvo drops and my card was done. I hope you like it and that you are going to share your flowery projects with us in our gallery! Remember, you do have time until the 27th of April to do so and we would love to see what you come up with.

Have a wonderful month of April, take care of yourself and your loved ones and happy crafting ;o))) Yours Maike

Supplies:
Stamps: "Kroküsse (Deutsch)" or "Crokisses (English)" by Create a Smile Stamps

Challenges:

Simon Says Stamp "Spring Mood Board"
Basteltraum "Frühling / Spring"
Try It On Tuesday "Beauty of Nature"
Pink Creations "Anything Goes in Mainly Pink"
Scribbles Design Challenge "In Bloom"
Creative Craft Cottage "For The Girls"

Hey chick

Hello everyone,

today I am back with a new card for PINspirational Challenges. When I think of spring I think of flowers, bunnies and chicks and decided to use the latter for my card ;o) This is our inspiration picture for you for the coming fortnight:

I loved colouring the cute images by Purple Onion Designs and creating this scene. The background was created quickly using watercolour markers in two shades of each colour. I added a few dots using the colour I had used for the roof of the hen house to create the illusion of flowers in the grass. For the scene panel I chose to go with a cross-stitch edge and also added a yellow panel to pull it all together. I love these happy images and hope you like the card, too and that you are going to join us with a spring-creation of your own ;o) Please take care and happy crafting, Maike

Supplies:

Stamps: "Hen House", "Hay Bale", "Flo, Mo & Bo (3 chicks)"& "Eloise (hen)"

              by Purple Onion Designs

Dies: "Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables" by Lawn Fawn

          "Cross Stitch Frame" by My Favorite Things (retired)

Challenges:

Use Your Stuff "Spring"
A perfect time to craft "Anything Goes"
Creatalicious Challenges "Anything Goes with option Layer it up"
Dies R Us "Things With Wings"
The Crafter's Cafe "Animals"

Sending Smiles - turtle

Hello everyone!

In these crazy times I quite like that making a card still fills me with the same joy and calm, so I am very happy to share a new card with you today:

I made it as an inspiration card for our newest challenge over at the Crafty Cardmakers. The theme this time is "Spring" and I love to see all the bees and butterflies coming back to our garden, so I thought I would use this cute image by Gerda Steiner Designs. 

I die cut a somewhat flower-shape from the patterned paper I had chosen and also die cut a frame to go around that opening. Next I heat-embossed some butterflies on a light blue piece of paper and glued that on a the front of a card base. I place the tortoise on a strip of paper on which I had stamped the greeting and then adhered averything on top of the blue piece with foam tape. Three tiny butterflies in a deeper shade of pink were added as an afterthought to give a bit more interest to the background. I hope you are going to join us in our challenge and create something that makes your heart smile! Please take care and happy crafting, Maike

Supplies:

Stamps: "Hello Friend Tortoise" by Gerda Steiner Designs

              "Butterfly Ink Splatter" by Your Next

Challenges:

Sweet Stampers "Easter or Spring"

Addicted to Stamps and more "Anything Goes"

2 Crafty Critter Crazies "Animals"

Crafter's Cafe Challenge Blog "Animals"

Daisy Chain Challenges "Use Dies"

Birthday cake in pastell colours

Hello my crafty friends!

It's the middle of the month so we do have a new challenge for you at Papercraft Challenges ;o) This time our theme for you ist "Pastell Colours" and this is my inspiration card for you:

You (might) know I love rainbows and so when I saw this cake digi stamp by our kind sponsor Dr. Digi I thought it would look wonderful in soft colours. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't mind a cirthday cake like this ;o))) I used Copics to colour the image that I had printed as a watermark version to get very light lines. That simply worked better for me when I thought about a soft look. 

When the image was coloured I chose a patterned paper to match the image and cut it to the size of my card front. I then die cut the frame from it which I have raised with three additional frames in white beneath it. Next I added some Nuvo drops to the card and the sentiment which I had die cut from black paper to make it stand out. For me it didn't look finished only having the black sentiment so I also added the three black stars to tie it all together. Do you like soft colours on a card? I would love for you to try it and share your result in our gallery ;o) Have a wonderful rest of March with lots of sunshine, cake and crafting time! Take care and happy crafting, yours Maike

Supplies:

Stamp: "Cake and Candles" by Dr. Digi 

Dies: "Wonky Scalloped Frames Elle-Ments" by Avery Elle

          "Handlettered Happy Birthday Wafer Die" by Simon Says Stamp

Challenges:

Rainbow beans

Heya everyone!

I hope you are all well and also feeling creative, because our newest challenge at PINspirational Challenges brings with is a rainbow full of inspiration! This below is our current inspiration picture and I think that you can find loads of ideas for cards in it. I used the (almost) rainbow colours as my starting point and used the glass idea as well as you can see above ;o)

When I looked through my paper stash I came across the striped rainbow coloured one by LAwn Fawn and thought it would be perfect as a backdrop for my card. Next step was to find a good stamp and I feel like the "How You Bean" set as well by Lawn Fawn was indeed perfect for what I had invisioned. I stamped the glass, added the beans inside and stamped out some extra beans for extra interest. I coloured them with Copics  in the four colours from the inspiration picture and cut them out. 

Next I die cut a banner piece from a white piece of cardstock, stamped the first part of the greeting between the holes and glued the jelly beans on there as well. Lastly I added some string and glued everything to the front of the card. After a load of glitter added to the glass I called the front done ;o) Inside I added the label saying "Happy Birthday" and finished it off with some more beans. I hope you are as excited as I was about the wonderful inspiration of this PINspirational Challenge! See you soon and happy crafting my friends! Take care! Maike ;o)

Stamps: "How You Bean" by Lawn Fawn

Dies: "Stitched Party Banners" by Lawn Fawn

          "Wonky Stitches Elle-Ments" by Avery Elle

Challenges:

Just Add Ink "Add a Rainbow"

The Paper Girls "Glitter"

2 Sisters On The Blog "Dots or Stripes"

Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper *March* Challenge

Have a purrfect day (Cats)

Heya all!

So glad you stopped by today, because it is time for a new challenge at the Crafty Cardmakers ;o) Our "Green" challenge is a kind of tradition already. It is a theme that always gets me to think a lot about my stash and how I could make a card interesting with such a limited colour palette. This is what I made for this years challenge:

I decided to go for cats that are playing in the garden. That gave me the chance to add many different shades of green and also have the cats look different but still keeping to white and grey. Unfortunately the cat images by My Favorite Things I used for my card seem to be discontinued. I hope you are going to join us in our "Green" challenge. Have you played along with one or more of the previous ones? I would love to hear if this is a challenging theme for you as well and how you go about creating it.
Well, have a wonderful week, take care and happy crafting! Yours Maike

Supplies:

Stamps: "I knead you" by My Favorite Stamps (discontinued, but still availabe here)

Dies: "Meadow Borders" by Lawn Fawn

          "Essential Cover Up" by My Favorite Stamps (also discontinued)

Challenges:

Di's Digi Challenge "Show some green"

Inkspirational "Animal"

Color My Heart Color Dare "Grey plus 2 colours"

Creative Knockouts "Lots of Layers"

The House That Stamps Built "Rain, Cats or Dogs"

Crafty Friends Challenge "Animals / Birds"