Make a splash - summer slim line card

Happy Sunday, dear crafty friends, 

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the summer time. Over at  Papercraft Challenges we have decided to let "Summer" be the theme of our newest challenge. This is the card I've created:

I used some of my favourite summer / beach type stamps by Purple Onion Designs for this card. First I created the background with the rocks and the little dock and added some "hills" to the top. Those hills are actually icebergs that I simply coloured in different shades of green to make them look like hills. The next step was to create the sea and for that I masked off the dock, the rocks and the hills and used three different shades of blue to be able to blend them together nicely and have some illusion of depth. 

Next I coloured the different images with Copic markers and cut them out with a tiny white boarder around them so that they would stand out against the background a little better. I added some shimmer to the water and also to the fish as well as covering the glasses of the bear and the bunny with Nuvo crystal clear to give them a more realistic look. The placement of the different elements kept me busy for quite some time - not only because I put them in a hundret different places on the card but also because I had four more images coloured in - but this is what looked the best I feel. Lastly I added the sentiment and glued everything in place. In hindsight I would have preferred it if I had given the rainbow letters a white edge or something as well. I hope you like the card and also that you will join us over at Papercraft Challenges. All the best to you, have a fabulous time and happy crafting,
yours Maike

Supplies:
Stamps: "Iceberg", "Shelly - bathing mouse" and all the other images are from the "Sunshine Lake Collection" by Purple Onion Designs. 

Challenges:

Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Challenge "Shimmer and Shine"
Unicorn Challenge Blog "No Design Paper"
My Time To Craft "Summertime Waterplay"

Gem Of A Challenge "Anything Goes"

Be merry - in July

Heya my dear crafty friends,

how are you doing? I hope you are having a fine summer so far. Now that I have mentioned summer you might wonder why, oh why is she showing us a Christmas card today?! Well, let`s just say I will always panic when December comes, because I don't have enough Christmas cards to send out, so I vowed to create some in the summer. Though to be completey honest, I usually just colour images over the summer, so that the creating part goes quicker once I get in the mood for Christmas cards. However this time the Challenge Up Your Life blog helped my by having a "Patterned Paper" challenge this month, so I thought, why not use this gorgeous wintery paper and get started:

I love this huge snow flake die cut and decided to have it be the focal point of my card. I die cut the patterned paper twice: once to give it the scallopped edge and another time to create the window. I put some pearlescent vellum by Lawn Fawn behind the snowflake, because I wanted be able to see the pattern behind it still. 

I used some really cute critters from Hello Bluebird to add some "life" to the card so to speak. I love how the bear looks at the recipient of the card. It is almost like it is wishing them to be merry. I also added the tiny blue bird to the top right to balance out the scene a bit more and also to have another pop of blue incorporated. 
Do you have any patterned paper sitting in your drawers that you have always wanted to use? Now is the time. Join us at Challenge Up Your life this month and share your talent in our gallery! Have a wonderful day and happy crafting, yours Maike

Supplies:
Stamps: "Christmas Tree" by Hello Bluebird
              "Winter Big Scripty Words" by Lawn Fawn

Dies: "Alicia Snowflake Wafer Die" by Simon Says Stamps

          "Winter Big Scripty Words Lawn Cuts" by Lawn Fawn