Tropical Paradise and a turtle that serves drinks ;o)

Hello everyone!

I am back with my new card for the Papercraft Challenges blog. This time the theme is "Tropical Paradise" and this always makes me think of palm trees, the sea and a beach. So this is what I came up with:

I used some slimline stackable dies by Lawn Fawn to create the background scene and the white border around it. For the sand and the water I used distress inks on a white piece of paper, because I wanted the gap between the two to be reminiscent of sea spray.
The stamps are from the beautiful set "Polynesian Paradise" by My Favourite Things. (I hadn't realized that they have gone out of business though. That is such a shame and derailed me a few hours from publishing this post, because I tried to find out what happened.)

All the images were coloured with Copic markers and I used another, slightly larger, slimline die to create the white strips at the sides. 

I hope you will join us this month with a "tropical" card or project and publish your creation to our gallery. Have a wonderful day everyone and happy crafting ;o)

Summer Vibes Card and a huge sorry

Gosh, I have just noticed, that none of my posts have been published since December! I am so sorry! Having said this I would love to share my June card with you, because I really like it. So here it is:

For the background I used a kraft cardstock and added white ink and Distress Oxide Inks in different shades of blue. I also used a white gel pen and a brown marker for the splatter and I think that makes a big difference.

For my images I used stamps from Purple Onion Designs which I really love. They sometimes are a little more time consuming to colour but I think it is always worth the extra effort.

I hope you had joined our challenge over at Papercraft Challenges, but if not I hope you have still enjoyed my summer card ;o) have a fabulous day everyone and happy crafting!!!

Fröhliche Weihnachten (Santa und Rudolph)

Hello everyone ;o)
Today I'd like to share my newest creation for the Papercraft Challenges blog with you. Our kind sponsor Mirtillamente has provided us with some super cute images and will be sponsoring a prize (2 digis) for the winner as well!
Here is what I came up with for our theme "Under the mistletoe":

This image was a lot of fun to colour let me tell you ;o) I also added a lot of glitter and shine, but that isn't all to visible in the picture unfortunately. I felt like the image didn't need a lot more than just a sentiment, so I added "Fröhliche Weihnachten" (merry christmas) to the bottom of the scene and also added a blue border around the image, so that it would draw your eye to the window where Santa and Rudolph are hiding! I used the lightest blue marker (B29) I had used for the night sky to create the blue border, so the colours match perfectly!
I hope you are going to join us for our "Under the Mistletoe" challenge and I wish you a very merry christmas and a very happy new year also!
All the best to you and your loved ones,
                                                                            Maike

Supplies:
Stamp: "Christmas Home" by Mirtillamente

Walk in the fall (Lavender & Thyme)

Hello everyone,
today I would like to share my card for the newest challenge over at Papercraft Challenges with you! The theme for this month is "Fabulous Fall" and here is what I came up with:

The stamps are from Purple Onion Designs from their designer Stacey Yacula which I am a huge fan of. I just love the cute critters she always comes up with. The two critters are from her "Merriest City" collection but even though they were intended to go on Christmas cards I think the fit perfectly in this little wood with their jackets and the hat. 

For this card I focused on my Copic colouring. I wanted the colours to represent fall and think I nailed it. What do you think? I took ages but I thoroughly enjoyed the process. I glued the background piece flat to the card base and added foam tape behind the critters to give them some dimension. 

I hope you are going to join us with your own "Fabulous Fall" project! Until next time, happy crafting and all the very best to you my crafty friend!!! Yours Maike ;o)

Supplies:
Stamps: "Lavender & Thyme" by Purple Onion Designs

              "Woodland Background" by Purple Onion Designs

Challenges:
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "Make Your Own Background" (Hope colouring it in counts...)

Send a Smile 4 Kids "Cute Fall / Halloween Cards for kids"
Gem of a Challenge "Wk 18 - Anything goes"

Alphabet Challenge Blog "L is for landscape"

Holiday time and a gull saying hi

Hello everyone ;o)

I hope you are all doing great and enjoying the summer so far!  This time we have a wonderful theme for you over at Papercraft Challenges. Or at least I think it is a wonderful theme: "Holiday Time". For me a holiday is perfect, when I cann look at the sea and hear the gulls cry, so this is what I created for my inspiration card:

For my background I used a piece of design paper that I really love. I added a tag made of kraftpaper on which I had put some white ink and blue Distress Ink. I also added some white and brown dots to make it look even more like a beach. Next I coloured and adhered this super cute image by Create a Smile and stamped the sentiment "Moin!" next to it. Moin is a way of saying hello in the northern parts of Germany. There were only some finishing touches needed like the red tag and the tiny sea gulls and the card was done. I hope you like it.

I hope you are going to share your "Holiday Time" card with us in our gallery and thus have the chance to win a surpise prize ;o) Have a fabulous day and happy crafting everyone ;o)))

Supplies:
Stamps: "Möwen-Gang" by Create a Smile 

Dies: "Tag You are it" by Lawn Fawn

Have a dino-mite birthday

Hello everyone!

