Aloha friends

Heya my dear crafty friends!

Great to see you today ;o) Can you believe it is August already??? July somehow just flew by in a blink of an eye... Well, the beginning of a new month always means that there is a new challenge at Challenge Up Your Life. This time it is "Faraway Contries" and at first I was really stuck, but then I looked through my stash and found the Hoola-girl by MFT and thought that she would be just perfect. So here she is:

Making this card was bitter-sweet, because travelling is not an option for me right now with Covid19 going on and I really miss it. However, I really like the Hawaiian feel of the card, the sand and the palm-trees and it made me miss the beach a tiny bit less. ;o) I started this card by stamping the palm trees using the masking technique and next I added the "sand" using Distress Ink. After drawing in the sandy hill I cut away everything that wasn't needed and was left with a beautiful beach scene. 

I added the cloud patterned paper behind it and also matted it with a rainbow coloured paper to match the skirt of my hoola-girl. I had coloured her with Copic markers (for her skin tone I used E17, E13 and E11) and when it came to making the decision about the colour of her skirt I didn't want to use green, yellow or brown (which for me would have been the obvious choices) I could deice on just one colour and went with all of them ;o) For her hair I used markers from the E40ies and also a Y21 to give the hair a yellowish undertone. I hope you are going to join us and create a layout or card or whatever that reminds you of a "Faraway Contry" that you have visited or would like to visit ;o) Stay safe and happy crafting everyone ;o)) Hugs, Maike

Supplies:

Stamps: "Polynesian Paradise" by My Favorite Things (unfortunately discontinued) 

Die: "Stitched Rectangle Stackables" by Lawn Fawn

Challenges

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "Anything Goes"

Alphabet Challenge "I is for Island Fun" (ends 13.08.)

Colour Crazies Challenge "Anything Goes" (ends 15.08.)

Double D Challenges "Let's Go To The Beach" (end 03.08.)

Sisterhood of Crafters "Anything Ocean or Beachy" (ends 10.08.)

Try It On Tuesdays "Summertime" (ends 04.08.)

If you like these images on a card, here are two more cards I made with them:

Girl and turtle (July 2018)

and   

Warm Wishes & Sunny Smiles (July 2017)

Happy crafting everyone ;o)))

Have a great day - picknick bears

Heya everyone ;o)

I hope you had a great summer so far! Here in Germany it was a constant up and down in temperatures and rain was a constant companion on most days. Not our usual summer at all... So I decided to send my two beary friends to have a lovely picknick for this inspiration:

I started by creating the background with blue and green Distress Ink colours. I made sure to leave a bit of a gap between the two colours, so that it wouldn't get all muddy. I didn't want a harsh edge or I would have used a mask, rather I wanted it to be a bit hazy (hope that is the correct word) to look very bright and softer somehow. 

All the images on this card are from Purple Onion Designs and I just love that they always work together in size and style. I coloured them with Copic markers. The sentiment strip and the "blanket" were cut from some ppaper scrap I had lying around and I die cut it with a die by Lawn Fawn to give it the fancy edge ;o) The bubbles from the bear on the right were stamped in a very light blue ink and I filled them with Nuvo dops in a clear blue shade. I didn't think that the ink would sink in completely, but it did. Makes it look a bit more realistic, but also the edges look a bit wonky... However, I still like how the card turned out in the end and I hope you do too ;o)

It would be great to see your creation in our gallery at PINspirational Challenges. Until then have a great week and happy crafting! Stay safe everyone, yours Maike ;o)

Supplies:

Stamps: "Garden Bugs", "Bear Johnny", "Jackson & Bubbles"& "Watermelon & Goodies"
              by Purple Onion Designs

Die: "Fancy Scalloped Rectangle Stackables" by Lawn Fawn

Challenges:

Coloring in Scrapland "Anything goes wit option Summer" ends 30.08.

Basteltraum "Anything Goes" end 14.07.

Paper Funday Challenges "The Great Outdoors" ends 31.07.

Try It On Tuesdays "Summertime" ends 06.08.

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge July ends 31.07.

Wish big - dragon

Hello everyone ;o)

Today I would like to share a card with you that I have created as an inspiration for the newest "Papercraft Challenge". Our theme is "Phantasy" and our kind sponsor "Dr. Digi" is offering two digi stamps to the winner ;o) I love dragons on cards so I thought I'd use the cute "In a flap" digi to create one for today:

I created the background with some blending brushes and Distress Inks in "Wilted Violet", "Pink Raspberry" and "Squeezed Lemonade". I wanted the dragon to have a lovely sky to fly in and be happy ;o)

Next I die cut a frame for the scene, but because I wanted the frame to be smaller than the background paper I die cut it with a simple stitched rectangle. To finish the card I stamped the sentiment a few times in the deepest black ink I own and added the wonderful glittery stars.

I hope you are going to have a wonderful day and that you will have the time and the inspiration now as well to dig through your stamps and create a phantastic card ;o) and join us at Papercraft Challenges! Happy crafting everyone, yours Maike

Supplies:

Stamps: "In a Flap" by Dr. Digi

              "Birthday Tags" by Lawn Fawn

Dies: "Sky Bursters" by Mama Elephant

          "Stitched Rectangle Stackables" by Lawn Fawn

          "Mini Stars" by Simon Says Stamp

Christmas in July with Champ (dog)

Hello everyone,

for PINspirational Challenges and the new "Christmas in July"-theme I created this card as an inspiration card:

This is the current photo inspiration on the blog:

So I hope you can see where I got my inspiration from ;o) I used the cute dog image "Champ"  as well as a Christmas tree by Purple Onion Designs and placed both on a Christmas themed cardbase. I added a layer of vellum in between the images and the background because other wise it was too busy and wild for my taste.