I'd like to share with you my newest creation. It was made for the new theme "For the Boys" over at Papercraft Challenges:

Our kind sponsor Dr Digi provided us with sum fun images and I chose the dino, because there are some birthdays for little boys coming up and for this the cute image is perfect I think. I created a background fpr the dino using a leaves-stencil and also coloured a piece of scrap paper with the same colours I used for the dino to cut the word "birthday" from.

Next step was to assemble everything on an orange-yellowish cardbase to fit with the beak and the bone plates. As a finishing touch I added Nuvo drops in two different colours. If you looks closely you'll see that each drop has a lighter dot in the middle which turned out really great in real life but gets lost a little in the pictures. Next time I want to try creating a rainbow dot that way...

I hope you are going to join us with a creation "For the Boys" and I keep my fingers crossed for you to win the 2 digis by our sponsor Dr. Digi!

Until next time have a fantastic months and happy crafting to you ;o))

Supplies:
Digi stamp: "Stacey the Stegosaurus" by Dr. Digi 
Stamps: "You rock" by Clearly Besotted (discontinued)
Stencil: "Leafy" by Create a Smile
Die: "Birthday" by Create a Smile

Flower Power Card

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all doing well. Today I'd like to share a card I made for the current "Flower Power" challenge over at Papercraft Challenges.

There was a lot of masking going on with this card but I really enjoy the layered look without too much bulk. Also, because the layering took some time, I used the provided inside-stamp of the petals to stamp rather than colour them in. It gives a different look and I am not sure I would use it all the time, but with this design I think it worked.

I hope you are going to join us and share your flower project in our gallery. Have a fabulous day and happy crafting my friends!!!
Maike

Supplies:

Stamps: "A Bunch Stamp Set" Waffle Flower (discontinued)

               "Happy Birthday Background" My Favorite Things

Happy Easter (and lots of no line colouring)

Hello everyone!
Hope you are all doing great and looking forward to spring with better and warmer weather and flowers and Easter ;o) Over at the Papercraft Challenges blog we chose the theme "Easter" as our new theme for the coming month. This is the card I created for it:

I stamped the image with Ink on 3 Fadout ink and coloured this cute bunny by Gerda Steiner in immediately afterwards. Because, as the name suggests, this ink fades out over time and you won't be able to see the lines any more after a while. 

Next I got started on the background. It was time consuming but a lot of fun. I worked along a course by Sandy Allnock which was very entertaining easy to follow and I must say I really quite like the outcome. I hope you do, too!
After painting the scene for the background all I did was die cut a sentiment (which means Happy Easter in English) and coloured another egg before assembling it all. 
I hope you will join us this month and share your Easter projects with our fantastic community! There is also a surpise prize to win, so what are you waiting for?! ;o) Wishing you all a lovely spring time, happy crafting and all the best,
                                                                                                 

                                                                                                    yours Maike

Supplies:
Stamps: "Easter Bunnies" by Gerda Steiner Designs 
Dies: "Small Stitched Rectangle Dies" by Lawn Fawn
          "Frohe Ostern" by Crealies 

I see..... soooo many candles ;o))))

Hello everyone,
today I'd like to show you my newest DT card for the Papercraft Challenges blog. The theme this time is "Carneval":

I do not have much use for a carnival themed card, but I have seen so many fortune tellers in this years Rosenmontagsumzug that I thought this would make a great card for the theme. Inside the sentiment goes like this:

I hope you like the card and also that you will join us over at Papercraft Challenges. One lucky crafter will win a prize from Dr. Digistamps who kindly sponsores this month' challenge!
Happy crafting everyone ;o)

To a koality friend

Hello everyone ;o)

I hope you had a great start to the year 2024! Today I would like to share my first DT card of the year with you. Over at Papercraft Challenges we thought you might all want to play with your new stamps and made it an "Anything Goes" theme. This is what I have created (even though the stamp I have used isn't new anymore I still love playing with it):

This card was super easy to make, but I love the way it looks. I started by creating the background with two different yellow shades and used a scalloped frame die to cut it out. I glued the background piece on a yellow card base and added this super cute koala. 

Also I added the three red hearts to have the colour in more than one place. Hope you are going to join us in this month's challenge! Have a fabulous day and happy crafting!!!

30th Birthday (rainbow colours and cats)

Hello everyone!

Today marks the day of the 100th challenge over at Papercraft Challenges, so the theme had to be "Happy Birthday"! I used the opportunity to create a card for a collegue's 30th birthday:

I love all the colour(s) and the vibrancy of this card. My cardbase was covered with this beautiful rainbow coloured paper and I created a tag with a blue sky (I splattered some drops on for more interest) and a grassy hill scene on it so that the cats would have a place to stand. 

I adhered the tag using foam tape and also added a lot of white glue dots across the card going from the top left to the bottom right to add more interest and to help guide the eye. I hope you like the card and that you consider joining us in our birthday celebrations. If you enter you might win a mystery prize, so what`s there to wait? ;o) Have an amazing day and all the very best, Maike

Supplies:
Stamps: Avery Elle (discontinued it seems)
Paper: "Really Rainbow Petite Paper Pack" by Lawn Fawn

Dies: "Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables" by Lawn Fawn

Cozy Christmas

Dear crafty friends,

I hope you are all doing well. Today I would like to share with you my newest DT work for the "Cozy Christmas" challenge over at Challenge Up Your Life:

For this card I used quite a few stamps by Purple Onion Designs. Their images are just so cute and I love colouring them, even though it takes a little longer than colouring other images because of the many little details. 

On the inside I stamped another image and the sentiment, because I felt like there was enough going on on the outside of this card. If you would like to join our challenge with your own "Cozy Christmas" creation we would love to see it in our gallery ;o) Have a fabulous day and happy crafting!

Stamps: "Christmas Tree", "Sugar Plum (bunny)", "Fireplace and Rug", "Buttons (cat)" & 
              "Sweets (mice)" by Purple Onion Designs
              "Background stamp Sweater?" by My Favourite Things

Spooktacular Halloween (Wizard & ghosts)

Hello everyone ;o)

I hope you are doing great today! I would like to share my most recent DT-work with you. This card:

was created for the newest "Halloween" themed challenge over at Papercraft Challenges. We were kindly sponsored by Dr. Digi and if you join you could win 2 digis from them. So why wait? ;o) I have used the image "Spells for beginners" and I really like this wizard holding his book. It was great to colour as well!

I started with a brick wall stencil on this turquoise cardstock that I have used as my card base. Using "Walnut Stain" Distress Ink I created the bricks and using dark blue to lighter blue shades I got the middle part kind of glowy - if you know what I mean. I wanted it to look like the orb was giving off a bluish light and would thereby tint the whole room kind of blue. 
Once everything was completely dry - I let it dry for over a day to be sure - I heat embossed the sentiment to the top of my card, added the wizard with some foam tape and also adhered the cute little ghosts around him. Did you know, that cute little ghosts really love glowing orbs? Well, I didn't, but here they are ;o) I heat embossed the images on vellum and put "Stick it" on them, so that it wouldn't show as much.

I hope you are going to join us over at Papercraft Challenges and I also hope that you'll have a fantastic day and happy crafting, yours Maike

Stamps: "Spells for Beginners" by Dr. Digi

              "Ghosts" by Lawn Fawn (discontinued)
Stencil: "Mauer" by Create A Smile (discontinued)

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

Girl with saxophone (Happy happy birthday)

Hello and welcome to today's post ;o)

I would like to share my newest card with you which I have created for the new challenge over at Papercraft Challenges. It will be all about girls for the next four weeks and with this image by our kind sponsor Dr. Digi I have created this birthday card:

I really enjoyed colouring this cute girl with her puffy cheeks and after I had coloured her with Copic markers I fussy cut her out. in the stamp there is a dog standing next to her, but I only wanted this part of the image for what I had in mind. Next I prepared the cardbase and stamped a musical note stamp in all the colours of the rainbow because of the piece of background paper I wanted to place the gitl image on. 

The colourful background was created with alcohol inks and some felt pieces on my ink blending tool. It was quite a mess but loads of fun to create ;o) Lastly I added the sentinemt word strips I had heat embossed on black cardstock. I used black to get a really heavy contrast going and I really like the end result. I hope you like it, too and that you will share your "Girls" projects with us over at Papercraft Challenges! Don't forget, you could be the lucky winner and win 2 digis by our sponsor Dr. Digis!!! Have a fabulous day and happy crafting ;o) Yours Maike

Supplies:
Yupo paper by Ranger
Stamps: "Mood music" by Dr. Digi 

Sunny Smiles - CAS card

Hello everyone,

I love clean and simple cards - when others create them. Whenever I want to make one I keep thinking to myself "Maybe I'll just add some dots / splatters / embellishments / other images / a piece of coloured or designer cardstock /...". The list goes on and on and on. But this time the theme over at Challenge Up Your Life is "Clean and Simple" so I had to withstand my thoughts and this is what came out of it: 

So what do you think? And is it the same for you when you create a CAS-project? For this card I started with a white card base and added some light blue colour to the background using Tumbled Glass Distress Ink. Once I was happy with how it looked I grabbed a piece of paper and Salvaged Patina Distress Ink to get a straight horizon  line while darkening up the colour towards the bottom to create the illusion of water. 

When that was dry I stamped the sentiment and added the image which I had coloured with Copic markers. For some reason the darkest marker I had used (E47) was kind of - I don't know - sticky (?!!) after I had cleaned the marker and it created the bubbly look in the dark places of the bear. So the poor thing now has a bit of a sunburn... because I wasn't able to smooth out the colour anymore. A real shame and I am not sure what is wrong with my beloved E47. I made sure the cleaning liquid (isopropanol I think it was) never even got near the tip, but nevermind.

I would love to see our CAS-project in our gallery over at Challenge Up Your Life and I hope you'll have a wonderful time creating it! Have a fabulous day and happy crafting everyone ;o)))

Stamps: "Come On In" by Hello Bluebird