I hope you are going to join us and maybe get some Christmas cards ready in advance. Have an amazing day and happy crafting ;o) Yours Maike

Supplies:

Stamps: "Champ" and "O`Tannenbaum" by Purple Onion Designs

Urlaubsfeeling

Hello everyone!

Wow, this time it worked out so that I got to post three days in a row to inspire you for different challenges ;o) Today I would like to inspire you to play along with our newest theme "Vacation Mood" at Challenge Up Your Life. It made me so happy to create this vacation inspired card, because we won't be going on holiday anytime soon it seems. Anyhow, this is the card I made:

This really takes me to the beach and I hope you'll join me there, if only for a brief moment ;o) For this card I used a background stamp from Purple Onion Designs and also the cute, cute penguins by My Favorite Things ;o) First Istamped a palm tree, masked it and stamped it again. Next I stamped over it with the background stamp and coloured everything with Copics. Once I was happy with how it looked I die cut the scene using a stitched rectangle (nothing too crazy, because there was a lot going on already) and added the fussy cut and also Copic coloured penguins. 

Lastly I added the sentiment and also stamped another penhuin on the inside of the card just to make that look extra special as well ;o) I hope you are going to join us at Challenge Up Your Life with a vacation themed project. Have a great day and happy crafting! Thank you for stopping by, yours Maike

Supplies:

Stamps: "Penguins in Paradise" by My Favorite Things
              "Sand Dunes" by Purple Onion Designs

Die: "Wonky Stitches Elle-Ments" von Avery Elle

Challenges:
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "Anything Goes"
Stamps + Fun = Creativity "Ferien / Vacation"
Tuesday Throwdown "Anything Goes"
Paperminutes "Meer / Sea"
Basteltraum Challenge "Sommer /Summer"
The Crafting Challenge Blog "Bright Colours"

Relish the day - Let's BBQ

Hello everyone ;o)

Today I am back with another card! This time it is a pop up card as an inspiration for the newest PINspirational challenge:

I went with the BBQ theme and thought with Corona still keeping us from meeting with friends I would like to have some cards ready for when we can have bbq-parties again ;o) I kept the outside quite simple and clean, because there is a lot going on inside the card. 

For the pop up - mechanism I used a die by Lawn Fawn which really makes creating a card like this very easy ;o) When you open the card the inside twists and opens up, so that you can see the whole scene but the card still fits in an envelope.

This is what it looks like from the side, so that you can get a good look at the machanism itself:

The one thing one has to keep in mind is not to add too much bulk to the inside and that if you would like to have an image "sit" on two panels it is wise to score the image before adhering it down. That helps a lot to have the card lay relatively flat. I would love to see your creation in our PINspirational gallery as well ;o) Remember you can use anything as an inspiration from the picture: theme, colours, images,... whatever you can think of! I hope you are having an amazing week and happy crafting, yours Maike ;o)

Supplies:

Stamps: "Let's BBQ" by Lawn Fawn

Dies: "Pivot Pop Up" by Lawn Fawn

          "All Prettied Up" by Mama Elephant

Challenges:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenges "Anything Goes"

Stamping Sensations "Make it colourful"

Sweet Stampers "Something beginning with B" (BBQ)

The Crafting Challenge "Summer" (BBQ is summer to me)

Big Hugs - Rainbow Background

Hallo everyone ;o)

I hope you are all doing fine and that you get to enjoy some nice summer days! Today I would love to share this super cute card with you which I made for the new "Create Your Own Background" challenge at the Crafty Cardmakers:

Even though it might look different there were only three Distress Inks involved in creating this background: Picked Raspberry, Mustard Seed and Peacock Feathers. I love how you can get a lot more colours simply by overlapping them. It still is magic to me ;o) Once I had the background piece ready I set it aside to let it dry completely and went on die cutting the sentiment three times. I glued the pieces together to make the word die stand out even more. 

In this picture you can see the effect quite well. I am lazy so I usually put "Stick it" behind sentiment dies. Do you glue them together differently? If so I would love to hear which adhesive you use, because all the ones I tried are too runny or too thick when I lay them down and my beloved snail glue doesn't work for me either... Well, back to this card ;o) I had stamped the image in a very light grey and coloured it in a no-line fashion. I thought it would work well on an elephant ;o) I added it to the sentiment strip, added an additional dot detail to the background and my card was done. I hope you like it and that you will join us at the Crafty Cardmakers ;o) Happy crafting everyone ;o)
And...

... to you all!!!

Supplies:

Stamps: "Adorable Elephants" by My Favorite Things

Die: "Big Hugs Die" by Neat and Tangled (Linked to Seven Hills Crafts)

Challenges:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "Anything Goes"

Stamping Sensations "Make it Colourful"

Allsorts Challenge "So cute"

Kraftin Kimmie Stamps "No-Line Technique"

Sweet Stampin Challenge "Create Your Own Background"